FREDERICTON, a city and port of entry of New Brunswick, Canada, capital of the province, situated on the St John river, 84 m. from its mouth, and on the Canadian Pacific railway. It stands on a plain bounded on one side by the river, which is here ¾ m. broad, and on the other by a range of hills which almost encircle the town. It is regularly built with long and straight streets, and contains the parliament buildings, government house, the Anglican cathedral, the provincial university and several other educational establishments. Fredericton is the chief commercial centre in the interior of the province, and has also a large trade in lumber. Its industries include canneries, tanneries and wooden ware factories. The river is navigable for large steamers up to the city, and above it by vessels of lighter draught. Two bridges, passenger and railway, unite the city with the towns of St Marye’s and Gibson on the east side of the river, at its junction with the Nashwaak. The city was founded in 1785 by Sir Guy Carleton, and made the capital of the province, in spite of the jealousy of St John, on account of its superior strategical position. Pop. (1901) 7117.
FREDONIA, a village of Chautauqua county, New York, U.S.A., about 45 m. S.W. of Buffalo, and 3 m. from Lake Erie. Pop. (1900) 4127; (1905, state census) 5148; (1910 census) 5285. Fredonia is served by the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley & Pittsburg railway, which connects at Dunkirk, 3 m. to the N., with the Erie, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the New York, Chicago & St Louis, and the Pennsylvania railways; and by electric railway to Erie, Buffalo and Dunkirk. It is the seat of a State Normal School. The Darwin R. Barker public library contained 9700 volumes in 1908. Fredonia is situated in the grape-growing region of western New York, is an important shipping point for grapes, and has large grape-vine and general nurseries. The making of wine and of unfermented grape-juice are important industries of the village. Among other manufactures are canned goods, coal dealers’ supplies, and patent medicines. The first settlement here was made in 1804, and the place was called Canandaway until 1817, when the present name was adopted. The village was incorporated in 1829. Fredonia was one of the first places in the United States, if not the first, to make use of natural gas for public purposes. Within the village limits, near a creek, whose waters showed the presence of gas, a well was sunk in 1821, and the supply of gas thus tapped was sufficient to light the streets of the village. Another well was sunk within the village limits in 1858. About 1905 natural gas was again obtained by deep drilling near Fredonia and came into general use for heat, light and power. In the Fredonia Baptist church on the 14th of December 1873 a Woman’s Temperance Union was organized, and from this is sometimes dated the beginning of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union movement.
FREDRIKSHALD (Frederickshald, Friederichshall), a seaport and garrison town of Norway, in Smaalenene amt (county), 85 m. by rail S. by E. of Christiania. Pop. (1900) 11,948. It is picturesquely situated on both banks of the Tistedal river at its outflow to the Ide fjord, surrounded by several rocky eminences. The chief of these is occupied by the famous fortress Fredriksten, protected on three sides by precipices, founded by Frederick III. (1661), and mainly showing, in its present form, the works of Frederick V. (1766) and Christian VII. (1808). Between it and the smaller Gyldenlöve fort a monument marks the spot where Charles XII. was shot in the trenches while besieging the town (1718). The siege, which was then raised, is further commemorated by a monument to the brave defence of the brothers Peter and Hans Kolbjörnsen. Fredrikshald is close to the Swedish frontier, and had previously (1660) withstood invasion, after which its name was changed from Halden to the present form in 1665 in honour of Frederick III. The town was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1759 and 1826. The castle surrendered to the Swedish crown prince Bernadotte in 1814, and its capture was speedily followed by the conquest of the kingdom and its union with Sweden. Fredrikshald is one of the principal ports of the kingdom for the export of timber. Marble of very fine quality and grain is extensively quarried and exported for architectural ornamentation and for furniture-making. Wood-pulp is also exported. The industries embrace granite quarries, wood-pulp factories, and factories for sugar, tobacco, curtains, travelling-bags, boots, &c. There are railway communications with Gothenburg and all parts of Sweden and regular coastal and steamer services.
FREDRIKSTAD (Frederikstad), a seaport and manufacturing town of Norway in Smaalenene amt (county), 58 m. S. by E. of Christiania by the Christiania-Gothenburg railway. Pop. (1900) 14,553. It lies at the mouth and on the eastern shore of Christiania fjord, occupying both banks of the great river Glommen, which, descending from the richly-wooded district of Österdal, floats down vast quantities of timber. The new town on the right bank is therefore a centre of the timber export trade, this place being the principal port in Norway for the export of pit-props, planed boards, and other varieties of timber. There is also a great industry in the making of red bricks, owing to the expansion of Christiania, Gothenburg and other towns. Granite is quarried and exported. Besides the large number of saw and planing mills, there are shipbuilding yards, engine and boiler works, cotton and woollen mills, and factories for acetic acid and naphtha. The harbour, which can be entered by vessels drawing 14 ft., is kept open in winter by an ice-breaker. In the vicinity is the island Hankö, the most fashionable Norwegian seaside resort. The old town on the left bank was founded by Frederick II. in 1567. It was for a long time strongly fortified, and in 1716 Charles XII. of Sweden made a vain attempt to capture it.
FREE BAPTISTS, formerly called (but no longer officially) Freewill Baptists, an American denomination holding anti-paedobaptist and anti-Calvinistic doctrines, and practically identical in creed with the General Baptists of Great Britain. Many of the early Baptist churches in Rhode Island and throughout the South were believers in “general redemption” (hence called “general” Baptists); and there was a largely attended conference of this Arminian branch of the church at Newport in 1729. But the denomination known as “Free-willers” had its rise in 1779-1780, when anti-Calvinists in Loudon, Barrington and Canterbury, New Hampshire, seceded and were organized by Benjamin Randall (1749-1808), a native of New Hampshire. Randall was an itinerant missionary, who had been preaching for two years before his ordination in 1780; in the same year he was censured for “heterodox” teaching. The work of the church suffered a relapse after his death, and a movement to join the Freewill Baptists with the “Christians,” who were led by Elias Smith (1769-1846) and had been bitterly opposed by Randall, was nearly successful. Between 1820 and 1830 the denomination made considerable progress, especially in New England and the Middle West. The Freewill Baptists were joined in 1841 by many “open-communion Baptists”—those in the Carolinas who did not join the larger body distinguishing themselves by the name of Original Freewill Baptists—and soon afterwards by some of the General Baptists of North Carolina and some of the Six Principle Baptists of Rhode Island (who had added the “laying on of hands” to the Five Principles hitherto held); and the abbreviation of the denominational name to “Free Baptists” suggests their liberal policy—indeed open communion is the main if not the only hindrance to union with the “regular” Baptist Church.