<\/p>\n
From time to time this program has mentioned individual newspapers published in the Kennebec Valley. Today let us get a more comprehensive view of how the Valley’s people got their news before the coming of radio and television.<\/p>\n
At the dawn of the present century soon after 1900, there were published along the river between Richmond and Bingham a total of 18 newspapers. Five were dailies: the Kennebec Journal, the Hallowell Register, the Gardiner Reporter, the Waterville Mail, and the Waterville Sentinel. The remaining thirteen were weeklies published in Richmond, China, Vassalboro, Oakland, Fairfield, Skowhegan, Norridgewock, North Anson, Solon, and Bingham. When I graduated from Colby College in 1913, the Valley still had 16 papers. Four of the previous 18 had folded: the China Tribune, the Vassalboro Times, the Gardiner Reporter and most significantly the venerable Waterville Mail, which first as weekly and then as daily had lasted for 66 years. Meanwhile two new papers had appeared the Skowhegan Independent in competition with the older Skowhegan Reporter, and the Maine Democrat, published in Waterville by William R. Pattangall.<\/p>\n
Since 1913 most of those 16 papers have disappeared. Among the weeklies, the notable exception is in Skowhegan where the two papers combined into the present Independent-Reporter. The first newspaper printed in the Kennebec Valley was a weekly called the Eastern Star, whose first issue came from a press in Hallowell on August 4, 1794. At that time the town of Hallowell included what are now both Hallowell and Augusta, the former being called the Hook, and the latter the Fort. In 1794 the Hook, now Hallowell, was much larger in population than the Fort, now Augusta.<\/p>\n
The masthead of that first Kennebec newspaper announced that it was published at the Hook, Hallowell, Mass., by Howard Robinson at a subscription rate of nine shillings a year. That was in terms of the New England shilling, valued at 16 2\/3 cents in the new U.S. currency, or six shillings to a dollar. The Eastern Star thus cost subscribers $1.50 for a year of 52 issues. That was not however the full cost. Until the coming of postage in 1847, the receiver, not the sender of mail, had to pay postage; so when a subscriber’s Eastern Star arrived at his post office he had to pay the mailing cost.<\/p>\n
The year 1795 saw the first paper at the Fort. It was the Kennebec Intelligencer, published by Peter Edes, who had come from Boston, where he had been associated with his father in publication of the Boston Gazette, the first newspaper to give a full account of the Boston Massacre in 1770. Edes continued publication in Augusta until 1815 when he decided there were greener pastures in Bangor. To that town he moved his press and type all the way from Augusta by ox team. There he produced Bangor’s first newspaper and was a leading citizen for the next 25 years until his death.<\/p>\n
On this program has already been recounted the story of the Valley’s now longest existing newspaper, the Kennebec Journal, started in 1825. There is no need to repeat that story today. Newspapers had been printed in Hallowell and Augusta for more than two decades before any appeared in Waterville. Its first paper was the Waterville Intelligencer, brought out by William Hastings on May 23, 1823. Hastings hired as a printer John Burleigh, who soon launched his own paper. Hastings’ Intelligencer was in fact sponsored by Waterville College (now Colby) and was designated as the official paper of the Baptist denomination. In 1828 it became the long-lived Baptist weekly, Zions Advocate, and was moved to Portland.<\/p>\n
In 1831 John Burleigh announced a paper called the Waterville Times. His ad said: “The central position of Waterville and its connection with adjacent towns warrants the belief that a public journal may at this time be established with fair promise of success. The Times will deserve support by the veracity of its statements, the soundness of its principles, and the value of its information.” Burleigh’s statement continued: “No one should remain ignorant of passing events. For the informed citizen there is no substitute for a good newspaper. The Times will be published weekly at $2 a year, $2.25 if payment is delayed beyond that period. Most kinds of country produce will be accepted in payment.”<\/p>\n
Despite his optimism, Burleigh’s paper lasted less than a year, putting out its last issue on September 10, 1832. In that issue Burleigh said he was disgusted with the paper’s unprofitability. He said he had too few advertisers, too many delinquent subscribers, and too little public interest. Perhaps, he intimated, people in the Waterville area preferred to be illiterate. Rather than go bankrupt, he was selling his press, type and other equipment, as well as his dwelling house on Elm Street and getting out of town. His purchaser was Daniel Wing, who briefly put out a paper called the Watervillonian. Then Burleigh apparently forgave Waterville, for he returned with another attempt, the Waterville Journal, but that too proved unsuccessful and folded in 1837.<\/p>\n
Waterville was then without a newspaper until 1842, when the stationer and bookseller William Mathews started the Yankee Blade. He was a son of Simeon Mathews, who had been a partner with Nathaniel Gilman in trading all through this part of the Valley. William was also the brother of Waterville’s first murder victim, Edward Mathews, killed by Dr. Valorus Coolidge in 1847. In 1835 William Mathews had graduated from Waterville College. Later he moved to Boston, where he was not only a successful printer, but became the author of more than a dozen inspirational books, some of them translated into several foreign languages. The Yankee Blade left Waterville with him in 1844.<\/p>\n
In 1847 Charles Hathaway, creator of the now famous Hathaway shirts, tried his hand at newspaper publishing. A highly opinionated, explosive individual, he wanted an outlet for his vociferous expressions. Knowing nothing about printing, he hired a young man, Ephraim Maxham to print his paper.<\/p>\n
Produced primarily to please himself, Hathaway’s Waterville Union pleased almost no one else. It lasted for only fourteen issues, when Hathaway sold it to Maxham, who changed the name to the Eastern Mail. Maxham formed a partnership with Daniel Wing, who had been John Burleigh’s printer. Together they made the Eastern Mail such a lasting paper that as the Waterville Mail it continued as a weekly and finally as a daily until 1908.<\/p>\n
The Waterville Sentinel first appeared in 1904, as a Democratic daily to compete with the Republican Waterville Mail. Meanwhile there had been several short-lived attempts at competing papers, notably the Democrat, put out by the fiery Ben Bunker. The name Waterville Sentinel was much older than the daily that appeared in 1904. Under that name a weekly had been started by Leger and Robinson in 1880. It passed through several hands, and in 1894 came into possession of another member of the Burleigh family, Sam Burleigh of Vassalboro. In 1898 he sold it to W. M. Lad~ of Fairfield. Six years later, in 1904, it became a daily, still under sponsorship of the Maine Democratic party.<\/p>\n
Interesting is the part played by Colby College in Waterville’s early newspapers. I have already mentioned its sponsorship of the town’s first paper, William Hastings’ Waterville Intelligencer. In 1829 the college decided to give its students a chance to earn money in a workshop set up by the college. Although the work was chiefly carpentry, the college called it a “mechanic shop.” In 1833 the college bought John Burleigh’s press and set it up in the mechanic shop. A student, Edgar Gray, who had learned the printer’s trade before he entered college, agreed to instruct other students in the business. In 1840 the college sold press and equipment to another member of the famous Edes family, George Edes, who took it to Dover, N.H. Somerset County’s first newspaper came not to Skowhegan, but to Norridgewock, which was the much larger town in 1823. It was a Federalist paper strongly opposed to the party of Maine’s first governor, William King.<\/p>\n
In 1828, however, it was purchased by Jefferson Democrats and moved to Skowhegan where it supported the presidential campaigns of Andrew Jackson.<\/p>\n
It soon had a rival, the Republican Whig. In 1847 a Skowhegan doctor who was widely known as Somerset County’s “medicine man”, to herald his self-concocted remedies, started Mann’s American Miscellany. It kept up a persistent stand against Maine’s law prohibiting sales of intoxicating liquors.<\/p>\n
In 1857 appeared the Somerset Telegraph, which had the distinction of supporting no political party and no particular religious sect. In 1841 the paper that had supported Jackson became the Skowhegan Clarion. In 1868 its name was changed to the Somerset Reporter. The latter part of that name has remained to the present. In 1909 it became the Independent Reporter, and a leading newspaper man, Roland Patten, made it one of the best weeklies in Maine.<\/p>\n
On the Kennebec north of Skowhegan several papers appeared at various times, among them the Madison Bulletin, the Solon Times, the North Anson Advocate, and the Bingham Herald. In fact Solon had seen its first paper as early as 1870 when a small sheet was put out by Turner Buswell. In 1890 appeared the Solon Weekly Times, which was actually printed in Fairfield. It continued publication until 1910.<\/p>\n
A venerable paper, the Fairfield Journal, first appeared in the midst of the Civil War in 1862. It continued publication until well into the 20th century. In 1889 its publisher, Edward Mayo, was strongly influential in having George Hinckley choose a site in Fairfield for his Good Will Homes and Schools. During its long existence the Fairfield Journal contained a number of ads that have become legendary. One was the drawing of a race horse, breeding stallion Gilbreth Knox owned by James Gilbreth. A well known horseman and business man in his own right, Gilbreth became even better known as the grandfather of those twelve children celebrated in the book “Cheaper by the Dozen”, written by his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Frank Gilbreth.<\/p>\n
Farther down the river nearer to Merrymeeting Bay, the Valley saw newspapers at Richmond. The Rising Sun, an organ of the Free Baptist denomination, appeared there in 1858, but folded in 1862. It was followed by the Richmond Herald, which soon encountered financial difficulties. It was for a time merged with a paper in Thomaston. The Richmond Bee, which was still on our 1913 list of papers, was started in 1880 and passed through several hands until its closing in 1964. In its 84 years it was one of the longest lived papers in the Valley.<\/p>\n
And that completes our story of newspapers in the Kennebec Valley. We must now say goodbye until next week.<\/p>\n
Year: 1981<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1270, Broadcast on April 5, 1981<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35323,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}