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Fairfield is a town in Somerset County, Maine, United States. The population was 6,735 at the 2010 census. The town includes Fairfield Center, Fairfield village and Hinckley, and borders the city of Waterville to the south. It is home to the Good Will-Hinckley School, Lawrence High School and Kennebec Valley Community College. ==History== The area was territory of the Canibas tribe of Abenaki Indians residing at Taconnet village, once located downriver at the confluence of the Sebasticook and Kennebec rivers in what is today Winslow. In 1692 during King William's War, the village was burned, so the Canibas tribe abandoned the area. The French and Indian Wars finally ended in 1763, leaving the region open for English colonization. Fairfield Plantation, named for its fair aspect, was first settled in 1774. Benedict Arnold and his troops rested and re-provisioned here in 1775 during their march up the Kennebec River to the Battle of Quebec. Following the Revolutionary War, Fairfield Plantation developed as a trade and agricultural town, with farms producing hay, grain and potatoes. It was noted for the number and quality of its cattle. On June 18, 1788, it was incorporated as Fairfield. By 1790, the community had 492 inhabitants. In 1837, it produced 11,531 bushels of wheat and a large quantity of wool.〔 Falls on the Kennebec drop at Fairfield, providing water power for industry. The mill town had eight sawmills, three planing mills, a gristmill, a canned corn factory, plaster mill, three carriage factories, a sled factory, two door, sash and blind factories, a cabinet and box factory, coffin factory, a clothing factory, a marble works and a tannery. The largest factories were the textile plants—Kendall's Mills in the southeastern extremity of the town, and Somerset Mills located about two miles above. The main line of the Maine Central Railroad passes through Fairfield on the way from Portland to Waterville to Bangor, and the Skowhegan branch of the Maine Central Railroad (originally the Somerset and Kennebec Railroad) ran along the Kennebec River from Waterville to Skowhegan, with stations in Shawmut and Hinckley (today, this line terminates at the SAPPI paper mill just north of Hinckley). The Somerset Railroad (Maine) traversed western Fairfield on a route that once ran north from Oakland to Norridgewock, Madison, Bingham, and Moosehead Lake (and now terminates in North Anson).〔 In 1889, Reverend George W. Hinckley founded the Hinckley School.〔(History of Good Will-Hinckley School )〕 In 1899–1900, The Gerald Hotel was built downtown. Designed by Maine architect William Robinson Miller, it was commissioned by Amos F. Gerald, builder of the first electric trolley system in Maine. The hotel was topped with a statue of Mercury, the Roman god of speed, and remained in operation from 1900 until 1937. Miller also designed the town's Lawrence Library, dedicated on July 25, 1901, and the Lawrence High School.〔(History of Lawrence Public Library )〕 Today, Fairfield makes wood and paper products, and is largely a bedroom community for Waterville. The town has three post offices because it contains three different unincorporated townships under municipal jurisdiction of the town of Fairfield: * Fairfield Center (no post office) * Shawmut (post office location) * Hinckley (post office location) The third post office serves the incorporated urban Fairfield (CDP), an early name for which was Kendall's Mills. For approximately 75 years, the urban district was under a village corporation government. Thus, the town would hold New England style town meetings that covered business for the greater town, followed by a village corporation meeting to deal with urban needs, including police service, fire department service and town engineer service (public works). The non-urban, unincorporated areas—Shawmut, Fairfield Center and Hinckley—were not assessed taxes for urban services they did not receive. This arrangement ended in 1929. Image:The Gerald Hotel, Fairfield, ME.jpg|The Gerald Hotel in 1905 Image:Concrete Dam, Shawmut, ME.jpg|Dam at Shawmut in 1908 Image:Bridge & Woolen Mill, Fairfield, ME.jpg|Woolen mill in 1905 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fairfield, Maine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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