Biddeford, an early Industrial Revolution site in Maine, was settled in 1630 by proprietors John Oldham and Richard Vines, who had received their land grant in 1629 as payment for services to the Plymouth Company. After Oldham was killed on a trading voyage, Vines became principally connected with the town's early development; he had spent the winter of 1616-1617 there as a physician investigating a plague among the Natives. English settlers named the area Saco, a contraction of the river name thought to be Sawcotuk. Saco was destroyed in 1688 by Indians and was later renamed Biddeford. In the 18th century it was a small village with poor agricultural land, so shipbuilding, lumbering, and fishing became the major industries, while a few merchant mills used tributaries of the Saco rather than the river itself. Around 1775, Revolutionary War veterans Seth Spring and Moses Bradbury first used the river for power, building mills on Spring's Island and dams in the river. At Biddeford, the Saco River falls 47 feet and has a dependable flow from large wetlands in the White Mountains. In the 19th century, the community's size and wealth changed greatly. In 1830, Samuel Batchelder came to consult on mills being built on Factory Island, recognized the river valley land's potential as a major industrial site, and in 1837 established the Saco Water Power Company. Investment surged during "New England Mill Fever," and the village was dramatically transformed into a city.