When was camden maine established

The prosperity of Camden came from the sea: from shipbuilding and ship provisioning, from sea captains and ship owners shipping fish and timber to Great Britain and France. But during the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain and France prohibited trade with each other and both seized American ships that did so. President Thomas Jefferson levied an embargo, confining all ships to port.

New England commerce came to a halt; seamen were out of work; lumber sat on the shore; fish rotted. Many ships eluded the customs officials and sailed to foreign ports illegally. British ships seized American ships and pressed Americans into service in the British Navy. A second embargo caused an economic depression.

The War of followed. In , Maine became the 23rd state in the Union as part of the Missouri Compromise. Joseph Stetson established the Stetson Shipyard at the head of the harbor and built 70 vessels over 20 years.

A woolen mill and a paper mill went up along the Megunticook River. The first steamboats began operating on Penobscot Bay in Great religious revivals held along the coast from the s through the s led to large increases in church membership.

The First Congregational Church, which had met in the town meetinghouse since , built its building in The Chestnut Street Baptist Church was built in The Methodist Church was built on Mechanic Street in And St. Thomas Episcopal Church was established in in a meetinghouse on Mountain Street.

In the s, the lime industry flourished from Camden to Rockland. The quarries in Rockland and Rockport were the deepest open-pit quarries in the world. Burned lime was crushed to powder, loaded into barrels, and shipped all over the world to be used for mortar, plaster, and many other products. A mill on the Megunticook mixed saltpeter and brimstone to make blasting powder for the quarries.

David Knowlton established a machine shop on the river to make capstans, cargo winches, windlasses, steering wheels, and dead-eyes for rigging ships.

And the Megunticook Grist Mill ground 35, bushels of grain a year. Shipping and shipbuilding made Camden prosperous before the Civil War. Ships built in Camden, or in any of the towns along the coast of Maine, were the pride of America in harbors all over the world. Ship captains from Camden sailed to the four corners of the world, not only well traveled, but also well read, for they all had extensive libraries on board.

Bean were two of the most profile builders. The Bean Yard built the second five-masted schooner. JOHN B. Twenty years later the yard was brought to life for World War II. After WWII, another company was formed, and from it constructed 31 custom-built yachts. On the three-mile Megunticook River, there were dams making water power enough to run woolen mills.

It had the largest payroll in town for many years. The Camden Anchor Works, run by the Alden family, began business in and it became the largest plant of its kind in the country. Their anchors were famous and traveled on stately ships that sailed all over the world. Their blazing fires and ringing trip hammers were seen and heard for miles across the Penobscot Bay.

In it was sold. The Knowlton Bros. Foundry manufactured just about anything needed for vessels, including pumps, blocks, winches, windlasses derricks, dead eyes, etc. These were purchased not only by Camden builders but orders from everywhere. Tibbetts Industries employed many who worked making small electronic parts, and Camden had several smaller industries.

Around Camden harbor there are lobster men, fishermen and the windjammers sailing weekly, as well as some day trippers. Pratt was a sympathizer with the colonists during the American Revolution and the town was named after him in honor of his active support of the American Colonists. During the first years of the town's existence, Camden Maine had a prosperous economy due to numerous industries such as lime production, ship building, anchor manufacturing, and wool manufacturing.

The profitable lime industry was located in Goose River nearby. Goose River separated from Camden in and became a town itself now called Rockport. This deprived Camden from the lime industry profits, as well as the territory of Goose River itself. In , the Camden business district suffered a damaging fire as the downtown area was nearly burned down. The fire started in a three-story wooden building on Main Street known as the "George H. Cleveland" block. Most of the downtown business district was destroyed, and once the smoke had cleared and the town fathers had time to consider the matter, they decided to rebuild in brick rather than wood.

However, apparently George Cleveland, in whose three-story building the fire had started, did not wait for such a decision, because almost before the smoke had cleared, he was busy putting up another wooden building on his property, and he soon opened a store there to meet the needs of a community suddenly deprived of most of its normal sources of supplies.

Today, much of the admiration for Camden's idyllic main street and downtown business district is due to the fortuitous decison to rebuild most of its downtown buildings in brick after the fire of Camden as a Summer Resort Destination. Today, sprawling estates and mansions can be seen all over Camden many of these estates have been converted into bed and breakfast inns.

During the late s to the early s, these families also showed generosity towards the town itself and contributed much to the further development of Camden.

As a result, the town gradually developed into a summer vacation destination, tourist hotspot and resort town, and even a retirement community.

Camden also has a large fleet of tall-masted schooners called " Windjammers ", a type of merchant sailing ship used in the 19th to 20th century, their type recognizable through their large masts and sails.

These windjammers are part of the legacy of Captain Frank Swift who started the leisure cruise schooner business in the s in Camden. For people visiting the town, Camden Maine offers a lot of activities and good places to see.