Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-06-26

| Cant. Nathaniel Aimball was one of
the pioneers and greatly contributed to
its prosperity. Hewas followed by the
Bradstreets and our well-known Capt.
Jason Collins whose success as n
steamboat manager has made him ia
nous. The stone house at the Oak
lands was built and first occupied in
1912. Illustrious visitors appeared here
in 1894 when Louis Phillip, afterward'
King of France, and Tallyrand the
willy old statesman, both of whom
were in exile, visited General Dear
| born.
Probably one of the first If not the
first technical school in this country
was the Gardiner Lyceum, which was
started by Mr.. Gardiner in 1882 and he
and Mr. Evans was it's principal
supporters. After the Lyceum closed
its doors it was used for our town
High school and was destroyed by fire
in the fall of 1869. In 1914 the Gardiner
Bank was organized and it's directors
were among our substantial business
men. In 1884 they organized the
Gardiner Savings Institution. These
two banks as state and national insti-
tutiOn5 have remained in existance ever
since
! Our first newspaper appeared in 1924
and was called the Eastern ChOrnical
and was ably edited by Parker Shell
don. In 1873 Or. Ezekiel Holmes pub
lished Il scientific magazine called
THE New England Farmers and
Mechanics Journal. During the early
! days of the temperance movement the
ablest and probably the most radical
of its organs came from an office in
Gardiner and one of it's fearless editors,
Mr.. Hiram X. Morrell, still lives in our
city.
In the early years of the century an
epidemic of spotted fever occurred, was
quite general in this place in 1918 and
proved quite serious. 1t was so prom
inent that DR.. f. Hale, Jr., published q
large volume graphically describing it
and giving minute history of 23 of his
cases. Our beautiful old Episcopal
church edifice was built in 1920 from
stone brought in boats from Litchfield.
When erected it was called one of the
best examples of Gothic church archi-
lecture in the country. At that time
there was only one other Episcopal
church conducting services in Maine
the one in Portland. The first library
was started in 1S41 by the Mechanics
Association. In 1857 the bridge was
built across the Kennebec. Illuminating
gas appeared in the beginning Of the
century but it was not until 1853 that
works We're erected in our city. On
Gray'S wharf was stored by the Tudors
in 1921 the first ice ever shipped from
our river and this was probably one of
the first instances in the worlds history
of ice being stored for shipment On
account of freshets destroying the
houses the enterprise was soon aban-
doned but was renewed by James L.
Cheesman in the late COS.
We dropped our democratic town
government and assumed the dignity
and machinery of a city in 1850 and
we tittingly celebrated our 5Oth birth
day as a city three years ago. Our later
history is we'll known. In the creation
of our industries we have worked Shout
der to shoulder, and Gardiner in the
past has been known as an enterpris-
ing, wide-awake business center. Pages
might be written of the brave men and
women who lived here in the past. Be-
fore and during the Revolutionary
pei lCI oul tItlZell was JOSeDu
North, who lived in our old Gay post
office building. 1t was a great loss to
the community when he moved to Au-
gusta. For 81 years there lived in this
community one of the brave Revolu-
tionary soldiers, Nathaniel Berry, who
was honored by being selected as one of
Washington's Life Guards. Robert
Hallbwell Gardiner, I'd, was born in
this city in 1909. and with the excep-
ton of few years passed in the South
lived here the greater part of his life.
Then there were DR.. James Parker,
Dudley b. Hobart, BarZilla Gannett
Enoch Hale Ezekiel Holmes, Frederick
Allen Parker Sheldon, Moses Springer
and the Gays, Grants, Byrams, Shaws,
BradStreets, JeWetts and others who
were prominent in those early days.
During his 90 years residence in our
midst, Bishop Burgess was a power for
good. not only in this city but in the
whole State. Many words of praise
could be said of George Evans, who
represented Maine in the halls of Con-
gress for years; of Judge Danforth. who
passed the greater part of his life in
| this city; of Noah Woods, who aided
| so many young men and women in their
efforts to obtain an education and of
many others who lived among us in
! this beautiful kennebec valley who
| never became famous but whose lives
are az sacred and as well worth the
telling as those which go into history.
| The brightness of the future lies be-
yond; no human eye can penetrate it,
no pen can write nor tongue describe
1t. neither can the widest dream or
flight of Imagination foretell it's mys-
teries: all is yelled, and we must trust
to the same all-ruling Providence that
| guided in the past, to bring us safely at
last through sunshine and storm to our
I haven of rest
A 10 PER CENT. INCREASE
| cncurod hu Chicann RAILWAY Exnress