USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 20
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He bought the field where his pleasant farm buildings still stand, along with the later built residence of his son, Abraham Brown. The latter was long a pilot on the Penobscot River, when boating was the business of this section, and the steamboat was one of the links between civilization and business at Bangor and the military frontier at Houlton. The town was lotted in 1827-28 with long narrow lots on the river where the settlers built on the main road running along the river, while a very large section of the back part of the town was laid out in mile squares. However, little more than the river road was occupied until the Woodville road led to the water power on the Ebhors Stream.
The settling of the lower end of the town was begun a little later, and became, on account of the better soil, the most prosperous part of the town. In 1825 Ben Walton started a farm on the Willis Hamilton place. The James Lindsays came from Dover, New Hamp- shire, and built a place almost opposite Lincoln Center where they erected a hotel. In 1825-26 Rice of Bangor and Prescott of Boston built a saw mill and a grist mill on Medunkeunk Stream about a mile and a half from Lincoln Center. Walter Haines came from Dover in 1825 and for four years worked on Medunkeunk Stream and vicinity. In 1834 he built the large set of buildings about the middle of the length of Chester and in 1840 built a mill on Ebhors Stream, a brook rising in Woodville, flowing into Chester and tribu- tary to the Medunkeunk. Saw mills on the Ebhors Stream have been burnt four or five times.
In 1831 Dr. Thos. Lindsay came to Chester with his son, Thomas, also a physician. Temple Ireland's lot was in the back part of the town, very near the edge of Woodville. In 1827-28 came S. Warren Coombs, also from Albion, a brother of Mrs. Frank Strat- ton, a carpenter and land surveyor who taught several schools in town, built a number of houses, held many town offices and then moved to Mattawamkeag.
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Hartford, 1798
This town is situated in the eastern part of Oxford County. The first settlement was made soon after the Revolution, and the first settler was Edmund Irish who came in 1788. At the time of its incorporation in 1798, it was named for Hartford, Connecticut, which in turn had been named for an English town. The town of Hart- ford, Maine, was once the plantation of East Butterfield, named for one of the proprietors, Samuel Butterfield.
In September 1791 the Proprietors of the Butterfield Town- ship, or No. 6 and No. 7, made allotments to the following settlers "In the east town": to Asa Roberson, Wm. Heaford, Increase Rob- erson, Meshek Keen, Joseph Roberson, Wm. Tucker, Isaac Bonney, John Bonney, Chas. Bisbee, David Oldham, Chas. Ford, Elisha and Noah Bosworth. The first petition for the incorporation of East But- terfield, No. 7, was made in 1793, on August 22, and was signed by Increase Robinson, Wm. Hayford, Isaac Bonney, Wm. Soule and Chas. Foord, as a committee for the people. The second petition was made in 1795 for East Butterfield. Forty names are signed to this petition. They asked that the town be incorporated "by the name of Lisbon if it may be & if not, Hartford." This petition, like the first, came to naught. These newer emigrants, like the first, were from Plymouth Colony and especially from Pembroke and the surrounding towns of Halifax, Plympton and Middleboro; others came from Dun- stable and the surrounding towns. Then, in 1798, having established the river as dividing line, a joint petition was made for the incorpora- tion of the two towns, which Deacon Increase Robinson presented. The result was the incorporation of West Butterfield as Sumner and East Butterfield as Hartford.
Of the thirteen mentioned who received deeds of 100 acres as settlement rights, Deacon Increase Robinson erected and operated mills at what is now East Sumner, the mills remaining in the town of Hartford until the dividing line was changed. A separate section of land around Whitney Pond was surveyed by Noah Bosworth, one of these early settlers, for two Thompson cousins and two other men, all of Middleborough, Massachusetts. This was known as the Thomp- sons' grant, and became North Hartford, except for a small portion now in Canton. The first settlers in this part of the town were four Thompsons, two sons of each of the grantees. These men were known as Deacon Oakes, Deacon Ira, Esquire John and Cyrus Thompson, Esquire.
The first town meeting was held at the home of Wm. Hay- ford on August 13, 1798. He was chosen moderator, and Malachi Bartlett, town clerk, which office he continued to fill until 1802,
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when Arvida Hayford was chosen his successor. Freeman Ellis, Wm. Soule and Andrew Russell were chosen selectmen and then made as- sessors.
The earliest mill within the bounds of Hartford was erected at the center village, just above the railroad bridge; a second mill was built by Winslow Hall, below the present railroad station. This was a saw and grist mill and the village which sprang up became known as Hall's Mills until about 1838, when it was changed to Hartford Center. Wm. Hall was also postmaster when mails came only once a week. The railroad was extended from Buckfield to Hart- ford in 1868. A Baptist Church was organized very early by Elder Daniel Hutchinson who lived in the southern part of the town.
Willimantic, 1881
This township was organized under the name of Howard in 1881 and changed to Willimantic in 1883. The name of Howard was in honor of Abijah Howard, once a large proprietor. A large part of Sebec Lake and a part of Ship Pond are within the town's area. It once had a large amount of pine timber. Granite Mountain contains an inexhaustible amount of the finest granite found in the state. A slate quarry was opened in another section. General A. Davis was the first proprietor known. He owned a portion, perhaps all of it, as early as 1825 or 1826. Other owners were Abijah Howard, J. S. Say- ward, Wm. S. Coggin and Abner Hallowell. This township was never open to settlers, but kept in the market for the sale of large tracts and lumber stumpage.
Still, for more than fifty years, some persons have resided in it: in 1826 John Greeley was encouraged by General Davis to erect mills on the lower falls of Wilson Stream near its mouth. He put in operation a saw mill and clapboard machine and worked up a large amount of lumber. Peter Brawn cleared an opening on the shore of the lake and of the stream and both he and Greeley moved their families there. Mr. Greeley ran his mills about twenty years and then consigned them to Caleb Prentiss, and Mr. Brawn moved to Guil- ford. The mills went to decay and all traces of them and the build- ings were blotted out.
Finally the land was bought by Mr. Wm. Davis of Foxcroft, and in 1866 Blethen and Gilman erected a large hotel, the Lake House, on the lot cleared by Brawn. Some of the land was easily reached by Monson and by 1850 about ten families had settled in that part of the township. Messrs. Jordan and Jennison of Foxcroft built a saw mill in the west part of the town, but this failed. In 1877 Orin Brooks put a saw mill and clapboard machine in operation on Greenwood's Falls, but that year they were ruined by fire. They
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were rebuilt by Mr. Harrison Welch. The Howard Slate Company was formed in 1870 by a company of men from Bangor, but the whole enterprise proved a failure. About thirty families were residing in the township in 1880.
In 1879 the Willimantic Thread Company of Connecticut purchased a lot at Greeley's Falls and also all the white birch timber standing on the proprietors' land in the township. They erected a mill on the north bank of Wilson's Stream for splitting out spool tim- ber; and made sheds, shops and dwelling houses necessary for suc- cessful operations. They also built a bridge across the stream. By 1886 the mill was ready to operate and a spool factory was added and the enterprise was called the American Thread Company.
The town had taken its name from Willimantic, Connecticut, in 1881.
The late Mr. Leslie Knowles, a former town clerk of Willi- mantic, Maine, wrote me on August 9, 1949: "There is no doubt but the mill owners and laborers had a great influence in naming the town after Willimantic, Connecticut. In 1912 the mill was moved to Milo, Maine and the site of the mill has been converted into a Sum- mer Resort."
Orrington, 1788
This town, located in Penobscot County, formerly included the present city of Brewer and the present town of Holden. The first settlement upon the town of Old Orrington was made by Colonel John Brewer in 1770 at the mouth of the Segeunkedunk Stream, where now is Brewer Village.
When the tract took a plantation name, it was called New Worcester for the former residence of Colonel Brewer at Worcester, Massachusetts. The town of Brewer, Maine, was set off from Or- rington in 1812. The name of Orrington, given at its incorporation in 1788, is said to have originated in the following manner: At a meeting of the people of the settlement, Parson Noble was delegated to procure an act of incorporation. When he asked, "Under what name?" the clerk of the meeting suggested that it be Orangetown, the name of his native town in Maryland. In his record of the vote, the clerk, Captain James Ginn, spelled the word, "Orrington," which the parson had inserted in the charter.
Williamson, in his History of Maine, gives a second theory in regard to the name of the town: "When the agent to the General Court was requested to give a name to be inserted in the bill for in- corporation, he accidentally opened a book and saw the name which, novel and sonorous he caused to be selected." This statement is ap- parently verified by a letter to Mr. Williamson from the Hon. D. Per-
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ham who was certainly a high authority. Popular belief, however, sup- ports the first theory.
The honor of being the original pioneer of the present Or- rington is claimed for Jesse Atwood of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, who arrived in 1778. He was just twenty-nine years old, when on the 17th of May, 1778, he set his stakes down in the Penobscot wilderness where now is Orrington. After the unfortunate operations of General Winslow and Commodore Saltonstall against the British fleet at Cas- tine, the inhabitants of this region were considerably annoyed and frightened by the enemy, so much so that they deemed it prudent to retire to the older settlements to the southwest, from which they did not return until after the peace.
Some time before 1786, Mr. Simeon Fowler settled near the river within what is now Orrington. He was one of the original pro- prietors of the tract, a prominent citizen and the first treasurer of Hancock County after it was erected in 1789. Other early settlers in what is now the town of Orrington were Brooks, Hoxies, Riders, Bol- tons, Phillipps, Severences, Kings and Chapins. Many of the first set- tlers were mariners who had been forced by the approach of war to seek other business; but navigation revived, and many of these early settlers returned to their old pursuits, taking with them their grown- up sons.
The first representative was Oliver Leonard in 1798.
Orrington is the only town which has belonged in succession to Lincoln, Hancock and Penobscot counties, though a number of towns belonged to Hancock before they became Penobscot territory. Orrington was the fifty-third town created in the District of Maine, the first in what is now Penobscot County, and the first, excepting Machias and Penobscot, erected east of the Penobscot River.
The people of Orrington formed a Congregational society as early as 1800, with members residing in Bangor, Hampden and Or- rington. In 1834 the East Orrington church was formed. Although the Methodists had sent missionary preachers into this region from 1795 on, it was about 1798 when Elder Enoch Mudge began preach- ing in Orrington and served the Christian people about for nearly thirty years. He was sent as Representative to the General Court in 1811, 1814 and 1816. Williamson says: "I have listened to his ser- mons with pleasure and profit." Williamson says of the meeting houses: "These were two in number and were erected seven miles apart, equidistant from each end of the town."
One of the very first nurseries planted in the state, probably the very first in eastern Maine, was planted by Mr. Ephraim Goodale at what is now Goodale's Corner.
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CHAPTER XI
Maine Town Names Honoring Military Commanders
Not only have Revolutionary commanders been honored in the names of Maine towns, but leaders in the Colonial Wars as well. Two Maine towns even pay tribute to Revolutionary battles.
Gorham, 1764
This township was first called Narragansett, No. 7, later changed to Gorhamtown and incorporated as Gorham, the twentieth town in the Province of Maine, in 1764. It was one of seven town- ships granted in 1733 to men who had fought bravely in the Narra- gansett, or King Philip's, War in 1675. The name, Gorham, was given out of respect for Captain John Gorham who had served in this war and was the chief original grantee.
The design of lots was made so that the settlers might live near each other for the purpose of mutual aid and defense against the Indians.
The town was settled in 1736 by Captain John Phinney of Plymouth ancestry, who was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts. With his boy, he paddled up the Presumpscot River and fixed upon Fort Hill for his home, where in 1736 his son, Edmund, later a Colonel in the Revolutionary War, felled the first trees for a farm. The first English birth in the place was that of Mary Gorham, the fourth daughter of the first settler, Captain John Phinney, on August 13, 1736. For two years, theirs was the only white family in the town- ship; the Indians lived in wigwams close by. The oldest daughter aided in the transportation of provisions to and from Portland by rowing a boat and carrying the bags of corn and meal around the falls.
Daniel Mosier from Falmouth, and Hugh Mclellan came in 1738. The settlers who followed soon after Mclellan were Wm. Pote, Wm. Cotton, Ebenezer Hall, Eliphalet Watson, Clement Harvey, Bar- tholomew Thorn, John Irish, John Eayr and Jacob Hamblem. Bryant, Cloutman and Reed followed a year or so later. In 1745 there were eighteen families in the town. The garrison on Fort Hill, the highest point in town, was built during this year.
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In 1746 Bryant was killed in his field, his house was assailed, five of his children killed and scalped, and his wife carried away into Canada. The first victims of this savage war, in 1755 were at Gorham- town. There were at this time sixty inhabitants in this plantation which crossed the thoroughfare of the natives between the rivers Saco and Presumpscot. In seasons of the most danger their only protection was the small fort defended by ten soldiers. For several years, they carried their guns whenever they went into the fields to labor, and one man was always stationed as a sentry, for the Indians were skulk- ing in every quarter and oftentimes came upon them in such num- bers that they were forced to run to the fort for safety.
The township was surveyed in 1762 and incorporated in 1764. The first minister, the Rev. Benjamin Crocker, settled in 1743. In 1750 the Rev. Solomon Lombard was ordained pastor of the church which had been organized that year.
The Mclellan homestead, built in 1773 and requiring four years for its construction, has the distinction of being the first brick house built in Cumberland County. In a day when all the houses were made of timber that was so plentiful, this home was made of bricks which were manufactured from the Mclellan soil by the Mc- Lellan family for the Mclellan homestead.
The selectmen of the town in 1765 were Benj. Skillings, Amos Whitney and Joseph Weston; the town clerk, Amos Whitney, and Representative to the General Court, Solomon Lombard.
Winslow, 1771
The twenty-eighth town to be incorporated in the Province of Maine was Winslow. At that time, it included the present city of Waterville and the town of West Waterville, now Oakland. It has never been without inhabitants since Fort Halifax was established in 1752. The garrison gave the settlement extensive protection and con- siderable celebrity. It was "the key which unlocked the whole valley of the Kennebec to the axe of the settler."
On account of the constant attacks that were made by the In- dians, Governor Shirley felt that a fort should be erected on the Kennebec, and after a visit to this section concluded to build it at Te- connet on a point of land between the rivers Kennebec and Sebasti- cook, at their confluence. The fort was quadrangular in form, con- structed of hewn timber with flankers and blockhouses sufficiently spacious for 400 men. In the main fortress were mounted several small cannon, and a garrison was established of 100 men. It was named Fort Halifax for George Montague Duck, Earl of Halifax, whom the inscription described as "the highly distinguished friend
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and patron of the British Provinces, throughout America ... . " The fort was commanded first by Wm. Lithgow and after him by Captain Pattee.
The original grant of the township was in 1766, to Messrs. Bradford, Otis, Winslow, Taylor, Howard and Warren - all dis- tinguished men of the Province.
One of the first settlers was Ezekiel Pattee, another was Thomas Parker. Colonel Josiah Hayden was a later and very respected set- tler. At the first town meeting of Winslow, held April 3, 1771, Ezekiel Pattee was chosen clerk and treasurer, and Mr. Pattee, Timothy Heald and John Tozier, selectmen; while Solomon Parker was con- stable. Other minor officers were Robert Crosby, Nathaniel Carter, Frances Dudley and Peter Crosby.
The first settlers were Whigs who had their committee of safe- ty in 1776 and voted to raise or provide "$125,000 of shingles and $10,000 of clapboards to purchase ammunition."
Winslow, the town, as noted, was once the famous Teconnet of the Indians. The place was first called Kingfield, but when in- corporated was named in honor of General John Winslow who had command of the force employed in the erection of Fort Halifax. An earlier John Winslow, brother of General Winslow of Massachusetts, was commander of the trading post at Cushnoc from 1647 to 1653. He was the friend of Father Gabriel Druillettes, the Jesuit missionary.
Waldoborough, 1772
Waldoborough in Lincoln County was named for General Samuel Waldo who served at the siege of Louisburg. He was also a promoter of settlements in Maine. He was born in England in 1696, the son of Jonathan, a wealthy merchant of Boston; he came to this country as a child and became an eminent merchant. His father was a large proprietor of patents by purchase and on his death, Samuel became the owner of one-half of the whole domain. Williamson in his History of Belfast, wrote: "In whatever aspect he is viewed as the sagacious merchant, the military hero, or as the founder of settle- ments which were fostered and sustained by his influence and exer- tions, a title to respect must be accorded him which time can only strengthen and increase."
Waldoborough was incorporated in 1772. It was previously a plantation known as Broad Bay which was inhabited by German and perhaps a few Irish immigrants as early as 1740. They were a devout little band who, beguiled by the promises of General Waldo, came between 1733 and 1740 to a new land only to face the horrors of dis- ease and famine. The first settlement was destroyed by the Indians, but in 1748, immediately after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, it was
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revived by more settlers from Germany. In 1752-53 Samuel Waldo, a son of the general, visited Germany and succeeded in obtaining about fifteen hundred settlers from that country. A large part of these set- tled on the west side of Broad Bay. Although they met many difficul- ties in their land claims, there still remained a large and flourishing colony of about eighty families at the time of the incorporation of the town. The ancient town of Waldoborough stands on the heights above the Medomak River.
The immigrants built the first log meeting house in 1762 on the eastern shore of the river, at a spot now known as Meeting House Cove. This church became too small for the ardent band of wor- shipers who arrived with the second group of settlers. The "Old Ger- man Meeting House" was begun on the east side of the river in 1783, but was never completed there and was moved to the opposite side of the river in 1795.
Some of the names here in the old cemetery are Walleazer, Waltzgrieber, Hever, Cramer, Eichorn, Schumann, Oberlack, Schwartz and Snowdeal. Conrad Heyer, the first born and lóngest-lived among the first permanent settlers, was born in Broad Bay Plantation in 1749 and died in 1856 at the age of 106 years, 10 months 9 days. He served in the Revolutionary War and related his adventures in that struggle with great zest.
The first house in town still standing was built by David Holtzopple, one of the first settlers at Broad Bay. The small farms al- lotted to these first settlers were located in the wilderness. General Waldo built a fort on what is now known as Sproul's Level. The town was first represented in the General Court in 1780 by Jacob Ludwig, a citizen of German extraction.
Warren, 1776
The thirty-fifth town in Maine, Warren was the first town in- corporated on the St. George's River. It was originally known as the Upper town of St. George and belonged to the Muscongus, later the Waldo Patent. Thomaston was the lower town. The settlement of the town was begun under the auspices of General Waldo, the pro- prietor, in 1736, when forty-seven persons located themselves here. When the town was incorporated in 1776 it took its name in compli- ment to General Joseph Warren who had recently fallen at Bunker Hill. German emigrants came in 1752, and in subsequent years more of these, with English, Scotch and Irish augmenting the list of in- habitants.
Waldo erected a grist mill on the Oyster River, carried on the business of burning lime which he started in 1734 and imported pro- visions and necessities for the settlers which he exchanged for staves,
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bark and firewood. He also built a meeting house which, according to his contract, he built on the west bank of the Georges, in what is now Warren. In 1736, when the settlement was begun, "with the excep- tion of a trading house, mill and fort which had been erected on the banks of the St. George one hundred and twenty-five years previous, no marks of civilization existed and no inroads were made upon that unbroken forest, which over the whole country sheltered the moose and the Indian alike."
Among the settlers of 1735 occur many names still represented in Warren and the neighboring towns, such as Patterson, Baggs, Creighton, Starrett, Spear, Lermond, McIntyre, Robinson and Kal- loch. In 1752 another colony brought twenty Scottish families, among whom were the following names, now closely identified with the his- tory of the town: Anderson, Dicke, Crawford, Malcom and Kirk- patrick. The name Sterling, which they gave to their village, still ad- heres to the locality.
Great numbers of shad and alewives were caught in the St. George's, yielding quite a revenue. The natives marked a tree near the first falls and forbade the English to fish above it.
Warren was first represented in the General Court by Moses Copeland, Esq., later by Samuel Wilde and Samuel Thatcher. Henry Alexander, elected in 1788-89, was the first captain of the plantation militia. His successor was Thos. Kilpatrick who had charge of the blockhouse built in 1753 above the fort. In 1754 the settlers were forced by the Indians to take refuge in these defenses and others in the present town of Cushing. The town records start and continue an unbroken account from 1777. They show that the inhabitants were the active and bold friends of liberty.
The first post office in town was established in 1794, the first meeting house in 1793; and one was built by the Baptists in 1806. Reverend Robert Rutherford preached several years to these people, prior to 1756. Reverend John Urquhart was the first settled minister. He was dismissed in 1783 and succeeded by Reverend Jonathan Huse, ordained in 1795. The first bridge over the river was built in 1780; another at the head of the tide was built in 1790-91. The first saw mill was built in 1785; a courthouse was erected and courts held in 1799.
Thomaston, 1777
Thomaston was in the heart of the Muscongus, afterward known as the Waldo Patent. This had been granted by the Plymouth Council in England on March 2, 1630, to John Beauchamp of Lon- don and Thomas Leverett of Boston. It extended between the Pen- obscot and Muscongus rivers along the seaboard and inland so that it comprised a territory about thirty miles square. Some ninety years
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later, in 1741 or 1742, when the Waldos became interested in the area, it took the name of the Waldo Patent.
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