<\/p>\n
Many stories are told of an Indian woman who gained quite a reputation as an herb doctor in colonial Maine. The whites called her Holly Orcutt. My friend, Harold Hall, historian of Hebron Academy, has discovered that Molly was known as far away as Vermont. Perhaps this happened because many of our Maine Indians eventually settled on the St. Francis River, which approaches the St. Lawrence through that state. After their dispersal from Old Point at Norridgewock and their villages along the Saco, the Indians went most to the Chaudiere, but there their numbers became so great that the French Governor of Quebec ordered many of them to move west to the St. Francis.<\/p>\n
Several white families moved into Troy and Patton in 1799, and that winter a small party of Indians, of whom the chief was Captain Susap, joined the colonists, built their camp on the St. Francis River and wintered there. Those Indians were reported to be in extreme need, in danger of starvation. The white settlers had driven the moose from the Indian hunting grounds.. These Indian people were employed principally in making baskets, birch bark dishes and utensils, and other Indian crafts. They left in the spring and never returned.<\/p>\n
One of the Indians, a woman named Molly Orcutt, exercised her skill in a more dignified profession, and her introduction to the whites was rather curious. In the fall of 1799, one of the settlers brought in a barrel of whiskey and a half barrel each of gin and brandy. How many settlers there were we do not know, but they disposed of all that liquor in three days. It is recorded, however, that it was not all local consumption.<\/p>\n
Hearing of the arrival of so much booze, people came from miles around. It seems that a transient, designated in the record as a rowdy from abroad, , who said his name was Perkins, was one of the revelers. He became uproariously drunk, and picked a fight with a Patton man named Norris. Perkins knocked Norris into a blazing fire in the huge Dutch-back fireplace in the room. Norris’ clothes and hair were badly scorched, and one hand was severely burned. The flesh was torn off a large area, and it was feared that Norris would lose use of the hand.<\/p>\n
There was no doctor in the settlement, and no person in the whole valley knew what to do. Somebody thought of the Indian woman, Molly Orcutt, who was then some miles away near a lake. She was sent for and came quickly. She applied warm milk to the injured hand. The man was cured and Molly’s fame increased over all northern New England.<\/p>\n
That winter, only a short time after the brawl, dysentery broke out in the settlements, and was especially virulent among children. Molly’s services were again sought, and she again became an angel of mercy. But this time Molly would not reveal the nature or ingredients of her medicine. It was her secret and she kept it. She carried the concoction around in a coffee pot.<\/p>\n
The following March, Josiah Elkins and his wife were returning from a visit to another settlement when they met Molly at Arnold’s Mills in Derby. She was making her way through the forest to the Connecticut River, where she said her daughter was wife of a white man. Mr. Elkins found that Molly was scantily supplied with provisions for so long a journey, having nothing but a little bread. Elkins cut a generous slice of pork, five or six pounds, taken from a barrel he was toting home, and gave it to Molly. The Indian woman then said to Elkins: “You have been so good to me, I will tell you how I cured the folks last winter. I just boiled down the inside bark of spruce trees.”<\/p>\n
This is the Vermont story of Molly Orcutt, the Indian doctor woman. In Maine, she is remembered as having treated the sickly Paris Hill boy, Hannibal Hamlin, who turned into a man both healthy and able enough to become Abraham Lincoln’s vice-president.<\/p>\n
Because of its many sawmills, Fairfield Village, formerly called Kendall’s Mills, developed several industries that used lumber. One was the Maine Manufacturing Co., which in the 1880’s made clippers and French sleds for the children, screens for windows and doors, patent folding lapboards, folding camp chairs and lawn seats, children’s rocking chairs, and many other articles.<\/p>\n
The 1887 catalogue calls attention to five points of merit in those sleds: fine finish, great strength, beautiful decoration, convenient sizes for all ages, and elegant, graceful shapes. The catalogue said, “We employ only the best artists to decorate the tops, and we keep them at work the year round. We make positive claim that, in point of finish and beauty of design, our sleds are ahead of those of any other manufacturer in U.S. or Canada. We allow no one to undersell us.”<\/p>\n
This catalogue was intended for retail stores, so prices were in lots of one dozen. For their clipper sleds with hand holds, 31 inches long with straight runners, the company got $10 a dozen. For a better 45 inch sled with three cross-bars. the price was $13.50 a dozen. They called special attention to their newest sled, made of solid oak with heavy iron braces and’ steel runners. They called it the Yankee Coaster and sold it for $25 a dozen. What were called frame sleds, made for girls, could be had for as low as $7 a dozen, or as high as $12, according to quality.<\/p>\n
This Fairfield company made much of their lapboards. They said: “After a test of many years, our roll-up lapboards will hold their own and without question stand out ahead of all lapboards by any competitor. They will outlast any other board on the market. They have a fine polish, are very light weight, and can be quickly folded into a small package. $9.50 per dozen.”<\/p>\n
The company made folding tables, something like a modern card table. They announced this product as “nothing equal to it. $16 per dozen.”<\/p>\n
They boasted that their folding camp chairs had no hinges and weighed only five pounds. They called them ”handy, easily erected, very neat and comfortable; the best chair for lawns, piazzas, halls, churches, picnics and games.” The catalogue added: “When we made this chair and set its price at $9 per dozen, we thought we had accomplished something remarkable, and indeed we had. No one had made a better chair at that price.”<\/p>\n
The company’s rocker for children was called the Daisy. They described it: “Highly decorated by hand with rosebuds and other flowers; finished in natural wood. All dealers pronounce it the best selling children’s chair they have ever handled. As usual, others have stolen our design and are making cheap imitations. Look out for them! Our price, $11.50 a dozen.”<\/p>\n
A lot of space in the catalogue is given to the firm’s patented lawn settees. The text said: “Designed to use on lawns and piazzas, these settees are extensively used by hotels and watering places. We will quote special prices on large lots for halls or rinks. In small lots, $15 a dozen.”<\/p>\n
As to their screens, they were sliding, adjustable or solid frames, and all had iron corner brackets.<\/p>\n
And that is the story of a prosperous Fairfield factory in the 1880’s.<\/p>\n
When Colby College received its charter under the name Maine Literary and Theological Institution in 1813, it received a grant of a township in the unorganized territory of Massachusetts’ vast District of Maine. It was on the west side of the Penobscot River in what later became the small towns of Argyle and Alton, and consisted of about 30,000 acres. Nearly twenty years before that, Bowdoin College had received its charter, and being fostered by the prevailing Congregationalists, before the Revolution the established state church of Massachusetts, it got favored treatment. Now note how much better off than Colby was Bowdoin in respect to ownership of Maine lands. By 1830, Bowdoin has received seven separate grants totalling 144,000 acres. The tracts were located in Abbott, Etna, Foxcroft, Guilford, Sebec, Dixmont, and 46,000 acres in Somerset County. Colby did quite well over the years, especially selling timber rights on the tracts. How much better Bowdoin must have done with lands that proved even more attractive to settlers.<\/p>\n
Among papers in the Colby archives, there keep coming to light unusual documents. One such that has turned up recently is a letter addressed to the Trustees of Waterville College in 1881 by James H. Hanson, then the young principal of the academy that would later become Coburn Classical Institute. It was written in behalf of a man against whom the college held a financial claim. Mr. Hanson said: “You, as Trustees of the College, hold a note against D. B. Coffin as principal and Erastus Coffin his son as security. The amount is $150. A suit was long ago entered by your secretary against Erastus Coffin.<\/p>\n
“About this matter I beg leave to make a few statements, together with an affidavit from Erastus Coffin. I am a brother-in-law of Coffin and know well his circumstances, so I volunteer to undertake negotiations with you, in the hope thereby of being of service to both Coffin and the College.<\/p>\n
“Although he is involved by signing notes for his father to about $1,000, this was all done with no self-interest but only to help his father. It all happened about the time Erastus became of age, inexperienced in the ways of the world, and his father misrepresented to him the family assets.<\/p>\n
”Now Erastus is poor and unable to meet these demands. His wife is an invalid and much of the time unable to do household work. He finds it hard to support his three children.<\/p>\n
“Coffin is not unmindful of his obligation to the College, legal and moral, and he authorizes me to say that he will pay $50 to you provided he is discharged from the rest of the debt. That is all he can pay. Some of his other creditors have agreed to accept partial payment in full account. I am persuaded this is the best Coffin can do and all he ought to do. If this offer is refused, I fear the College will get nothing.”<\/p>\n
It would be interesting to know if the College accepted this offer of 33-1\/3 cents on the dollar for Coffin’s debt. On that point the records are silent.<\/p>\n
Year: 1975<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1068, Broadcast on December 14, 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\/9593"}],"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=9593"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14446,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9593\/revisions\/14446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}