The convenience, dispatch and comfort of journeying now are in strange contrast with the discomfort and hardships of traveling at the opening of the present century. At the opening of the year 1805, there were living in Hopkinton, N. H., three families who had determined to leave the homes of their birth, the friends of their youth, and the associations of their earlier life and establish new homes in a remote township of eastern Maine. These were the families of Amos Gordon, including himself, his wife, several sons and four daughters, whose names were Polly, Betsey, Nancy and Miriam, John Chandler and family, consisting of himself, his wife and several children, among whom was our late and well remembered citizen, James J. Chandler, then a boy of seven years; Moses Gordon and his wife and a daughter of fourteen months. The families were accompanied by Jeremiah Flanders and Sampson Silver, who afterwards became citizens of the township. The latter was a brother of Moses Gordon's wife. The company of emigrants embraced men and women in the vigor of life, boys and girls and children of tender age. Early in February, their preparations having been completed, they bade adieu to relatives and friends whom they might never again see, and taking passage upon open sleds they committed themselves to a sea of snow of uncommon depth even for an old-fashioned New England winter. The journey was made with horse teams. They were obliged to take with them supplies both for the journey and for immediate use at the journey's end, and such household goods as were necessary to meet the simple requirements of pioneer life.

They had scarcely started on their journey when then encountered a storm, which was the first of a succession of storms that assailed them almost every day until they reached the end. There was an unlimited expanse of deep snow on every side of them and furious clouds of snow, driven by fierce winds, above them. The several teams, though traveling as near each other as was consistent with convenience and safety, were sometimes hidden from each other through almost the entire day in "the tumultuous privacy of storm." There was, however, one mitigating circumstance. Much of the latter part of their route led them through dense forests that shielded them somewhat from the violence of the storms. But their progress was toilsome and tedious. Much of the country through which they passed was sparsely settled. There were but few public houses on the latter part of their route, but the hospitality of the scattered families was limited only by their ability. When this party of emigrants reached the town of Harmony, they were tendered the use of the house and barn of Mr. Leighton, who, with his worthy wife, administered to their wants and comfort to the full extent of their ability. Mrs. Leighton had, a few months earlier, presented her husband with twin children, who, disturbed by some of the ills of childhood, cried vociferously through a large part of the night. The mother walked the room with them, carrying each by turn, endeavoring to soothe them by singing that grand old tune, Old Hundred. It was a satisfaction to know that reared by such a mother, under the inspiration of such music, they became substantial citizens of an intelligent community.

The snow had reached such depth when the party arrived at Harmony that a detention of several days seemed inevitable. The sleds were unloaded and the men started with their teams with the intention of breaking their way to the end of their route. When they had reached the next township, now Ripley, they were much elated to find that, in anticipation of their coming, the settlers of Lincolntown had broken the way through the snow to that point as an expression of their satisfaction at the prospect of so large an accession to their numbers.

Returning to Harmony the party reloaded their sleds and renewed their journey. At nightfall they found themselves within the limits of the present town of Dexter, where they passed the night in an old camp. The night of the next day, February 22, 1805, found them at the end of their journey. They had taken twenty-one days to perform a journey of about two hundred miles. The fast sailing steamers of the present day would make their trips across the Atlantic Ocean and return in an equal period of time. Amos and Moses Gordon, with their families, went directly to the log house that had been built the preceding autumn, where they quickly started a fire with fuel that had been prepared and left in the house.

When ready to cook their first meal Mr. Gordon, assuming a mysterious air, went to a barrel that at the close of the previous season's operations had been left partly filled with pork, intending to surprise the hungry members of his household with a generous piece of that article. The surprise complete - but Mr. Gordon was the individual surprised. In the interval between autumn and the time of the arrival of the family some of the original dwellers of the "forest primeval" had appropriated the meat.

John Chandler and family spent the first night in Lincolntown with the family of Joseph Garland. Afterwards they were quartered a few weeks with the family of Justus Harriman.