Waldoboro was part of the Waldo Patent purchased by General Samuel Waldo around 1720. Settled between 1733 and 1740, the village was first known as Broad Bay. However, the new settlement suffered strong attack by Indians allied with France during King George's War. Houses were torched, and settlers were killed or taken away as captives, while survivors fled to St. George or Pemaquid until peace was restored in 1748.
On June 29, 1773, the township was incorporated as Waldoborough, named for General Samuel Waldo. In 1786, it was made the county seat of Lincoln County, a designation that was shortlived, as it shifted to Wiscasset in 1880.
Waldoboro's early economy was based on farms producing hay and potatoes. Then the Knox and Lincoln Railroad opened the town to industrial development, including an iron foundry, an oakum mill, a carding and cloth-dressing mill, grain mill, sawmills, planing mills, a door, sash and blind factory, and a carriage factory.
Waldoboro was also a ship building town, with eight large vessels built there in 1880 alone. The town was the launching port for the Governor Ames, the first five-masted schooner, in 1888.
Today, the town depends largely upon a service-based industry, and tourism.
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