USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 37
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1832 Colonel J. S. Monroe opened a store at Upper Abbot where the bridge was built.
In November, 1801, Professor John Abbot, M. A., Harvard, 1784, was chosen Professor of Languages at Bowdoin. He and Presi- dent McKeen were installed in September, 1802. On the day fol- lowing eight students were examined for admission. For a long period Professor Abbot was treasurer of Bowdoin, but resigned in 1816. As treasurer, he was custodian of the townships given the college by the state and therefore in a sense was the proprietor, acting for the col- lege in their settlement and sale.
Edmunds, 1828
Edmunds, formerly Plantation No. 10 in Washington County, was named for Edmund Hobart, born in Hingham, England, about 1570, who came to Abington, Massachusetts, about 1620 as Minister of the Gospel. He was probably the founder of Hingham, Massa- chusetts. Colonel Aaron Hobart of Abington, Massachusetts, a great- grandson of Edmund, was the founder of the family in this country. He was born in 1729. He bought this township in Washington County in 1786. He was the owner of several forges for making bar iron, and a blast furnace for making hollow ware and cannon balls, which he did for the state in 1775-76. He was one of the first to make bells for meeting houses, all prior to the Revolutionary War.
When Colonel Hobart came to view his purchase in 1786, he found the earliest comers already located in the area. Among these were an Irishman, James Neil, a deserter from the British Army, who had built his log house here in 1775; the Widow Oliver and her family; Samuel Scott and Richard Harper, all of whom had arrived in 1785; Elijah Ayer, Sr; and his son, Elijah, Jr., who with their families were living on Denny's River.
A saw mill located on Cathance Stream was in operation. This was owned by Colonel John Allen and Captain Allen, from whom Colonel Hobart purchased it for his own use. His son Nathaniel (Brown, 1784) built a second mill in 1787, but after following the lumber business for ten years, sold it to Phineas Bruce, an eminent lawyer of Machias, and returned to Massachusetts. A second son of the proprietor, Isaac, arrived in 1792 and built a third mill at a place called Little Falls.
In addition to those already mentioned, early settlers were James Shaw, Samuel Runnels, Daniel Smith, Wm. Hurley, Joshua Cushing, Hosea Smith, Nathaniel Cox, David Reynolds and Nathaniel Cox, Jr. All were in the township before 1799. Of the five or six set- tlers living there when Colonel Hobart purchased the township in 1786, none remained. Rufus Putnam of Boston was the chief surveyor
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When Colonel Hobart died, his son Isaac purchased the wild lands belonging to the heirs and became owner of three-fourths of the township. He built a new house in 1806. The Reverend Ephraim Ab- bot, a missionary, wrote in his diary: "Feb. 12, 1812 Visited Capt. Hobart proprietor of Plt. No. 10. He is a Baptist I passed the night with him." Mr. Hobart died in Eastport in 1847. His three sons, Isaac, Aaron and Benjamin, succeeded to his land. All of his descendants, like himself, have been men of worth and prominent citizens.
In 1799 the town had been organized into a plantation. At the meeting for that purpose, Isaac Hobart, Daniel Smith and Joshua Cushing were chosen assessors, and Isaac Hobart, collector. In 1828, when the town was incorporated, it was, as stated above, named for Edmund Hobart, a descendant of the Duke of Buckingham, and ancestor of the first proprietor of the town.
Appleton, 1829
Appleton is the northernmost town in Knox County and was named in compliment to Samuel Appleton (1766-1853) of Ipswich, New Hampshire, who, at the age of twenty-two, in 1788, joined a party of young men and began the settlement of a township in Maine. The conditions were that they should have each alternate lot on which they should build a house and clear up a certain number of acres. Nearly sixty years afterward, Appleton presented a bell for a meeting house, erected in that town, "rejoicing" as he said, "that the gospel is preached within three miles of the place where I spent three long summer seasons . . ." He left Maine to satisfy a preference for mer- cantile life. The town was incorporated in 1829. The Medomac and St. George's rivers run through the town. Among the young men with whom Appleton came was Nathaniel Hosmer of Mason, New Hamp- shire. He shared his log cabin with him and later, several others who were destitute for a home also found refuge there during that winter. All of them lived as one family while complying with the provisions in their agreement with the proprietors, which required them to clear three acres of land. This was in West Camden and Hosmer soon moved to Barrettstown (Hope) now on the road from Hope Vil- lage to North Appleton. This now lies partly in Hope and partly in Appleton.
Senebec Pond is the principal body of water in the town; it is two miles in length and one in width. Appleton Ridge, about 300 feet in height is the greatest elevation. At Appleton Village have been a grist mill, a lumber and stave mill, factories for carriages, hand rakes, cultivator, boots and shoes and leather. Today there are lumber mills. Among the early settlers were an Irish couple by the name of Dris- coll who came at the time of the potato famine in Ireland, and
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Daniel Sullivan who married one of the Driscoll daughters and settled on the Ridge. A daughter of this family, Adelene, became a New York actress and married Francis J. Oakes, a wealthy New York dye manufacturer. They built a summer home now known as the Oakes mansion.
Stetson, 1831
This pleasant farming town in Penobscot County was settled about 1800 and incorporated in 1831. It was for many years called the Stetson Plantation before being incorporated as Stetson in honor of the original private proprietor, Amasa Stetson of Dorchester, Massa- chusetts. He was born in Randolph, Massachusetts, in 1769, a shoe- maker by trade, and was prudent and economical almost to the ex- treme. He soon became rich, then took up land speculation. He, with John Lapish and Zadock French, bought City Point Lot in Bangor in 1801, and the deed was confirmed in 1802. Stetson Square on Broadway is named for him.
The first grant of the area now Stetson was made to Leicester Academy in 1791, under provisions similar to other such grants: twenty families were to be settled in the area before 1797. The town- ship passed into the hands of two purchasers before Amasa Stetson became the proprietor.
About 1800 Robert Patten, the first settler, arrived. The earliest public meeting was a call "at the house of Colonel James Patten" of the voters within the plantation on October 26, 1812, and was signed by Enock Blaisdell, James Patten and Stephen Buttrick as assessors, and Enock Blaisdell as plantation clerk. Colonel James Patten was doubtless a relative of the first settler. He was an outstanding citizen of the pioneer days.
Isaac Clark first arrived in Stetson in 1813 from Danville. Af- ter felling an acre of trees, he returned to his home in the fall and the following February brought his family, who stayed in the log house of a neighbor, a Mr. Sweat, until Clark had built a log cabin of his own. At the time of the coming of the Clarks, there were three frame houses in the plantation: Captain David Larkin's, Allen's and the old mill house.
Among the other early settlers were Jeremiah Goodwin, a good blacksmith and a man of fine character, Levi Tozier and his wife and Thorndike Allen. As early as 1815, there were at least twenty-eight vot- ers in the town. The call to town meeting in 1819 gives the place of meeting as "Maj. Amasa Stetson's house." Major Stetson was the nephew of the proprietor. Wm. Ayer was plantation clerk and was of- ten listed among the assessors. Other names among the early planta- tion officers were Samuel Holden, Robert Patten and Noah K. George.
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The citizens voted in 1820 "That this plantation petitions for an incorporation by the name of Liberty," but they decided in June to wait until the next session; and it was not until 1831 that incorpora- tion took place.
The post office was established in 1829 with Daniel Witheridge as postmaster. He was one of the first settlers, very active in plantation affairs, and town clerk at the time of incorporation. The historian of the town, Lilla Wood Daniels, offers the names of the thirty-six heads of families who became the incorporators under the name of Stetson.
Blanchard, 1831
On March 17, 1831, the town of Blanchard was incorporated in Piscataquis County. Charles Blanchard of Portland and Honorable Thomas Davee of Dover had purchased the whole township for $4600 that year. It had been lotted out in 1828 by Eleazer Coburn. The new owners engaged to sell to settlers the lots which they had already cleared, at one dollar per acre. Blanchard owned three-fourths, and Davee one-fourth of the township, hence the name of the town.
In 1832 Mr. Davee moved his family into town and with Mr. Blanchard bought and rebuilt the dam and the mills, which had long been in operation, and added a grist mill. A good covered bridge was soon afterward built across the river. The township was a part of the Bingham Purchase which was locally known as the "Million Acre Tract." Russell Mountain covers quite a portion of it, and other high hills greatly diminish its tillage surface. The west branch of the Piscata- quis is its principal stream. The township formerly abounded in pine timber, and there is also slate of fine quality, susceptible to high polish.
The first settler, Ebeneezer Deane, had come from Moorstown (Abbot) in 1813, and the story is told of how his neighbor, Peter Brawn, had planned "to fell an opening on the great interval" in the present Blanchard and thus be the first to secure the coveted acres. But greatly to his chagrin when he arrived there, his ear caught the sound of busy axes and he found that Deane, to whom he had un- wisely divulged his plans, was there before him with his oldest son, Daniel. Thus the settlement of Blanchard had begun. Deane soon moved his family in and shortly afterward Thomas Chase arrived from Atkinson. He was a good raftsman: in the spring of 1811, in a high pitch of water he and a Benjamin Spaulding had run a raft over the Great Falls in Dover, a great feat.
Although the cold seasons made it difficult to raise crops, the making of clapboards and shingles to sell in the market and the blue- berries which were abundant for food helped to give them a living. Soon Deane and his sons had cleared a farm and had suitable build- ings. They were there when Blanchard and Davee bought the township
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and purchased 200 acres of the finest land at $1.00 per acre, but they finally sold out and left the township.
The settlement was much affected by lumbering. Colonel Black, Bingham's agent, had visited here in 1824 and stopped much of the stealing of lumber. At an early day Thomas Chase built the saw mill on the Blanchard Mills privilege and soon after that a clapboard ma- chine. Captain Lamb and his brother kept a small store here; in 1827 Colonel R. Carleton opened a store and purchased a clapboard machine, but later sold out to Reuben Ordway. When the town was in- corporated in 1831 Algur Chase, who had resided there for many years, was elected town clerk and one of the selectmen. In 1834 a Congre- gational church was organized and a minister settled over it. Mr. Blanchard raised a meeting house the same year and sold what pews he could. Then came land speculation. By 1835, when Abner Coburn and his brothers bought 14,000 acres in the town, the land cost $2.00 per acre.
Mr. Davee, while residing in Blanchard, was Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, Sheriff of Somerset County and twice a representative of his District in the National Congress. Ephraim Packard was Judge of Probate. Another esteemed citizen was Ozias Blanchard, a member at different times of both branches of the State Legislature.
The Blanchards were descended from a Huguenot family who fled from France to England in 1572; one of the descendants had come to Massachusetts in 1639.
Orneville (Milton), 1832
Though incorporated as Milton in 1832, this Piscataquis County town was named for Judge Henry Orne of Boston, in 1842. General John Parker Boyd, soon after his return from India and England, had purchased the township in 1805. It was then called Boyd's Plantation. He did not hasten its settlement, preferring to let the timber stand and increase. When finally incorporated in 1832, the town affairs were badly managed, and the town and many of its inhabitants be- came impoverished. In 1841 the name of the town was changed to Almond. Judge Henry Orne, who had married a niece of General Boyd, helped the town to recover after the death of Boyd. He built a saw mill and grist mill at the outlet of Boyd's Lake and a noble resi- dence for himself near by. Thus it was that in 1842 the name of the town was changed again, in compliment to its leading citizen.
Between 1820 and 1825, Abner and Allen Hoxie, James Philpot, Wm. M. and Eben Ewer and Wm. and Solon Hamlin were the first settlers. In 1820 only two persons were returned as then residing there. Elder Spencer Howe who opened a store near the mills con-
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tributed materially to recovering prosperity in the town. He collected the taxes and attended to business administration. Another minister, Elder Gershom Lord, also pursued a successful business career in the town. Here was the early home of the Maxim family. Hudson, inventor of smokeless powder, a shockproof high explosive for guns of large caliber, gun cartridges and a new system of discharging high explo- sives, was deeply interested in poetry.
On Dead Stream there were two mill privileges, both occupied. The Huntington Mills were built early, but the owners of them pro- cured the annexation of the lot upon which they stood to Atkinson, Maine. James Porter erected a saw and shingle mill on Alder Brook at an early date, and it continued to carry on a good business for many years. Moses Chandler also built a saw, shingle and grist mill early on Dead Stream near the south line of the town. These were long known as the McGregor Mills which burned in 1873. Mr. J. W. Hall also had put a shingle mill in operation on that dam.
The stories of General John Parker Boyd and of Judge Henry Orne have been told by John Francis Sprague in his Journal of Maine History. They are well worth reading.
Hodgdon, 1832
This town on the eastern border of Aroostook County was formed from two half townships: the northern, the Groton Academy Grant, deeded to John Hodgdon in 1805 by its trustees, and the south- ern half, the Westfield Academy Grant, sold to Nathaniel Ingersoll and John Hodgdon by the trustees of that institute in 1802. The land titles of the first settlers and the name of the town when it became a corporate body were in compliment to John Hodgdon. He was from Ware, New Hampshire. The grantees were bound by the deed to lay out and convey a lot of 100 acres to each settler who was on the land previous to 1784, but as no settler had come to the town before that date it was of no effect. They were also bound to set apart lots of 160 acres each for municipal and school purposes. By both deeds, the grantees were bound to settle ten families within six years of the date of the deeds.
The earliest deed appearing upon the record for settlers on the township was given to Aaron Pearly by Hodgdon in 1824; Taylor Drew moved here the same year. In 1826 Chesley Drew, a physician, received his deed, and a week later Jane Taylor and her sons, James, George, Charles and Wm., came in possession of theirs. These grantees were the wife and sons of James U. Taylor, one of the oldest settlers in the town. Joseph Taylor also moved here in 1826.
It would seem that John Hodgdon, Sr., died in 1826; for in 1827 "John Hodgdon of Bangor, student at law" gave Joshua Putnam
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of Houlton power of attorney "to act as agent for the sale of lands in Hodgdon Plantation." This John was the son and heir of the original proprietor and was afterward a resident of the town. Elisha A. Drew, a son of Dr. Drew, lived with his father. He bought lots east and west of his home. They made a large clearing, hauled much wood to the garrison at Houlton and built a large house and two barns.
Mr. James U. Taylor, already mentioned, moved from Houlton in 1824 and cleared up a farm, and for many years was a well-known resident of the town. During the construction of the military road, when the supplies for the garrison were hauled over the old "Soldier Road," Mr. Taylor was a noted ox teamster and was employed in that capacity in transporting supplies and building roads. Mr. Joseph Kendall who also came from Houlton in 1824 was the son of Deacon Samuel Kendall, an early settler there. He was a man of considerable education and culture and wrote a voluminous history of Houlton which never was published. Mr. James Doyle came in 1824 and was a prominent man in the town until he moved west.
Barnard, 1834
Barnard was formerly the western section of the original town of Williamsburg. A part of the land was good for agriculture, while a part was covered with valuable timber, hemlock, spruce and cedar. A rich vein of slate crosses the town. Bear Brook passes through the town from north to south and affords good mill privileges for saw and grist mills, board and shingle mills.
The first settlers came by way of Sebec Mills about 1809 or 1810. Mark Pitman, John Thompson, Benjamin Miller and B. Bunker were among the earliest. Since this settlement is separated from that of Williamsburg by a large swamp, co-operation was difficult. So Barnard was incorporated as a separate town and named for a pro- prietor, Moses Barnard. However, most of the trade of the settlement goes to Sebec Village since there is only one small store in town. In 1877 the act of incorporation was repealed; but in 1895 the town was reorganized as a plantation.
Otis, 1835
Situated in the northwestern corner of Hancock County, Otis is bounded on the north by Penobscot County and on the south by the city of Ellsworth. It has many lovely sheets of water which empty into Union River or some of its branches. Much attention is given to lumbering.
This lovely town was first occupied in 1805; the first settlers were Isaac Frazier, N. M. Jellerson from Union River, later Ellsworth, James Gilpatrick from Lamoine and Allen Milliken from Mt. Desert.
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When incorporated in 1835 it was named in honor of an original proprietor, Joseph Otis.
Weston, 1835
In the southeastern part of Aroostook County, on the western- most part of Grand Lake which separates it from the soil of New Brunswick, lies the town of Weston. The land was granted to Hampden Academy, Maine, in 1803; and by 1825 settlers from St. Albans, Unity, Sidney, Clinton, Augusta, Brighton and Mt. Vernon, with one or two from New Brunswick, had come. The earliest settlers were John Davenport, Thos. Gilpatrick and Dr. Otis Smith, who came around 1820.
Mr. Charles Turner, Jr., had surveyed the tract granted to Hampden Academy in 1804, the record of which is still available. It establishes the location of the old Indian Portage from the Baskehegan Stream to Grand Lake. This portage started where the south line of the academy grant crossed the Baskehegan Stream and continued in a northeasterly direction until it struck Grand Lake.
Of the early settlers already mentioned Davenport, who came from St. Albans, was the first to make a chopping and Mr. Gilpatrick, who was from Unity, was the first to bring his family. He had passed through this region earlier while taking a drove of cattle to Houlton. When he brought his family in 1823, he came up the Baskehegan in a bateau with his brother, David, and his sister, Mrs. Hannah Drew. He purchased of the trustees of the Academy one thousand acres of land for twenty-five cents per acre. He cleared a number of large farms as time went on and was extensively engaged in farming and lumbering. His house was for years a stopping place for travelers and was well known in all that section. Mr. Gilpatrick was a prominent man in town affairs during the whole time of his residence.
Mr. Wm. Butterfield, known throughout southern Aroostook for many years as "Squire" Butterfield, was born in the town of Sid- ney, then went to New Brunswick and from there came to Weston about 1827. He was appointed Justice of the Peace soon after his ar- rival. Mr. Butterfield was a land surveyor and in 1828 lotted the academy grant, dividing it into lots or sections running east and west across the grant. Each lot contained five hundred acres, more or less. Mr. Butterfield's lot was numbered six in this survey. He received his deed in 1835. He cleared a large farm on his lot and built a homestead where he lived for many years. He was extensively engaged in trading and lumbering and was a leading citizen of the town during all the time of his residence there. In 1827 Mr. Samuel Cleaves from Clinton came and settled in the southern part of the town near Baskehegan Stream. The road from Houlton to Calais runs in a southerly direc-
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tion entirely across the town, and for much of the distance the land west of the road rises in high mountainous ridges. It is very beautiful; the view extends across the wooded points and away to the broad waters of Grand Lake.
At its incorporation in 1835, Weston was named for the sur- veyor of that date. In addition to the Hampden Academy Grant, the town also includes the Monroe Gore and the Nelson Tract; the former of which was originally contracted to Edmund Monroe in 1830 and situated between the Hampden Academy Grant and "Scoodic Lake," and the latter deeded to David Nelson in 1820. In 1855 these were both incorporated with the town.
Elliotsville, 1835
No. 8, Range 9, now Elliotsville, has two loft; mountains, Boar- stone and Peaked Mountain. A strip on the west side, nearly a mile wide, was included in the grant to the Massachusetts Medical Society to equal the 5,000 acres in No. 9 of that township sold to Wm. C. Whitney. In February, 1812, Massachusetts granted to Wm. Vaughn one full half-township for services which he had rendered the state; he may have been a promoter of the Louisburg Expedition in 1745. Elliot G. Vaughn and a Mr. Watson purchased two small parcels, some of the owners sold out their shares and eventually Elliot G. Vaughn, Esq., became chief owner.
Captain Jordan had an opening felled on the Free Bridge part in 1824, and Joseph and Eben Sawyer from Buxton also made be- ginnings. Joseph Sawyer was the first to move his family in and fifty acres of land was given to his son, Joseph, in consideration thereof. In 1826 S. C. Bodfish of Norridgewock came onto the lot which Captain Jordan had cleared. In 1828 John Drake and E. Briggs from Buckfield arrived, also two Messrs. Burnell of Portland, relatives of the Vaughn family.
E. G. Vaughn, Esq., took quite an interest in settling the township. He early erected a saw mill and started a clapboard machine on the Wilson Stream and finally settled his family there. He worked up a large amount of timber in these mills and clapboard cuts were driven out on Wilson and Ship Pond streams.
E. T. Bridge built a grist mill on the Wilson above Vaughn's Mill on the eastern side of the medical tract. After Mr. Vaughn se- cured the incorporation of the town in 1835 and named it Elliots- ville, thus perpetuating his own given name, there was trouble in collecting nonresident taxes. Nonresident land was advertised and sold, and the depletion of the inhabitants continued. After the timber was cut off, wild land would not sell for enough to pay the taxes. E. G. Vaughn and many others moved away; and in 1858 the in-
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habitants petitioned for a repeal of incorporation. It was reorganized as a plantation in 1887.
Kingsbury, 1836
Kingsbury is located in the Kennebec Bingham Purchase. The stage road from Athens to Moosehead Lake passes through here. The outlet of Kingsbury Pond affords a superior mill privilege, and this forms the south branch of the Piscataquis River. The township was lotted by Eleazer Coburn and purchased in 1833 of the Bing- ham heirs by the Honorable Sanford Kingsbury of Gardiner for $4000. It was for this proprietor that the town was named. In 1834 Wm. Hilton and his brother from Mayfield felled the first openings in the township. In 1835 Judge Kingsbury started clearings at the outlet of the pond, built a dam and soon had a saw and grist mill and also a clapboard and shingle machine in operation. He did much to encourage settlement. He put up a store, erected a large dwelling house and moved here, and remained until his death. Set- tlers came rapidly.
After Judge Kingsbury's death, his family left town. I. S. Ab- bott bought the mills, then sold them to Leonard and Wm. S. Hilton. Nonresident taxes became hard to collect. Large tracts of land were sold at auction by the town. There was little religious instruction. Incorporation was repealed in 1885, and it was reorganized as a plantation in 1887.
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