Radio Script #906

Little Talks on Common Things
November 7, 1971

The Kennebec River meant much to James Stackpole. Every one of the 25 years of the diary saw numerous references to it. As I said last week, Stackpole was concerned with rafting logs down the river. Here are a few of the diary references:

“May 9, 1796. Joseph North, Springer and Brown set out with raft of logs for Cobossee at night.”

“May 17. David Pollard and Capt. Richardson set off after breakfast to drive the river.”

“April 21, 1798. Went to Gen. Pattee’ s to survey his logs before he drives them down river. Judged them to make 30,000 board feet.”

“April 30. Helped James run raft of logs down the river.”

“April 15, 1801. The boys helped John North run two rafts of boards and shingles out of the Sebasticook.”

April 20. The boys set off with Drummond to raft logs down the river.”

“March 7, 1806. James and Ward took our canoe to go to Wiscasset with a raft of timber.”

Many goods were carried up and down the river in large, shallow draft vessels called longboats. James Stackpole called them greatboats. They carried passengers as well as freight, and it was by longboat that Jeremiah Chaplin, first president of Colby College, and his family arrived in Waterville in June 1818. Mrs. Chaplin, in a long letter to a friend back in their old home town of Danvers, Mass., described that river journey as follows: “Wednesday afternoon we left Augusta and took one of those longboats which are much used on the Kennebec. Having a booth at one end, they are convenient for transportation of families as well as goods. Part of the time, we could easily have stepped from boat to shore, the distance was so small.. Sometimes, when the wind was not favorable, oxen were procured.  Standing at the waters’ edge with a rope connecting them to the boat, they helped us along. As the wind was often faint and weak, the men too took the rope and pulled us along. Night fell when we were three miles below Waterville. So the boat was tied up and we spent the night with a family in Sidney. We set out early the next morning and at 10 o’clock arrived in Waterville.”

It was slow progress these boats made up the river against the current. Sometimes the wind did fill the sails a bit, but more often the oxen had to pull them along the shore. Mrs. Chaplin had left Augusta at 2 p.m., but could not get to Waterville before dark, and darkness comes late in June. Here are a few of the diary references to the longboats.

“Nov. 4, 1808. Hauled Mr. Lakins house furniture to the greatboat.

“Oct. 2, 1819. John and Jothan came up in the greatboat.”

Those boats were the chief means of bringing goods to the Stackpole store. As early as July 5, 1797, the diary recorded: “Went to the Hook (Hallowell) and brought up goods for the store on the greatboat.”

Twenty-three years later in 1820 the diary said: “Went down with raft to Pittston. Came back by the greatboat, buying six hogsheads of salt.”· Again on Nov. 4, 1820, “James brought up in the greatboat his East and West India goods for the winter, viz, tea, coffee, loaf and brown sugars, brandy and wine.”

In the days of James Stackpole, Kennebec fish were an important source of income. The big runs of salmon, shad and herring up the river to spawn came in May, and that month’s record in each year of the diaries is filled with references to fish.

“May 31, 1796. Let Tozier have a salmon, 15 1/2 pounds, and Town a bigger one, 20 pounds. June 3. Carried a barrel of salmon to Fort Halifax. May 11, 1797. Got six barrels of alewives and salted them. May 19, 1799. Caught seven salmon. May 11, 1800. Hung three barrels of fish that James got up the river from Newell. May 26, 1801. Went to Sebasticook Falls to catch shad and alewives. May 25, 1805. James and Jothan salted their fish. I hauled five barrels of herring for Capt. Smith.”

In those early days in Waterville, almost every professional and business man also operated a farm. That was true of  such early pioneers as John McKechnie, Nehemiah Getchell and Asa Redington. As professional men settled in Waterville, they too ran farms. Such was the case with Moses Appleton, the doctor and Timothy Boutelle, the lawyer. Well into the nineteenth century, the major industry of this area was farming, despite all the attention old records paid to lumbering, shipping, and trading.

This was the case with James Stackpole, lumberman, mill owner and trader. All his life up to the age of 90 he was concerned every year about his crops. Here are some of the diary references.

“June 11, 1798. Planted corn, beans and potatoes. Aug. 20. Finished reaping my wheat. Sept. 18. Finished spreading my flax. Oct. 1. Gathered my corn. May 12, 1799. Harrowed my ground for wheat and flax. July 2. Began to sow. Feb. 2, 1801. Fixed my sheep house. June 3, 1801. Sent John and Jothan off into my woods to clear and plant oats. June 19. Made gate to my sheep pen door. July 7. Finished hulling my corn. Sept 1. Winnowed a bushel of wheat and sent it to the mill for bolting. Sept 7. John started threshing my oats. Oct. 8. Jothan gathered corn on the back lot. Oct. 28. Finished digging my potatoes.”

Of course, on the farm it was not merely crops that concerned James Stackpole. While lumbering, ratting logs down the river, and trading, he found time to pay attention to his animals.

“April 9, 1796. Killed a calf, sold part to Tozier. Jan. 4. Killed my big sow and cut her up. Feb. 21. Killed my ram; the quarters weighed 46 3/4 pounds, wool 6 pounds. April 3. My six oxen are all busy hauling logs. March 30, 1792. Made a goose house. Aug. 11. A bear killed three of my sheep. Oct. 6. Hunted all day for my sheep; found four. Oct. 22. Found the rest of my sheep. Dec 12. Fixed my barn to tie the cattle. April 22, 1798. My horse got out of the stable and went to Col. Lithgow’s boat landing, then out on the ice and I suppose was drowned. May 31. Sheared my sheep. Sept. 30. Fenced a cow yard. March 1, 1800. Killed and roasted a goose.”

The Stackpole diary contains revealing items about Waterville’s first full time physician, Moses Appleton. It is true that Dr. Obadiah Williams had preceded Appleton in Waterville, but for Williams, doctoring was only a side-line. His major interests were surveying, lumbering, and milling. For Dr. Appleton medicine was his life work. Let us see what the Stackpole diary has to say about this interesting man who arrived in Waterville in 1796. To mention now all the references to Dr. Appleton in the Stackpole diary would take much too long, but here are a few of them.

“Dec. 29, 1796. My foot very lame. Dr. Appleton lanced it. April 24, 1799. Jothan taken sick. Sent Fuller to get Dr. Appleton, who came and bled Jothan. I paid the doctor 75 cents. Nov. 9, 1799. Mrs. Stackpole broke her arm. Dr. Appleton came and set it. March 4, 1800. Went to the village and settled with Dr. Appleton. Gave him an order on James’ store for $5.82. Feb. 2, 1801. Went to the village and got some salve from Dr. Appleton. March 15, 1801. Swelling in my foot very painful. Sent for Dr,. Appleton, who lanced the foot. March 18. Dr. Appleton still treating my foot. Nov 3, 1805. Sick to the stomach. Dr. Appleton gave me squills. Nov. 18, 1806. Dr. Appleton ointed ma for the itch. Aug. 2, 1806. Dr. Appleton had James’ mare to ride to Sumner Tozier’s. March 11, 1807. Mrs. Stackpole very sick. Called Dr. Appleton. March 12. Dr. Appleton called in Dr. Bigelow to consult. March 15. Mrs. Stackpole much better. I sold Dr. Appleton 1200 pounds of beef, more than paying him for treatments to me and mine. He now owes me. May 28. Plowed Dr. Appleton’s garden. Oct. 2, 1807. James and his wife had Dr. Appleton’s chaise to go to Augusta. March 1, 1809. Got a new record book from Dr. Appleton for 20 cents. October 28, 1810. Dr. Appleton made quite a sensation, riding in his chaise to Sunday meeting at the West Meetinghouse, when everybody else went on foot or horseback. April 1, 1814. Dr. Appleton moved his store from Silver Street to his Temple l0t.”

Moses Appleton was a devout churchman. On October 9, 1814 he read a sermon in the schoolhouse, and he repeated that practice frequently, whenever an itinerant preacher could not be found. By that time, the resident town minister, Joshua Cushman had resigned, and four years later Jeremiah Chaplin would arrive on the scene to start a Baptist Church. So, someone bad to defend the old time religion of the Puritans and that someone was Dr. Moses Appleton. James Stackpole also had fixed opinions about religion. He too was a devout follower of Joshua. Cushman, and that clergyman frequently dined in the Stackpole home. In 1810 the diary carried the comment that a woman speaker whose views were supported by her husband, held forth in the schoolhouse one Sunday. Wrote Stackpole, “I did not think much of it.” In 1819 he commented: “James and his son went to Fairfield Meetinghouse to see the Methodists perform their worship.” He duly recorded when the head of the new college, Jeremiah Chaplin, preached in either the meetinghouse or the schoolhouse, but apparently, he cared little for Chaplin’s theology. Baptism by sprinkling the head was good enough for Stackpole, and he had little use for Chaplin’s dunking of converts in the river.

It cannot be said that the Stackpole diary reveals much emotion or strong feeling about anything. It is all quite matter of fact. Indeed when grandson James III, became the first Stackpole to attend college, enrolling at Bowdoin four years before Jeremiah Chaplin held the first Colby classes, the grandfather treats this occasion calmly. “June 4, 1818. James III set off in the stage for Brunswick. Sept. 3. James returned, bringing James III with him. Sept. 29. James III set off in the stage for college. Feb. 19. James, his son and Mary set off in the sleigh to Hallowell. The son is returning to college in Brunswick.”

Next week we shall have more about the Stackpoles and shall begin that broadcast on the explanation of the diary’s references to the stage.

Year: 1971