Existing records show when and by whom the exterior lines of the present town of Garland were run; also lots. Mr. Williamson, in his history of Maine, tells us in a single brief sentence upon the authority of Abner Sanborn, a farmer prominent and intelligent citizen of the township, That the beginnings were made by Joseph Garland, Isaac Wheeler and Josiah Bartlett. Also Levi Lincoln was one of the original proprietors, hence the plantation was called Lincolntown. But of the occurrences aside from these, from 1802 to 1811, the writer has been unable to find any record. The early settlers, confronted by common hardships, inspired by common purposes and bound together by common sympathies, worked together for the common welfare. But this was the voluntary labor of the members of an unorganized community and there is no record of purpose or results. The material for the history of the nine eventful years that precede the incorporation of the town, is, of a traditional character.

Who the first settlers were--whence, when and why they came --where they made their beginnings--the hardships they encountered--the privations they suffered-most of these things rested largely upon human remembrances. But the remembrances of these events of those early years were very clear in the minds of many of the men who lived to see the middle of the century that witnessed their early struggles in the wilderness. Events, which, in the rush of the present would be forgotten in a day if noticed at all, were full of meaning to them and never forgotten. The crowing of a cock, the curling smoke above the tree tops in new directions were to them joyful assurances of the coming of other families into the townships.

The advent of the first physician was an occasion for special rejoicing. The occasional sermon from an itinerary minister was never obliterated from the memory of those who heard it.

The coming of the blacksmith, of the carpenter, of the shoemaker, of the tanner, supplied wants of pressing importance. These, and kindred events which now seem trivial, were to them matters of vital interest. They were occasions for the exchange of congratulations among themselves, and were rehearsed to their children and grandchildren with a frequency and particularity of detail that riveted in the minds of both narrator and listener.

Among the persons who furnished valuable information relating to events which occurred, both before and after the incorporation of the town, were Deacon John S. Haskell and his sons--Daniel M., John K., Wm. S. and Jacob W. Haskell.--Moses Gordon and his sons, Horace, Parker and Albert G. Gordon. Special acknowledgeable information relating to the earliest inhabitants if the town.