USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Canaan > The history of Canaan, New Hampshire > Part 13
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Fifty acres of the minister's right was sold to Jonathan Carl- ton for $145. The remainder of land due this right and subse- quently laid is as follows: Twenty-eight and one-half acres was laid out December 6, 1808, and twenty-one and one-half acres was laid November 20, 1809, both to Jonathan Carlton, located on the west side of Goose Pond and between the two ponds. Both parcels were in the third division, as well as fifty acres, which was included in the farm of Ashel Jones, now owned by Alvah Dodge.
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PUBLIC RIGHTS.
Seven acres of the fourth division were laid out to Simeon Arvin June 10, 1814, and is included in the old Howard farm. Seven acres of the fifth division were laid out to Moses Dole September 23, 1816, northwest of Factory Village. The second division of intervale, one acre, was laid out to Charles Church May 27, 1814, on the south side of the Mascoma River, where Goose Pond Brook runs into it. These several divisions of land were sold and deed given. The notes received by the town amounted to a little over $1,500, but the sale did not put money in the town treasury, the sale being on one and two years' time. The selectmen decided to take shares in the turnpike without fur- ther orders from the town. The following is a copy of the old certificate of the town :
Town of Canaan 15 shares.
Know all men by these presents that I E. Kingsbury Junr, Esq of Orford in the county of Grafton and State of New Hampshire, for the ៛ consideration of $150 paid to me before the delivery hereof by the town of Canaan, in the County of Grafton and State of New Hampshire, the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, do hereby give, grant, sell and convey to the sd Town of Canaan, its assigns, the following shares in the corporation called the Grafton Turnpike Road, to wit the shares numbered from 234-248 both inclusive. To have and to hold the sd granted shares, with a right to give one vote for each share in all matters proper to be transacted by sd Corporation, and all other priv- ileges and appurtenances to the same belonging to the sd Town of Canaan and to its assigns, and I the sd E. Kingsbury Junr, do covenant with the sd Town of Canaan that I have full power to convey the afore- said shares in manner aforesaid.
In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 4th. day of July 1807.
E. KINGSBURY JUNR.
This old certificate turned up in 1904 amongst some old papers that had been in the possession of David Bagley for many years. It no doubt came to him from John Fales and to Fales from Hough Harris, who was in later years a selectman. Persons in- terested in the pike became clamorous; they talked like dema- gogues of the present day, accusing the selectmen of trying to defeat the will of the people. Many of the good people did not take stock in the pike; they lacked confidence in its success. They told the people if they put their money in that pike they would never see it again. The pike was not finished. Indict-
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HISTORY OF CANAAN.
ments were already pending against it for damages; their money would soon be absorbed and assessments in money and labor would be called for to make the road passable. These argu- ments convinced nobody. The next year, 1808, the town voted "to direct the selectmen to sign the articles of agreement of Grafton Turnpike Corporation, certifying that they will carry on and pay their assessments on those shares taken by said town." It is supposed that the selectmen obeyed this vote, signing the agreement with the pike, and for more than a year the pro- prietors went on with their improvements, encouraging them- selves and the stockholders by brave words. But no dividends had yet been announced, and the pike was still unfinished.
During the year 1809 no vote upon the subject is recorded, but the people were good enough to promise that they would ex- change the road from "Dr. Maxwell's to Capt. Arvin's whenever the turnpike is opened and made passable." The road referred to was laid through the swamp near the pond. In March, 1810, an article appeared in the warrant to see if the town would open the road from S. Arvin's to the Wells farm "till such times as the turnpike shall be passable." It was dismissed. The road was still unfinished and in an almost impassable condition; but there seemed to be some urgency in the case and to give the people some chance to relieve their minds a meeting was called in May and it was voted "that the selectmen make the best distribu- tion they can of those notes they hold against individuals to pay the assessments on those shares taken by the Town of Canaan." These assessments had been apportioned among the taxpayers and money being hard to get, many objected. At the annual meeting in March, 1811, the town voted "to raise a sum of money sufficient to pay the assessments on the 15 shares taken by the town in the Grafton Turnpike Co." Fourteen persons entered their "decent" against paying these taxes :
Levi George. Joshua Richardson.
Jacob Straw. William Longfellow, Jr. Nathaniel Bartlett. Reuben Gile. Daniel Pattee.
William Campbell.
John Porter.
Stephen Williams.
Joshua Meachan.
William Longfellow.
Lewis Lambkin.
Robert Williams.
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PUBLIC RIGHTS.
Not one of these men lived on the pike. There had as yet been no dividends and nothing but the assessments had been thrust at the stockholders. Nevertheless, in June following the town voted "not to sell their turnpike shares nor any part thereof." This vote was immediately reconsidered and Daniel Blaisdell, Thomas Miner and Micaiah Moore were appointed a committee to take the subject into consideration, "to see how they can dispose of the Turnpike shares belonging to the town and report September next." On November 11 they voted "To sell 15 shares of the Grafton Turnpike Corporation and all the privileges and immunities thereunto belonging to Daniel Blais- dell Esq, for $100, he paying all assessments now laid by the corporation and all future assessments, excepting $110 on each share, which is already paid by the town." And that "the se- lectmen execute a deed to said Blaisdell, on his giving bonds with sureties, to indemnify the town agreeably to the above vote."
"Voted to suspend the collection of the Turnpike tax for the space of ten days, and then if the said Blaisdell shall comply with the above votes, the selectmen are directed to stop the col- lection eventually."
On December 4 they voted "not to collect the Turnpike tax that was assessed in May last amounting to $372 on the princi- ple .? '
In the adoption of this vote we infer that the town and Mr. Blaisdell had traded and that for $100 he received a deed of property which had cost the town nearly $1,700 and against which there were unpaid assessments of $372. Rather a bearish speculation ! Looks as if the town, the school and the church would have been happier to have adopted Mr. Trussell's resolu- tion. A proposition was made and earnestly advocated to collect and pay to the Turnpike Company the sum of $372 on condi- tion that the directors give bonds to furnish and keep in repair a good, passable road, including bridges, from Hanover line through Canaan to Orange line, in place where the Turnpike is now laid, to be free of toll to all inhabitants of Canaan, to pass and repass for the term of twenty years. But they voted it down. They were not ready to enter into any further contract with the corporation. Their experience had not been agreeable.
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HISTORY OF CANAAN.
The company had not provided a good road; it was defective in several places and unfinished, and the resolution was gently passed out of sight.
Several years after the above vote an article was inserted in the warrant to see if the town would allow the inhabitants liv- ing on the line of the pike to work out their highway taxes on said pike. But this article was coolly passed by unnoticed and the Grafton Turnpike Company was left to keep its roadway in repair from its own income, and thereafter the company, its feverish struggles with assessments insteads of dividends, its good or bad fortune, passes entirely out of our records. It wor- ried along for several years, hoping for a surplus in its treasury, but the turnpike business was overdone and to escape from their difficulties they asked the Legislature in 1828 to receive back their charter and let them go into liquidation, and they went.
In 1823 the town voted that half the tax of those living near the turnpike be laid out on it, provided the inhabitants pass free of toll. In 1827 the town voted to accept the turnpike and lay a road over it, provided the corporation surrender their whole charter; and in 1828 the selectmen re-surveyed the road, "Be- ginning at the center of two stakes, standing in the Westerly line of Orange near Orange Pond," and thence passing over and including all the lands over which the Grafton Turnpike was laid through Canaan to Hanover line, and proclaimed it a highway over which all mankind were free to travel and enjoy themselves.
Seven assessments were made upon the stock. The first was made July 4, 1807, of $15 on each share and the town paid $225 on November 30. On January 25, 1808, two assessments were made, one for $15 and the other for $25, and the town paid $600. The fourth and fifth assessments were made January 30, 1809, of $35 and $10, and the town paid $675. The sixth assess- ment was made in January, 1810, of $14, and the seventh and last assessment was made in January, 1811, of $13.85. The town paid none on the last and only part of the sixth. It paid in all $1,692.
The first dividend of $1.25 per share was paid in 1813; the next in 1814 of fifty-five cents; another in the same year of fifty cents. In 1815 there was a dividend of one dollar. There were two dividends of one dollar each in 1816, one of sixty-six cents in
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PUBLIC RIGHTS.
1817 and one of fifty cents in 1818, making a total payment of dividends of $6.46 on each share, or about $1,938 on all the shares. It cost the people of Canaan the sum of $15,688.19 for their experience with the "Pike," of which amount about $755.82 was returned in dividends. The total cost of the shares of the town was $2,067.75. Daniel Blaisdell paid part of the sixth assessment and the seventh. It cost Micaiah Moore $2,481.30, Simeon Arvis $1,102.28 and Richard Clark, Jr., the same. Each share cost the owner $137.85, less the small dividends he re- ceived.
The remaining two public rights, "for the Incorporated So- ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and for a Glebe for the Church of England, as by law established," were inserted in the charter to afford a source of income for those religious associations established in England. They were ex- clusively English concerns and had no place in this country ; no more in olden times than now. No land was laid out to these rights before the Revolution and the result of that struggle was to forfeit all rights of property on American soil belonging to English people or corporations to the American people. The proprietors assumed ownership of these rights; they were not cancelled, but received their share of land in the several divi- sions, excepting the propagating right, which received none in the sixth division. In 1781 the proprietors voted to lay out the glebe right, but it was not done. Daniel Blaisdell became the owner of these two rights and much of the land was surveyed to him.
The first one hundred acres of the glebe or church right was laid out in 1804 to Daniel Blaisdell, and was the old farm Moses Lawrence lived on, and adjoined the east line of Josiah Barber's "long lot" on the "old town line."
Forty acres of the second division was laid to Clark Currier on Sawyer Hill in 1805, and another forty was laid out to Thomas and Mark Cilley in 1809, and is part of the "Hoyt Place" on the present Gore road.
Twenty-two and one-half acres of the same division were laid out to Nathan Cross in the "Gore," as was also eight and one- half acres of the third division in 1823. Fourteen acres of the third division were laid out to Moses Dole in 1809, where the old
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HISTORY OF CANAAN.
paper mill stood. Fourteen acres of the same division were laid out to "Samuel Whitcher" in 1806, on the west side of the Indian River, above the watering trough by the fair grounds. Eleven and one-quarter acres of the same division were laid out to Thomas Miner in 1806, on the south side of the river, op- posite George W. Davis's, and fifty acres were laid out to Na- thaniel "Whitcher" in 1806, near the Gore line. The first divi- sion of intervale of two acres was laid out in 1805, and extends from the Turnpike bridge at the depot down the river, embrac- ing the railroad station and yards and part of the village. The fourth, fifth and sixth divisions were located in different parts of the town. No land was laid in the second division of inter- vale, and only one acre in the sixth division of upland. The whole number of acres laid out to this right was 325.
Daniel Blaisdell sold the first hundred of the propagating right to Stephen Worth and it was surveyed to him in 1807. It was the old Watts Davis farm near Tug Mountain, on Orange line. The second division was laid out in five different parcels, amount- ing to 1051% acres. The third division was laid out in two parcels, amounting to ninety-one and one-half acres. The first division of intervale was laid out in two parcels, amounting to thirteen and one-half acres, and the second division was one acre. Seven acres were laid out to the fourth and fifth divisions. No land was laid out in the sixth division, and the whole right amounted to 3251/2 acres. In 1811 the town voted "to examine the rights and title the town may have in the Church and Propa- gating rights." No report was made. They probably came to the conclusion that the town did not own them, although they were hard pushed to get money to pay their assessments on the turnpike.
The Protestant Episcopal Church is now the owner of these last two rights in this country. It became the owner by pur- chase from the two English societies. Some land in other towns in this state is still held by that church under these rights, leased by them and an income derived therefrom. Should any of the land pitched to these two rights be still unoccupied and in a wild condition it would be the property of that church. In this town all has been occupied that was set off to those rights, and it would be impossible to disturb the adverse title.
CHAPTER XI.
THE COMMON, BROAD STREET, THE MEETING HOUSE.
The proprietors' committee, in their efforts to determine the center of the town for the purpose of laying out the town plot mentioned in the charter, examined the land, struck out their lines and found the western short of Hart's Pond to be near the center of the grant. But this land was already laid out to cer- tain rights, nevertheless, the committee had an eye for the picturesque and they decided that this beautiful sheet of water should be one of the attractions of their new village. But how should they ever be able to make such a swamp passable and habitable! They traveled through it by the aid of rotten logs, fallen trees, ridges of moss, and then after much hard labor they laid out "Broad Street" in 1788, eight rods wide, and nearly one mile in length.
In the year 1800 the traveler across our Broad Street, which at that time was famous for its great two-porched meeting-house and for the great frames of unfinished buildings along its way, saw standing upon the fields on either side and upon the shores of Hart's Pond a continuous forest of huge pine trees, dead to the top, leafless and the earth strewn with fallen branches. These great trees had been girdled years before by the early settlers and left to die, that being the manner of death allotted to those monarchs of the forest. When dead and dry they were more easily burned standing than if cut down.
Part of the land along "The Street" was divided into acre lots; but those who settled there bought of the first owner.
"Broad Street" passed through Robert Barber's farm, through fifty acres of the first hundred of Allen Whitman, which William Douglass bought for twelve shillings and two pence at tax sale for the taxes assessed in 1782, through the first hundred of Phineas Sabine, and through Daniel Colby's fifty acres of the first division of Samuel Dodge, 3d. The first owners sold these lots running to "Broad Street." The road was not granted; it was and always has been the property of the adjoining owners.
Grand View Hotel
Methodist Church
Mrs. S. A. Dustin
C. U. Academy COMMON. BROAD STREET AND HART POND FROM TOWN HOUSE (1904)
Pinnacle
J. B. Wallace
School House
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HISTORY OF CANAAN.
There was but one clearing on the "Street"when it was laid out. It embraced about three acres and was owned by William Douglass, the shoemaker who lived in a log house built in the orchard back of the old Pierce Tavern or Grand View House, torn down in 1909. Mr. Douglass planted this orchard with seeds brought from Connecticut, the first orchard planted in the village.
To this day "Broad Street," now called "Canaan Street," is one of the most attractive and beautiful places in the state. It is 1,164 feet above tide water, 204 feet higher than the railroad station. At one end of it is the "Pinnacle," 263 feet above the "Street." Towards the east is Mt. Cardigan, 3,156 feet. To the north are Smarts and Moose Mountains, the latter 2,326 feet high. Towards the west one looks off into the long valley of the Mascoma River, and in the distance, through a break in the hills, can be seen the highest peak of the Green Mountains. Ex- tending along the whole length of the "Street" is Hart's Pond, whose shores for the most part are surrounded by forests, which rise still higher upon the hills.
After the town had voted to build a meeting-house and their committee had reported upon the "spot" to place it, a long dis- cussion arose upon the propriety and convenience in having an open "common." The proposition was acted upon favorably and a committee was appointed to wait upon William Douglass, the shoemaker, and negotiate for a deed. This deed reads as follows :
Know all men by these presents that I, William Douglass of Canaan, in the County of Grafton, State of New Hampshire, cordwainer.
For and in consideration of the sum of Eleven pounds five shillings lawful money to me in hand before the delivery thereof well and truly paid by Caleb Welch, John Burdick and William Richardson, in behalf of the proposed Meeting house in Canaan and in the county and State aforesaid.
The receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge have Granted Bar- gained Sold and by these presents do give grant Bargain sell aliene enfeoff convey and confirm unto the said Caleb Welch, John Burdick and William Richardson in their capacity acting in behalf of the proprietors their Heirs and assigns forever a certain tract of Land being and lying in the Township of Canaan and situate as follows;
Beginning at the Northeasterly corner a few rods south of Mr. Wil- liam Douglass Dwelling house adjoining easterly on Broad street so
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THE COMMON, BROAD STREET, THE MEETING HOUSE.
called thence running S 12°E 30 Roods to a stake and stones thence running N 78°W 12 Roods to a stake and stones thence N 12°W 30 Roods to a stake and stones from thence to the first bound. Likewise a piece of Land Lying Easterly from the above mentioned piece of Land between Broad street & Harts pond so called and Bounded as follows. Beginning at a stake and stones by the Pond thence running S 78°W 14 Roods to a stake and stones thence S 12ºE 11 Roods to a stake and stones thence N 72°E 14 Roods to the pond from thence to the first mentioned Bounds to have and to hold the sd granted prem- ises with all the privileges and apertainances to the same belonging to them the said Caleb Welch, John Burdick and William Richardson in their capacity as aforesaid to their Heirs to their only proper use and benefit forever and I the same William Douglass my Heirs Executors and administrators do hereby covenant grant and agree to and with Caleb Welch John Burdick and William Richardson in behalf of the proprietors of the proposed Meeting house in Canaan their Heirs and assigns that until the delivery hereof I am the Lawful owner of the sd premises seized and possessed thereof in my own Right in fee simple and have full power and Lawfull authority to grant and convey the same in manner aforesaid that the sd premises free and clear of all and every incumberance whatever and that I my Heirs executors and administrators shall & will warant the same to them the sd Caleb Welch, John Burdick and William Richardson as aforesd their Heirs and assigns against the Lawfull Claims and demands of any person or persons whomsoever in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 26 day of December 1792.
WILLIAM DOUGLASS (LS)
Signed sealed and delivered
in presents of
Wm Parkhurst
Sally Parkhurst
Grafton Ss Canaan Jany 14th 1794
Personally appeared William Douglass signer and sealer of the above instrument and acknowledged the same to Be his free act and Deed
Before Me WILLIAM AYER Just. Peace.
The price paid was about thirty-seven and one-half dollars.
A powerful argument used in favor of the second parcel was that in course of time many people would have to be baptized, because it was a divine ordination necessary to salvation; and eventually everybody would have to come to the meeting-house to hear the Word and witness God's ordinances, so they had bet- ter have a wide common opening down to the pond, that on oc- casions of baptism there might be room enough for all the people. This argument prevailed. The "Common," when William Doug-
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HISTORY OF CANAAN.
lass sold it to the "Proprietors of the proposed Meeting House," was a swamp crowded with stumps, trees, rotten logs and frogs. It was deeded unconditionally. For several years afterwards this swamp was drained off westwardly by ditches, until by cutting and clearing away obstructions it became settled land. In the fall of 1793 the use of the common was sold by auction to Simeon Arvin for two years, at two dollars per year, he agreeing to level the land and get out the stumps, but he failed to comply with his contract and nothing was done. For several years it re- mained in its natural condition, when Ensign Colby offered to clear and level the land if he could have the use of it for two years for his labor. The first year he did little else but cut and clear away. The second year the ground was ploughed and worked over, and he raised 123 bushels of shelled corn. As this crop did not sufficiently remunerate him the proprietors gave him the use of it another year, during which he raised 1,600 pounds of pussed flax, which his mother and sisters worked up into cloth, as was the custom in those days.
B. P. George enclosed a strip of it on the north side and fenced it in, but the fence is gone now. The academy grounds enclosed one rod of it on the south line and that fence is gone, too. Jesse Martin cleared his field of stones and left them on the west side, where they remained, occupying about twenty feet of space, until his son-in-law, Hon. Caleb Blodgett, paid for having them built into a wall in 1899. And the Canaan Street Improvement So- ciety ploughed, leveled and seeded the piece on the west side the same year, having leveled the piece on the east side two years be- fore. The "Street," laid out eight rods wide, has been en- croached upon by adjoining owners every time a fence or wall has been built; even houses have been built into it, so that now but a small part of it is as wide as it was laid out.
It was many years after the settlement of the town before our ancestors decided to build a meeting-house. The subject came up at their religious gatherings, but it was only in the form of hopes and wishes. And even after the Baptist church was or- ganized in 1780 their new house seemed just as far away. Thomas Baldwin, who for several years had had charge over the church and people, preaching in barns and other buildings at great in- convenience, had long urged the necessity for a meeting-house,
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THE COMMON, BROAD STREET, THE MEETING HOUSE.
which should really be a "stated place for worship and dedi- cated to God."
Dea. Caleb Welch and Dr. Ebenezer Eames also urged the need of a place of worship. For a long time a majority of the people were either indifferent or hostile to the project. They pleaded poverty and hard times and desired to wait a little longer. At length, at the annual meeting March 11, 1788, they voted unani- mously "to build a meeting house, and the meeting adjourned to April 2d. Nothing was done at that meeting; but a special meet- ing was called May 9 for the purpose of arriving at some definite conclusion. Lieut. William Richardson, Daniel Blaisdell, Thad- deus Lathrop, Jehu Jones and John Harris were chosen a com- mittee "to pick upon a spot to set a Meeting house and what method shall be taken for the building of the same." The com- mittee reported at once and the place proposed was accepted, "which is about 60 rods from David Fogg's towards Mr. Dust- in's." This would fix the place a little northeasterly of Israel Sharon's barn on the old Barber place. David Fogg's log house was in the south corner of the old Lebanon road, where there is now a clump of apple trees. Then Deacon Welch, Lieutenant Wells, John Scofield, Lieutenant Richardson and Daniel Blais- dell were appointed to prepare the spot ("prefix" is the word used), "and likewise propose some convenient method to build sd house." The meeting adjourned to Thursday, June 2.
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