B-4-1
This is a beautifully preserved large cellar hole with extensive barns and paddock walls.
Robert Sheldon, from Temple, New Hampshire settled here in 1795. Starting with 100 acres, and at age twenty-one, he built a farm of several hundred acres. He married Polly Spofford in 1797; the couple had ten children, raising eight to adulthood. The Keene Sentinel printed a short account of the Robert Sheldon family in 1907: Robert Sheldon “is said to have reclaimed the farm from the original wilderness. Sheldon raised a remarkable family which consisted of six sons and two daughters. The sons were with one exception six feet in height or more and of Herculean build and strength.” General Samuel Griffin reported that Daniel Sheldon “Once mowed seven acres of grass in one day.” The same young man “cut and piled 4 cords of hardwood each day for several days.” None of the children stepped up to take over the farm, but a number left Nelson with their parents when they moved to Susquehanna, Pennsylvania in 1834.
Robert (aged sixty), and Polly sold the farm and moved to Birchardville, Pennsylvania with several of their adult children. Robert, Polly and several of their children are buried there:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92753368/robert-sheldon
They sold the farm to Danforth Taylor JR. Danforth and Martha raised at least five children here. The oldest, Frederick took over the nearby mill and built a house at B-4-11. and ran a chair factory at B-4-7. The second son, Henry Danforth Taylor, succeeded his father on the farm in 1854.
H.D. Taylor sold the farm to Daniel Holt in 1856 and moved into the house at B-4-4. Daniel and Sybil lived here until 1872 when they sold it to Asaph G. Priest. Priest had the place until 1886 selling to Daniel Holt’s son, Asahel in 1886. The farm was sold at auction in 1907. This nice description is left to us from that sale.
“Cuts some of the very best hay in all of Nelson… The buildings are in good condition. The barns are very large. Excellent water and plenty of it. Furnishes all the firewood needed. This property will give a good living to any thrifty young man who desires to follow the noblest of all work, husbandry.”
The place seems to have had at least seasonal use as late as the mid nineteen thirties.
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