The information below was gathered from several sources including the following recommended readings: Sermons in Stone by Susan Allport, Stone by Stone by Robert M. Thorson and A Guide to New England Stone Structures by Mary and James Gage.
From the earliest days in our state, settlers were clearing the land using wood for building their homes, barns, mills, meeting houses, small schoolhouses and firewood as well. They opened the land to create pasture lands for livestock and farming. Early fencing was often made from wood and tree stumps and some larger rubble walls from cleared land. Early rock piles and walls were the result of land clearing and not always property line divisions as often thought.
It took more than 20 cords of wood to heat a farmstead and wood was in great demand becoming scarcer by around the time of the revolution. Fencing was then achieved by building stone walls. Enter the next big event:
In the early 1800’s however something radically changed. The Great Sheep Boom began. In 1807 there was an economic crises. The Embargo Act of 1807 and the Nonintercourse Act of 1809 and the War of 1812 prevented factories in the US from buying wool from Britain and US farmers could no longer sell their grain overseas. Farmers growing wheat and grain began to raise Merino wool sheep instead.
The finest grade of wool was Merino wool from Portugal. Merino sheep were protected from export however William Jarvis the US consul to Portugal did bring back 4,000 sheep to his farm in Vermont near the border of New Hampshire and town of Claremont. The number of sheep grew exponentially. By 1825 Vermont had 1.7 million sheep.
More Land Is Cleared and Extensive Stone Walls Are Built
There was a good demand for Merino wool worldwide and it was a profitable agricultural product for the settlers and many began to be part of the movement and by the end nearly 80 percent of New Hampshire had been cleared and rock walls were constructed everywhere including throughout Salisbury as we can attest to from any walk in the forest.
These walls were about as high as a man’s thigh and the height was extended with wooden fencing. The census of 1840 indicates that in New Hampshire there were up to 600,000 sheep. The Sawyer family had Merino Sheep way up on the slopes of Mt Kearsarge on what is locally called Sawyers Hill, a spur on the side of the mountain visible from Smith’s Corners. The entire area had been cleared.
A project is underway through another organization to map the stone walls of New Hampshire. It is a work in progress. Below is a map of the Salisbury crossroads area (rte 127 & ret 4).
https://nhdes.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=f4d57ec1a6b8414190ca0662456dffb0
Surrounding areas in New England were part of the Great Sheep Boom and it is believed about 250,000 miles of rock walls were built in New England and NY State.
It is estimated that there are over 240,000 miles of stone walls in New England. See:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/new-england-stone-walls
Fluctuations and Then the Sheep Boom Is Over
It started off steady and in 1835 the price of wool was 57 cents a pound but by 1840 it was 25 cents.
What caused the fluctuations and ultimately cause such a profitable business to go bust? Competition. Big farms out west, in Australia and Argentina.
There were 4 million sheep in New england in 1840 and half that by 1860. There was a brief resurgence as cotton became scarce during the Civil War but the business had changed.
Population Shift
By 1850 however the Great Sheep Boom was over. It lasted of only several decades and the forest slowly returned so now in the deepest parts of New Hampshire’s forests one finds stonewalls just about everywhere.
By 1850 there was an exodus beginning out of New Hampshire. Farmers moved west where soil was rich and because of the expanding railroads and waterways of the Erie Canal products could be shipped east easily.
Changes in the population of Salisbury:
- In 1820 was 2,016
- By 1860 it was 1, 191
- By 1900 it was 604
- By 1930 the population of Salisbury hit its low point of 350.
Terms relating to early fencing and clearing the land
wormwall– a zig zag, Virginia split rail type fencing used prior to stone walls when wood was readily available. Field stones were often thrown against it and began the foundation of the next generation of wall, a zig zag, wormy rock wall.
stile– a part of a wall with steps built in so the farmers could avoid using a gate and still get over the wall.
cairn– an organized rock pile, rather deliberate, that may have Native American origins. Different from rock piles, even those found in large numbers about 12 feet apart in their layout. Rock piles were likely the result of incomplete wall building projects by colonists. They generally are separated by about 12 feet the length a person can throw a fieldstone.
pin and feather-a method by which settlers 1774-1820 broke up stones leaving the markings of 2 of 3 holes.
erratics-rock material laid down upon the earth by the last ice age.
stone boat– a flat bottom sled pulled by oxen to haul stones.
stone fence (lower stone wall)-one way property boundaries were marked.
stone fence (higher stone wall)- According to Robert M.Thorson in his book Stone By Stone, published by Bloomsbury 2002 p.97: “In general however the legal height of a fence in the colonies was between four and five feet. A substandard fence prevented a landowner from suing owners of wayward stock, and vice versa. Empirically, it had to be “sheep high, bull strong and hog tight.” The last criterion was the most demanding”.
fence viewer-an appointed official who regularly checked on town fencing (stone walls included) to make sure all were in compliance. According to Robert M.Thorson in his book Stone By Stone p.97: “..in the late colonial period, they would cruise rural land like the state troopers of today, looking for trouble and writing citations”.
town pound– a pen for escaped farm animals.
Salisbury Town Pound
According to Robert M.Thorson in his book Stone By Stone p.97 regarding Town Pounds:
“Highest of them all, up to eight feet tall, were the walls of town pounds (animal jails) which held animals that had already tasted the “call of the wild”.
“New England did not become stoney until the Laurentide Ice Sheet invaded the region from central Canada some 15-30,000 years ago.”- Stone by Stone by Robert M. Thorson.
(So one could humorously say our beautiful Salisbury stone walls were “Made in Canada, assembled in New England”)