Why Pearson's Town?

The area of Maine that is now known as the town of Standish was first organized in the middle 1700's. In 1748 Captains Moses Pearson and Humphrey Hobbs after serving separately in King George's War petitioned the General court of the Provence of Massachusetts (of which Maine was a part) for land grants to establish a township. In 1750 they were granted land, along with the men serving under them, in what was then York County. The township was to be named Pearson and Hobbs Town.
Sadly Captain Hobbs died from small pox at Fort William Henry toward the end of the Indian wars. None of Captain Hobb's men settled the land, and many of Pearson's men sold their rights to the land during the initial settlement and surveying of the land in 1752.
During the first years of settlement the new residents struggled to survive, farming and working the land while constantly under threat of attack by the Sokokis band of the Abenaki Indians, who had been hunting and occupying the land for many years prior to the arrival of the white man.
Conditions remained tough for the new settlers until the secession of hostilities with the indigenous inhabitants ended with the end of the Indian wars in 1759. Pearson's men and their families worked the land of what became known as Pearsontown Plantation until November 30th, 1785 when it was incorporated into the new town of Standish (named for Captain Myles Standish) by an Act passed by the Common Wealth of Massachusetts.
The Pearson's Town Farm Project was so named to remind us of the early farmer/residents who had to farm to live.