<\/p>\n
Last spring I told you something about the Clark family, pio<\/em>neer settlers of South China. The Waterville authority on that family is Raymond Clark of Abbott Street, who has recently shown me some additional documents concerning the Clarks and their relatives, the Worths. In 1810 China was called Jones Plantation, and apparently in that year Benjamin Worth was in need of funds. He gave the Nantucket Bank a mortgage deed for $600 on a tract of land described in the document as “in the town of Vassalboro known as No. 21 on the fifth range of lots in Jones Plantation, containing about 127 acres, and is the farm I now occupy.”<\/p>\n In the next year, 181″ Owen Clark, designated as a brick layer, sold to Elvin Worth for \u00a7450 what the deed calls tfa parcel of land situated in Fairfax (the old name for Albion), it being the same lot that I bought of Moses Robinson”.<\/p>\n By 1812 Jones Plantation had been given the name Harlem, and that old lot No. 21, which Benjamin Worth had mortgaged to the Nantucket Bank, was broken up. A third part of it was sold to Owen Clark, who at once deeded it back to the Worths.<\/p>\n Among old family papers we often find formal agreements binding a son to support his parents. The reason for such documents was that, when a father got too old and feeble to work, he would deed his home and adjoining land to a son, who in turn agreed to support the old people for the rest of their lives. For some reason the old folks took no chances on paternal loyalty. They got written agreements in return for their written real estate deeds.<\/p>\n Among the Clark papers is just such an agreement, signed January 19, 1816. In the legal pnrasing of the time it says: “I, Elvin Worth of Vassalboro, am held and firmly bound unto my father and mother, Benjamin and Phoebe Worth, to maintain them during their natural lives with every comfort, and take care of them, so far as I am capable; and I agree to find my father a good riding horse. I further agree that my father shall keep eight sheep and two cows of his own, and I agree to find for him that number of sheep and cows and keep that number intact, if either my father or mother so demands. If my father or mother chooses to live with others of their children than myself, I agree to give tnem twofifths of all that grows on the premises. If my mother should outlive my father and should choose to live with her other sons or daughters, I agree that she shall have one quarter of all that grows on the farm. To all this I bind myself, my heirs and assigns, under the forfe~ture of the lands and privileges that,my fatner has given me in his deed.”<\/p>\n Some years later, in 1835, the Worths obtained land in Winslow. For $100 Elvin and Jethro Worth bought of Luther Williams a fifty acre lot in Winslow, described as follows: “the lot numbered 87 in the third range of fifty-acre lots, except the dam erected on said lot and the right of flowing the land by reason of said dam.”<\/p>\n That is the kind of thing that complicated many of the old land titles — the reservation of water rights. In the Worth deed, exclusion of the dam and flow privileges are clearly stated, but often a man would buy a piece of property on a stream, only to discover that his meadows were suddenly flooded by closing of a dam over which he had no control.<\/p>\n Early in the Civil War the Worth family had dealings with the well known cates family of Vassalboro. In 1862 Samuel Worth, for $50, deeded a piece of Vassalboro land to Charles Cates, physician.<\/p>\n Benjamin, first of the Worth family to come to Maine, had come from Nantucket, which explains his mortgage deed to the Nantucket Bank. In possession of the Clark family is still a deed made out to Benjamin Worth before he came to Maine. That deed is dated 170 years ago in 1792, when George Washington was President of the United States. The old document says: “I, Sylvanus Coleman of Sherburn in the County of Nantucket and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, tailor, having good and lawful power of attorney from my brother, Seth Coleman of Dartmouth in the County of Halifax in the Province of Nova Scotia, boat builder, to sell and convey all or any part of his real estate on the island of Nantucket, do now, in consideration of 140 pounds, lawful money, paid to me by Benjamin Worth of Sherburn, cooper, convey and confirm unto said Benjamin Worth a certain tract of land lying in Sherburn, lying in the first squadron of lots; together with a dwelling house, barn and fence standing on said land — all of which the said Seth Coleman inherited from my father, Barnabas Coleman.”<\/p>\n Like the Cates family of Vassalboro, the Worths were Quakers, and among the preserved papers are several marriage certificates in the usual Quaker fashion. It is well known that at a Quaker marriage there is no minister. The bride and groom perform the ceremony themselves, and all members of the Society of Friends who are present sign the certificate.<\/p>\n In 1808 Elvin, the son of Benjamin Worth — the same man who made the agreement to take care of his parents — was married at Vassalboro. This is what the old certificate says: “Elvin Worth of Vassalboro, son of Benjamin Worth of Vassalboro in the County of Kennebec and State of Massachusetts, and his wife Phoebe, and Lydia Gardner, daughter of Jethro Gardner of the same town and Love, his wife, having declared their intentions of taking each other in marriage before several monthly meetings of the People called Quakers in Vassalboro, according to the good order used amongst them, after due inquiry and deliberate consideration, were approved by the said meetings as being clear of all others and having the consent of parents. Now these are to certify to all,whom it may concern that for the full accomplishing of their said intentions this 24th day of the eleventh month in the year of our Lord 1808, they, Elvin Worth and Lydia liardner, appeared at a public assembly of the People called Quakers in their meeting house in Vassalboro, and the said Elvin Worth, taking the said Lydia Gardner by the hand did then and there openly declare: Friends, I take this my friend Lydia Gardner to be my wife, promising through divine assistance to be unto her a loving and faithful husband until it shall please the Lord by death to separate us and the said Lydia Gardner did in like manner declare: Friends, I take this my friend, Elvin Worth, to be my husband, promising through divine assistance to be unto him a loving and faithful wife until it shall please the Lord by death to separate us. And the said Elvin Worth and Lydia Gardner, as a further confirmation thereof, have hereunto set their hands, she after the custom of marriage assuming the name of her husband.”<\/p>\n So the first names signed to the certificate are those of the bride and groom. Then came the Worths, Benjamin and Phoebe, and Elvin’s brother John and his wife Rachel; then no less than eight Gardners, including the bride’s parents; and finally the neighboring Quakers of such well known Vassalboro families as the Husseys, the Nichols, the Dows and the Whitehouses.<\/p>\n In 1816 Elvin Worth evidently had the care of an elderly lady of the Gardner family in his charge, though she seems to have had the means to pay. At any rate here are some of the charges which Worth made against Christianna Gardner. Since she is the only one charged with commodities, and since there is no evidence that Worth ever kept a store, we may assume these were supplies he bought for the old lady:<\/p>\n Sole leather .21 Handkerchief 3\/9 .63<\/p>\n 1 yard Muslin .25 1 pair Shoes .84<\/p>\n 1 oz. Columbia Hoot<\/p>\n 1-1\/2 lb. Butter<\/p>\n .13<\/p>\n .25<\/p>\n 1 pair Scissors .25<\/p>\n 1 pair Cotton Stockings .50<\/p>\n My horse, one day down the river 1.00<\/p>\n Riding my horse to the river to see the elephant .25<\/p>\n Now let us chat a bit about early schools in Waterville. The first school house on this side of the river was built about 1795 on the common near the public meeting house, which afterward became the old armory and was moved back from the common to face Front Street.<\/p>\n When Waterville became a separate town in 1802, there were already two school houses in that part of the town known as the Village: the one story, yellow frame building on the common, and the upper district brick building on what is now College Avenue, on the site of the present American Legion building. After that school house Was abandoned and taken down, Daniel Wing, publisher of the Waterville Mail, built a spacious home on the site, and it was that old Wing home that became the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity house, itself torn down when the fraternity was moved to Mayflower Hill and the American Legion acquired the site.<\/p>\n In 1836 there were 14 school districts in the town of Waterville, but still only two in the village. Not until ten years later, in 1846, Was there a school house on the Plains. It cost $250. In 1853 two brick school houses were built. One, on the corner of Pleasant and School Streets, was later enlarged into Waterville’s first high school, and in 1922 it was torn down when the present junior high school was built. The other brick school was put up where the present North Grammar School now stands. In the same year, in 1853, the old school house on College Avenue was torn down.<\/p>\n The oldest Waterville school house still in use is the North Grammar School, which has held generations of children for nearly 75 years since it Was opened in 1888. The South Grammar School dates from 1892 and the Myrtle Street School from 1897.<\/p>\n Several times on this program I have referred to a well remembered Waterville business, Otten’s Bakery. I recently ran across, in an old copy of the Waterville Mail, the following praise of that old German baker: “A man who understands the baking business better than Mr. Otten would be hard to find. Since he came here in 1884 he has pushed the business into the front rank of N. E. bakeries. He can duplicate any cake that was ever made. His sweet bread is a delight to eye and taste. He uses a carload of flour every month, has 15 employees and 6 delivery wagons. Mr. Otten came to this country from Germany when he was a small boy.”<\/p>\n Year: 1962<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #530, Broadcast on March 18, 1962<\/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":[1182,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8162"}],"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=8162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}