Creating a town out of unsettled land was the Proprietors’, founders of Rochester, task. Deciding what a town would need most, led them in 1683 to give Joseph Burge land, materials and access to water on the condition that he would build and operate a gristmill. Fourteen years later, they offered land to Anthony Coombs, if he would come from Sandwich and build a blacksmith shop near the gristmill.
In 1708, another man from Sandwich, Peter Blackmere, approached the proprietors and convinced them to grant him some large parcels of land next to and upstream of the gristmill. He purchased the gristmill and built his house on what is now Hiller Road. The picture shows what is left of his house’s foundation.
A well-educated and intelligent man, he quickly became a valued citizen of the new town. He was a proprietor. He built the first church in Rochester Center. He was a surveyor and served as both the town clerk and as a selectman.
Over time he formed a partnership with Coombs and between his mill and Coomb’s smithy and forge, they provided for many of the townspeoples’ needs. They would bring their corn and rye to grind into flour and the smithy and forge mended broken tools and sold items like nails, barrel hoops and horseshoes. Between them, they created an industrial center for early Rochester.
By Connie Eshbach