The Dyer Family & the OLDEST HOUSE IN FRANKLIN COUNTY 
from the Sprague's Journal of Maine History; vol 11 page 33


Contributed by Androscoggin Historical Society
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 (Franklin Journal, June 12, 1914)
 OLDEST HOUSE IN FRANKLIN COUNTY
 (Historic mansion on the Dodge Farm in Freeman has many unusual anecdotes)

 Ninety-six years ago the fourth of June there passed away
 in the town of Freeman, a woman whose history was closely
 allied with that of the nation's struggle for independence, and
 within the confines of her son's estate at West Freeman her
 body now rests in a grave marked with a simple white marble
 ,lab inscribed: "My Mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Dyar, died June 4,
 1818, aged 67. All flesh is as grass." It was erected by Elder
 Joseph Dyar, her oldest son, who emigrated from Malden,
 Mass., to the province of Maine, in 1806, and settled in Phil-
 lips, where he became the leading Free Baptist of that section.
 Elizabeth Nichols, the mother, was born in 1751, and was
 united in marriage with Joseph Dyar, May 2, 1771. Mr. Dyar
 was born in England in 1747. When still a young man he
 came to this country and became a sea captain, sailing from
 Boston in the foreign trade. At the outbreak of the Revolu-
 tionary War he was engaged in carrying supplier for the
 American Army to Long Island. In this hazardous under-
 taking he was seized nine times by the British in their en-
 deavor to make him desert the American cause. The last time
 I his occurred he was stripped, severely flogged and kept with-
 out food for three days, from the effects of which he never re-
 covered. Dec. 16, 1773, he was the leader of the "Indians"
 who boarded the ships in Boston Harbor and formed the fa-
 mous "Tea Party, and his good wife Elizabeth, then but 22
 years of age, was one of those who prepared and applied the
 stain that transformed white men into fierce Mohawks. At
 east corner of the farm is this sinlge mound burying ground,
 where reposes the remains of one who helped to make Ameri-
 can history.