Edinburg

[ED-ihn-burg] is a town in Penobscot County, incorporated on January 31, 1835 from portions of River Township T1 R8 and Old Indian Purchase WPR.

Settled in 1827, Edinburg is bounded on the east by the Penobscot River and lies opposite the entrance, across the river, of the Passadumkeag River.

On its eastern boundary along the river is the only improved road, approximately eight miles of Route 116 from the town lines of Argyle in the south to Howland in the north.

Interstate 95 travels through, but has no exits in, the town.

The appropriately named “Tree Farm Road” in the center of the township signals the many logging roads that spread out in the interior.

Rivers, attractions of rural life, and the proximity of the University of Maine and the City of Bangor to the south, may be the forces contributing to recent development in the community.

In 2005 an observer noted several new lots being cleared along the river, possibly accounting for the reversal of the two-decade (1980-2000) trend of Edinburg’s dwindling population.

Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient

Civil War

ASBURY F. HAYNES

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Form of Government: Town Meeting-Select Board.

Additional resources

Farnham, Charles M. Diaries, 1863-1864. (Cataloger Note: Diaries maintained by Charles M. Farnham in 1863 and 1864. In them he describes his experiences in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. while serving in the 7th Maine Infantry Regiment. Also included is a diary, 1912, of Emma Farnham, Charles Farnham’s wife, in which she describes the weather, her daily activities, etc. Charles M. Farnham was born around 1845. He lived in Edinburg. After the Civil War he was a selectman and town clerk in Edinburg and made his living as a farmer. [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections]

2020

On Route 116, the Edinburg Road, in Edinburg along the Penobscot River near an abandoned chicken barn.