Part One – Sanford Granger (1796–1882) The Granger story in New Hampshire begins with Eldad Granger (1766-1866) and his wife, Sarah Holmes (1771-1852). Natives of Connecticut, Eldad and Sarah moved north to the Connecticut River Valley and settled in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, shortly after their marriage in 1786. Eldad worked as a mechanic and...
Bridgewright Horace Childs comes from a long line of Puritan Yankee stock. His fourth great-grandfather, William, was one of the earliest settlers of the New World. William arrived from England in 1630 and settled with his family in Watertown, Massachusetts. The family would remain there until Horace’s grandfather, Solomon Childs (1743-1827), and his wife,...
Frederick Whitney was born in Henniker on October 5, 1806. He was the third of six children born to Eleazer Whitney (1777–1838) and Alice Peabody (1779–1867) and was the only one of his siblings to live to old age. Little is known about Whitney’s childhood apart from a significant tragedy in 1819 when he...
John Clark Briggs was born in Putney, Vermont, on May 28, 1824. Briggs was the last of five children born to Silas S. Briggs (1788-1864) and his wife, Lucy Davidson (1789-1866). Their first child, Silas (1814-1815), died at only fifteen months old. Their only daughter, Lucy Philena (1816-1840), was born in Plymouth, Vermont, and...
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...
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...
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...
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...
