Records show that all the land in Barkhamsted 

 was not disposed of by laying out lots to each 

 man, for later some of it was sold at auction. 

 The last date on which a proprietor's meeting 

 was held for the disposition of land, etc., was as 

 late as 1823. 



The earliest timber sale on land now in the 

 purchase area of the Peoples Forest was more 

 than a decade before the Revolution. On the 

 second Tuesday in April, 1760, a committee of 

 three was appointed to sell the timber on the 

 highways to help defray the expense of surveying. 



At a later date another committee was 

 appointed to sell at public auction as much of 

 the undivided land as would be necessary to pay 

 costs of surveying the last three divisions and 

 the "Cost of a Record Book for the Proprietors." 

 At this sale the land was sold in fifty acre lots; 

 the average price was 13-2-0 for the fifty acres. 



After nearly two hundred years some of the 

 old highway lines have been rerun on the Peoples 

 Forest area. Many of the old bounds which were 

 first put in about 1734 have been found intact. 

 The stones are covered with moss and lichens, 

 but by turning over the top stone the old initials 

 will be found the initials of the first white man 

 who owned the land. 



At present as we run over these lines, find the 

 old moss covered bounds and read the initials, 

 we wonder what difficulties our forefathers 

 experienced in locating them as accurately as 

 they did with their crude instruments, chaining 

 up and down ledges and keeping line by compass, 

 while today we use transit and stadia but we 



