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THE 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 OF THE SETTLEMENT OF 
 
 FRYEBXJIia, ME., 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 HISTORICAL ADDRESS, 
 
 By. rev SAMUEL SOUTHER, 
 
 OF WORCESTER, MASS. 
 
 WORCESTEK: 
 
 P^ilNTED BY TYLER & SEAGKAVI, 
 
 Spy Job Office, 212 Main Street. 
 

JRYEBURG CENTENNIAL. 
 
 The citizens of Fryeburg feeling that an event so important 
 as the settlement of the Saco Valley, was worthy of due com- 
 memoration, " at their annual meeting held April 6, 1863, 
 chose the following persons to make preparations for the Cen- 
 tential celebration of the first settlement of said town, viz : — 
 Asa Cliarles, Isaac Frye, Caleb K. Farrington, David A. Brad- 
 ley, Wm. A. Stevens, Eben. J. Fessenden, Chas. Abbott, 
 Joseph Chandler, H. D. E. Hutchings, Enoch C. Wiley, Mar- 
 shall Walker." 
 
 The Committee was organized soon after, by choice of Isaac 
 Frye, Esq., as Chairman, and Hon. George B. Barrows, as 
 Secretary. 
 
 In selecting an Orator for the Day, their choice fell naturally 
 upon Hon. Wm. P. Fessenden, the distinguished Senator from 
 Maine, and grandson of Fryeburg's first minister. Mr. Fes- 
 senden signified his willingness to accept the service, but un- 
 expected business called him to Washington, and Rev. S. 
 Souther of Worcester, was invited to prepare an Historical 
 Address for the occasion. 
 
 The day fixed for the Centennial Exercises, Aug. 20, opened 
 most auspiciously, amid the ringing of bells and a profuse dis- 
 play of the* Stars and Stripes at different points through the 
 village. The National Ensign floated also from the flag staff 
 on Pine Hill, from the grove on its northerly slope prepared 
 as the place of assembling, and from the old Academy ground 
 at its foot. 
 
At an early hour the people of the valley began to assemble, 
 and soon after ten o'clock, a procession was formed at the 
 Congregational Meeting-House, under the direction of Wm. 
 C. Towle, M. D., Chief Marshal, assisted by Carlton H. 
 Walker, John Towle, and Chas. H. Buswell, as Aids. Pre- 
 ceded by the North Bridgton Brass Band, and escorted by a 
 detachment of returned soldiers under command of iiieut. 
 How, the procession passed up Main St. to a beautiful grove 
 on the northerly slope of Pine Hill, commanding a full view 
 of the village, the valley, and the unrivalled sweep of moun- 
 tain heights surrounding it. Here had already gathered an 
 audience of more than a thousand people, while the platform 
 was graced by the presence of the venerable men of the 
 region, Gov. J. A. Andrew of Mass., Hon. Wm. Willis, Pres- 
 ident of the Maine Historical Society, Col. Wm. R. Frye of 
 Lewiston, E. W. Evans, Esq. of Chicago, 111., Rev. Jacob 
 Chapman of Marshall, 111., Dr. I. N. True of Bethel, Me., and 
 others. 
 
 After appropriate music by the Band, Asa Charles, Esq. 
 was introduced as President of the Day, and extended glowing 
 words of welcome to the assembly in the following address. 
 
 Welcome ! Welcome ! ! Welcome home, — Children of Frye- 
 burg, — children of the children of Fryeburg, — all who love 
 any of the children of the sons or daughters of Fryeburg, — a 
 cordial, a hearty welcome home. 
 
 Such welcome as gives the mother to her loved ones, 
 returned from long and perilous absence ; — such greeting as 
 awaits earth's wanderers at their home in Heaven, — such wel- 
 come, such greeting, so far as mortals can give and appreciate, 
 give we to you this morning. 
 
 Here on the banks of the silvery Saco, here amid this pan- 
 orama of mountain, valley, lake and river, rivalled by few in 
 grandeur and beauty, — here in the home of the mighty 
 Pequawket, awhile before driven out by the brave Captain 
 Lovewell and his little band of fearless followers, — here came 
 our fathers, — here they made a home for themselves and their 
 
loved ones, — here they reared the temple to God, Jehovah, 
 and by its side the humbler temple of human learning, 
 together to teach the way through earth to Heaven. 
 
 They reclaimed the wild forest, they drove out the wild 
 beast, — and instead of the cry of the catamount and the pan- 
 ther, the growl of the wolf, and the startling terrific war- 
 whoop of the Indian, falls softly on the ear, the lullaby of 
 the mother and the half asleep cooing of children. 
 
 And now, after the lapse of one hundred years, you have 
 come up hither to look upon the places where dwelt our 
 fathers. 
 
 We who have remained around the old hearth-stone, hare 
 kept the fire burning there, have kept " the light in the win- 
 dow for you." 
 
 And now, with joy for your successes, — with the tear of 
 sympathy for your griefs and your sorrows, we bid you all a 
 most hearty, a most cordial welcome home. 
 
 The following lines, written for the occasion, were sung with 
 fine effect to the tune of " Auld Lang Syne," the band accom- 
 panying. 
 
 Wherever from their mountain drifts, 
 
 New England's rivers sweep, 
 Like emeralds set in rocky rifts, 
 
 A thousand valleys sleep. 
 And, lovely as the loveliest, 
 
 Her circling hills between. 
 Lies in the river's arms at rest 
 
 The Saco's valley green. 
 
 A hundred years their course have run, 
 
 Since, on the Saco's strand, 
 There stood beneath the summer sun 
 
 A hard}" little band. 
 The broad blue sky above them bent, 
 
 The fields smiled fresh below ; 
 While with the surging pine trees blent 
 
 The river's restless flow. 
 
6 
 
 Where Saco winds its silent tide ; 
 
 Where Lovewell's waters shine ; 
 From every breezy mountain side 
 
 Spolie messages divine ; — 
 " Here build your homes, my hand shall bless 
 
 The seed your toil bestows, 
 So shall ye ' make the wilderness 
 
 To blossom as the rose ? ' " 
 
 Their heritage is ours to-day ; 
 
 They till its fields no more ; 
 Yet still the river's winding way 
 
 Is lovely as of yore. 
 Each breeze that blows from southern groves 
 
 The cannon's echoes fill; 
 Tet, on our hills, the corn field waves 
 
 Its tasselled greenness still. 
 
 Oh, long the day ere War's dark drops 
 
 Shall dim our laixghing sky ! 
 Long ere our valley's emerald slopes 
 
 Shall learn the ruby's dye ! 
 God grant no other blast may smite 
 
 New England's tossing pines, 
 Than when His rolling thunder's might 
 
 Sweeps down their broken lines ! 
 
 But raise once more the joyous strain! 
 
 No gloom be ours to-day, 
 Loved voices that we hear again 
 
 Should bid our hearts be gay. 
 Old Fryeburg sends a welcome out 
 
 To all who hither roam ! 
 Again ! again ! the answering shout 
 
 That cheers our valley home ! 
 
 Prayer was offered by Rev. D. B. Sewall, the fourth 
 successor of Rev. Mr. Fessenden, as mmister of Fryeburg, 
 then followed the Historical Address. 
 
HEV. MR SOUTHER'S ADDRESS. 
 
8 
 
 Fbyebukg, Me., Aug. 27, 1863. 
 Kev. Samuel Souther, 
 
 Dear Sir: — The undersigned liaving been appointed a Committee for 
 tliat purpose, respectfully request you, to furnish us for the press, a copy 
 of your very interesting and able address, delivered at the Centennial 
 Celebration of the settlement of Fryeburg, Aug. 20th, 1863. 
 
 In asking this favor, we but expresss the earnest desire of those who 
 listened to you on that occasion, and we are sure that if published, the 
 address will be deemed a document of permanent historic interest and 
 value, by all the children of Fryeburg, and many others. 
 Very respectfully, &c., cfec, 
 
 D. B. SEWALL, 
 
 B. P. SNOW, 
 
 ISRAEL B. BRADLEY, 
 
 The following reminiscences of Fryeburg were arranged at a late hour, 
 to supply the place of an Oration from one whose eminent ability and 
 position would have worthily honored the Centennial celebration of a 
 town, the birth-place of his distinguished father, and the scene of his 
 revered grand-father's ministerial labors. They have passed through the 
 press amid the unexpected labors of Camp life. Only such time has 
 been given to their revision as could be redeemed fi-om the harrassing 
 cares attending the organization and discipline of a company in a new 
 Regiment of Volunteers. This must account for any inaccuracies, if 
 such exist, and for many serious omissions which more favorable circum- 
 stances might have supplied. 
 
 The Appendix has been enlarged beyond what might be expected, lest 
 the casualties of war might prevent the accomplishment of the long 
 cherished design of preparing a full history of my native town. 
 
 With many thanks to friends who have kindly furnished historical ma- 
 terial, (among whom special mention should be made of J. R. Osgood of 
 Boston, Dr. Bradley, Asa Charles, Esq., Capt. Frye, and Col. James 
 Walker of Fryeburg, together with the ever courteous Librarian of the 
 American Antiquarian Society, S. Haven, Esq. of Worcester,) this humble 
 contribution to our local history is commended to all who love the olden 
 time, — and especially to all the sons and daughters of Pequawket. 
 
 Camp Wool, Worcester, Mass., Feb., 1864. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 The valley of the Saco keeps to-day a second Centennial 
 Anniversary. The first, thirty-eight years ago, in our child- 
 hood known as " Pangus^ day^'' commemorated Lovewell's 
 Fight. At a time of unwonted peace, the country enjoying 
 what was justly termed "the era of good feeling," our fathers 
 celebrated the hundredth anniversary of that deadly conflict 
 with the savages. To-day, in the midst of a gigantic war, we 
 come to hail the advent to these plains of civilization and the 
 arts of peace. 
 
 Such are always the sudden transitions of human affairs. 
 In our land, especially, almost as rapid and striking as the 
 changes of our climate, are the variations in our political skies. 
 Like the fickle current of our Saco, the tide of social life 
 among us runs never evenly. Ugly rapids disturb our navi- 
 gation, and boisterous waterfalls threaten to break it off en- 
 tirely. But they only make more placid the long reaches of 
 quiet water intervening. The bow upon the retreating cloud 
 makes us forget the discomforts and even dangers of the 
 storm. 
 
 "Were it not for the assurance of a happy issue to these try- 
 ing days through which our land is struggling, it would be 
 unwarranted trifling to spend these hours in reminiscences of 
 our early history. To what purpose is it that there is a past 
 worthy of our study, worthy of our gratitude, unless there is 
 to be a future worthy of our hopes. The faithful, hearty per- 
 formance of present duty is, under the divine blegsing, our 
 only assurance of such a future, and we would make the les- 
 2 
 
10 
 
 sons of the past teach us present duty. The whisper of the 
 fathers' voices shall confirm our sometimes faltering faith, 
 shall incite to new efforts our sometimes lagging patrotism. 
 
 We have come together to-day, sons and daughters of old 
 Pequawket, to call up the memories of those men who nobly 
 fulfilled their duty in opening to us and to the world this 
 beautiful valley. 
 
 In an important sense this is not a town celebration. Frye- 
 burg can more properly keep her hundredth birth-day in 
 1877, a hundred years from her incorporation. It is the set- 
 tlement of the whole valley that we commemorate. It was 
 the opening of this whole region, far in the wilderness among 
 the mountains, as an outpost of civilization, a rallying point 
 for younger settlements, a half way house to the towns on the 
 upper Androscoggin. The settlers of Bethel, Rumford and 
 Andover, having a common origin with us, tarried here with 
 their cousins to take breath, before plunging into the denser 
 forests through which ran the Pequawket road up the Kezer 
 valley to the North. 
 
 Fryeburg can, without arrogant pretension, claim this pre- 
 eminence. Her settlement was the first bold push into the 
 interior of Maine, the first breaking away to any considerable 
 distance from tide-water and the coast-wise communication 
 with Massachusetts. 
 
 Windham, settled in 1735, and grown to be a town the year 
 before our settlement, was less than a score of miles from 
 Casco Bay ; and Standish, settled three years before us, was 
 about the same distance. 
 
 The situation of Maine at the time of our settlement is 
 worthy of a passing notice. Without adopting the newly 
 vamped romances which strive to exalt Popham's abortive 
 efforts at the mouth of the Kennebec above the Pilgrim found- 
 ations laid at Plymouth, we still find much of thrilling inter- 
 est in the real history of our coast. 
 
 Prom York and Kittery eastward, many a feeble hamlet 
 along the seaboard had been devastated by the Indian torch ; 
 
11 
 
 and when their fugitive families had returned to rear again 
 their desolated household altars, it was at the expense of new 
 perils, and frequently of death or a lingering captivity. So 
 frequent and so merciless had been these savage inroads, that 
 Sullivan computes the inhabitants of Maine in 1750 at less 
 than ten thousand souls. Scarce a half dozen settlements at 
 that time had been advanced beyond ready access from the 
 sea. 
 
 In York Co., Sanford, (then called Phillipstown, settled in 
 1740,) Lebanon, (or Towwoh, 1743,) and Buxton, (Narra- 
 gansett No. 1, 1749,) were of this class, and were each within 
 easy hailing distance of some comparatively powerful seaboard 
 neighbor. Windham, New Gloucester, Pownalboro, Bowdoin- 
 ham and Topsham, and farther eastward Warren, complete 
 the list of what could be considered in any sense inland towns. 
 And yet, scattered and weak as were the people, they were in- 
 domitable in their resolution, and never faltered in meeting 
 the calls made upon them for military service. The wonder- 
 ful reduction of Louisburg in 1745, was accomplished by Sir 
 Wm. Pepperell of Kittery, with a force, small as it was, quite 
 disproportionately made up, as Sullivan claims, of Maine's 
 hardy yeomanry and seamen. 
 
 Let us glance briefly at the events immediately preceding 
 the coming of our fathers to this valley. They bore a worthy 
 part in those stiring scenes, and the results had an intimate 
 connection with their settlement here. 
 
 The ten years from 1750 to 1760, were of momentous im- 
 portance in American history. They changed the state and 
 destiny of the whole continent. During two-thirds of this 
 period, reverses to the English arms followed each other in 
 quick succession, till the destruction of the colonies seemed 
 inevitable. France ever crafty and aspiring, grasped at the 
 dominion of all North America. She held the mouths of its 
 two mightiest rivers, the St. Lawrencq. and the Mississippi, 
 and with stealthy step was pushing a line of wilderness forti- 
 fications, which should unite their head waters, and bind as 
 with anaconda fold the long coast-line colonies of the English. 
 
12 
 
 In Nova Scotia, on the St. Francis, the Sorell, the St. Law- 
 rence, at Niagara, Detroit, DuQuesnc, and at all available 
 intervening points, the French Jesuits, always indefatigable 
 and unscrupulous, were instigating their credulous Indian 
 converts to the destruction of the hated heretics. With 
 inexorable gripe the folds of the serpent were gathering, and 
 threatened to press out the very life of the infant colonies. 
 Desperate efforts were made to break the coil, but in vain. 
 
 Braddock, in the wilderness defiles of the Monongahela, paid 
 with his life the penalty of his self-will and supercilious con- 
 tempt of Washington's counsels. The flower of New Eng 
 land fell with the gallant Howe in the mad attack upon 
 Ticonderoga. The massacre at Fort William Henry clothed 
 many a household in mourning. 
 
 We might suppose that despair would chill every heart, and 
 the dark cloud of coming destruction darken all the land. 
 But our fathers had been under too stern a discipline to think 
 of losing heart even amid such crushing reverses. Pitt, Eng- 
 land's great commoner, was called to the aid of the stagger- 
 ing government, and became the ruling spirit of the war. The 
 confidence he reposed in the colonies was justified by their 
 hearty response in the raising of fresh troops from their deci- 
 mated population. Young British commanders consented to 
 learn from our forest-trained warriors, and all along the ex- 
 tended line victory followed their united counsels and efforts. 
 The French were everywhere beaten back, till on the plains of 
 Abraham, Wolfe's immortal victory settled the question of 
 English supremacy in America. Feudalism and Rome had 
 clutched the prize of this Western World. AVith almost su- 
 perhuman efforts they had struggled to secure it. But it was 
 wrested from their grasp. A pure faith and civil freedom was 
 to be the inheritance which our fathers should transmit to us 
 their children. 
 
 The overthrow of j^ie French in Canada freed the frontier 
 from Indian aggression. The immediate results were mani- 
 fest in the impulse given to settlements everywhere. The 
 energies of the people, quickened and developed by military 
 
13 
 
 service, demanded wider scope. The experiences of the camp 
 fitted them for a Hfe of exposure in new. forest homes, a life 
 which is one long struggle with dangers and privations. Thus 
 we find Maine increasing so rapidly in her population, that a 
 roughly gathered census taken in 1764 gives her about 24,000 
 inhabitants, nearly two and a half times as many as Sullivan's 
 computation for 1750. 
 
 The towns of eastern Massachusetts near the mouth of the 
 Merrimac, shared in this new zeal for emigration. Thirty 
 years before, at the close of Love well's war, they had sent out 
 a strong colony to occupy the fertile intervales at Pcnacook ; 
 and now from both, from the vigorous inland daughter and 
 from the mother towns near the sea, strong men and resolute 
 women were ready to bear the dangers of a settlement three 
 times as remote. 
 
 Their leader, Col. Frye, was worthy of the enterprise. 
 From liis earliest years he had been a soldier of the forest. 
 He had command of a regiment at the surrender of Fort Wm. 
 Henry. Strongly dissenting from its capitulation, he offered 
 to go out with his single regiment and drive back the French 
 and Indians. But this privilege was denied him. His suffer- 
 ings and escape after having been stripped by the Indians, his 
 three days run through the forests, till torn and haggard and 
 for the time insane, he reached Fort Edward on the Hudson, 
 are more like romance than veritable history. For these suf- 
 ferings together with his eminent services, the General Court 
 of Massachusetts was pleased to grant him the privilege of 
 selecting '• a township six miles square on either side of the 
 Saco river between the Great Ossapee and the White moun- 
 tains, any where within those limits where he should not in- 
 terfere with previous grants." * 
 
 Capt. Wm. Stark, brother of the afterward hero of Ben- 
 nington, and with him an officer in Roger's rangers, acted as 
 guide to Col. Frye. Tradition says that they first took a view 
 of the valley from the hill which ever since has very properly 
 borne the name of Stark's hill. 
 
 *From act of General Court, March 3, 1762. 
 
14 
 
 An unpublished poem attempts to picture the scene pre- 
 sented them — 
 
 " The valley in its unshorn glory spread 
 
 Far, far beneath them, while the Saco led 
 
 Its mazy wanderings onward now, now turning, 
 
 Like some coquettish girl, roguishly spurning, 
 
 And then, be sure, encouraging again 
 
 The awkward suit of some poor, blushing swain. 
 
 ******* 
 One forest all unbroke, save where the sight 
 Fell on Chocorua's crags or Kearsarge's heights, 
 Or where the silver lakelets gleamed in their summer sheen 
 Or the dewy meadows glistened in their robes of living green."* 
 
 How much the poetry of their outlook upon the valley af- 
 fected the two forest rangers we know not. That Col. Frye 
 could write creditable stanzas we have proof in lines composed 
 years afterward. But the Colonel was more than a poet. He 
 was a skillful surveyor and practical farmer, and satisfied 
 himself by careful explorations that here was a region every 
 way proper for a township, and so made his selection. 
 
 The grant was made March 3, 1762, Its terms similar to 
 all others proceeding from the General Court of Massachusetts, 
 show the careful legislation of our fathers, that new towns 
 should not be left to semi-barbarism for lack of those institu- 
 tions indispensable to social improvement, — the school, the 
 church and the settled ministry. One sixty-fourth of the 
 township is set apart for each of these objects, and one still 
 farther was reserved for Harvard College. f 
 
 It is a curious fact, and one fast dying out of memory, that 
 the North-west corner of Fryeburg was originally on Green 
 Hill, on the supposition that the New Hampshire line was 
 some miles west of its present location. When it was dis- 
 covered that New Hampshire had just claims upon the North- 
 west corner ot the township amounting to 4,147 acres, a new 
 
 *From Poem at the Semi-Centennial celebration of Fryeburg Academy, 
 1842. 
 
 t See Appendix A. 
 
15 
 
 grant was made by the General Court of a like number of 
 acres to the North, called Fryeburg Addition. The tract in- 
 cludes the beautiful valley of the Cold river, and was incor- 
 porated by the name of Stow, in 1834. 
 
 Few towns were settled as promptly as Fryeburg, after the 
 grant to its proprietor. The same year, (1762) some of its 
 future inhabitants came with their cattle from Concord, N. H. 
 and comm^iced their clearings on the spot where now stands 
 the village, and from the meadow secured a winter's supply of 
 hay for their cattle. From this fact they claimed the settle- 
 ment as commencing that year. And the old sign-board of 
 the Osgood tavern bore with the Eagle, the emblem of its 
 early patriotism, the date 1762. The cattle were left for the 
 winter in charge of Nathaniel Merrill, John Stevens and 
 " Limbo," — the irrepressible African figuring thus early in 
 our history. 
 
 It was not wholly a lonely winter to the herdsmen, for the 
 people of Gorham and Falmouth kept the same winter above 
 two hundred head of cattle and some dozen horses, on the 
 large meadows to the Bast and North. Many anecdotes are 
 told of their winter experiences, but time will not allow of 
 their introduction. 
 
 In 1763 came the settlers with their families, and this des- 
 ignates the true time of settlement, for surely it is the intro- 
 duction of families, not cattle, that should be commemorated. 
 The strong handed men who the previous year had broke in 
 upon the wilderness, the trio who kept their lonely guard over 
 the cattle through a Pequawket winter, though deserving of 
 mention, cannot press their claims as settlers. It is when 
 woman and the little ones, the mother with the children, come 
 and bring into the forest cabin the blessed institution of the 
 family, and make even the wilderness a home for man, — it is 
 then that the settlement commences. 
 
 And who were the first comers to the valley, and what are 
 their claims to our grateful remembrance ? Some were 
 townsmen of the relicts of Lovewell's fight, and their childish 
 fancies were shaped by the oft-told stories and plaintive songs, 
 
16 
 
 which kept alive the memory of that sad day. Others had 
 cowered beside their mothers at Penacook, when word of the 
 Bradley massacre swept through the infant settlement. They 
 had looked upon the bleeding bodies of five young men 
 brought from the deadly ambuscade. Growing to manhood, 
 they were ready to follow the merciless savages to the death, 
 and enlisted again and again in the successive wars with the 
 Indians and French. Some of them bore the scar%of wounds 
 received in numerous conflicts with the red man, while follow- 
 ing the indomitable Rogers along Champlain and the rivers of 
 the North, tracking the wily foe through snowy thickets and 
 over ice-bound lakes. And when not engaged in warlike ex- 
 peditions, they found intervals in their rude husbandry to 
 scour the wilderness as hunters. The head waters of the 
 Merrimac, Winnepesaukee Lake, the Bear-camp and the 
 Mountains East and North, drew them naturally toAvards this 
 valley, for so long a period the chosen hunting ground and 
 home of the Pequawkets. 
 
 The home of the Pequawkets ! Before attempting to fol- 
 low the track of our fathers from the Merrimac hither, and in 
 imagination build again their forest hamlet on these plains, 
 how are we tempted to show the village of the simple Indian 
 standing hard by the river at the foot of Pine hill, and mark 
 how exactly fitted was this valley for his princely residence. 
 
 The furs with which he lined his wigwam, were trophies of 
 his conflicts with the bear and catamount on the mountains 
 opposite. Through the forest stalked the moose, browsing 
 upon the tender foliage. The deer grazed in the meadows. 
 The otter, the beaver and various small animals of like habits, 
 sported on the sedgy banks of the Saco and its tributaries, 
 while trout and pickerel filled stream and pond, yielding a re- 
 past which epicures might covet, and which so many of the 
 species enjoy to this day. 
 
 The very conformation of the valley fitted it for the easy 
 supply of the Indian's wants; the river favored his lazy habits. 
 Stepping into his canoe at his wigwam's door he floated slug- 
 gishly along the gentle current, throwing his line into every 
 
17 
 
 dark pool formed by the mazy windings of the stream, push- 
 ing up the many ponds which first collect the waters of the 
 radiating system of valleys north of us, and then add them to 
 the Saco, trapping and hunting on their banks over a circuit 
 of many miles, never obliged to leave his canoe but for a short 
 distance, and quickly returning with new spoils. And so day 
 after day gathering with easy labors supplies for weeks of in- 
 dolent repose, he enters Lovewell's Pond, across which pad- 
 dling his well-loaded canoe, he lands within less than two miles 
 of his starting place. 
 
 Paradise of luxurious laziness ! valley of delights to the 
 indolent red man ! Can it be that it encourages and entails 
 any thing of the same spirit among his successors ! 
 
 However this may be with the present dwellers here, our 
 fathers of the early days of Pequawket, " the first of times " 
 as one of them quaintly expressed it, were not allowed to suffer 
 from any such enervating influences. 
 
 Hard work was before them, and most resolutely did they 
 set about it. They were to change the wilderness to a fruit- 
 ful field, and establish in the very lair of the savage, the insti- 
 tutions of Christianity and the comforts of civilized life. 
 
 During the summer of 1763, one Nathaniel Smith made his 
 way through the wilderness with his family, and must be con- 
 sidered the first settler of the town. There is in my posses- 
 sion a lease granting him and his wife Ruth the half of Lot No. 
 15 during their natural lives, free of rent. Gen. Frye gives 
 the Lease, Sept. 23, 1765, " For and in consideration of the 
 good will and affection I have and do bear to my friend 
 Nathaniel Smith, &c.," showing his estimation of the family. 
 Their son Jonathan fell in Montgomery's unsuccessful attack 
 upon Quebec, a man of indomitable courage. When Capt. 
 Hutchings asked him, "What shall I say to your father and 
 mother?" "Tell 'em," said he, "that I wish I could have 
 lived to whip the d — d Britishers." 
 
 In November of the same year, 1763, came four citizens of 
 Concord, N. H., with their famiUes, viz: Samuel Osgood, 
 Moses Ames, John Evans, and Jedediah Spring ; and to these 
 3 
 
18 
 
 is due the honor of being the pioneers of civilization in the 
 valley. These men had spent the Summer in preparing as far 
 as possible for their residence, and towards winter they brought 
 in their families to make the valley their home. 
 
 David Evans, brother of John, and Nathaniel Merrill, two 
 unmarried young men, formed part of the company. They 
 camped one night in the woods, and the next morning found 
 nearly six inches of snow on the ground — a cold welcome to 
 the valley, almost as cheerless as the snowy shores of Ply- 
 mouth gave the Pilgrim Fathers. 
 
 From the papers of the late Lieut. James Walker, (of the 
 Island,) I gather the following particulars which he noted down 
 directly from Mrs. Evans, as he states, " one of the first four 
 families who came to this town, wife of John Evans. The 
 women of these families and their children came here on 
 horseback from Concord, N. H. There were at that time no 
 settlements between Fryeburg and Sanford, a distance of sixty 
 miles, and no bridges across the streams and rivers. They 
 lodged in the woods in a camp one night, and forded the 
 streams on horseback. When they came to the great Ossipee 
 in what is now the town of Cornish, the river being high, tliey 
 had one tall horse that could carry them over without swim- 
 ming. In that way they all crossed the river in safety, after 
 which they camped for the night. Mrs. E. says that in cross- 
 ing the river she sat on the horse the strongest way ! " (No 
 time for squeamishness !) 
 
 Maj. Samuel Osgood, the leader of this pioneer party, oc- 
 cupied the ground where now stands the Oxford house. Here 
 was for years the centre and rallying point of the settlement. 
 His son, Lieut. James Osgood, erected the present house in 
 1800. In Fryeburg's palmiest days as a thoroughfare to the 
 Mountains in summer, and from the Coos country to Portland 
 in winter, it was the most noted public house of the region. 
 Among his numerous descendants, was the late Rev. Dr. 
 Osgood, for half a century the pastor of the first church in 
 Springfield, Mass., whose decease within the few months past, 
 
19 
 
 disappoints us of the presence of one of Fryeburg's most 
 honored sons. 
 
 Moses Ames, who attained to the title of "Squire," built on 
 the lot where the late Robert Bradley, Esq., lived. He be- 
 came a man of some note, was Selectman, Representative to 
 the General Court, &c. One of the first Board of Trustees 
 of the Academy, he had the supervision of the beautiful build- 
 ing during its erection in 1806, and as Mr. Bradley has said^ 
 " watched the driving of every nail, and saw that not one was 
 wasted." 
 
 John Evans, in whose family was his brother David, made 
 his home but a stone's throw from the street just below our 
 place of assembling. A year or two after, he removed to the 
 lot still occupied by his descendants, who claim that a part of 
 their present residence was the first framed dwelling of the 
 valley. In it was born the first male child of the settlement, 
 the late Capt. William Evans, passing away eight years ago, 
 respected and beloved, at the ripe age of 90 years. Longevity 
 is a marked characteristic of the family. The mother, a sis- 
 ter of Col. Thomas Stickney, one of Stark's Colonels at Ben- 
 nington, a woman of rare fortitude and physical powers, 
 reached 88 years. Mrs. Harmon, a daughter, 95 years. Mrs. 
 Abigail Osgood, for many years the venerated mother of our 
 village, 86. Mrs. John Stickney of Brownfield, 85. 
 
 Jedediah Spring, the last of the four, lived for a time near 
 Mr. Weston's. He soon after removed to a lot across the river 
 in Conway, and is not reckoned as one of the dwellers in the 
 " Seven Lots." The family name has passed from the town, 
 but in Brownfield, in Saco and Portland, it is characterized 
 by determined energy and business enterprise. 
 
 Within two years of the first settlement, the two young 
 men, Nathaniel Merrill and David Evans, who had so disin- 
 terestedly lent assistance to the first comers, had each brought 
 to the wilderness a wife, and with two other noted settlers, 
 Capt. Timothy Walker and Col. David Page, constituted the 
 "Seven Lots," a name which for many years designated the 
 germ of our village. Capt. Walker occupied the lot first taken 
 
20 
 
 up by John Evans, traces of the cellar are still visible near 
 Asa Charles, Esqrs'. He is represented by Dr. Paul Coffin, 
 who came from Buxton on a missionary tour to the settlement 
 in 1768, as having on the intervale adjoining, "forty acres, 
 corn, grass and English grain which are all rich. Two or three 
 tons of hay was cut on one acre," " improvements surpris- 
 ingly large considering they have done most of the work in 
 three years." * 
 
 Col. Page, for some years before removing to the other side 
 of the river, lived near the head of the Main Street opening 
 towards Portland, the ground now occupied by the Post Office. 
 He, as well as Nathaniel Merrill, who built opposite the pres- 
 ent Academy, had been of Rogers' rangers. Both had received 
 wounds in the hard service. Both were men of note in the 
 youthful settlement and in after days, Col. Page as a magis- 
 trate, 'Squire Merrill as a Surveyor. Numberless anecdotes of 
 their respective peculiarities and eccentricities have come down 
 to us. Our space will not allow of their introduction. 
 
 In 1766 came Lieut. Caleb Swan, and with him Mr. William 
 Wiley, both from Andover. They came from Newburyport to 
 Saco by water, and were three days forcing their way up the 
 river to Fryeburg, spending of course two nights with scarce 
 any shelter in the woods, and crossing the Great Ossipee with 
 much difficulty by rafts. They brought in three cows, a yoke 
 of oxen and a horse. 
 
 Lieut. Swan had drawn a lot in the lower part of the town, 
 but the difficulty of getting to it caused him to stop at what 
 is now the Falls, then only a slight rapid in the river. Here 
 he erected the first framed house in the town. On this ac- 
 count and from its location as a kind of half-way house be- 
 tween the two extremes of the settlement, (including parts of 
 Conway,) it was a place of religious worship. Far better for 
 the town had it been made its centre. 
 
 * See Dr. Coffin's " Kide to Pigwacket," in Maine Historical Collections, 
 Vol. 4. The pictures given by the good Doctor of the first settlers, are 
 graphic and amusing. Either their hospitality or the fertility and beauty of 
 the valley greatly charmed him. He terms it " the desirable rural retreat," 
 ♦' that land of delights," &c. 
 
21 
 
 Lieut. Swan was a graduate of Harvard, a man of distin- 
 guished ability in College. His wife was Dorothy Frye a 
 niece of Col. Joseph. He was an officer in the French war. 
 His son, of same name, was Paymaster General under Wash- 
 ington's administration. The strictest integrity was charac- 
 teristic of both father and son, and we may add is an heir- 
 loom in the family. 
 
 The winter of ^GQ, and the summer following, mark the 
 period of greatest privation and suffering in the valley. The 
 inhabitants sent to Concord through the wilderness on snow- 
 shoes for food. It was hauled on hand-sleds the whole dis- 
 tance, 80 miles. 
 
 After planting, the next spring, four men were sent to Saco 
 for supplies, expecting to be gone two weeks. When several 
 days beyond the time had passed, the families met each even- 
 ing at Maj. Osgood's to talk over their fate. One evening they 
 had just concluded to send two men to search for the party, 
 supposing they had been waylaid. " Hark," says one of the 
 anxious company, and as they listened the faint sound of the 
 paddles came through the still woods from Lovewell's Pond. 
 It was bright moonlight, and they all hastened to the Pond, 
 where was a joyful meeting. 
 
 The shoulders of the men were worn through the skin by 
 the severity of their labors. 
 
 These were not the only instances in which resort was had 
 to Concord on snow-shoes, and to Saco by batteaux to obtain 
 supplies. At certain seasons the forests aided them, affording 
 game, and the very tallest of hunting stories are told. But 
 there were times when every resource failed, and for short 
 periods they suffered for want of food. 
 
 Hitherto there had been but one family below Lieut. Swan's, 
 that of Mr. Moses Day, the date of whose coming I have not 
 been able to determine. 
 
 Mr. William Wiley, coming with the Lieut, in '66, settled the 
 Jos. Colby place. The next year, '67, many families came. 
 They were from Andover, Bradford, &c., Mass., and from 
 Concord, N, H., met at Phillipstown or Sanford, from which 
 
22 
 
 place Col. Frye had taken the first steps for a road by felUng 
 the trees the whole distance. 
 
 Among the accessions of this year were John Webster, Aaron 
 Abbott, Stephen Knight, Daniel Farrington, the Walkers, — 
 Lieut. Isaac, Lieut. John, Ezekiel, and two Samuels, — and 
 probably Benj. Russell, Eben. Day and others. Menotomy 
 was about this time settled by families from Andover, among 
 which were those of Simon Frye, Wm. Holt, and others. 
 
 Simon Frye, a nephew of Col. Joseph, was a man of rare 
 prudence, honored as a deacon in the church, the first Repre- 
 sentative to the General Court, and for many years Judge in 
 the courts of the District. 
 
 Ezekiel Walker lived near the Centre by Bear Pond, and 
 was the first Inn-keeper licensed by the town. 'Squire William 
 Russell married his widow and occupied his homestead. He 
 was a graduate of Harvard, familiar witli the Latin to the last, 
 also, a surveyor of high attainments in Mathematics. Many 
 a boy, by the light of pitch wood knots in his large fireplace, 
 was started in Arithmetic, and the brightest of them carried 
 through the double rule of three. His was the first justice' 
 court in the region, in which Dana and McGaw used to plead. 
 
 Daniel Farrington was one of Roger's Rangers, of great 
 strength and courage, distinguished as a hunter. He hauled 
 400 lbs. of furs on a hand-sled to Concord to obtain supplies. 
 
 Lieut. John Walker was one of the notabilities of the town. 
 He was at Fort William Henry, afterwards at the taking of 
 Quebec ; came through the wilderness to the head waters of 
 the Androscoggin and followed the river to Brunswick, nearly 
 perishing with hunger. Many anecdotes are told of his 
 intrepidity, immense muscular strength and genuine good 
 humor. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that while Col. Frye is thus push- 
 ing the settlement of his town towards the North and East, 
 Capt. Henry Young Brown, from Haverhill, Mass., a man 
 equally energetic, is occupying that part of the valley and 
 some of the adjacent uplands, to the South-west. 
 
 The same misapprehension respecting the New Hampshire 
 
23 
 
 line, which carried the North-west corner of Fryeburg to 
 Green Hill, made Capt. Brown's claim include a large share 
 of Conway. 
 
 In 1768 some dozen families had made their homes on this 
 tract, among whom were the brothers, Benjamin and James 
 Osgood, from Concord, brothers also of Maj. Samuel at Seven 
 Lots ; two Dollars or Dolloffs, father and son, and two or 
 three Walkers. Capt. Timothy Walker of the Seven Lots, had 
 at this time a saw and grist mill at the outlet of what is still 
 called Walker's Pond, the same privilege now improved by 
 Hon. J. T. Chase of Conway. 
 
 Capt. Brown occupied the fine bend in the river, a part of 
 which still forms the farm of his great grandson, Joslma Os- 
 good. He had built a residence near the spot where stands 
 the farm house of Gov. Dana, Here he entertained Dr. Cof- 
 fin during his missionary visit in '68, in a style that surprised 
 and delighted the good doctor. He speaks of " Capt. Brown's 
 high and clean room, which had five glass windows and was 
 nearly half wainscotted. It struck me with pleasure at the 
 entrance, as I doubt not it would any body else. Hence I 
 called it Capt. Brown's HallJ' At his cousin John Webster's, 
 the doctor enters in his Journal, "Drank a fine dish of tea, 
 well suited with wheat bread and pumpkin pye." 
 
 With such evidences of increasing luxury, we must consider 
 the days of privation and suffering past ! 
 
 At Capt. Brown's, good parson Coffin met another visitor, 
 who accompanied him on his return down the river. This 
 was Dr. Joseph Emery, a young physician who had been called 
 from Canterbury, N. H., to attend a bad wound from an axe. 
 He returned to Fryeburg, bringing with him as his wife, a sister 
 of Mr. Fessenden, thus eventually securing to the town its 
 first minister as well as first physician. Dr. Emery was the 
 first to open a store in the settlement. It stood near Mr. J. 
 0. McMillan's barn. A daughter of Dr. Emery married 
 Rev. Dr. Dana of Newburyport. 
 
 The first school was kept in the house of Lieut. Swan, two 
 
24 
 
 or three years after his coming, by Mr. William Frost. Birch 
 bark was used for writing books. Of the pupils' proficiency 
 we cannot judge, but it is more than probable that they 
 shamed some of their descendants, enjoying far greater priv- 
 ileges. 
 
 From the same house was carried to her burial the first 
 person who died in the settlement, Naamah, a daughter of 
 fifteen years. It was in April, 1770, and the corpse was hauled 
 over the fences on a hand-sled. 
 
 The settlement is fairly commenced. It is in the full tide 
 of its early prosperity. The dark and bloody ground of Love- 
 well's fight, " Pequawket," which at every fireside along the 
 Merrimac for nearly half a century had been a synonym for 
 terror, has become as Dr. Coffin terms it, " a desirable inland 
 retreat," containing some three hundred souls. 
 
 Our fathers had been trained in the observance of the Sab- 
 bath. A meeting on that day was a necessity to them. Among 
 others who aided by casual visits to supply this want, was Rev. 
 William Fessenden, a graduate of Harvard in 1768. So 
 pleasing was his address that he was unanimously called to be 
 their minister. It should be stated that the church had been 
 organized Aug. 28, 1775. Mr. Fessenden accepted the invita- 
 tion, and was ordained Oct. 11, 1775. This must have been a 
 good day in the valley, a high wedding day between minister 
 and people, for in those times they took one another "for bet- 
 ter or for worse, till death did them part." Cases of divorce 
 were known, but were very unusual. By his rare combina- 
 tion of excellences, in person, in character and in official la- 
 bors, Mr. Fessenden retained the affections of his people to 
 the last, dying as the minister of the town, May 5, 1805. The 
 memory of Mr. Fessenden is precious. In his public duty as 
 minister of the town, in his private relations as kinsman to 
 some of his parishioners, and especially as the father of a 
 large family, he was a model. Dignified in bearing, generous 
 in spirit, hospitable to a fault, fearless and uncompromising in 
 maintenance of the right, yet eminently courteous and for- 
 
25 
 
 bearing, he has left to his descendants that "good name rather 
 to be chosen than much riches," He was highly favored in 
 having as a ministerial neighbor, his friend and classmate, Dr. 
 Porter of Conway. The two brother ministers were possessed 
 of contrasted powers, which only served to bind them the 
 more closely together. Dr. Porter was the man of ponderous 
 logic. Mr. Fessenden was of a livelier fancy. The one ex- 
 celled in reasoning, the other in persuasion ; together they 
 were like the two pillars of Solomon's temple, Jachin and 
 Boaz, the strength and beauty of our forest Zion. Mr. Fes- 
 senden was succeeded by Rev. Francis L. Whiting, whose min- 
 istry, terminating in 1814, was not a very happy or successful 
 one. For several years afterward Rev. Dr. Porter, having 
 been dismissed from Conway, supplied the pulpit. And Oct., 
 1824, Rev. Carlton Hurd was ordained, whose ministry in all 
 its burden of trials and difficulties, and in all its reward of 
 intermingled success, is too recent to need lengthened remark. 
 
 We come now to the legal birthday of the Town, the date 
 of its incorporation. Through a short minority of fourteen 
 years it had attained a growth demanding full municipal priv- 
 ileges. It was to have henceforth the management of its own 
 internal affairs, and a voice in the public councils of the State- 
 It should be noted that the claim for such privileges is 
 grounded on the fact of their having a minister, and the need 
 of securing his proper support, the building of a meeting 
 house, &c. 
 
 Their petition stating these grounds is granted by the Gen- 
 eral Court, and the act of Incorporation passed Jan. 11, 1777.* 
 Thus had we our birth in the perilous times of the Revolu- 
 tion. It shows our fathers' calm confidence that through 
 those dark hours they should emerge to a day of brightness, 
 peace and joy. True heroism is it to move steadily on amid 
 thick-crowding perils, assured that the bark which God has 
 launched and freighted with the best hopes of man, He will 
 guard and guide in safety over the troubled deep. 
 
 * For Act of Incorporation see Appendix B. 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 This was the faith of our fathers. We are recreant to their 
 memory, if we make it not our own. 
 
 The first town meeting was called, by warrant, issued by 
 Tristram Jordan, Esq., of Pepperelboro, and directed to Lieut. 
 Samuel Osgood, notifying the inhabitants to meet at the house 
 of Eev. William Fessenden, on Monday, Slst March, 1777. 
 
 At the first meeting, Richard Kimball was chosen Town 
 Clerk. 
 
 Dea. Richard Eastman, Isaac Abbott, Nathaniel Merrill, 
 Dea. Simon Frye, and Ezra Carter, were chosen Selectmen. 
 
 Richard Kimball, Moses Ames, Stephen Farrington, Ezekiej 
 Walker, Benjamin Russell, Committee of Safety. 
 
 Rev. William Fessenden is voted a salary of forty-five 
 pounds for his first year, beginning Oct. 11, 1775, also fifty 
 pounds for his second year, beginning Oct. 11, 1776. His sal- 
 ary to increase five pounds lawful currency, per annum, until 
 it should reach seventy pounds, then to remain a stated sal- 
 ary at that sum. Salary to be paid in Indian corn at three 
 shillings per bushel, and rye at four shillings, for the first six 
 years of his ministry, from Oct. 11, 1775. 
 
 A bounty is offered of one pound on each grown wolf. 
 
 The first recorded vote is to have swine go at large. 
 
 At a second town meeting, held the next month, April 17, 
 a standard of prices is fixed for all commodities in common 
 use. The list opens with 
 
 " A day's labour of a man finding himself, in July or August, 
 
 which is put at 3 s. 9 d. 
 
 " Being found as usual in the above months, 3 s. 
 
 And at other seasons in proportion. 
 Some of the home manufacturers of the times are 
 
 brought to light in the price of 
 " Good yard wide Tow cloth 2 s. 3 d. 
 
 And meaner quality in proportion. 
 *' Sugar, called maple sugar, manufactured in these 
 
 parts, and of the best quality, 8 d. 
 
 " Good tobacco raised in this State, 9 d. 
 
27 
 
 " Good butter, 9 d. 
 
 " House carpenters and brick layers, per day, 4 s. 
 
 *' Joiners, 3 s. 
 
 " While the poor shoe makers, for making men's and 
 
 women's shoes, 2 s. 7 d. 
 
 and other shoes in proportion. 
 
 *' West India Rum, merchantable, per gallon, 8 s. 10 d. 
 
 And 2 s. 3 d. per quart, and so on in propor- 
 tion for lesser quantity. 
 
 " New England Rum, 6 s, 8 d. 
 
 And 1 s. 4 d. per quart. 
 
 The most noticeable article is Salt, per bushel, 15 s. 5 d. 
 The first license, for a house of entertainment, is given to 
 
 Mr. Ezekiel Walker, April 15, 1777. 
 
 Not to occupy farther time with details of the town's action, 
 
 let us group together items which will show the spirit of the 
 
 times and the character of the people. 
 
 Our town was born amid the struggles of the Revolution. 
 We are naturally anxious to know what part she bore in the 
 progress of that long and trying conflict. Under Capt. Joseph 
 Frye, eldest son of the Colonel, the men of the town had been 
 frequently trained in the practice of arms, and at the very 
 outbreak of hostilities, Gol. Frye had been summoned to Cam- 
 bridge to give the aid of his military experience in organizing 
 the patriotic masses which held the British troops beleagured 
 in Boston. 
 
 By the provincial Congress, he was first made a Brigadier, 
 then a Major General, and put in command at Falmouth. 
 
 Early in 1776, he left the service on account, as some have 
 stated, of ill health. There have been intimations that some 
 difference with Washington, caused his resignation. 
 
 Two of his sons were officers in the service, Joseph, as Cap- 
 tain, Nathaniel, a Lieutenant. The latter lost his hearing at 
 the battle of Monmouth. 
 
 It was my hope to give a list of the men of Fryeburg, who 
 
28 
 
 served in the war of the Revolution ; but it lias been beyond 
 my power. 
 
 As the war wore along, the government was obliged to ap- 
 portion to each town its quota of men to enter upon new ser- 
 vice or keep good the armies in the field. In answer to re- 
 peated calls, Fryeburg raises, successively, five men, two men, 
 three men. And when the call comes, Dec, 1780, for seven 
 to serve for three years or during the continuance of the war, 
 the town, for the first time, asks a partial exemption, but votes 
 to raise five instead of seven, and to allow eight Spanish milled 
 dollars, per month, to each, exclusive of the pay received from 
 the Continental Congress. 
 
 But their public spirit was to be brought to a nearer and 
 severer test. In August, 1781, the Indians from St. Francis 
 made a descent upon Bethel, (then called Sudbury-Canada,) 
 murdered three men, and plundering several families, started 
 to return with three men as prisoners to assist in carrying the 
 booty. 
 
 In the panic of the inhabitants, they sent to Fryeburg for 
 assistance. The word came about noon and was spread at 
 once on both sides of the river, with the call on every man to 
 come at once with whatever arm§ he had, to the house of Mr. 
 Nathaniel Walker. Before sunset the whole settlement was 
 gathered there, and from the whole number twenty-three were 
 selected, and hastily equipped for immediate service. Under 
 the lead of Lieut. Stephen Farrington, who headed the little 
 column on horseback, they plunged at once into the forest ; 
 just as night closed in around them forded the Saco, and as 
 the sun was rising over Bethel Hill, came in sight of the set- 
 tlement. Stopping but a few moments for refreshments, they 
 took the Indian trail, and with Sebatis as guide, followed it 
 for miles up the Androscoggin. One of the captives here met 
 them and endeavored to persuade them to return, represent- 
 ing that the Indians would kill the other prisoners on the first 
 intimation that they were pursued. But they would not yield 
 the point so easily. Pushing on they came at length to[,a 
 piece of spruce bark pegged upon a hemlock, on wliicli^one of 
 
29 
 
 the prisoners had written a most urgent request that the party 
 might not bo followed, as it would be sure death to the cap- 
 tives. Lieut. Farringtou was still strenuous to push on and 
 punish the red skins, but yielded at length to the men, whose 
 unanimous voice was to return. They came back, buried one 
 of the murdered men who had not before been found, stayed 
 over night, and leaving a guard, the next day returned to 
 Fryeburg. 
 
 For promptness and expedition, this night march into the 
 forest will compare favorably with any thing done by com- 
 munities in the Mother State at the Lexington alarm ; while 
 there are circumstances which make it still more worthy of 
 admiration. In the call to repel the British, the whole coun- 
 try sprung to arms. From every quarter thronged the minute 
 men, sure of each other's countenance and support, and fol- 
 lowing their enemy in the broad day light. Here a little band, 
 raised at an hour's notice, grope their way in the darkness, 
 through a dense forest, directly away from all hope of assist- 
 ance, and after a hard night's march, follow the trail of a 
 hidden, wily foe that had marked his track with devastation 
 and blood, and give up the pursuit only when convinced that 
 it will be an injury rather than a benefit to those whom they 
 would succor. 
 
 A small company of soldiers, mostly from this town, was 
 stationed at Bethel during the remainder of the season, and 
 also the next year. 
 
 Our townsmen, in 1777, on the retreat of the American 
 forces from Canada, had built three stockade forts for their 
 defence. One stood near the bridge at Mr. Weston's, one near 
 Mr. Charles Walker's, and one near Mr. S. L. Chandler's, the 
 late Joseph Colby place. It is not probable that they expected 
 to withstand the whole British army under Burgoyne, but they 
 would be prepared for just such predatory attacks as that on 
 Bethel.* 
 
 The patriotism of the town was put to a still severer test in 
 the progress of the war, that of heavy taxation. Volunteer- 
 
 * See Appendix C. 
 
30 
 
 iug for military service may be the natural outworking of a 
 restless spirit. Love of adventure, joined with sympathy for 
 suffering ones, and flashing indignation against the aggressors, 
 may prompt to just such a noble midnight expedition as that 
 to the Androscoggin in ^81. But there is no romance in pay- 
 ing taxes. And when the wolf of gaunt poverty stands at 
 the door to enter with the tax gatherer, no wonder there is 
 dread at his coming. 
 
 The instructions given Dec, '80, to Dea. Simon Frye, the 
 first Representative of the town, first make solemn declara- 
 tion of their fidelity as citizens, and then equally earnest 
 protestations of their poverty as tax payers. But the good 
 Deacon was unable to make the General Court see it. So the 
 next year he is made the bearer of a formidable Remonstrance. 
 
 Its statements were so clear and its positions so irrefutable 
 that it should certainly have gained the point. I have not 
 been able to verify the fact. 
 
 A noble instance, (and not a solitary one we are assured,) of 
 disinterested patriotism is given at this trying juncture by 
 our minister. Tliough a committee of the town report, Oct. 
 23, 1780, that the balance due him is £4,360, 2 s. 9 d. 3 gr.; 
 or making allowance for depreciation, over ,£100, hard money, 
 say 1500, and in the corn part of the salary, a balance of 
 406 1-8 bushels, say |200 more, yet we find him a year later 
 relinquishing £15, of what was his due, "to assist the town 
 in carry hig on this present unhappy war." The town voted 
 their thanks for his generosity. 
 
 The instructions of the town to its early Representatives 
 for some years immediately succeeding the Revolution, are 
 papers of great interest. 
 
 It has been said that the principles and almost the language 
 of our immortal Declaration of Independence, can be found 
 entered upon the Records of many of the towns in the Old 
 Bay State, for years before its adoption by the Continental 
 Congress in '76. 
 
 We cannot claim that honor, not being born, unfortunately, 
 till the next year. But what we should have said may be 
 
gained from Resolutions respecting the appreliended return of 
 refugee Loyalists, passed June 2, ^85. Most decidedly do they 
 protest against " the admission of such persons as have taken 
 refuge under the British King, during the late struggles in 
 the defence of our just rights and liberties, and thereby been 
 instrumental of protracting the late barbarous and cruel war 
 against their own country, and as far as in their power been 
 the means of the expense of much blood and treasure of their 
 late fellow citizens." " All persons in that predicament and 
 that have been declared traitors to their country, ought never 
 to be suffered to return and dwell in it again, but be entirely 
 excluded therefrom." Right ground in dealing with the 
 traitors of the Revolution. Will it not apply to all traitors 
 since ? 
 
 The instructions of the town to its Representatives are not 
 always uniform. Thus in '86, through Paul Langdon's rather 
 graceful pen, Mr. Moses Ames, Representative for tliat year, 
 is directed to favor free trade, as one means of relieving the 
 country from its present embarrassments. 
 
 The next year. Gen. Frye, in an elaborate and able paper, 
 claims the necessity of a proper system of imposts and excise ; 
 or rather assuming this as the established policy of the coun- 
 try, goes on in a full exposition of his views financially, intro- 
 ducing a scheme which,, as far as I understand the subject, 
 shadows forth almost the identical system which our great 
 financier. Secretary Chase, has so successfully adopted. 
 
 The distresses of the times, (the date of Shay's rebellion,) 
 naturally exhibit themselves in the action of the town at this 
 period. 
 
 The question also of separation from Massachusetts, was 
 much discussed. The town, March 6, 1786, voted unani- 
 mously in favor of separation, and sent to the Convention 
 held at Portland the next Sept., upon the subject, five out of 
 the thirty-one delegates assembled.* 
 
 *The following were the members of the Convention from Fryeburg: 
 Joseph Frye, Paul Langdon, Daniel Fessenden, Isaac Walker, Nathaniel 
 Merrill. 
 
32 
 
 A matter of great interest is the estimate the town placed 
 upon the Constitution, when first submitted in '88. They 
 express confidence in the integrity and abilities of their Dele- 
 gate to the Convention, Mr. Ames, admit the value of his 
 opportunities for hearing the arguments on both sides, and of 
 course making up a proper judgment. " But," they proceed, 
 *' the duty they owe themselves and posterity constrains them 
 to express their disapprobation of some parts of the Constitu- 
 tion." They object to the powers and mode of appointment 
 and length of term of the Senate, and that the Legislative 
 power of Congress will supersede and in its consequences en- 
 tirely vacate the Constitutions of the respective States. "And 
 it appears highly absurd to propose an oath or affirmation to 
 the officers of Government, of whom no religious test is 
 required." These are their most material objections. They, 
 therefore, conclude, as follows : " We would not wish that it 
 should be entirely rejected, as we esteem it, with proper 
 amendments, to be well calculated to promote the welfare of 
 the Union." 
 
 Who will say that this is not a sound view of that great 
 instrument, the view of sober common sense, equally 
 removed from a blind, unquestioning adoration, and from 
 captious denunciation. We must remember that the Consti- 
 tution had gathered nothing of that sanctity with which it 
 is justly enshrined to us. They could not anticipate the 
 unnumbered blessings which would flow from its adoption. 
 
 The Revolutionary war was scarcely closed and its heavy 
 burdens were by no means disposed of, when the town in '84 
 voted to build four school houses, 18 feet square and 7 feet 
 stud, in the different parts of the town. Three of these would 
 probably be built near where the forts of the Revolution stood, 
 viz : at Seven Lots, near Charles Walker's, and the Jos. Colby 
 farm, and the fourth near Rev. Mr. Fessenden's. What these 
 humble edifices accomplished, we can judge only by the intel- 
 ligence of the generation trained in part through the priv- 
 ileges they afforded. 
 
83 
 
 In '87 they set about the more formidable work of raising 
 their first house of wor^ship, i. e. the town voted to build a 
 meeting house. Messrs. William Wiley, Nathaniel Merrill, 
 Stephen Farrington, Simon Frye, and Samuel Charles, were 
 made a committee for drafting a plan and estimating the ex- 
 pense. The steps taken to secure its completion need not be 
 detailed. 
 
 For many years worship was held in this first meeting house 
 of the town, standing on the Gamage place, near Bear Pond. 
 It had no great pretension either in size or architecture. Its 
 dimensions were twenty-five by fifty feet, with three windows 
 of nine lights on each side, one at the end. There were no 
 pews and no gallery ; the men sat on one side, the women on 
 the other; and odd enough it seemed, when with the introduc- 
 tion of pews, the sexes sat together. Previously, at the giving 
 out of the Hymn, Mr. Joshua Gamage rose near the desk, 
 and immediately from right and left filed the sons and daugh- 
 ters of Asaph, skilled in. song, and formed in soli4 phalanx 
 near their leader. Mr. Gamage was famous as a singer, and 
 trained a host of young Pequawketers to accompany him ; for 
 our grand-mothers were a tuneful race, and some of our 
 grand-fathers learned to keep them company, and their united 
 voices not only filled the little temple by the Pond, but rang 
 out upon the forests around, like the sound of many waters. 
 
 However lacking in harmony Fryeburg has been in some 
 matters, her singing has always been of a high order. The 
 Farrington family has never gained the notoriety of the 
 Hutchinsons, but it is from no lack of ability. 
 
 About the year 1790, Baptist views were first preached in 
 town. Elder Zebadee Richardson came with his family from 
 Sanford, and established a church of that denomination. Mr, 
 Ridiardson lived first near Isaac Charles', at the turn of thp 
 river, and afterward on a lot between Nathaniel Charles' and 
 Kimball Pond. He preached for many years, alternately with 
 Mr. Fessenden, at the Centre, Mr. Fessenden giving half of 
 his time to the Corner, and Mr. Richardson, probably, his 
 alternate Sabbaths to the North part of the town. 
 
34 
 
 Tlie two ministers lived in mutual respect and good will, 
 but symptoms of contention sometimes displayed themselves 
 among their people. 
 
 How easy to forget that one of the glories of our free insti- 
 tutions is the right of private judgment in matters of faith, 
 the privilege of maintaining that worship which conscience 
 dictates. It will be the perfection of our Christianity, when 
 differences of opinion will be regarded with the charity which 
 " seeketh not her own," and " thinketh no evil." And yet we 
 yield to none in the respect and veneration due to those who 
 " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints," 
 — only let it be tliat they contend lawfully, — and for the faith, 
 not for supremacy. Rev. Mr. Richardson died suddenly at 
 Sanford. Many of his best members were advanced in years. 
 No effective maintenance of his views was sustained, and in 
 process of time the church became extinct. 
 
 That some of its members, and many more of the children 
 of deceased members, and their neighbors generally in the 
 north part of the town, became interested in and adopted 
 Universalist views, and after occupying, at intervals, for years 
 the Center Meeting House, secured for themselves the neat 
 house of worship near Mud City, are facts too recent to 
 require more than this brief notice. 
 
 The introduction of Methodist views has been so compara- 
 tively recent, as also to require no very extended notice. The 
 bitter controversies amid which the sect had its birth among 
 us, have happily been hushed, and for years its ministers have 
 been welcomed as worthy coadjutors with those of the older 
 faith, in every good work. 
 
 Another religious society. Free Will Baptist, has at times 
 flourished and at times declined, in the east part of the town, 
 •k A portion of our territory, cut off from us by the Saco and 
 the ponds and low impassible meadows adjacent, remained 
 unsettled till about the year 1806. It was some twelve years 
 later that families from Cornish, Limerick, &c., came and 
 made themselves choice farms, by subduing the ridge which 
 separates Elkins' brook from the Saco. Here, shut in by 
 
35 
 
 Pleasant Mountain on the east ; by the river with its fringe of 
 impassible meadows on the west ; and Lower Kezer Pond on 
 the north ; they lived a neighborhood very much by themselves, 
 till the building of the great road to Bridgton, in '34. 
 
 A beautiful portion of the town, the industry of its families, 
 the Pikes and Hapgoods, Chadburns, Warrens and Harndens, 
 has developed in it some of our most productive farms. 
 
 We come now to an item of our history which every son of 
 Fryeburg may contemplate with just pride, the founding of 
 our Academy. Next to the early provision for public worship, 
 no one thing shows the wisdom and public spirit of our fathers 
 more manifestly than its establishment. 
 
 Mr. Paul Langdon, a graduate of Harvard, and son of one 
 of its Presidents, had been a resident of the town for some 
 years, certainly since '86, at which time the instructions to 
 the Representative were drawn up by him. He was born to 
 be a teacher, and in each of the four humble school houses of 
 the town, had doubtless been bringing forward its children to 
 a higher grade of studies than is usual in common schools. 
 
 So in 1791, a Grammar School is established, which, Feb. 
 9th, 1792, was incorporated as an Academy, and endowed by 
 the General Court with a valuable tract of land. The fol- 
 lowing were appointed its first Trustees : 
 
 Rev. William Fessenden, Fryeburg, 
 " Nathaniel Porter, Conway, 
 
 Henry Y. Brown, Esq., Brownfield, 
 David Page, Esq., Conway, 
 Moses Ames, Fryeburg, 
 James Osgood, " 
 James Osgood, Conway, 
 Paul Langdon, Brownfield. 
 Although five of the nine Trustees were from the towns of 
 Brownfield and Conway, they lived, excepting Rev. Dr. Por- 
 ter, within a mile of the Academy ; the two Brownfield Trus- 
 tees on lots immediately adjoining it.* 
 
 *Tbe line between Fryeburg and Brownfield ran originally across the 
 
36 
 
 At their first meeting, March 3, they completed their Board 
 by electing, as members, Rev. Daniel Little of Kennebunk, 
 Rev. Paul Coffin of Buxton, Hon. George Thatcher of Bid- 
 deford, and Thomas Parsons, Esq., of Parsonsfield. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Little was made their President. Paul Langdon 
 is elected Preceptor, at a salary of <£52, the first year begin- 
 ning the previous November, <£60 the second; Jacob Evans 
 and Jeremiah Page, Monitors. Tuition is fixed at six shillings 
 for the original twenty-five founders ; seven to all others. 
 
 Rev. William Fessenden, Simon Frye, Esq., and Capt. John 
 Webster, are made a Committee to revise tlie regulations of 
 the original founders. H. Y. Brown, Simon Frye, and Na- 
 thaniel Merrill, Esq., a Committee on sale of lands; — and the 
 Listitution is thus promptly set upon its work of public benefi- 
 cence. It was from the first a school of a high order. Its 
 annual exhibitions rivalled the College Commencements of 
 that day ; young ladies coming on horseback, a long day's 
 journey through the forests, to attend the ball with which 
 they invariably closed. 
 
 Oct. 14, 1801, Col. Page, Rev. William Fessenden and 
 Judah Dana, Esq., are chosen a Committee to provide a Pre- 
 ceptor, and the April following report tliat they have em- 
 ployed Daniel Webster. To these gentlemen is doubtless due 
 the honor of giving this unknown youth his first start in the 
 world. He did things in his after days to make himself known, 
 but he never forgot the humble Institution whicli was his first 
 stepping stone to public life. 
 
 In September, 1802, Mr. (afterwards Rev.) Amos Jones 
 Cook succeeds Mr. Webster as Preceptor. He continued in 
 this position till 1833, the period of a whole generation. Mr. 
 Cook was a man of most estimable character, of easy, unas- 
 suming dignity, of ready sympathies, and unaffected kindness, 
 of scholarly tastes, and unswerving integrity. Through his 
 popularity as a Teacher, the Grammar School building, near 
 
 slope of Pine Hill, nearly parallel with the street to the bridge, crossing the 
 old Academy lot at the corner of Main street, and passing withia a rod or 
 two of the grove in which the Ceutenniai gathering was held. 
 
Pine Hill, soon became entirely inadequate to the demands 
 of the Institution, and steps were taken to erect one more 
 suitable. 
 
 And now arises one of those very natural controversies as 
 to location. The Village and Fessenden Hill are the competi- 
 tors, and the strife runs high. The friends of the rival locali- 
 ties back up their preferences by subscriptions, to be paid if 
 those preferences are gratified. 
 
 The decision is in favor of the Village, although as a com- 
 promise, the old site is abandoned, and the new building placed 
 a half mile nearer the defeated party. But it is probable that 
 the Academy has never regained its place in the affections of 
 the people in the lower part of the town. 
 
 The building erected was a model. To our young eyes it 
 was a very temple of Ephesus for beauty, and*its comely pro- 
 portions attracted the attention of strangers. It was not 
 strange that when the present more substantial but far less 
 attractive building rose from its ashes, many, like the Jews 
 with Zerubbabel, wept for their remembrance of the former 
 house. 
 
 The new Academy, as it was called, was dedicated in 1806, 
 and for more than twenty-five years was the theater of Mr, 
 Cook's labors as a teacher. In one of its rooms he gathered 
 a cabinet both of minerals and curiosities, for a time the 
 finest in the state. How our young eyes were dazzled by 
 the array of precious stones. How wonderingly w^e looked at 
 the big Salem witchcraft gun, and thought it a much more 
 appropriate weapon for slaying the bloody Paugus, than the 
 modest little firelock near it which really did the execution. 
 
 Here was also a complete file of "the Echo,"* which Rus- 
 sell waked amid those classic hills ; and more than this, the 
 veritable letters of Jefferson and Adams to Preceptor Cook, 
 the former enclosing one from "Washington, written on the 
 adoption of the Constitution, and accompanying a copy of the 
 immortal document to Jefferson at Paris. Nor must " The 
 
 * Russell's Echo, or the North Star, is the title of a paper published at 
 Fryeburg during the years 1798-9. 
 
Student's Companion " * be overlooked, an admirable compi- 
 lation, Mr. Cook's pet cliild, as good perhaps as any Studejifs 
 companion could be, save the kind that romped with him out 
 of school hours, and made Pine Hill and Jockey Cap vocal 
 with the songs and shouts of buoyant unhackneyed youth, to 
 sober down in after years into a companion, for weal or woe, 
 heightening the joys and sharing the sorrows of life. That 
 kind of a companion beats Mr. Cook's altogether, and Frye- 
 burg Academy used to be half filled with them ! 
 
 Since Mr. Cook's resignation of the Preceptorship in 1833, 
 a full half score have followed him in that office, their united 
 terms only equalling his. With varied success, but all with 
 honest purpose, have they labored to keep this our Pierian 
 Spring a fountain of healthful influences to this community, 
 of inspiration to its youth. 
 
 One of these, f after twenty years of absence, is with us to- 
 day, not able to look upon the scenes of rural beauty and 
 mountain grandeur which he so much loved, but with a heart 
 swelling with happy remembrances, as he is assured of our 
 grateful recognition of his services, and of our hearty sym- 
 pathy in his bereavement. 
 
 But there must be limits, even to historical reminiscences. 
 A mid-summer day would not suffice to speak of all that might 
 well claim our notice. 
 
 How Fryeburg flourished at the end of her first half cen- 
 tury, and for some ten years later ; how she had become th^ 
 mountain metropolis, and set the fashions, and did the trading 
 for the whole country round ; how students flocked, not only 
 to her Academy, but to sit at the feet of Dana and Bradley, 
 Lincoln, Chase, and Barrows, her Gamaliels of the law ; 
 or to follow Dr. Ramsay in his erratic, but powerful delinea- 
 
 *Mr. Cook published a volume of choice selections in prose and verse 
 under this title, long used in the Academy as a reading and parsing book. 
 
 t Amos Richardson, Esq., Principal, since leaving Fryeburg, of a justly 
 popular Female Seminary, in Freehold, N. J., and for some half dozen years 
 past by a sad accident rendered totally blind. During his Preceptorship the 
 Academy enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, and celebrated its semi-cen- 
 tennial anniversary, the oration by Rev. J. P. Fesseuden, son of our first 
 minister. 
 
39 
 
 tions of human anatomy ; how the one-horse mail, Mr. Irish, 
 carrier, brought in, twice a week, the news from the great 
 world, and passed it along, once a week, through the moun- 
 tains to Coos, Fryeburg being thus the centre of staging, till 
 Conway stole it from her, while she was napping ; how the 
 musters were the annual Saturnalia of fun and frolic, as well 
 as of arms, till Brownficld took them away with tl: e big guns ; 
 how the ministerial fund became a bone of contention till it 
 was broken up and each had his share ; how the Academy 
 was fast going the same way, and was saved, so as by fire ; 
 how the wonderful revival of '31, changed the whole life and 
 current of thought in households and in neighborhoods, and 
 gave religion a pre-eminence where it had been neglected or 
 contemned ; the bridges we persisted in building, though the 
 river was as obstinately bent on carrying them away, till 
 the genius of Paddelford triumphed, and like another Rarey 
 tames and saddles the Saco's chafing current ; the mills we 
 have built, and those Avhich should have been, but are not 
 built ; the roads which have ever been a matter of just pride 
 to the town ;• the freshets which carry away farms from the 
 Seven Lots, to build them again in Bog Pond ; the cattle 
 shows which very well supply the i)lace of military musters, 
 except that in these times we need both ; the aged men and 
 venerable women, who for fourscore years, and fourscore and 
 ten, and in several instances, for about a century, have borne 
 the burdens of life's journey, and gone to the grave honored 
 and revered by the whole community ; — all these things, and 
 more, arc they not written, or to he written^ in the history of 
 Fryeburg, whose advent is somewhere in the " good time 
 coming ?" 
 
 Were we to divide the century into three periods of nearly 
 equal length, that from 1790 to 1825 would include by far 
 the most interesting portion of Fryeburg's history. This 
 period opens with the founding of the Academy, and closes 
 with the centennial celebration of Lovewell's fight, one of 
 Fryeburg's greatest days. The town had acquired an early 
 
40 
 
 maturity and influence, retained it for one generation, and 
 since has been gradually receding in its relative importance. 
 There was groat energy and animation in all its business 
 interests. It was the acknowledged center of trade for all the 
 region, the seat of law and of learning, of fashion and poli- 
 tics, for the whole upper Saco valley. 
 
 In 1798-9, but two papers were published in Maine, one in 
 Portland, the other in Fryeburg. 
 
 During this period the canal was cut, being commenced 
 Nov., 1816, completed in '19, which added immeasurably to 
 the agricultural resources of the town, injuring, undoubtedly, 
 some tracts, by deepening the river bed, but bringing under 
 cultivation ten times as much, before too low and wet for 
 occupancy. 
 
 The men of Fryeburg were, during this period, far above 
 the average, in ability and intelligence. The pulpit was filled 
 successively by Messrs. Fessenden and Whiting, Drs. Porter 
 and Hurd, three of them far more than ordinary men. In 
 the Academy were Langdon, Webster and Cook. In the law 
 were McGaw, Dana, Bradley, Chase, Lincoln, and Barrows. 
 While as physicians, Ramsey, Benton, Griswold, were emi- 
 nent in their profession, — Drs. Barr^jws and Towle were on 
 the threshold of their extensive practice. 
 
 The first settlers of the town were drawing near to the verge 
 of life, but were most of them active to the last. Gen. Frye 
 died in '94. His nephew, Judge Simon Frye, in 1822. They 
 went to the grave full of years and of honors, and left pre- 
 cious memories of their virtues, both public and private. Capt. 
 H. Y. Brown, first proprietor of Brownfield, and after remov- 
 ing from the intervale, (as mentioned, page 23,) erecting a 
 mansion at the head of Main St., where his great-grandson, 
 Joshua B. Osgood, now lives, a man of uncommon energy and 
 commanding ability, died in '96. Col. Joshua B. Osgood of 
 Haverhill, Mass., who married his only daughter, and who 
 combined the energy of the old forester with scholarly 
 attainments, as a graduate of Harvard, died at the early age 
 of 38 years, in '91. He was greatly interested in the found- 
 
41 
 
 iiig of the Academy, though he lived not to rejoice in its 
 usefuhiess. 
 
 Among the remarkable men of the town, during this period, 
 was Dr. Alexander Ramsay. Born in Edinburg and enjoying 
 all the advantages of a medical education in that far-famed 
 city, he brought to this country, and to this retired community, 
 a wealth of anatomical knowledge, which might have adorned 
 the highest circles in the profession. Most thoroughly devoted 
 as he ever professed himself to the fair sex, he was married 
 only to anatomy, and with singular disinterestedness, would 
 have all men share in his enthusiastic attachment. His lec- 
 tures drew around him large numbers of medical students, 
 who profited by his vivid demonstrations and not always mer- 
 ciful dissections. He left a rich cabinet of preparations which 
 it is presumed surpassed that of any medical school save that 
 at Philadelphia. 
 
 Capt. Vere Royce deserves a prominent place in our local 
 picture gallery. A descendant of the Irish nobility, his educa- 
 tion and address were those of a gentleman of the old regime. 
 In command of a company at Braddock's defeat, he held his 
 men in the midst of the murderous ambuscade, till accosted 
 by Washington. " Why don't you retreat, Capt. Royce," " I 
 have had no orders to retreat. Steady men, make ready ! 
 take aim ! Fire ! " " But this will never do, Capt., I order 
 you to retreat," said Washington. " Attention company ! 
 about face, march!" and so they marched off the field. Capt. 
 Royce was a great mathematician, pursued the study through 
 life, and left sheets of original dissertations on his favorite 
 science, which should not have been lost to the world. He 
 was eminent as a Surveyor, as the lines of the many divisions 
 and sub-divisions of the town attest. 
 
 Capt. Nathaniel Hutchins was early in the Revolutionary 
 war and served under Arnold at Quebec. When taken 
 prisoner and his sword demanded by the British, he snapped 
 it across his knee and threw the fragments to a distance, 
 declaring it should never be taken from him. He was an 
 athletic, determined man, and liis captors did aot choose to 
 6 
 
42 
 
 resent this spirited defiance. His son, Henry Dearborn, 
 inherited much of his strength, both in person and character. 
 
 Col. John Webster came, a yonng man from Concord, among 
 the first settlers, and took a lot still occupied by his descend- 
 ants, in that part of the town cut off by New Hampshire. He 
 was a Lieutenant of the company commanded by Capt. James 
 Osgood, which, early in the Spring of '76, marched to the 
 succor of Montgomery's shattered army retreating from 
 Canada. He was made a prisoner at the Cedars, and snifered 
 greatly in that disastrous campaign. He was a man of much 
 firmness and decision, was one of the founders of the Acad- 
 emy, and was chosen to fill the first vacancy in the original 
 Board of Trustees, — that occasioned by the death of Capt. H. 
 Y. Brown. 
 
 Lieut. Stephen Farrington has been already before us as 
 leader of the Androscoggin relief party. If the promptness 
 and resolution there manifested was a fair sample of his ordi- 
 nary character, we wonder not at the influence he exerted 
 among his townsmen. His kinsman, Daniel, one of Roger's 
 rangers, and afterward a mighty hunter in the valley, was a 
 man of great strength and physical endurance, as well as of 
 moral worth. It is said of him that he read his Bible till it 
 was completely worn out. 
 
 The Walkers were many of them marked men. Lieut. 
 John was an old forest ranger, was a soldier at Fort William 
 Henry, and afterward at the taking of Quebec. He had pro- 
 digious muscular strength, broad, heavy shoulders, and a fist 
 like a sledge hammer. He was of mild temper, but like 
 Daniel Farrington, was unrivalled as a boxer and wrestler. 
 They each of them threshed, in their respective companies and 
 regiments, whatever bullies or professed pugilists came in 
 their way. 
 
 But the Nimrod of the whole region, a hunter to whom the 
 valley and its adjacent mountains had been familiar before its 
 settlement, was Abraham Bradley. Again and again had he 
 visited the region, and carried back its rich spoils of furs to 
 his home iu Concord. He transmitted to his descendants a 
 
43 
 
 due share of the massive frame and muscular strength, which 
 qualified him to grapple with the denizens of the forest. This 
 race of hunters, although diminished in numbers, can never 
 be considered extinct while such a veteran as our worthy 
 townsman, Mr. John Barker, survives. 
 
 Time fails us to speak, at any length, of many others 
 equally worthy of mention ; of Richard Kimball, the first Town 
 Clerk ; of Deacon Eastman, whose ready Avit must be gratified 
 even when his revered minister* was its mark ; of Deacons 
 Charles and Carter, as noted for probity and sobriety, as their 
 brother Deacon was for probity and pleasantry ; of Isaac 
 Abbott, who passing away but a few months since, would have 
 completed his hundredth year, had he lived to see this glad 
 day. How his dark eye used to sparkle and how his tall form 
 straightened up to the last, at mention of revolutionary scenes 
 through which he passed, especially his being the first in his 
 regiment, selected by Baron Steuben, as one of Washington's 
 Light Infantry corps. 
 
 Levi Dresser, his comrade in the war, lived to almost the 
 same age, and died only a few years since among his kindred 
 at Waterford. 
 
 Besides the physicians mentioned page 40, two others were 
 honored and useful, and left large and worthy families, Drs, 
 Josiah Chase and Moses Chandler. The latter married a 
 daugliter of Preceptor Langdon. 
 
 The families of Day, and by a singular coincidence or con- 
 trast, those of Knight, should not be omitted. They must 
 have lived in harmony, for all the seeming opposition in 
 name ; as we find on the town books the name of Day Knight^ 
 born 1795. 
 
 During the period under consideration occurred the war of 
 1812, with its attendant party bitterness. Prominent among 
 
 * He kept a ferry across the Saco. Rev. Mr. Fessenden, crossing one day, 
 asked the fare, " Oh, nothing, nothing," said the Deacon. " I never take 
 anything from people supported by the town." It is somewhat singular, 
 that with seventeen children, Dea. Eastman has not left his name in town. 
 So of Nathaniel Merrill, with fourteen. Their descendants are numerous, in 
 both Conway and Brownfield. 
 
44 
 
 those who sustained the flag of our country at that trying 
 period, were Gen. John McMillan, Major Philip Eastman, the 
 chief founder of our, at one time, famous Artillery company ; 
 his brother, John Langdon Eastman, so recently deceased. 
 Dea. Benjamin Woodman* and others. Of these as of the 
 brothers, Robert and Samuel A. Bradley, Philip and Robert 
 Page, Samuel and Joseph P. Fessenden, Judge Dana, Major 
 James Osgood, Arthur Shirley, &c., &c., sons or citizens of 
 Fryeburg, we might well make sketches, did time permit. 
 
 In review, we may be allowed briefly to consider the char- 
 acter of our town, in general, — a subject more properly as- 
 signed, perhaps, to one who would bring to the work a less 
 biased judgment, — for though the speaker has gone out from 
 you, he is still of you, and modesty might require that the 
 whole matter be left to some other hand. 
 
 But no real or affected modesty shall withold the tribute 
 due the fathers of our town, and equally due our mothers.- 
 They were more than ordinary men and women, else had 
 they never braved the dangers and hardships of such a wilder- 
 ness life, at a point so remote from the sympathy and assistance 
 of friends. 
 
 They were possessed of great physical strength. They had 
 need of it. They prized it. They cultivated it and honored 
 its possession. In the " first of times," their hunting excursions, 
 and their lumbering and river driving operations in after 
 years, required hardihood, pluck and endurance. And in 
 these qualities they were never found wanting. Owing to this 
 full development of their powers, joined doubtless to their 
 simplicity of diet, they, many of them, attained to a great age. 
 Quite a long list could be made of those exceeding eighty 
 years. A number reached ninety and upwards. 
 
 * A word more is due this good man and those who with him planted a 
 Fryeburg colony on the Passadumkeag river, some forty miles above Bangor. 
 It was with many misgivings that they took large and dependent families into 
 such a wilderness. Dr. Porter is said to have spoken with his full, resonant 
 voice this passage by way of encouragement — " Dea. Woodman '' — " Trust in 
 the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be 
 fed." The beautiful farms which their children enjoy in the town of Burling- 
 ton, show how well the promise was fulfilled. 
 
46 
 
 But they did not make physical strength every thing. They 
 placed a high regard upon ready wit, — their conversation very 
 often ran into the sharp repartee, and he was the best fellow 
 who could parry a home thrust most dexterously, and return 
 it most effectively. They loved debate, and Fryeburg town 
 meeting has often been the arena of sharp, close-driven dis- 
 cussion. The arm's length wrestling, and the close "back hugs" 
 outside, found their counter j art in the hand to hand grapple 
 of words and wits within, iience a high place has been 
 awarded to declamations in the Academy, and even in many 
 of our public schools. (To speak to the acceptance of Judge 
 Dana, was the summit of youthful ambition in Dist. No. One.) 
 
 They were a reading people. The old Social Library early 
 disseminated and cherished a taste for choice intellectual 
 entertainment. The number and variety of newspapers read 
 by the people of Fryeburg, exceeds by far the average in 
 towns of its size. They were eminently a social people. Cut 
 off from the world without, they prized the society of each 
 other, and on every practicable occasion enjoyed it. " Raisings" 
 and house haulings in summer, the huskings of the autumn 
 evenings, and above all the "sugaring off" in spring, were made 
 seasons of sometimes roystering enjoyment. And, indeed, 
 every Saturday brought its crowd to the village, ready, not 
 for business alone, but for any sport, sly trick or practical 
 joke, that men's wits, sharpened by a little of the ardent, 
 could invent. And the rough visage of a Pequawket winter 
 was softened by the frequent interchange of civilities and 
 hospitalities, — sometimes carried to what we might consider 
 an extreme. 
 
 Their isolated situation led to another not very desirable 
 result, that of frequent intermarriages. Many families were 
 of kindred blood before coming to the valley. James and 
 Hannah (Hazen,) Osgood of Concord, N. H., sent seven of 
 their children to Pequawket. Three of these married Web- 
 sters, and the intertwinings of their children form some 
 curious relationships. Joined with the Evanses and Stickneys, 
 the families are something like the ganglions of Anatomy, — 
 
46 
 
 interlaced to a remarkable degree. The same is true, to a 
 certain extent, of the Fryes, Gordons and Wileys, of the 
 lower part of the town ; while the intermarriages of the 
 Walkers, Stevenses, Charles, &c., make a tangled thicket, 
 througii which I have never been able to find a way. 
 
 Some would consider us of Fryeburg, a contentious people. 
 In this we are like all Yankee communities, only a little more 
 so. That this has been our character, is partly our fault, 
 partly our misfortune, and partly to our praise. It is the fault 
 of all self-willed, imperfect individuals, of all limited commu- 
 nities, where rival interests, rival parties, and rival families, 
 strive for an undue pre-eminence. 
 
 But want of unity is, in an important sense, more our mis- 
 fortune than our fault. Our town has no natural centre, a 
 large village at the heart, to which the whole town resorts, 
 and whose advancement is the common interest and common 
 pride of all. 
 
 The village situated at one side of the town, and originally 
 partly in another town, has become still more isolated by 
 prejudices against it, inevitable from an unfortunate location. 
 Tlie pecuniary and business interests of the town suffer as 
 well as its social. East Fryeburg gives all her trade to Bridg- 
 ton. North Fryeburg, the Toll Bridge neighborhood, and 
 even the Centre, have done much to build up our smart 
 daughter, Lovel. It is not strange that a town thus broken 
 into parts, should be lacking in unity. And then these con- 
 tentions, inseparable from the enjoyment of free institutions, 
 have another side which must not be overlooked. They are 
 the evidence of life in the public mind. The millions of China 
 have, till recently, been a remarkably quiet people, but it was 
 the stupor of indifference, the dead calm of stagnant imbe- 
 cility. " Better one hour of Europe, then a century of 
 Cathay." Yes, let mind clash with mind, let convictions be 
 held firmly and urged zealously. The friction, the rough 
 grapple, is better than inertness, better than sleepy stagnation. 
 
 Fryeburg, in its business affairs, has not been as wide 
 awake as some of its neighbors, not enough for her own inter- 
 
47 
 
 ests. But mind has l)een at work here. Her rank among 
 Ithe Post Offices of the State is far above what her population 
 Would give her. 
 
 For years her Meteorological reports formed part of the 
 Smithsonian Institutes' contributions to science. In the list 
 of subscribers to the Art Journal, she has a place among some 
 of the leading cities of the State. 
 
 Fryeburg has been in the main a patriotic town. To the 
 Revolution she sent some of her choicest citizens, one of them 
 the father of the town, to hold a high command in defence 
 of the insulted, ravaged seaboard. With alacrity our young- 
 men plunged into the forest to rescue their suffering neigh- 
 bors from the tomahawk of the savage. 
 
 In the war of 1812, though honest differences of opinion 
 caused some withholding, our company of artillery took its 
 guns, at short notice, to the defence of Portland. A number 
 of our citizens went into the campaign upon the Lakes. 
 
 And in this terrible struggle of our day, when desperate 
 rebellion has clutched at the throat of our government, and 
 threatens to destroy all our blessed institutions, the blood of 
 the sons of Fryeburg has flowed freely in their defence. Sev- 
 eral will to their dying day bear marks of honorable wounds 
 received at Fredericksburg and on the glorious field of Gettys- 
 burg ; whille others have fallen, giving life as a willing sacrifice 
 on the altar of their country. All honor to their memories 
 to-day ! * They are our latest, but by no means our last offer- 
 ing upon the altar of patriotism. Let it be one purpose of 
 our assembling, — one of the most precious results of these 
 re-unions of the living, one of the hallowed influences of our 
 communion with the departed, to deepen in every breast new 
 devotion to our country. 
 
 And let us comprehend the magnitude of the struggle. It 
 is no casual, transient conflict. It did not happen to us 
 because Fort Sumter was bombarded. It is not to be settled 
 by the re-occupying of that Fortress. Deep below all such 
 externals is the true point at issue, simply this — Is a man a 
 
 * See Appendix D. 
 
48 
 
 man, wherever and however pUiced upon this earth, the com- 
 mon heritage given of God to his children ? The Declaration 
 of Independence opens with the assertion of this truth. 
 Reason and revelation alike proclaim it. The accidents of 
 birth, training, fortune, position cannot affect that which goes 
 below them all, the underlying foundation of our common 
 humanity. A true democracy can rest upon nothing short of 
 this primal truth. This is the primitive granite, defying the 
 ages. Anything short of this is like the shifting sands of the 
 Lybian desert. That which is built upon it must fall. And 
 not only in the foundation, but through every part of the 
 superstructure must this great first principle be recognized. 
 The rights of man, of all men jealously guarded, — this must 
 be the pervading spirit of a republic. A true republic is the 
 Sermon on the Mount, carried into civil affairs. It is the 
 golden rule adopted as the a. b. c. of politics. It is man deal- 
 ing with his fellow man as his equal, as having rights inalien- 
 able as his very being, sacred as his immortal nature. 
 
 And we are henceforth to have such a republic. We are 
 being purified as by fire. The wood, hay, stubble, ever out of 
 place in our state fabric, are being bnrned ; the rotten system 
 of shame and wrong, so gross an outrage to every pretension 
 of true democracy, is crashing to its fall. It will be swept 
 away, and our foundations, and our whole glorious temple 
 shall be of the tried stones, — truth and everlasting justice. 
 
 The great victories, for which we have recently kept a day 
 of solemn thanksgiving to God, were not all won in the field. 
 It was not over Vicksburg, Port Hudson taken, the Mississippi 
 opened, and Lee driven beyond the Potomac, that we had rea- 
 son chiefly to rejoice. Fortresses of prejudice have yielded. 
 Long intrenched and defiant wrongs have been overcome. 
 Great truths, long discarded or but half approved, are plant- 
 ing their triumphant ensigns on the very citadels of hoary 
 abuses. 
 
 The gallant men of the 54th Mass., (colored,) who baptized 
 with their blood the ramparts of Fort Wagner, and held them 
 until succor should have come to ensure their victory ; have 
 
49 
 
 they not proved their manhood, their right to citizenship. 
 And are they ever again to go down in the scale below that 
 standard ? Palsied be the hand that shall attempt their deg- 
 radation, accursed the heart that shall meditate the outrage. 
 But there need be no fears upon the point. We would not 
 cloud the joyousness of such a day as this, by any such 
 untimely forebodings. In the progress of this bitter struggle, 
 and it may be by its very bitterness, God is settling some 
 points in a manner never to be reversed. 
 
 One of these thoroughly established points is this, — Ours is 
 to be a land of free men. The principles of the fathers are to 
 be embodied and perfected by the work, by the suffering of 
 the children. The old flag retrieved from its dishonors, is to 
 float from sea to sea, from the lakes to the gulf, all radiant 
 with the living light of freedom, — inscribed on every fold, — 
 " Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." 
 
 He who uttered these immortal words drew part of their 
 inspiration from the scenery around us. The poetic eye of 
 Lincoln often lighted up under its influence, and his soul 
 swelled with new pulsations for freedom. * Let it speak to 
 us, even more emphatically, for were they not comparatively 
 strangers to this scenery, while to us it is a birthright ? These 
 eternal heights, emblems of God's justice, — this valley of 
 unrivalled sweetness, bearing the impress of the Heavenly 
 Father's benignity, — the solemn grandeur of winter among 
 these mountains, — the calm serenity with which the summer 
 evening dies out among their summits, — all the beauties and 
 sublimities of nature in this her chosen seat, should inspire the 
 soul with trust in God, and incite to fidelity in duty. All the 
 memories of the past ; all the solemnities of the present hour, 
 the door way of the closing and the opening century ; all 
 the aspirations, the glad hopes and fair presages of the future, 
 urge us alike to fidelity in this great struggle. 
 
 The glad occasion which has gathered us passes rapidly by. 
 Our kindly greetings will soon change to lingering farewells. 
 
 * See his burniao; denunciations of the slave trade in his Poem of " The 
 Village," written here in 1815. 
 
 7 
 
50 
 
 Having spent the day in this eddy upon life's current, we shall 
 be out again upon its ever changeful, hurrying tide. Let it 
 not sweep any one of us to blank oblivion. We live by link- 
 ing ourselves with the unchangeable. However humbly 
 identified with the eternal principles of righteousness and 
 freedom, we become immortal. 
 
 Many a nameless grave will be consecrated in a grateful 
 country's lasting remembrance. Many a humble one who has 
 wrapped the garments of her early widowhood about her, or 
 been written childless in the earth, shall be honored as having 
 given the jewels of her heart for her country's salvation. 
 Thus through many a night of private grief cometh the 
 morning of our country's redemption. Its brightness shall 
 cheer us, whatever of gloom may hang around our individual 
 pathway. " Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh 
 in the morning." 
 
 Though hearts brood o'er the Past, our eyes 
 
 With smiling Futures glisten ! 
 For lo ! our day bursts up the skies ; 
 
 Lean out your souls and listen ! 
 The world rolls Freedom's radiant way, 
 
 And ripens with her sorrow ; 
 Keep heart ! who bear the Cross to-day 
 
 Shall wear the Crown to-morrow. 
 
 O youth, flame-earnest, still aspire 
 
 With energies immortal ! 
 To many a heaven of Dfsire, 
 
 Our yearning o^jes a portal ! 
 And though Age wearies by the way 
 
 And hearts break in the furrow, 
 We'll sow the golden grain To-day, — 
 
 The Harvest comes To-morrow. 
 
 Build up heroic lives and all 
 
 Be like a sheathen sabre, 
 Ready to flash out at God's call, 
 
 O Chivalry of Labor ! 
 Triumph and Toil are twins ; and aye 
 
 Joy suns the cloud of sorrow. 
 And 'tis the Martyrdom To-day, 
 
 Brings Victory To-morrow. 
 
Collation and Afternoon Exercises. 
 
 At the close of the Address, the President of the Day wel 
 corned the great assembly to the bountiful collation, which the 
 citizens of the town had generously provided for all their 
 guests. From twelve to 'fifteen hundred were thus supplied, 
 and spent an hour in most genial, social intercourse. 
 
 On re-assembling at the stand, the following letters, among 
 others received from absent sons of the town, were read by 
 Henry H. Smith, Esq. 
 
 Bangor, August 4, 1863. 
 
 George B. Barrows, Esq. • Dear Sir : Your favor that 
 brought me an invitation from the inhabitants of Fryeburg to 
 visit them on the 20th inst., and unite with them in celebrating 
 the one hundredth anniversary of the settlement of that 
 town, was received last Saturday evening and affords me 
 much delight. 
 
 The halcyon days of my early manhood, (when the joy of 
 every hour was as unmingied with sorrow as is allotted to 
 man,) were again so vivid that the decrepitude of my approach- 
 ing four score and five years were almost forgotten. But one 
 night of sleep quieted the feverish imaginations of my per- 
 verted brain and assures me that the highest delights of my 
 early friendships must soon terminate; and that now, my 
 considerations should be turned toward joys unspeakable and 
 eternal, which can be obtained only in the spiritual world. 
 
 The exhausted condition of my physical powers forbids me 
 to attempt to make the proposed journey to Fryeburg, in 
 accordance with the highly valued invitation of its respected 
 inhabitants. But as the leading and praiseworthy object of 
 your letter, as I understand it, is, to collect materials " for a 
 
52 
 
 future history of your town " and thereby " to perpetuate the 
 memory of the fathers," my personal presence could be of 
 very little avail. 
 
 I lament the meagerness of my memory respecting such 
 facts as would aid in giving value to the prospective history of 
 a town, that merits pre-eminence for successful efforts in pro- 
 moting elevated civilization, as well as for furnishing to the 
 world an unusual proportion of distinguished men for each of 
 the learned professions, and for high, political positions. I 
 account for this pre-eminence by the fact that the owners and 
 first occupants of the Seven Lots in Fryeburg were men of 
 vigorous intellect, great industry and sound morality. These 
 characteristics are proved by the attention of their possessors to 
 the early founding, and causing to be endowed of the excellent 
 literary institution that has been there nurtured and strength- 
 ened during more than two-thirds of a century. The perma- 
 nent establishment by them of a learned and devout ministry, 
 bears like testimony to their characteristics. 
 
 Such favoring circumstances as those mentioned, had drawn 
 together a considerable number of virtuous inhabitants to the 
 beautiful valley of the Saco river, at and about Pigwacket, 
 before the first days of the present century. At this period 
 my personal knowledge and intimacy with that people com 
 menced. I had scarcely entered upon my habitancy at Frye- 
 burg, when the confidence of friendship was imparted to me 
 by the frank, guileless and amiable people of the place. Their 
 leading occupation was agricultural. But as their market 
 (Portland) was limited in its amount of business transactions, 
 fifty miles distant from them, and difficult of access, it seemed 
 expedient to find a less expensive, or more profitable outlet 
 for their surplus products than by transportation to Portland. 
 Good pine timber existed in considerable quantities in the 
 adjoining townships of Brownfield and Lovell, with some addi- 
 tions in other localities. Cutting and hauling this timber into 
 Saco river, required the labor of men and teams at that season 
 of the year when farming made no demands upon them. 
 Support of laborers in this employment furnished a home 
 
58 
 
 market for surplus provisions, while food for the teams dis- 
 posed of surplus hay. A large and profitable market for the 
 lumber was found at and near the mouth of the river, whereby 
 the hearts of all concerned were gladdened, and their wealth 
 promoted. 
 
 The number of mechanics conformed strictly, in number, 
 to the absolute wants of the resident inhabitants. 
 
 Mercantile operations were quite limited, only one store 
 existed in 1801, at the Seven Lots, the capital of which was 
 supplied by Capt. Seth Spring, (a large timber dealer) of Saco, 
 who had a young man by the name of McMillan, (afterwards 
 Gen. John McMillan,) for his working partner. Its iuisiness 
 was intended to furnish supplies almost exclusively to timber 
 operators. Luxuries, so far as they were indulged, were pro- 
 cured at Portland. The strongest illustration oi' this honor- 
 able trait of simplicity and economy by the inhal)itants of 
 Fryeburg, is the fact, that no more than one barrel of West 
 India brown sugar had been retailed at Fryel)urg previous to 
 the year 1802. Maple sugar of home manufacture had here- 
 tofore satisfied the requirements of the people. 
 
 Food for families was substantial but simple, and every 
 household arrangement was plain but neat. Factious dem- 
 agogues did not exist there. Hon. Simon Frye was, at an 
 early period, elected to the Senate of the State. His town 
 elected him to be their Representative in the Legislature 
 through several successive years; but as he continued like- 
 wise to hold the office of Senator, the wages of Representatives 
 which was then defrayed by the several towns choosing them, 
 was saved to Fryeburg. Senator Frye also held the office of 
 Judge in the Court of Cominon Pleas. These various and 
 honorable employments satisfied the possessor without med- 
 dling with municipal aifairs. • 
 
 Lieut, James Osgood, being a man of quick perceptions, 
 much experience and shrewdness in managing business affairs, 
 became very prominent in planning and prosecuting to their 
 end, the lumber o])erations of the people of his town, who in 
 general, had great confidence in the correctness of his advice. 
 
54 
 
 Mr. Osgood accumulated a good pecuniary rustic competency, 
 reared and handsomely educated a numerous and respectable 
 family of children, of which the late Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. 
 D. was one. 
 
 In the beginning of 1802 the late Robert Bradley, Esq., 
 removed hither from Concord, N. H., and in company with his 
 brother, John Bradley, opened the first store containing a 
 general assortment of merchandise in this town. Mr. Bradley's 
 vigorous and energetic mind soon awakened capabilities and 
 excited a higher spirit of enterprise in the substantial citizens, 
 than had theretofore been developed by them. The beneficial 
 influences of this excellent man advanced the activities and 
 promoted the wealth of the staid inhabitants. 
 
 Fryeburg Academy was first opened for instruction in 1792. 
 Tlie services of Mr. Paul Langdon,* a graduate of Harvard 
 University, of distinguished scholarship, fine intellectual 
 powers and gentlemanly manners, were procured to fulfill the 
 duties of Preceptor. Its duties were discharged with ability 
 and success until the autumn of 1801. 
 
 The services of Mr. Daniel Webster, (afterward eminent 
 and honorable Daniel Webster,) then a recent graduate of 
 Dartmouth College, were engaged to supply the place of Mr. 
 Langdon ; but the powers of his gigantic mind could be 
 restrained within so limited a sphere of action only for the 
 short period of three academic terms. 
 
 The intrinsic worth of Mr. Langdon as a school teacher, 
 began to be developed and the loss of it deplored, soon after 
 his removal from the school. The late Hon. Benjamin Orr 
 and Hon. Samuel A. Bradley had been of the number of 
 his early pupils, and were caused by him so to study as to 
 arouse every intellectual faculty that either of them possessed. 
 to exert its highest power. The profoundness, skill and ele 
 vated attainments of these gentlemen in their subsequent 
 lives, conferred honor upon the institution in which they 
 received their elementary education, as well as upon its 
 devoted teacher. 
 
 * A Grammar School had been under his charge for a year or two previous. 
 
55 
 
 In this connection we produce a roll of honor, that has long 
 dignified the town of Fryeburg and her nol»le Academy. On 
 this roll we find inscribed, in addition to the names already 
 mentioned, others distinguished in all of the learned profes-* 
 sions, in the halls of Congress and in eminent positions of 
 political life. William Barrows, through a brief period, gave 
 promise of lofty eminence as a jurist, but the Sovereign of the 
 Universe very soon advanced him to higher glory in a better 
 world. Hon. Albion K. Parris was clothed, through his whole 
 lifetime, with robes of highest honor, in almost every depart- 
 ment of office known under our form of government. Among 
 jurists of Maine, few men have attained to equal eminence 
 with the venerable Gen. Samuel Fessenden, and no one may 
 justly claim a higher rank. Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D., was 
 cotemporary with Gen. Fessenden for years; and for useful- 
 ness in the holy department of the gospel ministry, may well 
 be esteemed a pattern man for clergymen now entering upon 
 the duties of that holy office. Eminent gentlemen of more 
 recent date are better known to you than myself. Surely I 
 need not mention the numerous family of Fessenden, Hon. 
 Samuel Bradley, the large and honorable family of GoodenoWy 
 Hon. Judge Howard, Gov. Dana, &c., &c. 
 
 I had almost forgotten to say that from 1801 to 1805, both 
 inclusive, the unmarried portion of the population of Frye- 
 burg, with a small sprinkling from Conway, constituted the 
 most fraternal, joyous, democratic, fun-loving, but innocent 
 associates that I have ever known. Of the number referred 
 to was the Hon. Daniel Webster, Preceptor of the Academy, 
 J. Farnham, a saddler, a young lawyer who for the present 
 shall be nameless, Joshua Durgin, a tanner, with numerous 
 other persons of both sexes, of just such congenial temper- 
 aments and characteristics. Not unfrequently the spirit would 
 move some of these good gentlemen and ladies to have a ball. 
 Notice of the intended assembly would be given by some 
 individual to another, and by him extended until all hands 
 were informed of the good time. In two or three hours Mr. 
 Osgood's hall in the third story of his house, was lighted up 
 
with candles, and the smiling faces soon began to exhibit 
 themselves. By the time that shaking of hands, and the 
 saying of liow-d'-ye-do had been attended to, (and it did not 
 take a long time to do it,) Farrington, the fiddler, who lived 
 in the house sii))sequently owned by Dr. Griswold, made his 
 appearance. Now came oiT the dance — and a good one, a 
 cheerful one, a happy one, and an unceremonious one it 
 would be. All was over and past in good season, and with 
 just as little ceremony as the party was got up, it was dis- 
 solved. Each person returned quietly to his own home. 
 
 Such was Fryeburg at the commencement of the present 
 century. 
 
 May its honor, its distinguished usefulness, its prosperity 
 and the happiness of its virtuous inhabitants, forever continue 
 and increase. 
 
 With a high sense of the kindness and favor done me by 
 the good people of Fryeburg, by extending to me an invitation 
 to attend the celebration of their centennial settlement of the 
 town, 
 
 I am their Friend and Servant, 
 
 JACOB McGAW. 
 
 Worcester, August 15, 1863. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Souther. Dear Sir: Since the receipt of 
 your kind note, I have daily intended to seek the pleasure of 
 a personal interview with you, but I have now to regret, that 
 the ill state of my health, and the exhausting heat of the sea- 
 son, will hardly permit me more than to offer you an earnest 
 expression of my grateful sense of the honor of the invitation 
 which you have been pleased to communicate, and my 
 deep regret, that it will not be in my power to participate 
 in the enjoyments of the very interesting occasion w^hich it 
 announces. 
 
 It would, indeed, be a joy to me, to visit a place where an 
 honored and beloved Brother received the first welcome of 
 generous hearted Strangers, and made the Friends of his early 
 
67 
 
 manhood; — where the labors of his professional life met their 
 first rewards, and the aspirations of a noble ambition for use- 
 fulness and honorable distinction a cheering encouragement. 
 It would be with no ordinary emotion, that I should view for 
 the first time, the local scenery of magnificent grandeur, 
 which he so loved to contemplate, and scan the landscapes of 
 romantic and surpassing beauty, which he delighted to de- 
 scribe. Nature, in her most attractive features, and the 
 People of Fryeburg, in their unobtrusive and abounding vir- 
 tues, fixed his affections and his residence in Maine, and he 
 freely ga.ve, with no divided purpose, the best thoughts of a 
 cultivated mind, and the devoted labors of a patriotic life to 
 the ser\dce of the State. And richly, was this full measure 
 of duty repaid, in the repeated expressions of public confi- 
 dence which he received, and by that last most impressive 
 testimonial to his character and memory, so grateful to the 
 hearts of his kindred and friends, the appropriate and taste- 
 ful monument on the banks of the peaceful Kennebec, which 
 now marks the resting place of his mortal remains. 
 
 Nor is the State of Maine without interest to me, in many 
 personal relations. Before the separation from Massachusetts, 
 I had participated in the legislation which was the common 
 obligation of the people of the component parts of the old 
 Commonwealth, and, in some humble degree, aided in the 
 passage of the act which gave effect to that measure ;-^and 
 after the separation, it was my privilege to be an Associate on 
 the Commission for the division of the public lands, between 
 the States. In the subsequent controversy with great Britain 
 concerning the North Eastern Boundary, the rights of prop- 
 erty and, of sovereignty, so nobly asserted by the Governor of 
 Maine were made of like concern to Massachusetts, and her 
 Executive did not hesitate hi strenuous co-operation for their 
 vindication and maintenance. And now, in these evil days 
 of trial and of great peril to the nation, it is with inexpressi- 
 ble satisfaction I cherish the consideration, that a Son, in 
 command of a Regiment in the Army of the Potomac, may 
 have derived much of the inspiration of patriotism and his 
 
58 
 
 training for duty, from instruction in the Academic halls of 
 Bowdoin. 
 
 All honor to the State of Maine, liberal and enlightened in 
 her government, — brave and loyal and patriotic in her people. 
 All honor to her returning' soldiers, who, by their heroism, 
 have won the meed of true valor ; and to her outgoing hosts 
 who will help to purge the land of rebellion, and restore a 
 distracted and bleeding country to peace, prosperity and 
 union! May the occasion which you are called to celebrate, 
 be full of congratulatory remembrances in the history of the 
 past, and of solemn resolutions and inflexible purpose, that 
 the civil privileges and social blessings, which are the enjoy- 
 ment of the present, shall remain unimpaired, to be forever 
 the inheritance of the future. 
 
 With sentiments of great respect. 
 
 Your obd't, and obliged servant, 
 
 LEVI LINCOLN. 
 
 The following letter from Hon. N. S. Benton, son of Dr. 
 Benton, and for many years in the Treasury Department of 
 the State of New York, was received with great interest. 
 
 Albany, Aug. 11, 1863. 
 
 Gentlemen : I have received your kind letter inviting my 
 attendance on the 20th instant, at the celebration of " the 
 Centennial Anniversary of the settlement of Fryeburg." 
 
 I need not say to you, gentlemen, how gratifying it would 
 be to me to embrace this opportunity of visiting, after fifty 
 years of permanent absence, a place so long endeared to me 
 by kind and generous solicitudes as it was my lot to experience 
 at Fryeburg and Fryeburg Academy, while endeavoring to 
 master the " Situation," which it was the purpose of my life 
 when young, to attain if I could. 
 
 My engagements here will prevent my acceptance of your 
 very flattering invitation, and no one, it seems to me, can feel 
 more keenly than myself, the disappointment this announce- 
 ment gives. 
 
59 
 
 Having been a member of your Institution under the 
 instruction of Webster, Cook and Barrows, may I not justly 
 lay claim to be one of the surviving ancients who have mem- 
 ories to indulge and aspirations to gratify? Be assured, 
 gentlemen, of' my cordial thanks for your kindness, and I 
 trust the " festivities of the occasion" will be all that you can 
 hope for or wish. 
 
 Most respectfully yours, 
 
 N. S. BENTON. 
 
 Messrs, David B. Sewall, Henry Hyde Smith, Israel B. 
 Bradley, Committee, &c. 
 
 The following regular sentiments were then read by Hon. 
 George B. Barrows: — 
 
 The early Clergy of Pequawket — They feared God but dis- 
 missed all other fear* 
 
 Our Centennial Anniversary — While we recur to pleasing 
 recollections and indulge in refreshing remembrances of the 
 past, let us also crowd the hour with rational enjoyment of 
 the present. 
 
 The Pequawkets — We are very sure that their history and 
 historian will both be True. 
 
 Dr. True of Bethel, responded as follows : — 
 
 Mr. President, — It was intimated to me a few minutes ago 
 that I must respond to the sentiment just proposed. This 
 takes me by surprise, because I had regarded the day as one 
 belonging exclusively to the sons and daughters of Fryeburg. 
 
 I have come to attend this celebration all the way from 
 Sudbury-Canada, in the " Scoggin " country, to Pig-wacket, 
 
 * Everj' one must have felt how appropriately one of our most gifted and 
 honored sons of Fryeburg, Kev. J. P. Fessenden, would have responded to 
 this sentiment. But from his fearless, uncompromising ministry of the word, 
 he has gone to his reward. 
 
GO 
 
 near the very path the first settlers passed through Fryeburg 
 by spotted trees to what is now Bethel. 
 
 We have always regarded Fryeburg as our elder sister, and 
 although we think the younger one the more beautiful now, 
 yet the elder still wears a comely and attractive aspect. 
 
 To me Fryeburg was always classic ground. In my early 
 boyhood I heard that there was an Academy in Fryeburg long 
 before I ever saw one. This rendered it a sacred spot to me. 
 While yet quite a young man, I received a box of minerals 
 from your Preceptor Cook, which did much to increase my 
 own knowledge in the science of mineralogy, while he was 
 long before an industrious pioneer in this beautiful science. 
 His Student'' s Companion enabled me to hold many a contro- 
 versy with the district school-master on English Grammar. 
 
 Sudbury-Canada, was granted to a company of soldiers 
 in Sudbury, Mass., in 1768. The first grist mill and dwelling 
 house were built in 1774. The first family that wintered 
 there was Samuel Ingalls', in 1776. He afterwards removed 
 to Fryeburg. Forty-four revolutionary soldiers settled in 
 Bethel. 
 
 The relations between Fryeburg and Bethel were much 
 more intimate in their early history than at present. Fryeburg 
 was the resting place for the pioneers on their way from Mas- 
 sachusetts and New Hampshire, and Sudbury-Canada was 
 largely indebted to Fryeburg for favors. So far as I can 
 learn, the first minister that ever visited Bethel was the Rev. 
 Mr. Fessenden of Fryeburg. He assisted also in settling the 
 first minister in 1799. The first magistrate in town was from 
 Fryeburg, — Benjamin Russell. The first lawyer, William 
 Frye, a grandson of Gen. Joseph Frye, was from Fryeburg. 
 One of the physicians, now residing in Bethel, was from Frye- 
 burg, who in nearly a third of a century has done nothing but 
 ride and visit the sick, and, I suppose, will continue to do so 
 tdl he dies. The first school-mistress of whom I have any 
 account, was Sally, daughter of Rev. William Fessenden of 
 Fryeburg. She taught in the summer of 1792. The first 
 company of soldiers in town was from Fryeburg, under Capt. 
 
61 
 
 Stephen Farrington. When the Indians attacked tho town in 
 Aug., 1781, John Grover, grand-fatlier of Gen. Cnvier Grovcr, 
 went on foot to Fryeburg, and in a few hours twenty-three 
 me^i were ready to start for Bethel in pursuit of the Indians. 
 The next year a company from Fryeburg was stationed at 
 Bethel in garrison, under Stephen Farrington who received the 
 commission of Lieutenant. The only level spot in town for 
 the company drill, was on a little plank bridge across the 
 brook near the grist mill at Bethel Hill. Lieut. Farrington 
 was much respected by the early settlers, though I cannot for- 
 bear relating an anecdote of him. He sent out two brothers 
 by the name of Swan, as a scouting party to watch the 
 Indians, but the rich furs in the vicinity were more attractive 
 to them than hunting for Indians, so they caught and lined 
 their camp with the most valuable furs. Lieut Farrington 
 finding it out, threatened to bring them into the garrison, but 
 they compromised the matter by promising him one half the 
 proceeds. It is worthy of note that this was probably the 
 last company ever raised in New England for watching the 
 Indians. 
 
 The Indians frequently visited Bethel from Fryeburg. The 
 names of Sabattis, Capt. Swarson, Mollocket, and others, were 
 well known to the first settlers. Mollocket was the last of the 
 Pigwacket tribe, and died in Andover, Me., Aug. 2nd, 1816. 
 
 Among the necessities and expedients to which our early 
 settlers were subjected, I might mention one incident. When 
 they brought their cows here, they pastured them on the old 
 Indian corn fields where the wild onion grew. This affected 
 their milk so as to render it unfit for use. To remedy this, the 
 hilmbitants would eat a raw onion before using the milk, and 
 m this way got rid of the disagreeable taste. 
 
 But I am trespassing on your time, yet I wish to show you 
 a token of respect made to Gen. Joseph Frye, the founder of 
 your town. It is in the possession of his great-grandson, 
 Joseph Frye of Bethel. It is a tankard of solid silver, on 
 which is the following inscription together with the family 
 coat of arms. 
 
62 
 
 To JOSEPH FRYE Esq 
 
 Colonel and Commander in Chief of the Forces in the Service of the 
 
 Province of the Massf. Bay, and late Major of the 2nd Battalion 
 
 of General Shirley's Provincial Regiment, 
 
 THIS TANKARD 
 
 From a Juft Scnce of his Care and Conduft of the Troops while 
 
 under his Command at Nova Scotia, and a proper Refentment 
 
 of his Paternal Regard for them Since their Return 
 
 to New England, Is Presented By 
 
 His Moft Humble Servants, 
 Bofton, April 20, 1757. The Officers of Sd Battalion. 
 
 I have also a memento of Mollocket. It is a pocket book 
 made by her and presented to Capt. Eli Twitchell of Bethel, 
 about eighty-five years ago. 
 
 Bethel extends a greeting to her elder sister, fully acknowl- 
 edging all the favors received from her in the past, and doubts 
 not, that when a railroad shall pass up the Saco valley and 
 reach Fryeburg, as sooner or later it will, she will be so 
 rejuvenated as to be as attractive as her younger companion. 
 
 The Toasts were then resumed : 
 
 The memory of Fellows, Mclntire, Austin, Walker, Richard- 
 son, Stanly, Andrews, Powers, Hobbs and Webster — They 
 have experienced how sweet and beautiful it is to die for the 
 Fatherland. When the war is over, let us remember them in 
 g-ranite* 
 
 Tlie memory of our loved townsman, Capt. John Page, who 
 fell at Palo Alto. We believe in good blood, — the mantle of 
 the sire rests upon the sons. One fights in the army of the 
 Potomac, and the other has won his spurs as one of Fremont's 
 body guard, in the brilliant charge at Springfield. He is with 
 us to-day. 
 
 *See Appendix E. 
 
63 
 
 The honored Governor of the old Bay State — A son of 
 Maine, a grandson of Fryeburg. We are not ashamed of our 
 boys. 
 
 Gov. Andrew being loudly called for, and received with 
 enthusiasm, commenced, in response, by touching allusions to 
 his mother, and her influence in developing and shaping his 
 character, lie returned thanks to the many venerable citi- 
 zens who had, during this his first visit to Fryeburg, expressed 
 their affection for her during her residence here. 
 
 He extolled the scenery of the valley, — girt about and 
 guarded by the everlasting hills, combining loveliness and 
 grandeur in no common degree. Passing to consider the 
 state of our country, his remarks were interrupted by rain 
 which had been threatening among the mountains for near an 
 hour. The audience scattered in most picturesque style down 
 the slope of Pine Hill, and through the street to the church, 
 which, in a few minutes, was filled to its utmost capacity, 
 while hundreds could not gain admittance. Here, for an hour 
 and a half. Gov. Andrew pressed the great theme of our 
 country's position, needs and glorious prospects, showing most 
 conclusively, that through the bloody ordeal of battle, God 
 was establishing righteousness in the land, overthrowing 
 gigantic wrong, and breaking forever the rod of the oppressor. 
 
 Alluding to a disposition on the part of some, to compro- 
 mise and yield to the claims of those in rebellion, he said it 
 might be done when from out their bloody graves our thou- 
 sands of noble sons and brothers fallen in the shock of battle, 
 should start again to life. Till then the stern duty of sub- 
 duing traitors in arms should be gladly accepted by every 
 patriot heart. 
 
 It is greatly to Ije regretted that a verbatim report of the 
 Governor's admirable address could not be secured. No ab- 
 stract, however full, can do justice to the fervor and eloquence 
 of its appeals, or the withering sarcasm, and burning indigna- 
 tion of its denunciations. It was instinct with the patriotism 
 that has marked the Governor's career as chief magistrate of 
 
04 
 
 the Bay State, and so justly endeared him to every loyal 
 heart. 
 
 The Flag of our Country — Consecrated by a new baptism, 
 may its folds ever float over the land of the free and the home 
 of the brave. 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers — They believed in churches, schools 
 and men who carry muskets. God forbid that their descend- 
 ' ants should ever wander from such a confession of faith. 
 
 The valley of tlie Saco : — 
 
 " Shallow and deep by turns and swift and slow 
 There we behold the winding Saco flow." 
 
 From Gov. E. Lincoln's " Village." 
 
 Fryeburg-, a small part but still a part of the original Union, 
 
 we do not intend to go out of the partnership this year. 
 
 Our returned sons and daughters — Strangers they may be 
 in our houses, they can never be in our hearts. 
 
 Enoch W. Evans, Esq., of Chicago, 111., responded in a most 
 eloquent speech. He had brought back from a twenty years' 
 absence at the west, a heart still beating warmly with love for 
 his native valley. The memories of his childhood, would live 
 ever in his mind. He was proud of Maine, and most of all 
 he honored her patriotic devotion in this hour of the country's 
 peril. Never should he forget the thrill which pervaded a 
 vast assembly in the city of his residence, some weeks since, 
 at the announcement that Maine's quota, under the call of the 
 President, was full. Most emphatically would he repudiate 
 the idea of New England being " left out in the cold," by the 
 great and generous west. They were bound together by too 
 many ties of kindred, and of interest. We were one country, 
 and one country we were ever to remain. 
 
 A motion to adjourn for one hundred years, was modified 
 so as to recommend an observance of the legal birthday of the 
 town in 1877. 
 
 A Committee was chosen to secure a copy of the Address 
 for publication. 
 
66 
 
 At a late hour of the afternoon, the exercises closed by 
 singing the following original ode : — 
 
 ODE. 
 
 Dear Fryeburg, fair art thou ! 
 Time writes upon thy brow 
 
 No furrows deep ; 
 Far in thy summer skies 
 Thy glorious mountains rise, 
 And clouds of thousand dyes 
 
 Around them sleep. 
 
 Serene thy rivers flow 
 Through valleys green and low, 
 
 With fringe of elm ; 
 The shadows lightly play, 
 And all is bright and gay. 
 As in thine early day 
 
 In Nature's realm. 
 
 Still rolls thy blue lake on, 
 Amid the forest lone, 
 
 As long ago ; 
 When wild the war-whoop rung 
 The dark pine shades among. 
 And from his cover sprung 
 
 The savage foe. 
 
 Gone are the valiant band 
 That fought with heart and hand 
 
 On that dread morn — 
 Yet in their children brave 
 Their spirit strong to save, 
 That dies not in the grave 
 
 Anew is born. 
 
 ) 
 And tliose that earliest trod 
 Thy green and virgin sod, 
 
 The fair and strong — 
 A hundred gliding years 
 Have stilled the hopes and fears, 
 And quenched in dust the tears 
 
 Of that loved throng. 
 
66 
 
 Yet while their dust remains 
 Tliick strewn upon thy plains, 
 
 Thy plains we love ; 
 Thine "■ everlasting hills," 
 Thy shadowy streams and rills, 
 While warm the life blood thrills, 
 
 Our hearts shall move. 
 
Levee at Academy Hall. 
 
 In the evening the Webster Association of Fryeburg Acad- 
 emy held a Levee at the Academy Hall, beautifully decorated 
 with mottoes appropriate to the occasion. Some three or four 
 hundred participated in the festivities. Interspersed with 
 music from the Band were short speeches in response to the 
 following sentiments : 
 
 The Trustees of Fryeburg Academy — May their labor of 
 Love be done wisely and well. Rev. D. B. Sewall. 
 
 The Memory of Webster — It still lives. 
 
 Our Volunteer Soldiers — They have gained imperishable 
 honor on the battle fields of the war ; their heroic deeds and 
 noble valor have rendered their names and memory sacred ; 
 they are engaged in the noblest contest the ages CA^er saw. 
 
 S. R. Crocker, Esq. 
 
 The Alumni and the Alumnae — One and indivisible. 
 
 Intelligent Patriotism — Our need and our glory. 
 
 The Old Bay State and the Pine Tree State — Mother and 
 Daughter — each delights to honor the " Sons of Maine." 
 
 Rev. Samuel Souther. 
 
 Our Sister Institutions — The cause, one ; our hearts, one. 
 
 Dr. N. T. True. 
 
The Preceptors of Fryeburg Academy — To these classic 
 halls a cordial welcome always awaits them. 
 
 A. RiCHAEDSON, A. M. 
 
 The Loved and the Lost — Their memories are ever fresh 
 and fragrant. 
 
 Our New Piano — May its keys be taught to send forth only 
 the " concord of sweet sounds." 
 
 Music by Miss Nellie A. Barrows. 
 
 The Ladies — God bless them — they are a "joy forever." 
 
 The Band — " Music hath charms." Yankee Doodle. 
 
 With delightful, social intercourse, a generous banquet, 
 music and song, the hours of the evening passed rapidly 
 away, till at a late hour, all united in the old Song of " Home, 
 Sweet Home," which terminated these most deeply interesting 
 exercises of Fryeburg's Centennial. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A 
 
 The division of the territory of Fryeburg among the pro- 
 prietors was, as usual, a vexed question for many years. No 
 less than five different attempts were made to equalize the 
 different lots before the close of 1797, and even so late as 
 1821, a sixth division was ordered of the odds and ends, or 
 " scraps of land " still owned in common. Hence a plan of 
 Fryeburg presents a most curious medley of lots with great 
 diversities of size and shape, and when colored so as to dis- 
 tinguish the several divisions, appears as if designed to illus- 
 trate the various geological formations. 
 
 No wonder that Fryeburg abounded in skillful surveyors. 
 They must have had any amount of practice in establishing 
 such combinations of lines. The subject i» so fully and com- 
 pactly presented in the following paper, that it is inserted 
 entire. Its preparation is due to the generous interest of Dr. 
 I. B. Bradley. 
 
 FROM THE PROPRIETORS' RECORDS OF THE TOWN- 
 SHIP OF FRYEBURG. 
 
 " In the House of Representatives^ Feb. 24, 1763." 
 
 " The plan of a Township granted by this Court at their 
 session in March, A. D. 1762, to Joseph Frye, Esq., and by 
 him laid out at a place called Pigwacket, in the County of 
 York ; bounded at the south corner to a spruce tree marked ; 
 from thence north 45 ® west, by the needle of the instru- 
 ment, 2172 rods to a beech tree marked; from thence north 
 45 '^ east 2172 rods to a maple tree marked ; thence south 
 45 ® east 2172 rods to a pine tree marked ; thence south 45 ® 
 west to the first bound." 
 
70 
 
 It appears by the records that, in 1763, the Proprietors 
 " without being legally assembled to pass any votes with re- 
 spect to the settlement of the township," " laid out upon the 
 upland 57 house lots of 40 acres each," " and upon their 
 intervale land 64 intervale lots of 20 acres each," and assigned 
 to each and every right a 20 acre intervale lot, and to each 
 and every riglit a 40 acre house lot, except seven rights, there 
 being 64 rights in said township, including four for public 
 uses. 
 
 On Feb'y 2d, 1766, it seems that sixteen of the Proprietors 
 applied to Hon. Benjamin Lynde,one of his Majesty's justices 
 of the Peace, to call a meeting of the Proprietors " to be held 
 at the dwelling house of. Mr. Ezekiel Walker, in Fryeburg, 
 aforesaid, on the 28d of June next ensuing the date hereof, 
 at 9 o'clock in the forenoon," — the object of said petition 
 being, to have a meeting legally called, to do certain enumer- 
 ated acts, and to determine how Proprietors' meetings should 
 be called for the future. 
 
 Benjamin Lynde did issue his warrant, in compliance with 
 the foregoing petition, and ordered Joseph Frye, Esq., to call 
 the meeting at the time and place specified ; the meeting was 
 holden, and most of the house lots and intervale lots before 
 mentioned, were confirmed to the Proprietors, to whom they 
 were originally laid out, in 1763. 
 
 At the same meeting the following vote was passed, viz : — 
 " Voted that the aforesaid committee be and hereby are di- 
 rected to lay out the meadows in said township that are now 
 fit for mowing, into sixty-four shares, that shall be as near 
 equal in value, one to the other, as possible," 
 
 Also voted at the same meeting, to lay out a second division, 
 upland lot of 40 acres, and a second division, intervale lot of 
 30 acres to each right ; and in laying out said second division, 
 of upland and intervale, the committee were to so lay out said 
 second divisions, as to correct any inequalities in the first 
 division, and thus to make each Proprietors' share of land in 
 the first and second divisions of both upland and intervale of 
 equal value. 
 
 Also voted to lay out one acre of land near the easterly 
 side of Bear Pond for a meeting house. 
 
 Voted to lay out four acres adjoining said meeting house 
 lot for a buiying ground. 
 
 At a meeting holden July 27, 1767, is the first mention of 
 roads in said township, when it was voted to lay out two 
 open roads, the first to beghi at the most suitable place on the 
 
71 
 
 town line, south of the river, and to run by the most conve- 
 nient courses, on the same side of the river to Mr. Daniel 
 Farrington's intervale land, being to the land now occupied 
 by Caleb and Nathaniel Frye, Esq. ; the whole length of the 
 road behig about 6 1-2 miles. 
 
 The second beginning at the most suitable place on the 
 state line, on the north side of the river, and running on the 
 north side of the river and down the river by the most con- 
 venient courses to the house lot of Andrew McMillan, No. 9, 
 (probably 20,) the residence of the late Deacon Charles, being 
 about 5 miles. 
 
 At this meeting, July 27, 1767, twenty of the sixty-four 
 meadow lots were assigned, and the remaining meadow lots 
 being 44, were decided by lottery at an adjourned meeting 6 
 days later, Aug. 3d. 
 
 The first vote in relation to buildhig a grist mill was passed 
 at this meeting, which provided to give the undertaker or 
 builder, 60 acres of pine land including the mill privilege on 
 Lovewell's brook, and 40 acres of pasture land adjacent, and 
 12 shillings lawful money, to be paid in cash, or in work at 4 
 shillings per day, to be raised out of each right in said town- 
 ship, the four public rights excepted. 
 
 It seems by the Proprietors' Records, that prior to this meet- 
 ing, they had discovered that the line of New Hampshire cut 
 off the west corner of their township, containing 4147 acres 
 of land, which was surrendered by Joseph Frye to the Gov- 
 ernment of Massachusetts Bay, and accepted by the "' Great 
 and General Court," June 25, 1772, in consideration of which, 
 said Court granted him the same amount of land, being 
 known as Fryeburg Addition. 
 
 On the 7th April, 1774, Fryeburg Addition was conveyed 
 to the Proprietors, by Joseph Frye, and accepted by them. 
 
 1774, Sept. 20th. The Proprietors voted to relay all their 
 first and second divisions, upland and intervale lots, and 10 
 acres meadow lots, so that each Proprietor should have 80 
 acres upland and 60 acres of intervale. 
 
 1785, April 11th. "Voted that the distinction between 
 upland and intervale, shall be no longer kept up, except to 
 complete the first and second divisions of intervale land to 60 
 acres, and the deficiency of meadow lots. 
 
 1787. At meeting on first Monday in December, voted that 
 so much of said Proprietors' lands shall be laid out of upland 
 or intervale, or both, as a third division, as shall make each 
 original right (including the two divisions of upland run out) 
 
72 
 
 equal to 180 acres of upland, and that the surplusage of the 
 first and second divisions is to be considered as part of said 
 third division. 
 
 1794, Sept. 15. Voted to lay out a fourth division of Pro- 
 prietors' lands, and that 100 acres be the mean quantity and 
 that the committee lay, more or less, to qualify equal to the 
 mean lot to each right. 
 
 ^ Thus it seems, at this time, each Proprietor was in posses- 
 sion of 280 acres of land, mostly upland, 60 acres of inter- 
 vale, and 10 acres of meadow ; these lands or lots of land, 
 were not, by any means, of equal area, for where a lot of land 
 was not equal in quality to the standard, it was made up in 
 quantity, and this was what they called qualifications ; for 
 instance, third divisions, as has been already stated, were 
 intended to be 100 acres, of a particular quality of land, the 
 best remaining after laying out the previous divisions. Samuel 
 Osgood's third division is recorded as follows : — 
 
 Acres. R. P. 
 Contents, 217 1 12 
 
 Qualification, 117 1 12 
 
 Qualified Land, 100 00 
 
 1797, April 21. At a Proprietors' meeting holden this day, 
 a vote was passed to lay out a fifth division of lands among 
 said Proprietors, and the committee made their return of the 
 same on the 31st day of May next ensuing. It was evidently 
 the belief of the committee that they had then divided all the 
 lands of the Proprietary. This division was more unequal in 
 quantity than any previous divisions, and considered of little 
 value, for it was mostly divided without any survey, by merely 
 assigning on the plan of the township to each Proprietor his 
 share of said lands. 
 
 Some of these fifth divisions were very small, being only 
 thirty to forty acres in area, while others contain hundreds, 
 and one, nearly one thousand acres. 
 
 The Proprietors of most of these fifth divisions, considered 
 them of so little value, that they conveyed them to t.vo or 
 three of their number, and sent them to Boston, to exchange 
 them for old and shop- worn, but serviceable goods. 
 
 1821, Sept. 21. The Proprietors met and decided to lay out 
 a sixth division, out of such scraps of land as might still, be 
 Qwned by them in common and undivided. 
 
73 
 
 ACT OF INCORPORATION. 
 
 In the Year op our Lord, 1776. 
 
 AN ACT for erecting a tract of land called Fryeburg, two 
 
 thousand one hundred and seventy-two rods square, lying 
 
 in the County of York, which was granted as a Township, 
 
 to Joseph Frye, Esq., Anno Domini, seventeen hundred and 
 
 sixty-two, and confirmed Anno Domini, seventeen hundred 
 
 and sixty three, into a Town by the name of Fryeburg. 
 
 Whereas, the inhabitants of that tract of land, consisting 
 of Proprietors and Non-Proprietors, promiscuously settled 
 thereon, having lately been united in ordaining a minister of 
 the gospel among them, are desirous of uniting in the expense 
 of his support, of building a meeting-house and other public 
 charges of the place, but cannot lay a tax upon themselves 
 for those purposes, till said tract of land is incorporated into 
 a town. Therefore, 
 
 Be it enacted by the Council and House of Representatives 
 in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the 
 same, that the aforesaid tract of land, originally bounded as 
 followeth, viz : At the south corner to a spruce tree marked ; 
 thence north forty-five degrees west (by the needle) two thou- 
 sand one hundred and seventy-two rods to a beech tree 
 marked ; thence north forty-five degrees east two thousand 
 one hundred and seventy-two rods to a maple tree marked ; 
 thence south forty-five degrees east two thousand one hundred 
 and seventy-two rods to a pine tree marked; thence south 
 forty-five degrees west to the first bounds — be and hereby is 
 erected into a Town by the name of Fryeburg, excepting and 
 reserving thereout four thousand one hundred and forty-seven 
 acres of land lying in the west corner thereof, which the 
 Great and General Court, in compliance with a petition of the 
 above-named Joseph Frye, resolved to receive back, and in 
 lieu thereof, granted him the same quantity of government's 
 land with liberty to lay it out adjoining to the northward or 
 northeastwardly part of his Township, as by said resolve, 
 dated June the twenty-fifth, seventeen hundred and seventy- 
 two, will appear ; and the inhabitants of said tract of land, 
 (except as is above excepted,) be and hereby are invested 
 with all powers, privileges and immunities, which other towns 
 in this colony do enjoy. 
 
 And be it further enacted, That Tristram Jordan, Esq., be 
 and hereby is empowered to issue his warrant, directed to 
 some principal inhabitant of said town, requesting him to 
 10 
 
74 
 
 warn the inhabitants thereof, who have a free hold according 
 to charter, to meet at such time and place as shall be therein 
 set forth, to choose all such officers as are or shall be required 
 by law to manage the affairs of said town. 
 
 In the House of Representatives, January 10th, 1777. This 
 bill having had three several readings, passed to be enacted. 
 SAMUEL FREEMAN, Speaker, P. T. 
 In Council, January 11th, 1777. This bill having had two 
 several readings, passed to be enacted. 
 
 JOHN AVERY, Deputy Secretary. 
 Consented to by the major part of the Council. 
 A true copy. 
 
 Attest : 
 
 JOHN AVERY, Deputy Secretary. 
 
 C 
 
 In the archives of Massachusetts, at the State House, Bos- 
 ton, may be found the several pay rolls of the companies or 
 detachments who served on the Androscoggin. That of Lieut. 
 Farrington and his twenty-two men, is in the hand writing of 
 'Squire Ames, signed by himself, Richard Kimball and Samu.el 
 Walker, Selectmen of Fryeburg. 
 
 It was my purpose to give a fac simile of the Roll which is 
 a model for exactness and economy, the whole amount 
 which the Expedition drew from the Treasury being but X21, 
 6s, 4d. The names of the men, which deserve to be kept in 
 lasting remembrance, are as follows: — Stephen Farrington, 
 Capt., Isaac Walker, Lieut., John Walker, John Farrington 
 Abraham Bradley, Peter Astine, Abner Cliarles, Samuel 
 Charles, Nathaniel Walker, James Parker, Benjamin Wiley, 
 Jesse Walker, Joseph Knight, Jonathan Hutchins, Jun., 
 Barnes Hazeltine, Isaac Abbott, Jr., John Gordon, John 
 Smith Sanborn, John Stephens, Jr., Joseph Greeley Swan, 
 Oliver Barron, Hugh Gordon, Simeon Abbott. They marched 
 the 4th of August, and returned the 8th, leaving Jonathan 
 Hutchings, Jr., John Gordon, and John Stephens, Jr., as a 
 guard. / 
 
 On the 12th a second detachment of twenty-four men 
 from Fryeburg, with six from Bridgton, marched " to guard 
 the frontiers on Androscoggin river," led by Nathaniel 
 Hutchings, John Evans being second. Still a third company, 
 with John Evans in command, took their post on the Andro- 
 
76 
 
 scoggin Sept. 16tli, and kept guard till the winter snows laid 
 to rest all fears of invasion. These three several bodies of 
 troops were composed largely of the same men, with some 
 interchange to accommodate the farming operations of the 
 fall. The total expense is £262, Ts, Id. 
 
 A fourth Pay Roll is headed as follows : — " A Pay Roll for 
 a company of men commanded by Lieut. Stephen Farrington 
 raised in the County of York and Cumberland, for the 
 defence thereof, agreeably to Resolve of the Genero.l Court of 
 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, July 5, 1782, who took 
 their station at a New Township, called Sudbury-Canada." 
 
 This more formidable expedition kept the borders in quiet 
 until winter, and was undoubtedly the last effort in New Eng- 
 land to repel Indian invasion. 
 
 The part Fryeburg has borne in the present struggle for 
 the life of our country, is shown by the following honorable 
 record. It was hoped to give some sketch of those who have 
 so nobly fallen, but the material has not been furnished. 
 
 Reg't. 
 
 13th, Charles Andrews, (died.) 
 
 12th, Georsje Austhi, " 
 
 12th, JohirP. Barker, 
 
 17tli, Webster Barker, " 
 
 12th, Willard Barker, 
 
 12th, Charles H. Bragdon, 
 
 23d, Richard Bradley, 
 
 16th, Levi Butters, 
 
 23d, Humphrey A. Chadbourne, 
 
 23d, Stephen Chandler, 
 
 ITth, Frank C. Charles, 
 
 17th, Moses L. Charles, 
 
 12th, Sewall C. Charles, 
 
 12th, Stephen Charles, 
 
 23d, Walter Charles, 
 
 17th, Enoch S. Chase, 
 
 13th, Abner A. Cole, 
 
 12th, Tlionias D. Cook, 
 
 12th, William W. Divine, (died.) 
 
 23d, Andrew J. Eastman, 
 
 23d, James Eaton, 
 
 12th, Seymour A. Farrington, 
 
 12th. Seth Farrington, (Capt.) 
 
 9th, John C. Fellows, (died.) 
 23d, Jos. Frye, jr., 
 11th, William h! Frye, 
 11th, Anjavine Gray, 
 
 .5th, Mellville Gray, 
 
 9th, Richard R. Greenland, 
 
 Reg't. 
 
 23d, James M. How, (Lieut.) 
 17th, Simeon C. How, 
 12th, Samuel Ilsley, (died.) 
 12th, James T. Jenner, 
 12th, Andrew Kenison, jr., 
 17th, Patrick Lawless, 
 23d, Harris A. P. Lewis, 
 17th, Francis A. Long, 
 23d, Chas. H. Lovis, 
 23d, Joshua Mclntire, 
 23d, Oliver G. W. Mclntire, 
 
 9th, Samuel F. Mclntire, 
 
 7th, Joseph L. Mitchell, 
 17th, Sidnev A. Morton, 
 17th, AVm. JB. Morton, 
 11th, Lozien Poor, 
 17th, Albion Richardson, 
 23d, Benj. C. Seavey, 
 12th, Marcus M. Smart, 
 23d, William T. Smart, 
 23d, Abiel F. Smith, 
 17th, Daniel Smith, jr., 
 
 9th, James Smith, 
 17th, Ivory Snow, 
 17th, Samuel C. Stanley, 
 23d, John P. Stevens, 
 23d, John W. Telibetts, 
 17th, Allied E. Thomas, 
 
 9th, Benj. Thompson, 
 
76 
 
 23d, Gilson A. Hall, 
 
 9th, Samuel H. Harnden, 
 23d, Enoch W. B. Hobbs, accident- 
 ally killed. 
 17th, Samuel E. Holden, 
 17th, James G. Holt, 
 
 9th, Thos. K. Holt, 
 
 17th, Alden B. Walker, 
 17th, Joseph C. Walker, 
 23d, Wiley Walker, 
 23d, James E. Webster, 
 17th, Joseph Wiley, 
 23d, Stephen J. Wiley, 
 12th, Sullivan J. Willey. 
 
 Drafted Men. 
 
 Henry Andrews, 
 
 Ira Berry, 
 
 John Bullard, [ 
 
 Under the Call of Oct. 17, 1863 
 
 I Albion p. Cobb, (died.) 
 I Georare Lord. 
 
 Webster Ela, 
 Samuel Frye, 
 Samuel F. Frye, 
 William S. Heald, 
 Lewis C. Hobbs, 
 Jos. H. Johnson, 
 Asa S. Mclntire, 
 
 Harrison G. Morton, 
 G. H. Richardson, 
 Reuben H. Small, 
 John P. Stevens, 
 Geo. W. Thompson, 
 Dexter Walker, 
 Stephen J. Wilej^ 
 
 Ebenezer Pickering, 
 
 George Richardson, 
 
 Reuben W. Shirley, 
 
 John W. Towle. Lost part of his hand 
 at Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, '62. 
 
 Isaac Walk(u', 
 
 Jonathan Webster, 
 
 John Webster. Fell on board Gunboat 
 while forcing the passage of the 
 Mississippi below IS'ew Orleans. 
 
 John H. Wiley, 
 
 William Wiley. 
 
 The following citizens of Fryeburg have enlisted in regi- 
 ments out of the State, or have been in the regular service of 
 the army or navy. 
 
 John Andrews, (died.) 
 George W. Cook, 
 Orland Day, 
 John L. Eastman, 
 Seth W. Eastman, 
 Daniel B. Gray, 
 John C. Gray, 
 Augustus Lord, 
 Charles Lord, 
 Enoch Lord, 
 Charles Mansfield, 
 Charles Osgood, 
 
 Charles H. Powers, (Lieut.) Fell at 
 Chancellorsville, May 3, '63. 
 
 An obituary notice of Lieut. Powers in the Oxford Demo- 
 crat of July 24, 1863, gives the chief incidents in his life as 
 follows : — " Born in Bridgton, March '37. In '52 removed to 
 Fryeburg — left us in '56 for Western Pennsylvania — whore he 
 had just been admitted to the practice of law, when in Aug. 
 '61, he enlisted in the 105th Penn. Regiment. He was pro- 
 moted to be 1st Lieut. Feb. '62 — ' participated in the battles 
 6f Malvern Hill, Bristoe's Station, Bull Run (2d,) Fredericks- 
 burg and Chancellorsville, where he so nobly offered his life a 
 sacrifice upon the altar of his country.' The highest testimo- 
 nials to his character and conduct are given by his brother 
 officers." 
 
77 
 
 Had friends furnished the material it would have been 
 pleasant to give some brief sketches of the brothers, An- 
 drews, both of whom though not falling in the battle field, 
 gave up their lives for principles of liberty which they had 
 early learned from a father's precept and example ; — of Joseph 
 Colby Walker — the sturdy son of a worthy sire — and who in 
 person and character brought back to us many of the choicest 
 traits of the grand-father, whose name he bore ; — of Barker 
 and Webster, Fellows, Cobb and Divine, whose common sac- 
 rifices show that we are but one people, though our blood 
 may be from different sources — and that through this crucible 
 of common sufferings we are being fused into one nationality 
 — all antipathies of race blotted out — and all traces of clan- 
 ship forgotten — the great principles of human equality and 
 man's common brotherhood, forever established. Such a re- 
 sult will be worth all the sacrifice and suffering through which 
 it is attained. 
 
 The following letter from Daniel Webster, while at Frye- 
 burg, Avill show some of the characteristics of the place as he 
 saw it. It corresponds exactly with the account which his 
 fellow lodger, Mr. McGaw, gives of the business and social life 
 in Fryeburg, sixty years ago. One thing is worthy of notice, 
 Mr. Webster found at Fryeburg a volume, which could not be 
 obtained in the Libraries of Dartmouth. The letter is the 
 more willingly inserted, as the parts referring especially to 
 Fryeburg, are omitted in the published letters of Mr. Webster. 
 Mr. Webster to Mr. Merrill, Hanover, N. H. 
 
 Fryeburg, June 7, 1802. 
 
 My Dear Friend. I have frequently taken my pen to write 
 to you since I have arrived here, and have 'as often laid it 
 down again without executing my purpose. The truth is, I 
 was willing to write you something a little better than my 
 correspondents generally have the fortune to receive. 
 
 But after all I am commencing in my old way, resolved not 
 to delay till chance might inspire me with an idea worth your 
 reading, lest you should suppose me backward in entering 
 
78 
 
 into a correspondence which I contemplate with pleasure. You 
 must therefore console yourself by reflecting that correspond- 
 ence is a kind of commerce where the greatest gain per cent, 
 uniformly attaches to the greatest capital ; and that there is 
 as much to be learned in writing a good letter as in reading 
 one. Besides, you will remember that I am in Pigwacket, a 
 most savage name, and you will, therefore, suppose a most 
 savage country. Whenever, therefore, I am dull and blun- 
 dering, you must not charge the fault upon me, but upon 
 Pigivacket. Thus I shall shift much responsibility from my 
 own shoulders. 
 
 I will, if you please, devote this to giving you some little 
 account of my situation, business, amusements, and so forth, 
 and beg of you a descriptio:i of yours. Whatever relates to 
 my school you can guess in the general, and particulars can- 
 not be interesting. This village is new but growing, already 
 much crowded with Mercha.its, Doctors, and Lawyers. There 
 are here a good number of men of information and conversi- 
 ble manners, whom I visit "svithout ceremony and chat with as 
 I should with you and Bingliam. Among them are Mr. Dana, 
 whom you know, and Mr. McGaw, who boards and lodges 
 with me. Fame has told me, (tliough she is said to be a no- 
 torious liar,) that you are a finished gallant ; it will be natural, 
 therefore, for you to inquire about the number and beauty of 
 the misses. You know that new towns have usually more 
 males than females, and old commercial towns the reverse. 
 In Salem and Newburyport, I am told, the majority of females 
 is immense. When I resided at Exeter, I thought petticoats 
 would overrun the nation. In Fryeburg, I hope our sex will 
 continue the mastery, though the female squadron is by no 
 means contemptible. I have seen nearly thirty white muslins 
 trail across a ball room on an evening. In point of beauty I 
 do not feel competent to decide. I cannot calculate the pre- 
 cise value of a dimple^ nor estimate the charms of an eyebrow, 
 yet I see nothing repulsive in the appearance of Maine misses. 
 Wlien Mr. McGaw told me he would introduce me to the 
 Pigwacket Constellation, it sounded so oddly that I could not 
 tell whether he was going to sliow me Virgo or Ursa Major, 
 yet I had charity to put it down for the former, and have 
 found no reason to alter my decision. Being a pedagogue 
 and having many of the ladies in school, I cannot set out in a 
 bold progress of gallantry, though I now and then make one 
 of them my best bow and say a few things, piano, as the 
 musicians have it. 
 
79 
 
 When I go into the study of a friend, I look about and 
 enquire for the books he is reading. To save you that trouble 
 I will tell you my reading at present. I think it may be 
 advantageous to communicate mutually an account of our 
 studies, and reciprocate any new ideas that are worth it. Am 
 now upon Williams' Vermont, which I never read before. It 
 is my object to investigate some facts relating to the political 
 history of the United States. I have been perusing, as an 
 amusement, the " Pursuits of Literature," the book which 
 has excited so much curiosity among the learned, and called 
 down so much condemnation from the democracy. I am not 
 certain you can read it, because I do not recollect having 
 seen it at Hanover. 1 think it is well worth a reading. The 
 sentiments of the Poem, itself, and the abundance of Notes, 
 bring to my memory Sheridan's elegant metaphor of " a neat 
 rivulet of type murmuring through a meadow of margin." 
 
 Report has just reached me that the Marshal of New 
 Hampshire, is removed. I confess I did not much expect it, 
 but these are Jefferson's doings, and they are marvellous in 
 our eyes. 
 
 Adieu, my good friend, 
 
 D. WEBSTER. 
 
 P. S. I congratulate the people of Hanover on the election 
 of their Anniversary Orator, and wish him better success 
 than some of his predecessors. 
 
 Wednesday morning, June 9th. Since I wrote the within, 
 which I had intended for the mail, Messrs Hall and Whit- 
 man have called on me. I am quite sure you did not know 
 of the opportunity of sending me by them. They tell me 
 that politics stand one hundred and twenty to fourteen, — 
 good, — good, — the sun is everywhere rising, — the waning orb 
 of democracy must soon be eclipsed, — the Penumbra begins 
 to come on already. Pray put a line in next mail for one 
 who is much your friend. D. W. 
 
— - - - — ^^^■^■-■^ — — ■— ■— ^■^. 
 
 THE 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 OF THE SETTLEMENT OF 
 
 FRYEBXJRG, MiE., 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 HISTORICAL ADDRESS, 
 
 By rev. SAMUEL SOUTHER, 
 
 OF WORCESTER, MASS. 
 
 WOKCESTER: 
 
 PKINTED BY TYLEE& SEAGKAVE, 
 
 Spy Job Office, 212 Main Street. 
 

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