Radio Script #64
Little Talks On Common Things
April 16, 1950
On two previous programs we have mentioned the account book of an Augusta merchant, whose records began in 1802. We turn again to that old book tonight, for it reveals that in November, 1806 the merchant gave up his business of operating a general store and turned to the business of a sort of combination blacksmith and hardware dealer. After the autumn of 1806 the account book contains no more mention of·molasses and tea and rum, no more such items as thread and brimstone and forest cloth.
As a blacksmith our merchant seems to have had no uniform price for shoeing a horse. It may have depended on a number of things — the size of the shoes, whether all were new or some only reset, and how long the job took. At any rate in one instance he recorded, “shoeing horse all round, $1.67”; another record says, “Josiah Mitchell, to shoeing your horse, 67 cents”. Occasionally he records the rate in English money, as when he says, “Jonathan Ballard, to shoeing horse, 6 shillings, $1.00”; but to Simeon Paine on the same day the charge was, “to shoeing horse, 6/6, or $1.50”. On December 15, 1806 both James Bridge and Moses Pollard got their horses shod for 75 cents, but on the same day it cost Robert Waite $1.25.
Naturally the blacksmiths of 1806 shod a lot of oxen. What a priceless relic this fellow’s ox sling would be if it were still standing. On November 25th he charged James Bridge 21 shillings, or $3.50 for shoeing oxen. Two weeks later he charged Robert Hannaday $2.00 for shoeing his yoke, and for some unrecorded reason Samuel Page paid only $1. 00 for his. There are very few charges for shoeing oxen in any of the four years from 1806 to 1810 except during the month of November, just before the oxen went to work in the woods. It was then that the farmers got out the big pines that were floated down the Kennebec for many purposes of lumber, most notably masts for the ships that left the yards all the way from Hallowell to Bath.
Perhaps some of the older blacksmiths now living remember certain expressions which occur in this account book, but I confess many of them are entirely new to me. In one instance the blacksmith enters a charge for “upsetting” an axe, in another for “laying” an axe. We cannot get quite what he means by “forging 3 pallets for clock” or “upsetting a broad chisel”. Over and over again occurs the item “one shave, $1.17”. This puzzled me for a long time. OUr blacksmith had not turned barber. His price was too high for that, and in 1806 very few men were shaved by barbers, nor did it seem to mean a draw shave or shingle shave. Suddenly it occurred to me what he meant. His one shave was one shaft for a wagon.
Some of this old merchant-blacksmith’s charges are very interesting: “bracer for a sleigh, 50 cents; making 122 pounds of chain, $7.32; drawing a hook, 3 cents; bailing one large kittle, 67 cents; mending a plow share, $1.50; thimba11s for a whee1barrer, 15 cents; mending a bayonet, 50 cents; tongue for a bell, 25 cents; making a barking iron, $1.00.” How many of you know what a barking iron was? That’s one of the few old-time things I happen to know.
Now I’d like to see how many listeners can send in a letter or post card telling me what it was. Let me repeat the question. What was a barking iron? Our blacksmith charged fifty cents for forging two steel hammers, 20 cents for a holdback iron for a shay, 10 cents for a hoop for a tub, and 25 cents for “putting an eye to an auger”. I have often heard an axle called an ex, but I had never before seen it in writing. But this old book contains the charge, “Joseph Barton, to altering ex to your carriage, 50 cents”. Just as this man, when a storekeeper, went on errands to Vassalboro -you will recall that on one of those errands he charged 7 cents worth of wine to the expense account — so as a blacksmith he found time for other duties.
In October, 1808 he recorded, “to my fees as juryman at inquest on the body of James Springer, $1.50”. Perhaps he employed someone to take over his shop on such occasions, for on another date he writes, “Abia1 Pitts, credit by one day I s work in my shop, $1.25.” On the same day he recorded one of the book I S most unusual items: “Ephraim Ballard, to new steeling his compasses, 25 cents”. On November 5, 1807 he records: “Adam pitts begun to work for me at ten dollars per month, one half cash, the other in goods.” For some reason he paid Adam on the same day, but it was a meager amount, for the record reads: “Adam Pitts, to cash, 4 cents”. On November 15 he made a payment to Adam in goods, for the account then says: “Adam Pitts, to paid you in leather at James Childs, at cash price, $1.00”. On the 19th he charged Adam with a quarter pound of tobacco and one gallon of molasses, Whether from stock left over from the old store or purchased elsewhere he does not say. Perhaps his strangest combination of payment to Adam was on November 22, when he charged this helper 50 cents for towels and shoes. These surely were horse shoes.
Evidently Adam was trying to set up for himself, because in 1808 we find him charged with 4 sets of shoes and 3 sets of nails, with 10 horse shoes, with 30 pounds of iron, and with one heavy sledge. Then all mention of Adam pitts disappears from the record. He was evidently now out on his own. By the end of 1807 our blacksmith was owning real estate and renting it. Against Andrew Plummer he had a charge of nine month’s house rent at 15 shillings a month, a total of $22.50 for renting the house for three quarters of a year.
Somebody in the blacksmith I s family had the unusual name of Parthenia, for this same Andrew plummer is credited with 67 cents for making a pair of shoes for Parthenia. Since that was a low price, even for those days, Parthenia was probably a child. In the summer of 1808 our enterprising blacksmith was taking in boarders. The record reads: “Jacob Buffington, begun to board him on Saturday, the 6 of August at 12 shillings per week. John Dawson, began to board him on Monday, the 8 of August at 12 shillings per week.”
Apparently this blacksmith sometimes served as a deputy sheriff. In November, 1808 he entered a charge of $1.00 for “my fees on a writ of replevin of Elizabeth Finney on Thomas W. Smith”. On May 2, 1810 he charged Ephraim Dutton $2.38 “for fees on your writ on Savage Bolton by agreement”. The last item in that fat old account book reads as follows: “Capt. Samuel Smith of Belgrade, to 2 broad hoes, $2.00; credit by one bushel of corn, $1.00”.
Thus we come to the end of this amazing, first-hand historical record of Kennebec County 150 Years ago. In April, 1802 the writer of the old accounts started with Jonathan Ballard owing him 10 cents for one mug of cider. Eight years later he closed the book with Captain Smith of Belgrade turning in enough corn to pay for one broad hoe, but still owing for the second.
Indeed this book is an intimate, homey picture of old times in the Kennebec Valley a century and a half ago. We only wish we were able to do it better justice. Again our thanks to Burleigh NiChols of Fairfield Center for loaning us this remarkable and historically valuable book.
Now let us turn to a subj ect muCh more pertinent to our own times -the cost of our military defense. However much we detest war and yearn for lasting peace, most of us are not willing to see our country sold out to obnoxious un-American ways of life just because we fail to provide adequate defense. All but a few unrelenting pacifists believe that we ought to maintain a strong army, navy and air force. In all common sense we know that the maintenance of such a force costs a tremendous amount of money. What common sense doesn’t dictate, however, is that the brass hats of the military should have everything they ask for, unquestioned and unexamined.
It is high time the American people realized just what kind of national defense we get for every dollar the military brass hats expend. Now 14 billion dollars — the size of the present total appropriation to be spent in one year for the nation’s defense — is a tidy sum. Are you ready for a shock? Here it is. More dollars of those 14 billion are earmarked for non-military spending than for anything or any measure that gives us actual defense. For every two men in uniform the services employ one civilian. Of the men in uniform, only one in three is in a fighting unit. While 6 billion dollars are being s:r;:e.nt for planes, guns, tanks, ships, equipment, supplies and the pay and support of men in combat units, 8 billion will go for overhead and for things only remotely connected with keeping our country safe. Of course combat troops require supply and service troops and Civilian workers behind them. Everybody knows that. But to contend that 518,000 fighting men now in service require 968,000 additional servicemen and 841,000 civilian employees is open to serious question.
In 1941 before P.earl Harbor only one civilian for every four men in uniform was needed in the Army and Navy combined. At that time the total of men in the armed services was almost exactly the same as now, but the dollar outlay was less than half the present spending, although billions were going for stock-piling in preparation for expected war. Instead of 14 billion, the services then spent 6 2/3 billion. Those are the straight facts. From one civilian to four service men the year before the war we have come to one civilian to every two service men four years after the war. The great increase in military costs, presenting such a staggering burden to every taxpayer, is accounted for in no small measure by increased ~enditures that have no direct relation to our nation’s defense and security.
Whenever one raises his voice against this wasteful and needless spending, the gold braid in Washington ang-rilydenounces him as a pacifist. The generals and the admirals can do no wrong, or can they? We look to them to defend us from the dire threat of foreign attack, and we are willing to pay any reasonable bill to get it. But when we see those generals and admirals spending our money to pad the payrolls with superfluous personnel that add nothing to our defense, we have the ordinary citizen’s American right to protest.
Year: 1950