Maine Town Reports: Current Highlight

Litchfield

Litchfield, Maine was originally called Smithfield Plantation, after early settlers named "Smith." In 1795, the plantation was reorganized as a town and the name changed to Litchfield. Between 1817 and 1867, land was set off from Litchfield to the towns of Bowdoinham, Kennebec, Wales, Webster, and West Gardiner.

Litchfield Corner, Maine, ca. 1900
Image courtesy of the Historical Society of Litchfield, Maine

Litchfield is the southernmost town in Kennebec County and is bordered by the Cobbesseeconte Stream. There are several villages in Litchfield, and the northernmost one is known as "Purgatory," despite official attempts to change the name.

The Litchfield town seal shows a piece of "Litchfieldite," a very rare type of igneous rock which is found in Litchfield and was named for the town. Litchfield is also the source for a rare type of blue sodalite, a specimen of which is housed at the Smithsonian Institution, in Washingon, D.C.

Annual reports from the town of Litchfield have been made available online through a special partnership with the Historical Society of Litchfield, Maine. Members of the society scanned printed town reports and converted them to a digital format (PDF), while staff at Fogler Library used OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software to make keyword searching of the reports possible. Over 25 years of Litchfield town reports are now available through Fogler Library's online holdings and we hope that this is the first of many such partnerships with local libraries and historical societies.

Litchfield resources:
Historical Society of Litchfield, Maine
History of Litchfield, Maine