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

262    GAZETTEER    OF    MAINE.

1816. Among the valued citizens of Greenwood may be mentioned
Thomas Crocker, Seth Hilborn, Samuel B. Locke and Samuel
Houghton.

There is one church-edifice, occupied as a union house. The num-
ber of schoolhouses is twelve—valued at $2,400. The valuation of
estates in 1870 was $163,974. In 1880 it was $149,073. The rate of
taxation in the latter year was 27 mills on tbe dollar. The population
in 1870 was 845. In 1880 it was 838.

Guilford is situated in the south-western part of Piscataquis
County, 8 miles from Dover, having the Piscataquis River for its
southern line. Howard Plantation bounds it on the North, Foxcroft
on the east, Sangerville on the south, and Abbott on the west. The
Bangor and Piscataquis Railway passes through Guilford Village and
the south-west corner of the town, and it is on the stage-line from
Dexter to Moosehead Lake. The township was originally 6 miles
square, but a small portion south of Piscataquis River was annexed to
Sangerville. There are several small bodies of water, of which the
outlets of Davis and Salmon ponds furnish power for mills manufac-
turing large and small lumber. The northern part of the town is much
broken, the highest eminence being Guilford Mountain. The south-
ern part is of more uniform surface, having some productive farms.
The chief products are wheat, oats, barley and potatoes. In 1879,
$25,000 worth of potatoes were shipped from Guilford depot; a consid-
erable portion of them, however, corning from neighboring towns.
The rock is lime, granite and slate, and the soil a sandy loam.

The principal manufactories are on the Piscataquis at Guilford
Village. These consist of a woolen-mill, which produces about 625
yards of repellant cloth per day; of mills for small and large lumber,
and a grist-mill. There are, besides, the usual manufactures of a
village. A new brick cloth-mill is now completed.

Guilford township was one of those conveyed to Bowdoin College
by Massachusetts. Robert Low, Jr., was the first settler, moving in
with his family in 1806 ; and Robert Herring, Jr., came about three
weeks later. Isaac, Nathaniel and John Bennett came soon after
and made clearings and put up buildings. These first settlers, for want
of a threshing floor, heat out their wheat upon a smooth, flat ledge.
When winter came, the three Bennetts returned to their homes at New
Gloucester for the winter, leaving their three boys, David, Joseph and
Isaac, Jr.—aged, the two first thirteen years, and the other eleven—to
keep the house and attend to the cow. For food, the boys had milk,
hulled corn, boiled wheat and roasted potatoes. In 1807 the families
came permanently, also that of Mr. John Everton. The wife of the
latter was an important , accession to the new settlement. She was
skilled in obstetrics, and for ten years was very useful for a long dis-
tance about, when she was greatly disabled bv a fall from a horse.
Deacon R. Herring brought in his family in 1808, and from this time
religious meetings were held upon the Sabbath. When the settle-
ment consisted of eight or ten men they held a formal meeting, choos-
ing officers and passing such rules and regulations as good order and
good feeling in the settlement required. No penalties were attached
to these rules, yet the honor of the members of the community were so
much involved in their observance that they were obeyed far better