USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 18
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
167
the early settlers of Sunkhaze had come. The act was not accepted until April 4, 1835, and the town was then organized. The panic of 1837 delayed progress, but as the severity of the times abated, the demand for lumber was soon active enough to employ all the saws on the river, and Milford had its share of the business. The mills were run night and day and made brisk business for the hotel and store- keepers.
Shirley, 1834
Shirley is situated on the southwestern border of Piscataquis County and was a part of the Bingham Kennebec Purchase. The town is made up partly of the disintegrated town of Wilson; this portion of the town was originally No. 9, Range 9. For a time it was known as Fullerstown from H. W. Fuller, Esq., of Augusta, who had purchased 3000 acres of its territory from the Massachusetts Medical Societies, and later bought the entire township.
The western part of the present Shirley constituted the original of the township and was purchased of the Bingham heirs by Messrs. Cyrus Shaw and Jabez True in 1829. Mr. True lotted out the east half, began to clear an opening preparatory to building mills and took measures to introduce settlers. He soon had a saw mill and a clapboard mill in operation and also built a large barn and cleared up a large opening. The village of Shirley Mills has grown up around these mills. The first settlers were Joseph Mitchell and Eben and David Marble, who came in 1825. About the time that Mr. True began to make an opening, Captain C. Cushman made a clearing and built a frame house in the northern part of the town, hauling boards to cover his house from Monson on a hand sled.
The west half of the township True sold at a large advance and then purchased Mr. Shaw's portion and found himself able to go into more desirable business. In the spring of 1833, however, he ex- changed his mills and some other property, with Richard Loring and Isaac Smith, for real estate in Guilford Village; they moved into Shirley, while True engaged in the mercantile business in Bangor with his brother who was already established there. In this, the Trues were successful. Jabez was appointed paymaster in a Maine regiment, and at the close of the war settled in Portland.
In 1834 the town was incorporated as the town of Shirley, the name being that of the native place of Joseph Kelsey, Esquire, the Representative to the Legislature at that time. The inhabitants, about 26 voters, had petitioned for the name of Somerset. True had pre- viously introduced quite a colony from Poland, who settled in the east part of the town; others had come, so that by 1832, there was quite a growing settlement. He had a post office established, "True's Mills,"
168
was himself postmaster and had the mail carried to Monson in a pri- vate way. Loring and Smith, in the summer of 1833, put up a building for a grist mill and clapboard machine. When the town was incor- porated, Elder Orrin Strout was chosen town clerk and Chas. Loring, one of the selectmen. By a timely move, a permanent school fund was secured from the lands. In 1834 a bridge was built across the stream and a good beginning made upon the roads. In 1835 a school and town house was built. In 1848 the west half of Shirley was annexed.
Kelsey's home town, for which the town of Shirley, Maine, was named, is located in Massachusetts and in turn had been named for the provincial governor, Wm. Shirley, who held office from 1740 to 1749 and again from 1753 to 1756.
Roxbury, 1835
This town lies in the northeastern part of the middle section of Oxford County. It was formerly No. 7, and was incorporated in 1835, taking its name from Roxbury, Massachusetts, from which town many of its early settlers had come. The name might also be descriptive since, like its parent town, there are many rocks found on the surface of the land.
In a little Oxford County Scrap Book, John Reed is given as first postmaster in 1849, Wm. V. Porter, in 1863, Virgil P. Richards, 1868, and Silas M. Locke in 1869.
The Town Records of Roxbury show the names of the heads of the early families who settled in the present town: Francis Porter, 1809, of Concord, New Hampshire; Simeon Taylor of Gilmanton, New Hampshire, in 1812; John Taylor of Sanborntown, New Hamp- shire, and Stephen B. Taylor, Rumford, Maine, in 1813; John Walker from Ware, New Hampshire, in 1814; Stephen Judkins from Rum- ford, Maine, in 1815; in 1818 came John Bunker, from Cornville, Maine, and John Fox from Gilmanton, New Hampshire; in 1819, Oliver Richards from Fayette, Maine; in 1821, Daniel G. Taylor, originally from Gilmanton, New Hampshire, but at that time from Mexico, Maine, and Gilman Fox, originally from Gilmanton, New Hampshire, but at this date from Industry, Maine; and in 1823, Franklin Mitchell, formerly from Freeport, Maine, but at the above date from Mexico, Maine, and James Huston, earlier from Wells, New Hampshire, but coming to Roxbury from Readfield, Maine.
Among the other newcomers in the twenties were Ebenezer Allen of Tamworth, New Hampshire, and Ebenezer Gale of Gilman- ton, as well as more members of the Walker, Huston and Taylor fami- lies. Sixteen more families arrived in the thirties, largely from Maine towns. One exception was Nathaniel Philbrick from Wakefield, New Hampshire, who came in 1832. More of the Huston, Richards, Taylor
169
and Fox families appear among the number in this decade, from near by towns.
Among the new names were John Reed from Freeport, Lenard Morse and Daniel Silver from Rumford, Samuel Arnold of Berlin, Maine, Harris Eastman of Mexico, Alvan Foss of Lovell, Joshua Mer- rill of Rumford and Alexander Kimball of Fryeburg.
By 1840 there were thirty-eight families in the town of Rox- bury which had been incorporated in 1835.
Dedham, 1837
Situated in Hancock County, Dedham was named for a Massa- chusetts town and was originally a part of Township No. 8, which also included Otis. It was incorporated under its present name in 1837, the name being suggested by Reuben Gregg who had formerly lived in Dedham, Massachusetts. The colony was for years known as New Boston, and the inhabitants were accused of "putting on airs." It was settled about 1810 by Nathan Phillips. The Massachusetts town of Dedham had in turn received its name from an English town.
There are ten considerable peaks in the town, of which Bald Mountain, "Old Bald," is the highest. Between these peaks are about as many ponds, also some excellent farms and orchards. Some fine water powers are on the outlets of the ponds where a grist mill, a card- ing mill, saw and shingle mill and a large tannery have been located. The present Club House at Lucerne-in-Maine (Phillips Lake) was the old "Half-way House" on the Bangor-Ellsworth stagecoach route, the building now much remodeled. It was built just after the War of 1812. Nathan Phillips, already mentioned as the first settler, came from Bellingham, Massachusetts, to Eddington Bend, then to Brewer, and from there to Phillips Lake. He built his first log cabin near the shore, but later another log cabin on the hill, near the site of the Club House.
Other pioneers followed, treking their way into this rude wilder- ness. There seemed to be a general exodus from the western part of the state to this town, including the Billingtons, Burrills, Blacks, Cowings and others. Two brothers, Asa and John Burrill, came to Dedham in 1826 from China, Maine. William, Asa's son, said he was fourteen years old when he came to Dedham, and he had to walk all the way from China to lead the family cow.
Thomas Cowing and his family came from Lisbon in 1826. His son, Daniel, who at that time was ten years old, said he remembered coming by ox-team, taking a week to make the trip, and that his mother cooked up doughnuts enough to fill an old-fashioned churn, for them to have on the journey. Men like these carved farms from rugged hillsides, monuments to their daring and faith.
170
At the first town meeting in 1837 William Saunders was elected moderator; Elijah Devereux, town clerk; Caleb Stockwell, Perley Haynes, John Burrill, selectmen, assessors and overseers; Melzar Brewster, treasurer; Dominicus Milliken, William Jellerson, John Bur- ton, constables; William Jellerson, Frederick Fry, Elijah Devereux, superintending school committee; Reuben Gregg, Frederick Fry, Dan- iel Burrill, surveyors of lumber; Frederick Fry, Perley Haynes, Josiah Burrill, Daniel Fields and George Blaisdell, fence viewers.
During the first year of Dedham's existence as a town, eight meetings were held in different places, evidently to accommodate residents in the several districts, and on account of the condition of roads and modes of travel. At the last meeting a record of the census of the town was given showing the heads of families, sixty-five in all, in the town of Dedham.
Topsfield, 1838
Topsfield, Maine, is located in Washington County, on the stage line from Danforth to Princeton. Its first settler was Nehemiah Kneeland who came from Topsfield, Massachusetts, in 1832. The town was incorporated in 1838 and named for the former home of its first settler. The name had previously been transferred from an English town. In 1940, Topsfield, Maine, was reorganized as a plantation, and on March 31, 1941 it was disorganized.
This was an excellent place for new settlers. Nehemiah Knee- land, already mentioned as the first settler, came first to Lincoln and then moved to No. 8, now Topsfield. He had a son, Ephraim, and a daughter who married a Powell.
Mrs. Lulu Bean Thornton, formerly town clerk of the town of Topsfield, has kindly furnished me the following information: the second settler was Charles Knights from Little Ridge, New Bruns- wick; Ward Knox was from Calais, Maine, as were David Bagley and Daniel Pineo, while Chris Farrar came from Bangor, Maine; Levi Noyes and his wife, Mary, arrived from Norway, Maine, going first to Calais and then to No. 8 where they built a log house back from what is now the road to Houlton. When the present road was built by Wm. Vance, Mr. Noyes built a second log house upon that.
Thomas Bailey and Wm. Thornton came in from Baileyville, and Stephen Bean soon arrived from Bethel. Soon after them. Ebel, Doyen from St. John, New Brunswick, became a settler.
All of these people were in No. 8 when it became the town of Topsfield in 1838, only six years after the arrival of the first settler. Among the later settlers were the Cains and Days
171
Manchester, 1850
Manchester lies near the center of Kennebec County. The early history of this town will be found combined with that of Augusta, Hallowell, Litchfield and Readfield. The settlement started about 1774. The incorporation of Manchester as a separate town occurred in 1850 under the name of Kennebec. This was changed to Man- chester in 1854, for Manchester, Massachusetts, the former home of some of the settlers.
Nathaniel Floyd of Plymouth, Massachusetts, settled in the southern section, while Thomas Allen of Braintree, Massachusetts, pioneered the northern. The Allen lot has continued in the family and at one time was owned by the grandson of the pioneer, William H. Allen, President of Girard College. The next year, 1776, Captain John Evans and Francis Fuller of Cape Cod and Reuben Brainard of Haddam, Connecticut, obtained lots. In 1778 Samuel Cummings of Stoughton, Massachusetts, began homesteading. From then on set- tlers came more rapidly.
Before the advent of the railroad, Hallowell, four miles east, was a busy river port and commercial center. The settlers of Readfield, Winthrop, and even those of Sandy River Valley drove or rode horse- back to Manchester, then known as the Forks, putting up at one of the inns at night. These buildings, somewhat remodeled, are in existence today.
In Monk's Hill Cemetery is a monument to Elder Isaac Case, a Baptist minister, who came to Maine and started the first church in Thomaston, in 1784, then came to Readfield in 1792, and made the beginnings of a church. The Methodist Meeting House, a plain white church overlooking Lake Maranacook, was the first Methodist meet- ing house in Maine. It was dedicated in 1795 by Jesse Lee, the Apostle of Methodism.
Those who settled early followed the trails from the river by blazed trees. Joseph Wingate settled opposite the Friends' Meeting House, on the Pond road. His brother, Frederick, settled below the meeting house. Some of the other early settlers not already mentioned were Alvah Wadsworth, Daniel Haines, Isaac Hawkes, Elijah Farr, Joseph Pattison, Wm. Hopkins, Proctor Sampson, Geo. Collins, Thos. Farr, Ebeneezer Bailey, Benj. Howard, James Pullen, Job Douglass, Isaac Haskell and Paul Collins. The latter occupied land reaching to the present town of West Gardiner.
Chelsea, 1850
Formerly a part of Hallowell, this town lies in the southeastern part of Kennebec County. Its early history is included not only in that
172
of Hallowell, but of Augusta. When it was incorporated in 1850, it received the name of a Massachusetts town which had borrowed its name from a metropolitan borough of London, England.
As to the identity of the first settler in what is now the town of Chelsea, Maine, no one is sure; but about 1759, a man named James Cocks, with his family, came from Massachusetts and obtained a grant of land nearly opposite Hallowell Point. He built a log house there and established, as nearly as can be determined, the first civilized settlement in Chelsea.
In the summer of 1760 a family by the name of Butler came and lived with them for a while in their cabin. Then the Butlers went down about a mile on the river, where they built a cabin in 1763, now part of a farm owned by Victor Quintel, the house still standing. A. M. Goodwin came from New Bedford and took a grant of land adjoin- ing that of Cocks and erected a house which, changed and modern- ized, still stands.
The eastern portion of the town was settled somewhat later. A saw mill was built there shortly after the Revolutionary War by a man named Dummer at a point on the Togus Stream, just south of the United States Government Reservation. In 1799 Black John Jones, a surveyor and a Tory during the Revolution, bought a large tract of land in the southeastern part of town from James North and built a saw mill on Togus Stream near where the Douglas Cemetery is situated in the Searl's Mills neighborhood. It was later acquired by Daniel Dorr, who also ran a grist mill. In 1834 Thomas Searls of Wilton bought some land farther down and erected a saw mill and a house. Joel Gardiner built a mill later owned by Orrin Emerson, Warren Lewis and Oliver Moulton.
Up to 1850 the territory comprising Chelsea was known as East Hallowell.
An old sketch map gives the names of a few of the old settlers and proprietors: John Jones, Samuel Goodwin, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Edw. Goodwin, Benj. Hallowell, Jonathan Davenport, Noah Kidder, Ezekiel Chase, Stevens Chase, Daniel, Nathan and Benj. Davis, James Cocks, Samuel Bullen, Edward Goodwin, Henry Mc- Causland, Samuel Berry and Joseph North. This material was taken from Winslow's plan of 1661.
The first selectmen in 1851, after the incorporation of the town as Chelsea, were F. A. Day, John M. Davenport and Thomas Searls.
In 1852 a wooden, uncovered bridge was built across the Kenne- bec. This was carried away by a freshet in 1870 and was never rebuilt. The old church, later the town house, which stood on the river road when built, was of great importance in its earliest days. The audience
173
room was crowded with listeners at the stated preachings, but death and removals thinned the ranks. It was tendered to the town for pub- lic use on the condition that the town should repair the building. In 1883 the town received the property and held its meetings there.
Our present day Togus was once a part of Chelsea. It was originally a summer resort, operated by a wealthy man by the name of Beals, who found a mineral spring on the premises and hoped to develop a second Saratoga. He called it Togus Springs. The name is from that of the principal stream, Worromontogus, or Togus. The enterprise did not succeed and the property was sold to the United States Government which used it as a home for Civil War veterans. The house was officially opened at Togus, Maine, on October 6, 1866, and was the first of its kind in the United States.
Holden, 1852
This town was originally a part of Orrington, which was erected from New Worcester Plantation on March 21, 1788. When the north- east part of old Orrington was set off on February 22, 1812, to con- stitute Brewer, this part of the former town went with it and was locally known as East Brewer. Not until forty years later, on April 13, 1852, was another division made, when the new town of Holden was incorporated.
The pioneers came here even earlier than they did into most parts of the present Penobscot County on the other side of the river. The first arrivals were in 1786, when eight men, Captain (later Gen- eral) John Blake, John Farrington, Elias Winchester, Calvin Holbrook, David Mann, Elijah Jones, Isaac Clewley, and Samuel Gilmore and the wives of these last three came from Wrentham, Massachusetts. They followed a spotted line which was their only guide (the five-year- old son of one of the settlers rode a cow), about six or seven miles from the Penobscot River in an unbroken wilderness; and here they built their log houses and covered them with bark. Most, if not all of this group, like their leader, Captain Blake, had been soldiers in the War of the Revolution, and were accustomed to peril and privation and well fitted to lay the foundations of civilization. During the next two years, the wives and families of the remaining men came to their pioneer homes.
Subsequent early arrivals were Colonel Solomon Blake, Elisha Robinson and Billings Brastow. All of these settled in the eastern part of the town and were largely from Wrentham, Massachusetts. General John Blake named it New Wrentham, and by that name it was best known for sixty years.
General John Blake led a busy, laborious life in this area; his first log cabin was just to the south of Potash Hill, a short distance
174
from the present Congregational Church in the town of Holden. He spent his time caring for the white settlers on the land and for the Penobscot Indians, whose agent he was on the part of Massachusetts for some thirty years.
He represented this portion of the District in the General Court. He was advanced through all grades in the military service, until he became Major-General of a Division. At sixty-one, he was Brigadier- General commanding the militia at the unlucky encounter with the British forces at Hampden in 1814. During all his years in Holden, he labored hard in clearing lands, sowing and harvesting crops, in lumber- ing and building mills and in helping the needy.
Settlers in the southwest part of the town were Wm. Copeland of Mansfield, Massachusetts, and George Wiswell, from Norton. Other early settlers were Fishes, Harts, Hastings, Georges, Gates, Bates, Cobbs, Clarks, Pearls, Kingsburys, Riders, Rogers, Shepards and Hodges.
As to the source of the corporate name, Holden, most authori- ties agree that it bears the name of a Massachusetts town, a town once known as the "North Half" of Worcester. In its turn that town was named for a London merchant, Samuel Holden, whose philanthropies aided the colonies. One Maine writer, however, makes this statement: "The town was named for a good man Holden, but few of those who live there knew Dr. Holden for whom it was named."
Grafton, 1852
The former town of Grafton lay on the western border of Ox- ford County. A tract on the Cambridge River and its branches in the northeastern part of the town and one near Bear River and its tribu- tary brooks in the southeastern part are comparatively level; but the western half and a belt across to the eastern side are full of mountains and high hills. Bear River White Cap on the eastern border and Speckled Mountain, south of the center of the town, are the highest peaks. The passage made by Bear River through the mountain is known as Grafton Notch.
Varney states that the earliest settlers came about 1830. In that year, James Brown made several trips to this wilderness through the Notch by footpath. It is said that Brown was preceded by Jesse Smith and two sons of Newry. Following Brown were Wm. Reed, Abraham R. York and Stephen Emery.
In 1834 Brown married Ruth Swan of Newry and took her to a log cabin he had previously built in Grafton. He built a dam on the Cambridge River and erected a saw mill completed in 1838. The first frame barn was erected in 1840 and two years later, Brown finished a fourteen-room house with five fireplaces, handmade nails and floor-
175
boards over two feet wide. The first school, attended by as many as twenty children, was held in this house; later a schoolhouse was erected near Grafton Notch.
Mr. Chas. B. Fobes, in a bulletin published by the University of Maine Technology Station, gives an extended account of the various names for the area: an old map of the District of Maine by Carleton originally gave the name, Curtis, to the territory, including the later Grafton and other surrounding towns. It was also called Letter A, No. 2. In 1840 the settlers organized under the name of Holmes Plan- tation in honor of the Purchaser, J. J. Holmes of New Jersey.
The name Grafton, the corporate name of the town, was evi- dently given in honor of Grafton, Massachusetts, one of John Eliot's Praying Indian Towns. Mr. Fobes states that the name was given by Mrs. Hannah Brown, the mother of James Brown and the oldest in- habitant of the settlement.
The charter of this town was repealed in 1919, and the area became a part of the Maine Forestry Department.
Bridgewater, 1858
Bridgewater is situated on the eastern border of the state and of Aroostook County. When the township was originally granted by Massachusetts, the northern portion was given to Bridgewater Acade- my in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and the southern to Portland Academy, Maine. When the town was incorporated in 1858 it was named for the Massachusetts academy and town.
Nathaniel Bradstreet and his sons, John and Joseph, of Palermo, Waldo County, Maine, came in 1827 and purchased the mill site in what is now the town of Bridgewater. Like other Aroostook towns, Bridgewater was only a mill site at its beginning.
These first settlers traveled up the Penobscot, Mattawamkeag and Baskahegan rivers, crossing the old trail to the St. John which they ascended to the Presque Isle Stream, up which they made their way to its junction with Whitney Brook, where they built their dam and saw mill. The Bradstreets began sawing lumber in 1829.
Joseph Ketchum and James Thorncraft came from New Bruns- wick that year and took land west of the mill lots and began clearing farms. It is claimed that Mr. Ketchum cut the first tree on the land for farming purposes, although the Bradstreets afterward cleared a large farm near the mill. Mr. Ketchum cleared about 75 acres on his lot and on the 24th of May, 1832, sowed the first wheat ever sown in the town of Bridgewater. In the year 1835 Mr. Joshua B. Fulton came from New Brunswick and in 1840 bought a lot south of what is now Bridgewater Corner on the road now running from Houlton to Presque Isle. At the time he settled on his lot there was no road anywhere in
176
the town and his nearest neighbor was in Presque Isle, twenty miles away. The road from Houlton was cut through soon afterward, and the settlers paid for their lands at $1.50 per acre in labor on the road. In 1840 Dennis and Orrin Nelson came from Palermo and took ad- joining lots on the Houlton road; Dennis remained there only a short time. During the same year Mr. John Young arrived, but in 1846 moved to Westfield.
A few years after Mr. Fulton started his clearing, Jonathan Loudon, John Burns, and Thomas Kennedy came from New Bruns- wick and settled along the road in the Portland grant, now the south part of the town. In 1840 Mr. Joseph Ketchum bought 320 acres of land north of what is now Bridgewater Corner, cleared the land, erected a frame house and began hotel-keeping. James Thorncraft left his place and went north in the wilderness some ten or twelve miles on the line of the Presque Isle road, where he took up a lot in the town of Westfield. In 1842 Mr. Samuel Kidder came from Kennebec County and took the lot next to the Thorncraft lot, the third lot west of the mill. Here he cleared a fine farm. Mr. Cyrus Chandler came from Winthrop in 1844 and bought the Thorncroft lot on which he made an extensive farm and built comfortable buildings. Soon after Mr. Chandler, Mr. David Foster, also from Kennebec County, came in and developed one of the best farms in town. In 1841 Messrs. Harvey and Trask bought the Bradstreet mill and about the same time Mr. Wm. Hooper and Mr. A. T. Moores started trading there. Mr. Moores stayed a short time and then moved to Ashland. Mr. Charles Kidder, who was for many years one of the prominent citizens of Bridgewater, came from the town of Albion in 1845 and worked one year for Mr. Cyrus Chandler.
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.