Dutton Woods was born on October 19, 1809, in Henniker, New Hampshire, the third of ten children born to William L. Woods (1776-1847) and Betsy Dutton (1783-1849). His father, William Learned Woods, was the son of Revolutionary War soldier David Woods (1746-1793) and Deborah Swallow (1748-1821). Born six months before the signing of the...
Prior to researching covered bridges, I spent a good amount of time researching genealogy. I’ve traced my Varney ancestors from New Durham and Dover to the West Indies and the Salem Witch Trials, all the way back to 12th-century England. I’ve traced my husband’s Chandler line to John Chandler, who arrived at Jamestown Island...
The Portsmouth and Concord Railroad was founded in 1845 to build an east-west railroad line connecting the ports of the seacoast to the capital city of Concord. The following year, a branch line from Hooksett to Suncook was granted to supply service to Suncook and surrounding towns. The line crossed the Merrimack River just...
James Tasker was my cousin. Well, sort of. Technically, he was my second cousin, six times removed. Our common ancestor, William Tasker, was born in England around 1655. He was one of New Hampshire’s earliest settlers, arriving in Dover in 1675. The Taskers settled throughout the seacoast area. James Frederick Tasker was born about...
The Broughton family arrived in Conway sometime around 1794 when Mark Broughton is included in an inventory. The family received one of the first land grants in Conway and established a dairy farm on the south side of the river on East Side Road. The farm, known as the Hill, remained in the Broughton...
Covered bridges worldwide are given a number by the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges (NSPCB). For bridges in the United States, these numbers delineate first the state, then the county, then a number. For example, the Meriden Bridge in Plainfield is numbered NH/29-10-08. Historic bridges that have been reconstructed, such as...
The Berry family, Jacob E. and his two sons Jacob H. and Horace W., constructed several bridges in the Mount Washington Valley between 1850 and 1885; a handful of which remain today. The patriarch of the Berry family was Jacob Emerson Berry. He was born on September 10, 1802, in Denmark, Maine; a small...
Much of my covered bridge research has been what you might expect it would be. Lots of reading. Lots of scouring town records, rifling through vertical files at historical societies, reading books in libraries, deciphering engineering reports, and corresponding with stakeholders via email. Lots of documents. Lots of sitting around. Visiting a covered bridge...
Peter Paddleford and his son, Philip Henry, left an indelible impact on covered bridge building in New England, particularly in New Hampshire. Peter H. Paddleford was born in 1785 in the Upper Valley town of Enfield, New Hampshire, about fifteen miles from the Connecticut River. Peter was the fourth of ten children born to...
Hello covered bridge people! Yes, I know I just published a 288 page book about New Hampshire’s covered bridges. But believe me when I tell you that everything I learned didn’t fit in the book! My journey to research these covered bridges put me in contact with so many interesting members of the bridge...
