Maine History Guide

By the time of European arrival, the inhabitants of Maine were Algonquian-speaking Wabanaki peoples, including the Abenaki, Etchemin, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscots. John Cabot and his son, Sebastian, are believed to have visited the Maine coast in 1498, but the first European settlement in Maine was made in 1604 by a French party that included Samuel de Champlain. The French named the area Acadia. Later English colonization pushed Acadia north into what are today the Canadian Maritimes, but the French continued to maintain strong relations with the area's Native American tribes through the medium of Catholic missionaries. English colonists sponsored by the Plymouth Company attempted a settlement in Maine in 1607 (the Popham Colony at Phippsburg), but it was eventually abandoned.

In 1622, England gave the land of Maine and New Hampshire to Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason. The land was divided between the two men in 1629, and Maine was given to Gorges. Massachusetts bought Maine in 1677, from the heirs of Gorges after his death. Maine was much fought over by the French and English during the 17th and early 18th centuries. After the defeat of the French colony of Acadia during the French and Indian War (part of the global struggle between France and Britain that is known overall as the Seven Years War), the territory from the Penobscot River east fell under the nominal authority of the Province of Nova Scotia, and together with present day New Brunswick formed the Nova Scotia County of Sunbury, with its court of general sessions at Campobello.

In the late 1700s, several tracts of land in Maine, then part of Massachusetts, were sold off by lottery. Two tracts of 1,000,000 acres (4,000 sq km), one in south-east Maine and another in the west, were bought by a wealthy Philadelphian banker, William Bingham. This land became known as the Bingham Purchase.

Restricted trade and rising taxes led to the Revolutionary War in 1775. British troops burned the city of Portland to punish the colonists for opposing the new laws. Maine colonists captured the British ship Margaretta at Machias, during the first navel battle of the war.

Maine gained its statehood in 1820 as the result of the Missouri Compromise, in which free northern states approved the statehood of Missouri (as a slave state) in exchange for the statehood of Maine (as a free one). In this manner northern congressional representation remained in balance with southern and pro-slavery influence. Maine became the 23rd state on March 15, 1820 with Portland as the first state capital. Augusta became the capital in 1832.

Between 1820 and 1860, Maine's population grew by 300,000. Fishing, mining and logging industries grew as well. Wood from Maine's pine forests was used to make ships and many other products. Ice was also cut out of Maine's rivers and shipped south. In 1846, Maine became the first state to pass a law making alcoholic drinks illegal. Manufacturing and selling alcohol remained illegal in Maine until 1856.

Over 72,000 Mainers fought for the United States during the Civil War (1861-1865). Maine was the first state in the northeast to be captured by the new Republican Party, partly due to the influence of evangelical Protestantism, and partly to the fact that Maine was a frontier state, and thus receptive to the party's "free soil" platform.

Then the Great Depression of the 1930's reared its ugly head, proving financially disastrous across Maine, and all of America. In the end it was World War II that helped to revive (and motivate) the state's 20th century economy. Its many shipyards sprang back to life, building destroyers for the Navy. Additional industries developed as Maine provided materials for the war.

In 1980, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indian tribes sued the state of Maine to recover almost 12 million acres of land taken by white settlers. These tribes dropped the lawsuit in exchange for $81 million from the federal government.

Maine produces 98% of the nation's low-bush blueberries. Farm income is also derived from apples, potatoes, dairy products, and vegetables, with poultry and eggs the largest selling items.

The state is one of the world's largest pulp-paper producers. With almost 89% of its area forested, Maine turns out wood products from boats to toothpicks. Maine also leads the world in the production of the familiar flat tins of sardines, producing more than 75 million of them annually. In 2005, Maine lobstermen landed nearly 63 million pounds of lobster.

Maine Famous People

• Joshua L. Chamberlain (1828 - 1914) Civil War general, governor of Maine, president of Bowdoin College; born in Brewer.
• Dorothea Dix (1802 - 1887) Humanitarian and social reformer; born in Hampden.
• Dustin Farnum (1874 - 1929) Popular star of silent films, primarily Westerns.
• Hannibal Hamlin (1809 - 1891) U.S. Vice-President during Abraham Lincoln's first term, and was a senator and a representative from Maine.
• Stephen King (1947 - ) Writer whose novels often are made into motion pictures. Some works include The Shining, Salem's Lot, Carrie, Pet Sematary, and Midnight Shift; born in Portland.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) Considered the most influential poet of his day with famous works such as ?The Courtship of Miles Standish? and ?Evangeline?; born in Portland.
• Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869 - 1935) Poet; raised in Gardiner.
• Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (1908 - 1979) U.S. vice president; born in Bar Harbor.
• Margaret Chase Smith (1897 - 1995) The first woman to be elected to both houses of Congress; born in Skowhegan.
• Percy Lebaron Spencer (1894 - 1970) Invented the microwave oven; born in Howland.
• Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 - 1896), abolitionist and humanitarian, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin; lived in Brunswick.