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

230    GAZETTEER    OF    MAINE.

door-factories—one run by steam-power, two brick-yards, one foundry,
an excelsior and rake-factory, three grist-mills, nearly a dozen carriage-
factories, one cheese-factory, two corn-canning factories, two mowing-
machine manufactories, a spool-factory, tannery, etc.

Farmington village is the present terminus of the Maine Central
Railroad, and is 95 miles distant from Portland. Other villages are
Farmington Falls, and North and West Farmington.

This town was first explored with a view to settlement by Stephen
Titcomb, Robert Gower, James Henry, Robert Alexander and James
McDonald in the summer of 1776, being guided by Thomas Wilson,
who had previously explored the region as a hunter. This company
was from Topsham, and made the trip as far as Hallowell in canoes.

At what is now Farmington Falls, they founcl two Indian camps, and
an extensive clearing. Proceeding about a mile above the falls, tbey
made a chain of basswood bark, with which they measured the land
off into farms, then returned to Topsham to obtain their implements
and a stock of provisions. In two weeks they were, again at the scene
of the proposed new settlement; and from this period until 1784 this
company and others continued to make improvements in different parts
of the town. The township belonged to a grant to William Tyng and
company for services in 1703, and therefore as a plantation it had with
“Number One” and “ Sandy River Plantation,” also the name of
“ Tyngstown.” It was surveyed by Col. Joseph North in 1780, and new
families immediately came in. By the proprietors of the Kennebec
patent, the township was claimed to be within their limits; but on its
incorporation in 1794 it was found to be wholly outside. The good-    *»

ness of its soil for agriculture, was the occasion of giving it the corpor-
ate name of Farmington. The corn-fields of the Canibas tribe of In-
dians were here.

A post was established in Farmington in 1797 ; and the next year
the town was represented in the General Court by Supply Belcher.

Among the eminent citizens of the later period have been Jacob Ab-
bot, Esq., and Jacob and John S. C. Abbot, authors ; Hon. Hiram
Belcher, Hon. Robert Goodenow, Rev. Isaac Rogers, and others. Far-
mington sent to the aid of the Union cause in the war of the Rebellion
268 men, of whom 57 were lost.

Besides the libraries of the educational institutions mentioned, there
is a circulating library and also a social library of 1,500 volumes. The
leading newspaper of the town and of the county is tbe “Farmington
Chronicle,” published every Thursday, by Chas. W. Keyes, Esq. It is
republican in politics. The other weekly paper of the town is “ The
Herald,” published by W. D. Chase. It is issued Friday. The
“ Herald ” is greenback in politics, and a lively and enterprising sheet.

The “ Excelsior Quarterly ” is an educational magazine, published by    ^

D. H. Knowlton. It is well filled with useful matter. The Franklin
County Savings Bank, located at Farmington, at the close of 1879 held
deposits and profits to the amount of $148,632.53. The Sandy River
National Bank, in this town, has a capital of $75,000.

The religious societies are two Congregationalist and three Metho-
dist churches, one Baptist, one Free Baptist, one Liberal Christian,
and one Union church. Farmington has twenty-one public school-
houses, and her school property is valued at $15,850. The valuation of
estates in 1870 was $1,448,735. In 1880 it was $1,601,271. The rate of