Town of Whitefield

Whitefield is a town in Lincoln County, incorporated on June 19, 1809 from the part of Ballstown Plantation remaining after the western portion became the town of Jefferson in 1807.

The town was named for a well-known itinerant minister by that name who visited Maine in 1745.

John Ball, and a substantial number of Irish Roman Catholics, settled the area in 1770, attracted by the lumbering opportunities and the ability to ship logs down the Sheepscot River, which also provided power for the associated mills.

In 1818 the Reverend Denis Ryan, the first Catholic priest ordained in New England, arrived and witnessed the building of the first church (a log structure) in 1822, followed by a brick church in 1833. The bricks were made by hand on the church grounds.

From Maine: An Encyclopedia (www.themaineencyclopedia.com)