9/21/2023 0 Comments Alpha bits londonderry turnpike![]() For nearly thirty years a vast amount of travel from Canada, Vermont and western New Hampshire passed over this road, and great quantities of merchandise were transported over it. The town of Francestown NH once collected a toll of one cent per mile from traveling coaches and wagons. Ox-teams grew out of use, and when the farmer, ignoring the professional teamster, still continued in winter to take his own produce to market, he used the double “pung” with steel shoes an inch thick. Large droves of cattle and sheep went to market over the road, and the amount of freight in both directions soon became so large that six-horse teams were employed at all seasons of the year. Teams from a portion of central Vermont began to pass over this route, and instead of the older two-horse coach of Joseph Wheat, which made a weekly trip from Amherst to Boston and back without a change of horses, a line of four-horse coaches began to run tri-weekly from Windsor VT to Boston, returning on alternate days. It stretched from Claremont and Cornish NH to to Amherst NH. Some New Hampshire towns on this route include Unity, Francestown, Mont Vernon, and Amherst, among others. This was the connecting route between Boston MA and Vermont. Second New Hampshire Turnpike, was chartered in 1799, and completed in 1801. New Hampshire Historical Marker #181 commemorates this turnpike. ![]() This ancient turnpike is much of the present Route 4. It ran thirty-six miles from the Piscataqua Bridge in Durham through Lee, Barrington, Nottingham, Northwood, Epsom, Chichester, and Pembroke to the Federal Bridge over the Merrimack River in Concord NH. It connected Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s only seaport, with the state capitol, Concord. The First New Hampshire Turnpike, was incorporated in 1796, and was completed in 1801. Boylston, from book, “Colonial Amherst” by Emma P. from poem, Fragrant Memories, by Edward D. They said “he blew it, instead of a horn!” ![]() Once, fording the swollen Souhegan, his teamĪ monstrous long nose his phiz did adorn– He drove to Boston, and back the same week! Old Wheat was first, of whom we will speak: Here, up and down, made pleasant approaches,įoretold by the notes of the winding horn, With its toll-gates, and keepers ever there,Īnd latter days of the “New Road” to Weare–įour daily, twelve passenger, six-horse Coaches, A typical charge in the early days of NH, for a horse and rider, was one cent. These tollgates were set up at every mile. The actual term “turnpike” refers to a barrier built across the highway, to be opened only after the required tolls were paid. The money raised was used to construct these toll roads. These turnpikes, built by private corporations, sold shares to the general public. Most forget that the first New Hampshire turnpike system was created through turnpike corporations which built 500 miles of toll roads, and more than 80 New Hampshire turnpikes during the years 1796-1830. ![]() Traversed by fast-moving gas-driven automobiles. Today when we hear the word, “turnpike,” we think of our asphalt-covered highways, ![]()
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