Radio Script #107
Little Talks On Common Things
May 6, 1951
Wherever we see the ugly hand of corruption and political influence at work, this program will continue to make a loud protest. Our government is so big and so confusing, at this mid-point in the 20th century, so bound up with red tape, so crowded wi th bureaucrats just getting in each other’s way, that we can’t II afford to add the obnoxious five-percenters and the givers of fur coats and deep freezers to what Is al ready bad enough.
The revelations of what has been going on in just one state — Mississippi -make us wonder what Is happening in the other 41 states. Before the Congressional( committee) witnesses testified that party contributions were not only necessary to get a job, but that there were standard price-tags on various jobs. To become an RFD mail carrier cost S150; to get into the revenue office cost $ l,OOO. One witness told the committee he has been a chump about an <PS Jeb. He said he contributed $600 to get it then found out the particular job wasn’t going to exist.
A small town businessman testified that he paid $300, then stopped payment on the check. He related a talk with a member of the state party committee. The committeeman told him that rationing was just around the corner, and that the committee was looking for someone to set up as comty supervisor. A donation of $300 wQuhf be appreciated.
One memer of the Senate investigating group questioned a woman menDer of the state party committee in Mississippi. This was one of his questions~ “Did you. understand, when you recommended a person who gave you a requested contribution, that the federal agenc.y would appoint that person to the job?” “Ofcourse”, she replied, “that was the whole idea”.
It Is a sorry situation indeed when there Is a price list placed on government jobs. I wonder if I am alone in believing the time has come for a whole ethical tone-up, a complete moral revival in our national life.
In the more than one hundred broa,dcasts on this program, I don’t recall that we have ever mentioned the Kennebec Valley fire fighters. So let’s get in a few words tonight about the Waterville Fire Department.
Between the building of Fort Halifax In 1754 and the organization of the first fire company in 1809, the community springing up on both sides of the river must have seen a lot of fires. Everything was then built of wood, and the lumber mt lis along the river bank added to the plies of easi Iy combustible material.
Perhaps, hidden away In Waterville and Winslow attics are accounts of early fires.
Can anyone dig up an authentic record of fl re in Watervi lie or Wins low previous to 18091 I t was I n that yea r that the first fire department was established on the west side of the river. Elnathan Sherwin, James Wood, Moses Dalton, Asa Redington, and Eleazer Ripley were elected fire wardens. Those were the days of bucket brigades, when the only way a fire could be fought in this locality was by passing a long a line of buckets filled from some reservoir stream, or sometimes from the river.
Just when the first hand-pump engine was installed here is not clear. All that we know is that Abijah Smith, Nehemiah Getchell, James StackpoIe and Timothy Boutelle were members of the fire company at the time. If, as we suspect, it is the younger, not the older, James Stackpole who is meant, the first of those four to die was AbIjah Smith in 1841. All I can say about it tonight is that, some time between 1809 and 1841 Waterville bought a fire engine, which was simply a big tub into which water was poured from palls, and was pumped out by an ordinary single handled old-fashioned pump, through a very short and very leaky hose. That original piece of fire fighting apparatus In Waterville was called the “Bloomer”. Actually the old Bloomer was probably in operation before 1836, for in that year begin “the first records of the Waterville Fire Departnent which are still preserved. Whether it was called Engine Company No 1 of the Ticonic Village Corporation quite so early as 1836 is not entirely clear, but that was the name It certainly had before 1850.
Some time about 1854, Engine Company No.3 was organized. It secured a first-class Button hand engine, which on July 4,1854 began a long career as champion stream thrower among all the engines entered In those fiercely fought contests among the old engine companies. On that fourth of July In 1854, just a hundred years after the building of Fort HaIifax, No. 3’s crew brought home from Augusta a handsone silver trumpet as the winner’s prize. Five years later the engi ne set a state record of 212 feet, 9 inches. That fine 0ld hand-engine stayed in Waterville until 1891, when she was sold to an organization in Newton, Mass, and was rechristened the ”Nonantum”. Under the new name the old pumper surpassed even her Maine records. In a muster held in Providence in 1892 she p layeda stream of 250 feet, 7 inches.
No.1 and No.3 were therefore the fl rst fl re companies in Watervi lie. No.2 Joined them,.:i.n 1878. It was located at the south end of the city. Unfortunately early records of any engine, if at first they had any, are not preserved, but we do find a record that No.2 company sold a hand-tub engine to parties in Bath for the sum of $75 in 1889.
What a pity that Yankee frugality dictated the sale of most of these 0ld engines. What a pity that Tlconlc No.1 could not still be seen in Waterville, among other precious relics of the city. One must go to Ellsworth to see that 0ld engine, for it was sold to that Hancock County town in 1888.
Waterville’s first steam fire engine was purchased in 1884. A prime mover in the project to get it, as he was a promoter of so many worthy public projects, was Dr. F. C. Thayer. In fact the company was named for him, and the F. C. Thayer Fire Engine Canpany laid Its hand-tub aside. It was not long before the last of the hand apparatus left the €ity for good.
I have previously mentioned the old reservoirs scattered about the city, some of which are said to be still capable) of use. Before his death Gene Crawford had made a very carefu I mapping of those reservoirs, the best known of which is near the present War Memorial in Castonguay Square. We are told that 22 of those old reservoirs were In use as late as 1887, when a municipal water supply was fi rst brought In from the Messalonskee Stream. It was that year of 1887 that saw the installation of 50 hydrants on Waterville streets.
As late as 1880 some of the clumsy, 0ld leather hose was still Iin use. The record shows that in that year the town owned 1,300 feet of leather hose, 1,000 feet of rubber-lined linen hose, and 1,100 feet of rubber-lined cotton hose.
There seems to have been little party politics in the FI re Department unti I 1888, when WaterY’ lIe became a city. The new charter called for the annual electlooof a chief engineer and two assistants. If the party in control changed at the spring election, the employed drivers had to get out, and the personnel of each company from top .TO bottom was reorgan t zed. What happened was the contemporary existence of two sets of firemen, who served according to their political aftUlations. Not unti I 1907 was the charter amended. Since that date a Watervi lIe fireman, when once chosen, may serve unti I he wishes to withdraw, or has preferred charges proved against him. As a result the efficiency of our fire canpanies was greatly improved. More and more as men came to be chosen to fl II company vacancies, just two questions were asked: “Wi II this man respond promptly to every fl re call?”, and ”Wi II he stay on the job unti I it is finished?” MoST of this information has been provided me by Ralph Gi Iman, present chiefeng! neer of the Watervi lie Fi re Department.
Now I am sure sane of our listeners can tum up a lot more information. Among the things we hope still to mention some evening are a few of Watervi tJe’s spectacular fires. In Dr. Whittemore’s Centennial History appear these two short sentences: “The great fl re of 1849 swept the business section of the town, about the wharves and mi lis. The Moors were the heaviest losers. fI We hope to learn and pass on to you a lot more about that fire of 1849. Another great mi II fire occurred in 1859, when mi lis and machinery were destroyed in three plants — those of Daniel Moor, W. and W. Getche I I, and Furbush and Drummond.00 any of you remember Waterville’s part in the famous Bangor fire of 1911?
It came near the end of my sophomore year in college I and I was one of the Colby students who managed to hitch a ride to Bangor on the train that took the Waterville apparatus to the big fire. Not until after 1900 did Waterville own any fire horses. As early as 1885 two hired horses had been placed in the old fire station on Main Street, and in 1886 the first swing harness was installed. Those fine old grays that some of us so much admired, they and their successors passed out of the picture in 1927, when the department became completely motorized.
I’m sure a lot of my listeners don ‘t want th is subject abandoned here. So beg of you, give me all the information you can about 0ld fire companies, 0ld hand tubs, old steam fire engines, old fire horses, spectacular fires — anything that pertains to fire fighting In Waterville and vicinity.
Through the kindness of Dr. O’Hara, Dean of the Tufts College Medical School, have just seen an old folder entitled “Trolleying through the Heart of Maine”.
Its cover carries a picture of one of those old, open, summer-time trolley cars with seats clear across the car. Over the trolley is the design of a heart showing that part of Maine from Old Orchard to Watervi lie, and as far west as Mechanic Falls and Turner. The inside spread is a picture map of the entire area, showing the railroads, steamship routes and the interurban trolley I ines. The folder is not dated, but It was printed before the construction of the interurban trolley line between Portland and lewiston. It does show the once familiar trolley lines all around the ifllllBdiate vicinity of Portland, and the Interurban lines from Portland to Old Orchard and Biddeford; to Westbrook, Gorham and South Windham; to Yarmouth, Freeport, Brunswick and Bath; between Brunswick and Lewiston; fran lewiston to Sabbatus, Tacoma Lake, Gardiner, Augusta and WatervIlle; fran LewIston to Mechanic Falls and Turner; and from Augusta to’ Is land Park and Winthrop.
The rest of the folder Is giwn up to descriptloos of trips, routes and fares. On the Lewiston, Augusta an:d Waterville line the complete round trip fare was $2.00 and the total round trip running time was seven hours. The round trip fare fran Usbon Falls to Bath was 70 cents; from Lewistoo to Medlanlc Falls It was 40 cents, and to Turner 50 cents.
But the folder’s feature announcement conoerns the Triangle Trolley Trip. The announcement reads: “This Is one of the most delightful trips In Maine. Starting from any point on the L.A. and W. Street Railway between Bath and Lewiston, you take the trolley vi a Tacoma Lakes and Spears Comer to Gardiner. From Waterville the trip Is via Winslow and Augusta to Gardiner. At Gardiner you leave the trof ley and, take the Eastern Steamship Company’s steamer, leaving Gardiner at 3:45 P.M. for the sail down the Kennebec River to Bath, stopping at Q:idar Grove and Richmond en route. You arrive at Bath at 6:00 P.M. in time to connect with :” ( ..
the trolley leaving for Brunswick and Lewiston at 6:30. The most enJoyable way to make this trip from points west of Tacoma is to leave your hane In the forenoon and trolley to Tacoma,spendl ng the time until noon In boating and other p feasures and having a fine dinner at Tacoma Inn, then taking the trolley after dinner for Gardiner. To make the day even more complete, after arrival at Bath, one may trolley to New Meadows, haw supper at the Inn, and trolley hane In the evening.”
Complete fare for that triangle trip, Including both trolley and boat tickets, was one dollar.
People got a lot of pleasure for a little money in the old trolley car days.
Year: 1951