USA > Maine > Cumberland County > New Gloucester > New Gloucester, Maine, centennial, September 7, 1874 > Part 6
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I am yours respectfully, SAM'L C. FESSENDEN.
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RESPONSE BY HON. G. W. WOODMAN.
THE PAST AND PRESENT.
Response by Hon. GEORGE W. WOODMAN, of Port- land.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
It is a pleasure to me to be here to-day, and to participate in this Centennial Celebration of my native town. It brings fresh to my mind many incidents of the past, and affords me an opportunity to interchange sentiments with many early and true friends. I hardly know what I can say to interest you, and the friends present, after having listened to the elaborate historical address from the Orator of the day. He seems to have covered about all of the ground.
But, sir, as you have seen fit to call upon me, I feel to respond with a few remarks, such as may flow into my mind. We have met here to-day to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of this good old town. When we look forward one hundred years, it seems to be a long time ; but when we look back and survey the past, it seems as it were but a day.
Sir, in reviewing the past, we notice the great changes that are constantly taking place around us, and with what rapidity we are making history. The progress and improve- ments we are making as a people, in the arts and sciences, in every direction, not only in the cultivation of the soil, in the breeding of animals, but in the culture of the human mind itself. Culture-yes, culture ; that's the word. When we speak of cultivating the human mind, that we may grow wiser and better,-of rearing our children and moulding them into manhood and womanhood, when we point in this
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RESPONSE BY HON. G. W. WOODMAN.
direction there is no end to its influence ; it encircles the world.
Sir, what a contrast there is in the picture that is pre- sented here to-day, with that presented here one hundred years ago. Then all around us was a vast wilderness, with a sparse population, only here and there a settler, surrounded by the Indians, with the old block house on this very spot, as a place of refuge for our early settlers.
To-day, Mr. President, we have before us this large audi- ence, these fair ladies and true men, the very type of civili- zation and progress, these beautiful hills and valleys around us, a panorama of nature that the artist cannot paint. Our Orator told us that the early settlers suffered very much from the Indians. It was either real or imaginary. I have some- times thought that imaginary or borrowed trouble was really as hard to bear as the real thing itself. I have no doubt but that much of the suffering by our people in those days caused by the Indians, was through fear, and if you will allow me, I will refer to an incident that took place in those days, in proof of my position in this matter. It may be new to some of you, but probably not to all.
There were two gentlemen traveling together on the low lands near the river, between here and where my father lived, Mr. JABEZ TRUE and Mr. EBENEZER. LANE. Mr. TRUE was sure that he heard the Indians approaching them. He said to Mr. LANE that he could hear them say " Mr. JABEZ TRUE, I am as big a man as you-you-you. Then Mr. LANE was sure that he could hear them say " Mr. EBEN- EZER LANE, I will stab you with my tomahawk and club you with my cane-cane-cane." Now these gentlemen were sure that they heard the Indians, but it turned out to be nothing more than Bull Frogs in the river. And my idea is,
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RESPONSE BY HON. G. W. WOODMAN.
that much of the trouble that comes to us in this life is imaginary, and when sifted, will turn out to be nothing more than Bull Frogs, as in this case.
Sir, our early settlers labored under great disadvantages as compared with the present time. Everything then was in a crude state. Their farming utensils were of a low order- the old stub scythe, sickle, flail, spinning wheel and the hand loom. Sometimes they went to mill on horse back, with a bushel of corn in one end of the bag and and a stone in the other end to balance the grist. The stride in prog- ress shows us to-day the mowing machine, the horse rake, the pitching machine, the reaper and the threshing machine. We go to mill with the iron horse, and we have factories of every description, with their thousands and tens of thousands of spindles and looms propelled by water and steam, all over the country.
Sir, perhaps New Gloucester has not made so much progress in certain directions as some other towns. In manufacturing, for instance, she has not been so well situated, but for agriculture and horticulture, if rightly managed, she is one of the best. She can grow anything you have a mind to ask of her, and you will pardon me, Mr. President, if I say she has grown men and women, and some of the best judicial and mercantile brains in the State. And when I refer to her as an agricultural town, Mr. President, you must remem- ber that agriculture lies at the very foundation of all our prosperity in this country. It gives the lights and shades to the picture ; strike it out and your likeness is gone. And, Sir, as soon as this is fairly understood, it will make no difference as to what a man's business is, what his ability or his proficiencies, for he will be proud to say that he is a producer-that he is an agriculturalist, either directly or
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RESPONSE BY HON. G. W. WOODMAN.
indirectly ; and then, Sir, those engaged in the business will have attained their true position, and great progress will be made, and their influence will be felt throughout the land.
Mr. President, I have referred to culture, and if you will allow me, I will give you simply one illustration in order to show what can be done in that direction. It may strike some of you as a new idea,-as rather novel. Suppose we take two infants of equal capacity by birth, one from one of the best families in New England, and the other from one of the best families in Ireland, and we will suppose these two babes to be exchanged in their infancy ; the Irish child to be brought up under the influence and culture of the New England family, while the American child is brought up under the influence and culture of the Irish family ; and at twenty-one years of age, you will find that the Irish boy will speak our language as well as any of us, no one sus- pecting him of being an Irishman, while the New England boy will speak the Irish language with the brogue, and will pass for an Irishman. Sir, why is this ? I will leave it for the audience to decide.
Sir, not many years since, there was but one stage-coach per week running between the city of Portland and the city of Boston, and when a party came forward and con- tracted to run two coaches a week between the two cities, he was considered a fool by some, for the undertaking, as it seemed to be impracticable at that time. We now have two railroads through from city to city, with ten passenger trains a day each way, making twenty trains daily, besides two lines of steamers.
Again, look at the mode of correspondence. It is com- paratively but a few years since the business men of our city would correspond with the merchants of New York
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RESPONSE BY HON. G. W. WOODMAN.
and other cities, and would not get a reply, perhaps, for four or five weeks. We now speak from city to city, from State to State and from nation to nation through the magnetic telegraph, that wonder of the age, which, with its electric fire, is made to speak the very thoughts of men, and with its iron bands stretched from continent to continent, binding them together, as it were, and blending them into one.
It was supposed by many that when the Atlantic cable was first laid, it would not be a success-that it would soon be chafed off by the rocks below, or something else would happen to it, and then it would be next to impossible to repair it, and of course it would be a failure. But, Sir, what do the scientific men, the electricians of to-day, tell us about this matter ? They tell us that if the cable breaks or anything happens to it, that they can measure the distance to it from either shore and tell us just what the fault is, whether it is one hundred miles, one thousand miles or ten thousand miles at sea ; that it makes no difference ; that they are sure to find it. To an unscientific mind it would seem impossible that such a fact as this could be accom- plished. Yet, to the one who knows, it is perfectly feasible and can be done. This to me is more wonderful than the telegraph itself, and from whatever standpoint we look, we see this same onward movement, this same spirit of progress.
Mr. President, in conclusion let me say, I hope and trust that New Gloucester will continue to progress and improve, and in each returning anniversary of her birth, she will be found on her true position, that her people will not only cultivate the soil, but the mind; not only produce the cereals and the like, but continue to grow men and women that will honor her as heretofore. An able writer once used these words, "We out-grow our homes." This
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LETTER OF HON. T. P. CHANDLER.
may be true in a certain sense, but, Sir, this town has many attachments that bind me to her, that have long since been photographed upon the tablet of the mind, and will continue as long as memory shall last.
Sir, this was the home of my grand-parents on both sides, the birthplace of my Father and Mother, also the Father of Mrs. Woodman. It was here that I spent twenty-three years of my early life, and many of them were some of my ยท happiest years. I have many times thought that I should like to return and spend the rest of my days here; and whenever I visit the town, I am always reminded of these words, " Home, sweet home, there is no place like home."
The following letter from the Hon. THEOPHILUS P. CHANDLER, of Brookline, Mass., was read.
BROOKLINE, Mass., Sept. 3, 1874.
JOSEPH CROSS, EsQ.
My Dear Sir :- The circular invitation to your Centennial Celebration came duly to hand, and I regret my inability to be present.
I was born in New Gloucester, in 1807, and lived there just twenty years.
In all my travels I have seen few towns more beautiful, or more healthful, and have met with no people of a higher moral tone. But few of my old associates are left, and to them give my cordial regards.
Truly yours,
T. P. CHANDLER.
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RESPONSE BY OSGOOD BRADBURY, ESQ.
OUR VENERABLE FATHERS. May their latter days be as peaceful and happy as their earlier were industrious and useful.
Response by OSGOOD BRADBURY, EsQ., of Portland, a former citizen of New Gloucester.
Men and Women of the past and present generation :
Strange as it may seem to the young men and maidens present on this interesting occasion, I do not feel as if I had lived in this breathing world more than three-quarters of the time since this good old town was incorporated one hundred years ago, and yet the town records show the stubborn fact. I take it for granted that the younger por- tion of this audience look upon me as an old man, but while watching the progress of events, hearing the hard breathing of the iron horse, the' rumbling of the cars, the tell-tale ticking of the telegraph, and forgetting the numerous mile- stones which I have passed on my journey of life, I feel as if I had just commenced to live.
While standing here under this spacious tent, and on ground ever to be remembered, where our forefathers as- sembled in the Blockhouse so well described by the Orator of the day, and calling up in memory the Old Church that once stood on the hallowed spot where the new one now stands, erected by the zeal and enterprise of our Fathers ; and especially while remembering the high old-fashioned pulpit and the jolly good old fat parson that stood in it, with the sounding-board over his head, and the big bible before him on the cushion which our good grandmothers had made to adorn the sacred desk and make the good book rest easy ; and while I so well remember closing his eyes on the night of his death, assisted by Deacon MARSH, who dug
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CHANGES IN FASHION.
so many graves in yonder cemetery, and conducted so many funerals of those near and dear to us all ; and again, while looking over this audience, and seeing countenances famil- iar to me many, many years ago, thinking of the hundreds of men, women and children who were wont to listen in the Old Church to the venerable FOXCROFT and the good-natured MOSELY, but whose bodies now rest in yonder city of the dead, I feel-I know-that those who call me an old man are not far out of the way.
Once more: when I look at the dresses now worn by daughters and their mothers too, even in this audience, and compare the furbelows, flounces, plaits and endless trim- mings, almost all of foreign manufacture, with the plain gowns of the past generation, spun and woven by the wearers themselves, dressed in the old fulling mill on Royal's River and dyed a London smoke or brown, I am forcibly im- pressed with the belief that I have lived long enough to witness many and foolish changes in the fashionable world. Yes, I must be quite old in spite of all my youthful emotions. What chambers now resound with the music of the old spinning wheel which were wont to be turned by fair hands ? Ah! well do I remember such "chamber music" made by the fair daughters, and the buzz of the linen wheel turned by the feet of their good mothers ; and how industriously the girls would spin and weave to get the cloth early to the fulling mill, so they might have new dresses to wear to school, and how neat and tidy they looked in their home- made London browns ; no flounces or furbelows disfigured their well pressed and shining surface, and no false bundles upon their backs to destroy the symmetry of their forms. Such dresses proved the truth of the saying that "Beauty unadorned is adorned the most," and so it is and always
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THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE.
will be. Nature does her work perfectly, and the less we try to improve it the better for us. All the dress-makers in Paris, Berlin or the world can't improve a beauteous form, but they have the power and skill to make it look ugly, and that is now done with a high hand. We live in an extravagant age, and how long foolish and hurtful fash- ions will continue to disfigure the form and try the depths of the parental purse is a problem not yet solved.
Let me allude to the temperance cause which has taken fast hold upon the inhabitants of this ancient and honorable town; it was not so in years gone by. I can well remember when I was a boy in a store at the Upper Village, and saw how the master of the establishment prepared the New England rum before it was dealt out to customers at fifty cents per gallon, or three cents per glass. After a cart would be driven to the store laden with iron bound white oak hogsheads of the liquid fire, they were rolled in, but before they were tapped the master would appear with a small proof glass with a string tied round its neck. Down he
would plunge it through the bung-hole into the choice beverage, draw it up, shake it, examine the bead closely, and then say, "Osgood, this will bear more water." My duty was to go to the pump and bring in the water, which was mingled with the rum and reduced it to a certain proof ascertained by another plunge of the glass and another look at the bead. These hogsheads of rum were invariably thus treated before they were placed on tap. When I look back upon those days I am astonished at the amount of intoxicat- ing liquor which was then sold in this single store, by the gallon and the glass, and yet the Anti-Maine Law people say there is as much rum drank now as ever. It is not so
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THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE.
by a long shot ; where there is one gallon drank now there were hogsheads drank then. In the haying season oceans of it were guzzled down, no buildings could be raised with- out it, and alas ! at funerals decanters and tumblers were placed upon tables in the room adjoining that in which the mourners sat; all who wished to imbibe helped them- selves ; a majority were thus inclined, and the decanters run low before all left the house of mourning. Oh! sor- rowful days ! How many bright, active, enterprising men of this town yielded up their lives to this fell destroyer, and yet funerals were not conducted without the presence and use of this liquid damnation. O! how few in those sad days clearly saw the untold miseries of intemperance ! and how could they when their opinions took their hues from their stomachs. I was once riding with a son of a physician in this State-he then resided in Taunton, Mass. He was a talkative young man, and introduced the subject of tem- perance ; he remarked that it was a good and glorious cause, but thought the people of Taunton were driving it a little too hard. I told him I anticipated his opinion as soon as he broached the subject. "How so," he inquired, expressing some surprise at my intuitive knowledge. "Because I smelt your breath," I replied very deliberately. He dropped the subject. So it is the world over ; our stomachs do influence our opinions, and hence we must be careful what we eat and drink.
I will close with a few lines from a poet :
"O loving friend ! if, when ' tis life's summer, Earth's griefs have made you old, Look where past years, forever in safe-keeping Their garnered harvests hold.
.
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RESPONSE BY REV. JOHN F. MORGAN.
For, if one sweet word has been remembered Through long, slow years of pain,
The saddest soul can never say in sorrow That it has lived in vain."
THE CLERGY. We acknowledge their efforts for the advance- ment of moral, religious and intellectual culture.
Response by Rev. JOHN F. MORGAN, of Kansas, a native of New Gloucester :
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen and Fellow Citizens :
Among the primary objects, and I may say one of the leading objects, held in view by all these early settlers of the towns of New England, was that they might worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. Sometimes we of the present generation are led to criticize somewhat the austere manner of our Puritan Fathers, but I stand here to-day, however, to offer no apology for the seeming austere spirit that was manifested in the early days of my native town, in reference to the diffusion of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
I look back with joy and gratitude to-day and remember the influences as far back as my memory goes, that the gospel has had on me. It has been said repeatedly by elo- quent speakers who have preceded me, that among the products of this town we have given to the world noble men and women. That is true ; and one of these influences, yes, the most potent influence of all that has tended to pro- duce these noble men and women, has been the influence of the gospel.
As I have been sitting here and listening to these varied exercises, and the remarks that have been made before me,
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RESPONSE BY REV. JOHN F. MORGAN.
I thought how much we have to be thankful for, and how much reason' we have to give thanks to God for his great goodness to us. I think that is the main and primary influ- ence which has given us the blessings and enjoyments which we have here to-day. A short time since, I returned from my place of labor in Kansas, and since that time I have been at my Father's house talking over the scenes and inci- dents of the past. My Father has told me of things that transpired in my native town in connection with the gospel influences, and I have been more interested than ever before, as he has told me how, Sabbath after Sabbath, they were gathered together in the sanctuary of God without any fire to keep them warm save the warming influence of Jesus Christ, and of their hearts.
We have heard how those who came here to engage in the settlement of this town provided for the sustaining of the ministry. I thank God to-day, and I think we all have reason to thank God, that they thought so much at that early day of preaching God's word. I sometimes feel they were too severe; and we have heard time and time again that they chose forty tything-men, in order that they might make men, women and children sit straight during the Sabbath, without a smile on their faces. They were so de- termined that every child, every man and every woman, should be impressed with the influences of the gospel, that they used, perhaps, rather rash means, and rather severe methods ; but I cannot help thanking God that we have been raised up under those same stern and austere influences.
I have been among those in the South and West who were raised under different influences, and when I have seen their recklessness, how little care or thought they had for the keeping of the Sabbath Day, or how little care they
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RESPONSE BY REV. JOHN F. MORGAN.
had for promoting moral reform, I have been glad that I had a Christian Father and a Christian Mother to implant these principles in my breast in early childhood, who gave me the opportunity to sit, Sabbath after Sabbath, under the preaching of the Holy Word of God.
In this town we have been favored for the last century with a ministry whose names I need not repeat, who have esteemed it a joy and a privilege to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people.
Sometimes it is said that this town and other towns are diminishing in numbers, and perhaps it causes some to be discouraged when they are forsaken by the children and youth. Let me say to those Fathers and Mothers to-day, the influence of those who have taught the gospel is being felt not only here among these rugged hills of New England, but even to the Pacific coast. We find these principles are being carried by the young men, by the women and by those who have adopted as their profession the ministry of the gospel, as far as this country extends-yea, beyond the sea this influence has gone, and is to-day a permeating influence in all the institutions of this country, which are for the reformation and amelioration of the humankind. I don't stand here to-day to offer any apology for the stern manner in which our ancestors have trained us. I thank God for it. I feel there is a danger, in adopting new methods and those which are more congenial, that we shall forsake the true spirit of the gospel.
Let me say in conclusion, that while we rejoice in .the fact that we have made progress in adopting better methods for propagating the gospel, let us beware that we do not depart in so doing from the spirit and teachings of those who have gone before us. Let us beware that we do not
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RESPONSE BY J. H. WOODMAN, A. M.
let down the standard of our piety too low, so that this reverence which we hold dear shall not be forgotten. Let us see to it, that we, in receiving and enjoying as we do, the inheritance our fathers so bountifully left us, hand down the same influence to our children and to the generation that shall be raised up after we have departed from the stage of action, so that they may rejoice and thank God that we worked and taught them the pure gospel of Christ.
THE FIRST TOWN MEETING.
Response by JABEZ H. WOODMAN, A. M., of New Gloucester, a friend and room mate in college of the late Hon. JOHN A. ANDREW, of Massachusetts.
In seventeen hundred seventy-four, On the seventh of September, Our ancestors in council met ; Their votes we well remember.
And first in order, SIMON NOYES Was chosen Moderator ; Who knows but he presided well As any legislator ?
Capt. NATHANIEL EVELETH, For Town Clerk was selected ; No better choice from all the town Could sure have been expected.
For two and forty years he served, Deserving special honor ; And this he had by vote of thanks, Quite near New Glo'ster Corner.
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THE FIRST TOWN MEETING.
Selectmen and Assessors now, Squire SIMON NOYES is Chairman, MOSES and SAMUEL MERRILL next, And each no doubt a fair man.
Col. ISAAC PARSONS, Treasurer, Was a man of a stern look, sir, I've seen him once; I know 'tis so, And have it not from book, sir.
For Town Collector, WOODMAN JOHN, (A kind of rara avis) Was pitched upon, but wouldn't accept; SO WHIPT IN ABEL DAVIS.
Next come the Wardens, who preserve Silence profound on Sunday, In that Big Church whose belfry high, Made us quite dizzy one day.
JOSIAH SMITH and PELEG CHANDLER Were Wardens then appointed, To flourish poles on Sabbath Day, And thus keep things well jointed.
Be it known to MERRILLS everywhere, Whether they in earth or moon are: New Glo'ster's tything-man the first Was MOSES MERRILL, Junior.
Three Road Surveyors greet our vision ; And first is JACOB HASKELL ; Then WM. HARRIS, ABEL DAVIS, But "nary one " a rascal.
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WILLIAM WIDGERY.
And who's the sealer of weights and measures ? 'Tis Deacon DANIEL MERRILL, Adjusting every scale in town, And bushel, peck and barrel.
Does vane upon the steeple rod Point out the wind and weather ?
And didn't SAM'L PARSONS point The way of sealing leather ?
Sir ROBERT BAILEY, o'er the hill ' Bout two miles from the river, Did serve, that year, most faithfully A loyal, good field driver.
JEREMIAH THOITS and PAYNE ELLWELL Were "hog reeves" duly chosen ; They took the oath, and drove the swine, I guess now, by the dozen !
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