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

610    GAZETTEER    OF    MAINE:

One of the earliest of the distinguished men of York was Colonel
Jeremiah Moulton, who served in the French and Indian wars, and
commanded a regiment at the siege of Louisburg. He was afterward
successively sheriff, councillor, judge of common pleas and of probate.

David Sewell, a native of the town, and a graduate of Harvard College,
was judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and at his death, in
1818, was District Judge of the United States for Maine, having been
a judge forty-one years. William P. Preble, another native, was United
States Attorney for Maine, judge of the Superior Court, and minister
plenipotentiary to the Hague under President Jackson.

The first Congregational church of York is said to have been or-
ganized as early as 1672, by Rev. Shubael Dummer, whose ministry in
the place began in 1662. A second Congregational parish was incor-
porated in the north-western part of the town in 1730, which had been
recently settled by Scotch emigrants. In 1732 a church was organized,
and the Rev. Joseph Moody was settled as its pastor. The town has
now two Congregational churches, two Methodists, one Calvinist Bap-
tist, and two Christian chapels. The number of schoolhouses in town
is fourteen, and the value of the school property is estimated at $5,000
The valuation of the town in 1870 was $771,776. In 1880 it was    ;

$716,798. The rate of taxationis 13£ mills on the dollar. The pop-    ;

ulation at the same date was 2,654. In 1880 it w^ras 2,463.

i

York County* forming the south-western portion of the
State, grew into its present name and form by degrees, and during a
long period. Its beginning may be considered to have been the estab-    ^

lishment of the government of the Province of Maine in 1640, by the
proprietor, Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The limits of this province ex-
tended from the Piscataqua River to the Kennebec. The province
soon came to be considered as two districts, first spoken of as the East
and West districts, or counties, of which the Kennebunk River was re-
garded as the dividing line. The town of York being the shire town
of the western section, that portion gradually came to be called York
district, or county, the other being called Somerset, or New Somerset.

The Kennebunk River also proved to be the western boundary of the
temporary Province of Lygonia. In 1652, Maine came under the con-
trol of Massachusetts, and the Isles of Shoals and all the territory
northward of Piscataqua River to the White Moi ntains, and thence
eastward to Penobscot Bay, were included in the re-named and ex-
tended jurisdiction of Yorkshire. All this was overturned by the
King’s commissioners in 1664, who revived the divisions as established
by Gorges, and formed the territory east of the Kennebec into the
county of Cornwall. In 1677, however, Massachusetts purchased the
Province of Maine of Gorges’ heirs; and again Yorkshire was ex-    ^

tended eastward as far as the Kennebec. In 1716, the General Court
ordered the extension of Yorkshire, so as to include all the settlements
eastward; and accordingly Penobscot Bay became again the eastern
boundary. In 1735, courts were ordered to be held at York and Fal-
mouth, and the county received its present name. The establishment
in 1760 of the new county of Cumberland, gave York County its pres-    *

ent boundary on that side. In 1805, Oxford County was formed, when
York County first assumed its present limits.

The Saco River passes through the eastern section, then forms its