\nA hundred years ago, there lived in Oakland a man who kept a diary from which I want to give you some extracts today. He was Charles Mitchell, who began his journal in the spring of 1873 just after the sheep-shearing on nearby farms. The Mitchells were in the wool business. The diary began with this entry on May 12, 1873: “I begin this journal at West Waterville. Loaded our wool into a car and am taking it to Boston to have it weighed, graded and left for sale.”<\/p>\n
May 17 – “Started for Boston on the 13th. Got to Portland at 2:30 p.m., and took the night boat for Boston. Arrived at 6:00 a.m. and went to see all my folks. In the afternoon I went to Barnum’s big show. Played whist and euchre. Retired at 2:00 a.m .”<\/p>\n
May 18 – “Returned home. The wool weighed 8,000 lbs.”<\/p>\n
By Sunday the 20th, Charles was back here in West Waterville. In the morning, he attended the Methodist Church where the guest preacher was a relative, Howard Mitchell, who Charles said “did very well.” In the evening he went to the Universalist to hear, as he puts it, “a Spiritualist woman lecture.”<\/p>\n
Charles was at the time a young man, unmarried, but he was interested in girls. June 20 – “Went to the village and called on Almeda at Mr. Leslie’s. She gave me a photograph. Went to the Town Farm and to Fred Mason’s for wool. We are paying 45 cents a pound.”<\/p>\n
June 29 – ”Went to Smithfield to get 2,600 lbs. of wool.” The Mitchells were also in the grain business. On July 19, Charles helped unload two cars of corn. He hauled 140 bushels to the mill. Meanwhile Charles’ father, with a crew of hired helpers, was cutting hay on the family farm. Charles later reported that the farm had cut and stored 60 tons of hay.<\/p>\n
In 1873, the edge tool factories were thriving in Oakland. Charles Mitchell recorded on July 28 that lightning had struck and destroyed the Hale and Stevens scythe factory. On August 18th, Charles was 31 years old.<\/p>\n
Charles’ girlfriend Almeda was called Matt. During the weeks of August and September the diary made frequent mention of her. ”Matt and I went to Waterville and Winslow.” ”Matt and I went to Belgrade.” ”Matt came here today. I have been able to be with her but little. I think her visit has been what she anticipated.”<\/p>\n
In those years after the Civil War, a lot of Maine people were heading for the West. On Sept. 8, 1873, Charles wrote: “Uncle Benjamin and John started for Minnesota today.”<\/p>\n
Early in October there was an attempted robbery. Charles recorded: “Our store was broken into last night and an effort made to break the safe open, but that failed. The rogues did break into the money drawer and got about a dollar in pennies.”<\/p>\n
Snow came early that year. Nov. 16 – “Blinding snowstorm. Some sleighs out. Had hulled corn and milk for dinner. Unloaded a car of flour.”<\/p>\n
There was a course of eight lectures in Oakland that winter. One was by Colby’s new professor of chemistry, William Elder, who spoke on “Water and its Elements.”<\/p>\n
At that time, it was common to show what was called panoramas, huge views of important scenes. March 6, Charles attended such a show at Memorial Hall in Oakland. It was called “Panorama of the Rebellion.”<\/p>\n
Charles says he spent Christmas Day in 1873 very quietly. It is interesting to note that he worked all day in the store, where he says trade was very quiet. For Christmas, Charles’ girl, Matt, gave him a pair of kid gloves.<\/p>\n
Early in the new year of 1874, Matt went with Charles when he took a shipment of wool to Boston. While Charles was getting $3,500 for the wool, Matt stayed at her cousin Belle’s.<\/p>\n
The sap run started early in 1874. Charles says on March 20 he bought three pounds of new maple sugar.<\/p>\n
On the Fourth of July, Charles went into Waterville to see the fireworks.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 20, Charles recorded a long account of family sorrow by death. “We have passed through deep affliction. My dear brother John died of typhoid fever on Sept. 8. He leaves a wife and two children. He had a fine funeral. There were 28 carriages in the procession to his grave. This is the first loss in our immediate family. Matt came to the funeral.”<\/p>\n
The Lockwood Mills opening in 1875 in Waterville caused a lot of interest in the west part of the town. Dec. 18 – “Took father’s team and drove to Waterville to see the new cotton factory. It is a big place indeed.”<\/p>\n
By 1875, Charles Mitchell was in sole charge of the grain and wool business in the Oakland store; then in the summer of 1876 he sold it.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 28, of that year he and Matt attended the Senior Prize Speaking of Colby College held in the Waterville Baptist Church, and a week later they heard Prof. Elder lecture on the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In February 1877, they heard a much more renowned orator, Wendell Phillips on “Labor, Temperance, and Women.”<\/p>\n
In June 1877, Charles Mitchell’s father was doing business with John Mathews, grandfather of the late Norman Mathews, long principal of Waterville High School. Mathews paid $13 a ton for 16 tons of Mitchell’s hay, and 45 cents a pound for 242 lbs. of wool.<\/p>\n
On that Fourth of July, Charles did not go into Waterville for fireworks or anything else. The reason was a big family reunion. He wrote: “Reunion of my paternal uncles and aunts at father’s house. They met for the first time in fifty years. There are eight brothers and sisters. The oldest 62 years, and no death yet has reduced their number.”<\/p>\n
At the end of July, Charles went to Squirrel Island as a guest. He reported: “The island is three miles south of Boothbay Harbor. There are 80 cottages, and it is fast becoming a popular resort.” While at the island, Charles went deep-sea fishing and was seasick all day.<\/p>\n
At last on Jan. 30, 1878, Charles and Almeda were married by Elder Russell in Sidney. They set up housekeeping and Charles began keeping an accurate account of household expenses. He gave the following list of expenditures for the year 1879: 2 bbls. flour, 110 lbs. sugar, 5 gal. molasses, 1 gal. maple syrup, 6 gal. kerosene oil, sundry small items. Total 14.00, 10.66, 2.65, 1.00, 1.12, 10.80, $40.23<\/p>\n
Apparently marriage put an end to the Mitchell diary. All the rest of the book is taken up with his cash accounts, for business as well as for household. By 1880, he had investments: 4 shares of Peoples Bank stock, personal notes of $900, money in both the Waterville Savings Bank and the West Waterville Bank, and a half interest in another store amounting to $2,200. He estimates his entire worth at $5,000.<\/p>\n
Range of prices in those days is revealed by Charles Mitchell’s lists of certain items in the early 1880’s: haircut 20 cents; cattle show admission 25 cents; pair of suspenders 30 cents; box of paper collars 25 cents; magnifying glass 35 cents; spruce gum 8 cents; taxes for 1879 $8.29.<\/p>\n
One year Charles paid 25 cents to hear a lecture by a man quite as famous as Wendell Phillips, but more humorous. Charles called the lecturer, Comical Brown. If that was one of the names for Charles Farrar Brown, better known as Artemus Ward. That humorist, whom Abraham Lincoln used to quote at Cabinet meetings, was born in Waterford, Maine, and can be claimed as truly a Maine product.<\/p>\n
Now let us take note of some of the money Charles took in. Labor on the road $1.00; fur pelts 35 cents; bank dividend $20; selling tickets for dance $1.00.<\/p>\n
Now for some unusual expense items: “Peristatic lozenges 25 cents; heel irons 10 cents; Atwood’s Bitters 35 cents; hop beer 10 cents; strapping razor 15 cents; catarrh remedy 50 cents; drawing teeth $1.00; spy glass 25 cents.<\/p>\n
Clothes were cheap. He paid $20 for a suit; $1.00 for a hat; $10 for an overcoat; $2.00 for work boots, and $4.00 for dress shoes. Once he hired a boat for a whole afternoon for 20 cents.<\/p>\n
So much for Charles Mitchell. Contemporary with his diary and accounts is the inventory of the estate of a man who died just 100 years ago in 1875. He was John Blaisdell of West Waterville, whose entire estate was inventoried.at $827.79 exclusive of real estate. Among his farm tools was a wagon, two plows, two harrows, a mowing machine, an ox cart, a carriage, two ox yokes, a single and a double harness, and small tools. His pocketbook contained a dollar in change.<\/p>\n
His real estate amounted to $2,944, making his total assets $3,771. Offsetting were certain debts and expense of settling the estate. When it was all accounted for the heirs got only $1,248.<\/p>\n
As we close, we turn to another subject, the valuable vital statistics collected by Miss Sarah Lang and now on file in the manuscript collection at the Waterville Public Library. Of interest to those concerned with Waterville history is her record of deaths in the Heath family. Solyman Heath, founder of the family in Waterville died on July 5, 1875, at the age of 70. His son William was killed at the Battle of Gaines Mill in the Civil War on June 27, 1862. Less than a year later there died in Waterville William’s son, William Frances Heath, age 18 months. In 1876, died Emily Redington Heath, the widow of Solyman. Francis E. Heath, who with his brother William had recruited Waterville’s first Company in the Civil War had lost his wife, Clara M. Heath, by death in 1865. She was only 23 years old. A year earlier they had lost their daughter Clara Frances Heath, by whooping cough, when she was only three months old. Maria Heath, William’s widow, survived him by only a year, dying on June 20, 1863. The years of the Civil War took heavy toll in the Heath family.<\/p>\n
Another well known Waterville family was the Boutelles. Timothy, the founder of the family here, noted lawyer, legislator, and financier, died in 1855 at the age of 77. His wife, Helen Rogers Boutelle survived him by 25 years, dying in 1880 at the age of 92. Even before Timothy’s death they had seen family losses. One son died in childbirth in 1814, another at age of 19 in 1835. A daughter passed away in 1844, and Timothy’s namesake son, Timothy, Jr. died in 1831. The Waterville lawyer was, however, survived by his physician son, Dr. Nathaniel Boutelle, whose granddaughter Katharine Boutelle of Winchester, Massachusetts is the only surviving member of this illustrious family.<\/p>\n
Year: 1975<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1064, Broadcast on November 9, 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\/9585"}],"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=9585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}