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

,526    GAZETTEER    OF    MAINE.

shade the walks and adorn the place. A neat two-story building be*
longing to the town is occupied on the first floor as a school, while
on the second floor is a hall, used for town meetings and other pur-
poses. The village is on the stage-line from Exeter to Etna. The
Maine Central Railroad passes across the south-west corner, but the
nearest stations are in the neighboring towns of Newport and Carmel,
some five miles distant.

Stetson Avas settled about 1800, and was incorporated Jan. 28,1831.
It bears the name of the original private proprietor, Amasa Stetson,
of Dorchester, Mass. Among its valued citizens should be mentioned
Hon. Lewis Barker, ex-governor D. F. Davis, Hon. T. M. Plaisted,
Gen. J. A. Hill, General and Governor H. M. Plaisted, Hon. Amasa
Stetson, Hon. James Rogers, and some others. There are residing in
the town one person eighty-nine years of age, two eighty-three, and
five of eighty-one years.

Stetson has Christian, Baptist and Methodist societies and a Union
churdh edifice. There is a good high-school at the village, Avhich is
the special care of the Stetson High-school Association, incorporated,
March, 1870. The number of public schoolhouses is seven ; and the
school property of the town is valued at $2,800. The A^aluation in
1870 was $262,735. In 1880 it was $219,399. The rate of taxation in
the latter year was $1.35 on $100. The population in 1870 was 937.
In 1880 it was 729.

Steuben is a sea-coast town, and forms the south-western angle
of Washington County. It is bounded on the north by Cherryfield,
east by Mdlbridge, west by Gouldsborough, in Hancock County, and
south by the ocean. This town is nearly surrounded by water. On
the east is Narraguagus River and Bay; on the south the sea, on the
west Gouldsborough Bay and Steuben Harbor. At the head of the
latter is Steuben village, the largest in the town. Others are at the
head of Dyer’s and Pigeon Hill bays, in the southern part of the town.
These two bodies of water are separated by Pigeon Hill, at whose ex-
tremity is Petit Manan Point. Pigeon Hill is situated at a narrow
place on the upper part of the peninsula; and opposite on the western
side of Dyer’s Bay, is East Hill. Dyer’s and Gouldsborough bays are
separated by Dyer’s Neck. Tunk Stream, Avhich enters at the north-
ern part of the toAvn and empties into Steuben Harbor, is the principal
water-course within this town, and above the village furnishes power
for a saw-mill and a grist-mill. The manufactures are carriages and
sleighs, staves, lumber, meal and flour, etc. This town is 36 miles west
by south-west of Machias, and is on the Ellsworth and Cherryfield stage-
line. The surface is quite uneven, and the soil rocky. The occupations of
the people are seafaring, farming and lumbering, in proportion accord-
ing to the order mentioned. There are in this town two mining com-
panies, bearing the names of Petit Manan Silver Co., and Steuben Sil-
ver Mining Co.

Steuben was No. 4, of six second-class townships granted in 1762
by Massachusetts to an association of petitioners ; but these having
failed to fulfill the conditions, it re\^rerted to the State, and was on
August, 26, 1794, granted to Thomas Ruston. It was first settled in
1760, and on February 27, 1795, was incorporated as a town, being
named in honor of Baron Steuben, the German soldier who so nobly
aided in our Revolutionary struggle.