Gazetteer of the State of Maine, 1882 page 240
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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

240    GAZETTEER OF MAINE.

of the wintering of the first families in Farmington, the Sandy River
Valley, through most of its extent had become the seat of a flourish-
ing community ; and this town alone contained 85 families.

A railroad connecting with the Maine Central was opened to Farm-
ington in 1859; and in 1880, a narrow-guage railway was constructed
from Farmington to Phillips. The county having until within a few
years been without the facilities of communication necessary to the
development of manufactures beyond the supply of some of its local
wants, affords perhaps the best illustration that can be found in New
England of the relative profits of exclusively agricultural investments
in a region distant from large markets, owing none of its prosperity or

wealth to commerce, manufacturing or lumbering operations. What,
then, has agricultural industry, unassisted by any other enterprise or
investment, done for a community of 17 towns in the interior of
Maine ? The reply is “ It has for nearly a century supported in com-
parative affluence an average population of some 20,000.” Just in
proportion as grazing—that is, stock-growing—was made the main re-
liance and endeavor, their progress and prosperity have been conspicu-
ous. Rev. J. S. Swift, author of an excellent article on Franklin
County in the “History of New England ” of Crocker and Howard,
and having large acquaintance in the county, says that he “ knows of


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