[mcdude]

and very complicated but it goes something like this. Originally there was no Laconia. There was Meredith to the north of Paugus Bay (then called Long Bay maybe) and there was Gilmanton to the south. That's it. Gilford annexed itself from Gilmanton because it was too difficult for them to get to the Meeting Hall (church) because they had to go over the Belknap (then called Suncook) Mountains. That might have been in 1812. Meredith Bridge (Weirs and the north side of Lake Village=Lakeport) annexed itself from Meredith in 1855. Then, somewhere around 1893 parts of Gilford and Meredith annexed themselves away to form Laconia. Lakeport joined Laconia shortly thereafter with the promise of a sewerage system.

Now ...Governor's Island was annexed from ? (Meredith?) to Gilford in 1799. (There was no Gilford in 1799 so it must ahve been Gilmanton.) The islands were pretty inaccessible in those days. They were used only for timber and for pasture lands. There was no bridge to the island until 1807 and that was before the lake was raised by the Lakeport dam. The first real development on the island didn't take place until about 1885 when a granite mansion was built by Hutchins. It wasn't advertised for real estate development until about 1928.

So, as I said, it is complicated. When the towns of Gilford and Laconia were making long range plans to secure monies to fund a high school, Governor's Island wasn't really on the radar screen.