B-4-4
The cabinet maker’s home: Thaddeus Barker built the house here when he established the mill at B-4-7 in 1798. This house was the mill owner’s home until 1845.
The child of William and Rhoda Barker, Thaddeus grew up on his father’s farm (B-4-11), farmed, briefly, at D-4-1 before establishing his furniture making enterprise here. He and his wife, Mille Robbins (daughter of Josiah and Hanna Robbins) started their family here when their son, Joel was born in 1799. He returned to farming, purchasing the Levi Wilder farm at B-2-6.
Abel Richardson owned the farm and mill next, running the mill four years before selling it to Calvin and Bela Greenwood. They were probably brothers. Bela moved his family here with his sons Calvin and Cyrus. Calvin seems to have run the mill for his father until his death in 1835. The Greenwood family sold the place to Robbins Adams who was here only a year. Joshua Kitteridge JR lived here from 1837 to 1845 when he sold the house to Noah Hardy JR. With the sale to Noah Hardy, the era of this house as the mill owner’s place came to an end. The new mill owner, Fredrick Taylor, built a new house at B-4-8.
Noah Hardy JR was here from 1845 to 1856. Noah sold the place to his son, Charles, on condition that Charles provide for his father in his old age. When Charles died in 1855 at age thirty-two, Noah sold the place to Henry Danforth Taylor. Taylor died in 1910 and his wife, Estey in 1912. Henry Danforth expanded the farming operations here. In 1907 when Noah was in his early eighties, his farm was sold at auction. The poster advertising that sale, gives a glimpse of one of the few prosperous farms in Nelson in 1907. Thanks to the auction bill, we have a partial description of this house: “The so-called ‘Hardy House’ with its Fine Masonry Work, its Wide Wainscoting and huge Fireplaces..”
They are likely the last year-round occupants.
