This is another transcription of a tape recording of a meeting of the Alexander-Crawford Historical Society. This was the December 16, 1980 Christmas Coffee. Members present whom have been identified were Jane Dudley, Jack Dudley, Pliney Frost, Ruth (Ferguson) Dwelley, Hazel ?, Cleta ?, Ellen ?, and Ellie ?. Ellen and Ellie may have been the same woman. Jane Dudley said in the introduction to the tape that the society was concluding its charter membership December 31, 1980. They taped this meeting differently than the others I have transcribed. With the previous tapes, people spoke directly into the recorder and the words were clear and reasonably easy to understand. For this meeting, they set the recorder somewhere in the room. Everyone sat around and talked - sometimes two or three at once, and frequently so far away from the recorder that the person can't be understood. This is the longest tape so far - both sides of the tape were filled. There is a lot of information about the early days of the Alexander - Crawford area. As with the other condensations, names and other words that could not be transcribed exactly are in italics. Comments, explanations, and additional names are in parentheses. Due to the nature of this meeting and there apparently being no planned agenda, the information is in a confusing order. I've copied and pasted to put like things together as much as possible. If anyone has questions or would like the complete transcription to read, please e-mail me privately and I will send a transcription and do my best to answer questions. I'm breaking this condensation into three parts. Pliney Frost had brought a scrapbook or collection of newspaper clippings and photographs to the meeting. He said that the collecting had begun with his great-grandmother in the 1870s and that his grandmother, mother, and now he continued the collection. Most of the discussions of the evening began with something in this collection. Pliney Frost said during the evening that he and a relative, Pliney Gray, had been named for the Latin poet. This led to a discussion of names such as Alegra Longfellow Brown who was named after the "Alegra with the laughing face" that was in "The Children's Hour," and her middle name for the poet, and not a family name. (The poem actually calls her "laughing Alegra.") The first picture discussed was one of Frank Frost taken about the time he graduated from high school. Frank was born in Alexander but moved into Calais when he started high school and never did move back to Alexander. His father, Stephen Wilson Frost, was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. He was called Wilsey or Wilksey. (This name is hard to understand.) Wilsey Frost's mother died when he was very young and "his father and the children came back to Alexander and stayed out there where John Weeks is living now with Harry Frost. Frankie's grandfather and Harry were brothers, you know." The first member of the Frost family born in Alexander was born on the same land where John Weeks lived, but in a log house "almost to the back end of the lot." There is a cellar hole there now but it's about the same distance back from that cellar hole to where the log cabin was as it is from the cellar hole to where the house is now. Pliney said he thought the original plans were for the road to go by the log cabin because the old Strout house is "way back, too," but for some unknown reason when the road was built, it went further north. The discussion continued with questions about why people settled on Breakneck Hill. Pliney Frost said that Annaniah Bohanon settled up there. One clipping from the Calais Advertiser without a date, but probably the 1930s, was an obituary for Abbie Ella Bohanon. She was Annaniah Bohanon's granddaughter. (I think the same woman is called Addie Bohannon in another part of the tape.) There was a clipping from a 1935 Calais Advertiser that was a reprint of an article from 1870. Ellen ? read, "The first trees felled and the first clearing made in Township Number 16, now Alexander, was in the summer of 1810 by William Connie and Solomon Perkins on the farm now occupied by John Gooch. During the year 1811 Annaniah Bohanon, William D. Crockett, Eliab, Eee-lee-ab, Spring - is that the way you pronounce that, or E-lye-ab?" (The name really was Elias. There was a misprint in the newspaper article.) "And others settled in different parts of the township. That's where we get Spring Hill from."