Poland Corner

 

View of Poland Corner on Centennial Day

Photo taken from the book 1795~1895 Poland Centennial page 87

Poland Corner

Poland Corner was settled later than many other parts of our town. I have not the exact date of its settlement and cannot ascertain it, but it was somewhere about 1800. The first building was the old sawmill an outlet of Range Pond. When the road was constructed form Portland, through Poland, Paris and Oxford County to Canada, Poland Corner was a center of trade. The older men here present can remember when lines of teams were seen coming down at all hours of the day, from Oxford county and slowly ascending Ricker Hill to their market in Portland. Nearly half a century ago, the railway was constructed through our town changing the direction of travel and transportation and Poland Corner was almost deserted. And sir, the thunder of that train as it comes down the valley today reminds us that nearly all the progress that has been made it transportation has been made in the last century, yea in the last three-quarters of a century.

Poland in the one hundred years of her existence has witnessed the marvelous progress of the world. Half a century ago was the day of the glory of staging. The old stage driven by that greatest of stage drivers, Mr. Grosvenor Waterhouse, was then seen passing through Poland Corner drawn by four prancing steeds. Half a century ago we had no telegraph wires, but now the measures extend of the system threads the continent. It has joined the Atlantic and the Pacific and we can talk with our neighbors across the continent almost instantaneously. Science and enterprise not satisfied with this did deference to the powers of the sea, and we now speak to our neighbors across the water beneath the waves of the Old Ocean.

Now notwithstanding the varying fortunes I am glad to say there is a Poland Corner today. We have here a steam mill a sawmill and a creamery, which makes the best butter in the county, and I don't know but I may say in the country. We have a sanitarium here, with a medical specialist at its head and who although recently adopted has proven himself on this occasion to be loyal to his new town.

List page last updated March 24, 2001

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