The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-09-30
PIONEER EDMUNDs' WHIM.
His Farm covered with Holy Pres
eepfs ChiseIIed In the Rocks.

SEJt III ~ AVtEAS a#
Pioneer Benjamin Edmunds made the
the most pious and massive fence post
in the State of Maine, a huge, round
pillar as large as a hogshead, covered
with the ten commandments, neatly
chiselled. Grandpa Bdmunds hewed the
first path into what is now the town of
Roxbury. on the Swift River. While he
cleared the path and reared a cabin his
wife lugged on her PACK all their earthly
possessions. Early in the spring of 1890,
or thereabout, he a prospected in the
region and picked out the pretty inter-
vale that he afterward cleared and
settled upon. A friend accompanied him
on his first trip. At dusk one chilly
April night they reached the spot that
promised best, n in the gathering
gloom Mr.. Edmunds surveyed the level
river bottom from the wooded hill
sides.
"This suits me; here I will ~settle,' he
said to his companion. Both men were
weary; the tramp had been long and
tedious, and Edmunds' friend proposed
to lie down and sleep. The other
pioneer protested, urging that should
they sleep they might never awake in
that atmosphere, chilled with April's
snow. The man was tired. however,
and was bound to sleep. He did so, and
Grandpa Edmunds stoically stood UP and
pounded a tree with a club all night in
order that he might keep awake. His
friend did not freeze to; death, but
caught a cold that ended in fatal pneu-
mona.
Tn most interesting work of brave old
Pioneer Edmunds's life was his quaint
stone cutting. 1t was his hobby and di-
version. There were no churches in the
whole region around, and so the settler
used to slip his mallet and chiseI into his
pocket, sly out into the woods and chisel
passages of Scripture on the rocks.
that go where he might on his farm
some holy precept, some apothegm,
some stern commandment, some helpful
word of spiritual cheer confronted him.
The stones had tongues for him, and
others who labored with him in the
One huge bowlder he smoothed and
rounded up with great pains, and CHS
elled on it the ten commandments in
letters three INCHES high. It forms a
confronted by another pillar bearing the
LORDS prayer. 1t is said the presence
Of those stern monitors in the barnyard
repressed many a hired mans heated
with a refractory steer.
Whether they awaited to soothe when
boss stepped in the milk pail, chronicles
aver not.
Grandpa Edmunds also attempted other
Keats in the stone cutting line. He had
a little dog of whom he was very fond
and he carved a statue of it that inter-
ested visitors may see on the premises.
prominently displayed near the corner
of the farmhouse is a life size represent
tation of a human head. A retired sea
captain living in the n~eighborhood had
a Malay whom he had brought home.
and Grandpa Edmunds was so i'm
pressed by the chaps c~ountenance that
he reproduced it in stone.
The entrance to the yard is set off by
a stone arch, and over the keystone of
this is another human head, very neatly
executed. The old gentleman had fin
ished up, at great expense of time and
patience. a life size American eagle as
an ornament for this stone portal. He
was Juggling it across the yard to its
position. when he dropped the figure
and broke off a wing. The stone post
with the ten commandments was direct
ly before his eyes. Scattered about the
premises are many other figures, all
laboriously worked out of the stone with
such rude instruments as the settler
possessed. AN are quaint n some are
quite creditable. Though Pioneer Ed
munds has been laid away in his grave
many years, his stone treasures are still
carefully preserved, even that American
eagle who SO ingloriously and exasper-
atingly shed his pinion.-Lewiston Even
ing Journal.