A history of Walpole, New Hampshire, Volume I, Part 12

Author: Frizzell, Martha McDanolds, 1902-
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Walpole, Walpole Historical Society
Number of Pages: 786

USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Walpole > A history of Walpole, New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 12

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

On December 30th in the early hours of the morning a strong wind toppled six power poles leaving Westminster and the north part of Walpole without power from 2:30 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. The Power Com- pany crews, dispatched to the scene, found a Boston firm's truck parked at the side of the road with the fallen wires, still alive, ensnared about the cab and truck body. Inside the cab the driver sat waiting coolly for aid. According to a crew member, if the driver had touched the door handle or had in any other way tried to move from his position, he would have been electrocuted. The truck was undamaged and continued on its way.

Russell Hall burned Sunday, January 31, 1949. About 11:45 P.M. the family of Fire Warden James Stapleton noticed the red glare of the fire in the sky. The firemen, hampered by zero weather, managed to save the fire truck housed in the basement. Lost were the library, precinct offices, jail, sports and social center, kitchen with $500 worth of equipment, cos- tumes for the minstrel show to be presented the following Tuesday, and CYO equipment. Of the 2500 books in the library about 150 were sal- vaged. People from the whole town were asked for donations to supply new books and the town made a special appropriation of $1500.

Bellows Falls charged for the pumper sent to the Russell Hall fire and North Walpole appealed. However, the reply was that, when the pumper was purchased, all surrounding towns were notified that the charge for the first hour would be $100, and $75 for each succeeding hour.

In March 1949 the District Nurse service was incorporated. It had been handled for 45 years by a board of five women from the local churches and financed to a liberal extent by Miss Fanny Mason. Now that Miss Mason was dead, there was need for a more formal organization. The service is now financed by the income from Miss Mason's bequest of $20,000, an amount of $1000 from the precinct, and the fees. The district served is all that south of Cold River on a 24-hour call. Mrs. George Jeffrey is the nurse. She replaced Miss Charlotte Lane who retired in 1946 after serving as District Nurse for twenty-two years. The first officers in 1949 were President Margaret Porter, Treasurer Mrs. Arthur P. Davis, Clerk Mrs. S. A. Lewis, Directors Mrs. A. C. Dickey and Mrs. Fred Perham.

On May 12, 1949 the ordinances adopted by the Village District of Walpole on October 6, 1936, providing for zoning of said district were legalized and ratified by the Senate and House of Representatives of the

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General Court. These had provided for an adjustment board of five per- sons and a building inspector. Upon adoption of these rules the Com- missioners of the Village District automatically became the "Board of Commissioners".

All during the summer of 1949 the commissioners for Walpole Village were at work trying to get a supplemental water supply. The engineers had found the best source on the Britton land at the foot of Watkins Hill but there was difficulty over the price and the distance from the village. Another source was found on R. N. Johnson's land near the old #14 School, and the drilling company guaranteed the flow. The distance was less than from the other site. However, after the well was dug, it failed to produce the expected flow. The commissioners then returned to the Britton site. There was some trouble driving the well here, but the flow was adequate (200 gallons per minute). The total cost with the pump house was $50,000.

DECADE 1950-1960 & UP TO JULY 1, 1962.

In 1951 North Walpole faced the problem of an inadequate water supply, a vexing problem for many years. In 1958 an engineering study was made of the problem but the recommendations were turned down by the voters. At the meeting in March 1960 confusion reigned when a discussion of water, fire protection and sanitation was attempted.

On April 26, 1951, there was an overflow audience at the Pops Concert at Hubbard Gymnasium with the Walpole Community Orchestra, the Westmoreland Choral Society and the Balladiers presenting the program. The orchestra began playing in 1939 and made its first public appearance in a concert at the Congregational Church May 14, 1942.

In the spring of 1951 it will be remembered that Walpole High School won the one-act play contest over Charlestown and Vilas High, with Donald Houghton being judged the best actor. Also, that spring the Southwest School Music Festival was held in Walpole, its bands thrilling the crowd with a band concert on the common in the afternoon and its orchestras presenting in the evening at the Hubbard Gym a concert that will be long remembered.

The year 1951 also saw the merging of two baseball teams in the town with Harley Prentiss as manager and Caswell Menard as coach. The Grange sponsored a benefit dance to help raise money for new uniforms. At North Walpole there was an Athletic Club with baseball team.

Each winter there are men's and women's bowling leagues who wind up their season with a banquet in some favorite eating place.

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In August 1951 Louise Stafford and Anne Podwin, who had been op- erating the Walpole Diner that had been moved to Brattleboro, opened the Green Lantern Restaurant on the site of the old hotel. They sold in 1954 to David Alexander. Mrs. Ruth Latham operated the restaurant and bought it in 1961. It was closed for a little time in 1960 but business was then resumed. Part of the building was taken over for a laundromat in 1960 under the management of Ben O'Connor.

The Walpole Inn, which Copley Amory had made out of the old Mitchell house, had a surge of life and its final demise during this decade. The old swimming pool in the basement, out of use for many years, was empty and cracked. No longer was there bowling on the lawn or croquet and tennis on the courts. It was all forgotten. The billiard room had been changed successively to a breakfast room, an antique room, and a cocktail lounge. The old, almost black, Mission furniture was outmoded.

James Lynd Mitchell had built the house, which became Walpole Inn, about 1870, having a garden on the west guarded by a white picket fence. When Copley Amory bought the place in 1902, he took down the stable and replaced with the east wing. He added another wing to the rear and built on porches. An artesian well was sunk and the water brought into the building through miles of brass piping.

Later the brick house opposite the Inn was acquired for an annex. As automobiles became common, the barn with this place became the hotel garage. With the increased use of automobiles and improvement in roads, there were fewer seasonal guests and more transients.

Reginald Cahalane carried on the Inn for a couple of years but the depression forced him out. For a season it was leased by the White brothers, twins; and then it changed hands rapidly, being run with little success and finally closed for several years. In 1947 the property was purchased by Mrs. Louis Weber (later Mrs. Wing) and brought back to life as a successfully run Walpole Inn. After a few years Mrs. Wing sold and the business gradually deteriorated until 1961 when the Savings Bank of Walpole took over the property. In 1962 the building was razed.

In May 1951 tree warden H. O. Woodward set new trees about town, and in May 1953 the Grange set a maple at the John King memorial marker. During the last ten years many of the elms have had to be taken down because of the Dutch Elm disease which has killed them. When the new telephone building was built west of Walpole Inn, several trees were taken down to make room. Two of these were among the largest elms in town, estimated to have been set 1850 or earlier.

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Basketball has long been a favorite sport in Walpole. Each season the high school team is loyally and enthusiastically supported, and great was the joy when the team won first place in 1961 in the Class S State Bas- ketball Tournament. The opposing team was Hopkinton and the final score 45-38. A "Welcome, Champs" banner had been raised across Main Street by the time the team returned from Durham at midnight. A motorcade had met them at the Ox Yoke Restaurant and escorted them to an openhouse at the fire-station. They had lost only one game out of sixteen during the season. Dick McCarthy was the coach.

In April 1952 North Walpole completed its fire alarm system, with the siren at Tom Kenney's store.

November 7, 1952, marked the beginning of a new era or ending of an old one in transportation. On that date all train stops at Walpole were cancelled and by May 1954 all mail into town was being transported by truck. On January 23, 1958, the Walpole Village station was closed and retired from service in spite of local opposition. That building had been put up by the railroad in the spring and summer of 1905, being all new except the frame. It extended 200 ft. along the track with a 12 ft. shed and concrete platform. On the outside it was then painted gray with yellow trim. The interior was all new with hard pine floors, walls and ceilings sheathed with white spruce. At the north end was the 12 x 21 ft. baggage room, at the south end the 27 x 21 ft. waiting room with the station agent's office, with its large bay window opening onto the platform, between the two ends. It was heated with hot water and con- nected with both telephone and telegraph. Being in the path of the new Route #12 bypass of Walpole Village, it was demolished in 1962.

In 1953 the Hood Egg Plant opened for business in October and closed its doors in January 1962. At the beginning there had been 300 producers shipping to this plant but the number had fallen to nine in 1961. There were fifteen employees. The business moved here from Bellows Falls where it had been burned out in November 1952.

It is hard to know what would be of interest to someone a hundred years from now who might be reading this history, but the following happenings during these last ten years may be worth noting. The Red Cross Blood Bank has visited Walpole periodically for blood donations. On June 9, 1952 they drew 122 pints of blood. The chairman at that time was Mrs. Von Lackum.

It is interesting to know that one of the entertainers of our service men, stationed all over the world, is Ray Smith, a Walpolite, with his puppet show. He travels under the auspices of the U.S.O.

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By 1952 Walpole Village had population enough so that the care of Route 12 through the village passed from the state to local responsibility.

The skating rink north of Westminster Street and west of St. John's has proved very popular. In January 1953 a small building was moved from Christian Hollow to be placed at the side of the rink. This houses the record player and rink equipment. A warming house was added and in 1960 floodlights installed for night enjoyment of the rink.

In 1954 the new center for the telephone dial system was built on the old tennis courts of the Walpole Inn. Dial service was started April 28, 1955.

For many years the swimming pool in Great Brook near Route 12 was used, but its use depended upon the whims of the owners of the property. In July 1957 a new pool was bulldozed out on the Sawyer farm near the River Road. This did not prove satisfactory, the dam being washed out in spring freshets. In 1960 Robert Aldrich, Eddy Hall and Neil Swift took the lead, with volunteer labor, in building another pool just south of the brook. Jim Bolles with his bulldozer excavated 50 ft. x 100 ft., the deep end being 51/2 ft. deep. Northeastern Culvert Corporation provided 280 ft. of 8" culvert to carry brook water to the pool. Town trucks and men hauled and spread gravel. The cash outlay was under $300. Red Cross swimming classes were held here in 1961.

In September of 1954 two new rooms were finished in the basement of St. Joseph's Church. The year before Father Ernest Gagnon had cele- brated the silver jubilee of his priesthood in June.

Also in 1954 a new addition had been made to the Congregational Church and again in 1962 a new basement was excavated to give more room for church school. In 1961 there were 330 in the Sunday Schools in Walpole Village.

In February of 1957, through the American Field Service, the high school arranged for exchange students. Froydis Krossoy of Oslo, Norway, came as the first exchangee. In September of 1960 Yoshikazu Hayashi from Tokyo, Japan entered Walpole High School for a year. These young people lived as members of a Walpole family while attending school. In 1957, also, under the direction of the Experiment in International Living of Putney, twelve young Mexicans spent a month in town, living with various families for that time.

Many years ago the "Boston Post", a newspaper in Boston, Mass., presented canes to the towns where its paper was circulated, such canes to be kept by the oldest man in town. In 1959 Mrs. Margaret Sparhawk, for 25 years town clerk of the town, presented her cane to the town, ex-

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pressing the wish that it should be kept, in turn, by the oldest woman in the town. It was a relic of her family, the MacGillivrays, was made many years ago in Scotland and passed from one generation to the next.

In December of 1960 F. Nelson Blount of Dublin, N. H., was making preliminary plans for Steamtown U.S.A., using the round house at North Walpole and running excursions. Because of conflictions with the state's new Route #12, the idea of using North Walpole as a museum of steam locomotives was abandoned. It is still expected that the track from North Walpole to Keene will be purchased from the Boston & Maine Railroad and that future excursions can be run between the two points, with the steam museum being at Keene.

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-#552

Howard S. audun 1962-

Old Mellish Place

Chapter II HOMESTEADS WITH LAND RECORDS

O N MARCH 18, 1752 Benjamin Bellows and Josiah Willard completed their survey of Walpole, Westmoreland and Chesterfield and filed their plan in the office of the Secretary of State (then Province).

In 1756 Benjamin Bellows sold to Theodore Atkinson an undivided third of Walpole, including a sawmill, a gristmill, the fort and the house in the fort, all for £500. (Rockingham County Records Vol. 77 p. 21, Sept. 11, 1765.) September 10, 1766 the two gentlemen filed a memorandum of agreement and partition recorded Sept. 4, 1770 (Rockingham County Records Vol. 100 p. 197. See Appendix. Original available at N.H. His- torical Society, microfilm copy at State Library.)

With this agreement there was also filed a map of the town showing the lots set off at that time. This map is reproduced in this volume. The only feature which we cannot identify is the road from the village across the Derry Hill Atkinson tract to the east line of Walpole. At first we thought it was the old Emery Road from near the March mill on Great Brook up onto Derry Hill and along the ridge. There seems to be no town record of the laying of this road and we concluded that it must have been very early. On second thought, it seems more likely that it was laid in the early 1790s when Derry Hill was being settled-there are plenty of references to it during that period. Perhaps it was the Fay Hill or the March Hill Road, though not drawn accurately.

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Atkinson received the following as his third: 1) A strip from the east line of the town west to the Connecticut River, next south of what is now the south line of Langdon, 2028 acres. 2) Derry Hill, 2764 acres. 3) Boggy Meadow, 1000 acres. Except for the 200 rod wide strip reserved by the governor for himself and his church along the original north line of Walpole, Col. Benjamin Bellows had the rest of the town, a unique situation.

Col. Bellows followed this plan fairly well in selling lots and we have been able to determine the bounds of most of them. There were no First and Second Ranges. The Third and Fourth Range with Wentworth Road between them follow the map closely except that south of #8 in the Third and #11 in the Fourth the south lines of the lots are parallel with the south line of the town (West 12º North), while north of these lots the lines are West. Next east is a narrower range, the Fifth, which ex- tends south as far as Watkins Hill. These three ranges all begin in the neighborhood of Walpole Village and the lots are numbered north to south.

The ranges on the hills northeast of the village are tipped at an angle North 35° East. These ranges were not numbered on the map, but for convenience we refer to them as First, Second, Third and Fourth Hill Ranges from west to east. Roughly, the Reservoir Road traversed the lots in the First Hill Range, the Ramsay Hill Road was between the Second and Third and the Maple Grove Road served the lots of the Fourth Hill Range. The March Hill Road crossed the northern part of the Derry Hill Atkinson tract. The hill lots are numbered north to south, five or six lots in each range. In many of these lots the north and south 50 acres were sold separately.

Between these two series of ranges and the Derry Hill tract there is a triangular wedge of unnumbered lots. In the north point is what came to be known as the Mepas lot which Col. Bellows left to his daughter Abigail. Next south and appearing to be part of the same lot is what Col. Bellows first sold to Josiah Hubbard. Next south the triangular lot next to the Fifth Range and the two rectangular lots next east were James Bundy's. The next lot to the northeast was Samuel Parker's. South of the Atkinson Derry Hill tract is the rectangular lot of Nathan Bundy along the east side of the road to Keene on Watkins Hill, now Stevens. On the other side of the Keene Road is the lot of Lt. Aaron Allen, later O. H. P. Watkins, now O'Brien.

The rich area along the river north from Walpole Village to Cold River Col. Bellows kept for himself, but the rest of his two-thirds of the

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town he proceeded to sell, for the most part on contract. We have never found a copy of a contract; but in his will (1777) he instructed his son, Gen. Benjamin Bellows, "to give deed to any and all persons that I have contracted with for lands; they fulfilling their contracts precisely and paying the same fully up, according to their bargains." Deeds for abutting land refer to many settlers as owners of land to which they never received a deed.

In 1781 Col. Wm. Heywood of Charlestown surveyed the Atkinson tract on Derry Hill and laid out 22 100 acre lots. His bill and survey are at the N.H. Historical Society, and from that survey the map of Derry Hill has been prepared. The lots in the north part of the tract were not included in the survey nor were they ever numbered. They have been sketched in from other land records.

The best old map of Walpole is that of Jonathan Royce (1806) with the following survey: beginning at the southwest corner of the town on Connecticut River South 80° East 1626 rods on Westmoreland and 120 rods on Surry to the southeast corner of the town (note there is no jog in this line as shown on the Geological Survey maps); North 1º West 1024 rods on Surry, 1591 rods on Alstead to Langdon corner; North 80° West 822 rods on Langdon; North 528 rods on Langdon to Charlestown line; North 80° West 285 rods on Charlestown to Connecticut River. This map is in the office of the Secretary of State.

When Langdon was set off from Walpole January 11, 1787, the line along the top of Fall Mountain was described as "southerly on west side of Fall Mountain about 1 mile & 200 rods (520 rods), easterly on north line of Mr. Atkinson's land to east line of Walpole. .. . " According to the Langdon map made in 1806 this line was North 526 rods (within two rods of Royce's figure). In 1833 the selectmen of the two towns could not agree on the line. The court settled the matter-North 81/2° East 536 rods. The 1846 perambulation was North 10° East 546 rods. This terrain is difficult to survey. These varying data do, however, point up the differences encountered and the necessity for the exercise of judg- ment in selection of what is most nearly correct.

There are several other old maps of Walpole worthy of brief mention: Holland Map published 1784; Carrigan Map 1816; 1858 Map of Cheshire County; 1877 Atlas of Cheshire County; 1892 Atlas of New Hampshire. (The last three show homesteads with names of owners.) The 1858 map is the most reliable, although even it has a few inaccuracies: the angles of the north and south lines are incorrect and the insert map of the village is not accurately drawn.

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, Vol. 100 Page 197 Berg Bellows &Copy- 9th Day of September 1766 Theodore Atheism of this Land in Walpole. which Dead was Executed this executed between Benj" Bellow Ex. +Theodore atkinsoning. this Plan is mentioned in the Dead of Partition

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113

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Brawn fy Bved BatchelDer april ye 5 th,76.

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One of the most interesting maps is that based on the surveys of Mitchell & Hazen (1750), the best to be found to give an idea of the original Massachusetts grants of the towns along the river. As has been mentioned before, Col. Bellows mapped the town of Westmoreland as well as Walpole when the New Hampshire charters were granted. The Westmoreland people were much aggrieved because, as they maintained, "Major Willard and Mr. Bellows hath not conformed to our original grant from Massachusetts nor according to our intention, which was to abide by our original lines, which are at present destroyed, for the upper line is removed near two miles down the river from whence our grant first took place, in which lay our Meadows and entervails, with our second divisions and all our improvements on them with the best part of our land and extending our line two miles lower down including barren and rocky hills. .. . " (History of Cheshire County)

The Mitchell & Hazen Map bears out this contention. The map does not show an accurate knowledge of the territory, but the pertinent point is that the east line of Walpole is in line with the east line of Charles- town. It hasn't been since the Bellows survey. The Westmoreland people added this postscript to their petition: "Mr. Bellows hath layd out his town about Nine Milles long on the river but four miles wide at the Lower end, and but three milles wide at the upper end. ... And the four milles wide, & Two Milles in length is run down in to our town that is the Occasion of our Grief." This may explain some of the basis for litigation over land in the southwest part of Walpole in later years.

Another interesting map is to be found with MAPS OF THE MA- SONIAN PROPRIETORS Vol. 5 p. 90 and titled A Plan of a Marked Road from Walpole on Connecticut River to Chester with its true courses and distance laid down by a Scale of 2 miles to an Inch Benj. Whitney 1763 (N.H. Historical Society).

No survey of the town has been made for this work. The map as drawn is based on old surveys of the town, perambulations, deed descrip- tions, road records, court records and the current government aerial map. In interpreting surveys included here, consideration must be given to the date because of natural variations in compass readings through the years.

In tracing the homesteads we first describe natural areas as shown on the Bellows-Atkinson map (1766) and then trace how these tracts have been broken up into today's homesteads. Consequently, to find the story of a given homestead one needs to read the story of the area.

The number at the beginning of the section on a given homestead

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refers to the homestead rather than a specific structure. No attempt has been made to record in detail type of ownership (joint tenancy, etc.). The name following the number is that of the head of the family now owning even though the property may be held in the name of the wife. Sometimes an old name is used as identification, particularly in the case of a cellarhole. In a series of transfers the wife's name, at the time of selling, is in parentheses after the husband's name. These titles have been searched only to determine line of ownership, with no thought for legal implications.

The abbreviation AH refers to Aldrich's history of Walpole, WAL- POLE AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS (1880).

If there is no statement to the contrary one may assume that there is at present a dwelling on the homestead. There are some cases where the numbers refer to business establishments rather than homesteads.

Some names may be confusing. Col. Benjamin Bellows (died 1777) was the founder of Walpole. His son, Gen. Benjamin Bellows, with his mother, Mrs. Mary Bellows, completed the colonel's land transactions, but also did a great deal of business of his own. Peter (son of Col. Ben- jamin) also had a son Benjamin who owned land in North Walpole. There were four men named Josiah Bellows: Josiah, son of Col. Ben- jamin; Josiah II, son of Col. John and grandson of Col. Benjamin; Josiah III, son of Josiah; and Josiah Grahme, son of Josiah III.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of Walpole, New Hampshire, Volume I, Part 12

Author: Frizzell, Martha McDanolds, 1902- Publication date: 1963 Publisher: Walpole, Walpole Historical Society Number of Pages: 786

Author: Frizzell, Martha McDanolds, 1902-
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Walpole, Walpole Historical Society
Number of Pages: 786