Unfortunately, the article by Steve Collins (“One of the Androscoggin’s mysteries: Why did Lewiston Falls become Great Falls?,” June 25) ended with the myth about the Native American named “Lewis” as the source of the name of “Lewiston.”
Actually, when the Pejepscot Proprietors granted the land to Moses Little and Jonathan Bagley in 1768, they specified that the name would be “Lewiston.” No whites lived in the vicinity then. It is highly unlikely that the proprietors would name it for a Native American.
I have examined the original proprietors’ records in the Phillips Library in Salem, Massachusetts. They never referred to the falls as “Lewis’s Falls.” The label “Lewiston Falls” emerged only after the town of Lewiston was named.
Moreover, there were only three members at the meeting when the grant was made. One was Samuel Waterhouse, the son-in-law and heir of Job Lewis.
Job Lewis was a Boston merchant who had been an active member of the proprietors. I believe that Waterhouse successfully advocated the name “Lewiston” to honor his father-in-law.
I lay out the case for Job Lewis thoroughly in my book, “Frontier to Industrial City: Lewiston Town Politics,” pages four and five.
Douglas I. Hodgkin, Lewiston
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