History of Portland, Maine, USA

Portland, Maine
Chief town, Cumberland county. This beautiful city lies upon a peninsula at the western extremity of Casco bay; its length is three miles from east to west, and the average width is three quarters of a mile; containing about two thousand two hundred acres of land. The settlement of this neck of land was commenced as early as 1632 by two individuals from England, George Cleaves and Richard Tucker, who purchased the whole tract in 1637, of Gorges, the proprietor. For the first 40 years the settlement made but little progress, and it was entirely destroyed in the Indian war of 1675. In 1680, it was revived under more favorable auspices, the government of Massachusetts having some years previous to that time extended her sovereignty over this part of Maine. It had scarcely begun to gather the fruits of prosperity, before it was again doomed to a second entire overthrow, in 1690, by the remorseless enemy, who spared neither dwellings nor their inhabitants.

Portland was...

Portland, a city,- port of entry, and seat of justice of Cumberland county, Maine, 60 miles S. S. W. from Augusta, and 105 miles N. E. from Boston. Lat. 43° 4' 26" N. Ion., 70° 45' 50" W. It is pleasantly situated on a narrow peninsula or tongue of land projecting from the W. shore of Casco bay. This peninsula is about 3 miles in length from E. to W., and rises at each extremity into considerable elevations, giving the city a beautiful appearance as it is approached from the sea. Its breadth averages about three quarters of a mile, though it is much wider than this at its eastern termination, and also at its junction with the mainland. The harbor is one of the best on the Atlantic coast, the anchorage being protected on every side by land, the communication with the ocean easy and direct, and the depth sufficient for the largest ships. Although in a northern latitude, it is never closed by ice except in the most extreme cold weather, and then only for a few days. The principal...

A TRACK ONE MILE AND A HALF LONG SWEPT BY THE FLAMES!
ALL THE BANKS GONE!
PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN RUINS - A MAJORITY OF THE BUSINESS HOUSES BURNED -FIFTY HOUSES BLOWN UP - THE PEOPLE FLEEING FOR THEIR LIVES - IMMENSE LOSS OF PROPERTY - THE FIRE STILL RAGING.
PORTLAND, July 4. - A terrible fire is here, having destroyed Brown's sugar house, and is sweeping through the city before a strong southerly wind.

SECOND DESPATCH[sic].
8 P. M.---The fire caught in the building above the sugar house on Commercial street, and has swept northerly through Fore street into the wooden buildings between Center and Cross streets, consuming everything as it goes. J. B. Brown & Sons from $600,000 to $700,000. Insured $20,000. Staples & Son, machine shop and R. P. Richardson & Co.'s stove foundry are completely destroyed. One steam engine had come from Saco.

THIRD DISPATCH.
PORTLAND, July 5. - The fire has swept completely through the city from the foot of High street to North street on Munjoy Hill, ...

Thursday afternoon as the five o'clock train on the Portland & Rochester road was making up at the depot in Portland, Walter Mace, a lad eight years old, and son of Mr. John Mace, baggage master, on the Portland & Kennebec railroad, attempted to get on a baggage car, when he slipped and fell upon the track, and the engine and tender ran over the hip, and also cutting off an arm. He was taken up and conveyed to his home on Lincoln street, and a physician called who amputated both legs and the arm. He lingered till nine o'clock when he died in intense agony.

July 4 freak snowstorm struck Portland

Portland, eminent for its business facilities, for the healthfulness and beauty of its situation, and for the enterprise and urbanity of its citizens, occupies the chief harbor on Casco Bay, in the southern part of Cumberland County. Being the nearest port on the Atlantic coast to the cities of the St. Lawrence, and having a harbor safe and Convenient for the largest ocean-steamers, and open at all seasons, it has naturally become the chief seaport of the Canadas, as well as of Western Maine, and the northern parts of New Hampshire and Vermont. From the city proceed the Boston and Maine, the Eastern and the Portland and Rochester railways, traversing New Hampshire and Massachusetts business centres, and connecting with the roads to all parts of the continent. The Grand Trunk of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad comes down through the northern parts of Vermont and New Hampshire to the wharves of the ocean steamships in Portland Harbor. The Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad, passing ...