Before even being named, the land grant which was to become Standish was given to captains Humphrey Hobbs and Moses Pearson as a reward for their services to the British Crown. The reward came from the Massachusetts General Court. Their rights were to settle some 22,640 acres and were granted the entourage of 120 men who had served in the Imperial forces who had served in the French & Indian Wars. In the beginning the township was called Pearson and Hobbs Town. Hobbs would sadly come down with the pox at Fort William Henry during the final tour of the Indian Wars which had plagued us at the time. For a time, it was called Pearsonstown.
As the land had previously been the stomping grounds of the Abenaki whose main village was Pequawket (now Fryeburg) there were frequent raids. The crude cabins built by the settlers were the subject of frequent raids and other hostilities. Four roads were laid out. These roads are still operable, Northwest Road becomes Oak Hill Road, Northeast Road runs along Sebago Lake, Southeast Road tracks to Gorham, and Southwest Road going to Buxton.
In response to the attacks, the veterans built a stockaded fort at Standish Corner. The fort was built at the crossing of the four roads. This gave the garrisoned soldiers an excellent range of sight. However, the problem was there was too much to see. The Standish guard was under near constant siege. Adding to their stress was the fact that the fort was built large enough to hold some 16 families, and a Meetinghouse. This resulted in cloistering.
One anecdote has one of their bravest Veterans sneaking out of the fort for to kill a moose – which he did. He brought back one quarter of the moose, and got help for the rest. The Indians, it is said, had taken away the rest. The Veterans were consoled to learn that nothing of the moose was wasted, as their families starved.
In the year 1756 appeals to the General Court of Massachusetts were answered. The result was a grant of $6.40/mo to be divided between the 16 families. The exchange would have been 22c a day. These dour conditions were to persist until the cessation of the French & Indian War. At this point, with the Indian raids lessened, the next 26 years would see a marked growth as homes, not just cabins, were built.
In 1783 the settlement went into an uproar when one day it received word from Massachusetts ordering the settlement to give proofs and good cause as to why they ought not be Incorporated. However, there were great numbers which did seek for incorporation. An appeal was made to relinquish some of the costs involved, which was allowed. The town was incorporated in 1785, and was given the name Standish for the Plymouth war hero, Captain Myles Standish.* One Edward Mussey (whose descendants run a neat little farm) was appointed to Legislature to represent the new Township. The first minister, Rev. John Thompson, had since been installed in 1768.
The time between 1785 and 1885 oversaw a great deal of growth. Access to the Saco River allowed transport of goods to and from Portland. Their plantation roots meant that despite the sandiness and stoniness of the soil, or “bony” as Old Stock still call it, great pains were taken to insure that the returns from the suffering of their forebears were good. In the wake of Independence, the township of Standish fluctuated greatly, changing plots with Gorham, Buxton and Raymond. Textiles, meals, lumber, as well as foodstuffs began coming out of Standish. So it went.
In the hundred years that passed Standish by following Independence, there were (ironically) a number of identitarian struggles (of a religious nature.) Standish was built by those who found God in the Meetinghouse. Today that house is called “The Old Red Church.” That was built to replace the old Meetinghouse which was damaged by drunken soldiers who were insufficiently dour and experiencing a temporary lapse in Puritanism. Separation from Massachusetts saw that Puritanical strains of Christianity began to slowly morph into something more naturally resembling the inclinations of the inhabitants. Remember; Maine was settled separately from the Bay Colony, and our State was not originally given to Puritanism, but rather took it as an export along with soldiers and guard from said Bay Colony. It was a default, but not the default position.
In the 1830s, Unitarianism began to spread in Standish. This led to Evangelicalism. Tensions rose between those who preferred the tenets of their respective forms of Christianity. The Evangelicals were going to build a religious academy, but the plans were dashed when one of the Board members appropriated a deleterious sum of funds.
Today in Standish are a few chunks of living history. There is the Paine District, in which the Colonial settlement pattern is still extant. There are a number of old taverns, whose construction lay has changed remarkably little in the times since they were built. There are several buildings which can date to 1795 – no mean feat for the lifespan of a house.
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* Captain Myles Standish was an English soldier whose primary role became administrative defence of the Plymouth Colony. This was an office he held for many years, despite the inclinations of moderate detractors. Captain Standish was regarded as a brave and efficient soldier, and favoured pre-emptive action. He was also known for unrelenting brutality in war, which seems to suggest somehow that war is a polite enterprise. Standish’s career was halted when his advances against the French were thwarted at Penobscot in 1635. He relinquished his office and retired to Duxbury, Mass, for to farm. This he did, in addition to acting as a military advisor for the Pilgrim Colony. It is said he never joined their Church. He had had two wives over the course of his life, Rose and Barbara Standish.
New England First 