USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
137
New Sweden, 1895
Swedish emigrants founded New Sweden in 1870, when a col- ony of them under the patronage of Honorable W. W. Thomas, Com- missioner of Immigration, settled in Aroostook County. The territory was organized as a plantation in 1876 and incorporated as the town of New Sweden in 1895. New Sweden lost the last of its fifty-two pio- neers on March 1, 1949, when Mrs. Agnes M. Anderson, who ar- rived from her Swedish homeland at the age of four, passed away. The farm on which she lived was the first land drawn by lot among the colonists. The log house, one of the first built by the settlers, re- mains enclosed within the walls of the present residence.
Some of the names of the Swedish immigrants who settled here in 1870 were Wilhem Hard, Per J. Jacobson, Eric Ericsson, John Bor- gesson, Carl Voss, Per O. Julen, Gottlieb T. Pilts, Oscar G. W. Ling- berg, Nils Ohlson, Johns Persson, Svens Svensson, Karl G. Harleman, Anders Malmquist, Jans L. Lundvall, Truls Persson, Nils Persson, Nickolous P. Clase, Olof C. Morell, John P. Johnson, Anders Johans- son, Anders Svenson, Olof Ohlson, Laurentius Stenstrom, Per Persson, Mans Mansson and Anders F. Johansson.
Capt. N. P. Clase, one of the original colonists, was of much assistance in the early days of the colony as he was the only man who could speak English and upon him Mr. Thomas relied very much during the early years.
These frugal and industrious inhabitants are among the best citizens of Maine. They have overrun the boundaries of New Sweden and scattered over portions of the adjacent towns.
Stockholm, 1911
This Aroostook town was also settled by these Swedish emi- grants and named for the capital of old Sweden. It was formerly Number 16, Range 3. It was organized in 1895 and incorporated as a town in 1911.
The first two families to settle in Stockholm were Alfred and Brita Swenson and Anna and Johannes Anderson. They came from Sweden on April 1, 1881, and settled just across the border from the neighboring town, New Sweden, which, as we have said, was settled in 1870.
138
CHAPTER IX
Maine Towns Whose Names Have Been Borrowed from other Foreign Cities and Countries
At least five towns in Maine are designated by names which have been borrowed from foreign countries. Four of such towns: Swe- den, Denmark, Mexico and Peru lie in Oxford County (some writers include Norway which I have placed under Indian names), and Wales is in Kennebec County.
Denmark, 1807
Located on the eastern border of the southern part of Oxford County, the town of Denmark was formed from a grant made by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to Fryeburg Academy and two other grants to individuals, together with a strip from the town of Brown- field. The first settlements were made in 1788 and 1789, and several of the first settlers came from Andover, Massachusetts. The town was incorporated in 1807 and named Denmark.
It was in the years just preceding the naming of our Maine town that the Danish seamen fought against England's Nelson with the daring for which their nation had been noted in former times. Un- til 1807 the Danes were the trading agents for all the other countries in Europe. At this date they suffered a cruel attack by the British navy, which resulted in the crushing of Danish naval power. It may well be that the Maine town was named Denmark in honor of the courage and bravery with which the Danes resisted the British attack.
The first settler in the town of Denmark, Maine, was Daniel Boston, a native of Sanford, who began clearing land and built a log house in 1775, between the most western of the Boston Hills and the Saco River, near a small pond which took his name. He soon found the land too frosty for the raising of corn and moved to Hiram Hills. The next settler was Jedediah Long from Berwick. He cleared a farm at West Denmark about 1780, and soon after Ichabod Waren, also of Berwick, settled on the northern side of Pleasant Pond. About 1786 Isaac Berry from Middleton, Massachusetts, began clearing a farm in the eastern part of the town, and a Mr. Stiles settled there. Tyler Por- ter made a clearing and built a house on Berry Hill east of the Saun- ders farm, cleared up by Jonathan Saunders of Billerica, Massachu- setts, about 1790. Between 1787 and 1794 Ephraim Jewett came to
139
the settlement and cleared a farm at what is now Head's Corner. He was from Ipswich, Massachusetts, and had settled at Bridgton a few years before; his four sons settled here on farms carved from the home farm.
The first mills were built before 1800 by Cyrus Ingalls, Sr., con- sisting of an up-and-down saw for long lumber, a set of stones for grinding corn, and probably a shingle machine.
Sweden, 1813
At the date when this Maine town came into being, the coun- try of Sweden was nominally a dependency of Napoleon under the Prince Royal, Jean Bernadotte, who secretly had signed a treaty with the Emperor of Russia and joined the last coalition against Napoleon. Again, the struggles for freedom of this country may have aroused the sympathy of our people and caused the adoption of its name. Other writers state that both of our Maine towns, Norway and Sweden, adopted the name from a similarity of location.
The area which the Maine town of Sweden occupies formed a part of the grant made by Massachusetts to Captain Lovewell's Com- pany which had fought in the memorable engagement with the Pe- quaket warriers at our present Fryeburg.
According to the Genealogies of Sweden, by Dr. Clifford L. Pike, Jacob Stevens of Andover, Massachusetts, was the first settler in New Suncook, now Sweden, Maine. In 1759 he married, in Rowley, Massachusetts, Olive Spofferd and settled in what is now Bridgton, Maine. In March of 1795, with his wife and children, he traveled on horseback eight miles through the woods to New Suncook, where they camped for three days and nights under a hemlock tree, until a log house could be built. "He was the first settler in Sweden" is chiseled in marble on his tombstone.
Samuel Nevers, from Woburn, Massachusetts, owned land here and had worked during the summers in clearing his place for a few years. Coming in 1791 to New Suncook, then four miles from any habitation, he hired a man to fell and burn eight acres of land and then returned to Boston. The following year, accompanied by his future brother-in-law, Benjamin Webber, who purchased a portion of his land, he returned. The two men labored in the summers, return- ing to Boston in the autumn.
In 1796 Mr. Nevers married and immediately moved to New Suncook; his wife rode the entire distance of 180 miles on horseback. He built the Bennet House at this date and, later, houses for his three sons. These were near the old homestead, which the son, "Squire Ben," inherited. The married name of his daughter, Clarinda, the grand-
140
mother of Charles Bennett, the last descendant owner of the place, is that which remains on the old homestead.
In the two following years after the arrival of Samuel Nevers, came Benj. Webber from Bedford, Andrew Woodbury and Micah Trull from Tewksbury, and Peter Holden from Malden, Massachu- setts. Other early settlers beside those already mentioned were Calvin Powers, George Maxwell, David Milliken, Oliver Knight, Eben Stev- ens and Ephraim Jewett.
Samuel Nevers served in the War of 1812, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1819 and a Representative to the Legis- lature.
Wales, 1816
Cochrane in his History of Monmouth and Wales states that the plantation was first called Bloomingboro, but in 1781 the name was changed to Wales as a mark of respect for John Welch, one of the most highly esteemed of the pioneers, whose ancestors came from the European country bearing that name. This name continued for the united towns until 1792, when the northern portion was set off and incorporated as Monmouth. In April, 1803, the remainder was or- ganized as a plantation under the old name, the plantation of Wales, and chose as its first officers Joseph Small, Enoch Strout and John Andrews as assessors and Joseph Small, clerk. On February 1, 1816, the town of Wales was incorporated and at the first meeting, Joseph Small, David Plummer and Arthur Given were chosen selectmen and assessors, and Joseph Small, town clerk. In 1851 a small portion of Leeds and Monmouth was annexed to Wales; and prior to this date, a portion of Litchfield, consisting of one tier of lots, had been annexed to Wales on the east.
There is some uncertainty as to the identity and arrival date of the first settler. Some authorities place his coming in 1773, others say a few years later. The best information available shows that James Ross was the first settler in 1778 on the west slope of Sabattis Moun- tain, where he resided until his death, when the farm went into the hands of his son-in-law, Isaac Witherell. Patrick Kernan came in 1794 and settled in the eastern part; his name suggests Irish extraction. Reuben Ham and Jonathan and Alexander Thompson came from Brunswick in 1780 and took up places in the northern part.
Other settlers came in the eighties. In 1791 Joseph Small and Bartholomew Jackson came from Limington; the former settled on a farm near the center of the town. Mr. Small was prominent in plan- tation and town affairs. He served as plantation clerk for thirteen years and town clerk, nineteen years consecutively. Isaac S., his oldest son, held various town offices, also the positions of surveyor general of the
141
state, inspector of the state prison, and member of the executive council. He was extensively engaged in surveying in the northern sec- tion of the state. There were many distinguished members of this fam- ily.
John Larrabee came from Scarborough about 1792. He had four sons and engaged chiefly in cutting ship timber or in shipbuilding. Daniel and Ebenezer Small came from Limington in 1793 and settled near the center of the town. Daniel, while living at Castine, had been taken by the Indians and sold as a prisoner to a French colonel until Wolfe's victory, when he was released.
The first public house was opened in 1798 and its owner, Ar- thur Given, Sr., became the first postmaster.
Mexico, 1818
This town lies in the eastern part of Oxford County. Following the example of successful revolutionists, in the British provinces in North America and in France, the Mexicans were aroused against the rule of the Spaniards in their country. The years from 1809 to 1815 in the country of Mexico were especially concerned with the spread of the revolt against foreign domination, and deeds of daring on the part of the insurgents resulted in the success of the popular cause in the 1820's. The inhabitants of the little plantation of Hol- manstown in Maine complimented the efforts of the Mexicans in their struggle for liberty by naming their town for Mexico, on its in- corporation in 1818.
Township No. 1 on the north side of the Androscoggin River in the District of Maine was purchased by Colonal Jonathan Holman from the Committee for the Sale of Eastern Lands, for himself and as- sociates in 1789. The township, which then contained the present towns of Dixfield and Mexico, sometimes called Dixtown, was vari- ously called Township No. 1, Androscoggin Purchase No. 1, and Hol- manstown, until the incorporation of Dixfield on June 21, 1803. The remainder retained the name of Holmanstown until incorporated as the town of Mexico fifteen years later.
At Mexico Village or "Corner" as it was formerly called, Isaac Gleason was undoubtedly the pioneer settler. Members of this family have probably filled more important town offices than has any other family in the history of the town. Peter Trask, son of Amos Trask, one of the proprietors and a pioneer at Dixfield, settled near the Dixfield line. Stephen Barnard, the first chosen selectman in town and one of the most prominent of the early inhabitants, settled one mile from Mexico Village on Harlow Hill. Nathan Knapp was another man to whom this town owes much for the active service he rendered it in the days of its infancy. He settled on the Harlow Hill road, but later
142
sold his place to Aaron Lufkin who moved here from Peru. Aaron Moore was another settler on Harlow Hill; the date of his death is one of the earliest to be found in the cemetery. Captain Walter P. Carpen- ter, who was sent as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention at Portland in 1819, was a man of ability, perhaps the best educated man in the settlement and was chosen to fill positions where skill and in- genuity were required.
The first mill to be erected in Mexico was probably built on Mitchell Brook near the Roxbury line. This mill was run by an over- shot wheel and did good service for some years. Other mills were located in other parts of the town.
Peru, 1821
South of Mexico, Maine, in Oxford County, lies the town of Peru. The nucleus of the town was a grant to four men of Falmouth: a Mr. Bradish, Merrill Knight, Daniel Lunt and Wm. Brackett. This early grant was made by Massachusetts and was four miles square. One of the grantees, Merrill Knight, was the first settler, coming in with his family in 1793, through the unbroken forests to the banks of the Androscoggin. He erected a rude cabin northwest of Stony Brook, about half a mile from the present center village. Wm. Walker, coming in 1802, is said to have been the second settler. He was plantation town clerk for many years. Wm. Walker, Jr., opened the first hotel in 1831, one mile northwest of the center. Here was also opened the first post office which was kept in the hotel and received the daily mails from Dixfield. George Walker, a brother to Wm., Senior, arrived in town soon after 1802. Daniel Lunt and his brother James, probably the sons of the grantees, were among the earliest arrivals. Osborn Trask and Braidy Bailey, both of Falmouth, soon followed: the latter's lot was two and a half miles from the center in what became known as the Bailey neighborhood. Wm. Brackett, one of the original proprietors, or a son of the same, located on the River Road above Peru center. Joshua Knox was an early settler in the southwestern part of the town. His sons settled round him and the place became known as the Knox neighborhood.
Plantation No. 1 was organized on March 23, 1812. John Hol- land was elected moderator and Hezekiah Walker, plantation clerk, which office he held in the plantation and town until 1829.
During the period while the Maine town was developing, the South American colonies were breaking away from their respective rulers; the spirit of liberty and independence was rampant in the early part of the nineteenth century. Peru was liberated from Spanish rule on July 28, 1821, and Peruvian independence was proclaimed on the same day. The Maine town honored the South American country by
143
the adoption of the name Peru, on its incorporation in 1821, changing its name from Patridgetown.
Kossuth, 1876
The name of this disorganized area presents a further example of the adoption of a name which represented freedom and patriotism. Located in Washington County on the Lincoln and Topsfield road, the area was Number 7, Range 2 of the Bingham Purchase. When it was incorporated as a town in 1876, it received its name from the Hun- garian Patriot and Revolutionary leader, Ferenc Kossuth, who had been a political exile in the United States in 1852. He had been re- ceived everywhere with great public demonstrations. The act of in- corporation of the town was repealed in 1896. It was reorganized as a plantation, but later was again disorganized.
Not only classical names, as has been noted, but names of other foreign cities appear in the designations of Maine towns.
Belgrade, 1796
This town in Kennebec County may be cited as an example. It was originally in the Plymouth Patent and its first settlements were made about 1774. There is a connected system of lakes in and about the town which offer agreeable scenery. Its early names, taken from those of early settlers, were Prescott's and Snow's Plantation. It was also called Washington. In 1796 it was incorporated under its pres- ent name of Belgrade.
Writers differ as to the reason for the selection of this name, that of an important city in Serbia, now Yugoslavia. One statement made is that during the various wars between Austria and Turkey, this Serbian city was the object for which the hostile nations struggled. In 1789 it was captured by Austria. The inhabitants of our Maine town, because of interest in the plight of the Serbians, named their town Belgrade.
A local historian writes that the name was selected by John V. Davis who, as a young man, had traveled extensively in Europe. He had been a clerk under the English government in the East Indies. Whether Davis had ever visited Belgrade or why he selected the name of that city is not known.
At the time of the incorporation of the town, and for several years afterward, he was the leading man of affairs. That same year, 1796, by consent of the General Court of Massachusetts, a small part of Sidney was annexed to Belgrade and nearly half a century later, a portion of the town of Dearborn was added.
144
The way for white settlers to what is now the town of Belgrade was doubtless opened by Philip Snow in 1774. For several years he hunted in Sidney, then very thinly settled, and in 1774, looking for new hunting grounds, he crossed to the Belgrade shore over the beau- tiful Messalonskee Lake to which the name of Snow still clings. He built a hut on the Oakland road, about two miles north of the present Belgrade depot. A few months later, two more families came across the pond and established homes in the forests along the shore near the home of the hunter.
Simeon Wyman came with his family from Massachusetts and settled on the south slope of Belgrade Hill. This was the first white family in town and theirs was the first farm to be cleared. His son, David, kept a public house there for many years. Joel Richardson came from Attleboro, Massachusetts, shortly after Simeon Wyman, whose daughter he married. During the long, cold winter which fol- lowed, they hauled hay for over four miles for their stock. They were soon followed by other families and in 1790, sixteen years after they had come, Washington Plantation contained 159 people. In 1796, the date of the incorporation of the town, the population was about 250.
Lisbon, 1799
This, the southernmost town in Androscoggin County, was formerly a part of West Bowdoinham Plantation, which in turn was a part of the Kennebec Purchase. The town was incorporated in 1799 under the name of Thompsonborough, in honor of the Thompson family who were large owners in what was then a gore of land known as Little River Plantation, now Lisbon Falls. This was a part of the Pejepscot Purchase and was annexed in 1808.
Ezekiel Thompson of Brunswick came here in 1798; he was of Irish descent. He purchased 350 acres at Little River, of Samuel, his brother.
The name Thompsonborough was not satisfactory to the people on account of General Samuel's unpatriotic views, and they petitioned to have it changed to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.
Probably the first settler in our present Lisbon was one White, who lived in a log house on the road to Webster Corner; he afterward purchased White Hill. Then came Russell Hinckley, who lived a short distance beyond White. Joseph Hinckley also lived near by. Russell Hinckley probably built the first house and Joseph, the second. John Smullen came from Ireland in 1784 and later took up a farm in Lis- bon. He was a selectman in 1801 and for several years thereafter. Thos. Roberts, a joiner, came from Somersworth, New Hampshire. From 1800 until 1819, he lived opposite Berry's tan yard. He built a tavern at Little River for John Raymond, in 1804 and 1805, and was a deputy
145
sheriff for some years. John Mayall, in 1806, erected a wooden build- ing for a woolen mill on a power just above the mill at Lisbon Vil- lage on the Sabattus, occupying it until 1822, when it was purchased by Horace Corbett for a satinet mill.
Other early settlers in the town were Thomas Godfrey, Abra- ham Whitney, Hezekiah and Joseph Coombs, Abel Nutting, John Ray- mond, James Barker, Ebenezer Fellows, Stephen Foster, Samuel Til- ton and Ozias Right.
Vienna, 1802
Adjoining the town of Rome in Kennebec County lies the town of Vienna, the northernmost town in the county. This township was settled about 1786 and the titles were given by J. Prescott of Wind- ham and Nathaniel Whittier of Readfield, who had purchased it of Massachusetts. It was surveyed by Mr. Prescott in 1792. As a planta- tion its name was Goshen, and then Wyman, Plantation. Its incorpora- tion occurred in 1802, when the name of Vienna was adopted.
That name was given in honor of one of the oldest cities in Germany, the capital of the former Austrian Empire. Vienna, Europe, was noted for it palaces, churches, charitable and literary institutions, as well as for the gayety of its society. It was a happy choice for a Maine town seeking to honor a foreign city.
The first settlers of Vienna, Maine, were Joshua Howland, John Thompson, Patrick Gilbraith, Noah Prescott and John and Wm. Al- len. Following these came Arnold Wethen, James and Robert Cofren, Jonathan Gordon, Jedidiah, Abel and Nathaniel Whittier, Gideon Wells, Elijah Bunker, Daniel Matthews, Benj. Porter, Timothy White, Caleb Brown and Joshua Moore.
The first town meeting, in 1802, was held at the home of Ar- nold Wethren. Because it lacked a town hall for three more years meetings continued to be held at private houses.
At the first meeting Noah Prescott was moderator, Daniel Mor- rell, clerk. The selectmen were Jacob Graves, James Cofren and Joshua Moore.
Captain Samuel Mowers was one of the first traders in Vienna. The first grist mill in this part of the country was situated on "first dam." Patrick Gilbraith built the dam and mill in 1800 and sold to Nathaniel Mooers in 1819. A fulling mill was run here by Josiah Brad- ley in the early days.
Palermo, 1804
Located in Waldo County, the town was first known as Sheep- scot Great Pond Plantation, from the body of water in the southern part of the town through which the Sheepscot River runs and around
146
which the first settlements were built. The township was surveyed in 1800 by Wm. Davis and the petition, signed for its incorporation by fifty-five individuals, was presented in 1801. Not until 1804 was the act of incorporation passed and the town named Palermo for the city in Sicily. In their choice of a name of a foreign city for their town, the citizens of this small hamlet selected a place rich in the culture of the past. Palermo had been the court of Frederick II of Germany in the thirteenth century. It became the resort of learned men and poets, where Arabic, Provençal, Italian and German poetry was recited, where songs were sung, where the fine arts were encouraged and the spirit of purer life replaced the rude and warlike activities of former rulers.
The petition of 1801 of Palermo, Maine, set forth among other things: that the inhabitants would have a great proportion of roads to make and maintain within their bounds, and ten miles of road, at least, outside their limits, which highway would lead to the head of navigation on Sheepscot River, their nearest market.
Among the fifty-five signers of this petition were Gabriel Hamil- ton, Jacob Greely, Jabez Lewis, James Dennis, Wm. C. Hay, Joseph Whittier, Chas. Lewis, Samuel and Stephen Longfellow, John Glidden and Joseph Bowler. Wm. Bryant of Rhode Island settled in Palermo in 1782. Among the earliest settlers of the town, he took up a farm of 100 acres in an unbroken wilderness, built a log house and barn and had a cow and a few sheep, from whose wool his wife made woolen clothes. John Cain and John Marden were early settlers, the latter coming from Chester, New Hampshire. Stephen Marden came from the same town. Thos. Dinsmore founded the library in Palermo and gave it 2500 volumes. Amasa Soule took up a farm in Palermo in 1796 and moved in from Alna.
The town was first settled by Stephen Belden, Sr., who came here on horseback with his Bible under his arm, built a log cabin and sold it in 1794 to Hollis Hutchins, the second settler, who lived in the log house until 1796, when he built a frame house. The nearest settle- ment when Belden came was the Jones Plantation, now China.
Jacob Greeley, Jr. was the third settler in 1777. The settlers following were John Foye, 1778; Ebenezer Sylvester, 1782; Aaron Belden, 1783; Stephen Longfellow, 1784; Samuel Waters and Wm. Olmstead Bowler, 1783; and John Bradstreet, Wm. Cressey and Dan- iel Clay, 1786.
Moscow, 1816
This town in Somerset County was settled mostly by Bakers in 1773 and was called Bakerstown, although there was an original Bakerstown in Androscoggin County. Moscow was originally a part of
147
the Bingham Purchase. It was surveyed in 1812 and incorporated in 1816 and named for the Russian city. The town fathers who petitioned for the incorporation of the town in 1812 were impressed by the big news of the day - the capture of the great Russian city of Moscow by the French under Murat, the occupation of the city by Napoleon, the burning of the city by the inhabitants and the disastrous retreat of the French, later made vivid by a painting, "Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.