The Presumpscot River was an early transportation corridor to interior Maine; and provided reliable water power at Little Falls. Major William Knight was operating a sawmill at the falls in 1756. As the local forests were cleared, the sawmill was replaced by William Johnson's grist mill and a wool carding mill operated by Leonard Bacon and Lathrop Crockett. Locks were constructed around the falls to complete the Cumberland and Oxford Canal in 1832.[5] The canal fell into disuse after the Portland and Ogdensburg Railway was completed through South Windham in 1875.[6]Maine Central Railroad leased the railway as their Mountain Division in 1888.[7] Availability of year-round transportation encouraged C.A. Brown and Company to build a large brick wood-paper board factory at South Windham in 1875. Androscoggin Pulp Company purchased the factory, and the industrial village of South Windham developed around the pulp mill.[8] On April 4, 1919, the legislature passed an act creating the Reformatory for Men at South Windham. It is now the Maine Correctional Center, a minimum to medium security facility for men and women.