Gazetteer of Grafton county, N. H. 1709-1886, Part 36

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Company, Printers
Number of Pages: 1266

USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Gazetteer of Grafton county, N. H. 1709-1886 > Part 36

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In 1880 Easton had a population of 302 souls. In 1885 the town had three school districts and seven common schools. Its three school-houses were valued, including furniture, etc., at $2,503.00. There were fifty-five chil- dren attending school, taught during the year by five female teachers, at an aver- age monthly salary of $15.80. The entire amount raised for school purposes during the year was $312.00, while the expenditures were $261.50, with Josie W. Whitcher, superintendent.

EASTON (p. o.) is a hamlet located in the northern-central part of the town. It has two saw-mills, two blacksmith shops, a paint shop and six or eight dwellings. About the year 1857 a Union church was erected here, but it is at present without a pastor.

WILDWOOD (p. o.) is the romantic name given a hamlet located in the southern part of the town, comprisingthree saw-mills and six or eight dwell- ings.

The Easton Lumber Co's saw-mill, located at Wildwood, is operated by water-power, furnishes employment to twenty-five men, and is fitted with machiney for the manufacture of board and dimension lumber, shingles, clap- boards, etc., cutting about 1,500,000 feet of lumber per year.

Whitcher & Kendall's saw-mills, located at Wildwood, one on road 4 and one on road 12, are operated by water-power, and are fitted with machinery for manufacturing dimension timber, shingles, clapboards, etc., with the capacity for turning out 500,000 feet per year.

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TOWN OF ELLSWORTH.

Noyes & Lawson's saw-mill, on road 13, cuts about 250,000 feet of lum- ber per year.

Otis Brooks & Son's saw-mill, at Wildwood, is fitted with board and bench- saws and cuts 175,000 feet of lumber per annum.

Rufus W. Young's steam saw-mill, on road 7, is fitted with machinery for the manufacture of dimension timber. bobbins, sheathing, etc., and cuts about 200,000 feet per year.

C. A. Young's saw-mill and bobbin factory, on road 4, is operated by both steam and water-power, manufacturing boards, lath, shingles and bobbins.

Daniel Whitcher's saw-mill, on road 11, managed by G. A. Glines, cuts about 200,000 feet of timber per year.

As Easton was for so many years a part of the township of Landaff, its history is necessarily identical with that of that township. The precise date of the first settlement made in the territory now included with the limits of the new township is not known, though it probably occurred in 1783, Nathan Kinsman being the first settler. The State granted him 600 acres of land here, consequently he cut a rude path through the forest from Haverhill to the spot where C. H. Merrill's house now stands, moving his goods over this road with six mules. Here he erected a rude log house, which, a few years later, was burned, and he then built a block-house on the same site, which was long known as " Kinsman's mansion." It contained a stone fireplace which would hold six five-pail kettles, the wood being drawn into the house by a horse. Mr. Kinsman died in this town on February 8, 1822, aged eighty-one years. His son's widow, Mrs. Peter Kinsman, is now living in Landaff at the age of ninety-nine years.

Stephen Shattuck moved into the territory in 1802, and resided here until his death, November 11, 181I.

Among the other early settlers were Asa Oaks, John Whitcomb and Joshua Kendall, of Winchester Mass.

The first item in the book of town records is as follows :

" JANUARY IST, 1877.

" The subscribers, met at Timothy B. Young's, in Easton, and organized by choosing G. W. Cogswell, chairman, and Timothy B. Young, clerk, for the purpose of warning a town-meeting to organize the town of Easton, agreeable to an act of the New Hampshire Legislature, and approved July 20, 1876.

" G. W. COGSWELL,

" WINSOR DRURY, JR., " TIMOTHY B. YOUNG."

E LLSWORTH lies in the central part of the county, in lat. 43º 54', and long. 71° 48', bounded north by Woodstock, east by Thornton and Campton, south by Rumney, and west by Warren. It was originally granted to Barlow Trecothick, May 1, 1769, and bore the name of Trecothick 16*

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TOWN OF ELLSWORTH.

until its incorporation, June 16, 1802, when its present name was substituted. In the charter deed the township is bounded as follows :-

" Beginning at a beach tree standing at the northwest corner of the town- ship of Campton, thence running west 5° east by the township of Thornton five miles and three quarters, to a red birch tree standing at the southeast corner of the township of Pealing ; thence north 59° west to a red birch tree standing at the northeast corner of the township of Warren ; thence running south 24° west six miles to a maple tree standing at the northwest corner of the township of Rumney ; thence turning off and running south 64° east seven miles and 210 rods by said township of Rumney, to a beach tree standing at the northwest corner of the township of Campton, the place of beginning."

These boundaries thus gave the town an area of 24,957 acres, considera- bly more than it has now, its area only being about 16,606 acres. Topograph- ically considered, this is but a romantic hamlet situated high up in a great basin among the hills, isolated from the rest of the world, and full of tarns, brooks and mountains. Ellsworth pond, in the southeastern part of the town, contains about one hundred acres, and affords a fine mill stream called West Branch brook. Moulton brook, from Warren and Buzzell brooks, flows into this pond. One of the three Glen ponds is on the western boundary, and a portion of Stinson pond on the south line. Stinson brook flows. through the west part, and in the northern part is Kineo brook and Hubbard brook, an affluent of Hubbard pond, in Woodstock. Mt. Kinco, 3,557 feet high, so-called from an Indian chief, is in the center, and Black hill, formerly a great place for Moose, is in the valley between Mt. Kineo and Mt. Carr. In the south part is a portion of Stinson mountain.

Ellsworth, though a popular resort for the summer tourist, hunter and fish- erman, affords little good farming land, its soil being hard and untilable, and the greater part of the territory covered with forest. It has no village, and has no postoffice.

In 1880 Ellsworth had a population of 209 souls. In 1885 the town had two school districts and two common schools. Its two school-houses were valued, including furniture, etc., at $605.00. There were sixty-four children attending school, taught during the year by four female teachers, at an aver- age monthly salary of $21.50. The entire amount raised for school purposes during the year was $177.03, while the expenditures were $181.60, with David R. Buzzell, superintendent.

The first permanent settlement was made here by Jonathan T. Downing, from Gilmanton, in 1790. He located off road to, upon the farm now occupied by his grandson, Ira C. Downing, and his son Jonathan was the first white child born in the town. In the spring of 1791 the settlement was increased by the arrival of Benjamin Hill, Francis Avery and Gideon Hill, and in the autumn by Daniel Craig. From this ti.ne, however, the set- tlement must have been slow, for in 1800 the census report only shows a pop- ulation of forty-seven souls.

This vicinity was a favorite hunting resort of the Indians, as the frequent

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TOWN OF ENFIELD.

discovery of relics testifies. The chief Kineo, from Kunnawa, meaning the bear, it is said, hunted upon the mountain which now bears his name. In the neighborhood of Stinson pond are found numerous ores and minerals, and on some of the streams gold has been found.

John Buzzell, from Thornton, came to Ellsworth about 1811 and settled , on road 4. In the following year he moved to road 2, where David R. now lives, and where he reared a family of five children-Lucy, Silas, Sally, John and David R. The latter, who still occupies the homestead, is one of Ells- worth's most influential citizens.

The Ellsworth Free Will Baptist church was organized about 1799, and Rev. Israel Blake was its first pastor. In 1824 a church building was erected, which, with repairs made in 1860, is now valued at $1,000.00, and will seat 200 persons. The society has thirty-eight members, with no regular pastor

E NFIELD, one of the southern frontier towns of the county, lies in lat. 43° 36' and long. 72° 7', bounded north by Canaan, east by Grafton, south by the county line, and west by Lebanon. As the causes which led to the granting of this and several townships in the vicinity on the 4th of July, 1761, are reviewed in connection with the sketch of Lebanon, we will simply recapitulate here that after the destruction of Louisburg, in 1758, William Dana and three companions, Connecticut soldiers, came across Maine to the Connecticut river, designing to follow it down to their homes. In passing through the region in the vicinity of Lebanon they found so much to admire and covet that Mr. Dana determined to secure a home here. Accordingly, on his return home he became instrumental in having a number of persons in the towns of Norwich, Lebanon and Mansfield, Conn., associ- ate themselves together to procure a charter of townships in the new terri- tory of the Connecticut valley. They formed two companies, though com- posed mainly of the same persons. One sought a charter of a town to be called Lebanon, the others proposed to call their town Enfield. The proper steps were taken, and on the 4th of July, 1761, the charter of Enfield was issued to the following proprietors :-

Jedediah Dana, Samuel Murdock, Jr.,

Lemuel Barrows,

Nathaniel Turner,

Philip Turner, Jr.,

Constant Southworth,

Elisha Clark,

Jabez Baldwin, Jr.,

Benjamin Hank,

Tephaniah Nichols,

John Birchard,

Jonathan Strickland,

Urialı Hanks,

James Lathrop, John Gilbert,

Andrew Campbell,

William Henpets,

John Lopell,

Joshua Handee,

John Saltere,

Jonathan Dana,

Samuel Foster,

Rufus Baldwin, Jr.,

Jabez Barrows, Jr.,

Ebenezer Lathrop, Jr.,

Huckins Storrs,

Silas Waterman,

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TOWN OF ENFIELD.

Elias Birchard,

Oliver Clark,

Jedediah Dana, Jr.,

Skiff Freeman.

Isaac Dana,

John Tracy,

Rev. Richard Saltere,

Asa Leffingwell,

Nathan Dennison,

Andrew Able,

Daniel Allen,

Samuel Esterbrooks,

Joseph Turner, Jr.,

James Dana,

Joseph Esterbrooks,

Judah Moore,

Silas Hide,

Jeremiah Leffingwell,

Samuel Butters,

James Hall.

Ebenezer Baldwin, Andrew Storrs.

Uriah Rogers.

Aside from these there were ten others, favorites of Governor Wentworth, living in Portsmouth and vicinity. In the charter deed the name is spelled "Endfield," though it was undoubtedly named after Enfield, Conn. As we have intimated, these proprietors were well-to-do inhabitants of Eastern Con- necticut, most of them of Windham county ; but only three of them be- came actual settlers of the town. The Governor in this, as probably in his other charters, secured to himself the lion's share-a select 500 acres, as marked on the charter map-and among other conditions required, under penalty of forfeiture, that the proprietors should "plant and cultivate" about 2,000 acres in the first five years, a condition that, interested as many of them were in the settlement of other new townships, they found themselves unable to perform.

In 1766, a few months before the five years expired, they dispatched John Salter, from Connecticut, to Portsmouth, to apply "to the Governor and Council of New Hampshire for a continuation of their charter, and also for an addition to said township," and renewed their exertions to settle the township. But it seems both their mission and their efforts substantially failed ; for two years afterwards, August 8, 1768, the Governor and Council, treating the Enfield charter as forfeited, re-granted "all that tract or parcel of land, known by the name of Enfield, to be known by the name of Relhan," to an entirely new set of ninety proprietors, most of whom resided in and around Portsmouth. And now began the "war of the charters."

The validity of each charter being stoutly asserted on the one side, and denied on the other, the consequence was that titles under either were ren- dered uncertain and insecure, and feuds and collisions occurred between the claimants under the one, and those under the other, in attempting to reduce to possession, and occupy the same land. The Relhan faction succeeded in securing an act of incorporation for the town under that name, passed August 18, 1778. This state of things was finally put an end to, however, mainly through the efforts of Jesse Jonson, Esq., who, in 1779, in connection with other owners under the Enfield charter, by equivalents, purchase and compromises, succeeded in extinguishing the entire claims under the Relham charter, thus leaving the Enfield charter undisputed and ending the "war of the charters," which had disquieted the town during eleven years, and retarded its settlement. By an act passed March 28, 1781, Jeremiah Page, Henry Gerrish and William Chamberlain were authorized to "run out and settle the

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TOWN OF ENFIELD.

lines of the township of Enfield, alias Relhan." On July 9th, or the same year, the committee sent in the following report :-

"WHEREAS, By an act of the General Assembly of the State of New Hampshire, passed on the 28th day of March, last, Jeremiah Page, Esq., was appointed with us, the subscribers, a committee to settle the lines and bound- aries of the township of Enfield, alias Relhan, and those lines and boundaries of the townships of Canaan and Grafton, which are, or may be, contiguous thereto, or dependant thereupon-pursuant to said appointment the sub- scribers have attended said business, and by and with the consent of all the parties, have performed said service in the following manner, viz .. Beginning at the southerly corner bound on the township of Lebanon, which is the south- westerly corner of the township of Enfield, alias Relhan, commonly called Sumner's bounds, and running south fifty-eight degrees east six miles and three-fourths of a mile, to a hemlock tree marked H. G. W. C. & C .; thence running north forty degrees and forty-five minutes east about five miles and a half, to a spruce tree marked as aforesaid, which is the dividing line between Enfield and Grafton, and is the northeasterly corner of Enfield, alias Relhan, and the southeasterly corner of Canaan; thence running north fifty-eight degrees west seven miles and sixty rods, to a birch stump, which is also the north- easterly corner of Lebanon, and the southwesterly corner of Canaan ; thence by the township of Lebanon to the bounds first mentioned.

"Boscawen, July 9th, 1781. "HENRY GERRISH, "WILLIAM CHAMBERLAIN, Com."

This report was not officially adopted by the legislature, however, until June 18, 1802, nearly a quarter of a century after the committee was appointed. On January 3, 1774, the act incorporating the town by the name of Relhan was repealed. Little change has been made in the town's boundaries as established by the committee of 1781, except that by an act passed January 13, 1837, a tract of land from Grantham, on the south, was annexed to Enfield. The town thus has an area of 24,060 acres, about 2,500 of which is covered by water.

The surface of Enfield is rather rough and broken, though not so much so as that of some of its neighboring towns ; neither is this roughness of contour sufficiently pronounced to seriously retard cultivation of the soil, as most of the hills are cultivated to their summits. But the town is noted for its diversified and beautiful scenery-its rivulets, lakelets, valleys and hills blended in a picture of beauty rarely excelled in its character. The northwestern and southwestern sections of the township are broken into quite abrupt hills, while diagonally through the center, between these broken sections, lies the broad valley embosoming Mascoma lake. High up upon the highlands of the southern part of the town lie three small lakelets, and just south of Mas- coma lies a fourth. In the southeastern part lies George pond, connected with Mascoma lake by Knox river. Crystal lake, about two miles in length, lies in the eastern part, between Choate hill and East hill, and at its outlet is the village of East Enfield. In the extreme northwestern part of the town, partly in Grafton, is Spectacle pond. Nearly all of the streams flow a north -

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TOWN OF ENFIELD.

westerly course, their waters finding their way ultimately into Mascoma river, which receives the waters, remarkable to state, of no less than twenty-five lakes and ponds.

Mascoma lake and the unrivaled water-power to which it serves the pur- pose of a reservoir, is fully described in connection with the sketch of Leba- non. From marks of a former shore running around it, and logs found a dozen feet below the surface of the plain, extending about a mile south, this beautiful lake would seem to have been anciently considerably longer, and some thirty feet higher than it now is, at high water mark, and its fall is sup- posed to have been caused by a disruption and lowering of its outlet in Leb- anon. At its head it receives, as we have said, a brook running from George pond through the Center village, on which stream are mills and factories. The other principal brooks are Bicknell's, flowing into, and Johnson's, flowing out of Crystal lake, on both of which are saw-mills. Mt. Calm, in the southern part of the town, is the highest elevation, while the others of note are East, Choate's, Jones, Shaker, Goodhue and George hills. The Northern railroad crosses the northwestern section of the town, with a station at Enfield vil- lage.

In 1880 Enfield had a population of 1,680 souls. In 1885 the town had fifteen schools districts, sixteen common schools, and one graded school. Its fifteen school-houses were valued, including furniture, etc., at $5,553.00. There were 260 children attending school-twenty-six of whom were pur- suing the higher grades-taught during the year by five male and seventeen female teachers, at an average monthly salary of $29.20 for males, and $23. 10 for females. The entire amount raised for school purposes during the year was $2, 192.31, while the expenditures were $2,277.00, with George F. Pettingill, superintendent.

ENFIELD is a handsome post village located on Mascoma lake and the Northern railroad, in the northern part of the town. It has a good water- power, furnished by the inlet to the lake. The principal manufactories are the grain mills of the Wyman Pattee, the tannery of Leviston Bros., and Huse & Berry's furniture shop. The village contains three churches (Con- gregational. Universalist and Methodist), a public library, about a half dozen stores of various kinds, the usual complement of shops, one hotel, a summer boarding house (Day Dawn House), and about two hundred dwelling. houses. Its pleasant and picturesque surrounding hill and lake scenery makes it a pleasant summer resort. The trim and tidy little steamer, " Nina," during the season makes daily trips from the village to the Lake View House, situated in a shady grove on the bank of Lake Mascoma, a mile or two away. The lake and streams in the vicinity afford good fishing. The hills in the vicinity afford grand views, and the well-made road pleasant drives.

ENFIELD CENTER, a small post village on Knox river, near the outlet of George pond, has one church (Union), one hotel, two general stores, a saw- mill, grist-mill, the Shaker sock and woolen factory, a carriage and paint shop, marble shop, broom factory and about 200 inhabitants.

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TOWN OF ENFIELD.

EAST ENFIELD is a hamlet nestled at the foot of Crystal lake. At this point there are fine mill-privileges-one of the finest water-powers in the county. The village was long known as Jonson's Mills, and was once the center of business of this and adjoining towns. Here were erected the first grist-mill and the first store in the town ; here resided Judge Jesse Jonson, and his old mansion, erected in 1803, is yet standing. Here, also, resided two other of the town's early and worthy citizens-George Conant, justice of the peace, the town's first clothier, and Capt. Richard Currier, whose residence, erected in 1800, is also standing. The village now has only half a dozen dwelling and one church, used occasionally by all denominations.

MONTCALM (p. o.) is a hamlet in a little valley among the hills in the west- ern part of the town. It contains a blacksmith shop and six or eight dwellings.

SHAKER VILLAGE is located on the western shore of Mascoma lake. This village is divided into what is termed three families, viz .: North, Center or Church, and South families. The village is located about midway between the two extremes of the lake, and they own all the land on the lake for nearly two miles. The plain where the village is situated is very narrow between the lake and the hill (which rises quite abruptly), but the soil is very rich and productive. Their real estate in lands embraces some 2,500 acres, and their fields and gardens give evidence of blessings, arising from their industry and care. The fraternity are agriculturists and mechanics. Aside from the common productions of New England farms for the comforts of the people, their products are garden seeds, medicinal roots and vegetables for the mar- ket, and from their work-shops thousands of brooms, pails, tubs, sap-buckets, hose and under garments are manufactured for sale, with a choice article in butter from their dairy, and from their medical department for sanitary pur- poses. several very useful medicines which have the sanction of the medical fraternity. Their buildings are modestly neat and built more for conven- ience and durability than beauty, although some of them have an expensive appearance, which is the fact. In 1837, the Middle family built a large stone building, four stories high, one hundred feet long and fifty-six feet wide. It is surmounted by a cupola, in which is a bell weighing 800 pounds. Every stone in the building is cemented and further fastened together with iron trunnels. The whole expense of the building was $35,000.00, and at the time of its erection it was considered the most expensive building in the state, except the State House. It is devoted to family use. There are some other very good buildings, among which is a large barn, one of the most con- venient in the State.

As to the origin of this society in Enfield, tradition has it that one Will- iams,* a convert to this modified Quakerism, then living in Grafton, the

* The leading men of the Shakers at Enfield at the present time claim that this version, in every particular, is not correct. They claim that Ebenezer Cooley and Israel Chauncy voluntarily, without invitation from Williams, came to Hartland, Vt., and from thence,

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TOWN OF ENFIELD.

town adjoining Enfield on the east, went to New Lebanon, N. Y., and in- duced two of the preachers of the Shaker society there, named Cooley and Chauncy, to return with him. We have the fact from a record made at the time. that on the 6th of September, 1782, these two men came to Joseph Flint's, Canaan, South road. and there preached ; but gaining no adherents in that town, they went into the adjoining one, Enfield, and there succeeded in making converts of some of the staid and respectable farmers and me- chanics and their families-among whom were James Jewett, Ezekiel Stevens, Asa Pattee, Benjamin Merrill and Zadock Wright, living on Jones hill, and the hill afterwards called after them, Shaker hill, on the northerly side of Mascoma lake. They remained on these hills, gaining some new believers, about ten years, till about 1792, when, effecting an exchange of land, they removed to the more fertile spot they have ever since occupied, with large additions on the southerly side of the same lake. For the first ten years they were not by their garb distinguished from the "world's people," as they termed outsiders. Six years after their advent, they are called in the town records of 1788, "Shaking Quakers," and the selectmen are instructed to petition the legislature, stating "their conduct," and the situation of the town, and asking for a remedy. At the start, like other new sects, the Shakers were exceedingly wild, enthusiastic and extravagant in their beliefs and relig- ious exercises. But after a time they gradually settled down into the sober, temperate and rational people they now are and long have been. They have always been remarkable for honesty and industry. Like the same sect else- where they hold their property in common, take on themselves vows of per- petual chastity, rejecting even the institution of marriage, and making dancing a part of their religious exercises. William Williams is said to be the person who introduced the two preachers. He was an honest, but eccentric man, who, after living many years in the society, left it, and continued to reside near it with his son William, a man of wit and worth, a deputy sheriff, land surveyor and town clerk. The old gentleman died at an advanced age, many years ago.

It is only for convenience and for better subserving, according to their ideas, the purposes of life, that they are divided into families, there being at the present time numbered in the society about one hundred and fifty souls. Their form of government is patriarchal ; there being one common and ac. knowledged head and center of authority, vested in their officers, males and females, both sexes having equal voice and equal rights as counselors, teach- ers and directors in all pertaining to things spiritual and things temporal,

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Gazetteer of Grafton county, N. H. 1709-1886, Part 36

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Company, Printers Number of Pages: 1266

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Company, Printers
Number of Pages: 1266