waldo history index

Waldo County, Maine Gen Web Site

WALDO, MAINE

Early Settlement*

Waldo contains about 11,600 acres. Waldo Plantation was organized July 6, 1821, and consisted only of the so-called “Three Miles Square,” or the “Six Thousand Acre Tract,” which was set off on execution from the estate of Brigadier General Waldo, of Boston, deceased, to Sarah Waldo, administratrix of the estate of Samuel Waldo, of Falmouth, Maine, deceased. This tract was appraised at $8,000 by Robert Houston, James Nesmith and Daniel Clary, of Belfast. William Taggart and a Mr. Smith, from New Hampshire, made the first clearing in 1798. near the south-east corner, one hundred rods from the Belfast line. No family resided upon it until November 1811, when Henry Davidson moved in, continuing a resident 36 years. In 1800 came Jonathan Thurston, from Belfast, followed in 1805 by Josiah Sanborn, from Exeter, N.H. In 1809 Malcolm and Gleason surveyed the tract, dividing it into 60 lots, in 6 ranges of 10 lots each. In 1824, the plantation was enlarged by the annexation of 5,318 acre3 from Swanville; and in 1836, a gore of about 150 acres lying between Knox and the “Three Miles Square” was annexed, which completed the township as at present constituted. Waldo was incorporated as a town March 17, 1845.

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