How First Settler Trekked from Massachusetts 125 Years Ago and Made Settlement "Interesting Chat about Severy Hill" How First Settler Trekked from Massachusetts 125 Years Ago and Made Settlement From: the Franklin Journal and Farmington Chronicle, newspaper Dated 3 February, 1931, p.1         One of the oldest and best agricultural districts of Dixfield is situated just South of the pleasant village of East Dixfield, and known far and wide as Severy Hill.  It comprises a tract of land about two miles square in the northeast corner of Dixfield, extending to Jay line on the East and to the Wilton line on the North.         Its first settler was Aaron Severy from Massachusetts, who having preempted a lot of land in the district of Maine which then belonged to Massachusetts, he on one bright May morning in 1805 started from his home in foot with an axe and gun and an abundance of courage and perserverence to take possession of his land in Maine.          He arrived at Livermore Falls, the last village on his route, the last days of May, and securing a small sack of meal continued his course, part of the way by spotted trees, he arrived at a large stone near the corner of his lot late in the afternoon, where he lay down for the night to rest for the first time on land that was to become one of the good farms in Dixfield.        The next morning he was up with the sun and after constructing a small cabin proceeded to fell trees and make the first clearing for miles around.  Mr. Severy was a very industrious and persevering man, with a constitution to back it up, and on the 4th of July he celebrated the day by limbing down the last tree on a ten-acre fell piece.  He occupied himself the next two months in surveying his premises and building a hovel for his oxen, which he expected the next season, and on the last day of August he set fire to his fell piece.  He got an excellent burn, and the 15th of October found it all cleared and fitted for the harrow.  Then he returned to Massachusetts for the Winter.         The next Spring, some time in April, he started again from Massachusetts with a yoke of oxen and a set of harrow teeth and a few necessaries.  Arriving at Livermore Falls, he procured some grain for seed and proceeded to his new farm.         He got his seed in the ground in good season and it yielded a bountiful crop.  While the grain was growing he was busy building a house for his family, which we learn was a little better type than the ordinary log house, being made of hewn timber.  He harvested his crop in due season and using a large flat ledge for a threshing floor he threashed his grain and stored it in a crib constructed of hewn timber and covered with bark, and said to be waterproof, where it kept in good condition until the next Summer.       Taking his oxen to Canton Point, he hired Simon Coolidge to Winter them and returned to Massachusetts.  The next Spring he brought his family to their new home.  Here he lived and prospered and developed one of the fine farms on Severy Hill.  Some years later he built the two-story house now owned by Arthur Hathaway, located a few rods from where he spent his first night in Maine.  The old house, with its twelve-inch walls of brick manufactured at the foot of Severy Hill, still stands in its preserved condition, a monument to the thrift and industry of Aaron Severy.*        Aaron had three brothers who all came to Maine the next year.  Their names were Asa, Archibald and Samuel.  Asa and Archibald took up land adjoining Aaron, but Samuel located near the Carthage line, on Hiscock Hill.  One day as Asa was felling trees he heard the sound of a woodman's axe in a northeasternly direction and started out to investigate, and going down through the valley which is now East Dixfield village and climbing a long hill, he found a man felling trees.  This trail is supposed to be the first trail ever trod by a white man between Severy and Walker Hills, and a portion of it was the same route now occupied by the new Federal Road, where it is no uncommon thing to see 200 autos pass in a single day.       The man he met felling trees was Osgood Walker, the first settler on the hill that bears his name.  This meeting was the beginning of a long and permanent friendship between the Severys and Walkers and resulted in the marriage of Asa Severy and Mr. Walker's sister, Hettie.  Later on, other marriages occured between the families.  Moody Walker, son of Osgood, was brought up in the family of Asa Severy, who had a son William who built the fine set of buildings now owned by Mrs. Gertrude Holman, and was the father of Dr. James Severy, who for many years was an honored citizen of Farmington.        Other early settlers of Severy Hill were Simon Coolidge, Moses Coolidge, John Tucker, Captain MacIntire, Abijah Douglass, Joseph Peterson, Israel Richmond, James Townsend, James Hubbard, Enoch Chase, William Morse, Phineous Brown, and Jacob Severy.      Aaron's sons were Aaron, Jr., John T., Rufus, Silas, Alden and Cyrus.  All settled on Severy Hill, or near by.  He also had four daughters, all married and settled near by.  Clarinda married Frederick Butterfield of Wilton, whom many of the older generation will remember as a noted cattle buyer, when he took large droves to Brighton on foot.  He has a son and daughter residing at East Dixfield, G. P. Butterfield and Edith A. Butterfield.  Aaron Severy also has a grandson, Dr. Frank Morse, residing at Canton.  Moses Coolidge has a namesake residing at East Dixfield of the fifth generation.  John Tucker has a grandson of his name living on the farm he cleared from the wilderness.  Abijah Douglass has two great-grandsons, Merion and Roy Douglass, now living at Severy Hill, Simon Coolidge has five in the sixth generation, Harry Coolidge of Severy Hill, A.W. and O.J. Coolidge of East Dixfield, Mrs. A. M. Alden of East Dixfield, and Delmont Coolidge on the Willard Paine farm in Jay....Captain MacIntire has one daughter living past 80 in good health, Mrs. Mary Coolidge of Dixfield.      The people of Severy Hill early saw the advantage of raising fruit and the most of them planted extensive orchards, and at one time it was called the greatest apple section in this part of the County, and is still furnishing fine fruit for the market.      Before the days of grafted fruit nearly every farm had a dry kiln where the product of the orchard was converted into dried apple, which sold from 10 cents to 5 cents per pound.  Warren Severy, son of Archibald, quite often dried a ton or more of apples from his orchard and bought of his neighbors, so quite often had several tons of dried apples to take to market and gained the title of a dried apple merchant.      The first mail that entered Dixfield was from Jay Hill to Dixfield Center, where the first postoffice was established.  This route passed over Severy Hill, by the residence of Aaron Severy, and was run by Harry Haynes, who delivered mail along the route.  After the postoffice was established at East Dixfield, this route was discontinued, and history is repeating itself, for Severy Hill people get their mail from an R. F. D. route from North Jay.      Severy Hill was considered a quiet, peaceable community, but every place has its little scrap and the Browns, who lived near the South end of the Hill, had some boys who did not always have due respect for the law, and their farm embraced a portion of Hepsy Brown Mountain, which was a noted blueberry field, and the Browns objected to outside people berrying there, and one day a party of six or eight men and women from the Flagg neighborhood appeared with their little baskets (the Flaggs were basket makers) to go blueberrying.  One of the Browns whom they called Young Phin, appeared followed by the rest of the Browns, and told the Flagg crew they could go no farther in that direction.  In the invading crew one John Flagg, - who was quite a scrapper - seeing an old scythe snath on the fence, seized it with the remark that "we must mow before we can pitch," he pitched in and drove the Browns to cover and led his crew to the mountain.  The Browns talked of prosecution, but nothing was done about it.       This district has always maintained a high standard of schools, employing some of the best teachers to be found.  At one time it had more students than any district in town, reaching nearly one hundred pupils, and still maintains its position as the third largest.  One of the early teachers was Isaac Morse, a son of one of the pioneers, who taught over 50 pupils without an assistant.      The old brick schoolhouse which served the place for a hundred years was displaced a few years ago by a more modern wooden structure and stands on a solid ledge near the spot where the young people would test their knowledge of the spelling book and develop their ability as debaters.      On one occasion they were discussing the relative intelligence of men and women and Will Carver, quite a gifted young man made a very earnest plea in favor of the women, and on sitting down, his cousin, Forest Ludden, who, by the way, is now a noted attorney in Auburn, arose and said that after listening to the able argument of the gentleman last up, he felt proud that his mother was a woman.  This closed the debate, with a victory for the women.      Long before there was any church in East Dixfield there was a Free Baptist Church organized at Severy Hill, with over 50 members and a Sabbath School of 40 pupils taught by Aunt Polly Walker Severy, wife of one of the pioneers.  Some of the early preachers were Rev. Hubbard Chandler and Rev. Mr. Ealy.      Severy Hill has always been an important factor in the management of town affairs, and some of the men that have been called from here to serve the town in an official capacity were Daniel Tucker, Albion Holman, Albion Douglass, Claude Averill, W. W. Rollins, and N. H. Campbell.        Severy Hill has a very respectable cemetery, well fenced and cared for, where rest many of the pioneers and their descendants, containing many fine headstones and costly monuments, one erected by the descendants of Enoch Chase.      An event, although a boy at the time, remains very vivid in my mind.  In the political campaign of 1860, when Lincoln was running for President, there was a political rally arranged for some time in August at Dixfield Village.  At this time the town was strong Democratic, but it so happened that almost every person on Severy Hill was for Lincoln, and they resolved to make a demonstration on that occasion, as they pooled their efforts and constructed two huge cars near the corner of the roads near the Aaron Severy place, each with a capacity of 30 or 40 passengers and each built on four large cart wheels.      So they mustered all the oxen to be had, which was said to be about 20 pairs to a car, and on the morning of the rally people gathered from miles around to have a free ride to Dixfield.  All aboard, down they went through the valley, across the bridge that creaked under its unusual burden, up over Science Hill by Dixfield Center, down the western decline to the river road.      Here they shackled the two cars together and hitched the oxen in one team, and with waving flags and floating streamers, with the yokes on the oxen decorated for the occasion, they rolled into the village, the most imposing pageant that ever traversed the roads of Dixfield, and were greated with shouts of welcome and three cheers for Lincoln and his following from Severy Hill. - N. H. Campbell * The Severy House no longer stands.      Permission to post article at this site granted by Janet Warner at the Franklin Journal and Farmington Chronicle newspaper. Thanks Janet! (9 July 1997) ******************************************************************* Cheryl Kelso * * * * NOTICE: Printing the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. * * * * The USGenWeb Project makes no claims or estimates of the validity of the information submitted and reminds you that each new piece of information must be researched and proved or disproved by weight of evidence. It is always best to consult the original material for verification.