Originally, the territory of Greene was considered part of Lewiston Plantation.  Then it was called Littleborough after Moses Little, a Pejepscot proprietor.  The petition for incorporation of the town in 1788 requested the name Greenland in honor of Major General Nathanael Greene of the Continental Army, but the name adopted by the Massachusetts General Court was Greene.

General Greene (1742-1786) was born in what is now Warwick, Rhode Island.  He served in the General Assembly, 1770-1772 and 1775.  In 1774 he helped organize a militia company known as the Kentish Guards.  In 1775 he became a brigadier-general, served in Boston, New York, and New Jersey, and the next year became major-general.

Greene served throughout the war, including the vital position of quartermaster-general, 1778-1780, responsible for transport and supplies for the army.  He was president of the board of general officers that convicted Benedict Arnold.  Finally, he led the southern campaign 1780-1782.  He was called “next to Washington the greatest soldier the war produced.”

Sources:   Ava Harriet Chadburn, Maine Place Names (Portland: The Bond Wheelwright Co., 1955), p. 203; Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. 7 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1931), pp. 569-573.

NAMING OUR TOWNS: SABATTUS

What is now the Town of Sabattus originally was a part of Lisbon, as described in the February 1999 issue of this newsletter.  In 1840, the northern portion of Lisbon was set off to form the Town of Webster, named for Daniel Webster, then at the height of his career as a United States Senator from Massachusetts.

What came to be known as Webster Corner was settled about 1775 or 1776 as Burnt Meadows.  With the establishment of mills on Sabattus River, the corner rapidly declined as population concentrated at Sabattusville on Sabattus Pond.  Rutherford states that the name comes from Sabattus, the name of a Native-American chief.  ‘Sabattus’ is said to be the Indian pronunciation of the common French name “Jean Baptiste,” the sound of the letter “J” not being found in the local Native-American language.

The town name was changed from Webster to Sabattus in 1971 to reflect the concentration of the population in the village and because the post office address was “Sabattus.”

Sources: Ava Harriet Chadbourne, Maine Place Names and the Peopling of Its Towns (Portland, ME: The Bond Wheelwright Company, 1955), p. 274; Phillip R. Rutherford, The Dictionary of Maine Place Names (Freeport, ME: Bond Wheelwright Company, c1970. p. 5.

NAMING OUR TOWNS: WALES

The warrant for a meeting on 24 August 1781 of the plantation voters was issued to the “inhabitants of Bloomingboro’.”  The clerk’s record for this “town meeting of the inhabitants of the Destrict of Wales, notes that it was “voted that this Destrict shall be known by the name of Wales.”  According to Cochrane, this change was “a mark of respect for John Welch, one of the most highly esteemed of the pioneers, whose ancestors were natives of the country bearing that name.”  At a meeting held at the house of John Welch, the voters sought incorporation as the Town of Monmouth, apparently to commemorate the Battle of Monmouth during the Revolution.  However, those in the part now called Wales did not want to be included.  They held no offices in the plantation and took no part in public affairs, except to pay taxes.  Therefore, the area was divided in 1792, the northern portion incorporated as a town named Monmouth.  The southern section was organized in 1803, again as Wales Plantation.  The name was retained when the town was incorporated in 1816.

Source: Harry H. Cochrane. History of Monmouth and Wales.  E. Winthrop: Banner Co., 1894, Vol. I, pp. 44, 45, 144, 465; Vol. II, pp. 634-635.