USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Chatham > The town register : Fryeburg, Lovell, Sweden, Stow and Chatham > Part 1
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USA > Maine > Oxford County > Lovell > The town register : Fryeburg, Lovell, Sweden, Stow and Chatham > Part 1
USA > Maine > Oxford County > Sweden > The town register : Fryeburg, Lovell, Sweden, Stow and Chatham > Part 1
USA > Maine > Oxford County > Stow > The town register : Fryeburg, Lovell, Sweden, Stow and Chatham > Part 1
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Go 974.101 0x1mi 1721974
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01091 7679
ATF 1950
THE
TOWN REGISTER
Fryeburg, Lovell, Sweden,
Stow and Chatham
( maise)
19070
COMPILED BY
MITCHELL, DAVIS and DAGGETT
BRUNSWICK, MAINE: PUBLISHED BY THE H. E. MITCHELL CO. 1907
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION The Sokokis Indians-The Pequawket Expedition
HISTORY OF FRYEBURG Early Settlement Act of Incorporation-Organization of Town Town Officials Military Account
Grover Post Industries-Canning Factories
Fryeburg Churches Fryeburg Academy-Public Schools
Professional Men-Physicians, Lawyers Fryeburg Water Works Fryeburg Village Fire Companies-Fires
Fryeburg Horse Railroad Patrons of Husbandry West Oxford Agricultural Association Bridges, Canal, Post Offices.
HISTORY OF LOVELL Early Settlement Incorporation-Organization Town Officials Parker Post Lovell Churches School Items Professional Men-Physicians, Lawyers Industries Patrons of Husbandry
TABLE OF CONTENTS-Continued
HISTORY OF SWEDEN Settlement Incorporation and Organization Town Officials Local Industries Religious Matters Schools 1721974
HISTORY OF STOW Fryeburg Addition, Grant, and Settlement The Town Incorporated and Organized Town Officials Industrial Account Methodist Church Schools
HISTORY OF CHATHAM, (N. H.) Location, Grants, Settlement, Petitioners, Changes in the Town Bounds Town Officers Inbustries Congregational Church
BUSINESS DIRECTORY
CIVIL WAR ENLISTMENTS
CENSUS
HISTORY OF Fryeburg, Lovell, Sweden, Stow and Chatham
INTRODUCTION.
Nowhere in the Pine Tree State are the scenic beauties of the famous Oxford Hills surpassed in natural variation of rugged hill and quiet dale, in the grandeur of its lofty peaks and towering visions of the snow capped White Mountains which overshadow its southern extremity, or in the natural purity of lake and stream and the stimulating freshness of its clear atmosphere. Through the southern part of the county winds the limpid Saco, fresh from its sparkling springs on the sides of the highest elevations in New Eng- land. Enlarged by frequent confluent tributaries it has become a stream of considerable size when it crosses the New Hampshire line into Fryeburg thirty miles from its source. The extensive intervales of this locality bespeak a former lake which must have covered a large area until its bed became gradually filled by the sediment brought down from the upper course of the Saco valley and by frequent spring
6
INTRODUCTION
freshets. These lands now form some of the most fertile and prosperous farms in the state. Other broad and less fertile areas known as plains have produced immense quantities of excellent pine timber, while the higher and more rugged ter- ritory is rich in a variety of mineral deposits, valuable tim- ber areas and grazing fields.
The Sokokis Indians, later known as the Pequawket tribe, were the earliest known inhabitants of this region. It was early explored by adventurers and hunters from the col- onies, and in May, 1725, was fought the memorable and lamentable battle near Lovewell's Pond between Capt. Love- well and the Pequawket warriors.
The first grant of a township on the upper Saco was made in 1762, to Gen. Joseph Frye, a distinguished soldier during the French and Indian Wars. A grant was very soon afterwards made to Capt. Henry Young Brown, also a soldier in the French War. Conway was granted in 1765, to a number of proprietors by Gov. Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire. Lovell was granted to the officers and soldiers who participated in the Pequawket expedition, and their heirs, about 1780. Hiram is made up of various land sales, including a large tract bought in 1790, by Gen. Peleg Wadsworth. Porter was purchased by a company of men in 1795. Various other grants and purchases gave title to other lands in this vicinity including the Fryeburg Academy Grant in Denmark, made in 1792, and Fryeburg addition, now the southern half of the town of Stow. All titles except Conway were derived from the Commonwealth of Massachu- setts, of which political division this state formed a province
7
INTRODUCTION
until 1820.
The territory now embraced by the County of Oxford was originally a part of York county, as, in fact was the whole of Maine. In 1760, Cumberland county was formed, embracing the whole of the present Oxford, with the excep- tion of a few western towns. Oxford county was formed by an act approved Mar. 4, 1805, from portions of York and Cumberland. Paris was made the shire town, with a Regis- try of Deeds at Fryeburg for the Western District. In 1838, the county of Franklin was erected, taking from Oxford five towns and a large number of plantations, constituting more than halt its territory. In 1854, two other towns were relin- quished to form Androscoggin county. It now has thirty five towns and three organized plantations, together with unorganized lands, making a total area of about 1700 square miles.
For many years all transportation and trafic in this region was carried on by stage lines which threaded their way to the various scattered settlements forming a system similar to the far reaching Saco with its numerous tributa- ries, whose winding valleys were traced by many highways. With the opening of the Portland & Ogdensburg railroad in 1871, new possibilities were offered. Excellent markets were brought into close connection, or better, the natural beau- ties of the region which were then becoming recognized out- side, were within easy reach of the increasing multitude who should flock here during the hot summer months to enjoy the refreshing and health giving air. Lumbering and agri- culture, together with the entertainment of summer visitors
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INTRODUCTION
form the principal sources of wealth.
We would not close this chapter without mentioning the many honorable and distinguished men and women who have gone out from these homes, many of them from humble homes, who have brought honor to their native towns. Every town can show a goodly list of these men, heroes of the battlefield or bench, men who have advanced entirely by their own merit and energy to positions of responsibility and honor in the state or nation, or in private life. These are the men who have inherited the fortitude and energy of their fathers and mothers, who could so long and nobly withstand the rigors and hardships of the New England frontier, until their scattered settlements should become an important part of a prosperous community.
THE SOKOKIS INDIANS.
Before the encroachment of pale faced settlers, the entire valley of the Saco and its tributaries was peopled by the numerous Sokokis Indians. These were considered the parent tribe of the Abenaki Nation, which at one time peopled the whole of Maine. One of the most eloquent and statesmanlike of their chiefs once said in council, "We received our lands from the Great Father of Life; we hold only from Him." Their title was unquestionable and unmo- lested, they roamed the valley from their village at the
9
INTRODUCTION
Lower Falls (Saco) to the settlement on the great bend, on the intervales of Fryeburg. These were in many respects a noble race of red men, evincing unmistakable evidence of having descended from a higher state, and still retained a fine sense of honor and personal dignity.
The Sokokis tribe was once so numerous that they could call nine hundred warriors to arms, but war and pestilence reduced their number to a mere handful. * The residence of the sagamores was on Indian Island, above the lower falls. Among the names of the chiefs who dwelt hereabout were those of Capt. Sunday, the two Heagons, and Squando who succeeded Fluellen. For some years these Indians lived with the white settlers in peace and quietness, some of them acquiring a fair knowledge of the English language by their intercourse. When the increasing number of colonists encroached upon their lands, and hatred and discontent had been engendered by the ill treatment of the whites, these Indians gradually moved up river and joined their brethren who lived in the villages at Pequawket and on the Ossipee.
As early as 1615, there were two branches of the Sokokis tribe under the leadership of two subordinate chiefs. One of these communities was the Pequawket settlement and the other was at the mouth of the Great Ossipee, where before King Phillip's War, they employed English carpenters from down river to build them a strong timber fort, having stockaded walls fourteen feet in height, to protect them against the blood-thirsty Mohawks whose coming these
*Saco Valley Settlements and Families.
10
INTRODUCTION
Indians anticipated. Upon the removal of these people from the locality of their early home on the lower waters of the river to the interior, their names were changed to Pequaw- kets and Ossipees; the former word meaning the crooked place, the other either taking the name of or giving their name to the river and lake upon which they lived.
A terrible fatal pestilence, thought to have been the small pox, which prevailed in 1617 and 1618 among the Indians of this and other tribes, swept them away by thou- sands, some of the tribes having become extinct from its effects. At a treaty assembled at Sagadahoc in 1720, there were delegates from the Winnesaukes, the Ossipees, and the Pequawkets. When the treaty was holden in Portsmouth in 1713, the Pequawket chiefs were present. Adeawando and Scawesco signed the articles of agreement with a cross at the treaty held at Arrowsic in 1717.
Some have assumed that the whole community of the Pequawkets lived together on the intervale at Fryeburg in a compact village. This conjecture is not true, for we find that these keen warriors had out-posts some distance above and below the village to guard against surprise. While the larger body of the Indians lived on the great water loop, there were clusters of houses in various places down the Saco valley. One of these hamlets was situated just south of Indian Hill in North Conway and consisted of about twenty lodges. In the present town of Hiram, not far from the mouth of the Great Ossipee river, there is a high bluff upon the top of which there is a nearly level plateau of about two acres in extent where several families of the Sokokis Indians
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INTRODUCTION
once lived. A peculiar Indian burial mound seventy-five feet long, fifty feet wide and about twenty-five feet high was dis- covered on the west side of Lake Ossipee and south of Love- well'sriver soon after the Revolution. This mound, which is located upon a beautiful intervale is filled with the skeletons of thousands of Indians entomed in a sitting posture and circling around a common center facing outward. These form concentric circles which were added one after another until the outer one was formed when another tier was begun above them. The bodies seem to have been packed closely together and covered with about two feet of coarse sand, while around the foot of the mound were placed stones taken from the river bed to prevent the mound from washing down. This mound is estimated to contain no less than eight or ten thousand skeletons which would seem to speak of either a numerous or a long established race in this local- ity.
The Pequawkets seem to have been a peaceful race when not molested by hostile tribes or encroaching settlers. There is no record of any hostile action on their part to warrant the expedition against them made by Capt. Love- well and his company in 1725. On the other hand there is a record in the office of the Secretary of State in Boston of a petition made by John Lovewell, Josiah Farwell and Jona- than Robbins for a bounty to be paid for scalps of "enemy Indians" that they might be able to take while ranging the woods for the period of one year for that purpose. A liberal bounty was offered, and a company of forty-six men was organized by Capt. Lovewell for an expedition against the Pequawket settlement.
12
INTRODUCTION
THE PEQUAWKET EXPEDITION.
On April 16, the company bade farewell to their friends and kindred in Dunstable, Mass., the home of many of the party, and proceeded to Contoocook, and to the west shore of Ossipee Lake. Here they halted and erected a fort which should serve as a rallying point and base of supplies. By this time two men had become disabled. One had returned home accompanied by a friend, Benj. Kidder was left at the fort, with the surgeon and a guard of eight. The remaining thirty-four men took up the trail to Pequawket with good courage.
On Tuesday, two days before the battle, the party were suspicious that they had been discovered by the enemy, and on Friday night the guard heard them creeping through the underbrush about their encampment. At an early hour Saturday morning, May 8th, while they were yet at their devotions, the report of a gun was heard, and soon an Indian was seen standing upon a point of land extending into Saco (now Lovewell's) pond. They supposed this was a decoy, to draw them into ambush. A conference was immediately held to determine what course to pursue. The men were anxious for an engagement, but Capt. Lovewell seems to have assented against his wisbes. They prepared for action. Assuming that the foe was still in front he ordered the men to lay down their packs that they might advance with greater caution and be less hampered in the fight. When the party had proceeded slowly for about a mile they discovered an Indian approaching among the
13
INTRODUCTION
trees. Several discharged their pieces at him. He returned the fire and seriously wounded Capt. Lovewell with a load of buckshot. Ensign Wyman then shot the Indian and Chaplain Frye scalped him.
Meanwhile Paugus, the Indian chief, with eighty stal- wart warriors had been watching every movement from the rear. They had discovered the hidden packs and learned the small number of the attacking party. When Lovewell's company returned to secure their provisions and had reached a tract of land covered with pines a little way back from the pond, the Indians rose from ambush in their front and rear in two parties with guns aimed; the whites also presented their guns and advanced to meet the foe.
Approaching within twenty yards of each other both parties fired. The Indians were badly cut to pieces and took shelter in a clump of low growing pines. Already nine of the attacking party had fallen dead, including Capt. Lovewell. Three were fatally wounded. Ensign Wyman ordered the remaining soldiers to retreat to the pond. Until the going down of the sun the battle went on with much vigor.
About the middle of the afternoon Chaplain Frye fell, seriously wounded. After falling he was heard to pray for the preservation of his comrades. For eight hours the fight had continued and at times was vehement. The whites were obliged to adopt the Indian mode of warfare; they kept near together, each selecting a position for his own safety. Ensign Wyman stealthily crept to a position to cover Paugus, the chief, whom he shot dead. The tradition that Paugus was killed at the water's edge by Chamberlain when
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INTRODUCTION
they had both gone down to wash their guns was not given as a part of this engagement until some fifty years later* When darkness fell the Indians withdrew, leaving their dead on the battlefield.
When the moon arose about midnight the survivors of Lovewell's party assembled, faint and exhausted. There were but nine unhurt, eleven were seriously wounded, Jacob Farrar was found to be dying, and two others were unable to rise. Solomon Keyes could not be found. A retreat was decided upon, but the wounded men were unable to proceed far. When they had gone something more than a mile, four of the wounded-Lieut. Farwell, Chaplain Frye, and pri- vates, Jones and Davis, could no longer move forward. They importuned their comrades to push toward the Ossipee fort and secure a rescuing party to carry them in. When the men reached the fort, where the guard had been left, to their consternation they found the men had deserted the place and nearly all the provisions gone. Here was another trying experience for the soldiers, who now numbered but nine. If they returned to their wounded comrades whom they had left behind, they feared starvation for themselves as well as for their comrades. The only alternative seemed to be to leave them to their fate. They pressed forward toward Dunstable and for four days it is stated they did not taste food. They then brought down some partridges and squirrels which they roasted and which gave them strength for the rest of the journey. They succeeded in reaching Dun- stable, the greater part of them on May 13th, the others two days later. Two of the men, Josiah Jones and Eleazer
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INTRODUCTION
Davis, who were left to perish finally reached Berwick. Chap- lain Frye and Lieut. Farwell did not survive.
Such was the effect on the attacking party. The Pequawkets suffered nearly as badly, and this was the death blow to their national power. According to the census of the Indians taken by Capt. Giles the following year they had but 24 fighting men left among them, and some of these carried serious wounds received in the fight. The news of the defeat and disaster cast widespread sorrow throughout the Massachusetts homes from which the soldiers had gone. A party was immediately sent to the battle ground and the bodies of the Captain and ten of his men were buried at the foot of an ancient pine. A monument has since been erected to mark the spot. The General Court appropriated 1500 pounds, and a grant of the lands now comprising the towns of Lovell and Sweden to the survivors and heirs of the men who were lost. This we should consider a very liberal reward for such a murderous undertaking attempted chiefly for mercenary purposes upon a peaceful settlement of a dis- appearing race of men.
*History of Saco Valley Settlements.
Many of the Pequawkets removed to Canada after the battle together with Adeawando, their chief, and united with the St. Francis tribe. At the beginning of the war with France the remnant of the tribe that had lingered around the old home place of their ancestors on the Saco, expressed a desire to live with the whites, and they were accordingly removed to a suitable place about fifty miles from Boston, where was good fowling and fishing. These men were
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INTRODUCTION
present at the Treaty of Falmouth in 1749, between the Eastern Indians and the whites. After the fall of Quebec a few members of the tribe remained about the head waters of the Connecticut until the beginning of the Revolution. The last mention of the tribe living at Pequawket was in a peti- tion to the General Court dated at Fryeburg, in which the able bodied men asked for guns, ammunition and blankets "for fourteen warriors." These men served faithfully on the patriot side and were liberally rewarded by the government. After the war they returned to their families in the vicinity of Fryeburg where they were well remembered by the vener- able people of the last generation. Among those remem- bered were Tom Heagon, Old Philip and Swanson. Philip, the last known chief of the Pequawkets, signed a deed in 1796, conveying the last rights of his tribe in Maine and New Hampshire to the men who had in two brief centuries, usurped their lands and with disease, annihilated the people that had for unknown centuries held unquestionable title to the entire Saco Valley.
History of Fryeburg.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
A grant of the township of Fryeburg was made to Gen. Joseph Frye by the General Court of Massachusetts for his valiant services in the expedition against Louisburg, and as commander of a regiment at Fort William Henry on Lake George, in 1757. This grant made Mar. 3, 1762, gave Gen. Frye the privilege of selecting a township six miles square, lying on either side of the Saco river between the Great Ossi- pee and the White Mountains. The territory selected is comprised mainly within the present town. The northwest corner proved to be within the State of New Hampshire, and when this discovery was made the General Court made good the loss by granting an equal number of acres (4,147) on the north, called "Fryeburg Addition," now the southern half of the town of Stow. A tract was annexed from Brown- field Plantation in 1802, as shown in the following chapter.
Title to the lands was scarcely secured when prepara- tions were made for immediate settlement. This same year pioneers came in with their cattle from Concord, N. H., and commenced a clearing and erected log cabins where the vil- lage now stands. On the natural meadows here they found an abundance of hay for their cattle. Upon the approach of winter the married men returned, leaving the stock in the
F 2
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FRYEBURG
care of Nathaniel Merrill, John Stevens and one "Limbo," a Negro. Other herdsmen from Falmouth and Gorham also passed the winter near by with about 200 head of cattle.
In the summer of 1763, Nathaniel Smith moved in with his family, thus becoming the first permanent settler of the earliest town in the White Mountain region. Among the other arrivals this year were the owners of the "Seven Lots," so called. These were Capt. Timothy Walker, Samuel Osgood, David Page, Moses Ames, Nathaniel Merrill and John and David Evans. These men came from Concord, and weresaid to have owned the site of the village of Fryeburg in equal shares, from which fact this was early known as the "Seven Lots." Mr. Smith was granted a lease of one-half lot, jointly with his wife, Ruth, free of rent for their natural lives for the friendship Gen. Frye bore them. His lot proved to be over the state line and is now within Conway. Captain Walker built the first mills in town at the outlet of Walker's Pond; he was also an extensive farmer as shown by Rev. Paul Coffin's journal. Under date of 1768, he wrote: "Capt. Walker had forty acres of corn, grass and english grain, which all are rich." Other prominent settlers of this name were Joseph Walker; Lieut. John Walker, who was a man of abnormal size and strength. He was an old forest ranger, and served at Fort William Henry and at the fall of Quebec. Ezekiel Walker was the first licensed tavern keeper in Frye- burg: he lived near Ber pond. Lieut. Isaac Walker and Samuel Walker came with others in 1767. Lieut. Jas. Walker lived at the "Island." Most of these men raised up large families and their descendants are numerous and
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HISTORICAL
respected. Maj. Samuel Osgood is said to have led the pio- neer party of 1763. He settled on the site of the old Oxford House which was erected in 1800, by his son Lieut. Jas. Osgood. He was the ancestor of many notable men and women including Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D., Col. Joshua B. Osgood, Jas. R. Osgood, the Boston publisher, and his sister Kate Putnam Osgood. "Squire" Moses Ames was an early selectman and representative and one of the first board of trustees of Fryeburg Academy. Col. David Page became a magistrate and a leading man. "Squire" Nath'l Merrill was not married until 1765; he was a competent surveyor; lived on lot opposite the Academy. John and David Evans were brothers. Capt. Wm., son of John, was the first white male child born in town, April 19, 1765.
General Frye the proprietor, also settled in town near the centre. Here he erected a frame house 40 x 60 feet in 1768 or '69. At the out break of the Revolution he was called to Cambridge to assemble and organize the patriot recruits. He was made a brigadier by the provincial con- gress, then promoted to major general and stationed at Falmouth. The following year he left the service; it was rumored that some difference with Gen. Washington caused him to resign his commission. His son, Joseph, was a cap- tain and Nathaniel was a lieutenant in the service, the latter losing his hearing at the battle of Monmouth. Col. John M. Frye, grandson of General Frye, was an early manufacturer at Lewiston, one of its leading men, and the father of the Hon. Wm. P. Frye, the distinguished U. S. Senator. Dea. Simon Frye, a nephew of General Joseph, was the first
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FRYEBURG
representative to the General Court, and for many years judge of the District Court, and an honored deacon of the church. Chaplain Jona. Frye of the Pequawket expedition was a second cousin to the General; he was a graduate of Harvard, 1723, died at 21, after the battle.
Jedediah Spring came here in 1763. His daughter, Betty, was the first white child born in town Sept. 24, 1764. He later removed into Conway. Lieut. Caleb Swan a gradu- ate of Harvard College, who distinguished himself in the class, came in 1766 from Andover, Mass. He pitched his house at the "rapids" now Swan's Falls. His wife was Dor- othy Frye, a sister to General Frye.
Henry Young Brown, the proprietor of Brownfield town- ship, had a house which Rev. Paul Coffin deemed elegant enough to call a "Hall," where he was entertained in 1768. This stood very near the "Seven Lots" settlement west of the river and was made a part of this township in 1802. This house is now standing on Main street to which place it was removed. Capt. Brown was one of the most prominent men of this part of the state. He held large estates which were heired by his four grandchildren, Henry Y. B. Osgood, Joshua B. Osgood, Mary Sherburne, m Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D., and Eliza L., m Jas. Osgood, Esq., from whom came many of the land titles.
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