<\/p>\n
Today let us note a few more items from that reliable Waterville paper, the Mail. This time we select some of its accounts printed during the decade of the 1880’s.<\/p>\n
Persons informed about the early history of Colby College know that its first president was Jeremiah Chaplin, who came to start the first classes at the college in 1818. In a sloop bearing the name Hero, a replica of which now serves as the weather vane on the tower of Miller Library at Mayflower Hill, Chaplin brought his family from Salem to Augusta. There they transferred to a river craft known as a longboat, and, believe it or not, spent most of two days to come in that craft from Augusta to Waterville. An 1880, issue of the Mail informs us that the very longboat in which the Chaplin family came here was owned by Nehemiah Getchell, the man who, with his son-in-law Asa Redington, had built the Ticonic dam in 1792. His son, Walter Getchell piloted the boat on that 1818 trip.<\/p>\n
In 1881, the Mail printed an article of reminiscence by the Rev. John Chaplin, son of Colby’s first president. He wrote: “When I was six years old, word went out that ground would be cleared for a college building. The theological students, most of whom had followed my father to Waterville from Danvers, armed with axes, proceeded to the lot and attacked the white birch grove. With my little hatchet I cut down a tree, not a cherry like Washington, but a little pine.<\/p>\n
“I remember the first commencement, held in the meetinghouse. From miles around the people flocked to this new occasion. The village was crowded with strangers to see the wonder. There were stands for the sale of gingerbread, cider and beer. About 10 o’clock the college bell rang out its hilarious peal. The procession advanced down to the center of the village. The governor of the state, the marshall and his staff, the trustees, the President with his silk robe and official hat, the professors in their gowns, the graduating class, a duet composed of George Boardman and Ephraim Tripp, the rest of the students, and prominent citizens, all preceded by a military company and a band. It was magnificent!<\/p>\n
“When the procession reached the meetinghouse, it parted. The great, the noble and the wise entered first. Then, as the rear of the procession reached the door, there was a fearful struggle, the assembled crowd all trying to get in at once. The exercises had scarcely begun when the torrent that had flowed into the house turned the other way. Out came many of the crowd without waiting for the program. They had seen the elephant and were satisfied.”<\/p>\n
Chaplin’s account continued. “In my college days we were roused by the bell at 4 a.m. With a coat hastily thrown over disheveled raiment, often unkempt and unwashed, we hurried to the chapel for morning prayers. There we sat disconsolately shivering with the cold. It was a mockery of worship.<\/p>\n
“From the chapel we filed off to classes, where we were kept until breakfast time. Piety and learning had a hard time under such circumstances, but professors and students alike shared the misery.”<\/p>\n
In 1882, the Mail published a letter from George Clark, then living in Minnesota, telling how he used to catch trout in Hayden Brook and shoot rabbits in the woods where the college later stood. He attended school in Lemuel Dunbar’s carpenter shop and had George Dana Boardman, the first graduate of the college, as teacher. Clark recalled an Indian scare that occurred in 1814. Rumor was spread that Indians planned a raid from Canada. The women and children were hurriedly gathered into the few houses most easily defended, and five men went out as scouts. James Stackpole ferried them across the Kennebec to the Winslow side. About two miles east they came across the supposed Indians, only to learn that they were refugees from the abortive attack on the Penobscot during the War of 1812. After three ships had been sunk in that river, the crews had made their way westward as best they could. The group that caused the Indian scare were in fact seeking haven at Fort Halifax.<\/p>\n
It has long been known that, because of power sites on the Messalonskee, Waterville grew much faster than Winslow, but many people do not realize how early that development came.<\/p>\n
The separation setting Waterville apart from its mother town came in 1802. Eight years later was taken the third U.S. census. That compilation showed that in 1810 Waterville already had twice as many people as Winslow, 1,314 compared with 658.<\/p>\n
In 1882, the Mail published an interview with an aged resident, Theodore Crommett, operator of the mills on the Messalonskee where a century earlier John McKechnie had built Waterville’s first mill. Mr. Crommett said that, before he could remember, the old burying ground near that mill had been abandoned and the new one on Elm Street had been opened. But Mr. Crommett said he had understood that about fifty of Waterville’s early settlers were buried there, including John McKechnie, Simeon Tozier, and Abraham Morrill. Crommett said in his boyhood the Messalonskee was not called Emerson Stream, but Mile-and-a-Half Brook, probably so named because that was the distance to its mouth below Ticonic Falls. In olden days, lumber cut in Belgrade, Rome and adjoining towns was hauled to the Belgrade Lakes, then rafted over the lakes and run down the Messalonskee to the mills. After it was sawed, the lumber was hauled to what was called the Boat Landing on the bank of the Kennebec near the foot of Sherwin Street, from where it was rafted to tide water, and sometimes beyond, all the way to Bath.<\/p>\n
In 1885, the Mail reported that fire had destroyed the bridge across the Messalonskee at Crommett’s Mills, and had also burned other property worth more than $25,000, and had thrown 50 men out of work by consuming a grist mill and a sash and blind factory.<\/p>\n
In 1884, the Mail commented on building projects in Waterville. On Silver Street, W.B. Arnold had built on the old Stackpole lot, and nearby houses were going up for Mark Gallert, E. J. Nye and Cyrus Davis. West of Pleasant Street, Nudd Field, long a pasture and circus ground, had just been surveyed into house lots. Nearly ready was the home of Albion Woodbury Small on Morrill Avenue.<\/p>\n
An item in the Mail in 1885 referred to the pioneer Clarke family. John Clarke, builder of the Waterville ship Ticonic, had been born in London in 1741 and had come to Boston in 1773, where soon after arrival he was a member of the Boston Tea Party. He left Boston when it was occupied by a British garrison.<\/p>\n
His son, George Clarke built the house on College Avenue later acquired by Colby College as its first dormitory for girls, and still later occupied by the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. It stood next to the President’s House and was torn down when an A & P store was built there. Now the President’s House, the A & P store, and the old Clarke house have all gone to make way for the new post office.<\/p>\n
The Mail said that John Clarke had come to Waterville in 1792, but had left in 1808, while his son George remained. One of John’s daughters married Waterville’s first full-time physicians Moses Appleton.<\/p>\n
John Clarke’s ship Ticonic was so large that scoffers said it would never reach the ocean, but Clarke buoyed it up by means of empty hogsheads, and in the spring got it safely down to Hallowell where it was stepped and made ready for sea.<\/p>\n
In one issue, the Mail told how Waterville got the land on which is now the City Hall and the park between it and Common Street. In 1796 Obadiah Williams, who had obtained from the Kennebec Proprietors the big McKechnie surveyed lot 104, deeded part of that lot as a gift to the town, an area of 144 square rods, with the stipulation that on it should be built a meetinghouse, a school, and any other necessary public building, such as a courthouse, if one was ever needed. He was prompted to do this because of plans for a meetinghouse on this side of the river to match the one on Lithgow Street near Fort Halifax on the east side. Bear in mind that in 1796, both sides were in the town of Winslow. Not until six years later would Waterville become a separate town. Williams was so skeptical about the meetinghouse actually going up that he stipulated: “If a meetinghouse for public worship is not built and occupied on this lot during the next four years, the property shall revert to my estate.”<\/p>\n
Another interesting article in the Mail concerned what was called Fort Halifax Farm. After acquiring the Kennebec Purchase in 1749, the Kennebec Proprietors set aside 400 acres at the junction of the Kennebec and Sebasticook as a proprietary reservation. In 1770, they deeded to Sylvester Gardiner those 400 acres, reserving only for the use of the Province of Mass. Bay the ten acres immediately adjoining Fort Halifax, in case it should ever be used again as a fort for public defense. When Sylvester Gardiner died, five of his heirs divided this land, each taking 80 acres. Fifteen lots, called the Little Lots, were laid out on this point, three lots for each heir.<\/p>\n
In 1887, the Mail paid tribute to one of Waterville’s most vigorous early promoters, Timothy Boutelle. Born in Leominster, Mass. in 1777, right in the midst of the Revolution, Boutelle had been reared on a farm. When he came to Waterville to set up the practice of law, he at once acquired a farm, which he continued to operate until his death in 1856. Active in persuading the trustees of the newly chartered Maine Literary and Theological Institution to locate in Waterville, he personally welcomed Jeremiah Chaplin, the institution’s first head, when he arrived by longboat at the town wharf off Water Street. He served in both branches of the Maine Legislature after 1820 and was President of the Senate. He was largely responsible for the building of the Androscoggin and Kennebec RR to Waterville in 1849 and was the road’s first president. He secured the charter of the Waterville Bank in 1814, and served as its President for twenty years. Alone, or in partnership with Nathaniel Gilman, he acquired thousands of acres of land, much of it rich in timber. He built and occupied Waterville’s first business block, the Phoenix Block on Main Street near Temple. Many articles from the Boutelle home, including portraits, are now on display at the Redington Museum.<\/p>\n
Year: 1975<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1063, Broadcast on November 2, 1975<\/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":[42942,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9582"}],"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=9582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}