USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Lancaster > History of Lancaster, New Hampshire > Part 7
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CHAPTER VII.
ROADS AND BRIDGES.
ROADS TO THE COOS COUNTRY-ROAD FROM HAVERHILL TO LANCASTER-ROAD FROM LANCASTER TO PORTLAND THROUGH THE WHITE MOUNTAIN NOTCH -ROADS TO ADJACENT TOWNS-ROADS AND BRIDGES WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF LANCASTER-SURVEYORS OF ROADS-SYSTEMS OF REPAIRING ROADS-KEEPING ROADS OPEN DURING WINTER.
As early as November 29, 1752, the Provincial Assembly made an appropriation of money to cut a road to "Cohos," which, of course, meant the "Lower Cohos," or Haverhill. This road was probably "cut" as a mere bridle-path from Portsmouth to " Cohos." It does not seem that it was a very good road, for as late as 1774 Col. John Hurd petitioned the governor to have it "improved and made safe." This was the first attempt at road-making to open up the " Cohos Country " and make it accessible to the would-be eager settlers. That accomplished, still left Lancaster over fifty miles from the nearest road up to 1770, and that not safe. Haverhill was reached from No. 4 (Charleston) on the ice on the Connecticut river for all heavy freight until a much later date, as was also Lan- caster.
There is a tradition that Emmons Stockwell and David Page, Jr., cut a road from Haverhill in the fall of 1763 on their way to locate in Lancaster; but we must remember that the term road meant, in those pioneer days, a bridle-path rather than what we would now
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
call a road. It is probable that these two young men cut a mere bridle-path, one that could be followed by their friends in the follow- ing April. Even that was a big undertaking.
It does not appear that David Page brought with him any kind of vehicles when he " drove up twenty head of cattle, and some horses, with other useful articles," in 1764; and when his daughter Ruth came that year it was on horseback.
On December 17, 1763, the assembly passed an act to open a road from Durham to Cohos [Prov. Papers 6, p. 885]. This action of the assembly indicates a general interest to open up a highway to this section; but the difficulties in the way of these projects were great, and even this action amounted to nothing at the time. Haverhill had been settled, and other grants of towns had been made beyond it, Colebrook, 1710, and Stonington (on territory now held by Lancaster), 1761. It was urged upon the authorities by the grantees of these towns that they should have roads built at public expense, or at least that they be given authority to build the roads at the expense of the holders of lands through which they should pass.
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The assembly acted on a petition from William Moulton and James Paul for themselves and the inhabitants of Stonington for a road from " Great Cohoss to Moultonborough," October 26, 1768. This petition had no doubt been encouraged by the passage of an act by the assembly, January 4, 1765, for building roads to Coos, which received the governor's signature.
In the early spring of 1768, David Page and others petitioned the assembly for a road to "Upper Coos." The petition was read in the house February 11, 1768; and again acted upon February 18. [Prov. Papers, 7, pp. 58, 151, 152, 195, 266, 268, 313.]
All these efforts seem to have been in the interest of a road along the Connecticut river, to connect with Portsmouth, No. 4, and Bos- ton. Any road from that direction would have to pass through long stretches of unsettled country, held chiefly by non-resident landholders, who were not willing to contribute to the building of roads.
The settlers of Lancaster began to look for an outlet in another direction. At the first meeting of the proprietors, March 10, 1767, it was voted " that David Page, Emmons Stockwell, Edwards Buck- nam, Timothy Nash, and David Page, Jr., be a committee to look out and mark a road to Pigwakett (now Conway), or to the Andris- cogin, or to the first inhabitants, and also to the Lower Coös."
This proposed road through the White Mountains to Portland promised a shorter outlet for communication with a good market than the one down the river, which the proprietors made a sort of alternation, or second choice of roads. Communication with the
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ROADS AND BRIDGES.
markets of the country must be had; and this road was built as far as Pigwakett or " the nearest inhabitants," which might have meant for them a shorter distance than Pigwakett, as the settlements on that side of the mountains were passing up toward the "Notch" through which it was known an Indian trail had long existed. Port- land was then a small town, but it was a seaport from which the settlers could get the articles of commerce needed by them, and where their products would find sale.
This undertaking certainly was never carried into effect, for the Indian trail through the Notch was not discovered by Timothy Nash until the winter of 1771, when by the mere accident of track- ing a moose up one of the ravines he chanced to gain the first sight of the famous Notch. The ice on the Connecticut river furnished a good highway in winter, although there were some elements of risk and danger in that sort of road. The unwary traveler sometimes happened to drive upon weak spots in the ice and break through into the water. It is said that Emmons Stockwell on one occasion, while riding down the river on the ice, with a heavy roll of furs on his horse, broke through and narrowly escaped drowning for him- self, losing his horse and his load of furs, worth a large sum.
Year after year went by carrying down one after another of the projects for better roads, with the river as the best highway. In winter the ice made it a fairly good road; and in summer the canoe was called into use. For more than twenty years all the settlers above Haverhill had but little better roads than the savage Indians had used for centuries. They felt this disadvantage very keenly, and were accustomed to attribute all their failures in the develop- ment of the towns to the lack of roads, or the bad conditions of the ones they had been able to open in a very feeble way.
The prosperity of the new and remote towns was certainly less than it would have been if they had been provided with good roads. With little more than trails and bridle-paths to these remote sec- tions it was difficult to induce new settlers of the more desirable class to come here. Not only was it very difficult to reach these towns, but when they had produced something to barter for the common necessities of frontier life it was well-nigh impossible to get it to a market during two thirds of the year. To await the freezing of the river, meant increased inconvenience, if not, indeed, actual suffering.
At the end of the first five years of the settlement of the town the proprietors were forced to ask for a renewal of the charter, be- cause they had not been able on account of bad roads to induce enough actual settlers to meet the conditions of the grant.
Even as late as 1787, when the tax bill was sent for collection the people felt justified in remonstrating with the general court against what they regarded as a burdensome amount, in which they alleged
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
as a reason of the lack of prosperity "the badness of the roads." They appointed a committee to lay their grievances before the gen- eral court. That committee consisted of Jonas Wilder, Edwards Bucknam, and Emmons Stockwell. Under date of September 4th, 1787, they drew up a respectful and strong petition which was pre- sented to the general court on the second Wednesday of Septem- ber, 1787. It reads as follows :
" To the Honourable, the Senate and the Honble House of Representatives in General Assembly convened on the second Wednesday in September A. D. 1787-
" The Petition of the Town of Lancaster in the County of Grafton, humbly Sheweth-
" That the inhabitants of said Town labour under many and great inconveni- ences, and without that succor and relief which Every infant Country expects from the Government to which she owes her allegiance, they must remain in but very indignant circumstances ; and the State not receive that Emolument, that it might justly expect from a Country so fertile as this, when properly peopled. Nothing more effectually hinders the emigration of inhabitants to this part of the State, than the badness of our roads, and the want of a convenient place to worship that being, to whom all owe their existence. The formation of the town is very pecu- liar, on account of marshes, creeks and large streams and the number of inhabi- tants being very small; consequently the expense of making and mending roads, building bridges, meeting house &c must be very great-One large stream known by the name of Isreals river, is so formidable where it must be dridged, to accom- idate the travel up and down Connecticut river and likewise the travel to and from Portsmouth (our most advantagious port) that it must cost, at a moderate com- putation, two hundred pounds. The inhabitants have solicited the non-resident landowners for assistance (many of whom live out of the State) but they have entirely refused-
" Your petitioners are, therefore, necessitated to pray your honors to pass an Act empowering the selectmen of said Lancaster to levey and collect, a tax of three pence on each acre of land (Public Rights excepted) for the purpose of mak- ing roads, building bidges meeting House &c. &c, and a continuation of one peney on the acre, annually for the term of five years, to be appropriated to the aforesaid purposes " [State Papers, 21, pp. 178, 182, 188, 339.]
This petition was granted and an act was at once passed author- izing the selectmen to levy and collect a tax that proved a great boon to the town, for within three years one hundred people came to Lancaster, and among whom were many men that proved to be of great service to the new community.
The sum derived from this tax was large enough to enable the town to begin, and carry out for five years, a systematic effort at opening new roads and putting existing roads in better repair.
At the town-meeting, March II, 1788, " seven pounds and ten shillings were voted to Major Whipple for carrying through the land tax at the General Court."
Lancaster was not represented in the general court that year, consequently had to employ Major Whipple to lobby its measure for it. This law proved to be of very great value to the town, as it,
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ROADS AND BRIDGES.
at once, began building and repairing its roads, making them pass- able and safe. From 1769, the office of road surveyor had existed, and was filled by the election of such men as David Page, Edwards. Bucknam, and Dennis Stanley. The annual town-meeting, March 9, 1773, " voted sixty-eight shillings for repair of roads." A poll- rate of six shillings was voted as a road tax, and an allowance of four shillings a day for each man in work on the roads.
In 1784, ten pounds were appropriated for the repair of roads. The next year twenty bushels of wheat were voted to be spent in keeping the roads open. At the annual town-meeting, February 27, 1787, twelve pounds was voted for roads.
These sums were as large as the "land tax" yielded, but the latter fell with equal weight upon the non-residents, while the actual settlers were on the spot to work out the taxes to their advantage.
Having entered into their new schemes for better roads, the settlers of Lancaster, and other towns above it, found themselves. badly handicapped by the refusal of the non-resident owners of the lands in Dalton and Littleton, through which they must pass to reach the older settlements, to assist in making roads through those towns. Having several times failed to induce the cooperation of these landholders to do what seemed their plain duty in the matter of making roads these upper towns joined in a petition to the general court for the passage of some measure of relief. Accordingly on May 10, 1788, the towns of Lancaster, Northum- berland (formerly Stonington), Stratford, and Percy (now Stark) united in this petition to the general court :
" To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives :- The Inhabi- tants of A Place called Upper Coos that they began settlement at that Place now more than twenty-three years ago and Ever Since have continued their Settle- ment through many Dificulties Especially on account of the badness of the Roads through Littleton and Dalton which have never been properly cleared nor bridged by which means wagons or Sleighs pass with the greatest Danger and never more than half a Load which subjects the inhabitants of said Coos to very Large Expence in transporting necessary foreign articles and others in Removing with their families and effects from Connecticut Massachusetts and the Easterly part of New Hampshire is the same Dificulties which very much Impedes & Hinders the Setelment of the towns on Connecticut River &c., Lying above said Littleton at Dalton. Your Petitioners beg Leave to farther Suggest that the Townships of Littleton and Dalton being owned by only a few Gentelmen and the Towns not vested with Power nor the Inhabitants with ability to Lay out and clear bridge and make Passible said Road through which Your Petitioners must Pass on any Business belonging to the Probate, or County matter, wherefore your Petitioners. Pray your Honors to take their case into your Wise Consideration and order that the Road be made Passable and kept in good Repair through said Towns of Littleton & Dalton to the acceptance of a Committee to be appointed for that Purpose or by some other way as Your Honors Shall see fit and Your Petitioners will Ever Pray." 2 Hammond's Towns Papers, 354-355 ; 21 State Papers, 467.
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
This petition was signed on the part of Lancaster by a com- mittee consisting of Jonas Wilder, Amasa Grant, Jonas Baker, Joseph Brackett, Edwards Bucknam, Phineas Hodgdon, Francis Willson, John Weeks, Abijah Darby, Walter Philbrook, Samuel Johnson, Hopestill Jennison, David Page, Emmons Stockwell, Ephraim Griggs, William Johnson, and Jonathan Hartwell. An equal array of names from the other towns adorns this forcible petition.
Just what disposition the legislature made of this petition is not certain; but I have before me the bills and receipts showing that during the next few years much work was done on the roads here referred to. The taxes prayed for in these several petitions were authorized and laid. Much difficulty was experienced in collecting them, however; and resort had to be had to the advertisement of the lands of non-residents. The taxes of nearly twenty years before by the action of the proprietors' meetings for making roads, build- ing bridges, and rebuilding David Page's mill that was burnt, which fell most heavily on non-residents, had been very hard to collect, and even now, after the civil organization of the town, it was no easy matter to levy and collect taxes on the lands of non-residents, although sanctioned by act of legislature. In the petitions of 1792 and 1793 the petitioners for a special tax on all private lands requested the legislature to appoint a committee to disburse them in the building of such roads and bridges that it should be found advisable to undertake for the relief of these distant towns. This feature was a necessary one, too, from another consideration : As the proposed road was to have passed through the territory of other towns, it would be necessary for the state to control an undertaking of the kind. These new towns were jealous of their rights, and respected one another's rights though free to criticise, and often to condemn the selfishness of their neighbors in not doing what seemed their duties in the development of the larger civil unit-the state.
What effect these petitions had upon the legislature is a matter of conjecture rather than history, as the records do not show a final disposition of them. From the fact that the citizens of Lancaster petitioned the legislature in 1793 for the right to levy and collect a tax of one penny a year for three years on every acre of land in the town, to build and repair their own roads and bridges, and assist in opening up a road through Whitefield to Plymouth, it would seem that their petitions must have met with some discouragements. This next petition was an important movement on the part of Lan- caster, in that it was a request on the legislature to allow them to assume a burden, and such it was, that the state was either unable or unwilling to assume. It was not so polished and clear in style as some other petitions that Lancaster has sent to the general court,
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ROADS AND BRIDGES.
but it pressed an urgent demand for relief from a condition of affairs that was retarding the development of the town. It set forth,
" That the said town of Lancaster is such that the public Road leading through said town on Connecticutt River is upwards of ten Miles in Length and is attended with many Creeks, vales, and Streams that leads into said River, where Bridges and Casways are needed to be built, and the Road leading through said town up Isreals River towards Conway is attended with the like Impediments and that one other Road is much wanted to be opened through the Center of said town from Connecticutt River leading a Corse through said town and Whitefield and on to Thornton and Plymouth which road if opened would shorten the Distance from Lancaster to Plymouth about thirty miles which road will in all probability be opened in said town the ensuing year - The Inhabitants of said town being but small in Numbers, having the season past erected a large Meeting house and are loaded with great expense for the same, their Roads &c; the major part of the Proprietors and land owners of said town live at New York and out of this State and are unwilling to assist the inhabitants of said town in their Bur- thensome matters altho,-they are as much benefitted thereby in the Rise of their lands as the Inhabitants of said Town Therefore Your Petitioners pray Yours Honors would make a Grant of three pence on Each and Every acre of land in said Town viz. one penny each year the three next Succeeding Years and appoint a Committee to ley and Collect the same and apply it in Open- ing the New and Repairing the other Roads and Bridges in said Town.
Edwards Bucknam Emmons Stockwell Committee on behalf
Jonas Baker of Lancaster.
December ye 21 st. 1793." *
I find by reference to the town records that at a legal meeting of the town, November 22, 1793, Col. Edwards Bucknam, Capt. John Weeks, and Jonas Baker were appointed a committee to draw up this petition; and Bucknam, Stockwell, and Baker were appointed a committee to sign it on behalf of the town. Also, that Col. Edwards Bucknam was voted the town's agent in the matter of the presentation of the petition. This formal, " legal" action no doubt seemed necessary on account of the failure of the petition of 1792, which was signed by the twenty-eight following citizens :
Fortunatus Eager, John Rosebrook, Jun., Charles Rosebrook, Jonas Wilder, William Bruce, Titus O. Brown, Jonathan Cram, John Holms, Elisha Wilder, Phineas Bruce, John Rosebrook, Emmons Stockwell, Joseph Wilder, Asahel Bigelow, Nathan Lovewell, Benja- min Orr, David Stockwell, Moses Page, Dennis Stanley, William Moore, David Page, Abijah Darby, Joseph Brackett, Walter Phil- brook, Jonas Baker, Edward Spaulding, William Johnson, Coffin Moore.
This measure seems to have been as fruitless of good results as pre- ceding ones to get the road to Haverhill put into passable and safe condition. It was very natural that the inhabitants of Lancaster
* 12 Hammond's Town Papers, 360-361.
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
should prefer a good road to Portsmouth, and the lower towns through Haverhill. Their old homes and early association were in that direction. They had come hither over paths leading through that territory. This town was in Grafton county with the public offices and courts located at Haverhill. All their legal business had to be transacted there. There were, for a considerable length of time, no magistrates in Lancaster; neither were there any lawyers located here to attend to their legal business or give council during the first thirty years after the settlement of the town. Edwards Bucknam, universal genius that he was, was the first. justice of the peace in Lancaster. He received his appointment to that office about 1792.
These inconveniences harassed the people for many years, driving them at last to seek relief in the division of Grafton county and the formation of a new county by the name of Coös, alleging always as. one of the chief reasons for such action the bad roads and the incon- venience of traveling over them for all their legal business which increased with the growth of population.
Meanwhile the road to Pigwaket had been constructed, and the. tide of emigration from the sea-board towns began to flow through the White Mountain Notch. As early as 1773, Nash and Sawyer's location was granted for building roads through that tract of land. Col. Joseph Whipple and Samuel Hart of Portsmouth settled in Jef- ferson, then called Dartmouth, about 1773. From that time on, the Notch road was steadily improved. In 1786, the legislature was petitioned to appoint a committee to sell land about the mountains, and use the money thus raised to repair the road through the Notch. That petition set forth that the road was badly out of repair from the effect of a recent freshet. Such a committee was appointed, and did sell large tracts of land from time to time, and expended the revenue thus raised in repairing this important road. That committee was in active existence for a period of ten years, when it settled accounts and got discharged. The committee and its friends got most of the lands and the public a very poor road.
Tradition says that the first article brought through this Notch road to Lancaster was a hogshead of rum; and that the first article shipped from Lancaster through the Notch was a quantity of tobacco raised by Titus O. Brown, then a farmer on Great brook, and later a merchant or trader in the village. That was in the fall of 1773. This road continued to be Lancaster's best road to market until the coming of the 'railroads so near as to open up other outlets. In 1803, a charter for a turnpike through the Notch was granted by the legislature and at once built. This gave a good road through the section hitherto so difficult to keep in repair. Soon after the build- ing of this turnpike, one was built through Jefferson to connect with it at a cost of twenty thousand dollars. It began at the point where
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ROADS AND BRIDGES.
the Whitefield road branches from the Jefferson road near the home of the late Edward Howe, and ran southeasterly by the Whipple place over a spur of Cherry mountain to the Rosebrook place. It was a well-built road, and gave Lancaster an easy passage of the mountain section to Portland. After the great freshet of August, 1826, which completely destroyed some sections of the turnpike through the Notch, its proprietors abandoned it, and the Jefferson turnpike soon fell into ruin and was abandoned.
The building of a turnpike on the line of the old "Cohos road" from Plymouth to Haverhill in 1808, together with the advent of the stage coach soon after that event, did much to awaken the interest of Lancaster people in the old roads south. Meanwhile the towns of Dalton, Whitefield, Littleton, Lyman, and Bath to the south were being settled rapidly and a local interest in good roads coming to exist in so many sections along the old trail over which the first set- tlers came, that it began to be improved all along the line.
Concord was then becoming a place of considerable importance. It had become the permanent capital of the state, besides having been favored by the sitting there of thirty-two of the sixty-one ses- sions of the legislature prior to 1808, when it became the permanent capital of the state. Lancaster, before that time, had become one of the most important communities of northern New Hampshire. Its citizens took an active interest in political matters, and had busi- ness of importance in the higher courts, which drew them to the capital. The settlement of the towns north of Lancaster, and the early development of the lumber and dairy interests in addition to the considerable agricultural and mercantile interests that existed, required good roads and rapid communication with the larger centres of trade and industry.
It will thus be seen that not the actual necessity and resolute de- termination of the early settlers, but later and more remote causes led to the development of the roads. Neither the state nor the town could afford to build good roads in the earliest period of the history of the town. As we have seen, generous sums were appropriated by the town for roads; but the largest expenditure they could afford to make would not go far in making, or even mending, roads. It took a period of more than two generations to reach a point at which road-making could be put on anything approaching a scientific basis. So desirable an end has not yet been reached, but is one of the possible things in the near future now that the town owns modern, improved road machinery.
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