USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Goshen > History of Goshen, New Hampshire : settled, 1769, incorporated, 1791 > Part 2
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
In general, Unity occupies a high elevation (1200 to 1800 ft.) and thus ascent to its uplands from any side encounters strong grades. Yet it must be said that, toward Goshen, the grade fre- quently becomes a declivity, owing to glacial action as well as the age-long wearing of the South Branch of Sugar River, at its foot. The road up it, long known as Lear hill, though some- what to the north of the original location of "Corey's Road", just mentioned, is still very steep. And yet, so strangely do boundary lines fall, at the bottom of this "Very bad hill" was situated Unity's first and for some time, only, mill property, taking a profitable water-power from the plunge of the river over a nine-foot natural falls, to which the timbered dam added six more feet.
17
HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
The mills were built by Stephen Gilman, year uncertain, the lot surrounding the falls having been given him for that pur- pose by the Proprietors of Unity. We know this by the recorded transfer of the property (Cheshire County Reg.) Aug. 26, 1790, from Stephen and Anna Gilman to Amos Hall, Jr., of Newport, described thus: "Bounded on Newport line, thence running South 116 (?) rods, from thence East 210 rods to a birch, from thence North 38 rods to Newport line, thence gine (against?) New Poplin to the first-mentioned bound, with a dwelling house and grist mill and saw mill on said lot."
Had it not been for this fortunate record, the existence of a saw-mill at this early date would have escaped attention. Collec- tion of oral data for the Sketch of Goshen, in 1903, elicited from elderly residents only recollections of Capt. Hall and his grist-mill, the saw-mill and the actual builder of both enter- prises, Stephen Gilman, having been, even then, forgotten. The arrangement of the saw-mill, whether a separate building, or combined with the grist-mill, can only be conjectured. The latter always stood on the east bank of the stream, close by present Route 10.
Emphasis has been placed upon this point because in later years the two mills occupied opposite ends of the dam, with flumes and water-wheels for each. Yet tradition indicates that a fulling-mill was the first industry to utilize the west bank, date unknown, but believed built around 1800. The fullery was swept away by the great freshet of 1828 and, though immedi- ately rebuilt, went out of business within a dozen years. It was not until 1865, or thereabouts, that the first known saw-mill, of the "up-and-down" type, was put in operation on the aban- doned fullery-site.
The "dwelling house" purchased by Amos Hall stood back from the east bank, facing the mills from across the road that came in from Croydon in the year 1779 *.
* (Note) Wheeler's Hist. of Newport. "The road from Croydon (through Newport village) to Goshen line was built 1779." An earlier road, shown by Holland, originated on the old river-road to Claremont in Kelleyville and swung around Call's hill, through Pollard's Mills, across Route 10 at the old, red schoolhouse and continued on over Page hill to join the Province Road near the former Amos Trudeau, Sr., farmhouse in Goshen. Though quite direct, it was a hilly road and failed to play any important role in the new town's development.
n. pisscoke
Water quich R.
Grafton
Hay Hard Rock & Plamfield
Sandburn
Crantham
Alena
Town
.. ...
Windfor
....
Overplus
Britain
Gilmaptown
Croydon"
...
Saville
Kultury Hill C
bury
Hier
Newpo
Taity
Cowen
Eitherfield
Howi fiori
pudon
CHichethe
Ahasbury
Concor
Pancool
S
Marlow
Hemuke
Pembroke Epimm
Great Ful!"
- Mien
Bow
De aring
Umberto
V: ipole
L.md.
Sorry
-
Portion of an early Holland map. Original at the N. H. Historical Society,
Concord.
Note the Province Road, double-lined, past the southern end of Lake Sunapee, also branch extending from it through Newport to Sugar river. The longer stretch of road coming east from the Connecticut river at Cornish is believed to have connected with the Province Road near the summit of Maxfield, or Morrison, hill in Goshen.
bu
Salein
Halle
Hoa
Rethan
are
.....
Protectworth Y
e
Claremiort
Englishi Church
Atwork
Camden
Bradford
intool
19
HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
Though admittedly inconvenient for the majority of Unity residents, the mills were of great potential value to the general region roundabout. The above-mentioned road, then, would have had two normal objectives, the mills and a union with the Province Road a quarter-of-a-mile beyond them, near the present Goshen library. Much has been written about the Province Road+; much more remains to be discovered and transcribed. In this place it can only be treated with the greatest brevity. Suffice to say, it came down over the hills from Mount Sunapee, westerly toward Charlestown, old Number Four; a fordway across the South Branch, in the rear of the Grange hall, is still recog- nizable.
At this point, it must be recognized, the road divided, the "straight road" built under direction of Oliver Corey, Esq., unquestionably, crossing the intervale, long owned by John S. Smart, in a diagonal course, to make the sharp climb toward Unity.
The old scouting trail that became the Province Road in 1768- 72 by action of Gov. John Wentworth and the provincial legis- lature avoided the direct ascent of the bluff by turning some- what to the southwest, over the "south road" in Unity, perhaps, and through a corner of Lempster and Acworth. So Holland's now-famous map of New Hampshire portrays it. Five years after Capt. Hall's purchase, a bridge was built across the river, below the mills. The wording of the vote at the town-meeting authorizing its construction indicates it to have been the first structure of the kind at that point.
If Capt. Hall had near neighbors, a diligent search has failed to reveal them. The only other Newport family incorporated in the new town was that of Arthur Humphrey, comprising eight members, and, a generation later, Humphrey was identi- fied with the Amos Trudeau, Jr., farm on the Rand's Pond road .*
+See Geo. B. Upham's "Province Road", Gran. Monthly, Nov., 1920.
*An interesting sidelight is thrown upon this small area by the original map of Unity, a copy of which is to be found at the N. H. Historical Society, Concord. Lot 50 thereon is credited to Nathaniel Huntoon, a man of great worth to Unity, but never mentioned in connection with Goshen's development. Lot 50 practically covers the site of the present village. Why it was not assigned to Stephen Gilman is a moot question. The other lot-owners in the portion surrendered to Goshen are presumably those of absentee in- vestors.
20
FORMATION OF THE TOWN
That houses soon began to appear about the mills is certain. A forceful individual had arrived in the person of Capt. Hall; his influence was at once thrown in with the advocates of the new township.
Lempster citizens were still. pretty solidly against the pro- posal, however. There, too, a special town-meeting was called Nov. 15, 1791, and, despite the hopeful statements of the twenty- four supporters, the town voted by a "large majority" against any severance of territory, with a sustaining supplementary vote of protest from a group, who, for various reasons, did not at- tend this special meeting. "Depositions of Peter Porter, Nathan Willey, Charles Willey and Allen Willey were introduced, from which it appears that one reason why the town opposed the separation was the extra tax it would be on those who remained, to support Rev. Elias Fisher." (Hammond)
But the movement had too great an impetus to be easily stopped. Possibly before the discouraging vote of Lempster had been cast, still another petition was making the rounds of the people concerned, in favor of the separation; it was in order and presented to the state legislature at their assembly in the following month of December. Heading the list of signers was the name of the new mill-owner, Amos Hall.
Thus supplemented and encouraged, the forces favoring the new town were ready for a more strenuous campaign, but victory was quickly won.
In the bound Vol. 5, Laws of N. H., p. 815-17, the following record is found:
AN ACT TO INCORPORATE A CERTAIN TRACT OF LAND INTO A TOWNSHIP BY THE NAME OF GOSHEN
Whereas Amos Hall and others Inhabitants of the Towns of Fishersfield, Wendall, Newport, Unity & Lemster in this State have petitioned the Gen- eral Court representing that they are so remote from the centers of the respective Towns in which they now live - That they cannot with con- veniency meet with the Inhabitants of said Towns and are consequently deprived of many advantages which they might enjoy if they were incor- porated into a town - That they had obtained the consent of all the towns
21
HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
excepting Lemster in which they now live - Wherefore they prayed that they might be incorporated into a Town - Which after a full hearing appeared to be reasonable - Therefore
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened that a Township be and hereby is erected and incorporated by the name of Goshen - butted bounded and described as follows to wit, Beginning at a stake in the first range of lots in Wendall and North of Coreys road so called and upon the line of Fishersfield - Thence West about seventeen degrees South on the North end of the lots to Newport line - Thence Southwardly on Newport line to the first lot in the fifth division . . . (The very irregular line against Newport is described here but is uninteresting except to surveyors. Ed.) Thence South about one mile and a hundred and Ninety rods to the line of Lemster - Thence South two miles in Lemster - Thence East eight degrees South four miles - Thence Northwardly to the bound first mentioned -
And the Inhabitants of said tract of land are hereby erected into a body politic and corporate to have continuance and succession forever. And are invested with all the powers and enfranchised with all the rights, privileges benefits and immunities which any towns in this State by law hold or enjoy - To have and To hold to said Inhabitants and their Suc- cessors forever
And Thomas Pennyman Esquire is hereby appointed authorized and empowered to call the first meeting of said Inhabitants for the purpose of choosing all necessary and customary Town Officers, giving at least fourteen days notice of the time and place of holding said meeting in said town of Goshen and the articles to be acted upon who shall attend and preside in said meeting until a Moderator shall be chosen: And the Officers then & there chosen shall be invested with all the power and authority that like Officers of any other Towns in this State are by Law invested with -
And the meetings of the Inhabitants of said Town for the choice of Town Officers shall be holden on the second Thursday of March annually for- ever -
And be it further Enacted that the Inhabitants of said Town of Goshen who live in that part of said Town which is taken from the said Town of Lemster shall be liable to pay their proportionable part of taxes towards the Reverend Mr. Fisher's salary annually, so long as he shall continue to be the Minister of said Lemster, and the Selectmen of said Lemster are hereby authorized to tax them accordingly. And the Constables or Collectors for said Lemster shall have the same power to collect said taxes from said Inhabitants as tho' this Act had not been passed
And be it further Enacted that any person living in that part of said Goshen which is taken from said Lemster shall have liberty of polling his person and estate to said Lemster: And any person Inhabitant of said Lem- ster owning land in that part of said Goshen which is taken from said Lemster shall have liberty of polling the same to said Lemster Provided said polling be recorded in the Records of each of said Towns within One Year from the passing of this Act. And the persons so polling, their fam-
22
FORMATION OF THE TOWN
ilies, heirs and Assigns, and the estates so polled shall be disannexed from said Goshen and annexed to said Lemster forever to all intents and purposes as fully as though this Act had not been made; and that Samuel Gunnison, William Gunnison and Jesse Chandler have liberty of polling their persons and estate to said Fishersfield within the time and manner as above di- rected -
And Be it further Enacted that the Inhabitants of said Goshen their polls and estates shall be taxed and liable to pay their respective proportions of all State and County taxes in the respective Towns in which they lived in the same manner as tho' this Act had not been passed until a new pro- portion throughout the State shall be made, and also pay their proportion of all arrearages of taxes now charged against them -
And Be it further Enacted that the said Town of Goshen, shall be a part of & within our County of Cheshire -
The Legislature was at this time assembled at Portsmouth. The above Act of Incorporation was passed by the House of Representatives, Dec. 26, 1791, and was signed by E. Payne, Speaker. It reached the Senate the next day, Dec. 27th., where it passed without apparent opposition and was made law with the signature of Hon. Josiah Bartlett, President of the Senate.
Today automotive transportation has placed Newport within the radius of a matter of minutes - five to eight miles away - and a large number of our people drive there daily to work, to school, or in trade. The South branch of Sugar River, too, rises in Lempster and flows through the western edge of Goshen to unite with the Sugar River proper at Newport village, so that terrain is favorable to travel in this direction. Access to Sunapee is correspondingly easy. Was there then an incon- sistency in the plea of being "so remote?" The answer must be that in 1791 the charge was undoubtedly true. Newbury's old town-center, far up on its hillside, would have been sufficiently so and the same held true of Lempster's town meeting-house, then standing at its early location in the Cutler district. Unity Center, by ox-team, too, would hardly have seemed adjacent. Thus the claim of "Amos Hall and others" may be considered reasonable.
Incorporation having been obtained in the closing days of
23
HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
1791, the first listing of persons, a census taken by town-officials, evidently, was made, bearing date 1792. It follows:
All in this Column were taken from Wendell
Free White Males, 16 and Upward Males
Under 16
Females
Arthur Humphrey
2
2
4
Benjamin Rand, Jr.
1
1
1
Elijah Woodward
1
1
2
Widow M. Williams
Thomas Rankin
1
1
William Lang
1
2
Daniel Sherburne, Junior,
Daniel Grindall
1
2
Widow Lavina Cary L
2
George Lear
1
1
3
Allen Willey L
2
1
Parker Tandy
1
2
4
Elisha Thatcher
1
1
2
James Libbey
1
1
2
Benjamin Willey
1
1
John Wheeler
2
1
1
William Story L
1
1
6
Daniel Sherburne
2
5
5
Barnabas Phelps L
2
4
4
Joseph Lear
1
1
4
Daniel Gunnison
Benjamin Rand
1
1
2
Luther Martin L
1
1 4
Ephraim Gunnison
3
2
Thomas Cutts
Nathaniel Gunnison
1
2
Calvin Bingham
George Heirs
Vine Bingham
or Ayres
1
2
Edward Dame
1
1
Moses True
1
2
1
Joseph Cutts
4
1
3
William Cutts
1
2
1790
No. of Polls from 18 to 70 years.
39
No. of Acres of arable tillage land
27
No. of Acres of mowing land
54
No. of Acres of pasture land
39
No. of Horses and mares
15
No. of Oxen
26
No. of Cows
50
No. of Horses and cattle, 3 yrs. old
14
No. of Horses and cattle, 2 yrs. old
28
No. of Horses and cattle, 1 yr. old
37
Sum total of the value of all buildings & real estate unimproved owned by the inhabitants,
£31.9
Sum total of the value of all real estate not owned by the inhabitants, £51.9
Free White
Males, 16
and Upward
Males
Under 16
Females
Amos Hall
1
2
2
Abner Colby
Ezekiel Challis
1
3
2
Samuel Stevens
Nathan Willey L
2
2
Reuben Willey
These from Lempster, Newport and Unity
24
FORMATION OF THE TOWN
With these pitifully inadequate resources - inadequate by any standard, in men, in tillage land, having an average of less than one acre of arable land per family, in livestock - the new town set forth. If there were fears they were not allowed utter- ance. In contrast to their earlier struggles and privations, it is probable they felt a justifiable confidence in the future.
The chosen name, Goshen, is of Biblical origin. (See Gen. 46:34. "that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen".) It is a name highly favored throughout the United States. Who suggested naming the new town thus is unknown. A reasonable deduction is that the Connecticut settlers of Lempster brought it with them .*
A warrant for a town meeting was duly posted, beginning in this fashion:
TO Mr. Allen Willey of Goshen in said county of Cheshire -+
Greeting:
Pursuant to an act of the General Court at the last session holden at Portsmouth, A. D., 1791 - These are therefore in the name of the State of New Hampshire to will and require you forthwith to warn all citizens, freeholders and inhabitants of the town aforesaid (Incorporate) to assemble at the dwelling-house of Mr. John Wheeler on the Eighth day of March next (1792) at Ten of the o'clock, A. M.
Given under hand and seal of Thomas Penniman, at Washington.
Attest, Allen Willey, Clerk.
Upon the date set town-meeting was duly convened. Twenty seven votes were cast and this, without doubt, represented all the citizens of voting-age then in town.
For governort, His Excellency Josiah Bartlett received unani- mous support; senatorial candidates, John Bellows and Gen. Amos Shepherd, drawing twenty-three votes apiece.
*The Buel family, prominent in early Newport, are known to have been associated with Goshen, Conn.
Marana Norton, b. 1755, married Capt. Jonathan Buel, Jr., of Goshen, Conn., Nov. 20, 1774. (N. E. Hist. and Gen. Register, Apr., 1900). Samuel Norton was a resident of the same town.
+"President", the records give it. By the constitution adopted in 1792 the title of the state's chief executive was changed from President to Governor and may have been still unfamiliar.
#Sullivan County was not incorporated until 1827.
25
HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
The following town officers were elected:
Thos. Penniman, Moderator. Allen Willey, Clerk. Elijah Woodward Luther Martin Selectmen
Edward Dam (e)
Amos Hall, Treasury (-er).
Arthur Humphrey, Constable
Ezekiel Chellis Daniel Grindul (-le), Tithingmen.
Five highway-surveyors were elected, then another committee of five "to lay out highways" - presumably for the first to survey. Two fenceviewers were also added to the list of officers, which may have included twenty out of the twenty-seven registered voters. Then four were appointed a committee "to pitch upon a place for the Center of the Town."
"Voted to raise Twenty Pounds to be worked out on High- ways."
"Voted to raise Six Pounds toward expense of obtaining In- corporation of said Goshen."
So passed the first town-meeting!
Broad-minded public measures characterized the year of 1796. At meetings held in March and May, £50 was set aside for the building of schoolhouses, $30. for hiring preaching and $4. ap- propriated to build a stock pound. It was also voted to lay out a road from Newport to Washington. Just how this road ran is not known, nor whether it was actually built, but in any case must have been closely followed by the Croydon Turnpike (1806).
Through the years up to 1805, about $100. sufficed each year to defray the expenses of maintaining roads and bridges, this being made possible only by the extremely low wages paid laborers - six cents an hour in summer, reduced to four cents during winter-months.
26
FORMATION OF THE TOWN
Teacher's salaries, too, were on a similar plane, as evidenced by the entries:
"Nov. 9th., 1793. Hannah Bartlett received three pounds 13 shillings, for teaching a school five months, in Goshen South District."
"Paid Ruth Sherburne three dollars and fifty cents for teaching a school in Goshen." 1794.
With the new town safely launched upon the political stream, it will be well to turn the page back to those early pioneers who attacked the wilderness with such dauntless determination - in some cases amounting to desperation - that it opened be- fore them.
CHAPTER II
Early Settlement
M INDFUL of the origin of their town, as the inhabitants of its component parts must always have been, it is evi- dent that they mutually refrained from assumption of prior settlement, so meager are the records they left us. Indeed, no public or private efforts to establish facts of early settlement are known to have been made for more than thirty years.
Then, in the New Hampshire Gazeteer of Farmer and Moore, published 1823, there appeared an account that was to be re- printed by Hayward (N. E. Gazeteer) in 1839, and by all sub- sequent historians to the present day. It follows herewith:
"The first settlement (of Goshen) was made about the year 1769, by Capt. Benjamin Rand, William Lang and Daniel Grindle, whose sufferings and hardships were very great. The crops of the first settlers were greatly injured, and sometimes entirely destroyed by early frosts. In such cases they procured grain from Walpole and other places. At a certain time of scarcity, Capt. Rand went to that place after grain, and being detained by a violent snow storm, his family was obliged to live without provision for six days, during which time Mrs. Rand sustained one of his children, 5 years old, by the milk from her breast, having a short time before buried her infant child."
For plain, sheer grimness there are few tales that excel this of a lonely family snow-bound in the forest in the grip of our upland winter, without food. Furthermore, it stands up under about every factual test. Specifically, we know the Province Road was under construction during the years 1768 and -69 and, despite its limitations, would have afforded Capt. Rand a certain measure of access to his chosen Lot No. 6, not otherwise allowed had the forest been pathless.
Again, the boy, Benjamin, Jr., born 1765, was unquestionably the child referred to by Farmer and Moore. At five years of age, the date would have been the winter of 1770, following the
27
28
EARLY SETTLEMENT
coming of the family in 1769 to that portion of Saville which was to be set off later into Goshen. Usually a settler endeavored to get onto his new claim in the spring, that winter should find him with crops stored and cabin snugly tightened. It is not known if Capt. Rand followed this customary procedure or not.
Application to N. H. Province Deeds* yields much of interest concerning the speed of early transfers of property in Savillet, but is discouraging in its direct light upon Captain Rand's title. Thus, quoting the registrar, Oliver Corey of Charlestown in the Province of New Hampshire, Gentleman, on the 4th. of February, 1769. deeded to James Haslett of Portsmouth, Leather Dresser, Lot. No. 6, in the first division, which he had received from the Proprietors of Saville, previously Corey's Town, Nov. 7, 1768. Haslett immediately resold the lot to Thomas Martin, Esq., influential merchant and promoter of up-country real- estate, who, Jan. 6, 1772, deeded it to Captain Rand, the actual settler, said Rand to preserve from forfeiture the right of Oliver Corey.
Did Capt. Rand, then, have an oral agreement with promoter Martin, whereby settling-requirements were to be carried for- ward by him for a short period, in lieu of a deed? Or did the captain avail himself of "squatter's rights"? Or was the delay in securing his deed a natural sequel to the difficulties experi- enced by distant homesteaders in the processes of law and the filing of deeds, a matter which had become extremely serious?
"Hitherto there had been no county divisions in New Hamp- shire. All courts of law were located at Portsmouth. Persons having business relating to the probate of wills or registration of deeds might well have to travel all the way from Hanover or Lyme to the seacoast. In many cases, costs of traveling to and from court made the collection of small debts out of the ques- tion. Finally, in 1771, through the interposition of the Governor, the province was divided into five counties - three to be
*Vol. 80, pps. 294, 467, 468.
+Saville, formerly Coreystown, was incorporated as Wendell, now the town of Sunapee. #Revolutionary N. H. Richard F. Upton. 1936.
29
HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
organized at once, and the other two to await a larger popula- tion. The act received royal approval in 1771 and in 1773 all five counties were functioning. The Governor named them - Rockingham, after his relative, the liberal Whig leader, - Hills- borough, after the Secretary of State for the colonies, - Che- shire, after the well-known English county, - Grafton, after the Duke of Grafton, Prime Minister, - and Strafford, after the famous earl, member of the Wentworth family."
Location argues strongly for the priority of this Lot No. 6 of Captain Rand's, situated as it is upon a warm hillside above the sparkling body of water called in his deed "little Sunapee pond," but known ever since the Captain's time by his name, Rand's pond. There is still good trout-fishing, and an occasion- al flock of ducks cut down onto the pond in the autumn. Travelers on the Great Road, though keeping along the hill- crest somewhat to the north, would have passed the skirts of his clearing and, in the course of time, were doubtless repaired or re-shod according to their several needs, at his blacksmith-shop.
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.