Phippsburg, Maine
Encyclopedia
Phippsburg is a town
New England town
The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in other states, but are incorporated, possessing powers like cities in other...

 in Sagadahoc County
Sagadahoc County, Maine
Sagadahoc County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. As of 2010, the population was 35,293. Its county seat is Bath. In total area, it is the smallest county in Maine....

, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, on the west side of the mouth of the Kennebec River
Kennebec River
The Kennebec River is a river that is entirely within the U.S. state of Maine. It rises in Moosehead Lake in west-central Maine. The East and West Outlets join at Indian Pond and the river then flows southward...

. The population was 2,106 at the 2000 census. It is within the Portland
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...

South Portland
South Portland, Maine
South Portland is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, and is the fourth-largest city in the state. Founded in 1895, as of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,002. Known for its working waterfront, South Portland is situated on Portland Harbor and overlooks the skyline of...

Biddeford
Biddeford, Maine
Biddeford is a town in York County, Maine, United States. It is the largest town in the county, and is the sixth-largest in the state. It is the most southerly incorporated town in the state and the principal commercial center of York County. The population was 21,277 at the 2010 census...

, Maine metropolitan statistical rea
Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area
The Portland–South Portland–Biddeford Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as Greater Portland, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of three counties in Maine, anchored by the city of Portland and the smaller cities of South Portland and Biddeford...

. A tourist destination, Phippsburg is home to Bates
Bates College
Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...

-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, Fort Popham State Historic Site
Fort Popham
Fort Popham is a coastal defense land battery at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Phippsburg, Maine. It is located in sight of the short-lived Popham Colony and, like the colony, named for George Popham, the colony's leader...

, it is also home to the Fort Baldwin
Fort Baldwin
Fort Baldwin is a coastal defense land battery near the mouth of the Kennebec River in Phippsburg, Maine, United States. It was named after Jeduthan Baldwin, an engineer for the Colonial army during the American Revolution. The fort was constructed between 1905 and 1912 and originally consisted of...

 which overlooks Fort Popham, and Popham Beach State Park, as well as Pond Island National Wildlife Refuge
Pond Island National Wildlife Refuge
Pond Island National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge in the state of Maine. It is one of the five refuges that together make up the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, along with Petit Manan, Cross Island, Franklin Island, and Seal Island.Pond Island NWR has a surface...

. The town includes part of Winnegance
Winnegance, Maine
Winnegance is an area which includes parts of the towns of West Bath, Phippsburg, and the city of Bath, Maine, United States. It is located in Sagadahoc County, near Winnegance Lake and Winnegance Creek....

.

History

Site of the Popham Colony
Popham Colony
The Popham Colony was a short-lived English colonial settlement in North America that was founded in 1607 and located in the present-day town of Phippsburg, Maine near the mouth of the Kennebec River by the proprietary Virginia Company of Plymouth...

, Phippsburg was — between 1607 and 1608 — the first English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 settlement attempted in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

. During its brief existence, colonists built Virginia of Sagadahoc, the first ship in Maine's long history of shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...

.

The next British settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec River
Kennebec River
The Kennebec River is a river that is entirely within the U.S. state of Maine. It rises in Moosehead Lake in west-central Maine. The East and West Outlets join at Indian Pond and the river then flows southward...

 began in 1653; Thomas Atkins, a fisherman
Fisherman
A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...

, purchased from the sachem
Sachem
A sachem[p] or sagamore is a paramount chief among the Algonquians or other northeast American tribes. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms from different Eastern Algonquian languages...

 Mowhotiwormet, commonly called Chief Robinhood, the southern end of Phippsburg (with the exception of Popham). Atkins Bay bears his name. The population gradually increased until King Philip's War
King Philip's War
King Philip's War, sometimes called Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. The war is named after the main leader of the...

, when Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 in August 1676 attacked the eastern side of the Kennebec River, massacring and scalping
Scalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...

 the colonists, or else carrying them into captivity. Dwellings were burned and stocks of cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

 killed. The entire area was abandoned.

Resettlement commenced in 1679 at Newtown, located on the southern end of Arrowsic Island
Arrowsic, Maine
Arrowsic is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. The population was 477 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area. During the French and Indian Wars, Arrowsic was site of a succession of important and...

 (across the river from present-day Phippsburg Center). About 1684, Francis Small
Francis Small
Francis Small was an enterprising trader and landowner residing primarily in Kittery, Maine. He made the first recorded land purchase in what is now Maine, and proceeded to amass so much that he was called "the great landholder." He possessed the largest number of acres of anyone who ever lived...

 had a trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....

 at Cape Small, which bears his name. But in 1689 the area was again destroyed and deserted during King William's War
King William's War
The first of the French and Indian Wars, King William's War was the name used in the English colonies in America to refer to the North American theater of the Nine Years' War...

. With the Treaty of Portsmouth
Treaty of Portsmouth (1713)
The Treaty of Portsmouth, signed on July 13, 1713, ended hostilities between Eastern Abenakis with the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The agreement renewed a treaty of 1693 the Indians had made with Governor William Phips, two in a series of attempts to establish peace between Indians and...

 in 1713, conflict was formally ended between the Abenaki Indians and English settlements. In 1714, Newtown was reestablished, then incorporated in 1716 as Georgetown-on-Arrowsic by the Massachusetts General Court
Massachusetts General Court
The Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the Colonial Era, when this body also sat in judgment of judicial appeals cases...

. Also in 1716, the Pejepscot Proprietors established a little fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 village called Augusta at the Small Point Harbor area of Phippsburg. Dr. Oliver Noyes, director of the colony, erected a stone fort 100 feet (30 meters) square to protect it. In 1717, Governor Samuel Shute
Samuel Shute
Samuel Shute was a military officer and royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. After serving in the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession, he was appointed by King George I as governor of Massachusetts in 1716...

 held a conference at Georgetown-on-Arrowsic with tribal delegates, who arrived in a flotilla of canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...

s and encamped on Lee Island.

But in summer of 1723 during Dummer's War
Dummer's War
Dummer's War , also known as Lovewell's War, Father Rale's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the 4th Indian War or the Wabanaki-New England War of 1722–1725, was a series of battles between British settlers of the three northernmost British colonies of North America of the time and the...

, the Norridgewock
Norridgewock
The Norridgewock were a band of the Abenaki Native Americans/First Nations, an Eastern Algonquian tribe of the United States and Canada. The tribe occupied an area in Maine to the west and northwest of the Penawapskewi tribe, which was located on the western bank of the Penobscot River...

s and 250 of their Indian allies from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, incited by the French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

 Sebastien Rale
Sébastien Rale
Sébastien Rale, , , was a Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who worked among the eastern Abenaki people, but became caught up in political and military struggles between New France, New England and the natives, which would claim his life during Dummer's War.-Early years:Born in Pontarlier, France,...

, attacked the area. Again it was deserted, with the stone fort destroyed. Governor William Dummer
William Dummer
William Dummer was Acting Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1723 to 1728.-Family:Dummer was born in Boston and died in Newbury, Massachusetts, the son of Jeremiah Dummer, the first American born silversmith, and Anna Atwater...

's Treaty of 1725 restored peace, and in 1737 an attempt was made to resettle Cape Small Point. The boundaries of Georgetown-on-Arrowsic were enlarged to encompass most of present-day Phippsburg, Bath
Bath, Maine
Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 9,266. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County. Located on the Kennebec River, Bath is a port of entry with a good harbor. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its...

 (which then included West Bath
West Bath, Maine
West Bath is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,798 at the 2000 census. A sub-locality of West Bath is Winnegance...

), Woolwich
Woolwich, Maine
Woolwich is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,810 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area...

 and Georgetown
Georgetown, Maine
Georgetown is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,020 at the 2000 census. Home to Reid State Park, the town is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area...

.

Slow resettlement of the Phippsburg peninsula found ten farms along the Kennebec River by 1751, with five more on the Casco Bay
Casco Bay
Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth...

 side. But the districts gathered into Georgetown-on-Arrowsic began splitting away; in 1759, Woolwich withdrew, followed in 1781 by Bath. In 1814, Phippsburg was set off and incorporated. The original petition requested that it be named Dromore
Dromore
- Places :* Dromore, Ontario, Canada* Dromore , a crater in the Lunae Palus quadrangle of Mars- Other :* Bishop of Dromore, named for the town in County Down; the pre-Reformation antecedent of:** Roman Catholic Diocese of Dromore...

 after one of the town's oldest sections, but Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 chose instead to honor one of its royal governors, Sir William Phips
William Phips
Sir William Phips was a shipwright, ship's captain, treasure hunter, military leader, and the first royally-appointed governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay....

 — actually a native of Woolwich.

Between 1842 and 1890, wooden ships were built at Phippsburg. It also had numerous tidal mills.

During the Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...

, Popham Beach developed into a resort area, with steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...

s transporting excursionists from Bath. Today, the town's principal industries are fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 and tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

.

Phippsburg was the site of the discovery, in 1971, of the Spirit Pond runestones
Spirit Pond runestones
The Spirit Pond runestones are three stones with runic inscriptions, allegedly found at Spirit Pond in Phippsburg, Maine in 1971 by a Walter J. Elliott, Jr., a carpenter born in Bath, Maine. The stones, currently housed at the Maine State Museum, are widely dismissed as a hoax or a fraud...

, purported evidence of pre-Columbian European exploration of North America, considered widely a hoax by academics. The three stones were found by Walter J. Elliot, Jr., a carpenter from Bath, Maine
Bath, Maine
Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 9,266. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County. Located on the Kennebec River, Bath is a port of entry with a good harbor. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its...

. The runestones are now in the possession of the Maine State Museum
Maine State Museum
The Maine State Museum is the official Maine government's museum and is located at 230 State Street, adjacent to the Maine State House, in Augusta. The State Museum has a large collection of Maine-related topics. The Lion is displayed at the museum and is the oldest American-made locomotive in New...

 in Augusta, Maine
Augusta, Maine
Augusta is the capital of the US state of Maine, county seat of Kennebec County, and center of population for Maine. The city's population was 19,136 at the 2010 census, making it the third-smallest state capital after Montpelier, Vermont and Pierre, South Dakota...

.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the town has a total area of 43.9 square miles (113.7 km²), of which, 28.9 square miles (74.9 km²) of it is land and 15.1 square miles (39.1 km²) of it (34.29%) is water. Connected to Bath
Bath, Maine
Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 9,266. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County. Located on the Kennebec River, Bath is a port of entry with a good harbor. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its...

 by a bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...

 and causeway
Causeway
In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...

 over Winnegance Creek and sharing a border with West Bath to the east of Winnegance, Phippsburg is on a peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

 dividing the Kennebec River
Kennebec River
The Kennebec River is a river that is entirely within the U.S. state of Maine. It rises in Moosehead Lake in west-central Maine. The East and West Outlets join at Indian Pond and the river then flows southward...

 from Casco Bay
Casco Bay
Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth...

 in the Gulf of Maine
Gulf of Maine
The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America.It is delineated by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and Cape Sable at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northeast. It includes the entire coastlines of the U.S...

, part of the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

.

Phippsburg is crossed by state routes 209, 216 and 217. Separated by water, the peninsula is near the towns of Harpswell to the west, West Bath
West Bath, Maine
West Bath is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,798 at the 2000 census. A sub-locality of West Bath is Winnegance...

 to the northwest, Bath
Bath, Maine
Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 9,266. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County. Located on the Kennebec River, Bath is a port of entry with a good harbor. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its...

 to the north, Arrowsic
Arrowsic, Maine
Arrowsic is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. The population was 477 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area. During the French and Indian Wars, Arrowsic was site of a succession of important and...

 to the northeast, and Georgetown
Georgetown, Maine
Georgetown is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,020 at the 2000 census. Home to Reid State Park, the town is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area...

 to the east.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 2,106 people, 859 households, and 622 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 73.0 people per square mile (28.2/km²). There were 1,554 housing units at an average density of 53.8 per square mile (20.8/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.53% White, 0.28% African American, 0.24% Native American, 0.24% Asian, and 0.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.57% of the population.

There were 859 households out of which 28.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.5% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 5.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.5% were non-families. 21.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.82.
In the town the population was spread out with 22.4% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 26.5% from 25 to 44, 30.7% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 105.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.7 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $46,739, and the median income for a family was $53,631. Males had a median income of $33,214 versus $26,250 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the town was $22,205. About 5.8% of families and 9.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.8% of those under age 18 and 14.4% of those age 65 or over.

Sites of interest


External links

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