Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-12-10

Then, directly after dinner, my faith.
started on and got up to Hartford ju!
before sunset. He stopped at the littl
cabin door with his oxen, and In % fe'
moments my grandfather drove up, wit
my mother and me.
They all got ont and stood there K
gether. Nothing to be seen but tn
original forest, great naples and oak
and cedars on the mountains west OF III
Not house in sight.
Mother says to father, benjamin,
this to be our homer"
Father says, eyes, Mary, this is al
the home we have" And they crie
there together.
Our next neighbor came and brough
some supper, and q coal OF fire in tn
tongs for father to start fire with.
They unloaded the goods, put tn
oxen and horse in the camp, had grea
roaring fire in the fireplace, and mad
ready for a good rest.
In the morning they were up brigh
and early beginning to get things ar
ranged, and better feeling came
feeling of satisfaction.
A year and half later my fathe
put up frame house. There were twt
rooms down stairs, living room and
spare room. There was no door to thu
spare room, but over the doorway was
hung a cloth curtain with some kind O.
embroidery up and down.
This house never was plastered, any
part of it. In the fireplace was an iror
crane, made by a blacksmith in Hart
ford-Ryerson, think was his name
and my father would swing it out to put
in the great back-logs, two of them, ont
on top of the other. How the hemlocl
would snap! At night, before going tt
bed, a hemlock knot was put on the fire
and covered with ashes, to keep over
and make good coal in the morning,
In the corner, where the fire would
strike us, was the old "settle," where we
sat.
The table was set near the clock,
which was made of wood. Two sticks
were nailed on stud for the clock to
rest on. The weights hung down in plain
sight and were not boxed up.
In the living room was the canopy-top
bed, and close by it the loom, on which
my mother wove all the cloth used by
the family. She used to put her candle
on the seat of the loom when she went
to bed. My part in the spinning was to
fill the "quills," which were made from
elder. We had a swift" to wind the
yarn from, on to the "quills." Some
times the cloth was sent to the fuller to
be dressed" One pair of trousers
would last me a year. Father had two
pair.
Every family in those times had a dye
pot sitting in the corner, and the floors
were sanded.
MY parents lived on this farm fifteen
years. There they had six children, and
never one of them was sick enough to
have a doctor in all the time during
their minority. All were healthy and
hearty. My mother told me that those
fifteen years there under the mountain
were the happiest of her life. Her chill
dren were all there; she could 60 at
night and see them all asleep, could see
that they were we'll, and know all about
them. When they began to scatter, then
she began to worry and to wonder what
they were passing through.
It was beautiful place, there among
the grand old hills of Oxford. Recollec-
ton fetches it back to me as though 1t
was but yesterday. recall how the
brook ratified over the stones where we
went to fish for trout; how we used to
90 up into the mountain; how the birds
sang in spring; and how 1, boy, won
dered about the meaning of all these
things, and what the birds and the
brook and the wind and the trees were
saying.
In this year of which I write, in the
north part of the town, in the district
known as the Thompson District, there
we're eleven families, whose names fol-
low:~
Mr.. Urza Thompson, who came from
Mass, in 1881, to Rumford,
where he stayed two years before COM
ing to Hartford. There he found his
wife, Miss Mary Elliott. They had seven
children; Mary, who afterward married
Hiram Hall of Buckfeld; Lucy, who
married James DeCosta of East Buck
field; Louisa, who married Veranus De-
Costa, brother of James; Almira, who
died young; Abigail, who married for
her last husband ROBBIE French of Can
ton; George, who married Harriet Bis
bee, of Hartford; and Isaac, who went
10 the West.
Mr.. Jacob Cobb, who came to Hart
ford about 1888. He married Miss
Perkins of the town of Waterford. They
had seven children: Lydia, who after
ward married Aram Harper Of Hartford;
who married James Harper,
brother of Aram; Levi, who married
Mrs. Barrows of Middleboro; James,
who was a whaler, and died and was
buried somewhere among the hills on
the Pacific coast, and who never married;
Almira, who never married; Simeon and
Mary, who both died young of the
which was very severe one
winter in Hartford, eight dying of it.
Mr.. John Tillson, who came from
Duxbury, think, though it may have
been Middleboro. He married Miss
Lucy Washburn, from eastern Massachu-
setts. They had four children: Arvilla,
who afterward married Amasa Trask of
Hartford; Lucy, who married Orrin
Frasier of Canton; Annie and Eliab,
neither of whom were ever married.
Mr.. Millet, who came to Hartford
from Minot. He married a Miss Wood
man, think. He had five children:
Lemuel, who afterward married Miss
Milliken of Hartford; Israel, who was
never married, to my knowledge; Will
liam, who married young lady of Minot,
whose name I do not remember, for it
was after came away; and Betsey and
Fannie, who were single, the last
knew.
Mr.. Consider Sampson, q Duxbury
man. He married lady from Duxbury
by the name of Frasier. They had five
children: Jacob, who afterward married
a Miss Cushman; Nathan, who married
the widow of John Tillson, formerly the
widow of Henry Millner, an English
woman; Mahala, who never married;
Lot, who married lady from Liver.
more, and after she died, the widow OF
Ferdinand Wright; and Nancy, who
married Melzar Keene of Sumner.
Mr.. James Moulton from Scarboro,
who married q Scarboro lady named
Milliken. They had six children: one
daughter, namod Nancy, who afterward
married Hiram Hines; and five sons,
Daniel, James, Jonathan and
Morris. The boys went away and l
never knew whom they married.
Mr.. Jonathan Hammond, who came
from Scarboro to Hartford In 1928, l
think. His wife was Miss Jose from
Scarboro. They had three children:
Elizabeth, who never married; Sarah,