USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 11
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J. B. Porter and John Ward joined them. About 1819 or 1820, a set- tlement was begun on the east side of the town, adjoining Parkman, and from this time there was a gradual increase. In 1821. Mr. Isaac Hutchings came into town and soon became one of its prominent citizens. A saw mill was built quite early by John Davis at Wellington Corner, and some time after a grist mill was put in operation on the same falls. John and Cotton Weeks also put a mill above this on the same stream, and in 1826 Henry Carleton built a saw mill on the stream which now bears his name, so that there were three mill sites in different places. About 1826 Levi Merrill opened the first store in town, at the Corner.
Henry Carleton was town clerk and a selectman for many years.
Byron, 1833
This town is situated on the northeastern side of Oxford County, forming an angle projecting into Franklin. The early name of the town was Skillerton. It was incorporated in 1833, and named for the English poet, Lord George Gordon Byron, whose death had oc- curred a few years previously in 1824.
The oldest book of records in the town is dated June 30, 1821, when the place was called Plantation No. 8. The people held their first town meeting to elect town officers on March 18, 1833. A John Stockbridge was justice of the peace and called the meeting. William Badger was the first town clerk of Byron. Lieutenant John Stockbridge, who was evidently the leader in the little community, served in the Revolution, enlisting from Salem, Massachusetts. He married Anna Leavitt, daughter of Joseph Leavitt of Turner, Maine, a lineal des- cendent of John Leavitt, who came from England to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1628. Their first three children were born in Dix- field, Maine, while the remaining four children were born in Planta- tion Number 8 between 1816 and 1829, which places the arrival of the family in the present town of Byron between 1814 and 1816.
Records also show families of Richard and Mary Merrill and Abraham and Ruth Reed. To the Merrills were born Joshua Mitchell in 1813 and John H. in 1815; and to the Reeds, Priscilla and Octavia in 1821 and 1824. The death of Mrs. Reed occurred in 1825.
Rangeley, 1855
This town is situated near the middle of the western side of Franklin County. It was incorporated in 1855, receiving at that time the name of an English squire who, having emigrated to New York, be- came the owner of the tract now called Rangeley. Here, in 1825, he tried to reproduce the English system of landlord and tenant. He found little sympathy with his project, but persevered with his plan, erect-
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ing mills and opening roads and thus securing rapid development of the flourishing settlement. He erected a two-story mansion of good architecture, in a beautiful situation, for his accomplished family.
Some of the settlers grazed cattle and they soon found a near-by market for any surplus. When lumbering increased, there was ready market for their hay. The Niles and Toothaker families are peculiarly worthy of mention for their exertions in developing the latent resources of northern Franklin.
Rangeley resided at the lake for about fifteen years, observing in his social life much of the form and ceremony of the English nobil- ity. On the death of his daughter, he moved to Portland and thence to North Carolina.
The original settlers of Rangeley were Mr. and Mrs. Luther Hoar who had taken a brood of eight into Rangeley in 1817. By 1825 other families had come to this little settlement: the Rowes, the Thomases, the Kimballs and the Quimbeys, in the order named.
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CHAPTER VI Maine Towns of the Nineteenth Century Which Bear the Names of English Towns
Memories of English towns continued to dominate the minds of some of the citizens of the newer towns of the District of Maine af- ter the turn of the nineteenth century.
Leeds, 1801
The one hundred and twenty-eighth town to be incorporated was Leeds, in our present Androscoggin County. The first settlement was made in 1779 by Thomas and Roger Stinchfield. The land was claimed by the Pejepscot proprietors and a township was laid out by one of them in 1789-81 and called Littleborough in honor of Colonel Moses Little, of Massachusetts, who was one of the largest proprietors.
The Stinchfields were soldiers of the French and Indian War. They were daring hunters and trappers and had become acquainted with this vicinity through their hunting trips. They brought goats and household tools during the winter of 1779 and raised corn and vegeta- bles during the summer. With the addition of venison and maple sugar, their families were provided with a means of subsistence on their arrival in June, 1780. The Stinchfields bartered with the Indians for furs and won their kindness by fair dealing and acts of generosity.
Their father, John, was the English emigrant who settled suc- cessively in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and New Gloucester, Maine. He was a native of Leeds, England, in whose honor the Maine town was named.
Of the other early settlers of Leeds, Maine, Oliver Otis, of Scituate, came in 1792; he and his bride moved into a log house, which they exchanged for a framed one in 1797. In 1782 Jerah Fish had arrived with a large family of boys who, as carpenters, became a great help to the early settlers. That same year Thos. Millet and Dan- iel Lane, also with large families, aided the little settlement. The fol- lowing year an immigration began which added numbers to the com- munity. Among these were Bishops, Gilberts, Lathrops and Leadbetters. Many Revolutionary soldiers came in, poor in money, but with hardy constitutions and a rare working capacity.
The first town meeting was called by John Chandler and held at the house of Solomon Millett on April 6, 1801. Dr. Abiel Daily was
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chosen clerk and treasurer; John Whiting, Daniel Lathrop, Oliver Otis, selectmen and assessors; James Lindsey, collector. Fence viewers, surveyors of boards, and sealers of weights and measures were also selected. In 1807, it was voted that the selectmen petition the General Court for the incorporation of a canal between the Androscoggin and Kennebec waters; also that town meetings be held at the Baptist meet- ing house and $8 be paid for its use. The house was built in 1806. Jesse Lee preached Methodism here in 1794, although the meeting house was not built until 1851. The Quakers in 1807 erected a meet- ing house on Quaker Ridge - it was moved twice and about 1869 was torn down, the society having become extinct.
John Jennings built the first saw mill, a small affair, about 1790 at West Leeds, for the use of himself and three sons. However, he also accommodated his neighbors. A fulling mill was afterward built near by. The second saw mill was built in 1804 by Thos. Mitchell and Elias and Peter Lane. Andrew Cushman built the first grist mill in 1814 on the privilege at West Leeds. A saw mill was also built in 1817. Eben Mason built the second grist mill on the same stream in 1816 - he was also the first blacksmith. Samuel Moore put up a small tannery in 1814 and also made shoes - there were other tanneries as well. The earliest merchants were the Indian traders, the Stinchfields. The first traders as we know the term were Stephen Welcome in the southwest, Wm. Turner in the southern part of Leeds, and Cyrus Simpson and Solomon Lothrop at South Leeds. The town was early interested in agriculture. When the Reverend Paul Coffin visited Wm. Gilbert in 1796, he told of the amount of bread stuff and flax raised. Leeds is said to have been the first of the Androscoggin towns to hold a fair.
Avon, 1802
Soon after the Revolution, when the returned soldiers of Mas- sachusetts and New Hampshire were seeking homes in the undeveloped lands of Maine, Plantation Number 2 in Abott's Purchase, lying on both sides of the Sandy River in the first range of townships, our pres- ent town of Avon, was being explored.
Even before 1784 this plantation was settled by Joshua Soule from Damariscotta River and Captain Perkins Allen of Martha's Vineyard. They were soon followed by Moses Dudley, Ebenezer Thompson, Mark Whitten, Thos. Humphrey, Charles Dudley and Samuel and Jesse Ingreham.
The Sandy offered abundant power for mills and fertile soil for farms. The settlement was familiarly called Upper Town from its relation to two other towns, now Phillips and Strong, then Lower and Middle Towns, on the Sandy River. The area included in the present town of Avon was surveyed by Samuel Titcomb in 1793.
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Educated as these early emigrants were, they found in this beautiful scenery of Maine mountains and rivers a similarity, as they thought, to the Shakespearian country of England. So when the town was named, the meaningful old name of the "Shakespeare Avon" was bestowed upon it.
The following were residents of Sandy River Upper Town ac- cording to the census of 1790: Thomas Humphries, Moses Dudley, Ebeneezer Thompson, Perkins Allen, Charles Church, Daniel Ingram, Eliphalet Dudley, Samuel Sprague, Joshua Soule and Isaac Thomp- son.
Surry, 1803
Another beautiful old English name is retained in the town of Surry, a village located on the west bank of Union River in Hancock County. Surry, Maine, was Township Number Six in the grant of the first-class townships to David Marsh and 359 others in 1762. These townships were to be located severally, six miles square, in a regular contiguous manner between the Penobscot and Union rivers.
The grantees bound themselves to certain conditions, among them the settlement within each township of sixty Protestant families within six years after obtaining the King's approbation, and the build- ing of as many dwelling houses, at least eighteen feet square; the fitting for tillage of 300 acres of land and the erection of a meeting house and settlement of a minister. There were reserved in each township one lot for parsonage purposes, another for the first settled minister, a third for Harvard College and the fourth for the use of schools.
Surry was first settled about 1767. Pioneers were from Cheshire, New Hampshire, Newbury, Massachusetts, and Berwick, Maine. The first English settlers were Symonds, Weymouth and James Flye. An- drew Flood, Sr., one of the early settlers, came from Cheshire, New Hampshire, and erected a log cabin on the shore of what is now East Surry. In March of 1791 he was chosen the first juror from Surry to serve at court in Castine. Moses Hammond, the first trial justice re- ceiving his appointment from Governor King, settled near "the Floods." In 1784 at "No man's Cape," as Newbury Neck was called, there were a number of settlers from "Old" Newbury, Massachusetts. The Clarks, Treworgys, and Youngs are descendants of men who set- tled in Old Newbury.
Other early settlers were John Patten, a Mr. Hopkinson, Wil- brahim Swett, Matthew and James Ray, Samuel Joy, Isaac Lord, He- zekiah Coggins and Leonard Jarvis.
The last named and his brother Philip, who were brothers of Boston merchants, began to buy up land as early as 1770 from the original grantees and from the state, and by 1800 were the largest
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landholders in Maine except for the Bingham estate. Leonard Jarvis represented the eastern division in Congress from 1831 to 1837.
A letter from John Ross of Surry, now Ellsworth, to General David Cobb, at that time President of the Massachusetts Senate, con- cerns the name of the town of Surry. Ross was a Scotchman who had come to Ellsworth about 1790, and after the purchase of the Bingham estate had become an agent for General Cobb.
The letter is dated "Union River 25 January 1803." After speaking of the weather and a few news items, he continues: "Our plantation has sent a petition to get incorporated the name I cannot like very well, nor am I alone in my opinion, could you get it called Kent or Surry or indeed any short name of your choice, twould be more acceptable."
Evidently his desire was carried out, for the town became Surry after the English town which he suggested. The name was even short- ened, since the spelling of the English town is Surrey.
Albion, 1804
This town, located in our present Kennebec County, has been the recipient of many names. It was called Freetown in 1802. It was incorporated in 1804 under the name of an English parliamentary general of the eighteenth century, named Fairfax.
Later the name was changed to Lygonia, a title which had been borne by a grant in Maine called the Plough Patent, by way of ridi- cule, which is said to have originated from the name of the mother of Sir Ferdinando Gorges.
Since many of the early settlers of Albion came from York County where this early patent was located, they may have desired to perpetuate the name. Since 1824 the town has borne the title of Al- bion, the ancient name of England. Albion, Maine, was established as the one hundred and fifty-first town in the state.
The settlement, according to Varney, was some time prior to 1790 when there were about six families: the weight of evidence being that the Reverend Daniel Lovejoy, a Congregational minister, was the first settler. The principal body of water in the town is Lovejoy Pond, on whose southern shore is the site of the Lovejoy homestead where Elijah Parish Lovejoy, anti-slavery leader and pioneer in defense of the freedom of the press, was born. His words, "As long as I am an American citizen and as long as American blood runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to speak, to write and to publish what- ever I please on any subject, being amenable to the laws of my country for the same," are engraved on the monument to his memory at Alton, Illinois, where he lost his life while defending his press against a mob.
The six families who were in the present town of Albion in
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1790 were the Crosbys, Shoreys, Prays and Libbeys, as well as the Love- joys. Robert, the first of the Crosbys, settled at the foot of the pond. The Drakes located on Drake Hill about the same time.
Other original settlers were Benj. and John Webb, John Fall, James Hanscom, who settled on the west side of the pond, Jonathan Cammett, Gibbs Tilton, Deacon Stephen Hussey, Dennis Getchell, near the Unity line, Southard Phillips and Samuel Stackpole.
Windsor, 1809
Here again in Kennebec County is an old English name which was not adopted until 1822. When the town was incorporated in 1809, it was under the name of Malta, the name of the largest of the Mal- tese Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1820 this name was changed to Gerry in honor of Elbridge Gerry, the Governor of Massachusetts from 1810 to 1812 and the fifth vice-president of the United States, serving in 1813-14. The name Windsor is the name of the Royal Fam- ily of England, taken from Windsor Castle located on the banks of the Thames. It is the symbol of monarchy to which the eyes of the Empire turn in love and loyalty.
Probably the first settler in our present Windsor, Maine, was Walter Dockindoff who came from Bristol about 1790 and settled a mile west of Windsor Corner, where he set the first orchard in the town. The house which he erected is one of the oldest frame buildings in the town. Quite an exodus followed Dockindoff from Bristol. Thomas Le Ballister took up a tract of 300 acres in the southeastern section.
Edw. Trask erected a frame house and Joseph Trask also set- tled here. Mr. Le Ballister built a log cabin where the roads intersect at Le Ballister Corner, in 1793, and some ten years later, built a frame dwelling there. The chimney was laid with the first bricks manufac- tured in Windsor.
After Le Ballister came Prince Keene, John Lynn, Benj. Hilton, Joseph Hilton, Joseph Linscott and Abraham Merrill. Keene settled one mile south of Windsor Creek; John Lynn was a Revolutionary soldier who settled here in 1803. Joseph Hilton was one of the early teachers, and Joseph Linscott came from the vicinity of Damariscotta; the horne which he built is one of the very old buildings. Abraham Merrill came from Yarmouth, Maine. He was here at a very early date, perhaps next to Dockindoff.
A long and severe controversy ensued here between the pro- prietors and settlers; and in an attempt by the settlers to retain their lands, the surveyor employed by the proprietors was shot in 1809 by a party of men disguised as Indians. Strange as it appears, the supposed malefactors were acquitted.
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St. Albans, 1814
The name St. Albans has both a religious and political signifi- cance in English history, although I like to think that the founding fathers of this little village here in Maine in 1814, when they adopted the name of the English town, knew that St. Albans, England, was the birthplace of the rights of the common people. There, in 1213, the As- sembly of St. Albans was convened by King John as a jury from all England to assess the damages of the clergy. This meeting was the germ of the future House of Commons, it furnished a precedent for producing the Charter of Henry the First and was at once welcomed as a base for needed reforms. This finally resulted in the securing of the Magna Charta in 1217, the Great Charter, to which from age to age patriots have looked back as the basis of English liberty. St. Albans, whose name this English town bears, was the first English martyr.
The first mention that we have of the town of St. Albans, Maine, is the selling of the territory with surrounding towns to John Warren, of Boston, by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1799. It was probably settled by a Mr. Hackett who came with his family and built a log house on Hackett's Hill. Thos. Skinner was one of the earliest traders. The warrant for the first town meeting was issued by Benj. French, Justice of the Peace, to Joseph Dearborn, freeholder and inhabitant of the town of St. Albans.
The meeting was held at the home of Mr. Abraham Moor.
Hartland was the part of St. Albans where the first house was erected by Stephen Hartwell, who also put up the first saw mill in the village which later, in 1820, became Hartland.
Martin Bradford and his wife came from Readfield, cleared a farm and erected buildings. Nicholas F. Bragg was from Sidney and settled on the Cross Roads Place. David C. Braley, who came about 1825 from Hallowell and cleared a farm of about 170 acres on the Harmony Road, was a soldier in the Aroostook War. James Bigelow came from Bloomfield and settled on a farm on the crossroad now known as the Old Bigelow Place. Eleazer Crocker, one of the most prominent of the early settlers, came from Greene and was sent as a Representative to the Legislature.
Guilford, 1816
The name Guilford is borne by an English town and county seat of Surrey on the Wey river, twenty-nine miles southwest of Lon- don. It is a very old town, one of Alfred's possessions and then of his son, Ethelwald. Lord North was Earl of Guilford.
The town of Guilford, Maine, is situated in the southwestern part of Piscataquis County and was one of the townships conveyed to
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Bowdoin College. Elder Robert Low, Deacon Robert Herring and Michael Webber, of New Gloucester, purchased several rights of Bow- doin College and, in the summer of 1804, selected and lotted them. This done, the college sold single lots to settlers, and so it went on until the settling land was nearly all purchased. The lotting was done by A. Greenwood. In June 1804, while their fathers were selecting their tracts, Robert Low, Jr., and Robert Herring, Jr., came and took up the two lots on the river westward of Low's bridge and there felled the first opening. In 1805 Low and Herring raised the first crop of corn and potatoes in town and built their log houses.
This season others selected lots, felled openings and prepared them for a burn. Nathaniel, John and Isaac Bennett and J. Everton were among these. Robert Low, Jr., was the first to bring in his family in 1806 and Robert Herring, Jr., came with his family about three weeks later. Three Bennett boys came at the same time and during the next summer, Nathaniel and John Bennett and I. B. Wharff, in the employ of Isaac Bennett, were busy on their respective lots raising corn and wheat and preparing cabins for their families.
Toward autumn Captain J. Bennett returned to New Glou- cester and drove down a loaded oxcart, leading a young cow. When winter came the Bennett men returned to New Gloucester and left three of their sons, from eleven to thirteen years of age, who lived on hulled corn, boiled wheat, roasted potatoes and milk. In March, 1807, the families arrived. Soon other families came and a saw mill was built.
The place was called Lowstown from its first settler. When the settlement consisted of eight or ten men, they held a formal meeting, choosing officers and passing such rules and regulations as good order and good feeling in the settlement required. In 1812 it was organized into Plantation No. 6, 7th Range. In 1816 the inhabitants petitioned the General Court for incorporation as a town under the name of Flu- vanna. The act was granted, but the name was changed to Guilford. As in other cases in both Maine and Massachusetts, no valid reason appears for the change of name except that the Legislature so ordered it.
The two most prominent leaders in the town were Robert Low, the first settler, and Captain Joseph Kelsey. Low was a man of native endowments, well educated for his day, of unflinching integrity and of stern morality. He was town clerk, selectman, and a long-time mem- ber of the school committee. Kelsey was a member of the Constitu- tional Convention and was Representative to Maine's first Legisla- ture. He was several times re-elected, twice a senator, twice a county commissioner, Indian agent and postmaster. He also held many town
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offices and was a trustee of Foxcroft Academy. His son, Joseph L., was engaged in surveying the public lands.
Cumberland, 1821
The town is located in Cumberland County from which it de- rived its old English name. It was formerly a part of North Yarmouth.
John Philips, a native of Wales, was the first settler in the town. Here he erected, on a point of land fifty feet above the mussel beds, a stone house or garrison and traded with the Indians. In 1640 he sold his garrison to George Felt of Malden, Massachusetts, who made his home here and, in 1643, completed his title of the land by repurchase from Thomas Gorges. After the Indian outbreak of 1676, Mr. Felt re- turned to Malden.
Captain Walter Gendell lived here near the shore, next the Falmouth line, as early as 1665. John Plaice bought a piece of land be- tween Gendell and Felt extending northward to the creek. Captain Gendell, the first to return after the peace of 1678, built a strong house of heavy timber calculated to withstand savage attacks. A man of in- trepid bravery and business ability, he was appointed by Thos. Dan- forth, the province president of 1680, a member of the committee to make plans for re-settlement and lay out homes in a manner most capable of defense against the Indians. He was engaged in sawing lumber at the falls from 1681 until he lost his life in 1688 while heroi- cally relieving a band of his beseiged workmen. In 1681 Anthony Brac- kett and George Pearson had been appointed to lay him out a farm of 200 acres, where he had built a house and begun a settlement which was soon abandoned after 1688.
In 1723 Wm. Scales, son of the Wm. Scales who was killed in 1678, had reoccupied Scales Point on Broad Cove and erected a strong garrison for the defense of himself, James Buxton, Matthew Scales, Joseph Felt, Francis Wyman and James Nichols. The same year a petition was presented to the General Court asking for soldiers to de- fend the garrison. Wm. Scales Jr., father of Deacon Thomas and Mat- thew Scales, was killed at Royall River and his family taken captive; his son-in-law Captain Weare recovered the family four years later. Joe Weare, his son, became a famous Indian scout and fighter. The Gendell farm was regranted John Smith of Boston. John Powell built a saw mill at the falls, now known as Felt's Falls, near the old stone fort of Mr. Phillips. Previous to the laying out of lots by Phineas Jones in 1732, a school lot and two farms for John Powell and John Dabney had been preserved on Broad Cove. The balance of the coast, except the Gendell farm, had been laid out in lots of ten acres each by Cap- tain Jeremiah Moulton and Benjamin Flagg. Those back from the shore contained more land. The main part of the town is comprised
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in the "one hundred acre lots west of Royall's River" laid out by Phineas Jones in 1732 and drawn in 1733.
Dover, 1822
The township of Dover in Piscataquis County was purchased of Massachusetts about the year 1800 by Hallowell and Lowell of Bos- ton, for Charles Vaughn and John Merrick of Hallowell, Maine, from whom the present titles are derived. Sometime before 1799 Abel Blood purchased a tract of land and made a clearing. The first permanent settlement was made by Eli Towne of Temple, New Hampshire, who came in 1803. In 1812 it was organized as Plantation No. 3 and in 1822 it was incorporated under the name of Dover, in honor of Dover, England, from which its proprietors, the Vaughns, had come. Dover, Maine, was united with Foxcroft, Maine, on March 1, 1922, by act of the Legislature which was approved March 23, 1915, and became effective March 1, 1922.
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