Radio Script #985

Little Talks on Common Things
October 28, 1973

A prominent graduate of Colby College was Asher Hinds of the Class of 1883. A member of the pioneer family of Hinds in Benton, Asher won national distinction as Parliamentarian of the National House of Representatives at the time when Tom Reed was its autocratic speaker. The parliamentary rulings of Asher Hinds are often used as precedent for rulings on procedure in that body today.

I recently chanced upon a letter written by Asher Hinds in 1881, at the end of his sophomore year at Colby. He wrote: “I was in Waterville today and heard Charles Mathews say to Plaisted that the Lockwood has bought Smith and Meader’s Mill.” Then Asher referred to a historic decision at Colby. As I have often pointed out on this program, for more than half a century after the first classes in 1818, the long vacation of the college year came in the winter, between late December and the middle of February, in order to allow the students, who were then all of the male sex, to teach school during those winter weeks. In those years the older boys, sometimes as old as 20, attended the one-room common schools only for the winter terms. The rest of the year those boys were needed on the farm. So it was that the school authorities, the district committees or their school agents, felt that the women teachers, good enough for the other terms, could not maintain discipline over the big louts that attended in the winter. Hence they sought men teachers, and the best places to find them in Maine were among the students at Bowdoin and Colby.

Conditions had changed a lot by 1880. The state had adopted the system of free high schools, and those took care of most pupils beyond the age of 14. Summer work had become increasingly more remunerative for young men, especially as summer resorts developed. For many reasons, indeed, a long summer vacation became preferable to one in the winter. So, at the end of Asher Hinds’ sophomore year, the Colby trustees made the change. This is the way Asher referred to it in his letter:

“Commencement passed off very pleasantly. I have got home and I guess I shall stay there. The trustees of Colby voted to change the terms so as to have the long vacation come in the summer and have commencement come the last of June. I don’t favor it, but it may be a better arrangement. Anyhow, they didn’t ask my opinion.”

Now for another subject. The first census of U.S. was taken in 1790. In that census were listed the names of all heads of families in each incorporated community. The town of Winslow, incorporated in 1771, then included all of what is now Waterville and extended through most of the present Oakland. The heads of families listed in the census for Winslow in 1790 thus included people who lived in various parts of the present Winslow, at Ticonic Falls and other parts of present Waterville, and in Oakland as far west as the southern half of the present community of Ten Lots.

Some of the earliest settlers had already died before 1790. John McKechnie, who had surveyed the original lots on the Kennebec in this area, and who had built the first sawmill and gristmill on this side of the river – both mills situated on the Messalonskee near the present Western Avenue bridge – McKechnie had died, but two of his sons, Alexander and Theodore were in the census. Daniel Pattee was on the list. He had moved from his father’s Winslow home to the west side, had married John McKechnie’s widow and in 1790 was running the McKechnie mills. James Stackpole was then living near Fort Halifax, but would soon establish his store on the other side of the river near the later site of the Lockwood Mills.

In the census were at least two Revolutionary soldiers, Asa Redington and John Cool. Cool was the only man to own in 1790, two of the big McKechnie-surveyed lots, and across one of them, near its western end was later built Waterville’s Cool Street. Redington, with his father-in-law Nehemiah Getchell, built the first dam across the Kennebec at Ticonic Falls. Dr. Obadiah Williams had died, and his distinguished successor, Moses Appleton, had not yet come to Waterville. Nor did the town have any lawyer in 1790. Reuben Kidder came a few years later, to be followed early in the new century by Timothy Boutelle. The names of the shipbuilders of the Clarke family are not found in the 1790 census.

But other names, long remembered were indeed there. Benjamin, first of Winslow’s many Runnels, was on the list, as was Asa Emerson, whose name was for a long time given to Emerson Stream until folks preferred the old Indian name Messalonskee. Emerson’s Mill was down that stream below the site of the present Memorial bridge on Kennedy Drive. Zimri Haywood, the saddler, whose home was later enlarged into the Heywood Apartments on Silver Street, had been one of the earliest settlers at Ticonic Falls, and he was a prominent head of household in 1790. Another early comer listed in that census was Isaac Temple, for whom Temple Street was named. The Crowell family was represented by four names: Manoah, Ezekiel, Levi, and Joseph, but the only Crommett at that time was James. The Shores, who later divided under two names, Shores and Shorey, were in 1790 represented by Samuel Shores. The highly respected Josiah Hayden, then living on the east side of the river, would soon move across to be a leading resident of Ticonic Falls.

Throughout the 19th century the McFarland family was well known in Waterville. At different times three of them served as postmaster. In 1790 they had two families in the census, that of James McFarland and that of his brother Samuel. Out at Ten Lots were already settled the families of Lot Sturtevant and Thomas Bates. Over at Fort Halifax was the man who gave the land for the town’s first church that still stands on the street named for him. The man was Arthur Lithgow.

Out in what is now Oakland Village, developing its early mills, was Jonathan Coombs. And on a farm not far from Fort Halifax, was a descendant and namesake of the man who had started New England’s first settlement at Plymouth in 1620. Like his noted ancestor, the Winslow man of 1790 was named William Bradford.

Many of the men on that census list have been forgotten except by some of us who are interested in local and regional history. Forgotten they may be, but I assure you they were the early makers of Waterville, Winslow and Oakland.

Through the years Skowhegan has had a number of newspapers. In 1835 it had one called the Sentinel. It contained some ads that cast more light on those times 138 years ago than do some of the news items.

In 1835 there were still living a few veterans of the Revolution. For their benefit, Robert Vose put this notice in the paper: “Revolutionary soldiers attention. In March, 1835, the Maine Legislature passed a law entitling all inhabitants of Maine who served for at least three years as soldiers of the Massachusetts Line in the Revolution (also widows of such soldiers) to 200 acres of land each. I will act as agent for all persons intending to apply for this benefit, in procuring their certificates and deeds from the Land Agent of Maine. After April 1, I will be at the store of George Morton in Augusta, where all persons interested may call.”

The old Skowhegan paper had a Waterville ad. “Appleton and Gilman have just received at their new store in Waterville the largest and best assortment of goods ever offered on the Kennebec. 30 chests of tea, 20 tons of iron, 10 bales of sheeting, 10 kegs of tobacco, 2000 pounds of coffee, 1000 pounds of sugar, 60 casks of nails, 20 boxes of glass, 25 reams of writing paper, 20 kegs of powder, 20 hogsheads of molasses, 300 quintals of cod fish, 2000 bushels of salt. Liquors, paints and oils, crockery and glassware, and patent rigging.”

The paper had an interesting ad about transportation in 1835. “An accommodation stage will run from Skowhegan Falls to the Forks three times a week, starting from Runnel’s Tavern, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 A.M., arriving at the Forks at 7 P.M. A nine passenger stage has been purchased and is now running. This stage connects with the Bangor stage at Skowhegan Falls, also with the Augusta and Anson stage. Horses and carriages will also be available to carry travelers to the Height of Land to meet the Canada Stage, just as soon as the road is ready for wheeled carriages. The stage puts up at Jonathan Spaulding’s Tavern at the Forks.”

The new road referred to was the celebrated Canada Road, built under supervision of Jim Jackman. It extended from North Anson to the Canada line above Jackman, which place, the largest Maine settlement above Bingham, was of course named for Jim himself. That Canada Road did not go up the east side of the Kennebec, through sites of the present villages of Solon and Bingham, but up the west side through Embden. There was then no Wyman Lake, no big Central Maine Power dam, and the small streams were crossed by crude wooden bridges.

I have been asked whether the man originally designated to build Fort Halifax, John Winslow, for whom the town was named, was related to the Winslows of the old Plymouth Colony of 1620. The John Winslow of Fort Halifax was great-grandson of Edward Winslow, who had come to Plymouth on the Mayflower, and who in 1633 succeeded William Bradford as governor of the colony. Edward’s son and John’s grandfather also served as the colony’s governor from 1673 to 1680. He was the first native born governor and was a general of the colonial forces in King Philip’s War in 1675. His son Thomas was John’s father, but Thomas seems to have held no public office. In 1754 John himself was sent from Massachusetts by Governor Shirley to layout a plan for Fort Halifax.

Now let us close this broadcast with a bit of Maine humor, culled from an old weekly, the Golden Age, in 1882. The item says: “A gentleman from Waterville, Maine, recently visited some friends in Brooklyn, N. Y. One day he sat down in the shade of a pear tree in the suburbs, and fell asleep. In his vest pocket was a roll of bills amounting to $175. While he slept a goat drew near. Seeing one of the notes protruding, the goat nibbled at it until the whole roll came out of the pocket. When the gentleman awoke, he missed the money. Looking around anxiously he spied the goat chewing on the last of the notes. He managed to salvage $15.”

The item was headed “A Costly Lunch”. Perhaps it ought to have been “He Got His Goat, but Not in Time”.

Year: 1973