Moses Martin and his family were the first settlers on this site in 1794 while the region was still part of Massachusetts, then known as Plymouth Gore, a part of Bingham’s West Kennebec Purchase of 1793.
William Bingham was considered the wealthiest man in America at the time he and his friend Major General Henry Knox purchased land in Massachusetts along the Penobscot River and the Kennebec River. The Kennebec tract contained the land between Mt. Abram east to and including Wellington, and from the southern border of what is now the town of Bingham to just north of Parlin Pond. Part of the sales contract required that Bingham and Knox agreed to ensure the at least 2500 settlers on the lands by 1803. Acquiring that many settlers proved more difficult than the partners expected, despite heavy European recruitment and marketing. Following William Bingham’s death in 1804, the trustees managing his estate sold 65,000. The sale was necessary to pay the penalty agreed to in the original sales contract to pay $30 for each number short of the required 2500 settlers brought to the land by 1803.
The town was organized as Sebasticook Plantation in 1815, incorporated as Warsaw in 1819 and finally named Pittsfield, after the famous land owner William Pitts of Boston in 1824. The town became a center for the production of woolens, using the Sabasticook River to provide water power to the mills. Many mills are referenced on the map. This map captures the town as it appeared just eight years after a disastrous fire destroyed the town. The town was rapidly rebuilt.
Features numbered & lettered references to the following locations:
• Maine Central Institute.
• Union Hall.
• Universalist Church.
• Methodist Chapel.
• Free Will Baptist Church (Institute Building).
• Schools.
• Post Office.
• Pittsfield Advertiser, O. S. Haskell & Son, Editors and Proprietors.
• Union Depot, M. C. & Sebsticook and Moosehead Railways.
• Lancey House, O. E. Blackden, Proprietor.
• R. Dobson & Co., Pioneer Woolen Mills, Woolens and Dress Goods.
• D. Walker, Fancy Cassimeres and Flannells.
• Dexter, Sampson & Libby, Lumber & Wood Turning.
• R. A. Conant, Clothing Mfr.
• N. L. Perkins, Carpets, Dry and Fancy Goods, Boots and Shoes.
• Hunter & McMaster, Flour, Grain and Groceries.
• B. Thompson, Boots and Shoes.
• The Douglas Dam.
• Dexter and Sampson, General Merchandise.
• J. W. Manson, Attorney.
• Vickery and Burns, Dry Goods, Boots, Shoes, Hats & Caps.
• N. F. Libby, Drugs, Fancy Goods and Books.
• Thomas S. Furniss, Druggist and Mfg. Chemist.