History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 110

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124

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Frederick W. Morton, born November 20, 1852, attended the town schools and Fryeburg Academy, and became conversant with business in his father's store, where he showed the qualities of a natural merchant. He was quick, attentive, courteous, and gentlemanly, a most rapid and accurate accountant, and a bright and pleasing companion. After his father's death he succeeded to the business in company with an uncle and brother-in-law, Jeremiah

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Lycur

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Farrington, they forming the firm of Morton, Farrington & Co. They were in trade some years before they closed up the business; then a new firm, Morton Bros. (F. W. and Charles F.), was in trade for a few years. Frederick was an expert penman, and was town clerk for some years. He was also selectman of Conway and chairman of the board. In 1887 he went to Massa- chusetts and purchased an express route in Boston, but in a week's time was seized with typhoid fever, from which he died September 2, 1887. The Saco Valley lodge of Odd Fellows of North Conway, of which he was a member, passed this resolution after his death : -

Resolved, That in the death of Brother Morton this lodge mourns the loss of a brother who was in every respect a true Odd Fellow, upright, generous, and ever ready to assist in the good work of our order. IIe was a friend and companion dear to us all, a citizen honored, trusted, tried, and found not wanting.

JOEL EASTMAN MORRILL.

Joel Eastman Morrill, son of Dr Robert S. and Betsey (Eastman) Morrill, was born at Canterbury, March 12, 1836. When he was eleven years old, his uncle, Hon. Joel Eastman, wished him to make his home in his household, and he came to Conway and lived on the beautiful farm which he now possesses as an inheritance from Mr Eastman. Mr Morrill attended the neighboring acad- emy at Fryeburg. During the Rebellion, in 1864, he was appointed assistant paymaster under Major John S. Walker (General Crook's Division), and stationed at Wheeling and Pittsburgh, and remained one year.

He married, December 25, 1863, Caroline, daughter of Isaiah and Ann (Walker) Warren, of Fryeburg. They have four children : Ruth E., Lucia, Mary, and Milton. The two oldest are in their third year at Wellesley. Mr Morrill is a Republican in his political affiliations, and a Congregationalist in his religious relations. A modest, unobtrusive gentleman, he has ever shrunk from public life, but in all ways has been more than ordinarily active in aiding educational and progressive matters in the community. All movements to advance the moral, intellectual, and physical well-being of the town and state are sure of his earnest advocacy and assistance.

HON. LYCURGUS PITMAN.

Hon. Lycurgus Pitman, son of Hon. G. W. M. and Emeline (Chubbuck) Pitman, was born in Bartlett, April 9, 1848. His early years were passed at home, and he received the school advantages his native town afforded. Possess- ing a fine musical taste and nature, his inclination was to qualify himself

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to become a teacher of vocal music, and he went to Boston and acquired his musical education under the instruction of the distinguished Prof. S. B. Ball, and on his return taught several terms with success, but was compelled to relinquish this pursuit on account of throat trouble. In 1870 he engaged in business at North Conway as a pharmacist, and has since resided here. Mr Pitman married, December 25, 1870, Lizzie I., daughter of Caleb and Emeline B. (Kenney) Merrill, of Conway. They have three daughters : Minnie E., Lena E., Millie I.

Mr Pitman is an active and leading Democrat. He has been a delegate to every state convention since 1869; numerous times to district conventions, and to the national convention at Cincinnati in 1880. He was nominated Septem- ber, 1886, as the Democratic candidate for state senator in District No. 2, embracing a part of Carroll and Grafton counties, in opposition to J. M. Jackman, and was elected, receiving 2,703 votes to Jackman's 2,035; scatter- ing, 153; making his plurality 673. He served on the committees on military affairs, claims, asylums for the insane, and judiciary. To this last committee was assigned the duty of investigating the charges of bribery made in the famous railroad controversy. In his political and official life, honor, equity, and devotion to principle have been his characteristics, and it is most probable that yet higher duties and positions will be worthily filled by him.

He has been prominent in Freemasonry since becoming a Mason in 1870. He has occupied nearly every office in Mount Washington lodge, has been three terms its master, and is in his second term of office of grand district lecturer for the sixth Masonic district. He belongs to these other masonic bodies : Oriental chapter, No. 13, Fryeburg, Maine ; Orphan council, Dover; Portland commandery, Knights Templar, No. 2, Portland, Maine; Aleppo temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Boston, Mass. On the termination of his third year's service as master of Mt Washington lodge, the brethren presented him with an elegant testimonial of their esteem - a magnificent masonic jewel. Mr Pitman has been a mem- ber of Independent Order of Odd Fellows since the reestablishment of Saco Valley lodge, and is a live factor in the Knights of Pythias, serving as district deputy two terms.

Mr Pitman is a public-spirited citizen, and many of the improvements and conveniences of North Conway are mainly due to his energy and enterprise. He organized the North Conway Water-works Company, and through his efforts their plan was brought to a successful completion. He was the origina- tor of the North Conway and Mt Kearsarge railroad, and is one of the direc- tors and clerk of the corporation. He has given much of his time and attention to developing the attractions of North Conway, and Pitman's Arch takes its name from him.

Mr Pitman is a genial, whole-souled citizen, and possesses the happy faculty

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of making friends ; that these are many is evidenced by the numerous testi- monials that have been presented him - one, a valuable gold watch and chain on his thirty-fourth birthday.

" He is a young man of great business ability, always ready to forward any enterprise that may be beneficial to the town or to the state. As a neighbor and townsman he is open-handed and generous ; no one, irrespective of party, ever called on him for assistance in vain. His circle of acquaintances, both in and out of the state, is large, and no one stands higher as a man, a citizen, and a gentleman, among his friends and intimates."

LADY BLANCHE MURPHY.1

OF the thousands that come to North Conway during the summer months, there are few indeed who go away without having seen the beautiful and grand sights " across the river." The lovely little Echo lake down at the foot of the purple granite cliff, like a sparkling gem set in emerald woods, the tremendous, sheer precipices of the Cathedral rocks, the symmetrical, harmonious, natural Cathedral, nobly proportioned and satisfying to the sense of beauty, carved by the Master-hand out of the solid rock of the mountain, the exquisite cascades of Diana's Baths, - all these are sure to be gazed upon and delighted in. But further along the same highway from which the roads branch off to the west of these famous places, it is still beautiful and attractive. Another tremendous, bold, wooded cliff, " Humphrey's Ledge," rises further to the north. The pine- wooded road that skirts its base is delightful. Vast beds of great brakes form a low though luxuriant undergrowth, and their spicy odor is mingled with the smell of the pines. It is truly the breath of the forest that you inhale. But there is no noticeable variety until one comes to a part of the road where, looking easterly down the high bank, a peaceful, level field can be seen through the leafy screen of the hard-wood growth that borders the road and bank there. A few steps further on it looks as though the road must bring up against the purplish, towering rock-form of the cliff. Here, all at once, and just in time, it seems, to save you from disaster, it dips down deep into a sweet little hollow where a huge, dying oak stands in the little gulf close on your right, along with the thick undergrowth, and on the other side of the hollow, and at its further boundary, there is a great living oak that grows in a way wholly its own. Back a little farther to the left is the cliff that you have but barely escaped. On up the rise beyond the hollow there is a little house on the right, the sight of which awakens many emotions. It is a quaint little house, brown and soft-colored, as rains and weather change houses to soft-tinted brown. It is of one story, and long and rambling, and there is a deep bay-window in it.

1 By Ellen McRoberts Mason.

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The fence along the front and the gateway are odd and pretty, made of the smaller branches of trees with the bark left on. There is a willow hedge that leads up to the door, and young willows are growing in clumps in the yard above and below it. White musk-roses grow there too, and pinks and sweet- williams bloom in the shade of the hedge. The grand and beautiful Humphrey's Ledge rises sheer more than four hundred feet, I suppose, just in front of the little low house, shutting out the western sky. It is dark there before four o'clock of a winter afternoon. At the rear of the house and north- ward is the pretty field. Here was once the home of Lady Blanche Murphy, the authoress, and the eldest daughter of the Earl of Gainsborough, and here she died.

It is a romantic story. The earldom of Gainsborough belongs to the proudest aristocracy in the kingdom of Great Britain. The family name is Noel. The founder of the family Noel, with Celestria his wife, was among the nobles who entered England with William the Norman. That king granted him vast estates for his services. Many of his descendants were men of dis- tinction. Since 1682 the Noel family have possessed the title, but it is within a century that it has passed to the present branch. The father of Lady Blanche was the second Earl of Gainsborough, and her mother, who died before she was twenty years of age, was Lady Augusta, the eldest daughter of the Earl of Errol. The Noel family estate is in Rutlandshire, England.

The late Earl of Gainsborough was a Roman Catholic and had a private chapel at Exton Hall, his place in Rutlandshire, in which divine worship was celebrated daily. One day there came to the manor, as organist, a winsome and fascinating young Irishman - plain, untitled Mr Thomas P. Murphy. But in place of title, the young musician possessed what is much better, and what in this instance proved ten times more powerful -great talent. Lady Blanche, from her interest in the chapel music, was brought daily in contact with the organist. In the most natural and simple way it came about that after service was over and the rest of the family had left the chapel, she would remain to practise the music with him. It is nothing strange that in the hours spent singing together after matins or vespers, the glad, young voices pouring through the chapel windows, making the old woods ring, - it was not strange that the young, enthusiastic Lady Blanche and the impulsive young organist fell in love with each other.

The marriage followed - a true love-match in an environment of old-world traditions and all the fixed and cruel prejudices of rank and high birth. The course the Earl of Gainsborough adopted on his daughter's marrying is shown by a quotation from a letter written to him by Cardinal Manning, and pub- lished in The Catholic World of October, 1881. six months after Lady Blanche's death : " Then came her marriage, the circumstances of which I then partly knew, and now know fully. It seems to me to have been the working out of

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the same turn of character. Your conduct at that time must be to you a great consolation now, for you showed signally a father's prudence till you were assured of what her happiness required, and a father's love in sanctioning her marriage, with your consent, from your residence. The loving and close cor- respondence which still united her to you, and you to her, when she left you, was worthy of both."

After their marriage the young couple came to New York. Lady Blanche entered the field of literature, and Mr Murphy took the position of organist at New Rochelle. In 1875 they came to North Conway. At that time the Rev. Frederick Thompson had a boys' school at the Three Elms, and Mr Murphy taught music there. It was one rainy day in the autumn of that year that the writer first saw Lady Blanche on the sidewalk. The recollection brings back a picture of a graceful little figure, wrapped in a gray waterproof, walking with quick, elastic step, and a fresh, rosy face, fair as a flower, framed in a mass of thick, golden-brown hair - Lady Blanche in her brave youth, with her sunny faith and never-failing courage.

She was an ardent lover of nature, and delighted in the grand scenery of North Conway and its vicinity : and so it came about that after the time of Mr Murphy's teaching in the school had expired, though they went away for a little while, they soon returned to stay.

Her life here was simple and sweet and brave and industrious. While doing a great deal of writing for the Atlantic, Scribner's Monthly, The Galaxy, The Catholic Review, The Catholic World, and also for English magazines. she yet did the most of her housework, and, with it all, she remembered the poor, the little children, all to whom she could give comfort or pleasure. Her interest in the dwellers of the mountain valley was just as real as her love of the scenery, and that was intense ; so making petticoats for babies who needed them, giving Christmas gifts to her poorest neighbors, or cooking dinners for children was just as much an outcome, a manifesta- tion, an expression of her genuine self, as were the long walks she made, the botanizing expeditions, the hours she passed in the open air and in the woods. Her life here showed forth that same spirit that Cardinal Manning bore witness to when he wrote: "The love of the people at Exton toward her expresses what I mean in saying that her heart and sympathies were always with the poor, with their homes and with their state."

She was always modest, almost shy, in the good she did. She made many plans for future good works in which some other person should seem to be taking the lead, while she, really the originator and chief worker, " would help all she could." Her conscientiousness in little acts in the little things which tell what a person's real character is was perhaps her strongest quality ; and she seemed always sturdily content and practical, and always merry in making the best of things.

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If she had lived, the benefit of her presence would have been felt in the years that were to come. But it was not to be. In the March of 1881 she took a violent cold that rapidly developed into an acute and fatal malady. She was ill only four days, and then, full of life and hope, never thinking of death, her words and thoughts the very last night of her life words and thoughts of kindness and loving care for others, she died. She was only thirty-five years old, in the full prime of remarkable intellectual vigor, and her success as a writer was steadily increasing.

She had not lived all the five years in her pretty house under the shelter of the Humphrey's Ledge ; but she had looked forward to owning her own home in the midst of the lovely scenery she so delighted in, and the last summer of her life she purchased the farm at the foot of the ledge and remodeled the house she meant to be her ideal home.

She sleeps now beside her mother at Exton in far-off England, but her memory blooms in the peaceful glen, as the few lonely flowers bloom before the house from which her bright presence is gone.

BARTLETT.

CHAPTER LXXVI.

Description - Scenery - Mountains - Rivers - The Saco - Incorporation - Grants - Lieutenant Vere Royse - Pioneers - Relative to a Bridge over East Branch - Roads and Bridges - Signers to a Petition - Andrew McMillan's Petition - Mills -Something Concern- ing Early Settlers - Names on the Tax-list of 1811.

Forth from New Hampshire's granite steeps Fair Saco rolls in chainless pride, Rejoicing as it laughs and leaps Down the gray mountain's rugged side; The stern, rent erags and tall, dark pines Watch that young pilgrim passing by, While calm above them frowns or shines The black, torn cloud, or deep blue sky.

Soon gathering strength, it swiftly takes Through Bartlett's vales its tunefnl way, Or hides in Conway's fragrant brakes, Retreating from the glare of day; Now, full of vigorous life, it springs From the strong mountain's cireling arms, And roams in wide and lucid rings Among green Fryeburg's woods and farms.

Here, with low voice, it comes and calls For tribute from some hermit lake; And here it wildly foams and falls, Bidding the forest echoes wake; Now sweeping on, it runs its race By mound and mill in playful glee; Now welcomes with its pure embrace The vestal waves of Ossipee.

-James Gilbourne Lyons.

B ARTLETT is a town of ruggedness and grace, of sterile, rocky mountains and rich, productive valley lands. It includes two mountain ranges, and is rich in picturesque beauty. Sweetser says: "One of the most fas- cinating prospects of the Saco intervales is obtained from the little church near Lower Bartlett. This view is best enjoyed towards evening, when the valley is flooded with sunset light, and then 'one might believe that he was looking through an air that had never enwrapped any sin, upon a floor of some nook of the primitive Eden.'" The East Branch, a rapid mountain current

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coming down from the Wild River forest and forming the deep valley separat- ing Mt Baldface from Carter range, unites with the Saco at Lower Bartlett. Less than a mile above is the mouth of Ellis river, hurrying down from Tuckerman's Ravine and Mt Washington, and tumbling ninety feet over Goodrich Falls. Rocky Branch, coming down a swift descent from the east side of Montalban Ridge, through Jericho, enters the Saco above about three miles. The western ridge of Mote mountain, Mt Attitash, and the interest- ing Humphrey's Ledge, with its peculiar opening, "Pitman's Arch," graces the southern side, while everywhere hills, mountains, and valleys give wonder- ful variety of scenery.

Bartlett is bounded north by Jackson, east by Chatham and Conway, south by Conway and Albany, west by Grafton county, Hart's Location, and Coos county. It has an area of thirty-eight thousand acres. The princi- pal stream is the Saco, and here it first assumes the attributes of a river. The "Saco river system " in this state drains eight hundred and fifty square miles -- one eleventh of the state. The distance in an air-line southeast from the head of the river beyond the Notch to the point of entry into Maine is twenty-five miles. By the windings of the river the distance is thirty-five miles. For eleven miles it runs nearly south, with high mountains bending in steep and gracefully curved slopes to form its valley. The next nine miles extend nearly east, through the level intervals of Bartlett to the mouths of Ellis river and East Branch. The river then turns nearly south and runs eight miles to the mouth of Swift river in Conway, from which point it flows east six miles to Maine line. It receives the waters of Swift river, coming from Waterville through Albany to Conway, and Ossipee river. flowing from Ossipee lake into Maine. As it passes out of the state it is from ten to twelve rods wide, with a rapid current. Owing to the rapid rush of waters down the mountain steeps in time of heavy rainstorms, it has been known to rise thirty feet in twenty-four hours.

The town of Bartlett was incorporated June 16, 1790, and named in honor of Josiah Bartlett, who was then President of the state. It comprised the following grants: The grant to Lieutenant Andrew MeMillan of 2,000 acres. made October 25, 1765; to Captain William Stark, same day, of 3,000 acres; to Lieutenant Vere Royse, September 6, 1769, 2,000 acres; Adjutant Philip Bayley, August 9, 1770, 2,000 acres ; and to Major James Gray, June 12, 1772, 3,856 acres. By an act passed June 19, 1806, the town received a grant of 600 acres of land belonging to the state, situated in the town of Adams (Jackson), 300 of which was for support of schools, and 300 for the support of the gospel; and by an act passed June 22, 1819, 50 acres was severed from Adams and annexed to this town. July 3, 1822, a traet of land belonging to Nathaniel Carlton was severed from Bartlett and annexed to Adams; and by an act passed JJuly 1, 1823, a large tract of land belonging to Jonathan MeIntire was annexed to the town. July 3, 1839, the farm of Nathaniel Tufts and Stephen Carlton. 2d, was severed from Bartlett and annexed to Jackson. January 5, 1853, the town was severed from Coos county and annexed to Carroll. June 30. 1869, a tract of land was severed from Chatham and annexed to Bartlett; and July 2, 1878, a small tract was severed from Hart's Location and annexed to this town. - Hammond's Town Papers.

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Lieutenant Vere Royse. - In 1769 two thousand acres of land, now a part of Bartlett, was granted to Lieutenant Vere Royse, for his military services. Lieutenant Royse was an educated seion of the Irish nobility, and a brave soldier in the French and Indian War. He was in command of a company at Braddock's defeat, and held his men until accosted by Washington with " Why don't you retreat, Captain ?" " I have had no orders. Steady, men. Make ready. Take aim. Fire!" "This will never do, Captain. I order you to retreat." " Attention, company. About face. March !" He was a great mathematician, was eminent as a surveyor, and left many valuable dissertations on mathematics. He was a signer of the Association Test in Conway, and his name appears on many petitions from this town. Later he was a resident of Fryeburg.

The history of Bartlett is devoid of wide significance ; its annals are marked by few conspicuous happenings ; but its beautiful and comfortable homes of to-day tell the story of the patience and perseverance of the few settlers who came to stay in the century and more ago. The very hard and unenviable lot of the worthy pioneers in this section can scarcely be imagined by their descendants. They fought bravely with adverse elements, lack of sufficient food, inadequate protection from the weather and the ravages of wild beasts. Previous to the Revolution two brothers, Enoch and Humphrey Emery, and Nathaniel Harriman settled in Lower Bartlett on land given them by Captain William Stark. In 1777, a few years after, Daniel Fox, Esq., Captain Samuel Willey, and Paul Jilly, from Lee, located north of the others ; their horses would not stay, but struck over the hills due south, in the direction of their old home, and it is said they perished before the spring. Hon. John Pendexter, with his wife and child, came from Portsmouth here very early and made his home in the south part of the town near the line of Conway.

By 1781 several settlers were struggling for existence, and it appears that the proprietors did not aid them as would seem fitting, if this petition to the General Court indicates the true state of affairs.

Relative to a Bridge over East Branch. The Humble Petition of The Inhabitants of a place called Starks Location & the Neighboring Locations Sheweth -- That they have been at considerable expence in Makeing Roads trough Said Location that there is a Rapid River on Sd Location called the Eastering Branch, Great part of the year unpassable that your Petitioners are unable to build a Bridge over the Same and have a long time Suffered and Endangered their Lives and properties for want of Sd Bridge That about two years agoe this Honourable Court did apoint Coll. McMillan and others as a Committee to Make or Repaire a Road through Sd Land in Conjunction With other Land, and Sell So much of Sd Land as Would pay for the Same that the Sd McMillan did take one Hundred acre's of the best Land of Sd Location to Himself for that purpose but hath not built Sd Bridge or laid out one farthing on the Road Wherefore your Petitioners Pray that this Honorable Court Will Take the Premisses in their Wise & Deliberate Consideration and Direct the Sd Mr

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Mc Millan to Make sd Bridge or otherwise as they Shall judge Proper -- and your Petitioners as in Daty Bound will Ever Pray Signed Thos Rickard in behalf of Himself and the Petitioners, Pickwacket, Sept 18th, 1781.

Vere Royse, Enoch Emery. Josiah Copps. Samuel Wooddes, Nathaniel Smith, Joseph Pitman, Benjamin Copps. Richardson Emery, George Wooddes, John Pondexter, Humphrey Emery, Thomas Spring, Peter Collin.

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History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 110

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co. Number of Pages: 1124

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124