Our Towns

ALNA
Town Office Phone: 207-586-5313
Settled in 1760
Incorporated in 1794
Population in 2009 census: 681
21 square miles

Highlights

Name is Latin for “alder”
The Alna Meeting House (1789)
Alna School (1795)
Historic village of Head Tide
Old Head Tide Church
Head Tide Dam
Sheepscot River
Poet Edwin Arlington Robinson’s house
Historic village of Sheepscot
Narrow-gauge Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway and Museum

ALNA HISTORY

Archeologists have discovered a settlement along the Sheepscot River that pre-dates the 1620 Plymouth Colony. There are written records of a settlement near the present Sheepscot Village from the mid 1600s. These early settlements did not last, being subject to Indian attacks and nature’s challenges. Permanent  settlement of the area now known as Alna dates from 1758, after the end of the French and Indian Wars.

 

In 1760, Massachusetts established Lincoln County and incorporated; Pownalborough, which included the present-day towns of Wiscasset, Alna, and Dresden, as well as Swan Island. Families from Massachusetts and New Hampshire settled what was then a frontier. The 1766 census of Pownalborough counted 114 families, 39 framed houses and 61 log houses.

 

Well into the 19th century, rivers were both the primary means of transportation and powered industry. Grain and saw mills were established along the Sheepscot River at Head Tide, Puddle Dock and Sheepscot Village. Virgin forests provided
timber, primarily for shipbuilding. Before the Revolution all trees over 24 inches in diameter were marked with the King’s Arrow, designating them as masts for the Royal Navy. The original masts for the USS Constitution were floated from Puddle Dock to Wiscasset in 1797 and then towed to Boston.

 

After the Revolutionary War, Alna prospered and expanded. In 1794 the North precinct of Pownalborough split off and became New Milford. In 1811 the name was changed to Alna from the Latin “alnus” for the alder trees that grow abundantly in town. During the 1800s Alna shipyards built 103 schooners, brigs, and a fully rigged 1194 ton vessel, named the King Phillip. Ships were floated to Wiscasset, the deepest harbor north of Boston.

 

While farming remained the primary occupation, tanneries, taverns, stores and other small businesses were established. The first meeting house was constructed in 1789 and schools were built. In 1820 Alna’s population was 1200.

 

In 1895 the Wiscasset and Quebec Railway initiated narrow gauge railroad service through Alna. Until 1933 the little train shuttled mail, passengers, livestock and produce between Wiscasset and the state’s interior. Apples grown on Head Tide Hill were said to be harvested and shipped on a Monday and sold in Boston on Tuesday, with the profits back in Alna by Wednesday.

In 1989 a Narrow Gauge Museum was established at the site of the old Sheepscot Station. One of the original engines now travels
2.2 miles of track on weekends.


This historical detail is provided from, “A Brief History of Old Alna” written by Nell Walker in 1970.        

 

DRESDEN
Town Office Phone 207-737-4335
Settled in 1752 as “Frankfort”
Incorporated in 1794 as Dresden
Population according to 2000 census: 1,625
33.2 square miles

Highlights

Pownalborough Courthouse (1760; Robert Treat Paine, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams all tried cases here)
Merrymeeting Bay
The Dresden Farmlands
The Dresden Historical Society
Green Point Farms Wildlife Management Area
St. John’s Church
Blinn Hill (440 feet above sea level)
The Great Bog
Dresden Brick School House
MuseumBridge
Academy Public Library

DRESDEN HISTORY

Bordering on the Kennebec River, Dresden had many early visitors and settlers, notably the Scotch-Irish and the German-French Huguenots. Known as the West Precinct of the original Town of Pownalborough, it was the site of the Court House for the County of Lincoln between 1761 and 1794. The area was incorporated as the Town of Dresden in 1794, coincidentally at the time the Courts were removed to the East Precinct or Wiscasset Point. Swan Island, originally a part of the town, separated in 1847 to become the township of Perkins.

Dresden has been a farming, fishing and shipping area noted for its farmlands, including wild blueberries, ice houses, abundant fish and waterfowl as well as substantial woodlands. Since World War II, the town’s closeness to areas offering employment such as the Bath Iron Works, Maine State and Federal Government offices, shoe factories, even worm and clam flats of the nearby salt waters have provided a weekly paycheck — this proximity to employment centers has allowed the population to triple during the last 50 years. Still there are several new and continuing commercial farms taking the advantage of greatest expanse of prime farmland in the County.  

Dresden’s natural resources are abundant — from the majestic Kennebec, the Eastern River bisecting the town, and Blinn’s Hill, the highest point in the present Lincoln County. Water is provided from Dresden to the neighboring Richmond, Bath and Wiscasset, and also parts of Edgecomb and Brunswick.

The early residences and public buildings remain while traces of historic sites of mills and churches are a meaningful part of Dresden’s more than 250 years of community life.

 

 

WESTPORT ISLAND
Town Office Phone 207-882-8477

Originally called “Jeremysquam,” incorporated as part of “Freetown” (now Edgecomb) in 1774; incorporated as a separate town in 1828.

Population in 2000 census: 745

8.74 square miles

Highlights

Sheepscot, Back, and Sasanoa Rivers
North End Lobster Co-Op
Old Town Hall
Community Church
North Church
Bonyun Preserve
Clough Point Preserve

Westport Island HISTORY

The island is 11 miles long, surrounded by the Sheepscot River on the east, the Back River and the Sasanoa River on the west.  It was called Jeremy Squam when it was incorporated with the town of Edgecomb in 1774. It became a town unto itself in 1828.

The first settlers came from Scarborough, Maine and Massachusetts in 1746-1760.  They were primarily wood cutters. The large deep water coves were ideal for the operation of several tidal mills, the initial one established about 1770, followed by the construction of fishing vessels for the many fishermen who plied their trade in the local waters and fishing banks along the Maine and Nova Scotia coast.  

Summer visitors, brought by steamboats from Bath and Wiscasset, discovered the island in the 1880s.   Local residents were busy clearing land, building roads and cottages for the new arrivals. Small farms were established to provide produce.  Two wars and the Great Depression slowed the number of visitors, and the local residents found jobs in the shipyards of Bath and Boothbay. A 1952 causeway to the island from Wiscasset, later replaced by a bridge, permitted easy access to the mainland and this attracted new residents. Property values have increased in recent years, and many new actively employed and retired residents now call the island home.

Enjoyable spots on the island include Clough Point Preserve on the north end with a view to Fort Edgecomb, the Wright Landing boat launch at the site of the old ferry, and the Bonyun Preserve with diverse fresh- and saltwater habitats and wildlife, and an old tidal mill.

 

EDGECOMB
Town Office Phone 207-882-8477
Settled in 1744; incorporated in 1774
Population in 2000 census: 1,090
18.1 square miles

Highlights

Sheepscot River and Wiscasset Harbor
Fort Edgecomb (1806-1816)
Schmid Preserve
Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts
River Link Project

Edgecomb HISTORY

Edgecomb, incorporated in 1774, lies between the Sheepscot and Damariscotta Rivers, with the rocky spine of Mount Hunger Ridge shaping the settlement. Surmounting the Ridge is the Charles and Connie Schmid Preserve, nearly 800 acres of public access and trails for hikers, skiers, hunters, and wildlife enthusiasts, an important part of the State of Maine’s River – Link Project.


Visit Fort Edgecomb, a State Historic Site listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The hexagonal blockhouse, the best preserved of its kind on the Eastern Seaboard, was built in 1808-1809 on Davis Island to protect the Port of Wiscasset in the years building up to the War of 1812. With its parade ground and the remains of its fortifications, Fort Edgecomb stands on granite ledge looking out on a beautiful view of the Narrows, Westport Island, and in the distance, on the Edgecomb shore, a glimpse of the “Marie Antoinette House.”


Tradition says that Captain Stephen Clough of the ship “Sally” was in France in 1793, carrying lumber to LeHavre, when he became involved in a plot to rescue the French Queen and take her back to America to the home of his father-in-law, Joseph Decker, then located on Jeremysquam, now Westport Island. The plot failed, but the house moved across to its present Edgecomb location on the Eddy Road in the 1830s, when the ice was thick across the Sheepscot River and has been linked ever since with the Queen’s name.


Additional sites of interest are the Edgecomb Town Hall, the Edgecomb Congregational Church, and several private residences listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Merry Barn on the River Road was built in the early turn of the 20th century for the Merrys, a family of ship builders and captains.  Bought by Howie Davison in the 50’s and converted into a dance hall, it became a community center piece until the mid 70’s.

For more info: https://www.mainepreservation.org/2019-honor-awards/2019/11/21/2019-honor-awards

 

WOOLWICH
Town Office Phone 207-442-7094
Settled as “Nequasset” in 1638; incorporated in 1759 as Woolwich
Population in 2000 census: 2,810
41.7 square miles

Highlights

The Kennebec and Sasanoa Rivers
Nequasset Lake
Merrymeeting Bay
Woolwich Historical Society and Museum
The historic village of Day’s Ferry
Robert P. Tristram Coffin Wild Flower Reservation
Nearby Josephine Newman Audubon Sanctuary
Nearby Reid State Park

Woolwich History

Called Nequasset after Nequasset Lake by Abenaki Indians, it was first settled in 1638 by Edward Bateman and John Brown. They would purchase the land in 1639 from the sachem Mowhotiwormet, commonly known as Chief Robinhood, who lived near Nequasset Falls.

 

At Day’s Ferry on the Kennebec River, Richard Hammond operated a fortified trading post. His household of 16, including servants, workmen and stepchildren, conducted a lucrative fur trade with the Indians. But in the first blow of King Philip’s War in the area, on the evening of August 13, 1676, warriors ingratiated themselves into the stockaded trading post, then killed the elderly Hammond and his stepson as they returned for the night. Others were either slain and scalped or taken into captivity. Buildings were looted and burned, and the cattle slain.

 

Nequasset was attacked during King William’s War, when inhabitants were again massacred or forced to abandon their homes. It was assailed again in 1723 during Dummer’s War, when the Norridgewocks and their 250 Indian allies from Canada, incited by the French missionary Sebastien Rale, burned dwellings and killed cattle. Following Governor William Dummer‘s peace treaty of 1725, resettlement would be slow.

During the French and Indian War, on June 9, 1758, Indians raided the village, killing members of the Preble family and taking others prisoner to Quebec. This incident became known as the last conflict on the Kennebec River.

Nequasset had become a district of Georgetown, but on October 20, 1759, the plantation was set off and incorporated by the Massachusetts General Court, named after Woolwich, England.

The peninsula was heavily wooded, providing timber for shipbuilding. It also had excellent soil for agriculture. By 1858, industries included two sawmills, two gristmills and a shipyard. By 1886, the community also produced  bricks and leather.

The Sasanoa River, after some work by the Corps of Army Engineers, now permits navigation between Bath and Boothbay Harbor.

 

WISCASSET
Town Office Phone 207-882-8200
Settled in 1663; resettled in 1739
incorporated as “Pownalborough” in 1760 Resumed its Abenaki name, Wiscasset, in 1802
Population in 2000 census: 3,603
27.7 square miles

Highlights

Shire town of Lincoln County
Historic Architecture, Federal StyleBuildings on the National Historic Register
Historic Burial Ground
The Lincoln County Courthouse
The Nickels-Sortwell House (Historic New England)
Castle Tucker (Historic New England)
The Old Lincoln County Jail and Museum (1811)
Deepwater harbor and working waterfront
Antiques stores
Bait-worm industry
Wiscasset Public Library
The Morris Farm (a community farm for education, nature trails, community gardens)
The Maine Art Gallery
The Chewonki Foundation (an environmental education foundation)
Museum in the Streets
Wiscasset Yacht Club
Wiscasset Community Center
Public walking trails on conserved land
The Sunken Garden

Wiscasset HISTORY

Wiscasset was first settled in the 1660s, and grew into the “parish” of Wiscasset Point. It became part of a new town of Pownalborough in 1760. In 1794, Wiscasset became the shiretown for Lincoln County and the courts were moved here from their original location in Dresden.

The Sheepscot River, forming the town’s eastern boundary, has one of the deepest harbors in Maine even though it is 14 miles from the sea. Wiscasset rapidly grew into a busy fishing and shipbuilding center, and lumber port. By the end of the Revolutionary War, the town was the leading shipping port east of Boston. In 1800, 30 locally-owned square-rigged vessels carried cargo all over the world. The handsome homes, churches, commercial, and public buildings were built during this era of prosperity, prior to the 1807 Embargo and the War of 1812. Many of the early buildings survive and make up one of Maine’s most architecturally significant villages. Enjoy a historic walk around the village and see Castle Tucker, the Nickels-Sortwell House, the Governor Smith House, the Public Library, the 1811 Old County Jail,  (the Clark-Wood House), the “new” 1824 Lincoln County Court House, the old Academy – now the Maine Art Gallery, and many more.   

Wiscasset is known for high quality antique shops, unique specialty stores, excellent restaurants, and attractive accommodations. The Town’s waterfront includes a public boat launch, commercial fishery pier, recreational boating pier, the Creamery/Main Street pier with seasonal businesses, and the Wiscasset Yacht Club. Local industry includes marine-related businesses such as worm digging, clamming, lobstering, and aquaculture, and manufacturing of medical supply products.

The Chewonki Foundation is an internationally-known environmental education center, the Morris Farm promotes local and sustainable agriculture, and the Wiscasset Community Center provides a variety of recreational facilities and programs for the area. The Town has a year-round municipal airport, and hopefully in the near future, we will enjoy expanded rail service from Amtrak. By air, rail, sea, and road, visitors can tour Wiscasset and Lincoln County for spectacular views.