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Letters
Region
Obituaries
Abstract Paintings & Tribal Masks Exhibition At New Hampshire Antique Co-Op
Now on view through May 31, 2020
Congregational Church Stays Connected
During the suspension of in-person activities in light of the Covid-19 situation, the Congregational Church of Amherst, UCC has a variety of ways for members and others to connect with church programs. This is especially important during April as Holy Week and Easter are on the horizon.
The most up-to-date information about church activities can be found on the church’s website (ccamherst.org) or by calling the church office at 673-3231. Sunday services are broadcast on FacebookLive and recorded for later on-line viewing. Services are followed by a Virtual Fellowship Hour. Links for these and other events can be found on the website.
The church’s Facebook page is another source of information, including updates and video messages from the pastors. Pastors Maureen Frescott and Kate Kennedy are available to provide pastoral care during this time, and the church welcomes community members to connect with this loving, serving, open and affirming community of faith.
Lorraine Alice Hamilton
AMHERST – Lorraine Alice Hamilton of Amherst, New Hampshire, Beach Haven, New Jersey and Rancho Mirage, California died June 14, 2020 from pancreatic cancer at her home in California. She was 73 years old and a participant in the trial of a new cancer drug at NYU Langone in New York City since April 2019. She hoped that results from the trial would improve care for other patients who develop this cancer. She was with her family when she died and was
Donald Richard Haaker
Donald Richard Haaker, 80, born June 2, 1940, son of Carl E Haaker and Jeanne LaRochelle Haaker of Fitchburg, MA, son, brother, father, grandfather, and great grandfather, peacefully passed away on Sunday, June 7, 2020 at Saint Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, MA.
Don, as he was affectionately referred to by friends, and Dad or Grandpa by family, was a proud veteran, avid fisherman, former business owner, collector of “As Seen On TV” gadgets, and
Historic Amherst
19th c. Coopers’ House on Hollis Road
Researching Old Houses
BY KATRINA HOLMAN
As part of a longer-term project of researching the histories of old houses in Amherst to determine a plausible “year built” – based on actual documentary evidence – I recently turned my attention to the SW corner of Amherst. This section didn’t become part of Amherst until 1770, ten years after our town’s incorporation, when the town of Monson was un-incorporated and dismembered; that’s when the southern corner boundary with Hollis was established. The western corner boundary with Milford was established even later, in 1794, when the Southwest Parish was split off from Amherst to become its own town.
Generally when researching an old house, the 1858 map is a good starting point: I figured, why not start with the last house on the Hollis road before the town line, which is a house labeled “R. B. Wallace”? I had gotten back as far as 1839 and simultaneously was working forward in the deed chain, when I discovered that this house no longer exists. Howard Locke, who assigned it Town 2 in his numbering scheme, wrote: “small house, 3 or 4 rooms, torn down about 1895.” Dang. Now I’m not even certain which current lot and street number to ascribe to it – but I can assert that the long-gone house under scrutiny in this article stood next south of the mustard-yellow cape at 168 Hollis Road, home to Roswitha’s dolls per its sign. Well, for those of us interested in the town’s broader history and the development of neighborhoods, this house history can form a useful piece of the puzzle.
Neighborhood of Hollis Road: Home to Tavern, RR Station, Poor House
In the mid-18th to early-19th century, the character of this neighborhood was distinguished by a tavern-inn and from the mid-19th century into the early 20th century by the railroad station. There was a tavern as early as 1758 on the original farm to which the present 107 Ponemah Road lot belonged (that’s before Hildreth and Smith in Amherst Village; concurrent with Robert Read one mile south of Common at 232 Boston Post Road). The last 12 years (1758 to 1770) of Monson town meetings were held in this tavern of Archelaus Towne (1734-1779; married 1757); his house was still a tavern after this area was annexed to Amherst (licensed by new county court in 1771). In 1785, David Danforth (Jr., 1752-1827) of Chelmsford, Mass., bought the farm (deed 15:116) and became innholder/ tavernkeeper. He built the present house at 107 Ponemah Road (“P. Duncklee” on 1858 map; now condos) “about 1795” (according to town historian Secomb, p. 556) – and this area was named Danforth’s Corner after him. Even after Danforth sold, it remained a tavern until about 1810.
Amherst’s first railroad station opened in 1848 in the SW part of town, about 3 miles from the Village; first called Danforth’s Corner depot, renamed in 1866 to Amherst station, and finally renamed in 1900 to Ponemah station. Notice the horse and buggy waiting to meet a train. (Image from early 20th c. postcard.)
The train depot (near SE corner of present intersection of Routes 101A & 122), on the Wilton RR line, which opened in 1848 and was the town’s only station till the end of the 19th-century, made it easy for summer visitors from the Boston area to come to Amherst to rusticate in farm boarding houses around town and at Baboosic Lake resort. Initially it was called Danforth’s Corner station; renamed Amherst station in 1866 (to make it easier for tourists to realize they had reached their destination); and finally renamed again in Nov. 1900 so that the new station at the SE edge of Amherst Village on the new B&M RR line could take the town’s name, the old station subsequently being called Ponemah after the fancy hotel (built 1884) of that name in Milford just across the town line, again a nod to the desired tourists. The last station master, Harry E. Heath (1870-1948), who ran the depot and its telegraph service from 1898 till its closure in the mid-1920s, contributed a new architectural style to the neighborhood in 1904 when he built the Prairie style bungalow at 108 Ponemah Road (now a real estate office).
This neighborhood was also close to two poor farms in the mid-19th century, although I’m not sure how or if that colored life here at all. Amherst’s Poor Farm (“Town Farm” on 1858 map, south of river), opened in 1833 to support paupers by housing, feeding, and clothing them, on site, from its proceeds, and was located at an earlier-established farm on Souhegan River (near current country club); the two-story house now standing at 76 Ponemah Road was built by the Town in 1894 as a replacement for the alms house that had burned in 1892 and was sold to private ownership in 1898. Milford’s Town or Poor Farm was also nearby.
Of course, this area was primarily inhabited by farmers. One of the earlier farms was established by David Duncklee (Sr., 1746-1826) in 1773, the farm straddling the Hollis and Milford town lines, and his farmhouse standing at 23 Ponemah Hill Road (“W. Hayden” on 1858 map), which would be home to six generations of his family until 1936. In this little section along Hollis and Ponemah Roads, quite a few of the other farmers were much inclined to switch houses, complicating deed research for any particular house, not to mention the ever-changing configuration of their farmsteads.
Blacksmiths and Coopers
The neighborhood was also home to a certain kind of mechanic (that’s the 19th century term!), namely a succession of blacksmiths and coopers. David Danforth, the innkeeper who arrived here in 1785, was a blacksmith as well. His son Jesse Danforth (1776-1826) was also a blacksmith; from 1800-1805 Jesse owned & occupied 117 Ponemah Road house (on 1858 map labeled “H. A. Clark” for the owner who happened to be the first RR station agent). That same house from Dec. 1814 to Oct 1815 was home to a cooper name Daniel Peacock (1776-1858) who moved there from Milford. The next owners, 1815-1817, were blacksmiths, Jesse Hardy & Samuel Dakin, who removed to Bedford. Another early cooper in this neighborhood was Timothy Wheeler Jr. (1774-1853), who bought the house at 168 Hollis Road with 25a in Dec. 1809 (deed 84:495), although how long he carried on that trade is unknown; he became a farmer, living there until he died. A later owner of that cape, selling in 1856, reserved “the shop” with the intention of moving it (probably to the property next north).
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