USA > Maine > Waldo County > Unity > A history of the Town of Unity, Maine > Part 24
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1. Before this Dr. Whitney used to drive an enclosed box-like vehi- cle with only a slit for the reins to pass through and a small window enabling him to see to drive. The doctor used it to drive in all sorts of weather.
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A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
The public took to the road, and the automobile, once a plaything, soon became a necessity. Roads at first were horrible, especially in spring, when the frost and rain plus the ruts made by the automobiles raised havoc with motoring. In these early days it was necessary for every driver to carry a whole kit of tools in case of a break down. The early chain-drive models were a special plague if the chain links broke which they did. The older generation used to the horse retained old Robin, or Prince, for a while longer. Farmers continued to use horses for farm work until about 1930. James Vickery bought his first car in 1916, a Chandler, and has driven an automobile ever since, but he always farmed with at least two pairs of heavy draft horses. Many a farmer probably today still yearns for the beauty of a good team of Percherons or Clydesdales. But that era has passed; the tractor has supplanted "old Dobbin."
Following the automobile came the airplane, whose presence during the mid-twenties was always a signal for everyone to turn out and gaze skywards at this flimsy machine of canvas, wood, and steel soaring high overhead. Occasionally barnstormers landed in some farmer's field and took passengers up for three dollars a ride. The air age had be- gun. About 1932 an electric air beacon was built across from Eli Moulton's farm buildings and now flashes nightly across the sky, guid- ing the ever-bigger planes carrying mail, freight, and passengers from Boston to Bangor. Nowadays all types of aircraft from the huge B-36 to smaller P-51, and fighter jets zoom over the village. Truly the Age of Flight threatens to eclipse the Automobile Era.
The people of the twentieth century have seen an amazing tech- nological development. In 1900 there were no telephones in Unity, but the following year people in the village could communicate by telephone to the outside world. In a brief diary a Unity woman wrote on March 30, 1901, "Charles talked through the long distance to Lou; She was well and very glad to talk to Charles." Within two years there were at least 64 telephones found in town, compared to the several hundred now in service. Rodney Whitaker took over the central office until Georgia Grant assumed the job in 1944.
On January 1, 1916, electricity was turned on in the village. Power was furnished by the Central Maine Power Co., which soon installed street lights to supplant the old kerosene lamps. Farms along the main route from Albion to Troy were fortunate to have electric power. Some rural areas of the town, particularly the south part of town be- yond James Vickery's farm, didn't have electric lights until World War II (1938). What a contrast now is the modern home elec- trically equipped, with washing-machines, flatirons, vacuum sweepers, mixers, dishwashers and other gadgets operated by electric power. Every room from cellar to attic is lighted with the flip of a switch.
Also in 1916 the motion picture arrived bringing an altogether new
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UNITY SINCE 1900
form of entertainment.1 The "pictures", as they were called, were the old silent films which featured those stars of yesteryear such as Pearl White, Theda Bara, Mary Pickford, Lon Chaney, Tom Mix, Jackie Coogan, Pola Negri, Rudolph Valentino, Buster Keaton, and Lillian Gish.
Lyle Adams bought a Bell-Howell projector, installed it in the hall over Adams' store. To these old celluloids flocked young and old to see the new wonder of the age. Saturday night and Tuesday were picture nights and the "tin Lizzies" were parked end to end along the main street. Mel Winters rented the I.O.O.F. hall in 1923 and for five years, also, showed movies. The greatest hit of the decade was The Covered Wagon, by which Winters filled his hall for three after- noons and evenings. Other outstanding films recalled were The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Ten Commandments, Birth of a Na- tion, The Thundering Herd. So large was the crowd on the first night of showing The Covered Wagon that both movie halls showed it; the first reel ran off at the I.O.O.F. hall, then a courier rushed it to Ad- ams' hall, so the reels were shuttled back and forth. In 1927 the "talk- ies" appeared. Lyle Adams went to Kennebunkport and purchased a second-hand machine. This machine was used until 1930, when for a period no pictures were shown. There were too many automobiles, and Waterville movie theaters attracted people there. About 1935 new equipment was installed in Adams' theater where sound movies were shown. However, most films shown were westerns or class B pictures with an occasional outstanding movie like Seventh Heaven, or David Harum, at least a year behind the date of release. Wallace Beery, Ma- rie Dressler, Bebe Daniels, the Marx brothers, or Will Rogers usually attracted a full house.
How many of you remember when the Redpath Chautauqua came to town? In 1924 this company appeared for three days of superior entertainment seldom seen in so small a town. Guarantors sponsored this chautauqua for a five year period. The first night entertainment was devoted to music (remember the Swiss yodelers?) ; the next night a drama (remember Smiling Through?), and there was a magician or lecturer as later features of the program. The depression ended the chautauqua. In the mid-nineteen thirties Ethel Mae Shorey's troop of players appeared in plays in Adams' Hall about once a month. High school plays and social clubs put on their plays on the stage of the I.O.O.F. hall, but now this hall has been converted into a movie theater. Over the years many a home talent play has been presented in town, the first staged about 1890, "dramas" so-called. Probably the play which will be long remembered is the charming, almost per- ennial, production staged by Mrs. Edith Stevens, and directed by Mrs. Brophy, of Kate Douglas Wiggin's play, The Old Peabody Pew.
1. About 1913 Charles Struples rented Adam's Hall to show "flick- ers". His projector was gas operated, and the early reels broke, so fre- quently that they were not satisfactory.
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A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
The ladies of the church deserved the high praise accorded them for their production at the Belfast Centennial of 1953.1
In November 1929 Clarence Roundy, with the assistance of H. L. Glines, E. S. Farwell and others, organized a Boy Scout troop in Unity. The troop became No. 233 of the Katahdin Council and numbered three platoons of about eight scouts each. Scout leaders at different times were Ralph Wanning, Everett Price, Robert Edwards and Neil Van Deets.2 In the fall of 1947 Margaret Vickery helped organize a troop of Girl Scouts, now led by Mrs. Olive Spinney Barrows.
During the two decades following World War I the United States tried to remain aloof from international troubles. The nineteen twen- ties were characterized by a glowing prosperity familiarly known as the "roaring twenties." People tried to forget the dreadful holocaust which between 1914 and 1919 had devastated Europe. During these years it seemed that all America was on a grand spree. It was a revolt against conventionalism. In the metropolitan centers night clubs and speakeasies became the offspring of prohibition. Gangsters ran amuck in the big cities. Literature devoted itself to a crude realism. Styles in women's dress seem hideous to us with their very long waistlines and the extreme brevity of their skirts above the knee. This was the era of the "flapper" with her boyish bob, in fact, long hair was un- usual in women's hairdo. In the dance hall the fox-trot and the "Charleston" were in vogue, and the young set danced to a cacopho- nous music called jazz. Business men, farmers, and merchants en- joyed reasonable prices, and business was excellent. Everything was booming.
However, few persons predicted the disaster which befell the pub- lic in October 1929, when the stock market crashed, and the great de- pression began. During the next few years unemployment became widespread. Quite naturally Unity felt the effects of this tremendous business recession, but it was the large cities which suffered most. Many young men who had drifted to the city to gain a livelihood came back to their towns to start a small business or return to the farm. This trend has continued, although perhaps most families moved here to escape the high cost of living or avoid the crowded conditions now that atomic warfare makes cities inviting targets.
During the thirties most people were too involved in making a liv- ing to take much interest in world problems. A war in China was too far away to be significant. Newspapers featured human interest
1. The cast included Mrs. W. T. Vickery, Irma McKechnie, Edith Stevens, Emma Edgerly, Caroline Lowell, Izira Knights and Mr. and Mrs. Brophy. An earlier cast included Thirza Truworthy, Leslie How- land.
2. After the original members got past scout age W. T. Vickery led the scouts and during the early war years Roy Shaw and Neil Van Deets carried on scout activities. The first troop organized in 1929 in- cluded William R. Glines, Roland Pelletier, James B. Vickery Jr., Wal- ter Bradeen, Ralph Ward, Stanley Ward, Bernard Foster, Maurice Gyrway. '
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UNITY SINCE 1900
stories, the readers followed the trial of a kidnapper, or became ab- sorbed in the dare-devil stunts of a flagpole sitter. Possibly they were too apathetic, too critical, too smug to understand the danger of another world conflict. As the dictators of Europe seized power and created the totalitarian state, few Americans really believed that these Nazi and Fascist leaders were a menace to world peace. By 1938 war seemed a real possibility. Hitler was preaching "lebensraum" for the Germans. Already he had gobbled Austria with hardly a murmur from France or England. Yet the average citizen favored a foreign policy of appeasement. However, with Hitler's savage attack on Poland on September 1, 1939, World War II began. Gradually the United States prepared for the inevitable conflict. In October 1940 all able-bodied men over twenty-one were registered for the draft.
Belfast was the headquarters for the Selective Service Board, which handled the physical examinations, classifications, and notifi- cations for entering the service. Those who received the official "Greetings" will not forget them.
Everyone recalls the moment that December day of 1941 when the broadcasting stations suddenly interrupted their programs to an- nounce the premeditated attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States went to war. Men in this area were either inducted at Belfast or Bangor and soon found themselves taking basic training in some southern camp. Unity sent ninety-four persons into the armed forces.
In World War II the nation mobilized not only its able-bodied men, but its huge civilian population as well. During 1942 a local civilian defense committee, a part of the O. C. D., was organized to assist in mobilizing the manpower of the United States. In this town T. O. Knights and Mrs. Madeline Snyder did a great deal to carry out this program designated by our national government. In May 1942 ra- tioning commenced. The schoolteachers registered the adult popula- tion and issued ration booklets. At first, gasoline, automobile tires, and sugar were placed on the restricted list, but later meat, canned goods, nylon, and shoes were added. The storekeepers and mer- chants through orders received from the O. P. A. assisted with the tremendous details of rationing. All prices were frozen.
In the fall of 1942 the Office of Civilian Defense started organizing the civilians for emergencies, especially in case of air attack. Conse- quently, as a part of a giant network of air raid warning stations, Unity came to have its own situated on top of Farwell's Store. Dr. Cary became the first director of the air raid service, but later his duties were carried out by E. S. Farwell and Karl McKechnie. Air raid wardens were appointed and trained for their jobs to halt traffic, or to see that all lights were extinguished during an alert. Nearly fifty men qualified for military service belonged to a National Guard Unit, which received training for home defense. Mock air raids were staged with highly satisfactory results.
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A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
At the air raid station men and women maintained a twenty-four hour vigil, women during the day and men at night. All planes were reported to the headquarters at Dow Field, Bangor. When a plane was spotted, the observer called "Army Flash", which connected him immediately with the central station. The spotter gave all discernible information (type of plane, number etc.) to the Bangor headquar- ters.
During the war there were all sorts of drives: paper drives, scrap drives and the like. In 1942 the Boy Scouts collected sixty-four tons of scrap iron, for which they received four hundred dollars. The Red Cross maintained a chapter here, and the ladies folded thousands of bandages. Harlan Dean taught first-aid. Mrs. Phyllis and Mrs. Mary Packard taught home nursing to a large number of women at the high school. To prepare for emergencies there was a Women's Auxiliary Motor Corps, of which Ione Mussey took charge, as well as a Red Cross Canteen, headed by Agnes Adams, which was set up to serve meals in case of a disaster.
To mobilize manpower for farms during the rush seasons W. T. Vickery was appointed as farm labor supervisor. His duties were to investigate farm labor needs, to register manpower, and to have them transported to areas where extra help was required. Labor was brought in from Newfoundland and Kentucky. During the canning season soldiers were obtained from Camp Keyes. In 1943 Jamaicans were imported.1 In 1944 German prisoners of war from the famed Afrika Korps were brought daily from Dow Air Base to work in the canning factory or in the potato fields.
Certainly the people of Unity worked wholeheartedly to support their armed forces. A number of men found employment in the Bath Iron Works or in the Portland Shipyards; in fact there was an exodus to Connecticut from Maine to work in the Pratt-Whitney Aircraft Corporation.
As the war progressed, the public followed closely the campaigns, learned new geographical names, awaited letters strictly censored from their sons. They learned of far away places like Bataan, Corregi- dor, Guadalcanal, El Alamein, Casablanca, Anzio, and Iwo Jima. Of these soldiers and sailors we are proud. Three never lived to come home: Lt. Richard Jones, killed in Belgium; Lt. Claude Mussey, a pilot lost over the North Sea; Sgt. Leighton Milliken, shot down over Germany. Valiantly they served.
It was with thanks to God that everyone learned of V-E Day in May and V-J Day in August 1945. The men returned home, happy to resume civilian life where they had left it. The government had provided well for them; a G. I. Bill of Rights enabled them to get a
1. Long after the Jamaicans had returned home, a letter addressed to "Farmer George", Unity, Maine, came to the notice of the postmas- ter. The mystery was solved when someone said that the epistle was meant for George Meservey, who superintended them.
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UNITY SINCE 1900
college education, or to train further in their chosen occupations, or to obtain generous loans for housing. Never before had a nation pro- vided so generously for her sons. A new generation found new hope for a better world, resolved to keep the world dedicated to peace.
It has been the purpose of this chapter to picture the changes wrought by fifty years of growth. The first half of the twentieth cen- tury has seen certainly greater scientific strides than in any other cen- tury. Outwardly Unity has changed but slightly. The village ap- pears no larger than it did in 1900; the population has not increased to any appreciable extent. The tall majestic elms of the main street still sway above the neatly-kept clapboard houses. It is inside these homes that the pattern has materially changed. Family life differs radically from the Victorian attitudes of an earlier generation. The housewife has greater freedom. The long struggle for women's rights and the franchise have permitted greater freedom. The woman of today finds herself no longer bound to housekeeping, but she seeks outlets in club activities, office work, social work and industry. The youngster growing up no longer has the restrictions imposed upon those of the mid-nineteenth century. His energies are expended in numerous school organizations and directed athletics. The head of the household discovers that the cost of living has increased by leaps and bounds. His dollar has shrunk, and his taxes have doubled. He starts his career with little capital and keeps just ahead of the bill collector. But does he consider the services and luxuries that he en- joys without ascertaining what his taxes provide? Note the change in roads since 1900. From the dusty street of that era, today traf- fic, which brings a lucrative tourist trade, speeds over a smoothly paved tarvia highway. Let him consider the increased cost for con- solidated schools, as well as the larger enrollment, but before he is allowed to make hasty generalizations about the "little red school house", let him know that his sons and daughters today receive a more rounded education, perhaps less classical, but more practical. The average citizen rides in an automobile that he has undoubtedly not driven over sixty thousand miles, before he has swapped it for a new model. Nowadays we do not find country life barren or un- rewarding; there is little difference in the standard of living of a farmer and his urban compatriot.
Figures, too, provide us with more accurate appraisal of the eco- nomic and social aspects of the changes brought about over a period of years. Compare the valuations of property:
1897
Real Estate
$208,347.00
1947 $350,690.00
Real Estate, Non-resident
17,189.00
106,610.00
Personal Estate
48,996.00
62,567.00
Personal Estate, Non-resident
570.00
11,260.00
$275,102.00
$531,127.00
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A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE Agricultural Valuations 1920
Horses
309
$30,450.00
Bulls or steers not listed
Cows
626
$27,110.00
Heifers
270
$ 9,150.00
Dom. fowl not listed
Sheep
355
$ 2,532.00
Swine
117
$ 2,458.00
1952
Horses
37
$ 1,525.00
Bulls
24
$ 950.00
Cows
652
$31,795.00
Heifers
174
$ 6,000.00
Fowls
150,390
$24,195.00
Sheep
5
$ 30.00
Swine not listed.
Statistics of 1863
Bulls
12
Heifers
311
Cows
406
Steers
354
Oxen (4 yr. olds)
246
Sheep
4,091
Horses
220
Grain Production
Indian Corn
4,268 bu.
Wheat
2,441 bu.
Rye
210 bu.
Oats
12,042 bu.
Potatoes
34,303 bu.
Apples
7,194 bu.
Hay
1,245 tons
Interval
214 tons
Bog
125 tons
Figures below show comparisons between 1928 and 1948
1928
Horses
173
Cows
654
Poultry
2,450
Radios
55
Tractors
14
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UNITY SINCE 1900
1948
Horses
93
Cows
553
Radios 217
Tractors (not excised)
21
Gasoline pumps
21
A survey of these excerpts taken from town reports over a span of years reveals something of the change in a way of life. In 1863 the family was almost wholly self-sufficient. There were women who still used the loom and the flax wheel making homespun. The farmer, except for a few items, was quite self-sufficient. He raised grain crops in abundance for his personal use or for his livestock. His annual in- come probably did not exceed three hundred dollars. His acreage under cultivation averaged between fifteen and twenty acres. Oxen were almost wholly used for beasts of burden. Fifty years later the oxen had all but disappeared. New improved agricultural implements were making it possible to ease the farmer's work as well as the dissem- ination of better farming methods aided him to increase his production or the quality of his produce. The ambitious farmer was quick to take advantage of the improved farm machinery and the new techniques devised from scientific farming. Note the shift from draft animals to gasoline-operated vehicles beginning about 1925. In 1924 radios were quite a novelty, but by 1927 there were undoubtedly fifty sets which brought entertainment and delight to many people of this town. They heard the news of Lindbergh's arrival in Paris; they listened to the Dempsey-Tunney prize fight; and in 1928 they listened for the first time to the presidential campaign speeches. Scarcely twenty-five years later many of the same individuals watched over television from the newly installed Bangor channel 5 Unity's basketball team playing Clinton for the class S finals. To those born in the mauve decade, born when the kerosene lamp lighted ornate parlors, when there were no telephones, and when transportation moved at a seem- ingly unruffled pace, how startling have been the changes. Yet it has all happened: the telephone, the electric light, the automobile, and the radio; these marvelous inventions have changed American life - for better, for worse - -. Everyone today appears to be keeping up with the Joneses. Small towns are no longer isolated. There was a time when automobiles were kept in garages all winter. A twist of a knob and we listen to what we choose over the radio. In truth we are a part of a great community; yes, a part of a unification of na- tions. We are a generation deeply concerned with the vast wide world. Let us not lose our vision for better things, and may we work as vigorously for the rights of men as, in the past, our forefathers so long ago so nobly strived.
CONCLUSION
Slightly more than a century and a half ago Unity was a part of the frontier, that indefinable area where the limits of settlement bor- der on the wild unknown. There were scattered cabins surrounded by the yet untamed forest. There were also little plots of corn grow- ing between the ugly stumps. Men and women labored side by side in the fields. While there was plenty of land the influx of people was rapid. And then suddenly opportunity vanished, only to reappear further away or in a different form. A village arose from the scat- tered settlements. Schools and churches were built. Town meetings reflected the enthusiasm for democracy. All the struggles encountered became a part of the general pattern found elsewhere in New Eng- land. Thus Unity's history is not unlike the history of other towns. The widespread movements current during the last two centuries are revealed in the development of the town of Unity.
Unity's first settlers were chiefly of Anglo-Saxon stock with inter- mixed Scotch-Irish ancestry. They were a hard-headed, determined people, independent, clannish, and self-reliant. These were the char- acteristics of men who hewed down the great forests to good farms which they cultivated assiduously. The pioneers eager for the un- settled lands in the District of Maine, then a part of Massachusetts, appropriated them with great rapidity. Rightfully the land belonged to non-resident proprietors, who had received large tracts, which they held for speculative purposes. Despite the protests of the proprietor, his land was invaded by settlers, who in the technical sense were squatters, and all the proprietor's attempts to stop the horde of fron- tiersmen were overwhelmed. By the sheer weight of numbers, the proprietor bowed to the inevitable and sold his property at a reason- able price.
Agriculture was the chief pursuit from the beginning. From 1790 to 1850 farming was conducted on a self-sufficient basis; from 1850 to 1900 the farmers sought wider markets, utilizing the improved farm machinery and the scientific methods then becoming prevalent; from 1900 to the present even greater strides have been taken in farm improvement.
The founding of the North Waldo Agricultural Society in 1861, an organization whose aim was to stimulate interest in agriculture, was partly responsible for the changes taking place on the farms dur- ing the latter half of the nineteenth century. The exchange of in- formation at the fairs and at the several meetings helped, in a large respect, by the dissemination and exchange of information, the im- provement of livestock, the introduction of modern machinery, and
209
CONCLUSION
the general rehabilitation of the farms. The influences of this society should not be minimized, especially during the period from 1861 to 1900. Modern farming has become more specialized and on a larger scale than ever before.
Industries not directly associated with agriculture have not proved profitable. Sawmills might be cited as the one exception, although one or two sawmills have handled the entire output in recent years. In early days when lumber was abundant, several mills flourished, only to disappear when timber was exhausted. The attempts of other non-agricultural concerns have not succeeded. Perhaps the efforts were made too early when there were inadequate means of transporta- tion and markets were too remote. There was lack of resources and water power for real industrial success. There was little capital to back any extensive factories or goodsized mills. In addition, the main railroad lines bypassed Unity and the main route of trade and traffic shifted through Waterville, Pittsfield, and Newport to Bangor, thus diverting the trade that once passed by ox-team through the town. However, when a railroad was built in 1870 the town had access to the large outside markets. This was, of course, an inestimable aid to the farmers who now were enabled to ship their potatoes, hay, and other produce to the larger out-of-state cities. The use of the railroad is now curtailed by the use of automobiles and trucks, but they have not altered materially the prospects of the town. Unity's economic well-being rests with its agriculture.
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