USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > Portland city guide > Part 20
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
Our Patrons will please to attribute the imperfect appearance of this and succeeding papers, to the above circumstances; we being unable to procure mechanical assistance.
Our friends who are or may be in town, are invited to call at the Prison, on their leisure evenings, and assist us to "beguile a tedi- ous hour."
In the first copy of his paper Willis had sounded these warnings of its firm policies: "In compliance with our proposals, we this day present our patrons and the public with the first number of the Portland Eastern Argus. We shall not weary their patience with an elaborate and useless address, be- ing well persuaded that 'actions, not words, evidence the man' .... If we can be instrumental in calculating the principles of our excellent constitu- tion ... we shall rise to the height of our ambition." Often in subsequent numbers we see the phrase: "The Cloven Foot of Federalism." The Argus expired January 24, 1921, having maintained an unbroken existence under the same name for 118 years, the only Portland paper to achieve this honor. The paper was soon revived as the Portland Herald, and in November, 1921, passed into the control of Guy P. Gannett, who merged it with his Portland Press to form the present Portland Press Herald.
In 1808 Nathaniel Willis, Jr., left the local newspaper field to enter into journalistic work in Boston. Later he went to New York, where he be- came co-editor of the New York Mirror. In 1827 he founded the Youth's Companion, a well-known and long-continued publication. Two of his children were to make brilliant names for themselves in journalistic fields -his daughter Sarah Payson Willis, who married James Parton, a Port- land author, and his son, Nathaniel Parker Willis, familiarly known as 'N.P.' Sarah wrote for the old New York Ledger under the pen name 'Fanny Fern'; this was a popular column which long enhanced this ro- mantic weekly of Robert Bonner. By 1830 'N.P.' was working for his
173
Newspapers
father as assistant editor of the New York Mirror, and was sent abroad as its foreign news correspondent. From the great capitols of Europe he sent home to his paper a series of columns entitled 'Pencilings By The Way.' These created much furore, as they contained 'N.P.'s frank revelations on subjects whispered, but seldom printed, concerning the private lives of the great. He reported: "Disraeli is driving about in an open carriage with Lady S. looking more melancholy than usual. The absent baronet, whose place he fills, is about to bring an action against him, which will finish his career, unless he can coin the damages in his brain. . . . Today I dine with Longman to meet Tom Moore, who is living incog near this Nestor of pub- lishers, and pegging hard at his 'History of Ireland.'" Willis' popularity waned during the feverish days of the Civil War, and he died in 1867. Like authors of modern 'gossip columns,' he had made enemies, yet the great Englishman, Thackeray, wrote: "It is comfortable that there should have been a Willis." America's James Russell Lowell referred to him in a poem as "topmost bright bubble on the wave of the town." The tidbits of his casual pencilings set the pattern of an intimate style that was to coin for- tunes for Broadway reporters a century later.
A publication called the Freeman's Friend was removed to Portland in 1807 by its founder, William Weeks, who had established it two years pre- viously in Saco. Whatever may have been its former policies, when it came to this city it was advertised as a neutral paper. This neutrality re- ferred to politics, and the partisan sentiment of those troubled Embargo days is brought out by William Willis, who wrote concerning the fate of the publication: " ... as those were belligerent times, neutrals could not live; in a few years it ceased to exist." After the departure of Weeks to take charge of a paper in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, John M'Kown be- came sole owner until publication was suspended in 1810.
The Portland Gazette and Maine Advertiser in 1819 employed William Willis to write editorials and manage the paper; Willis later became eminent for his historical writings. This was an important event for newspaper publishing in Maine as it was the first instance of the office of editing being separated from that of publishing.
On July 14, 1821, the Independent Statesman made its debut. Edited by Joseph Griffin and Amos C. Tappan, this sheet advocated the election of General Joshua Wingate, Jr., for Governor of Maine. A year later the paper became the Independent Statesman and Maine Republican; it was
174
Portland City Guide
subsequently known as the American Patriot, and there are no records of the existence of this publication after 1827.
The first daily paper established in Portland, the Daily Courier, was set up in 1829 with the renowned Seba Smith (see Literature) as editor. Scant mention of this paper appears in local records, although in 1860 there is reference to the Evening Courier. The last mention of the paper is in the Portland City Directory of 1863. According to meager sources a Portland Evening Courier was being published locally in the late 1890's, but of it there is only the record that "it enjoyed a brief existence." Published by John Burleigh, the Portland Times was established in 1831 but passed out of the local journalistic picture after a two-year existence.
A typical example of a newspaper's content in the early part of the 19th century is afforded by analysis of a copy of the old Portland Gazette for September 30, 1823. It contained four pages, six columns to the page. Thirteen of its twenty-four columns were covered by advertisements, among which E. Whitman offered for rent a two-story dwelling house on Free Street for $120 a year; Samuel Bailey, of Minot, offered a reward of one cent for the return of his runaway apprentice, and forbade all persons to trust him on Bailey's account; the booming Cumberland and Oxford Canal lottery announced the fifth drawing of prizes, with sums ranging from $6 to $2,000. Portland's newspaper history through these early years was confined mostly to weekly publications. By 1860 eleven newspapers, includ- ing two dailies-the Eastern Argus and the Evening Courier-were being published locally. Among these publications were two advocating temper- ance and two religious journals. The Portland Daily Press appeared on July 23, 1862, and was the progenitor of the present Portland Press Herald.
The year 1830 was marked by the appearance of a letter-sized paper bear- ing the ambitious title, The World in a Nut Shell. Biting satire and all- inclusive criticism was its forte, and according to one source it was never satisfied with any literary effort of the day. The paper was what would be termed today an "underground publication," similar to those appearing to advocate the doctrines of minority political parties not in public favor. All efforts to discover its editor or printer were of no avail, and the secret of Portland's cryptic and censorious newspaper died with its perpetrators.
These years also marked the ascendancy of John Neal, poet, editor, lawyer, and novelist. A man of vigorous personality, he was always a cham- pion of the rights of others and fostered many noble projects. On July 4,
175
Newspapers
1838, Neal delivered a stirring oration for the cause of woman suffrage in America and has been called the initial sponsor of this movement.
The newspapers of those early days were far different from the modern multi-paged dailies, their staffs of editors and reporters, syndicated ser- vices, and advertisements whose revenues in a single day would have stag- gered the credulity of Wait or Willis. As we have seen, the editor and pub- lisher were long one office held by one man who customarily walked about his community gathering items in person. No reporters were employed on a Portland paper until the beginning of the Civil War. Political news pre- dominated in the early papers, and so virulent were the campaigns waged that editors were frequently the targets of personal violence.
The Portland Sunday Times made its local debut with the issue of August 8, 1875, under the editorship and proprietorship of Giles O. Bailey, with the following vindication of possible typographical or editorial faults: "Please excuse all blunders and imperfections in this issue of the TIMES. Trying to do three weeks' work in six days is our apology for all short- comings." Important among the news items prominently displayed in this issue was one treating the opening of the Portland and Ogdensburg Rail- road when a seven-car train carried about two hundred passengers through Crawford Notch (see Transportation). Excursions were offered on the Steamer Charles Houghton to Evergreen Landing, Peak Island, for 25 cents round trip. The last issue of the Portland Sunday Times was that of December 26, 1909, which featured pictures of the steelwork construc- tion on the first skyscraper erected in the city, the Fidelity Building. The following year the paper appeared as the Portland Sunday Press and Times.
The Portland Evening Express was established in 1882 by Arthur Wood Laughlin, its attention primarily devoted to local interests. Four years later the Evening Express Publishing Company was formed. Frederick Neal Dow became president of the company in 1887 and continued as owner of the paper until he sold it to the Portland Maine Publishing Company in 1925. Ten years later this firm became the Gannett Publishing Company, under the ownership of Guy P. Gannett, whose father, also a publisher, had in the early 1900's founded Comfort, a family magazine which reached a circulation of over a million. The present papers are published in a seven-story plant at Federal, Exchange, and Market streets.
After the demise of the Eastern Argus in 1921, Portland had only the Gannett-owned, Republican papers. In October, 1927, Dr. Ernest Gruening came to the city as editor of a rival paper, the Portland Evening
176
Portland City Guide
News. From the first this paper opposed many of the policies of the Gannett press, and long controversies ensued on the question of exporting electrical power from Maine, a situation that attracted nation-wide atten- tion. In the Outlook for April 16, 1930, C. C. Nicolet wrote in his 'Venture in Independence' that the News "gave the Democratic minority representa- tion for the first time in years and it presented adequate reports of the ac- tivities of the reactionary wing of the Republican party which it opposed. It gave Maine citizens their first direct information of liberal movements elsewhere in the country. It awakened them to the growing influence of the power interests throughout the nation, and particularly, of course, in Maine." In ensuing years the News experienced changes of ownership, and for a time supported the Democratic Party. On May 18, 1938, the last is- sue was published, leaving the Gannett press once more master of the field.
Today Portland has three newspapers: the Portland Press Herald, a daily morning paper formed in 1921 by the consolidation of the Portland Press and the Herald; the daily Portland Evening Express; and the Portland Sunday Telegram, started in 1888, and first published by C. B. Anderson and Company, with George B. Bagley as its first editor. The Telegram was purchased by Guy P. Gannett in 1925.
Portland papers today have an urban flavor, yet preserve a distinctive Maine atmosphere, presenting the typical country locals from communities all over the State side by side with rapidly transmitted Associated Press news from the ends of the globe. They run nationally popular daily comics, and the Telegram carries colored funnies. Sports are handled thoroughly both by local writers and famous syndicate columnists. Although the edi- torial policies of all the Gannett papers are firmly Republican, the Press Herald has a daily 'Voice of the People Department,' in which contro- versies of all kinds are aired, even when conflicting with the policies or principles of the paper.
Besides the three existing newssheets, there are religious papers pub- lished by half a dozen sects. Portland has had few radical or liberal papers advocating social or governmental reforms. There have been few local labor papers. An attempt was made in the spring of 1938 by Charles Cain, vice-president of the local chapter of the American Newspaper Guild, to carry on a weekly labor paper. The sheet, called the Flashlight, was sus- pended after the third week.
MUSIC
A shrill pitch pipe blown by a solemn deacon leading his congregation in the off-key intonation of interminable psalms, forms the background of Portland's musical history. From this modest beginning rose an ever-increas- ing volume of harmony formed by the genius of the composers, artists, and teachers who brought fame to the city during the 19th century. The names of those who shone in that era may be dim in memory today, crowded as they are into the background by more recent musical personalities and their activities, but the love and appreciation of good music of the citizens of present-day Portland are the heritage of the skill and talent of all who have left their names engraved on the musical scroll of the city. Artists born on strange and foreign soil have come to blend their melodic genius with the purely native, producing for posterity
Music that knows no country, race or creed; But gives to each according to his need.
Old Falmouth was musically mute until the building of the First Parish meetinghouse and the arrival of Parson Thomas Smith in 1725. Wresting a living from the wilderness was a grim task, and the ever-present fear of Indian attacks no doubt stilled the song that might have arisen to the lips of the early citizens. Singing in churches was frowned upon in those days; in 1640 it had required a dictum from the Massachusetts Puritan, the Reverend John Cotton, to approve the idea of women joining the men even in psalmody. Although singing was mentioned in the Scriptures, early Puritans interpreted those Biblical passages to mean "thankfulness and joy of heart."
In the earliest days the town had too many other needs to give much con-
178
Portland City Guide
sideration to this art. Notwithstanding, a few did become interested in church singing with the result that the music of the time was of a religious nature. Hymn books were scarce, and deacons who led the singing read two lines which were then sung; two more lines were read and sung until the end of the hymn was reached. Six tunes comprised their repertoire, and it sometimes took more than half an hour to sing one hymn, the successful rendition of which depended more upon volume than fidelity to pitch. Still, an ardent desire for music existed, and even though working days were long, these lovers of song thought little of rising an hour earlier to take active part in chorus singing and discussions of music. This enthusiasm so im- pressed Parson Smith that he wrote in his journal on June 20, 1785: "We are all in a blaze about singing; all flocking at 5, 10 and 4 o'clock to the meetinghouse, to a Master hired, (viz: Mr. Gage) ."
During the middle of the 18th century the theater was the cause of much controversy. The first attempts to launch even the simplest of plays was anathema to the Massachusetts Puritans, yet the rebellious spirit of those early times found a way to circumvent the lack of theatrical entertainment by using music as an alibi. In 1789 the more liberal-minded citizens of The Neck' welcomed the company of the first locally staged musical presenta- tion, Babes In The Woods. With the coming of the legitimate theater in 1794, it was the usual procedure to soften the effect on local Puritan- minded citizens by having a concert for the first part of the program, fol- lowed by a melodrama. When Portland passed the stringent anti-theater law in 1806, wherein $500 was to be forfeited if any sort of theatrical en- tertainment was carried on "for profit, gain or other valuable consideration," local evasion of the law was carried out in a way best illustrated by the fol- lowing announcement:
The public are respectfully informed that there will be a CONCERT of vocal and Instrumental music On Friday Evening, June 23rd
Between the parts of the concert will be performed (gratis) a favorite Comedy in 5 acts called the Soldier's Daughter
The whole to conclude with a Musical entertainment (gratis) called
Of Age Tomorrow
Tickets of admission to the upper seats, seventy-
five cents each; lower seats fifty cents.
H. 9. JANES. 739.
Newbury Street from Fore Street
CITY OF PORTLAND
ør
Portland Fire Boat
+
Central Fire Station
Fire Fighters
det
-
. ...
E
Kotzschmar Memorial Organ and Portland Symphony Orchestra
-
Longfellow House
-
建我玩教费
PA
Free Street
L
Grand Trunk Grain Elevator
From Lincoln Park
179
Music
In 1821, a year after Maine became an independent State, it repealed the earlier Massachusetts law regarding the theater, and from that time local in- terest in the theater and in music thrived.
One of the first indications of group interest in music on "The Neck' was when the Second Parish Church installed its new organ in 1798. Nicholas Blaisdell, a blacksmith, was appointed organist with a salary of $25 a year. The Reverend Elijah Kellogg, son of the first parson of the Second Parish Church, has left us a description of church music prior to the purchase of the organ: "At first there was no instrument except the bass viol. The chorister, conscious of the dignity of his office, would rise with a solemn air, run up the scale, beating time with his hand, and lift the tune. My father, who had been a drum major in the Continental army was extremely fond of instrumental music, introduced the cornet and clarinet, in addition to the bass viol, into the Second Parish Church." Although the Second Parish favored the organ as an accompaniment to hymn singing, many of the other local churches continued to use the old pitch pipe and chorister. The clarionet, as the clarinet was early spelled, and the bass viol were long used in some of the churches as the least sacrilegious mode of accompaniment.
Napoleon's activities in Europe during the early part of the 19th cen- tury, coupled with the War of 1812 and its drastic embargo, caused a gen- eral slump in all lines of commercial endeavor, but this enforced leisure gave the American citizenry an opportunity to indulge in various pursuits. This was particularly true of seaport towns in the District of Maine where hitherto all interests had been linked with the sea. A growing cultural trend led to the study and appreciation of music and caused musically inclined men from the various counties of the District to gather in Portland in an- swer to the following announcement in the Portland Gazette of January 17,1814:
The members of the Handel Society of Maine are hereby notified that their firft meeting will be holden in Portland on Thursday, the third day of February next at 10 o'clock A.M. in the chamber over the Portland Bank-A general attendance is requefted; not only for the purpose of mufical performance, but the choice of officers and the adoption of neceffary regulation. Jan. 12.
February 7, 1814, this item appeared in the same paper: "On Thursday last the Handel Society of Maine held their first meeting in Portland for the organization of the Society. We understand it consists of Gentlemen in various parts of the District, whose object in associating is to promote a
180
Portland City Guide
taste for CORRECT, REFIND, & CLASSICAL CHURCH MUSICK. John Merrick, Esq. of Hallowell, was chosen President-Mr. John Watson, of Portland, Secretary-Horatio Southgate, Esq. do. Treasurer. Prentiss Mellen, Esq. Vice President of the Section in Cumberland; Dr. Samuel Emerson, do. do. York; Mr. John Eveleth, do. do. Kennebunk; Professor Abbot, do. do. Lincoln. Messrs. Merrick, Mellen & Southgate, Standing Committee to suprintend Musical publication proposed by any member of the Society." This announcement is particularly interesting, not alone for its local historic interest, but because it antedates by a year Boston's Handel and Haydn Society. This early Portland Handel Society, however, seems to have shortly become inactive since it has left no further record.
The fresh interest in music brought its various reactions, and the most ardent of church members no longer agreed with the early colonists that "Christians should not sing at all, but only praise God with the heart." Even Sunday evening devotions began to include the singing of one or more simple hymns. In 1817 William Davis opened in Portland "a school for the instruction of Ladies and Gentlemen in the rules of singing." Samuel Long- fellow, brother of the poet, wrote of the music of this period: "In the home there were books and music ... in the home parlor the sister's piano had replaced the spinet .... " Among the favorite musical pieces of the early 1800's were the somber Battle of Prague, the dignified Governor Brook's March, and the lively Washington's March; popular with local groups gathered about a piano and with soloists were such songs as Henry's Cottage Maid, Brignal's Banks, Bonnie Doon, and Oft in the Stilly Night. At dancing class 'light-footers' stepped to the tunes of Money Musk, The Hay- makers, and The Fisher's Hornpipe.
Edward Howe (1783-1877) did much to foster the local desire to study not only sacred music but classical as well. Invited to Portland in 1805 by Elijah Kellogg, the music-loving first pastor of the Second Parish Church, to become choir leader and tenor singer, Howe soon joined in the town's musical activities. Learning that there were enough good voices to make a chorus, he organized the Beethoven Musical Society of Portland which, in addition to being the first strictly local choral society, is said to have been the first musical society in America to bear the great composer's name. Composed of 60 non-professional musicians-blacksmiths, mechanics, store- keepers, clerks, and housewives-the Beethoven Musical Society, under Howe's leadership, stimulated the appreciation of good music and pro- vided an opportunity for public performance. In contrast to present choirs
181
Music
and choral societies, more than half of this first musical group were men. Although the society was not incorporated until 1824, it had met for group singing, and as early as September, 1819, had given its first concert.
By 1808 subscription dances, with music usually furnished by a single musician, were held in various localities throughout Maine. Dancing schools had sprung up, and in 1815 the Grand Peace Ball, held in Saco to celebrate the close of hostilities of the War of 1812, brought the elite from near and far to dance to the sprightly tunes of "Fiddler Gray of Portland."
In December, 1828, attention was called to a new local musical or- ganization when the members of the Portland Handel and Haydn Society were reminded to attend their regular meetings at their hall every Tues- day at "1/2 past 6 o'clock." They gave their first concert in the early fall of 1829 at Beethoven Hall, and the critical consensus among local newspaper- men may be summed up in an item appearing in one of the newssheets the following day: "The performance by the Handel and Haydn Society on Wednesday evening was received with great approbation by a respectable audience."
In the spring of 1835 the Portland Academy of Music was opened by Ferdinand Ilsley, who had previously conducted a local singing school. Within a year nearly three hundred pupils, mostly between the ages of seven and fifteen, were in attendance. During the winter the adults joined the Academy choir. The first concert of this group was given March 7, 1836, and the repeat performance, six weeks later, brought the following high praise from the Portland Evening Advertiser: "On Fast day evening we had the pleasure of listening to one of the best concerts of Sacred Music ever given in this city. The performers were remarkable for three important characteristics, namely; distinct pronunciation, good taste, and accurate time. We were not aware that there were so many good voices among us. The solos and duets were performed with a grace worthy of all praise, and we are sure, from indications on the part of the audience that all present were of the same opinion as ourselves. How delightful to have such concerts frequent! What a charming festival! How many tender and religious emo- tions enlisted! We are rejoiced to learn that the science of vocal music is beginning to receive that attention among us which it eminently deserves. May everyone feel it a duty to lend his aid to the cultivation of a science so important to the church, to morality, and religion, to those emotions which we all love to feel, as a foretaste of enjoyment beyond the grave."
The Portland Sacred Music Society, an outgrowth of the Portland Aca-
182
Portland City Guide
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.