Craig E. Bryant

The Town of Rumford is situated in beautiful western Maine, near the center of Oxford County, about 75 miles north of Portland, about 20 miles from South Paris, the shire town of Oxford County, and about 45 miles northwest of the State Capital at Augusta.

The 175 mile Androscoggin River, known in the early records as the "Great River", flows about 11 miles from west to east through the town. At the end of the run is the "Great Falls", the highest falls east of Niagara Falls in New York. First known as Pennacook Falls, than Rumford Falls.

The other rivers in town are the Ellis River, which flows south from Andover, and enters the Androscoggin at Rumford Point. The Swift River is more or less the dividing line between Mexico and Rumford and enters the Androscoggin across from the mill. The Concord River is really not much more than a brook, but it had enough water to supply power to the small mills at what was known as Abbott Mills.

Home of the former Oxford Paper Company, at one time the largest paper company, under one roof, in the world, now the NewPage Corp.

(1914-1996)

Hometown of Edmund S. Muskie, former U.S. Secretary of State; Governor of the State of Maine, 1954-1958; U.S. Senator, 1958-1980; Democratic candidate for Vice President in 1968, and Presidential candidate in the 1972 in the Democratic primary elections.

New Pennacook was incorporated as the Town of Rumford by the General Court of Massachusetts, as the 123rd town in the District of Maine, on February 21, 1800. By this time there were several settlements within the township. Rumford, Rumford Center, Rumford Point, Rumford Falls, North Rumford, South Rumford, East Rumford, Red Hill, Hall Hill and Eaton Hill.

I have done a Genealogy Decendent/Ancestry search on some of the surnames of the early settlers for you to look at. So, if you find any errors please let me know, and you're more than welcome to add to what I have here, or fill in some of the missing blanks. Send me a GEDCOM of your information and I'll add it to the site.

The following are the surnames of settlers that were here as of 1800.

ABBOTT, CAPEN, DOLLY, DOLLOFF, EATON, ELLIOTT, EMERSON, FARNUM, FELT, GODWIN, GOSS, GRAHAM, HARPER, HEMMINGWAY, HINKSON, HOWE, KEYES, KIMBALL, KNIGHT, KYLE, LUFKIN, MANUEL, MARTIN, McALLISTER, MOORE, PAGE, POWERS, PUFFER, PUTNAM, RICHARDSON, RIPLEY, ROLFE, SEGAR, STEVENS, STONE, SWETT, TAYLOR, VIRGIN, WHITTEMORE, WOOD

PLEASE NOTE that due to a disability, I am no longer able to do research and am unable to answer e-mails. I am going leave the site open for you to use. Good hunting and remember, I have not been able to find sources for some of the genealogy data within, thus the information should be questionable, until you have verified it yourself.

Surname Index

Some info about the author History of Rumford
Rumford US Census Rumford Queries 1858 Map of Rumford
Some Pictures of Rumford Links

Oxford County Towns Oxford County Genealogy Project
Maine Genealogy Project USGenWeb Project