USA > New Hampshire > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, New Hampshire > Part 34
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Buzzell's Second Trial. - After his discharge Buzzell went to his home and followed his usual pursuits, but the disturbed elements did not assume their original serenity. A bitter feeling had been engendered, not to be quieted this side the grave. In the neighborhood several fires, apparently ineendiary, blazed up in the silence of the night, and whether there was any evidence pointing to Buzzell or otherwise, he was, by some of his former opponents in the first trial, regarded as a dangerous man. At length one Charles Cook, a singular boy who had lived much in Buzzell's family, made a startling disclosure that renewed all the interest in the Susan Hanson murder. This boy, who had much less wit than the average boy in some directions, and much more in some others, made statements that indicated that Buzzell did not commit the murder in person, but procured it to be done.
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
What should be done ? A trial had been held. Buzzell's life had once been placed in jeopardy, and now came a proposition to again jeopardize it. The court refused to grant a new trial until the full bench should pass upon it as a question of law whether one who had once been tried for a crime as prin- cipal could again he tried for procuring another to commit the same crime. This seemed a matter of grave consideration. But the court, after a full examination of authorities, said : " One who has been acquitted as a principal in a murder may be convicted as an accessory before the fact in the same mur- der." In reasoning on this the court further said : " In murder, the felony of an accessory is not the act of a principal, and the felony of a principal is not the act of an accessory. In fact, they are different acts done at different times and different places. In law they are different crimes." - 58 New Hampshire Reports, page 257.
Buzzell was again put on trial for the crime of procuring the murder of Susan Hanson. Hon. Mason W. Tappan was attorney-general ; Frank Hobbs again aided the state in the trial, and before the evidence was closed the case was substantially settled against Buzzell. Hon. William L. Foster and Hon. Clinton W. Stanley presided. Copeland and Edgerly again conducted the defence. The only possible chance for the defence after the decision of the court granting a new trial was to break down the testimony of Cook, the principal. The trial was a stubborn one from the first, and was again con- ducted with ability, but the defence had a hard contest, and Buzzell was convicted and sentenced to suffer the punishment of death. He was executed on the day appointed. The general public accepted the verdict as a just one, but for the immediate parties the history was sad in the extreme.
So passed Joseph B. Buzzell and Susan Hanson from the earth. Few lives so pleasant in the beginning have had so sad a termination. They had walked together the rosy paths of childhood. In the early days of youth and maiden- hood they had looked down the vistas of the future and saw bright prospects toward the "sunset land." One passed to the eternal world 'mid night and darkness and horror, while the murdering rifle became the death-angel calling in the night's deep silence. The other suffered upon the gallows the penalty of an outraged law, far from the ministrations of kindred and home, in expiation of a fearful crime. Fiction furnishes few parallels for such fearful realities.
Trial of Sylvester W. Cone. - In the late summer or early autumn of 1876 the peace of the quiet old town of Tamworth was suddenly broken by an event as startling as it was unexpected. The report ran through the commu- nity that Paul Williams had been killed by Sylvester W. Cone. Cone was a man forty-five years old or thereabouts, a man quite widely known, having a reputation something more than local. He had become possessed of a pleasant home on the easterly shore of Lake Chocorua, a beautiful sheet of water lying at the base of the mighty mountain whose name it bears. He had, within a
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year or two previous, married his first cousin, Miss Auna Cone, of Pennsyl- vania, a young lady whose age scarcely exceeded twenty years.
Mr Cone was a presentable man when seen at his best, and by his manners and conversation impressed many people as a gentleman. He talked intelli- gently and sometimes sensibly of things " mental, moral, natural, and divine." With all these pleasing qualities, he was yet an unpopular man. His temper was unpleasant, his manner at times insolent; his promises he more or less disregarded, and some of his neighbors considered him as a dangerous and a malicious man. Whether there was any reason for such opinion perhaps can be best judged by his subsequent conduct. Many of his neighbors used insulting remarks toward him, and it required but little irritation to cause him to become very disagreeable. He was fast becoming an Ishmael in his neighborhood.
On the morning of the tragedy, a Sabbath morning, several young men had come down from Albany to bathe in the lake near his dwelling. He, as usual, resented this and ordered them away. They refused to go. Insulting language was used, probably on both sides. Cone seemed ready for a conflict, and the other party seemed to enjoy his excitement. Cone went at once to his house and armed himself with a heavily loaded gun. His wife, guessing his purpose and knowing his reckless lawlessness, and fearing for the result, tried to keep him from going into danger, where she foresaw that the life of himself or of some of the other party would be endangered. But Cone was resolute and determined to maintain what he deemed to be his just rights, even at the expense of human life.
When Cone again sought the intruders they appeared to have gone on, and he passed on to a place among the pines near what was termed the "Narrows " bridge. Here he discovered that between himself and his house was Paul Williams with a horsewhip. His escape was difficult or impossible by land without an encounter. Either from the fear that he must stand up and receive a most fearful horsewhipping, or from a very light estimate in which he held human life, Mr Cone at once shot Williams, who died in a very short time. The whole community cried out with indignation and demanded Cone's punishment.
The particulars of his arrest are not material, but at the next term of the supreme court Mr Cone was indicted for the murder. Hon. W. H. H. Allen presided. Hon. Mason W. Tappan was attorney-general, and Buel C. Carter, solicitor of the county. The defence was conducted by Copeland and Edgerly, of Great Falls, aided by Quarles, of Ossipee, and Hobbs, of Madison.
The defence set up the plea of insanity, and also urged the stress of circum- stances as a full or partial justification. It was argued against the last position that Cone was safe in his own house, that he was in no sense in danger of life or limb until he deliberately armed himself with a deadly weapon and sought
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
an encounter, and that even then, if he was put in peril of bodily harm, he had deliberately put himself there with the full purpose of having a hostile encounter.
The trial lasted many days. The demeanor of Cone was variable. For most of the time he conducted himself properly, but when the trial was over, in presence of the court and counsel, he became enraged and, as Dr Holmes would express it, he seemed " like a hawk with a broken wing."
This trial was one of the most exciting and interesting ever conducted in the county. Mr Copeland, who led in the defence, was at his best, and on the points of evidence and many of the discussions arising before the court on the admissibility of evidence, gave proof of vast learning and capacious equipment for the conducting of such cases. His argument was ingenious and well calcu- lated to distract the attention of the jurors from the material fact of the mur- der to the remoter matters of the alleged hostility of Otis G. Hatch to his client, and to Cone's apparent unsoundness and irresponsibility. In all the discussions before the court Mr Copeland had proved himself an unquestioned match for Mr Tappan. He was even more ready and apt in his fine distinc- tions. Mr Tappan rose, commenced his argument slowly, with no evidence of excitement or of much enthusiasm. He began: "Gentlemen of the jury, If you had not sat here through many days and listened to the evidence in this case, but were dependent for your knowledge of it upon the argument of my eloquent brother, you would hardly know who was on trial, or for what offence. You would be quite likely to consider that Otis G. Hatch was on trial for con- spiracy against a poor, suffering martyr by the name of Sylvester W. Cone. You would hardly dream that Cone himself was on trial for one of the most cold-blooded and detestable murders that ever darkened God's fair earth." Mr Tappan then referred to Mr Hatch as one who felt that justice required that the offender should be held to punishment, and he (Tappan) trusted that the time might never come when such a murder could be committed without the entire community feeling outraged, and added that the indignant feeling of Mr Hatch was one of the best indications of a healthy public sentiment.
During the first hour Mr Tappan's efforts seemed directed toward the dis- pelling of the impression Mr Copeland had made touching Mr Cone's claim to martyrdom. The next ninety minutes he devoted to the more particular con- sideration of the evidence. The defences of the criminal were fading " like a wreath of mist at eve." The pretence of insanity looked flimsy and shallow. The conduct of Mr Cone was reviewed with fearful force against him, and during the last half-hour the utterance of Mr Tappan was slow : " his breath- ings," as used to be said of Curran, " were deep and fearful." It was one of the most terrific arraignments ever heard in Carroll county.
Mr Cone was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to thirty years imprisonment in the state prison, where he now remains.
HISTORY OF TOWNS.
WOLFEBOROUGH.
BY B. F. PARKER, EsQ.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Kingswood - Grant -Grantees - Associates -Township Defined - Wolfeborough Addi- tion, etc. - Topography - Bays - Lake Wentworth - Ponds - Mountains - Aborigines - Name-Survey-Committee for Settling - Miles Road -Elisha Bryant - Drawing of Lots - First Mills - The Neck - First Settlers - Forfeitures - Charter - Action of Town in First Meetings - Fair -Quaint Records - Officers -Prosperity and Depression - Ammunition - Committee of Safety - Inventories of 1776- Governor Wentworth and his Farm.
T HE first town organization to which we have claim was Kingswood, char- tered October 20, 1737, by Governor Belcher, and comprehending the towns of Middleton, New Durham, New Durham Gore (now Alton), and part of the towns of Gilmanton, Wakefield. and Wolfeborough. By the conditions of the grant the proprietors were each to build a dwelling-house and settle a family in the town within five years. They were to build a meeting-house within the same time and settle an orthodox minister within seven years. Should wars occur, the time for doing these things was to be extended. They were also to reserve three hundred acres of land for the first ordained minister that should settle in the town, three hundred acres for the second, six hundred acres for parsonages, and three hundred acres for the use of schools.
Its boundaries were partially surveyed, and at a meeting of the proprietors held in January, 1738, it was voted to survey one hundred and twenty-three lots of three hundred acres each ; one to be for the use of schools, one for a parsonage, one for the first minister, sixty for sixty settlers, and sixty for the sixty proprietors. It was also voted that the first settlement should be in the
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
southerly corner of the town, which would be within the present limits of New Durham. It is possible that a few persons might have settled there, as eleven years after that town was granted to Ebenezer Smith and others. Certainly there were no settlements within the present boundaries of Wolfeborough.
The Masonian Proprietors, at a meeting held in Portsmouth, October 5, 1759, disposed of the principal part of the territory now constituting the town of Wolfeborough by the following grant : -
Whereas, sundry young gentlemen of the town of Portsmouth, in said Province, have applied to said proprietors, and represented that they were disposed to make a settlement of a new Plantation, and to advance all such sums of money, from time to time, as should be necessary to a vigorous Prosecution of that design, if they could obtain the title of said proprietors to a suitable tract of land for that purpose ; and, thereupon, have requested such a Grant; and said proprietors being willing to encourage a proposition so likely to be of public utility : Therefore- Voted : That there be, and hereby is granted unto William Earl Treadwell, Henry Apthorp, Ammi Ruhamah Cutter, and David Sewall, all of Portsmouth aforesaid, and such others as they shall admit as associates with them, and their respective heirs and assigns forever, all the Right, "Title, Estate, Property and Demand of said proprie- tors, of, in and unto a certain tract of land in the Province aforesaid, Equal in Quantity to thirty-six square Miles; Bounded as follows, viz. beginning at the north easterly corner of a tract of land granted by said proprietors to Jonathan Chesley and others, known by the Name of New Durham, then running North Forty-eight Degrees East, on the Head or upper Line of a Tract of Land called Middleton, and on that called Salmon Falls -Town, or as those head Lines run, joining thereon, and running so far as that a Line running from thence Six Miles North West, and then South West to Winnepiseoky Pond, and then by the side of said Pond, joining thereon, until the aforesaid Corner first mentioned bears South East to the said Corner, makes up the aforesaid Quantity of thirty-six square Miles; Excepting and reserving as is herein after Expressed, and on the Conditions and Limitations and Terms herein after declared, to have and to hold the said granted Premises, with the Appurtenances to them, the said William Earl Treadwell, Henry Apthorp, Ruhamah Cutter, and David Sewall, and their Associates, their Several and respective Heirs and Assigns, forever. on the Terms, Reservations, Limitations and Conditions following : viz. - First, that the said Tract of Land be, at the Cost of the Grantees and their Associates, laid out, as soon as may be, into four equal Parts, both for Quantity and Quality, and one of said Parts, to be determined by Lot. be, and hereby is Excepted and Reserved to the said proprietors, and their Assigns; which Quarter Part shall be also laid out, at the expense of the said Grantees and their Associates, when required by said Proprietor, into twenty Shares or Lots; three of which shall be for the following Public Uses, Viz. one for the Use of a School, one for the Use of the first Minister of the Gospel who shall settle there, the other for the Use of the Ministry of the Gospel who shall settle there forever; and the other seventeen Lots to be for the Use of the other Persons to whom they shall fall by Lots, hereafter to be drawn, their Heirs and Assigns; by which Method also the aforesaid Lots for publie Uses shall be determined; and all necessary Public and General Highways shall be laid out in the Reserved Quarter, at the Expense of the said Grantees and Associates, no Highway to be less than two rods wide; and all the Shares, Lots and Divisions in said Quarter Part, shall not be liable to any charge in settling, and carrying this Proposal into Execution, until the same shall be improved by the respective Owners.
Secondly, - the said grantees shall have ten Families settled on said three Quarters of said Traet of Land, within three years after a Public Peace shall be concluded between the
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English, French and Indians; and within eight years after such a Peace, shall have forty Families settled there, and a Convenient House built for the Public Worship of God, and all necessary Highways shall be laid out through the said Land of the Breadth aforesaid; all the said matters and Things are to be done at the Charge and expense of the Grantees and their associates. Provided, that, if, after such a Peace, a War with the Indians should again commence, before the Expiration of the several Periods before Limited, the like 'Time shall be allowed as before specified after that Impediment shall be removed. Moreover, all White Pine Trees fit for his Majesty's Use in the services of the Royal Navy, are hereby reserved to his Majesty's Use, his Heirs and successors for that purpose, that now are, or hereafter shall be growing on said Land.
And in Case the said Grantees and Associates shall negleet and omit to perform the Articles, Matters or Things before mentioned by them to be done, or that shall be added by Agreement between said proprietors and them, according to the true Intent and Meaning hereof, and within the Time limited for that purpose, it shall and may be lawful to and for said Proprietors, and they are hereby authorized, either by themselves or any of them, their Agent or Agents or Attorneys, in their Names to Enter and take Possession of said Grantees Premises, and Become Reseized thereof, and be again instated as in their former Estate, and as if this Grant had never been made; and further, it is agreed, and this Condition added, that the Grantees Lots shall not be subjected to any Town or Parish charges or Tax, either by act of Assembly, or otherways, until they shall be respectively Settled or Sold; but the Grantees and their Associates shall keep and save them wholly indemnified from the same, and also that neither the Grantees nor their Heirs shall be, by Virtue of this Grant, bound or held to Warrant the said Grantees Premises to the Grantees or their Associates; and that there be also reserved in the most convenient Place in the said three Quarter Parts of said Traet hereby granted, Ten Acres of Land, to be laid out by the said Grantees and their Associates in, or as near as can be, in a Square, for Public Uses for the Benefit of the Inhabi- tants of the said Traet herein described ; Viz. for a Training Field, Burying Ground and any other Public Uses.
Treadwell and Apthorp were merchants, Cutter was a physician, and Sewall an attorney. On the twenty-fourth of the same month, these four persons, "in consideration of the sum of five shillings," by deed admitted twenty associates, granting to them "twenty-four and twentieth parts of three quarters of said tract of land, excepting only ten acres which were to be held in common for public uses."
These associates were: Daniel Pierce, Esq., Paul March, Joshua Brackett, gentlemen; John Rindge, Daniel Rindge, John Wentworth, George Meserve, Robert Odiorne, Jotham Rindge, Samuel Moffatt, Thomas Wentworth, merchants ; George King, Henry Rust, John Parker, Isaac Rindge, mariners, all of Portsmouth; William Parker, of Kingstown, gentleman ; Nathaniel Peaslee Sargent, of Haverhill, county of Essex, province of Massachusetts Bay, attorney at law ; Daniel Treadwell, of New York, province of New York, gentleman ; Thomas Darling, master of the mast-ship called the Strafford, and John Long, master of the mast-ship Winchester, both lately of Portsmouth. These twenty-four persons constituted the " Proprietors of Wolfeborough,"/ and were joint owners of three quarters of the tract of land ceded by the " Masonian Proprietors," who still retained the remaining quarter.
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
The original township was thus defined : Beginning at a point about one mile southeasterly of South Wolfeborough village on the line of New Durham, and running northeasterly six miles on the line of that town and Brookfield, then turning at a right angle and running northwesterly by Dimon's Corner, and nearly on the line of the road leading from that hamlet to Water Village, to Tuftonborough six miles, then southwesterly by the border of that town to Lake Winnipiseogee seven miles, then by the shore of the lake and the town of Alton to the starting-point.
In 1800 a traet of land known as "Wolfeborough Addition " was annexed by legislatorial act. It extended the northeasterly line of the town one mile and seventy rods to North Wakefield village, then ran northwesterly three miles and two hundred and thirty rods, where there was a set-off of eighty-three rods towards Wolfeborough ; then the northwesterly line continued one mile and three-fourths. In the "addition " there were five lots : three of about 1,000 acres each, owned by Jonathan Warner, James Stoodly, and Dr HIall Jackson ; two of about 500 acres each, owned by George Meserve and Stephen Batson. The inhabitants of this territory had always acted with those of Wolfeborough in town affairs.
By an act passed June 27, 1849, a portion of Alton was annexed to this town, and June 26, 1858, a part of Tuftonborough was annexed. The town now has a border-line of about thirty miles, or, including the sinuosities of the lake shore, thirty-five miles, with an area of about 28,000 acres.
Topography. - Several bays set in from Lake Winnipiseogee. The one lying directly south of Wolfeborough village is the most important. Sur- rounded with islands, it is a safe and commodious harbor; connected with this by a narrow strait is a smaller bay which flows to the foot of the Smith's river falls. A large bay is formed by the projection into the lake of the peninsulas Wolfeborough Neck and Tuftonborough Neck. Previous to the settlement of Wolfeborough, a heavily ladened boat bound for Moultonborough was by stress of weather driven into this bay, and remained during the winter, and this gave it the name of " Winter Harbor."
In the south central part of the town is Lake Wentworth, formerly called Smith's pond. It is a fine sheet of water about three miles in diameter, and has twenty-one islands ; several of these are quite small. The largest, Stamp Act (formerly called Mill) Island, contains ninety aeres. Triggs Island has twenty aeres. Jotham Rindge, Governor Wentworth's factotum, placed cusk in Lake Wentworth, and from these probably Lake Winnipiseogee and other waters were supplied. Elisha Goodwin deposited black bass in this lake. These have increased remarkably in numbers, and Wolfeborough has become a noted resort for lovers of piscatorial sport, whose votaries furnish employ- ment to skilful guides during the summer, a veteran one being John A. Jackson.
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The Ponds are: Rust's (formerly Middle), Crooked, Sargent's, Upper, Beech, Batson's, and Lang's (Levis"). The most important mill stream is Smith's river, the outlet of Lake Wentworth and Crooked pond, which has a fall of twenty-eight feet, and on which is situated Mill Village. South Wolfe- borough is on the outlet of Rust's pond. The surface of Wolfeborough is generally uneven, although there are meadows of considerable extent on the borders of Lake Wentworth and its tributaries, and some small plains in other localities.
Mountains. - Along the northern border is a line of high hills. The princi- pal peaks are Stockbridge, Beacham, and Moody mountains. On the north- easterly border there are four distinct elevations, of about the same height and nearly equi-distant from each other -Batson, Trask, Whiteface, and Cotton (Cutter's) mountains. They are about 1,200 feet above the ocean and 700 above Lake Winnipiseogee. There is a deep, narrow valley between Batson and Trask mountains, through which passes the road leading from Wolfe- borough to Ossipee. Whiteface has a nearly perpendicular precipice of sev- eral hundred feet on its eastern side. The rain which falls within a circle less than one mile in diameter on the top of Cotton mountain reaches the ocean by three rivers, the Saco, the Piscataqua, and the Merrimack, whose outlets are in three states. Numerous pictures of beautiful landscape scenery may be seen from these elevated points. The most extensive scenie view is from the top of Trask mountain. From this point can be seen both the Kearsarge of Conway and the Kearsarge of Warner. These two peaks strikingly resemble each other.
The Soil of Wolfeborough is generally fertile, although in various places dis- similar in character. It is, however, meagre in mineral products. Bog-iron ore, garnets, and quartz crystals have sometimes been found. Coarse granite abounds, but good building stone is scarce. There are several deposits of clay and a few mineral springs, whose water is supposed to possess eurative proper- ties. Its primitive forests were diversified. Pine prevailed in the central part of the town, beech in the northern part. Maple, oak, and hemlock grew almost everywhere. .
Aborigines. - Little is known of the aborigines of this section. They were probably subject to the Pennacooks, whose headquarters were on the Merri- mack. Indian relics have frequently been found on the borders of the ponds and streams. A stone hearth and several caches were discovered near Lake Wentworth; a small plot of cleared land now enclosed within Pine Hill ceme- tery has ever been called the "Indian Dance."
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