Radio Script #355
Little Talks On Common Things
November 17, 1957
I am often asked about the di fference in the names tTprovi nce of Mai ne;; and !TOi str i ct of Ma i ne” . I n substance it is enough to say that “provi nce’! was the title before the Revolution and TfdistricttT the title after Massachusetts became one of the 13 original states. Let me tell you my authority for that statement.
Burrage, in his ‘~Beginnings of the Province of Maine’~, says: “On August 10, 1622 the Counci I for New England granted to Sir Ferdinand Gorges and John Mason the territory between the Merrimack and the Sagadahoc Rivers: which the said Gorges and Mason, with the consent of the president and the counci I, intend to name the Provi nee of Ma i ne.”
Maine’s greatest historian, Wi I liam, says that Massachusetts adopted its new state constitution on June 14, 1780, and at that time adopted for Maine the Congressional designation, ~istrict of Maine. A later historian, Varney, explains more fully: “In 1779 Congress divided the whole country into districts for the purposes of revenue and better adMinistration of the national laws. And thus it was that we became the District of Maine — sti I I a part of Massachusetts, yet having a United States court and district offices, as we have had ever since.”
In all the ten years of radio comment on the folk and folkways of Maine, have seldom even mentioned Maine’s oldest recorded history, much less told you about it in detai I. It is high time for me to give appropriate attention to Judge James Su I I ivan, who pub I i shed his :iH i story of the Oi stri ct of Ma i ne fl in 1795, a fu II quarter of a century before Mai ne became a separate state.
Copies of that book are rare today. Fortunately one of them is in the Treasure Room collecti on of the Col by Co liege Li brary.
The title page gives us The following information: “The History of the District of Maine, by James Sui livan. I I lustrated by a new correct map of the District. Boston. Printed by I. Thomas and E. T. Andrews. Faust’s Statue, No. 45 Newbury Street. 1795 • H
It was Sui livan who first gave a careful public record of the early Maine counties. He explained thaT The whole district remained in one county unti I 1761, the County of York. In that year a line roughly corresponding with the Saco River marked the western boundary of a new county named Cumberland, which included al I the islands in Casco Bay, as well as the mainland between the Saco and And roscogg in. A II the reST of Ma i ne was named the CounTy of Li nco In.
On this program I have aften mentioned that huge old county of Lincoln, whose county seat was Pownalborough, now the town of Dresden, on the east side of the Kennebec. There the old court house, bui It almost 200 years ago, sti I I stands, carefully preserved by the historical society of the modern Lincoln County, with its county seaT at Wiscasset. It was in the old county of Lincoln that four Kennebec towns were incorporated on the same day in 1771, the towns of \1 i nthrop, Ha I lowe I I, Vassa I boro and \~i ns low.
Sui livan goes on to explain that, after the Revolution, Lincoln County wasdivided into three counties, the two others being qiven the names of Hancock and Wash i ngton • HWash i ngton County~:, he wrote, ~:comp rehends a I I the te rr i tory between Hancock and the Province of New Brunswick, and oughT to extend to the St. Croi x, but the Eng Ii sh have crowded in on the state as far as Cobsecook. H
Thus, when Sui livan wrOTe his history in 1795, Maine had, instead of its present 16 counties, only five. They ran in straight norTh-south lines, and from west to east were York, Cumberland, Lincoln, Hancock and ~’/ashington. Our own Kennebec County was not seT off from Lincoln until four years later in 1799.
In 1795 there were only nine towns in al I the area That is now the County of Kennebec. In addition TO the four incorporated in 1771 — Winthrop, Hal 10- wei I, Vassalboro and Winslow — Pittston had become a town in 1779, Readfield in 1791, Monmouth, Mt. Vernon and Sidney in 1792. Then in 1795 Clinton, Fayette and Li tchf i e I d were incorporated. Four more were added before the county was separately established in 1799 Belgrade, China, Augusta and Wayne. So, when Kennebec County was set up, it had 16 towns — eloquent testimony to the rapidity of the county’s growth immediately after the Revolution. Our county now has 29 Towns and cities, and one township which was formerly a plantation. Are you surprised that, unti I a few years ago, we had a plantation in Kennebec County? We did, indeed. Whi Ie the town of Unity is in Waldo County, Unity Township, through which one travels on the road from Benton to Unity, is in Kennebec County, and unti I it was disorganized in 1942 it was Unity Plantation.
The 13 Kennebec towns that were incorporated after those first 16 in the 18Th century were led by Vienna and Watervi I Ie in 1802, fol lowed by Gardiner in 1803, Albion and Rome in 1804, and Windsor in 1809. Then came a lapse of 3 years, unti I the incorporation of Benton in 1842, fol lowed by West Gardiner, Manchester and Chelsea in 1850, Farmingdale in 1852, Oakland in 1873 and finally Randolph in 1887.
I have tol d you a II th is in order that you may rea Ii ze how very ear Iy in our.hisTorySullivan’s book appeared. Maine was pretty much unsettled wi Iderness in 1795; with its few incorporated towns lying close to the coast in York and Cumber I and counties, a long the coast itse I f as far as Mach i as, and a. short di stance up the Androscoggin, Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers. FortunaTely there was inserted into Su II ivan’s book a I arge map wh i ch is i nscri bed: itA map of the District of Maine, drawn from the laTest surveys and other best authorities by Osgood Car I eton • ” The map is 22 x 17 inches ins i ze, so that it took cons i de rable folding to insert it into a book 8t x 5 inches.
Between Kittery and Portland the coastal towns shown on the map are nearly the same as now, with the exception that not only what is now Kennebunkport, but the enTi re Kennebunk area as we I I, i s desi gnated by the 0 I d name made fami liar by Kenneth Roberts — Arundel. From Portland to Penobscot Bay the coast was fa i r I y we I I sett led, but east of that bay the sett lements ‘tie re sma I I and few. Between Gouldsboro and Machias the map indicates not a single community only range and lot numbers of unsettled land.
The northernmost sett lement I arge enough to have a name on the map was then New Vineyard, near Farmington, in what is now Franklin County. The northernmost eastern seTtlement was Bangor. North of B3ngor was nothing but woods. The 9reat ferti Ie lands of the Aroostook were then unknown.
The map shows clearly the boundaries of the Waldo Patent, about which I have told you so much, and it also shows the extent of the huge Bingham Purchase of more than a mi Ilion acres.
Only six townships on the map are designated as particular grants, and those were a II located in the area, the southern line of whi ch are the present towns of Skowhegan, Norridgewock and New Vineyard. One of those townships had been granted to a Massachusetts school, Taunton Academy. Two had been granted to Maine’s own earliest academies, Berwick and Hallowell. Two had been made to pri vate parties. The sixth is especi ally i nteresti ng. I t was a grant of two townships marked on the Sullivan map as “granted to the sufferers of Portland.!T
That was the recognition given by the Massachusetts legislature to the fate of the Port landers whose town had been burned by the British durinq the Revolution.
It is worth noti ng what the map te I Is us about towns a long the Kennebec in 1795. North of Merrymeeting Bay, on the wesT bank, the town of Bowdoinham included whaT is now Richmond, and on the east side the big town of Pownalborough stretched a I I the way to the Sheep scot and the ocean reaches at Wi scasset 0 Pittston covered not on Iy its p resent area, but a II of Gardi ner and West Gardiner and Farmi ngda Ie as we II. Ha II owe II too extended on both si des of the river’ and included the present areas of AugUSTa, Randolph and Chelsea.
By 1795 Vassalboro no longer claimed land on both sides of the Kennebec, because its west bank area had been taken to form the town of Sidney. \1i ns low included all of Waterv; I Ie and Oakland, and north of Fairfield was the big town of Canaan, covering al I of what is now Skowhegan and parts of Madison and Norr i dgewock. North of Canaan was noth i ng in the great wi I de rness except the occasional cabin of a lone settler and the seasonal camo of the few remaining Ind i ans .
Over in the northern part of Cumberland County, where I was born, there were already a number of towns. My own town of Bridgton had been settled for near’ly 30 years. Fryeburg was a thriving community. Raymond already enjoyed mai I service from Portland. Dtisfield had more than a hundred inhabitants. What I like to cal I Bridgton’s foreign neighbors were then unknown — Sui livan’s map shows no Norway, no Sweden, no Denmark, nor any Naples or Paris. This is rather unfair to the Maine town of Paris, which contributed so much to our history after Ma i ne became a state. I n fact, the commun i ty at Pari s Hi II a I ready had a g00dly number of settlers before the Revolution and the town was actually incorporated in 1793. Thus we deduce that, although Sui livan’s book was published in 1795, the map he inserted in it was drawn before 1793. The map itself carries no date, but in the lower right hand corner appear the words: “A map of those parts of the country most famous for being harassed by the Indians long after their first settlement, and more particularly treated in Judge Sui livan 1s Hi story of the Oi stri ct of Ma i ne. n
Especially significant is what the map tel Is us about the northern boundary of Maine. It places that boundary along what it cal Is the High Lands, extending from the New Hampsh ire line, north of the Rang Ie I ey Lakes, runn i nq ina northerly direction across the St. John River, so that the whole watershed on both sides of that river fell within the territory of Maine, unti I it came near the present New Brunswick community of Fredericton.
Many years were to e lap se after 1795, and many quarre I s were to ensue, i neluding the bloodless Aroostook Wart before in 1842 Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton would sign the treaty which gave Canada possession of all lands on the north and east banks of the St. John, and considerable territory on the west bank.
Let me close this account of Sui livan’s history by tel ling you what he says about Maine climate: PThe weather in the District of fl.1aine is found to be colder than it is in the same degree of latitude on the other continent. Therehave been many attempts to explain this. Dr. Robertson supposes that, as our east wind generally produces soft, warm weather, and our north and west winds cold weather, our cold is occasioned by northerly and westerly winds raised on the mountains and chi lied before they reach us. Others say our climate is caused by our thick and heavy covering of forests. Dr. Holyoke says our cold comes from the great number of evergreen trees in our woods. This idea is new, but it applies with great force to the District of Maine, where the forests are composed a I most who II y of hem lock, spruce, pine and fi r. Y!
Incidentally Judge Sui livan had never heard of the Arctic current and the Gulf Stream. And with that comment on different views of an olden day, I must say good night for old times’ sake.
Year: 1957