Yesterday

Sedgwick was another one of Hancock County’s original plantations, and was designated as Plantation No. 4 after the survey of 1762.

In the early years, the community was known as Benjamin River, but was given the name of Sedgwick at its incorporation on Jan. 12, 1789. The community was named after Major Robert Sedgwick, a prominent soldier in the army of Oliver Cromwell. He was ordered to the colonies to capture the French trading posts at Pentegoet (Castine), St. John River and Port Royal in Nova Scotia. He carried out the orders efficiently, and the three posts were granted to Col. Sir William Temple in 1667.

Sedgwick faces Eggemoggin Reach, a name derived from the Wabenaki that means “eel weir place.” The Reach was at the terminus of a long Indian trail, beginning at Old Town. The Indians would spend their summers fishing and gathering at the Reach.

Sedgwick was first settled in 1762 at Naskeag (in what is now Brooklin) by Shadrach Watson and John Black. Watson would open a trading post at Naskeag  in 1762.

Capt. Adam Cogswell came to Benjamin River from Newburyport, Mass. and erected a sawmill. In 1773, he sold a half interest in this mill, and a partially erected gristmill, to Moses Eaton.

Capt. Cogswell’s prospects at Benjamin River were destroyed by the Revolution, and he died at Halifax in 1781, leaving behind an insolvent estate. His son-in-law, Major David Carleton, acquired the remaining estate. Major Carleton and his wife, Mary “Molley” Cogswell, had nine children. The Carleton family would establish itself as a major player in the economy of Sedgwick, with business interests on land and at sea.

A pivotal event occured in 1805, when the Rev. Daniel Merrill led his congregation out of the Congregational denomination. The issue was baptism by immersion, a religious right not practiced by the Congregational Church. The Rev. Merrill had a crisis of conscience, changed his theology to include baptism, was baptized, and then baptized his parishioners. The Sedgwick Congregational Church ceased to exist and the Sedgwick Baptist Church was established.

Sedgwick lost a significant amount of land in 1817 when the town of Brooksville was established. In 1849, another large chunk was taken out and the community of Port Watson, later Brooklin, was created. Sedgwick ended up with three different settlements, the major one being located at Benjamin River, and the other two at North Sedgwick and Sargentville.

A total of 113 vessels are listed as being built in Sedgwick and Brooklin between 1793 and 1920, 92 of which are listed as schooners.

In 1881, Sedgwick Village boasted a harness maker, two stores, a Travelers House, a tidal grist mill and saw mill, a paint shop and a blacksmith shop, as well as a doctor, a post office, a school and a Baptist Church. In the same year, two stores, a cooper shop, a schoolhouse, a blacksmith shop, a post office and a Baptist Church are listed in North Sedgwick. Sargentville could claim Sargent’s Store and post office, a blacksmith shop, a gristmill, and the ferry connecting Sargentville with Deer Isle.