Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/101

 Lisbon, N. H.

LISBON, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Historic Notes: Soil, Streams, Lakes, and Minerals.

By SAMUEL EMERY.

Lisbon was first granted in the year of the Concord charter. Hence as 1 03 under the nan^e of Concord, by a single stroke of the p n th wh.ch name .t retained for the sue- Gunthvvaite titles were extinguish d ceed.ng five years. The grantees not and the poor settler, who ^h'^ cornply.ng w.th the conditions of the wife and children during the" ye charter, the same became forfeited, had shared all the privaUons of nio! as was supposed, and in 1768 it was neer life and had begun toenjoy some regranted to an entuely new company of the comforts so dearly earned wa of propnetors, under the name of at once deprived of his home with Gunthwa.e. Through the influence nothing left^ but his pittance oj ^r of Capt. Leonard Wh.ting, who was sonal property. A part of the se - instrumenta .n procuring the second tiers abandoned their daims ad went d.arter, and Ma, John Young, of to Canada and places further noTth Haverh.l 1 Mass., some settlements others endeavored to sell their im: were made. Matters, however, pro- provements,-but no one was wiUin. gressed slowly, and for several years to purchase, so prevalent wa ^ ^ere were but few additions. The feeling of distrust ..nd uncertainty War of the Revolution came to a Every one knew that the first charter close, and a new impetus was given had actually been forfeited, and that to emigration. p,i„ts had been carried by the dint

In the year 1785 there were com- of bulldozing and fraud; and yet ortably ensconced in log cabins forty there was no redress, inasmuch as the families, besides a respectable con- courts had decided against them By tingent of bachelors. After the first far the greater number of citizens re^ influx subsequent to the war, emigra- mained upon their farms and awaited tion m some degree abated ; yet each the issue; and when the claims of year witnessed a sure and steady in- the Concord proprietors were fully crease, and evidently the morning of established and acknowledged find prosperity began to dawn upon the ing they must yield to the inevitable new colony. The genuine prosperity they purchased their farms over which had rewarded the efforts of the again. At length the excitement and Gunthwaite proprietors was coveted disturbance subsided, and by an act by the original grantees. They came of the legislature the name'of Con- forward, laid claim to the township, cord was resumed, and retained until and, as is surmised, made some kind 1824, when it was changed to Lis- of a compromise with certain influen- bon.

tial citizens. The controversy thus The first settlers of the town were raised was followed by litigation, Samuel Martin, Ebenezer Richardson which culminated in the restoration William Belknap, and Samuel Sher-

�� �