Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Chisholm yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Chisholm is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Jay in Franklin County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, Chisholm had a population of 1,343. It is an industrial village named for Hugh J. Chisholm, who built the Otis Falls Pulp & Paper Company here in 1888 to use Androscoggin River water power.
Its first post office opened in 1897. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,380 to 1,343 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Chisholm in 1912
Passages that mention Chisholm, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Chisholm is comparatively a new settlement, having sprung up in connection with its large paper industry, around what was formerly known as Otis Falls, and near the flourishing village of Livermore Falls, of which it has become practically a part, having the same railroad station and post-office. In
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A branch line of the Rumford Falls Railroad runs from Canton on the south side of the river, with stations at Canton, Riley and Jay Bridge, crossing the river near Chisholm and connecting with the Maine Central Railroad at Livermore Falls. GRANITE QUARRIES The working of the granite quarries at North Jay is now one of the important industries of the town. The quarries have been operated from the beginning of the nineteenth
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
