[kol-UM-bee-ah FALLS] is a town in Washington County, incorporated on March 25, 1863 from a portion of its sister community to the west, Columbia.

This former lumbering and shipbuilding community boasts several notable homes from the bygone era. The Ruggles House on Main Street, built for lumberman and judge Thomas Ruggles, is an example of superb workmanship. Aaron Simmons Sherman was the architect and builder.

 

The town was home to the first woman admitted to the bar in Maine in 1872, Clara Hapgood Nash. She practiced law with her husband F. C. Nash. In possibly her first court appearance on October 15, 1873 in Machias, she defended the Town of Jonesboro regarding damages to a horse. She also participated in the women’s suffrage movement, circulating a petition to the Maine Legislature in 1873.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The blueberry industry has sustained the local economy to keep the population stable and sometimes growing, however modestly, in this economically challenged part of Maine.

In 1877 future major league baseball player Irving “Irv” Melrose Young was born in Columbia Falls. His six year career (1905-1908, 1910-1911) included the Boston Beaneaters, Boston Doves, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Chicago White Sox. As a pitcher he won 66, lost 95, with an earned run average of 3.11.

Form of Government: Town Meeting-Select Board-Administrative Assistant.

Additional resources

Bucknam family. Family papers, 1821-1925. Papers of residents of Columbia Falls, Maine, and records of a temperance society in Columbia Falls. (University of Maine, Orono, Special Collections.)

Day, Clarence Albert, 1883-1981. Papers Relating to Towns in the Pleasant River Valley: Addison, Columbia, Columbia Falls. 195-? [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections]

Greene, Nancy H. A History of Columbia and Columbia Falls: in Honor of the American Bicentennial, 1776-1976. Cherryfield, Me. Narraguagus Printing Co. 1976?

Leighton, Levi. Levi Leighton’s “Life Journal.” 1839-1859 [copied by Clarence Day] (Available at University of Maine at Machias, Merrill Library)

*Maine. Historic Preservation Commission. Augusta, Me.  Text and photo from National Register of Historic Places.

0001203.PDFMills, Paul H. Interview “Historical Research and Early Maine Women Attorneys: Part 2.” July 17, 2002. Interview Archives. July/August 2002. LawInterview.com. http://www.lawinterview.com/interviewmaster_archive_07_02.html accessed 10/19/2004. [Clara Hapgood Nash]

National Register of Historic Places – Listings

Bucknam House

[Maine Street] Bucknam House is an unusually large, well finished structure for its date, in what was a remote and largely unsettled portion of the District of Maine. Built in 1792 in what is now Columbia Falls, the house has many associations with the early settlement and commercial history of the area. Its builder, John Bucknam (1746-92) was one of the early settlers. Coming from North Yarmouth in the late 1760’s, he was accompanied by Joseph Wilson and family of Kittery. Bucknam married Mary Wilson in 1773 and settled permanently in the small Pleasant River settlement, bearing nine children.

Bucknam, with Joseph Wilson, was an early exploiter of the region’s vast timber resources. He secured a mill privilege and bought extensive tracts adjacent to the river on which he built lumber mills and houses. Lumbering became the principal industry in Columbia in the first decades of the 19th century. John Bucknam was one of the original trustees of Washington Academy at nearby East Machias. He was a captain in the local militia, serving briefly in the Continental Army. In June 1777 and August 1779, he and fellow settlers were summoned to the defense of the coast at Machias when British ships were sighted.

He died in 1792 at the age of 46 during or soon after the construction of his house. Mary Wilson Bucknam was awarded one half of the house and adjacent land. She also supervised the various family enterprises. The first ship built in the Columbia yards (1799) was named after the town and was financed by Mrs Bucknam and her brother Gowen Wilson. Later several of Bucknam’s sons carried on this and other local businesses. As befitting a prominent family of the era, the Bucknams employed a young servant at the house whose principal task included the fetching of wood and tending the numerous fireplaces. A worker from the shipyard often boarded in the garret’s finished chamber. The house remained in the Bucknam family until about 1910. The house later deteriorated somewhat but has been repaired and the top of the central chimney has been altered.

Bucknam, Samuel, House

[U.S. Route 1] Built for Samuel Bucknam in 1821, this Federal Capestyle house is one of the most ornately finished houses of its kind in Maine. The delicate wood carving on the interior and around the front door was the work of Alvah Peterson who came to Columbia Falls from Duxbury, Massachusetts in 1820 with Aaron Sherman, the master carpenter. Sherman designed and Peterson did the carving for the magnificent Ruggles House nearly across, the street.

 

• 

• 

• 

 

Sherman probably also built the Samuel Bucknam House. Samuel (1788-1867) was the grandson of John Bucknam. This finely detailed Federal Capestyle house with its ties to the earliest origins of Columbia Falls is an important local landmark as well as an outstanding decorative achievement.

Columbia House

[Main Street at junction with Church Hill Circle] The 1834 Columbia House is a two-story Federalstyle frame house with a rear ell connected to a two-story wing and carriage shed. Apparently built for Gowin (sometimes Gowen) Wilson, it began to be used as an inn in 1847. Wilson was the proprietor of the Columbia House until 1882, apparently the only inn or hotel in Columbia Falls at the time. The House is one of the last of a long line of Federal style houses in the community. Its Greek Revival trim in one room reflects the emerging fashion soon to dominate the architectural styles in Maine.*

Ruggles House

[Main Street] (see photo above) The 1820 Ruggles House is unlike other houses of its style in that it is only one room deep. The modest two story building has some outstanding architectural features.

“The most distinctive feature of the house is the ‘Flying’ staircase which rises from the front hall, then divides into two reverse stairs without lateral support. Mantles and other interior wood finish were carved. Much of the fine work was completed with a pen knife, including the rope beading on the cornices of the fireplace and a swastika design below the mantle in the dining room. The elaborate carvings are over ornate, but this was typical of the architecture of the time of the Ruggles House construction. The doorway that opens into the front hall is an example of the change that was in progress when builders were going from the Georgian to the neo-classic style of architecture.”

Thomas Ruggles came to Columbia Falls in 1770 from Rochester, Massachusetts. He became the area’s largest owner of timberland, owned a sawmill and ships to transport his lumber. Ruggles was postmaster, merchant, captain of the militia and justice of the court in Machias. He died soon after the house was completed in 1820.*

Union Church

[Main Street, 0.1 mile Northeast of junction with Addison Road] Set back from Main Street in Epping village, the 1840 former Union Church is a Greek Revival style frame building with a striking three-stage bell tower. In 1889 a clock was installed in the tower, resulting in the removal of the original rectangular louvered openings. The interior was converted in 1949-50 to a gymnasium for use by the nearby school. It was used for school functions such as plays, graduation ceremonies, and physical education classes, and for annual town meetings until 1987 when a new community building was completed.*

---