| 1733 | Narragansett #7, one of the seven townships granted by the General Court of Massachusetts to those who fought in the Narragansett War, sometimes called King Philip's War. |
| 1734 | External lines of Town surveyed. |
| 1735 | Plan of thirty acre lots surveyed and first roads located. |
| 1736 |
First settlers, Captain John Phinney and son. First child born in Gorham, Mary Gorham Phinney, August. First trees felled by Phinneys to clear land for crops. |
| 1737 | John Phinney's first crop: corn, peas and watermelon. |
| 1738 | Hugh McClellan and Daniel Mosher came to Gorham. |
| 1741 | First meeting of Proprietors, November 24. At a later meeting, November 26, the Proprietors voted: "that a meeting house be built for the worship of God, in said town, 36 feet long, 20 feet wide, and a 20-foot shed," Proprietors also voted on November 26 that, "William Pote, John Phinney and Daniel Mosier be a committee to lay out a road through the woods from the end of Gorham street to Saccarappa Mills." |
| 1743 | First sawmill erected by John Gorham at Little River on Fort Hill Road. February 16, Benjamin Crocker, first preacher, was hired for six months at 3, 10s per week. First oxen in town. November 11, General Court voted one hundred pounds for the erection of a fort in Gorhamtown. |
| 1744 | Proprietors held meeting in fort August 28. |
| 1745 |
Eighteen families in town. John Gorham's sawmill on Little River burned by Indians. Meeting house on Fort Hill burned. |
| 1746 | First Indian attack on settlers, five massacred, three captured. Ten families in town. Some had moved away because of threatened Indian attacks. |
| 1750 | Black tongue disease broke out in fort, twenty-five persons afflicted, four died. Women called upon to defend the fort. Eleven soldiers provided by GeneraL Court to assist in defense. |
| 1757 | Jacob Hamblen first tavern keeper. |
| 1760 | Gorham settlers wintered cattle and horses at Great Kezar meadow using Indian trails to reach the meadow Meeting of Proprietors at fort February 26. Captain John Waite, Moses Pearson Esq, and William Cotton were chosen a committee to consider the building of a meeting house, where to locate said house, and how big to build it. At the same meeting it was voted to raise and assess on the several rights of land, L 66, l3s, 4d toward building a meeting house. The meeting house completed in 1764. |
| 1761 | Edmund Phinney, son of John, instructed children in his kitchen, During Indian troubles, instruction was given in fort. |
| 1763 | First bridge across Presumpscot River, connecting Gorham and Windham, at Horse Beef Falls. Population of town 432. At this time no houses in Gorham had window glass. William McLellan erected the first two story house in Gorham. |
| 1764 | Town incorporated, October 24. Population 340, sixty to seventy families. |
| 1765 | First Town Meeting, February 18. Forty pounds voted for schools. December, John Green received an order on the Town Treasurer for three pounds for keeping school. It is probable that Edmund Phinney and Austin Alden provided some instruction prior to the record of payment to Mr, Green. New Lights movement gained ascendency as a result of dissatisfaction with settled ministry and other church matters. |
| 1766 | Houses in town constructed of logs chinked with moss and clay. |
| 1767 | July 31, a severe hurricane swept through the northeastern part of town destroying all in its path from Sebago Lake through Gorham, Windham, Falmouth and Cumberland, |
| 1768 | The town voted to; "improve John Green as schoolmaster till the money tax is expended." |
| 1770 | First physician, Dr. Stephen Swett. Caleb Chase, innkeeper. Land for old cemetery on South Street donated by Jacob Hamblen. Uncle Billy's tomb located in northwest corner. |
| 1772 | Population 600. |
| 1773 | The old brick house, the McClellan homestead, erected on Fort Hill road. This is the first brick house in Cumberland County. Construction was started in 1769. |
| 1775 | Stephen Longfellow moved to Gorham from Portland. He was the great- grandfather of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. |
| 1777 | June, first recorded meeting of Quakers in Gorham. A meeting house was erected in 1805. The Gorham Quakers merged with those in Windham in 1849 and the Gorham meeting house was sold. |
| 1781 | A Free Will Baptist Church Society organized. |
| 1788 | December 4, James McCorson designated minister of Free Will Baptist Church. |
| 1789 | Town divided into school districts and in each district an agent was chosen to see that school premises were properly cared for, that a teacher was provided, had a good place to board and was paid according to contract. Heretofore this had been a responsibility of Selectmen. |
| 1790 | Population 2244. |
| 1797 | Post Office established, Samuel Prentiss Postmaster. First Parish Meeting House erected. |
| 1800 | Population 2503. |
| 1803 | Gorham Academy incorporated. |
| 1804 | The Methodist Society of Gorham, Buxton and Standish incorporated by Act of General Court of Massachusetts, |
| 1805 | At Town Meeting it was voted to erect a building of stout timber and huge pasture boulders to serve as a pound for stray cattle, This pound was located to the north and adjacent to present Phinney Park on South Street. Town monument erected at northeast corner of College Avenue and School Street. This monument has been moved several times and now is located at the junction of Church and School Streets at the northeast corner of the Congregational Church Chapel, |
| 1806 | Building erected to house Gorham Academy, Fall semester of Academy opened September 9, Reverend Reuben Mason, Preceptor, thirty-three students enrolled. |
| 1810 | Benjamin Mosher built on land purchased by his father in 1771 a Federal style house now occupied by his descendants at Mosher's Corner, |
| 1814 | What is now known as Dewitt Manor was built by Colonel Tyng to replace a house that was burned in 1808. The tract of land was purchased by Captain Alexander Ross in the 1750s. Colonel Tyng married the daughter of Captain Ross. |
| 1814 | First public library in Gorham located in house then occupied by Nathaniel Gould on Main Street nearly opposite Cross Street. |
| 1815 | First Town House erected on Fort Hill. |
| 1821 | Free Meeting House, later Gorham Town House, now Art Center of the University of Maine at Portland-Gorham, built on lot donated by Alexander McClellan. |
| 1822 | Bell in First Parish Meeting House tower cast in Canton, Massachusetts, by Joseph Revere, son of Paul Revere. Inscription on bell reads Revere-Boston 1822. |
| 1825 | July 4, friends of Dr. Folsom gathered to erect in one day a house to replace one recently burned. This house later owned by Reverend John Adams, later served as a private school, later owned by a Tolford, and later owned by Abner Lowell and named Lowell Crest. |
| 1826 | Brick school house built just south of cemetery on South Street in what is now Phinney Park and later served to house fire equipment and torn down when high school building erected across the street. |
| 1827 | Ellen Gould Harmon, a founder of the Seven Day Adventist Society, born on Fort Hill Road, November 26. |
| 1828 | General James Irish built what is known as the Harding house to the east of Water Street at the junction of Church Street. |
| 1829 | Oxford and Cumberland Canal open. Discontinued in 1871. |
| 1835 | William J. Woodbury purchased from Benjamin Phinney a piece of land upon which he proceeded to erect a palatial mansion. This house was so distinctive and elaborate that it came to be known as Woodbury's Folly. This house was located on the elevation just to the east of what is now Barrow's Greenhouse. |
| 1836 | First Centennial Celebration, June 10. Elijah Kellogg graduated from Gorham Academy. |
| 1837 | Gorham Female Seminary dedicated September 13. In 1838 this Seminary was separated from the Gorham Academy. |
| 1839 | Baptist Meeting House erected at White Rock, dedicated June 1840. Gorham Social and Circulating Library established. The books of this Library were located at one time in the rear of what is now the Town Office on School Street. This Library was moved to the Gorham Female Seminary and later became the nucleus of the Normal School library. |
| 1840 | The cattle pound authorized in Town Meeting in 1805 was discontinued and provision made for the disposal of stone used in construction. 1841 A Free Baptist Meeting House erected at Little Falls. |
| 1842 | Free Baptist Society erected a meeting house in South Gorham. This Society maintained services and a Sunday school as early as 1827. |
| 1843 | June 24, Trustees of Maine Mutual Fire Insurance Company voted to authorize the purchase of a lot of land from Simon McLellan and erect thereon a suitable office for the Company. The building was completed in 1845 at a cost of $750. This building is the present Town Office. |
| 1846 | Charter granted and work begun on York and Cumberland Railroad. First train reached Gorham February 5, 1851. This railroad was later known as Portland and Rochester Railroad, Colonel Humphrey Cousins was first conductor. In 1893 six passenger trains each way were in operation. |
| 1850 | Maine Female Seminary established by Act of Legislature, |
| 1860 | Population 3253. |
| 1864 | Town Meeting March 4, pursuant to an Act of Legislature, a part of the Town of Scarborough was annexed to the Town of Gorham, 1837 acres valued at $40,000, |
| 1866 | Baptist Meeting House erected at Little Falls to replace one burned at the same location in 1864. Monument in memory of those who perished in the Civil War dedicated, This monument, located in front of the old Town House on College Avenue, was presented to Town by Honorable Toppan Robie, |
| 1868 | The building now known as the Old High School on the corner of Preble Street and South Street was erected. Gorham Savings Bank opened for business. |
| 1870 | First train on Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad from Portland to Sebago Lake, September 12. This railroad is now the Mountain Division of the Maine Central Railroad. |
| 1871 | A Methodist Meeting House on North Street was erected to replace an earlier building. |
| 1873 | A Free High School was established at White Rock. In 1876 a Free High School was maintained at West Gorham, transferred to the Village the following year, and again returned to West Gorham. |
| 1877 | The institution known at different times as Gorham Academy, Gorham Male Academy, Gorham Seminary, Gorham Female Seminary and Maine Female Seminary closed after having practically no enrollment in the previous two years, |
| 1878 | Gorham Normal School established and the Female Seminary buildings donated to the State. The brick building was converted to a dormitory. |
| 1879 | School property valued at #13,530.70. Expenditures for schools, $5,342.35. Number of pupils, 981. Money raised by taxes for the support of schools, $22,497.74. |
| 1880 | A Free High School was established in Gorham Village and the first diplomas were granted in 1883. The present Methodist Meeting House on School Street was erected to replace an earlier meeting house on College Avenue. |
| 1881 | Gifts in support of a public library in Gorham were made by Dana Estes, born in Gorham, a Civil War veteran, and publisher in Boston, Massachusetts. |
| 1882 | Honorable Frederick Robie elected Governor of the State. Re-elected in 1884. |
| 1888 | Frederick Robie schoolhouse built at Little Falls. |
| 1894 | Female Seminary building destroyed by fire. School Districts abolished. A Superintending School Committee and Town Superintendent of Schools established. |
| 1895 | Levi Hall School built at North Gorham. |
| 1897 | Electric cars from Westbrook to Gorham Village. The occasion celebrated at Crystal Spring House on Main Street. Free rides on cars. |
| l898 | The Meeting House at West Gorham was erected by the efforts of the United Christian Endeavor Society, Survey was made to determine limits of Gorham Village Corporation which was chartered about l900. This Corporation facilitated the introduction of Sebago water and electricity to the Village. |
| l899 | Electric cars from Westbrook to Little Falls known as Westbrook, Windham and Naples Railroad. |
| 1901 | Sebago water and electricity extended to Gorham Village. |
| 1902 | Volunteer Fire Company organized. William T. Libby, first Fire Chief. |
| 19O7 | Baxter Memorial Library presented to Town by Honorable James Phinney Baxter as a memorial to his father. Baxter Museum presented at the same time, The museum building was at one time the residence of Dr. Cary, father of the noted singer Annie Louise Cary. |
| l924 | First Junior High School erected on site of Female Seminary opposite Old Academy building on School Street. |
| l936 | Bi-Centennial Celebration of settlement in Narragansett #7, now the Town of Gorham. |
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REFERENCES: Clayton, W. W. (Compiler). HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE. Everts and Peck. Philadelphia. 1880 Coolidge, A, J. and Mansfield, J. B. A HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF NEW ENGLAND. Vol. I, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, Austin J. Coolidge. Boston. 1859 Johnson, Walter H. (Compiler and editor). BI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF GORHAM, MAINE. Illustrated by Hayden L. V. Anderson. Henry L. Cobb, printer. Westbrook. 1936 McClellan, Hugh D. (Compiled and edited by his daughter Katherine B. McClellan Lewis). HISTORY OF GORHAM, MAINE. Smith and Sale, printers, Portland. 1903 Pierce, Josiah. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF GORHAM. Charles Day & Co., Portland. 1836 Pierce, Josiah. HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF GORHAM, MAINE. Foster and Cushing and Bailey and Noyes. Portland. 1862 GORHAM HIGH SCHOOL. Catalogue. 1894 CELEBRATION OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF GORHAM, MAINE. B. Thurston & Co., Portland. 1886 BI-CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION OF THE INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN OF GORHAM, MAINE. Bryant Press. Portland. 1964 return to the top view 1937 - 1985 view 1986 - 1998 home : chronology : photo album : map it happened in gorham membership info : directors : sustaining members : contact |