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Foreword
Historical sketch
Town Map (typical)
Village Map (typical)
Original Wall Map |
Map of Hillsboro County, NH 1858
An Historical Sketch of
The Map
This text was written especially for the 1982 Edition of
the Map of Hillsboro County.
| The
Map of Hillsboro County, 1858 is a singular historical document.
The result of the most comprehensive survey yet made of these towns, the
map pinpoints the names and locations of every residence, workplace,
church and school. The geographic features which give our region its charm
and character are carefully displayed. The map, like later gazzeteers,
presents important demographic data: population and agricultural
statistics, and substantial city directories. The birthplaces of prominent
Americans -Franklin Pierce and Horace Greeley among others-- are given
special treatment.
The publishers, Smith, Mason & Co. of Philadelphia, published
similar maps of other New Hampshire counties. Publication was announced in
local newspapers during the winter of 1856-57. |
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| Offices
were set up in Manchester and Nashua where prospective customers could
view preliminary plans for the work. Advance orders were taken for the
map, at five dollars per copy. Prominent citizens allowed their names to
be used in the map's advertisements, testifying to the merits of the map,
and no doubt assuring it of financial success.
The map was printed on four separate sheets (probably on large stone
printing plates) and assembled and glued together onto a cloth backing.
Each copy was then hand-colored in several different hues, varnished, and
mounted on wooden rollers. The large size--five feet on an edge--has often
proved an impediment to display. Copies have commonly been consigned to
storage, usually in attics, where they have suffered the adverse effects
of heat and leaky roofs. Originals in good condition today are rare items.
Maps and plans made prior to the 1850s were simple affairs, usually
commissioned by government, showing only political boundaries, major
roadways, and an occasional mill or tavern. With few exceptions (Nashua,
Milford and Manchester), no detailed town maps preceded the 1858 map. Thus
it becomes the first "road map" for most of the Hillsborough
County towns. |
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Measuring a road for a county map
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Roads
were measured with a wheel odometer, similar to the wheelbarrow-like
device pictured here. Some odometers may have been drawn by horse and
buggy. The surveyor would ask the names of farmstead owners as he passed
by, and would surely add a brief sales pitch for the new map… after all,
the map would carry the name of the resident, engraved upon it. It is
questionable whether surveyor J. Chace, Jr. personally measured all these
roads. Perambulating them all would have required many months. As Chace is
surveyor of record for no fewer than 21 different county
maps during |
| the period 1854-1860, it is likely that assistants did most of
the hard work. The original road surveys for this privately-produced map
were the most comprehensive yet made; this map served as the basis for
later maps until the end of the century. |
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