USA > New Hampshire > Carroll County > Tamworth > The Tamworth narrative (New Hampshire) > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26
Gc 974.202 T1.5h 1193941
NFA
Efurries ICH SCarrier
T.
-
-
TRE
N'Y Tiltan -
1
pp
A. Been
M' Trahisbury
1. H.Vier
.
1 KVE
' km there
GRENSULL
WEEDSMILLS
O Krown.
¿s Frust
> Symp At Sindlow
, Sier Gondsein
.
-
T. Ex Puse
HÀ
DGS
A Sorters
SH Andhis
I Liter & Bacher & Cas Daunor
& Bunker
-
"' Nullare ..
--
John Snuslk
Nl H. Quanby
Hillary
A Licebe
l'age Ma
N Fittam
Iatlas Brano
al Budgett
J' Duntbyt.
Bummer&
-
H Kendte
SOUTH TAMWORTH
Bip l'ension
Robert Kull
-
A Whileu
D SPILTICH
Drakter
· UYork
işteveriyor
NU. Stop
HIourt
Stunninges Volt
il ' Parrets
N
eryci
K Present
4 Break Thingle. Y 11
.
J. Beck
IN H I'Mum Stitula Afinam
" P Brente
A B. Hoyt.Keg
1
M Host ..
ERCORNER
Her:
:> S& p
K
WYodh . K Ante
.
W Stevens
-
.
x
Dnil Hart
come
Taylor
l'on
-
Hotel
.
I'm Harhelt
Cardszax
S Mar gh
CA
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
Xxx Nul
GEN
3 1833 01188 5305
s. Nichtern
1
Milarde:
TEDOF HER
E Fris
W. Hunt, 12 BeansHell
Deel
MADISĆ
River
H Chuk
Od Bercow
Hayes
Enunca Wentworth
Planners
& Magge .
I.l'Sunburn John Carrtner Town From
Il Erund Coconuto . M Cook
TAMWORTH
Schu Kerry
& Reberet.
.T Perkins K Bessell
OHATMAK
-- -----
WORTH CENTRE
Remich
DI Hamont.
D. Rager !!
.Som &Warten
JFSmith
J.E.Smith
Diabol
( Prrunt
Matton R
T
& & Multese
--
J. Few Blake
V.M.
K. Gibran
Film
(的教版
w.Cotting
duft).
-
-
OSS
MOU
---------------
Madison Plains
CookA
THE TAMWORTH SECTION OF THE CARROLL COUNTY MAP OF 1860
Sex Ede Brock
பதி
14.
." Mensen
IRON WORKS
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
mis
S
0
490:4 75
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/tamworthnarrativ00hark
The Tamworth Narrative
6
-
BOILER-FOR- PAUSUS-MILL
20 TOM
RB. SMITH
BOILER BEING TRANSPORTED FROM FREIGHT DEPOT UP TO PAUGUS MILLS
Eight pole hosses of Mudgett's and six leaders of Charles Smith's, all were bays. Ralph Smith stands on the sled driving the leaders, with Perley Grace; a man from Mudgett's handles the other reins from a seat on the boiler. All details of boiler and harnesses are historically accurate. While the team was passing through the village the snow melted, and the boiler was left on bare ground until more snow fell. To mark this spot between the Elwell house and the parsonage, the artist Ralph Smith indicated the Elwell house at the right, although space was insufficient. (See page 125.)
-
THOWT
SAUITA
SPORTED FROM FREIGHT DEPOT UP TO PAUGUS MILLS Mudgett's and six leaders of Charles Smith's, all were stands on the sled driving the leaders, with Perley Mudgett's handles the other reins from a seat on the boiler and harnesses are historically accurate. While through the village the snow melted, and the boiler ind until more snow fell. To mark this spot between the parsonage, the artist Ralph Smith indicated the ght, although space was insufficient. (See page 125.)
THE TAMWORTH NARRATIVE (New Hampshire) by Marjory Gane Harkness
SPONSORED BY The Tamworth Foundation and The Tamworth Historical Society
THE BOND WHEELWRIGHT COMPANY FREEPORT, MAINE
Copyright 1958 by Marjory Gane Harkness All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America by the Fred. L. Tower Cos., Portland, Maine Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 58-11266 In Canada, Burns & MacEachern, 12 Grenville Street, Toronto 5 Second Printing-1959
Southern 7.50
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
1
I THE BEGINNINGS
1193941
Chronology 8
The Setting 11
The Road In-John Dudley Begins Route 16 25
Town Boundary Disputes 36
The Hand of Satan-Jonathan Moulton 54
Basic Ingredients 60
The Care of Souls-Temperance 85
The Shaping Hand-Parson Hidden 100
"Interlectural" 113
II FIVE COMMUNITIES GROWING
Tamworth Village, the Growth of the Center 121
Readin', Writin', Cipherin' 152
South Tamworth: From Indian Trail to Through Route 166
Larkin D. Mason
181
The Western Hill 188
Chocorua: From Tamworth Iron Works to Cho- corua Village 202
The Pink Granite Cone in the Lake 221
Wonalancet: From Birch Intervale to Wonalancet 232 Dogs and Drivers 255
vii
III UNDER MULTIPLE ASPECTS
Off the Highways
275
War Echoes 285
Organizations
295
Business Adventure, with Philanthropic Over-
tones
White Mountain Camps 295
The Barnstormers 297
The Carroll County Timber Cooperative 299
Societies
Chocorua Grange 301
Tamworth Woman's Club 302
Tamworth Garden Club 303
Benevolent Associations
Tamworth Foundation 304
Tamworth Visiting Nurse Association 306
Sports Associations
Tamworth Outing Club 308
Chocorua Tennis Association 310
AUTHOR'S STATEMENT
311
APPENDIX: TAMWORTH'S CHARTER 319
INDEX 327
viii
List of Illustrations
The Boiler Goes to Paugus Mills
Courtesy of the artist, Ralph Smith
The Old Chesley House
facing
6
Chocorua Mountain 6
From color photo Pauline W. Crane
Oldest House in Tamworth Village 7
Photo by Francis G. Cleveland Chocorua's Curse George W. Hatch engraving from painting by
22
Bucking Stovewood at the Barn Photo by Scacheri
23
Early Wall
54
54
The Mill at Butler's Bridge Photo by Roland P. Carr
Swift River at Tamworth Bridge 55
Photo by Mary Osgood (taken 1910)
Tamworth As Yet Only Imagined 70
James Hersey's survey map
James Welch and Oxen 71
Photo by Harold I. Orne
Blacksmith Shop
86
Mill Crew at Hill and Waddell's 87
From an "instantaneous stereoscopic" view
Ordination Rock 102
Photo by James H. Breasted Jr.
Charlie Bennett 103
Photo by Roland P. Carr
John Elwell 103
Photo Sterling Art Studio (1896)
"Uncle" Paul Ross and William James Sr.
150
Photo taken about 1890
Roscoe Greene's Peddler's Cart 151
151
Ed Currier's Racing Cutter
166
Rogy Elias and Herb Gilman Photo by Roland P. Carr
Snow-Plowing Today on Ferncroft Road
166
ix
frontispiece
Thomas Cole
The Brick School, about 1893 Photo by W. C. Rideout Larkin D. Mason 182 182
facing
167
South Tamworth Methodist Church Photo by F. G. Cleveland
Henry Kelley 183
Photo by Roland P. Carr
Grover Cleveland and John Finley Sr.
198
Augusta Stevenson 199
199
Lucy Bowditch and Guest 214
214
Huldah Staples Runnells 215
John Henry Nickerson and "Aunt Clarinda"
230
Tamworth Congregational Church and Barnstormers
Theatre 231
Photo by H. F. Damon
Our Lady of Perpetual Help
231
Photo by F. G. Cleveland
Wonalancet Union Chapel
Photo by C. E. Walker 231
Chocorua Community Church
231
Photo by G. W. Wickersham II
Katherine Sleeper Walden 246
Photo by Lawrence W. Scudder which won an award at a Chicago exhibition in 1940
247
Arthur Treadwell Walden
Chinook 247
Photo E. D. Putnam & Son
Chinook Team 262
Arthur Walden, Deep-Ploughing Wonalancet Intervale 263
Wesley Tewksbury Delivers Hay 263
Photo by C. E. Walker
Amanda Cogswell 278
George Washington Brown
Photo by Scacheri
279
X
St. Andrews-in-the-Valley, Episcopal Church Photo by H. W. Prince
Charles P. Bowditch and Others
"When you leave Tamworth in the fall, you hang up your soul along with your khaki trousers, and find them both rather stiff when you come back to them in the spring."
A youth in the twenties returning to college.
Introduction
A VERY SMALL TOWN has come here to be looked at, a town that has never thought to be the subject of a biography over three hundred pages long. Ever since 1830 its population has hovered over the one-thousand mark in spite of that pull of the West and of the cities that changed the face of all New England hill towns in the seventies and eighties. This means that it has never diminished to the point of losing its character or its continuity, never increased so as to cut down all the elms on Main Street or otherwise get out of hand. Moderation it has always favored. Innovation it has eyed appraisingly, making changes gradually and not for temporary reasons. In an America where towns today rush to conform to a common pattern called Progress, this alone sets slightly apart a town that has not done so.
1
TAMWORTH
Apathy, however is not the key to this behavior. The rugged terrain that gave rise to the abundant water power in the years before lumbering flashed and died, the same ter- rain that limited agriculture and fixed the course of the rail- roads and of the winding highways, dictated also the nature of those who set the molds for Tamworth. Jeremy Belknap whose delightful History of New Hampshire was brought down by him as far as 1791 winds up with a description of New Hampshire virtues that may have been not far out of the way in his time: "Firmness of nerve, patience in fatigue, intrepidity in danger and alertness in action, are to be num- bered among their native and essential characteristics," he wrote. "To be without shoes in all seasons of the year is scarcely accounted a want." "One who indulges in idleness and play is stigmatized according to his demerit," and more to the same effect. Indulge is a hard word in eighteenth century New England. Belknap applies it like a whip. In place of indulgence in "spirituous liquors" he points to that "extremely pleasant" beverage, spruce twigs boiled in maple sap.
A town with such an inheritance does not wholly lose it in the course of a few generations. Land which is officially divided for tax purposes into "arable, pasture, meadow, and swamp" asks as much of descendants as of ancestors. Until the dawn of the oil-burner every man "sledded" his wood in wristers and earlaps, while every woman was taking her wash- ing off the rocks in mittens and shawl.
The fibre was not only tough. In its first formative half- century Tamworth was held to the course of righteousness by a guiding mind that would have been remarkable in any period, not the usual gloomy disciplinarian of his day, but a leader who was joyous and friendly with the flock over whom he worked so ardently: Parson Hidden. By him his people were made not only religion-minded, but school-minded, pub- lic-welfare-minded, and above all book-minded. Was it usual for a town meeting to vote "to raise $300 school money more
2
Introduction
than the law requires," as was done in 1850? On the town's records are other gestures toward the fellow man: was it usual in 1841 to distribute surplus town revenue "to all females who in the opinion of the selectmen shall have had just cause for divorce" and therefore could be considered widows? In any case no other forest community still without roads set up in 1796 a library like those of the century-older towns of Ports- mouth and Dover, and studied the mighty books of the day: Locke on the Human Understanding, Hume's History of England, Burlamaqui on Law. The pioneers cracked a long list of such hard-shelled nuts.
Tamworth's "firsts" down to this day tend to take these cultural or altruistic directions. What else is it to reach the quota first in the state in several war-bond drives or Red Cross war drives, so often as to amount to a habit (in one such campaign Tamworth was the first town in the United States to go over the top) ; to receive the most frequent Garden Show awards in the state; to be judged best also in such a project as the school-lunch program; indeed to have the first serious summer theatre in New England lasting the longest - in all these unrelated efforts there is a thread of connection. No credit is taken for the largest fruit crop in the county, or again the largest maple sugar crop, as natural conditions did their part in these records. But where the mainspring is human, it is a very small town that wins first place so often. An in- tangible that should not be discredited is that five differing communities here have made one. This should result in a richer mixture and may have done so, whether or not the elements can be measured.
Therefore the would-be historian does not find that Tamworth fits altogether into the period framework of north- ern New England in general. When the era of the self-sus- taining farm unit passed with the coming of the railroads; and then when railroads encouraged the exodus south and west, and the Civil War took further toll of manpower, leaving many hill towns stranded on their rocks, Tamworth could
3
TAMWORTH
not quite be so described. The railroad, hailed as the para- mount blessing where it touched, came no nearer to Tamworth than four miles, and so failed to turn into an eyesore an other- wise blameless village. Yet it was near enough for marketing produce, so there was no stranding on the rocks either. Today when supplies are brought in by truck and trailer, those four miles become a precious asset instead of a liability. The end of the sheep-raising that was shared here with the rest of northern New England in the thirties and forties did not give a death blow to the economy, nor did the dairying that fol- lowed it take all the energies of local farmers only to disappoint them. Though Tamworth no doubt shared economic ups and downs with its neighbors, it has been spared the extremes. And when in recent history the winter business became a scramble, Tamworth was protected by having no resources to finance a monumental ski development. Its ills, in other words, have likely been some part of its blessings.
It must never be forgotten that there is one constant and ever-renewed yield of revenue. The mountains still grow trees. Essential conditions here are right for forest crops, better than for agriculture. Trees are not quick to produce, but long-term prosperity is assured to timber stands that are treated accord- ing to best forestry research. This is our own heritage, existing deeply in our soil and climate, unless lost through ignorant greed as threatened in the nineteenth century.
The greatest blessing of all has been much undervalued as sustenance. "Sure the mountains are pretty, but you can't get your living off them" is a common saying. This opinion must be disputed. There is no more stable and inevitable source of an immediate living than the beauty planted as a free gift in these lower reaches of the White Mountains. In- directly but surely, whether the inhabitants like it or not, their main living must come from it. Farming, sheepruns, dairying, will never compete successfully with the greater enterprises on lands ideal for those purposes elsewhere. But in turn, the fertile plains of America will never receive those "thousands
4
Introduction
of visitors who bring their wealth hither and scatter it freely all along the fascinating pilgrimages" where mountains and lakes compound their appeal (the eloquence is that of the History of Carroll County, back in 1889). "Cultured taste has ever admired the scenery of Carroll County," states the same authority. The district will "continue to attract the best elements of society," prophesied Larkin Mason, one of its shrewdest sons, before the present century. All Chocorua Mountain has to do is stand looming above its lake, and real estate becomes a business, lumber products are a business, bottled gas is a business, stoves, refrigerator, oil-burners, and plumbing are businesses. Carpenters are in greatest request, painters, electricians, gardeners, the man with the bulldozer and innumerable other specialists are courted, to make no mention of the busy cash registers at the crowded counters of the stores in the villages. Those who are busy are very busy indeed. With intelligent imagination, and fair behavior in the farther world, more and more could be. There are still serv- ices unsupplied. There are still desirable people wanting in.
Even without hotels or sizeable inns, the summer home doubles the normal Tamworth population in the warm months. Summer houses now extend their use into winters too, and many owners end by joining the year-round familiar friends. Father Belknap had not thought of skis in outlining New Hampshire's future, but to young people of the nineteen forties and fifties skiing is integral to life. With it the full advantage of four miles from the railroad is reaped. That same absence of industrialization which caused disheartened emigration a hundred years ago is one of the attractions today. An old Gazetteer consigned Carroll County to outer limbo by calling it "sparsely settled," but this is the term of the motor- ist's intense appreciation when he comes in off the through routes. A mere two hours or so by express highway now puts the region into the category of reachable paradises. Here is Tamworth's real fortune, not known to the forefathers. May it not be known too widely now. A boom might kill the goose.
5
TAMWORTH
Some years ago two ladies were berrying together on an ex- panse of blueberry hill that reflected the sky like a blue floor. Combing a fat branch into a quick-filling pail, Mrs. Crothers sighed aloud to Mrs. Hocking, ""'Niggardly New England'!" A reputation for niggardliness can well camouflage some capital assets.
The most stirring aspect of the attracting beauty is the autumn flame spread with such munificence over hills and lakes. In this the chief factor is the rock maple which both altitude and soil particularly favor. To what extent the com- ponents of the earth create these effects of daring color is not fully known. A senior scientist from the Natural History Museum in New York during a summer here thought that the greater brilliance and depth of flower color observed by him in every small garden, as compared with those in New Jersey where he lived, might be directly due to the rock and minerals in the soil. At least the gala demonstration of the mountain October is beyond achievement by man. Nor did the pioneers select their pitches because of it. Descendants merely find themselves rich with a further unearned increment. Pray Heaven that no thoughtlessness may ever destroy it.
Mountain altitudes also conduce to climate. Just as un- comfortable degrees of heat in summer are so rare as to be negligible, so the winter's cold is a dry cold, not felt in the bones like the damp variety near the ocean. The famous clarity in the air not only makes the outdoor fall and winter brilliant to the eye but exhilarates the senses. Winds are mitigated by the mountain ramparts.
This book is written not for historians in high places but for reference and enjoyment at Tamworth firesides. It cannot be history in the exact sense of the term, because of the very scant original sources such as the true historian will alone take for evidence. A few documents pertaining to Tamworth are preserved in the State Papers. A few more are fortunately still in town archives. The bulk of the book is made from what other writers have written or from oral testimony out of living
6
=
THE OLD CHESLEY HOUSE on the Hollow Hill Road, type of all early houses
Vw!"-
CHOCORUA MOUNTAIN has only to stand above its lake.
OLDEST HOUSE IN TAMWORTH VILLAGE now the home of Forrest Ayer, Town Clerk
Introduction
people's memories, and everyone knows the unreliability of both these as fact. Readers must be warned to stop short at this point if no hearsay is acceptable, no secondary material worth attention. The writer believes in the theory that back of tra- dition there is usually a fact, and even that the tradition is often more revealing than the fact itself. This was expressed forcefully by a worker in religious education who rose in a contentious meeting not too long ago and said, "The Bible is a book of truth, a book of great truth. It is not a book of fact."
Every reader may have items in mind that would have supplied additional interest. Such omissions should be brought to the attention of the author or the officers of the Tamworth Historical Society, so that when the volume has become ob- solete and perhaps some day a new edition will be under preparation, a future worker will have fuller resources. The current data of today we have been at pains to leave un- approached, except when tied willy-nilly to some aspect of the past. The present too will take on in time the tone of an- tiquity and quaintness needed for the historical feeling.
Much more material has been brought together for this volume than could be put between its covers. The amateur history writer learns that everything has a bearing on every- thing else. In an ideal history nothing at all could be omitted that has ever happened on the globe. By this theory, every person living or dead is of significance in the life of every other in the ever dissolving and resolving life of the world. The hardest duty of the present writer has been to leave out. After all, the most that can be done is to gather a few pebbles here and there on what seems an endless shore, and erect a small exhibit out of these.
7
Tamworth Chronology
Battle of Lovewell's Pond; Indians defeated
1725
Town chartered
1766
David Folsom manufactures nails in Chocorua area
1770
Stephen Mason settles in South Tamworth
1773
Thomas Danforth's gristmill
1778
Petition for a "settled ministry"
1778
Freewill Baptist Church begun in Chocorua area
1781
Beginning of Tamworth Iron Works
1785
Ministry of the Rev. Samuel Hidden, Tamworth
1792-1837
Tamworth Meetinghouse erected
1793
Tamworth Library begun
1796
First fulling and clothmaking mill
1807
Larkin D. Mason, South Tamworth
1810-1902
Separation of church and government
1819
South Tamworth Methodist Church organized First meetinghouse built Rebuilt and enlarged
1860
The "Cold Year"-snow every month
1827
"Siege of Wolves" at Great Hill
1830
Chocorua Church completed Rebuilt
1884
Population reaches high of 1766
1850
New Tamworth Church completed and old meeting house moved to present site as townhouse
1852-53
Elder Runnell's pastorate, Tamworth Iron Works
1852-87
Last settlement of town boundaries
1859
Tamworth Dam swept away
1869
Coming of the railroad
1875
Wonalancet Meetinghouse built Rebuilt
1890
Chocorua Library begun
1888
Change of name of Tamworth Iron Works to "Chocorua"
c1890
Cook Library completed, Tamworth
1895
Runnells Hall constructed, Chocorua
1897
First Roman Catholic Mass said
1898
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Roman Catholic Church, Chocorua, built Rebuilt
1905
1942-43
Tamworth Visiting Nurse Association
1922
St. Andrew's Protestant Episcopal Church, Whittier, organized Church built
1927
The Barnstormers
1931
Tamworth Outing Club
1935
The Tamworth Foundation
1937
Consolidated Elementary School
1956
The Tamworth Associated Churches
1957
c1824
1832
1835
1880
1924
I
The Beginnings
The Setting
IN ATTEMPTING HISTORY, a starting-point must first be found. Should we begin the story of Tamworth with the Ice Age, when the glacier was dragging Ordination Rock and others of our big boulders to the random spots where they are now rooted, then retreating during eons more to leave them high and dry? Or do we skip to the discovery of our shores by white men, navigators in small ocean-breasting sailing ships out of Portugal, out of England, out of France and Norway, beating along our unknown rocky coasts? Among these was Captain John Smith, who wrote in his log that there were vast snow-covered mountains inland, perhaps not more than seventy miles. To him, making his headquarters on Monhegan Island, these were as inaccessible as the mountains of the moon. But returning to England he made a map and pre- sented it to Prince Charles, who promptly named the country New England and called it his own. Charles had never seen these territories so many weeks' sail over the water. Much less did he possess any real right or title to them, not even by conquest.
But man, who lives on top of the earth's surface and has to find his living off it, seems to have always believed that what he treads on belongs to him to do what he likes with, and he has developed great systems of law to support him in the conviction. James I and his successor Charles took up the matter of these far lands of New England with the idea of benefiting their kingdom. Knowing nothing of the nature or extent of the regions where the snow-covered mountains had been seen, and nothing of their value, with unruffled
11
TAMWORTH
assurance they began giving them away, in large vague chunks, to almost anyone who showed proper deference to their Majes- ties in asking for them. Parchment "grants" would be drawn up and signed by the King with a flourish and a seal, and henceforth loyal subjects believed without question that these far surfaces of the earth were theirs by absolute right.
As gold was the objective of the Spanish conquerors on the southern continent, so were precious stones and valuable minerals confidently expected out of New England. Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, adventurers who were on the hunt for riches of this kind, were the first to acquire "patents" in this region. The geography of these patents was of the most hypothetical nature and changed repeatedly as Mason and Gorges and their companions jug- gled them back and forth. But Mason is called the founder of New Hampshire (Encyclopedia Britannica), and it was about 1629 that he gave the name of Laconia to a loose unknown and unmeasured territory between Lake Champlain and the Piscataqua River. He died before laying eye on any part of it, but he farmed out, or thought he did, to one Hezekiah Usher the "mines, minerals and ores of New Hamp- shire for one thousand years," reserving to himself "one quar- ter part of the royal ores and one-seventeenth of the baser sorts." Deluded Mason, more deluded Usher! The "factor" was scolded for not shipping back iron ore as ballast, and was requested if there were not iron enough, "to fill the ship upp with stockes of cypress wood and cedar." Plaintively Mason wrote "The chrystall stones you sent [from Mount Wash- ington] are of little or no valew, unless they were so great as to make drinking cups or some other works. . .. Good iron or lead ore I should like better of, if it could be found. I have disbursed a great deal of money in the plantation and never received one penny." The obsession of New Hampshire's mineral wealth never left him.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.