History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 125

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200

USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 125
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 125

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" 4thly. Yielding and Paying therefor to us Our Heirs and Successors for the space of Ten years to be computed from the date hereof the Rent of One Ear of Indian Corn only, On the Twenty-Fifth Day of December Annually, if lawfully demanded the first payment to be made on the Twenty-Fifth day of December, 1762.

"5thly. Every Proprietor, Settler, or Inhabitant shall yield and pay unto Our Heirs and Successors yearly and every year forever from and after the Expi- ration of Ten years from the above said Twenty-fifth day of December, which will be in the year of Our Lord 1772, One Shilling Proclamation Money for every hundred Acres he so owns settles or possesses, and so in proportion for a greater or lesser Traet of the Land, which Money shall be paid by the respec-

tive Persons abovesaid their Heirs or Assigns in Our Council Chamber in Portsmouth or to such Officer or Officers as shall be appointed to receive the same, and this to be in Lieu of all other Rents and Services whatsoever- In Testimony whereof we have caused the Seal of Our said Province to be hereunto affixed.

"Witness, Benning Wentworth, Esqr., Our Gover- nor and Commander-in-Chief of Our said Province the 6th day of October in the Year of Our Lord Christ One Thousand Seven Hundred & Sixty-One and in the First year of Our Reign

" B. WENTWORTH.

"By His Excellency's Command with advice of Council.

" THEODORE ATKINSON, Sec'y.

"Province of New Hampshire Recorded in the Book of Charters, Page 221-222, 1761.

"pr THEODORE ATKINSON, Sec'y. " A true Copy.

" BENJN. GILES, Propritrs' Clark."

The proprietors' record has a plan of the town drawn in accordance with the royal grant as given by Isaac Rindge, surveyor-general of the province and copied by Benjamin Giles, the proprietors' clerk. There were some provisions afterwards considered by the proprietors, though not speci- fied in the charter, as follows :

A lot of two hundred acres was reserved in the southwestern part of the town to be ae- counted as two of the before-named shares for the benefit of Governor Wentworth. Inaddition, one share was reserved for the " Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts ;" one share for a glebe for the Church of England as by law established; one share for the first settled minister of the gospel ; and one share for the benefit of a school in said town.

That the grant of this township was origin- ally a matter of speculation is apparent from the fact that of the names of the sixty-one grantees to whom the charter was given, but one appears as an actual settler of the town. The settlers and owners of 1766 had evidently purchased their rights from the original gran- tecs.

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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

The township of Newport thus granted is situated in the western part of the State, some forty miles northwesterly from Concord.

Mathematically described, it is about 43º 30' north latitude, and 4° 30' longitude east from Washington City, and is bounded on the north by Croydon ; south, by Unity and Go- shen ; east, by Sunapee ; and west by Clare- mont.

In regard to its physical aspects, the first point of interest and value is the splendid river system by which it is watered and drained, and from which Newport derives its importance as a manufacturing town. We have reference to the Sugar River and its branches.

The main stream of the Sugar has its source in a great natural reservoir of water lying some five or six miles to the eastward of the town, known as Sunapee Lake. This lake covers an area some ten miles long from north to south and on an average about three miles in width. Its resources are deep among the granite knobs on the great back-bone or ridge known as a part of the Apalachian system of high lands between the Merrimack and Connecticut Valleys, and its slopes forming on either side water-sheds to the rivers that flow through those valleys.

The surface of the lake is estimated by com- petent engineers at an altitude of one thousand one hundred and three feet above mean tide- water in Boston Harbor, and some eight hun- dred and sixty feet above the bed of the Con- nectieut River on a line eighteen miles due west in the town of Claremont.

The fall of the river between the gates of the Sunapee Dam Company, at its lake outlet, and the valley at Newport is estimated at from three hundred and fifty to four hundred feet. Much of this power has been employed to good advantage by mills and manufactories; and more remains unimproved, awaiting the coming capitalist or man of enterprise and skill to build his shop or mill and control its idle force to some good purpose.

In the Newport meadows the Sugar receives

the waters of its South Branch, flowing north- wardly from Goshen, with its affluents from Lempster and Unity, and goes on for about three miles by the course of the stream to receive another principal tributary, the North Branch from Croydon and Springfield. The course of the stream then tends westerly to the rapids at North Newport, where it again takes up its rollicking career to Kellyville, and from thence to the meadows and fall in Claremont, and its confluence with the Connectieut.

There are several other lesser tributaries of the Sugar in Newport, of which are Reed, Kim- ball, Perry and Comstock Brooks-some of them with water sufficient to turn a mill, and all of them in times past the delight of the angler.

The length of the Sugar River in its circui- tons course is estimated at about twenty-five miles, to accomplish some eighteen miles in a straight line. The waters we have sought to describe drain an area of some two hundred thousand acres of territory, and flow from twelve different towns.

Spreading out along the margins of these brooks and larger streams are ample meadows rising into uplands, and highlands, and hills, and ridges affording fertile lands for tillage, sweet pastures for sheep and cattle and horses, -abundant wood-lots and orchards of sugar- maple, on all of which efficient labor would find a reward.

Another pleasant feature of the township is its diversified and beautiful scenery. It wouldl seem the result of design, rather than a chance survey, that so many desirable features should be found in a " certain tract or parcel of land," as regards meadow-lands, water-power and gen- eral situation.

We might ask, " Why did not the compass of the original surveyor send the boundary lines in such a manner as to divide our meadows and water-power with Croydon or Goshen, instead of locating them in the heart of Newport ?" The only answer to such a query would be that "these lines, which have fallen to us in such

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pleasant places, were indicated by the finger of Providence," and we have a "goodly heritage."

Among the most prominent elevations outly- ing about the valley of Newport is Pike Hill, which appears to have been used as a signal station in the triangulation of the State by the Coast Survey, as shown by the weather-beaten staff upon its top.

There appears also a geological wonder on the top of this hill, known to the natives as the Elephant Rock, on account of its resem- blance in color and proportions to that huge Asiatic pachyderm. It rests upon the surface of the ground, and measures nearly one hun- dred feet in circumference and twenty-four feet in height. The altitude of its location is esti- mated at about one thousand five hundred feet above sea-level. When and how it was landed upon that granite knob is matter of grave speculation. It is known to antedate the arrival of any other first settler, and is at present the only original occupant of that hill. A little farther to the southwest is Wilmarth Ledge, a bold ridge, easily accessible and worth visiting for the sake of the magnificent views presented and the geological specimens that may be found there.

Another immense conglomerate boulder or loggan, estimated to weigh from thirty to forty tons, receives many callers at its lodge on Clare- mont Hill, about forty rods north of the road. This rock is so poised upon the ground that it may be moved to and fro by the ordinary force of one hand. It is supposed to be a choice specimen lost out of the cabinet of some passing glacier in the olden-time.

Of other curiosities in stone, reference might he had to the pot or well-holes in the ledges of the South Branch at Southville.

There is no locality in Newport where the age of the world is more emphatically dis- played; no "Sermons in Stones " more in- pressive than are to be found there. Some time since a couple of village philosophers selected one of the pot-holes, to which we have referred,

for investigation. They prepared for the duty, and with syphon and other facilities for bailing and digging they removed the water and sand and gravel from a circular hole in the solid ledge to the depth of six feet, and varying from twenty-seven inches in diameter at the surface to forty-two inches at its greatest size. The shape of the chamber or cavity thus disclosed was somewhat like that of an egg, if made to stand upon its largest end; and its capacity must have been at least one hundred and twenty-five gallons. The inside of this immense jug, so to speak, clearly indicated the spiral sweep of the water and pebbles as the wearing process went on during the ages and ages.

In the northwestern part of the town, over- looking the valley of the Sugar on the south, stands a rugged elevation know as Blueberry Ledge, which, extending into Claremont, be- comes Green Mountain. In this remote corner, sometimes known as the Cat Hole, are mines of plumbago and mica, which may attract further attention in the future. The views there are very fine.

In the northern part of the town, beyond the bend in the river and its adjacent meadows, rises a huge swell of land known as Baptist Hill. Such tracts of upland, originally cov- ered with a growth of hard-woods, such as beech, birch, maple and oak, were considered very desirable by the early settlers as affording a soil of great strength and fertility, and not casily exhausted by cultivation.

Across the valley of the North, or Croydon Branch of Sugar, in the northeastern section of the town, rising to an elevation of one thousand five hundred and eighty-eight feet above sea- level, is a rugged hill known as Coit Mountain; and further on in an easterly direction is a simi- lar knob, distinguished as Bald Mountain. The tops of these hills are very delightful, af- fording, as they do, fine outlooks and desirable situations for summer parties.

Lying along on the eastern side of the town and valley are the East Mountain and Thatcher

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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Hill, devoted to farms and agriculture, and abounding with pleasant situations.

From many of the points thus described within the town lines, the observer may, with the natural eye, or aided by a field-glass, rise out of his local boundaries of town, county and State, to the contemplation of far-off views of surpassing interest and grandeur. Some eight miles to the north the summit of Croydon Mountain, the highest point of land in Sullivan County, looks down upon the Newport Valley from an altitude of two thousand seven hun- dred and eighty-nine feet above sea-level ; and further to the northeast the clustering pinna- eles of the White Mountain group are dis- tinetly visible. On the cast we have Kearsarge in serene individuality, and the far-off lands of Maine. To the southeast the dark and rugged brow of Sunapee seems watching its own shadow in the crystal lake at its base. On the south are the Washington, Unity and Lempster hills, while the western horizon is outlined by a clear and well-defined view of the Green Mountain range of Vermont.

Returning to the business affairs of the grantees ; no action appears to have been taken in regard to the distribution of these shares un- til some three years after the date of the charter.

On December 25, 1764, a meeting of pro- prietors was held at Killingworth, and a com- mittee appointed, consisting of Stephen Wilcox, Robert Lane, John Crane and Isaac Kelsey, "to proceed to Charlestown (No. 4) and attend to the allotment of the shares," which ulti- mately took place at the house of John Hast- ings, Jr., on July 6, 1765.

This committee was also authorized "to locate the Town Plott" in accordance with the pro- visions of the charter, and arrange convenient highways for the accommodation of the lot- owners.

At a meeting held on the second Tuesday in March, 1766, another committee, consisting of Ebenezer Merrit, Deacon Jeremiah Clement and Stephen Wilcox, was appointed "to open

a cart-road in Newport," and also "a road to the west end of said lotts," extending from lot No. 64, owned by Ezra Parmelee, north ward to what was afterward, and still remains, the Jenks place.

It was also " Voted that Mr. Morgan sell the boat owned by the proprietors, and that Stephen Wilcox proceed to Portsmouth and procure an extension of the charter," which was in hazard of forfeiture, through the non-compliance with its provisions-twenty-one shares had already (April, 1765) been sold at auction for this cause.

It is matter of regret that we know nothing more, either by record or tradition, in regard to the " boat owned by the proprietors," for what purpose it had been used, and why it was sold.

Up to this time, 1765-66, all that had been in settlement of the township was preliminary. The surveys, the grant, the allotment of shares, the trading and planning had mostly been ar- ranged, and all the characteristics and privileges and beauties of the new township were thor- oughly examined and understood.

It is said that in the fall of 1765, after the drawing took place, a number of the men in- terested came to the promised land to spy it out, and make arrangements for the company that were to come the next spring ; that three of them remained to finish some extra work after their companions had left.

At night they went to "Bragg's camp," which was at the northwest corner of the roads at the foot of Claremont Hill. The next morning a severe snow-storm came on. They were without food and obliged to follow their companions to No. 4, or remain and starve. While traveling through Unity, Mer- ritt, one of the party became fatigued and chilled, thought he could go no farther, and laid down to die. Kelsey, another of the party, who believed in severe remedies in sneh cases, cut sprouts and applied them vigorously to Merritt's person, whereupon he arose in his

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wrath to pursue and take vengeance on his persecutor. The exercise restored him to the use of his limbs and probably saved his life, and they reached Charlestown in safety.

Early in the month of June, 1766, the first party of actual settlers and workers made their appearance in Newport.

They came in from Charlestown (No. 4), which for several years had been the most northern outpost of civilization on the Con- necticut River. The descent on this place in September, 1760, when the Willard family were captured and taken to Canada, was among the very last of the French and Indian depre- dations in New England. It was at this time a resting-place and base of supplies for the surrounding country.

From that point a traveled road and civil- ization disappeared from their view, and they took their way through the woods for about twenty miles, guided by blazed trees, on foot, as may be supposed, bearing their guns, am- munition, provisions, axes and extra clothing on their backs. It has been erroneously stated by writers on this subject that the wives of several of the party were with them at this time ; but such is not the fact, as will appear in the further progress of this sketch.

In regard to the personnel of the party whom, as individuals, we now welcome to Newport, it is matter of regret that so little is known. They took no thought for their descendants and suc- cessors, and were not posing before a future historian. Had it been otherwise, their private records would have been more ample.

The oldest member of the party was Deacon Stephen Wilcox, whose ancestors were settled on the eastern end of Long Island, visible from the Connecticut shore, as early as 1685. He was born July 5, 1706 : married, May 10, 1733, Mary Hurd, and with their family of twelve children lived in Killingworth. He was at this time about sixty years of age. With him were two sons,-Jesse, born October 5, 1744; Phineas, born January 14, 1747. Uriah, who

was not of the party, but came afterward, was born March 13, 1749, and consequently was about seventeen years of age. Here came also Samuel Hurd, whose wife (married 1757) was Lydia, the daughter of Stephen Wilcox.

Stephen Wilcox was never a permanent resident of this town. His interest here and business was to place these sons and the son-in- law on lands-three hundred acres to each-he had acquired in accordance with the terms of the charter, or by purchase.

His name is several times mentioned in con- nection with proprietary and town affairs, but he ultimately returned to Killingworth.

Here came also Absalom Kelsey, about twen- ty-four years of age, who afterwards married Merey Hill, of Killingworth, and Jesse Kelsey, his brother, born February 25, 1746, married, May 12, 1769, Hester Hurd, a sister of Samuel Hurd, before mentioned.

Of this party was Ezra Parmelee, whose father was a neighbor of the Wilcoxs, Hurds and Kel- seys, and we believe a connection of some of them by marriage. Ezra, Jr., afterward mar- ried, May 1, 1769, Sybil Hill, a daughter of James and Hannah (Nettleton) Hill, of Killing- worth, and a sister of Mercy, the wife of Absa- lom Kelsey.

We have been careful in regard to these gen- ealogies, as frequent errors have been made which we desire to correct.

We have thus specified seven members of the settling party, who appear to have been person- ally related or connected, and who made up a kind of family party under the supervision of Dea. Wilcox. The tradition in regard to this matter is that there were eight ; that they arrived at a point near the present four corners at the foot of Claremont Hill late on a Saturday evening. The probability is that they came to Bragg's unoccupied camp, abandoned the previous fall, and that Bragg himself was now one of their number. We would have known more about this matter had a generation of Braggs come down to the present from that carly stock.

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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

The tradition also runs, and we have no doubt of the truth of it, that the next day be- ing the Sabbath, religions services were held in the shade of a large birch-tree, and con- dueted by Deacon Stephen Wilcox.

As to there being eight in the party, it mat- ters not ; others were on their way hither, of whom were Zephaniah Clark, Ebenezer Merritt, Daniel Dudley and others whose names will appear hereafter.

The individuals of the party soon left the gen- eral encampment to occupy cabins or camps of their own construction, on their own lots. Jesse Wilcox came to lots 12 and 13, now the home- stead of Freeman Cutting; Samuel Hurd to lot 14, on the north end of the plain, so-called; Jesse Kelsey to lands at the locality now known as Kelleyville. The place has since been owned by Deacon John Kelley, Richard Everett, John S. Parmelee and Geo. H. Towle. That neigh- borhood was soon known as " New City."

Ezra Parmelee made his camp on lot No. 64, at the south end of the meadows, on the South Branch, not far from the present residence of George E. Dame. The meadow lands in that locality have been greatly changed in later years by the action of the water in times of freshet. Absalom Kelsey located at the south- west corner, and Benjamin Bragg at the north- west corner, at the cross-roads. Zephaniah Clarke erceted a log cabin on the "plain," where R. P. Claggett now lives. It was the hostelry of the settlement. Ebenezer Merritt took possession of lot No. 5, afterwards owned by Benjamin Giles, and in later times by Jonas Cutting and Wm. Davis.

The stalwart settlers wrought industriously through the season, chopping, burning, clear- ing and planting each on his five aeres or more, as " nominated in the bond."

The committee, of which Stephen Wilcox was chairman, undoubtedly pushed the opening of the cart-road towards Charlestown, their base of supplies. The road extended in a southwesterly direction over the Newport and

Unity hills, with more regard to straight lines than grades, and was the first thoroughfare opened, though others had been projected.

At that time the woods abounded in game suitable for food, and the streams with trout and other kinds of fish. The breadstuffs, groceries and salt meats were transported with much labor from " No. 4," as it was almost al- ways called, and each settler took his turn in taking the trip and returning therewith. In the autumn of that year, 1766, they sowed win- ter grains in their clearings, raking it in as best they could by hand, and late in the season closed their camps, and returned to Killing- worth to spend the winter with their families and friends. Referring to the names and ages heretofore stated of several of the young men, it may reasonably be supposed that more or less of old-fashioned New England courting was before them during the winter. That the time was well applied the records hereafter will show. There is very little doubt but that the new set- tlement was deserted during the first winter, as Clark, Hurd, Bragg and Merritt had left their wives and all the young men their sweet- hearts in Connecticut.

It may be observed in this connection that in the primitive days of Newport, and New England generally, the married state was en- tered upon early in life. The man and the woman who were to be made " one flesh " came together with a suitable equality of age and condition, and were thus better fitted to aid and comfort each other in all the possibilities of life that were before them.

They reared large families of children, and were able to see them grow up around the family hearth-stone under good training and ex- ample, and finally push out into new fields of labor and usefulness, while yet the homestead was in full vigor, as a base of operations and encouragement.

It was not, perhaps, good judgment that the sickly and weak-kneed members of the flock were oftenest educated and turned into the pro-

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NEWPORT.

fessions ; but from the standpoint of the parent of that period, musele was the pre-emi- nent quality, and it was not considered wisdom or good policy to waste a healthy and vigorous young man in an office or a profession while there were savages to fight, or forests to hew down and farms to open and eultivate.

It was in those good old times that families were founded, as well as States; and the men and women of the present turn with reverence and pride to the genealogies and memories of their New England ancestors and the old home- stead or burial-place, possibly to become a shrine or a Mecca, to some distinguished de- scendant from the Far West, who would establish his lineage, or who has found his way to high official position-perhaps the Presidency.

In the spring of 1767 the Newport colony returned to their eabins and labors, in the build- ing up of their colonial town. They found that during their absence the wild animals that hover about the borders of civilization had anticipated them in the gathering of the erops they had planted; but undiscouraged, they pro- ceeded as before to chop and dig and build in the line of substantial progress.

Several additional settlers were added to their number this year, among whom was Benjamin Giles, who came to be an important factor in the general progress. He at onee appreciated the wants of the settlement and proposed the build- ing of saw and grist-mills, at an eligible privi- lege on the main branch of Sugar River in the eastern part of the town.

The want of facilities for the grinding of corn and grain and the sawing of logs into boards was very great, for reasons already stated.

It may be of interest here to state that the present Granite State Mills, at Guild post-office and station, ocenpy the site of the Giles mills.

Referring to the old records, we find that the first regular meeting of the proprietors in New- port was held October 13, 1767, at the house of Jesse Wilcox. The meeting was called to order

by Benjamin Bellows, of Walpole, one of " His Majesties Justices."

Stephen Wilcox was chosen moderator ; Ben- jamin Giles, clerk ; Samuel Hurd, Charles Avery, Zephaniah Clark were chosen assessors; and Benjamin Giles, Amos Hall, Eben Mer- ritt, Samuel Hurd and James Church, a com- mittee " to lay out a second division of land."

It is understood that the first division ex- tended aeross the meadows east and west, and the lots contained each fifteen acres. This meeting votes : " To lay out to each proprietor thirty-five acres, either at the east or west end of the lots already laid out.

This meeting adjourned to the 16th inst., at the house of Zephaniah Clark, inn-holder, etc., where it was " Voted : That Zephaniah Clark, Eben' Merritt, Benj" Bragg, Sam' Hurd and Jesse Wilcox, having families now in Newport, have each 80 acres of land, and also that any person who is a proprietor and becomes an in- habitant, with his wife, in said Newport by the first of July, 1768, shall be entitled to 80 acres ; Others who have been in town, to improve the first division, 50 acres."

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History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 125

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1200

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200