Palmyra History

Palmyra, Maine’s History
By: Joe Adams
January 8, 2008





PALMYRA

The history of Palmyra goes back to millions of years. Evidence suggests that this part of the world was covered by a vast sea. Through a series of great volcanoes, Maine rises from the sea. Earth quakes shook Maine's new formed land that caused great mountain ranges which were made by wind, rain, ice, snow and the sun. Maine was changed a lot during the Ice Age and lots of massive glaciers came and disappeared. About 2,000 decades ago the ice glaciers were gone.

Palmyra was incorporated as a town on June 20, 1807 so this year is Palmyra's 200th anniversary. Massachusetts governor James Sullivan signed the act of incorporation. The name Palmyra by the wife of John Warren. No one seems to know how Mrs. Warren arrived at the name “Palmyra” but many people have different stories. It is said that the Warren's had a daughter named Myra who lived here at one time with her brother and his family. Out of love and admiration for this daughter the town was supposedly named. Because of incomplete family records it has been impossible to tell if the Warren's had a daughter named Myra or not. Another story tells that Palmyra is named after the ancient Syrian city by the same name.

In 1807 Palmyra was an unsettled territory which was part of Lincoln County. Lincoln County was one of the two provinces of Maine at the time. Dr John Warren bought 28,200 acres for the price of $7,666.89. The first settlers that arrived to this piece of land were invited by John Warren. They were to purchase their land directly from him. The Warren's were knowledgeable and well read people. The Warren family were active supporters of the colonial cause during the Revolutionary War. John Warren served as a surgeon and his brother, Joseph was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill. Dr. John Warren was born on July 27, 1753 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1771 where he studied medicine. He practiced in Salem for two years and then settled in Boston in 1775. Warren joined the Continental Army as a surgeon that year until 1777. At that time he became a hospital surgeon in Boston.

One of the most prominent early settlers on Warren Hill, named after John Warren, was Jeremiah Robinson. A man of learning and ambition he was an agent of the Warren's. Following that Samuel Lang moved from Bath, New Hampshire to Palmyra near the Detroit line in 1802. The next year he and his wife moved to Lang Hill where he built a log cabin. They raised eleven children and he lived to 96 years old. I now live on the Lang Hill road.

Palmyra is located at 44.9 degrees North and 69.4 degrees West. All of the towns that border Palmyra are Pittsfield, Newport, St. Albans, Hartland, Corinna, and Detroit. Palmyra is in the Somerset County. Palmyra is on the border of Penobscot County. Palmyra has an exit from Maine's Interstate 95 which was built in 1964. The land area of Palmyra is 40.2 Square miles. The elevation of Palmyra is 310 feet above sea level. The pons in Palmyra are named Hicks Pond, Whites Pond, Douglas Pond, and the Robbers Bog. The streams, brooks, and creeks in Palmyra are named Pratt Brook, Madawaska Brook, and the Fogg Brook. Half of Nokomis Pond is located in Palmyra. The west branch of the Sebasticook River runs through Palmyra. The Douglas and Whites Ponds are not natural ponds. They are man made, because people built dams on the streams to form a pond.

The first town meeting in Palmyra was in September 5,1807, David Jewett, Justice of the Peace, issued a warrant to Samuel Lancy to warn free holders of a meeting at Lancey's at 1:00 p.m. on September 14, 1807. One of the discussion was to raise six hundred dollars to fix the roads but they took two hundred dollars to build a bridge called “the Nigger bridge.” They had to build bridges because people needed to cross rivers in order to get to the next town without having to have to take a raft or a ferry. They built the bridges by taking the logs on the rafts to have them float down the river and had to stand up the logs. Then put the rocks on the logs to get them to sink down into the mud. That bridge over the Sabasticook river was an important part of the colonial life in Palmyra. The people who got paid for building this bridge were Daniel Gale, Isacc Smith, Sam McLure, Samuel Lancey, and Jeremiah Robinson. It took too much time to just get on a raft or ferry so they thought of a bridge so they can just drive over wood. Now the Nigger bridge is called the Sebasticook bridge. At a town meeting in Palmyra they changed the bridge name to Sebasticook. The reason why it was called Nigger bridge, because there was a black family living near the river. Some people that lives on the same road that the black family lived still calls the Sabasticook bridge the “Nigger bridge.”

Compared now to the past the roads were really bad. Mostly all the time the roads were muddy, had holes in them, especially in the spring. People made the town meetings pay them for the horses or oxen hurt by the pot holes or killed stumbling in the mud holes. There were responsibilities for each farmers to help keep the road they live on good. Some farmers choose to work on the roads while others were to pay tax for the farmers that work on the roads. There were two main roads, one is called the “Country road” and the other one is called the “Stage road.” These two roads are important to the town and location because Palmyra is half way between Norridgewock and Bangor on the Stage and Country road. Palmyra was in the center of the trade and business. There were lots of blacksmith shops and mills going on at the time.

Palmyra had 141 people in the 1800's. In 1840 there was a free black family in Palmyra, Maine. In 1850 there were 4 blacksmiths in Palmyra, Maine. In 1850 the population in Palmyra was 1,626 people. In 1860 the oldest person was 87 years old.

The past schools were Egypt School, Ell Hill School, and Gale School. The early schools were small. The schools had one or two rooms. The Palmyra Village School in 1946 had about 48 kids. One of those kids was George Cray, he was my bus driver. He played in the school band. Clara Higgins was a lifelong resident of Palmyra who for 37 years dedicated her life to the education of Palmyra's kids. The school now in Palmyra is the Palmyra Consolidated School, grades k-4.

Palmyra has an annual town meeting, which is held on the second Saturday in March. Palmyra has a board of select persons made up of five people who are elected by the town people. They also have a town manager; one of the town managers was Pat White in 1990. Palmyra elects two Representatives to the M.S.A.D. #48 board of directors. The town of Palmyra also employs a road commissioner who is responsible for maintaining roads in the winter.

Taxes are very low in Palmyra because there are not many services. There are no libraries in Palmyra. Palmyra has no public water systems. Palmyra has no public sewer treatment. There are no Fire or Police departments in Palmyra, so Palmyra pays the towns that border it to give those services. However, Palmyra does offer some services such as roadside trash pick up, road maintenance and in 1980, the town began a recycling program. The recycling program was started by Pat White. He is my mother's father.

In the past, most of the businesses in town were farms. The Chadbournes and the Fletchers both had major dairy farms. The dairy farms were very popular at the time. The Chadbourne family still has their farm and the Fletchers just closed their farm down within the last year. Today the Cray Farms produce strawberries, corn, cucumbers, and lots of other vegetables.

There are many other businesses that have come to Palmyra since the early times. The restaurants in Palmyra are McDonalds', House of Pizza, and Dunkin' Donuts. The most famous or favorite store in Palmyra is Wal-Mart. There are two gas stations in Palmyra. Some small businesses in Palmyra are Pat White's Weed Control, Rowell's Used Cars, Dow's Used Cars, Palmyra Variety, Ell Hill Market, St. Albans Mobile Homes, and Grignon's Taxidermy.

Today the population density in Palmyra is 51 people per square mile. It is a very low population. The races in Palmyra are 98.4% white, 0.8% American Indian, and a mixture of two or more races is 0.8%. The median age of residents in Palmyra is 39 years old. The median real estate property taxes paid for housing units in Palmyra in 2000 was $551. The average house hold size in Palmyra is 2.5 people. The number of men in 2000 was 964 and the number of women was 989. The population in the year 2000 was 1,953 people and in 2006 there were 121 more people so there were 2,074 people in Palmyra in 2006.

Palmyra has a lot of things for people to do for fun in summer and winter months. The notable locations in Palmyra are the golf course and the camp ground for the campers. Maine's I.T.S. trail system fro snowmobiling passes through Palmyra. Palmyra sponsors a recreation league for young children. They organize baseball and softball teams in the spring and basketball in the winter.
Palmyra is a beautiful town. It has a rich history, because of all of the things I have said in this paper, and a lot of people want to make Palmyra the best place to live.


Citations
“Palmyra, Maine” city-data.com http://www.citydata.com/city/Palmyra-Maine.html
“Welcome to Palmyra, Maine” rootsweb.com http://www.rootsweb.com/~mecsomer/index.htm
“Palmyra-Maine’s Friendly Town – Welcome to our town website” http://palmyra.govoffice.com/
“M.S.A.D 48 online” www.msad48.org
Town of Palmyra. Palmyra, Maine 200th anniversary. Maine; Penobscot Press, 2007