Radio Script #320
Little Talks On Common Things
November 25, 1956
Although rv1arti n Keyes was the first successful maker of plates from molded pulp, the first recorded use of paper for dishes occurred 1,800 years before Keye s pe rfected his mach i ne •
I suppose most of you know that paper making was not invented in the western wor I d at a II, but was brought to Eu rope f.rom the Far East by way of age-o I d trade routes through ancient Samarkand in Turkestan about a thousand years ago. That firsT paper to reach Europe came from China, where it had been made and used for a thousand years before the camel Trains brought it to Asia Minor and to the Mediterranean, where the’ pre-Columbian ships carried it to European ports.
Chinese paper making was of course primitive and crude. Fabric was mounted on bamboo sticks and stretched tight. Rags and hemp waste, sometimes even bark, were crushed to pulp, mixed \’lith water, poured over the fabric mold, and left TO dry. One day, just as 1 ,800 years I ater Marti n Keyes’ sharp eyes were to observe workmen eating lunch from maple chips, Tsfai Lun, the supposed inventor of paper making, discovered that the thickest sheets made good dishes, and he and his workers began to use them fbr the noonday meal.
Of course when paper reached Europe in the tenth century, no one had ever heard of Ts’ai Lun’s paper plates, and it was not unti I eight centuries later, about 1750, that something happened in Hoi land. There, as was the habit in the old domeSTic system of industry, before modern factories developed, paper makers lived in The household of the owner and operator of the mi II. The custom was for workers to stop eating the instant the master laid down his spoon as a sign that he had finished his meal. Many of those Dutch masters were crafty fellows and to prevent the workmen from eating too much they ordered the food to be served so hot that the laborers had to wait for it to cool. Before it had cooled enough for the workmen to get more than a few mouthfuls, the master would lay down his spoon. Most of the time those papermakers left the table hungry. But one of them got the better of his master. Legend has it that his name was Hans Vanderlip. He would stealthi Iy slide his food on to a sheet of paper, which the master had discarded in the mi I I because it was too thick and badly shaped. Then, whi Ie at work, he would leisurely eat the whole meal. Hans Vanderlip’s paper plates became farrous allover Holland.
A paper p late was made a hundred years before Marti n Keyes by — we I I, I’m sure you’ll never guess. The maker was none other than George Washington. Let me tell you hovJ it happened. Henry Onderdonk, whose ancestors had fi rst settled New York, had set up the first paper mi I I on Long I s I and and had become a wea 1- thy, influential man. In 1790 he was chosen to entertain the first President for breakfast. After the meal Onderdonk took WaShington for a v’i.sit to his paper mi I I. Washington showed so much interest in the process that the owner asked the President if he wouldn’t like to make a sheet of paper. So WaShington dipped the mold into the vat and brought it up laden with the white, fibrous liquid.
But the resulting paper’ formed into a strange shape. ltJashington squinted at it and sai d, “Ah, a paper platter!!!
Here’s a bit more i nformati on about that spri ght Iy narrow guage rai I road, the VJiscasset, ~tatervi I Ie and Farmi ngton. It corres from the issue of the Sheepscot Echo for August 26, 1893 — a weekly newspaper published by Charles Emer-‘ son for a dollar a year.
The headline of its principal article reads: :’Pai I road from \\fiscasset to the I nteri or to be Opened in the Near Future”. The text beneath that head line gives the story of how the Ii tt Ie ra i I road deve loped. Mi nd you, th is is not reminiscent history, recorded long after the event, like this broadcast tonight.
This article in the Sheepscot Echo appeared when the events themselves were taking place. This indeed is a contemporary record. Listen to what it says:
‘The movement originated in the desire of the people in the tier of towns next but one east of the Kennebec for a conven1ient means of communication with the outside world. These are good agricultural towns, rich in natural resources and supplied with abundant water power. Their development has been retarded by the want of railroad communication. Their centers of business are from 10 to 20 miles east of the Kennebec and the ~,1aine Central Railroad. Consequently a number of prominent and wealthy men, residing or interested in the places menti oned, the ch i ef mover be i ng Mr. George H. Crosby of A I b ion, opened negoti ations with the officers of the Wiscasset and Quebec Rai I road Company~ resulting in an agreement to locate and bui Id the line from Wiscasset to Burnham.
‘~The new directors inc I ude George Crosby of P.·.I b ion:1 pres i dent; Hen ry I nga I Is, Char les Vveeks and George Sange r of Wi scasset; Amos Gera I d of Fa i rf i e I d~ I. C. Li bby of VI ate rvi I Ie; Ora Crosby of A I b ion; and Crosby Fow Ie r of Un i ty. The clerk and genera I counse lis ItJ. F. Fogg of v!atervi lie. N
Then the Sheepscot paper goes on to eulogize the road’s principal promoter. I t says: iiMr. CrosbY:1 presi dent and genera I manager, is a man of large means and unti ring energy, and it is confidently believed that within one year a cons i derab Ie porti on of the line \lJi I I be in operation. Mr. Crosby is the i nventor of the Crosby engine appliances, some thirty in number, and he is the principal owner of the Crosby Steam Gauge and Valve Company, having offices in Boston, New York, Chicago and London. He is also a director of numerous cor·porations and has various and extensive business interests.”
The n the paper proceeds to sing the p ra i ses of anothe r director of the road. It says: HMr. I. C. Libby of \’Jatervi lie is known as the cattle king of Maine, having for many years been the largest operator in livestock in Northern New England. He is president of the \’Jaterville Trust and Safe Deposit Company and president of the Aroostook Condensed 1′,1i Ik Company.> with factories at ~·Jewport and v/inthrop. Mr. Libby has large local interests at Burnham, and undoubted I y a stockyard company wi I I be organ i zed there under his management.!!
Of Amos Gerald, the man who became ~”1aineTs most famous bui Ider of electric tro Iley lines, the Sheepscot Echo says: !~He is an energeti c and capab I e man:
largely interested in electrical enterprises, and is the head of a majority of the electric rai I roads in the state.”
Getting off to that kind of start, the Echo bade its readers turn to~the account in another column of a special town meeting at Wiscasset. In that column one is to I dhow V·I. F. Fogg of VJate rv i I Ie exp I a i ned to the vote rs the s i tuation regarding negotiations between the directors of . the narrow guage and Mr. George Crosby of Albion. vJhen Fogg had steamed theM up to a higher pressure than a narrow guage engine, the assembled citizens voted to ratify the contract between the directors and Crosby, whereby he and other men of means would start construction of the rai I road just as soon as stock subscriptions amounted to $50,000. That road, they understood, wou I d beg in at ti dewater in ‘tl i scasset and run through Alna, Vlhitefield, Vlindsor, China, Albion and Unity to Burnham stat ion.
We now know that the little two-footer never reached Burnham. Money gave out when its rai Is were laid to Albion, and other obstacles also stood in the way. Something of the angry feelings aroused in that controversy I have descr i bed i n 1 Kennebec Yesterdays”. But the Ii tt I e road did va I i ant se rv ice for two generations, and there are plenty of people who sti I I remember it with affecti on.
You listeners know by this time that I never see an old newspaper without being lured to its advertisements. Here are a few ads from that Sheepscot Echo of 1893:
~iFrazer f s Ax Ie Grease. Best in the wor I d. Actua I I y out lasts t\</o boxes of any other kind.
‘lFine crayon portrait 20 x 24, made from any good picture or photograph you may have. Given away with purchase of $5 or More at C. E. Gates, TI~ain· Street, Wiscasset.
HFi ne tasse I-fr i nged hammocks, $1 .00.
!:Lessons in decorating on china, si Ik and plush, Miss E. P. Patterson, \vi scasset • H
Now comes the gem of the lot. It te I I s us how I ad i es kept coo lin the summer heat in those long ago days before Bikini bathing suits or Bermuda shorts. Here ~ s what the ad says: “Paraso I s and sunshades. Summer venti I ati ng corsets. D. T. Person and Son, 8ath.!’
One of the great fami lies of the Kennebec has been the Vaughan fami Iy of Hallo\vell. t,t1embers of that illustrious name sti II live in Hallowell and Gardi-~ ner.
The Vaughans came to Ha II owe II in the I ast decade of the eighteenth cen-tury,
Charles in 1791 and Dr. Benjamin in 1797. Their mother was a Hallowell, daughter of the partner of Sy I vester Gard i ne r and vii ” i am Vassa lin the lands of the ;~e’lJ Plymouth Company. From that daughte r of Benj am in Ha I 10l;.,e I I, Cha r I es and Benjamin Vaughan had inherited a large area of Kennebec lands. Their fa~ ther, Samuel Vaughan, born in England in 1720, became a London merchant; trading vJith the \·Jest Indies and the American colonies. In Boston, whi Ie on a business trip to America, he met and married Sarah Hallowell. The couple proceeded to make their home in England, but frequently visited both New England and their large plantation in Jar.1aica. Samuel vias an ardent admirer of George ~·.fashinqton to It/hom he p resented the ch i mney-p i ece \’Ih i ch now stands in the great ha II at Mount Vernon. Once Samuel made the long horseback journev from Phi ladelphia to visit Washington at Mt. Vernon.
Samuel’s son Benjamin studied toth law and medicine in Britain, the first at Cambridge, the second at Edinburgh. He married Sarah jv1anning, daughter of a wealthy London merchant. Sarah!s brother was governor of the Bank of England. Already interested in the American colonies, through his father’s frequent visits, Dr. Benjamin decided, on the advice of his friend Benjamin Franklin, to move to America and settle on his mother’s lands along the Kennebec.
The doctor had already been preceded on the Kennebec lands by his brother Charles, and when he arrived, he took residence in the mansion Charles had erected for him. There he became not only the local squire and leading citizen) but an influential figure in the whole Province of Massachusetts. He had the I argest library in New Eng I and except that at Harvard Co liege over 10,000 volumes. He wrote several books, among the widest c i rcu I ated of wh i ch was ‘The Political, Miscellaneous and Phi losophical Essays of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, with a memoir of the doctor.f! He was one of the founders of the ~1aine Historica I Soc iety.
Dr. Vaughan did not regularly practice medicine, but he rendered distinguished medical service during an epidemic of spotted fever that broke out in 1811. ~’Jhen Dr. Page, the regular practitioner in Hallowell, went to ~’Jiscasset, where the epidemic vias worst, Dr. Vaughan took over along the Kennebec.
The doctor’s brother Charles was quite a person in his own right, thouqh in public life he was rather overshadowed by the doctor. Charles Vaughan was a founder of the famous Ha II owe II Academy. Hi s wi fe was a sister of Char les Bu 1- finch, the great architect. Perhaps Charles: crowning glory came when he entertained the French diplomat Talleyrand and the young Frenchman \.,tho had fled the terrors of the French Revolution with the wi Iy statesman. That youn9 French- man, entertained in Charles Vaughan’s home in Hal lowe I I, later became King of France.
Dr. Benjamin Vaughan played a conspicuous part in working out the treaty by which, after Yorktown, Great Britain granted independence to the American colonies. Dr. Vaughan was a friend of both Franklin and Lord Shelburne: the British Prime Minister. At Shelburne’s request Vaughan went to Paris to consult with Franklin and Jay, and there he spent a whole year. Then he went to England, where he convinced Shelburne to accept American independence, and he returned to Paris taking with him the new commission by which the Shelburne government agreed to recognize the American colonies as free and independent states.
Year: 1956