Chapter 1—Ellen White’s Hometown: Portland, Maine, 1827-1846

Frederick Hoyt

In March 1840, William Miller visited Portland, Maine, and gave a course of lectures on the second coming of Christ. These lectures produced a great sensation, and the Christian church on Casco Street, where the discourses were given, was crowded day and night.... In company with my friends, I attended these meetings. —Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 20.WEGW 13.1

Portland, Maine, where Ellen Harmon lived during her childhood and youth, is a beautifully situated city today; it must have been even more striking in the early decades of the last century, before the onset of urban sprawl. “This city is regularly laid out,” an article in the London Illustrated News declared in 1859, “and handsomely built; its streets are broad, and most of them are lined with elms and other shade trees, which in the summer season give it the appearance of a city amid a forest.”WEGW 13.2

“In many particulars your charming city stands unrivaled,” a visitor to Portland (who identified himself only as T.H.P.) declared in a letter to the Portland Eastern Argus in May 1846. He was particularly impressed by its “airy and elevated position, the width and cleanliness of its streets,” its “architectural beauty,” and the many attractive “yards, small gardens, and ornamental trees.” Portland’s “safe, excellent, and capacious harbour ... studded with numerous pleasant islands” merited his praise.WEGW 13.3

His commendatory comments were also extended to the residents of Portland. They “gave evidence of order, dignity, and civility in the males, and of propriety of dress and manner, and ladylike deportment, in the females.” He saw only a few “dandies and loafers,” and no “street beggars” or “cases of intoxication.”WEGW 13.4

This visitor believed that the “health and salubrity of [Portland’s] climate” would “compare with any other in the Union.”WEGW 14.1

Had his visit occurred during the winter, he might well have had less generous praise for her climate, which could then be extremely harsh. Temperatures well below zero were not uncommon (on February 1, 1826, the thermometer reached a record 24 degrees below). The harbor usually was frozen over for days or even weeks during the winter, sometimes so solidly that men could walk across the ice to the islands in Casco Bay. When ice prevented ship movements, heavy snow usually made for ideal sleighing conditions ashore.WEGW 14.2

Although Portland was a busy commercial seaport and the largest city in Maine, some aspects of her daily life indicate that she was essentially an overgrown country town. This is evidenced by the regular newspaper advertisements concerning livestock. Strayed, stolen, or lost horses were often the subject of such ads, with rewards routinely offered. But mainly it was cows that made Portland’s paper—cows of all sorts, sizes, colors, conditions, and ages. These were strayed cows, stolen cows, found cows, and impounded cows. Uncounted hundreds of them must have made their home within the city limits.WEGW 14.3

Tracing her history back to early Colonial times, Portland was a proud American city that had supported the patriot cause during the Revolution and had paid dearly for this stand when the British burned the city (then called Falmouth) on October 18, 1775. Fourth of July gave Portlanders the opportunity to remember the Revolution and demonstrate their patriotism; that is, unless the Fourth came on a Sunday, in which case religious scruples operated and the celebration was postponed until Monday.WEGW 14.4

The essential ingredients for a proper Fourth of July celebration were standard: the lengthy ringing of church bells and the firing of a salute by cannon at sunrise, noon, and sunset; picnics, with lots of food and drink (largely nonalcoholic after the temperance crusades hit the city in the 1830s); parades, with much band music, usually ended at a church for prayers, patriotic orations, and the mandatory reading of the Declaration of Independence; and, of course, fireworks in the evening.WEGW 14.5

With a population of 12,601 in the census of 1830, and 15,218 in 1840, it is obvious that Portland was a rapidly growing city. For that era, such a population placed her among important cities of medium size, exceeding in population, for example, New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut; and Savannah, Georgia.WEGW 14.6

The city government of Portland was impressively organized to meet the needs of her citizens. Annual elections were held in April with eligible voters (adult males only, of course) casting written ballots to select a mayor at large and an alderman and three councilmen in each of the seven wards. The board of aldermen and the board of common councilmen, meeting together with the mayor presiding, constituted the city council of Portland, Maine.WEGW 15.1

One of the duties of the city council was to select the numerous city officials (more than 200 in 1844), who carried out a great variety of detailed and complex duties required for the proper functioning of a dynamic seaport. These officials ranged from the customary city clerk, treasurer, assessors, constable, marshal, and solicitor to the superintendent of clocks, ringer of city bells, and keeper of the powder magazine. Others were members of committees, such as the 16 on the school committee, seven overseers of the house of correction, and the nine overseers of the poor. Still others were members of bodies whose duties were related to specific specialized activities, such as the seven surveyors of hardwood, 14 cullers of hoops and staffs, seven surveyors of masts and spars, and six cullers of dry fish.WEGW 15.2

A number of joint standing committees were regularly organized by the city council. In 1844 these included committees on accounts; public buildings; new streets; highways, sidewalks, and bridges; bells and clocks; burying grounds; finance; engrossed ordinances; and the fish market. Their composition typically was an alderman and three councilmen; three had two aldermen and three councilmen. The mayor was a member of three committees.WEGW 15.3

All city officials, both elected and appointed, were apparently adult white males. No woman’s name ever appeared in newspaper reports of such offices. Nor did any of Portland’s Negroes apparently ever hold public office. From 1820, however, when Maine had separated from Massachusetts, there had been no suffrage restrictions against adult male Negroes who were citizens and residents.WEGW 15.4

Such an extensive government structure was obviously costly to support. In 1842, for example, the city budget totaled $32,550.21. The heaviest expenditures were for local schools ($8,883.32): interest on the city debt ($5,128); “Support of the Poor” ($4,000); streets, sidewalks, and bridges ($3,000); salaries of city officials ($2,810); the city watch ($1,520.50); and the fire department ($1,045).WEGW 15.5

Portland was proud of its progressive public school system, which offered free education for “scholars” between 4 and 21 years of age. The system began with primary schools, which a student normally entered at 4 years of age. There were eight of these schools in 1838, all taught by women, and with women principal-teachers.WEGW 16.1

Next were four grammar, or “monitorial,” schools—two for girls, with women administrators and teachers; and two for boys, staffed by men. Admission was by periodic public examination conducted by the teachers, emphasizing reading, spelling, penmanship, and arithmetic skills. No minimum age was indicated.WEGW 16.2

The capstone for the public or free school system was the English high school for young men. Entrance was by public examination conducted by the Portland school committee. Its curriculum was impressive: reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar, natural philosophy, bookkeeping, algebra, geometry, surveying, Latin, Greek, history, and chemistry.WEGW 16.3

Portland had no college; but prestigious Bowdoin College, situated in nearby Brunswick, had been established in 1794. It also operated Maine’s only medical school. College training, naturally, was only for young men. The education of girls ended with grammar school—unless they attended one of the many private schools in the city or patronized itinerant teachers.WEGW 16.4

Free public schooling was provided for Portland’s sizable Black population, principally in a single, segregated, Colored primary school. For those Blacks who qualified for further schooling, two approaches operated at different times: grammar school subjects were added to the curriculum of the Colored public school, or qualified students (apparently always boys) were allowed into one of the grammar schools or the English high school. The Colored school was the source of endless trouble for the school committee, especially when its single teacher-principal was ineffective or controversial. Lack of support for the school by the Colored population even led to its closing in 1835.WEGW 16.5

Advertisements in Portland’s newspapers offered instruction in a variety of private schools. Especially popular were seminaries or academies for young ladies. Such “finishing schools” obviously attempted to meet the needs of girls whose education in the local public schools ended with the grammar school. Other private schools for boys, or sometimes for both sexes, were apparently intended to serve those who found the public schools wanting in some respect.WEGW 16.6

A variety of specialized instruction was regularly offered to Portland residents, including penmanship (in several different systems), foreign languages (especially French), and bookkeeping. Music instruction was always available, especially vocal and choral. Instruction in dancing was offered, including the latest dances, such as the polka and the waltz from decadent Europe. There was even instruction available in horse riding for ladies, self-defense for men, and navigation for those thinking of a career at sea.WEGW 17.1

Although Portland was usually a placid, industrious, law-abiding city, misdemeanor and criminal conduct were occasionally mentioned in the press. There was a local jail and house of correction, and the state prison was not far away.WEGW 17.2

The most common law-and-order problem that reached the newspapers concerned runaway apprentice boys. Advertisements offering rewards and describing such defectors from the labor system were routine, both for hometown boys and for those from other parts of Maine. Undoubtedly many of them found their way aboard ships in Portland or other nearby harbors, where few if any questions would be asked.WEGW 17.3

Ordinary fights were not usually reported, but major episodes involving large numbers, and usually in the city’s waterfront area, did reach the papers. Sometimes such fracases involved more than fists. According to the Eastern Argus, during a “rough and tumble” fight in “the lower part of the city” on May 5, 1840, “the ‘bowie-knife’ gleamed and the pistol showed its ugly phiz.”WEGW 17.4

Thievery covered a variety of items from horses and sleighs, cows, jewelry, clothing, and groceries to the unusual, such as the stealing of the bell ropes from the First Parish Church in 1845. Often the only record of such crimes is to be found in newspaper ads offering rewards for the apprehension of the culprits; for example, the $10 offered by the above church.WEGW 17.5

In other instances the offenses can only be categorized as vandalism. All too often such activities were directed against local public schools, such as a series of incidents in 1835 that prompted the school committee to post a $25 reward.WEGW 18.1

But the largest reward advertised was in 1843 when the city council offered $500 (a fortune for that day) for the apprehension and conviction of whoever had committed an “atrocious deed.” James Henley, an “infirm and aged inhabitant,” had died after he had been “most deadly assaulted, wounded, maimed, and robbed of money by some person or persons unknown ...” Unfortunately, there is no record that this reward was ever collected.WEGW 18.2

Some offenders were juveniles, of both sexes, and sometimes very young. Thievery, destruction of property, drunkenness, trespassing, and vandalism of various sorts were noted by local newspapers, commonly with the names of the youthful offenders. But it was delinquency of another sort that provoked the Eastern Argus in November 1838 to an angry editorial outburst, headed “Bad Boys!”: “A boy about 8 or 10 years of age threw a stone at another boy ... knocking him down, and leaving him senseless ... [and] seriously injured.” An indignant editor declared that Portland needed nothing “so much as a house of correction for juvenile offenders,” where such “desperate ruffians” could “be caught up, and reformed ...”WEGW 18.3

Portland’s city council concerned itself with a variety of ordinances related to public order, ranging from prohibition against cigar and pipe smoking in city streets to violation of “Sabbath” (Sunday) closing laws for stores. But a serious recurring problem was created by fast driving or riding of horses through the streets, a “common practice” that created “great danger.”WEGW 18.4

A city jail, which had been built in 1797, apparently housed offenders of all ages for short terms or until they were brought to trial. Then transfers were effected either to the local house of correction (which shared a campus with the poorhouse) or to the state prison. The warden’s 1843 report for this prison reveals the types of crimes committed in Maine: larceny (39 of the 63 prisoners as of December 31, 1843); arson (5); assault to ravish (4); burglary (3); two each for adultery, passing counterfeit money, and forgery; and one each for murder with sentence commuted, murder awaiting sentence of death, manslaughter, assault to kill, perjury, and malicious mischief.WEGW 18.5

It is clear from even a casual reading of Portland’s newspaper that wealth was not equally distributed in the city and that the poor were always present. Those who were unable to care for themselves were helped by a combination of uncoordinated private individual and institutional assistance, largely centered in the churches, and public aid, principally the almshouse, plus indeterminate individual begging, scavenging, and thieving.WEGW 19.1

In 1835 Portland’s almshouse contained some 80 inmates of all ages, both Black and White, including children. Families were separated, but at least a school was provided for the children, taught by one of the men. The men were employed on the farm, in the brickyard, and in several shops; the women in domestic activities. Children were “bound out” as apprentices when old enough. The overseers of the poor consistently indicted intemperance as the fundamental causative factor for these people being in the almshouse and the house of correction, housed in the same three-story brick building on the outskirts of the city.WEGW 19.2

The term almshouse for this institution is deceptive. A careful reading of periodic reports and newspaper accounts on its activities reveals that it was a workhouse, an insane asylum, a refuge for the feeble-minded, an alcoholic institute, a jail, a hospital, a ward for the dying, a juvenile hall, a trade school, and a source of apprentices for the local labor market.WEGW 19.3

Prominent among private charitable organizations was the Widows’ Wood Society, which provided firewood during winter months for the widows and the fatherless. The Eastern Argus believed that no other charitable group in the city “was regarded with more general favor.” Other needs of this unfortunate group were met by the city’s oldest charitable organization, the Portland Benevolent Society.WEGW 19.4

Another private charitable institution was the Female Orphan Asylum, which had been organized in 1828. By 1844 it was caring for 25 girls; but older girls were regularly “bound out to service,” thus making room for new inmates. Inexplicably, there was no comparable institution for orphan boys.WEGW 19.5

Other groups were concerned with the welfare of Portland’s needy women: the Female Charitable Society, which emphasized help in sickness and in providing clothes for needy families; and the Portland Society for the Employment of Poor Females, which functioned as an employment clearinghouse. Then, of course, there were the regular but difficult-to-document activities of Portland’s women in local Dorcas societies and similar church groups.WEGW 19.6

Maine joined the United States in 1820 as a free state under terms of the famous Missouri Compromise, so she never knew slavery as an institution. But she did have a significant Negro population, numbering 1,355 (with more than half designated “mulatto”), according to the census of 1840.WEGW 20.1

The issue of slavery, however, was of continuing interest and concern to Maine and to residents of Portland. Heavy coverage of the topic was provided in local newspapers, and speakers often came to the city for lectures, including those from the South who defended the “peculiar institution.”WEGW 20.2

Portland was firmly antislavery, but not necessarily supportive of abolitionists. The largest meeting ever held in Portland met in the city hall in August 1835 to hear seven speakers oppose abolitionism. In succeeding years a number of leading abolitionists visited Portland, including James G. Birney, presidential candidate of the Liberty Party in 1840 and 1844; Frederick Douglass, a fugitive slave; and William Lloyd Garrison, editor of The Liberator. But by October 1844 the abolitionists had so disgusted the citizens of Portland by their attacks on the government that this “unprincipled sect,” as the Advertiser termed them, was denied use of city hall by the mayor and the city council.WEGW 20.3

Despite this concern with the abolitionists, Portland’s Black community did not have high visibility in local newspapers. Infrequent notices commonly referred to the Abyssinian church, the public Colored school, or a Black resident who had gotten into trouble.WEGW 20.4

Merely scanning Portland’s daily newspapers for the years of Ellen Harmon’s childhood and youth quickly reveals that religion constituted an important element in the life of this city. There are references in 1846 to an impressive number and variety of churches, from the expected Baptist, Methodist, and Congregational churches to a Roman Catholic church, a Friends chapel, a seamen’s chapel, an Abyssinian church for Blacks, and even a “Second Advent” congregation of Millerites.WEGW 20.5

Portland’s churches were active in a variety of charitable and benevolent endeavors. Sunday schools were mentioned, but there were apparently no parochial schools. References to seminaries in advertisements and news items concerned private secondary schools and not religiously oriented or controlled institutions.WEGW 21.1

Some of the churches also sponsored cultural affairs in their sanctuaries. These included lectures on secular topics, sometimes by visiting speakers of considerable prominence. Church buildings were also used for sacred concerts of serious classical music (Haydn’s Creation and Handel’s Messiah were favorites offered by the Portland Sacred Music Society).WEGW 21.2

The pervasive impact of Portland’s churches on public affairs is obvious. Various temperance organizations commonly held their meetings in churches with local or visiting clergymen as speakers. Surprisingly enough, no church as such became involved in the abolitionist controversy—not even the local Abyssinian church, which served Portland’s Blacks. Strict regulation of Sunday activities and the virtual elimination of Sunday business undoubtedly had the support of local churches. There were also state-mandated “holy days” for Maine, formally proclaimed by the governor: Thanksgiving in November; a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer in April; and the Fourth of July (“Our National Sabbath”).WEGW 21.3

Of all religious topics reported by Portland’s press during the years 1837 to 1846, Millerism received the most extensive coverage (with Mormonism a close contender). Although Millerites and Second Adventists may well have considered it a “bad press,” they certainly could not have claimed that they were ignored by local editors.WEGW 21.4

During this period the religious world of Maine was clearly a man’s world. Women’s names did not appear in relation to any activities of established churches, but they did appear in newspapers when Millerism and Second Adventism were mentioned. Departures from accepted norms were unwelcome, whether these deviations were in doctrine, in worship modes, or in leadership style—and especially so, it appears, if women assumed any public religious role.WEGW 21.5

Women predominated in Portland, according to census figures, but few of them were ever mentioned in local newspapers. The most common appearance of women’s names in Portland newspapers was in notices by husbands regarding missing wives. Only rarely did abandoned wives advertise concerning wandering husbands—and then usually to warn other women about them.WEGW 21.6

Portland audiences did occasionally hear a woman speak in public—usually when a daring “outsider” came to town. When a Mrs. S. C. Redlon delivered a series of lectures on moral reform in October 1841, she drew crowds of several hundred—overwhelmingly male—to city hall. Although admitting that she was “quite a pretty little woman,” and that she was a good public speaker, “for a woman,” the editor of the Eastern Argus had had his “sense of propriety ... violated” by this “gentle little woman throwing herself into the desk of our city hall, before a promiscuous audience of utter strangers.”WEGW 22.1

When Mary Neal Gove (later Nichols) came to Portland in October 1839 as a pioneering female lecturer on physiology, she wisely limited her audience strictly to women. This “maid-of-all-reforms” had become a convert to the gospel of Grahamism and all that such a conversion entailed: vegetarianism; whole-grain products; no coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco, or drugs; moderation in eating; a simple diet free of spices; frequent bathing; exercise; fresh air; sunshine; dress reform; sex hygiene; and a variety of other miscellaneous reforms and prohibitions.WEGW 22.2

Her personal crusade was against the evils of the corset. Later she added hydropathy with its vast claims of “water cures” to her repertoire, eventually opening the first hydropathic medical school in the country. In Portland she delivered a series of 12 lectures on anatomy and physiology “to ladies ONLY,” for only $1, including her famous attack “in which the evils of TIGHT LACING are demonstrated.” Later some women complained that these lectures had been “highly indecent.”WEGW 22.3

Portland’s strong Puritan heritage had obviously been seriously eroded by the 1830s and 1840s. The life of her citizens was far removed from all work and no play, with pervasive religious exercises as a principal form of recreational release. By now, local newspapers regularly contained announcements and advertisements for a variety of entertainments and amusements.WEGW 22.4

Perhaps the most common form of popular entertainment was the public lecture. Portland was apparently on a regular circuit for lecturers up from Boston, who spoke on a wide range of subjects. Particularly popular were lecture-demonstrations on scientific topics, especially electricity and magnetism. The 12 1/2 cents such a lecture cost often included a free “Galvanic shock.”WEGW 22.5

Beginning in 1840, Portland supplied enthusiastic audiences for lecture-demonstrations on what was termed animal magnetism, mesmerism, natural magnetism, living magnetism, or even pantheism (and what would undoubtedly today be termed simply hypnotism). Typically the expert (usually designated the “magnetizer”), who understood the “vital principle” or the “universal electric fluid,” caused a subject to be “magnetized” (also referred to as being put into a mesmeric sleep, a trance, a magnetic state, a “somnambulic condition,” or a magnetic sleep).WEGW 23.1

Although the demonstrations that emphasized control over a subject in a “magnetized” condition or that provided dramatic examples of clairvoyance were undoubtedly high in entertainment value, the serious aspects of the new “science” were soon apparent in their diagnostic value for medicine. In June 1842, for example, a young woman up from Boston was placed in a “magnetic sleep,” during which she described the nature of a disease that afflicted a gentleman in the audience; she even prescribed remedies for him.WEGW 23.2

In April 1843 a Rev. H. Beckwith and his assistants came to Portland for a series of four lectures and demonstrations on the philosophy of mesmerism, with the promise that organic diseases would be examined, “both in public and private, and remedies prescribed.”WEGW 23.3

In August 1843 Portland experienced a major scientific and humanitarian breakthrough when a new “Institute for the Mesmeric Examination of Diseases” was opened by a Dr. Lunt, “where all persons afflicted with any kind of disease can be examined and prescribed for.” The fee was only $2, and house calls would be made by the good doctor and his staff for a mere $3.WEGW 23.4

A Mr. Sunderland came to Portland in September 1844, proclaiming himself the founder of a new science of pantheism, but advertisements read like those for animal magnetizers, including claims for “the remarkable cure of numerous cases of disease.” The Eastern Argus reported no diseases cured during his first lecture, but at the end “two females of the audience were discovered to be in a state of somnambulancy.”WEGW 23.5

Portland was also regularly visited by that colorful American institution, the circus. These commonly featured skilled equestrians, strongmen, gymnasts, wild animals, bands, and lots of horses (Arabians were particularly emphasized in advertisements).WEGW 23.6

Typical of the era was an exhibit, usually related to a famous historic event or person, called a diorama. A complicated mix of mechanical devices, models, paintings, and special lighting and sound effects, such an exhibit represented a considerable investment in time and money. A diorama depicting the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Conflagration of Charlestown (advertised as “‘76 Revived”) was well received when it opened in Portland in October 1838, after two local artisans (a “machinist” and a painter) had devoted three years to its creation.WEGW 24.1

Among musical groups offering popular entertainment, the most enthusiastically received were those featuring Black musicians performing Negro songs, dances, and music. In 1844, for example, three such groups came to Portland: the Five Original Virginia Serenaders (termed a “celebrated band of Ethiopian delineators,” they appeared in five concerts); the Lingo Melodists (three concerts of “Mirth and Music”); and the Congo Melodists (tickets to their several concerts were only 12 1/2 cents).WEGW 24.2

By August 1841, vaudeville, called “the most popular and fashionable amusement of the day” in advertisements, had come to Portland. With a cast of both ladies and gentlemen, the performances doubtless included a mix of music, dances, and skits. Taking no chances with disorder, the management had “engaged” what they labeled “an efficient police” to ensure that “the most positive order will be preserved.”WEGW 24.3

Portlanders also were able to view in person some of the most famous people in the world, including General Tom Thumb and the Siamese Twins. “The United Brothers Chang-Eng” were in town for five days in June 1838. They could be viewed for only 25 cents; a lithograph of them was available for the same amount. Tom Thumb arrived in Portland on October 21, 1844, on the eve of the End of the World as proclaimed in that city for months past by the Millerites. From 10:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night on that fateful twenty-second of October, for only 12 1/2 cents each he exhibited himself to the citizens of Portland, including “quite a bevy of fair ladies.”WEGW 24.4

Sports or athletics apparently played an insignificant part in the lives of Portland’s citizens during this era, but August 1843 witnessed a momentous event in local history—two bowling alleys were opened on Public Street. However, advertisements quickly dispelled any specter of dissolute behavior by emphatically stating that these facilities were for “amusement and exercise only,” and that they would be “conducted on the strictest principles of temperance and morality.”WEGW 24.5

Although it appears that Portland was well supplied with amusements and light entertainment, she was also remarkably well provided with serious programs for a city of her modest size and rather isolated location. Up from Boston by stage or ship, and later by train, there came a steady procession of performers and lecturers to vie for the Portlanders’ coins.WEGW 25.1

Serious lectures upon a variety of scientific topics were particularly popular during the decades of the 1830s and 1840s. A series of six lectures on geology was presented in 1837, followed a few months later by a series on entomology. In 1838 six lectures on astronomy at Portland’s city hall were so well received that the speaker returned in 1840.WEGW 25.2

Other lectures covered a wide range of topics. Some were on foreign lands (India, Poland, Jerusalem); others on the theater, including six lectures on Shakespeare’s plays; and on religious topics (the Shakers and the Millerites). But most impressive was the Portland Lyceum’s series of lectures on historical subjects in 1843, which were of a quality that would have been praiseworthy for a major metropolis. The series opened with a lecture on John Hampden (a seventeenth-century English political leader) and closed with a presentation in two parts on the French Revolution. But the second lecture on the Seven Years’ War (or French and Indian War), by the eminent historian George Bancroft, was the obvious highlight of the series. The Eastern Argus estimated that the audience approached a thousand, the largest for such an occasion in Portland’s history, to hear Bancroft attempt “to trace the footsteps of God along the line of the departing centuries.”WEGW 25.3

Portland could claim no important resident literary figure during this period, but it did glory in the fame of a native son, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who had been born and reared in Portland. The local newspapers followed his career as a professor at Harvard, and published his poems. But most of the poetry routinely printed by these papers was of a decidedly light and popular quality.WEGW 25.4

In marked contrast was the impressive quality of the frequent concerts in Portland, which were predominantly sacred and from the great classical composers. The Mozart Society opened its 1835 concert season with a program featuring works by Haydn, including selections from the Creation. Two years later the Portland Sacred Music Society performed this oratorio in its entirety for the first time “this side of Boston.” So enthusiastic was the reception that the performance was repeated three times by popular demand; later in the year it was performed several more times for a city that had become enthusiastic for great music that had heretofore been largely missing from its civic cultural life.WEGW 26.1

During the same week in September 1838, when the Creation was next presented by the Portland Sacred Music Society, that group also offered the first performance of Handel’s Messiah in the state of Maine. Two days later it was repeated by popular demand. Tickets were 50 cents; for those under 15 (here Ellen Harmon and her twin sister Elizabeth could have qualified), only 25 cents. When this magnificent masterpiece was again presented on Christmas Day 1841, general admission had been reduced to 25 cents.WEGW 26.2

The concerts by this society took place in various churches in Portland; in the Hall of the Exchange building when it was completed in 1840; and in Beethoven Hall, which in April 1838 was filled with the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Handel. This was the hall that Portland’s Millerites would later rent and fill with their shouts of “Amen,” “Hallelujah,” and “Glory.” And this is where those fervent Millerites, including Robert Harmon and his family, met when they were disfellowshipped from their churches.WEGW 26.3

Judging from newspaper advertisements, medical and dental services were readily available in Portland, Maine, during Ellen Harmon’s childhood and youth. But since the city did not have a hospital until 1855, treatment was either in the patient’s home or in the physician’s office. Professional nurses, of course, did not yet exist.WEGW 26.4

The M.D. degree could be obtained at the Medical School of Maine at reputable Bowdoin College in Brunswick, some 26 miles from Portland. Although its medical curriculum for the M.D. degree demanded attendance at lectures for only three months, presentation of a thesis, and successful performance in a final examination before the Faculty of Medicine, this was equivalent to the best American medical schools.WEGW 26.5

Readily available to supplement the ministrations of physicians were numerous “patent medicines,” which were regularly advertised in local newspapers. The lists of diseases and physical problems that some of them claimed to cure were impressive, and testimonials from the grateful cured were generously offered in support of their efficacy. Particularly attractive to thrifty Down-Easters must have been those products that promised to be equally effective in treating both humans and horses.WEGW 27.1

Mortality statistics for the city listed a staggering number of causes for death, from an extensive variety of fevers (typhoid and typhus to “putrid fever”) and common diseases of the age (cholera and measles) to some designations that are now quaint or archaic (scrofula, “sudden,” and gravel). By far the commonest cause of death was consumption, followed by “fevers,” dropsy, “bowel complaints,” or other diseases that had reached epidemic proportions (such as measles in 1835 and scarlet fever in 1842).WEGW 27.2

Heavily hit were the young; those under 10 often constituted close to 50 percent of deaths in a year (not counting the many stillborn). Stated differently, the average age at death during 1840 was 22.6 years, which the Advertiser claimed demonstrated “the superior degree of health enjoyed in Portland ...”WEGW 27.3

With the opening of the State Insane Hospital in Augusta in 1840, Maine joined the more progressive states in the treatment of the mentally ill. Occasional newspaper items indicate that Portland supplied her share of inmates at the asylum, especially during the 1840s, when the superintendent designated “religious excitement” as a prime causative factor.WEGW 27.4

The citizens of Portland, Maine, were not left to the mercy of scantily trained physicians or home remedies or patent medicines for the maintenance of their physical well-being. “Health reform” arrived Down East as early as June 1834, when Dr. Sylvester Graham, the most famous of the evangelical health reformers, came to town for a series of 16 lectures on the science of human life. For an admission fee of only 25 cents one could have heard a lecture on some of Graham’s passionately held concerns: vegetarianism, whole-grain “Graham” bread and crackers, dress reform, exercise, sex hygiene, fresh air and water, sunshine, and the evils of tobacco, tea, coffee, spices, grease, desserts, and alcohol. The impact of his lectures was dramatically demonstrated when two local bakeries began advertising “Graham bread” for sale while the series was still in progress.WEGW 27.5

Temperance agitation reached crusading proportions in Maine in the 1830s and 1840s, culminating in the adoption of statewide prohibition. This action was taken despite its negative impact on Maine’s economy.WEGW 28.1

One of the principal imports into Maine was West Indian molasses. For example, 12,723 hogsheads of molasses (110 gallons each) were unloaded at Portland during the first five months of 1842. Some of it was used as molasses and some was converted into sugar, but most of this molasses was distilled into rum at local establishments on Portland’s waterfront. Obviously, rum constituted an important ingredient in Portland’s economy, whether it was consumed locally or shipped elsewhere.WEGW 28.2

A variety of temperance organizations were established in Portland, indicating that considerable quantities of her rum were absorbed by her own residents. The Portland Temperance Society emphasized public temperance meetings. But it was overshadowed in the 1840s by the dynamic new Washington Total Abstinence Society, which had special organizations for women (the Martha Washington Society), for children, and for young men. In 1842 the “Washingtonians” began publishing their own weekly temperance journal, “to aid in the advancement of the holy cause of temperance.”WEGW 28.3

The temperance movement led to the development of various institutions—temperance stores, temperance houses, temperance reading rooms, and temperance ships. By 1835 the Cumberland County Temperance Society rejoiced that Portland had “about one fourth as many temperance stores ... as there are dram shops.” Alexander Moorhead’s Temperance House opened in June 1837, promising to supply patrons “with every accommodation in his power, always excluding ardent spirits.” A Temperance Reading Room was inaugurated by the Young Men’s Total Abstinence Society in 1841, with hours from 7:00 to 10:00 every evening except Sunday.WEGW 28.4

Captain Joseph Bates, who commanded the first American temperance ship out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1827, would surely have been delighted with the annual report of the Cumberland County Temperance Society for 1834. Of the 300 vessels that had sailed out of Portland that: year (22 “ships,” 12 barks, 117 brigs, 137 schooners, and 12 sloops), the large majority had become temperance ships. This included 10 of 22 “ships” (including 1 whaler) and 11 of 12 barkentines (“barks”), the two largest classes. By 1841 the Portland, the principal steamer running from Portland to Boston, had become a temperance ship.WEGW 28.5

It may not be accidental that the temperance crusade paralleled the development in Portland of what came to be designated as soda fountains. In the 1840s three such establishments were offering soda water, water ices, and ice cream in a variety of flavors from vanilla and pineapple to sarsaparilla.WEGW 29.1

The citizens of Maine earned their livelihood principally from agriculture, lumbering, fishing, shipbuilding, maritime trade, and a variety of small industries and businesses. As the state’s largest city, principal port, and commercial center, Portland shared in and profited from these activities.WEGW 29.2

Manufacturing was extremely varied in Portland and obviously critically important for her economic well-being. The census of 1840 listed such manufacturing activities as tobacco ($6,000); hats and caps ($26,900); boots, shoes, and saddlery ($74,771); bricks ($6,000); glass, earthen ware, etc. ($5,500); confectioneries ($14,500); cordage ($29,000); carriages ($11,300); furniture ($57,260); and ships ($48,000).WEGW 29.3

Another list in this census gave quantity figures rather than dollar values. Included were 150,000 gallons of spirits (undoubtedly mainly rum), 2,365 gallons of whale and fish oil, 141,000 pounds of tallow candles, 23,000 pounds of soap, and 2,600 sides of leather. Enough of the ever-present West Indian molasses was diverted from local rum distilleries to produce 238,230 pounds of sugar in 1840.WEGW 29.4

The great diversity of artisan skills that such industries and Portland’s daily needs generated was dramatically demonstrated by a parade of the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association, which took an hour to pass through her streets on October 8, 1841. There were 17 classes of “mechanics,” from blacksmiths and hatters to house-wrights and coopers. Some classes were broken down into several specialities, such as “butchers, tanners, curriers, soap boilers, and tallow chandlers,” for a grand total of 55 separate skills.WEGW 29.5

A significant percentage of these artisans had undoubtedly come up through the well-established apprentice system. Newspaper notices routinely advertised for young boys as recruits into specific enterprises. Similar announcements for girls were rare.WEGW 30.1

The sea in all its varied aspects critically influenced the formation of Maine’s character and personality. She had been settled from the sea in the sixteenth century, and she continued to live largely from the sea in the nineteenth century.WEGW 30.2

Shipping activity for Portland in 1844, for example, totaled 207 arrivals and 254 clearances, with imports for this year valued at $403,029 and exports at $492,852. The 35,575 total tonnage of ships registered in the Portland district formed a significant part of Maine’s shipping, which placed her third in the United States in total tonnage, exceeded only by Massachusetts and New York.WEGW 30.3

A great variety of commodities flowed into and out of this bustling port in her trade with other states, with Canadian and European ports, and particularly with the West Indies. From these islands pineapples and citrus fruit found their way into local stores; but the principal item in this trade was molasses.WEGW 30.4

Data from the Portland Directory for 1834 also illustrates the impact of the sea on her economy. Among those occupations listed, many had direct connection with ships and shipping: 220 mariners, 209 dealers in West Indian goods, 131 shipmasters, and 42 ship carpenters.WEGW 30.5

Shipbuilding was an important industry for Portland. The ships launched from her yards were a significant addition to Maine’s total, which placed her first in the United States in 1840. The “ships,” brigs, and schooners (all sailing vessels, of course) built in Maine that year totaled more than double the tonnage of her nearest competitor, Massachusetts.WEGW 30.6

Maritime news constituted a regular feature in Portland’s daily newspaper: ship movements, ship launchings, cargo discharged and unloaded, and news of maritime activities from around the world. Unfortunately, a common item concerned those who had lost their lives at sea. The high risks involved in following the sea for a living are dramatically illustrated by the shocking number of widows these men left behind. The Portland Directory for 1834 listed 276 widows in a population of 12,971 (of which 7,055 were females and 5,916 were males).WEGW 30.7

Portland benefited from the establishment of regular steamship connections with Boston in the late 1830s. When fare wars erupted, passage between these cities became amazingly cheap—50 cents each way aboard the M. Y. Beach in the summer of 1841.WEGW 31.1

Although products from the booming Yankee whaling business moved through Portland, few whalers listed her as home port. Seamen for whaling ships were recruited in Portland and then transported to the principal whaling port, New Bedford, Massachusetts.WEGW 31.2

The sea also offered recreation for Portlanders—boat races in the harbor, fishing trips out in Casco Bay, and pleasure trips to the many islands off the city. Although fishing was important economically (seafood was an essential ingredient in Down East diets), it usually did not merit attention in local newspapers. A regular exception was the first salmon of the season, which was big news locally and usually led to a celebratory feast in a local hotel dining room.WEGW 31.3

This then was the environment that nurtured the body, mind, and soul of young Ellen Gould Harmon. In many ways it was a harsh environment that could only toughen the character of those it did not break. In the words of American historian James Truslow Adams, in this setting “the gristle of conscience, work, thrift, shrewdness, duty, became bone.” Other words could well be used to characterize Down-Easters: religious fervor, a passionate search for truth, stubborn independence, Spartan toughness, resourcefulness, frugality, sturdy individualism, and a propensity to adopt and fight for unpopular causes.WEGW 31.4