Editing Stonington, Maine (section)

===Deer Isle settlement===
As far back as 6,100 years ago the first inhabitants of Deer Isle were Native Americans known as the [[Abenaki people|Abenaki]], speaking a language called [[Etchemin language|Etchemin]]. One of the first Europeans to explore the area was Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese working for the Spanish Crown.<ref>[http://www.bairnet.org/potw/gomez99/gomez.htm Ann Rea, ''Estevan Gomez, Navigator and Explorer;'' Bangor Area Information Resources Network]</ref> Gomez sailed his ship ''La Anunciada'' up the Eggemoggin Reach, amongst other places along the Maine coast, looking for gold and the [[Northwest Passage]]. It was the French, however, who would be the most active in the region. Establishing a fort at [[Castine, Maine|Castine]] and intermarrying with Abenaki natives. A body buried in full French armor was discovered on nearby Campbell Island ([https://maps.google.com/maps?q=%2B44%C2%B0+13 +44° 13' 20.03", −68° 36' 33.24"], south of Oak Point).

The first white settler of Deer Isle was one William Eaton (born 1720 Salisbury, Massachusetts, died {{circa|1790}} Seabrook, New Hampshire) and family, arriving on the island prior to August 4, 1762. They settled in an area now known as [http://www.islandheritagetrust.org/pdf/Welcome_to_Scotts.pdf Scott's Landing] (so named for the second owner of the property: Nathaniel Scott) located near the Deer Isle/Little Deer Isle Causeway. By 1765, migration to Deer Isle had begun in earnest and Eaton, along with 16 other families, petitioned the governing state of Massachusetts for legal title to the land. The largest group of these first settlers came from [[Newburyport, Massachusetts]] and were mostly of Scottish and Irish descent.<ref>{{cite book|last=Spoffard-Watts|first=Edith|title=Deer Isle, Maine 'From Pre-History to the Present'|year=1997|publisher=Penobscot Press|isbn=0-89725-310-8|pages=17–21}}</ref>  Ironically, those settlers had come looking for a new life on the land, not the sea. A few cellar holes and foundation stones from the original homesteads can still be found at Scott's Landing and the land they cleared is still open. Settlers continued their southward migration on the island and eventually established the village of Green's Landing (as Stonington was initially known) after 1800.<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/n137 103]–104| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ| quote = coolidge mansfield history description new england 1859.  }}</ref>