The Sawmill That Helped Build Pearsontown

 

The Sawmill That Helped Build Pearsontown

Early in the history of the town, it was realized that one of the most important things needed for its development was a sawmill. A mill would supply boards and dimension lumber needed for the construction of houses and other buildings for the settlers. Accordingly, one of the actions taken at the first meeting of the Proprietors in 1752 was a vote to lay out to some person or persons a tract of land that included a stream for the purpose of building a mill.

Needless to say, because of the unsettled conditions at that time, it was neither practical nor feasible to carry out this plan until the end of hostilities with the Native people. Therefore, at a meeting held on January 21, 1762, the Proprietors chose a committee, with Moses Pearson as chairman,

“to look out a place for a sawmill and lay out 100 acres convenient for said mill for encouragement of such person or persons as shall undertake and give security for building said mill, said mill to be completed on or before the first of October next.”

Moses Pearson lost no time in putting the Proprietors’ plan into action. In a letter dated Falmouth (Portland), January 25, 1762, he wrote to Ebenezer Shaw and Daniel Cram of Hampton, New Hampshire, offering to give each of them a thirty-acre lot along one of the eight-rod roads in the town, as well as lots to any of their friends who would join them in the settlement.

Ebenezer Shaw, one of the men to whom the letter was addressed, was no stranger to Moses Pearson. At the age of eleven, following the death of his father, Shaw had been bound out to Pearson to learn the joiner’s (carpenter’s) trade. He lived with Pearson’s family in Falmouth (Portland) until he was twenty-one years old. He then returned to his former home in Hampton, New Hampshire, where he married and raised a large family.

It is therefore not surprising that when Moses Pearson was looking for someone to build a mill in Pearsontown, he remembered his former apprentice and sought to interest him in the undertaking.

The result was that Ebenezer Shaw and his oldest son, Josiah, came into town that same year, 1762, and built a sawmill in just nine days. The mill was located on the upper reaches of the North Branch of the Little River in the southern part of the town, at a location where several mills built by different members of the Shaw family would operate for many years.

On March 16, 1763, the Proprietors confirmed:

“to Ebenezer Shaw and heirs land and privilege on which he has built his mill.”

With the construction of the mill accomplished, the Proprietors met with greater success in attracting new settlers. It is evident that Ebenezer Shaw must have been instrumental in persuading many of his relatives, friends, and neighbors in New Hampshire to follow him and establish residences in the new community.

During the next few years, no less than sixteen men came from New Hampshire to settle in the wilderness. All but two were married and had families, and many were related by blood or marriage to Shaw and his wife. They left behind the comforts of civilization that were available in the older, more established communities of New England to begin new lives in Pearsontown.

Daniel Shaw, grandson of Ebenezer and son of Thomas Shaw, later wrote:

“They had a pretty hard time to make a living, but by working hard and being prudent they cleared their land and made themselves good farms, and most of them brought up large families of children and lived to be quite aged and respectable people.”

The earlier settlers in the township had generally been hunters, trappers, soldiers, and men of similar callings that suited them for life in the wilderness. However, many had little training in the trades and occupations necessary to create a more established community.

The new settlers from New Hampshire, on the other hand, were in most cases trained in a trade or occupation. They possessed the skills, experience, and ability needed to help promote the successful growth of the new township.

The arrival of these New Hampshire settlers helped change the character of the community. The sawmill provided much-needed lumber for construction, while the skills and determination of the new settlers provided the knowledge necessary to develop farms, businesses, and homes.

With the arrival of these sturdy New Hampshire families, the success of the settlement was greatly strengthened. Although its growth did not continue at as rapid a pace as had been hoped, and was slowed by the outbreak of the Revolutionary War about ten years later, the influence of these settlers provided the steadying foundation upon which the town could be built.

The story of Pearsontown’s first sawmill is therefore about more than the construction of a mill. It marks an important turning point in the history of the community—a moment when the settlement began to move beyond simply surviving in the wilderness and toward becoming a permanent town.

Taken from the unpublished History of Standish by Dana E. Edgecomb