In all areas of Augusta, there are numerous elegant nineteenth century homes, many of which remain residences today. On the west side of the river in the area defined by Water and Bridge streets and Western and Blaine avenues, there is a concentration of such mansions. During the nineteenth century, Winthrop Street, which falls within this area, was considered Augusta's grand avenue. Many of the homes on adjacent streets were equally impressive. The grand homes belonged to Augusta's prosperous residents, but the work required to keep such homes running was provided by many.

The effort required to run a nineteenth century household was considerable, and women turned to other women for help. Women of wealth had the option of hiring help, while women of lesser means relied on family help, barter, or neighborliness. Young girls from poor families were sometimes –bound out" in formal agreements to wealthy families for household labor. The youngster provided domestic labor in exchange for room and board, and whatever other privileges or amenities the family might offer. The opportunity for basic education for those –bound out" in formal arrangements, however, was required by law. Dorcus Doyen was one such bound out girl in Augusta. In 1826, she went to work for one of Augusta's most prominent families, Judge Nathan and Paulina (Cony) Weston and their children. At the time, the Westons lived at Court and State streets, near the Kennebec County court house. ( A portrait of Paulina Cony Weston hangs in the court house.) In 1832 the family moved to Pleasant Street, now the rectory for St. Mark's Church. Dorcus's duties likely included cooking, sweeping, laundry, as well as answering the door, serving at family meals and parties, and probably entertaining the youngest Weston child, Louisa. During the five years Dorcus was with the Westons, she went to school. Historians write that she developed a strong intellectual life was very bright and beautiful.

We know of Dorcus's life mostly because of her death. She was an enterprising young woman with limited resources in life who became a high-class courtesan (–girl on the town" was the nineteenth century euphemism) in New York City, where she was known as Helen Jewett. She also worked in Portland and Boston. Helen (Dorcus) was murdered April 10, 1836, when only twenty-three years old. Her death created a news sensation in the Northeast and received extensive newspaper coverage. It became the most sensationalized crime of the first half of the nineteenth century. The man accused of murdering her was acquitted, and the murder never solved. Dorcus's story and its importance in news history is chronicled in Patricia Kline Cohen's The Murder of Helen Jewett and in an earlier book, Froth and Scum: Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in the Ax Murder of America's First Mass Medium, by Andie Tucher. The elegant nineteenth homes remind us of the elegant ladies and girls who lived in them, and of the working girls and women who were essential players in the construct of the social and domestic life of nineteenth century Augusta.

 

Site #24.1 Sources:

	Augusta Conservation Commission, the Kennebec Historical Society, and the Augusta Recreation Department. –Historical Walking Tour of Augusta Maine" (pamphlet), no date.
	Augusta, Maine Sesquicentennial. Special reprint of Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine, Sesquicentennial Edition, Wednesday, July 30, 1947.
	Cline, Patricia. The Murder of Helen Jewett: the Life and Death of A Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century New York. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
	Douin, Anthony. Interviews by and conversations with Phyllis vonHerrlich, 17 March 2001, 31 August 2001, 18 September 2001, 28 September 2001, Augusta, Maine.
	Hodgkin, Douglas I. –Managing the Poor in the Town of Lewiston, ME, 1795-1863." Paper delivered at the Washburn Humanities Seminar, June 7-9, 2001, Norlands Living History Center, Livermore, Maine.
	North, James W. The History of Augusta Maine. Somesworth, NH: New England History Press, 1981. New forward by Edwin A. Churchill. Originally published in 1870 by Clapp and North of Augusta, ME.
	Violette, Zachary. Winthrop Street, Augusta, Maine: An Architectural and Historical Overview. Augusta, ME: Kennebec Historical Society, 1999.