USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Canaan > The history of Canaan, New Hampshire > Part 10
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Oct 21. 1806. Then Nathaniel Whicher made return of a pitch of 50 acres of the 3rd. 100 of the Glebe lying east and west of the road that leads to Dorchester by Thomas Bedwell's joining west on a tract of land called the Green land.
EZEKIEL WELLS Proprietors Clerk.
The charter signed on the ninth day of July, 1761, by Benning Wentworth, divided the land in the town into sixty-eight shares
100
HISTORY OF CANAAN.
and two plots or parcels. Sixty-two shares were granted to sixty-one men. Five shares were granted as follows: One share for the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; one share for the First Settled Minister of the Gospel; one share for the benefit of schools in said town; and one share for a Glebe for the Church of England, as by law established. One parcel of 500 acres, accounted as two shares, Benning Wentworth reserved for himself. One parcel was to be laid out as a town plot, before any other division of lands, as near the center of the town as the land would admit, for town lots, one lot to each grantee of the contents of one acre. One hundred acres was also given to Thomas Miner as encourage- ment for building a sawmill in 1774.
On July 19, 1768, the proprietors voted to raise one dollar on each right and to give one hundred acres of land with a stream where it shall be adjudged most convenient, to any person who shall appear and build a good corn and sawmill. In 1770, a further tax was raised and the amount of land was increased to three hundred acres, to induce someone to build a mill. The first hundred was to be laid out upon a stream and the remaining two hundred to be laid out in quality in proportion to the other lands in town. The first hundred was laid out at the outlet of Hart Pond and extended to within a few rods of the Mascoma River, in a westerly direction. The second hundred was laid out in two parcels to Joseph Bartlett, on the north side of the "old town line," above the land owned by Josiah Barber. The third hundred was laid out on the hill, on the east side of the road, where lately E. C. Bean lived, and included the farm now owned by J. A. Green. The one hundred acres `given Thomas Miner was laid out in two pieces, one of sixty-two acres, ad- joining on the north of Joshua Wells' old farm, and extended down the hill towards George W. Hazeltine's. The other parcel of forty-three acres was laid out south of Josiah Clark's old intervale farm and north of Mud Pond at East Canaan. The deed to Miner gave him the right to pitch his land wherever he saw fit. Both parcels were pitched by Nathaniel Barber, who must have purchased the right of Miner.
The proprietors' surveys do not show directly that the pro- prietors conformed to that article of the charter respecting the
101
THE PITCH BOOK AND PROPRIETORS' SURVEYS.
laying out of a town plot, as there is no survey of it recorded. But two surveys, one recorded October 8, 1801, on the right of Thomas Miner, began at the "South west corner of the Town Plot," and another on the right of Thomas Parker, which is now known as the "Currier Pasture" began at the "South-east corner." There is also a "draft of a Town Plot," in which the grantees are named and opposite is a number of the lot and range. But there is no key to it to indicate what its meaning may be.
The first meeting in which it was mentioned was in August, 1772, and it was voted "that the Town Plot be laid out in ye most Convenient Place In sd Town." In October, Joshua Wells was placed upon the committee, "In the room of Samuel Bene- dict," to complete the laying out. Other matters took up the attention of the proprietors, and the town plot did not come up again until 1781, when it was again voted to lay it out. It did not come up again until January, 1797, when Capt. Ezekiel Wells, Daniel Blaisdell, Esq., and Capt. Robert Barber were appointed a committee to look it up and see what situation it was in, report a plan and a location. In 1801 it was again voted to lay out the plot and a committee was appointed to look into "the state of the timber on the Town Plot." This is the first intimation that it had been located. At last, in 1802, the com- mittee reported a plan and the plot, and it was voted "that it be annexed to the proprietors' records next after this meeting." If the plot was pitched as those two surveys would indicate, it was located northwest of Factory Village. Several old deeds refer to it as located in that section and forming a part of the farms of George W. Daniels and Fred Butman.
The draft of all the pitches of the town does not leave any place for it and although several votes were passed by the pro- prietors in their meetings and committees appointed for the laying out of the same, it was probably never laid out as planned. Many of the charters of other towns contained this provision, and it was inserted, no doubt, so that the settlers might build their houses and form a settlement near each other.
The five hundred acres of the governor's right was located in the southwest corner of the town adjoining the towns of Relhan, now Enfield, on the south, and Hanover on the west. Capt. John
102
HISTORY OF CANAAN.
Scofield purchased the five hundred acres of Martha Wentworth, the widow of Benning Wentworth, for two hundred dollars, on February 22, 1797. The proprietors surveyed two hundred acres of this right and laid it to Eleazer Scofield. The remaining three hundred was laid out in a parcel of four hundred acres to Mescheck Blake and was surveyed north of and adjoining the first parcel in 1799. The one hundred acres remaining of the four hundred parcel was laid out to the right of Rufus Randall, and lay north of the governor's land, extending along Hanover line. It was owned by John Scofield, the settler, and in the set- tlement of his estate it was set off to his son, John. This land was all at one time the property of the Scofields. Afterwards it was occupied by William and Israel Harris, Joseph Follens- bee, Mescheck Blake, John May and Joseph Stevens.
Of the sixty-two names entered as grantees, the name of Thomas Gustin occurs twice. Whether this is a mistake, or it was intended to give him two shares, is not known. But the proprietors evidently inferred that he was to have two shares, for they laid out land on his "first" right and also on his "second." The Gustins were friends of the governor, so were Richard Wibard, a councilor and judge of probate; Thomas Westbrook Waldron of Dover, who was a representative at Exeter in 1768 and a councilor in 1773; James Nevins, who was collector of customs at Portsmouth; John Newmarch, Daniel Fowle, the printer, at Portsmouth; Thomas Parker, George and William King, merchants. George King was deputy secretary of state in 1772, and clerk of the supreme court of judicature in 1773 and in the Louisburg expedition of 1745 was an artificer ; Daniel Rogers, who was a councilor in 1772 and a doctor by profession ; Capt. William Wentworth and his son, Capt. John Wentworth, of Somersworth, a cousin of the governor. They were all from the vicinity of Portsmouth.
The charter granted 23,000 acres, which was "to contain six miles square and no more. Out of which an allowance is to be made for highways, unimprovable lands by Rocks, Ponds, Moun- tains and Rivers 1049 acres." It was bounded as follows : "Be- ginning at the S. E. corner of Hanover, thence North 55° East by Hanover six miles to the corner thereof. Then South 61º
103
THE PITCH BOOK AND PROPRIETORS' SURVEYS.
East six miles, then South 41° West six miles, then North 58° West seven and one quarter miles."
The charter of Hanover gives the line as running North 45° West. The difference between the town directions would leave a gore of land which was not intended. In 1772, an addition was made to Hanover, 180 rods wide. Hanover at that time claimed this addition included a part of Dame's Gore and all of State's Gore. But the adjustment of the line between the two towns made the line run North 45° West.
The old maps made from surveys by both towns in 1805 run the line North 45° East. The Hanover surveys made the dis- tance six miles to Dame's Gore and 165 rods on the Gore to the northeast corner of Hanover. John Currier, the Canaan sur- veyor, made the distance 1,897 rods to Dame's Gore. His min- utes were : Hanover line, "Began at a stake & stones being the south east corner of Hanover run N 41 E 45 rods to the top of the mountain, then 1457 rods to Goose Pond Brook then 132 cods to Lyme road, then 263 rods to the Beach tree the corner of Canaan."
After the disputes over Dame's and State's Gores had been adjusted and State's Gore annexed to Canaan, the line was con- tinued 182 rods to Lyme on Hanover.
The town, in 1805, raised $186 for the purpose of establish- ing the line between Canaan and Hanover, and according to the survey of the town, made by John Currier, in 1805, this line was run North 45° East 1,897 rods to Dame's Gore. The nap made by Hanover at this time gives the line as running North 45° East six miles, then 165 rods on Dame's Gore.
The other lines have been disputed and do not now run straight. Almost from the first settlement of the town disputes and contentions prevailed with Enfield and Orange in relation to boundaries. By the charter, the boundaries began at the northeast corner of Lebanon and this same point is also the corner bound of Hanover and Enfield. The north line of Enfield was run out, their surveyors ran in upon Canaan nearly a mile, which was the cause of unhappiness to those people who had built themselves homes in the belief that they were living in Canaan. After many discussions and much hard feeling, in 1771, Capt. John Wentworth, George King and John Penhal-
104
HISTORY OF CANAAN.
low were appointed to settle the dispute, "and act everything that should be thought necessary Relative thereto." The matter dragged along for nine years, when in 1780 George Harris, Samuel Jones and John Scofield were appointed to examine all the papers in the case and to make a new survey of the lines, if thought necessary. This commission discovered what they thought to be a clerical error in the charter of Enfield, by writ- ing sixty-eight degrees instead of fifty-eight, as it was in the charter of Canaan. By this error the lines of Enfield inter- cepted and confounded all the lines of the adjoining towns. It was found, also, that the line as claimed by Enfield left a gore of land, ten degrees wide, between Enfield and Grantham, and which was not claimed by the proprietors of Grantham. By cor- recting this apparent error, it was insisted that all these con- flicting claims would be reconciled and the charters made uni- form. A petition was presented to the General Court and in 1781, in a joint meeting of the town and the proprietors, George Harris was appointed their joint agent "to appear before the honorable General Court this March instant at Exeter, then and there to support a Petition, which he preferred at the last ses- sion, relative to establishing a proper line between Canaan and Enfield." The General Court appointed Jeremiah Page, Henry Gerrish and William Chamberlain of Boscawen, a committee to survey the disputed lines and boundaries and report thereon on the ninth of July following. They reported that "the North- easterly corner of Enfield and the Southeasterly corner o2 Canaan were at the same point of beginning, thence running North 58° West seven miles and sixty rods to a birch stump which is the Northeasterly corner of Lebanon and the South- easterly corner of Hanover." This report was received and filed away, but was not acted upon. Enfield thereon ceased to claim any of the Canaan lands, and extended its jurisdiction over the unclaimed gore on the north of Grantham, no one disputing her right thereto.
In 1802, twenty years afterwards, this report was called up and adopted by the legislature. This line was accepted by both parties and a year or two afterwards the proprietors asked the town to divide the expense of the surveys and litigation which had been incurred. This the town declined to accede to, on the
·
105
THE PITCH BOOK AND PROPRIETORS' SURVEYS.
ground that the proprietors, who were advertising their lands for sale, were bound to give a good title for the money they received. Having paid once for a title, the people did not feel called upon to pay again.
The map of the survey of John Currier, in 1805, made this line run North 58° West, 2,390 rods, but the minutes of his sur- vey were as follows : Enfield line :
Began at the above bound, run S60E 34 rods to the top of the moun- tain, then 767 rods to Enfield road, then 8 rods to Mascum River then 7 rods across said river, then 180 rods to the road by Widow Sawyers, then 171 rods to Mud Pond, then across the pond 152 rods to an ash tree, then 280 rods to Otis road, then 791 rods to the south east corner of Canaan.
The map of Enfield survey, at this time, gives the same course and distance as the Canaan map, each town assisting the other in running the line. For eighty years no question of its cor- rectness arose until in 1883, Henry H. Wilson, who had been a continuous selectman, after close examination, became convinced that the covered bridge over the Mascoma, called Blackwater or Scofield Bridge, was in Enfield and should be cared for by that town. The interest in that cause was kept up two seasons and several skillful surveyors were employed. At first the bridge was thrown into Enfield, which was a triumph for Wilson and Canaan. The defeated party then put on an additional surveyor and there was a victory for Enfield. Mr. Wilson then put on Prof. Charles H. Pettee, a civil engineer and surveyor, in whose skill and exactness he had the greatest confidence, and decided to abide the result of his labors. The bridge was in Canaan by a few feet. The method pursued was as follows:
By placing a signal on Moose Mountain at a point known to be only a few feet from the line, a trial line having been run with the compass from the western bound to this point. Then a point on Grafton hills beyond the eastern bound and on the prolongation of the town line was found and a signal was erected, this point giving a view of east bound in Grafton west line and Moose Mountain stations. Then the position of Moose Mountain station was corrected by sighting on Graf- ton station and running a line to west bound. Intermediate stations on Howe and Coggswell Hills were determined from which the position of the various roads was obtained and marked by temporary stakes. The bearing of this line from Grafton station, Coggswell Hill and vari-
-
106
HISTORY OF CANAAN.
ous intermediate points was N 5234° W, from Howe Hill it was N 531/2° W, showing a slight variation.
And to establish the line so that there should be no further cause for dispute the selectmen of the towns traversed the seven- mile line and placed thirteen stone posts firmly in the ground, one at each highway leading from Canaan to Enfield. The ex- pense of this campaign against the bridge to the towns was about $175. It appears, therefore, that there is a variation of the magnetic meridian of four and one-half to five and one-quarter degrees in about 107 years, in comparing the two surveys of the town line.
The east line of the town is the west line of Orange, and a part of the west line of Grafton. The town of Grafton, accord- ing to the record of perambulations, extends on the line of
Canaan Cory
S 61 E 20741
Dame:
Grafton Turnpike Road
Road To
Goose
Pond.>
Saw Mill
O
Marty
Pond.
Road to Orange
Meeting
mouse
Hanover line
Mascomy river.
501 1.11
Road to Gratton
County Road
843 W 3 95
Rodo
Enfield ₦ 58 W 2390
Being called upon by the Selectmen of Canaan to make a plan of Sd Canaan according to an act of the legislature of the State passed Dec 30, 1803. Entitled an act to Cause the several towns to make surveys in order to make a map of the state This plan is a present actual survey by carefull admeasurement horizontally.,
John Currier Surveyor,
Orange Old line S4/ W 16/2
North 45 £ 1897 rody
MSON
Gration line 541 W 387
Road
Enfield Core
Mountain
Gore line
Road to Dorchester
Orange line 535 W 1595
107
THE PITCH BOOK AND PROPRIETORS' SURVEYS.
Canaan 400 rods, the points of compass have varied from . North 41° East to North 44° East. John Currier, in 1805, sur- veyed two lines. One claimed by Grafton and one claimed by Canaan. He ran the line as claimed by Canaan, South 41° West 387 rods from the southwest corner of Orange, which made a straight line with the old charter line between Canaan and Orange. But Grafton claimed a line west of the charter line, which took off a corner of Canaan amounting to about 240 acres. Grafton had a dispute with Enfield over a strip extending along its west side and, as Grafton lay to the east of Canaan, in order to maintain its western boundary as a straight line against Enfield, it was obliged to run into Canaan. John Currier surveyed this disputed line in Canaan to run from the southwest corner of Orange North 65° West 100 rods, thence South 43º West 385 rods, to the disputed corner of Enfield. The contention of Grafton was not recognized. In 1812 the record of perambula- tion is: "Met Henry Springer of Grafton and perambulated N 41 E about 400 rods to S. W. corner of Orange. According to act passed Feb. 8. 1791."
In 1826, the record was North 401%° East; in 1844, it was North 41° East; in 1868 North 43º East. The line on Orange begins at the northeast corner of Canaan and has been perambu- lated for years, South 61° West 226 rods to the southwest cor- ner of Cushing's Gore, then South 44° West 1,740 rods to the Grafton line. John Currier's survey was of the "old line" and the "new line." They both ended at the northwest corner of Grafton and southwest corner of Orange.
The minutes of his survey are as follows : Orange line. "Begun at a large rock then run S35W 1600 rods to the south west corner of said Orange, then S39W 92 rods to the first road then 105 rods to the second road then 200 rods to Enfield Corner."
The course of the Orange "old line" was South 41º West 1,612 rods, and of the "new line," South 35° West, 1,595 rods, both starting from Dame's Gore, about 250 rods apart. At this time Orange claimed the westerly line as its west boundary. The Orange map of 1805 gave the line as running South 35° West 1,600 rods, and as part of Orange on the east end of the gore as South 39° West 160 rods from the northeast corner of the gore. The line on the south line of Dame's Gore was run North 65°
108
HISTORY OF CANAAN.
Rock
Deed of
Proprietors of Canaan ) to Aug 12. 1807
Proprietors of Orange
Whereas disputes have arisen and for a long time subsisted about the dividing line
Beginning at a stake and stones near Daniel Blaisdell's field, N. W. Cor. of Grafton, Established by Gerrish etc, 1781, N 35 E 5 m. 20 r to a rock about 3 feet across in present supposed line of Canaan and Dames Gore to be N. E. Cor. Canaan released all lands to Orange East of new line. Daniel Blaisdell, Jo- seph Flint, Treadway land, Brown lot Morrill lot, Shepard lot, 402.63 whole amt. located.
Blaisdell N line 140 r. from Grafton Corner, from said Corner to new road is 220 r. to S. edge of Pond is 234 r., to S. line of Puffer 396, to Orange road 556 50 r. across Puffer land.
Dames Goreline
Orange Common
Land
396.24r
7 418
Shepard
Seo. Harris Oct. 10.1786
merrill 20" Wentworth Sex 10. 1786
Brown2+100 Gustin
Dec 6. 1787
Laid out 416 rods long to
Treadway OCT. 17811
Orange Road
newLine 1135€ 5m. 20r
Treadway land
Puffer Lauch Laid June 6. 1801
1 42a.32r
Pond new Road.
Eng. Blaisdell u. line
Grafton Cor.
West 240 rods. There being so much dispute over the dividing line, the proprietors' committees of the two towns came together, had the line surveyed, and agreed upon a "new line," in distinc- tion from the old or charter line. The new line agreed upon ran from Grafton corner North 35° East five miles and twenty rods, to the rock corner on Dame's Gore. It ran through all the lots which had been surveyed and bounded on Orange's "old line," leaving part of the land on Canaan side and part on Orange
of Canaan Old Line
109
THE PITCH BOOK AND PROPRIETORS' SURVEYS.
side. Accordingly the proprietors of Canaan, by deed dated August 12, 1807, released to the proprietors of Orange, who had appointed a committee "to pass deeds and settle the title with Canaan," all the land on the east side of this new line, amount- ing to 778 acres and eighty-seven square rods. The first mention in the records of the proprietors of Orange of this dispute occurs December 12, 1798. At this time the Shepard lot was the most northern lot located southeast of the old farm of Stephen Worth. All north of it was undivided.
One hundred and eight rods of the north line of that lot was released to Orange out of one hundred and sixty. This seemed to have settled the dispute. For over thirty years this "new line" was the accepted boundary. In 1840, the selectmen of Orange sought, by petition dated June 10, 1840, to the "Hon- orable Senate and House of Representatives," to have "that part of Canaan situated east of the line as Canaan was first surveyed by the proprietors annexed to Orange." Canaan in- structed its representative to oppose it "with all his might." The hearing came up in 1841 and leave was given to withdraw the petition, which the selectmen of Orange did. Then the mat- ter slumbered for nine years, until September, 1850, when John Flint of Lyme attempted to survey the disputed line for Canaan. He "began at Grafton Corner and ran thence N 373/4° E nearly 1692 rods to the rock corner, then S 61° E 152 rods to the S. E. corner of Gore, then N 60° E 260 rods to Groton corner, a beech tree." This was the old compromise line. "The bearing and distance of the line Canaan claims as her east line will be N 43º E nearly and nearly 1700 rods to the S. E. corner of the Gore." Dame's Gore projected beyond the "new line" as claimed by Orange, 152 rods. Between the "new line" and the "old line" was a strip of land 152 rods wide at the north end and running to a point at Grafton corner. Orange had claimed this strip as far back as 1803 when the proprietors of Orange brought action of ejectment against Josiah Clark and lost their suit.
Application was made to the court of common pleas to settle and establish the line, which it did on November 13, 1850, having appointed D. C. Churchill, Isaac Ross and N. T. Berry commis- sioners. The line was established as follows :
110
HISTORY OF CANAAN.
Beginning at the northwest corner of Grafton, which is the south- west corner of Orange, thence running North 4234° East, 1,700 rods to a stake and stones, which we set up and establish as the southeast corner of Dame's Gore, as it was when annexed to Canaan. Thence running North 60° East 254 rods to the southwest corner of Groton, being a beech tree standing on the west side of a brook. No trees were found marked on the east end of the Gore, but we marked them with spots on the sides and three marks acrost the tree with a marking iron.
The expense of this survey was $430.94 to the two towns. The strip disputed became Canaan land. The north line of the town extends on the line of the towns of Dorchester and Lyme. The perambulation of the line between Canaan and Lyme fails to show any distance. But the survey made when State's Gore was annexed to Canaan, began at the northeast corner of Hanover and ran thence South 64° East 277 rods to the "corner of Lime and Dorchester." This survey was made after Dame's Gore was annexed to Canaan. The map of Lyme from the sur- vey of 1805 gives the same distance but the direction was South 641/2° East.
The old town line of Canaan was bounded on the north by Dame's Gore, a strip of land which lay between Canaan and Dorchester. In the charter this line ran North 61° West six miles. The north line of all the old pitches have this bearing, but the proprietors pitched and surveyed many lots of land on the other side of the "old town line," which were in Dame's Gore, and the south line of these pitches do not follow that bearing. Some of them run North 64° West and North 65° West. John Currier's survey in 1805 runs on the gore line South 61º East 2,074 rods to Orange new line. Orange claimed its new line ran through the Gore and into Dorchester, a distance of sixty-two rods, taking off 220 rods on Dorchester's south line and Dame's Gore north line. Orange did not establish its claim.
The minutes of Currier's survey were as follows: Dame's Gore line :
Begin at a beach tree being the N. E. Corner of Hanover then run, S61E 310 rods to Clark's Pond then S29W 40 rods then 116 rods to the lower end of sd Pond, the Pond is 12 rods wide at the lower end, the general course of the Pond is N23W about 200 rods, then on the town line 368 rods to Mascum River, S34W is the general course of said river,
111
THE PITCH BOOK AND PROPRIETORS' SURVEYS.
then 274 rods to Dorchester road then 166 rods to Lary's pond on the west side and 30 rods wide, runs north 60 rods, South 140 rods, the gen- eral course is North and South, then 216, rods to Jones's road, then 266 rods to Indian River, then 228 rods to a large rock with stones thereon being on Orange line.
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