Every city of any importance is many-sided, or in other words, owes its prominence to no one cause, but rather to many and in most cases to widely diverse causes, but in some respects Bangor stands alone in diversity of attractions, for it is certainly a unique city, which is at once remarkable for refinement and for wildness; for the possession of the very latest "modern improvements" and for the fresh charms possible only in country life...

In this historical and statistical review of the commercial and manufacturing interests of this section, it has been our purpose in as thorough a manner as was possible justly to describe those enterprises which have contributed so largely during the last half century to its material advancement. History plainly shows that many large cities have owed their prosperity and growth chiefly to advantages of situation, great influx of foreign peoples, and similar causes. Of Bangor and the other towns in this section it is pre-eminently true that the genius and efforts of her own people, by the single process of internal development, have brought success, which has rendered her name famous throughout the land.

The City of Bangor now has a resident population of about twenty thousand. Yet as the shire town of a county embracing some seventy-five thousand inhabitants; as the trade center and shipping point for a large and rich agricultural section and for many thriving industrial communities; as a point of convergence for numerous important railway and steamship lines, and a consequent tarrying place for great numbers of tourists, sportsmen and commercial travelers; these together with the busy commerce of its port, the metropolitan character of its hotels and the compactness of its business section, give to the city a much more populous appearance than the above figures would indicate.

Bangor, the "Queen City of the East," is situated in lat. 44° 40' N., and long. 68° W., at the head of ship navigation on the Penobscot, the largest river of Maine, about thirty miles from its entrance into the bay of the same name, and some sixty miles from the sea. It is distant N. E. from Boston nearly 250 miles, by rail, and W. from St. John, New Brunswick, a little more than 200 miles; the distance from either of these points by water is about the same as by land. It is reached from the West by day and night trains from Boston and Portland, and by a line of first-class passenger steamers making daily trips each way between Boston and Bangor during the summer months, and from two to four trips weekly the remainder of the year. Two trains daily, to and from Bangor, furnish Eastern connections with St. John, Halifax and all important points in the Maritime Provinces.

"Biographical notices of the founders of more than fifty of the most prominent and noteworthy enterprises in the city, with a concise and reliable account of their rise, progress and present status."--On cover.