Radio Script #1162

Little Talks on Common Things
April 23, 1978

A lot of people remember a popular book whose scene was located in our state and which was written by a Maine woman. I refer to Kate Douglas Wiggin’s “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.” Almost as well known as the book was Mrs. Wiggin’s play, “The Old Peabody Pew,” which for many years has had an annual summer showing in the old church in Buxton, Maine, the scene of the story.

Kate Douglas Wiggin certainly deserves a prominent place in the long list of Maine authors. She was born Kate Douglas Smith, in Philadelphia in 1857. The family moved to Hollis, Maine, where she spent her childhood. As a young teacher, she want to California and established the first kindergarten west of the Rockies. In 1881 she married Samuel W. Wiggin, a Boston attorney, who died in 1889. Six years later she married George C. Riggs. Kate’s father was a prominent attorney, a graduate of Brown University and of Harvard Law School. During her life this writer travelled widely, and in fact her death occurred in England in 1923. She was there as an American delegate to the Dickens Fellowship Association.

Her last book, “My Garden of Memories” was published after her death, being in the hands of the printer when she left for England. Less well known, but also worthy of attention as a writer was Kate’s sister, Nora Archibald Smith, who outlived her more famous sister by eleven years, dying in 1934.

A shrine for visitors is Quillcote, the stately home of the family in Hollis, Maine. The place has wide lawns with big shade trees. The large, two-and-a-half story mansion with canopy porch dominates the scene. The huge barn was already more than 100 years old when it was renovated in 1906 into what was called “The Hall of Happy Hours.” At its dedication, a lighted candle was placed in every window of house and barn. On that occasion, Kate Douglas Wiggin herself reminded the hundred or more guests that she had personally earned every penn that had gone into restoring house, barn, outbuildings, and land. She said, “my pen is just as good a tool, but no better than shovel, plough, rake, needle, and scrubbing brush.”

On July 4, 1906, a crowd assembled at Quillcote for “the setting of the weathervane” on the pinnacle of the” barn. The vane was a gilded quill pen.

Since its reconstruction, that barn has been the scene of orations, concerts, song fests, Red Cross work, Mothers’ meetings, and even of weddings. Especially renowned in York County was the annual Dorcas Fair, held at Quillcote. In some years attendance has exceeded 2,000. Booths were set up on the lawns, and one of the most popular was the book booth, where both Mrs. Riggs and her sister autographed their books as they were sold. After the death of Mrs. Rigg’s mother, the annual fair was moved to Old Tory Meetinghouse in Hollis.

I suspect a number of you who are listening to this program have attended a performance of the Old Pewbody Pew in the church at Buxton. Certainly many Maine people have done so. As long as she lived, Kate Douglas Wiggin herself gave an introductory reading preceding the performance, and she always made it evident that she wanted the production to be reverent and in every way appropriate to a place of worship.

Where is Kate Douglas Wiggin buried? She isn’t. After her death in England, the body was cremated and the ashes returned to Maine. Those ashes were not, however, buried in the ancient cemetery behind the Old Tory Meetinghouse in Hollis, for they were reverently scattered, as she requested, over the waters of the Saco River. But in the cemetery is a large Greek cross, memorial to her. On it is inscribed: “The Song is Never Ended.” That refers to what she herself wrote at the end of her last book, “My Garden of Memories.” She wrote, “Life’s song is more joyous in youth, fuller and stronger in middle age; it quavers as the years go on, but the song itself is never ended.”

Another famous woman of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a resident of Waterville. She was the opera singer, Antonia Sawyer. More than that, her managerial talents were such that it may be confidently asserted Waterville furnished the world of music with the first woman manager of renowned international musicians.

Born in Fairfield in 1856, Antonia Hayward attended Coburn Classical Institute. On the site of the present Good Will Home and School, her grandfather Daniel Chase conducted a prosperous farm. It was a cultured family especially devoted to music. At the age of ten, Antonia heard Camila Van sing in Waterville, and when she was fourteen, on a visit to New York, she heard Clara Louise Kellogg, Nilson, and Campanini. By the time she was 16, Antonia was determined to be an opera singer.

Beginning her study in Portland, she soon went to Boston where, while she diligently pursued her career she was contralto soloist in the Arlington Street Church. There she met H. H. Sawyer, a patron of music and fine art. Soon after their marriage he became an invalid. After his death she married Ashley Miner.

After many a triumph in the concert halls of America and Europe, Antonia Sawyer turned to the occupation of managing other singers. For many years she was manager for Percy Granger, and numerous other noted singers were her clients.
In 1902 Antonia Sawyer returned to Waterville to sing at the centennial celebration when the city observed its 100th anniversary as an incorporated place. On that occasion she recalled that, when she was six years old, she had made her debut by singing a solo in a program for benefit of the Waterville Public Library.

Antonia Sawyer was a close friend of Maine’s noted choral conductor, Chapman. She participated for many years in the Chapman Musical Festivals. After she became a renowned impresario, Chapman often called for her managerial services. When the singer Gorgorza was ill, he appealed to Antonia for a substitute to sing with Melba. She sent the then little known Graveure on what proved to be the start of a notable career. In Chapman’s concert that substitute got 12 curtain calls. Antonia Sawyer Miner died in White Plains, N. Y. in 1941 at the age of 85.

Now for quite a different subject. When George Washington died on December 14, 1799, the event was naturally recorded in the few newspapers published at that time. Hundreds of papers, announcing the death of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, 65 years later, have been preserved, but not many are available about the death of our first President. One such paper recently came into my hands, and has now been placed in the library at the Redington Museum of the Waterville Historical Society. That paper is the Ulster County Gazette, published in Kingston, N. Y. on January 4, 1800. Like most newspapers of the time, it had only four pages. but both of the two inside pages have all their columns marked by heavy black lines in mourning of the dead President.

The paper gives this brief account of Washington’s funeral. “On Wednesday last, the mortal part of George Washington, the Father of His Country, and the friend of man, was consigned to the tomb with solemn honors and funeral pomp. A multitude of persons assembled from miles around at Mt. Vernon, the choice abode and last residence of this illustrious chief. There were the groves, the spacious avenues, the beautiful and sublime scene, the noble mansion, but alas the august inhabitant was now no more. The great soul was gone. In the portico where the hero walked in all his glory, now lay the shrouded corpse. The countenance, still composed and serene, seemed to exhibit the dignity of the spirit which had lately dwelt in that lifeless form. There, those who paid the sad honors to the benefactor of his country took an impressive farewell view.

“After the funeral ceremony, a procession proceeded to the tomb. A naval vessel in the river fired salutes, the band played a mournful dirge, and the procession started. It was led by units of cavalry and infantry with arms reversed. Then came the honor guard and the distinguished clergy, followed by the General’s horse with his saddle, holsters, and pistols. Then came the coffin with its eight distinguished pallbearers, all Colonels of the General’s Revolutionary Army. In the rear came on foot a large number of Masonic brethren and citizens.

‘When the procession had arrived at the foot of the elevated lawn, on the bank of the Potomac, where is built the family vault, the cavalry haled, the infantry marched toward the mount and formed in lines, and the committal service of the church was performed. Firing from the Naval vessel was then repeated, and the sounds echoed from the surrounding woods and hills. Then into the tomb were placed the mortal remains of, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States and the Father of the Nation.”

In another column this old paper said, and bear in mind that this is a contemporary account written right at the time, not many years afterward: “With pride we review the life of our Washington and compare him with, those of other countries who have been eminent in fame. Ancient and modern figures are diminished before him. Greatness and guilt have too often been allied, but his fame shines pure. The destroyers of nations stand abashed at the majesty of his virtue. It reproved their ambition and darkened their victories. We are no longer anxious lest misfortune stain his glory. He has travelled to the end of his journey, carrying with him an increasing weight of honor that malice cannot blast. Favored of heaven, he departed without exhibiting the weakness of humanity. Magnanimous in death, the darkness of the grave cannot obscure his brightness. Though Washington is now in heaven, his spirit still lives among us as spotless example.”

Finally the paper quoted Washington’s successor, President John Adams, as saying: “Although bowed with grief, I take strength from his strength. His example is now complete· to teach wisdom and virtue to our citizens as long as our history shall be read.”

And that, 178 years after the event, is what a weekly newspaper on the Hudson had to say about the death of America’s first president.

Year: 1978