Cheraw chronicle. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, 1920-06-24
Colony Established on Pine
Trees Shore Before Land
ing of Pilgrims.
STATE HOLDS CELEBRATION
Coast First Visited by John Cabot In
1499-MaIne Blazed Path to Ma
tionaI Prohibition - Produced
Many Men of Note.

Portland Me.-One hundred years
ago Maine became q state of the Union,
and this year the event Is to be official
ly observed with q great celebration.
the principal feature of which will take
place at Portland from June % to July
|5.
While Maine is only century old as
a state, in reality the territory was one
Of the first settled sections of North
America. A colony had been estab-
lished on Its shores 16 years before
the pilgrims landed at Plymouth,
Mass, in 1920. The Maine coast, bar
ring, Of course, possible discovery by
the early Norsemen. was first visited,
II Is believed, by John Cabot, the Eng
lIsh explorer, in 149S, only six years
after the discovery Of the new world
by Columbus. In 1901 the Portuguese
explorer Corte-Real, came to Maine,
and Ia 1921 Faflasa66. In fMTait sail
Ing under French commission, cruised
along the coast. In 1925 Spaniard,
Gomez, discovered and named the Pc
nobscot river Rio de las Gomez, or Stag
river, and in 1925 the French explorer
Thevet visited the territory and re-
turned to Europe with story Of Mo
rumbega, Names mythical city.
1t was in 1865 that the renowned son
Of Great Britain, Sir John Hawkins,
came to Maine, and two years later
three survivors of his second expedi-
ton crossed Its interior, the first white
1ren to visit any part of the present
state away from the coast line. In
1902 Captain Bartholomew Gosnold ex-
p.ored its southwestern shore, and In
1903 Capt. Martin Pring, British
trader discovered Casco bay, on which
Is now located the city of Portland.
First Settlement.
The premier attempt at settlement
was made in 1904 by Sieur de Monts,
the famous French explorer, who es-
tablished the first colony In what is
now the United States, north Of Flori-
da, within the borders Of the present
state of Maine, on Neutral island In
the st. Croix river, near what IL now
the city Of Calais. The renowned
Champlain was member Of the party
and cruised along the Maine coast as
fsr east as the Kennebec river, naming
Mount Desert island. After terrible
year, in which the majority Of the
purity died from exposure and disease,
the colony was obliged to give up its
existence.
In 1907. the first English colony was
established at Popham, at the mouth
Of the Kennebec river, by George Pop
ham. This and the colony Of James
town, Va, founded the same year were
the first English settlements on the
Atlantic coast. The little group. how.
ever, after the death of its founder.
was obliged to abandon the site. The
colony, however, established one not
able record, for it constructed, during
its year Of suffering, the Virginia, the
first vessel to be built in North Amer
lea.
In 1913, the French Jesnits organ
lied a mission on Mount Desert island
and in 1914 the coast Of Maine was
visited by Capt. John Smith Of Poca-
hontas fame. who made the first re-
liable map Of it and named many Of
its principal points. including Cape
Elizabeth. He was the first to apply
the name New England to this north
eastern section of the United States.
Only three years after the landing
of the Pilgrims Capt. Christopher Lew
EFT established trading post on one
Of the islands now within the limits
of Portland. and in 1852 the founda-
tions of the present city ore estab-
lished by George Cleeve and Richard
Tucker. Previous to this, however,
in 1928, settlements had been made