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Belmont Maine's Historical Society and Schoolhouse

Greene Plantation Historical Society was organized in April 1989. In 1990, Marjorie and Yvonne Redman donated the Greer's Corner Schoolhouse. A one-room schoolhouse located on the corner of the Back Belmont and Lincolnville Roads. Building in trust, to be kept as a historical one-room schoolhouse. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service in October 1991.

It is the dream of the Greene Plantation Historical Society to have the restored schoolhouse as a beacon to schools across the State, and perhaps into neighboring towns and states, for students to come and experience what it was like to go to school around the turn of the Century. Several school groups have visited and enjoyed the one-room schoolhouse setting.

Besides having the schoolhouse, the Historical Society dreams of one-day having a separate building to house antiquities and office space. They would like to have displays of the past, without disturbing the one-room schoolhouse.

Greene Plantation once included the towns of Belmont, Morrill and Searsmont. Searsmont was set off as a Town in 1814, while Morrill (then called North Belmont) was a part of the Plantation until 1855. Each of the towns presently has its own historical society.

The colorful history of Greene Plantation includes a tale of settlers dressing as Indians to protest the officers attempting to serve "legal process" in "adopting measures that were oppressive and unjust." After a prominent settler had been arrested for an alleged violation of the law, he was taken to Belfast for the night, where he was held prisoner until he could be taken by boat to a jail at Castine.

Meanwhile, back in the Plantation of Greene, the settlers were peacefully sleeping, not even dreaming or thinking about Belfast village. There were reports that Indians were skulking about the outskirts of the village, and even a gunshot was reported. The prisoner told his keepers that they wouldn't keep him more than 15 minutes after midnight.

By morning, the Belfast villagers realized that they had "been taken". The Greene Indians so enjoyed the whole affair that Joseph Dolliff wrote a poem about it with many stanzas, which is recorded in history.

If you are interested in preserving the history of the little town of Belmont, and to revive the spirit of The Greene Indians, join the members in their efforts to gather historical photos, stories, and to restore the Greer's Corner One-room Schoolhouse. Officers are President and Treas. Mary J. Smith; Vice Pres. Sandra Buck, and Secretary (and Trustee) Isabel Morse Maresh. For more information, email mareshme@acadia.net or by mail to: Isabel Morse Maresh, 169 Howard Rd, Belmont, Maine 04952.