Epsom Historical Center, home to the Epsom Historical Association

The Epsom Town House built in 1850 replacing the old meetinghouse on Center Hill.

The Short Falls Covered Bridge and Grist Mill shown in an old colorized post card.

Epsom had 9 one rooms schools, the Mountain District is the oldest still standing, dating from 1834.

The old Meetinghouse was built by the Free Will Baptists in 1861, moved to this site in 2007.

Epsom Central School shortly after it was built, replacing the old one room schools.

The Epsom Public Library, building completed at the end of 2006.

A rare color photo of a train arriving at the old Short Falls Station, one of two Epsom depots.

Genealogy - Our database of Epsom Early Settlers includes over 47,000 individuals.

One of the oldest surviving homes in Epsom. Visit the History section on Historic Homes.

 

Welcome to Epsom History.com

Historical Information for Epsom, New Hampshire

The town of Epsom, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, was chartered in 1727 and soon after, the first 20 home lots began to be settled. Tracing these early settlers of Epsom evolved over the last decade to encompass this website, home to the Epsom Historical Association. The menu bar at the top of the page will guide you to the various sections of the website, and there are quick links to the more popular research areas on the right side of the page. For the best search results, click on Site Search in the menu bar, as there are different search boxes for various parts of the website. Whether browsing or researching, please sign our guest book to let us know of your visit.

Agricultural and Poll Data 1793-1825

May 24, 2013   Records

The early town records were transcribed from the original books for what was called 'State' copies. These copies, in large books, are at the NH State Library and also there on microfilm. The micorfilm was made in the 1950's by the LDS Church, and the images are now online. These 'State' record books are much easier to read than the original books held at the NH State Archives. The online images are available to browse, but the images are not indexed. Hopefully, over time, these images can be indexed. As a beginning to this imense project, the images for the Arigultural and Poll data for the years 1793-1825 are indexed with links for quick access. Read more [...]

New Rye Church Photo

May 24, 2013   Scrapbook Photos
There are many photos of the old Freewill Baptist Church, and probably only about a half dozen pictures of the New Rye Church. Both structures were built in 1861, but the location of the Freewill Church on Route 4 made it more predominant. A new, not before seen photo of the New Rye Church is now part of the electronic archives of the Epsom Historical Association. There is currently in the archives a photo from the same time period, though from a different angle - and later versions show an outside light and stone steps. This new photo does not show any such outside light and has a wood platform in front of the church. View Photo [...]

Lewis Hill's Hand Drawn Epsom Maps Scanned

March 29, 2013   At the Epsom Historical Center
Lewis Hill before his death in 1965, hand sketched three maps from memory which included three areas of the town of Epsom. Lewis, also known to the locals as 'Perch' Hill, was a son of John J. and Ellen M. (Hall) Hill, born in 1888 and died 1965. The maps came to the Epsom Historical Association from Regina (Hill) Roy, daughter of Lewis's brother Richard Hill.
The original hand drawn maps are shrink-wrapped as part of the holdings of the Epsom Historical Association's holdings. .. Read more [...]

Epsom's One Room Schools

February 28, 2013   Historical Article
Information on the one room schools in Epsom comes from various sources. References are made in the original town records about the establishing of the first school as well as mentioning several other early schoolhouses. These same records discuss early plans to establish and change districts with the forming of school committees. James Babb in his diary mentions visiting several early schools around 1820, giving the name of the teacher and the conditions surrounding the teaching, There is a pretty large void of information from this time through the civil war, Read more [...]
History Page

Genealogy Update: McDaniel Family

February 28, 2013  

From time to time corrections and updates have to be made to the Epsom Early Settlers Genealogy database. There were some errors in the family of Robert McDaniel and his wife Nancy Keniston. For those that might have connections, the following corrections and additions need to be made. A grandchild of John Griffin who married Mary Maria McDaniel, wrote a family history, typed, from which the following information was gleaned (note prior to this information, only one son was known, Samuel). This single page starts with a previously unknown son, Robert (Jr.). The files was misinterpreted when first entered. The brothers of Robert were listed as brothers to Robert (1779-1861) instead of listed as his and Nancy's children. This prompted researching this family again, and though there is an immense amount of information missing, the children of Robert and Nancy McDaniel can be found at our genealogy database. (link)..