GazetteOTHIssueDigital

Town Meetings
The Town House was used by selectmen and other town
officials, but was probably at its busiest during Town Meeting
day. North Yarmouth’s meetings were always held in March,
so ordered of all towns by the Massachusetts General Court
(our colonial legislature) in 1691.
Horse-drawn carts and wagons would have crowded the
yard. Town meetings, then as now, could be long, drawn-out
affairs, and, while residents discussed and debated, animals
stood out in the cold. In 1879, hitching posts were set for
horses, and the animals were truly given relief from the
weather sometime after the 1924 Town Meeting. Selectman
Bert Lawrence had assembled a team of volunteers to construct
horse sheds using materials that came from the old Sligo Road
schoolhouse in the preceding year, and he was recognized at
Town Meeting for his efforts. It was ordered that the men who
labored on the construction of the sheds be paid.
Ironically, the automobile was on a rapid rise throughout
the country in the 1920s. A growing number of residents
owned the contraptions, but horses still worked farmland
and provided transport.
The Scene
We can tell from early town records that Town Meetings
were often well-attended events, falling at a time when
winter weather prevented most outdoor farm work, and
gatherings of any sort, social or business, were especially
welcome. Dick Baston, who was born in North Yarmouth in
1927, recalls that there were often spontaneous “caucuses”
on the porch behind the Town House, when one or more
attendees strolled outside with a bottle in his pocket during
a break in the proceedings.
Men attended, mostly; any mention of Town Meeting
by Ellen Marston Lawrence in her journals (1868 to 1932)
notes only that her male family members went to Meeting.
Women gained the right to vote in 1919, so it’s unlikely they
were welcome before then, anyway. It has only been within
the last seventy years that women were represented at the
town’s administration, beginning with Asenath York, Town
Clerk from 1946–1963.
Isabel Hayes (1887–1965) served as a ballot clerk for many
years and had quite a lot to say about Town Meeting in her
voluminous diary, now in the possession of her granddaughter
Dixie Hayes. On Monday, March 9, 1959, she wrote: “Town
Meeting day and our first crack at the Australian ballot
system thanks to some crackpot at last year’s meeting. I don’t
How They Did it in Freeport
from the Six Town Times, Dec. 1, 1892
The Town Meeting was called for Saturday Nov. 26,
called out a large crowd, mostly noisy boys and
decided farmers. The town clerk called the meeting
to order and the warrant read. Hon. J.C. Kendall was
chosen moderator.
The article to see if town would instruct selectmen
to pay $700 to Electric Light Co. was read, when a
farmer rose and made a motion to dismiss the article.
This motion was lost by a vote of 126 to 137.
Several motions were then made to see how they
should vote on this article, but the noise of the boys
prevented any business. The boys were hollering all
the time, and some men were not slow. Tax collector
went round and collected poll-taxes from many.
Remarks by Hon. E. B. Mallets, Jr. against the town laying
out money at present for such purposes. Remarks
by gentlemen from Portland in favor of it. Finally the
constable arose and made the startling statement that
the meeting was not legal as the notice had not been
posted long enough, whereupon the entire crowd
vanished to await the expiation of time of calling a
legal meeting.
remember who but if I have him pointed out today I’ll tell
him what I think of him … I dread this day … from 1 o’clock
to who knows what time in the evening.” (Between 1954
and 1971, residents cast their ballots on Town Meeting day
from 1 PM on, and the meeting itself started at around 7 PM.)
Despite her previous comments, Isabel notes the next day
that “Dwight Verrill’s wife Patricia cast the first vote under
the new Australian system. A very good meeting all in all,
was home just before midnight with 136 ballots cast.”
Discussions could last for a good part of the day as participants
made careful decisions about how to spend precious tax
dollars, and reading the warrants and minutes gives the sense
of some painfully long debates. “Putting in a culvert would be
good for half an hour,” laughs Dick Baston. “And if there was
disagreement, well, there’d be a secret ballot.” At that point,
he said, everybody would be called to vote. This would include
the three or four women who contributed to Town Meeting by
providing a meal during the midday break in the proceedings.
6 The GAZETTE