Radio Script #571

Little Talks on Common Things

March 31, 1963

Tonight in our consideration of old time Waterville, let us first take a look at the earliest town orders. As I am sure most of my listeners know, payment of town bills has always been made by a town order, signed by a required number of selectmen and drawn on the town treasurer. Now it often happened in the early days that the treasury was empty until the tax bills became due. because the now common practice of borrowing money for the town in anticipation of taxes had not then come into vogue. Consequently the holder of a town order, even a needy school teacher, had only two recourses. He could either hold on to the order until the town had some money, or he could sell the order to a merchant at a discount. The latter practice was by far the more common, and many a shrewd trader made good money by discounting town orders at rates anywhere from five to twenty per cent, according to the credit of the town.

Among the papers found last year at Waterville’s City Hall were the very first town orders, carefully preserved in tied bundles throughout the years. By far the greater number of those early orders are payments to the school teachers.

Although, from the time of its incorporation in 1802, Waterville had from ten to eighteen school districts, all bills were paid by the town treasurer. The school appropriation was allotted to the several districts according to the number of pupils, and the district supervisor had complete control of hiring the teacher and operating the school within his district allotment, but the teacher was paid by town order on the town treasurer.

The very first order drawn on October 13, 1802 did not concern the schools, however. It had to do with preservation of the town records. Here is the wording of that first order: “To Mr. David Pattee, Treasurer of Waterville. Pay to the order of Abijah Smith, town clerk, $13. 16, being the sum due him for a set of blank books that he purchased for the town.”

Abijah Smith was a prominent citizen of early Waterville and his descendants have played a prominent part in the community. Mrs. Minnie Smith, who has long been a valuable trustee of the Waterville Public Library, is the widow of Abijah Smith’s great-grandson~ Another descendant was Mrs. Frank B. Hubbard, well known teacher of music. It was Abijah Smith and Waterville’s first physician, Dr. Obadiah Williams, who gave to the town the land that now comprises the common and the site of City Hall.

One of the early orders that did deal with the schools is especially interesting, because it shows that, when Waterville became a separate town in 1802, there was no school house on the west side of the river. If there had been a public school house at that time, it would certainly have been located in the most settled part of the town. the part known as Ticonic Village, situated along the lower part of Main and Front Streets. Just note what this old town order tells us: “October 16. 1802. Pay to Jeremiah Fairfield $24, it being for the use of a house in Ticonic Village to keep school in, and the money he paid Miss Emily Appleton to keep school.”

This is the first town order referring to the Appleton family, Miss Emily, was the daughter of Dr. Moses Appleton. who, rather than Dr. Williams, should really be called Waterville’s first professional, practicing physician, because Dr. Williams seems to have devoted most of his time to other pursuits, although he did hold a license to practice medicine. The first order that mentions Dr. Appleton himself was also the first order issued for payment of medical services to the town poor. It was issued April 16, 1803 and said: “Pay to Moses Appleton $10.03, it being due him for notifying town meeting and for visits and medicine to the town’s poor, including $1.79 due him previous to the division of the town in 1802.”

Later in 1803 Dr. Appleton presented a bill for $40 that he had paid out in hiring preaching at the town meeting house in Ticonic Village, in accordance with vote of the town commissioning him to attend to that matter. For some reason the selectmen would allow the doctor only $32. Since Dr. Appleton had a reputation for scrupulous honesty, we must assume that he was out of pocket $8, to say nothing of his time and trouble in rounding up itinerant preachers.

Now listen to a few of the old town orders selected at random from among the several hundred that have been preserved:

“Feb. 20, 1824 – Pay to Abel Wheeler $1.00 for making a guide board.

“March 24. 1824 – Pay to Charles Pierce $14.50 for teaching school and finding wood in District 9.

“Feb. 10. 1827 – Pay to Dr. Haris Hobbs $11.50 for visits and medicine to Gannon Quimby and Joanne Day, paupers of the town.

“June 29. 1838 – Pay to Samuel Tozier $2.00 for burying two French children.

“July 24. 1840 – Pay to Abel Getchell $1.00 for work on Emerson Bridge.

“Sept. 28, 1807 – Pay to Ebenezer Bacon $2.00 for bringing a writ of error against Capt. Nehemiah Getchell.

“Dec. 15. 1826 – Pay to Reuben Shorey $4.00 for keeping three pauper children.

“Sept. 25, 1809 – Pay to Benjamin Kidder $20 for boarding and clothing Old Shannon and wife.

“March 22, 1824 – Pay to Daniel Fairfield $4.00 for keeping the East Meeting House.

“May 15. 1824 – Pay to Samuel Warren $1.33 for making a pair of shoes for  Samuel Thurston’s widow.”

In 1825 Oliver Marston presented to the town a bill for $4.90, consisting of four items extending in time from June, 1824 to April, 1825. One item was listed as “one day’s work. 90 cents”. Another was “repairing the long bridge. $1.75.”

This quadruple bill of Marston’s reveals the meticulous care taken by the selectmen in early days concerning even the smallest bills. Written on the back of Marston’s bill are these words: “At a meeting of the three auditors of accounts, Daniel Wheeler and Timothy Boutelle agreed to allow Marston $3.45 instead of the $4.90 that he claimed. James Stackpole dissented, being of the opinion that nothing ought to be allowed.”

In those days 150 years ago every town was responsible for certain expenses incurred by its militia company, especially for the annual musters. On July 6,  1816 a Waterville town order was drawn to pay David Pattee $3.00 for services due him in 1814,and remaining unpaid, for fitting of the soldiers. In 1824 Baxter Crowell was paid $10.60 for money advanced to pay soldiers’ rations.

When it became the custom to have specially built vehicles for funerals, they were not provided by undertakers, but at the expense of the town. By 1830 almost every incorporated town in Maine owned a town hearse. Waterville got its first one in 1826, and the old town order preserved at City Hall shows what it cost: “May 20, 1826. Pay to Erastus Wheeler $20 for a hearse for the town.”

Oliver Marston’s bill that auditor James Stackpole voted not to approve in 1825 was by no means the last bill to encounter opposition, according to the old Waterville records. One such bill was the occasion of a letter written to the selectmen by a resident of Bangor in 1851. In fact the letter covered not one but several bills that referred to the services of the town agent. the office we now call city solicitor. The Bangor man had evidently lived in Waterville and had something to do with the cases for which the agent had submitted bills. Anyhow, this is what the letter from Bangor said: “Yours concerning Bert Smith’s bills has been duly received, and I hasten to reply that. in my opinion, they are unduly large and altogether inadmissible. I cannot tell how much you ought to pay him, but I venture the opinion that onehalf of the bills charged would amply pay him. You will probably have to try his case before some jury, but you might first see what Stackpole can do with him.

“It is easy enough to swell bills for cost. A few such town agents would ruin the town, and such business would give a lawyer good pay, even if he had no other business, and I believe that was the case with Smith. I should offer Smith one half his claim or let him sue. I would not pay him except under compulsion of the Court.”

Among the old records at City Hall are many vital statistics. As one examines the ancient returns submitted by Waterville physicians, one can only be shocked by the tearful toll exacted by diseases which modern medical science now has under control. One such dread disease was diphtheria. When I was a boy in the last decade of the 19th century, one young cousin died of that disease, and we know that modern antibiotics, had they then been available, could have saved his life. Diphtheria always struck hard at the young. In September, 1864 not even a thoroughly competent and well trained Waterville doctor could save his own child, for at that time Dr. Nathaniel Boutelle and his wife. MaryKeely Boutelle, lost their eleven year old son when diphtheria invaded the town. A month later it caused the death of nine year old Mary Ida Webb. and soon after it took Lucy Jacobs. Nor did the disease spare older persons, for Susan Smith, unmarried 44 year old daughter of Abijah Smith, succumbed to the malady.

Long before urban renewal became an issue, the right of eminent domain had more than once been the cause of controversy in Waterville. I suppose no road of any consequence was ever laid out here without someone complaining because it took a piece of his land. Such was the case in 1829, when no less a person than Waterville’s wealthiest citizen, Nathaniel Gilman, became involved in a controversy.

On April 11. 1829 the following agreement was drawn up between Gilman and the selectmen of Waterville: “Whereas the Town of Waterville has accepted a road extending from the town road near Dr. Chase’s house across the swamp to the county road near David McFarland’s house; and whereas Nathaniel Gilman has made a claim against the town for damage done to him by the establishment of said road over his land, and Gilman and the selectmen have not been able to agree to the amount of damage; therefore it is agreed by Gilman and the selectmen that the claim shall be referred to the determination of Francis Swan of Winslow and Abel Hoxie of Fairfield, and the parties agree to abide by the decision of those two referees.”

On the back of the paper is entered the finding of the referees. They awarded Gilman, who was already worth half a million dollars, the munificent sum of $65 damages, and for their services as referees the two arbitrators collected two dollars apiece.

Year: 1963