USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 41
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Clinton Gore on the northwest side of the town was annexed in 1873. Among the valued citizens of the town have been Dennis and Elias Milliken, Ephraim Hatch and others. In addition to Burn- ham Village there is Hutchinson's Village, situated a short distance from Unity Pond.
Maxfield, 1824
Formerly Bridgton Academy Grant, Maxfield was settled by men from Hingham, Massachusetts. About the year 1817 the Penob- scot County tract was bought by Mr. Joseph McIntosh of that city. The first settler, whose name has not been preserved, is reputed to have come here some three years before, in 1814. Following him came McIntosh who settled on the south side of the Piscataquis and cleared a large farm there. His place came to be known as "Mac's Field" and it is said that this name was easily corrupted into Maxfield, finally giving the designation to the town. McIntosh built the first saw mill upon the tract and engaged quite extensively for a time in the lumbering business. After him came his brothers Samuel and Thomas, and another McIntosh named Stephen who was accompanied by his grown son, Stephen, Jr. Thomas did not permanently locate.
About the year 1820 two well-known pioneers named Pierce Thomas and Martin Cushing arrived. They settled on the north side of the Piscataquis, not far from its banks. The Reverend Jesse Burn- ham, a clergyman of the Free Will Baptist faith, arrived soon after and in time organized a church. The next settlers, who came about 1821, were Stephen and Thomas Tourtilott; their name is the only one of the old family names which remains in special prominence in the town. Levi Lancaster came up the river from Orono about this time, as did Stephen and Thomas Bunker from Kennebec County. Henry Clapp from Boston was the first to open a blacksmith shop in the settlement. The number and character of these early settlers and the reputation of the tract as rich and fertile soon attracted other settlers; and for a number of years the growth of the colony was quite rapid and hopeful.
John Dewitt moved to Maxfield from New Brunswick in 1822; he was a farmer and lumberman; his son, John, held all of the town
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offices at various times. The Whitneys were from Buxton, and Sam- uel Harvey came from New Hampshire and settled in Maxfield in 1825. Joseph Maxfield was the first Representative to the Legisla- ture in 1824 and 1826. One writer says that the town was named by the settlers above who, when they came down the Pleasant and Piscata- quis rivers, called the place Macksfield.
The great fire of 1829 devastated the tract almost completely, sweeping off buildings, fences, standing crops and nearly everything. Many left the settlement never to return, and it was long before the town recovered from this disaster. However, Abner S. Bailey came to Maxfield in 1839; he was a farmer and lumberman, and a very fine citizen. His son, Abner S., held many town offices. John Smart came from Howland. John, his second son, was an active citizen of the day.
The Piscataquis River flows through the center and north of the town. Its tributaries are Hardy and Seboois streams. The popula- tion of the town is mainly on the south river road running from How- land up the Piscataquis. About three miles of it is in the town and on the Bunker Hill or stage route into LaGrange. The rich alluvial soil, bordering the river on both sides, early made this region famous and it still bears large amounts of corn and other grain and root crops. There is good water power on the Piscataquis River and Seboois Stream, which has been to some extent utilized for saw mills.
Whiting, 1825
Township No. 12 in Passamaquoddy Bay, later Orangetown and now Whiting, was granted to John Allen, on March 27, 1788, on condition that he pay three hundred pounds before March 1, 1795, and that six thousand acres be reserved for people already on the town and three thousand nine hundred and fifty acres laid to certain persons for services during the late war. The list of settlers for whom land was reserved includes the names of fifteen, of whom Lewis Deles- dernier received one thousand acres. Other names given were Avery, Albee, Preble, Ayer, Flagg, Runnels, Dillaway, Edwards, Bryan, Nyles, Libby and Harvey.
Under the Resolve of 1790, lands were also granted to settlers "to be laid out so as best to include their improvements." Among these were Major Lemuel Trescott and Colonel John Crane, with two hundred acres each. They had come to this area as early as 1784. Dowling, Howe, Huntly, Nickerson, Gardner and Ackley also received grants of one hundred acres each. The census of 1790 also lists as residents at that date George Peck, Davis Bryant and Samuel, Isaac and Parrett Leighton.
The diary of Ephraim Abbot, "the Frontier Missionary," notes his visit at the present Whiting on May 2-6, 1812:
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From Seward's Neck I came with Mr. Isaac Crane thro Cobscook Falls to Capt. John Crane's where we took tea and with Mr. Isaac Crane to his house in No. 12 commonly called Orangetown where I put up for the night; May 5 preached a lecture at the house of Mr. Abijah Crane in the forenoon - very attentive listeners. Visited Mr. Horatio Gates Allan's family, Mr. Samuel Wheeler's and Mr. Saunders' family Visited the family of Mr. Mark Allan. May 6 Visited the family of Capt. John Crane and Mr. Wm. Bells.
I am indebted to Mr. Lester Crane and Mr. E. D. Merrill of Machias for the account of the naming of the town upon its incor- poration in 1825. When a special meeting was held by the people of Township No. 12 to decide upon a name, it was voted to call it Whit- ing, for Timothy Whiting, a highly respected citizen. Because of this honor, he gave the town four hundred acres of land, the revenue to be used for public schools. Mr. Whiting was a member of the Legislature in 1829.
A brief resumé of the life of General John Crane, the first white settler of the town, should be recounted here. He was born in Milton, Massachusetts, in 1744. In 1759 his father was drafted as a soldier in the French War. He was in poor health so the son took his place and was commended for bravery in service. He was a carpenter and with his brother had a shop in Boston. The brothers were red-hot patriots, and were active in Boston and in The Boston Tea Party where he (John) nearly lost his life. He moved to Providence in 1775, on account of the Boston Port Bill. On news of Bunker Hill he and his partner raised an artillery company and joined Richard Gridley's regiment. Crane was made major and Ebeneezer Stevens, his partner, captain; both were active in the service. Francis Drake, the historian, wrote:
The artillery of this key to Roxbury line was com- manded by John Crane who afterward succeeded Knox as a Colonel of the Massachusetts regiment of artillery and served with distinction throughout the entire contest, he was very skilful as a marksman and was in constant service throughout the war.
In 1793 Crane was commissioned Brigadier-General. He was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas and a member of the Massa- chusetts Society of the Cincinnati. He died in Whiting in 1805.
Baileyville, 1826
This town was named for an early settler who took up his land in that part of the town now called Bailey Hill. Some of the other early families were Hogans, Dawsons, Ryans, Staples, Dooleys, Loverings, Lawlers, Malloys, Robbs and Smiths. The earliest Ryans came from Ireland about 1810 to St. Andrews and along with others
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came up the river and settled on the bank of the St. Croix, a mile or more above the present village of Woodland which was formerly called Sprague's Mills, from Abial Sprague who lived here. Moses Bonney, the first settler of Princeton in 1815, and Samuel Brown, the second settler, who also located as his neighbor in that town, were originally from Sprague's Falls.
Thomas Bailey and Wm. Thornton, Sr., early settlers in Tops- field before 1838, went to that town from Baileyville.
John B. Vance, a grandson of the Honorable Wm. Vance, was born in Baileyville in 1833 and joined the Shakers near Sabbath Day Lake in York County and became an elder.
The two main arteries to the present-day Woodland are the Air Line, Bangor to Calais, and Route 1, Calais to Houlton. The above named early families settled along these roads. Lumbering was their chief occupation. Lumber was sawed in Calais and shipped in long lengths by boat to Boston. Church was held in the homes and the schoolhouses.
In 1905 the St. Croix Paper Company erected a large pulp and paper plant on the American side of Sprague's Falls, five miles above Baring; and within the next year Woodland, a brand-new town, had sprung up in the vicinity. Large numbers of Italian and Polish laborers were brought in. The most thickly settled portion of Baileyville in the early days was Squirrel Point, five miles south of Princeton. This is now Kellyland, the hydro-electric station for the St. Croix Paper Company mill.
Houlton, 1831
A dignified and typical New England town, the shire town of Aroostook County, Houlton is situated on the eastern border of Maine on the Meduxnekeag Stream, a branch of the St. John River. It is two hundred and fifty miles from Portland, via the old Military Road from Bangor.
The first settlers of Houlton were two families named Houlton and Putnam, who removed thither about 1805 from Salem, Massa- chusetts. The town was incorporated in 1831, the oldest in the county, and was for years the extreme northeastern outpost of the United States. In 1799 a resolve had been enacted by the Legislature of Massa- chusetts granting to New Salem Academy one half-township of land in some of the unappropriated lands in the District of Maine. This tract is the southern half of the present town of Houlton. Soon after the passage of this act, a company of thirteen men purchased the land from the trustees of the academy and began to take measures to have it lotted for settlement. On June 1, 1810, these proprietors voted that
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Joseph Houlton be agent to survey the half-township into square lots of 160 acres each, reserving two lots for public use. Park Holland was Houlton's surveyor. The thirteen proprietors were reduced to ten when three of the group sold out their shares to the others and of these ten, only three became actual settlers of the grant: Joseph Houlton, who may be called the father of Houlton and for whom the town was afterward named, Aaron Putnam and Joseph Putnam. The other seven sold their lots to settlers at different times. Some of them held them as late as 1826.
The first to make actual settlement upon the tract was Aaron Putnam, son of Lydia Trask Putnam, who came with his mother and family in 1805. They embarked from Boston and sailed to St. John, New Brunswick, thence up the river to Frederickton. Here they took a boat and worked their way with great difficulty to Wood- stock, where the weaker ones of the party remained while the men went on through the woods and began felling trees and taking pos- session of the new lots. Mr. Aaron Putnam appears to have remained at Woodstock as storekeeper until 1809, when he joined the colony at Houlton.
Mr. Joseph Houlton and his family came in in the spring of 1807. He was the acknowledged leader of the pioneer band and was a man of much ability and energy, a man of property and influence in Massachusetts. In 1809 came John Putnam and in the same year Aaron Putnam returned and the following year built the first mill on Meduxnekeag Stream (the Indian word, meaning "where people go out"), which was replaced a number of times before a permanent one was secured. Dr. Rice and his family came in 1811 and Mr. Wormwood and his family followed in 1812. In 1814 came Deacon Samuel Kendall and family and with them Deacon Townsend. Nearly all these families had grown-up sons and daughters, and these inter- married and set up new homes.
In June, 1839, the new county of Aroostook was formed; pre- vious to that date Houlton was in the northern part of Washington County. After the War of 1812, many new settlers came from the provinces; Mr. William Williams and family were the first comers. The first dwellings were log houses; the first frame houses were built in 1813 by Dr. Rice. The first clergyman was Reverend Edward East- man of Limerick who organized the first Congregational Church in 1811, but no meeting house was built until 1837, when the Unitarian Church was erected. The Congregational Church was built the fol- lowing year.
The settlement was organized as a plantation in 1826. In ad- dition to the New Salem grant, the town of Houlton includes the grant to Williams College given in 1815; this part of the town was
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known for a long time as Foxcroft. Later arrivals came by way of Bangor, thence by way of rivers, lakes, streams and the long swamp to their forest homes. In 1827 the road was cut to Baskehegan. Major Clark and his detachment came in 1828 and a military post, a garri- son for seven companies, was built. Hancock Barracks were con- structed. The bringing of supplies over the Penobscot and Mattawam- keag rivers from Bangor was very difficult, so the Military Road was completed in 1832. The garrison was retained until after settlement of the treaty in 1842.
Lee, 1832
Lee is located on what is called the "Upper Route" from Bangor to Calais, in eastern Penobscot County, sixty miles from each city. This township was originally granted in 1805 by Massachusetts to Williams College, by which institution it was sold to parties living in Cumberland County. Nathaniel Ingersoll of New Gloucester pur- chased the larger part. Like other grants, among the conditions re- quired of the college was the settlement of thirty families within three years. Ingersoll began a clearing in 1823, but did not conclude his settling duties until 1828. In 1824, when the settlement began, there was no road nearer than Passadumkeag, twenty-eight miles below. Jeremiah Fifield from Howland and his wife were the first to move into the town; afterward, Mrs. Fifield received one hundred acres of land for being the first woman to settle in this wilderness. Their log house was on the crossroads between the two main roads later enter- ing Lee.
The United States Government built a road below the Lincoln Mill through Lee and Springfield, direct to Houlton, for use in carry- ing supplies and troops to Houlton.
Following the Fifields came Thomas Lindsay, in 1824, and John Tucker of Dexter, Maine, in 1826. Among the other early set- tlers were Blake, Jackson, Stone, Parker, Barnard, Arnold, Hale, Moulton, Hanscom, Smith, Norton, Whitten and Thurlow. Samuel Mallett of Litchfield purchased additional land from the Williams College grant in 1825, and he and James Merrill built the saw and grist mills on Mattakeunk Stream in what is now Lee Village.
The settlement was retarded and the prosperity of the town diminished by defects in the titles which resulted in prolonged litiga- tion. The suits were at last decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the settlers. In addition to Mallett and Mer- rill, Maxwell, Jackson, Randall, Staples and Wilbur came. Godfrey Jackson, who came in 1827, was the builder of the mills and later a physician. Some other early settlers were Brown, Cushman, Jones, Getchell, Lee, Ludden, Lunt and Potter.
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When the town was incorporated in 1831, it was named Lee, in honor of Stephen Lee, one of the early above-named settlers.
Bradley, 1835
The town of Bradley is located in Penobscot County on the eastern bank of the Penobscot River. It was incorporated in 1835, and its name was given in honor of Bradley Blackman. Blackman was one of the early settlers and had been one of the prominent citizens of the plantation. The first settlers came about 1799. Before the begin- ning of the nineteenth century, families by the name of Oliver, Spencer, Blackman and probably others were occupying No. 4, Old Indian Purchase. Bradley Blackman was born in Walpole, Massa- chusetts, in 1777, and came to the Penobscot River about 1800. He first settled in Upper Orrington, now Brewer, and then continued to the present town of Bradley. He was treasurer of the plantation and town for many years and died in 1837. Samuel Knapp, born in 1747, came from Mansfield, Massachusetts, to the upper part of Brewer in 1785 and moved to Bradley in 1799; he settled near the center of the town, one of its first settlers.
Alonzo E. Perkins, son of Eben Perkins of the town of Penob- scot, Hancock County, who lived some time in Bucksport, was an early settler in Bradley and a selectman for many years. Ranson Hinkley, born in the town of Jackson in 1841, came to the town when a child, with his parents. He was a mill worker and runner of logs and served in many town offices. Eugene Lenfest, born in 1835, came from Swanville, Waldo County, and served as one of the select- men for many years. Charles R. Richardson engaged in mill business and was a leader in town affairs. By 1820, a tide of immigration was attracted toward the Penobscot, and the township of Bradley started to show an increase in population. The facilities for manufacturing began to be recognized here, and mills were built. A man by the name of Wilson put up a double saw mill on the falls; he also traded in a small way, keeping a limited amount of goods in his dwelling house. Shortly afterward, Frederick Spoffard built a saw mill and a small store and did business on the most extensive scale that had yet been done in the township. A mill was soon afterward built on Blackman Stream which, with the mill that was built on Great Works Stream by Coolidge, made ample saw-mill accommodations for the settlers and produced some lumber for export. It was sawed into such lumber as the market called for, made into immense rafts at the foot of the mills and floated by the current to Bangor from where it was shipped to Boston and other ports.
In 1825 John Wilson, Treasurer of Penobscot County, told the inhabitants of No. 4 that they must organize a plantation and
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pay a county tax. At the meeting called for that purpose, Frederick Spofford was elected moderator and Thomas Cram, town clerk. These two men, with George Vincent, were assessors and Bradley Blackman, treasurer, an office which he held for many years both in the planta- tion and town. Moses Knapp and Jordan were elected school agents ; progress was quite rapid and the improvement of water power was the start of Great Works, or Bradley. The organization of the Great Works Milling & Manufacturing Company in 1833, and the building of a large block of mills established business on a flourishing basis that started several stores in operation.
These two events made people feel that they needed a town, so a petition was made to the Legislature and on February 3, 1835, the bill was signed by the governor, and the town of Bradley became a reality. In 1840 Hiram Emery was elected to the Legislature. Emery was connected with the mills at Bradley at this time and was quite an important citizen of the town; he held many important offices and was town clerk for a long series of years. His records are models of completeness and efficiency. The decade from 1840 to 1850 was pros- perous; the mills ran to capacity. The operators in Bradley at this time were Eddy and Murphy, Newell Avery and others. Eddy and Murphy went to Michigan, as did Avery later. By 1857 the period of rapid growth had passed.
Lowell, 1837
An agricultural town in Penobscot County, east of the Penob- scot River, Lowell lies forty-eight miles north, northeast of Bangor. Alpheus Hayden and Levi Doane of Canaan, Maine, were the first settlers; they began their residence here in March, 1819. The lands of these and other settlers were purchased of the state. The name of the plantation was at first "Page's Mills." This was changed to Dean- field, in double compliment to the first schoolteacher and the first set- tled minister, Mary C. Dean and the Reverend Pindar Field, both of whom were highly esteemed. In 1837, when the plantation was in- corporated as a town, it was given the name of Huntressville for an early citizen. This was changed the following year to Lowell, which, according to local tradition, was given in honor of the first male child, Lowell Hayden, son of Alpheus Hayden.
One of the first settlers in Lowell was Jedediah Varney who was a native of Windham, Maine. He married Eleanor Tourtillot and they moved to Lowell in 1825 and settled on a farm about three miles north of East Lowell post office. One of the first settlers in South Lowell at Page's Mills was Greenleaf M. Fogg, who came here in 1833 from Monmouth, Maine, at the age of twenty, and cleared up a farm. There was no road during summer, and supplies were brought
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in by boat up the river. Thomas Ewing from Bowdoin, Maine, arrived in 1833 and settled about two miles from the Corners.
In 1841 a tract called the "strip" lying north of Township No. 1, Bingham's Purchase, was annexed to Lowell. The settlers of this tract purchased their land of the Bingham heirs; in 1842 the Cold Stream settlement was annexed. Cold Brook was an early name for the town. Other early settlers upon the tract besides the Haydens and the Doanes were Samuel Shorey, Gorden Duren, Nathaniel Cof- fin, F. D. Huntress, Eliphalet Pettengill, John Austin, Seth Webb and a Mr. Good. When the religious interest and denominational growth here warranted it, the people to the west of Burlington united with the worshipers in the town to build a Congregational Church, which was erected near the town line.
Solomon Applebee, born in Berwick, Maine, in 1822, came to Lowell in 1853. E. G. Wakefield came here from Steuben in 1855. O. H. Wakefield, the son, carried on the mill at Lowell where he manu- factured shingles, lathes, spoolbars and corn meal. Alexander Webb came to this town in 1856; he was born in Durham, New York. He had been manager of different tanneries at Levant, Dexter, St. Albans and Amherst. From Amherst he came to Lowell and superintended the building of a large tannery. In 1859 he bought an interest in the tannery and the firm became A. Webb & Company. Albert J. Webb, the son, later engaged in the mercantile business. Alexander Webb held many town and state offices. In 1872-73 he was Representative to the Legislature and in 1875-76, State Senator and Trial Justice.
Whitneyville, 1845
This town was a part of Machias until 1845. At that date it was incorporated and named in honor of Colonel Joseph Whitney of Calais, an enterprising man who built a large dam across the main river at this point and erected saw mills.
During the early struggles of Calais for its very existence, he was a most prominent man of that town in its civic, business and re- ligious life. During ts hardest days, in 1811, he was a member of a committee to petition the Legislature "to grant to the town of Calais the public lands reserved for some time." In 1812 he was town clerk; in 1831, a Representative to the State Legislature. He became the first president of the Unitarian Church organization at its incor- poration in 1833 and was an active and early member of the Masonic Lodge. Whitney's interests, largely connected with the erection and ownership of mills, such as double saw mills, grist and lath mills, dams, piers and booms, were wide and far reaching in this section.
Thos. Day was also engaged here in lumbering and milling. James Roscoe Day, the eminent Chancellor of Syracuse University,
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was born here at Whitneyville in 1845. Among other citizens of the town have been James Miller, S. B. Lowell, John Knox and Nathan Bacheller.
Whitneyville is on the west branch of the Machias River, the terminus of the annual spring drive.
A marker near the river indicates the spot where the "Mar- garetta" was beached, after being towed up the river following its capture, and concealed from the British by leafy boughs.
Perkins, 1847
Swan Island, later Perkins, about four miles long and one- half to one mile wide, lying in the Kennebec River, was originally incorporated as a part of the town of Frankfort.
Stearns Point in Dresden is opposite the northern end of the island, and Carney Point near the southern end. It was called Swan Island from the earliest period, except for a short time, about 1719, when the Pejepscot Proprietors called it Garden Isle. It was then owned by Adam Winthrop of Boston. Drake, in his Book of the In- dians, says that Swan Island was sold by Abagadusset, an Indian chief, to Humphrey Davie in 1667; and that a Sachem, or line of Sachems called Kenebis, lived upon the island. It was afterward claimed by John Davie, a sergeant-at-law; and Christopher Law- son about 1665 purchased it. In 1671 Sylvanus Davis of Hull, Eng- land, was proprietor of land on the east side of the Kennebec River "over against Swan Id." Thos. Percy, later of Georgetown, lived on the island in 1730, and Captain James Whidden in 1750. The Ply- mouth Company granted him 325 acres of land in 1756; and the rest of the island went to Dr. Sylvester Gardiner.
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