ary tour through this section in that year. We quote the following:

"Sat., Sept. 6. Rode to Sumner through a good road and put up with Joseph Robinson, son of the Deacon, a pleasant family it was.

"Sept. 7, Sabbath. In Sumner. Preached to a large and serious assembly from Luke 16: 29, 30 and Romans 8:16. Preached in the barn of Hezekiah Stetson. The audience was large and not very much divided, consisting of people not turned with the traveling doctrines of the day. Mr. Isaiah Cushman, lately from North Yarmouth, was greatly taught and relieved by the sermon on Romans 8:16.

"This town is settled on a road running north and south six miles.

"Rode on my way to Hartford after supper and put up with Dea. Robinson. He has two houses, twò barns, a saw and a grist mill, and a potash. He lives well and treated me with water mellons having white seeds."

The next day the Missionary went on to Hartford, but records no more "treating."

The ecclesiastical history was told yesterday, by the Rev. P. E. Miller, in his historical. sermon, and need not be dwelt on farther.

One of the first things the settlers did long before incorporation was to provide for schools, voluntarily taxing themselves for their support, and we find in the early plantation warrants, articles for this purpose.

In 1795, the two plantations were divided into six school districts.

The first district included the north part of the town from the old Parlin place to the Benjamin Heald place on Sumner Hill.

The second district began at the Cobb place, just east of Sumner Hill, and took in the settlement about the mills at the east side of the plantation, and down toward Buckfield as far as Wm. Tucker's. The school house stood near the John Briggs place above Potash Hill.

The third district included the south part of the town from the Bonney place to the Buckfield line. * Sumner has a military history of which she may well be proud. Of the twenty-one founders, sixteen were Revolutionary heroes whose services in the Continental army are recorded in the Archives of Massachusetts.

At the begining of this century a majority of the voters in this town were veterans of that great struggle. Not less than forty men who fought to establish independence have found a home in Sumner, and nearly the same number took part in the war of 1812, while more than a hundred of her sons went to the front in the struggle to maintain the Union, a record scarce paralleled any where. They proved themselves worthy sons of patriot sires. †

In the early days the mails were like angels' visits, few and far between. There was no post-office in town until 1812, when one was established on Sum

Appendix N + See Appendix O

ner Hill at Simeon Barrett's, and he was Postmaster until 1840.

The early settlers got their mail from New Glouchester. The first post-rider in this part of the country was Jacob Howe, the ancestor of all the Howes yet living in town. He rode on horse back with his mail from Portland to Waterford once each week. Post-offices were established in Paris and Buckfield in 1801.

The second post-office in Sumner was established at East Sumner in 1832, with Dr. Bethuel Cary aspostmaster, an office he continued to hold for twenty seven years.

The western part of the town got their mail from Paris for many years; this part of the town was not settled as soon as the East.

The first settlers here came about 1800, and in 1811, William Cobb bought the lot containing the mill privilege from the state of Massachusetts, it be-, ing the lot reserved by the State in 1787. He probably built the mills here about 1812, and afterwards sold them to Alphæus S. Drake who ran them for some years.

The third Post-office in town was established in 1833, here in West Sumner. Henry Howe was postmaster. He was succeeded in 1837 by Whitney Cummings, who held the office until 1855.

The town had a steady growth for the first fifty. years of its coporate life.

In 1790 there were one hundred and eighty-nine

persons in both plantations. The population increased rapidly, and in 1820, at the time of the separation from Massachusetts, there were one thousand inhabitants in Sumner alone. These increased to nearly thirteen hundred in 1840, but the census in 1850, showed a decrease which has progressed steadily until in the census of 1890 Sumner was credited with nine hundred inhabitants.

The causes of this decrease are not far to seek. Between 1840 and 1860 the great west was opened, and young men emigrated to those fertile prairie lands. In 1849, gold was discovered in California, and drew still others from the town.

From 1860 to 1870, the civil war decimated the ranks of the younger men, and the population fell nearly fifty between 1870 and 1880. In the next ten

years the town lost only fifteen. To-day the tide has turned, and Sumner probably has a greater population than ten years ago.

I purposely refrain from mentioning the events of the last half century. These will be rehearsed here this afternoon by those who have been actors in them. We have with us today those whose lives and memories cover almost the full century of Sumner's history.

It has been my task to recall the memories of still more ancient times; of the founders and the fore fathers. But the history of a century cannot be crowded into an hour, and time forbids us to dwell longer on this theme.

It is not necessary to claim that our ancestors on this soil were in all things perfect or altogether faultless men in order to point to them as in many ways our benefactors.

Their toils and struggles, their sacrifices and prayers, their counsels, faith and patience, have all entered into the long process through which this town has become what it is; and have had their results in the material, the moral, the intellectual, and the spiritual well being which we recognize as our

heritage today.

"The good men do lives after them; the ill is oft intered with their bones."

Then all honor to these men.

But what of the coming century?

At the celebration of the Bi-centennial of this town in 1998, what will be said of us?

Shall it be said of us that we maintained the integrity, fidelity and honesty which was our inheri tance from our fathers?

Amid all this rejoicing and jubille let us not forget their examples, and strive to emulate their virtues.

"God of our days! Thy guiding power
Sustained the lonely pioneer

Who first beneath the forest's shade

His evening hearth fire kindled here;

To Thee a welcome sacrifice;

It's smoke ascending to the skies.