The Howland post office opened in 1830, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Seboois (1890), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 329 in 18302020 census: 1,094196 years
How did Howland get its name?
Howland was named after John Howland, one of the passengers on the Mayflower.
How historic is Howland?
B
More historic than 63% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Howland post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Name: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
History grade
What drives Howland’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Howland is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Howland’s overall grade.
Maine towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Maine town has 15.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Howland’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (10% of Maine towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±12.9 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Howland’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost half of its people between 1830 and 1880, then grew 7-fold.
20 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Howland’s Wikipedia page.
On the map
Howland on the map, 1917 to 1988
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Howland. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1917Passadumkeag sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Howland.
The story so far
Howland, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Howland yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Howland is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States, which was settled in 1818. It was named after John Howland, one of the passengers on the Mayflower. The population was 1,094 at the 2020 census. It contains a census-designated place of the same name.
Its first post office opened in 1830. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,241 to 1,094 (-12%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Howland in 1882
Passages that mention Howland, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Penobscot County, Maine1882 · page 388Read the page →
Read the text
Howland village is at the junction of the Piscataquis with the Penobscot River, nearly one and a half miles above the southeast corner of the town, and a mile below Pine Island. Here are the town post-office, School No.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Penobscot County, Maine1882 · page 388Read the page →
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Howland was erected as a town February 10, 1826. Plymouth was the only other town in this county incorporated the same year.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Penobscot County, Maine1882 · page 420Read the page →
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Maxfield has a fair population for a small interior and distant town, and has sensibly increased it even within the last eleven years. It is mainly on the south river road, running from Howland up the Piscataquis, about three miles of it in this town, and on the Bunker Hill or stage-road into Lagrange. This leaves the river road soon after it enters Maxfield, and runs with some zigzags southwesterly across the angle of Howland into Lagrange,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Penobscot County, Maine1882 · page 387Read the page →
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flowing a very httle way in Howland from the northwest part of the pond, then in Maxfield about two miles, taking there the waters of the Seboois Stream, and flowing one mile in Howland to the Piscataquis just at the head of the islands. The Little Seboois Lake, out of which this tributary flows, is a beautiful sheet of water half a mile south of the north corner of the town, wholly within the limits of Howland, a mile and a half long by an
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.
Timeline
Howland, 1830 to 1930
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Howland post office opened in 1830, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Howland rank for history?
Howland is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Howland?
26% of Howland’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±12.9 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1970.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (3), 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.
Date?
Date?
2026