DUBLIN lies in the extreme eastern part of the county, in lat. 45° 54′ and long. 4° 59′, bounded north by Harrisville, east by Peterboro, in Hillsboro county, south by Jaffrey, and west by Marlboro. It was originally granted by the proprietors of land purchased of John Tufton Mason, to Matthew Thornton and thirty-nine others, November 3, 1749, the charter being given by Col. Joseph Blanchard, of Dunstable, and was called Monadnock No. 3, or North Monadnock. The grant comprised an area of thirty-six square miles, or a territory seven miles long and five wide, and was given under the usual charter restrictions, among which that the whole tract be divided into seventy-one equal shares, each share to contain three lots, equitably coupled together, and to be drawn for at Dunstable, on or before the first day of July, 1750. On March 29, 1775, it was incorporated under the province laws, and legally given the name of Dublin. At this incorporation the township received a confirmatory charter from New Hampshire, issued by Governor Wentworth. In 1870 the township received a great curtailment of its territorial limits. Up to this time Nelson had bounded it on the north, the boundary line passing through the center of Harrisville village. But on the 2d of July of that year all the northern part of the town lying between the present northern line of the town and Harrisville village, was set off towards forming, with the southern part of Nelson, the new township of Harrisville. It is supposed that the town received its name from Dublin, Ireland, as the early settlers of the territory were of ScotcH.Irish origin; but at the time of the incorporation only one of this class, Henry Strongman, remained, though he, it is said, was a native of Dublin, Ireland, and this fact is supposed to have settled the point.
The surface of Dublin is beautifully diversified by hill, mountain, lakelet, deli and smiling valley. This fact, together with its high altitude, its cool breezes and salubrious climate renders it a constantly increasing popular summer resort. The villas and cottages, many of them of considerable pretensions, of city people, are constantly springing up. Particularly is the town noted for the grand old Monadnock, which rises to an altitude of 3,450 feet from its southern boundary line, which passes over the mountain about at its summit. Mondadnock, aside from being the highest point of land in the county, has far too great a celebrity to need special mention here. The next highest elevation in the town is Beech hill, lying in the northern part, so named from the large number of beech trees with which it was formerly covered. Its summit lies 391 feet above the level of Monadnock lake, and affords a magnificent prospect. From here a beautiful view may be obtained both of the Contoocook and Connecticut river valleys, and of the Green Mountains in Vermont, as they rise in the form of successive terraces from the Connecticut. Kearsarge and Ascutney may be seen, and also Saddleback and other mountains beyond the Merrimack. When the atmosphere is favorable, the summit of one of the White Mountains is visible, looking like a thin, white, stationary cloud, a little above the horizon. Think of the grand panorama afforded, where one stands here at the center of this vast circlE.the valleys with their rivers, like silver threads, the nestling villages, undulating hills, patches of waving grain, green pasturE.lands and fringes of forest-multiply the grand whole an hundred-fold, then one will have an approximate idea of what the weary toiler beholds from the summit of Monadnock, which is visible from the StatE.house at Boston, and is the first point of land seen by the sailor as he enters Boston Harbor. The soil of the town, however, is hard and rocky, and much better adapted to grazingthan tillage. The streams flow, from the west into the Connecticut, and from the east into the Merrimac. Several ponds, or lakelets are distributed over the surface, of which Monadnock lake, a handsome sheet about a mile in diameter, is the largest. It has an altitude of 1581 feet above sea level
In 1880 Dublin had a population of 455 souls. In 1884 the town had six school districts and five common schools and one high school, which were valued, including furniture, etc., at $3.575.00- There were eighty-six scholars taught during the year by one male and eleven female teachers, the former receiving an average monthly salary of $32.00 and the latter $24.06. The entire school revenue for the year was $1,016.21, and the entire expenditure $802.40, with H. H. Piper superintendent to October, 1884, and H. C. Piper to March, 1885.
According to the directions contained in the charter, the township was divided into lots, making ten ranges, running through from east to west, with twenty-two lots in each range, or 220 lots in all, varying considerably, especially in length- They were drawn for on the first Tuesday of June, 1750. The seventy-one shares, of three lots each, would, of course, leave seven lots undrawn. Some of these, though not all, were located upon Monadnock mountain. The terms of settlement, etc., imposed by the grant, cannot have been complied with, to the extent specified, till certainly more than ten years later than the time prescribed. Whether the grantors dispensed with the conditions as to time, on the score of Indian wars apprehended, or for any other cause tacitly waived those conditions, or whether they granted an extension of the time, does not appear.