The following history was written by Millard D. Webster, and delivered in an address at the Berwick United Methodist Church (then the Berwick Methodist Episcopal Church) on August 30, 1936. In 1939 it was published in a booklet commemorating the opening of the new Town Hall, reproduced here in its entirety. Some explanatory comments have been inserted [in blue within brackets] by us to orient the present-day reader. - webmaster

Highlights of Berwick History

(NEW TOWN HALL EDITION - BERWICK, MAINE , 1939)

Great Falls (Flood of 1936)	Site of Battle of Worster River, 1690
Sullivan Square, Berwick, New Town Hall and Soldier's Monument
Site of Sullvan Homestead (1744-1801)	Last of the Giants, Pine Hill (1939)

Millard Webster.

Cover Page

Frederick S. Ricker Memorial Tower Clock (Ill.)

Acknowledgments

Table of Contents

Preface

Incorporation, area, population of Berwick, Me.,
South Berwick, North Berwick, and Berwick,
England, on the Tweed.

Salutation

Corrections

Berwick's Heritage: an historical record and address

Key to illustrations

Addenda

Illustrations

Some outstanding Dates of Berwick History

Honor Roll of Revoluntionary War Families

The brief story of any community must of necessity be general, eliminating much detail. I have sought to record some of the High Lights of Berwick History. Emphasis has been placed upon early foundations and growth, not simply because of added interest, but because what we are today is more or less a result of the past. The collection of views of historic sites should be of future value.

Berwick, Maine
      Incorporated June 9, 1713; ninth town in Maine
      Area 13,071 acres
      Population, 1,961 (1930 census)
      Valutaion, April 1, 1937, $1,040,395

South Berwick, Me.
      Incorporated Feb. 12, 1814
      Area, 14,856 acres
      Population, 2,650

North Berwick, Me.
      Incorporated Mar. 22, 1831
      Area, 17,579 acres
      Population, 1,540

Berwick, Eng., on the Tweed from which Berwick, Me., derived its name was once the chief seaport of Scotland. It is now the center of a very rich agricultural district and a fishing port with a population of about 13,000.

I salute the following persons, who by marked success and distinguished service in their respective fields have brought honor to the Berwicks:

The Hon. W. D. Spencer

Formerly Commissioner of Insurance, State of Maine. Author of "List of Revolutionary Soldiers of Berwick," "Maine Immortals," "Princess of the Indies" "From out the Void" (verse)

The Hon. Harold I. Goss

Deputy Secretary of State of Maine

The author, Gladys Hasty Carroll

"As the Earth Turns," "Neighbor to the Sky," "Kristin"

President J. William Blaisdell

Of Bryant and Stratton Commercial School; fifty years an instructor; vice president of Working Men's Co-operative Bank of Boston

The following historical record was compiled in the summer of 1936, commemorating the observance of York County Tercentenary and Berwick Old Home Sunday. It was delivered in part at the Berwick M. E. [Methodist Episcopal] church on Sunday, August 30, 1936. The Somersworth Free Press printed it in pamphlet form and ran the historical part in two issues of the paper.

A few minor changes have taken place since the record was compiled. The writer has also discovered some errors which he has corrected below.

Millard D. Webster,
Author of "Talks on the Fellowship of Harmony," "The Geneology of the Knox Family of Piscataqua Valley (1652-)."

The statement in "Berwick's Heritage" concerning the source of the Salmon Falls River, known to Mason and Gorges as Piscataqua, is incorrect. The Salmon Falls comes from Horne's Pond in Acton. Some state that it begins in Great East Lake, which discharges its waters into Horne's Pond.

Sir Gorges' name should be spelled Ferdinando.

The statement concerning a sawmill built at Salmon Falls in 1634 should read "Great Works."

Occasionally we hear people boosting a distant city and belittling their own town. This is because they are prone to underestimate the value of things at hand and more familiar, and overvaluate things more remote and less familiar. Jesus criticized this attitude when he spoke of prophets whom their own country did not honor [Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4]. His own town undervalued him. It is poor psychology to belittle or knock your own town. Boost it. Tell of the things worthwhile in it. Tell of the things worthwhile of the past. Set a high standard of values for its future. Thus you will lift it up and make it a better town. Try to eradicate the wrong in it, but be sure to substitute a lot of good things for the things not so desirable. This was what Paul meant when he said, "Whatsoever things are true, just, honorable, pure, of good report, whatsoever things are lovely; if there be any virtue, or praise, think on these things" [Philippians 4:8].

In order to know if a town has a heritage, one must be able to appreciate its past. One cannot appreciate its past unless one is informed. To understand the heritage and past of Berwick, we must become informed concerning the settling and growth of the Piscataqua Plantation.

First we have a picture of a river valley reaching from the sea to its source in Milton Three Ponds [See corrections]. This was known to Sir Fernando Gorges [See corrections] and Capt. John Mason in 1623 as Piscataqua river, and is so defined in their grant. Several tributaries flowed into this longest river, namely, Great Works river. Cocheco river, Worster river, Little river, Knox river, also called Keay brook. On nearly all of these rivers are splendid water falls and mill sites.

The first permanent settlement in Maine was at Kittery on the East side of the Piscataqua. The first settlements in New Hampshire were at Portsmouth opposite Kittery and at Hilton's Point [Present-day Hilton's Park, near the Great Bay Bridge between Dover and Newington] or Dover Neck [Present-day Dover Point] at about the same time in 1623. The first settlements were as you see not far apart. It is well that they should not be because of mutual protection from the Indians, and also for mutual helpfulness. They were not towns in the civil sense of the word as we know towns today, but ecclesiastical parishes with the church as a centre of community life. The meeting house and town house were at first one and the same. Church attendance was compulsory. The denomination was Orthodox or Congregational. Everything was settled by the parish or ecclesiastical organization. No town or parish grew by itself alone. None could have survived or grown alone. They needed one another.

As the population increased and men grew bolder we find them working back farther and building their saw mills and grist mills around the water falls. Thus about 1634 we find a saw mill and grist mill at Salmon Falls. [See corrections]

In 1634 Mason and Gorges shipped machinery for saw mills from England to America. One of these was set up at Great Works. This sawmill was the first one in America. It is reported that shortly the number had increased to a gang of nineteen saws and the Indians called it Great Works because of the business of the place. At any rate it is certain that a settlement grew up in this locality becoming the First Parish of Berwick.

About the year 1640 we find a settlement with mills at Cocheco Falls. Likewise on the opposite side of the Piscataqua there were mills and a settlement at Quampegan Falls at Berwick, now South Berwick. The First Parish records of Berwick date back to 1701-2. The town was incorporated in 1713.

In 1729-30 thirteen men gave land (most of them one acre each) towards the setttlement of a minister at Somersworth. This list interests me because they are the ancestors of many living in the vicinity today. The list follows:

Paul Wentworth, Esq., Mr. Jeremiah Rawlings (Rollins), Mr. Thomas Downs, Mr. Love Roberts, Mr. Thomas Nock (Knox), Mr. Samuel Randle (Randall), Mr. Thomas Wallingford, Mr. Joseph Recker (Ricker), Mr. Zechariah Nock (Knox), Mr. Silvanus Nock (Knox), Mr. Gersham Wentworth, Mr. John Recker (Ricker), Mr. Benjamin Twombly.

In addition to this list I find another of persons to "whome the Privilege for Pews belong as they were drawn by lot on March 17, 1729-30:

Philip Yeaton, Samuel Randle, Jeremiah Rawlings, Gersham Wentworth, Thomas Wallingford, Love Roberts, Joseph Recker, Benjamin Twombly, Thomas Downs, Richard Wentworth, John Tebbetts, Joshua Roberts, Thomas Nock, Zechariah Nock, Paul Wentworth, Esq."

I refer to this part of the history of Somersworth in relation to the history of Berwick to show the interdependence of the early parishes. Early Somersworth was a child of the Dover settlements at Hilton's Point and Cocheco as I have suggested. Early Somersworth was at Rollinsford Junction and at Salmon Falls. On the opposite side of the river was early Berwick. The two communities at the Falls grew up together. People moved to and fro, married, and intermarried, etc. In fact the communities on either side of the river at Salmon Falls grew into one village. Later I shall show the same thing to be true up at Great Falls.

According to Jewett, Humphrey Chadbourne succeeded Ambrose Gibbons (1631) as first proprietor of the Laconia company. She names other settlers as Hill, Plaisted, Lord, Goodwin, Gerrish, Key, Smith, Shorey, Pray, Abbott, Emery, Foss, Bragdon, Butler, Frost, Grant, Gray, Guptil, Weymouth, Jellison, Warren, Gowen, Nason.

In 1755 we find the North Parish at Blackberry Hill in full swing. In 1790 the South Parish tried to form itself into a separate town. The petition to the General Court was denied. A second attempt likewise failed, but a third attempt in 1813 succeeded. On March 22, 1831, North Berwick was incorporated as a separate town.

Sometime previous to 1755, a new rural settlement had been growing up at Blackberry Hill on the east side of the river. This was analagous in its birth and development to rural Somersworth, on the west side of the river, inasmuch as it was a child of the already existing communities. The North Parish in Berwick was organized April 3, 1755, and existed until 1857, about one hundred years. I find it interesting to list some of the names which occur in the records because, almost without exception, they are ancestors of many living in this vicinity today. Most of these names are found in the records before the Revolutionary War. None are taken after 1800:

Randall, Clark, Goodwin, Davis, Butler, Yeaton, Sullivan, Ricker, Hardison, Jones, Foy, Libbey, Austin, Hooper, Hanscom, Murrey, Perkins, Thompson, Holmes, Frost, Gowen, Pike, Tibbetts, Heard, Kenney, Chadbourne, Pray, Guptil, Downs, Andrews, Ross, Fogg, Chick, Grant, Roberts, Hayes, Stanton, Tuttle, Jellison, Been, Abbott, Staples, Spencer, Brown, Stackpole, Worster.

In 1763 France ceded Canada to Great Britain. From that time the people of the inland towns were comparatively free from Indian outbreaks. People began to settle the Old Berwick road, beginning at South Berwick and extending to Pine Hill and Great Falls. Formerly this had been simply and Indian trail up over Worster river, near which is the scene of the old Indian battle. Some of the most influential members of the North Parish (Blackberry Hill) lived on this road. There were the Lords, and the Hoopers, a whole family of Baptist ministers and missionaries. Rev. William Hooper was the first Baptist minister in Maine. The Colleys and Thomas Downs also lived on this road. Rev. Joseph Hilliard, one of the North Parish pastors, lived here. During the Revolutionary War, a Moses Nock lived on this road. He ran a large powder mill and furnished ammunition to the Revolutionary Army. Then there were the Foggs and Samuel Worster, Hodsdons, T. R. Wentworth, Keays, and Goodwins. My information concerning the Old Berwick road was found in an account in the Free Press dating February 28, 1896, which account was written by Mr. William F. Lord of Berwick.

The growth of the Second Parish of Berwick is of value as are the other Pioneer Lists to those interested in their ancestry. The Second Parish List reveals that some of the families previously listed in the Somersworth First Parish and the Berwick First Parish had decided to move to the new rural parish at Blackberry Hill. The First Somersworth Parish was born in 1729. Regular Town meetings ceased to be held there after 1846. Both of these parishes lived a little over a hundred years. What became of them we shall soon learn.

I have pointed out how sawmills and gristmills were built at each of the falls on the river very early in the history of the towns. About the year 1820 something happened up the river at Great Falls which was destined to change the whole history of this section.

Let us remember that at this time the center of Berwick village, with the town house and parish church, was at Black- berry Hill and at the lower parish, South Berwick. Somersworth was at Rollinsford Junction and at Salmon Falls.

In 1822 a "quiet Quaker of Dover," named Isaac Wendell, had purchased Cocheco Falls at Dover and established a cotton mill. He visited Great Falls, and saw there the possibility of duplicating his industrial enterprise at Dover. He organized a company with a capital of one million dollars, selling stock for the same. These mills began to boom. People moved in from Blackberry Hill Parish and from Somersworth (Rollinsford) to work in the mills.

A new town was born - Great Falls, carrying the name of the falls. The Great Falls Post Office was on the east, or Berwick side of the river, as were also several other important business enterprises. Most of the mill buildings were on the west side of the river, although there was at least one warehouse on the east side and a company bridge across the narrow gorge over which goods were transported for storage.

It is interesting to note how quickly the communities at Blackberry Hill and at Rollinsford began to dwindle in population as Great Falls Village began to grow and boom, until these rural parishes finally became extinct.

The rural parish churches at Rollinsford and at Blackberry Hill had amalgamated in the new church at Great Falls, which had been built around 1827, or the people from those places had joined the other Protestant churches of Great Falls, the Methodist, Baptist, Free Baptist, and Universalist which came into existence about this period (1827-31).

Jewett and Stackpole both speak of the occurance of Scotch names in the parish and town records, about the year 1652-3. This arouses our curiosity. How did these Scotchmen get there, and significance have they to the life of the town?

The story carries us back to 1650-51 to the English Civil War between King Charles II and Parliament. Sir Oliver Cromwell was called the Great Independent because he stood for the supremacy of Puritanism and the Independents over the Episcopal or State church in England. Cromwell and his army, the Ironsides, represented Parliament.

The Scotch were loyalists. Cromwell met the Scotch army in the bloody battle of Dunbar. About 3,000 Scotchmen were slain and 10,000 taken prisoners. A year later, 1651, he met them again in the Battle of Worcester; 10,000 more were captured. Many of these Scotchmen died in prisons and on the march. Not knowing what to do with the survivors, Cromwell shipped part of them to New England and others to Virginia. They were bound out for a period of eight or more years to pay their passage. A little later their names appear in the parish records. Some of them had been sent up from Boston to work in the mills at Great Works and Quamphegan. Some of these newcomers were from Berwick, Scotland, now Berwick, England, on the Tweed. Thus according to Jewett and Stackpole, Berwick, Maine, received its name.

Since most of these Scots at first spoke only the Gaelic language, their names were spelled in various ways by English clerks: Lavat (Leavitt), Bradwardine (Bradeen), Mackothian (Claflin), McKey (Keay), Fararrabas (Forbes and Furbush), Rainkin (Rankin), Montrose (Munroe), Nock (Knox). Other Scotch names of this period were McIntire, Tucker, Maxwell, Stackpole. Rev. E. S. Stackpole, himself a descendant of these Scotchmen, states that Prof. Moses Stewart of Andover, ex Governor Black of New York, Oliver Wendell Holmes, the poet, and Daniel Webster were descendants of Cromwell's "Bloody Scotchmen."

Old Master John Sullivan and his wife Margery were born in Ireland, came to Berwick and settled on a farm of forty acres which they had bought from Mr. Ebenezer Lord. The home of Mr. Frederick Ricker on Sullivan street is on a part of the former estate of Master Sullivan. Sullivan street, Sullivan square, and Sullivan High school were appropriately named after the Sullivans. Old Master Sullivan taught many years in the Berwick and Somersworth Parishes. He is famous not only as a teacher but equally because of his illustrious family. His son, James Sullivan, was Governor of Massachusetts in 1808. Maine was a county of Massachusetts at that time. Capt. Eebenezer [sic] Sullivan was a minute man, being promoted to that rank over Capt. Wood's Company when the later became Major. General John Sullivan fought in the battles of Long Island, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown. He served as Governor of New Hampshire from 1786-89. After he retired from the governorship, he served as U.S. district judge until his death.

This Revolutionary War contribution of the Sullivans brings us to consider Berwick's share in the Great struggle for Independence. Hon. Wilbur D. Spencer, a native of Berwick, now State commissioner of insurance at Augusta, spent some time previous to 1898 compiling a list of Revolutionary War soldiers from Berwick town records. His list includes over two hundred names. This is not a complete list of the Revolutionary soldiers from Berwick, inasmuch as many enlisted from the neighboring towns of Rochester, Somersworth, Kittery, and Dover. It is stated on good authority that Berwick sent the largest number of men into the service of any town in Maine. In proportion to her size it is doubtful if any town in America has excelled her.

Hon. James Sullivan's "History of Maine," Sarah Orne Jewett's "The Tory Lover," Gladys Hasty Carroll's "As the Earth Turns," W. D. Spencer's "Old Piscataqua and its Families," and Mr. William Lord's contributions to the York County Atlas have put Berwick on the map in the field of literature.

Thus we have recorded a part of Berwick's background and Berwick's contribution to the life of America. What is Berwick's heritage? Berwick's heritage includes her background and her contribution. Her pioneers were men of character. They were producers. From them she inherits an example to emulate. Berwick's heritage includes all that she has received, both her benefits from the past and her responsibilities for the future.

Tremendous changes have taken place during the past three hundred years. These changes are almost too great for the human mind to comprehend at one sweep.

In 1631 Ambrose Gibbons sailed up the Piscataqua with his little band of pioneers. They had been weary weeks tossing about in a small frail boat, driven by wind and wave. In 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh spanned a much longer distance by air from New York to Paris in less than thirty-five hours. Today Leviathan cities, with all modern conveniences and comforts, carry several thousand passengers across the oceans in a few days. Giant air dirigibles make the distance in two or three days. Our grandsires drove oxen from Berwick to Kittery and York, taking a long day's journey, often not returning until the following day. The writer frequently goes over the same, but much improved, road in approximately forty minutes in an automobile.

Our sires used to send their messages by post to Boston, which required a day or more to arrive at the destination. Today we may carry on a personal two-way conversation with Los Angeles or London, requiring only a few minutes for connections, or we may listen to Grand Opera in New York or Germany while lounging in our easy chairs in our own home.

Our grandmothers used a spinning-wheel and hand-loom to weave garments for the family. This required considerable time. Today one woman may run from twelve to eighteen or more looms in our modern factories, turning out hundreds of garments in a day. The same is true regarding everything else, shoes, automobiles, agricultural products, etc., etc. One modern electric power plant by the turn of a single switch lights several cities, illuminating thousands of homes, runs electric refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing and ironing machines, stoves, sewing machines, motors for all sorts of purposes, furnishes power to run the mills and factories. We are living in a electrical and machine age with marvelous possibilities of production and comfort. This is our heritage.

Our fathers were rugged men, but the ravages of diptheria, small pox, tuberculosis, and other epidemics often annihilated whole communities. Modern medical science, with its discoveries of antitoxins, sterilization, improved surgery, anaesthetics, etc., have made great strides. Many lives are saved which otherwise would be lost. This is our heritage.

There is yet much to be conquered in this field. Statistics point out the terrible increase in insanity and cancer. There is apparently little knowledge yet available either of the causes or cures of these afflictions which continue to bring so much misery to humanity. Here is a great challenge to those interested in medical science. This is our heritage.

Our fathers became exiles to gain religious and civil liberty. They bought it with the great price of their life's blood. This is our heritage. Let us "not break faith with those who died." [from In Flanders Fields by John McCrae]

Our free educational systems, our free public libraries, our universities, founded by our fathers, are second to none in the world. In these institutions, any youth of ambition, health, and perseverence, who will strive, may attain a college education. This is our heritage.

These achievements in America are our heritage. Such a heritage! A heritage greater than our ancestors ever dreamed could come to their children!

Every heritage implies a trust. The greater the heritage, the greater is the trust. Trust implies responsibility. The greater the responsibility, the greater is the danger of disaster.

We have a wonderful material heritage. Our danger lies in the fact that we may not have spiritual vision to be masters of this great trust. "Without a vision the people perish." [Proverbs 29:18]

Our fathers brought upon themselves and their children a terrible disaster, caused primarily by the sin of greed and selfishness when they enslaved the black man and brought him to these shores. That sin had to be atoned for in a great Civil War. Nations, like individuals, must "always reap just what they sow." [Galatians 6:7]

Our fathers fought the Indians and wilde beasts at short range with flint-lock guns. Sometimes the flint and steel didn't fire and several attempts were necessary. Today, a machine gun in the hands of one man can mow down a whole company of soldiers. Poison gas bombs dropped from an unseen enemy in the clouds can blot out a whole city in a few minutes. A shell fired from a modern man-of-war can hit an unseen target at a range of twenty miles.

Our fathers were never troubled by an unemployment problem. They always had a job, and usually enough to eat, even if it was coarse food. Today, because of the possibilities of gigantic mass production, poor methods of distribution, social and economic maladjustments, millions are unemployed and large numbers are at times in want of food and the other necessities of life. Yet, this occurs in a land of plenty where every person in five can own an automobile.

We have seen some of the world's foremost nations recently adopt dictatorships, and cast aside the idea of democracy. They say democracy has failed. Our answer to this in America is that they have never truly tried democracy. Nevertheless, the whole continent of Europe and perhaps the world appears on the verge of a mighty international convulsion. The world has now become a neighborhood and no single nation can escape the consequences of such a convulsion, even if localized. We in America, and even in our small towns, are mightily concerned. These national and international problems are ours. This is our heritage, whether we like it or not. We cannot escape the responsibility.

How will we meet our responsibilities and solve our problems? Will the traits of character which have made America great materially save us spiritually, or will we go down to destruction because we are people with pigmy souls? Our fathers believed that the enterprise which they were beginning in a new land should be a theocracy, that is, a government with God at the center. Although time has revealed that a government conducted by any particular church or denomination is not possible for a free people, yet the ideal of a spiritual theocracy must prevail if we are to endure. The writer holds the view that we cannot leave Christ out of the picture and continue to exist. We must believe in a Christ centered civilization, with men striving in a kindly, unselfish effort to solve the common problems for the common good of all. This will require foresight and devotion to the truth such as our fathers had.

James Russell Lowell sounded the keynote of this thought in his "Present Crisis,"

"New occasions teach new duties,
Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward be and onward
Who would keep abreast of truth.

Lo, before us gleam her watchfires
We ourselves must pilgrims be,
Launch our Mayflower and steer boldly
Through the desperate winter's sea,

Nor attempt the Future's portal
With the Past's blood-rusted key."

"Enlarge the place of thy habitation, lengthen thy ropes and strengthen thy stakes." [Isaiah 54:2]

The view of Sullivan Square and the New Town Hall was taken from the roof of the old hotel. [Grant's hotel - site now occupied by gas station]

The Sullivan Tablet on Sullivan street was erected by the John A. Logan, Jr., W. R. C., No. 76, to mark the site of the childhood home of "Capt. David Sullivan, Maj. Gen. John Sullivan, Gov. James Sullivan, and Capt. Ebenezer Sullivan, Revolutionary Patriots, children of Master John and Margery Sullivan."

In the early days of Berwick, a forest of old growth pines stood out against the sky on Pine Hill. These could be seen for miles away. One by one they have died. The writer remembers having seen several. This is "the last of the giants (1939)."

The Tower Clock in the new hall was given to the town by Mrs. Frederick Ricker and her daughters, Elizabeth and Carolyn, as a memorial to Frederick Smith Ricker.

The Battle of Worster River occurred somewhere in the vicinity of the new cement bridge on the state road to South Berwick.

The Old Town House, now on School street, was originally built at Blackberry Hill, on the site of the old parish meeting-house which burned in 1848. When the center of population moved from the Hill to Great Falls (east side of river), the town house was moved to the northwest side of School street, above the old shoe shop. Later, the old town house was moved across the street to its present location, where it was remodeled and enlarged, with the fire station in the basement.

The Plaisted Cemetery, marking the site of an Indian massacre, has the following inscription: "Near this place lies buried the body of Roger Plaisted, who was killed by the Indians October 16, 1675, aged 48 years; also the body of his son, Roger Plaisted, who was killed at the same time."

Both the Plaisted site and the old Tozier Garrison were on the Old Berwick road, not far from the homes of Chas. Goodwin and Chas. Collins.

Since "Berwick Heritage" was written, two other literary figures have been brought to my attention, namely, John Lord, author of "Beacon Lights of History" and "The Old Roman World;" John Chick Murray, author of a book of poems.

The Indian name "Quamphegan" also occurs as Quampheagan and Quampegan, meaning "the place where fish are caught in nets."

In 1813 the third petition of the Berwick South Parish to the General Court for separation as a town was granted. The town did not become incorporated until the following year, 1814.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Old Town Hall	House Removed for Erection of New Hall
New Town Hall

INSCRIPTION

LENA A. CLARK MEMORIAL TOWN HALL Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works Project No. Maine 1085 D. S. TOWER CLOCK In memory of FREDERICK S. RICKER 1863-1936 BOARD OF SELECTMEN Edward F. Gowell, James R. Clement, Robert C. Wentworth BUILDING COMMITTEE Maurice Cheney, Melvin Fall, Jr., Ralph R. Mathews, John T. Moran, C. Edward Shaw JOHN H. SIMONDS CO., CONTRACTOR HUDDLESTON & HERSEY, ARCHITECTS Erected 1938

Martin House (School St. Extension). Part of this building used as schoolroom by Master Sullivan (traditional)	Site of Plaisted Massacre (1675) [at intersection of Route 236 and Carriage Runn]
"A fort on Pine Hill, north of Great Falls, surrounded by a stockade of sharpened poles, 20 feet in height, standing as late as 1750." - From "Old Maine Forts."
Site of First Sawmill in America Great Works (1634)
Old Sullivan High (1894-1927)	New High School (1928 - )

1602	Shores of Maine visited by Capt. Gosnold.
1603	Martin Pring explored the region of the Piscataqua up three or four leagues as far as Newichawannock (now Berwick).
1606	Granted as small part of charter to Plymouth Company.
1607	Plymouth Company sent out colony under Captan Popham, which settled at Hunnewell's Point, near the mouth of the Kennebec. Built Fort St. George. First English colony in Maine, and also on whole New England coast. Colony became extinct in about a year. U.S. government has built a fort called Fort Popham, in honor of Capt. Popham.
1614	Shores of Maine visited by Capt. John Smith.
1622	Mason and Gorges become proprietors of the land from the Merrimac to the Sagadahoc Rivers and formed Laconia Company.
1623	Kittery as Piscataqua acquired a few settlers employed by Laconia Company.
1629	Mason and Gorges divide their territory.
1631	Ambrose Gibbons first settler in Newichawannock at Quamphegan Falls.
1634	First sawmill in America at Great Works in Newichawannock.
1635	Province of Maine, also known as New Somersetshire, granted to Gorges.
1647	Kittery (including what is now Eliot, South Berwick, North Berwick, and Berwick) incorporated as the first town in Maine.
1652	Maine becomes county of Massachusetts.
1675	King Philip's Omdoam War. Attack on Tozier and Plaisted Garrisons.
1677	Maine sold to Massachusetts for 1250£ by Ferdinando Gorges, the younger.
1688-92	French and Indian War.
Mar. 16, 1690	Sack of Newichawannock above Great Works River by Indians. Battle of Worster River.
1701	Voted to build a new meeting-house.
Mar. 5, 1707	Voted to build the new meeting-house 36 feet square at Old Fields, near the old burying ground below Great Works River.
June 9, 1713	Berwick incorporated ninth town in Maine.
1748	Blackberry Hill meeting-house burned.
Jan. 15, 1749	Voted to divide the parish: Blackberry Hill (north), Old Fields (south).
Feb. 27, 1749	Voted to build a meeting-house in the north parish same size as the one in south parish.
1752	Building nearly complete.
1775-1781	Revolutionary War. Berwick sends largest number of men in proportion to size of town.
July 1, 1776	Berwick voted to support the colonies if they should declare their independence of Great Britain.
1777	Hamilton House [now South Berwick] visited by John Paul Jones.
1790	South parish petitions incorporation as separate town.
1812	Second war with Great Britain.
1814	South Berwick incorporated as town.
Mar. 15, 1820	Maine becomes separate State of Union.
1825	Cotton mills built at Great Falls Village, growing rapidly on both sides of the river. Center of Berwick population shifts from Blackberry Hill to Great Falls (east side of river).
1827	Blackberry Hill parish becomes practically extinct.
1831	North Berwick incorporated as town.
1839	Methodist meeting-house built at Cranberry Meadow. [site is in front of home at 37 Cranberry Meadow Rd.]
1876	Methodist meeting-house moved to Berwick Village [at present location, 37 School St.] at Great Falls.
1848	Blackberry Hill meeting-house burned.
1861-65	War of the Rebellion [Civil War]. Town house at Blackberry Hill moved to School street in Berwick Village; later moved across the street and enlarged.
1872	Berwick raises $9000 to erect a grammar and a high school building.
April 10, 1894	First high school building burned.
April 21, 1894	Town appropriates $10,000 to erect new Sullivan High School building.
1898	Spanish War.
1917	World War.
June 6, 1927	Sullivan High School Building burned.
July 11, 1927	Town appoints a building committee and authorized them to have constructed a new Junior and Senior High School building of brick, at a cost not to exceed $50,000.
May 16, 1928	Town received bequest of money by the will of Lena A. Clark for a new town hall.
Mar. 9, 1937	Town appointed committee to carry out provisions of the will and to build hall. The committee was instructed to seek a grant from the Public Works Administration.
Oct. 9,1937	Town voted to authorize committee to purchase property of the late Caspar E. Marshall, and adjoining properties, namely, Manchester Rendering Company, Butler stable lot, and Clarence Butler homestead, between Sullivan and Rochester streets, for a site, and instructed the committee to proceed with the building plans.
1938	Town received a gift of a tower clock from Mrs. Frederick Ricker and her daughters, Elizabeth and Carolyn, as a memorial to the late Frederick S. Ricker.
Jan. 14, 1939	Building accepted by the Federal Government as satisfactorily completed. Total project $85,000; 45% of project a grant from the Public Works Administration.
Jan. 28, 1939	Formal opening and dedication of new town hall.

Compiled from town, county, and geneological records. List is probably incomplete.

For a detailed list of individual soldiers' names, dates, etc., see Hon. W. D. Spencer's "List of Revolutionary Soldiers of Berwick."

Note 1 Reproduced by permission. This document was originally copyright 1939 by Millard Webster, and reverted to the public domain upon the expiration of copyright in 1967. On Feb. 17, 2000, The Berwick United Methodist Church obtained the gracious permission of Mr. Webster's family to reproduce this document here. While his original version remains in the public domain, this HTML version is © copyright 2004 The Berwick United Methodist Church.

In Memoriam

Millard Webster's monument, Evergreen Cemetery, Berwick.