Wilton’s Changing Names

Originally called Harrytown

by Charles Francis

Many Maine towns bear the name of a famous or heroic individual. There are towns named after presidents like Washington and Jefferson. There are towns named after important figures in Maine history like Lincoln, named after Governor Enoch Lincoln, and Coburn Gore, which bears the name of the influential Coburn family. Then there are towns that were named after individuals who made a name for themselves on the field of battle. Chamberlain pays tribute to Joshua Chamberlain. In like manner, the town which would become Wilton once paid tribute to a hero of the Indian Wars, Colonel William Tyng.

The town of Wilton was incorporated as such in 1803. Abraham Butterfield, one of the most substantial figures in the community, wanted it called Wilton. He was originally from Wilton, New Hampshire. Butterfield was also willing to pay the costs associated with incorporation.

Before Wilton became Wilton it was known as Tyngstown or more formerly as the Plantation of Tyng’s Township. Intriguingly, there was an even earlier name, Harrytown.

Harrytown was probably the oddest name ever chosen as a Maine place name. The reason for this was that it did not honor an individual who played an important role in the settlement of Maine or even in Maine history. Harrytown was named for a Native American leader who has gone down in the history books as an avowed enemy of the settlers of New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

There are some other points of note to be made about the use of the place names Tyngstown and Harrytown. Strictly speaking, they reference more than just the present town of Wilton. Tyngstown and Harrytown originally included a larger area which is sometimes referred to as the Tyngstownship grant and included much of modern-day Temple, New Sharon, and Farmington as well as a small area of New Hampshire.

There is a connection between Wil-

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liam Tyng and Harry. Tyng appears in the records as responsible for ending Harry’s life. He did it on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee.

William Tyng is best known for organizing the Chelmsford (Massachusetts) Snowshoe Patrol in 1703. At that time he was a militia captain and Queen Anne’s War had just erupted in New England as one of the many French and Indian wars that characterized the region during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Captain Tyng led his militia company on an attack of Harry’s Indians, who were camped at Lake Winnipesaukee late in 1703.

In 1785 the Massachusetts General Court created the Tyngstownship grant in recognition of the accomplishments of Captain Tyng and his Snowshoe Patrol. The grant was made to individuals identified as the 60 Proprietors. For the most part, they were the heirs of the members of Tyng’s militia company. Sometimes the grant is identified as that belonging to Captain William Tyng & Co., which is a bit misleading as it tends to imply that Tyng headed a corporation.

Solomon Adams is the individual usually credited with coming up with the name Harrytown. Adams explored the grant the year it was made. The first settler is usually identified as Samuel Butterfield. In 1790 Butterfield built a sawmill and grist mill in what is now East Wilton. The mills were on Wilson Stream which had a drop of some one hundred and fifty feet. Later Butterfield added a canal and developed a system of water power which led to Wilton’s first great economic boom, including the development of the first Bass shoe plant. It was Samuel Butterfield who called the settlement Tyngstown.

The development of Tyngstown wasn’t just a matter of people moving onto the grant. The Massachusetts General Court — as it did with all grants — included a number of stipulations

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that had to be met if the 60 Proprietors were to realize their formal ownership. These terms were typical of those made by the Court in the post-Revolutionary War period. At least thirty families had to settle in the township within six years. A school, as well as a church, had to be built. In addition, there had to be a Protestant minister of good standing to provide for the spiritual needs of the community.

Besides Samuel Butterfield, the early settlers of Tyngstown included Elisha Bass, Cyrus Blanchard, Adam Watt, and Ebenezer Brown. Like Samuel Butterfield, these other four individuals went on to become influential community members. They and others like them operated saw and grist mills, a cannery, and even a cotton mill. They also illustrated the diversity of the people who were settling the township.

Cyrus Blanchard, whose father had fought at Lexington, was a Baptist. So, too, was Ebenezer Brown, although he (cont. on page 38)

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(cont. from page 37)

differed from Blanchard in that he was a Free Will Baptist. (Brown was also a Baptist lay preacher.) Abraham Watt was a Quaker. Baptists and Quakers were a minority, however. The majority of settlers of Tyngstown were, like Elisha Bass, Congregationalist. There were also a small number of Methodists.

Possibly the biggest difference between Tyngstown and present-day Wilton was the community center. The first settlers lived for the most part in the eastern part of town, what today is East Wilton. Wilton Village, of course, would come to surpass the original center of Tyngstown.

Today it is hard to imagine a time when Wilton looked to New Hampshire and Massachusetts as the home of its founders. Yet that is the way it was when Wilton was Tyngstown and before that Harrytown.

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