Freeman Township man donates to historic cemetery

FREEMAN TOWNSHIP — The Elizabeth Dyar Memorial Cemetery was recently given a new flag pole with solar lighting by Charles Snell, Sr., a neighbor to the cemetery.
Snell donated and installed the pole along with a new U.S. and Maine flags. He also made a new sign to be placed at the entrance to the cemetery.
Snell served in the Navy as senior chief photographer from 1958 to 982 on the East and West coasts and in the Gulf of Tonkin.

The cemetery is rooted in both local and national history. Elizabeth Nichols was born in 1751, and in 1771 she married Joseph Dyar, a sea captain who sailed out of Boston. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he pursued his trade by smuggling supplies to the Revolutionary Army.
In December 1773, Joseph Dyar was the leader of the group that boarded the ships in Boston Harbor and threw tea into the harbor, memorialized as the Boston Tea Party. Elizabeth was one of the three women who prepared and applied the stains to the faces and bodies of the white men who took part to transform them into “Mohawk Indians” Tradition also has it that Elizabeth melted down her pewter spoons, forming them into bullets in a mold brought by her father from France. Joseph Dyar was captured nine times by the British, and the last time, he was stripped and flogged. He died in 1783 from the effects of his capture and is buried in Malden, Mass.
Joseph and Elizabeth had seven children. One son, John Nichols Dyar, became the first settler in what became the town of Freeman,and later Freeman Township. He bought a 600-acre tract in 1802 from Samuel Freeman of Portland, and built a cabin. The following summer he brought his wife and mother, Elizabeth, there. At Elizabeth’s request, she was buried on the farm. A simple white marble slab inscribed “My Mother, Elizabeth, died June 4, 1818, Age 67” marks her grave.
In September 1923, the gravesite of Elizabeth Nichols Dyar, was restored by descendants, the town of Freeman and the Col. Asa Whitcomb Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1964, the chapter retired and the deed was passed on to Colonial Daughters Chapter DAR of Farmington.
Colonial Daughters Chapter DAR is an active chapter with 52 members. It is most grateful for the generosity and patriotic service that Snell contributed to this public memorial ground. For information contact mainedar.org/colonial daughters.