<\/p>\n
Today I want to tell you about a diary kept by a Maine man just before the Civil War, more than a hundred years ago. The man did not live in our Kennebec Valley, but nearer the coast in the town of Newcastle. His home was about three miles from the bridge joining Newcastle to Damariscotta. Although he had a small farm, this man whose name we do not know, was by trade a repairer of clocks, but his real interest seems to have been the sea.<\/p>\n
The first entry in the diary, dated January 1, 1859 says: “Mr. Wiley, the peddler, stayed here all night.” In the middle of the 19th century itinerant peddlers were still common throughout Maine, and it was their practice to stay overnight at some country home and pay the host in goods. In those days very few peddlers parted with any money for food, lodging, or fodder for the horse, if they were so fortunate as to drive one, rather than walk with a pack on their back. It would be well toward the end of the century before the rag peddlers would be willing to pay cash for “any rags, any bones, any bottles today”.<\/p>\n
In inland Maine, farmhouses were often banked for the winter by evergreen boughs. In places near the big sawmills. sawdust was used for banking. But what do you suppose this diarist in Newcastle used? On April 25, 1859 he wrote: “Set some rosebushes and took the eel grass away from the house.”<\/p>\n
Fish were plentiful in those days: “May 11 – Went to Louis Flagg’s. On the way back, stopped at the brook and caught about a peck and a half of smelts.”<\/p>\n
The next day he made a sale: “Sold to Zenas Plummer some dried apples for ten cents a pound.” On June 6 he complained of a heavy frost. writing: “Considerable damage was done to vegetables, corn and beans were killed. Ice froze as thick as window glass.”<\/p>\n
The circus came early that year to Damariscotta: “June 18. Went to the bridge to see the circus. They had four elephants.”<\/p>\n
If frost came late in the spring, it also came early that fall: “Sept. 16 – Frost last night. Killed corn, beans and potato vines on low land. Froze ice in the watering trough in our barnyard.”<\/p>\n
On October 17 the diary recorded a trip to Phippsburg: “Set out for Phippsburg at 7 a.m. with horse and wagon. Got to Bath at 11.” (From Newcastle to Bath now takes the automobile driver about twenty minutes.) “Crossed the ferry, bought some bread and cheese, rode about four miles, then stopped by the roadside and ate. Gave the colt some oats and started again. Arrived at Joseph Perry’s in Phippsburg at 3:00 p.m., 12 miles from Bath. Talked with him about buying a vessel, but did not trade. Started for Bath at 4 p.m., got within three miles at sunset, when it started to rain. Called at a house and got permission to stay all night. Put the colt in the barn, got some supper, repaired a clock, and spent a pleasant evening.”<\/p>\n
The next day it rained all day long, so the diarist stayed another day with the family for whom he had repaired the clock. He says that besides his work on the clock. he paid his host $1.50 for two nights lodging and five meals.<\/p>\n
Our diarist was apparently determined to take a venture at sea. For on the next day he wrote: “Went back to Phippsburg and again tried to buy the schooner Martha Washington from Jesse Wallace. He would not sell. So I went to Dexter Wallace, who sold me a half share in another schooner, the Hope and Susan.”<\/p>\n
It was two weeks later when our diarist was able to go again to Phippsburg, where he found the Hope and Susan. He took over the vessel and agreed to buy the other half interest in her from the owner, Jonas Briggs of Bath. He sold his colt and wagon to Dexter Wallace for $150. He says he stayed all night on the schooner. Now let us take up events in his own words: “Nov. 3 – Set sail for Bristol at 8 a.m. Reefed mainsail off Squirrel Island. Arrived at mouth of Damariscotta River at noon, unbent the sails, and hauled alongside the wharf. Nov. 4 – Started for home in the schooner and arrived at 8 a.m. after two hours’ sail up the river.”<\/p>\n
Some of the seafaring men of Newcastle and Damariscotta made long voyages.<\/p>\n
The diary tells us: “As a Flagg got home last night. He has been gone a year and a half on a voyage to Sumatra, from there to Marseilles, to Sicily, and then to Philadelphia.”<\/p>\n
Spring was early in 1860: “March 18 – Frost coming out of the ground. Roads very bad. Robins and sparrows have come. Heard frogs last night. March 30 – Went to Daniel Montgomery’s to get his wife to make me a pair of trousers.”<\/p>\n
On June 1 two men selling lightning rods stayed overnight with the diarist. On Nov. 7, 1860 the diary tells us of an event of national significance: “Went to the bridge with Daniel Perkins. The houses were illuminated and a torchlight procession marched through the streets, cannons were fired, and there was general rejoicing because of the election to the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln of Illinois.”<\/p>\n
In the middle of the 19th century spiritualism was attracting much attention: “Went to the school house in Jonathan’s district in the evening. Heard a lecture by Mr. Hodges of Appleton, a spiritualist. He said the spirit who communicated with him from the next world was a Catholic bishop in Rome. Mr. Hodges is a powerful lecturer, but he hasn’t won me to his belief.”<\/p>\n
First mention of the Civil War was on Sept. 4, 1861, when the diary tells us: “Daniel Campbell came home a hero last night. All Damariscotta turned out to welcome this man, who commanded the fleet which captured the rebel forts at Hatteras Inlet in Carolina.”<\/p>\n
On October 14, 1861 the diarist attended the fair on the grounds where the County Fair Restaurant now stands, just east of Damariscotta Village. He wrote: “A large number of people there; five military companies on parade, coming from Bristol, Wiscasset, Boothbay, Jefferson and Whitefield.”<\/p>\n
The diarist’s father, obviously an experienced sailor, is first mentioned in the midst of the Civil War: “May 16, 1863 – Father started for Bristol to go aboard his ship, the Emerald Ann. He is bound for Alexandria with bricks and hay.”<\/p>\n
The only clue we have to the diarist’s name is on a note inserted between leaves of the diary. It may refer to either the writer of the diary or his father, and it may equally well refer to some third person. Dated March 3, 1863, the note says: “Z. Noward. Your vessel has gone adrift and you had better get over and take care of her as soon as possible. You had better go in the morning. Yours in haste, W.H. Plummer.”<\/p>\n
For six years, from May, 1863 to August, 1869, the diary is blank. Then the records start again. On Oct. 12, 1869,we learn, the writer went to the bridge with four chickens, weighing a total of 11 3\/4 pounds. He sold them to Jacobs, proprietor of the hotel in Damariscotta at 16 cents a pound. He then bought cloth for trousers at a dollar a yard. Concerning a new bridge between Newcastle and Damariscotta he says: “The new bridge is almost finished, but a part of it has to be built over again.”<\/p>\n
In August, 1872 the writer’s brother Edward came for a visit. He was, says the diary, “driver of a bread cart in Boston”.<\/p>\n
Politics was prominent that autumn: “Went to the bridge and heard political speeches by James G. Blaine of Augusta and John Bingham of Ohio, Republican speakers for Grant.”<\/p>\n
“Sept. 28, 1872 – Called at Margaret Gandy’s. Found Lawyer Hanson Lane there, taking photographs. He came from Waldoboro today in a covered carriage in which he has his dark closet and fixings. He plans to take some landscape views in various parts of Bristol. Brown, the Damariscotta photographer, is with him.”<\/p>\n
On March 1, 1873 the diarist entered a solemn note: “This has been a very disastrous winter for shipping, many vessels and lives lost.”<\/p>\n
“April 7, 1873 – Cleaned a clock and took dinner at old William Hunter’s. He is 95. Went next to Round Pond and took the road toward Bremen via Rock School House.”<\/p>\n
“June 24 – Tried out some seal oil for T.M. Cunningham. He killed two seals and chased another up a small brook at the foot of my field. We got eight gallons.”<\/p>\n
“July 26 – Mr. Heath mowed an hour for me. He is one of very few in Newcastle who has a mowing machine.”<\/p>\n
A few days later the diarist’s father died: “July 30 – At noon my dear father passed away after taking an appreciative farewell of us all and saying how much he loved us. July 31 – Father was buried today in the field of George Dodge. The Reverend Ober, Orthodox, made a prayer and said soothing words. There was also singing. Father was 83 years old.”<\/p>\n
Like all the other Maine diaries I have seen that cover earlier years, this one makes no mention of Christmas, but the 1870’s is a bit late for such omission. By that time Christmas parties were held by most of the Sunday schools. But the diary entry for December 25, 1873 reads simply: “Cloudy and calm all day, not very cold. Went to the bridge in the forenoon. Good sleighing. Home at 4 p.m.”<\/p>\n
The entry for June 8, 1874 gives us some information about the diarist’s time and place in the locality. He wrote: “It is now 17 years since Father, Mother and I moved to this house in the town of Newcastle on the west side of the Damariscotta River, on the road leading from the Damariscotta Bridge to Boothbay. Our house is three miles from the bridge. We bought it from Samuel Wilson. We moved here from a house one mile west of Pemaquid Falls in the town of Bristol, built by George Holden about 40 years ago.”<\/p>\n
In the spring of 1876 our diarist thought the town had been extravagant: “March 20 – Town meeting today. The town foolishly voted to raise $1,000 to buy a fire engine.”<\/p>\n
The last entry was made in March, 1877: “Stayed the night at Christmas Cove with Eliphalet Thorpe. Got a quintal of cod fish from him for $2.50. Carried his vessel’s clocks home with me to repair. I charged him $4.00 for that job; so he owes me $1.50. He calls me Squire.”<\/p>\n
So with that dignified exit from the old diary. we must say goodby until next week.<\/p>\n
NOTE<\/p>\n
Although my father did not know the name of the diarist whose record was the subject of this broadcast, I am reasonably sure that the man was Zaccheus Norwood. Zaccheus was born September 15, 1817, probably in Gloucester, MA, a son of Joseph and Clara Norwood. The family moved to Bristol, ME circa 1820 and, as the diary says, to Newcastle in 1857. Zaccheus married Helen Hanly of Bristol on September 16, 1864. He was apparently about 15 years older than his wife. The 1870 census lists all four of them (Joseph, Clara, Zaccheus and Helen) as one household in Newcastle. They lived on the River Road about (according to the diary) three miles south of Newcastle Village. Joseph was listed as age 80 in that 1870 census.<\/p>\n
It is interesting to note that the years when no entries were made in the diary (1863 to 1869) started one year prior to Zaccheus’ marriage and ended five years after his marriage.<\/p>\n
Finally the references to “the bridge” are, I believe, references to Newcastle Village. In the mid-nineteenth century the community was known as “Bridge Village” frequently referred to as “the bridge”.<\/p>\n
E. C. MARRINER, Jr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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