A shingle mill is marked below the Route 86 Cathance Stream bridge in Marion on the 1860 map of Washington County, and in 1881 the Colby Atlas indicates a sawmill still operating here. The Hydrographic Survey of the State Maine in 1867 reported the following "powers" or places suitable for a dam, on the Cathance Stream, beginning at the Great Works Pond in Edmunds, and so up the river through Marion: First power on Cathance River: 10 ft head; a single sawmill and lath mill with old wooden machinery; manufactures 600,000 feet of long lumber per year. With improved machinery would yield four-fold. Owned by T.W. Allan and Son of Dennysville. Second power three fourths of a mile above: rips of 10 ft fall; unimproved. Owned by John Smith of Dennysville. Third power lath milldam one-quarter of a mile above: head thirteen feet; natural privilege, scarcely any dam needed; shingle mills and lath mills owned by Allan and Smith. Fourth power sawmill dam ten rods above: nine foot head; sawmill owned by T.W. Allan of Dennysville.

Kilby and Smith's Sawmill on Cathance Stream