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 History
of the Kennebunks
Kennebunk (ken.ne’bunk) is a Native American
name of ancient origin. It means “long cut
bank” and is believed to reference a Great
Hill, a grassy promontory that drops sharply
to ledges at the mouth of the Mousam River.
The Kennebunks are located on the southern
Maine coast. The first settlement was in the
“Cape Porpus” area and was established in
1610.
There have been four phases to the
development of the Kennebunks.
The Early Settlement Years
Maine’s native people were the Wabanakis-Penobscot,
Passamaquoddy, Micmac, and Maliseet
Indians-whose history predates the written
historical record by thousands of years.
Recent archaeological excavations have
revealed that 11,000 years ago Northeastern
Paleo-Indian hunters traveled seasonally to
the Kennebunk Plains to hunt bison and
caribou.
The first European explorer of significance
was Bartholomew Gosnold, who, sailing from
Falmouth, England, reached land in the
spring of 1602 in what is now Kennebunkport.
In 1604, French explorer Samuel de Champlain
visited the islands defining Cape Porpoise
harbor, naming it “Le Port aux Isles”
(Island Harbor).
In 1614, famed Captain John Smith, the
English adventurer of Jamestown, Virginia
explored the Maine coast. It was Smith’s
publication in England “Descriptions of New
England” that is credited with attracting
fishing parties to the region.
By the 1620s, forty to fifty vessels were
fishing in New England waters, many along
the Maine coast. It was seasonal and
eventually year round fishing stations
during the subsequent decades that led to
permanent settlements from Europe who were
seeking both new economic opportunity and
religious freedom.
The first settlers in the Kennebunks are
believed to have arrived in the 1620’s and
1630’s at Cape Porpoise Harbor and today’s
Goose Rocks Beach. As with other Maine
settlements, habitats were “strung out in
long, ribbon-like patterns, with no real
center. Jurisdiction over the early
settlements originated in England under
various patent holders.
Not until 1653 did western Maine, including
Kennebunk and Cape Porpoise, fall under the
official control of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony. The Colony promptly ordered the new
Maine townspeople to build roads, schools, a
militia and to compute taxes.
These early settlers lived in log houses,
and farmed field and forest to then barter
goods from one another. Mills were soon
established along the natural river falls.
The production of wood products harvested
from the plentiful Maine forests were used
locally and exported on small vessels down
the Mousam and Kennebunk rivers.
After years of coexistence with the Native
Americans, dissension arose in 1675 with
King Philip’s War, the first in a near
century of Indian conflicts. A massive
French and Indian attack on Casco Fort in
Portland in 1690 resulted in “all people
killed or taken”.
The Cape Porpoise residents retreated to a
harbor fort on Stage Island where they were
miraculously rescued by vessels from
Portsmouth New Hampshire.
The three to four hundred inhabitants of
Kennebunk fled to the Storer garrison in
Wells. The men, women, and children were
safe inside the garrison by the time the 500
Indians and French attacked. The invaders
destroyed miles of houses, mills and
livestock. It took decades for the spared
colonists to resume their normal lives as
the attacks, raids, and killings continued
from 1690 to 1760.
Cape Porpoise was uninhabited except for a
few fishermen who were killed or driven out
by 1703. In 1718, descendents and new
settlers petitioned the Massachusetts
legislature to re-establish a small fishing
community there. As a result, the town of
Arundel was incorporated in 1719.
In a final Indian raid on the Kennebunks in
1726, the Baxter and Durrell families were
invaded while the men were away. The Indians
took Mrs. Durrell and her four children
captive. All their possessions were taken
and the houses were burned. When the Indians
realized they would be pursued, and the
family was slowing them down, they killed
the family just miles from their home. The
following spring the Baxter family Bible was
found and is to this day a treasured
possession of the Brick Store Museum in
downtown Kennebunk.
During the wars, farming communities and
mill centers grew slowly along the Mousam
River banks. Farming was expanding out to
the Alewive Pond, the Plains, and inland on
the Mousam. In 1750, the townspeople of
Kennebunk District of Wells finally received
recognition as the town’s Second Parish, an
important step toward becoming the Town of
Kennebunk.
Development on the Kennebunk River was
slower until the early nineteenth century.
However Captain Thomas Perkins, Jr. built
his house in 1724 and his gristmill along
the river in Kennebunkport village was built
in 1751.
As the Indian wars subsided, the settlers
were faced with another conflict, the War of
Independence. The Kennebunk people sent
delegates and ammunition to Boston to
support the colonies. A company of men
formed by Captain James Hubbard marched to
Cambridge. Many of these men fought the
bloody battle of Bunker Hill. The list of
Kennebunk and Arundel men who served and
died is long.
The war went on but the patriotic spirit was
high. A copy of The 1776 Declaration of
Independence was sent to each town to be
read from the pulpit of every church.
Attendance at Arundel and Well’s churches
was unusually large for the readings. The
proclamation was received with joy, and also
worries for the potential consequence it
would bring.
In a final battle for freedom in August of
1782, an English brig of eighteen guns and a
schooner of ten guns attacked Cape Porpoise
harbor and seized an anchored schooner and
sloop. News spread rapidly through the town
while Samuel Wildes, thought locally to be
partially deranged, paddled out in his canoe
and ordered the English to release the
vessel. The English laughed with Wildes,
ordered him aboard, and when he refused they
fired upon him. Wildes managed his way back
to shore, lamed for life by a bullet in his
knee.
In the meantime, townspeople armed with
muskets gathered on Trott’s Island prepared
to cross to Goat Island to surprise the
English. Seventeen British were killed, as
was Arundel’s Captain James Burnham. The
Battle of Cape Porpoise occurred a year
before the peace treaty was signed that
recognized the independence of the colonies.
In 1820, when Maine declared it s own
independence from Massachusetts, the
Kennebunk District of Wells at last became
Kennebunk. Arundel then petitioned to be
Kennebunk, but settled for the name of
Kennebunkport.
 The
Ship Building Era
From the early seventeenth century, small
vessels plied the harbor of Cape Porpoise
for the prime fishing. As mills began to
appear on the Mousam River, shipbuilding for
trade and for lumber export became a primary
industry. Soon the shipyards and their large
constructed vessels outgrew the shallow,
tidal waters and the sandbar at the river’s
mouth. The Kennebunk River was found to be
more suitable for such navigation at the end
of the century.
Shipbuilding operations, including that of
Captain Tobias Lord, were moved to the
Landing area, above Durrell’s Bridge. From
1790-1867, hundreds of ships were built at
the half dozen major shipbuilding yards.
These ships were then launched to
Kennebunkport, the busy harbor where the
masts were stepped and cargo was loaded in
preparation for their voyages. As the
trans-Atlantic voyages became more common,
ships of greater tonnage were built. A lock
was built and used for nineteen years by a
group of Landing builders to provide better
passage of large vessels down the river.
Between 1854 and 1918, shipyards moved
closer to the mouth of the Kennebunk River,
towards lower village and the port, where
hundreds more wooden sailing vessels were
constructed.
 The
close of the nineteenth century brought the
eventual end of the successful shipbuilding
era. Many landmarks throughout the
Kennebunks remain as a tribute to the
prosperity of the maritime industry. The
steeples of the churches and the
architecture of grand homes lining Summer
Street and in Kennebunkport’s village
reflect the wealth of shipbuilders,
merchants and sea captains.
The Resort Development Era
 Following the Civil War, Americans sought to
enjoy their leisure time and their newly
acquired wealth. Entire summer vacations
became the fashionable thing for city folks.
The oceanside communities of Kennebunk and
Kennebunkport provided the ideal setting for
these affluent visitors looking to boat and
swim, enjoy picnics and walks in the woods.
Kennebunk beach farmhouses were accepting
summer boarders, until a group of what we
know call developers bought 700 acres of
land. The purchase included five miles of
coastline, which the farmers considered
unsuitable for farming or fishing, where
they would build a cottage colony. In 1873,
the first grand hotels were built to
accommodate the arrivals of the seven trains
a day at the Kennebunk depot.
One of the
grandest, "The Nonantum," opens
in 1884. One of only two of the Kennebunks
Grand Hotels that survive today.
As more visitors were attracted to the
desirable Kennebunks, the towns evolved in
to year round communities ripe with services
and an economy that including manufacturing
in addition to maritime and tourism related
business. The popularity of the region was
also a beacon to artist and writers, such as
Abbot Graves - the Boston artist and
novelists, Booth Tarkinton and Kenneth
Roberts.
Contemporary Kennebunk
 The shipbuilding era has gone, leaving
behind the magnificent Colonial and Federal
homes that dot the Kennebunks. The Mousam
river-powered mills had their heyday in the
mid-eighteen hundreds manufacturing
everything from shoes, twine and building
materials. Now Lafayette Center, the
remaining brick mill in downtown Kennebunk,
has been revitalized with offices and shops.
The almost 400 hundred year old tradition of
fishing among generations can been seen
daily in the harbors of Cape Porpoise and
Kennebunkport. Tourism, which began over a
century ago, flourishes in Kennebunkport, in
the Lower Village of Kennebunk and Kennebunk
Beach.
The Kennebunks today remain a tribute to the
seafaring heritage of the past, while the
splendid natural setting and elegant
development appeal to artists,
conservationists and tourists alike.
Kennebunk’s Summer Street was Maine’s first
National Register Historic District.
Now Kennebunkport is as well known for its
vibrant past, as it is for the “summer
Whitehouse”, the summer retreat of 41st U.S.
President George Herbert Walker and his son,
President George W. Bush.
The Nonantum Resort
95 Ocean Avenue, P.O. Box 2626
Kennebunkport, Maine 04046-2626
Toll Free: 1-800-552-5651
Phone: 207-967-4050
Fax: 207-967-8451
stay@nonantumresort.com
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