This photo was taken at the corner of Main and Pleasant Street near the outlet dam. Shown is the Cummings sawmill on the site of the mill established by Capt. Henry Rust. The small cape style home on the right is possibly the first frame dwelling in town and built by Samuel Ames. The home was later sold and moved out of the village.
This is an illustration of the first home in Norway from The History of Norway, Maine, by William B. Lapham. The drawing was made by Sydney Stevens, grandson of the builder, Joseph Stevens
The settlement of what is now Norway began in either 1785 or 1786. There seems to be some controversy as the David Noyes account states that the group of settlers arrived in 1786 and the Lapham history cites the Stevens family assertion that they arrived in 1785. In any case, it appears that a group of seven men from the Gray-New Gloucester area entered upon land that would become known, initially, as Rustfield and began preparations for establishing homesteads.
At that time, this was a heavily wooded area without roads or permanent residents. The men set to work. Trees were cut, land was cleared and housing locations were determined. During this time of preparation, the families of these men resided in the area known as No. 4 that would become the Town of Paris. The plan was that they would move their families in the spring and summer of the next year. At this point, these pioneers were squatters and would need to eventually purchase the properties from Captain Henry Rust who was deeded the land in 1787 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In May, Joseph Stevens was the first to complete his simple home: a 16 x 20 foot two room dwelling. From Paris, he, his wife and three of their children had to walk to the foot of the lake. They, then, traveled by boat to where they camped for the night before continuing on to their new home the next day. The Stevens family had one day to enjoy their new residence before George Lessley moved in with his family. A month later, Amos Hobbs and his family arrived and moved in. The house was still only 16 x 20 ft. and there were six adults and a large number of children living there. Oh, yes, it was also black fly season. And you think the holidays are tough when your relatives arrive for the day. It seems that Joseph Stevens most likely did arrive in 1785 as his preparations were significantly more advanced than those of the other men.
The Town of Paris was a bit ahead of Norway as a saw mill and grist mill had already been established on Stony Brook and there was accommodation available for the families of the Rustfield pioneers. It would be two years before a mill was established in Rustfield and, until then, grain would need to be carried to the mill on Stony Brook for grinding. According to the Noyes History of Norway, Captain Rust, appreciating the importance of sawn lumber and ground grain to settlers, constructed a saw mill and grist mill in the spring and fall of 1789. Samuel Ames (grandfather of Capt. Ames the owner of the steamboat, Pennesseewassee,) moved his family from No. 4 (Paris), to operate the Rust grist mill for more than forty years. The Ames family inhabited a small cabin erected near the mill until a frame home was built. Theirs was the first home built in what is now Norway Village.
Henry Rust was very serious about settling this area of Maine and sought to make the difficult lives of the early residents a bit more comfortable. Many of the families that relocated here had very little money and were permitted to pay for the land by working for Capt. Rust. Their work, at the rate of fifty cents per day, went toward the purchase of land at fifty cents per acre. Realizing how basic was the lifestyle of these early settlers, Capt. Rust purchased a fair number of window sashes and distributed them to the homesteaders so each home would have one or two windows. These were the first glass windows in town and offered a nice alternative to a board shutter over an opening in an outside wall.
Eventually a settlement with mills was established at Steep Falls, now just a short distance by road from the head of the lake. At that time it was a separate village. As you can see, the town began growing in three separate areas until the expanding settlements merged into one.
For more information on the early days of Norway, you are referred to the David Noyes History of Norway and the William B. Lapham History of Norway, Maine. Keep watching this column for more history of Norway.
The Norway Museum and Historical Society is now open to the public on Tuesday from 1 – 4 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. – 12 noon. Feel free to come in and tour the exhibits or conduct research of a local nature.
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