Hallowell Mural

by Chris Cart | American

Author: admin

  • Granite Heads

    Granite Heads

    Hallowell granite

    Hallowell granite was prized for being light in color and fine grained, with a high percentage of feldspar which made it easily worked in the quarry and particularly beautiful for sculptural work. When dressed it was almost as white as marble, and when polished its surface glittered like diamonds.

    The mural features a large granite circle or ring #7. I did this knowing the mural was going to have a lot of various detail and I wanted a large element to design or organize parts of the mural. The granite ring and the river are central to the overall design.

    artist, Chris Cart

    the natural world

    I used the granite circle #99 to represent the natural world which surrounds us. I “carved” into the granite ring suggestions of the roots and trees and animals to give a feeling of the natural world that holds us together. The two heads #7 represent the source of life.

    artist, Chris Cart

    For the early settlers and citizens of Hallowell the natural world was crucial to their survival and livelihood. They literally carved and cut their lives from the granite quarries, the trees of the forest and the ice and food from the rivers and lakes of the area.

  • Elizabeth Palmer Peabody

    Elizabeth Palmer Peabody

    educator

    Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, (May 16, 1804 – January 3, 1894) is considered one of the most influential American women of her day. A pioneering educator she was early recognizing the importance of play in childhood development and learning. She started the first English-speaking kindergarten in the country, at 15 Pinckney Street, Beacon Hill, Boston.

    The eldest of the three Peabody sisters of Salem, Massachusetts, Elizabeth early began assisting her mother who was an educator. With a passion for teaching she opened her own school in 1821.

    to Maine

    Benjamin Vaughan recognized Elizabeth Peabody’s importance in the thinking, intellectual world. In 1823 he brought Peabody to his home in Maine as governess and educator for his daughters and sons.

    While in Maine she taught the children to two influential families and pursued her studies under a French tutor.

    Peabody was influenced by the pillars of the Transcendentalist Movement. And in 1834 she assisted Bronson Alcott and fellow Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller in opening the Temple School in Boston—with the goal of bringing a more organic approach to education and development, by encouraging curiosity, play, and embracing of nature.

    Elizabeth Palmer Peabody is not directly in the mural but she had an influential voice in Hallowell.

    artist, Chris Cart

    literary circle

    She opened a West Street Bookstore in Boston (1839-1850), where the local literary elite—Transcendentalists. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, George Ripley, Orestes Brownson would gather to discuss ideas.

    The bookstore also became gathering place for the leading women of the time leading to a series of meetings collectively called Conversations.

    Peabody published the Transcendentalist literary magazine The Dial out of the bookstore, among many other publications, making her perhaps the first female book publisher in the country. She published Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience. Peabody was a great thinker and made her mark in the then male-dominated intellectual community.

    Elizabeth’s sister the fine painter Sophia Peabody Hawthorne was wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Elizabeth is purported to have “discovered” Nathaniel Hawthorne and helped him get his start.

    Peabody became a writer and prominent intellectual in the Transcendental Movement. She read 10 languages and continued advocating for education her entire life.

    She spent the 30 years of the rest of her life opening kindergartens across the nation and writing articles and books about childhood education.

    Her gravestone reads:

    A Teacher of three generations of Children, and the founder of Kindergarten in America. Every humane cause had her sympathy, and many her active aid.”

    By Jeffrey S. Cramer, Curator of Collections – The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6327996
  • Benjamin Hallowell

    Benjamin Hallowell

    Portrait of Benjamin Hallowell by John Singleton Copley – https://web.colby.edu/thelantern/2016/09/01/face-off-john-singleton-copleys-portrait-of-benjamin-hallowell-as-a-political-effigy/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109614641

    Kennebec Proprietors

    Hallowell, Maine is named for the wealthy shipbuilder Benjamin Hallowell (1699-1773) of the 17th century. He was heir to one of the original Kennebec Proprietors owning over 50,000 acres in Hallowell.

    In 1629 King Charles I of England, assuming authority over the lands in America, granted title of land along both sides of the Kennebec river to the Plymouth Colony. Those lands were used for almost a hundred years as access to the Wôban-aki nation people in the fur trade.

    In 1661 four very wealthy Massachusetts businessmen, known as the Kennebec Proprietors, bought land from this original grant from the Plymouth Colony for £400. Benjamin Hallowell was one of the descendant Kennebec Proprietors who controlled the land and began to sell off portions of land to settlers.

    Wars between the Native Americans, French and English in the Maine frontier and along the Kennebec valley discouraged most settlement for close to a century. It wasn’t until the second half of the 18th century that much actual settlement began in the valley.

    The Hallowell who gives the town its name is not to be confused with his son and namesake, Captain Benjamin Hallowell born in 1725, who became a staunch British Loyalist during the Revolutionary War. This second Benjamin Hallowell was the Commissioner of Customs during the fabled Boston Tea Party and became known as “the second most detested man in the Boston.”

    For want of space in the mural I didn’t include Benjamin Hallowell in the mural. He is there in spirit.

    artist, Chris Cart

  • a tale of two families

    a tale of two families

    Benjamin Vaughan early in the mural.
    Benjamin Hallowell

    Vaughan and Hallowell families

    abridged timeline

    Based on full timeline from Vaughan Homestead website.

    Prior to the 1600’s the lands of Hallowell were the home of the Wôban-aki people, also variously called the Abenaki, Wabanaki and locally the “Cussenocke”

    1600-1660. Kings of England stake claim to lands of the Kennebec Valley and grant rights to the lands to wealthy European man and Plymouth Colony.

    Plymouth Colony eventually sells its lands to group of 4 wealthy businessmen, a deal known as the Kennebec Purchase.

    1640. William Hallowell comes from England to work in Benjamin Ward’s Boston shipyard. Hallowell eventually takes over and it is the Hallowell Shipyard for 140 years—one of the most successful shipyards.

    William Hallowell’s grandson Benjamin takes over the shipyard and uses enslaved laborer to build ships, including some ships for slave trade.

    Benjamin Hallowell becomes successor to Kennebec Proprietor , inheriting lands along Kennebec River.

    1736. Samuel Vaughan established with first plantation in Jamaica. He becomes very wealthy with several sugar plantations worked by over 700 enslaved people.

    1750-60’s. Samuel Vaughan and Benjamin Hallowell form partnership. Hallowell providing ships and lumber for barrels to ship Vaughan’s sugar from his plantations.

    1751. Samuel Vaughan marries Sarah, Benjamin Hallowell’s daughter and their first some Benjamin Vaughan is born.

    1753. The descendants of original Kennebec Purchase, reincorporate and become the Kennebec Proprietors, Benjamin Vaughan one of the largest shareholders.

    1750’s. Most of the indigenous people of the area by this time have been driven upriver to Norridgewock and Canada.

    1762. Deacon Pease Clark and family purchase land from Kennebec Proprietors and are first to settle in what is now Hallowell.

    1771 Hallowell incorporated as a town on April 26, named for Benjamin Hallowell.

    1780-90’s Charles and Benjamin Vaughan, Samuel and Sarah’s sons settle in Hallowell.

    1852. Hallowell incorporated as a city on February 17.

  • Benjamin Vaughan

    Benjamin Vaughan

    founding father

    Benjamin Vaughan #6, and his brother Charles could be considered early “founding fathers” of Hallowell, Maine. While not the earliest of Hallowell settlers they were men of importance and influence who settled in the region in its formative days.

    Benjamin Vaughan was friends with Benjamin Franklin and corresponded with Thomas Jefferson for many years, including during Jefferson’s presidency.

    The Vaughan family home built in 1794 can still be seen and visited in Hallowell on the 194 acre property.

    I painted Mr. Vaughan in the act writing a letter to President Jefferson to show his importance to the nation and influence with the nation’s founding fathers.

    Artist, Chris Cart

    Born in Jamaica, Benjamin moved to England with his parents Samuel and Sarah Vaughan shortly after his birth. Benjamin was educated in England, attending Trinity Hall, Cambridge and later studying medicine at University of Edinburgh.

    He was a medical doctor, diplomat, political economist, merchant, a member of Parliament and British commissioner whose task was to smooth negotiations between Britain and U.S. during the drafting of the Treaty of Paris.  

    In 1805 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. one of the oldest learned societies in the nation, founded in 1780 by several of our nation’s founding fathers including John Adams, John Hancock, and James Bowdoin.

    An educated family

    Benjamin Vaughan spent his early life in England until moving to Hallowell in 1794.

    When Benjamin Vaughan moved his wife Sarah Manning and seven children from England to Hallowell, Maine in 1797, he brought his extensive library, which rivalled the library at Harvard University of the time with close to ten thousand volumes.

    Vaughan brought Elizabeth Palmer Peabody to Hallowell as governess and educator to his daughters and sons. Vaughan wanted all his children to be well educated and capable thinkers.

    Vaughan was beloved by Hallowell for his philanthropic efforts in the community.

    Read a more extensive history of Dr. Benjamin Vaughan here.

    The Vaughan family wealth came from the large sugar and coffee plantations on the island of Jamaica run by Benjamin’s father Samuel.

    Portrait of Dr. Benjamin Vaughan, circa 1800, artist unknown.

    I recently read a more detailed and interesting history of Benjamin Vaughan’s move to Hallowell.
    Vaughan was involved in the peace negotiations to end the American Revolution. In 1794 he was imprisoned for a short time in France, where he was suspected of being a British spy, narrowly escaping the guillotine. He eventually fled to Switzerland and then later in 1797 moved his family to Hallowell to take over the estate built by his brother Charles in 1794.

    Artist, Chris Cart
    Samuel Vaughan, painting by Robert Edge Pine – Government Art Collection, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26142665

    the Vaughan family legacy

    There was some discussion with the Vaughan Woods and Historic Homestead organization about how to portray Dr. Benjamin Vaughan. While his personal connection and influence on early Hallowell was grandly beneficial, the family wealth was originally derived from his father Samuel Vaughan’s plantations on Jamaica, lands worked by hundreds of enslaved people.

    Samuel Vaughan first made his way to Jamaica as an indentured apprentice. By 1747 records show Samuel Vaughan had long since fulfilled his apprenticeship and become wealthy enough to ask for the hand of Sarah Hallowell as his wife, daughter to Benjamin Hallowell for whom Hallowell, Maine is named. Samuel became very wealthy with multiple plantations on Jamaica, mainly around St. James Parish, primarily growing sugar cane, coffee and raising cattle for draft animals. These lands were all worked by over 700 enslaved people.

    Two of Benjamin’s brothers managed the affairs of the Jamaica plantations and enslaved workers after the death of their father. Benjamin seems never to have had direct involvement in the working of the plantations. Though it is not disputed that Benjamin Vaughan’s wealth derived directly from the labors of the enslaved people on the family plantations.

    In his first speech to British Parliament after his election in 1792 Benjamin Vaughan defended slavery in Jamaica. And yet, just two years later he spoke in favor of the abolition of the slave trade and the “prudent” end to slavery.

    There is evidence among the correspondence between Vaughan family members that the Vaughan’s, while never emancipating their enslaved workers, were at the vanguard in trying to improve the lives of their enslaved workers, providing humane quarters, education and religious services and caring for the young and elderly too old to work. They also spoke out in favor of legislation to protect enslaved workers from cruelty.

    In one letter of 1792 Samuel’s wife Sarah Hallowell Vaughan wrote of the much debated topic of the time about eventual emancipation of slaves. She acknowledge the detrimental impact this would have on the family wealth, so tied as it was to enslaved labor, and yet she conceded this was the inevitable result necessary for any humanitarian progress.

    The Vaughan’s enslaved workers were not fully freed until 1838 after the British enactment of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 abolishing slavery in the British West Indies and then a four year transition period of “indentured apprenticeship.

    Outside the window I included barrels of plantation sugar to reference the legacy of slavery in the family wealth.

    artist, Chris Cart
  • Printers in Hallowell

    Printers in Hallowell

    An early Adam Ramage Press

    information highway

    The earliest days of Hallowell the town was connected with the major cities south by the Kennebec River.

    “So many coastal schooners, packet boats and other vessels called at Hallowell during the early years that Hallowell soon established a reputation that the latest news from around the world would arrive there first, even before Falmouth received it.”

    from article by Gerry Mahoney on HistoricHallowell.org

    My friend Steve Thompson posed for the printer inspecting the proof sheet.

    artist, Chris Cart

    first newspapers #31

    Hallowell grew rapidly as a center for shipping and circulation of information. Many well educated people moved to Hallowell to begin new lives in a thriving new town.

    In 1794 Howard S. Robinson moved to town and launched the first newspaper, The Eastern Star.

    This newspaper only lasted a year but the desire for news soon brought Peter Edes to town who opened a printing shop and began published The Kennebec Intelligencer in 1795.

    “Peter Edes has been justly called the most important figure in the early history of printing in this state, because he was the son of Benjamin Edes, the famous journalist of the American Revolution, because he was later associated with that celebrated Boston press of Benjamin Edes & Son, and because being one of the first printers of Maine, he brought to his work here a certain degree of prominence and reputation which others of his craft did not possess.”  

    R. Webb Noyes (A Bibliography of Maine Imprints to 1820)

    Peter Edes later changed the name of the Intelligencer to the Herald of Liberty. He had a thriving business printing everything from medical journals to a book of agricultural practices, called “the Rural Socrates”.

    Elizabeth Palmer Peabody — Hallowell Blue Stocking. Benjamin Vaughan wanted the females in his family to be well informed and exposed to liberal thinking. When they traveled to England to visit relatives they were introduced to members of the original Blue Stocking Club, a distinguished literary circle of mainly female writers famous for their dissenting views.

    In 1823, Vaughan retained Miss Peabody as governess for his family’s children. She joined the local Blue Stocking Club but found it to be more social than literary. Vaughan quickly realized that Peabody was a woman of exceptional ability with strong intellectual aspirations. He invited her (the only female so honored) to join his nightly “metaphysical class” where clergy, Bowdoin scholars and town professionals discussed works such as Thomas Brown’s Philosophy Of The Human Mind and Inquiry in the Relation of Cause and Effect.

    Ezekiel Goodale — Book Seller, Printer and Publisher. In 1771, public schools were established and in 1795 the Hallowell Academy opened, one of the first classical academies in the District of Maine (a distinction shared with Berwick Academy, which was chartered the same day). With them came a demand for books and printed material. In 1802 twenty-two-year-old Ezekiel Goodale arrived in town and opened the first bookstore established east of Portland, “The Hallowell Bookstore — Sign of the Bible.” He imported the best books available from England and stock from the Boston book trade. For those who couldn’t afford books he provided the services of his innovative “Circulating Library,” a subscription library offered to patrons for a small fee. An 1863 anonymous correspondent to the Hallowell Gazette recalled the excitement generated by the book trade:

    Adam Ramage press from Historic Hallowell
  • Captain John Drew

    Captain John Drew

    a life on the sea

    The Kennebec River #29 was central to Hallowell in the days of sail, indeed the river was the highway connecting Hallowell, Maine literally to the rest of the ports in the known world. Seamen from Hallowell sailed ships along the coast and across the seas to Europe and Asia.

    Captain John H. Drew #32(1834-1890), born in East Hallowell (today’s Chelsea) was a seaman for his entire life. John first went to sea at age 11 and took his first longer voyage to Louisiana as ship’s cook when he was 18. He spent 45 years on the world’s oceans, captaining ships around the Cape of Good Hope 40 times on route to the East Indies and navigating the notorious Cape Horn more than a dozen times on voyages to San Francisco, Hawaii, and China.

    Captain Drew was the son of Allen Drew #55. The Drew family had been building ships for 160 years in Kingston, Massachusetts, when in 1799 William Drew moved to Hallowell and continued the family shipbuilding business with his son Allen. Allen became particularly well known as a ship carver.

    I painted Captain Drew at the helm of one of his ships, racing another clipper home.

    artist, Chris Cart

    The “Kennebecker”

    Captain Drew had sailed and seen so much of the world on his voyages, and yet he once wrote, “Hallowell is one of the dearest places in the wide world.”

    For 17 years, from 1876 to 1889, under the moniker “The Kennebecker” Drew wrote Letters from the Sea, articles about his many voyages that were published in Boston Journal Newspaper.

    Captain Drew had been asked for a donation to help pay off the mortgage for the Hubbard Free Library. He gave the proceeds from the sale of his “Letters From the Sea” to the Boston Journal. His royalties paid off the loan.

    One letter “Hallowell in China” recounts one of his voyages to the Far East. Another published in the Boston Journal, Saturday, March 29, 1879, “The Kennebecker in Ireland Or, the Cruise of the ‘Sandwich,’ Capt. A. M. I. Knott” mentions Herman Melville after Drew saw a large whale skeleton in Dublin.

    Initially we could not find any images of Captain Drew to find his likeness. So I asked around to find a “ship’s captain” type. A friend didn’t hesitate in suggesting Dave Pottle #32, with his rugged features and full beard.
    After the mural was all but completed a photo of the real Captain Drew turned up—he did indeed have a full beard. However, I left Dave Pottle standing in for him. I liked the connection of a modern Hallowell man posing for the 19th century seaman.

    artist, Chris Cart
    Dave Pottle of Hallowell posed for Captain Drew.

    My friend Buddy Iaciofano #33 posed for the seaman shown hauling the halyard to trim a sail. Buddy also suggested Dave Pottle as a stand-in model for Captain Drew.
    Buddy died in June of 2023, just a week before we installed the mural. I will always regret he didn’t see the mural up on the wall. He will always be missed.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Interesting article about Captain Drew here:

    Melvilliana.blogspot.com

    And some Drew Family history: Historichallowell.mainememory.net

    A drawing based on the photo of the real Captain Drew found by Gerry Mahoney.
  • Row House Inc

    Row House Inc

    Preserving Hallowell history

    Row House, Inc. #15 was incorporated in July 1969 by a small group of civic minded citizens who were determined to preserve Hallowell’s rich history as told through its buildings. The initial corporation’s eleven officers and trustees gave the seed money to purchase what was seen to be the most endangered historic property, the Gage Block.

    You can visit their website here for more information and to join and donate to their important cause: Row House Inc.

    Larry Davis #15, the president of Row House when the mural was created, is shown in the ballcap in the mid-distance.

    Row House was one of our very generous mural sponsors, so I included the Row House building of their logo in the mural.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Row House Mission

    Row House is a history-based community organization founded with two primary missions:

    • Historic preservation, that is, the preservation of historically significant structures in the City of Hallowell, together with advocacy on historic preservation issues.
    • Preservation and promotion of community history.
  • first car in Maine

    first car in Maine

    Judge Rice

    The first automobile #14 in Maine was made in Hallowell in 1858 at the McClench Machine Shop on Water Street. Hallowell residents, Judge Richard D. Rice and Dr. Hill, supplied the money and the automobile was built by George McClench, Frank McClench, and Charles L. Spaulding.

    The car was powered by a small, steam locomotive engine. They drove it to Augusta and back to the machine shop in Hallowell to be dismantled. (excerpt from Maine Memory Network.)

    We have no record of what the steam car actually looked like except the description that it was powered by steam and built out of a very rugged cart built for hauling granite—and that it was driven on its maiden, and only trip, by Judge Rice in his top hat.

    I studied other steam vehicles of the time to come up with this vision of how it might have looked.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Associate Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court

    (April 10, 1810 – May 27, 1882)

    Justice Rice was appointed a Judge of the District Court for the Middle District in 1848. He was appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court on May 11, 1852. He served until he resigned on December 1, 1863 to take the presidency of the Portland and Kennebec Railroad Company. He died in 1882 at the age of 72 in Augusta.

    For the mural, Judge Rice is portrayed driving the vehicle on its trip to Augusta, illustrating an account from the time in a local newspaper.

    Justice Richard D. Rice
  • Hallowell Academies

    Hallowell Academies

    An educated youth

    Education for the children #13 was important to the early settlers of Hallowell, Maine. The first Academy was founded on August 31, 1791 in an Act signed by Governor Hancock. This academy was very successful teaching students from the Hallowell, Augusta and Gardiner region.

    “Here I show a youth running with school books to symbolize the enthusiasm for education #13.

    The model was a young kid I saw running on Front Street one day. I asked him to run back and forth while I took photos . Great kid. I neglected to write down his name. “ ~ Chris Cart

    In the 1800’s The Hallowell Lyceum, a debating forum for education and entertainment, met at the old Hallowell Town House, the building on Second Street and Perley’s Lane, which later became the Hallowell Fire Department. At the lyceum debating “club” youths were expected to debate the important matters of the day.

    Hallowell’s ship-owning merchants, wanting capable officers and crews, established a Navigation School at the Academy to teach advanced mathematics to boys who wished to pursue careers at sea.

    a classical education

    The Classical and Scientific Academy was chartered in 1872 to teach youth of both sexes. It was a high school level boarding as well as day school. Its board of trustees and management, some of them clergymen, were affiliated with the Congregational denomination in Maine. Hallowell secondary level students attended day school.