Editing Weld, Maine (section)

==History==

Originally called No. 5 (or Webb's Pond Plantation), it was first settled in 1800 by Nathaniel Kittredge and his family from [[Chester, New Hampshire]]. The town was part of an extensive tract purchased about 1790 from the state of [[Massachusetts]] by Jonathan Phillips of [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]]. Phillips was an investor whose agent, Jacob Abbott of [[Wilton, New Hampshire]], resold parcels of the land to settlers. Together with Benjamin Weld of Boston, Abbott and his brother-in-law Thomas Russell Jr. in 1815 bought what remained of the Phillips tract.<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/n385 347]–348| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ| quote = A History and Description of New England Coolidge Mansfield.  }}</ref>

Incorporated on February 8, 1816, the town was named for its proprietor, Benjamin Weld, a member of the [[Weld family]].<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mecweld/EarlySettlersofWeld.htm E. J. Foster, ''Early Settlers of Weld'', Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder]</ref> Inauspiciously, 1816 was the [[Year Without a Summer]], when unusually cold weather threatened [[Atlantic Northeast|northeastern]] communities with [[famine]].

A longtime resident of Weld was Pomp Russell, an [[African-American]] man adopted as a very young child by Thomas and Bethia Holt Russell in Andover, Massachusetts in the early 1760s. The only extant record is a church baptism for Pompey, “servant to Thomas Russel” in Andover, MA. on November 18, 1764. Thomas Russell, son of Joseph, was born in Andover, MA June 5, 1732. He and Bethia Holt married May 15, 1760, in Andover, MA.<ref>Early Records of the Holt family of Andover, MA.</ref> In 1769, Thomas and Bethia and four children (Bethia, Thomas, Jr., Pomp and Hannah) moved to Wilton, N.H. In September 1769, Thomas purchased for £106, 13 shillings and 4 pence, lot 8, and two and a half acres of Lot 7, both in the seventh range, Wilton, New Hampshire. Another son, Daniel, was born a few months after their move to Wilton, N.H.

Pomp Russell served at the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]] in June 1775 and was later caught spying behind British lines. Russell was lined up to be shot when he managed to escape. About 1781 at age 21, Pomp was awarded his freedom by Thomas, his father and adoptive parent. On June 26, 1788, 
Pomp Russell married Margaret Cutt.<ref>[History of the Town of Amherst, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire.  By Daniel Franklin Secomb, p.852]</ref> In handwritten town records of Packersfield, N.H. the birth on December 5, 1789, of their first child, Peter, is recorded.<ref>Town of Nelson, NH records</ref> (Nelson is present day name of Packersfield). In the 1790 U.S. census of Packersfield, N.H., the entry for Pompey Russell shows three free colored people: Pomp, Peggy, and their first-born, Peter. Zadok was born February 1, 1794. Pomp was a farmer, owning one or two cows between 1789 and 1804 and also fencing was mentioned in the handwritten tax records. Come 1804, he was taxed for 1 ton of hay and 3 acres of pasture land. Around this time, Pomp's brothers, Abel and Joseph, invited him and his family to leave Packersfield and join them in Weld, Maine where their father Thomas had moved prior to his move to Temple.  The brothers had built Pomp's family a home on Center Hill in Weld.

Weld is located on a fairly level area of gravelly [[loam]] almost surrounded by mountains, some of which are beyond the town's limits. Farmers cultivated [[Maize|corn]], [[potato]]es, [[wheat]] and [[oat]]s. Weld was noted for numerous and prolific [[apple]] [[orchard]]s. Streams provided [[water power]] for [[water mill|mills]], which included five [[sawmill]]s, three box mills, a [[gristmill]] and a [[carding]] machine. It also produced fork and shovel handles, butter tubs, [[horse harness|harness]] and tinware. Other industries were a [[starch]] factory, [[blacksmith]] and [[Tanning (leather)|tannery]].<ref name="Coolidge"/> By 1870, the population was 1,130.<ref>[http://history.rays-place.com/me/franklin3.htm George J. Varney, ''History of Temple, Weld & Wilton, Maine;'' Boston, Massachusetts 1886]</ref>

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Image:View from Center Hill, Weld, ME.jpg|Bird's-eye view {{circa|1915}}
Image:The Square, Weld Village, ME.jpg|The Square {{circa|1906}}
Image:Point of Pines, Weld, ME.jpg|Webb Lake {{circa|1908}}
Image:WeldME MtBlueTradingPost.jpg|Mount Blue Trading Post
</gallery>