Radio Script #882

Little Talks on Common Things
February 28, 1971

Through the courtesy of Miss Katharine Boutelle of Winchester, Mass., a number of papers pertaining to her great-grandfather, the early Waterville attorney and financier, Timothy Boutelle, have been added to the rapidly growing collection of documents at the Waterville Historical Society.

One of the papers shows that Boutelle was one of the purchasers of land from Waterville College, as the large tract the college had bought from Robert Hallowell Gardiner in 1815 was gradually diminished to the small lot of thirty acres that comprised the old Colby campus just before the move was made to Mayflower Hi.

The original lot had contained 180 acres, 40 rods on the river and extending west to the Messalonskee. It thus included the whole area along Chaplin Street and well up Ticonic Street, across Upper Main Street, up over Sanger Avenue, down across North Street (then called the county road) and to the stream.

On October 29, 1831 the college trustees deeded to Timothy Boutelle 106 acres of that original lot for the sum of $1,496.12. The piece purchased by Boutelle was described as follows: “Bounded on the east by the road leading from Waterville Village to Fairfield Meeting House; on the south by land of Samuel Dunbar; on the west by the mile and a half stream; on the north by land owned by Moses Appleton, Jediah Morrill and Simeon Mathews.”

Thus we learn that at one time Timothy Boutelle owned more than a hundred acres on the west side of Main Street above where the railroad now crosses that street, and that his land stretched from Main Street all the way to the Messalonskee.

Another one of the papers concerns the college professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, George Washington Keely, whose daughter married Dr. Nathaniel Boutelle, son of Timothy.

On November 23, 1853 the college trustees deeded to Keely a piece of land described as follows: “Beginning on the east line of the county road leading by the colleges (that means College Avenue) ten rods north of the north line of the lot occupied by Benjamin Shepard; then east to the Kennebec River; thence south to the north line of Shepard’s lot; thence west along Shepard’s north line to the said county road; thence north along the road to the first mentioned bounds, containing two acres of land. Keely paid the college $300 for that land.

Where was that lot? It was the lot extending south from Front Street on the east side of College Avenue and included the later residences of Professor Julian Taylor, of Keely himself (in the large building later known as the Boutelle House), and the brick building long known as the President’s House, in recent years the office of the Doctors Hill and other physicians, now vacant and the property of the U.S. government. A new Post Office will soon occupy that adjoining land.

For six years after Keely bought that land, the south end of it had no building. Then in 1859 Keely made a deed to his daughter Mary. That deed is worth quoting in full: “I, George W. Keely, in consideration of one dollar and the love I bear to her, paid by Mary K. Boutelle, my daughter, give and convey to her, her heirs and assigns forever, a certain parcel of land in Waterville on the east side of College Street, bounded as follows: Beginning on the east line of College Street at the northwest corner of the lot formerly occupied by Benjamin Shepard. now by Mrs. Bodfish, thence north along said street 85 feet to a stake; thence east to a stake on the west line of Front Street, exactly 72 feet from the northeast corner of the Shepard lot; thence south on the west line of Front Street to the line of the Shepard or Bodfish land; thence west on the Shepard and Bodfish line to to the first mentioned bound.”

On the back of the deed appears the consent of Keely’s wife, as required by law. It says: “Agreed to by Jane W. Keely, relinquishing dower right, in the presence of Solyman Heath, J.P., August 5, 1859.”

It seems that to build the brick house, to be occupied by Dr. Nathaniel Boutelle and his bride Mary Keely, more land was needed than the lot given the bride by her father. So Lucinda Bodfish, the lady mentioned as living on the lot next south, conveyed to Mary Boutelle a small strip of land on the north side of the Bodfish lot, thus affording the Nathaniel Boutelles sufficient land for house and stables. The additional land extended only 17 feet on College Street, but like the adjoining lots ran all the way back to Front Street.

Now what was the Bodfish or Shepard property described in these deeds? It was the land on which Samuel Clarke, son of Waterville’s pioneer shipbuilder John Clarke, built a house about 1800. In subsequent years it was owned by the Shepard and Bodfish families, then in the 1870’s was sold to the trustees of the college for use as their first dormitory for women and was given the name of Ladies Hall. After the building of Foss Hall across College Avenue, the trustees allowed the house to be occupied by the Phi Delta Theta fraternity from 1907 until their new house was opened on Mayflower Hill in 1950.

Another one of those old papers goes back to 1818, when Maine was still a part of Massachusetts. It is a deed to a pew in the east meeting house, issued to William Phillips. Soon after the separation from Winslow, Waterville had two meeting houses, called respectively East and West. The East Meeting House stood on the common and was used for town meetings as well as religious services. The West Meeting House was in the extreme west part of the town in what is now Oakland Village. In 1818 there was no church building owned by any denomination in Waterville. There were only the two municipal meeting houses, put up by taxation on all the citizens, and operated by the town selectmen. Just as denominations did when they built churches, the towns erecting municipal meeting houses, to meet the requirements of Massachusetts law that religious services be provided for, paid part of the cost of building by sale of pews, thus relieving taxpayers of part of the burden.

In 1818 the Waterville selectmen were Ebenezer Bacon, Moses Dalton and Asa Redington. For $30.75, they conveyed to William Phillips space for a pew on the ground floor of the East Meeting House. Just as in the case of land, the space where Phillips could set his pew was carefully described: “bounded on the east by the east wall of the meeting house, on the north by Pew 31, on the south by Pew 33, and extending west as far as Rows 31 and 33. This is the space which, when the house was built, was originally left vacant for a door in the east end that was not constructed.”

Pine Grove Cemetery was opened in 1851 and the next year a lot there was deeded to George W. Keely. It is the lot with fine granite curbing on which are the graves not only of Professor Keely and his wife, but also of Professor Julian Taylor and his wife. Mary Keely Boutelle.

The wording of those old cemetery deeds is worth our attention. This one says: “Whereas the inhabitants of the town of Waterville, at a legal meeting on March 31, 1851, voted that the Town Clerk be authorized to give deeds of ownership to such inhabitants of Waterville as may be desirous of obtaining lots in the Burying Ground on Emerson Plain, for burial purposes, therefore in consideration of five dollars paid by George W. Keely, the inhabitants grant to said Keely the south half of Lot 232 according to A.W. Wilde’s plan of said Burying Ground.”

In the lot adjoining that of Keelys and the Taylors lie President Arthur J. Roberts of Colby and his wife. The large Boutelle lot, containing the graves of several generations of that prominent Waterville family is near the east gate of the cemetery on Grove Street.

After Timothy Boutelle died in 1855, one of his heirs was his daughter Helen, wife of Edwin Noyes, superintendent of the Androscoggin and Kennebec R.R. In 1856 Mrs. Noyes conveyed to her brother, Dr. Nathaniel Boutelle, several pieces of land and buildings in Waterville. The description of those lots shows what a large land owner Timothy Boutelle had become during his half century in this town. One lot was in the business-section near Temple Street. Another was near the southwest corner of Elm and Center Streets. Another was farther down Main Street, south of Temple Street. Another was on the south side of Temple Street in the Charles Street area. Another was the lot on which the Public Library now stands.

Yes, Timothy Boutelle once owned much land, not only in the heart of Waterville, but up Main Street and west to the Messalonskee.

Now we have just time enough left for a few of the hundred year old items from the Lewiston Journal. In February, 1870 the Journal said: “Fresh fish caught at the mouth of the Androscoggin are now plentiful. They sell at 25 cents a peck, and arrive in this city by the pungload.” The same issue had this juicy item: “Everybody was sucking oranges on the street today. From a big two horse load a man was selling big ones at 13 for a quarter.”

Shoplifting was not unheard of in 1870. The Journal tells us: “On Friday Dan O’Connell was before Judge Smith for stealing a clothes wringer from Goss’s store. It turns out that O’Connell was the same man who got away from the night policeman when he was nabbed last week in Macomber’s store.” In that issue the Journal also commented: “The police seized a flour barrel Saturday evening. It contained no flour, but was filled with bottles of liquor. The officers also seized a couple of kegs, but when the hack in which they were placed reached the police station, the kegs had disappeared.”

And how is this for a final Lewiston item of a hundred years ago? “A man here who has been married for forty years has sued for divorce. He says he has had forty years of trouble and now wants to end his days in peace.”