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
830 GAZETTEER OF MAINE.
of her territory of Acadie; later, it was known as Sagadahoc Territory; and in 1665, the Duke of York (subsequently James II.), to whom it had been granted by the King, erected it into the County of Cornwall,— Jamestown, at Pemaquid, being the capital, and New Dartmouth (Newcastle), a shire town.
At the outbreak of King Philips war, in 1675, the settlements of Cornwall, scattered over a wide extent of country, embraced some 300 families. Under the prudent management of Abraham Shurt, the chief magistrate of this county, a larger degree of amity had been main- tained with the Indians than in other parts; and the inhabitants of tills region did not suffer so severely during the first year of the war as those in the westerly settlements. In the second year, however, Old Cornwall was likewise swept with the besom of destruction ; and thence- forth until 1700 the settlements were deserted, or the inhabitants who remained were in terror of savage attacks, with only brief intervals of repose. In 168S, the County of Cornwall was entirely depopulated and desolated by the Indians under the lead of Moxus. Sir William Phips, first governor of Massachusetts under William and Mary, was desirous of doing something, if possible, to recover from the domin- ion of the savage the land of his youth; and in 1692 he built in place of Fort Charles, which had been destroyed, a fortification of stone, naming it Fort William Henry. In 1696, M. Iberville, with a force of French and Indians, entered the harbor and invested the place, and by means of artillery succeeded in forcing its surrender.
It was not until 1729 that the permanent re-peopling of Old Corn- wall commenced. At this time Col. David Dunbar, who had been commissioned surveyor-general of the Kings woods, and deputy-gover- norin the eastern parts of New England, repaired Fort William Henry, also re-naming it Fort Frederick. He set vigorously at work to settle the county. To actual settlers he made grants of a homestead of 10 or 12 acres, and 100 acres of farm land. The settlers brought in by Colonel Dunbar were largely Protestant English, with some Scotch and Irish Presbyterians ; and by his aid the Presbyterian church became established as the prevailing phase of religion in this county until after the Revolution.
At the same time with the formation of the county, was incorporated Pownalboro, its shire town, which was named for Thomas Pownal—at that date governor of Massachusetts. His birth-place was Lincoln, England, a city famous for its antiquity and its noble cathedral; and thus Governor Pownal appears to have been further complimented in the name of the new county
Lincoln County has 180 public schoolhouses, and her school prop- erty at the close of 1879 was valued at $89,250. The valuation of the county in 1870 was $6,857,610. In 1880 it was $6,634,693. The population in 1870 w'as 25,597. In 1880 it was 24,809.
Lincoln Plantation, in Oxford County, has the New
Hampshire line for its western boundary, and is the second plantation west of Rangeley. It is about 40 miles N.N.W. of Bethel, and 20 miles east of Colebrook, N. H. The Magalloway River runs through the midst of the township southward to its junction with the Andros- coggin, near Umbagog Lake, 10 miles distant. In the eastern part is Lincoln Pond, whose outlet, with Abbott Brook on the western side
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