The other day I had a chance to drive out to Paris, the shire town of old Oxford County, and while there enjoyed the pleasure of a jaunt up Paris Hill to take in the air, scenery, and history of that wonderful neighborhood which was, in elder days, the administrative center of all Oxford County. Here was built the old granite Jail, Court House, and Registry of Deeds — barring of course that smaller, satellite registry which for so long operated in Fryeburg, until its sad closure back in 2019. At that time, all the old record books of Oxford County’s western reaches, and even a few from the days when it was still part of York County, were transferred over to the central office in Paris, and while this was certainly an act of necessary consolidation, still it pains me every time I walk by the old Registry office in Fryeburg. To think of all those crumbling old volumes of local deeds taken down by Samuel Osgood, many transcribed by none other than Daniel Webster himself during his time as headmaster at Fryeburg Academy at the dawn of the 19th century, are no longer available for the perusal of local residents. So whenever I’m out in Paris I always try to stop by the Registry, County Courthouse, and local historical societies to see what I can find in the old papers; and from all these early records I thought it might interest our readers today to review some old court cases of the vintage of 1805, especially after I found the first Courts of Oxford County opened this very day we go to print, June 11, 221 years ago.
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.