Maps and information for Maine
historical political boundaries
Change is the byword in investigation
of the population of Maine counties and minor civil divisions.
The territory now occupied by what we know as the state of Maine
has been under the jurisdiction of many tribes of First Nations
peoples, three European countries (France, Netherlands, Great Britain)
and briefly, even included a putative republic
in a small region of the valley of the St. John River in far Northern
Maine. After the United States declared its independence,
Maine was part of the state of Massachusetts, and so continued until
1820. From colonial times until 1984
its Northern and eastern boundaries were the subject of continual
international dispute, first with Great Britain, then with Canada.
Bringing us to the present, New Hampshire contested, in federal
court, the precise location of Maine's southern boundary.
The case was decided and then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court
which, on May
29, 2001, let stand earlier interpretations of the boundary.
Furthermore, county boundaries change,
cities and towns change their names, merge, annex others, split,
and dissolve. For example, Camden, Maine has been a member
of four counties since its beginnings in 1769, during which time
it has also had four names, and had a portion split off to form
another town. Besides the town named Washington presently
in Knox County, there have been several, now defunct, widely separated
communities of that name. Also, despite official definition
in law, there was a popular informality in what a political entity
is called and where its boundaries are located, especially in the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Therefore, beware of
assuming that a time series of population data for a given political
entity refers to exactly the same space on the Earth throughout
the time span.
  
(click on individual
small images above, for full-size images)
Outline maps for
key dates, by Dawn E. Lacadie: 1790 -- the first Census after
U.S. federation; 1820 -- Maine separated from Massachusetts and
became a state; 1900 -- turn of the century.
County
history
The dates of incorporation of Maine's
counties are given in the table below. Designation by the
State of Maine determined the county under which minor civil divisions
were officially reported in the U.S. Census.
| County
name |
Effective
incorporation date1 |
First
appeared in U.S. Census |
| Androscoggin |
March
31, 1854 |
1860 |
| Aroostook |
May
1, 1839 |
1840 |
| Cumberland |
November
1, 1760 |
1790 |
| Franklin |
May
9, 1838 |
1840 |
| Hancock |
May
1, 1790 |
1790 |
| Kennebec |
February
20, 1799 |
1800 |
| Knox |
April
1, 1860 |
1860 |
| Lincoln |
November
1, 1760 |
1790 |
| Oxford |
March
4, 1805 |
1810 |
| Penobscot |
February
15, 1816 |
1820 |
| Piscataquis |
April
30, 1838 |
1840 |
| Sagadahoc |
April
4, 1854 |
1860 |
| Somerset |
March
1, 1809 |
1810 |
| Waldo |
July
3, 1827 |
1830 |
| Washington |
May
1, 1790 |
1790 |
| York |
November
20, 1652 |
1790 |
York County was defined
in early colonial times, and all cities and towns presently in that
county have been part of it from the beginning. The picture
for the rest of Maine's counties becomes more complicated as time
progressed. For example municipalities presently in Somerset
County were located in Kennebec County between 1799 and 1809 and
Lincoln County 1760-1799. See Sources
of Information on Political Boundary and Name Changes of Maine Counties
and Minor Civil Divisions
when such detail is needed.
1. Atlas of historical county boundaries.
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island (New York :
Simon & Schuster, 1994)
You may view historic USGS maps
of Maine localities, courtesy of Dimond Library, University of New
Hampshire. This online collection of over 1100 USGS topographic
maps includes complete geographical coverage of New England from
the 1890s to 1950s. The index
map showing the state of Maine includes a grid marked off in
15 minute quadrangles, each of which links to a web page that lists
the available images for that quadrangle. Because of size, each
topographic map was scanned in four sections. Each image is typically
1.5 megabytes. An index map exists for each
New England state. In addition, there are alphabetic listings
by quadrangle name and by town name for each state.
Created by Frank
Wihbey, Fogler Library, The University of Maine.
For further information and to make suggestions, please
Revised:
10/01/2009
© 2001-2008 Raymond H. Fogler Library, The University of Maine
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