Radio Script #940

Little Talks on Common Things
September 24, 1972

What were some of our Maine towns like 90 years ago in 1882? An old book published in that year called the Maine Gazetteer tells us a lot about Maine communities at that time, and the information reveals a lot of difference from conditions today.

Let us first see what the old book says about Waterville. About the way our people then earned their living it says: “The Messalonskee furnishes power near the village for several factories, among which are a gristmill, a sash and blind factory, a tannery, and a shop making boots and shoes. On the Kennebec are a large cotton factory of the Lockwood Company and two sawmills.” Of the town’s college, the book says: “Near the railroad station are the buildings of Colby University, two of them elegant structures of stone, the remainder of brick.” Then there is a long paragraph devoted to Memorial Hall and its Lion of Lucerne. It refers also to Waterville’s two newspapers in 1882. It says: “The Waterville Mail, published every Friday by Maxham and Wing, is a sheet of sterling value. The Sentinel is new and newsy.”

In its information on every Maine town, the Gazetteer gave the number of schoolhouses and their total value. It was, of course, the era of one-room schools, and many of them were sorry structures, cheaply built and poorly maintained. When we consider the cost of school buildings today, it is shocking to note what all of a town’s schoolhouses were worth in 1882. Waterville had nine schoolhouses totally valued at $20,000. But that value average of more than $2,000 per school was luxurious compared with some other towns. Winslow had 15 such buildings valued at $10,500, an average of $700 apiece. Oakland’s 11 schoolhouses came out at only $600 each. Fairfield was even worse – 17 schoolhouses worth $10,000, or averaging only $588 apiece. Still deeper in the rut was the town of Otisfield, whose 12 schoolhouses were set at only $2,300, less than $200 each. China was even lower, with 21 school buildings worth $3,060, or $143 apiece. The prize for frugality was taken by the town of Mayfield, whose single schoolhouse was valued at $125.

In that Gazetteer are described many localities almost forgotten today. Who now remembers Ashdale, a P.O. in Sagadahoc County, or Brockway’s Mills in Sangerville, or Coal Kiln Corners in Scarborough? Pretty well forgotten are Damascus in Carmel, Barkertown in Gardiner, Barber’s Mills in Lewiston, Coral in Aroostook, Lyndon in Caribou, Pea Cove in Old Town, Pretty Marsh on Mt. Desert, and Kingman in Penobscot County. Not quite yet faded from memory are Saccarapa in Westbrook, Kendalls Mills in Fairfield, Pinhook in Bridgton, Pichon’s Ferry at Hinckley, and the old post office called Canada Road near Jackman. But it is a long time since I have heard anyone mention Bay View at Old Orchard, Broad Cove at Bremen, Dirigo in China, Kossuth in Washington County, Orff’s Corner at Waldoboro, or Rockhaven in Aroostook.

Now let us look at some of the still existing towns as the Gazetteer depicted them in 1882. Here’s what it said about Norridgewock: “It has a village on each bank of the Kennebec, connected by a covered bridge 50 feet long. The power site is at Bombazeen Rip three miles above the bridge. The town is formerly the seat of an Indian tribe where the French had a mission as early as 1610. Sebastian Rasle, a Jesuit missionary, was killed there with his Indians in 1724, at Old Point, three miles above Norridgewock Village. When Somerset County was established in 1809, Norridgewock was made the county seat and remained so until 1871 when county offices were moved to Skowhegan. The Norridgewock courthouse, on the east side of the Kennebec, was built in 1820. The covered bridge was built in 1849 at a cost of $11,000. William Allen, the town’s historian, once lived in the house occupied in 1882 by Sophie May, author of books for girls. Norridgewock has a widely known private school, the Eaton School. The town has four churches, Congregationalist, Methodist, Baptist and Advent.”

The Gazetteer’s description of Fairfield: “An excellent agricultural town noted for the quantity and quality of its cattle. The principal crops are hay, grain and potatoes. The chief water power is from the Kennebec at Kendalls Mills, though lesser power sites are at North Fairfield and Larone.”

What we today call Fairfield Village was then Kendalls Mills. What the Gazetteer referred to as Fairfield Village is now Fairfield Center. Made in Fairfield, says the Gazetteer, were all kinds of sawed lumber, sashes, blinds and doors, plaster, furniture, work clothes, caskets, and gravestones. The town had in 1882 both a national bank and a savings bank, and boasted a newspaper, the Fairfield Journal. In the town were three Methodist churches, as well as a Baptist, a Universalist, and the Friends at North Fairfield.

What about the town of Sidney? The book says: “Though Sidney has several streams, they are small and the saw and grist mills are barely able to run through the year.” The town had four post offices and seven churches, and in 1882 a total of 1,400 people.

Benton, whose original name had been Sebasticook, had on the falls of that river in 1882 a pulp mill operated by the Kennebec Fibre Company that employed twenty hands. It also had a good sized lumber mill, a mill for making wooden shoe soles, and a factory that turned out potato planters. The Maine Central Railroad had one station in the town, at Brown’s Corner, the section we now call Benton Station, just across the bridge from Fairfield.

Of China, the Gazetteer said: “It is on the stage line from Vassalboro to Bangor, and from Waterville to Belfast. The town was laid out by the spectacular surveyor, John Jones, in 1774, and was first called Jones Plantation. In its several villages China has sawmills, gristmills, a shingle mill, a cannery and a cheese factory.”

“Vassalboro”, said the Gazetteer, “is bounded by China Pond on the east and the Kennebec on the west. It had ten families settled by 1768, most of them coming from Cape Cod and of Quaker belief. The town was represented In the Continental Congress of 1775 by Remington Hobby. Vassalboro has 19 good power sites, on which are sawmills, a paper mill, a machine shop, and a woolen mill. The latter at North Vassalboro has 20 sets of cards. In the town is situated Oak Grove Seminary and Commercial College, conducted by the Society of Friends. The school is a short distance from Vassalboro Corner.”

That is the place that today we know as Getchell’s Corner.

Now let’s take a look at Belgrade. Settled in 1774, it was first called Prescott’s Plantation, then Snow’s Plantation (for the same family that gave its name to Snow Pond). Then the name was changed to Washington, and finally in 1796 to Belgrade. It had two stations on the MCRR, Belgrade and North Belgrade. The town had a spool factory making 4800 gross of spools every week, and in the same time another mill turned out 8 tons of excelsior. Like so many other towns, Belgrade had an academy, Titcomb, established in 1876.

It is noticeable that for none of these Central Maine towns does the Gazetteer say anything about summer business. The now big vacation developments on the Belgrade Lakes and on China Lake had not begun. A few Waterville people did have summer cottages at Squirrel Island, but their development along both shores of Messalonskee Lake was then in the future.

You know very well that I cannot treat a subject like this without referring to my own native town of Bridgton over in the northern part of Cumberland County. The Gazetteer tells us that in 1882 that town had 10 good power sites, all developed, on Stevens Brook, the stream that empties Highland Lake into Long Lake and thence into the Sebago Lake system. On that three miles of brook were the three big woolen mills that were the town’s chief labor opportunities – mills I knew very well in my own boyhood. On the same stream were two sawmills, a cabinet factory, a sash and blind mill, a gristmill, a casket factory, and a large machine shop. The village, Bridgton Center, was indeed a factory community, which accounts for the fact that by 1860 its general stores had become specialized, so that my father’s was solely a grocery. Of that village the Gazetteer said: “It is busy, thrifty and intelligent.”

I can vouch for the business activity and the thrift; I am not so sure about the intelligence. “North Bridgton”, says the book, “has a boat landing for the west side of Long Pond. Here are made cabinet work, carriages, leather goods, boots and shoes. Its public edifices are a neat church and the large, well known Bridgton Academy. Boats from Harrison at the north end of Long Pond run to all points on Sebago Lake. It is probable that a narrow gauge railroad will soon connect with the Portland and Ogdensburg for Portland. The Bridgton News is an able and spicy sheet.”

When we compare the Gazetteer of 1882 with the situation 90 years later, the growth of Aroostook County is impressive. Houlton then had 3,200 people, Caribou 2,500, Fort Fairfield 2,800, and Presque Isle, now the County’s largest community, only 1,300. The book’s account of Madawaska, now an important paper mill town, is interesting. It says: “Madawaska is on the stage line from Van Buren to Fort Kent. Across the St. John River is the nearest railroad station at Edmundton. The town’s crops are chiefly wheat and other grains. It was settled by the French from the Basin of Minas, when they were expelled by the British. The inhabitants are mostly Catholic and sustain two priests. The population is 1,390.”

In 1882, New Sweden had been settled for only twelve years, and the Gazetteer tells us: “The first company of Swedes came under W.W. Thomas in 1870. In 1880 it had 517 Swedish people. By that time it had overrun New Sweden, and had set up another town named Stockholm, and had spread to Woodland, Caribou and Perham. In 1880 the colony had 4,438 acres of wild land, had built a church, town house, five schoolhouses, three mills, 163 dwellings, 151 barns, and had constructed 42 miles of road. They owned 164 horses, 659 cattle, 530 sheep, 175 swine, and 1930 poultry. Lutheran is the only church.”

On a later broadcast I want to give you some of the more general facts about our whole state in 1882, but our time today is now up, and we must say goodbye until next week.