Map Question...NH

[Puck]

In the Crawford Notch are there are alot of divisions ie Hart's Location in Carrol county,Beans purchase, Hadely's Purchase, Crawfords Purchase etc. in Coos county.

What are these entities? Are they townships?

Seems that on a well planned hike in this area one could pass through three counties and a dozen of these townships.

It is like The Little Taylor hiking (Seven in one blow)..it works for bragging rights.

 

[REK]

Some are unincorporated places
http://www.nh.gov/municipal/index.html#unincorporated

 

[Ridgewalker]

White Mountain townships like Bean's or Cutt's Grant were land grants given or bought by people in the 1800's. Wikipedia gives some more background on it on here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire see very bottom page. I can also suggest reading Place Names of the White Mountains by Robert and Mary Julyan which I highly reconmmend on the nomenclature of the area. Unicorperated townships are a fascinating area to study. Here are other topics to look into such as people are Samuel Livermore and William Bingham, which sources like Wikipedia can offer books to read more into: Logging Railroads of the White Mountains and The Golden Voyage: The life and times of William Bingham by Robert C. Alberts.

Enjoy!

RW

 

[arghman]

ah, one of my other hobbies...

White Mountain townships like Bean's or Cutt's Grant were land grants given or bought by people in the 1800's. Wikipedia gives some more background on it on here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire see very bottom page.

Under no circumstances accept this particular Wikipedia entry as fact; there are some errors.

I do, however, concur with the rest of Ridgewalker's sources. The Julyan's book is a good one. See also Reminiscences of a Yankee Jurist by George F Morris, as I've mentioned in an earlier thread.

The basic deal is that back in the day, there were two stages of becoming a "regular" town. Step 1: get a grant from the King (really through his agent, the royal governor) for a township, usually to a group of people that owned it in shares, with the King/governor reserving some of it & the right to all the white pines over a certain size for ships' masts. Step 2: stay there for a while, meet some terms and conditions (get X number of people, hold a fair annually, grow a bushel of Indian corn, start a church and a school, or something to show you're using the land), then petition the King to incorporate your grant as a Town.

Sometimes the two were done concurrently though I'm not sure why.

After we stopped having a King, the incorporation was done by the state legislature. The last time we had a new town incorporated was on April 1 1962 with Sugar Hill splitting off from Lisbon. There's been efforts to split off East Derry from Derry, and I'd be willing to bet that Hale's Location gets incorporated one of these days.

Incorporation gets you some control over what goes on in your town, otherwise the responsibility for municipal-type services goes to the counties. If you don't want to pay any property tax, move to the unincorporated township of Millsfield, they don't have any town services.

Ridgewalker has it right, there were basically 3 phases...
(a) in pre-revolutionary times we had colonial grants e.g. Kilkenny and Success. All other land was owned directly by the King. When he got kicked out, that other land was then owned by the state.
(b) afterwards, but prior to about 1830, the land was either purchased from the state, or, in a few instances where the state wanted to facilitate roads, it granted land for those who build through-roads (see Nash & Sawyer's Location and Pinkham's Grant in the Julyans' book), or granted it to educational institutions e.g. Dartmouth College or Atkinson Academy / Gilmanton Academy.
(c) in the 1830's, the state decided it had no use for the remaining acreage in the White Mountains, and sold it off.

Maine has a much larger & much more interesting set of townships, IMHO.

 

[Ridgewalker]

ah, one of my other hobbies...

Under no circumstances accept this particular Wikipedia entry as fact; there are some errors.

Hi Jason,

We both agree very well on our facts and I thank you for showing the correct source of information regarding the facts from Wikipedia. You are very knowledgable on the history of the townships in your state, which I also have been interested in for a couple years.

Maine has a much larger & much more interesting set of townships, IMHO.

You have a good opinion about the colorful history of townships in Maine. In fact, my interest of Maine history and townships has led me to pen a book. I hope we can talk some more about townships soon


Regards,

Ridgewalker

 

[Puck]

thanks for the replies. You gave some great (and clolorfull) background. This is perhaps the first time I have read NH history on the colonial era without mention of Benning Wentworth.

I will check on these books.

 

[Stan]

Maine has a much larger & much more interesting set of townships, IMHO.

Much of Maine is unincorporated townships, many without a name, just a number/letter combination based upon their location with respect to a specific land survey ... it can get really complicated ... anybody want to go into T14R33 tonight and watch the moose cross the road?

Others have names that I bet have some fascinating stories behind them. My favorite is Stetsontown, population -0- according to DeLorme. I've hung my hat there a few times when camping in conjunction with White Cap, Border Peak, Cupsuptic Snow and West Kennebago Divide.

How are these unpopulated and unincorporated areas governed? In Maine the Land Use Regulatory Commission (LURC) regulates land use. That's the agency hearing the windpower proposal at Reddington.

 

[Pamola]

(b) afterwards, but prior to about 1830, the land was either purchased from the state, or, in a few instances where the state wanted to facilitate roads, it granted land for those who build through-roads (see Nash & Sawyer's Location and Pinkham's Grant in the Julyans' book), or granted it to educational institutions e.g. Dartmouth College or Atkinson Academy / Gilmanton Academy.

Dartmouth was acually founded of a royal grant and charter. You don't have to trust wiki, but here's the info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_college

Whether the college's Second College Grant in northern NH falls under the state or royal grant, i am unaware. That would be interesting to know.

I know little of the history of the sale of Mt Washington to the State of New Hampshire from Dartmouth. Did the state grant it then much later buy it back? Did the college buy it in the first place? Was it a royal land grant?

 

[spencer]

Pamola,

Read D. Hooke's Reaching that Peak for the whole story.

spencer

 

[David Metsky]

Dartmouth was acually founded of a royal grant and charter. You don't have to trust wiki, but here's the info.

Whether the college's Second College Grant in northern NH falls under the state or royal grant, i am unaware. That would be interesting to know.

The First College Grant is now the town of Wheelock VT. It was quickly sold off to raise money for the college. I'm pretty sure that was a Royal grant. The Second College Grant happened in 1806, so that was a state grant. Dartmouth held on to that one and has since bought a piece of the Atkinson and Gilmanton Academy Grant. The only piece of the first grant that still holds is that kids from Wheelock VT get free tuition if they make it into Dartmouth.

I know little of the history of the sale of Mt Washington to the State of New Hampshire from Dartmouth. Did the state grant it then much later buy it back? Did the college buy it in the first place? Was it a royal land grant?

Dartmouth got the land (and the cog RR) from two alums who owned it for years. This was never a grant, just simple ownership. AFAIK, Dartmouth still owns a small plot of land on the summit that is leased to the radio stations. The rest of the land was sold to the state.

-dave-

 

[Pamola]

Always trust the alums to come through! Thank you both. Intriguing stuff...

 

[Puck]

The only piece of the first grant that still holds is that kids from Wheelock VT get free tuition if they make it into Dartmouth.
-dave-

Is it aslo true that Dartmouth gives scholarships to qualifing Native Americans?

 

[spencer]

Dartmouth gives sizable financial aid (grants, loans, etc.) but no "scholarships" to anyone who needs it. It's a need blind school (meaning the admissions process is not informed about an applicants financial situation).

I believe if you are equal to or greater than 1/16th Native American you qualify for special financial aid. I'm not sure what the specifics are but I believe it equates to a much higher proportion of grants, as opposed to loans. If you are interesed, a quick call to the admissions folks will help you out.

spencer

 

[arghman]

The First College Grant is now the town of Wheelock VT. It was quickly sold off to raise money for the college. I'm pretty sure that was a Royal grant. The Second College Grant happened in 1806, so that was a state grant. Dartmouth held on to that one and has since bought a piece of the Atkinson and Gilmanton Academy Grant. The only piece of the first grant that still holds is that kids from Wheelock VT get free tuition if they make it into Dartmouth.

actually there were some others also. there's a great article on Dartmouth's website that explains more in detail; Dartmouth got a few grants, one for Wheelock VT, one for Landaff, NH, and one for Clarksville NH.

I've wanted to find out more about the actual grant (the paper behind it) of the 2nd College Grant; there was an act by the NH legislature in 1807, wording was something to the effect of granting a tract of land of X acres, from among the land owned by the state. It did not, however, dictate which particular land was to be used. The state had surveyed its land in the North Country around 1804; the NH Historical Society has a map by the surveyor, Silas Thorla, which shows the outlines of the 4 townships surveyed, which are now Dixville (sold in 1805), 2nd College Grant (1807), Dix's Grant (1809), and Atkinson & Gilmanton Academy Grant (1809). You can find the language for the deed granting A&G Grant in the Coos Cty Registry of Deeds, but I haven't been able to find any kind of a recorded deed which describes the granting of "Township #2" (or whichever of the 4 it was) to Dartmouth. The Coos Cty Registry of Deeds had a fire in the late 1800s or early 1900s so some of their records have been lost (all the chain of title for A&G Grant is there though).

 

[RoySwkr]

Incorporations come & go. I believe that Livermore was once a town but became unincorporated when everybody moved out. Similarly Harts Location became a town a number of years ago when enough people moved in.

In other states (including Maine) even communities with significant population can remain unincorporated (or disincorporate) if for instance school taxes are too high and it is cheaper to pay tax to the county and let them pay.

You can get a certificate for visiting every incorporated town in NH, unincorporated places optional. VT has a separate and older club. One guy has visited the high point of every town in VT.

 

[woodsman642004]

unicorporated towns

The unicorporated places (towns) in Coos County are governed by the county. Some have people living in them, like Dixville, Millsfield, others like 2nd College Grant, Ervings Location, Dix's Grant, are unpopulated and completely owned by one landowner. In the case of 2nd College Grant, Dartmouth College owns the whole town. Coos County has adopted zoning ordinances in the unicorporated places, much like an Organized town might do. The only real difference really is instead of going to the town office for paying taxes, getting permits, you deal with the Coos County Office in West Stewartstown, NH. Places like the Cog Railway & Great Glens are in unicorporated towns and needed to deal with the County in order to obtain the permits they needed for buildings, etc.

 

[Raymond]

Years ago -- decades even -- Yankee magazine had an article about towns in Vermont in which no one lived. Lewis, Ferdinand, and Norton are the only names I recall off the top of my head. They were all in the Northeast Kingdom, although now that I know more about it I wonder if Buels Gore has any residents.

I think Norton may have actually had six year-round residents.

 

[arghman]

voting day for the unincorporated townships

good article in yesterday's Union (mis)Leader:

http://www.unionleader.com/article....rticleId=8890b8e4-f739-48aa-bcfb-1970203ac49d

 

[Waumbek]

AFAIK, Dartmouth still owns a small plot of land on the summit that is leased to the radio stations. The rest of the land was sold to the state.
-dave-

Dartmouth does still own an 8-acre parcel on the summit but is reportedly getting ready to sell it to the state of NH for $1.3M. The state originally wanted to acquire it for the "on-the-grid" electrification project. The acquisition proved unnecessary but the deal is probably going to go through anyway. The 8 acres would be added to the state's 59 other acres on the summit.

 

[CaptCaper]

ah, one of my other hobbies...


The basic deal is that back in the day, there were two stages of becoming a "regular" town. Step 1: get a grant from the King (really through his agent, the royal governor) for a township, usually to a group of people that owned it in shares, with the King/governor reserving some of it & the right to all the white pines over a certain size for ships' masts. Step 2: stay there for a while, meet some terms and conditions (get X number of people, hold a fair annually, grow a bushel of Indian corn, start a church and a school, or something to show you're using the land), then petition the King to incorporate your grant as a Town.

QUOTE]

Whitefield my town was the last one to get a Kings Grant in NH I beilve in 1774. After that the revolution changed things of course.