Cumberland & North Yarmouth

Introduction
The main streets of North Yarmouth and Cumberland--those that connected the two towns--are among the oldest roads in our area. Our travel by car, bicycle and foot today is effortless compared to the challenging journeys that European settlers took through ancient North Yarmouth's dense forests. This exhibit is a brief history of how that wilderness was transformed by the creation of roads that we so often take for granted.

Imagine a wagon ride during the mid 1700s from the small settlement of ancient North Yarmouth's coastal village of Yarmouth to the early inland settlement of Walnut Hill in present-day North Yarmouth. Leaving the cluster of houses and businesses near the shore, the road that is now Route 115 quickly gave way to forest and scattered clearings. The wheels of the wagon followed established ruts, and after rain or bad weather the low, flat area that is now wide field was mired in mud. Here, water flowed slowly in a southerly direction and the area was very wet. The road gradually rose towards Walnut Hill, following the swell of land that we still notice today. This route was certainly taken by Walnut Hill's six original North Yarmouth settlers.

At this same time, the settlement of Cumberland was developing several miles south. Although less than four miles separated these early villages, covering ground between the two was extremely difficult.

Early Travel
During the time of European settlement, travel was preferably done by water in canoes and small boats, following the example of Native Americans. People traveled by streams, rivers, ponds, lakes and long tidal estuaries and bays. This was a ready-made transportation system for settlers who were not about to spend energy building roads to remote areas; instead, they made their homes close to water routes. However as population grew and shoreline timber was depleted, it became necessary to settle the inland acreage known as "back lots." The owners of these large pieces of property needed roads to get to their holdings to start cutting the valuable woodland and eventually establish homesteads.

Two of the Earliest Roads: King's Highway and Tuttle Road
Heading north and east from Boston along the coast of Maine, a shore road known as King's Highway was established in 1653. It was developed gradually, at first connecting Boston to Kittery and York, then extending to Portland (then called Falmouth). In 1739 the laying out of a public highway from Falmouth through North Yarmouth to Brunswick was ordered. At this point North Yarmouth was becoming a more permanent settlement; in 1727 ownership of lots had been established and Yarmouth village was becoming a center of habitation and commerce. In our area, King's Highway incorporated parts of present-day Route 88 and Middle Road.

Three years later, in 1742, North Yarmouth town records record the beginnings of Tuttle Road. This first road extended from present day Middle Road to the property of James Tuttle, who owned a land lot about halfway between Middle Road and present day Route 9. Tuttle Road was extended by 1794 to Cumberland's meetinghouse in present day Cumberland Center, where Elijah Tuttle and others lived in this corner of ancient North Yarmouth.

Why So Long and Straight?
Tuttle Road follows a straight line from the coastline to the interior. It is called a range road or rangeway, and there are others roads like it: Greely Road in Cumberland and Sweetser, Sligo, North, Mountfort and Royal Roads in North Yarmouth. They follow surveying lines that were established when land was first divided up by the early proprietors of North Yarmouth. There are many notes in town records about roads starting out as "private," as Tuttle Road first was, but as people built their houses along lot lines, rangeways began to be traveled more and more and soon groups of neighboring property owners were appearing at Town Meeting and asking for these private byways to be accepted as town roads. This was very important, because once a range road became a town road, the responsibility for maintenance and improvement became a public matter and was paid for by all taxpayers!

Possibly the First Inland Route: Walnut Hill Road to New Gloucester Road (Route 115 to Route 231)
Around 1740 settlers from Gloucester, Massachusetts had followed an early rough road from the North Yarmouth shore up through Walnut Hill and north to their grant of land, present day New Gloucester, so we can assume that the bare beginnings of the county road first known as the New Gloucester Road--Route 115--had been established. Not much more than 20 years later, settlers were beginning to inhabit the the inland area of present day North Yarmouth. We know this because records show that three settlers whose houses we have identified were paying road taxes in 1763--a good way to identify when houses were first built!

Around 1780, Walnut Hill residents built a school and meetinghouse near the current intersection of Routes 115 and 231. This area, where the North Yarmouth Congregational Church now stands, was the original Walnut Hill settlement.

At this corner the road to Gray turned west (115) and the New Gloucester Road continued north (231). New Gloucester was an important destination in early times, since the courts met here from 1791 to 1805.

Hallowell Road (Route 9)
It soon became necessary to create an inland route between Walnut Hill and Cumberland. More settlers were making their homes in North Yarmouth's back lots (which included Cumberland) and people in both communities knew and were related to each other. Trade and services were developing. A road between the two settlements was especially important because Sunday worship alternated between the meetinghouses in both communities. Between the two early town centers, churchgoers had a stream to ford and brush and woods to beat back!

In January 1794, a group of settlers petitioned the "Court of the General Sessions of the Peace" to construct a new county road that went south from the New Gloucester Road at Walnut Hill to the lower bridge on the Presumpscot River in Falmouth; this was the beginning of planning for present day Route 9. In 1803, the Court heard a report of a plan for the extension of this new county road that would run north from North Yarmouth to Hallowell, a road to be known as the Hallowell Road.

New road construction projects were not always well received by property owners whose land was bisected by the new byways, and early records tell about payments that were made by the government to compensate for the inconvenience and loss of property.

Why Go to Hallowell? The Effects of the Embargo Act
It is important to remember what was happening nationally at this time. In 1807 the Embargo Act was passed by Congress, forbidding all international trade to and from American ports; with this, President Thomas Jefferson hoped that Britain and France would see value in the rights of a neutral commerce. However, the Embargo Act created severe hardship and depression in the United States. Farmers, traders and manufacturers saw their overseas markets disappear. Business plummeted and ships languished. People were forced to develop other avenues of trade and very quickly, inland routes leading from Maine to Canadian outposts became very important. Hallowell was a trade center of long standing because it had a well-established road (Winthrop Street and beyond) that led to Canadian settlements north and west. At Hallowell, ships were loaded with goods and produce and sailed on the tide down the Kennebec River to the sea. During the years of the Embargo Act, this waterway was of little use for trade, but the road to Canada became very valuable; goods and produce could be sent overland for trade.

Although inland trading provided some benefit, in general the Embargo Act was an economic disaster, and was repealed in 1809.

By 1825 the Hallowell Road had been roughly built section by section from Portland up to the Kennebec River and beyond. In 1831, this county road had become important enough that the First Congregational Church of Cumberland's meetinghouse was torn down due to its proximity to the road, and a new meetinghouse was built.

Route 9 was also known as the Stage Road. Starting around 1800 there was stagecoach service running up through Cumberland and North Yarmouth from Portland and heading to points north.

In North Yarmouth There Were Two Villages
Along the two country roads that passed through North Yarmouth, two village centers eventually developed. Though North Yarmouth's first town center grew up around the church, this area became less important when Route 9 converged with Route 115, one and a half miles south. A new Walnut Hill Village grew at this intersection and became a very good place to site businesses. The "Drinkwater Tavern," originally built by Stephen Harris c. 1764 and located near the Church, was even eventually moved down to this new center.

Walnut Hill Village
The Buxton Tavern (known as the Red House) and the Buxton Tavern Stand across the road were at the heart of the village. They were operated by Jeremiah and Jane Drinkwater Buxton and family after 1796 and catered to stagecoach passengers, drovers, and peddlers. Horses were cared for in the taverns' stables. The Buxton enterprises included an early post office, cooperage, and blacksmith shop.

Samuel B. Chase built a brick Federal style house in 1831 that housed two carriage shops. The business had ramps that were used to haul vehicles between the ground level and second floor. A sign advertised Chase as a "Manufacturer of Carriages, Sleighs and Wheels."

Extending from the village center is The Lane, leading to the Loring family's Skyline Farm, one of North Yarmouth's farmsteads where acres of cultivated fields surrounded the house and farm buildings. Skyline Farm looks much the same today as it did more than a century ago, and its approach on a dirt road reminds us of what our old roads once looked like.

Around 1853 a general store was established in the village and a store/restaurant has operated in the original building ever since then. Its location has made it, over time, the unofficial center of Walnut Hill.

Route 9 bears northeast at Walnut Hill Village. Starting here, a portion of the road is marked as the North Yarmouth Memorial Highway, so designated at Town Meeting in 1920. This stretch of Route 9 was marked with stone pillars and planted out with trees. Since the Civil War, many towns throughout New England had erected monuments such as the Merrill memorial in Cumberland, to those who had served in the war between the states. North Yarmouth chose to dedicate a roadway instead, linking the two villages of Walnut Hill and East North Yarmouth.

The North Yarmouth Memorial School was built along the Memorial Highway in 1950; it burned in 1976 and was replaced by the current structure.

A railroad overpass further north marks the Maine Central Railroad line. In 1911, the MCRR track that went through Walnut Hill Village was rerouted to here, thus avoiding an uphill grade. A depot and store were established at the tracks near the Route 9 train intersection, but because of its isolated location, both shut down after several years.

East North Yarmouth
At a distance of 2 1/2 miles from Walnut Hill Village, North Yarmouth's Old Town House stands on the west side of Route 9. It was built in 1853, four years after Yarmouth seceded from North Yarmouth and a new administrative center was needed. It was decided to build the town house here at the geographical center of North Yarmouth. For several years in the mid 1940s, North Yarmouth students in the upper grades were grouped together to attend classes here as a result of overcrowding in the town's one room schoolhouses. The Old Town House is now owned by North Yarmouth Historical Society.

North of the Town House an important bridge was first built across the Royal River in 1800 and has been rebuilt several times since.

Just north of the bridge is Dunn's Corner, the center of East North Yarmouth—so named because the settlement lay east of the Royal River. At Dunn's the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad came through in 1849; here was located North Yarmouth's first railroad depot . The East North Yarmouth Post office was established here in 1851 and Dunn's Store sold clothes, hardware and food. There was a gristmill and a blacksmith shop. Dunn's Corner was active until around 1943, when the store closed and the railroad no longer made stops there.

Dunn's School lay a short distance north beyond the intersection of North Road; it was one of eight one room schoolhouses that once existed in town. (Before Yarmouth seceded in 1849, there were eighteen!) These schoolhouses were very local institutions; students who lived within a mile's distance would attend classes in their own neighborhoods.

Just ½ mile north of Dunn's Corner is Crockett's Corner, a quiet crossroads that was another early North Yarmouth settlement. At the Corner, West Pownal Road, set out in 1799, veers west to New Gloucester while Route 9 continues north to Hallowell. Many homes in this area were built by 1810, and there was a wheelwright shop, a shoe shop, a blacksmith shop, a schoolhouse, and eleven homes.

West vs. East
In the mid 1800s both Walnut Hill and East North Yarmouth, four miles apart, were equally busy. The two villages often saw themselves as separately aligned: East North Yarmouth residents tended toward Yarmouth or Pownal for things they could not supply themselves, while Walnut Hill looked to Cumberland or Gray. Each village was self-sufficient: each had its own store, church, cemetery, schools, post office and train station, road commissioners, social organizations, and blacksmith.

Cumberland's Border with North Yarmouth is at Greely Road
Route 9 is called Main Street as it runs south into Cumberland. Here, a busy commercial and residential area developed in the 1790s and beyond.

There is a distinctive triangular “heater” intersection where Route 9 crosses Greely Road. The heater is so called after a certain style of old clothes iron which had a hollow base into which a heated triangular metal piece would fit that kept the iron continuously hot. Heaters were essential for four wheeled wagons and carriages whose wheels could not easily make perpendicular turns. Few heater intersections are still in existence.

Greely Road borders three towns; Cumberland, North Yarmouth and Yarmouth. When Cumberland split from North Yarmouth in 1821, and when Yarmouth split from North Yarmouth in 1849, families that living on Greely Road had to choose in which town they wanted to live. This has made Greely Road look like a zipper on a map!

Cumberland Center Points of Interest
The Buxton house at 363 Main Street, at the corner of Hillcrest Drive, dates to 1799. It was formerly a birthing house, where women came to deliver their babies.

The Merrill Monument at the cemetery honors William and Louville Merrill; both men served in the Civil War. It also honors all Cumberland citizens who served in the military during war. A large stone originally stood at the same spot with a memorial plaque noting the secession of Cumberland from North Yarmouth. (That stone now stands across the street in the “heater” at Main Street and Blanchard Road.)

Cumberland Center had a blacksmith shop located at the site of the current Shell station; a butcher shop stood at the spot that Food Stop now occupies.

A focal point for Main Street, Greely High School stands at the heart of Cumberland Center. Serving the high school students of Cumberland and North Yarmouth, the Greely Institute building with its distinctive belltower was built in 1868; the adjoining Gyger Gymnasium was dedicated to popular Superintendent John T. Gyger in 1939.

A brick house facing Greely High School was an Underground Railroad "safe house" during the mid 1800s.

Chase’s Greenhouse once stood at the corner of Farwell Avenue and Main Street. Before Chase’s, a carnation growing greenhouse sat on the site. The owner, Frank Chase, was the brother of Arno Chase who also had greenhouses at the corner of Main Street and Tuttle Road near the Cumberland Fire Station.

Across Tuttle Road from the Fire Station stands a house that was once an important business established in 1793. The Prince Tavern, with its distinctive arch, served those who traveled by stagecoach through Cumberland. The main road at that point actually ran under the archway of the barn where stagecoaches stopped and horses were changed from a stable of 15 stalls. When the original Congregational Church was torn down in 1831 services were held in the new barn here at the invitation of the owner, Captain Enos Blanchard.

Continuing south on Route 9 past the Prince Memorial Library, Route 9 crosses the railroad tracks. There at Longwoods Road stood a depot from where businesses and farmers sent their products to markets beyond Cumberland. Some businesses, due to the proximity of the railroad, developed here, too.

History Persists through our Roads
Though modern life has changed Cumberland and North Yarmouth, the history of the two towns comes alive by understanding road development and spotting important older buildings that were homes, community centers and current and past businesses. We're constantly evolving along with the times, but both buildings AND roads, the ancient paths and rough trails that were so essential to our settlement, stand sentinel to the heritage of our two towns.

—text by Katie Murphy, with grateful thanks to our town historians

Sources Used for this Exhibit

The Church at Walnut Hill: a History of the First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ. Whittier, Kathryn H., ed. North Yarmouth, Maine: First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, 2006.
Hurd, Holly. The History of the Drinkwater Tavern (unpublished). 2010.
Maine State Highway Commission. A History of Maine Roads. Augusta, Maine, 1970.
Merrill, Lincoln Jr. and Holly Hurd. Around North Yarmouth. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia, 2006.
North Yarmouth: 1680-1980: An Illustrated History. North Yarmouth Historical Society, 1980.
North Yarmouth [i]Gazettes[i]
Rowe, William Hutchinson. [b]Ancient North Yarmouth and Yarmouth, Maine, 1636-1936.[b] Yarmouth, Maine, 1937.
A Walking Tour of Walnut Hill Village. North Yarmouth Historical Society, 2005
Interview with Ursula Baier, North Yarmouth, Maine.
Interview with Sumner Webber, Hallowell, Maine.
www.cumberlandmaine.com/community_info.cfm: Cumberland Roads & Streets, compiled by Thomas Bennett
www.newgloucester.com