We are very grateful to Lynn Ascrizzi, feature writer, for her excellent journalism in presenting the story of this wonderful gift. The importance of this journal and a summary of key points revealed within its pages, is clearly described here.
The newspaper story appears as two articles. Each is presented below in its entirety.
1840s
1850s
1870s
1880s
FIRESIDE CHAT: Connie Parker sits near a roaring fire in her kitchen while chatting with a friend about the historic journal.
TINTYPE photo of Paul and Lydia Yeaton, who built their farm in 1826.
Pull Quote: More than 25 local family names and the work Yeaton did for these people, are mentioned on its time-darkened pages.
Journal finds its way home
By Lynn Ascrizzi
Staff Writer
A look at Paul Yeaton’s life
In 1826, Paul Yeaton Jr. built a large, two-story Federal-style farm house on the West Road in Belgrade, raising the structure on granite hauled by oxen from Hallowell.
One of the area’s earliest settlers, Yeaton was a lean and wiry woodworker and farmer. Born in 1803 in Rollinsford N.H. he and his wife, Lydia Anne Goodridge, had two sons, Edwin and Herbert. Yeaton died in 1893 at age 90, according to Belgrade records.
His skillful handiwork, such as the home’s ornamental “fan” above the front door and the handsomely crafted, interior woodwork, can be seen in what is today the bed and breakfast, Yeaton Farm Inn.
Now, surprising details about Yeaton’s life have come to light with the recent discovery of his original day journal.
“It has to be one of the most valuable manuscripts in the area. It connects people from its first entry in 1831 to its last in 1890,” said the inn’s owner and operator, Connie Parker.
The ledger-style journal’s 100-plus pages show “that the past continues to live on here in central Maine,” Parker said, as she sat in a wingback chair by the wood fire of the kitchen’s original brick fireplace with the small, paper-bound journal resting in her lap.
That day, firelight from the hearth cast an amber glow on the wide, wooden fireplace mantle and surrounds handcrafted by the journal’s author.
The day journal was formerly owned by Daniel Casavant of Waterville, a specialist in handwritten manuscripts. He noticed the name Yeaton while reading a newspaper story that mentioned the historic inn and stage-coach stop.
“I knew I had a Yeaton journal somewhere in my office. I’ve been collecting for 20 years. I pulled it out and, lo and behold, it was the same Paul Yeaton. I always liked that journal. He was a furniture maker. The craftsman ledgers are the most sought after. He was definitely an accomplished housewright and builder of buildings, “he said.
Casavant had been planning to sell the 6-by-8 inch manuscript for $785 to Winterthur Library in Delaware, a top archival library.
Parker told him she could not afford the journal. He agreed to let her borrow it to input its contents into a computer.
Las month, Casavant met at the inn with Parker and Belgrade town historian, Nan Mairs.
“It’s one of the very few written records that have turned up in Belgrade that flesh out the activities of one man,” Mairs said. “Manuscripts from the early 1800s are so rare. Here is one house and one family prominent in the history of the town of Belgrade. This (journal) is not static history, like a chair. This one talks to you.”
Parker showed Casavant around the inn and pointed out details of Yeaton’s handiwork. Then, to her astonishment, Casavant gave her the journal.
After many decades, the manuscript was back home.
“They obviously had a real reverence and appreciation for it. Sometimes it is nicer to see it in the right place than to sell it to a museum and library,” Casavant said.
“We inhaled a big breath,” Mairs said, when the surprise gift was offered.
During the 2002 Waterville bicentennial, Casavant and his wife Pam also had donated the 18th-century Asa Redington day book to the Redington Museum in Waterville and the Nehemiah Getchell ledger to the Miller Library at Colby College.
Parker plans to have the journal become a permanent part of the inn. The entire journal will be scanned and put online for family and historians, she said.
For more information, go to the link “Paul Yeaton’s Journal” located at her Web site: www.yeatonfarminn.com
—Lynn Ascrizzi—207-621-5731
lascrizzi@centralmaine.com
Yeaton had an enterprising life
Skilled in “ornamental penmanship, Paul Yeaton Jr. made journal notations in a fine script, with a quill pen. But its contents reveal that he was not a man of letters. His practical entries are written in the non-narrative style typical of farmer’s journals of the era.
Begun before he married Lydia Anne, his journal does not even note his wedding day.
“One of the things that was fun was the different spellings, like ‘bedstids,’ and ‘pare of boots,’ and ‘cofins’”, Parker said.
Many entries mark his simple business deals. Such transactions, however, are highly important from a historical perspective, Parker said. They shed new light on his and his neighbors daily activities.
More than 25 local family names and the work he did for these people are mentioned on its time-darkened pages — names that are still common in central Maine today, like Hussey, Guptil, Chandler, Mills, Page, Towles, Whitten, Spaulding, Libby, Austin, Giles and Goddridge.
“We knew that he had built the Old South Church,” Parker said of the small white structure down the road from the inn, located at the corner of West Road and Route 135. “Now we know he also built the first Belgrade town office, and the Quaker Meeting House. We know he sold wool to the Cascade Woolen Mill.”
The tireless Yeaton also made coffins, built barns, bred and sold cattle and lambs, sold boards and iron, sheared sheep, raised and marketed wheat, corn, peas, potatoes and oats, made cheese, constructed “lights of sash” (presumably windows), and made tools in a small extant building that Parker calls the cooper’s cottage.
Yeaton also repaired sleights. A January 1830 notation reads: “to mending D. Smithes sleight 00 75”. The latter figure stands in the cents column.
“He built a complex pulley system in the barn to lift a big hay wagon, so hay could be pitched in the loft. It still hangs in the back of the barn.” Parker said.
As if that wasn’t work enough, entries show he also “broke roads” for the town of Belgrade. Parker speculated the term meant he drove oxen or horses through deep snow to open the roads in winter. The term also may mean that he cut new roads in the Belgrade area, she said.
“The journal details a life of devoted and disciplined hard work. It paints the story of how this one man spent his entire life. He was tough.” she said.
—Lynn Ascrizzi
By Lynn Ascrizzi
Staff Writer
A look at Paul Yeaton’s life
In 1826, Paul Yeaton Jr. built a large, two-story Federal-style farm house on the West Road in Belgrade, raising the structure on granite hauled by oxen from Hallowell.
One of the area’s earliest settlers, Yeaton was a lean and wiry woodworker and farmer. Born in 1803 in Rollinsford N.H. he and his wife, Lydia Anne Goodridge, had two sons, Edwin and Herbert. Yeaton died in 1893 at age 90, according to Belgrade records.
His skillful handiwork, such as the home’s ornamental “fan” above the front door and the handsomely crafted, interior woodwork, can be seen in what is today the bed and breakfast, Yeaton Farm Inn.
Now, surprising details about Yeaton’s life have come to light with the recent discovery of his original day journal.
“It has to be one of the most valuable manuscripts in the area. It connects people from its first entry in 1831 to its last in 1890,” said the inn’s owner and operator, Connie Parker.
The ledger-style journal’s 100-plus pages show “that the past continues to live on here in central Maine,” Parker said, as she sat in a wingback chair by the wood fire of the kitchen’s original brick fireplace with the small, paper-bound journal resting in her lap.
That day, firelight from the hearth cast an amber glow on the wide, wooden fireplace mantle and surrounds handcrafted by the journal’s author.
The day journal was formerly owned by Daniel Casavant of Waterville, a specialist in handwritten manuscripts. He noticed the name Yeaton while reading a newspaper story that mentioned the historic inn and stage-coach stop.
“I knew I had a Yeaton journal somewhere in my office. I’ve been collecting for 20 years. I pulled it out and, lo and behold, it was the same Paul Yeaton. I always liked that journal. He was a furniture maker. The craftsman ledgers are the most sought after. He was definitely an accomplished housewright and builder of buildings, “he said.
Casavant had been planning to sell the 6-by-8 inch manuscript for $785 to Winterthur Library in Delaware, a top archival library.
Parker told him she could not afford the journal. He agreed to let her borrow it to input its contents into a computer.
Las month, Casavant met at the inn with Parker and Belgrade town historian, Nan Mairs.
“It’s one of the very few written records that have turned up in Belgrade that flesh out the activities of one man,” Mairs said. “Manuscripts from the early 1800s are so rare. Here is one house and one family prominent in the history of the town of Belgrade. This (journal) is not static history, like a chair. This one talks to you.”
Parker showed Casavant around the inn and pointed out details of Yeaton’s handiwork. Then, to her astonishment, Casavant gave her the journal.
After many decades, the manuscript was back home.
“They obviously had a real reverence and appreciation for it. Sometimes it is nicer to see it in the right place than to sell it to a museum and library,” Casavant said.
“We inhaled a big breath,” Mairs said, when the surprise gift was offered.
During the 2002 Waterville bicentennial, Casavant and his wife Pam also had donated the 18th-century Asa Redington day book to the Redington Museum in Waterville and the Nehemiah Getchell ledger to the Miller Library at Colby College.
Parker plans to have the journal become a permanent part of the inn. The entire journal will be scanned and put online for family and historians, she said.
For more information, go to the link “Paul Yeaton’s Journal” located at her Web site: www.yeatonfarminn.com
—Lynn Ascrizzi—207-621-5731
lascrizzi@centralmaine.com
Yeaton had an enterprising life
Skilled in “ornamental penmanship, Paul Yeaton Jr. made journal notations in a fine script, with a quill pen. But its contents reveal that he was not a man of letters. His practical entries are written in the non-narrative style typical of farmer’s journals of the era.
Begun before he married Lydia Anne, his journal does not even note his wedding day.
“One of the things that was fun was the different spellings, like ‘bedstids,’ and ‘pare of boots,’ and ‘cofins’”, Parker said.
Many entries mark his simple business deals. Such transactions, however, are highly important from a historical perspective, Parker said. They shed new light on his and his neighbors daily activities.
More than 25 local family names and the work he did for these people are mentioned on its time-darkened pages — names that are still common in central Maine today, like Hussey, Guptil, Chandler, Mills, Page, Towles, Whitten, Spaulding, Libby, Austin, Giles and Goddridge.
“We knew that he had built the Old South Church,” Parker said of the small white structure down the road from the inn, located at the corner of West Road and Route 135. “Now we know he also built the first Belgrade town office, and the Quaker Meeting House. We know he sold wool to the Cascade Woolen Mill.”
The tireless Yeaton also made coffins, built barns, bred and sold cattle and lambs, sold boards and iron, sheared sheep, raised and marketed wheat, corn, peas, potatoes and oats, made cheese, constructed “lights of sash” (presumably windows), and made tools in a small extant building that Parker calls the cooper’s cottage.
Yeaton also repaired sleights. A January 1830 notation reads: “to mending D. Smithes sleight 00 75”. The latter figure stands in the cents column.
“He built a complex pulley system in the barn to lift a big hay wagon, so hay could be pitched in the loft. It still hangs in the back of the barn.” Parker said.
As if that wasn’t work enough, entries show he also “broke roads” for the town of Belgrade. Parker speculated the term meant he drove oxen or horses through deep snow to open the roads in winter. The term also may mean that he cut new roads in the Belgrade area, she said.
“The journal details a life of devoted and disciplined hard work. It paints the story of how this one man spent his entire life. He was tough.” she said.
—Lynn Ascrizzi
