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The first settlement of Bath, NH was made by Andrew Gardner, in 1765,
who located upon a farm between the two villages, and which is still
known as the "Gardner Place." The following year John Sawyer
commenced a settlement where the upper village now is, and
Jaasiel Herriman located in what is now the lower end of the lower
village. At that time, it is said, there were, between him and the
Wild Ammonoosuc, four wigwams occupied by Indians.
During this and the
following year, also, a number of others came in, among whom were
Moses Pike, who located at the island at the upper village,
Samuel Martin, Elijah King, Deliverance Sawyer, John Hew and
William Eastman, the latter settling just above the upper village.
Quite a number had come in by 1767, for the proprietors' records
speak of "twenty-two settlers having made their various pitches and
wrought upon them more or less." Considerable additions were made to
the settlement soon after the granting of the second charter, in 1769,
there being among those who came at that time the following:
John Waters, Benjamin Lee, Joseph Tilden, John Beard, Ezekiel Colby,
Robert Bedel, Abel Chase, Noah Moulton, Edward Bailey, William Belknap,
Benjamin Prentiss, Francis Fullerton, Reuben Foster, John Sandborn,
Ebenezer Sandborn, Daniel Bedel, Samuel Titus, Col. Timothy Bedel
and John Dodge.
When the Revolutionary war commenced, in 1775, many of the settlers
left, as they were north of the regiment stationed at North Haverhill
to guard against the invasion of savages, Tories and Canadians. The
dangers attending pioneer life here during the war, however, did not
prevent some settlers from coming in before its close, among whom were
Mark Sandborn.
Soon after the close of the war, emigration seems to
have received a fresh impetus, there being among the new settlers
several persons of enterprise and influence, and who for a long time
were leading men of the town, viz: Ezra Child from Woodstock, Conn.
in 1782; Jeremiah Hutchins from Haverhill, Mass. in 1783; Jacob Hurd
from Haverhill, Stephen Bartlett from Newton NH, and Timothy and
Aaron Hibbard from Woodstock, Conn., also in 1784; John and Dudley
Child, and Amasa Buck in 1786; Henry Hancock, Aaron Powers,
Roger Sargent and Maxi Hazeltine in 1770; and William and Samuel Lang
came a year or two later.
The first town meeting was held in 1784, when the following officers
were chosen: John Way, moderator; Capt. Jeremiah Hutchins, Capt.
Ebenezer Sandborn and Ezra Child, selectmen; Aaron Bailey and
Ezra Child, tythingmen; Jacob Hurd, town clerk; John Merrill and
Aaron Hibbard, fence viewers; Capt. Jeremiah Hutchins, surveyor of
lumber; Jacob Hurd, sealer of weights and measures; Mark Sandborn,
constable; John Merrill, Daniel Mills, Capt. Ebenezer Sandborn,
Dea. John Jewett and David Powers, highway surveyors; Elisha Cleveland
and John Rowell, hog reeves; Moses Eastman, sealer of leather; and
Capt. Ebenezer Sandborn, pound keeper.
Among the "first things" in the
township are mentioned, in the pamphlet history of Bath, the
following:--
"The first family that moved into town was Jaasietl Harriman's, in
1766; (individuals had come the year before, but without families).
The first child born in Bath was a daughter of his, named
Mary Harriman; her birth took place December 8, 1766. She married
Simeon Smith of Campton, and died in that town near the close of 1854,
aged eighty-eight years.
The first death in town was in the same
family, a little son of Mr. Harriman, two years old, was scalded to
death in 1767. This child was the first person buried in the graveyard
at Bath village.
The first marriage in Bath, it is said, was that of
John Waters to Hannah Pike, and that all the people in town witnessed
it! It took place near the commencement of the Revolutionary war, in
the fort on Eastman's meadow, where all the inhabirants were collected
at that period.
The first road made made in 1768, extending
diagonally across the town from southwest to northeast. The first
bridge at Bath village, over the Ammonoosuc, was built in 1794. The
first mills were built in 1772, near the mouth of Mill Brook. The
first meeting-house was erected in 1803, finished and dedicated in
1805, and painted in 1806. The first framed building erected in Bath,
tradition says, was a barn on the farm now belonging to Dwight P. Child,
about 1775.
Not far from the same period, the first framed house in
town was built on Col. Hurd's place, a little north of where the old
meeting-house stands. The first framed house at Bath Village was built
by Knowles Clark in 1793 or 1794, near where the Congregational
meeting-house is now situated.
The first settler at Bath village, as
already stated, was J. Harriman, and the falls here were formerly
known as Harriman's falls. The second was Daniel Mills, who is
supposed to have come about 1783. Roger Sargent was the next, who came
about 1786. Near the same time, Elisha Cleaveland settled upon the
plain, a few rods east of the graveyard.
The first settler at the upper
village, was John Sawyer, in 1766; the second was Moses Pike in 1767;
the third was Elisha Locke, about 1771; and the fourth was John Merrill.
The first settler at Swiftwater was Jonathan Cox, in 1816.
The first
corn, pumpkins and cucumbers raised in town were upon the Great Rock,
just below Bath village in 1767. They were planted by Mercy, a daughter
of J. Harriman, about nine years of age, who carried the dirt in her
apron on to the top of the rock, and there made her a garden. She was
afterwards married to a man by the name of Carr, and died at Corinth,
VT in 1847, aged eighty-nine years.
Chaises were first introduced here
in 1807. In the inventory for 1808 they are found against the names
of M. P. Payson, S. & J. Hutchins, David Mitchell and Amos Towne; in
1809, against the above, and also Ezra Child, John Haddock,
Aaron Powers, David Smith, and Abraham Thomas; and the next year
against James I. Swan, and Samuel Browning.
Wagons were introduced
some four years later, about 1811. Stoves for warming buildings were
first used in this town about 1810. At the annual town meeting in
March 1811, a vote was passed, 'that the selectmen furnish and put into
the meeting-house two suitable stoves;' this was probably done the
ensuing autumn. Cooking stoves were introduced in 1815 or 1816. Clocks
were first introduced in 1808. At that time, three eight-day brass
clocks were brought in and sold. Lucifer or friction matches were
first used in Bath, about 1834."
Source: New Hampshire Genealogy and History
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