USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 7
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Messrs. Chadbourne and Gibbons were, with five others, con- nected with Walter Neale, agent for Mason and Gorges at Piscataqua in the manufacture of salt and in fishing, lumbering and farming. The Indian, Rowles, was a sagamore of some celebrity and chief over all the Indians along the river to its mouth. His dwelling place was on the eastern side of Great Works River, near the Falls. In 1670, when overcome by age and weakness, he sent a messenger for some of the principal men of the town and requested that a few hundred acres of land be marked out for the children of his tribe and the act recorded in the town book, that they might not be beggars in the land of their. birth when he was gone.
In addition to the mills at Great Works, others were built at Salmon and Quampegan Falls. Lumbering was carried on extensively, but settlement and agriculture made little progress owing to the rigors
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of the winter and scarcity of provisions. In 1660 the settlement became the refuge for the persecuted Friends or "Quakers" and received the special attention of the town authorities of Kittery who used every effort to crush out this opposition to the established church.
Ten acres of land was granted to Daniel Goodwin in 1656. Among the other early inhabitants of the town are the following per- sons who were residents at the date set opposite their names: Anthony - Emery, 1652; Theodius Redden, 1653; Richard Tozer, John Tyler, Benoni Hodson, Andrew Searl, 1665; Roger Plaisted, Thos. Weeks, 1671; Thos. Wells, 1672; Little Hill, Thos. Spencer, Christopher Mit- chell, Alexander Ferguson, 1673; James Plaisted, Christopher Adams, Captain Wm. Fernald, 1682; Patrick Gowen, Surveyor, 1685; Moses Goodwin, Daniel Furbish, Job Emery, Nicholas Tucker, Richard King, 1694; Richard Rogers, John Spinney, John "Finex," Miles Thompson, Nicholas Morrell, Moses Goodwin, Thos. Deering, Joseph Couch, 1699; "Black Will, Jr." a negro, Philip Hubert, Ichabod Plaisted, 1703.
In 1713, at the first town meeting, Benj. Nason was elected moderator, H. Chadbourne, grandson of the first settler from Straw- berry Bank, twenty-two years of age, town clerk, 1710-1750, Benj. Na- son, John Croude, Elisha Plaisted, James Emery and James Grant, - selectmen.
South Berwick, 1814
South Berwick was set off from its parent town in 1814. It in- cludes the old section of Quampegan Falls of the parish of Unity, so named because of the peaceful disposition of the inhabitants. As the name indicates, it was the southern section of the town of Berwick.
When the white men came, the Indians were living at Quam- pegan Falls, the first point to which settlers were attracted. Quam- pegan is a ripple or rapid, a mile in length, meaning "the place where fish are taken in nets." Salmon Falls River was named from the abund- ance of salmon there.
A portion of the earliest settlers of Kittery were about the mouth of the Great Works River, as were also many temporary oc- cupants who came for fish and lived in rude cabins. The first occupa- tion seems to have been without any regard to title, as eight years pre- vious to 1632 men were spoken of, but not named as living at this point.
The first settlers were Chadbournes, Heard, Frost, Shapleigh, Spencer, Boughton, Leader, Plaisted and Wincoln, about 1624. The earliest title to the land already mentioned is a deed to Chadbourne from Rowles, a Piscataqua chief, in 1643, which included a portion of the site of South Berwick Village. Mr. Thomas Spencer bought of Rowles a body of land between Great Works and Salmon Falls rivers.
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The title was given by the townsmen (selectmen) who were author- ized to grant land, not to exceed 200 acres each, to the inhabitants. All wanting timber received a permit to cut it on the common lands by applying to the townsmen. In December 1652 it was voted that all the marsh known by the name of "the Fowling Marsh," lying above Birchen Point, shall be and remain common to the town forever. The boundaries were further defined in 1656 to except the grants for mills at Great Works.
The names of the residents are found by reference to the still earlier records of Kittery to have been living upon the same land some years before. Among these so mentioned, the oft-occurring signature of John Wincoll (Wincoln), surveyor, is found. In 1650 there were within the town Thos. and Wm. Spencer, Tom Tinker, James Heard, Wm. Chadbourne, James Warren, Daniel Hubbard and Daniel Good- win, Richard Abbott, John Taylor, Roger Plaisted, Daniel Furguson, Wm. Thompson and Geo. Rogers.
The deposition of James Wall concerning one of his partners, Wm. Chadbourne, who had come from England to Kittery in 1634, is that "they did build at the fall of Newichawannock, one sawe mill and one stampinge mill for Corne ... and further this deponent sayth, he builte one house upon the same lands and soe did William Chadbourne another & gave it to his sonne in Law, Thomas Spencer who now (1652) lives in it."
North Berwick, 1831
North Berwick was separated from the parent town in 1831. Settlements were probably made in this area about 1630 by the Pur- intons and the Morrills. Nicholas Morrill bought a large tract about Doughty's Falls and about 1735 deeded the west side to Thos. Hobbs and the east side to Peter and Jedediah, his two sons. Thomas Hobbs' family came from Kittery in 1735. The Hussey family also settled early in this vicinity.
The earliest settlers on Beech Ridge were Captain Wm. Hall and Silas Hall. About 1775 they cleared their farms. Benj., Joseph, Thos. and Silas Hurd took up places about the same time. Silas Hurd, the old surveyor from Dover, bought a part of Lot 36 in September 1777. On the road leading from the village to Oak Woods above where the road crosses Great Works River, Jedediah Morrill settled. John R. Randall located above about 1774, and Mr. Buffam near him the same year. The settlers advanced north, and Daniel Quint settled on the side of Bonny Beag Hill. The Staples family came from Kittery. They were said to have been true to the King; one was an officer under the crown. In the northern part of the town above Bonny Beag, Christo- pher Hammond settled about 1810. He came first from Eliot, then
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from Kittery. One of the earliest settlers in the northwest was John Libby, his farm joining Lebanon. Of other families remembered as among the early settlers may be mentioned the name of Chadbourne, one of the earliest families in Berwick; Twombly, Weymouth, Ford and Fernald.
Samuel Hanscom came about 1770 from Kittery; Hercules, father of Oliver Fernald, came from the old settlement at Kittery and settled on Beech Ridge. Abraham, Nathaniel and John Lord, three brothers, arrived from Ipswich about the year 1700. A one-story frame house in the northeast corner of the town was built by Absalom Stack- pole, a Revolutionary soldier. One of the first mills was built by Peter Morrill on the Great Works at the village, about 1722. A run of stones was connected with it by which gristing was done for the settlers; a mill for carding was built about 1810. When the town was incorpor- ated in 1831 the first election was held at Elder Nathaniel Lord's meeting house, two miles from Bonny Beag Pond. Daniel Clark pre- sided as moderator. Sheldon Hobbs was town clerk, Wm. Weymouth, John Chase, Jairus Came, selectmen. The town had already been classified as Doughty's Falls, Beech Ridge and Bonny Beag districts.
The name, like that of South Berwick, indicates the section of the parent town from which it was taken. In 1713, when Berwick was incorporated, it formed a portion of that town and was a part of Kit- tery known as the Common in 1652. The town of Berwick was divided in 1831 by a southeast line starting on the line of Lebanon and inter- secting the headwaters of Frost Brook which it followed to the South Berwick line. That part of the town lying to the east, including all but one range of lots of the old "Kittery Common," was incorporated as the present town of North Berwick.
Georgetown, 1716
This location was colonized in 1607. Visited in 1614 by the famous Captain John Smith, who made a chart of the coast, it was permanently settled between 1624 and 1626 and doubtless a place of more celebrity than any other upon the eastern coast, except York and Falmouth. At the latter date, Plymouth Colony had a trading house at Popham's Fort. A gradual growth continued for the next fifty years, with as many as sixty families on both sides of the river. The place was ravaged and laid waste in 1676 and in 1688 and from the latter date remained desolate until the late revival, 1713-1716.
The first permanent settler in what is now Georgetown, our tenth town to be incorporated in Maine, was John Parker, a fisherman, who probably came direct from Bideford, England. It is said that he was already making annual visits before he became a permanent set- tler, which was in 1630. Parker first lived on Arrowsic Island on Squir-
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rel Point, but he purchased Reskegon Island of Robinhood in 1649. This was called Parker's Island by the English and is now George- town.
With the overthrow of Andros in 1689, and the return of peace in 1714, the Clark and Lake heirs once more entered upon their Saga- dahoc property, and Mr. John Watts was sent over to resettle the same with one hundred families. The principal settlement established by John Watts was on the site of the former New Town on the southern end of Arrowsic and included a large defensible brick house. A garrison of twenty men was authorized on petition of John Higginson and John Watts.
In 1716 a petition from Edw. Hutchinson and others asked for additional men for the garrison and the incorporation of the settlement as the township of Georgetown. Since this was a frontier and might be a barrier in the emergency of war, it was the object of the govern- ment's special favor. An accession of fifteen families was immediately made to the settlement and on June 13, 1716, Parker's Island and Arrowsic were made a municipal government or a town by the name of Georgetown. Some other areas were taxed as precincts of the town, so the land embracing the present towns of Phippsburg, Bath, Wool- wich and Arrowsic were all included in Georgetown by 1741. Now it embraces only what was called Parker's Island. The name of the new town was a compliment to the new King of England, George I, who only a year and a half previously had been a prince of the house of Hanover. These loyal settlers now engaged in building new homes on the Kennebec, honored their new Sovereign by giving his name to the infant town, the first to gain municipal rights after his accession. In further honor of the new reigning house, an attempt was made, futile indeed, to displace the aboriginal name of the island and to call it "Hanover Island." Williamson, however, says the town took its name from "fort St. George."
To the south of the fort, the proprietors laid out a regular town of house lots. By 1722 the village had grown to contain some thirty dwellings beside the fort and some other buildings of a public nature. In 1716 Samuel Bray and Jonathan Preble helped Captain Peter Nowell in building a saw mill and grist mill in a creek at Arrowsic Island for Edw. Hutchinson and John Watts. Hence it appears that Mr. Preble, who was a millwright by trade, was one of the earliest settlers in this new town. Another was Wm. Robinson who in 1717 formed a part- nership with John Cookson of Boston, gunsmith, "for carrying on a joint trade with the eastern Indians from Boston to Georgetown."
Among the first town officials were Samuel Denney, town clerk; Jonathan Preble, moderator; Michael Malcolm, Arthur Noble, Daniel Farnham and Patrick Drummond were selectmen and assessors.
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Biddeford, 1718 (City 1855)
Burrage suggests that some of the early settlers of Biddeford, Maine, had emigrated from a town named Bideford in Devonshire, England; among these probably was Richard Vines, the founder of Biddeford, Maine. Vines may have prompted Sir Ferdinando Gorges, whose propensity it was to apply the names of well-known English places to new locations in Maine. Folsom, in his History of Saco and Biddeford offers the same interpretation.
The name was first used as the appellation of the town in 1718, and included the territory on both sides of the Saco River which had been incorporated under the name of Saco in 1653. In 1762 the town was divided and the section on the west side of the river retained the name of Biddeford. It became a city in 1855. It includes the site of the earliest permanent settlement in Maine of which we have a conclusive record.
In furtherance of Sir Ferdinando Gorges' plans for settlement, Richard Vines, a physician, passed the winter of 1616-17 at the mouth of the Saco, which he called Winter Harbor, now Biddeford Pool. Its territory was originally granted by the Plymouth Council to John Oldham and Richard Vines in 1630. The latter took legal possession of his grant on June 23rd of that year.
The names and numbers of the colonists have not been re- corded, but it was one of the conditions of the grant that Vines should transport fifty persons to the colony "to plant and inhabit there" with- in seven years. Quite a list of names is available. There is an agree- ment dated January 27, 1635, between Peyton Cooke and Richard Williams for the furtherance of clapboard making. The settlers in the neighborhood of the pine forests early engaged in the export of this article.
From the rate bill of the minister in 1636, the following names of early settlers are taken: Richard Vines, Henry Boade, Thos. Wil- liams, Sam'l Andrews, Wm. Scadlock, John Wadlow and Robert Sanky.
Here was the first seat of government in Maine, when Wm. Gorges was sent over and held the first court in 1636. The chief em- ployments of these early colonists were agriculture, fishing and trade with the natives. Some combined the three and were styled husband- men or planters.
A grant for the first saw mill on Saco River was made by the corporation in 1653 to Roger Spencer, on condition that the mill be completed within one year and that the townsmen be preferred as em- ployes and have boards 12¢ cheaper than strangers.
About 1654 a ferry called "the Lower Ferry" was regularly
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kept. The ferryman was Henry Waddock. He was allowed to charge 2¢ for everyone set across the river. He also kept an ordinary for the entertainment of strangers. It was not until 1767 that the first bridge leading from Biddeford to Saco was built by Colonel Thomas Cutts, Deacon Amos Chase, Thomas Gilpatrick, Jr., and Benjamin Nason, Jr. It bridged the west branch of the river to Indian Island and was made a toll bridge by an act of the General Court in 1768. The first post office was in 1789.
When Gorges' government was superseded by the Rigby- Cleaves government of Lygonia in 1645, Vines removed to Barbadoes after selling his patent to Robert Child, Doctor of Physick. It finally came into the hands of Wm. Phillips, an extensive landholder who came to town about 1660, and was largely engaged in lumbering, a man to whom great deference was shown by the people.
After the close of Queen Anne's War, in which the town had been destroyed, the General Court authorized its resettlement and sev- eral returning families arrived in 1714, and further accessions in num- bers were annually made. The settlement of Saco was so rapid that the inhabitants settled Mr. Short as their minister in 1717 and ex- hibited at Winter Harbor a compact hamlet. To encourage their pious zeal, forty pounds were annually granted out of the Provincial treasury for four or five years, in aid of support. The General Court also con- firmed the ancient bounds of the town, lying on both sides of the river, and the next year ordered that fifty families, at least, be admitted and settled in a defensible manner, and that after the 18th of November the name of the town be changed to that of Biddeford.
In 1718 the town agreed to erect a meeting house at Winter Harbor, thirty-five feet by thirty. Here in 1730 the Reverend Mr. Willard, the father of the late President Willard of Harvard College, was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church organized at the same time.
Newcastle, 1753
This was the first town to be established by the Provincial gov- ernment within the territory of Sagadahoc. It was erected from the Sheepscot Plantations in 1753, and was so called in compliment to the Duke of Newcastle, the King's principal secretary at that time and a friend of the American Colonies. The plantations had been settled about 1630-31.
Among the earliest settlers were Walter Phillips and John Ma- son, both of whom purchased land from the Indians. The former ap- pears to have been a sensible man, worthy of public confidence and acquainted with penmanship. When the King's Commissioners, in 1665, held a session at the house of John Mason on Great Neck, east
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of the Sheepscot, for the purpose of establishing a government within the Duke's Province of Sagadahoc, they appointed Phillips clerk and county recorder. The "Sheepscot records" kept by him, documentary evidence of land titles and facts, were often mentioned and examined until burned with the Boston Courthouse in 1748.
The King's Commissioners erected the whole extensive territory into the County of Cornwall and applied the name of New Dartmouth to the entire region around the plantation. They vested the civil power of the county in a chief constable, three magistrates or justices of the peace and a recorder. Their administration was displeasing to the in- habitants and was terminated in 1688.
The first settlement was made on the Neck, on the Sheepscot side of the peninsula. Nicholas Manning, who was the surveyor under John Palmer, the Duke of York's agent and appointed by Governor Dungan, has left us "the dementions of the town necke." John Mason's house was between the Common and the King's highway; he was the chief man and largest landholder in the village. Christopher Dyer lived in the neighborhood of the Neck. Mme. Elizabeth Gent, a large land- holder, lived on Garrison Hill, having purchased the land from the In- dians. Her son Thomas Gent lived on the eastward side of Sheepscot Great Neck near the Point. Nicholas Manning's estate lay south of here. Speaking of these early settlers, Cushman says: "The nationality is probably English although I find a sprinkling of Dutch among them." Among the names are Dale, Dyer, Stalger, Draper, Gent, Messer and White. They were under the Duke of York's government and the British crown.
Walter Phillips was on the western bank of the Damariscotta River, about two miles below Lower Falls, and James Smith lived near by. Phillips' next neighbor north was John Taylor. In 1675 when the first Indian War desolated the region, the affrighted inhabitants and their goods were conveyed to a place of safety by Wm. Phipps who had built a ship near by. Many of these inhabitants returned at the close of the war.
After the second Indian War, the place was in ruins for more than thirty years. John Mason's claim of 1652 came through descent and sale into the hands of David Cargill in 1736. He was a native of North Ireland. The claim remained in the hands of his descendants for many years. He was employed by Tappan to survey lands. Some of the other earlier claims were allowed.
David Dunbar came in 1729 and became superintendent and governor of the Province of Sagadahoc. Active and energetic, he intro- duced desirable people to this section: McCobbs, Reeds, Aulds, Mc- Clintocks, McFarlands, Briers, Knights and Fossetts, Montgomerys, Kennedys and Campbells, all Scotch-Irish. Dunbar left about 1734.
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Captain Alexander Nickels or Nichols, an early settler from Boston, built a mill on Allen's Falls on Mill River where one had pre- viously been built. He was active in wars. His son Captain James was concerned with the "Tea Plot" in Boston Harbor.
Among the names of the town officers in 1754 and 55 were William McLelland, moderator, John McNear, clerk, and James Car- gill, treasurer. Kenelm Winslow, Samuel Kennedy and William Mc- Lelland were selectmen. The first town representative to the General Court in 1768 was William Nickels.
Harpswell, 1758
The early settlement of this town, begun about 1720, was, for some years after 1750, a precinct of North Yarmouth. It was incor- porated as a town in 1758. It consists of a peninsula, nine miles in length, extending southwestward with parallel lines of islands on each side. These are known as Harpswell Neck and on the east are Great Island and Orr's Island, with numerous smaller ones.
Concerning the name of Harpswell, Williamson says that "it was given at the pleasure of the Legislature." Elijah Kellogg, Harps- well's beloved preacher and author, offers in one of his manuscript lectures the statement that according to traditional accounts the name was given by the Dennings, who were residents at the time of the in- corporation of the town. Wheeler, in his History of Brunswick, Harps- well and Topsham, says there is a town of Harpswell in Lincolnshire, England, and the name probably was first suggested by some emigrant from that vicinity and was favored by the Dennings who were English people, although from another county.
In 1658 Thomas Haynes settled at Maquoit, where he retained land as late as 1678. Richard Potts was settled as early as 1672, and probably a year or two earlier, on what was known as New Damaris- cove Island. In 1673 he owned and lived on a point which still bears his name, at the extremity of Harpswell Neck.
The following people are known to have been settled here cer- tainly prior to 1700: at Middle Bay, John Cleaves; on White's Island, Nicholas White; at Mair Pt., James Carter, Thos. Haynes, Andrew and George Phippeny; at Maquoit Bay, John Swain; Thos. Kimball on one of the islands in 1658, John Sears, Thos. Wharton, Samuel Libbey, who subsequently resided in Scarborough, Henry Webb, Edw. Creet (or Creek) and Robert Jordan; on Smoking Fish Point, Chris- topher Lawson; at or near New Meadows in 1675 was Alister Coombs.
The island of Sebascodegan was settled as early as 1639 by Francis Small and his wife Elizabeth. He was from Kittery and was one of Shapleigh's tenants. There were a number of settlers at the
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Neck, including Nicholas Cole and John Purrington in 1672, but all were driven off in the first Indian War.
The Pejepscot Proprietors who bought the lands from Rich- ard Wharton's administrator in 1714 were: Adam Winthrop, John Watts, David Jeffries, Stephen Minot, Oliver Noyes and John Ruck of Boston and John Wentworth of New Hampshire.
In 1715 the proprietors made certain proposals to the General Court which would encourage settlement. The committee reported favorably on the proposals. The principal occupations of the early set- tlers of Harpswell were fishing and cutting cordwood to ship to Boston, Salem and other ports. Bailey's Island was at that time covered with trees. Later farming and fishing were the industries.
Previous to 1758 there was a windmill called Jones' Mill. Its location is not known. Captain James Sennett of Bailey's Island re- membered a very old mill which was standing as late as 1804 at Wid- geon Cove. During the Revolution, when salt was scarce, salt works were carried on at Great Island by a company. An Irishman who un- derstood the process suggested it and had charge of the kettles. Mr. James Booker kept store in 1752 for about ten years. At the latter date Andrew Dunning and Alexander Wilson were also in trade. Joseph Coney came from Boston in 1795 and opened a store which was op- posite the lower end of Orr's Island. In 1765 there were in Harps- well 55 houses and 111 families: 836 people in all.
Harpswell, or Merryconeag Neck, was a parish in North Yar- mouth until 1740 when it was annexed to Brunswick; but it was re- turned to North Yarmouth in 1741. The inhabitants had petitioned for the change because of the difficulty in getting to North Yarmouth church. In 1749 it was made into a separate precinct and in 1758 in- corporated as the town of Harpswell.
Woolwich, 1759
On the twentieth of October, 1759, the plantation of Nequasset or Nauskeag was erected into a town by the name of Woolwich. It had been a precinct of Georgetown and became the fourteenth town in the Province of Maine. It is said to have been so called from a town of that name in England, from the relative situations of the two, to "Fiddler's Reach" in the Thames and in the Kennebec, the turns and courses of the two rivers being very similar.
The place was first settled by Edward Bateman and John Brown, who purchased the greater part of the territory from the In- dians in 1638. Their settlement was made under the grant to John Mason of ten thousand acres of land on the east side of the Sagada- hoc. The peninsula at the southeastern part of the town, Phipps Neck, was owned and occupied by James Phipps, whose son afterward dis-
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tinguished himself as Sir Wm. Phipps. In 1692 he was made the royal governor of Massachusetts, which included Maine.
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