Hampden is a town in Penobscot County, incorporated on February 24, 1794 from Sowerdabscook Plantation. From 1816 through 1832 it annexed land from Frankfort, Newburg, and Hermon. The town is a suburb of Bangor lying just south of that city on U.S. Route 1A. It hosts a regional U.S. Post Office processing center.
Settled in 1767 it was once known as Wheelersborough after the first settler and mill owner. The Historical Society now occupies the Benjamin Wheeler Moodywood house, built in 1802.
The town was eventually named for John Hampden, a 17th century English patriot who protested the excesses of Charles I. In the 1840's, Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President under Abraham Lincoln, practiced law here before moving to Bangor in 1851.
It is the birthplace of social reformer Dorothea Dix, whose father Joseph was a land agent for his own father Dr. Elijah Dix, after whom Dixmont and Dixfield are named. A park in Ms. Dix's name is located on the farmsite where she was born.
Hampden Academy was established in 1845 and the Grange Hall, one of the first chartered Granges in Maine (1880), has its home in the town.
