Kingman - Township 6, Sister of Township 39

Tucked away in a corner of Penobscot county is an almost-ghost town which was for the most part destroyed in an explosion nearly identical to the theorized fire which destroyed Township 39. While there are several houses remaining all which remains of Kingman's heyday is a 120 year old rectory and the railroad which runs through it. The town -- not the rectory. 

In a sense this is a town that has disappeared from history over and over again. It was first organized as McCrillis Plantation in 1859, Independence Plantation in 1866 (after briefly being named the 429th town) and Kingman less than a decade later in 1874; it persisted for 72 years until dissolving in 1945. It has been unorganized since. 

While researching for this piece the name F Shaw piqued my interest early on. F Shaw was one of the tannery barons who ran the company town of Township 39 (if you aren't familiar with Township 39 you should probably click the link in the first paragraph before continuing. In other words spoiler warning) He was also the owner of the large tannery operating in Kingman. Township 39 was the victim of a fire in 1906 which, while not killing all of the inhabitants destroyed the economic engine of the settlement resulting in it becoming completely abandoned. A decade and a half later the town of Kingman would suffer a fire (starting at the tannery) which destroyed most homes, including the ornate Romanzo Kingman House.  Either this man had astonishingly bad luck or a fantastic insurance agent. 

The town had a population of almost 1,000 in 1900, which had reduced by over 50% due to the effects of the Great Depression and F Shaw Tannery Fire. Even during WWII there were 48 structures on main street and the block created by cross street. There are around 30 now.

A book called Modern Maine published in 1953 describes the town's economic engine as mostly lumbering/pulpwood cutting and potato farming. Aside from demography, interesting points include the fact that they apparently had to sue Penobscot County commissioners to get permission to build a road to their nearest neighbor. It managed to get its own telephone company in 1913. This was creatively named the Kingman Telephone Company. The Maine Encyclopedia has a fantastic article with a solid narrative. 

The only structure I can verify which has seen all of this is the rectory on cross street. I have a minor personal connection to this structure as I spent quite a bit of time inside it around the early 2000's. Unfortunately, this was before the advent of smartphones and I don't have any images which showcase interesting features which I recall. 

Features which include a maid staircase leading from the kitchen to a small bed room at the end of the hall. A dumbwaiter was also present however had fallen into the depths of disrepair by the time I was dating the daughter of a former owner. This house was featured on the blog Old House Dreams and hadn't changed much between the early 2000's and when the house was last sold in 2014.

You can tell this building is from another time compared to the surrounding houses due to the above features saved only in my own memory as well as the photos from the Old House Dreams blog. 

Items which stand out are the newel post, the french doors in the sitting room and the pretty delicate work around the windows. As a teenager I didn't really appreciate the features or understand that I was inside a time bubble which had seen its town's population dwindle to under 10% of the build year's population.