Many customers have asked about our somewhat unusual name- Fraternity Village- and its origin. Searsmont is the country village made famous by writer Ben Ames Williams. In his books and stories, Searsmont was named Fraternity Village. Many of his stories have their setting in the countryside about Hardscrabble Farm and in the towns's General Store where the locals gather to swap tales and gossip.
The first of the Fraternity Village Stories was published in 1919 in Collier's and the last in 1940. Some 125 Fraternity Village stories were written and most published in The Saturday Evening Post.
Many of the Fraternity short stories and books written by Mr. Williams were based on real life hunting and fishing experiences in the Searsmont area with friend Bert McCorrison (Named Chet McAusland in the Fraternity Stories).
During his four decades of active writing at Hardscrabble Farm in Searsmont he wrote forty books. Some 15 of the Fraternity short stories were published in the book- Fraternity Village. Another Ben Ames Williams' favorite is Come Spring, a historical novel about early settlers along the George's River.
