USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Lebanon > History of Lebanon, N.H., 1761-1887 > Part 5
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Voted to Adjourn Said Meeting to the first Monday in July next
at the abovesaid Meeting Held by adjournment on July 6th 1772, a Motion was made by S'd Meeting To Mr. Potter to Give his Answer to the Call Given To him by the people of said Lebanon to Settle in the Gospel Ministry amongst them. To which Call Mr. Potter was pleafed to Answer in the Affirmative.
Voted to give Mr. Potter thirty-Eight pounds in Addition to the Sixty- two pounds granted by the proprity of said Lebanon towards the set- tlement of the first Gospel minister settled in said Town (as a Settle- ment for Mr Potter) in cafe of His Settleing in the work of the Gospel Miniftry in Sd Town
Voted, To Give Mr Potter as a Salary fifty pound Lawful Money a year for the two first years & then to Rise Annually five pounds a year till it Shall amount to Eighty pounds ; & that S-d Sum of Eighty pounds when attained to as above Said Shall be the Stated Salary for Mr Potter So Long as he Shall Continue in the Gospel Ministry in said Town
At a Meeting Legally Warned & Held the 10th Day of August 1772 the following Votes ware pafsed (viz) Mr Charles Hill Moderator of Said Meeting
Voted To Build a Meeting Houfe on the East End of Mr. Hills Pafture Near to Maj. Slapps
Voted That the former Comtee That was appointed To build a Meeting House Near to Mr. Turners be a Comtee to Build said House at the above said place, 48 feet in Length 34 in Breadth & 10 or 12 feet poft
Voted To Disannul and make void all former votes pafsed in said Town Refpecting a Meeting House, Excepting the timber procured for a Meeting House Heretofore
Voted to Disolve said Meeting
At their annual meeting March 9, 1773, they elected their town officers :
Jno Wheatley Efq be Modr of S-d Meeting Azariah Bliss, Maj. John Slapp Levi Hyde Select Men, Silas Waterman Town Clerk, Saml Bayley Conftable, Mefsrs Hezekiah Waters & Azariah Blifs Jun. Tything men Messrs Lieut John Griswold, Charles Hill & Joseph Martin fence View- ers; Mefsrs Wm Dana, Wm Downer, James Jones, & Jefse Cook Sur- veyors of Highways; Lemuel Hough Leather Sealer; Mefsrs Nathaniel Hall Nathaniel Porter Jr Deer Reeves
40
HISTORY OF LEBANON.
These were the officers to prevent the killing of deer out of season.
Among the papers of Nathaniel Hall the following complaint, under the statute, was found :
Province of New Hampshire SS. Plainfield March 22 1773.
Isaac Stephens of said Plainfield Complains & says that Alexader Brink of Hartford in the Province of Newyork & Samll Meacham of Pelhan (Enfield) in ye Province of N. Hampshire & Joseph Martain of Lebanon in ye Provinc afores'd have in ye Months of February Last and March instant Hunted and Killd Deer kind within ye Bounds of ye Province of New Hampshire which ye s'd Isaac Stephens Stands Ready to prove, it being Repugnant to ye Laws of s'd Province, Expects to have said Breach or Breaches of law above mentioned Heard & Deter- mined Before two of his Majesties Justices of ye Peace for s'd Province
Test.
After voting sums of money to various persons :
Voted to Submit the Laying out of a Road from Mafguama Bridge thro Jonathan Danas & Maj. Slapps Land to the Meeting House to the Discretion of the Select Men.
Voted to Raife a Tax of £20 .- 0-0 for the Support of a school in S'd Town the Current year.
Voted to Disolve S-d Meeting
Att a Meeting Legally Warned and Held on Sept. 7, 1773 The Follow- ing Votes Ware Pafsed
1st Voted Jedediah Hebbard and Jonathan Dana Grand Jurey men
2nd Voted that the Select men Provide a Box or Boxes on the Coft of The Town To Put the Names of the Inhabitants of the Town Quali- fied By Law To Be Draughted To Save as Pitet Jurey men
3ly Voted That Warnings For Town meeting Be Set up on or Near the Meeting House in S'd Lebanon
4ly Voted that John Wheatley Esqr, Capt Elijah Sprague Be Commit- tee Men For To Rectifie any Mistakes Made By the meeting House Com- mittee
5ly Voted to Disolve S-d meeting
At a Town Meeting Legally Warned and Held on December 27th 1773. The Following Votes Ware Pafsed (viz) :
1st Queary Whither the Town would Reconfider The Twenty pound Tax Voted att our annual meeting, held The 9th of Last March, Relat- ing To the Support of a School or Schools in S'd Town
Resolved in Negative
2ndly Voted that The Select men Take Back the Bill Committed To the Conftable To Collect For the Purpose above S-d
3rdly Voted that the Select men Cros out Stephen Jewel Meeting House tax
BANK:
-
OLD LEBANON BANK BUILDING.
41
INTRODUCTION.
4ly Voted that the Select men Rectifie the mistake made in Mr Levi Hydes Rate. S'd Rate was Thirteen Shillings Lawful Money.
5thly Voted That the Select Men Procure a Plan of The meeting Houfe Flower To Be Laid Before The Next Town Meeting in order To Erect Pues and Seets in S'd House.
Voted S-d Meeting Difolved
At a Town meeting Legally Warned and Held on March 8th 1774 The Following Choices of Town Officers Ware made and the Following Votes Ware Pasd (viz)
Voted That Dea Nehemiah Estabrook be Moderator of s-d Meeting
Voted Dea Nehemiah Estabrook John Wheatley Esq. and Mr. Charles Hill Be Selectmen; For y-r Ensuing
Voted Silas Waterman Town Clerk and Treasurer; Hezekiah Waters Conftable; Azariah Blifs, Joseph Martin James Fuller Samuel Esta- brook Tything Men; Charles Hill John Griswold, Joseph Martin Fence Viewers; Lemuel Hough Leather Sealer; Lemuel Hough Jedediah Heb- bard Oliver Griswold Samuel Eastbrook Surveyors of Highways, Charles Hill, Huckins Storrs Lt John Griswold Haywards
Sums of money were voted to different persons
At a town meeting held April 5, 1774, sums of money were voted for various purposes to purchase a set of "Wates and measures For S-d Town."
May 30, 1774, they declined to do anything to finish the meet- ing-house.
At A Town meeting Held on May 30th 1774 Ware Then Pafsed The Following Votes,
Dean Nehemiah Estabrook Moderator of S-d meeting
Made Choice of Lt Jedediah Hibbard Grand Juror To Serve At the - Superior Court To Be Held at Plymouth on the Second Tuesday of June Next
Query Whither The Town will Do Any Thing To Finifh the meet- ing House-
Refolved in Negative
Voted To Disolve S-d meeting
PROPRIETORS
At a meeting of the proprietors of the township of Lebanon in the province of Newhampshire held at the house of Mr Charles Hill in said Lebanon on thursday the 29th of September 1774 the following votes were past (viz) :
1st Chose Deacon Nehemiah Estabrook moderator to govern said meeting.
2nd Voted to adjourn said meeting to the house of Capt. Bela Turner for half an hour
42
HISTORY OF LEBANON.
Met according to adjournment & the following votes were past (viz) :
3rd Voted to pursue some method to afcertain the southwest corner of said town and south line according to the Charter of said town not- withstanding the former votes past in said propriety relative thereto.
4ly Voted and resolved to appoint a committee of five men to afcer- tain the southwest corner bound of the township of said Lebanon ac- cording to Charter it being 18 miles distant on a point from Charleston Northwest corner bound. Voted in the Affirmative
5th Voted & resolved Mefsrs Aaron Storrs Nehemiah Estabrook John Griswold Jedediah Hebbard & Nath Porter or the major part of them be our committee for the abovementioned purpose
6th Voted & resolved that the last mentioned committee or the major part of them be our committee to afcertain & mark the southern line of said township of Lebanon according to Charter, & to warn any person or persons whom they shall find trefspafsing on any undivided lands in this township immediately to desist & depart from said lands, and if they do not depart in consequence of such warning within a proper time the said committee or the major part of them are hereby author- ized & empowered to proscecute them in law as trefspafsers, and to take every legal method they shall Judge proper and necessary to establish the southern line of said town-ship and vindicate said undivided land from such persons as have presumed To enter and make improvements on the same and so as to put a final end & close to any grounds of dis- pute which have subsisted respecting said southwestern bound & south- ern line of said township of Lebanon. voted in the affirmative
At a meeting held in Nov 1774
Voted to allow the accounts of Jonathan Freeman for runing The line from Charlestown Northwest corner to the southwest corner of Lebanon & planing the same and runing the South & East lines of said township, which is £2 .- 16-0
Jonathan Freeman was of Hanover, afterward a member of Congress.
2nd Voted to allow the accounts of Messrs David Woodward. James Hutchinson & Saml Haze for service done to said propriety as chainmen which account is £4 .- 0-0
3rd Voted to allow the account of Nehemiah Estabrook for service done to said propriety the sum of £2 .- 13-61/2
4ly Voted To allow the account of John Griswold for service done To said propriety £1 .- 13-0
5ly Voted to allow the account of Jedediah Hibbard for service done to said propriety £5-4-5
6ly Voted to allow the account of Nath Porter the sum of £0-3-5.
At a meeting held the second Monday in December 1774
1st Whereas the committee appointed by this propriety at their meet-
43
INTRODUCTION.
ing on the 29th Day of Sept. last report that they have employed Mr Jonathan Freeman to afsist them as surveyor in afcertaining the South- west corner bound of said township of Lebanon according to Charter who has lodged a certificate of his doings therein with the Clerk of the propriety which is laid before them for their acceptance and as the ac- ceptance or nonacceptance of said report is a matter of much conse- quence to this propriety, on which account a full meeting of the pro- prietors is greatly to be desired therefore voted that the final Consider- ation & determination of this propriety respecting said report be deferred to the next adjourned meeting. Paft in the affirmative.
Met on the 10th of January 1775 and accepted the reports of Mr. Free- man
No further business of importance was transacted by the pro- prietors until March, 1778.
TOWN
At A Town meeting Held on Jany 15th 1775 Ware Then Pafsed the Following Votes Nehemiah Estabrook Moderator of S'd meeting
Query Whither The Town Would Build a gris mill in S'd Town Re- solved In Affirmtive
Voted A Committee To Look out A Place To Sit S'd mill and make Report To S-d Town
The Committee Names are as Follows Namely Lt. John Griswold Mr Azeriah Blifs Enf'n Hezekiah Waters
Voted The Sum of Thirty Pounds Lawful Money For the Support of Chools in S'd Town. A Comtee Chosen For the Above S'd Purpose Namely Capt Bela Turner Lt John Griswold Lt Jedediah Hibbard John Wheatley Esq, Maj. John Slapp
A Report of the Comtee Appointed by the Town of Lebanon to Div- vide S'd Town into Districts For the benefit of Chools and to make an Equitable Distribution of £30. Granted By S'd Town For the Suport of of S'd Schools To the Several Districts aforesaid
We the Subscribers members of the aforesaid Comtee According to our Inftructions Received From you have taken into our Confideration the Bufinefs Afsigned To us & have mutually Agreed in the Following Divifion & distribution aforesaid (viz.)
The first District To begin at the mouth of Enfield Old Road thence including all the Inhabitants on said Road To the North Line of Said Town & to Extend as far East as the East End of Capt Bela Turners meadow Lott on the N Side of the River Mafcoma.
The S. W. District To begin at the mouth of Enfield Old Road and to Extend East as Far as the S. W. Corner of Zalmon Aspenwalls First Hundd acre Lott Lying on S'd Road, including Mr Joseph Wood Mr. Huckens Storrs and Deacon Nehemiah Estabrook & his Son Nehemiah
44
HISTORY OF LEBANON.
Estabrook Jun. Togather with all the Inhabitants South of S'd Road To the South Line of S'd Town
The S. E. District to Begin at said S. W. Corner of S'd Aspenwall Lott and include all the Inhabitants Living Upon Said Road North and E. & all South of Said Road To the E. Line of aforesaid South weftern District.
The Northeaftern District To Begin at the aforesaid E End of Capt. Bela Turners meadow Lott thence Southerly acroft the River mafcoma So far as to include Hobart Estabrook Thence North eafterly to the Mouth of the South Branch of the aforesaid River Mafcoma So Far as to include all the inhabitants North of said River & said Branch and Wefterly as Far as the East Line of the First Mentioned District
We Then Proceded To make an Equal Distribution of the aforesaid Sum of 30£ To the Several Districts as aforesaid according to The Laft years Lift of the Inhabitants of Said Town, Excepted. Which upon an Accurate Examination we find to be as Follows
To the First District ££11-18-6
Second Do
9-16-6
Third Do
5- 8-6
Fourth Do
2-16-6
30- - 0-0
We also Humbly offer to the Consideration of S'd Town Whither it may Not be for the Publick utility to Appoint Collectors In the Several Districts Aforesaid to Collect the aforefaid Sums Afsigned to Each Dis- trict & Also to appoint a Comtee To Manage the Affairs of the Schools in Said Districts with the Advice & Concurrance of the Inhabitants in them To which Comtee or Comtees the Aforesaid Collectors Shall be ac- countable for The Several Sums Committed To them To Collect For the Purpofe Aforesaid & also that Said Comtee or Comtees Render an ac- count To Said Town at Their Annual meeting In march 1776. How and in What manner the aforesaid Sums of Money have been Difposed of By Them
John Wheatley Esq.
John Slapp
John Griswold Comtee
Bela Turner Jed. Hebbard
The Aboe Report Was Excepted By the Inhabitants of S'd Town
Voted That The Coft of Mr. Bugbe's Sicknefs Tho Last year should Be Paid By The Inhabitants of S'd Town
At the annual meeting March 14, 1775 the town officers were chosen as follows-
Deacon Nehemiah Estabrook Moderator of S-d Meeting
Selectmen Dea. N. Estabrook John Wheatley Esq Lt. John Griswold Town Clerk and treasurer, Silas Waterman
45
INTRODUCTION.
Conftable, Azariah Blifs
Tything men, Charles Saction John Lyman Abiel Wills, Nathaniel Porter Jr.
Surveyors of Highways Henry Woodward, Lt Saml Paine Nathaniel Porter Jr. Zacheus Downer
Fence Viewers Lt. John Griswold Joseph martin Ens. Wm Dana
Leather Sealer Capt Bela Turner
Haywards Joseph Wood James Jones Samuel Bailey Abel Wright Charles Hill
School Collectors, Nathaniel Storrs Silas Waterman Ebenezer Blifs, Jese Cook
School Committee Capt. Bela Turner John Wheatley Esq. Lt. Levi Hyde Lt. John Griswold Maj. John Slapp
Various sums of money were voted.
Voted £2 .- 0-0 L. M. to Defray the Expenses of the Comtee Appointed By The Province To attend The Continental Congress.
Difficulties with the mother country leading to the Revolu- tion had already commenced. The Assembly of the province in May, 1774, had, by circular letters, requested the towns to send deputies to hold a convention in Exeter, in July, 1774, who should choose delegates to a General Congress of the colonies to meet at Philadelphia, and also to pay their proportion of the expense of the delegates. The above vote of the town is in an- swer to this request.
The time covered by the records already cited may be taken as the first well-marked period in the history of the town-the period of settlement. For this early period no history can be better than the records themselves. They were made from time to time, as they met to provide for their wants and further their enterprise of making for themselves homes in the wilderness.
A narrative of this first period will now follow, drawn from all possible sources.
THE TERRITORY OF LEBANON.
The territory included by the lines of the charter is character- ized by two main valleys intersecting each other in the center vil- lage. One of these valleys extends easterly and westerly and is made by the Mascoma River; the other runs northerly and south- erly and is formed on the south of the village by Great Brook and
46
HISTORY OF LEBANON.
on the north by the hollow extending to Mink Brook in Hanover. Travel is easy along these valleys to surrounding towns, but steep hills hem them in on all sides. The center of the town is said to be near the foot of lower falls in the village. The rocks of the town are mainly mica slate abundantly supplied with iron pyrites. In the southwest part there is a large deposit of horn- blende in the slate; the mass of Mount Finish is composed of this rock. It also makes its appearance in the eastern part of the Billings farm.
Colburn Hill and Rix Ledges are like islands of granite pro- truding through the slate rock. The granite is not found in places south of the river and does not appear except in boulders east of the valley which runs northward by Rix Ledges. A large vein of quartz runs along the eastern part of the town, a pro- longation of the immense deposit of that material on Moose Mountain ; it appears on the Cleaveland farm to the south, and extends into Enfield and Grantham. The rocks of the town give abundant evidence of glacial action in the scratches, grooves and furrows everywhere conspicuous on them. The granite boulders strewn over the region, some of which have been found on the summits of the Grantham Range, tell the same story. Now and then fragments of rocks have been found enclosing minerals, whose origin must have been on the hills of Lyme and Thetford. If many fragments of Colburn Hill have passed to the south in some of the mysterious movements of ancient times, places to the north have sent down their rocks, and there is no deficiency in the supply.
The Mascoma River must always be an object of interest to the people of Lebanon, because of its great usefulness as an unfail- ing and reliable source of power. It has also its beauties to com- mend itself to those who will study it with care.
Its ancient history is full of interest to those who have learned to read it, written plainly enough all along its course from the hills of Dorchester, Canaan and Hanover. There was a time when there was no river wending its way along this valley ; but a chain of lakes occupied its bed. The most eastern of these filled the valley where the village of East Canaan now stands. Its western barrier was at Welch's Mills. It discharged its waters over the summit into the valley of the Merrimack. It was these
47
INTRODUCTION.
waters tumbling over the rocky barriers which caused the pot- holes found at Orange Summit, so long the puzzle of geologists. After a time the western barrier was worn down and the waters were discharged towards the Connecticut. Westward was an- other large lake extending northward to Goose Pond and south- ward to Mud Pond and perhaps to East Pond. Still another filled the valley of Mascoma Lake, whose ancient shores are plainly visible at much higher points than it now reaches, so that the fertile lands occupied by the Shaker families were covered by its waters, which extended southward to Enfield Center. In these ancient times the lake discharged its waters a mile from the dam at East Lebanon, coming into a long valley at a point opposite the watering place at the turn of the road towards East Lebanon. Its ancient bed, worn into rocky chasms and wide, deep pot- holes, is still plainly discernible. Still another barrier was there at Chandler's Mills. A lake covered the meadows north of the village with its barriers at the falls by the sawmill. Below the falls was a long, narrow lake extending to the Hubbard bridge, where were the final barriers from the immediate valley of the Connecticut. In the course of time the barriers between these large bodies of water were worn away, the water drained into the Connecticut and in place of the chain of lakes we have the stream. Those who have seen the meadows of Canaan, and our own, in periods of very high water in the Mascoma, will not find it difficult to believe that this is a true history of the region, nor difficult to realize the appearance of the valley of the Mascoma in that early period. A few dams of no great length at several points in the course of the river would speedily fill these ancient lake beds. Doubtless these water basins were supplied and filled by the melting of ancient glaciers.
The soil of this territory has varying qualities. On the inter- vales loamy and rich; on the hills, stronger and more durable. The town was well timbered with beech, maple and other similar woods, while white pine and hemlock was abundant and of enormous growth.
SURVEY OF THE TOWN.
As already stated, the lines of the town had been run by the governor's surveyor before the granting of the charter. Imme-
48
HISTORY OF LEBANON.
diately afterwards the proprietors took steps to ascertain the character of their grant, and to divide it into suitable lots, ap- pointing as a committee for that purpose Capt. Nathaniel Hall, Huckins Storrs, Daniel Blodget, Jun., Charles Hill, John Hanks. This committee immediately came here from Connecticut in Octo- ber, 1761, and commenced their work. Fortunately, from the records of the proprietors, the methods which they took to divide the land can be well ascertained.
"It being necessary to plan the Great River in Order to find the quantity of intervale in the town and also to lay out the hun- dred acre lots so as not to waste land, we proceeded to the north- west corner of the town to a hemlock tree mentioned in Mr. Boyles survey" where they commenced the survey of the Con- necticut, running lines also around the intervale which they found, carefully computing its quantity.
They then commenced at the mouth of the Mascoma and sur- veyed that river towards the pond, carefully running lines around the intervale and computing its quantity. The close of the notes in the survey of the Mascoma is somewhat amusing. "Almost night; The committee been to the pond aforementioned out of which this River runs & concluding it run near the same course from the pond we stopt surveying said river"!
The following is their own account of their method of survey- ing the intervale: "The rivers being surveyed and a memoran- dum made for the beginning and ending of every piece, we be- gan at a monument either at the upper or lower end & in running our courses where we made an Angle, we marked the tree or bush we ran to & when heued smooth made three hacks into it, to dis- tinguish it from an angle, it being difficult to take account of every tree at every angle."
After having thus surveyed the intervale they prepared to lay out the upland. For this purpose it was convenient to have a well-defined base line. This base they laid out at the Enfield Road. Beginning near the house of O. L. Stearns they ran a line parallel with the south line of the town S. 72° E. straight through the town, turning out for neither hills nor valleys. This road was eight rods wide, and while known to the earlier settlers as Enfield Road, and later as the Old Enfield Road, is known to us
49
INTRODUCTION.
as the King's Highway, still existing in its original width, in some portions of it.
Upon the north side of this road there were laid out the acre lots, one for each proprietor. These acre lots now compose parts of the farm of N. B. Stearns and the Slacks.
They then began to lay out lots of an hundred acres from each side of this road. These lots were 100 rods on the road and 160 rods deep, with land reserved for highways and roads at suit- able intervals. While these lots were nominally of the dimen- sions given, yet they were often made larger if the land was of a poorer quality. These lots were called the first division. Most of this first division were located south of the Mascoma, a few along the Connecticut north of the river.
They next proceeded to lay out the intervale, allotting nine and a half acres to each proprietor.
Next were laid out the second division of 100-acre lots. Com- mencing on the east line of the first division of 100-acre lots they run a line perpendicular to the Enfield Road, N. 18° E. to the Mascoma River. This line would strike the river east of the farm of Howard Benton. Then they proceeded up the river to Mascoma Lake and along the shore of the lake to the east line of the town. After having thus marked out this portion of the town they returned to the Enfield Road and laid out lots on both sides of the road.
In laying out the lots on the north side of the Mascoma they began on the river where the east line of the first division of 100 acres intersected it, and "let fall a perpendicular on the north line of the town N. 26 E.," and from the north line began to lay out lots of 100 acres each. The record states that this division was completed November 6, 1767. Aaron Storrs, Huckins Storrs, John Wheatley, Jedediah Dana, were the committee.
This second division of 100-acre lots were drawn as follows:
No. No.
Huckins Storrs,
43
Joseph Wood, right of J.
Nathaniel Porter,
59
Murdock, 34
Jedediah Dana,
44
Anderson Dana, Daniel Blod-
Jonathan Walcott,
61
get, 24
Charles Hill,
7
Samuel Millington, R. Mar-
Richard Salter,
23
tin, 29
4
50
HISTORY OF LEBANON.
No.
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