Radio Script #1008

Little Talks on Common Things
April 7, 1974

It is well from time to time on this broadcast to remind the citizens of Waterville concerning the past of their own city, a thriving industrial, educational and medical center today, that grew out of very humble beginnings 175 years ago. As late as 1800, only two years before Waterville separated from Winslow, a traveler from Boston stated that on the west side of the river at Ticonic Falls, he found only a rude collection of unpainted shanties.

That aspersion was probably a bit exaggerated, because even at that early date a number of substantial citizens had already built homes on the Waterville side of the Kennebec, including such remembered names as John McKechnie, Obadiah Williams, Isaac Temple, James Stackpole, and Asa Redington, but at that time Moses Appleton, Nathaniel Gilman, Jediah Morrill, and Timothy Boutelle were still to come. It was men like those eight we have named, joined before 1810 by at least a dozen others who gained wealth and fame, who were the pioneer leaders of Waterville, and who were largely responsible for its soon outdistancing, in size and commerce, the older town across the river.

So let us today, consider some items about old Waterville.

What were the town’s oldest streets? Fortunately the town records contain a list of all streets in existence in 1841, with the names that had been given them. There were a total of only fourteen, named Main, Water, Front, Silver, Elm, Sherwin, Mill, Pleasant, Temple, Cross, Union, Church, and North. Since 1841 the names of three of those streets have been changed. Mill Street is now Western Avenue, Cross Street is now Spring, and Church Street is now Park. There were no more Waterville streets until 1852, when five were opened: Appleton, Center, Common, Summer, and Grove. In 1873 came Ticonic and Oak Streets and Gilman as far as the Messalonskee Stream. The next year Gilman Street was extended beyond the Stream to the First Rangeway, and three new streets were opened off College Street (now College Avenue) beyond the old college campus. Those new streets were Maple, Ash and High.

By 1840, the cemetery on Elm Street (now Monument Park) was getting crowded, and there was no way of expanding it, since the Institute property shut it off in one direction, and three streets limited in the other three directions. So, as early as 1842, plans got underway for a new and larger cemetery, on land capable of even further expansion, as need should demand. On June 6, 1842, a special town meeting chose Samuel Appleton, Joseph Hitchings, L. F. Saunders, Hall Chase, and the Universalist pastor Calvin Gardner a committee to purchase of William Pearson eight acres of land on the Plain for a burying ground, at a cost of $250, but leaving to Pearson the right to cut timber on the land for one year.

For many years now the designation “Plains” has meant the area along Water Street. That was not true in 1842. At that time the term “Plain”, later pluralized into “the Plains”, referred to the strip of plateau land east of the south end of Silver Street, along what is now Summer Street. I have just mentioned that Summer and Grove Streets were not opened until 1852, and the chief reason for their opening was this new cemetery, now known as Pine Grove Cemetery on Grove St. In fact, as late as 1852, the area we now call the plains along Water Street did not extend so far south. Until 1840, Water Street went only as far as Sherwin Street, and by 1850 it had reached what is now the corner of Gold Street, though that street had not then been built. Just before 1852 it was put through to what is now the Grove Street Corner, and by 1853 it was possible to drive a team down Main Street to the head of Ticonic Bridge, then down Water all the way to Grove Street, and along Grove to its junction with Silver near what was then called the Emerson Bridge at the east end of the Oakland Road (now Kennedy Drive). It was some time after 1880, before there were any buildings on either side of Water Street between Gold and Grove Streets.

Nine years elapsed after the purchase of the Pearson land before it was used as a town cemetery. In 1851, the body of Miss Helena Low was the first to be buried there. On June 1 of that year Pine Grove Cemetery was officially dedicated. We can now definitely state that this fine burying ground on Grove Street has been regularly used and beautifully kept for 123 years.

In 1855, the town voted that there should be no further burials in the cemetery on Elm Street, and at the same time authorized the removal of bodies to Pine Grove Cemetery, at the option of living heirs or relatives and at their expense. It has long been supposed that all bodies in the old cemetery were removed to Pine Grove and at town expense, but that is not true. Persons who wished the bodies of ancestors or other relatives removed from Elm Street to Pine Grove had first to buy a lot in the new cemetery, then pay the cost of exhuming and reburying the bodies. The removals that occurred took a long time. They were still going on as late as 1865, when Professor Charles Hamlin of Colby – a man interested in everything pertaining to biology, physiology and natural history – noted in his diary that he then witnessed exhumations at the old cemetery. Hamlin’s interest was in observing the remains of clothing, and he made the unusual observation that, after burial, cotton lasted longer than wool!

Before the Civil War had ended, a group of local citizens had formed a Soldiers Monument Association to commemorate the town’s soldiers who died in that conflict, and about a month before Lee’s surrender in the spring of 1865 the town of Waterville voted to assign the Old Burying Ground on Elm Street to the use of the Soldiers Monument Association.

In 1868, the town did vote to authorize the selectmen to remove remaining bodies to Pine Grove, but whether the authorization was ever carried out or where in Pine Grove such bodies were placed no one knows. Perhaps those last removals at town expense included the paupers’ graves in the southwest corner of the old cemetery, but many years ago Prof. Julian Taylor, the venerable teacher of Latin at Colby, told me he was sure the paupers unmarked graves in the old cemetery had never been touched.

What we do know is that certain bodies were left in the old cemetery out of respect for wishes of the deceased. Persons now familiar with Pine Grove Cemetery know that the tallest granite monument there is on one of the Redington lots. Neither that monument nor any nearby marker tells us that “Here lies Asa Redington”. The inscription says, rather, “In Memory of Asa Redington”. Asa himself is not there. His family carefully respected his wish that his body, placed in the old Elm Street Cemetery, should never be moved.

We also know that every time changes have been made to widen either Elm Street or Park Street, human bones have been uncovered. Just how many bodies were never moved from the old cemetery will never be known. After 1868, all monuments and stones were also removed, not all of them to the new cemetery. As late as 1968,when Waterville’s urban renewal was under way, a granite doorstep on Elm Street revealed on its under side an inscription that made clear its earlier use as a stone in the old cemetery.

Although the Soldiers Monument Association was formed before the Civil War ended, it did not get going in earnest until 1875. By that time it had accumulated $2,000, and a copy of Milmore’s Citizen Soldier was ordered. The monument, now gracing the park, was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1876, with Civil War veteran, Col. Francis Heath as marshall, an oration by Llewelling Stevens of Portland, and a poem by Asher Hinds of Benton.

When we consider prices today, the cost of that monument seems ridiculously low. The final report made by the association’s secretary, Daniel Wing, publisher of the Waterville Mail, announced total receipts since the association’s formation had been $2,772.84, total expenditures $2,700.83, leaving a balance of 72.01. The bronze statue of the Milmore soldier cost $1,600, the granite pedestal and surrounding curb $1,007.75, filling and grading $76.90, and incidentals $16.18.

During the 1870’s many soldiers’ monuments were erected in Maine towns, but I suspect few of them were set up chiefly by popular subscription and ended with a surplus instead of a deficit. As for Waterville’s part in the Civil War, as early as 1862 the town began paying bounties to fill its quotas of calls for troops. On July 18 of that year a committee of 13 was chosen to serve the town’s quota required under President Lincoln’s call for 300,000 more men, and it was voted to borrow the necessary money to pay each recruit $100. In August, 1863, the bounty was increased to $150, and the town had to borrow an additional $9,300. In November 1863, when Lincoln called for 300,000 more soldiers, the bounty went up to $200, and it was necessary to borrow $10,000 more. Then, in August, 1864, when the President called for half a million new troops, Waterville had to pay each man a bounty of $500 to fill its quota, and the new loan to furnish the money was $25,000. On the last day of December, 1864, there was another call for 300,000 men, and the town had to float another loan of $25,000.

That sort of thing went on allover Maine during the Civil War. It explains the burden of municipal debt when the war was over. When there was added to the bounty payments the sums paid from tax sources to the families of soldiers, every Maine town was left with a heavy debt when the war ended.

Year: 1974