Chickenboro

by Rick Russack

Chicken Boro (or Chickenboro Brook) was a settlement in the northeast corner of Campton, near the Sandwich-Thornton town lines. It had at least 10 farms and a school and extended for about a mile and half along the brook. The Chickenboro school district was number 13 in the town of Campton. Records at the town Historical Society indicate that in 1846, eleven families were taxed for the support of that school. There was a sawmill nearby and the farms sold their produce in Campton, which had several non-farming families and enterprises in the 1850-1880 period. Each of the farms produced 300-400 pounds of maple sugar annually. Sheep were raised to supply the woolen mill in Campton. In 1850, eight of the households had 43 people, all with the same surname. By the late 1880s, the settlement had been abandoned.[1] (The 1910 town meeting voted to discontinue all roads in Chickenboro because “all the people had moved away”.)

The town’s leading citizen was Archibald Robie. He had a 1,000 acre farm in Chickenboro and owned a grist mill and a sawmill. Robie had extensive logging operations and employed many of his neighbors. According to his grand daughter, Margaret Bean, one of Robie’s best customers was Great Britain’s Royal Navy. He provided masts for their ships, floating them down Chickenboro Creek to Mad River and then out to the Merrimack.[2]

[1] Richard Waldbauer, Tend The Sacred Fires, Thesis, Brown University, 1999

[2] Gary Remal, Laconia Evening Citizen, 12/18/1980