1 86 FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



and my nephew, Capt. Wm. Gorges, who had been my lieuten- 

 ant in the Fort at Plymouth, with some other craftsmen for the 

 building of houses and the erecting of sawmills." ^ The second 

 mill was probably erected at Salmon Falls River in what is now 

 South Berwick Township, Maine, in 1631 or the year following. 

 Of this and other mills it is said that '' Capt. Mason sent into this 

 country eight Danes to build mills, to saw timber and tend them, 

 and to make potashes." It is altogether probable that all the 

 first sawmills were Scandinavian institutions, as there were none 

 in England until 1663, at which time hundreds of them were in 

 use in New England. While sawmills had been used in Europe 

 from the earhest times, conditions of timber supply and labor in 

 England were such that, even as late as 1767, a sawmill was 

 destroyed by an EngUsh mob because it represented too great a 

 saving of labor. 



The first sawmill in Massachusetts was erected about 1633; 

 the first in New Hampshire near Portsmouth, before 1635; the 

 French settlers had sawmills at Ticonderoga at an early date. 

 Between 1640 and 1650 several sawmills were erected in Massa- 

 chusetts Bay Colony; and Connecticut was not far behind in 

 the use of power for making lumber, for the younger Winthrop, 

 afterwards Governor of Connecticut, brought a millwright to 

 New London and put up a sawmill in 1651. Before the close of 

 the century there were several in Connecticut. 



After about 1650 the sawmill almost immediately followed 

 settlement in any portion of New England, usually in connection 

 with a grist mill, and the location of a water power often deter- 

 mined the location of the settlement. The right to erect and 

 operate sawmills was, in the early days, granted by town meet- 

 ings, and it is evident that the people were wide awake to the 

 benefit of having a local mill. In a grant by the "townsmen of 

 Saco" to Roger Spender, it was stipulated that he should build 

 his mill within a year, that all the "townsmen should have 

 hordes 12 pence in a hundred cheaper than any stranger," and 



^ For much of this material we are indebted to a " History of the Lumber Industry 

 of America," by Defebaugh. 



