In 2004, I made a presentation to the Bradford Historical
Society on the legacy of Bradford’s common lands. This article expands on that
topic by adding materials from some other area towns. Newspaper archives, town
plans, online sources, interviews and local histories provide background
information. Not all examples of common lands are included.
In early New England communities, the initial proprietors
set aside the land that was not privately owned as “common lands.” In some
cases, parcels were designated as cow or ox commons and could be used by all
for grazing or for gathering of fuel. As newcomers arrived, parcels were
sometimes granted to them. This distribution of common land was not without
considerable controversy.
As village centers developed in these early communities, a
central piece of land was set aside as a permanent common or green. That
property was surrounded by the town church, stores, taverns, district schools,
and the homes of the town’s most prominent families.
This was not the “common land” of England, where the term
often referred to large tracts of land owned by the village or local feudal
lord to which locals were allowed access, but with restrictions.
A main motivation for migration to New England was the
possibility of land ownership, something rare among the lower classes of
Europe. For the colonists, land ownership become synonymous with personal and
economic freedom. That individual freedom was combined with a spirit of
co-operation needed for survival and community enhancement.
When the royal governor of New Hampshire chartered many area
towns, he gave the land to friends and associates, many of whom never visited
or settled here. In addition to land set aside for the governor himself, four
300-acre plots, called glebes or lease land, were assigned for the support of
the local school and church as well as the Church of England and the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Over the years, land
transactions turned most of these
parcels over to actual residents and other entities.
So why is it that some area towns replicated the central
common of southern New England and others did not? Bradford does not have one
and I think a reason for that is the location of the village along the falls of
the Waits River.
That village grew up along the central road on a snug piece
of land between the flood plain and Mt. Tug rather than on the broad river
plateau of the Upper or Lower Plain. Imagine, if you will, a Bradford village
on the Lower Plain with a broad common green as found in other
communities.
Another reason may be that Bradford was not chartered by the
royal governor of New Hampshire and therefore lack the glebe land found in
neighboring towns. The original settlers were squatters living in an unrecognized piece of territory
until it was chartered by the governor of New York in 1770. These pitch-holders, their claims now legitimized,
were willing to set aside land for a school and meeting house, but not for a
town common.
Why then do many local communities have beautiful
“ornamental commons” framed by historic
houses and public buildings? The need for a central common was satisfied by the generosity of large landowners from among the early
settlers.
The commons in Haverhill Corner provide an excellent example
of this generosity. The North Common, adjacent to the brick church, originally
belong to those whose houses ringed the property. It was given to the town in
1788 by a group led by Col. Charles Johnston.
In 1807, it was expanded when a store on the southwest
corner was relocated. The South Common was given to the town around 1790 by
tavernkeeper Asa Boynton. Over the years, these properties have been improved
with fencing and a bandstand.
Orford’s west village has one of the grandest commons in the
area. Beginning in 1773, several major landowners began to deed land on both
sides of the road for the purposes of a training field, academy, meeting house
and burial ground. Known as the East and West Commons, these open spaces have
been complimented by a mall that stretches along Orford’s Main Street.
This mall, with both private and public ownership, led one
visitor in the mid-1800s to refer to Orford
as “the most charming country village” and noted the existence of the
mall as its center. Framed by the West Cemetery and the grand houses of the
Ridge on the east and private and public buildings on the west, the common
continues to be a useable centerpiece for Orford Street.
At the core of
Newbury Village is that community’s common. In 1833, the New England Conference
of the Methodist Episcopal Church purchased, with help from the town, a portion
of the property, which until that time was private farmland. Newbury Seminary
was built on the property.
In 1868, the Seminary moved to Montpelier. In 1888, the
local school district purchased the property and that ownership later passed to
the Newbury town school district. In 1912, a monument to Revolutionary General
Jacob Bayley was erected. The next year, a major fire destroyed a number of
buildings on the common’s periphery.
Described as one of “Newbury’s sacred possessions,” and
called the Village Common, it has been the site of numerous festivals, school
activities, flea markets, concerts, weddings and ball games. In June 1921, the
Barre Daily Times described members of the Newbury High alumni reunion
strolling across “the old common which holds many a story of happiness and
grief, laughter and tears.”
As is true of other town commons, the use of the property
has been the subject of controversies over the years. Recently the Elementary
School Board voted to subdivide that portion of the Common under their control,
setting off the land immediately surrounding the school building to remain
property of the district and convey to the town the remaining portion. A substantial portion along of the north side
of the Common is owned by the Newbury Woman’s Club.
Thetford Hill’s common is in the center of the historic
district. The original common was much smaller and had the town’s meetinghouse
at its southern end. The property was enlarged in 1795 and again in 1818.
In 1830, the meeting house was moved to an adjacent property
north of the common. As the attached
1877 map shows, the common was ringed by private homes, an academy and post
office. Since 1913, the common has been
the site of a summer as well as other community gatherings.
Groton’s Veteran’s Park in Groton Village offers a gazebo
along with opportunities for recreation and civic events. Puffer’s and Frost
Ball Fields are also Groton town property.
Dotting town commons in the area are civic structures and
monuments. In Fairlee, the 1926 Soldiers Monument and flagpole stand opposite
the recently refurbished 1924 bandstand. In Lyme, a granite soldier stands at
parade rest atop a memorial to that community’s Civil War veterans. In Warren,
it is a Redstone Missile, brought to the town in 1971. Over the years, commons
may have hosted animal pounds, water boxes,
cannons, whipping posts, flagpoles, burial tombs, jails, horse sheds,
fountains, and or commemorative plantings.
Piermont’s pocket-sized common was eliminated in 2012 by the
reconfiguration of the adjacent road. That year, after much discussion, the
Veterans War Memorial that was the centerpiece of the tiny common was relocated
to the new Veterans Memorial Garden in the South Lawn Cemetery.
No local town common looks the same as it did 150 years ago.
Building have been destroyed, moved,
renovated and replaced over the years. Structural fires have altered the
buildings facing local commons. Changing social and economic factors have
significantly eliminated the small businesses and district schools that ringed
these greens. Regular summer flea markets held in Fairlee’s Samuel Morey
Memorial Park are an example of the new uses for older pieces of property.
While Bradford does
not have a common, it does have common land owned by the town and school. In
1946, the Bradford school district acquired from Jessie Blakely Low 65 acres of forest on Mt. Tug. It was increased in 1961 by an additional 60
acres donated by Nina St. John. Known as the Low-St. John Forest, the property
is used as an outdoor laboratory for school projects as well as public
recreation.
In 1946, the school district voted to obtain land behind the
Academy building for a recreation field. Led by members of the Bradford
Community Club, the largely unusable swamp land was rehabilitated into ball
fields. Recently the ownership of what became known as Memorial Field was
transferred to the Town of Bradford.
In 1994, Bradford began the acquisition of portions of
Wright’s Mountain. Since then, the property has been expanded to over 500 acres
with the creation of miles of hiking trails. Recently the site has been honored by the National Park Service and
included on its list of National Recreation Trails.
Additionally, common land in Bradford includes Elizabeth’s
Park on Fairground Road, Boch Memorial Park near the Falls and Denny Park on
North Main. What the town lacked in a central ornamental common in its early
decades has been more than compensated for by these pieces of common land.
As with Bradford’s Wright’s Mountain and Low-St. John
Forest, newer town common land is more likely a municipally-owned town forest.
Acquired with public funds, grants, private donations and with the help of
groups such as the Upper Valley Land Trust, these heavily-forested tracts are
maintained for conservation, watershed protection and recreation. One estimate
places 67,000 acres of preserved land in
172 municipal forests in Vermont.
Thetford owns four parcels of forested land of which the
261-acre Hughes Forest and 171-acre Thetford
Town Forest are the largest. As with
properties in other communities, Thetford has a conservation commission
to manage these forests.
The Bushwood Community Forest combines public property
belonging to the towns of West Fairlee, Fairlee and Bradford. Additionally,
Fairlee owns the Fairlee Town Forest. That 770-acre property was acquired in
the 1980’s from the Lange family. In Corinth, the town forest was the gift of
Sue Shea and is called the F. X. Shea Town Forest in honor of her late husband.
Most recently, Newbury voters completed the purchase of 636
acres to create the Tucker Mountain Town Forest. This was accomplished with
$25,000 in town funds along with the assistance of the Vermont Land Trust, the
Leach family and donations from numerous citizens.
One of the municipal properties in Haverhill is the Kinder
Forest, a 21-acre parcel initially acquired by the town in the 1920’s to settle
back taxes. The Woodsville Community Field and the Veterans Park on Central
Street belong to the Woodsville Precinct. Nearby Railroad Park is owned by the
town. Since the 1920s the community field has been the site of numerous
community events. Hazen Park on Hasen
Drive honors John Hazen, Haverhill’s founder.
As with many
municipal forests, Warren’s town forest offers hiking trails. Hazen Park on
Hazen Drive honors John Hazen, Haverhill’s founder.
In addition to this common property owned by local
municipalities, state and federal agencies own large tracts of land in both
states. It is estimated that over 13 percent of New Hampshire land is under
federal ownership and 2.86 percent is under state ownership. Vermont’s
corresponding figures are 6.6 percent and 1.61 percent of land.
Local property that falls
under this category include Thetford Hill State Forest and Groton State Forest
in Vermont. In New Hampshire, there are the Bedell Bridge State Park in
Haverhill, the Black Mountain State Forest in Haverhill and Benton, the
Tarleton State Park in Piermont, the Davis-White State Park in Warren and the
White Mountain National Forest as well as properties occupied by state and
federal agencies. Additionally,
Haverhill has several Grafton County properties.
While this column deals with pieces of common land, there
are many properties in each town that are common in the sense that they are
owned by the local governments for the public good. Those include municipal
buildings, highway garages, water and sewerage facilities, school buildings,
cemeteries, firehouses, libraries, beaches and boat launches and roads.
Annually, in early March, the citizens of area towns are
called together to vote on issues related to these common properties. Those
topics include the pooling of their
funds for the properties’ operation and maintenance as well as issues over their management. In doing so, we continue the tradition
begun by the freemen of colonial New
England almost four centuries ago.