Early Town Planning

Reference to Indian trails comes from past conversations with Professor David Stuart Smith.

References to the Sutton “grain trek” come from a conversation with author and historian Jack Noon.

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EARLY TOWN PLANNING

On this broad topic, we are beginning to explore why our town looks as it does now, how and why roads, houses, and town centers are where they are, and why some vanished.  It will just scratch the surface as it is an overview, and research continues. All researchers and input are welcome.

Changes in our town require deciphering, a peeling back of layers of time.

Old trails became surveyed roads, town populations shifted, dams were built,  changes in industry and commerce, mills proliferating elsewhere, the coming and going of railroads, floods, flood control, etc., all changing our town. Once traveled roads became unused and seemingly went “private,” or perhaps actually did. When new roads were added, it often made older ones obsolete. Buildings were moved. Busy town clusters developed and then fell into quieter times. Cemeteries were moved or became remote.

A clear explanation would require digging into the town archives to discover how roads went from their original design, to use,  to disuse, and the assumption or fact of them ending up as private roads. It is a hot topic, as you can well imagine.

When we look at our town now, we are tempted to think of the Crossroads and Salisbury Heights as “town centers”. The founders did not foresee this layout exactly, although they wisely created a flexible layout, allowing for a variety of clusters. They saw the possibility of several town centers, according to the map. It is interesting to note that those who initially drew up the herringbone lot layout may never have set foot in our town. They were from Kingston and Portsmouth.

The Salisbury, Property Platt Map of 1825 by the Central NH Power Company is a wealth of information.  It shows owners of all land lots and their herringbone pattern of lots off of three distinct Rangeways that dissect the town into four sections horizontally. By 1825, however, there would have been subdivisions of the lots, which are not shown. The guess is that this map does indeed show the earliest owners and their lots for clarity about boundaries; however, newer roads are overlayed on it that did not originally exist then. The only way to verify if the names on the 1825 map are the original or at least the very earliest of owners is to get the actual records from the time showing the first proprietors of each lot. Until then, we will reasonably assume it is correct.

The map also shows in each district areas reserved for a minister and a school, so they were thinking that each section of town might have some common center. So the early lines for the range roads from which the lots spread were planned about 15 years before they were formally built. https://www.salisburyhistoricalsociety.org/old-college-road/

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For starters, the following is a great introduction to the topic of Range Roads>   range_road_handout

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DESCRIPTION OF SALISBURY ‘S THREE RANGE ROADS

Info from History of Salisbury by John Dearborn, 1890:

What are the Rangeways?

• Three roads that served as the very earliest access from the earlier river road that brought early exporters north. The town of  Salisbury, previously called Bakerstown and then Stevenstown, extended to the Merrimack River about 60-70 years before that section of town became Franklin.  It is unclear how much of the North Rangeway was completed.
• Transportation routes across the town from the river to the slopes of Mt. Kearsage and beyond go fairly straight and spaced apart evenly (more or less).
• Access points to all the long lots laid out in herringbone patterns abutting the Range Roads. (Rangeways)  The lots went up against each Rangeway (sometimes 2), and access was guaranteed.
• The older New England ideal during the 1600s in Massachusetts and Connecticut was to keep the settlers together in village lots. New Hampshire planners of towns often repudiated the older ideal and and our town is a good example where lots are laid out broadly across the entire town along the Rangeways.

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ORIGINAL SOUTH RANGEWAY

Formally surveyed in 1768 but likely traveled much earlier.

The South Rangeway follows a fairly straight line from south of Webster Place in Franklin. This section continues going through the NH State Forest and then through private, not public land. It joins what is now Rte 127 (going east to west at the curve in the road of 127 behind the small white cape just before Gerrish Road)  at Stirrup Iron Brook. The first lot belonged to Philip Call.

The South Rangeway continues westerly straight through the Crossroads of Rte 127 and Rte 4 past Cooks Pond to the junction at Battle Street and Hensmith, where it continues straight as Warner Road while 127 (Battle Street) heads south to Webster.

It continues through  Smith’s Corner in the floodplain (junction of South Rangeway Road and Mills Road/Couchtown Rd) just past Little Road. Little Hill Road comes up from Boscawen and was perhaps a trail traveled very early by Native Americans, the earliest settlers to this part of Salisbury. It likely provided access to the meadow area where the  Maloons settled very early on. It is also possible they came up Couchtown Rd, which likely was barely a trail at the time. Incidentally, previously to settling in the meadow at Smith’s Corner, the Maloons lived on the Old Province Road in Boscawen/Webster, a section called Dublin Lane  (on the road between Little Hill Road and Couchtown Road).

Just before the Tucker Pond area, the Rangeway appears to veer right off up into the hills, but in actuality, it is the Warner Road that veers off southwest to Warner as it is presently constructed. At this point, the land that the old South Rangeway is on rises onto the highlands on the slope of Mt Kearsarge into what was known as the Watson district of Salisbury. This area was once more settled with a schoolhouse.

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CENTER RANGEWAY

This Rangeway was in existence before 1768, and was also one route by which settlers came from the south on the river road past the old fort settlement on the river, turning up Punch Brook Rd or another very close by.

If the founders intended this to be the main road into Salisbury from the East, from the established river road, things changed quickly as Boscawen (Contoocock Plantation) became more developed. Settlers came from Boscawen up through Little Rd, as well as Mutton Road and possibly some version of Old College Road n/s.  However, it was indeed traveled in the earliest of times.

There isn’t any indication of settlement in this portion of the Center Rangeway closest to the river. Speculation is that settlers chose to move away from the river, even as far up on North Road as well, to avoid any possible lingering Indian raids. This section of the Center Rangeway, possibly today’s Punch Brook Road, extends from just north of Webster Place and crosses Rte 127 just west of Smith’s Corner in Franklin (just west of North Road off Rte 127). It is roughly at this location that Ebenezer Webster had his mill.

From the area that is now the junction of South Rangeway and Route 127, the ascent up Searle’s Hill is extremely rough at this time. It likely always was difficult. There was a large Meeting House, a Parsonage, a few homesteads with barns, a fine Granite quarry,  a schoolhouse, and an orchard that were essentially largely but not entirely abandoned by 1790.

The church was moved in 1790 to the flatlands first near Parsons Corner (Whittemore Road & Center Road area), but finally was reconstructed after much debate on the  South Rangeway and Old Coach Road, where it remains today except for a slight reorientation at one point.

It then descends from the apex on  Searle’s Hill down to Thompson’s Corner (area at the junction of Center Road>New Road, Raccoon Hill Road, and Searle’s Hill Road (Center Rangeway).

After Thompson’s Corner (area where Searle’s Hill Rd/Center Rangeway meets New Road),  it is called Center Road going towards Rte. 4.

East of Rte. 4, there are sections briefly through a private driveway, it seems, and then it continues as Loverein Hill Rd.  There is a small section of Loverein Hill Road that is public, but the remainder to the river, which is not federally owned, is considered by abutters to be private at this point. More research is needed on this issue.

For a short while, the people of Perrystown (Sutton) would bring their grain over to the Webster mill on Punch Brook (South Rangeway), which was both a saw mill and a grist mill. The farmers may have come up the Gore Road in what is now Warner and connected to the Center Rangeway or the South Rangeway near the western edge of Salisbury and then down into the valley towards Ebenezer Webster’s Mill. This Rangeway seems to have been well traveled for a brief time in history, which may explain the early dates of one of the houses on the Center Rangeway, Chestnut Cottage.

What changed?
Sutton developed its town center, and other routes became more popular as new settlements sprang up. The Center Rangeway no longer exists as a functioning connector road in most of the western part of Salisbury, although it was populated by Salisbury residents, had a school, and the cemetery was referred to as the “Watson District.

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NORTH RANGEWAY

Never completed, appears to follow the lines of Montgomery Road in the eastern section, and a remnant is found off West Salisbury Road and exists as a trail.

The area in between the Rangeways was more or less a bit more evenly spaced than the map suggests.

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TIMELINE

1734-Boscawen began to be settled in 1734, it soon had a meetinghouse, sawmill, gristmill, and ferry across the Merrimack River. A garrison offered protection, but guerrilla attacks during the French and Indian Wars left some dead or carried off. It is likely the Maloons and Beans came to Salisbury from this more interior direction, see below 1748

1738- Following settlement patterns can be speculative and best left up to scholars; however, we do know that in 1738 the town (Bakerstown, first name) was first laid out with some lots with Proprietors; however, the settlement requirements were not met on the first and second attempts.

1740- The River Road is laid out as a highway. This is another direction for the influx of settlers into Salisbury along the primitive range roads, about 15 years later.

According to John Dearborn, p 54, History of Salisbury -Before 1754, eight families lived in the township of Stevenstown ( second name). Several families are located near the Fort on the Merrimack near the Webster family graveyard, Route 3.

Page 291 of the History of Salisbury describes the river road along the west bank of Merrimack/Pemi extending up into Coos County.

1748- Approximately, Nathaniel Maloon & Sinkler Bean settle in the western section (crossroads of Mill Road and South Rangeway-Warner Road in the floodplain now) at his time.  This tells us that there was likely a 2 two-directional influx into the township at that time. The road the  Maloons migrated up from was called the Province Road, which went to Charleston Fort no #4 and was used by Rogers Rangers in the French and Indian Wars. By 1743, 10 families lived at Fort No. 5, the northernmost British Settlement along the Connecticut River in NH until the French and Indian Wars in  1754-1763. The Maloons come from their homestead on Province Road on the Dublin Lane, just the Province Road (a section of Little Hill Road, Boscawen). Contact us for details.

About Province Road, courtesy of Soonipi Magazine:

provincerdsoonipi

1749- Grant of Stevenstown occurs with the Proprietors. When the earlier Proprietors laid out the settlement, they did so in lots of 100, 80, 60, and 30 acres, and reserved a portion for public roads. Grant did not produce a true settlement.

1753-  The proprietors voted to build 4 houses: Stephen Call at the Old Fort area on the River

1754 -(Prior) 8 families lived in  Salisbury

1753-  James Tappan, one of the earliest proprietors of Bakerstown, arrives in Stevenstown (Salisbury)  and builds his house on North Road, which is still standing and presumably the oldest house in town. North Road is off the old Center Rangeway. This is before the formal construction of the Rangeway Roads, which tells us that some primitive roads existed.  In 1753, James Tappan settled on North Road, but likely just a small road off the center of future North or Center Rangeway, as North Road was not formally built until 1770. The history of Salisbury indicates this road was a very traveled thoroughfare. Was it from the established river road inland, likely via the Center rangeway (Punch Brook Road or close to it, not Smith Hill) to the emerging settlements of east Andover and north into Hill Bristol and Hebron Alexandria as they were being settled?

Likely, these settlers must have lived on trails off somewhat rudimentary “trail” roadways.

1753- Approx. The Meloon family was kidnapped off the South Range Road (Flood Plain- Smith’s Corners- Mill Rd) residence by Native Americans.

1758-1760 Henry Morrill resides in the Smith Hill Road area. The Rangeways are still not surveyed, but are traveled upon from the river road. Smith Hill Road was not formally built until later.

1760-By 1760, houses are appearing at the South Road Village (Crossroads), at the heights of Joseph Fifield House 1755, on Loverein Hill Road/ Center range west of now route 4, Humphrey House near tolls, Old College Road junction with the later route 4. See OLD COLLEGE ROAD.

1761- In 1761, the Webster Sawmill was built on Punch Brook near the still “unbuilt” rangeway. This is explained under the Chapter “Stevenstown” in the

1761- Ebenezer Webster moves to Salisbury (Stevenstown), North Road.

1763- NORTH RANGEWAY surveyed. Only a few sections were ever built.

1763- SOUTH RANGEWAY surveyed by William Calef

1764- In Kingston, NH, A committee is established to decide where the Meeting House should be established. The Meeting House on Mt Pisgah (Searle’s Hill) is designated. Ten acres on the North side of Searles Hill is selected.

1765- Before an early map of Merrimack Valley, there appears to have been located a Meeting House; however, in 1765, when the people of Stevenstown petitioned Kingston in regards to their settlement, they represented that they had built a fort and were about to but a meeting house.  It may be that they had constructed one of the logs previously to this date. There is no reason to believe this had done so; the Searle’s Hill Church is regarded as Salisbury’s first church.

By 1767– Tavern at Andrew Pettengill’s, Crossroads

1767- The Population of Salisbury is 210

1768- CENTER RANGEWAY ROAD Road was fully surveyed, though operational before. “Chestnut Cottage”  was already built by about 1760, on the Center Rangeway, and may have served as a traveler’s stop heading from the heights to Province Road to Sutton and Charlestown.

1761-1769-Hanover, NH, and a charter is given for the founding of Dartmouth College.

1770- Grain is transported out of  Salisbury to Sutton (Perrysville) for a brief period..

By 1770, roads northwesterly:  Wolfeboro Road is built from Wolfeboro, NH, to Dartmouth College. A branch of the Old College Road exists in Salisbury.

Province Road already exists, going from Boscawen through Salisbury to Sutton to Fort # 4, Charlestown, and the road to Hanover.  About OLD COLLEGE ROAD

 https://www.salisburyhistoricalsociety.org/old-college-road/

1768- Approx- Meeting House/Church is built with a parsonage. Settlers arrive.  In 1773, Reverend Searles comes to Mt. Pisgah, later known as Searles Hill, Salisbury, NH, preaches and farms. Has an orchard. 1768-abt 1788

1768- Salisbury is founded, and the first meeting is at the home of Andrew Pettengill at what is now The Crossroads. Homes have already been built in this area since about 1760.

1769 April 7, 1769, Legal voters for the New town of Salisbury meet at Andrew Pettengill’s Tavern (gray house crossroads) serves as a town Meetinghouse.

1770- NORTH ROAD is formally constructed. Starts at Shaw’s Corner and goes to Andover. According to Dearborn, this was the second road to the North Country. Perhaps the first being the Merrimack/ Pemi River road. “This was for many years a thoroughfare for the northern section of the country,” however, families have already settled on North Road since 1753

1774 -A Cross Rangeway likely existed, linking South Rangeway near the Stirrup Iron Pond to the Center Rangeway just west of Salisbury Meeting House on Searle’s Hill. It is barely a trail now.  Likely replaced by the Bog road.

Bog Road- Cross Rangeway links South Rangeway with the Center Rangeway. Once well-traveled.

1775- Deacon Moses Sawyer settles on the Center rangeway

1781- Raccoon Hill Road

Date unknown, Calef Hill Road– connected to Water Street, Boscawen. Date unknown, Calef Hill Road link to Water Street, Boscawen, likely much earlier. Was this a major road? It seems an older house existed here and was moved to the South Range Road, which had assumed more of a town center.

Mills Road -Center Road Village to West Salisbury- (West Salisbury Road). Both Scribner’s Corner and Smith’s Corner are very early settlements.

Cross Range Road (Hensmith) connects South and Center range from Center Village to Battle Street at the heights. However, it goes by the Baptist graveyard, not where it is today.

1784- Old College Road plans submitted. See OLD COLLEGE ROAD>

  https://www.salisburyhistoricalsociety.org/old-college-road/

1790- Reuben True House/Bell Tavern is built and accommodates travelers on the Fourth NH Turnpike toll road after 1800..

1804- Fourth NH Turnpike constructed.

1819- Mutton Road off the junction at the Crossroads- South road Village to Corser Hill to Hopkinton.

Water Street, now called Rabbit Road, commences near the Academy- note Rte 4 in this section did not exist a the time,  and goes to Water Street in Boscawen.

1823- Shaws Corner to northeast to Franklin (Rte 127)

1825-The town is divided, for Franklin’s petition for a new town was presented to the Legislature in 1825.  The petition was bitterly opposed by the towns who would have to give up parts of their lands, the result being that several years would elapse before the matter was settled.

The people who wanted a new town persevered and, as a result, Franklin, the Town, was incorporated on December 24, 1828.  It would become a city in 1895.-historyof franklin.org

1849- The “New Road”, now Stirrup Iron Road/Gerrish, follows Stirrup Iron Brook down Switch Hill towards the Merrimack River to Rte 3, is constructed, though it had existed prior. The purpose was to reach the Gerrish Station 1842, transport and pick up goods & mail. Perhaps simply improved.  

1869- New Road

1950s- “The Crank” at the Crossroads is remedied with a small straight extension through the farmlands of Rene Beaudoin into the crossroads junction sometime in the mis 1950″ S (1955?).