Traces of History

Eliphalet Nott bought the triangle of land that is now called Blissville with his partner Neziah Bliss. It was farmland then in 1837. But within twenty years the pastures were gone. Factories had sprung up along the river and the canal. In another ten years, the Civil War would arrive and with it, even more factories.

Apartments and houses grew up for the workers in the neighborhood. When they burned down, new ones sprung up in their place. And then a school. And a hotel, a few stores and bars on every corner. Then a railroad. Even a trolley.

When I first moved here, some of the roads were still cobble-stoned. Downpours left roads flooded. Some storms left Blissville a virtual island. Those streets are paved now, and now the rainwater drains with ease. But where are the remnants of that earlier epoch?