Radio Script #536

Little Talks on Common Things

April 29, 1962

Everyone knows that tremendous changes have occurred since Maine became a state in 1820, 142 years ago. But perhaps few of us realize what a difference has taken place in the relative size of Maine towns. Some towns that are now considered very small were then among the largest in the state. Others that were then tiny hamlets have become cities.

An old book that is worth any Maine citizen’s perusal is Greenleaf’s Survey of the State of Maine, published in 1829, only nine years after the separation from Massachusetts. Moses Greenleaf W2S the great surveyor and civil engineer to whom we owe so much for his comprehensive early maps of all parts of Maine. Those Greenleaf maps are very scarce and one of the few complete sets is now on file at the library of the University of Maine -a set that came to the university from the famous collection of Maine books, maps and periodicals of Dr. John of friendship — a collection that I have referred to several times on this program. Ji’or one who wants to know what Maine was really like in those early days before the coming of the railroad, there is no better source than Moses Greenleaf’s account in the book that he called a “Survey of the State of Maine”.

Greenleaf had never heard of a railroad, but he was greatly interested in transportation within the state,especially for the conveying of goods to such seaports as Portland, Bath, Machias, and the inland towns that lay on the navigable portions of the Saco, the Kennebec and the Penobscot. Because of that interest, Greenleaf was a booster for the many canals that were proposed in the 1820’s, only one of which of any size was finally built the Oxford Canal, connecting Sebago Lake with Portland, along the course of the Presumpscot River. Greenleaf pointed out that much of the knowledge available about the geography and topography of Maine in 1829 was due to the surveys made for the specific purpose of laying out routes for canals — the bold plans’to connect the Androscoggin with Casco Bay; to connect the upper waters of the Androscoggin and the Kennebec; to connect the Kennebec and the Penobscot below Moosehead Lake; and even to join the Androscoggin and the Connecticut. Those were the larger ventures. Smaller ones included a proposed canal from China Lake to the Kennebec; another from Great Pond in Belgrade to the Kennebec; another around Ticonic Falls from Winslow Bay to Fairfield. Says Greenleaf, “There are now definite plans to extend inland navigation in Maine by means of canals.”

Why people were excited about the possibility of canals is made clear by what Greenleaf had to say about the Kennebec River: “From its outlet at Moosehead Lake the Kennebec descends in a general southerly direction, with a strong current and in many places obstructed by rocky rapids and abrupt falls, which render it of little use for boats and rafts above Skowhegan Falls. From below those falls, rafts, but no sizable boats, can descend to Augusta, but the passage is very difficult because of rapids and the formidable Ticonic Falls at Waterville. From Ticonic Falls the river is navigable for flat boats to Augusta, and from Augusta vessels not exceeding 100 tons can be loaded, and from Hallowell and Gardiner merchant vessels of any size can put out to sea.”

Now for some of the surprising facts about Maine population in 1820. At that time Maine had 298,000 people living in its ten counties. Six of the present sixteen counties had not then been created. Of course when those six new counties were formed, they had to be carved out of the existing counties, because the state itself was not enlarged. In fact the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 made the whole state a little smaller than was claimed in 1820, because at that time the United States laid claim to what is now a part of New Brunswick between the present eastern border of Maine and the lower course of the St. John River. Lincoln County, which originally included all of Maine east of the Androscoggin, still covered a large area in 1820.

It then included Bath, Lisbon, Lewiston, Waldoboro and Thomaston. Not only was there no Aroostook County; there were no such places as Houlton, Presque Isle and Caribou.

Even as long ago as 1820 Maine’s largest community was Portland, but how large do you think it then was? Well, it then had not half as many people as Waterville has today. It? inhabitants numbered 8,781. No other place in Maine then had as many as 5,000 people. The second largest place was Berwick with 4,455. Third was North Yarmouth with 3,466. York was fourth with 3,224, and in fifth place was Bath with 3,026. The next five largest places in the state, completing the first ten, were Brunswick, Bristol, Hallowell, Shapleigh and Gorham. It is interesting to note that of Maine’s present 21 cities, only three were among the ten largest towns in 1820: Portland, Hath and Hallowell.

At that time ,ljangor was not even the largest town in Penobscot County. l:1ampden was larger by more than 250 people, because that town had 1,478 while Bangor had only 1 ,221. Some comparisons of population are interesting. In 1820 Buxton was larger than Biddeford; Hebron was three times the size of Rumford; Bowdoinham had double the population of Lewiston; Frankfort was bigger than Belfast; Vassalboro had 500 more people than Waterville; Bucksport, Deer Isle, Sedgwick, Canaan, Sidney and Clinton were all bigger than Bangor.

All students of Maine history know that the state lost many people by migration during the gold rush of the early 1850’s, and the westward expansion after the Civil War, but it is not so commonly known that migration from Maine began long before 1850. It would be twenty years after the publication of Greenleaf’s 1829 book before gold would be discovered at Sutter’s Creek in California. Yet Greenleaf deplores the loss of population already occurring in Maine before it had seen ten years as an independent state. ,In fact the loss had begun before 1820. Greenleaf says: “Just prior to the Revolution there was an extraordinary current of immigration into Maine, and the wave continued until after 1808. The current was then reversed and emigration from Maine equalled at least a fourth of the natural increase by births.” As causes of the outward migration Greenleaf names the stagnation of business and wide-spread unemployment that followed the Revolution, the crippling effects of the Embargo Act of 180?, the opening of lands west of the Alleghanies, and the destitution caused by three successive cold ye8.rs, especially the famous Year of No Summer, 1816. Greenleaf sums it up: “The result was that in 1820 Maine had between 25,000 and 30,000 fewer people- than would have been the case, except for the departure of many of its inhabitants for what they regarded as greener pastures.”

On the basis of past experience in all the states then in the Union, Greenleaf projected the expected population of Maine for the next fifty years after 1830. He hit it almost exactly on the head for the census of 1830, which was only one year. away When his book came from the press. He estimated the 1830 population at 390,818. His estimate was actually too low, because when the census was taken it showed 399,455. Greenleaf said the population in 1840 would exceed 511,000. It actually came to only 501,000. In 1850 his estimate was 670,000. lt turned out to be nearly 100,000 less — only 583,000. For 1860 Greenleaf’s figure was 878,000. He exceeded the facts by 150,000, for the 1860 census showed only 628,000 people in Maine. Of course what Greenleaf could not foresee was the gold rush and the rapid opening of the western lands. And of course he went even more astray because he could not foresee the Civil War.

The only time in Maine history that the population has shown total numerical increase between two censuses was in 1870, when the state had nearly 2,000 fewer people than it had numbered in 1860. Greenleaf’s projection for 1870 was 1,150,000. The actual count showed only 626,000, only slightly more than half of Greenleaf’s estimate.

By 1880, fifty years after the time when the famous geographer made his estimates, the state would have, according to Greenleaf, a million and a half of people. The total reported by the 1880 census came to only 649,000, just a bit more than a third of Greenleaf’s optimistic expectation. Not even in 1960, a hundred and thirty years after Greenleaf’s projections, had the population of Maine reached a million. A complete study of all the factors that caused Maine to be relatively stagnant in population, so that its once seven Congressmen will soon be reduced to two has never been made. Many of those factors are suspected, but they have never been exhaustively studied.

It is well known that lumber and agricultural products formed the chief sources of Maine revenue in 1820, but I suspect few of our listeners realize just what was the condition of manufacturing in our state at that time. Greenleaf said: “In those branches of manufacture and handicraft trades which are necessary to the pursuit of agriculture, Maine has already made progress. In shipbuilding she exceeds most of the other states, and she equals other sections in the home production of cloth. But in respect to other manufactures, this state is in its infancy. The principal articles now exported from Maine are lumber, ships, nails, br1cks, lime, gunpowder, candles, soap and leather. Most of Maine’s manufactures are conducted in small establishments, and many of them in private families on a part-time basis. We have one factory for the making of silk from raw material imported from England. no factory in the state except the large ship yards, employs more than 50 persons, and only the big lumber mills and the ship yards employ more than twenty. All together in Maine a smaller proportion of the people are engaged in manufactures than in any other state north of Virginia.”

As for agriculture, Greenleaf named Maine’s export products as Indian corn, Wheat, oats, barley, rye, peas, beans, potatoes, flax and hops. Bear in mind that, in 1820, the great fertile lands of the mid-western prairies had not been settled. Therefore Maine then raised a lot of wheat, a product that would almost entirely disappear half a century later, when the yield per acre from the black soil of the prairies would put Maine wheat out of competition. In the year when Maine became a state, wheat was raised in every Maine county, to a total of 202,000 bushels for the entire state. More than 37,000 bushels of that total was raised in Kennebec County. Waterville, which in 1962 is not considered an agricultural community at all, produced 2,700 bushels. Vassalboro led the whole county with 3,300 and Farmington was a close second with 3,100. Sidney raised 2,000 bushels and Winslow 1,500.

Of some interest is the relative number of horses and oxen in 1820. The count for the whole state showed 17,800 horses and 48,200 oxen. Waterville had 115 horses and 250 oxen; Winslow 62 to 186; Sidney 159 to 295.

When we consider the millions of dollars it takes to operate our state functions today, it is interesting to note the financial operations of the state government in 1827, seven years after Maine became a separate state. In that year total receipts were $124,935, and total expenditures $124,035, so that accounts were in the black by exactly $900.

Well, anyhow, that is the story of Maine population, manufactures, agriculture and government expenses as told by the geographer Moses Greenleaf 133 years ago. And now we must say Good Night for Old Times’ Sake.

Year: 1962