HISTORY OF MONTICELLO
(From the 1946 Centennial Program)
Monticello is an attractive Maine town of some fifteen hundred inhabitants, favorably situated
on the main highway between Houlton and the towns of northern Aroostook County. A marked devel-
opment in progress is clearly shown in its widely cultivated farm lands, its active industries, and neat
dwellings. The presence of a daily airline route, the steadily increasing traffic of trucks and cars, and
the all important rail service of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad are significant of the town's
advancement from that of early pioneer days.
The earliest date of settlement of the town of Monticello is placed approximately at 1830. This
section of state land bore the uninspiring title, Letter A-Range 1, and at that time was a part of
Washington County as was all of Aroostook County. Hon. Joel Wellington changed the name to
Monticello in honor of the estate of Thomas Jefferson.
The consequent task of clearing land upon which to build a log house occupied Mr. Wellington
and his son Albion. The spoon selected for his future home was on the south side of the Meduxnekeag
Stream. He constructed a dam and saw mill (above the present bridge) later to be swept away by high
water. Another saw mill equipped with a clapboard machine was built on a lower site. In 1846 Mr.
Wellington built a frame house on the same spot where now is the home of his great grandson Elbridge
C. Wellington. In one of the wings of this house was the Post Office where he served as Postmaster for
a number of years. To General Joel Wellington more than any other man is due the credit of making
the settlement a permanent one. From 1833 until 1864 he proved to be a wise leader and adviser in
town affairs.
George Pond with his wife and daughter, Laura Jane (Aunt Jane Gould), came to Monticello by
ox team about 1831. He was the first settler, actually, as it was with him that Mr. Wellington boarded
before bringing his family from Kennebec County. Laura Jane married Isaiah Gould; another daugh-
ter, Eliza, married Hiram Gould. Mary E. Barton, a granddaughter, was the first to be buried in the
town cemetery. Mr. Pond replaced his log house with the first frame house in Monticello, known as
"Pond's Tavern", a favorite loafing center for the townspeople. This was long a historic landmark on
the site of the present home of J. M. Foster. It was here in 1839 during the Aroostook War that troops
would rest en route to and from the northern border. Years later in 1856 the old Pond house was rented
to Isaac Archibald as a lodging house. Mr. Archibald was the father of Samuel P., James Archibald,
and Mrs. Jeremiah Hare.
Col. Nathan Stanley was another early pioneer of Monticello. He and his two sons, Gould and
James, took an active part in plantation affairs. James M., the grandfather of the present generation of
Stanleys, met an untimely end caused by the falling of his horse during a temperance parade.
Samuel Stackpole came here about 1832. He was a strong formidable man who could chop his
acre of trees in a day and could swing a scythe for several hours at eighty years of age. Of such rugged
stock were these courageous settlers. In the same year came Jesse and David Jewell. After swamping
a road a mile beyond the old Shorey house on the north road, they built a temporary log shelter. Later
a frame house near the Comer became the Jewell homestead.
.
In the early thirties other newcomers began to take a hand in shaping the destiny of the town,
such as John Wadlia, Samuel Kidder and Peter Lowell. Mr. Wadlia settled in the southeast part of the
town on the lot now owned by Frank Brown. His son Colin was the father of the late Mrs. Perle Bubar.
It is said that John Wadlia and Samuel Kidder took the first grist of wheat to the Houlton mill from
Monticello. Peter Lowell located on a farm in the south part of the town on what was thereafter called
"Lowell Hill". He shared prominently in the Plantation management. He is the grandfather of Ellie
Lowell of Blaine.
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