Books hold troves of city history

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It was my son’s question about the history of Bangor that sent me off on a tangent, perusing various resources on this fascinating city.

“Bangor, Maine: An Illustrated History 1769-1976,” edited by James Vickery, with its wonderful collection of photographs, offers much that is worth reading, including a listing of 18 Revolutionary War veterans buried here:

. James Budge, 1748-1824, born in Charlestown, Mass.

. Francis Carr, 1751-1821, born in Newbury, Mass.

. Samuel Dutton, 1744-1807, born in Townsend, Mass. Served in the Penobscot Expedition.

. Peter Edes, 1756-1840, born in Boston.

. William Forbes, 1763-1843, from Greenfield, Mass. Bangor’s second postmaster.

. John Harlow, 1762-1836, born in Plymouth, Mass.

. William Hammond, 1740-1814, born in Newton, Mass. Established mills on the Kenduskeag Stream.

. Simon Harriman, 1762-1837.

. Park Holland, 1752-1844, born in Shrewsbury, Mass.

. Jonathan Lowder, 1733-1814, born in Boston.

. James Mayhew, 1759-1846, born in Boston.

. Nathan Parsons, 1752-1823, born in Belchertown, Mass.

. Oliver Randall, 1761-1846, born in Easton, Mass.

. Benjamin Rose, 1752-1850, born in Georgetown, Maine.

. The Rev. John Sawyer, 1755-1858, born in Hebron, Conn. With picture of Sawyer, age 103.

. Robert Treat, 1752-1824.

. George Williamson, 1754-1822, born in Middleborough, Mass.

. Luke Wilder, 1757-1836, born in Lancaster, Mass.

The book was first printed in 1969, the year of Bangor’s bicentennial, then updated in 1976 for the nation’s bicentennial. You have to love the full title: “An Illustrated History of the City of Bangor, Maine formerly the Plantation of Conduskeag or Kenduskeag in ye Country of Arcadia on the River named Penobscot Containing Narratives of ye Ancient Sites and Persons, Bangor, Maine 1776-1976 Revised Edition.”

The essay “The Settlement of Old Kenduskeag,” by Vickery, a well-known history teacher, historian and genealogist, mentions some of the first settlers: cooper Jacob Buswell of Salisbury, Mass.; son Stephen Buswell and wife Lucy (Grant); brothers Thomas John and Hugh Smart of Woolwich; Jacob Dennet and wife Betsy (Smart); Thomas Howard; Solomon and Silas Hathorn, Simon Crosby.

There are photographs or paintings of several prominent people, mostly men, among them Amos Main Roberts and Gen. Charles Roberts. Amos was married to Fanny, daughter of Dr. Hosea Rich. The younger Roberts was a lieutenant colonel in the 2nd Maine Infantry during the Civil War, and as colonel commanded the regiment of Yorktown at several battles.

The several pictures of individual buildings should lead you to seek out Deborah Thompson’s book, “Bangor Maine 1769-1914: An Architectural History.”

In explaining the history and ownership of a building, authors such as Thompson and Vickery give clues that help genealogists move on to other sources, such as city directories, censuses, vital records and other histories.

The Vickery book also offers portions of a couple of priceless maps. On page 45 is “Bird’s Eye View of Bangor,” a wonderful drawing that shows numerous streets, with the artist’s renderings of the buildings. You’ll easily pick out some of the churches, or at least earlier versions of what’s there now.

There were fewer parking lots in 1875, of course, and the city was dense with buildings in some places – such as along the Kenduskeag.

Check out, too, photographs showing several buildings together, such as a wintry scene of Main Street in 1870, or an 1895 picture “looking on intersection of Hammond and Main and up State Street.” Then there’s French Street in 1880, and Broadway in the 1890s, before John Bapst High School was built.

On pages 72-73 is a slice of a map spanning Davenport Park to Garland Street. On this map each square, rectangle or odd shape represents a particular building. Some structures are named – such as the Bangor House, and the Unitn [Unitarian] Church on Union Street.

There were lots of livery stables throughout the city, the Whig & Courier office on lower State Street, and the Moccasin and Boot Factory handy to the Baptist church on Columbia Street. The “City Common,” now Chapin Park, was bounded by an extension of Somerset Street, Forest Avenue, once called Lime Street; Fulton Row, in the area of Coombs Street; and Date Street, now Parkview Avenue.

Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or e-mail familyti@bangordailynews.net.