Contributed by Penobscot Marine Museum
Description
Great Falls in Whitefield was an ideal location for mills, which operated at the site from the 1770s to the 1930s.
A sawmill built by Jeremiah Norris was in operation by 1774. Abraham Choate and his sons added a gristmill to the site, which Benjamin King and his sons acquired in 1801. After Benjamin was killed in the mill later that year, his son, Peter, became the sole owner and offered shares to investors. The site became known as Kings Mills. A devastating fire consumed the double sawmill, three-story gristmill, cider mill, grain, lumber and John King’s home in 1834. The mills were rebuilt, and Peter’s descendants ran them until the late 19th century.
When Clara King married William Ford in 1858, the complex became the Ford Mills, which operated into the 1920s. William H. Ford built the gristmill, the building on the left, in the 1880s. The sawmill, on the right, generated electricity for the house next to the mill until electric power came to Whitefield in the 1930s. Hurricane Edna washed it away in 1954.
The narrow gauge railroad tracks of the Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railway carried lumber from the Whitefield mills.
About This Item
- Title: Fords Mill, Whitefield, 1915
- Creator: Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.
- Creation Date: circa 1915
- Subject Date: circa 1915
- Location: Whitefield, Lincoln County, ME
- Media: Glass Plate Negative
- Dimensions: 12.7 cm x 17.8 cm
- Local Code: LB2007.1.103092
- Collection: Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.
- Object Type: Image
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For more information about this item, contact:
Penobscot Marine MuseumPO Box 498, 5 Church Street, Searsport, ME 04974
(207) 548-2529
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This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. No Permission is required to use the low-resolution watermarked image for educational use, or as allowed by the applicable copyright. For all other uses, permission is required.
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