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

586    GAZETTEER    OF    MAINE.

pear to have been the earliest settlers. Col. Z. A. Smith, connected
with the Boston Journal, is a native of this town.

The Methodists and Free Baptists each have a church-edifice here.
There is a public library of about 170 volumes. The number of public
schoolhouses is four. The value of the school property is estimated at
$600. The population in 1870 was 394. In 1880 it was 506. The
valuation in 1870 was $49,846. In 1880 it was $52,179.

Weston’s Millss a small village in Levant, Penobscot
County,—the same as South Levant Post-Office.

Westport is an island situated in Sheepscot River between
Woolwich and Boothbay, in Lincoln County. It is eleven miles long,
and about a mile wide. The surface is uneven, and the northern ex-    ^

tremity terminates in a narrow headland called Squam Heights. The
remains of an earth-work fortification are here to be seen by whoever
is curious enough to climb the steep sides of the promontory. It was
erected during the war of 1812, and bore the name Fort McDonough.    ,

At the time of the engagement between the Enterprise and Boxer, off
the mouth of the river, this work was mounted.by a star battery of    %

six guns arranged to command the river with a plunging fire, and was
protected by a chevaux cle/rise,—a barrier of fallen timber trees bris-    ^

tling with sharpened branches and pointed stakes, which ran across the
island from shore to shore below the battery.    21

The soil of Westport is a clay loam. Fair crops of potatoes, barley,
oats and wheat are readily obtained. Westport has several excellent
tide powers, which are improved for mills. There are three saw-mills
which do more or less work, that of the Heal Brothers being the largest.

But the principal occupation of the inhabitants is on the sea. The
island is connected with Woolwich by abridge 1,350 feet long. A ferry
connects it with Wiscasset at a point about three miles from the sta-    '

tion of the Knox and Lincoln railroad.    r

Among the eminent citizens of former days were James McCarty,    ^

Samuel and Ezekiel Tarbox, John and Joseph Hodgdon. The Meth-
odist denomination is the only one having a church edifice on the
island. Westport has four public schoolhouses; the school property
being valued at $2,000. The valuation of estates in 1870 was
$180,392. In 1880 it was $100,435. Tbe rate of taxation in 1880 was    ft

2|- per cent. The population in 1870 was 699. In 1880 it was 612.

West’s Mills, a small village and post-office in Industry,

Franklin County.    ^

West Waterville is one of the northernmost towns of
Kennebec County on the west of the Kennebec River. Waterville
bounds it on the east, Sidney lies on the south, and Belgrade on the
south and west, Fairfield, in Somerset County, on the north, and Smith-
field at the north-west. McGrath Pond forms the western boundary,

East Pond lies partially within the town on the north west, and Snow
Pond or Messalonske Lake, projects from the southward almost to the
centre of the town. The outlet of the latter, which flows north-east to
the Kennebec, supplies the power for numerous factories at the village