Town Pound (1805)
Hopkinton, Merrimack County, New Hampshire
Marker Inscription
TOWN POUND 1805
The Story
In early New England towns, the pound was a small stone or timber enclosure where stray cattle, sheep, hogs, and horses were impounded until their owners paid a fine to reclaim them. Built in 1805, Hopkinton's pound dates to the young republic, when livestock roamed largely unfenced and a town-appointed 'pound keeper' enforced the local ordinances that kept wandering animals out of neighbors' crops. These sturdy enclosures were a fixture of civic life, as essential to an agricultural community as its meetinghouse or common.
Why it matters
The town pound is a tangible relic of early American self-government and the agrarian economy, showing how small communities managed shared land and settled disputes long before modern fences and formal law enforcement.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Town Pound (1830)
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A town pound was a walled enclosure — usually built of fieldstone or timber — where stray cattle, sheep, hogs, and horses were impounded until their owners reclaimed them and paid a fine. Dated 1830, this Concord pound belongs to an era when free-ranging livestock was a fact of rural New England life and every incorporated town was legally obliged to maintain such a pen, overseen by an elected official called the 'pound keeper.' The small fines collected went to the town, and the practice was written into New England town law from the colonial period well into the nineteenth century.
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