The following excerpts are taken from “Meadowsweet”: Its Rich Historical Environment, a  paper written by William C. Purington in 1973 –and archived at the Bowdoin College Library and the West Bath Historical Society.  [Meadowsweet was the name of the Ring farm on Harding Road, overlooking the New Meadows River.]

 This attractive, scenic area…was originally roamed freely by both the Indians and wild animals.

 Quite frequently the Indians would come up to the head of the New Meadows River in their canoes, and then carry their light vessels across the short stretch of land between the New Meadows River and Whiskeag, or the Kennebec River, when they were on their way to Merrymeeting Bay.  This short section of land was called Stevens’s Carrying-Place for Thomas Stevens….This, as well as several other well known carrying places, saved the Indians from having to go clear down the Kennebec River and around Small Point, when they were coming down from the Androscoggin and Kennebec Valleys to reach Casco Bay.

 The first prominent white man to buy land from the Indians in this region…was Thomas Purchase.  He arrived about the year 1628 and had settled in Pejepscot, now Brunswick, by 1639….

 The next prominent person who we find to have purchased land and residing in the New Meadows area was Thomas Stevens….On July 3, 1675 Mr. Stevens removed to the head of the New Meadows River and bought some lands from three Indian sagamores, “Robinhood, Eramket Daniels, and Manessumet.” … Mr. Stevens resided at the upper end of the New Meadows River, which was known for many years as the Stevens’ River.  Likewise, the path, which was well traveled between the head of the river and Whiskeag, was given the name Stevens’s Carrying-Place in his honor.

About 1739 [Capt. James Thompson] and his family removed to the New Meadows area in Brunswick….Besides being a dealer in various items it appears that Capt. Thompson was a cobbler, did farming, and used scows on the New Meadows River.  He distributed gunpowder to the neighbors during this period.  It would seem, from all evidence, as if he was a man of much importance and that he made a good living.

 We should mention here that packet sailing vessels used to run from this very locality on the New Meadows River to Boston and Portland.  They continued to do this until Portland and Kennebec Railroad (later to become part of the Maine Central Railroad) was completed.  Much of Brunswick’s and Topsham’s merchandise for the traders was landed at two wharves, which were known as Cushman’s and Brown’s wharves ….

After Capt. Peterson had erected his new residence he established a thriving business in this area….He had a dam built on the west side of the cove at Howard’s Point.  It was principally constructed of stone, but in order for people to walk across it he had the top finished off with boards….A double sawmill was run at the western end of this dam.e had

…Not only was there a sawmill here, but there was a gristmill, as well, here at New Meadows.  The first one…was established in 1753….Besides carrying on his mill business here at New Meadows, Capt. John Peterson…started in building ships….They were constructed in two different shipyards.  One was located just “below the dam on the west side of the cove” while the other site was nearer the “upper end of the point in New Meadows river….

 Benjamin Brown had run a ferry across the river up to 1792, from a point of land just below Capt. Peterson’s residence….Peterson…maintained a ferry at this point until a bridge was built, which was somewhere about the year 1796….

 It was Captain John Peterson who was the prime instigator and principal stockholder in having a canal built from the upper head of the New Meadows River across what was formerly called the “Stevens’s Carrying Place (then a meadow) to Welch’s Creek (near the old Crawford graveyard).  This came out into the Kennebec River “about a mile and a half below the Chops, and about the same distance above the mouth of Whiskeag Creek.”

 On June 17, 1791 an act of the General Court in Boston (Maine was then a district of Massachusetts) took place for incorporating the following men to have the canal built. These gentlemen were to see that the channel was kept open from “the head of New Meadows river to Merrymeeting bay, under the name of the Proprietors of the New Meadows Canal.”… These men were not only to see that it was kept open for boats and rafts to pass through, but they were to see that tolls were paid whenever vessels made use of it, as can be seen by the following: “For every boat of the burthen of one ton the sum of nine pence, and in the same proportion for vessels or boats of greater or less burthen, not exceeding six shillings for any such vessel or boat.  For every thousand feet of boards in rafts four pence half penny; and in the same proportion for all other kinds of lumber.” 

Being just a meadow land the digging couldn’t have been too hard, but when they got to the end near Welch’s Creek they ran into problems, for the men faced a ledge which had to be blasted….It was unfortunate that this canal did not prove successful, the reason being that the tides were not high at the same time at both ends.  The New Meadows tide seemed to be full about “two hours” before the Kennebec was, and it “filled the canal to the depth of three or four feet, and even ran over the summit and down towards the Kennebec, making it hard work to get logs up to the summit.” 

 In the early days of about every town in New England there used to be stone  wall enclosures which were called pounds.  In those days cattle would roam around,  as there were then no fences to confine them, and the pound officer had the task of putting these stray cattle into these enclosures, and “here the unruly animals were brought to order for many a year.”  Brunswick’s first pound was on what is today the Harding Road….Originally its stone walls were about eight feet high and a strong gate was hung at one corner.  It was about twenty feet square.  Only after the owners of the cattle could identify their farm animals, and paid a fee, did the pound officers let the picked-up cattle be turned over to their owners.…

 Mr. Adams continued to live at his New Meadows homestead until he died there on April 2, 1880, aged 65 years….Mrs. Martha Adams was left not only as a widow once again, but with the care of trying to pay off the mortgage on the farm..  [It was] suggested to his widow that she try selling shore dinners to people to earn money….She made the first lobster stew and shore dinner.

 In those days clams were in great abundance and weren’t polluted like many of them are today.  Fred W. Larrabee dug the clams for the first meal that was served at the original Iven House on the New Meadows River.  He was paid 25 cents a bushel for them, while with the lobsters he received one cent apiece. … Another person [said] he would get fifteen cents a bushel and forty-five cents a barrel.  Lobsters could be obtained in any quantity for fifty cents a hundred….

 At one period in the Nineteenth Century granite was being mined on the western side of Howard’s Point…Lime used to be burned in this area and then shipped from this same pier.  Rev. Samuel Woodward had a quarry, and his kiln was near the New Meadows Baptist Church.  There were many more in the area….

 We could continue on indefinitely mentioning many of the historical events that have taken place in this area, as well as the well known ferries, bridges, roads, cemeteries, etc., that at one time were in existence here in East Brunswick.  Part of the original cemeteries are still there.  However, it would get tiresome for the reader if we wrote too much.  We hope that this will prove profitable to those interested who have been reading this.  If so the writer is satisfied.