Sunday, February 11, 2007
February 10, 2007 Monson, N.H. 1737 - 1770
Thanks especially to Russ and Geri Dickerman of Milford, NH - but also to hundreds of others - an unbelievable piece of pre-Revolutionary War colonial America still exists - it's the abandoned town of Monson, N.H. It existed from 1737 - 1770 - some 33 years. The town was incorporated for 24 of those years, and so tax, birth, death, and other civil records are still extant. All that is left, of course, are the foundations, and stone-walls, and a few other things. But the land has been left largely undisturbed for 237 years. It's a true ghost town! I spent 3 hours investigating Monson, N.H. on Saturday. Monson was eventually absorbed into present-day Milford, Hollis, Brookline, and Amherst. Here's some of my photos, but make sure to click on them, so you can see/read them:
click on above photo to read inscription
Above is the marker for the old center of town- it's so amazing to realize that everybody left the town in 1770 - before the Revolution, meaning that this town's whole history took place before we were a country. We were a colony of Britain at the time of this town. George III became [our last] king in 1760 - during Monson's time. After I read the inscription on this stone - and then looked around - I saw a stone wall, and realized that the wall has been right in that spot for at least 237 years. That rules!
Check out the foundation above - amazing that this was someone's barn or stall or cabin or whatever - i'll tell you, they did a nice job on the foundation. Considering the utter deprivation that was the case, it's amazing what was built.
To take the above photo, I walked out on the ice alongside a really long beaver dam.
The photo captures what the beavers have accomplished. Click on the photo to enlargen it. Pre-beaver dam, this was a wooded area with a little stream through it. Then the beavers dammed up the stream and this area went into marsh mode. You can see all the trees still standing proudly in the swamp, but they're basically toast at this point.
In 1843, the Monson area was surveyed and the stone pictured above was put in place. It demarcates the Milford/Hollis border. The photographer is standing in Milford, and that's Hollis just behind (south of) the stone.
Think about this for a minute: It's like 1740 and you have just sailed over from Ireland or somewhere and you travel by horse for days to come to this desolate, windswept hill in the middle of nowhere, and proceed to try to somehow find, grow, or make food to survive. But before you begin, would you mind moving, by hand, about 24,345,000,000 large rocks? Yes, please pile those up somewhere, so we can even get at the ground, which is frozen half the time anyway. Then, while half of your family gets drafted into the French and Indian War, you attempt to make a living out of this hardscrabble ground. No electricity, services, buildings, no nothing anywhere, and constant lethal fighting with the native Americans. Still, you persist. And all those rocks, where do you suppose they go? They go nowhere. The above photo was made as follows: Year 1740: Pile 24.3 billion rocks in a long row. Wait about 267 years. Take the photo.
The above photo just feels good. Click on it and check it out.......It's a western slope in Monson where the afternoon sun is warm enough to melt the snow. In the woods, there was about 6" of snow, but in this one sun-exposed area, the snow was mostly gone. The photo was taken at 4:34pm which is nice, considering that it's still nice out and still light out! The group that now owns this place has put a few benches around the property where you can sit down for a while if you'd like. I did. One of the main owners is the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests)
The photo above shows the site of the home of the only doctor ever known to live here. It was Dr. John Brown. Do you see the little sign in the photo above? OK, you can read it by going to the photo below and clicking on it. I noticed in reading the inscription that Dr. Brown's daughter Abigail was born here on June 10, 1754.
No blog entry is worth its salt without the obligatory photo of the author goofing around. Today's exploration of Monson was a 3-hour outing, from 2pm to 5pm. But the last 1/2 hour was just goofing around and looking at things and sitting around on the bench or taking photos or whatever. The temperature had dropped from about 31 degrees to about 28 degrees F., but it was still a sunny twilight. On this day, it was simply too beautiful outside to just....leave. Although that's what the Monsonites did.
click on above photo to read inscription
Above is the marker for the old center of town- it's so amazing to realize that everybody left the town in 1770 - before the Revolution, meaning that this town's whole history took place before we were a country. We were a colony of Britain at the time of this town. George III became [our last] king in 1760 - during Monson's time. After I read the inscription on this stone - and then looked around - I saw a stone wall, and realized that the wall has been right in that spot for at least 237 years. That rules!
Check out the foundation above - amazing that this was someone's barn or stall or cabin or whatever - i'll tell you, they did a nice job on the foundation. Considering the utter deprivation that was the case, it's amazing what was built.
To take the above photo, I walked out on the ice alongside a really long beaver dam.
The photo captures what the beavers have accomplished. Click on the photo to enlargen it. Pre-beaver dam, this was a wooded area with a little stream through it. Then the beavers dammed up the stream and this area went into marsh mode. You can see all the trees still standing proudly in the swamp, but they're basically toast at this point.
In 1843, the Monson area was surveyed and the stone pictured above was put in place. It demarcates the Milford/Hollis border. The photographer is standing in Milford, and that's Hollis just behind (south of) the stone.
Think about this for a minute: It's like 1740 and you have just sailed over from Ireland or somewhere and you travel by horse for days to come to this desolate, windswept hill in the middle of nowhere, and proceed to try to somehow find, grow, or make food to survive. But before you begin, would you mind moving, by hand, about 24,345,000,000 large rocks? Yes, please pile those up somewhere, so we can even get at the ground, which is frozen half the time anyway. Then, while half of your family gets drafted into the French and Indian War, you attempt to make a living out of this hardscrabble ground. No electricity, services, buildings, no nothing anywhere, and constant lethal fighting with the native Americans. Still, you persist. And all those rocks, where do you suppose they go? They go nowhere. The above photo was made as follows: Year 1740: Pile 24.3 billion rocks in a long row. Wait about 267 years. Take the photo.
The above photo just feels good. Click on it and check it out.......It's a western slope in Monson where the afternoon sun is warm enough to melt the snow. In the woods, there was about 6" of snow, but in this one sun-exposed area, the snow was mostly gone. The photo was taken at 4:34pm which is nice, considering that it's still nice out and still light out! The group that now owns this place has put a few benches around the property where you can sit down for a while if you'd like. I did. One of the main owners is the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests)
The photo above shows the site of the home of the only doctor ever known to live here. It was Dr. John Brown. Do you see the little sign in the photo above? OK, you can read it by going to the photo below and clicking on it. I noticed in reading the inscription that Dr. Brown's daughter Abigail was born here on June 10, 1754.
No blog entry is worth its salt without the obligatory photo of the author goofing around. Today's exploration of Monson was a 3-hour outing, from 2pm to 5pm. But the last 1/2 hour was just goofing around and looking at things and sitting around on the bench or taking photos or whatever. The temperature had dropped from about 31 degrees to about 28 degrees F., but it was still a sunny twilight. On this day, it was simply too beautiful outside to just....leave. Although that's what the Monsonites did.
# posted by chuck @ 11:18 AM 
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This is fascinating stuff, Chuck. It's nice to read about topics other than your beer-fuelled social life!
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