This article shows U.S. Census totals for Hancock County, Maine, broken down by municipality, from 1900 to 2000.
Contents
- Corporate changes since 1900
- 1900
- 1910
- 1920
- 1930
- 1940
- 1950
- 1960
- 1970
- 1980
- 1990
- 2000
- Plantations
- Unorganized Territory
- References
There are two types of incorporated municipalities in Maine, towns and cities. The tables below differentiate between towns and cities.
Most areas of New England are entirely divided into incorporated municipalities, with no unincorporated territory. In the three northern New England states, however, some unincorporated territory does exist, generally in areas that are very sparsely populated. Maine contains significantly more unincorporated territory than the other states, with the bulk of it in interior and northern counties, including Hancock County.
Some unincorporated territory in Maine is organized into a third type of town-level municipality unique to Maine, called a plantation (considered to be “organized”, but not incorporated), while some is entirely unorganized. Hancock County does not currently contain any plantations, but it has included plantations in the past. All of the unincorporated territory that currently exists within the county is unorganized. Due to the large extent of unincorporated territory in Hancock County, separate sections with detailed historical census totals for such areas follow the main tables below. For any census, adding up the totals for each town-level municipality, including any plantations and unorganized entities, should yield the county total.
For more information on the New England municipal system, see New England town.
Corporate changes since 1900
1900
County Total: 37,241
Unincorporated territory reported 516 residents. This consisted of 359 residents in organized plantations, and 157 residents in unorganized territory.
1910
County Total: 35,575
Unincorporated territory reported 435 residents. This consisted of 323 residents in organized plantations, and 112 residents in unorganized territory.
1920
County Total: 30,361
Unincorporated territory reported 328 residents. This consisted of 254 residents in organized plantations, and 74 residents in unorganized territory.
1930
County Total: 30,721
Unincorporated territory reported 274 residents. This consisted of 224 residents in organized plantations, and 50 residents in unorganized territory.
1940
County Total: 32,422
Unincorporated territory reported 366 residents. This consisted of 235 residents in organized plantations, and 131 residents in unorganized territory.
1950
County Total: 32,105
Unincorporated territory reported 287 residents. This consisted of 183 residents in organized plantations, and 104 residents in unorganized territory.
1960
County Total: 32,293
Unincorporated territory reported 292 residents. This consisted of 151 residents in organized plantations, and 141 residents in unorganized territory.
1970
County Total: 34,590
Unincorporated territory reported 262 residents. This consisted of 132 residents in organized plantations, and 130 residents in unorganized territory.
1980
County Total: 41,781
Unincorporated territory reported 213 residents. This consisted of 45 residents in organized plantations, and 168 residents in unorganized territory.
1990
County Total: 46,948
Unincorporated territory reported 178 residents, all in unorganized territory.
2000
County Total: 51,791
Unincorporated territory reported 215 residents, all in unorganized territory.
Plantations
As of 1900, Hancock County appears to have contained five plantations. Much of present-day Hancock County was originally laid out as numbered townships, and four of the plantations had simply kept their numbers when they organized as plantations. These were Plantation No. 7, Plantation No. 8, Plantation No. 21, and Plantation No. 33. The fourth plantation, Long Island, was named for the offshore island on which it was located. There is some question as to Plantation No. 7’s status; the 1900 and 1910 Census reported it as a plantation, but the author of this article has been unable to find confirmation of this in any other source. Plantation No. 8 surrendered its organization in 1913. According to the 1920 census reports, Plantation No. 7 also surrendered its organization some time between 1910 and 1920. The three other plantations have all since incorporated as towns. Their dispositions are as follows:
With Great Pond’s incorporation as a town, there are no longer any active plantations in Hancock County.
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
There have been no plantations in Hancock County at any time since the 1980s.
Unorganized Territory
Like all of Maine's interior and northern counties, Hancock County contains a significant amount of unorganized territory. Most of the unorganized territory in Hancock County is in areas which have historically been very sparsely populated. The coastal and southwestern areas of the county have historically been fully incorporated. Further inland to the northeast, lower-lying areas with access to lakes and rivers have generally been incorporated or organized, while more mountainous or remote areas have often never had any significant population and have remained unorganized. The northeastern part of the county is largely unorganized, as is the area along the eastern edge bordering Washington County. Along the eastern edge of the county, the unorganized territory actually comes quite close to the coast (the coastal town of Gouldsboro borders an unorganized township on its northern side). There is also an unorganized tract called Township No. 8 (also known as T8 SD) located in an otherwise fully incorporated area, bounded by Ellsworth, Hancock, Franklin, Waltham and Mariaville. This is a remnant, measuring about 15 square miles (39 km2), of what was once a larger survey township.
Historically, about two-thirds of the county’s land area was incorporated or organized, leaving the remaining one-third unorganized. There are at least a dozen full-sized townships in the county which have never been organized, along with the remnants of a few additional townships whose territories were partially taken to form incorporated towns. The general divider between the organized and unorganized portions of the county historically followed the northern or interior boundaries of Amherst, Great Pond, Aurora, Osborn, Eastbrook, Franklin, Sullivan and Gouldsboro. With the exception of Township No. 8, all territory to the south or west of that line was historically organized, although several municipalities did not advance beyond the plantation stage until the 1970s or later, if at all. North or to the interior of that line, all territory is, and has historically been, unorganized.
The areas of Hancock County that are entirely unorganized cover about 500 square miles (1,300 km2), with a population of about 200. This covers about 30% of the county’s land area, but includes less than 1% of its population. Two unorganized townships, T3 ND and T8 SD, have large enough populations to maintain a registrar and clerk to conduct elections for state and federal offices, although they do not have true organized municipal governments (No. 3 is in the northeastern part of the county, adjacent to the Penobscot County town of Burlington; No. 8 is described in the first paragraph of this section). A similar entity has also been formed by a group of two unorganized townships banding together: the “Unorganized Township of DTT9 & T10” (T9 SD and T10 SD are in the southeastern part of the county, east of Franklin and northeast of Sullivan; T9, the westernmost of the two, is a remnant of what was once a larger survey township).
Over the years, the U.S. Census Bureau has used different methods to compile data for unorganized territory in Maine. From 1900 to 1950, data was tabulated for each individual unorganized entity. In 1960, a single catch-all “Unorganized Territory” listing was provided for each Maine county, generally with no further breakdown. Since 1970, the Census has grouped contiguous areas in each county into one or more “unorganized territories”. As of the 2000 Census, three such areas are recognized within Hancock County:
The roster of Unorganized Territories in Hancock County has not changed since Unorganized Territories were first created for the 1970 Census.
The listings below provide population figures for 1) all unincorporated territory, including plantations; 2) organized plantations, for which breakouts are available in the main tables above; and 3) unorganized territory, with any available breakouts provided.
1900
All unincorporated territory 516
Organized plantations 359
Unorganized territory 157
1910
All unincorporated territory 435
Organized plantations 323
Unorganized territory 112
1920
All unincorporated territory 328
Organized plantations 254
Unorganized territory 74
1930
All unincorporated territory 274
Organized plantations 224
Unorganized territory 50
1940
All unincorporated territory 366
Organized plantations 235
Unorganized territory 131
1950
All unincorporated territory 287
Organized plantations 183
Unorganized territory 104
1960
All unincorporated territory 292
Organized plantations 151
Unorganized territory 141
The 1960 Census reported all unorganized territory in Hancock County under a single catch-all listing. No breakdown is available.
1970
All unincorporated territory 262
Organized plantations 132
Unorganized territory 130
1980
All unincorporated territory 213
Organized plantations 45
Unorganized territory 168
1990
All unincorporated territory 178
Unorganized territory 178
2000
All unincorporated territory 215
Unorganized territory 215
Note: The area in and around the eastern half of Hancock County originally was laid out as a series of sequentially numbered townships designated ND (North Division), MD (Middle Division), SD (South Division) and ED (East Division). This area was originally part of Bingham's Penobscot Purchase. Most of the remaining unorganized townships in Hancock County are in the MD or SD sequences. Numbering in MD and SD is continuous, working row-by-row south to north, then west to east within each row. For example, T7 SD is near the coast; T22 MD is directly north, some distance inland; T34 is further directly north, further inland. There are also two ND townships in Hancock County, in the northeast corner of the county. Although the two ND unorganized townships have numbers that are not duplicated by any existing MD or SD unorganized townships, the ND numbering sequence is unrelated to the MD and SD numbering sequence (T3 ND and T4 ND are immediately to the north of T40 MD and T41 MD). Most of the unorganized townships in Hancock are identified only by their survey numbers and have never developed informal township names.
In 2005, the Maine state legislature officially named T8 SD, which had not previously had a generally used name, as Fletchers Landing Township.