USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 12
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The proprietors belonged to a wealthy, highly cultured and well-connected family in England. It was thought that they sympa- thized with the Colonies in their struggle for independence; they aided the poor, hard-working settlers by building a meeting house and giv- ing land for common purposes.
The Towne family, Thomas and his three sons: Moses, Eli and Abel, resided in Temple, New Hampshire, and it appears that Moses had bargained with Abel Blood for a part of his land on the north side of Piscataquis River. In 1801 trees must have been felled on the land, for Thomas and Moses and probably Eli Towne spent the sum- mer of 1802 raising a crop on it and enlarging the opening. Thomas and Moses remained through the winter and Moses and Francis Chase made maple syrup, living on hulled corn and maple syrup through the winter.
Eli Towne and his family came in the spring, from Temple, New Hampshire to Portsmouth, then to Bangor by boat. From there he walked to Kenduskeag, then to Levant, then to Charleston, then to their log cabin on the Piscataquis River. Mrs. Towne rode on horse- back, with no road, no bridge, only a spotted line to guide her. They arrived May 8, 1803. Moses Towne sold out his interest on the Blood purchase to his brother, Eli, who also bought the larger part of the remainder of the Blood land on which he and his father passed the re- mainder of their lives, turning the wilderness into fruitful fields, build- ing a dam and mills.
In the spring of 1804, Abel Blood, Lyford Dow and Moses Towne probably brought in their families and in 1805 John Spauld- ing moved his family from Norridgewock into a log cabin near
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Towne's. In March John Dow moved his wife and child all the way from Temple, New Hampshire, more than two hundred miles, on an ox sled. Thomas Towne was a Revolutionary soldier, hence his sharp- shooting made him a mighty hunter in this howling wilderness. Eli Towne was a blacksmith, which trade was of great use to him and his neighbors. Jonas Longley took up the northwest corner lot of Dover and felled trees as early as 1806, and Mr. Fifield, a brother-in-law, be- gan on the adjoining lot. In 1808 Mr. Zachariah Longley, father of Jonas, came and settled on the lot that his son had taken up. He had been a fifer in the Revolutionary War. In this year good crops were harvested and several advanced steps were taken in the settlement.
Richmond, 1823
This town, located in Sagadahoc County, includes the site of Fort Richmond, which was built at that place about 1719. This was a government trading post situated near the river. It was neither very large nor firmly constructed and was dismantled in 1754.
When the town of Richmond was set off from Bowdoinham in 1823, it took the name of the fort, which had been named in honor of the English Duke of Richmond (1734-1806) who was in favor of peace with the United States on the terms of independence. The early inhabitants of Fort Richmond were not permanent settlers but merely traffickers.
The earliest white settlers in the present town of Richmond came in 1629. The settlement consisted of a trading post, established in the same year in which the famous patent was obtained from the Plymouth Company by the Kennebec Company.
There cannot have been any permanent settlement previous to the Revolution, although there were fishing stations. In 1776 Rich- mond as a part of Bowdoinham had perhaps ten voters.
The locality now known as Richmond Village was first named White's Landing in honor of Barzille White who settled there in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Until 1835 he had a partnership with Israel, father of the famous Washburn family at Livermore.
White kept a store and surveyed the wood and bark that was hauled to the landing for shipment. His house, built in 1806, now in the rear of the Southard Block, is the oldest house in Richmond Vil- lage. Dr. Tupper, White's father-in-law, was a man of property and at one time was engaged in shipbuilding. In 1813 there were two buildings at White's Landing. Five years later there were eight. At this time Captain James Carney came to Richmond. From 1818 White's Landing continued to grow and prosper. Wm. Gardiner, a son of Rich- ard Hallowell Gardiner, was one of the early well-known residents of
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Richmond. In 1824 he built a large house at White's Landing, which for many years was occupied by Judge B. F. Tallman. The growth of Richmond Village was not rapid until after the year 1825. The first church built in the town was erected in 1828 and known as "the yel- low meeting house," or Union Church. By 1825 Richmond had well- built roads and prosperous schools.
Oxford, 1829
This is the southeastern town of the eastern expanse of Oxford County. It was originally a part of Hebron or Shepherdsfield, from which it was separated in 1829, and was often called West Hebron or Craigie's Mills. The first settlements were made during the closing years of the Revolution by emigrants from Worcester, Ipswich, Ply- mouth and other Massachusetts towns. When it was incorporated in 1829, the old English name of the county in which it was located was bestowed upon it. Still standing is Craigie's tavern, famed as the vil- lage inn in stagecoach days, where the finest bar in this area was kept. The story of the development of the dream of Andrew Craigie as told by King in the Annals of Oxford is comparable to that of many an Englishman or American who felt that here in Maine he might make the ideal home for a gentleman farmer.
He expected much from his land in Hebron and spent great sums of money in improving it, erecting buildings and making use of the water power for the lumber and grain mills which he erected. Here he built up a prosperous business. As the population increased, separa- tion from Hebron seemed best, since the distance from the original center made business connections inconvenient.
Among the names of the first officeholders at the time of in- corporation were Sam'l H. King, Jairus S. Keith, Wm. C. Whitney, Jacob Tewksbury, Cyrus Shaw, Dan Perry, Ebenezer Holmes, Giles Shurtleff and Alonzo King.
Acton, 1830
This town was formerly the western part of the plantation of Hubbardstown and the town of Shapleigh from which it was separated in 1830. It was named Acton from an English town, now a part of greater London.
The first settlements in the part of the town now Acton, Maine, were started in the autumn of 1776. Three men, named Benjamin Ki- mens, Clement Steel and John York, with their families, moved into the neighborhood now called "the Corner." Captain William Rodgers, a proprietor of note and first Justice of the Peace, built a bridge across the narrows of Mousam Pond and built a house about the same time.
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The bridge was built previous to 1776, but the exact date of his mov- ing to his home is not known.
Among the permanent settlers were Joshua Brackett who came in 1778 and made the first opening at South Acton Corner, John Hussey who settled half a mile southwest, and Gershom Ricker of Dover, New Hampshire, who settled half a mile beyond in 1779.
The first mill in the town, a grist mill, was built on the Salmon Falls River near Wakefield in 1779 by Joseph Parsons. For this and other services, he was rewarded 200 acres of land in the third range of rights by the proprietors. In February of that year Paul Farnham, a Revolutionary soldier, and his three sons: Dummer, Ralph and Paul, came from Lebanon and settled near each other in the southwest cor- ner of the town. In March John Woodman from Farmington, New Hampshire, settled north of the Farnhams; Daniel Hurd came the same year and located on the hill a mile south of South Acton.
About 1776 John Burnham Hanson of Dover, New Hampshire, a landholder, cut out a road for the proprietors through the whole length of the town and passed north of Kimen's, Steel's and York's places to the Ossipee River. The road began at the Lebanon line. From the above date, settlers came in rapidly. The name Hubbardstown came from the fact that many of the early settlers were named Hub- bard. A grist mill was built at the place now called Emery's Mills, in 1779. In 1789 the town of Shapleigh was divided into two parishes: East and West. Acton was the East, and in 1830 an act incorporating the town was passed.
Beddington, 1833
Beddington in Washington County also bears an old English name, that of a municipal borough in the Mitcham parliamentary di- vision of Surrey, about ten miles from London. From the fourteenth century, Beddington Park was the seat of the Carews; it is mainly a residential district.
Beddington, Maine, was a part of the Bingham Purchase and shows the influence of the English and Scotch agents in its naming.
The first people to locate in this present town were from Jones- boro, Maine. They are listed in the town records as Israel Dorman, Amasa Farnsworth, Jonah Noyes, John Schoppe, and George Whitney, all from that town. Joseph Libbey came from Gouldsborough, Maine.
They held their first meeting to elect officers on March 25, 1844. No dates are available as to when these first settlers came.
The town is located on the so-called Air Line, the shortest route between Calais and Bangor. Originally planned in 1838-39 to carry the soldiers to the border in the Aroostook War, it remained unfinished
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until about 1857 when it was opened as a mail route. Travelers passed over the route with uneasiness, fearing wolves and bandits.
The old Schoppe House in Beddington, now the post office, was for many years the stopping place for stage coaches. Here Jef- ferson Davis, later President of the Confederacy, is said to have lived the summer of 1857 while visiting his friend Alexander Bache, Super- intendent of the Coast Survey at that date.
Cambridge, 1834
This is the farthest northeast town of Somerset County. It was separated from Ripley and named for Cambridge, England, the seat of the ancient University. The dividing line between the towns of Rip- ley and Cambridge is Main Stream, a tributary of the Sebasticook River.
The following story is told concerning the naming of the town: In 1834 when Cambridge was separated from Ripley, a meeting was held at the house of Isaac Hooper in Cambridge. His daughter was given the privilege of selecting the name of the town. This she did, calling it Cambridge from the English town about which she had been reading a story.
The village lies between Furguson Stream and Cambridge Pond. It was settled about 1804 by Joseph Tyler, Noah Littlefield, Jacob Hatch and Mr. Kimball. Soon afterward came many others. The ter- rible fire of 1825 damaged homes and property of settlers.
The first store was built by Guerny and Buzzell in the latter's house; the second, by David Bailey in 1831. In 1828 Mr. Bailey was appointed postmaster. Mr. Isaac Hooper, already mentioned, was one of the most interesting of the early settlers; coming from Lewiston in 1824. He was prominent in the early affairs of the town and deacon of the church for many years; he cleared a farm out of the wilderness and one of his sons became a member of the Legislature.
Elias Hatch came from Greene to Harmony, then to Cam- bridge, where he lived in the western part of the town. He was a cooper by trade. David Bailey was prominent in the development of the early milling industry in which Nathan Clark played a part. The latter bought the mill privilege in the village; the dam was a crude affair of wooden poles, but he built a stone dam which stood for seventy years. The first mill was a saw and grist mill combined, operated by these two men. Later Clark took the grist and Bailey the saw mill.
Alton, 1844
The town, known originally as Township No. 3, was bought of the Indians and a part of it ceded to Waterville College in 1815 by the
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Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It was afterwards a part of Argyle Plantation, before being incorporated as a town in 1844.
Argyle was incorporated as a town in 1839, taking only a part of Argyle Plantation. Alton was never a part of Argyle Town, but was the west part of Argyle Plantation.
The oldest highway in the town, Bennoch Road, starts at Orono and follows a gravelly ridge or horseback from Orono to Medford in Piscataquis County, traversing the east side of the town from north to south. A deed written in 1815 gives to John Bennoch in consideration for services rendered, "the opening and making a road through the Commonwealth lands from Pushaw Stream near Penobscot River to Piscataquis River, 5000 acres of land laid out in lots of one hundred acres, each lot bounding on said road."
One of the conditions of this land deeded to John Bennoch was that the grantee should settle thirty families on the land in six years.
Stephen Tourtelotte came in 1818 and built the first cabin; in 1821 or 1822, Amiel Rand came into town bringing his sons Hiram, James and Joel, all of whom lived for some time in the northern sec- tion of the town near LaGrange. John Averill and his wife Nancy were from Searsmont, coming among the earliest settlers and locating near the Mansell Pond Section. His granddaughter, the poetess Anna Boyn- ton Averill, was born on the banks of Birch Stream.
George H. McKechnie came from Athens, Maine, in 1833. He was prominent as a lumberman and farmer, held many town offices and was a Representative to the Legislature. He was Trial Justice and Justice of the Peace for many years, and was a very successful and prosperous man.
The first clergyman, Elbridge Wellington, born in 1796, came from Massachusetts. Abraham Mansell moved here as a young man, established a tavern near his home and a farm near the pond which bears his name.
While the origin of the name Alton appears somewhat doubt- ful, the word is undoubtedly English and may have been given from the English town Alton in Southhampton, England.
Stockton Springs, 1857
This town in Waldo County derived its name from Stockton on . Tees, a seaport town in Durham, England. Miss Faustina Hichborn adds the following in explanation of the naming of the town:
In 1856, chiefly from political antagonism a movement for the division of the town of Prospect was inaugurated and at the September election, N. G. Hichborn was selected to at-
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tend to the matter, since he was a member of the Legislature. The division was accomplished in the face of extreme opposi- tion in Feb. 1857, the name Stockton being given to the newly incorporated town. Mr. Hichborn had suggested the name be- cause the location of Stockton, Maine was markedly similar to that of Stockton, England. In 1889 the name of Stockton, Maine was changed to Stockton Springs in the expectation that a certain spring might prove of commercial value.
Fort Point is included in the town and took its name from a fort built there by Thomas Pownall, Governor of Massachusetts in 1759, for the defense of the frontier. Some vestiges of the fortification may still be found.
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CHAPTER VII Maine Towns Whose Names Are of French and Irish Origin
The ambitions of the French to possess this continent in the seventeenth century and their first attempted settlement at St. Croix in 1604 is recorded in a few of Maine's towns and cities.
As Champlain sailed along the coast in that early summer, mapping and charting its bays and headlands, he wrote in his diary some of the names which he bestowed upon its physical features. Con- cerning Mount Desert Island he recorded : "I named it L'isle de Monts Deserts," meaning "the island of the barren mountains," thus verify- ing the later statement of Williamson that "two-thirds of the island is mountainous and incapable of cultivation."
This later was the island on which the French missionaries, Biard and Massé formed their temporary residence in 1613, which was destroyed by Sir Samuel Argall of Virginia on the grounds that they were encroaching on English soil.
Mt. Desert, 1789
The first permanent settlement was made by the English. Abra- ham Somes came in 1761 and built a house near the head of the sound which bears his name. James Richardson came the same year. When the present town of Mt. Desert was incorporated in 1789, it borrowed the original name of the island. Among the villages included in the town are Northeast Harbor, Seal Harbor, Somesville and Otter Creek.
Some of the other early settlers were Stephen Richardson, a year or two after James, at Bass Harbor, Christopher Bartlett on Bart- lett's Island, Israel Bartlett at Pretty Marsh. Other early settlers were Ebenezer Higgins, Daniel Rodick, Ezra Young, John Tinker, Josiah Black, Amaziah Leland, Levi Higgins and Thomas Richardson.
A petition from Mt. Desert in 1768 for protection against hay thieves was signed by Abraham Somes, Andrew Tarr, James, Stephen, Thomas and Elijah Richardson, Benjamin Stanwood, Stephen, Dan- iel and Daniel Gott, Jr. These last three were doubtless from Gott's Island. Some of the early settlers at Pretty Marsh were Ephraim Pray and Ephraim Pray, Jr., the Widow Eaton and Reuben and George Freeman.
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Isle au Haut, 1874
Originally, this was the name of one of the islands which is in- cluded in the present town of that name in Knox County. It was also given by Champlain. The word is descriptive, meaning "high island." The first settlements were early, the first made by Anthony Merchant in 1772 on the island which has since borne his name. Great Isle au Haut was settled in 1792 by Peltiah Barter. Other settlers were Henry Barter, Robert Douglas, Alexander Nutter, Robert Barter, Ebenezer Leland, Charles Kimpton, Jonathan Calton, Solomon Kimball and Ebenezer Sawyer. The town was not incorporated until 1874.
Lamoine, 1870
This town in Hancock County was set off from Trenton and incorporated in 1870. It was named for an early French settler, De LaMoine, who at one time owned a large tract of land west of Skill- ing's River. A colony of French made a transient settlement at Tren- ton Point at an early date, and two of the colonists remained perma- nently. According to the statement of the Honorable Wm. King, Maine's first governor, the first settlement at Lamoine was made in 1774 at Gilpatric's Point by the individual whose name it bears, and the French came subsequently to this first English settler.
Captain Isaac Gilpatric whose name is retained at "the Point" came from Biddeford with six sons and two daughters and a son-in- law, Edward Berry, from Londonderry, New Hampshire.
Castine, 1796
Castine, which was early settled and early incorporated, was named in honor of the Frenchman, Baron Vincent de St. Castine, who resided upon the peninsula where the town of Castine is now located, from about 1667 to 1697. He was a man of illustrious connections and noble extraction, endowed with good abilities and favored with a competent education. He had come to Canada in 1665 in command of a regiment of French soldiers and at the close of the war settled upon the peninsula in 1667. Here the Plymouth Colony had established a trading post in 1626. Here were the headquarters and fort of D'Aul- ney, the Frenchman, from 1640 to 1651; and during the greater part of this period, the fort was often the scene of conflict between him and La Tour, rival proprietors, the first a Romanist, the latter nominally a Huguenot.
In 1674 the place was taken by a Flemish vessel commanded by Captain Jurriaen Aernoots.
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Here was the British garrison from 1779 to 1783 and again for a year in 1812.
Castine was incorporated as a town in 1796 and was separated from Penobscot at that time.
Castine's historian, the late Dr. George A. Wheeler, wrote:
The first permanent settlement of our present Castine was commenced in 1761 under the name of Maja-bagaduce or as it was more commonly written, Majorbiguaduce. The first settlers were Paul and Caleb Bowden or Booden, as the name was then spelled, John Connor, Andrew, John, Joshua, Reu- ben and Samuel Veazie, Thomas Wescott and Jeremiah Witham. The next year Andrew Webber came and took up a lot. In 1766, Andrew Clark and Abraham Perkins came. In 1772, Solomon Avery, Samuel Veazie, John Douglass, Reu- ben and Daniel Grindle and in 1773, Frederic Hatch were added to the number.
Twenty-three persons with their families settled in Maja-bagaduce the first year and the same number more in 1762. Between that time and 1784, eighty-four more were added, among them being John and Joseph Perkins whose numerous descendants still remain.
After the Revolution, Colonel Johonnet was the busi- ness founder of Castine, merchant, justice of the peace, ex- porter of lumber and importer of West Indian rum and other goods. John Lee was Castine's second notable citizen, coming about 1784, collector in 1789 and town clerk, 1787, town treasurer, from 1796 for many years. He was the largest land holder on Penobscot Bay, he owned saw mills and had large business interests. Mark Hatch was here in 1771, a merchant mariner and ship builder, one of the most influential citizens of Penobscot and Castine.
Calais, 1809 (City, 1850)
In explanation of the name of Calais, one of Maine's cities lo- cated at the extreme eastern end of Washington County, the historian of that town, the Reverend I. C. Knowlton, says that the name of the French city, Calais, was doubtless borrowed for the Maine town in 1809 when it was incorporated, since it lies opposite Dover Hill in New Brunswick. The St. Croix forms the national boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, just as the English Channel separates England and France.
Some authorities, however, have advanced the idea that Calais was named in gratitude for the aid given by the French during the Revolutionary War, but this explanation is not usually accepted. The first permanent settlement at our present Calais, Maine, was made by
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Daniel Hill of Jonesborough before 1782. The town was incorporated in 1809 and became a city in 1850.
Knowlton states that as early as 1760 a small group of men came up the St. Croix River to the head of its tide water to fish for alewives. Probably they remained only a few days. Later a report was circulated in Machias and vicinity that near the head of the tide there was an abundance of pine timber, fish and game, and that the river up to that point was navigable for large vessels. At length Mr. Hill, piloted by an Indian, came through the woods to our present Calais. He built a cabin on Union Mills Street and cleared a small patch of land on Ferry Point. John Berry, John Bohannon and other persons from Machias and vicinity soon joined Mr. Hill and made a settlement in the neighborhood. A few years after Hill came, he joined Jacob Libbey and Jeremiah Frost in building a saw mill near the mouth of Porter's Stream, the first saw mill erected. Hill was ingenious, energetic and moral and trained his seven children in these good qualities.
According to the census of 1790, the heads of families in No. 5, East of Machias (Calais) at that time were, James and Abiel Sprague, Thomas Petigrow, Jones and James Dyer, Daniel Hill, John Berry, James Lane, Wm. Jackson, John Ryen, John Bohannon, John Noble, Nath'l Bagley & Son and Eli Sprague.
It is surprising how few of the towns in Madawaska Territory, which was first settled by the French neutrals and their descendants, bear names of French origin. For the most part, it is the parishes rather than the towns which honor the French in their names.
Grand Isle, 1869
The town of Grand Isle, however, is one of the few towns in that area which retains the title given by the French Acadians. In- corporated in 1869, it took its name from a large and fertile island in the St. John's River within the limits of the town. The original Acadi- ans who settled here were Francois Cormier, Alexis Cormier, Pierre Cormier, Louis Leblanc and Gregoire Thibodeau.
Frenchville, 1869
This town is located on the northern boundary of Maine on the St. John's River. On its incorporation in 1869 it was called Dickey- ville in honor of Wm. Dickey of Fort Kent. In 1871 the name was changed to Frenchville on account of the nationality of the citizens. As a plantation it was called Dionne Plantation for Father Dionne who
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had built the first Catholic church. The Parish of St. Agatha was set off from Frenchville and incorporated in 1899.
Presque Isle, 1859 (City, 1939)
Maine's only city in Aroostook County was given a French name descriptive of its location on its incorporation as a town in 1859. It is the French word for a peninsula, "almost an island." In the ac- count of the Press Expedition of 1858, E. H. Elwell locates Presque Isle "On the Presque Isle Stream, a tributary of the Aroostook" as "a little village already sprung up . . . a smart little village this Presque Isle ... It is going to emerge from the wilderness and become a thriv- ing and populous place." It is through the turnings and twistings of the Aroostook River and Presque Isle streams, that the town is "al- most an island." W. T. Ashby in his History of Aroostook makes this explanation :
The waters of Young Lake into which the mineral spring pours fifty gallons each minute, flows into the Presque Isle river of the St. John which runs southeast and joins the big river in New Brunswick. About a mile from the spring and lake is a brook that runs into the Presque Isle of the Aroostook which runs north and joins hands with the Aroostook near Presque Isle village. Thus we see that the two streams and two rivers almost surround or make an island which is said to be the meaning of the word Presque Isle.
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