Gilead dates to 1804, and 15% of its homes were built before 1940
Its Register listings are the Peabody Tavern and the Gilead Railroad Station. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1914 on, and the census since 1810.
In the late 1700s, Massachusetts sold land in what is now Maine to encourage the settlement of the area. In 1772, Oliver and John Peabody, of Andover, Massachusetts, and John and Samuel Bodwell of Methuen, Massachusetts, bought 6000 acres above Sudbury Canada. Gilead was first granted as Peabody's Patent. In 1804, there were 20 families and the need for schools, churches, roads and other community necessities had become evident. It was time to raise money to bring this about. The petition was granted on June 23, 1804, and Peabody's Patent became Gilead.
Passages that mention Gilead, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Rumford, Oxford County, Maine, from its first settlement in 1779, to the present time1890 · page 97Read the page →
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town of Errol, New Hampshire, and passing through that town and other New Hampshire towns of Cambridge, Dummer, Milan, Berlin, Gorham and Shelburne, it enters the State of Maine in the l')order town of Gilead. Its course from the lake to Gorham is nearly due south, but when fairly outside the White Mountain i-ange, it turns and makes almost a right angle, and when it enters Maine, its course is nearly eastward. Between Milan and Bethel the river falls several hundred feet, the most of it at Berlin Falls.
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History of Bethel, formerly Sudbury, Canada, Oxford County, Maine, 1768-18901891 · page 342Read the page →
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operations he went from place to place. This was before the days of threshing machines, and grain was separated from the straw by means of a hand implement called a Hail. In tlie winter, Robbins worked in the logging swamp in the neighboring town of Gilead, for the brothers Aaron and Ayers Mason. In the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty-one, Robbins purchased a wild lot of land in the town of Albany, and in June of that year commenced to fell trees with the evident purpose of mak-
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History of Bethel, formerly Sudbury, Canada, Oxford County, Maine, 1768-18901891 · page 178Read the page →
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Besse's northwesterly to land owned by John Twombly. George W. Chapman of Gilead was elected representative. At an adjourned meeting held at Bear river bridge, it was voted to rebuild the bridge with long stringers supported overhead with braces. The building of the bridge was bid off by Phineas Frost. The transportation of Calvin Twitchell, wife and three children, to Oneida county, New York, where they belong, was bid off by George Bean, for eightyfour dollars and fifty cents.
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The history of Waterford, Oxford County, Maine, comprising Historical address, by Henry P. Warren1879 · page 68Read the page →
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Dixfield,* settled 1795, incorporated 1803, 137 Fryeburg and Stow (Fryeburg-addition, Pequawkett), settled 1763, incorporated 1777, 547 734 Gilead (Peabodys Patent),* settled 1780, incor. 1805, 88 1 The towns starred made no returns of population ; with the exception of Paris they could have had but a handful of settlers each. The population, not enumerated, could not have exceeded 500 either year.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Gilead, 1804 to 1973
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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 Wikimedia Commons (3), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and 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.
2017
2017
