History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 115

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

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Jackson is situated on the east side of the White Mountains, and contains 31,968 acres. The surface is uneven but the soil rich and productive. It is watered by the two branches of Ellis river passing from the north and uniting on the south border. The principal elevations are Double Head, Wildcat, Carter Dome, Sable, Eagle, Tin, Iron, Black, and Thorn mountains. The set- tlement was originally called New Madbury, but the town was incorporated December 4, 1800, as Adams. It included Fowle's location ; the grants to Lieutenant Samuel Gilman, of Newmarket, of 2,000 acres, made March 1, 1770 ; of 3,000 acres to Captain Richard Gridley, February 5, 1773; of 3,000 acres to Captain Robert Rogers, of Portsmouth, July 4, 1764; of 8,740 acres

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to Mark Hunking Wentworth, Daniel Rogers, and Jacob Treadwell, of Ports- mouth, March 4, 1774 ; and 13,8932 acres belonging to the state. The grants to Gilman, Gridley, and Rogers were for services in the French war. Captain Rogers was the daring commander of that company of scouts immortalized as " Rogers' Rangers." Captain Gridley was in command of a regiment under General Amherst at Crown Point in 1756 ; at Louisburg in 1758, and " went from thence with the fleet, and acted at Siege of and Reduction of Quebec in 1759, with the forces under General Wolfe."

Benjamin Copp made the first settlement in 1778. Although his only shelter was a little, rough log cabin, a specimen of his own skill and handi- work, there was something awfully grand in his surroundings. His cabin was located on the right bank of the Wildcat, a little below where it comes leaping and tumbling over the falls, and very near where it loses itself in the more quietly flowing waters of Glen Ellis, giving him a view along both valleys. For full twelve long years he and his family dwelt here alone. Mr Copp was strong, vigorous, and had wonderful powers of endurance. He would take a bushel of corn on his shoulders and walk ten miles to mill, never putting it down until he reached his destination.

The next settlers were a party of five families : Joseph Pinkham, Joseph D. Pinkham, Clement and Jonathan Meserve, John Young. (For Meserve family see biographical sketches.) In 1796 Jonathan and Clement Meserve present this petition to the Senate and House of Representatives convened at Exeter : -

Your petitioners having moved with themselves & Families on Gridley's Location in the county of Grafton and the most northerly part of the State of New Hampshire and the most Mountanious part of the State, and perhaps the most mountanions part of North America, but by the Industry & exertions of your petitioners & Families has been a means of bringing a number of good Settlers on the other Locations adjoining viz Wentworth's Roger's Gilmans and Martins Locations, and Land sold by the Committee for making & reparing roads from Conway to Cohas - but Still your petitioners & other Settlers is put to many difficulties in that Mountanious Country for want of haveing good Roads & in no regular order to do any- thing in respecte to Roads Schools & but what every Man thinks proper to do by his own free will. All which is a very great Grevianee and Discouragement to the Settlement of the Northerly part of the State therefore your petitioners pray a Township may be laid out join- ing Southerly on Bartlett Easterly on Chatham, Northerly on Shelburne Addition and West- erly on the White Hills, Including the Locations before mentioned. According to a plan herewith exhibited & incorporated with all the privileges that other Towns in the State have & enjoy and your petitioners pray that all the unlocated Land contained in said plan may be granted to your petitioners and associates on such terms & Conditions as you in your wisdom shall think proper.

This plan was well executed and is still preserved in the secretary of state's office. The next year (1797) they petition for incorporation, " In behalf of themselves and those of your Citersons living upon the Tracts of land

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

hereafter Discribed and for those who may hereafter reside thereon." This was followed in 1799 by

The Petition of the Inhabitants of Fowls Gilman's Gridley's Rogers' Wentworth's and Treadwell's Locations in the County of Grafton and State of Newhampshire Humbly shews - That your Petitioners are greatly incommoded by reason of their [un]incorporated situation - That they forego many & singular advantages which Towns corporate enjoy, and labour under embarrassments from which, in a corporate capacity, they would be exempt -That they, by legal process, are unable to make and repair necessary roads and highways and to raise money for the support of schools and the ministry in the aforesaid Locations - That the Grievances abovementioned can only be redressed by an act of Incorporation - That the aforesaid Locations are capable of forming a convenient Town - Wherefore your Petitioners humbly pray that said Locations may be formed and incorporated into a Township to be known and called by the name of - - and as in duty bound shall ever pray Clement Meserve, John Young, John Parkins, Isaac Meserve, Samuel Jenkins, Jonathan Meserve Jun., Henry Sawyer, Natthanniel Davis, Isaac Darburn, James Canney, Silas Meserve. Ephraim Meserve, Andrew Chesley. Samuel Gray Junier, Timothy Perkins, Samuel Gray, Daniel Nute, Jonathan Meserve, John Meserve, John Nute, Ralph hall, Daniel Meserve, Benjamin Pitman, Joseph Pitman, Joseph D. Pinkham, Nathaniel Chesley, Joseph Pinkham, George Pinkhamn, Benjamin Copp, Benjamin Copp Junyer, William Copp, James Trickey, Ephraim Trickey, Daniel Pinkham, Rufus Pinkham, Samuel Rogars.

This petition was successful, and the town was incorporated, and with a few slight alterations remains of the same area. By vote of the town the name was changed to Jackson, July 4, 1829, every vote but one, it is said, being cast in favor of the change. The population in 1800 was 180: in 1810, 244; 1820, 363; 1830, 515; 1840, 584; 1850, 589: 1860, 631; 1870, 417; 1880, 466. In 1830 a weekly mail route was established from Bartlett to Ran- dolph through Jackson. Daniel Pinkham carried the mail for $60 a year. This was probably the first regular mail to Jackson. How changed are things now! It is estimated that $100,000 is received here annually for summer boarders, and the amount of mail may be easily imagined. The soil is deep, rich, and fertile, and agriculture has ever been rewarded richly. The streams are filled with trout which furnish great attraction for devotees of Izaak Walton. Real estate is becoming quite valuable, as nearly every knoll and hillside furnishes an admirable site for cottages, and it will not be many years before numbers of summer residences evineing taste and culture will add to the charms.

In the act of incorporation of Adams "Silas Meserve and James Trickey or either of them is to call the first town meeting." This meeting, held March 4, 1801, at the house of Jonathan Meserve, chose Jona. Meserve moderator, town clerk, and first selectman; reconsidering the vote for mod- erator, Clement Meserve was chosen ; Jona. Meserve, Jr, and Andrew Chesley chosen the other selectmen. Jonathan Meserve, Jr, John Meserve, James Trickey, road surveyors ; Thomas Rogers and Daniel Gray, fence-viewers : Silas Meserve, field driver and hog "reaf ": Captain Joseph Pinkham and

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Clement Meserve, surveyors of lumber; voted to raise twenty dollars for town expenses : to raise no school money.

A description of the road as proposed to be established in town of Adams in 1801.

1 Stly Begining at Meserves and Chesleys Mills so called then through Meserves land wavering a little to the North till it strikes the Devision line between Meserves and Chesley to Chesley field then through Chesley field on the Divison line between Meserve and Chesley to Ralph Ilalls land then through Sd Ilalls land to land of James and Ephraim Trickeys, through Trickey land to the great brook from said great brook wavering to the East till it Strikes the range line that splits Gilmans Location to land of Benjamin Pitman and Joseph D. Pinkham, then following the rang line through Captain Pinkhams land to Col Emerson land till it strikes Pinkhams path that leads to the Bridge at the lower sid of Meserves fell trees top of the hill on the North sid of the River. then begining at Bartlett line up to Pink- hams bridge, then down the River to Benjamin Copps land, then runing on Copps sid by the Division line up to the Church yard then through the meadow as the path is now cleared & through Cap' Pinkhams land to land of Jonathan Meserve Jur- then np the road as it is now cleared on the south side of Meserves house to his pasture bars, then through Sd pasture to the cornfield fence then on the north side on the side of the corn to Ephraim Meserves house, then following a rig of land leaning westerly till it Strikes the road between Ephraim Meserves and Isaac Meserves, then up the road to Isaac Meserves house, then through Sd Meserves land to Ellis river up the river a little above the old ford way crossing the River to the west side, then up the road where the people now passes to Thomas Rogers land near his house to lands of Daniel Nutes, then up the road as it is now cleared to where Isaac Dearborns path turns out to cross the River then begining at Pinkhams Bridge on the road between Pinkhams house and mills, then baring to the west till we get about half way between the two paths that comes up the Hill, then turning a little to the East by the slant of the hill till it strikes the path where it now goes then crossing a little to the west, then taking the main Road top of the hill then following the Road near where it now goes to the East side of Joseph D. Pinkhams house, then up sd Road to Meserves pasture, then following under the hill to the east, and crossing the spring, run East of the spring, then south of Silas Meserves new house and John Meserves new farm nearly a strait line to the bars below Meserves Mills. Excepted the Road from Meserves & Chesley Mill down to the top of the hill where John & Daniel Meserve have fallen trees of land they bought of Col T. Emerson. Also Excepted the Road as it was viewed and Returned by the Selectmen from Bartlett line up to Dearborns path & also Excepted the middle Road from Pinkhams Bridge up to Timothy Perkins and Samuel Gray Jur as the Selectmen viewed and Returned it.

Inventory of 1801. - Silas Meserve, one poll, one horse, two oxen, two cows, three other stock, one acre tillage, one mowing, one pasturing; tax, $1.01. Jonathan Meserve, Esq., one poll, two cows, one young stock, one acre tillage, one mowing, one pasturing; tax, 90 cents. Jonathan Meserve, Jr, one poll, two oxen, two cows, one young stock ; tax, 80 cents. Benjamin Copp, one poll, two oxen, three cows, two young stock, two aeres tillage, two mowing, one pasturing; tax, 60 cents. Benjamin Copp, Jr, one poll; tax, 48 cents. Wm Copp, one poll, one horse, two oxen, one cow, one young stock; tax, 50 cents. Joseph Pinkham, one poll; tax, 40 cents. George Pinkham, one poll, one cow; tax, 52 cents. Daniel Pinkham, one poll, one horse, two oxen, two cows, two young stock, one acre tillage, two aeres mowing, two pasturing; tax, 72 cents. Daniel Nute, one poll, two cows; tax, 72 cents. Thomas Rogers, one poll, one horse, two oxen, two cows; tax, 56 cents. J. D. Pinkham, one poll, two oxen, two cows, two young stock, one acre tillage, two mowing, one pasturing; tax, 82 cents. Daniel Gray, one poll, two oxen, two cows, two young stock; tax, 61 cents. John Meserve, one poll, one horse, two oxen, one cow ; tax, 76 cents. John Yonng, one poll, one cow ; tax, 56 cents. John Perkins, one poll, one cow, one young stock ; tax, 68 cents. Samuel Gray, Jr, one poll, two oxen ; tax, 56 cents. Samuel Gray, one poll, two oxen, two cows, one young stock; fax, 71 cents. Andrew Chesley, one poll, two cows, one young stock; tax, 52 cents. Samuel Rogers, one poll, one horse, two cows, one young stock; tax, 68 cents. Ralph Hall, one poll, two oxen, two cows, one young stock; tax, 74 cents. James Trickey, one poll, one horse, two

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oxen, three cows, four young stock, two aeres mowing, two pasturing, one mill; tax, 99 cents. Ephir Trickey, one poll, one horse, two oxen, two cows, four young stock, one acre mowing, one pasturing; tax, $1. Clement Meserve, one poll, two cows; tax, 56 cents. Benjamin Pitman, one poll, two cows, one young stock; tax, 73 cents. Isaac Dearborn, one poll, two cows, two young stock; tax, 72 cents. Nathaniel Chesley, one horse, two cows, three young stock; tax, 76 cents.

Captain Joseph Pinkham, his wife, and four children arrived from Madbury, April 6, 1789. Daniel Pinkham related many things concerning early Jackson days to his son, Daniel C. Pinkham, late of Lancaster. Through his courtesy, we give them to our readers : -

The snow was five feet deep on a level. There was no road to Bartlett, and we traveled on the snow. Our provisions, furniture, and clothing were drawn on a handsled, to which the boys had harnessed the hog, their only animal, and he did efficient service. On arriving at their home, they found the log house erected the previous autumn half-buried in snow, and had to shovel a way through to find the door. The house had no chimney, no stove, no floor, or window, except the open door, or the smoke-hole in the roof. We built a fireplace at one end of green logs and replaced them as often as they burned out, until the snow left us so that we could get rocks to supply their place. We had but two chairs and one bedstead. Thus we lived until summer, when we moved the balance of our furniture from Conway. There was much poverty here at this early period, and the means of living scarce. A few families had cows, and could afford the luxury of milk porridge, but many were obliged to make their porridge of meal and water only. The rivers afforded trout, and these constituted a large portion of their food. They were dried in the sun and roasted by the fire, and eaten usually without salt, as that was a scarce article in the new settlement.

Captain Joseph Pinkham passed the remainder of his life on the place where he first located. His children were : Joseph D., George, Daniel, Rufus, and Betsey. Joseph D. married Mary Tuttle: George married Mary Gray ; Rufus married Mary Trickey ; Daniel married Esther Chesley ; Betsey married Isaac Meserve. She was a doctress, having had instruction from the famous ". Granny Stalbird." " Aunt Betsey " was a very important person in the town. Joseph, son of Joseph D., lived many years in town, was a farmer and surveyor, and one of the prominent men. He died in Vermont at an advanced age. Daniel Pinkham came to Jackson when ten years old, and passed through all phases of life in the wilderness. Ile settled on the home place, where he built the first blacksmith's shop in town, and although he never learned any trade, became a blacksmith, mason, carpenter, wheelwright, and dentist. Prior to 1824 no publie thoroughfare had been made, and this year Daniel Pinkham commenced a carriage-road through the town to Randolph, for which he was to receive a tract of land one-half mile wide on each side of the road from Jack- son to Gorham, and all state lands in Jackson. This road was to be made twelve miles through an unbroken and heavy forest over mountains and across rapid streams. In two years Mr Pinkham had nearly completed it, when the unprecedented fall of rain of August, 1826, put a severe check upon his enter- prise. The bridges were nearly all swept away ; the bed of the road in many

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places was buried many feet deep beneath roeks, upturned trees and débris from the mountain sides; while in other parts the streams washed away all traces of labor. After the freshet subsided, some of the bridge timbers were found fifteen miles away in Conway. Not disheartened by this, Mr Pink- ham constructed a toll-road, but the deep snows discouraged travel, and his time and money were expended in vain. In 1829, at the age of fifty, he removed his family to Pinkham's grant, and was again a pioneer. Here he resided six years. After ten years of toil, disappointment, and poverty, he secured the grant from the state, and in the speculations of 1835 and 1836 he sold land enough to pay his debts and purchase a farm in Lancaster, where he died in June, 1855. His son, Daniel C. Pinkham, was clerk of the court of common pleas and supreme judicial court of Coos county from 1857 to 1869. He died October 31, 1889.

Cyrus F. Pinkham, son of Rufus, was a very intelligent and well-educated man. He was a farmer, a surveyor, and an excellent teacher, and one of the best of penmen. He was much in public affairs and a most useful official. His representative in town is a granddaughter, Maud Dearborn, a teacher. Rev. George H. Pinkham, another son of Rufus, was a prominent Free Baptist clergyman for years ; a man of deep Christian principle and broad humanity. He died some years since in Lewiston, Maine. He had three children : Grace, Fred, and Carrie. Rufus U. Pinkham, another son of Rufus, was farmer, surveyor, and merchant, and was in trade at the village for some years, in partnership first with Captain Joshua Trickey and then with J. B. Triekey. He removed to Cumberland Mills, Maine, where he died. He was one of the brightest members of the unusually bright Pinkham family.

James and Ephraim Trickey, half-brothers, came from Durham before the organization. James, born June, 1770, settled where the Wilson cottage is. He married, March, 1791, Polly Burnham, daughter of Pike G. Burnham, born June, 1771, and had quite a family : Sally (Mrs Nathaniel Meserve) ; James C., born February 19, 1794; Joshua 1 (married Martha P. Meserve) ; Ann N. (Mrs Daniel Bean), born 1805; Samuel, born 1811, married Sarah A., daughter of George Johnson. James C. settled on Tin mountain and lived there until his death in 1826. His children were: Joseph B., Martha D., Emily S. (Mrs. George Pinkham). Joshua (see biography). Samuel lived on the homestead some years after marriage, then moved to the Hanson farm, now occupied by George Meserve. He afterwards moved to Rochester.

Ephraim Trickey lived on the Dundee road where Orrin Hackett lives. He had two children, Joseph and Ephraim. Joseph succeeded to the home- stead. His son Nathaniel C. married Elizabeth Johnson, lived a portion of the

1 See Biography.

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

time on the home farm, was a prominent and valuable citizen, and although a Republican was often elected selectman. He had six children, of whom two are now living : Ransom D., in Florida, and Cheston, in Kansas City. Cecil Trickey, son of Nelson I. Trickey, and Bertha, daughter of Nathaniel C. Trickey, is the one descendant of Nathaniel C. in Jackson. Another son of Joseph was W. H. H. Trickey, who built the Intervale House. He was a very energetic man.

Joseph B. Trickey, born June 19, 1820, married Alice P., daughter of General George P. Meserve, and after five years' residence in Bartlett returned to Jackson in 1854, built the Jackson Falls House and opened it in 1858. He was succeeded in proprietorship by his sons George P. and Willie W. Mr Trickey had seven children attaining maturity : James C. (bookkeeper for Brown's Lumber Co., Whitefield), George P., Nelson I., Willie W., C. Lilian, S. Alice, Josie G. Mr Trickey was representative in 1858, 1859, 1885, 1886; has been county commissioner, and town clerk many years. He is a courteous gentleman, and in many ways "has served his day and generation well."

Isaac Dearborn, son of Edward Dearborn, a soldier of the Revolution, came here, it is thought, in 1791, and settled near the Cook place on the Glen road. He afterwards moved to the farm now owned by his grandson, George H. Davis, who is one of the best and most prosperous farmers of the town. Mr . Dearborn was a frugal, industrious farmer and accumulated a good property. He married Olive Davis. Their children were : William, Mary, John L., Sally, James, Beckey, Eliza, Olive, and George.

Ralph Hall came with Dearborn and became a permanent settler. Among his children were : Ralph, Lydia (Mrs Thomas Rogers), Betsey (Mrs William Johnson), Hannah (Mrs John Perkins). A daughter married Joseph Thomp- son, of Bartlett. The Halls were an energetic, sturdy, and intelligent family. Descendants of Ralph attained distinction and wealth in Western New York. Mrs Aaron Thompson, of North Conway, is his granddaughter.

The Chesleys. - As early as 1633 some of the family paid taxes in Dover, and ten years later there were many of the name residents of Madbury, from which place, probably, Andrew Chesley emigrated to Jackson previous to 1799. His children were: Nathaniel, Esther (Mrs Daniel Pinkham), and Susan. Nathaniel Chesley had children : Ann (Mrs Solomon Burnham) ; Joanna (Mrs Joseph Trickey, and mother of Nathaniel C. (deceased) and W. H. H., builder of the Intervale House, and Asenath) ; John (married Olive Gray) ; Andrew (married Abigail Meserve) ; Charlotte (married Alfred Hatch) ; Nathaniel (married Catharine Young).

Daniel Gray came to Jackson in 1800 from Nottingham, his native town. He was the owner of six sheep, but as they could not be driven through the deep snows to his new home, he sold them for eight dollars, and the money

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TOWN OF JACKSON.

was given to Mrs Gray to replace them. When the news of the incorporation was received, and it was known that the charter would be sent on receipt of four dollars to pay for recording, Mrs Gray loaned the town the sum out of her sheep money. There were then twenty-six families here. Hardly had they got their log cabins " rolled up" and a shelter for their cattle, when in December nearly half of their buildings were destroyed by a tornado, which did much damage and caused much suffering. Mr Gray's barn was blown down, and the roof of his log house was only saved by chaining it to the bottom logs. (It is related that Ephraim Trickey saved his children from being blown away by putting their heads between the fence rails.) Daniel Gray had a large family : James, Stephen, Daniel, Samuel H., John, Lewis, and several daughters. James moved to Lancaster, Stephen to Jefferson, Lewis to Bartlett. Samuel H. married, first, Sally Perkins. Their children were : Albert, Mary (Mrs J. L. Wilson), Lorinda (Mrs George Meserve), Adelaide (Mrs Joseph Mead), Sarah (Mrs George Everett), Emily J. (Mrs Horace Whiting). He married, second, Eliza, daughter of Colonel John Nute, and had children : Abbie (Mrs Cyrus F. Perkins), Alvah H., Charles W., of Gray's Inn, Almira and Almeda (twins). John Gray married Miranda Gannett. Warren G., of Gray's Cottage, is their son. This has ever been one of the solid and reliable families of Jackson.

There were two families of Perkins came early, John and Timothy. Captain John Perkins lived where the Carter Notch House is. He married Hannah, daughter of Ralph Hall (a soldier of Bunker Hill service), and had eight children, of whom the most noted was Colonel Joseph, whose sons, James M. and Clinton, are proprietors of the Carter Notch. He was a farmer with natural ability and some education which was entirely self-acquired. In social life he was very pleasant and had great personal influence. He had much brain power and was as independent in his opinions as the wild winds sweeping down the mountain sides. He read extensively and formed his own conclusions ; he disliked opposition, and would carry his points arbitrarily, regardless of the rights or feelings of others. He was fond of law, many years a trial justice, and, if he had had proper advantages, would have been an emi- nent and successful lawyer. He died in 1884.

Timothy Perkins settled on the middle road in the north side of the town. It is said that he cleared more land than any other resident of Jackson. He would get a farm well started, sell out and begin anew. He married Mary Gentleman. Two of his sons, Lemuel and John Y., were soldiers in the War of 1812.

Stephen and Thomas Rogers were perhaps sons of Samuel, the pioneer. Stephen married Susannah Pendexter and lived in Dundee. Thomas mar- ried Lydia, daughter of Ralph Hall, and as an industrious farmer acquired a comfortable home. He was noted for his simplicity and timidity. While

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passing a certain large rock in a bank beside the road he would always run, fearing it might fall on him.

Daniel Nute lived on the Glen road on the Wentworth place. His children were Nancy, William (changed his name to Gates ; was a soldier of 1812), James (also a soldier of 1812), John, Isaac, and Daniel. John and Isaac settled in Bartlett. The Nutes were a jovial, kindhearted family, quick to resent a real or fancied insult, whose knowledge came from observation rather than books.

John Young lived on a part of the Silas Perkins farm in the north part of the town, but was not long a resident. He fell from a sled, was run over and killed about 1803, leaving two children motherless. Captain John Perkins found homes for them, but they were ill treated. Captain Perkins declared that while passing the place where Young was killed about this time that Young appeared to him twice and walked by his side. The captain then removed the children to kinder places and saw Young no more.

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History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 115

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