The Whitefield Historical Society has received a generous donation of an 1871 plan by Asbury Young which is a copy an 1809 plan of the town by Eliakim Scammon, generally referred to as the “Scammon Plan.” The plan was donated to the WHS by town resident Christie Mitchell. Copies of the Scammon plan have turned up over the years in varying condition including one I wrote about a few weeks ago (see “Osher Map Library” post) but none of them are quite as nice as this one. There are several copies of the plan
recorded at the Lincoln County Registry of Deeds and surveyors in the area are quite familiar with the plan. It’s safe to say you really can’t survey most older properties in Whitefield without referring to this plan. At left is a black line copy I have had in my files for a number of years, I don’t even remember where I got it exactly. Contrary to popular belief, Eliakim Scammon didn’t survey the town himself but instead assembled plans of surveys conducted by other surveyors, notably Daniel Rose and James Marr.

At left is a reduced/compressed copy of the plan. It is approximately 36″ x 60″ in size and is colored ink on heavy paper. As nice as it looks, it suffers from water stains, fading ink and colors, and it has a few tears as well and is in desperate need of restoration; the WHS has begun raising funds for that purpose. I took a few quick photographs of the plan today to send off to the map restorer to get an estimate of the cost. I’ll be taking more photographs in the near future.

For reference, at left is a black-line copy of the Scammon plan from my files which is based on an old blue print found in Neota Grady’s attic many years ago. The Whitefield Historical Society has several different versions of the Scammon plan, and I will be helping put on a presentation about all of them at the Annual Meeting of the Whitefield Historical Society to be held this coming March. I’ll post a meeting notice when it gets a little closer.

George Fergusson
True North Surveying Services