Radio Script #690

Little Talks on Common Things

May 8, 1966

In recent years we have been concerned because so many of the tall, graceful trees that gave Waterville the name of the Elm City have had to be cut down, while many of those still standing are ravaged by disease. I assure you such concern is not new. Waterville people had it more than half a century ago. In 1908 the Waterville Sentinel carried a two-column story under the following headlines: “Preserving the trees of the city. Doctors have been busy several weeks. Still have a great deal to do. Work is scientific and will prolong lives of the big patients.”

A part of the long story went as follows: “The stately elms that line our streets are getting along in years and many have reached a grand old age. So the owners felt the time had come to do everything possible to save these beautiful symbols of the Elm City. Dead limbs have been trimmed off. In the hollows where decay had started the tree surgeons have worked much as does a dentist on a tooth cavity. The decayed wood is dug out, then the cavity is thoroughly cleaned and filled with cement. In Augusta trees have been attacked by the elm tree louse, but our elms seem to be free from that pest.

“Trees have been doctored on most of our principal streets. The crew first went to work on the grounds of W.J. Lannigan on College Avenue. Ten trees were treated on the Plaisted lot at the corner of Main and Center Streets. Out on Burleigh Street 30 trees were trimmed.

“The work on our trees is meeting the approval of all citizens who know them to be one of our greatest assets.”

Half a century ago the interest of people in community decency and civic reform was much more active than it is today. At that time the Maine Civic League was under the charge of the Rev. Henry Pringle, a highly controversial figure. Naturally he was hated by the rum sellers and the professional gamblers, but there were also many good citizens who thought Pringle was too intolerant and too belligerent. He had considerable support, however, when he went after the many Waterville pool rooms in 1909.

When the city government met in April of that year, Mr. Pringle led a delegation of people from several churches to protest against certain pool room operations. Herbert L. Emery, as President of the Federation of Church Clubs, was the chief spokesman. He said that Waterville had more pool rooms in proportion to population than any other Maine city, and too many of them were not conducted according to law. Emery had no objection to the games of pool and billiards as such, but only to the conditions that surrounded those places.

Duly impressed, the city government instructed the City Marshall to see that no poolroom was open later than 10 p.m., that the place have a clear view from the street, and that minors be strictly excluded. They further voted to restrict the total number of pool rooms in Waterville to six.

One reason why the city government acted so strongly was the unified front put on by the men of the churches. Besides Emery, as head of the federated group, individual churches were ably represented. Harry Green spoke for the First Baptist . A.D. Dodge for Getchell Street, E.G. Wilson for the Methodists, Increase Robinson for the Congregationalists, and Harry Vose for the Universalists. Charles George said he and his fellow Syrians wanted order and decency in the city, and he pleaded, if the Syrians could have one of the six allotted poolrooms set aside for their use, he would guarantee its lawful and decent operation.

A week later Mr. Pringle was very much in the news. A county grand jury had indicted him for libel because of statements for which he had been responsible in a publication. It seems that Pringle had prepared what seemed an airtight case against certain alleged liquor sellers, when two of his key witnesses disappeared. He then stated in print: “Their disappearance creates the strong impression that intimidation or bribery was employed to prevent their testifying against David McGillicuddy, Harry Jones, John McNamara, Frank Griffin and Arthur Hamilton of Gardiner, and against Thomas McLaughlin and N.T. Quirion of Hallowell. Their lawyers were Fred Beane of Hallowell and George Haselton of Gardiner.” Then came the dangerous and possibly libelous sentence: “The clients were in a tight place, and we believe criminal methods were used to save them from getting their due.”

Mr. Pringle said his statement was based on a personal investigation in Oakland, where one of his vanished witnesses resided. The Sentinel went on to say: “Mr. Pringle talked freely about the indictment and showed no sign of anxiety. He plainly believes his position is strong and he is in no danger of conviction. Horace Purinton, treasurer of the Civic League. stated that the organization would back Mr. Pringle to the limit.”

Nothing ever came of the case. which was eventually settled out of court. While looking through an old scrapbook of newspaper clippings I ran across a reminder that almost every family, no matter how prominent, has at least one black sheep. I recalled, for instance, that Harriet Beecher Stowe had a son whose habitual drunkenness led to his complete disappearance in the far west; that a member of Maine’s Gannett family was tried for murder in San Francisco; and that we Marriners are said to have had an ancestor who was hanged for piracy on the high seas. Anyhow here is an item I encountered concerning the family of Samuel Francis Smith, author of “America” and at one time pastor of Waterville’s First Baptist Church.

The item appeared in the Waterville Sentinel on September 5, 1909: “Samuel F. Smith, Jr., son of the man who wrote ‘America’, died today in a hospital in Toronto, Canada, where he was taken from a train that was bearing him to Newton. Mass., to meet his family after five years’ separation. Smith was released on Thursday from the state prison at Anamosa, Iowa by the Governor, who pardoned him because of old age. Convicted of embezzlement of trust funds in Davenport, Iowa, Smith had served five years of a ten year sentence. This man was once one of the most highly respected citizens of Iowa. After serving as mayor of Davenport, he continued there as a lawyer, banker and church worker. He had many friends and no enemies. His palatial home was the scene of many social events. Suddenly whispers began to spread, followed by open charges. Smith was arrested and examination of his books showed that he had defaulted $100,000 of funds entrusted to him. He admitted his guilt and refused to plead for mercy. To the end he had the sympathy of many friends who did not desert him in his fall.”

Probably few people living now remember when Hayden Brook was practically an open sewer running through the western part of the city. Before I became a resident of Waterville in 1923, it had long been closed, but the deep gully through which it once ran still remained both north and south of Winter Street. The section that was once crossed by a wooden bridge near the junction of Winter and West Streets had already been filled in. Between West Street on one side and Sheldon Place on the other the gully was, and still is, deep, though in the 1920’s it was gradually being narrowed with ashes and rubbish from a wide area of homes. When my son was a small boy, he and his pals, George Stobie, George Byram and other kids used to play often in what they called “the gully”, though I suspect their mothers had some anxiety about the contact with possible disease such play invited.

So now I want to tell you about the enclosing of Hayden Brook 57 years ago. The plan was to put the waters of the brook into an underground tunnel emptying into the Messalonskee Stream south of Western Avenue. In August, 1909 the Sentinel reported: “About 200 feet of concrete have now been poured from Western Avenue to the edge of the stream. A crew of shovelers has cleared away a pile of earth beneath the electric car tracks on the avenue, while the work progresses. The underground sewer will then be complete from Winter Street to the Messalonskee. ”

The Sentinel went on to describe how the concrete was laid, because in 1909 the average person knew little about concrete.

“The inside of the mould is made by an iron frame that can be expanded or contracted by cross bars operated by turn-buckles. This inside mould is placed in position, then wooden moulds are placed on the outside. The motor driven mixer on the spot then pours wet concrete between the moulds, and it is left to harden. After the concrete is hard, the outside mould is removed and the turn-buckles are then loosened so that the iron frame can be taken out and moved on to the next station. The concrete is reinforced with steel, a band being placed the entire way around every 30 feet. Steel rods run lengthwise of the tunnel to give it additional strength. The tunnel has a diameter of 5t feet and manholes are placed at every bend.”

We owe to the historic sense of the Sentinel reporter of 57 years ago this account of what it was that had at last been closed in: “The concrete tunnel will contain the stream known as Hayden Brook. When Waterville’s sewer system was first contemplated, no provision was made for that part of the city west of the rise of ground that extends from behind the brickyard near the Fairfield line, south to the pumping station at Western Avenue. In fact there were then so few houses west of Pleasant Street that what little sewage there was was allowed to flow into Hayden Brook. As the western part of the city increased in population, the need for a proper sewer became apparent, and the natural place to put it was in the bed of Hayden Brook. Now the new sewer will take care of all the sewer pipes from the Gilman Field and its vicinity.”

Little did people then imagine that less than 40 years later a major reconstruction and enlargement of that Hayden Brook sewer would have to be made.

The same issue of the Sentinel that told about the closing of Hayden Brook also told about the coming of a new industry to Waterville. Only a few years earlier the city had hopes that its Sawyer Publishing Company on Chaplin Street would gain the same sort of national fame as had already been won by Comfort magazine and other Gannett publications at Augusta. But the Sawyer Company got into trouble, went bankrupt and had to close. For some time its big building on Chaplin Street had stood idle. So the Sentinel must have been pleased to be able to report as follows: “The building formerly occupied by the Sawyer Publishing Company is being cleared and will soon house the Kennebec Boat and Canoe Company. The machinery for the manufacture of canoes has been ordered and will arrive this month. Actual work will begin in September. The promoters of this enterprise are optimistic. Outdoor life is appealing to people more and more. Over in Old Town last year 4,500 canoes were made and sold. The same can be done here.”

Year: 1966