1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Skowhegan

SKOWHEGAN, a township and the county-seat of Somerset county, Maine, U.S.A., on the Kennebec river, about 39 m. N. of Augusta. Pop. (1890) 5068, (1900) 5180, of whom 4266 were inhabitants of Skowhegan village; (1910) 5341. Skowhegan is the terminus of a branch of the Maine Central railway. The township covers an area of about 50 sq. m., and has a public library, a fine court house and Coburn Park. The farms of the township are devoted largely to dairying. Paper and pulp, wooden-ware, woollen and worsted goods, &c., are manufactured. Skowhegan was settled as a part of Canaan about 1770. In 1814 the township of Bloomfield was erected out of the southern portion of Canaan. In 1823 a second township was erected out of what then remained; this was called Milburn at first, but in 1836 the former Indian name, Skowhegan, said to mean “spearing” or “watching place,” was adopted. Bloomfield was annexed to Skowhegan in 1861. The village of Skowhegan was incorporated about 1856.