USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 49
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
The first permanent settler on the island was Timothy Dun- ton who, with his wife, Elizabeth, came in 1735 and remained until 1795, when he moved to Back River and became a resident of Booth- bay. Stephen Greenleaf bought land on the island in 1743. Among the first inhabitants were John Doors and Joseph Whittan who resided on the island in 1745. Thomas Ashley and Thomas Joy made an early settlement. Other pioneers were Jonas Shattuck, David Heal and Charles Stockbridge Brooks; while the names of Josiah Parsons, a "patriot of Bunker Hill" who settled on a farm near what is now Greenleaf Cove, where he built a mill, Benjamin Harrington, James McCarty, Sam and Ezekiel Tarbox and John and Joseph Hodgdon have been perpetuated in coves which indent the eastern shore of that island.
The pursuits of the inhabitants have always been lumbering and fishing. During the Revolution, no salt could be obtained from abroad, so a salt pit was begun at Hodgdon's Cove on the eastern side of Jeremisquam.
464
CHAPTER XXII More Maine Towns Whose Names Are Descriptive
The suffixes: ports, harbors, fords and bridges have also been used in various combinations to describe some outstanding character- istic of the different towns. Those using port with the several points of the compass have already been discussed.
Newport, 1814
Lying on the western border of Penobscot County, Newport was originally called Great East Pond Plantation, from the large sheet of water within the area which seems to have borne that name and is now known as Sebasticook Lake.
Here lay one of the main highways of aboriginal travel and the principal route by which the French missions communicated with one another. The early settlers also used the way as a means of escape from the Penobscot in time of war. When the town was incorporated in 1814 it received its name, according to Mr. Benjamin Shaw, one of the early pioneers, from the Indian portage anciently used between the tributaries of the Penobscot and the eastern branch of the Sebasti- cook, the New Port.
The plantation received its first settlers about 1808. Great East Pond and its tributaries were fine hunting and fishing grounds, and previous to 1800 many hunters and trappers came up the Sebasti- cook River and spent the hunting season in and around these waters.
The first permanent settler was James Houston, who arrived about 1800 and built a log house on what is now known as Birch Point, where he lived several years.
Four years after Houston came a party of no less than sixteen men, all "prospectors" from Skowhegan, seeking a better spot for their homes. Four of them, Deacon John Ireland, Sylvanus Whiting, Thomas Steward and Elim Pratt, settled on the north side of the lake and remained permanent settlers to the end of their lives. It is not known where the others made their homes.
Two other pioneers, Iphidiah Ring and Benjamin Shaw, came from Deerfield, New Hampshire, about the year 1806 and also made lasting settlements, both of them near the present Newport Village. Mr. Shaw located on the west side of the tract, where he built the
465
first frame dwelling erected in the town. Mr. Ring took a place on the hill, northwest of the village. Soon came Mr. Wm. Martin who located on the east side of the river, where he built a frame house and put up a saw and grist mill. The first settler definitely known to have located on the east side of Newport got in after the town was incorporated. He was Isaac Lawrence, believed to have come in 1815. His farm was at the foot of Billing's Hill, and he prospered in its cultivation until he became one of the most thrifty proprietors in the town.
The first town, or rather plantation, meeting within the pres- ent bounds of Newport was held in 1812 in the log cabin of Mr. Robert Stewart, to devise methods of defense against the Eastern Indians who it was believed would attack them. The first person to drive a wheeled vehicle from the Kennebec to the Penobscot was Mr. Caleb Shaw, who performed this then notable feat in 1820.
Winterport, 1860
This town lies on the west bank of the Penobscot River in the extreme northeastern portion of Waldo County. Its name was derived from its fine harbor and location at the head of winter navigation on the Penobscot River. It was formerly a part of Frankfort and had at one time some importance as a building and a port.
When Fort Pownal was built in 1759, all the territory sur- rounding it was called Frankfort, but gradually new towns were formed from the old.
The break between Frankfort and Winterport came in 1860, largely because the inhabitants in this section did not like to share in the repairs of the bridge over Marsh River. This river, which empties into the Penobscot in the upper part of the town, is full of ice through the winter and has a strong current, so the expense of repairs was constantly necessary. As a result, this lower part of Frankfort separ- ated from the original town and became Winterport. One long main street paralleling the river, with side streets right and left, comprises the town.
Many fine old residences were here built in the days of pros- perous shipbuilding. James Otis Kaler, known as James Otis, the writer of juvenile stories, was born here. Perhaps the finest building in town is the old Congregational Church sitting high on its three terraces near the center of the village. Built in 1832, it boasts a Paul Revere bell. The township was noted for its shipbuilding and com- merce. Jones' History states that "Winterport had two log houses in 1766, one on the site of the Sampson House and one on the Mc- Glathry place. They were owned by Ephraim Grant and John Couil- lard." Before a name was given to the town, it was foreshadowed in
466
ordinary use. Here was the winter port of many craft. Mr. Francis LeBaron Goodwin wrote: "1792 - Dec. 28 Cap'n Oakman arrived from Boston and hauld in at his Landing to Winter, Sunday." Since travel was at first by water, some means of access to the shore was necessary; rude structures called "landings" were built either for con- venience in getting ashore or for landing purposes.
Ada Douglass Littlefield, in An Old River Town, gives a vivid picture of the days of this shipping community: "a shore line sup- plied with coves and streams and sites favorable for landing places"; the seafaring men: "seamen traders, mariner or captain" who chose to live here came from "their former homes in old Plymouth, Well Fleet, Bristol and Provincetown."
Among the traders of note were Captain Oakman, already mentioned, who came to buy lots and cut and sell wood. Like all these other settlers, he owned his own sloop and his own landing place. Shipbuilding was first carried on at the wharf of John Kemp- ton in 1807 at Oak Point.
The McGlathery wharf engaged in a most lucrative business in trading, while Tisdale Dean, first as an individual trader and owner of a wharf, and then as a firm member of Andrews, Ware & Dean, conducted an extensive trade of wood products in exchange for provisions, West Indian and domestic goods. They too engaged in shipbuilding.
Bar Harbor, 1796
Bar Harbor, on Mount Desert Island, takes its name from the harbor with its Bar Island, which is directly in front and to the left of the town. The town was settled in 1763. It was taken from the northern and eastern parts of Mount Desert and incorporated under the name of Eden in 1796. Williamson says that the name Eden was given on account of the beauties of the place. This is the most ac- cepted version, but Varney states: "The name was probably adopted in honor of Richard Eden, an early English statesman." In 1918 this name was changed to Bar Harbor.
The petitioners for the incorporation of the town in 1796 asked that the name Adams, in compliment to Governor Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, might be bestowed on the new municipal corporation. This was not granted; instead the town was incorporated under the name of Eden. Since the word is an old British river-name identical with Eden Water and Afon Eden, it may have been given for that reason, rather than those presented above.
Most of the men who made the real settlements on the island came from western Maine, Arundel (Kennebunkport) or Harpswell; some were from Cape Cod or Cape Ann, some from Nova Scotia.
467
These early settlers moved away from the rough sea side of the island. It was they who at last made a true settlement. According to Eben Hamor, there were eleven families in Eden before 1770. At Bar Har- bor proper were Israel Higgins, Daniel Rodick and old "Uncle Ebe- neezer" Salisbury; the last named was an emigrant from Nova Scotia, who settled first in a log house where the Newport Hotel stood later, before moving to Salisbury Cove. At Duck Brook were Ezra Young and his wife. At Hull's Cove in 1762 were Elisha Cousins, Levi Hig- gins and John Hamor, who had moved to this place directly from their homes; also Simon Hadly and Timothy Smallage were here. At Leland's Cove was Amariah Leland. At present the villages of Hull's Cove, Salisbury Cove and Indian Point lie within the township of Bar Harbor.
At Town Hill, West Eden, in 1790 Gideon Mayo had settled and in the first decade of the nineteenth century, Prince, Thomas and James Mayo were there; by 1818 Ephraim, Joseph, David and Samuel Higgins, James and William Hamor and Thomas Knowles had arrived.
The first meeting house at Hull's Cove was of the Baptist denomination and was built before 1797 by the proprietors, a large high-posted building. The wall pews were square and elevated about ten inches above the center pews and had seats on three sides. The pulpit was very high with a door for an entrance. There was a great deal of moulding work around the inside, and it was a very grand and sacred place. At the town meeting of 1797 it was "Voted that the Selectmen should purchase the meeting house for the town of the proprietors," with other actions concerning preparations for its use.
Southwest Harbor, 1905
Southwest Harbor, on Mount Desert Island, is the site of the first attempt of the Jesuits to found a permanent settlement in New England in 1613. The area was set off from Tremont and incorporated as a town in 1905. Its name is descriptive not only of its geographical location upon the island, but also of its harbor, or haven. When Gov- ernor Sir Francis Bernard came to inspect Township No. 2 of the Da- vid Marsh townships which had been given him, he planned his met- ropolitan center at Southwest Harbor and the location of his mill sites near by, deciding which marshes would provide hay and other details. He gave Abraham Somes and James Richardson pledges, written on birch bark, that he would let them stay on the lots they had settled.
More impressive than the lakes of Mount Desert Island is Somes Sound which is sometimes described as the only true fjord on the Atlantic Coast. It nearly cuts the island in two with its seven miles of crystal blue water winding up between meadows and hills. It was
468
at the head of this sound that the island's first settlers made their homes in 1761. The neighborhood bears the name of Seawall, because the shore is a long natural wall of boulders which have been cast up by the sea. Southwest Harbor is on the western flank of Somes Sound, diagonally opposite Northeast Harbor. Though it is the oldest point in settlement, it is the newest town by incorporation. Another village included in Southwest Harbor is Manset which is thought by some to perpetuate the name of Sir Robert Mansell who came into possession of Mt. Desert in 1620.
Abraham Somes of Gloucester came down in 1761 by boat and cut a load of staves at the head of the sound which now bears his name. He apparently liked the spot and told others, for he came back with his family and lived on his craft until he could establish a home for them. The next settler was James Richardson, also from Gloucester. When Sir Francis Bernard was at Mt. Desert in 1762, he wrote in his journal under the date of October 7: "We went on shore and into Solmer Somes log house; found it neat and convenient though not quite furnished and in it a notable woman and four pretty girls neat and orderly." Mr. Somes was one of the principal men of Mt. Desert and one of the first selectmen elected on April 6, 1789.
Winter Harbor, 1895
Deriving its name from the open or free harbor upon which it is located is Winter Harbor, a town in Hancock County. Its sheltered harbor has never been frozen.
The village of Winter Harbor is situated within the mouth of Frenchman's Bay on the mainland of the State of Maine, in the old town of Gouldsborough, from which it was separated in 1895. The water is deep to its shore and the formation is such that many vessels have found safe anchorage there.
The village was settled in the early days of the nineteenth century by a race of sturdy fishermen whose descendants compose the population of today and retain the characteristics of their an- cestors.
At Lower Harbor one of the first settlers was a colored man named Frazier who owned the salt works there. Another, John Fris- bee, came from Portsmouth, owned a large fish stand and some ves- sels, a part of a fleet engaged in the West Indian trade. His son, George, was a sea captain.
In 1820 Stephen Rand of Boothbay came to Winter Harbor, where six families were living at that time. He built a house at the head of the sand beach. Joseph Bickford was then living in a two- inch plank house at the east side of the village. His sons were Jacob, John and Benjamin.
469
Another of the old settlers was Andrew Gerrish, who lived in a house built of six-inch hewn timber. The partition was also of tim- ber. The other family in the house was that of Francis Coombs from Fox Island.
Abijah Sargent lived at the east side of the village, and Dr. Jonathan Rolf lived on the west side. The occupations of the people at that time were the coasting trade and fishing.
Among the captains of the mackerel fleet were Captain Solo- mon Pendleton, who was lost on his return trip from Bay Chaleur in 1855; Captain Nathaniel Grover and Leonard and Peleg Tracy.
The captains who later sailed to foreign ports, either the West Indies or across the Atlantic, were Captain Nathan Hammond's sons, Montgomery, Thomas and Wilson; Captain A. J. Gerrish and Captain J. B. Foss, who made several voyages to Africa.
Waterford, 1797
The name of Waterford in Oxford County locates the town as being seated on a stream or river which at low water, anyway, may be forded, that is, driven across. Waterford is situated on the Songo, or Crooked River, which enters the town on the northwest side and leaves it on a southeastern angle, completely exemplifying its name in its course. There are many ponds - one writer says thirteen - in the town, again showing that Waterford is a most appropriate name.
The outlets of these ponds offered opportunities to the settlers for the building of lumber and grist mills and a tannery. The village of North Waterford is also on Crooked River, where all these manu- factures were carried on.
The township was surveyed in 1774, and the first settler, Da- vid McWayne (McQuain), took up his residence there alone in 1775. So fond was this first settler of his solitude, that he appeared very much annoyed when, three years later, a clearing was started on what is now known as Paris Hill, twelve or fifteen miles away. The titles to the land were principally from Jonathan Houghton, Henry Gardiner, David Sampson and Jonathan Whitcomb, the chief pro- prietors.
The town was laid out in the year 1774 by Captain Joseph Frye of Fryeburg, Jabez Brown of Stowe and a third person, from Marlborough. In May, 1783, Messrs. Daniel Barker, Jonathan Rob- bins, Israel Hale, Asaph Brown, Europe Hamlin and America Ham- lin came, without families, and began to improve the soil. Most of them brought in their families within three years. Mr. Philip Hor,. originally from Taunton, then from Brookfield, came the same year. The next June two of his sons came and remained through the winter, while he returned for his family, and came back in 1785. They lived
470
in a hut made from the bark of trees and carried their corn on their backs to mill in Bridgton.
Oliver Hapgood and his wife emigrated from Stowe, and in 1786 Messrs. Nathaniel and John Chamberlain came into town from Westford. Eleazer Hamlin, father of Dr. Cyrus Hamlin and grand- father of the Honorable Hannibal Hamlin, was an early settler, as were also his three brothers. Five or six Brown brothers and the four families of Jewett, Saunders, Chaplin and Lieutenant Thomas Greene of Rowley also came at an early date. Peter Gerry settled in the south- ern part of the town in 1797.
In 1799 the militia of the town was called upon to choose its first officers: Dr. Stephen Cummings, Captain; Seth Wheeler, Lieu- tenant; and James Robbins, Ensign. Of the original proprietors, Na- thaniel Chamberlain was clerk when the town was incorporated. Lieu- tenant Africa Hamlin was first town clerk, and was also selectman with Daniel Chaplin and Solomon Stone; Eli Longley was treasurer. The first justice of the peace who received his commission in 1799 was Eber Rice, who was also the first Representative to the General Court in 1799, and the first deputy sheriff was Hannibal Hamlin. In 1802 Eli Longley was the only tavernkeeper. In 1803 there were 111 families, 668 people, and the number of dwelling houses was 107.
The minister in 1803 was Reverend Lincoln Ripley; his wife was a daughter of Reverend Wm. and Phebe Emerson and aunt of Ralph Waldo. The Reverend Lincoln was Dartmouth, 1796, and was ordained here in 1799. In 1801 a good frame, 50 by 46 feet, was erected for a meeting house in the center of the town; but it was taken down after the church at the Flat was erected and in part built into the town house. Henry Farwell came as first attorney in 1806. Daniel Chaplin, the surveyor, made the first published map of Waterford.
Elizabeth Peabody of Salem was a frequent visitor in Water- ford. In 1847 she wrote:
It is a spot of wonderful beauty and there are four villages each of which lies around a lake of its own and under mountains of its own .... I went up one from which I could see that long chain of hills, including the Sebago, which ex- tend, I should think, forty miles or more . .
Medford, 1824
This is the southeasternmost town in Piscataquis County. It is located, as its name implies, at the mid ford of the Piscataquis River, as the crossings were used in the early days. The settlement of the township preceded any grant. As early as 1808, James Grover moved the first family into the township near the upper ferry, but eventually settled on a farm near the top of the hill on the Bangor
471
road. This he started clearing at his first entrance and here the first trees were felled. A Mr. Boober who first went to Milo came in soon after Grover and settled near by. In 1816 the western half of the township was granted to David Gilmore for making the Dixmont road. He conveyed to Rufus Gilmore, Moses Patten, Jedediah Her- rick, J. W. and Francis Carr and Wm. D. Williamson, each, one- eighth of his part, and the residue to others.
The eastern half was sold to General John Parker Boyd of Boston in March, 1816. Eleven years before he had bought the Orne- ville Township. The west half was lotted out by General J. Herrick, the east half by Eben Greenleaf, in 1831. About 1820 the state opened erected in 1820 the largest saw mill upon the Penobscot or any of its the Bennoch road from Piscataquis River to Old Town.
This township was No. 2, Range 7 and was incorporated in 1824 under the name of Kilmarnock at the instance of John Parker Boyd. This Scottish name may have been the birthplace of his father, since he himself was of Scottish descent. In 1856, on petition of the inhabitants, the name was changed to Medford, the middle ford.
The great fire of 1825 destroyed the valuable pine timber and swept away about three-fourths of the taxable property of the town. Where Schoodic Stream falls into the Piscataquis, General Boyd had branches, which did a large business before the fire. After his death, the building was sold, taken down and rafted to Bangor, in 1832. Other mills were erected here later. This was the business center of the town, where a village is growing up. The date of the settlement on the east half is not easily learned. A Mr. Weston and two Hitch- borns from Bangor were among the pioneers. In 1810 there were fifty- five inhabitants, but in 1820 only sixty-one.
General Boyd was a man of mark. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1768. He entered the United States Army, but soon left and sailed for India. There he remained for several years, raising independent corps and fighting for native princes, and gaining con- siderable wealth. By 1805 he returned, again entered the army and was a Colonel in the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811; he commanded a brigade in the War of 1812. After the close of the war, he resided in Boston and attended to the sale and settlement of his eastern lands. He died in 1830.
Milbridge, 1848
One town bears a name in which mill is a prefix, Milbridge, or the mill at the bridge. The town is situated at the mouth of the Nar- raguagus River and is the seaport for towns like Cherryfield which lie farther up the river. The town was incorporated from parts of Harrington and Steuben in 1848.
472
Joseph Wallace was the founder of Milbridge. He was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, about 1733-34 and settled first at Cape Elizabeth, where he owned a coasting vessel in which he traded along the coast of Maine. Since he knew this area, he was employed to carry the first sixteen settlers to Machias in 1763. That same year, he and his brother were at Narraguagus. He was probably the first set- tler there and the founder of the settlement now Milbridge. He settled on the lot on the east side of the river on the road to Fickett's Point and had his land carefully run out by Daniel Merritt, surveyor. Ma- jor Wallace, Captain Andrew Simonton, Captain Ephraim Dyer and Captain Ebenezer Thorndike built mills there prior to 1760. It is probable they were tide mills, as most of the mills on the coast were at that time. None of the owners settled there except Wallace, and he seems to have bought out the others.
The people here were very poor during the Revolution, be- cause of the embargo on purchases or sales of supplies which was en- forced in order to keep enough food for the soldiers in the province. A petition was finally presented to the General Court signed by Wal- lace and Alexander Campbell, asking that the people of these eastern parts might purchase grain and provision for themselves. Major Wal- lace was an enterprising citizen, a mariner, shipbuilder and owner, fisherman and trader. He was a frequent and welcome visitor of Gen- eral David Cobb in Gouldsborough, active in defense of his country. He died in 1826.
Another early comer with Mr. Wallace was a Mr. Whaugh who settled on the west bank of the river. The lights of their respec- tive homes caused an English brig to fear that here were two forts, so it retreated. Here too an attempt was made on the part of an Eng- lish brig to capture a boatload of lumber from Captain Allen, whose strategy resulted in the saving of the lumber and the loss of four Eng- lishmen who are buried on an island near by. Other early inhabitants were Browns, Ficketts, Fosters, Godfreys, Hinckleys, Kennedys, Leigh- tons, Rays, Riches, Sawyers, Shaws, Stanwoods, Strouts, Turners, Uptons and Wymans.
Josiah Sawyer from Cape Elizabeth settled in Milbridge after 1760. John Small, also from Cape Elizabeth, arrived about 1763 and settled on the lot below the creek near the Methodist church in Milbridge. Wm. Ray, who came from England when a small boy, married an older sister of Mrs. Deacon Small and became the com- mon ancestor of the Rays of Milbridge and Harrington.
Among other settlers were David Brown, born on Cape Cod, who went with his brother to Falmouth, now Portland, and came to Milbridge in 1765-66. On his marriage to Sally Jordan in 1768, he was "of Narraguagus." John Dinsmore served under Pepperrell at
473
Louisburg in 1745 and settled here by 1794. Jabes Dorman of Arun- del bought one hundred acres of land at Narraguagus of Samuel Plummer upon a millstream near Knox' Mill with a dwelling house thereon, for twelve pounds, in 1771. Isaac Loveitt, a young English- man, arrived with Joseph and Benjamin Wallace and stayed for sev- eral years. He was a man of considerable education and a fine pen- man, as is shown by old books that he kept, some of which are yet in existence.
The construction of the "Great Bridge" was started by Alex- ander Foster and completed by John L. Gardner of Boston. Here a tide mill was built by Mr. Gardner and other Boston interests, known as "The Salt Water Tide Mills Company" which was an unusually large one for its day. After the construction of the bridge and the mill, the growth of the town was quite rapid, and agitation was begun for the separation of Milbridge from Harrington. This was accom- plished on July 14, 1848; the new town derived its name from the mill and the bridge above mentioned.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.