Simpson Buck's plot - 1825
n 1821 when John Dorman died, his large land estate was divided among his children and grandchildren. His homestead, which was a four-acre plot he purchased from David Wagener in 1799, just before the latter's death, was reserved to his widow Sybil for her lifetime, and then after her death to his son Joel, who also got two more parcels and already had a good farm in Jerusalem. After his mother died, Joel Dorman sold the homestead in two parts, the more northerly to Simpson Buck, a tailor.
When John Dorman was alive most of the part he sold to Buck was covered with his orchard, with his residence down near the southern end of it, about in the middle of the whole place. Buck's piece was a bit more than half of John Dorman's farm, with 270 feet on Main Street out of a total of 387 feet. Instead of moving into the old Dorman house, which sat well back from the road near Jacob's Brook, Buck built a house of his own at the north end of the lot, perhaps the one that was eventually moved from 157 Main St. to Champlin Ave. This house remains there today, cut into two dwellings.
Buck evidently sold his land in four pieces about 1835. The lot at the north end, where 159 Main Street is now, belonged to Harriet Stewart, widow of George D. Stewart the merchant. The lot at 157 Main Street belonged to John L. Moore by 1841, when he sold it. Buck sold what is now 151 Main Street in two parts: the more northerly in 1836 to Henry Bradley, and the more southerly in 1835 to Lydia and Mercy Stewart. In 1836 he added another 48 feet 6 inches to the Stewart parcel, which was large enough to hold 143 and 145 Main Street.
Above: Joel Dorman sold the north half of his father's homestead plot to Simpson Buck; the area is shaded in yellow.
The tailor Simpson Buck bought about half of John Dorman's homestead lot in 1825. It was afterward subdivided into at least five separate lots. Later on, two houses were moved for the Post Office, the Benham Hotel covered two house lots; and a furniture store and the village firehouse replaced a house and shop.
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