Radio Script #1104

Little Talks on Common Things
December 12, 1976

For the knowledge of the achievements of a number of prominent men of this vicinity who are no longer living, we owe much to some diligent relative who patiently pasted into a scrapbook newspaper clippings about the men. Last year, I told you about the scrapbook kept by the first Mrs. Harvey Eaton, giving us a contemporary account of his important part in the formation of the Central Maine Power Company, as well as his brilliant success in bringing to Waterville an unfailing supply of water from China Lake.

Today I want to tell you about another Waterville man, about whom we got bountiful information from a scrapbook kept by his wife. The man was Sherman Berry, and his wife was the talented newspaper woman, Lyda Berry.

The first clipping is from the Waterville Sentinel in July 1926, announcing Sherman Berry’s candidacy for the state legislature as a Democrat. It was not Mr. Berry’s first such venture. He had served in the Maine House of Representatives in 1917 and 1919. The Sentinel said, “Perhaps no Waterville citizen is more widely known than Mr. Berry. He has been a resident of the city for 38 years. For a number of years he was freight agent here for the Maine Central Railroad, and more recently has been engaged in business on Main Street. He has serve as Grand Patriarch of the Odd Fellows of Maine.”

Mrs. Berry duly pasted into the book the announcement of her husband’s Republican opponent, local grocer Fred Rose. The Sentinel said: “Mr. Rose has been a member of the city government, serving as chairman of the Board of Aldermen. He is connected commercially with Holmes-Swift Co. and has been active in both industrial and political affairs. He is a director of the Kennebec Water District.”

The next clipping records a Berry victory. The newspaper headlines said: “Berry elected to legislature by 169 votes. Carries his Office Ward 3, normally Republican.” In fact, Berry carried four wards, 1, 3, 6 and 7, while Rose led in Wards 2, 4 and 5.

The Sentinel published an editorial on the Berry election, in which it commented: “Mr. Berry has been a life-long Democrat, aggressive and unterrified, in a predominantly Republican state. Taking residence here in early manhood, he has been prominent in the political, social and business life of the city. Now he is retired and has plenty of time for politics and other congenial diversions. He is a hard man to beat for any office, and most of our people will be glad to have him representing them in Augusta this winter.”

It is only people of my generation who remember a political phenomenon of the 1920’s, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan. It made quite a stir in Maine in 1925. That explains this statement in the Sentinel editorial in the fall of 1926: “While nothing was heard from the Klan in this local election, undoubtedly a good many went to the polls and voted for Mr. Berry because of his support of our Klan-endorsed Senator Gould.”

In the scrapbook is pasted an invitation to Blaine House. It says: “Governor and Mrs. Ralph O. Brewster cordially invite Representative and Mrs. Sherman L. Berry to a very informal reception at Blaine House on Tuesday evening, January 11, 1927, at 8 o’clock. Pasted near the invitation are the name tags that the Berrys wore at the reception.

Catching a severe cold which developed into pneumonia, Sherman Berry died before that season of the Legislature had adjourned. In the scrapbook we find obituaries from a dozen newspapers, and a long editorial in the Sentinel. In that editorial was an unusual comment, it said: ”Many people complain that the State of Maine is so small that its affairs are those of the village rather than of the metropolis, and that the state’s concerns are administered in a shirt-sleeve fashion that is behind the times. We hear many remarks about the littleness of Maine and of those who work in its behalf.

“Granted that Maine has not developed overnight into a state of big cities and crowded suburbs, perhaps our rate of growth has really been good. Certainly it has brought forward good men, and one of the outstanding was Sherman Berry. Mr. Berry was no reactionary, no small town man. Far from it. He was a man whose delight it was to share his views in friendly conversation with other men, whether they voted for or against him.

“A Democrat with a capital D in political belief, Mr. Berry was a democrat with a small d in daily life. He was a friend of the entire town who, by the rough fiber of his convictions, won for himself an honored place. In his life we see strong argument to refute those who rail against Maine.”

Sherman Berry’s funeral on February 8, 1927, was conducted in the Waterville Methodist Church by the pastor, Rev. E. Pollard Jones. Attending was a delegation from the Maine House of Representatives, and groups from a dozen other civic and fraternal organizations.

Other clippings deal with Sherman Berry’s strong interest, the Waterville Fire Department. He joined the department in 1903 and in the same year was made captain of Hose Company No.1. After he retired as an active fireman in 1918, he retained close contact with members of the force and was a frequent visitor at the Central Fire Station in Post Office Square.

Perhaps even better known as a Waterville fireman than Sherman Berry was his brother Walter Berry, who is also remembered as the proprietor of Berry Stationers on Main Street. In her scrapbrook, Mrs. Sherman Berry paid due attention to her brother-in-law. It was less than a month after Sherman Berry’s death when Walter Berry resigned as chief of the fire department, a post he had held for 21 years. The department gave him a send off with a big supper. Toastmaster was Ass’t. Chief Walter M. McAlary. In his speech, Berry praised the city’s decision to place the fire department under civil service, not subject to personnel changes with every changing city administration. He said: “Without doubt this change which benefitted the city most, during the 21 years I have been a member of the department, was withdrawing it from the effect of the spoils system.” He said that former chief C. C. Dow had cooperated with him strenuously to achieve that goal.

When Walter Berry entered the Fire Department, all vehicles were horse drawn. Berry remembered those faithful horses, Bess and Kit, and the two whites, Colonel and Major. Bess and Kit came to an untimely end by electrocution. It was Berry who laid the cornerstone of the new central fire station in October 1911. Not until two years later in 1913 did Waterville have box fire alarms.

William R. Pattingall was then Mayor of Waterville. He had responded to the advice of the Fire Insurance Exchange to persuade the City Council not only to create a Central Fire Station, responsible for the various engine houses in different parts of the city, but also to put in a box alarm system. Those two improvements, according to Berry, had done much to give Waterville low insurance rates.

Sherman Berry was a skillful fisherman, and the scrapbook bears testimony to his prowess at that sport. Listen to this clipping: “Frank Robinson says Sherm Berry has the pickerel so well trained in East Pond that they don’t wait for Sherm to throw over his line, but come right up to the boat and hop in. Recently Robinson, Berry and Hascall Hall were fishing in East Pond along toward nightfall. Rowing toward a ripple that seemed inviting, they saw it was made by an enormous pickerel. About that time the fish saw Sherm and started toward the boat, as if he was saying, “Don’t try to hook me, Sherman, I’ll save you the trouble! “The fish kept coming nearer until it was right alongside the boat just begging to be lifted aboard. Berry could not bear to see the big fellow’s wishes denied, so he lifted the fish into the boat with an oar. It tipped the scales at four pounds.

The last item in the scrapbook tells about an up-in-the-air experiment of another member of the Berry family, Mrs. Glenna Hancock Berry. Let us have the story just as the Waterville Sentinel published it in 1927.

Mrs. Glenna Hancock Berry met with an unusual experience yesterday with aviator Maxim at the Central Maine Fair. Mrs. Berry wanted to go above the clouds and Mr. Maxim took her to a height of 7,500 feet. At that height the gas gave out and Mr. Maxim tried to convey the bad news to the passenger. The noise of the motor was so loud she could not hear him, so he wrote a note telling her there was motor trouble. Although she took that to mean that they had little chance to land safely, Mrs. Berry took the news pluckily. She turned to the aviator, waved her hand and said, ‘Goodbye.’ She soon found things were not so bad as she feared, for Maxim brought the craft down to a safe landing on the Fair Grounds. Mrs. Berry is to be congratulated for her nervy response to a situation that would have thrown most women into panic.”

On more than one occasion Sherman Berry was a generous host, in 1925, he entertained Hose Co. No.1 at what the newspaper called a “sumptuous banquet” at the Appleton Inn. The story said: Caterer Butler had spared no means to make the tables look attractive, and he loaded them with good stuff, just what firemen appreciate. Souvenir carnations were laid at each cover. After the boys had partaken of the generous repast, Captain Berry called them to order, thanked them for their loyal service, and called upon several to speak. Luke Ivers called for a toast to ‘Sleeping in Rubber Boots.’ J. L. Rancourt toasted ‘The Efficiency of the Steamer,’ George Perry The Paper Collar Gang’, Fred McAlary, ‘The New Substitutes’.

Berry took this occasion to explain the Civil Service system, which he advocates, and hopes soon to persuade the city to adopt.

We have just enough time left on this program for me to get in a few words on my favorite subject and my long professional interest, the English language. So let us consider the origin of a few English words.

A biscuit is a common item of Maine cookery. The word is half Latin and half French, bis coquiet, twice cooked. The word originated in France, then was Anglicized in Britain. In the days of sail, voyages were long, and the tough pieces of breadstuff that made up much of a sailor’s diet were hard to keep from spoiling. It was discovered that those pieces of bread kept much better if they were cooked twice. Hence they came to be called biscuits.

The word sincere comes from the Latin sine cera, without wax. In the Middle Ages, the way broken pottery was mended was by using wax to seal the broken parts. So a piece of pottery that had no wax was an original or pure article. It was sine cera. Thus sincere became a synonym for honest or genuine.

A broker originally had nothing to do with stocks or bonds. Because in 17th century London the wine salesmen and brokers often served as pimps for prostitutes, they were called love brokers.

Calculate means to count the pebbles, a reminder of the ancient custom of using pebbles as tallies.

Year: 1977