Editing Lebanon, Maine (section)

==History==
It was called Towwoh by the Newichawannock [[Abenaki]] tribe, whose main village was further down the [[Salmon Falls River]]. On April 20, 1733, the [[Massachusetts General Court]] granted Towwoh Plantation to 60 colonists, who first settled it in 1743. The township was incorporated on June 17, 1767, renamed Lebanon after the biblical land of [[Lebanon]]. It was Maine's 23rd town. Lebanon annexed unincorporated land in 1785, and some from [[Sanford, Maine|Sanford]] in 1787. It swapped land with [[Shapleigh, Maine|Shapleigh]], giving some in 1793, then annexing some in 1825.<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/n219 185]–186| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ| quote = coolidge mansfield history description new england 1859.  }}</ref>

[[Farmer]]s found the surface of the town relatively level in the southeast, with extensive pine plains in the northwest. The chief crop would be [[hay]]. At the Salmon Falls River and the [[Little River (Salmon Falls River)|Little River]] were [[water power]] sites for [[watermill|mills]]. Lebanon had four [[sawmill]]s, three [[gristmill]]s, a [[roof shingle|shingle]] mill, a [[wool]] [[carding]] mill and a [[Tanning (leather)|tannery]]. In 1850, [[Oren B. Cheney]] founded West Lebanon Academy. Beginning in the early 1870s, the [[Portland and Rochester Railroad]] ran the length of the town's southeast side, with the [[Portsmouth, Great Falls and Conway Railroad]] crossing for a short distance on the western side.<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Varney
  | first = George J.
  | title = Gazetteer of the state of Maine. Lebanon
  | place = Boston
  | publisher = Russell
  | year = 1886
  | url = http://history.rays-place.com/me/lebanon-me.htm
  | access-date = April 9, 2008
  | archive-date = April 7, 2016
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160407094746/http://history.rays-place.com/me/lebanon-me.htm
  | url-status = dead
  }}</ref>