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
240 GAZETTEER OF MAINE.
of the wintering of the first families in Farmington, the Sandy River Valley, through most of its extent had become the seat of a flourish- ing community ; and this town alone contained 85 families.
A railroad connecting with the Maine Central was opened to Farm- ington in 1859; and in 1880, a narrow-guage railway was constructed from Farmington to Phillips. The county having until within a few years been without the facilities of communication necessary to the development of manufactures beyond the supply of some of its local wants, affords perhaps the best illustration that can be found in New England of the relative profits of exclusively agricultural investments in a region distant from large markets, owing none of its prosperity or
wealth to commerce, manufacturing or lumbering operations. What, then, has agricultural industry, unassisted by any other enterprise or investment, done for a community of 17 towns in the interior of Maine ? The reply is It has for nearly a century supported in com- parative affluence an average population of some 20,000. Just in proportion as grazing—that is, stock-growing—was made the main re- liance and endeavor, their progress and prosperity have been conspicu- ous. Rev. J. S. Swift, author of an excellent article on Franklin County in the History of New England of Crocker and Howard, and having large acquaintance in the county, says that he knows of
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