[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 7 (Thursday, January 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S165-S166]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  250TH ANNIVERSARY OF SANFORD, MAINE

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, today I wish to commemorate the 250th 
anniversary of the city of Sanford, ME. Sanford was built with a spirit 
of determination and resiliency that still guides the community today, 
and this is a time to celebrate the generations of hard-working and 
caring people who have made it such a wonderful place to live, work, 
and raise families.
  The year of Sanford's incorporation, 1768, was but one milestone in a 
long journey of progress, a journey that is inextricably linked to the 
history of our Nation. In 1661, British Army General William Phillips 
purchased large tracts of land from two chiefs of local Abenaki Tribes 
for his growing lumber business. Called Phillipstown, the lands 
remained largely uninhabited due to the ongoing conflict between 
England and France for control of the northern American Colonies.
  Hostilities in the region ceased in 1739, and the new community grew 
rapidly, reaching a population of 1,500 within just a few decades. At 
the time the town was incorporated in 1768, Maine was a province of 
Massachusetts, and the Governor of Massachusetts used the occasion to 
honor Peleg Sanford, stepson of William Phillips and former four-term 
British Governor for the State of Rhode Island.
  When the American Colonists fought for independence, Sanford stood 
with them. The city's cemeteries contain the headstones of 33 patriots 
who joined freedom's cause.
  With the Mousam River providing power, Sanford was home to more than 
a dozen sawmills and gristmills. In the 1860s, Sanford truly became a 
city of industry when Thomas Goodall established a massive textile mill 
that produced everything from material for clothing to railroad car 
upholstery. Skilled textile workers poured into Sanford from Europe and 
French Canada, giving the city an international flavor that still 
exists today.
  In the 1950s, the owners of Sanford's textile mills began moving 
operations to southern States, leaving behind thousands of jobless 
workers and vast, empty factories. Local business and community leaders 
responded with the energy and determination that defines the city, 
traveling throughout the country to entice new employers. Noting this 
remarkable effort, LIFE magazine called Sanford ``the town that refused 
to die.'' Today Sanford has a diversified industrial base, from 
textiles to technology.
  Sanford is among Maine's oldest municipalities, but it also is 
Maine's newest city, having changed its charter from the town form of 
government to that of a city in 2013. It is also new in the sense of 
embracing the technology of the future through the construction of both 
the largest municipally owned broadband network in Maine for economic 
development and a 50-megawatt solar array for renewable energy 
generation. The new Academic and Career

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Technical High School that will open this summer reaffirms Sanford's 
commitment to education.
  The celebration of Sanford's 250th anniversary is not merely about 
the passing of time. It is about human accomplishment. We celebrate the 
people who, for longer than America has been a nation, have pulled 
together, cared for one another, and built a great community. Thanks to 
those who came before, Sanford, ME, has a wonderful history. Thanks to 
those there today, it has a bright future.

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