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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01188 5354
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofw00plum
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THE MEETINGHOUSE - BUILT IN 1829
HISTORY
of the Town of Wentworth New Hampshire
By GEORGE F. PLUMMER
PRINTED BY THE RUMFORD PRESS CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE 1930
-
Copyright, 1930 by GEORGE F. PLUMMER
·
Presented to
James C. Merrill Haverhill Mass
25%/
Ky.
Eugene Lowning Selectman of Wentworth nl. Jr.
May 11 1933
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER, MOTHER AND SISTERS WHO IN DEATH AS IN LIFE REMAIN A PART OF WENTWORTH
TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I - THE NARRATIVE
CHAPTER
PAGE
I The First Explorers - French and Indian Wars, Powers' Expedition in 1754 - The Wentworths - Early Charters - Charter of Wentworth - The Proprietors and Some of Their Doings .
I
II 1770-1790 - The Settlement and an Account of Some of the Earliest Settlers - Organization of the Town and First Town Meeting - The First Re- corded Inventory - First Census - Close of the Pioneer Period
III 1790-1820 - Mention of More Early Settlers - The Road to Orford - First Post Office - War of 1812-15 - The Militia
56
V 1850-1870 - Town Farm Established - Flood of 1856 - Coming of the Civil War - War Times in Town - Men Who Served -- Post-War Period . 93
74
VI 1870-1890 - Changes in the Village - Found- ing the Public Library --- Stanyan's Hall - Abol- ishment of School and Highway Districts . I20
VII 1890-1930 - Loss of the Town Records - The Creamery - The Town Hall -- The World War -- Great Fire of 1921 - The Closing Word 136
23
IV 1820-1850 -- Active Progress - Building of the Meeting House - Church Societies - Coming of the Railroad - Town at Its Zenith - Review of Year 1850
[ vi ] PART II -TOPICS
I Roads of All Kinds - Surveyors Warrant of 1804 - Building of the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad 163
II Schools -- The Wentworth Academy - Church History - Rev. Increase S. Davis - Meeting Houses . 187
III Of Doctors -- Of Lawyers 216
IV Mills and Millmen - Taverns and Tavernkeepers . 241
V Of Societies -- Webster Memorial Library - Re- garding Cemeteries - Old Home Day in Town 255
VI Some Physical Features and Natural Attractions - First Frame House and Some Others - Old Brick Yard 280
VII Wentworth in the Legislature, State and Nation - List of Selectmen, 1779-1929 - Town Clerks - Town Treasurers 298
VIII Tales of Woe, Including Floods and Washouts - Flood of 1856 -- Spotted Fever, 1815 - Cold Sea- son, 1816 - Arson Troubles, 1861 - Homicides . 314
IX In Lighter Vein -- Mostly Gossip - Last Muster of the 35th Regiment 343
X Roster of Soldiers, 1776-1918 - Some Pension- ers of the Revolution - Other Military Informa- tion . 365
List of Names as Shown by Tax Lists, Years of 1800, 1850, 1900 380
Simeon Smith's List of Heads of Families Who Have Died in Town . 392
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
Meeting House
FRONTISPIECE
Carr's Mountain
2
Valley of the South Branch
28
Birds-eye View of Village
58
House Built by William White, 1795
58
Home of George and Frances Plummer
II6
Main Street
I42
Town Hall .
142
Old Covered Bridge
172
A Sugar Camp
216
High Street
216
Baker Pond
242
Baker's River Valley
280
Bridge Street
320
Railroad Yard November, 1927
320
Main Street
344
One Day's Work
344
Grave of Lieut. Caleb Keith
366
Grave of Abner Hoit
366
BY WAY OF PREFACE
The writer desires at this time to make full ac- knowledgment of the very great assistance rendered by Dr. Peter L. Hoyt, as preserved in his manu- script history of "The First Hundred Years of Went- worth."
Credit should be given Dr. Hoyt for the articles on the "Cold Season of 1816," "Spotted Fever Epi- demic," and "The Flood of 1856" in their entirety.
Much other valuable information has been derived from the Doctor's records, all of which is hereby gratefully credited to him.
Of the Wentworth residents, Mrs. Ellen Foster, Mr. Charles T. Gove and Mr. Harry M. Turner have made many and valuable contributions to this work. Mrs. Aurilla V. Butts contributed an excellent article on the "Church History." All have shown a fine spirit of helpfulness and cooperation for which due credit is hereby extended.
INTRODUCTION
The town of Wentworth is located in the westerly portion of our ancient and historic state of New Hampshire. The town is usually referred to as being in the northern portion of the state, but as a geograph- ical fact, its situation is not far from the center of the state on a north and south line. However, as the town by its history, traditions and physical features is allied to the northern rather than to the southern portions of our state, it may perhaps be as well to consider that it has been properly assigned to that portion of New Hampshire usually known as the "North Country."
Geologically considered, the region is extremely old. The oldest lands in North America, possibly the oldest on earth, are the Laurentian Hills just across the Canadian border, and it is certain the hills and mountains of northern New Hampshire are among the lands first lifted above the steaming waters of the ancient primeval sea. Our rocks and soils show very plainly that they have come down from the earliest geologic times, and that they have endured for untold ages. The "eternal hills" in this case be- comes no mere figure of speech. While, therefore, the region is in one sense old beyond the power of the hu-
[ xii ]
man mind to state in terms of years, or even to com- prehend, it is also true that historically considered the story is a very different one, and of the races who may have roamed over the mountains and lived in the pleasant valleys of northern New England pre- vious to the coming of the white men but little is actually known, and there is no reason to believe our slender store of reliable knowledge on these points will ever be materially increased.
It suffices to say that from the dawn of time until the period of the coming of our ancestors to the valley of the Merrimack, northern New Hampshire was a wilderness, buried for ages during the long glacial periods under sheets of ice and snow, and at other times possibly inhabited by some nomadic race of savages, who came and went, lived and died, and left no trace.
We will leave the matter of considering prehistoric periods to those better fitted to discuss the subject and confine this small effort to describing the events of the historic period which has elapsed since Europeans first explored this region, and, avoiding controversy or speculation, record only what are be- lieved to be established facts, so far as such facts have come to the attention of the author.
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TOPOGRAPHY AND GENERAL INFORMATION
OF
WENTWORTH, N. H.
The town of Wentworth lies pleasantly in a deep valley located in the southwesterly portion of the White Mountain section of the state. The Carr Range of mountains towers upon the easterly side of this valley. Smart's Mountain, together with the Black Hills, which lie to the south of Mount Cube, rise along the westerly border of the town. To the south- ward, the high hills of Dorchester and Groton serve to give the valley the appearance of a great basin.
The entire township lies within the limits of the area drained by Baker's River, the most northwest- erly of all the tributaries of the Pemigewasset and hence of the Merrimack. This river, entering the town from Warren, flows first in a southerly and then in a southeasterly course to the Rumney line. The river receives a substantial addition to its volume of water in the course of its passage through the town from two large tributaries; namely, first the outlet from Baker's Pond, called the Pond Brook, at the village and later the turbulent stream known as the South Branch, which having its source in the high
[xiv ]
hills of the town of Orange, flows northerly through Dorchester, draining nearly the whole of that town, a part of Groton, as well as the easterly slopes of Smart's Mountain, and after having crossed the southeasterly part of Wentworth, empties into the main river in the eastern part of the town and near the Rumney line. About half a mile below this junc- tion, Baker's River passes into Rumney on its way to unite with the Pemigewasset at Plymouth Village.
Brooks both large and small are abundant in all parts of the town. Some of these brooks descend the steep mountain sides and abound in falls and rapids; there are yet other streams which wind, for more or less of their course, with sluggish current through the meadow lands. Among the larger of these brooks are Martin's Brook draining the northeasterly part of the town and the upper part of the East Side region.
The Mountain Brook, rightly named, fed largely by ice cold springs on the slopes of Carr's Mountain, flows south and reaches Baker River very near the Rumney line.
The "Tural" Brook drains a large part of Ells- worth Hill and after a descent in cascades and rapids for nearly half a mile, forming the well known Gove's Falls, reaches the river near the Bull's Eye. This brook is more often called locally the "Ellsworth Hill Brook."
[xv ]
The Atwell Hill Brook, with its branches, drains the easterly portion of Atwell Hill and the southerly slope of Beech Hill, then flowing southeasterly through the old Town Farm Intervale, reaches the channel of the river very near and a little to the north of the village.
In the south part of the town the Rocky Pond Brook flows from the pond of the same name to the South Branch.
These streams, together with the Pond Brook first mentioned, are perhaps the most notable of the minor streams; all of them so far mentioned have been used for mill purposes. The early saw and grist mills were built very largely on these brooks. Of small and in many cases nameless streamlets, there is an uncounted and almost unknown number. Springs are abundant, as is usual in any broken and mountainous region.
The general contour of the surface of the town is such that the drainage is excellent. There is water in profusion in all parts of the town but only a very few bogs or swamps, and these few are of small ex- tent.
The winds of the town do not "sweep across the wild moor," except to a limited extent, the poet in composing the line above quoted having had some other and less favored locality in mind.
The lower Baker Pond, roughly a mile in length,
[ xvi ]
lies almost wholly in town; the Wentworth-Orford line crosses the pond very near the upper end.
Town Line Pond is on the Dorchester line and well up on the slopes of Smart's Mountain. This sheet of water is rather smaller than the lower Baker Pond and its area seems to be pretty evenly divided be- tween Dorchester and Wentworth.
Rocky Pond is situated in the wilderness lying be- tween the Black Hills and Smart's Mountain; it has a lonely and unromantic location in the heart of what was once a dense forest.
Lumbermen have taken away much of the forest. They have not removed the owls and wildcats, who find in this locality a congenial dwelling place.
The geographically minded will be interested to learn that the 72nd parallel of west longitude, in its course from the pole to the equator, cuts across the western part of Wentworth and it is believed crosses Rocky Pond near its upper or western end. The 44th parallel of north latitude crosses the state a few miles to the north of this point and near Lake Tarleton in Piermont.
The outstanding physical feature of the town is the deep valley of the Baker's River which occupies the entire central portion of the township. This valley extends from the northern border of the town south- easterly to Rumney line and includes within its limits
-
[ xvii ]
about all the arable land, and contains at the present time nearly the whole population of our small town- ship. This valley also serves as the location of the only thoroughfares through the town. The old prehistoric Indian trail, the rude paths of the early explorers and first settlers, the "Old Cross Road," the main roads used for so long a period of years by the stage line, the line of railroad from Concord north to the Coos region, and finally our modern State Highway routes, follow closely the floor of the valley entirely through the township.
The Baker's River valley before the coming of the white men was the route taken by the Indians in their migrations between the Coos country and be- yond, and the valley of the Merrimack. It was, in fact, their main and most travelled route through the north country and used for purposes of both peace and war. Abundant evidence that the Indians camped, lived, fished and hunted, fought and forayed through the valley exists in all parts of the town, being also amply supported by tradition as well as tangible relics of such occupation.
The entire area of the town was at the time of the first settlement densely forested. Spruce and hem- lock grew on the hillsides and upon the slopes of the various mountains. Hard woods such as maple, red oak, ash, beech, birch and elm are abundant.
[ xviii ]
One feature of the early forests is worthy of special mention. The pines of the Baker's River valley were large and numerous. The first explorers of the region made frequent mention of the pines they saw along the way. It seems the best and largest of these pines were those of Wentworth. No finer stand of white pine timber ever grew perhaps, than the old growth pine of the valley lands of our town. Trees five feet through at the butt were not uncommon .*
All the birds and animals common to the region are or have been plentiful. In the early days there were many moose. The first settlers seem to make more mention of the moose than of the deer. Beaver now extinct were once abundant. The so-called "Clark Meadow," back of Hooper Hill, is thought to be beaver dam land - at least in part. Bears have been in town from the first settlement to the present time. They annoyed the pioneers a good deal, killing the sheep and making havoc in the pig pens. There is no account of their ever harming a human being in this region. It is doubtful if there has been a wolf in town for the last hundred years.
Trout are plentiful in all the brooks and have been since the beginning. There are also trout in
* The stringers for a bridge across the Connecticut River were cut on the pine lands of the Buffalo Road. These stringers were ninety feet long, hewed four sides, and were 18 inches square at the top end. --- Benjamin Brown Statement.
[ xix ]
Baker's River and the large streams in the south part of the town. The splendid salmon that once were numerous in Baker's River are now seen no more. These salmon were plentiful in season before large dams were built in the Merrimack. They did not as- cend Baker's River further than the falls at the village.
The township is roughly about six miles square. It is not, however, a perfect square, or the sides pre- cisely six miles long. The northeasterly corner is ex- tended over the top of Carr's Mountain forming an acute angle.
The original boundaries of the town have been very little altered since finally established in 1783 - and the name given the town when the charter was granted has lasted without thought of change. It perpetuates in our state the name and fame of the' historic Wentworth race.
THE NARRATIVE CHAPTER I
THE FIRST EXPLORERS - FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS, POWERS' EXPEDITION IN 1754 -THE ·WENTWORTHS - EARLY CHARTERS -- CHARTER OF WENTWORTH - THE PROPRIETORS AND SOME OF THEIR DOINGS
EARLY EXPLORATIONS
It is perhaps timely and proper at this point to dwell briefly on the first recorded visit of white men to the Baker's River valley, especially as this expedi- tion was the first time, so far as any proof exists, that men of our race entered the limits of the region destined later to be known as the township of Went- worth.
A long continued war raged for a period of nearly a hundred years along the borders of the settlements in Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire and was waged between the settlers of those regions and the Indians to the north and west of them.
The conflict was a desperate contest waged relent- lessly: it finally became a war of extermination, so far as it was possible to make it so, on both sides.
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2 HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
The Province of Massachusetts Bay paid at times during this conflict a bounty for Indian scalps.
We find, in the year 1709, the Indians raided the town of Deerfield, Mass .; the account of this bloody massacre can be read in any history of that period; it suffices here to say that one Thomas Baker, a young man of Deerfield, was taken captive at that time; he was led as a prisoner to Canada where he was held in captivity for a year or more. He was ran- somed and allowed to return to his former home. He traveled on this journey in both directions through the valley of the Connecticut River, thus getting a degree of personal knowledge of the region which in- formation he was later to put to practical use.
Baker enlisted in the service of Massachusetts. He became an officer and we find it recorded that early in the year 1712 Lieutenant Baker enlisted a company of thirty-three men for the purpose of making an attack on the scattered Indians in the upper part of the Connecticut valley.
This small company, with a friendly Indian as a guide, left Northampton, Mass., in April “as soon as the snow was gone." Traveling up the river valley, the party in about ten days reached the "Cowasuck" intervales located in Haverhill and Newbury. Snow drifts still lay in places here while the distant moun- tains were white as winter.
CARR'S MOUNTAIN
.
3
EARLY EXPLORATIONS
Here the party turned back; they followed up the Oliverian, crossed the heights of Warren and de- scended by way of the Black Brook into a deep val- ley hemmed in by high and rugged mountains; they soon reached the banks of a clear and rapid stream flowing over a pebbly bottom and known to the In- dians as the Asquamchumauke but which has since by common consent borne the name of its discoverer and first explorer, having for two hundred years been known as Baker's River.
The small party now descended the river following its westerly bank. As they proceeded, signs of In- dians increased, and traveling with great caution they at length arrived on the lower reaches of the river. Perceiving that they were now in close prox- imity to the enemy they encamped without making a fire and ate a cold breakfast. Resuming their stealthy march they came in the forenoon to the vil- lage of the Pemigewasset Indians, located where now stands the northern part of the village of Plymouth.
The accounts of what then followed are somewhat varied and confused but this much appears to be certain.
Baker attacked the village and routed the inhabit- ants who, taken by surprise, were not prepared for conflict and being in no condition to give battle, they scattered into the surrounding woods. Baker's men
4
HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
now proceeded to pillage and burn the wigwams: they then prepared to resume their journey without further delay. The Indians had now rallied and, as- suming the offensive, they attacked Baker's party, who were now in full retreat down the right bank of the Pemigewasset River. The Indians hotly pursued as far as the present limits of the town of Bristol. Here they appear to have given up the fight and turned back, leaving Baker's company free to de- scend the river unmolested to Dunstable, which they reached in safety and without the loss of a man.
Baker promptly put in a claim for a bounty for one scalp they brought with them, and as they claimed to have killed several other Indians whose scalps they were unable to obtain, they were, after some haggling, allowed by the Governor and Council of Massachusetts* twenty pounds as pay for two scalps and wages for the lieutenant and company from the 24th of March to the 16th of May, 1712.
The effect of this expedition was to break the power of the Pemigewasset tribe of Indians, and their fear of the white men caused them to migrate from the valley of the Asquamchumauke and join their brethren in the north, where they soon lost their iden- tity as a separate tribe, becoming merged with the
* See Journal, Massachusetts Legislature, 1712.
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5
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
Aroosagunticook or St. Francis Indians, who ranged northern Vermont and parts of lower Canada.
Thus was Baker's River discovered and named by white men and the Indians driven from its valley, which saw them no more, except when small parties on their way to or from the English frontiers passed through the region following the ancient route of their people through the northern wilderness.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, POWERS EXPEDITION IN 1754
It does not properly fall within the scope of this work to write at length of the bloody conflicts which raged along the frontiers from 1689 to 1760 and which are known in our histories as the French and Indian Wars.
These wars were, as has been well said, the Ameri- can phase of a European conflict, and the issue at stake was whether the French or the English would dominate on the continent of North America.
The struggle, lasting for about seventy-five years, with a few intervals of peace, reached a decision when the French army under Montcalm and the English forces commanded by Wolfe, stood face to face on the fields of Quebec on the memorable day in September, 1759,
6
HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
"When the bloody die was cast on the Plains of Abraham."
The result of the campaign was the death of both the illustrious generals and the defeat of the French army. Quebec City passed into the hands of the Eng- lish and with it, the remainder of the French line of defense and offense which extended as far west as the Mississippi River, crumbled and fell. The King of France, by the treaty signed in 1763, ceded to England allhis American possessions except Louisiana Territory.
The effect of this settlement was of supreme and far reaching importance to the English Colonists along the Atlantic seaboard as it deprived the In- dians of all power to make strong resistance to those who were eagerly desirous of moving further into the interior and settling upon the land which the Red men looked upon as their own.
Henceforth the Indians, struggle as they might, could only delay but not avert the passing of their lands and hunting grounds, and the places that knew them once were soon to know them no more.
As long as they were assisted and abetted by the French Nation, the Indians had successfully held the English at bay along a line which ran through New Hampshire from the Connecticut River near Charles- town, thence easterly to the Merrimack River a little to the north of Concord and so on to near the
7
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
banks of the Kennebec River in Maine. But it was now obvious the line could be held by them no longer, so making the best terms with the English that they could, which justice compels us to say were usually hard and ungenerous ones, they now mi- grated from northern New Hampshire and most of Vermont, leaving the field clear for the pioneers who were only too anxious to settle and exploit the north- ern and western wilderness, development of which territory had been practically at a standstill for the best part of a hundred years.
These few words by way of explanation show, let us hope clearly, why no settlements had been at- tempted in northern New Hampshire previous to the year 1760 and why, beginning with that year, towns were granted rapidly, surveys made and settlements begun, an emigration from the older towns in the southern portion of the state ensued, that lasted in all its force until the War of the Revolution broke out, which materially dampened the ardor of our pioneers and nearly checked further developments during the period of that conflict.
The way was now clear, so far as danger from armed resistance was concerned, for the settlement of north- ern New Hampshire and Vermont over whose terri- tory the provincial governors of New Hampshire then claimed jurisdiction.
8
HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
One other exploring expedition through the valley of Baker's River is entitled to more than a passing notice, it being that expedition under the command of Capt. Peter Powers of Hollis, N. H., having for its objective the exploration and view of the "Cowass Country."
The company was assembled at Rumford (now Concord) and Captain Powers' journal states on the date of Saturday June 15, 1754:
"This day left Rumford and marched to Contoocook which is about eight miles, and here tarried all night."
Contoocook was the present Boscawen. The com- pany continued to "tarry" at Contoocook until Monday, June 17, when they marched north along the river to the forks at Franklin, and then up the Pemigewasset about one mile and a half, and camped near the carrying place "and the whole of this day's march is thirteen miles."
On June 18 they marched over eight miles and de- toured somewhat to a little above the mouth of Smith river "to the long carrying place and there camped."
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