Radio Script #979
Little Talks on Common Things
September 16, 1973
It is so rarely that my present City of Waterville and my native Town of Bridgton are ever linked together that I must begin this broadcast with such a link. Last spring an acquaintance of long standing, Miss Cora Cook, of the Bridgton Public Library, presented to the Waterville Historical Society a book of more interest to Waterville than to Bridgton. Entitled “Art Work of Kennebec County” , it was published in Chicago in 1894. It consists chiefly of pictures, but has a text that runs intermittently between the pages of illustrations. One page says: “Kennebec County is Maine’s fourth largest in population and second in valuation. About one-third of it is on the east side of the Kennebec, two-thirds on the west side. It contains four cities, 25 towns and one plantation. Its population in 1890 was 57,017.”
Waterville pictures included in the volume were one of the Mountain Farm on Upper Main Street, now the residence of Chairman Fairburn of the Keyes Fibre Company, a view of Silver Street looking north, and of the Kennebec River looking north from Ticonic Falls. A view of Colby University showed Memorial Hall and three other buildings on the old campus. A scene on Messalonskee Lake showed the lake steamer and barge familiar to picnickers of eighty years ago. There were views of North and East Ponds, of the Sebasticook Falls at Benton, of the Cascade at Oakland. One picture showed the old blockhouse at Fort Halifax in bad disrepair. Familiar to old timers was the fish hatchery between Salmon Lake and Great Pond. A memorable scene was the big stone quarry at Hallowell in full operation. The text, interspersed with the pictures, contained historical information.
“The Plymouth Colony sent Edward Winslow to explore the Kennebec for Indian tracts in 1625, and in 1628 established a trading post at Cushnoc, now Augusta. In 1629 Plymouth secured the Kennebec patent for 15 miles of land each side of the river from the Cobbosseecontee to the falls at Norridgewock. In 1653 Lawson from Pemaquid set up a trading post at Ticonic Falls, but soon transferred it to the more prominent traders, Clark and Lake. In 1652 the Cushnoc post had been leased for 50 pounds a year, to be paid in money, moose or beaver. It was abandoned in 1657. In 1661 the Plymouth Colony sold the whole Kennebec tract to four men, Boies, Tyng, Brattle and Winslow.”
“In 1749 a group of Boston merchants and land speculators led by Dr. Sylvester Gardiner bought the tract from the heirs of the four purchasers of 1661. They formed a corporation, the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase, more popularly called the Plymouth Company. At that time the northernmost defense on the river was the rapidly decaying Fort Richmond, just above the present site of Richmond Village. In 1751 a new fort across from Fort Richmond was erected and named for the provincial Massachusetts Governor, William Shirley. When in 1754 the Boston government learned of impending French encroachment, they agreed to build a fort near Ticonic Falls if the company would build another at Augusta. The results were Fort Western and Fort Halifax.”
The account in the old picture book then continues: “Dr. Sylvester Gardiner started a settlement named for him on the Cobbossee, having received a grant of the falls and land that included the present Gardiner. He soon had gristmills, sawmills, carpenters, wheelwrights, blacksmiths and other artisans residing on his land. In 1756 he built a dam and began to erect his own great house and near it a tavern. For a long time Gardiner’s gristmill was the only one within 30 miles and was patronized by settlers as far away as Skowhegan and Norridgewock. Gradually acquiring additional acreage, Dr. Gardiner became the owner of more than 100,000 acres. A Tory, he fled to England during the Revolution. His property was confiscated, but after long litigation following American independence, most of it came into the hands of the doctor’s grandson, Robert Hallowell Gardiner.”
That man was a Gardiner only through his mother, the wife of Benjamin Hallowell. The old doctor’s will made Robert his principal beneficiary provided the grandson’s surname would be changed from Hallowell to Gardiner. So the great landowner on the Kennebec in the early 19th century was not Robert Hallowell, but Robert Hallowell Gardiner.
In later pages this book tells us: “Kennebec County was formed in 1799. In 1809 four-fifths of its territory went to form Somerset County, four towns were taken for Waldo County in 1877, five for Franklin in 1838, and four for Androscoggin in 1854.”
Then we are told: “Three bridges for carriages and foot travel cross the Kennebec. The first is at Augusta, a toll bridge until 1867. The Waterville-Winslow bridge built below Ticonic Falls in 1824, was not freed until 1869. The Gardiner bridge, built in 1853, became free from toll in 1886. The Maine Central RR has an iron bridge at Augusta and another at Waterville.”
As for travel, the book says, “The first regular communication between Kennebec County and the outside world was by sailing packets. A line was opened in 1831 between Hallowell and Boston. In 1824 a steamer ran between Boston and Bath, connecting there with another for Augusta, and by 1826 there was a direct line between Gardiner and Portland. Small steamers formerly ran from Augusta to Waterville, but the gradual filling of the channel rendered their continuance impractical. The Androscoggin and Kennebec RR reached Winthrop in July, 1849, and Waterville the following November. The Kennebec and Portland reached Augusta in December, 1851.”
In conclusion the text says: “Waterville, Augusta and Gardiner are the manufacturing centers of the county. Hallowell has extensive granite quarries, and more than half a million tons of ice are harvested annually on the Kennebec. Creameries, cheese factories and corn canneries are scattered throughout the county. The Kennebec has produced many men of distinction. There have been nine governors, including Seldon Connor of Fairfield, ten Speakers of the Maine House including four from Waterville: Josiah Drummond, W. A. P. Dillingham, Reuben Foster and Edmund Webb. From the Kennebec Valley have come U.S. Secretaries of State, War and Treasury, eight U.S. Senators and nine representatives to Congress.”
This interesting old book, “Art Work of Kennebec County” can now be seen by visitors to the Redington Museum of the Waterville Historical Society.
More than once on this program I have had something to say about Poland Springs. Let’s have a bit more about it today.
In 1913, the year that I graduated from Colby, one of the nation’s most celebrated summer resorts was the Poland Spring House. It took a small army of workers to supply the needs of its affluent guests. The proprietors, the Ricker brothers, made excellence of service their aim, and no detail, however small, was neglected to please the wealthy clientele.
Guests were furnished with the famous Poland water, not only in the dining room, but at all times. Bottles of chilled water came several times a day to every guest room. Folks could watch the bottling process at the spring house through plate glass walls. The spring house itself was of Spanish design, built of mottled brick with interior of Italian marble. The spring was enclosed within a bronze grill.
Food at Poland Springs was of unusual quality and variety. On July 4, 1913 the dinner menu listed red, white and blue consomme, boiled St. Lawrence salmon with French peas, roast sirloin of beef, spring lamb and native green peas, roast goose with apple sauce, fresh asparagus, summer squash, and new young beets. For dessert one could have American plum pudding with brandy sauce, five kinds of pie, three kinds of cake, green grape sherbet, peach ice cream, and a confection from colonial days called syllabub. As a special beverage the hotel offered white wine noggin, made of four cups of li~t cream, a cup of orange juice, grated rind of an orange and a lemon, a cup of sugar, and three cups of the best Sauterne wine. The mixture was beaten in a bowl, chilled thoroughly, then poured into tall glasses topped with whipped cream.
Other dinner specialties often served at Poland Springs were clear green turtle soup, boiled bluefish, Philadelphia capon, braised sweetbreads, lobster saute ala newburg, and timbales of peaches and cream. A daily event was afternoon tea on the big, shaded veranda.
The Poland Spring library was famous. The building had been the State of Maine building at the Worlds’ Fair in Chicago in 1892, and after the fair, was moved to Poland Springs. It had a lavishly furnished reading room with comfortable, upholstered armchairs, and contained 6000 volumes. Available were daily papers from New York, Washington and Chicago, as well as all of the major magazines.
The big Poland Spring House usually closed each season in October, but all winter the smaller Mansion House and Ricker Inn were open. When I taught at Hebron Academy, over 50 years ago, an annual event was the senior class hayride to Poland Springs, where the class and their faculty chaperons were entertained without charge at one of these sumptuous meals by Hiram Ricker, a loyal trustee of the Academy.
Guests at Poland Springs enjoyed golf, tennis, horseback riding, swimming, boating, fishing and long hikes over the countryside. In the early 1900’s as many as ten croquet sets were in almost constant use.
Now, as we close, here are a few more items from that Frank Leslie magazine of 1874, to which I referred last week. It included a few items of news. One informed the readers that the Grand Trunk R.R.from Portland to Montreal had received 460 patent car wheels made with spokes instead of solid structure. Another item said that only 120 men in California owned in that state three million acres of land. A third item proudly stated that American newspapers and magazines could at last be found in the fashionable London clubs, a long delayed recognition of American journalism. Under drama news the paper said that Edwin Booth was at McVicker’s Theatre in Chicago, and that Joe Jefferson would soon emerge from retirement to resume performances of Rip Van Winkle.
Among products advertised in Leslie’s in 1874 were the Remington Sewing Machine, Mott’s Liver Pills, and seamless kid gloves. Nicoll the Taylor on New York’s Nassau Street, would make a pair of pants for $6.00, and from Johnston on Grant Street one could get six custom-made shirts for $10.00. Leslie advertised the Royal Havana Lottery with top prize of $100,000 and 900 smaller prizes. A whole lottery ticket cost $20, but fractions as low as 1/20 were also for sale. Far safer than the Havana Lottery was the offer by the Six-Penny Savings Bank of interest at six percent.
Year: 1973