Auburn, ME news and local guide

Auburn was first settled in 1786 as part of Bakerstown, renamed Poland on its incorporation in 1795, and then lay in Minot, incorporated in 1802. It was formed from parts of Minot and incorporated on February 24, 1842, apparently named for the village of Auburn in Oliver Goldsmith's 1770 poem "The Deserted Village." Originally in Cumberland County, it became the seat of the new Androscoggin County in 1854, and by annexing part of Poland in 1852, all of Danville in 1867 and part of Minot in 1873, it became one of Maine's largest municipalities. It became a city on February 22, 1869, and in 1917 was the first city in Maine to adopt a council-manager government. After a bridge to Lewiston was built in 1823, and especially after the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad arrived from Portland in January 1848, Auburn grew into a mill town powered by the falls of the Androscoggin and Little Androscoggin rivers. The factory system of shoe manufacturing originated there in 1835, and shoe factories drew many French Canadian immigrants, tripling the population from about 4,000 in 1860 to 12,000 by 1890. Sources Wikipedia: Auburn, Maine