Radio Script #914

Little Talks on Common Things
January 2, 1972

One of Maine’s well remembered trolley lines was the Atlantic Shore Line Electric Railway, connecting the towns of Kennebunk, Wells, Sanford, and York.

In 1889, the Legislature, granted a charter to the Mousam River Railroad Co. to build a transportation system from Springvale to the Goodall Mills in Sanford, and on through Alfred and Lyman to Kennebunk. The first three miles of track were laid in 1893. Decision was made to lay the tracks from Sanford, through Alfred, Lyman, West Kennebunk, and Kennebunk Village, on to Cape Porpoise.

In 1900, a company chartered as the Atlantic Shore Line built from Biddeford through Kennebunkport to Kennebunk, then a bit later on to York Beach. The route was completed in 1904. The Atlantic Shore Line built a carhouse, shops and office at Kennebunk. The older Mousam River road was then consolidated with the Atlantic Shore Line. An old newspaper tells us: “The opening of the whole system was an unqualified success. The schedule was carried out with scrupulous regularity. On summer evenings extra trips were’ frequently made. On our fine electric road, not yet a year old, business is conducted as smoothly as if it had been in operation for a decade.”

The fare from Springvale to Sanford was five cents, and ten cents for each gone in the outlying regions. To go all the way from Biddeford to York Beach cost 30 cents. Residents of industrial Sanford could escape the summer heat by a trolley ride to Kennebunk Beach or Cape Porpoise, or to the Old Falls Park at Alfred. That park had a casino, built in 1900, and a dance hall and two dining rooms, which gained a wide reputation for their 50 cent dinners. Nearby was a large picnic area. The line from Kennebunk to Cape Porpoise was discontinued before I was a passenger on any of the Atlantic Shore System, but I have taken the ride from Biddeford to York Beach and from Kennebunk to Sanford.

An amusing story is told about the opening of the· Atlantic Shore station at West Kennebunk. The wife of Edwin Day was selected to cut the ribbon there. Dressed in their Sunday best, she and her husband tied up their big St. Bernard, Don, in the barn and started in their buggy for the station. Half way there, they discovered that Don had broken loose and was loping on behind them. It was too late to take the dog back, so they let him jump aboard. Arriving at the station, they found a big crowd waiting to see the first trolley come through. As the Days stepped forward for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Don ran along with them. Then along came the trolley, and snap went Don’ s tail as the car rolled over it. For the rest of his life Don was a short-tailed St. Bernard, a constant reminder of the opening of trolley service between Sanford and Kennebunk.

1970 celebrated not only the Maine Sesquicentennial, but also the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Kennebunk, a town rich in historical lore. In the central village is the Brick Store Museum with hundreds of historical relics. At Kennebunkport is the nationally famous Trolley Museum, with trolley cars of every vintage from many parts of the world.

Because of the fame of Kenneth Roberts’ novel, based on Arnold’s Expedition to Quebec, the old name Arundel is now restored to this region and I have naturally been interested that to the narrator of this story, Roberts gave the name Hank Marriner.

Kennebunk has one of the most stately and impressive old churches in Maine. The oldest section of what was at first a Congregationalist Church was built in 1772 by the congregation that had organized 21 years earlier in 1751. The building was of two stories, 56 by 44 feet and had 46 pews. In 1803, to meet the needs of increased membership, the building was sawed in two, the rear portion moved back 28 feet and the intervening space filled in. A steeple was erected, and in 1804 a Paul Revere bell was installed. In 1810 the church got an organ, built by Joshua Furbush of Wells. This church was soon affected by the controversy that changed the First Parish Church in Portland – the coming of Unitarianism. In Kennebunk, the row started by theological dispute between Nathaniel Fletcher, the liberal local pastor and Jonathan Greenleaf, the orthodox minister at Wells. The final result was that the Kennebunk church changed to Unitarian.

Like the Brick Store Museum, this old Kennebunk Church is well worth seeing, and I recommend both to any of our listeners who may chance to go to Kennebunk.

The whole Kennebunk region is indeed rich in history. Eighteen years before the landing of the Pilgrims, and five years before the first English settlement in America, at Jamestown, Bartholomew Griswold, with a crew of 32 men, made a voyage from England to the Maine coast. His narrative described a shore that was clearly Cape Porpoise, and his ‘Savage Rock’ was what is now called the ‘Bubble’ at Cape Neddick. That was in 1602. The next year Martin Pring sailed up the Kennebunk River and noted signs of abandoned fires. He found no Indians, because they were camped farther up the Mousam and Kennebunk streams. In 1605, the Sieur de Monts, founder of a settlement on Mount Desert, built a small vessel there and undertook what he called a voyage of discovery. One of his landings was at Cape Porpoise. He too sailed up the Kennebunk River, and was amazed at the immense flocks of wild pigeons.

In 1607, after King James I made the first grant to the Council of Plymouth, a plan was made to start a colony at the mouth of the Kennebunk; instead, it was set up at the mouth of the Kennebec, near present Fort Popham, but it lasted only a year. In 1617 Richard Vines, under direction of Sir Ferdinando Gorges who had received a grant from the King, entered the Saco River and camped at what is now Biddeford Pool. He was unable to make a permanent settlement and returned to England. In 1629 Gorges received title to a large tract of land that included the present area of Kennebunk, and in his capital at York, he set up a government that ruled the territory until 1677, when it became a part of Massachusetts known as the Province of Maine.

The first settler built his cabin at Kennebunk as early as 1643, and by 1680 there were as many as twenty settlers. The area was then a part of the even older town of Wells. Several mills were built. But then came King Philip’s War, causing the mills to be abandoned and many settlers to leave. So desolate did the region become that not until 1728 did settlers return, and in 1730 a new sawmill was built. The towns in York County were harder hit by the Indian wars than was our region of Central Maine, largely because there were more people to be hit. Settlers were very scarce in the Kennebec Valley when King Philip took up the tomahawk. Every York County settlement had its fort or garrison house. Those at Wells and Kennebunk were stockaded and, in addition to their own garrisons, could get quick help from Saco. By 1690 all the settlements east of Wells had been devastated by Indian raids. Wells managed to survive, and in 1692 the garrison there held out through three days of attack by 500 Indians. Finally in 1695 the Indians agreed to a truce, returned several captives, and slowly the settlements were restored.

In 1702, when Queen Anne’s War broke out between England and France, the French of Canada again turned several Maine tribes against the English. At Kennebunkport Stephen Harding kept a small tavern. Harding was friendly with a nearby Indian village, and often hunted with the Red Men. One day Harding found four Indians hiding in his shop. He sent his family hastily to the garrison at Wells. Raiding Indians did much damage, but Harding’s own place was not attacked.

The Indian troubles continued until 1712 and for half a century before that life was not safe outside the stockaded garrisons. The long series of Indian Wars from 1670 to 1712 provides the chief explanation for the slow development of Maine settlements.

For a final item on today’s program let us have a bit about George Hinckley’s institution of the Good Will Homes and Schools. First, as to its situation in the Northeast part of the town of Fairfield, on the road to Skowhegan. One of the branches of the Kennebec, Martin Stream enters the Kennebec at the place selected by George Hinckley for his project in 1889. There is evidence that this part of the stream was long used by Indians going to and from the large Indian village at Old Point in Norridgewock. Many Indian relics have been found in the fields near the stream.

The earliest white settlement near Good Will was at Pishon’s Ferry, now Hinckley village. The Pishon family settled about 1790 on the west side of the river, but most other families lived on the east side. There were two post offices, the one on the east side being called Pishon’s Ferry, while the westside post office was East Fairfield. When the Somerset and Kennebec Railroad was built, the station on the east side was called Pishon’s Ferry. Between there and Waterville were three stations: Fowlers, Somerset Mills (now Shawmut) and Kendalls Mills, now Fairfield Village. Later a flag stop was made at Good Will.

While Pishon’s was the only ferry there when Good Will was started, an earlier ferry known as Noble’s had operated two miles below Pishon’s, near Nye’s Corner. Stage coaches that ran between Waterville and Bangor used one or the other of those ferries until the bridges were built at Fairfield.

Two of the houses used at different periods for taverns were on what is now Good Will land. The land that is now Good Will was first cleared about 1760. The earliest settlers lived in log cabins, but a saw mill on Martin Stream soon enabled them to have frame houses. On Good Will land is a marker honoring one of Fairfield’s most illustrious citizens. It says: “Here stood the house in which General Selden Connor, hero of the Civil War and three times Governor of Maine, was born January 25, 1839.” Mr. Hinckley’s first purchase in 1889 was the Chase Farm. In 1891 he bought land across the stream, and on it stood one of the first frame houses built in Fairfield. In the early years of the 19th century it had been a tavern with bar room and dance hall.

And with that early history of the now renowned site of the Good Will Homes and Schools, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1972