The Man Who Would Do Anything for $100
Cullen Sawtelle was born on September 24, 1805, in Norridgewock, Maine, to Richard Sawtelle and Sally Ware. By his own account, published posthumously by his family as Reminiscences of my Early Life, life in the remote Norridgewock was filled with fun and adventure, enlivened in great part by an eccentric uncle whose pet beaver was a source of fascination for the entire town.
At Bowdoin, Sawtelle made fast friends with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and other classmates who also joined the Peucinian Society. For his first year at Bowdoin, Sawtelle roomed at Captain Richard Toppan’s house at approximately 181 Park Row, where Horatio Bridge, George Pierce, and David Shepley also lived. Captain Toppan passed away in August 1822, and his daughters continued to operate the house as a rooming and boarding establishment. While his other classmates moved elsewhere for their sophomore year, Sawtelle stayed on and was joined by other members of the Class of 1825: Alfred Martin, William Stone, Alfred Upham, and Edward Vose. This proved to be a most unfortunate decision, as the Toppan house caught fire and burned to the ground in the middle of the night on February 12, 1823. Pierce, who had moved a few houses over to Mrs. Greenleaf’s at 185 Park Row, reported the dramatic happening to his sister:
“You have probably heard all the particulars of the fire so unfortunate to the Misses Toppans, & to several of the students who roomed there, the latter of which lost all their furniture & books. The fire caught, as is thought, by a coal snapping into a pan of fat which they left on the hearth, the back part of the house was all in a blaze before they dis covered it. It must have been very terrible to them to be awakened from their sleep at midnight by the crackling of the flames, there was no man in the house. Arria was so frightened that she ran over to Proff. Cleveland’s barefooted…”
Sawtelle soon received a letter from his father consoling him: “Misfortune is the common lot of Man, therefore, we must not any of us expect to be exempt from it. I hope that you will have fortitude of mind enough not to let it give you any unquiet feelings, but be thankful that it was no worse, when we meet with misfortunes that it was not in our power to foresee and ward off the blow, we ought to have the greatness of mind enough not to be cast down or feel dejected.” More practically, Sawtelle’s father offered to send money so that he could procure new furniture, which the students had to provide for themselves.
Benjamin Orr, a long-serving College overseer, made room for Sawtelle and the other students displaced by the Toppan fire at his large house located at 153 Park Row (known today as the Pumpkin House). Sawtelle chose to room on campus in Maine Hall for his junior and senior year. Of his time at Bowdoin, Sawtelle recalled that he did not do as well as many of his classmates because of his difficulty with mathematics.
In his Reminiscences, Sawtelle relays an otherwise undocumented story about the Class of 1825, one that remains an unsolved mystery to this day: “A short time before the Commencement Day at Bowdoin College, several members of the graduating class had assembled in one of the College rooms in “Old Maine” Hall and were regaling themselves with copious draughts taken from an old black demi-john of McKim’s best Madeira wine (McKim’s was a grocer in Brunswick and was always very popular in College as he was at all time, both night and day, ready and willing to cater to the wants of the students). The boys, thus assembled, were a joyous set of fellows, and in the midst of their jollity, someone suggested that as they were soon to separate, the class should make up a purse to purchase and bury sundry bottles of wine in some secluded spot among the pines upon the College campus where ‘Pinos Loyuntes Semper Habimus.’ That the wine should be resumated and drank by those who (three years after) should come back to celebrate their Triennial Anniversary….The wine was purchased and was bottled up in old pink bottles and each bottle was duly labelled with the name of the member and covered with an imperishable pigment after being hermetically sealed with wax. It was put into a strong box which was strapped with iron bands, or hoops, and then covered with a coasting of resin and tar. The following inscription was legibly engraved upon the box, viz: ‘Qui aperuit fulmen inseguitus (He, who opens this, a thunderbolt will strike him).’ A committee of three members of the class was chosen to superintend and make the deposit, which was to be done at the dark hour of midnight at, or under, the foot of some one of the majestic pine trees, that would become the custodian and guardian of the treasure.
“The committee reported that the deposit had been carefully and safely made by them, as directed, and that they would keep the secret of the place of its burial and inviolable trust.
“The three years had passed and gone, but only a limited number of the class returned to celebrate their Triennial Anniversary. The question was asked by those were present, ‘Where is the buried wine?’
“Unfortunately and sadly felt by the survivors was made know the fact, that two of that committee had died and the other one had gone travelling in foreign lands and had never returned, and of him it might be said, ‘Non est inventus.’
The buried wine has never been disturbed and is still in its resting place, although days have been spent by the curious in searching for it with shovel, spade, and pick used in the diggings; but no one to this day knoweth the spot or place of its burial.”
Like the unlocated committee member, Sawtelle too had a sizable case of wanderlust. Following his graduation from Bowdoin, he asked his father to spot him $100. With the funds he traveled as far south as Richmond, Virigina, before running out of funds. To earn money for his return, he took a job tutoring the children of a Colonel Scott, who ran a large plantation worked by 190 enslaved individuals. There Sawtelle had a “good opportunity to analyse and study the institution of SLAVERY in all its working and bearings.” His opinions were mixed—while he concluded “one of the greatest drawbacks and most objectionable features, was the insecure and precarious tenure of life and person of the slave,” he found Col. Scott to be a “most kind and humane master” despite retaining dogs to go after runaways, something that happened frequently during Sawtelle’s stay.
Eventually, Sawtelle made his way back to Maine where he studied law. He entered politics, first as a Maine Senator and later as a two-term U.S. Congressman. In 1851, he relocated to warmer climates, moving to Englewood, New Jersey, and working in New York City. Sawtelle was among the surviving members of the Class of 1825 who attended the 50th reunion and he also spoke at Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s memorial service.