USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Canaan > The history of Canaan, New Hampshire > Part 4
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HISTORY OF CANAAN.
time of the building of the meeting house at the homes of the settlers, then a few meetings were held in the meeting house, for the most part they were held at the different dwelling houses. Until 1774 the meetings were held at John Scofield's, until 1780 they met at Samuel Chapman's, and thereafter at different places as suited their convenience. At the meeting on June 12, 1770, each proprietor was authorized to make choice of one hundred acres of upland and ten acres of intervale. A tax of fifteen shillings was laid on each right to defray the expenses of laying out said lots. It was voted to ratify and confirm the several taxes which had been assessed upon the rights but not all collected, up to this time, and Mr. George Harris was ap- pointed to collect each and every of the aforesaid taxes.
The first tax granted August ye 18 1761 being on each proprietors right 1. 3 0
The second granted November ye 16 1762 on each Right 0 8 71%
The Third tax granted Mar 31 1763 on each Proprietors Right 0 3 0
The Fourth tax granted Sept ye 23 1765 on each Right 0 6 0
The Fifth tax granted March 11 1766 on each Right 0 6 0
The Sixth tax granted Sept 3 1767 on each Right 0 6 0
The Seventh tax granted March the 21 1769 on each 1
Right
7 9
The ratification of these taxes was followed by the sale of thirteen of the original rights for non-payment of taxes and charges.
The mill still troubled them and it was further voted "six shillings on each right, to be paid in labor, and the time for completing then be extended to August 15, 1771.'' Eight months longer we must pack our bread corn to Lebanon and back.
In the following October, through infinite exertions, the archi- tects were discovered, and the mills for which we sighed were located. John Scofield, Joseph Craw and Asa Kilburn were appointed "to make and execute good deeds of three hundred acres of land unto Nathan Scofield and Ebenezer Eames, as encouragement for building Mills in Canaan as soon as they think fit," and extending the time for completing the cornmill to December 1, 1771, on account of the difficulty of procuring mill stones. How anxiously they watched the work in that mill.
29
PROPRIETORS' MEETINGS, 1768-1785.
.
From the foundation to the cap-board, they saw it rise and become more and more a mill, and when it was announced that on a certain day, the miller would hoist the gate, every man started early in the morning with a bushel of corn, hoping to be first on the spot, so that he might be able to boast that his was the first grist ground at the new mill. But perhaps we may imagine the disgust of these early risers, who on arriving at the mill, discerned one of those irrepressible, everlasting Yankees, who are never behind anybody, already there, quietly sitting upon his bag, waiting for the door to open. He had been there nearly all night.
The mill was built at the "Corner," near the old tannery of F. P. Swett, on the stream running from Hart Pond. It was built by Dr. Ebenezer Eames. The contract was for a corn and sawmill. The sawmill was not located at the Corner. From all we can learn it was located in the southerly part of the town, and another party got the benefit of the town appropriation for it. Doctor Eames was one of the grantees of the town and his share in the town land was set off to him, one hundred acres of which he occupied near his mill. The mill was a clumsy and uncouth affair, but it ground well the corn of the people. The stones were turned by an overshot wheel about twenty-five feet in diameter. We used to watch the slow revolutions of that great wheel and wonder how it would effect us to take a ride upon it. The deed given to Doctor Eames by the committee of the proprietors in 1771 was for one hundred acres of land, called the "1st. Hundred of the Mill Right," and in the Proprietors' Book of Records is described as follows:
Beginning at an old hemlock stump, at the end of the lower dam at the lower end of Hart's Pond. Then S 35° W about 12 rods across said Pond to a stake and stones, then S 20° E 31 rods to the N. E. Cor- ner of a 50 acre lot in the 1st. Division of the Right of Samuel Dodge. Then S 781/2° W 164 rods in said Dodge's line to a stake and stones, thence N 12º W 100 rods to a stake and stones then N 7812° E 164 rods to a stake and stones standing in the south line of the 1st. 100 of George Lamphere, then S 12° about 64 rods to the first bound.
JOHN CURRIER & EZEKIEL WELLS. Committee of Proprietors.
It is not known what became of Doctor Eames and his wife. His last appearance as a taxpayer was in 1794. And the "1st.
30
HISTORY OF CANAAN.
100 of the Mill Right." in that year was given in for taxation by Henry French. Two years afterwards, in 1796, it is given in by Dudley Gilman. In 1797, it becomes separated, sixty acres is owned by Hezekiah Jones and forty acres by Joshua Clement. Then come Nathan Messer, in 1799, and Cyrus Carlton, who came here from Orange, where he had continued lawsuits with Nathan Waldo, which afforded both gentlemen great pleasure until the lawyers scooped in pretty much all their estate and then Mr. Carlton escaped to Canaan, bought the grist-mill and built a house, long owned and occupied by Hough Harris, and now by A. S. Green.
Excepting the laying out of roads and the survey of lands, the mill was the first solid improvement made in Canaan. Nearly all the houses so far were thrown up for temporary shelter, being built of logs and brush. There were no school houses, the schoolmaster had not yet arrived. No teams; hospi- tality was universal. The people were all workers and strug- gling for existence.
At the meeting of October 16, 1770, a tax of nine pence was laid on each right to defray the expense of sending John Scofield to Portsmouth and George Harris to Colchester, to col- lect money due the proprietors from the grantees. These moneys were the taxes before referred to which the absent proprietors neglected to pay, and which they did pay. Other taxes were only collected upon the sale of the rights, the owners of which were pleased with such a release from their obligations to the propriety.
In January, 1771, at an adjourned meeting, Jedidiah Hibbard, having procured a law book for the proprietors, it was voted to be received and paid for. John Scofield's bill of 16 pounds, 8 shillings, and Ezekiel Wells' bill for 1 pound, 2 shillings, for labor on the highway, was allowed.
Subsequently, in the same year, it was voted that each proprie- tor should clear one acre of intervale and cut and girdle two acres of upland before he should have title to his lands.
Five acres of land to each right, in the most convenient place, near the mills, were voted, for the convenience of timber, and from this day no proprietor might choose any land that might.
31
PROPRIETORS' MEETINGS, 1768-1785.
be thought necessary for such five-acre lots. Then followed several adjourned meetings, which record only the division of land among the proprietors, and the laying of taxes for the building of roads. And this building of roads seems to have been the great burden of the settlers and who can wonder at the burden. Not much else is done in those days. Many of these roads are traveled now, and the traces of those which have been changed are distinctly visible.
The only historical road built this year was the Wolfeborough or "Governor's Road," to pay for which each right was assessed two pounds L. M., for the purpose of making and clearing. This vote was passed in May, 1772. Joseph Craw, Samuel Benedict and Samuel Jones were appointed to lay out the one hundred and twenty-four pounds forthwith, and for each faithful day's labor they were to allow each man five shilling and six pence.
This road was surveyed from the Pemigewasset River to Dartmouth College, October 30, 1771. The direction of the road in Canaan, according to the survey, was: “W 15º N 13/4 miles to line of Canaan & Hanover." This road cut across the northwest corner of the town, crossing the bridge across Marshall Brook at the head of Goose Pond, and continuing on the line of the present road to Tunis, and from there to Dartmouth College. It is still known in Hanover as the Wolfeborough Road and the land lying along was laid out to its line. In the spring of 1772, Gov. John Wentworth started in his four- horse state coach from Wolfeborough, to visit his possessions towards Connecticut River. He was accompanied by an escort of sixty soldiers, and the road was cleared for him as he passed along through forest and swamps, over hills and through valleys, building bridges of logs over the streams and corduroy roads over the impassable mud. He passed over Moose Moun- tain to Hanover, where the new college had but recently been organized under the care of Dr. Eleazer Wheelock. In Canaan this road is a matter of legend for the most part; it is grown up to trees where the land has not been cleared. The line of it is visible from the distinctive color of the foliage, being the light green of white birch. A portion of this road is sometimes traveled, although it has been discontinued.
32
HISTORY OF CANAAN.
On the twenty-ninth of November, 1773, an adjourned meet- ing was held, when Capt. Caleb Welch was made moderator and a new committee was appointed, and the minister's lots and the school lots were voted to be laid out. And then the meeting was dissolved, after having been in session, by adjournments, more than three years and half. On June 1, 1773, a vote was passed, and is recorded in the handwriting of George Harris, confirming and ratifying all the transactions of the proprietors, relative to grants of land and calling public meetings, "notwithstanding any want of form, legal and proper terms or defects and defaults of process relative to the premises." And the dissolution of this meeting closes an epoch in our town history. For all these years the records are slim, affording scanty information of the lives of the people. There were town meetings and proprietors' meet- ings, to elect officers, to repair roads, to allow bills, to appoint committees to lay out "hundred acre lots." But as yet there appear no votes nor reports, upon loyalty, religion or educa- tion. Only once in a while is there a gleam of light upon the thoughts of this busy people.
Jedidiah Hibbard, having left town, in the latter part of November, 1773, Thomas Miner was appointed proprietors' clerk. From the records he has left it is very evident that Thomas spoke the truth, when he said to Mr. Harris, at his first setting out for the new lands, "that he had little or no education." The ink is well preserved, black, but the chirography, spelling and grammar are a little peculiar. There is no punctuation, rarely was a new sentence begun with a capital letter.
At a meeting in June, 1774, Capt. Caleb Clark, who lived near the old Fales place, was allowed to lay out a certain hundred acre lot "lying on the east side of the road that goeth from Eames mill and adjoining to Capt. Dame's Gore. Said Clark is to have said lot in room of his second hundred, in considera- tion that he pay the expense of laying it out and give the pro- prietors five pounds, one half to be done on the road and the other half on the bridge, to be built across the Mascomy river near John Scofield's at the lower Meadows."
Thomas Miner was to have the liberty of pitching one hundred
33
PROPRIETORS' MEETINGS, 1768-1785.
acres, given him as "encouragement for building a Saw-mill." Capt. Caleb Clark, Capt. Charles Walworth and John Scofield were appointed agents to make Miner a deed.
This sawmill is stated to have been erected upon Moose Brook, south of the road, and some imagining persons affirm that many of the foundation stones are still visible, and that a flat stone with a square hole in the center was hung as a grindstone, but was not much used. It also lies there now, still washed by the ever-flowing waters of Moose Brook. But Mr. Miner received the deed and by the terms of it the people of Canaan were "well accomodated." The deed is very neatly written, in the fair hand of Thomas Baldwin and is dated "This 15th. day of September, annoque domini 1777," with Thomas Baldwin and Asa Kilburn as witnesses. A part of this deed is copied below as follows :
Know all men &c, That we Caleb Clarke of Newmarket, in the prov- ince &c, Gent, Charles Walworth of Canaan &c, Gent, and John Scofield of Canaan aforesaid, husbandman, being chosen or delegated by the Propriety of Canaan, to be a Com'tee in the name & behalf of said propty to execute and deliver unto Thomas Miner of Canaan aforesaid, Gent, a Good Authentic Quit Claim Deed of One hundred acres of the undivided lands in said Canaan in such place as him the said Miner. shall think fit to pitch one hundred acre lott not incroaching on the undivided in travail nor any other pitch made before it, which privi- lege of pitching said lott is Granted unto him the said Miner by the aforesaid propriety, for that he the said Miner hath erected a Sawmill in said Canaan, which well accommodates the inhabitants of said town. Wherefor we the named Caleb Clarke, Charles Walworth and John Scofield, by virtue of the authority delegated to us by said propty for the purpose aforesaid in the name and behalf of said propty. Do by these presents, in consideration of the aforesaid service Done by him the said Miner for said Propty to their full satisfaction Give Grant bargain Sell Release Alien Convey and confirm to him the said Miner his heirs, assigns &c.
Sixty acres of this hundred was pitched north of the Wells farm, east of Hart's Pond.
Several adjournments of this meeting took place, the matter of which was recorded in the uncouth hand of Mr. Miner, and then between the years 1774 and 1780 a hiatus occurs in the Proprietors' Records. This was during the Revolution and many '
3
34
HISTORY OF CANAAN.
of the proprietors were in the Continental Army. It is a pity to lose sight of this struggling settlement, during these years, and our loss is hardly compensated in freeing us from the almost unreadable cipher of Mr. Miner. In the year 1780, George Harris was appointed to settle with Lieut. Thomas Miner and make a request of him for the book of records he held. A request was also made upon Ebenezer Eames for a proprietors' book, containing a record of the pitches. Whether it was a different book from the one Thomas Miner had is not known, for there is but one Proprietors' Book of Records in existence. There may have been another book and if so it contained the record of those who owned the land, and in which right and division it was pitched.
This book was "once committed to the care of Asa Kilburn, late of this town." Mr. Kilburn, after residing in Canaan sev- eral years, laboring hard to improve his lands, had sold out and returned to Connecticut, not satisfied with life in our town. He left Canaan in 1777 with Jedidiah Hibbard and joined Col. Jona Chase's regiment at Ticonderoga.
At this date the land had become concentrated in few hands, that is, a large part of it. For while a few men had taken advan- tage of the necessities or fears of many of the grantees, a large number of small farms, hundred acre lots, had been planted and were being improved by the owners. The grantees had, for reasons heretofore pointed out, been glad to part with their rights, and now new men appear as proprietors, who had come in during the time there was no meeting, from 1774 to 1780. Many of the proprietors held their lands for speculation, driving close and snug bargains with the new settlers, while some of them were very liberal. It is said that Mr. Harris, who was anxious to have the town populated with industrious families, upon several occasions gave an hundred acres of land for a day's labor. He believed he would be richer for giving away a part of his land for actual settlement, than to keep it as wild land.
James Treadway, sometimes called Elder Treadway, with his wife, was an early settler resident here. He came from Dutchess County, New York, about 1770. He had purchased a large
.
35
PROPRIETORS' MEETINGS, 1768-1785.
number of original rights and all the land Asa Kilburn owned in 1770, excepting what Kilburn lived on. He built a log house in the woods back of the barn on the old Dustin farm, where he lived for many years. He was a preacher, too, before there was a pulpit,- the first preacher to the settlers. The people gath- ered into barns and houses to hear him, but he was not liked, being a man of strong prejudice, very opinionated, and in all his disputes manifesting much selfishness. His name appears but once in the town records, and then in a manner to throw suspicion upon his integrity. Owning many of the original rights, some of which were not located, and having obtained possession of the "Pitch Book," he made many records for him- self, of choice lands without regard to the rights adjoining, in many cases lapping over upon pitches already made, causing great annoyance. He located some lands from the shores of Hart's Pond westward, adjoining the lands of Capt. Robert Barber, and he claimed all the lands north of Captain Barber's line. Persons aggrieved by his arbitrary acts, remonstrated with him, but he paid no attention to their complaints. At last, they brought the matter before the proprietors, at a legal meeting held January 17, 1780, when the following votes were passed: "That those Pitches which were made by Mr. James Treadway while he held the Pitch Book in his possession contrary to the former vote of the proprietors shall be void and of none effect." "That those other Pitches that ware farely made by the other Proprietors that do not interfere on former Pitches shall stand good and remain valid." These votes had the effect, of course, to put a stop to Mr. Treadway's encroachments.
Mr. Jonathan Dustin bought of Mr. Treadway thirteen rights, embracing the lands of the old Dustin farm, which at that time extended from the shores of Hart Pond to Town Hill. Mr. Dustin first lived in a house of logs, built near the site of the house of Mrs. Levi George.
There were men in those days, who believed there was land enough and wild enough, and that where land was so plenty and people so few, they needed not to purchase anybody's right to settle upon it. Leonard Horr, Elijah Lathrop and William Record, believed this dogma firmly and became, in fact, squat-
36
HISTORY OF CANAAN.
ters. But they were soon hunted out by the vigilant committee, and were solemnly warned, that in order to become owners, they must procure a good and authentic deed of one hundred acres of upland from or under one or any of the proprietors, and should make their pitch according to usage and shall improve it by building a house thereon and continue to occupy and culti- vate it for six months. A failure to comply with any of these conditions will work to their discomfort.
The next year, in 1781, Leonard Horr was permitted to retain the lot he had already selected "northwesterly of the Saw Mill on Mascoma river, provided he makes speedy settlement."
On September 12, 1781, it was decided to lay out the three public rights : the Glebe right for the Church of England, the first settled minister's right and the school right, but it was sev- eral years afterwards that these rights were laid out.
A bed of clay had been opened near Hart Pond, a piece of six acres had been laid out on West Farms, near where Nathan C. Morgan lived, and two acres of land more was laid out adjoin- ing the six acres as a common field.
This meeting of the proprietors, first called in 1780, was con- tinued by adjournments, from time to time, until June, 1782, when it was supposed to have been dissolved. Nothing more of interest is to be gleaned here, only votes to lay out roads, for committees to divide the common lands, for taxes, and the dry details relating to the propriety, and then, for four years, there is no record. At this period in our history there seems to be a clew lost as in a mine, when the lead drops away. There are neither town nor proprietors' records.
And now, while waiting for some further events to come around, let us look in upon some of our old friends, and see how they lived, and first we will premise that in those days coal as a fuel had not been known; the same may be said of illuminating gas, made from it. No iron stoves were used and no contrivances for economizing heat were employed until Doctor Franklin in- vented the iron-framed fireplace, which still bears his name. All the cooking and warming was by means of fire kindled upon the hearth or in ovens. Tallow candles or pine knots furnished the light for the long winter evenings, and sanded floors supplied
37
PROPRIETORS' MEETINGS, 1768-1785.
the place of rugs and carpets. The water used for household purposes was drawn from wells by the aid of sweeps. Pumps were not invented until after the beginning of the last century. Friction matches were not made until within seventy-five years. If the fire went out upon the hearth over night, and the tinder was damp, so that the spark would not catch, the alternative remained of wading to the nearest neighbor through the snow for a brand. It was seldom that more than one room was warmed in any house, except in case of illness of some member of the family, and the winter nights of over a hundred years ago were long and dreary. The men and women undressed and went to their beds in a temperature colder than that of our modern barns and sheds, and they did not complain, because they were used to it.
"Simple is that olden story, Of the years now pale and hoary, When the church, the farm, the schoolhouse, Made the round of country life.
When amid these northern mountains, By these clear cool hillside fountains, Lonely households lived and labored Far from noise and city strife.
"Here the sturdy youthful farmers Early found their maiden charmers, Wooed them in the country fashion, Won them for a life of toil. Wed them in their simple dresses, In their own soft curling tresses, And new households thus were planted, On the rough and rocky soil.
"Was this life all toil and labor ? When some neighbor met with neighbor, Was the talk alone of cattle, Flocks and herds and crops of corn ? Had the scene no gentler pleasures ?
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HISTORY OF CANAAN.
Did it know no joyous measures ? Yea, for out of hills and valleys, Richest hopes and joys were born.
"Many a church was minus steeple, And in winter time the people Gathered from their scattered dwellings To a house without a fire. But it had a charm for keeping
Men and little boys from sleeping, As the sermon struggled onward, To the fifteenth head and higher.
"But the women, maid and mother, Passed their stoves to one another, Those convenient tin arrangements, Made to hold the slumbering coals. While the male sex held from napping,
Spent their weary time in rapping, Rapping their stiff boots together, Those were times that tried men's soles.
"Say ye not that life is barren, Sweeter than the rose of Sharon, Are the memories that gather Round a life in honor spent.
Bright with an immortal beauty, Is a long life linked to duty, Ever toiling and aspiring In a patient sweet content.
"But with all the buzz and hurry, And with all this work and worry, Matrons found more time to visit Long before the setting sun, Than in these our days, so pressing, When more time is spent in dressing, And the day is just beginning When the olden day was done.
39
PROPRIETORS' MEETINGS, 1768-1785.
"How these olden memories muster, How around the heart they cluster, How the thoughts come thronging backward From those sturdy scenes of old. There are no days like the old days, There are no ways like the old ways, And in every generation
The old story must be told."
CHAPTER IV. PROPRIETORS' MEETINGS, 1786-1845.
During a period of more than four years, the proprietary makes no records for the clerk, George Harris, to record as would appear from the absence of the least scratch of a pen or the leav- ing of any space in the record book which might be filled up afterwards. On the contrary, the last four years which are blank on all town records, were full of happenings, perhaps so much occurred that the clerk of the proprietors as well as the town clerk, had not the courage to narrate events. Canaan was in the secession movement to join Vermont, so anxious were the other fifteen towns to belong to the sovereignty across the Connecticut River, that all the town, as well as proprietary officers, neglected their duty. The proprietors awoke at last to find themselves in debt, and George Harris, the owner of ten rights, Joshua Harris, the owner of one right, John Harris, the owner of one right, Ezekiel Wells, the owner of five rights, and William Richardson, the owner of one right, and owners of more than one-sixteenth part of the rights of land in town, requested the clerk to call a meeting at Maj. Samuel Jones' on the 27th day of June, 1786. They voted to raise one shilling and six pence on each hundred acres of upland to defray the cost of running the lines between Canaan and Enfield; John Scofield, the son of our first settler (the old settler is now dead two years), is appointed collector and to pay the money over to the selectmen of the town. This debt is the result of a meeting back in 1781, and five years after they are ready to pay the bill. Samuel Jones, Ezekiel Wells and Joshua Harris were appointed "Assessors." Another meeting is held in December to lay a tax on the "wild lands," for the purpose of "making & repairing the Rodes." Daniel Blaisdell is chosen collector to collect the tax of sixty pounds, as well as the balance of the previous tax of one shilling and six pence on each right, which John Scofield did not collect, "made in order to defray the charge of settling the lines in sd Town between Canaan & Enfield."
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