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

510    GAZETTEER OF MAINE.

gationalists have a Union meeting-house here. The town has four
public schoolhouses, valued at $600. The population in 1870 wrns 464
In 1880 it was massed with other settlements in the preliminary
census report. The polls in 1870 numbered 105 ; in 1880, the same.
The valuation in 1870 was $82,828. In 1880 it was $68,608. The rate
of taxation in the latter year was 38 mills on the dollar.

Topsham, in Sagadahoc County, is situated in a broad bend
of the Androscoggin river extending, in general course, from Lisbon
south-east to Brunswick, and from thence north-eastward to Merry-
meeting Bay. Bowdoin and Bowdoinham bound the town on the
north, and Brunswick on all other sides,—with the northern extremity
of Bath across the bay on the east. The streams are Little River,
which separates it from Lisbon, Cathance River, which comes down
from Bowdoin to the centre of the town; then runs north-eastward
into Bowdoinham,—imperfectly repeating within the town the course
of the Androscoggin about its border. East of this lies Muddy River,
a tide-water creek having the same course as the former, A short
distance east of this stream is Pleasant Point,—a part of Bowdoinham,
but springing out into the bay from the north-eastern corner of Tops-
ham. The greatest length of the town is between the eastern and
western angles,—the distance being about 9 miles. Its greatest width
is from above the village to Lily Pond at the northern border of the
town. The area is very near 25,000. The surface of Topsham is
generally level, varied by a few ravines and low hills,—of which
Ararat—a station of the U. S. Coast Survey a mile north of Topsham
bridge—is the highest. In the higher portions the soil is a brown loam,
on the plains a sandy loam, and in the lowlands, clay and clay loam.
The rock is generally a very coarse granite, with a preponderance of
felspar. The Trenton Felspar Company are operating a quarry here.

The manufactures are at the first falls on the Androscoggin between
the villages of Brunswick and Topsham. There are here the paper
mill of the Bowdoiu Paper Company, a ship-yard or two, a planing
and threshing-mill, three lumber-mills, door, sash and stair factories, a
grain-mill, bricks, etc. The Maine Central Railroad runs through the
town, having a station at the village. Topsham is connected with
Brunswick on the south side of the river by three bridges, two of which
are railroad bridges. The upper railroad bridge is of wood ; the lower
one is a long and beautiful structure of iron. An iron bridge of a
beautiful design has just been erected between the two villages for or-
dinary street uses.

Topsham was first occupied about 1658 by Thomas and James
Gyles, and three men named York with their families, who bought
lands on the bay and river before King Philip’s war. One of these
built a bouse and resided at Fulton’s Point, another at the head of
Muddy River, and a third Gyles on Pleasant Point. At each of these
places, not many years since, the cellars and chimnies of their rude
dwellings Avere clearly traceable. It is thought probable that the
settler at Fulton’s Point arrived several years prior to the others; for
it is stated that, in 1750, there was a tree upwards of one foot in
diameter groAving in the cellar. There is also a tradition that this
settler lived for many years on friendly terms with the natives, hut
at last while absent in quest of provisions, the Indians massacred his
family and burnt his house; and the bereaved man now returned to