\nLast week I told you about a few of the old handwritten documents preserved in the Martin Young home in Benton. Today I want to tell you about more of them.<\/p>\n
One of those old papers is the inventory of the estate of George Longley of Sidney in 1843. In those days in the first half of the 19th century such an inventory went into minute detail and this one is no exception. Besides horses, oxen,cattle, sheep and all the gear that went with them, this list includes a cradle, six tubs, a churn, a looking glass, a stock (the old fashioned necktie) and the usual household furniture. An unusual part of the document is its separate list of items owned by George Longley in partnership with James Longley. On that list were 6 cheese presses, 40 lb. scrap iron, one firkin, an old harness, and the rights to make and sell Hale’s cheese press.<\/p>\n
When I told you about old Clinton Academy last week, I forgot to mention that students were often permitted to attend part of a term and were charged pro rata. This is shown by a bill from the Academy to James Clifford in November, 1854. It reads: “For tuition of Margaret 9\/11 of a term $4.09; tuition of Anne, 8 weeks $2.85; tuition of John, 5 weeks $ .75, Total $7.39.” Those tuitions were not all at the same rate. Since Margaret took the classical course, hers was the highest at $4.00 a term.<\/p>\n
Another of the old papers concerns the schools of Sidney in 1843. It is a letter addressed by the town school committee to Henry Rowe as it proper to address a letter to each school agent in town, requesting his cooperation in their attempts to raise the general standing of the common schools. That the condition of our schools may be greatly improved, the combined efforts of the school agents and the committee is necessary without doubt. That the education of our children is an object of the first moment, as they will soon be the principal actors on the stage of life, no one can question. The first step we can take together is to infuse into our schools a spirit of competition. We have 19 school districts in Sidney, which may be compared to 19 men setting out on a race, with prizes enough for all, but of different value. Each receives a prize according to the rapidity of his advance. Will not each exert himself to win the highest premium? It is the duty of the agent to notify this committee of the commencement and duration of the school in his district. At the end of the year, the committee should be able to make such report as will waken the citizens to a due sense of the importance of constant and persevering effort in the encouragement of our common schools.”<\/p>\n
The place where the Martin Youngs now live in Benton was long known as the Clifford place. To that house, about 1850 John Clifford moved from Sidney. On July 3, 1843, when he was still a Sidney resident, Clifford wrote a letter to two of his daughters who were at the Kents Hill school in Readfield. Clifford begins the letter: “I have been in Augusta earlier today, and I should have seen you if I had not received Margaret’s letter of June 29 telling me of your good health. I am glad to hear it, because we have felt anxious about Delia’s health since she left home. Your grandma has gone to Massachusetts; so she will not go to Readfield next Saturday. I will come as soon as I can conveniently. Louisa Grover is dead, buried one week ago. Helen Frost was buried yesterday. These are sudden and grievous afflictions. Albert and William are well and are at play out doors making a noise like blackbirds. Be good girls, learn all you can. Learn by thinking, reasoning, comparing and remembering. Emeline Abbott is helping your mother with the housework. Cousin Charles Longley will carry this to you and tell you many things, so I will not write more at this time. P. S. Remember us to Cousin Isadore and the rest of the family.”<\/p>\n
Preserved also by the Youngs are a number of newspapers more than 100 years old. One is the Kennebec Journal for January 7, 1841. It devotes much space to the federal census of 1840, the final returns for which had just come in, revealing the population figures for several Maine communities. Hallowell, instead of being one of Maine’s smallest cities, as it had become in 1970, then had 4700 people, making it the second largest place in Kennebec County, exceeded only by Augusta, which then had 5300. Portland, Maine’s largest municipality, then numbered 15,000 people. Waterville had not quite reached 3,000, its 1840 census figure being 2939. Winslow then had only 1700 inhabitants, and was smaller than Sidney, where there were 2200. Vassalboro was then just a bit larger than Waterville, having a population of 2951. The town of China was then larger than Fairfield, 2675 to 2198.<\/p>\n
In 1840, Aroostook County was largely unsettled territory. Most of its towns were scarcely more than ten years old. The now thriving cities of Caribou and Presque Isle had not even been incorporated in 1840, and the census shows no such towns as Limestone, Washburn, Fort Kent and Mars Hill. The largest town in Aroostook was then Madawaska with 1876 people, second was Houlton with 1597. Hodgdon had 665 but no other town in the whole county had as many as 500. Linneus had 311, Smyrna 184, and New Limerick 123. Fort Fairfield was then a township with only 26 people.<\/p>\n
In 1840 Maine had only 13 counties instead of the present 16. Largest in population was Cumberland, as it has always been. But at that time Lincoln County, covering a much greater area than it does today, had nearly as many people as Cumberland. Third in population was Kennebec, with about 1000 more people than the county of York. The largest county in area, but smallest in population, was Aroostook, with only 9~,00 people. The three present counties that had not been organized in 1840 are Androscoggin, Franklin, and Knox.<\/p>\n
The entire first page of that 1841 issue of the Kennebec Journal was devoted to the still unsettled boundary dispute between Maine and Canada, despite the fact that the bloodless Aroostook War had ended nearly two years earlier. I have frequently referred to that war on this program, and have told its story in my book Remembered Maine, in a chapter entitled “Fairfield’s Farce”. In fact, John Fairfield became so unpopular as a result of his drafting troops to march into Aroostook, that in the 1840 state election he was ousted as governor in favor of the Whig candidate, Kent, giving rise to the slogan in the later national campaign, “Maine went, hell bent, for Gov. Kent.”<\/p>\n
That issue of the Journal contains Gov. Kent’s inaugural address. On shipping he said, “Maine ranks first in the nation in amount of tonnage built yearly, and accounts for one fourth of all built in the U.S.”<\/p>\n
Concerning the long ragine boundary dispute Kent said: “I regret that I cannot congratulate you on the final settlement of the Northeast Boundary. Our claim to the whole territory is perfect and unassailable, and the Treaty of 1788, fairly interpreted and honestly executed, would sustain our claim. The promptness and energy with which the government and the people of Maine have resisted the threat to expel us from the Aroostook must have convinced the federal government that we will not shrink from defending our territory. We must now depend upon the good faith of the federal government to bring this matter to a final determination. Meanwhile, it is our duty to keep our eyes on the starting point of the treaty, and not suffer ourselves to be drawn aside as to which source of the St. Croix is the true point, or whether antideluvian mountains, now gone, once existed. The national government owes it to Maine to settle this matter properly and fairly.”<\/p>\n
Considering the large sums of money that pass through our state treasury today, it is interesting to note the State Treasurer’s report for fiscal 1840. Total receipts had been $1,388,000 and total expenditures $1,258,000, leaving a comfortable surplus of $130,000. In 1840, Maine had a federal debt of $1,600,000.<\/p>\n
In the 1850’s divorces, then comparatively rare, were not granted by the courts, but by the legislature. In January, 1855, the Kennebec Journal recorded that Senator Hichborn presented the petition of divorce of A. O. Ames from Mary B. Ames. The Senator urged that this was a peculiar case that should be referred at once to the joint committee on divorce. It would be interesting to know what was peculiar about it, but on that point the newspaper was silent.<\/p>\n
Some committees of the 1855 legislature that have since become obsolete were those on Mercantile Affairs and Insurance, on Division of Counties, on Interior Waters, on Naturalization, and on Military Pensions.<\/p>\n
As usual I find some of the ads in that 1855 issue of the Journal especially interesting. “Wanted, a tidy, good girl, about 15 years old, to assist in doing the housework in a small family. A girl from the country would be preferred.” “Levy Faye would inform his friends and the public that he has refitted his oyster saloon in the best manner, and has opened a ladies’ saloon upstairs. Oysters of the best quality served in any style desired on short notice.” “New winter goods. Pratt and Bartlett would inform the ladies that they have opened a splendid assortment of goods from the latest importations, including an elegant assortment of silks, cashmere prints, long and square shawls, bleached and unbleached cottons, and a large variety of hosiery. Also the most complete list of housekeeping goods ever offered on the Kennebec.” “Silver door plates. William Harlow, agent ro:- I’:hiple IS pure silver door plates and numbers for hotels, d,,;qelling houses, offices, church pews, and staterooms on steamers.” “J. K. Kilborn would inform the public that, notwithstanding the high price for provisions, he continues to provide board for $3.50 per week at his old stand a few rods from the Mansion House in Augusta.”<\/p>\n
Year: 1972<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #916, Broadcast on January 16, 1972<\/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":[42945,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9215"}],"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=9215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}