Radio Script #1137

Little Talks on Common Things
October 30, 1977

A frequent listener to this program is Mrs. Adrienne Bedard of Winslow. For many years Mrs. Bedard has been a worker at Seton Hospital, and its predecessor, the Sisters’ Hospital on Outer College Avenue. Mrs. Bedard has recently put into my hands an old report of the Town of Winslow. It was for the year 1899, 78 years ago.

Like all such old town documents, it is extremely revealing as to the cost of running the town at the turn of the century. Total appropriations made at the annual town meeting were $10,854, not enough to pay the salary of anyone of Winslow’s full-time officers today. In addition to money to operate the town, there had to be raised by taxation $3,467 for the state tax and $1,416 for the Kennebec County tax. Another item that probably caused some groaning was $4,100 in tax abatement to the Hollingsworth & Whitney Co., that the town had voted to grant. Altogether the Winslow tax collector had to tax the taxpayers for $20,450 that year.

When we consider today’s cost of schools, it is amazing what Winslow spent on its schools in 1899. For the common schools the cost was $2,300; for the high school $500, for textbooks $250, and for repair of schoolhouses $250 – a total of $3,300 to operate all of the town’s schools for a year.

At the turn of the century every Maine town usually spent as much on highways as it did on schools. Winslow’s cost of repairing roads, bridges and sidewalks was $3,200, and a new road cost them $300.

In 1899 Winslow did not let Memorial Day go unnoticed. It spent $20 decorating the graves of soldiers.

The total valuation of the town, including both real estate and taxable personal property, was $1,250,000.

The way all towns paid bills in those days was by town orders. Frequently merchants would accept those orders in payment for goods, then get their money by turning the order in to the town treasurer. But not infrequently, the town treasury was dry. Then the holders of orders had to wait until the tax collector could turn some money in to the treasurer.

At the end of fiscal 1899, Winslow had 34 outstanding town orders totalling $14,200, and all of them were subject to accumulating interest. Some of the expense items are interesting. C. H. Drummond got $2.00 for serving as moderator at town meeting. It cost $42 to shingle the town hall.

Accounts books and stationery for the selectmen’s office cost $8.95. Lawyer Leslie C. Cornish, later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine, was paid $5 for legal opinion in a quarantine case. E. H. Pattern got $11 for care of the town hearse, and the Winslow Grange collected $7 for wood.

Like every other Maine town, Winslow had a poor farm in 1899. The town report published the farm inventory, and it certainly went into detail. Besides hay, straw, oats, barley, corn, potatoes and beans, as well as the listing of cows, calves, pigs, and hens, all sorts of minor items were on the list. It included one pound of tea and one of coffee, soda, spices, salt and pepper, soap, pickles, and two dozen eggs. The whole was valued at $745. Its pauper inhabitants numbered five, and it cost $2.22 a week each to support them. The superintendent of the poor farm was paid $230 a year. The place really cost the town little because it produced a lot of things for sale. In 1899, among the items sold were three cows, eight calves, hay, straw, oats and barley, pork, butter and milk.

Four entire pages of the town report were filled with a list of purchases for the poor farm. During the year the place had used 6 barrels of flour, 130 bushels of corn meal, 63 pounds. of flour. Among the unusual items of cost were 50 cents for oyster shells, $2.44 for saltpetre, 39 cents for flypaper, and 40 cents for mop handle and rope.

The name of every person assisted from the poor appropriation, besides those in the poorhouse, was listed in the report – one evident reason why people then considered it disgraceful to be “on the town.” The number of those persons was 20, and ten had either one of two familiar surnames. Evidently in 1899 Winslow was hit by an epidemic of smallpox, for the
report shows a total of $35.00 expended in connection with that outbreak, including a list of 18 families financially assisted while being quarantined. So bad was the epidemic that the town had to borrow $3,500 to meet expenses for it.

In 1899 John Reynolds was town treasurer and Josiah Bassett was clerk. The latter published the vital statistics for the year: 43 births, 31 deaths, and 27 marriages. Bassett put into his report this complaint: “If the parents would take a little pains and see that the names of their children are properly returned to the clerk, it would help to make the records correct and save trouble in the future. Many children are not named until months after birth, and the physician’s certificate does not give any first name. Will not the proper persons heed this warning?”

Especially interesting is the report on Winslow schools. The school committee was composed of G. S. Paine, J. W. Bassett and C. E. Warren. The report pointed out that in 1898 the town meeting had directed the committee to establish a free high school on a permanent basis. That made it clear that Winslow had no regular high school until the fall of 1898. The report said: “Because our school buildings were overcrowded, we had to procure another building. We leased the Methodist chapel for six years. The town is to thoroughly repair the building and keep it insured, and restore at the end of six years any damaged furnishings, but will pay no rental fee. We had to put in a new foundation of cedar posts and reboard the sides, build a wood house and water closets, put in new windows, install partitions, and do some plastering and painting. The free high school of 18 pupils is now installed in this building under Mr. Charles Clement.

In his own report, Principal Clement said: “The attendance and interest shown by the scholars are evidence of their appreciation and hearty support. The preparation of pupils for the high school should receive much attention. To accomplish this, the school year in the common schools should be lengthened to 36 weeks. A pressing need is for a high school library. Books of reference are a necessity in high school studies and, if pupils are to cultivate a taste for good literature, they must have access to choice books.”

The school report had a good word to say for normal schools. “Miss Etta Warren, a graduate of Gorham Normal School, taught through the three terms. Her methods showed the benefits of normal school training. Seven of her pupils who plan to enter high school in 1900 will go there well prepared.”

This town report even goes so far as to list the courses of study offered in the town’s new experiment – the free high school. The courses were then: Classical, Latin-Scientific, and English-Scientific. Because the school was so new, only the courses for freshman and sophomore years were published. The first freshman class was just completing its year and would be sophomores in 1900, and a new freshman class would swell the total enrollment. There would be no juniors or seniors until later.

Both the Classical and the Latin-Scientific courses required Latin in the first two years, and the Classical course offered a choice between Greek and French. Both required Algebra and Geometry. The English-Scientific course required no foreign language, either ancient or modern, but it did require both arithmetic and algebra. It also offered one year of bookkeeping.

In English, some of the classical writings required in all courses included Scott’s IVANHOE, Hawthorne’s TANGLEWOOD TALES, Irving’s SKETCH BOOK, Cooper’s LAST OF THE MOHICANS, Longfellow’s EVANGELINE, Lowell’s VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL, and Tennyson’s PRINCESS.

Some memorable Winslow families were represented among those 18 freshmen in the new high school in 1899. There were two Simpsons, James and Russell; two Getchells, Edward and Ivory; two Freemans, Maud and Ella; and one Drummond, Ernest W. The division by sex of the eighteen was 11 boys and 7 girls. In 1899 Winslow was operating 16 common schools and employed in them 21 teachers, all women. Only the high school was in charge of a man, and because in 1899 it had only a freshman class, he was the only teacher.

Like most town reports at the turn of the century, Winslow’s contained a list of all town orders for the year. Evidently they had a hard winter for there are many items for breaking snow. Scattered through the year were numerous payments for care of paupers. J. D. Frye got $5 for care of an elderly woman. W. S. Dunham was paid $6.50 for shoes and rubbers for paupers. Several other items are connected with the small pox epidemic. George Dorr, the Waterville druggist, was paid $76.70 for vaccine and wood alcohol delivered to the Winslow Board of Health, and Bassett Eaton collected $89 for supplies connected with the epidemic; Father Charland of Waterville’s St. Francis de Sales Church was reimbursed $3.75 for arranging the digging of three graves and Fred Thyng got $70 for guard duty during the quarantine time. Mr. and Mrs. Louis Page got $4 for cleaning a schoolhouse.

It is popularly believed that all children had to walk to school 75 years ago. Yet this report contains the item: James Webber for conveying scholars, District 10, $15. J. H. Whitehouse got $12.25 for shingling the town hall, and Charles
Phillips got $4 ,for moving school desks., We wonder whether that was for the new high school in the Methodist chapel.

Dr. M. W. Bessey of Waterville made the largest collection of any individual mentioned in the whole report. He was paid $946 for professional services use of fumigator and disinfectants from February 5 to March 26, 1899, the period of the small pox epidemic. Dr. Goodrich also got $47 for vaccinations. T. R. Wood collected from the town $77 for damage to sheep from dogs, and H. D. Patten got $1.22 for services as truant officer.

This old report ends with the warrant for the town meeting of March 12, 1900. Besides the usual items concerning offices, highways, schools, paupers, and tax collection, there were several interesting articles. One called for a new roof on the Eaton covered bridge. Another proposed the purchase of a road machine, and still another for a new snow plow for sidewalks. One article was to see if the town would vote to enlarge the cemetery in the Lunt field near the H. Eames’ farm, and to cut down a portion of the old trees.

Well, that is the story of Winslow’s town report of 1899. It reveals a lot about that town 78 years ago.

Year: 1977