Settling Oxford County: Maine’s Revolutionary War Bounty Myth

It is a common assumption that many New England frontier towns were founded by veterans of the Revolutionary War who had been given land for their service to the country. Author Jean Hankins\u27s careful research in deeds, records, and legislative acts shows that this was not the case in representative Oxford County towns. Although there were a variety of bounties given for land in these towns, few had anything to do with the Revolutionary War. The Revolutionary War bounty myth persists, the author specidates, because it is an appealing way to begin the history of these towns, and because, since many of the town founders were indeed Revolutionary War veterans, historians have reduced a very complex process to a simple cause and effect relation. Jean Hankins is an independent researcher and an archivist for the Otisfield Historical Society. She has written elsewhere for MAINE HISTORY, including her Cage for John Sawyer (vol 34), which won the Society\u27s James Phinney Baxter Award, and her Every Town Shall Maintain their own Poor”(volume 39)