welcome to the new gloucester history barn my name is tom blake i am curator for the new gloucester historical society and our lovely history barn was built back in september of two thousand and nine we had our grand opening and it is home to our reverend samuel foxcroft he was our first settled minister here in new gloucester seven hundred sixty five he came to our town and he was minister here until seven hundred ninety three his house that this harvard utility type upon which we'll look at later and a more of a sleigh type punning used for personal travel such as this one reverend foxcroft had quite a bit of travelling to do as new gloucester was large town some fifty four square miles from town here he had five children so i'm sure it was pretty packed when he and his family were out and about during the winter months they would use straw to put down  dina shoot a new gloucester resident repulsor the seat for us in later years and our next item we will take a look at the male wagons the next items we will be discussing are the male way of going sleigh that were used by harry p true here in town he was a new kloster high school graduate class in one nine hundred ten and he took a temporary position as a mail carrier in one nine seventeen and made it a regular position one nine hundred eighteen and he delivered mail here in town using the wagon and sleigh in the winter time his route would include opera corner where he would meet his wife louise at noon time every day of the run and they would trade horses he retired in april of one nine hundred fifty seven after forty years of service delivering mail here in town he also served as the new boss the fire chief from hundred thirty one nine hundred fifty five you recall that when the cars were first used here in town they could only be used in the summer months because of the road conditions and that the rest of the year you'd still have to use horse and carriage this massachusetts for five hundred twenty five dollars eighty cents and it was shipped up here on main central railroad arriving at the depot down intervale here for a charge of twenty four dollars in eighty cents and we spent an extra seventy five dollars with the f o b elite company in portland to buy some harnesses for it to be her scheme with whole chaps and runners and the steel tires and we're very pleased that all of these accessories have survived the hundred plus years of storage here in town and we still have the runners here that could allow for winter use we still have the pole in the shafts that would allow them to use either one or two horses and you can see that as a very elaborate vehicle lots of glass and some nice tassels work on the the lower yard the cemetery where is stored for several years gloucester hill road and you'll notice a trapdoor on the bottom side of the vehicle this is where ice was kept for the summer heat keep things fresh this was donated to the new glossary historical society in one thousand nine hundred eighty the new gloucester cemetery association and was moved from the hearst house down to local private barn to john cunningham farm interval road where we stored intel we were able to open this building up in september two thousand and nine and very pleased to have a permanent home for this vehicle as well as the others that we've