Skowhegan, Maine, USA (Bloomfield)
1886 - Skowhegan

Skowhegan is a prosperous manufacturing town lying on both sides of the great bend of the Kennebec in the southern part of Somerset County, of which it is the shire town. Cornville bounds it on the north, Canaan on the east, Fairfield on the south and Norridgewock on the west. The surface is somewhat broken by swells and ridges, Bigelow Hill, the greatest elevation being about 500 feet in height. Slate rock generally underlies the soil, the latter being sandy loam, and quite fertile. Hay, potatoes and wool are the principal agricultural products. The water-power of the town is on the Kennebec, at Skowhegan Falls, where the whole volume of the river descends 28 feet in half a mile. An island, the head of which is at the crest of the perpendicular fall, divides the river into two channels, and serves at once as a natural pier and as a site for mills. The bottom and banks of the stream are of solid ledge, and other vast masses of rock support the dam and render it of great strength. The minimum volume of water available here in a drouth, is estimated at 110,500 cubic feet per minute for 11 hours a day, equal to 5,852 horse-powers, or sufficient for 234,000 spindles. The manufactories here consist of a paper-mill, saw-mill, two sash and blind factories, two flour-mills, a wood pulp-mill, three planning-mills, a woolen-mill, an oil-cloth-factory, two axe-factories, one scythe-factory, two harness and saddlery factories, and a foundry. The town hall is a three-story
brick block belonging to a corporation. The seating of the hall is 1,500 and the cost $60,000. There is a public library in the village containing upwards of 3,500 volumes. The elegant brick building containing the court-room and county offices was presented to the county by Hon. Abner Coburn, to induce the removal of the county capital from Norridgewock. The houses in village and county are in neat repair, and the roads are generally good. There is an excellent iron railroad bridge here. The highway bridges across the river are of
wood, and 150 feet in length. The streets generally are adorned with
trees; and on one old street along the river are rows of elms seventy-
five years old and upward. Skowhegan is on the Maine Central Railroad, 100 miles from Portland. It is connected by stage-lines with Norridgewock, Anson, Solon, Athens, the Forks of the Kennebec, and Moosehead Lake, also Canaan and Mercer.

The territory comprising Skowhegan was originally a part of Canaan, from which it was taken and incorporated under the name of Millburn, Feb. 5, 1823. In 1836, the name it now bears was substituted. Skowhegan is an Indian word, and is thought to signify a place of watch, referring to the habit of the savages in gathering here to catch salmon and other fish, which were abundant in their season. The original territory of the town lay wholly on the north side of the river, and contained but 19,071 acres; but by the addition of Bloomfield on the south side of the river opposite, in 1861, the area was swelled to 30,981 acres. Of this number 48 acres are water, and over 321 are in roads.

This town is largely indebted to Hon. Abner Coburn for its prosperity. Mr. Coburn's father, Eleazer Coburn, moved to this locality from Massachusetts in 1792, at the age of fifteen years, being among the early settlers of the Kennebec Valley. He was a farmer and surveyor. Abner was born in 1802. After he became of manly age, he and his younger brother Philander, assisted their father in surveying and exploring the 1,000,000 acres of Bingham's Kennebec purchase. The three, a little later, entered into a partnership business in land and
lumber under the name of E. Coburn & Sons; and after their father's death in 1845, his sons, the surviving partners, continued the business; and in 1876 Philander died. He and another brother are now sole possessors of the property of the family. They own 450,000 acres of land in Maine, and several thousand in the western States. Mr. Coburn was governor of Maine in 1863. His charities have been very large of late years. Besides the gift of an elegant court-house to his
native county, he has given $75,000 to Colby University at Waterville, and several gifts of smaller sums to other institutions, among which is the State Agricultural College at Orono. Other valued citizens of former years were Gen. Joseph Locke, Judah McLellan and Samuel Weston, Esqs. Col. Z.A. Smith of the “Boston Journal,” was for sometime a resident of Skowhegan. This town sent 285 men to the Union army in the war of the Rebellion, losing 84. There are here a society each of the Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, Christians and Catholics. E.P. May's Somerset Reporter is published here.

The village has graded schools, including a good high-school. The number of public schoolhouses is twenty-four, valued with appurtenances at $28,900. The population in 1870 was 3, 893. In 1880 it was 3,861. The valuation in 1870 was $1,581,610. In 1880 it was $2,053,818.

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

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