This very early sawmill maker was active 1798-1799. He was born in about 1762 and died in 1856.

Information Sources

• The Davistown Museum web site cites a report, The Kingdom in Montville, Maine: A technological diary 1789 - 1994, prepared in 1996 by Tom Donohue: "Smith Cram, born 1762, was a Revolutionary soldier from Pittsfield, New Hampshire. He was one of the first settlers in the Kingdom area and is credited with building the first sawmills in Montville in 1798-99."
• A posting by Joan Mullen on the Cram family genealogy site says that Cram died in 1856 in Montville.
• There are two patents granted to a Smith Cram of New York City. This was probably Smith Cram, Jr. Quoting again from Tom Donohue's paper, "Smith Cram Jr., was listed as the tithingman in the Montville town records of 1812."  He "later left the area and worked as an engineer. He became noted in the mechanical world as builder of the first drydock in New York City, and the first steamboat to run on the Kennebec River.  He has also been mentioned in connection with a suspension bridge across the Niagara River below the falls, and a double-hulled steamer that served Penobscot Bay until it collided with another ship and sank in Camden Harbor." The patents were for "Hydrostatic and pneumatic breaker" and "Inclined railroad". In 1839 he also received a couple of patents from the Republic of Texas, for a "machine for driving piles" and a "machine for removing snags".