USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 44
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Main Stream Village, there have been grist mills, a carding and satinet mill and a saw mill for boards and shingles. Today Harmony is still known for its wood products, its carding of wool and manu- facture of yarns.
When James Russell Lowell was on his way to the Moose- head country in 1853, he spoke of the Sebasticook as "a pretty stream with alternations of dark brown pools and wine colored rapids."
Hope, 1804
Perhaps the question of the source of the name of the town of Hope cannot be definitely answered. Some authorities find in the word the assurance of a land of hope, of good promise, felt by the early settlers on the incorporation of the town. John J. Locke, in his History of Camden, states that Dr. Moses Dakin related to him the following story:
When the town was laid out by surveyor James Mal- colm, the four corner posts were marked wholly by random with the letters E H P O. When a name for the town was asked by the surveyors, a young assistant solved the matter by saying "We have already named the town unintentionally by the let- ters on the boundary stakes. Here they are, and they may be arranged into H O P E" and thus the matter was settled.
The town of Hope is situated on the northeastern side of Knox County on the eastern tributary of the Georges' River.
The "Twenty Associates" being desirous of disposing of their land to actual settlers, agreed with Charles Barrett of New Ipswich, New Hampshire, to grant to him the area which is now the town of Hope, divided, by a then recent survey, into 120 lots of 160 acres each. Mr. Barrett was to build a meeting house and schoolhouse and settle forty families in Hope and have for their services 80 of the 120 lots, leaving the remaining 40 lots to the original proprietors. He named the place Barrettstown, which it remained until 1804, and at once pro- ceeded to induce settlers to come to his grant. He offered to give each settler 100 acres out of 160 for settling each lot, with the option of purchasing the remaining 60 acres, inserting, however, as a proviso in the agreement, that every settler taking up land must within a stipu- lated time clear up three acres or forfeit his claim.
Among those who were influenced by these inducements to set- tle in the western part of Camden and in Hope were Samuel Apple- ton, the Hosmers, Hodgmans, Russels, Saffords, Barretts, Mansfields and Philbricks.
On the outlets of the ponds in the town are several water powers. Hope Village and South Hope are the principal centers of business. The manufactures at the former place were boots and shoes,
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sleigh tops, cider, vinegar, staves, etc. At the latter place, sash, doors and furniture, lumber, staves and heads, carriages, mowing machines, meal and flour were made.
Among the other early settlers coming from New Hampshire and Massachusetts were Wm. Howett Sampson and Stephen Sweet- land, Micah Hobbs and Fergus McClain.
A part of the original town of Hope in the northwest was an- nexed to Appleton in 1843.
Friendship, 1807
Friendship, the southwesternmost town of Knox County, was a part of Muscongus or Waldo Patent and lies on the northwest side of Muscongus Bay. The Indian and Plantation name was Medum- cook meaning "Sandy Harbor," a seemingly unappropriate name since the shore is rockbound and there are many bold bluffs, where ships may ride at anchor in safety in twenty feet of water. The first settlements were made in 1750. About this date, a garrison was erected on an island in the southern part of the town, which bears the name of Garrison Island. It is connected with the mainland at low water. James Bradford, who was one of the first inhabitants, settled at the fort. The town was incorporated in 1807 and took its name from the friendliness of the people. Friendship River forms a large part of the boundary line on the east and the outlet of Southwest Pond forms its entire line with Waldoboro. In addition to its 8000 acres of mainland, the town includes Friendship, Long Island and Moses Island.
In 1754 there were resident here twenty-two families, among which occur the following names: Samuel, Alexander and Paul Jame- son, Abial and Sedate Wadsworth, Davis Lowry, Wellington Gay, Captain Cushing, Nathaniel Bartlett, John Demorse, Bickmore, Cor- nelius Morton, Joshua Bradford, Elijah, James and Zenas Cook and Zachariah, Griffith, Samuel and John Davis. In the war of 1755 they all moved into the garrison except Bradford, who believed that he could easily reach it whenever Indians should appear, but he and his wife were killed by the savages.
Manufacturies which have been carried on at Friendship Village are ship and boat building, sail, carriage, boot and shoe mak- ing, and shingle and stave mills.
Freedom, 1813
Freedom, Waldo County, was a part of the Plymouth Patent. The first opening here was made in the forest in 1794 by Stephen Smith from Nobleborough, a soldier of the Revolution. With the as- sistance of his brothers and a James Naddocks, he also built the first house in town, in the latter part of that year. It was located a short
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distance south of the burying ground in South Freedom. The next June, John Smith, subsequently known as Father Nehemiah, settled in the township. Then followed the Reverend Aaron Gould, Isaac Worthing and James and Joshua Smith. Other prominent names of settlers of a little later date are Jason Wood, Frost Garry, Gideon Robinson, Colonel Brown, Benjamin Comings, Bradstreet Wiggins, Wm. Sibley and the Reverend Reuben Keene. Still later well-known names are the Honorables Robert Elliot, J. D. Lamson, N. A. Luce, Ithamar Bellows, Varney Blackstone and Aaron W. Gould.
In honor of the first settler the place was first named Smith- town; later it was called Beaver Hill Plantation. When it was incor- porated as a town in 1813 during the last war with Great Britain, it was given its present name which was the choice of the inhabitants, "having a political significance and expressing the spirit of the people at that time."
Freedom Academy was incorporated in 1836. It has furnished a part of their education to many who have become prominent in their callings.
Liberty, 1827
Liberty lies within the limits of the Waldo Patent in the south- western part of Waldo County. It was incorporated in 1827, at which time the citizens expressed their desire for freedom in the name adopted.
The first permanent settler was James Davis, a Presbyterian clergyman, originally from Massachusetts, who came in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Two years later his two sons, William and Joshua, and a more distant relative also became residents. These families intermarried and the place was called Davistown; in 1794 came Ezekiel Knowlton from Nobleborough, with his axe on his shoulder. He built a cabin on George's Great Pond, which he soon re- placed by a frame dwelling. About 1801 Samuel Knowlton arrived and in 1805 a cousin, John, joined them. They were an English fam- ily, who first came to Ipswich, Massachusetts, and then to Noble- borough, Maine.
One of the first settlers was Braddock Handy, a carpenter by trade. He built a mill on the Sheepscot River, where he sawed short lumber and later made dowels; Benjamin Tibbets of Boothbay Har- bor came as early as 1809-10, on a hunting expedition, and then set- tled here. Among other very early settlers were Ebenezer Stevens and Robert Lermond, of Scotch-Irish origin, the first of his family to come from Waldoborough about 1800; and Stephen Prescott, from Belfast, the first of his family to settle here, about the same date. From Boothbay Harbor also came Moses Whitaker; from Richmond, James
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and Reliance Brown. Enoch Whitehouse and James Bagley were also early comers.
The Reverend Wm. Lewis, accompanied by his brother, Joseph, was one of the pioneer settlers from Boothbay in 1811.
John E. Dodge arrived about 1814. He always followed the sea even after settling here; James Marshall, of Irish birth, took up land adjoining Marshall's Shore. This was to him the most beauti- ful place in America. John Edwards also came in 1814.
The first Boyntons to settle in Liberty arrived at the above date. They were four brothers, two of whom, Asa and James, located in Liberty, and Oliver and Samuel in Palermo. They were of English stock. The Cargills came in the nineteenth century from Wiscasset and Jefferson.
Sherman's Corner takes its name from the Sherman family; the first of the name, Abiel, came in 1829.
The plantation name was Montville and in 1817 Ezekiel Knowlton and Timothy Copp were assessors.
At Liberty Village and South Liberty there have been many saw and grist mills as well as tanneries.
Amity, 1836
Amity is in the southern part of Aroostook County and was early known as No. 10, First Range. It has sometimes been called Monument Town, since the monument at the head of the St. Croix is situated in the northeast corner of the town. The early settlers bought their land for twenty cents per acre, payable one half in cash and one half in work on the highways. The town was incorporated in 1836 as Amity, "a name which attested the harmony and peace obtaining among the carly settlers." For a while the township was also known as Hodgdon.
The settlement of the town dates back to the year 1825, when Jonathan Clifford began to make a clearing in the north part of the town, a short distance west of the present Calais road. At the time of Clifford's coming, a few settlers had established themselves upon the adjoining township of No. 11, now Cary, and their smokes could be seen from the ridge where he made his clearing. These were his nearest neighbors and no road passable in summer led to his wilder- ness home. In 1826 Mr. Edward Cone took a lot next to Mr. Clifford and began to make a clearing; he had come from New Salem, Massa- chusetts, to Houlton in 1815 and lived there until he came to his new home in No. 10, where he cleared up a large farm and was for many years a prominent citizen of the town, one of the officers at the time of its organization.
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Seth Farrar, one of the earliest settlers, came from Searsmont and settled in New Brunswick, then went to Hodgdon. A well- educated man of much ability and force of character, he took an ac- tive part in the construction of the military post at Houlton and was instrumental in the opening of the military road to that place. He and his son, Columbus, built a section of it. He also built portions of the road from Houlton to Calais. Esquire Dunn purchased in 1826 a block of land in Amity consisting of four lots of 100 acres each, and in 1827 Columbus Dunn settled on the block. At that time the only road was a lumber road from Houlton through Hodgdon and Cary, passable for teams only through the winter time. Deacon Columbus Dunn was for many years one of the most prominent citizens of the town. He was one of the active religious workers, and was also post- master and held many other town offices. Charles Dunn, a brother, settled on the lot next south, and was one of the selectmen for many years.
A number of settlers soon arrived after the Dunns: Mr. Asa Tracey from Gouldsborough in 1827; in 1828 Jonathan Greenleaf from Starks kept a hotel; Samuel Newman from Sangerville was a selectman; Benjamin Winship, Wm. Clark from Liberty, and James H. Curtis from Dexter all came about this time. A little later came Wm. Williams who was then living in Houlton; he bought four lots a short distance south of the center of the town and built a log house. Mansfield Williams, a son, lived on the Curtis place and traded at the "Corner" near Mr. Greenleaf. Reverend Elisha Bedell, the first clergy- man, came from the town of Crawford and organized the first church of the town. He remained in Amity until about 1845.
At the first town meeting on April 11, 1836, the moderator was Columbus Dunn; clerk, Edmund Cone; selectmen, Edmund Cone, Elisha Bedell and Samuel Newman; treasurer, James H. Curtis; collector and constable, Asa Tracey. Daniel Harmon came from Calais to Amity in 1837 and taught the town school. That year was a hard one for the settlers, and bread was scarce. Messrs. Todd and McAllister of Calais owed the town for stumpage, and so great was the need that the money was divided among the people, and teams were sent to Calais where corn was procured and divided among the hungry settlers.
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CHAPTER XX Religious Names in Maine Towns
Words of religious meaning appear in the names of Maine towns, sometimes in remembrance of a place, or of a person; in one or two instances of a saint, or of a loved hymn tune.
Lebanon, 1767
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like the cedar in Lebanon.
The surveying, granting and settling of the township now known as the town of Lebanon was a milestone in the peopling of the vast eastern wilderness of our present State of Maine. No measure could have afforded the older towns more gratification. "For more than a century they had stood in single file between the ocean and the woods and never were the people's prudential and heroic virtues put to a severer test."
As early as 1727 the General Court had been asking what would be the best way to plant new townships in the near-by wilder- ness, but not until six years later, in 1733, did the time seem pro- pitious for such a venture. At that date, "profound peace abroad," "settled tranquility of the Indians at home," and the desirability of providing lands for "men of industry and virtuous habits" brought about a resolve in favor of new townships, one of which was to be located in Maine.
In accordance with this enactment, Sir William Pepperrell, John Alding and Richard Milbury were appointed a committee to lay out sixty lots "in the most defensible manner" for settlers, with the necessary highways. They performed the required services, took the needed bonds from the settlers and had their report accepted. The original settlers included Joseph Chadbourne, Nathan Lord, Joseph Hartt, Ichabod Goodwin and fifty-six others, largely from Kittery, York and Berwick, Maine, and Dover and Somersworth, New Hamp- shire.
The conditions which the proprietors of this town were re- quired to meet were most important, since they offered a basic plan for later planting of townships. They agreed " ... to clear from five to eight acres of land fit for mowing and tillage and to build a dwell-
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ing house at least 18 feet square and 7 feet post." They were also required by their charter to build a meeting house and to settle and maintain a learned and orthodox minister for the inhabitants and to build him a house. Among the first settlers who came about 1746 were Farnhams, Copps, Doors, Husseys, Rines, Stevens, Blaisdells, Tib- betts, Kenneys, Wallingfords, Perkins, and Corsons.
The meeting house was erected in 1753. Two garrison houses were built in 1755, and in 1761-62 came the first teacher and preach- er. The town was without a name until its incorporation, although the Indian name of Towweh was applied to this location at an early date. However, it never found place in the proprietors' records; they chose the rather descriptive title of "The-new-town-lately-granted-by- the-General-Court-at-the-Head-of-Berwick" and sometimes added "On-the-easterly-side-of-Salmon-Falls-River." On the incorporation of the town in 1767, it received the name of Lebanon. It was the first town in the Province of Maine to be given a name derived from the Holy Land, that goodly land from beyond Jordan which Moses prayed to "go over and see" and from which King Solomon desired trees for the building of his temple and King Hiram gave him "cedar trees and fir trees according to all his desires." After the incorporation of the town in 1767 its boundaries were extended by the addition of the Bagly and Chadbourne grants on the northwest and Baker's on the east, so that the present area of the town is about forty square miles.
Canaan, 1788
. . . the eyes of the Lord are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
Hanson says that the settlers styled their plantation as Hey- woodstown in honor of their oldest and most prominent citizen; but for some unknown reason, it was soon afterward changed to the plantation of Wesserunset, the Indian name of the stream running into the Kennebec in the town.
Both of these names were regarded as being too long to speak or to write, and, in selecting the name ultimately chosen when the town was incorporated in 1778, two considerations ruled: the re- ligious character and habits of thought of the earliest settlers, and the level beauty, rich fertility, and charming appearance everywhere. visible, bearing a faint resemblance to those "sweet fields arrayed in living green" which they imagined were at the end of life's pilgrim- age. These induced them to call their beautiful possessions Canaan. Old Canaan, as it was at the time of incorporation, included our present-day towns of Skowhegan and Canaan.
The earliest settlers of Old Canaan, Heywards, Weston and Oakes have already been mentioned under Skowhegan in the chapter
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on Indian names. Following these came the Smiths, Peases, Wymans, Whites, Parlins, Stewarts and Browns who settled in 1773 and 1774.
The present village of Canaan was started in 1803, when Jere- miah Goodwin, Thomas Chase and Nathan Taylor moved there and began to erect mills and lay the foundation of the town. In 1805 Joseph Barrett came. The first mill was erected on the Wesserunset on the bridge near the mouth.
Mars Hill, (1790) 1867
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said "Ye men of Athens I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious."
Although the town of Mars Hill in Maine was not incorpor- ated until 1867, it was in 1790 that a British Army chaplain of a sur- veying party read this verse as part of a religious service held on the hill which now bears the name and from which the town's name was later derived. It was upon the hill in Athens dedicated to the god of war, Mars, that the Apostle Paul declared the unknown God to the Athenians.
Mars Hill in Maine was a noted landmark in the settlement of Maine's northern boundary line between the United States and Great Britain, which was the subject of so many long and trouble- some disputes. In addition to the British surveying party of 1790, al- ready mentioned, the commissioners under the Treaty of Ghent in 1814 caused trees to be felled and a spot cleared on each of the peaks; and their astronomers and surveyors ascertained that the south peak was 1519 feet and the north, 1370 feet above the tidewaters of the St. Lawrence. It was not until 1842, under the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, that the fixing of the boundary line made the settlers in this section secure in the knowledge of their allegiance to America.
The original settlers were from New Brunswick. Moses Snow was the first comer; he arrived in 1844. Mrs. Gladys Tweedie, in Mars Hill, Typical Aroostook Town, gives a vivid account of the courage with which the Snow family met and conquered the almost unbroken wilderness. Mr. John Ruggles was the second settler, moving here in 1847 and erecting a log house for his family. About that same year Mr. John Brawn, the third settler, came and built his first house near the Snows. Then came Holland Bridges who built the first frame house in the present town.
A description of the hill has come down to us from 1858, when the Maine Press Association made a trip to the Aroostook:
Mars Hill is a rounded ridge, wooded to the summit having an elevation of not quite 2000 feet. The dense forest growth on the southern slope with the sunlight playing on the painted leaves alternating with the darker lines of evergreen presents a picture of rare beauty.
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Bangor, 1790 (City, 1834)
"Hark from the tombs a doleful sound, Mine ears attend the cry . .
So run the opening lines of the hymn entitled "Bangor," a favorite of the Reverend Seth Noble who, according to popular opinion, may have suggested the name.
The first petition presented to the General Court for the in- corporation of Conduskeag Plantation as a town gave the desired name as Sunbury; this was not granted. A second petition was pre- pared in 1790, when there were about forty-five families, and the name of Bangor was inserted as the name for the new town. The Reverend Seth Noble sailed for Boston in June of 1790 to present this petition to the General Court. It was granted, and Bangor became the seventy-third town in the District of Maine.
With the fall of Quebec in 1759 and the resulting Treaty of Peace in 1763, the power of the French was broken on the American continent and the way was open for English settlements in the present central and eastern sections of Maine.
Williamson, in his Relation of the early settlers of Bangor, says :
In 1769 came Jacob Buswell now Buzzell, formerly of Dover, New Hampshire, boatbuilder, hunter and fisherman; in 1770, Caleb Goodwin came and Stephen Buzzell married and came, he was the son of Jacob. All these three families lived near the spring, at the foot of the present Newbury Street.
The following year, Thomas Howard and his family appeared with six men, all from Woolwich, to look out lands and places for settlement. Two others, Solomon and Silas Hathorn, brothers, ar- rived and got out timber for a saw mill. In 1772 they brought their families and employed Joseph Mansell, a millwright, to build a saw mill on Penjejawock Stream. The Hathorns built this year a frame house which stood between the main road and river a few rods south of the mouth of the Penjejawock Strcam, the first framed house in town, which also became the first tavern kept by Captain Jameson.
The six who came with the Howards in 1771 were the Smart brothers, Thomas, John and Hugh, Jacob Dennett, Simon Crosby and David Rowell, all of whom joined and "clapped up" that is, suddenly built, a log house. Later, other log houses were built within the present precincts of Bangor; Simon Crosby built one near the Hampden line.
Dr. John Herbert came in 1774, the first preacher, teacher and physician. The frame house built by the Hathorns was occupied by Jedediah Preble as a truck house in 1774.
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In that year the heads of families who were taxed were Jede- diah Preble, Esq., Stephen and Jacob Buzzell, Simon and Abner Crosby, James Dunning, Jacob Dennett, Andrew Grant, Thomas Howard, Nathaniel Mayhew, Widow Smart, John Smart, Robert Treat, Widow Rose and Andrew Webster.
Oliver Noble came in 1779 and preached a few Sabbaths, and Daniel Little of Kennebunk came as a missionary. The first settled minister was Seth Noble. He had doubtless come here as one of the refugees from Nova Scotia, since he was granted 300 acres of land in Eddington. Although not a college-trained man, he had been licensed to preach and had been a settled minister in New Bruns- wick until 1777, when he fled to avoid taking the oath of allegiance to the British Crown. As a preacher he was able, eloquent and inter- esting. He was also a remarkable singer.
It is probable that the settlement of the present city of Bangor was organized as Conduskeag Plantation for village purposes early after the first settlement. On March 27, 1787, the people of Condus- keag had voted "to Buld a Meating house forty and thirty-six feet large" and "that the meating house Shall be Bult at Condeskge." By 1790 the population had reached the number of one hundred and fifty or thereabouts, and the people, being ambitious, were not con- tent with the primitive organization of the plantation of that day. They felt that it would be more dignified to have the town incor- porated and that it would perhaps advance their interests in many ways. The first town meeting of Bangor was held at the home of Cap- tain James Budge, near where Oak and Washington streets intersect.
Captain Budge was the first lumberman on the Penobscot River who made a business of it. He ran masts in rafts as well as hewn timbers to Castine. At this first town meeting, William Boyd was elected as moderator and William Hammond, Jr., as town clerk. Nathaniel Harlow, Andrew Webster and William Hammond, Jr., were made a committee to settle town business with the town trea- surer and collector, from the incorporation of the town, and William Boyd and Nathaniel Harlow, a committee to hire a minister, and "voted 66 Dollars 66 cents for the Gospel."
Hebron, 1792
Then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre (in Canaan) which is in Hebron and built there an altar unto the Lord .... In all the land that thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever.
Marquis King, in his Annals of Oxford, gives an interesting account of the peopling and naming of the town of Hebron in Maine. The territory of which the present town of Hebron is constituted was
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granted to Alexander Shepherd of Newton, Massachusetts, in 1777, "Provided that the said Alexander Shepherd, Jr. shall deliver to this Court on or before the last day of September next an accurate map of all the late Province of Maine . . ." It was also provided that the grantee should settle ten families in the grant within ten years. That this agreement was carried out is shown by a resolve of 1779 accept- ing Mr. Shepherd's map and confirming the grant to him. Both he and his father were active promoters of the settlement, although it is doubtful if the latter was an actual settler.
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