[SPRING-field] is a town in Penobscot County, incorporated on February 12, 1834 from township T5 R2 NBPP. The northern part was once a grant to Foxcroft Academy and was sold at 31 cent per acre, an apparent bargain for valuable timberland.

The first settlers arrived in 1830 and the population exploded to 530 by 1850. Once more populous than in 2010, the town has maintained a relatively stable population since 1910. [click photos to enlarge]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to the Gazetteer of Maine, in 1886, when the 1880 census recorded 878 residents, twice its current population,

There are . . . one cloth-mill, two grist-mills, one saw-mill for boards and other long lumber. The town hall is a neat two-story building with a school-room in the first story.  . . . Its streets are beautified with rows of maple from three to 20 years of age, and the houses generally are tasteful and in good repair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Located on the east-west Maine Route 6 crossing eastern Penobscot and northern Washington counties, the town has a substantial area in wetlands.

One account has the name commemorating “extensive fields abounding in springs.” Another suggests Springfield, Massachusetts as the inspiration for the name.

The village is centered around the crossroads of Route 6, Park Street (Routes 169/170) and Shep Road.

Route 169/170 trends north to Webster Plantation and Prentiss Township (Penobscot County).

The smaller village of South Springfield is in the extreme southeast corner of the township.

Confirming its rural, forested character, dirt roads have charming names such as Dirty Glove Road, Clearcut Lodge Road, Beaver Bog Road, and Ghost Road.

Springfield is the birthplace of A. O. Lombard, inventor of the Lombard log hauler and other things. He moved to Waterville where he had his workshop and built his house, now on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Form of Government: Town Meeting-Select Board.

Additional resources

Chadbourne, Ava Harriet. Maine Place Names and The Peopling of its Towns: Kennebec and Somerset Counties.

United States. Department of the Interior. National Park Service. “Springfield Congregational Church.” https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/nrhp/text/78000193.PDF (accessed March 8, 2017)

Varney, George J. A Gazetteer of the State of Maine. 1886. p. 524.

National Register of Historic Places – Listings

Springfield Congregational Church

 

[Maine Route 6; N45° 23′ 43.56″  W68° 8′ 14.46″] Springfield lies in a remote area of east-central Maine, between Lincoln on the Penobscot River and Vanceboro on the Canadian border. The region, primarily agricultural, has always been sparsely settled and is set apart from any main stream of economic development.

In spite of these limitations, this small but stylishly conceived board-and-batten Gothic Revival church was built only 22 years after the first settlement. Clearly the work of a competent professional, the building was built in 1852 by the Congregational Society which had been formed in 1846 by the residents of Springfield and the neighboring communities of Lee and Carroll. The original congregation numbered about forty.

Through the years the church suffered almost continuously from lack of funds and was closed temporarily in 1933 due to the economic distress of the Depression. For a time the congregation shared a pastorate with the Congregational Church in Lincoln. Electric lights were not available until 1946. Recent years have seen some amelioration of these difficulties. In 1978 church again had its own resident minister and the structure was well maintained. Relatively speaking, the Springfield Congregational Church ranks as an architectural jewel in ordinary surroundings.*