"FROM WHERE AND WHENCE THEY CAME....."

Joshua Frye (1779-1864)

Of all the ancestors in my direct line back to John Ffrie, Joshua Frye is the one for whom I have the least information. He's a bit of an enigma in the sense that very little has been recorded in family journals about him.

I do know that he was born December 21, 1779, in Wilton, NH and that he married Lois L. Farrington. Lois was born March 4, 1784 in Hubbardston, MA. This couple had three children:
Betsey Frye, born September 6, 1807, died June 5, 1885
Abiel Holt Frye, born June 18, 1809, died June 21, 1886
Harvey Farrington Frye, born July 16, 1814, died January 12, 1896
Lois died in 1815 at the age of 31. Her youngest son, Harvey was less than a year old at the time.
Joshua remarried on May 19, 1831 to Lucy Jones.
Joshua is listed in the 1850 census as being a farmer in Wilton, NH. By that time, his son, Abiel had married Lemira Tupper and he also was a farmer with three children of his own. Harvey, now a teamster and married to Jane Drury had a place of their own, and the daughter, Betsey, was married to Timothy Holt of Wilton, who was also a farmer.
Joshua was in his 70's by then and was married to his second wife, Lucy Jones.
Joshua died June 20, 1864 in Wilton, NH at age 84. His time in this life was shared with the likes of Beethoven, Monet and Van Gogh, although I wonder if a simple farmer in rural New Hampshire would have known of these people. His life had spanned the presidencies from Washington to Lincoln and in his final years, the War Between the States must have been on his mind and that of his family.
I will do my best to find out more information about Joshua. It seems odd that there is so much information about the generations preceding and following him, but so little about him. A good project for a rainy day, and I will be more than happy to share anything new with you.
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