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

14fl    GAZETTEER    OF MAINE.

mills.    The manufactures of the town are long    lumber, shingles,

staves, box-boards, flour and meal, shovel-handles, snow-shovels, hand-
sleds, drag-rakes, brushes and brush blocks, powder-kegs, leather,
harnesses, cutting-blocks, men’s hoots, etc. Buckfield Village is the
principal centre of business, not only for this but for several adjacent
towns.

The first attempts at settlements in this town were by Benjamin
Spaulding in the summer of 1776. Abijah Buck and Thomas Allen
moved in wfith their families during the spring following. Others    m

joined them, until in 1785 they procured a survey of the town, and
purchased it soon after, of the owner, the Commonwealth of Mass-
achusetts, paying at the rate of two shillings per acre. The deed bears
the date of November 13, 1788. Abijah Buck was agent of the pro-
prietors in making the purchase; and this, together with the circum-
stance that he and his brothers were large owners, led to the adoption
of the name “ Bucktown ” for the plantation. In 1793 it was incor
porated as Buckfield. Its first representative in the General Court
was Enoch Hall, and the date was 1807. In 1816 great fires swept
over this and other towns, doing great injury to the forests. The first
preacher in Buckfield was probably Rev. Nathaniel Chase, who, having
served until mustered out, in the army of the Revolution, made his way
through the wilderness on foot, in search of a place to locate. The
farm which he took up here has remained in the family, and
is now occupied by his grandson. Mr. Chase was of the Baptist
denomination and much respected among his people. He travelled
and preached among the early settlers in Paris, Woodstock, Green-    ^

wood, and in other places. He left a large posterity, among whom
are the well-known firm of Chase Brothers, nurserymen, of Rochester,

New York. The Baptist denomination has remained the leading one
in town, having its house of worship at the \^rillage. There was a
Baptist society formed in the town as early as 1821, of which Elder
Nathaniel Chase was in that year the minister. There are now in
addition, Universalist, Methodist and Free Baptist churches. Seba
Smith, author of the famous “ Jack Downing Letters,” and well known
as a poet and journalist, was born in this town in 1782. Virgil D.

Parris, a prominent politician in his day, a member of Congress for
two terms, was a native of Buckfield. Hon. John D. Long, at this
time in his second term as governor of Massachusetts, the son of
Zadoc Long Esq., of this town, was born and spent most of his
minority here.

Buckfield has twelve public schoolhouses, valued together with
other school property, at $6,000. The value of estates in 1870 w^as
$554,673. In 1880 it was $397,598. The population in 1870 was 1,494.

In 1880 it was 1,379.    ^

Buck’s Mills, a post-office in Bucksport, Hancock County.

Bucksport is the westerly town of Hancock County, and its
most northerly town on the Penobscot. It is beautifully situated on
the east bank of the river at the “ Narrows,” forming a lovely picture,
with its streets and houses rising on a gentle slope from the water.

The summit of the hill is crowned by the buildings of the East Con-