Radio Script #1229

Little Talks on Common Things
February 10, 1980

Last week’s talk, based on issues of the American Advocate of Hallowell told about reactions in Maine to the War of 1812. Today let us take a look at other items in the paper of 165 years ago.

In the fall of 1812 the Advocate was concerned about the coming state and presidential elections. The first reference to the national situation came in August, when there was reported a riot in Baltimore, caused by bitter feelings between Federalists and Democrats. Of course, this ardently Jeffersonian newspaper blamed the Federalists for the riot.

As for state affairs, the paper states that a Democratic convention of Kennebec County would be held in the house of John Porter at the fork of the road in Hallowell on September 3 at 9 a.m., to select county candidates for the state election. At the same time a Democratic convention would be held in Somerset County at the house of Amos Townsend in Norridgewock.

The next week the paper referred to Democratic prospects all over the country. James Madison, the incumbent president, was sure to be the party’s candidate for reelection. The Advocate gave this report on the Kennebec convention: “The meeting, by a huge majority declared approval of the war against Great Britain. It is not a war to settle abstract and doubtful principles, but one to redress gross wrongs, aggravated by insult and perfidy. When a nation yields its rights to free use of the oceans and permits its seamen to be dragged like slaves into foreign service, when independence as a nation becomes a mockery, every citizen must be aroused to defend our rights. All loyal citizens must support this war. Unfortunately there are many disloyal citizens right in our state capital in Boston. Some of them are of the same group that opposed the Revolution many years ago.”

In early November the Advocate had this notice: “To the Freemen of Massachusetts. On November 17 you will vote for election of President and Vice President of the United States. You will then decide whether your vote is to be given to James Madison, the man who united the real interests of the Republic, or to the New York Federalist, Governor Clinton. If President Madison is reelected, the British will despair of being able to rivet their claims upon us. If Mr. Clinton is chosen, the British will consider it discontent among our own people and unwillingness to stand up for our rights. Londoners will consider all Americans easy marks.”

On December 3, nearly three weeks after the election, most of the first returns were in and Madison had been jubilantly reelected. How different from the speed of election returns of today, when by means of computerized use of early returns the TV networks tell us who has been elected before the polls are closed. The Advocate reported that Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut had all repudiated Madison and had voted for Clinton, but that Madison’s carrying of Ohio and Kentucky, as well as every southern state, assured him of reelection. With Democrats still in control, the Hallowell newspaper felt the nation was safe.

The Massachusetts state election saw Maine’s William King chosen as Lieutenant Governor. Said the Advocate, “This election has at last given the District of Maine a foothold in the Boston Statehouse.” State elections were then held annually, and in 1814 the Advocate was again shouting loudly for Democratic candidates. In those early years of our nation, county government was more important than it is today. The Advocate pushed hard for Joshua Gage as Kennebec County Treasurer and for Samuel Parris as a state senator.

In July 1814 the Advocate reported what the new redistricting of members of Congress meant to Maine. Five of Massachusetts’ congressmen were now to come from Maine. District 14, called the First Eastern District, composed of the towns in York County, would have one congressman. Another would come from District 15, the Second Eastern District, containing the towns in Cumberland County. District 16 included all of what was then the large county of Lincoln, Hancock and Washington counties made up District 17; and Maine’s fifth congressman in District 18 came from the new Kennebec County, subtracted from Lincoln.

An item that became of much concern to Waterville was published by the Hallowell newspaper on March 25, 1813. It said: “The General Court in Boston has passed an act to erect a literary institution in the District of Maine, in a township to be designated, for the purpose of educating youth and to be called the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, to be under the regulation of a body politic.”

The list of incorporators was led by Rev. Daniel Merrill of Secigewick. The corporation is empowered to hold property obtained by gift, grant, purchase or otherwise, both real and personal. Nevertheless, the annual income shall not exceed $30,000. To the Institution the Legislature also granted a township of land in the District of Maine, to be taken from the unappropriated lands of the Commonwealth, as a site for the institution’s building and to provide income for its support. The Institution may sell lots from that land, may sell or lease timber rights on it, and provide income from it in any other legal way. The land granted, when definitely designated, will be a full township, six miles square. Because of the present war with Great Britian, the exact designation of that land must await the end of the war.

That is a contemporary account of the original charter of Colby College. Two years elapsed before the promised land was assigned. Then it proved to be far into the wilderness on the west side of the Penobscot River above Old Town, on a tract of land that later became the thinly populated towns of Argyle and Alton, both of which had so few people in this century that they were relegated to plantation status. The trustees of the new institution found the prospects in this desolate region so unlikely that they persuaded the Massachusetts Legislature to let them put up the college buildings on any place they should choose in Kennebec or Somerset counties, while they retained the Penobscot township for whatever it might yield by sale of land or timber.

In 1815, the trustees chose Waterville and purchased from the great Kennebec landowner, Robert Hallowell Gardiner, one of the lots surveyed by John McKechnie in 1762, extending forty rods on the Kennebec and a mile back to the First Rangeway. During the next ten years, the first college buildings wrere erected, and some of them remained there until the college moved to Mayflower Hill 135 years later.

On this program I have referred several times to squatters or trespassers on Maine lands, people who simply lived in and put up cabins without any deed to the land. When those 1813 issues of the American Advocate were coming from the press, most of the land in Central Maine was still in the hands of a few owners of large tracts. Some of those owners like Robert Hallowell Gardiner, were heirs of original proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase of 1749. That accounts for this item in the Hallowell newspaper on September 3, 1812: “A petition has been made to the Legislature in Boston to take into consideration the peculiar situation in a sector of the District of Maine lying within the limits of Litchfield, Bowdoin, Wales and Lisbon. Circumstances have prevented peaceful settlement with persons who are illegally on the land. Being desirous of bringing these difficulties to an end, the petitioners ask the Legislature to appoint three impartial and judicious persons to adjust and finally settle claims between the proprietors and said settlers at such rates as they shall consider just and fair.” The major landowners involved were Robert Hallowell Gardiner and Charles Vaughan.

Like most early newspaper gazettes, from the first Falmouth Gazette in 1785 to the founding of the Kennebec Journal in 1875, the American Advocate of Hallowell contained little local news. As I have often commented on this program, if one wanted to know what was going on in a Maine community where a newspaper was published, he could gain much more information from the advertisements than from the articles. So let us now note a few ads in the Hallowell paper.

“John Main of Hallowell offers for sale fifty bales of prime cotton.”

“Daniel Hastings has for sale 500 crates of earthenware and glassware just received from London – the best ever seen in this town.”

“Crowell and Aldrich offer a new lot of yarns, threads, ginghams, plaids, shirtings and sheetings.”

“Fifteen dollars reward. Deserted from the garrison at Wiscasset, William Banks, age 27, 5 feet 6 inches tall, light complextion, grey eyes, dark hair and reddish beard. He will probably be dressed in a short, dark jacket with metal buttons, blue homespun trousers, and a black hat.”

“Run away from the subscriber, an indentured apprentice, Edward Doughty, 15 years old, thick set, had on when he went away a blue jacket and black trousers. Who ever will take him up and return him to this master will be paid one cent reward. Amos Reed, Dresden.”

“The fall quarter of Mr. Nichols’ dancing school will commence on Saturday, September 19. For young masters and misses, instruction in the first principles of dancing. Those who wish to attend will please present their names to us at the Washington Hotel in Hallowell previous to the opening date.”

“The fourth quarter at Farmington Academy will commence on Monday, September 22. Latin and Greek language, English grammar, bookkeeping, and all branches of mathematics. Geography will be taught with use of a globe.”

“Valuable schoolbooks published by Mr. Cheever, publisher of the Advocate, are now on sale at his bookstore in Hallowell. ‘The Young Gentlemens’ and Ladies’ Museum’ is an excellent book containing interesting and instructive pieces for reading and declamation, 27 cents a copy. Also for sale, Bibles, Testaments, paper and quills.”

“Gunn and Goddard inform the public that their gristmill at Farmington Falls, recently burned and now rebuilt, is in working order. The superior quality of their millstones guarantees excellent flour, just as good as any imported from the southern states.”

Some interesting information comes to us from those ads. Notice that in those ads, nothing ever began, it was always “commenced.” School terms did not begin they commenced. We learn also that schoolbooks were published, as well as sold, in Hallowell. In fact during the first quarter of the 19th century, Hallowell, not Portland, was the largest book-publishing center north of Boston. Several of those early Hallowell books are preserved at the Waterville Historical Society. Another item of interest is the fact that, at the opening of the 19th century, any flour not made from Maine wheat was imported from the south not from the west.

Let us end this account of the old Hallowell newspaper with this ad: “James Sewall informs the public that he has put his soap factory in operation at Hallowell, where he can supply any person with hard or soft soap on as good terms as can be had in Boston.”

So we find that in Central Maine 165 years ago there was no reason for people to fail to keep themselves and their clothes clean.

Year: 1980