Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 29

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790

USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892 > Part 29

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The first copy of the Winthrop Budget, a paper which is now pub- lished, was issued in January, 1881, and was dated the 8th of the month .. It was started by E. O. Kelly, of Winthrop, who recently deceased in that town. It carried a "patent outside," and was com- posed of twenty columns. The present publisher, John A. Stanley, purchased the paper August 22, 1882, issuing the first number August 26th. It was continued as a " patent " until February, 1885, when Mr. Stanley decided to print the entire paper in Winthrop, and has done so ever since. The first issue in August, 1889, was enlarged to its present size, 21 by 30 inches, six columns to a page. The paper is non-partisan, is devoted principally to local happenings, and has a good circulation.

At East Winthrop, in the same town, The Winthrop Monthly News, with " local news in full, stories, poetry, wit, humor, &c.," was started in October, 1875. Although a little sheet, all its matter was original; the stories, editorials, news items, and even advertisements, were

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written by the editor, who was a printer as well as editor almost from infancy. Mr. Packard also published another little amateur paper called the Enterprise, and in October, 1880, he started the Winthrop Banner as a monthly, printing it on an old "Novelty " press. The Banner has had a varying existence, but has steadily gained until it is now a weekly sheet 18 by 24 inches, and the publishers are contem- plating another enlargement in the near future. The present circula- tion is 800. In December, 1889, Mr. Packard formed a partnership in the business with J. E. Snow, of Winthrop. Besides the Banner, the firm print for Mrs. Hannah J. Bailey the Pacific Banner and the Acorn, two monthly papers, having a circulation of from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred each. A well equipped job printing office is con- nected with the establishment.

The West Gardiner Observer was issued semi-monthly in 1889, by E. E. Peacock, a young man in that town. After a suspension of two years he began "Vol. II " as a weekly, his printing being done at the Winthrop Banner office.

The Orb was the name of a paper published at China, by Japheth C. Washburn. Vol. I, No. 1, was issued December 5, 1833-a clean, newsy and well scissored quarto. The second volume was begun De- cember 6, 1834, and was completed. Although the subscription price was two dollars a year, its publication was discontinued at the close of the second year, and no further attempt was made at journalism in that town. The advertising and job work of that day were very light in that purely agricultural town.

The only paper ever attempted at Vassalboro is the Kennebec Valley News, started at Getchell's Corner in August, 1891, by the Kennebec Valley News Company, Samuel A. Burleigh, editor. It is published weekly, at one dollar per year.

The Clinton Advertiser, the smallest paper in the county, was started in Clinton, June, 1886, by B. T. Foster & Co., editors and publishers. It is published weekly; terms, fifty cents per year. No other paper was ever started in Clinton.

CHAPTER XI.

LITERATURE AND LITERARY PEOPLE.

BY THOMAS ADDISON.

T HE list of persons, natives or at some time residents of Kennebec county, who have in one way or another contributed to the literature of the nineteenth century is remarkably long and varied. It comprises poets, humorists, novelists, essayists, historians, philosophers, moralists and scientists of both sexes and all ages, whose work ranges from the level of ordinary merit to heights of superior attainment. The personality of several writers of note still resident in the county might well be treated at length; and such singularly in- teresting work as that of the Hon. James W. North should receive more than passing attention; but to treat in extenso the personalities and published productions of the entire company of authors named in this chapter would require a volume in itself, and would be obviously beyond the present purpose. It has, therefore, been deemed advisa- ble to do little more than enumerate in their alphabetical succession the names of the writers, and briefly indicate, wherever possible, the general character of their efforts.

Though numbers of professional men of literary tastes have con- tributed excellent special matter to the pages of various periodicals, and though there are many general works devoted to the state, or New England, in which Kennebec county is incidentally treated-both open practically endless avenues of statistical research upon which it is impracticable here toenter; consequently, only those who have con- tributed to what may be classed as the general literature of the day are mentioned in the succeeding pages.

Editors whose line of literary effort has been confined solely to the columns of the press have received notice in the preceding chapter: but in this connection it should be remarked that the majority of the authors here catalogued essayed their first flights up the thorny slopes of Parnassus through the friendly aid of the editors of the local press, to whom is due, in large measure, the credit of producing, either di- rectly or indirectly, nearly all of the county's prominent poets and story writers, as well as those of humbler attainments.

The well known Rollo and Lucy books, the Illustrated History series,

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and History of Maine, were from the facile pen of Rev. Jacob Abbott, a native of Hallowell, who was graduated from Bowdoin in 1820.

A popular Vassalboro writer is Howard G. Abbott, who is a cor- respondent for several newspapers.

An early poet favorably known was Josiah Andrews, born in Augusta in 1799. One of his poems, To Augusta, appears in The Poets of Maine, published at Portland in 1888.

Mrs. Frederick (Wimple) Allen, wife of the distinguished attorney, possessed superior intellectual abilities, riclily developed by education and culture. She enjoyed scientific research, geology being her special delight. She was one of the first to find marine fossil shells of extinct species in this region. Her collection was recognized as of great value by Agassiz, Silliman and other scientists with whom she was in frequent correspondence. Her longest literary production was a poem entitled, A Poctical Gcognosy.

Samuel Lane Boardman", the editor of the Daily Kennebec Journal, was born at Skowkegan, Me., March 30, 1836. He early developed a taste and ability for literary work, and in 1861 became editor of the Maine Farmer. For more than seventeen years he filled this import- ant position, becoming undoubtedly the foremost writer in Maine upon agriculture and kindred topics. Within that period he published -in 1867 -- History and Natural History of Kennebec County, Maine, 8vo., 200 pp .; and while secretary of the Maine State Board of Agriculture (1872-1877), he published six volumes on Agriculture of Maine; and in 1885-6 issued two volumes on Pomology of Maine. He has published a genealogy of the Boardman family (1876), besides numerous pam- phlets and lectures on historical, literary, agricultural and scientific subjects. He was editor of the American Cultivator, Boston, 1878, and from 1880 to 1888, editor and proprietor of The Home Farm. Mr. Boardman is also vice-president of the Kennebec Natural History and Antiquarian Society; resident member of the Maine Historical Society, and of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, Boston; and corresponding member of the Vermont and Wisconsin Historical So- cieties, and of the American Entomological Society, Philadelphia.

Ira Berry, born in 1801, started The Age at Augusta in 1831, and published the Gospel Banner in 1839. His poems, The Androscoggin, and Spring, are among the best specimens of his verse. His son, Stephen, born in Augusta in 1833, is also the author of several pleasing poems.

Two brothers are seldom made bishops, but the exception is found in the case of the Rt. Rev. George, and Rt. Rev. Alexander, sons of

*This family name first appears in New England in 1634, when William Boardman was a citizen of Cambridge, Mass. One of his descendants, also named William, was born at Stratham, N. H., in 1754, and in 1816 his son, Sam- uel L., born 1781, removed to Maine, when his son, Charles F. Boardman, the editor's father, was ten years of age.

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Hon. Thomas Burgess, of Rhode Island. Rev. George was conse- crated bishop of Maine in 1847, becoming also rector of Christ church, at Gardiner. A volume of his poems was published after his death, in 1866. Rev. Alexander, first bishop of Quincy, Mass., was rector of St. Mark's, Augusta, 1843-1854. He is the author of many printed sermons, carols and hymns.

Many poems and short stories for newspapers and magazines were written by Josiah D. Bangs, at one time a resident of Augusta, and later, in 1843, a New York journalist. His wife, Pauline, a native of Augusta, furnished a few poems for the Kennebec Journal as early as 1831. Later she wrote regularly for the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, under the pseudonyms of " Ella " and " Pauline."

The Address delivered by Rev. Doctor Bosworth at the dedication of Memorial Hall, Colby University, was published at Waterville in 1869.

Benjamin Bunker, of Waterville, the democratic editor, was born in North Anson, Me., in 1837, and has been a resident of this county since 1887. He founded The Pine Tree State at Fairfield, in 1880, and in 1888 published, under the title Bunker's Text-Book of Political Deviltry, a humorous criticism upon Maine politics and politicians. The "Jack- knife" illustrations by the author is its mechanical characteristic.

Samuel P. Benson's Historic Address, delivered at the Winthrop. Centennial celebration in 1871, was afterward published in pamphlet form.

John M. Benjamin, of Winthrop, a careful, methodical collector of local history, has long been engaged in preserving the earliest data relating to that town. His unpublished manuscript is doubtless the best literature in existence on the pioneer period of Winthrop before 1800.

Clarence B. Burleigh, of Augusta, son of Governor Edwin C. Bur- leigh, is the author of a pleasing story, The Smugglers of Chestnut, illus- trated, published by E. E. Knowles & Co., 1891.

Maine's most distinguished adopted son, Hon. James G. Blaine, of Augusta, is the author of the brilliant and instructive book, Twenty Years of Congress, published in 1884. His life and work are mentioned at length in the chapter on Augusta.

Judge H. K. Baker, of Hallowell, author of Maine Justice, has also written a valuable and interesting volume on Hymnology, issued dur- ing the summer of 1892 from the press of Charles E. Nash, Augusta.

A number of interesting articles in Harper's Magazine have been contributed by Horatio Bridge, of Augusta, who was a classmate and life-long intimate friend of Nathaniel Hawthorne. His recent Harper articles are in relation to Mr. Hawthorne.

A ready writer, and frequent correspondent of Maine papers, is H. J. Brookings, of Gardiner, now a resident of Washington, D. C.

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Hannah J. Bailey, of Winthrop-a well known Christian reformer and philanthropist, is a daughter of David Johnston, a Friend minister, of Cornwall, N. Y. After the death of her husband, Moses Bailey, she wrote and published an appreciative biography of him in a volume aptly entitled Reminiscences of a Christian Life. She is now chiefly en- gaged in literary work incident to her official position in the W. C. T. U., as world's superintendent of its department of Peace and Arbitration, editing two monthly publications and devoting great intellectual and material resources to the uplifting of mankind.

Colonel Henry Boynton, of Augusta, is a compiler of historical works. He issued The World's Greatest Conflict in 1891.

Eight interesting volumes from the pen of Rev. Henry T. Cheever, of Hallowell, bear title as follows: The Whale and his Captors; Island World of the Pacific; Life in the Sandwich Islands; Life of Captain Conger; Memoir of Nathaniel Cheever, 1850; Memoir of Rev. Walter Col- ton; Voices of Nature; and Pulpit and Pew, 1852.

A pleasing writer of poems and short stories for the magazines is Gertrude M. Cannon, of Augusta.

Eunice H. W. Cobb, of Hallowell, wrote hymns and occasional poems, and obituary lines that comforted many in affliction. She was the wife of Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, D.D., and the mother of Sylvanus Cobb, jun., of Boston, the gifted story writer.

Emma M. Cass, of Hallowell, has gained recognition as a writer both of prose and verse. Her little poem, My Neighbors, is especially pleasing.

Harry H. Cochrane, of Monmouth, grandson of Dr. James Coch- rane, jun., has, among other things, given close attention to historical and antiquarian subjects. The chapter on Monmouth in this volume is an abridgment of his very elaborate manuscript History of Mon- mouth and Wales, which is soon to be published.

Alexander C. Currier was an early literary light of Hallowell. He achieved the distinction of having one of his anonymous fugitive newspaper poems quoted by William Cullen Bryant in his Library of Poetry and Song.

J. T. Champlin, D.D., a former president of Colby, was the author of a number of valuable text-books and pamphlets, among them being: A Discourse on the Death of President Harrison, published in 1841; De- mosthenes on the Crown, 1843; Kuhner's Elementary Latin Grammar, 1845; Text-book of Intellectual Philosophy, 1860; and Lessons on Political Economy, 1868.

Golden Gems, a pretty booklet of poems, handsomely illustrated, is from the pen of Mrs. Maria Southwick Colburn, a daughter of Jacob Southwick, of Vassalboro. Mrs. Colburn now lives in Oakland, Cal.

An expressive poem, Dominie M'Lauren, is from the pen of Rev.

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Edgar F. Davis, pastor of the Congregational church at Gardiner from 1881 to 1889.

· Rev. William A. Drew, of Augusta, was the author of a volume of Foreign Travels (1851), published by Homan & Manley, and numerous sermons and addresses.

John T. P. Du Mont, who died prior to 1856, was locally famous as a literary man and wit. He was an orator of considerable ability, and a valued contributor to the local press.

A pleasing volume of Poems bears upon its title page, as author, the name of Mrs. Mattie B. Dunn, of Waterville.

Charles F. Dunn, a graduate of Harvard College, possessed an excellent gift of poetry, as shown in his published writings; but he was buried on a farm in Litchfield during most of his life, and his talents never received their full development.

A brilliant writer of sea letters was Captain John H. Drew, of Farmingdale. He was well and delightfully known to readers of the Boston Journal as " Kennebecker." He died in 1891.

Olive E. Dana, of Augusta, has written several poems of merit for various periodicals. One, The Magi, is illustrative of her best ability. Other poems from her pen are embraced in The Poets of America, is- sued in 1891 by the American Publishing Association, of Chicago.

Henry Weld Fuller, jun., was born in Augusta in 1810. He was a graduate of Bowdoin, and later became the law partner of his father, Hon. Henry Weld Fuller. The Victim, a fine poem from his pen, ap- pears in The Poets of Maine.

Benjamin A. G. Fuller, born in Augusta in 1818, was an occasional contributor to genealogical and other magazines. He was also the author of several poems.

Melville W. Fuller, of Augusta, chief justice of the U. S. supreme court, is a man of cultivated literary tastes, as shown in numerous published poems.

The verses of Oscar F. Frost, of Monmouth, have appeared in many of the leading metropolitan periodicals. His short poem, Brush Away the Tears, Mollie, which appeared in the Boston Post soon after Presi- dent Garfield was assassinated, was set to music by a leading publish- ing house.

R. H. Gardiner was the author of a History of Gardiner. The vol- ume may be found in the Maine Historical Society's collection.

Rev. Eliphalet Gillett, D.D., of Hallowell, was the author of many published sermons, ranging in date from 1795 to 1823; and also author of Reports of the Maine Missionary Society, 1807 to 1849 (except 1836), and A List of the Ministers of Maine, 1840.

William B. Glazier, who was born in Hallowell, is now a forgotten poet, but one who, in his day, contributed many pleasing verses to

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periodical literature. A volume of his poems was published by Mas- ters & Co., previous to 1872.

Several volumes of poems have been written by F. Glazier, of Hal- lowell.

Mrs. Eleanor (Allen) Gay, daughter of Mrs. Frederick Allen, and wife of Doctor Gay, of Gardiner, was a woman of rich mental gifts, and a writer of much literary merit. She published a volume entitled The Siege of Agrigentum.

An Obituary Record of Graduates of Colby University, from 1822 to 1870, was compiled by Charles E. Hamlin. and published (66 pp., 8vo.) at Waterville in 1870. Mr. Hamlin is also the author of an interesting Catalogue of Birds found in the vicinity of Waterville.

J. H. Hanson, LL.D., principal of Coburn Classical Institute, has contributed much to the educational literature of the day, having an- notated and published The Preparatory Latin Prose Book; Cicero's Select Orations; Cæsar's Commentaries; and (in association with Prof. W. J. Rolfe, of Cambridge, Mass.,) the Hand-Book of Latin Poetry and Selec- tions from Ovid and Virgil.

The literary labors of the late Dr. Ezekiel Holmes, of Winthrop, author of The Northern Shepherd, are referred to at some length at page 192.

Mrs. Anne A. Hall, of Augusta, wrote many sweet poems of home life, among them The Little Child's Belief, and The Nursery. She died in Spain in 1865.

Mrs. Caroline N. Hobart, of Augusta, was the author of Lines on Visiting the Old Ladies' Home, Childhood's Faith and other short poems.

Amos L. Hinds, town clerk of Benton, is the author of a beautiful legendary poem, of considerable length, entitled Uncle Stephen.

On the Assabet, a local poem, by Dora B. Hunter, of Waterville, ap- peared in the Portland Transcript some years ago and received de- served recognition. Miss Hunter is also a contributor to the Congre- gationalist, Christian Union and other papers.

Ode to the Snow, Good-bye, and the The Men of Auld Lang Syne, (the latter sung at the Augusta Centennial celebration, July 4, 1854), are from the pen of Joseph A. Homan, the retired editor and publisher, of Augusta.

Mrs. Anna Sargent Hunt, of Augusta, editor of the Home Mission Echo, has been a very prolific writer, both of prose and verse. Alpine Calls is one of her best poems.

In 1852 Rev. J. W. Hanson, then pastor of the Universalist church in Gardiner, published, in 343 pages, a local history of the old town of Pittston, in which is preserved much valuable information. The work, now out of print, is, in fact, the best authority extant on the early families of Gardiner, West Gardiner, Pittston, Farmingdale and

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Randolph. Mr. Hanson was also author of the History of Norridge- wock and Canaan, Me., and the History of Danvers, Mass.

A profound student of ancient and modern languages, and a noted Shakespearian scholar, is Prof. Henry Johnson, a native of Gardiner and member of the faculty of Bowdoin College. He is at work on a variorum edition of Shakespeare, (portions of whichi have been already published), which is intended to give an exact account of all the varia- tions of early copies of the great poet, even to the least in spelling or punctuation.

Clara R. Jones, of Winslow, is the author of Spinning and other poems.

The poetic contributions of Cathie L. Jewett, of Augusta, have ap- peared in many periodicals, and she has also achieved success in the line of story writing.

The Life of Eli and Sybil Jones was written in 1888, by Rufus M. Jones, now principal of Oak Grove Seminary. It is a graphic and moving narration of the struggles of these early missionaries, the first ever sent abroad by the Friends. Mr. Jones is also the author of the chapter in the present work, on The Society of Friends.

Rev. Sylvester Judd, once pastor of the Unitarian society of Augusta, was an author of national reputation. A graduate of Yale, and the divinity school at Cambridge, he was an accomplished scholar, . a deep thinker, and the master of an elegant and forceful literary style. He was the author of Margaret, A Tale of the Real and Ideal; Philo, an Evangeliad; Richard Edney, and several volumes of sermons and lectures. His Life and Character, by Miss Arethusa Hall, was pub- lished in 1854, the year of his death.

Dr. William B. Lapham*, of Augusta, is a well known author of local histories and genealogies. He has written the following town histories: Woodstock, published in 1882; Paris, 1884; Norway, 1886; Rumford, 1890; Bethel, 1892-all of Oxford county, Me. He is also the author of the synoptical history of Kennebec county, and its cities and towns, which prefaces the Atlas of Kennebec County, published in 1879, by Caldwell & Halfpenny; and he has compiled the well known Bradbury Genealogy, and eight smaller genealogies of from 20 to 72 pages each. Doctor Lapham is chairman of the committee on publi- cation, of the Maine Historical Society. Though his natural taste is for genealogical and historical matters, he has by no means confined his pen to this line of work. He began writing for the local papers in Oxford county, and wrote also for the Portland Transcript. He was editor of the Maine Farmer from 1871 to 1885; he issued the Maine Genealogist and Biographer-a quarterly -- from 1875 to 1878; and he edited the Farm and Hearth two years.

His style is clear and concise, without any effort at display, but *By H. K. Morrell, Esq., of Gardiner.

WmySapham

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never dull or uninteresting. He has occasionally "dropped into poetry," like Mr. Wegg, and has very rarely taken a turn at political sarcasm. His pen, though usually as smooth as the stylus of Virgil, can be pro- voked to criticism, and is then pointed enough to satisfy any opponent. He has a sharp sense of fitness, and feels keenly what he thinks is unfairness. His works are such as will always live, so long as the sons of Maine take a pride in its history. He once remarked that he did not take much interest in a man till he had been dead a century or two. This was, of course, a joke, but it indicates the true anti- quarian, of which he is a good specimen. Charles IX said, as he kicked over the massacred body of Coligny, " There is nothing so sweet as the smell of a dead enemy." Doctor Lapham would not go so far as that, but there is an odor of sanctity to old books and old heroes and pioneers very refreshing to his nostrils. May he live to write the obituary and history of all of us-for he will " nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."

Elijah P. Lovejoy, son of the late Rev. Daniel Lovejoy, of Albion, graduated from Waterville College in 1826. He was shot by a mob in Alton, Ill., in 1837, for writing against slavery in the newspaper he had established in that place. His poems, The Little Star, and To My Mother, appear in The Poets of Maine.

Henry C. Leonard, editor of the Gospel Banner during Mr. Homan's proprietorship, was a man of fine poetic instincts, instanced in The Old Chief and Christmas Eve.

Prof. J. R. Loomis, of Colby, is the author of a volume on the Ele- ments of Physiology.

Mrs. M. V. F. Livingston, of Augusta, is a constant writer for cur- rent periodicals, and is also the author of several remarkable books -- one of them, Fra Lippo Lippi, having attained a wide circulation.

Harriet S. Morgridge, of Hallowell, is widely known by her series of Mother Goose Sonnets, published in St. Nicholas in 1889. Miss Mor- gridge is also the author of many fugitive pieces, in prose and verse, that have appeared from time to time in various periodicals.

John W. May, formerly of Winthrop, is the author of a stirring poem first read at the Winthrop Centennial celebration in 1871, and afterward published. He also published in 1884, a unique volume of legal and local reminiscences, entitled Inside the Bar.

A very talented writer of verses, Hannah A. Moore, of Benton, was introduced to the literary world by N. P. Willis, and her poems found favor with Longfellow, Bryant and other celebrated authors. Almost Miss Moore's first publisher was Ephraim Maxham, of the Waterville Mail.

HIRAM K. MORRELL, of Gardiner, whose antecedents are noticed at page 658, is perhaps as distinctively a literary man in tastes, habits and accomplishments as any non-professional resident of the county.

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

His relations to the local press are noticed in the preceding chapter. and while editor of his own paper he did much of the literary work by which he is now well known in Maine.

His school days were passed in Gardiner, where he had not only such chances of learning as every poor man's son may secure, but also re- ceived some help in a private school kept by Frederick A. Sawyer, who took a great interest in the boy. He also studied Latin with Judge Snell, then teaching in the public schools. He learned the brickmaker's trade with his father, and, about 1857, was in partner- ship with him for a year. Possessing a natural taste for literature, it was not surprising that he soon drifted into newspaper work, where he has made a reputation for himself of which any journalist might be proud.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 29

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York, Blake Number of Pages: 1790

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790