Fryeburg Academy - Academy Bell Yearbook (Fryeburg, ME)

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7 Literary Department a. THE ANNIVERSARY OF LOVEWELL'S FIGHT Daniel Webster once said, It is a noble faculty of our nature which enables us to connect our thoughts and sympathies with that which is distant in time or place. We will, therefore, go back to the time two hundred years ago, when our beauti- ful village in the valley of the White Mountains was a wilderness, inhab- ited only by the savage Indian tribes. Corn, beans, and pumpkins were the chief crops raised by the Pequaw- ket tribe. Indians followed the rule, 'tBegin planting corn when oak leaf grows big as a mouse's ear. Tradition says that when summer iiies and mosquitoes interrupted comforts in the home woods, the red warriors who inhabited our village used to make their way toward the sea coast over the part now known as the Pequawket Trail. Of worthy Captain Lovewell, I now pur- pose to sing, How valiantly he served his country and his King, He and his valiant soldiers did range the woods full wide, And hardships they endured to quell the Indian's pride. 'Twas nigh unto Pequawket on the eighth day of May, They spied a rebel Indian, soon after .break of dayg He on a bank was walking,-upon a neck of land, Which leads into a pond as we're made to understand. The event mentioned in this poem was the beginning of that memor- able battle which has made our pond famous. On the seventh day of May in the year 1925, three of the Old Indian chiefs who had fought in the great battle known as Lovewell's fight, were smoking their peace pipes in the Happy Hunting Ground, and talking about that great event which had happened two hundred years be- fore. Q After talking it over they de- cided ,to go to the Great Spirit and persuade Him to let them go back on earth. After pleading with him for a long time they finally obtained his permission, but he told them they must be invisible to the human eye. Early in the morning on the eighth day of May the three old Indian chiefs came to earth to the place that is now Bradley Park. The first strange things they saw were, as they expressed it, lanterns hung on poles. These frightened them greatly, but the bravest of them started on down Main street and the other two finally gathered courage to follow him. When they saw the wide road they thought that millions of Palefaces must have tramped over that trail to make it so wide and smooth. Next, they noticed the houses, and tried to imagine living in them. As they walked on, they saw two big lights coming straight toward them. They were frightened. but had presence of mind enough to

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Editorials THE ACADEMY BELL This is the only issue of the Acad- emy Bell published for this year and is in the hands of a practically new Editorial Board. We are striving to make this a bigger and better pa- per , glance it through and see if you don't find it so. We appreciate the interest that you have taken in this number, and the fact that you have helped us whenever it was possible. All We ask of you now is to help us boost the Academy Bell higher than the sky. Much credit is due to Mrs. Hasty, Miss Coburn, and Mr. Stack, who have so generously and faithfully helped us to make this a successful paper. This is not mainly a Senior issue but a paper to which all the classes have contributed. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF. OUR NEW GYM The Harvey D. Gibson Gymnas- ium is 40 ft. x 80 ft. with a 9-ft. con- crete basement under the whole building. At the entrance are double doors with two pillars on each side. The steps are of concrete. Bleachers to seat two hundred and twenty-five are on the side of the main floor. The clear space of the floor is 79 ft. by 30 ft. The main room has an arched ceiling' 22 ft. clear in the center. It is finished in clear south- ern pine. On October 9, 1924, under the di- rection of Col. J. Stewart Barrows, the corner stone of the new Gymnas- ium was laid. Mrs. Ella Fogg-Hasty, for fifteen years preceptress of Frye- burg Academy, was chosen to put in the first shovel full of cementg this was followed by remarks from Caleb A. Page, a former principal, Head- master LaCasce, Mr. Mclntire, and Col. Barrows. After this, each pupil threw in a handful of mud for luck. Work progressed rapidly on the building, so that on January 7, 1925, it was completed and the new Gymnasium was opened to the pub- lic and friends who had worked so long and so earnestly for its comple- tion. The Alumni played with the Academy team, the game resulting in a score of 21 to 17. Four pieces of music furnished music for danc- ing which was enjoyed by more than two hunderd and fifty friends and guests.

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8 The Academy Bell jump to one side just as a big cart rumbled by with a funny little red light in back. They couldn't imag- ine what made it go, for there were no horses to pull it. The old war- riors solemnly shook their grizzled heads and walked on. After a while they ventured into a house that was ablaze with lights. In a large room they saw a big horn standing on a table. They could hear a man talking, but could not see him. They were terribly frightened at first, but finally crept closer to the queer looking contraption, and saw the letters R-A-D-I-O, but of course they could not read them These chiefs who had faced death in many a war and had lived for two hundred years in the Happy Hunt- ing Ground, were baffled for first, time, they had seen lanterns on poles, then they had seen a wagon with two bright lights in front, but no horse to pull it 3 and now, they were hearing a man talking but could not :ge him. He seemed to be inside a large horn. They couldn't under- stand it at all. Suddenly they heard music, and too excited for Words they rushed out of the building and started towards Lovewell's pond. As they walked down the old Indian trail to the pond they seemed to feel more at home in this strange land of queer people. The only thing that seemed the same was the forest they had loved so well. Not far away they could see again our Jockey Cap, the boulder which they had used for an outlook from which to warn the Indian tribes when white men or hostile Indians were approaching. As they neared Love- wellfs pond they saw a big rock on which was a bronze tablet all cov- ered with queer writing. They, how- ever, had no way of knowledge that this was our battle monument. They sat down on the shore and talked about that eventful morning just two hundred years before. On that morning they had been standing on the shore when they hard ,a shot. That shot had come from the gun of Captain John Lovewell, who was known and feared by the Indians. How did they happen to be so far from their homes? Years before some of the settlers had cheated the Indians. The hatred of Squando, one of the chiefs of the Sokois tribe, had been aroused by the cruel act of a white sailor, Who, just to see if a papoose could swim, had tipped over a canoe in which Squan- do's squaw and papoose were com- ing down the river. The child sank to the bottom, but the mother res- cued it. Soon the child grew weak- er and weaker, and finally died. Thus the thoughtlessness of a few white men had brought the hatred of all the Indians on the white settlers, John Lovewell askled permisslion of the Massachusetts Legislature to form a company of rangers to hunt and kill the Indians, because the In- dians had massacred so many white settlers. So on this morning in May, John Lovewell and his company ar- rived at what is now Lovewell's pond. There were thirty-four men in the company. Although the Indi-