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

310    GAZETTEER    OF MAINE.

keag, or Black Stream, is the principal water-course, pursuing a widely
winding way from west to east through the town. The powers on
this stream are known as Wiggin’s Mill, at Levant village, where there
are board, shingle and lath machines; Weston’s Mills, at South Levant,
where there are board, clapboard, shingle and lath machines, and a
grist-mill; on the Horseback Road, is a shingle mill; White’s Mill, at
West Levant, where there is a board and shingle mill; Emerson’s
Mill, in the west part of the town, where there is a saw-mill. Another
local name for West Levant is “ Rogers’ Stand.”

The first settlers were William and George Tebbets, and Messrs.
Boobar and Knowland, who came in sometime prior to 1800. In 1801
Major Moses Hodsdon settled at what is now Kenduskeag Village, but
was then a part of Levant; where, in the following year, he erected a
saw and grist-mill, three dwelling-houses, a store and blacksmith-shop,
which were the first framed buildings within the town. Major Hods-
don was largely engaged in surveying; and his brothers soon followed
him to this place, adding much impulse to business. The titles of the
settlers to their lands were from William Wetmore, who had purchased
a tract here of the Commonwealth in 1792. The plantation name was
Kenduskeag, which it retained until its incorporation as a town, June
14, 1813. A corner, including the village of Kenduskeag, was set off
1852, to form a part of the new town of Kenduskeag.

Levant has Baptist, Methodist and Union churches. The number
of public schoolhouses is seven. The value of the entire school prop-
erty is $3,400. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $277,449. In
1880 it was $282,149. The population in 1870 was 1,159. In 1880 it
was 1,076.

Lewiston is practically the centre of Androscoggin County,
and is nearly so geographically. It is situated upon the Androscoggin
River, which separates it from Auburn on the west and south. Greene
bounds it on the north, Webster and Lisbon on the east. The soil
is largely a clay loam, but a gravelly loam on the high lands. The
surface is quite hilly, but there are no lofty eminences. David’s Moun-
tain, near Bates’ College, and Mitchell’s Hill are each nearly 500 feet
above the sea, and are the chief eminences. The former has its name
from Mr. David Davis, whose heirs have given a lot on its summit to
the college for an observatory. It is near the valley at the falls
of the Androscoggin, in which goes on the principal business of the two
cities of Lewiston and Auburn, and its summit affords a wide circle of
varied and pleasing landscape. The falls of the Androscoggin at this
place furnish attractive views from several points. On the river road,
about one mile above Barker’s Mills and three miles from the falls, is a
locality where a steep wooded hill comes down close to the shore of
the river, which has here just come down the rapids at Boxer’s Island,
and beats its swells against a rocky shore, wTiich at one point gives way
to a sandy slope, forming a little beach. For the distance of a mile
the scene is quite wild and beautiful. The place is variously named
“ The Gulf ” or “ Switzerland ” according as reference is had to the
water or to'the hill features of the picture. Here, as in other parts of
the town, the rock crops out. It is, in general, gneissic in its character,
intermixed with some granite and an impure limestone. No-name
Pond, situated near the eastern angle of the town, is the only consid-