Joshua Way's purchase: 1817

bner Pierce, whatever his personal quirks (which were apparently many) was an excellent blacksmith; he had however a large family and as the settlement filled up he had less work and more debt. From his orginal two acres he sold about a quarter of an acre the same day to Seeley and Baldwin, and then in 1814 another 2500 square feet to William Babcock.

In 1816, after he had already lost the small plot his shop was on, he lost the rest of his land to a creditors' judgment. It was sold at a Sheriff's auction to the high bidder, Joshua Way, for $100 plus some change.

Way, a storekeeper from Pennsylvania who came to this area with the surveyor Joseph Jones, held onto the property for about nine months, acquiring it in January and selling it in September for $550 to Morris F. Sheppard, who had of course sold it to Pierce in the first place little more than a decade earlier. The approximate acre and a half contained the land he would build his frame "yellow house", his extravagant Mechanics' Hall and his beautiful stone mansion that is the only one of these structures to survive today.

Use one of these buttons to find out more about the lots and structures made from this plot:

Abner Pierce lost his property in 1816. Joshua Way was the high bidder for what was left of Pierce's land after the sale of the corner lot to Seeley & Baldwin.

Above: Abner Pierce's portion of Sheppard's 1805 purchase is shown in the darker yellow. He sold part of it to Seeley and Baldwin the same day, and lost the rest of it to creditors by 1816. Joshua Way acquired about an acre and a half of the original two acres at auction: his land comprised the original minus the corner and two other small parcels fronting on Main Street at the southeast corner.

Use one of these buttons to find out more about the larger plots from which this one was made:

 

Use one of the buttons below to find out more about: