Radio Script #462

Little Talks on Common Things

June 5, 1960

In “Kennebec Yesterdays” I have told the story of a horseback journey made in 1793 by young Hezekiah Prince from Thomaston, Maine to Richmond, Virginia. A few months ago it was my good fortune to run across some accounts and records of the estate of Hezekiah Prince, kept by his son and executor, Hezekiah Prince, Jr. during the months immediately following his father’s death in December, 1840.

The elder Hezekiah Prince, an ancestor of Mrs. Albert F. Drummond of Waterville, was a distinguished Maine man of the early nineteenth century. After his return from that long horseback journey to Virginia, Hezekiah decided to become a Baptist minister, and as one of the leaders of that denomination in what was then Massachusetts’ District of Maine, he was in 1813 one of the incorporators of the Maine Literary and Theological Institute, the school that in 1821 became Waterville College and in 1865 again changed its name to Colby College.

The son, Hezekiah, Jr. became a prominent lawyer in the region that is now Knox County, and as a leading member of the bar, he was in a position to give competent management to his father’s estate. In his accounts he made careful notation of actions. He began the record on December 31, 1840 with this item: “Buried the deceased with services at the Congregational meeting house in Thomaston.”

Someone had to give daily attention to the home place, for by that time Hezekiah, Jr. had a family and home of his own several miles distant from his father’s homestead. So he put his younger brother Christopher in charge: “Jan. 5, 1841 – Placed Christopher in care of the personal effects at the dwelling house and surrounding premises. Permitted him to retain the money left by our deceased father, for the purpose of paying small debts and expenses of the family, he to account to me.”

“Jan. 28, 1841 — Sent the will to Register of Probate at Wiscasset” (Thomaston was then in Lincoln County.)

“Feb. 1 – My father’s account as deputy collector for the last quarter of 1840 was forwarded to the Collector at Waldoboro.

“Feb. 3 — Delivered to Mr. Fogg the Town Treasurer’s books and papers kept by my father. I have claimed $25 as compensation for his services for the year 1840. The bill was not allowed by the Committee on Accounts. They offer me $10. I have concluded I will take twenty but nothing less. I procured for the new Treasurer the Town’s bill for money and powder rations paid the militia last fall, which my father had submitted to the State Treasurer before his death.

“Feb. 10 – The money weights and scales in my father’s possession at the time of his death prove to belong to the town of St. George. I have delivered them to Captain Watts.

“April 1 – I have permitted Mr. Hawley to open a quarry for cellar rocks in the pasture back of the Knowles lot. They are to pay a shilling a load for the rocks they may dig.

“April 28 — Sister Nancy started for Boston to obtain medical assistance for her eyes. I furnished $40 for her expenses.”

Both the elder Hezekiah Prince and his wife died within a few weeks of each other, and among the estate expenses noted by Hezekiah, Jr. are these: “Paid John Butler as sexton for digging graves for my father and mother, $10. Paid Robert Dodge for coffins, $49. Paid Copeland and O’Brien for funeral carriages, $5.”

When we consider the burden of taxes today, it is interesting to note that the taxes on Hezekiah Prince’s very considerable real estate for the year 1840 were $46. 14.

Some of the items received into the estate after Mr. Prince’s death are interesting: “Received from the guardian of the heirs of Jonathan Cilley $1,176.97, being the amount of a certificate taken Nov. 2, 1840 on settlement with Hezekiah Prince as administrator of Mr. Cilley’s estate.” That item is of special interest because Jonathan Cilley was the Maine Congressman who was killed in a duel which he fought with a fellow Congressman in Washington in 1837. I told the whole story in an article in Down- East Magazine two years ago. When I wrote that article I did not know that Hezekiah Prince, about whose long horseback ride I had already written in “Kennebec Yesterdays” was such a prominent Thomaston man in the 1830’s that he was made administrator of Congressman Cilley’s estate.

I have already mentioned that Prince was Treasurer of the town of Thomaston. What was his compensation for that job? In 1840 his fee came to just $20. Prince was treasurer also of several organizations, and it was his son’s duty as executor to settle with all of them. He paid $18.79 to the Thomaston Bible Society, $23 to the Lincoln County Benevolent Society, and $16.22 to the Thomaston Library Society.

Here are some unusual items in young Prince’s disbursals from his father’s estate: “Paid to George Prince $12.20 to enable him to go to sea. Paid Henry Seider $9.45 for a tub of butter for use of the family. Paid Edward Tilson $3 for claim on one of the pews in the meeting house.”

To our knowledge of that early nineteenth century preacher and public servant of Thomaston, Hezekiah Prince, we can therefore add the information that he had a dutiful and conscientious son, the Thomaston lawyer, Hezekiah Prince, Jr. Skimming through those old accounts we discover also that, like most of Thomaston families, the Princes were interested in shipping. For instance, there are Christopher Prince’s financial account of his operation of the Schooner Yarico over a period of two years in the 1840’s: “Received as freight on 450 casks of lime @ 15¢ a cask, $67.50.” In fact most of Christopher’s receipts were for carrying lime to Boston, but there were occasionally other items, such as “Freight on lumber from Bangor, $50.14. Up and down freight, $40.80.”

Some of the ship’s expenses were “Gondola hire for 280 casks of lime, $2.80. Paid H. Perry for oars, $1.38. Paid A. Walker for laying deck, $46.37. Paid W. Flint for calking, $23.59. Paid K. Crockett for an anchor, $14.”

Like most shipowners, Christopher Prince had his troubles. In 1845 he entered in the account these words: “To settle law suit for collision, $35.”

Another member of the Prince family was in the insurance business, which was just getting under way in Maine towns in the 1840’s. Isaac Prince represented seven insurance companies, including the United States Life. the Union Mutual Fire, and the Maine Insurance Company. At first he wrote a few life insurance policies, none for more than a thousand dollars, and some for as little as $300, but he soon turned almost completely to fire insurance. Each of his individual commissions was small, but in the aggregate they were appreciable. His largest recorded commission on a fire policy was $2.88, but during the year 1848 the total came to more than $300. He was active in insuring ships under construction, or as it was called. “on the stocks”. In 1850 he thus insured a ship for $5,000, a bark for $4,000, and a schooner for $5,000.

So much for the notable Prince family from which our beloved elderly citizen, Mrs. Albert Drummond, is descended. Let us now turn to the western part of Maine, to the town made famous by Kate Douglas Wiggin, author of “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm”.

Not long ago I had a chance to peruse the hand written record of the founding and early years of one of Maine’s oldest libraries, the Buxton Social Library. It was started in 1804 by the device of selling shares at $2.50 each to persons called proprietors. Dues were not fixed, but were voted by assessment as needed. Such assessments occurred several times a year and were never more than 25 cents, frequently only 12t cents. No books could be taken out except by a proprietor or a member of his family. If one kept a book more than 60 days he had to pay a fine.

Today we frequently hear of some library borrower being required to pay for a lost book. In fact Maine law permits a public library not only to collect the cost of a lost book, but also the stated fine for the period between the time when the book was due for return and the time when the borrower finally paid for it. But I venture to say that few of us ever heard of the way the Buxton Social Library treated such cases. In 1806 the library trustees voted to excuse John Woodman of a fine for the detention of Goldsmith’s History of England “when he shall return the book and also pay the price of it.” Having no library building, that early Buxton library was kept in the home of the librarian, one of the proprietors who served without pay. Whenever there was a new librarian, the books were moved.

As the years went by and the proprietors died. it is interesting to note how the Society disposed of shares. On December 27, 1812 it was voted to receive William Rounds to the share of his father. deceased, on condition that William pay 50 cents to the Society. The following month it was voted to receive Eben Ballard and Elijah Hanson as members. and to authorize the librarian to accept a bookcase from the said Ballard and Hanson, with $5 for their shares; also to dispose of the old bookcase. A few months later it was decided to set the old bookcase up at auction to the highest bidder and one Pelatiah Harmon bid it in for two dollars. In the same sale the library sold an extra set of Morse’s two-volume Geography for $1.90.

Attendance at meetings of the library proprietors was regarded as so important that fines were imposed for absence — ten cents for each such offense. That old library society was tough on delinquent members. The organization was determined to collect all its assessments and fines. The records show that the following by-law was rigidly enforced: “If any member shall neglect or refuse to pay all taxes and fines that shall be lawfully assessed to his share, for the duration of two years and two months, he shall forfeit his share in the library and all right to its privileges.”

The Buxton Social Library lasted for 33 years. Why it was finally closed we do not know, but on March 3, 1838 it was voted “to dissolve the society and sell the books at auction, cash down.” At that time there remained only 19 proprietors, all of whom signed the following statement: “We, the subscribers, members of the Buxton library Society, have this day met and agreed to sell all the books belonging to said Library, at the dwelling house of Jeremiah Staples on Friday, March 9 at 1 P.M. at auction among the members and an equal proportion of the proceeds, after all expenses have been paid, shall be distributed to each member.”

I am old enough to remember when the first automobile was seen in my home town of Bridgton, and a lot of people can remember their first sight of an airplane.

Some such sensation came to citizens of Bath. Maine on July 20, 1818. As an old newspaper account tells the story: “The Steamer Tom Thumb, about 30 feet long, owned by Mr. Dodd, left Boston in tow of a packet, which took her to the mouth of the Kennebec, where she cast off and steamed up the river on her own power against the tide. She created a sensation, as no one on the Kennebec had ever seen a steamboat before. She was an open boat and her machinery was all in sight. Her engine was so small she could barely make headway against the current. But headway she did make, and amid the cheers of the assembled populace, tied up at a wharf in Bath.”

Year: 1960