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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
Owners of The Coopers’ House on Hollis Road (Built Before 1839)
Following is the succession of owners of the now-gone house on the east side of Hollis Road, near the Hollis line, labeled “R. B. Wallace” on 1858 map and “Mrs. Matthews Est.” (for Estate) on 1892 map. Notice how unusually small the lot size was – a mere two acres, thus best suited for a mechanic, especially one with his own shop.
Unknown date before 1839: Samuel Ober (1810-1888; m1 1834) of Amherst, yeoman/ farmer, owned this land and house. (From Jan. 1854 to April 1855, this Ober owned the cape at 168 Hollis Road on 3 acres, plus another 27 acres plus 50 acres on the other side of the road (deeds 285:85 and 294:237). By 1857 (as shown on 1858 map), “S. Ober” owned a house on the opposite side of the road, a little further north, although he was not taxed as a resident in 1857 and 1858; a resident again by the April 1859 tax invoice, taxed on 215 acres in Amherst.)
1839 Feb (to take possession 1 April): Curtis Duncklee (1807-1857) of Milford, cooper, whose wife was Rebekah nee Duncklee (married c. 1825), bought 2 acres “with a dwelling house thereon” on easterly side of road that leads from Amherst to Hollis for $300 (deed 199:445). (Curtis was a grandson of the Duncklee who established 23 Ponemah Hill Road farm, and a nephew of Ebenezer Duncklee, the second generation to own & occupy that house & farm. Curtis & family would move to New York state, where he was a farmer, and subsequently to Iowa, where he died.)
1840 June: Asaph Spalding (1782-1873) of Hollis, yeoman who also was a cooper, whose wife was Abiah Howard or Bowers of Dracut (m. 1807; d. 1864), bought 2a “with buildings” on easterly side of road leading from Amherst to Hollis for $300 (deed 205:563). (Asaph returned to or remained in Hollis but later, from Jan. 1848 to Nov. 1849, calling himself “gentleman” in the deeds, he briefly owned & occupied another house in this neighborhood, the former tavern at 107 Ponemah Road, before moving to a farm in Peterborough.)
1841 June: Ebenezer Duncklee (1789-1867), yeoman/ farmer who had returned from Vermont to Amherst in 1828 & bought & since occupied house at 23 Ponemah Hill Road built in 1770s by his late pa, David, in June 1841 went on a real estate buying spree in the south part of Amherst, including 2a “with house” on easterly side of road from Amherst to Hollis (deed 212:239) + 6a from Sam Ober (wife Hannah) + 10a on North Brook from John Ober (wife Rebecca) + 7a from Porter Wheeler, cooper. Yet curiously Ebenezer’s taxable real
estate did not increase. Ah ha, that’s because his younger son, Sylvester, paid the property taxes (per annual Amherst tax invoices).
1845: Sylvester J. Duncklee (1819-1887), who had married Mary Ann Stratton in 1842, formally bought 15 acres “in south part of Amherst” “with buildings” where he already lived + 10a parcel, for $585, together with his older brother Ebenezer T. Duncklee (deed 234:231). In April 1849, ETD (wife Abby W.) quitclaimed his undivided half of 15-acre parcel with buildings to Sylvester for $200 (deed 255:543). An oddity of their purchase and sale deeds is that the occupation of the brothers, aged 26 and 30 at the time of purchase, was called “gentleman” in the deeds, whereas their pa’s occupation was given as expected as “yeoman.” Could that, I wonder, have been intended as an ironic or satirical jest? (Sylvester moved to Hancock, N.H., where he was a farmer (1850 census); later to Michigan, where he died. Ebenezer the younger moved to Hollis.)
1849 Oct.: Enoch Farley (Jr., 1824-1886), originally of Hollis, lately of Hancock, yeoman, whose wife was Harriet E. Baker (1820-1907; married 1846), bought 15a with bldgs + 5a for $500 (deed 258:230). Farley only owned a modest amount of livestock over the years, one or two horses and one or two cows, but he kept expanding his real estate holdings and moving around. (Shortly before moving to this house, Enoch purchased the 25-acre lot adjoining on the south, which lay partly in Amherst and partly in Hollis, for $115 (deed 261:372). Around 1860 he built a house on that lot (Howard Locke’s Town 1; “N. Tuttle” on 1892 map when it had become last house on Hollis road), which he rented out before selling it in 1863 with 40a for $600 (deed 348:351).)
1852 March: William K. Stearns (1818/9-1892) of Hollis, cooper, bought 2a “in southerly part of Amherst” with bldgs for $300 (deed 273:20); his wife was Lydia Woods (1833-1906; married 1851). (They returned to Hollis.)
1853 Sep.: Luke M. Blood (1831-1912) of Hollis, formerly a farmer and likely turned cooper, bought 2a for $350 (deed 288:290). His wife was Josephine E. Woods (1835-1900; married 1852 in Nashua). (They returned to Hollis, where in 1860 census his occupation was cooper laborer, but was farmer again by 1870.)
1855 April: Thomas Searles (b. c.1810), a farm laborer who was already a resident of Amherst, bought 2a for $325 (deed 294:243). His wife was Polly Hadlock (m. 1836 at Dunstable/Nashua Village, N.H.). (He would become a fruit peddler in Nashua, from around 1870 to at least 1885.)
1856 Oct.: Robert Burns Wallace (1810-1867) bought 2a with bldgs for $350 (deed 308:214). His wife was Martha Ann Burrell (1834-1923). (Burns Wallace had been a clerk in 1850 in Milford, and would be a small farmer here, owning an additional 6 acres. He died in Amherst.)
1862 Dec.: Margarett S. Dial (in tax records as Mrs. Thomas Doyle; but her husband was not taxed as resident of this district, 5) bought in her own right “to her own sole and separate use free from the interference or control of her husband,” 2a with buildings, for $350 (deed 345:150).
1867 April: Mary L. Philbrick, wife of John C. Philbrick (1831-1893) of Washington, N.H., bought 2a with bldgs for $275 (deed 368:505). (John C. Philbrick was son of Joseph & Clarenda/Clarinda (Fuller) Philbrick, who had moved to 15-acre farm in this area in 1860, and thus grandson of Thaddeus M. Fuller. John would subsequently buy a farm on same road.)
1870 April: Thaddeus M. Fuller (died 1874 or 1875) bought 2a with bldgs for $375 (deed 388:21). He was the father of Clarenda (1806-1900), Mrs. Joseph Philbrick, who lived nearby on same road. Thaddeus was a cooper and made barrels in a shop beside the road to Hollis (according to Howard Locke’s notes for house he designated Town 4, “S. Ober” on 1858 map, on west side of road.)
1877 Sep.: William F. Matthews of Boston bought 2a in southeasterly part of Amherst on road leading from Amherst to Hollis with bldgs for $300 from Fuller heirs including neighbor, widow Clarinda Philbrick (deed 441:7). He was taxed as a nonresident in 1879 but listed among resident taxpayers until 1890.
1890c.: George E. Farley (1849-1913) paid taxes on “Matthews place” 1891-1898, the assessed valuation decreasing by half between April 1893 and April 1894 suggesting that house was destroyed 1893/4. (George, yeoman/farmer, since 1880 occupied 58-acre farm nearby on same road, with his wife Mary Elizabeth Harmon, which he subsequently inherited from his father Enoch Farley (d. 1886).)
And that was the end of that small house on Hollis Road near the Hollis town line. And this is the end of this glimpse into one agricultural neighborhood of Amherst in the 19th century.
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