History:

    Adam Nahor Patton built and lived in the house labeled “233” on the 1850 Town of Bedford History map. The house was built circa 1830-1835 by Adam (undoubtedly with the help of family and neighbors) around the time he married Clarissa Hodgman, who grew up nearby in Bedford. They were married in 1830. The house is known as the A. N. Patton House. The current owners are Ann and Paul Remus. It is their primary residence.
      The barn was important to the life of what was a one hundred sixty acre farm up until the mid 20th century. The original land extended past what is now Edinburgh Road and Cobbler Lane. Photographs taken circa 1900 show the extent of cultivated land behind the house, and show the house and barn looking very similar to today (2019). Facing the front of the house, the property extends from the left of the driveway to around the corner of Meetinghouse and Liberty Hill Road. The property includes a fire pond. Previous owners had animals including horses who grazed on the land surrounding the pond.
     In addition to an attached two car garage which is part of the first floor of the ell, there is an unattached three bay garage which is a replacement building as of 2016, when the original four bay outbuilding was near collapse. That original building appeared to be circa 1920-1940.

     In 1834, the town voted to “make a school district from District 1."  WIlliam Patten, Adam Patten, and Abijah Hodgman are all recorded in part of this historic vote.

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The Adam N. Patten
     Adam’s great grandfather, John Patten, was born in Ireland in 1712. At age 16 he came to America and in 1738 he moved to Bedford. John’s son Samuel, Adam’s grandfather, was born on August 10, 1752.  Samuel married Deborah Moore, with whom he had ten children. One of those children, Joseph, was born November 8, 1781. Adam N. Patten was Joseph’s ninth child.
     Adam N. Patten’s parents were Mary Dickey (1772-1851) and Joseph Patten (1768-1839). Adam was born on June 19, 1805. On July 1, 1830, he married Clarissa Hodgman, a girl who lived nearby whose father was Adijah Hodgman. She was born on August 4, 1806. Adam and Clarissa had four children, born and raised in the house Adam built, which is now 65 Meetinghouse Road.
      Adam and Clarissa’s first born, Joseph, was born in 1833 and died at 13 months in 1834. Their other children were Samuel Joseph (1836-1858), William Milton (1840 (or ’41) -1908) and Abbie A. (1846-1929). Also living in the house at this time were James Floyd Wallace, John Kimball, Onie Mudge and John Fullerton. Fullerton was a farm laborer born in eastern Canada.  The other men, like Fullerton, were also farm laborers; all of whom lived on the third floor of the house.

 

William Milton Patten
     William Milton Patten, son of Adam and Clarissa, became the second generation owner of the house in about 1863 when he married Ellen M Whitford (1842-1906). Ellen and William had three children; George W. (1865-1887), Carrie (1858-1883) and Anne M. (1873-1890). Continuing to live in the house in 1880 were Adam, the original owner and now a widower, and Lavinia P Adams, Adam’s sister, who was a widow. Additionally in 1880, John Bielgood, a farm laborer from New York State, lived in the house and worked on the farm.
     Also continuing to live in the house while William was the owner was his sister, Abbie A. (fourth child of Clarissa and Adam). In 1872 she married James Emerson Gault, born in 1849 (death date uncertain). Abbie and James had three children, Louis Gault (1876-1943), who became the third generation owner of the house, Claria M. Gault (1872 - ?) and Abbie (1879-1955) who would become Abbie Patten Cole Gault.

     In 1901, William owned 160 acres at 65 Meetinghouse. The value of the land and buildings was $3500. He had three horses valued at $175. He had 16 cows valued at $400. He had three “other” livestock valued at $45. He had money on hand or interest of $950. Total valuation: $5170. Tax Paid: $64.62.

     The 1903 book of Bedford History records that WIliam Patten was an officer at the Bedford Presbyterian Church in 1904 and served on the Committee on Superiviosn of schools for a five year period beginning in 1889.  Pther than this, Adam and William ran their farm.

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Louis Gault
     Louis Gault, the third generation owner, was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, membership no. 57163 and a trustee of the Cemeteries with three year terms from 1928 to 1931.
     Louis had inherited the property from his father James Gault, husband to Abbie, daughter of Adam Patten, who had grown up in the house from her birth.
     The second Abbie, Abbie Patten Cole Gault, continued to live in the house until her death at age 76 in 1955.
 

Miles Wallace

     After Louis died in 1943, the house was sold or given to Miles Wallace (1900-1961) and his wife Harriet Wiggin Wallace, (1902 - ?) Miles was born in Bedford but died in Webster NH. It is not clear how long Miles and Harriet lived in the house.
 

Donald Wallace

     The second generation of Wallace owners were Donald Miles Wallace, (1935-2011), his wife, Barbara, and son, Miles. Around this point (1961) the house became a two-family residence, with Donald and Barbara and their children Dana, Laura, Alan and Marla living on the first floor and Miles Wallace’s daughter, Louise Donahue, and her husband, John Donahue ,and son, Michael, living on the second floor.

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Daniel Banner, Peter Clements, and their wives
     In 1984, the house was sold to Daniel Banner and Peter Clements and their wives. Their interest was to historically renovate and preserve the house as well as to flip it for profit. During that year, the two men and their wives did major renovations to bring the house back to its original configuration and layout as a one family home but with an up to date kitchen and bathrooms.
 

Ann and Paul Remus
      On December 7, 1984, Ann and Paul Remus moved into the house with their three children, Amy Kathryn, Dana Ann, and Jonathan Edward Beckman (Jeb) Remus. At the time, Amy was 11, Dana was 9 and Jeb was 7 months old. While Amy, Dana and Jeb now live in far flung locations, 65 Meetinghouse is the place that to this day (2020) the family, now including grandchildren, happily gathers on holidays.