Radio Script #1131

Little Talks on Common Things
September 18, 1977

This broadcast begins the 30th consecutive year of Little Talks on Common Things, and in number it is the 1131st broadcast.

A lot of water has been down the Kennebec since this program first went on the air in the fall of 1948. Consider what has happened in our Waterville area alone since that time, when World War II was only three years in the past. Hundreds of people now living in Central Maine were not born when this program first went on the air. Passenger-trains still stopped several times a day at the railroad station on College Avenue – a station which itself no longer exists.

Urban Renewal with its consequent Concourse and rehabilitated Main Street was then not even a dream. People complained because the war had pushed the price of gasoline up, so when gas rationing stopped, the price was 24 cents a gallon. You could still buy a decent house for $5,000, and a new Cadillac cost only a little more than $2,000.

Colby College was at last getting settled on Mayflower Hill, but not entirely. The new Life Science Building had not yet opened, and Professors Chester and Koons still held, classes in Coburn Hall on the old campus. Four more years would elapse before the college was entirely moved to the Hill. More than a hundred veterans were attending Colby in 1948, partially financed by the welcomed G1 Bill that Congress had passed in 1945. Before anyone suspected that the U. S. would be at war in Vietnam, more than 1,200 veterans of World War II and the Korean War would enroll at Colby.

When the first broadcast of this program went on the air, Maine people knew that soon in November they would have a chance to vote for President of the U. S. and the two principal candidates were the incumbent President Harry Truman, who as V. P. had inherited the office when Franklin Roosevelt died, and his Republican opponent Thomas Dewey. Do you remember how sure all the politicians, even Democrats, were that Dewey would be elected, and what a surprise it was when Truman won? What a healer of wounds time is! In 1948, many Americans regarded Harry Truman as a light-weight, non-intellectual president who by accident and promotion by the Pendergast machine in Missouri had been catapulted into the presidency. Now, 29 years later, historians without party prejudice regard him as a strong president, one who meant it when he said, “the buck stops here.”

In 1948, who would have dreamed that in less than thirty years, a President of the U.S. would resign from the office under a cloud of scandal? Who would ever predict that in twenty years the college campuses of America would be scenes of student sit-ins, demonstrations, riots, and even violent deaths? Who, in 1948, would have dared say that America would become a nation of mobile homes and condominiums?

Well, we could go on and on with a recital of changes since 1948, but this is enough. It is time to get on with the new season’s broadcasts. Let us take a look at some of Somerset County’s old newspapers.

In 1840, there was being published in Skowhegan, a weekly paper called the Skowhegan Sentinel and Somerset Democrat-Republican. If that title sounds incongruous, just bear in mind that in 1840, the Republican Party had not been born, that there was no Republican candidate earlier than 1856, when General Fremont lost to the Democrat, James Buchanan. When the political party was organized to oppose the Federalists at the turn into the 19th century, those followers of Thomas Jefferson considered the names Democrat and Republican as equally good designations. Because they couldn’t decide which was preferable, the party was long known by the hyphenated term Democrat-Republican. The old Federal party became the Whigs. In 1828 the last of the old Federalist presidents, John Quincy Adams, was defeated by the Democrat-Republican, Andrew Jackson, who was succeeded in 1836 by another of his own party, Martin Van Buren. In 1840 came the campaign with its slogan, “Tippicanoe and Tyler too,” which elected the first Whig president, William Henry Harrison. So that Skowhegan paper, that was proclaimed to be Democrat-Republican, was on the losing side in 1840. Twenty years later the two parties would be well defined by the names they still carry today. The hyphenated party became the Democrats, the Whigs became the Republicans.

That Skowhegan paper was published by Littlefield and Hill at $1.25 a year, if paid in advance. The rate was $2.50, if not paid before the end of three months. In those days, the postal laws did not require publishers to suspend delivery of unpaid subscriptions, so this paper’s masthead said, “No paper will be discontinued until all arrears have been paid.”

The issue of July 6, 1840 contained a doleful editorial. It said: “The times are hard. Business is dull. There is little money circulating and little encouragement for enterprise. Everybody has to economize – make the old coat do a little longer, patch it until it is all patches, then use what is left of it to make clothes for a child.”

Another editorial paid respects to the presidential campaign. It was called the Log Cabin campaign for the Republicans, who made much of their contention, never proved, that Harrison had been born in a log cabin. The Skowhegan paper said: “The Harrison people have a log cabin set up in Hallowell fitted in prime style. When a Whig gentleman visited it recently, he found it occupied by a dozen tipsy individuals, and he came away disgusted. He learned the cabin had been set up by a rum peddler to increase his business. We suspect this use of the Harrison log cabin is typical of Maine Whigs.”

Another old paper was the Somerset Reporter, published in North Anson in 1854. The publisher was Rodney Collins, whose print shop was on the corner of Main and Carrabassett Streets in that village. His issue of January 5, 1854 told about a big snowstorm: “On December 29 the big storm hit us in earnest. Roads soon became impassable. Mail was delayed several days. Snow fell to a depth of 18 inches. The storm wrought immense disaster along the coast. Ninety vessels were blown ashore between Boston and Cape Cod. Winds were high in Skowhegan. On some roads there were ten-foot drifts.”

The way the law worked strange antics is revealed in this item in the Reporter: “Samuel Jacobs of Fairfield was sentenced to seven years in State’s Prison for shooting at an Irishman whom he found stealing his rails near his restaurant at Kendall Mills.”

Another old Somerset paper published in Norridgewock was called the People’s Press. It was put out by H. P. Pratt in Parker’ and Prescott’s Building in Norridgewock at $1.25 a year. Like its contemporary, the Skowhegan Sentinel, it was a Democrat-Republican paper. Its issue of Aug. 5, 1841 came out solidly for Governor Kent. It was the year when it was said “Maine went, hell bent, for Governor Kent.” That issue of the People’s Press was actually its first number and contained this announcement. “Today we issue the first number of the People’s Press. This is not the Somerset Journal under a new name, but an original paper. After 18 years the Somerset Journal is now no more, and a new paper is in order. It will be a Democratic-Republican paper, supporting the Republican principles proclaimed by Jefferson and Madison. Yet we intend to support men, not because they belong to a particular party, but because they are honest and capable. To that extent we proclaim our independence from all parties.”

Still another Somerset paper of the 1840’s was the Democratic Clarion, published in Skowhegan at a higher price than the others, $1.75 a year. The editor proclaimed that he had energetic agents in Pittsfield, East Madison, New Sharon, Anson, St. Albans and Ripley.

I have often said on this program that we learn less about the days of long ago from the news items in old newspapers. than we learn from their ads. So let us see what the advertising in these Somerset papers tells us.

The editor of the Skowhegan Sentinel had already said, as I have told you, that money was scarce in 1840. Yet he was determined to be paid by his subscribers. Hence he inserted this ad. “Butter wanted in payment for debts due this office, or give us a few pounds of wool.” S. Barker of Bloomfield advertised the Waterville Plough. So far as I have observed, no Waterville paper ever mentioned that farm implement. Do any of our listeners know about a plough made in Waterville in the 1840’s and who made it?

You can find plenty of ads for the old-time general stores in these papers. Here’s one that is typical. “Fuller and Dyer. West India goods, molasses, sugar, spices, nails and hardware. Crockery, boots and shoes, dry goods, paints and oils, drugs and medicines. Country produce gladly taken in exchange.”

A lot of Somerset County people raised sheep in the 1840’s and much wool was spun and woven right on the farm. But every housewife, when she possibly could, took advantage of a nearby carding mill, so that the wool could be returned to her in nice, straight strands free from impacted foreign substances. See this ad in North Anson’s Somerset Reporter. “A. J. Littlefield will continue to carry on his carding and cloth dressing business in his factory at Bloomfield. Experienced workmen employed. Bring in your wool.”

Here’s an ad whose wording is most unusual. “Maine Justice of the Peace for sale at R. Collins. Joshua Butler, deputy sheriff and coroner, New Portland. All business entrusted to his care will be properly attended to.”

As early as 1840, there had come a demand for education of girls beyond the common school. For a long time they were not included in Maine’s early academies, which at first accepted only boys. Sometimes those interested in educating their daughters found it so difficult to get them accepted in existing academies that they banded together and started an academy solely for girls. That is what happened in Norridgewock, as shown by this ad in the People’s Press.

“Norridgewock Female Academy. Term opens August 18. Mary L. Tower, Preceptress. Tuition for common branches $3 a term, higher branches $4. Board low, as usual. Young ladies who intend to qualify to teach school will find it to their advantage to attend.”

With that reference to an early instance of Women’s Lib, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1977