The town was originally called Salmon Brook, for the stream along whose banks the settlement developed. The oldest known settler, and probably the first white man to make his home in what is now known as the township of Washburn was Nathaniel Churchill, who settled in what is known as Stratton Flat with his family in 1826. His wife died in 1833 and he left the area for a few years. He remarried and returned in 1839, to settle about four miles below Washburn.
Another early settler who had cleared land along the river was Peter Bull. Although both he and Churchill had taken up land downstream, the first permanent resident of the village was Isaac Wilder, who came with his brother, Charles, from Pembroke in 1842. It was probably the virgin forests and good water power which motivated these early settlers to move to the area and remain.
In 1843 Isaac Wilder persuaded his brother Robert to bring his family to Salmon Brook. Another settler who located a short distance down river was Charles A. Stoddard. Farther downstream two other settlers were located at about the same time; the Lincolns and the Herseys.
As early as 1846, Isaac Wilder had built a sawmill and a carding mill. The sawmill, powered by a roughly built water wheel, had what was called an up and down saw and a clapboard machine. All the sawed lumber had to be rafted down river to Aroostook Falls, N.B. where it was hauled around the falls, and then rafted again to Fredericton or St. John, N.B.
It was Robert Wilder's son, Benjamin, who in 1852 built the homestead which was recently purchased by the Salmon Brook Historical Society and has been developed into the Benjamin C. Wilder Farmstead Museum. The house is furnished as a typical farm home of the period with household furniture, furnishings and fixtures of the era.
The Society is at present planning the construction of a barn to replace the one which was burned some 50 years ago, to be known as the Aroostook Agricultural Museum. The barn will be used to display farm equipment and machinery of the past.
Soon after settlers began taking up lots along Salmon Brook, a rough road was cut through the woods from the Wilder mill to the junction of the brook and the river. In 1845, the settlement was organized as the Plantation of Salmon Brook, and the road had been roughed out from the mouth of Salmon Brook through to State Road which led from Presque Isle to Ashland. At that time, the only road "outside" was through Ashland and Masardis to Patten, and is what we know as Route 11 today.
A few years later, in 1848, a school building was built near where the Riverview Cemetery is now located. Up to that time, school had been carried on in the homes of settlers, with various mothers acting as teachers.
The first post office, established in 1860, had as its postmaster, Benjamin Wilder. All the mail was carried to and from Presque Isle by horseback. In that same year the first retail store in town was opened by Nathan Perry in spate rented in the Isaac Wilder mill. Later, in 1865, another store was opened by Benjamin Wilder.
Social life of the period was necessarily very simple since there were no organized amusements, and residents entertained themselves in informal get-togethers, barn raisings, quilting parties and the like. One of the biggest events was the Northern Maine Fair at Presque Isle, which originated in 1850, and was an annual affair which drew people from the whole area. Families often took camping equipment and remained during the three or four days of the fair.
A sizeable community had developed, and the census of 1860 listed 318 individuals living in Salmon Brook. Ten years later, the population had increased to 449.
In 1861, the year the Civil War started, Salmon Brook was incorporated into an organized town and was given the name Washburn, after Gov. Israel Washburn, (33 kb photo) who was governor of the state at the time. He presented the town with a library of 200 volumes, which was later destroyed in the fire of 1864, which almost completely destroyed the town. Soon after that fire a new saw mill, flour mill and starch factory were built. It is said that this starch business was the beginning of the potato industry in Aroostook.
The town of Washburn provided its share of men in the Civil War, for more than one of each 10 residents served in the Army. Seven were wounded in battle, and eight made the supreme sacrifice.
In 1880 it was felt that there was a need for a high school and town hall facility. A committee was elected to go ahead with the plans and construction of such a building. A lot located on Main Street was selected, and the town acquired its first debt of any consequence amounting to $2,384.
The building served a multitude of purposes; lodge and grange meetings, elections, revivals, socials and school classes, and a library. The high school classes grew very slowly and in 1891 there were 73 students. There were generally two terms each year, winter and summer, with one teacher.
In 1903, the town voted to convert the upper story of the Town Hall into a high school room, and the first high school class graduated in 1907. Three years later, the development of two railroads coming into town created an increase in school registrations so the town built a new high school. Soon an agricultural course was added to the curriculum and also a course in bookkeeping, and a physics and chemistry laboratory.
In 1935, the high school burned and classes were temporarily held in the Town Hall which had been moved in 1917 from its original location to the area next to the Town Library, and in churches and other halls in town.
The 1880 Town Hall continued to serve the town well on the new site as town offices, fire station and equipment storage. After the offices and fire department moved across the street, the building served as quarters for the town's health center and clinic.
Despite efforts to save the old building, when the clinic recently moved to more modern quarters, it was again vacant and the decision was made to demolish the structure, and the town is proceeding with such plans.
A new high school was built immediately after the 1935 fire at a cost of approximately $55,000. A new grade school was built in 1953. It was completely consumed by fire in the summer of 1988, along with a large addition which was under construction at the time. A new elementary school will begin construction in the spring of 1989. This will house grades K-8, and the junior high building, which was the 1935-36 high school, will be demolished.
The school complex, as completed with present construction, will give Washburn and SAD 45 one of the finest school systems in the area.
The year 1910 brought improved transportation methods to the town. Arthur Gould had developed the Aroostook Falls dam below Fort Fairfield, and in order to use all of the electricity generated, built an electric railroad (The Aroostook Valley Railroad) from Presque Isle to Washburn. It carried both passengers and freight, and the little town of Washburn had the only electric street trolley (68 kb photo) north of Bangor. In the next two years the railroad was extended to New Sweden and Caribou through Woodland. This meant that farmers who had formerly had to haul their potatoes to Caribou by team could now ship by train.
In the same year of 1910, the Bangor & Aroostook steam railroad was opened to traffic in Washburn, and continued beyond to Perham and Stockholm.
After 1920, a downward spiral of passengers lost to the highways and other means of transportation, forced the Bangor & Aroostook to suspend passenger service for good in 1961. The last passenger car run by the Aroostook Valley ended on July 4, 1946, as diesels had replaced the electric freight units the previous year.
Deterioration of a bridge in Presque Isle made it unsafe to transfer heavy freight cars, so that ended the AVR freight service to Washburn. The BAR still hauls freight to and through Washburn.
The town water system was built in 1915 with a large reservoir located on Stairs' Hill. The privately-owned company was purchased by the town in 1979 when the system was renovated and modernized. The present sewer system was not constructed until 1922, the same year in which the Aroostook Valley Railroad moved its tracks from the street to an area behind the Main Street buildings and parallel to the tracks of the Bangor & Aroostook. Construction will commence this summer on a modern water treatment system to bring the sewer system up to standards set by federal and state Environmental Protection Agencies.
A public library was organized in 1917, and the Washburn Memorial Library was constructed and opened in February 1950. A large addition, virtually doubling the size of the original building was completed in 1988.
Most of the early residents of Washburn seem to have been either Baptist or Congregational in their religious preference. Over the years, though, other denominations became represented and churches founded. The First Baptist Church was organized in 1871 and its building completed in 1880. The Advent Christian Church in Crouseville was established in 1860 and its church structure built in 1885. The Lidstone Methodist Church was organized in 1893, began construction in 1894, and completed in addition in 1912. The Pentecostal Church originated in 1915 with their building dedicated on Easter Sunday, 1917. Growth required remodeling and expansion at a later date. A small group of catholic families purchased the old Mormon Church building on Main Street and moved it to a lot donated by Dr. McManus beside his home on Salmon Brook in 1922. In 1968, the old building was demolished and construction of the present St. Catherine's Mission Chapel begun, with the dedication the following spring.
The town manager form of government was voted with Woodbury Brackett as the first manager from 1933 to 1936. He was followed by Edward Peterson (1936-37), Herman Bell (1937-43), Arnold Ballard (1943-45). Then Milford Blackstone served 27 years from 1943 to 1972, and was succeeded by the present manager, Sheldon Richardson.
Early in World War II, the government needed dehydrated potatoes for the armed services. Harry Umphrey assisted the McCormack Company in the establishment of a dehydrating plant in Washburn. He also felt that potatoes could be frozen successfully using the method developed by Clarence Birdseye. He contacted the Maxon Food System of New York. After a poor start, technical changes were made, and in 1949, the business was purchased by Aroostook Potato Growers, Inc., and re-named Taterstate. (More in a 1965 newspaper article about Taterstate founders and history)
The Umphrey family continued operation until 1966, when it was sold to Agway, Inc., and the Maine Potato Growers, Inc. After eight years of operation. the plant was sold to McCain's Ltd., of New Brunswick. They, in a reorganization of their company, closed the plant for two years, then re-opened in 1984 to pack frozen peas and also fresh packed potatoes.
The R.T. French company purchased land on the River Road and in 1974-75 built a large manufacturing plant for potato products. It was operated pretty much to capacity until 1978, when marketing conditions caused a shutdown. The Johnson Products Company operated the plant in 1981-82, and it was again idle until January 1988, when Penobscot Frozen Foods purchased the plant and began operations.
Another indication of growth in the town has been the construction of two 24-unit apartment complexes for the housing of the elderly and low- and moderate-income persons, built on land at the end of Wilder Street.
As the town grew, especially during the early 1900s, the residents were very active in fraternal orders and clubs, such as Masons, Eastern Star, Odd Fellows, Rebekahs, American Legion, Rotary, and as an agricultural community, the Grange. Many public-spirited citizens have, over the years served the community well and helped it to grow. Young people have completed their education in Washburn schools, and have gone on to higher institutions and then into successful careers which have emphasized the values developed in their "small town" background. For many years, Ray H. Carter, teacher, farmer, historian, and lifelong resident of Washburn, worked on the production of a history of "his town." Ray died in the summer of 1988, but not before seeing the finished production of his book. "An Informal History of Washburn," published by the Kennebec River Press, Inc., in 1987. As the name implies, the book is an informal narrative of life in a small town, discussing all the pleasures, joys and difficulties of the times. The book has been used as a reference for much of the material here presented.
Editors note [from newspaper]: Information for Washburn's town history was compiled by Mr. Norton Dempsey of the Salmon Brook Historical Society.
[written winter 1988-1989]
