MAINE CENTENNIAL TOWNS FOR 1921 Sprague's Journal of Maine History Volume 9, No. 1 1921 Published by John Francis Sprague Dover, Maine page 45-46 The Maine Centennial towns for 1921 are Concord, Peru, Canton and Cumberland, rather less than the usual number. Concord is a little farming town far up the Kennebec valley, in Somerset County, bordering on the river. It does not appear in the records why it was named Concord, but its name may have suggested some- thing to the late incorporators of the next town to the west, which was called Lexington. Concord was settled soon after the Revo- lution by Major Ephraim Heald, who came from Temple, N. H. There are people enough to have a celebration with the help of the neighbors. Peru and Canton are adjoining towns in Oxford County, on the Androscoggin river, and may possibly have a combination cele- bration. If they don't it will be a rival affair, although the town with the Chinese name is somewhat larger than the other. Both are on the Rangeley division of the Maine Central Railroad. The towns are twins, having been incorporated on the same day, Feb. 5, 1821. Canton is a lively town and will have a big centennial celebration some time in the summer. It has about 200 people, three churches, an opera house, summer hotel, several garages and all the outfit of an up-to-date tome. Peru with the villages of West Peru and East Peru has about 1000 people in it borders. The town was originally a grant of land to citizens of Falmouth who move there, the Knight, Lunt, Brackett and Bradish families,. followed by the Walkers, Trasks and Baileys. Peru will no doubt have a celebration. Cumberland is a town on Casco Bay and may be a part of Greater Portland some time. It takes in numerous islands off shore, in- cluding Chebeague Island, where there's a post office, also Crow, Goose, Hope, Bangs, Sand, Sturdivant, Stave, Ministerial, Bates, Broken Cave and others of the 365 island in the bay. Cumberland Center is the largest community in the town and Greeley Institute is an old preparatory school. Cumberland Foreside has numerous summer residences and on Chebeague Island there are half a dozen summer hotels and cottagers are numerous. (c) 1998 Courtesy of the Androscoggin Historical Society ************************************************* * * * * NOTICE: Printing the files within by noncommercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. * * * * The USGenWeb Project makes no claims or estimates of the validity of the information submitted and reminds you that each new piece of information must be researched and proved or disproved by weight of evidence. It is always best to consult the original material for verification.