Gazetteer of the State of Maine, 1882 page 378
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378    GAZETTEER    OF MAINE.

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

1608, the Jesuits, Peter Biard and Enemond Mawe, e&xatdished a mis.
sion on the island, supposed to have been located atPernald’s Point at
the base of Flying Mountain, about two miles worth of South-West
Harbor. “ Here they constructed a fortified habitation, planted a gar-
den, and dwelt five years; entering with great zeal and perseverance
upon the work of converting the natives to their faith.” In 1613. the
island having been granted to Madame de Guereheville, a lady of zeal-
ous piety, connected with the French Court, a colony of about twenty-
five persons, led by Saussaye, were sent out by her to join tbe twro mis-
sionaries. Before their fort was fully completed, they were attacked
by Argali, Governor of South Virginia, who captured or scattered
both tbe colonists and their Indian friends. No attempt appears to
have been made by the French to resettle the island until one Cadilliac
received from Louis XIV. a grant containing 100,000 acres, bordering
for two leagues on the bay near Jordan’s River on the mainland, and the
same on Mount Desert Island, including the smaller islands lying in
the bay. He made a resolute attempt to hold his ground, but in 1713,
after the cession of the whole of Acadie to England, he abandoned it.
In 1785, however, his granddaughter, Madame de Gregoire, claimed of
the General Court of Massachusetts the lands of her ancesto
r. The
Court naturalized the claimant and her husband, and quit-claimed to
them all but lots of 100 acres each for actual settlers. Having been
abandoned by the French, in 1688, an Englishman named Hinds, with
his wife and four children, lived here. The first permanent settlement
was by Abraham Somes and James Richardson, in 1761. The first
child, George Richardson, was born in August, 1793. The first mar-
riage was on August 9, 1774. Mount Desert Island became a Planta-
tion in 1776, and was incorporated as a town in 1789. In 1838, Bart-
lett’s, Hardwood and Robinson’s Islands were set off and incorporated
into “ Seaville.” Christopher Bartlett first settled on Bartlett’s Island
about 1770. The act incorporating Seaville was repealed in 1859,
Bartlett’s Island again becoming a part of Mount Desert. Eden was
set off in 1796, and Tremont in 1848. The island contained an area
of about 60,000 acres, of which Eden has 22,000, and Tremont half the
remainder.

The Congregationalists have a church in the town, and maintain a
clergyman. Mount Desert has nine public schoolhouses, and its school
property is valued at $3,000. The valuation of estates in 1870 was
$158,069. In 1880 it was $160,803. The population in 1870 was 918*
In the census of 1880 it wras 1,017.

Mount Katahdin is the highest of a numerous group
of mountains near the middle of the eastern side of Piscataquis County.
The base of the cluster, of which Katahdin is the highest peak, rests
on the north-eastern bank of the West Branch of the Penobscot, at a
point about 70 miles north-west of Bangor. Radiating to the north-
west and south-east are eight other lofty ridges, easily overlooked from
the summit of Katahdin. Around this mountain, except on the north,
are table-lands about 3 miles in width, rising with gentle acclivity to
its base. The form of the elevation is somewhat eliptical, with its
longest axis running nearly north and south ; with a circumference of
eight or ten miles. Its sides are covered with granite rocks of a light-
gray color, which have broken and split into a thousand irregular


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