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

GAZETTEER OF MAINE.

by Capt. Ichabod Jones, of Boston (father of Hon. John C. Jones),
“ erected a double saw-mill against the west shore of the east branch
or river, about 100 rods above the head of the tide, where the founda-
tion was laid of the eastern village.” [Williamson’s Hist, of Maine,
Vol. II., p. 509.] Rev. James Lyon, a Presbyterian, was tbe first min-
ister. He commenced his labors in the place in 1771, and a church
was organized in 1781. The first meeting-house built in tbe town is
now used for a store. He remained here until his death in 1794.

Washington Academy was established in 1823, and had for its first
Principal, Solomon Adams. Among the natives of East Machias who
received their academical training at this institution should be men-
tioned, Samuel Harris, D.D., of Yale College; Prof. Roswell D. Hitch-
cock, Union Theological Seminary; William C. Talbot, San Francisco,
capitalist; Andrew J. Pope, of the same city, who died in January,
1879, leaving an estate valued at $3,000,000; Frederic Talbot, New

York; Charles H. Talbot, Providence; P. Foster Folsom, Boston;
Rev. M. J. Talbot, D.D.; Rev. Henry L. Talbot; Thomas H. Talbot,
Brookline, Mass.; Hon. Geo. F. Talbot; Hon. John C. Talbot; Leonard
Scott, of the L. Scott Publishing Company, New York ; Hon. Stephen

C. Foster, member of Congress from Maine, two terms; Stephen C.
and Lowell Talbot, New York, and others, if space would allow.

The first Temperance Society in the region was formed at East
Machias in 1827, There are now in the town three organized churches,
having suitable edifices; the denominations being Baptist, Congrega-
tionalist and Methodist. Washington Academy is still fairly pat-
ronized, and its scholarship is sustained. The number of public-
schoolhouses is eight; these, with other public-school property, being
valued at $6,000. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $581,547. In