Forcing use of newer version of OpenSSL

[Jerry]

I have both OpenSSL 1.0.1l-freebsd 15 Jan 2015 {located in /usr/bin} and
OpenSSL 1.0.2d 9 Jul 2015 {located in /usr/local/bin} residing on my system.
Now, I want to use and hopefully link programs against the "port", ie, newer
version. If I adjust the path to use "/usr/local/bin" first, some programs
fail to build. I discovered this a few months ago and received that bit of
knowledge on this forum. I therefore changed the path so "/usr/bin" goes
before "/usr/local/bin". That has the effect of causing the older version of
OpenSSL being used.

Other than permanently changing the path, and then changing it back when a
build fails, how can I permanently fix this problem. IMHO, the newer version
should permanently  overwrite the older version. I don't need or want to
versions. Since the older version comes with the base system, I am hesitant
to try and remove it. In a perfect world, the base system would be updated,
but I guess that is not going to happen anytime soon.

-- 
Jerry