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

'    NEW GLOUCESTER.    835

or 800 acres in the south-eastern part of the town, below the Little
Ossipee river. For a number of years it was called Washington
Plantation. At its incorporation in 1794, the present name of New-
field was adopted.

Of the early settlers, Nathaniel Doe came in the year 1777 ; Zeh-
ulon Libby and Paul McDonald in 1777; Leander Nelson came in
1780, settling in West Newfield. Rev. John Adams moved his family
here in 1780. William and Eben Symmes of Ipswich, Revolutionary
soldiers, came about 1780. Samuel Dam of Waterborough, built a
grist-mill and saw-mill at what is now Newfield village, between 1780
and 17h4. Josiah Towle came from Epping, N. H., to Hiram, thence
to Limerick, and in 1790, to Newfield, where he opened a store. He
was the first representative to the General Court of Massachusetts.
William Durgin came from Limerick with his father and a brother
about 1798. He built a saw-mill and grist-mill at the upper village, and
in 1801 a store. Other Revolutionary soldiers who settled in Newfield,
were Robert Thompson, William Libby, Nicholas Kennison, Stephen
Wood, James Heard,William Campernell, Simeon Tibbetts, and others.
Ten men from the militia were called to the defense of the seaboard in the
war of 1812. Newfield furnished 96 men for the army during the war
of the Rebellion, 20 of whom were killed in battle or died of wounds
or sickness. Other eminent citizens were Thomas Adams, son of Rev.
John Adams, Gamaliel E. Smith, and Nathan Clifford ; and of natives
wdio became eminent in their sphere are Caleb R. Ayer and Ira T.
Drew, prominent lawyers of the York County bar, Charles W and
Horace Tuttle, formerly connected with the Harvard College Observ-
atory, the former connected later with the Boston bar, and the latter
in the navy. James Ayer, M.D., settled in town in 1805, Dr. M. L.
Marston settled in 1824, Dr. Stephen Adams in 1829.

The business centres are Newfield village on the Little Ossipee
river in the eastern part of the town, West Newfield, a little west of
the centre, and North Newfield midway of the line on the northern
side. At the village are two grist-mills, lumber, stave, shook and
planing mills, carding machine; West Newfield has saw, grist andj
stave mills, one of each; at North Newfield, the principal business is.
the mining and preparation of a mineral used in the manufacture of
stone, earthen, porcelain and glass ware, and for polishing lustre,
Silver and iron have been mined in town, hut not with profit, Lime,
stone is found in a few localities. The Free Baptists and Congrega-
tionalists have each a church in town, and the Methodists have two.
The town has eight public schoolhouses, valued at $5,000. The valua-
tion of estates in 1870 was $298,895. In 1880 it was $264,577. The
population at the same date was 1,493, In 1880 it was 995.

New Gloucester is situated midway on the northern line
of Cumberland County, having Gray on the south-west, North Yar-
mouth and Pownal on the south-east, Auburn and Durham in Andros,
coggin County on the north-east, and Poland on the south-west. It
was originally ordered to be laid out six miles square, but is nearly
nine miles in length from N.N.W. to S.S.E., by six the other. It is
22 miles from Portland, on the line of the Grand Trunk and Maine
Central railways, which cross the eastern part of the town.

The surface is beautifully diversified, and without either lofty hills,

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