Radio Script #1056

Little Talks on Common Things
September 14, 1975

Today’s broadcast marks the beginning of the 28th consecutive season of Little Talks on Common Things. Yes, it was in the fall of 1948, well more than a quarter of a century ago when this program began.

Just think of the physical changes we have seen in Waterville and its surrounding towns during those years. In 1948 we had no such thing as a shopping center, and the small chain grocery stores were just beginning to be supermarkets. The Mayflower Hill campus of Colby College was just starting to develop. The Miller Library had just opened. The Runnals Union and two dormitories for girls were occupied, and a few boys were housed behind the Library, which had just opened. The Roberts Union was partly finished, and its dining service was ready.

A feature of Colby life in 1948 that many people remember was the Blue Beetle, the college bus that shuttled students back and forth between the old campus and Mayflower Hill, because some students were still housed in the old buildings and some classes were held there until 1952.

Believe it or not, one could go to Portland or Boston by train in 1948. The most famous of the Maine Central trains was the Flying Yankee, closely connected aluminum cars drawn by a shiny diesel locomotive. The railroad station now gone, and even its site obliterated by a highway underpass with clover-leaf connections, was in 1948 a very busy place.

Oakland Road, now Kennedy Drive, was than a single two-lane highway. On it was no Silent Woman, no motel, no complex of medical offices. In the fall of 1948, one could get delicious new cider at the Penney Farm on that road. For 35 cents, you could see a good movie at the Haines or the State Theater, and a quarter would get you into the Opera House.

Everybody had a radio, but no one owned a television set. Snowmobiles were unheard of. Can young people possibly imagine living in a time when there were no miniskirts, when on the street you could tell the difference between a boy and a girl, when there were no hoola-hoops and no Frisbees? What a dreary time it must have been say today’s youngsters. But for us who lived then, those days of 27 years ago weren’t dreary at all.

As we begin this new season, let us turn to an issue of that old favorite weekly, the Gospel Banner, edited by the fiery William Drew in Augusta. This particular number came from the press 106 years ago in 1869, just four years after the Civil War had ended.

We read much today about the vast amount of money spent for alcoholic beverages. In a year, Americans now drink enough beer alone to float the entire U.S. Navy. But Editor Drew was concerned about that very kind of expenditure back in 1869. He wrote: “We learn that, leaving wines and expensive liquors quite out of consideration, a modest inbiber of old rye whiskey can spend a lot of money in a year. If he drinks four glasses a day at 15 cents a glass, that is 60 cents a day, $4.20 a week, $218.40 a year. Even a man who drinks only beer and has only four glasses a day at 10 cents, spends $145 a year. With wages seldom more than a dollar a day, that beer can demand a large share of a man’s income.”

The paper announced the results of Maine’s gubernatorial election. The total number of votes cast was 92,000,considerably less than the usual 350,000 today. But we must remember that in 1869 only men had the right to vote. No females and no males under 21 could cast a ballot. The winner for Governor was Gen. Joshua Chamberlain, the Maine hero at Gettysburg. He defeated his Democratic opponent by 15,000 votes, and a third party candidate got a few more than 15,000.

An ad in the paper announced the Qpening of the Western State Normal School at Farmington on August 26. Charles Rounds was the principal, and he had four assistants, besides a part-time teacher of music. It may surprise you to know that at Farmington, in 1869, tuition and text books were free. Maine then had only two normal schools, the Western at Farmington and the Eastern at Castine.

One item of news was the burning of a railroad bridge at Oakland. The item said: “The bridge near West Waterville on the Maine Central RR was burned Saturday night. It was 160 feet long and 54 feet above the Messalonskee Stream. By 8 a.m. Sunday, Edwin Noyes, Supt. of the road, had sawyers at work on logs at Kennebec Mills, preparing for a new bridge, and by Tuesday night trains were running over it. That was mighty quick work. Supt. Noyes is a hard man to beat in an emergency.”

That Edwin Noyes was son-in-law of Maine’s wealthiest landowner, Timothy Boutelle. Since Boutelle was President of the Androscoggin and Kennebec RR, that had reached Waterville in 1849, Noyes owed his position to his wife’s father. He lived in the house built for his wife by her father as a wedding gift. It was on Temple Street, near Elm, and before it was torn down to make way for the Concourse, it was used successively as headquarters for the Boys’ Club and for the YMCA.

Gambling devices to take partial place of taxes are not new in our day. By 1869 the earlier lotteries, because of their notorious corruption, had been outlawed, not to return until well into the 20th century. But there were people always trying to interest governments in gambling profits. The Gospel Banner said: “A Frenchman has written to President Grant asking for license to operate a huge gambling house in New York, like the one in Monte Carlo, with part of the proceeds to go to the U.S. Government.”

Women’s rights was another subject in the news in 1869. The Banner tells us: “Rev . Dr. Bushnell, in his book “Women’s Rights”, pays the gentle sex a deserved compliment as morally superior to men. He says they are more refined, tender, gentle and just. Yet he predicts alarming results if women should ever be allowed to vote. We question his logic. How is it that these dear creatures, if they get the vote, will precipitate our nation to disaster? The doctor doesn’t explain; neither can we.”

The Banner carried news of a local fatality. “On Sunday morning last, the body of a man was found on the railroad track just back of the car shop in Augusta, literally torn to pieces. It turned out to be the body of George Ingraham of Hallowell. He left Freeman’s saloon on Water Street about 10 p.m. on Saturday, quite intoxicated. He is supposed to have started down the tracks for home, but fell and was too far gone to be able to rise and get off the track. The late express, passing at 10 p.m., evidently passed over him, without passengers or crew knowing that anything had happened.”

It is always interesting to know how important people 200 years ago made their wills. One of Maine’s leaders in the mid-18th century was Sir William Pepperell of Kittery, one of the land developers of York County, and commander of the colonial forces that captured the French fortress at Louisburg on Cape Breton. Pepperell’s will was probated in York on June 1, 1759, and it is worth quoting, at least in considerable part.

“I, Sir William Pepperell, Baronet, bequeath to my wife Mary the income of one-half my real estate during her life. I also give her four of my Negroes of her choice; also the right to make use of any part of my household furniture, also the increase of one half of my cattle, sheep and horses on all my farms; also my chariot and chaise with the harness, and the choice of any two of my horses; also 2000 pounds to be paid out of my money in London; also all my wine, cider, spirits, beef, pork and flour that may be in my house or warehouses, she quitting all rights of dowry to any land that I may have at my decease.

“To my son-in-law Nathaniel Sparhawk I release all the debt he owes me.

“To my daughter Elizabeth Sparhawk I give the other half of the income from my estate.”

Having dispersed of his closest relatives, Pepperell went on to name other bequests.

“To my sister Mary Prescott I give 30 pounds to buy mourning, and the same to my sister Margery Gunnison, and the same to my sister Miriam Tyler.

“To the Peer of Kittery, I leave 200 bushels of corn, to be distributed by my executors.

“All my armor and geld rings I leave to the sons of my daughter Elizabeth Sparhawk to be divided equally.

“To my grandson, William Pepperell Sparhawk, when he shall reach the age of 21, I leave 1000 pounds, and after my wife’s death he shall procure an act of the General Court changing his name to William Pepperell. He shall then have all the plate that I received from Sir Peter Warren, and all the portraits of my relatives and friends that are new in my dwelling, also my sword and my gold watch, and all my real estate that lies in the towns of Kittery, Scarborough and Biddeford.

“All the residue of my estate I leave to my grandson William Pepperell Sparhawk.”

Robert Jordan, one of the founders of Cape Elizabeth had some interesting items in his will, nearly a hundred years before Sir William Pepperell’s. Made in 1678, Jordan’s will shows hew poorly younger sons were often treated. Jordan bequeathed to his wife the income from 3, 000 acres of land during her lifetime, after which the oldest son would get 1,100 acres and the second son 1,000, the remaining 900 acres to be a public bequest to the town of Cape Elizabeth. Now note what he did fer his younger sons, “To my four youngest sons, Deminic, Jebidiah, Samuel and Jeremiah, I give to each one featherbed and one bolster.”

So much for old-time wills.

As a final item on today’s program, I want to tell you that I have heard from a person who rode on Waterville’s old horse cars. The old electric cars had come into use by the last decade of the 19th century, but the horse cars preceded them. Mrs. Gertrude Anderson of Oakland says that, as a young girl, she rode on these horse cars. At the age of 17, some time after the line was electrified, she came to Waterville to learn the art of seamstress of men’s clothing at the establishment of Tailor Ed. Later she worked at her trade in the Professional Building when it was first put up on the site of the home of Governor William T. Haines.

Year: 1975