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

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PHIPSBURG.    445

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in width, the Winnegance Carrying Place. South of this we have the
Western Basin, Horse Island Harbor and Small Point Harbor.
Several others we have no space to mention. There is some salt
meadow in the northern part. The insulated ponds are Cornelius,
Water Cove, Parker’s Head, Rooks and Popham. The surface of the
town is rough and ledgy, but without high hills, except the long ridge
of Morse’s Mountain which rises some 50 feet above the plain. A little
south-west of the middle of the town much of the soil is a mixture of

*    clay and sand. The lower part has red loam. The principal crops are
potatoes and hay. Near the Basin on the western side is plenty of
granite and a good lime quarry. Slate and felspar are also found in
town. The depth of water is sufficient for vessels of considerable size
to come quite up to the mills on several of the powers. On the Win-
negance Tide-Power, three miles from Bath post-office, and four miles
from Phipsburg Center Village, have been sixteen mills, nine on the
Bath side and seven on the Phipsburg side of the line. Some of these,
however, were burned several years since. There are now ten saw-
mills and one grist-mill operating in the town. There is at the Center
a ship-yard where vessels of 2,000 tons are built. There are also five
ice companies in the town. The post-offices are Phipsburg (Center),
Parker’s Head, Small Point, Winnegance and Hunniwell’s Point.
The nearest railroad station is at Bath, about seven miles from Phips-
burg Center. All steamers on the lines connecting the Kennebec with
Portland and Boston, take and discharge passengers at this point.

Phipsburg contains the site of the earliest English colony in New

*    England. The peninsula on the eastern side at the southern part, that
bears on its north-eastern point the lofty granite walls of Fort Popham,
still bears the marks of its occupancy by Popham’s colony in 1607.
West of the fort rises a long hill running southward, and marking on
the shore the western extre'mity of Hunniwell’s Beach. A short dis-
tance in from the beach, at the foot of a grassy slope on the eastern
side of the hill, is a pretty fresh-water pond. At Small Point Harbor,
on the south-west side of the town, is the site of a fishing settlement
established by the Pejepscot proprietors in 1716, with the name of
Augusta. Dr. Oliver Noyes, -one of the proprietors, was the principal
director and patron. Captain Penhallow, son of the author of a history ^
of the Indian Wars, in 1717, resided here. Dr. Noyes, in 1716, erected
here a rude fort 100 feet square, for the purpose of protecting the
settlers,who were coming in rapidly. A sloop named “Pejepscot”
was employed as a packet between.this Augusta and Boston, carrying
out lumber and fish, and bringing back merchandise and settlers. The
settlement continued until Lovewell’s War, when the houses were
burnt and the fort destroyed by the Indians. In 1737 an attempt at

^    re-settlement was made. Among those who came at this time were

.    three families of Halls, Clark, Wallace, Wyman, James Doughty,

David Gustin, Jeremiah Springer, Nicholas Rideout and John Owens.
Phipsburg was included in the Pejepscot grant to Purchase and Way,
and after Wharton’s purchase their lands were confirmed anew to some
of the purchasers. The south part of the town was bought of the
Indians by Thomas Atkins, the remainder by John Parker, jr., in 1659,
and the northern part was assigned to his brother-in-law, Thomas
Webber, who also obtained an Indian title. Silvanus Davis, widely
known in his day, owned and improved a farm south of W ebber’s