Samuel Merrill, 1928, reprint 1983

Some Eighteenth Century Migrations - Chapter XI, pp125-152

Lewiston, ME

    The first white settler of Lewiston, Me., was Paul Hildreth, a native of Dracut, Mass. After a brief residence in New Gloucester he settled, with his wife and infant child, on the east bank of the Androscoggin, near Twenty-Mile Falls, Lewiston, in the Summer of 1770. His wife was Hannah⁶ Merrill (Daniel⁵, Samuel⁴, Abel^3,2). (See page 373.) The destruction of their cabin by fire three or four months later compelled these pioneers to return for the Winter to New Gloucester, but the following Spring found them again in Lewiston. The life of Hannah Hildreth during the first year of her residence on the Androscoggin was sufficiently exciting. She and her child faced the perils of wild animals and wilder Indians, and on one occasion they were alone, without food, for four days, fifteen miles from the nearest white settlement. Her reward was fifty acres of land. This gift--the first grant of land made within the borders of the town--was in recognition of the fact that she was the first white woman to make her home there. But it was not long before they had many neighbors in a growing community. Paul Hildreth established the first ferry in Lewiston. He removed to Gardiner about 1802.

Buxton, ME

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