Maine's Swedish Colony, July 23, 1870

The town of Stockholm once was a booming town with a population of a little over a 1,300. There were a lot of businesses, including a number of mills and mill owned homes.

I have a list of all the mills in Stockholm that my grandfather could remember... I think he got them all though after reviewing the photos at the Stockholm Museum. There was a plywood mill, veneer mill, baseball bat mill, clothes pin mill, bowling pin mill, two lumber mills, cedar mill, shingle mill, and a lath mill (lath are thin strips of wood used as a foundation for layering plaster on the walls of houses).

On Red Row there were 16 duplex houses built by the Stockholm Lumber Company around 1900 where mill workers lived. Also by the railroad there were six more homes. Many of the houses on Red Row were two story houses. Most had an attic and some even had a basement. Many homes in town were also farms. There was a big barn down town that was used for the work horses. They had 10 teams and the horses were used for various jobs.

The mills in Stockholm employed most of the people in town. When the mills started to close many people moved away. The current population in town is a little more than 100 people.

Special thanks to my grandfather Edmond Doucette and the Stockholm Museum