USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 31
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Vassalborough was chiefly populated after 1780 by Quakers from New York. Other carly settlers beside the Getchells were Samuel and Asa Redington, both of whom had served in the War of Indepen- dence, the latter as a member of the famous Washington Life Guard.
The first records state that on May 17, 1771, James Howard, Justice of the Peace, issued a warrant to Matthew Hastings to sum- mon the frecholders to meet at James Bacon's Inn to choose the first officers of the new town. The town was named Vassalborough, accord- ing to one writer, in honor of Florentine Vassall of London who was one of the proprietors of the Plymouth Company, and owned a lot on the east side of the Kennebec River at the north line of Augusta. An- other author states that it was named for the Honorable Wm. Vassal, a prominent citizen of Massachusetts and one of the first assistants of that colony.
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The town meetings were held for years in inns on either side of the river, and not until 1795 was it voted to build a Vassalborough town house which was then built on the land of Samuel Redington. On August 11, 1771, it was "voted to build two pounds, the inhabi- tants to meet December 1771, to help build them and every absent settler to pay 2s 6d lawful money." The early coming and business prominence of John Getchell gave the name Getchell's Corner to the hamlet sometimes called Vassalboro' Corners. Jonas Priest was the first to cut his way from the river to Priest Hill. In 1792 he received a grant of 200 acres from the proprietors. Between North Vassalborough and the river, Paul Taber made his settlement in the woods.
The highway extending over the hill northeasterly from the town house was early known as Quaker Lane, an allusion to the numerous families of Friends who made the earliest settlements upon it. Ebeenezer Pope, whose brothers, John and Elijah, have already been mentioned, built a house in 1806. In general, the first settlers came from Cape Cod; but about 1827 several whale captains of Nan- tucket packed their household goods and came with their families to Vassalborough. They settled along the eastern side of the town. Among them were Reuben Weeks, David Weyer, Shubael Cottle, John G. Fitch, Shubael Hussey, Henry Cottle, Joseph Barney, James Alley, Seth and Daniel Coffin and Captain Albert Clark. Asa Redington was town clerk in 1790. In 1798 Samuel was selectman and town treasurer.
Lyman (Coxhall) 1777
Lyman, as Coxhall, was incorporated as the thirty-eighth town in Maine, in 1777. The title to the town was derived from the Saga- more Fluellen's deed, by purchase in 1660, to John Saunders, John Bush and Peter Tarbitt, who sold their claim in 1668 to Harlackindine Symonds. He in turn conveyed the territory to Roger Haskins and thirty-five others, under whose proprietorship the town was first set- tled in 1767.
Its present name was chosen in 1803 in compliment to Theo- dore Lyman, Esq., of Boston, originally of York. Born into the home of a clergyman of that town just after the middle of the eighteenth century, he began his career in a village store at Kennebunk. From this simple beginning, he continually widened his interests; he went into real estate, lumbering and shipbuilding, and became a China trader. He was one of the foremost merchants of Boston, and died at the age of eighty-six, leaving a large fortune.
Coxhall, Lyman's first corporate name, was derived from an old English name. This remained for only a brief time. Earlier it was called Swansfield, from one of the ponds.
The principal business center is Goodwin's Mills, a neat little
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cluster of buildings in the southeastern part of the town which has borne its present name since 1782. The first saw and grist mills were located here.
One of the earliest conveyances of land is a deed of 100 acres of land in 1753 from Harlackindine Symonds to Richard Lord. From him it went to Samuel Lord and then to William Waterhouse, the old schoolmaster, who with his family came to this town between 1764 and 1775. Jacob Waterhouse, the brother of William, came with him from Kennebunk. Jacob and William were sons of Samuel Waterhouse who deserted from an English vessel and swam ashore in this province.
Peter Roberts and Joseph Dennett who, like the Waterhouses, married daughters of a Mr. Wakefield, lived on adjoining farms near South Lyman. Robert Dennett came first, and sold one half of his lot in 1781. Love Roberts came to Lyman about 1775, and was killed at a barn raising in 1780. Peter, his son, then only fourteen years of age, carried on the work of opening the farm at Roberts Corner.
Alexander Grant took his lot between Kennebunk and Swan ponds in 1774, and Silas, his son, joined him in 1779. Thos. Lord set- tled north of where the Congregational Meeting House stands, in 1776. James Lord and Richard Schackley settled two miles north of the Arundel line that same year. Thos. Murphy took up land on the point between the two branches of the Kennebunk River. His father, Patrick Murphy, came with him. The old gentleman had run away from home in Ireland, when a boy of twelve, and come to America. Gideon Merrill and Robert Swainson were surveyors for the British government, but abandoned that calling at the outbreak of the war and settled in Lyman where the former became a schoolmaster and prominent citizen. Elections were held at the house of Alex- ander Grant and other homes at first; and from 1787 to 1830 they were held at the meeting house, then in a barn for three years, after which they were called "to assemble around a big rock in front of the meeting house." This was the Town Meeting Rock until 1835 when the town house was built at the east end of Kennebunk Pond. The Town Meeting Rock was broken up to make the wall which sur- rounds the burying ground near the church.
Among other citizens, John Low was a leading man in town affairs, and was for many years Representative to the General Court. Ichabod Dam was another of the trusted early citizens and for several years was a member of the General Court from his town. Nathaniel Low was secretary of the Maine Senate in 1826. Robert Swansen was a surveyor and a prominent man in town affairs.
A number of Revolutionary soldiers came to the present town of Lyman at the close of the war: Pierce Murphy and John Burbank were among these veterans. The latter was captured by the privateer
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"Dalton" and carried to England in 1777. In 1779 he was on board the "Bonne Homme Richard" under John Paul Jones in its action with the "Serapis." Deacon Simeon Chadbourne, 1750-1846, was in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Jacob Rhoades, Richard Thomson, Joseph Roberts, the Hills, Smiths, Warrens, Emmons, Littlefields and Cuffs were likewise respected citizens of the early times.
Gray, 1778
The town of Gray in Cumberland County was managed as a propriety, until it was incorporated in 1778 as the thirty-ninth town in the District. It had been granted by the General Court in 1735 to a group of proprietors, most of whom lived in Boston, where they held their meetings. It is believed that a settlement was attempted in Gray as early as 1750. Certainly a fort and a meeting house were built in 1775, near the center of the township.
The plantation was laid waste in the French War, but was effectively revived in 1762. The town was called Gray at the time of its incorporation in 1778 for Thomas Gray, one of the early Massa- chusetts proprietors. This group of people, the proprietors, had peti- tioned the General Court for land; they said that they had large families and were in straitened circumstances. Settlement was begun in 1750; a fort of timbers and a meeting house were erected near Gray Village by the proprietors.
The first settler, or one of the first, was Moses Twitchell who came from Westborough, Massachusetts. Jabez Matthews and Wm. Webster followed soon after and in the course of fifteen or twenty years several other families moved in. In 1755 the inhabitants were surprised by the Indians, and their possessions, their cattle, the meet- ing house and all the dwelling houses destroyed. They fled to other towns. The township had been without a name until about 1756 when it was called New Boston.
The next occupation was by Thomas, father of Moses and Jeremiah Twitchell, who, in 1764, with his family, kept a camp for British marines and workmen engaged in cutting masts and hauling them to the falls below. The resettlement was started by John Jenks, Wm. and Joel Stevens, Daniel Cummings, Daniel Hunt, Thos. Twit- chell, John Humphrey and Capt. Jonas Stevens. The bond under which Jethro Starbird received his land in 1768 required that within a year, he should have built "a good dwelling house 18 feet square," have "at least six acres of land cleared and brought to English grass fit for mowing" and "shall pay one sixtieth part of the expense of building a meeting house and settling a Protestant minister." They erected a new meeting house and a blockhouse 50 feet long and 25 feet wide, around which they erected a garrison 100 feet long and 75
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feet wide. There were rumors of intended attacks by the Indians, but they were not molested further.
The first election, June 19, 1778, was held in the meeting house near the present town house. Jabez Matthews was moderator; David Clark, town clerk; Wm. Webster, Daniel Libby, Daniel Cummings, selectmen and assessors; and David Orne, treasurer. Thirty pounds were raised for the furnishing of the meeting house. The town had furnished men and supplies for the army in the Revolutionary War, and Moses Twitchell, the first settler, had died in public service in Canada. John Barber, John Wilson, James Russell, David Haney, Mark Merrill, Sergt. Samuel Thompson, Lieut. David Small, Lieut. Wm. Webster, Maj. Jabez Matthews, John Nash, David Libby, Gideon Ramsdell, Jedediah Cook and Joseph and Samuel Webster settled previous to 1780. The first lawyer of the town was Simon Greenleaf who will be remembered as among the first American jurists. The residence of Azariah Greenleaf, two miles northwest of Gray Village, was erected by his father in 1773.
There is little left to mark the labors of the first settlers. A burying ground in the west part of the village, donated by Daniel Libby and fenced by the town in 1782, contains many black slabs of the early century. Dry Mills, a village in the north, takes its name from Dry Pond because it has no open outlet. A long beaver dam ex- tended across the flat near this place, when settlers came in 1750.
The principal manufactury of the town is the Falmouth Woolen Mills of Wm. Beatty, established about 1800 by Samuel Mayall of England. At the falls on Royal River, a short distance below the factory, the first mill in town was erected on the old road and run by Jabez Matthews as early as 1778. The first church was Presbyterian, organized in 1775; a house of worship was erected and its ten pews sold for 193 pounds in 1779. It was never finished, but sold in 1790 for 4 pounds. The old church afterward standing in the street near the town house was built in 1789 and torn down in 1832. The Baptist Society was incorporated in 1790, and the Universalists erected a house in 1829. Methodist Jesse Lee came to preach in 1793, but was not allowed to enter the Congregational meeting house, so he used a barn. Pennell Institute was started in 1876 and completed in 1879. It was donated by Major Henry Pennell, grandson of Joseph Pennell, one of the early settlers of the town.
Pittston, 1779
Pittston is the southeasternmost town in Kennebec County, situ- ated on the eastern bank of the Kennebec River, six miles south by southeast of Augusta. The first settler is supposed to have been Alex- ander Brown who built his house on an intervale then known as "Ker-
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doormeop," cleared up a lot for tillage and was employed for several years in procuring sturgeon for the London market. In 1676 he was killed by the Indians and his home was burned.
In 1716 Dr. Noyes, the agent of the Kennebec proprietors, built a fort near Nahumkeag Island, which was also destroyed by the sav- ages. Captain John North, assisted by Abram Wyman, laid the town out in lots in 1751. Soon after the conquest of Canada, a number of persons from Falmouth settled in Pittston. Williamson says that "the settlement was commenced by James Winslow and Ezra Davis in 1761." The town was incorporated in 1779 and included Gardiner and West Gardiner on the west side of the Kennebec until 1804, as well as Pittston and Randolph on the east side. General Henry Dearborn was the first representative to the General Court in 1799. Pittston was the last town to be established within the Province and District of Maine under the Royal Charter. The bill for the incorporation of the town of Pittston, with the name of Randolph inserted instead of Pitts- ton, passed the readings and was delivered into the hands of the Hon- orable John Pitt, January 15, 1779. When it was brought forward a fortnight later, it was called Pittston after his Honor, and was so in- corporated. Mr. Pitt was a distinguished gentleman of his time and represented Boston in the Legislature. He afterward became Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Middlesex County, and died in Dunstable on November 10, 1815, aged 78.
Other authorities think the town was named in honor of James Pitts (Harvard, 1731)., one of the proprietors of the Plymouth Com- pany. Pitts was a Boston merchant who married Elizabeth, daughter of James Bowdoin.
The plantation was for a long time called Gardinerstown, but when it was incorporated the inhabitants refused to consent to the continuation of this name. The reason assigned was that Dr. Gardiner was a refugee from his country, and so full of the spirit of patriotism were the people at this time that they would not consent to the name of one who had fled from his native country being honored by the name of the town, though it was principally his own property.
The first settlers had made their clearings along the river. Old records show the names of Berry, McCausland, Philbrook, Tibbetts, Smith, Colburn and Bailey as having settled between the years 1761 and 1765. The Colburns, of whom there were four brothers: Reuben, Jeremiah, Oliver and Benjamin, had settled above what was later known as Agry's Point, since it was settled by Thomas Agry in 1774. The settlement made by the Colburns was called Colburntown. Here were built the first vessels above Bath on the Kennebunk. Reuben Colburn constructed the bateaux for the Arnold expedition to Que- bec in 1775. The beautiful growth of white oaks which covered the
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banks of the river made it a most suitable spot for the work. Colburn was assisted by the Agrys, Fuller, Soper and the Springers, all settlers on the river. The first saw mill and the first grist mill, owned and run by Edward Lawrence and Franklin Flitner, stood at the mouth of Nehumkeag Creek. The service of these important mills was continued into and during the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
Town meetings were held at the inn of Henry Smith for several years, but when the old Congregational Church was sold to the town in 1820, religious and town meetings were held in that building. The church had been started by Major Colburn in 1788. He was an ardent Congregationalist, but few others were interested. The society was unable to finish the church and it was used by the town until 1846, when it was again sold and used as a barn. There was a tannery also on Nahumkeag Stream.
Shapleigh, 1785
The forty-third town to be incorporated in Maine, Shapleigh bears the name of the Englishman Nicholas Shapleigh, whose home was at Kittery Point and who was the principal proprietor or claim- ant of the township. It was hitherto called Hubbardstown. This was in honor of Joshua Hubbard, one of Major Shapleigh's heirs and a leading proprietor. Its territory was a part of the original purchase obtained of the Sagamore Captain Sunday, who conveyed an in- dividual moiety of the whole to Major Shapleigh. The town was first surveyed in 1776 and first represented in the General Court in 1788, and the first post office was established in 1796.
The first settlers came in 1772, when Simeon Emery of Ber- wick erected a saw mill at the foot of Mousam Point; others followed so rapidly that by 1784 there were forty families at the Point. Simeon Emery's buildings are the first of which any record is given. Joseph Jellerson and his son, Joseph, moved in early in the spring of 1773 and began the first clearing below the mill. They built a cabin of logs and returned to Doughty's Falls for their household goods. James Davis and Wm. Stanley came from Kittery with their families in the spring of 1774, and settled on Stanley Ridge. George Ham came in 1775 and brought with him several workmen to assist in clearing land. John Patch and James Sayward, neighbors of Mr. Ham in Kittery, followed soon afterward. Captain Philip Hubbard, one of the early proprietors, was also one of the earliest settlers.
A meeting of the proprietors was held in 1778 at which a cen- sus of the inhabitants was reported and 150 acres of land was set aside for schools. Simon Emery was voted the lot on which he had built his mill. Dominicus and Ichabod Goodwin, who had bought out the Jellersons, received a large tract and one-half the Emery Mill
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privilege on the payment of 60 pounds. Captain Joshua Trafton and Samuel Trafton, who had each lost an arm in the Revolutionary War, were each granted 100 acres in Range 1; Nathaniel Kent, a blind man, was awarded four times as much as he had cleared on the piece he had taken up at Little Ossipee. Joseph Jellerson and his son, Joseph Jellerson, Jr., received 200 acres of land for being the first settlers in town. At the time of its incorporation Shapleigh included Acton, which was separated from it in 1830, and in 1844 a portion of the northwest corner was annexed to Newfield.
The first election of officers was held in the West Parish (now Acton) May 3, 1785: John Cook was moderator; Joshua Brackett, town clerk; John Cook, Simon Ricker and Joshua Brackett, select- men; Wm. Rodgers, treasurer. Owing to the range of ponds and bar- ren plains, the town was divided into eastern and western parishes with separate collectors in each.
The first election in the East Parish was held at the home of Captain J. H. Bartlett. Afterward they were held in the town meeting house. After 1807 elections were held alternately in each parish, and from 1812 to 1845 in the Baptist meeting house. The town house was first used in 1847. Emery's Mills on the Mousam River received its name from the mill erected by Simon Emery a few rods below the church before any other improvement or permanent occupation of lands in the town. Shapleigh Corner, the most central village, is the seat of town government where town house and church, schools and stores are located. Emery's Mills and Shapleigh Corner are both on the west side of the town; Ross Corner is on the east line and North Shapleigh at the north on the Little Ossipee River.
In the early settlement, an iron-smelting furnace was erected, but soon abandoned. Baptist meetings were held in town long before any church was organized or meeting house built. The Rev. Nehemiah Davis was the first Baptist preacher. A little society was formed in the east parish in 1781 of those embracing the Baptist faith, and about 1787 Mr. Davis was ordained in Edmund Shapleigh's dwelling house near Shapleigh Corner. He became settled pastor in 1796 and re- mained two years. This society erected a meeting house at the corner in 1802 and a church was organized in 1803.
Parsonsfield, 1785
The forty-fourth town to be incorporated in Maine was Par- sonsfield, previously known by its plantation name, Parsonstown. It was so called to keep in remembrance Thomas Parsons, Esq., a gentle- man of reputation and a principal proprietor. This township was part of the tract sold by the Sagamore, Captain Sunday, to Small and Shapleigh whose descendants became joint owners in 1770. In the
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partition of 1771 the territory included in this township fell to the claimants under Shapleigh, who conveyed it to Mr. Parsons and thirty- nine associates. The whole was surveyed into lots of 100 acres, two of which were reserved to each proprietor, nine others for the ministry and schools and one for a mill privilege. According to the conditions of the grant, twelve families were settled in the township in 1772 and increased in four years to forty. In 1790 the settlers erected a meeting house. The conveyance to Parsons and others was excuted by Alex- ander Scammon, James Gowen, Jotham Moulton, Nathaniel Remick and Philip Hubbard, a "Committee."
John and Gideon Doe of Newmarket, New Hampshire, set- tled in the western part of the town in 1775, and soon after George Kezar of Cantabury, New Hampshire, settled in the eastern part and built a log house near his hunting camp. Mr. Kezar had been a re- nowned hunter and trapper in earlier days and was probably the first white man to pitch his camp in any one of the five Ossipee towns. Elisha Wadleigh, whose farms lay between Long and West ponds, was told by Kezar that here were his most productive grounds. Lot Wedge- wood settled at North Parsonsfield about 1775-76, and several other families came soon after. Thomas Parsons, the above-mentioned pro- prietor, is supposed by many to have been the first settler; there is no doubt that he was among the original ones in 1772. He moved from Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1771 and built a log cabin in Effingham, which he left to occupy his farm over the line in Parsonsfield near Lord's Pond. There he built the first frame house in town.
Deacon Elijah Wadleigh who was born in the garrison house in South Berwick was an early settler between Long and West ponds. In 1794 when the road was laid out to the southeast across the town, the only residents along the line were David Hobbs, near the New Hampshire line, J. Grenville, Thos. Parsons, Levi Stone, Josiah Clark and Enoch and Walter Neal. Beside the church was the inn kept by Job Colcord at Parsonsfield Village. Between there and Middle Road Crossing were Daniel Philbrick and Robert Brown. Two miles south on the hill lived Deacon Sam Moulton and Jesse Wedgewood, nearly opposite each other. At the foot of the hill, a mile below, were Wm. Leavitt, Zeb Pease, George Wickford, Elisha Piper, the "Master," John Morrison, Joseph Pain and the old log schoolhouse in South Parsonsfield. Mr. Moore lived near the Newfield line. These people were nearly all living there in 1786.
At the first town meeting in 1785, Thos. Powers was chosen moderator; John Doe, town clerk; and Thos. Parsons, John Doe and Gilman Lougee, selectmen.
Parsonsfield Village, the seat of town government, is located on the side of Cedar Mountain, a short distance below the old burying
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ground, churchyard and training field which were laid out by the proprietors in 1774. The first town house, begun in 1790 as a church, was finished for a town house in 1794-95 and succeeded Job Colcord's inn, the first house in the village as a place of public gathering. A town house on the hill was built in 1833 by Wm. Moulton, Jr., and a tannery was opened here by John Morrell in 1830; here too was a blacksmith shop, and half a mile west, Whitney and West's shingle mill, one of the oldest in town. The post office was established in 1798.
East Parsonsfield was the chief business center, a thriving place in the early days of lumbering; North Parsonsfield is the location of Parsonsfield Seminary; Kezar Falls, a prosperous village on the Os- sipee River, was named for George Kezar. Here is a grist mill, estab- lished before 1800; and there are stone and saw mills also. In the southeast, two miles from East Parsonsfield, are the old Blaisdell Mills, erected by Dr. Thomas Blaisdell in 1790. In 1839 the town contained seven grist mills, seven saw mills, a woolen factory and an oil mill.
Turner, 1786
The forty-seventh town to be incorporated in Maine was Turner, in Androscoggin County. To reward Captain Joseph Sylvester and his company for their services in the expedition against Canada in 1690, the General Court granted them a township which, when the divisional line was run between the two provinces, fell within the limits of New Hampshire. On the representation of these facts by James Warren, Joseph Jocelyn and the Reverend Charles Turner of Scituate, agents for the claimants of the original grantees, the General Court on June 25, 1765, made up for their loss by a grant of this township upon condition that thirty families and a minister should be settled and a meeting house built there within six years.
The proprietors were so remiss that the first trees were not felled until 1774, nor did the accessions to the settlement the succeed- ing year consist of any more than three families. A heavy growth of timber covered the township and "it was noted for its forests of pine of the best quality and many of its best trees were sought for masts and spars." Lots were laid out and looked well, but settlers did not come and trespassers cut the valuable pine. In 1771 and 1772 various inducements were offered: (1) a bounty of six pounds to each settler who would take a lot and clear five acres by November 1772; (2) two settling lots to any one who would build a saw mill by a certain date and a grist mill a year or so later; (3) twenty pounds in addition to the lots for the building of the mills; (4) an additional bounty of four pounds ten shillings to settlers locating between certain dates.
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