STRATTON — The Dead River Area Historical Society will celebrate the founders of Eustis, the Stevens family, on Sunday, Aug. 22.

Caleb Stevens (1776 to 1855) journeyed 192 year ago, with his wife Sally Thomas Stevens and nine children, from Kingfield to the intersection of Stratton Brook and the Dead River in the fall of 1818. They walked as far as Carrabassett the first day and arrived to their destination on the second day.

It was not Caleb’s first trip. His first trip was in August of 1818 to scope out the new enterprise, build a cabin and barn and then return in the fall to get his family. The history of the family in the early wilderness of Maine was written by a family member in the Franklin Chronicle in the late 1800s.

Last summer, a descendant of Caleb’s, Philip Stevens, who grew up in Stratton, re-enacted the walk in an effort to name the highway between Kingfield and Stratton “The Caleb Dalton Stevens Memorial Highway.” It was made possible with help from Walter Gooley.

The Dead River Area Historical Society is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every weekend throughout July and August.