<\/p>\n
The anti-slavery movement that culminated in the Civil War got an early start in Waterville. About the same time when William Lloyd Garrison led the movement in Boston, an anti-slavery society was started in Waterville. In March, 1834, a notice was posted on the doors of the two Waterville churches – the community meetinghouse on the common and the Baptist Church on Elm Street. That notice said: “A meeting of diverse citizens of Waterville will be held on March 31 in the brick schoolhouse to consider the distressed situation of slaves in the U.S., and the propriety of organizing an anti-slavery society.”<\/p>\n
At this meeting a society was formed and this resolution was adopted: “We deem it expedient to form an Anti-Slavery Society auxiliary to the American Anti-Slavery Society. Elected a committee to draft constitution and by-laws were Eliphalet Cow, Angil Eames and Cola Lerow.”<\/p>\n
On the next day, April 1, the group met again and elected as officers Eliphalet Cow, President, Enos Foster, Vice-President H. W. Day, Recording Secretary, Cola Lerow, Corresponding Secretary, and John Hill, Treasurer. A committee was appointed to collect facts and statements illustrative of the society’s principles.<\/p>\n
The preamble of the Society’s constitution began with a quotation from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident – that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”<\/p>\n
Then followed this emphatic statement: “Therefore we hold that man cannot, consistently with reason, religion and the immutable principles of truth and justice, hold property in man. We hold that the anomalous connection at present existing between the master and the slave is upheld by violence and blood, and that it ought immediately to cease.”<\/p>\n
The Society’s purpose was set forth in these words: “The object shall be to endeavor, by all means sanctioned by law , humanity and religion, to effect the abolition of slavery in U.S. The Society shall also aim to elevate the Character of free colored people by encouraging their moral, intellectual and religious improvements by endeavoring to correct the prejudices of public opinion, and to obtain for our colored citizens an equality with the whites in civil and political privileges, but it is not the object of this Society to countenance physical force in vindication of these rights.”<\/p>\n
Meetings were set for the last Monday evening of each month. During the short life of the Society – about five years – 152 persons signed the Constitution as members. Among them were some well known names in Waterville history. Calvin Newton was a professor at Waterville College, where only a year before this society was founded, the President Jeremiah Chaplin had resigned. With him was a recent graduate who headed the Waterville Academy, Henry Paine, who became a widely respected schoolmaster. There was Peter Heywood, whose father had made saddles on Silver Street before the dawn of the 19th century. Another became a business leader in the community, and one of the original officers of the first railroad to reach Waterville. He was Josiah Morrill. Another member was Dr. Stephen Thayer, the physician who headed the group of doctors who performed the autopsy on the body of Edward Mathews murdered in 1847 by Dr. Valorous Coolidge. Still another was Ivory Clarke, member of the family that had built the town’s largest shipyard.<\/p>\n
On April 8 Dr: Ezekiel Holmes addressed the Society. Holmes has often been called the Father of Maine Agriculture, editing the state’s first farm journal. Incidentally he came to Waterville once a week from his home in Winthrop to give the first lectures in chemistry ever heard at Colby College.<\/p>\n
At the meeting another resolution was passed, probably caused by accusations that the local societies in New England towns were dominated by the fiery Lloyd Garrison of Boston. The resolution said: “This Society does not support the character or opinion of any individual, but only signifies belief in the principles of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Our object is the immediate emancipation of the whole colored race in U.S., the freeing of slaves from the oppression of masters, the exemption of colored men from the oppression of public sentiment, and their elevation to an intellectual. moral and political equality with the whites. We hold that it is the duty of every friend of abolition to speak with kindness and prudence of the views of colonizers and others who oppose our manner of dealing with the issue, while we maintain firmly and fearlessly our own views.”<\/p>\n
At the next meeting the Society voted to enter into correspondence with other anti-slavery societies in Kennebec County for the purpose of holding a convention to form a county society. By July, 1834, plan for a state society were well underway, and the Waterville group voted to join it. In 1835 Thomas Adams was elected President of the Waterville Society. He was then in Waterville as minister of the Congregational Church, which he had founded in 1828 after starting an earlier church at Getchell’s Corner in Vassalboro. Among delegates chosen to the Anti-Slavery State Convention in Portland were Josiah Morrill, Calvin Newton and Henry Paine.<\/p>\n
In that same spring of 1835, Thomas Adams was the Society’s delegate to the annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York. The local society also voted to petition the U.S. Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. When he returned from New York, Thomas Adams delivered a heated anti-slavery lecture in the Baptist Meetinghouse.<\/p>\n
After the local society had existed for about 18 months it passed these resolutions in October, 1835:<\/p>\n
(1) “We have complete confidence in the principles of the American Anti-Slavery Society – principles sanctioned by reason, by the constitution of our government, and by the word of God, and it is only in their adoption that we can hope for the salvation of our country from the dangers now impending.”<\/p>\n
(2) “In our measures opposing slavery we are governed by feelings of true kindness toward both master and slave. Gentleness and charity shall ever characterize us while we persevere in relentless activity by all lawful and honorable means to convince the slaveholders that slavery is a flagrant violation of the rights of man and a crying sin against God.”<\/p>\n
Needing money to promote its cause, in 1836 the Society levied an assessment of 12-1\/2 cents on each member. The record ends with the meeting of March 28, 1838, when Dr. Stephen Thayer was chosen president.<\/p>\n
This account is based on the old record book of the Anti-Slavery Society preserved among the local historical treasures at the Redington Museum.<\/p>\n
Now for another subject. Throughout the nineteenth century publishers of weekly newspapers could not make a living with their newspaper alone. All of them did job printing as well. That was true of the Waterville Mail. One of the many items in the library of the Waterville Historical Society is an account book from the firm of Maxham and Wing, publishers of the Waterville Mail. Mixed together in the single record from 1851 to 1857, are items that concern both the newspaper and the job printing.<\/p>\n
Preceding the daily record of accounts, the old book contains a statement of how the business was started. When, in 1847, Ephraim Maxham bought the press and types that had been used by C. F. Hathaway for his earlier paper, the Union, he formed a company of shareholders to finance the deal. “A total of 38 persons bought 47 1\/2 shares. The remaining 52 1\/2 of the total 100 shares were held by Maxham. The shares cost $10 each. So, aside from his own money, Maxham raised only $475 from outsiders, His largest stockholder was Timothy Boutelle with 7 shares. Jediah Morrill held 3, Edwin Noy~s 2, and James West 1 1\/2. The other 34 shareholders had only one share each. Among those others were such prominent citizens as James T. Champlin, President of the College; James Stackpole, Jr., son of the town’s first merchant; Dr. Nathaniel Boutelle, son of the wealthy Timothy; and Samuel Appleton, son of Dr. Moses Appleton, our first full-time physician. It is also interesting to note that one shareholder was Waterville’s first murderer, Dr Coolidge.<\/p>\n
The book also tells us that in 1849, Maxham made a contract with a young apprentice, one of those boys who were called printer’s devils. The paper said: “Edward is to complete a column and a half each day and correct his own matter to keep the paper with the nine columns marked and preserve the proof sheets. He is to bring water to wet the paper, and one pitcher a day to drink. He must set type on Monday till the paper is cut, and if he sets more on that day than 1′ 1\/2 columns, it is to be deducted from his Tuesday’s work. John is to direct all the copy and to give Edward the poetry when it will not discommode. If Edward fulfills all this, I am to give him a first rate little puppy.”<\/p>\n
The next year Maxham formed a partnership with Daniel Wing, and those two men continued to publish the Mail until Maxham’s death, when Wing took over as the sole proprietor.<\/p>\n
By 1850 subscribers were owing the company many months of arrears and Maxham decided on means to collect. He employed E. B. Simonton to make collections in Kendalls Mills, Pishon’s Ferry, Fairfield Center and North Fairfield, and he hired other collectors in several Kennebec and Somerset towns. One man in Albion owed $4; one in Vienna $3.50, and one in Augusta who owed $1.12 refused to pay.<\/p>\n
Now for a few items of the job printing, if only to show how cheap it was in those days 125 years ago. 75 Time Tables for A and K RR; Invitation to ball in China 150 Programs for Glee Club Blanks for Waterville Bank, 300 Town Orders, 200 Handbills for Greenhouse Plants Sea Is for College Diplomas, 1000 Billheads for Samuel Appleton, Baggage Checks for RR, 200 Marriage Certificates, 450 Catalogues Waterville Academy, 150 Catalogues Waterville Liberal Institute, Bills of Fare for Williams House, 2000 Checks for Ticonic Bank – $ 2.75, 2.25, 1.25, 1. 75, 3.00, 2.00, 1.00, 3.00, 5.00, 2.00, 30.00, 5.00, 1.75, 10.00.<\/p>\n
We would go on enumerating other items from that job press in the 1850s, but our time is up, and we must say goodbye until next week.<\/p>\n
Year: 1977<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1143, Broadcast on December 11, 1977<\/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":[27136,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9757"}],"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=9757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}