USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > Portland city guide > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
So great was the volume of water traffic through the local port that by
122
Portland City Guide
1897 there were three steamers running to Boston, the Bay State, the Port- land, and the Tremont; an optimistic local journal of the day stated that "the Tremont will take freight if necessary, but will be kept to accommodate passenger traffic, which grows heavier each year." The ill-starred Portland, built at Bath, had 163 staterooms and was described as a 'floating palace.' This same year the Maine Steamship Company operated three boats to New York, sailing five days a week, and the transatlantic Thompson Line was making weekly trips to London. Seven years later there were 15 lines sail- ing from Portland, and they carried 1,301,742 passengers. The city was known as the Castle Garden of the East, and in 1911 a peak of nearly two million passengers was reached. A sharp decrease is noted from the time of the World War; by 1935 yearly passenger traffic through the port had dwindled to 289,957.
The building of the Erie Canal in New York State was the stimulus for the construction of a waterway from Sebago Lake to Saccarappa (West- brook) ; a company was formed in 1821 to build the Cumberland and Ox- ford Canal to connect inland waters with Portland Harbor. Along this 40- mile water route, 20 of which was canal, it was planned that timber, wood, stone, ashes, sand for glass manufacture, and produce would move out of the interior, and plaster, fish, and needed merchandise would come in. In addition to specific appropriations the State devoted the proceeds from lot- teries to the canal. It was not completed until 1830; an extension to the An- droscoggin and the Chaudiere Rivers had been proposed in the early stages of the project, but this work was never undertaken.
The gaudy George Washington, flat-bottomed, square-sterned, and drawn by two horses, was the first boat to make passage up the canal. Rates were one-half cent a mile for passengers, and on the initial trip Nathaniel Haw- thorne journeyed to the tantara of the pilot's bugle which warned the lock- tenders of the approaching boat. Freight was the main revenue; a hogs- head of rum was transported for ten cents a mile, but nothing moved on the Sabbath. This waterway was abandoned soon after the coming of the rail- way; its glory now faded, the course is all but obliterated.
The establishment of ferries was contemporaneous with the opening of roads or trails, whenever the early travelers encountered streams they could not ford. The earliest mention of regular service is the account pre- viously quoted of John Pritchard's rude boat that crossed the Casco River in 1719. It is natural to suppose that there were many of these small boats in service from point to point, and from the mainland to the many islands
123
Transportation
in the bay. For many years there has been scheduled service by a line of steamers to the more important of the islands, and a regular service to Peak Island. Today the Peaks Island Ferry Company operates a Diesel- powered passenger and automobile ferry from Portland Pier. The Casco Bay Lines, with five steamers (some Diesel) augment this service, and the boats touch at 12 other islands in the bay.
Railroads and Railways
Railroads grew up in Maine with Portland as a center, and there was much rivalry in the early days for the western traffic. Due to its geographi- cal position, Maine had more contact with the British Provinces than with her neighboring states. Its railroad system was therefore quite independent of other lines and had few natural relations with them. The first railroad to be constructed from the city was the Portland, Saco, and Portsmouth, chartered in 1837; five years later it had been completed for a distance of 51 miles to Portsmouth. The Boston and Maine extended its line to South Berwick to connect with the new railroad, and a continuous passage was then afforded from Portland to Boston. However, Portlanders were at that time in favor of extending the railroad into the interior, with a line con- necting Canada with the sea, and not particularly interested in developing southward.
The scheme for constructing the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad from Portland to Montreal was started in 1844, and a charter obtained in Feb- ruary of the following year. Arrangements were made so that the con- struction formally commenced the Fourth of July, 1846. This was a gala day in the city, and there were people crowded from everywhere for the long parade. On Munjoy Hill a huge canvas sheltered 6,000 gathered to hear the orations of Judge William Pitt Preble and the dignitaries of the Canadian government. The road was opened to North Yarmouth the Fourth of July, 1848, and in December of the same year was completed to Dan- ville Junction. Construction lagged during the next few years, but finally the road was opened to Montreal on July 18, 1853. A month later it was leased to the Grand Trunk Railway System of Canada for 999 years, the first line to extend east of Portland, completing a valuable link between this port and the far west. Thousands of immigrants were transported over this line in the heydey of Portland as a port of entry, and during the World War it carried Canadian soldiers to Portland on their way to the battlefields.
In 1849 the Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad, chartered four years
124
Portland City Guide
before, opened its line from Waterville to Danville Junction. Since this line connected with the Penobscot and Kennebec at Waterville for Bangor, this was an event of great importance for Portland, for it opened a con- tinuous line east. At about the same time the Kennebec and Portland was built from Augusta to this city, also opening a branch from Brunswick east to Bath. The York and Cumberland Railroad was chartered in 1846, from Portland to Buxton, and re-organized in 1860 as the Portland and Rochester. The Portland and Ogdensburg (Vt.) line was built nine years later, after the death of its founder, John A. Poor.
The Boston and Maine system came into being January 1, 1842, formed by the consolidation of the Boston and Portsmouth, the Boston and Maine, and the Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts railroads. The Port- land, Saco and Portsmouth became a part of this system in 1884, when it acquired a lease of the old Eastern Railroad. In 1862 the Maine Central was incorporated, a consolidation of the Androscoggin and Kennebec and the Penobscot and Kennebec lines. Portland's Commercial Street was laid out in 1852 to accommodate railroad interests, and in 1912 the Port- land Terminal Company was established, granting the Boston and Maine and the Maine Central equal use of its facilities.
Old records contain interesting anecdotes of conditions in the early days of railroading out of Portland, especially of excursion trips over the Port- land, Saco and Portsmouth line shortly after it had been opened. It seems that the engine was "absurdly inadequate," making it necessary for pas- sengers to alight when reaching a grade, many of them pushing the train in a spirit of sport. The train left Portland between four and five o'clock in the morning, and did not arrive in Boston until 12 hours later.
Early newspapers record that the early engines were about 20 tons in weight, and burned wood, tugging low, flat-topped coaches. A brakeman lived up to his profession for there were no air brakes or automatic shackles, and hand brakes were used to stop the train on a downgrade. Before the coming of the telegraph there was no communication with terminals, and all sorts of tools had to be carried to repair breakdowns, or on occasion to re- place a train that had been derailed. With no signal system, an outgoing train took orders as to which siding it must pull out on to allow an in- coming one to pass. They had to stay sidetracked regardless of how long it took; sometimes in winter they were snowed in several days at a time.
About 1860 the horse railway came to Portland with one-horse cars, equipped with runners for winter use. In 1863 the Portland and Forest
125
Transportation
Avenue Railroad ran its first cars, publishing the notice: "The gentlemen connected with the public press in this city are cordially invited to make a trip ... on Monday at 11 o'clock, October 12 .... Citizens in general are invited in the afternoon of the same day." This line extended from the Grand Trunk Station to Clark Street, over India, Middle, Congress, High, and Spring streets; its 'pony' cars seated 20 passengers. By the middle of November a local paper stated that 27,679 passengers had been carried, at- testing to the immediate success of the venture.
By 1874 the Portland Railroad Company had six and one-quarter miles of track, and its 26 new cars were drawn by 82 sleek-groomed horses. Twelve years later a mile of double track was laid along Congress and Middle streets. Commuters of those days did not like to be inconvenienced, as is well brought out in a publication of 1892, which stated: "Certain cars that run on Commercial Street, destined for Vaughan and the upper end of Con- gress, frequently leave their passengers in a dark hole on Thomas Street." The paper further points out that the cars had plainly printed on their sides "Island Steamers, Spring and Vaughan Streets." Three years later electrical equipment forced the horse cars out of service, and Portland forged ahead with the rest of the nation in the application of this source of energy.
In the session of February 26, 1889, the Maine Legislature approved an act authorizing the Portland Railroad Company to operate its trolley lines in Portland, Deering, Westbrook, and Cape Elizabeth by means of elec- tricity. This was subject to the consent of the municipal officers of these towns, and had to accord with the conditions and regulations they might impose. In October, 1891, Portland's first electrified line was placed in operation from Monument Square to Deering Junction; it was the second electric line to operate in the State. The Westbrook line opened June 30, 1892, and on October 17, three years later, electric power took the place of horses in the entire city, sounding the death knell of a mode of travel which had served the city 35 years.
Lines to Yarmouth and Saco were opened in 1898 and 1901 respectively, affording trolley connections with distant points; Yarmouth line passengers could connect with cars for Brunswick, Bath, Lewiston, and Waterville. By 1907 it was possible to make a trip to Boston by trolley for the small sum of $1.75, providing the passenger didn't object to being 13 hours on the way. The Cumberland County Power and Light Company, incorporated in 1909, leased the Portland Railroad three years later, and in those halcyon
126
Portland City Guide
days of the streetcar the line boasted: 107 miles of road; 210 passenger cars (106 open, 104 closed) ; 5 express cars; 10 work cars; 18 snowplows, and two street sprinkling cars.
Airways
Portland became air-minded with the establishment of the Boston and Maine Airways in 1923 which made regular flights from Boston with stops at Portland, Augusta, and Bangor. The service has since been expanded to include Lewiston, Waterville, and Caribou. Mail service over this line was inaugurated in the spring of 1934. The Portland City Airport, com- pleted in 1938 in the Stroudwater section, is a Class A port with two sur- faced runways, beacons and fieldlights, two hangars, and a repair station; there is a U. S. Weather Bureau Station on the field. Sketches for a pro- posed administration building for the airport were submitted in 1939, to be completed the following year.
Mosaic of Today
Today Portland has excellent transportation facilities of every kind. Sleek, streamlined busses, connecting with interstate and intrastate lines, glide into the city along key arteries; Diesel-powered streamlined trains, furnishing fast and comfortable travel from out-of-State points roll over a state-wide network of rails, providing both passenger and freight service; airplanes zoom down for a pause on their flights; and the recently re-es- tablished summer steamship service to New York affords salt-water trans- portation. The many State and Federal Highways touching the city give entrance for the thousands of tourists who pour into Maine's vacationland, leaving in the city a share of the one hundred million dollars they spend in the State each year. After the closing of school terms in the great cities of the East there is an exodus of youth bound for the boys and girls summer camps which dot Maine; most of these youthful vacationists pass through or change trains or busses in Portland.
HUMISTONS
ARTS AND CRAFTS
Portland's early arts and crafts were the work of practical craftsmen concerned primarily with utilitarian rather than artistic achievement. The first efforts of these colonial furniture makers, carpenter-architects, tin- smiths, pewterers, and silversmiths were directed toward making articles of household use designed for the needs and comforts of a pioneer people. Gradually through the years of development, a feeling for art appeared. The brush in skilled native hands depicted local scenes; craftsmen created beauty in wood, metal, and stone.
The sprawling, odd-shaped 'salt-box' houses and farm buildings that fea- ture Maine's landscape today all follow the original designs of crude car- penter-architects. The creative ornamentation of that period is to be seen in examples of early kitchenware, tin-plate knockers, and household hard- ware still found in private homes and museums. These were invariably the handiwork of village blacksmiths. Ship figureheads, mast sheaths, and trail boards, carved from the native 'punkin pine' by early colonial artisans, show the continued development locally of a craft their ancesters had prac- ticed for centuries in Europe. The figures they created were usually life- sized females, military heroes, animals, and birds, all of which may have appeared grotesque but were marked by a measure of artistic portrayal.
Portland had a native-born silversmith in Joseph H. Ingraham (1752- 1841), who in 1777 operated a shop on Fore Street in a part of the first house built after the Mowat bombardment of 'The Neck.' Besides In- graham, it is recorded that prior to the Revolution Paul Little (1740-1818) and John Butler (1732-1827) were producing such articles as brass and silver knee, shoe, and sleeve buttons.
During the latter part of the 18th and early 19th centuries there flourished
128
Portland City Guide
locally many artisans who worked in pewter and decorative tinware. This group centered in the neighborhood of Stevens Avenue, then known as Steven's Plains. The founder of this busy colony was Zachariah Brackett Stevens (1778-1856) who inherited the tradition of a family of blacksmiths. His grandfather, who had been the original settler of the 'Plains,' inau- gurated a blacksmith trade for which his family became noted. Where young Zachariah passed his apprenticeship as a tinsmith is unknown, but it is believed that he learned the intricate craft at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the family once lived. The few remaining examples of his original work show an unmistakably urban rather than rural quality. This early 'Plains' tinware consisted of little chest-like boxes, trays of various shapes, tea caddies, cake boxes, flower pots, and spice boxes. All were skillfully and delicately fashioned, and painted in 'Zachariah' blues, yellows, and vermilion. It is said that Zachariah Stevens was among the first in the country to introduce gold and silver leaf ornamentations; he was noted for his fluency and individuality in handling designs.
In 1791 Philip Rose, a nephew of Paul Revere, joined the tinware colony, and in 1803 Thomas Brisco, the first tinsmith "from foreign ports" ar- rived here to open a shop. Other craftsmen came and soon a sizable in- dustry was established, with shops, residences, and even a general store for the purpose of selling the bartered goods received by the tinsmiths for their wares. The 'Plains' tinware colony bustled with activity, its itinerant crafts- men, tinsmiths, silversmiths, and pewterers producing tin kitchenware, pewter utensils, silverware, combs, and brushes. During the 1830's the colony was the active headquarters of a hundred-odd Yankee tin peddlers, whose carts, filled to overflowing with locally created products, started out each spring to find a market for the work of the 'Plains' craftsmen. Travel- ing throughout Maine and New Hampshire as far north as the Canadian border, they sold or bartered the tin products and pewter ware for furs, hides, sheep pelts, and rags. The end of this unique craft came in 1842 when fire destroyed the settlement.
Contemporary with the tinsmiths and in the same neighborhood the early local pewterers practiced their art. The first known craftsmen were Allen and Freeman Porter who came here from Connecticut in 1830. Most prominent of the local pewterers was Rufus Dunham (1815-93) who ap- prenticed himself to the Porters and in 1837 succeeded them. A year after he had taken over the Porter shop, Dunham exhibited examples of his work at the Mechanics' Fair in Portland, and received a silver medal for the best
129
Arts and Crafts
specimen of pewter. His business grew until at one time he employed 50 assistants. The few known examples of work turned out by the Dunham shop are highly prized by collectors everywhere. Production of local pewter stopped soon after 1850 when brittania ware became popular, and it is probable that much of the early pewter was melted to go into the making of the new but inferior metal. Although local pewtering lasted only a brief time, the men engaged in its production have left their mark. Of Freeman Porter, who with his brother founded the local industry, John Barrett Ker- foot, in his American Pewter, states that he "shares with R. Dunham and William McQuilkin the task of keeping American collectors supplied with open-topped pitchers." In the July, 1932, issue of the magazine Antiques further credit is given to Freeman Porter for "at least a third of the num- ber [open-topped pitchers ] now in existence."
While the men were engaged in the manufacture of these products from tin and pewter, the women were producing simple and practical household articles with the needle and loom. Weaving, rug-making, quilting, knitting, and embroidering formed a large part of their early craftwork. The de- signs of the hooked rugs of that period were adapted by the makers to the environment with which they were familiar-flowers, birds, animals, ships, anchors, and other maritime symbols. In making hooked rugs, the wool was obtained from home-raised sheep, carded and spun, and afterward dyed with homemade colors. Beet root made a rich magenta, yellow came from onion peelings and browns and dull greens from white maple, butternut, sumac, and hemlock bark, mingled with sweet fern. All these colors were then 'set' with copperas and lye, the latter obtained by pouring boiling water over wood ashes. Reds were difficult to produce until housewives were able to buy vermilion. Boys as well as girls were taught these domestic arts, producing patchwork, samplers, and knitted articles. Initials were knit in- to mittens and stockings, and many an ingenious youngster knit the whole alphabet and a stanza of poetry into a single pair of mittens.
Not to have worked a carefully designed sampler would have been an unspeakable disgrace for that period. The samplers usually inscribed the name and birth date of the worker as well as the place of birth. Often there was a prim little message, such as
Lora Standish is my Name Lord, guide my heart that I may do thy Will Also fill my hands with such convenient skill And I will give thy Glory to Thy Name.
130
Portland City Guide
By means of her sampler, the young lady of Falmouth learned to embroider letters for the household linen and later reproduce gorgeous flowers and brightly colored birds.
Funerals were also recognized in this needlework. Embroideries bearing urns and drooping willows were in vogue at the end of the 18th century, and no household was complete without one. These mourning embroideries were prepared with the thought of inscribing the names of members of the family after their death. The 'Tree of Life' was one of the favorite designs. The earliest quilts were not of patchwork, but of linsey-woolsey, backed with a lightweight, colored homespun blanket, and then quilted in beautiful patterns of pineapples, feathers, and shell designs. Quilting parties were afternoon affairs, and the crowning joy of every quilting was the supper which followed.
Nearly every woman was skilled in the art of spinning, and a typical local spinning assemblage of the early days is described in the Cumberland Gazette, May 8, 1788: "On the 1st instant, more than one hundred of the fair sex, married and single, and skilled in spinning, assembled at the home of Parson Deane. The majority of the fair hands gave motion to not less than sixty wheels. Many were occupied in preparing the materials, besides those who attended to the entertainment. Near the close of the day, Mrs. Deane was presented by the company with two hundred and thirty-six knotted skeins of excellent cotton and linen yarn, the work of the day, ex- cepting about a dozen skeins, which some of the company brought in ready spun. Some had spun six, and many not less than five apiece. To conclude, and crown the day a numerous band of the best singers attended in the evening and performed an agreeable variety of excellent pieces of psalmody."
Between 1864 and 1867 especially fine glassware was produced by the Portland Glass Company (see Industry). Though the art has long been discontinued, many compotes, punch bowls, and cut glass dishes feature this early glass company's famous patterns, the 'Tree of Life' and the 'Grape Leaf.' Portland glass is a prized item in many American glass col- lections.
In 1848 George Lord (1833-1928) started his career as ornamental chair painter in a local shop under the apprenticeship of Francis Holland, and within three years had progressed sufficiently to be put in charge of other workers. When mottling of chairs began to be fashionable, Lord was sent by his employer to Boston to learn that process, but Boston craftsmen jeal-
MAQUO
SABINO
JURIST
I4AQUOI
Island Steamers
-
#
Bridge at Yarmouth
-
A
Sebago Lake
Island Ebb Tide
لم بالعينين.
Grand Trunk Railroad Bridge, East Deering
Spurwink Meetinghouse, Cape Elizabeth
'Buggy' Meetinghouse, Scarborough
F
St. John's Church, Brunswick
Presumpscot River Falls in Falmouth
131
Arts and Crafts
ously guarded the formula. Disappointed, Lord returned to Portland, al- though shortly afterwards he accidently discovered a process that subse- quently made him famous. While Lord was at work graining a chair one day, a friend visited his shop and brought along some wine with which to celebrate the occasion. Lord had spread a wash of brown tempera over a coat of yellow paint and was waiting for it to dry, when his friend entered the shop. He has described the actual discovery of a new process in his own words: "I quickly emptied my glass, hurried back to my panel, and as I bent over it drops of wine fell from my mustache upon its surface. There before my very eyes, was the mottled effect I had been seeking so long." In later years Lord taught Chester Pierce the intricate craft of furniture ornamentation, and upon his death Pierce secured many of Lord's original stencil designs. Today Pierce is well known for his craftsmanship in stencil work.
Never particularly outstanding in the past as the home of wood carvers, since 1921 Portland has been the home of Swedish-born Karl von Rydings- vard who came to this country in 1891. Although no longer active in his profession, von Rydingsvard has done notable work. His exhibits at the Chicago Exposition in 1892 attracted much attention and led to his becom- ing instructor in wood carving at Columbia University. His mark on a carving places that piece among the finer examples of American wood sculp- ture.
Carrying on the blacksmith tradition of his family is W. E. Dunham, who for over half a century has been turning out splendid wrought iron work from his small Portland shop. From his forge come such utilitarian articles as latches, door knockers, foot scrapers, and fire tongs, as well as elaborate altar rails for churches and scrollwork for house ornamentation.
There appears to have been little painting of any distinction in Portland or in the State until the middle of the 19th century, and such painting as there was occupied men who had had little preliminary training. Accord- ing to John Neal in his Portland Illustrated, the pioneer painters were Charles F. Beckett (1814-56) and his contemporary Charles Codman (1800-42). Of Beckett he writes that, while still a shopboy with a local apothecary, "he was constantly trying his hand-and the patience of his employer-on all sorts of drawing, and grew very exact and precise. And then after awhile he came out with landscapes, which not having a good eye for color had the look of engravings. The outlines and figures and com- position being often worthy of high praise, while for want of harmonious
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.