Radio Script #519

Little Talks on Common Things

December 31, 1961

We have recently had a revision of the ward lines in Waterville. I was interested, therefore, to discover how the wards were laid out when Waterville became a city 75 years ago. In 1886 Ward 5 extended eastward to the Kennebec River. Ward 5’s northern boundary was the winding Messalonskee Stream, following the up-stream course bending to the west. The southern boundary was then called the Neck Road, which is that part of present Western Avenue between the bridge and the Waterville-Oakland line beyond Mt. Merici.

On the city side of the stream, between it and Elm Street, the northern boundary of Ward 5 was Winter Street and the extension of that street’s line to the stream. The southern boundary was Western Avenue, then called Mill Street. Then, between Elm Street and the Kennebec, Ward 5’s northern line ran down Elm to Spring Street, then down Spring to Silver, then, surprisingly, turned up Silver to a street no longer existing called Knox Street, down that street to Kennebec Street, along that to Water Street, and on to the Ticonic Bridge. The southern boundary of that part of Ward 5, between Elm Street and the Kennebec, crossed Elm on Western Avenue to Silver, then south on Silver to Sherwin Street, down Sherwin to Water Street, and on an extended line to the river. Yes, from the beginning Ward 5 was geographically a big ward.

Strangely, when we view the small extent of Ward 4 today, it too was a big ward in 1886. It then included all the Waterville land between Upper Main Street and the Messalonskee, but it had one peculiar quirk. While between the stream and Elm Street its southern boundary was the north side of Winter Street, when it reached east of Elm Street it included a small rectangle bordered by Elm, Spring, Temple Court and Temple Street.

City Hall, now the voting place for Ward 4, was then in Ward 3, which was the city’s smallest ward, located entirely between Elm and Front Streets, except for a small section along the Kennebec between the railroad bridge and Ticonic Bridge –the section known as Head of the Falls.

It is amazing to note how few streets are shown on a map of Waterville published in 1890. Beginning at the City’s north end, the street extending west nearest the Fairfield line was the present Spruce Street. It was then called College Avenue, because the present College Avenue was then named College Street as far as the upper railroad crossing and beyond that was simply the Fairifeld Road.

South of Spruce Street, 70 years ago, were streets named just as they are now: High, Oak, Ash and Maple. Ticonic Street ran from Chaplin to Oak, just as it does now, but Oak did not run through to Main Street. In fact the only streets off Upper Main Street toward the present College Avenue were, JILgh Street, running all the way, Chestnut Street (now Kelsey) running only to Ticonic Street, and likewise Brook Street. To the west of Main Street the only streets were Dunbar Lane, Alden Lane, Boutelle Avenue (which went to the County Road) and Prospect Street, which ended at King Street, a short street between Boutelle and Prospect.

Even more astounding is the small number of streets then in the present heavily populated area bounded on the east by College Avenue, south of the lower railroad crossing, and down Elm Street to Western Avenue; and bounded on the west by the Messalonskee. Getchell Street joined College Avenue and Main Street, as it does now. North Street also extended over the railroad bridge to the County Road. Center Street had already become Gilman after crossing Pleasant Street. Only West Street connected Gilman with North Street. There was no Burleigh Street, no Bartlett Street, and Morrill Avenue extended only a few yards beyond West Street. Pleasant Place was then called Dunn Avenue. Park Street and Park Place had been laid out, but there was no Sheldon Place. Winter Street ended at Nudd Street.

Beyond was the deep gully of Hayden Brook, long since filled in to permit Winter Street to go through to Burleigh, Nudd, off Winter, and Belmont, off Western Avenue, were the only streets between Winter and the big bend of the stream. Silver Street had no street leaving it between Gold and Grove. Summer Street had already been built, but the only streets off it were Gold, Redington and Sherwin. In the South End, the streets off Water Street were Stanley Place, Gold Street, King, Carrean, Mercier, Halde and Paris. Between College Avenue and Lower Main Street on one side and Front Street on the other were Union, Alden, Appleton and Hathaway. Common Street connected Main and Front, as it does now. Charles Street had not been laid out, but what is now part of it did run a short distance off Silver and was called Gilman Street, although the longer extension of Center Street also had the same name.

Yes, indeed, Waterville has grown a lot since 1890.

One of the prominent business men of Waterville in the last half of the 19th century was the clothing merchant, Perham S. Heald. He was associated with many other business enterprises and in 1894 was secretary of the Kennebec Mutual Life Insurance Company, of which William T. Haines was president. Ugly rumors were circulated about the stability of the company, rumors which increased when both Haines and Heald resigned. To stop the rumors Perham Heald published the following statement in the Waterville Mail: “Ugly rumors have been stirred that Mr. Haines and I resigned because rats leave a sinking ship. The fact is that neither of us can take time from our other business to participate in the big merger planned to consolidate this insurance company with the York Mutual of Biddeford, the Orient Mutual of York Village, and the Cumberland Mutual of Portland. I assure you that the Kennebec Mutual was never stronger than it is today. Everyone of its contracts will be honored, and no man will be asked to change his policy for one in the consolidated company. If the merger takes place, the old policies will be honored just as they were written.”

Mr. Heald was respected as a man of complete integrity, and his frank statement allayed the suspicions and stopped the rumors. Perham Heald was a Civil War veteran who had survived the worst and most notorious of the Civil War prisons, Andersonville. In 1904 he wrote for the Lewiston Journal an account of his experience there. Here is a part of that story: “It was 40 years ago that I was liberated from Andersonville, when I bought my freedom in exchange for Confederate prisoners. During those nine months of confinement, filled with hardship, we were never without hope. How well I remember our delight when we heard that Sherman was coming down through Georgia and that one of his objectives was Andersonville Prison. We felt sure Sherman would make a hole big enough for every last man 0 f us to escape .Our joy was dampened when we next learned that the Confederate Government had ordered, if Sherman came within twenty miles of the prison, the execution of every prisoner.

“I finally got out of Andersonville in the regular way, by exchange. But in order to be chosen for exchange, one had to pay the Confederate officer in charge. I bought my exchange and that of five comrades. When I went into the prison I had just 14 cents. But, because the Confederate sergeant let me have articles of food and tobacco and sell them on commission, I had accumulated $150. With that $150, at $25 a head, I bought the release of myself and five comrades.”

In 1904 Mr. Heald attended the ceremonies when a monument was erected at Andersonville. He was there introduced to Edward Stone, who had been a Confederate guard at the prison. Of that encounter, Perham Heald said: “After a few minutes I recognized him, despite his age and his grey beard. In the prison I had known him very well. He is now desperately poor and lives on a nearby farm as a share-cropper. He was friendly, but could not forget or forgive the South’s defeat.”

On another occasion this is the way Perham Heald described life in Andersonville Prison: “We were divided into squads of 100 each and called out each morning for roll call. The prison was simply a stockade of 20 acres without a single building. Through it ran a small, malaria infested bog. There was no shelter, and during our first three weeks it rained part of every day and night. Our rations were half a gill of raw corn meal, a gill of mush and another of boiled rice, a very small slice of rancid bacon, a few wormy black beans, two spoonfuls of very thin molasses. We never saw coffee or sugar, and very little salt — half a teaspoon a week. We had to make one meal a day immediately on our daily rations, otherwise some fellow would appropriate them.

“Men died at the rate of 100 a day. Mule teams driven by Negroes carried the bodies away, loading them on carts like cord wood. We got no papers and our only information was pumped out of the guards.

“The commandant, Capt. Wirtz, was executed after the war for his treatment of prisoners. I remember him as a little, nervous, dried-up piece of flesh and bones, stuffed with vile language which he dished out to the prisoners. He hung five of our men for stealing while I was there.

“While Sherman was marching through Georgia, we were taken out of Andersonville and placed in another prison near Savannah, and from there to woods near the Florida border. After Sherman had gone on to the sea, we were returned to Andersonville, on a 25 mile march over rough, frozen ground. Many of us were barefoot and we had no blankets.

“Even when we were released, after I bought freedom for six of us for $150, we did not get back at once to the Union lines. Guards took us across country to Vicksburg on the Mississippi. There, starved and emaciated, we were at last delivered to Union command.”

Perhaps we might add here a brief resume of the life of that prominent Waterville citizen, Perham Heald. He was born in Solon in 1842, and in the year when the Civil War broke out, 1861, he came to Waterville to clerk in a clothing store. The next year he enlisted in the 19th Maine and participated in all its engagements until June, 1864, when he was taken prisoner at Petersburg and sent to Andersonville Prison. He returned to Waterville after his discharge in 1865 and entered the clothing business on his own. His store on Main Street gained increasing fame, he later took as clerk and then as partner Robert Ervin, now head of the Spring Brook Fuel Company.

In my possession is a neatly made, black-bristled clothes brush. Stamped on the back in gold letters are the words: “Heald-Ervin Co., clothiers and haberdashers, Waterville, Maine. ”

Mr. Heald served in the Maine Legislature in 1887 and 1889, and for three terms on the State Senate, 1891 to 1895. He was President of the Waterville Loan and Building Association, President of the Sawyer Publishing Company, Director of the Waterville Safe Deposit Co., and served a period as postmaster.

That Mr. Heald was a prominent owner of property is shown by his tax bill for the year 1894, when tax rates and valuations were much lower than now. Mr. Heald’s tax was $289.

Year: 1961