EARLY MODES OF TRAVEL--IMPROVEMENT OF HIGHWAYS--TRANSPORTATION OF GOODS TO AND FROM BOSTON--MIDDLESEX CANAL--BOATING BETWEEN PISCATAQUOG AND BOSTON--THROUGH STAGE LINES FROM THE NORTH--TAVERNS--DISTINGUISHED PEOPLE ENTERTAINED--NAMES OF LICENSEES

The first modes of travel were on foot or horseback over tracks by spotted trees or bridle paths; the tracks or roads were improved but, for many years nothing that a person of the present day would think safe to travel over existed. As the population increased, roads were laid out by the proprietors, and subsequently relaid immediately after the incorporation of the town. In the process of time these were sufficiently cleared; suitable for travel with ox team and carts in summer and wood sleds in the winter.

The first transportation from Goffstown to Salem and Boston was done by ox teams in the winter season, and the time consumed in the round trip was from ten to twelve days according to condition of the roads and weather. As the roads improved and the country became more populous and prosperous, ox teams were discarded for horses. The one-horse pod and the two-horse pung sleigh were very common methods of travel for the individual farmer who carried to market his produce, and exchanged the same for the necessities of life. There was a perch at the rear end of these pods and pungs where the driver sat, and could manage his team with the long reins reaching back over the load, and easily dismount when necessary.

The traders and merchants of Goffstown and the towns to the north had their goods conveyed by six-, eight- and sometimes ten-horse-covered teams, and sometimes in the winter season a train of covered teams, pungs and pods extended a distance of one-half a mile.

Benaiah Richards who lived near the bridge in Goffstown Village, where his daughter Mrs. James H. Conner afterwards lived, carried on extensive teaming from Goffstown to Boston, a round trip consuming a week. Some years Mr. Richards made fifty trips a year to Boston, loading to Boston with what the country produced, and bringing back freight for the merchants, etc.

With this amount of travel coming through from the towns north, the hotels of Goffstown became a very important rendezvous, and six nights in a week for years they were filled to overflowing.

The Mast Road was early travelled, and known by that name in 1756, and for how long before no one knows. The traffic was over the Mast Road to the turn at Piscataquog Village, and then following the river road as it is now called, to Nashua, and from there to Boston.

This method of transportation flourished from 1800 to 1820, at which time it began to wane. The Middlesex Canal extending from Boston Harbor to the Merrimack River at Chelmsford, Mass., a distance of twenty-seven miles, was completed and opened to the public in 1803 and, in 1807, Blodget's Canal was opened around Amoskeag Falls for the two-fold purpose of utilizing the water-power, and deriving tolls from boats up the river.

In 1812, boating was established between Piscataquog River and Boston, following the Merrimack River to Chelmsford, Mass., and then by the way of the Middlesex Canal to Boston. In the "History of Bedford," page 235, is given an account of the first boat plying between Piscataquog Village and Boston by way of the Middlesex Canal.

"In 1812 Isaac Riddle of Bedford and Caleb Stark of Dunbarton conceived the design of navigating the Merrimack River by boats. Accordingly they built a boat at Bedford Center, and drew it a distance of three and a half miles to the Merrimack River with forty yoke of oxen, and there launched it, accompanied with great demonstrations on the part of the multitude assembled to witness thc novel scene. It was loaded and navigated down the river and through the Middlesex Canal to Boston, where it was hailed with cheers, and the following announcement appeared in the Boston Sentinel": "Arrived from Bedford, N.H., Canal-Boat Experiment, Isaac Riddle, Captain, via Merrimac River and Middlesex Canal."

One of the principal commodities furnished by the sawmills of Goffstown were thick pine plank with the sap edged off for deck plank to vessels, and white oak plank for planking the sides. But the boats could do nothing in winter, when the teams had all of the business, and likewise a part in the summer.

The travelling public from Goffstown and towns north, to Boston and returning, had for some years realized that they were making a detour in travelling from the present Shirley Station in Goffstown by the way of the Mast Road in Bedford and Merrimack to the house of John Hays in Merrimack, or in other words, they were travelling upon the circumference of a circle when they should be on the diameter.

Accordingly in 1817, the subject of a highway connecting the two points was strongly agitated; the road afterwards known as the Wallace Road was laid out by a court's committee and built, a full account of which is found in Chapter XIX. The construction of this road lessened the distance between the two points about one-third. The Wallace Road at once became the thoroughfare from the present Shirley Station to Nashua and Boston.

This line until the opening of the railroad was traversed by the stages coming from the north as far as New London, and was the Gofistown stage road to Nashua and Boston.

The amount of traffic over the highways through Goffstown necessitated taverns or houses of entertainment which were early opened in town. It is a matter of uncertainty where the first tavern in Goffstown was located, or who was the proprieter. Col. Moses Kelley, upon the Mast Road at the house now owned by Horatio K. Libbey, kept a public house known as Kelley's Tavern, in the days of the Revolution.

In the early days of the Revolution Kelley's Tavern was noted as a neighbor-hood rendezvous for the patriots or Sons of Liberty, and recruits and orderlies were sometimes ordered to report to Col. Moses Kelley upon the Mast Road in Goffstown. Colonel Kelley resided for a time on the easterly side of the Mast Road at what was known as the Barron or Barnes place, afterwards occupied by Joshua Burns, Hugh and John Letter, and known to later residents as the Benjamin Cranshaw house, and from this place we are led to believe he moved to the Gilman Plunner or Libbey house.

There are legendary stories connected with the last named building, presumed to be built by one Rogers; among others that a stranger guest, stopping one night at the house, became so terrified at an apparition which was said to be concealed by daytime in a vault near the chimney, but emerging at night on his terrifing missions, that he jumped headlong through a window to the ground and was so fatally injured that he soon died.

The legendary story further corroborates the fact that his body was buried near the old Shirley Mill yard on the bank of the river on land now owned by H. Byron Wyman, and this spot was for years pointed out as the "Stranger's Grave." The old legend did not leave the stranger guest to rest in his solitary grave on the quiet shore of the Piscataquog, but it was no uncommon thing for him to arise in the silent vigils of the night from what was termed his last resting place, and to accompany lone pedestrians at the midnight hour from the old Shirley Mill to the Mast Road, and some of those he attempted to accompany made such rapid strides, and covered the ground so quickly, that they left him in the distance.

The next earlier licensees to keep houses of public entertainment and taverns were Job Dow, Edward Blodgett, Dr. Joseph Black, Moses Collins and George Little, all receiving their license in 1793. Job Dow resided at Goffstown Village, and the bridge across the river was for a hundred years known as Dow's Bridge, and, in fact, not until a very recent generation came upon the stage did the name become obsolete. Edward Blodgett resided at Amoskeag or near there; Moses Collins in the easterly part of the town; George Little, upon the Mast Road, was a farmer, hotel keeper and blacksmith, and his hostelry was well situated for the accommodation of the travelling public.

William Parker, father of the late Hon. John M. Parker, kept a hotel in the house at Parker's Village known as the George Parker residence, situate at the intersection of Mast and Dunbarton Roads. Here with his ample accommodations for people and teams he entertained the travelling public from the towns north, on their journey to Boston and return.

At Goffstown Village, in the same building now owned by Frederick A. Condon, where the sign reads 1794, was the hotel eariy known as the New Hampshire Central House, Eliphalet Richards, Tavern, etc. This building has the longest record in point of service of any hotel in town. In this building the public speakers and invited guests assembled upon that especially notable event, the celebrating of the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans on the 8th of January, 1829, and after the celebration partook of the roasted ox. At this hotel the stage arrived, and from the same departed for some years, and the through stage made a daily stop.

Another building in the village, somewhat historic and for a number of years used for the entertainment of public guests, is now standing upon the southerly side of Elm Street, and formerly stood upon the site of the Goffstown Library. It was probably used for hotel purposes earlier than the Central House.

Upon the Mast Road about one mile easterly of the village, near the present Shirley Station, was located the hotel known as Taggart's. The first owner and proprietor was Jonathan Butterfield, about 1800, and it remained in his possession until 1837. He was succeeded by Hugh J. Taggart, and he in turn by David M. Taggart. The hotel enjoyed its greatest distinction during the management of David M. Taggart; a spacious hall was constructed for the accommodation of parties and public meetings. A race course was graded northeasterly of the tavern for the exercise and exhibition of Mr. Taggart's trotting stock, and he became famous throughout the country as the owner of "Taggart's Abdallah." The buildings were destroyed by fire about 1880.

After the opening of the Wallace Road in 1817, an important rendezvous for teamsters south bound was the Butman Tavern, located near the intersection of the Shirley and Wallace Roads, and now known as the Abram Richards place. This was an especially noted place for the entertainment of the travelling public; the evenings spent before those old open fireplaces were by no means devoid of mirth and hilarity, and as the hours wore on the joy increased as liberal potations were indulged in. The company assembled here night after night and seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of enjoyment, the lasting qualities of which were exceeded only by the stimulants of the proprietor. A visitor at the present day would not realize that this was a principal stopping place on a great thoroughfare.

The abandoned buildings known as the James McDougall place on the Wallace Road, between the last named set of buildings and the Orr place, were constructed for a hotel, but before the same were fairly completed the tide of travel had begun to turn toward the village of the Piscataquog, and there reach Boston by boat, and the advent of the Concord Raifroad to Manchester, in 1842, so diverted the travel as to render the patronage on this line of little account, and in a few years the teaming ceased altogether.

On the northerly side of the highway leading to the Falls Bridge in Amoskeag Village, and a short distance easterly of the present schoolhouse, stood a large three-story hotel. For many years this was the hotel of Amoskeag Village. Connected with this building as with no other in town, are historic associations; here upon the 22nd day of June, 1825, Marquis de LaFayette was accorded a reception by distinguished citizens and friends; here in this building his old comrades in arms, patriots of the Revolution, extended him a cordial greeting; here on the 28th of June, 1833, President Jackson, Vice-President Van Buren and Secretaries Cass and Woodbury of the cabinet, attended by a cavalcade, made a stop on their journey to Concord.

The visit of LaFayette to Concord was one of significance; the legislature was in session at that time, and Goffstown was especially honored since one of her citizens was the chief magistrate of the state. Upon his departure from Concord he journeyed as far as Bradford where he remained over night on his journey to Hanover. The bedstead upon which he slept the night he spent in Bradford is now a much prized piece of furniture in the possession of Mrs. Frank C. Moore, having been a family heirloom for the last hundred years.

Col. Daniel Farmer kept a tavern at Amoskeag in the house occupied by his daughter, Elizabeth Farmer, and where she died. The original building was of colonial architecture, and after the colonel's decease it was remodeled into the spacious dwelling-house as it now stands. Farmer's hotel was a stopping place for the old stagecoach on the line from Concord to Boston.

In addition to the taverns or hotels named there were many others where entertainment was furnished and liquor sold. The law at that time authorized the selectmen to license individuals to mix and sell spiritous liquors for one year or less.

The following names of those licensed appear upon the records. Some of them were licensed to keep taverns at their dwelling-house, and likewise received a license to mix and sell spiritous liquors; others were licensed as taverners, and to sell rum, brandy, gin, wines and ail spiritous liquors by the small, that is in less quantities than one pint. Others were licensed to sell spirits by retail and to sell mixed liquors, a part of which was spiritous. In general terms the license was for one year, but in some cases when a notable event occurred in town, as a muster, licenses were issued for shorter periods of time, some for two months, some for one week and in some cases for even two days. The names of the licensees are recorded in chronological order from the enactment of the law:

Some years the selectmen were apparently extremely anxious and apprehensive that the thirst of the entire community would not be sufficiently slaked, and they issued to certain people specific licenses to sell at particular places circumscribed by certain lines of which the following are examples:

   "1813, Mar. 9. Samuel T. Jackman and Daniel Howe had the approbation of the selectmen to sell spiritous liquors at the Center schoolhouse for one day." This was the day of the annual March election and probably school was not in session, but be that as it may the schoolhouse seems an inappropriate place for that business.
   "Thomas Dunlap to mix and sell spiritous liquors one week on Common near Amoskeag Falls." This license was in the fishing season in the spring, and Mr. Dunlap probably did quite a thriving business.
   "Ebenezer Rider to sell liquors of all kinds in any quantity on muster days.
   1821. David Hardy to sell spiritous liquors at the factory house near Amoskeag Falls for ninety days.
   1822. E. and P. Richards to mix and sell spiritous liquors for three days on muster feld in Goffstown.
   John Nelson to mix and sell spiritous liquors by small measure near Amoskeag Cotton Mill.
   David Hardy same license as Nelson.
   Eliphalet Richards licensed to sell by the retail all kinds of spiritous liquors and wines on the parade near his house or in any street within a half mile of his house for the term of one week.
   Hugh Moore license same as Richards.
   Willard Atherton licensed to exercise the business of a retailer, also to sell spiritous liquors mixed and unmixed anywhere about his buildings not to exceed ten rods for the term of one week.
   Jesse Dunckley licensed to mix and sell spiritous liquors in Samuel Tenney's house for one day.
   1824. Daniel Farmer licensed to sell spiritous liquors in less quantity than one gallon at his house near Farmer's and Pollard's Mill for one year.
   John Shirley to sell all kinds of spiritous liquors mixed and unmixed at retail at his tavern on the Wallace Road for one year.
   1827. S. T. & S. H. Jones to sell spiritous liquors in any quantity not less than one pint to be delivered and carried away, in the store which they now occupy.
   Samuel Kimball licensed same as Jones.
   Barr and Cushing same as above.
   1829. John Butman license revoked by the selectmen June 13, 1830, on account of keeping a disorderly house.
   1833. Eliphalet Riebards licensed to retail in store occupied by him near Gideon Flanders' dwelling-house one year.
   Eliphalet Richards licensed to sell at his store at the village also."