Lewiston, Maine, has been inhabited for over 10,000 years, beginning with Native American tribes known as the Wabanaki, followed by the first white settlers in 1720. The Pejepscot Proprietors of Boston granted the land to Jonathan Bagley and Moses Little of Newbury, Massachusetts, to settle fifty families in the new township, which was named for the late Job Lewis of Boston. Lewiston’s history has been closely tied to the Androscoggin River, and early settler projects included a canal, a timber dam, and a sawmill at Lewiston Falls. Although textile mills later became the foremost employer, the first settlers were mostly farmers of English heritage, and the population remained widely dispersed until a bridge replaced ferries in 1823. In the mid-nineteenth century, Boston investors used the river’s hydro-power to build canals and textile mills, drawing many Irish, French-Canadian, and other immigrants seeking work. Rapid population growth from 1,801 in 1840 to about 20,000 in the 1880s led to the establishment of schools and city services. Lewiston was incorporated as a city in 1863 and elected Jacob Ham as its first mayor. During the twentieth century, population and businesses expanded outward from the city center to surrounding suburbs and towns. Since 1940, Lewiston’s population has remained between 35,000 and 40,000, and homes and shops left empty by mill closures have begun to refill with immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Today, Lewiston is home to four colleges and universities, three museums, and more than forty sites on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is one of Maine’s most ethnically and religiously diverse and economically powerful cities, with natural areas, river access, outdoor opportunities, agricultural land, and natural resources within its city limits.