GREENWOOD — “I think it is just local humor,” Historian Blaine Mills said, referring to Greenwood “City,” a section of Greenwood that is home to less than 100 people.

Greenwood City is located at “the outlet of Hicks Pond on the Greenwood Road,” and was first settled close to 1808 by Benjamin Hicks and his wife Polly Morgan, according to Mills.

Merriam-Webster defines a city as a “an inhabited place of greater size, population, or importance than a town or village,” so it’s safe to say the small section of Greenwood does not fit the definition. However, its long-ago importance in the overall history of the town cannot be overlooked.

The city itself did not come to life until the Greenwood Road was constructed in 1820. The first settlement was on Patch Mountain, and prior to the Greenwood Road’s construction, the original road came up from North Norway to the ice caves in Greenwood. From there it went to the Irish Neighborhood, up and over what is now Paradise Road and then onto Broad Street. According to Mills, the teamsters, who were people that drove horses, disliked the road, complaining that it was too hilly and hard on their horses.

Once the Greenwood Road was complete, much of the business and traffic on Patch Mountain moved to Greenwood City. The small section of town would soon take off, with the help of local Seth Hilborn, who came from Portland. He helped promote the town by owning a large chunk of it. He built and operated a sawmill, owned a tavern and had a livery stable.

Mills said Hilborn remained in the area until the large pine trees were gone. Afterwards he sold the sawmill, and left the area sometime near the end of the Civil War.

Water power was one of the primary reasons Greenwood City became a key location during the 19th century. Farms located on what is now Route 219, Hayes Hill, and Patch Mountain helped create a thriving economy in the downtown area.

The area became so busy it ended up having an inn on both sides. Each of the substantial inns also had sizable livery stables where animals would be housed.

Around 1850, a large team of oxen coming from the north came through Greenwood City. The oxen were pulling a pine tree that was more than 100 feet long. The team was headed to Portland. According to Addison Verrill, a zoologist born in Greenwood, many neighboring farmers came and watched the large group of oxen, considering none of them had ever seen a team that big. The drivers stayed in the inns and the oxen were kept in the livery stables.

In addition to the two inns and stables there were two taverns, a blacksmith shop, saw mill, church, and several general stores. All of the places made the village a lively one on what was a heavily-trafficked road at the time.

Destruction 

On Friday, May 9, 1862, close to noon, a fire started in a dwelling house at the north end of the village. A woman by the last name Emmons had started a fire to help make dinner. The fire spread to the chimney shortly after and when the sparks made it to the roof, disaster followed. In The Oxford Democrat newspaper, it said the fire quickly spread to a barn nearby and then to another house, inhabited by Amos Stevens and two men by the last names of Hilton and Berry. According to the Oxford Democrat, after the flames consumed the Old Noyes Tavern stand, owned by George W. Patch, the fire moved across the street, where Patch’s run of bad luck continued. The Old Hilborn Tavern, also owned by him, became engulfed in flames and was turned to ash quickly. Patch’s stable and store, which were adjoined, were leveled next. The store was occupied as a wheelwright’s shop by E. Trull.

The fire would burn another dwelling house belonging to Patch and lived in by a Mr. Kendall and Otis Morgan, and then finally it ceased after burning down the Grist Mill. The fire went out “simply because there was nothing more to devour,” according to the Oxford Democrat. There was no fire department then, so Mills said the only way the fire could’ve been put out was by buckets of water, which would have been ineffective, considering the size and speed of the flames.

Although the blaze lasted only an hour, it claimed 12 structures and nearly all livestock and personal belongings. The only buildings that avoided destruction were a meeting house and shoemakers shop, according to the Oxford Democrat and local historian Chris Dunham.

The Patch family was hit the hardest by the fire, with a reported $3,000 in losses, although George’s mother “held the title to many of the destroyed buildings,”according to Dunham. Dunham also said “the Patch family’s fortune would never recover.”

Railroad factor

As Mills puts it, “in those days a railroad could make or break a town.” The railroad, constructed in the early 1850s, missed Greenwood City, which saw many of its businesses migrate to Locke’s Mills after the devastation. After the village burned there was no point in rebuilding, considering its distance from the railroad and because many people had already resettled elsewhere, according to Mills. The railroad was built through Locke’s Mills because the grades were lower than other routes that had been explored. The highest point in the state on the Grand Trunk Railroad is the crossing on Howe Hill Road, by the fire station.

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