USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 19
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
Upton, 1860
This town in Oxford County lies on the New Hampshire border in the southern part of the Rangeley Lake Region. It was incorporated in 1860 as Upton, in honor of the Massachusetts town of that name. It was formerly known as Letter B Plantation. The Massachusetts town was named for a village in Worcestershire, England. Upton and Graf- ton, Maine, like their namesakes in Massachusetts, adjoin each other.
The earliest settlers of the present town of Upton, Maine, were originally from Andover, Maine. Enoch Abbott and his brother Far- num moved from that adjoining town, between 1825 and 1829. Their father, Jonathan Abbott of Andover, Massachusetts, had settled in Bethel, Maine, in 1791, moving to near-by Andover in 1794. Another pioneer from Andover, Massachusetts, was Thomas Bragg, who arrived at Andover, Maine, in 1795 and settled in the present Upton in 1831.
Following these earliest comers was David C. Brooks, from
177
Wilton, Maine, who had been born in Portland. He came to Upton about 1842; while Ruel Coffre from Weld, a neighboring town to Wilton, arrived about 1878. New Hampshire supplied a settler in the person of Freeman Ellingwood from Dummer.
From near-by Grafton, Lysander and Lincoln Fuller, father and son, located in Upton in 1907. The father, born in Hartford, Maine, had settled in Grafton in 1871, where the son was born.
About 1853 Charles Heyward, another pioneer from Massa- chusetts, this time from the town of Shrewsbury, settled in Upton and in 1886 came James H. McLeod from Prince Edward's Island.
Louise Dickenson Rich writes of the town to-day: "Upton has one hundred and eighty-two inhabitants and the loveliest view in Maine."
Ludlow, 1864
Located in Aroostook County, Ludlow was formerly the Bel- fast Academy Grant. It was organized with New Limerick as a plan- tation in 1831, from which New Limerick was set off and incorporated in 1837. The Belfast grant was organized as a plantation in 1840. In 1843 there were forty-three voters on the town list. The main road running through the town was cut out soon after the first ten settlers came, but was not made passable for carriages until long afterward. Ludlow was incorporated as a town in 1864 and named for a Massa- chusetts town.
This half-township (Ludlow) was granted by the General Court of Massachusetts to the trustees of Belfast Academy on February 29, 1808. The half-township was surveyed by Park Holland in 1809 and the conditions of the deed bound the trustees to "lay out and con- vey to each settler on said tract before Jan. 1, 1784 one hundred acres of land to be laid out so as best to include his improvements and be least injurious to the adjoining lands." This was really superfluous, since no one had entered upon this wilderness region before 1784. The trus- tees were also bound to "settle on said tract ten families in six years in- cluding them now settled thereon." There were also lots to be laid out for use of the ministry, for the first settled minister and for the use of schools. The conditions in relation to placing ten settlers on the land within six years must have been extended, for the settlement was 'not made until some ten years after the expiration of that limit.
The following is on the records:
Land Office, Boston 29 March 1826. This certifies that I have received of the Trustees of Belfast Academy a certified list containing the names of the settlers who are now settled on the half township of land in the County of Washington and the State of Maine, lying northwest from Houlton Plt. granted
178
to said academy and is satisfactory evidence that the condition for placing settlers upon the grant is seasonably complied with, Attest, Geo W. Coffin, Land Agent.
General John Cummings on October 8, 1825, made his way through the woods to the lot about two and a half miles west of the Houlton line. The general chose this location for his new home. The woods at this time were filled with the dense smoke of the Meri- machi fire. Here he cleared a large farm on a beautiful elevation, from which he could overlook all the settlements in the adjoining townships. Houlton was then only a small settlement and Hodgdon, Linneus, and New Limerick were only openings in the forest. Cummings was for years the principal man in the settlement and was agent for the trus- tees of Belfast Academy for the sale of lots and location of settlers. Bradford and John Cummings, both sons of the general, settled here. The former was a land surveyor and in 1826 lotted the half-township. He built a mill on the stream which flowed across the southwest corner of his lot. The mill contained an up-and- down saw and manufactured lumber for the settlers. Bradford Cummings moved to Houlton and then to Fort Fairfield. Judge Cummings, as he was known for many years, was a man greatly respected in Aroostook County; he served there as sheriff and also as judge of probate.
Others of the ten original settlers were John Stuart, Lewis Wright, Robert Blaisdell, . .. Barrows, Cyrus Hutchings, James H. Stevens and Alfred Marshall. Mr. John Chase was one of the earliest of the settlers, but was not one of the ten on the certified list. He came from New Brunswick in 1826, Mr. Jesse Gilman from Norridgewock in 1828 and Zebediah Barker from the same town in 1838. Chase was one of the most active citizens of the town. Mr. Wm. Farwell, who was plantation clerk in 1840, had no farm, but worked in the lumber woods in winter and for farmers during the summer; later he moved to Patten.
The town is abundantly supplied with water, having numerous brooks and streams, nearly all running in a southeasterly direction and emptying into the Meduxnekeag.
Westfield, 1863
This Aroostook town which bears the name of a Massachusetts' town lies north of Houlton. Its natural scenery is most pleasing. West- field is composed of two half-townships which, years ago, were granted by Massachusetts to aid in the establishment of institutions of learning in that state; the northern half was granted to Deerfield Academy and the southern half to Westfield. The half-townships were sold by the trustees of the institutions to whom they were granted, to proprietors,
179
and passed through several hands. The settled portion of Westfield is nearly all in the northeast quarter, where there are some very fine farms. The timber which is abundant in this town was what made it particularly valuable in olden times.
The first settler who made a clearing in the town for farming purposes was James Thorncraft, who came in 1839 from Bridgewater and settled about three miles south of the Presque Isle line and nine miles south of Presque Isle Village on the Houlton road. When Thorn- craft made his first chopping and built his little log house in the forest, the whole country for miles around was a wilderness, with no road anywhere near. The nearest neighbors on the north were the pioneer settlers of Presque Isle; on the south, no one was nearer than Bridge- water and few were there. He and his wife lived alone for two years, clearing the farm. In 1841 he was joined by John H. Bridges who stayed seven years and then moved to Mars Hill.
Mr. John N. Trueworthy came from Unity, Maine, in 1843 and settled on the Center Line road in Presque Isle. In 1861 he pur- chased the Thorncraft farm and opened it as a hotel, a convenient stopping place for "Toters." in 1846 Mr. John Young, the third set- tler in the town, came from Bridgewater. Thorncraft and Bridges were at this time living about four miles north of him. When the "Press Gang" (members of the press) came in 1858, few settlers had bought land, since the proprietors charged $2 per acre, whereas the state-owned lands were only 50 cents per acre. About this time Mr. Granville Coburn of Lincoln took the lot next above Mr. Trueworthy's, and Mr. Pickering moved to the one next above Coburn's. These were all the settlers by 1858. That fall Mr. A. C. Dodge came from Liberty and settled a short distance above Mr. Young. In 1859 Cyrus Chase, Levi W. Reed and Asa Reed, of Danville, and Sewell Woodbury of New Gloucester settled on the road on adjoining lots south of the Trueworthy place. Mr. Levi Reed taught school in the winter months. The plantation was organized in 1861; the first schoolhouse was built in 1863 when the town was incorporated.
Randolph, 1887
Geographically the smallest town in Maine, Randolph, Ken- nebec County, was a part of Old Pittston, with the exception of a fifty-rod strip of land which had formerly belonged to the town of Chelsea. Gardiner, including our present West Gardiner, was separated from Old Pittston in 1804, and Randolph was set off from the town on March 4, 1887, and incorporated under the name of West Pitts- ton. Two weeks later the name was changed to Randolph, in honor of a Massachusetts town which in turn had received its name in honor
180
of Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, the first President of the Continental Congress.
Of the old settlers of Pittston, it is very difficult now to deter- mine who was the first on the soil.
I am indebted to Mrs. Ruth J. White for the following state- ment: "The first settler (in Randolph) was Alexander Brown about 1670. He was killed by the Indians in 1675. A century passed and then in 1760 a number of families moved from Portland (Falmouth) to this town: Benj. Fitch, Jonas Winslow, and William Philbrick." Another writer says that Daniel Sewell and George Williamson were here at an early date; Captain James Bailey, Gideon Barker and John Jewett were old men in this territory. Prominent among those of past genera- tions were Caleb Stevens, James and Alexander Stevens and Daniel Jewett who, while employed on the Gardiner estate, transplanted the large elms, the pride of the village.
In Maple Grove Cemetery, marked by a large boulder, is the grave of Lieutenant Nathaniel Berry, the last survivor of General George Washington's Life Guards.
This portion of Old Pittston, now Randolph, was prominent in the business life of the past. Shipbuilding was an early industry; saw mills and other large lumber mills were erected as early as 1808. There was also an old carding and fulling mill on the Togus Stream. A tav- ern was established early in the nineteenth century by Samuel Hodge- don. The Gardiner and Pittston Bridge was opened as a toll bridge, October 18, 1853; but in 1887 the two towns joined in the purchase of the shares of the bridge and made it free.
Chesterville, 1802
Chesterville, Maine, is one of the few towns in our state which borrowed the name of a New Hampshire town, Chester, for the basis of its name. Originally it was Wyman's Plantation, named for Abra- ham Wyman, the pioneer settler who commenced his plantation in the southern part of the town about 1782. He was followed in 1783 by Samuel Linscott and Dummer Sewell, who built mills near the center of the township about 1785 and designated their settlement as Chester Plantation. The titles of the lands were from Massachusetts. The early settlers were from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York. A few came from Bath, Maine.
The township was first surveyed in 1788. The Reverend Jotham Sewell and Wm. Bradbury, the financier, started their fortunes here. Among the trials and hardships of these two pioneers was that of go- ing to Winthrop, twenty miles distant, to the mill, hauling their grain on a hand sled. The first road was opened through the place about 1780 and the first saw and grist mill was put in operation in 1785. The
181
town was incorporated in 1802, taking the name of the plantation, Chester, with the suffix, ville, the French word for town or city.
At Chesterville Center on the Little Norridgewock was a large tannery for sheep skins which were carried through and out of the great vats of tanning liquor on huge reels moved by water and steam power. Here was a meeting house, starch factory, one or more stores and mechanics of various trades. The saw mills have afforded more pine lumber than any other in this section of the country, a consider- able part of the territory having been covered with a growth of pine. Chesterville is watered by Wilson's Stream, the Little Norridgewock, McCurdy's Stream, the Sandy River and a number of ponds. At Keith's Mills in the northern part of the town there was a grist, fulling and carding mill. Shingle machines were attached to nearly all the saw mills.
When the region was first explored by the settlers they found at the rapids, or falls, at Chesterville Center remains of palisades en- closing an area of some three acres where the village now stands. The enclosure included an Indian burying ground, where bones, wampum and other Indian relics are often found.
The village of Farmington Falls is partly in Farmington and partly in Chesterville. Here is the Union Church containing a bell given by the Reverend Jotham Sewell, sometimes spoken of as the "Apostle of Maine." He was born in York, Maine, in 1760, was a brick mason by trade and served as a Revolutionary soldier. In 1786, he bought land and began clearing a farm in Chesterville which was his home all his life. He ranged throughout Maine as a missionary and solicited funds for the Bangor Theological Seminary. For fifty years no man in the District and early State of Maine was better known than he. He passed away in 1850.
Temple, 1803
Temple, the one hundred and third town in Maine, was in- corporated in 1803. Previously it had been called Abbottstown, for Jacob Abbott, or No. 1 of Abbott's Purchase. Parker in his History of Farmington states that "Temple and Wilton take their names from two towns in New Hampshire, similarly placed and from which many of the early settlers emigrated."
Settlements were made about 1796, the first by Joseph Holland and Samuel Briggs. They were soon followed by Thos. Russell, James Tuttle, Moses Adams, John Kenney, Jonathan Ballard, Wm. Drury, Asa Mitchell, Samuel Lawrence, Gideon and George Staples and Messrs. Farmer, Tripp and Poor. Mr. Tuttle, who settled at the center of the town, was soon succeeded by Benj. Abbott, Esq., who was one of the most useful and respected citizens of the place.
182
Temple is somewhat mountainous, embracing quite a portion of the Blue Ridge, but is good for grazing and is said to raise the best of sheep. The town is watered by the Starling or Davis Mill Stream on which was a grist mill, some two or three saw mills, a starch factory and a machine shop. Religious services have been continued in Tem- ple from soon after the first settlement by the Congregationalists, Methodists and Free Will Baptists. For some years one or two stores have been kept at the mills, where there is something of a village and several factories.
At the commencement of its settlements, Temple was owned by Benj. Phillips of Boston, but was surveyed and settled under the agency of Jacob Abbott of Brunswick, Maine. Mitchell Richards, a Revolutionary soldier, also located in Temple.
Wilton, 1803
This township, which is located in Franklin County, was granted to Captain William Tyng and his company of Dunstable, Massachusetts, for their services in an excursion against the Indians in 1703. Tyng led a party of brave men on snowshoes through the forest to Lake Winnipesaukee and won a victory over the natives who had been making raids against the settlers. The township was explored in 1785 by Solomon Adams and others, located by Samuel Titcomb, the state surveyor and lotted by Mr. Adams in 1787. The explorers called it Harrytown, in memory of Harry, the dangerous savage who was killed in the Tyng invasion.
The early settlers came in 1789, and the first settler, Samuel Butterfield, called it Tyngston in honor of the grantee; but when it was incorporated in 1803, it was named Wilton for a New Hampshire town, through the efforts of Abraham Butterfield, an original settler, who had come from that place. Soon after the settlement, Samuel But- terfield built a dam and erected saw and grist mills. These mills were built on Wilson Stream on the old road from Bean's Corner to Farm- ington and about one and a half miles from what is now East Wil- ton. Years after, Nathan Swain had a grist mill, a threshing mill and a cider mill there. The first clearing in what is now Wilton was made by Thomas Nutting.
The encouragement of Jacob Abbott, Sr., who, with Benj. Weld, had purchased land in this vicinity, heartened settlers and pro- cured the location of the Coos road which ran from Chesterville through Wilton to New Hampshire. The original grant of land was made in 1735, in what is now New Hampshire. That state claimed the territory, however, and in 1784 the grant of Tyngston was changed to the township in the District of Maine.
183
On June 14, 1810, Samuel Butterfield sold Solomon Adams of Farmington part of Lot 146 in Wilton, with the right to erect a cot- ton mill and a sheeps' wool factory on the dam. Solomon Adams, Sr., had gone to Farmington in 1791 from Chelmsford, Massachusetts. He built this factory in 1810, and carried it on for several years until 1816-17, manufacturing cotton cloth, ginghams and other cloths. Some historians have suggested that this was the first cotton mill in Maine. There was one built in Gardiner in 1811-12, which manu- factured cotton yarn, and was one of the earliest and most success- ful cotton mills in this country.
Wilton Village occupies the bottom and side of a picturesque valley with a wild wood on the opposite hillside; between this and the main street of the village rushes Wilson Stream which is the out- let of Wilson Pond. Isaac Brown became a resident about 1790 and after him and the Butterfields soon followed Josiah Greene, Wm. Walker, Ammiel Clough, Joseph Webster, Silas Gould, Ebenezer Eaton, Josiah Perham, Ebenezer Brown, Josiah Perley and Josiah Blake. Other people emigrated to this settlement from Massachusetts and from Farmington, Maine. It is interesting to note that the town was incorporated just one hundred years after Captain Tyng and his associates made their epic march in 1703.
Exeter, 1811
This town lies in the southwestern part of Penobscot County; the township was granted by Massachusetts to Marblehead Academy in 1793.
Among the early proprietors were Benj. Joy and Wm. Turner of Boston, for whom Dr. John Blaisdell acted as agent and from whom he purchased four thousand acres under certain conditions for settlement for building mills and roads. Blaisdell was a physician from Collegetown (Dixmont). Hence, prior to its incorporation in 1811, the plantation was called Blaisdelltown. The corporate name, Exeter, was chosen in honor of Exeter, New Hampshire, from which some of the. settlers had come.
The first settlement was made in 1801 by Lemuel Tozier who came from Corinth, and during his first year in the wilderness, his nearest neighbors, two in number, resided in that town. In 1801, Joseph Pease with his sons and two sons-in-law, Josiah Barker and Reuben Seavey, came on foot from Parsonsfield to plant and sow the ground where the trees had been felled the year before and to make further improvement for their families who were to come the next month. Mr. Pease and his sons-in-law took up a lot and one of Mr. Pease's sons, a lad of fourteen, planted the first hill of corn in the town. The boy had traveled all the way from Parsonsfield via Au-
184
gusta, Dixmont and Bangor. In the same spring others came and started felling trees preparatory to settlement: Josiah Lane, Ebenezer Avery, Simeon Tozier, Richard Staples and Joshua Palmer. At the price of 9 shillings per acre, these men bought land from the pro- prietor and Dr. Blaisdell who was actively engaged in securing set- tlers for his own lands. Most of the settlers came from New Hamp- shire. Messrs. Pease, Barker and Seavey harvested and secured their crops and built their cabins and in 1802, March 10-12, the above men, all except Barker with their families, arrived in the township. Barker's family did not arrive until the following summer, when they came on horseback. The remaining land in the township was divided among the proprietors. In 1803 there were many new proprietors: Samuel and Joseph Osgood, John Chamberlain with three sons, and Nathaniel Barker.
In 1803 a class in arithmetic was held in winter evenings and in 1804 the first school was held, with Miss Anna Warwick as teach- er. Jotham Sewell had five dollars of missionary money to finance this school and five families contributed another five dollars to prolong the session. In 1805 Daniel Barker came from Limerick (a native of Exeter, New Hampshire) and bought the home of Leonard Tozier. Many came between 1805-1810. In this latter year a petition show- ing the number of families to be about forty, asked that the settle- ment be incorporated as Exeter. Moses Hodsdon of Kenduskeag Plantation issued the warrant for the first town meeting. At this meeting were chosen Matthew Hedges, moderator; John Chamber- lain, town clerk; John Chamberlain, Samuel Osgood, Joseph Os- good, Jr., selectmen; Gardner Farmer, treasurer; Nathaniel Barker, collector of taxes.
A Baptist Church was organized in 1815 by Reverend Paul Ruggles; the first meeting house at Exeter Corner was built in 1829, by Methodists and Free Baptists. The first merchant was Samuel Currier in 1819 at Stevens Mills (East Exeter) ; the first physician, Dr. Benj. Evans, 1817; the first lawyer, John B. Hill at Exeter Cor- ner, 1827-28; the first house joiner finished off the first schoolhouse in 1812. The first saw and grist mill was built at East Exeter by Levi Stevens in 1813. The first carding and cloth dressing mill was built in 1821-22 by John Atkins, where afterward stood the Cutler Mills.
Amherst, 1831
Amherst is situated on Union River, in the center of Hancock County. This town was a part of the Bingham Purchase. It was set off from the plantation of Mariaville in 1822 and incorporated in 1831. It is said to have been named for Amherst, New Hampshire. Settlements were begun about 1805. In that year Captain Goodell
185
Silsby came in and in 1805-07, his parents arrived and took lots now known as the "Old Silsby Place." Before the close of 1808 a half-dozen other families had taken up lots: those of Moses Kim- ball, Asahel Foster, Jesse Gils, Joseph Day, Judah West and Elisha Chick.
There have been saw, grist, clapboard and shingle mills as well as a large tannery here. The latter used hides principally from South America and Mexico. The Union River divides the town diagonally into two nearly equal sections. The principal hills are known as the Springy Brook Mountains. Amherst has been remark- able for its improved domestic cattle. The tannery at Amherst, owned by Buzzell and Rice, was of great advantage to the people residing in the northern part of Hancock County.
Amherst, New Hampshire, received its name in compliment to Lord Jeffrey Amherst who came to America in 1758 at the suggestion of Wm. Pitt. As Major-General, he was in command of the troops who captured the fortress of Louisburg on Cape Breton Island. In 1760 Amherst was made Governor-General of British possessions in North America, in which position he remained until 1763, when he returned to England.
Chester, 1834
On the west bank of the Penobscot River lies the town of Chester. It was first settled by Frank Stratton who came from Al- bion, Maine, in 1823. He made a clearing on the shore of the Pen- obscot near where a small brook flows into the river, at the foot of a highland lying opposite Winn Village and only a quarter of a mile below that place. The opening was almost opposite that of Elijah Brackett, the first settler of Upper Winn. After him came farmers and lumbermen, and the settlement increased rapidly. In 1824 Moses Babcock settled farther down the Penobscot, some two miles or so, where the Clukey's later lived. Then within a year or two afterward came two other Babcocks, James and Jesse, and Christopher Jackins, all settling within a mile and a half of Winn Village. Jackins, Moses Babcock and David Clendenen married daughters of John Gordon who built the mills at Gordon Falls which the Indians burnt in 1812. In 1824 John I., Charles and Moses Brown of Montville came to Chester, made the 'Brown farm, cleared a piece of land close to the Penobscot River and lumbered on the tract lying back of it in Wood- ville. These families gave the name to the islands which lie from one-half to two miles below Winn Village, the Brown Islands, leased from the Indians and cleared up mostly by George S. Ranney of Winn, who lived close by. Many others came in the five years follow- ing the advent of Frank Stratton. In 1827 and perhaps previously,
186
Samuel Chesley came from Chester, New Hampshire, to this settle- ment and gave the name of his hometown to this new location in Maine. "Chester" came originally from the name of an English town. Chester, Maine, was incorporated in 1834. So rapid was its early progress that there had been hardly any plantation in existence.
Previous to 1829, when the Military road was built, communi- cation with the outer world was difficult, and lumbermen and traders would bring up a scow-load of supplies, leaving the greater part of the goods to be transported by horses or oxen on the ice of the Pen- obscot in the winters. When Stratton came to Chester there were only seven houses between Piscataquis Falls and Houlton. In 1828 Samuel Brown, also from Albion, came in and located just below Strat- ton's.
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.