USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 2 > Part 40
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jected by the town. In 1865 the tax was again rejected although the villagers won on the issue "that neat cattle and horses not be permitted to run at large." And so for year after year the dogs enjoyed the freedom of the city, protected in their now illegal rights by the stubborn "Dutch" yeomanry of the back-districts. Not until the 22nd of March, 1875, was the nuisance abated by a tax of one dollar on each dog, with the provision that the money was to be used for the school fund. "There's a $1,000 towards schools," said a village wag, pointing to the dogs in the streets the day after this Town Meeting. It is of note to remember that the town had defied in similar manner the laws of Massachusetts in earlier days, and that this tradition was still being honored nearly a century later.
The political picture in Waldoboro was little altered in the 60's. The old machine was in easy control. Its old power was still there, but the events necessary to spark it were not always in evidence. Isaac Reed was now in the sixties and as the state and county entered on a long era of Republican control, perspicacious politian that he was, it was clear to him that there was no longer a possible place for him near the top in state and national politics. But a strong man is loath to relinquish power once possessed, even though he no longer has need to apply it for his own ends, and Mr. Reed still had the power that made him a force in county elections and even in close congressional and state elections. He loved to "thrash" James G. Blaine. Blaine was a great political organizer, but he never organized Waldoboro, and Mr. Reed beat him locally in every election to the end of his days.
Following the death of John H. Kennedy, Henry Farrington, a strong and ambitious young attorney, succeeded to the first lieutenancy of the machine and became a force in local and county politics. Mr. Reed had clearly mellowed. The venom of his younger days was no longer in evidence. It was not needed, since for over thirty years now the process of indoctrination had been going on in the families of the faithful, and children inherited the political cult of their fathers as inevitably as they inherited their property. The gubernatorial elections following the war were listless affairs locally and never called out the full power of the machine. Its full force would come out only to smash Blaine or to send its local favorites to the Legislature or place them in county offices.
The Presidential elections of these years were sluggish epi- sodes in the town, especially that of 1872. Under Grant the Re- publicans in less than twenty years of existence as a party had reached what the historians called "the nadir of national disgrace." This was more than Waldoboro Republicans, a group tinged with austere morality, could stand, and their vote for a second term
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for Grant slumped to 213. The Democrats selected Horace Greeley, the original candidate of the "liberal Republicans." To such a candidate the Waldoboro machine could not be expected to respond, and it did not. Greeley polled 281 votes in the town, the Democratic low-water mark, nearly 500 votes under the top strength of the party.
This lack of issues that could breed strong conviction in the heart of the Democratic leadership in the town was clearly one of the factors that was making for slow disintegration in the old Reed machine. Another factor was to be found in the rise of a new Republican leader, the Honorable S. S. Marble. Mr. Marble had come to Waldoboro in 1851 from Dixfield, and established himself in a law practice. In these early years he was a Democrat, but in the party realignments of this decade he took an anti-slavery position and joined the new Republican Party. In this role he could secure little recognition from local voters, but he was recognized by the national administration and was appointed deputy collector of customs in the Waldoboro District in 1861, and collector in 1863. In 1864 he was appointed by the Governor to be Commis- sioner of the Army of the Potomac to superintend the well-being of the soldiers.3 Following the war he gave himself over to a considerable degree to the upbuilding of the Republican Party in the town and district. From 1867 to 1870 he was register of bank- ruptcy, and from 1870 to 1878 United States Marshal for Maine. The peak of his career was reached in 1887, when he became gov- ernor of Maine. From the 1870's Mr. Marble was recognized as the leader and moving spirit in this congressional district. He com- manded the confidence of the leading Republicans in national life, and his support and advice were eagerly sought, as is revealed from the few following excerpts from his correspondence:
Come over Monday without fail. I want to see you.
Augusta, Nov. 27.
James G. Blaine
I have confidence in your friendship for me, and I lay this draft upon you, that come what will, you will assist in winning the 3rd district for Mr. Merrill.
Washington, D. C., June 26, 1870. James G. Blaine
Your own judgement will not mislead you. June 16, 1874 Senator Hannibal Hamlin
You have more influence in the Waldoboro district than any other ten men.
Aug. 2, 1882 Senator William P. Frye
I have been in hopes to hear from you in the matter, as I need not say that I value your opinion in political matters more than any one man in your section.
May 6, 1884
Nelson Dingley
3Bath Sentinel and Times, Oct. 18, 1864.
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I wish you could see your way clear to give me the benefit of your sagacity and influence. ... The time hasn't come for you to settle back and keep out of politics.4
Senator Eugene Hale [Letter undated]
Mr. Marble may be said to be the first really efficient and influential leader of the Republican Party in Waldoboro. As Mr. Reed aged and his interest diminished, Mr. Marble used this fact to build up Republican strength - slowly, to be sure, for the impetus of the Democratic machine was sufficient to drive it along for decades yet to come.
The major event of these decades was probably the coming of the railroad - an event of momentous importance in the town's economic life. We may wonder whether its promoters understood fully the significance of what they were doing. Prior to the com- ing of the iron horse Waldoboro's commerce with the outside world was entirely by water. In the Great Days from ten to fifteen coasters travelled constantly to and from Boston in the ice-free seasons. These packets were built from the timber of the town's forests, gotten out by local farmers, shaped into vessels in Waldo- boro yards, owned by Waldoboro capital, and captained and manned by Waldoboro crews, and they served specific Waldoboro industries and trade. Later when local wealth demanded some- thing better in passenger traffic, steam had replaced sail, and the steamer DeWitt Clinton was on the river for one season. Then Portland, Waldoboro, and Damariscotta capital took over, and the side-wheeler Charles Houghton took up a weekly run in 1867, connecting Waldoboro, Damariscotta, and other towns on the route with Portland.
The railroad changed all this. In 1872 the Houghton ran at a loss and was sold in Eastport. As the rails took over, the coasters disappeared one by one. The last to go was Captain Aaron Win- chenbach's little two-masted schooner, the Collins Howes, Jr., which was still bringing coal and lumber to the town in my boy- hood days. It is probable that Joseph Clark and his associates who brought the railroad to Waldoboro must have realized at least vaguely the meaning of its coming. They also probably sensed its inevitability and chose deliberately to be in it on the profit side.
It was in the late 60's that the railroad question came to the fore. For years Bath had been the terminal of the Portland line, when a group of capitalists in the counties of Knox and Lincoln took up the question of extending the line through to Rockland. At a Town Meeting held on September 26, 1867, on the petition
4Letters at one time in possession of the late Mrs. Carl Burdick, granddaughter of Governor Marble.
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of Joseph Clark and seventeen others, $10,000 was subscribed to the capital of the Knox and Lincoln, as the road was first known, on the condition that the road should pass above the tidewaters with a station within three-quarters of a mile of the Four Corners. This provision would have placed the station at a point close to the intersection of Jefferson Street and the Atlantic Highway. At this same Town Meeting it was voted to place the credit of the town behind a $70,000 bond issue, which was to run for a period of twenty-five years. The whole project, however, proved to be an expensive one, and at an October Town Meeting an additional loan of $26,200 was allowed - a three per cent bond issue to ma- ture in twenty-five years.
The next year was one full of railroad business, and a com- mittee was appointed to handle such questions for the town. More and more money was needed, and in July of this year the town approved the location of the present station, instead of requiring it to be within three-quarters of a mile of the Four Corners. The decisive factor in this concession was purely one of the ex- pense involved in the lengthening of the line. When this whole affair reached its final stage the town had made a total investment of $157,300 in this dubious adjunct to its economy, which was to revolutionize its destiny. But it had no other choice. Iron road or no iron road, the great industry of the town had entered its de- cline, and the end was in view of the few who had the vision to gaze beyond the present. From the standpoint of pure finance the town and its citizens had made one of their best investments, and there was not a penny of the taxpayers' money placed in this en- terprise that was not returned with good profit.
The first train came through Waldoboro in 1871, and it was a gala occasion with the village folk thronging the station in great crowds. There are those still living who as small children were present with their parents and recall vividly this epoch-making event in the history of the town.
There were also others who could neither read nor write, who lived in relative isolation, and who had heard only vaguely and understood less of these new developments. Among these was Aunt Polly Overlock, who on the day when the first train passed through, was picking berries near the foot of Willett's Hill (Cole's Hill) on its eastern side. Aunt Polly heard a screech, looked up and beheld a huge, black monster, belching smoke, with a long, heavy body trailing behind him, bearing down upon her. She was speechless, terrified, thinking that the Devil was about the destroy her. Leaving her berries she ran faster than ever before to the cover of the woods and there on her knees she prayed fervently for deliverance from Satan. The prayer was answered. Satan missed
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her, and passing on with a shriek and a clatter, left nothing but a heavy pall of his black smoke behind him.5
There were those in Waldoboro who sensed in the 70's that the town was facing an economic crisis. There was much vague and apprehensive talking and groping and planning and casting about to establish new industries to sustain the business vitality in the town and preserve its great traditions. There were those who were eager to lead the push in new directions, but the what was the problem. To build a new economy involves large risks, and men prove very small indeed when they seek to comprehend and bind the forces of history to their own ends. For the time being the town was licked, and the best wisdom and efforts of its younger leaders could produce but small returns. There were many hopes and plans in the air, and on April 17, 1871, the town voted "to exempt from taxation for a term of years a woolen fac- tory, a cotton mill, a shoe and boot factory and a tannery, pro- vided the same shall be erected prior to April 1, 1875," as petitioned by Charles Comery and others. Such enterprises would have been in line with the general program of industrialization going on in other parts of New England, but none of them materialized in Waldoboro.
The new Monthly News in its first issue, January 1873, sensed the situation clearly and spoke out boldly:
We desire to call attention to the fact that our young men and women are receiving no employment from that source. . .. If our wealthy men will not invest their money at home, let us put forth every inducement to bring capital from abroad. ... To those parties in Massachusetts who have been making inquiries concerning Waldoboro, we offer a hearty welcome.6
There was much need for outside capital, for some of the local tycoons were in the act of stepping out from under. In July 1873 John E. Miller offered the Medomak House - thirty rooms - for sale, and in March of the same year William F. Storer had advertised the sale of all his property on both sides of the Medomak River for $5800. Others sensed that the economic future of the town was not too bright. Among these were Samuel M. Morse, son of old Deacon Morse, who had been one of the pillars of an earlier day. In February 1873 he closed his business in Waldoboro and entered trade at Nashua, New Hampshire.7 His departure severed all connections with the town of one of the most influ- ential and respected families in the period of the Great Days.
Those of middle age remaining behind in these years were faced by the necessity of enlarging the smaller industries, or estab-
5Oral tradition, Gracia Gay Libby.
6The Monthly News, Jan. 18, 1873.
"The Monthly News.
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lishing new ones to fill the vacuum left by the declining major industry. This was almost an empty gesture considering the fact that the products of these little industries were faced with the competition of larger, well-organized factories in city centers, with systematic programs of advertising and marketing, but such in- dustries did spring up locally and were an interesting part of our economic life. They were numerous and diversified, each employ- ing hands ranging from two or three to a dozen. Among such activities there were a few brickyards. One of these was located by the little brook on the Judson Kuhn place just east of his residence. In West Waldoboro there was another on the Old County Road, the Oliver Kaler place near the Nobleboro town line. The largest of these was probably that of Moses Kaler on Dutch Neck, where from a wharf on his point the brick was taken by the packets, partly as ballast, and sold in the Boston market.
A kindred industry was the "Old Potter Shop," a large, un- painted, wooden building by the brook at the foot of Prock's Ledge on the Bremen Road, just south of the home of Clarence Woodbury. This industry was started by Barney Mayo around 1865. The clay came originally from the shore of the farm now owned by John Burgess, and it was fabricated into such crude articles as milk dishes and butter pots. Mayo had a span of white horses and with his team distributed the pottery over the country- side. Later the ware was peddled by one, Stoddard, and lastly by Leslie Mayo, a brother of Barney. James H. Stanwood entered the business at an early date as the potter, and as his skill with the wheel increased, fancier and more finished products appeared - a finer grade of clay having been found on the farm of Isaac S. Kaler - flower pots, jugs and table dishes glazed on the inside, and toward the end decorated with colored flower patterns.8 In 1874 the Lincoln County News reported that the shop was em- ploying eight hands and turning out "every conceivable descrip- tion of earthenware," Mr. Stanwood himself turning out as many as ten dozen pots a day.
Near the pottery shop and on the north side of the brook was a tiny soap factory started in the 1870's by Manlius Head. At the peak of its prosperity it employed three hands. Peter Prock drove the delivery wagon and sold the bars of soft soap over the countryside, sometimes swapping them for wood ashes, from which the lye was leached and sold to the woolen mill in Warren. Even- tually Webster Kaler and Otis Clouse bought Head out and con- tinued the business until it was extinguished by the more refined soap from the big world outside.
8Oral tradition, Mr. Louis Kaler.
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.
On the upper Medomak Webb's Tannery was a landmark for many years. This was a two-story building on the old Webb prop- erty, now owned by James Harkins. The hides from the country- side were brought here for processing so long as the country shoe- makers turned out their finished products by hand. Here also came the ox-driven loads of hemlock bark from the back-districts, part of which was sold at the local tannery and the surplus taken by the coasters to other markets. As late as October 1876, the Lincoln County News reported that "wood and bark are being hauled into the market in considerable quantities," but this little industry, too, was facing its end, for the mass production of shoes and leather goods in New England was just driving the old-time cobbler from his trade. In fact, it was true that every little local business was facing strangulation of this kind, and the small towns were being forced into the backwaters by swift-moving economic tides that the little man could not comprehend.
Across the river from the tannery, a little to the north and high up on the hill, the glacier-worn face of protruding ledges revealed the presence of extensive strata of high-quality granite, used for local business purposes so far back that the mind of man remembered not. This vein of wealth was owned by two of the near-by farmers, Day and Feyler, and was operated by the owners on a limited scale, largely to supply the underpinning of homes, doorsteps, door stones, and other local needs. In reality this was an opening for big business, but the owners did not have the capital for large-scale exploitation, and local folk who did possess the means lacked the know-how. In September 1873 the Monthly News reported that the granite quarry of Day and Feyler had been sold to Ebenezer Otis of Rockland for $2,000. The News also noted that the property was adjacent to the Knox and Lin- coln Railroad, and that it did have its prospects. It was not until a quarter of a century later that a revival of business took place in the town with the quarry as the key industry, operated by outside capital and enterprise.
Farther across to the east of the quarry at Feyler's Corner were the Benner Mills, operating on the upper Medomak. They were three in number and only a few rods apart. Here staves and lumber were sawed and a gristmill, recently refitted, handled the grain of the local farmers.
Farther down at the Great Falls of the Medomak within the village limits, the old Kinsell Grist Mill had been standing, a land- mark for well over a century. In its issue of July 20, 1876, the local paper records that the "old mill is being torn down by Rufus Achorn," and the following spring Mr. Achorn began the construction of a new mill - the rather impressive structure known
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as "The Medomak Flour Mill," which was completed in 1878 - a courageous gesture but again an empty one, for the day was not far distant when Waldoboro farmers were to cease growing their own grains and to rely for their supply on the great and fertile West.
A little farther down by the second falls of the Medomak were the mills of Charles S. Soule. On the west bank was the carding mill, and on the east bank a mill manufacturing oakum and ship-plugs. This wool-carding business was founded around 1800, and Mr. Soule assumed control in 1842. For half a century his mill carded a large portion of the wool produced in this vicinity. In 1876 a new dam was constructed on this site, and for eleven more years he continued dressing cloth, and then, after forty-five years' experience in this work, ceased operations, for he had lived on into a world where the giant wool industries in the larger cities had made his little business superfluous. A threshing machine was installed in the mill on the east bank, and for a few years it threshed the ever-diminishing harvests of grain that were brought to its door. Then one day after nearly a century of mo- tion the wheels were silent. There was no more work for them to do.
Still farther down the river at the First Falls, another old land- mark was disappearing. The Monthly News in its August issue of 1873, noted that "Sproul's Mill, one of the old landmarks of Waldoboro is being torn down to give place to a more substantial structure." This mill had been erected by William Sproul back at the turn of the century, and for seventy-five years had been the main saw and gristmill of the town. The new structure con- tinued the old business of grinding grain and sawing lumber, shingles, and staves under the management of Mr. Gleason, father of William, and of Alden, who built the Leavitt Storer house and resided in it for many years.
Close to the Sproul Mill on the same side of the river and using the same water power was the Iron and Brass Foundry, second in importance only to the shipbuilding industry in the town. It had been founded in 1852 by Messrs. Harriman and At- well, and in 1856 it came into the possession of Isaac Boyd, a native of Ohio. In 1868 his son, James, assumed control and despite the decline of shipbuilding in the town, the foundry was really a thriving industry. It manufactured to order windlass purchases, bitts, steering wheels, power winches, composition rudders, braces, spikes and bolts, and composition ship castings of all kinds, derrick winches, and castings for granite polishing machines. Job work of all kinds was taken on including all types of farming tools, sled shoes, shafting, and other kinds of mill work, including the
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then widely used Doe plow. The factory setup consisted of a machine shop occupying two floors twenty-two by forty feet; an iron foundry, thirty by forty feet, a brass foundry of equal size, and a storehouse, twenty by thirty feet. This business supported every need of the district including shipbuilding and every phase of industry and agriculture.9 It went out with the end of ship- building and the flood of other products that moved in on the local market with the rise of big industry in the outside world.
The years following the Civil War witnessed the rise of the ice industry in New England with its heavy shipping of this commodity to Southern ports. The pioneer in this field in Waldo- boro was William F. Storer. First-quality ice was cut in the pond above the dam at Sproul's Mill and stored in an icehouse which Mr. Storer built on Storer's Point. Here the channel makes in close to the shore and vessels were able to load this product for the warmer ports to the South. The expansion of this industry locally continued on into the next century.
Farther down on the salt water the river, too, was doing its part to increase the well-being of the town. Fish of all kinds were taken for commercial purpose, and there were twenty fish weirs along the shore from South Waldoboro to the head of tide. These weirs were located largely on the shores owned by the men operating them, and their locations may be determined largely from the names of the operators. Beginning in South Waldoboro and moving up the river the following weirs were operated on both sides of the channel. Frank Haupt & Co. and Center and Gale had two each, and the following had one: Robert Winchen- bach, John Hennings, Judson Mank & Co., Preble & Kaler, Win- chenbach & Howard, Genthner & Creamer, Andrew Kaler, Soule & Wellman, John Soule, Kuhn, Howard & Co., Rodney Creamer, Creamer & Kaler, Ballard Kaler, Charles F. Demuth, George Henry Matthews, and Captain Andrew Storer whose weir off his shore was called the "Old Standard." In the year 1872 this weir netted the operators $13,000.10 The operation of this industry, however, led to conflict with the shipbuilders, for extending as they did from the shore to the channel, these weirs tended to divert all debris to the channel and thus obstruct the passage of shipping. Since the shipbuilders were the more powerful interest they succeeded in getting a bill through the Legislature in 1875 for the "protection of the river." Under its provisions all fish weirs were prohibited on the river north of Hollis Point. This measure terminated operations in fourteen of these industries.
To a larger extent than heretofore since early days, the town was turning to agriculture. With the advent of the railroad, rapid
Lincoln County News, Nov. 8, 1876.
10 Mrs. Mary I. Boothby, granddaughter of Capt. Andrew Storer.
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