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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01085 7446
Gc 974.1 C34m Chadbourne, Ava Harriet Maine place names and the peopling of its towns
MAINE PLACE NAMES and THE PEOPLING OF ITS TOWNS ~
by
AVA HARRIET CHADBOURNE Professor Emeritus of Education University of Maine
The Bond Wheelwright Company Portland, Maine
974.1 6 34m
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
Copyright, 1955, by Ava Harriet Chadbourne All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be quoted without permission from the publishers, The Bond Wheelwright Company 335 Forest Avenue, Portland 5, Maine except for brief quotations embodied in reviews. Manufactured in the United States of America. Library of Congress catalogue card number: 55-11060 In Canada, Burns & MacEachern, Toronto 5, Canada
1336485
THIS BOOK is affectionately dedicated to all my former pupils, from those in the one-room ungraded school at Macwahoc Plantation to those in the graduate and undergraduate courses at the University of Maine. Their courtesy, confidence and achievements have been and still are an inspiration to me.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER Page
I Origin of the Words Maine and Pine Tree State, and of Names of Counties 1
II Maine Towns and Cities Whose Names Are Indian Words 10
III Maine Towns and Cities Whose Names Derive from English Towns, 1647-1760 46
Names of Maine Towns Derived from English Towns, 1760-1800 67
V Maine Towns Which Owe Their Names to Famous Englishmen 82
VI Maine Towns of the Nineteenth Century Which Bear the Names of English Towns 98
VII Maine Towns Whose Names Are of French and Irish Origin 113
VIII German, Classical, Scottish and Swedish Names in Maine Towns and Cities 128
IX Maine Towns Whose Names Have Been Borrowed from Other Foreign Cities and Countries 139
X Names of Maine Towns Derived from Other States in the Union 152
XI Maine Town Names Honoring Military Commanders. .. 192
XII Maine Town Names Which Compliment Massachusetts and Maine Governors 237
XIII Maine Town Names Which Honor Other Great Ameri- cans 263
XIV Maine Towns Bearing the Names of Proprietors of the Eighteenth Century 286
XV Maine Towns Bearing the Names of Proprietors of the Early Nineteenth Century, 1800-1820 313
XVI Maine Towns Named for Proprietors from 1820 to 1915 341
XVII Maine Towns Named for Early Settlers and Surveyors 373
XVIII Maine Towns Bearing Women's Names 399
XIX Towns Whose Names Emphasize the Characteristics of the Townspeople 406
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XX Religious Names in Maine Towns 420
XXI Maine Towns Whose Names Are Descriptive 438
XXII
More Maine Towns Whose Names Are Descriptive 465
XXIII Maine Towns Whose Names Denote Their Character- istics 490
Index 527
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Foreword
It was Stephen Benèt who said it:
I have fallen in love with American names, The sharp gaunt names, which never grow fat.
I too have fallen in love with American names, especially those in the State of Maine, but I do not find them sharp, gaunt and thin, for often when I look down upon the map of Maine, I feel that I am turning the leaves of a Book of Remembrance; for here are Indian words, rich in meaning, colorful and reminiscent of a bygone day; French, English, Irish, German, Scotch and Swedish words, reveal- ing important records of human history, migrations and settlements, as well as expressing the love and longing of the early Maine colo- nists for their faraway homes.
Here too in this Book of Remembrance are recorded the names of Massachusetts and New Hampshire towns whose memories were brought along with other treasures by young men, poor in this world's goods but rich in courage and energy, who came following the Revolu- tionary War to push back the frontier and to establish homes in the wilderness. They were emboldened by cheap land, abundant water power and goodly forests.
Here too are words attesting the strong religious faith of a peo- ple or the characteristics and ideals of a community. Great statesmen and military commanders of proven worth are also here honored in the names of towns and counties - all these with many descriptive words are spread out before me on the map of Maine.
Hidden away behind these names are many a dream of con- quest, of an empire, of an old country to be renewed and revivified in a new land, of a refuge, a place for freedom of thought and action, of an inspiring story, of enthusiastic and untiring effort, records of cour- age and bravery, of love and devotion, of steadfastness to a mighty purpose.
One has only to study the names of Maine's sixteen counties, twenty-one cities and more than four hundred towns to find the words shapely in form, fascinating and informative in meaning.
From the Grant of the Province of Maine by the Great Council of New England
August 10/20, 1622
. And by these presents doe give grant bargaine sell assigne . alien sett over and confirme unto ye sd Sr Ferdinando Gorges & Capt John Mason their heirs and assignes all that part of ye maine land in New England lying upon ye Sea Coast betwixt ye rivers of Merrimack & Sagadahoc and to ye furthest heads of ye said Rivers and soe for- wards up into the land westward untill threescore miles be finished from ye first entrance of the aforesaid rivers and half way over that is to say to the midst of the two said rivers which bounds and limits the lands aforesaid togeather with all Islands and Isletts with in five leagues distance of ye primisses and abutting upon the same or any part or parcell thereof ... which said porcons of land with the appur- tenances the said Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt John Mason with the consent of ye President & Councell intend to name ye PROVINCE OF MAINE . . . . 1
1. Farnham Papers in Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Docu- mentary History, Second Series, (VII, 64-71). The original grant of the Province of Maine is in the Colonial Entry Book (London: Public Record Of- fice), LIX, 101-08.
CHAPTER I Origin of the Words Maine and Pine Tree State, and of Names of Counties
The source of the name of our state, the word Maine, has long been a matter of conjecture and controversy. The word is of early ori- gin, having been bestowed first upon the Province of Maine in 1622, then conferred upon Gorges' Province of Maine in 1639, where it con- tinued to function for this area of ever changing extent throughout the Colonial Period.
Maine as a District was the distinctive name given in 1778 by Congress to the three eastern counties of Massachusetts, of which Maine was then a part, thus transferring the name of the old Province to the new District where it remained until 1820. At the Separation of Maine from Massachusetts, the new state acquired the old name of the early Province and later District of Maine.
One group of historians of this section of our country say that by reason of the goodly number of islands in this quarter the term "the Main," meaning the coast or shores, was used by early explorers to specify the land now our state.
Sullivan, Maine's first historian, makes the statement that the name Maine was chosen, probably in compliment to the Queen of Charles I, Henrietta Maria, who had inherited a province of the same name in France.
But this could hardly have been possible. At the time of the granting of the Province of Maine, King James was bending all his energies to arrange for Prince Charles a marriage with the Infanta of Spain. Later, the Prince and the Duke of Buckingham went to Spain in the interest of winning the hand of the young lady, but on October 5, 1623, they returned, bringing a message of defeat. With the opening of a new Parliament on February 19, 1624, King James, acknowledging the failure, left the way open for some other marriage arrangements; and it was not until 1625, after the death of James, that Henrietta Maria became the wife of Charles. Thus the designation could have had no complimentary significance to the Queen of Charles I, since it was first used in 1622.
Nor do we have to look far for the word Maine, as used in the grant, "Province of Maine" to Gorges and Mason. In the first decade of the seventeenth century, the voyagers and explorers who visited our
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coast had need for an expression for it as it rose from the sea on their approach. Outlying islands, they mention as islands, but the land to them was the "main" or "maine land," and so they called it in their Relations and Narratives. Pring, in his account of his approach to the coast in 1603, refers to it as the "maine Land," also "the Mayne." Ros- ier, in his narrative of Waymouth's visit here in 1605, mentions "the maine land," as seen from his anchorage north of Monhegan on the arrival of the "Archangel." Sometimes "main" is without the final e as in the mention of the river, that "runneth up into the main." In the Relation of the Popham Colony, we have the designation "the main land," in its reference to the land as seen from the sea on the approach of the colonists. Again in the Great Charter of 1620, in which the ter- ritory between 40° and 48° of North Latitude was given to the Coun- cil of New England, mention is also made of "Maine Lands" and "Land upon the Maine."
What other appellation, therefore, could the Council of New England in 1622 more naturally use in their grant of a province to Gorges and Mason than the designation, "Province of Maine"?
The Pine Tree State
It is most appropriate that Maine should be called the Pine Tree State, since the white pine has from the earliest history of the area been one of the greatest assets to its people. The lightness and soft- ness of the wood, as well as its great strength, made it adaptable for many uses: buildings, furniture, ships and many other wooden articles. Rowe says: "Pine trees are integrally a part of Maine. The white pine belt, as it was called, extended along the coast line from New Hamp- shire to Nova Scotia and reached beyond the Connecticut and Hudson Rivers in the interior." In the hotel at Banff, in Rocky Mountain Park in Alberta, Canada, hangs a full-sized wall painting of a New Bruns- wick man, William Davidson, characterized as Canada's first lumber- man, in the act of cutting masts for the King's Navy.
R. K. Sewell states that the issue of the Revolution began "in the forests of Maine in the contests of her lumbermen with the King's Surveyor as to their right to cut and use the property in white pine trees." Thus the white pine have had a local, national and interna- tional significance for Maine and its people, which makes it clearly ap- propriate that the pine tree should be chosen as the state tree; and that in 1895 the cone and tassel should be legally adopted as the state flower.
The names of Maine's sixteen counties fall into three groups. Six bear old English names: York, Cumberland, Lincoln, Oxford and Somerset; five have Indian names, transferred from the rivers which traverse them: Androscoggin, Aroostook, Kennebec, Penobscot, Piscat-
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aquis, Sagadahoc; and five hold in remembrance the names of patri- otic Americans: Franklin, Hancock, Knox, Waldo, Washington.
York County, 1735
As early as 1640 the English name of York had gradually been acquired by the western division of Gorges' Province of Maine which extended from the Piscataquis River to the Sagadahoc (Kennebec) . The province soon came to be considered as two districts, first spoken of as the East and West districts or counties, of which the Kennebunk River was regarded as the dividing line. The town of York being the shire town of the western section, that portion gradually came to be called York district or county, the other being called Somerset or New Somerset. The Kennebunk River also proved to be the western bound- ary of the temporary Province of Lygonia.
When Massachusetts assumed control of the Province as far eastward as Casco Bay in 1658, the whole territory was called York- shire in honor of a shire or county in Old England. Under the Charter of William and Mary, in 1691, the area to which the name of Yorkshire was applied was extended eastward to the St. Croix River, the present eastern boundary of Maine. Owing to changing governments, it was not until 1735 that the term, York County, was first used.
Cumberland County, 1760
More than a century elapsed after the founding of Yorkshire before other counties were formed in what was the original Province of Maine. In 1760 the counties of Cumberland and Lincoln were incor- porated, the land included in each being in York County. The names bestowed on these two shires were taken from Old England to honor Englishmen.
It was in 1746 that William, Duke of Cumberland, son of George II of England, defeated the Pretender at Culloden. As a hero not only in this instance but in many other engagements, he won the popular favor. Five of the United States, including Maine, named a county in his honor.
Cumberland County in Maine is bounded on the east by the sea, one of the arms of which is Casco Bay, enclosed by the promontory of Cape Elizabeth and Cape Small Point. This is one of the finest bays in the world, "the fairest dimple on Ocean cheek," noted for its size, the number of its islands and havens, and the unchangeable nature of its shores, islands and bottoms. The islands are picturesque in form; and about them, bold headlands and peninsulas jut far out into the quiet water of the bay.
Cumberland County was included in the first grant of the Pro- vince of Maine in 1622 in New Somersetshire, as the eastern part was
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later called, when Gorges and Mason divided their patent in 1629, and in Lygonia or the Plough Patent granted to Dye and others of London in 1630 and sold by them to Sir Alexander Rigby. In 1639 it was in- cluded in the Great Charter from King Charles II to Gorges.
After the purchase of the Province by Massachusetts in 1677, it came under the jurisdiction of that Commonwealth and was repre- sented in its government. It was included in the County of Yorkshire until 1760, when it was set apart and assumed its present name.
Lincoln County, 1760
Lincoln County received its name in compliment to Governor Thomas Pownall who served as Colonial Governor of Massachusetts from August 3, 1757, to June 3, 1760. His birthplace was Lincoln, Eng- land, a city famous for its antiquity, as well as for its noble cathedral. Thomas Pownall was able and intelligent and well versed in colonial affairs at the time he came to the governor's chair in 1757. He was greatly interested in Maine because to him, frontier defense was an all absorbing question. He was in command of the forces that built Fort Pownal on the Penobscot and felt that he was successful in helping to fortify Maine. He wrote: "I shall always endeavor to serve the pro- vince and its inhabitants .... " John A. Schutz, in his recent biography of Pownall, characterizes him as the "British Defender of American Liberty."
No county of equal territory in Maine has so many harbors and havens. "From the time of its formation until the erection of Washing- ton and Hancock Counties in 1789, Lincoln extended over quite three- fifths of the territory of the province." Its north was Canada, its east, Nova Scotia and its south, the ocean.
In earlier times this region had been claimed by France as a part of her territory of Acadie; later it was known as Sagadahoc Territory and in 1665 the Duke of York (subsequently James II), to whom it had been granted by the King, erected it into the County of Corn- wall - Jamestown at Pemaquid being the capital and New Dartmouth (Newcastle), a shire town. All of the names given within this territory were names of English towns or shires.
Washington County, 1789
By 1789, in the period following the Revolutionary War, sev- enty-one towns had been incorporated in the District of Maine. Only eight of these had been established in the Province of Maine in the seventeenth century.
With the remarkable increase of municipal corporations, meas- ures were at once taken to divide Lincoln County for public conven- ience. The General Court, therefore, by an act of June 25, 1789, estab-
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lished two new counties: Washington and Hancock; names borrowed from two of the most eminent and popular men in the Union.
The dividing line between Washington and Hancock Counties started at the head of Gouldsborough River, east branch, and pro- ceeded to the southwest corner of township number sixteen; and "thence due north to the highlands." The eastern boundary of Wash- ington County was drawn "by the river St. Croix"; and thence north, so as to include all the lands within the Commonwealth eastward of Hancock. Opposite islands were annexed and the northern boundary was "the utmost northern limits of the State." Thus the General Court of Massachusetts complimented the "Father of our Country" by nam- ing its easternmost county in the District of Maine in his honor. On his farewell tour in 1789, Washington sailed across from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Kittery, the only instance recorded of a visit by him to our present state.
Hancock County, 1789
When the divisional line was made between Lincoln and Han- cock counties, it left to Lincoln the sea coast between the New Mead- ows and Penobscot bays and all the adjacent islands. The eastern boundary of Hancock County has already been noted as the western boundary of Washington County. Hancock County, like Washington, was bounded on the north "by the utmost northern limits" of the state, and the opposite islands were also annexed. When Hancock County was being established, John Hancock, one of the most eminent men of the Commonwealth, was governor. He died in office in 1793. During this time, Maine, which had been made a maritime district in 1778, was reconfirmed as a District in 1790.
Kennebec County, 1799
The first county in Maine to assume an Indian name, Kennebec County was the sixth county to be established in the District. In 1799 its territory, much of which was allotted to other counties later, was taken from Cumberland and Lincoln counties and naturally and prop- erly adopted the name of the great river which crosses its entire length. Previously the river had served not only as a means of transportation for the Indians and as a location for their important villages, but as a highway for the few white men journeying to and from Canada to reach the rich sources of furs which paid off the indebtedness of the Plymouth colonists to the London merchants. The first trading posts on the Kennebec were established at Augusta and Richmond in 1629.
The word Kennebec is descriptive of the river, or rather that part of the river, below Augusta, Maine's capital city, "level water without rapids or falls."
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Oxford County, 1805
On March 4, 1805, Oxford County was formed from the north- erly portions of York and Cumberland counties. The name bestowed upon it was borrowed from Oxfordshire, a southern midland county in England. It is said that this name reached our Maine county, as many an English name did, first by being transferred to a Massachu- setts area and then again being borrowed by some individual who wished to carry to his newer home the name of the place dear to him. In this case David Leonard, one of the earliest settlers of the new county, named it for the town of his birth, Oxford, Massachusetts, which in turn had been named for Oxfordshire, England.
Oxford County in Maine is essentially our hill region. The scenery of Oxford County is unsurpassed of its kind. "Lofty and snow clad peaks, with almost impassible glens between have their peculiar and thrilling attraction; but the peaceful verdure of great woods, grassy valleys, rich meadows, hillsides enlivened with flocks and herds, shining streams and sky-repeating ponds with occasional breeze-swept emin- ences affording wide views of the surrounding beauties, hold the re- gard of the lover of nature for a longer time and are more restorative in their influences." So writes Varney of Oxford County in his Ga- zeteer of Maine.
The first grant made within the present limits of Oxford County was in 1762, when a township of land on the Saco River was granted to General Joseph Frye, a native of Andover, Massachusetts, and a distinguished soldier of the French and Indian War. The town later received the name of Fryeburg.
Somerset County, 1809
When a new county was set off from Kennebec on March 1, 1809, the name of another English shire was borrowed for its christen- ing. Like York and Cumberland counties, the land included within its limits had once been a part of Sir Ferdinando Gorges' early grant of the Province of Maine in 1639, where he had dreamed of an Old Eng- land in New England.
When the early grant of the Province of Maine was divided in 1629, the eastern section lying between the Piscataquis and Kennebec rivers became the property of Gorges. He named it New Somersetshire for the county of Somerset in England, where his residence was located. It was also possibly the place of his birth. This old English name was discontinued when Gorges received a new charter in 1639, but was re- vived and most appropriately used as the name of the eighth county of the District. The million acres of land purchased by William Bing- ham of Philadelphia in the western part of the state lie mostly in Som-
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erset County. Norridgewock was the shire town until 1870, when a new and elegant brick building containing a courtroom and offices was crected in Skowhegan to which the county offices were moved and Skowhegan became the shire town of Somerset County.
Penobscot County, 1816
Penobscot County was separated from Hancock in 1816, the last county to be incorporated before Maine became a state. It occupies almost the entire valley of the Penobscot River, nearly the length of its main stream, the entire East branch except its farthest headwaters and many miles along the West branch. The county takes its name from this river, the longest in the state.
This river too was used as a highway by travelers, both Indians and whites on their way to and from Canada. One route lay up the river as far as the village of Mattawamkeag, where it turned to the east and followed up that branch to the mouth of the Baskehegan Stream. This led to a carry of only a short distance of two miles to Chiputneticook or Grand Lake, in what is now the town of Danforth, then into the Eel River, a branch of the St. John. This offered a thoroughfare to many parts of Canada. A second course was through the Passadumkeag waters to the headwaters of the Union River, Nar- raguagus, or branches of the Machias and through these routes to places on St. Croix waters.
The principal Indian villages on the Penobscot River were lo- cated at Mattawamkeag, Old Town, and at a point three miles above the mouth of the Kenduskeag. The word Penobscot means "the rocky river" or literally "the descending ledge place," referring originally to that section of the river between Treat's Falls and Old Town Great Falls where are ten miles of falls in close succession.
Waldo County, 1827
This county was formerly a part of Hancock County and bears the name of General Samuel Waldo. His family came first into the his- tory of Maine through its interest in what was originally called the Muscongus Grant. About the middle of the eighteenth century, it be- came known as the Waldo Patent, procured expressly for exclusive trade with the natives. He served our present state as Colonel of the Eastern Regiment and as a General at the siege of Louisburg. He also aided in securing foreigners to settle his patent. He was greatly inter- ested in the Penobscot Expedition which resulted in the building of Fort Pownal, when no white inhabitant retained a dwelling place on Penobscot Bay. A county, two thriving towns and the lofty elevation of Mount Waldo perpetuate his name.
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Franklin County, 1838
The next great American to be honored in the name of a Maine county was Franklin. This county is located in the western part of the state bordering on Canada. This area was the home of the Norridge- wock tribe of the Abnaki nation of Indians. Their principal village was near where Sandy River enters the Kennebec. It was the "Great Inter- val" on the Sandy River, and became known through the reports of hunters, which created a large degree of interest and eventually re- sulted in the settlement of the county.
The county was named in honor of Benjamin Franklin (1709- 1790) printer, author, philanthropist, inventor, statesman, diplomat and scientist.
Piscataquis County, 1838
Piscataquis was erected on March 23, 1838. This Indian name county contains the largest water area of any in the state and also con- stitutes a large part of the most elevated region in Maine. The most important river within its boundaries is the Piscataquis, which gave its name to the county and on which the first settlements were made. The pioneer settler of Piscataquis County was Eli Towne who moved his family from Temple, New Hampshire, to Dover in 1803. Sebec was the first town to be incorporated in 1812. The Piscataquis River is the largest branch of the Penobscot flowing in from the west, its name meaning literally " a branch of the river."
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