Following the abandoning of the Popham Colony in 1608, European settlement of the area around the mouth of the Kennebec river (present-day Phippsburg, Georgetown, MaineGeorgetown, Bath, MaineBath, Woolwich, MaineWoolwich, and Arrowsic, MaineArrowsic) began in 1653. Gradual settlement continued until 1676, when Native American attacks on the east side of the Kennebec led to European desertion of the entire area. Re-settlement began in 1679, at "New Town" on the southern end of Arrowsic Island (across the Kennebec from present-day Phippsburg Center,) but the area was deserted again following the Second Indian War in 1689. In 1714, the New Town site was reestablished, as was another in the Small Point Harbor area of Phippsburg. The New Town site won recognition as a Township under the name Georgetown, but again in 1724 the area was deserted briefly under Indian pressure. By 1751, slow resettlement found ten farms along the Kennebec river and five more on the Casco Bay side of the Phippsburg peninsula. In 1738, the boundaries of Georgetown were enlarged to include most of present-day Phippsburg and Bath, as well as West Bath, Woolwich, Georgetown and Arrowsic. Today's towns began splitting away in 1759, when Woolwich withdrew, followed by Bath and West Bath (as one unit) in 1781. Phippsburg was born as an independent town in 1814, when the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted the town's petition for incorporation under the name "Phipsburgh." The town was thus named after William PhipsSir William Phips, actually a native of Woolwich, even though the original petition had requested that the town be named "Dromore" after one of its oldest sections. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phippsburg%2C_Maine