History of Frenchville, Maine, USA

It was at the upper reaches of the Madawaska Settlement, which was settled mostly by the descendants of Acadian refugees from about 1785 onward, then by French Canadians in the 1820s and 1830s.

named for Father Henri Dionne, who built there the first Catholic church in 1843 - Ste-Luce - on the site of the old chapel. Father Dionne served the parish until 1860.

From 1843 to 1869 it was known as Frenchville Plantation (although at the time of the 1850 US Census it was included as part of Madawaska Plantation and in the 1860 US census it was under Township 18, Range 5).

Frenchville lies on the southern bank of the St. John River, in the north-eastern part of Aroostook County, 110 miles north-east of Hoititon. It is on the stage-line from Van Buren to Fort Kent. Forinerly it was the plantation of Dionne, named for Father Dionne, who built there the first Catholic church—St. Luce. It was incorporated Feb. 23, 1869, under the name of Dickeyville, in honor of Hon. William Dickey, of Fort Kent. The name was changed Jan. 26, 1871, to indicate the nationality of the inhabitants.

The town is very irregular in form, lying on a south-eastern bend of the St. John. On the south-eastern side it rests on the northern end of Long Lake, the north-eastern of the Fish River Lakes. The principal streams are Dufour, Gagnon, Rosignol, Bourgoin, and Cyr brooks, all emptying into the St. John, and each having falls suitable for mills. Gagnon Brook has two-saw-mills and two grist-mills, and Cyr Brook a small saw-mill. There are other small saw-mills, a clothdressing mill ...

Frenchville, a post-township (town) of Aroostook co., Me. The banking point is Caribou. Pop. in 1900, 1316.