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Natural & Cultural History:
Meetinghouse Hill Road is a link in the historic “Old Province Road” which linked Colonial British settlements at historic Fort #6 on the Merrimack River in Boscawen to Fort #4 on the Connecticut River in Charlestown, NH. The road passing near the foot of Meetinghouse Hill at the edge of a natural, open beaver meadow on the Lane River was chosen by one of the earliest settlers of Perrystown (now Sutton) for construction of a log home.
Ezra Littlehale and his family settled at the foot of the hill and constructed a log home prior to 1760. Subsequently, Ezra and his sons built a framed New England cape style house, which became the home of his son, Isaac. Isaac’s own son Winfield “Scott” Littlehale was the third generation of Littlehales to live in the family home. Scott Littlehale died in March 1904 and was buried in an unmarked grave on the adjacent “chestnut piece.” His grave is located beneath a large, old white pine in Littlehale’s former “ox pasture” just east of the eastern stonewall boundary of Stand 2. Littlehale’s widow, Celeste (Rand) Littlehale continued to live in the cape until it burned sometime in 1909.
A much larger Victorian-style house was subsequently built in 1910 on the same site by the eldest Littlehale daughter Maude, and her husband Randolph C. Blodgett. The building is identified on 1920’s-era postcards as either the “Bellwood Inn” or the “Wyanoke.” Buster and Lucille (Page) West later owned this house. Its last owner, Mr. McCoy intentionally burned the house, on New Year’s Eve, 1965 (or 1966?). The cellar was filled with the debris remaining from the burned house after the Littlehale farmhouse site was purchased by Max and Alzieda Salathe in 1967. The 3.6 acres house site, rich in local history, is the very heart of Meetinghouse Hill Tree Farm.
The stone terrace in front of the house old site and a small cement lily pond are intact. The land has remained open variously as pasture, field, gardens and lawn for more than 200 years. Some of the existing apple trees are depicted in photographs taken more than 80 years ago.
Ecological / Wildlife:
Wildlife sightings include: leopard frogs, wood frogs, painted turtles, meadow voles, star-nosed moles, bluebirds, tree swallows, killdeer, woodcock, broad-winged hawk and red-tailed hawk. Deer, porcupine and black bear graze grass of the field in spring and return in the late summer and early fall for windfall apples. In mid-summer, the field hosts many species of bats, dragonflies, fireflies, and field crickets. Red fox, gray fox and coyote have all been sighted crossing the field. Deer, red fox and black bear are frequent visitors. The south-facing lush open field and orchard provides important feeding opportunities for many smaller amphibians, small mammals and birds.
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