\nNext week my new book, !lRemembered ~1ainelt, will be published by the Colby\u00a0College Press. A sort of seque I to “Kennebec Yesterdaysf’, ~’Remembered Maine”\u00a0is a series of separate sketches on the folk and folkways of Maine. A few of\u00a0the sketches are expansions of material that has been used on this program, but\u00a0others are enti re I y new. For instance, a sketch ca II ed “Sh i rts, Sai nts and S i nners’!<\/p>\n
tells the amazing story of Charles F. Hathaway, founder of the famous\u00a0Hathaway Sh i rt Industry. No stranger character ever wa I ked the Watervi I Ie\u00a0streets than Charles Hathaway. I think you wi II find his story fascinating.<\/p>\n
Like “Kennebec Yesterdays”, “Remembered Maine!! has a murder story, and it\u00a0has not been told on this program. It is the story of a murder in the town of\u00a0Poland a hundred years ago. I call it the “Heater-piece Murderl~, for its soluti\u00a0on depended con si derab I y on what happened at a ce rta in heate r-p i ece i n that\u00a0town. The story is remarkable also, because, at the trial, the expert witnesses\u00a0were not physicians or chemists, but ox drivers. I think you’ll enjoy\u00a0that murder story.<\/p>\n
Another skeTch i s a study of the po Ii ti ca I maneuvers wh i ch den i ed Hann i ba I\u00a0Hamlin a second Term as Lincoln’s vice-president, and thereby deprived Maine of\u00a0the honor of the Presidency on Lincoln’s death.<\/p>\n
The book also has something about squatters on Maine lands, about early\u00a0doctors and thei r remedies, about wi tches and supersti ttons, about the Aroostook\u00a0“Jar that people called Fairfield’s Farce, and a number of other subjects out of\u00a0Maine’s intriguing past, including what those who know me well are sure, of\u00a0course, I would do — give them another toot of the narrow guage trains.<\/p>\n
We I I, anyhow, I hope you wi I I like !fRemembe red (v1a i ne n.<\/p>\n
Did you know that what is said to be the oldest store to be operated continuously\u00a0by one fami Iy is right here in f’..1aine’s Kennebec Valley? It is the\u00a0Cates general store at East Vassalboro. For 127 years the Cates fami Iy has\u00a0owned and conducted that store. The bui Iding in which it is housed was bui It in\u00a01824 by David Hamlin, who sold it in 1830 to Wi lIiam and Charles Cates. Since\u00a0that time it has been in the hands of four succeeding generations, of whom the\u00a0representatives have been Charles Cates, George H. Cates, Harold Cates and Benjamin\u00a0Cates, Jr., the present owner, who is a great-grandson of the founder.<\/p>\n
I t was George Cates who had the longest tenure as the store’s proprietor,\u00a0running it for 65 years, from 1873 to 1938. Even that record may yet be exceeded\u00a0by one of the clerks, Aunt Nancy Barker, who has worked in the store for\u00a0three generati ons of Cates proprietors.<\/p>\n
Thi s venerab Ie East Vassa Iboro estab Ii shment now operates under the name\u00a0of the Cates General Store, selling a varied and general line of merchandise,\u00a0just as it did in 1830, but with modern methods and modern goods to meet today’s\u00a0needs.<\/p>\n
We find it difficult to see how anyone can possibly agree with a governor\u00a0who wi I I use the National Guard not to protect the law, but to flaunt the law.<\/p>\n
Peace-loving people of America have no sympathy with violence or those who stir\u00a0it up. There is no excuse for a mob taking the law into its own hands, in Arkansas\u00a0or anywhere else.<\/p>\n
How much more difficult it is for us, looking back over the 120 years since\u00a0Elijah Parish Lovejoy was ki lied by an angry nob in Alton, Illinois, whi Ie he\u00a0defended his abol iti on i st press, to rea Ii ze that there were persons in Ameri ca 7\u00a0not in the southern states a lone, but in the north as we II , who defended the\u00a0mob and condemned Lovejoy. On January 13,1838, a little more than two months\u00a0after Lovejoy was ki lied, a man named Henry Nichols wrote from Lancaster,\u00a0I I I i no is to his nephew, John Ni cho Is, i n Port I and, Ma i ne :<\/p>\n
Ptvly dear nephew, I see by my papers that Dr. Chann ing and others in Boston\u00a0have worked up in a great ferment because the people in Alton shot Lovejoy. I\u00a0think it very foolish in so wise a man as Dr. Channing to trouble himself about\u00a0such thi ngs. Lovejoy and his gang were the fi rst aggressors, fi red the fi rst\u00a0shot, and ki I led the first man. Lovejoy deserved death. I-e knew before his\u00a0press arrived what was the determination of the people. If he had acted up to\u00a0his profession, and instead of heading a mob had endeavored to keep peace in the\u00a0liTtle town of Alton, and had not landed his press, I don’t believe The people\u00a0of thi s state more than in any other wou I d have shot him. ~Jhy di d he not take\u00a0his confounded press to St. Charles in Missouri, where he says his family resided?<\/p>\n
He knew it would not answer to go there. The abolitionists are learning\u00a0that the feelings of the people in this state are not to be trifled with. I hope\u00a0that if any more of that gang come here for the purpose of issuing seditious pape\u00a0rs” they wi I I be disposed of be fo re they have been he re 24 hours. I can’t see\u00a0any di fference between a person i nci ti ng the s laves to ri se on thei r masters and\u00a0ki II them and these abolitionists inciting to mobs. I don’t approve of mobs more \u00a0than anyone else, but the people of Massachusetts must not think, because we are\u00a0a new state here in Illinois, that their abolitionists can come here and tamper\u00a0wiTh our feelings. Your affectionate Uncle, Henry Nichols.”<\/p>\n
Because of the Mormon settlement that has endured to this day on Beals ls-\u00a0I and near Jonesport, I suppose most of my I isteners are aware that a I itt Ie more\u00a0than a hundre.d years ago the ~~ormons were very acti ve in Mai ne. Th is is what a\u00a0Thomaston paper had to say about them in 1840:<\/p>\n
TfThere is much excitement in Vinalhaven on the doctrine of Mormonism, as\u00a0the religion of Joseph Smith is called. Vinalhaven was visited last summer by\u00a0two Mormon preachers, who sti II remain there, disseminating their new religious\u00a0p ri nci pies. They have bapti zed 50 in the tv1ormon fa i th and are encouragi ng\u00a0others to embrace it. They have prophesied the destruction of the town and its\u00a0inhabitants and are warning them to flee to the far ~’est. Many have sold their\u00a0farms and stock and are gettj ng ready to move. H<\/p>\n
The noteworthy poi nt about th is story concern i ng Mormons at Vi na I haven is\u00a0that it was p ri nted seven years before the tvbrmons estab I i shed the i r permanent\u00a0settlement in Utah and made the desert around the Great Salt Lake blossom like\u00a0the rose. It was in 1847 that Brigham Young led the persecuted followers of the\u00a0martyred Joseph Smith on the arduous overland trek from Counci I Bluffs, Iowa to\u00a0the va Iley of the Great Sa It Lake beyond the Wasatch Mountai ns. Two th i ngs are\u00a0therefore of speci a I interest about th i s story ina Ma i ne newspaper in 1840.<\/p>\n
First, thaT Mormon missionaries were already at work on the Atlantic seaboard\u00a0at the ve ry ti me when Mormons were be i ng persecuted in I II i noi s, Mi ssouri and\u00a0Iowa; and second, that those Mormon missionaries on the Maine island of Vinalhaven\u00a0advised their converts to go to the far West — exactly what the Mormons\u00a0of the Mid-~’est would actually do seven years later.<\/p>\n
I have recently run across another story about squatters on Maine lands in\u00a0the time of the early settlements. Darius Brewster, son of one of Thomaston’s\u00a0first setTlers, thought he had sound title to the land on which he had bui It a\u00a0house and of which he had been in undisputed possession for several years. Suddenly\u00a0he learned that Dr. Horatio Dodge laid claim to the same land. Dodge gave\u00a0noti ce to Brewster that the I atter must not cut the hay on the p I ace because\u00a0Dodge intended to cut it himself. Brewster, who had been a Revolutionary soldier,<\/p>\n
informed Dodge that he would get shot if he tried to cut-the:-hay. This\u00a0was in 1797 when the 0 I d muzz le-Ioadi ng muskets were sti I lin use. Defyi ng the\u00a0threat, Dr. Dodge put a crew of men at work in the di sputed fi e Ids. \\~e II supplied\u00a0with provisions for both eating and drinking, Dodge’s gang of workers were\u00a0starti ng to have <\/em>a gay ti me when Brewster appeared on the scene. He ordered the\u00a0crew to stop the i r work. When his demand was fl aunted, Brewster went back to\u00a0his house to get his musket. Returning, he aimed the weapon at the legs of\u00a0Dodge who, chanci ng to stoop cbwn at the moment, rece i ved <\/em>the charge of s I ugshot\u00a0in that part of the anatomy where parents administer spankings. Seeing\u00a0Brewster about to reload, Dodge cried for quarter. But Brewster, not kno\\ving\u00a0how much damage he had done and fearing the worst, ran off into hiding. He hid\u00a0in the woods, secretly fed by his family, until it was certain that the doctor\u00a0wou I d recover. At length, however, Brewster was arrested, tri ed and sentenced\u00a0to a brief time in prison. What was worse, he lost title to the land. On it\u00a0Dr. Dodge erected large frame bui Idings, cleared many acres, and made it one of\u00a0the leading farms in what is now Knox County.<\/p>\n Many Watervi I Ie peop Ie have spent summers at Ow I sHead, Crescent P.each or\u00a0Ash Poi nt. There is a good war story that comes out of the 01 d tradi ti ons of\u00a0Ash Point. It concerns an incident in the War of 1812. British ships constant~\u00a0Iy harassed Maine shipping throughout that war. Even the Maine coastal vessels\u00a0carrying wood to Boston, were frequently stopped and their crews seized. Fishermen\u00a0and even landsmen were sometimes captured. John Paul, who had settled at\u00a0Ash Point, was taken prisoner by a British vessel whi Ie he was fishing in the\u00a0Musc Ie Ri dge channe I. Hi s captors proceeded to questi on him about a certai n\u00a0swivel gun kept at Owls Head for defensive purposes. The British knew it was\u00a0under the general care of Capt. Nathaniel Merriman, but no one knew just where\u00a0~J1erriman kept it. When the prisoner John Paul was asked where the gun was located,\u00a0he rep lie d: Hit may be i n Me rr i man’s ba rn; it may be beh i n d his ba rn; it\u00a0may be in the guardhouse; it may be in the bushes. I don’t know where the devi <\/em>I\u00a0it is, and i f I did, I wou I dn ‘t te I I ye.”<\/p>\n Not long ago I saw a copy of an old newspaper published in Boston almost\u00a0175 years ago. It was the “Independent Chronicle!’, and the date of the issue\u00a0wh i ch I chanced to see was January 1, 1784. I n one co I umn on the first page\u00a0appears a modest head line, in the same size type as the story, except that the\u00a0head line was in ita Ii cs. The head i ng sa i d : HAddress of K i nq George II I to ParI\u00a0i ament, November 11, 1783, and just brought to Coston by packet from London. n<\/p>\n Then follows the text of the story. The Ki ng sai d: III have the satisfaction\u00a0to inform you that definitive treaties of peace have been concluded with the\u00a0courts of France and Spain, and with the United States of America. I have ordered\u00a0these treaties to be laid before you, and I have no cause to doubt that\u00a0all these other powers agree with me in my sincere inclination to keep the calamities\u00a0of \\aJar at a di stance.”<\/p>\n Now that smoothly sounds as if George III were wholly reconci led to the\u00a0loss of his American colonies. But those of you who have read the third volume\u00a0of \\vinston Churchi II’s “History of the English Speaking People n , published this\u00a0fall, know that there was no such reconci liation. Churchi I I says that the King\u00a0was so shocked and disappointed by Cornwallis’ surrender and the subsequent necessity\u00a0of making peace with the colonies that he threatened to abdicate and was\u00a0persuaded not to do so only by the persistent pleas of influential Tory nobles.<\/p>\n So perhaps in 1784, as well as in 1957, one couldn’t believe all one reads\u00a0j n the newspapers.<\/p>\n Year: 1957<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #353, Broadcast on November 3, 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\/7784"}],"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=7784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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