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is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 4,916 at the 2000 census. Waldoboro is a picturesque fishing and resort town.
It was part of the Waldo Patent purchased about 1720 by General Samuel Waldo of Boston. First called Broad Bay, the village was settled between 1733-1740, but thereupon suffered a devastating attack by Indians allied with New France during King George's War. Houses were burned and inhabitants killed or carried away as captives. Survivors fled to the nearby settlements of St. George or Pemaquid. But peace returned with the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1752-1753, Samuel Waldo, son of the general, visited Germany and recruited about 1,500 immigrants, most from the Rhineland. Many settled on the western side of Broad Bay, although in 1763-1764 the land was claimed under the Pemaquid Patent. About 300 residents moved to the Moravian settlements in what is now Forsyth County, North Carolina, but the remainder bought their properties. On June 29, 1773, the township was incorporated as Waldoborough, named for the original proprietor.
Waldoboro became county seat of Lincoln County in 1786, but the designation would shift to Wiscasset in 1880. Farms produced hay and potatoes. The Knox and Lincoln Railroad arrived and spurred the town's development. Industries would include an iron foundry, an oakum mill, a carding and cloth-dressing mill, a grain mill, sawmills and planing mills, furniture and molding mills, a door, sash and blind factory, and a carriage factory. There were also marble and granite yards and a pottery. But ship building was the principal business, with 8 large vessels built in 1880. Waldoboro was the launching port for the
in 1888, the first five masted schooner. The
was built in Waldoboro's Leavitt Storer Shipyard. A port of entry, the town features an 1857 custom house designed by Ammi B. Young.