Custom Car, Motorcycle, Watercraft Appraisals in Windham, NH

Portland is the largest city in Maine, with a population of more than 68,400 people. It's also the capital city of the state, and serves as the seat of Cumberland County. The Greater Portland metropolitan area currently is home to more than 500,000 residents.

Since its founding in 1632 and its incorporation in 1786, Portland has experienced four devastating fires. This inspired the adoption of a city seal featuring a phoenix rising from the ashes, representing how the city has recovered each time and gone on to thrive. 

In the past, Portland's economy relied heavily on fishing, canneries, and manufacturing. Today, the city has a diversified economy that allows it to continue growing. The service sector and tourism now play major roles in the local economy. 

Different areas of the city offer residents and visitors plenty to do. The Old Port is known as a hotspot for nightlife, while also providing some of the best examples of 19th-century architecture to be found anywhere in the state. Fishing and commercial shipping continue to be major industries, with the Port of Portland serving as the second-largest tonnage seaport in New England.

Serving Windham, NH

Facts about Windham, NH

Windham is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 17,001 at the 2010 census. It includes the villages of South Windham and North Windham. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

The township was granted in 1734 by the Massachusetts General Court to Abraham Howard, Joseph Blaney and 58 others from Marblehead, Massachusetts. In 1737, New Marblehead Plantation was settled by Captain Thomas Chute. By order of the Massachusetts General Court, a fort was built in spring of 1744 on a hill in the southern part of town near the early center of settlement to offer protection during King George's War. A 50-foot square blockhouse constructed of 12-inch thick hewn hemlock had an overhanging second story with firing ports and two swivel guns in watch posts on diagonal corners. The blockhouse was surrounded by a stockade wall of 12-inch diameter log posts 16 feet long. The single gate through the stockade wall was covered by a 4.2-inch (11 cm) bore 9-pounder cannon within the blockhouse.

The town's inhabitants took shelter in the stockade between 1745 and 1751. The last Indian attack on the town occurred on May 14, 1756. New Marblehead Plantation was incorporated on June 12, 1762 as Windham, named for Wymondham in Norfolk, England. Windham Minutemen marched to Portland in response to the Burning of Falmouth on 18 October 1775 and sixteen men were drafted from the town for the Penobscot Expedition. Thirteen Windham men are reported as being members of the Continental Army with George Washington's American Revolutionary War winter encampment at Valley Forge. Windham's 9-pounder cannon and one swivel gun from the stockade blockhouse were loaned to Portland in 1775. Portland had refused to surrender these guns to Captain Henry Mowat as he demanded before he burned the town; and they were placed aboard the privateer Reprieve in 1776.

Most of the early inhabitants were farmers, who found the soil loamy and easily worked. Early subdivision of land was in strips perpendicular to the Presumpscot River and Pleasant River. Each landowner cleared the river floodplain for cropland and had river access for transportation to the coast until River Road and Old Gray Road (United States Route 202) were built linking connected farm buildings on high ground adjacent to the floodplain. Windham provided numerous sites for water power, and as early as 1738 a mill was erected at Mallison Falls. Edmund Fowler and Lester Laflin began manufacturing gunpowder at Gambo Falls (near Newhall) in 1817.