USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Candia > History of the town of Candia, Rockingham County, N.H., from its first settlement to the present time > Part 3
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One class of the original proprietors consisted of the Gov- ernor and members of the Council. The others could well afford to give the Governor and the members of his Coun- cil a liberal share in the enterprise for their good-will, besides allowing them very heavy fees for other services which they rendered. Some idea in regard to the amount of the fees paid to Governor Shute and the members of his Coun- cil may be obtained from a statement of the amount of fees which were paid to Lieutenant Governor Colden, who was acting Governor of New York, in 1764, when Vermont was claimed as a part of that province. It is said that he re- ceived the sum of $31.25 for every thousand acres in the towns to which he gave charters in Vermont at that time, amounting to about $500 for a township six miles square. The total amount of fees paid to the governor, secretary, attorney general, surveyor general and clerk, amounted to $2,300. It is fair to presume that Governor Shute was willing to receive the same fees which were allowed to the other royal governors. While he was governor of New
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
Hampshire he gave many charters to towns besides Chest- er, among which were Nottingham, Rochester, Bow, Barn- stead, and no doubt he received heavy fees and a farm of five hundred acres in each of those towns.
When Chester was surveyed, in 1719, the proprietors laid out one hundred and fifty lots of twenty acres each in the southeast part of the territory which was granted to them. These lots, which were called Home lots, were in close proximity to each other, so the settlers could unite readily for defence against the Indians. They also laid out a large number of lots of fifty acres each for farms. These lots were situated as near as possible to the Home lots.
The next division of lots was made in what is now Ray- mond. These lots contained one hundred acres each and this division was called Old Hundred.
The next division was called the Second Part of the Sec- ond Division. A part of these lots were situated in the ex- treme south part of Candia.
The next was called the Third Division. These were all situated in Candia and contained eighty acres each.
The next was called the Fourth Division and the lots were situated partly in Auburn, but mostly in Manchester and Hooksett.
The Fifth Division of lots consisted of lands situated be- tween the Fourth Division and Allenstown line. The last, or Sixth Division, which was made in 1772, consisted of tracts of undivided land and supernumerary lots in the oth- er divisions of the town. Thus it will be seen that there were eight divisions in all, viz: Ist, The Home lots, 2nd, The Additional lots, 3d, Old Hundred, now Raymond, 4th, Second Part of Second Division, 5th, The Third Division now Candia, 6th, The Fourth Division, so called, 7th, The Fifth Division, 8th, The Sixth Division. Each proprietor had eight lots amounting in all to upwards of four hundred acres. The lots were distributed among the proprietors by a sort of lottery. Some of the proprietors had good luck by drawing good land, while others drew some land that was swampy or very rocky and unfit for cultivation. None of the original proprietors ever settled in Candia and it is | probable that very few ever visited the town.
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
In 1751, the south-western part of old Chester was set off to form with a part of Londonderry, and a small tract of ungranted land the town of Derryfield. The name of the town was changed to Manchester in 1810 ..
The northeastern part of the old town was made a sep- arate township called Raymond, in 1764.
In 1822, the northwestern part of old Chester was united with a part of Bow and Dunbarton and incorporated as the town of Hooksett.
That part of the old town, which is situated on the east of the present city of Manchester and includes more than one- half of Lake Massabesic, was made a separate township named Auburn, in 1845.
CHAPTER IV.
SETTLEMENT OF CANDIA.
THE question as to who was the first settler in Candia has not hitherto been positively determined. Mr. Eaton, in his history of the town, stated that David McClure bought the western half of lot No. 30 in Second Part of Second Division lying in Candia, in 1743, and gave it as his opinion that he, McClure, was the first settler in the town. On the other hand Benjamin Chase, in his history of old Chester, states that Mr. McClure on May 17, 1744, bought the western half of lot No. 17, Second Part of Second Division lying in Chest- er and built a house, and that, in 1749, he left that lot and bought lot No. 30 in Second Part of Second Division situat- ed in Candia, and built a log house.
Mr. Chase also states that William Turner, previous to 1742, bought the northeastern end of lot No. 9, of additional lots in Chester, and that in 1741 he bought lot No. 35 Third Division in Candia. Now, if McClure sold his lot in Chest- er and bought another in Candia eight years after Turner purchased his lot in the Third Division the latter was probably the first settler.
Among those who came at a very early period in the his- tory of Candia were Benjamin Smith, who came in 1749 and - · settled on lot 73 3d division, Thomas Anderson, who came in 1751 and settled on lot 132 2nd part of 2nd division, Win- throp Wells, who settled on lot 36 3d division, in 1750, Da- vid Bean, who settled on lot 78 3d division, Enoch Colby, who settled on lot 89 3d division, in 1750, Samuel Mooers, who settled on lot 69 3d division, in 1756, Robert Patten, who bought lot 30, 2nd part 2nd division, in 1741, Enoch Rowell, who was the first settler at the Corner on lot 87 3d division, Jacob Sargent, who was the first settler on lot 130 3d division, Mathew Ramsey, who was the first settler on lot 116 3d division, Benjamin Hills, who was the first settler on lot 94 3d division, Col. Nathaniel Emerson, who settled on the lot where John Cate resides, Moses Emerson, who was
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
the first settler on lot 65 2nd part of 2nd divsion, Nathaniel Burpee, who settled on lot 36 in 3d division, in 1753, Caleb Brown, who came to town in 1762, Benjamin Cass, who settled on lot 95 3d division, Thomas Critchett, who was the first settler on lot 62 3d division, Ichabod Robie, who was the first settler on lot 61 3d division, Walter Robie, who was the first settler on lot 119 2nd part 2nd division, Asahel Quimby, who was the first to settle on lot 114 2nd part 2nd division, Dr. Coffin Moore, who settled on lot 51 2nd part 2nd division, in 1760.
At a later date, and previous to 1763; the following named citizens settled in the town: Samuel Towle, Theophilus Clough, Moses Baker, Jeremiah Bean, Zebedee Berry, Phin- ehas Towle, Abraham Fitts, Stephen Palmer, John Sargent, Stephen Fifield, Sherburne Rowe, Isaiah Rowe, Theophilus Sargent, Benjamin Batchelder, Henry Clark, John Robie, John Carr, Samuel Buswell, Nicholas French, and Jonh Hills.
Candia, previous to 1763, was sometimes called the North Parish of Chester and sometimes Charming Fare from the circumstance, as it is said, that some Chester men, who were among the first to visit the locality, killed and roasted a deer, and while eating the venison some one of the party exclaimed : "This is charming fare ! " All agreed that the feast was indeed charming fare. The exclamation became a by-word among the people, and it was suggested that it would be a good name for the territory.
The most of the people of Candia lived at a distance of from seven to fifteen miles from the meeting house and the business part of old Chester, and it was a great burden for them to be obliged to travel on foot or on horseback over bad roads to go to town meetings, and to attend church. There were no mills or stores in the parish at that time, and on this account the people were subjected to much inconve- nience. Under these circumstances they were anxious to be set off into an independent town; and so in 1761, they caused the following article to be inserted in their warrant for the annual town meeting : "To see if the town will vote that the North Parish shall be set off by the authority as set forth in a petitionto the selectmen by Messrs. Jethro Batchel-
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
·der, Daniel Lane, Benjamin Smith and others. " The arti- cle was voted down at the time, but the next year it was passed by a large majority.
In 1763, thirty-eight of the citizens in the town signed a petition to Benning Wentworth, the Provincial Governor, and his council, praying that they might be incorporated in- to a parish and invested with all the privileges enjoyed by other parishes in the province. The following are the names of the signers of the petition :
Benjamin Batchelder,
Samuel Mooers,
, Jeremiah Bean, Zebedee Berry,
William Turner,
Phinehas Towle,
Winthrop Wells,
Abraham Fitts,
Jonathan Hills,
Sherburne Rowe,
Samuel Towle,
Asahel Quimby,
Nicholas Smith,
Gilman Dudley,
Jonathan Towle,
Zachariah Clifford, .
Nathaniel Ingalls,
Enoch Colby,
Theophilus Clough,
Moses Smart,
John Carr,
Nathaniel Emerson,
Thomas Critchett,
Jonathan Bean,
Samuel Eastman,
John Sargent,
John Clay,
Benjamin Smith,
Moses Baker,
James McClure,
Theophilus Sargent,
Stephen Palmer,
Stephen Webster,
Jacob Sargent,
Joseph Smith,
Ichabod Robie,
Elisha Bean,
David Hills.
The petition was read in the House of Representatives on June 2, 1763, and it was ordered that the petitioners be heard thereon on the first day of the succeeding August and that they cause the substance of the petition and the order of the court therein to be published in the New Hampshire Gazette three weeks successively, that all persons may appear and those learn, if any, why the prayer thereof should not be granted.
Upon December 2, 1763, the petition was read in the House of Representatives and it was voted that the prayer thereof be granted.
On the same day the petition was read and concurred in
-
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
by the council. The following is a copy of the act incor- porating the town of Candia:
ANNO REGNI GEORGII TERTII MAGNE BRITTANNICE FRANCIE ET HIBERNICE QUARTO.
L. S. An Act for Erecting and Incorporating a New Parish in the North Westerly part of the Town of Chester in this Province.
Whereas a petition has been exhibited to the general as- sembly by a number of the inhabitants of Chester aforesaid setting forth, that it would be very convenient for them to be incorporated into a new parish as they lived a consider- able distance from the parish in said town to which they belonged and there was a number in the same situation sufficient to make a new parish to which the town had con- sented of which due notice having been given and no ob- jections made ; and the petitioners praying to be so incor- porated by the bounds and limits agreed to by the town-
It is therefore Enacted by the Governor, Council and As- sembly that there be and thereby is a new parish erected and incorporated in the town of Chester by the following boundaries, viz .: Beginning at the northeast corner of said parish on the line of the township of Nottingham at a hem- lock tree at the head of the old Hundred acre lots, then runs south twenty-nine degrees west joining to said lots as they are entered on the proprietors records about four miles to a stake and stones, then west north west to a maple tree be- ing the north east bounds of the lot number forty-three in the second part of the second division, and continuing the same course by towerhill pond to a stake and stones what completes five miles and a half upon this course, then north twenty-nine degrees east to a pitch pine which is the south west boundary of the eighty acre lot in the third di- vision number one hundred twenty-three, then north twen- ty-nine degrees east to Nottingham line and then on that line to the hemlock tree first mentioned. And all the inhab- itants dwelling or that shall dwell within the said bounda- ries, and their estates-are hereby made a parish by the name of CANDIA and erected into a body politic and cor- porate to have continuance and succession forever, and
ABRAHAM EMERSON.
Sketch, page 499.
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
are hereby invested with all the powers and enfranchised with all the privileges of any other parish within this pro- vince and are chargeable with the duty of maintaining the poor that do or shall inhabit within said parish. Repairing all highways within the same; and maintaining and sup- porting the Ministry and preaching the Gospel, with full power to manage and transact all Parochial affairs as fully to all intents and purposes as any parish in said province may legally do.
And the said inhabitants are hereby exonerated from pay- ing any taxes that shall hereafter be assessed in the said town, with regard to the support of the matters and things aforesaid, but shall continue to pay their province tax in the same manner as before the passing of this act until a new proportion thereof shall be made among the several towns and parishes within the same.
And SAMUEL EMERSON, Esq., is hereby appointed and authorized to call the first meeting of said inhabitants giv- ing fourteen days public notice of the time place and design of the meeting. And they the said inhabitants at such meetings are authorized to choose all necessary parish offi- cers as at the annual meetings is done in other parishes and such officers shall hereby be invested with the same power of other parish officers in this province.
PROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
In the House of Representatives, Dec. 16th, 1763.
This Petition having been read three times-
Voted, That it Pass to be Enacted.
H. SHERBURNE, Speaker. In Council, Dec. 17th, 1763.
This Bill read a third time and passed to be Enacted. T. ATKINSON, Jun., Secretary.
Consented to.
B. WENTWORTH.
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CHAPTER V.
TOPOGRAPHY.
CANDIA is situated in Rockingham County in the State of New Hampshire. It is in 43 degrees 8 minutes north lati- tude, in 71 degrees and 18 minutes west longitude from Greenwich.
The town is bounded north by Deerfield, east by Ray- mond, south by Chester and Auburn, and west by Hooksett.
It is ten miles northeast from Manchester, eighteen miles. southeast from Concord, the capital of the state, thirty-one miles west from Portsmouth, fifty-five miles from Boston, two hundred and fifty-six miles from New York and five hundred and eight miles from the city of Washington.
The geographical center of the town is on the old William Duncan place, South Road, now owned by George Brown. The exact spot is within a few rods of Mr. Brown's resi -. dence.
Its area is above 17,744 acres, or more than 27 square miles.
GEOLOGY.
The majority of the most eminent geologists agree to the following propositions: That the earth was once a mass of molten matter and that, while whirling in its orbit around the sun, its surface became gradually cooled, until at last it became a granite crust or shell, and covered the earth as an egg is covered by its shell; that this shell, which was thin at first, became thicker and thicker as the process of cool- ing went on, until now it is supposed to be from forty to sixty miles from the surface down to the liquid mass of heated matter below; that as the earth cooled its shell con- tracted and wrinkled, like the skin of a baked apple, causing great elevations in some places and depressions in others, and the elevations became mountains while the de- pressions became the valleys and the great beds of the ocean ; that there have been many of these great convul -.. sions upon the earth and that its surface has been tilted up.
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HISTORY OF CANDIA. 1180236
at various times; that whole continents have been slowly raised from the depths of the ocean in one part of the globe while vast territories of dry land have been submerged in others; that,each of the great changes in the structure of the surface of the globe has been followed by another which was better adapted to the development of higher and still higher orders of organic life, until at last man, rudimenta- ry, savage man, at first but little above the most highly de- veloped brutes, like the gorilla or the ourang outang, ap- peared upon the scene ; that the last great change, called the drift or glacial period, which has been wrought upon the earth, took place from eighty thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand years ago when, in consequence of a fall from a moderately warm to an intensely cold tempera- ture, a great sheet of ice or glacier was formed in the north- ern polar regions and finally extended down as far south as the thirty-fifth or fortieth degree of north latitude, and that it was more than a mile in thickness and covered the tops of the highest mountains ; that in Siberia in the eastern hem- isphere and in Alaska in the western, vast herds of ele- phants and other animals resembling those which now abound in tropical regions were overwhelmed and de- stroyed ; that the glacier which slowly moved towards the south twenty degrees east ground down the granite crust of the earth to a depth of several hundreds of feet, dug out the valleys and lake beds, and bore away many square miles of earth and pushed itself a score or two of miles into the sea ; that many of the rocks which were torn off from the tops of the hills and fell upon the top of the glacier found their way to the bottom of crevasses ; that these embedded rocks became great gouges or rasps and cut grooves of various degrees of width and depth upon the crust of the earth, and smoothly polished the quartz and other hard sub- stances of which it was composed ; that the grooves were made in lines exactly parallel to the direction in which the glacier moved.
After many thousands of years had elapsed the tempera- ture became warmer, and caused the glacier to melt slowly at first, and then more rapidly ; that the great rivers which were formed brought down boulders and great masses of
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
sand and gravel and deposited them all over the country ; that the process of melting went on for hundreds of years, until at last the glacier disappeared, the vast torrents of wa - ter subsided and the rivers became reduced to their present magnitude.
The evidences of the great glacial period are nowhere more clearly manifested than in the town of Candia. In fields, pastures and woods in all sections of the town great boulders, some of which are many tons in weight, lie scat- tered on the surface of the earth. All these rocks, as well as' all the little pebbles, the gravel, sand and clay, all of which latter are nothing but pulverized rocks, were brought here by the glacier from the hills and mountains in the the north many thousands of years ago. In many places. in the town the most positive proofs of the passage of the glacier may be plainly seen. As has already been stated, the rocks embedded in the bottom of the glacier often made grooves on the surface of the granite ledges over which they passed. These grooves may be seen upon the ledges in all parts of our town. On a ledge on the south side of High Street opposite the residence of Mrs. Abraham Fitts, and al- so upon the ledge on the north side of the same street op- posite the barn belonging to Frank A. Hall there are very marked grooves and scratches running nearly from north- west to southeast.
Soon after the first settlements were made in the town, it was found that there was a deposit of brick clay upon the south end of the school lot upon land formerly owned by William Duncan and now owned by George Brown. A brick yard was established there and bricks were manufact- ured in limited quantities for several years. It turned out that the clay was of inferior quality and also that the sup- ply was quite small.
Brick clay was also found upon the land now owned by Isaiah Lang near the east side of Walnut Hill. About the year 1827, David Lang, then the owner of the clay pit, man- ufactured a considerable quantity of bricks, but the busi- ness was long ago abandoned.
Upon the flanks of Hall's mountain there are large depos- its of pure quartz, and it has been believed by several gold
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
hunters who have visited the locality, that by making deep excavations in the rock, gold, in greater or less quantities, may be found.
There are some very remarkable boulders in this town both on account of their great size and the manner in which they were deposited on the granite crust of the earth.
In the pasture belonging to J. F. Holt, about fifteen rods from the northeast side of the Langford road leading to East Candia and near the residence of Edward J. Morrill, an ir- regular, egg-shaped boulder may be seen poised upon the exact center of its shortest diameter upon another square- shaped boulder, which had been previously deposited. The first of these boulders is about 12 feet long and 5 feet wide at the widest part and is pointed at both ends. Within about two rods of these boulders is one of great size. It is about 25 feet long, 20 feet wide and 9 feet high. It has been split asunder by the frost and a tree has grown up through the opening.
Upon the old Colcord farm, which thirty years ago was the town farm, there is a cube-shaped boulder of 15 or 20 tons in weight set squarely upon a boulder of about the same length and width.
Some of the boulders which have been deposited in the town were of one species of rock such as gneiss or syenite, , and were taken from one locality at one time, while others were another kind of rock such as porphyretic granite and were torn off at another period from a mountain in another locality.
Upon Dudley Hill, close to Raymond line and about half a mile south of the old James Critchett's place, there is a boulder which is about 27 feet long, 22 feet wide and 9 feet high. The top of the west end projects over the base about five feet, and affords a nice shelter from the rain for animals or men. In former times sheep, which were kept in the pasture found the boulder good protection in stormy weather.
There is a great boulder in a pasture on the side of the Colcord road and a few rods northwest from the residence of Samuel Fisk. This is about 24 feet long in the longest part, 21 feet wide and 8 1-2 feet high.
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
There are many remarkably large boulders'in the vicini- ty of the New Boston road, the North road and the South road.
Upon a wood lot which is owned by George H. Brown, situated a few rods north of Kinnicum Pond, a very large boulder rests upon the top of another which is about three feet above the ground. Under one end of the top boul- / der there is a large opening which forms a den for hedge- hogs and other wild animals. This boulder is about 18 feet long, 12 feet wide and 6 feet high.
In a pasture owned by Frank A. Patten and about half a mile west of his residence on the Chester road, there is a very large and well-shaped boulder. It is somewhat oval in form, and is 27 feet long in the longest part, 22 feet wide and from 12 to 15 feet high. It is probably the largest well- defined boulder in the town. . -
If this immense boulder could speak, what a thrilling sto- ry it could relate of its adventures from the time when it was suddenly torn away from its home in the far off north, where it had rested in peaceful security for ages; how it had been rudely thrust down from some lofty mountain peak and borne upon the back of the great glacier over mount- ains, hills and deep gorges at a snail-like pace for hundreds of years, and stranded at last upon a barren ledge of rock; how, when the great floods formed by the melting glacier had subsided, it found itself one of a great family of boul- ders amid a scene of utter desolation with not a vestige of animal or vegetable life ; how at length the fine particles of matter which had been disintegrated from the great rocky crust of the earth became animated by the force, the life and intelligence, which pervades every particle of matter throughout the universe, and the green plants and the great forests appeared, to flourish for a time and then to decay and to be followed in turn by other plants and forests for thousands of years. But the great granite boulder refuses to respond to our questionings and the secrets of its history we must learn as best we can.
ELEVATIONS.
Candia is an elevated town, beautifully diversified with hills and valleys. The highest elevation is Hall's mount-
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
ain, situated in the western part of the town, 900 feet above the level of the sea. The next highest point, Tower Hill, situated in the southwestern part of the town, is about 775 feet high. Patten's Hill, in the southeast corner of the town, is about 675 feet high, and the most elevated points on High Street and Walnut Hill are each about 700 feet high. Clark's Hill, formerly called Wadleigh's Hill, in the eastern part of the town, is about 475 feet high. From all these heights the most charming views of the distant mount- ains and local scenery may be obtained. Pine Hill, situat- ed about a mile southwest of the railroad station, is not more than 100 feet above the general level. It was so named by the early settlers from the circumstance that it was cov- ered with a dense growth of pine trees.
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