Mountain Road and New Portsmouth

 

The Mountain Road was officially laid out by the town in 1784, being ‘as it goes’ then on by the range way to Allenstown line, implying an earlier way from East Street to the Mountain District. The road on East Street (Center Hill) bordered land of Nathan Marden, and led to a private road, later known as the Tarleton Road, to what John Mark Moses referred to as a ‘valley, still a picturesque and interesting place.’ His remark was written in 1909 when he mentions only one house remained in a part of town known for a time as New Portsmouth. His description of New Portsmouth mentioned also that ‘cultivation was mostly on the eastern slope. The western slope is steep, running up to the top of Fort Mountain, a mountain too little known. The view from its rocky summit is the finest in southeastern New Hampshire’. Later pictures of the road call it Sand Hill, while the hand drawn maps of Lewis Hill call it New Portsmouth Road. The Mountain Road, which for some time has not been a through road, led to the southeast corner of Epsom, bordering Allenstown and Deerfield, connecting to roads leading to New Rye. The land leading by Fort and McCoy’s Mountains was sparsely settled with most of the residents living at the higher elevation at New Portsmouth, and at the bottom which became the Mountain District.

 

The area New Portsmouth and the Mountain District cover stretches from the south side of the home lots to the Allenstown/Epsom border and included lots 1 through 20 in the first range, and the eastern end of lots 60 to 73 in the second range, those south of the Sanborn lot (the westerly side being part of New Rye). The town history in the Hurd’s Atlas by John Dolbeer lists the original proprietors of these lots as the following: No. 1, Nathaniel White; 2, James Seavey; 3, John Odiorne; 4, Benjamin Ball; 5, Israel Mark; 6, Samuel Haines; 7, John Foss; 8, Joshua Brackett; 9, Zachariah Foss; 10, Jonathan Dockam; 11, Richard Jordan; 12, Samuel Weeks; 13, John Underwood; 14, Robert Avery; 15, John Rindge; 16, Richard Tarleton; 17, Henry Trefethen; 18, Thomas Manneren; 19, John Wilson; 20, James Marden - 60, Daniel Lunt; 61, Sampson Shiefe; 62, William Seavey Jun.; 63, Joseph Simpson; 64, Nehemiah Berry; 65, Joshua Seavey; 66, Samuel Brackett; 67, Robert Goss, Robert Goss, Jun; 68, Samuel Wallis; 69, Samuel Doust; 70, John Johnson; 71, James Chadwick; 72, Christopher Treadwick; 73, Richard Goss.

 

Most of the original lots were never settled by their original proprietors, and few, if any, had any settlements until after the French and Indian war. The majority were populated after the American Revolution. Town records indicate a Southern District school as early as 1793, which would have served families in the New Rye and Mountain District, and it was known as early as 1804 as the Mountain District School.

 

Some of the families who lived in New Portsmouth and over the Mountain Road into the Mountain District are mentioned in articles by John Mark Moses (1908-1909), the memoirs of George H. Yeaton (1963), and a few notes by Benjamin Marden Towle (1936). The County maps of 1858 and 1892 show the occupants of the homes, and additional names and locations can be found on the hand drawn maps done by Lewis Hill about 1900. Hill’s maps contain the most names and locations of some of the earlier residents. Deed research, genealogy research and the aforementioned articles provide the basis for information contained in this book.

 

The writings of George H. Yeaton in 1963 includes an article of the families and the area of New Portsmouth, called ‘The Ghost Town in Epsom’ of which the following is an excerpt: 


THE GHOST TOWN IN EPSOM N.H. THE ALMOST FORGOTTEN PART OF THE TOWN

AND THE FAMILIES THAT LIVED IN THIS PART OF EPSOM, MANY YEARS AGO


On the old Canterbury Road and on what was once known as East Street, as you came to the foot of the hill and at the place where Mrs. Isabella McCoy was captured on Aug. 21, 1747 by the Indians, one comes to the Mountain Road, this road which joins the Canterbury Road leads in a southerly direction and to what was at one time one of the most important sections of Epsom.

This was the part of town known as “New Portsmouth,” a thrifty and prosperous community of farms and homes.

There were one or more mills built on the mountain brook, and at one time twenty to forty children came from this part of Epsom to attend the school at Center Hill, four from New Portsmouth graduated from Dartmouth College, others studied and became professional men. In time of war men from this community left their home and families to fight for their country, one or more were soldiers in the Revolutionary War, at least three served in the War of 1812, and seven or eight were soldiers in the Civil War, the names of some of the families were Hall, Grant, Allen, Tarleton, Coffran, Dowst, Goss, Griffin, Foss, Babb, Wells, Langley, Appleton, Dickey, Hill, Nelson, and Joel Ames, the blacksmith.


Tradition tells us that at one period in the early history of this settlement, there were forty yoke of oxen kept on these farms. I was told by a descendant of one of the old families, that when he, as a boy, went to school there were twenty children who came from New Portsmouth to attend the school at Center Hill, this would be as late as the years 1873-1880.

Some of the names used in referring to parts of this settlement were: The Sand Hill, Grants Hill, Allen Hill, Tarleton Meadows, Simeon’s Gully, Mountain Road, Tarleton or Grant Road and Mountain Brook; these were all familiar names when referring to this section of Epsom, in the days long gone.


Alter the close of the Civil War there were fifteen or twenty families living in the New Portsmouth area but since that time the community has gradually grown less and less until today April 1963 there are only three houses suitable to live in that are left standing, and only one of these are occupied, this one by a man and his wife both well advanced in years; their only livestock a dog and a few hens. It was in this part of Epsom that the Indians had a lead mine where they obtained the lead that they traded with Sargent Blake. (The location of the lead mine is still a secret [1963]). The rest of this area, which was once covered with farms and homes is now dotted with old cellars, wells, springs, one Indian burying ground, one or more family burying grounds and small clearings that were once large fertile fields, scattered in the valleys and on the slopes of Fort and McCoy's Mountains.


The census of 1810 lists those enumerated as the home were visited, and gives a glimpse of the earliest families in New Portsmouth. Listed, they are Daniel Wells, Aaron Babb, John Grant, John Grant Jr., Simon Grant, Mark Emerson and Ephraim Amazeen. Nearer 1850, these larger tracts of land began to be divided into smaller lots with additional families moving into the area. Families included were Simon, John and George W. Grant, Greenleaf Allen, William and Thomas Tarlton, Thomas Appleton, Charles Flower and Benjamin Hall. By 1883 the Chesley family owned most of what was New Portsmouth, including what were called th Tarlton farm and lot, the Grant Place, Allen Place, and Hall Place.

 

JOHN GRANT FAMILY

 

The family of John Grant is nearly impossible to verify due to the lack of vital records for the town of Epsom. There are few mentions of the family and a lack of information in war records. Two sources give a glimpse as to the names of the sons of John Grant and his wife Dorothy Foss.

Poll and tax records would indicate there was only one Grant family in Epsom, and following the addition of names to the rolls, the following gives a picture of the family:

 

John Grant the father pays tax from 1793 until his death in 1822.

Simon Grant is added in 1798

William Grant in 1799 to 1811

John Grant Jr. in 1803

Job Grant in 1808 to 1809

Thomas Grant in only 1818

Ebenezer Grant in 1825

 

Knowing the age at death of Simon and John Jr., and using the number of years between the addition of the Grants in the years of the polls, a sense of the years and order of the birth of the sons can be estimated.  In 1810, the US Census takers recorded their enumerations in the order in which they visited area households, and in that census, the Grants are listed one after the other, being John, John Jr., Simon and William. Marriages show Simon marrying in 1798, William in 1800, John Jr. in 1801, and Job about 1811. No marriage record has been found for Thomas nor Ebenezer.

 

A list of Epsom soldiers of the War of 1812 (John Dolbeer’s History in the Merrimack County Atlas) lists Thomas Grant, and it is known that the widow of Job Grant applied for a pension before she married a second time in 1816. John Grant Jr. also is not listed, though his grave is honored each year as a veteran of the 1812 War. William does not pay poll tax after 1811 and his widow appears with two children in the census of 1820, perhaps William also a casualty like his brother Job.

 

John Grant’s widow in 1838 mentions in her will sons Simon, John and Ebenezer, along with her three daughters. No record of Ebenezer has been found, but must have still been living at the time of his mother’s will. The daughters were Sally Libbey, Polly Foss, and Dorothy Goss. John Grant was born about 1755 in Newcastle, the son of Peter and Ruth (Seavey) Grant. His mother was the daughter of William and Hannah Seavey, and a sister to Eunice Seavey. Samuel Davis was the son of Eunice and John Davis, and in his statement in support of a pension for John Grant, calls himself a relative. John Grant married Dorothy Foss, daughter of Job and Sarah (Lang) Foss, in Rye, April 20, 1775. Using town poll data and census data, with other records, the family was probably the following:

 

Simon, born about 1776, died in Epsom, February 1863, married Hannah Babb, at least four children.

William, born about 1777, died before 1820, married in Pembroke in 1800, Cata Hall, at least 2 unknown children. May have died in service during the War of 1812 as he does not pay poll tax after 1811. Not mentioned in the will of his mother in 1838. Sally, married in Epsom in 1800, Joshua Libbey, had 9 children and moved to Stanstead, Canada. John Jr., born about 1781, died in Epsom August 17, 1864, married at Epsom in 1801, Hannah McGaffey and had three children. His grave has a marker as veteran of the War of 1812.

Polly, born about 1786, married in Epsom, Ephraim Blake Foss, son of Timothy and Abigail (Blake) Foss of Barrington. Job, born about 1786, married Nancy Locke about 1811, daughter of Deacon Abraham and Molly (Sanborn) Locke of Epsom. Probably died in service during the War of 1812 as his wife applied for a pension and married at Epsom in 1816, Andrew Fischer. Not mentioned in the will of his mother in 1838.

Dolly, born about 1788, married about 1809 in Epsom, Nathan Goss, son of Samuel and Abigail (Lucas) Goss. They had 10 children and resided in Epsom. Thomas, born about 1795, pays poll tax in Epsom up to 1818, and is probably the Thomas Grant seen in listings as serving from Epsom in the War of 1812. Not mentioned in the will of his mother in 1838. Ebenezer, born about 1802, died after 1838 when he appears in the will of his mother, he pays poll in Epsom in 1825. Nothing more is known of him.

 

The Grants lived for a time in Rye, then Greenland where most of his children were probably born. John Grant is already of Epsom when he buys from Henry and Mary Prescott of Newcastle, 116 acres in lot 19, originally drawn by John Wilson (in the deed as lot 17, but Wilson drew lot 19) in 1789. Interestingly, the same Henry Prescott bought in 1798, ‘the whole of the house lot formerly belonging to Peter Grant of Newcastle, deceased’ from what would appear to be heirs, though not specified. Peter had sold the ‘small house’ to William Grant in 1771. Those selling included Bezaleel Hamblin of Portland and his wife Ruth; Elizabeth Durgin and Mary Grant, both of Portsmouth, widow, possibly children of William; and Ruth Grant of Newcastle, widow, possibly the wife of Peter Grant and mother to John.

 

John Grant, cordwainer, settled his family on lot 19, of which he sold a portion to John Wells of Epsom in 1792, being 20 acres running from little meadows brook westerly to the second range. This lot would later be owned by his son Simon. Most of the other land transactions are in the family, which speculates whether there was any relationship to John Wells or his wife Jane. John’s son John Jr. in fact names a son George Wells Grant.

 

In 1802 John Grant deeds land to his son John Jr. who had married a year earlier. The land was part of lot 19, again on the westerly side of a brook, running westerly to contain 40 acres, and a reverse deed quitclaims to his father rights for the term of his natural life. Part of the easterly end of the lot was sold by John Grant to John Wallace in 1804. In 1806 the family homestead is deeded by father John Grant to his son Simon, who sells it back to his father September 16, 1807. That same day, John Grant transfers ‘all the land I now own, the same where I now live’ to John Grant Jr. and his brother Job, again with rights to John and his wife Dolly during the term of their natural lives. Job sells out his portion to Thomas D. Merrill in 1808, and Merrill sells the land back to John Grant Jr., in 1814.

 

John Grant Jr. continues to buy parcels of land. His father died in 1822, and his son John, via a lease in 1826, gives the use of one half of his real estate to his son George W. Grant, allowing himself the use of the property during his natural life.

 

John Grant Jr. married at Epsom in 1801, Hannah McGaffey, daughter of Neal and Sarah (Babb) McGaffey. They resided on the homestead farm and had three children: Ruth Seavey, born in 1802 and married in 1822, Timothy Foss; George Wells Grant, born 1805 and married in 1827, Sally Foss, daughter of Timothy and Abigail (Blake) Foss, who died in 1855; and Sarah Babb, who married a Daniel L. Richardson. John’s wife Hannah died in 1827 and he married second, about 1825, Betsey Phelps. They had a son Andrew McClary Grant, born about 1823, and on his death record from Lansing, Michigan, his parents are given as John and Betsy Grant, though census records would indicate he was also of the first marriage.

 

John Grant in 1833 deed half of the homestead to his son George W., ‘easterly on land of John Wallace, northerly on land of Mary Parker and Greenleaf Allen, westerly by the Mountain Road, and southerly on land of William Tarlton.’  In 1841 he deeds to his son Andrew M. Grant ‘half my home farm, that is the farm and buildings where I now live, excepting what I have conveyed to George W. Grant.’ Andrew deeds back to his parents in 1845 the rights to the same property for the term of their natural lives. This changes in 1849 when the same is deeded to his brother George W. Grant, making him sole owner of the family farm.

 

George Wells Grant and his wife Sally Foss had four children: Emeline who married a John P. Stevens; William T., born in 1831 and married in 1856, Sarah A. Twombly; Betsey F., of whom nothing more is known; and Clara S. who married in 1855, Perly C. Giles and resided on New Orchard Road. Andrew M. Grant married in 1842, Sally Cate Wiggin daughter of James Wiggin of Epsom, who died in 1846. He married at Concord in 1850, Nancy C. Morrill, and had two children, Annie and Arthur. Nancy died in 1871, and Andrew married as his third wife, a Lydia unknown. He died in Lansing, Michigan in 1911.

 

George Wells Grant deeds the family homestead to his son William T. Grant in 1853, still subject to the lease of its use by his father granted at the same. Various deeds are exchanged, and in 1857, Andrew quitclaims all rights to the homestead back to his parents. His brother deeds his portion back to Andrew. John Grant died August 17, 1864, his second wife moved to Vermont to live with a brother and died there in 1880, his first wife Hannah McGaffey died in 1827. On November 1, 1864, Andrew sells the family homestead, 70 acres with buildings to Charles E. Flower of Epsom, with 18 acres sold to Charles H. Hall.

 

Charles E. Flower was a son of Charles Flower, of whose ancestry nothing is known, and Hannah Lawrence, daughter of Joseph H. and Mary (Prescott) Lawrence. They were married in Epsom in 1824. Charles E. married at Epsom in 1849, Susan M. Dow, daughter of Taylor and Abigail (Foss) Dow. Susan died in 1857 and Charles married her sister Mary A. Dow in 1858. Taylor Dow died in 1839, and widow Abigail married Joseph Emerson of Epsom, whose father Mark lived in New Portsmouth around 1810.

 

Sometime between 1864 when Charles E. Flower purchased the Grant farm, and 1867 when he sold the property, deeds indicate that the Grant houses, apparently several residences on the farm, were lost to fire. Flower sold the farm in two parcels. Both were sold October 22, 1867. The first parcel was sold to John Chesley, ‘on the westerly side of the highway leading from the Mountain road to the Tarleton farm on the northerly line of said farm, running westerly on said line to land of Charles H. Hall.’ The second parcel was sold to Michael M. McClary, being ‘on the easterly side of the highway from the Mountain road to the Tarlton farm.’ Both deeds reference the southeast corner of the cellar of the Grant houses lately destroyed by fire.

 

John Chesley’s portion was passed down through his family, and Michael M. Steele in 1882, sold his portion to John Chesley’s son, Daniel G. Chesley.

 

SIMON GRANT

 

Simon Grant was a son of John and Dorothy (Foss) Grant, born in Rye about 1776. He moved to Epsom with his parents in 1789, and married in Epsom March 15, 1798, Hannah Babb, daughter of Philip and Grace (Lang) Babb. His father sold part of lot 19, 20 acres, to John Wells in 1792, from the little meadows brook westerly to the second range. Wells sells half this lot in two parcels, one of seven acres and the other of three acres, to Simon Grant in 1799. The other half was in the hands of Nathan Marden Jr., who sells his portion to Simon in 1802. Simon sells this land in 1804 to Thomas Babb, all 20 acres. The homestead farm was sold to Simon by his brother in 1806, and Simon sells it back to his father the next year. In 1814, his brother John Jr., sells Simon part of lot 19, all that part on the westerly side of the Mountain Road. This would appear to be where Simon made a home. Not much is known of the family of Simon Grant, and most of his family is found through various deeds. His children included a female, born about 1799; Levi T., of whom nothing is known; Philip Babb, born about 1812, who married about 1832 in Lowell, Massachusetts, Mary Simpson; Eliza Bensin or Benson, who was born about 1815 and married a James Simpson; and Aaron D., who married in Peterboro in 1849, Sophia H. Snow, widow of Henry Swan, and after the death of Aaron, married third a John Wilder.

 

In 1832 Simon deeds the property he bought in 1814 to Levi T. Grant of Dunstable, MA., and Philip B. Grant of Lowell. Philip sells his undivided to his brother Aaron in 1838. Aaron D. Grant died before 1855, when his widow Sophia sells the homestead ’20 acres on the westerly side of Mountain Road, part of lot 19 with the buildings thereon’ to Charles Henry Hall.

 

Simon Grant in 1855 sells his half of the homestead to Mary Grant, wife of his son Philip in 1855. She sells her half to Charles Henry Hall in 1856, making him sole owner of the Simon Grant farm. Hall leases the property to his father shortly after buying the farm, and later sells it to his brother Daniel in 1862. The house is no longer standing.

 

Uriah Hall owned land on Center Hill Road, near the junction with Sanborn Hill Road about 1825, sold by his heirs in 1865.

 



BENJAMIN HALL FAMILY

 

The parents of Benjamin Hall were difficult to trace because of various sources relating to where he was born. His son Daniel on his death record places it in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts. The town records of his daughters Mary F. (Batchelder), Hannah (Roberts) and Ellen M. (Hill) give his place of birth as Brookline, New Hampshire. There is a reference that he was from England. His own New Hampshire death record gives Brookline, Massachusetts as his place of birth, probably in error and should have been New Hampshire.

 

The Hall family is from Brookline, New Hampshire, originating from Bradford, Massachusetts. William Hall moved with his wife Mercy to Brookline, and among his family was a son Uriah, born in 1778, and married in Brookline in 1798, Hannah Shattuck. Their family included: Uriah, Mary, Nathan, Benjamin, George, Thurry and Abigail. Uriah married Olive Rand who was born in Epsom, daughter of Tobias T. and Mary S. Lear.  Both Uriah and Benjamin above were coopers by trade and raised their families in Epsom, NH. Benjamin Hall first lived on Center Hill Road, as he bought a house and land there in 1830 before moving to the Mountain Road. Uriah Hall owned land on Center Hill Road, near the junction with Sanborn Hill Road about 1825, sold by his heirs in 1865.

 

Uriah, born in 1798, and Olive had children: William R., married Sarah Wyman and resided in Tyngsboro, MA.; Lemuel, who married Betsey C. Langley, daughter of True and Mehitable (Dow) Langley, resided in Epsom for a time in a house at New Portsmouth, died in 1866 and she married second, George H. Piper; Mary, who died unmarried in 1896; Uriah G. who married Addie Lamprey and resided in the Lakes region; Lucinda, who married John Robinson Dow; Sarah B., who married James P. Ordway and resided in Hooksett; Elizabeth, married Alvin Libby of Maine; and Charles Walker, married Lorinda McIntire.

 

Benjamin Hall, born in 1805, married in Epsom in 1829, Polly Wells, daughter of Daniel and Lucy (Emerson) Wells. Their children included: Charles Henry, born in 1831, and in 1851 married Lucy Jane Langley, daughter of True and Mehitable (Dow) Langley, sister of Betsey C. Langley who married Lemuel Hall; Andrew J., born 1834, married, probably in Illinois, Sarah J. Poynter and resided for a time in the former Tarlton house in New Portsmouth; and Hollis, who was born in 1836 and died unmarried in 1854. Polly died in 1840, and Benjamin Hall married second, Mary Dowst, daughter of John and Betsey Holton (Wallace) Dowst in 1844. They had children: Lucy A., born 1846 and married Charles F. Cofran, two children, Shurldin and Malcolm W.; Daniel H., born 1847, married in 1870 Hannah M. Piper, daughter of Gardiner W. and Mariah H. (Dustin) Piper, one son, Benjamin Gardner Hall; Mary Frances born 1850, married James Lewis Batchelder; Ellen M., born 1853, married in 1881, John J. Hill, children Carolyn, Mamie, Amy F.B., Lewis, Annie M., and Richard H.; Caroline, died young; Hannah M., born 1859 and married in 1877, Charles F. Roberts; and Edward, born 1862 and married Lucy Cofran. In 1856, Charles H. Hall, son of Benjamin and Polly, bought the Simon Grant farm and leased it to his father during his natural life, that he, Benjamin, keep in repair the buildings and fences, as well as pay the taxes. Six years later Charles H. sells the property to his step brother, Daniel H. Hall. The property passed down through his heir, being his son Benjamin G., and through his heirs, remains in the family. George H. Yeaton, in his memoir of the ‘Ghost Town of Epsom’ written in 1963, adds the following: All that is left to show where the original Benjamin Hall farm was, in the early days of the settlement of “New Portsmouth,” is the house cellar partly filled. The remains of the foundation where the barn stood and the large lilac bush near the house cellar, in the small clearing.

 



CHARLES HENRY HALL HOUSE

 

Charles H. Hall was the son of Benjamin Hall and his first wife Polly Wells, who married in Epsom in 1851, Lucy Jane Langley, daughter of True and Mehitable (Dow) Langley. The couple had seven children: Charlie, who died young in 1864; Sarah Jane, born 1852 and married in 1873, Warren S. Bickford, son of Abraham and Nancy M. (Wells) Bickford; Henrietta who died age 3 in 1858; Charles Anderson, born 1859 and died January 2, 1861; Ella Etta, married William B. Brown of Barrington in 1890; Hollis, born 1866 and married in 1891, Mabel L. Sanders of Epsom, daughter of William T. and Drusilla (Ewer) Sanders; and Charles Henry, born in 1871, and died age 21 in 1893.

 

Charles H. Hall bought land from Joseph Lawrence Jr. of Epsom on June 9, 1852, where according to the deed his dwelling, barn and other buildings already stood, a plot of four and a half acres. While Charles had built his house on the small lot, he quickly accumulated additional property in the area. The land was originally Marden land, which passed from James to Nathan Marden, the later selling the lot, number 20 in the first range, to James H. McClary, excepting a portion sold to Thomas Babb. McClary sold the property to his son Michael, and upon his death the seized parcel was bought by Thomas D. Merrill in 1834. Sold by Merrill to David Griffin in 1839, it was next owned by John Griffin, his son in 1848 when it was sold to Joseph Lawrence. The deed was for 80 acres, with Lawrence selling only 4 and a half acres to Charles H. Hall. The deed from Griffin to Lawrence gives the following description: Land in Epsom beginning  on the Mountain road, so called at the southwesterly corner of the farm formerly owned by Jonathan Chase, thence running southerly by said road to the junction of the New Portsmouth road thence on said New Portsmouth road to land occupied by Greenleaf Allen, thence easterly by said Allen land and land of John Grant and George W. Grant as the line of said lot runs to a stake and stones at the corner of Nathan Griffin's land, thence northerly by land of Nathan Griffin on a straight line to a stake and stones on the southerly end of the home lots, thence westerly by land of Nathan Griffin and land of Jonathan Steele and the Chase farm, to bound first mentioned to contain all the land within said bounds except 4 acres which I sold to Nathan Griffin which is described by my deed to him, containing 80 acres.

 

Charles Henry Hall wrote his will in 1898, and all the estate property passed to his son Hollis Hall in 1904. Hollis died in 1938 and left his property to his only heir and daughter, Flora. Flora (Hall) Sullivan left her property to Blake's Brook Campground, which sold the Charles H. Hall house to Gottfried Zwesper in 1968.

 

 

 

Flora (Hall) Sullivan House

 

Hollis Hall built this house next to his father, Charles Henry Hall, cordwainer, shortly after he married Mabel Sanders in 1891. He inherited his fathers house upon his death in 1904. Hollis and Mabel had one daughter, Flora D. Hall, who married in 1912, Arthur H. Sullivan, son of John F. and Martha O. Edmunds. Upon the death of her father Hollis, she inherited all the Hall family estate, and she died in 1976. She was active and well known throughout Epsom, and was instrumental in starting the Epsom Historical Associations archive of photos. The house does not appear on the 1892 county map.

 

The inventory of the estate included the home farm of 175 acres, the Appleton pasture of 8 acres, the Sanders pasture of 33 acres, the Cass pasture, 65 acres, the Sprout lot of 25 acres, and the Hall lot of 12 acres. By will the property passed to the Blake's Brook Campground, operated by John and Hilda Fulton. Fulton was the executor of Flora Sullivan's estate and sold two tracts of land, including the Flora Sullivan home, to Carole M. (Socha) Brown in 1977. The house was bought by Carol A. Buckman in 1984.

 

WELLS FAMILY

 

Information on this Wells family is very incomplete. There is a lack of records and deeds to establish many of the relationships, making some suppositions when trying to outline the family. There were in the New Rye area some early deeds between a Samuel and Simon Wells, and a John Wells sells land to Ebenezer Wallace in the Mountain District in 1788, part of lot number 9. This lot was sold by a Zachariah Foss to Jacob Libbey in 1741, and how John Wells acquired it is unknown. The next deed seen was when John Wells bought 20 acres of land from John Grant in New Portsmouth in 1792. In both instances, the sale to Wallace and the purchase from John Grant, John Wells is already of Epsom.

 

John Wells sells his 20 acres bought of John Grant to John Wells Junior in 1796, the deed being signed by himself and wife Jane. It is possible that Jane was a sister of John Grant, but there is no proof. John Grant had a grandson named George Wells Grant, and Lucy Wells, wife of Daniel Wells, was living in 1850 in the household of Simon Grant. Again, this is supposition and not proved. John Grant paid poll tax in Epsom up to 1799, and does not appear in the 1800 US Census, and apparently died between those dates. His wife Jane may be the female over 45 in the household of John Wells Junior in 1800. A few records of deaths were kept by the Congregational Church from 1815, and she does not appear in them, so she may have died prior to 1815. The poll data shows a John Wells Junior paying tax on 30 acres of land starting in 1797, and a Daniel starts to pay poll tax in 1800, likely sons of John and Jane Wells.

 

John Wells sold two parcels of land to Simon Grant in 1799, part of lot 19, a total of 10 acres. He previously deeded to John Wells Junior in July of 1796, 20 acres of lot 19, which he had purchased from Philip Babb. John Jr. sold half of the 20 acres to Nathan Marden Junior in November of that same year. The deed was signed by John and Rebecca Wells. John Wells died in 1817, and the disposition of his property remains unknown.

 

Daniel Wells raised his family at New Portsmouth, buying land in 1814 from Michael McClary, part of lot 20 in the first range to take its beginning at the crotch of the New Portsmouth road where it crosses the Mountain road, then to run on the south side of the Mountain road as said road runs to lot numbered 19, then of the line betwixt lot No. 19 to the New Portsmouth road, then on the northwesterly side of New Portsmouth road to the bounds first mentioned to contain seven acres. This seven acre lot was sold by Daniel to his son Samuel on February 1, 1831, and sold it twenty days later to Thomas D. Merrill, being the same and all the land deeded to Thomas D. Merrill, being the same and all the land deeded to me by Daniel Wells on Feb. 1, 1831, together with all the buildings situated thereon and also a Cooper's Shop situated on the easterly side of the New Portsmouth road near the other buildings. Samuel was a cooper and it appears that this might have been the family homestead. In 1833, Samuel buys a small two acre lot in the vicinity of the junction of the Mountain and Tarleton Roads from Joseph Emerson. This parcel is sold to Nathan Griffin 2nd in 1847. The earlier parcel sold to Thomas D. Merrill that bordered land of Greenleaf Allen,  is sold to John Griffin by Merrill in 1842. The Griffin parcel is sold in 1855 to Charles H. Hall.

 

Still another parcel, which by the deed from Samuel Wells Jr., to Aaron B. Grant, references a two and a half acre parcel bought of Daniel Wells in 1836, but the deed for that purchase could not be found. Samuel Wells buys land at the corner of Center Hill and Echo Valley Roads in 1837, leaving New Portsmouth. A mystery still remains, as the later hand drawn maps of Lewis Hill shows the birthplace of James L. Wells, a son of Samuel in 1837, at the very eastern end of the Tarlton Road. On the 1858 two homes are shown, both owned by Josiah D. Langley. There are no deeds establishing any owners of the property, which by 1892 belong to the Chesley family. It appears by deed that both Langley, and the Daniel Wells homes were nearer the corner of the Mountain Road and Tarlton Road further to the west. Samuel sells the home at this location and perhaps lived at the eastern end of the Tarlton Road before moving to Center Hill.

 

Possibly connected is the appearance of Mark Emerson in this area in the 1810 Census. Mark Emerson and his wife Molly Hutchings had a daughter Lucy who married in Epsom in 1801, Daniel Wells. Perhaps he lived at the end of the Tarlton Road and passed the property to his daughter Lucy, again, there are no deeds to support that being the case.

 

John and Jane (Grant ?) Wells appear to have had two sons. John, who by deed had a wife Rebecca, who died and he married second in 1815, Rachel Libbey, daughter of Jethro and Abigail (Libbey), who married after the death of John in 1817, William McCrillis. John and Rebecca show an unknown son under age 10 in the 1810 Census. The other son was Daniel Wells, who married in 1801, Lucy Emerson. They had children: Elizabeth born about 1802, who died age 14; possibly Benjamin, born about 1804; John born about 1807, married a Lovey unknown and later in life lived on what is now part of the McClary Cemetery; Polly, who married Benjamin Hall in 1829, resided on Center Hill before moving late in life to New Portsmouth; Samuel who married Harriet Wicome, lived at New Portsmouth and later moved to Center Hill, having one son born in 1837, James Lewis Wells; Rachel who married at Lowell, Massachusetts, Morrill Dickey of Epsom, and died two years later; and Ann Wells, who married Thomas J. Emerson in 1837. His parents remain unknown, and she died in 1843.

 

AARON BABB FAMILY

 

Philip Babb descends from the Babb family of the Isles of Shoals. Philip married Grace Lang, both of Greenland and had the following children: Rachel, born about 1749 and married George Wallace, son of George and Margaret (McClary) Wallace, she died before 1797 when he married second, Lydia Eastman; Sarah who married in Greenland, 1781, Neal McGaffey, settled in Ohio, their daughter Hannah married John Grant of Epsom; Philip, born about 1750 in Greenland, married there in 1794, Sarah Holmes, daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Lewis) Holmes; Captain Thomas, born in 1752, married in Deerfield, 1776, Elizabeth Wallace, daughter of George and Margaret (McClary) Wallace and brother to George; Aaron, born 1759, married in Greenland, 1787, Hannah Tarlton, daughter of Benjamin and Mary Tarlton; Mary, born about 1765, married William Workman McGaffey and resided in Lyndon, Vermont; John, born about 1767, married 1795 in Greenland, Anna Holmes and resided Epsom; and Hannah, born in 1767, married in Epsom in 1798, Simon Grant. As can be seen from the marriages, there are strong connections to New Portsmouth with the Grant and Tarlton families. Philip bought land in Epsom as did his sons Philip, Thomas and Aaron. In 1778, as part of land the town of Epsom sold for unpaid taxes, lot 18, the original right of Thomas Mannary, was sold to Richard Tripp. Tripp sold the lot, 20 acres in the first range, to Thomas Babb three months after he purchased it. Additional land in that lot was sold to Aaron Babb, then of Portsmouth, by the town, an additional 57 acres, in 1782.

 

Thomas Babb also bought all of lot 20 from Nathan Marden, 22 acres in 1783, and the remainder in 1798. The land holdings of the family increased in 1784 when George Urin sold part of lot 14 to Aaron Babb in 1784, and Joseph Cilley sold 117 acres of lot 15, and 106 acres of lot 18 to Thomas and Aaron Babb in 1792. Aaron built a house on lot 18 when by deed they sell to their father Philip two tracts of land in Epsom, first being lot 18 in the first range original right of Thomas Mannaren, 104 acres, and part of lot 15 in the first range beginning on the westerly side of a way leading through said lot to Aaron Babb’s house then southerly on said way to the southerly side of a small brook then west 6 rods then south west to the southerly line of said lot, thence westerly carrying the whole width of said lot so that a parallel line will contain 70 acres. The small brook is likely the same mentioned in Grant family deeds. Philip Babb died in 1800, and his son Philip sold the property, excepting 2 acres bought by Benjamin Moody, to Aaron. Simon Grant in 1804, sold to Aaron Babb the property that his father had sold to John Wells, part of lot 19. Aaron Babb died in 1813, and the family began to deed land back to his widow, Hannah. This included Sarah Batchelder of Sanbornton, her right to lot 15;  in 1824, John Babb to Hannah, lot 13. Upon her death in 1848, Alonzo Wallace, her grandson, sold her land in the first range, to George Sanders, it being 90 acres and the land formerly owned and occupied by the widow Hannah Babb, late of Epsom, deceased, with the buildings on the same. Sanders still owned the property at the time of his death, and as assignee to his estate, John H. Dolbeer sold the ‘Babb’ pasture to James E. Philbrick in 1899. The house and buildings apparently no longer standing.

 

Aaron Babb and Hannah Tarlton had the following children: Polly, born about 1788 married Joseph Chambers, and she is last seen in Kittery, Maine in the 1880 Census; Hannah, born about 1789, married Nathan White and was widowed by 1845, died in Epsom in 1878; Rachel, who married a cousin, Philip Babb Wallace, resided in Deerfield on the Griffin Road, not far past the Epsom/Deerfield line, their son Alonzo settled the estate of Hannah Babb; Statira, born about 1798, died unmarried in 1852, had a guardian appointed in 1849 as she was decreed an insane person; Samuel, born about 1800 and died unmarried in 1845; and Joseph E., born about 1803 and died unmarried in 1827.

 



WILLIAM TARLETON FAMILY

 

The Tarleton farm included lots 17 and 18 in the first range of lots. The original lot owner of lot 17 was Henry Trefethen (also seen as Teferrin) who sold the lot to his son Robinson. Robinson sold the lot to Ephraim Amazeen of Newcastle in 1771. Both families were mariners, and in 1798, Ephraim and wife Abigail sell the property to their son Ephraim Jr., while selling land in New Castle to Richard Tarlton who married their daughter Abigail. Philip Babb in 1803 sold part of lot 18 of 100 acres to Samuel Langmaid, who sold the same lot to Ephraim Amazeen the 3rd, of Portsmouth six months later. At this point no buildings were involved.

 

Ephraim Amazeen Jr. was the son of Ephraim and Abigail (Jones) of New Castle, who were married there in 1756. Their children were Abigail who was born in 1763 and married Richard Tarlton, son of John and Abigail (White) Tarlton; Lucretia, born 1769, married William Tarlton in 1786, brother to Richard; possibly two daughters, Frances and Dorothea; William, born about 1774; and Ephraim, born in 1779 and married May 27, 1798, Jane Watkins Bell.

 

Ephraim and his wife Jane built a house on lot 18, and paid poll tax in Epsom until 1810. New Hampshire vital records give New Castle as the place of birth of all the children, but it is likely those born 1806-1810 may have been born in Epsom. The children included: William, born 1798; Maria, born 1800; Benjamin R., born 1804; Andrew B., born 1806; Martha B., born 1808; Abigail J., born 1811; Harriet N., born 1814; Samuel B., born 1817; and Robert W. born 1820. Ephraim and Jane sold lot 18, 100 acres with the buildings thereon, along with lot 17, to William Tarlton Sr., of New Castle, mariner, in 1811.

 

William Tarlton married Lucretia, daughter of Ephraim and Abigail (Jones) Amazeen in 1786 and moved into the home he bought of Ephraim and Jane Amazeen. The Tarlton family consisted of the following: Thomas, born 1787, married Dorothy Neal; William, born 1788, died 1793; Lucretia born 1793, and married in Epsom, Reuben Sanborn in 1815, he the son of the Deacon Ira and Mary (Page) Sanborn and resided in Epsom; William, born 1794, married in Epsom in 1815, Comfort Wallace, daughter of Joseph Chase and Polly (Clark) Wallace; Abigail, born 1796, married John Stearns of Deerfield in 1842 as his second wife; and Dorothy, born 1798 and died in 1803.

 

The senior Tarlton died in 1847, and his wife Lucretia in 1849. Their children inherited the homestead farm, and his son William lived there with his wife Comfort, and raised their family of: Joseph W. Tarleton, born 1817, became a minister and married in 1854, Betsey S. Dutton, daughter of Deacon Roger and Rachel (Sawyer) Dutton, and resided in Hooksett; John E., born 1819, married in 1844, Mary Jane Tuttle, he died in Concord in 1849, his wife moving to California where she died in 1889; Thomas Scott, born 1821, married in Boston in 1850, Susan Abbott Tuttle, sister to Mary Jane, and they moved to California where he died in 1884; Mary Jane, born 1823, died 1826; Mary Jane born 1827, married Charles Niebuhr in 1853, and died in Boston in 1858; Henry Clay, born 1830, married in Epsom 1853, Rebecca J. Heath, daughter of Andrew McClary and Jane Cram (Cass) Heath, he went to California and died there in 1855, his wife marrying second, William Pickering Babb; Abigail, born 1832, died 1840; Elizabeth Goss, born 1834, married Charles Crane and died in Brooklyn, New York in 1871; and Dennis P., born 1836 and died 1837.

 

Comfort Tarleton died in 1842, and she along with William Tarleton Sr., his wife Lucretia, and her children who died young, are buried in a family cemetery on the property of the homestead. William after her death married Rhoda Berry in 1843, and they had three children: Charles William, born 1844, married Ella James in Deerfield in 1879 and resided in Concord; George Edwin, born 1846, died 1848; and John Berry, born in 1849, and died unmarried in 1921 in Pierce County, Washington State. With his second marriage, William and his new wife moved down to the Mountain District.

 

The New Portsmouth Tarleton homestead seems to have eventually been bought by Joseph W. Tarleton, with Thomas S. selling him his half in 1851, and Alonzo Wallace, guardian of the minor child Henry C, selling his interest that same year. In 1853, William sold his portion to his brother Joseph W., though these deeds seem to clear the way for ownership, the property of about 120 acres was sold by an administrator of the elder William’s estate to Brice S. Evans of Boston. Brice Evans sold the property after a couple of months to Andrew J. and Sarah J. Hall.

 

Andrew J. Hall was a son of Benjamin Hall and his first wife Polly Wells. He left Epsom for Illinois where he married Sarah J. Poynter. A resident of Summerfield, Illinois, he enlisted on July 8, 1861 and served in Company E, 2nd Regt. of the Illinois cavalry, seeing action in Kentucky and Tennessee.  A diary, written in a neat hand, is detailed about the regiment's movements and often complains about conditions in camp. It ends in 1862 and is housed at the University of New Hampshire. In the 1860 census he is in St. Claire, Illinois, with his wife Sarah and son Frank. A second son, Andrew J. Hall was born in Epsom about 1861. Son Frank married Emma Dow, daughter of John Robinson and Lucinda (Hall) Dow and lived in Gossville, a railroad worker, and  died in an accident in 1897. Son Andrew died at age 24 of typhoid fever in 1886. A year after the death of her husband, Sarah sold the 120 acres and home to Michael McClary Steele. Steele, who resided at the McClary homestead, kept the property until he sold it in 1882 to Daniel G. Chesley. The house eventually collapsed.

 

GREENLEAF ALLEN FARM

 

Greenleaf Allen was the son of Jude and Sarah (Philbrick) Allen of Epsom and born about 1797. Jude Allen married in 1766, and Greenleaf was born some 30 years, speculating whether or not his father might have married a second time, with the previous child born in 1792. There are no records for any deaths in the period, and no second marriage record has been found. His parents became paupers, and town records show that Greenleaf assumed the care of his parents by 1821, and is shown in a town warrant article for that year: Article 19 - Voted to authorize the Selectmen in behalf of said Town to give a bond to Greenleaf Allen for the conveyance of a piece of land now occupied by said Allen - on condition that the said Allen shall indemnify the said town from all expense for the support of Jude Allen and his wife during their natural lives. What the arrangements were is unknown, and the town still had unsettled business with Greenleaf two years later when the issue was revisited. In April 1828, Greenleaf had the following published in the NH Patriot Newspaper: NOTICE. The subscriber having contracted with the selectmen of Epsom to support and maintain Jude Allen, a town pauper, during his natural life, hereby forbids all persons harboring or trusting him on my account or on account of said town, suitable provision having been made for him. Greenleaf Allen, Epsom, April 7, 1828.

 

The wife of Jude Allen died December 19, 1827, and Jude Allen Died in September of 1828. Since he was no longer caring for his parents, the town sold him the 20 acre lot where he was residing on February 7, 1829. In April of 1828, Greenleaf married Fanny Langley. He sold the 20 acre lot to Thomas D. Merrill in October of 1829, and Merrill sold it two years later back to the town of Epsom. The town sold the property to James and Mary Sanborn in 1841, but it is not stated in any deeds whether Allen was still living on the lot. Though the property was in the hands of the Sanborns in 1841, Greenleaf Allen is shown paying tax on land and buildings of 20 acres from 1846 to 1852. Perhaps not coincidental, the Sanborns, now of Concord, sell the lot in 1852 to William T. Grant. William T. Grant occupied the home, and was still resident there when he and wife Abigail sell the property to George W. Grant, being the same land conveyed to him in 1852. The property is mentioned in a mortgage deed of 1860 of George Grant to Edward Edmunds of Chichester, and the next time it is referenced it is owned by the Chesley family by 1883, now just pasture land. Heirs owned the Allen lot through the year 2002.

 

Greenleaf Allen is in Epsom in 1850 with nine children, and by 1860 he is by himself and living in Chichester. He remains in Chichester where he died in 1874. He and his wife Fanny had the following children: Sarah F., born 1828, married Darius B. Moore and died in Laconia in 1907; Hannah T., born about 1829, married Charles S. Hildreth; Mary M. born about 1831, married Samuel D. Nutter and died in 1916; Lavina, born about 1833 about whom nothing more is known; Margaret F., born about 1836, and possibly the Margaret Allen who died in Boston in 1860; Harriet, born about 1838, married in Lawrence, MA, James H. Morrill in 1859; Alice M., born about 1841, married in Lowell, MA in 1861, John B. Powell; Benjamin G., born about 1843, died unmarried in Pittsfield, 1917; and Lucinda V., born about 1846, married in Chelsea, MA, 1867, George Bean.

 

THOMAS APPLETON PROPERTY

 

There is no deed as to when Thomas Appleton bought land in Epsom, but he is in the 1850 Census and shows that he paid toll and property tax for 10 acres with buildings. He was born about 1814, son of Robert and Mary (Atwood) Appleton. His father’s original surname was Trickey, and in 1831 had the family name changed to Appleton, and the family included his wife Mary, along with John, Thomas, Sally, Rolinda, Jane, Catherine, Harriet, Robert Jr., Samuel and Edwin. About the time he moved to Epsom he had married Mary D. Haynes, daughter of John Sherburne and Lucy (Libbey) Haynes who lived in New Rye. She was born in 1818, and the couple had two children. Abigail was born about 1850 and married a John Peasley before 1867 when they had a daughter, Mary Etta. Abigail married for a second time in 1879 at Warner, New Hampshire, Nathaniel Chase, and married a third time in 1893, Samuel Trickey. She died in 1913 and is buried in the New Rye Cemetery in Epsom. Mary Etta, the daughter married John William Murby, who died in 1933, and they had one son, Guy A. Murby. Mary Etta married in 1899, Alexander Drummond. She died in 1906 and is buried in the New Rye Cemetery. The second child of Thomas and Mary was Mary L. Appleton, born in February of 1859, and married in North Sutton, New Hampshire in 1877, Adrian V. Williams. They had one child, Ernest A. Williams.

 

In 1854 Thomas and Mary sold a half acre of land to Josiah D. Langley, and mortgaged their property to Joseph Lawrence of Epsom in 1862, consisting of nine and a half acres, beginning at the junction of the New Portsmouth and the Mountain roads, thence running southwesterly by said Mountain road to land of John Chesley, thence easterly and southwesterly by said Chesley’s land to land of George W. Grant, thence easterly by said Grant’s land to the New Portsmouth road, thence northerly by the New Portsmouth road to the point of beginning containing about nine and one half acres together with the buildings thereon. Thomas Appleton died in Epsom October 7, 1863, and his widow married in 1866, John Phelps, the marriage taking place in Epsom. Phelps died in 1872, and Mary married for a third time in 1876, an Amos Davis of Sutton. Mary died in 1906, and both she and her first husband are buried in the Buck Street Cemetery in Pembroke.

 

The widow Mary, in 1867 after her second marriage, sold her homestead in Epsom to George and Lydia Cofran of Epsom. He was the son of James L. and Martha J. (unknown) Cofran, and was born in Allenstown about 1847, married September 19, 1868, Lydia J. Miller. George and Lydia resided at this location and mortgaged and sold the land and buildings to Charles A. Brooks of Lynn, Massachusetts in 1881. Charles Brooks sold the property to Hollis Hall in 1884, and by the map of 1892, the house is no longer standing.

 

 


 JAMES LEWIS SANBORN HOUSE

 

James D. Langley built a house on the half acre lot he bought from Thomas Appleton in 1854. He sold it to Lemuel Hall of Epsom in 1856. Lemuel was a son of Uriah and Olive (Rand) Hall, brother to Benjamin who lived next door. Lemuel sold out to John Chesley, and from there there is a lack of the chain of ownership. James L. Batchelder owned the property prior to 1913, his property described as being near the house formerly owned by Josiah Langley. James Sanborn owned the Allen lot from 1841 to 1852, and was the husband of Mary Frances Hall, a daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Dowst) Hall. The land and buildings were described as Epsom on Mountain Road, beginning of the southerly side of the Allen lot and running easterly by stone wall to land of Hollis Hall, thence northerly by land of Hall to post fence, thence westerly by fence and land of Hall to Mountain road, thence southerly by said road to bound first mentioned containing one half acre. This was sold to John and Ellen Danielson in 1920, and the next year sold back to Mary Frances Batchelder, then of Keene, New Hampshire. Mary F. Batchelder’s husband James died in 1919, and as a single woman sold the small lot and house to Arthur E. Roby of Gilmanton in 1927. Roby’s connection to Epsom was through the mother of his wife Annie M. Hill, Ellen M. Hall, another daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Dowst) Hall. She married in 1881, John J. Hill. Roby sold the house in 1962, to Sidney Luker, and they in turn sold it in 1963 to Clara S. Bailey who owned the property until 1966 when sold to Edwin Martel, who kept ownership for some twenty years.

 



OZEM DOWST HOUSE

 

Joseph Emerson sold two acres of land near the Greenleaf Allen home to Samuel Wells Jr. of Epsom in 1833. Samuel moved down to Center Hill and sold the two acres to Nathan Griffin the 2nd of Epsom in 1847. No buildings were erected on the 2 acre plot when the land was sold by Griffin to Ozem Dowst in 1856.

 

Ozem was the son of John and Mary Margaret ‘Peggy’ (Wallace) Dowst, born in Allenstown of September 11, 1825. He married in Deerfield in1856, Martha C. Griffin, whose parents remain unknown. There are family myths attached to Martha regarding some type of Indian ancestry. Supposedly there was an early letter from a family member in which it states At the Y of the road in Epsom, New Hampshire leading up to the old DOWST farm, is buried Martha Griffin, an indian squaw, killed at that spot, she is related to us about three generations back, one of the GRIFFIN boys married her. To make it short, you can say, you are descendents of the ABENAKI, PENNACOOK tribes on Caroline L. DOWST ROBY side of the family. There is also a reference to John L. Dowst, a son of Ozem and Martha, as nicknamed John ‘Penobscot’ Dowst.

 

Ozem and Martha Dowst had the following children: John L., born 1857, married Henrietta Reed, and one story says he was murdered in Lincoln, NH while working for the railroad, though his death record gives the cause as typhoid fever; Sarah J., born 1859, married Frank B. McCarthy; Daniel, born 1861, died 1862; George W., born 1863, died unmarried in 1890; Caroline L., born 1869, married first in 1885, Ernest C. Roby, parents of Arthur E. Roby, who married second in 1900, Charles E. Brock; and Ozem, born 1873 and died in 1874. Ozem Dowst died in Pittsfield in 1903, where he resided about six months. His widow Martha sold the property to Hollis Hall in 1905. Martha died in 1911 after spending about three and a half years at the NH State Hospital. Benjamin M. Towle in his note on Mountain Road, wrote Ozem and Martha, his wife, were a peculiar couple. They used to come out to the store walking with Ozum some twenty feet ahead. Martha was unable to speak above a whisper for many years, but finally recovered her voice.

 

Hollis Hall sold the Dowst place to Annie M. Hill of Epsom in 1913, land formerly owned by William Grant, now owned by Daniel G. Chesley and near the house of James L. Batchelder formerly owned by Josiah Langley and where said line of land interacts the Mountain Road. The deed also reserved to Ellen M. Hill, mother of said Annie Hill, a life lease of the above said property. In 1927, Annie M. Hill married Arthur E. Roby of Gilmanton. Arthur was the son of Ernest C. Roby, whose wife was Caroline L. Dowst, daughter of Ozem and Martha Dowst. Ellen M. Hall, daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Dowst) Hall, married John J. Hill who died in 1913, the year his widow bought the Ozem Dowst house.

 

John J. and Ellen M. (Hall) Hill had the following children: Carolyn, of whom nothing is known; Mamie E. who was born in 1882 and died in 1884; Amy F.B.born 1885, married Elmer M. Batchelder; Lewis (aka ‘Perch’), born 1888, died unmarried in 1965, whose hand drawn map of New Portsmouth appears in this book; Annie M. born 1891, who married Arthur E. Roby; and Richard Hannibal, born 1891 and married in 1920, Simonne O. Gosselin. Ellen Hill died in 1932, and her daughter, Annie M. (Hill) Roby, in 1959. Arthur Roby sold the family home in 1976 to Byron B. Brock of Pittsfield. Byron Berry Brock was the sn of Charles Ervin Brock and his wife, Caroline L. Dowst, he being her second husband, and mother of Arthur E. Roby from her first marriage. The property has been sold several times since, the succession being Dean Rock, Terrilee Laby and Mark Goldstein.

 



BRACKETT FARM

 

Lt. Joshua Brackett of Greenland was the original proprietor of Lot #8, and his son, Joshua sold his right to land of his father in Epsom to his brother James in1762. James Bracket married in 1739, Martha Cate who was born in Portsmouth. They had 13 children, and in his will of 1790 the children mentioned are sons Joseph, James, Ebenezer, Benjamin and Joshua with daughters Mary Wiggin, Judith Clark, Deborah Weeks, Prudence Haines, Martha Parrott, Comfort Neal and Hannah Crayton (Creighton). Martha died in 1778 and James married second in 1780, Lucy Gerrish. In his will James left to his son Ebenezer, 'all land in Epsom' which in the inventory of his estate was described as 'three shares in a right of land in 'Ipsom.' It is not clear what happened to lot #8, as 49 acres of it was sold for upaid taxes to John Casey in June of 1778, and sold to Ebenezer Brackett by Casey the following August. Additionally, Benjamin Goodwin, collector of taxes for Epsom, sold another 12 acres of the lot to Ebenezer in April of 1779, which also had been bought by Casey. Still another purchase of the lot containing 129 acres was sold by the town to Ebenezer in December of the same year.

 

Ebenezer Brackett served in the Revolution in Moses Hazen's Regiment. The 1907 Brackett Genealogy references a will dated 1806 in which his farm is bequeathed to his wife, and on her decease to his son-in-law David Keniston, then to his son James. One dollar was bequeathed to son James as he was already 'well provided for.'  Sons Greenleaf Clark and son Hanover each to get one dollar, and small bequests given to his daughters, witnessed by Tufton Wiggin and Enoch Clark. Enoch Clark, son of Enoch Clark and Hannah Gove, had a brother Greenleaf, and a brother Ebenezer who married Judith Brackett, Ebenezer Brackett's sister.  Tufton Wiggin married his sister Mary. This will, nor any will, was found in Rockingham or Merrimack probate. This will was probably not probated, as the homestead was deeded the following year (1807) to son Greenleaf with a reverse deed for the care of Ebenezer and his wife Abigail.

 

The Brackett Genealogy gives the marriage of Ebenezer to an Abigail Clark in Greenland on November 20, 1770. This information has been passed down in countless genealogies and is probably incorrect. New Hampshire vital records, from the marriage records in Greenland of the Reverend Samuel McClintock, show clearly that Ebenezer Brackett married in Greenland, November 20, 1770, Abigail Rogers. According to historian John Mark Moses, Ebenezer settled in the Mountain District in 1772, and he signed the Association Test in Epsom in 1776. The only listing of children is from the family genealogy, which gives the following: James, born about 1772, married Hannah Morrill, daughter of Amos and Margaret (Day) Morrill, died at St. Albans, Vermont in 1833: an unknown daughter who married a David Keniston; Hannah, who married Gilman Goodwin, son of Benjamin and Lydia (Worth) Goodwin who was born in Epsom in 1770; Eliza, who married William Morrill, a son of Amos Morrill and brother to Hannah who married James Brackett; Deborah, of whom nothing is known; Greenleaf Clark, who married Naomi B. Locke and resided at the homestead; and Hanover Dickey, who married in West Amesbury, NH in 1821, Dorothy Goodwin, possibly related to Gilman who married her sister Eliza.  Hanover Dickey Brackett died in 1871 in Danville, NH. There is documentation on the three sons, but little for any of the daughters, though the family of 7 children matches the family as it appears in the 1790 US Census for Epsom. Ebenezer died in 1826, his wife Abigail (Rogers) before him in 1819, both buried in the Brackett-Libbey Cemetery in Epsom.

 

Greenleaf Brackett by deed inherited the homestead. Born in Epsom August 9, 1785, he married first in Epsom March 19, 1807, Naomi B. Locke, born in Epsom, September 5, 1786, daughter of Jonathan and Alice (Pearson) Locke. Naomi died in 1839, and Greenleaf married in 1841 at Allenstown, Sally D. Marden, daughter of Israel and Sarah (Dowst) Marden. Children of Greenleaf and Naomi were: James, born 1808 and died unmarried in 1845; Jonathan, born 1810, died 1818; William, born in 1814, married in 181, Betsey C. Morey and resided in Epsom; John Locke, born 1817, married first Mirriam Louisa Lane, and second, Phebe Heald; Jonathan, born 1819, died in 1826; Abigail, born 1821, married in Epsom in 1850, Benjamin D. Smith; Alice L.,born 1825, married in 1863 as his second wife, Jacob E. Prescott; Naomi, born in 1828, married in 1847 at Epsom, George B. Merriam; and Elizabeth, born 1834, died in 1836. Greenleaf raised his family at the homestead, and died in 1878. His first wife, Naomi died in 1839 leaving him with 9 young children. His second marriage to Sally Marden who died in 1886. Sally, after the death of Greenleaf, filed for a widow's pension for his 1812 service. The entire family is buried in the Brackett-Libbey Cemetery.

 

Greenleaf in his will left the homestead farm, where he currently resided, to his son John L. Brackett. John Locke Brackett married Mirriam Louisa Lane at Warrenton, Georgia in 1841. They resided in Boston where two sons were born: Edward Greenleaf, born and died in 1843; and Walter Greenleaf, born in 1844 and died of disease returning from Civil War service at Memphis, Tennessee, August 14, 1863. Their mother Louisa died in Epsom on February 6, 1845, and John L. married in 1849, Phebe Heald, daughter of Nathan and Annie (Stickney) Heald. They had a daughter, Louisa Augusta, who was born in 1860 and died in 1870, leaving no family heirs. John L. Brackett built a house near the house of his father Greenleaf. He left this home on his death in 1901, to Lottie Wells, who sold it to Fred Stone (aka Rocheford) in 1904. The structure burned down in 1906. Fred Stone appears in the 1910 census with a wife Pauline, and children Edward, George, Ida, Arthur, Wilfred, Willey, Laura and Lena. The family remained on the property which they sold in 1926 to George H. Brown, 80 acres. Georgianna Brown, his widow, conveyed the property to the Suncook Bank, which sold the old Brackett homestead to Percy Hall in 1937. It remained his home until Percy sold out to Kathleen H. Smith of Houston, Texas in in 1969. In the year 2000 the Smith heirs sold the home to Joan Smith Ottinger and Geraldine Smith Priest.

 

 

LIBBEY HOMESTEAD

 

The Libbey lot was No. 7 in the first range which was originally drawn by John Foss and sold to his son Josiah. It passed to Jonathan Smith who sold the lot in 1773 to Edward Blue of Deerfield, who sold the lot of 80 acres to Jethro Libbey in 1781. Mary Libbey Dowst, a descendant, wrote on a picture postcard of the homestead that the house was probably built about 1780 by Jethro Libbey.

 

Jethro, son of Reuben and Sarah (Goss) Libbey, married in Deerfield in 1779, Abigail (Nabby) Libbey, daughter of Isaac and Ann (Symmes) Libbey of Epsom. The children included: David, married in 1804 at Epsom, Martha Dolbeer, daughter of Nicholas and Mary (Randall) Dolbeer; Levi, married Abigail Farrington of Pittsfield; Richard, married first, Esther Lanfley, daughter of James and Esther (Shaw) Langley, married second after her death in 1817, Miriam Collins, who died in 1824, and married third, Abigail Chase, daughter of Moses and Theodate (Sanborn) Chase of Deerfield; Sarah, born about  1786 and died unmarried in 1848; Ebenezer, born about 1788 and died in 1862 unmarried; Rachel, married first John Wells of Epsom, and after his death in 1817, married William McCrillis;  Jessee, married in 1816 Rachel Tandy, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth (Morrill) Tandy; Ruhamah, married David R. Tandy, brother to Rachel Tandy; Francis married Anna Sanborn, daughter of John Prescott and Anna (Rowe) Sanborn of Deerfield, she died and he remarried and moved to Wisconsin;  and Martha, according to the Libbey genealogy, married as his second or third wife, George Ritchie Carleton.

 

Jethro Libbey ran into financial trouble, and by deed had to sell the homestead with sons Ebenezer and Richard. It was sold in 1813 to Ephraim Eastman of Deerfield, and the deed in part stated, being the whole of the lot 7 in the first range excepting about 3 acres set off to Benjamin Moody by virtue of an execution in favor of him against the said Jethro Libbey on April 11, 1809. About twenty years later, in 1842, the homestead was bought and returned to the family by Michael M. Libbey.

 

Michael M. Libbey was the son Jethro's oldest son, David. David had married Martha Dolbeer in 1804 and their children included: John, who died young; Michael M. who married first, Mary Moulton, and after her death in 1854, married Susan Churchill Badger, widow of Simeon C. Goss; Mary Dolbeer, who married in 1833 John Durgin of Barnstead; David who died at age 6; Lucinda, who married Daniel Foster Wadleigh and lived for a time in Epsom; David, married in 1846, Dolly J. Jone of Lee, NH; and Martha Jane who was born in 1822 and died in 1840, unmarried.

 

Michael M. Libbey married Mary Moulton, daughter of John and Abigail (Blake) Moulton of Kensington. The couple resided in Stratham and Kingston before moving back to Epsom in 1842. They had three daughters: Mary B., born in 1835 at Kensington, and married in Epsom in 1875, Calvin Dowst, son of Isaac and Sally (Robinson) Dowst, and went by Mrs. Mary B.L. Dowst; Martha A., born in Stratham in 1837, and died unmarried in 1899; and Esther, unmarried, born in Kensington in 1840, and died unmarried in Epsom in 1860. Michael M. Libbey's wife Mary died in 1854, and his second wife, Susan died in 1862. The surviving daughters, Mrs. Mary B. L. Dowst and sister Martha, resided at the homestead. On the death of Mrs. Dowst in 1910, the property was willed to Frank H. Libbey, son of David Libbey and Dolly Jones. This David was a son of David and Martha (Dolbeer) Libbey. Frank H. Libbey was born in Manchester and married in 1881, Ida Prescott, and had children Arah D., Martha J., and May Francis. He and a brother were in the tripe business in Hooksett. Ida died before 1920, and he married second a Mary E. Unknown. The property appeared on the town tax list in 1942 as 92 acres, the Mary Dowst Farm. The property was sold by his heirs - Mary E. Libbey, unmarried and widow of Frank H Libbey, late of Worcester, and Sadie M. Libbey of Boylston, unmarried and widow of Arah D. Libbey late of Boylston, and Frank P. Libbe of Upson, Arah K. Libbey of Utica, NY, Howard F. Libbey of said Boylston, the last three being children of Arah D. Libbey; and Martha J. Jeffs of Beverly, the last being of two surviving children of Frank H. Libbey, to May Frances Hewes of Saco, Maine – The Frank H. Libbey farm. The house is no longer standing.



WIGGIN-TRIPP HOME

 

Lot 5 was the original right of Israel Marsh, and lot 6 of Samuel Haines. In 1781 Nathaniel Haines of Greenland owned both properties. John Cass bought the now 155 acres of lots 5 and 6, along with 8 acres of a thirty acre lot numbered one, all in the first range. Cass, with no buildings mentioned, sells 80 acres in 1796 to Theophilus Cass. On December 1 of 1800, Theophilus sells to Benjmain Wiggin of Allenstown, two tracts of land in Epsom, one half of the lots 5 & 6 along with the eight acres of lot number one.

 

Benjamin Wiggin was born about 1771, a son of Eliphalet and an unknown Foss. Benjamin had two known brothers, Eliphalet (Jr.) and Nathaniel. In 1788, his father and brother Nathaniel bought 100 acres of land in Bow, and the family appears in Deerfield in the 1790 US Census. Bennett Libbey of Epsom sold land to brothers Nathaniel and Benjamin in 1792. The land in Bow is sold in 1799, and it is the next year that Benjamin purchases the land for his homestead from Theophilus Cass. The brother Eliphalet died in a drowning incident in 1785. Brother Nathaniel also resided in Epsom, having married Sally Haynes, daughter of John and Olive (Weeks) Haynes, and had children: Hannah, who married Isaac Smith Green in 1815, and died in 1857; Sally who married Bradbury Cilley and died in 1818; an unknown child who died in 1817, age 14;  Fanny, who married John Griffin of Epsom; and James, who married in 1835, Hannah Howe, daughter of Jacob and Eunice (Lake) Howe, and resided in Epsom. Nathaniel Wiggin died in Epsom in February of 1822, his wife Sally then married John Robinson as his third wife.

 

Benjamin Wiggin married in 1798, Mary Dow, daughter of Henry and Martha (Perkins) Dow. She was the widow of John Dowst who died in 1795 in Epsom with whom she had 5 children. Benjamin and Mary had three children: Sally who married Isaac Knox of Pembroke; Eliphalet, who was born about 1800 and died in  Wisconsin in 1846, unmarried; and James, who married an unknown Mary and had children: Sally Cate, who married Andrew McClary Grant in 1842, died in 1846; and Almira H. who died unmarried in 1845. Sometime after the death of his first wife, James married Rosilla Winslow, daughter of Elisha and Lydia Winslow and widow of Ebenezer Harvey. James inherited his father's homestead after his death in 1844. James died in 1864, and his widow Rosilla and heirs sold the homestead to James Tripp of Epsom, October 16, 1865.

 

James Tripp was born in Epsom on April 24, 1814 to John and Sally (Gordon) Tripp. He married on February 2, 1843, Isabella Dickey Prescott, daughter of John Morrill and Hannah (Dickey) Prescott. They only had one son, James H. Tripp, born June 15, 1849, and married Sarah Locke Moses in Pembroke, June 19, 1869. She was the daughter of Dearborn Blake and Sally Hoit (Locke) Moses. They also had one son, Walter H. Tripp. James and Isabella made this their life-long home, James having died in 1898 and his wife in 1902. He deeded half the homestead to his son James H. in 1874, being the same property he bought of Rosilla Wiggin. Upon the death of his mother Isabella, James H. sold an undivided half of the homestead to his son Walter H. Tripp, reserving the school house lot and cemetery, containing 60 acres. Walter H. married Alice M. Fowler in 1898, with three chidlren: Harold James; Russell Fowler, and Robert Moses. The father and son sold the homestead to Ralph R. Pickard of Haverhill, Massachusetts and Lizzie Philbrick Wing of Plaistow in 1920. John Hines had bought the half owned by Lizzie, and William J. Hines sold this half to Ralph Pickard in 1943. Pickard, now sole owner, sold the property to Stephen Bosiak a day later.

 



RED SCHOOL HOUSE

 

The original Mountain District School was near the intersection of Swamp Road and Sanborn Hill Road, and burned down in 1833, the same year the New Rye School was built. Its replacement is the current standing Red School House, which was built on the southerwesterly corner of land of Benjamin Wiggin, which he sold to the district December 8, 1834 at a cost of three dollars. The lot abuts the Wiggin burial ground. The building was sold to the Mountain Road School club in 1920. Currently it is privately owned.

 

JOHN DICKEY - THE DOW PLACE

 

David Dickey and his wife Rachel moved to Epsom with their family from Candia in 1782, residing on Swamp Road in what is known as the Tarleton place. Their son John resided in a house across the road from the Red School house, the residence no longer standing. John Dickey was born about 1765, and married in Chester, November 14, 1792, Betsey 'Elizabeth'  Patten of Candia, daughter of Robert and Catherine (Carr) Patten. Their known children (census indicates there may have been additional daughters): Margaret, born in Epsom,July 24, 1795, married in 1812, Thomas Moore of Concord, 11 children and resided Hatley Township, Stanstead, Canada, died in 1872; Catherine (also spelled with a K) married in Epsom June 15, 1815, John Caldon (seen also Calden, Calnan), resided at Thornton, NH, five known children; David born about 1805, married Lucinda Moses Cass, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Chesley) Cass and had nine children; Robert P., born about 1806, married at Allenstown in 1840, Marriam B. Nelson, parents unknown, and had ten children.

 

John Dickey died September 2, 1852 and the homestead passed to his son David, who already occupied the premises. David and his wife Lucinda moved to New Rye Road and sold the house to his cousin, David Dickey, son of Hanover Dickey, brother to John. David Dickey and his wife, Lois Leverett Nelson, resided in Haverhill, Massachusetts, sold the property to his brother Hanover Dickey of Lowell, MA., in 1855. Hanover, a doctor, sold the home to Josiah D. Langley in 1859.

 

Josiah D. Langley previously had a home at New Portsmouth, and sold the Mountain District home to Varnum Fisk in 1862 and moved to the lower part of Center Hill Road. Varnum Fisk was from Deerfield and married Dolly Cloudman, three children: Frank L., who died about age 30, unmarried; James O., born in Deerfield in 1836, married Mary J. Moulton in 1856, and had two children, Stella and Alma, and married second after the death of his first wife, Augusta A. Wiggin and had two more children, George Farnum and a child lost in infancy; and third, an infant daughter who was born and died in 1837. Varnum deeded the land and buildings to his son James O. in 1877, which he sold the next year to John R. Dow.

 

John Robinson Dow was born in Epsom in 1817 to James and Betsey (Robinson) Dow. He married Hannah Fogg of Northwood at Pittsfield in 1845 and had three children: John D., born 1846 and died in 1867, married in 1865, Lizzie E. Libby; Clara Aura, born 1848 and married Seth Quimby in 1865, three children, Alice, Gertrude and Aura Leona; and James D., born in 1858 and died about a month later. His first wife died in 1858, and he married second, Lucinda Hall, daughter of Uriah and Olive (Rand) Hall. The couple had four children: Emma M., who married Frank Hall and resided on Goboro Road; George A., who died young; Sadie, married Elwood Thompson; and Nellie B., who married Charles F. Brown and resided in Epsom after his death in 1908.

 

John Robinson Dow bought the property in 1878. His second wife died in 1873, and he died in 1887. His heirs, Anna A. Quimby, Emma Hall, Sadie Dow and Nellie Brown, sold the homestead to James Tripp in 1902. Tripp held the property for 18 years when it was sold by James H. and his son Walter H. Tripp to Ralph Pickard of Haverhill, MA and Lizzie Philbrick of Plaistow. The property, according to Bob Tripp was tumbling down by 1919, and less any structures, was sold to Stephen Bosiak in 1943.

 

BATHSHEBA ALLEN - VERRITT PLACE

 

Aaron Burbank owned several lots in Epsom, one of which was lot 73 in the second range containing 30 acres. It was later owned by Ozem, then son, John Dowst, who sold to Joseph Dennett. Dennett sold the property to Jonathan Locke, and was bought by David Dickey, which he sold to his son Jonathan in 1800, including the homestead. Though the deed was not found, it appears that the lot was sold to Josiah Allen in September of 1803. Little is known of Jonathan Dickey, who appears only paying tax in Epsom in 1806, and by deed, had a wife named Polly.

 

Josiah Allen and wife Bathsheba Allen, lived in Epsom and Allenstown. He was a Revolutionary Ware veteran, and with his wife raised a large family: Joseph, who married in 1814, Mary Batchelder of Deerfield; Polly who married in 1804 Nathaniel Rollins;  Hannah who married in 1818 John Locke; Josiah Hill, who married in 1816, Betsy Merrill;  Lydia, who died in Epsom in 1869, unmarried;  Ezra, who married in 1814, Sarah M. Batchelder;  Betsey H., who died in Allenstown, 1859 unmarried; Bathsheba, who died in Epsom in 1879,

 

unmarried; Nathaniel, of which there is no record, but is mentioned as a son by Deerfield Selectmen seeking relief for his support from the town of Epsom; Nancy, who married in 1818 Joseph Graves; and Daniel who died in Epsom in 1824, unmarried.

 

Josiah sells the land he bought of Jonathan Dickey in 1803 to his son Ezra in 1812 who may have built and resided on the property. He sells the southern half of 15 acres with buildings to his sisters Lydia and Bathsheba in 1824. The sisters occupied the home until they sold it in 1869 to Daniel C. Allen, a son of Ezra, their brother. Daniel Caverno Allen resided in Concord with his family, and sold the 15 acres with buildings to Marvin Orcutt of Epsom. Marvin left the property in his will to Dorcia Ann Ham, and was sold to Horace Robinson,who sold it to an Adolph Griard Jr. of Epsom in 1881. After two years it was sold to Charles M. Fowler, and in 1883 to Mary Verritt of Epsom. According to the 1900 census, Mary was the wife of Henry Verritt, both born in Canada. The couple had no children and entertained borders. They are shown as the owners on the map of 1892. The Verritt's sold the land and buildings after more than 30 years to Mary Lassale of Hooksett, who turned the property over a year later to Joseph and Clara Plante of Lenwood, Massachusetts. In 1931 it was bought by Joseph and Cecille Grenier of Manchester, who sold the land with buildings, still 15 acres, to Edwin and Phyllis Grenier in 1959.

 

JEREMY NUTE HOMESTEAD

 

The homes at the bottom of the old Mountain Road were on the west side, being part of the second range. That included lot 73 where the Bathsheba Allen house stood, and the home of Jeremy Nute. The Nute homestead was part of two lots, one of 30 acres that was common land and sold at auction by the town that bordered Allenstown; the other a 30 acre outlot, No. 10 which was just above the common land. Israel Marden (seen on gravestones as Mardin) bought the common land from Samuel Davis of Epsom in 1790, and bought lot No. 10 from Daniel Hale of Gilmanton in 1792. Israel Marden was from Rye and married in Deerfield in 1788, Sarah Dowst, daughter of Ozem and Elizabeth (Jenness) Dowst. They had five known children, Betsey B. who married Joseph Brown of Epsom;  Israel, who married Rachel H. Ham, daughter of George Wallace and Margaret (Dickey) Ham of Epsom;  John who settled in Maine; Jonathan, who married Mehitable Brown, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Smith) Brown of New Rye; and Sally who married Greenleaf Clark Brackett of the Mountain District. Son Israel inherited his father's property in Epsom and sold ten acres to John L. Allen of Epsom in 1847. Allen owned the property about four years, selling the land to Daniel F. Wadleigh of Epsom in 1851, and in turn sold the same to Moses C. Libbey. Libbey and Wadleigh both bought additional property nearby where they eventually settled. Moses Libbey sold the ten acres, 'the same I bought of Daniel Wadleigh'to Jeremy H. Nute of Allenstown June 9, 1856, with no mention of any buildings.

 

Jeremy Haines Nute was born in Woodbury, Vermont, son of Jacob and Lydia (Chase) Nute, who resided in Northwood, Deerfield and Cabot, Vermont. He married in Deerfield on October 26, 1853. Laura Ann Hartford, daughter of Samuel and Deborah (Yorke) Hartford of Allenstown. The couple had only one child, Henry A.,  born in 1877 and who married in 1898, Grace M. Hartford, daughter of Alfred H. and Cora Ann (Fife). Jeremy was a Civil War veteran, serving in Company D of the 18th NH Regiment. He died in June of 1894, and in September of that year his widow sold the homestead to Margaret Perkins, wife of John of Allenstown. John and Margaret sold the 10 acre house and lot the following year to William and Lousia Goodness of Manchester, who owned the property for the next fifteen years.  Annette L. Dowst owned the property from 1911 to 1920, and Clara Plante of Epsom was the next owner from 1920 to 1931. There were several owners since, and in 1940 was bought by the town of Epsom for taxes, being described in the invoice as 'the Nute place, 15 acres of land', apparently no buildings.

 

 


JOHN  ROBINSON LOT

 

The Robinson lot included parts of lots 3 & 4 in the first range of lots on Mount Delight Road. Between 1778 and 1781, portions of the lots were bought by Jonathan Locke of Rye, and sold them to John Robinson of Deerfield, part of the lots 3 and 4 in the first range of lots, John Odiorne and Benjamin Ball being the original proprietors and contain all the remainder of said lots which I have not sold to Lieut. William Smith and Enoch Hoit estimated at about one hundred acres. John Robinson's parents remain unknown, and his place of birth as seen on death records of two of his children, give Rye and Stratham as places of birth. He married in Epsom on July 7, 1791, Sarah or Betsey (as seen on gravestone) Dennett. According to the diary of John Dowst, there was a John Robinson who lived on the Philbrick place in Allenstown prior to 1797 and served in the Revolution. Since John Robinson was born about 1771, the Allenstown Robinson may be his father.

 

John and Betsey had three daughters: Betsey, born about 1792 and married in 1816, James Dow; Polly, born about 1795 and died unmarried in 1819; and Sally who married in 1825, Isaac Dowst, and resided at the Mountain District. Betsey (Dennett) Robinson was likely the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Dennett. This family appears in Epsom in the 1790 US Census with three daughters. Joseph Dennett bought part of lots 71, 73 and number 9 in 1790, near the property John Robinson bought shortly after his marriage to Betsey. Betsey Robinson died in 1800 and her spouse married as his second wife, Susannah Tilton, whose parents remain unknown. John and Susanna had the following children: William P., born in 1802, and married in 1826, Nancy Ladd, daughter of Jedediah and Nancy (Brown) Ladd of Deerfield; Nancy B., born about 1805, married in 1831, Capt. James Brown and resided in New Rye; Thomas, born 1807, died in 1834 unmarried; John, born and died in 1810; and Abigail, born 1812 and married Simon W. Healey. His wife Susannah died in Epsom on February 10, 1815, and John married as his third spouse, Sally Haynes, daughter of John and Olive (Weeks) Haynes in 1823. She had married previously Nathaniel Wiggin by whom she had five children, and he died in 1822.

 

John Robinson wrote his will in 1836 and mentions his wife Sally, and children Betsy Dow, Sally Dowst, Nancy Brown, Abigail Healey and son William. William inherited the homestead and at the said William's decease to his eldest son then living and to the oldest son of each generation for fifteen generations. William and his wife Nancy Ladd had four known children: Franklin, who married Mary Ann Batchelder in 1856; Horace who married Jane Orcutt in 1856, one son, Henry O. (1857-1860); Susan F., who married in 1858, Addison Whittier of Deerfield; and Thomas B., who married in 1860 Abiel A. Hackett, who died in 1861, he married second, Betsey W. Yeaton, daughter of John and Sarah (Bickford) Yeaton. Thomas and Betsey had three children, Elmer, Albert and Jane. Thomas B. Robinson died in 1885 and his widow married as her second spouse, John F. Brown.

 

William Robinson deeded to his son Horace 'the homestead farm of John Robinson' in 1860, and for over twenty years Horace raised his family there. With no heirs, Horace sold the homestead in 1882 to John H. Sullivan of Allenstown, reserving the burying ground. William and his wife built another house which he sold to his son Thomas B. in 1875 with a reverse deed that he cares for his parents. This home was sold by his daughter Jane (seen as Jennie, who married James O. Bartlett of Northwood in 1891, and after his death, George Burroughs in 1901) to her brother Albert P. (seen as Bert) Robinson. Albert married Bertha E. Rollins in 1907, and died ten years later, and his widow married Gerald Pickard. Bertha, in 1921, sold the property to Ralph Pickard of Haverhill, Massachusetts, land and buildings of 45 acres. It was sold to Esther Snell of North Billerica, MA and Noah M. Cofran, 'land and buildings on the old Mountain Road known as the old Robinson place.'  In 1946 it was owned by Harold and Esther Wing of Concord, and last appeared on the tax list in 1951, Robinson place of 2 acres on Mountain Road.

 

John H. Sullivan, who bought the original homestead of John Robinson in 1882, sold it a year later to William H. Cate of Deerfied. One acre of the farm was sold to Hiram G. Hartford in 1884, and 15 acres to Alonzo A. Wicom of Manchester the same year. In 1886, Cate sold the homestead to Anson B. Cass, 65 acres, it being a portion of the premises deeded by Sullivan in 1883. Ralph L. Cass took down the building when he built at the Dearborn Moses place about 1919.

 

The family held the property until 1967 when son Ralph L. and his siser Alida sold to Maurice and Angie Clark of Kingston, land in Epsom beginning at the corner of the roads opposite the Mountain School house in Epsom, thence easterly by the Mount Delight Road, to land of Alonzo Wicom, thence southerly by said Wicom land to land of Moses C. Libbey, thence westerly by said Libbey land to land of Simeon L. Sanders, to land of Hiram G. Hartford, thence northerly and westerly by said Hartford land to the highway leading to the first mentioned bound, reserving an enclosed lot used as a burying ground.

 

HIRAM GEORGE HARTFORD HOUSE

 

After John H. Sullivan purchased the John Robinson homestead, he sold off two tracts. One tract was one half acre which was sold to Hiram G. Hartford of Epsom, with the provision that he keep and repair all the fence on the property. Hiram was the son of Joseph and Mary L. (David) Hartford, and was born in Deerfield in 1841. He married an unknown Mary Hartford in 1856 in Deerfield and had three known children. Mary died in 1879 and he married after her death, Mary E. West, daughter of Josiah and Lizzie (Glover) West. They raised 10 children and built a house on the small half acre plot. Hiram died in 1907 in Raymond where he had just moved. He was buried in Epsom, possibly in an unmarked grave in the Robinson burying ground. His wife Mary sold the home in 1908 to Jesse A. Paine of Pembroke, stating in the deed that my children all agree to my selling this property and some of them will sign this paper with myself, with herself and daughter Sadie and son Herbert signing. Jesse Paine sold the property to Anson Cass, who had purchased the original Robinson homestead.

 

ALONZO WICOM HOME

 

In addition to selling a small lot to Hiram Hartford, John Sullivan sold 15 acres to Alonzo Wicom of Manchester in 1884. Wicom appears there on the map of 1892. There is no mention of buildings in the deed, so it would appear Alonzo built a home on the site. He appears in Manchester in the 1880 US Census with wife Mary. He likely died before 1921 when his heirs, John S., Mary A. Daniels, Edwin A., Sarah A. Goodwin and Lizzie Jones sold the homestead to Peter Montminy of Allenstown, land 'formerly known as the Alonza A. Wicom estate.'

 

Peter Montminy was born in Canada and married there in 1888, Nathalie Marie Dubois. Their children included:  Pierre; Ernestine Marie who married in 1905, Fred Clinton Fife as his second wife; Delia Louisa; Baptise; Mary Celina; Alfred, (aka Joseph Fred); and Arthur. The family sold the property in 1941 to Noah M. Cofran, who after nearly 20 years sold out to Arthur and Margaret Snell in 1963.

 



MOSES C. LIBBEY HOMESTEAD

David Potter

 

Lot one in the first range was the original right of Nathan White, lot two was the original right of James Seavey. Both lots were bought by David Dickey, and sold to his son Hanover in two deeds, one in 1794, another in 1800. Hanover sold a lot of 79 acres to Jeremiah Fogg of Deerfield in 1809, of which 10 acres Fogg sold to Robert Goodhue in 1811. Libbey bought adjoining land during the next several years, including land formerly owned by the deceased Robert Goodhue by Samuel Goodhue, and where Richard Libbey currently resided. Richard Libbey married in 1818, Miriam Collins, the widow  of Richard Goodhue, which explains why he was already living on the premises. Miriam died in 1824, and from 1826 to 1835, he bought the rights of Robert Goodhue's holdings, plus a lot from Benjamin Fellows in 1836. He married again in 1825, Abigail Chase. Richard and Abigail had two children: Moses C. and Theodate. Richard and Abigail sold 40 acres, the land upon which he was living, to John Bartlett of Deerfield in 1835.

 

John Bartlett of Meredith married Abigail Smith Bartlett in 1827, she was the daughter of John and Mary (Smith) Bartlett. They had four known children: Mary A., who married Lorenzo Hoyt; James L., who married Sarah E. Yeaton, daughter of John and Sarah (Bickford) Yeaton; John Gilman,who married Oersus A. Colby; and Joseph W., who married Caroline Maria Bickford, daughter of William and Polly (Rand) Bickford of Epsom. John died in 1856, his wife in 1876, and are buried in the Red Schoolhouse cemetery.

 

John and Abigail sold the property where they resided to their son James L. Bartlett in 1853. Two years later, James sold the lot to his brother John Gilman Bartlett. Again, after two years, John G. sold the lot to David Potter of Salem, who appears as owner on the map of 1858. David Potter had married Elsie Glidden Nute, a sister to Jeremy Nute of Mountain Road. In 1865 the Potters left Epsom and sold the property back to the Bartlett family, namely to Joseph W. Bartlett, thus all three sons of John and Abigail owned the old homestead. For five years John W. Bartlett kept the old family residence, selling it to Moses C. Libbey in 1870, Moses being the son of Richard who had sold the family home to the Bartletts in 1835.

 

Moses C. Libbey married in Epsom on May 12, 1864, Rosetta Langley, daughter of True and Eliza (Dowst) Langley of Deerfield. Their children included: Etta I., who married John Horace Babb, resided in Epsom; Walter R., who married in 1890, Ida Charles; James T., who was unmarried; Kidder H., also unmarried;  John L., also unmarried;  and Clarence, who also did not marry. The estate passed to son James T., whose estate sold the old homestead to Philip Cofran in 1949, and then sold to Dorothy Weeden in 1953.

 

GARDINER W. PIPER HOUSE

Jonathan Dickey

 

David Dickey sold to his son Hanover his holdings in lots 1 & 2 in the first range. By 1801, at least 20 acres were owned by his brother Jonathan, of whom little is known, which was sold to James Brown of Epsom in 1805. In 1807, Hanover sold to his brother 40 acres out of the two lots, which Jonathan sold to Joseph Towle, and quit claimed back to him in 1808, being now with buildings 'that the said Dickey now lives on.'  Jonathan Dickey, with his wife Polly, sold the 40 acres and their home to Samuel Goodhue Jr. of Deerfield on February 16, 1809. Where Jonathan and his family went is unknown.

 

Samuel Goodhue was a brother to Timothy Goodhue who also owned a part of lots 1 & 2. His family probably resided on the lot at some time, selling it to George W. Piper in 1849, though no mention of any buildings. The property had been expanded past the original 40 acres.

 

Gardiner W. Piper was from Allenstown, and had married Mariah H. Dustin and had children: George H., who married first Betsey C. Langley, daughter of True and Mehitable (Dow) Langley, and second, Etta M. Knowles, resided at the old parsonage on Center Hill; James W., married in 1870, Sarah F. Yeaton, daughter of Solomon M. and Mary (Hilliard) Yeaton; Hannah, married 1870, Daniel H. Hall, son of Benjamin and Mary (Dowst) Hall, resided at New Portsmouth; Eugene, who died unmarried; and Mary E., who married Daniel F. Leavitt of Allenstown. Gardiner W. died in 1868, his wife in 1901, both in Allenstown. The surviving heirs (wife Mariah, George H., James W., and Hannah Hall) sold the homestead to John C. Smith of Pembroke in 1871.

 



JAMES L. BARTLETT HOUSE

Seth Bartlett

 

The Bartlett Farm was located on the north of Mount Delight Road and part of lots 3 & 4 in the first range. The original proprietor of Lot #4 was Benjamin Bell (or Ball), which passed to his son Shadrach in 1769. It was sold in 1778 to Jonathan Locke of Rye, who had acquired considerable properties in the area. Lot No. 3 belonged originally to John Odiorne, and was sold for taxes by the town to Jonathan Locke in 1781. Jonathan Locke owned 100 acres of lots 3 and 4 beginning at the easterly end which bounded the Deerfield line, and sold the land to Enoch Hoit of Deerfield in 1792. Hoit apparently resided on the lot for five years, as he sold the 100 acres along with the buildings standing thereon, to Seth Bartlett of Kingston, April 1, 1797.

 

Seth Bartlett was born in Newbury, Massachusetts in 1731, and married there, Rebecca Ordway in 1754. He moved his family to Kingston in 1777, and at about age 60, left there for Epsom. Seth and Rebecca had the following known children: Sarah, born 1754 and married Moses Bartlett of Newbury, MA; John, married in Kingston, Mary Smith in 1783; Benjamin, married Susannah Ladd in Deerfield in 1786; Abigail, born 1762 and died in Epsom in 1806, unmarried; Lois, born in 1764, died unmarried in Epsom in 1826; Rhoda, born in 1766, married Dr. John Mussey; and Mary, born 1769 and died sometime after 1850. Seth, a Revolutionary War veteran, died in 1809, buried in the McClary Cemetery, disposed of the homestead in his will as follows:  I give and devise and bequeath unto my daughters Lois and Mary Bartlett and my grandson Benjamin Ordway Bartlett their heirs and assigns forever all of my Real and Personal Estate, all the Lands and Buildings I own in Epsom meaning the farm I now live on, together with all the stock on said farm, farming utensils of every kind excepting what shall be hereinafter bequeathed, to be equally divided between them on condition my grandson Benjamin Ordway Bartlett comply with the conditions hereinafter. I will that my daughters Lois and Mary Bartlett and my grandson Benjamin O. Bartlett well and comfortably maintain my wife as long as she may live. The farm is sold by Benjamin Ordway and his wife Polly (Ladd) Bartlett (sister to Nancy who married William Robinson), to Thomas D. Merrill in 1828. Merrill was a major player in Epsom real estate, and perhaps rented the farm until he sold it to William Thomas Goodhue of Deerfield in 1844. Goodhue was a son of Samuel and Mary (Ayer) Goodhue, whose father owned Mountain District property. It is not known when William died, but his father sold the property, less the widow's dower, to Joseph W. Perkins in 1849. Joseph and his wife Nancy sold the former Bartlett farm in 1855 to James L. Bartlett. This put the homestead back into the Bartlett family line.

 

James was the son of John and Abigail (Smith) Bartlett, who for a time owned the Moses C. Libbey house. Abigail was the daughter of John and Mary (Smith) Bartlett, and his father was Seth Bartlett. James L. Bartlett married in 1855 Sarah E. Yeaton and had four daughters: Susan N., born 1858, and married in 1878, Josiah D. Smith; Sarah A., born 1859, and married in Epsom in 1881, Walter L. Pickard; Lizzie E., born in 1862, married in 1887 at Epsom, George U. NcNeal; and Mary Nettie, who married in 1893, Florus W. Tripp, who died in a logging accident in 1894. The property passed to his daughter Sarah, who went by Sadie, and her husband Walter Levi Pickard. Walter and Sadie had children: Winfred J., who married in Chichester in 1912, Carrie Marie Lane, daughter of George W. and Annie Lovering (Locke) Lane of Chichester;  Gerald Charles, who married  in 1917, Bertha E. Rollins, daughter of Benjamin F., and Clara A. (Sanders) Rollins, widow of  Albert P. 'Bert' Robinson; and Gladys, married in 1922, Percy Carleton Batchelder, son of George Elmore and Nettie Alice (Stewart) Batchelder.

 

The Pickards sold the family farm in 1917 to Warren M. Davis of Bow and Charles B. Rogers of Epsom. In 1926, Warren M. Davis, and Harry K. Rogers, to Clara Plante, after being owned a short time by Adelard Langlois. The property went through several owners the next several years, including Odilon Bergevin, Hormidas L. Houston. Foreclosure to the Suncook Bank in 1938 precipitated its sale that same year to Stefan Bosiak of Allenstown. The abandoned structure was lost to a careless fire in the 1970's.

 

EDWIN A. WHITE HOUSE

 

David Smith of Deerfield sold a part of lots 1 & 2 of 20 acres to his sons David B. and John C. Smith. David sold his share to his brother John in 1855. One and one half acres of the lot were sold by John C. and his wife Paulina to Edwin and Mary Ann White on January 26, 1863. Edwin married Mary Ann G. Wiggin, daughter of John and Esther (Libbey) Wiggin on November 15, 1849 in Epsom. They had three children: Abby A., who married John A. Emerson of Deerfield in 1872; Edward E., who married in 1889, Elizabeth Hall, and in 1901, Emma F. Fellows; and John Forest, married in 1877, Susan Woodman, daughter of David P. and Jane A. (Patten) Woodman. The couple likely divorced, with Mary Ann marrying in 1872, William Clark, and Edwin married second, Mary Stone in Pembroke in 1870. Mary Ann retained the house.

 

William and Mary Ann Clark sold the home in 1873 to her father John Wiggin of Deerfield, and he died the next year. His heirs, wife Esther, daughter Sarah C., daughter Betsey Haselton, daughter Augusta Fisk (wife of James O. Fisk), and William H. Cate, sold the lot with buildings to his daughter Abbie, wife of William H. Cate. A few months later, the Cates sold the home to Alfred Towns of Allenstown.

 

Alfred Towns sold the lot, plus additional land in Deerfied in 1884, to David B. Woodman of Deerfield. David and his wife Jane had a daughter Susan, who married John Forest White in Epsom in 1877. He, as stated above, was a son of Edwin A. and Mary Ann (Wiggin) White, who previously owned the house. David B. Woodman died in 1885. The 1892 map shows the owner as T. White, but in a deed of Paulina D. Smith to Scott E. Hardy, one half acre in 1906 was owned by John F. White.

 

PAULINE D. SMITH HOME

 

Part of lots one and two in the third range was owned by Deacon David Smith of Deerfield which he sold to two of his sons, David B. and John C., with David selling John his share in 1855. The house on the lot was likely built by John Calvin and his wife, Paulina D. (Smith) Smith after 1858 as it does not show on that map. The Smiths did not appear to have any children, and John died in 1888, buried in his family's lot in Deerfield. His wife Paulina, who shows as owner on the map of 1892, sold the property to a John and Edmund Marisette, who sold it back to her in 1905. It next was sold in 1906 to Scott E. Hardy of Hooksett. Hardy owned the land and home for over 25 years before selling it to Calvin D. Menard of Northwood in 1933. Menard held the property as well for over 25 years. In 1960, Dolor Menard, who derived the title from her son Calvin, sold out the land and buildings to Edgar Moulart of Medford, Massachusetts in 1960.

 


BELLE COFRAN HOUSE

Daniel F. Wadleigh

 

The Belle Cofran property bordered the Allenstown town line and was part of lot No. one in the first range, which was part of the David Dickey holdings. Hanover Dickey sold 79 acres to Jeremiah Fogg of Deerfield in 1809, and Jeremiah sold 20 acres of the lot in 1811 to  Timothy Goodhue of Deerfield. Goodhue owned the property for ten years, and sold the lot to Richard Libbey of Epsom in 1821.There were no mention of buildings in the deed. Richard Libbey lived in the house that formerly belonged to his father-in-law, Robert Goodue, but may have built another house on this 20 acre lot which he sold in 1838 to Isaac Libbey of Lowell, MA, being the land 'where Josiah H. Allen now lives.' Isaac was likely his son and of his first wife Esther (Langley). Isaac probably did not reside there long, if at all, as after a half dozen years he sold it to Daniel F. Wadleigh of Epsom on April 10, 1844, still 20 acres, and the same 'on which the said Daniel F. Wadleigh now lives.'

 

The Wadleighs were from Kensington, and in 1842, Daniel Foster Wadleigh married Lucinda Libbey in Epsom, she being the daughter of David and Martha (Dolbeer) Libbey. The family moved to Illinois, selling the homestead to William A. Seavey of Chichester in 1856, and it is Seavey who is shown on the map of 1858. The property included land in Allenstown and totaled 80 acres. William Augustus Seavey married in 1856, Abbie G. Lane of Chichester, and the couple raised their family: Almira, Mary A., and Frank L. Seavey. They made this their homestead for twenty years, selling to Walter and Clara French of Pembroke in 1876. The house changed hands with Frank Ladd of Boston purchasing it in 1877, and selling it to Samuel B. Cofran of Allenstown after just a few months.

 

Samuel Buchanan Cofran married in 1866 at Allenstown, Elizabeth A. Belknap, and nothing more is known of her, but the couple had three children, Sophia, George and Samuel. He married second in 1887, Isabel (aka Belle) Elzora Hartford, daughter of James Stillman and Esther Jane (Cate) Hartford of Epsom. They also had three children: Esther, who married Charles Snell; Noah M., who married Mabel H. Pierce, one son, Philip Pierce Cofran; and Ruth, who married Charles E. Emerson. Samuel apparently came into financial difficulties, and through a Frank S. Streeter and Trueworthy L. Fowler, assignee to Samuel B. Cofran of Allenstown, had the property sold to pay creditors, and was sold to Belle and her brother, Burton D. (also seen Daniel Burton) Hartford. Burton sold his portion to Belle in 1886. Belle lived at the home fr many years, selling to Constance Williams of Winchester, MA in 1940.  The property was sold by Constance Williams in 1970 to Robert B. and Elizabeth S. Williams of Winchester, MA, and Susan Williams, property on Seavey Road, property sold to grantor by Belle E. Cofran. The house is no longer standing.

 



ANSON CASS FARM

Ebenezer Wallace

 

Samuel Wallace of Rye was one of the original owners of a home lot, and he also drew lot 68 in the second range of 88 acres. In 1741 he deeded his Epsom property to his son George, who at that date was already living on the home lot. His neighbor was Andrew McClary, whose daughter Margaret he married about this same time. George and Margaret had at least seven children: Martha, who married Benson Ham; Ebenezer, who married Sarah McGaffey, and after her death, an Elizabeth Quimby; Margaret, who married Eliphalet Sanborn; Hannah, who married Andrew McGaffey, brother to Sarah who married her brother Ebenezer; George, who married Rachel Babb; Jane, who married James Gray and died in 1772; Elizabeth, who married Thomas Babb and inherited the homestead; and John who died at Bunker Hill.

 

In 1769 George deeded lot 68 in the second range to his son Ebenezer. Ebenezer and his wife Sarah McGaffey, daughter of Neal and Jane (Lucas) McGaffey, were married in Epsom January 11, 1770, and their children are listed in the old town records: Jane born 1770, who married David Lawrence Morrill, and died in 1823, he remarried and later became Governor of New Hampshire; Margaret born 1772, married Thomas Crtichett of Epsom in 1793; George born 1774, died unmarried in 1822; John born 1776, married in 1802 at Pembroke, Anna Goodhue; Hannah born 1778 of which nothing more is known; Sally born 1780 of which nothing more is known; Ebenezer, born 1784, of which nothing more is known; and Elizabeth born 1788, who may be the Elizabeth who married in 1806, a Richard Brown.

 

Ebenezer's wife Sarah died about 1789, as he married in Epsom March 4, 1780, an unknown Elizabeth Quimby. Ebenezer and his family resided on the family farm for over thirty years when he died intestate in 1802. He was a Revolutionary War veteran, and may have been buried in a possible enclosed cemetery on the property. His estate was handled by his son John, who by reverse deed owned the property provided he takes care of his father Ebenezer and his wife Elizabeth. As executor he sold the family farm to Levi Cass Jr. of Epsom (son of Levi Cass of New Rye) April 5, 1805. John Wallace had married Anna Goodhue, daughter of Samuel and Martha (Baker ) Goodhue, and he died just a year later in 1806. His widow married second, Peter Patterson at Deerfield in 1808.

 

Levi Cass was the son of Levi and Mary (Sherburne) Cass, and married around 1800 Mehitable Osgood, born in Raymond. The couple had children: a possible son Bradley; John Sherburne, born 1804 and died in 1883, unmarried; Jonathan Stickney, born 1807, married in 1834, Eliza Sherburne, daughter of David and Betsey S. (Moses) Sherburne, he died in 1884; Jane Cram, born 1811, married at Epsom in 1832, Andrew McClary Heath, son of Capt. Simon A. Heath, she died in 1883 and resided in Epsom; Joseph Blake, born 1813, married in 1847, Mary Lucy Brown, daughter of William and Lucretia Billings (Gray), he died in 1900, resided Epsom; and Henry Osgood, born in 1824, married Matilda D. Heald.

 

Levi Cass died in 1850, his wife Mehitable in 1873. Before Levi died, he deeded the 79 acre homestead to his son John Sherburne Cass. After the death of his father, John S. sold one half of the property to his brother Henry O. Cass. John S. Cass was deemed insane and had a guardian John R. Dow, who sold his remaining half of the homestead to Henry O. Cass in 1875. Henry Osgood Cass and his wife Matilda had two children: Anson Bradley, born in 1859 and married Carrie Vicena Straw, daughter of William H. and Sarah Jane (Sanders) Straw; and Emma Abbie, born in 1860 and married in 1881, Frank Webber Chapman, resided at New Rye. Henry died in 1912, his wife in 1922, and the homestead farm passed to their only son, Anson Bradley Cass.

 

Anson B. Cass lived to age 93, being the oldest native resident in Epsom when he died Mar. 31, 1952, his wife having died ten years earlier.  From his obituary, he had been a farmer, holder of the Boston Post cane and held membership in Evergreen lodge, I.O.O.F. of Short Falls.

 

The family farm was in the hands of his son Ralph Leroy Cass, who along with his sister Alida (who did not marry), were the surviving heirs. They two did not choose to keep the family farm, selling it in 1953 to Samuel and Elizabeth Bigelow of Boston. After nearly 10 years, the property was sold in 1966, to Leslie W. and Joan S. Ottinger of Brookline, Massachusetts.

 



DEARBORN MOSES HOUSE

 

As early as 1769, Samuel Moses owned land in the Mountain District which he bought from Joseph Goss of Stratham, part of lot 67 in the second range. In 1784 he bought an additional 78 acres near the road that lead back to Center Hill near Deacon Marden's land and land of Joel Ames and James Brown. Samuel was the son of Mark and Jane (Wallace) Moses, and married at Rye in 1760, Bridget Weeks, and they had a large family: Martha, married Samuel Mouton who owned the 78 acres lot before he sold it to her father: Abigail, born 1763 of whom nothing more is known; Ebenezer, married Betty Brigham and may have resided in Meredith; Theodore born about 1765; Joshua Weeks, married 1794 at Pembroke, Polly Piper; Joseph, married in 1796, Comfort Piper; Sylvanus, born 1774 in Epsom, married a Sallie Borden and removed to Vermont; James,  baptized in Epsom, 1774, married in Gilmanton, Dorothy Rowell, moved to Ohio; Samuel Thomas, also baptized in Epsom, 1774, married Abigail Robertson (Robinson), parents unknown, at Epsom in 1792, resided in Epsom; and William, who married Ruth Stoddard and moved to Hopkinton, New York.  His wife Bridget died in Epsom but there is no date or place of burial known. Samuel married second, again date unknown, Susanna Jackson, and two more children: John and David. According to John Mark Moses and his history of the Early Settlers of Epsom, Samuel sold out to his brother James in 1800 and moved to Meredith where some of his son's settled.

 

What James Moses bought included 117 acres, part of lots 66 & 67, and part of which was formerly left as a highway between the two lots which Samuel bought of the Selectmen in 1794. There was a boundary dispute between James Moses and John Wallace respecting the line between lots 67 and 68, for which depositions were taken from James Gray, Ebenezer Brackett, Samuel Moses, Jethro Libbey and Levi Libbey in 1802. They were all very similar to that of James Gray: James Gray of lawful age testify that in the year 1769 I was shown a beech tree then standing at the easterly end of the second range of lots in Epsom by Mr. Ebenezer Wallace (since deceased) who then informed me that the said beech tree  was a boundary between lots No. 67 and 68 in said second range and on which tree was marked in figures 67 on the north and 68 on the south side of the same, that in the year 1779 I had occasion to have recourse to the aforesaid tree in company with the said Ebenezer Wallace who then owned the lot No. 68 aforesaid and adjoining lot that the said beech tree was then standing with the numbers before mentioned thereon, I further declare that I have this day at the request of James Moses been upon the ground where the said beech tree formerly stood, and testify that according to my best knowledge there now stands an apple tree nearly if not exactly on the same ground where the aforesaid marked beech (tree) formerly stood. Epsom – Dec. 24, 1802. The outcome may have been the deed of John Wallace to James Moses the following year: Land in Epsom part of lot 68 in the second range to contain 55 rods and 5 feet of the estate of said deceased, owned in common with myself, to take its beginning at the northeasterly corner of said lot to an apple tree standing near the road leading to Allenstown, then running north west to a stake and stones and from thence north west to a stake and stones standing by the southerly corner of said Moses land and from hence upon south side of lot No. 67 to the first mentioned bounds.

 

James Moses was born in 1758 and married at Epsom in 1780, Elizabeth Sherburne, daughter of John and Sarah Sherburne. The couple had children: Mark, born 1781, died 1811, and married in 1802, Betsey Cate; James, born 1783, died 1812, married in 1807, Betsey Chesley, daughter of Lemual and Sarah (Randall) Chesley, who resided on New Orchard Road; Jane, who was born in 1784, died unmarried in 1867; Betsey Sherburne, born 1786, married in 1807, David Sherburne, son of William and Sarah (Muchmore) Sherburne, resided at Gossville; Mary, born 1788, married at Northwood in 1814, John Morrison; and Sarah, born 1792 and married in 1814, John Lake, son of Thomas and Rebecca (Blake) Lake of Chichester.

 

James Moses the family homestead to his son Mark in 1806 'all land adjacent to each other excepting where roads part them.'  Mark Moses and his wife Betsey Cate, daughter of the Deavon John and Abigail (Sherburne) Cate, had three sons; Joseph James, born in 1803, married in 1829, Hannah Cate, daughter of John and Mary (Towle) Cate, and eventually moved to Manchester; Dearborn Blake, born in 1805, married at Deerfied, Sally Hoit Locke; and Mark Sherburne, born 1808, married at Epsom in 1835, Elivira L. M. Dolbeer, daughter of John and Sally (Sherburne) Dolbeer. She died and he married in 1854, Mary Abigail Towle, daughter of Robey Marston and Mary Abigail (Nelson) Towle,. Mark S. died in 1865 and his widowed married second,  the Reverend George Smith.

 

Mark Moses died in 1811 leaving his three young sons, and his widow Betsey, who died in 1848. The homestead stayed in the family, with son Joseph J. deeding his portion to his brother Dearborn in 1829, and his brother Mark S. doing the same in 1857, with his deed mentioning the right and title to the cemetery which is very close to the house. Dearborn and his wife Sally had three children; probably Elizabeth, whose name only remains (though probably not visible now) on a stone in the family cemetery; Sarah Locke, born in 1841 and married in 1869, James H. Tripp; and Mary E. who died young and is buried in the family cemetery.

 

Dearborn Blake Moses died in 1881, and his wife Sally in 1886, and both are buried in the cemetery next to their home. The property passed to their only surviving daughter, Sarah Locke and her husband James H. Tripp. James and Sarah had one son, Walter H. Tripp, and by deed James H. and his son Walter sold the homestead in 1919 to Ralph L. Cass. The deed was for only two acres with buildings, reserving the cemetery. According to a caption in a photo of the house, it burned in 1919, though it is not mentioned in the town fire log. Ralph L. Cass moved from the old John Robinson and built the present home.

 

Ralph Leroy Cass, son of Anson Bradley Cass, was born in 1884 and married in 1909 at Pittsfield, Ines W. Ring, daughter of Frank and Belle (Cass) Ring. They had a son Robert Henry Cass who married in 1933, Myrtle L. Bartlett, daughter of Allie and Mabel (Young) Bartlett. In 1964, the house was sold to Thomas J. and Audrey M. Ellis.

 



CHARLES W. TARLTON HOUSE

David Dickey

 

Samuel Dowst owned several tracts of land which he sold to his brother Ozem Dowst which he in turn sold to Aaron Burbank of Rye in 1762. The lot included 69 of 30 acres, and Burbank bought an additional 30 acres, lot 8 from William Payne of Rye in 1769, and 30 acres off lot 71 from John Haynes in 1775. Additionally, more land was sold by Ozem Dowst to him in 1781, being one half 'of that lot on which the said Burbank now lives.' Aaron was the probably the son of Joseph and Sarah (Dowst) Burbank and born in Bradford, MA. Burbank genealogy gives his mother as a daughter of a Nathaniel Dowst and born in 1704, but it may be more likely she was Sarah, daughter of Ozem and Elizabeth (Seavey) Dowst of Rye in 1725. This would be reason for Aaron to have bought the Epsom land. Aaron married in Epsom in 1772, Elizabeth Libbey, daughter of Isaac and Ann (Symmes) Libbey. They may have had sons Asa and Aaron; son Stephen was baptized in Epsom in 1774; and probably son Isaac, born 1782; son Thomas, born 1786 and may have been the Thomas Burbank of Deerfield; and Betsey. Aaron moved to Chester and sold out to David Dickey of Chester, October of 1782 - land in Epsom containing 120 acres containing part of one sixty acre lot and part of two thirty acre lots and bounded northerly on Ebenezer Wallace’s land, westerly on Ozem Dowst’s land, southerly on John Haine’s land and easterly on Bennick (Bennett) Libbey’s land, with buildings and fences that are on and about the same.

 

Ten years later, in 1792, David Dickey purchased from Jacob Sheaf of Portsmouth, all of lots one and two containing 180 acres, making his holdings in the Mountain District about 300 acres. In two transactions, lots one and two were sold to his son Hanover (1794 and 1800) who began to sell various portions of the two lots. A smaller area of the property was owned by Hanover's brother Jonathan, who had sold his holdings by 1808.

 

David Dickey was the son of John and Margaret Dickey of Chester, and the Rev. John Wilson noted the births of three children: David, born September 28, 1737 who married Rachel Hanover; Isabel, born March 18, 1739, who married late (1790) in life as his second wife, Ozem Dowst; and Robert, born August of 1742, who may have died prior to 1785 when his mother sells land to their daughter with a boundary of Robert Dickey, deceased. John Dickey died in 1779, and his widow Margaret sold the homestead to daughter Isabel, spinster in 1785, and died two years later.

 

No marriage record appears for David and Rachel, and their children were probably all born in Chester, and included: John, born about 1765, married Betsey Patten at Chester in 1792, daughter of Robert and Catherine (Carr) Patten; Margaret, born about 1767 and married Joseph Cochran of Pembroke and resided Plymouth; Isabel, born April 28, 1771 and married at Epsom in 1795, William McClary, son of Capt. Andrew and Elizabeth (McCrillis) McClary, removed to Barston, Canada; Hanover, married at Epsom in 1799, Lydia Osgood, daughter of Col. Samuel and Eleanor (Morrill) Osgood; Hannah, born February 1775, John Morrill Prescott and removed to Monson, Maine; David, born about 1777, of which little is known and probably is the David Dickey who died at the Poor Farm in 1863, unmarried; Jonathan, who by deed had a wife Polly and resided in Epsom and apparently left town and nothing more is known; Robert, born about 1782, married in 1803 at Epsom, Hannah Osgood, sister to Lydia who married Hanover Dickey.

 

With the exception of son David, the remainder of the sons of David and Rachel had homes either near the homestead or in the Mountain District. In 1800 David and his wife Rachel deeded the homestead to son Jonathan with a reverse deed that for and during the term of their natural lives, the improvements of which they the said David and Rachel shall manage in which way and manner as to them shall think best for and during said term. David Dickey died in 1805, and his wife Rachel sometime after 1800. Jonathan sold a piece of the land to his sister Hannah in 1802, a piece to Jethro Libbey in 1807, and the same year sold the homestead farm to his brother Hanover, who there raised his family with his wife Lydia. The family included: Eleanor, who married in 1825, Samuel Wells, had five children before she died in 1836; David, who married Lois L. Nelson in 1849, graduated from Dartmouth College and studied law, settling in Lowell, MA; Hanover, who never married, became a doctor, practiced in Epsom before moving to Lowell, having owned the old parsonage in Epsom; Abraham Osgood, married Sarah H. Page, daughter of New Hampshire Governor, John Page in 1842, a graduate of Dartmouth Medical School and was a dentist; Sally O., died unmarried in Lowell, MA in 1858; and Lydia, who married at Epsom in 1840 the Reverend William Henry Hayward, of whom two of their young children are buried in the McClary Cemetery, Frances Hanover and Isabella Osgood Hayward.

 

Hanover was several times selectman and state representative, and in 1839 deeded the homestead to his three sons, David, Hanover and Abram, bounded beginning at the southerly corner of Levi Cass land on the highway passing by Benjamin Wiggins and running southerly on said highway to land of which John Dickey now lives, thence south westerly by the said land on which the said John Dickey lives to a pine tree on land of Samuel Cass, thence westerly to a maple stub on land of Simeon Sanders thence northwesterly to said Sanders land to land of Isaac Dowst, thence by said Dowst land to the highway westerly to the highway passing by Capt. James Brown’s thence easterly by the last named highway to land of the said Brown thence southerly and easterly by said Brown’s land to land of Levi Cass’ land to the bound first mentioned to contain 125 acres all which land above is meant here to be conveyed excepting the burying place enclosing the graves of my Father and mother as the stone wall now stands.

 

Hanover remained at the homestead until his death on May 13, 1845. His sons sold the property, less the small parcel of land wherein are interred the remains of David Dickey and Rachel,  his wife, as now enclosed by a stone wall, to William Tarleton in 1847, who previously lived at New Portsmouth. William Tarleton's first wife Comfort, died in 1842, and he married Rhoda Berry, and with her had children: Charles William, born July 17, 1844 and married Ella F. James of Deerfield in 1879; George Edwin, born 1846, died 1848; and John Berry, born January 25, 1849, died in Washington State in 1921, probably unmarried. William Tarleton died in 1886, his wife in 1892, and are buried in the Brackett-Libbey Cemetery. The property passed to his son Charles W. by deed in 1880.  Charles lived in Concord and would use the homestead during the summer months, until 1897, when, as seen in the local papers: November 6, 1897 - A  most disastrous fire occurred here on Monday night, when neighbors living in the vicinity of the farm of C.W. Tarleton discovered flames issuing from the barn a little before 10 o'clock. The fire spread rapidly to adjoining sheds, and thence to the large two story dwelling house till all the commodious farm buildings were destroyed. Mr. Tarleton moved to Concord six years ago but his family have spent summer vacations here, while people from cities have at the same time occupied the other tenement. The barn was filled with hay, the most of which belonged to J.H. Tripp. The most of the furniture was saved but the farming tools were lost. No insurance. Mr. Tarleton was informed of his loss Tuesday morning by telephone. The origin of the fire is unknown but supposed to have been set by some tramp who had taken shelter in the barn.

 

Charles W. Tarleton sold 20 acres, the lot where the house stood, to Charles B. Rogers of Pembroke in 1915. Rogers sold the property to William H. Ford in 1918, and Ford built a new home on the site. Ford's heirs sold the land of 20 acres and buildings to Fred C. Fife in 1922, which he in turn sold to Noah M. Cofran in 1924. Noah M. Cofran and his wife Mabel, and son Philip P., owned the Tarleton place until 1962 when it was sold to Alan R. Cosseboom. The site was acquired by the town of Epsom and razed in 1979.

 

ISAAC AND CALVIN DOWST HOUSE

Ralph and Robert Cass

 

The  Dowst farm was originally part of the David Dickey farm which David sold a portion of to his minor son (age 18) Robert in 1800. Robert married three years later Hannah Osgood, daughter of Col. Samuel and Eleanor (Morrill) Osgood. Their family included: Morrill, born in 1804 and married first in 1835, Rachel Wells, daughter of Daniel and Lucy (Emerson) Wells, and after her death in 1837, married Betsey Tuttle; Eliza W., married in 1823 at New Hampton, Nathan Bickford, son of Thomas and Olive (Haynes) Bickford; Samuel born in 1809, died unmarried; Sarah, born 1811 of which nothing more is known; Robert O., born in 1817, married in 1839, Martha F. Perkins, resided with his father for a time on Route 28 south; Hannah,, born 1817 of which nothing more is known.

 

Robert Dickey sold his 60 acre farm 'where I now live' to Isaac Dowst of Allenstown of March 29, 1821. Isaac was the son of John and Mary (Dow) Dowst and was bon in Allenstown on June 26, 1794. He married Sally Robinson, daughter of John and Betsey (Dennett) Robinson who was born Oct. 15, 1799. Isaac and Sally were married in 1825, and had children: Mary Elizabeth, born in 1826, and died unmarried in 1869; Calvin, who married in 1875, Mary B. Libbey, daughter of Michael M. and Mary (Moulton) Libbey, who as B.L. Libbey resided at the old Jethro Libbey homestead, no children; James, born 1833, died at Antietam, Virginia, in service during the Civil War; Lydia Ann, born 1835 and died in 1837; and Sarah Ann, born in 1838 and died in 1840. The last two daughters were buried in the Robinson Cemetery on Mount Delight Road, with Isaac and the rest of his family buried in the Brackett-Libbey Cemetery.

 

Isaac and Calvin are seen as owners of the property in 1858. Isaac died in1885, his wife Sally in 1879, their son Calvin inheriting the homestead. The 60 acre farm was sold by Calvin to George T. Dutton in 1900, who sold it to Peter Montminy in 1905. The Montminys owned the farm for a dozen years and sold the estate to Fred C. Fife in 1917.

 

The property since has changed hands many times. In 1924 it was owned by Alfred Gosselin; in 1935 by Ralph L. Cass, then to his son Robert H. Cass who resided there with his family for a little over two decades. In 1965 Robert H. Cass sold 64 acres and building to Charles and Kathleen Eastman of Chichester. The next owner in 1969 was Joseph and Dolores Bohi of Pembroke who sold 54 acres, land and buildings in 1977.

 

Lot 65

 

Lot 65 was the original right of Joseph Seavey, and before 1791 was owned by Joel Ame (aka Ames, Amey) when he sold it to David Barrows of Vermont. The purchase included 50 acres and the farm on which Joel lived. Barrows, who was of Epsom in 1792, sold the lot to Samuel Wallace of Portsmouth.

 

Samuel Wallace's father had owned property on Center Hill, one of the homelots which went to his three sons, each who sold their portions. Samuel returned to Epsom and settled on lot 65, and died in1800. The lot stretched on the east in the Mountain District to the western end in New Rye. The home was likely on the western end, as Samuel, wife and a daughter are buried just outside the Brown cemetery on Sanborn Hill Road, near the John Calvin Brown homestead. The family farm passed to his son Joseph Chase Wallace, who resided there until about 1840 when he moved to Concord. Joseph married a Polly Clark about 1793 and had two children, Comfort, who married William Tarleton of the  New Portsmouth area and died in 1842.

 

Fort Mountain on the left, with Nat's Mountain to the right.


McCoy Mountain

 

Named for Charles McCoy who lived on Sanborn Hill Road where he ran a tavern. The property was sold about 1760 to Reuben and Eliphalet Sanborn. Elevation, 1200 feet.

 

Nat’s Mountain

Written by George H. Yeaton

 

Nat’s Mountain is about one-half mile from Fort Mountain.

It was given the name of Nat’s Mountain because Nathaniel, one of the McCoy children became lost while hunting for the cows. It is said that he was lost for quite a long time and lived on berries; and that when he was finally found he was afraid of the ones who discovered him. Elevation 1000 feet.

 

Fort Mountain in Epsom

Written by George H. Yeaton

 

Fort Mountain in Epsom is the highest mountain in New Hampshire, East of Kearsarge and south of Gunstock Mountains. There are two versions why it is named Fort. One that in time of danger from the Indians the inhabitants of Epsom would signal from this mountain to the fort in Portsmouth, the other version which has the

most evidence is that in approaching the mountain from the north side its towering precipice of granite might

well suggest the walls of Louisburg. (Louisburg is on the east coast of Cape Breton Island, and was captured by the English Colonies in America, from the French, June 16, 1745.)

 

The entire summit of Fort Mountain is a mass of ledges and rocks, which rises well above the trees of the surrounding slopes. From the top you have an unobstructed view in all directions. As to the height of Fort Mountain one authority gives the height as 1,428, another 1,410.

 

Now let us go back two hundred years or more, and vision some fearless citizen of Epsom climbing Fort Mt., in the darkness, to signal with pitch-pine torches, to the Fort at Portsmouth, not knowing at what moment an Indian war party might attack him. What is known is that the first point of land seen by ships approaching Portsmouth harbor is Fort Mountain.

 

From the summit on a clear day smoke from steamers and the sails of sailing vessels, on the Atlantic, can be seen with the naked eye. In the early 1800’s or earlier there was erected, on the summit of Fort Mountain, a beacon, that ships approaching land could more easily see this land mark. (Fort Mt.)

If you should visit Fort Mt., you would find holes drilled in the ledges and a number of iron rods driven in them, their use was to secure the tower that the beacon was mounted on. As late as 1865 remains of the beacon could be seen lying on the ledges.

 

Seven years ago my father told me that as a young man, my father was born in the year 1832, he visited the mountain and saw quite a large hollowed out place in one of the ledges near the summit, where the Indians in the early days were supposed to have ground their corn and roots that they used for food.

 

Arthur H. Sullivan, who lives in the part of Epsom, near Fort Mountain, tells me that he has seen the same thing.

 

At the date of my father's first visit to the Mt. and saw the old stone mortar, a stone was lying near by which showed by its shape and appearance that it must have been the old pestle that the Indians used.

In later years, when he again visited the mountain the old stone pestle was not there. It was my father who told me about the remains of the old beacon lying on the ledges. Then there is the legend of the cave that is in the side of the mountain, which in the old days the Indians made much use of.