USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 22
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. . . that about 550 men under ye command of Collonel Noble and Capt. John Gorham. In order to Bring ye inhabi- tants to a more Just observance of ye Neutrelity they billited themselves at Some of their houses where those Rascals Be- trayd them Into ye hands of an Armey of Canadians and In- dians under ye Command of monsieur De Ramsey who came upon them and basly murthered them in their Bedds to ye Number of 73 amongst which was ye Brave Colonel Noble.
This Colonel Noble of Georgetown, Maine, in whose mem- ory a beautiful shaft has been set up in Nobleborough, is also honored in the town's name. Situated as it is near the center of Lincoln County on the eastern shore of Damariscotta Lake, the town originally formed a part of the possessions of Elbridge and Aldsworth under the Pemaquid Patent. It was settled in 1640, about the same time as was Damariscotta. This territory was a favorite resort of the Indians for hunting and fishing, and they held possession here with great tenacity, remaining in solitary families long after the white men whose advance they vainly resisted had started their settlements in the town. After the Indian Wars cooled, the inhabitants were in- volved for many years, until 1814, in a controversy over the title to their lands. The territory was claimed under the Brown right which had its origin in a deed from Captain John Somerset. This claim in- cluded Muscongus Island and covered the greater part of Bristol, all of the towns of Nobleborough and Jefferson, and part of the town of Newcastle. Brown, in August, 1660, conveyed eight square miles in
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the middle of the original grant to one Gould and his wife. A sur- vey was made at a later period of the different claims, and Wm. Vaughn and, later, James Noble improved all the lands lying on both sides of Damariscotta Fresh Pond to the head of it, on the west side of the river halfway to Sheepscot and on the easterly side halfway to Pemaquid Pond. Vaughn either started or revived the settlement un- der Col. Dunbar about 1730, but the growth was slow. James Noble, who had married Vaughn's widow, pursued the claim until 1765, when he and his coadjutors were dispossessed, although they did not then wholly abandon the claim.
The first settled minister of the place was Rev. Ebenezer Stearns, a Calvinistic divine, who was ordained in 1768. Dr. Adoniram Judson, father of the noted missionary of the same name, was settled over the Baptist church in Nobleborough in 1819.
Trenton, 1789
Trenton, Maine, lies in Hancock County; the township was formerly known as No. 1 of the six second-class townships granted by Massachusetts in 1762 or 1764. It was ceded to Paul Thorndike and others in 1785. The first English settlement known was in 1763, when Stephen Hutchinson, Ephraim Haines, Roger Googins and others came to the place. Before this, there were French settlers at Trenton and Oak Points. Thompson and Alley's islands are within its juris- diction. It was incorporated in 1789 and named in honor of the Bat- tle of Trenton, New Jersey, a memorable conflict of the Revolution- ary War, fought on the 26th of December, 1776. Trenton, Maine, lies north of Mt. Desert Island, between Union River Bay and Jor- dan's River. The occupation of the people, aside from agriculture, is connected with the sea. Before 1870 Trenton had embraced the whole peninsula between Union River Bay and Frenchman's Bay, but at that date it was divided and the eastern half incorporated as Lamoine, to which area Captain Isaac Gilpatric came in September, 1774. When Trenton was incorporated in 1789, it contained about three hundred people. It is separated from Mt. Desert by Jordan's River, a branch of which is salt tidewater that stretches a league and a half into the town.
Among the heads of families included in the census of 1790 of Trenton Town (including Township No. 1, East side of Union River) are Ephraim, Parley and Peter Haines, Robert, Samuel and Marten Killpatrick, Roger and Thomas Googins, Solomon, Ebenezer and Meltiah Jordan, John and John Murch, Jr., James, Isaac and George Lord, Benj. Wiggins, Nathaniel, John and Wm. Jealouson, Edw. Berry, James and Thos. McFarland, Edward Hodgkins, Wm. and James Hopkins, John Harding, Silas Coolidge, Jacob Foster,
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Elisha Whitaker, Edmund Black, Joseph Bark, Farrington Farrell, James and Nathaniel Smith, John Springer, George Haslem, Samuel DeBeck, Job Anderson, Edward Sinclair, Thomas Hapworth, John Green, Jonas Farnsworth, Jesse Dutton, Joseph Morrison, John Tink- er, Joanna Beal, Joseph Card, Theodore Jones, Henry Maddox, Rob- ert Milliken, Wm. Fletcher and Joseph More.
In 1797 the town clerk was Perley Haynes; the selectmen, Jacob Foster, Perley Haynes and James Lord.
Monmouth, 1792
A second town in Maine, Monmouth, would seem to have been named for a famous battle fought in the Revolution. The first settlers came to the present town of Monmouth from Brunswick, Maine, in 1775 and by 1781 quite a large group had arrived. The territory was part of the Plymouth Patent. At the close of the Revo- lutionary War, General Henry Dearborn, who was a resident of the town, became proprietor of 5,225 acres of land in the township, upon which he erected farm buildings and mills. He resided constantly on his property for several years and spent a portion of his time here for the remainder of his life. The place was incorporated as a town in 1792, and at the suggestion of the General received the name it now bears in commemoration of the Battle of Monmouth, in which he bore a noble part. This battle was fought June 28, 1778, and was a brilliant success for American arms, and happily counteracted the despondency of the time, largely brought about by depreciation in the value of paper money.
During the existence of this area as a plantation, it had borne at different times the names of Freetown, Bloomingsborough and Wales.
The first settler is supposed to have been Thos. Gray, an old hunter and trapper, who lived in that part of Brunswick known as New Meadows. While on a hunting expedition, he discovered the chain of lakes which encircle the town. He returned to his neighbors with glowing accounts of the wonderful sections in fine meadow grass, a product of considerable importance in those days. In the summer or fall of 1774, Joseph Allen, Philip Jenkins, Reuben Ham and Jonathan Thompson came and cut and stacked a quantity of "blue- joint," the finest of the meadow grasses, and felled some trees.
The following winter, Gray and his son, a lad of fourteen or fifteen, drove in the cattle belonging to these men and built a rude log hut. This was the first cabin erected between Winthrop and Web- ster. All but Jonathan Thompson, who did not come until 1777, brought their provisions as well as cooking utensils and other neces- sary articles on their backs. Beavers, bears and moose were here. Two
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years later arrived Ichabod Baker, John Welch, Alexander Thomp- son and Hugh Mulloy. John and Benoni Austin, Peter Hopkins and James Blossom came in 1781, and some thirty others followed soon after. Among the latter were General, then Colonel, Henry Dearborn, Simon and Benj. Dearborn, his brothers, and John Chandler from Epping, New Hampshire. The latter came as an itinerant blacksmith, the poorest man in the settlement in respect to money, but his talents were of high order and he rose to be Major-General of the State Militia, a Representative to Congress, a United States Senator, and later was appointed Collector of the port of Portland. In 1819 he was a member of the General Court at Boston and assisted in drafting the Constitution of Maine. He was the first President of the Maine Senate.
General Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War and Commander in Chief of the United States Army, must be distinguished from his nephew, Colonel Greenleaf Dearborn. The former erected the first log building in the settlement that could with propriety be called a house; the logs were hewn square and the house was much superior to the other huts around. James Norris settled on what is now called Norris Hill. He was a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary Army and married a niece of General Henry Dearborn.
John Chandler bought James Weeks' claim near the acade- my. It is generally supposed that Chandler built the first frame house in the settlement. For many years a continual stream of immigration poured in from Epping and adjacent towns. In the eastern part of Monmouth the men came from Winthrop: Gail Cole was there in 1776; somewhat later came Allens, Brainards, Blakes, Torseys and Kelleys. In 1781 the plantation was incorporated under the name of Wales as a mark of respect for John Welch whose ancestors were na- tives of that country. As soon as the Epping immigrants appeared, they assumed the entire control of the town. All the business meetings were held in an unfinished, unfurnished chamber of John Welch's home. In 1783 James Potter of Litchfield held a series of meetings in the settlement, but until 1793, when Jesse Lee, the Methodist, began his evangelical work in Maine, nothing had been accomplished in the way of an organized church or in securing regular preaching. In 1794 Philip Wager, a subordinate worker whom Mr. Lee had ap- pointed to take charge of the field, organized here the first Metho- dist class, of fifteen persons. In 1795 the second Methodist chapel in the District of Maine was erected on a lot donated by Major Dan- iel Marston. The first pastors were circuit riders. The first post office was established in 1795 and John Chandler was the first postmaster. The first settlement was on the low land near the Wales line. Grad-
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ually the center of population worked northward until by the open- ing of the 19th century there was quite a village clustered about the crown of Academy Hill. Here was John Chandler's store; nearly op- posite was his blacksmith shop and tavern, while not very far north stood the blacksmith shop of Jeremiah Chandler. The early indus- tries were "potash" by Capt. Peter Hopkins, a grist mill on Cochne- wagan Stream at the center, built by Henry Dearborn, John Welch and Capt. James Blossom and a second on Wilson Stream built about 1780 by Jeremiah Hall. Prior to 1794, a saw mill was built at the center by Wm. Allen and Ichabod Baker, one on Wilson Stream by Robert Hill and at the outlet of South Pond by General Henry Dear- born, Nathaniel Norris and others. Other saw mills, a tannery and a mill for woolen goods were built by 1829.
Starks, 1795
The name of the town of Starks in Somerset County is com- memorative of General John Starks, the hero of Bennington, who had already in the Battle of Bunker Hill given evidence of his brave and rugged character. The town was incorporated in 1795, as the one hundredth town in the District of Maine. Previously it had been called Lower Sandy River Plantation, granted in 1790 to Dummer Sewell and others. The first settlers came in, in 1772 and 1774.
James Waugh, the first settler on Sandy River, was born in Townsend, Massachusetts, about the year 1749. He came down to the present Clinton, Maine, in early life and, availing himself of the offer of the New Plymouth Company, took his gun, knapsack and dog, in the year 1772, and started up the Kennebec, determined to follow the stream until he found a farm to suit his eye. When he came to the Sandy he found he could not cross the river and thought he would follow up what seemed to him a small stream. The first lot in the angle pleased him very much, but he concluded to look farther be- fore settling. The next lot so suited him that he resolved to settle upon it. The farm he selected merits description: it lies opposite Old Point and when first seen by Mr. Waugh was entirely cleared and filled with the ancient corn hills of the Indians. The intervale is formed by the sharp bend of the river and contains 100 acres of the richest soil, loam producing the heaviest crops.
Neighbors who returned with Waugh in 1773 were a Mr. Fletcher and his sons, Daniel and Joseph, who erected temporary bullet-proof camps and began to seed the new soil. After gathering their crops, they spent the winter of 1773 in our present Clinton, were married in the spring of 1774 and brought their wives up and began the settlement of Sandy River Plantation. However, after re- maining a short time, the women were afraid to stay longer because
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there were so many Indians around, although they were never attacked; so they returned to Fort Halifax. Mr. Waugh's neighbors left during the Revolution, but he stayed in Starks. In 1777 he was appointed Cap- tain of a scouting party. James Waugh during his lifetime (he died in 1826) was emphatically the Man of Starks, revered by all and well worthy of the esteem which he received. The Fletchers were away for a short time then returned to the settlements. Robert Cros- by with his son Asa moved to the Sandy River in 1778. The family which was large and numerous became fine citizens. Zimri Heywood took up a lot and put a man by the name of Chamberlain on it around 1779. Chamberlain went to Ohio and Heywood put his son, Thomas, in his place. He too had the Ohio fever and the farm passed into the hands of the Wood family. In 1778 the following settlers were in Starks: James Waugh, Robert Crosby, John Heald, - Nichols, Oliver Wilson and Captain George Grey. James Young came to Starks in 1780 and Peter Holbrook in 1781. Thomas Waugh (brother of James) came in 1780 and settled near his brother; the place was then called by the name of Norridgewock or Sandy River Plantation. Other families flocked in and began to people the beautiful alluvial vales of the Sandy River, until the town became populous and flour- ishing. In 1790, only sixteen years after an axe first disturbed the pri- meval solitudes, there were three hundred and twenty-seven settlers within the limits of Starks. The town of Starks lies on the west side of the Kennebec River at its junction with the Sandy.
Steuben, 1795
This town forms the southwestern angle of Washington County. It was No. 4 of six second-class townships east of the Union River, granted in 1762 by Massachusetts to an association of petitioners; but these having failed to fulfill the conditions, it reverted to the state, and was in 1794 granted to Thos. Ruston. It was first settled in 1760 and in 1795 was incorporated as a town, named in honor of Baron Steuben, the German officer who so nobly aided in our Revolutionary struggle. Baron Steuben's full name was Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus, Baron von Steuben. He was a major-general and a thorough drillmaster, who whipped our untrained, hungry and half-clad troops into a victorious army, while they were suffering at Valley Forge and Howe's army was enjoying a comfortable winter at Philadelphia.
The town is nearly surrounded by water. On the east is Nar- raguagus River and Bay; on the south, the sea; on the west, Goulds- borough Bay and Steuben Harbor. At the head of the latter is Steu- ben Village, the largest in the town. Others are at the head of Dyer's and Pigeon Hills bays in the southern part of the town. These two bodies of water are separated by Pigeon Hill, at whose extremity is
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Petit Menan Plantation. Dyer and Gouldsborough bays are separated by Dyer's Neck. Tunk Stream, which enters at the northern part of the town and flows into Steuben Harbor, is the principal water course within the town.
The early settlers were mostly from Cape Elizabeth and other towns to the west. Some of them were fishermen. Deacon Jonathan Stevens and his wife, Mary Tracy, were early residents of Steuben and settled near the head of the bay. Some time between 1766 and 1768, Alexander Campbell moved from Damariscotta to Steuben and built a mill at Tunk, later called Smithville, on the east side of the river. Later he built a dam and tide mill down below. Colonel Campbell, born at Georgetown, was of Scottish descent: he was a friend of Colonel John Allen, his adviser, aid and confidential correspondent, agent and envoy of the people. The Pinkhams who came from Goulds- borough settled at what was called Pinkham's Bay and built a tide mill on Pinkham's Mill Stream. Thomas Parritt, a Scotchman, came from Canada and settled at Steuben about 1770. The Parkers of Steu- ben arrived from Cumberland County, some time between 1766 and 1770. John Yeaton came about 1766 from the vicinity of Falmouth and settled in Steuben. Joseph Sawyer from Cape Elizabeth made his home at Dyer Bay in Steuben a little later than 1767. Samuel Wake- field came from Kennebunk in 1756 or 1757 and settled at the head of the bay on a lot now comprising a considerable part of Steuben Village.
Among the very early settlers was Lemuel Baker from Rox- bury, Massachusetts, who settled near the shore on what is known as Baker's Point. Dyer's Bay was once a thriving little village and the most thickly populated spot in Steuben, but hardly a house is now standing where the village used to be. In the early days of the Repub- lic, at Dyer's Bay dwelt the businessmen of that day and generation : Dyers, Yeatons, Sawyers and Parkers, well-to-do people, energetic and enterprising men. Henry Dyer came from Cape Elizabeth in 1760, the father of shipbuilder Ebenezer Dyer, who, with his sons, were all prominent shipbuilders. There were several other shipyards and life was everywhere astir in the village. Here also lived the Dunbars and the Leightons. The business part of the town was here as late as 1830. Joseph Sawyer, considered the wealthiest man in the town, also lived at Dyer's Bay and built ships. Ships built here were staunch and strong, fit to make voyages to any part of the world. At what is now the vil- lage there was only a grist mill and shingle mill on the river, but at the head of the bay the water privileges were excellent and when men began to engage in lumbering, they populated that part of the town and here the present village grew up.
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Some other early settlers who received deeds of their lots on April 2, 1794, were Simon Brown, Joseph Bracy, Allen, Benjamin and Ebeneezer Downs, Jr., Daniel Epes, James and John Foster and heirs of Robert Foster, Wm. Gubtail (Guptil), Daniel and Ichabod God- frey, James Grace, Obed Hutchins, Ebeneezer Warren Judd, Samuel Kingsley, Robert Moore, Cary McLellen, John McDonald, Alexander Nickels, Atherton Oakes, Wm. and John Patten, David Robinson and Joseph Strout, Jeremiah Strout, John and Joseph Small, John Camp- bell and James Todd, Gad and Jacob Townsley, Wheeler Tracy, Joseph Wallis, Robert Wallace, Thomas West, Stephen Waite and Samuel, Joseph, John and John, Jr., Yeaton.
Wayne, 1798
This town was incorporated in Kennebec County in 1798 as the one hundred and fourteenth town in Maine and was named in honor of General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, one of Washington's ablest gen- erals in the Revolution, under whom it is probable that some of the pioneers in the new town had fought. The town had previously been called Pocasset and New Sandwich. General Anthony Wayne has a notable army record. He raised a regiment and entered the army as colonel. After serving at the Battle of Three Rivers in 1777, he took command of Fort Ticonderoga, becoming a Brigadier-General. He joined the army of Washington about May, 1777, and among the most brilliant of his achievements was the capture of Stony Point on the Hudson, July 15, 1779. He also took part in the capture of the British at Yorktown.
The first settler of the present town of Wayne, Maine, was Job Fuller of Sandwich, Massachusetts, who made improvements in 1773. The title to the eastern part near Bear Brook is from the Plymouth Proprietors, the residue. from Massachusetts. Fuller had lived in the forest only a short time when other settlers came. Among them were other Fullers, Wings, Norrises, Besses, Lawrences, Sturdevants, Wash- burns, Maxims, Dexters, Frosts, Bowles, Winslows and Jennings. With Reuben Wing came his six sons, one of whom, Moses, became a phy- sician. All settled in the town. Asa Lawrence probably settled in the eastern part of the town near Berry Pond. The Norrises near the An- droscoggin Pond in the southern part of the town were four brothers, sons of Samuel Norris who moved from Sandwich, Massachusetts, a few years afterward. The Jennings family took up a lot at the north- east a short distance from the head of Wing Pond. The father, Sam- uel Jennings, came with three sons, of whom Nathaniel alone remained permanently, while the other two went to Leeds. Isaac Dexter settled near the head of Wilson Pond. Reuben Besse was on the Winthrop road near Berry Pond and John Bowles lived near Job Fuller. Since
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authentic records are not available, it may suffice to say that during the twenty-five years which intervened between Job Fuller's advent and the incorporation of the town in 1798, nearly one hundred families had gathered on the beautiful hills which clustered around the vast water system. All this time the settlement had borne the appellation of New Sandwich.
The ecclesiastical history of Wayne begins with the year 1793, in the early part of which regular religious services were established by some of the settlers who had been aroused by the exhortations of missionary disciples of the Baptist faith. In January, 1794, a church of eleven members, nine of whom were males, was organized. Itinerant preachers served the people for eight years. Five days after the Baptist church of Wayne was organized, Reverend Jesse Lee, Methodist, preached to the people of that place. A class was soon organized which developed into an auxiliary of the Readfield and later of the Mon- mouth circuit.
The first mills in all probability were erected at the outlet of Wing's Pond prior to 1790. A saw mill was erected by Jonathan Howe and a grist mill by Thomas Wing. A lawsuit over the water privilege resulted in Mr. Howe's securing both mills. At various times these mills changed hands. Shingle and clapboard mills were built as well as a sash and blind factory, shovel handle factory and machine shop. The edge tool industry was begun as early as 1837 by a stock company; the projector was unknown, but the project was a failure. Then came a scythe company.
Among the first traders at Wayne village were Lamson and Bowles, as early as 1807. A tannery and the indispensable potash busi- ness were carried on. A public house was opened in the village by Farnham and Stanley, as early as 1820.
Lovell, 1800
The name of the town of Lovell in Southern Oxford County commemorates the bravery of Captain John Lovewell, the great Indian fighter, the hero at Pequawket in 1725. This township which was given to officers and soldiers who were engaged in this battle or their heirs was first called New Suncook. The surviving English were handsomely rewarded for their valor and suffering and a generous provision was made for the widows and children of the slain. Kezar River, the out- let of ponds of that name in Waterford, runs southward through the eastern part of the town to the Saco. The name Kezar, occurring so frequently in this region, is the name of an old hunter who dwelt here.
The site of Lovewell's fight at the northern end of the pond is marked by a boulder. This fourth Indian War, begun in 1722, and
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since denominated the Three Years or Lovewell's War, was carried on by the native Indians themselves, principally against the provincials of New Hampshire, Maine and Nova Scotia. In this war the English drove so hard and fast that the Indians suffered great losses in battle. That plus their dread of the scalp bounty made them delay long in reviving the war. Most conspicuous among the leaders and as an In- dian fighter was Captain John Lovewell of Dunstable, Massachusetts, and his companies of volunteers who so highly distinguished themselves in three successive expeditions against the savage enemy. The third ex- pedition, in which he was accompanied by forty-six volunteers, showed his popularity, his patriotism and military ardor and his success. Love- well's lieutenants were Josiah Farwell and Jonathan Robbins; his ensigns, John Harwood and Seth Wyman; his chaplain, Jonathan Frye and his chief pilot, Toby, an Indian who fell sick and returned.
The battle in which they engaged with the Indians was one of the most desperate and hard-fought battles which the English ever had with the Indians. By an unremitting and well-directed fire, throughout the day, the number of the savages was manifestly lessened, until just before dark they withdrew, taking their dead and wounded with them. There had been eighty Pequawkets under Chief Paugus. Twenty of the English were able to direct their march toward the fort, leaving their dead and dying associates uncared for. After three or four days, sixteen arrived at the fort only to find it deserted; but food was available. Seventeen arrived at their Massachusetts homes. Subse- quently the bodies of Lovewell and his slain companions were buried. This memorable fight broke the heart and spirit of the Sokokis natives. They soon withdrew from this area.
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