Gazetteer of the State of Maine With Numerous Illustrations, by Geo. J. Varney

BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 57 CORNHILL. 1882. Public domain image from

120    GAZETTEER    OF    MAINE.

American Secretary of State—is known as the Webster-Ashburton
treaty. William Allen, Esq., of Norridgewock, was employed by
Colonel Black as early as the summer of 1828 in overseeing the mak-
ing of roads and settling taxes in this territory, and continued in the
employment and in making sales more or less until 1855; at which
date much land was still held by the heirs. No explanation of the
transactions of the General Court with the devisees and records was
publicly made until 1868, when a brief statement of the facts was
placed on file in the collections of the Maine Historical Society.

Birch Harhor,—a post-office in Hancock County.

Blaine is situated on the eastern border of the State and
county, 26 miles north of Houlton. It was formerly Alva planta-
tion. It was incorporated as a town in 1874, and named in honor of
Hon. James G. Blaine. It is bounded east by New Brunswick, south
hy Bridgewater, west by unnamed townships, and north by Mars Hill.
The latter town contains the eminence of the same, name celebrated as a
land-mark in the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick. The
surface of the town is not varied hy high hills except in the south-
western corner, whence a group spreads away to the south-west. The
principal streams are Presque Isle Stream, which runs southward
across the middle of the town, and its eastern and western tributa-
ries, Young Brook and Three Brooks Stream. The centre of business
is at the northern side on the Presque Isle road. The town post-office
a hotel, and several stores are at this point. The manufactures are
shingles, carriages, and boots and shoes. The Free Baptists have estab-
lished a church in the town. Blaine has four public schoolhouses,
valued at $1,300. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $85,093. In
1880 it was $49,860. The population in 1880 was 646.

Blanchard is situated in the south-western part of Piscata-
quis county, 20 miles north-west of Dover. The town is at present
the terminus of the Bangor and Piscataquis Railway. The State
road from Athens to Moosehead Lake passes through Blanchard,—over
which has gone much of the travel to that point. The township was
a part of the Bingham purchase, which was locally known as the
“ Million-acre Tract.” Its area is 28,000 acres. Russell Mountain covers
quite a portion of it, and other high hills greatly diminish its tillage
surface. It is bounded on the north by Shirley, on the east by Monson,
south by Kingsbury, and west by Somerset county.

The west branch of the Piscataquis is the principal stream. The
ponds are Mud, Thanksgiving, Bracket and Whetstone. The town-
ship formerly abounded with pine timber; and at Blanchard village
one of its mill privileges has long been occupied by saw-mills. Several
slate quarries have been opened in town, and there appears to he good
promise of profit from the stores of this material. The slate is of fine
quality, and susceptible of a high polish.

Ebenezer Deane was the first settler, making his first clearing in
1813. The township was purchased a few years later by Charles Blan-
chard, Esq., of Portland, and Hon. Thomas Davee, of Dover, for the
sum of $4,000. A number of settlers came in soon after. The town was