I Have Located a Town ...

Depicted in an anonymous plan of timber and land quality, having been misled by a stupid error on the map!

One of my favorite objects in the Mapping Maine exhibition is an untitled, undated plan of an unidentified town, presumably in Maine:

Plan of an unidentified town in the Mapping Maine exhibition.

It is tatty and worn, but it is wonderful because it shows the assessment of timber and land quality by the early proprietors. Here’s the legend, followed by a detail of the central portion. (Go look at the plan on the OML website to see more; click on any of these images).

But where is it? Is it even in Maine???

When OML acquired this plan in 2019, it was part of a batch of materials with ties to the map maker and frontier entrepreneur, Moses Greenleaf, so we presumed that it showed a part of Maine, like all the other materials. I initially focused on the names of the three lakes: “Sunday Pond,” the largest in the middle of the town (see above detail); Marshall’s Pond, just downstream of Sunday Pond; and, down in the lower-left corner, “Pleasant Pond.” None of these names has persisted into the present, it would seem, so that was a bust. With plenty of other things to be done, I put the question aside and decided to treat the plan as a generic example.

This morning, though, as I was pulling together the last elements of the talk I’m giving this afternoon, I decided to give it another try. The reason was that I realized—I’m rather ashamed to admit—that there are actually location indicators on the map. I was so fixated on the indication of hard woods and swamps, etc., that I missed them. In the top-right corner of the map, although not at the very corner:

This reads, “Cedar” corrected in a later hand to “Spruce marked NE C T No. 1 - 6 R SW[?] 1795” and then a circle with a horizontal line, which is the blaze mark. Then, “Cedar R12 No.7 <blaze> BM 1806” and “PH 1797 <blaze> Cedar”.

Then, in the top-left corner, in the actual corner:

“NW. C.T. No.1 R6 | R1 No.8 B.M. <blaze>”

And, then, the kicker, in the top center, at the same level as the top-right annotation:

“T4 – 7R SW <blaze> 1795” and
“T5 – 7R”

Interpretation of these clues was further helped by the inscription of the cardinal directions across each side of the plan. The top of the plan, which is to say the top when the map’s content and legend are right-reading, is labeled “East 6 Miles”; the left-hand side, “North”; the bottom, “West”; and the right, “South.” This implied that the top-right corner was the North-East corner (NE C) of township (T) number 1 in range 6, and also a corner of township 7 in range 12 (“R12 No.7). Given the orientation of the plan, with East at the top, then T1R6 needs to be to the right of the town shown in the map. So, I’m looking for a town, next to T1R6, whose eastern side passes the boundary of T4R7 and T5R7 and then jigs a bit eastward before ending at another corner marking the North-West corner (NW. C.) of township (T.) number 1 (No.1) in range 6 (R6) and of township 8 uin range 1 (R1 No.8).

Now, Maine was subdivided into ranges of towns in several sections, each identified with a code. Here is one of my favorite maps, which lays out (rather crudely) the state’s towns in three bands: the colonial south (haphazard arrangement); post-independence land grants by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (mostly square, but angled because laid out to magnetic north); post-Maine statehood (i.e., post-1820) towns laid out with respect to true north and all forming the WELS region (“West of the East Line of the State,” which requires the state’s eastern boundary to be known and fixed, but that’s another story). Fortunately, with my handy guide, I could try and find a town that fits these requirements.

This map came out of a pamphlet that I let Nate Hamilton buy, and I lost the original citation. Also, it’s a scan from a xerox … my apologies.

But no joy. Couldn’t figure it out.

But then I had a brainstorm: what if the written cardinal directions were wrong? If the top of the map was, in fact, north [!], then the top-left and top-right references to the NW and NE corners of T1R6 would mean that the mapped town was T1R6! And the tell-tale jog would be on it’s north side. And, I very quickly found the site:

The map uses contemporary names for the towns, but counting down from the top, where the townships were not named, makes Orneville T1R6 NWP = North of Waldo’s Patent, on the edge of the Old Indian Purchase (i.e., the 1796 acquisition by Massachusetts of much of the lands of the Penobscot).

This explains the reference to “SW” in the town identifications: Samuel Weston was the lead surveyor of this area in the 1790s.

For confirmation, I went to Google Maps, which does not actually know of “Orneville” (see below), so here’s the neighboring town of Atkinson. Orneville is the area east of Atkinson and south of Milo:

The lakes are correct! Although with different names applied by later proprietors; Sunday Pond is now Boyd Lake.

I also found a potted history of the changing ownerships and identities of the town after its annexation from the Penobscot:

Orneville Township, Piscataquis County, Maine

Compiled from the History of Piscataquis County, Maine, by Rev. Amasa Loring, c1880

Orneville, Number 1, 6th Range, 23,040 acres. Includes Alder Brook and Dead Stream. There are good falls and a steady water supply. In 1805, General J. P. Boyd was the Proprietor.

Eben Greenleaf lotted out the east half, after which the township was resurveyed by Japeth Gilman. The west half was lotted by D.W. Bradley, 1820-1825. There was a county road through the township from Milo to Bradford. …

In 1870 the population was 575, with the valuation $80,062.

Became Boyd’s Plantation: 1805
Incorporated as Milton: January 30, 1832
Changed to Almond: 1841
Changed to Orneville: 1842
Deorganized: March 8, 1945

So, the map is of Orneville, Piscataquis County, Maine.

Is it the work of Eben[ezer] Greenleaf, Moses Greenleaf’s younger brother, henchman, and surveyor? Possibly, given the supposed origin of the map. If so, then this would perhaps make the map a guide to land value before individual lots were sold off.

Puzzle solved!