One of the most penetrating commentators on the life of our times is <\/em>Ed\u00a0Chase of Portland. He ought to have a wider audience than the news letter sent\u00a0out weekly to the customers of his securities business.<\/p>\n Even the most elementary student of biology knows about mutation, the\u00a0changes which take place to bring varied forms of plant and animal life. Let\u00a0me pass on to you what Ed Chase said recently about differentiation of species.<\/p>\n “It has long been an American Article of Faith that athletic games exercise\u00a0a\u00a0beneficent\u00a0influence in the formation of character. Tangible evidence of this\u00a0faith will be found in the proportion of the educational plant facilities which\u00a0is <\/em>devoted to athletics. The weight of this evidence, as indicated by expenditure\u00a0on athletic construction and instruction, seems to justify the belief that\u00a0of all the competitive sports, football must do the most for character.<\/p>\n But until quite recently the conviction that a superior type emerges from\u00a0the gridiron environment seemed likely to remain in the domain of faith. No one\u00a0had ever proved beyond question that football players are destined to become\u00a0different from other men in particular and desirable traits.<\/p>\n Now we have the two-platoon system. Each school has one first team specializing\u00a0on offense and another trained for defense. If there is <\/em>anything in the\u00a0theory that football produces a type, then there should be a perceptible variation\u00a0in species, when we vary the environment. Ten years from now, as we observe\u00a0these men in after-life, we may expect to find not only differing physical traits,\u00a0as in the use of hands, but also differing mental attitudes, as between a disposition\u00a0to confidence on the one side and suspicion on the other. Notably, their\u00a0conceptions of progress should be quite different. Surely then it will be hardly\u00a0necessary for the psychiatrist to ask: ‘Which team were you on?’<\/p>\n “But if it should turn out that there isn’t any difference, we might have\u00a0t0o review our educational policy. We might even shift the competitive emphasis\u00a0from the gridiron to the classroom. What a disaster that would be, or wouldn’t\u00a0it?”<\/p>\n While that journal of Fairfield’s prominent citizen of the mid-nineteenth\u00a0century is still fresh in mind, let’s have a bit more of it.<\/p>\n Now William Bryant was first of all a farmer and he gave much attention to\u00a0the crops he raised on the big farm at Nye’ sCorner. As you have heard me say\u00a0before on other occasions, the principal crop of Central Maine at that time was\u00a0corn. But large quantities of wheat and oats were also raised. As now, the hay\u00a0crop was important, but for a different reason. Now it is to feed the big herds\u00a0of milk cattle, for whose product the Hood or Whiting collectors come to the\u00a0farmer’s very barn door. In William Bryant’s day comparatively little of the hay\u00a0was used to feed milk cows. The great bulk of it went to the horses and oxen. The\u00a0oxen far outnumbered the horses. We noted last week that it was not unusual for\u00a0Wi11iam Connor to start out for the sapling with six teams of six yokes each. That\u00a0means 72 oxen for just one lumbering operation.<\/p>\n So year after year William Bryant notes in his diary his attention to hay,\u00a0wheat, oats and corn — especially corn.<\/p>\n It seems that Mrs. Bryant had some kind of formula for predicting the kind\u00a0of summer each year would bring. It was something like the modern predictions\u00a0based on Ground Hog Day which, I believe, is February 2nd. Mrs. Bryant’s fateful\u00a0day was January 25.<\/p>\n On January 25, 1843 Mr. Bryant wrote in his diary: “Clear, fair and cold.<\/p>\n According to my wife’s system we shall have a good corn season, notwithstanding\u00a0the Millerites are preaching that the world is to be destroyed in April.” That is\u00a0one of the few references I have ever seen in a private diary to the followers of\u00a0the fantastic Miller, who predicted the end of the world for April, 1843. The\u00a0believers donned white clothes and assembled on roofs or heights of land to\u00a0await the end. Their disillusionment broke up the sect so that a generation\u00a0afterward few remembered the furor they so briefly caused.<\/p>\n But to get back to Mr. Bryant’s corn. What about the boom year his wife\u00a0had predicted? On May 19 he wrote: “stephen Nye and Joseph Hubbard finished\u00a0planting my corn this day. They dropped the seed directly on the hog manure\u00a0before they put on any earth, and if the corn comes up well I shall think I have\u00a0been too particular in planting corn. If they are right I have been wrong all my\u00a0life. But I think it will not come up. I have about determined to plant it over.”<\/p>\n On May 29 he had come to a decision, although he does not say whether it\u00a0was because the first planting showed no signs of breaking the soil. He merely\u00a0wrote: “We began to plant our corn over this day. I soaked the seed in strong,\u00a0wann pickle.”<\/p>\n Two weeks later on June 16 he noted that the corn had come up, but poorly.<\/p>\n “My corn”, he said, “has not looked so slim for a great number of years.”<\/p>\n On July 6 the corn was about 6 to 8 inches high. On the 19th it had begun\u00a0to spindle, but Mr. Bryant lamented, “Some of it stands almost still.” On August\u00a04th he was very pessimistic, noting, “Corn almost eat up by wonns.” A week later\u00a0on August 10 he wrote dolefully, “Two-thirds of my corn has silked, the rest\u00a0spoiled by worms.”<\/p>\n When September was ushered in Mr. Bryant recorded: “I don’t think I have\u00a0got one ear of corn filled.” On september 26 he .wrote what seemed to be the sad\u00a0climax: “I have cut up for fodder the most of my corn.” But this was not the\u00a0end, for on October 20 there was held in William Bryant’s barn what he called\u00a0“the biggest huskin party I have ever had, with over a hundred bushels husked”.<\/p>\n Evidently his pessimism somewhat outran the\u00b7 facts.<\/p>\n Having told you recently .about the freshet of 1832, .1 was interested in Mr.\u00a0Bryant’s reference to that event. He wrote: “The winter of 1831-32 was the\u00a0coldest known for many years and continued to the 11th day of April. After a\u00a0warm spell it grew cold again on the 23rd. That morning my well was scum over\u00a0and manure froze in <\/em>the barn. Planted some corn on May 11. On May 19 it began\u00a0to rain and rained powerfully through the 21st. On the 22nd was the highest\u00a0freshet ever known on the Kennebec.”<\/p>\n March of 1846 saw another freshet mentioned by Mr. Bryant. On March 27 he\u00a0wrote: “The river raises fast, and I think we shall have the highest freshet\u00a0since 1832. Now at 11 o’clock the water is <\/em>over the Corner bridge. The ice is <\/em>dammed up below Noble’s ferry.”<\/p>\n Most of the bridges across principal rivers were then toll bridges. That the\u00a0toll keepers sometimes enlisted their relatives for a spell of duty is <\/em>shown by\u00a0Mr. Bryant’s entry of November 16, 1848: “Thanksgiving Day. My wife spent the\u00a0day at Nahum Totman’s and attended at the toll house until I went there and took\u00a0my dinner. Now in the evening we are home alone.”<\/p>\n That touch “home alone” has a note of sadness. Samuel Haley had just departed\u00a0for Pennsylvania. Cyrus and his wife were with her people in Vassalboro. The\u00a0three girls were all married and in homes of their own. A lot of people know just\u00a0how William and Lydia Bryant felt at the end of that Thanksgiving Day a hundred\u00a0years ago.<\/p>\n Mr. Bryant did not fail to notice one of Waterville’s most eventful days.<\/p>\n On November 27, 1849 he recorded: “The cars arrived in waterville this day for\u00a0the first time. A great day for Waterville.” That, of course, was the coming of\u00a0the first railroad line, the Androscoggin and Kennebec, linking Waterville with\u00a0Lewiston — an event whose hundredth anniversary was appropriately mentioned by\u00a0the Waterville Sentinel a year ago, but otherwise went unnoticed and unsung. I\u00a0fear we waterville folks aren’t strong on anniversaries. What about the Hundred\u00a0and fiftieth anniversary of Waterville’s incorporation? Are any plans being made\u00a0for that?<\/p>\n One small item in Mr. Bryant’s diary shows a future governor of Maine in\u00a0an\u00a0embarrassing\u00a0situation. On February 27, 1845, according to Mr. Bryant, Greteon\u00a0Wells’ colt met with a fright, run into William Connor’s entry, and knocked down\u00a0his wife and son Selden.” It was probably one of the few times anybody or anything\u00a0knocked Selden Connor down, until a Civil War shell severed his foot.<\/p>\n The Connors then lived in the house now owned and occupied by Dr. William\u00a0Bovie, just off High Street in Fairfield. That house has one of the largest and\u00a0most spaciously arranged-brick ovens you will find anywhere in Central Maine.<\/p>\n Wages weren’t high in those days, but when one could work out for cash it\u00a0was decidedly welcome. Most work was in exchange for commodities, and long were\u00a0the credits extended on both sides. On April 25, 1842 Cyrus Bryant started for\u00a0the Dead Water in Vassalboro to work for Nahum and Ezra Totman at $14 a month. On\u00a0the same day the father recorded: “OWen Spalding began to work for me for 4\u00a0months at $6.50 per month. Cyrus was now his own man and could demand wages. Apparently\u00a0it was better to let him work away from home and hire a replacement at\u00a0less than half of Cyrus I earning wage.<\/p>\n Not often does one get a chance to determine from these old records how\u00a0early children worked for wages, but fortunately William Bryant kept a set of\u00a0accounts as well as a diary. In fact the diary begins at one end of the big book.<\/p>\n Then, turn the book upside down, and at the other end you find the beginning of\u00a0the accounts.<\/p>\n The first mention of a son’s wages is on June 11, 1832 when, we read, “Herman\u00a0Nye, to Cyrus planting one day — 25 cents.” Cyrus was then just 13 years\u00a0old. A year later an entry reads: “Charles Pishon. to Cyrus and my oxen to haul\u00a0lumber out of the river.” That was a real job for a 14 year old boy. In 1833\u00a0the father collected from Isaac Chase 50 cents for Cyrus 2 days haying. In 1834,\u00a0when Cyrus was 16, Mr. Bryant collected from Thomas Connor 25 cents for Cyrus\u00a0hoeing corn one day.<\/p>\n When the younger brother Samuel was 14, in 1837, the father received from\u00a0William Connor $26.00 for Sam’s four months’ wages.<\/p>\n In our day it seems excessively harsh for a father to take and keep the\u00a0wages of his growing boys, but that was the universal custom a hundred years ago.<\/p>\n Every father controlled a son’s wages until the boy reached 21. There was nothing\u00a0harsh or unseemly about what every family recognized and practiced. When these\u00a0modern 75 cents an hour grammar school kids get their snow shoveler’s pay it takes\u00a0a mighty brave father to get any share of it.<\/p>\n As we noted last week, William Bryant lived through the Civil War. After his\u00a0wife died in 1858 he missed her greatly, and he himself was not nearly so active.<\/p>\n Yet much of the old pride remained. On January 5, 1861 he wrote: “I am 80 years\u00a0old this day. I have not lost a tooth nor had the toothache for over 12 years.<\/p>\n My hair is <\/em>almost as black as when I was young. But I feel weak and not worth\u00a0InUch.”<\/p>\n As the years went by he felt himself growing weaker. “December 25, 1865,Christmas. A fair day. I am very feeble. I was taken bleeding of the nose for\u00a0the third time in one week.” “December 27 I am failing.” “March 10, 1866 —\u00a0I fear I am failing and I think I shall not be here long.” “March 31 — I feel\u00a0I shall not write much more in this book.” But on his 86th birthday in 1867,\u00a0something of the old vigor reasserted itself for he then wrote: “I am 86 years\u00a0old this day. I am not smart, but I saw wood, sleep and eat well.”<\/p>\n Early in life Mr. Bryant became a staunch Universalist. The diary’s first\u00a0mention of that denomination, which was to become so prominent in Fairfield, was\u00a0on May 10, 1838: “Levi Barrett preached at the ferry school house the third\u00a0time. The first universal preacher at this place that almost all admire to hear.”<\/p>\n On December 18 of the same year Mr. Bryant and George Drew went to the meetinghouse\u00a0to hear the Universalist, Mr. Henry, preach, and the diarist recorded a\u00a0cold time coming home. In 1842 the whole family attended a three day meeting\u00a0of Universalists at Canaan. On January 19, 1858 the diary tells us: “Universalist\u00a0levee at Bunker’s Hall. Was so crowded we had to. stand on our feet,\u00a0which was very tiresome.” One summer Susan was off to Vassalboro for a brief\u00a0visit and then on to Augusta for the Universalist convention. There is something,\u00a0therefore, peculiarly fitting about the last entry in William Bryant’s\u00a0diary. It is dated February 6, 1867 and consists of one short sentence: “I\u00a0can’t go to meeting this day.” Soon afterwards this great citizen of Fairfield\u00a0was stricken with paralysis and on June 15, at the home of his daughter Susan,\u00a0he died.<\/p>\n Memorial windows to William and Lydia Bryant, as well as those in memory\u00a0of Nahum and Susan Totman, were removed from the Fairfield Universalist Church\u00a0when that society dissolved, and were appropriately reset in the Methodist Church,\u00a0the oldest church edifice in Fairfield Village.<\/p>\n Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #86, broadcast on December 3, 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\/7178"}],"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=7178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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