U is for Upper Ashuelot

U is for Upper Ashuelot- You have probably visited Upper Ashuelot and didn’t know it. Settlement in the Monadnock Region followed the rivers with the earliest settlement happening along the Connecticut River.

In the early 1730s, the Province of Massachusetts (much of the region was in Massachusetts in the those days!) granted two townships: Upper Ashuelot (today known as Keene) and Lower Ashuelot (Swanzey).

Many of our region’s towns were called something else in the early settlement period. Most of the early names refer to land grants made by the Provincial government.

Curiously, Peterborough and New Ipswich, were referred to by those names in the earliest records.

Here is a list of some of the early town names:

Antrim- Society Land

Bennington, Society Land, Factory Village

Dublin- Monadnock No. 3

Fitzwilliam- Monadnock No. 4

Greenfield- Society Land, Lyndeborough Addition

Hancock- Society Land

Jaffrey- Rowley Canada, Monadnock No. 1

Keene- Upper Ashuelot

Lyndeborough- Salem Canada

Marlborough- Monadnock No. 5

Nelson- Monadnock No. 6, Packersfield

Rindge- Rowley Canada, Monadnock No. 1

Sharon- Sliptown

Stoddard- Monadnock No. 7

Swanzey- Lower Ashuelot

Temple- Peterborough Slip

Troy- Monadnock No. 5

Walpole- Township No. 3, Great Falls, Lunenburg, Bellowstown

Westmoreland- Township No.2, Great Meadow

Wilton- Salem Canada

Winchester- Arlington

Detail of a 1753 map showing today’s Monadnock Region. The thick black line shows the modern border between Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Monadnock A to Z is a 26 day exploration of the people, places, events, and things that tell the stories of the Monadnock Region. Visit our blog each day or follow us on Facebook for the day’s installment. To find all of the posts on Facebook, search #MonadnockAtoZ.

Monadnock A to Z will feature a new post each day from May 17 through June 11, 2019.

U is for Upper Ashuelto published on June 6, 2019.