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The Dishyland Mill Site - Westmoreland NH

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  Way off in the woods in Westmoreland NH, 3/4 mile from the nearest town road, there is an ancient water-powered mill site. There are no known records of this site, which may date to the late 1700s.  It is in the headwaters of Governor's Brook, land called "Dishy Land" or "Dish Land" by old timers. The first picture was taken in April 2025 - the one just above in 2002. There are two parallel stone walls , whose inner faces are laid up almost perfectly flush.  This closeup of the eastern wall, facing the brook, shows a very well crafted near vertical face.  The two walls are approximately 70' long and straddle the brook. They appear to be at the same height.  I wonder if these near perfect wall faces were made to contain squared posts for a large mill building?  The above overview of the site, looking east, shows the access trail and a bridge built recently by ATV trail riders. To  the left is a large almost level area where a mill pond could have exis...
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Farley Cemetery - Colrain - catamount

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  Way out in the woods in Colrain there is a small cemetery called Farley. There are 10 or so old stones, notably those of Benjamin and Joel, seen here.  The stone to the left of Benjamin has lost its inscription, but it may be Mary Farley (see notes below)..  Ed Gregory provided these pictures from a site visit he made in 2012.  Sarah and I tried to find the cemetery in mid-August 2025, without success.   We had 2 maps.  I scaled this 1961 map's position onto a GPS map using Gaia on my iphone, and we thrashed our way through tall grass in an area that was logged 5-10 years ago, and came to the Mass State Forest boundary... wandered around 3-4 acres ..no luck. The second map looks different (below)  after our failed search Saturday I want to go back and go further up South Catamount Road from our reference point, cellarhole 13, where Benjamin and Mary Farley lived ca 1820. The cemetery is site 15.   Ed Gregory has been to the   Ed G...
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Ellis Store Site Colrain

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 An account book of a pre-Revolutionary retail store and potash works (?)  is in the archives of the Colrain Historical Society.  Ellis Store ledge  CHS #3583 The old ledger records sales of retail goods like "broadcloth" in exchange for work,and in many cases for wood ashes.  The owner, Richard Ellis, probably processed ashes into potash. The ledger covers 12 years of sales from 1765 to 1777.  The ledger is described in the 1888 Ellis family history: OK..... but where was this store?   The accession card at CHS (below) says "on the west side of the road between Apte [Nims 2025] and the old Hale home [Hale Johnson in 2000s]. ================================================================= There is an old cellar hole on the west side of Greenfield Road, at the south end of the Nims property, within eyesight of the "Hale Johnson" house. The photo below shows it April 10, overgrown with nasty briars.  Over the last few weeks, with the landowne...
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Mastodon Tooth in Colrain

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 "I have seen and identified a mastodon's molar which was found in the Town of Colerain, Mass. It was shoveled out of a muck bed, on the farm of Elias Bardwell ....."            Edward Hitchcock Jr.,  Jan 12, 1871. This is an example of what Hitchcock probably saw.  This museum specimen measures about 8"  x 12"  (GUESS. ) Here is the actual citation:   The "E. Hitchcock" who saw the tooth and wrote the letter was Edward Hitchcock Jr., whose father, with the same name, was the nationally known geologist. He writes that Bardwell will look for the rest of the skeleton  "in the spring [ of 1872] ".  Did he?  Perhaps not, as we surly would have heard if it. The Colrain mastodon tooth was again mentioned in the 1898 "Geology of Old Hampshire County" by Benjamin Emerson. Emerson quotes the 1872 Hitchcock letter and adds "The tooth is still in Mr. Bardwell's possession." That's the last I ha...
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East Catamount Hill Road the Ira (?) Shippee site

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  This past Saturday , with a helpful hint from Ed Gregory...  (" it's off beyond and to the left of that pond"),  we found the "I. Shippee " house site - the one we walked right past a week ago on our first Catamount foray.  This house is on the 1858 map , but not on the 1871 "beers" map. It was worth 2 trips! The house foundation sits on a rise just a few hundred feet southeast of a shallow pond. As soon as we crested the rise, voila! -  a deep cellarhole with cast iron stove remains. This cellar was about 16x20.  The nearby stone remains , including a brick pile about 20' north, suggest a very large house., maybe 4 times the cellar footprint. In the above picture I am standing at the approximate western edge of the house's foundation. Below you can see a large swale - maybe 3 acres - just to the east. Beyond the cellarhole to the north you can make out some more stonework.  Possibly where a barn stood. More pics to come. I am standing in th...
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