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
174 GAZETTEER OF MAINE.
a horseback in the town 5 miles long and 25 feet high. Granite is the principal rock, of which there is much of a fine quality quarried. The soil is sandy, or a sandy loam. Pine, is the most numerous wood, but alternating with hemlock, maple, birch and poplar. The town is marked by numerous small ponds, of which there are said to be upwards of twenty. The largest of these is Parkers Pond, lying at the south-eastern boundary of the town. Norcross Pond, the next in size, has an area of about one-third of a square acre. The others are Sheldrake, McGurdy, Locks, Sand, Parkhurst, Moosehorn, etc. The ^
streams are Wilsons, which forms the line of division from Farming- ton ; McGurdys, which marks the line between Chesterville and Vienna, also the former and New Sharon; Little Norridgewock, which rises in Norcross Pond in the south part of the town, running north- ward midway of the territory to Wilsons Stream, which discharges into Sandy River.
The village of Farmington Falls is partly in Farmington and partly in Chesterville. The manufactures here are lumber, sash and blinds, spools, wrought granite, pumps, excelsior, potash, etc. At South Chesterville, situated on Parkers Pond, there are a lumber- mill and a grist-mill. North Chesterville, or Keiths Mills, on Wilsons Stream, is the centre of the wholesale manufacture of wagons and sleighs, which have a reputation throughout the State. The machine work is done at the village, but the larger part of the labor is performed on the neighboring farms ; thus mingling the labors of the farm and the shop. The village is partly in Farmington, and is charm- ingly situated, being surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, through which the stream winds like a silver thread, or anon spreads out broad and pond-like. Other industries are carding and cloth-dressing, a grain-mill, cabinet and furniture making. There is here a beautiful village Union church, containing a bell that was given by Rev. Jotham Sewall,
—widely known as Father Sewall, and sometimes spoken of as the Apostle of Maine,—whose remains lie entombed in the outskirts of the village. There is a small library here. Chesterville Centre is a pretty village, with a fine church, situated on the Little Norridgewock.
Here also is a large tannery for sheepskins, which are carried in through and out of the great vats of tanning liquor on huge reels moved by water and steam power. There are 20 residents of Chester- ville over eighty years of age, and 1 over ninety. The town sent 65 men into the army of the Union during the war of the Rebellion, of which 23 were lost.
When the region was first explored by the settlers, they found at tbe rapids or falls at Chesterville Centre, on the Little Norridgwock, remains of palisades enclosing an area of some 3 acres where the village now stands. The enclosure included an Indian burying-ground, where bones, wampum, and other Indian relics are often dug up.
Chesterville was first known as Wymans Plantation from its pio- neer settler, Abraham Wyman, who commenced his plantation in the southern part of the town in 1782. He was followed in 1783 by Samuel Linscott and Dummer Sewall, who built mills near the centre of the township, designating their settlement as Chester Plantation.
The title of the lands was from Massachusetts. The township was first surveyed in 1788. Some of the early settlers were from Bath, others from York, and a few from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Rev.
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