Radio Script #551

Little Talks on Common Things

November 11, 1962

Among many papers and pamphlets preserved over the years by Waterville’s prominent tailor, the late Luke Brown, are two anniversary programs of Havelock Lodge, Knights of Pythias, of which Mr. Brown was Chancellor Commander in 1908. One of those old programs was for the 25th anniversary of the lodge in 1907, the other was for its 50th anniversary in 1932.

Back in 1907 any meal called a banquet was truly a feast. The menu, for which the Pythian Sisters were the caterers on the celebration of Havelock’s 25th birthday, began with oysters on the half shell, followed by roast turkey with all the fixings, four vegetables, a variety of salads, escalloped oysters, cold ham and cold tongue. For dessert there was harlequin ice cream and assorted cakes, followed by nuts, raisins, grapes and coffee.

Through its first half century the best known member of the local KP lodge was Waterville’s late postmaster, Edgar Brown. A young man in 1907, he was then chairman of the anniversary committee. Serving with him were Luke Brown, Sel Whitcomb, Dr. Luther Bunker and Warren Philbrook. Philbrook Was toastmaster at the banquet.

Organized in 1882, Havelock Lodge had elected as its first chancellor Commander A. H. Plaisted. The lodge then met in the Dunn Block, now the Crescent Hotel, but soon moved to the Ware Hall over the Wardwell store. Their next move was to the upper floor of the Plaisted Block, where they were still located at the time of their 25th anniversary.

The lodge formed its first Uniform Rank Company in 1890 under the captaincy of Horace Stewart. Prominent throughout the printed program Was the motto of the order: “Friendship, Charity, Benevolence.” When I was a small boy I remember well the big shield with the letters FCB that used to hang below a window of the old KP hall in Bridgton, which was situated on the third floor of that town’s largest block. I have always remembered what a local merchant told us boys. When we asked him what FCB stood for, he replied, “Fools can’t belong”.

That 25th year program of Havelock Lodge contained a picture of the 1907 officers and 32 individual photos. Some of the pictures of men then young, but who later rose to prominence, were Warren Philbrook, Frank Redington, E. C. Wardwell, Frank Smith, Dr. L. G. Bunker, John Davison, Sel Whitcomb and Edgar Brown.

Twenty-five years later, when the lodge celebrated its 50th birthday, Edgar Brown was again chairman of the anniversary committee and himself presided at the banquet, again served by the Pythian Sisters, but with less variety of foods than in 1907. The menu in 1932 called for fruit cup, roast turkey, appropriate vegetables, pies and doughnuts.

In 1932 the lodge had moved to quarters it would long occupy in the Sentinel Building on Silver Street. Between the 25th and the 50th anniversaries some of the chancellors who had become well known in the community were Fred McAlary, John L. Thomas, Frank Joseph and Frank Merrick.

As I have already indicated the best known and most active KP in Waterville Was Edgar Brown. He joined the Waterville lodge in 1897, when he was 21 years old. He became a member of the Grand Lodge of Maine in 1902, served as Grand Chancellor in 1911, and for twenty years from 1912 to 1932 was Grand Keeper of Records and Seals. Brown served three terms as chancellor of his own lodge and was its Keeper of Records and Seals for ten years.

Looking through an issue of the old Waterville Mail printed in the summer of 1906, I was struck by some of the little one-inch advertising cards clustered on one page. Those cards bring to mind several persons prominent in Waterville half a century ago.

There were the two dentists, E. L. Jones and G. W. Hutchins; three insurance agents, W. A. Cowing, C. K. Mathews and Anna Drummond. Wells Express was engaged in furniture moving and storage. There was A. M. Dunbar, the book binder; Benjamin Towne, real estate agent; Dana Foster and Dennis Bowman, attorneys at law; and W. J. Leathers, the truckman.

Did you know that automobile insurance was available as early as 1906? In that year Boothby and Bartlett carried a large display ad that read: “Automobile accidents. Insure with the Employers Liability Insurance Corporation and be protected against all claims.”

Graduation at Coburn in 1906 was held an June 22. Among the graduates was Pauline Herring, now retired after many years of teaching at the famous Waynflete School in Portland. Another well known Coburn graduate of that year was Edward Stacy, who later served with distinction as Executive Secretary of the Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce. But the member of that Coburn Class of 1906 who attained widest national fame Was Merle Crowell, who became editor of the monthly periodical with the greatest circulation of its time, the American Magazine; then became Director of Public Relations for Rockefeller Center; and ended his career in a prominent position on The Reader’s Digest.

The prominence of Coburn in 1906 is shown by the fact that on June 23 the Waterville Mail devoted more than three columns to the school’s annual meeting of its alumni association. Speakers were George Otis Smith, chairman of the Coburn trustees; Guy Chipman, a teacher at the school; Norman K. Fuller, soon to be Mayor of Waterville; Rev. Edwin C. Whittemore, a graduate and prominent trustee; President Charles Lincoln White of Colby; Hon. Frederic Boothby, Frank Redington, Carroll Perkins and Rev. Fred M. Preble of Auburn. The Mail gave an account of each man’s speech.

The same issue of the Mail devoted a column to the meeting of the Coburn trustees. It was the close of Mr. Stevenson’s first year as principal, and the board gave him their enthusiastic approval and applauded what their resolution called his “faithful, able and unselfish service”. They adopted an official school seal and approved plans for a summer school.

In that long ago summer of 1906 Coburn was doing something that Colby College is doing today. It was seeking to raise matching funds. Just as Colby now seeks to raise $3.6 million to match a magnificent gift by the Ford Foundation, so in 1906 Coburn was trying to raise $25,000 to match an equal amount given by the Coburn family of Skowhegan. It was not the first time the Coburn family had been generous to the Waterville school. Governor Abner Coburn had given the splendid building on Elm Street in memory of his brother Stephen and his nephew Charles. The Governor also gave $50,000 toward the school’s endowment, and in gratitude for his generosity the trustees changed the name from Waterville Academy to Coburn Classical Institute. From time to time other members of the family had made significant gifts.

The public appeal for the matching $25,000 said this: tllf Coburn is to continue in the front rank of New England academies, it must have increased income. Part of that increase must come from larger endowment. That is why the trustees now seek to provide immediately $5o,000 of additional invested funds. The Coburn family has already pledged half of that amount, on condition that we raise the other half by general subscription. The Coburns will pay their pledge as fast as others pay theirs. Han. W. S. Libby of Lewiston had pledged $1,000 and Han. Leslie C. Cornish of Augusta $500. It is now Waterville’s turn and opportunity.

If its citizens will sustain a school that stands first in Maine in proportion of students it has sent to college, there will be no difficulty in reaching our goal.”

In 1906 the Coburn principal was George Stanley Stevenson. Ten local trustees signed the public appeal that appeared in both the Waterville Sentinel and the Waterville Mail. They were George K. Boutelle, President of the Ticonic Bank; Cyrus W. Davis, candidate for governor; H. R. Dunham, founder of the now nationally known Dunham’s of Maine; Governor William T. Haines; Dr. J. F. Hill, booster of many public enterprises; Horace Purinton, the contractor and builder; George Dana Boardman Pepper, former President of Colby; Charles Lincoln White, the current Colby president; Dr. Frederick C. Thayer, the city’s leading physician; and finally the then Baptist pastor and later state secretary of his denomination, Edwin C. Whittemore.

As we went from the Knights of Pythias to Coburn Classical Institute, let us now go from Coburn to our frequent subject of railroads.

Fifty years ago it was common practice for the railroads to hand out free passes. The rail companies issued those passes so extensively, especially to the families of Congressmen and state legislators, as well as to their larger freight customers, that the abuse became a national scandal. That is why, in 1906, Congress passed a law abolishing the practice that had continued formore than half a century substantially in the form of its early adoption. The new law said: “No carrier engaged in interstate commerce shall directly or indirectly issue a free ticket or pass for transportation, or otherwise allow free transport, to any person except officers, agents and employees, and attorneys exclusively in the service of the issuing carrier, or to ministers of religion, inmates of hospitals or of eleemosynary or charitable institutions.

Those exceptions explain why clergymen got passes on the railroads until comparatively recent times, and even today get reduced fares on some roads. It also explains how it was possible for an unscrupulous traveler to obtain free passage for a traveling companion on the grounds that he was taking that companion to the insane hospital. Yes, it is alleged that men sometimes got a free ride for their wives in just that way.

In May, 1906 for disturbing the peace, there were placed under arrest in Buxton, Maine “Holy Jumpers”. I am sure many of us have heard of the “Holy Rollers”. Was “Holy Jumpers” another name for the same sect, or was it applied to an entirely different group? Does any listener know?

Year: 1962