USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 52
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A lot which the settler, Jonathan Philbrook, had from Thomas Hancock was conveyed by Philbrook to Robert Pierpont of Boston and was long known as the "Pierpont Lot." There have been
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several temporary houses and settlers near the river on this lot, but Mr. Wm. Marshall in 1801 appears to have been the first permanent settler. Both north and south of these lots was for years afterward an unbroken wilderness from the "Hook" to Cobbossecontee, and in 1787 Mr. Church's and a small house near his were the only houses in the section.
The only road then existing was a bridle path through the woods. The Pitts Lot was the first to be generally settled. At about the close of the Revolutionary War, Joshua Bean of Readfield and Colonel Samuel Greeley of Gilmanton, New Hampshire, purchased the Pitts Tract (No. 21) with the exception of the Church lot, together with land in the rear extending to Winthrop Pond, but their title was not fully confirmed until 1799. In the meantime they had divided the tract between themselves and had it surveyed and a plan of the sub- divisions and lots made by Dr. Obediah Williams. Many of the lots were bargained to settlers and entered upon and improved by them.
A large part of these lots were settled several years before 1799, but the exact date is not known. The northeast corner of the lot was early settled. A dam was built across the Mill brook and a grist mill and, tradition says, a bark and shingle mill was erected and operated by Joseph Smith and Isaac Pilsbury. On the western side of the road stood a large two-story house used for years as a tavern, built and kept by Captain Eben Hinckley. A one-hundred acre lot, Lot No. 1, lay next north of the Church lot and was settled on by Captain Nathaniel Rollins. Near by was Nathan Sweetland and Esquire Enoch Wood, a gentleman of culture and prominence. While the Pitts or Greeley tract was being settled, the Bowman tract or northern half of No. 20, other than the "Pierpont Lot," remained a wilderness until 1795. Thomas Hancock had bequeathed it to his nephew, William Bowman, in 1763. When settled it was known as Bowman's Point. Early in 1795 it was bargained to Peter Grant and his associates; C. Parker was the surveyor. The deed was executed in 1796 and the tract was conveyed to "Peter Grant trader, James Park- er, physician; and James Springer, Moses Springer, Joesph Glidden, Jr., and Hugh Cox, shipwrights ... " Peter Grant came from Berwick, a fine businessman, a merchant shipbuilder; he was a major in the War of 1812.
William and Moses Springer and James, their cousin, were of German descent and came to Pittston in 1786. William was the oldest of the settlers at Bowman Point. The extension of Bowman Street from the road to the river was known as Meeting House Lane and on the north side of it, in 1803, a church was built, but it was never finished inside. It was the only Methodist church until 1830, when it was given up and the material used for a stable in Hallowell. Dr.
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James Parker was not only skillful in his profession, but was active and influential as a business man and citizen. The incorporation of the town in 1852 was secured chiefly by the efforts of A. S. Chadwick, Thomas B. Seavey and Wm. S. Grant, the latter a grandson of Major Peter Grant.
Woodstock, 1815
North of the town of Greenwood, Oxford County, lies Wood- stock, whose name notes the abundance and variety of wood as its resources: beech, birch, maple, spruce and fir deck the hills and val- leys in extensive tracts or in scattered groups. Woodstock comprises two half-townships, one of which was granted in 1800 to Dummer Academy, the present west part of Woodstock, and the other in 1807 to Gorham Academy. Hamlin's Grant, a gore of 1270 acres granted to Cyrus Hamlin in 1816, was annexed to Woodstock in 1872. The town was incorporated in 1815; the first settlers came from the town of Paris in 1797.
The town lies at the center of the broad middle section of Oxford County. The principal village is named Bryant's Pond and is situated on a pond bearing the name of an early settler. The first settlements were made in 1798 by Christopher and Solomon Bryant, Jr., sons of Solomon Bryant of Paris, who had been accustomed to come with their father for fishing at Long (Bryant's) Pond. These Bryant boys had another brother not then of age and several brothers- in-law living in Paris, and their purpose was to locate their families upon this territory. They accordingly employed Thomas Joselyn of Buckfield, a surveyor of land, to run out ten lots of 100 acres each, five on each side of the county road, for a family settlement. This was in the spring of 1797.
When the town was subsequently lotted out, the survey of Joselyn was not disturbed and the thousand acres remained to tease surveyors and mar the plans of the town. In the summer of this year (1797), the two Bryants cut trees on their lots which they had selected, spending most of the season here in hunting, fishing and cutting trees. The next year, 1798, they came again, burned the trees and built their huts preparatory to bringing in their wives. In October they came in with their household goods. The first child, Christopher, Jr., was born in November. In the spring of 1799 Luther Briggs, whose wife was a sister of the Bryants, came into the place.
The same summer, Jacob Whitman, Jr., from Buckfield, who had felled trees the year before, came and burned them, built a log hut and moved in. He settled on a part of what later became the town farm. In the summer of 1799 Luke Owens, an Irishman, said to have been a deserter from an English man-of-war, made a clearing
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and lived there four or five years before he went to Paris. Levi Berry from Buckfield felled an opening on Lot 11 in the west part of Wood- stock, boarding meanwhile with his sister's husband, Jacob Whitman. In the fall of 1799 Samuel Bryant built himself a cabin on what has since been known as the "Common" lot, and moved in. There were therefore five families in town during the winter of 1799-1800, namely: Christopher, Solomon and Samuel Bryant, Luther Briggs and Jacob Whitman. Luke Owens, then unmarried, also stayed.
In 1814 the petition to incorporate the town of Woodstock was presented. Lapham, in his History of Woodstock, says the reason why that name was selected is obscure. The committee refused to re- port the name of Sparta, as prayed for by the assessors, and the descrip- tive name was used instead.
At the first town meeting Mr. Rowse Bisbee was chosen mod- erator; Stephen Chase, town clerk; and Cornelius Perkins, Alexander Day and John Billings were assessors. At the commencement of the year 1820, there were sixty-two families in town. The first religious meeting ever held was at the home of Luther Whitman and the preacher was Elder John Tripp of Hebron, a Baptist; the early mem- bers belonged to the church in Paris. The Paris and Woodstock church was organized in 1828. A church was built here in 1856. The first post office was at Stephens Mills or Woodstock Corner in 1824, with John R. Briggs as postmaster. He kept a public house in connec- tion with his store and may be called the first hotel keeper.
The first mill in town was built by Rowse Bisbee in 1808, on the brook near Abel Bacon's. In 1812 he sold it to James Nutting, who subsequently sold it to Captain Samuel Stephens. It could only be operated for a part of the year from lack of water, and as the land was cleared the amount of water became less and less, so the old mill was taken down in 1834 and 1835. Samuel H. Houghton built a saw mill quite early at the foot of Bryant's Pond, which was operated by various parties for thirty or forty years. Merrill Chase built the first mill and was the first settler in Sigotch. Rowse Bisbee, about 1820, built a saw mill on the right-hand side of the Rumford road, at Pin- hook, and afterward built a grist mill at the foot of Billing's Hill. These long ago were taken down. A saw mill was built north of Pin- hook, perhaps by Oliver Robbins. Ziba Andrews built a mill in the south part of the town.
Greenbush, 1834
The natural resources of this town in Penobscot County were its forests, from which its corporate name, Greenbush, was derived. This was bestowed upon it in 1834, when the tract had population enough to justify the formation of a town. It is a large town territor-
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ially, and includes a considerable number of islands in the Penobscot River. The largest and most northerly of these is Olamon Island. Others, following down the river, are: Sugar, Cow, Jackson, White Squaw; and there are several smaller ones. Olamon Stream, passing through the town from northwest to southeast, is the principal water course; the village is at the mouth of this stream. In the river be- tween Greenbush and Edinburg and Argyle on the opposite side of the river are some thirty-five of the Indian Islands, a larger number than lie on the front of any other town in the county.
The first white settlers arrived here about 1820. They came from Kennebec and Lincoln counties in Maine as well as from New Hampshire. Among the early settlers was Elijah Spencer, who was born in Bradley in 1803 and came to Greenbush as a workman in 1821; he cleared a farm in South Greenbush before a road was made into town.
Jeremiah Avery moved to Greenbush from Monroe about 1830 and lived here until his death in 1852. His son John was a lad of eighteen when his parents came to Greenbush; after his marriage he settled in Greenfield, where he lived about three years, then moved to No. 1, North Bingham Purchase, for twelve years, and finally to Greenbush, where he settled permanently. John Mullin came here from Ireland and settled on the central part of the river road. His son Joseph held several prominent town offices, having served on the town board and school committee.
Moses Weld first came to Greenbush in 1842 from Cornish, New Hampshire, and settled at Olamon. He engaged in ax manu- facturing and farmed during the summer season, having cleared a large farm of four hundred and fifty acres. Ransom Kennedy from Newcastle, Maine, settled in Greenbush in 1851 and cleared a farm of one hundred and fifty acres. J. C. Scott came to Greenbush in 1843 from Albion, Maine, and felled the first trees on his farm, which contained about two hundred acres. He held every office in town that he would accept. G. W. Merrill of Skowhegan, Maine, served in the Aroostook expedition before he came to Greenbush and engaged in mercantile business, hotel keeping and farming, in 1845. He fre- quently held office in town, as selectman and treasurer. Wm. H. Scott, brother of J. C. Scott, also came about 1845. He first lived on East Ridge, held the office of selectman for four terms and served as a member of the school committee for five years. He was a member of the State Legislature in 1863. Charles S. Weld, a brother of Moses Weld, arrived at Olamon in Greenbush in 1850, engaged in mercantile business and teaching, and held many principal town offices.
The word Olamon means "vermillion" or "red paint." It was adopted as the name of the village in Greenbush, from the stream
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flowing through the town up which the Indians went for the red ochre which they used as paint in decorating their faces and bodies.
Cranberry Isles, 1830
This group of islands in Hancock County takes their name from a cranberry marsh extending two hundred acres on the largest island. They were originally included with Mount Desert as a town, but were set off and incorporated separately in 1830.
The first English settler within the limits of the town was John Robertson, who located upon the island which bears his name in 1761-62. Some of these islands were included in the grant to John Bernard in 1785, and some to DeGregoire and his wife in 1787. The property of the latter was sold to William Bingham, on July 9, 1796: Great Cranberry, Little Cranberry, Sutton or Lancaster, Baker and Bear Islands are in the group.
The first settler on Great Cranberry was David Bunker who is said to have moved away; Benjamin Spurling, who was from Ports- mouth, New Hampshire, and the ancestor of most of the families by that name in Hancock County, spent his life here. He sold a lot for sixty pounds to Joseph Wallace of Narraguagus. William Nickels was an early settler, but moved to Narraguagus; his heirs were granted a lot laid out by John Peters. Jonathan Rich, who had come earlier from Marblehead, moved from Mount Desert to the island previous to 1790, and John Stanley also arrived early.
On Little Cranberry Island, Samuel Hadlock, Sr., who had first located on Mount Desert Island, where his buildings had burned, was an early comer. He was born at Marblehead and died on Little Cranberry Island in 1854. On Baker Island, William Gilley of Mount Desert was the first settler. William Moore from Sutton's Island set- tled on Bear Island and died there at the age of seventy-five. Joseph Lancaster from Sullivan was first on Lancaster or Sutton's Island. Isaac Richardson went to this island from Mount Desert and died there at the age of eighty-three.
When these islands were incorporated as a town in 1830, the first board of selectmen consisted of Samuel Hadlock, Enoch Spurl- ing and Joseph Moore.
Old Orchard Beach, 1883
Captain John Smith's Description of New England includes the New England coast from Penobscot Bay to Cape Cod. In his journey he writes of Old Orchard Bay, under the Indian name So- wocotuck ". .. in the edge of a large sandy bay, which hath many rocks and isles but few good harbors ... . "
The present town, Old Orchard Beach, is located on Old
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Orchard Bay. It received its name from an orchard set out by Thomas Rogers in 1638. His farm, near Goose Fare Brook, became of so much importance that the early geographers of Maine designated it on their maps as "Rogers Garden." The trees that he planted remained for more than a century.
The place, at that time a part of Saco, was settled by Richard Bonython about 1631, the first resident proprietor. The present town was set off and incorporated in 1883, and the name was changed to its present form in 1929. In the early days, the councillors constitut- ing the government of Gorges' Province of Maine met for business at the house of Richard Bonython, which stood on the east side of the Saco River near the lower ferry. This form of government continued from 1639 to 1652, from which date, for the greater part of the time, Massachusetts maintained her authority and government with a strong hand. In 1677, moreover, the heirs of Gorges sold their right to the Commonwealth, which thenceforth held undisputed jurisdiction until Maine was separated from Massachusetts and became a state in 1820.
The Goose Fare Brook, at whose mouth Thomas Rogers set- tled, rises in a heath in the northern part of Saco and empties into the ocean about midway between the Saco River and the town of Scar- borough. It is a shallow stream and at low tide is easily crossed. Here was an ancient wading place and here upon the marshes flocked mul- titudes of wild geese; this is doubtless the source of the brook's name. Thomas Rogers dwelt on the east side, near the ocean. His fields were the first cleared and most extensively cultivated on the coast. He planted fruit trees and cultivated grape vines which were brought from Wood Island, where an abundance of them grew, when the coast was first discovered.
After settlements had been made at various points along the coast and a highway opened from one to another, travelers needed some place for entertainment. To meet this want, the General Court, in 1654, granted a license to Henry Waddock "to keep an ordinary to entertain strangers for their money." He was licensed to act as ferryman at the lower ferry and was authorized to "receive two pence from everyone he set over the river." This ordinary was one of the early public houses in Maine. It stood on the east bank of the Saco River a short distance from its mouth, just below the lower ferry. It was a low, log habitation thickly thatched with meadow grass and ceiled with bark of bass wood. It had a huge fireplace in each end, built of beach stones and clay. A mill was built at Saco Falls in 1653 and previous to this time all of the houses were built of logs or hewn timber tunneled together. Thomas Haley succeeded Henry Waddock in 1673, and was obliged to furnish a boat "large enough to carry three horses at a time." Humphrey became innkeeper in 1679. He
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was carried with his family to Canada by the Indians, but was re- turned and continued his life at the tavern until 1727.
The early settlers on this coast came from England and Ireland and contined some of their old customs; Old Orchard Beach became the place for holding Fontinalia or Festival of Waters. The first set- tlers visited it on the 24th of June, St. John the Baptist's Day, when all who dipped in the waters would be secure from disease or death. The General Court at Saco was held on the 25th or 26th because of the celebrated bathing date at Old Orchard.
Old Orchard Beach is one of the longest beaches on the Atlan- tic Coast. Staples Inn, built in 1730, is still a lodging house and though remodeled, has the original panels and doors. The inn was built on land granted in 1629 by the Council of Plymouth to Richard Bonython, co-proprietor with Thomas Lewis, both from England. Bonython was an upright, sedate and sensible man, and so much a disciple of peace that he was never known to have been a party to a lawsuit. According to the accounts we have of the public trust confided in him, he was sole assistant to Mr. Vines, the superintendent until the coming of Governor Wm. Gorges in 1635. He was also a member of the Council under Governor Gorges' administration and under Sir Ferdinando's Charter government, an office which he held to the time of his death in 1648.
Stoneham, 1834
Lying in the western part of Oxford County, Stoneham is marked by mountains on the northern and western sides and in the northern part. On the eastern border, it is also rocky in character. With the exception of the central part of the town which in some places is of a high degree of fertility, the town bears out its name, Stoneham, meaning "of stony ground." Upper and Lower Stone ponds lie in the eastern section of the town. While the name is truly descriptive, it may have been transferred from the town of Stone- ham, Massachusetts. The town in Maine was incorporated in 1834 as Stoneham, then named Usher on February 18, 1841, and renamed Stoneham on March 11, 1843.
The area is made up of a tract of three thousand acres granted to Fryeburg Academy and now included in the western part of the town; this grant was made to Richard Batchelder along the state line, called the "First Division" made to the same grantee, and the "Sec- ond Division," a part of which is now East Stoneham. This section of our present state was explored by hunters and trappers, and prob- ably by lumbermen before the close of the eighteenth century, al- though we have no proof of any settlement having been made until some time later.
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When Elisha Allen came onto this tract in March, 1822, from Norway, he found only three families living in the vicinity of East Stoneham. These were Jonathan Sawyer, who had moved from Ox- ford and was probably the first permanent settler, Edward Wells and Joseph Stevens, all living in log houses, for settlers here had a hard struggle to eke out a living on soil so rugged. Mr. Allen moved his family into a cabin built by a Mr. Russell who had made a small clearing. At North Stoneham were six settlers: Levi Durgin, Ephraim Durgin, Nathan Cobb, Oris Parker, Solomon McKeen and Samuel S. Willard. Their early clearings have returned to their former tim- bered condition. In the west were Andrew Harper, Daniel McAllister and Daniel McKeen. Eastman McAllister came to West Stoneham in 1831. Among the pioneers in the eastern settlement were a Mr. Thurlow, John Allen, from Canton, Benjamin G. Sturgis, Jonathan Moore and John Files, all from Gorham, Maine, as well as Samuel and Sylvanus Richardson and Samuel Stiles of North Stoneham.
About 1830 the Oxford County road was built through East Stoneham from North Waterford to Lovell. This resulted in the ar- rival of many new families. Amos Evans, a most valuable citizen, came in 1832; his oldest son, Sumner, helped much in the community. James Durgin also arrived. Jonathan Bartlett, Sr., moved from Newry in 1843. A man of much ability and considerable wealth, he became the financial, social and political leader of the hamlet. His son, Jona- than, Jr., was one of the leading lumbermen of the state. Both father and son were Representatives to the Legislature. Wm. H. Rand was the first trader at East Stoneham; Jonathan Moore was his successor, followed by Sumner Evans and others, until Jonathan Bartlett and his sons came in 1891.
Many of the townspeople in the western and northern areas took up lots in the east; among them were the McKeens, McAllisters and Sawyers. In 1840 Ellis B. Usher bought much of the Batchelder lands and caused the passage of an act changing the name of the town to Usher; the citizens were indignant and the name of Stone- ham was restored at the next Legislature.
The earliest settlers took their corn to Proctor's Mill in South Albany, or to West Stoneham. Jonathan Sawyer early built a saw mill for long lumber on the outlet to Lake Kewaydin, originally known as Lower Stone Pond. A shingle mill was early erected by James Dur- gin. Mark Ham built a mill here, where the first was probably de- stroyed by freshet or fire; in 1855 he sold to others, until Jonathan Bartlett took over in 1891, when spool stock, dowels and other lum- ber was prepared. There were early religious services in homes and schoolhouses, but no meeting houses were erected. About 1894 a Con- gregational church was built at East Stoneham.
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Limestone, 1869
Limestone, Aroostook County, was settled in 1849 by General Mark Trafton of Bangor, then Customs House Officer at Fort Fair- field. The town was incorporated in 1869 and named for deposits of lime found there. Other first settlers, in addition to Trafton, were Benjamin Eastman, Barry Mclaughlin and George A. Nourse. The principal streams are Limestone River and Greenlaw Brook. In the year 1845 General Mark Trafton conceived the idea of building a mill upon the forest tract north of Fort Fairfield, for the purpose of manufacturing clapboards to be shipped to the Boston market. The township was then known as Letter E, Range 1 and was wholly in its original wilderness state. A strong flowing stream passed through the township and emptied into the Aroostook River, a short distance above its junction with the St. John. The Report of the Scientific Survey called it Limestone Stream, from the geological formation near its mouth, and it was so named in the Maine charts, though known in New Brunswick as Little River.
General Trafton associated with B. D. Eastman of Washing- ton County who was at this time living in Fort Fairfield and had pre- viously obtained from the State Legislature a grant of sixteen hun- dred acres of land to aid in the building of the mill. They started in 1845 to clear a tract of land on the bank of Limestone Stream, where they proposed to place the building. Mark Trafton, Jr., the son of the general, was also admitted to the enterprise. A large clearing was made during the summer of 1846, the new mills were erected, a substantial dam was built across the stream and upon this dam was erected a saw mill containing an up-and-down saw, clapboard and shingle machines and a grist mill. The shingle machine was built in Bangor and hauled by ox team to Houlton, thence across to Woodstock, whence it was boated up the St. John and Aroostook rivers to Fort Fairfield and hauled through the woods to the mill. The grist mill was built because the company had faith that the town would soon be settled.
In the fall of 1846, the mill was completed, and the business of sawing clapboards was begun. A road was cut through from the mill to the St. John River at a point called Merritt's Landing, about ten miles below Grand Falls; and over this road the clapboards were hauled during the following winter. In the spring of 1847 they were rafted and floated down the river to Fredrickton, whence they were shipped to Boston. In the following year the road was made passable for wagons. In 1847 the Traftons sold their interest in the enterprise to Mr. George A. Nourse of Bath. In 1848 Nourse and Eastman built another small clapboard mill, and tried to drive pine clapboards
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in bunches, the failure of which resulted in loss of nearly all the clap- boards, and in 1857 the firm failed. There was no business at the mills for a number of years.
In 1847 the township was lotted and opened for settlement, the first settlers who came with the purpose of farming. Orrin Davis and Andrew Phair and Bernard Mclaughlin took up lots. They were located about a mile from the mill on the road leading to the St. John River. Lots were selling to actual settlers for about $1.25 per acre, fifty cents of which was to be paid in money and the remainder in road work. When General Trafton became a member of the State Legislature, he helped to change some of the laws concerning set- tling lands; the price was reduced to fifty cents per acre and the entire amount might be worked out on roads. There were hard years for the settlers after the failure of the mills.
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