In the late 1700’s the wilderness that was to become Lincolnville begins to be settled by emigrants from southern New England. Many are transient, staying only to hunt or trap or fish, and they move on after a few years. Others find life far from roads and towns too difficult. But a few stay.

In 1770 Nathan and Lydia Chamberlain Knight come north from Scarborough and build a log cabin overlooking the natural meadow which stretches from Norton to Coleman Ponds, becoming the first permanent settlers. The new settlement is known as Canaan Plantation. Their descendants still live on that land.

FIVE MEN SERVED IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR [started 1775]

Lincolnville is part of the Waldo Patent, a land grant of the King of England; after the Revolutionary War the Patent is owned by General Henry Knox of Thomaston. Knox’s agent in Lincolnville is George Ulmer, a rich and powerful mill owner at Ducktrap. Ulmer pressures the poverty-stricken settlers to pay Knox for their land, land which many of them think they are entitled to from their military service.

Angry settlers, refusing to pay Knox through Ulmer, sabotage George Ulmer’s property on several occasions by cutting his log booms in Ducktrap and setting his logs adrift all over the Bay.

The first school in Lincolnville is a three-sided log cabin with a perpendicular ledge for a fourth wall behind Nathan Knight’s home; the ledge serves for a blackboard.

Daniel and Azubah Gay Decrow come from Scituate, Massachusetts in 1788 to settle on the shore in the area known as Ducktrap Plantation.

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