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

124    GAZETTEER    OF    MAINE.

illustrated in an anecdote related hy Willis, [see his account of the
“ Scotch-Irish Immigration ” to this country] of Andrew Reed, an
uncle of the celebrated Presbyterian, Rev. John Murray. During the
last Indian war the residents of Boothbay Harbor withdrew to the
westward for safety. Mr. Reed alone refused to go, and, in defiance
of all persuasion, persisted in remaining in his rude log cabin. Con-
trary to all expectation, the fugitives, on their return in the spring,
found him alive and unharmed. To their wondering inquiries he
calmly replied that he had felt neither solitude nor alarm. “ Why
should I ? Had I not my Bible with me ? ” cried the old man. Rev.
John Murray, to whom allusion has been made, was settled at Booth-
bay in the years just preceeding the Revolution. After removing
from Boothbay, he was settled over the “Whitefield Church” in New-
buryport, where his services were often attended by audiences of 2,000
people. Early in the war of the Revolution, British cruisers sometimes
put into Boothbay Harbor, where the sailors frequently went ashore to
rob the people. The plundered inhabitants remonstrated with the
officers, but to no effect. As a last resort the people requested Mr.
Murray to make an effort for their relief. They embarked him in a
capacious boat, and paddled out to the British ship, whose crew were
at this time bearing so heavily upon them. The approaching boat
challenged the attention of the whole ship’s company, who were on the
alert to know its business. Their surprise was great when they beheld
upon the deck of their vessel the noble figure of the clergyman, clad
in the full canonicals of the Presbyterian order. They gazed upon
him in silent wonder, while he set forth the sad case of his struggling
and suffering parishioners with such force and pathos that the town
was no more afflicted by those attached to this vessel.

The Boothbay Savings Bank held in deposits and profits at the
close of 1879, $35,795.87. At Boothbay village there are now Con-
gregationalist, Free Baptist and Methodist churches; at North Booth-
bay is a Congregationalist and Free Baptist, and at East Boothbay
a Methodist church, and on Barter’s Island, a Free Baptist church.
Boothbay has sixteen public schoolhouses, and the entire school
property is valued at $20,000. The valuation of estates in 1870 was
$642,819. In 1880, it was $769,760. The population in 1870 was
3,200. In 1880 it was 3,576.

Bowdoin is situated in the north-western part of Sagadahoc
county. Bowdoinham hounds it on the east, Topsham on the south,
Litchfield, in Kennebec county, on the north, and Webster, in Andros-
coggin county, on the west. In dimensions, the town is about 8^-
miles north and south, and 5^- east and west. The surface is some-
what uneven and rolling, and in the north-eastern part there is a group
of six considerable hills. Caesar’s Pond, having an area of about 75
acres, is the largest sheet of water. The jn’incipal streams are Cath-
ance and Little rivers, the first running southward through the eastern
part of the town, and the second running in the same direction at the
western part, and forming part of the boundary. The rocks are granitic.
The soil is about equally divided between clay and sandy loam. Good
crops of hay, grain, corn, potatoes and apples are obtained. Hemlock
and spruce are the soft woods. Maple, beech, birch and elm are plenti-