The Machias Historical Society Town of Machias Town of Machias, Maine In the year 1763 in Scarborough Maine, there was a drought and a fire. Sixteen settlers from there set sail for a new place to live east of the Sagadahoc River. They were looking for a lot of marsh grass to feed their animals and lumber to harvest and sell. They ended their journey at the falls of the Machias River, otherwise known by the Passamaquoddy Native-Americans as Bad Little Falls. There they found vast forest land right to the river's edge, salt marsh to thatch their roofs and feed their farm animals, and water power to build a double saw mill. Hay for their livestock would have to come by ship from Nova Scotia. Each of the sixteen settlers got an equal share of the forested land amounting to seven acres each and an equal share of the marshland and ownership in the mill. The original sixteen were: Brothers Samuel and Sylvanus Scott; Brothers Timothy, George, and David Libby; Brothers Solomon and John Stone; Brothers Daniel and Japhet Hill; Isaiah Foster, Westrook Berry, Isaac Larrabee, and Daniel Fogg; Thomas Buck of Plymouth and Captain of a coaster joined them along with Jonathan Carlton of Sheepscot, and William Jones of Portsmouth, N.H. It was not required of Jones to go to Machias but he became part of the association and in exchange he would furnish supplies to the men and their families. Soon after others followed wanting a share of a promising future and freedom from authority. After petitioning both Nova Scotia and Massachusetts and never hearing word from either, the town of Machias in 1769 petitioned again the General Court of Massachusetts for a grant of a township of land. it was signed by all 74 male residents and finally granted on April 26, 1770. Machias quickly grew as a lumbering mecca and soon had many lumber mills, ship builders, and commerce. The height of Machias's lumbering was from 1850 to 1930.