December, into the 1700s and 1800’s why did towns have “Town Pounds” and did Salisbury have one?
Answer: To pen in stray, large farm animals was a problem for early settlers. Yes, Salisbury did have a Town Pound, and it is located at Whittemore and Center Road. Stones’ walls settle over time, parts of them get buried, and stones are recycled. This one was likely very up to the task in its time.
For more details, Great Sheep Boom & Stone Walls
November, why is there an Old College Road in Salisbury, seemingly going north through East Andover, if there is no college anywhere nearby?
Answer: It was a road that went to Dartmouth College! For more details, Old College Road
For a general overview and timeline of the era, see In Early Town Planning.
October, the Society often gets genealogy inquiries from the public nationwide, inquiring about ancestors who lived in Salisbury. Sometimes we find it is another Salisbury. Currently, there are 12 locations in the US with towns or small cities named Salisbury. All of the following states have a Salisbury except one. Which is it?
Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island. Vermont, Virginia, North Carolina.
Answer: Rhode Island
September, New Hampshire historians find the term “Range Road” often in their research, but what were “Range Roads”?
Answer: Early Town Planning
August, About all those stones in our stone walls, throughout our forest and fields, from fieldstones to boulders -Where did they all come from?
Answer: New England did not become stony until the Laurentide Ice Sheet invaded the region from central Canada some 15,000 -30,000 years ago, scraping landscapes clean along the way and depositing rock in its wake and recession. So one could humorously say our beautiful stone walls here in Salisbury were made in Canada, though assembled here.
July, what are the definitions for the following? Wormwall, stile, cairn, pin and feather, erratics, stone boat, fence viewer, town pound
Answer, wormwall– a zigzag, Virginia split rail type fencing used before stone walls when wood was readily available. Field stones were often thrown against it, and began the foundation of the next generation of wall, a zig-zag, wormy rock wall.
Stile is a part of a wall with steps built in so the farmers could avoid using a gate and still get over the wall.
Cairn an organized rock pile that may have Native American origins.
Pin and Feather, a method by which settlers, 1774-1820, broke up stones, leaving the markings of 2 of 3 shovels.
Erratics rock material laid down upon the earth by the last ice age.
Stone Boat is a flat-bottomed sled pulled by oxen to haul stones.
Fence viewer-an appointed official who regularly checked on town fencing (stone walls included) to make sure all complied.
Town pounds a pen for escaped farm animals, originally swine.
For more details, Great Sheep Boom & Stone Walls
June, On June 1 of the year 1638, something major happened. Colonists at Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts heard a very loud roar approach them and then, suddenly, for 4 minutes were thrown off their feet unless holding onto things. Some chimneys collapsed. The island off NH and Mass was violently shaken, and ships in the harbor were subjected to large tidal wave-like swells. What was this event, and what does it have to do with the Salisbury area?
Answer: Measurements based on recent seismic activities place the epicenter of the 6.5-7 damaging earthquake likely in the Boscawen area, south of the fork of Rte 3 & 4, or slightly west under the riverbed or just into Northfield. Knowing for sure is not possible at this time, but these are the best speculations based on geologic findings from recent rumblings. In any case, the epicenter, if not actually in Salisbury, may very well have been only 4-5 miles away. The noise and shaking must have been massive.
May, What was the Great Sheep Boom?
Answer, For several decades in the early 1800’s eighty percent of New Hampshire was cleared of forests, and farmers were raising sheep for wool as a very profitable business.
For more details, Great Sheep Boom & Stone Walls
April, do you know where bridges are or were in Salisbury, within current borders?
Answer: The major bridges in town go over the Blackwater River, which divides our town as it flows mostly north to the south. Early bridges were washed out, and several were replaced, likely more than once. There were other smaller bridges that we have no trace of that must have crossed over the wider streams in town. Please check out the page on our website for more details and images. If you have any further information or images, please share!
For more details, Bridges
March, are today’s borders of Salisbury the same as they were when the town was laid out in the mid-1700s?
Answer, Yes and No. Three sides have borders that are consistent with the earliest borders, but the eastern side is completely altered.
Our town was laid out as a tilting rhomboid, not a rectangle perfectly along a straight e/w latitude line. It extended from the Merrimack River in the east to the slopes of Mt. Kearsarge in the west.
The eastern border was altered with the creation of Franklin beginning abt 1820. The river was no longer the border, but rather a jagged border was created to include the Daniel Webster Birthplace as part of Franklin.
Original boundaries:
SE: This border was what is now the Boscawen/Franklin town line point south of the Webster Farm on Route 3 and just south of the Old Fort along the Merrimack. A historical marker is located at the Old Fort site behind and just south of the Webster Graveyard.
W: The far westerly corner is on the slopes of Mt. Kearsarge, intersecting the Mt Kearsarge Road in Warner for several feet.
NW: The northwesterly point is somewhere in the hills past where Mountain Road fades out across the Blackwater, where Andover begins.
NE: This point was on the Pemigewasset River (Merrimack below Franklin) just north of today’s bridge to Franklin in West Franklin, but south of where Route 11 goes off 3A to now East Andover, perhaps by Sturtevant St.
February, there were two schoolhouses in West Salisbury, “The Mills”, dated abt 1816, and the second, afterwards dated 1885-mid 1920s. Where were they located?
Answer: The Mill School, West Salisbury
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Ca 1806, A school existed, but perhaps not in an official schoolhouse. It likely existed in a residence.
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Ca 1816, A schoolhouse existed on Mountain Road. Eight early residences extending up to the Andover line from the Blackwater River appear to have existed in this area at one time.
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Ca 1884-mid 1920s, a new building was erected, located between the Pingree Bridge and Dunlap Road, closer to the Pingree Bridge, across the road from the river. For more details, Mills School
January, What are the three oldest houses in Salisbury?
Answer: The oldest standing house is located on North Road. Ca. 1753, James Tappan House.
Second and third oldest: There are seven houses dated ca 1760, which are contenders, as we have no way of knowing exactly which house was built first:
ca 1760 John Webster – Leonard Judkins House, Franklin Road (aka South Rd/South Range Rd/Rte 127)
ca 1760 Esq. Joseph Bean House, Franklin Road (aka South Road/South Range Rd/Rte 127)
ca 1760 Bohonon & Fellows House, South Road
ca 1760 David Pettengill House, Loverin Hill Road, Center Rangeway
ca 1760 Chestnut Cottage-Stevens House, Loverin Hill Road /Center Rangeway
ca 1760 Samuel Judkins House, North Road
ca 1760 Humphrey Webster House, North Range Road just off Old Turnpike Road (Route 4)
For more details, Historical Salisbury Houses