Radio Script #750

Little Talks on Common Things

January 7, 1968

This is the 750th broadcast of Little Talks on Common Things. Since each broadcast contains about 1,800 words, a total of 1,350,000 words have gone on the air in this program since it started in 1948. What a lot of unimportant, insignificant trivia has gone into those million and a third of English words! We have never pretended that this program has any historical importance, but just that it keeps reminding of little, inconsequential things that many people are glad not to forget. So whether we have talked about making potash or shoeing oxen, about Kennebec River longboats or wood-burning locomotives, about stage coaches or narrow-gauge trains — somebody has always been glad to listen. And to those numerous somebodies we are profoundly grateful.

Today I want to tell you about a very old, but very important, book about Maine. It is “A Survey of the State of Maine”, by Moses Greenleaf, published 139 years ago in 1829. Moses Greenleaf was the best known geographer and cartographer of Maine in the early years of statehood. The Greenleaf maps are internationally famous. A complete set is now available at the library of the University of Maine, thanks to the avid collecting of Maine items by Dr. Hahn of Friendship, whose widow gave these famous maps from the Hahn collection to the University.

When we realize how well industrialized is modern Maine, with its plants for paper, textiles, shoes, plastics and electronic items, we can see what a change has been made since Greenleaf published his Survey in 1829. Greenleaf gave then the following employment figures for Maine: agriculture 55,031; manufacturing 7,643; trade 4,297.

So thoroughly agricultural was Maine at that time that its export of farm products was truly impressive. In 1828 from the port of Portland alone there went out 74,230 lbs. of lard, 16,660 lbs. of butter, and 3,525 lbs. of cheese, as well as 4,789 bushels of corn and 4,316 bushels of potatoes. Perhaps the most surprising item was 5,133 barrels of flour that had been milled in Maine.

Greenleaf gives us the following statistics of Maine manufacturing in 1828. There were 200 tanneries, 75 carding mills, 59 fulling mills, 11 rope walks, 6 nail factories, and two iron forges. In that year there was made in the state 1,020,000 yards of woolen cloth, 60,000 hats, 1,265,000 nails, and coming from the tanneries were 55,000 dressed hides and skins. Greenleaf commented: “Most manufactures are conducted in small establishments, many in private families.”

Greenleaf pointed out that in shipbuilding Maine was the equal of any other state. Besides the major industries, the author noted that Maine produced large quantities of soap, candles, gunpowder, bricks and lime.

What were the major items that Maine had to import in 1829? First, and of major importance was salt, followed closely in terms of cost by molasses and rum. The cost of grindstones imported in 1828 had exceeded the cost of coffee. Other significant imports were tobacco, rice, tar, pitch and turpentine, earthenware and sugar. It is interesting that Greenleaf makes no mention of tea, although Maine people must have consumed a lot of it in 1828.

Greenleaf says that at that time Maine seemed to be naturally divided into four sections, centering respectively at Portland, Hallowell, Bangor and Calais. Greenleaf commented: “The upper waters of the Kennebec give to Hallowell a huge lumber trade, second only to that of the Penobscot at Bangor.”

Of the Kennebec River itself Greenleaf wrote: “This river has its rise in the same range of highlands as the Androscoggin. Its two principal sources, the Dead and Moose Rivers, pursue different courses until they unite about twenty miles below Moosehead Lake. From that place the river descends southerly, with a strong current and in many places obstructed by rapids and abrupt falls. From the foot of Skowhegan Falls it admits transportation by rafts to the tide at Augusta, but in some places the passage is attended with hazard, especially at Ticonic Falls between Waterville and Winslow. From Ticonic Falls the river is navigable for flat boats to Augusta, where it meets the tide. From Augusta vessels as large as 100 tons can be floated, and from Hallowell any merchant ships of ordinary size, all the way to the sea. The principal branches of the Kennebec are Seven Mile Brook entering at Anson, Sandy River at Starks, Sebasticook at Winslow, Cobbosseecontee at Gardiner, and Eastern at Dresden.”

Greenleaf ended his account of the Kennebec with this prediction: “At some future day, when the natural obstacles have been overcome by canals and locks, navigation will be possible all along the river and its major branches.” What Greenleaf could not possibly forsee in 1829 was the coming of the railroad, soon making Maine canals and locks hopelessly obsolete.

In 1829 Maine had twenty banks. One of those was in Waterville and another was in Vassalboro. In those days a mark of distinction for any bank was its undivided annual profits. In 1828 Vassalboro had done better than Waterville. While the Waterville Bank earned $401, the Vassalboro Bank netted $1,312.

A serious financial problem in the 1820’s was the quantity of notes circulated as money by individual banks. About that situation Greenleaf wrote: “Modern times have witnessed a new article of no intrinsic value in itself, to represent and take the place of metals as a medium of exchange. This is paper money. The facility with which it can be created and the temptation to produce it beyond the producer’s capacity to redeem it in metal renders its use extremely hazardous. Its use involves three major evils. The first evil comes from the issue of more bills than are necessary to conduct the usual exchanges of the community; the second is the lack of caution or even integrity on the part of the bankers; and the third evil comes in the periodic raids on banks, causing widespread hardship.

“The circulating medium in Maine”, Greenleaf continues, “consists chiefly of bills issued by banks within the state. The value of those bills, in terms of gold and silver, depends upon each bank’s having in its vaults a sufficient quantity of gold and silver coins to exchange promptly for any of its bills presented. Until the state maintains better regulation of its banks than the laws now require, the paper money circulated by those banks may always be subject to discount.”

The usual center of retail trade in 1829 was the general store. Noting that such a store sold groceries, dry goods, clothing, shoes, hardware, harnesses, farm tools, and kitchenware, we are likely to think those stores had a lot of money tied up in inventory. Such actually was not the case. Greenleaf gives us the figures for total stock in all the stores in each of the principal Maine towns in 1828. Waterville then had more than twenty stores, but their total stock was only $30,000. Augusta had only a third as much, $10,000. Hallowell, then the chief commercial town of Central Maine, had stores whose stock came to $48,000. But just consider the small worth of store inventories in some other Kennebec towns: Winslow $3,800; Vassalboro $2,200; China $700; Sidney $450; Albion $300; and Belgrade $100. Largest store stock in Somerset County was not at Skowhegan, which had $1,000, but at Athens with $11,000. Norridgewock had six times as much as Skowhegan, Palmyra twice as much, and Pittsfield as a separate town didn’t even exist.

In Maine’s early days land grants were made not only to the colleges, but also to the academies. While Maine was still a part of Massachusetts, Bowdoin had been granted 194,000 acres in Maine, and Waterville College 30,000. Most of the academies before 1820 had been granted one township each, differing in acreage from 23,000 to 30,000 acres, but after 1820 Maine was inclined to be less generous, parceling out its academy grants half a township at a time. Greenleaf pointed out that the total of college and academy grants in the state had reached nearly 500,000 acres by 1829.

It is interesting to note how often the allotted lands were nowhere near the institution they were designed to aid. The land for Waterville College was in the wilderness above Old Town on the Penobscot River. Hallowell Academy’s grant was in what is now the town of Harmony; Monmouth Academy’s lands were in Hartford and Livermore and islands in the Androscoggin River. Gorham Academy’s lands were in Woodstock, Hebron’s in Monson, and Bridgton’s in Maxfield. The numerous grants to Bowdoin College were scattered: in Dixmont and Etna, in Foxcroft and Guilford, in Abbott and Sebec, as well as 46,000 acres in Somerset County.

Greenleaf wrote his “Survey” ten years before the bloodless Aroostook War, but he was well aware of the controversy that would cause that outbreak. He wrote: “The whole history of Maine, from the earliest settlements to the present day, exhibits a continued series of encroachments on her northern and eastern borders. The recent pretensions of Great Britain to the northern section of Maine have originated in Britain’s grasping cupidity, as of old. Such a bold attempt to steal Maine territory may yet awaken the American people and preserve the liberties we so bravely won.”

Finally let us see what Greenleaf had to say about Waterville College: “The permanent property and funds of Waterville College consist of a township of land of about 30,000 acres, granted by the Legislature of Massachusetts. It is not desirable land, being far from habitations, and has total value of not more than $10,000. The college owns 178 acres in Waterville, valued at $2,500, has buildings worth $14,000, a library of 1,700 volumes valued at $2,000, and philosophical apparatus at $1,000. The total assets of the college, including its Penobscot lands, do not exceed $30,000. For income the college has annually $1,000 from the state, $650 from tuition, $300 from gifts, $250 from rent of rooms to students, and $500 from sale of lands. In 1829 total income was about $2,700.”

Year: 1968