Hiding in Plain Sight:
The Friends Church in Fort Fairfield
by Ruth Mraz, afterward by George Montee
Cars and trucks whiz by the Friends Church on
Route 1A leading to Fort Fairfield with occupants hardly
giving it a second glance. And certainly never realizing the
mystery the old building holds. Its past was hidden away
and gently guarded by tight-lipped members of the Society
of Friends (Quakers) who settled in the Maple Grove area
beginning in 1844. They had good reason to be quiet. They
were involved in the Abolitionist movement and were part
of a network of secret hiding places for slaves escaping from
the South, headed to Canada prior to and during the Civil
War. Nothing was ever written down that would imply their
illegal activity. It was too dangerous. The Quakers were an
upstanding group, admired in the community and would
never generally break a law. If detected, their secret missions
could have meant the loss of their property, heavy fines, and
time in prison. A code of secrecy evolved. Even as late as
1894, when Caleb Ellis wrote a history of Fort Fairfield,
the only mention of freed slaves involved a local Quaker,
William A. Sampson, who dedicated his lifetime to helping
the “Freedmen.” He left Fort Fairfield after the Civil War,
continuing his work with the blacks in Washington D.C.,
the Deep South and later in California, where he died. The
illegal work done by the Fort Fairfield Friends was never
mentioned in the book.
The first Quakers to arrive in Fort Fairfield were
Joseph Wingate Haines from Hallowell with his wife Mary
Briggs of Winthrop. He had received a land grant of 1000
acres on the condition of building a sawmill for settlers.