Radio Script #230
Little Talks On Common Things
June 6, 1954
As we look back on the developments of the past century since 1850 we are aware that we owe much to the inventive genius of Thomas Edison. This year of 1954 is called the Diamond Jubi lee of Light, because it was in 1879 that electri c 11 ghti ng was first offered for pub Ii c sa Ie.
As he approached the end of his life, Edison said to an interviewer: III’ve been an inventor for over 35 years, and my experience is that for every problem the Lord has made for me, he has a Iso made a sol uti on. I f you and I can ‘t find the so I uti on, why blame it on the Lord and say he created someth ing i mpossi b Ie? I be I ieve that the Lord just doesn’t create prob lems that have no sol utions.”
That is something worth remembering in this day when so many puzzling problems beset us as individuals and as groups. Think of the gigantic problem of our relations with Russia. Can two such opposing nations continue to inhabit the same sma II earth? Can democracy and communi sm live together on the same planet? Is peace ever possible without the annlhi lation of one form of government or of the other? It is a tremendous question, and we do not know the answer.
But let us take heart from the man who exposed so many of the secrets of electricity, Thomas Edison, who believed with all his heart that for every problem the patience and ingenuity of man can find a solution.
Webster Chester of Burleigh Street, professor-emeritus of biology at Colby, has a cous i n who ish i star i an of the Bapti st Church at Noank, Connect i cut. That man has made a di scovery of interest to Watervi I Ie peop Ie and to a II Co Iby graduates.
He has found that a s loap named the “He ro II was one of four famous packet sloops out of Mystic River ports in the first quarter of the 19th century. When the Russian explorers and whalers penetrated into the Antarctic in 1808, they were amazed to find there before them the sloop Hero in command of Captain Palmer of Noank, Connecti cut. I n fact on that voyage the captai n of the Hero gave to an area of the Antarctic continent the name “Palmer’s land”.
The Hero took adventurous part in the War of 1812. When a British fleet blockaded Long Island Sound, a number of sloops on the Mystic were turned into blockade-running privateers. One such, the Fox, was captured by the British, whereupon the Hero was fitted out to search dam the enemy. Off Block Island the Hero encountered the Fox in charge of a British prize crew. Hand-to-hand conflict on the Fox’s deck ended in victory for the Yankees, and proudly the Hero brought the recaptured Fox back I nto the Mystl c.
Now · .. here Is the point of interest to us In Waterville. The Noank church hi stori an assures us that the marl ti me regl stry covert ng the years 1800 to 1825 lists just one sloop named Hero. So the sloop that surprised the Russian whalers away down in the Antarcti c and that recaptured the Fox I n the War of 1812 must have been the very boat in which Jeremiah Chaplin, Colby’s first president, came to the Kennebec In 1818.
When I served as a menDer of Watervl lie’s Board of Educati on, about twenty years ago, one of my colleagues was a man for whom I came to have great respect and fond affection. He is Clarence Davis, who served Kennebec County for several years as one of her commissioners. Mr. Davis has let me examine a number of very old papers in his possession — papers which cast much light on events and ways of the long ago.
JUst see how much one of the oldest of these papers reveals. It is a writ signed by a Justice of the Peace at HaIIOtlel’, Joseph North, on Apri I 13, 1786.
It is addressed to the Sheriff of the County of Lincoln, and says: “In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts you are requi red to attach the goods or estate of Thomas Rand of a place called Hunt’s Meadow not in any town, but in the county of Lincoln, to the value of 60 shill ings, and for want thereof to take his body and keep him safely, so that he may be had before me at my dwelling house in Hallowell on Thursday, the first day of June next, at ten o’clock in the forenoon, then and there to answer to Stephen Scribner of a place called Washington not in any town, but in the county of Lincoln; for that the said Thomas Rand on May 5, 1783 did by his note of hand promise to pay the said Scribner one pound nine shi Ilings on demand, with interest ti II paid, yet the said Thomas, though requested, hath not paid said sum nor said interest, but neglected it to the damage of said Scribner in the sum of sixty shi Ilings.”
The writ is endorsed on the back by Ebenezer Bridge, sheriff of Lincoln County, to the effect that he had delivered a summons to Thomas Rand in due form of law. In this case the sheriff apparently believed a formal summons to be sufficient. But note that the writ gave him power to arrest and detain the debtor. Then note also that the offender was to appear, not at a court house, but at the dwe II i ng house of Justi ce North.
Our investigations into old days in the Valley assure us that there were ti mes when money was very scarce. and no ti me when it was p lenti fu I. Barter was the usua I method of trade. Long term credi t was customary, and p romi ssory notes went from hand to hand, with each transaction subjecting the instrument to further discount. One such note in Mr. Davis’ collection is dated February 7,1786, and reads: “For valley received (which means “value received”>, I promise to pay John Bonney or his order the sum of one pound sixteen shi II ings and four pens (pence) on demand with interest, as witness my hand — Oliver Hall.”
When a creditor could not get satisfaction in the way described i.n the writ aga i nst Thomas Rand, harsher methods ensued. On December 7, 1787 Judge North issued another wr i t to the sheri ff of Li ncol n County command I ng him to se i ze the body of Ephra I m Pi ckard and take him to the gao I In Powna I borough 1 and commanding the keeper of the gaol to hold said Pickard for fai lure to pay a just debt to James Cowen. But in this case the writ had no effect. The language describes Pickard as of Beverly in the County of Essex. Perhaps the sheriff of Lincoln, far distant from the Massachusetts Essex, couldn’t find his man. At any rate on February 7, 1787, just two months after the writ had been issued, the sheri ff endorsed on the back these words: tlj return th i s execut ion in no part satl sf I ed.”
In Mr. Davi s’ col lecti on are a dozen such wr its and executi ons, none of them dated later than 1789.
In the 1840’s F. Davis, Esq. was Register of Probate of Kennebec County. To him were addressed a number of letters in the Clarence Davis’ collection.
One of these is dated in 1849 and reads: “The sureties on the bond on the appeal of Isaac Whittier’s estate have notified us that the appeal is withdrawn, and I wish to know If it is a fact, and If so wi II you publish the record around in this week’s paper. If you will, it will save us coming dONn to attend next court. P lease send a I I ne by the dr; ver of Farmi nqton Stage torrorrow that we may not come to attend Supreme Court, but if it is necessary we shou I d come down in order to get the record adve rti sed. Let us know it and we wi I I attend. Amos C. Hodgki ns, Vi enna, May 7, 1849.”
Another of those letters came from Edmund Pearson in Bangor, and told F. Davis, Esq. that he was enclosing his account as guardian of two chi Idren named Lunt, and asking Davis to attend to proper advertising of the record. He says: IIlf it is just as convenient, I should rather have it published in the Journal (that nust be the good old KJ). If the other papers come out earlier in the week, you may do as you th I nk fit.
One of the most interesting of Clarence Davis’ papers is a statement to the Clerk of Courts of Kennebec County in May, 1843 by Rev. Ca I vi n Gardner, pastor of the Universalist Church in Watervi I Ie, I isting the marriage returns for which he had been responsible during the preceding month of April, 1843.
Do any of you listeners perhaps recognize some ancestor of your own fami Iy among these men and women united in marriage by Pastor Gardner 111 years ago?
Davi d Goodhue of SI dney and Hannah Wyman of Waterville; 8enj ami n Mi tche II and Betsy Combs, both of Watervi lie; Palmer Eastwood and Caroline Pullen; Samuel Batche ler and Harriet Ri cker; Hafford Morrow of Dearborn and LydJ’a Hussey of Waterville; Joseph Grant of Sidney and Emily Spears of Waterville; Loring Corson and Sally Hussey, both of Watervl lie; Wi lIiam Lewis and Mary Berry; Charles H. Smi th of Watervi lie and ‘Vester Thayer of Sidney; Thomas Ki mba II and Hannah Esty; Shepard Stevens of Be I fast and Frances Newe II of Wi nslow; John Li nscot and Mary Field, both of Sidney.
That’s quite a lot of marrying for one parson to perform in one spring month In 1843.
Other papers in the Davis collection are the formal returns to the munty commissioners of votes cast in county elections. There are, for instance, the separate returns of Waterville and Wi nslow in the e lectl on of county treasurer in 1837. In Watervi lie the vote was close, 275 for Daniel Pike and 251 for Isaac Gage. In Winslow Pike led by a wider marqin, 127 to 86. These returns reveal two interesting things. FIrst, how rapidly Watervi lie had exceeded Winslow in population, in spite of the left bank’s earlier start. Waterville’s total vote in 1837 is shown to have been 2! times the total of Winslow’s. Secondly, note that there is no mention of political parties; though it is pos- sible one candidate may have been Whig, the other Democrat. Party line-up for county offices was not by any means common in the 1830’s, although for state off ices part i sansh i p was keen.
One of the most Interesting of al I of Mr. Davis’ unique papers is a petition to the Justices of the Court of General Sessions of Kennebec County, presented by 13 citi zens of Watervl I Ie in 1802. We sha II let the peti ti on te II its own story. Here is what it says: “The petition of the subscribers humbly Shows that it is necessary, to accommodate the public, that a road Should be laid out from the’west side of the Kennebec River near the saw mi 1/ owned by Nehemi ah Getche I I and others, in the town of Wins lOW, to the south line of the town of Fai rfie I d near Jeremi ah Toz ier ‘s dwe II i ng house, and Ii kew i se that the county road from Asa Emerson’s ‘in said Winslow to the said south line of the town of Fai rfie Id near Thomas Gu I I I fer’s may be a Itered for the pub Ii c good. Your petitioners therefore pray that your honors would appoint a committee to layout and alter such roads, agreeable to a law of this commonwealth.”
This petition carries the signatures, made here in Watervi lie 152 years ago, of such well remembered leaders as Isaac Temple, Abjah Smith, Reuben Kidder, Moses App leton, Jonatha~ …. Heywood and Asa Redi ngton.
I have seen a lot of Watervi I Ie documents, but never before have I seen one bearing the signatures of so many of Watervi lie’s early leaders. It wou I d be i nfe res ti ng to know what was the route of the 0 I d road from Watervil Ie to Fairfield, the road which the petition proposed should be altered.
It wi II take a lot of hunting to find the routes of either that 1802 road or the 0 I der one wh i ch preceded it, but we can try. Let us see what we can learn about it during next year’s broadcasts, Yes, it mus t be next year, beca use ton i gh t ends the sixth season of LI tt Ie Talks on Common Things. I expect to be with you again in the fal I. Then we shall together resume these proddings into the happenings and the customs in the days of long ago. So we bid you goodnight until September.
I want to add just one other word. Next October the Colby College Press wi II publ ish my book called Kennebec Yesterdays. It wi II have more than 300 pages of -text and severa I i I lustrati ons. I t wi II not be a repetl ti on of -these programs~ _although it wi II use some of the same material. Here are the titles of a few of the chapters: Gittin’ Round, Rum and Gingerbread, Whose Land, Canals and the Iron Horse, The Two-Footers, Here Comes the Stage, Hell and High Water, Itching Feet, Bed and Breakfast~ The Doctor’s Murder, and Our Kennebec He r i tage • We sha I I, I n one way or anothe r, let you know more about that book next fa I I •
Year: 1954