Radio Script #1320

Little Talks on Common Things
September 26, 1982

Several times this program has mentioned the prominent Redington Family of Waterville. Today I want to give you some more information about that family which did so much for Waterville and the State of Maine.

Asa Redington was born in Boxford, Massachusetts on December 22, 1761. He was thus only 13 years old when the first shots of the Revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord on what Longfellow called the “19th of April in ’75”

Three years later, a few months short of the 17th birthday, Asa enlisted in a New Hampshire regiment of the Continental Army. By repeated enlistments he served throughout the rest of the war, his honorable discharge coming several months after Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown in 1781. He was a member of the honor guard when Gen. Washington’s personal effects were moved to Mr. Vernon, a fact testified to by a plaque containing the names of all the members of that guard, now preserved in Waterville’s Redington museum.

Why Asa Redington and his brother Thomas should come to what was then the sparsely inhabited area of the Kennebec Valley, is not clear. But in 1784 the two brothers did arrive in Vassalboro and went to work for the enterprising trader and lumber dealer, Nehemiah Getchell. In 1787 Asa married Getchell’s daughter Mary. For five years they remained in Vassalboro, where Asa developed his own farm and entered into partnership with his father-in-law in several enterprises. He also learned to be a surveyor, and he laid out several settlers’ lots in the area.

Meanwhile both Getchell and Redington became interested in the prospective water power of Ticonic Falls, where as yet no dam had been built. In 1792 the two men were joined by Waterville interests to harness that power. It was the plan of Getchell and Redington to build the first dam across the Kennebec at that point. Mills had already been built on the Kennebec tributaries the Messalonskee and the Sebasticook, but the main river was too swift and uncertain to have power mills until a dam could channel the stream as needed.

That dam made possible the mills and shipyards that made Waterville a prosperous community. Just below the falls on the Waterville side Redington erected a grist mill, a shipyard and a spacious residence and became a leading manufacturer and investor in the region. The Getchell-Redington partnership continued until 1799, after which Asa developed various lines of business in association with one or more of his sons. As late as 1831 he extended his already strong interest in Ticonic Falls by buying from the Dalton family their power site next above his own. That site later became the property of the Central Maine Power Company.

For many years Asa Redington was notary public and justice of the peace; and he served the town as selectman and in other offices. He died in 1845 at the age of 83. His burial brings up an interesting fact. He was buried in the old cemetery on Elm Street that is now Monument Park. Six years after his death, the town opened what is still its largest cemetery on Grove Street. During the next ten years bodies were gradually removed from the old to the new cemetery. But not all of them. One that was left was that of Asa Redington. Like Shakespeare, Asa had placed a curse on anyone that disturbed his grave.

Today the tallest monument in Pine Grove Cemetery is a memorial to Asa Redington. The inscription does not say, “Here lies Asa Redington,” but rather “In memory of Asa Redington.”

Asa and Mary Redington had nine children. About the oldest, Asa. Jr., little is known, but the second son, William became a leading resident of Augusta and when that town became a city, he was its first mayor. William Redington became interested in real estate development in Florida and was the founder of the town of Magnolia on Florida’s St. John River. Asa’s third son. Silas. became a prominent local merchant and lumber trader. He built a home on Redington Street, which was later the residence of Waterville’s last remaining Redingtons. The fourth son. Samuel. was in partnership with his father in a number of enterprises. When he married, his father built for him and his bride the colonial house on Silver Street that is now the museum of the Waterville Historical Society.

Those four sons were the first of the Redington children. They were followed by two daughters, Harriet and Mary. Mary married a local merchant, Elah Esty. Then came their fifth son, Isaac, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Waterville’s wealthiest citizen, Nathaniel Gilman. The ninth and youngest child was Emily, who married Solyman Heath, and they were the parents of two brothers who recruited Waterville’s first company in the Civil War. A daughter Emily Redington Heath married Dr. Aaron Plaisted. Thus were linked four of the town’s most prominent families: Redington, Plaisted, Appleton and Heath, for Dr. Plaisted’s mother was a daughter of Waterville’s renowned early physician, Moses Appleton.

A third generation Emily, Emily Redington Plaisted, married Dr. Luther Bunker. Their daughter, Miss Hope Bunker, came into possession of many valuable papers connected with early Waterville. The most important of these papers Miss Bunker has placed for permanent preservation in the Redington Museem. Among these are the account books of Dr. Moses Appleton. which reveal not only information about early medicine, but give
a lot of facts about pioneer days in Central Maine.

Of Asa’s six sons, the one who was most intimately connected with local interests was Samuel Redington, born in 1803. He was the first member of the family to attend college. entering what is now Colby in 1823. and graduating as valedictorian of a class of 14 men in 1827. He studied law in the office of Timothy Boutelle and was admitted to the Maine bar. In 1840 he was elected to the State Senate. He died in 1895 at the age of 92.

It was Charles, son of Samuel Redington, who established the family in the furniture and funeral business. He was the family’s first undertaker, and it was he who built the Redington block on Silver Street. Charles was born in 1830 while his grandfather was still living. In 1896 he was elected Mayor of Waterville. His brother Frank was President of the Board of Trade, predecessor of the present Chamber of Commerce. He was a director of the Waterville Trust Co. and of the W.W. &F. narrow gauge railroad. He married Carrie, daughter of Hon. M. C. Foster, and they made their home on Park Place.

They were indeed a prolific and prosperous family – those Redingtons. Their descendants still live in Waterville, but none by the name of Redington. But the name is not forgotten. We are constantly reminded of it by the Redington Museum, Redington Street and the Redington Funeral Home.

Year: 1982