Waldo County, Maine Gen Web Site

BROOKS, MAINE

• Early Settlement*

The territory of Brooks was embraced in the Waldo patent.  Its plantation name was Washington.  It was incorporated in 1816, and named in honor of Governor Brooks, of Massachusetts. Joseph Roberts, from Buckfield, who built the first mills in town, was said to have been a resident here in 1700.  In 1801, he, with his two brothers, John and Jonathan, were settled in town.  Not long after Benjamin Cilley, with his sons, Benjamin, Peter and Simon, from the same town, took up their residence here.  The first lawyer was Phineas Ashmun, who came as agent for Thorndike, Sears and Prescott, proprietord of most of the land in this and adjoining towns.  He was also the first post-master. Jacob Roberts was the first physician.  This town was awhile the home of Hon. Woodbury Davis, formerly a judge of the Supreme Court. of Maine.  It is claimed for Brooks that no town of its size has done more for the cause of freedom and temperance.

* From "A Gazetteer of the State Of Maine" by George Varney published in 1886 as excerpted from Ray's Place

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This page last updated on 31 December 2011