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May 23, 2013 - OBHS Annual Meeting

7:00 pm (Counting House)

Celebrate our new museum exhibit opening with an evening of live entertainment and savories and sweets of the 18th century. For OBHS members - new members are welcome.

Enjoy 18TH CENTURY ENTERTAINMENT WITH TROUBADOR Dave Peloquin

All old -- and new -- Old Berwick Historical Society members are welcome. Join at the door.

Berwick Begins: 1631-1713

Old Berwick’s story began over 4,000 years ago as home to Native American fishermen and hunters. For millennia, Indians migrated during the spring from the interior of southern Maine to the Salmon Falls River. Here, they established encampments adjacent to the river and today’s South Berwick’s Counting House, Quamphegan Falls, Rollinsford, and the Great Falls in Somersworth harvesting the salmon, shad, alewives, and eels that made their annual migratory runs up Maine’s coastal rivers. By the time English explorers such as Martin Pring (1602) and John Smith (1614) sailed along the coast of southern Maine, the Indians of Newichawannock and Quamphegan had established planting grounds of corn and beans along the Salmon Falls River.

Berwick Begins: South Berwick Town Hall Exhibit

Thanks to the hard work of archaeologists with the Old Berwick Historical Society, local residents can now glimpse early decades of settlement in this part of New England. South Berwick was settled about 14 years after Plimoth, and was part of a larger town designated as Berwick in 1713.

“Some things, like sharing camaraderie over pints of ale, haven’t changed in 300 years,” said Paula Bennett, a society board member. “A tavern stood where Brattle Street meets Oldfields Road, which was then the center of town, just as people enjoy the taverns now thriving downtown South Berwick.”

South Berwick's First People

Who were the first people in South Berwick? Unfortunately, very few historical documents have survived to tell us about the native people who were living here at the time of settlement. Books have been written about the New England native culture; they likely applied to the people living in the South Berwick area (see Bibliography.)

Early visitors and settlers provide some eyewitness reports, but they came with a mission -- to take possession of the land occupied by these “savages.”

Archaeological Field School Accepting Applicants

Registration for the Old Berwick Historical Society’s summer archaeology dig has been extended to Saturday, June 15. The program is open to college and upper level high school students, teachers in need of recertification credits, and history buffs of any age who are interested in exploring an area with a rich colonial history.

The Old Fields Archaeological Field School begins June 17, and participants can choose any number of weeks throughout the five-week dig. The program will be held Monday through Friday, from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm. Participants must be at least 16 years old.

Ask Norma

Got a question about local history of the Berwicks, the Salmon Falls River area and southwestern Maine? If you write us at info@oldberwick.org, our volunteers will do their best to find answers in the Counting House Museum archives and reference books.

For example: Ever hear it said that South Berwick was the landing place of the first cows in America?

To find out about early cows and other frequently asked questions, click here for replies from Old Berwick Historical Society volunteer Norma K eim.