USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Turner > A history of Turner, Maine, from its settlement to 1886 > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19
It was these inherited qualities of mind and heart which gave to the early inhabitants of Turner and their early descend- ants their character and their manner of life. A frugal industry marked their ways. Hence, they were enabled to subdue an unbroken forest, to overcome the difficulties of frontier life, where everything was to be created by labor out of the natural resources of the country, and through privations and hardship to attain to general thrift and competence. Their frugality descended to minute things. Children were taught that it was sinful to suffer a kernel of corn to be wasted. The pipe was lighted by a coal from the hearth, or by a blazing sliver first lighted at the open fire. The burning coals were preserved on the hearth over night to rekindle the fire on the following morn- ing. No expense of match or tinder box vexed the finances of the family until competence had been reached. Such was the diligent care of the elders. Pity it is that we have forgotten so many of these simple, frugal ways ; when the coming generation have never learned "to rake up a fire," when, indeed, the life- giving light upon the hearth has gone out ; when the turkey no longer gets the scattered kernel reclaimed with pains, or the pig the apple core ; when the simple pipe is discarded, and the devotee of the exhilarating herb, who, perhaps, never knew the joyous boon of labor for subsistence, strikes two or three, or perchance half a dozen matches to light his perfumed cigar, and recklessly casts the blazing stumps in the place of danger. No,
283
HISTORY OF TURNER.
my friend of the new generation, if you must smoke return to the simple pipe of pure tobacco ; if you can't bring yourself to that, and will smoke, light your unmedicated, unperfumed cigar with a single match, and carefully dispose the burning stump in the ancestral manner. But smoke not. Save the scattered kernels and the single apple core. Then you can put the ances- tral fire upon your hearth and learn to " rake up " the fire.
These trivial things afford a glimpse of the practical and economical life of those times. From them we may understand much. And in a moral and religious aspect their lives were equally marked. Strenuous and exacting in matters of faith, measurably censorious and austere, in manners not over courtly or finely polished, they rigidly maintained the order and deco- rum of society by a fixed public opinion imperious and intoler- ant. These characteristics, with a large measure of success, they strove to transmit to their children and their children's: children. And we award them not too much of honor when we say that the good order, morality, and intelligence, which have always characterized the town, and given her a high position among her contemporaries may be traced largely to these right beginnings of our ancestors, who builded their comely fabric of society in the wild frontier of civilized life upon these deep and secure foundations of immutable canons, which, if sometimes made over harsh or austere in practice, nevertheless draw their inspiration from the only true source of human excellence, the only sound and enduring basis of human society. All else is fragile and perishable, this immortal.
And I speak not of the men alone of the early period. I plead also for the sacred memory of the mothers of that time, without whose joint heroism and co-operating service the sacri- fices of the fathers would have been lost. I speak not from history and tradition alone when I venture to employ the lan- guage of eulogy in praise of the women of the early inhabitants of the town. It was my own good fortune in the days of my
284
HISTORY OF TURNER.
youth to know some of them at that time rapidly passing within the veil to their eternal reward. The daughters of these worthy women I knew as the mothers of my early associates, and though it was not their lot to have been tried by the same experiences, they had yet inherited the excellences of the mothers, and from them learned to walk in paths of peaceful duty and honor, diffusing around them the benign rays of peace and contentment, and training their sons and daughters to lives of virtue, usefulness, and felicity.
The world little notes, and the more is the pity, the heroism of woman's life. We speak of the toilers on whom rests the great burden of the world, - from whom springs eternal the elements of that life and strength to which we owe the vigor and duration of our race. We are dazzled and intoxicated with the splendor of military exploits and the achievements of warfare. We honor with applause and renown the bravery and prowess of the valiant soldier; and him who has sustained the shock of armies and distinguished himself by half an hour's exposure and exertion, we call a hero. But what is all this glory and honor of the pomp and splendor and heroic exertion of warfare as compared with the lives, and the lifelong endurance of the vast majority of the women of the land, - the mothers of a nation ?
The hero is a hero because he has bravely encountered trav- ail and danger, bravely suffered wounds, disability, or death, or encountered the dangers of them. It may not be a small thing for the patriot heart to die for his country. It may not be easy for him to incur danger in her cause. But in what is this more than the mothers of a nation are doing daily? Do they not stand in their lot and calmly accept even death as the fruit of their relations to society as mothers, as heads of families ? Amid all the toils, the vigils, the sacrifices, the privations, the anxieties, the dangers, and the nameless burdens incident to the lives of the mothers of our land, are they not the perpetual
285
HISTORY OF TURNER.
fountain of love ever flowing forth to "make glad the city of God?" In the midst of pangs ever ready to bless? Under the burden of many toils of body and mind ever cheerful to afford solace ? And the chief dignity of woman's woes is that in the main they are endured in silence, - pangs unrecorded, sorrows unspoken ; we are therefore at liberty to say that the chief heroism is practiced by the women of the nation who are unknown to fame. And although it be not emblazoned on stone or embalmed in history, its merits ought to be realized, its memory consecrated in our hearts.
Of this mold were the women of the early period of the town; and to their courage and fortitude, and heroic daring and endurance alike with the robust and stalwart virtues of the men, are we indebted for the early, the well-laid founda- tions of society in the town. Such were, such are, such always have been the mothers of Turner, by whom the better elements of character have been enstamped upon successive generations to the present time.
And it may be, in justice it must be added, that the women of the olden times of Turner were of those commended by the wise man, those who " seek wool and flax, and work willingly with their hands." They knew little of the harpsichord and the lute, but they were familiar with the distaff and the loom. The toils of women, in times when the chief articles of apparel and the principal part of all textile fabrics of household use were produced on the farm, are little understood now that the spin- ning-jenny and the cotton-mill, the inventions of Arkwright and Hargrave, and the host of inventors who have followed them, have changed all these conditions of domestic life. It is fit that the wives and daughters of this generation rejoice that the wonderful achievements in the mechanical arts, made within the hundred years since their great-grandmothers delved with their masculine help-meets and toiled at the distaff and the spindle to send down to them a rich inheritance, have relieved them
286
HISTORY OF TURNER.
of untold drudgery, and of consequence have given them the more time and strength for self-culture and the study of the polite accomplishments. And the public reports of the industries of Turner afford gratifying assurance that if the hum of the spindle and the clack of the loom are no longer heard in their houses, as, thanks to the times they need not, they are no strangers to those less poetical, but equally honorable emblems of industry, the churn and the cheese-press. An accomplished woman of wise industry is one of the glories of this mortal life, one of the highest embellishments of our being; reaching forth her hand to the needy, affording counsel and comfort to the weak and the unfortunate, deft in every domestic art and duty, "she openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness." Go on, respected matron, to adorn the paths of industrious peace, conscious of dignity and worth, and it shall be said of you, " Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all."
This is but a rapid and incomplete commentary sketch of things which have passed into the history of a hundred years, and somewhat more. In it we find instruction, and trace there the origin and progress of the present well-being of the town and of those who have gone forth from its hearths and orderly, virtuous homes to fight the battle of life on other fields. The orderly state of society, and the general prevalence of a high morality, which has always characterized the town, attest the innate character of the people. We find in the almshouses, the hospitals, or the prisons of the country, few, if any, who had their birth in the town of Turner. And among the men of the country in the various departments of industry or of business, or in the professions, or in official station, we find many natives of the town, men and women, in good standing and condition. These facts are fairly to be imputed to the robust principles of religion and morality cherished by the early ancestors, and by them actively inculcated and enforced and
287
HISTORY OF TURNER.
transmitted to and through their descendants, and to the con- stant, scrupulous, and rigorous training to industry. A deep and strong religious sentiment pervaded the people of the town in the early times, and perhaps none the less to the present time. Differences of opinion the fathers had, which but declared the earnestness of their convictions and the depth of their zeal. Yet amid all the differences of opinion and con- troversies, there was in the formative periods of the town, and subsequently has been, a widely spread and deeply seated religious sense, which, without cant, and, it is verily believed, with the least hypocrisy ever known, impressed itself on the character of the people.
Such then were the early fathers of the town and their worthy consorts, and such the spring and the seeds of a century's local history. It is a solemn contemplation to cast back a hundred years and view the deeds of those who then walked these vales, who builded the foundations and the superstructure of this community, and whose memory is dear to our hearts. They sleep the sleep of the just. We would not that the doings of this day should disturb their repose. Nor may we venture to hope that our feeble applause of what they did here can enhance the beauty or the joy of their rest. Yet who shall say that the ascended spirits of our ancestry, heroes and patriots all, may not now be hovering over the scene of this presence to view the works which have followed their own labors and sacrifices, with plaudits, which our ears of flesh have no faculty to hear ?
The time allotted to me does not allow a full discussion of the relations of the town to the republic. Yet I would fain say somewhat more. If we bear in mind that the town is no more nor less than one of the integral elements of the national exist- ence, all working together to constitute one general whole, one for all and all for one, we shall readily see the importance of a sound public sentiment, and a careful and wise administration of local affairs, and of local measures to advance the intelligence
288
HISTORY OF TURNER.
and promote the orderly conduct of the people. Such institu- tions our ancestors received from their fathers, and transmitted them to their descendants expecting them to bequeath them to their posterity in indefinite succession.
The careful management of the affairs of the town instructs and trains the people to attend and control the affairs of the State. And the administration of the affairs of the State enables them to understand and guard their rights under the national polity and administration. Hence it follows that every citizen, who would perform his entire obligations in his political relations, should strive to be an honest and intelligent states- man, watching carefully local affairs, participating actively and honestly in the proceedings of the town-meeting. The town meeting I claim to be an essential institution of a republic, - the town-meeting or its equivalent in some other form. It is the school of statesmen. It is the place where the individual learns to make his voice heard, and to exert his power as one of the people. It is the training-school where he learns the logic of argument and the art of debate. Temperate exercise causes development and firmness of muscle. And the exercise of the powers of freemen makes freemen strong.
It is not too much to say of the good old New England insti- tution that it was the remote cause of the Declaration of Independence. They, who have read the full and impartial details of the progress of the great cause, must be aware that without the immortal John Adams independence would have been long delayed, - probably one or more generations. And John Adams learned the art of forensic debate, the tactics of deliberative bodies, and the rudiments of statecraft in the town- meetings of Braintree and Boston. Here he acquired strength and self-reliance as to public affairs. He and his colleagues went to the Continental Congress under a cloud of suspicion on the part of the Middle States and some of the Southern States against Massachusetts and Boston, and against her suspected
289
HISTORY OF TURNER.
schemes of separation from the crown. Beginning with mod- esty and moderation, and growing with the rising exigency, his bold courage, his ardor, his invincible logic inspired such men as Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. There the training received in the town-meeting became of vital importance to him and his country, when by oft-repeated debates on many points in session, and more sedulous labors in private, he and his coadjutors and supporters, aided by the lessons of Lexington and Bunker Hill, were able to carry the Declaration against a powerful pressure in 1776. Otherwise the day, which then became transcendently and immortally glorious, would have continued to hold a place in the calendar, and no more.
It may be said that independence was the logical destiny of the colonies. And so it was. Three millions of people in spite of oppression growing to six, or twelve, or twenty millions, would have fallen away from the crown at last, as the ripened fruit falls from its parent stalk. But it is yet a historical truth that but few of the contemporaries of John Adams, at the beginning of the Revolution, dared to think of anything but mild resistance to be employed to induce respect for the laws and to scare or coerce the king to better treatment of his Amer- ican subjects. The town-meetings also were the organs of the people, in the beginning without other government, through which they acted under the inspiration of Adams and the other bold leaders in the inauguration of revolutionary measures. And the act of separation is so far due to the bold and advanced opinions, to the bold and intrepid exertions, the skill in parliamentary tactics and debate of that illustrious, immortal patriot, that without him, his generation, at least, would have lived and died as British subjects. So we can but justly affirm that the school of the town-meeting, where John Adams received the most important part of his training, both prepared and enabled the people to assert their liberties, and provided for them a successful champion.
20
290
HISTORY OF TURNER.
The lesson of this history would seem to be that the town- meeting should be cultivated with care and attended with punctuality as the training-school of freemen, where the citizen should learn to deliberate with decorum and prudence, and decide from intelligent conviction and not from the blind zeal of an untutored will, or an easy deference to the will of others. I love the memory of the town-meetings of my youthful days, when Judge Prince, then known as Major Prince, used to preside with his usual tact and ability ; when Capt. Pompelly was accustomed to deliver his annual speech against the pitiless practice then prevalent in the country of setting up the support of the paupers at auction in open town-meeting ; when Mr. Bray was neither afraid nor ashamed to express his views with freedom and ardor ; and when that then distinguished citizen and memorable genius, Joseph House, was wont, as the spirit warmed in his thoughtful breast, to edify the boys with the piety and profound philosophy of his preaching. Peace to the ashes of poor Joe. No doubt it may be said with truth that the town-meeting is the source whence many a youth has drawn his first inspiration.
Let the worshiper at the shrine of the republic keep alive the assemblies of the people and there promote the utmost freedom of action. Thus did our Puritan fathers ; thus have done their posterity in your town and your sister towns, all drawing their true inspiration of freedom and obedience to law and duty from the same origin ; thus it is fit that we all continue to do, remembering that we have a country to save or to lose, and forgetting not that no nation has any guaranty of the endurance of its institutions without the steadfast support of a virtuous and enlightened people.
The time will come when another century shall have rolled around, and on the recurrence of this joyous anniversary, other prophets shall stand upon this rostrum and hold the ears of the people to judge the present generation as we now judge the
291
HISTORY OF TURNER.
past, in praise or censure. We stand not before the world alone as witnesses of the grand spectacle of a great people successfully exercising the art of self government. We stand also before the future of a vast posterity to arise in endless suc- cession, who will rejudge the judgment of today, rising up to render homage to the memory of us and our ancestry, or to deplore the folly and the weakness which shall have made a wreck of the hope of humanity. We stand before the future of the civilized world, who hold a joint right in the inheritance of a high example designed for the instruction of mankind.
Hence we may strive to realize the grandeur and immensity of the trust in our hands, and perhaps deplore the evidences that we are in some measure falling away from the better part of the austere principles and wholesome practices of the fathers. And if we are ever inclined to smile at the errors of the Puritan, it is well to remember that his faults leaned to the good ; that whatever is great, whatever is beautiful, whatever is beneficent in our institutions, traces back its ultimate origin to him and the Christian patriots of similar mold among his contemporaries. And the Puritan is happy above all men in this, that even his mistakes have tended to the welfare of his posterity.
By these contemplations we see God in history, and, as Chris- tian patriots, learn to adore the overruling care of Him who led his people in the wilderness by the cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, remembering that God helps those who help themselves. Emphatically, He helps those who help Him And if we desire the intervention of Divine Providence to promote our national welfare and national existence, we must not forget that he can work only through the minds and hearts of the people ; that these, therefore, must be attuned in harmony with Him. Not prayers alone, not faith alone, but works we must give in co-operation with Divine Power ; and to the end that He may work for us, we must work for Him.
Having derived our origin from an essentially religious peo-
292
HISTORY OF TURNER.
ple, I may have your pardon when I speak of matters of faith in their bearing on secular affairs. I would not offend by too much freedom of speech; but the occasion is too great, the hour is too solemn, and its ministries too sacred to permit the language of adulation, or indiscriminate eulogy. And, in truth, it must be said that it is but too obvious that religious faith has somewhat declined among the men of the country. Yet she still holds her refuge in the hearts of the women. And in behalf of the future, and in the interests of good citizenship, we may safely appeal to them whose heroism and fidelity to duty have been but too faintly eulogized, and especially to the mothers of the nation for an active and effective co-operation with the fathers in the molding of those who are to follow them. When we remember the power of the maternal instinct over the offspring, when we consider that the infant citizen in the mother's lap drinks in the maternal influence as he draws his sustenance from the pure fountain, that her teachings and her thoughts sink deep in his receptive mind and make their impression there for a lifetime, that the unuttered language of her heart and the unspoken words of her mind go forth to him as an inspiration to form and fix his character and determine his con- duct ; when we see the weary and wayworn mother patiently soothing the tired child to his rest, chanting from the depths of a weary spirit, in simple phrase, the great lessons of life and of manhood, we know that our country has a destiny, the republic an immortal hope. Tossed perhaps by storms of doubt and desolation, there we find a harbor of refuge, a haven of hope.
And you, matrons and maidens, I exhort, if need were, I would implore you to consider that you are or are to become the mothers of men, or the adjuncts and coadjutors of the mothers of men, who are to be the keepers of a nation's weal. Rejoice . in the exalted boon which Providence has laid upon you as his instruments in molding a nation's destinies to honor and felicity. As God needed, and therefore raised up and trained to his ser-
293
HISTORY OF TURNER.
vice, a Moses, a Cæsar, a Washington, a Napoleon, so no less has He placed you in your lot as chosen vessels of His will and His purposes. Not one, mother or maiden, but shall have her proper function in the great work, and share the duty and the glory of her sex if she will but hear the call.
The republic is upon its trial on high. The great horologue of time solemnly and sublimely tolls the years, while God and His purpose await the answer to His requisition for service upon the women of America. And so shall you, ever moving forward in the grand march of time, and ever rising upward, consecrate yourselves to the great cause of human progress. So shall you become the blessed instruments of Divine Providence in the development of a nation's greatness. So shall your own works adorn your lives, and a grateful posterity shall arise to decorate your memory.
JUDGE WILSON'S ADDRESS.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : -
Ninety and nine times have the anniversary moments come and gone, the anniversary of that dauntless energy and indom- itable will, which leaving all those things that to us seem to beautify and adorn life and render it worth living, dared to plunge into the trackless forest, with the axe in one hand and the gun in the other, there to make the rude homes of the brave pioneers, and lay strong and deep the foundations of this goodly town. Ninety and nine times in succession since then have the warm rains and gentle breath of spring unlocked the icy fetters of winter, and released the earth from its cold and close embrace. Ninety and nine times since that frail beginning have the buds unfolded, the blossoms appeared, and been fol- lowed by the fruit, which, under the hallowing and ripening influence of the autumn suns, has reached a glorious and per- fect maturity. Ninety and nine times has this all been followed by the cold hand and killing breath of winter. Today, we
294
HISTORY OF TURNER.
celebrate the hundredth anniversary. The buds and blossoms and incipient fruit have again appeared, and adorn the earth with their beauty and fragrance, to be again followed, we trust, by a plentiful and bountiful harvest. The bright skies which arch o'er us are filled with golden sunlight, bearing rich stores of food for growth and increase, to the swelling fruit.
Amid this beauty and grandeur, on this fair July day we have assembled at the call of our native town, coming from all quarters of this great land of ours ; not only from our fair New England homes, but also from the far distant South and the broad prairies of the West. However far her sons may have wandered, however long they may have been absent, however separated in life they may have been from her, on this her anniversary day their thoughts and hearts turn fondly toward her. We come a motley throng. Some laden with honors and wearing on our brows the chaplet of fame, others wearied in the ceaseless struggle and anxious for rest, and still others of us return like prodigal sons, prepared to be thankful for a seat among the servants, but we all receive a royal welcome. The fatted calf is killed, the feast is spread, and all are given seats around the banquet table, while our mother town, with head adorned with the glories of a hundred summers, and whitened with the snows of a hundred winters, stretches forth her arms and gives us a true maternal welcome.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.