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

546    GAZETTEER OF MAINE.

in several other offices. During his lifetime he administered on the
estates of 91 different persons.

A large number of persons, natives or residents of the towm, were
engaged in the Revolutionary war. Colonel William Turner was aide
to Washington ; Elijah Dresser was in the battle of Bunker Hill; Lu-
ther Cary, Joseph Ward well, Nathaniel Sawtelle and Joseph Ludden,
were in the Continental army; Samuel Blake, Mark Andrews, Moses
Merrill, Levi Merrill, Malachi Waterman, Richard Phillips, Abner
Phillips and Joseph Leavitt, in the defense of Boston, 1775 ; Gen. Peleg
Wadsworth, Benjamin Jones, John Leen, John Keen, jr., Asa Battles,
Nathaniel Shaw, Daniel French, James Phillips, Nathan Richmond,
William Ilayford, Benjamin Merrill, Job Randall, Solomon Millett,
Ephraim Andrews, Benjamin Alden, William Putnam, John Allen,
Thomas Atherton, Benj. Chamberlain, Wait Bradford, Isaac Phillips,
Ichabod Phillips and Andrew Bass, in the Massachusetts militia;
Israel Smith, Laban Smith, James Lara, Bennett Pompillv, Richard
Hine, Benjamin Conant, Paul Lowell, Joshua Davis, Moses Snell arid
Simeon Caswell, in Massachusetts Continental; Jesse Bradford served
as guard of Burgoyne’s captured army; Abney Thayer on Castle Wil-
liam, Boston Harbor ; Elisha Fisher, in Washington’s life-guard ; Abial
Turner, in commissary department; John Bailey in last three years
service ; Daniel Pratt, in Rhode Island troops ; Cornelius Jones, in
Massachusetts troops and as a seaman; James Allen, musician in
Massachusetts line; Jacob Gardner, during the Avar; and Nathaniel
Marston, in New Hampshire line. In the war of 1812, Captain Ste-
phen Turner was killed at the battle of Bridgewater, and Theodoeius
Merrill died in the army. During this war the enemy making a demon-
stration against Portland; a large number of militia were ordered there
in defense ; and for this short campaign Mr. Benjamin Jones furnished
nine sons. In the war of the Rebellion Turner furnished 319 men,
paying them an aggregate bounty of $62,445; and furnishing for sol-
diers’ relief $1,575. Twenty-eight of these were killed in battle or died
of disease in the army.

The first mill in town was built by Samuel Blake in 1775, on
Twenty-mile River, at what is now known as Turner village, and was
destroyed in the great freshet of 1785. It appears to have been both
.a saw and grain mill. It was rebuilt the next season. At this place
there are now a grain-rnill, a general saw-mill, a box, carriage and shoe
factory, a tannery, and several smaller manufactures. The other prin-
cipal places of business, are North Turner Bridge on the Androscoggin
River; Keen’s Mills, some three miles below, where there are mills for
grain, lumber and paper pulp ; Chase’s Mills, on Twenty-mile River, in
the western part of the town, having a hub factory and a lumber mill;
North Turner, where is a grain-mill, lumber mills, a cheese and a shoe
factory ; and West Turner, which has a large cheese factory. The first
fulling mill in this town was built at Bradford village, and operated by
John Haley. A pottery was also established at the same place by
Reuben Thorp. By an act of General Court in 1803, William Brad-
ford, Benjamin Evans, John Turner, Daniel Cary, Luther Cary and
John Loring, were incorporated as a body politic by tbe name of the
Ministerial and Grammar School Funds in the town of Turner; and
they and their successors were to be a body politic and incorporate
by that name forever. Their number was never to be over seven