asked last week what anyone knows about Calvin Gardner who, as President of the Watervi lie Li bera I I nsti tute, signed that schoo I’ s ad, wh i ch appeared in Charles Hathaway’s Watervi lie Union 108 years ago. Several persons have given me information about this man. Among the most helpful have been Mabel Noonan of Sherwin Street and Mrs. Harry Vose, prominent member of the local Universalist Church.<\/p>\n
Rev. Calvin Gardner was the first minister of the Watervi lIe Universal ist Church after the building of the Universalist” meeting house at the junction of Elm and Si Iver Streets in 1833. He was actually the church’s second minister, because the best known of al I Universalist preachers in the long history of that church served for seven years before the meeting house was bui It. He was Sylvanus Cobb, who organized the local church group in 1826 and continued as their minister unti I he moved to Malden, Mass. in 1832, just as plans for the meeting house were being perfected.<\/p>\n
Under Calvin Gardner the Universalists became a large and flourishing society. It is said that in the 1840’s their Sunday congregations exceeded the Baptists, and that they had the largest Sunday School in Central Maine.<\/p>\n
It was Gardner who was the chief inspiration for a Universalist academy, and he made it so popular that for a few years it actually drove Coburn out of business, causing the older school to close its doors for several seasons. The comi ng to Coburn, then ca lIed the Watervi lIe Academy , of James Hanson turned the tide, however, and the great Dr. Hanson soon made the Baptist-sponsored school so popular and so renowned that it was the Liberal Institute that had to close just before the Civi I War, never to open its doors again.<\/p>\n
The framework of the bui Iding occupied by the Watervi lie Liberal Institute sri II STcu-.Q:i;), ulIlne souTO corner of Elm and School Streets, where it now supplies offices for several physicians.<\/p>\n
Everyone who is interested in more efficiency and less waste in our national government should watch carefully this coming winter to see what Congress does with the recommendations of what is known as the second Hoover Commission.<\/p>\n
Fol lowing closely on thel heels of the first commission, this later study, also headed by former President Herbert Hoover, makes recommendations des i gned to save as much as two bill i on do I lars annua Ily in government expenses.<\/p>\n
Now these recommendations wi I I cause a lot of controversy. They would abolish many jobs which not only the job-holders, but also the politicians, prize highly_ The adoption of some of the proposals would step on the toes of deeply entrenched vested interests. But it is not specific recommendations around wh i ch the Congress i ona I batt Ie wi II center. It is rather the profound di fference of opinion about the whole phi losophy upon which the Hoover report is based.<\/p>\n
It is the report’s fundamental contention that the American way is the way of contro lied pri vate enterpri s~, not of pub I i c operati on of bus i ness or i ndustry.<\/p>\n
The Hoover Commission would therefore have every agency of government which now operates in competition with private enterprise get itself out of such operation as rapidly as possible. The commission believes that the government must exercise strong control through impartially enforced regulations, to insure against monopoly, to protect against price-fixing, and to protect the public aga i nst fraud.<\/p>\n
Now a lot of Americans believe, as did the Labor Party in Britain, that we need not less business conducted by government, but more of it. The controversy in our country centers around the development and distribution of electric power. Shall we have more TVA’s, more government operated power plants, or shal I we, as President Eisenhower urges, encourage the expansion of private enterprise plants? That issue, and not a lot of the detai Is which have made press head tines, is the heart of the Dixon-Yates controversy.<\/p>\n
I am sure that up here ina conservati ve state like Ma i ne there are sti II a lot of ordinary people like me who believe that on the broad, general principle Mr. Hoover and President Eisenhower are right — that the mer-e we strengthen private enterprise, the less we see government taking over the functions of business and industry — the better life in these United States wi I I be.<\/p>\n
I n “Kennebec YesterdaysH I te II in genera lout line the story of the on Iy long canal ever bui It in Maine, the Cumberland and Oxford Canal, connecting Sebago Lake with Portland Harbor along the Presumpscot River. Recently some new information about that canal came to my attention. I am always on the watch for such information, because it was up that canal, half a century before I was born, that goods and supplies came to my native town of Bridgton, including those hogsheads of Jamaica rum that arrived just before a church convention in 1837<\/p>\n
My new information about the canal is that as early as 1791 a committee was formed to ascertain the practicabi lity of a canal to connect Sebago Lake with Portland. In 1795 Woodbury Stover and other merchants of Portland obtained from the Massachusetts legislature a charter under the name of the Cumberland Canal Company. They tried to raise $120,000, but were unsuccessful, even though the charte r was renewed for a second five -year peri od. So when troub Ie s truck a I I of New England in 1807, in the form of the embargo on foreign trade, no canal had been started. Then came the War of 1812, further impoverishing the Portland merchants. In fact, between 1795 and 1820, when Maine became a separate state, al I that anyone did about a canal was to talk and take out charters.<\/p>\n
In 1821 the Maine legislature granted to Arthur McLellan of Portland, Albion K. Parris of Paris, Enoch Perley of Bridgton and others a charter to construct a canal from Waterford in Oxford County to the navigable waters of Fore River at Portland. The committee announced they had received assurance of financial support in Brownfield, Fryeburg, Denmark, Bridgton and Waterford.<\/p>\n
They also suggested that a branch canal be bui It to Craig’s Mi I Is in Hebron, twenty mi les from the ma i n cana I.<\/p>\n
In November, 1823 the stockholders held their first meeting in Portland. Woodbury Stover of Portland was chosen president, and among the directors was Genera I John Per ley of Bri dgton.<\/p>\n
In that first quarter of the 19th century a common method of raising funds for public-service enterprises was by legally organized lottery. Private subscriptions not coming up to the directors’ expectations, the Canal Company petitioned the legislature for authority to raise $50,000 by public lottery. The legislature granted the request and that Bridgton patriarch, General Perley, was named one of the lottery managers. Tickets were sold extensively both in and out of Maine, but the scheme was not a pronounced success. After paying off the prizes, the Company netted only $11,000, but even that was enough to get the canal construction under way.<\/p>\n
That cana I lottery had an i nteresti ng seque I. Cyrus Shaw, a 8apti st deacon of Oxford, bought a ti cket just to p lease a friend. That ti cket won fi rst prize of $5;000. Common as were lotteries in the 1820’s, Deacon Shaw had qualms about that tainted money_ Perhaps he felt as did a Maine man of fifty years ago, when there was so much talk about Rockefeller’s tainted money. That man said to his wife, nit may be tainted money; leastwise ‘taint yours and ‘ta i nt mi ne. t? Anyhow the deacon handed over the who Ie $5,000 to renovate and improve the Oxford church.<\/p>\n
One of the great financial institutions in Maine today is the Canal National Bank of Portland. Did you know it was the Cumberland Oxford Canal which gave birth to that bank? In 1825 that bank was chartered with the express provision that one-fourth of its capital should be invested in the stock of the canal company. Evidently people were more ready to risk their money in bank stock than in canal stock, for by this roundabout method the necessary funds were finally secured and late in 1825 construction was begun. The job was finished in 1830 at a cost of $206,000. That was considerably above the engineer’s estimate_of $130,000, and meant that at the very start the canal was heavi Iy mortgaged ,to the Canal Bank.<\/p>\n
The canal started at w\u00b7hat is locally called the Basi n or Sebago Falls., near White’s Bridge in the town of Standish. It fol lowed the course of the Presumpscot River through Standish, Windham and Gorham to a point a little above Cumberland Mi I Is in Westbrook, where it left the river and cut across country to Stroudwater, terminating at a point near the foot of Clark Street in Portland.<\/p>\n
Such was the canal proper, the portion constructed by excavation. Its length was 20 mi les, but the entire distance thus opened to navigation from Portland to the head of Long Lake in Harrison was 38 mi les. The section originally planned from Harrison to Thomas Pond in Waterford was never bui It.<\/p>\n
The canal had a tow path wide enough for two horses. It had 27 locks to ra i se the boats the 280 feet from ti de water to Sebago Lake. One at each end of the canal was cal led a guard lock. Seven were near Stroudwater, giving the loca Ii ty the popu I ar name of Land of the Seven Locks. There were two at Li tt Ie Fal Is in Windham, one at Gambo, two at Kemp, one at Dundee Fal Is, and several others along the way to a big one where the canal crossed the ancient North Windham-Standish highway.<\/p>\n
Each lock gave an average fa I I of ten feet, and the who Ie cana I had a fa II of about one foot to the mi Ie. In addition to the 27 locks on the canal itself, a 28th lock was instal led on the Songo River. I have passed through that lock whi Ie it was sti I I in use, because it continued in operation long after the canal itself was abandoned. The last time I ever took the steame~r trip from Sebago Lake Station to Bridgton Landing was in the summer of 1917, but the lock was in operation several years after that.<\/p>\n
Legend has it that the lock tenders were noted characters, that the canal boatmen wore red shirts, and nobody, including the tow-horses, was ever in a hurry. The canal boats were clumsy craft, with blunt bows, square sterns and flat bottoms, with a heavy centerboard to be used when crossing the lake in a wind. Two short masts with sma I I sai I area furnished the power after the tow line was cast off. The masts were hinged’ for lowering when the boat passed under the overhead bri dges wh i ch spanned the cana I. The boats were sma I I, the largest of them carrying not more than 30 tons. The first boat to make the passage when the canal was opened in 1830 was named the George Washington. Others bore such names as Columbia, Legislator, Peacock, Water Witch and Jack Downing.<\/p>\n
Many of the boats were fitted for a few passengers, as wei I as for freight, and were equipped with wei I stocked bars.<\/p>\n
Within a year of its opening the canal saw a hundred boats regularly being towed back and forth on its waters. Lumber, shooks, laths~ hoops, cordwood, and farm products went down to Portland. Groceries, furniture and other manufactured articles went up from Portland to the countryside. From the big powder mi I I at Gambo in the town of Windham, canal boats carried powder at 5\u00a2 a ton mi Ie. Masts and spars were carried at $7 a load.<\/p>\n
What made gunpowder such a prominent cargo? There was no American war in the 1830’s. The whole U. S. Army wouldn’t use a week’s output of the Gambo mi I I in a whole year. What was the use of that gunpowder? The answer lies in the rugged, rocky nature of New England farms. Before the day of dynamite sticks, Maine farmers used a lot of gunpowder to blast out the rocks.<\/p>\n
A lot of liquor went up that old canal — not only the hogshead of rum I tell about in T1Kennebec Yesterdays”, but other kinds of spirits as well. Brandy Pond is said to have obtained its name from the loss of a cask of brandy from one of the old canal boats.<\/p>\n
No boat on the canal was al lowed to travel faster than four mi les an hour, and each was required to sound a horn when within 500 feet of a lock.<\/p>\n
The Cumberland and Oxford Canal had its heyday in the 1840’s. By 1855 its earnings had taken a big slump. The Atlantic and St. Lawrence Rai Iway (later named the Grand Trunk> had been bui It and was picking up a lot of Oxford county traffic. The Canal company defaulted and the Canal Bank took possession.<\/p>\n
Francis Smith finally took it over and kept it going, probably at some annual loss, because it provided transportation for his big lumber interests in northern Cumberland.<\/p>\n
That completed and operated canal, fi I ling the countryside so ful I of rich hope in the 1830’s and 1840’s, finally gave up the ghost in 1870. It was at last put out of business by the bui Iding of the Portland and Ogdensburg Rai 1- road, now the Mountain Division of the Maine Central. That presumptuous owner of the iron horse laid down its rai Is right along the shore of Sebago Lake. No longer did shooks and shingles, gunpowder and potash, rum and molasses, pass over the waters of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal.<\/p>\n
And with the closing of that canal 85 years ago, we say good night for old times’ sake.<\/p>\n
Year: 1955<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #275, broadcast on October 16, 1955<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7548"}],"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=7548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}