Shirley (Maine)
Piscataquis County
Shirley is a place in the U.S. state of Maine. It is located in the southwest of Piscataquis County. According to the census of 2010 it had 233 inhabitants. Here arises the main branch of the Piscataquis River. There are also two other rivers, the Wilson and the Bog Stream.
History
1825 was Captain C. Cushman was the first settler in Shirley, as Joseph Mitchell, marriages and David Marble. Cushman settled in the north and procured wooden planks from Monson using a hand sled. 1829 acquired Shaw and Jabez True the western area of modern resort, which also formed the starting point. Jabez True erected buildings for future settlers and a first sawmill ( Shirley Mills ). 1834, the place had enough residents to apply for incorporation. Here, the place should first Somerset hot, but it was decided for the present name, probably after Governor William Shirley, who held the office from 1740 to 1749 and from 1753 to 1756. According to another view, the name goes back to the birthplace of J. Kelsey, the seats in parliament. In the first meeting of the Elder Orrin Strout were determined to city employees and Charles Loring one of the select- men.
1835 sold the Town logging rights to natural forests (old growth) that you brought in $ 2,800 to build a school. With only 271 inhabitants Shirley had a kindergarten and a school, which led to the 5th grade. 1848, the neighboring town of Wilson was incorporated, which today forms the eastern part of the community. This also Shirley Corner at Little Wilson Stream with another mill right, a hotel and later Shirley Post Office was added.
1850 Edgar Wilson Nye here, the journalist, and from 1881 editor of the Boomerang was born, probably the best known in the U.S. Who is Shirley. 1850 had a Clark Carter Country in value of $ 2000 in the area of Shirley, which he occupied a middle position among the landowners in the Northeast. With its considerable funds he supported his daughter Sarah, who was trying to become self-employed as a milliner. To this end, they settled in different places in Maine on, but returned to extended visits always come back to Shirley. For an existence of its kind offered Shirley, especially for women, probably no basis.
In addition to the logging led residents of the town in the second half of the century also hunting parties by this time still vast forests. The first of these guides, who tried to seize the opportunities the beginning of tourism ', applies a certain Bowley, as Thomas Sedgwick Steele reported in 1880. 1876 Shirley had 206 inhabitants, in 1880 there were already 253
On August 22, 1917 struck a devastating fire that Shirley Lumber Company, which caused a loss of $ 30,000. 1933 had to suspend its operation, which virtually all employees of the 200 -strong village lost their jobs Shirley (Maine) Lumber Co..
Until the global economic crisis that hit the town in 1929, the economy of the town based on the wood around. But now disappeared jobs at the local sawmills and in road construction. In a completely hopeless situation, there were 30 families together, who specialized in knitting and to the corporation Shirley Industries founded. Robert T. Moore, who had often held up as a summer guest in Shirley, offered to every family that participated, an appropriate knitting machine. The production was so good that the workers in 1934 received a salary between 18 and 32 dollars a week. The sale of goods was settled from 1937 Dennison Brothers in New York. In their pride in the achievements and the fact that they were dependent on any government assistance, the residents sent to President Roosevelt six pairs of their products manufactured in place of socks.
Although the corporation in the 1950s was disbanded, but many of the buildings -is still. In 2000 there were 183 inhabitants, ten years later 233