"Naples is prettily situated thirty miles northwest of Portland on the famous Sebago Lake and Songo River Route. It's clean air, pure water, and beautiful lakes, magnificent hills, forests, mountains, water scenery and its natural facilities for hunting and fishing . Its famous river and steamboat route and its close proximity to Portland, the metropolis of the state, is fast making it one of the best known and popular summer resorts in Maine."

Naples was incorporated by an act of the legislature approved March 4, 1834, upon petition of 66 voters of Bridgton, Harrison, Otisfield, Sebago and Raymond each Of which ceded a part of its territory to the new town. The petition was based upon the great distance of the petitioners from the " business and political" centers of their respective towns.

The first settler in town was George Pierce, in 1774, at Edes Falls, who built a cabin on the right side of the (Crooked) River about a hundred yards below the bridge.  He built a sawmill and a gristmill for which he received a lot of land, the use of the proprietor’s boat until the plantation became a town in 1798 and a sum of 70 pounds.

The place was called Pierce's Falls until Col. Thomas Edes and his family located there in 1837, since that date it has been known as Edes Falls.

Pierce was a successful physician and businessman. His daughter, Betsey, born October 3,1871, has been claimed to be the first white child born in town. That honor is really Rev. William G. Cobbs, born October 14, 1869, nearly two years earlier, but through fear of the Indians, his father, Daniel Cobb, Moved the following spring to Meeting House Hill, now Otisfield.

Five years after the settlement of Edes Falls, Eleazer Bartlett and His two sons, Isaac and John settled at Bartlett's Comer, a half mile west of the village. For Forty years they were the only settlers of the dense forest between the river and Long Pond.

But the central and western parts of the town were being occupied. When Ralph Jackson, in 1791, came up form Portland, he found Joseph March Sr. living in a cabin, half a mile from the village, near the shores of Brandy Pond.  He ran a small tannery for dressing skins obtained from the trappers.  Jackson settled near the river farther south, where his two sons, William and John, were born.

Two years before, John Chaplin, a native of Massachusetts, had settled in the northwest part of town, then a part of Bridgton, where for years his family and kindred dwelt and some are still living. Chaplins only neighbor when he came was a Mr. Decker, who lived on the S.F. Pearley place. Mr. Chaplin built a sawmill in 1799, on the river near him, the operation of which has long been abandoned.

Joshua Leavitt and his sons, Joseph, and Josiah settled the Leavitt settlement in what was formerly part of Sebago, about 1800. Their descendants were numerous. Beyond them and the hills to the west, were other settlers, largely engaged in lumbering in that part of town, known as Kimball's Comer."

"Among the 39 petitioners for the incorporation of .Naples from Otisfield, were many men who have been identified with the history of the town. James Sanborn, the first treasurer, headed the list.  He was the owner and proprietor of the first tavern, in later years known as the "Kimball House."

Enoch Gammon Sr. a Lumberman who kept goods for the accommodation of his help, at his house near Mast Cove, so called for being the point from which a large number of ships masts were yearly floated down the lakes and through the Cumberland and Oxford Canal to the sea.

Jefferson Bray and his brother Washington Who established the store ( Treadwells, Irvings, Gemmes, Griffs) over one hundred years ago.

Benjamin Goodiidge who built the " Brick Store", First occupied by Josiah Chadbourne in 1823 and several others before it was destroyed by fire.

Mr. Goodridge gave a plot for the Village Cemetery, since enlarged by the town; contributed $ 1,000 towards the building of the Union Church in 1839, as well as helped raise a permanent fond for the Society.  He, with Enoch Gammon and Thomas Perley built the Town House, (Union Church) on an acre of land purchased for that purpose, in 1838. In 1846 it was made free for all religious meetings and was so used until 1858, the year both of the local churches were dedicated.  He was a generous benefactor to the businesses, social and religious life of the community.

John Chute, a pioneer innkeeper, purchased the Inn built by Gerry and Staples, near the Church place in 1790. Thirty five years later he opened the Elm House, one of the first Temperance hotels in Maine.  He died in 1857, at The age of 90 and is buried with his kindred in the burying ground on the western slope of the hill near the Proctor House (now the Windsor Green Condominiums).

In 1790, Nathan Gerry and Elliott Staples built the first Hotel or Inn in town to accommodate the travelers along the route from Portland to Bridgton and beyond.

What is now known as Roosevelt Highway was laid out in 1784, (route 302).  The hotel was situated just east of the Bay of Naples Inn, at the Junction of the Harrison Road with the Roosevelt Highway .( The Antique shop )

In 1816, Gerry and Staples sold to John Chute who opened it as the Elm House.  This was burned in 1822 but immediately rebuilt -.  Nathan Church succeeded Chute as -Proprietor of the hotel for a number of years.  In 1876, while still owned by Church it was again destroyed by fire and never rebuilt.

Abraham Chute was the first Town Clerk and the first Postmaster. The Post office was opened June Is', 1828, then called Ottisfield. First Quarterly receipts, 37 1/2 cents.  He and William B. Winsor, opened a store in 1831, at the west end of the bridge.  This is where the landing was built in 1831. The store was first occupied by Dr. Andrew Chute, brother of Abraham.

William B. Winsor, served as Town Treasurer and Selectman. He lived in the house directly across the road from the Bay of Naples Inn for several years. There used to be a row of stately fir trees, which lined the southern side of the road from his house to the bridge.  They were destroyed through one of those unseemly quarrels between a road surveyor and an abutter.

Samuel Leach was one of the first selectmen and had represented Raymond in the State Legislature.

Naples, Maine Today

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