USA > New Hampshire > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, New Hampshire > Part 48
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396
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXX.
Boundaries - Moultonborough Neck and Long Island - Brown Family - East Moulton- borough - Moultonborough Falls - Moultonborough Corner - Red Mountain - Cook Family - Ossipee Mountain -Ossipee Park - B. F. Shaw - Ponds and Streams - Little Winnipi- seogee Pond - Red Hill River- Gristmill - Sawmill - Emery's Mills - Indian Occupancy, Relics, etc. - Early Prices.
OULTONBOROUGH lies on the north side of Lake Winnipiseogee, and is bounded southerly by the lake and Tuftonborough, westerly by Centre Harbor and Squam lake, northerly by Sandwich, Tamworth, and Ossipee, and easterly by Ossipee and Tuftonborough, and is fifty miles north from Concord.
Moultonborough Neck and Long Island. - A peninsula known as Moulton- borough Neck extends seven miles from the main road into Lake Winnipi- seogee. On the south side of this neck, five miles from the road, is a narrow channel of the lake which divides it from an island three miles in length and one in width, known as Long Island. (Annexed to this town December 30, 1799.) There are several flourishing farms upon this, one schoolhouse, a post- office, and several large summer boarding-houses. This island is connected with the mainland by a bridge. It is a high elevation of land, a sort of prom- ontory, which commands a complete view of the lake and is a great resort for summer tourists who spend the summer here, not only for the beauty of the scenery, but to get the benefit of the salubrity of the atmosphere. There is a commodious steamboat-landing on the south side of the island, where steamers stop daily during the season on their regular trips from Alton bay to Centre Harbor and the Weirs. The postoffice is kept by George Brown, son of George K. Brown, a farmer, who runs a boarding-house that is well patronized by regular boarders and transient pleasure parties. Mr Brown was born upon the island where he has always lived, and is the son of John Brown, one of the early settlers and business men of the town and a first- class farmer. Mr Brown's farm is noted for having extensively produced the "King Philip " corn, yielding one hundred bushels shelled corn to the acre. The "Neck " has a postoffice, Lake View, formerly kept by Lucien Dow, now by Mrs Andrew J. Smith. The "Neck" and Long Island is purely a farming territory, and constitutes the best part of the town. The inhabitants are industrious and thriving farmers, whose profits come from well-cultivated farms, fine herds and flocks, which, with the income from public and private boarding-houses, render them financially independent.
397
TOWN OF MOULTONBOROUGH.
East Moultonborough. -- That part of the town lying between the lake and Ossipee mountain is level and the soil largely alluvial. Many of the farms have a rich soil easily cultivated. It was here that the early proprietors made their " pitches," for no other reason, perhaps, than it was the part upon which they first "set foot." Here they located the first meeting-house and estab- lished their first minister. This section is known as East Moultonborough, and was for many years the centre of business and the residence of its princi- pal men. There were once here a grist and saw mill, three stores, two hotels, blacksmith's shop, tannery, wheelwright, postoffice, a physician, a minister, and a deaeon.
Moultonborough Falls. - At a later period this became the centre of trade. It had three stores, two hotels, a tannery, currier's shop, a blacksmithi, a grist- mill, sawmill, carding and fulling mill, a sleigh and carriage maker, a saddle and harness maker, a printing-office, and shoe shops. This place has, however, like the eastern portion, lost its life and activity.
Moultonborough Corner is now the principal business place. There are three stores, three hotels, three blacksmiths, a postoffice, three physicians, a church, and a minister located here. In 1820 this town had 1,279 inhabi- tants, in 1840 nearly 1,800, at present about 1,300. The cause of this change is local. Before the advent of railroads in this section Moultonborough was on the thoroughfare to the White Mountains, and it was not unusual to see five or six coaches drawn by four or six horses pass daily, loaded with passen- gers and baggage. The travel has been diverted by railroads upon each side, and now one coach accommodates all the travelers. This town would be a superior farming town if it had railroad facilities.
Red Mountain, or, as it is usually called, Red hill, is almost wholly in this town, only a small part of the northern portion being in Sandwich. It is one range, running northwest and southeast. (See Observation Points in General History.) It is covered with abundance of wood and timber, mostly pine, hemlock, oak, spruce, beech, and maple. The uva ursi (trailing arbutus) grows here, and the summit bears blueberry bushes, from which hundreds of bushels of berries are gathered each season, affording quite a lucrative avocation for children and others who have no better way to occupy their time. In autumn the variegated colors of the foliage of the mountain's sides present a most attractive appearance. The highest peak, North hill, is 2,000 feet above the sea, and, as the southern base of the mountain is but two miles from Lake Winnipiseogee, its northern base bordering on Squam lake, its western one washed by Long pond, and its eastern side skirted by Red Hill river, all these bodies of water can be seen from the summit, and a far-spread panorama of farms, cottages, villages, rivers, brooks, hills, mountains, and forests, stretching as far as sight extends, giving one of the most beautiful and charming views in New England. From the main road to Centre Harbor
398
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
a carriage road leads nearly to the summit and thousands visit the mountain yearly. This road terminates at the Cook settlement, which has been occupied by the Cook family from the early days of the town. The original settler was Jonathan Cook, who tilled a fairly productive farm near the summit, which, with what he was paid for giving milk and a place to rest to tourists visiting the mountain, afforded him and his family a comfortable living. Jonathan had two children, a son and a daughter, both deaf and dumb. Their home was here with their father until he died at a good old age and in the fixed belief that he would return to this highly prized home and again become its occupant. His descendants continued to live here until the last of them, John Q. A. Cook, left the mountain a few months ago, but he is restless, and probably will not remain long away from the old home.
The basic rocks of Red hill are sienite, gneiss, and feldspar, the strips of which run north and south. Living springs of the purest water gush out of its rock cavities on every side, supplying freely the - habitations around its base. Near the Cook dwelling, a ledge of iron ore exists, which at one time was thought to possess some value, and an attempt was made to work it, but it was abandoned as unprofitable. On its discovery, Jacob Webster, of Sandwich, took some of the ore home, smelted it, and made a crowbar that is now in the possession of J. Q. A. Cook.
Ossipee Mountain lies in Moultonborough, Sandwich, Tamworth, Ossipee, and Tuftonborough. The southerly side and summit are largely in Moul- tonborough. (For full description see General History.) The highest peak, formerly called "Black Snout," was, at the annual town-meeting in 1882, named " Mount Shaw," by vote of the town, in honor of B. F. Shaw, Esq., of Lowell, Mass., the inventor of the famous Shaw-knit machine. This peak is nearly three thousand feet above the sea, and from it is seen a magnificent view that includes Casco bay, Portland. Saco, and many other places in Maine, the White Mountains, Kearsarge, Whiteface, the Sandwich range, and Ossipee and Winnipiseogee lakes.
Ossipee Park. - In 1879 B. F. Shaw, Esq., purchased a tract of land at the Lee settlement, on which he has erected a beautiful residence, where, with his family and friends, he passes a part of the summer months. He has made a first-class road up the mountain to his house, comfortable paths to the cascade, and twelve rustic bridges over the brook above and through groves, and has given to his possessions the name of Ossipee Park. This has become a widely known resort for pleas- ure seekers, and thousands come hither every season. The walk around the cascade and forest is weird and wild, and commands the admiration of the visitor. Mr Shaw contemplates building a road to Mount Shaw ; this will afford easy access to the best view-point in the state, not excepting Mt Washington.
399
TOWN OF MOULTONBOROUGH.
Many wonder why the early settlers should have selected the nook in the mountain where the Lee settlement was formed for their perma- nent dwelling-place, instead of the more level land below, but it was probably for the reason that they could from this elevation look off upon the surrounding country. The first settlers always located their dwellings upon hills or smaller elevations. The houses were built, and then the roads were made to them. This, in after years, made traveling very laborious and hard for man and beast. This inconvenience has been somewhat relieved by new lay-outs, yet many of the roads remain as first located, to the great annoyance of travelers.
On the north side of this settlement is a famous boiling spring about sixteen feet across, that sometimes throws water up to the height of two feet above the surface. This spring is the source of a brook that mean- ders down the mountain's side, and through meadows and fields six or eight miles to the lake. This brook has sufficient water for milling purposes, and affords a capital stream for speckled trout, and from it many are taken. About one mile below the spring on this stream is a cascade that has ever been a great resort for sight-seers. Here the water falls nearly perpendicularly over a solid ledge of seventy feet in height.
In this ledge, at the foot of the falls, are several indications of ancient Indian occupancy. An excavation about the shape and size of an ordinary brick oven, bearing the name of "Indian oven," has been carved out of the rock, and in all probability was used by the aborigines for cooking purposes.
Still further down the mountain is another spring, famous for its medicinal properties. It is impregnated with sulphureted hydrogen and iron. Sulphur is deposited on the ground around the spring, and there is no doubt of its possessing some medicinal virtues, especially in cuta- neous diseases.
The timber growth on Ossipee mountain is largely spruce, although there is a great quantity of other soft and hard wood. On the western side of the mountain is a place where coal was thought to be embedded, and a company was formed a few years ago for the purpose of mining it. After several years of intermittent labor it was abandoned withont any satisfactory results being obtained. The principal rock of the mountain is gneiss.
Ponds and Streams. - The principal bodies of water are Long pond and Little Winnipiseogee pond. Long pond is about two miles long and half a mile broad. It has at its mouth, about a mile from the village of Centre Harbor, a water-power upon which is a saw and grist mill, owned by James W. Goodrich. Little Winnipiseogee pond is a beautiful sheet of water near Moul- tonborough Corner, containing from 160 to 200 acres. It abounds in fish of
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
various kinds, and is much frequented by wild ducks in their season, and is a place much resorted to by sportsmen. It is fed by a large stream from Ossipee mountain, of sufficient size to furnish power to run machinery. There was once a sawmill on the Richard Fry farm, and a gristmill on that of Albert Tilton ; at the present Mr Tilton uses the power to drive a shingle-mill, a threshing- machine, and some smaller machinery. The outlet of this pond empties its waters into Red Hill river. Red Hill river runs from Sandwich into Moulton- borough, and flows into Lake Winnipiseogee. About four miles of its course is in this town, upon which are two fine mill privileges, one at Moultonborough Falls, where there is a gristmill owned by B. W. and W. H. H. Mason, and a sawmill owned by Durward Adams. The other privilege is a mile lower down, and was formerly the site of Lee's mills. Some years since the property was purchased by Isaac Adams, who erected a substantial building in which were manufactured boards, staves, baseball bats, etc. A few months since Isaae Emery, of Portland, purchased the mills and privilege and several lots of tim- ber land, and extensively repaired and improved the mill and machinery. The power is now produced by two five-feet turbine water-wheels that carry board and box-board saws, shingle-mill, two stave machines, and a planer. He employs between forty and fifty hands, and is doing quite an extensive business, which is quite an element of prosperity to the town.
For several years before this our town was destitute of manufacturing, the good water privileges of the different streams not being utilized to any extent.
Indian Occupancy, Relics, etc .- There are many indications of Indian occupancy, and several Indian relics have been found. Some Indian cellars are yet visible on the borders of the streams. These cellars are about eight feet square, and are carefully stoned. There is one on a ridge of land on James Smith's farm near the Corner, and not far from Winnipiseogee pond. On Dr W. H. H. Mason's farm near Red Hill pond are several, indicating the former existence of an Indian village.
On a tree found by the early settlers between two ponds was delicately carved the history of one of the Indian expeditions. The number killed and prisoners were represented by as many human figures ; the former were marked with the stroke of a knife across their throats. In 1817 a gigantic skeleton was found near Tuftonborough line, measuring seven feet in height, and on a small island of the lake, in 1820, was discovered a curiously wrought and much decayed gun-barrel imbedded in a large pine-tree. Whether it found its way from the early inhabitants of Portsmouth to this (Ossipee) tribe is not known. There was communication between the Ossipees and the early settlers previous to the settlement of the town, and there is a legend that Chamberlain, pursued by Pangus, scaled Ossipee Falls, leaping at one bound sixteen feet, and thus escaped. It is conjectured that this region was once a place of concealment for this tribe.
401
TOWN OF MOULTONBOROUGH.
Early Prices, etc. - In early days everything was directed by public action. The building of a meeting-house and the settlement and support of the minister was acted upon in open town-meeting, and a tax was levied for that purpose. May 15, 1777, the town chose a committee to establish prices. Of this Jonathan Penniman was chairman. Their report, adopted May 22, fixed prices of sundry articles. Rye, 4/6 per bushel of 60 lbs .; Indian corn, 4/0 for 60 lbs .; good sole leather, 1/6; flax, 1/3; neat leather shoes (best), 8/0; labor from March 15 to August 31, 3/0 per day; from August 31 to October 2, 2/6 per day; from October 2 to March 15, 1/6 per day. Butter, hay, in fact every article of sale or traffic, had its established price, which had no regard for want and supply.
CHAPTER XXXI.
First Town-meeting - Inventory - Division Lines - Jonathan Moulton - Moultonbor- ough and Sandwich Social Library - Colonel Nathan Hoit -1820 -Early Settlers and their Descendants -John Marston - Richardson Family - Smith Family - Lee Family - Evans Family - The Sturtevants - Moulton, Bean, and Ambrose Families, etc. - Early Life - Prominent Natives not Residents - Temperance Question.
T HE first legal town-meeting was holden March 31, 1778. The first inventory was taken in 1773 by the selectmen of Sandwich, Daniel Beede and Bagley Weed, in pursuance of instructions received from the colonial government.
The Inventory of the Pools & Estates of Moultonborough in 1773. Poolls, 44; Slaves, 0; orchard, 0; Arable land, 52 Acres; Mow land, 100 Acres; Pasture land. 60 Aeres; horses, 2; Mares, 2; Colts, 1 three years old ; Oxen, 20; Cows, 55; three years old, 12; two years old, 24; Yearlins, 15; Mills, 0; Wharves, 0; Ferries, 0; Money -; Stock in trade -.
Disputations long and fierce occurred between Moultonborough, Sand- wich, and Tamworth, concerning division lines. These were fostered for personal gain by Jonathan Moulton, and petition after petition were sent to the colonial and state legislatures. A committee consisting of John Langdon, Joshua Wentworth, and Benjamin Chadbourne was appointed, February 22, 1785, to review the matters in dispute and make a final decision. This decision fixed the boundary lines permanently.
Jonathan Moulton, the leading man of the early settlement, was in many ways a remarkable man. Governor William Plumer gives this sketch of him : -
402
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
He was born in Hampton of poor parents, and was bound by his father an apprentice to a cabinet-maker. When about twenty years old he purchased his time of his master, and set up as a trader in a small shop in small articles of small value. By unwearied attention to the purchase and sale of these small articles, he became an extensive dealer in English and West India goods. His reputation as a trader and as a man was not good. He was suspected, and not without cause, of various kinds of unfair and dishonorable management to acquire property. He was a man of considerable talents and of insinuating address, and uniformly flattered the vices and folly of mankind. At his own house he was hospitable. He was a prompt, ready man, and transacted business with great dispatch; but those with whom he dealt most suffered the most by him. He was a representative from Hampton several times, and sat in the assembly several times as representative of Moultonborough and towns classed therewith. In 1771 he was colonel of militia, and March 25, 1785, he was appointed brigadier- general of the First Brigade. He was a large proprietor of extensive tracts of new, unculti- vated lands, and expended much money in forming settlements and in making and repairing roads in those townships. These things are useful to the state, but his improvements, road- making, taxes, lawsuits, and his debts very much embarrassed and perplexed him. In his last years he was unable to pay the demands against him, and after his death the property he left was not sufficient to pay what he owed. For some years previous to his death many suits, both for and against him, were pending in the courts of law. He attempted to corrupt judges, bribe jurors, suborn witnesses, and seduce the counsel of his opponents. There was a period when his influence with courts and jurors was great, and his process fatal to many ; but in 1786 he was unable to get justice. Judges and jurors were excited and strongly prejudiced against him, and he knew the fact. In 1786 he was president of a self- created convention which met at Rochester to take measures to procure a law to declare certain property a legal tender for the payment of debts and to emit paper money. In September of that year the Chester convention marched with arms to Exeter, surrounded the house where the legislature was in session, and tried to coerce them to pass such a law. General Moulton strongly encouraged them to persevere; but September 18, 1787, he died at his own house in Hampton.
From its incorporation in 1777 Moultonborough has been a quiet and uneventful town. In 1800 the Moultonborough and Sandwich Social Library was incorporated, and the Moultonborough Social Library came into existence by act of legislature ten years later ; showing intelligence and desire for knowledge. In the first of this century George Freese kept a tavern at Freese's Corner (now called Moultonborough Corner), and here was organ- ized the first Masonic lodge instituted in Carroll county territory. Colonel Nathan Hoit was master for some years. (See Morning Star Lodge in Masonic history in General History.)
Colonel Hoit was an early settler, and the most prominent man of the town from 1776 to 1800. In 1777 he was an ensign in Captain Livermore's company in the Revolutionary war. In 1781 he was a lieutenant and was rapidly advanced to the command of a regiment. After the war he repre- sented the town many years in the legislature ; was speaker, was senator from the sixth district in 1797, 1798, 1799, and president of the senate.
In 1820 there were in town one meeting-house, nine schoolhouses, two taverns, one store, five sawmills, five grainmills, one clothmill, one barkmill, one carding-machine, and one tannery.
403
TOWN OF MOULTONBOROUGH.
Early Settlers and their Descendants. - Among the carly inhabitants was John Marston, a soldier in the continental army of the Revolution from Hampton. His father-in-law, General Jonathan Moulton, gave him and his wife Anna four hundred acres of land in this town. Anna first saw her future husband when he was a sergeant drilling troops, and said to a companion, "I mean to have that young man." At the close of the war he paid sixty dollars, continental money, for a set of buttons. Their home was at East Moultonborough, near the old meeting-house, and they had a family of thirteen children. Mr Marston was a Universalist and refused to pay tithes for the support of the settled clergyman, Rev. Mr Blake, and his case was made a test one in the courts; after a protracted litigation, the decision was against him, and the satisfaction of the judg- ments and the heavy costs swept away all of his property. Mr Marston died November 9, 1846, aged eighty-nine years and ten months. His wife died June 5, 1830, aged sixty-seven.
The Richardson family had much to do with the original settlement. Colonel Bradbury Richardson and a brother settled in the southeast part, and a school district bore the name "Richardson district." The colonel had twelve children, nine of whom settled near his home. It is said that in 1825 fifty scholars attended the district school, forty of them being cousins, while thirty were Richardsons. The colonel was a man of energy and filled many places of position.
The Neck was largely peopled by a family named Smith, which took an active and a prominent place in the prosperity and business of the town. The earlier ones were Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith, Jr, Josiah Smith, and Reuben Smith. They held various official positions, and repre- sented the town in the legislature. Many of their descendants now live on the Neck.
The Lee family and that of Roberts were conspicuous among the early settlers. With others, they pitched on a plot of arable land about half- way up the south slope of Ossipee mountain. (This settlement, composed of some six or eight families, became a school district, having a commo- dious and good schoolhouse and about fifteen scholars. The schoolhouse has become dilapidated for want of care and scholars, and, in fact, many of the other districts have suffered nearly as much from the same causes.) Only two of the descendants of these early settlers remain on the moun- tain, Asa Lee and his sister Martha.
David Lee was an early, if not the first, owner of Lee's Mills. He was followed in their ownership by his sons, Nathan M. and Edward S. Lee. Nathan M. has five children now residing here: David G., Frank S., Edward M., Mrs A. P. Jaclard, and Mrs James M. Smith. His youngest daughter, Annetta, married Hayes Lougee, Esq. Edward S. Lee left one son, George F., who lives on the old homestead.
404
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
The Evans family was here early. The sire, James Evans, had six sons ; among them were James, Smith B., Alvah C., and Daniel B. Five of the seven daughters of Smith B. Evans married and moved from town. Emma F., the widow of Dr George L. Mason, and her sister, Mrs D. F. Grant, are now residents.
The Sturtevants were early residents of the town. Benjamin, with Comfort, his wife, located on the farm where they lived many years, he dying September, 1860, aged eighty-seven years; his wife died in September, 1850, aged seventy years, leaving no children. Hosea Sturte- vant, nephew of Benjamin, settled here at the same time. His wife was Joanna Lee. Of their ten children, five are living. Hosea died in Decem- ber, 1882, aged ninety-one years; his wife died in 1878, aged eighty-four years. The Sturtevants were pioneers on the farms they lived and died on, felling the first trees, doing labor and living in a manner that would seem impossible to the present generation. Their descendants are among the representative citizens of the town, not unworthy of their sturdy ancestry.
A Mr Green lived near the month of the main road; his descendants are numerous, and are industrious and well-to-do citizens. Scattered through the town are many descendants of the early proprietors named Moulton. Two families, descendants of Deacon Enoch True and Josiah Haines, emigrated west some time since and are prominent; notably John C. and Joseph C. Haines, Rev. Aaron True, and John True, a leading agrieulturist, residing at Baraboo, Wis.
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