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

SOMERSET COUNTY.    517

the village, are Caratunk Falls, and the bay below it,—one of the pas.
sages most dreaded by the lumber men. The river is here compressed
into a long, narrow chan: el of rock, with a broad, jagged plain of rock
on the right,—where, at a rise of the water, great masses of logs are
thrown.

Solon was incorporated February 28, 1809, and organized on the
27th of March following. Its plantation name was Spauldingtown,—
from Thomas Spaulding, one of the grantees. The first settler was
William Hilton of Wiscasset, who removed hither in the fall of 1782,—
purchasing 500 acres of land on the river in the south-western part .
He lived on this farm for 64 years, and raised a family of 13 children ;
dying at 87 years of age, respected as a man of integrity and worth.
The next year after Mr. Hilton’s arrival came William Hunnewell,
also from Wiscasset, who took a farm adjoining Hilton’s. In 1787-8
Calvin and Luther Pierce, from Westmoreland, N. H., Moses Cham-
berlain and Jonathan Bosworth, from Easton, Massachusetts, and
Eleazer Whipple and Joseph Maynard, settled on the river in the
north-western part. In 1798-9, the south part was settled by James,
Jonas and Nathan Jewett, from Groton, Massachusetts, and Jonas
Ileald and Caleb Hobart from Pepperell. A post-office was established
here in 1813.

The religious societies are Congregationalist and Methodist; there
is also a Union church edifice. The number of public schoolhouses is
13,—valued $3,000. The population in 1870 was 1,176. In 1880 it
was 1,013. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $331,919. In 1880 it
was $345,288.

Somerset County is one of the great central and northern
counties of Maine. It is about 135 miles in length, north and south,
with an average Avidth of some 30 miles. On its eastern line, about
midway of its length, lies Moosehead Lake, 40 miles in length. Between
this and the Avestern border of the State is a chain of ponds, extending
quite across the county, and discharging into Moosehead. The Ken-
nebec River, for fully half its length, lies in this county. In its northern
part rise both the Penobscot and the St. John Rivers. The million
acres of land purchased by William Bingham of Philadelphia, in the
western part of the State lie mostly in Somerset. The bounds of that
purchase commence at the south-eastern angle of Wellington in Pis-
cataquis County, extending northward on the east line of the tOAvn,
and AvestAvard on its south line to the south-western angle of Mount
Abraham ToAvnship, thence northAvard on its Avest line to the north-
western angle of No. 6 of Range 7 ; whence it runs easterly on the
north line of this toAvnship to Moosehead Lake, intersecting the eastern
line near the north extremity of Deer Island. The mountains of this
county of present note are Mount Bigelow, on the southern border of
the most Avestern part, Squaw, Fletcher, Johnson, Pierce, Spencer,
Heald, Bald, Owl’s Head, Sally, Moxie, the Bald Mountain Range,
Culcusso and Mucalsea mountains.

The industries of this county are chiefly agricultural; and having
a good soil, feAV farmers fail to make a good living. Neat cattle and
sheep are raised in large numbers.

Somerset County Avas incorporated March 1, 1809. Its territory
was formerly embraced in Kennebec County; and sections of it have