Editing North Oxford, Maine (section)

==History of Grafton==
Grafton, the southernmost township, was the only township to achieve incorporation. The first European settler was James Brown in 1834. He built a sawmill in 1838, and a few of the men he hired to cut logs and mill lumber built homes along what is now [[Maine State Route 26]] above [[Grafton Notch State Park]]. A few raised some livestock, hay, oats, and potatoes for subsistence. Grafton incorporated in 1852. The town school built just above Grafton Notch had 37 students by 1859, but that number slowly declined to 10 by 1900. The maximum population recorded for the town was 115 in the 1880 census. About a hundred men would come into Grafton for the winter logging season, and leave driving the logs downstream with the spring snowmelt in March or April. The intensity of logging increased in 1893 with completion of the [[Success Pond Railroad]] from [[Berlin, New Hampshire]] to the [[New Hampshire]] border of Grafton. Aboriginal forests had been completely logged when the railroad was dismantled in 1907. When the logging jobs disappeared, most residents sold their land to a [[pulp and paper industry|pulp and paper company]] and moved away. Grafton disincorporated in 1919; and the Town records were turned over to [[Newry, Maine]]. Most of the structures were demolished by the new landowner to reduce the fire hazard of use by a transient population.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bethelhistorical.org/Grafton,_Maine__A_Historical_Sketch.html |title=Grafton, Maine: A Historical Sketch |publisher=Bethel Historical Society |accessdate=January 21, 2012}}</ref>