Greenwood as It Was

In 1820 a county road was laid out from Norway to Bethel through Fifield's Mills (now Greenwood City). This soon became the preferred route through town for travel and commerce, replacing a route to the west that ran over Patch Mountain and then northward to what would become the Irish Neighborhood. Still, those who traveled the "middle road" had complaints, and in 1837 forty-two residents of Bethel, Greenwood, and Norway petitioned the county commissioners to alter the road "so as to avoid Felt's Hill, Whittle Hill, and Pool's Hill (so called)." Their petition was granted. Three new sections of road were built, and in 1845 two of the old sections were discontinued, being now "of no benefit to anyone."The road over Felt's Hill—later called Rowe Hill—remained in use, but another was built to the west, under a ledge and along the easterly side of Twitchell Pond.1 Whittle's Hill lay south of the bridge in Greenwood City, and the road that…

The story goes like this: A railroad was to be built from the Atlantic coast to Montreal. Both Portland and Boston sought to be its southerly terminus, and a race was proposed. Two express teams would, on the same day, from the same ship, receive the latest news from Europe and then race to Montreal. Whichever team delivered the news first would win the railroad for its city. The race was run, the Maine team prevailed, and the railroad was built from Portland through Greenwood to Canada.Variations of this story have been written since the late 1800s. When collected and compared, discrepancies and outright contradictions arise—more than enough to make the careful historian wary.1 The truth lies not in these later accounts but in reports written closer to the events. Contemporary newspaper articles from Maine, Massachusetts, and Quebec reveal that not one but three expresses were run from Portland to Montreal during the planning of the railroad; that not all were successful; and that Bo…