page_title: History of Yarmouth, Maine
section_title: Into the 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: History of Yarmouth, Maine / Into the 20th century
caption_attribution_description: The harbourside in Yarmouth, Maine.
context_page_description: The history of Yarmouth, Maine, is closely tied to its position on the banks of the Royal River and its proximity to Casco Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Maine, itself a gulf of the Atlantic Ocean.
  Native Americans originally settled the area, and several wars between they and later European settlers occurred before they were driven from the area for the final time in the mid-18th century.
  Around three hundred sea-going vessels were built in Yarmouth harbor's shipyards from around 1790 to 1890, while almost sixty mills were founded over 250 years along the town's section of the Royal River, making use of its four waterfalls for power.
  The Maine Historic Preservation Commission has found many of Yarmouth's historic buildings eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, in addition to the twelve that are already included.
context_section_description: Another, more menacing fire occurred in April 1900, when the corn-canning factory of Asa York caught from a spark blown from the stack of the Walker & Cleaves sawmill. A strong southerly breeze carried the sparks directly across the most thickly-settled part of town, causing small fires in various places so that over twenty buildings were burning concurrently.
  In 1903, the post office established a route around town for the rural free delivery of mail. Hired was Joshua Adams Drinkwater as the town's first letter carrier. Early in the morning he would leave Princes Point, pick up the mail at Lower Falls, and then deliver letters to the northern edge of town, including Sligo and Mountfort Roads. Around noon, he would pick up the afternoon sack for the town's western and coastal farms. Each day, as he passed his farm on Princes Point Road, he would change horses and eat lunch with his wife, Harriet. They had a daughter, Elizabeth.
  In 1918, the Spanish flu hit town in two waves, resulting in 370 cases and 14 deaths.
  In 1923, town historian William H. Rowe announced that a history of Yarmouth was in the works. The project took thirteen more years to complete, but it was "so thorough that it is still in print". Rowe died in 1955, aged about 73.
  In 1949, Yarmouth celebrated its centenary with a parade.
  Rapid growth was experienced again around 1948 when Route 1 was put through the town. Two years later, there were 2,699 inhabitants of the town. Interstate 295 was built through the harbor in 1961 (spanning part of the harbor known as Grantville across to the land between Route 88 and Old Shipyard Road), and the town grew about 40%, from 4,854 residents in 1970 to 8,300 thirty-five years later.
caption: A similar view in 2019
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