USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 9
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
George Cleeve erected his house fronting the bay just east of India St., and George Munjoy lived a little east of him.
New Portland, 1808
New Portland lies on the western border of Somerset County. It was granted by the General Court of Massachusetts to the settlers of Falmouth, after the burning of their town by Mowatt in 1775. Hence the name Portland, which had been adopted by a part of Old Falmouth in 1786. In 1808, the 173rd town to be incorporated in Maine, New Portland received its name from the town whose mis- fortunes it had partially remedied.
David Hutchins of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, was the first settler, probably in 1785. In 1786 Josiah Parker arrived from Groton, Massachusetts. He was a Revolutionary soldier and took an honorable and arduous part in the affairs of the town. Another valued citizen was Andrew Elliot, a very public-spirited man. Ebenezer Richardson came from Sedgwick and John and William Churchill from Bing- ham in 1788. Later came Eben Casley, from Gorham; Samuel and Benj. Gould, Solomon Walker and Chas. Warden, from Woolwich and John Dennis from Groton, New Hampshire.
South Portland, 1895 (City, 1898)
It was on March 15, 1895, that South Portland was set off from Cape Elizabeth and became a town. It was granted a city charter on March 22, 1898; and the charter was adopted on December 5th of that year. South Portland is made up of several villages: Thornton
76
Heights, Cash's Corner, Ligonia, Pleasantdale, Knightville, South Portland Heights, Ferry Village and Willard; but so many houses have been built that the spaces are filling up and it is one compact city. It is often called "the City of Homes." South Portland is situated at the mouth of the Fore River, and is a residential community occupied by people working in Portland. It has several sardine canning factories and is the distributing point for many of the larger companies. There are also two dry docks, a cannery for Saturday Night Baked Beans, and a factory for snow plows.
Fort Preble is here, named for Commodore Edw. Preble. Built between 1808 and 1811, and enlarged during the Civil War, it com- mands a splendid view of Portland Harbor, the breakwater jutting far out into the ocean with Fort Gorges, an old unused fort, near by, and Peaks Island in the distance. Cape Cottage is the northern entrance to Fort Williams, where the United States Fifth Infantry has been sta- tioned since 1922; organized in 1808, the Fifth is one of the oldest Regular United States Army regiments. Its motto is "I'll Try, Sir," words spoken by Colonel James Miller in the Battle of Lundy's Lane on July 25, 1814. Within the fortification near the shore is Portland Head Light, built in 1791, the oldest lighthouse on the Maine coast. The white conical tower rises 101 feet above high water. From the hurricane deck of the tower, the Cape Elizabeth shore and many of the 222 islands of Casco Bay can be seen. These islands are sometimes called the Calendar Islands because an official English report of 1700 said: "Sd Bay is covered from storms that come from the sea by a multitude of Islands, great and small there being (if one may believe report) as many islands as there are days in the Yr."
Limington, 1792
This was one of the six towns called the Ossipee Towns: Lim- ington, Limerick, Cornish, Parsonsfield, Newfield and Shapleigh.
About 1661, Captain Sunday, a sagamore of Newichawannock, sold a large tract of land to Francis Small, embracing generally the territory between Great and Little Ossipee rivers in which these pres- ent towns were located. It was settled about 1663, and was known as Little Ossipee Plantation until its incorporation under the present name, Limington, as the seventy-seventh town in the District of Maine.
The name, Limington, may have been given to this Maine town in compliment to the English town, Limington, in Somersetshire, Eng- land, or to Lymington in Hampshire; both, according to Ekwall, stem- ming from a river name. The location of the former town in Somer- setshire, Gorges' own county, lends credence to the belief that that may have been the deciding factor in choosing the name of our Maine town.
77
On a tombstone erected in the cemetery of the present town of Limington, Maine, one finds the name of "the first settler of the town, Ezra Davis," who arrived in 1773. I am indebted to Mr. Walter G. Davis of Portland for the following facts concerning him. As a com- paratively young man he came to the wilderness from Biddeford, where his father was the operator of a lumber mill. No doubt the young man was attracted by the ample pine forests which covered this area. Later, other members of his family joined him, all becoming worthy citizens of the plantation. -
Deacon Amos Chase from Newbury, Massachusetts, a previous settler in the town of Buxton, soon followed. He settled near the point known as Chase's Mills at the mouth of the Little Ossipee River. Here he began at once to build a mill. Jonathan Boothbay came in 1774 and started clearing for his farm, camping alone and continuing to im- prove his land until after the war, when he brought in his family.
In January of 1775 John McArthur moved into town and set- tled on Bartell Creek half a mile west of Limington Center. He was a native of Perth, Scotland. One of the principal proprietors, Joshua Small, came and erected a tannery on Bartell Brook two miles west of the mouth of Little Ossipee River.
The first town meeting was held at the schoolhouse in 1792. Captain Joshua Small was elected moderator; Asa Edmonds, town clerk; Captain Robert Boody, Captain Nicholas Edgecomb and Sam- uel Sawyer, selectmen. On April 9 John Boothbay was elected trea- surer and Jesse Libby, constable and collector, with 3 per cent for collecting. Fourteen men were elected as surveyors of highways, Asa Edmunds as surveyor of land, Amos Chase, surveyor of boards. Among the other early officials were fence viewers and field drivers, wardens and tythingmen, a leather sealer and hog reeves. Jonathan Boothbay, Benj. Small and Amos Chase were elected a committee to call a min- ister to "preach out" the sum of fifteen pounds which the town voted for the support of the gospel; twelve pounds were voted for town charges, thirty pounds for schools and three hundred pounds for highway support.
A petition was sent to the General Court in 1793 for help on the improvements that were being made, and Ezra Davis was sent to Boston as town agent with an appropriation of two shillings per day for twenty-one days when he returned. Thirty-five dollars were ap- propriated in 1805, and the supply was constantly kept up afterward through frequent indictments by the General Court until the law ceased to require it. Ephraim Clark was keeper of the magazine for many years.
Elections were held in the Congregational meeting house from its erection in 1793 until 1825, when they were held alternately be-
78
tween this church and the Free Will Baptist meeting house in the south part of the town. A town house was erected in 1826 by Arthur Bragdon, on the site of the old pound. The first marriage recorded in town was that of Nathan Cobb and Mary Sawyer whose bans were published July 8, 1792.
Cornish, 1794
Cornish is an English name meaning of, or pertaining to, Corn- wall. Cornwall lies in the extreme southwestern corner of England, bordering on Devonshire at its east. It is from this latter shire that many of our early settlers came to Maine.
As in many other Maine towns, the reason for the selection of the name is not quite clear. One of the town's historians, after long and careful study, is quite convinced that it was because Francis Small, the first proprietor of the land, came from the Cornish coast; while others make Bideford, England, his home. This location, however, is not far distant from the Cornish coast and might have provided sufficient rea- son for the naming of the town.
Before the incorporation of the town, the plantation had been called Francisborough and Francistown, from the Christian name of Francis Small. He had purchased the land from an Indian sagamore, Captain Sunday, in consideration of two large English blankets, two gallons of rum, two pounds of powder, four pounds of musket balls, twenty strings and other small articles. Small afterward conveyed a moiety of his purchase to Nicholas Shapleigh.
Francis Small's trading post, standing at the juncture of the Ossippee Trail and the Pequawket Trail, was established as early as 1665 or earlier. Fur-trading was everywhere a lucrative employment in the early years of our country. Furs were brought to the trading post from all parts of the Ossipee and Saco valleys. The Indians burned Small's post to the ground. Tradition relates that Francis Small had been forewarned by Captain Sunday himself about the event. This warning probably saved Small's life.
For many years before any white settlers came George Kezar of Canterbury, New Hampshire, attracted by the abundance of game which had so long made it a favorite resort of the Indians, had estab- lished his hunting camps in various parts of this section and spent his falls, winters and springs here. The plantation was an unbroken wilder-' ness at the time of the survey in 1772.
The first settlers were John Durgin and James Holmes who came from Scarborough in 1774. The name Pumpkintown was used by these first residents because pumpkins grown here were so large.
Following Durgin and Holmes came Henry Pendexter, who located on a little meadow half a mile from Trafton Pond, on its out-
79
let. Joseph Wilson settled near Durgin and Holmes; Robert, Henry and Asahel Cole, John Chute, James Wormwood, who settled between Hosac and Clark Mountain, and John Gilpatrick and John Hodgen also settled in the south part of the town. In 1778 Timothy Barrows settled in the northern part of the town and built his cabin on the old Pequawket Trail a mile south of the Ossipee. Joshua Chadbourne was an early settler on the Gore; near him was Joseph Seavey.
The first settlement in the village of Cornish was made by Joseph M. Thompson, who erected a log house about 1782, on the south side of Main Street, near the Park. He soon afterward built a small frame house a few rods south of the first house. From this loca- tion it was moved to the end of Kezar Street. Some years later Isaac Thompson took the adjoining lot on the river and also built a frame house. For many years these were the only frame houses in the vi- cinity. Many other people entered the town following the close of the Revolution, increasing the population to 141 in 1790.
About 1817 Cotton Lincoln came from Gorham and built a store ncar Mr. Thompson's house, where he began to sell goods and deal in lumber. Soon others moved in, the post office also was estab- lished and in 1832 a church was built in the village. Elders John and Levi Chadbourne, ministers of the old Baptist church, preached in Cornish as early as 1798. Dr. Hezekiah Smith held meetings in old Mr. Chadbourne's log house before a church was organized. Mrs. Betsey Barrows was an earnest preacher. The old meeting house was built in 1803 on a rock forming the highest point near Pease's Corners, two miles south of the village. It was dedicated in 1805 and taken down and moved to the village in 1842.
Litchfield, 1795
This is the southernmost town in Kennebec County. There are several attractive ponds, glens and cascades in the town. The planta- tion name of the township was Smithfield, from two brothers named Smith who, together with a Mr. Tibbetts, were the first settlers. Others of the early settlers were the Emersons, Metcalfs, Hutchinsons, Lords, Potters, Neals, Owens, Dennises, Snows, Rogers, Jewells, Robinsons, and John and Daniel True, whose descendants have ever been promi- nent in the town. The land titles are from the Plymouth Company. The town was incorporated under its present name in 1795. The peti- tion of the inhabitants of Smithfield Plantation asks "to become a town by the name of Litchfield or any other form that this Honorable Court Shall in thaire Wisdom think Best and as we in Duty Bound Shall Ever Pray. Smithfield, Decem. 31, 1794 .... " The signatures of the petitioners follow.
80
A note at the bottom of a page in Clason's History of the Town of Litchfield states that Great Hampton was the name originally in- serted in this petition and that after the bill incorporating the town had had its third reading, that name was erased and Litchfield in- serted without any Legislative action. Some members of the General Court doubtless preferred the old English name.
Lichfield, England, is a cathedral town located in Staffordshire, about 115 miles from London. There is a tradition that "Christian field" near by was the site of the martyrdom of 1000 Christians during the persecutions of Maximilian.
The first comers to Litchfield, Maine, were hunters. They made selections of lots, built cabins, marked trees, hunted and fished. A sur- vey made in 1776 by John Merrill is the earliest definite proof we have of names, dates and location of settlers. Among the names are Benj. Hinckley, Eliphalet Smith, Barnabas Baker and Benjamin Smith. The first two men named were here in 1774. Thos. Smith, who settled later in 1780, and Benj. Smith bought claims of hunters and it is believed that many other first comers did the same.
Difficulties ensued between these settlers and the proprietors who lived mostly in New York; but the matter was finally adjusted by the settlers surrendering one-third of their claims and receiving quit- claim deeds for two-thirds.
Samuel Clark built and settled here before 1800. Some of the old names in the Ferren School district were Richard Ferren, John Thurlow, John Lydston, Alexander Gray, Isaac Randall, James Wil- liams, John Getchell and Simeon S. Higgins. General Dearborn gave the water rights to the first settlers, but who built the first grist mill and saw mill and when they were built is not known. Simon Goodwin came before 1800, and the property was known as Goodwin's Mills for the next three-quarters of a century.
Thus for more than a century and a half, towns in the Province and District of Maine adopted in a great measure the names of old English towns.
In the earlier towns, at least, these English names were bor- rowed from English places which were dear to the heart of Sir Fer- dinando Gorges, whose corporations, as Andrews writes, "were veri- table castles in Spain . .. representing his love of grandeur and his sanguine hope of a large population made up of immigrants from his own West Country."
81
CHAPTER V Maine Towns Which Owe Their Names to Famous Englishmen
Although for more than the first one hundred and twenty-five years of the existence of the Province of Maine, the towns as they were incorporated adopted for the most part the names of English towns, in the latter part of the eighteenth century the names bestowed on them became in a greater degree those of Englishmen. Often these names were given in honor of men who were friendly to the American cause, Englishmen who in their lives of an earlier day had shown those same qualities of courage and independence which the American patriots admired.
Edgecomb, 1774
A town in Lincoln County, Edgecomb was originally settled in 1744 by Samuel Trask and others in "several places." Here, they and other settlers lived undisturbed for ten years, when three claimants challenged their titles by virtue of an Indian deed. The deed, how- ever, had no definite boundaries and no actual possession had been taken under it. A lawyer from Boston, acquainted with the facts, un- dertook the defense of the settlers without fee or reward. In this he was successful, and in compliment to his generosity the plantation was called Freetown.
As early as 1637 Sir Richard Edgecomb had received from Sir Ferdinando Gorges a tract of land of 8,000 acres situated near Merry- meeting Bay, then called the Lake of New Somerset. The courts, how- ever, ruled that the grant was obsolete and indefinite and that the sale of land to Wm. Bowdoin by the Plymouth Company was just and legal.
When the town of Edgecomb was incorporated in 1774 it adopted the name of the then Lord Mount Edgecomb who, during the crisis of the Revolution, was distinguished as a friend of the Ameri- can Colonies.
Folly or Davis Island was so called because the first settler erected a castellated house, leaving the building incomplete in the middle of the thick forest fronting the river's mouth and standing as a monument to the extravagance and folly of the man who undertook to build what he was unable to finish.
82
Twenty years after the death of this first settler, Moses Davis came here with his young wife, Sarah Rolfe, and in the course of oc- cupancy and improvement during many years they gained a good title. The bridge across Folly Bar was built in 1773. The original house built by Moses Davis in 1770 is still standing. It is the oldest house in Edgecomb and the first frame house built in town. It faces the mouth of the river and is near the old fort. The Amory house which is situ- ated between the Davis house and the blockhouse was built in 1838 by David Jackins. About the year 1800 Stephen Parsons moved from Westport to Parsons Creek, built a house and grist mill, and the only carding mill in town. He was the town's first representative to the Legislature, after the separation of Maine from Massachusetts.
Other noted townsmen were: Admiral John Merry, Rufus Sewell, Isaac Poole, Ebeneezer Chase, and the families of Clifford, Burnham, Cunningham, Cushman, Gove, Huff, Hutchins, Dodge, Matthews, Sherman, Haggett, Patterson, Baker, Williams, Webber, Carlisle, Preble, Moore, Greenough and Greenleaf who came from Westport, and the Pinkham family who came from Boothbay. Ship- building was carried on to a limited extent at the Eddy, on Deacon's Point and on Folly or Davis Island. The old fort on Davis Island is a relic of the last war with England. The blockhouse, which is the most conspicuous land mark in Wiscasset Harbor, crowns a system of earth- works on the southern point of the island, one of four forts established on the coast of Lincoln County in 1808-09 built by Major Moses Porter, who had served in the Revolution and was the oldest living engineer in the army. The blockhouse is one of several buildings here erected and represents one of the most perfect and substantial of that kind of military architecture, octagonal in shape, two stories high, with an upper overhang. The great pine timbers which support the floor are fifteen inches square. During the stay of Major Porter, he boarded at the home of Squire Davis on the island. Captain John Binney origin- ally commanded the fort and resided at a house in Wiscasset Village. The reservation is now owned by the state.
Freeport, 1789
The sixty-fourth town established in Maine, Freeport was in- corporated on February 14, 1789. It was previously called the Har- raseeket settlement, from the principal stream flowing through the town. It was the eastern part of Ancient North Yarmouth. The place was inhabited by settlers who came from the parent town about 1750. If we may believe some writers, many of the early settlers of the town were admirers of Joseph Addison, the English author, and named the town for Sir Andrew Freeport, a character in one of Addison's novels.
83
Others, including Williamson, Maine's best historian, state that the name was probably derived from the openness of the harbor.
Among the early settlers might be noted James Lane, who, in 1658, ventured a short distance up Cousins River, in what became southwest Freeport, and received a grant of land. About 1660, John Mosier settled on Mosier (Moge's) Island. Richard Dummer oc- cupied Pine Point, since changed to Flying Point. This latter name was adopted since ducks and geese usually went from one bay to an- other by flying across the point. Other early settlers who lived on Fly- ing Point Road were Thomas Means, who was killed by the Indians in 1756, the Merrimans, the Trues and the Pettengills.
Richard Bray settled a short distance south of Mr. Lane, while Nathaniel Wallis bought his improvement and claim to the land in 1672. Wolfe's Neck was held and occupied by John Sheppard in 1666. Amos Stevens, son-in-law of Wm. Royal, joined him in 1674. At the commencement of hostilities in King Philip's War, James Lane was killed; but his four sons fled with the alarmed settlers, saving their lives but losing their homes.
In 1688 there was a general outbreak of the Indians, and set- tlement was abandoned until 1722. John Shepherd was killed and his son-in-law, Henry Wolfe, came from England and settled on his claim in 1717. He received a grant of sixty-seven acres on Wolfe's Neck and Wolfe's Island in 1733. He planted the first orchard in town.
South Freeport is the chief landing, three miles from Freeport village. A portion of its lands was deeded by General Jeremiah Powell to Ammi R. Cutler in 1768 and to Joseph Mitchell in 1772, including the business part, north of Main Street. In 1824 when Samuel Bliss opened the old tavern, Freeport was a lively lumbering center.
Mast landing, at the head of the tide on Harraseeket River, was the landing where masts were delivered from the surrounding forests to the British navy. Abner Dennison settled here as early as 1656; Joseph Lufkin came from Cape Ann and built his cabin near the bridge about 1778. Aaron Lufkin, a fisherman, who brought his apprentice John Griffin, and Martin Anderson were also early settlers at this place. Porter's Landing, at the head of the West Branch, was the landing for Freeport and a place of industry. Here Porter's salt works were in activity in 1793. A hundred yards above the wharf there was a tide mill for many years previous to 1820. South Freeport is directly opposite the free port from which the town may take its name. From its earliest settlement it was made the center of the fishing trade. The Congregational Church was constituted a separate parish in 1789. A church had already been erected in 1774 on the old bury- ing ground between the village and Porter's salt works. This was given to the town, with the exception of the pew ground on the lower floor,
84
in 1789. Reverend Alfred Johnson was ordained pastor in 1789. The old church was taken down in 1818 and a new one raised in the vil- lage; this was burned when partly finished and a second one was erected on the same foundation. Reverend Alfred Johnson's salary was increased in 1795 and he taught grammar school as part of his min- isterial duty.
Durham, 1789
A part of the Pejepscot Purchase, Durham was incorporated on February 17, 1789, its plantation name being Royalborough or Royals- town, from Colonel Royal of Medford, Massachusetts, who was a ma- jor proprietor. When the town was incorporated in 1789, the name of the proprietor was not continued, but the name of the English town which was his home, Durham, a cathedral town in the north of Eng- land, was adopted.
The first pioneer in Durham, Maine, was Samuel Gerrish. He came about 1770 and, with others, brought forward the settlement, though slowly, after the reduction of Quebec. Most of the immediate settlers came from Duxbury, Salisbury and Scituate, Massachusetts, and later from Scarborough, Maine. Members of the Society of Friends moved into the southern portion of the town from Harpswell, in 1775, and others soon afterward came from Falmouth.
In 1766 the Pejepscot proprietors voted that lands be laid out and cleared in the Plantation of Royalsborough and a log house be built to accommodate the settlers. In 1768 they laid out a "New Town- ship to be called Royalsborough." In 1768 Jonathan Bagley, Belcher Noyes and Moses Little were chosen to bring forward the settlements and procure settlers.
Colonel Isaac Royal, for whom the plantation was named, emi- grated from England in 1738 with his parents to Medford, Massa- chusetts. He owned shares in the Pejepscot Purchase of about 3,000 acres in the southwestern part of Durham. He gave 2,000 acres of land to Harvard to found a professorship of law. For twenty-two years, he was a member of the Governor's Council in Massachusetts. He died in England.
Following the coming of Captain Samuel Gerrish, about 1770, Judah Chandler came into town and built a saw mill near where the Runround Mill now stands, and in 1773 he had quite a clearing, built a house and got his mill to work.
In 1775 Elijah Douglass of Middleborough, Massachusetts, re- moved from Harpswell Neck and settled in Royalsborough; he also owned much land. He united with the Friends at Falmouth. Ebenezer Newell, the first town clerk, settled on the rise of ground near the junction of the Freeport and Brunswick roads. Captain Joshua Strout
85
was a native of Cape Elizabeth and came to Royalsborough before 1771. Robert Plummer, born in Cape Elizabeth, arrived at Royals- borough in 1786.
Martin Rourk came from Ireland in 1773, when thirteen years old. He served through the war and in 1783 came to North Yarmouth with his commander, Captain Lawrence. In 1788 he married the cap- tain's sister and moved to Royalsborough as its first schoolmaster. In 1791 he was elected town clerk, in which office he served sixteen years. His son, Honorable Wm. D. Rourk, held many public offices.
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.