LYNDEBOROUGH – About ten years ago, when members of the Historical Society decided it was time to update the town’s history, a committee decided that the new book had to fill in the gaps in the two existing histories, the Donovan History written in 1905, and a book published by the town in 1955. Both of them leave out a lot of details, or, as committee members said, “all the fun stuff,” as well as any controversies.

The 1905 history doesn’t include anything that was current at the time since that wasn’t “history.” The much smaller 1955 version covered only organizations and situations that were current at the time. That left a blank space of over 50 years. That gap includes agriculture – the apple and blueberry industries – the rise and decline of the railroad, and much about everyday life as the town changed from a rural economy to a bedroom community.

The committee’s digging into that period of time has uncovered topics apparently ignored by everyone, perhaps as too mundane for notice. Their current search is for the location of the town-maintained horse watering troughs. According to the town report of 1915, the town paid nine people $1.50 each to maintain them. Since they were generally made of wood, they disappeared once they were no longer needed.

There is now only one, a granite trough located at the edge of the South Lyndeborough Village Common. According to the Town Report of 1915, the selectmen paid E. W. Dolliver $23.75 for “moving watering troughs for the Improvement Society.” Since the Village Improvement Society created the common in 1914, it is assumed that is the one that was moved, but where it was moved from is not recorded. The V.I.S. minutes of 1914 and 1915 do not mention it. Perhaps it was only repositioned and placed on a granite base.

Because of the traffic at the railroad station, it is assumed that there would be a trough for the horses, if not there, at least nearby.

A photograph taken between 1910 (when the station was built) and 1915, probably shows the trough closer to the station. Identification is difficult because it is under a large tree which vanished many years ago.

By 1930, the town was paying for only four troughs and by 1945, there were none.

The location of only two of the troughs has been identified. In 1950, the remains of a wooden trough were still visible at the side of Johnson’s Corner Road. It was fed by a pipe from a spring on the hill above it, and that spring is still occasionally used by locals.

The trough maintained by Frank Cummings was recalled by older residents as being near the intersection of Crooked S and Cummings Roads.

The list in the 1915 Town Report gives a few clues. Jason Holt lived on Center Road in the Perham Corner section of town; Edward Dolliver near the junction of Old Temple Road and Route 31; Carl Nelson on Pettingill Hill Road; and James Putnam on Putnam Hill Road. E.M. Reffin apparently tended the spring on Johnson’s Corner Road.

The residences of John Fish and Percy Putnam at the time is not known.

The committee asks, if anyone knows of a location, if there is a tradition of one being somewhere, they would like that information. It can be left at the town office.