Manchester, Maine, USA (Kennebec)
1886 - Manchester

Manchester lies near the center of Kennebec County, on the west side of the Kennebec River, and separated from it by the town of Farmingdale, the city of Hallowell and the western section of the city of Augusta. It is 12 miles long and averages less than 3 miles wide. Sidney and Belgrade bound it on the north, Redfield and Win-throp on the west. It is almost wholly separated from the latter by Cobbosse Contee Great Pond, noted for its white perch and black bass.

The early history of this town will be found combined with that of the towns from which it was formed. These are Augusta, Hallowell, Winthrop and Readfield. The settlement commenced about 1774. Nathaniel Floyd appears to have been the first settler in the southern part, and Thomas Allen in the northern part, in the same year. This Allen lot remains in the family to the present day, being owned by a grandson of the pioneer, William H. Allen, president of Girard College. Captain John Evans, Francis Fuller and Reuben Brainard took up lots in 1776; Samuel Cummings, in 1778, and several other persons soon after. The incorporation of Manchester as an independent town occurred in 1850 under the name of Kennebec. A strip from the north-east side was annexed to Augusta in 1856. The name was changed to the one it now bears in 1854.

The surface of the town is moderately uneven. The principal rock is granite, of which a fine quarry is worked in the eastern part of the town. The soil is various, being sandy, gravelly and clayey in different sections. Birch, beech, maple, spruce and hemlock are the prevailing trees.

The principal employment of the inhabitants is agriculture, which is carried on more scientifically and successfully than in most towns. Probably the finest orchards in the State are found here.

The Methodists, Baptists and Friends have each a church here. Manchester has seven public schoolhouses, valued at $3,500. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $320,219. In 1880 it was $291,200. The rate of taxation in the latter year was about 16 mils on the dollar. The population in 1870 was 732, which, by the census of 1880,
has decreased to 623.

A Gazetteer of the State of Maine By Geo. J. Varney Published by B. B. Russell, Boston 1886

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