Forgotten & Historic Town Pounds of New Hampshire

SKU: 9798822913011

Learn about the forgotten origin, use, customs, and purpose of historic town pounds built throughout New England between 1635 until the late 1800s. Adequate winter food storage often spelled the difference between life and death for many families dependent upon food they could grow in summer to survive the winter months. Thus, they did not appreciate roaming livestock destroying their crops. Town pounds were used to restrain escaped livestock before it trampled and destroyed private vegetable gardens, orchards, and fields of corn, pumpkins, wheat, rye, and hay. Elected town pound keepers had the difficult task of capturing, feeding, and caring for the roaming livestock.

An estimated 750 communities throughout the six New England states formerly had pounds, of which approximately 170 survived into the 21st century. New Hampshire has the largest number of existing town pounds of all the New England states. In his book, historian and author Matthew E. Thomas shares a detailed history of all 73 known surviving town pounds of New Hampshire. The publication also includes a list of town pounds in other New England states.

Author: Matthew E. Thomas of Fremont, NH, studied architecture, archeology, and early American history at the College of William and Mary. He has devoted his life to researching, writing, preserving, and promoting New England history.
(Softcover: 132 pages)