back from the Kennebec, was so far completed as to be occupied for the first time November 4. This structure long ago disappeared, together with the parsonage-house adjacent, although the site, with the graves in the churchyard, is distinctly traceable; but it has been succeeded by a modern edifice at Dresden Mills village, where Episcopal services are still sometimes conducted.

In 1765, a young attorney, thirty years of age, named John Adams, afterward second president of the United States, attended court in the old court house, as counsel for the Plymouth company. He experienced great difficulty on his journey, including falling sick by the way, but finally reached here, gained his case, and became counsel for the company in all their cases on the Kennebec. He felt great interest in the place, then "at the remotest verge of civilization" as he expressed it. In 1817, in a letter to William Tudor, he expressed great regret that its name had been changed from Pownalborough to Dresden.

June 25, 1794, that part of the town, known as the west precinct of Pownalborough, was incorporated as Dresden, the name being proposed by Doctor Ernst Frederick Philip Theobald. Doctor Theobald was born in a small town in the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Cassel, Germany, December 2, 1750, and graduated at the then celebrated university of Gottingen, in 1774. He was chaplain and surgeon in that division of General John Burgoyne's army, which was under the immediate command of the Baron de Riedesel. Burgoyne's triumphal march from Quebec via lakes Champlain and George, ended in surrender to the American Generals Gates and Arnold at Saratoga, October 17, 1777. Baron Riedesel is mentioned by Massachusetts historians as among the prisoners of war paroled at Winter Hill, in the present city of Somerville. The house on Brattle street, in Cambridge, where the Baroness scratched her name with the diamond of her ring on a pane of glass, was standing a short time ago, and I presume is to this day. The young German physician, Doctor Theobald, was paroled with the baron, and hearing of the German colonies at Waldoborough and at Pownalborough, he came to Maine, where tradition says he at first ministered to the spiritual needs of his countrymen, in their native tongue in the old Lutheran church still standing in Waldoborough. Certain it is that he afterward settled in Pownalborough, where he was married to Sally

Rittal by Jonathan Bowman, Esq., in 1781, and where he practiced medicine, was a yearly toll-payer over the lower bridge in Dresden, and where he died in 1808. His descendants still live in Dresden and vicinity.

The French army sent to America in 1780, to aid the colonists, and which was under the command of Count de Rochambeau, contributed Major John Polereczky to the number of early settlers in Dresden. He was town clerk for fifteen years, and lived on the east bank of Eastern river, which stream was for a while called the Sydney, I know not why.

William Willis, in "History of the Law, Courts, and Lawyers of Maine," says, "No place in Maine, previous to the Revolution was so distinguished for its able and talented young men as Pownalborough." He mentions Bailey, Cushing, Langdon, Bowman, Bridge, and others. I have already mentioned Rev. Jacob Bailey. William Cushing was born in Scituate, Massachusetts, in 1733, graduated at Harvard in 1751, removed to Pownalborough, and became the first judge of probate for Lincoln county. He was judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts, in 1772, and in 1789 was appointed by President Washington judge of the United States supreme court. Jonathan Bowman was the second jndge of probate for Lincoln, and also clerk of the courts. Edmund Bridge, fifth in line of descent from the Puritan John Bridge, who about 1635 was deacon of the first church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, settled in Pownalborough in 1760. In 1782, Governor Hancock appointed him sheriff of Lincoln county, which office he held over thirty years. His oldest son James, born in Pownalborough in 1765, read law with Theophilus Parsons, in company with John Quincy Adams. Edmund's fourth son, Samuel, was the father of Samuel James Bridge, born in Dresden in 1809 (June 1). Samuel James Bridge was a merchant in Boston, and United States appraiser there. Afterward he held the office of appraiser-general for the Pacific coast. He is today a resident of Dresden, and is closely connected with the interests of the old town. He is known, as the donor, among other generous gifts, of the statue of John Harvard to the grounds of Harvard college, a few years since, and he is at present interested in educational projects in his native town of Dresden.

The question is not an important one, and yet there is some historic interest attached to it, did Arnold visit Pownalborough? Willis says he did, and such is the tradition in the Bridge and other Dresden families. And yet some have thought the statement of sufficient importance to question its accuracy. In the first volume of Collections of the Maine Historical Society is a special account of Arnold's expedition up the Kennebec, which says that on the 20th of September, 1775, the expedition came to anchor opposite to Pownalborough, and above Swan island. Rev. Mr. Bailey, who, with his little congregation, varying from twenty-five to seventy-five persons, was much disturbed by its presence in the river, alludes to it, although a special account written by him was never published. Certainly it is more than probable that Mr. Willis' account is absolutely correct, as at that time Pownalborough was the most important place on the Kennebec. Edmund Bridge contributed to the funds of the expedition, which was for that period a most difficult as well as a brilliant undertaking.

It is certain that Prince Talleyrand visited Maine in 1794. No doubt that he tarried for a night in the Bridge house, which is still standing in Dresden. North, in his "History of Augusta," says that a young Frenchman, supposed to be the Duke of Orleans, afterward King Louis Philippe, accompanied him. There is some doubt, however, about the Duke of Orleans leaving France until the year 1796, although it is certain that he did visit America, and probably, as Mr. Bridge claims, he also tarried at the Bridge mansion, which at that time served as a sort of relay house between the then important port of Wiscasset and the interior settlements along the Kennebec.

Dresden contributed a delegate to the convention which met in Portland, in 1819, to frame a constitution for the proposed new state of Maine. This delegate was Captain Isaac Lilly, who occupied a farm next north of my own, or near the locality known as Cedar Grove. My own farm was formerly owned and occupied by a Revolutionary soldier-Solomon Blanchard.

I have indicated a few of the milestones set along the pathway of the local historian, who may at some future time interest himself in the romantic annals of a section, into which the student has thus far failed to do more than give a superficial glance,

For although I have confined my remarks to Dresden, equal interest attaches to a large section, of which this town is but a small, although a very important part. My sketch could not be exhaustive, even had I time to make it so. Many of the facts are known to some of you already. I believe that others, which I have presented, are entirely new to you. I trust that all have proved to be interesting to you, as they certainly are to me.

HISTORICAL MEMORANDA,

TRACES OF TALLEYRAND IN MAINE.

IN the April number of this publication are comments upon a tradition. mentioned in the editorial columns of the "Machias Union," of the visit to Maine, as early as 1794, of the famous diplomatist, Talleyrand. Edward H. Daveis Esq. of this city, son of the distinguished and honored early member of the Maine Historical Society, Charles S. Daveis, has presented to that Society two letters, which we publish, in which further traces appear of the visit to Maine of the famous Frenchman. The first is from Judge Nathan Weston, grandfather of the present Chief-Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and is as follows:

Dear Sir:

AUGUSTA, January 18, 1854.

In 1794, if I am right in my reckoning as to time, when I was twelve years old, Talleyrand with another French gentleman, spent a few days in what is now Augusta, then a part of Hallowell. He was known to have been a man of high rank, and a distinguished actor in the French revolution, although the more salient parts of his character had not then been fully developed. My curiosity was strongly excited, and I had many opportunities of seeing him, and noticing his appearance, bearing and deportment, which are strongly impressed on my memory.

He was thin, his complexion dark and sallow, his countenance highly intellectual, indicating deep thought, with an air grave and abstracted. He was lame and walked in the streets with one arm locked in that of his French companion, aided by a cane, in his other hand.

It was then understood that he did not speak English. His companion did. While they were together he inquired of me where they could get some apparatus for angling in the river. He had all the amenity which belongs to his nation; but Talleyrand uniformly preserved, when I saw him, an imperturbable gravity.

His habit of reserve could be more easily maintained, while it was understood that he did not speak English, and he might hope that from this belief others might speak more freely in his presence. He had been a year in a diplomatic capacity in England, and I am well advised that he could speak our language, when he chose to do so.

When in Philadelphia, he was a frequent visitor at the house of Gen. Knox, then secretary of war. His oldest daughter, afterward Mrs. Thacher, stated to me that she had often conversed with Talleyrand in English. On one occasion she spoke favorably to him of a young gentleman, who had just withdrawn. He did not appear to sympathize with her in opinions, but-said in reply: "He is very tall."