The first settler here was Joseph Eayers (also Eyars) whose name appears on Breed Batchellor’s map accompanying the town’s petition for incorporation. Joseph cleared seven acres cleared and built a cabin. The specific location of the Eayers cabin is unknown. After all that hard work, he never took title to the property and never settled. It, and most of the land in the southeast corner of the town, remained in the hands of the Minot family from Concord, Massachusetts. Jonas Brigham, of Sudbury, Massachusetts, acquired the property and may have built on the Eayers cabin site.
Jonas Brigham and his family are listed in the Packersfield national census of 1790 and probably built the large home with a well-developed set of barns and outbuildings in 1789. He moved here with his first wife, Polly and their daughter, Betsey. Polly died and Jonas married Dorcas Pratt, the widow of George Pratt and mother of Jared Pratt (E-3-7) in 1807. Two more children followed including Ruel born in 1808. Jonas lived and farmed there for forty years before selling it to Ruel in 1829 and moving to Dublin where he died in 1850.
Ruel added to the farm, but moved to Dublin sometime in the late 1830’s. The farm was probably abandoned then. He left Dublin for Grafton, Vermont shortly after the death of his father.
