A copy from an early map of Surry and Ellsworth shows lot numbers and landowners' names. Both Surry and Ellsworth were incorporated ca. 1803. This copy was made in 1880, but shows the towns as they were in the early days of incorporation.

In 1789 Leonard Jarvis was commissioned to mete out land settled after 1784 in Township No. 6 (Surry and Ellsworth) and to sell the remainder. Jarvis and his family bought up most of the land here, becoming one of the largest landowners in Maine, after the Bingham estate.