The Schoolmaster Had Not Reached Orrington

: TALES OF PURITAN LAND
: Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land

The quiet town of Orrington, in Maine, was founded by Jesse Atwood, of

Wellfleet, Cape Cod, in 1778, and has become known, since then, as a

place where skilful farmers and brave sailors could always be found. It

also kept Maine supplied for years with oldest inhabitants. It is said

that the name was an accident of illiteracy, and that it is the only

place in the world that owes its title to bad spelling. The settlers who

followed Atwood there were numerous enough to form a township after ten

years, and the name they decided on for their commonwealth was

Orangetown, so called for a village in Maryland where some of the people

had associations, but the clerk of the town meeting was not a college

graduate and his spelling of Orange was Orring, and of town, ton. His

draft of the resolutions went before the legislature, and the people

directly afterward found themselves living in Orrington.



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