Emera Maine history

Prohibition of trade with England, and the War of 1812 created difficult times for Portland, which had developed as a shipping center.

According to Morison, the largest vessel built on the North River was the Mount Vernon, 464 tons, built in 1815 for Philadelphia by Samuel Hartt.

Largely serving English interests until the Revolution, Maine advanced its shipbuilding capabilities once freed from colonial dicta, and even more so following statehood and independence from Massachusetts in 1820.

By 1830 industries related to boat building, shipping, and fishing lined Water Street and occupied the wharves, warehouses and neighborhoods near Plymouth Harbor.

John A. Poor's determination in 1845 to bring rail service to Maine and to make Portland the winter port for Montreal, along with the steel foundry he started to build locomotives and many other products, helped boost the economy of Portland the state.

Originally developed to carry the perishable tea of the China trade, the so-called greyhounds of the sea were perfectly suited for the unexpected market that opened in 1849 the flood of men and supplies rushing to the gold fields of California.

Maine Sublime: Frederic Edwin Church's Landscapes of Mount Desert and Mount Katahdin (The Olana Collection) John Wilmerding Frederic Church, the noted Hudson River School artist, first traveled to Maine in 1850.

Castine Harbor and Town, Fitz Henry Lane, 1851.

castine, fitz henry lane, battle ave, 1856

She was built in Cape Elizabeth in 1861 and owned by Capt.

On the back of photograph is written "1st Sam Skolfield." The Sam Skolfield was launched in 1875 from the Skolfield Shipyard in Brunswick.

Oil on canvas painting of ship William H. Conner, built in Searsport in 1877.

Camden Saving's Bank at the close of 1879, held deposits and profits to the amount of $145,672.72.

An unidentified artist painted a portrait of the Kennebec in about 1883.

In November 1886, Arthur R. Gould, a tobacco merchant in Bangor, Maine, sold his store and home to move to the northern Maine town of Presque Isle.

The machine shop was wired to conform with a plan for illuminating ships with electric lights in July 1887.

In 1888 only one fishing vessel went to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland from Plymouth.

The Aryan was built in 1893 at Phipsburg, Maine, and no expense was spared to make her outside lines in accord with the yacht-like traditions of her wooden sister and to equip her cabins with as many home comforts as can be installed in the afterpart of the roomy windjammer.

In this picture, taken in 1895, an English steamer and a four-masted Scottish bark are loading birch spoolwood (for spools or bobbins) from Maine forests.

The Hyde was sold with the rest of the Flint fleet to the California Shipping Company in 1899.

Winslow Homer and Frank Coolbroth on a twig-style garden bench outside of Homer's studio in Prouts Neck, around 1900.

The Cora Cressey was a 5 masted schooner built in 1902 in Maine.

In May 1903 a group of three Canadian men and two Americans had obtained a charter to form a corporate entity called the Maine and New Brunswick Electrical Power Company Ltd.

In April 1904, however, fire destroyed the Aroostook Lumber Company and severely damaged the light company, which was adjacent to the lumber mill.

Peary’s ship, the S.S. Roosevelt, launches from McKay & Dix Verona Island Shipbuilding Co. on March 23, 1905.

A study done in 1907 found many women did not earn living wages.

By 1909, the company provided power to seven communities in Maine and the towns of Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, while also reporting its first net earnings of $7,096.78.

1918: Gould Electric Company is incorporated.

Colonel E.A. Pierce, director of the Chicago holding company, hired Iowa electrical engineer Lawrence Alline, whose father had roots in Maine, to take on the position of chief executive officer in 1926.

On August 31, 1929, Gould Electric was granted charter rights to Aroostook County, and the company's name was changed to Maine Public Service Company (MPS).

In 1939, the company built a new, modern 33,000-volt line that ran from the Tinker Plant to a substation in Presque Isle.

The Academy met that challenge, graduating its first class in 1943 and producing more than 300 officers who served at sea during the war.

In April 1947 a public offering of MPS was made of 1.5 million shares at $22 per share.

In the post-war era, the program expanded from the original concept to a three-year course of study, and in 1960, to a four-year, Bachelor of Science degree program.

Founded in 1962, Maine Maritime Museum is located on a beautiful 20-acre campus on the banks of the Kennebec River in “The City of Ships,” Bath, Maine.

In 1966 MPS joined ten other New England utilities, including Bangor-Hydro Company and Central Maine Power Company, to build a nuclear plant in Wiscasset, Maine.

The 11 utilities formed the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company and anticipated completing the plant by 1972.

In 1978, after great success with the Maine Yankee Atomic plant, which was producing power below two cents per kilowatt hour, MPS, the state's third-largest electric utility, invested $34 million in the Seabrook, New Hampshire, nuclear plant.

1979: MPS purchases interest in Seabrook, New Hampshire, nuclear facility.

The investment proved to be an albatross for MPS. By September 1981, MPS was granted a temporary rate hike totaling $1 million by the PUC, but there was growing concern that MPS would need to divest itself of its interest in Seabrook.

In mid-1982 MPS attended hearings before the PUC again, this time requesting a $4.6 million rate hike and receiving only $1.6 million.

In July 1983 MPS was able to sell 200,000 shares of common stock, netting the company $5.5 million, but even this seemed a temporary relief for the troubled utility as the PUC had forecast the company's commitment at $130 million.

In 1984, in an attempt to drastically reduce cash expenditures, MPS temporarily halted trade on the American Stock Exchange, reduced quarterly dividends 40 percent, and cut board of director's fees 25 percent.

Still struggling with debt in 1985, MPS requested a $5 million rate hike.

1986: MPS is able to sell its interest in troubled Seabrook investment.

Searsport was also a home port for Captain James H. Blethen; this site started in 1988 in his honor.)

1999: MPS sells its generation assets in anticipation of state deregulation.

In January 2000, the PUC chose WPS Energy Services, Inc., another subsidiary of WPS Resources Corp., as the standard offer supplier of electricity in the MPS service territory.

2002: MPS board of directors approves plan to reorganize as a holding company.

Securing overwhelming approval by stockholders at their annual meeting May 30, 2003, MPS announced the company would reorganize as the holding company Maine & Maritimes Corporation effective June 30, 2003.

Photo taken on July 4, 2015 in Castine Maine.