Newry is the modern name for two lightly settled river valleys in Maine’s Oxford County. 

The county, on the western edge of the state, makes up much of Maine’s border with New Hampshire.  The southern part of the county consists of sandy plains and low hills.  Newry is in the more rugged northern two-thirds, which has as its primary topographical feature the White Mountains and its foothills.

Newry was originally part of Sudbury-Canada.  Bethel, the nearest large town to Newry, was also originally called by that name.  The name was used because many of those who originally applied for a grant of land in the Bethel/Newry area were from Sudbury, Mass.  They claimed the grant because they were heirs of those who had fought in the English Crown’s service in Canada against the French[1].  (Another source agrees with the Sudbury, Mass. part of the attribution but says that the Canada part only meant the settlement was somewhere “towards Canada”.[2] 

Two rivers run through it

The part of Sudbury-Canada that later became Newry consists of two river valleys, running roughly northwest from the Androscoggin River and separated by a line of mountains.  These valleys -- or intervales, as they are called locally -- were originally settled in 1781.  

The first settlers were soon driven from their homes in what was to be the last Indian raid in Maine.  It took place in 1782.  Although the American Revolution was well underway, settlers in the Bethel/Newry area felt they were so far from the combat that there couldn’t be any danger to them.  But Canadian native tribesmen allied with the British against the rebelling Yankees raided local farms and took several unhappy farmers captive to the St. Lawrence country.  The Indians were promised $8 per Yankee scalp, whether its owner was dead or alive.

The area was soon resettled and defense forts built to protect against any further raids.  The valleys saw gradual increase in population.  In 1787, the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives in General Court received a petition for a grant of land that was to be called Bostwick.  (Bostwick township would include what was later to be called Newry.)  That petition was granted.  You can read the petition here.

A Newry town government was established in 1805 and a town meeting was called in order to elect civic officials.  Newry was therefore one of the original towns of Oxford County when the County was established later the same year. According to tradition, the town was named for Newry, County Down, in today’s Northern Ireland. 

Town records show little more than routine civic activity in the early years.  The community was charged by the Commonwealth with failure to maintain adequate arms in the early 1800’s and while records show a tax was levied upon citizens in order to fight the charge in court, there is no record of how the case was resolved.  Later, in 1818, Newry residents voted in favor of the establishment of a state government in Maine.  The separation was accomplished in 1820.  This likely generated a good amount of discussion, as the separation was the result of feelings of neglect by the Maine district residents against officials in distant Boston .

The challenge of providing government services in two valleys separated by rugged mountains must have been formidable.  To meet the need, two districts were established, one for settlers along the Bear River, another for those along the Sunday River.  Townsmen tried to make sure that services such as schools, burial grounds, bridges and surveying, were provided equally for both districts.

A farming community

Newry’s economy was primarily farm-based.  Hay is mentioned as the primary local crop in an 1880 gazeeteer.[3]  (Read the entire Newry entry from the gazeeteer.)  Wheat, potatoes and corn were harvested in other intervales along the Androscoggin  so it is safe to assume that was the case at Newry as well.  With thick forests nearby, no doubt woodland activities such as hunting and fishing were also an important part of life for people of the intervales.  Sugar-maples were tapped in similar Maine communities and likely this was true in Newry also. 

Newry was a farming community on the edge of the White Mountains and until the railroad reached Bethel after the Civil War, getting to the area involved long and tedious hours of travel.  There were no large markets for Newry farms’ produce anywhere nearby.  So, there is no reason to believe that the second and third generation of settlers lived very far above subsistence level. 

Census records during the second generation of settlers show a mix of native Anglo-Americans born in the New England states, primarily Maine and Massachusetts, as well as immigrants.  Most head of households were listed as farmers.

 Newry’s population history