History of Maine

The history of the State of Maine spans thousands of years, from the earliest human habitations there to European colonization and settlement to its present-day statehood as part of the United States of America.

The origin of the name Maine is the subject of some controversy. Many historians believe that Maine is named after the French province of Maine. Others suggest that the name was coined by English settlers living on islands along the coast, who would speak of going to the mainland as "going over to the main."

Pre-European history

The earliest culture known to have inhabited Maine, from roughly 3000 B.C. to 1000 B.C., were the Red Paint People, a maritime group known for elaborate burials using red ochre. They were followed by the Susquehana culture, the first to use pottery.

By the time of European arrival, the inhabitants of Maine were Algonquian-speaking Wabanaki peoples, including the Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscots.

European colonization and the various mappings of Maine

The first European settlement in Maine was made in 1604 by a French party that included Samuel de Champlain. The French named the area Acadia. Later English colonization pushed Acadia north into what are today the Canadian Maritimes, but the French continued to maintain strong relations with the area's Native American tribes through the medium of Catholic missionaries.

English colonists sponsored by the Plymouth Company attempted a settlement in Maine in 1607 (the Popham Colony at Phippsburg), but it was eventually abandoned.

The territory between the Merrimack and Kennebec Rivers was first called the Province of Maine in a 1622 land patent granted to Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason. The two split the territory along the Piscataqua River in a 1629 pact that resulted in the Province of New Hampshire being formed by Mason in the south and New Somersetshire being created by Gorges to the north, in what is now Maine. The present Somerset County in Maine preserves this early nomenclature. The failure to colonize New Somersetshire, however, resulted in a second patent, granted to Gorges by Charles I, for what became known once again as the Province of Maine (now minus New Hampshire). Gorges' second effort also ended unsuccessfully, but did stamp the name "Maine" onto this particular territory.

One of the first English explorers of the Maine coast was Christopher Levett, an agent for Gorges and a member of the Council for New England. After securing a Royal grant for 6,000 acres (24 km²) of land on the site of present-day Portland, Maine, Levett built a stone house and left a group of men behind when he returned to England in 1623 to drum up support for his settlement, which he called "York" after the city of his birth in England. Levett's settlement also failed -- the men left behind were never heard from again -- and Levett never returned to Maine. Levett did sail back across the Atlantic to meet with Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop at Salem in 1630, but died on the return voyage.

That part of present-day Maine north and east of the Kennebec River was known in the 17th century as the Territory of Sagadahock. In 1669, this land and what had been the Province of Maine, were incorporated into another patent, this time granted by Charles II to James, Duke of York. Under the terms of this grant, all the territory from the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean was constituted as Cornwall County, now part of a vastly expanded Province of New York. With the incorporation of Sagadahock, the territory that would become Maine extended along the coast from the Piscataqua to the St. Croix River for the first time, incorporating the entire coastline of the future state in a single political unit (though still only a paper one).

In 1673, part of this territory was partitioned to create Devonshire, Massachusetts. The remainder was lost to the Abnaki in King Philip's War in 1675, which rolled back nascent English settlement. In 1683 Cornwall County was reconstituted as part of New York, which itself was absorbed into the Dominion of New England in 1687. In 1692 the entirety of the former Province of Maine, from the Piscataqua to the St. Croix, was absorbed into the Province of Massachusetts Bay as Yorkshire, a name which survives in present day York County.

Maine was much fought over by the French and English during the 17th and early 18th centuries. After the defeat of the French colony of Acadia during the French and Indian War (part of the global struggle between France and Britain that is known overall as the Seven Years War), the territory from the Penobscot River east fell under the nominal authority of the Province of Nova Scotia, and together with present day New Brunswick formed the Nova Scotia County of Sunbury, with its court of general sessions at Campobello.

In the late 1700s, several tracts of land, then part of Massachusetts, were sold off by lottery. Two tracts of 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km²), one in south-east Maine and another in the west, were bought by a wealthy Philadelphian banker, William Bingham. This land became known as the Bingham Purchase.

The American Revolution, The War of 1812, and Maine in the middle

American and British forces contended for Maine's territory during both the American Revolution and the War of 1812. The territory of Maine was confirmed as part of Massachusetts when the United States was formed, but the treaty concluding revolution was ambiguous about the boundary between Massachsetts' District of Maine and British North America. This all but guaranteed that Maine would be a battleground in the next war.

Maine suffered more in the War of 1812 than anywhere else in New England. British army and naval forces from nearby Nova Scotia captured and occupied the eastern coast from Machias to Castine, and plundered the Penobscot River towns of Hampden and Bangor. A British fleet even bombarded Falmouth (now Portland). Coastal commerce was largely stopped - a critical situation for a place so dependent on fishing and shipping. Maine's vulnerability to foreign invasion, and its lack of protection by Massachusetts, were important factors in the post-war momentum for statehood.

Statehood and the Aroostoock War

Maine gained its statehood in 1820 as the result of the Missouri Compromise, which allowed free northern states to approve the statehood of Missouri (as a slave state) in exchange for Maine (as a free one). In this manner northern congressional representation remained in balance with southern and pro-slavery influence.

The still-lingering disputed border with British North America came to head in 1839 when Maine Governor Fairfield declared virtual war on Britain over the incursion of lumbermen from New Brunswick into northern Maine. Four regiments of Maine militia were mustered in Bangor and marched to the border of British North America, ready for a fight. Known as the Aroostook War, the dispute was settled by Federal intervention before any blood was shed, although the final border between the two countries was not established until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842.

Industrializations

"Industrialization" in 19th century Maine took a number of forms, depending on the region and period. The river valleys, and particularly the Kennebec and Penobscot became virtual conveyor belts for the making of lumber beginning in the 1820s-30s. Logging crews penetrated deep into the Maine Woods in search of pine (and later spruce) and floated it down to sawmills gathered at waterfalls. The lumber was then shipped from ports such as Bangor, Ellsworth and Cherryfield all over the world.

Partly because of the lumber industry's need for transportation, and partly due to the prevelence of wood and carpenters along a very long coastline, shipbuilding became an important industry in Maine's coastal towns. The Maine merchant marine was huge in proportion to the state's population, and ships and crews from communities such as Bath, Brewer, and Belfast could be found all over the world. The building of very large wooden sailing ships continued in some places into the early 20th century.

Textile Mills migrated to Maine from Massachusetts beginning in the 1820s. The major site for cotton textile manufacturing was Lewiston on the Androscoggin River, the most northerly of the Waltham-Lowell system towns (factory towns modeled on Lowell, Massachusetts). The twin cities of Biddeford and Saco, as well as Augusta, Waterville, and Brunswick also became important manufacturing communities.

Railroads shaped Maine's geography as they did that of most American states, but Portland in particular prospered as the terminus of the Grand Trunk railroad from Montreal, essentially becoming Canada's winter port.

Other important 19th century industries included granite and slate quarrying, brick-making, shoe-making, and of course fishing, which was one of Maine's oldest pursuits.

In the 20th century the pulp and paper industry inhereted the Maine woods and most of the river valleys from the lumbermen, so completely that Ralph Nader would famously describe Maine as a paper plantation. Entirely new cities, such as Millinocket, Skowhegan and Rumford were established on the upper-most reaches of the large rivers.

For all this industrial development, however, Maine remained a largely agricultural state well into the 20th century, with most of its people living in a myriad of small villages.

Immigration of the Irish, French-Canadians and other minorities

Like much of the rest of the East Coast, Maine experienced a wave of Irish immigration in the 19th century, though many came to the state via Canada, and before the potato famine. There was a riot in Bangor between Irish and yankee (nativist) sailors and lumbermen as early as 1834, and a number of early Catholic churches were burned or vandalized in coastal communities. After the Civil War Maine's Irish-Catholic population began a process of integration and upward mobility that was only completed in the later 20th century.

In the late 19th century, many French Canadians also began migrating to Maine and other New England states from Quebec and New Brunswick in Canada to work in the textile mill cities such as Lewiston and Biddeford. These new arrivals were often forcibly assimilated into Anglo-American culture; notably, children were subjected to corporal punishment for speaking French in schools. In response the French Canadian community in New England determined to preserve some of its cultural norms; this doctrine, like efforts to preserve francophone culture in Quebec, became known as la Survivance. In recent years the state has sought to address its legacy of intolerance against French Canadians by embracing bilingual signs and actively promoting French Canadian culture in schools and local festivities. :See also: Quebec diaspora

Less well-recognized, because they were more culturally assimmilable, were a very large number of English- and Scottish-Canadian immigrants from the Maritime Provinces. Called with slight derogation Blue Noses, Down Homers or PIs (after Prince Edward Island), this group also included a certain number of African-Canadians.

Summer People

Maine's natural beauty and its proximity to Boston and the other large East Coast cities made it a major tourist destination as early as the 1850s. Summer resorts such as Bar Harbor and Sorrento sprung up along the coast, and soon America's wealthiest citizens were building "summer cottages" (huge wooden mansions) in what had formerly been shipbuilding and fishing villages. Refered to by natives as "Summer People" or "Cottage people", Maine's seasonal residents not only changed the economy of large areas of the state but its culture, especially when they began staying all year round. The Bush family and their compound in Kennebunkport are a notable example of this demographic.

De-industrialization and Vacationland

By the mid-20th century, the textile industry was establishing itself more profitably in the American South, and some Maine cities began to de-industrialize. Shipbuilding also ceased in all but a few places, notably Bath and its successful Bath Iron Works, which became a notable producer of naval vessels during the Second World War and after. In recent years, however, even Maine's most traditional industries have been threatened; forest conservation efforts have cut down on logging and restrictions on fisheries have likewise exerted considerable pressure along the coast.

In response, the state attempted to buttress retailing and service industries, especially those linked to tourism. The term vacationland was added to license plates. Tax incentives encouraged outlet shopping centers such as the cluster at Freeport. More and more urbanites and suburbanites began to visit Maine to enjoy its vast area of relatively unspoiled wilderness, its ski-friendly mountains, and its hundreds of miles of coastline. State and national parks in Maine also became loci of tourism, especially Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island.

References

• Maine A History vol.1, vol2, vol 3, by Louis Clinton Hatch. Published 1919.
• The History of Maine. By John Stevens Cabot Abbott, Edward Henry Elwell. Published 1892.
• The History of the State of Maine: From Its First Discovery. By William Durkee Williamson. Published 1832.
• History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine Including Ancient Pejebscot. By George Augustus Wheeler and Henry Warren Wheeler. Published 1878.
• History of Castine, Penobscot, and Brooksville, Maine including the ancient settlement of Pentagoet. By George Augustus Wheeler. Published 1875.
• Sketches of the History of the Town of Camden, Maine. By John Lymburner Locke. Published 1859.
• History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine, 1623-1905. By Francis Byron Greene.Published 1906.
• History of Farmington, Maine, from Its First Settlement. By Thomas Parker. Published 1875.
• History of Bath and Environs, Sagadahoc County, Maine, 1607-1894. By Parker McCobb Reed.
• The Government of Maine: Its History and Admnistration. By William MacDonald. Published 1902.
• The Makers of Maine: Essays and Tales of Early Maine History. By Herbert Edgar Holmes. Published 1912.
• Sketches of the Ecclesiastical History of the State of Maine. By Jonathan Greenleaf. Published 1821.
• A History of the Baptists in Maine. By Joshua Millet. Published 1845.
• History of the First Maine Cavalry, 1861-1865. By Edward Parsons Tobie. Published 1887.
• History of Piscataquis County, Maine: From Its Earliest Settlement to 1880. By Amasa Loring. Published 1880.
• A History of Swan's Island, Maine. By Herman Wesley Small. Published 1898.
• Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine. By Henry Sweetser Burrage, Albert Roscoe Stubbs. Published 1909.
• The History of Waterford: Oxford County, Maine. By Henry Pelt Warren, William Warren. Published 1879.
• The History of Sanford, Maine, 1661-1900. By Edwin Emery, William Morrell Emery. Published 1901.
• History of Rumford, Oxford County, Maine: From Its First Settlement in 1779. By William Berry Lapham. Published 1890.
• History of the City of Belfast in the State of Maine. By Joseph Williamson. Published 1877.
• A History of the Town of Industry: Franklin County, Maine. By William Collins Hatch. Published 1893.
• History of the Maine State College and the University of Maine. By Merritt Caldwell Fernald. Published 1916.
• The Wadsworth-Longfellow House: Longfellow's Old Home. By Nathan Goold. Published 1908.