Radio Script #740

Little Talks on Common Things

October 29, 1967

For some time I have wanted to see whether a marker still stood on the bank of the Kennebec designating the town line between Waterville and Sidney. The town line is clearly marked on the highway we know as the River Road, and it is on the Sherrard farm. Except for the help of my friend Norman Mathews, former principal of Waterville Senior High School, I might never have gotten around to looking up the old river bank marker. But one day this September Norman and I set out together to find the place. I fear we would have been completely frustrated except for a wonderful, exceedingly kind gentleman, who insists on remaining anonymous. He is a life-long resident of the River Road and is known throughout the region as one who can be called at any hour of day or night to help a neighbor or even a stranger.

That man knew exactly where the marker stands, and he insisted on accompanying us to the spot. It is fortunate that he did, because the object is so concealed by thick undergrowth that we might never have found it. But there it is, just as it was placed 142 years ago. It is a small granite stone, on the west side of which, facing inland from the river, is inscribed W-S, standing for Waterville and Sidney, and beneath the letters is the date 1825.

About 100 yards north of the marker stone is all that remains of the foundation of what old timers called the freight house. In fact the road leading from the paved River Road down to this spot was once called the stage road, although it saw more freight wagons than it did passenger stages. However at one time, on the river edge, there was a landing, where the long boats stopped to embark and discharge both passengers and freight. So, high on the shore was built a structure for the keeping of goods safe from weather or theft, if there happened to be a long time between boats. At the freight house also could be arranged the details of boat passage.

The very helpful resident of the area who accompanied Mr. Mathews and me told us that the area of the landing was once an island and that what is now completely dry land on the west side was long ago another channel of the river. That explains why the remains of the old freight house are so far — a full quarter of a mile  — from the present bank of the Kennebec.

It has been my privilege recently to examine a record book kept by a Waterville insurance agent in the 1870’s. The agent apparently handled only fire insurance and the book tells us not only how much certain property was covered by insurance, but also what it cost to insure it. Unfortunately we cannot tell you the name of the man who kept this record of his insurance business because nowhere in the book is there any clue to his identity. We only know that a few years ago the book came to light in one of the older homes on Waterville’s Winter Street.

The first item in the book is of a policy issued to Colby University, as Colby College was then called. After Gardiner Colby gave his donation that saved the college from closing in the anxious days at the end of the Civil War, the grateful trustees not only named the college for him, but also gave it the more glamorous title of university. So in 1867 Waterville College had become Colby University.

In 1873 this particular insurance agent issued a policy in the Aetna Insurance Co. to Colby University for $5.000. Since the university paid a premium of $75 for that policy for one year. the premium rate was 1t per cent. Four months later Colby took another policy for $5,500. Colby was not the only institution insured by this particular agent. The Unitarian Society took a policy for $4.000; the Waterville Savings Bank one for $2,000.

One of Waterville’s leading industries was insured by this agent. In 1875 C.F. Hathaway took seven different policies totaling $30,000. A manufacturing firm in Oakland, then a part of Waterville and called West Waterville, insured their property through this Waterville agent. That firm was Emerson, Stevens and Co. Other business interests with policies recorded in this old book were Arnold and Meader, J. Peavy and Brothers, Foster and Gray, J. Penney and Brothers, Hubbard, Blake and Co., G.l. Robinson & Co., Philbrick and Elden, E. Blumenthal and Co., and T.E. Ramstead & Co.

Prominent citizens of Waterville are well represented in these insurance records of nearly a century ago. Appearing frequently is the name of Dr. Nathaniel Boutelle, son of Waterville’s early lawyer and financier, Timothy Boutelle. The Redington family is lavishly represented, policies being issued during the six years covered by this record to Silas, Harriet, Charles and four other Redingtons. Other familiar family names sprinkled through the pages are Mathews, Alden, Soule, Plaisted, Gallert, Getchell, Bangs, McFadden, Hubbard and Crommett. Most of the policies were small, for $1,000 or $2,000. The largest was one to Charles Hathaway for $10,000.

Occasionally an item is accompanied by an explanatory line, especially when the insurance was upon something other than real estate. For instance, in 1875 four policies were issued on the same day to I. S. Bangs. One for $2,000 was labeled “stock in storehouse”; one for $1,000 for “stock in shed”; one for $400 on “potato house in Burnham”; and a fourth for $2,000 on stock in another storehouse.

In 1876 the agent issued a policy for $3,000 to the Town of Waterville.

Of course policies were not always renewed. Sometimes at the time of issue a notation was made in the record book “not to be renewed”. On other occasions the agent couldn’t get word from the insured if the latter happened to live out of town. So in 1877, concerning a policy issued to Mrs. B. Hunter of Clinton, the agent noted “written to but not heard from”.

While most of the insured persons lived in Waterville or near by, a few lived far away, though the insured property was probably local. In 1878 a policy was made for I.B. Percival of Philadelphia, and what was very evidently local Roman Catholic property to Rt. Rev. D.B. Bacon of Portland. F.E. Edson & Son of Boston took a policy for $2,000. Another went to George Getchell of Waukegan, Illinois.

Such, in brief summary, is a glimpse at the business of an insurance agent in Waterville ninety years ago.

Now I want to return to one of our favorite subjects, Maine’s narrow gauge railroads. This summer I had a chance to examine the annual reports of Maine Railroad Commissioners made in the decade from 1880 to 1890. That was the period when the narrow gauge lines were just coming into popular notice, and I was interested to see what the state commission had to say about them.

The report for 1881 said: “Five new railroad corporations have been organized during the year. One of those is the Bridgton and Saco River R.R. Co. That road will extend from Bridgton Center, through Bridgton, Sebago and Denmark, to a point on the line of the Portland and Ogdensburg RR in the town of Hiram, a distance of 16 miles.

Before the commission report of 1882 came out, the promoters of the Bridgton and Saco River were already in trouble. The 1882 report said: “The B & SR was served with an injunction by the Maine Supreme Court, and in consequence suspended operation for the season. It has since had the injunction removed, and during the present year has located its road, put it under contract, and now has it nearly completed. It has been constructed at two-foot gauge, to bring the cost within the financial means of the corporation. It is believed that, at this gauge, it will be equal to the convenient transportation of all passengers and freight.

By the time the 1883 report appeared the B & SR was in regular operation under its president, William Perry, founder and operator of one of Bridgton’s three large woolen mills. The treasurer was Perley Burnham, a dry goods merchant, whose grandson now in 1967 is a prominent physician of Gorham. The 1883 commissioner’s report tells us that the B & SR had capital stock issued amounting to $88,556; that there were 84 stockholders, all but four of whom resided in Maine; that besides its funded debt of $80,000, the corporation unfortunately owed more than $27,000 of compounded obligations. Cost of construction of the 16 miles of narrow gauge had been $166,000 and equipment had cost $26,000. When the B & SR closed its books in 1883 it had cash assets of $3,735.

The next year, in 1884, the commission said: “The B & SR has widened its roadbed, and has raised and ballasted its track at many points. Its trains run as steadily as do those on most standard gauge roads. We regard the B & SR as a first class narrow gauge road.”

Six years later, in 1890, the B & SR had in that year carried 14,096 passengers and had made net income of $6,068. Its rolling stock then consisted of two locomotives, two passenger cars, a combined baggage, mail and express car, 10 box cars, and 8 flat cars.

The commission’s first mention of a narrow gauge line much nearer Waterville, the Wiscasset and Quebec came in 1894. The report said: “The Wiscasset and Quebec, as contemplated, will extend from Wiscasset through Alna, Whitefield, Windsor, China and Unity Plantation to Burnham on the line of the Maine Central. Almost 19 miles of track have already been laid.”

In 1895 the commissioners could announce that the Wiscasset & Quebec had been completed to Albion. It had cost $328,000 and its first year of operation had seen a deficit with expenses at $6,065, and income only $2,845. But 1896 saw better fortune for the road the riders would one day call the Weak, Weary and Feeble. In 1895 it had carried only 2,053 passengers; in 1896 the number was 12,037.

Meanwhile the street car lines were coming in and the commissioners had to reckon with them, especially where the tracks crossed those of the steam roads. The 1890 report said of the Waterville and Fairfield Horse Railroad that it carried 250,614 passengers during the year. In 1896, after the Waterville and Fairfield had been electrified, the report said: “Built originally for a horse car line, this road’s rails are light and its ties farther apart than ought to accommodate an electric road, but many ties have recently been added, and we consider the line safe and in good repair.”

And with that salute to long abandoned steam and electric railroads of long ago, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1967