Addison was incorporated by the General Court of Massachusetts on February 14, 1797, and was named for the British writer Joseph Addison. Although the earliest town records were lost, family documents preserve the names of early settlers including Moses Plummer, William Ingersoll, the Driske brothers, John, Joseph and Samuel Nash, Daniel Merritt, John Hall, William Tibbetts, Charles Tabbutt, Lemeul Dyer, Jeremiah Plummer, Freeman Yates, William Hix, and Wilmot Wass. Jeremiah Plummer lived on the Wescogus River, Freeman Yates lived on Addison Point and owned the land now known as Addison Village, William Hix lived on the east bank of the river and is said to have arrived before 1770, and Wilmot Wass settled on Cape Split after coming from Martha's Vineyard. Joseph, Samuel, and James Nash settled there in 1767, with homes on Addison Point and the Ridge. Around 1770, seven families came from Martha's Vineyard to the shores of the Pleasant River, including Seth and Amy Norton, Daniel and Anna Look, Richard and Mary Coffin, Barnabas Coffin and his wife Betsey, and Daniel Small, who settled in different parts of the area. The Bangor Historical Magazine gave the population on April 27, 1778, as 213. Addison later grew through shipbuilding and quarrying, with 83 vessels built between 1860 and 1900 and four major granite quarries in operation, while coasting, fishing, timber, and silver mining were also important. The population reached 1,272 in 1860, but by 1958 most of these industries had disappeared, and after the last quarry closed the population fell to 744 in 1960. Key dates in the area's history include Native settlement in 1603, Champlain's visit in 1604, the arrival of early white settlers in 1750, the establishment of three thriving villages by 1800, the 1866 migration of 100 residents to Jaffa in Palestine aboard the Nellie Chapman, and the great Addison Point village fire of 1938.