Radio Script #1203

Little Talks on Common Things
May 13, 1979

During the years this broadcast has been on the air we have made some mention of every town in Kennebec, Somerset and Franklin counties, though we have given more attention to some than to others. I fear we have neglected a Kennebec town that deserves more comment than we have given to it, and it is to that town that we devote this broadcast the town of Wayne.

Wayne is the westernmost of all Kennebec towns. It is so situated between two of Maine’s largest rivers that some of its streams run east into the Kennebec while others run west into the Androscoggin. On the north Wayne is bounded by East Livermore, Fayette and Readfield; on the east by Winthrop; on the south by Monmouth; on the west by Leeds. It is in the administrative school district whose high school is located at Winthrop.

Wayne is beautifully located in the midst of picturesque Maine lakes and ponds. the largest of which is Androscoggin Lake near Wayne Village. Nearby is Pocasset Lake. Five other lakes are wholly or partially in the town of Wayne. This feature makes the region a prominent summer resort and accounts for much of the town’s economy.

Wayne is, however, one of Maine’s inland towns that has long had widely known industry to accompany its farms and its summer visitors as sources of income. Until the 20th century, agriculture was indeed significant in Wayne. The town’s history, published in 1892, says: “In earlier days before the fertility of the soil had been depleted, so as to require fertilizer of every kind, Wayne produced staple crops which were marketed in Hallowell, Augusta, and as far away as Portland. Wheat, barley, oats, rye, and corn were the principal grains. Nearly every farm had its grain ground at a local mill, where often was produced flour as well as meal. Such a thing as bringing in from the outside grain products to feed either man or beast was unknown in such towns as Wayne. The change came when it became cheaper to buy western flour than to produce it at home.”

When the opening of the western prairies made the raising of food grain unprofitable in Maine, the farmer for a time changed to raising beef cattle, and that is what happened in Wayne. When that too did not pay, another change was made to dairying. In 1890 the once large flocks of sheep in Wayne pastures had been reduced to a few scattered, small flocks. But by 1890 Wayne orchards had become to get wide recognition for their excellent apples. At that time Baldwins, Northern Spies, and Ben Davis were the favorite varieties.

Another agriculture industry that developed rapidly at the turn of the century was sweet corn. Corn shops sprang up in many Maine villages, of which one was Wayne. The corn crop brought in needed money at the canning factories as well as providing the farmer with fodder from the stalks and leaves.

The historical account of Wayne agriculture in the town history ends with these words: “Although agriculture is less profitable than formerly, and many young men have left Wayne for more alluring fields, the town has few abandoned farms, fewer indeed than most Maine towns.” But remember that was written 87 years ago in 1892.

The Indian name of Wayne was Pocasset, but because early white settlers came from the vicinity of Sandwich on Cape Cod, the first English name given to the settlement was New Sandwich. In fact, in 1797, fifty-three of the male adults in the community petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature to incorporate them as a town named New Sandwich. In the next year, when the Legislature got around to the act of incorporation, sentiment had become aroused to honor the Revolutionary hero, General Anthony Wayne. That is how the town became officially called Wayne rather than New Sandwich.

The writer of the opening chapter of the Wayne history was filled with nostalgia. That emotionalism for the old days caused him to write: “The story of Wayne is the story of most small towns in inland Maine. The cheer and bustle of stagecoach and peddler are gone, and little has come to take its place in those sequestered hamlets. The farmer is supplied with all his needs by large manufacturing plants, and in return he sends them the products of his land. The occupation of local village industry had declined. The little tanneries, the whirling potters’ wheels turning out bowls of childhood memory, and the itinerant tinsmith making long-handled dippers are no more. But it is not all loss. The gain is in luxuries previously unknown to rural life. But the gain hardly compensates for the loss of independence. The once almost completely self-supporting farmer has now become as dependent upon the city as the city was once dependent upon him. What may be this balance between loss and gain, produced by changing times, each man must decide for himself.”

Wayne was one of a few inland towns peculiarly blessed by having very early what became more than mere local industries. Of course, like most of the towns, it had its sawmills, gristmills and carding mills, and local artisans such as blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and shoemakers were everywhere. What made Wayne different was its early specialized factories. The town’s many streams issuing into and out of large lakes, provided abundant water power. Quite early some of the sawmills put in shingle machines, then machines for making clapboards; and by the middle of the 19th century Wayne had factories for making doors, sashes, and blinds. By the time of the Civil War Walter Burgess had a large two-story building in the basement of which he made shingles and operated a turning lathe. On the first floor he made furniture, and on the top floor he had a carding mill.

In 1871 the Johnson Woolen Mill opened in Wayne. Before that, Johnson’s father had operated a small plant where he did carding and fulling of wool brought in from the nearby farms to be prepared for the home spinning wheels and looms of local households. But ten years after the outbreak of the Civil War, the whole nation was changing from home spinning and weaving to textile factories, and Wayne was early in making the changes.

Another specialization of industry that had come to Wayne by 1870 was the making of shovel handles, a production that continued well into the 20th century. Another was the Wayne Marble Works that by 1872 was using not marble but the high quality local granite, similar to the vein that had been opened up in Hallowell. Not many Maine towns, except on the coast, had as early as did Wayne an iron foundry and a lime kiln. So, before many of its young men were off to war in the Union Army, Wayne already had a variety of industries.

It was another industry, however, that made the little town of Wayne known nearly over the nation. It was the production of highly specialized iron goods – the kind called edged tools; axes, scythes, and sharp knives. As early as 1838 the first scythe shop had been opened at North Wayne by a group calling themselves the Wayne Scythe Manufacturing Company. In 1840 it was taken over and greatly expanded by Reuben B. Dunn, who later moved to Waterville, developingan edged tool plant on the Messalonskee at Oakland (then a part of Waterville). He also was the chief promoter in expanding the development of water power at Ticonic Falls, which induced the Lockwood Company to start what was for many years Waterville’s largest industry. Before he left Wayne, Mr. Dunn had there not only a scythe factory, but also a brickyard, a potash kiln, and what he called a grinding and repair shop for edged tools.

In 1856 the North Wayne scythes took first prize at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London. Gradually to the manufacture of scythes was added the making of axes, knives, and other edged tools. During the Civil War, North Wayne produced handsomely made swords for Union officers.

Wayne got early into the making of sulphur matches. In fact these so-called Lucifer matches were made in Wayne as early as 1846. They were turned out in a large factory, but employed only five men to make those vile smelling Lucifers, and six girls to wrap them into retail packages. I suspect they were much like the Portland Star Matches of my own boyhood, which came in small sheets of attached matches called cards, four sheets wrapped in tissue, and had a dozen of those tissues to a package, so that the entire package, called 1/8 of a gross, contained more than 3,000 matches. And in my boyhood days the whole package sold for 8 cents.

Perhaps the most famous men connected with Wayne never actually lived in that town. They were the famous inventors – Hiram and Hudson Maxim. Hiram invented the world’s first successful machine gun, and Hudson was the inventor of smokeless powder. Their father and mother, Isaac and Sarah Maxim, were both natives of Wayne, and returned there for the last years of their lives. But at the time when Hiram and Hudson had been born, the family lived in Sangerville, so that town is the birth place of both celebrated inventors. When Hiram Maxim failed to get the U.S. Army interested in his machine gun, he went to England, where he resided for the rest of his life, and there his brother Hudson soon joined him. So it was England, not their native United States that reaped the early advantages of both the machine gun and smokeless powder. The whole aspect of modern warfare was changed by these Maine inventors: Hiram Maxim’s machine gun, Hudson Maxim’s smokeless powder, and Alvin Lombard’s caterpillar tread. the forerunner of the modern war tank.

It is interesting to note that at the height of the Maxim brothers’ fame, their parents were quiet, elderly residents of the Maine town of Wayne.

Year: 1979