Radio Script #878

Little Talks on Common Things
January 31, 1971

One of Waterville’s oldest newspapers was a weekly started by the shirt maker, C.F. Hathaway, in 1847. I recently examined Vol. 1, No.2 of that paper, the Waterville Union, published on March 25, 1847. The masthead announced that it was a weekly journal of news, literature, science, art, agriculture and morality, published every Thursday morning by Charles F. Hathaway, from an office in Hanson’s Block at the corner of Main and Elm Streets. Subscription was two dollars a year.

Mr. Hathaway announced: “Every person sending us the money for ten new subscriptions will receive 25 cents commission on each. The paper will be sent in the mail free of expense to the subscribers.” In 1847 that was an inducement, for papers in that day, like all other mail usually had postage paid by the receiver, not the sender.

The Union had surprisingly little news, but lots of boiler-plate material that passed for literature. One piece was entitled “The Heroic Wife”, a story of the French Revolution. Another was “Superstition in New England”, stories of seeing the devil. There were several moralistic poems. There was a section on agriculture with articles on Horses’ Feet, New Potato Crop, and Keeping Up Appletrees. Another section headed “Foreign Items” had articles on the Irish Famine, the British Parliament, and the scarcity of firewood in Paris.

As for news, the Union said that Massachusetts had just voted two to one against open liquor licenses. The Governor of Maine had just appointed April 8 as a day of public fast. News from the War with Mexico declared a battle being fought between the troops of Santa Anna and those of Gen. Zachary Taylor. Congress had passed a new postal law. Members of Congress could now send free letters and papers not exceeding two ounces, and public documents not exceeding three pounds. There was no change in letter postage, but one letter could not be enclosed in another unless both were addressed to the same person. Newspapers sent to subscribers still necessitated postage paid by the subscriber when he got his paper at the post office, unless the publisher agreed to pay the postage in advance. Postage for a newspaper published within the state was one cent, from without the state 1.5 cents. You may well ask how a person paid a cent and a half, if that was all he owed at the post office when he got a paper. The answer is that in 1847 half-cent pieces were still being coined.

The topic of railroads was very much in the air in 1847, especially the plans to bring a railroad to Waterville. A company called the Androscoggin and Kennebec had secured a charter that would eventually bring the first trains to Waterville in November, 1849. Two and a half years earlier, when this issue of the Union was published, Mr. Hathaway had this to say: “On Saturday last the advanced portion of the engineers engaged in surveying the route of the A&KRR reached Waterville. Although the survey is not yet completed between Winthrop and this town, the surveyors report a feasible and favorable route. They will later survey other routes to this village before one is finally chosen.”

The Union tells us that the Bath Times had reported interest there in a railroad to Canada. The road would pass through the interior of Maine to Montreal, and thus open up traffic with the area of the Great Lakes. The Union said: “The argument in favor of Bath is that it is the nearest good seaport with access to the interior of Maine, and a railroad would make Bath a large city. We have no quarrel with this. Let every port in Maine do what it can to improve its own section. But let us act cautiously and wisely. Some fancied improvements may turn out to be disastrous.”

The Union commented also on another projected railroad: “A mass meeting of people in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties was held last Thursday in Dexter to sound out interest in a proposed railroad. Our neighbors to the east are ahead of us on the Kennebec in respect to the spirit of railroad enterprise. At the Dexter meeting the village church was filled. The vote to help finance a railroad was unanimous.”

There was still another railroad calling for the Union’s comments: “That the Androscoggin and Kennebec is to be extended to Bangor is now a certainty. A Bangor meeting has passed a resolution that the citizens of that portion of the State lying between the Penobscot and the Kennebec feel a deep interest in the extension of the railroad from the Kennebec to Bangor. In the opinion of the meeting, the towns lying between the two rivers can and will subscribe to the stock of the Penobscot and Kennebec R.R. Co. to the extent of $200,000.”

The Waterville Union was noticeably lacking in local items. To get a glimpse of Waterville in the spring of 1847 we must turn to the ads.

W.W. Getchell proclaimed: “We offer at the lowest Boston prices 20 hogsheads of Guadaloupe molasses, and 15 hogsheads of Sweet Havana molasses.”

Edwin Dunbar wanted folks to know about his tinware factory opposite the post office, where he made air-tight stoves and all sorts of tin utensils.

General stores were still popular in 1847. At No.2 Boutelle Block, Johnson Williams sold dry goods, boots and shoes, groceries, and hardware. He told the folks that his prices were lowest on the river.

The Moore family announced that their steamers were nearly ready for the season’s travel. Their ad said: “The Steamers Oregon and Balloon will commence their trips, as usual, between Waterville, Augusta and Hallowell as soon as the ice leaves the river. The boilers of these boats have been provided with lead plugs, and there can be no danger of explosion.”

Stevens and Clark made gravestones of Italian and New York marble (not a word about Vermont) and English slate.

Mrs. E.F. Bradbury, milliner and dressmaker, had rich and fashionable fabrics and fancy goods, bonnet ribbons, shawls, combs and perfumery. She was ready to repair Florence bonnets in the most fashionable manner.

There was an ad for Waterville Academy that had a new principal. About the school that would one day become Coburn, the ad said: “This institution is under the direction of James H. Hanson, principal, assisted by Miss Roxana Hanson. Its object is to provide at moderate expense a thorough course in preparation for college and a course to meet the needs of teachers in the common schools. The college preparatory course has been arranged with special reference to Waterville College. The four terms of 1847-48 will begin on March 1, May 24, August 30 and November 29. Signed, Stephen Starks. Secretary of the Trustees.”

What kind of paper Mr. Hathaway proposed to present to the public was explained in a statement in this second issue, republished from the initial issue of the week before. This is what it said: “We stand on independent ground. We claim freedom to express our opinion on any subject. Not being attached to any political party. Democrat, Whig or Liberty, we shall regard all political movements with unprejudiced eyes. The cause of temperance, of human rights and other reforms will receive our earnest aid. We hope our paper will even favor pure religion and morality. We desire to improve the hearts and minds of our readers without exhibiting aught of bigotry or descending to viewpoints of sectarian division.

“Our paper is designed to uphold no particular interest, but to give a full record of news information and by all proper means to elevate the mind.

“It was at first our intention to put out a paper at a price lower than two dollars a year, but citizens who thought a better paper would suit the public better prevailed upon us to adopt the present price of two dollars, and we shall endeavor to make it worth the money.

“It may seem to some people undemandable for us to demand payment in advance. but the truth is that most country papers are either ruined or kept half-starved by trusting their subscribers, many of whom never pay. This evil is worse in the newspaper business than in other enterprises. Subscribers seem to have the strange idea that it is less unjust to withhold payment for papers than for any other article. If it seems to the subscriber wrong to have to pay in advance, let him consider that he immediately begins to receive value in return. Thus the publisher is kept out of embarrassment and the subscriber out of debt.”

To the correspondents to his Waterville Union, Mr. Hathaway said: “We are ready to admit short communications of merit on any proper subject. If they are written with candor, we shall not require that they agree with our own opinions. The best way to arrive at truth is by free discussion of unsettled questions. We shall not publish communications without the author’s name, and even then they must be well written and of interest to the community. Anyone in the surrounding towns who will send us current accounts of anything interesting in their neighborhood, as soon as it takes place, will receive our thanks and suitable compensation.”

It is noteworthy that not a single ad in that issue of Hathaway’s Waterville Union contained mention of the price of any advertised article. The only price mentioned in the whole paper was the subscription rate of the Union itself. By contrast let us take a look at a few ads in the Union’s successor, the Waterville Mail, of May 19, 1876, almost thirty years after that 1847 issue of Hathaway’s paper.

In 1876, Foster the photographer announced first class photographs at $3.50 a dozen. J.L. Perkins had opened a boarding house where three meals a day could be had for three dollars a week. He also had some rooms and would supply both board and lodging for four dollars a week.

Centennial hats, marking the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, could be had at Peavy Brothers for one dollar a piece.

J.E. Percival called attention to his gilded bird cages at $1.25 and S.R. Tibbetts offered a dozen quart size Mason jars for 50 cents.

The point I want to make is that between 1847 and 1876 advertisers found it necessary or at least desirable. to state prices in their ads.

Year: 1971