Radio Script #1129

Little Talks On Common Things
June 5, 1977

[podcast]http://web.colby.edu/scimport/files/2011/05/LT1129.mp3[/podcast]

Not all Kennebec floods have been in early spring or during prolonged winter thaws. The Pumpkin Freshet of 1879 came in October, and within the memory of many of our present citizens, the big flood of 1923 came in May. In that year, after several days of hard rain, all, Maine rivers went on rampage. On the Kennebec alone the damage exceeded a million dollars. On the Sebasticook water ran over the surface of the railroad bridge in Winslow and inundated all of Lithgow Street. The flood put 10,000 people out of work in the Kennebec Valley.

On May 8 the’ Waterville Sentinel said:

“The raging torrents on Maine rivers continue ‘to hammer viciously at the dams and bridges, and many are being swept away. Damage a week ago, set at a million dollars, is now estimated at three million. All the industries from North Anson to Bath are at a standstill. At 11:00 p.m. last night the wat’er was still rising.”

“At Bangor the Penobscot reached its highest pitch in thirty years. Stores and warehouses all along Kenduskeag Stream have been flooded and power stations at Milford and Veazie are shut down.”

“This flood has already equalled the great freshet of 1901. water is still rising on both the Sebasticook and Kennebec. It’has been two days since any train has passed over the tracks between Augusta and Waterville, but the line from Lewiston to Waterville is still open.”

“Conditions are worst in Winslow. ~e highway between there and Augusta is impassable. and people have been moved out of their homes on Lithgow Street.”

“The effect was nearly as bad across the river in Waterville. All industries along the river were closed, including the Lockwood Mills and the Waterville Iron Works, as well as the Hollingsworth Millon the Winslow side. Families had been evacuated from the Head of the Falls. High water put out of commission the entire p,lant of the Kennebec Gas Company, denying that fuel to homes that use it for cooking ranges and heating equipment. “

“During the last’ 24 hours, crowds have gathered at the bank of the Kennebec watching the raging waters. ‘ There is fear that both Ticonic Dam and Ticonic Bridge will be swept away. Pulpwood, logs, and all sorts of debris fill the river, piling up at pie.rs and bridges. Water was tearing out earth back of the railroad abutment.”

“Boats and canoes are evident allover Winslow Bay at Lithgow Street, and at Bassett’s Corner. :Automobiles were using the Maine Central railbed on, somewhat higher ground.”

“Fortunately there has been no great damage on Messalonskee Stream. Buildings on Cool Street are surrounded by water and low places on the County Road (the present North Street) are overflowed.”

“At Fairfield, water was flowing over the bridge at the Benton end and has submerged most of Bunker ,Island. Water covered the tracks of the Shawmut streetcar lines, and the “Newhall sawmill was awash.”

The Sentinel itself was hard hit by the, flood. The linotype machines, in need of constant feeding’with molten metal heated by gas, were stopped by the’ closing of the gas plant. The presses also became unreliable. Several early May editions were gotten out with great difficulty. One Sentinel editorial lamented the failure of the Legislature to pass a bill calling for a storage reservoir on the Kennebec. It said,

“Most of the present flood is coming from the Dead and Sandy rivers. A new storage basi’n would have held most’of the water that is now doing damage. Yesterday five local industries were not turning a wheel. They employ 4,000 workers Who will now lose several days’ wages. With proper up-river storage, that loss could have been avoided. Passage of a reservoir bill would have saved at least a million dollars,”

On May 9, the issue of the Kennebec Journal was devoted largely to the. flood, although the waters had begun to subside. The Journal’s headline said:

“Floods are slowly receding. Losses will exceed three million. Highest water in quarter of a century closing scores of industries on Maine rivers. Tens of thousands thrown out of work.”

Two photos on the front page showed water overflowing the state highway at Bassett’s . Corner in Winslow and lapping the rails of the railroad bridge over the Sebasticook. The Journal made it clear that the flood was statewide. The Aroostook River had reached the highest pitch ever recorded. In Fort Fairfield the main street was under water to a depth of three feet. All traffic on the Canadian PacifiC RR through Northern Maine was halted. At Houlton a sawmill crumpled under pressure of the water. Bangor and Aroostook railroad tracks were under water for several miles ~t a stretch, but trains, after suspension of several days,’had begun to run very slowly through the deluge. Service was delayed for hours.

At Howland, the Penobscot River cut a channel around the dam, washing out tons of earth. In Orono the International Paper Co. lost its bridge and pipeline.

In Washington County. the Machias River was on rampage. All the bridges in Whiting were carried away, and the main highway bridge at Cherryfield was out.

The flood had affected not only traffic and power, but also the telephone service. Water entered the cable line and more than 150 phone lines were out of order in the Waterville area alone.

One photo that seems unusual to us today was the Kennebec Journal’s shot of an open touring car of 1922 vintage stalled near the Sebasticook bridge in Winslow.

That flood of 1923 was the biggest freshet between that of 1901 and the record-breaking flood of 1936 about which we told the full story long ago on this program.

In that issue of the Waterville Sentinel that told about the height Qf the 1923 flood appeared an ad put in by a Waterville man who later became Governor of Maine. The heading of the ad was “Headaches,” and it said:

“This information on headaches comes from a nationally known chiropractor, Dr. H. E. Vedder. Every person who suffers from headaches should have his spine so aligned that disease cannot persist even though temporarily dormant. If segments of the spine are placed in normal position, permitting free expression of inate intelligence to the bodily organs, the headaches will cease. Clinton A. Clauson, Chiropractor, 50 Main Street, Waterville. Office hours, 9-12, 7-8. Consultation free.”

Now let us have a bit about butter. When I became a full-time Waterville resident in 1923, many people had a butter man, a farmer who delivered to your door once a week butter churned on his own farm. Twenty years earlier, when I was a boy working in my father’s store in a mill village in Western Maine, we sold many more pounds of that kind of farm butter than we did factory butter made at the local creamery, and we never imported any butter from out of town at all. Farmer’s wives were proud of their individual butter molds, some carrying the family initials, others with floral designs. In 1910 oleomar~rine was just beginning to come in, a white, uncolored substance that looked so much like lard few women would use it.

It was therefore interesting to see recently an old playbill for a melodrama called “The Dairyman I s Girl” written in 1900 by Wells and Richardson of Burlington, Vermont. It gave instructions for making what is called gilt-edge butter.

“Start,” it said, “with the best cows yielding milk rich in butter fat. See that, in summer, these cows have the best possible pasturage with plenty of water and access to huge chunks of mineral salt which they can lap as they feel the need. In winter, f~ed them early:-cut hay, well-cured corn fodder, and root vegetables, with an occasional ration of meal. As for milking, do it quietly at regular times. Have a clean, well-equipped dairy room, and use plenty of ice in warm weather. Milk in pans should be kept as near 60 degrees as possible. S~im the cream carefully before it sours. Cover the cream jars with thin gauze; never seal them tight, let the cream ferment. Do your churning often. Churn early in the morning when it is cool. Turn the paddle with an easy, regular motion. Churning too fast or too siow gets bad results. You should get butter in about 40 minutes. Then be sure to use our Wells and Richardson Instant Butter Color to give your butter a handsome tint.”

That Wells and Richardson pamphlet also had information about different breeds of cattle. It disclosed that Jerseys were the best butter makers, producing as ~ch as twenty pounds a week. For the best cheese the pamphlet advised the Ayrshire which it said had been originally bred in the Robert Burns section of Scotland. For production of milk alone the pamphlet praised the Holstein, which was also a fine producer of beef. Holstein veal calves, it said, were likely to weigh more than Jer$eys or Ayrshires.

“If butter is your object,”said the pamphlet, “avoid Herefords. In spite of their large size they are not good butter producers. They do, however,. make good beef.”

Praise was given to a breed then not common in New England, the Poled Angus, a very good breed for beef. Also the Shorthorn had been found a milk producer competing favorably with the Holste~n. Breeds pictured in the pamphlet that are seldom seen today were the Devon and the Suffolk.

Now we have time for just one more subject, so let it be the old time subject of vegetable dyes. used at home to color cloth.

Do any of my listeners remember Diamond Dyes used 75 years ago in many a farm and village home? They came in small envelopes which in our village store ,\ we kept in an ornate cabinet with a cubby hole for each color, and those colors represented many combinations of the spectrum. I recall that the largest sales were of blue, red and purple. They sold for ten cents an envelope. They ,were used to color dresses, coats,’ ya”I:ns, carpet bags, ribbons and feathers. The Diamond people insisted they were fast colors that would not come out when the garments were later washed. What the ads did not say is that it took a skillful woman, using just the right quantity of dye and the right temperature of water to get the best results. ‘

And with that bow to a household task that ha’s long since passed, we say goodbye until next week.