Upper Walker Settlement
These roads, like their communities, are quickly passing from memory. But once they were filled with communities settled by hard working pioneer families, largely Irish with a smattering of other ethnic origins mixed in as well. Little is left to mark the passing of these stout hearted and hearty individuals except for their grave yards. And that is why these pages have been written, to remind us who are descendants of these hearty people of our roots and of our heritage.
For more on the families of Upper Walker Settlement, click here.
When one talks about Walker Settlement, one
often considers only the Walker Settlement Road as Walker Settlement.
However, Walker Settlement included the Glebe to the north, the lower
portion of the Walker Settlement Road, including that section south
along an old road which led through Madden Flats and to Walton Lake, as
well as
that portion of the Long Settlement Road leading from the Walker
Setlement school to Long Settlement, including two other
roads branching off that road. One branch went southwest for a time
before
turning south to connect with the present road from Lisson Settlement
to
Long Settlement. The
second little known road branched off to the northeast a very short
distance. The community
which existed along these two roads was simply known as an extension of
Walker Settlement, but we shall refer to it as Upper Walker Settlement,
a little known name used for it in some documentation I have seen, in
order to delineate that portion of Walker Settlement along the Long
Settlement Road and its derivatives.
Before
talking about those who lived in this region, let's look at the roads
as they existed in 1862. If you look at the map above, you will see one
significant difference in the roads as they existed then. The road
going from Long Settlement to Lisson Settlement did not exist in 1862.
Instead, as the road through Elm Valley crossed the Long Settlement
Road and went west, it met the right branch road coming from
Walker Settlement at just about the beginning of the Parlee Brook.
Another road headed south and southwest at this point and went
for a short distance before turning almost due
west, intersecting the Lisson Settlement Road just north
of the brook and the mill of Walter Seeley. The road through Elm Valley
and Long Settlement was later
continued on to Lisson Settlement. This may have also rendered the
southerly road
unnecessary and it disappeared.
The road back through Upper Walker Settlement also became little used
and largely disappearded. Today even the Lisson Settlement road is
largely impassable except for four wheeled
vehicles. And that part of the road from Lisson Settlement through to
Waltomn Lake has been made into a trail and cars are discouraged from
traveling on it.
The
disappearance of these roads is a reflection of the disappearance
of the families from these areas starting in the late 1800's and
carrying on into the mid-1900's. Both of these areas were hilly and
hard to make a living on them, so people moved closer to larger
centers like Sussex and abandoned these rural holdings. After some
decades, the communities
of Londonderry, Upper Walker Settlement, Long Settlement, Armstrong
Settlement, and Elm Valley disappeared. However,
Lisson Settlement and Walker Settlement survived, for a few more
decades at least. Of these communities, only Walker Settlement survives
today, but even the westerly end of this settlement where the Walker
homestead still stands is disappearing.
Today, most of these roads are used only by all-terrain
vehicles and are part of a trail system, although I did take my car
through them as late as 2001. I do not recommend this for most drivers
nor vehicles. The Shepody Road, the Walker Settlement Road, at least as
far as the Anderson homested, and road from Jeffries Corner to Lisson
Settlement, stopping at the Lisson Settlement Road to Londonderry, are
still passable with vehicles and are used with some regularity. The
rest are not recommended for travel with cars. But if you are
adventurous like me, you might risk it.
These roads, like their communities, are quickly passing from memory. But once they were filled with communities settled by hard working pioneer families, largely Irish with a smattering of other ethnic origins mixed in as well. Little is left to mark the passing of these stout hearted and hearty individuals except for their grave yards. And that is why these pages have been written, to remind us who are descendants of these hearty people of our roots and of our heritage.
For more on the families of Upper Walker Settlement, click here.