Radio Script #440

Little Talks on Common Things

December 27, 1959

Tonight I want to tell you about an old book that came into my hands a few weeks ago. It is a History of Belfast by William White, published in 1827. It is a curiosity for several reasons, but especially because, though filling less than a hundred pages of a small 7 by 4 inch volume, the first thirty of those pages are filled with a general history of Eastern Maine and the Maritime Provinces, the area which in colonial times had been called Acadia. Hence Mr. White gave to his history the full title “A History of Belfast with Introduction Remarks on Acadia”. Here is the way the author began the book: “This memoir, assuming to be the history of a town only, will go first into brief detail of the political occurrences connected with the discovery and early history of the ancient province in which Belfast is situated.”

Then the author recounts briefly the usual facts about the Cabots, Humphrey Gilbert, George Weymouth and Martin Pring. He gives more space to Pierre du Gast, better known as the Sieur de Mont, first Governor General of Acadia for the King of France. Then he describes the Popham Colony and the coming of the Pilgrims.

Noting that the portion of Maine which lay east of the Kennebec was claimed by both the English and the French, he refers to the stormy Indian wars fomented by those two enemies for more than a century. He mentions that the English called Acadia Nova Scotia, by which they then meant not merely the present Canadian peninsula, but also part of the mainland on the west side of the Bay of Fundy, and down into Penobscot Bay as far as and even beyond Mount Desert. The author gives due attention to the exploits of Baron Castine and to the town named for him.

In 1631 King Charles I of England had made a grant to ~Jo~n Beauchamp and Thomas Leverett of title to a tract of land east of the Muscongus River, and extending ten miles into the land from the ocean shore. In 1719, when no attempt to settle the grant had been made for 88 years, Governor John Leverett of Massachusetts, the sole heir of Thomas Leverett, formed a company of proprietors who in 1732 sold half of the huge tract to Gen. Samuel Waldo. The proprietors took for their half the territory now comprised in the towns of Frankfort, Canada, Hope, Appleton and Montville, while Gen. Waldo got all the rest, including Waldoboro, Warren, St. George, Friendship, Rockland and Owls Head. After the Revolution nearly the whole tract became the property of George Washington’s artillery general and Secretary of War, Henry Knox — a story which we recounted several years ago on this program.

The introductory section of White’s little history ends as follows: “After the peace of Utrecht, British power in Acadia began to assume an imposing attitude. The Indians, becoming sensible of their growing weakness, began to be more pacific. French influence rapidly declined in all the northern provinces, Louisburg was lost in 1745, Halifax founded in 1748, and Quebec itself captured in 1759. The last hope of France for control of the American continent was extinguished.”

Most people know that Belfast, Maine is named for Belfast, Ireland, but I suspect few people know how that happened. In 1718 a group of a hundred families arrived in Boston from the province of Ulster in northern Ireland, mostly from the Ulster city of Belfast. A few of those immigrants went to Nutfield, New Hampshire. Half a century later a group of their descendants, led by John Mitchell, purchased land on the west side of Penobscot Bay, formed a settlement. and named it Belfast.

The official pronouncement that set the town in operation was issued in 1773 and read as follows: “To John Mitchell of Belfast, Gentlemen:

“Whereas the Great and General Court, at their sessions held at Boston, upon the 26th day of May last, passed an act incorporating a certain tract of land on the west side of Penobscot Bay into a town by the name of Belfast in the County of Lincoln; and the said General Court having empowered me to issue a warrant directed to some principal inhabitant in said town to notify and warn the inhabitants thereof qualified to vote in town affairs to meet at such time and place as shall be therein set forth, to choose such officers as may be necessary to manage the affairs of the town, at which meeting all the male inhabitants who have arrived at the age of 21 years shall be admitted to vote.

“In His Majesty’s name you are therefore required to notify the said inhabitants of Belfast to meet at your dwelling house in said town on Thursday, November 11 at ten o’clock in the forenoon, then and there to choose a town clerk, selectmen, and all other town officers according to law.

“Given under my hand and seal at Frankfort, October 10, 1773.

“Thomas Goldthwaite, J.P.”

Now bear in mind that, when White published his history in 1827, Belfast had been a town only a little more than fifty years, and we have no right to expect to read in that history about the thriving city which the Penobscot Bay port became in later years. The historian did, however, make some predictions for the future. Let us see what he says about the comparative advantages of Penobscot towns in 1827:

“Some town on the Penobscot waters will soon become the principal mart. Five towns vie for the honor: Camden, Belfast, Prospect, Frankfort and Bangor. Camden has the advantage of being nearest the sea, but it is removed from the center and is environed by hills that forbid easy access to the interiors. Bangor stands at the head of summer navigation, but ice stops the shipping four months of the year. Frankfort, at the head of winter navigation, might be considered as the natural rival of Bangor, but its location in relation to the interior is unfavorable, calculating that trade will come chiefly from the north and west. Furthermore, even if the ice below Frankfort is not impenetrable, it is often found to be greatly embarassing and injurious to navigation.

“Belfast, on the other hand, holds the intermediate ground among the five aspirants. Within the knowledge of man, its harbor has been twice only seriously blockaded by ice. It is thus better even than the harbors of Portland or Boston. Belfast is indeed the natural seaport of the northern and western Kennebec, and it is not a stretch of fancy to imagine that nature once thought of bringing that river to this place. From Winslow to Belfast the straight-line distance is 28 miles. From Winslow to Hallowell is more than two-thirds the same distance. By starting early and returning late, horses can make a round trip journey from Winslow to Belfast in one day.

“But the difference in distance is anyhow more than compensated by the difference in market. Belfast is open to the world; Hallowell is closed in the winter by ice. That closing operates as a tithe on the farmer, for the winter is his market season. He cannot wait for the ice to melt, for by that time he is busy planting his crop.

“In short, Belfast is 40 miles up in the heart of a country as suitable for agriculture as any in New England, and is the center of Maine. With capital and enterprise at any moment she may take the trade of the Kennebec valley with mutual profit. The remotest angle of Somerset County is nearer to Belfast than it is to Portland. It must be admitted possible that one day Belfast will be the largest town in Maine.”

Of course it did no harm to dream, though the events of the next hundred years proved the dream futile. Belfast did not become Maine’s largest city. Bangor soon surpassed her by leaps and bounds. Little did author White suspect that, before many years should elapse, the little Kennebec Villages of Augusta and Waterville would exceed Belfast in size.

But Belfast did become and still is an important, active Maine town. The county seat of Waldo County, it is both a port of entry on the sea and the center of Maine’s newest thriving industry, poultry. As for its number of people, the national census shows what happened after 1827, when the historian White said the town had 2,026 inhabitants. Unlike many smaller towns, Belfast has continued to grow until, in 1950, its population was the largest in its history – 5,960.

When it became a city, more than a hundred years ago in 1853, Belfast had almost as many people as it has today, 5,052, so that in the past hundred years its growth has been slow. In fact in 1900 the city had 500 fewer inhabitants than it had fifty years earlier, but after 1910 its gain was steady, and the 1960 census is likely to show more than 6,000 people living in the Waldo County seat.

When Belfast was first incorporated as a town in 1763 it was in Lincoln County, which then comprised all of Maine east of the Androscoggin. In fact Maine then had only three counties: York, Cumberland and Lincoln. Then in 1789 Belfast was placed in Hancock County, and it was not until 1827, the very year when William White published his history of the town, that Waldo County was established and Belfast was made the shire town. That gave White an opportunity to add an appendix to this book, which begins with this sentence: “The County of Waldo, recently organized, of which Belfast is the court town, is constituted of 23 towns and two plantations.”

Surprisingly, in 1827 the largest town in the new county was not Belfast, but Frankfort, with 2,127 people. In 1850 it had jumped to 4,236, then in twenty years had fallen in 1870 to only 1,152 persons. In 1950 its population was only 578. Expressed in those statistics is the story of one Maine town’s sad decline.

Instead of the 23 towns and two plantations of which it was comprised in 1827, Waldo County now has 26 towns and no plantations. Although it lost three of its towns when part of Waldo County was taken to form the new county of Knox in 1860, it gained others by formation of new towns within its borders. Its losses were Appleton, Camden and Hope, but it gained the new towns of Morrill, Searsport, Stockton Springs and Winterport; and its plantations became the incorporated towns of Jackson and Waldo.

As a county Waldo has grown very little in 130 years. The 1820 census gave it 22,002 people; its 1950 figures were 28,121, actually 200 less than the county had a hundred years earlier in 1850. If one counted the several hundred thousand chickens one can find any day in Waldo County, it could be said to have a very sizable population.

And with that we must say Good Night for Old Times’ Sake.

Year: 1959