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

204    GAZETTEER    OF    MAINE.

in operation. It has six sets of machinery and employs seventy-five
hands. A new flouring mill had also been built, and both were run by
S. O. Brown & Company. Both of these are now owned by Ira Wash-
burne. Other manufactures at the village are carriages, boots and
shoes, harnesses, pumps, trunks, tin-ware, etc. At East Dover, on the
Piscataquis, is a wood-pulp and pasteboard mill; and on Black
Stream, at Dover South Mills, is a lumber-mill. Dover village has its
streets shaded with maples and elms from five to fifty year$ of age, and
is one of the neatest and prettiest places in the State. It is connected
with Foxcroft village, on the north side of the river, by a bridge 265
feet long, so that the tw'O appear as one village. The Bangor and Pis-
cataquis Railway is the chief transportation line.

The “Piscataquis Observer,” published in Dover by Edes and Bar-
rows, is the only paper in the county. It is independent in politics,
and fulfils its office in an excellent manner. The Piscataquis Savings
Bank, located at Dover, on November 3, 1879, reported deposits and
profits amounting to $58,663.25.

Among former esteemed citizens of Dover may he mentioned
Thomas Davee, Calvin S. Douty, Mordecai Mitchell, S. P. Brown, John
G. Mayo and Thomas S. Pullen. John IT. Rice was three times elected
to Congress while a citizen of Dover.

A Baptist minister, Elder N. Robinson, was settled by the planta-
tion about 1820. In 1822, Elder William Frost, a Universalist preacher,
was residing in town. The Methodists, Baptists, and Free Baptists
now have church-edifices. Dover has sixteen schoolhouses, valued at
$6,400. The valuation of estates in 1870 was 675,000 In 1880 it was
$574,943. The rate of taxation in 1880 was 2 per cent. The popula-
tion in 1870 was 1,983. In 1880 it was 1,687

Dresden, is the most westerly town in Lincoln County. It is
situated upon the Kennebec River, opposite Richmond, and is on the
medial line between the northern and southern points of the county.
Aina and Wiscasset lie on the east; on the north is Pittston, in Ken-
nebec county; and on the south is Woolwich, Sagadahoc County.
Opposite, in the Kennebec, is the town of Perkins (Swan Island).
Eastern River passes longitudinally through the town in a south-
westerly direction. Gardiner’s Pond, one mile in length, is the chief
body of water.

The surface of the country is not greatly varied. The principal
rock is a coarse granite. The soil is a sandy loam and clay. Hay,
potatoes, barley and wheat, are each cultivated to a considerable
extent. The villages are Dresden Mills and West Dresden. The first
is situated at the head of sloop navigation on Eastern River. The
last is connected by a ferry with Richmond, the landing being near a
station of the Maine Central Railroad.

The streams which furnish water-power are the Goud and Gardiner
streams ; and there were until within a few years saw and grist mills
in operation upon both. The manufactures consist of hay-kinves,
boots and shoes, etc.

Dresden was formerly a part of Pownalboro, which embraced the
town of Aina, Wiscasset and Perkins. The territory of these towns,
excepting the last, was purchased by Christopher Lawson of the
Indians in 1649, and sold by him to Messrs. Clark and Lake. The