The Trails Committee of Moving in Step and the Conservation Commission invite the people of Nelson to an event to celebrate the opening of our first walking trail.

The event features a talk by Jeanette Baker on her Appalachian Trail Hike last year. The following afternoon there will be on a walk on the Old Road to Dublin, oldest documented road in Nelson. Mrs. Baker’s talk is at the Town Hall at 7PM, Friday October 21^st. The walk will take place Saturday the 22^nd at 1:45PM.

The Trails Committee has been working to layout and mark trails for the people in Nelson to be able to walk and appreciate the natural and cultural richness of our town. Detailed trail guides and maps will be available for these walks. The Old Road to Dublin is the first trail to be completed by the committee.

The trail is the original road connecting Nelson to Dublin and runs from the Hardy Hill Road in  Nelson to Cricket Hill Road in Harrisville. It was laid out in 1773. The Nelson Trails Committee has documented both historic sites and interesting things in the natural world. Rick Church and Al Stoops will be along to talk about the cellar holes (4) and the natural world along the trail.

In April, 2010, Jeanette Baker, long-time Hancock neighbor, laced up her sneakers, shouldered a backpack and embarked on a 5-month hike of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.  Along the way she encountered ever-changing terrain, weather, fellow hikers and creatures of the wild.  Join us to hear stories of her adventures, including how she planned and prepared for her journey.  Her delightfully captivating one-hour oration will be followed by her answers to your questions.

The walk is a 2 ½ mile round trip and should take less than two hours.  To join the walk, meet in the Village at 1:45 PM on Saturday the 22^nd. The walk will leave promptly at 2PM. The rain date is Sunday the 23rd at the same time.

Jeanette Baker aka Jaybird

The Trails Committee of Moving in Step and the Conservation Commission invite the people of Nelson to an event to celebrate the opening of our first walking trail.

The event features a talk by Jeanette Baker on her Appalachian Trail Hike last year. The following afternoon there will be on a walk on the Old Road to Dublin, oldest documented road in Nelson. Mrs. Baker’s talk is at the Town Hall at 7PM, Friday October 21^st. The walk will take place Saturday the 22^nd at 1:45PM.

The Trails Committee has been working to layout and mark trails for the people in Nelson to be able to walk and appreciate the natural and cultural richness of our town. Detailed trail guides and maps will be available for these walks. The Old Road to Dublin is the first trail to be completed by the committee.

The trail is the original road connecting Nelson to Dublin and runs from the Hardy Hill Road in  Nelson to Cricket Hill Road in Harrisville. It was laid out in 1773. The Nelson Trails Committee has documented both historic sites and interesting things in the natural world. Rick Church and Al Stoops will be along to talk about the cellar holes (4) and the natural world along the trail.

In April, 2010, Jeanette Baker, long-time Hancock neighbor, laced up her sneakers, shouldered a backpack and embarked on a 5-month hike of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.  Along the way she encountered ever-changing terrain, weather, fellow hikers and creatures of the wild.  Join us to hear stories of her adventures, including how she planned and prepared for her journey.  Her delightfully captivating one-hour oration will be followed by her answers to your questions.

The walk is a 2 ½ mile round trip and should take less than two hours.  To join the walk, meet in the Village at 1:45PM on Saturday the 22^nd. The walk will leave promptly at 2PM. The rain date is Sunday the 23rd at the same time.

At this month’s Pot Luck we invited everyone in the community to come and brainstorm ideas for a Halloween party for all of the kids! Also, we hope to hear a quick update from the Town Buildings Committee.

We all come together at 6:30 pm in the Henry Melville Fellowship Hall of the Nelson Congregational Church.

These volumes contain important records of the small rural town we call Nelson, originally Packersfield, from the 19^th century, revealing how the schools, poor farm, roads and tax records were part of the social fabric of the community. They list who lived in the town and who the officials were over a period of several decades. Thaddeus Barker, John Breed, Josiah Robbins, Nathaniel Griffin, and George Tolman, to name a few who were tax collectors, selectmen,  and just ordinary citizens who paid taxes.

The reports show what was needed to run a rural school, such as lots of cord wood purchased from several different individuals. The records tell us the amount of salary and board money paid to single female teachers in 12 week increments and where they roomed. The school meeting reports were signed by Joel Bancroft, John Yardley, Horatio Osgood, Lyman Stone, and Milan Harris, to name a few.

There is a detailed list of items purchased for the Poor Farm giving us clear insight into what it took to maintain that facility even for a few years. In 1853, the Overseer of the Poor Farm, Upton Burnap, bought 2 large rocking chairs, 2 clothes lines, 3 dozen clothes pins, 1 ox yoke and bows, 1 iron shod bed and 1 pail. The complete list of items purchased the year before takes several pages in the record book.

The reports also give a detailed account of payments to Gad Newell, the first minister of Nelson, over the many years he was pastor. They give a list of the poor (before the farm was established), who took them in, and what the town paid for room and board. There are many entries listed to Dr. Nehemiah Rand, the town physician. Most importantly, these carefully written accounts indicate a commitment by the town to maintain these facilities, taking care of the poor and educating the children.

Thanks to the many people who buy the Moose Conservation License Plates that fund this grant for the protection and preservation of materials that are important to the history of New Hampshire and to our beloved town of Nelson.

Susan Hansel

Assistant Archivist

Town of Nelson

The old mill site is on the upper falls of Bailey Brook . The falls had a lot of water going over  it from recent rains and downstream the brook ran through its rocky bed with a musical sound.  The banks were lush with ferns. Bailey Brook briefly forms a wetland before entering a cut with steep banks culminating in the waterfall that can be seen from Old Stoddard Road.

The Nelson Trails Group, established under the auspices of Moving in Step, is working to make the beautiful, educational and historic places in town accessible to the walking public.  The nearly twenty-member committee plans to start by identifying Nelson’s abandoned but accessible old roads.  The first project,the town’s first documented road laid out in 1773 and only closed in 1959, is the original road from the Packersfield meeting house to Dublin some call the Klemperer Road.  It features gentle walking on an old road, four old cellar holes, and a number of vernal pools.  Forest types change as you pass stonewalls and are the result of early land use by the settlers there and the date of their final abandonment.

The group is in the process of documenting the natural and historical things of interest along some of our old roads and is seeking abutting landowner co-operation so that more Nelson walkers can enjoy the natural and historical features of Nelson’s abandoned roads. If you ware interested in participating, please call Rick Church at 603-847-3206.

Lisa Sieverts, member of last year’s Town Buildings Committee, will meet with interested residents for a citizens’ discussion and brainstorming session concerning the Town Hall/Old Schoolhouse restoration project, on Wednesday night, June 22, 7:00 pm at the Library. Please come and offer your input to this important discussion.

Every camper, aka “homesteader” creates a miniature person called a “peep,” and surveys and stakes out his or her own mini-acre of land. As they build their homes and fortunes, each homesteader finds a role in the miniature community being created. Often there is a mini newspaper, a radio station, and lots of very small businesses!

Each Game of Village takes shape according to the creative spirit of its players. The peeps and their homesteaders are the real movers and shakers—as they run the town meetings they decide where and how to create the kind of community in which they want to live.
Playing Village is an amazing opportunity to experience how civics and economics work in the real world, without even a whiff of a textbook!

The campers will actually construct their peep dwellings from wood, stone, or whatever materials they decide to use. Using real tools to build real buildings is a real accomplishment, whatever size they may be!

The Game of Village will happen this year from July 5th to August 5th. There are still openings for Villagers, ages 9 – 14.  For more information: thegameofvillage.org.

The Nelson Board of Selectmen