Ogunquit, before 1980, was a village corporation and functioned for the most part as a town of its own, supporting its own police, fire, highway and sewer departments. The town is a well known actors and artists colony, featuring the historic Ogunquit Playhouse and beautiful beaches. Perkins Cove, south of the main village on Shore Road, combines a working waterfront, a restaurant, an art museum, and fine cottages.
(c1740-1816) succeeded in living her life according to Wabanaki traditions and, for the most part, on ancestral land because she was savvy enough to learn how to adapt to the encroaching white settlers and their way of life without assimilating into their culture. Her strength and independent nature enabled her to make a life for…
Jeremiah O’Brien (1778-1858) was a U.S. Representative; born in Machias, on January 21, 1778. He attended the common schools, then engaged in lumber manufacturing and in shipping. A member of the Maine State Senate 1821-1824, he was elected to the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Congresses (March 4, 1823-March 3, 1829). O’Brien was chairman of the…
Waterville’s commercial strip that is Kennedy Memorial Drive continues into Oakland for about a mile before becoming a more scenic road. See photos. Here the village emerges as it sits at Messalonskee Stream. Long the home of the New England Music Camp, recreational opportunities include access to several of the Belgrade lakes.
Originally settled in 1831 and organized for the assessment of taxes in 1866, the town itself was incorporated on February 24, 1897. See photos. The main village, is located on the Mattawamkeag River, just south of Smyrna Mills. Its mountainous terrain, known as the Oakfield Hills, earned it the name “Switzerland of the Aroostook” by one observer. Sam Drew Mountain is the highest point at 1,516 feet.
Norway-South Paris is a community of two adjoining towns serving as a retail center for southern Oxford County. It includes a commercial strip with the usual array of auto dealerships and fast food. Pennesseewassee Lake, the largest of several in the town, abuts the main village and contributes mightily to local recreational opportunities. A clerical “correction” of the originally proposed “Norage,” the Indian word for falls, resulted in the name Norway.
Edgar Wilson Nye, a descendent of Benjamin Nye who came from England in 1635, was an American humorist born in the town of Shirley. He moved to Wisconsin with his family when he was two. Nye was a satirist and comic lecturer, who founded the Laramie, Wyoming Boomerang newspaper in 1881. He became famous writing…
Amos Nourse (1794-1877) a U.S. Senator from Maine, was born in Bolton, Worcester County, Massachusetts on December 17, 1794. He pursued a preparatory course and graduated from Harvard University in 1812. Nourse served as postmaster at Hallowell 1822-1841, when he then moved to Bath and acted as collector of customs at Bath 1845-1846. He studied…