weet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain.”

Somewhere in the past, it’s likely that someone admired that line from the poetry of Oliver Goldsmith, and that vision of a lovely village became the name of the shiretown of Androscoggin County.

It’s an idea put forth in our history books, and it’s taught in our schools, along with the earlier chronicles of this area that was set apart from Minot and once called Bakerstown.

But it’s a rather vague assumption. Suggestions also have been made that the name is tied to Aubourn, a city in Lincolnshire, England.

The line from Goldsmith is a nice description to be associated with the western sibling of the Androscoggin River’s Twin Cities. However, the pleasant image in the poem by the famous writer of the late 1700s is tarnished a bit with the realization that the poem’s title is “The Deserted Village.” It deals with the departure of a working class population and the growth of luxury “where wealth accumulates and men decay.”

Read whatever you like into the naming Auburn, it’s interesting to think about the sources of our Androscoggin County names. There’s a series of booklets written by Ava Harriet Chadbourne in 1957, “Maine Place Names,” that give us some clues.

More often than not, town names honored noted residents or national figures.

Turner was the 47th town to be incorporated in Maine, but that came quite a while after its rather slow start at establishing a population. Chadbourne says the Massachusetts General Court granted a very large township to Captain James Sylvester and his company for their services in the expedition against Canada in 1690.

When a divisional line with New Hampshire was drawn, that grant was lost and the court made up for it by granting the land which is located north of Auburn. It specified in 1765 that a meeting house should be built and 30 families settled there within six years.

Chadbourne’s book says, “The proprietors were so remiss that the first trees were not felled until 1774.” Only three families had come.

Eventually, bounties were paid to settle and growth increased. The town was incorporated in 1786 and named for the Rev. Charles Turner of Scituate, Mass., who preached there and was well respected.

Greene, originally known as Littleborough, was named to honor Maj. Gen. Greene of the Continental Army, who was called, next to George Washington, the greatest soldier the American Revolutionary War produced.

At the time the town was incorporated in 1788, there was a petition to name it Greenland.

Livermore was named for Deacon Elija Livermore, a proprietor and early settler. The town was originally called Port Royal because it was granted to certain persons for services in the French and Indian War in the expedition against Port Royal in Nova Scotia.

A lot of political maneuvering apparently went into the naming of some Maine towns.

Lisbon was incorporated in 1799 as Thompsonborough in honor of the town’s early family that owned much of it. That name wasn’t satisfactory to some residents, who disapproved of what they perceived as unpatriotic views of Gen. Samuel Thompson. They successfully petitioned to have the name changed to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.

That’s a few of the sources of names for the towns in Androscoggin County.

There are some interesting stories about the others, too. Was Poland named for the European kingdom or for the Indian chief Poland? Is Mechanic Falls an obvious choice for a successful small industrial community? What about Durham, Leeds, Wales and Webster?

There’s much more to cover in future columns.