Not all of the people who knew Waterville intimately a half century\u00a0ago now live in this vicinity. It takes Franklin Johnson’s favorite club,\u00a0the Colby Old Timers, to bring back to Waterville a lot of those fine people\u00a0with memories of by-gone days in the Kennebec Valley. The Old Timers\u00a0consist of Colby alumni who have been out of college fifty years or more.\u00a0This year they gathered nearly fifty strong for their annual reunion in\u00a0connection with the Colby Commencement. The new initiates in the club,\u00a0the Class of 1900, provided the largest class group, with such well known\u00a0persons as Fred Lawrence of Portland, Frank Severy, oil field engineer of\u00a0California, and Charles Towne, long an administrator in the schools of Providence,\u00a0Rhode Island.<\/p>\n
The graduate out of college the longest number of years was Robie Frye,\u00a0who graduated from Colby 68 years ago in 1882. He looks and acts not more\u00a0than 60 years of age, but next December Mr. Frye will celebrate his ninetieth\u00a0birthday. He was glad to see Jim Connolly, the writer of sea stories,\u00a0honored by Colby, because for many years Mr. Frye and Jim’s brother worked\u00a0side by side in the Boston Custom House.\u00a0Running Mr. Frye a close second for honors was John Cummings of the\u00a0class of 1884, who saw his 88th birthday last week. Mr. Cummings led a\u00a0long and distinguished career as a Baptist missionary in Burma, spending many\u00a0years in Karen country, where that first graduate of Colby, George Dana\u00a0Boardman, had preceded him 60 years before. In 1915 the King of England bestowed\u00a0upon Mr. Cummings the Kaiser-i-Hind medal for distinguished public\u00a0service in Burma.<\/p>\n
Two Waterville residents represented the class of 1887 at the Old\u00a0Timers’ dinner: Harvey D. Eaton and Joel Larrabee. The latter is looked\u00a0upon as a mere youngster among the Old Timers, because he will be only 85\u00a0next November. Younger still is Bert Drummond, who represented the class of\u00a01888. Bert won’t be 85 until next May.\u00a0Sorely missed were two old Waterville boys of the class of 1889,\u00a0Charles Hovey Pepper and Edward F. Stevens. Present at many Colby Cummencements\u00a0and always together, these two devoted sons of Waterville and of Colby\u00a0could not attend this year. Pepper was born in Waterville in 1864, the\u00a0son of Colby’s Civil War president, George Dana Boardman Pepper. After\u00a0graduating from the college, Charles studied art in Paris, Berlin and\u00a0Vienna, traveled throughout the Orient, became an expert on Japanese\u00a0prints, and was a portrait artist of repute. HeP?inted the portrait of\u00a0Arthur J. Roberts, which hangs at the head of the main staircase in the\u00a0Roberts Union on Mayflower Hill.\u00a0Stevens, though born in Burma, spent many years in waterville. He became\u00a0the illustrious head of the Library School at Pratt Institute and a national\u00a0authority on printing and binding of fine books.<\/p>\n
The Old Timers were delighted to have brought to their attention some\u00a0items from the Waterville Weekly Sentinel, published during the months of\u00a0January and February, 1888. They remembered well the names of the merchants\u00a0whose ads then appeared, the Waterville citizens whose names then made news,\u00a0and especially the college happenings which were recorded in a weekly column\u00a0headed “The Bricks”.<\/p>\n
The big news at the college was Charles Pepper’s departure for a trip\u00a0to Europe for his health. It proved to be the beginning of a career in art,\u00a0not merely a regaining of such health that Mr. Pepper still lives today. But\u00a0when he left Waterville on January 19, 1888 to take a transatlantic boat\u00a0from Boston, none of his college mates knew that a future prominent artist\u00a0was given a send-off. A few days before his departure all of his classmates\u00a0and a few other friends gathered at his home for a farewell party. They\u00a0handed him a package of letters, with the date when to be opened written\u00a0on the outside of each, so that he would have a new letter to read each day of his voyage across the Atlantic. On the day of his departure all members\u00a0of his class were at the railroad station, and sent him on his way with classand college yells. Probably they sang the old song “Phi\u00b7 Chi”; as they did on\u00a0most occasions. Never have I heard Phi Chi more lustily sung than it was by\u00a0that group of Old Timers at their 1950 reunion, led by that old-time glee\u00a0club chorister, Franklin Johnson.<\/p>\n
It is a pity that modern Colby students don’t know the resounding, marching\u00a0words of Phi Chi. The song was still very much in vogue during my own\u00a0student days from 1909 to 1913, but when I returned to take up residence in\u00a0waterville in 1923 it had disappeared. What put Phi Chi out of existence?\u00a0Was it one of the casualties of the First World War? Who knows?\u00a0Those Colby Old Timers were indeed interested in some of the old news\u00a0items about Waterville, not merely about Colby. Here are a few of the items\u00a0that appeared in that winter of 1888.<\/p>\n
“The Salvation Army have received an addition to their band in the shape\u00a0of a powerful, if not very accomplished, cornetist.”<\/p>\n
“A Leap Year skate was held at the ice rink last Tuesday. Gentlemen\u00a0were appropriately escorted by their lady friends. A band furnished music,\u00a0and no accidents have been reported.”<\/p>\n
“Agents of the Horsford’ s Bread preparation have been in town giving\u00a0exhibitions of the excellence of that article in the manufacture of different\u00a0kinds of bread and pastry. At Lane and Walls’ and L. W. Rogers’ stores\u00a0they have turned out delicious griddle cakes and hot biscuits for the benefit\u00a0of the public, thereby giving any hungry man an excellent opportunity to\u00a0procure a square meal gratis.”<\/p>\n
“W. H. Dow’s horse, hitched in front of Perkins’ store last evening,\u00a0became frightened at children passing with sleds and started ahead, colliding\u00a0with the hitching post. The shafts and harness were broken and the\u00a0horse, thus freed, took to the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street\u00a0and perambulated on his way, pedestrians respectfully moving aside for his\u00a0benefit.”<\/p>\n
Runaways were frequent occurrences on Waterville streets that winter\u00a0of 1888. The next week after the item about Dow’s runaway horse, the Sentinel\u00a0printed the following: “A runaway stirred up things for a few minutes\u00a0Tuesday afternoon. Allie Moore was trying out the paces of one of Charles\u00a0Hill’s horses down the tempting smoothness of Main Street, and as he was\u00a0scooting along at a 2:30 clip by the Arnold block, his sleigh struck the\u00a0sled of John Britt standing there. In a twinkling the sleigh was demoralized,\u00a0as were also the trousers of the driver.”<\/p>\n
Then for the third successive week the Sentinel came up with another\u00a0runaway item: “Runaways are vary numerous but none the less very exciting.\u00a0A horse belonging to Prunella Jones, left standing in front of the Plaisted\u00a0Block, started and tore down Main Street Saturday afternoon, causing a general\u00a0stampede. The pung attached to him collided with a stone post in front\u00a0of Redington’s and came to grief. The horse continued his mad career, frightening\u00a0William Barton’s horse, which also started down Water Street but was\u00a0stopped without damage. The Jones horse then jumped over the fence surrounding\u00a0the lot where the old Continental Hotel formerly stood, jumped back again\u00a0and fell on the sidewalk in front of Dunn Block, where he was finally subdued\u00a0after making things very lively for a few minutes.”<\/p>\n
By the way, was Waterville’s Main Street ever properly spelled\u00a0“M A I N E”? The spelling in those 1888 issues of the Sentinel is not uniform.\u00a0On about half of the items it is Main Street, the way it is spelled\u00a0for most of such streets allover the united States. But in the other half\u00a0of those numerous 1888 items, it is Maine Street, with an lie”. Which\u00a0spelling was then correct? Did the editor have good reason sometimes to\u00a0write M a i n e?<\/p>\n
So far as we know there is only one M a i n e Street in this state. That\u00a0is the principal street in Brunswick, which is properly and officially\u00a0spelled M a i n e.<\/p>\n
Many Maine towns have streets named for towns to which the street leads\u00a0or toward which it goes. Augusta thus has Bangor Street; my horne town of\u00a0Bridgton has Portland Street; Portland itself has Deering Avenue; Lewiston\u00a0has both Sabattus Street and Lisbon Street. Waterville has Oakland Street,\u00a0but it led to the Fair Grounds, not to Oakland. The way to that town, formerly\u00a0West Waterville, is of course an entirely different thoroughfare, the\u00a0Oakland Road.<\/p>\n
Last week we asked the question, “What is a thorough stay?” Well, here\u00a0is the answer. A thorough stay is a round piece of hard wood about three feet\u00a0long, used in the old lumbering days to fasten together the long ,soft wood\u00a0logs of a boom. One of these, water logged and embedded in the bottom of the\u00a0lake, was recently dug out near the old landing at Chamberlain Lake and\u00a0brought back to waterville by my neighbor, who made that thrilling flight\u00a0over the north woods by air.\u00a0In the old days iron or steel chains were scarce and eXPensive. These\u00a0pieces of hard wood were fastened to the. logs instead, and they are said\u00a0to have held the booms just as fast as the big chains now do.<\/p>\n
We have talked so much in recent weeks about things of the long ago that\u00a0it is time we reminded ourselves that life is filled with common things today.<\/p>\n
One of those common things — a common experience of most of us — is\u00a0at sometime in life to lose your pocket book. According to the June issue\u00b7\u00a0of Kys-Items, the plant publication of the Keyes Fibre Company, a most unusual\u00a0variation of that experience happened a few weeks ago to Randy Getchell,\u00a0a grinder man at the Shawmut Mill of Keyes Fibre. Mr. Getchell and his wire\u00a0went fishing at a spot off the Unity Road, and before they set out, Mr. Getchell\u00a0committed his wallet to his wife for safekeeping. They had to go through\u00a0a cow pasture and crawl through a fence to get to the pond. When they\u00a0arrived, Mrs. Getchell found that the wallet was missing. On the way back\u00a0they made a thorough search, and near the fence through which they had crawled\u00a0they found — No, they \u00b7didn It find the wallet. But there on the ground\u00a0was the change, the zipper that closed the wallet, and a tiny scrap of leather.<\/p>\n
The rest of the wallet and its paper contents, including currency and\u00a0three U. S. savings Bonds, were gone. Watching them nearby was a soulfullooking\u00a0cow contentedly chewing her cud. All she had left the Getchells were\u00a0the metal scraps from her unorthodox dinner.<\/p>\n
Most of you know that Maine was once a banner ship-building state. Even\u00a0in our own day we are proud of the enviable record made by the Bath Iron\u00a0Works and their ship yards during two World Wars. But a hundred years ago\u00a0Maine really built ships. Here is the record for the year 1854 — ninety-six\u00a0years ago. _ Bath then led the state with 93 launchings in that one year.\u00a0Waldoboro came next with 89. Belfast had 49, Eastport 41, and Portland 40.<\/p>\n
Thirty-six ships first touched the water at Ellsworth, 31 at Machias, 26 at\u00a0Castine, 16 at Wiscasset, 12 at Kennebunkport, six at York and Kittery and\u00a0two at Saco. That makes a .total of 468 ships launched in Maine in 1854.\u00a0That is more ships than were put to sea between 1789 and 1847 bY all the\u00a0states of the Union in those 58 years all put together, and more ships than\u00a0were built in anyone year in the Whole British Isles.<\/p>\n
Do some of the oThissions surprise you? They do me. There is no mention\u00a0of Freeport or South Freeport, Whose yards I supposed were booming at that\u00a0time. Apparently no ships were launched at South Thomaston, which had a very’\u00a0famous yard. And what happened to the big yard at Harpswell, celebrated in\u00a0the novels of Elijah Kellogg?<\/p>\n
This is our last broadcast of the season. During the summer we shall\u00a0give you a rest from these old time things. But on September 17 we shall be\u00a0back on the air again. Right now we want to express our gratitude to the many\u00a0listeners Who have provided material for this program. You have made it your\u00a0program, not mine. Without you to provide the grist, the mill could not\u00a0grind. As you go on digging up the old newspapers, old account books, old\u00a0records and old letters, I think we can learn together that there is much\u00a0to give us pride in the Kennebec Valley heritage.<\/p>\n
If the revival of these old-time incidents and legends has any value\u00a0at all, it is in their challenge to the present generation to make this valley\u00a0in the last half of the 20th century the same kind of bulwark of freedom,\u00a0enterprise and neighborly kindness that the settlers around Fort Halifax made\u00a0it two centuries ago.<\/p>\n
And so we say Good-By until September.<\/p>\n
Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #74, broadcast on June 25, 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\/7144"}],"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=7144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}