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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE SETTLEMENT OF FRYEBURG, ME., WITH THE HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY REV SAMUEL SOUTHER OF WORCESTER, MASS.
FRYEBURG, ME.
Gc 974.102 F95fr 1770921
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
G
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01091 7992
THE
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
OF THE SETTLEMENT OF
FRYEBURG, ME.,
WITH THE
HISTORICAL ADDRESS,
BY. REV SAMUEL SOUTHER,
OF WORCESTER, MASS.
WORCESTER : PRINTED BY TYLER & SEAGRAVE, Spy Job Office, 212 Main Street.
1.
F 84132 .31
Fryeburg, Me. The centennial celebration of the settlement of Frycburg, Me., with the historical address, by Rev. Samuel Sonther ... Worcester (Mass., Printed by Tyler & Seagrave [1864)
79 p. 23 jem
..
1770921
1. Fryeburg, Me .- Hist.
I. Souther, Samuel, 1818-1864.
.
1-5.01
Library of Congress
F20.FOFO
P 13900
--- Conv 2.
14.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014
https://archive.org/details/centennialcelebr00frye_0
FRYEBURG 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 Charles, 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.
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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 Licut. 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, Ill., Rev. Jacob Chapman of Marshall, Ill., 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
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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 car, 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, have 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 hardy 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.
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Where Saco winds its silent tide ; Where Lovewell's waters shine; From every breezy mountain side Spoke 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 ; Yet, on our hills, the corn field waves Its tasselled greenness still.
Oh, long the day ere War's dark drops Shall dim our laughing 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 minister of Fryeburg, then followed the Historical Address.
REV. MR. SOUTHER'S ADDRESS.
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FRYEBURG, ME., AUG. 27, 1863.
REV. SAMUEL SOUTHER,
Dear Sir :- The undersigned having been appointed a Committee for that 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., &e.,
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 from 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 cominended 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 " Paugus' 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 reachies 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 blessing, our only assurance of such a future, and we would make the les-
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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 Popliam'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.
From York and Kittery eastward, many a feeble hamlet along the seaboard had been devastated by the Indian torch ;
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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 castward 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 mouthis of its two mightiest rivers, the St. Lawrence 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.
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In Nova Scotia, on the St. Francis, the Sorell, the St. Law- rence, at Niagara, Detroit, DuQuesne, 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. With 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 the 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
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service, demanded wider scope. The experiences of the camp fitted them for a life 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 Lovewell's war, they had sent out a strong colony to occupy the fertile intervales at Penacook ; 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 his 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.
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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.t
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 of the township amounting to 4,147 acres, a new
* From Poem at the Semi-Centennial celebration of Fryeburg Academy, 1842.
t See Appendix A.
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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 commenced 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 East 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,
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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 scars 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 towards 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 casy 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
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