The division of the Piscataqua Plantation or Kittery was
complete by the incorporation of Eliot, Lebanon, North and South Berwick. When boundaries change (and how many haven’t?)
it is important to be cognizant of the dates for your research comparing them to
the time frames for activities of that area.
In New England and most any other area which had a start from scratch scenario
for not only boundary changes but location name changes as well, people could
have been born, married and died in 3 different counties or even states, yet
never moved at all.
South Berwick
 |
| Seal for Town of South Berwick |
During the 19th century, various mills were erected at the rivers to utilize the available water power. Quampheagan Falls on the Salmon Falls River became the site of the Portsmouth Manufacturing Company. Established in 1831, the cotton textile mill had 7000 spindles and 216 looms, which by 1868 produced 2 million yards of sheeting per year. The mill closed in 1893, and most of its brick buildings were razed about 1917, but the Greek Revival counting house is now the Old Berwick Historical Society Museum. South Berwick also made woolens, shoes, plows and cultivators, as well as sawn and planed lumber. The town was good for its fruit farming, especially noted for its apple orchards. The village center was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.A local author, Sarah Orne Jewett in 1901 set her historical romance, The Tory Lover at the Hamilton House in South Berwick. The Federal style mansion built about 1785, is now a museum operated by Historic New England. Historic New England also owns the Sarah Orne Jewett House, built in 1774 in South Berwick’s Central Square.
North Berwick
Originally the part of Kittery called Kittery Commons, the area was first settled in 1693 by John Morrell, a Quaker who built a log cabin on Wells Street. Once Berwick was incorporated in 1713, the land mass known today as North Berwick became a part of Berwick. Doughty Falls in the Great Works River provided water power for a saw mill, gristmill and carding mill. After the Revolutionary War, the small mill town grew rapidly. It was set off and incorporated as North Berwick on March 22, 1831. The town was bordered by Lebanon and Sanford on the North, Sanford and Wells to the East, South Berwick on the South and Berwick on the West. |
| A factory in North Berwick |
These goods included lumber, shingles, clapboards, wooden boxes, firewood, bricks, carriages, caskets, clocks, stove and shoe polish, toboggans and sleds. Also railroad cars were loaded with barrels of apples, blocks of ice cut from frozen ponds, granite from quarries, and tins of corn packed at a canning factory. With all this manufacturing, the two biggest North Berwick businesses during the 19th-century made woolens and farm implements.
The wooden mill was destroyed by fire in 1861, but rebuilt in brick in 1862. During the Civil War, the woolen factories in North Berwick produced blankets for the troops. With 40 looms, the factory turned 1,500 yards of flannel daily, in addition to blankets. By 1955, the factory closed. The Greek Revival building was used as the Parrish Shoe factory, and appeared in the 1995 movie, Jumanji. The building is now renovated and used as housing.
Lebanon
 |
| Old Grist Mill |
Lebanon known as “the New Township at the Head of
Berwick" and called by the Indians Towwoh, was granted by the Great and
General Court as a Township, April 20, 1733. The Parish was organized June 26,
1765, and approximately 2 years later, the Town was incorporated June 17, 1767.
On April 20, 1733, the Massachusetts General Court granted
Towwoh Plantation to 60 colonists, who first settled it in 1743. The township
was incorporated on June 17, 1767, renamed Lebanon after the biblical land of Lebanon,
becoming Maine's 23rd town. The town swapped and annexed land from 1785 to 1825
with its neighbors, finally setting the boundaries to what they are today. To
the North, Lebanon is bordered by Action, the East, Sanford. The South border is North Berwick and the
West the Salmon Falls River which created the state line between Maine and New
Hampshire.
The Southeast was good for farming but the Northwest area
of Lebanon was populated with pine forests. Hay was the cash crop. The Salmon
and Little Rivers were used for water power to run the mills. Lebanon had several types of mills: saw
mills, grist mills, shingle mills, a wool carding mill and a tannery. The Honorable Thomas M. Wentworth, one of the many
descendants of the political Wentworth line, represented Lebanon while under
Massachusetts rule for many years. He
was a large landholder and a mountain in Lebanon was named in his honor.
Eliot
 |
| Ambush Rock |
Originally called Sturgeon Creek, Eliot was a part of the Piscataqua
Plantation in the 1630-40s, it became the North, or Second, Parish of Kittery
in 1713 following the incorporation of Berwick. On March 1, 1810, Eliot
became a town. Eliot was located on the south extreme of York County. The town
bordered on the West by the Piscataqua River, separating Maine from New
Hampshire, on the North by South Berwick, the East by York, South by Kittery.
Prior to its incorporation, the Second Parish had been in
conflict with Kittery's other parishes since at least 1791 over the choice of
ministers with the Parish. In 1791, the parish's minister died. His successor,
according to a majority of the inhabitants, was a man of "unfair
character" imposed by "a small party" of people. He was rejected.
A new minister was installed in 1792.
The internal strife between inhabitants didn't stop there. This removal prompted the angry faction petition
the government to become a separate town.
Eliot had good soil, creating good crops such as hay, corn,
vegetables, potatoes and apples. The
settlers realized early that the river was a good power source as around Eliot
Neck became the most populous area.
There has always been a question of the reason for the name
of the town. It was either named after
Robert Eliot, who was a member of the Provincial Council of New
Hampshire, or for the famous Indian preacher, Reverend John Eliot of Boston,
a friend of General Andrew P. Fernald, the town agent largely responsible for
its separation.
Some stayed, some migrated
Some of the original settlers stayed where they first settled but others moved in hopes of finding a better situation for themselves and their families. Thomas Spencer, the Chadbourne family and Nathan Lord were permanent settlers. Thomas Crockett who moved to the lower part of Spruce Creek in Kittery Point, Nicholas Frost and his family moved from Kittery Point to Eliot. The Shapleigh family moved from Kittery Point to Eliot. Others such as Anthony Emery came over from Dover. Many generations migrated into unincorporated areas such as Wells, Sanford or beyond as they started their families.
Sources:
Old Kittery and her families by Stackpole
https://archive.org/stream/historyofyorkcou00clay#page/n0/mode/1up (History of York county, Maine with illustrations of prominent men and pioneers. by W. W. Clayton)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ [town name]
Images courtesy of Google images
Old Kittery and her families by Stackpole
https://archive.org/stream/historyofyorkcou00clay#page/n0/mode/1up (History of York county, Maine with illustrations of prominent men and pioneers. by W. W. Clayton)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ [town name]
Images courtesy of Google images
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