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Topsham, Maine: From the River to the Highlands
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By: Robert C. Williams
A very readable history of Topsham.
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The riverside settlement that became Topsham, and was once the buffer between the wilderness and Brunswick, became a mill town and now a noted retirement location with a retail and commercial center rivaling surrounding municipalities. Robert C. Williams brings the people of Topsham—yesterday’s and today’s—to us in this very readable history of Topsham.
About the Author
Robert C. Williams received his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University and has taught at Williams, Davidson and Bates Colleges, and Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of numerous books in modern Russian, American and European history, including Russian Art and American Money, 1900-1940, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by Harvard University Press in 1980.
Williams has been a summer resident of Maine since 1939 and a year-round resident since 2003. In 2006, he published Lovewell’s Town, a history of Lovell, Maine, with Just Write Books of Topsham. Consequently, in 2013, Nancy E. Randolph encouraged him to write a history of his new hometown after he and his wife Ann moved into The Highlands of Topsham.
Topsham: From the River to the Highlands is based on research in the libraries and archives of Bath, Brunswick, Portland and Topsham, including the Pejepscot Historical Society, Maine Maritime Museum, and Bowdoin College, and interviews with Topsham residents. Randolph facilitated these interviews and contributed the photographs, layout and formatting of the book.
About the Author
Robert C. Williams received his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University and has taught at Williams, Davidson and Bates Colleges, and Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of numerous books in modern Russian, American and European history, including Russian Art and American Money, 1900-1940, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by Harvard University Press in 1980.
Williams has been a summer resident of Maine since 1939 and a year-round resident since 2003. In 2006, he published Lovewell’s Town, a history of Lovell, Maine, with Just Write Books of Topsham. Consequently, in 2013, Nancy E. Randolph encouraged him to write a history of his new hometown after he and his wife Ann moved into The Highlands of Topsham.
Topsham: From the River to the Highlands is based on research in the libraries and archives of Bath, Brunswick, Portland and Topsham, including the Pejepscot Historical Society, Maine Maritime Museum, and Bowdoin College, and interviews with Topsham residents. Randolph facilitated these interviews and contributed the photographs, layout and formatting of the book.
Reviews |
Dana Wilde in The Working Waterfront |
Bushnell on Books ~ Kennebec Journal • Morning Sentinel |
"Williams' book traces the ins and outs of the politics, commerce and social life of the town tucked between Brunswick and Bath right up to the present day. We learn of the stately homes built for town fathers such as Dr. Benjamin Porter in the early 19th century, and of Topsham's efforts in the War of 1812, the Civil War and others.
"Topsham: From the River to the Highlands ... provides an experienced historian's reliable, fun overview of the river town's place in the area's past, and present. Williams holds a doctorate in history from Harvard University, and has taught at Bates College and Williams College, among others. His book Russian Art and American Money, 1900-1940 was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1980, and his predecessor volume to “Topsham” is Lovewell's Town, a history of Lovell, Maine." Dana Wilde lives in Troy, Maine. |
"All of Maine’s small towns can boast of fascinating but little-known history. Fortunately, Maine can boast of curious and articulate historians like Robert Williams who tell their stories.
"[In Topsham, Maine: From the River to the Highlands), Williams tells the entertaining and informative history of Topsham, on the mid-coast, across the Androscoggin River from Brunswick. He begins with the early English settlers in 1640, the violent decades of Indian warfare that plagued the New England frontier and the colonial conflicts over land ownership and governance. "Anecdotes about Topsham’s citizens over the years reveal very interesting characters. Samuel Thompson (1735-1797) was a patriotic rabble-rouser during the American Revolution, rashly starting “Thompson’s War” against the British in May 1775, and was a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in Boston in 1788. Topsham’s inventors created the seamless stocking, the auto turn signal, a charcoal lighter for backyard barbeques and the healthful “vapor bath” of alcohol and opium, which “produced many satisfied customers." Bill Bushnell lives and writes in Harpswell. |