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The 1790 United States census listed twelve persons named Hamilton in Berwick,
York County, Maine. Only the heads of households were identified by name.
The columns list, from left to right: (1) free white males 16 and over in the
family; (2) free white males under 16 in the family; (3) free white females
in the family; (14) all other free persons, including colored; and (5) slaves.
Jonathan 1 1 1 0 0 Silas 1 0 2 0 0
Millet 1 1 2 0 0 Joseph 2 0 3 0 0
Jonathan 3 5 6 1 0 Solomon 2 1 5 0 0
John 2 1 7 0 0 Jonas 2 3 4 0 0
Simeon 1 1 6 0 0 Abial 1 0 0 0 0
Reuben 1 1 1 0 0 Jonathan 1 0 2 0 0
EARLY SETTLEMENT ON THE NEWICHAWANNOCK
Before the white man came to New England, the coastal area was covered with
virgin timber. The primeval forest consisted of red oak, scarlet oak, white
oak, white pine, and pitch pine in great abundance. Yellow birch, white ash,
and hemlock also grew there. The Salmon Falls River, Fresh Creek, and all
the little brooks abounded with salmon, shad, striped bass, and alewives.
Among the many animals which inhabited the area were bear, raccoon, martin,
fisher, weasel, otter, beaver, snowshoe hare, rabbit, timber wolf, mountain
lion, cougar, Canadian lynx, bobcat, caribou, and moose. Deer were not
abundant because they were easy prey for the large predators. The snowshoe
hare and the rabbit were more important sources of food for the Indians,
because they were easy to trap. Their garments were made from deer, caribou,
moose, and beaver, with raccoon and martin used for trim. The skins of the
arge predators were used for bedding.
The Indians who inhabited the area were members of the Algonquin family whose
lands included all of New England and extended all the way to Hudson Bay.
The Newichawannock Indians, who were part of the Pennacook Confederacy, lived
the present town of Rollinsford, near Salmon Falls. Indian trails connected
his area with the present city of Dover.
At the head of the tidewater on the Salmon River are waterfalls which the
Indians called Quamphegan. The water below these falls the Indians called
Newichawannock. The river above the falls, where the salt water did not
rise, the early settlers called the Salmon Falls River because of the many
salmon who swam upstream from the ocean to spawn in the fresh water above.
It was at Salmon Falls that the first water-powered sawmill in New England
was established. It was here that seventeen Scottish prisoners, among them
David Hambleton, were sold into slavery for thirty pounds each.
On the west bank of the Newichawannock is an area known as “the Sligo,”
from the town in Ireland by the same name. It is derived from the Irish
word “sligeach,” which means a river where shells are deposited. The first
permanent white settler of this area was James Stackpole, who came from
Sligo. The exact date of his immigration is not known. By 1666 the area
was permanently inhabited and twenty-one taxpayers were named in the Town
of Dover assessments. Among the settlers was David Hambleton, who later
obtained title, in 1669, to his twenty acres of land on the Newichawannock.
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