frankfort index

Waldo County, Maine Gen Web Site

FRANKFORT, MAINE

Early Settlement*

As originally incorporated in 1789, Frankfort embraced the whole territory along the western bank of the Penobscot from Belfast to Wheeler's mills, on Soadabscook Stream ,thus embracing also the present towns of Prospect, Winterport, Hampden, and parts of Belfast, Searsport and Stockton. In 1793 this was divided into the three towns of Prospect, Frankfort and Hampden; the first being the longest settled, retaining the records but not the name. Prospect then included Searsport and Stockton, and Frankfort, the present Winterport. The last was set off in 1860, when Frankfort acquired its present boundaries. It is found that there were settlers in Frankfort as early as 1770, for in 1773 there were twelve families residing at Marsh Bay, one family at Oak Point, and one where the village now is. Among these first settlers were J. Treat, E. Grant, J. Kinnakum, J. Woodman, P. King, S. Kenny and E. Ide. According to a MS. letter of Joshua Treat, Esq., an early settler, "the first settlers got their living by hunting moose, beaver and muskrat, and by fishing in Penobscot River." There were conflicting claims of proprietors under the Waldo patent, to which this tract belonged. Thorndike & Company finally proved to be the owners of this township, which they sold to settlers at $2 per acre.

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