Town names in Maine

In a recent post, I referred to Mexico--meaning Mexico, Maine. Maine is a state of vast and varied natural beauty with an interesting and eclectic population but the original settlers did not spend too much time coming up with town names. To give them credit, getting rocks out of the fields and stocking enough food and wood to get through the winter must have been time consuming.

Maine contains many towns named for countries or ancient cities. My town is bordered by Peru, Mexico and Carthage. Nearby, we have the towns of Paris, China, Poland, Denmark, Belgrade, Madrid, Naples, Athens and Rome.

Dixfield was originally named Holmantown after a prominent family but, legend has it, a doctor named Dr. Elijah Dix told the townsfolks that he would build them a library if they would re-name the town after him. The library never materialized but eventually Dr. Dix did send the town a box of dusty medical textbooks printed in German.

At least those towns have names--there are also many townships that don't have names at all. The picture above shows the sign for Township E. Not surprisingly, it is bordered by Township D.