USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Walpole > A history of Walpole, New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 31
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All of this property came finally to Stephen Tiffany; 1886 to George Watkins; 1887 heirs to William Knight; 1889 to Elizabeth N. Graves; 1919 to Carl D. White; 1919 to V. A. Killman; 1920 to Walter F. Sutton; 1943 estate to Zeph E. Patch of Charlestown; 1946 to present owners.
418. GERALD HILL'S COBB PLACE: In 1787 John Bellows sold to Alexander Watkins 25 acres in the east corner of the Josiah Hubbard lot; 1788 to Asahel Bundy; 1832 his son Philip to Dr. Stephen Johnson. His son
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Stephen S. Johnson was living here when his father died in 1836 and left him life use of it; William H. Johnson, son of Stephen S., inherited it; 1872 to George W. Russell; 1874 to William T. Ramsay; 1884 to Ira W. Ramsay; 1913 to Joseph B. Cobb; 1951 estate of George W. Cobb to Edward K. and Gladys R. Morton; 1952 to Russell G. and Doris E. Eddy; 1955 to Gerald A. and Stella B. Hill. Occupied by their son Donald. House stands north of highway.
419. GERALD HILL HOME FARM: In 1774 Benjamin Bellows sold to Samuel Parker 106 acres on the east side of the road, from the ravine west of Hill's barn to the line of the old road by Albert Fletcher's ma- chinery building, and southeast to the Atkinson tract. Samuel Parker was from Salem, N. H .; 1782 he sold the place to Thomas Parker. Thomas added in 1795 Lot #19 in the Atkinson tract and in 1796 13 acres on the other side of the highway, the south corner of the Marcy lot, the present house standing in the southwest corner. Thomas also bought 1/2 acre on the east side of the highway, formerly the northeast corner of the Hub- bard lot. Parker's house stood on this 1/2 acre and his shop probably about where Hills' house now stands.
In 1799 Thomas Parker sold the 160 acres to Nathan Smith of Fram- ingham, Mass. The house was then on the west side of the road, probably where Hill's is now; 1837 to Sherman Watkins; 1878 heirs to Mary L. Farr of Westminster; 1879 to Hiram Oscar Clark. After his death his brother Daniel G. Clark bought out the other heirs; 1919 to James G. Bigelow of Rockingham, Vt .; 1924 heir Wallace G. Bigelow to Jacob and Teofila Koson; 1935 to Gerald and Stella Hill.
Daniel Clark built the present house 1904.
NORTH ROAD, EAST END
420. SPARHAWK HILL FARM-MRS. DON DAYHOFF: This was the southeast corner of the tract which Thomas Sparhawk bought 1777 from Rev. Jonathan Leavitt; sold to his son Thomas 1783; 1837 to George Kilburn of Walpole and Elijah C. Kilburn of Boston; 1839 to Orville Jennison; 1840 to Zephaniah Kidder; to his granddaughter Mary K. Huntington Wier; to her children who sold 1908 to Frank M. Houghton; 1922 his widow Nellie V. to Arthur Gilman; 1929 to Margaret Mcl. Sherwin and Margaret Sherwin of New York City; 1959 to Guy and Marion Bemis; 1962 to present owner.
421. FRED S. CARPENTER: In 1840 while Orville Jennison owned the farm #420, he sold the lot on the east corner of North Road and Reservoir
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Road to Judith Fuller; 1843 to John H. Fuller; 1843 to Stephen Stearns (one of the Stearns women lived here); 1844 to Harvey Stearns.
In 1866 Teresa R. Emery Rogers (a minor) sold to Nahum Wilson; 1869 to Thomas Tahen; 1876 to Lewis Thompson on a judgment; 1878 heirs to Angelina Colburn (Albert); 1890 to Mary H. Ela of Keene, called it "Rambleside"; 1898 to Helen M. Bates, who went from Walpole to California; 1920 to Frank M. Wilder of Somerville, Mass .; 1920 to Emma M. O'Brien of Newton, Mass .; 1930 to Clarence J. and Arlene L. Jeffrey; 1943 to Harold F. and Faith E. Ball; 1953 to Clarence E. and Shirley L. Swain; 1960 to Thomas Gallagher; 1961 to Fred Carpenter.
422. THOMAS TURNER: In 1771 Benjamin Bellows sold to James Litch (Leach) the 100 acres east of the 5th Range, which probably included Lot #5 in the second row of hill lots. It extended from the east line of the 5th Range to the Ramsay Hill Road. In 1775 Leach sold the east 30 acres along the Ramsay Hill Road to John Bellows. Dr. Euger or Agur owned 1783; Gamaliel Deming 1785. There was a house somewhere on the lot, perhaps where the clump of trees stands. This would have been on the old road. In 1783 or 1785 Leach sold an acre in the northwest corner of his land on the north side of the brook and west of North Road to Joseph Thatcher, tanner. This came back to the farm in 1839. He prob- ably had a house.
In 1783 or 1785 Leach sold the farm to John Fuller of Lunenburg, Mass. His son James had it. James Henry Fuller and wife Mary S. re- sided here as late as 1843. They had a son John H. who lived in Keene.
In 1839 Elijah Kilburn sold to John H. Fuller the Thatcher lot and what seems to have been the north tip of the Anson Lawrence piece, northeast corner of Lot #2 in 5th Range; and at the same time Fuller sold to Kilburn what he owned north of the road (1/2 acre near corner of Meeting House Road). A house then stood on this land, Fuller reserving the right to remove during the winter 1839-40, no dwelling to be erected here for 20 years. In 1844 John H. Fuller sold the farm to Alfred W. Burt (42 acres); 1929 Lillian F. Burt, widow, to Bant H. Morgan; 1946 to present owners.
MEPAS LOT
East of the 5th Range (east of the Country Club) there was a tri- angular lot which Benjamin Bellows left to his daughter Abigail. When his will was printed, this was called the Mepas Lot, but we have reason to believe that this was a corruption of Messer. Nathaniel Messer had
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owned the lot earlier, and it is quite possible that an error was made in interpreting the double "s" in Messer because of the old way of writing. This lot was bounded by the old Josiah Hubbard lot on the south, the old Marcy farm on the east, the Litch (Leach) farm on the north. It included the Ferguson, Hartman, Selkirk, Houghton, Roy and Sanford places.
423. ALAN B. HARTMAN-CORNER NORTH ROAD AND MAPLE GROVE ROAD: In this place are 2 acres out of the Mepas Lot, the north 30 acres out of the old Leach farm and the west 3 acres out of Abigail Bellows' land in the 5th Range. In 1820 Abigail Bellows' son Seth Hunt of Willsborough, N. Y., sold to Stephen Rowe Bradley; 1831 willed to his grandson Stephen Rowe Bellows (no acreage given, but this included that part of Abigail's land north of Maple Grove Road and east of the 3rd N. H. Turnpike). In 1824 Bradley sold a tiny 56 rod piece on Maple Grove Road, next west of Apollos Gilmore, to John H. Fuller and in 1843 Bellows sold 2 acres next west to Fuller. In 1843-4 Fuller sold this and 30 acres on the north to Frederick Kilburn; 1851 to Alonzo Jennings. He added the other 3 acres in 1867. In 1884 Clarissa Jennings and Charles A. (Emma J.) Jen- nings sold to Wm. A. Jennings; 1919 to Elro Curtis of South Orange, N. J .; 1924 to Ralph E. Proctor of Keene; 1924 to Harold O. Pierce of Claremont; 1932 to Arthur J. and Clara G. Gilbert of Claremont; 1941 to David Allen and Margaret Wilkins Reed; 1948 to Harvey L. Smith Jr .; 1952 to Ruth M. Sawyer; 1961 to Alan G. Hartman.
424. KENNETH A. FERGUSON: In 1939 the Gilberts sold a piece on the west next to the road to Theodore N. and Gertrude V. Ratte who built house; 1945 to James G. and Ruth K. Garvin of Westminster; 1947 to Albert W. Leavitt; 1950 to Kenneth A. and Anne M. Ferguson.
425. ETHEL O. SELKIRK (MRS. WILLIAM): In 1810 Apollos Gilmore bought 13 acres from the southeast corner of the Sparhawk lot on Ramsay Hill and in 1811 2 acres, adjoining on the south, from Josiah and Abigail Bellows Richardson, being the northeast corner of the Mepas Lot (brick schoolhouse on the corner); 1854 estate to Frederic Watkins who in 1856 bought of Charles and Mary Sparhawk another 17 acres; 1883 to Alonzo Jennings; 1885 heirs to Frank R. Ramsay; 1886 to Marvin R. Booth of Germantown, Calif., who bought another acre in 1909, which included schoolhouse lot, from Fred A. Ramsay; 1913 to Ada E. Booth; 1920 heirs to present owner.
426.
REGINALD G. MACK: When Marvin R. Booth sold #425 in 1913, he
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reserved the schoolhouse lot and lived here; 1920 heirs to Charles P. Howland; 1933 estate to Charles F. and Jenny T. Ramsay; 1936 to George H. and Lelia B. Barrett; 1947 to Elmer L. and Dorothy M. Hicks; 1948 to Richard C. and Evelyn Swain; 1950 to present owners.
426a. WILLIAM E. HOUGHTON: In 1958 and again in 1960 Ethel O. Selkirk, widow, sold land for a house lot to William E. and Nancianne D. Houghton. They built the house.
427. FRED A. ROY: The south part of the Mepas lot was sold by Abigail Bellows Hunt and her family, in 1816, to Philip Bundy and David Thompson; 1842 the southerly half by David Thompson to Ephraim A. Watkins, who added other pieces; 1877 to John B. Russell; 1886 to Jennette Messer Russell (Mrs. Charles); 1893 to Cyrus M. Clough; 1923 to his son-in-law Fred A. Roy.
On November 19, 1895, the house and barns burned. They were re- built.
428. VERA HOUGHTON: The northerly half of the Bundy and Thompson lot was sold 1825 to Alexander Watkins; 1856 his wife Mary to son Hiram; 1870 to Jerome Lebourveau; 1907 to Fred A. Lebourveau; 1916 to Algion E. Houghton; 1935 his widow, Jennie S., to Edward A. Houghton, now owned by his widow.
429. ROBERT A. SANFORD: In 1957 Fred A. and Minnie Roy sold a house lot in the south corner of their land on the Keene Road to Robert A. and Mildred G. Sanford who built new house.
MARCY FARM
By road records we know that Capt. John Marcy was here on what was Lot #6 in the 3rd Range of Hill Lots at least as early as 1767. Before 1763 he owned the land farther north on Ramsay Hill. There are now four houses and one cellarhole on what was the Marcy Farm. Where the Marcy house stood is not known, possibly near the house now the Howland place. When the road from the first meeting house to Alstead was laid out, it came up over the hill from the North Road to the Ramsay Hill Road near these houses, "into the road by Mr. Mercy's".
Capt. Marcy was a man of importance in Walpole, at the Battle of Bunker Hill led a company of men from Charlestown, Walpole, etc. About 1778 he removed to Windsor, Vt., where he and his wife died 1801. (Bellows Gen. p. 87-8.)
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He sold his holdings in Walpole to Capt. Phineas Hutchins who died a few years after coming here.
Eliphalet Fox, a bricklayer, owned the place next, selling in 1787 to Benjamin and John Bellows. They divided the farm between them, Benja- min taking the north 30 acres and John the south 65 acres. Of this John sold the east part to Jonas Hosmer. Across the south side, south of Maple Grove Road, he sold three lots. The east two went to Thomas Parker in 1796. Of these two the east one is now a part of the Gerald Hill farm and the other is the Mahony place. The lot in the southwest corner of the farm, sold by John Bellows in 1807 to Jehial Paul, is now the Harold Smith place.
In 1806 John Bellows sold one acre five rods on the north side of the road by Hosmer's southwest corner to Elijah Kilburn. This was the Nicanor Townsley place, now only a cellarhole in Gerald Hill's field.
In 1814 Roswell Bellows (son of John) sold the 22 acres northeast of the intersection of the Ramsay Hill Road and the Maple Grove Road to Dr. George Sparhawk. For 100 years it belonged with the Smith place. In 1950 Gerald Hill bought it, and sold George and Shirley A. Morton a house lot in the northwest corner.
430. WENTWORTH HUBBARD: The Mortons built their house soon after buying the lot; 1960 George Morton's widow, Shirley A., to present owners.
431. HOWLAND: The next house north, on land of the Howland farm, was built 1910 or 11 by the Howlands for their farmer, Fred Ramsay.
432. NICANOR TOWNSLEY CELLARHOLE: In 1806 John Bellows sold the land to Elijah Kilburn; 1810 land and buildings to Nicanor Townsley. According to AH 370 Nicanor Townsley was a resident of Walpole as early as 1785. "His occupation was that of a 'Jack of all trades'. He had a small shop which stood just east of his house, where he used to employ a portion of his time in repairing various articles of furniture for the townspeople, which he did very neatly, he being a man of uncommon ingenuity. From 1795 to 1817 he was town clerk with the exception of 1807. It was his duty to cry the banns of matrimony before church service, from year to year, and his voice was so peculiar that once heard it was not easily forgotten. He held some town office every year for more than twenty-five years, and was often chosen one of the selectmen, on account of his good ability and sound discretion."
In 1868, after the death of Orrel, daughter of Nicanor, the heirs sold
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the place to Isaiah Pratt. He must have lived only a short time, for the next spring (1869) his widow, Vilenda, sold the land and buildings to Clement Dickey.
433. HAROLD E. SMITH: In 1807 John Bellows sold to Jehial Paul, carpenter, 4 acres. In 1799 Paul had bought 10 acres from Joseph Heaton; 1807 to Leonard Harrington; 1811 to John Messenger (road was moved farther south while he owned); 1815 to Ozias Lawrence, known as Lawrence place for years; 1817 to Ruggles Watkins; 1842 heirs to James Hooper Jr .; 1845 to Frederick Watkins (grandson of Ruggles); 1848 to Joseph E. Burt (Harriet M.), removed to Peoria, Ill .; 1857 to Clement S. Dickey; 1928 Albert C. Dickey (inherited) to Helen F. Putnam; 1935 to Savings Bank of Walpole; 1935 to Leon P. and Emily J. Manning; 1941 estate to Edward T. and E. Ethel Burnham; 1945 to Harold E. and Esther W. Smith.
434. JULIA MAHONY: In 1796 John Bellows sold 13 acres to Thomas Parker; 1796 four acres to Moses Huntley; 1798 to Joseph Heaton; 1799 to Elijah Kilburn; 1801 to Levi Hooper; 1802 to Kilburn; 1804 to Allen Watkins; 1806 to Asa Sibley; 1809 to Alvin Fisher; 1815 to Samson Drury; 1821 to Allen Watkins; 1827 to Gardner Watkins of Alstead, to Stephen I. Mellish; 1831 to Samuel Mellish; 1833 to Sherman Watkins; 1835 to Nathan Smith; 1839 to Betsey Smith; 1881 estate to Solomon Ballam; 1915 heirs to Frank W. and Flora M. Garfield of Putney, Vt .; 1920 to Herman L. Pitman; 1921 to Ellen Harriet and Edward Cunningham; 1921 to George B. and Belle W. Bills; 1923 to Fred A. and Mary Ramsay; 1924 to Michael Murphy of Jamaica Plain, Mass .; 1944 heirs to present owner.
435. ALBERT H. FLETCHER: When Benjamin Bellows sold the Messer lot next north in 1765, this land belonged to George Stow (Lot #6 in the 4th Range of Hill Lots). No record of this Stow or of Jonathan Stow who was farther down Great Brook has been found in the deeds. They may have settled here and removed elsewhere before a record was made. In 1773 Bellows sold to his step-son Jonathan Jennison 53 acres extending east from the Marcy lot presumably to the Atkinson tract on Derry Hill.
In 1783 Jonas Hosmer came to Walpole from Acton, Mass., and worked as a mason for Eliphalet Fox and in 1785 Hosmer bought Jonathan Jennison's farm. Jennison then moved to his land on the Keene road (now Petrie). In 1834 Jonas Hosmer sold the farm to his son Edwin, having added land to make a total of 116 acres in the farm. In 1882
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Edwin Hosmer sold to his daughter Helen M. Seabury; 1894 to Cyrus Clough of Goshen; 1897 to Oscar Landon; 1899 to William H. Fletcher; 1928 to his son Albert H., who also acquired Clover Hill on the north side of his farm, and the Oliver Hall farm, of which he sold the twelve acres near the buildings. In addition to his farming he carries on a farm machinery business, Pinnacleview Farm Equipment Inc. Clough added the ell to the house in 1895.
436. TOWN OF WALPOLE: In 1919 Daniel G. Clark sold one acre out of what is now the Gerald Hill Farm to John W. Miller; 1952 his heirs to Gerald M. and Harriette E. Miller; 1960 to Town of Walpole.
437. JOHN P. BURROWS: In 1961 Albert Fletcher sold a house lot to John P. and Linda G. Burrows who built the house.
438. WALTER W. CAMPBELL: In 1958 Albert Fletcher sold a house lot to Walter W. and Patsy R. Campbell who built a house.
439. JOHN P. BURROWS: In 1958 Albert Fletcher sold a house lot to John P. Burrows who built a house.
440. ALBERT FLETCHER: An old house that is rented to others.
441. MALCOLM WILLIAMS: "Timothy Messer, one of the earliest settlers of this town, came to Walpole sometime before 1760, and took up land (Howland farm on Ramsay Hill) of Col. Benjamin Bellows. "Here he toiled till a clearing was effected sufficiently large to raise 300 bushels of wheat in one year when he was obliged to vacate the land to John Jenni- son, one of Col. Bellows' step-sons. During his stay on the place he and his family underwent many privations. At one time he left his family almost destitute of food and went to Northfield, Mass., and worked for a man long enough to pay for a bushel of corn, which he got ground, and brought to Walpole, on his back, a distance of forty miles, guided by marked trees." AH
In 1765 Timothy Messer bought from Benjamin Bellows 100 acres con- stituting Lot #5 in the 4th Range of Hill Lots, according to the Bellows Plan. This plan shows a road crossing the lot. According to the deed Bellows gave John Marcy in 1775 for Lot #6 in the Third Range, there was a road up the east side of Marcy's land to Timothy Messer's north from Fletcher's buildings now.
In 1780 Messer sold the north half of this farm, on which he was then living, to his son Thomas who, in turn, sold back to his father in 1783
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the piece on the east side of Maple Grove Road. Apparently Thomas had built a house and continued to live here until he sold to Jonathan Royce in 1797 for £220.
In 1784 Timothy sold his farm to Jonathan Royce.
Thus it may be seen that by 1797 Royce had acquired all of the original Messer farm. In 1811 he sold to his second son, Abner, the south part of the farm (70 acres) and another 23 acres near the southeast corner of the farm. Perhaps he lived then in the Thomas Messer house. In 1817 he sold the north part of the original farm to Dr. Sparhawk and probably removed to the Valley. Abner in turn sold what he had bought from his father to Samson Drury in 1814 and removed to New York State.
Samson Drury also owned the Capt. John Emery farm on Derry Hill and it is not evident at which place he lived. According to Aldrich, his father, Manoah, in the latter part of his life "lived in a house that once stood a few rods west" of Malcolm Williams'. According to a deed of Jonas Hosmer to Edwin Hosmer in 1834, Manoah Drury was on the north.
Through foreclosure of a mortgage Drury lost both farms in 1829. Anan Evans sold to Sterry Clark, trader, of Providence, R. I., in 1830; 1841 to Reuben Parsons of New York City; 1850 to Oliver Hall (not in- cluding the Emery farm); 1894 Oliver E. Hall bought the shares of his father's other heirs; 1935 he sold most of the estate to Albert Fletcher. Fletcher kept most of the farm land but in 1937 sold the buildings and 12 acres of land-narrow strip on east side of road, rest on west side of Maple Grove Road-to Charles Frederick and Grace H. Chaplin of Manhasset, L. I .; 1946 to Everett P. and. Mae V. Jewett; 1954 to Frederick W. Schaefer; 1955 to Malcolm D. Williams.
442. CUMMINS CATHERWOOD-MAPLE GROVE FARM: In 1775 Nathan Brooks, Harvard, Mass., bought of Benjamin Bellows for £100, 100 acres, probably Lot #4 in the East Range of Hill Lots. According to the deed there was "allowance for 2-rod road ... as is marked out on same." Brooks probably moved here and made his home, since in 1776 he sold to Philip Eastman, cordwainer, a three acre piece East 33° south 65 rods "from the northwesterly corner of my land or lott on which I dwell and stands the easterly side of the now travelled road. . ."
Brooks was probably getting along in years, for in 1779 he sold to his son Solomon his farm "with a reserve of my maintenance out of said farm." However, in 1788 the General Assembly of New Hampshire em- powered John Bellows, Amasa Allen and Thomas Bellows "to sell certain lands conveyed by Nathan Brooks to Solomon Brooks his son and to
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How and S. andrat 1962
# 442
Maple Grove Farm
apply the monies to support and maintain said Nathan Brooks for £132 6 shillings 6 pence to George Sparhawk; 531/4 acres 35 rods. . . . " This included the land northwest of the highway and a small triangular piece on the south side. This transfer did not include what came to be known as the Clark and Hixon lands which were a part of the original Brooks farm.
In 1777 Benjamin Bellows' executors had sold for £35 to Elizabeth Eastman (widow of Philip) 70 acres, probably Lot #5 in the East Range of Hill Lots, next southwesterly of Nathan Brooks' lot. Mrs. Eastman's heirs sold the place for £210 to Dr. Sparhawk in 1785.
Dr. George Sparhawk (AH 355-6) had come to Walpole about 1780. After his marriage in 1802 he removed from the village to the farm he had bought and remained there until he died 1847, aged 90 years. He added to his land holdings until his landed estate was one of the largest in town.
The doctor owned various tracts on Derry Hill, and in terms of the Bellows map all or parts of Lots #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6 in the East Range of Hill Lots and Lot #3 in the next range west.
Dr. Sparhawk had no children, but he adopted a son of his cousin Hull, John Black Sparhawk.
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According to AH, John Black Sparhawk lived with the doctor until he died, and his heirs inherited the doctor's property. In 1835 John B. Sparhawk had bought Ezra Hixon's place adjoining the doctor's property. He died 1846, the doctor 1847, and Adeline, his widow, and family in- herited the property. She sold the Hixon place to the boys, George C. and John in 1852. On Januarly 14, 1853 they sold it to Orin Bunker.
Adeline died 1870, and in 1871 George C. sold all his holdings in town to George B. Williams of Waltham, Mass.
When Williams bought, the farm was in a rundown condition. Aldrich wrote in part: "He commenced making improvements. ... The ap- pointments on his premises are of a novel, convenient and permanent nature, compared with those generally seen on country farms. ... He has two barns, one 81 ft. x 39 ft., the other 103 ft. x 64 ft., 43 ft. in height. .. . He annually cuts ... about 100 tons of hay, which with about 12 acres of corn fodder and other crops are consumed by 12 horses (he had as many as 40 at one time) and 30 head of Jersey cows. The milk is daily made into butter, 150 lb. per week, sold for 50¢ per pound. ... The butter- milk is fed to an average of 115 swine (250 Yorkshires in 1891), from which he slaughters 6-10 per week. The lean portion is converted into superior sausage, 240 lb. per week . . . a ready market at 15¢ per pound in the cool part of the year. He has his own ice pond and ice house, slaughterhouse, smoke house, sugar house (1000 tree maple orchard), 300 gals. syrup each spring. It requires the constant labor of six men." .. . Daniel Smith was his foreman for 27 years. The produce from the farm was sold at the Revere House, Parker House and Young's Hotel in Boston. In 1902 Williams sold the farm to Frank D. Warner; 1902 to Judson Strong of Springfield, Mass. (wife Mary F.); 1904 to Fred A. Lebour- veau; 1907 to Charles W. Bosworth; 1926 to Arthur H. Chickering. He broke up the place, sold the mansion with 25 acres to Michael W. Murray and Mary Moore who tried to have a summer tutoring school, called Walpole Camps; 1934 Bank foreclosed; 1935 all to Ernest L. and Dana R. Mitchell; 1944 to present owner.
443. EZRA HIXON PLACE: From the 100 acre lot that he bought of Benja- min Bellows in 1775 Nathan Brooks sold the part on the east side of Maple Grove Road to Amos Bucknam in 1779, probably Buckman built house; 1782 to Martin Ashley; 1785 to Martin Ashley Jr.
In 1788 Nathan Davison sold to Thomas Messer; 1800 to Moses Fisher; in 1807 Moses Fisher sold the east 22 acres for $440 to Ezra Hixon of Alstead; 1835 to John B. Sparhawk, Hixon removing to Brookfield, Vt.
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In 1853 the Sparhawks sold to Orin Bunker of Keene; 1877 to Alonzo Jennings; 1877 to Emma A. Johnson of Westmoreland; to Carlos C. Johnson; to Charles E. Hages (Hager) of New Salem, Mass .; 1878 to George S. Long; 1884 to George B. Williams and it thus became a part of what is now the Catherwood Farm.
This place is down the hill, off the road. There were buildings here at least until 1944, all gone now.
444. MOSES FISHER CELLARHOLE: In 1780 Jonathan Eastman gave to his daughter Comfort Emerson the 47 acres across the east end of his lot, on the Maple Grove Road. Dr. Moses Emerson came to Walpole between 1775 and 1780. "He married Comfort Eastman and had one son, Jonathan, when he suddenly disappeared from town, and nothing more is known of him." Comfort married second Ebenezer Eaton who lived on Watkins Hill.
In 1793 Comfort Emerson Eaton sold the place to Eliphalet Eaton, her step-son; 1797 to Thomas Messer who in 1788 had bought what was later the Hixon place next south. In 1800 Messer sold to Moses Fisher. "He was an industrious, peaceable citizen of the town and was for several years deacon of Rev. Pliny Dickinson's church. At one time he had a mill on the brook that ran past his house, where cotton yarn was manufactured, and his son David peddled it about the country. The mill was washed away by a freshet in 1826." In 1807 Fisher sold the west part (22 acres) to Ezra Hixon, probably his brother-in-law. Moses' son, Moses, continued at his father's place, at least as late as 1884. George H. Wightman owned 1906. The house burned. It must have been an attractive home, sur- rounded by the old maple trees, a lovely spot in a dip between the hills.
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