Radio Script #1225

Little Talks on Common Things
January 13, 1980

Sometimes the diaries kept by Maine persons a hundred or more years ago reveal interesting facts about the ways of life in those days, although the diarist may have been of little consequence, and the general contents of the diary may be of small interest of anyone except members of his family. A case in point is a diary I recently examined. It was kept by George F. Simpson of East Winthrop, and was begun on his birthday, October 8, 1872, and so far as this one preserved volume is concerned, ended on July 27, 1874. So when I mention any of its items, I am talking about a period just a little more than a hundred years ago.

This diarist tells us that he bought the 8 x 7 inch note book, bound in calf leather at the bookstore of Horace Nott in Augusta, and paid for it $1.15, quite a price for a blank book in which to keep a diary in those long ago days.

The first entry says: “I am 19 years old today. It seems but yesterday when I was a small boy, and I today am six feet in my boots. This year of my life I commence keeping a journal, a daily record of my life.”

Simpson’s father operated at his home a small cobbler’s shop in which this 19 year old worked part of the time – not regularly but a few hours a day now and then for wages that appear to have been 10 cents an hour. The lad’s own habits seems to have been irregular. At a time when many people got up with the sun, he recorded: “Slept until 8 o’clock.” Frequently on Sunday he said he did not get up until 10 o’clock, and sometimes not until noon. Simpson did not neglect religious duties on Sunday. Then at his family’s East Winthrop church, there were three sermons and Sunday School on every Sabbath. He usually missed the morning service, but did frequently make it to Sunday School in early afternoon, the mid-afternoon preaching and the evening prayer meeting. Sometimes there was church away from home. On March 10, 1872, he wrote: “The three Case girls and I attended church at East Readfield this afternoon. The sermon was very dry.”

Simpson’s family seem to have been Baptists, and he himself attended that church but he also had a leaning toward an important sect in that area, the Quakers. “Nov 28, 1872 – attended Friends’ Quarterly Meeting at West Gardiner.” “Sept. 5, 1873 – Friends’ General Meeting at Baleyville. Three thousand people on the grounds.”

As late as the 1870’s there were many Maine churches in which the pews were privately owned. What I had not realized was how the pews were cared for. Note what the Simpson diary reveals. “April 14, 1874 – Went to the Meetinghouse and took up the carpet in our pew. Sent carpet, cushions and footstool home to be cleaned.”

On this program I have pointed out that boys attended the one-room rural schools until they were 21 years old. In that winter after his 19th birthday, George Simpson attended such a school. “Dec. 2, 1872 – commenced attending school today. It is taught by Mr. King. Thomas Jackson is my seatmate. He, Hattie Perkins and I are all that are left of last winter’s scholars.”

Note that Simpson said “last winter’s.” While there were short terms of school in other seasons of the year, few elder boys attended them. Most boys over 12 had work to do on the home farm or in the home shop during spring, summer and fall, and were allowed to attend school only in the winter. Even in that 1872-73 winter term, Simpson did not attend every day. He records frequent absences to work in the home shoe shop or for some other reason. At school he was not always attentive to the teacher. “Jan. 13, 1873 – Attended school, but read ‘Woman in White’ instead of studying.”

What seems to have distinguished George Simpson from many of his local contemporaries was that he was an inveterate reader, and an ardent patron of the Winthrop Library. Out of the library during the winter of 1872-73 he took “Jane Eyre,” “Haverly,” “Ivanhoe,” “Pickwick Papers, ” and “Vicar of Wakefield,” as well as many romances of that time that have long since been forgotten. George also subscribed to the Boston Journal and Frank Leslie’s Weekly.

George Simpson provides us with an example of how little education was demanded of a teacher in the one-room school. A friend had suggested that George accompany him for a term at Kents Hill, but George declined. The diary affords no evidence that he had any education beyond the common, one-room school. Yet on September 28, 1893, shortly before his 20th birthday, he wrote in the diary: “Mary Roberts called to speak to me about my applying to teach the school at Manchester. She said I could get it.”

George took that advice, and on November 28 he wrote:. “I intended to get my certificate for teaching today, but Superintendent Warren Hawkes could not examine me.” On the next day George was examined by Hawkes as he says: “Passed a good examination. The marking is from 1 to 5. A mark of 1 is excellent, :2 is good, 3 is passable. 4 is poor and 5 is very poor. I got 1 in orthography (spelling) and elocution; 2 in geography, arithmetic and grammar, 3 in History.”

This tells us that no specific education seems to have been required although I suspect by 1872 an applicant would have been expected to have finished all that was taught in the common schools. If what required was passing examination by the school superintendent or the district school committee. Those examinations could be exacting or lenient, according to the attitude of the examiners.

In 1883, my mother, just graduated from high school, took an examination to teach in a one-room schoolhouse in the town of Poland. Her examination was by all three members of the District Committee. Examining in history, one member asked her, “Where was Benedict Arnold buried.”· She admitted that she did not know, but she felt better when the examiner said, “Neither do I.” Anyhow, like George Simpson the diarist, she passed with flying colors, took charge of the school, and had as one of her pupils a boy who became Governor of Maine, Bert Fernald.

Despite the fact that the winter of 1872-73 was unusually severe, George had his school open every school day except one. On one occasion only 4 boys of the 26 pupils shmved up, and George excused the school. But, for the most part, his pupils attended faithfully, although there were no school busses in those days and some had to walk two miles from home.

Recreation, as not lacking in the 1870s, George had taken music lessons and was able to play organ or melodeon by the time he started the diary. At that time almost every Maine town had a brass band. Some of them were small and rather crude, but Winthrop organized one in 1872 that compared favorably with the best.

George Simpson decided to join it and bought an E flat alto horn. After that, diary items about the band were frequent. “Have practiced on my brass instrument, but don’t make much progress.” “Band met in new hall over Davis’ blacksmith shop.” “Walked to the village for band meeting,” “Took my horn and went to Horatio Perkins’ shop and practiced with him.” Band practiced marching up by the depot.” “Band invited to play on excursion to Squirrel Island. All given free chowder.”

In July 1973, George met with a musical mishap. This is how he tells about it: “Band meeting. Lost my horn out of a wagon on my way home. Walked back, trying to find it, but had to go home without it.” The next day was the 4th of July but instead of celebrating, George went in search of his horn. He wrote: “There was a camp of Indian basketmakers at the foot of Woodcock Hill. They had picked up my horn on the hill that morning. I was glad to get the instrument back, and I gave them a dollar.”

The diary gives an account of a wedding a century ago. “July 8, 1873 – Tom Jackson married Ella Parlin this evening. Tom was dressed in black broadcloth. Ella in blue silk. Clifton Parlin and Louise Eaton stood up with them. Louise wore white. They received their presents: Tom a smoking chair, Ella a silver cake basket, half a dozen forks, some assorted spoons, a silver salt cellar, a glass pitcher, and a water pail. The band furnished music. About 10 p.m. there was a bountiful supper.”

George had other amusements besides the band and attending weddings. I hope some listener can tell me just how one game that George mentions was played. This is the diary entry: “About a dozen of us fellows played an old-fashioned game of ‘Bag-o-meal-yak’ at Mr. Jackson’s this evening.”

George attended frequent musical gatherings in Winthrop Village called levees, at which there was a regular program, and he speaks of sociables at churches where parlor games were played, including the inevitable charades. The diary gives us a hint of sartorial matters a hundred years ago. Usually George observed the ritual of the Saturday night bath, taken in a tub in the kitchen in those pre-bathroom days. But on at least two Sundays he wrote: “After breakfast I took a bath.” There was no such need in the summer, for George says that at every opportunity he went bathing in the pond. By the time George started the diary he had need of a few shaves. “June 6. 1873 – went to Augusta. Got haircut and shave and had my moustache colored.” “Walked to the village. Got shave. haircut and whiskers colored.”

The dairy gives us some information about the nature and cost of clothing in the 1870s. “October 17. 1872 – Father gave me $10 for clothes. At James Leighton’s store in Augusta I got three sets of flannels, shirts and drawers for $4, and three yards of cloth for a pair of pants for $6.” “June 1, 1874, got cloth for new suit of clothes in Augusta. Paid $7 a yard for the cloth. Mr. Lord is going to cut the suit. I bought a pair of outside shirts for 75 cents each.” As for footwear, by the time he was twenty, despite his father’s shop, George was buying some of it ready-made. Here are a few of his references to it. “Resoled my own calf boots.” “Bought a pair of dancing shoes in Augusta.”

Strangely, this 20 year old seems to have had no interest in any particular girl. He played the field taking different girls to social events. His chief companions were men of his own age, especially the three Jackson brothers, Tom, Charles and Fred. The most frequently repeated statement in the diary is “Spent the day at Jackson’s.”

There are just two references to crime in Winthrop during those two years. On October 27,.1873, Mrs. White’s store was broken into and some money taken. A dew days later Freeman Carr was arrested, and Simpson attended the trial in Augusta. The diary says: “Carr was found guilty, but he appealed and was held on $100 bond. In his superior court trial Carr was found guilty, but got off by payment of $10 and costs.” Nothing was said whether Mrs. White recovered any of the stolen money.

The other case was the sad account of an attempted crime. Early entries of the diary refer to Simpson’s calls on Mary Parker, a young widow with three children. Then in the winter of 1873-74 Mrs. Parker was found to have attempted to kill her children, was declared insane, and committed to the asylum in Augusta.

Not very important, by no means a significant document – the diary of George Simpson of East Winthrop – but it does tell us something about life in Maine a century ago.

Year: 1980