Radio Script #907

Little Talks on Common Things
November 14, 1971

Our broadcast last week ended with James Stackpole’s mention of the stage by which his grandson set off for Bowdoin College. Let us now take a look at that stage.

I have already told you that the Kennebec River was Waterville’s first highway. Even in winter travel went over its ice by sleigh, pony, and heavy sleds. But it was not long before the growing settlements along the west side of the river in Sidney warranted building that river road through to Augusta.

In 1806 a stage line from Hallowell to Norridgewock began operating over that road. From Augusta it came up the West River road through Sidney, entering Waterville by way of Silver Street. Before going on to Norridgewock, it changed horses at the Williams House, near where the Federal Trust Company now stand so when Waterville celebrated its centennial in 1902, the honorable William Mathews, noted author whose inspirational books were translated into several foreign languages , was still living. He wrote one of the most interesting chapters in the Centennial History of Waterville, entitled “Recollections of Waterville in the Olden Time.”

Born here in 1818, Mathews was 6 years old when the pioneer James Stackpole died. His recollections were, therefore, a bit later than Stackpole’s, Mathews had vivid memories of Waterville in the 1830′ s. About the stage he wrote: “The arrival of the mail stage from Augusta was in my boyhood days an important event. As it rounded the bend on Silver Street, just north of my father’s house, the driver blew a loud and vigorous blast of his long horn. As the stage stopped at the tavern at if~ Street, nearly opposite the head of Silver, all the loafers of the village flocked to learn the latest news.”

In his History of Augusta, North tells us that in 1830 there was a stage running three times a week between Augusta and Waterville. That stage line, operating during the time that James Stackpole III was attending Bowdoin College, from 1814 to 1818, accounts for the several references to young James taking the stage on his return to Brunswick.

Names that became fixed in Waterville History are often encountered in this Stackpole diary. Obadiah Williams, who built the first frame house in town, died in 1799 at the early age of 4, so we can expect little mention of him in the diary, which Stackpole did not begin until 1796. He does record that Obadiah Williams and David Pattee once gathered corn near the Stackpole store. A more significant item was set down in the diary on January 7, 1810: “Obadiah Williams was dug up and buried in the new burying gr0und.” That means that, on his death in 1799, Williams had been buried in the town’s first cemetery near the present site of the pumping station on Western Avenue and that in 1810 his remains were moved to the cemetery on Elm Street that is now Monument Park. When his body, with that of many others, was again moved to Pine Grove Cemetery in the 1850s we do not know; what this entry in the Stackpole diary does tell us is that the Elm Street Cemetery was in use as early as 1810, and probably that is very nearly the date of its opening.

Another name one would expect to find in the diary is that of Asa Redington, who is especially commemorated by the Redington Museum on Silver Street. James Stackpole had many dealings with Redington between 1796 and 1820. In 1797, he got 520 feet of refuse boards fron Redington’s mill. In 1805, Redington supplied Stackpole with fence posts and 322 matched rails for a Stackpole fence.

In 1807 Stackpole’s son James was served with a court summons for alleged encroachment on the property of Redington and his father-in-law, Nehemiah Getchell. In 1806 Stackpole had a part in putting up a fence between the properties of Asa Redington and Abijebmth. In 1803 he hauled r0811 troughs from Redington’s mill to Smith’s brickyard. The next year Stackpole’s sons James and Jothan set off in Redington’s ferry boat for Augusta. Asa Redington, as local justice of the peace, heard the civil case, so on August 7, 1809 Stackpole wrote in the diary: “Unjust Redington gave Crazy Ricker 75 cents damages and costs against me for lawfully shifting some boards from one lot to another.” That however, did not prevent Stackpole’s two granddaughters going to school the next year to Mrs. Redington.

By the time that James Stackpole died in 1824, Waterville’s wealthiest man was Nathaniel Gilman, trader, importer, operator of ocean-going ships. The Stackpole diary’s first reference to Gilman shows that millionaire in his more humble days. “June 17, 1798 – Saw Nathaniel Gilman salting fish by Ticonic Bay.”

In 1805, appears a much more puzzling entry. “Gilman delivered me a letter directed to James Stackpole, Coroner, to be delivered to Gilman’s wife, which I did.”

In April 1807, Stackpole hauled a barrel of tea from Gilman’s store for James Jr’s new vessel. In 1818, Stackpole was patronizing Gilman’s store, and one day he bought there three pounds of white sugar and four pounds of brown. Perhaps by that time James Jr. had sold the family store, for in December, 1820 was recorded, “James sold Gilman 12 bushels of ashes and took his pay at Gilman’s store.”

Another young man who was coming to prominence in the early years of the 19th century was Timothy Boutelle. In May, 1806 Stackpole hauled boards from the west meetinghouse lot, where City Hall now stands, to Boutelle’s office on Silver Street. In 1819 James Jr. let Boutelle’s man have two quarts of seed corn. During the interval between 1806 and 1819, Boutelle had already become affluent enough to have a full-time hired man. At that time, the county seat of Somerset County was not Skowhegan, but Norridgewock. Lawyer Boutelle had frequent business there, just as he did at the Kennebec Court House in Augusta.. That accounts for an item in the diary on which in 1820, Mr. Boutelle brought Julia from Norridgewock in his sleigh.”

James Stackpole  was a devout follower and a staunch friend of Waterville’s first minister, J0shua Cushman. Stackpole had a part in building both of the town’s meetinghouses, before the separation cf Waterville from Winslow – the east meetinghouse on Lithgow Street in Winslow, and the West meetinghouse on the pre sent site of the Waterville City Hall.

At that time, the last five years of the 18th century, there was no denominational religious organization in Waterville. In fact no denomination had an organized group here until Jeremiah Chaplin formed the First Baptist Church in 1818. Massachusetts law required that each incorporated town must provide regular preaching, and that explains why the first settled ministers in most Maine towns were of the Orthodox Congregational Church, the ancient state church of Massachusetts. Such a man was Joshua Cushman, called by vote of the town to be its first settled minister.

The first reference to Cushman in the Stackpole diary is under the date May 16, 1797.  “Mr. Cushman preached at the new meetinghouse on the east side of the Kennebacc” “June 26 – Mr. Cushman dined with us after preaching in the meetinghouse.” “June 10, 1799 – Mr. Cushman set off for Boston to represent us at the General Court. ” “April 1, 1801 – Mr. Cushman drank tea with us. I gave him a box of snuff, and a quart of rum.” “June 5, 1814 – Heard Mr Cushman preach his farewell sermon.” “June 20,1818.  Body of old Capt. Getchell was brought up from Vassalboro to his son Nehemiah and buried here. Mr. Cushman preached the sermon.” “July 3, 1819 – Mr. David Pattee was buried where his first and second wives were burried. Mr. Cushman preached the funeral sermon in the village. I attended this funeral.”

The last reference to this minister was on April 4, 1821. Mr. Cushman dined with us on roast turkey.”

What did the Stackpole diary tell us about the opening of the college to Waterville? Securing a charter in 1813, the Baptist founders of what is now Colby College, decided in 1815 to set up their Maine Literary and Theological Institution in Waterville, but it was not until later in,1818, that they were able to start classes in a farmhouse leased by the first professor and later college president, Jeremiah Chaplin. Concerning the successful attempt, led by Nathaniel Gilman, and Timothy Boutelle, to persuade the trustees to set up the new college in Waterville, rather than in Skowhegan or Farmington, both of which places fought hard to get it, Stackpole wrote not a word. Apparently he had no part in the attempt. Although Mrs. Chaplin wrote that a large crowd assembled at the wharf when they landed in Waterville and that they were carried to the Boutelle house in a carriage, Stackpole is silent about that event. His first mention of Chaplin was made a week later, when he wrote: “June 28, 1818. Mr. Chaplin preached a sermon in the village.” That Chaplin was busy winning Baptist converts is shown by a Stackpole item of September 6: “Arial Shorey and one woman were dipped by Mr. Chaplin.” On Nov. 17 Chaplin paid James, Jr. three shilling, nine pence for a peck of beans. April 1, 1819 was a fast day, and Chaplin preached in the West meetinghouse.

The Stackpole1s diary’s only reference to the college came on April 26, 1819, when he wrote: “At Mr. Chaplin’s request there turned out 60 men to clear a piece of the college lot to set his house.” That refers to the first building, erected in 1819, on the pld Colby campus. It was a frame house in which Chaplin sheltered his family and taught his classes until South College, the first brick building, was put up in 1822. When Memorial Hall was built in 1868, the old frame house was removed.

One woman who received frequent mention in the diary was so well known that Kingsbury devoted a paragraph to her in his history of Kennebec County, published in 1892. Kingsbury called her Aunt H~~ah Cool, because she lived many years after James Stackpole’s death and gained the undeserved reputation of being the village witch. Had she lived in Salem in the 1690′ s she might have been hanged. It was no witch that Stackpole told about in the diary. Instead of a broomstick, she rode a horse. In June, 1803, the diary tells us: “Jothan rode down to Six Mile Falls to help James up with the greatboat. Hannah Cool rode the horse back.” “July 12, 1805 – Hannah Cool helped Mrs. Stackpole wash.” “Oct. 27, 1807 – Mrs. Stackpole and Hannah Cool set out to make soap.” Dec. 15, 1815 – Hannah Cool wove ten yards of wale cloth for James’ great coat.” “Nov. 1, 1817 – Paid Hannah Cool a bushel of potatoes for some we borrowed from her before ours were ready to eat.”

For three weeks now I have tested your patience with James Stackpole’s diary started more than 150 years ago. Occassionally you will certainly hear from it again, but not at once, for next week we shall turn to another subject.

Year: 1971