\nThe holding power of The schools is increasing. Today we are confronted by\u00a0a pecu liar paradox in Amer I can life. On the one hand we have the lowest percentage\u00a0of young peop Ie aged 10 to 24 that we have ever had I n our nation ‘5\u00a0whole history. On the other hand, never have we had so high a percentage of\u00a0young peop Ie between those ages attend I ng schoo I. The resu It is that the tota I\u00a0percentage increase in school attendance stands in stark contrast to the percentage\u00a0decrease of youth In our total population.<\/p>\n
In 1900 the youth group constituted about one-third of the whole populat\u00a0i on. I t had dropped to 22% in 1950. What is even more amaz I nq Is that in the\u00a0decade between 1940 and 1950, the young peop Ie’s tota I dropped not on Iy percentage-\u00a0wise, bUT also in actual numbers. In that decade the number of young\u00a0people between 10 and 24 dropped by two mi Ilion.<\/p>\n
Now take a look at the increased ho I ding power. Of eve ry thousand fifth\u00a0grade students In 1925, only 300 continued in school to graduate from high\u00a0school in 1932. By 1950 one out of every two fifth graders,. 500 out of every\u00a0thousand, were sTaying on through high school. This June almost 600 of every\u00a0thousand, who were fifth graders in 1947, wil I get their high school diplomas.<\/p>\n
The story of enrollmenT in college is much the same. In 1920 only 30 high\u00a0schoo I graduates out of every hundred went on to co liege. In 1953 the percentage\u00a0had risen to 56%. Thus, high school and col lege enrollments have increased\u00a0even though the size of the age group has decreased.<\/p>\n
It is interesting to note that not only educators and hard-pressed municipal\u00a0officers are concerned about these rising enrollments. American business\u00a0is also greatly concerned. The Chamber of Commerce of the United States is persistently\u00a0urging all local chambers to take active interest in educational\u00a0problems at the community level. As the national chamber president, Richard\u00a0Bowditch, head of the Sprague Steamship Company, puts it: “Our dropouts from\u00a0hi gh school are more serious than a shortage of vital war material. We are\u00a0past masters at finding substitutes for materials. There is no substitute for\u00a0education in developing ski lis of both mind and hand.”<\/p>\n
On February 17 of this year Herman Steinkraus, president of the great\u00a0Bridgeport Brass Company, spoke at the annual meeting of the nation’s school\u00a0administrators at Atlantic City. He pointed out that better education and better\u00a0business go together \u2022. No business man today can afford not to be interested\u00a0in schools. There are plenty of instances where sk i lied workers leave one\u00a0commun I tv and go to another because the I atter has better schoo Is. “We must a 1-\u00a0ways bear in mind”, said Mr. Steinkraus, “that from the schools we get our most\u00a0va I uab Ie product, our emp loyees. The great majority of those now In colleqe or\u00a0high school wil I find their way Into business. Only a comparatively smal I per\u00a0cent wi I I go into the professions, or the arts. We business men are the largest\u00a0users of the school product. We cannot be disinterested in the job that\u00a0schoo I s must do.”<\/p>\n
One of the oldest communities in Maine is Biddeford, and thanks to Mr.\u00a0Robert Gay of Watervi lie, I have recently had access to a lot of i nformati on\u00a0about that town. Its first recorded history dates back 350 years, which is a\u00a0long time as historical items go in Maine. The first white man to see the\u00a0Saco River and the island which is now a part of the City of Biddeford was Captain\u00a0Martin Pring. Strangely enough he was searching for sassafras, then highly\u00a0valuable as a medicine. Finding no sassafras, and stopped by the falls from\u00a0go i ng further up the ri ve r, he turned back down the ri ver and sa i led off to the\u00a0south. That was in 1603.<\/p>\n
Two years later Champ lain sai led into the mouth of the Saco. He called the\u00a0place Sowacatuck, obviously an adaptation of some Indian word, and he said of\u00a0it: “Sowacatuck in the e-dge of a large sandy bay hath many rocks and Is les,\u00a0but few good harbors.”<\/p>\n
In 1614 the glaroorous Captain John Smith explored and mapped Saco Bay.<\/p>\n
Two years later came Captain Richard Vines, the first white man to spend a winter\u00a0at what is now Biddeford. It is believed that Vines’ winter ca”” was at\u00a0Biddeford Pool, with his ship anchored in what is called the “Gut”. The first\u00a0name for The whole section near the Pool was Winter Harbor, a name that Vines\u00a0is supposed to have given to the place in recognition of his winter’s stay.<\/p>\n
In 1630 <\/em>Vines and John Oldham, then both in England, were given title to\u00a0the land now occupied by the city of Biddeford. Upon receipt of the grant, \u00a0both men came to America, where Oldham was soon killed by Indians in Rhode Island,\u00a0but Vines proceeded to lay claim to his land. That land ran up eight\u00a0mi les from the mouth of the Saco Ri ver and four miles back from the ri ver. I h\u00a0the presence of s Ix Eng Ii sh witnesses Vi nes took possess Ion under the ancient\u00a0British custom of turf and twig. The grant from the Counci I in England was\u00a0read; then Vines was handed a small twig from a tree and a small piece of turf\u00a0as tokens that he owned all the ground and everything that grew on it.<\/p>\n Vi nes brought wi th him a number of sett lers, perhaps as many as fi fty. Unfortunately\u00a0there is no record of their exact number nor of their names. At\u00a0first the settlers probably bui It expendable huts like the Indian wigwams, but\u00a0as soon as possible each man put up a frame house. It is almost certainly established\u00a0that they did not bui Id log cabins. Those first Biddeford homes were\u00a0bui It along the shores of the Pool ,and at fl rst sett lement dl d not extend very\u00a0far up the river.<\/p>\n Vines became a prominent man in the Province of Maine, a loyal supporter\u00a0of his patron, Sir Ferdlnando Gorges. Many stories are told about Vines, few\u00a0of them authenticated, but all of them adding spice to Biddeford’s legends.<\/p>\n One of those stories concerns the search for dfarronds. In 1639 Darby Field,\u00a0.an Irish seTtler in New Hampshire, who had Just been the first white man known\u00a0to have vi sited the Wh i te Mounta ins, stopped at VI nes’ home In W Inter Harbor\u00a0and told about the shining stones he had seen up in the mountains. Field was\u00a0sure there were diamonds in “them thar h I 115 “!<\/p>\n Vines was Just the man to check Field’s story. He was always for adventure\u00a0and exploraTion. So, with a young cousin of Sir Ferdinando’s, Vines set\u00a0out up the Saco River by canoe. Landing at the Indian vi I I age located near\u00a0the presenT site of Fryeburg, they went on foot over Indian trai Is to the tOp\u00a0of the mountains, where they found and identi fied the sources of three New England\u00a0rivers, the Connecticut, the Androscoggin and the Saoo. They found no\u00a0diamonds, but the report they made to Governor Winthrop in Boston was the first\u00a0accurate description ever recorded of the great White Mountains.<\/p>\n A Ithough the Massachusetts Genera I Court granted no papers of I ncorporation\u00a0to the locality unti I 1718, records of meetings and actions by the Inhabitants\u00a0go back as far as 1653. In that year the people agreed to allow two sawmills\u00a0to be bui It on the river, provided the mill owners would sell their\u00a0boards at a lowe r pri ce to the i nhab i tants of the p I ace than they so I d them to\u00a0outsiders. Those outsiders must have been chiefly the captains of visiting\u00a0ships. There were, however, occasional visitors who wanted to stay. To meet\u00a0that situaTion The inhabitants voted in 1654: “If any outsider desire to come\u00a0into town to inhabit, he shall first put in sufficient not to be chargeable\u00a0to the town II \u2022<\/p>\n It was the Indian wars which delayed the growth of the place in the last\u00a0ha I f of the 17th century. Begi nn ing with KI n9 Ph II i P ‘s War, the rai ds on wh Ite\u00a0settlements oontl nued sporadi ca Ily for more than a century. For several yearS’\u00a0the stout sett lament at Wi nte r Harbor was abandoned and .’,_,- no white\u00a0family lived In what is now Biddeford. That is why there is no house built\u00a0before 1700 stl I I standing in Biddeford.<\/p>\n In the lull between Queen Anne’s War, which ended in 1713, and the beginning\u00a0of lovewell’s War in 1722, conditions were sufficiently peaceful for\u00a0the legislature to incorporate the town. In 1718 the whole settlement from\u00a0Arunde I (the 01 d name for Kennebunkport) to Scarboro was incorporated under the\u00a0name of BI ddeford, a name chosen probab Iy because some of the earliest settlers\u00a0with Vines had come from the town of Biddeford in Oeyonshire, England.<\/p>\n Another t rad I ti on I <\/em>not proved, is that some of the ear I y sett Ie rs, comi ng\u00a0from Ulster in the north of Ireland, brought with them the Irish potato, and\u00a0that the first potatoes eve r p I anted In Ma I ne we re ra I sed at B i dde ford.<\/p>\n Probably the most famous man connected with colonial Biddeford was Sir\u00a0WI II lam Pepperell. One of the best stories told about him concerns Rebecca\u00a0ladd, hostess of the tavern on the King’s Highway, Maine’s first important\u00a0road. Madam ladd always ca lied the Peppere lis “the rOfa I fami Iy”, because of\u00a0the style in which Sir William travelled and the special attention he always\u00a0demanded when he stopped at her inn. She therefore made elaborate preparations\u00a0whenever Sir Wi II i am was comi ng.<\/p>\n One day, when food was lew at the inn, Madam ladd deci ded her pork barre I\u00a0and the bean vi nes I n the garden woul d have to supp Iy the di nner. So she and\u00a0her negro servant, Black Hetty, took baskets and went out to the bean patch,\u00a0some distance from the house. Because of the 0 I d dress she was weari ng, Madam\u00a0ladd tried to keep one eye on the road for unexpected travellers, while she\u00a0kept the other eye on the beans. Sudden Iy she saw the Peppere II coach coming\u00a0In stately fashion along the road, but sti 1\/ some distance away. Conscious of\u00a0the contrast between her old clothes and the Pepperell scarlet and lace, she\u00a0threw up her hands in dismay, crying, “Good heavens, what shall I do? The~Royal\u00a0Family is coming and I’m not dressed for them.”<\/p>\n Ordering Black Hetty to continue picking the beans, the hostess stooped\u00a0down and crept along behind the vines. Coming to the edge of the patch, she\u00a0got down on her hands and knees to keep out of sight of the road unti I she\u00a0reached her back door. She had just managed to squeeze herself into another\u00a0dress when the coach arrived. Fortunately the occupants proved to be not Sir\u00a0Wi II i am and Lady Peppere II, but on Iy a liveried footman wi th the message that\u00a0the Royal Family were going to make a call further along the road, but would\u00a0be back at the Ladd tave min tl me for d I nne r.<\/p>\n Then things began to fly in that tavern kitchen. Madam dispatched her\u00a0manservant to the pig pen for a fat young pig. Hasti Iy ki lied and dressed, the\u00a0little porker was roasted on a spit in the big kitchen fireplace. The beans\u00a0and other vegetables were duly boi led. By the time the Royal Flami Iy arrived\u00a0Madam Ladd, somewhat cooled from her perspiring rush, greeted them cordially\u00a0and calmly. She said afterwards: “There I sat in my best dress, fanning myself\u00a0as if I never knew what hurry was. And no one would have thought that\u00a0had made my way from the garden on my knees to rece i ve the Roya I Fami Iy.”<\/p>\n Next week I’ll tell you a few other interesting items about old Biddeford.<\/p>\n Year: 1954<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #225, broadcast on May 2, 1954<\/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":[749,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412"}],"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=7412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}