<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago I mentioned the passing of the last of the Morrill sisters from the old home on Winter Street in Waterville. Tonight I want to tell you a bit more about that family. Llewellyn Morrill, father of the Morrill sisters, had come to Waterville in the 1880’s and had bought the big house on Winter Street. He had come from Hartland. where his father was a blacksmith, John Morrill. Financial records from that Morrill blacksmith shop in the middle of the 19th century are still preserved.<\/p>\n
In addition to the usual journal and ledger, John Morrill had a unique way of keeping his accounts. He had a strip of leather 32 inches long with two cloth tapes slitted through it lengthwise, making spaces about half an inch wide, into each of which he inserted slips, recording the purchases of a single customer. Never have I anywhere seen so unique and so unusual a record of bills owed a dealer.<\/p>\n
The accounts show that Morrill’s charge for shoeing a horse completely on all four feet was 75 cents. Since the price put down for shoeing is often 38 cents, much of his work must have consisted of putting shoes on only two feet. Some of the expressions then used in the blacksmith trade have long since disappeared: collering a shingle saw, laying an axe, making crane eyes, bailing a bucket, hooping a kettle, crooking a shave, making stirrup for a sawmill.<\/p>\n
Here are a few of the things the old time blacksmith did and what he charged for his work, according to the Morrill accounts for the year 1850. He made a butcher knife for 20 cents; he sharpened a pick for 10 cents; and set a dozen harrow teeth for 50 cents. For mending a stove cover he got 15 cents; for a set of bedstead rods his price was 42 cents; for ironing a wheel barrow he charged a dollar. Morrill’s charges for shoeing oxen varied all the way from 60 cents to $1.50.<\/p>\n
A common charge seems to have been $1.17. Of course it was more of a job to shoe oxen than to shoe horses. The ox had to be placed in a device called an ox sling, with his head held firmly between two uprights. Then a leather band was placed under his belly. and by a winch the animal was lifted off his feet. Then the blacksmith heated one foot at a time as it was firmly held in place. Moreover, because the ox had a cloven hoof, he required eight shoes compared with the horse’s four.<\/p>\n
Morrill charged 30 cents for a set of barn door hinges, 15 cents for repairing a plough, 25 cents for making a wedge, 17 cents (equivalent of the old New England shilling) for mending an ox ring.<\/p>\n
The old-time blacksmiths did a lot of work hardening iron by a process known as steeling, turning the iron into something resembling steel. So one day in 1850 Morrill charged Hanson Church 34 cents (two shillings) for “steeling a bar”.<\/p>\n
Like most workmen a hundred years ago, Morrill handled very little cash. His accounts show us clearly that he was frequently paid in merchandise. He credited Joshua Howe with 25 cents for hauling 100 pounds of iron from Bangor, and a week later with a dollar for hauling 400 pounds.<\/p>\n
As we are well aware. compared with today’s high living costs, both wages and prices were absurdly low a century ago. Among the numerous items credited to people who thus paid Morrill for blacksmith work are these: a cord of wood, $1.50; a day’s work, 75 cents; two bushels of oats, 67 cents; harrowing in my oats, 34 cents; 102 bushels of coal, $4.08; 20 pounds of veal, 70 cents.<\/p>\n
Here are a few more of the odd things that Morrill the blacksmith did: shanking an auger, tempering a knife, ironing thills, fixing a cant dye, repairing hames, making a gouge, setting a clevis pin, making a beetle ring, repairing pinchers, fixing a boot gimp, and making a yard hook.<\/p>\n
Llewellyn Morrill received his schooling in Hartland. Preserved is a tiny report card sent to his parents. It contains the school record of Llewellyn and his brother Levi for the period from December 18 to January 22, but unfortunately the year is not stated. It must, however, have been at least 100 years ago. Levi had attended school every day, but Llewellyn had been absent two days. Yet Llewellyn made a better record. While he was marked “good” in both recitations and conduct, Levi was marked only “satisfactory” in both. Another memento is a paper imprinted “Reward of Merit”, which says: “The bearer, Llewellyn Morrill, receives this as a token of my appreciation. Hannah D.”<\/p>\n
Soon after Llewellyn Morrill bought the Winter Street house, he effected an exchange of land with the owners of the academy property. Perhaps it is not well known that not until the middle of the present century did Coburn own the land on which the school had stood for 125 years. When the school was started in 1828, that land was a part of the big Lot 104 belonging to Timothy Boutelle. When Boutelle gave the land for the school, he gave it to the President and Trustees of Waterville College, because the academy was being started as an adjunct of the college, not as a separate venture. So for a century and a quarter, long after the school was independently operated, the land was owned by Colby College.<\/p>\n
It thus happened in 1891 that the College deeded to Llewellyn Morrill a piece of of land back of his Winter Street house in exchange for an adjoining piece that the school needed.<\/p>\n
In 1898 Llewellyn Morrill was in the grain business in Waterville, in partnership with A.F. Merrill under the firm name of Merrill and Morrill. In 1899 the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Morrill opening his own grain business on Charles Street.<\/p>\n
The inventory made at the time when the partnership was dissolved contains some interesting items: 70 bags filled with grass seed, $10.50; 341 empty sacks, $8.53; 70 barrels, $7.00; warehouse truck, $2.00; money drawer, $1.00. Some of the larger items of the inventory were: roller mill and fixtures in power house, $525; a set of burr stones, $100; large platform scale, $50; office safe, $30; hay scales, $200.<\/p>\n
But the smallest objects were not neglected in that inventory: 1 shovel, 10 cents; 1 coal hod, 15 cents; 2 brooms, 20 cents.<\/p>\n
Now let us turn to those three daughters who lived so long together in the Winter Street home. All three were respected and beloved teachers.<\/p>\n
When in 1912 Miss Clara Morrill decided she must leave Higgins Classical Institute for another position, Walter Danforth, the noted Bangor business man who was chairman of the Higgins trustees, wrote to her: “I want to express appreciation of your splendid and efficient service at Higgins. You have given us what money cannot pay for, and we are not unmindful of it.” The Higgins principal, Henry Perkins, said: “Miss Morrill demands thorough work from her pupils and she encourages individual expression. Her generous interest in her pupils, her justice and strong Christian character endear her to all who come to know her.” William Cowing, known to generations of Colby men as one of the College’s best athletes, had been Perkins’ predecessor as Higgins principal. Of Miss Morrill he wrote: “Her ability to impart knowledge, to discipline, and to mold character is exceptional.”<\/p>\n
A strong endorsement of Miss Frances Morrill, youngest of the sisters, came from a distinguished Waterville citizen who is still living, Herbert C. Libby. He wrote: “Miss Frances Morrill is a teacher of exceptional ability, strong in discipline, cooperative in spirit, and with a strong grasp of the subjects assigned her to teach. She is one of the best teachers in Maine.”<\/p>\n
Another endorser of Miss Morrill still lives in Eastport. He is Roscoe Emery, former mayor of that city, as indeed Dr. Libby was of Waterville. Emery said: “Miss Morrill constitutes very nearly my ideal of what a good teacher should be and do.”<\/p>\n
A school man still remembered in Waterville was DenniS Bowman, once principal of Waterville High School. In 1914 Mr. Bowman wrote from Los Angeles, where he was building a distinguished educational career: “Miss Morrill exemplifies the best type of classical scholarship — thorough, exact and genuine. Her teaching is efficient and exacting, but at the same time agreeable to her pupils. Her sterling character exercises an elevating influence.”<\/p>\n
Teachers didn’t get rich half a century ago. In 1915 a teachers’ agency informed Frances Morrill that a Latin teacher was needed at Willimantic, Connecticut, at what the agency called the excellent salary of $900 a year. At the same time another agency notified Miss Morrill that a position was open in a private day school in Kansas City, also at $900.<\/p>\n
In 1914 Ricker Classica1 Institute at Houlton was interested in procuring the services of Miss Frances Morrill as preceptress, the kind of position that is now called Dean of Girls. So on August 18, 1914, a letter was written to Miss Morrill by Charles P. Barnes, Colby graduate and Houlton attorney, who would later become a Justice of the Maine Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Mr. Barnes offered her the Ricker job for $600 a year and room in the dormitory, but she would have to pay the school $2.75 for board. In addition to having charge of all the girls, Miss Morrill would have to carry a full teaching load in English. Mr. Barnes said that he had heard of Miss Morrill through H.H. Bryant. Now that statement interests me, because I knew H.H. Bryant very well. For many years he was the Maine representative of Ginn and Company, education publishers. When Mr. Bryant retired in 1921 Ginn and Company employed me as his successor, and for several months Mr. Bryant accompanied me about the state, breaking me in on the job. Book men like Mr. Bryant were of great assistance to the schools in recommending strong teachers. Mr. Bryant then lived in Waterville. He knew Miss Morrill and held a high opinion of her work.<\/p>\n
I can easily visualize what had happened in this case. H.H. Bryant was in Houlton seeking orders for Ginn books. He had, of course, called on the local superintendent of schools, and he was now making his regular call at the local academy, Ricker Classical Institute. The principal informed Bryant that the school needed a new preceptress. Bryant said he knew just the person for the job. Ricker was a Baptist- founded and Baptist-aided school, and Miss Frances Morrill was a staunch Baptist.<\/p>\n
So when Judge Barnes wrote to Miss Morrill, he said: “I have just heard through H.H. Bryant…”<\/p>\n
Remaining descendants in the third generation from Llewellyn Morrill are Dr. Morrill Illsley, a distinguished California physician, and Dr. Illsley’s sister, Mrs. Koelb, who has recently moved to Waterville after many years of residence in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Year: 1964<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #622, Broadcast on October 4, 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\/8419"}],"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=8419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}