McCrillis, William H., 1813-1889.

William McCrillis, the son of Dr. John McCrillis, was born on November 4, 1813, in Georgetown, Maine. He studied law in Bangor and began his own practice there in 1834. He soon established a large and profitable law business and was appointed County Attorney for Penobscot County in 1838. In that same year he was elected to the Maine House of Representatives; he also served in the House in 1859 and 1860. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860. He was the owner of many timberlands in Maine and at the time of his death in 1889 was probably the largest individual landowner of this type of property in the state. With others, he was also an incorporator of several dam companies in Maine, including the Katahdin Dam Company, the East Branch of Pleasant River Dam Company, the Godfrey Falls Dam Company, and the Heron Lake Dam Company.

At his death, McCrillis's entire estate passed to his sister, Harriet S. Griswold, also of Bangor. By 1923, the land holdings were owned by her grandchildren, Margaret Griswold Locke, Merrill Griswold, Roger Griswold, and Anna Griswold, and organized into the McCrillis Land Association, a privately held Massachusetts business trust with the primary purpose of investing in Maine timberland. George T. Carlisle and Henry Prentiss and their successors, Prentiss & Carlisle Company, managed its operations. The Land Association now has two wholly owned subsidiaries, McCrillis Timberlands, Inc., which holds timberland, and McCrillis Corporation, which holds recreational land.