In response to my request for more information about Maine trees, Mrs.\u00a0Basil Larkin of waterville has loaned me her cherished personal copy of\u00a0Miss Louise Helen Coburn’s book “The Trees of Coburn Park”. Mrs. Larkin\u00a0was once Miss Coburn’s secretary, and her copy of the book was a personal\u00a0gift from the author.<\/p>\n
Louise Helen Coburn of Skowhegan was not only poet, essayist and historian;\u00a0she was also an informed botanist, with special attention to trees.\u00a0From the time when the Coburn family first established the park beside the\u00a0bend in the Kennebec at Skowhegan, Miss Coburn took an active interest in\u00a0every tree planted on those beautiful acres. In 1928 she wrote the book to\u00a0which we now refer.<\/p>\n
At that time,Miss Coburn shows, there were 108 different kinds of trees\u00a0in Coburn Park. Perhaps others have since been added. Of the 108 trees,\u00a030 are conifers and 78 broadleaved trees. Thirty-five of the 108 are original\u00a0growers in the locality; 51 are either indigenous to Skowhegan or completely\u00a0naturalized in the town. Of the imported trees, 17 are from the\u00a0eastern part of the united States, four from the Rocky Mountains, 20 from\u00a0Europe and Western Asia, and six from Japan.<\/p>\n
Miss Coburn’s book not only describes each species of tree with botanical\u00a0detail, but also contains much interesting historical information. For\u00a0instance, she says the Norway pine has nothing to do with Scandanavian Norway,\u00a0but got its name because the first trees of this species which were\u00a0shipped to Kew Gardens in England came from Norway, Maine. The Norway pine\u00a0is strictly an American tree.<\/p>\n
Miss Coburn pays tribute to the historical importance of the Red Spruce,\u00a0the tree that Holman Day crowned with the title King Spruce. She says this\u00a0tree is found in a comparatively narrow area, covering New Brunswick, a small\u00a0part of southern Quebec, the interior hilly parts of New England, New York ‘\u00a0and Pennsylvania, and southward along the slopes of the Alleghany Mountains.<\/p>\n
It is the most valuable timber tree of our Northeastern forests. In 1672\u00a0John Josselyn, a 17th century traveler, published in London a book of his\u00a0travels in New England, in which he said, “The Maine spruce furnishes the\u00a0best yards and topmasts in the world.” The French traveler Michaud, visitin\u00a0this country in 1806 said that in the dock yards of the United States,the spars were usually of spruce from the District ‘of Maine, and that it was\u00a0exported for the same purpose in great quantities to the west Indies and to\u00a0Liverpool. The pioneers along the Kennebec built their cabins of spruce logs,\u00a0as woodsmen do today.<\/p>\n
Because I so well remember the Balm of Gilead tree in my grandmother’s\u00a0yard at Bridgton, I note with interest what Miss Coburn says about that tree.\u00a0It is, of course, a species of poplar that has its buds saturated with a\u00a0sticky substance that is so highly aromatic that the odor of the tree is perceptible\u00a0to the passer-by. Although the tree is not planted in dooryards as\u00a0often as it used to be, Miss Coburn says that in 1928 several fine specimens\u00a0could still be seen in Skowhegan dooryards. She invites her readers to\u00a0see the beautiful Balm of Gilead in Coburn Park near the pavilion close to\u00a0the highway.<\/p>\n
So, if you want to see more than 100 different varieties of trees, all\u00a0within a few hundred feet of each other, pay a visit to Coburn Park at the\u00a0east end of Skowhegan Village, where the Kennebec takes a wide bend before\u00a0its turn southward to Fairfield and Waterville.<\/p>\n
Jerry Frank, a senior at Colby College, has called my attention to what\u00a0the local census, taken in connection with the Federal census, showed about\u00a0Waterville in 1840, a hundred and ten years ago. Jerry dug it up in an old\u00a0copy of the watervillonian, published June 19, 1841. The statistics were\u00a0furnished the paper by Moses Healy, Esq. These figures provide a revealing\u00a0picture of what waterville was like tw~nty years before the Civil War.<\/p>\n
The population was 2,971. Humans were greatly exceeded by sheep, which\u00a0numbered 4,895, with 1,861 lambs still further increasing the wooly population.<\/p>\n
There were 1,611 neat cattle and 400 spring calves for stock, and 445\u00a0horses.<\/p>\n
Now come some astounding figures. Raised within the limits of Waterville,\u00a0which then included Oakland, were 6,280 bushels of wheat, 13,091 bushels of\u00a0oats, 1,695 of barley, 704 of rye, and 30 of buckwheat, with the biggest crop\u00a0of all being 18,345 bushels of Indian corn.<\/p>\n
Those Waterville sheep produced 14,944 pounds of wool. The land produced\u00a0not only grain, but also 4,680 tons of hay, and 53,938 bushels of potatoes \u2022.<\/p>\n
Waterville farmers sold 3,286 cords of wood, in addition to what they used\u00a0at home. There were 41 persons employed in lumbering, who brought out of the\u00a0woods $76,500 worth of lumber. Twenty-nine men were employed in carriage\u00a0making, sell ing their product for $15,550. Six persons worked at making\u00a0cutlery, sold for $4,600. In all of Waterville’s factories in 1840 the total\u00a0invested capital was $147,000.<\/p>\n
The number of retail stores of all kinds was 39, employing 76 people.<\/p>\n
The total capital invested in those stores was almost as large as the capital\u00a0in Waterville factories — $133,000.<\/p>\n
It is clear that, despite the marty saw mills and grist mills using the\u00a0water power of Kennebec and Messalonskee, Waterville was an agricultural community\u00a0in 1840. A lot of manufacturing still went on in the homes, as it had\u00a0done in the 18th century, before the Industrial Revolution. Squire Healy told\u00a0the Watervillonian that in 1840 the goods manufactured in Waterville homes\u00a0sold for $3,404.<\/p>\n
When the old timers of this region used the expression “from China to\u00a0the sea”, they meant from China, Maine to Belfast, Maine. Belfast is still\u00a0the nearest seaport to Waterville, although in the old days the easiest route\u00a0to the sea was down the Kennebec, through Merrymeeting Bay, past Bath and\u00a0Woolwich, to the open ocean.<\/p>\n
A century ago Belfast was an important port on Penobscot Bay. That is\u00a0made clear by a quick glance at a Belfast newspaper of a century ago. It is\u00a0the Waldo Signal of May 1, 1845, published by Charles Giles, with office\u00a0at the Sign of the Eagle, Main Street, Belfast. The masthead asserts that\u00a0the paper is devoted to literature, morality, general intelligence, agriculture,\u00a0politics and domestic economy. Subscription rate was “One dollar and\u00a0seventy-five cents per annum, payable within the year; two dollars at the\u00a0expiration of the year, which will positively be exacted. Advance payment,\u00a0one dollar and fifty cents per annum, seventy-five cents for six months.Country produce taken in payment at market prices.”<\/p>\n
Local fervor had been aroused by President Polk’s appointment of M. N.\u00a0Lowney as Collector of the Port of Belfast. It seems that Mr. Lowney, on his\u00a0way to New York as a delegate to the Presidential Convention had said on a\u00a0stop-over in Boston, “If Mr. Van Buren is not nominated I will leave the\u00a0Party.”<\/p>\n
“This is the man”, wrote Editor Giles, “who now has the fattest political\u00a0job in Waldo County. What.kind of bargain did Mr. Lowney make in Washington,\u00a0that the President whose nomination he opposed now rewards him with a\u00a0job that belongs to a more loyal man?”<\/p>\n
A letter to the editor, signed by a man in Camden, was equally wrathful.\u00a0“What think you”, he wrote, “of the restoration of the Van Buren dynasty\u00a0in Waldo County? Is the democracy of the county eternally to be saddled\u00a0with this death-blight? Mr. Polk has been grossly deceived. A bu’sy and\u00a0important port like Belfast should not be under the control of such a renegade.”<\/p>\n
Maine Democrats were fighting among themselves in 1845. The Belfast\u00a0editor refers to the two factions as “sound” Democrats and “terrified”\u00a0Democrats. He predicted that their eventual fate would be that of the Kilkenny\u00a0cats. Nothing would be seen but their tails.<\/p>\n
In 1845 agitation had started against the use of friction matches because\u00a0they were alleged to cause so many disastrous fires. Editor Giles did\u00a0not propose doing away with matches altogether, but he did say: “Any person\u00a0who neglects to keep matches in a covered tin box should be required to go\u00a0back to flint and steel.”<\/p>\n
A hundred years ago they were already talking about a railroad down\u00a0in Belfast. There was strong agitation for a line from Belfast to Quebec,\u00a0passing through the towns of Burnham, Plymouth, Detroit, St. Albans, Newport,\u00a0and Skowhegan. A correspondent in St. Albans urged Belfast folk to get\u00a0busy. He wrote to Editor Giles: “Your business men are asleep. While theyhave been content to barter in fish on a small scale, and deal in a few dead\u00a0trees from the back towns, other places are getting ahead of you. We understand\u00a0a railroad will soon come to waterville. Do you propose to let that\u00a0town get the business which you could easily obtain?”<\/p>\n
Well in 1849 the railroad did come to Waterville, and in due time it\u00a0came to Belfast also. Now in 1950 that Belfast railroad is one of the most\u00a0uniquely operated and one of the few municipally owned railroads in the United\u00a0States.<\/p>\n
On this program we talk so much about the old times of the 1840′ sand\u00a01850’s that it is interesting to see in this old Belfast paper of 1845 a\u00a0column headed “The Olden Time”. The column refers to a Philadelphia ‘paper’s\u00a0reminiscences of George Washington when the General had resided in Philadelphia\u00a0as the first President of the united States fifty years ago. People\u00a0still remembered Washington’s eating habits, for instance. Thursdays were\u00a0guest days at the President’s dining room. Dinners in those days were lavish\u00a0and consisted of many courses. At a single dinner as many as a dozen kinds\u00a0of meat and game might appear. Washington, however, generally partook only\u00a0of a single dish and that of the simplest kind. If offered something that was\u00a0excessively rich or unusual he would say, “This is too good for me”. He had\u00a0a silver pint cup or mug of beer placed by his plate, which he drank while\u00a0dining. He took one glass of wine during dinner and another immediately\u00a0after. He then retired from the table and left his secretary to play host\u00a0“until the wine-bibbers of Congress had satisfied themselves with drinking.”<\/p>\n
Deep sea fishing called for varied supplies in 1845. The fleets that went\u00a0out from Gloucester had\u00b7 nothing on the Belfast boats so far as supplies\u00a0were concerned, if we may judge from the advertisement of William Witherbee\u00a0and Company in this old newspaper. Witherbee announced for sale at his store,\u00a0No. 3 water Street, Castine, “an extensive supply of articles for the fishery,\u00a0consisting of Liverpool salt, beef and pork, lard, flour, pilot bread, rice,\u00a0corn, Indian meal, white beans, molasses, tar and pitch, Russia and cotton\u00a0duck, Manila and tarred cordage, bolt rope, hawsers and cables, hemp and cotton\u00a0cod lines, cod hooks and leads, and first quality fishing boots.”<\/p>\n
Other ads in the same paper offer a thousand pounds of live geese feathers,\u00a0warranted kiln dried, and of the very best quality; isinglass for lanterns;\u00a0green window curtain paper I <\/em>plain and printed. One firm advertised\u00a0fire buckets, saddles, harnesses, trunks, valises, carpet bags and satchels.\u00a0Another offered bathing tubs and vapor bath apparatus. Their feature was the\u00a0Bates Patent Sliding Top Chamber Shower Bath.<\/p>\n The usual public notices, seen so commonly in the newspapers of a century\u00a0ago, were not missing from the Waldo Signal. One of these announced that the\u00a0summer term of the public schools in Districts 4 and 5 would commence on Monday,\u00a0May 12, 1845. Jonathan Frohock announced the economic freedom of his son\u00a0with this public notice: “This certifies that I have this day given to my son,\u00a0Jonathan L. Frohock, the remainder of his time to act and trade for himself. I\u00a0shall claim none of his earnings and pay no debts of his contracting after\u00a0this date.”<\/p>\n In another public notice H. A. Lowell wanted it distinctly understood\u00a0that the inhabitants of the town of Freedom had contracted with him to support\u00a0Jacob Doten and family, paupers of said town, and that Lowell now forbade all\u00a0persons to furnish supplies to the Doten family because he had made ample provision\u00a0for their support at his own table in Freedom.<\/p>\n While all the world talks about a coming third World War, among all\u00a0people everywhere is a great yearning for peace. Interestingly enough, it is\u00a0not a clergyman, but a layman, who suggests that the only sure guide to peace\u00a0is the moral law. That layman is Henry Luce, head of the great publishing\u00a0organization that produces Time, Life and Fortune magazines. Says Mr. Luce:<\/p>\n “There is certainly no easy road to peace, no well paved Route 1, Route 2 or\u00a0Route 3. Peace is a place across a vast jungle of human interests, conflicts,\u00a0passions, errors, fears and hopes. But there is a guide through that jungle.<\/p>\n It is the moral law.<\/p>\n Mr. Luce quite rightly points out that, divided as the different sects\u00a0surely are, on one thing they are united: our firm belief that God, the creator\u00a0of man, also created a moral law for man’s government and endowed man with\u00a0a conscience to apprehend that law. On that belief the government of the\u00a0United States itself was founded. It provided the basis of unity when our\u00a0forefathers framed the . Constitution in 1787. That basic belief in moral\u00a0law is taught by Protestant, Catholic and Jewish religions alike.<\/p>\n The Difficulty — the great obstacle in the way of peace — is that\u00a0while we Americans hold to that faith in moral law, there are others who do\u00a0not so hold. In fact it is precisely that belief which the men who now govern\u00a0Russia relentlessly attack. Stalin and the men of the Politburo say\u00a0they have no objection to religion as a personal matter. They permit churches\u00a0to stay open. But what they cannot permit, what they dare not tolerate, is the\u00a0idea that their government, all government, is subject to a higher law, the\u00a0moral law.<\/p>\n As far apart as we and the Russians are today on this acceptance or rejection\u00a0of the validity of moral law, I believe Mr. Luce is profoundly right.\u00a0Although Communist tyranny can stand between nations and the moral law, it\u00a0cannot stand between men and the moral law. The yearning of men for liberty\u00a0and justice cannot be repressed. The hunger and thirst for righteousness is\u00a0universal. In the long run man or nation that flouts the moral law is doomed.<\/p>\n We must be determined to do all in our power, taking advantage of every constructive\u00a0idea, to lessen the tensions and to restore people’s confidence \u00a0allover the world. And we must do it, not because we are afraid, not lestsome enemy overtake us, but because it is right. Greater than armies and\u00a0navies, more powerful than atomic bombs, is the power of moral law, giving\u00a0all men the conviction that wrong cannot permanently conquer, and that two\u00a0wrongs never make a right.<\/p>\n Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #69, broadcast on May 21, 1950<\/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":[1153,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7133"}],"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=7133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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