The February 15, 1876 Oxford Democrat front page is dominated by local professional advertisements and a lengthy serialized story titled "Foster, the Indian Hunter," written by Rev. H.A. Gould. The narrative recounts the violent frontier exploits of a young man named Foster, who witnesses the massacre of his family by Mohawk Indians and dedicates his life to hunting and killing them in revenge. The story opens with historical context about the Mohawks—fierce warriors who dominated the Herkimer region of New York and hunted across what locals called the "John Brown tract." Foster methodically trains with his rifle, practices splitting bullets on knife blades, and then executes his first victim, a young Indian fishing in Spruce Creek. The tale escalates when Foster encounters a massive black bear and must use his knife and rifle skills to survive. The page also displays typical small-town professional listings: attorneys at law, physicians and surgeons scattered across Oxford County towns like Paris, Bethel, and Rumford Falls, a dentist in Norway Village, and insurance and surveying services.

In 1876—the centennial year of American independence—this story reflects deep national anxieties about frontier violence and Indian-white relations. The Civil War had ended just 11 years prior, and America was still grappling with westward expansion and the displacement of Native Americans. The serialized narrative in a small Maine newspaper reveals how frontier mythology was being constructed and circulated in rural communities far removed from actual conflict zones. By this date, most remaining Mohawks had been forced north to Canada (as the text acknowledges), yet the "Indian threat" remained a potent cultural touchstone in American memory and imagination. The story validates individual vigilante justice against Indigenous peoples—a dangerous narrative that justified ongoing dispossession and violence across the continent.

• The paper explicitly notes that Mohawk remnants still lived in upstate New York as late as 1833-1854, arriving at settlers' homes to 'demand such articles of food, clothing, and ornament as they might chance to see'—revealing how impoverished and desperate these displaced peoples had become.
• Foster practices marksmanship to such precision that he can 'drive a nail every shot at 75 yards, and split a bullet on the blade of a jack-knife at 60 paces'—an absurdly exaggerated claim that suggests how frontier tales were embellished for popular consumption.
• The story mentions that Foster had to commission a blacksmith to create custom bullet molds because his English rifle's bore 'was unlike that of all the neighboring guns'—a detail revealing the heterogeneity of frontier weaponry before standardized ammunition.
• Advertisement rates for the Oxford Democrat show a local ad costs $1.50 per week, with each additional week at 50 cents—suggesting tight profit margins that forced newspapers to rely heavily on serialized fiction to retain subscribers.
• The poem 'To Mother's Grave' by Evans A. Wadsworth, published January 13, 1876, memorializes a mother's death and references 'the old home, long ago'—capturing the nostalgic, grief-stricken tone permeating post-Civil War rural America.

• The Oxford Democrat lists Dr. I. Rounds, A.D., as 'Physician and Surgeon' in South Paris in 1876—two years before germ theory became dominant in American medicine. Most rural doctors like Rounds still relied on bloodletting, mercury treatments, and herbal remedies for serious illnesses.
• The paper's masthead credits 'H. H. Dromey' as 'Political Editor'—a role that in 1876 would have meant covering the intense aftermath of the disputed 1876 Hayes-Tilden presidential election, decided just three months earlier by a backroom electoral commission.
• Foster's rifle practices with 'buckshot, leaden and pewter spoons converted into bullets'—pewter bullets were actually used on the frontier because lead was scarce and expensive in remote areas, though they were far less reliable and deadly than pure lead.
• The Mohawk reference to 'Thayendanega (Joseph Brant)' leading Indians to Canada at the Revolution's close connects this 1876 story to a genuine historical figure—Brant died in 1807, making him mythic by this date, allowing Gould to construct an origin story for contemporary Indian-hatred.
• By 1876, the U.S. had already enacted the Indian Removal Act (1830), fought the Black Hawk War (1832), and massacred tribes across the Great Plains—yet stories like Foster's continued casting Native Americans as the aggressors, absolving settlers of moral responsibility.