USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 33
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The established settlers in 1789 were Deacon Elijah Livermore, Wm. Carver, Elisha Smith, Samuel Benjamin, John Walker, Josiah Wyer, James Delano, Reuben Wing, John Monk, Otis Robinson, Cut- ting Clark, E. Fisher, Peletiah Gibbs, Daniel Holman, Henry Grevy, Nathaniel Daily and - Randall. Deacon Elijah Livermore, the son of Samuel, came from a prominent family of Waltham, Massachusetts. A brother, Samuel, became the chief justice of New Hampshire and United States Senator, and sons of this brother became judges of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire and members of Congress. Deacon Elijah was the first Representative to the General Court. He was a man of good sense, integrity and kindness, beloved by all.
Joseph Wyer, the third settler, from Watertown, was a sergeant in the Revolution and served at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He resided on the road leading to North Turner Bridge. Lieutenant Samuel Ben- jamin, the fourth settler, had a distinguished and long service in the Revolution. He made his home in a log cabin built by Major Fish. Elisha Smith came from Martha's Vineyard about 1780 and Reuben Wing of Sandwich, Massachusetts, came in 1789. Henry Bond arrived in June, 1790, to attend to the land and the half interest he had bought in the first saw and grist mill. Sylvester Norton came from Martha's Vineyard in 1789, Jonathan Goding from Waltham in 1790. He had a farm and fine orchard in the northern part of the town. The Monroe brothers: Abijah, John and Abel came from Lincoln, Massa- chusetts, in 1790. Abijah kept the first inn, an excellent place; the Reverend Paul Coffin often stopped here. Israel Washburn, son of a Revolutionary soldier, came from Raynham in 1806. His sons, the seven Washburn brothers, were nationally known. Four were mem- bers of Congress from Maine, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota; two were governors, in Maine and Wisconsin; two, foreign ministers in France and Paraguay; one, United States Secretary of State; and one, a major in the Army. Many other noted people are natives of this town, among them the Hamlins.
Livermore Falls, East Livermore, 1843
The setting off of East Livermore, now Livermore Falls, from the parent town of Livermore was made on account of the incon- venience of holding town meetings and doing town business across an unbridged river at all seasons of the year. The town meetings were held in March on the west side of the Androscoggin River, when by reason of the swollen stream and floating ice those on the east side could not attend. Failing to secure the bridge which they asked for, the settlers succeeded in securing the division of the town.
It has one village, Livermore Falls, situated at the northwest corner of the town. The first settler is said to have been a Mr. Cool-
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edge who made an opening in the woods and built a house on the side of Moose Hill. He soon afterward sold the place to Philip Smith. The next clearing is said to have been made in the eastern part of the town, about 1780, by a Mr. Gravy, and a third was made about the same time on the east side of the Androscoggin River at Strickland's Ferry.
The first settler at what is now the village of Livermore Falls was probably Mr. Samuel Richardson. The grist and saw mills built at the Falls in 1791 were the first in town. They were constructed un- der the direction of Deacon Elijah Livermore. In 1813 there were only three dwelling places at Livermore Falls - those of Samuel Richard- son, Thomas Davis and Joseph Morrill. A Mr. Mills was in trade here as early as 1815. Another early settler was Stephen Boothbay who came to this town from Saco, and cleared a farm in East Livermore.
Here have been located grist mills, saw mills and other manu- facturies. The Indian name of the locality is Pokomeko which is said to mean "great corn land." The town yields good crops; it is excellent grazing land and is also noted for its fine cattle.
In March, 1846, a great freshet caused by ice backing up over the Falls swept off nearly everything in its way: grist and saw mills, stores, carding mill, scythe factory and one dwelling house. Some of the ice did not disappear until the middle of the next July. As soon after this as Captain Treat could construct the saw mill and prepare the lumber, he rebuilt the grist mill. This is the man to whom Liver- more is most indebted for its existence, Captain Ezekiel Treat, Jr., son of Captain Ezekiel Treat of Canton who owned and commanded ships engaged in traffic between Boston and foreign lands. As a boy, Ezekiel accompanied his father to sea and soon rose to be captain of his own vessel. In 1845 he moved from Canton to Livermore Falls, where he purchased the entire water power of the Androscoggin River in East Livermore and the land that forms the principal busi- ness portion of the village of Livermore Falls. He was the first to utilize the vast power of the falls and built grist, saw and shingle mills which he carried on for many years. He was the leading spirit of the place until 1876, known for his ability, integrity and energy. In 1858 a toll bridge was erected across the river.
The Baptist Church at Livermore Falls was organized Novem- ber 20, 1811, and was originally the Third Baptist Church in Liver- more. The meetings were held at Shy (about one mile from the falls where was formerly Barton's Ferry) in dwellings and schoolhouses until 1825, when a meeting house was built at Shy Village near the present cemetery. In 1854, it was moved to Livermore and replaced by a brick building in 1871. The Moose Hill Free Baptist Church was organized in 1828; the Methodist, about 1828 or 1829. A union house of worship was built near Haines Corner, East Livermore, where the
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Methodists also worshiped. Dr. Chas. Millett practiced as a physician until about 1848. Dr. Wm. Cary had been located here before the or- ganization of the town.
Otisfield, 1798
This Cumberland County plantation was incorporated in 1798 as Maine's one hundred and fifteenth town. As a plantation Otisfield was granted in 1777 to Honorable James Otis, Nathaniel Gorham and the rest of the heirs and assigns of Captain John Gorham for services in campaigns against Canada in 1690. The first plantation meeting was held in the house of Stephen Phinney in 1787. At the time it was incorporated it included nearly all of Harrison, all of Otisfield and a large part of Naples. It was named for Harrison Grey Otis, mayor of Boston and United States Senator from Massachusetts, and nephew of the proprietor, James Otis.
At the first plantation meeting, already mentioned, David Ray was moderator; Joseph Wight, Jr., clerk; David Ray, Benj. Patch and Noah Reed, assessors; and Jonathan Moors, collector. They voted to settle Thos. Robie as first minister. The first saw mill was erected by David Ray.
The first settlements were begun by Geo. Pierce at Edes Falls in 1774; Benjamin Patch arrived at Mr. Pierce's at Edes Falls on May 17, 1776, after a four-days journey from Groton, Massachusetts, and made his home there while hunting and trapping beaver in the ponds and meadows. In 1779 Patch selected a lot on Bell Hill, now known as Meeting House Hill, as his home, spent the fall in clearing land; piled log heaps while boiling maple sugar the next spring; and in June, 1780, planted the first crop raised in town. David Cobb, origin- ally from Gorham, who was driven from Naples by the Indians, moved in the same spring and located on the top of the hill. Levi Patch, son of Benjamin, received an award of 100 acres for being the first white child born in the town. Later he became the first postmaster in Otis- field. After David Cobb came Joseph Spurr, in September of 1779; he settled at what is called Spurr's Corner. He had sons, Joseph, Enoch and Samuel.
Zebulon Knight of Old Falmouth settled on the hill near Mr. Cobb and was joined by Jonathan Moors, an old soldier, in 1779. Noah and Samuel Reed located a mile to the northeast about the same time. Ebenezar Kemp and John Fife also came in 1779. Jonathan Moors kept a tavern on Bell Hill. A committee was sent to Otisfield during that year to see if conditions were being complied with; and in 1780 Dr. David Ray came to erect a saw and grist mill. In the woods a few rods below Mr. Holden's present mills, where the outlet of Saturday Pond flows through a crevice in the rock and then takes a plunge of
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thirty feet, these mills, the first in the town, were erected. This became the central place for business and at one time supported two stores, but the mill was suffered to decay and after 1845 the business was transferred to Bolster's Mills and Spurr's Corner.
Lieutenant Joseph Hancock (a cousin of John Hancock of the Continental Congress) settled with his two sons, Joseph, Jr., and Thomas, at the head of Parker (now Pleasant) Pond. Thomas, David and Daniel Thurston located in 1779 beside Beaver Meadow, a mile south of the Spurrs. Samuel Whiting settled in the southern part of the town and in 1782, Mark Knight came.
The proprietors were notified that their lands would be sold at auction, since they were not being settled according to agreement. More time was finally granted them and in 1784 Joseph Wight settled at the head of the Beaver Meadow with his sons. Samuel Scribner was on Scribner Hill near the south; Jonathan Britton, called "The Fifer Devil," and Benj. Greene, northwest of Saturday Pond; and in 1787 David Kneeland, Samuel Gammon and Deacon Stephen Phinney had joined the settlement. In 1795 there were fifteen houses and nineteen barns in the town. Many of the early settlers were from Groton, Massa- chusetts.
On the high hill where Daniel Cobb and Jonathan Moors cleared their farms, the first church was erected in 1797, but has since been replaced by a modern one.
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CHAPTER XV
Maine Towns Bearing the Names of Proprietors of the Early Nineteenth Century, 1800-1820
Rumford, 1800
This Oxford County town was named for Sir Benjamin Thomp- son, Count Rumford, one of the proprietors who had owned six shares in the proprietary. Rumford was the pre-revolutionary name of Con- cord, New Hampshire, where Thompson, a native of Woburn, Massa- chusetts, had taught and married before the Revolution. He also taught in our present Rumford, Maine.
When he was knighted by the King of England in 1784, he chose Rumford as his title in remembrance of early Concord. Germany also honored him as a scientist, philosopher and inventor. Writers of the present day have characterized this man as "the international in- former" and "the international egotist."
The township, now the town of Rumford, Maine, was granted in 1799 to Timothy Walker, Jr., and his eighty-three associates of Con- cord to make up the losses which they and their ancestors sustained in the controversy with the town of Bow, growing out of the purchase of Concord.
Pennacook was the ancient name of Concord, and the present Rumford was first named New Pennacook from a tribe of Indians who had found a refuge in the Rumford wilderness after being drawn from New Hampshire by the Mohawks. This name, New Pennacook, is still found in the falls where the Androscoggin reaches its climax as it rushes one hundred and eighty feet down through enormous caverns and makes the most magnificent cataract east of Niagara. These falls must have been even more extensive in ancient times, as evidenced by large holes found high in the rocky banks.
The pioneers were Jonathan Keyes and his son, Francis, who came from Massachusetts in 1782; but from the parent town of Penna- cook, New Hampshire, came many of the early settlers of the old Pil- grim stock. After the Keyes arrived in 1782, came Philip and David Abbott, Jacob, David and Benj. Farnham, Benj. Lufkin and wife, Stephen Putnam and wife and John Daniel and Kimball Martin; these people came principally from Concord, New Hampshire. The town of Rumford lies on both sides of the Androscoggin River above and below the Great Falls.
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Brownfield, 1802
Incorporated in 1802 as the one hundred and thirty-first town in Maine, Brownfield is in the southwestern part of Oxford County. The petition sent by Captain Henry Young Brown to the General Court for a grant of land was under the date of May, 1763; the earliest grant within the present town was made in 1764.
Brown made the first clearing of land in 1765. The settlement was organized as "Brownfield Plantation" in 1787 and incorporated as the town of Brownfield in 1802 in honor of Captain Brown, to whom the grant had been given in consideration of his services in the French War. The first settled minister in Brownfield was the Reverend Jacob Rice, a graduate of Harvard College, .who was ordained in 1805. Master Simeon Colby, the first schoolmaster, taught seven years in the single school district and was ever after revered in the town.
A stately house was built by Captain Brown not long after his settlement, and here the Reverend Paul Coffin, an old-time circuit rider, was entertained in 1768. This house was located in that part of the grant which was later annexed to Fryeburg, and the house was removed to Main Street in that village.
Among other early settlers were James Howard and his wife, Susanna, who came to the settlement in 1772-73 from Woburn, Massa- chusetts. Of their eight children, Samuel, a Revolutionary soldier and a member of the Boston Tea Party, followed them as did a second son, Joseph, from Billerica, Massachusetts. Curtis Bean and his wife from Poplin, now Fremont, New Hampshire, settled on the Gibson farm near the Fryeburg line about 1775; Amos Poor was an early arrival, locating near the present depot, and Francis Poor a little be- yond. Just across Shepherd River, Samuel Mansfield from Henniker, New Hampshire, made his clearing, and Benjamin Epps was living on the Gibson farm near the Fryeburg line prior to 1777. Epps had pur- chased 900 acres from Henry Young Brown in 1774, while yet a resi- dent of Massachusetts. About 1798 this farm passed to Timothy Gib- son, who built the first mill erected in that part of the town.
The earliest record of a plantation meeting is dated 1797. James Howard was elected moderator; Henry Young Brown, clerk; Joshua B. Osgood, Asa Osgood and Joseph Howard, assessors. The following signed the petition for incorporation in 1799: Joseph Howard, Amos Poor, Zadoc Wright, Joshua Ames, James Howard, Jr., Joshua Snow, John Lane, Zachariah Gibson, Daniel Tyler, Timothy Gibson, Timothy Gibson, Jr., Wm. Lane, James Bean, Asa Osgood, Wilson Howard, David Miller, Thos. Wood, Samuel Mansfield and Francis Kimball.
John Goodenow, the father of one of the most illustrious fami- lies in Maine, came in 1802 from Henniker, New Hampshire. His
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father, John, lived with him in Brownfield during the last years of his life. Five of the sons of the younger John were eminent men, not only in the state, but in the nation. Daniel Goodwin and Andrew Went- worth came in 1799; General Daniel Bean, born in Limerick in 1793, moved to Brownfield in 1812, held many town offices and was a lead- ing merchant of the town, in which he was succeeded by his sons, Major Sylvanus, and Eli. General Bean served in the defense of Port- land in 1814.
The town was incorporated in 1802, and at the first town meet- ing, held in a schoolhouse, Joseph Howard was chosen moderator; Joshua Ames, John Watson, and Asa Osgood, selectmen; and Josiah Spring, constable. The first post office was established in 1803.
Among the early businessmen were Thos. Bean and his brother, who built the first mills at the center on Shepherd's Brook. John Bolt Miller, James Bean and Nathaniel Merrill, all were early millers; James Steele, Timothy Gibson, Sr., and Samuel Tyler, who built a carding mill and cloth dressing establishment in 1818 were prominent businessmen. A powder horn owned by Hon. Eli B. Bean and marked "1748" was carried in the Indian Wars by Richard Peary, one of the family from whom Lieutenant Robert Peary, the Artic explorer, has descended. The son of Richard settled in Brownfield.
Itinerant ministers had come here before the settlement of Reverend Jacob Rice in 1804-05. Rice's salary was to be one bushel of wheat per year from each member of the church and parish who would feel disposed to give it. In 1838 a church building was erected. A schoolhouse had been built at East Brownfield in 1802.
Baldwin, 1802
The one hundred and thirty-sixth town incorporated in Maine was named for Loammi Baldwin, one of its early proprietors. As a plantation this Cumberland County town had been called Flintstown, since the township, together with that of Sebago, was granted in 1774 to the survivors of Captain Flint's company of Concord, Massachusetts.
The original grant, made in 1774 to Samuel Whittemore, Amos Lawrence and others, provided that they should set aside 1/64th part of the land, each, for the use of the ministry, the first settled minister, the grammar school, and Harvard University, and should settle thirty families thereon in six years. The first settlement was made by Lieu- tenant Benjamin Ingalls who began an improvement in the center of the town in 1773; he had been commissioned in a British regiment of Massachusetts in 1761. Later he moved farther up the river and lo- cated permanently near Ingalls Pond. He was followed by Captain John C. Flint, Bartholomew Thorn, Jonathan Thorn, Wm. Bidford, Ephraim Larrabee and Joseph Richardson, all coming before 1780.
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On the renewal of the grant in 1780, Josiah Pierce, Esq., one of the principal proprietors, turned his attention to the development of the estate and engaged largely in lumbering. A heavy growth of white pine covered the town and constituted the chief valuable prop- erty. Pierce built three saw mills, one of which was on Quaker Brook and afterward owned by Isaac Dyer. Dyer's store was the first and for many years the only one in town. Wm. Thorn, the first white child born in the town, was presented with 100 acres of land by the pro- prietors. Mr. Pierce no doubt brought the required number of set- tlers, because before 1802 are found the names of Eleazer Flint, Lot Davis, Stephen Burnell, Samuel Black, Jonathan Sanborn, Josiah Milliken, David and Ephraim Brown, Ebenener Lord, Jacob Clark and Clark Wiggins. Many who came to lumber made no permanent settlements. A tavern was opened near the Pierce place by Richard Fitch and became a center of all gatherings. The militia assembled there to train or to start for general muster at Raymond. Here the first post office was established.
Villages in the town are West Baldwin, Old Baldwin, North Baldwin, and East Baldwin. The latter place dates back to the open- ing of the tannery by Nathaniel Sawyer and the store by Lot Davis and his successor, Josiah Chadbourne, who was a leading man and politician in the town. In West Baldwin, the largest settlement of the township, is the Burnell House, near the center of the village, erected in 1737. Typical of the period in which it was built are the windows with six lower and nine upper panes.
The Pierce place is located on the Pequawket Trail about half- way between the villages of East and West Baldwin; it was built in 1785 by Loammi Baldwin and Josiah Pierce, partners in a proprietor- ship that included hundreds of acres of Baldwin land. It was in honor of the former that the town was named, but it was the latter, with his ceaseless interest and activity in behalf of the people, who earned the title "Father of his Town."
Loammi Baldwin, a Harvard man and the propagator of the Baldwin apple, had extensive interests and spent little time in Maine; he visited the Pierce place only occasionally. The partnership was not of long duration and finally resulted in complete ownership of the real estate by Josiah Pierce. "Squire Pierce" was a half-brother of Count Rumford and like him, was self-educated. Born in Woburn, Massachusetts, in 1756, he served in the Continental Army during the Revolution. It was Josiah Pierce that the General Court empowered in 1802 "to issue his warrant to some suitable inhabitant" for calling the first town meeting. He was recognized as the leading citizen of the town and from time to time held various political offices. He rep- resented the town in all legal matters and was for many years the
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Justice of the Peace. He was twice elected to the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Pierce accumulated wealth from his landed estates and lumber industry. His house, a two-story square building with a hip roof and two huge chimneys, was the charming dignified home of a country squire. It extended forty feet on each side of the front door. Each floor had four rooms, every one with a fireplace, and there were the usual brick ovens in the kitchen. The old Fitch house, standing near and just behind it, has a brown slate stone bearing this inscription "Rich- ard Fitch, Esq., b 1764 d 1854."
At the first election, held at the inn of Richard Fitch, Ephraim Bacheldor was chosen moderator; and he, Zebulon Larrabee, Wm. Fitch, Ephraim Brown and Daniel Potter, selectmen. Methodist meetings were held in Baldwin by Reverend Mr. Soule, later Bishop Soule, as early as 1795, and by Reverend Asa Hatch in 1802. The church was built by Joseph and Samuel Richardson in 1828. The first Congregational meeting house was erected in 1832. The first schoolteacher in Baldwin was Joseph Richardson, who taught in his own house in 1795.
Minot, 1802
Minot in Androscoggin County was included with Poland and Old Auburn in the grant, made by Massachusetts in 1765 to one Baker and others, called Bakerstown. The entire territory was, in 1795, in- corporated under the name of Poland. In 1802 the northern part, east of the Little Androscoggin River, was incorporated under the name of Minot; and in 1842 Auburn was set off from that and in- corporated. The name of Minot appears to have been adopted in honor of Judge Minot, a member of the General Court, who rendered effective assistance in the passing of the Act of Incorporation. It is said that the name selected in 1802 by the petitioners for the new town was Raymouth, but the agent, Dr. Jesse Rice, caused Minot to be inserted in its place.
Moses Emery, the first settler, was from Newbury, Massachu- setts, and had come with his wife and infant daughter to Poland "Empire" in 1769. He first lived in a log house near what is now called Hackett's Mills, but moved to the north side of the river at Minot's Corner in 1772, and was the chief adviser and aider of the later settlers. Doubtless, had his home not afforded a temporary stopping place and his ferry a means of crossing the Little Andro- scoggin, the settlement of Minot would have been greatly retarded. In May, 1778, Captain Daniel Bucknam, Jr., and family came from Sutton, Massachusetts, and made a temporary abode with Moses Emery. He located five miles away on the junction of Bog and
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Matthew brooks at Hawkes Pond, where his two daughters helped build a log house. The next spring he built a house on higher ground near the junction of the Oxford, Hebron and Minot roads and later erected substantial farm buildings five miles from his neighbor, Moses Emery. Corn had to be pounded in a mortar or carried fifteen miles to New Gloucester. In the immediate vicinity of the Bucknams set- tled the Dwinals, Crooker, Pottle, Currier, Woodman, Bridgham, Moody, Atkison, Lowell, Atwood, Harris, Chase, Hawkes, Bearce and other families.
Samuel Shaw made a clearing about two miles above Emery's settlement in 1776 or 1777, built a log house, and brought his wife in 1778 from Hampton, New Hampshire. His brother, Levi, soon set- tled on an adjoining lot and in quick succession others came: Henry Sawtelle, Israel Bray, Jr., Israel Bray, John Herrick and Edward Jumper. In 1777 John Hodge, Job Tucker, Solomon Walcott, Edmund Bailey, a sea captain from Cape Ann, James Toole, Stephen Yeaton and Stephen Yeaton, Jr., arrived. Bradbury Hill was settled that year by Moses and Benjamin Bradbury, Amos Harris and David Dinsmore, each felling an acre of trees on four adjoining lots at Ross Corner; in 1778 John Leach and Edward Hawkes located near the Hebron line. In 1780 John Coy and John and David Millett, who had made clear- ings and built houses on Bradbury Hill, brought their families for a per- manent settlement. Nearly all these people had large families and made a more densely populated settlement than in later years. All were originally from Gloucester, Massachusetts, but later from New Glou- cester, Maine. In 1780 the first settlement was made on Woodman Hill by John Allen from Gloucester and Ichabod King from Kingston, Massachusetts. Many officers and soldiers came after the Revolution and settled in various parts of the town.
The first town meeting, in 1802, was held in the schoolhouse near Levi Shaw's. The selectmen chosen were Nicholas Noyes, Wm. Briggs and John Chandler; treasurer and town clerk, Chandler Free- man; the committee to settle accounts with Poland: Dr. Jesse Rice, Ichabod King and Samuel Shaw. In June, 1814, Wm. Ladd from Portsmouth moved in. On July 4th there was an oration at the center meeting house and an oration by Wm. Ladd and a public dinner in the grove near Marshall Washburn's.
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