New Pennacook was granted on February 3rd, 1774, to Timothy Walker Jr. of Concord, NH, and his associates. The conditions of the grant was that they had to get 30 families to settle here within 6 years. In 1779, they did not have the 30 familes, so they got the contract renewed for another 5 years.

On January 3rd 1777, Jonathan Keyes purchased 4 full rights, (400 acres), and in August, he and sons came and started clearing the land for a home. On March 10th, 1779, he moved his wife in, and he has been given the honor, as having been the first to make a perminate home here.

By 1781, 3 more persons had started to make a home for themselves, but on the 3rd of August 1781, a small band of Indians from Canada attacked Sudbury Canada, (now Bethel), killing 2 and took 3 prisoners. Due to this, the 4 families felt it best to leave, and didn't return until the spring of 1783. In 1784, 3 more person had begun settlement, but still not the 30 families required, so the land holders asked for, and got an additional 2 years to try and get the required 30 families. To induce settlement here, they now offered a bounty of 6 pounds to each settler who actually built here.

The York County Census of 1790, lists 18 familes. I find only 15, for there are 3 families listed, whom did not build or live in town. In 1792, Mr. Keyes was requested to send in a report to the landloads of all families who were actual settlers within the township at the time, and he came up with 24 families, with 2 more who were clearing, but not yet moved in. Thus, only 26 households, not the required 30. Whether they got the 30 families in time is not known.

New Pennacook Township, was incorporated as Rumford by the General Court of Massachusetts, as the 123rd town within the District of Maine, on February 21, 1800. By this time there were several settlements within the township. What is now Rumford Corner, was called Rumford, and the first settlement in town. Rumford Point, North Rumford, Rumford Center, East Rumford, South Rumford, and Rumford Falls, (which is now Rumford). Other settlements were Red Hill, Eaton Hill, and Abbott's Mills.

The Town of Rumford is situated in beautiful western Maine, near the center of Oxford County, about 75 miles north of Portland, about 20 miles from South Paris, the shire town of Oxford County, and about 45 miles northwest of the State Capital at Augusta.

The 175 mile Androscoggin River, known in the early records as the "Great River", flows about 11 miles from west to east through the town. At the end of the run is the "Great Falls", the highest falls east of Niagara Falls in New York. First known as Pennacook Falls, than Rumford Falls.

The other rivers in town are the Ellis River, which flows south from Andover, and enters the Androscoggin at Rumford Point. The Swift River is more or less, the dividing line between Mexico and Rumford, and enters the Androscoggin across from the mill. The Concord River is really not much more than a brook, but it had enough water to supple power to the small mills at what was known as Abbott Mills.

Home of the former Oxford Paper Company, at one time the largest paper company, under one roof, in the world, now the MeadWestvaco Paper Company.

Rumford is the hometown of Edmund S. Muskie (1914-1996), former U.S. Secretary of State; Governor of the State of Maine, 1954-1958; U.S. Senator, 1958-1980; Democratic candidate for Vice President in 1968, and Presidential candidate in the 1972 in the Democratic primary elections . Courtesy of Craig E. Bryant

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