1st in a series

At the time of the American Revolution this area in the Maine hinterland was, for the most part, considered too remote and inaccessible to be settled. So our hill-towns cannot boast of any native sons who fought in that conflict. That all changed with the end of the war when many of those discharged from the Continental Army decided to leave the more populated areas near the coastlines to acquire generous tracts of land
and settle down to raise families.

Among them was Corporal John Fenderson who had enlisted from Pepperellborough, what is now Saco. According to “A History of the First Century of the Town of Parsonsfield, Maine, 1785 – 1885”, he was born in Scarborough on July 15, 1757, though other records indicate that his birth year was 1756. He served five years in the Revolutionary War in various capacities and, at one time, Aide de camp to General Lafayette,

Above is shown his personal testimonial when applying for a war pension in 1818.

And below shows a record obtained from the Pension Department.

After his discharge, he married Sarah Kenny of Saco on November 15, 1781. She bore him six children, Polly, Nathan, Nathaniel, John, Edward, and Sally. They moved to Parsonsfield, according to the aforementioned “History of Parsonsfield” in 1795, though other records indicate an earlier date of 1792, and settled on what is now known as Cramm Road where he first built a log cabin.

His first wife, Sarah, died in March 1798 and he married 2nd Mary Milliken on March 27, 1798. Corporal John, as everyone called him, was a farmer and leading citizen. He started a sawmill and did quite a business sawing up lumber and taking it by ox team to the market in Portland, forty miles away.

He later built a small frame building where the house on the left is located. The house on the right was built by his son, Edward, in 1843/44 who later sold it to his brother Nathan’s son, Ivory, before moving away. A short time later another building was moved here and attached in the back as an ell. When Ivory’s son, Nathan W. Fenderson, married about 1869 he moved the small building John had built and erected the house on the left. The new kitchen was placed over the small cellar hole
that existed under the old building.

Six generations of the Fenderson family called this farm home before it finally passed out of the family when the last remaining direct family member, Jose W. Fenderson, died unmarried in 2013 at the age of 98.

As related in a newspaper article of unknown date prior to 1949 by an unknown author, “the story goes that one day in 1820 as Corporal John stood in his doorway, gazing at Mt. Randall over beyond the little red schoolhouse (located nearby), a stranger rode up to his gate, dismounted and inquired if he had the good fortune to address Mr. John Fenderson, late of the army. Corporal John went out to inspect his questioner and recognized in him his old tent-mate of the old days at Valley Forge.
Overjoyed to see each other, explanations were soon in order as to how the stranger had ever succeeded in finding his old comrade. It seemed that he lived near Philadelphia, had come to Portland by sloop on a matter of business and, having attended to it, had resolved to hunt up his old comrade. He had hired a saddle horse and found his way to Parsonsfield and to the very home of his old friend. He stayed a day or two during which he and Corporal John rehearsed every incident of their life together in those perilous days of the war; they even got out the old salt dish and pepper shake that John had carried in his knapsack all through the Revolution and recalled how their use in those dreary days of scarce and poor food had brought to their simple camp meals a flavor of home. The two friends, so unexpectedly united, parted with sadness for they realized that in all probability they would never see each other again.” The article includes the following:

Frank D. Fenderson (1878 – 1949) was the father of Jose W. Fenderson (1914 – 2013), the last Fenderson to live at the farm. The whereabouts of these family treasures is unknown.

Corporal John died at Parsonsfield on January 24, 1852 at the age of 95. His wife, Mary, preceded him in death a few months before on
August 29, 1851 at the age of 97. In an interview with Jose Fenderson, Jose stated that family members were buried along a stone wall on the north side of the house – Corporal John along with his two wives. According to Jose when his father, Frank D. Fenderson, married his mother, Laura A. Jose in July 1905, Laura thought that burying the family in the back yard was “heathen” and the Corporal John Burial was moved.