Limington, Maine
Encyclopedia
Limington is a town
in York County
, Maine
, United States. The population was 3,403 at the 2000 census. Limington is a tourist destination with historic architecture. It is part of the Portland
–South Portland
–Biddeford
, Maine metropolitan statistical area
.
traded goods with the Newichewannock tribe of this area. Their Chief Wesumbe, also known as Captain Sunday, was friendly with Small and warned him of a plot against his life. A group of renegade tribesmen planned to murder Small rather than pay him the furs they owed him. Small escaped after watching his trading post
in what is now Cornish
burn to the ground. The chief made up for the loss by selling Small all the lands bounded by the Great
and Little Ossipee Rivers, the Saco River
and the New Hampshire
border. Known as the Ossipee Tract, it comprised the present-day towns of Limington, Limerick
, Cornish (formerly Francisborough), Newfield
, Parsonsfield
and Shapleigh
(which then included Acton
).
First called Little Ossipee Plantation (after Ossapee, its original Abenaki name), it was settled by Deacon Amos Chase, who removed here and built a mill
in 1773 at the mouth of the Little Ossipee River. Ezra Davis and Jonathan Boothby followed him in 1774, and John McArthur and Joshua Small in 1775. Little Ossipee Plantation was incorporated on February 9, 1792 as the town of Limington. It was named after Limington
in Somerset
, England, the home county of Sir Ferdinando Gorges
, Lord Proprietor of Maine. As the surface of the land was rocky and broken, in 1798 nearly 2000 acres (8.1 km²) of land were annexed from Little Falls Plantation (Hollis
). In 1870, about 1500 acres (6.1 km²) of land were ceded to Limerick.
Soil was fertile and farmer
s yielded good crops. Another important early trade was logging
, with the timber
manufactured at various water power mills into lumber
, boxes, shingles
and clapboard
s. There were also gristmill
s and a tannery
. Limington Academy was incorporated in 1848, its structure built in 1852. The population in 1870 was 1,630. Davis Memorial Library was built in 1912 to designs of noted Portland
architect John Calvin Stevens
. Today, 22 buildings in the town center are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
, the town has a total area of 43.3 square miles (112.1 km²), of which, 42 square miles (108.8 km²) of it is land and 1.3 square miles (3.4 km²) of it (3.00%) is water. Limington is drained by the Little Ossipee River
and Saco River
. There are 7 ponds, with 4 of these—Boyd, Dole, Foss and Sand ponds—in South Limington, and 3 others—Horn, Ward and Webster ponds—in North Limington. The highest point in town is Sawyer Mountain, elevation 1198 feet (365.2 m) above sea level.
Limington is crossed by state routes 11, 25 and 117. It borders the towns of Baldwin
to the north, Standish
to the east, Hollis
and Waterboro
to the south, and Limerick
and Cornish
to the west. Located in the very northeastern part of York County
, Limington is slightly over nine miles (14 km) long and an average of five miles (8 km) wide.
of 2000, there were 3,403 people, 1,141 households, and 893 families residing in the town. The population density
was 81.1 people per square mile (31.3/km²). There were 1,354 housing units at an average density of 32.2 per square mile (12.5/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.33% White, 0.41% African American, 0.47% Native American, 0.18% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.12% from other races
, and 0.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.29% of the population.
There were 1,141 households out of which 41.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.1% were married couples
living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 21.7% were non-families. 15.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.84 and the average family size was 3.15.
In the town the population was spread out with 27.4% under the age of 18, 8.2% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 23.3% from 45 to 64, and 11.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 96.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.4 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $42,023, and the median income for a family was $46,571. Males had a median income of $31,049 versus $23,966 for females. The per capita income
for the town was $17,097. About 9.5% of families and 12.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.0% of those under age 18 and 5.9% of those age 65 or over.
New England town
The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in other states, but are incorporated, possessing powers like cities in other...
in York County
York County, Maine
York County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. In 2010, the population was 197,131. Its county seat is Alfred.Founded in 1636, it is the oldest county in Maine and one of the oldest in the United States....
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, United States. The population was 3,403 at the 2000 census. Limington is a tourist destination with historic architecture. It is part of the Portland
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
–South Portland
South Portland, Maine
South Portland is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, and is the fourth-largest city in the state. Founded in 1895, as of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,002. Known for its working waterfront, South Portland is situated on Portland Harbor and overlooks the skyline of...
–Biddeford
Biddeford, Maine
Biddeford is a town in York County, Maine, United States. It is the largest town in the county, and is the sixth-largest in the state. It is the most southerly incorporated town in the state and the principal commercial center of York County. The population was 21,277 at the 2010 census...
, Maine metropolitan statistical area
Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area
The Portland–South Portland–Biddeford Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as Greater Portland, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of three counties in Maine, anchored by the city of Portland and the smaller cities of South Portland and Biddeford...
.
History
In 1668, Francis SmallFrancis Small
Francis Small was an enterprising trader and landowner residing primarily in Kittery, Maine. He made the first recorded land purchase in what is now Maine, and proceeded to amass so much that he was called "the great landholder." He possessed the largest number of acres of anyone who ever lived...
traded goods with the Newichewannock tribe of this area. Their Chief Wesumbe, also known as Captain Sunday, was friendly with Small and warned him of a plot against his life. A group of renegade tribesmen planned to murder Small rather than pay him the furs they owed him. Small escaped after watching his trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
in what is now Cornish
Cornish, Maine
Cornish is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,269 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area...
burn to the ground. The chief made up for the loss by selling Small all the lands bounded by the Great
Ossipee River
The Ossipee River is an river in eastern New Hampshire and western Maine in the United States. It is a tributary of the Saco River, which flows southeast to the Atlantic Ocean at Saco, Maine....
and Little Ossipee Rivers, the Saco River
Saco River
The Saco River is a river in northeastern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine in the United States. It drains a rural area of of forests and farmlands west and southwest of Portland, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at Saco Bay, from its source. It supplies drinking water to roughly 250,000...
and the New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
border. Known as the Ossipee Tract, it comprised the present-day towns of Limington, Limerick
Limerick, Maine
Limerick is a town in York County, Maine, United States. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area. The population was 2,240 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, Cornish (formerly Francisborough), Newfield
Newfield, Maine
Newfield is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,328 at the 2000 census. Home to Willowbrook Museum Village, Newfield is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford metropolitan statistical area.-History:...
, Parsonsfield
Parsonsfield, Maine
Parsonsfield is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,584 at the 2000 census. Parsonsfield includes the villages of Kezar Falls, Parsonsfield, and North, East and South Parsonsfield...
and Shapleigh
Shapleigh, Maine
Shapleigh, pronounced "SHAP-lee", is a town in York County, Maine, United States which was incorporated as the state's 43rd town in 1785. The population was 2,326 at the 2000 census. Shapleigh is divided into the villages of North Shapleigh, Shapleigh Corner, Ross Corner and Emery Mills...
(which then included Acton
Acton, Maine
Acton is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,145 at the 2000 census. It includes the villages of Acton, Miller Corner and South Acton. The town is home to the Acton Fairground, which holds the Acton Fair every late summer...
).
First called Little Ossipee Plantation (after Ossapee, its original Abenaki name), it was settled by Deacon Amos Chase, who removed here and built a mill
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
in 1773 at the mouth of the Little Ossipee River. Ezra Davis and Jonathan Boothby followed him in 1774, and John McArthur and Joshua Small in 1775. Little Ossipee Plantation was incorporated on February 9, 1792 as the town of Limington. It was named after Limington
Limington
Limington is a village and parish in Somerset, England, situated north of Yeovil in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 199...
in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, England, the home county of Sir Ferdinando Gorges
Ferdinando Gorges
Sir Ferdinando Gorges , the "Father of English Colonization in North America", was an early English colonial entrepreneur and founder of the Province of Maine in 1622, although Gorges himself never set foot in the New World.-Biography:...
, Lord Proprietor of Maine. As the surface of the land was rocky and broken, in 1798 nearly 2000 acres (8.1 km²) of land were annexed from Little Falls Plantation (Hollis
Hollis, Maine
Hollis is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,281 at the 2010 census. Hollis is a rural bedroom community of Portland and is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area.-History:...
). In 1870, about 1500 acres (6.1 km²) of land were ceded to Limerick.
Soil was fertile and farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
s yielded good crops. Another important early trade was logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
, with the timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
manufactured at various water power mills into lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
, boxes, shingles
Roof shingle
Roof shingles are a roof covering consisting of individual overlapping elements. These elements are typically flat rectangular shapes laid in rows from the bottom edge of the roof up, with each successive higher row overlapping the joints in the row below...
and clapboard
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
s. There were also gristmill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
s and a tannery
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
. Limington Academy was incorporated in 1848, its structure built in 1852. The population in 1870 was 1,630. Davis Memorial Library was built in 1912 to designs of noted Portland
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
architect John Calvin Stevens
John Calvin Stevens
John Calvin Stevens was an American architect who worked in two related styles — the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style, which dominated national domestic architecture for the first half of the 20th century...
. Today, 22 buildings in the town center are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Geography
According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 43.3 square miles (112.1 km²), of which, 42 square miles (108.8 km²) of it is land and 1.3 square miles (3.4 km²) of it (3.00%) is water. Limington is drained by the Little Ossipee River
Little Ossipee River
The Little Ossipee River is a tributary of the Saco River in southwestern Maine.It rises at the outlet of Balch Pond in the town of Newfield and flows east, passing through Shapleigh Pond and flowing past the village of North Shapleigh. Forming the boundary between Newfield and the town of...
and Saco River
Saco River
The Saco River is a river in northeastern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine in the United States. It drains a rural area of of forests and farmlands west and southwest of Portland, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at Saco Bay, from its source. It supplies drinking water to roughly 250,000...
. There are 7 ponds, with 4 of these—Boyd, Dole, Foss and Sand ponds—in South Limington, and 3 others—Horn, Ward and Webster ponds—in North Limington. The highest point in town is Sawyer Mountain, elevation 1198 feet (365.2 m) above sea level.
Limington is crossed by state routes 11, 25 and 117. It borders the towns of Baldwin
Baldwin, Maine
Baldwin is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,290 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine, metropolitan statistical area.-History:...
to the north, Standish
Standish, Maine
Standish is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 9,874 at the 2010 census. It includes the villages of Standish Corner, Sebago Lake Village and Steep Falls, and the localities known as Richville, Standish Neck and Two Trails...
to the east, Hollis
Hollis, Maine
Hollis is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,281 at the 2010 census. Hollis is a rural bedroom community of Portland and is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area.-History:...
and Waterboro
Waterboro, Maine
Waterboro is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 6,214 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area....
to the south, and Limerick
Limerick, Maine
Limerick is a town in York County, Maine, United States. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area. The population was 2,240 at the 2000 census.-History:...
and Cornish
Cornish, Maine
Cornish is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,269 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area...
to the west. Located in the very northeastern part of York County
York County, Maine
York County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. In 2010, the population was 197,131. Its county seat is Alfred.Founded in 1636, it is the oldest county in Maine and one of the oldest in the United States....
, Limington is slightly over nine miles (14 km) long and an average of five miles (8 km) wide.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 3,403 people, 1,141 households, and 893 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 81.1 people per square mile (31.3/km²). There were 1,354 housing units at an average density of 32.2 per square mile (12.5/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.33% White, 0.41% African American, 0.47% Native American, 0.18% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.12% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.29% of the population.
There were 1,141 households out of which 41.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.1% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 21.7% were non-families. 15.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.84 and the average family size was 3.15.
In the town the population was spread out with 27.4% under the age of 18, 8.2% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 23.3% from 45 to 64, and 11.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 96.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.4 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $42,023, and the median income for a family was $46,571. Males had a median income of $31,049 versus $23,966 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $17,097. About 9.5% of families and 12.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.0% of those under age 18 and 5.9% of those age 65 or over.
Notable people
- Frank S. BlackFrank S. BlackFrank Swett Black was an American newspaper editor, lawyer and politician. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1895 to 1897, and the 32nd Governor of New York from 1897 to 1898.-Life:He was one of eleven children of Jacob Black, a farmer, and Charlotte B. Black...
, congressman, 32nd governor of New York - William B. SmallWilliam B. SmallWilliam Bradbury Small was a U.S. Representative from New Hampshire.Born in Limington, Maine, Small moved with his parents to Ossipee, New Hampshire. He attended the public schools and Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire...
, congressman