Radio Script #813

Little Talks on Common Things

September 28, 1969

On one of the summer broadcasts I asked listeners for more information about the old Congregational Church that long preceded the Adams Memorial at Getchells Corner in Vassalboro. At once Raymond Manson. a resident of Waterville. but formerly of Vassalboro. where he is still an influential officer in the Vassalboro Historical Society, has responded to my request. On the town of Vassalboro and on the old Oak Grove Seminary (now the Oak Grove School for Girls) Mr. Manson is an authority.

On this earlier broadcast I stated that the old Vassalboro meeting house of the Congregationalists was sold in the 1840’s. Mr. Manson now supplies detailed information. He tells me that the old building was erected in 1816. when the Reverend Thomas Adams was busy establishing or reviving churches of the orthodox Congregational faith in the Kennebec Valley. The original builders and proprietors of that first meeting house at Getchells Corner were Samuel Redington, John Hall and Thomas Carlton. The exact size of the building is not given in the records. but it did have a gallery in addition to the main floor. Until 1831 the only heat came from a single stove, and those seated farthest from it could get pretty well chilled before the end of the long service customary in those days. A second stove installed in 1831. brought some relief. Five years later a second Congregational Church was organized in Vassalboro, but in 1840 it united with the older church.

It was in 1843 that one of the three proprietors, John Hall. left the church to join the Methodists. This so split the ownership of the building that the three agreed to dispose of the property. The act of the Maine Legislature permitting this action was approved on March 6, 1844. The following spring — to be exact, on April 7. 1845 — the building was sold at auction. It was sold to David Town. and what do you think was his successful high bid? It was just five dollars. On May 10, 1845 the deed was passed over to Mr. Town. In the following December Town sold the building to a new set of three proprietors, who besides Enoch Brown and Moses Rollins, included the original John Hall, whose dissention with the Congregationalists had caused the property to be sold. Of the original proprietors, Samuel Redington was a brother of Asa Redington, whose Waterville home is now the museum of the Waterville Historical Society. Moses Rollins was grandfather of Professor Emeritus Cecil Rollins of Colby College.

The old meeting house, after its sale to Rollins and his two associates, was shared for services by three denominations: Congregationalists, Methodists and Universalists. Later still it was used by the Free Baptists. Before the Civil War the Universalists were very active in Vassalboro, holding summer camp meetings that drew as many as a thousand persons in a grove near the Oak Grove School. Those camp meetings were so popular that the Maine Central ran special trains to the Vassalboro station.

About 1865 the Methodists moved into the old academy building at Getchells Corner and the Congregationalists built the Adams Memorial Chapel across the street. Thus the old meeting house had had its day, and on November 4, 1887, the Waterville Mail carried the following item: “The old yellow meeting house that for over 70 years has shown so conspicuously from the hill, has been moved to Mr. Sawtelle’s farm, where it will be used for a barn.” That barn burned on October 15, 1964, and all that is now left of the old building are hand-forged nails mounted on a board in the Vassalboro Society’s museum at North Vassalboro.

Some of Mr. Manson’s information came from an old deed, dated December 29, 1845, that is still preserved. It is the deed by which David Town conveyed the building to Hall, Brown and Rollins for the same amount he had paid for it — five dollars. How the building was to be used by the three new proprietors is set forth in that deed in these words: “The said Hall, Brown and Rollins and their successors are to hold said meeting house for the sole use and accommodation of the pew holders therein of the three following denominations of Christians; namely, Universalist, Methodist and Congregationalist, each of whom are to occupy it with minister of their own order one third of the time; the Methodist on the first Sunday in January, the Congregationalists on the second Sunday, and the Universalists on the third; the same order to continue throughout the remaining Sundays of the year. It is understood that the society worshipping on any Sunday are to have the use and enjoyment of the house on any day following for religious purposes until the next Sunday.”

Then the deed provided for meeting expense of upkeep in these words: “For the purpose of defraying the expenses of repairs made upon said meeting house by members of the different denominations, I hereby authorize said Hall, Brown and Rollins to sell by auction or private sale the pews in said house, provided they all concur in each sale. and that the owner of each pew shall contribute his proportion of any reasonable expense for repairs of said house.”

Preserved is Enoch Brown’s own deed to Pew No.8, dated January 1, 1846. That deed laid down the following conditions under which Brown should retain ownership of the pew: “that said meeting house shall always be occupied by the three different denominations of Congregationalists, Methodists and Universalists; and that the pew owner shall pay his proprotion of any reasonable expenses for repair of said house, by tax or otherwise.”

So once again, as has been often the case in the past, we are indebted to Mr. Raymond Manson for completing our information on the old Vassalboro Meeting House.

When we consider today’s inflation and the present cost of our municipal government, it is interesting to see what it cost to operate public facilities in Waterville in the last year that Waterville was run under town government, just before it became a city. That year was 1884, and the selectmen, who in those days were always called the town fathers, were Nathaniel Meader, C.E.Mitchell and George Jewell.

Now let us take a look at the 1884 expenses. To operate all the Waterville schools– all the school costs — the total was only $7,150, divided between $5,350 for the common schools and $1,800 for the high school. Work on the roads, including the opening of one, short new highway, cost $4,000. Electricity had not yet come to Waterville, but the oil lamp street lights cost $800 for the lamp lighter and all supplies. While $1,500 was expended on the fire department, the entire cost of police was $200, but the town report gave as a separate charge the cost of the town’s night watchman, $1,500. The town spent $50 on Monument Park, $1,000 on the Ticonic Bridge, and $500 on the reservoirs that served as supplies of water to fight fires in the business section before the coming of the city water system. All expenses, including $3,000 for support of the poor, and numerous miscellaneous items, totaled only $23,000, quite a different amount from the seven figure Waterville expenses annually in recent years.

The list of 1884 expenditures contains several items that seem unusual to us today. Wood for the lockup $4.88; care of the town clock $23.85; labor on the town pound $1.00; band stand repairs $6.00; new ballot box 85 cents; watering trough $3.00; care of corpses burned in the lockup $3.00.

The new street I previously mentioned was an extension of Water Street below Grove Street. The town also spent $13 for a new sidewalk on Mill Street, now Western Avenue, and $35 for a steam fire engine.

In the long list of paupers who were helped, there were a dozen who received as little as $2.00 during the whole year; on the other hand one family got $175 in food and other supplies, and two others more than $100 each. On the town farm there were eight paupers, ranging in age from 47 to 81. In its year’s operation that farm had a deficit of $710. The town fathers in every Maine town liked to see the town farm break even through the sale of its produce, but Waterville’s farm could never quite make it.

What would today’s teachers think of their profession’s salaries in 1884? Except for the high school principalship, which in that year was divided between Warren Philbrook and E.H. Smiley at an annual rate of $1,000, the highest paid teacher in the Waterville system was Minnie Smith at the high school. She was paid $500. The top salaried elementary teacher was Alice Drummond at $500; the others got from $320 to $360. except for one girl who was paid only $300. In the entire system there were only 20 teachers at anyone time, though 25 different ones served during the year. In 1884 Waterville was operating 14 school houses. They were the high school, the first and second grammar schools, the north and south intermediate, seven primary schools called respectively the North, the South, the Mill Street, the Oak Street, the Plains and the South Plains. Of the old rural district schools, only two were left, the Webb District and the Neck District.

It is interesting to note some of the articles in the warrant placed before the voters at the 1884 town meeting. One of them read: “To see if the town will take any action on sewerage and raise money for the same.” Another article called for free text books in the schools. As late as 1884 it was still a disputed issue whether parents must buy their children’s school books, or the town should supply them. Likewise disputed was whether to tax dogs. Someone wanted to get rid of unsanitary open drains, so an article called for construction of a covered drain to convey water from the culvert at the junction of Mill and Elm Streets. Equally determined were those who presented an article to get rid of all the wooden, overhanging awnings on Main Street. Decision also had to be made on whether to repair or abandon the Neck School House.

The modern resident might be baffled by the following article: “To see if the town will raise $500 to drain the Gilman Bog.” That bog was the low-lying, murky land near what is now the south end of the Concourse. In winter it was so iced over that it was a favorite place for young skaters when Bert Drummond was a boy.

And with those remarks about Waterville in its last year as a town, we must say Good-by until next week.

Year: 1969