USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 13
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The first settler in Presque Isle was Dennis Fairbanks, in 1828. The first explorers of this region came by way of the Arnold trail to Skowhegan. Mayville was annexed to the town in 1898, and Presque Isle became a city in 1939.
Portage Lake, 1909
The name of this town, the French word for "carry" was bor- rowed from the lake which occupies a large portion of the center of the town. The "portage" is between this sheet of water and Machias Lake. Portage was organized as a plantation in 1872 and incorporated as a town in 1909.
The first settler was Matthew Stevens who came in the year 1844. He was soon followed by Nat Blake, Isaac Stevenson, Joseph Sylvester, John Rollins, Timothy Oaks, William Winchell and David Dow. These settlers were lumbermen from Canada looking for pine.
Four years after the settlement was made in 1848 the first child, Albion Stevens, was born.
Some few towns which were incorporated about the time of the
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close of the Revolutionary War, when all things French were in favor in this country, adopted French names.
Paris, 1793
This town in Oxford County is a case in point. It was incor- porated in 1793, the eighty-second town in the District. The land had been granted in 1771 by the government to Joseph Fuller and his as- sociates, the sixty-four privates of his company, for services in the French and Indian War; but many of these men were dead and the property came to their heirs instead. The first settlements were made in 1779 on the site of the present village of Paris Hill by John Daniels, Deacon John Willis, Joseph Willis, Benj. Hammond, Lemuel Jackson and Uriah Ripley from Middleborough, Massachusetts.
A post office was established in 1801. Several persons engaged in tanning during the first half-century of village life. The Reverend James Hooper was a tanner and carried on that business when he first came to Paris. He sold his pits to Moses Hodgdon of Berwick, who con- tinued tanning for some years. Cyrus Hutchings came to the village from Kennebunk and opened a tanning business in 1833. Potash mak- ing began quite early. East of the village meanders a small stream, Smith's Brook, named for Nicholas Smith. He and Captain Samuel Staples put across the first dam and built the first mill to grind grain. Just below this mill Samuel Rawson built a dam and put in a card- ing mill. The first apple and pear trees were brought by Lemuel Jack- son in 1780. The Little Androscoggin River runs through the entire length of the town.
Lemuel Jackson had rights for building mills. The outbreak of the Revolutionary War retarded the settlement of No. 4. In 1774 it was voted by the proprietors to grant the mill lot in No. 4 and $100 to any person who would undertake to build a saw and grist mill thereon with certain provisions. In 1782 Mr. Lemuel Jackson was empowered to expend twelve pounds in repairing roads within the township. In 1783 it was voted to give Mr. Lemuel Jackson the four proprietors lots containing 500 acres and $150 in silver, for building a saw mill and a grist mill in No. 4 on such conditions as the committee might think best. The returns from Plantation No. 4 to the General Court in 1791 showed 60 polls, dwelling houses and barns, each 20, grist and saw mills, each one, acres of tillage land, 70. The petitioners asked that the town be named Paris, the opposition, Lebanon; the former won.
Fayette, 1795
Fayette, a small town in Kennebec County, and LaGrange, a farming town in Penobscot County, are both reminiscent of La Fay-
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ette, the gallant French officer who gave our nation such efficient aid during the Revolution: the former, by bearing his name, and the lat- ter, by receiving the appellation which he had bestowed upon his estate in France.
The town of Fayette in Maine had its first settlements about 1779 and was incorporated in 1795. Chase Elkins located in town in 1781, the first permanent settler. His rude hut was located midway between Oak Hill and Fayette Corner. Among the other early settlers were Benj. Clifford, Wm. Morrill, Joel Judkins, Nathan Lane, James Bly and James Bamford. On Chase Elkins' stone in the cemetery at the Corner near the Baptist Church grounds is inscribed "He was the first man who broke the wilderness in this town." The plantation name was Starling.
There were three sources of water power in town, one in the north, Bacheller's Mills, where a saw mill was early built. After Daniel Bacheller moved here, his wife did not see another white woman for six months. Then three women came on snowshoes to visit her.
The second source of water power was in the south, Fisk's, where Mr. Alden Wing of Wayne built and operated a saw and grist mill about 1800; and a third was at Underwood's Mills in the east, where there were in the early days saw, shingle, clapboard, grist, wood carding and cloth dressing mills, and a tannery. Joseph Underwood was the first merchant here and carried on an active business for more than fifty years.
In early days Lafayette Corner was the business center of the town. Solomon Bates was the first postmaster and the first tavern keeper. The main thoroughfare leading through the place was thronged with teams of horses and oxen, drawing clapboards and shingles from towns in Oxford County and Franklin County to Hallo- well and bringing back merchandise for the country trade. The only post office in town was maintained here for many years. This brought the townspeople together once a week on Saturday afternoons to get their mail and hear the news. This office was on the regular mail route from the Kennebec River to the Androscoggin and a four-horse coach brought in the mail. When the Underwood road was built it changed the current of travel through the town, and the glory of Fayette Cor- ner departed.
La Grange, 1832
The town of La Grange was not incorporated until 1832. Be- fore that date it had been known as "Down East," as Oxford, and as Hammond, but on its incorporation took the name of the estate of La Fayette.
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Years before any permanent settlements were made John Ben- nock, Esq., of Orono, Maine, cleared several acres of land on Lot. No. 38 on the east side of the Bennoch Road. He then seeded it to grass that he might cut hay to be used in his lumber operations on Dead Stream. About the year 1820 a road was laid out by the state from some point in Orono through Township No. 3 (now Alton) and the plantations of Oxford and Hammond (now La Grange). In 1821 Captain John Freese entered upon Lot No. 14 in Hammond, the cor- ner lot in the plantation on the west side of the state road. He felled a few acres of trees, cleared the land in the summer of 1822, put in his crop, built a cabin and moved in his family in the fall of 1822. In June of that year David Fuller and Orrin Fuller, both of Livermore, came here. Mr. Hinckley settled on Lot No. 50 on the east side of the Bennock Road and Mr. Fuller on Lot No. 1 in the Williamson square on the east side of the state road.
As there are no plantation records for reference, it is very dif- ficult to ascertain who were the next settlers, but it is remembered that Hatsell Delano, Hugh P. Kealliher, Welcome and Zadoc Bishop and Simeon Bryer were among the earliest settlers, Mr. Bryer located in 1824 on Lot No. 1 in the first range of lots adjoining Kilmanock, now Medford. Nathaniel Foy, David Hoyt, and John Gray were among the early settlers. Reverend Mr. Reed, the pastor of the Methodist Church, preached the first sermon in the log cabin of Zadoc Bishop. The first child was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hatsell Delano. The first male child was the son of Mr. and Mrs. David Hoyt.
The first school was taught by Miss Mary Lindsey of Livermore. Mr. Hinckley built the first frame buildings. The first saw mill was built in 1827 on Dead Stream. In 1825 occurred the great fire which left much desolation behind it. The first town meeting was held on March 19, 1832. Orrin Fuller was moderator; Thos. H. Bates, town clerk; Orrin Fuller, James L. Bishop, John Rolph, selectmen and assessors; Thos. H. Bates, treasurer; Thos. Chase, town agent; Thos. H. Bates, collector of taxes.
Montville, 1807
The name of this town in Waldo County is made up of two French words: mont, meaning mountain, and ville, meaning city or town. The surface of the area of this town is broken by ledges, hills and mountains, hence the name. This area was located in the second grand division of the grant known as the "Twenty Associates' Proprietary," the members of which were residents of Boston. The first settlements were in 1778-79, the first settler being a Mr. Stannard who moved away in a few years, so that James Davis, a Presbyterian minister, was the first permanent settler. More of his family, together with some dis-
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tant relatives, settled here and intermarried until the Davis family became so numerous that the place was first called Davistown. It was incorporated as Montville in 1807.
Following the Davises came Wm. Clark and Archibald McAlis- ter from Jefferson, then Ballstown. Timothy Barrett, a native of Con- cord, Massachusetts, took up his residence in Montville and became a hermit. In 1799 the Reverend Moses McFarland arrived. He com- menced preaching in 1805.
Later in the history of the town, 1854-1856, Ebenezer Knowl- ton, doubtless the most distinguished citizen of the town, represented the district in Congress but declined re-election. His father, the Rev- erend Ebenezer Knowlton, Sr., had moved from Pittsfield, New Hamp- shire, to Montville in 1828, where he was for a long time a Free Bap- tist clergyman, and served also as a member of the Legislature in 1830 and 1831. The son gained a thorough academic education, became a teacher in early life, and later studied for the ministry. He held pas- torates in Hallowell and Rockland, but the greater part of his min- istry was in connection with the Montville churches. From 1844 to 1848 he was a member of the Legislature and was speaker of the house in 1847. In 1857 he began to work for the Maine State Semi- nary which grew into Bates College. He had all the mental and moral qualities which go to make a great statesman, but he believed that in being a minister he was holding the highest office on earth.
Belmont, 1814
This town, also in Waldo County, was originally a part of the Waldo patent. It was settled about 1790, when Daniel Doloff came as the first immigrant. The name Belmont which is French for "beautiful mountain" was proposed by George Watson, Esq., the Representative to the General Court who aided in securing the incorporation of the town in 1814. Among the other early settlers, in addition to Daniel Doloff who built the first house in town, were Nathaniel Tilden, a Revolu- tionary soldier, Richard Kimball from Buxton, James Bicknell and James Higgins.
Towers, Pitchers, Edgcombs, Alexanders, Crosses, Jacksons and Cushmans (from Poland) were among the first to settle here. Benj. Smith who came originally from Sanbornton, New Hampshire, built the first mills in the northern part of the plantation and settled there in 1801. Matthew T. Merriman came in 1803. A number of the settlers were Revolutionary soldiers. The first mill in the town of Belmont was built before 1830. It was owned by the Greer Brothers, sons of James Greer, one of the earliest settlers in old Belmont. John Dickey built the first mills in the lower part of Belmont on Ducktrap Stream, about 1830. Bernard Morse and sons built a stone mill on a small stream near
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Tilden Pond, prior to 1860. Nathan Farrow and George Chapman built a saw mill in Belmont about 1835 and sold it to John Hurd of Northport. A stave mill was built on the same site by Asa Allenwood and sons and later moved farther down the stream. Among the early schoolteachers in Belmont were David Richards, Daniel Frohoe, Sam- uel Fletcher and Gideon Richards. Dr. Michael Gordon was prob- ably the first resident physician, and came prior to 1826.
Tremont, 1848
Located in Hancock County, Tremont embraces the south- western portion of Mount Desert Island. The feature from which the town takes its name is the three contiguous peaks of Beech Mountain and East and West peaks of the Western Mountains. The word Tre- mont is from the French tre and mont (mountain). Tremont was set off from Mount Desert and incorporated on June 3, 1848, under the name of Mansel, from Mt. Mansel, the name given to the mountain by Winthrop's company of emigrants to Massachusetts Bay in 1630, it having been the first land discovered by them in this country. On August 8th of the same year, the name was changed to Tremont.
This section of Mount Desert Island was included in the grant to John Bernard, the son of Governor Bernard, in 1785. Some of the early settlers in this section before 1808 were: Joshua and Wm. Nor- ward, on the east side of Bass Harbor; Abraham and Thomas Richard- son and Thomas Richardson, Jr., at Bass Harbor Head; Peter and Daniel Gott, Stephen Richardson and Benj. Benson, on the west side of Bass Harbor; Daniel Merry's heirs, on Lopers Point, and Enoch Wentworth and Wm. Nutter, in the vicinity of Duck Cove.
Detroit, 1838
This town forms the southeastern part of Somerset County and is located on the northern branch of the Sebasticook River which runs centrally through the town.
It was incorporated in 1838 under the name of Chandlerville, but this was changed in 1848 to its present French name, derived from the narrows or straits in the river.
As early as 1812 the pioneers Joseph and Amos Chandler had made their settlements. The principal landowner in the pioneer days was General John Chandler. Another early settler was Nathaniel Basford from Windsor, who settled the first farm in town, took up wild land from General Chandler and built a log cabin about 1820. The first frame house in town was built sometime in the forties, when Rily Bickmore came from Unity.
Ebenezer Frye and others of that family who were relatives of the late Senator Wm. P. Frye also owned large tracts. Settlement of the
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town was very rapid at first. Ebenezer Frye built a large tannery in 1842, where the powerhouse later stood, which lasted until about 1882. Nahum Lord and his sons, from Gorham, built a saw mill here before the tannery, and also several cooper shops. R. W. Porter, Isaac Berry and Major Lord were all interested in this business. Some of the names of the settlers were practical ones such as Snow, Raynes, Pease, Bean, Hart, Horn and Head. John Bray came to Detroit from Augusta about 1846; Hartly Brooking, who came from Unity about 1860, was the village blacksmith.
Roque Bluffs, 1891
The first settler at our present Roque Bluffs was an Englishman by the name of Day who settled on the marsh beside the large brook or river which gave the place the name of Englishman's River. The grass along the marshes offered feed for cattle; this, together with good fishing, doubtless encouraged early settlers.
A land grant was taken by one Schoppe, a Scotchman, in 1776 or thereabouts. He was a member of Burgoyne's army, having been pressed into service. He gave himself up to the Americans as a prisoner of war and later enlisted with them. After the war, he married and came to this far eastern point in Maine.
The first of several men named Watts who have lived here came from Jonesborough after the Revolutionary War in which he had played an important part in the capture of the "Margaretta." He was a brother of the noted Hannah Weston who carried ammunition six- teen miles through the woods for the men at Machias.
Other families by the names of Thompson, Tupper and John- son have lived here for many years.
A brick kiln provided an industry for some years and a salt works was also prosperous for some time, but farming, fishing and lumbering occupied the people for the most part.
The town was a part of Jonesborough until 1891, when the people, becoming dissatisfied, petitioned to become a separate town.
I am advised by Mr. Frank R. Welch, town clerk of Roque Bluffs, that Mr. H. P. Gardner of Boston, owner of Gardner's Island and a summer resident there, asked that the new town be called Roque Bluffs, to which the people agreed.
Dennysville, 1816
After much hesitation, the name of Dennysville in Washington County is included among Maine towns whose names are of French origin. The town was named for the Denny's River, the western boun- dary of the town. The latter part of the word, ville, is the French word for town or city, hence a town on the Denny. This stream in turn re-
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ceived its name from the Indian, Denny, who had his hunting ground in this region. Kidder states that the Indians John Denny, father, and Nicholas and Michel, his sons, are listed by Colonel John Allen as principal chiefs living here in 1784. But in 1784 no Indians had sur- names or given names like the above, unless they were borrowed. The original source of the word is doubtless French, since Mons. Nicholas Denys, pioneer, historian, and lieutenant governor of Acadia, resided in this country for thirty years previous to its surrender to the English in 1654. It is claimed by the best historical authorities that the Denny's River is named for him.
The original English settlers of Dennysville arrived on the river on the 17th of May, 1786, in the sloop "Sally." They were from the vicinity of Hingham, Massachusetts. In this company were Nathan Preston, Wm. Kilby, Samuel Sprague, Theodore Lincoln and Wm. and Joshua Wilson, all of whom remained and formed the nucleus of the present town. The proprietors of this township, which for many years included also that of Pembroke and Perry, were Thomas Russell, Gen- eral Benjamin Lincoln and John Lowell who purchased it from the Commonwealth. The present titles come from them.
The Lincoln House was erected in 1787 by artisans from Hing- ham, Massachusetts, under the direction of the general's son, Theo- dore, who occupied the house. He had large lumber interests and em- ployed many Indians of the District.
The census of 1790 gives the names of the early settlers of Plantation 2, east of Machias (Dennysville and Pembroke) as num- bering eighteen.
The first church organization was formed by Reverend Jona- than Sewell on October 11, 1805. The Sunday School was organized May 31, 1829. Deacon Wm. Kilby was superintendent; Benj. R. Jones, secretary and librarian. The teachers were Benj. Foster, John Kilby, Solomon Foster, Isaac Eastman, John and Eben Mayhew, Sally Lin- coln, Caroline and Amelia Jones, Mary Wilder, Lydia Kilby, Hannah Wilder and Eliza Eastman. James Audubon, the artist and naturalist, was a friend of Theodore Lincoln's son Thomas who assisted Audubon in making arrangements for an expedition to Labrador in 1833.
Irish names are few in our Maine towns.
Belfast, 1773 (City, 1853)
Our present city of Belfast lies in what was originally the Mus- congus, later the Waldo Patent. It was the first town to be incorporated on the Penobscot waters in 1773. Its name betrays its Irish origin and was given at the request of an early settler out of respect for his native place in Ireland.
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Joseph Chadwick, who made a survey from Fort Pownal to Quebec in 1764, spoke of Belfast as: "Persagee wakeag, now an incor- porated Town by the name of Belfast containing 15,000 acres of land which the settlers purchased of the Heirs of Brigadier Waldo at two shillings per acre."
The purchase came about in this manner: a group of Scotch Presbyterians, encouraged by the liberal offers of James I, settled in the Province of Ulster in Northern Ireland, but differences in religion and the amount of taxes imposed on them induced a respectable number of them to seek an asylum in the New World. About one hundred Irish families arrived at Boston in 1718, of which about sixteen families, soon joined by others, built up a town in New Hampshire, which was called Londonderry in commemoration of the place from whence they came.
Through the influence of John Mitchell, one of the group, who was greatly impressed by the beauties of Penobscot Bay while on pas- sage to Passamaquoddy Bay where he was to make a survey, a pro- prietory was founded by the Londonderry group for the purchase of the township, now Belfast.
The names of the proprietors were John Mitchell Jr., John Steele, John Gilmore for Robert Patterson and sons, James McGregor, John Tuft, Samuel Houston, John Brown for Joseph Caldwell, James Gilmore, Wm. Clendennin, James Miller, Capt. John Mitchell, John Morrison for himself and brother, Nathaniel Martin, James Thompson, John and Alexander Stewart, Joseph Morrison, James McGregor for John Levinson, John Reid, Samuel Marsh, John Durham, Samuel Al- lison, Capt. John Moor, Alexander Little, Andrew Jack, Capt. Moses Barnett, Jonathan Thompson, Rob't McIlvain, David Gilmore, Alex- ander Wilson, Wm. Gregg, Samuel Dunlap and James Nichols.
The first permanent settlement made by these proprietors was probably in 1770. "We moved our families in 1770 and 1771" is the language of a petition addressed to the General Court by the first settlers.
The town was incorporated in 1773 and became a city in 1853.
The first town meeting was held at John Mitchell's house near the mouth of Goose River. At the Commons on the south end of No. 26 all the town meetings were held, from April 1774 until the erection of the meeting house on the eastern side of the river in 1792. In March, 1777, it was voted "to build a Log House on the Common No. 26 to Hold Meetings in and the Selectmen to Oversee the Business." Mitch- ell's house was near the mouth of Goose River. Cochrane's mill used to stand at the head of the tide where the bridge crosses the Passagas- sawakeag. From this point to the old tannery there is a continuous fall. The Wescott Stream joins the main river opposite City Point. At its outlet John Mitchell erected a saw mill in the first year of the settle-
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ment. Near the lower bridge on Goose River which flows into Passa- gassawakeag Bay, a grist mill, a fulling mill, a trip hammer and a tan- nery were once maintained. Near the mouth of Little River which joins the harbor at the Northport line, James Nesmith had a grist mill before the present century.
Reverend Ebenezer Price (Dartmouth, 1793) was the first settled minister in Belfast. He came in 1796 or 1797. It had been voted in 1792 to build two meeting houses, one on each side of the river.
Limerick, 1787
This York County town was first settled in 1775. It was a part of an ancient purchase by Francis Small from Captain Sunday, the Pequaket chief. The settlers came from seaboard towns in York Coun- ty: Saco, Biddeford, Kittery, York, Kennebunk, Scarborough, New- bury, Massachusetts, and a few from Limerick, Ireland.
James Sullivan, the son of John Sullivan of Berwick and the first regular attorney on the Saco River, was, in 1771, one of the origi- nal proprietors of Limerick, which town, on its incorporation in 1787, he named in honor of Limerick, Ireland, the birthplace of his father. James Sullivan held many important and patriotic positions during the Revolutionary War and was later Governor of Massachusetts which included Maine. He was Maine's first historian and published The History of the District of Maine in 1795.
The first settler in Limerick was Isaiah Foster, who made a clearing two miles south of Limerick Village. John Wingate laid the town out, received three 100-acre lots for his services and settled on one of them. Thos. and Joseph Gilpatrick settled west of Limerick Village. James Perry settled in the northwest corner of the town and James and Joseph Miles and George Perry joined this settlement next. Abijah Felch settled first at Felch's Corner and was joined by Jacob Bradbury. Pennel Clark lived near the Perry's. A Mr. Irish settled east of the south end of East Pond on the knoll. These were the families visited by the Rev. Mr. Adams in 1780.
Newry, 1805
This town, located in the western part of Oxford County just north of the Androscoggin River, had its first settlements in 1781. As a plantation it was called Sunday River and then Bostick in 1794, in honor of the sister of the purchaser. It was also included under the general name of Sudbury-Canada, which was applied to several neigh- boring towns. When it was incorporated in 1805, it received the name of Newry in deference to some of the settlers who had emigrated from Newry in County Down, Ireland.
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Benjamin Barker and his two brothers from Methuen, Massa- chusetts, were the first settlers in 1781 and Ithiel Smith soon came from Cape Elizabeth. These families mentioned were plundered by the Canadian Indians in 1782 and moved to other parts until after the establishment of peace.
The southern part of the town of Grafton was annexed to Newry in 1842. When Grafton's charter was repealed in 1919, the town library, together with all town records and books, became the property of the town of Newry.
New Limerick, 1837
This town lies in Aroostook County, six miles west of Houlton, and received its name on incorporation in 1837 from the fact that its settlers had come from Limerick in York County. They came because this was a Phillips-Limerick Academy grant. The first settler in the town now known as New Limerick was Mr. Samuel Morrison, a Revo- lutionary soldier from the town of Wells. Major James Irish surveyed and lotted the half-township given Limerick Academy. His family ar- rived in Houlton in 1817. In 1820 True and Christopher Bradbury of Limerick purchased a large grant of land here and built a mill, but did not bring their families until 1828. Capt. Moses Drew was another early settler from Limerick, about 1820.
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