USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 35
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The first ship was sailed up the river in 1785 by Captain Locke for purposes of trade. The first postmaster in the town was Wm. Tup- per. Englishman's River was a part of Jonesborough; the exact date of the first settler here and who he was is not known; a man by the name of Griffiths came prior to 1776. Two other settlers by the name of Knights and Simpson followed soon and took up farms near Grif- fiths. At the close of the Revolution, Anthony Shoppe came from Bev- erly, Massachusetts, and settled on Roque Island; he was an English- man, a soldier under Burgoyne who had been captured by the Ameri- cans at Bennington. He joined the Continental forces and later came east.
Jonesport, 1832
Jonesport in the western part of Washington County is nearly all seaboard. Addison, on the west, is separated from it by Indian River. The territory of the town is small and a large proportion of the inhabitants find their occupation on the sea. Jonesport was set off from Jonesborough on February 3, 1832, and honored the pro- prietor of the parent town by retaining his name.
The first settler, or one of the first, to locate in the present town of Jonesport was Francis Cummings who moved from Damaris- cotta, Maine, in 1772 and settled on Roque Island. In the following year or thereabouts Thomas Kelley and his family, also from Damaris- cotta, located on the Reach in the part now known as Kelley's Point; from Old York that same year, 1773, Manwaring Beal and his family settled on Beal's Island on the location known as Barney's Point. (Beals was then a part of Jonesborough.)
Other early settlers were John Sawyer and his wife from Lim- ington, Maine; Thomas Cromwell who located at Loon Point, from Salem, Massachusetts, and Elihu Norton who moved here from Ad- dison, Maine, previous to 1790. It is recorded that he was very friendly with the Indians and a noted "Moose Hunter."
John Buffitt was the first settler in town to receive a grant of land from the proprietor, John C. Jones. He settled in what is now West Jonesport, prior to 1792. He was of a roving disposition and not much information is available concerning him.
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Bingham, 1812
This Somerset County town bears the name of William Bing- ham, a wealthy and influential banker of Philadelphia who had been active in financial affairs during the Revolutionary War, a United States Senator and a great landholder in Maine. In 1786, when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts held title to the greater part of the unsettled land in Maine, he secured the Bingham Purchase which was made up of two tracts of land each comprising 1,000,000 acres; the first, or Bingham Penobscot Purchase as it was called, was located in Washington and Hancock counties; the second, or Bingham's Ken- nebec Purchase, was largely in our present Somerset County.
The present town of Bingham was included in this second pur- chase. It was the one hundred and eighty-ninth town in the District of Maine and was incorporated in 1812. Its plantation name was Carratunk from its contiguity to a waterfall of the same name just below on the Kennebec River.
The first settlers, among them Philip Bullen who surveyed it in 1801, were quitted by the General Court, and the residue of the town sold to Mr. Bingham who was to settle forty families during the next seven years.
When the town was incorporated in 1812, the first town clerk elected was Ephraim Woods, whose records are extant today.
Phillips, 1812
Situated near the center of Franklin County is the present town of Phillips which was granted in 1794 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to Jacob Abbot. Sales of land, however, were first made under the agency of Francis Tufts.
I am indebted to Mrs. Fred N. Beal of Phillips for the fol- lowing information: Probably the first settlements in Phillips began about 1790. Perkins Allen, a sea captain from Martha's Vineyard, settled in Avon in 1783 and a few years later moved on to the ad- joining town of Phillips. Seth Greeley and his father, Moses, came from Winthrop, Maine, to Farmington and then over to Phillips about 1790. Henry Greeley, a brother, was also an early settler. Isaac Davenport from Winthrop, his brother, Josiah, and his widowed mother came about 1791 or 1792; Uriah Howard, Jacob Whitney and Josiah Stinch- field came from Buckfield about 1805. Jonathan Pratt was also among the early settlers.
Phillips was Sandy River Lower Township. It was later called Curvo, a name given by Captain Allen because of its resemblance to a foreign port in the Azores which he had visited. The town was in-
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corporated in 1812 under the name of the former principal proprietor, Mr. Jonathan Phillips of Boston. In 1823 a section from the north- east corner was set off to form a part of Salem, and in 1842 part of Berlin was annexed to Phillips and the rest was abandoned as a town. There are two important villages situated on the Sandy River and near the southern extremity of the town. A noble waterfall is at the lower village where there was a superior grist mill, originally built by Francis Tufts, and afterward rebuilt by Joel Whitney, then enlarged and repaired by Orin and Daniel Robbins. There was also, at this village, a fulling mill and carding machine and a union meeting house, the bell for which was presented by Joel Whitney.
The upper village, about half a mile above, had a tannery, saw mill and starch factory. There was also a grist mill higher up the river. The town has productive soil and superior advantages in water power.
The Congregationalists have a church in the upper village. The space between these two early villages has become so occupied that travellers can find no dividing line. This village is also the headquarters of extensive operations in lumber in the Rangeley Lake region.
Foxcroft, 1812
Foxcroft was one of the six townships granted to Bowdoin College in 1794. The Piscataquis County township was purchased from that institution on November 10, 1800, by Joseph Ellery Foxcroft of New Gloucester, for forty-five cents per acre. The township was in- corporated as a town in 1812 and named for its proprietor, who ap- preciated the compliment and expressed his gratitude by presenting the town with books for a public library. The following deed is re- corded in the Penobscot County Records :
Whereas the town of Foxcroft ... has taken that name without the solicitation or wish of, but as it is understood in compliment to the Grantor hereafter mentioned . . . I, Joseph Ellery Foxcroft ... grant to the inhabitants of Foxcroft for the use of schools forever Lot No. 6, R 5 containing 100 acres more or less .... If the name of this town should be changed, then this deed would be void.
In October, 1800, Foxcroft and Thos. Johnson of New Glou- cester had explored the township; they hired Stephen Weston of Skow- hegan as pilot, since he had been in the surveying company which ran out the range of townships. In 1801 Foxcroft hired Moses Hodsdon to lot the township into two-hundred acre lots, and in June he hired Samuel Elkins of Cornville to fell twenty acres of trees. In 1802 Colonel Foxcroft hired Elisha Alden to cut a road across the township; this passed from the Chandler Place to the "Four Corners" and thence over the hill to Morse's Landing at Sebec Lake.
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On Foxcroft's purchase of the land, the college had imposed as a condition the settlement of twenty-four families within a given period. By his efficiency and good management, the families were secured. He continued to promote the settlement of the town, built mills and roads, and for many years visited and encouraged the set- tlers in every way, including the sale of land upon favorable terms.
John, Eleazer and Seth Spaulding of Norridgewock were the first settlers to move in with their families in 1806, when they built the first mill. The plantation was first called Spauldingtown. Nathaniel and Samuel Chamberlain were also among the first settlers. The latter and Ephraim Bacon who came from Charleston, Massachusetts, put up the first frame house in town in 1807. Eliphalet Washburn in the same summer raised the first barn in town. Captain Joel Pratt came in the next spring; others followed, among whom were Timothy Hut- chinson, Joseph Morse, John Chandler and Jesse Washburn from New Gloucester. Dr. Winthrop Brown from Berwick began the practice of medicine in Foxcroft in 1809 or 1810.
On one of his visits, Colonel Foxcroft advised the inhabitants to hold religious meetings, to which they promptly assented, meeting at the home of Eli Towne, with such hymn books as they had. Mr. Wm. Mitchell brought a book of sermons, and Mrs. Mitchell offered prayer, the first public religious petition made in Foxcroft. The Rev- erend John Sawyer soon afterward held religious services. Messrs. Nathaniel Daniel, and Wm. and Moses Buck came from Buckfield later. At the first town meeting in 1812, Mr. John Bradbury was chosen the first town clerk, and Messrs. Joel Pratt, S. Chamberlain and Wm. Thayer selectmen and assessors. The first store was opened by John Bradbury in 1813. John and Seth Spaulding sold their shares in the mill to Messrs. Hutchinson and Hathaway and moved to Dover. After one or two transfers, the lot and mills were sold to Colonel Sam- uel Greeley of Gilmanton, New Hampshire, and he and his sons suc- cessively ran them.
In 1810 there were 65 inhabitants. Colonel Foxcroft continued to hold and sell land in town until July 4, 1827; he then sold by public auction all that remained unsold, and closed up his proprietorship.
Searsmont, 1814
Searsmont is situated in the southern part of Waldo County and originally formed a part of the Waldo Patent. Later it became the property of David Sears, Israel Thorndike and Wm. Prescott, wealthy Bostonians and large proprietors of land in this region before the land was purchased by settlers. The first settlement was about 1804 and the township was surveyed in 1809. It was incorporated as Maine's two hundred and first town in 1814, and received its corporate name from
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its chief proprietor. The latter part of the name, mont, is the French word for mountain, thus the name means literally "Sears' mountain." The southeastern part of the town is very hilly. There are some hills also on the west, while a long range from Appleton penetrates the southern side nearly to Searsmont Village.
The place was originally called Greene in honor of General Nathaniel Greene of the Continental Army, and doubtless was so named by General Henry Knox in accordance with his custom of using his friends' names in his townships. The town was formerly noted for its pine forests, of which it is said there was a larger quantity than in any other town of the Waldo Patent. General Knox himself carried on lumbering here.
In this area there were, in 1804, the following settlers, prob- ably the earliest in the town: John L. Gilman, Humphrey Hook, Jon- athan Bagley, John Morrow, Nathaniel Evans, Jonathan Gilman, Joseph Ford, Cross, Phillips, Wm. Mash and John Fish. The names of all these men except Cross, Mash and Fish have been verified in the records of the town. Joseph Muzzy and his family of Spencer, Massachusetts, were among the earliest settlers in the town. They ascended the Georges' River and found their way thither by spotted trees. They found this region an almost unbroken wilderness. Their children were the first to be baptized. The Prescotts were also among the early comers. Jeddiah Prescott, Esq., was born in 1747, his son, Noah, in 1773; Nathan Farrow, who came from Bristol, settled here about 1809 or 1810, and moved to Belmont about ten years later. John Dickey of Boston and Sarah (Hills), his wife, a native of Exeter, were early settlers here. Thos. Whittier, Esq., was born about 1760 and set- tled in Belfast not long after the year 1800. In 1803 he built the "Whittier Tavern" called by many guests the best public house in Maine. He was appointed postmaster of Belfast in 1810 and served until 1813, when he removed to this town. He was Representative to the Legislature in 1807, 1810 and 1811 and died in 1815.
Manassah Sleeper, a native of Poplin, New Hampshire, came to this state in 1802, and settled in Searsmont prior to the incorpora- tion of the town. He was an able man and prominent in town affairs, but remained here only a short time then moved to Belfast in 1814. He married the daughter of Thos. Whittier and for many years was proprietor of hotels in Belfast. He was a surveyor, notary public and Justice of the Peace, and was one of the most prominent citizens in Belfast, until his death in 1848.
Harry Hazeltine, a native of Massachusetts, was one of six brothers who emigrated to Maine. He became a leading man in Sears- mont. John Pattee and Sumner, his son, Deacon Lewis Clark, John Barbour of Ipswich, David Lennan, John Bartlett who came about
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1805 or 1806, Wm. Keating who came from Appleton, Jonathan Fro- hock and Bailey Moore were all early settlers. The Reverend Mr. Lovejoy, a Congregational missionary, performed the first ceremony of baptism. The Methodist Church in 1829 constituted a circuit of Belmont, Searsmont, Lincolnville and Hope. The church was erected in 1845 and was reconstructed in 1879. The Reverend Benjamin Jones was the first pastor. The Baptist society was organized in 1827, and meetings were held in the town house, private residences and school- houses. The church was built in 1845.
The Woodman Mills, among the very earliest built in town, were owned by four shareholders: Messrs. Woodman, Adams and Moody, Albert and Edw. Meservy and B. F. Knowles. Thos. Whittier had mills in 1815; Joshua Hemingway had one on the west branch of the Georges' River in 1816 and Whittier and Gilmore in 1817. In 1819 there were the Bartlett Mills, Hazeltine and Lothrop's, Baker and Arnold's and Cram's Mill. The Ripley Mill, another of the earlier mills in Searsmont, was owned by Jacob Stover and Wm. Ripley on the Georges' River; those of Harry Hazeltine, Esq., were built at the village about 1830. A grist mill and afterward a wool carding mill of which Hiram Wing was the proprietor were also built. In 1907 they were used as stave heading and lumber mills. The Dyer Mills at Ghent on the Georges' River were built in the early days and owned by a deacon of that name. The Tannery Mills at the village were built by the Muzzeys who were early settlers. The lime kiln was first opened by Edward Burgess.
At the first town meeting in 1814, Thos. Whittier was elected moderator; Manassah Sleeper, Ansel Lothrop, Noah Prescott, select- men; Manassah Sleeper, town clerk, and Joseph Muzzy, treasurer. The following refers to the proprietor, David Sears of Sandisfield in Berkshire County, in 1779: "to serve in the Continental Army, age 17, stature 5 ft. 9 in., Capt. Allen's Co. 9 mos. service." His name is also among the list of men raised for six months' service from July 2, 1780, to January 5, 1781, with another six months' term under Colonel Shepherd.
Sangerville, 1814
The Piscataquis County town of Sangerville was settled by Phineas Ames from Hancock, New Hampshire, who made an open- ing as early as 1801 or 1802 and moved in his family in the autumn of 1803. He built the first grist mill in the plantation on the upper fall of Black Stream, which enters the town from Dover. The proprie- tor of the town was Colonel Calvin Sanger of Sherborn, Massachusetts, who purchased three-fourths of it as early as 1800 and the remainder
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of it soon afterward. The township was first called Amestown, for the earliest settler already mentioned, but in 1814 it was incorporated as Sangerville in honor of the principal proprietor.
Phineas Ames had first moved his family to Harmony to make a temporary stay. There he had a son born, Phineas, Jr., on March 6, 1803. In the fall of that year his wife and baby rode in on horse- back; Mr. Ames led the horse a part of the way by a spotted line. James Weymouth was the next arrival. He was from Lee, New Hamp- shire, and he too moved his family to Harmony, while preparing a home for them in the wilderness. As the year of 1804 was closing he reached Amestown by early sleighing. Jesse Brockway from Wash- ington, New Hampshire, was the third settler. His family had lived two years in Cornville, and two weeks after Weymouth's arrival he also came and began his farm on the eastern slope of Pond's Hill. In a few years, however, he sold out to Apollos Pond and took up an- other wild lot near by.
About 1810 Colonel Sanger exchanged three wild lots with Mr. Ames for his mill and farm. Upon one of these he commenced a new home but later moved to Dover. Mr. Ames was a man of great strength and great powers of endurance. He and the other pioneers encountered incredible hardships. At first their provisions had all to be brought from Harmony and later from Dexter. Probably only two families came in 1805; one of these was that of Eben Stevens, a car- penter. In March, 1806, Wm. Farnam moved his family from Nor- ridgewock and this made the sixth family in Sangerville. Mr. Farn- ham was a tanner and tanned the first leather in the county. He also brought young apple trees on his shoulders from Garland and planted the first orchard in town. By January, 1808, there were thirteen families in town. Four of these were Oakes from Canaan; in 1809 Walter Leland, a nephew of Colonel Sanger, began clearing the lot north of Leonard Dearth's farm, and the same year Samuel McLanathan, a nephew of Colonel Sanger by marriage, and his agent, came and began an opening. In 1810 Mr. Leland married, boarded the builders of Sanger's Mills and superintended the work. Eleazer Woodward, a millwright from Vermont, put these mills in operation, and Guy Carle- ton and Oliver Woodward were among the workmen. After the grist mill was completed, Leland tended it and ground on certain fixed days for those who came.
By 1812 or 1813, Carleton and Dudley started operations where Sangerville Village now stands. They built a saw mill, then Dudley sold out to Carleton who soon put a grist mill into operation, sold out the saw mill to his brother, Robert, and in 1816 started a carding machine, the first in the Piscataquis Valley, which marked a new phase of domestic labors. Mr. Carleton some time afterward repossessed the
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saw mill and rebuilt the grist mill. He was ever the leading man in town.
Sangerville was the third town to be incorporated in Piscata- quis County in 1814. A social library, established by Sangerville, Guil- ford and Parkman about 1819, was kept at Sangerville Village. In 1817 Isaac Knowlton, who exchanged his farm in Sherborn, Massa- chusetts, for Colonel Sanger's Mill, built a fulling mill. He and his descendants continued to run them for many years. In 1820 Dr. Charles Stearns settled in the village and soon Dr. Jeremiah Leach came. In 1819 Isaac Macomber opened a country store. In 1822 Colonel Sawyer bought Prince's fulling mill and hired J. P. Leland, his nephew, to run it. The first settled minister was Daniel Bartlett, a Baptist, in 1822.
Weld, 1816
In the town of Weld, located in Franklin County, a broad plain- like valley forming the middle portion of the town encloses Webb's Pond, from which the plantation name, Webb's Pond Plantation, came. When the town was incorporated in 1816 as the two hundred and fourteenth town in the District, it was named for Benjamin Weld of Boston, one of the earliest proprietors. The township was surveyed by Samuel Titcomb for the state and was lotted by Philip Bullen in 1797. Jonathan Phillips of Boston was the purchaser from the state, and in 1815 Jacob Abbot of Wilton, New Hampshire, Benjamin Weld and Thomas Russell, Jr., purchased the unsold land in Maine from Mr. Phillips' estate and started the sale of land to settlers.
Abbot also engaged in the settlement of other towns and pro- cured the location of the Coos road for the state. It ran from Chester- ville through Wilton, Carthage and Weld, past the notch by Mount Metallic, through Byron and East Andover to New Hampshire.
The first settler was Nathaniel Kittridge who came in the sum- mer of 1798 on a trip of inspection from Chester, New Hampshire, and, pleased with the appearance of the land, purchased a lot of Mr. Abbot. Then he returned to his home, where he spent the winter, came back the following spring, felled trees, burned and cleared a few acres of land, erected a log house and again returned to Chester. In the spring of 1800 he brought his family to No. 5, as it was then called and remained until 1818, when he removed to Ohio.
Caleb Holt was the second settler, from Wilton, New Hamp- shire. He arrived at his home in the wilderness in February, 1802. He came from Andover, Maine, on snowshoes. He was an enterprising farmer and landowner, and made it a point to clear fifty acres of land annually. One year he raised 2,000 bushels of wheat; he planted the first orchard and made the first cider in 1829. Mr. John Phelps came from Groton, Vermont, in the summer of 1800, bringing from Farm-
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ington five pecks of salt on his back. Abel and Joseph Russell of Wilton, New Hampshire, came next as settlers; their brother, Thomas, had married a sister of Mr. Abbot.
By the time the Russells had arrived, their sister, Mrs. James Houghton, had reached the settlement. Abel Russell brought in a hundred-pound grindstone from Temple on his back. In 1803 James Houghton of Dublin, New Hampshire, bought land next to Mr. Holt on the north and in the spring of 1804 brought in his family and drove a cow and hog from Temple. Wm. Bowley who arrived from Bristol, New Hampshire, first built a log house and then erected the first frame house of the settlement.
Oliver Bowley of New Sharon came with William and his father, Gideon, that same year, and erected a saw mill at the foot of Webb's Pond and a grist mill the following year. He, with his sons, John, Oliver, Benjamin and Isaac lived near the mill until 1840, when they moved to Ohio. From Greene, Amaziah Reed and Lemuel Jack- son, both ministers of the Baptist Church, arrived in 1803.
Others who came with their families from several New Hamp- shire towns were Joseph Storer, Jr., Ebenezer Hutchinson, Jere Foster, Jacob Coburn, Eben Newman, Samuel White, Joseph and David Carlton and Isaac and Nehemiah Storer.
At the first plantation meeting in 1812, the following officers were chosen: moderator, Jonathan Pratt; clerk, John Storer ; assessors, Jonathan Pratt, Abel Holt, Stephen Holt. At the second meeting seventy dollars was appropriated for schools, and a committee con- sisting of Amaziah Reed, Jere Foster, David Wheeler and Joseph Russell was appointed to establish schools. They also voted to lay out and built roads.
When Dummer and Henry Sewell of Bath, Reuben Colburn and John Beeman of Pittston, Samuel Butterfield and William Tufts of Sandy River and Samuel Dutton of Hallowell set out to explore the country from the Kennebec to Connecticut, they crossed this valley and discovered a pond about six miles long, near which they found a gun and several old traps. On a tree was cut the name of Thos. Webb. This name they gave to the pond and also the river which is the outlet into the Androscoggin.
Pittsfield, 1819
Pittsfield lies in the southeastern part of Somerset County. It was formerly known as Plymouth Gore and was a part of the Kenne- bec Purchase. It was organized as the plantation of Sebasticook in 1815, but on account of difficulty in collecting the taxes the organiza- tion was abandoned. In 1819 it was incorporated as the town of War- saw, and the first town meeting under this name was held at John
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Webb's dwelling, July 19, 1819. The name Warsaw was selected by Squire Bridge of Augusta, one of the principal landholders. In 1824 the name was changed to Pittsfield in honor of Wm. Pitts of Boston, a large proprietor of land here. In 1828 a portion of the "Ell of Pal- myra," belonging to Joseph Warren of Boston and containing 4,200 acres was annexed to Pittsfield.
The forest land in what is now known as Pittsfield was a favor- ite hunting ground of the Indians; white men were also attracted by the good hunting, good fishing, and the level country easily cleared for farms. In 1790 when Moses Martin, the first settler, came from Norridgewock, there were no settlements north of this place and none east between here and Bangor. Martin came first on a hunting expedi- tion and then took up his residence at a bend in the Sebasticook about two miles below the village.
In 1800 came George Brown of Norridgewock, who probably built the first frame house in town; Martin had built a log cabin. Wm. Bradford and a Mr. Wyman arrived from Vassalborough, Maine. Messrs. Brown and Wyman built the first mills. In 1804 John Sibley and John Spearing removed hither from Fairfield and settled on the western side, east of Sibley's Pond. In 1806 John Merrick from Hallo- well settled here. Dominicus Getchell moved here from West Anson in 1811; Joseph McCauslin moved from Hallowell in 1813 and John Webb, from Waterville, in 1815.
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