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Long
before Europeans came up the Kennebec
River to the "head of the tide,"
Algonquian-speaking Indians, considered
Wabanaki or "People of the
Dawn," were already here. As early
as1607, the area was explored by English
settlers from the short-lived Sagadahoc or
Popham Colony at the river’s mouth.
Representatives
of Plymouth Colony were the first English
to actually live here. In 1625, on a river
expedition to find a place to trade
agricultural products for Indian furs,
Plymouth pilgrims chose the east shore for
their "House at Kennebeck." The
post, probably built in 1628, was operated
by the original traders and, later, by
Plymouth Company with varying degrees of
success, until it was abandoned some time
between 1669 and 1676.
There
were French as well as English influences
here in the 17th and 18th centuries. In
1646, a Jesuit priest, Gabriel
Dreuillettes, visited "an English
settlement named Kinibeki."and
established a mission nearby for the
Kennebec natives. It was then that the
term "Cushnoc,"("Coussinoc"
or "Kouissnoc") first
appeared in reference to the Plymouth
trading post.
After
years of conflict involving the French,
Indians, and English and several decades
during which Kennebec settlements were
deserted, the Kennebec Proprietors,
successors to the Plymouth Company,
erected Fort Western near the Cushnoc
site. Located below the falls at the head
of navigation, the fort was intended as a
supply depot for Fort Halifax , 17 miles
upriver. The proprietors also initiated
efforts to settle the region. When
military staffing was no longer needed,
Captain James Howard, who had commanded
the fort, stayed on as the first permanent
settler. The fort’s main building served
as a residence and a store.
The
village called "the Fort" was
the upriver part of the town incorporated
as Hallowell in 1771. In February, 1796,
the Fort residents petitioned the
Massachusetts Legislature for permission
to build the first Kennebec bridge.
Although "the Hook," as the
lower Hallowell village was called, wanted
the bridge on its shore, the Fort request
was granted. The following February, in
1797, the legislature approved separation
of the Fort from Hallowell. Incorporated
first as Harrington, the new town changed
its name to Augusta on June 9, 1797.
In
1799, Augusta became the shire town of the
newly formed Kennebec County. In 1827, the
town was designated the capital of Maine,
which had entered the union in 1820 as the
23rd state. The Maine Legislature met here
for the first time in January, 1832.
Augusta was chartered as a city in 1849.
In
addition to its governmental roles,
Augusta has been, through the years, a
frontier trading place, an inland shipping
port, a center for publishing and
manufacturing, and, now, post-secondary
education. |
