The portion which came to be Capt. Mason's alone in , he named New Hampshire. In the same year, a second charter labeled it Laconia. Gorges volleyed with yet another name for his territory: New Somerset.
This was strongly disliked by King Charles; he responded in a charter that it "shall forever hereafter be called and named the Province or County of Mayne and not by any other name or names whatsoever. Discovery was made that she had no dealings with either "Maine", in the 's or ever Not to be ignored are a couple of interesting facts, which may have contributed to the establishment of our name: 1 there was a small village on the coast of England once named Maine; and, 2 Sir Gorges' family came from a village which neighbored "Broadmayne"; at various times, it was known as: Maine, Meine, and part of it was Parva Maen "Little Maine".
The prevailing theory has to do with a practical nautical term, "the main" or "Main Land", "Meyne" or "Mainland", which served to distinguish the bulk of the state from the numerous islands. This is still commonly used today. Many later settlers did the same thing, although for slightly less highfalutin reasons: as with lots of towns in Maine, Topsham is the English town where many of the settlers were born.
Yet other towns in Maine — such as Leeds in Androscoggin County — are named after English cities and towns in honor of people the settlers knew. Leeds, for example, is named after the father of two of the town's settlers, who was — wait for it — originally from Leeds.
As for settlers who weren't from England, the French don't seem to have been very into this practice. And of the Irish-named towns, Belfast, Limerick and Newry are all named for the birthplaces of early settlers.
For the most part, these towns weren't necessarily enclaves of immigrants from one country — in many cases, they were named for the hometowns of just a few settlers. Let's go back in time for a moment and imagine that we're the people in charge when many of Maine's towns were being incorporated.
Yes, I know those woolen underwear are itchy, but let's try to stick to the topic at hand. As often as people may have just wanted to name towns after themselves, at least in Maine they generally refrained from that.
But there were certain trends that people did tend to follow so they didn't have to reinvent the wheel every time. Most towns started out with fairly unsurprising names, based, for example, on the names of early residents, such as "Thompsonborough," later Lisbon, named after a prominent family in the town , or geographical features Palermo, first called Sheepscot Great Pond Plantation.
Names were often changed upon incorporation, some in an apparent bid to make them more notable. Here's a look at what was hip and now in the world of place names when Maine towns were being settled and incorporated:.
Towns named for revolutions, wars or political events. Maine was being settled in the 18th and 19th century, a particularly vigorous time for revolutions in many of the European colonies.
Obviously, many of the newly American settlers of Maine had a particular regard for this revolutionary fervor. So Mexico in Oxford County, incorporated in , was named in sympathy with that country's ongoing war of independence, which it won in Similarly, the people of Peru — south of Mexico in Maine as in the Americas, although not as far south — changed the name of that town from Partridgetown upon incorporation in , just after the original Peru won its independence.
Other towns named for political reasons after foreign places include Belgrade in Kennebec County, which Chadbourne says may have been named "because of interest in the plight of the Serbians," who were caught in the middle in several wars between Austria and Turkey. But it may also have been named by a prominent resident of the town who had traveled in Europe when he was young.
Maine League of Historical Societies and Museums. Matthews, Albert. Origin of the Name of Maine. Cambridge: J. Wilson and Son, Varney, George J. A Gazetteer of the State of Maine. Williamson, William D. Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, World Almanac and Book of Facts. Whatever the origin, the name was fixed in when the King's Commissioners ordered that the "Province of Maine" be entered from then on in official records.
This common nickname for Maine is given because of the extensive pine forests that have covered the state. Maine possesses over 17 million acres of forests. The White Pine has played an important part in the history of Maine and has been afforded appropriate recognition. In the early days of colonization, the tall White Pines of Maine were valued for ship's masts.
Maine has been a leading producer of lumber products. Because of this and the large number of people involved in the lumber industry, Maine has been called "The Lumber State.
Maine is currently the home of many of the largest paper producing mills in the country.
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