USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 26
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Preached in the barn of Hezekiah Stetson. The audi- ence was large and not very much divided, consisting of people not turned with the traveling doctrines of the day . ... Rode on my way to Hartford after supper and put up at Deacon Robinson's. He has two houses, two barns, a saw and grist mill and a potash. He lives well and treated me with water mellons having white seeds.
Of the twenty founders of Sumner, sixteen were Revolutionary heroes. There was no post office in town until one was set up in 1812 at Simon Barrett's, and he was postmaster. Simon Barrett, Jr., was the first Representative to the General Court in 1798. The early settlers got their mail from New Gloucester. The first post rider in these parts was Jacob Howe. He rode on horseback with his mail from Portland to Waterford once each week. The western part of the town had its first settlers about 1800, and in 1811 Wm. Cobb bought the lot con- taining the mill privilege which the state had reserved. He probably built the mills here about 1812, and sold them to Alpheus Drake.
Strong, 1801
Strong, in Franklin County, was incorporated in 1801, as the one hundred and twenty-seventh town in Maine. It was settled as early as 1784 by men who came from Nobleborough or its vicinity. It was sometimes called Sandy River Middle Township; Avon was the Upper and Phillips, the Lower. This township was purchased from the Com- monwealth of Massachusetts by an association of which William Read was one. He acted as agent of the group in the purchase and surveyor
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of the town, for which reason it was first called Readstown. The state reserved one lot for Pierpole, the Indian, on which he had settled after leaving Farmington Falls. He put up the second frame house in town and remained there until 1801, when he went to Canada.
The present name of the town was given in honor of Caleb Strong, who served as Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachu- setts from 1800 to 1807. The Act of Incorporation of the town of Strong, Maine, was the first of its kind to be signed by him under his administration.
The first settlement was made as early as 1784 by Wm. Read. He was followed by Edw. Flint, John Day, David and Joseph Hum- phrey, Jacob Sawyer, Wm. Hiscock, Benj. Dodge, Timothy Morrow, Eliab Eaton, Peter Patterson, Robert McLeery and - Ellsworth, all from Nobleborough. In the census of 1790, in addition to these names of heads of families, were Michael Withern, Thos. Bates, Jacob Saw- yer and Abel Colbey. The first frame barn was put up by Mr. Read in 1786-87 and his house, the first framed one, was built in 1791-92. Richard Clark and Joseph Kersey settled in Strong in 1792. The in- habitants of the town as well as those located higher up the river had to go to Winthrop to mill or to use mortars for some years.
The town has a large pond in the eastern extremity at the out- let of which a saw mill and clover mill, built and owned by Alexander Porter, were situated. There was a grist mill on the Sandy River, and on the northeast branch, grist, saw, fulling, carding mills, a starch factory, tannery and various kinds of machine shops were located. Just below the village a bridge crosses the Sandy River. At the lower part of the town is a meeting house and another in the easterly section, mostly built and chiefly occupied by the Methodists. In the northeast section there is a Congregational Meeting House. It is often claimed that Maine's Republican Party was founded in this town on August 7, 1854, with temperance and abolition of slavery as the two specific planks to the platform.
Pownal, 1808
This Cumberland County town was the northwest part of Free- port until 1808, when it was separated from the parent town and named Pownal in honor of the Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Pownall, an Englishman by birth who was a gifted scholar, philosopher and author. He was a friend of James Bowdoin, Benj. Franklin and the whole cause of America, an able, intelligent and likeable person. He served as governor from 1757 to 1760 and became absorbed in co- lonial defense. To him the key to continental defense was the Great Lakes. The extent of his influence with the members of the legislature was evidenced by their respectful addresses and by a compliment which
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the majority of the house paid him by offering him passage to England in the provincial frigate (he declined and took passage in a private ship). When he embarked both houses attended him in a body to his barge in recognition of his services to the colonies.
Before 1789, the southern part of Pownal was a portion of ancient North Yarmouth. The northern part, comprising thirteen squadrons of 450 acres each, was part of a gore extending across the northeast end of North Yarmouth and was annexed through the efforts of Rev. Ammi Cutter in 1734. The southern part was surveyed by Phineas Jones and drawn in 1733. Much of the history of Old North Yarmouth is antecedent to the history of Pownal.
After the first settlement was made, people began to locate around the end of the road opened from Yarmouth by way of Walnut Hill. Jacob Parsons came in 1756; Nathaniel True and Jonathan Bar- bour, Job Allen, Asa York, Levi Knight, Simeon Jones and John Dam, Jacob Bemis, Esq., Josiah Walker, Caleb Richardson, Eleazer Lake, Isaac Small, Isaac Libbey, Jonathan Newbegin, Capt. Wm. Black- stone, Wm. Sawyer, Melzar Turner, Thos. Noyes, Thos. and Wm. Cotton, Josiah Walker and Robert Royal were other early settlers.
The first local officials were Jeremiah Dummer, Walter Gen- dell, John Royall, and John York: trustees and committee men of 1785. The first inhabitants were descendants of the settlers along the coast who were prevented many years by the Indians from going farther inland. Settlement began shortly after 1780. Jonathan True located in the south part of the town, a mile from the Freeport line. Lieutenant Peter W. Brown located in the north; and Wm. Lawrence, John York, Lebbeus Tuttle and Jeremiah Knight were settled pre- vious to 1785. Mr. Tuttle lived under the ledge near Bradbury Moun- tain while he was clearing; his shelter was a "lean-to" made by stand- ing slabs against the cliff. John Sturdivant and John Sawyer were living on Lot 13 in the north corner in 1789.
Thos. Haskell erected his mill in 1796, and the settlement of Little Yarmouth, approachable from the south over a corduroy road a mile in length, became known to the outside world. A schoolhouse was erected near the grist mill; and in 1798 the inhabitants presented their claim to the parish at the annual meeting and were allowed the services of the parish minister once in three months. The schoolhouse here was for many years the town house and became the center of all general gatherings until the erection of the church. Here each soldier on training day received his pound of powder, ready-made into car- tridges, and here the poor were indentured to the more fortunate, through bidding on the open market.
The Rev. Alfred Johnson, a Congregational minister, first set- tled pastor of Freeport, was sent to preach four Sabbaths at Bradbury
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Mountain, as part of his ministerial duties in 1798 and 1799. In 1807 a committee was appointed to engage a minister; and in 1808, at the town election, it was voted to call the Reverend Samuel Sewell at a salary of $300. A church was organized at the house of Thos. Haskell in 1811. A large house of worship was erected in 1809 at Pownal Center, of which the Rev. Perez Chapin became the first settled pastor in 1811 and remained until his death in 1839. The Society of Friends erected a small meeting house about 1800 on the opposite side of the road from the dwelling of Simeon Estes, two miles east of Pownal Center. This road was known as the Quaker road before that date. Among the members of this society were Simeon and Elisha Estes and the Austin, Pote and Goddard families. After 1850, the society ceased to be an organization in the town.
Robbinston, 1811
Robbinston became a town in 1811, the one hundred and eighty-third in Maine. It was granted by the state on October 21, 1786, to Edward H. Robbins (1758-1829) and Nathaniel J. Robbins of Milton, Massachusetts. From these proprietors the town took its name. Two families had located at this place prior to the grant. A post office was established in 1796, and the first mail came through in September of that year.
Edward H. Robbins, Harvard, 1775, was a lawyer of Milton, Massachusetts, then Speaker of the House (1793-1802) and later lieutenant governor (1802-1806). He had Jonathan Eddy pick him out a township, then No. 4, which he bought in 1786. He took great pride in advancing his settlement and visited it many times. He was a gentleman of extensive information and something of an antiquarian.
Jacob Boyden probably lived in No. 4 when Robbins bought the township. The proprietor's method of reaching his township was by coaster. He was much beloved by the settlers. In 1790 these men and their families were in the township: Jacob Boyden (no family), Wm. Bugby, Widow Fausett, John Johnson, Job Johnson, John Brewer, Samuel Jones, Samuel Leshure, Donald McDonald, Joseph Porter, Daniel Somes, Thos. Vose and Edmund Ross. Samuel Jones was an excellent and useful citizen, a member of the Congregational church. Joseph Porter was in the employ of Robbins. In speaking of their religious life, Vose says: "Meetings were held in each others houses, until a large log schoolhouse was built which answered for school and meeting house. Mr. Jones and Mr. Bugbee continued to read for us for some years. They used to read Doddridge, Baxter, and White- field's sermons and there were always more or less who could sing and we had good prayers." Lieutenant Governor Robbins sent each of the readers a suit of black broadcloth and a military hat, so that on
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Sunday they might appear in becoming ministerial garments. Edward Robbins studied law with Oakes Angier of Bridgewater. He was a Representative from Milton for fourteen years, Commissioner of the Land Office, with respect to land in Maine, and Judge of Probate for Norfolk County, 1814-1829.
Deacon Peter Vose, grandson of Thos. Vose, was later in busi- ness in Dennysville for fifty years, where he left an unspotted and re- markable record. Concerning the wooden columns in the State House at Boston he wrote: "My grandfather, Thomas Vose of Robbinston, cut and furnished trees from which the columns which ornament the front of the second story of the Massachusetts State House, as well as those which support the roof of the great hall in the same, were made." The trees grew near West Maguerrawock Lake within the limits of Township No. 5, now in the City of Calais. They were furnished for Lieutenant Governor Robbins.
Boyden Lake extends into the southwestern part of the town and perpetuates the name of the first settler. Shipbuilding was formerly carried on here when the ports of Europe furnished ready markets for the product. The proprietors soon erected storehouses and other build- ings, and settlers came rapidly. The committee appointed to present the petition for incorporation of the town in 1810 were John Brewer, Thos. Vose, John Balkham, Abadiah Allen, Abel Brooks, Job Johnson and Thaddeus Sibley. The meeting house was built in 1817. In 1818 the Reverend Daniel Lovejoy was settled by the Congregationalists.
Brooks, 1816
This town in Waldo County was settled in 1798 by Joseph Rob- erts from Buckfield who built the first mills. By 1801 his two brothers, John and Jonathan, had joined him. Not long afterward Benjamin Cilley with his sons, Benjamin, Peter and Simon, also of Buckfield, took up residence near by. Phineas Ashman, the first lawyer, first post- master and chairman was a native of Blanford, Massachusetts, and came to Belfast as agent of Israel Thorndike, David Sears and Wm. Prescott. He was active in Belfast social and civic life, and opened a law office in Washington Plantation (now Brooks) in 1813. His home was a discussion center for the leading citizens of the town. One of his guests was Daniel Webster. Jacob Roberts was the first physician.
In the early part of the year 1798 notices were posted through- out the District of Maine that settlers were wanted in that section of Hancock County, now Waldo County. The territory now occupied by Brooks was originally the property of General Henry Knox who mort- gaged it to General Benjamin Lincoln and Colonel Henry Jackson. This mortgage was assigned by them to Thorndike, Prescott and Sears. Revolutionary soldiers.
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Joseph Roberts, Jr., who moved here in 1799, selected a spot a mile north of the village and cleared the land for the first home. The proprietors, who wished to secure the improvements made by him, gave him a large tract of land about a mile west of his farm in return for his first settlement. Here Joseph and his boys cleared up a second farm and in a few years built a saw and grist mill. Joseph Roberts, Jr., was a natural mechanic and a manufacturer of wooden ware. He taught his boys the wood-turning trade and the girls were taught spinning and weaving. He was a Revolutionary soldier and had served at Bunker Hill and in other places. He had settled at Buckfield after the war, before coming to Brooks. According to the census of 1790, Joseph Roberts, Jr., Jonathan Roberts, Jr., John Roberts, Wm. Doble, James Jordan, Peter and Wm. Cilley, Webb Clarey, Calvin Fogg, Ben- jamin Cilley, Fobes, Leathers and Jenkins were residents of Buckfield at that time. Shadrack Hall has been reported as the second resident in Brooks; he came in 1802.
In 1804 Robert Huston of Belfast, in a statement to General Knox in reference to the settlers in the plantation of Washington, re- ported as wanting a new agreement: Joseph Roberts, Jr., the widow of Jonathan Roberts, Jr., John Roberts, John Young, Wm. Doble, Shadrack Hall, Wm. Kimball (reported as being absent), Nathaniel Emerson, who would pay half of the rental due and wished a new agreement, and James Jordan, who appeared to be indifferent about the holding of lands. This report shows that in 1804 there were only nine heads of families in Brooks. From this date, newcomers who were for the most part related to the early settlers began to locate in the town. They came from Windham, Gorham, Kittery Point, Standish, Green, Sanford and Buckfield, Maine. Captain Sawyer came from Northfield, Massachusetts, in 1805. Joseph Davis came from Standish in the winter of 1810. His son, Allen Davis, was a man of broad liberal views and was often honored for his ability and integrity by being given offices of trust and responsibility.
In 1813 Brooks was known as Washington Plantation, named in honor of General George Washington. The petition of Phineas Ash- man and forty-seven others for the incorporation of the town was dated April 7, 1816. In the same year the town was named in honor of Governor John Brooks of Massachusetts who had just succeeded Governor Strong at the May election. Governor Brooks was a man of unassuming manner and great political integrity, and had distinguished himself as an officer in the Revolution. He continued to be elected as governor from year to year until the separation of Maine from Massa- chusetts in 1820.
Marsh River rises in Knox and flows into Frankfort marsh. On the upper falls in the village of Brooks, A. J. Brooks built and operated
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the first saw mill. At the bridge in the village is the oldest grist millat- power and a few rods below that is another mill privilege. About two miles away is South Brooks, the original village. John P. Cilley, one of Brooks' old and well-known citizens, moved there from Turner in 1821. Other mills were built on Marsh, Sawyer and Ellis streams. Grist mills, and mills manufacturing wood products of various kinds were later erected.
The first frame house in Brooks was built by Joseph Roberts, Jr., who also had the first cook-stove. The first settlers of Brooks were members of the First Baptist Church. The first church building was probably the Friends Church in 1822; the Congregational Church was erected in 1832.
Dexter, 1816
One town in Maine, Dexter, bears the name of an unsuccess- ful gubernatorial candidate of Massachusetts, that of the Honorable Samuel Dexter who in 1816 was the democratic nominee, but was de- feated by John Brooks. Dexter was greatly interested in the town which had so complimented him by adopting his name upon its in- corporation.
The township of Dexter was surveyed in 1772, but remained unsettled until the turn of the century. In the year 1799 the proprie- tors, wishing to encourage immigration to the plantation, not only of- fered liberal inducements in land to settlers, but also sent Samuel Elkins, a millwright from Cornville, to look up a site and build mills. He selected a location at the outlet of Lake Wassookeag, later known as Silver's Mills, and started operations. But little more was done that first year, before he left, than to clear away the underwood, fell and hew timber and build a camp of hemlock bark. That same summer Ebeneezer Small came and began work on a small clearing where he planted a crop. He built, just north of Stone Mill, a house of un- hewn logs, filled the interstices with clay and added a covering of hemlock bark. He also built a hovel of poles inclined and secured at the top with elm and wicker bark. In these humble structures he laid up the first crop raised in Dexter. Small had moved from Alton, New Hampshire, to Athens in 1799 and in the following year had arrived at the present Dexter. In the spring of 1801 he brought his wife in on a hand-sled from Harmony.
John Tucker came in 1800. In 1801 good progress was made on the mills. Mr. Tucker built a small house and the following year moved in. His was the second family in town. Samuel Elkins, on ac- count of failing health, did not return to Dexter, but his brother, John Elkins, came and completed a saw and grist mill in one building, on the site of the late saw mill. The mill irons had to be transported from
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Garland to No. 4 (Dexter) on horseback, since there was no road. A man supported each end of the iron while a third led the horse. Mill stones were manufactured of native granite. Jonathan Snow soon bought the mill and built the first frame house. In 1803 Seba French of Washington, New Hampshire, came. During the summer Cornelius Coolidge, Charles and Stephen Fletcher, and Simeon, Theophilus and John Morgan moved into the town from Hallowell. During the years 1803-05, Samuel Copeland, Simeon and John Stafford, Hugh Max- well and the Shepleys and Smiths moved from Washington, New Hampshire, to Elkinston, as the plantation was then called.
About 1807 immigration increased with such rapidity that a road was laid out from Garland and a schoolhouse was built which did duty for fifteen years as town house, church and schoolhouse.
In 1820 Jeremiah and Amos Abbot came from Andover, Massa- chusetts, and bought the carding and saw mills, as well as the upper mill privilege. They were the original members of Amos Abbot and Company, one of the oldest firms which has carried on the manufac- ture of woolen goods in the state.
Other settlers came to Dexter in the twenties and thirties: Joseph M. Hazeltine arrived from Portland, New Hampshire, in 1820. Wm. Eaton, born in Weare, New Hampshire, emigrated to Dexter in 1824. Nathaniel Dustin, born in Vermont, who had lived in New Hampshire and Lowell, Massachusetts, where he worked in the Mid- dlesex factory for two years, settled in Dexter in 1836. He was a des- cendant of the heroic Hannah Dustin. He worked for a short time in the factories here as a finisher, sorter, etc., and then went into trade, and also farmed. He served in many civic positions.
Milton Abbot, one of the partners in the woolen mill, was a son of Pascal Abbot, who was from Andover, Massachusetts, where he was formerly a manufacturer of woolens. Milton came here in 1847 and became interested with his three brothers, Jeremiah, Amos and Joshua, in the mill. Henry L. Wood was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1832, had been engaged in the woolen business in Massachusetts and con- tinued that occupation in Dexter. His father, James Wood, was also a woolen manufacturer. Meanwhile, in 1824, John Bates had opened a tavern at his house, the first tavern in the village proper. This was kept open to the public until 1830, when a three-story hotel was erected by Stevens Davis and others.
In 1824 a floating bridge was built across the narrows of Pleas- ant Pond, now known as Wassookeag Lake. Before that a ferry was tended. The floating bridge lasted until 1860.
In 1828 Lysander Cutler came from Royalston, Massachusetts, and became a partner in Amos Abbot and Company, and in 1835, with Jonathan Farrar, started a woolen mill below the grist mill. This
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burned, but another was erected in 1845. Other mills were built, but all were united in 1855. The Dexter Woolen Mills, still the Amos Abbot Woolen Manufacturing Company, have had various changes, but as a corporation have increased and prospered.
Brooksville, 1817
During this same decade Brooksville, in Hancock County, was formed from parts of Castine, Penobscot and Sedgwick. It took from Sedgwick an eighth, and from Castine and Penobscot, each, a fifth of their taxable property. It was incorporated in 1817 and named in honor of Governor John Brooks of Massachusetts, who held office from 1816 to 1820.
The early history of the town of Brooksville is largely included in that of Castine and Penobscot. James Rosier was an "English Gentleman" who accompanied Captain George Weymouth to this country in 1605 and wrote an account of the voyage which was printed in London. Rosier's name is perpetuated by Cape Rosier, the head- land in the southwest corner of Brooksville in Eastern Penobscot Bay. The suggestion is made, however, in the Wayfarer's Notes that Cape Rosier was not named for the old navigator, since there is no evidence that Rosier went as far east as Penobscot Bay. An old fisherman says that Cape Rosier was named for its abundance of roses.
Upon Henry's Point, near Oliver Bakeman's, the British erected six gun batteries in 1779.
The first settlers were John, Thomas and Samuel Wasson and David Hawes, Revolutionary soldiers. They found three squatters al- ready in possession : a Mr. Roax, Eben Leland and Arch Haney. About 1780 Wm. Roax and Elisha Blake settled upon the cape. The first white child born within the present town limits was Mary Grindle. Of the Wassons, Thomas was a fifer and served three years in the 15th Massachusetts Regiment; John, also a musician, served three years in Colonel Bradford's Regiment, while Samuel was a drummer. John Bakeman, Sr., was first at the Neck and also at Cape Rosier, where he is said to have erected mills. Samuel Marble came in 1769; John Con- don was at Buck's Harbor prior to 1780, while Jonathan Holbrook, or his son Prince, built mills at Goose's Falls - probably after the Revolutionary War. Others among the petitioners to the town of Pen- obscot, later citizens of Brooksville, were Elisha Hopkins, Noah Nor- ton, Thomas Kench, Ben Howard, John Bakeman, Jr., John Condon, Edward Howard, Malachi Orcutt, Jacob Orcutt and John Redman.
Early saw mills have already been noted and lumber manu- facturing of various kinds has continued since the early days. Other industries have included quarrying, coasting, fishing, and woolen cloth and yarn factories.
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A resumé of the life of John Brooks for whom the town was named offers many interesting facts. He was the ninth governor of Massachusetts and a soldier, born at Medford, Massachusetts, May 3, 1752, the son of a farmer. He was educated in a country school and indentured as a medical apprentice to Dr. Simon Tufts. He was al- ways interested in the drilling and marching of British soldiers on his visits to Boston. He located at Reading as a physician and received his commission as major in the army soon after the battle of Concord and Lexington. In 1777 he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 8th Massachusetts Regiment. At the Battle of Saratoga, he stormed and carried the intrenchments of German troops. In Colonel Trum- bull's picture of the "Surrender of Burgoyne," Colonel Brooks ap- pears in a prominent position. He was at Valley Forge, where Baron Steuben was introducing his new system of military tactics, and Colonel Brooks was ordered by Washington to help bring it into general use. Later, after the troops had encamped on the Hudson, he was employed by Steuben to further assist in the introduction of this new system. Brooks enjoyed the confidence of Washington. He held many impor- tant political positions after the war. He toured Maine in 1818 and died in 1825.
Hancock, 1828
The town of Hancock is located in the southern part of Han- cock County. It was settled by pioneers in 1764 and incorporated as a town in 1828, formed from parts of Sullivan, Trenton and No. 8. It was christened Hancock in honor of Governor John Hancock, who served from October 25, 1780, to February, 1785, and from 1787 to October, 1793, the date of his death. Perhaps it would be more cor- rect to say that the town took its name from the county, which had been named to compliment the governor, when it was incorporated in 1789.
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