The Frost Garrisons

 

1738 Frost Garrison 

When learning about Eliot history we hear a lot about "The Frost Garrisons".  Not to be confused with "The Frost Garrison".  How many can locate it or really know what it is?  What is the difference between "The Frost Garrisons" and "The Frost Garrison"?  There are currently three locations in Eliot that are on the National Register of Historic Places.  The William Fogg Library, the Paul Family Farm, and the Frost Garrison and House.  

2014 Clean Up

I will admit that for a long time after I started researching Eliot history I still did not know much about the Frost Garrisons.  I had never even seen the site until I volunteered on a work crew in 2014 to provide much needed clean-up and brush clearing around the old structures.

What and Where is it?

The Frost Garrisons are three structures all built within a few years of each other starting in 1733 by Colonel John Frost (b. 1709)  The three structures are located at 23 Garrison Drive in Eliot.  The original land on which the garrisons stand encompassed about 140 acres and was known as Stony Brook Farm.  The Town of Kittery granted this land to Charles Frost in 1660.  Stony Brook was one of the ancient names for the York River.

Frost Hill today

  The Stony Brook land was given to Charles's second son John Frost (b. 1681) in his will after he died at Ambush Rock in 1697.  John Frost was residing at Newcastle, NH and had no immediate need for the land, but did apparently build a house and barn here in which a tenant lived.  In 1730 (York Deeds Book 14 Folio 59) he sold this Stony Brook property to his son Colonel John Frost for 1,000 pounds.

1736 Powder House

Colonel John Frost quickly set to work building his homestead upon Frost Hill.  The main house was constructed about 1735 and finished in 1736.  The smaller garrison structure which became known as the "Powder house" was probably constructed next, followed by the larger garrison house constructed in 1738.  Why were these garrison structures built at this time?  Colonel John Frost was building his homestead in a fairly isolated part of Kittery.  And his family was very familiar with the dangers posed by the historically bad relations with the Native populations.  By 1730, most of the Wabenaki Confederacy had abandoned their coastal settlements and pulled back further inland and north to Canada, but there were still skirmishes related to the ongoing wars on the frontiers.  Colonel John Frost had lost his grandfather Charles to an Indian attack 33 years earlier.  Building garrisons as a precaution was still a prudent measure in 1730.  

1736 Frost House

 

The application for acceptance of the Frost Garrison property into the National Register of Historic Places mentions that the original Frost house was destroyed in 1760 and rebuilt in 1778,  I have not found any evidence of this.  In fact a descendant of Colonel John Frost who was living in the house in 1836, Joseph W. Frost provided a written certification that he discovered a record of the building of his house that stated the chimneys were finished in 1736.  I believe at the time of this application to the NRHP there was confusion between the Colonel John Frost Garrison and the Major Charles Frost Garrison which actually was destroyed in 1760.  The Charles Frost Garrison stood just south of the sharp bend on Goodwin Road and will be the subject of a future blog article.

The description as part of the NRHP application mentions there was once a tunnel that led from the main house to the smaller garrison house as a means to evacuate the house for the safety of the garrison in the event of an attack.  It would be interesting to find evidence of this tunnel.

Were there Indian attacks?

Joseph W. Frost cites 1736 document

It is also mentioned in the history of the Frost Garrison site submitted to the NRHP that there is evidence of arrow and bullet attacks upon the garrison.  I have not found any evidence that any Indian attacks occurred within the boundaries of the Town of Kittery after 1730.  Most of the ongoing battles at this time occurred much further inland.  The most known battle was the 1725 Battle of Pequawket fought at the site of present-day Fryeburg, Maine as part of the end of "Dummer's War".

20th Century

1984 Subdivision

The Frost Garrisons known for many years as the Frost Farm at Frost Hill remained in the Frost Family for 287 years until 1947.  The property was eventually sold in 1969 to Joseph Parsons who was the owner when the application was approved for the National Register of Historic Places.

By 1984 the 100 acre property went through a subdivision.  So today the Frost Garrisons lie on a 4.7 acre lot surrounded by a modern residential development.

I have mentioned a couple of examples of how the John Frost Garrisons is often confused with the original Frost Garrison of Charles Frost.  If you look up the Frost Garrisons on the Internet you will see the repeated mistake that it is the ancestral home of the poet Robert Frost.  The Charles Frost Garrison is the ancestral home of Robert Frost, not the Colonel John Frost Garrisons.  

Today 

Author & Son 2014

People sometimes ask the Eliot Historical Society if the Frost Garrisons is a publicly accessible site and can it be visited freely.  The answer right now is no.  The property has always been privately owned.  So any visit should be with the property-owner's permission.  There is an easement with the property that any work proposed on either of the three buildings requires an opinion from the Maine Historical Preservation Commission.  It would be a tragedy to lose such a historical treasure which is why a number of us gathered in a cold steady rain in 2014 to cut away vegetation that was overtaking the structures.  The nature of the property as a private residence means future generations rely on owners who have a passion for preserving the history of their property.

The Hammonds of Old Road

Old Road circa 1910

On a frigid Thursday morning on the last day of January in 1952, Edgar A. Hammond, a man who lived all of his life on his Old Road farm, died at a nursing home in Eliot.  He was a month into his 81st year and with his death came an end to 253 continuous years in which men with the Hammond name would be associated with that part of Joseph Hammond's original Bay Lands estate along the "Old Road".  Edgar was the last of the line as he was unmarried, and all his male cousins had moved away from the ancestral lands.  The Hammond girls married into other local families and also moved away, their Hammond roots becoming intertwined with other old families of Eliot and beyond.

Bay Lands 1699

First Generation (1699 - 1722)

Joseph Hammond (born 1647) acquired these lands in 1699.  Joseph Hammond was an important early figure in the history of Kittery's "Upper Parish".  He was already established in a large estate located where the Eliot Boat Basin is today.  It was his grandsons Joseph Hammond, and George Hammond who were born in 1701 and 1704 who first settled on these lands in the 1720's.  George would settle on the upper portion that included a part of the Great Heathy Marsh, while Joseph settled on the lower portion closest to the Piscataqua River along Old Road.

The house or house site of Joseph Hammond is pictured at the top of this article.  The current address is 152 Old Road.  This house may have been a rebuild of the original.  More research would need to be done to determine this.  But it is likely this was the original site of Joseph Hammond's Old Road homestead.  In 1753 Joseph's father Joseph died and left him the property on which he was currently residing.

Will of Joseph Hammond 1751

1722 - 1779

Joseph Hammond who established the homestead on Old Road married Mary Adams in 1722.  They had a large family of 3 daughters and 5 sons but only two sons lived past childhood, Thomas, born in 1737 and Christopher, born in 1740.  Thomas served as a Lieutenant in the American Revolution in Captain Elisha Shapleigh's Company attached to Colonel Joseph Storer's Regiment that was part of the Saratoga Campaign in 1777.

Surrender of Burgoyne 1777

Joseph Hammond divided his land between Thomas and Christopher in his will of 1772.  Christopher sold his share in 1790 and moved north to Berwick and Thomas kept his half of the  Old Road homestead after his father died in 1779.  William Fogg writes about 1850 that Thomas lived in the house where his grandson Daniel was living in 1850.  This would be the house currently at 162 Old Road.  Thomas married Mary Rogers, the daughter of the Reverend John Rogers in 1763.  They had a small family, a daughter Mary born in 1764 and a son Joseph born in 1768.  Mary married William Jones of Portsmouth in 1784.  Mary and William built a house down the road which is the house at 170 Old Road.

1784 House & Old Acre circa 1910

 1780 - 1820

Mary and William had a son, born in their new Old Road home, named William, but after a few years relocated to Portsmouth.  Their son William would become a successful merchant and have a daughter Elizabeth who married Alexander Hamilton Ladd   and lived in the Moffat-Ladd house in Portsmouth.   Mary and William sold their house to her younger brother Joseph.

Joseph married Mary Staples in 1789. Joseph and Mary had a large family and four of their sons settled on the Old Road homestead.  The oldest son Daniel Rogers, was born in 1791.  Capt. Pierpont Hammond in 1793 died at the age of 42 in 1835, Joseph was born in 1796, and Thomas was born in 1803. 

1820 - 1860

1856 Map of Old Road

Daniel Rogers Hammond

 Daniel R. Hammond married Sally Remick in 1817 and lived in his grandfather's house with his own family.  They had three girls, Mary, Susan, and Eliza, born in 1821, 1824, and 1830. They lived at the house at 162 Old Road.

Joseph Hammond

Joseph Hammond married Sarah Frost in 1820 and lived in the original home of his great grandfather at 152 Old Road.  This home originally was owned by his brother Capt. Pierpont Hammond who died tragically in New Orleans in 1835.  Joseph and Mary had 6 children, three boys and three girls.  All of their children left the family homestead.

Thomas Hammond

Thomas Hammond married Rosanna Goodwin in 1825.  They had 8 children, but only one, Daniel Goodwin Hammond stayed on the Old Road homestead.  They lived in the 1784 Hammond house at 170 Old Road.  Thomas went to California briefly during the 1849 Gold Rush.

1860 - 1952

170 Old Road "1784 House"

Daniel G. Hammond

Daniel Hammond

Daniel Hammond, the son of Thomas and Rosanna built a fourth Hammond house just to the west of his father's house.  He was married twice and in his second marriage had a son, Edgar.  Daniel's father Thomas died in 1871.  Around 1880 he sold his house to Sylvester Staples who had it moved by an oxen team to his property on Beech Road.  Daniel and his family continued to live in the 1784 house at 170 Old Road, and the old cellar hole remains where his house once stood.  Daniel died in 1899, and left the farm to his son Edgar who lived here mostly by himself for the next 53 years.

Mary & Susan Hammond 

162 Old Road "Old Acre"

Mary and Susan Hammond were two daughters of Daniel R. Hammond who continued to live in their father's house at 162 Old Road after their father died in 1872 and their mother in 1881.  They both seem to have remained unmarried and both died in 1904.  Their house came into possession of Marietta Hammond, Edgar's stepsister, who died in 1930 and in her will left the house to the First Congregational Society.  The house became known as "Old Acre" and remained the property of the Congregational Church until 1962.

Joseph & Sarah Hammond

 

152 Old Road

Joseph Hammond and his wife Sarah lived out their days alone in their home, the original homestead.  Joseph died in 1863 and Sarah lived alone for the next two decades until she died in 1885.  The house most likely fell to their son Pierpont Hammond who seems to have sold it to Dr. John L. M. Willis in 1888.  Dr. Willis sold it to his daughter and her husband, Gail and Albert E. Libbey in 1918 and it has stayed in the Willis family ever since.

There is more research to be done, for example I recently discovered that Christopher Hammond sold his home in 1790 and moved north to Berwick, but where was this home?  The Indexbook for the York County Registry offers an interesting clue:

John Fogg is said to have purchased the house which became the home of Dr. John L. M. Willis in 1775 from a "Mr. Dixon".  This story is first recorded in "Old Kittery and Her Families" by Everett Stackpole.  But I find no evidence of a deed from 1775 to John Fogg.  This 1790 deed from Christopher Hammond to John Fogg is the closest I can find.  I am intrigued and will research this further, and provide an update. 

UPDATE:  See my latest update on this research.