Do you rea Ii ze that behi nd the pub lie demand for more economy in federa I expendiTures is a wholesome fear? It is the fear that we may see happen to our country the very thing the Russians predict wi II happen, and which they patiently wait to see. That is the breakdown of our American system of private enterprise economy_<\/p>\n
The trouble is steadi Iy rising prices and wages — the sure march of inf lation. Economists ca I lit wage-pri ce sp ira I. On the one hand, bus i ness, feeling the pressure of rising costs, keeps raising the prices. On the other hand, big unionism, which really seTs wage scales on a nationwide basis, keeps pressing for higher wages. Every time wages go up, prices go up.<\/p>\n
Do you reca I I what Pres i dent E i senhowe r sa i d when he add ressed the Congress last January? These were hi swords: “No subject on the danesti c scene should more attract the concern of the friends of American working men and women and of free business enterprise than the forces, latent and active, That threaten a steady depreciation of the value of our money_ I urge leaders in business and in labor to think well of their respons i b iii tyto all the American people. Any program that endangers our economy could defeat us.”<\/p>\n
As David Lawrence pointed out in U. S. News, “The biggest question of the present era is whether big unionism can apply self-restraint, or whether government must inevitably control both wages and prices to save the nation from an economic collapse. Can the American system discipline itself? That is the most cha I leng i ng questi on before the country today. n<\/p>\n
Those of you who saw the historical pageant when Watervi lie celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1952 wi II recall that one of the characters depicted was Asa RedingTon, one of our early settlers, prominent bui Ider and operator of mi I Is, owner of many hundreds of acres of land in Watervi lie and Winslow, and si gner of the warrant wh i ch ca lied together Watervi I Ie’s fi rst t~wn meeti ng in 1802. Founder of Central Maine’s prominent Redington fami Iy, Asa Redington had many descendanTs who live in the Kennebec Va Iley today, and they are a II just Iy proud of the i r va I i ant ancestor. So ton i ght I want to te II you someth i ng about Asa Redington.<\/p>\n
He was born nearly 200 years ago, on ~cember 22, 1761 in Boxford, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
When he was five years old, the family moved to Haverhill, where the elder Redington bui It a vessel of 60 tons, in which he went into the coasting trade, taking merchantable goods to such eastern ports as Kittery, Wells, Kennebunkport, Biddeford and Portland, and bringing back cargoes of lumber, bark and furs.<\/p>\n
When Asa was only eight years old, disaster struck The growing fami Iy, for by that time he had five brothers and sisters, and another was on the way. Disaster came, as it did for so many New Englanders, by way of the sea. Some of the father’s voyages took him even beyond Portland, and on his very last voyage he was returning from Maine’s Sheepscot River WiTh a load of wood.<\/p>\n
I t was December and very co I d. As the vesse I approached the shore of Cape Ann, near the Ii tt Ie sett lement of Squaw Harbor 1 the i nhab i tants noted that she was in distress. She had in fact struck a sand bar and was in danger of breaki ng up. The sea was so rough that no rescue boaT cou I d leave the shore. Fearing that, at any moment, the vessel would smash to bits, the whole crew of three men Mr. Redington and two sailors — got into the ship’s boat and tried to reach shore. When almost ins i de the breakers, the I itt Ie boat h it a rock and capsized. So near to safety were they that Redington actually got his hands on a spar extended to his aid by a man on shore, but the spar was so covered with ice that the doomed man’s hands could not hold to it. They slipped off and the’ receding breaker carried him away.<\/p>\n
The irony was that, if the three men had remained on the vessel, they would have al I been saved, for she did not break up, but was salvaged and conti nued in use for severa I years. To make matters sti II worse for the drowned man’s fami Iy, Redington had left the Sheepscot not only with a cargo of wood, but with $900 in gold and si Iver coins, which he had received in addition to the wood i~ exchange for his outward bound cargo of goods. Lost with him was the $900.<\/p>\n
Thus Asa Redington’s mother was left poor and destitute with six smal I chi Idren and another born a few weeks after her husband’s death. There was nothing for her to do but separate the fami Iy, distributing the chi Idren among relatives and friends. The oldest boy, not quite 11, went to live with a deacon in Boxford. Asa’s older sister Sarah went with Mr. Osgood, a merchant of Haverhi II.<\/p>\n
I n order to understand the fate of these ch i I dren, we must bear in mi nd the usual practice in the 18th century concerning all such orphans or semi-orphans.<\/p>\n
I f both parents were dead, or if the mother had no way to feed and clothe them, the uniform practice was to make them what people called “bound out chi Idren”; that is, indentured to serve the master without pay, but merely for food, clothing and shelter, unti I the age of maturity. Thus Thomas Redington was bound out to Deacon Simmons and his sister Sarah’ to merchant Osgood.<\/p>\n
Asa was at first more fortunate. His uncle Isaac of Haverhi I I took the eight year old boy into his own home. But within a year conditions arose which made it necessary for Isaac to place the boy elsewhere. So the uncle persuaded another relative, John Goodridge, his brother-in-law, to take the boy into his Boxford home. But for some reason that fami Iy could keep him only a few months.<\/p>\n
Then off he went to another relative, Moses Putnam, who had married a sister of Asa’s mother. Thus Asa Redington, at the age of 10, returned to the farm where he had been born, and there he might have stayed until old enough to strike out for himself, had not Moses decided to sel I the farm and go where he could no I onge r ta ke ca re of the boy.<\/p>\n
For four years following his father’s death, Asa Redington had had three foster homes, but at least he had escaped the cruel fate of an indentured servant.<\/p>\n
But he could escape it no longer. With the consent of Asa’s mother, Moses Putnam put through the legal papers which bound the boy unti I the age of 21 to his cousin, Stephen Putnam of Danvers. Many years later, when Asa Redington was 77 years old, he wrote a memoir of his life. During those years he had achieved fame and fortune. But he never forgot the bitter years of that indentureship. He wrote of it:<\/p>\n
stingy man. had to labor from “Stephen Putnam was a hard master and a very dawn to dark beyond my strength. He never let me go to school, not even for part of a single term. I was half starved for want of nourishing food, and my clothing was usually in rags. Sometimes I had no boots, even in winter, but could only tie up my feet in ragged cloths.”<\/p>\n
That is the way Asa Redington spent the three years between his twelfth and his fifteenth bi rthdays. Then fortune took a turn for the better. Evi dent Iy Moses Putnam heard how his cousin was treating Asa, and his conscience troubled him. He had just bought a farm in Wi Iton, New Hampshire. He arranged to purchase Asa’s indenture papers from the Danvers cousin and took the boy again into his home. There Asa stayed, working hard, but wei I fed and kindly treated unti I, in the middle of his 17th year, in June, 1778, he enlisted as a soldier of the Revolution.<\/p>\n
On a future broadcast I want to te II you the thri II ing story of Asa Redington’s experiences as a Revolutionary soldier, but let us skip over that tonight, and come to his life in Central Maine. After his discharge from mi litary service in 1783, Asa made his way on foot, in the dead of winter, over the 300 miles distance to his uncle’s farm in Wi Iton, New Hampshire. As he afterwards wrote about it, Hit was a fatiguing march, in deep snow and intense cold. Having no boots or buckskins, froze my feet severely, and’ have suffered from it ever since.” Asa stayed with his Uncle Moses on Iy unti I the next spring, when he went to work for a Mr. Greeley in New Salisbury, New Hampshire for six dollars a month.<\/p>\n
Occasionally Asa saw his brother Thomas, who had long since completed his own indentureship and was now a free laborer. In November, 1784 the two brothers embarked at Portsmouth ina sma II schooner for Wi scasset. There they boarded another vessel up the Kennebec River to Gardiner, where Thomas hired out for the winter with a lumber operator. Asa went on up the river and came eventually to the horre of Esq. John Getchell at Getchell’s Corner. John asked Asa if he could teach school, and wi th an assurance befitting a veteran of the Revolution, Asa vowed that he could, although this is what his memoirs say about his own school i ng: “EBfore I went to Stephen Putnam’s in Danvers, I had been so whirled about since my father’s death that I had little chance for schooling, not more than three or four weeks in any year. After I got to Danvers I did not go to school at all. My whole schooling could not have exceeded twenty weeks.”<\/p>\n
How Asa Redi ngton became so we II educated, especi ally in the ab iii tv to write the clear, pungent prose of his memoirs, we do not know. Perhaps part of his self-teaching was done by teaching others, as when he agreed to John Getchel I ‘s suggestion that he keep a school in Vassalboro. He boarded at the home of Capt. Nathaniel Getchell, and there he found the girl who became his wife and the mother of his nine chi Idren. As for the school he taught, Asa later sa i d: ttl had about 30 schol ars and was pai d eight do II ars a month. I n the opinion of my employers, the Getchells, I did pretty well, though I was far from being qualified. It certainly shows the low state of learning in the Kennebec Va I ley in 1784.”<\/p>\n
But Asa Redington had no intention of being a schoolmaster. He wanted to be a trader. So the next spring he made hi s way back to Portsmouth, invested his small savings in goods, and brought them back to Vassalboro. As he put it: “There I so I d my goods, tak i ng I umbe rand prom i ses in payment.” The next February he aga in made the winter journey on foot to Portsmouth, to get more goods.<\/p>\n
On the way he visi ted Thomas, who’was now back in New Hampshi re, got a fresh supply of merchandise, and took ship for the Kennebec. He had to disembark at Ha I lowe II, because the river was frozen above thaT point. He stayed there unti I the river was open, when by longboat he got his goods up to Vassalboro.<\/p>\n
Asa did not confine his interests to trading. He did some farming, some lumbering, a biT of fishing. He surveyed lands in Vassalboro, Augusta, Sidney and Wi nslow. Hi s fi rst purchase of land was the lot on the ri ver, next south of Capt. Getchell’s, and there in 1787 he bui It a house for his bride, Mary Getche I I. He so I d the p I ace i n 1792 and moved to the west side of the ri ve r in Wi ns low, to what is now Watervi lie.<\/p>\n
Asa Redington was very fortunate in his choice of a father-in-law. Capt.\u00a0 Nathaniel Getche II was one of the most prosperous and most prominent men in the alley in those eventful years just before the dawn of the nineteenth century. He became very fond of his daughter’s husband, and Asa became equally fond of the capta in. They made exce I lent bus i ness partne rs, and it was as such partners that they became the earliest promoters of important industry in Watervi lie.<\/p>\n
When that sharp operator, Wi II i am McKechn ie, had surveyed th is regi on for the proprietor of The New Plymouth Company, he had reserved for himself the lot wh j ch bordered on the west side of Ti con i c Fa I Is. In 1792, there fore, the wate r rights controlled at those falls were in the hands of the McKechnie hei rs. With those he irs GeTche II and Redi ngton made a dea I. They woul d bui I d a doub Ie saw mill at the foot of the fa I Is, i f the McKechn i es wou Ids hare with them the ex- pense of bui Iding a dam. The result was the first dam across the river at Ticonic Falls, co~leted in August, 1792. By’ the following spring the saw mi II was in operation. It was situated very nearly where the upper Lockwood mi II now stands.<\/p>\n
Between 1793 and 1830, at fi rst wi th Getche II, then on his own, Asa Redington bui It several more mi lis, became an extensive trader, and piece by piece bought up land unti I he became one of the biggest land owners in the region. In 1831, when he was 70 years old, an age at which most men have retired, he bui It his largest mi II, a four story gri st mi II where the Bangs Stati on of the ~ntral Maine Power Company now stands, at the west end of Ticonic Bridge.<\/p>\n
~fore the fi rst mi II was in operation, Asa had bui It his Watervi lie home. It was situated on Water Street, across from where the Lockwood storehouse later stood. It was a tiny structure, and within a few years Asa’s growing fami Iy demanded larger quarters. So he but I t what was then the I argest house in tOiln, though ina few years it wou I d be equa lied or exceeded ins i ze by the mans ions of Isaac Temple, Timothy Bouie I Ie and Nathaniel Gi Iman.<\/p>\n
Asa Redington died in ~~atervi lie in 1845 at the age of 83, having founded not only a prosperous business, but also a distinguished family. It was his grandson, Charles Redington, son of Asa’s oldest son Samuel, who took over from Joseph Caffrey the furniture and undertaking businesses, both of which sti II carry the name of Redington, and Charles’ son, Frank Redington, is wei I remembered by many of Watervi lie’s present citizens. Asa’s daughter Emi Iy married Solyman Heath, Watervi I Ie’s famous lawyer, whose original diary as a 49-er, crossing the country by prairie schooner, I used as valuable material for a chapter in HKennebec Yesterdays”. Emi Iy Redi ngton t-eath was the mother of Mrs. A. A. Plaisted.<\/p>\n
Such was Asa Redington, orphaned bound boy, Revolutionary soldier, farmer, lumberman, trader, mi II bui Ider, land investor, selectman, justice of the peace, public spirited citizen. To him and his descendants Watervi lie owes a lasting debt.<\/p>\n
Year: 1957<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #337, Broadcast May 12, 1957<\/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":[761,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7732"}],"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=7732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}