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

EMBDEN.    221

tinuously since 1853. There is a good public library, assiduously read.
The usual entertainments of a city are found here.

Benjamin Millikin is said to have been the first settler in the town,
having come in 1763; and, according to the “oldest inhabitant,” his
daughter Elizabeth cooked the first meal prepared by white people in
Ellsworth “ by the side of a huge bowlder, which stood where Dutton’s
store now is.” The next settlers were Meltiah Jordan, Benjamin Joy,
Colonel Jones, George Lord, Nathaniel and John Jellison. Others
soon followed these. The first children born were Edward and Susan
Beal. Twenty years after its settlement the township had a population
of 992. The first minister was Rev. J. Urquhart, who came in 1785.
The Rev. Peter Nourse was ordained in 1812. As a plantation the
township bore the name of New Bowdoin. It was incorporated in
1800, being named in honor of Oliver Ellsworth, one of the delegates
to the National Constitutional Convention, held a few years subsequent
to the Revolution. It comprised Township No. 7 (of the “Ten Town-
ships”), a part of Township No. 6, and the north-west part of Trenton.
The part taken from No. 6 was annexed to Surry soon after 1820, but
was re-annexed to Ellsworth in 1829. Ellsworth became the shire
town in 1838, and a city in 1869. James F. Davis was the first mayor.
It is said that all the buildings now standing south of Main street have
been erected within about sixty-five years. The first framed house is
still standing in the rear of the “ Clark and Davis” store. It is to be
supposed that “ ye olden custom ” of breaking a bottle and naming the
building by some bold and nimble citizen bestriding the ridge-pole
when the raising was completed, was observed here. The descriptive
rhyme for this house ran thus;

“ This is a good frame;

It deserves a good name.

What shall we call it ?

Josh Moore’s folly,

And Pond’s delight.

The lawyer has got it—

It looks like a fright.”

Ellsworth is the home of Hon. Eugene Hale, U. S. Senator, and of
his law-partner, Hon. L. A. Emery, a few years since attorney-general
of Maine. Colonel Z. A. Smith, of the Boston “Journal,” w^ras for a
time a resident of the town. The city furnished 653 men for the
Union cause during the Rebellion. The bounties paid by the city
amounted to $49,600. Ellsworth has twenty-two public schoolhouses,
and the school property is valued at $25,000. The valuation of estates
in 1870 was $1,233,199. In 1880 it was $1,456,366. The rate of taxa-
tion in 1880 was 21|- mills on the dollar. The population in 1870 was
5,257. In the census of 1880 it was 5,051.

Emlbden lies in the southern part of Somerset County, on the
west bank of the Kennebec River, about 40 miles north of Augusta.
It is bounded on the north by Concord and Lexington, east hy Solon,
south by Anson, and west by New Portland. The surface of the town
is hilly. The highest eminence is Black Hill, situated in the western
part of the town. There are many ledges, and the soil is rocky, ex-
cept at the south-west cornel’ of the town, where there are some good