USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Goshen > History of Goshen, New Hampshire : settled, 1769, incorporated, 1791 > Part 5
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It becomes increasingly evident, from this and other accounts of the time, that the false line was well marked and locally accepted. Otherwise, Fletcher would have reported but the one true Line - which his map makes entirely plain - to his superi- ors at Portsmouth and there the dispute would have ended. That he did not feel warranted in officially supporting the one and discrediting the other and so report is evident from the letter of Reuben Kidder to George Jaffrey, Esq., Oct. 29, 1771, in which he defended his failure in returning a plan of Camden (Washington) because "by the new Line being Run, taking in a Piece of Land on the west side of the Town, and when I was at Portsmouth Last it was not concluded on which Line I should go to." (S. P. Vol. 28, p. 409).
The puzzling inference of a "new Line" is echoed in a post- script to a report made by Enoch Hale, April 24, 1770, when he wrote: "It appeareth that ye Curve Line When Run between Marlo and Limbrick (Stoddard) Cut off from Marlo four faml's viz, Church marther Tubs and Backwith." (Ibid, p. 280). That Hale referred to the Fletcher survey, just made, is self-evident.
Yet it is equally evident that Fletcher's westward line was exactly on Blanchard's course of 1751. Contemporaneous testi- mony corroborates this fact. Oddly enough, one of the many
52
MASON'S CURVE LINE
supporting statements is found in the complaint to the Ma- sonian proprietors of a committee representing Lempster and Stoddard, Sept. 1, 1785, in which they protested that they had "no desire to take part in the Public dispute respecting your Western Line but we are fully Sensable that Sd. Line Never was Desired to come within Our Towns but by Mistake of Mr Joseph Blancher who first Run sd. line to Run the Line about two & half Miles on these Towns - we suppose without your knowledge . . . " (S. P. Vol. 29, p. 334-5)
This testimony is notable in that, according to their belief, Blanchard's line was found too far to the west, or precisely where the true curve had to fall, whoever the surveyor who ran it.
It is of record that Lempster was awarded land in question up to one-and-a-half miles in width. This was on the "moun- tain," an area now largely reverted to woodland. The present- day boundary shows the projected angle thus formed.
But this victory must have been won on grounds other than those charged, viz: an incorrect survey. Depositions were taken from many of Blanchard's men and all testified to the accuracy of his work, each in turn being as loyal to him as were Kendall and Farwell. John Stearns stated in after years, "I well remem- ber going to the West of what the men who were with me called Sunapee Mountain, very near to it" (Ibid p. 384), ap- parently combating a current claim that the false line, for false it proved to be, perhaps followed along the mountain's crest, if not east of it. Basically, this was the principle that lay behind the eventual formation of Goshen - recognition of that same "great Mountain" barrier as a natural dividing-line.
After considering every detail, the unavoidable conclusion must be reached that the spurious line came in from the Con- necticut River side, as promoters had laid out, one by one, ad- joining townships. Indeed, Blanchard himself quite frankly sug- gested this possibility in his later years. It is not surprising, either, that the promoters failed to allow enough room for the westward bulge of the Curve and eventually found their fringe sections unduly narrowed by it. This supposition is borne out
53
HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
by Colby's map of the original Saville (original in Sunapee Town Offices), whereon 17 tiers of 75-acre lots are laid out on Corey's Road and yet only ten were found there when actual allotments were made (see Wadleigh's map of Goshen). It is obvious that the equivalent of those seven revoked lots, carried out all along Saville's east boundary, would have resulted in establishing its territory well at the top of the ridge.
For Saville, however, the uncertainty was soon ended, but with a regrettable discovery that Zephaniah Clark, who hon- estly thought he was acquiring land in Saville, found his hold- ings to be east of the true Curve and therefore in Hereford (Newbury). Regrettable, because Clark is officially credited with being the first settler on Lake Sunapee and his talent and influence would have been of more direct aid to Saville had this not happened.
The statement in Hayward's N. E. Gazeteer that Clark came to Newbury in 1762 is at variance with the known facts. Jos. W. Parmelee, in his delightful narrative of Newport in Hurd's History of Cheshire and Sullivan Counties, makes this very plain. He affirms that Clark first arrived in Newport among the Connecticut settlers of that town, and erected a log-cabin on the "plain" (p. 208). It was the hostelry of the settlement. Town records note that an adjourned town-meeting was held at the house of Zephaniah Clark, innkeeper, Oct. 16, 1767, when it was voted "That Zephaniah Clark, Eben'r Merritt, Benj'n Bragg, Sam'l Hurd and Jesse Wilcox, having families now in Newport, have each 80 acres of land . " Their wives had arrived in town that year. Parmelee adds, "Zephaniah Clark removed to Newbury; was also one of the first settlers of that town and its Representative in the Legislature in 1785."*
Clark had, of course, come up the Connecticut valley and in by way of Number Four, but it could not have been long be- fore his appreciative gaze rested upon the dimpling surface of Lake Sunapee, the Wild Goose Water of the Indians, eight miles away. He was a surveyor and there would be much survey- ing in this area that was newer even than Newport. Then, too,
*Official records state that Clark was a member of the House, representing Fishersfield, Sutton and Warner, June, 1786, to Jan. 18, 1787. (Lawe of N. H., Vol. 5, p. 153).
54
MASON'S CURVE LINE
an improved road sponsored by the province was already in the planning-stage, to give direct communication with Bos- cawen and Portsmouth. Business acumen would have shown Clark that a rare opportunity lay before him. He took up a hundred acres of land bordering Great Bay, or Lily Bay, "Be- ginning at a White Pine Tree, a little to the Northward of a Large Brook and running West 160 Rods, then South 100 Rods, then East 160 Rods & Lastly North to the White Pine Tree began at." His lines coincide with neither Saville nor Fishersfield, suggesting that he laid them out prior at least to the plotting of Saville.
Then through the woods Fletcher's surveying-party came - it could have been no other - and the renewed Curve Line enclosed Clark's "Lilly Bay" within the bounds of the then Hereford. How Blanchard's marks could have become so ob- scured in the meantime as to escape recognition may never be known.
Clark's subsequent course of action is well told by Vere Royce, a man of affairs in the eastern parts of the state .* How Clark came to obtain his services is not known, but they were ap- parently efficient. The text of his petition follows:+
"To the Hon'ble Proprietors of Mason's Patent
The Petition of Vere Royse in behalf of Zephaniah Clark of Hereford in the County of Cheshire in the Province of N. H., Gentleman, humbly shews -
That the said Zephaniah was first incouraged to take up a Hundred Acres of Land on condition of setling it in the Township of Saville which he accordingly did & took possession thereof agreeably to the Plan here- with delivered. Afterwards upon the running of the Curve Line his said hundred acres fell within the bounds of Hereford, which gave him great uneasiness till he received a Letter from Majr Price to pursue his said Settlement and as he was the Proprietor of Hereford (which said Clarke also understood) he would quiet him in his possession of said Tract. Agree-
*In an article in The Granite Monthly, Vol. 1907, p. 219, Richard E. Merrill wrote: "I have heard my father tell of a number of these men (of Fryeburg, Maine) . and Capt. Vere Royce and wife . As was the fashion, Capt. Royce and his wife went to ride on horseback, the captain in front and his good wife seated on a 'pillion' behind. They were obliged to cross a river, probably the Saco, and as the horse entered the stream and the water grew deeper, Mrs. Royce began to get nervous and tremblingly said, 'Captain Royce, I will fall off.' 'No you won't, sit still,' says her liege lord. The water continued to grow deeper, and Mrs. Royce, growing more and more frightened, screamed, 'I tell you, Captain Royce, I will fall off !' and off she went into the river.'
In 1769, Capt. Royce, a surveyor and Indian fighter, was granted 2,000 acres of land in the town of Bartlett.
¡S. P. Vol. 28, p. 302.
55
HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
able thereto, he, said Clarke, removed with his family on said Land and has built him a large house and got his land under good Improvements and purposes to keep a public House for the benefit of Travellers and has expended all his Capital for the bringing forward said Farm which if taken from him will so distress him as to prove his ruin wherefore he prays from the Hon'ble Proprietors a Confirmation of his said Hundred Acres to be reserved for him in Case the Prop'rs of s'd Patent should make a Grant of Hereford And as in duty bound he shall ever pray
Vere Royse in behalf of Zephaniah Clarke
With the acceptance of Fletcher's line, wording of the text indicates that Clark suspended all further operations at Lily Bay, or "Sunapee Farms," as the back of his drawing is in- scribed,* until he could hear from Major Price. If the Major lived at Boston, as inferred, this would have been a matter of considerable delay and winter may well have set in before any- thing definite came of it. This view is supported by the records of the following spring, June 8, 1770, when the Masonian Pro- prietors convened at Portsmouth at the request of Major Ezekiel Price, to listen to a plea for his colleagues, Henry Price and Robert Jenkins, who had labored for a charter since 1755, with the avowed expenditure of "£50 lawful in laying out lots and surveying."+ This brief period is the only one discovered when Major Ezekiel officially represented the original promoters of Hereford. He was, however, put off until he could get, at his own expense, an accurate plan of Hereford made by actual sur- vey, on which its division into 500-acre lots was to be shown. But the Prices were unable to get a surveyor and again winter came.
According to Royce's statement, Clark, after receiving the major's reassuring letter, "removed with his family on said Land." That this was during the year 1770 is a reasonable de- duction.
Shortly thereafter news must have reached Lake Sunapee that the Price and Jenkins contract had been declared in default, putting Clark's farm again in jeopardy. Chronological sequence would indicate Royce's services to have been engaged in the year
*The original sketch is on file at the N. H. Hist. Society.
¿S. P. Vol. 28, p. 85.
56
MASON'S CURVE LINE
1771, because of the known date, Feb. 5, 1772, when Hereford was granted to John Fisher, Esq., of Salem, Mass. It was from Fisher that Clark finally received his deed, Aug. 22, 1775.
Clark's acreage had meantime been increased to 195 acres,* but his primary bound was the same as before, the "White Pine Tree marked ZC standing upon the West bank of Great Sunni- pee Pond about four or five rods North of the mouth of a large Brook . . The brook will be recognized as the outlet of Mountainview, augmented by Johnson Brook. A strip of marsh- land bordered the stream and wild grasses no doubt grew there.
The slight, unwalled depression that marked the site of his early hostelry was visible ten years ago; it was on a sandy knoll beside the glade up which the Province Road must have climbed from the lakeshore, with balm-of-gilead saplings, redolent in spring-time, about it.
Trade must have been brisk for the Clark's during 1777, with the passage of many troops, usually in small detachments, hur- rying westward, or returning quietly with reduced numbers. Lieut. Abraham Fitts, of Capt. Baker's Candia company, en route to Saratoga, records that they "Lodged at Clark's in Fishersfield, by Great Sunepy,"+ on Friday, the 3rd of October. There were twenty-nine men and three baggage-horses to be cared for, bringing a bustle and excitement that could not be forgotten. Years afterward, Anna Margaret Chandler, then a small girl, was told of a company of soldiers who had camped overnight in her grandfather's apple-orchard.# With the knowl- edge that Nathaniel Chandler had come into possession of the Clark farm by 1809 (Allen Willey's Map of Fishersfield), it leads to the belief that the story may have actually recalled Capt. Baker's encampment, though many other detachments, some of them larger in number, are known to have come through by the same route.
About Clark and in the Park valley there gathered a group of energetic men whose connections should have drawn them to Saville. This included Samuel Gunnison, Jr., entitled Captain,
*Cheshire County Registry, Vol. 4, p. 487.
+Diary, Appendix Rev. Rolls, Vol. 3.
#It cannot be assumed that the apple-orchard was in being, 1777.
57
HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
as was his father, Samuel Gunnison, Sr., the pioneer. The younger man is buried in the family-plot at North Goshen, as "Late of Fishersfield." Dea. William Gunnison, too, with his large family, was a close kinsman. Then there was Dea. Joseph Chandler, Clark's nearest neighbor, who had been, by report, brought up in the elder Samuel Gunnison's household in Saville and married their daughter, Margaret.
night the S. E. Corner of M. Fort
70
South of Cory Road
Coreys Road
75 2
& Road Month of
Cory
Ranges of 100 acre Lots
3
1
Thomas martin
1
Joseph Moulton
- Samuel Jenks
Robert' Bailey
John Wendell
Da Ca
TT
Lear
EnLos Stevens
3
3 Edmund Dave's
Ej&2 King
John Wendell
Joh: Gard
~ lbert
J. Wendell
John Gardner
5
5.Alexander
John Wendell
3
Samrue Lunt
.7h Walker.
nehemiah 6 Wheeler.
Oliver. Corey
G
6 .John, Beck
George Went-
David young
Saml Lurt
7
John Parker
7
Zach Foss
7
7 William Morrison
8 Benjamin Poor J?
Ezekiel Pitman
9
John Barter.
9
George Craige
9
Paul noyes
9
9 John Straque
6
10
10
10
Jonathan10 Call JT
10 Stephen Hardy
1
7
yeaton
Charles Cook
12
"Jonathan Call
Sc I.
13
12 John Basey
13
14
15
14
15
16
17
15
1
2
David young
2
2 Theodore Atkinson J!
2 Leverett Hubbard
3
S
4
Dan2 Iunit
4
John Sullivan
4
4 Robert Gilman
7*
Foster Tiefethen
8
Saml Foster
8
Amos Poor.
8
32
12
/3
14
The above portion of Colby's map of Wendell is reproduced from a copy made in 1923 by Maj. Otis G. Hammond, then Director of the N. H. Hist. Society. Attention is directed not only to Oliver Corey's Lot No. 6 and Corey's Road, but also to the undue width of the township, being seventeen lots from east to west, when actually the survey by Wadleigh allows but ten lots. The reason for this discrepancy is explained in text.
2
3
5
3
CHAPTER V Corey's-Town and Corey's Road
U TNLIKE the fanciful titles given many neighboring towns in their emerging forms, Corey's-town is meaningful. His- torically, its life was brief, being largely covered by a bare out- line drawing and an accompanying certificate which reads:
Province of New Hampshire
Portsmouth 31st Oct'o 1768.
These certify that this plan of Corey's Town, containing Twenty Three Thousand and Forty Acres is a true copy of an Original Plan or Survey of said Township as taken and returned to me (by) Mess's Wm. Heywood and Leonard Whiting Dep'y Surv'rs.
Attest Is: Rindge, Surv'r Gen'l .*
The charter of Saville, supplanting Corey's-town, was granted by Gov. John Wentworth one week later, Nov. 7, 1768, in which document, besides the rigorous charge to complete a road "for carriages of all kinds," within one year from date, the names of its ninety-odd grantees are headed by Oliver Corey, with Oliver Corey, Jr., lower in the list.
Authorities naturally agree that Corey's-town was named for Oliver Corey.+ Yet he was not of the closely-knit Portsmouth merchant-families, who were then engaged in speculative ven- tures in western New Hampshire, nor was he a titled baronet.
Oliver Corey, Esq., was the son of Lieutenant Samuel and Mary - Corey of Chelmsford and Littleton, Mass., and was born in Littleton, Aug. 21, 1729. He married Mary King, dau. of Richard King of Littleton and resided at Littleton till about 1768 when they removed to Charlestown, N. H. Corey was an original grantee of Grafton and St. Albans, Vt., as well as of Saville, and was one of the builders of the Charlestown bridge across the Connecticut River in 1780. He died in Charlestown, N. H., and his widow died at the home of her son-in-law, Judge Alexander Campbell, M. D., at Rockingham, Vt., in 1818.
*S. P. Vol. 25, p. 562.
+N. H. Manual, 1949, p. 183.
59
60
COREY'S-TOWN AND COREY'S ROAD
They had eight children, all born in Littleton:
(1) Mary or Molley, b. Nov. 28, 1750, m. March 6, 1769, Hon. Josiah Stearns of Lunenburg, Mass., member of the Gov- ernor's council.
(2) Susanna, b. Feb. 3, 1753, m. Ensign Elisha Hubbard and died at Windsor, Vt., Oct. 10, 1778. No children.
(3) Elizabeth, b. Feb. 28, 1755.
(4) Martha, b. April 3, 1757, m. John Lovell of Rockingham, Vt.
(5) Lois, b. June 3, 1759, m. Oct. 1, 1782, Watts Hubbard of Windsor, Vt.
(6) Hannah, b. Oct. 17, 1761, m. a Mr. Wheelock.
(7) Oliver Corey, Jr.,* b. March 15, 1764, m. Mary York; moved to Cooperstown, N. Y., when thirty years of age. School- master there for many years, during which time he had as one of his pupils, James Fenimore Cooper, the novelist and author of the famous Leather-stocking Tales. Died at his residence in Middlefield, N. Y., at the age of ninety-four. A daughter, Susan, married Nicholas Farwell of Claremont.
(8) Rhoda, b. Dec. 1767. (Not recorded in the Littleton records, but in family Bible) m. Hon. Alexander Campbell of Rockingham, Vt .; d. June 13, 1825, aged 57.
*In his "Chronicles of Cooperstown," J. Fenimore Cooper wrote of his worthy "Master":
"He conducted the school of this place with commendable assiduity and great credit to himself for many years. Nearly all the prominent inhabitants of the village who are between the ages of forty and fifty-five received their elementary instruction from this respectable teacher.
Mr. Corey did not neglect religious instruction, but every Saturday was devoted to this object. His care in this respect, as well as his lessons in deportment, were attended with the most beneficial results, and it is to be regretted that they have not been imitated in our own times.
He kept his school originally in the Court House, and then in the first regular school- house built in this place; and subsequently he held his school in the Academy. The Academy, containing at that time (1795) the largest room in the place, was as much used for other purposes as for those of education. Religious meetings were generally held there, as well as other large assemblies of the people.
The school exhibitions of Mr. Corey, in which Brutus and Cassius figured in hats of the cut of 1776, blue coats faced with red, of no cut at all, and matross swords, are still (in 1838) the subject of mirth with those who remember the prodigies."
After this Mr. Corey engaged in business as a merchant; was repeatedly elected super- visor of the town, and at all times and in all positions, personal and official, was dis- tinguished for his integrity, fidelity and especially for his courtesy and gentlemanly de- poriment throughout an unusually protracted life; down to the day of his death he was the best and most attractive specimen of a "fine old country gentleman" we ever beheld.
NOTE: The above quotation from an undated and unidentified newspaper clipping, and the Corey data given was furnished the writer, under date of May 8, 1924, by Mrs. Anna M. (Chandler) Riley, genealogist, born and brought up at Mount Sunapee, but removing to Claremont upon marriage. To Mrs. Riley's persevering zeal, largely un- rewarded, this work owes much.
61
HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
The Massachusetts Rev. Rolls, Vol. 3, pps. 1003-1025, list both Olivers as privates, with residence, Charlestown, N. H.
Solid and meritorious though the abilities of Oliver Corey, Sr., proved, it afforded no discernible occasion for attaching his name to a town, unless a warrant may be found to reside in some substantial service rendered provincial authorities by him. That such service was rendered and that it was in the building, or, at least, in the widening and perhaps limited clearing of the trail across the wedge-shaped township is, we believe, fully accredited by contemporary records.
In the first place, we have seen that "Corey's Road" is not only shown on the earliest complete map of Saville, but the same title was used in Unity and it endured for the span of years covering settlement, up to the incorporation of Goshen in 1791, being mentioned in the new charter. If, as all known data indicates, the road had been improved during the summer of 1768, the statement of the Charlestown selectmen and the hur- ried subsequent transactions in Corey's-town real-estate would become fully explained.
While final action of the New Hampshire House was still delayed by the question of who was to pay for building the road to Number 4, Surveyor General Rindge attested the plan of Corey's Town, on Oct. 31st, and one week later, Nov. 7, the charter of Saville was granted, Corey receiving from its pro- prietors, on the same date, a deed to Lot No. 6 in the First Division south (of Corey's Road), of 75 acre lots; it was above Rand's Pond and was soon settled upon by Benjamin Rand. Unquestionably, he received at the same time deeds to Lot No. 7 in the 8th range of 85 acre lots, against the Springfield line at George's Mills, as near as can be determined, and to two lots in the name of his minor son, Oliver, Jr., then, according to family-records, but four years old. In addition, two more lots were granted to Samuel Corey, relationship presumed.
Immediately, Corey sold Lot 6 to James Haslett for three pounds. July 31, 1769, Corey transferred the rights of Lemuel Hastings and Samuel Shattuck* to John Bevens of Charlestown,
*It is possible that these two men had been engaged by Charlestown to labor on the road to Boscawen.
62
COREY'S-TOWN AND COREY'S ROAD
for the sum of eighteen pounds (Cheshire Registry, Keene). The sum of his transfers - and in the case of Hastings and Shattuck, a commission, probably - seems grossly inadequate. Possibly the last sale occurred Jany. 23, 1788, when Oliver Corey (perhaps Oliver, Jr., as residence was Claremont, though signature may be that of his father) sold to John Wendell an original share of land for eighteen pounds, lawful money. If the father was the grantor in 1788, it is evident that his death occurred soon there- after, as only Oliver of Claremont was listed in the 1790 census.
A picture of Corey's Town is not difficult to draw. Through the forest a rough-hewn road, and beside it, possibly at Lot 6, a log camp for the workmen. Certainly the distance to and from Charlestown was far too great for daily travel. The use of oxen here may be open to question, but if they were brought in for heavy hauling an enclosure of some sort would have been re- quired. To a passing traveler, the bustling activity, the ring of axes, the wreaths of smoke from the campfire, may well have suggested the locating-phrase, "Over at Corey's," "Corey's Place" and, progressively, "Corey's Town"; that is, if - and only if - Corey was known to be in charge.
Oliver Corey
The signature of which the above is a facsimile, was found upon an old deed at the Cheshire Registry, Keene. Conclusive proof is lacking, however, as to whether the signature is that of the father, or of the son.
Lightly speaking, the continuation of the Road into Unity has given the inquisitive student of today almost as much trouble as its builders could have experienced. The matter has been touched upon previously (p. 19) and is caused by the dis- parity between Holland's map and the road through East Unity and over Potato Hill, known to have been traversed by Revolu-
63
HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
tionary soldiers, because one of them is buried near the old Huntoon tavern site on Potato Hill .*
When faced by the bluffs of Oak Hill in Goshen, as we have seen, the old trail turned southerly; Corey's road went to the north of the knob. A long-abandoned road-grade on the north side, in which mature trees are standing, is found at sufficiently related intervals to prove its existence. Practically upon the Unity town-line it joined the present traveled highway past the Newton farm, becoming that rarely-encountered phenomenon in New Hampshire, a straight road - of a certainty straighter far than Indians are known to have traveled over broken coun- try and, therefore, plainly the work of white men. It so neatly bisects the town of Unity as to come under suspicion of having been as much a means of real-estate development as a purely cross-country artery. Yet two very simple alternatives are present to make it an entirely natural development: (a) the "pass" pur- ported to exist over Perry Mountain, connecting with "the Borough," to which locality it is known a road was built from Charlestown in 1770. This is viewed with some skepticism by authorities: (b) that it branched away from the "cart road" which historian H. H. Metcalf, in 1911, declared had been built from Charlestown to Newport, "running over Unity hill." From this elevation eastward no compass would have been needed, as the turn of Sunapee Mountain, where the Province Road lay, was always in sight.
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