Androscoggin County, Maine, Place Study

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Androscoggin County, Maine
Surnames/tags: Androscoggin_County_Maine us_history maine

Maine Project Page

History and People of Androscoggin County, Maine

Contents 1 Towns and Cities in Androscoggin County 2 Extinct Places in Androscoggin County 3 Boundary Changes 4 Early settlers 5 Settlement Time Line 6 Vital Records online 7 Sources

Towns and Cities in Androscoggin County

18 March 1854: Androscoggin County organized from four counties: Auburn, Danville (later annexed to Auburn), Poland and Minot from Cumberland County; Livermore and Turner from Oxford County; East Livermore, Greene, Leeds and Wales from Kennebec County; and Lewiston and Webster (later renamed Sabattus), and Lisbon from Lincoln County.

Town/City	Inc.	Parent Town	Parent County
Auburn	24 Feb 1842 22 Feb 1869	Danville, Minot	Cumberland
Durham	17 Feb 1789	Danville (Pejepscot)	Cumberland
Greene	18 Jun 1788	Lewiston	Kennebec
Leeds	16 Feb 1801	Livermore, Monmouth	Kennebec
Lewiston	18 Feb 1795 22 Mar 1862	Greene, Sabattus (Webster), Webster	Lincoln
Lisbon	22 Jun 1799	Bowdoin, Little River Plantation, Sabattus (Webster)	Lincoln
Livermore	28 Feb 1795	Chandler's Gore & Livermore Plantation	Oxford
Livermore Falls	1 Mar 1843	Livermore	Oxford
Mechanic Falls	22 Mar 1893	Minot, Poland	Cumberland
Minot	18 Feb 1802	Poland	Cumberland
Poland	1795	Eighty Rod Strip, Thompson Pond	Poland
Sabattus	7 Mar 1840	Greene, Lewiston, Lisbon, Litchfield, Wales	Cumberland & Kennebec
Turner	7 Jul 1786	Sylvester Plantation	Oxford
Wales	1 Feb 1816	Leeds, Litchfield (Smithfield/Smithtown), Monmouth	Lincoln

Extinct Places in Androscoggin County

Name	Became	Date of Change
Bakerstown Plantation	Poland	27 Apr 1779
Danville	Auburn	26 Feb 1867
East Livermore	Livermore Falls	3 Mar 1930
Lewistown Plantation (part)	Greene	18 June 1788
Lewistown Plantation (rest)	Lewiston	18 Feb 1795
Little River Plantation (annexed)	Lisbon	4 Mar 1808
Littleborough Plantation	Leeds	16 Feb 1801
Pejepscot	Danville	1 Feb 1819
Pejepscot Claim & Little's Gore	Pejepscot	6 Mar 1802
Port Royal	Livermore	28 Feb 1795
Royalsborough Plantation (Royalsburgh)	Durham	17 Feb 1789
Sylvester Plantation (Sylvestertown)	Turner	7 Jul 1786
Thompson Pond Plantation (so. east part)	New Gloucester	12 Feb 1816
Thompson Pond Plantation (rest)	Otisfield and Poland	1830
Thompsonborough	Lisbon	20 Feb 1802
Wales Plantation	Wales	1 Feb 1816
Webster	Sabattus	1971

Boundary Changes

Most of these changes were minor; those in bold denote large portions set off to create new towns. The place names are those in use at the time of the change.

Date	From	To
12 Feb 1802	Livermore	Leeds
18 Feb 1802	Poland (part)	Minot
1810	Leeds	Wayne
5 Feb 1821	Danville	Durham
8 Feb 1821	Livermore	Wayne
11 Feb 1823	Danville	Durham
31 Jan 1826 repealed 1827	Bowdoin	Lisbon
20 Feb 1827	Litchfield	Wales
8 Mar 1830	Thompson Pond Plantation	Poland
7 Mar 1834	Bowdoin	Lisbon
20 Mar 1838	Eighty Rod Strip	Poland
7 Mar 1840	Lisbon	Webster
24 Feb 1842	Minot	Auburn
20 Mar 1844 Line altered	Minot & Auburn	Auburn & Minot
20 Jul 1847	Webster	Lisbon
20 Apr 1852	Greene & Webster	Lewiston
20 Feb 1827	Leeds &Monmouth	Wales
24 Mar 1852	Poland	Danville
16 Mar 1855	Leeds	Wales
12 Mar 1856	Litchfield	Wales
20 Mar 1858	Poland	Otisfield & Casco
19 Feb 1859	Danville	Auburn
2 Apr 1859	Leeds	Wayne
19 Feb 1863	Lisbon	Webster
14 Feb 1867	Litchfield & Wales	Webster
20 Feb 1873	Minot	Auburn
22 Mar 1893	Poland & Minot	Mechanic Falls
7 Feb 1895	Lewiston and Greene	Webster

Early settlers

Heads of Families in Auburn before 1800

Surname	Heads
Chase	Jonathan Chase
Finson	Thomas Finson
Goss	John Goss
Haskell	Samuel Hubbard Haskell
Hildreth	David Hildreth
Lane	Job Lane

Settlement Time Line

Court disputes concerning overlapping land grants that encompassed much of the territory which became Androscoggin County long delayed settlement. Many of the early settlers did not own their land, but rented from the proprietors.

1690 Turner settled.

1763: Durham settled.

1768: Bakerstown, later Poland, was settled by Nathaniel Bailey, Daniel Lane and Moses Emery.

1769: Moses Emery was the first person to settle in the area that became Minot. He was followed in a few years by Samuel and Levi Shaw. Other early settlers at Minot were Henry Sawtelle, Israel Bray, Jr. & Sr., Samuel, William and Davis Verrill, Edward Jumper and John Leach.

1770: Paul Hindreth, the first settler of what is now Lewiston, build a log cabin on the east side of the Androscoggin River. He was soon joined by David Pettingill and L. J. Harris. Other early settlers included Asa Varnum, Thomas and Jonas Coburn, Israel Herrick, Jesse Wright, Jacob Barker, Josiah Mitchell, Jonathan Hodgkin, James Ames, Daniel Read, and Ebenezer Ham.

1772: Daniel Staples, Thomas and Elisha Record, Joseph Leavitt and Abner Phillips established the first settlement at Turner. The earlier name of Turner was Silvester Canada.

1773: Greene and Wales settled.

1779: Leeds settled.

1779: Elijah Livermore settled Livermore, followed soon by Mrs. Carver, Josiah Wyer, William Carver and Elisha Smith.

1779: John Wooster was the first to settle the Ricker Hill portion of Poland; before 1782 fourteen other families had settled there.

1780: The Stinchfield brothers settled Littelborough plantation, followed soon by Jira Fish and Thomas Millett.

4 Jul 1780: J. Bagley and Moses Little conveyed to Samuel Thompson all the land from Little River to Sabattis River, and to the north to the line dividing Pejepscot proprietors and the Kennebec proprietors. This became Lisbon and Webster (later Sabattus)

1786: First permanent settlement of the land that became Danville, and later Auburn, in the Pejepscot Claim.

1793: Jabez Ricker traded his land in Alfred, ME, to the Shaker Community and settled in that part of Poland which became known as Ricker Hill. His son Wentworth Ricker opened the first Inn there in 1797.

1798: First settlement at the Falls on the west side of the Androscoggin River (now Auburn).

1798: Ezekiel and Samuel Thompson settled at Lisbon, joined soon by Thomas Godfrey, Abraham Whitney, Hezekiah and Joseph Coombs, Abel Nutting, John Raymond and James Barker.

1808: Little River Plantation annexed to Lisbon; this part of Lisbon in known as Lisbon Falls.

1819: A Shaker community was established at Poland.

1822: Jacob Read opened the first store in Auburn Village.

26 Feb 1835: Charter granted to "Lewiston Falls Manufacturing Company" by the legislature, the first such charter for manufacturing at Lewiston.

Vital Records online

Most of these records are on familysearch.org. I have only included links to unindexed digital images available for free and not currently restricted.

Other records may be available. On familysearch, use the go to the search menu, select catalog, and enter the place name to see what is available. For indexed records not linked to digital images, copy the film/fiche number and look it up in the catalog. The film may be available.

Place	Record	Note
Auburn	Index to Marriages, 1786-1954	Bride index limited info, groom index has full record.
Auburn	Old Danville Journal	Families, heads index
Auburn	Vital Records (BMD), 1751-1867
Auburn	Vital Records, 1838-1896
Durham	Town & Vital Records, 1789-1931
Greene	Vital Records, 1755-1925
Leeds	Town & Vital Records, 1801-1891
Lewiston	Vital Records, 1764-1889
Lisbon	Town & Vital Records, 1800-1891
Lisbon	Lisbon, Maine Vital Records	Carmeta Appleby, Typed
Lisbon	Town Register, 1905
Livermore	Vital and Town Records, 1797-1910
Livermore Falls	Court Records, Civil Court Docket, 1924-1965	see Livermore for VRs
Mechanic Falls		see Poland and Minot
Minot	Vital Records, 1795-1888	typed
Poland	Vital Records, 1802-1937
Sabattus	Births and Christenings, 1840-1875	computer printout
Turner	Births, Deaths & Some Marriages, 1740-1955	Index in front of first film
Turner	Town & Vital Records, 1787-1892
Turner	Births & Christenings, 1776-1875	computer printout
Wales	Vital Records, 1834-1891	& a mortgage for 1841
Wales	Births & Christenings, 1759-1875	computer printout

Sources

• Maine History Records Survey Project. Counties, Cities, Towns, and Plantations of Maine: A Handbook of Incorporations, Dissolutions, and Boundary Changes. Portland, ME: Maine History Records Survey Project, 1940.
• Cogswell, Rev. Joseph, "Androscoggin County" in R. H. Howard, and Henry E Crocker, eds. A History of New England containing historical and descriptive sketches... Boston: Crocker & Co., Publishers, 1879, pp. 464-470.
• Leclerk, Michael J., ed. "" Genealogist's Handbook for New England Research, 5th edition. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012.
• Merrill, Georgia Drew, ed., History of Androscoggin County, Maine. Boston: W.A. Fergusson & Co., 1891. [1]
• Washburn, Israel, Notes, Historical, Descriptive, and Personal of Livermore, in Androscoggin (Formerly in Oxford) County, Maine, Portland, Me.: B. Thurston & Co., 1874, [2]