Radio Script #849

Little Talks on Common Things
April 19, 1970

Today is the 195th anniversary of the outbreak of the American Revolution, the fighting at Lexington and Concord that began the war for American independence. It is therefore appropriate that today we consider for a few minutes Maine’s part in the early months of that war, for of course the war began in Massachusetts and in 1775, Maine was a part of that royal province of Great Britain.

At that time Maine was very sparsely settled, having fewer than 50,000 people, and most of them lived west of the Androscoggin River. Indeed more than half of Maine’s population was located in what is now York County. In all of Maine, when those first shots were fired at Lexington, there were only 29 incorporated towns. Nine were in York County, seven in Cumberland, five in what is now Lincoln County, four in the present Kennebec, three in the present Sagadahoc, and one in what is now Waldo. East of the Kennebec the only incorporated towns in 1775 were Boothbay, Bristol, Edgecomb, Waldoboro and Belfast. Eight Maine towns had been incorporated in the 17th century, beginning with Kittery in 1647. Six of the eight were in York County, the other two in Cumberland. Those two were North Yarmouth and Falmouth (not the present Falmouth, but the older and larger town, part of which later became Portland). On the same day in August, 1771, four years before the Revolution, four Maine towns had received incorporation: Hallowell, Vassalboro, Winslow and Winthrop.

In 1775 what are now cities of Gardiner, Waterville, Bangor, Auburn, Lewiston, Calais and Eastport (to say nothing of the newer cities of Presque Isle and Caribou) did not exist at all, or were small hamlets in other towns. It is not surprising, therefore, that the men who went from Maine into the Continental Army came almost entirely from the area between Brunswick and the New Hampshire border at Kittery, and that the places that sent any significant numbers were the oldest towns in Maine, located in York County and in the vicinity of Portland.