|
Naples is situated in the north-western part of Cumberland
County, between Bridgton and Lake Sebago. It is bounded on the north by Bridgton, Harrison and Otisfield, on the
east by Otisfield and Casco, south by the latter, Lake Sebago and the town of Sebago, west by the last and by the
south-western part of Bridgton. The town was made up from parts of Otisfield, Harrison, Raymond, Bridgton, and
Sebago. It contains about 20,000 acres of land and water, the latter amounting to about 3,300 acres. The date of
its incorporation is 1834. About one-third of Long Pond is within its limits, together with Brandy Pond, continuous
through a short narrow with the former, and Trickey Pond. The streams are Songo River, 6 miles long, connecting
Brandy Pond with Lake Sebago; Crooked River, which forms the larger portion of the eastern boundary of the town;
Muddy River, outlet of Holt’s Pond and Cold Stream Creek, connecting Cold-rain Pond with Peabody Pond.
The rock formation of Naples is granitic, having many dikes of quartz and trap rock. The granite is coarse and
of little value as a building material from the preponderance of mica and feispar. There are localities, however,
where a good quality of gneiss is quarried. There are also scattered over the surface many granite and gneiss boulders,
much worn and some very large. These afford a limited quantity of building stone, and fine specimens of flesh colored
feispar The surface of the town is pleasantly diversified with hill, valley, plain, and sheets of water. The soil
varies from arid sand to tough clay; but the larger portion is a gravelly loam, containing many pebbles and bowlders.
The uplands afford excellent grazing, and hay is the principal crop. There is a canning factory of the Portland
Packing Company at Naples Village, which creates a considerable demand for sweet corn. Other manufactures of the
town are carriages, cooperage, Ipen’s and boy’s clothing and boots and shoes. The strait uniting Long and Brandy
ponds is spanned at Naples Village by a drawbridge. Except by a single lock on Songo River, navigation between
the northern parts of Bridgton and Harrison and all parts of Sebago Ponds, a distance of about 25 miles, is uninterrupted.
Naples is the terminus of the stage-line from the station of the Grand Trunk railway at Oxford. It is also on the
stage-line from Portland to Bridgton. A narrow guage railway projected between the latter places will also pass
through Naples, if constructed.
There are a Methodist, a Congregationalist and a Union church in the town. Naples has eleven public schoolhouses,
valued at $4,000. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $268,645; in 1880, $242,618. The population in 1870 was
1058. In 1880 it was 1008.
|