The Place:
With a present population of around 7,750, Ellsworth has been, in recent years, Maine's fastest growing city. Standing primarily on the east side of the Union River, Ellsworth was one of the several areas in dispute between the English and the French throughout the 17th century, even into the 18th century. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 Ellsworth became part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Immediately, Ellsworth was settled by a group of English settlers. Shipyards quickly sprang up along the Union River, with the first schooner, the Susan and Abigail being built at Ellsworth in 1773.
Originally known as the
Union River Settlement, then
Plantation No. 7 and at times
Bowdoin and
New Bowdoin, in 1798 the citizens petitioned to incorporate under the name of
Sumner. Unbeknownst to them there was already a
Sumner in Maine and the town was incorporated under the name Ellsworth, after Oliver Ellsworth, the Connecticut delegate to the 1787 National Convention. It is believed that Ellsworth was the first to suggest the name
United States of America for the new country.
The first county seat of Hancock County was Castine, replaced by Ellsworth in 1838. By 1859 the town of 4,000 was the centre of a diversified economy, industries in the town including sawmills, gristmills, brickyards, shipbuilders, pail factories, edge tool factories and box-making establishments, with some smaller trades active, as well.
Ellsworth has suffered two major disasters in the 20th century, the first being
The Great Flood of 1923, which carried away the bridge over the Union River and several major business buildings and wharves. The second was
The Great Fire of 1933, which destroyed at least half of the commercial district, including the city hall, on May 7, 1933. As a result, Ellsworth now has a beautiful 1934 vintage Georgian Revival brick city hall. See the photos below.
The Person:
Oliver Ellsworth
Ellsworth was incorporated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1800 and was named in honor of a prominent statesman by the name of Oliver Ellsworth, who among many other accolades, was a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
Although he was not born or raised in Ellsworth, and indeed never seems to have stepped foot in Ellsworth, Oliver Ellsworth proved an honorable namesake for our city. He was born in Windsor, Connecticut in 1745, graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) in 1766, was admitted to the bar in 1771 and practiced until 1773 when he became a member of the Connecticut General Assembly. In 1777 he was appointed State Attorney and was also chosen as one of Connecticut's representatives to the Continental Congress, serving until 1786. During the revolution he helped supervise Connecticut’s war expenditures and in 1779 became a member of the Council of Safety.
Ellsworth was named a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 where he made significant contributions to the Great Compromise, which established our national legislative branch of government. It was Oliver Ellsworth who proposed, as an amendment to a resolution, that the word "national" be changed to "United States" which was the phrase used from that point on during the convention to designate the government. He also served on the Committee of Five who prepared the first draft of the Constitution (although he did not sign the final document as he had returned to Connecticut to advocate its ratification).
He became one of Connecticut’s first two senators to the United States Congress, was chair of the committee that framed the bill organizing the federal judiciary system, was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1796 and in order to negotiate a treaty, was named commissioner to France in 1799. He then served once more as a member of the Governor’s Council from 1801 until his death in 1807.
From the City of Ellsworth