USA > Vermont > Orange County > Newbury > History of Newbury, Vermont, from the discovery of the Coos country to present time > Part 34
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The steamboat company did not long survive the Adam Duncan. There were many obstacles to successful navigation of the river; the rates of freight were high; the enterprise did not pay expenses ; assessments were called for, and in 1832 the company failed. Steamboat service was, however, continued down the river, below Turners Falls, till the railroad was built. The canals which had been constructed with such expense around the various falls are still, most, if not all of them, used for some purpose. The Enfield canal is owned by a corporation called the Connecticut River Co., and is still kept open for the passage of boats, and quite a revenue is collected from mills which extend for about a mile along its banks, and receive water from it. The old canal at Holyoke, which is on the Hadley side, furnishes power for several mills, and the same may be said of that at Bellows Falls.
In 1825, the war department sent an engineer to Barnet, who made surveys of three separate routes for a canal from that place
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HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
to Canada. The same season, the Connecticut River company employed Holmes Hutchinson, an expert from the Erie canal, who made a survey of the river from Barnet to Hartford. His report as to the feasibility and desirability of the scheme was accepted by the company. But nothing was ever done in the practical work of constructing a canal, although, had no railroad ever been built, such a canal would have been made. But the first charter for a railroad in Vermont was granted in the same year in which the steamboat company went to pieces, and the era of railroad building set in. Within a few years the canals which had been constructed at such an expense, and with such expectations, the Middlesex, and the New Haven and Northampton Canal, were disused. The former was, practically, discontinued in 1846, and the last boat passed through it in 1852. Traces of this former highway of commerce may still be seen, beside the railroad, in Billerica and Wilmington.
We have considered the means by which our fathers sought to utilize the river for transportation; our narrative now concerns itself with the bridges which have spanned the stream since 1795.
For the first thirty-five years after the settlement of Newbury and Haverhill, all public travel across Connecticut river, in the open season, was by ferry. Charters for ferries were sometimes granted by the New Hampshire legislature, and sometimes the towns on both sides of the river permitted some one to keep a ferry during a limited period, at a place not covered by any charter. The first ferry was kept by Richard Chamberlin, and after him by his sons. He had no charter, but kept the boat for the public convenience. In 1772, the legislature of New Hampshire approved his title to keep a ferry, and in the next year a town meeting in Newbury confirmed his right, and fixed the rates of toll.
The ferry of Col. Asa Porter was by charter, which gave him the exclusive right to maintain one between his farm and the Ox-bow, his right extending for three miles up, and as many down, the river. At Wells River, Er Chamberlin began to keep a ferry, about 1772, for which, after some years, he obtained a charter. At South Newbury, it is said that Uriah Stone, a native of Germany, who came to Haverhill in 1763 or 1764, and settled very near the present site of Bedell's bridge, carried people across the river in a boat which he made himself, hewing out the planks. Later, he removed to Piermont where he settled on what is now called the Hibbard place, where he kept a ferry to Mooretown, now Bradford. He died in 1819. The late President Chester A. Arthur was his great-grandson.
Moody Bedell kept a ferry a little above the present bridge called by his name, and in 1801, the town of Haverhill granted him the right to maintain one between his farm, which was below the mouth of the Oliverian, and that of Remembrance Chamberlain, in Newbury. The "ferry house" was on the Newbury side. The right
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to maintain a ferry from Colonel Porter's farm, now called the Southard place, on Horse Meadow, to the Ox-bow, still remains in the farm.
Ferry-boats were flat-bottomed, and were wide enough, and long enough, to convey a loaded wagon with horses or oxen. Usually two or more boats were kept at the ferry, one for foot passengers, and a larger one for teams. When a traveler came to the river side opposite the "ferry house," if he saw no one with the boat, he proceeded to "hail the ferryman."
The first bridge across Connecticut river was built at Bellows Falls, in 1785, by Col. Enoch Hale, father of Joshua Hale, long so prominent at Wells River. It consisted of a single span, 365 feet in length, and extended from a ledge of rocks on one side of the river, to one on the other side. This bridge was of much value to the surrounding country, but proved a financial loss to its owner. In 1797 there were thirteen bridges across the river. Newbury and Haverhill being the principal towns in this part of the valley, and lying on the great road from the market towns to the north country and Canada, the principal men in both towns early saw the advantage which a bridge between them would be, locally, and also what an impetus it would give to the increasing traffic from the growing towns to the north, if there was a bridge here by which the river could be quickly and safely crossed at all seasons.
The first charter for a bridge between Newbury and Haverhill was granted January 14, 1795, to Col. Asa Porter, "and Associates," who were styled the "Proprietors of Haverhill Bridge."* This was to be erected, as near as might be, upon the boundary between Haverhill and Bath, near the northerly end of the ridge upon which the railroad engine house is built, at Woodsville, a few rods north of the present bridge. The middle pier of it was to be built upon the small island in the river there, which was ceded to the proprietors of the bridge, and they were granted the exclusive right between the south end of what is now called Howard's Island, and a point two miles above the mouth of the Ammonoosuc. Four years were allowed for completion, a time which was in 1797, extended three years. No bridge was ever erected there.
The second charter for a bridge at Wells River was approved, December 27, 1803, and the incorporators were: Er Chamberlin, Ezekiel Ladd, James Whitelaw, Moses Little, Amos Kimball, William Abbott, and their associates .; The charter granted to Colonel Porter having lapsed, the new enterprise was given the privileges which had belonged to that one. It was to be placed
"N. H. Manuscript Laws, Vol. IX., p. 77.
+N. H. Manuscript Laws, Vol. XIV., p. 285.
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HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
where Er Chamberlin had kept a ferry for about twenty-five years. One share in the bridge was reserved to the latter, to recompense him for the loss of his ferry, and the right to maintain one reverted to him, upon the discontinuance of the bridge. This bridge was built in 1805, and stood below the present one, and above the mouth of Wells River, "at the ledge of rocks." The records of the Wells River Bridge Corporation show that in 1806 the shares of the bridge sold at their par value of fifty dollars, which proves that it was profitable. The rates of toll as fixed by the charter were: For each foot passenger, one cent; for a horse and rider, three cents ; each chaise or two-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse, ten cents; one-horse wagon or cart drawn by one beast, eight cents; by two beasts, ten cents; each four-wheeled carriage or coach, twenty-five cents, and two cents for each horse more than two; two cents for each animal, except sheep and swine which were one cent each. These rates differ slightly from those of the Porter charter. It is not thought that this was a covered bridge, but that it was built upon wooden piers.
In the spring of 1807, this bridge was carried away by a freshet, and was rebuilt in that year. Between 1807 and 1812, when it was again carried away, it underwent considerable repairs. From 1812 to 1820, there was no bridge, and the ferry was conducted as before, by Chamberlin, who, in 1817, conveyed all his rights therein to John L. Woods." The New Hampshire legislature in January, 1813, passed an act to allow the proprietors to rebuild and complete the bridge within two years after the following September .; An extension of two years time was granted in 1815, and a further extension of three years from November 1, 1817, was granted by the legislature, in the preceding June.
In 1820, a new bridge was constructed at a cost of about $3,000. This stood below the mouth of Wells River, and the abutment, on the Woodsville side can still be seen. This bridge, says Mr. J. P. Kimball, was originally an open bridge, and was built on "horses" or wooden piers, there being several of these under the bridge. Some time after it was built a sort of temporary roof was constructed over it. This bridge was carried away by the freshet of 1850. In the course of that summer a new bridge was erected there, which stood till the present one was completed, and then it was taken down.
In 1853, the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad Co. secured an entrance into Vermont by inducing the owners of this last bridge to erect a new one, a short distance below the mouth of
*Bridge Records.
+1. N. H. Manuscript Laws, Vol. XX., p. 46. 2. Ib. XX. p. 288. 3. Ib. XXI. p. 48.
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the Ammonoosuc, granting them the privilege of laying their tracks along the roof of the bridge, where they still remain. When it was built, and for many years after, locomotives and cars were constructed very much lighter than they are now, and traffic was also light, but in later years the increasing weight of rolling stock, and the increase also of traffic has compelled the repeated strengthening of the structure, which has narrowed the roadway until it is hardly wide enough for two teams to pass. The frequent passage of heavy trains, and shifting engines along the roof, render it a dangerous place, yet no serious accidents have yet occurred there. A new highway bridge, of modern construction, between Wells River and Woodsville, is greatly demanded.
The journal of the New Hampshire House of Representatives for the session of 1794, states that among the business brought before the house on December 30, was the following: "Whereas, Benjamin Chamberlin of Newbury, Vermont, proposes building a Bridge over Connecticut river, at, or near the place where he and his fathers have kept a ferry ever since the settlement of the town, which is the best and oldest road for passing between the states to the north and Canada, prays to be allowed to build and tend said bridge for toll." The principal subscribers to the enterprise, on the Haverhill side, were: Moses Dow, $400; Ezekiel Ladd and John Montgomery, each $100; and on the Newbury side: Thomas Johnson, $300; Benjamin and Nathaniel Chamberlin, and Josiah Little, each $100. The Haverhill subscriptions amounted to $1,000, and it was stated that as much had been promised from Newbury, but owing to the high water and floating ice prevailing at the time, the man with the Newbury subscription was unable to cross the river. On the 7th of January, 1795, the same dav on which Colonel Porter presented his petition for a bridge at Wells River, a petition similar to that offered by Chamberlin, was presented in behalf of Simeon Goodwin and Robert Johnston.
Ebenezer Brewster of Hanover, Peter Carleton of Landaff, and Capt. John Mann of Orford, were appointed a committee to view the river from the lower end of Howard's island to the south line of Haverhill, and select a site for a bridge. This committee reported at the June session of 1795, in favor of locating the bridge about thirty rods below Chamberlin's ferry. The charter was granted June 18, 1795, to Benjamin Chamberlin, Ezekiel Ladd, Moses Dow, Thomas Johnson, William Wallace, John Montgomery, and associates as "Proprietors of Haverhill Bridge."* Their charter rights extend "from the extreme point of the little Ox-bow, to the southwest corner of Ezekiel Ladd's farm, a little above the mouth of the Oliverian." The rates of toll were nearly like those of the Wells River bridge. A bridge was built there in 1796, and stood for
*N. H. Manuscript Laws. Vol. IX., p. 164.
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HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
some time. It was, probably, an open bridge. Among the Johnson papers there is a copy, in his own handwriting of a letter from Colonel Johnson to General Chase, which casts some light upon the construction of that bridge, and its fate.
NEWBURY, April 19, 1797.
SIR :
You have no doubt heard of our misfortune as to losing our Bridge, it was owing to two things: 1st the ambition of some of the proprietors wanting to have the longest arch yet built; 2d the workman was not equal to so great a peice of business. One abutment stands good, also the little Bridges with very little repairing are good, our Plank with a considerable part of the timber on hand. The main thing we want is a workman that understands building a Peer in the middle of the river, we have no man in this part of the Country that ever helped build one, or knows anything about it. As you went through the business for us last year, I ask as a particular favor in behalf of the Proprietors, that you would recommend to us a suitable man to undertake to build a Peer. *
* Our stone are all within ten rods of the river bank, and our timber within 34 of a mile. One Peer will want to be twenty-five feet high. In this case I wish you would make a brief guess what the cost would be to build such a peer.
Yours, etc., THOS. JOHNSON."
That some kind of a bridge was reconstructed there seems evident from the recorded action of the selectmen in 1798, who placed the south limit of highway District No. 2, which "runs down on the river as far as the north abutment of the bridge across Connecticut river." This bridge is mentioned elsewhere. But it did not stand many years, evidently, as the records of the present bridge corporation, beginning January 1, 1805, state that on that day a meeting of the Haverhill Bridge Company was held, at which Charles Johnston, Samuel Ladd, Joseph Pearson, John Montgomery, Jeremiah Harris and Asa Tenney were appointed a committee to make estimates for building a bridge similar to the "Federal Bridge" over the Merrimack river at Concord, and to determine the best place to build said bridge. This committee reported, May 4, 1805, that the bridge be built "from land of Mr. Phineas Ayer in Haverhill, to that of Col. Robert Johnston in Newbury," i. e., where the present bridge is. Some time between that date and 1809, a bridge was built. The records are meagre, and nothing is said about this bridge being carried off, but on April 3, 1822, Ephraim Kingsbury, the clerk, sold all the shares in the corporation to Asa Tenney and Josiah Little for one ecnt a share. It would seem there was nothing left of the bridge.
There is no further record till August 18, 1833, when Josiah Little petitioned for a mecting to be called on September 10, at which stock for a new bridge was subscribed.
In the Democratic Republican for September 19, 1833, Ephraim Kingsbury, clerk, advertises for proposals for building the present bridge, and for furnishing stone, and erecting the abutments and a pier, which was built in 1834. No record of the cost is preserved, but it is understood to have been about $9,200. It is believed to be the oldest bridge on Connecticut river, yet it is still called the "new
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bridge" by old people. The thoroughness of its construction is attested by its having withstood all the freshets of nearly seventy years, although the water has, several times, been three feet deep along its driveways, and great quantities of logs crowded against it from above. It has a double passage-way for teams and is believed to be the only bridge of that manner of construction left on the river. Repairs have been made upon it from time to time, and in 1895, about $2,000 was expended upon it. The structure was strengthened by means of arches, a feature not known, or not employed in this part of the country, at the time it was built.
On April 1, 1898, it was voted to call in all the old stock, and issue new, which consist, of ninety-two shares of one hundred dollars each. It is all owned by eleven persons. The present directors are: W. H. Atkinson, H. E. and R. W. Chamberlain. Arthur K. Merrill is clerk and treasurer.
The charter for a bridge between South Newbury and Haverhill was granted, June 16, 1802, to Moody Bedell and others, to be built within the limits of Bedell's ferry." The first meeting of the stockholders was held Mav 9, 1805, at the inn of Asa Boynton in Haverhill. There were one hundred shares of stock, Moody Bedell holding thirty-five. Twenty-three shares were held on the Vermont side, Capt. William Trotter of Bradford, holding fifteen. Moody Bedell conveyed for $900, his rights in the ferry, to the bridge company. The first directors were William Trotter, Moody Bedell, Asa Boynton, and Gideon Tewksbury. On the 24th of June they contracted with Avery Sanders to build a bridge for $2,700. This was an open bridge, resting on wooden piers. General Moody Bedell, for whom that bridge and its successors were named, was a son of Col. Timothy Bedell, who visited Coös with Bayley, Hazen, and Kent, in 1760, and was himself a revolutionary soldier, and a distinguished officer in the war of 1812. He died in 1841. How long this bridge stood is not precisely known. President Dwight speaks of crossing it in 1812. In that year the shares held by General Bedell were sold to Hon. Moses P. Payson of Bath. In 1821, September 4, a meeting was held to see about rebuilding the bridge, by which it seems that it had been wholly or partly carried away. It appears that much of the timber and plank were saved. On June 16, 1824, the report of the committee which rebuilt the bridge was presented, which showed that the cost had been $2,585.61 exclusive of what was paid the committee for their services. It would appear that this bridge stood till 1841, as on February 11th the directors were instructed to use every effort to secure the bridge. But, three days later, the stockholders voted "not to rebuild," by which vote it seems that the bridge had been carried away in the meantime.
*N. H. Manuscript Laws, Vol. XIII., p. 136.
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HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
There was no bridge from that time till 1851, when an open bridge, supported by wooden piers, and with heavy timbers crossing the driveway overhead, was built. Col. Moody Chamberlain, J. R. Reding and Asa Low were the building committee. This was carried away by the high water of the spring of 1862. In the fall of that year the middle pier of the present bridge was constructed, and the next year a covered bridge was built. C. G. Smith, Johnson Chamberlain and Nathaniel Bailey were the building committee. This bridge was of very light construction, and in 1865, the directors were instructed to strengthen it by putting in arches. This structure was very narrow, and was demolished by a gale, July 4, 1866. The present bridge was built in that year.
In 1812, a law was passed equalizing the tolls on the three bridges between Newbury and Haverhill, as follows: Each foot passenger, one cent; each person, except the driver, on any team, one cent; each one-horse team six and one-fourth cents; each chaise or other carriage, twelve and one-half cents; each team drawn by three horses, fifteen cents; four-wheeled carriage drawn by two horses, twenty-five cents, and three cents for each additional horse .*
In 1809, a charter was granted to Asa Tenney, Thomas, John, Moses and David Johnson, and William B. Bannister of Newbury, and eighteen others, resident elsewhere, for a bridge between Horse Meadow and the Ox-bow, at some place between one-half mile above, and one-half mile below Colonel Porter's ferry .; The proprietors were to build a road "from Colonel Porter's ferry house, to the main road in Haverhill." It is not known that any. action was ever taken about building a bridge at that place.
*N. H. Manuscript Laws, Vol. XIX., p. 299.
+Ib., Vol. XVIII., p. 278.
ELM TREE AND RESIDENCE OF THE LATE HORATIO BROCK, NOW OWNED BY JAMES A. BROCK.
THE KENT HOUSE, SOUTH NEWBURY. BUILT BY COL. JACOB KENT 1ST. CLARK KENT STANDS AT THE LEFT OF THE DOOR AND COL. JACOB KENT, 3D, TO THE RIGHT OF IT. MISS RELIEF KENT STANDS AT THE FRONT DOOR. THE HOUSE AT THE RIGHT WAS THAT OF JOHN KENT.
CHAPTER XL.
HIGHWAYS AND RAILROADS.
FIRST ROADS .- OLD ROADS .- ROAD AROUND INGALLS HILL .- RAILROAD FROM BOSTON TO CONCORD .- BUILDING OF PASSUMPSIC RAILROAD .- RIOT AT INGALLS HILL .- THE BOSTON, CONCORD AND MONTREAL RAILROAD .- RAILROAD WAR AT WELLS RIVER .-- THE MONTPELIER AND WELLS RIVER RAILROAD .- TELEGRAPH.
T HE first volume of town proceedings contains the certified surveys of eighty-four roads or alterations of roads, which included all the highways which were laid out, and formally accepted by the town, to the year 1837. The earliest of these is the present river road, "beginning at the town line as was formerly," to Wells river-the stream, not the village. This return only gives the general course of the road, which, in several instances, departs from that of the "old" road. The second road accepted by the town, was one from "Mr. John Mills'es," (now Doe's Corner, ) "to the town line near James Heath's," and is the road which passes out by the Rogers hill schoolhouse, and the old Haseltine place, through the Grow neighborhood, to the Corinth line, in what is now Topsham. John Wilson of Bradford stated in writing in his old age, that in 1795, this was the only road from Corinth to Newbury. A portion of this road, has been discontinued. It was surveyed by Aaron Shepard in 1785, and the courses are marked by trees. At the same time the road from Ebenezer White's, now Warren Bailey's, to the place at West Newbury where the late John Wilson long lived, and thence past the cemetery to the Rogers hill schoolhouse, was accepted.
It must be understood that these dates do not show when these roads first began to be trod, but when they were accepted by the town, which thenceforth assumed their maintenance. Before the time of such survey and acceptance, the roads were merely paths through the woods, and were kept in such repair and improvement
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HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
as the people who lived on them were able to give, which was not much. The first roads were mercly passages through the forest, through which people could find their way by "blazed" or spotted trees. The first settlers in the back parts of the town had no better roads than these during the first years, which were not passable by wheeled vehicles. The road to West Newbury, thus surveyed and accepted in 1785, had been traveled some fifteen years by that time.
The road that leads from Newbury Street to East Corinth, called the "county road," and which is one of the roads laid out by a county commission of which Col. Frye Bayley was a member, about 1797, has undergone more changes in its general course than any other, except the river road. It begins to be mentioned in 1788, and formerly left the present road behind the house of H. D. Gamsby, about half a mile from the top of "sawmill hill," and may be followed till it came out a little west of the highest point of land, between the village and the town farm. This old road was, except for the long, hard hill at the east end of it, very straight and level, and the road which comes from Leighton hill, was continued into the woods where the two joined. This old road was discontinued in 1841, when the present road was made, and the road east of Harriman's pond was laid out about the same time. The old county road again left the present road where there is a bend near a small brook, at the top of the last hill east of the town farm, and took a straight course over the hill, coming out at the great willow on the Peach farm, where F. G. Howland now lives. Later, the west end of it was brought down south of, and near Mrs. Demeritt's house, coming upon the present road a little west of it, where the schoolhouse once stood. This road was discontinued in 1824. The distance from the Peach farm to the street was about one-third less by these old roads than by the present one, and both are still used as foot-paths. There was no road past the present town farm till 1827, but the highway left the county road near the Lilly pond, half a mile east of the town house, and went south, past where Levi Whitman now lives, (that farm was not cleared then, ) and came out to the one which now ends at the old Boynton place, now part of the Chalmers farm. The cellars of six houses which formerly stood on, or near that road, may still be secn.
At the top of the hill, beyond L. W. McAllister's, ncar Round pond, the old road took a straight course west and south of the present one, which it did not touch again till it came out and crossed it at the "four corners," where the late Davis Cheney lived, in a large, two-story house. Thencc it followed the road which goes toward Currier hill, about half a mile, and turning abruptly, passed through the west side of what is now J. E. Currier's field, joining the present road near the ruinous schoolhouse in the Doe neighborhood.
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