Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-02-21
LOOKING BACKWARD
A Glimpse at the Past, What the
Present Might Be and What the
Future Will Be
by George G. HalN

backward, turn backward, Q
Time, in thy flight"
Give us old Hallowell. if only for
one night
In my annual pilgrimage to the
home of my childhood and youth it
is with feelings of joy that l greet
the few of my old boyhood acquaint-
ances who are still loyal to home
ties. and it is with feeling of sad
ness when We compare the Hallowell
of today and that of the days of our
youth, .
The sound of the stonecutters as
they transformed the huge blocks of
rough granite into tablets of beauty
as well as epitaphs to some depart
cd friend, was music to my ears.
Now they are as silent as the tomb.
How We boys would travel to Lou
don Hill. there to ride on the plat
form of the big saw at Fuller's saw
mil, thCn SKIP up to the wire mill
and sit on the revolving cone as the
big wire was -rceled off into almost a
mere thread, then to the isinglass
and sandpapcr mill. and watch that
process; then we would go to the
oilcloth factories and watch the huge
rolls of burlap go through it's diff
ferent stages until finally it emerged
as a thing of beauty and a joy to the
housewife
Oft have we tried to study in the
old South Grammar school in the
warm days of spring and early sum-
mer, only to fall into a browse as the
Sor
nearby cotton factory came through
the window.
And TO add life and gayety to the
social side, we had the companion
81 ip of boys and girls from all over
the State who had come to Halo
well to attend the Classical school
or the hill, and they sure did put
lift into the community during the
school terms.
In those days every store was oc-
cupied and doing good business
and the citizens seemed happy and
contcnted. On many occasions has
the writer and others seen t-atfic or
Water street in a congested state,
both day and night.
But that was old Hallowell, the
Hallowell of our boyhood and the
Hallowell we love to think about
So much for the past
The Hallowell of today, were it
not for the trolley making its pc
riodical trips through the main
street, would be as quiet and dead
as quiet and dead as the silent
city, at the upper end of the town.
T..
should continue?
A few. very few, have loved the
old homes enough to leave Il mem
orial for the years to come, such as
the City hall, the animal and pub
lie drinking fountain just below,
and Il schoolhouse. This is the ex-
tent of lasting memorials of old
time residents with the exception Of
the Public Library.
Such conditions ought not and
should not continue. The stone
sheds are still here and u seeming
ly ineXhaustible supply of granite
is still waiting to be turned into
living reminders of the one-time
thriving industry. Nearly all the
other places mentioned above could
be worked as successfully now as
iE days of yore, if
That ''if'' refers to the money
that is mildewing with age in our
local banks which. put to the use
it was intended for by those who
have passed on, would soon make
the wheels of industry revolve and
put old Hallowell where it once was,
in the forefront of the cities on the
Kennebec River.
One of the greatest handicaps to
progress of Hallowell is the absence
of the old bridge which once cross
ed to the Chelsea side. In the days
of the bridge nearly all farmers
came to Hallowell with their prod
ucts, finding here a better market
than either Augusta or Gardiner
The future of Hallowell suffered its
greatest shock when one of it's most
beloved citizens, and at the time of
his death holding the highest office in
the gift of the people, passed from
our midst, we would have had new
bridge. and it would be very fitting
and most appropriate memorial to
his memory to again span the Kenne-
bee at Hallowell with what would be
known as the "Bodwell' bridge And
We're he able to look down upon that
structure Gas some say b CAM, with
out doubt he would say, "veily, my
fondest hope has been 6ealized"
The future of Hallowell is what
you may make it. If you prefer to
continue to let money smildew in the
vaults of banks rather than put it to
the use for which no doubt at least
some of it was intended, then there
is nothing left but to live and die in
the hopes of what might have been.
Wake up, you young and middle
aged men and women of Hallowell,
and resolve you will arise from the
ashes of the past, and put aside all
greedy, selfish aspirations. and place
old Hallowell on the map of activity.
1t can, be done.
LOCAL NOTICE