Common things sometimes lead to uncommon results. No better illustration\u00a0can be found of that truth than an incident in the life of Martin Keyes, founder\u00a0of the Keyes Fibre Company, and maker of the first papyrus pie plates in the\u00a0world.<\/p>\n
This past week has seen the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Martin\u00a0Keyes, for he was born at Lempster, New HampShire on October 25, 1850. When he\u00a0was a young man, working for the Indurated Fibre Company in northern New York,\u00a0the mills made large quantities of maple veneer. Mr. Keyes observed that the\u00a0workmen in the mills often ate their lunches off of pieces of this veneer, using\u00a0them as plates.<\/p>\n
Of course many men had observed the same thing before. It takes more than\u00a0observation to get uncommon results out of common things. It takes inventive\u00a0imagination, and that was just what Martin Keyes had. Why not make plates out\u00a0of maple veneer, thought Mr. Keyes. So he steamed the veneer and formed it into\u00a0a plate. Then he hit upon a better idea — forming pulp on a die — and\u00a0making a papyrus plate.<\/p>\n
Paper plates are pretty common things today, but they were unheard of when\u00a0Martin Keyes first noticed that workmen ate their lunches off pieces of veneer.<\/p>\n
The great paper products industry — a result important to the economy of thousands\u00a0of American families — came from that common observation by a remarkably\u00a0uncommon man.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago we mentioned p\u00b7ine Grove Cemetery, saying that the first recorded\u00a0burial there was in 1851. The father of a man still living cleared the\u00a0land for that cemetery. Mr. T. G. Burleigh of Roosevelt Avenue assures me that\u00a0his father, Hall Burleigh, and Augustus Getchell cleared the cemetery land\u00a0with oxen in 1850 and 1851.<\/p>\n
If Longfellow, is generally considered Maine’s greatest poet, Edwin Arlington\u00a0Robinson ran him a close second, and there are many persons who consider\u00a0Robinson the greater poet of the two. James Humphry, Librarian of Colby College,\u00a0has rendered a service to thousands of Robinson lovers by his recent publication\u00a0of a carefully annotated list of the volumes in the poet’s personal\u00a0library. A product of the Anthoensen Press of Portland, noted for the excellence\u00a0of its printing, Mr. Humphry’s little book is the latest volume issued by\u00a0the Colby College Press.<\/p>\n
perhaps many of my listeners do not know that the Treasure Room of the Colby\u00a0College Library is open to the public, and that Professor Carl Weber, Colby’s\u00a0curator of rare books and manuscripts cordially welcomes visitors. Why don’t\u00a0you go out to Mayflower Hill some afternoon and see the precious collections of\u00a0Maine authors, such as Robinson, Sarah Orne Jewett and Jacob Abbott?<\/p>\n
Except for mention of the 1855 freshet which carried away the Augusta dam,\u00a0we have hitherto neglected the subject of floods on the Kennebec. So let us\u00a0give that subject a little attention tonight.<\/p>\n
It was nearly fifteen years ago that the Kennebec suffered its latest and\u00a0perhaps its biggest flood. Every Waterville person over twenty years old must\u00a0remember it well. All day of Thursday, March 19, 1936 hundreds of anxious citizens\u00a0went frequently to the rear of the buildings on lower Front Street, or to\u00a0the slope back of the college, to watch the rapidly rising waters. Everyone expected\u00a0the railroad bridge to go out. Though weighted with flat cars loaded\u00a0with stone, the piers themselves seemed to be giving way, as water gushed not\u00a0only around them, but through them.<\/p>\n
But the railroad bridge stood. It was the highway bridge that went out,\u00a0and strangely enough it did not carry with it the adjoining span of the electric\u00a0railway bridge. That abandoned bridge for the electric car tracks proved\u00a0our salvation during the tedious wait for a new highway bridge, for one way\u00a0traffic continued across the electric car bridge all through the summer.<\/p>\n
That 1936 flood was certainly Maine’s worst. It did more damage than any\u00a0previous flood, because there was more damage to do. It destroyed more than\u00a0$20,000,000 worth of property, rendered 8,000 people homeless. Winslow’s gas\u00a0lines and household water were cut off. Water stood five feet deep in the business\u00a0district of Gardiner. The town of Bingham was completely surrounded by\u00a0the flood. The fear of epidemic added to the people’s anxiety.<\/p>\n
Psychologically the most agonizing part of that 1936 flood was that, When\u00a0folks thought it was all over, the worst was yet to come. Wednesday, March 11\u00a0saw a heavy blanket of snow over the whole state. That evening it began to\u00a0rain, and continued in such downpour all day Thursday that roads began to be\u00a0flooded and there were many serious washouts. On Friday the waters of both the\u00a0Androscoggin and the Kennebec rose more than a foot an hour. A dangerous ice jam\u00a0formed at Vassalboro.<\/p>\n
Saturday was fair, but the waters raged so devastatin~ly that the railroad\u00a0bridge at Brunswick and the highway bridge at Richmond went out. By night the\u00a0Whole Kennebec Valley between Augusta and Richmond was isolated.<\/p>\n
Sunday was fair and much warmer. The water began to recede. The flood was\u00a0over, and people set about the task of repairing the damage. No one thought much\u00a0of it When intermittent showers fell on Monday. But when showers and fog continued\u00a0on Tuesday and the weather reports forecast more heavy rain, folks became\u00a0alarmed again. Their fears were justified. All day Wednesday the rain fell. On\u00a0Thursday morning it was still raining and the high temperature was helping also\u00a0to loosen the upriver ice. It was that ice that did the great damage. Few things\u00a0— even the pieces of bridges — that got in its path could withstand it. A\u00a0month after that wild night of March 19 huge ice cakes, capable of supporting\u00a0a big house, could still be seen on the west side of the highway above Hinckley.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, after the Ticonic Bridge went out, the Kennebec at\u00a0Waterville had risen to twice the height it had reached on the previous Friday.<\/p>\n
It was not until Sunday that the waters began to go down.<\/p>\n
Did the 1936 flood bring the highest water ever known in Waterville? We\u00a0are not sure. Won’t some of our Hollingsworth friends Or other persons who\u00a0have kept records of the h~gh’water tell us?<\/p>\n
Did any other flood ever send the water so high as the flood of 1936?<\/p>\n
How far back do accurate records of the Kennebec floods take us? Fortunately\u00a0we have the painstaking research of a competent investigator to help us answer\u00a0that question. In 1891 Timothy Otis Paine, at the request of the Hollingsworth\u00a0and Whitney Company, made an exhaustive study of whatever could be\u00a0learned about floods on the Kennebec.<\/p>\n
Mr. Paine had been born in 1824 in a house on the hill above the Sebasticook\u00a0in Winslow. He lived there until 1856 when he went to Massachusetts. In\u00a0November and December of 1891 he was employed by Engineer H. F. Mills, on behalf\u00a0of H & W, to visit his old home in Maine, to go among the aged farmers on\u00a0the Kennebec from Winslow to Fairfield and, with his own knowledge of Kennebec\u00a0freshets, to fix as many high water marks as possible.<\/p>\n
Paine’s notes, still carefully preserved by H & W, clearly show that Winslow\u00a0was a good place to study the high waters. Paine wrote: “When Moosehead\u00a0Lake sends out a great freshet, Winslow at the Fort catches it; it comes into the\u00a0stores and dwellings on the lowland. For this reason there have always been\u00a0many high water marks at the village. Waterville, on higher ground, has poorer\u00a0flood records than the mother town of Winslow.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Paine found that the greatest freshet of which there was record since\u00a0Winslow became a town in 1771 was the freshet of 1832. Mr. Paine wrote: “The\u00a0freshet of 1832 has always been the base to which all freshets are referred by\u00a0the older people. Ever since my boyhood I have always heard people say, “The\u00a0freshet this year comes wi thin so many feet or inches of the freshet of 1832.”<\/p>\n
As Mr. Paine patiently accumulated information on all the recorded floods,\u00a0he became convinced that 1832 saw the record high water during the 120 years\u00a0between 1771 and 1891. Mr. Paine had himself seen that freshet when he was\u00a0nearly eight years old. He stood at the sitting-room window of his home and\u00a0watched the waters reach their height. He saw them come up over the lowlands\u00a0around what is now Lithgow Street, then creep up to the foot of the hill. At the\u00a0same time another boy of 14, Winslow Simpson, was watching the flood at the flat\u00a0where the H & W mills now stand. Still living in 1891, Winslow Simpson fixed\u00a0the high water mark of 1832 by a sawdust line left by the waters in the graveyard\u00a0on the flat opposite Colby College. Mr. Paine accepted that mark as authentic,\u00a0because he writes: “The sawdust and drift line of a freshet is made\u00a0by nature herself. It is a contour line admitted into the courts of the world,\u00a0and may be seen and traced for many years.”<\/p>\n
When Mr. Paine began his investigations in 1891, he recalled that no one\u00a0had ever ascertained any generally accepted reason why the 1832 freshet was so\u00a0great. There had been rumors that the cause was known but had been kept secret.<\/p>\n
Rumor persisted for some time that the dam at the foot of Moosehead Lake had\u00a0burst, and that the builders kept silent for fear of having to pay damages.<\/p>\n
Mr. Paine speedily spiked that rumor, because he proved that no dam existed\u00a0at the foot of Moosehead in 1832. Mr. Walter Getchell, a very old man in\u00a01891, told Mr. Paine that in the 1″832 flood a northeast wind blew every. day for\u00a0fifteen days, and not one of those days was without some rain. It was Mr. Getchell’s\u00a0opinion that the continued heavy wind blew the water out of Moosehead\u00a0Lake and made the ’32 freshet especially high. That explanation did not satisfy\u00a0Mr. paine, and it was only after he had interviewed many old timers and made\u00a0many measurements that he hit upon the real reason for the 1832 height.<\/p>\n
Unlike the freshet a century later in 1936, the 1832 high waters were not\u00a0accompanied by ice. May 22nd was too late in the season for ice flows. But\u00a0Mr. Paine proved conclusively that the high waters were caused by an obstruction.<\/p>\n
When flood waters encounter any natural obstruction, Mr. Paine.pointed\u00a0out, they pile up the logs, lumber, trees and floating debris into all the essentials\u00a0of a dam, which lifts the top water behind it into a rapidly filling\u00a0pond. Such an obstruction is Bunker Island at Fairfield. The 1832 logs on the\u00a0Kennebec were several feet through, strong enough to jam everything into a hopeless\u00a0snarl between the abutment and pier of a bridge. When the water rises high\u00a0enough to force this natural dam to give way, a vast mass of driftwood pushes\u00a0down the river before a great wall of water which would continue a roaring torrent\u00a0until it reached the broader expanse of the bay below Ticonic Falls. Mr.\u00a0Paine describes what happened in 1832 in the following picturesque language:<\/p>\n
“The high water marks of the 1832 flood at Winslow reveal the vastness of\u00a0the clog and clutter let loose at Fairfield on the midnight of May 21, when\u00a0everything there gave way and poured down like a great wood and water pudding,\u00a0shouldering both shores and riverbed, leaving logs on the hill fields, packing\u00a0solid the pond-hole near what is now the H & W mill, and getting ripped to\u00a0pieces in the college rip.”<\/p>\n
What happened therefore to make 1832 the greatest of Kennebec floods for\u00a0more than a century was this. At sundown on May 21 the Kennebec was alive with\u00a0moving masses of logs, washed out bridges, buildings, uprooted trees, and all\u00a0sorts of floating wreckage. Bunker Island and the piers and abutments of the\u00a0Fairfield bridges halted this mass so that some of it formed a huge raft in the\u00a0naturally made pond. Soon after midnight this whole raft let loose down the\u00a0river.<\/p>\n
“Therefore”, says Mr. Paine, “the ’32 flood, from Fairfield down to\u00a0Ticonic Dam, was a series of log and rubbish ponds, the dams of logs now fixed,\u00a0now moving, keeping the water not only higher than any freely moving flood had\u00a0ever raised it, but higher than any Kennebec freshet had ever raised it before.”<\/p>\n
Next week we shall tell you about Winslow’s famous freshet oak, about the\u00a0high water marks on the old covered bridge across the Sebasticook, and how high\u00a0the water used to come around Bassett’s store. Perhaps we can also find time\u00a0next week for mention of a few other big floods, especially those between 1891\u00a0nd 1936. At any rate we shall have more high water next Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #81, broadcast on October 29, 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\/7164"}],"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=7164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}