Steve Lord from the Lyman Historical Society has researched and compiled by Steve Lord from the Lyman Historical Society. The complete 25-page document, including the deeds and maps, will soon be available by email. All details are confirmed by cited sources. Here is a summary.
The earliest reference to Wadlins Mill Pond is from Town of Lyman records May 5, 1817 at a selectmen meeting stating ” a road laid out from Wadlins Mill Pond to the road by Thomas Clark Jr’s when the parties pay Thomas Clark Jr. the damage awarded him” (Volume 1, P. 174). There is deed reference to this litigation in Book 108, P. 208 at York County Deeds.
The earliest deed referencing the Wadley Pond Mill shows Magness Smith of Lyman selling…part of Wadley’s Mill to James Smith in 1862. Another reference refers to a shingle machine two miles north of Goodwins Mills on Wadlin Pond Stream. The Wadley Mill was built using money from proprietors (investors) led by Magness Smith. The names of all the investors is included in the complete document. Many names will be very familiar to the reader. In 1882, a controlling interest in the mill was sold to William Francis Warren. This means they have the ability to mill lumber and sell it.
There is an 1872 map of Lyman showing a tiny pond labeled with SM (sawmill) so this sawmill was built prior to 1872. It’s also shown on an 1885 map of a portion of York County. The first topographical maps were printed in 1884 and two from1889 and 1892 both show a small Wadleigh Pond,
William Warren transferred his “mill privilege” to his son, Clinton, in 1899 and HE transferred it to his brother, Leonard Pitt Warren. HE then sold the “Wadleigh Pond Mill Privilege” to Leonard C. Walker. This brings us to a man who bought a huge amount of property in this area: John Benjamin Lunt.
Deeds show starting in 1918, Lunt bought up property from landowners. He bought the Wadleigh Pond Mill Privilege; the Goodwins Mills to Wadleigh Pond, grist mill/flowage at Goodwins Mills, and the road to Barkers Pond. He then bought ten acres from “Wadleigh’s Mill pond”, a half acre of land by the Wadleigh Pond Dam, a lot and a lot and the road leading from Goodwin’s Mills to Wadlin’s Pond. Lunt was a very influencial man, as his obituary shows. The obituary will be included in the full document.
Lunt continued operating the sawmill there because he owned the mill privileges and a 1927 deed shows “meaning and intending to convey that part of the land of Ralph Smith which has flowed by the new dam of J.B. Lunt at Wadleighs Pond.” The “dam” was probably built in the fall/winter of 1926.