Friendship, Maine
Encyclopedia
Friendship is a town
in Knox County
, Maine
, United States
. The population was 1,204 at the 2000 census.
at the end of the sandbar." Part of the Waldo Patent
, it was first settled in 1750. A garrison
was built on Garrison Island, which connects to the mainland at low tide. By 1754, 22 families lived in Meduncook, most taking shelter within the garrison when the French and Indian War
broke out.
Joshua and Hannah Bradford and their infant son Winslow. An original settler from Kingston, Massachusetts
and great-grandson of Governor William Bradford, he had remained in his house, believing it close enough to the garrison that his family could flee there when necessary. But while pounding corn, the Bradfords missed hearing the garrison's alarm gun. Five of their children managed to escape their pursuers into the fort, but two of their sons Cornelius (21) and Joshua (12) were captured and carried to Canada.
After trying to lay siege to Thomaston, Maine
in September 1758, a party of Indians and Acadians under the command of French Officer Boishebert
raided the village. Eight British were captured or killed.
On February 25, 1807, Meduncook Plantation was incorporated as Friendship. By 1859, when the population was 691, the village had two shipbuilders
, two gristmill
s, one shingle
mill and three sawmill
s. By 1880, when the population was 938, other manufactures included sail
s, carriage
s, boot
s and shoes
. But boatbuilding remained the dominant industry in town, which became famous for producing the Friendship Sloop
, a gaff-rigged
sailboat
designed for lobstering
and fishing
. Each summer the town hosts the Friendship Sloop Races.
Author John Cheever
wrote his 1957 novel
, The Wapshot Chronicle
, while vacationing here.
, the town has a total area of 31 square miles (80.3 km²), of which, 14 square miles (36.3 km²) of it is land and 17 square miles (44 km²) of it (54.82%) is water. Located on a peninsula
that projects into the Gulf of Maine
, Friendship lies between Muscongus Bay and the Friendship River. It includes several islands, the largest of which is Friendship Long Island (or Meduncook Island).
The town is crossed by state routes 97
and 220. It borders the towns of Waldoboro
to the northwest, and Cushing
to the east.
The town is the site of Franklin Island National Wildlife Refuge
.
of 2000, there were 1,204 people, 508 households, and 354 families residing in the town. The population density
was 85.9 people per square mile (33.2/km²). There were 849 housing units at an average density of 60.5 per square mile (23.4/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 99.34% White, 0.25% from other races
, and 0.42% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.50% of the population.
There were 508 =living alone who were 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.76.
In the town the population was spread out with 20.9% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 26.3% from 45 to 64, and 19.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 97.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.5 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $39,348, and the median income for a family was $41,648. Males had a median income of $29,605 versus $19,000 for females. The per capita income
for the town was $20,409. About 8.3% of families and 11.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.7% of those under age 18 and 11.0% of those age 65 or over.
was set in Friendship, though the production crew chose the nearby resort town of Rockport
for filming, citing it to be "more authentic". In the film, Friendship is home to a fictional Art Nouveau
mansion called Whipstaff Manor, which is haunted by four ghost
s. The mansion—and therefore the town—also appear in the 1996-1998 animated
series The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper
.
New England town
The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in other states, but are incorporated, possessing powers like cities in other...
in Knox County
Knox County, Maine
Knox County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. As of 2010, the population was 39,736. Its county seat is Rockland. The county is named for American Revolutionary War general and Secretary of War Henry Knox, who lived in the county from 1795 until his death in 1806. The county was...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 1,204 at the 2000 census.
History
Abenaki Indians called it Meduncook, meaning "bayBay
A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...
at the end of the sandbar." Part of the Waldo Patent
Waldo Patent
The Waldo Patent, a letters patent also known as the Muscongus Patent or the Lincolnshire Patent, was an area of land 36 miles square in what is now the U.S...
, it was first settled in 1750. A garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
was built on Garrison Island, which connects to the mainland at low tide. By 1754, 22 families lived in Meduncook, most taking shelter within the garrison when the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
broke out.
Raid on Meduncook (1758)
During the French and Indian War, the community was raided twice. The first attack was from Indians just after sunrise on May 22, 1758. They killing and scalpedScalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
Joshua and Hannah Bradford and their infant son Winslow. An original settler from Kingston, Massachusetts
Kingston, Massachusetts
Kingston is a coastal town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. According to the 2010 Census, it had a population of 12,629.-History:Before European settlers arrived in Kingston it was within the tribal home to the Wampanoag people...
and great-grandson of Governor William Bradford, he had remained in his house, believing it close enough to the garrison that his family could flee there when necessary. But while pounding corn, the Bradfords missed hearing the garrison's alarm gun. Five of their children managed to escape their pursuers into the fort, but two of their sons Cornelius (21) and Joshua (12) were captured and carried to Canada.
After trying to lay siege to Thomaston, Maine
Thomaston, Maine
Thomaston, Maine is a town on the coast of Maine the United States. The name may also refer to:*Thomaston , Maine, a census-designated place comprising the center of the town*South Thomaston, Maine, an adjacent town...
in September 1758, a party of Indians and Acadians under the command of French Officer Boishebert
Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot
Charles Deschamps de Boishébert , was the leader of the Acadian resistance to the Expulsion of the Acadians. He settled and tried to protect Acadians refugees along the rivers of New Brunswick. Fort Boishebert is named after him...
raided the village. Eight British were captured or killed.
On February 25, 1807, Meduncook Plantation was incorporated as Friendship. By 1859, when the population was 691, the village had two shipbuilders
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
, two gristmill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
s, one shingle
Roof shingle
Roof shingles are a roof covering consisting of individual overlapping elements. These elements are typically flat rectangular shapes laid in rows from the bottom edge of the roof up, with each successive higher row overlapping the joints in the row below...
mill and three sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
s. By 1880, when the population was 938, other manufactures included sail
Sail
A sail is any type of surface intended to move a vessel, vehicle or rotor by being placed in a wind—in essence a propulsion wing. Sails are used in sailing.-History of sails:...
s, carriage
Carriage
A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn; litters and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for private passenger use and for comfort or elegance, though some are also used to transport goods. It may be light,...
s, boot
Boot
A boot is a type of footwear but they are not shoes. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle and extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the sole, even if the two are made of one piece....
s and shoes
Shoemaking
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...
. But boatbuilding remained the dominant industry in town, which became famous for producing the Friendship Sloop
Friendship Sloop
thumb|left|[[Fiberglass]] Friendship Sloop Bay Lady The Friendship sloop, also known as a Muscongus Bay sloop or lobster sloop, is a style of gaff-rigged sloop that originated in Friendship, Maine around 1880...
, a gaff-rigged
Gaff rig
Gaff rig is a sailing rig in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar called the gaff...
sailboat
Sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails. The term covers a variety of boats, larger than small vessels such as sailboards and smaller than sailing ships, but distinctions in the size are not strictly defined and what constitutes a sailing ship, sailboat, or a...
designed for lobstering
Lobster fishing
Lobster fishing, sometimes called lobstering, is the commercial or recreational harvesting of marine lobsters, spiny lobsters or crayfish.-Lobster tools and technology:...
and fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
. Each summer the town hosts the Friendship Sloop Races.
Author John Cheever
John Cheever
John William Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester suburbs, old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy,...
wrote his 1957 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, The Wapshot Chronicle
The Wapshot Chronicle
The Wapshot Chronicle is the debut novel by John Cheever about an eccentric family that lives in a Massachusetts fishing village. Published in 1957, the book won the National Book Award in 1958, and was later followed by a sequel, The Wapshot Scandal, published in 1964.The Wapshot Chronicle is the...
, while vacationing here.
Geography
According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 31 square miles (80.3 km²), of which, 14 square miles (36.3 km²) of it is land and 17 square miles (44 km²) of it (54.82%) is water. Located on a peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
that projects into the Gulf of Maine
Gulf of Maine
The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America.It is delineated by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and Cape Sable at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northeast. It includes the entire coastlines of the U.S...
, Friendship lies between Muscongus Bay and the Friendship River. It includes several islands, the largest of which is Friendship Long Island (or Meduncook Island).
The town is crossed by state routes 97
Maine State Route 97
State Route 97 is part of Maine's system of numbered state highways. It runs from an intersection with State Route 220 in Friendship to an intersection with U.S. 1 in Warren. The route is also known as Main Street and Cushing Road ....
and 220. It borders the towns of Waldoboro
Waldoboro, Maine
Waldoboro is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 4,916 at the 2000 census. Waldoboro is a picturesque fishing and resort town.-History:...
to the northwest, and Cushing
Cushing, Maine
Cushing is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 1,322. A favorite of artists for its unspoiled natural setting, Cushing includes the villages of North Cushing, Cushing, South Cushing, and Pleasant Point.-History:Part of the Waldo...
to the east.
The town is the site of Franklin Island National Wildlife Refuge
Franklin Island National Wildlife Refuge
Franklin Island National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge on Franklin Island outside Muscongus Bay in the state of Maine. It is one of the five refuges that together make up the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, along with Petit Manan, Cross Island, Seal Island, and Pond...
.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 1,204 people, 508 households, and 354 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 85.9 people per square mile (33.2/km²). There were 849 housing units at an average density of 60.5 per square mile (23.4/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 99.34% White, 0.25% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.42% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.50% of the population.
There were 508 =living alone who were 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.76.
In the town the population was spread out with 20.9% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 26.3% from 45 to 64, and 19.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 97.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.5 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $39,348, and the median income for a family was $41,648. Males had a median income of $29,605 versus $19,000 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $20,409. About 8.3% of families and 11.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.7% of those under age 18 and 11.0% of those age 65 or over.
In popular culture
The majority of the 1995 film CasperCasper (film)
Casper is a 1995 American comedy fantasy film starring Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci, based on the Casper the Friendly Ghost animated cartoons and comic books. The ghosts featured in the film were created through computer-generated imagery...
was set in Friendship, though the production crew chose the nearby resort town of Rockport
Rockport, Maine
Rockport is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,209 at the 2000 census. Rockport is a popular tourist destination and art colony.-History:...
for filming, citing it to be "more authentic". In the film, Friendship is home to a fictional Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
mansion called Whipstaff Manor, which is haunted by four ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
s. The mansion—and therefore the town—also appear in the 1996-1998 animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
series The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper
The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper
The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper was an animated television spin-off of the feature film Casper, which, in turn, was based on the Harvey Comics character of Casper the Friendly Ghost....
.