FRANKLIN RICHARDSON, MAINE’S FAMOUS VIOLIN MAKER

by Dale Potter-Clark

Franklin Richardson was born in Mercer in 1825 where he learned from his father how to play the fife at a young age. At age 14 Franklin heard the violin played for the first time and became enamored by the instrument. He was offered that violin for $3.00 and his father agreed to buy it if the boy could learn to play within a week. Franklin was able to play “Auld Lang Syne” in less than an hour. He soon learned to make violins as well.

To make a living Franklin became a tailor and set-up shop in Norridgewock at age 21. He continued in that trade for more than two decades except for three years in the Union Army and one other hiatus in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  

In 1848, Franklin and a brother went to Milwaukee, where Franklin opened a dance studio. He also played in an orchestra on “The Empire State” – the largest steamer on the Great Lakes until it sank in July 1849. Whether Franklin was on board and escaped is not known, but it is known that he returned to Mercer soon afterwards and returned to tailoring.

He married Parthenia Chapman of Mt. Vernon in 1852 and moved to Mt. Vernon village where he continued tailoring and making violins. Parthenia died a year later and he wed Mary P. Neal of Vienna. They had seven children born 1857-1872. All but the youngest two were born in Mt. Vernon, including daughter Mary Neal Richardson in 1859.

Franklin enlisted in the Union Army in 1863 where he organized and led the brass band for the 10^th Maine Regiment under General Ulysses S. Grant. Soon after his discharge he moved his family to Canton, where he bought a farm on Canton Lake and continued his trades.

Following the Civil War, pre-made clothing became popular and Franklin’s tailor business steadily declined so he began a photography business – all the while making violins. He also played his instruments at special events and he gave dance lessons. Franklin was an old time dancing master until age 70. By age 83 he had made more than 200 violins. At the time they fetched a price of anywhere from $25 to $100. In the recent past a Richardson violin sold at auction for $3,375.

Although his children grew up in a creative home it appears that only Mary entered the arts as a profession. She became a nationally renowned artist who painted portraits and landscapes for decades at Fenway Studios in Boston, and at her summer studio in Canton. In 1909 Franklin was interviewed for a Lewiston newspaper article titled “Canton’s Famous Old Violin Maker”.  He was making four violins for his great-grandsons at the time and still farming his homestead on Canton Lake. Six years later the “Who's Who in New England: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men and Women” listed both Franklin and his daughter Mary. He died the same year of senile dementia. His death certificate gives his occupation simply as “violin maker”.

Dale Potter-Clark writes about local history and old families. She recently co-authored “The Founders and Evolution of Summer Resorts and Kids’ Camps on Four Lakes in Central Maine.”

In April 2018, this article appeared in several Turner Publishing Maine newspapers in central and western Maine.

CHASE & SANBORN CONNECTIONS TO CENTRAL MAINE

by Dale Potter-Clark

In walking through grocery stores I sometimes wonder about the people on product labels. Chase & Sanborn recently caught my interest because one of my ancestral lines is Sanborn. Any connection, I wondered? A subsequent search revealed an interesting story about James Solomon Sanborn.

 

James was an only child, born in Wales, Maine in 1835. His grandfather, Moses, moved there from Epping, NH about 1808. The next two generations spread their tentacles into Winthrop, Monmouth, Leeds, Greene, Augusta, Lewiston and Poland.  James childhood was spent on Sanborn Road in East Monmouth where his father, Henry, and his maternal grandfather, Dr. Abial Daly, homesteaded. James lived or owned property in several of the aforementioned towns at some point, but a venture in Boston is where he made a mark that endured – Chase & Sanborn.

 

By 1870 James was living in Lewiston where he had started J.S. Sanborn, Co. selling spices, tea and coffee. In 1872 he moved his wife, widowed mother and four children to the Boston area. Caleb Chase had moved there from Harwich, MA and began a coffee roasting business. Since James was a coffee seller it was only a matter of time before they met.  The two men partnered to form Chase & Sanborn Coffee and Tea Co. in 1874 and established headquarters in a five-story building on Broad St. in Boston They were masters at marketing. Among their strategies was the application of placards across the entire width of their building, between every floor, touting the nature of their enterprise. Business flourished!

 

Until that time individuals bought coffee beans from local grocers and hand ground them at home. Chase & Sanborn ground and packaged them in sealed cans at their business in Boston. Their product was the first to be sold as such and it became a phenomenon in New England. They next hired salesmen throughout the U.S. and Canada, making Chase & Sanborn the first ground coffee to be sold from coast to coast. By 1893 their product had become so revered that Chase & Sanborn was chosen to supply all the coffee for the Chicago World’s Fair - a huge boon to their business!

 

Coffee was not James Sanborn’s only interest. In the 1890s he bought Maine Farmer, a popular weekly newspaper in Augusta, ME. Founded in Winthrop in 1842, it was moved to Augusta in 1844 where it remained until the Portland Press Herald bought it in 1921. Sanborn owned Maine Farmer until his death in 1903. In that interim he authored, "A Short History of the Ideal Gentlemen's' Road Horse Past and Present”, which leads us to his other interest - horses!

 

After residing in Boston for several years Sanborn yearned for country living. In 1886 he bought “Elmwood Farm”, an estate on 250 acres in East Poland, ME. It became his summer residence and the location for a stock farm from which he sold highbred horses. Building clientele required salesmanship so once again he put his promotional skills to work.  Three miles from there was the famous Poland Spring Hotel and one mile down the road was the Empire train station. Incoming guests arrived by train in those days and they disembarked at Empire Station.  Sanborn used his influence and convinced Maine Central Railroad to rename it the Elmwood Farm Station, giving his stock business name significant visibility with minimal effort and no cost. Many of his horses were sold to Poland Spring Hotel guests.

 

Within a year Sanborn added a 150x44 ft. two story barn - said to be the biggest and best in New England. It held a creamery, ice house, refrigerator, and a churn that could produce 40 lbs of butter at one time. The full, well-lit cellar was divided into manure vaults, pigpens, horse stalls, and space for vegetables. An 8 HP engine provided power for saws, churns, cutting silage and pumping water. Another wing stored carriages and farm implements. The second level held a workshop and sleeping quarters for the farm help and groom. Only one of two 12x14x36ft silos was filled at first – an indication the complex would be enlarged - and enlarged it was. Over the next few years Sanborn expanded Elmwood Farm to include 500 acres, an apple orchard of 600 trees, a Colonial mansion; six large stock barns; two farmhouses; two cottages; and blacksmith and carpentry shops. His farm animals included registered Holstein cattle, sheep, swine and horses. Windmills on the property provided the power that fed spring water to a tower large enough to supply every building. Sanborn also added a quarter mile trotting track and a 150x50 foot covered riding rink. These were used to train, exercise and show his horses.   

 

Sanborn sold registered French coach stallions and brood mares. His prize was Gemare, a thoroughbred Arabian stallion that stood 16 hands high, and weighed 1,250 pounds. Few living horses of the time held blood lines of so many famous equines as Gemare.  He was imported from France and Sanborn purchased him for $4,000 ($100,000+ in today’s dollars). From the time he bought Elmwood Farm in 1886 until his death in 1903 Sanborn built a reputation for producing superior road horses – some said the best in America. He sold hundreds of stallions, brood mares, drivers and young stock to patrons from all over the U.S. and Canada. Not to be outdone, his registered Holsteins also took prizes from the Holstein-Friesian Association of America.

 

Unlike Chase & Sanborn, there is no sign of Elmwood Farm today except for some foundation remnants. Lifetime Poland resident Louise Roberts, 84, recalls the last days of Elmwood Farm. “It changed hands many times after Sanborn owned it” she said. “A dance hall was even there at one time before it finally burned and there is nothing left there now.”

 

Oh yes, was he related to me you ask? Yes, James Solomon Sanborn was my 5^th cousin 5 times removed. Genealogy can be so much fun!

 

Dale Potter-Clark writes articles, monographs and blogs about local history and old families. She recently co-authored the book “Founders and Evolution of Summer Resorts and Kids’ Camps on Four Lakes in Central Maine”.

An abbreviated version of this story appeared in several editions of newspapers in central and western Maine in February 2018.