{"id":7137,"date":"1950-06-04T10:02:13","date_gmt":"1950-06-04T14:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/specialcollections\/?p=7137"},"modified":"1950-06-04T10:02:13","modified_gmt":"1950-06-04T14:02:13","slug":"lt071","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/1950\/06\/04\/lt071\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio Script #71"},"content":{"rendered":"

Little Talks On Common Things
\nJune 4, 1950On this program two weeks ago we were talking about the year 1845. As\u00a0a consequence someone asked our distinguiShed waterville citizen, Harvey D.\u00a0Eaton, whether the original portion of his house on Silver Street was standing\u00a0as long ago as 1845. Mr. Eaton replied that it probably was, because\u00a0only two years after that in 1847 the man who lived in it was murdered.<\/span><\/h3>\n

That is how we come to refer tonight to Waterville’s famous murder of\u00a01847. Waterville has been remarkably free from capital crime. In fact, Dr.\u00a0Whittemore states in Chapter III of the Centennial History of Waterville:<\/p>\n

“On September 30, 1847 occurred the first and only murder in the entire history\u00a0of waterville.” Dr. Whittemore wrote that in 1902. Ho’tl.” many murders\u00a0have occurred here in the succeeding 48 years? I recall three: the Abie Levine murder, the killing of a taxi driver, and the brutal slaying of the little\u00a0Proulx girl. Perhaps there have been more. At any rate it says something\u00a0for our times when we note that in the first century of its history\u00a0Waterville had only one murder, while it has had three murders in the past\u00a0twenty years.<\/p>\n

In a town as small as waterville was in 1847 any serious crime was noteworthy.<\/p>\n

A capital crime was a sensation. When both the murdered man and his\u00a0alleged slayer were prominent persons in the community the sensation assumed\u00a0grand proportions.<\/p>\n

One of Waterville’s most famous early families was that of Mathews. Jabez\u00a0Mathews, founder of the Waterville branch of the family, was born in Gray\u00a0in 1743. He had seen this little conununity before he settled here, because he\u00a0had been in Col. Ward’s division of Benedict Arnold’s army when the bateaux\u00a0loaded with those troops went up the Kennebec in 1775. A quarter of a century\u00a0later in 1794 Jabez came to Winslow with his two sons, Simeon and John. For a\u00a0time he kept a tavern in a house on the north side of Silver Street near the\u00a0corner of Main Street. Later he lived in a small house on the east side of\u00a0Silver Street near the Fred Arnold property. Jabez’ son Simeon went into partnership\u00a0with Nathaniel Gilman in a store on Main Street near Where the Montgomery\u00a0Ward building now stands. It was he Who built the big house on Silver\u00a0Street so long owned and occupied by the Terry family. It was Simeon Mathews\u00a0also Who is said to have planted the long line of elm .trees on the west\u00a0side of Silver Street from the Elm Street corner to the head of Gold Street.<\/p>\n

The second son of Simeon Mathews, and grandson of the original Jabez,\u00a0was Edward E. Mathews, born in Waterville in 1822. His older brother William\u00a0started one of Waterville’s early newspapers, the Yankee Blade, in 1842. Almost\u00a0immediately William took his brother Edward into partnership, and the masthead\u00a0of the Yankee Blade announced its publishers as W. and E. Mathews,\u00a0doing business at the southwest corner of Main and Silver Streets. Here too\u00a0Edward started one of Waterville’s earliest bookstores. So Edward Mathews was\u00a0an established business man of Waterville by the time he was 25 years old in\u00a0184_7.<\/p>\n

On the morning of October 1, 1847 the body of Edward Mathews was found in\u00a0the cellar of what was then Shorey’s clothing store, on the site now occupied\u00a0by the Peavey Building or possibly by the latest addition to the Federal Trust\u00a0Company. There were no marks of violence on the body. Expert toxicologists\u00a0were not then known in this part of New England, but scientific advice was at\u00a0hand in the person of Rev. Justin Ralph Loomis, professor of Chemistry and\u00a0Natural History at Waterville College. His examination revealed that Mathews\u00a0had died of prussic acid. The authorities soon learned that, on the previous\u00a0evening, Mathews had paid a visit to a room in the near-by Williams House\u00a0occupied by Dr. ValorUs Coolidge, a successful young physician, who was\u00a0straightway accused of the crime.<\/p>\n

The trial was held at Augusta in March, 1848. One of the prosecutors\u00a0was Lot M. Morrill, who six years later would be the new governor so loudly\u00a0praised by Editor Drew in the Rural Intelligencer. Hon. George Evans and\u00a0Edwin Noyes conducted the defense. After being out 24 hours, the jury brought\u00a0in a verdict of guilty.<\/p>\n

Now this story has been retold in some detail more than once. On its\u00a0hundredth anniversary in 1947 both the Waterville Sentinel and the Lewiston\u00a0Journal devoted some space to it. In a number of Waterville homes are copies\u00a0of a ballad that went the rounds at the time. Verses of that sort were commonly\u00a0circulated in connection with all hangings for murder. Readers of Mary\u00a0Ellen Chase’s biography of Jonathan Fisher will recall that the stern, Puritanical\u00a0Blue Hill preacher had an interesting and somewhat profitable sideline\u00a0of writing and selling broadside sheets containing verses about murders\u00a0and hangings.<\/p>\n

What I want to know now is, can anyone show me a contemporary account of\u00a0the murder of Edward Mathews or the trial of Dr. Coolidge? Do there exist\u00a0early copies of the Eastern Mail containing those accounts? In April, 1847\u00a0Charles F. Hathaway, founder of the Hathaway Shirt industry, had started a\u00a0paper called the Waterville Union, but it lasted only 14 weeks. The Union\u00a0plant was taken over by Ephraim\u00b7 :rvaxh3rn, .:v;ho, on July 19, 1847 published the\u00a0first issue of the Eastern Mail from the third floor of the Boutelle Block\u00a0on Main Street. We believe the paper was issued every week without interruption\u00a0until the name was changed in 1863 to the Waterville Mail. So, if\u00a0anyone knows where there are copies of the Eastern Mail for the fall of\u00a01847 and the spring of 1848, I should like to see them.<\/p>\n

\n

Let us now take a few minutes for a more timely subject. Let’s jump\u00a0completely over the years from 1847 to 1950. Those of you Who are waiting\u00a0patient1y for delivery of a new car may be interested to know what the\u00a0Chrysler strike cost.<\/p>\n

In substance the Chrysler workers traded nearly a thousand dollars\u00a0each in 10st wages for pensions some of them will never get. The strikers\u00a0won a funded pension they could have had three weeks earlier. The overall\u00a0losses amounted to a billion four hundred million dollars in wages and\u00a0sales. Twenty-nine millions were lost by some 50,000 workers Who were not\u00a0on strike at’all, the men in parts plants Who had to be laid off as a result\u00a0of the strike.<\/p>\n

The loss was not confined to the strikers and the workers in affected\u00a0plants, and I want you to get this: assessments levied on auto workers not\u00a0on strike amounted to seven million dollars. Other unions dipped into their\u00a0reserves to contribute several hundred thousand dollars. Even the taxpayers\u00a0were directly hit to the tune of two million dollars in relief payments to\u00a0Detroit strikers.<\/p>\n

We do not question the workingman’s right to collective bargaining nor\u00a0to the final weapon of the strike. It is a debatable question, however, when\u00a0and Where he ought to use that costly weapon.<\/p>\n

Now back to some of the old-time scenes in Waterville. Our town was\u00a0founded much too late to partake of the witchcraft furor that blackened New\u00a0England in the seventeenth century. But in the early days of the community\u00a0belief that certain people possessed supernatural powers had not disappeared.<\/p>\n

Such a person was Aunt Hannah Cool, whose name appears as one of the customers\u00a0of the old storekeeper whose account book Walter Heath still possesses.<\/p>\n

In the early years of the 19th century there stood on the south side of\u00a0Silver street, near where it is joined by Kennebec Street, a building,the\u00a0first floor of which was used as a tannery. The tanner had a double occupation,\u00a0because in addition to his tanning business he was a Free Baptist\u00a0preacher. That preacher-tanner, Elder Jeremiah Powers, was very fond of\u00a0fishing, but he was also embued with superstit\u00b7ious beliefs, including witchcraft.<\/p>\n

One night he went fishing with a neighbor and didn’t get a bite. He\u00a0laid their bad luck to the magic of Aunt Hannah Cool, saying they should\u00a0have promised her the first fish before they set out. “She bewitched the\u00a0fish away from our hooks”, said Elder Powers.<\/p>\n

Aunt Hannah lived in a low, unpainted house on Silver Street. Her garden\u00a0was full of roots and herbs which she carefully prepared into medicines\u00a0free for\u00b7all sufferers. She is said to have had a piercing eye and a sort\u00a0of eerie look, but even that description may be prejudiced. Aunt Hannah was\u00a0anything but a witch. Her deeds of kindness are recounted to this day. She\u00a0brought up a homeless orphan, and she tended the sick without thought of\u00a0recompense. Yet this woman was regarded by some of her own townsmen, even by\u00a0a preacher, as in league with the Devil, and quite able to bewitch the fish\u00a0if she disliked the fisher.<\/p>\n

\n

We recently made it clear that Waterville a hundred years ago was predominantly\u00a0an agricultural community. We gave some figures about the wheat,\u00a0corn and oats then raised in this town. Now another of those old account\u00a0books gives witness to the same general fact — the agricultural character\u00a0of the vicinity. This is a book of accounts kept by a Waterville blacksmith\u00a0in 1833, and like the account of the Augusta merchant I told you about, this\u00a0book too is the property of Burleigh Nichols of Fairfield Center. On November\u00a016, 1833 this blacksmith entered the following charge against Josiah Morrill:<\/p>\n

Sharpening 32 harrow teeth\u00a0\u00a0 $ .65<\/p>\n

Sharpening 3 plows\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1.00<\/p>\n

Sharpening and pinting 2 plows\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1.50<\/p>\n

Making 17 harrow teeth\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1. 70<\/p>\n

Other charges to various customers run:<\/p>\n

Making pitch fork\u00a0\u00a0 1.00<\/p>\n

pulling off horse shoes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 .06<\/p>\n

Making 23 nails\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 .17<\/p>\n

Bailing tea kittle\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 .25<\/p>\n

Making cant irons\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1.42<\/p>\n

Making mill bar\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 .50<\/p>\n

Two words used by this blacksmith have me puzzled: gripe and snickel.<\/p>\n

By gripe he may have meant some kind of handle or part for the hand to grasp,\u00a0since the dictionary gives as one of the old meanings of gripe, a handle or\u00a0hilt. At any rate his entries are<\/p>\n

Gripeing a harrow\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0.50<\/p>\n

Gripe on wagon spring \u00a0.04<\/p>\n

1 gripe\u00a0\u00a0 .25<\/p>\n

Gripeing 2 plows\u00a0\u00a0 .70<\/p>\n

On April 24, 1833 he charged Daniel Dexter 33 cents for making a snickel,\u00a0and on June 13 he entered against Stephen Denton: 1 snickel, 28 cents.\u00a0Now who can set me right on those two words? What was a gripe? What was\u00a0a snickel?<\/p>\n

Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read the script for “Little Talks” program #71, broadcast on June 4, 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\/7137"}],"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=7137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}