Gilbert Patten
Passing admission tests gained Willie readmission to Corinna Union Academy. Determined to deepen his education he signed up for advanced classes in mental arithmetic, grammar, and Latin. Encouraged by his teachers and a fellow student, Alice Gardner, Willie started to read more classical literature. He credits reading Charles Dickens with helping him understand character development. From Robert Louis Stevenson he learned about plotting dramatic situations and shock.
Alice Gardner had become a good friend. She was the daughter of Thomas Gardner, a farmer and proprietor of the village grocery store. For his 1933 paper in The Maine Bulletin on Gilbert Patten [3], J. L. Cutler visited Corinna and interviewed Gertrude Nutter. She knew Alice and remembered her as “the most brilliant student at CUA, she possessed distinct talents for music and painting.” [3]
Some of you may remember Gertrude Nutter. I remember her well. She was a customer on my paper route. She lived in the second house up on Pleasant Street (St. Alband Road).
One day Bill Patten said to his son, “William, the time has come when you’ll have to earn some money.” Most people now called him William. Realizing that he did need a job William visited around the town with a notebook gathering local news. From this he wrote a “breezy Corinna newsletter” and sent it to the editor of “The Eastern Herald, a weekly newspaper published in Buxton.”. He enclosed a letter asking for a job. [7]
Patten changed some of the names of people, places, and businesses in the autobiography. I think The Eastern Herald was actually The Eastern State newspaper published in Dexter by Orin Fitzgerald Jr. from 1882 to 1892. Through a couple of later mergers this paper would eventually become today’s The Eastern Gazette. [12]
The job was not what William expected. Most of his time was spent working with the printer. There was very little news gathering. Due to controversy caused by an article the editor at the time was forced to leave the paper. He offered the job of editor to William. Feeling it would take him away from his ambition to be a writer he turned it down. His friend Alice, who also worked at the paper as a typesetter, told him he was missing the chance of a lifetime. “You are crazy to turn it down!”, she said. [7]
Soon after a new editor came to the paper, William quit and got a job at the “Cottsfield, Maine Advertiser. (This was probably the Pittsfield Advertiser, first published in 1882.) [15] He moved to Pittsfield and roomed with the owner. Again most of his work there was related to printing. He was disappointed but determined to do his best and learn the business. There was little time for reading or writing. Realizing he was again on the “wrong path” he left the job at the Advertiser and moved back to Corinna.