Yesteryear

Little Towns

By Kathi Caldwell-Hopper

Tuftonboro, Sanbornton, New Hampton, New Durham, Potter Place and many others. These are historic towns located around the Lakes Region. Most have been around since before and after the Revolutionary War. Some explorers settled in the area and clusters of homesteads grew to become villages. However, some outposts stayed tiny and never grew to become larger towns.

One such town is New Durham, located on the outskirts of the town of Alton. Originally called Cocheco Township, the land was settled by a group of seacoast area residents who asked Mason Grant proprietors for acreage; in 1750 the land was mapped and auctioned off. 

According to The History of New Durham by Ellen Cloutman Jennings, the town was settled in 1748 when Captain Jonathan Chesley and Ebenezer Smith drew up a document staking their claim. Soon, the land was divided into grants, with a lot reserved for the “first minister of the Gospel”. Nearby, land was set aside for a church and meetinghouse, a school and cemetery. The town was incorporated in 1762.

Although men from New Hampshire’s seacoast region took many land lots, few of these landowners settled in New Durham permanently. It was a remote area and dangerous, due to unrest between the newcomers and the native peoples who had inhabited the land for generations. 

Eventually, as the conflicts ended, people came to the New Durham area to settle permanently.

Travel north from the town of Bristol on Route 3-A, and you will pass through Bridgewater, a small town near Newfound Lake. At one time, Bridgewater was part of New Chester (later to be renamed Bristol.)

 Long before explorers settled in the wilderness around Newfound Lake, native peoples lived on the land. According to Newfound Lake, by Charles Greenwood, before the lake was named Newfound, it was called Baker's Pond or New Found pond. After the granting of the township of New Chester, the lake was called New Chester Pond for many years.

The land was fertile and hunting and fishing plentiful. When the first settlers ventured into what would later become the town of Bridgewater in the 1750s, they discovered a pastoral, beautiful area.

The early settlers secured a tract of land containing over 20,000 acres. That property, located west of the Pemigewasset River, became New Chester, later divided into the towns of Bridgewater, Hill and Bristol. 

It would, however, be years before anyone settled in the Bridgewater region. As with much of central and northern New Hampshire, travel was abandoned during the French and Indian War. 

In the late 1760s, the war had ended. Settlers returned to the New Chester territory, and were the first to settle permanently there. Today summer homes and cottages dot the landscape of Bridgewater, but the early men likely saw forest when they began to build. It remained a sparsely settled area for many years. 

Another small community founded in the 1700s was Sanbornton. It began in 1770 as a town, but its history goes back to 1748 when 60 men petitioned King George II for a township. Mildred Coombs wrote in “Sanbornton N.H. 1770-1970,” that 80 lots were drawn with the area named “Sanborn Town” since at least 12 of the original grantees had the last name of Sanborn. Each man had to clear three acres, build a house, and live on that land for six years. According to early records, by 1768 there were 32 families in the area. In March of 1770, King George III granted a petition to incorporate the community with the name Sanbornton.

Near Wolfeboro, New Hamphsire, the village of Tuftonboro includes Melvin Village, Mirror Lake, Tuftonboro Center, and Tuftonboro Corner. Interesting to note, the town is the only one to have once been owned entirely by one person, John Tufton Mason (the community was named for him). The town was incorporated in 1795.

John Tufton Mason inherited the claim to the undivided lands of northern New Hampshire and in 1746, he sold it for 1,500 pounds. The sale was to a group of Portsmouth businessmen. They saw a chance to prosper and made grants to prospective settlers after the American Revolution. The town of Tuftonboro was mapped out to be six miles square, with about 23,000 acres. Today, Tuftonboro is a charming community, with a population of second-home owners and year-round residents.

Near the Newfound Lake area, the village of New Hampton has an interesting history. It was granted in 1765 by Governor Benning Wentworth. New Hampton started out with the name Moultonborough Addition. It had this name because the town moderator was Colonel Johnathan Moulton, a much respected man in the village. In 1777, Mr. Moulton changed the name of the community to New Hampton. (Perhaps he was a modest man, and did not like having a town named for him?)

In 1821, the New Hampton School, which was a Free Will Baptist institution, was founded. The school continues today as a private preparatory institution. Other interesting information about New Hampton includes the fact that the New Hampton Fish Hatchery was founded in the town. It is the oldest fish hatchery in the state. 

Potter Place is in a quiet, tranquil setting near Webster Lake and Franklin. It is a hamlet of the town of Andover. It is known for Richard Potter, Potter Place’s namesake, a man unlike anyone Andover farmers and villagers had seen when he arrived there in the early 1800s. He was a famous magician and a skilled ventriloquist. He stood apart for his fame in this hamlet of New Hampshire, but what set him apart most of all was the fact that he was a Black man. Potter, whose mother was a freed slave of a British seaman, lived in Boston. His childhood was difficult, and he signed on as cabin boy on a British ship at a very young age.

The ship carried him to England, where he soon realized his dream of becoming a circus performer. Potter toured around Europe, and became famous to the entertainment-loving Europeans. The circus taught him many things, among them how to perform magic tricks and ventriloquism.

When Richard returned to America, he continued his career as a magician, and part of his act was performed with his wife, Sally. Potter was welcomed in entertainment-starved Andover when he stopped to perform there on his New Orleans to Quebec schedule. All who saw his show were thrilled by his magic and ability to control his voice without moving his lips. He was a powerful performer and offered a glimpse into the bigger world of European actors and artists. 

As he continued to tour around country as a performer, Richard remembered scenic Andover and its friendly people. Eventually he bought a large amount of land in the town, although his work kept him from living there permanently. However, he built a house near what would later become the Potter Place Railroad Station.

The tiny hamlet of Potter Place is not really a town, but as part of Andover, it is a place steeped in a most unusual history.