Smyrna was first settled in 1830 by Nehemiah Leavitt, a Methodist minister from Royalton, Vermont. The state had granted him a township if he could place a hundred settlers on the town within five years, build a sawmill, a gristmill, and four schools. He settled in the area of the present day Lilley Farms, building a cabin there; and the town was incorporated on March 7, 1839; and named for a Biblical city criticized by the Apostle John in Revelation.
However, Mr. Leavitt was unable to meet the conditions of the grant, even after a five-year extension, and sold out to a Mr. Dunn and Mr. Jefferds, who built a sawmill on the east side of the East Branch of the Mattawamkeag River in 1841.
Maine Route 212 joins Maine Route 2 in Smyrna Mills, the main village of the township, in the southwestern corner of the township, near where the Mattawamkeag River flows through the village, while the much smaller Smyrna Center is located nearer to the center.
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