ANDROSCOGGIN HISTORY June, 1996 Newsletter of the
Androscoggin Historical Society No. 18


Contributed by Androscoggin Historical Society
http://www.rootsweb.com/~meandrhs
Copyright. All rights reserved.
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A MEMORY OF ROBERT L. TAYLOR (1939-1996) by A. B.
(Bob) Palmer, Jr.

[Ed. note: Robert L. Taylor, executive secretary of
the Society, died suddenly on March 12, 1996.]

In the fall of 1986, as a member of the Search
committee, I first met Bob Taylor when he was chosen
for the job as Executive Secretary.

From visits to the Society office, one soon learned
two things about Bob: he didn't think much of that
new tool then coming into use, the computer, and
once he had seen something in the files or on
display, whether it be a book on the shelves or an
object in the museum, he never forgot it or its
location. Seldom do I recall that he used an index
to find something in our holdings.

In the late 1980's there was a big push by the
Library of Congress and others to establish central
information locations across the country where one
could find what had been saved for posterity and
where it was located and how best to preserve it.

While attending a workshop on the subject with Bob
three years ago, we were sitting on a bench outside
the building where it was being held. He revealed to
me some of his thoughts. He strongly supported the
idea of central information locations. He said he
spent many days going from location to location
while he was doing research on his publications and
it would have been some helpful and time-saving if
he knew what was where and a bit about it. He then
told me, slyly, that a computer and network was the
best way to do it. I nearly fell off the bench. He
had changed his mind about computers. From then on
he started to get the information we have in a form
that will go into an on-line computer that he knew
would be coming in the near future.

We had planned that I would help him in the next few
years of my retirement getting the Society's
information, much of it original, ready and on line.
Bob, you will be in our memories for years to come.
Good-bye.

NEW EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

On June 20, 1996, the Board of Directors chose David
Richards to contract for the Executive Secretary
position, beginning 1 July 1996. Mr. Richards is a
candidate for a Ph.D. in history at the University
of New Hampshire. His dissertation is "'A City of
Vivid Contrasts': A History of the Poland Spring
Resort, 1860-1900."

Dave is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bates College
in 1984 and earned his M.A. in New England Studies
in 1991 with a thesis on the Sabbathday Lake
Shakers, having served as curator of their
collections, 1984-1991. He also has experience at
Strawbery Banke and at the Society for the
Preservation of New England Antiquities, both in
Portsmouth, N. H.

Dave Richards has been an active scholar, with
published articles, public presentations and
interviews, and project directorships to his credit.

The search committee, composed of Chairman A. B.
Palmer, Jr., Gridley Barrows, Harold Dutch, Merton
Leavitt, and Les Eastman, advertised widely and
received sixteen inquiries. Of the six applicants,
three were interviewed on June 5. Our thanks for an
excellent job go to the committee.

BOB PALMER ELECTED PRESIDENT

At our annual meeting on May 24, 1996, new officers
elected were A. B. "Bob" Palmer, Jr., as the new
president of the Society and David C. Young as vice
president. Other officers were re-elected as
follows: Ingrid Dutch, recording secretary; Alma
Palmer, membership secretary; Susan Sturgis,
treasurer; and Richard L. Trafton, attorney.

The members of the Board of Directors for 1996-1997
are Gridley Barrows, Harold Dutch, Leslie M.
Eastman, Natalie G. Foye, Franklin Goss, Douglas I.
Hodgkin, Eva Labonte, Merton Leavitt, Walter L.
Perry, Warren B. Randall, Mary M. Riley, Norman E.
Rose, and Gordon V. Windle.

Douglas Hodgkin continues as the newsletter editor.

The meeting concluded with a presentation by Charles
Plummer as General Joshua Chamberlain.

NATHAN BUCKNAM'S DIARY

On 15 Nov. 1847, Nathan Bucknam of Lisbon, Maine,
bought the book in which he sporadically recorded
his activities until 1863. During this time he
served on 63 vessels that travelled the Atlantic
Ocean in North America, the Caribbean, South
America, and England. He also farmed at Mackie's
Island in Falmouth, Maine, and at the end of the
diary began work in the Lewiston mills. He married
Rachel Hinckley Powers, widow of Reed W. Powers, and
they had 14 children. The transcription of the diary
by John E. Libby is in our files. Selections:

1847

Nov. 15th Left home with Father for Bath to get a
chance to go to sea.

Nov. 16th Engaged on board ship Forest King, Capt.
Thompson, a new ship of 1000 tons, just launched

Nov. 17th Go on board Forest King, being rigged, the
masts alongside in the water, taking in balast etc.

Dec. Load lumber hay for New Orleans.

1848

Jan. 6th Sail from Bath for New Orleans

30th My seventeenth birthday in New Orleans.

March Sail for Liverpool. Arrive last of April or
thereabout

May 25th Sail for New York with 400 passengers
aboard

July 6th Arrive in N. York

10th Leave N.Y. for home via Boston Portland. Work
on the farm and go to High School (fall term) at the
village.

Nov. Go to Bath. Ship in ship Milan, Capt. Monson,
and sail for New Orleans

1849

August From Bath home.

Sept. Go to Litchfield Liberal Institute, Fall Term.
Study Navigation, Astronomy, Writing and Drawing.

Nov. Go to Boston to go to California with Uncle
Frank in Ship Cheshire. Arrive too late. Crew all
engaged. Board at sailors home, North Square.

1853

Jan. 30th In Liverpool. 22nd birthday.

Feb. 28th At sea bound for Charleston, S.C. A boy
lost overboard in the Channel a few days out, an
Austrian.

1856

Nov. 18 In Portland. Buy suit of clothes.

20 Thanksgiving at home, after an absence of 4
years.

Dec. 1 At home. 2 To Lewiston and back. Make
arrangements with Father to take Mackies Island in
company with George Wm. and go to farming in the
spring.

10 Go to Bath and ship for N.O. in ship Roswell
Sprague

1857

Apr. 13 Morn. Wind N.E. Shorten sail. Midnight blows
a gale, lay too under close reefed main topsail,
foretopsail split in clewing up. While furling mizen
topsail a boy (English) fell from the yard, struck
on deck and instantly killed. A man also fell from
the foreyard, escaped with sprained ankle.

Apr. 18 Arrive in Portland. Go out to Falmouth. Meet
Geo. Wm. and Uncle and Aunt Bruce at Uncle Ezra's.

19 Come on to Mackies Island.

22 Move on goods furniture buy a boat.

23 Uncle Aunt Bruce arrive on Island to keep house

May 1 Commence plowing for planting sowing c

6 Uncle Bruces cow arrives 30 Finish planting

June 1 George I go fishing. Catch 91 haddock.

July 4 To Portland, Regatta Balloon ascension.

7 Commence haying.

Aug. 31 Get in last load of hay. A long drill
haying. Bad weather.

Dec. 17 Finish pressing hay. 13_ tons.

29 George leaves Island for the winter. Goes to
Lisbon. Intending to work in mills at Lewiston.

1860

May Commence to build fish weir in co. with Capt.
Sam Sargent. Weir a failure, get but few fish.
Breaks up in Sept. gales.

1862

May 6 Leave home for Portland to go to sea.

Oct. 27 Go to Dr. Chickerings with Mrs. Powers.
Married. Board at Mrs. Johnsons, Summer St.

1863

Jan. 1 Quartermaster on board steamer New England
lying at foot of 12th St., East River, New York.

3 Chartered by U. S. Government

4 Leave N.Y. at 8 o'clock P.M. for Fortress Monroe.

5 Arrive Fortress Monroe

7 Take on board 20 horses 10 ambulance wagons.

8 Go to Norfolk. Take in 600 troops and leave for
Beaufort N.C. at 4 P.M.

July 1 Baltimore under martial law. Rebels in rear
of city. Get under weigh ordered back. No boat to
leave port until further orders.

2 Sail from Baltimore for Portland.

22 Commence haying for father.

25 Bought pair 3 yr. old steers $60. Girth 5 ft. 10 
11 ins. Work haying for father 16 days.

Aug. 13 To Lewiston. Hill Mill No. 1, $2 a day.
Board at Mr. Scribners. Room with Mr. Burnham on
Corp.

Sept. 14 Election. To Lisbon. Vote for Judge Cony

22 Move into No. 1 Hill block. Rent $150 a year.

WOMEN IN MAINE COTTON MILLS -- 1908 Part III

This is the third and final installment of Miss Eva
L. Shorey's report on investigated working
conditions in (Lewiston) Maine cotton mills as
reprinted in the Bridgton News, December 18, 1908.

The French Canadian Operatives

The great majority of the mill employes [sic] are
French Canadians, some of whom have lived in New
England so long that they speak both English and
their French-Canadian patois, or "old French" as
some call it, with equal rapidity. They have
intermarried with the American population to quite
an extent. Some are prominent citizens of the two
cities, holding important official positions in the
city and county government. Some of these families
have homes of their own, some keep "Maison de
Pensions" in the corporation blocks or elsewhere,
others live in houses rented from the men of their
own nationality who have acquired property, and
still others occupy the four or five story tenement
blocks, which are very numerous in certain sections
of the city. These buildings are of a box-like style
of architecture, built close together, with verandas
at the front or rear, which in some instances appear
to be convenient storehouses for wash tubs, tin
dishes, and various articles of wearing apparel, not
at the time in use. They correspond to the backyards
of some houses. A passerby can appreciate some of
the joys of tenement house life, when observing the
verandas of a five-story tenement, filled to
overflowing with crowds of excited children, in
various stages of apparel and non-apparel, their
shrill voices raised in shouts or other
exclamations, while the older people are at the
windows, conversing with their neighbors across the
street.

It is said there are 800 families residing in an
area not over one-quarter of a mile square, in which
are 4,000 people and 2,000 of them, at least,
children. No person

can walk through these treeless streets, where the
sun beats mercilessly down on the dust and dirt, or
go through the narrow, dark alleys, where little
sunlight comes, and observe the swarms of half-clad
children, whose hard-working mothers have not time
to keep them tidy, without feeling that somewhere in
our social life a great wrong is being done these
helpless bits of humanity, reared in squalor and
poverty.

One thing which is greatly to be deplored in this
connection is the fact that numerous little ones are
left to the care of older sisters, the "little
mothers" of eight or ten years, or perhaps to some
accommodating neighbor who "keeps her eye" on them
as they play about the streets and railroad tracks,
while the mother is at work. In the early morning
hours, fathers or mothers may be seen carrying the
half-asleep babies in their arms to a neighboring
tenement, to be cared for during the day by some one
who has several of these charges. Some fathers and
mothers, however, prefer to live on the amount the
father can earn, small though it may be, so that the
mother may care for the home and little ones.

A red-cheeked little girl of five years, who was
playing about a boarding house, practically deserted
during working hours, said: "Mamma works in the
mill, but papa isn't busy all day, so he looks out
for me when he is at home." A condition similar to
this is often found, where "father's job" doesn't
keep him busy all the time, while mother is working
the full sixty hours a week. Yet it should be said
that many of the women greatly prefer the factory to
house work, or to do scrubbing and washing part of
the time. The difference between the size of the
family and the size of the income often renders the
fact that mother must earn something somewhere a
matter of course. Most of the women have spent so
much time at the machines, where the work becomes
largely mechanical, that the numerous home duties,
or work along domestic lines, is irksome to them.
"Why," said one woman, "I wouldn't do dress-making
for anything. I'd much rather tend my looms."

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

If you have not already renewed your membership in
the Androscoggin Historical Society for 1 June 1996
to 31 May 1997, please do so without delay. Circle
the amount of the membership level that you choose.

Annual member $5.00PRINT Name(s)

Contributing member$10.00Address

Life member$50.00Post OfficeState


ZIP____________

Please send me information on becoming a
Corporate/Business Member.

Mail this form with your check to Androscoggin
Historical Society, Alma Palmer, POB 67, Minot,
Maine 04258


ROBERT BELIVEAU HONORED

At the 1996 Annual Meeting, it was announced that
the Board of Directors had voted to grant a life
membership in the Society to Robert C. Beliveau in
recognition of his service to the Society. Elected
to serve as assistant curator 1979-1985 and curator
1985-1996, he kept the Society's holdings clean and
orderly, and he often added to our collection items
of local historical interest that he ran across at
flea markets and auctions. We appreciate his devoted
service.

WHAT'S THAT STUFF ABOVE OR AFTER MY NAME ON THE
ADDRESS LABEL?

That stuff lets you know at what dues level and what
year our membership records show you last paid your
dues. the "an" means Annual; "conb" means
Contributing (able to give a little more support)
and "life" means Life Membership (no more dues to
pay). If you have a "95-6," you paid your last years
dues and will get one more meeting notice (to those
within driving distance) and one more newsletter.
When it is "96-7" you will get all the publications
of the coming year. As you recall our dues year is
from 31 May to 1 June the following year. Well, that
wasn't too difficult was it!! Oh, by the way, if you
find any errors or omissions please contact the
Membership Secretary (Alma Palmer, POB 67, Minot, ME
04258) or (207) 783-2513 to get them corrected.

NEW HOURS FOR LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

The Board of Directors has adopted a new schedule
for the Society's library and museum to be open,
effective for the 1996-1997 year. We now shall open
three days a week on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
from 9:00 A.M. to noon and 1:00 to 5:00 P.M.

This enables our new executive secretary to have
blocks of time to work on his dissertation and to be
able also to obtain other part-time employment.

The board also believes that the new schedule will
better serve our clientele. Researchers from out of
town now can work for seven hours in one day rather
than three and a half. Moreover, we now shall be
open twenty-one hours each week, rather than the 17½
under the old schedule.


MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS

Our Corporate-Business Members and others provide
donations to help us to meet a very tight budget. We
appreciate the help of all contributors and here
give recognition to the following larger donors
during 1995/1996:
 
Mechanics Savings Bank
Fleet Bank
Helen Eastman
Pete Fitzherbert
F. Berkley Hobart
Geneva Kirk
D. Pepin
John Pullen