Turner’s celebration of the Fourth of July this year included observance of the town’s 225th anniversary. This beautiful town on the west bank of the Androscoggin River has a proud history, as well as a fascinating period of settlement in the century before its formal incorporation.

In fact, its earliest grant to proprietors by the Massachusetts court erroneously placed the land in New Hampshire.

It all began when the Seven Years War among several European nations boiled over into North American conflicts between the English and French known as the French and Indian Wars. Raiding parties had nearly wiped out settlements throughout Maine and in 1690 the Massachusetts Bay Colony mounted an expedition of 32 ships and 2,000 soldiers to attack Quebec City.

Among them was a small volunteer force led by Capt. Joseph Sylvester. He and some of his men were among 200 English fatalities. The attack on Quebec failed, but the custom at the time was to award land grants to loyal followers. It took about 45 years, but the Great and General Court of Massachusetts granted a township to be known as Sylvester-Canada to the company’s members and heirs. It was found that the location was on the New Hampshire side of the two states’ disputed border, so another location was chosen “eastward of the Saco River.” All this had taken 75 years to sort out, but in 1765 the grant was ready for confirmation and eventual settlement by 30 families.

The township’s boundaries were described as “Beginning at a place in Androscoggin River called Crooked Repels, six miles as the river runs above Androscoggin Great Falls which is the easterly corner of Baker’s Town (the early name of Auburn, Minot and Poland).” It gave some other map directions, including “a stake with some stones about it.”

These historical details were written by James E. Philoon, a respected Auburn attorney and historian. The Lewiston Evening Journal published a series of his articles on Turner in the summer of 1955.

Philoon described many other experiences of the pioneers who settled Turner. He called the region “a howling wilderness” and he told about the “spotted trails” where slices of bark off trees showed the way through the forest. The trails were only for foot travel and small streams were crossed on fallen logs. Boggy areas were crossed by cutting small trees and laying them “corduroy fashion.”

Before long, it was necessary to widen the trail to allow passage of ox carts, a necessity for farms.

Settlers often came by boat to Falmouth (Portland) and then walked to New Gloucester, around the west shore of Wilson Pond (Lake Auburn), over Dillingham Hill. The Little Androscoggin River was the principal obstacle, and it was many years before a bridge was constructed.

The proprietors were also faced with an unusual problem with trespassers. Philoon wrote that men came up the Androscoggin when it froze in the winter to cut the most valuable pine trees along the banks. The logs were floated downriver in the spring.

“They even had the affrontery of cutting and stacking the meadow hay during the summer for use as fodder for their teams used in the lumbering operations,” Philoon said.

It took a lot of work to establish early Turner. Some special bonuses and incentives were given to attract the required 30 first families, but it was accomplished.

According to Turner’s Web site, incorporation took place on July 7, 1786. At that time, Upper Street was the center of activity between a small cemetery and Bryant Road. This area had a meetinghouse, a tavern, a schoolhouse, and a stage coach route to the north.

Many farms were settled along the stage coach route. A little village called Bradford developed where the Nezinscot River crossed the route.

Another settlement, Turner Village, soon developed a little to the west of Bradford Village.

So, to the residents of the Town of Turner, Happy 225th birthday.