The independent-reporter., 1910-07-28

tDen weston letters. log mouse
had been built and a few acres clear
ed by former settler on the farm
IN the middle road, less than a mile
beyond the village limits. which has
belonged to a Fletcher ever since that
day
Thaddeus Prentiss is a name not so
we'll known but the stone at his
graves head says he died in 1916 at
he age of 65. He lived about five
miles from Skowhegan close by the
spot where the old water tank stands
beside the railroad. His widow,
Ruth, married the man known all
around as Potter" Fish and near
Prentiss is the grave of Thomas P,
the threeyear-old son of Turner and
Ruth Fish. Thomas is the only
name on the stone but the epitaph de-
clares:
This grave, ,wo infant brothers doth
contain.-
Their souls with God We trust re-
main.'
Either families were sundered in
death or stones having been broken,
graves are lost, for there are several
graves of wives who seem to rest
alone. Fanny Russell, wife of James
Russell and Sophia Walker, wife of
Levi Wyman, were the daughter and
daughter-in-law Of Seth Wyman. an
other of the pioneers. A recumbent
slab now covers the grave of Sophia
Walker Wyman but formerly it was
bricked over in a fashion peculiar to
an older day. One. side of the brick
tomb enclosing the mound having
fallen in, Nature, one day, scattered
seeds there and for many a spring
that tomb was filled with Towering
columbine. Later when the bricks
were replaced by the stone, the CO.
lumbines no longer decked the grave
Another lonely stone records the
death of Mary Currier. She was the
aunt of the two Curriers' who were
schoolmates of the poet Whittier
Ephraim, the author and Phineas who
sleeps in the family lot nearer the
highway.
Nature is prodigal of her beauties
here. Every spring. blue violets and
Canada mayflowers run riot and just
now countless blue harebells nod in
the breeze. Birds sing, tree shadows
uOAh tiC DlOooOuIuS oOQ dllu luc uSdu
sleep we'll within sound of the riv-
er's voice. The queer old epitaphs
make one smile but they breathe the
Spirit of that hope of eternal life
which is itself eternal in the human
heart. Here are two of the best:
Lord, she was Thine and not my
own,-
Thou hast not done me wrong;
| thank Thee for the gracious loan,
Afforded me so long"
1T must be so, our Father Adams
And disobedience brought this lot
to all;
All die In him but hopeless should we
be,
Blest Revelation, were it not for
Thee"
Out near the gate stood the old
meeting house, in the northwest cor
ner, side to the road. Built in the
years between 1887 and 1890 it stood
dis-used for a time, after the building
of the new house of worship near
grave yard must have served as
sheep pasture, also for one of our
older citizens, now dead, once told
how he tried maiden speech on an
audience of those woolly folk who
came pattering in at the open door
and up the deserted aisles of the
abandoned meeting house. No trace of
the early pastors is found here save
the stone which marks the resting
place of Mrs. Elizabeth Calef. con-
sort of Rev. Jonathan Calef, who died
in 1890, aged 30 years" If her epi-
taph is to be believed, "She adorned
the Christian religion of which she
made profession, was a virtuous
and loving wife, a tender mother of
two small children to rise up and
call her blessed" but, If so, she was
the good wife of poor apology for a
minister of the gospel according to
history.
All the names of pioneers buried
here are not to be found, as we have
said. Many and many a mound is
unmarked and many another scarcely
distinguishable, warns us of the num-
bers of graves that are lost to the
sight, but, for those also, whose rest
ing places are so hidden, the sun
shines, the river croons, the pines
sing softly and the flowers blossom
tenderer voices and then the wind in
the pines bushes all beneath the spot
less pail of the charitable snow.