Jay, I live in the other Maine, the part east of the Penobscot River almost to the Canadian border. This part of Maine should have been Canada. Its a long story. Pre revolution there was much unrest in this part of Maine very unsettled while the southern part was settled much earlier and is present with the older building you mention. We weren't settled until after the indian wars just prior to the revolution and more settlement after so in the early 1800s and it really finalized with the war of 1812 when boundaries were really fixed and those pesky loyalist were sifted out. I am left with an actually dismal example of full on historic examples. It was not an easy life, and there was an abandoning of these old farms soon after the settlement. Very poor soils for farming most of the land was for timber harvest through much of history and still today.