Histories

• 1940 Historical Sketch
• Pictures
• Searsport Sea Captains

1940 Historical Sketch

Waldo County was erected 3 July, 1827 (Public Laws, chs.354,362), by setting off all of Hancock County lying west of Penobscot Bay and River, taking from Lincoln County the towns of Camden, Hope, Liberty, Montville, and Palermo, and Appleton Plantation, and from Kennebec County the towns of Freedom, Unity, Montgomery, and Burnham. The northern boundary of the county was formed by the south lines of Penobscot and Somerset Counties and has remained unaltered.

In 1836, one estate was annexed to Camden from Warren on Lincoln County (ch.17)

The town of Vinalhaven was annexed from Hancock County, March 15, 1838 (ch. 451)

Three homesteads were set off from the Town of Palermo to the town of Washington in Lincoln County, April 11 1854 ( (Public Laws, Chapter 327)

The towns of Appleton, Camden, Hope, North Haven, and Vinalhaven were set off to form part of the new county of Knox, April 1, 1860 (Public Laws, ch. 146)

In 1873 part of Clinton Gore Plantation in Kennebec County was annexed to Burnham (ch. 384).

The present boundaries of Waldo County include 26 towns and 1 city: the city of Belfast and the towns of Belmont, Brooks, Burnham, Frankfort, Freedom, Islesborough, Jackson, Knox, Liberty, Lincolnville, Monroe, Montville, Morrill, Northport, Palermo, Prospect, Searsmont, Searsport, Stockton Springs, Swanville, Thorndike, Troy, Unity, Waldo and Winterport.

Source: taken from a Publication of the Maine State Archives named Counties, Cities, Towns and Plantations of Maine; A handbook of Incorporations, Dissolutions and Boundary Changes. Prepared by The Maine Historical Records Survey Project. Division of Professional and Service Projects Works Projects Administration, Portland, Maine. The Maine Historical Records Survey Project, 1940

Pictures

Simmons Store and Post Office
Searsmont, Maine

Miller & Hills General Store and Post Office

Old Grange Building

The person in the photograph is Fred Royce MILLER, who was born in Searsmont, Maine, 15 Feb 1901; he died in Falmouth, Maine, 15 Nov 1982. Fred Royce Miller was a grandfather of Linda Miller Clark, who contributed these three photos of the building in Searsmont.

Swanville School
courtesy of Lisa Nugent

Swanville Class of 1898-99
courtesy of Lisa Nugent

Main Street, Belfast

Searsport Sea Captains

"In the year 1860 there were 11,375 mariners in the State of Maine. They comprised almost one-fifth of the population. Of these, 759 were masters of ships. In turn nearly half of these were in command of "Cape Horners."

"The little town of Searsport with 1,700 inhabitants will serve as an example. It was known in every deepwater port in the world. Over a hundred and fifty masters of full-rigged ships knew it as home. In the seventies and eighties, it is estimated that 10 per cent of all the shipmasters in the American merchant marine had Searsport as their hail. In 1889, 33 captains out of 77 were in command of Cape Horners.

"Many of their vessels were built for their own account in the Matthews, Merrithew, Carver, and McGilvery yards at the head of the harbor. In later years, when the shoal waters precluded the launching of the larger ships, the Searsport captains had their ships built up the Penobscot at Brewer and Bangor. Out of twenty full-rigged ships built there, Lincoln Colcord lists at least eight for Searsport accounts."

--William Hutchinson Rowe, The Maritime History of Maine: Three Centuries of Ship Building and Seafaring, Gardner, Maine, The Harpswell Press, c1989, pp 286-287.

Extracted from Searsport Sea Captains, published by the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport.

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