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1981

Radio Script #1263

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Little Talks on Common Things
February 15, 1981

During its 33 years on the air, this program has paid much attention to the Gardiner family long prominent in Maine business and government. The first member of that family to show interest in Maine was Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, Boston merchant and financier, who was chiefly instrumental in forming the company called Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase in 1749. It was Dr. Gardiner who founded and developed the Maine community that is now the City of Gardiner.

We have given less attention to another family that deserves mention because that family gave its name to Augusta’s neighboring town of Vassalboro. Though no member of the family ever lived in the town, a number of them visited it while the family’s financial interest in the area continued.

It was Florentius Vassal who actually attached the family name to Vassalboro, because he was the family member most intimately associated with the town’s settlement and early development. The fact is, however, that the name was a tribute.

A published genealogy of the Vassal family tells us of this family’s historic importance. In England the first Vassal of prominence appeared in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was John Vassall, alderman of London, who had such wealth that at his personal expense, he fitted out two ships for the fleet of Sir Francis Drake that defeated the Spanish Armada and set England on the way to its supremacy of the seas.

I was personally interested in something that Mrs. Rollins’ History of Vassalboro tells about that John Vassall of the 16th century. She said he was a French Huguenot refugee whose Protestant belief had made it necessary for him to flee from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. That was exactly the case with my own paternal ancestor, John Marriner, who founded the American branch of the Marriner family. In the 17th century he came to Boston, and it was his son who was a pioneer at Cape Elizabeth in Maine, and from whom I am descended.

John Vassal had two sons who became interested in that part of the land across the Atlantic called New England. When there was organized in England the Massachusetts Bay Company, following the earlier Plymouth Company, to foster settlements in New England, it founded the colony at Boston and Salem under John Winthrop in 1630. In 1630 William Vassal arrived in Plymouth. Within a year he returned to England, but came back to America in 1635, this time to Boston. After 13 years there, he went to the West Indies island of Barbados, where the family had plantation interests. When William left Massachusetts, he was already one of its wealthiest men.

In England both William and Samuel Vassall were members of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Sam’s major colonial interest was in Barbados, where his son John became a prominent plantation owner and trader, and where his son William
succeeded him. It was that William Vassall who was the father of Florentius

Vassall, founder of Vassalboro, Maine. Florentius was thus the great grandson of Samuel Vassall of the Massachusetts Bay Company. The Vassalls were a prolific and prosperous family. One member of the Boston branch had 14 children. By 1750 four Vassalls had graduated from Harvard. One of them, Jonathan John Vassall, built Craigie House, the Cambridge mansion accepted by George Washington as his headquarters at the start of the Revolution, and later the home of the poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Like Dr. Sylvester Gardiner and several other Kennebec Proprietors, the Boston members of the Vassall family, at least the prominent ones, were Loyalists at the time when Massachusetts was the hotbed of revolt against Great Britain. As the Revolution cause came to prevail in the colony, Florentius Vassall, like Sylvester Gardiner, was forced to leave Boston, and both of them fled to England. Like Dr. Gardiner,the Vassalls had many of their American lands restored to them after long litigation, when the Revolution had ended.

Florentius Vassall was born in Barbados in 1709. As a young man he came to Boston where he developed a large business as merchant and ship owner, as well as investor in land development. Because many coastal vessels plying north from Boston entered the Kennebec River and came even above Merrymeeting Bay to the site of the present city of Hallowell, it is possible that Florentius Vassall did at some time see his Kennebec lands, but we have no substantial evidence that he ever came to Maine. Unlike Dr. Gardiner, he was never a resident on his Maine property.

How did Florentius Vassall get his Maine lands? In 1661 four men had bought from the Plymouth Colony the land on the Kennebec River that the colony had been granted by the King of England in 1629. It was a tract 15 miles on each side of the river from Merrymeeting Bay to the Wesserunsett Stream at Skowhegan. During the subsequent century hostility of French and Indians made it impossible for the four shareholders to get settlers.

In 1749 a group of Boston merchants, led by Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, felt the time had come to do something about that Kennebec land. They formed a corporation called the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase which immediately set about the formidable task of purchasing from the heirs of the four men of 1661 all rights in the Kennebec lands. The number of heirs they finally located were 192, so that complete ownership by the Proprietors was divided into 192 shares.

The Proprietors proceeded to divide the large tract among them according to their number of shares. Florentius Vassall received some tracts. One was in what is now the Town of Pittston, not far from the Company’s original settlement at Old Pownal borough, now Dresden. A large piece that came to him was 3,200 acres just north of the tract allotted to Benjamin Hallowell, so that Vassall’s south line adjoined the north line of what is now Augusta.

That Florentius Vassall had continuing interest in the Company’s whole tract, as well as in his personal holdings, is shown by a letter which Mrs. Rollins quotes in her History of Vassalboro. It was written by Vassall to Dr. Gardiner in 1769, and said: “Regarding the new lands 50 miles above Fort Halifax, you say they are a very good 40,000 acres. I recommend dividing them into such lots as was originally done for our own lots down the river. But I am not myself inclined to buy more land at this time. Instead I desire that the Company grant or sell to me land between my lot near Pownalborough
so as to bring my holdings through to the Sebasticook River.”

That letter shows that Vassall, in addition to his land above Augusta, had ownership to land near the present town of Dresden. Florentius Vassall was indeed more ambitious for development of the Kennebec Company’s land than the situation in mid-eighteenth century warranted. In 1753 he proposed to the Massachusetts Legislature that the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase be awarded an additional new grant from the unsettled lands belonging to Massachusetts in Maine. He asked that the Company be granted ownership of all land between the Kennebec and the St. Croix Rivers;
in other words, all of Eastern Maine.

The Massachusetts government assured Vassall that the requested grant would be made if the Company could have at least 5,000 settlers with an appropriate number of Protestant ministers in settlements all the way from the Kennebec to the St. Croix, three miles from the coast within two years. That stipulation could not be met. The French and Indians still stood in the way. After the Revolution several descendants of Florentius Vassall came to Maine, trying to secure through the courts compensation for what they claimed as their interest in lands held by others on the Kennebec. Those claims were not finally settled until the middle of the 19th century.

Leading Kennebec Proprietors besides Dr. Gardiner and Florentius VassaIl were Christopher Appleton, James and William Bowdoin, Benjamin Hallowell, Thomas Hancock and James Pitts. It was Pitts whose allotted land included Lot 105 of the McKechnie Survey in Waterville, the lot later developed by Timothy Boutelle, and on which stands Waterville’s oldest extant public building, the First Baptist Church.

In 1760 the Company found it necessary to survey and layout in lots that land north of Gardiner. They employed Nathan Winslow for the job. His designated lots 54 to 102 on the east side of the river became the present town of Vassalboro. But the Proprietors’ land then included also the west side, which is now Sidney. So originally Vassalboro included lots 35 to 82 on the west side of the river.

In colonial times Vassalboro was in the heart of British North America, sacred for the King’s masts. The King’s broad arrow became famous in England and infamous in New England. Allover Maine, where trees were anywhere near navigable waters, the King’s surveyors had placed the broad arrow on the tallest and straightest pines, signifying that the tree must not be cut by settlers on penalty of imprisonment.

As people settled the land and improved it, they resented the coming of the King’s representatives to take from their land those best pines. Even when the settler was just a squatter without a deed to the land, he made life difficult for the King’s men. However, so many of the Kennebec Proprietors were Loyalists that there was little official objection to removal of mast trees for the Royal Navy and merchant marine.

For many years there were disputes about the location of settler’s lots. The confusion was caused because so many deeds named boundaries that were natural objects which were obliterated with time. An important corner marker by a deed described as a large Norway pine, or a big red oak tree, eventually rotted away even if someone did not cut it. Even such a marker as a granite boulder might be blasted to make a foundation for a building. So, all along the Kennebec, land disputes have been in the courts for more than 200 years.

In 1771 the region had enough settlers so that the Massachusetts Legislature incorporated four towns – Winthrop, Hallowell, Vassalboro and Winslow. The act incorporating Vassalboro said: “Incorporating a tract of land in the County of Lincoln into a territory by the name of Vassalboro, bounded as follows: Beginning on the east side of the Kennebec River in the north line of lot number fifty; and running from the Kennebec River on said line, an east-southeast course, five miles (being bounded thus far by the Town of Hallowell); from thence to run northerly about eight miles, more or less, on
such a course as to meet the east end of a line running five miles east southeast from the Kennebec River along the southerly line of lot number 102, fronting on said Kennebec River; from thence to run west-northwest on last mentioned line to Kennebec River and to run on the same course across said river and continuing for five miles; from thence to run southerly to the northwesterly corner of the Town of Hallowell; from thence to run east-southeast five miles along the north line of said town to the Kennebec River; and over said river to the first mentioned bounds.”

The warrant to call Vassalboro’s first town meeting was issued to a member of a family that became well known in both Vassalboro and Winslow. Jonas Howard was authorized to call together the legal voters within the designated limits to elect officers and start operating as a town in 1771.

And with that brief account of ancient Vassalboro, we say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1981

Radio Script #1258

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Little Talks on Common Things
January 11, 1981

Last week I told you something about the work of John Dooly, grandfather of Maine’s renowned Dr. Leonard Mayo. Dooly, founder of New York’s famous Bowery Mission, had many interesting experiences during his first years on the job from the spring of 1872 to the fall of 1884, when the records from which our information comes were ended. But Dooly continued with the mission six more years until 1890.

In 1873 he was still having trouble with unruly persons: “March 17. A man we had helped broke into our cellar and departed with 300 of our meal tickets and a few cents in change. He had the nerve to conceal himself on the chapel roof that evening after his theft, when Mr. Rose, our janitor, found him and made him prisoner. He was crestfallen when captured, but I do not trust his repentance. He is a bad fellow and I can do nothing for him.”

“April 3, 1873. The iceman brought to me a man who had been 10 years a chief in the N.Y. Police Department. He had lost his family and friends and all his money because of drink. I also had a call from a detective looking for a man who stole $150 from a family that gave him shelter.”

We have all heard of Turkish baths, but note this record of Dooly’s: “Indulged in the luxury of a Russian bath. It was truly refreshing.” Is it possible that in the 1870’s a person could get some kind of sauna in New York City?

YMCA’s in other cities were interested in details of work by the Bowery Mission. The Secretary of the Boston YMCA was one of those investigators. On another occasion Dooly was visited by the notorious crusader, Susan B. Anthony of saloon-smashing fame along with Carrie Nation, and had several calls from the crusading Anthony Comstock. Comstock thought Dooly was too sympathetic with the drunks, but Dooly reminded him that these were just the kind of people to whom Jesus had given most attention.

Dooly was able to place several men in household kitchen employment because fashionable New York families liked to have male cooks. A woman in Morristown, New Jersey thanked Dooly for sending her a chef who had proved efficient and reliable. She had found it necessary to discharge a number of previous chefs for drunkeness. Fathers and mothers constantly sought Dooly’s help to find runaway sons. He had a call from a man in Columbus, Ohio whose son had run away from home months ago.

As I have previously indicated, not all of Dooly’s dealings were with the male sex. One day he recorded: “A woman, obviously suffering from drink, called, looking for work. She was immediately followed by a young man who proved to be her son. He said his father had put her out of the house because she was seldom sober, although both husband and son had tried to hide her liquor. She had spent $1,300 of the family savings in the past four months.”

One of Dooly’s troubles was with strikes. In the summer of 1875 the stevedores on the New York docks went on strike. The agent for the Anchor Steamship Line appealed to Dooly to get him strikebreakers among the unemployed. Dooly recorded: “Though we have plenty of men out of work, few of them will risk their lives defying the strikers. One who risked it was so badly injured that he died in a hospital.”

Some appeals came from persons who claimed to have had previous contact with the mission. Dooly wrote: “A man called, representing himself as a member of the Roosevelt family, and said we had helped him earlier. He is probably a fraud, but I let him have 25 cents. Times are now so hard that our executive committee decided to reduce the meal charge from 10 to five cents.”

Dooly planned to set up an industrial farm for the worthy derelicts. It would be sponsored by the YMCA members in rural New York State. Steward, head of the city’s big department stores, agreed to give 1,000 acres of land for the project.

On a January day Dooly wrote: “Had an appealing case which I examined carefully. It was from a young Dane who claims to be the son of a former governor of Greenland and heir to his father’s estate in Denmark. Well educated, he had vainly sought white-collar employment in New York. The only job he could get was carrying coal from place to place. He had been a drummer boy in the Danish army in the war of 1863.” On another day he recorded: “Trouble with petty thievery among our lodgers. Hope I soon find the guilty one.”

In the fall of 1876 Dooly began a long, personal acquaintance with the noted evangelist, Dwight L. Moody. Moody invited Dooly to sit on the platform with him in the big tabernacle near the later site of Madison Square Garden. Dooly often preached at the notorious New York prison called the Tombs, located not far from his mission. Men, waiting there for sentence, persistently appealed to Dooly to keep them out of Sing Sing. Dooly soon learned to distinguish a genuine appeal from a spurious one, and he tried to help those he found deserving.

In 1878, during a longshoremen’s strike, Dooly did better than he had earlier done. He got work for 80 men as strikebreakers. By 1878 Dooly had his industrial farm in operation at Locust Valley, N.Y. A large part of the maintenance cost was paid for several years by Cornelius Vanderbilt and two other prominent New Yorkers. Dooly was able to place in the N.Y. Evening Post a long article about the farm. An item in the New York Herald in 1879 said: The junction of the Bowery and Grove Street is a busy place. Here is the Bowery Branch of the N.Y. YMCA. On the ground floor is an attractive chapel, newly decorated with flags and evergreens of the season. The object of the branch is to provide religious instruction and temporary relief, both meals and lodging, for the poor unfortunates of the Bowery; to find employment for them, give them wholesome entertainment; and perform such other services as may be useful. Rev. John Dooly is the General Secretary in charge. He says: ‘We are not a boarding house or a hospital. We provide temporary relief only to able-bodied men. We try to help them become self-reliant and self-respected. ”

In the winter of 1880 the horse car drivers went on strike. The mission gave them daily dinners and other relief. Dooly became active in another charity project: The House of Industry, a kind of orphan home for deserted children. He once recorded: “Had a good romp with the children at House of Industry.”

On another occasion Dooly took 20 of the children to Central Park. But work at the mission never ceased. In 1880 he had a call from a man who was a backslider. A year previous he had signed the pledge at the mission, and Dooly got a job for him in Utica. The man returned to the city, got drunk, lost all his money, and had been two days without food. The man swore on a Bible that he would drink no more but Dooly wrote: “I am skeptical. He has a weak character.”

Dooly also became pastor of the Carmel Church, which he founded in the Bowery. A ticket pasted in the record book says: “Admit one adult to Entertainment No.1, Young People’s Convention of Carmel Church, 174 Grove Street, Thursday, February 8, 1883 at 7:30 p.m. Illustrated lecture on Bible lands by Rev. F.S.DeHass, member of the American Geographical Society and late Consul at Jerusalem. Doors open at 7. Price 20 cents.” That price shows that, unlike Dooly’s entertainments at the mission, this lecture was open to the public. Few of Dooly’s recipients could afford to pay 20 cents for anything.

In 1880 Dooly became involved in still another project. He received an invitation to attend the opening exercises of the Florence Nightingale Mission at 29 Blanche Street. There the account of the mission’s plans so appealed to Dooly that he agreed to help.

In 1883 Dooly made first mention of what was to become a lasting element in New York City’s population – the Italians. He wrote: “Today we opened services for the Italians at Carmel Church. I assisted in Italian communion. Received into the church 8 members – 6 men and 2 women. We hope to make this Italian work very prosperous. Dooly counted outings an appropriate part of Carmel Church activities. He told its people to be at Sea Route Pier No. 85, North River promptly at 9 a.m. on Monday, August 27, 1883 for an excursion to Coney Island. Dooly announced that all children of the church who showed up at the pier before 7:30 a.m. would be taken free. Tickets would be sold to children not of Carmel Church provided they were accompanied by a vouching adult.

In 1883 Dooly recorded sadly: “I was called to conduct the funeral of John Rose who served devotedly as our janitor when we opened this mission. He was always ready to work for us at any hour of day or night.”

Another newspaper clipping in 1883 told more about Dooly’s church. It said: “Carmel Church, 174 Grove Street, is the only English speaking Protestant church in New York’s 14th ward. The building now housing the church was for forty years a liquor saloon. It has been repaired and renovated. The first floor is used as an auditorium; the second floor has classrooms for the Sabbath School. Rev. John Dooly, long as the untiring manager of the Bowery Branch of the YMCA, is pastor. Under his direction, the Sunday services, the weekly temperance meetings, the Bible class, and other exercises are flourishing with constantly increasing attendance.”

Early in 1884 the Bowery Mission encountered trouble. Dooly wrote: “The Mulberry Street boys raided the neighbor house at the corner of Brown and Center Streets, and nearly tore it to pieces. Some damage including broken windows was done to our building. That gang has several times threatened us, and we must have better police protection.” In 1884 Dooly deplored the lack of sufficient churches in the city. He said: “New Hampshire has a church for every 500 inhabitants. New York City has one for every 5,000.”

That completes our story of John Dooly’s Bowery Mission. On some future broadcast I shall tell you about the hundreds of letters Dooly received from allover the world. Now we must say godbye until next week.

Year: 1981