Editing Cornish, Maine (section)

==History==
In 1665, a [[trading post]] was established by [[Francis Small]] in the vicinity of Cornish village, not far from the [[confluence]] of the [[Ossipee River]] with the [[Saco River]]. Here converged three major [[Abenaki]] paths—the Sokokis Trail ([[Maine State Route 5|Route 5]]), the Ossipee Trail ([[Maine State Route 25|Route 25]]) and the Pequawket Trail ([[Maine State Route 113|Route 113]]), making it a central location for conducting with [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]]s the lucrative [[fur trading|fur trade]]. In 1668, Small purchased from Newichawannock Chief Captain Sunday (or Wesumbe) the Ossipee Tract, encompassing the present-day towns of Cornish, [[Parsonsfield, Maine|Parsonsfield]], [[Newfield, Maine|Newfield]], [[Limerick, Maine|Limerick]], [[Limington, Maine|Limington]] and [[Shapleigh, Maine|Shapleigh]] (which then included [[Acton, Maine|Acton]]). The price was two large Indian blankets, two gallons of [[rum]], two pounds of [[gunpowder]], four pounds of [[musket]] balls and twenty strings of Indian beads. Small then sold a half interest in the tract to Major Nicholas Shapleigh of [[Eliot, Maine|Eliot]].<ref name=Coolidge>{{Cite book  | last = Coolidge  | first = Austin J.|author2=John B. Mansfield  | title = A History and Description of New England| publisher = A.J. Coolidge  | year = 1859| location = Boston, Massachusetts| pages = [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ/page/n130 96]–97| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ| quote = coolidge mansfield history description new england 1859.  }}</ref>

In 1770, heirs discovered the unrecorded deed, and hired attorney [[James Sullivan (governor)|James Sullivan]] of [[Biddeford, Maine|Biddeford]] to pursue their claim. They won, and paid Sullivan for his services with the township he named Limerick. Small's descendants took possession of Newfield, Limington and Cornish, the latter first named Francisborough, then Francistown, after its original proprietor. Settled by Joseph Thompson in 1782, it was incorporated on February 27, 1794, as Cornish, presumably by settlers from the county of [[Cornwall]], England. The soil was very productive for [[farming]], producing large crops of [[Maize|corn]] and other types of [[grain]]. In 1859, the population was 1,144. The [[Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad]] ran up the Saco River valley in the early 1870s, servicing Baldwin Station across the bridge from Cornish.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cornish-maine.org/about_cornish_cab.html |title="History of Cornish," Cornish Association of Businesses |access-date=November 12, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121061150/http://cornish-maine.org/about_cornish_cab.html |archive-date=November 21, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>