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Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music

Moving In Step

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Directory
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Nelson's Earliest Roads

By Rick Church |

Editors Note: The images in this article may be clicked, and a larger version will open in a separate browser window. The images displaying hand writing were scanned from our town archives.
Nelson’s earliest roads were made and maintained by hand, using men and teams of oxen — the same methods that cleared farms. Road [...]

Published on July 14th, 2010 | Category: Rick Church History Articles |
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Building the Early Town: First Roads.

By Rick Church |

The charter granting Monadnock Number Six to those early proprietors required that they provide the basic necessities for the new community’s viability.  Of necessity, building roads came first.
Breed Batchellor was the town’s first resident, settling as early as 1766.  He moved into an early structure built by Josiah Billings just over the east line of [...]

Published on May 29th, 2010 | Category: History, Rick Church History Articles |
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Building A Town

By Rick Church |

The foundation of the saw mill on Center Pond Brook
Settlement in Monadnock Number Six came quickly once it got started. A list of settlers in the Masonian Papers in 1770 showed 5 settlers. In the three reports on settlement produced in 1773 and 1774 there were fifty-four different family names identified as moving [...]

Published on March 28th, 2010 | Category: History, Rick Church History Articles | Leave a comment
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Packersfield Becomes Nelson

By Rick Church |

Editors Note: This is the latest in a series of articles about the history of Nelson. Click here show the entire article series.
Severing the Last Colonial Ties

The close of the Revolution saw a much-changed Packersfield.  Breed Batchellor, the man who was ultimately the agent of His Majesty’s Royal Governor, had fled the town in [...]

Published on December 13th, 2009 | Category: History, Life in Nelson, Nelson People, Rick Church History Articles | Leave a comment
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Breed Batchellor: The Enemy

By Rick Church |

For newly incorporated Packersfield, the years 1774 and 1775 saw a great deal of growth.  A census taken in 1773 reported 117 residents in Packersfield; by 1775 there were 186 people in town, and by 1790 there would be 721!  Men using axes and oxen were clearing land. Numerous roads were laid out. The early [...]

Published on November 8th, 2009 | Category: History, Nelson People, Rick Church History Articles | Leave a comment
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Fight over Incorporation:

By Rick Church |

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles about the early history of Nelson. Click here to go to the previous article.
We dont know what our early Nelson forebears looked like, but we can speculate that they might have appeared something like this.
At the proprietor’s meeting in March 1773 the town voted [...]

Published on August 27th, 2009 | Category: Educational, History, Life in Nelson, Rick Church History Articles | Leave a comment
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Nelson History: Early Settlement

By Rick Church |

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles about the early history of Nelson. Click here to go to the first article.
The task of settling Monadnock Number Six, a town eight by five miles in the middle of the wilderness, must have been daunting.  It would take a strong will to [...]

Published on July 9th, 2009 | Category: Educational, History, Life in Nelson, Rick Church History Articles | Leave a comment
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Nelson History: In the Beginning

By Rick Church |

Editors Note: This is the first of what will be a great series of articles about Nelson’s history from Rick Church and David Birchenough.
Nelson likely looked like this to its first settlers. Diorama at the Harvard School of Forestry in Petersham, Massachusetts. Photo courtesy of Eric Aldrich. Click image for larger rendering.
King James I awarded [...]

Published on May 17th, 2009 | Category: Educational, History, Life in Nelson, Rick Church History Articles | Leave a comment