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

Madawaska lies in tne extreme northern curve of the St.
John River, at the north-eastern extremity of Aroostook County. It
is 100 miles from Houlton, and is on the stage-line from Van Buren to
Fort Kent. The New Brunswick Railway has a station at Edmunton
on the opposite side of the St. John. It is bounded on the east by
Grand Isle, and on the west by Frenchville. The larger part of Long
Lake lies in the southern part, and the St. John separates it from Can-
ada on the north. The surface is without high hills and the soil is
quite fertile. Wheat and other grains are largely cultivated. On the
northern side of the town two of the streams emptying into the St.
John are occupied by grist-mills.

This town was largely settled by those French, or their descend-
ants, who fled from about the Basin of Minas in 1754 to escape trans-
portation and separation from each other by the English authorities in
America. The town was incorporated February 24, 1869, and named
for the river Madawaska, which enters the St. John on the opposite
side of its stream. The inhabitants are mostly Roman Catholic, and
sustain two priests. There are four public schoolhouses valued at
$440. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $65,155. In 1880 it was
$90,174. The population in 1870 was 1,041. In 1880 it was 1,391.

Madison is a pleasant farming and manufacturing town on
tbe eastern bank of the Kennebec, in the southern part of Somerset
County. It is bounded by Solon on the north, Cornville on tbe east,
Norridgewock on the south, and Anson on the west. It is separated
from the last by the Kennebec River. The area of the town is 30,000
acres. There are no high hills, but some considerable gorges. The
principal sheet of water is Madison Pond, or Hayden Lake, in the
eastern part of the town. It is 3 miles long and 1 broad. Nor-
ridgewock Falls, so called, furnish attractive and pleasing views. The
Kennebec here descends 90 feet in a horizontal distance of 1 mile.

The underlying rock in this town is chiefly slate. The soil is a
variety of loam, and quite fertile. Hay and cattle are the principal
products. The forests abound in hemlock, cedar, maple, beech, birch
and oak. The villages and mills are on the Kennebec at Madison
Bridge and East Madison, on the outlet of Madison Pond. There are
four saw-mills, a sash, blind and door, coffin and casket factory, a grist-
mill, a starch and an excelsior-factory, two carriage-factories, a horse-
rake-factory, slate-quarry, etc., in the town. The Somerset Rail-
road crosses the south-west corner of the town, where there is a sta-
tion. The Skowhegan station, on the Maine Central Railroad,
is five miles distant at the south-east. In the south-western part
of the town, on a plain about which the river makes an angle, is the
monument to Rasle, the missionary to the Abnaki Indians, and whose
residence was at the village of the Norridgewocks on this point. He
fell in an attack upon the village in 1724 by the English under Captains
Moulton and Hormon, in which the village was burned and the tribe
broken up. The monument was erected by Bishop Fenwick, of Bos-
ton. It consists of a granite obelisk 3 feet square at the base, and 11