Vintage Views: Our villages

This vintage view of Concord depicts early North Main Street, referred to as “The Street” during the days of the village.

This vintage view of Concord depicts early North Main Street, referred to as “The Street” during the days of the village. James W. Spain Collection photo

By JIM SPAIN

For the Monitor

Published: 10-05-2024 9:00 AM

“Every day or two, I strolled to the village to hear some of the gossip which is incessantly going on there, circulating either from mouth to mouth, or from newspaper to newspaper, and which, taken in homeopathic doses, was really as refreshing in its way as the rustle of leaves and the peeping of frogs.”

– Henry David Thoreau

It is the village where our ancestors would gather. The center of activity where they found food, supplies, entertainment and companionship. The life of our early colonists was simple but isolated, living in a rural setting they faced their fears bravely and survived from year to year.

There were many challenges, challenges that modern society could not possibly comprehend. As our friend Henry David Thoreau has stated, he found much comfort in traveling to the village to listen to the gossip, finding it as refreshing as the rustle of leaves and the peeping of frogs. There is certainly comfort in numbers, regardless of the people you choose to spend your time with. Some company is better than no company, especially when loneliness is a factor, hence the village became the place to be.

Here in Concord we actually had over a dozen small villages, depending on your heritage and your thought process we might have even had more than that. A century ago we had villages with names such as Borough, Snaptown, Ironworks, Millville, Fosterville and Fisherville. We also had villages called Turtletown, Appletown, East Village, West Village, Break-O-Day and Abbottville.

As you might assume there is a story behind each and every village I mention. Break-O-Day was located on the eastern portion of the area we know as the Heights today. The name evolved because the early settlers that resided in that area were the first to see the sunrise, so they referred to their little “village” as Break-O-Day.

Of course prior to the name Break-O-Day people called the area to the east of the Merrimack River Burglars Island or the Dark Plains. It was very isolated and there were not many people living on that side of the river during our earliest days.

The village we refer to as the Ironworks was in the south end of Concord, on the present-day Iron Works Road. During the very early years it was discovered that there was iron ore in the banks of the nearby river. Some local investors built a wagon to contain the ore and would shovel wagons full to transport to the massive kiln they built to smelt the ore into iron.

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They made kettles and pots as well as many additional household items. I have always been fascinated with the fact that the approaching war with England sparked some interesting activity in Concord and in particular on Ironworks Road. Many local residents did not believe we would confront England and face a war that devastated many. That is, until the day a wagon arrived on Main Street containing several “Red Coats” being held as prisoners.

A trial was held and the British soldiers were in fact found guilty. Our ancestors decided that these British soldiers could not be held, because we really were just at the very beginning of unrest with England and we didn’t have space to incarcerate them and feed them. The trial concluded, the sentence handed down; the prisoners were to swear they would remain in Concord to live, shed their red uniforms and never combat the citizens in a hostile manner.

The soldiers agreed and assimilated into our local society, perhaps some of you are descended from them. Things were changing in Concord, with the British soldiers’ trial the people began to believe we were in fact going to war with England.

So the people living in the village of Ironworks started making cannonballs for General George Washington’s Continental Army. It has been said that the cannonballs manufactured with local iron ore and processed in the village of Ironworks was in fact used to defend the Continental Army at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

My family has very close ties to the village of Fosterville. It is the section of Concord on North State Street just south of the Blossom Hill Cemetery. My Great Great Grandfather Martin arrived in Concord in 1850 from Ireland along with his three brothers; James, Michael and Thomas Spain. They fled the potato famine in Ireland and found work in the early granite quarry operations on Rattlesnake Hill. Immigrants stayed primarily in boarding houses and the need for housing was growing quickly.

A gentleman named Mr. Foster owned a rooming house or two. With the influx of people, especially the people that worked on Rattlesnake Hill, Mr. Foster decided to add more buildings to increase his rental revenue. He would purchase abandoned homes all around the Concord area and move them to the large tract of land he owned. The old Franklin Street School was moved by the City of Concord from the corner of Franklin and Rumford Streets to the now empty lot across from Kimball Park.

The old school was initially used again as a school for the local immigrants but in time Mr. Foster converted it to apartment rentals. Mr. Foster moved so many houses to his surrounding land that the area became the village of Fosterville.

Abbottville, further up North State Street acquired its name because of the early history in that little village. The entire village was established by the Abbott family and as the family grew so, did the Abbotts living in Abbottville. Turtletown was located near our present Turtletown Pond, a haven for many turtles where the stories and lore runs rich and old. East Village was our present-day East Concord and the West Village was on the west side of the Merrimack River.

Millville was on the Hopkinton Road with Fisherville being our friends in Penacook, we travel Fisherville Road often these days. The Borough Village was to the north in Penacook. The quaint rural village of Apple Town is located in the area of the old East Village, southerly of the Turtle Pond. This area remained very rural, simply populated by groves of premium apples and farms, the area that remained known for the abundance and excellence of apples raised in this village for generations. Upon leaving the orchards you would travel down Leather Lane towards the old burying ground in East Village.

There were more villages, these places people would relate to and find comfort in. Just like Henry David Thoreau, our ancestors would walk to their village and gather their gossip. People lived their lives in their little spaces and villages were a very important part of who they were and who they would become.