Radio Script #1218

Little Talks on Common Things
November 25,1979

In our two most recent broadcasts we gave attention to Kennebec towns previously neglected on this program. It is time now that we gave attention to population changes throughout the neighboring counties of Kennebec and Somerset during the past 80 years.

Kennebec, through all those years, has had one community that has never attained the stature of an incorporated town. That is Unity Plantation, the area between the towns of Benton and Unity. In 1850 it had 78 people, its maximum population. In 1870 the number was 68 and in 1900 it had fallen to 50. Since then the population has remained quite stable. the 1970 census showing 44. It is the smallest community in Kennebec County.

Kennebec has the distinction of having more cities than any other county in Maine. Cumberland, our most populous county, has three cities – Portland. South Portland and Westbrook – while Kennebec has four: Augusta, Gardiner, Hallowell and Waterville. Of those four, one of them, Hallowell, has suffered such sharp decline that although it is still a city, its population is exceeded by a large number of Maine towns that have never sought city charters. In 1970, Hallowell had 2,814 people. That same census showed in Kennebec County alone, three organized towns with more people than Hallowell. They were Winslow, Winthrop and Oakland and the count in Vassalboro was almost equal to Hallowell’s.

When Maine became a separate state in 1820, Hallowell was the largest town in the County and was 7th largest in Maine. In those days before the coming of railroads, Hallowell was the chief port above Merrymeeting Bay, where ocean going ships lined the wharves day after day. Most of Central Maine’s produce was carted to Hallowell for shipment to Boston and other large ports, and from Hallowell was carted to the inland towns goods from allover the world. By the time when the state capitol was moved from Portland to Augusta in the 1830’s Hallowell had nearly 2,000 people.

Although the coming of the railroad hurt Hallowell as a trading center, and for a time affected its population growth, in the middle of the 19th century the place got a boost through development of the granite industry, when Hallowell granite was used for many important buildings in New York, Philadelphia, and other cities.

In 1860, when the granite industry was getting well underway, Hallowell’s population was 2,435. It reached its 19th century height of 3,181 in 1890. The next ten years saw decline to 2,714, the number of people who lived there when the new century began. For various reasons, not the least of which had been the residence of families whose members worked in state offices in Augusta, Hallowell’s all-time population peak came in 1950 with 3,404. Twenty years later in 1970
it had dropped to 2,814, a decline of 17 percent.

Meanwhile, Kennebec’s three other cities were growing. In 1850 the City of Gardiner included West Gardiner, now a separate town, with combined population of 6,486. Ten years later, when West Gardiner had 1,296 people the city itself had slipped from 6,486 to 4,847. By 1950 it had grown to 6,649, and during the next 20 years showed little change with the 1970 count being 6,685. In 1850, Waterville had a population of 3,964, which by 1900 had grown to 9,477.During the first half of this century, the number of inhabitants in Waterville and Augusta was about the same. In 1950 Augusta surpassed Waterville by nearly 3,000, its count being 20,913 while Waterville’s was 18,288. During the next 20 years, Augusta’s population grew by about 1,000 to 21,945, while Waterville showed a slight decline to 18,192. Without question it is Augusta’s distinction of being the capital of the state, during a period when state government has taken over so many functions formerly handled by municipalities, that has given it population advantage.

Kennebec’s largest town, not yet chartered as a city, is Winslow. Its recent growth has been phenomenal. In 1850 its population was 1,796. In 1900 it had reached only 2,297. Then with the coming of the Hollingsworth and Whitney paper mill, came a steady growth for a few years, but which had leveled off so that between the First World War and 1950 the count stood close to 4,000, but did reach 4,413 in the 1950 census. It was the next 20 years that saw the Winslow population boom. Many people moved in from other areas to take advantage of lower land values. New streets developed rapidly and housing developments spread widely. The result was that by 1970 Winslow’s population had shot up to 7290, and the 1980 census will certainly show a count approaching 9000, making Winslow one of Maine’s largest towns without a city charter.

The suburban movement that helped Winslow – that is, people taking residence in one town while working in another – also affected other Maine towns. The town of Pittston, near Gardiner, had long been a small rural place, although in the 18th century it had become one of the first areas developed by the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase under Sylvester Gardiner. Between 1950 and 1970, Pittston’s population rose from 1,258 to 2,617. The same was true of West Gardiner and Farmingdale profiting as suburban towns. Farmingdale grew from 1,449 to 2,423 in those twenty years, and West Gardiner from 946 to 1,435.

For a long time the Town of Chelsea had profited by having the National Veteran’s Hospital at Togus, but in the twenty years between 1950 and 1970, Chelsea lost about 100 people, its 1970 count being 2,095. Another Kennebec town that has shown good gain because of the move to suburbia is China. A number of people who owned cottages on China Lake converted them into year-round homes, and the whole town, like many other areas, is dotted with mobile homes. So China’s population of 1,395 in 1950 had become 1,852 by 1970. The same can be said of Manchester profiting as a suburb of Augusta. It had 664 people in 1950. In 1970 it had 1,222. Another town that has had recent impressive growth is Oakland, and the explanation is only partly because it is adjacent to Waterville. While it is true that many of Oakland’s residents work in Waterville, it is the expansion of industry in that town that also explains the rapid growth in population. Between 1950 and 1970 this growth was an extraordinary 32 per cent, from 2,679 to 3,525.

It is thus clear that several rural areas of Kennebec County, instead of losing population in recent years, as they did previously, actually gained by being part of that new phenomena in American life called suburbia. In fact, the only two Kennebec towns in which population declined between 1950 and 197 were FeVienn and Rome, although the growth was very small in Albion, Fayette, Mount Vernon, Randolph and Wayne.

Kennebec County as a whole has shown good growth for many years. One hundred and fifty years ago in 1830 the whole County had 39,000 people. By the opening of the Civil War it had risen to 55,000. At the turn of the century it reached 60,000, and in the middle of this century stood at 75,000. Obviously the County is still growing.

Now let us turn to neighboring Somerset County. Its rural areas have not fared so well as those in Kennebec. Of its 21 incorporated towns, thirteen lost population between 1950 and 1970. Even one of the larger towns, Bingham, suffered loss, because of the closing of its principal industry. Bingham had 1,393 people in 1950, only 1,254 in 1970. Amazingly one Somerset town to lose population in those twenty years was its second largest, Fairfield, although – the loss was less than 200. In 1950 Fairfield had 5,811 people; in 1970 it had 5,684. Outside the smaller plantations like The Forks and West Forks, Somerset’s smallest town is Mercer, where the population had dropped steadily in recent years. In 1850 that town had 1186 people. A century later it had dropped to 348, and in 1970 was down to 313. In the middle of the 19th century one of Somerset’s most prominent towns was St. Albans which then boasted of 1860 inhabitants. A century later it had only 389, and by 1970 the number was down to 297, making it the smallest town in the whole county, with fewer people even than Mercer or Ripley. During the twenty years between 1950 and 1970 the town of Athens lost about a third of its population, sinking from 725 to 592. On the other hand, its neighbor, Cornville, gained sixty folks, from 563 to 623.
Other Somerset towns that lost during those twenty years were Jackman, from 964 to 848, Harmony from 709 to 650, Ripley from 389 to 299, Solon from 746 to 712, and Starks from 421 to 323. It will be interesting to see whether the 1980 census will show any revival in Starks because of its latest controversial involvement with a Chicago-based cult.

Now for the more pleasant look at the Somerset towns that gained population between 1950 and 1970. Percentagewise, Madison came out very well, with an increase of 17 percent from 3639 to 4278. The county’s largest town, Skowhegan, rose from 7422 to 7601. Pittsfield shot up from 3898 to 4274. Seven of Somerset’s smaller communities did very well. Smithfield showed a rise of 49 percent from 354 to 527. Detroit went from 492 to 663; Palmyra passed the thousand mark, going from 965 to 1104. Norridgewock, once the county seat and at one time the country’s largest town, did have a spurt between 1950 and 1970, growing from 1784 to 1964. Hartland gained about a hundred people, from 1310 to 1414.

During the century between 1850 and 1950 Somerset did not enjoy the same growth as Kennebec. In 1850 the whole county had 35,000 people. By 1900 the total had actually dropped to 33,000. Fifty years later it was up to 39,000, and the 1970 census showed all Somerset having 40,597 people. So, while there was no phenomenal gain, it did make significant population progress in the whole county.

By this time listeners to Little Talks well know that I have partiality to little towns in Western Maine, on the border of Cumberland and Oxford counties, the part of the state where I spent the first 18 years of my life. So I want to close this broadcast with population reference to some of those towns. My native town of Bridgton had 2760 people in 1850. It neither gained nor lost much during the subsequent century. Its total never quite reached 3000. In 1900 it was 2868. By 1950 it had reached only 2950, and it got only 17 more people in the next twenty years, reaching 2967 in 1970. A pretty
good, solid, stable town – at least that much can be said for it.

As for Bridgton’s surrounding towns, between 1950 and 1970, Fryeburg gained from 1726 to 2208. Denmark dropped from 447 to 397. Harrison picked up 19 people, from 1026 to 1045; Norway dropped from 3911 to 3595. and Hiram went down from 804 to 686. Brownfield suffered from the disastrous fire of 1947. Its population, once close to 1000, was down to 478 by 1970. On the other hand, Naples showed a good gain, from 747 to 956. One of the smallest towns in the area, Bridgton’s abutting neighbor, Sweden, lost people steadily during the century, the 1970 census showing it with only 116 people.

Of course, meanwhile the Portland and Brunswick areas of the county were growing although the City of Portland itself showed loss between 1950 and 1970. Anyhow, that’s all we have time for today, and we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1979