USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 43
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Ephraim Abbott was a missionary in this section in 1811. The following is an extract from his diary:
Sept. 2, 1811 Went from Robbinston to No. 3, Rode to Mr. Boyden's on horseback and crossed a part of Boyden's Lake in a birch canoe. Then my guide Mr. Ebeneezer Fisher carried his canoe on his back for about half a mile - thence we descended the stream that leads from Boyden Lake to Pen- namaquon Lake and across the lake to the mouth of Round Pond Stream and landed at Mr. David Fisher's. There are now nine families in No. 3, sixty-seven persons, thirty two of these of proper age to attend school. They have no school books and have never had a school in town.
The first plantation meeting was in 1821. In 1825 Plantation No. 3 asked for a name. It should have been Pennamaquon, as David Fisher headed his letter, but William Vance from Baring, a member of the State Legislature, asked the privilege of naming the town after his wife, Charlotte Mulholland Vance, and there was no one present to object, so Charlotte it became.
Mariaville, 1836
Mariaville is situated in the middle of the western side of Han- cock County. It was organized as a plantation in 1820 and originally was called Bingham for the great landholder, William Bingham of Philadelphia, whose first purchase was the 1,000,000 acres in Han- cock and Washington counties, including the lottery lands. The pres- ent town of Mariaville was included in this purchase and received this name at its incorporation in 1836. For years all "up river" (the Union River) was known as Mariaville, but the town has been re- duced to its present unshapely outlines by the taking off of Aurora, Amherst and Waltham in 1822.
The names of the pioneer settlers were Mr. Fabrick, Seth Al- cott, B. and D. Eppes, James Hapworth and Elisha Goodwin. Tilden was once a part of Mariaville. William Bingham had two daughters, very gay and accomplished, one of whom, Anne Louisa, married Alexander Baring, afterward Lord Ashburton. The second, Maria Matilda, was distinguished for her three marriages into the nobility of France and England. It was for her that the town was named.
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CHAPTER XIX Towns Whose Names Emphasize the Characteristics of the Townspeople
One group of towns in Maine is endowed with names describ- ing the conditions under which the settlers were living or wished to live at the time of their incorporation, or the characteristics of those citizens and their opportunities for freedom and unity.
Union, 1786
Not only in Maine, but in many other states has the name Union been given to towns, townships and counties. It is an expres- sion of sentiment which pervaded the hearts of the people and aroused them into action. The name was most often bestowed at the time when the idea of union was coming into the national consciousness.
The town of Union in Maine is situated in the western part of Knox County. It was a part of Muscongus, later the Waldo Patent, and was purchased of the Waldo heirs by Dr. John Taylor of Lunen- burg, Massachusetts, in 1774, for the consideration of one hundred pounds, lawful money.
The settlement was started that same year and such favorable terms were offered to actual settlers that, in a few years, the whole tract was taken up. It was first called Taylortown, but was later or- ganized as the plantation of Sterlington, on May 3, 1786.
In October of that same year, it was incorporated as the town of Union, commemorating the harmony which prevailed among the inhabitants.
Probably the first white people who located in this Maine town were Archibald and James Anderson, James Malcom and John Crawford, Jr. All of these men were natives of Scotland. In 1776 Philip Robbins of Walpole, Massachusetts, bought about 4000 acres of land at fifty cents per acre. Other members of the Robbins family came and the number of inhabitants increased rapidly. Richard Cummings from Stoughton cleared land here about this period, but soon returned to Massachusetts. Dr. Taylor built the first frame house in town about 1776; the work was done by Colonel Benjamin Burton and Nathaniel Fales. It was eighteen by twenty feet in size and was the only frame house in the town until after its incorporation. In the year 1776 rye was reaped, the first grain ever harvested in town. Tay-
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lor erected a barn that same season, and Richard Cummins built a log house. In 1777 Philip Robbins got out a frame for a barn and Taylor put up a frame for a saw mill on Crawford's River. A grist mill was built under the saw mill.
At the time of Burgoyne's surrender, there were only three families in Sterlington, supposed to be those of Philip Robbins, David Robbins and Richard Cummings. Mason Wheaton bought 1000 acres of land of John Taylor in 1779 and resided here a short time, then returned to Thomaston and became its first Representative to the General Court. In 1780 Joel Adams, Matthias Hawes and Jason Ware came from Franklin, Massachusetts, and located here; the first two soon married and settled in homes. In 1784 Amariah Mero came from Stoughton; in 1785 Josiah Robbins, brother of Philip, came from Franklin and in May of that same year came Royal Grinnell and his family. In 1786 Samuel Hills, the first blacksmith, and his wife ar- rived. This was twelve years after the coming of Dr. Taylor.
At the time of the incorporation, there were nineteen families in town: Adams, Bowen, Butler, Cummings, Grinnell, Abijah and Matthias Hawes, Hills, Holmes, Mero, Patridge, Bela, David, Ebe- neezer, Jesse, Josiah and Philip Robbins and Jason Ware, with sev- enty-seven people in all. In 1787 Levi Morse, Wm. Hart and Oliver Leland came; in 1788 Joseph Maxcy and Joseph Guild came from Attleborough, Massachusetts. Thomas Daggett came in 1789, then Seth Luce and family, Christopher Butler and family and Ichabod Irish. In 1790 there were 200 inhabitants. In 1810 a paper mill was erected on Crawford's Stream, which burned in 1818, but another was built in 1819.
Columbia, 1796
It was in the period following the Revolutionary War that the word Columbia came into use as a synonym for America. It is an ex- pression of poetic and idealistic sentiment popularized by the song "Hail Columbia," which was written by Joseph Hopkinson and is said to have been first sung in Philadelphia in 1798. Before this, however, King's College in 1784 had become Columbia College by the action of its patriotic regents, and Columbia River had received its name from a Boston merchant ship which entered the river in 1787. The name is derived from the great explorer, Christopher Columbus.
The town of Columbia in Maine, situated in the southwestern part of Washington County, received its name before the song became popular, and thus expressed the patriotic sentiments of its early set- tlers. Plantations Number 12 and 13 west of Machias were incor- porated in 1796 as the town of Columbia, and so remained until 1863, when the town was divided, on the division line of the old
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plantations, and the eastern part of Number 13 was set off as Colum- bia Falls. According to the census of 1790, the entire population of the two plantations at that time was 231, of which Number 12 had 8 and Number 13 had 223.
The first settlers were Wm. and Noah Mitchell from Falmouth, who came about 1750. The marshland at the mouth of Pleasant River had attracted them as feed for their cattle. They first constructed rude log cabins and hovels. William built the first frame house in town; exactly where it was located is not known.
The heads of families in Number 12 in 1790 were Samuel, Isaac and Parratt Leighton.
Among the heads of families living in Plantation Number 13, now Columbia Falls, in 1790 were Allen, Archer, Bucknam, Black, Cox, Coffin, Calaghan, Crocker, Drisko, Dunbar, Dorr, Hale, Inger- soll, Kelly, Nash, McKinsey, Merritt, Mansfield, McKaslegen, Rey- nolds, Tinny, Tucker, Tibbetts, Whitney, Wilson, Worcester, Wass and Weymouth.
The first town meeting was held in April, 1796, at the dwell- ing house of Joseph Patten who was elected town clerk. Thomas Rug- gles, Wm. Wass and David Wass were selectmen. At the first regular annual town meeting, Benjamin Ruggles was elected moderator; Wm. Bucknam, town clerk; Elisha Coffin, Thomas Ruggles and Gowen Wilson, selectmen, and Joseph Patten, treasurer.
Two young Englishmen, Thomas and Samuel Leighton, came about 1760 from Falmouth to Narraguagus. Samuel settled in Co- lumbia, the progenitor of all the Leightons in this vicinity. Of his four sons, Isaac settled at Columbia, and married Mary Worster in 1813. She was the sister of Deacon Moses Worster.
Captain Joseph Wilson of Kittery was one of the first settlers. He came about 1762; Captain John Bucknam from North Yarmouth, an early comer, began to build mills, and started lumbering in 1773. He married Mary, the daughter of Joseph Wilson. John Bucknam was one of the incorporators of Washington Academy in 1791. These two families figured largely in the early settlement.
Jonathan Dorr came from Wales, England, and after a few years in Steuben came to Columbia in 1788. Of the Allens, Gideon Allen came early and the brothers, Robert and Samuel, settled in Columbia; Moses Worster from Old York arrived about 1775 and settled in that part of Columbia known as Saco. Joseph Patten who came in 1789 was a blacksmith from Wells, Maine. He soon began shipbuilding and the first vessel was launched in 1799. James Bailey, from the same town, set up the first coloring and cloth-dressing ma- chine; John Archer, a brick mason by trade, born in England and a Revolutionary soldier, came to Columbia in 1789, and John Mc-
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Caslin, another Revolutionary soldier, took up a place, paying only five dollars for the making out of the title.
Captain Thomas Ruggles came from Rochester, Massachusetts, to the District of Maine in 1795; he was a prominent businessman, bought a large tract of land, acquired a saw mill and accumulated wealth. He became one of the great lumber barons in eastern Maine. The beautiful four-square mansion which he built in 1810 is still an object of admiration. Wm. Ingersoll, who had come in 1779, built a mill located at "Burnt Mill Rips."
Joshua Young was the first resident minister in 1798; Dr. Caleb Haskell, the first resident physician, came in 1799. He put up a wool carding machine which was carried on by Samuel Bucknam; Jonathan Weston was the first lawyer. His stay was brief. Elijah Ham- lin practiced law for some time; his brother, Hannibal, often lived and studied with him. Other outstanding' settlers who deserve more than a passing notice were the Coffins.
John Puffer, a soldier of the War of 1812 and a prisoner in the notorious Dartmoor prison for more than two years, came about 1825 and bought the "betterments" of a place at Little River. He was active in town affairs and in building up the town society.
Columbia Falls, 1863
As has already been stated, Columbia Falls was a section of Columbia until 1863. The list of heads of families in 1790 in Planta- tion No. 13 has also been given, showing that in the early days the population centered here. The village is on the falls of Pleasant River at the head of the tide, where there is a drop of sixteen feet in three hundred yards, thus offering power for the early saw and grist mills necessary to the newcomers in the development of a new town. Here today one views with pleasure the Bucknam House, erected in 1794, and the Ruggles House with its expertly carved rooms. The parlor alone, with its priceless mantle, built in 1810, is said to have cost more than one thousand dollars. The Samuel Bucknam House was erected in 1820.
When the towns were separated in 1863, the committee for Columbia Falls consisted of George Harris, George W. Ruggles and Gowen Wilson, while from the parent town the members serving were Levi Leighton, Abraham Nash and W. H. Puffer, all names of des- cendants of the settlers of the old plantations or town.
Industry, 1803
Industry, in Franklin County, was incorporated in 1803, taking its plantation name. Hanson, in his History of Gardiner, Pittston and West Gardiner, gives the following explanation of the name:
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When the town was about to be incorporated, the Rev. J. Thompson asked his wife, Betty Winslow, as he was leaving home, "What shall we call the new town?" "Name it for the character of the people," was the reply, "call it Industry." He accordingly proposed the name, and it was accepted.
The town and plantation was formed from the northwestern part of the Plymouth or Kennebec Patent. The first settlements were made about 1793-94. "The first settler within the limits of Industry, as the town was afterwards named, was Levi Greenleaf who came in 1787," says Wm. Collins Hatch, the historian of Industry. Greenleaf was a native of Bolton, Massachusetts, and a young man of character and energy. He married about the time of his removal to the wilds of Maine and brought his wife and household goods here on a sled drawn by four large oxen. The farm cleared by him was in that part of the town ceded to New Sharon in 1852. Peter Witham, who came to Industry from the vicinity of Hallowell in 1788 and settled north of Mr. Greenleaf, was the second settler on the Patent.
No further settlements were made until 1792, when Nathaniel Willard and sons came from Dunstable, Massachusetts, and settled at Thompson's Corner. Three years later Mr. Willard's son, Levi, took up land adjoining his father on the north, while Samuel, another son, settled in the southern part of the town; his land adjoined that of Levi Greenleaf. Jonathan Knowlton located on the north side of Bannock Hill in 1792. He was one of the original purchasers of the township of New Vineyard and owned the northwest section of the New Vineyard Gore. He was probably succeeded by Archelaus Luce, and in 1798 the lot reverted to Knowlton's son, Jonathan Knowlton, Jr., who lived there until the town was incorporated.
The lands were first taken up where each individual chose, and held by possession, but afterward were purchased from those claiming proprietorship under the original grant. John Thompson, Jr., and Jeremiah Beane settled near Levi Greenleaf in 1793, but nothing is known about them.
The following year saw quite an influx of immigrants, among whom were James Thompson, Thos. Johnson and Zoe Withee. James Thompson had resided in Norridgewock for some years previous to his settlement on the Patent. He was a native of New Hampshire. He settled as near neighbor of Nathaniel Willard. He was a man of energy and enterprise, cleared a good farm, built a commodious farmhouse and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. He eventually sold his farm to Samuel Norton of Edgartown, Massachusetts, and moved to the State of New York. Thos. Johnson and sons from Mar- tha's Vineyard came to Sandy River in 1793. The following year he began to clear a lot and build a log cabin, and he moved his family
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there in the autumn of the same year. Zoe Withee settled at Withee's Corner, a near neighbor to Mr. Johnson. Withee was a soldier of the Revolution who came from Vienna to Industry in 1793-94; he was previously a native of New Hampshire. His farm in former years was one of the best in town.
John Thompson, also of Vienna, came in 1795 and settled on a lot adjoining that of his brother, James, on the east. Here he cleared land, erected a cabin and made his home for some years, but sub- sequently moved over to a lot near the Stark's line. John Thompson cleared up a fine farm, erected mills on a small stream which flowed through his lot and also a commodious two-story house. He was largely instrumental in erecting the Red Meeting House, the first house of worship in the town, and figured prominently in every good work. It was he who suggested the name of the town as offered by his wife. His son, Robert, inherited his house and spent his whole life thereon.
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Samuel Crompton, an Englishman from Staffordshire County, came in 1795; his lot was located in that part of the town now set off to New Sharon. Samuel Moody and several of his sons came from Shapleigh in 1797. Captain Wm. Allen started a clearing in 1796 on what has since been known as Allen's Hill; the following year he cut more trees, built a log house and in the spring of 1798 moved his family to the Patent. William, his eldest son, began a clearing in 1801 and sowed two acres of wheat and one of rye that season; and Bart- lette, another son, settled on a farm near by. The Allens were from Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard.
Among other early settlers were Benj. Cottle, Daniel Luce, Peter Daggett, Jabez Norton, Peter West, James Winslow, John Gower and Lemuel Howes.
Unity, 1804
Unity lies in the northwestern part of Waldo County. It be- longed in the Plymouth Patent and its first settlement was started about the year 1782. It was incorporated as Unity in 1804, after being the plantation of "Twenty-Five Mile Pond." "Unison in political sentiment" was the circumstance which gave it the name of Unity. The town was first settled by Thaddeus Carter and Ware. It was first called Twenty-Five Mile Pond Plantation because that was the dis- tance from the junction of the Sebasticook and Kennebec rivers, known as Fort Halifax, to the Twenty-Five Mile Pond now called Lake Winnecook. This was before the French and Indian War began.
When hostilities broke out, the settlers were obliged to flee and for fear of Indians they moved their families to the fort at Wins- low. After the close of the war, Thaddeus Carter returned and with
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him a man by the name of Philbrook. They settled upon land at the west side of Sandy Stream, near the Outlet Bridge. In 1782 Stephen Chase came from Durham, Maine, and settled on the shore of the pond. His wife was Hannah Blethen from Durham, a member of the Society of Friends. Mr. Chase built the first frame house in Unity. Their grave is marked by a Welsh slate tablet in Lakeside Cemetery.
A few years after Mr. Chase's settlement, the following ap- pears in Hayden's field notes: "Upon the stream leading from Unity . Pond, I found a man by the name of John Mitchell building a mill in 1782 on what I called a good privilege." It is from Hayden's Survey that the authority for the name Twenty-Five Mile Pond is taken. In 1788 Henry Farwell moved from Chester, New Hampshire, and set- tled on a farm from which he moved later to a location where he and Mr. Pettie built a grist mill, and the place became known as Farwell's Mills. In 1792 Clement Rackliff moved from Limington, Maine. He came with an ox team and located on a farm which he cleared. The same year Aaron Kelley arrived from Boothbay. He was a Revolutionary soldier, and had served under General Wadsworth. He walked through the forest with his family and chose his place of settlement about two and one half miles south of where the village now is, on the Bangor and Augusta road, at the southeast corner of the town, where the Belfast road crosses. Here he built a log house and planted an orchard. In 1794 Simeon Murch and his wife came from Gorham, Maine, a distance of over one hundred miles, on horse- back. In 1795 John Melvin came from Manchester, New Hampshire, and in 1796 Joseph Woods from Standish, Maine.
In 1800 John Perley moved from Winchenden; in 1802 Wm. McGray from Durham, and three brothers, Frederick, John and Na- thaniel Stevens, cleared the land north of Bacon Brook. In 1803 Mark Libby from Gorham settled, and in 1807 Robert Carll from Lyman. At this time Mr. Carll said there were only two frame houses in Unity. In 1810 Richard Cornforth came from Readfield, Maine, and settled at Farwell Mills, where he built a wool, carding and cloth mill. Rufus Burnham, M. D., was the first physician, from Scar- borough, Maine. He lived at first with the family of John Chase in the brick house near the station.
In 1831 a Mr. Pingrey of Salem, Massachusetts, erected a large tannery near the village. Among the other early settlers were Gibbs Tilton, from Martha's Vineyard, Ephraim Hunt and Isaac Myrick from Gorham, Colonel James Connor from Gardiner, Arche- laus Hunt and Daniel Whitmore from Gorham, Alexander Booth- bay, M. D., from Limington, Chandler Hopkins from Standish and Amos Jones from Lunenberg, Massachusetts. Frederick Stevens was elected to the General Court in 1809.
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These early settlers were the pioneers; they felled trees for fire and shelter and made the waters yield their toll of food. They plowed the soil and built mills to grind the corn. The grandson of Simon Murch, who came in 1794, tells of his grandfather's method of mov- ing. Spotted trees through a nearly unbroken forest were the guides, travel was by horseback. A strong bedtick was fixed astride the horse's back, one small child on each side for balance. Thus they moved from Gorham to what is now the town of Unity, with grandfather walking on one side and grandmother on the other. A log cabin and a small opening had been made by the grandfather the previous year. He planted vegetables which soon grew. Corn had to be carried to Wins- low eighteen miles to be ground. A number of neighbors would go together, each carrying a bushel of corn on his shoulders. The toll was the amount of meal that two quarts of corn would make. Fish and game were plenty; shad and herring came up the outlet to Twenty-Five Mile Pond.
The first Plantation meeting was held on August 3, 1802. Al- though the earliest settlements were made near the pond and stream, the next settlers pressed on to the south part of the town. This was called "The Settlement." Here the store, the school, the church sprang up, and one by one as needed, the smaller industries.
Harmony, 1804
Harmony, Somerset County, was originally granted by Massa- chusetts to Hallowell Academy, and was purchased from that institu- tion by Charles Vaughn of that town. It was settled in 1796 and bore the name of Vaughnstown until 1804, when it was incorporated under its present name. The name was selected "to perpetuate the life of harmony as it existed in the town among the inhabitants." It was selected by the wife of Deacon John Moses and mother of Franklin Hurd, because, as she said, "of the good feelings which prevailed among the inhabitants."
The first permanent settler of the town was Trustrun Hurd of Wolfboro, New Hampshire, who came to "the Intervale Farm" in 1796 and built a log house a few rods west of Higgins Stream near the shore of Moose Pond. He and his family came by the way of Mal- bon Mills, from which place he journeyed by spotted trail over Fox Hill in the present town of Athens. They brought cattle with them, and it is related that Mr. Hurd climbed a tree on Fox Hill, from which he could look down upon the luxuriant growth of swamp grass on the intervale on which he built his log house. One of the next set- tlers was John Merrill, grandfather of E. N. Merrill of Skowhegan, one of the best-known lawyers in the state, who came with his two brothers, Levi and Benjamin, of Shapleigh, Maine. Jonathan Rob-
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inson, Deacon John Moses and Wm. Leighton also came about this time, the last taking up land in the west part of the town about 1800. Robinson's land was to the south. Ichabod Goodwin journeyed with his family from the western part of the state with a four-ox team and several cows. He was obliged to swamp a road from Athens over Lord's Hill, a distance of five and one half miles.
The settlement was rapid from about 1800. The first frame house built in the village is still intact, including the latches and finishing. It was built more than a hundred years ago, in the early 1800's by Captain Robert Evans, who had previously cleared a place on the south road and built a log house there. He bought out the water privilege and mills which James Leighton then owned. Cap- tain Evans was a delegate from the town of Harmony to the Constitu- tional Convention of Maine at Portland in 1819.
The oldest frame house at Main Stream was built by Captain John Merrill on the river bank, but was later moved to the top of the hill on the opposite side of the road. Among other men who came to town in the early days were Ephraim Chadbourne and Joseph Herrick who came from Greene about 1825. The timber which Her- rick had prepared for building a house was burnt in the great fire of that year. Isaac McPhetres and Thomas Herrick soon came with their families. Among the most important newcomers were the Bart- letts, members of a distinguished English family. Ozias early built a mill; one daughter was an artist; one son, an inventor. Martin Bailey, mentioned in the historical account of Cambridge, is said to have driven the first vehicle into town from Leeds, an oxcart with "block wheels" made of tree sections.
Other pioneers were John Page, who came from Augusta to Harmony in 1804 and settled on the shore of Moose Pond, where he cleared up a farm; Nicholas Brown, David Kimball, Isaac Hutchins, John Thurston, Nathaniel Parsons, Lemuel Baker, David Smith, Sam- uel Ham, Elijah Hamilton, Stephen Clark, Elisha Tibbetts, John Gray, Robert Brown and Stephen Dore. About 1830 Joseph Welch came from Old York by ox team, first to Wellington and then to Har- mony, where he cleared a farm. Reuben Drew and his wife settled on Sugar Hill about 1830, where Ephraim Knowles had settled in 1808. Josiah Farrar came from Bristol, Maine, about 1835. He in- terested the people in the community in building a church. The Methodist Society had been organized in 1826, and the first church was built at Main Stream in 1842 by Elder Hiram Chase. The Bart- lett mill, the most important industry when first built, had a few machines for making rolls; then came the weaving of all-wool cassi- meres, then the manufacture of yarn. There have been cooper's shops, a shovel handle factory, hatters, a tannery and a shoemaker shop. At
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