Hampton's 325th Anniversary
1638 - 1963
This small band made their way up what is now the "Landing Road" to a deserted Indian Village on the Meeting House Green. Here they laid out their house lots and built their Meeting House that was to serve as a Church to satisfy their religious needs, a Town Hall to serve as a place to discuss and decide town matters, and a Block House as a defense against possible Indian raids.
"They were alone in the midst of an unbroken wilderness. The forest around them had never been echoed with the sound of an axe. No house was opened to afford them shelter, no friendly hand extended to give them aid. Their dependence, under God, was upon themselves alone."
"Their first labors were undoubtedly expended in constructing for themselves, from trees of the surrounding forest, log cabins in which they might repose their weary limbs at night, and find shelter from the frost and storms of autumn and the approaching winter."
"In the prosecution of their labors, and in the endurance of hardships, the people appear to have been cheerful and happy. They felt that they had embarked in an important enterprise, and with a firm reliance on Devine Providence, they were confident of success."
Today, if you stand where the road branches off from Winnacunnet Road to Mill Road, you are in a circle which if you make it the Center, and then go a quarter of a mile each way, the circle will contain ALL of the homes of ALL of the earliest settlers of Hampton during those first few years.