\nBuford Grant, recently retired after many years as Waterville’s Superintendent of Schools, has kindly let me examine interesting papers that concern his prominent ancestor, Samuel Stone of Brewer. Stone’s father also named Samuel, died without a will in 1827, and one of the old papers concerns the transfer of certain real property by the administrator to the deceased’s widow. The administrator was apparently faced with a complicated situation, and it is interesting to note how he solved it. It seems that Stone left debts of some $15,000. So, for $351 paid by the widow, the administrator, one John Williams, sold her some of her husband’s property. One was a piece of land on the county road near the millpond, with the buildings on that land, and another piece nearby that included a well that Stone had dug. That second piece had once actually belonged to the widow herself, because the document says, lithe last described land being the same premises which were set off as dower to said Widow Hannah Stone.”<\/p>\n
The .<!y Widow \u00b7~t~e got the property for $351 although her husband’s debts were $15,000 is even more interesting. Williams put into the document this explanation: “I do covenant with the said Hannah Stone that I was duly licensed by the Court of Probate of the County of Penobscot to make sale of the premises, that it was necessary the same should be sold to pay the deceased’s debts, that previous to the intended sale I gave public notice of said sale according to law, and that the said Hannah Stone offered more for the premises, and the same were struck off to her at public auction held at the house of Thomas Treadwell, innholder, on May 7, 1827.”<\/p>\n
In 1843 the younger Stone got a very short, but definite dunning letter. It said, “I find on my books an unsettled account with you. I wish, as soon as is convenient, you would call and adjust the same. John Godfrey.”<\/p>\n
Among Stone’s papers is the only receipt I ever saw for a popular magazine of 130 years ago. Most of my listeners have heard of Godey’s Lady’s Book, first of America’s fashion magazines, which carried also stories of high moral tone, and articles on etiquette and other topics of the time. This old receipt says: “Bangor, April 3, 1839, Received of George Stone of Brewer $3.00 in advance for the Lady’s Book for the year 1839. E.F ”<\/p>\n
In May, 1839, an Orono man, John McDonald, wrote in great concern about a new road. Let us take a look at that letter. It began: “I am surprised at some of the statements set forth in objection to the opening of the road laid out by the County Commissioners last summer, particularly the statement that much of it runs over beds of rocks. From the Bucksport line for a short distance the land is certainly very stony, but I believe has no fast rocks. With that exception, the whole route is exceptionally free from rocks. It is also uncommonly level and suitable for a road. As to the expediency or necessity of making the road at all I say nothing because I am not acquainted with the country south of Brewer. As to the expense, I do not know what timber must be cut across the meadow to clear for the road there, but I will hazard a guarantee to build as good a road as there is now in the county for about $700 a mile, including the marsh and the two bridges. The whole distance through your town is about 5 miles. From the turn this side of your house to the Brewer line is 4 miles nearly, and 4 to Brewer Village.”<\/p>\n
One of the letters in that Stone collection came from Waterville, when on September 1, 1840, Alonzo King wrote Stone as follows: “I have talked with my brother about going to Brewer this fall and winter to cut and haul the remaining part of my wood. What is the lowest price it can be cut and hauled per cord? What will be the cost of boarding the cutters in your village? What will hay for oxen cost me? Do you advise cutting it all this winter? Should I send men from the Kennebec whom I know or have them employed nearer the wood? What is the usual time to sell wood on the wharf at Brevler? Have Goodwin and Crawford disposed of their wood yet? When I was last on the lot, I found many things not to my understanding of the contract. Soft wood was left standing as well as some large hardwood trees. Wood had been cut and left scattered over the lot. Trees had been left without limbing properly. I think the wood should be measured as soon as it is placed on the wharf, and if any is left on the land, that should also be measured, for it is certainly easier to pilfer wood after it is cut. If you have collected anything more than sufficient to satisfy your claim and the taxes, you may send it over to me. If I send men from here, should they board in the village or camp on the land. Yours, Alonzo King.”<\/p>\n
Now that letter is an excellent example of the way a lumber operator prepared for a winter’s operation 130 years ago.<\/p>\n
Now let us turn to something that was of concern in Waterville in 1835. It is a report made that year by the Superintendent of School Committee of Waterville, and significantly its chairman, Samuel Francis Smith, famous as the author of the hymn AMERICA, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” At that time, Smith was pastor of the local.Baptist Church, and his colleague on the school committee was the Universalist pastor, Calvin Gardner. As was then the common practice, schools in summer were taught by women, in winter by men. That was because the older and more obstreperous boys were busy on the farms in summer, and attended school only in winter. Several of these women teachers represented such prominent Waterville families as Dunbar, Smith, Tozier, Matthews, Coombs and Crowell. Bates and Marston were among the family names of the men teachers.<\/p>\n
There were then two school houses in the business part of Waterville known as Ticonic Village. The oldest was situated on the Common near the site of the present City Hall. The other was the newer brick schoolhouse that stood at College Avenue where the American Legion Building is now located: There were then 17 school districts in Waterville, with the two schoolhouses in Ticonic Village both being in District 1. Each of the other districts was designated by number, but they also had popular names given because of the schoolhouse’s proximity to some farm. Hence scattered about town were school districts called Webb, Marston, Penney, Holmes, Richardson, and Coombs. The district at Ten Lots (then a part of Waterville) was called Union.<\/p>\n
The committee decided the variety of textbooks, especially when more than one geography or more than one arithmetic was used in the same school. Of course, it was late in the 19th century before Maine passed a free textbook law, and in 1835 parents had to furnish their children with books. But neither law nor custom decreed that it had to be any particular text for any subject. So the committee found four different grammars in one school, seven arithmetics in another, and eight geographies in a third. They commented; “In four cases, a single scholar has an arithmetic different from the rest and has to constitute a class by himself.”<\/p>\n
Listen now to what the committee said about discipline. Whenever cases of discipline have come to our attention, we have endeavored to make things satisfactory to parents. There is sometimes fault on the part of teacher, but more often the children have deserved punishment and it does not help good discipline to have parents side with children against the teacher.”<\/p>\n
I recently saw a form used in applying for fire insurance in 1840. Fire insurance in Maine was then quite new, and usually issued by mutual companies made up of local citizens. This particular form was used by the Penobscot Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Bangor. The applicant had to state separately the estimated value of house, exclusive of cellar, value of barn, shed or other unattached buildings, give the dimensions of house, porch and shed, and the distance between buildings, and the estimated value of each. Other questions asked were: How many fireplaces? How many stoves? In what are ashes kept? Is there a scuttle? What are the facilities for water in case of fire? Is there any mortgage on the property?<\/p>\n
Appended was the statement: “Applicant will take notice that our policy will not issue for more than 3\/4 the value of the real estate. Policy is issued for a term of six years. No policy issued for less than $200. If cash is not paid for premium, satisfactory security must be given for any note. The expense of examining to issue a policy must be paid by the applicant.”<\/p>\n
Now for an item about Colby College. A mixup about a Colby degree occurred about 75 years ago. One of the few Colby men who achieved the rank of General in the U. S. Army was Henry Clay Merriam. He left college in his sophomore year to captain a company in Joshua Chamberlain’s famous 20th Maine. During the war he rose to the rank of Colonel, commanding a regiment in the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. After the war, Merriam received his Colby A.B. degree as of the Class of 1864. He was one of a few Maine officers to continue in the regular Army and by 1890, he had become a Brigadier General. In 1898 he was made a Major General just as the Spanish War broke out.<\/p>\n
In the Colby archives is a letter written by J. William Black, who when I was in college ten years later was still professor of history and secretary of the Colby chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. The letter was written on August 13, 1900, from Baltimore, where Black was doing summer work at Johns Hopkins University. It was addressed to General Merriam at Headquarters of the Department of Colorado in Denver. The letter said: “Yours of August 5 received. It is my impression that two years ago in June (that would have been 1898) the Colby trustees conferred upon you the degree of LL.D., although it would seem you could not have been notified of the honor, doubtless through unintentional oversight. I have forwarded your letter to President Butler at Waterville, who will know in conference with the Registrar, Prof. Hall, and the Secretary of the Board, about this matter. You will doubtless hear from Pres. Butler or Prof. Hall in a few days. When the Colby list was prepared last fall for the Phi Beta Kappa National directory, I turned it over to Prof. Hall for final revision. If my recollection serves me, he appended the LL. D. after your name. I am quite sure this is right, and certainly the honor has been worthily bestowed, though of course you should have known about it earlier.”<\/p>\n
There is no record of what went wrong, but there is a clear record of when Gen. Merriam finally got his honorary LL.D. from Colby. It was at the Commencement in 1908, eight years after Prof. Black wrote him the apologetic letter.<\/p>\n
And with that reference to a blooper some official made at Colby a long, long time ago, we must say goodbye until next week.<\/p>\n
Year: 1972<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #944, Broadcast on October 22, 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\/9284"}],"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=9284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}