19th century Maps of Whitefield

Aside the assorted plot plans by various surveyors, our first actual town map was created by selectman / tax collector Eliakim Scammon in 1816. It was drawn on calf or sheepskin parchment . He drew two maps - East of the Sheepscot River and West of the Sheepscot. Only the map of the East side survives today. This wonderful tool has a long and colorful history.

The Rev. Scammon was a remarkable man in that he was not only chosen to be one of the very first team of 1809 selectman (after marring another selectman's beautiful daughter) at such a young age, but that he chose to survey the town , producing one of the earliest tax maps of the rural regions Maine. This map gave teeth to the edict that he had registered in the courthouse in Wiscasset warning that those Whitefield landowners who were trying to evade paying their taxes on the notion that no one knew where or how much land they owned was now well documented.

For years these original maps were passed among townspeople ( loaned as it were, from the selectmen) who were interested in lumbering.

Sometime in the later part of the century the town had the map redrawn into a single version - this "Scammon Plan" was a composite of the earlier version and any revisions made later - It became quite a historic instrument, indeed it became so controversial in it's un-updated state, that it became reason enough to sabotage any effort to create a new "tax map" right up into the 1950's.

The original parchment was discovered in such a delicate and perilous condition that it was transferred to the Osher Map Library at USM for safekeeping and eventual reconstruction. Rudimentary digital images were made from it and can be accessed here.

The famous Chance 1857 subscription wall map of Lincoln County includes valuable data in that homeowners are listed - The Whitefield section can bee seen here also.

Original Scammon Manuscript             Scammon Plan              1857 Whitefield map