Radio Script #967

Little Talks on Common Things
April 1, 1973

When today we hear about troubles caused by persons dying without a will, and even of hotly contested wills, it is noteworthy how careful many people were more than a hundred years ago about disposing of their property. In some cases interesting agreements were made during the life of an aged person. Such an agreement is presented in the document signed by Robert Bacon and his son Martin in the town of Anson in 1859. The father handed over to the son a farm of 140 acres, not for life, but for a term of three years, and the conditions of this handover were explicit. Each was to own one half of the stock, teams and farming tools and pay one half the expense of carrying on the farm, except for hired labor, which the son was to bear completely. Taxes called for a special arrangement – the father to pay all of the real estate tax, half the tax on personal property, and two-thirds of the highway tax. Each was to have use Q~ teams and tools to workout his share of the highway tax. The two shared equally in proceeds from the sale of produce from the farm. Another clause said, “For all stone walls made or ditches dug Robert agrees to pay, also for cutting the wood for his own and Martin’s family, and Martin agrees to haul this wood to the respective places.” Meantime Martin agreed to keep the farm in repair from timber on the mountain wood lot, but Robert was to cut and split any rails needed for fences. Robert was allowed to use for fuel the tops of any trees cut for timber and to thin out trees needing to be cut because of deterioration. Martin could use the team for visiting and meeting purposes. Robert reserved for his own use a house nearly built on the farm and room in the old barn to stable his horse and room for hay to feed it.

When Robert Bacon died in 1868, his will was equally explicit. It said: “I commit my soul to God, the author of it, and my body to the earth to be buried by my executor. My worldly estate I dispose of as follows: I give to my beloved wife Susannah, all my household goods, one horse, harness, wagon, cutter and buffalo robe, and I further give to her, during her natural life, the use of $2,000, the interest upon the same to be computed at 6-1/2 per cent annually. She shall also have the use and occupancy of the east room and bedroom and necessary firewood, and the privilege of cultivating a part of the garden near said dwelling house. I give to my son Ansel $425. To my sons Martin, Robert, Jr., Horace and John, and my daughter Ann, I give after the payment of my debts, the remainder of my property, both real and personal, not otherwise disposed of, to be divided equally among them. I hereby appoint my son Martin to be my executor, revoking all former wills by me made, and declaring this to be my only last will and testament.”

In the middle of the 19th century the movement for foreign missions was very active. Among the Baptists the renowned Adoniram Judson had just made a trip home from Burma, and he stirred up new interest in missionary giving. Such interest is shown by the will of Anne Ross of Litchfield in 1847. She gave to the Baptist American Board of Foreign Missions the sum of $700. To what was then called the Domestic Missionary Society (now called Home Missions) she bequested $50. The rest of her estate went $50 to her brother Ezekiel, and the same to brother John and sister Julia. To the seven heirs of her deceased brother and sister, Asa and Clara, she gave each one seventh part of the remainder of her estate. For a niece Caroline she canceled a note of $300 held against the girl’s mother.

It is well-known that many men of Maine were attracted to rich soil of the prairies in the years just before the Civil War. One such was Herbert Niles of Clinton, who wrote to a Maine relative in 1846 from Galena, Illinois, as follows: “I wish you would come out and visit us. Then we will all go out to Iowa. Martha’s husband is keeping a store and doing a thriving business and making money. He has built a brick block of two stories all paid for. They have a year-old daughter and have buried three children. Our own William is now over six feet tall. He married and moved to Iowa three years ago. Abner went out to Colorado, and he wanted George and me to send him $500 to help him get a share in a gold mine. We did not have the money, and would not have let him have anyway on such slim security. I am getting stiff in the joints as old age creeps on.”

Ten years later Niles’ son Robert wrote to Maine from Prairie City, Illinois. He said: ”We must enlarge our business building this winter, putting on 16 feet. I shall have my workshop on the second floor of the new part. Our town now has eleven dry goods stores. We need a good hardware store, and I think some of starting one. We can get from six to nine months time on hardware in New York City if we wish it. If we could hire the money, we could go into hardware at once. If you could hire money east, we could afford to give 10 per cent interest. Please write immediately whether there is any prospect of hiring money there.”

Another instance of a Maine man in the west is found in a hand-delivered letter to Abner Mason of Litchfield in 1853 from Henry Melcher in Iowa. Explaining that he was well acquainted with the man who delivered the letter to Mason, Melcher said: “Watever he tells you about the western country you may rely upon as strictly true. He is one of a company of twenty who came to Iowa two years ago. From one of them I expect to receive my deed of land within a week. Mr. Vail (the bearer of this letter) will tell you all about my deal. You can be sure I have been cautious and have not been cheated. If Sam wants to join me here, and expects to get land for anything less than $10 an acre, he will have to come without a moment’s delay. I know of one lot that can be had for $5 an acre, with cash half down, but it will soon be snapped up. It is located a mile south of my place, Mr. Vail himself is the owner. He is not anxious to sell, but as a favor to me he has given me first refusal. If the railroad comes through Muscatine City, as is now thought likely, this land will be very valuable.”

Another letter came from a Maine man who was teaching school in Iowa in 1854. It said: “I have been very busy with my school. After spending a good part of the day indoors with some forty roguish boys and laughing lasses, I am glad to free myself from them in order to take a little recreation. The children, however, seem to think much of me and cannot bear the thought of my leaving them permanently, which I shall probably do about the middle of September.”

The letter continues with reference to a food seldom heard of today, fresh water clams – it says: “I want you to visit me. We would have fine sport of going fishing and clamming. Every day we could get a barrel of clams.” That’s what it says – plentiful clams far away from either the Atlantic or the Pacific Oceans, but on the Iowa prairies.

In another, letter a Maine man, writing to his parents from the West, tells of his journey. Dated September 10, 1854, the letter says: “I left Albany at 7 :30 and arrived in Buffalo at 9 :30. We had to take the Lake Shore instead of the Canada route, so we had some delay. We went on to Toledo, where we were detained four hours, our engine having run off the track. We got to Chicago twelve hours late. I had a bilious attack while passing Ohio, but I conquered it with brandy and sugar. Alfred’s family has a nice piece of land on the prairie, ten miles from the railroad. They are now in an old log cabin, but will soon build a frame house. Family matters are not good at Alfred’s, but for the sake of the child they continue to live together.”

These wanderers were frequently writing back home to Maine, urging others to join them or at least help finance them. One such appeal came from a man in Illinois to a brother in Farmington in 1856. Let us see what it had to say.

“Would you like to go in company with me in the purchase of land of 80 acres at $6 an acre? It is four miles from Galesburg and two miles from the river. Within a year it should be worth $10 an acre. There is little government land left here, so we must make private purchase of any lots.”

In another letter the same man told how he got started in Illinois. “I went into the tin shop in Galesburg to work for $9 a week. I paid $2.50 for board and washing. I stayed there only nine days, for I got an offer from Willard and Company, merchants of Wataga, eight miles north, a new place just started on the railroad. Mr. Willard is himself a director of the railroad. I am to establish and conduct a tin business for them in Wataga. The railroad will be running there in about a month from junction with the Rock Island RR at Galesburg. Wataga has no post office yet, but shall have one soon. I have been here now three weeks and find much to do. In a few days I shall have an apprentice to help me. I get $9.25 a week until April first, then $10. I intend to stay on this job until I go into business for myself. The foreigners here are mostly from Sweden. We shall use coal for fuel, because there are mines less than two miles away.”

“In Galesburg there is a college and two or three academies of different denominations. I think no liquor is sold in that city, where the inhabitants are strong opponents of the demon rum. Here we have not only Hawkeyes, Badgers, Buckeyes and Hornets but also distinguish between Yankees, having both New York Yanks and New England Yanks.”

A year later came another letter from the same man relating his progress. It said: “I want to inform you of my future intentions regarding business. I am leaving here in six months, because I can do better westerly on my own. There is good profit in tin work. I have a good understanding with John Nye. Three years ago he came here and set up business in opposition to another shop. After a year he bought out the other shop, and now has $800 clear. Can you let me have $250 and take my note for it? The purpose is to obtain a set of machines and tools. Will you also give your name for what I need in stock? Please answer at your earliest convenience, but keep this matter to yourself and not let it get out of the family. There is a young men’s debating club in the village, of which I am secretary.”

And with these samplings of letters from the prairies 120 years ago, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1973