Radio Script #934

Little Talks on Common Things
May 21, 1972

In 1972 many members of the Maine Legislature commute daily from their homes to the State House in Augusta. Only those living at some distance, regularly have lodgings in the capital city during a a session. Of course there are plenty of those to take up many rooms in the Augusta House and the city’s motels, even with modern automobile transportation so readily available. However, it was quite different 122 years ago when the 1854 legislature was in session. Noel Smith of Calais, of course, lived so far away that, were he a member today, he would probably have legislature residence in Augusta. But John Perry, clerk of the house, could today commute from his home in Oxford. There were some memorable names in that 1854 Legislature: Mark Dunnell of Hebron, Francis Butler of Farmington, Robert Drummond of Winslow, John Whipple of Solon. Nathaniel Littlefield of Bridgton was later a Maine Representative in Congress, and William Pitt Fessenden became one of Maine’s most noted U. S. Senators. Except for those within buggy ride of the State House, all the senators and representatives in that 1854 legislature had rooms in Augusta. A mere list of the places where they stayed gives some inkling of the number of hotels in our state capital a hundred years ago. Leading the list was the venerable and still standing Augusta House, though it has been enlarged and many times renovated since 1854. The names of the others have long been forgotten by all except the oldest inhabitants. They were the Gage House, the Central House, the Stanley House, and the Mansion House, the Cushnoc House, and the Kennebec House. Fortunately, the stay of those legislators in Augusta taverns was never long, seldom more than six weeks and often no more than four.

How they would fume if they had to attend one of those six months long, regular sessions of our own time.

At the time of early Maine settlement, so-called timber thieves were common. Some unscrupulous operator would put a gang of woodcutters at work on a piece of wilderness woodland, and get out the timber unobserved. Only when a representative of the owner happened to go on to the tract, was the depredation discovered. That sort of thing did not happen often in settled parts of the state. In fact 1870 was a rather late date for its common occurrence anywhere. So I found unusual an old letter written on March 25, 1870, by Oscar Emery of Kendalls Mills to John Clifford of Benton. The letter said: “I received your note and was very sorry that you were afflicted with a cold. If it is possible for you to run a line 20 rods in the woods out of the wind tomorrow, you would oblige me very much. There has been a trespass committed in cutting wood, and the case is referred out. The referees meet next Wednesday, and I want the line run. I will be at J. H. Gilbreth’s store tomorrow at 9 A.M. If you can come, I shall be glad.”

We can hope that Clifford’s cold was enough better so he could run that line. The store where he was to meet Emery was the well-known hardware emporium of J. H. Gilbreth, owner of the racehorse Gilbreth Knox, and father of the renowned efficiency expert Frank Gilbreth, and of course grandfather of those Gilbreth kids who figured in the popular book and movie, “Cheaper by the Dozen.”

Another of the Clifford papers shows how cheaply land was rented a century ago. In 1864, together with Albert Hinds, Clifford leased to Andrew Richardson a big piece of land near Winn’s brick store for four dollars a year.

On several occasions I have mentioned certain census figures for Maine towns, just to show you some startling population changes over the years. Today I want to say a few words about the census of 1840.

That census was made at a time when Maine was growing rapidly. The exodus of families, and especially of young men, that would soon be caused by the opening of the prairie lands and by the discovery of gold in California had not then begun. Maine was still an agricultural state, and some of the towns that now have few people, were then populous and thriving.

In 1840, Vassalboro had 12 more people than Waterville, 2951 compared with 2939. There were 500 more people in Sidney, than in Winslow, 2190 compared with, 1722. Fairfield was almost exactly equal to Sidney in population, having a census of 2198. The town of China was then almost as large as either Waterville or Vassalboro, and much larger then such present day sizable towns as Rumford, Norway, Ellsworth, Skowhegan, or Sanford. By 1840, largely because it had become the state capital, Augusta passed Hallowell as Kennebec County’s largest town.

Note some of today’s very small towns that had more than 2,000 people in 1840, a time when the state’s largest city, Portland, had only 15,000. Living then in the Penobscot river town of Frankfort were 3700 folk, while nearby Prospect had 3491. Because of its booming lumber industry, Bangor had grown to 8,600, half the size of Portland. Camden had 3000 inhabitants, as did also Bucksport. Other places with more than 2000 were Turner, Bethel, Exeter, Warren, Lincolnville, and Deer Isle. On the other hand, in 1840 Lewiston had less than 1000 people, Pittsfield only 900, and Fort Fairfield was a mere hamlet with 26 inhabitants.

I ran across an ad in an 1856 issue of the Kennebec Journal that says something about the income of Maine physicians in the middle of the 19th century. The ad said: “A physician located in a flourishing city in Maine will relinquish his practice of $1500 a year to any practitioner who will purchase the physician’s real estate at its true value. Here is an unusual opportunity for an ample practice.”

On the same page of that 1856 paper, I noticed the ad of a new Augusta dentist. It said: “Dr. J. K. Lincoln, lately of Biddeford, having permanently established himself in Augusta, proposes to perform all operations upon the teeth in the most skillful and permanent manner. (Do you suppose by permanent he meant extraction?) In addition to the usual method of setting artificial teeth, Dr. Lincoln has purchased the right to set teeth by Dr. Slayton’s Patent Gutta Percha. Nothing can be worn in the mouth more comfortably, and our price is so low that no one should go toothless.”

I like occasionally to note what Maine newspapers had to say about important events of long ago, at the time when they happened. In other words, what were the comments of Mail,e papers about contemporary events of national significance? In the 1850’s such an event was the Dred Scott decision of the U. S. Supreme Court, a decision that caused as much excitement as did the court’s decision on school integration a hundred years later. Dred Scott was a slave whose master had taken him from Missouri, slave territory, into Kansas, free territory, then taken him back to Missouri. Abolitionists became interested in the case and took it to court, on the grounds that in Kansas, Scott had become a free man, because there could legally be no slaves there. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, where in 1857, Chief Justice Taney rendered the famous decree against the Negro, thus fomenting an issue that hastened the Civil War. The court said that Negroes, whether slave or free, were not citizens of the U. S. under the Constitution; that the act of 1820, known as the Missouri Campromise – the very act that admitted Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state – was unconstitutional in that part of the act that excluded slavery from any part of the vast Louisiana Territory that President Jefferson had bought from Napoleon’s France; that Congress had no power over slavery in the territories; and that slaves were regarded as property by the Constitution.

Now let us see what the Kennebec Journal had to say about that decision. In an editorial in the issue of March 27, 1857, the Journal said: “We need hardly say that the opinion of Chief Justice Taney sanctions all the pernicious doctrines put forth at any time by the most extreme advocates of slavery. They regard slavery as supreme, freedom as subordinate. This decision denies the right of any territorial government to interfere with the holding of slaves within its borders. Such a decision is a serious blow to the reputation of our highest court and must not be allowed to stand.”

A week later the K J had more to say on the subject. It commented: “The Constitution of Maine makes citizenship a requisite for the right to vote. The Supreme Court of U. S. has now decided that persons of African descent are not citizens of the U. S. What is the effect of this decision on the colored citizens of Maine? Does it deprive them of the right to vote? In order to determine that question authoritatively, the Legislature must await a decision by the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. The answer will be awaited with deep interest.”

As a matter of fact, the question was never fully settled until the Civil War freed all American Negroes.

What those old K J comments on the Dred Scott decision do reveal is the truth of the old proverb, “the more change, the more the same thing.” In other words, the 1960’s were not the first time in American history that the U. S. Supreme Court has been subject to severe criticism.

Did you know that a century ago, Maine people sometimes owned yachts t that we think of as property of only Astors and Vanderbilts? An issue of the Kennebec Journal in 1885 tells us: “In the Kennebec River, opposite Gardiner, officered, manned and ready for service, is one of the most expensive private yachts to be found anywhere today. She is the property of J. Manchester Haynes, the Augusta millionaire, extensive timber land operator and pioneer ice king. Mr. Haynes has just returned from a long voyage to European ports. On the yacht he was surrounded by every comfort and convenience. It costs $ 120 a day just to man the vessel, which carries a crew of twelve. The yatch uses six tons of coal every day she is at sea. Mr. Haynes’ personal quarters on the vessel are equipped with a bathroom having a mosaic marble floor, marble tub and gilded faucets.”

And, with that allusion to a marble bathroom on a Maine private yacht, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1972