<\/p>\n
Today I want to return to the diaries of George Flood and tell you about some of his other business ventures besides his fuel business and his railroad activities.<\/p>\n
In 1864 Flood engaged to be a travelling agent for Reuben B. Dunn, to sell a patent bed spring that Mr. Dunn had developed. In May, 1864 F\u2022lo od joined Dunn in Boston. The diary tells us: “Arrived in Boston at 7:30 p.m. and walked to City Hall, where I saw Mr. Dunn~’ The next day, “went to work copying stock for Mr. Dunn.”<\/p>\n
Flood began soliciting bed spring orders in Newport, R.I., where he had poor luck. He then moved to New Bedford, where he recorded in the diary: “I do not like the business of selling bed bottoms. It is an awful mean business, and New Bedford is a very mean town.” In Rehoboth Flood walked 20 miles but did little business. From there he walked the ten miles to Providence. He decided the old town of Roger Williams was no place to sell bed springs; so he moved on to Barrington where he took in $25. On the last day of May, in Warren, Rhode Island, he wrote: “I am sick of this business and think I shall close up and go home. I have written Mr. Dunn that I think of returning home next week.” On June 20, when he left Bristol, Flood had still not yielded to the temptation to go home, but he wrote: “Today I left Bristol for Boston. I was mighty glad to get out of that town.” This time Flood had really quit. On the 21st he took the boat to Portland and the next day was in Waterville and on the 23rd reached his home in Clinton.<\/p>\n
I have already told you how George Flood did a big business supplying wood for the old wood-burning locomotives of the early Maine railroads, and on several broadcasts I have referred to his interest in wool. Now let me tell you a bit more about Flood’s wool business. In the months just following the end of the Civil War – those of the summer and early fall of 1865 — George Flood was deeply involved in substantial deals in wool. In June he made a contract with a big buyer, L.C. Whitehouse, to furnish large quantities. Whitehouse took all the wool Flood had purchased on June 5, and gave Flood $1,500 more to purchase additional quantities. All summer he gathered and sacked wool at his brother Sumner’s place in Clinton. As late as November 15th he wrote: “Today I had the wool we sold to Whitehouse hauled to the depot on runners.”<\/p>\n
The next spring Flood was diligently at it again. By the end of May he had options on more than 3,000 pounds of wool at 26 cents unwashed or 35 cents washed. Nearly every week Whitehouse was advancing Flood from $500 to $1,000 for wool purchases.<\/p>\n
On July 1 the diary recorded: “Helped Sumner figure out his wool account. Find he has about 9,000 pounds on hand, which averages a cost of 30 cents a pound.” Sept. 8 – “Went to Clinton and helped finish sacking wool and settled with Whitehouse to date.”<\/p>\n
Even after he entered the fuel business in the fall of 1876, George Flood continued an interest in wool, but never to such a great extent as the large purchases and sales of 1875 and 1876.<\/p>\n
In the summer of 1875 Flood had his eye on a new industry in Waterville and began to wonder how he could get in on its development. He didn’t acquire any stock in the enterprise, but he did do a lot of business with the company after he became a fuel dealer. That new industry was the Lockwood Mill. On July 23 Flood wrote:<\/p>\n
“The new factory in Waterville is now nearly completed.” August 9 – “Went to the new factory and found the raceway about two-thirds done. Cards have been installed. Some 35 men are at work finishing the building.” The next day the looms were being set up, but a month 1 ater Flood reported: “Have gone over the new cotton mi 11. It will be some weeks before it will have any looms running.” In November Flood could write: “In Waterville building is very brisk and some 25 residences have gone up since spring. The new factory has the looms nearly all in and one water wheel.”<\/p>\n
A few days later Flood went through the factory, where he found 175 men at work. Although George Flood had been buying wood lots and standing timber during the early years of his fuel business, it was in 1881 when he made his first substantial real estate venture in Waterville. It was his brother Charles who first suggested that George Flood buy the big brick building on the west side of Main Street known as the Marston Block. Near the business block was the old Marston dwelling house. On February 12, 1881 Flood decided to buy both for $5,500. Evidently Flood intended to operate some business of his own in at least part of the big building, for on September first he was digging a pit to set up platform scales in front of the block. For a time Flood did operate an office and sales room for his fuel business in the block, but he had soon rented all its many rooms to various firms, professional men and organizations.<\/p>\n
Ever since George Flood bought the bUilding in 1881, it has been known as the Flood Block. It still stands on Main Street, but empty and unrepaired since the disastrous fire of nearly two years ago. It will soon be torn down, along with its neighboring structures, as a part of Waterville’s urban renewal project.<\/p>\n
Throughout his life George Flood could not forget that he was a farm boy. He kept up an active interest in the Clinton farm of his boyhood, constantly helped his brother Sumner with farming projects, and in the 1880’s became deeply involved in Waterville agriculture. In 1884 he acquired possession of the large Stackpole farm which extended west from upper Main Street, near the present site of the Elm City Plaza shopping center, to the county road, encompassing the land on which the Thayer Hospital now sits. Here are some of the diary references during 1884: “Helped make two harrows to harrow grain in our burnt land on the Stackpole farm. Have been to Stackpole farm and measured off a piece to plow. Have sown a bushel of grass seed on the Stackpole farm. Commenced to get in oats on the Stackpole farm. Three horses and four men got in two acres on burnt land near the stream. Trimming trees at the Stackpole farm all day. Have been hauling boards to the Stackpole farm to double-board the barns.”<\/p>\n
Although Flood always employed workmen, he never shirked hard physical labor himself. In January, 1885 he cut his foot while felling trees on the Stackpole farm, but fortunately the wound soon healed. In May he had three men at work burning over the land. From those diary entries we learn that the Stackpole farm then extended both sides of Upper Main Street, not only to the west toward the Messalonskee, but on the east to Drummond Avenue. On August 16 Flood for the first time referred to a workman who would remain with him until his death ten years later. The diary says: “Set William Whyte at work on the Stackpole farm. He is an Irish boy who has just come over from Ireland.” A few days later he had three men and two yoke of oxen plowing and six men threshing oats on the farm. In October he decided to see just where the lines were on that farm. He hired a surveyor and found the north line east of Main Street correct, but the west line over the hill in error by three rods; and the south line east of Main Street two rods off. From his lands George Flood usually had something to sell. In September, 1884 he went to Gardiner and sold to A.R. Reed 19 pine spars to be delivered at Waldoboro. He got $550 for the lot. A few days later he bought another farm: “Bought of Mrs. Johnson Williams her small farm of 20 acres, with a house and barn on it, lying south of the Stackpole farm. Paid her $2,000. The place has 50 apple trees.”<\/p>\n
Three days later he picked ten barrels of apples on the Williams farm. It was in 1887 that George Flood started remodelling the place on upper Main Street that became his home for the last eight years of his life. The place, actually on the old Stackpole farm, was called the York house. In June of 1887 Flood moved back the shed to make room for a newell to the house. He dug a new cellar. By the 17th the stone work was finished, and the Irishman William Whyte took two loads of stone from the field to finish the wall, then hauled sand for the brick work. By the end of July Flood could record: “At York house the carpenters are putting a cupola on the stables. Masons finished the chimneys and set the basement windows.” On September 7 he wrote: “I have been at work with William Whyte cleaning up around the York house. Carpenters are at work on the bathroom. The plumbers are nearly done. Tomorrow we shall start grading the grounds.” Early in October the carpenters had begun to lay the floors and by the end of that month painters were at work on the outside.<\/p>\n
Just as George Flood started to build his new home, a significant event occurred in Waterville. The decision was made to put in a new water system, taking the supply from China Lake. Flood at once decided to put the city water into his remodelled house. Since his was the northernmost house to be piped for that water, Flood could proudly say, when it was turned on, that his was the first place in Waterville to received water from the new reservoir on top of the Mountain Farm hill.<\/p>\n
When Flood remodelled the York house in 1888, Mr. Noyes had died, but Mrs. Noyes was still living. Flood decided to remain at the Noyes home and rent the York house to a tenant. On August 18 he wrote: -“I now have the York house fini shed ready for my tenant. It is the best house for rent in this town and is a most pleasant spot.”<\/p>\n
August 20 – “My tenant, J.P. Goddard, moved into the York house.” When Mrs. Noyes died in January, 1892 George Flood himself moved into the York house and Fanny Woods became his housekeeper. He renamed the place Sunny Hill Farm. George Flood was a keen business man who erijoyed increasing financial prosperity, but he was decidedly a man with a kind heart. Note what he put into his diary of New Year’s Day in 1893: “Robert Paradis, my man who lives in my Stackpole house, has been sick for four weeks. He has a family of eight children and has to depend on his labor. I give him his rent and fuel and seven dollars a week. I have paid him regularly through his sickness.”<\/p>\n
In 1888 Flood had built a large storehouse back of his block on Main Street.<\/p>\n
Old inhabitants of Waterville will remember that between Appleton Street and Temple Street there was once a rather deep depression in Main Street. In 1893 the city government decided to raise the street. That caused some alterations by property owners. in some cases the actual raising of buildings to a higher level. In such instances the owners were able to collect damages from the city. On June 14 Flood wrote: “I got a settlement from the city for damage caused by raising the street in front of my block – $1.279. Of this I paid my lawyers. Webb and Johnson. $226. besides $45 I advanced to them. My net return is therefore $1.008. and I have lost more than that in rents.”<\/p>\n
Year: 1964<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #615, Broadcast on May 17, 1964<\/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":[42956,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8400"}],"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=8400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}