USA > Maine > Oxford County > Fryeburg > The centennial celebration of the settlement of Fryeburg, Me., with the historical address > Part 4
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Capt. Nathaniel Hutchins was carly 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 his captors did not choose to 6
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resent this spirited defiance. His son, Henry Dearborn, inherited much of his strength, both in person and character.
Col. John Webster came, a young 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 suffered 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 in Concord. He transmitted to his descendants a
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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 wit 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, liad 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 daughter 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.
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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.
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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 part in the hand to hand grapple of words and wits within. Hence 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,-
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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, through 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. The 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-
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ests. But mind has been at work here. Her rank among the 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 dofence. Sev- eral will to their dying day bear marks of honorable wounds received at Fredericksburg and on the glorious field of Gettys- burg; while 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.
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man, wherever and however placed 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 liis 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 burned ; 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
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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 burning denunciations of the slave trade in his Poem of "The Village," written here in 1815.
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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 Desire, Our yearning opes 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.
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Collation and Afternoon Exercises.
At the close of the Address, the President of the Day wel comed 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 unmingled 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
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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 carly 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 Fryc- 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
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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 MeMillan, (afterwards Gen. John McMillan,) for his working partner. Its business was intended to furnish supplies ahnost exclusively to timber operators. Luxuries, so far as they were indulged, were pro- cured at Portland. The strongest illustration of this honor- able trait of simplicity and ceonomy by the inhabitants of Fryeburg, is the fact, that no more than one barrel of West India brown sugar had been retailed at Fryeburg 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 all 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 defrayod by the several towns choosing them, was saved to Fryeburg. Senator Frye also held the office of Judge in the Court of Common Pleas. These various and honorable employments satisfied the possessor without med- dling with municipal affairs.
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 operations of the people of his town, who in general, had great confidence in the correctness of his advice.
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