A history of Parsonsfield Maine
A history of the first century of the town of Parsonsfield, Maine. Incorporated Aug 29, 1785, and celebrated with impressive ceremonies at North Parsonfield August 29, 1885.
History
History of York Maine
The History of York Maine is one of the premier manuscripts written concerning the history of a locality, it is only a shame that Charles Edward Banks died before being able to publish the third and final volume. Having said that, there is plenty of material within the first two volumes if your ancestors resided in the area known as Bristol, Agamenticus, Gorgeana, and York, Maine.
History of Clarks Nebraska, 1865-1976
We begin our story in the year 1854 when the United States Congress organized the Nebraska Territory. Four years later, a law was passed defining the boundaries of its counties and locating their county seats. Merrick County now had a name and a county seat — Elvira. To the present day no one knows the exact location of Elvira, but many pioneers believed it was located two miles southeast of Clarks. The county received its name from the wife of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Her maiden name was Elvira Merrick. The volume “History of Nebraska” tells us … Read more
First Settlements in the Saco Valley
The pioneers who contemplated permanent settlement were sometimes squatters on the soil for several years before a title to their claim could be secured, as old letters relating to such transactions, now at hand, clearly prove. When the newcomer “pitched” upon a lot some distance from the cabins of those who had preceded him in settlement, a rude puncheon-and-bark camp was built. The woodman felled a goodly number of straight spruces, or chestnut trees, and cut them into sections, some eight feet in length. These were split into halves and set in a narrow trench, two feet in depth, excavated … Read more
Garrisons, Block-Houses, and Forts in the Saco Valley
During the Indian wars various kinds of fortifications were built by the settlers along the Saco river. Some of these were put up by individuals for the better protection of their own families, and others were built by authority of the Provincial Government and paid for from appropriations voted “for the defense of the frontier.” When the Indians threatened the settlement along the coast the people importuned the Great and General Court for funds to erect forts and blockhouses. These were to be built of stockades, or square timber, in such places as would best accommodate the inhabitants in each … Read more
Lovewell’s Defeat in the Saco Valley
Our grandfathers have related this old fireside story with much animation and circumstantiality. It has been handed down to us upon the historic page attended with many inconsistent, and some contradictory, statements. We have not found one published account of the march, battle, and retreat that would stand the first shock of intelligent criticism. Successive authors have followed the beaten track; if they discovered inharmonies, and encountered insuperable difficulties, they have been content to repeat the same unreasonable statements formulated by their predecessors without criticism or comment. Some writers have ignored geography; others, the cardinal points. The tradition about John … Read more
The Sokokis Indians along the Saco River
The best authorities now attribute to our North American aborigines an Asiatic origin. In physical appearance, language, and traditions, the western tribes resemble the northeastern Asiatics, while the Eskimo and his cousin on the Asiatic side understand each other perfectly. The Mongolian cast of features is much more marked in the tribes on the Pacific than in those on the Atlantic coast, while the earliest traditions handed down from time immemorial by the ancient fathers, and held by the chiefs of the eastern tribes, indicate that they came by stages from the westward; and those of the western tribes, that … Read more
The Saco River
Here, in the deep primeval forest, the brave aboriginal inhabitants searched for those medicinal treasures stored in the pharmacy of nature, and from these compounded the curative preparations for which the tribe has long been renowned. Here, upon the Saco river bank, the Sokokis built his bark wigwam, upon these waters he propelled his beaded canoe of birch with noiseless pad, die of ash, and in the pellucid depths saw the reflection of his dusky form. The adventuresome Vikings, reared in a land indented with intersecting voes, when they discovered our rivers upon which the tide ebbed and flowed, supposed … Read more
History of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota
The aim of this history was to present in a permanent form the key incidents in the history of Minneapolis, from its earliest settlement to its publication in 1895. The primary facts and events recounted were mostly obtained from living witnesses and participants. It was rare for a city with more than two hundred thousand inhabitants to have so many of its first settlers still alive. The city’s growth had been so extraordinary and unprecedented that many of its earliest settlers remained. Some information was also gleaned from the notes left by now-deceased writers who witnessed the events described. Great care was taken to verify the accuracy of all facts and incidents mentioned. While it might have been too much to hope that the work was entirely free from errors, it was confidently believed that any such errors were few and insignificant.
Historical and biographical album of the Chippewa Valley, Wisconsin
In the production of the following pages the effort has been to show the growth of every city and village in the Chippewa Valley, through their industries, schools and churches. The biographical sketches were so numerous that they have necessitated as brief treatment as the circumstances would warrant, and the publishers have been compelled to depend mainly upon the members of the respective families for the reliability of the facts set forth.
Birmingham: reflections on community
This book is the second volume of a collaborative project called “Birmingham Remembers” Residents of the Birmingham neighborhood had been interviewed in the 1980s. With this project the participants comments are organized by topic. Topics include heritage, education, religion, work, recreation, neighborhood, rituals, holidays, the Great Depression, military service, the Hungarian Revolution, activism and reminiscences.”
History of Clinch County, Georgia
History of Clinch County, Georgia, revised to date, giving the early history of the county down to the present time (1916): also complete lists of county officers, together with minor officers and also sketches of county officers’ lives; with chapters on the histories of old families of Clinch County; also other information as is historical in its nature, comp. and ed. by Folks Huxford
Weymouth ways and Weymouth people
Edward Hunt’s “Weymouth ways and Weymouth people: Reminiscences” takes the reader back in Weymouth Massachusetts past to the 1830s through the 1880s as he provides glimpses into the people of the community. These reminiscences were mostly printed in the Weymouth Gazette and provide a fair example of early New England village life as it occurred in the mid 1800s. Of specific interest to the genealogist will be the Hunt material scattered throughout, but most specifically 286-295, and of course, those lucky enough to have had somebody “remembered” by Edward.
Wendell, Massachusetts: Its Settlers and Citizenry, 1752-1900
Nothing is better than to see a relatively new genealogical manuscript make its way online for free. Pamela A. Richardson has graciously allowed her “Wendell, Massachusetts: Its Settlers and Citizenry, 1752-1900” to be digitized by Internet Archive and made available to the general public. The reach and expansion of this manuscript has greatly been increased by this action, and researchers of their roots in Wendell Massachusetts are greatly appreciative! Surnames featured: Baker, Ballard, Ballou, Brewer, Bufford, Burgess, Clark, Cooke, Crosby, Drury, Fiske, Glazier, Goodale, Green, Hager, Howe, Kilburn, King, Locke, Metcalf, Oakes, Orcutt, Osgood, Phelps, Sawyer, Sibley, Stebbins, Stiles, Stone, Sweetser, Tyrer, Wetherbee, and Wilder.
Chronicles of New Haven Green, from 1638 to 1862
This volume is made up, as the title indicates, of eight papers, now revised and partly rewritten, to each of which are added notes supplying a page or two of comment or explanation. The papers treat respectively of the Green as a public square, a political and civic forum, a religious and ecclesiastical arena, a parade ground, a seat of judicial tribunals, an educatioual campus, a market-place, and a cemetery. In a style abounding in facetiae not unworthy of Dickens, the author reviews the succession of events which have transpired in connection with the Green, with their changing scenic accompaniments of stocks, whipping-post, jail, tombstones, school-house, meeting-house, state-house; setting in prominent relief the more humorous or otherwise impressive incidents, and neglecting no occasion for satirical thrusts at contemporary folly, keenly relished by the reader, without doubt, but certain — as in all such cases — to be contemptuously slighted by those who alone might profit by them. His comparison of the “Blue laws” of Connecticut with those of the other colonies evidently affords as much satisfaction to himself as instruction to the most of his readers, justifying his declaration that the New Haven Colony can very complacently allow its laws to be called “blue in contrast with the black and crimson legislation of its contemporaries.”
The History of Hancock, New Hampshire, 1764-1889
The History of Hancock New Hampshire is an extensive manuscript of over 1,000 pages which details not only the history of the town from its inception to the end of the 19th century, but also comprises over 700 pages worth of Hancock NH family genealogies.
The History of Malden, Massachusetts, 1633-1785
This volume is the result of a careful collection and verification of facts and traditions extending over a period of more than forty-five years. It embraces the history of a New England town to the close of the Revolution — to a time when old customs and systems were disappearing and new forces in political, ecclesiastical, educational, and social affairs were springing into life. It is the story of an elder day and of a life in which much appears that is strange to a later age. If we read it aright we shall better understand our indebtedness to those generations whose labors and trials made possible the freedom and prosperity of the present; and we shall avoid that effusive worship of the fathers which is a fashion rather than the result of a knowledge of the true character of the past in its weaknesses and strength.
Sketch of the Town of Huntington, Long Island
Silas Wood’s sketch of the town of Huntington, L.I. is a small manuscript of 63 pages which provides an authoritative look at the early history of Huntington New York, from its first settlement to the end of the American revolution. Particularly fascinating to our Native American researchers is the history of the early interaction with the Matinecoes, the Massapeags, and the Secataugs.
History and Genealogy of Blue Hill, Maine
From the record of the town’s annual meeting held “March 6, 1769”, we learn that it was “Voted that Joseph Wood, Jonathan Darling and Robert Parker be a Committee to lay out Roads where they should think proper to convean the Town on this side of the Salt Pond.” The year previous the town voted “For to clear a Rhode from here to Pronobscutt” and chose a committee consisting of Samuel Foster, Israel Wood, Robert Parker, Joseph Wood and John Roundy to attend to laying out said “Rhode”. At the annual town meeting held “Monday, April 7, 1794, voted that … Read more