USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Walpole > A history of Walpole, New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 50
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pole and Drewsville, this wider area being the same as is covered by the Walpole Fire Department today.
The territory now to be protected made it necessary to buy additional equipment to supplement the old Cadillac and Dodge trucks. In 1950, therefore, the Fire District purchased a Ford F 600 Farrar Pumper with a 500 gallons per minute capacity front end pump for $5000. This unit was the first piece of apparatus to be purchased with funds raised by direct tax assessment.
In order to be able to house the three trucks now in use, a new engine house was built in 1954 on the north side of Westminster Street in the heart of the village and is still in use. This new building provides ample space for four large fire trucks, has a watch desk, meeting room, kitchen facilities and fire whistle equipment.
A major step in the further improvement of fire fighting in the area took place in 1957 when the Walpole Fire District joined the South- western New Hampshire Mutual Aid System with central headquarters in Keene, N. H. This mutual aid makes it possible to obtain extra help and specialized equipment by asking for it by radio. Two-way mobile radios were purchased for this purpose for the Ford and Dodge trucks, the money being raised through the personal efforts of the firemen them- selves.
The joining of the Mutual Aid System made it advisable that Walpole obtain another piece of apparatus. This was done in 1959 with the pur- chase by the Fire District of its first custom-built fire engine for the sum of $19,500. This FWD 750 GPM rural pumper with a 500-gallon water tank, twin booster reels, a large supply of hose and equipment, including two-way radio, was built to specifications by the Farrar Company. Equipped with four-wheel drive and designed for hill climbing perform- ance, this truck has proved to be a very satisfactory unit. Similar units have since been purchased in the East by other fire departments as a result of the performance record of the Walpole truck.
Meetings of the Fire Department from 1935 to the present are held twice a month during April through September and once a month dur- ing October through March. The present district personnel consists of a Chief, Deputy Chief, 3 Fire Commissioners and a department limited to thirty men.
The Walpole Fire District has a very high efficiency rating and one of the best records for low fire loss in the State of New Hampshire. A few years ago Walpole, together with four other neighboring towns, were called to a Mutual Aid fire in a garage in Saxtons River. Later someone
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made the remark that "the Walpole engine was the third outside engine to arrive at the scene, but the first one to get a stream of water on the blaze".
NORTH WALPOLE FIRE DEPARTMENT
In December of 1886 the Selectmen of the Town called a meeting in North Walpole to "take action against fire." Five Firewards were elected. In April 1888 $300 was voted by North Walpole for purchase of a "hand engine" and $300 for hose. This was the old "Union" pumper which was typical of the engines of its day, operated by manpower on the cross bars. It was equipped with a full complement of leather buckets used to keep its tub full from any convenient water source. This pumper was housed at what is now the J & W store on one side of the building, the jail being on the other side. Long after this pumper was out of use and in disrepair, Atwell Greenaugh spent days repairing it and patching the buckets. However since that time it has been forgotten except that it is said to have found its way to a museum in Manchester. In December of the year when the "Union" was purchased the Firewards were authorized to or- ganize a Fire Company.
In 1902 the old pumper was moved to the then new Russell Hall. John Fitzgerald was the Fire Chief at about that time. In addition to housing the pumper, two rooms were set aside for use of the firemen and in the hall were held the annual Firemen's Balls for several years.
The next engine was the "Glen", a steam engine with a copper boiler. This was given to North Walpole Village in 1910 by the International Paper Co., having brought it from service in Berlin, N. H. At a special village meeting in January 1911 it was accepted with the provision that it be housed and maintained, sufficient hose (1000 feet) be purchased and a fire company of not less than 15 men be formed. It is recalled that if time were allowed to get up a full head of steam the "Glen" could throw a stream of water over the old town clock. It was drawn by two horses and was driven at one time by Harry Breslin.
Later in 1911 it was voted to leave the appointment of the Fire Chief and organization of the Fire Company to the Village Commissioners. In 1914 it was voted that until other arrangements could be made (prob- ably with Bellows Falls) warning of fire should be by ringing the church bell. In 1915 it was voted to install the first two fire alarm boxes.
The Ford pumper was acquired about 1924 and the "Glen" retired sometime after that. The big engine was bought about 1947 and the 750- gal. truck was obtained from Navy surplus in 1958.
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One of the earlier large fires was the saw mill which burned in 1896 or 1897. Another large fire was in 1914 when the C. J. O'Neil house near Ash Street burned down. There were four tenements in the house and a stable attached which housed a valuable race horse. As was the practice of the time, the old pumper was rushed to the scene and put into action while the "Glen" was slowly getting up steam. The old "Union," using in its tub water taken from one of the cisterns, had the fire nearly out but the "Glen" failed to take over in time. The "Union" is credited with saving the Kenney house nearby.
For information about cisterns and water mains used in firefighting see section on Waterways.
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Award S. andira 1962
Old Village Bridge, Early 1910
Chapter IV WATERWAYS
T THE CONNECTICUT RIVER flows the length of the west side of Walpole, its western bank, the boundary line, under dispute for many years.
CANAL (Based on Hayes' History of Rockingham 1907)
In 1792 New Hampshire (and Vermont) granted a charter to The Com- pany to Make Connecticut River Navigable. There were six falls on the Connecticut River which had to be by-passed by canals in order to make the river navigable, the first river in the country to be so improved. At Bellows Falls the drop was 52 feet. The first construction was promptly washed out by a freshet and subsequent efforts proved so expensive that the originators of the scheme never profited financially. It was not until 1802 that boats actually passed through the canal.
By that date there were already enterprises on the canal utilizing the water power. By 1812 there were two paper mills, two sawmills, two grist- mills and a cotton factory, all burning in that year. When the canal ceased to be used for transportation after the coming of the railroad, there were a gristmill, a paper mill, a railroad machine shop, a sawmill and a fulling mill.
In 1866 the original company was sold to Ex-Gov. S. W. Hale and E. F. Lane for an estimated $65,000. They sold 1871 to William A. Russell and
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others. Russell developed the water power, in 1875 widening the canal from an average of 22 feet to a minimum 75 feet, deepening it from 4 to 17 feet and building a new, higher dam, spending about $300,000. He sold the mill sites and leased the water privileges. In 1907 there was a total of 13,855 H.P. utilized.
Bill Blake started the first paper company here in 1802. His papers were made by hand out of rags. In 1870 when Wm. A. Russell started in the paper business, he had an eye on the power and there was already thought of using wood pulp. In 1872 Russell consolidated his interests into the Fall Mountain Paper Company which in 1898 was merged into the International Paper Company, having at that time a capacity of 4,- 500,000 ft. By 1907 they were using 15,000,000 ft., largely spruce. This was, through the early years, floated down the river in the log drives.
These developments on the canal have had an influence on Walpole. One of the striking effects has been the development of North Walpole as a home for the workers in the paper mills. The power developments have brought certain complications. Of course the real estate along the canal belonged in the State of Vermont, but who had a right to tax the water power and when taxed, should the owner of the power or the lessee pay the tax?
NEW HAMPSHIRE-VERMONT BOUNDARY LINE
(Bellows Falls Times March 26, 1908)-"At Town Meeting Rep. Charles J. O'Neil demanded that the selectmen tax parts of the big Inter- national Paper Company's plant, the Robertson & Son's plant, the Moore & Thompson Paper Company's plant and any other property on the Vermont side of the Connecticut River which is situated beyond the point where the bank breaks and vegetation ceases. He promised to pay all costs of a lawsuit in the Supreme Court providing the town of Wal- pole reimbursed him if his contention proved correct. The town officers were authorized to use so much of the contingent fund as necessary to determine the boundary line between New Hampshire and Vermont. Leading Concord attorneys were engaged. The results could affect prop- erty the length of the river between the states."
More than 100 years earlier, January 1, 1782, the Vermont Assembly voted (in order to establish peace) "That the west bank of the Connecti- cut River shall be considered as the east boundary of Vermont".
December 29, 1794, the New Hampshire Legislature passed an act pro- viding that the northerly and southerly lines of each of the several towns in this state adjoining Connecticut River "shall be considered to con-
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tinue and extend across said river to the westerly line of this state, which line is hereby declared to be the westerly boundary of this state".
In 1834 Gov. William Badger of New Hampshire approved an act of the General Court declaring the westerly bank of the Connecticut to be the boundary of this state. The popular idea for many generations was that the line was at low water mark. Consequently all property on made land, ledges and beaches, below the general bank, had been considered in Vermont.
According to lawyers whom Rep. O'Neil consulted, the New Hamp- shire courts had decided that the boundary was above the beach at the point where the land breaks toward the stream. The property on the Bellows Falls side of the river under dispute was, at the lowest estimate, worth $6,000,000.
Rep. O'Neil said "My lawyers' words give me little doubt but that our contention is correct. The fact that a New Hampshire river furnishes the power practically without recompense for turning the Vermont mill- wheels, not only here, but the whole length of the state, first led me to investigate the question."
Following O'Neil's suggestion, Walpole attempted to tax those using power on the canal. Taxes were paid under protest beginning in 1912 and the matter went to the courts. A settlement was finally reached in 1923. (See TOWN BUSINESS.)
Following is a report of the final settlement of the boundary dispute between New Hampshire and Vermont.
The State of Vermont was early claimed under their original grants by both New Hampshire and New York. Even after Vermont was set up as a state there was protracted dispute over the boundary between New Hampshire and Vermont.
In late January 1933 (reported New York Times February 5, 1933) Special Master in Chancery Edmund F. Trabue filed with the Supreme Court his findings in regard to the boundary line between New Hamp- shire and Vermont. By its acceptance of the findings the Court settled a dispute which had continued for 150 years. The action in chancery was brought in 1912. When Senator Austin presented the case in 1927 he said, "Vermont's claim is, first, the boundary line is the middle of the stream; or, second, if it is not that line, then it is the ordinary mark made by water on the west bank."
New Hampshire held to the high water mark on the west bank and tried to tax some property on the Vermont side of the river under that claim. Vermont protested and started the suit in 1912. Later, after the
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evidence was practically all in, New Hampshire amended its claim and sought to establish the boundary line at the top of the bank on the Ver- mont side of the river, which would have taken in even more property.
The findings of the special Master placed the boundary line at the low water mark on the west bank of the river. He defined low-water mark as "the lowest point to which the river receded at its lowest stage," and again, "the lowest point on a river bank exposed in any recorded state of the water."
Vermont felt that she had gained "the major part and the greatest value of the territory in dispute," while New Hampshire's former Attor- ney General Ralph Davis considered it "substantially a complete victory for New Hampshire."
Available at the N. H. State Library is a copy of the "Supplemental Report of Samuel S. Gannett, Special Commissioner, ordered by the Su- preme Court Dec. 21, 1936, being a Description of the Traverse Reference Line, Together with an Index Map of the Boundary Line" Dated Jan. 14, 1937. This is in addition to a report filed Nov. 23, 1936. Original notes and computation books of the survey of the line and all original exhibits of this cause are filed with the Clerk of the Supreme Court.
The taxation problem has been resolved. Walpole taxes the dam in the river.
MODERN POWER DEVELOPMENT
1922 marked the end of an era at the falls. Following a series of labor troubles, climaxed by a bad strike in 1921, the International Paper Com- pany sold its holdings to the new Hydro-Electric Company and removed to Three Rivers, Quebec. For twenty-five years life on both sides of the river had revolved around the shifts at the paper mill, the whistles at 7 A.M., noon, at 12:45 and 1 P.M.
In 1912 control of the Bellows Falls Canal Company and the Fall Mountain Electric Light and Power Company passed from the Russell family to Chase & Harriman of New England Power. The Fall Mountain Company, organized 1900, was by 1908 one of the largest dealers in light, heat and power in New England, still obtaining its power from the old Bellows Falls Canal Company and the steam plant on the island.
In 1926 the new Hydro-Electric Company began to clear away the old mills "under the hill" along the canal and to buy up flood rights along the river in anticipation of building the new power station and dam. The new station when completed had three turbines, each 20,000 H.P. The canal was enlarged and improved, 100 ft. brim to brim, paved with
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cement, sides protected with rip-rap set in cement framed bays, with a capacity increased from 1,000,000 gals. per minute to 4,200,000. Nine months of the year it takes all of the water from the river, leaving the Falls dry. The new dam was 11 feet higher than the 1908 dam. The two roller gates are horizontal steel cylinders, each 121 feet long, 13 feet in diameter and weighing 200 tons.
In 1948 the New England Power Company was authorized to buy the Bellows Falls Hydro-Electric Company for $8,650,000. It is now the Fall Mountain Division of the Green Mountain Power Corporation.
Generation at this station averages 214,000,000 kilowatt hours annu- ally. It is tied in with the interconnected transmission network of the New England Electric System.
INDIAN SCULPTURES
Just south of the west end of the Vilas Bridge there were in years gone by two or three large rocks on which were cut so-called Indian faces. By 1906 they were nearly obliterated. A portion of them was covered when the branch line to the paper mill was built from the railroad yard. This was about 1885. Others were concealed by cinders dumped from the boilers; and still others were destroyed by the frequent blasting of the river men to improve the channel.
These faces were crude petrographs cut in the coarse granite. In 1792 Belknap made no mention of them in his History of New Hampshire, although he described the surroundings in detail. However, in 1858 Ken- dall in the History of Eastern Vermont described them as being there in 1807-8. In 1802 the canal had been built, causing the water here in the main channel to be lower at certain seasons and exposing a greater surface of the rocks.
Curtis Phelps in his 1961 essay raised the question whether these petro- graphs were carved by Indians since they "appear not so much primitive, but more what an unschooled person might have thought appeared primitive". For more detail see the History of Rockingham.
FISHING
Fishing in the Connecticut River is well described in Hayes' History of Rockingham. When the white settlers arrived at the Great Falls, the In- dians had been coming great distances for generations to fish here. The most abundant fish in early times were the salmon and shad which came in April and May from the Atlantic up the Connecticut to spawn. The building of dams across the river stopped these fish from coming as far
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north about 1800. As long as salmon and shad were taken here in market- able quantities, the Connecticut River brands of both species commanded a fancy price, owing to their good size and delicate flavor.
Fishing on the river is now done for pleasure. The largest and best fish, in recent years, is the pike.
FERRIES
In 1773 Benjamin Bellows was granted the sole right of keeping a pub- lic ferry for one mile north and one-half mile south of where he was then operating a ferry. (State Papers of New Hampshire-Batcheldor Vol. 25 P. 600) This was probably somewhere between Cold River and the Vil- lage Bridge. In 1786 he received another charter for a ferry from the Westmoreland line north three miles.
In 1774 one Wright was operating a ferry on the river somewhere near the Whitelight plant in North Walpole. In 1797 Josiah Gates had a ferry at some place on the river.
In 1792 John Bellows was given a ferry privilege between the two pre- vious Bellows' grants. This was operated by Salmon Bellows who lived with his wife "Aunt Lydia" nearby. Mrs. Emily Barnes wrote: "At one time there was a violent northeast storm, the wind blowing a gale, when the stage from Boston, full of passengers, came to be ferried over to Vermont.
"He (Salmon Bellows) took the oars at the head of the boat, while a new hand rowed at the stern. When they got into the current, which was very strong, and some distance from the opposite shore, they began to drift rapidly down stream, while the wind threatened, at each gust, to overturn the carriage. The passengers were in a great fright, but Uncle Salmon, whose self-possession was proverbial, assured them, if they kept quiet, he would land them in safety. He then called upon a man to assist at the oar, for he was himself getting exhausted; it was much harder row- ing up-stream than floating down.
"Aunt Lydia stood on the river bank all this time, watching the terri- ble, and, to her, uncertain struggle; she at last had the satisfaction of see- ing them landed at the proper place in safety, and then betook herself to the house, and piled on the wood for a hot fire, ready for him when he should come in, as he did after another perilous pull on his return trip, wearing the same composure as though nothing had happened, and mak- ing no remark until she said, 'You've had a terrific pull, Salmon!' To which he only answered, 'Yes, kinder tough; but I cared more for those poor women! They had an awful scare, Liddy.'"
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The suggestion that the ferry that Salmon Bellows tended was near the brook south of Melvin Ramsay's (#229) agrees with the deed for the Amos Butterfield place, with the Bellows Genealogy which puts it about 3/4 miles below the village, and with Jonathan Royce's survey of the town made in 1806. This was probably John Bellows' land when ferry rights were granted to him by the legislature.
LOG DRIVES AND BOATING ON THE RIVER
It is said that logs for masts for the English navy were floated down the Connecticut River as early as 1732, before there were any settlements in this area. One often comes across notes that trees were marked with the "broad arrow" to be left until needed for this purpose. It was a capital offense to cut a tree so marked.
We find in the state records June 24, 1814, "an act authorizing Josiah Bellows 2nd to float pine timber down Connecticut River, south of all dams and canals on said river ... to float down unmolested to the Massachusetts line any time April 20 to December 1 except July and Au- gust, none to be put in above Walpole Village Bridge, and none but his own; any timber deposited on land belongs to the land owner unless re- moved within 10 days, and Bellows is liable for damage; before putting in he must give bonds to the owners of the Westmoreland and Hinsdale bridges." It was at about this time that the timber was cut on the Boggy Meadows.
In 1833 there is a record of Nelson Paul rafting white ash plank in the Connecticut River against Dunshee's land-probably sawed at Dunshee's mill on Great Brook and hauled to the river bank.
In 1838 there was a landing at Zachariah Carpenter's, probably not far from the mouth of Cold River. Lumber and "shooks of staves" were shipped down river from here. (A shook of staves is a bundle of staves and headings for a hogshead.)
We also find the following in 1838 "Pine and hemlock mostly manu- factured for taking down the river to market and now lying in Walpole, a part in the millyards, a part in the highway near Thos. C. Drew's, part near Gardner Watkins, remainder at the landing near Zachariah Car- penter's." (Record of Conditional Sales)
Lumber to be sent downstream was made into rafts or carried on flat boats. The rafts were made up of six "boxes" which could be taken apart to pass through the canals. Rafting ceased about 1852.
After the process for making wood pulp into paper was perfected (1870's), many million feet of logs came down the river from the northern
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woods in "drives", some for the mills at Bellows Falls, some for the mills downstream. August 25, 1883, a charter was granted to the Bellows Falls Boom Company (George Van Dyke et al.) "to erect and maintain booms and piers in and across Connecticut River from the dam of the Bellows Falls Canal Company for two miles upstream, also side or branch booms where necessary and to attach to the bank for the purpose of stopping, as- sorting or securing logs, masts, spars and other lumber floating down said river and said booms to be provided with sufficient and suitable assorting gaps; not to interfere with the reasonable use of the river as a public highway." Piers were put in nearly to South Charlestown January 1893, and probably also earlier.
The previous year in June, high water had broken the boom at Bellows Falls, letting the logs down river, and piling them up against the bridge at Brattleboro. The Fall Mountain Paper Company lost 3,000,000 feet which they sold downstream, then bought replacements from the Tur- ners Falls Lumber Company.
From newspaper items we cull the following:
July 1873 the water was too low for the drive to be completed, there was a jam of 2000 logs at Walpole Village Bridge.
July 17, 1890 "the logmen had folded their tents and gone downstream. Forty horses and 84 men make a busy scene on the river as the logs are rolled and dragged into the current."
In June 1891 the river was the fullest ever of logs and in August 1891 the Fall Mountain Paper Company commenced hauling logs from the river, using two steam engines and two slips, taking until December to raise the immense pile in North Walpole.
June 15, 1893, "the advance guard of logmen has arrived and boomed the river above the falls. A few logs have come down, sluiced over the dam and run the falls. This year year 70,000,000 feet, largest drive ever; no bother from low water, few bad jams. If the present high water con- tinues the logs will all be over the dam by July 4. Part of the drive this year is what was left up north last year because of low water. The Fall Mountain drive held back until all the Connecticut River logs are past, will not start for several weeks." At the same time it was reported in the Gazette that the dynamiting of jams at the Falls could be heard at Walpole, that it was quite a sight to see them come over the dam, and that there was plenty of spruce gum.
July 13, 1893, there appeared in the Times an article entitled "Among The Logmen." The following are notes from that article:
"The camp is at North Walpole (they sometimes camped below the
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bridge at North Walpole, sometimes near the Village Bridge in Walpole). The term Wangan is an Indian word first used to denote the large boat in which the supplies and camp equipage were carried, the term now refers also to the camp.
"When the ice breaks up in the spring the logs are on the banks of small streams running into the Connecticut. Since all drives must start at once to consolidate as soon as possible, a large force of men is necessary-600 at the beginning, as drives are connected the force reduced to about 230.
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