Edward True, called Captain True in honor of his service in the militia, was on a list of people who settled in Fayette, ME, just after the earliest settlers. The earliest settlers in order to acquire a lot had to, "build a cabin 20x20 feet, with 7 foot posts, and live there for 7 years, clearing 5 acres of land within 3 years after occupation and perform certain public services such as one day's work each year for road building, public schools, and church." History of Fayette.

In the early days and for many years, Fayette Corner was the business center, the "hub" of the town of Fayette, ME. At one time, there were three meeting houses, three taverns, and five stores. Among the storekeepers was James Sullivan True, called Sullivan True on the list, son of Edward.

"The main thoroughfare leading through this place (Fayette Corner) was thronged with teams of horses and oxen, drawing clapboards and shingles from towns in Franklin and Oxford counties to Hallowell, and bringing back merchandise for the country trade... When the Bowdoinham Baptist Association met here in those days, there were booths and shanties all round the green and along the roadside where rum and other refreshments were dispensed to the hungry and thirsty assemblage. The pious laymen patronized freely and the preachers took generous drams as a stimulus for their sermons... The only post office in town was maintained here for many years. This, too, bought the townspeople together once a week, on Saturday afternoons, to get their mail and glean the news. This office was on the regular mail route from the Kennebec River to the Androscoggin, and a four-horse coach brought in the mail. When the Underwood road (to Underwood Mills?) was built it changed the current of travel through the town, and the glory of Fayette Corner departed." History of Kennebec County: Town of Fayette, pp. 955-956.

Edward, his father, Thomas True, and two of his brothers, Aaron and Daniel, were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Edward was the grandfather of at least two soldiers of the Civil War: one, Col. Edward Alonzo True of Company H of the 8th Maine regiment; two, Capt. J. Henry True of Company E of the 24th Maine regiment.

As stated above, Edward and Molly are buried in the North Fayette, ME, Old Cemetery. We have visited that cemetery. It is quite far in back of the small new cemetery which is near the street and opposite the Union Church, so far back that it cannot be seen from the street, at least in summer. We followed a small path which started next to the new cemetery, through some low wet areas, until we came to the old cemetery. There we found under old trees, the small final resting place of many members of the True family and of its allied families.

Edward and his wife Molly (French) True had eleven children:

• Molly, b. Seabrook, NH 15 March 1788; d. Fayette, ME 27 Oct. 1839; unmarried.
• John, b. Seabrook, NH 24 May 1789; d. place unknown 16 Jan. 1828; m. Mehitable Sawyer.
• Sally, b. Seabrook, NH 25 Oct. 1791; d. place unknown 26 Oct. 1839; m. Harvey Josslyn. I have in my possession a sampler made by Sally when she was a child.
• Betsy, b. Seabrook, NH 8 July 1793; d. Fayette ME 29 Aug. 1819; unmarried.
• Nathaniel, b. Seabrook, NH 19 March 1795; d. Fayette, ME 23 Feb. 1875; m. (1) Betsey Billings; m. (2) Lucretia Judkins.
• Daniel, b. So. Hampton, NH 25 March 1797; d. Fayette, ME 7 Dec. 1859; m. (1) Drusilla Folsom; m. (2) Eliza Billington; m. (3) Eliza Ann Turner.
• Edward, Jr., b. Fayette, ME 15 July 1799; d. Hope, ME 18 Nov. 1871; m. Olive King Payson of Hope.
• Lucy, b. Fayette ME 10 March 1802; d. Fayette, ME 2 Sept. 1820.
• Moses, b. Fayette, ME 29 Aug. 1805; d. Fayette, ME, 2 April 1857; m. (1) Mahala Folsom; m. (2) Eleanor Kyle of Peru, ME.
• Eliza, b. Fayette, ME 4 July 1808. No other information.
• James Sullivan, b. Fayette, ME 22 Feb. 1812; d. place unknown 8 Jan. 1848; m. Cynthia Tuck. We have in our possession letters written by James Sullivan True to his brother Edward True, Jr. of Hope, ME. These letters reveal a brotherly business arrangement beneficial to each other. James, who had a store in Fayette Corner, asked for advice on pricing, etc. from his older brother already in trade with his own store in Hope Corner, ME. James stated that he was getting over being bashful with the customers. also, he might consider cooking and sleeping in the store in order to save money. The brothers discussed Edward's payment to James for a sleigh made by James. The price was 26 dollars in cash or whatever was agreeable in trade.

Family tradition says that our ancestor, Edward True, Jr., was a peddler selling from a horse drawn wagon pots, pans, pails, large milk pans, and other items made out of tin. Perhaps plying his business is how he came upon Hope Corner and decided to settle there.

In 1831, Edward True, Jr., and his business partner, Joshua Peirce bought the Wade Sweetland holdings in the northeast area of Hope Corner, ME. They also bought other pieces of property, such as, in 1833, a quarry site at Smith's Mills near what is now North Appleton and, in 1834, Mr. Blood's cooper store and land with the exception of the house thereon in the southeast area of Hope Corner. In 1832, before they completed the purchase of the land, either they or someone else established a general store on the cooper shop site. About 1835, Edward, Jr., bought out Peirce's interest in the cooper shop site general store and Peirce kept the businesses and the home/inn in the northeast corner. Edward, Jr., ran the general store with his brother-in-law, Lyman Smith, husband of Martha (Payson) Smith, as his partner until Smith died at a young age in 1847 and Edward, Jr., became the sole owner. Later, he established another business, making shoes and boots, either on the same site or in the building which housed the general store.

Edward True, Jr., with a great deal of hard work and constant attention to detail, prospered in his business life in Hope Corner. Their home was on the lot next to the store and was bought by Edward, Jr., probably around the time of his marriage. It faced the back of the store, was across the street from the church, and is the same house that is now the Church Parsonage. It was occupied together by the True and Smith families in the early days. The first floor had two rooms with a small hallway between containing a staircase which lead to two bedrooms under the eaves on the second floor, one on either side. Eventually, this home was occupied only by the True family. A cape cod style house, it was enlarged by at least one addition to accomodate their growing family. It has been called the "old homestead" for as long as we can remember. Here, Edward was able to give his children a good home. With his sound business sense, he was able to give them good educations and the means to travel. Here, he found his niche in life, with his wife raised a large family, and seemed especially suited to be of service to his community.

Olive King (Payson) True's daughter, Elizabeth (True) Spear, wrote about her, "I know of several who have called my mother a remarkable woman. When anyone was sick in the neighborhood mother was sent for." In Olive's obituary in the Rockland Courier Gazette, Nov. 2, 1886, p. 6, it was written about her that, "No other woman of this generation has ever filled so large a place in this community as she. Called upon constantly for aid by others she never was found slow to respond. None thought of her as nearing three score and ten, for she always retained her youthful ways and interest ..."

Edward, Jr., died intestate in 1871. The family was fortunate that the house and land were not their only assets as was the case with many other rural families: they had the store and a thriving boot and shoe business as well. It seems to me that it must have been dcided that the home and businesses were to be kept intact rather than to be sold for inheritance purposes. The Maine Register for 1874-75 lists for the town of Hope the "True heirs" as merchants (general store) and the "True heirs" as manufacturers (boots and shoes). At the time of Edward Jr.'s death, the oldest son, Edward Alonzo True, was being groomed to open a business in England in an arrangement with Salmon Willoughby Wilder, the husband of the oldest daughter, Rose. It fell upon the next oldest living son, LaForest True, almost 23 years old and working in Lawrence, MA, as a bookkeeper for his brother-in-law, Salmon Willoughby Wilder, to come home to run the businesses, no doubt with the help of his brothers and sisters, perhaps with the help of his mother. Probably some of the siblings worked for others both in Hope and in Camden whenever jobs were available. The shoe shop was reorganized in association with Addison Payson, uncle to the family, as the following attests: "Newly organized was the True and Payson shoe business manufacturing sewed and pegged boots which in 1872 was keeping nine men constantly employed according to a news item in the Courier Gazette." Hardy, "History of Hope," p. 141. The home was there for the use of the family which at the time consisted of the mother and seven of the nine surviving children, four of whom were underage. The younger children received their education through high school and some of them beyond that with Eugene, the youngest, graduating from Castine (ME) Normal School. All of the family members must have agreed on a formula of interest or like value on his or her inheritance which was worked out to each member's mutual benefit and satisfaction. Later, perhaps years later, the accounts were settled with each family member by LaForest. Finally, he owned the businesses and the family homestead in which he, in turn, brought up his own family.

Letters written before and after the death of their father told how the children helped each other find jobs. The store and shoe shop employed them at times. The oldest daughter, Rose, and her husband helped by housing them in their home while Rose's husband employed them at his paper mill in Lawrence, MA. LaForest, George, and possibly Herbert were hired as his bookkeepers off and on throughout the years. Mr. Wilder (Rose's husband was always referred to as Mr. Wilder or Mr. W.) helped the oldest son, Edward Alonzo, set up a business in Liverpool, England, collecting rags and shipping them to the states for use in Mr. Wilder's and other paper mills. This business, E. A. True & Co., prospered and supported the addition of the youngest brother to its ownership. Several members of the family visited England (and France) throughout the years, an opportunity not common to many people in those days.

Edward, Jr. and his wife Olive King (Payson) True had ten children, all born in Hope, ME:

• Edward Alonzo, b. 4 July 1836; d. in the hospital in Newton, MA while living in Old Soldiers Home, Togus, ME, 27 Nov. 1919; m. in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, 9 April 1874, Jane Milnes.
• Rose Eaton, b. 25 Oct. 1838; d. Lowell, MA 21 April 1938; m. Hope, ME 29 March 1865 Salmon Willoughby Wilder.
• Mary Dearborn, b. 15 Aug. 1841; d. California 4 May 1887; m. Hope, ME 24 Nov. 1881 Alonzo Payson.
• John Augustine, b. 25 Dec. 1843; d. Hope, ME, 27 August 1858; buried in his father's lot in Hope Grove Cemetery, Hope, ME.
• Elizabeth Coburn, b. 8 May 1846; d. Rockport, ME 11 Oct. 1943; m. 1 May 1878 Lewis Augustine Spear.
• LaForest Payson, b. 24 March 1849; d. Hope, ME, 3 March 1941; m. Rockland, ME, 14 April 1887 Annie Katie Barnes.
• George Nathaniel, b. 13 April 1851; d. probably in Boston, MA 14 August 1938; m. 27 May 1902 Margaret E. Batty.
• Herbert Leslie, b. 5 Jan. 1854; d. Camden, ME, 22 May 1934; m. (1) Fortuna C. Bowley; m. (2) Abbie E. Moody.
• Frances Payson, b. 3 Sept. 1856; d. Lowell, MA, 27 Dec. 1947; buried in the Hope Grove Cemetery, Hope, ME. She did not marry.
• Eugene Payson, b. 19 July 1859; d. Wrentham, MA 17 Sept. 1940; m. in Wistow, Yorkshire, England, 27 Dec. 1888 Annie Elizabeth Milnes.

We have a letter written by Gene (as Eugene was called) on 20 February 1876 when he was seventeen years old, from the Normal School in Castine, ME, to his sister, Rose. He told her that he was settled in now that he had been at the school for two weeks; that the examination had been very easy and he was pleased that he had been placed in the advanced course; his subjects were Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography, Physiology, Reading and Spelling; and he had a room at Mrs. Christian's where there were seven other fellows and each of the eight students paid her a dollar for the four rooms and for doing their cooking. Family tradition says that Gene did do some teaching before he went to England to join his older brother in business.

Another letter by Gene written to his brother, LaForest (called Foss), placed Gene in Liverpool, England, by 2 November 1880. He stayed in England from 1880 until 1891. He married there in 1888 and his first son was born there in 1889. He was in business with his brother, Edward Alonzo (called Lon), until that business was closed and they returned to the States.

It might be implied in the following exceprts from a letter by Gene from Liverpool written to his brother Foss, 9 June 1883, that Gene did not feel settled in England and may even have been longing for his boyhood town in Maine:

"Fact is I haven't decided in my own mind what I shall do. Lon would like me to stay here and I may do so. I often think it would be better for me to come home. Had I something to do when I got there, or did I know what I want to do, I could soon decide the question. At one time, I did think I would commission you to buy the F. M. farm ... but will not just yet ... should have to borrow money and it looks like rather up hill work. Don't know much about farming and might not be a success. What do you think about it? What price do they put on the farm and what about expenses and return of the farm...? Should I remain here, would hardly feel settled for should Lon give up the business in 5 or 10 years I should give it up too, and would then probably be as undecided as now. If I come home this summer, will wait till I get there and see what jobs seem open to me."

Other letters Gene wrote from England indicated that he had "never felt the western fever" and seemed not settled in his mind what his future course should be. After the two families returned to America, they lived together in Newton Highlands, MA, for a short while until Gene and his family moved to Readville, MA. There their second son, Osmond, was born in 1896. One letter of Gene's showed that he supplied Foss with a few products bought in Boston, MA, which Foss sold in his store in Hope, ME. Also, Foss sent to Gene products for him to sell in stores in Boston, and the surrounding areas. All this seemed to be going on while Gene and his brother, Lon, were in business in Boston, the same kind of business they had been doing in England. Gene's son, E. Payson True, indicated that the American business was not as prosperous as the English business had been but one where they made a living and the families always ate three times a day.

In E. Payson True's book, Remembrances of E. P. True, p. 45, he states, "... for some reason, we (Gene's family) gave up the house (in Readville) and went to Hope, Maine, in June staying with Uncle Foss and Aunt Kate through the next winter. We came back to Massachusetts in the spring of 1897..." The mystery about this stay in Maine may now be solved with the information in a letter we found among other family letters. This letter was written by Gene in Readville, 12 Feb. 1895, to his brother Foss in Hope. In it he says, "You speak of my going in with you ... I am not in a position to give you much financial aid now, if you have enough business for two, and enough work for two, and can afford to employ me and give me living wages I might but in a 12 months with you and see how I liked it, and if things turned out so I could make an investment, with prospects of fair return, perhaps we could do something. If two were there it would relieve one so he could drum up trade and if orders could be booked forward for the various things you can pack there (Foss owned and ran a canning factory which he started in 1880 as well as the general store at Hope Corner), the canning might be extended to quite an extent." Our guess is that Gene and his family did go to Hope to try out this proposal and found that the trade was not sufficient to support the two families or that the arrangements did not work out to everyone's satisfaction.

After that time, Gene seemed to settle down and he and his family lived in Readville and Hyde Park, MA, with Gene working in Boston until he retired.

Payson True, Gene's son, said of him that he was a fine man, a good father, was quiet in his speech and actions and had a good sense of humor.

Annie, Gene's wife, was a small, precise, English lady, a musician from a musical family who was an accomplished pianist and organist. She and her sister, Jane, wife of Gene's brother Lon, seemed happy in this country even though they were away from their own English relatives. These sisters were welcomed into the large True family which must have seemed to them to be as American as apple pie, were teased about their English ways and joined in the resulting laughter with everybody, and enjoyed their new life here according to the memories of Annie's sons, Payson and Osmond.

Eugene Payson and his wife Annie Elizabeth (Milnes) True had two sons:

• Edward Payson, b. Bootle, England 30 Sept 1889; d. Concord, MA 7 Feb. 1987; m. (1) Laura Keene Darling; m. (2) Doris (Lyons) Boyd.
• Osmond Smalley, b. Readville, MA 4 March 1896; d. Westwood, MA 12 Sept 1979; m. Alma Katharine Barber. No issue.