Yesterday

Five Little Communities
By Mark Honey

Special to The Ellsworth American

To call Mariaville part of the “Old Sawdust Trail” is an odd moniker, perhaps, but it’s one that accurately portrays the history of this community.

The community at Mariaville Falls, North Mariaville, had been started as a model community, one which would attract settlers to William Bingham’s townships in northern Hancock County.

Mariaville once had four schools, and these students at School No. 1 were the pupils of Isabell A. Jordan, teacher, in 1896. COURTESY OF GENEVA FROST

The community had, by 1801, one of the finest double sawmills in eastern Maine, a boarding home and a store.

By 1803, Gen. David Cobb had laid out his great road, connecting the Penobscot River community of Eddington to the new settlements. This road would eventually be known as the Airline. The original course ran from Debec Pond to Mariaville Falls, making that community the port of entry for new settlers.

Mariaville would be the name given to all of the northern Hancock County communities before 1820, and it would be the only town created from two townships. This large land mass would eventually see the creation of five different communities within its borders. Interestingly, Mariaville is the only community in the county named after a woman: Maria Bingham, daughter of William Bingham and Ann Willing of Philadelphia, was known for her beauty and charm. She became a famous courtesan in the courts of Europe.

The first community of Mariaville was at Mariaville Falls. This community went into decline by the 1830s, primarily because of the loss of the sawmill. Many communities had developed their own mills, and Col. John Black had established mills at Ellsworth.

Another factor was the removal of the Airline, roughly, to its present course. The loss of the Falls community left the community without a major industry, placing a greater burden of taxation on the small farms that stretched from Goodwin’s Bridge to the Amherst line. This would create tensions within the community.

The dam at Mariaville Falls provided the vital link for the great West Branch drives of the 1800s. The water stored provided the force necessary to take the annual log drive down river to the junction on the west and east branches at the “Tongue,” and from thence through the “Long Reach” and Jordan’s Bridge toward the boom at Brimmer’s Bridge.

The second community was created when the two original plantations were joined by the Maine Legislature in 1823, creating the Plantation of Mariaville. And the Town of Mariaville was created by an act of the legislature on Feb. 29, 1836.

The third community existed at the southern end of town, primarily located by Dum and Tannery brooks. In 1850, the problem of taxation boiled over and a civil war erupted in the community.

The new community of Tilden was created, named after Joseph Tilden, a land speculator from Boston who had owned land here and at Great Pond.

But the charter of this new community was quickly rescinded by the legislature, and the two communities were brought back together again. The name of Tilden, however, would remain as the name of the community post office.

Tilden had a fine tannery, established circa 1841, along with three stores, a grist mill, a number of sawmills, a village smith, two schools, a post office, the best farms in town, and a large Baptist church. But the community went into decline after the tannery was destroyed by lightning on June 14, 1892. Farming and lumbering remained as the principal occupations of many through the second world war.

The fourth community was located on the eastern side of the Union River. The two halves of the community, east and west, were joined by the original County Road, laid out by General Cobb, and by the road that extended from the Morrison Farm Road to Waltham, by way of Jordan’s Bridge.

In 1833, Waltham separated from Mariaville, taking all of the territory south and east of the Union River, and leaving the community of East Mariaville to fend for itself.

East Mariaville maintained close ties with Aurora, Osborn and Waltham. By 1920, the original County Road was discontinued, leaving the community completely isolated.

East Mariaville had been settled by members of the Moore, Milliken and Treadwell families.  Farming and lumbering were the principal occupations. The community had its own school, but matters of faith and commerce were satisfied in Waltham, Aurora and Ellsworth Falls.

The fifth community had been created in 1833 when Waltham broke off.

Mariaville was noted for its size and large population. Its wealth and industry provided jobs and a commercial center for Otis, Reed’s Brook and Waltham.

Men engaged in lumbering, hemlock bark tanning and farming. But the decline in lumbering by the 1930s would leave this community, as well as the other communities of the upper Union River, virtual ghost towns.