Riceville, Maine

Riceville (also known as Hancock Tannery and Thirty-Nine Tannery)[1] is a ghost town in East Hancock, Maine, specifically in Township 39 Middle Division.[2] It was once home to a bark extract works owned by F. Shaw and Brothers Company, which owned many tanneries in the state of Maine.[3] Later, the extract works was bought by James Rice and transferred to his company, Buzzell and Rice Tanning, which converted the plant into a tannery and began manufacturing sole leather from buffalo hides for shoemaking out of the township.[4][5][1][2] Eventually Buzzell and Rice transferred the land back to Rice as an individual and he formed a new company, Hancock Leather, after which he began manufacturing sole leather once again.[6][7][8] The community which sprang up around the tannery was home to 136 residents in 1890, eventually declining to 75 residents in 1900.[9][10] The Riceville school had an enrollment of 21 pupils in 1900.[10][1][2] In 1905, the tannery burned down and the town was abandoned shortly after.[5] A post office existed from 1898 to 1906.[11] There was nobody living in the township in 1910 and 1920.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Prescott, Ryan. "A Chronicle of Riceville". Abandonment of Maine.
  2. 1 2 3 Gagnon, Dawn (30 Oct 2009). "Bangor Ghost Hunters probe site of former tannery town". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 11 Dec 2014.
  3. ↑ Deed of Sale from George Nixon Black to F. Shaw and Brothers, 11 November 1879, Hancock County, Maine, Book 167, page 393. Hancock County Registry of Deeds, Ellsworth, Maine.
  4. ↑ Maine Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics. Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics. N.p.: n.p., 1896, n.d. Print.
  5. 1 2 "Tannery Burned; Plant of Hancock Leather Co. Destroyed at Riceville.". Bangor Daily Commercial. 1 January 1906.
  6. ↑ Deed of Sale from James Rice to Buzzell and Rice Tanning Company, 30 November 1898, Hancock County, Maine, Book 330, page 284. Hancock County Registry of Deeds, Ellsworth, Maine.
  7. ↑ Deed of Sale from Buzzell & Rice Tanning Company to James Rice, 4 October 1900, Hancock County, Maine, Book 356, page 43. Hancock County Registry of Deeds, Ellsworth, Maine.
  8. ↑ Deed of Sale from James Rice and wife to Hancock Leather Company, 16 August 1902, Hancock County, Maine, Book 381, page 117. Hancock County Registry of Deeds, Ellsworth, Maine.
  9. ↑ Maine Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics. "Populations by Cities, Towns, Plantations and Unorganized Places in the State of Maine; Hancock County; Township 39." Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics. N.p.: n.p., 1910, n.d. 148. Print.
  10. 1 2 "Riceville | Township 39". Century Maine. 29 Oct 2014. Retrieved 10 Dec 2014.
  11. ↑ Dow, Sterling (1943). Maine Postal History And Postmarks. Portland, Maine: Severn-Wylie-Jewett Co.
  12. ↑ ""Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions: 1920, 1910, and 1900."". Fourteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1920. Washington: Govt. Print. Off. 1921.

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