Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Maine was barely 20 years old as a state when it appeared it might be the
setting for another war with the British Empire. A festering boundary
dispute with New Brunswick over timber and land in 1839 resulted in
both sides sending troops to “the county.” Dubbed the Aroostook War, the
conflict never came to any major outright battles and was eventually set-
tled by treaty.
Industrial Growth
With the state at peace, Mainers set about satisfying their industrious
natures. By the middle of the 1800s Maine was building more
ships
than
any other state. Between 1851 and 1854, Maine launched 77 graceful
clippers from yards in Kittery, Bath, Damariscotta, Rockland and else-
where.
Hundreds of
sawmills
sprung up as Maine's white pine was exported to
cities around the world.
Paper mills
were established in Millinocket and other places where
towns soon followed.
In the north woods, loggers cut
wood
all winter and piled it on the shores
of rivers and lakes. Come ice out in the spring the raw logs were sent tum-
bling towards the mills of Bangor and Orono.
In the far north, engineers dammed and diverted lakes and streams to
force some waterways to flow “backward,” allowing timber and pulp logs
to be sent south to mills in Maine rather than north, through Canada,
which charged a hefty duty.
The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming, commonly
known as the “Shaking Quakers,” or Shakers, established three commu-
nities in Maine beginning in the late 1700s. A small handful of believers
continue the old ways to this day and do a brisk business selling seeds
and handicrafts to thousands of tourists at Sabbathday Lake.
In Aroostook a favorable report on the land's ability to grow things, par-
ticularly potatoes, shipped raw and as starch, launched a major industry.
Maine's connections with the Civil War are many. Harriet Beecher Stowe
wrote part of
Uncle Tom's Cabin
at her home in Brunswick at the edge of
the Bowdoin campus. Maine Senator Hannibal Hamlin was Abraham
Lincoln's first running mate and vice president. Colonel, later to become
General Joshua Chamberlain of Brewer commanded the 20th Maine on
Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg and held the line on the high
point of the Confederacy on the second day of battle. Months later he was
appointed by General Ulysses S. Grant to accept the surrender of the
rebel army.
