USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume I > Part 3
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To this may be added, for facility of consultation, the additional partial list of freshets which, with two exceptions, occurred previous to 1851.
1772. A great flood.
1784. Tradition reports a very high freshet this year.
1799. A freshet upon whose waters the timber of Dr. W. G. Carter's house was floated to its destination.
1818. A freshet which carried off Federal bridge.
1820, Oct. 17. Great inundation of the interval.
1824. Federal bridge partially carried away.
1826, 1828, and 1831. Very high freshets, causing important changes of river channel.
1841, Feb. 8. Federal bridge and Free bridge both badly damaged.
1850, May 1 and 6. Federal bridge injured and embankments of B., C. & M. Railroad washed away.
1865. Sewall's Falls, Federal, Free, and Concord bridges dam- aged by freshet.
1868, October. B., C. & M. Railroad embankment between Con- cord and East Concord submerged.
While the above list does not contain a record of all the Merri- mack river freshets occurring at Concord during those forty-nine years, it gives the several elevations above the city's datum line of fifteen of the more notable ones, the highest having been twenty-one and sixty-five one hundredths feet, while the lowest was sixteen and twelve one hundredths, and the average eighteen and seventy-two one hundredths.
These inundations are usually attended with results both good and evil. They temporarily obstruct travel, wash away valuable land in some places, and in others bury it beneath sheets of barren sand. Occasionally, division fences, farm animals, and growing crops are injured or destroyed. At the same time they elevate the surfaces of low grounds, leave upon the lands submerged deposits of silt of more or less value, and, if their advent be in spring, they increase materially the coming grass crop.
Some thirty years ago, serious complaint was made by some of the farmers upon the interval above Concord, of the withholding in reser- voirs of considerable portions of the spring waters which had before contributed to the inundation of their fields, which was done for the
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
benefit of the manufacturing companies at Manchester and lower points along the river's course. In their view, they were deprived of a natural benefit attaching to their land and had received no compen- sation for it. The inequality of the parties interested prevented any reference of the grievance alleged to the legislature or to the courts and its importance has never been determined.
It is, however, an undoubted fact that much value attaches to grass lands from a thorough wetting of their soil in early spring, which renders them moist for a long period thereafter. To such the Merri- mack inundations are of much benefit, making them, when properly drained, perennially productive of fair crops of second-class hay with- out fertilization.
Regarding the value of the sedimentary deposits left upon these lands by freshets, various opinions are held, based largely upon loose observations of different persons. That they vary more or less goes without saying. How much of the benefit received results from water and how much from silt can be settled only by the most careful examination by competent persons of particular cases. Such are yet to be made.
An analysis of three specimens of river silt collected upon Horse Shoe island in 1896, made at the New Hampshire Experiment Station, in Durham, indicates that, at this locality, their fertilizing value is not great.
It is to be regretted that the records of the exact times, heights, and characteristics of the Merrimack river freshets are so imperfect ; a fact due in part, doubtless, to a general lack of appreciation of their importance and the want of some established scale by which their varying elevations may be determined, similar to the Nilometers of Egypt, used to mark the varying heights of the Nile. But the records which we have suffice to show that our ordinary freshets attain elevations of from five to ten feet above the river's low-water mark, and that the higher ones rise to eighteen and twenty. At these latter heights the interval in the central part of the city is nearly all submerged.
The height of the water in the time of a freshet is not the same over all submerged localities. It varies to the amount of one or two feet and in some instances even more. When the river overflows its southern bank at the upper end of Wattanummon's field, and is swept onward by its current and a northwest wind, which generally prevails at such a time, forcing the water into the triangle formed by the em- bankments of the Northern and of the Boston, Concord & Montreal railroads, it is found to be considerably higher on the west than on the east side of the latter road. It was to the action of these forces
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PHYSICAL FEATURES.
that the carrying out the section of its embankment, before men- tioned, was due. Various causes produce similar but lesser irregu- larities of surface at other places. The following are records of the heights of water in the Merrimack river during the flood of April 17, 1895, furnished by Mr. Merrill :
At East Concord passenger station 24.12
At new bridge near N. E. Granite Co.'s sheds, west side of track 24.22
At new bridge near N. E. Granite Co.'s sheds, east side of track 22.59
Opposite Concord passenger station 21.65
600 feet south of gas house bridge
.
21.32
2,900 feet south of gas house bridge
. 18.79
At Bow Junction
ยท 16.32
The above elevations are all above the city datum, low water at the lower bridge, by Governor Weston's survey.
FORESTS.
When the first settlers came to Concord they found its territory covered by primeval forest, with the exception of its water surfaces and small portions of its interval, which the Indians had cleared and on which their squaws had raised small crops of corn, beans, and pumpkins. Limited sections also produced the indigenous grasses, still found on the low, sandy soils near the river, which the plow but rarely, if ever, reaches, called by the earlier generations " old interval grasses," and by the botanists various species of " Andropogon."
Besides shrubs of little worth, the Concord forests still contain thirty-three different species of native trees of commercial value. In them may be found :
The Basswood (Tilia Americana).
Four species of Maple-The Sugar or Rock Maple (Acer saccha- rium), the Red Maple (Acer rubrum), the White Maple (Acer dasy- carpum), and the Striped Maple ( Acer Pennsylvanicum).
The Black Cherry ( Prunus Serotina).
The Sassafras (Sassafras officinale).
Two species of Elm-The American Elm ( Ulmus Americana) and the Slippery Elmn ( Ulmus fulva).
The Oilnut or Butternut (Juglans cineria).
The Walnut ( Carya alba).
Three species of Oak-The White Oak (Quercus alba), the Yel- low or Black Oak (Quercus tinctoria), and the Red Oak (Quercus rubra).
Two species of Ash-The White Ash (Fraxinus Americana) and the Brown Ash ( Fraxinus samibucifolia).
The Beech ( Fagus ferruginea).
The Chestnut ( Castanea vulgaris). 3
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
The Lever Wood ( Ostrya Virginica).
Four species of Birch-The Black Birch ( Betula lenta), the Yel- low Birch ( Betula lutea), the White Birch (Betula papyrifera), and the Grey Birch ( Betula alba).
The Black Willow (Salyr nigra).
The American Aspen (Populus tremuloides).
Three species of Pine-The White Pine (Pinus strobus), the Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida), and the Red Pine (Pinus resinosa).
The Black Spruce (Picea nigra).
The Balsam Fir ( Abies balsamea).
The Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis).
The Hackmatack (Larix Americana).
In early days grand aboriginal pines of great size were cut for masts and drawn to the river's bank to be thence floated to the ship- yards near its mouth. One hundred oxen, gathered from a large neighborhood, were sometimes employed to move such from the forest. "Masting," as it was termed, was a rough, laborious, and somewhat hazardous business. A large mast rolled into the river represented what was then a considerable amount of money. If it encountered disaster on the way to its destination, a serious loss befell its owner. The late Simeon Abbott once remarked that on one occasion a prominent mast master of Concord followed on horse back along the river's bank a valuable mast stick, which he was transporting to its destination, as far as Amoskeag Falls. Here it floated athwart the current, struck a rock in mid-channel and was broken in two parts. This ruin of the mast was the ruin of its owner. He relied upon the money which he expected to receive for it for the payment of debts he had no other means of discharging. Disheartened, he turned from the river and was never seen again.
"The next famous master was Capt. Reuben Kimball. The man- ner in which he carried on the business was as follows: Taking a strong team in the winter, of twenty yoke of oxen or more, with sleds and an adequate number of men, he went into the woods and camped. His men were divided into sections for particular parts of the work, called swampers, teamsters, choppers, peelers, and tailsmen. The swampers cleared the way ; choppers cut down the trees ; peel- ers peeled off the bark ; teamsters drove the oxen ; and two tailsmen walked beside the hind team, and in case at any time the tongue of the sled, in passing a hollow place, run so high as to lift the hind oxen up by the neck, then the tailsmen seized the tails of the oxen
1 The first mast-master of whom we have particular knowledge was Lieut. John Webster. . . Timothy Walker remembers that Lieutenant Webster cut a mast in Northfield which measured thirty-eight inches in diameter at sixty feet from the butt, and took one hundred and four oxen, or fifty-two teams, to draw it.
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PHYSICAL FEATURES.
and drew them outward, so that in coming down the tongue of the sled would not strike them."-Bouton's History of Concord, pp. 537, 538.
The Rev. Mr. Walker, the town minister, in his diary for 1764, says :
" Jan. 17. At night Prinee, with one yoke of oxen, went into ye mast eamp.
" Jan. 18. Mr. Webster hauled his great mast at night.
" Jan. 20. Prinee returned from masting."
In early days, when wood was eonsumed in large quantities and forest clearings were in progress, eolleetions of ashes were made and the manufacture of potash was prosecuted to some extent.
Judge Timothy Walker had a potashery in the rear of his garden, the well of which remains in good condition to this day. In his diary for 1766 he remarks :
" February 10. John Colby brot a L. of ashes from Ct Page's.
" June 23. Jn Colby went to Haverhill with a load of Potash."
There was but little other than the small loeal demand for lumber previous to the construction of the canals, at the various falls of the Merrimack. Consequently masts and potash were, until then, the only forest products which could be conveyed to a market. Upon the opening of these the transportation of lumber was made possible and that industry was greatly promoted. They eame too late, how- ever, for the manufacture here of rosin, spirits of turpentine, pipe staves, and other wood products, onee extensively pursued on and near the sea-coast. The want of praetieable transportation facilities had before prevented the establishment of these industries so far dis- tant from a market.
Fifty years ago there might have been found in Concord a consid- erable number of very ancient white pines of colossal dimensions and great ages. Some of them contained from two to three thousand feet of lumber, board measure. They were nearly or quite eoeval with the settlement of New Hampshire by the English. Now and then one might be found whose preservation was due, perhaps, to having once borne the mark of the broad arrow plaeed upon it by the Surveyor of the King's Woods, when New Hampshire was a British province, to indicate its reservation as a mast tree for the royal navy.
These giants of the woods, commonly called " old growth pines," to designate them from younger trces of the same species, which, far from small, had diameters of from two to three feet, a foot above the ground, although long past their prime a half century ago, were still
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
stalwart in their great age. Forest Nestors, erect, of commanding stature, stately, grand and majestic, they towered above all their fel- lows, bearing green coronals which daily received the sun's earliest greetings, and reflected his latest rays as he descended below the horizon of the west.
In all probability, not one of those old patriarchs of the woods now survives within the limits of Concord. Like the Indian, of whom they were companions in youth, they have passed in the great pro- gression of the world's movements, and the places which once knew them will know them no more.
The wood and timber of Concord forests grows less rapidly than is generally supposed. The writer found some years ago, by count- ing the rings and measuring the butts of forty white-pine logs, aver- aging about fifty feet in length, taken from various localities, that their average diameter was twenty-two and eighty-two one hundredths (22.82) inches, their average age eighty-six and seventy-six one hun- dredths (86.76) years, and their average contents three hundred and sixty-three (363) feet, showing an average growth of four and two tenths (4.2) feet a year, board measure.
A similar examination of twenty chestnut logs, averaging thirty feet in length, showed their average diameter to be twenty-one and four tenths (21.4) inches, their average age seventy-four (74) years, and their average contents two hundred and ninety-six (296) feet, having increased at an average rate of four (4) feet a year.
Twenty red-oak logs of an average length of thirty feet, and an average diameter of eighteen and two tenths (18.2) inches, had an average age of seventy and one tenth (70.1) years, and contained on an average two hundred and fifty-three feet, having grown at the rate of three and six tenths (3.6) feet each year.
Five hemlock logs, averaging thirty-five feet in length and seven- teen and two tenths (17.2) inches in diameter, had an average age of seventy-seven (77) years, and an average measurement of two hundred and seventy-one (271) feet, having increased at the rate of three and a half (3 1-2) feet a year.
MINERAL RESOURCES.
The mineral resources of Concord have been iron, clay, potash, and granite.
.
Iron. In a section of the city known as the Iron Works, small quantities of iron were manufactured many years ago, and the same was also done at Forge pond at West Concord. Where the ore was generally obtained does not appear. Some of it, however, was taken from a spot near the Sheep Davis road on the Plain. It has also been
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PHYSICAL FEATURES.
found at the foot of Oak hill, near Turtle pond. This industry, never of great importance, has been described in another chapter.
Clay. The best of clay is found in several localities. It underlies the superincumbent formation at depths so inconsiderable as to render it easily accessible. Beds of it have been utilized near Mill brook, in East Concord, on Turnpike street near the Margaret Pillsbury hos- pital, and farther south, near the Bow line, upon the State Hospital farm, near the foot of Dimond's hill, and elsewhere.
Bricks were made in Concord quite soon after its settlement. They were somewhat smaller than those now used, being thinner, with one side a little thicker than the other, and not quite so hard. Some, made as early as 1734, and perhaps before, are still doing good service to-day. Though not an extensive industry, the manufacture of bricks has always been an important one, and has partially met the local demand.
Fifty years ago, considerable quantities of brown pottery were man- ufactured in the vicinity of St. Paul's School and disposed of in Con- cord and neighboring towns. Twenty years ago flower pots, jugs, vases, etc., of attractive forms were produced, evincing not only good taste but skill and fidelity on the part of the manufacturers.
Granite. The granite industry dates from the early part of the last century. In its early days the undressed stock was obtained from surface boulders. These yielded large quantities of choice stone, one to the amount of eleven thousand cubic feet. When this source of supply failed, ledges were uncovered and regular quarrying was commenced. Top sheets, more or less stained, were originally made use of and were split into the required forms by steel wedges driven into narrow holes made by flat drills. The round drill was in but little, if any, use seventy years ago. Gunpowder was not much used until deep quarrying began.
The erection of the walls of the state prison in 1812 and those of the state house in 1816-1819, brought Concord granite into notice and created a demand for it. It was quarried in considerable quan- tities for building purposes and prepared for use by the convicts of the state prison, whence it was shipped by the Boston & Concord Boating Company to Boston, and thence to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans.
For some years the dressing of stone was the chief employment of the state prisoners. When, about 1840, the convict labor was trans- ferred to other industries the stone business was assumed by private parties. Prominent among these was Luther Roby, who for many years pursued it extensively. Gass & Johnson, Benjamin Speed, and Alexander Nichols also followed it.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
These supplied the local demand and sent stone, both dressed and in the rough, to other places. The United States post-office at Ports- mouth and the Horticultural and Merchants bank buildings in Boston afford fair specimens of the stone sent from the Concord quarries some thirty to forty years ago. Inasmuch as the history of this industry is ably described elsewhere, it is unnecessary to say more of it here than that the greatest mineral resource of Concord is to be found in the granite ledges which form so large a part of Rattlesnake hill, exhaustless, and thus far but partially developed.
Potash. Before the Revolution and for many years after, the man- ufacture of potash, elsewhere mentioned, was pursued to some extent in Concord. In the clearing of land for farming purposes, large quan- tities of ashes were produced. This fact led to the establishment of the business which continued to be prosecuted until the scarcity of the raw material rendered it unprofitable.
By the reduction of the alkali of this waste product to the con- centrated form of potash, its transportation to a market became prac- ticable. Mr. Richard Herbert carried on this business down to about 1825. Sixty years before that time, Judge Timothy Walker, as before remarked, had a potash manufactory on his premises, which was occu- pied for a considerable period. Its well, like that of the patriarch Jacob, in the Valley of Shechem, is in good preservation at this day.
ARTESIAN WELL.
Concord has but one artesian well. This is located about one hun- dred and fifty feet south of School street and midway between Main and State streets.
In 1897 and 1898, John H. Toof, wishing to obtain superior water for his laundry, sank such a well to the depth of thirteen hundred and twenty-five feet. The bed rock was struck at forty-nine feet below the ground's surface, and thence the drilling proceeded for the remaining distance of twelve hundred and seventy-six feet, through a coarse granite formation which varied considerably from time to time in the mixture of its elements. At one point a stratum of pure quartz was encountered fifteen feet thick, which tested severely the temper of the drills and slackened the progress of the work.
Water was reached in small quantity at fifteen feet below the rock's surface, and in larger measure later at the depth of nine hundred and . thirty-five feet.
This well has a diameter of six inches and yields each day between five and six thousand gallons of pure water by a pumping of ten hours. This is raised from a point three hundred and twenty-five feet below the ground's surface and has a uniform temperature of
.
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PHYSICAL FEATURES.
seventy-one degrees Fahrenheit. Thus far, experience has indicated that this amount marks the well's capacity, which is nnaffected by atmospheric conditions of moisture or temperature.
The quality of the water is of perfect clearness, is soft, and answers admirably the purpose for which it was sought.
The sinking of this well has demonstrated the fact that if at some future time the water from Long, pond shall fail, from pollution, insufficiency, or other cause, Concord's citizens have in reserve an inexhaustible supply of pure water to which they may freely resort.
LOCALITIES.
Concord, like other New England towns, contains various localities which were better known in former times than now. While these are of some interest to the general reader, they are of much impor- tance to a careful student of this city's history. A part of the fol- lowing descriptions of these has been taken from Dr. Bouton's His- tory of Concord, pages 4 to 7. The localities on the west side of Merrimack river are as follows:
"1. Horse-Hill is the name of the territory included in School District No. 1, lying northerly of Contoocook River ;- so called from the practice, in early times of the settlement, of turning young horses and cattle there to pasture, in spring and summer. Oliver Hoit was the first settler there, in 1772.
" 2. Mast Yard on the Contoocook River, about a mile and a half from Horse Hill bridge ; so called from the heavy timber that used to be hauled thither from adjacent forests and rolled into the river, to be floated thence into the Merrimack and down to the Atlantic Ocean. Opposite Mast Yard, about a mile southerly, is Broad Cove, in School District No. 4.
"3. Dagody or Dagodon Hill and Brook, on or near the northerly boundary line between Concord and Boscawen; so called from a man named Dagodon, who formerly resided there. The brook is famous for trout fishing. Lieut. Marshall Baker, when a young man, on a fishing excursion to this brook, in his haste to catch a large mess, took off his pantaloons, tied a string around the bottom of the legs, buttoning the waistband and opening them with sticks, set them for a fish-pot at the mouth of a little dam which he threw up. Then, driving the fish down the stream, he caught in a short time about ninety fine trout, one weighing over three pounds.
"4. Within the Horse Hill territory, partly in Boscawen, is a Lit- tle Pond, sometimes called Catamount, abounding more with snakes and turtles than with fishes.
"5. The Borough, School District No. 2, settled originally by the
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Elliots ; now the residence of old Mrs. Lydia Elliot, at the age of 102 years. Among the ancient men distinguished in this locality in former times and known by their honorary titles were 'Governor Elliot,' ' Lawyer Elliot,' and ' Judge Baker,' grandfather of his Excel- lency, Nathaniel B. Baker.
"6. Hoyt's Brook, which crosses the road to Boscawen, about one mile south of Fisherville.
"7. Beaver Meadow Brook, about a mile south of Hoyt's Brook. Near this is Beaver Meadow bog road to Horse Hill.
"8. Sand Banks, about a half mile easterly from Hoyt's brook, where logs and timber were rolled into the Merrimack River. Capt. Joseph Pratt, of Oxford, with a two horse sleigh, drove off this bank one night by accident, and, though precipitated to the bottom, escaped without material injury.
"9. Horsing-Downs was the name given to a long, narrow neck of land lying at the foot of Sand Banks on the east side, as the river formerly ran, but since cut off by turning the river for the track of the Northern Railroad, better known now as Goodwin's Point.
"10. Dustin's Island, at the mouth of Contoocook River,-the scene of the famous exploit of Mrs. Hannah Dustin, who killed and scalped her Indian captors.
, "11. Sewall's Island and Falls, so called from Judge Samuel Sew- all, of Massachusetts, who formerly owned the premises.
" 12. Rattlesnake Brook, running from Long Pond through West Village.
"13. Rattlesnake Hill, so called on account of the snakes of this species that formerly had their dens here, well known as Granite Hill, about two miles northwesterly from the Main Village.
" 14. Parsonage Hill, so called from the eighty acre lot laid off to the parsonage right, west of Isaac Farnum's.
"15. Long Pond. (See Ponds.)
" 16. Pine Hill, belonging to the farms of Nathan K. and Jeremiah, S. Abbot, west of Long Pond, is estimated to be the highest point of land in Concord.
"17. South and westerly of Long Pond is a range of hills, of which the highest is 'Jerry's Hill,' so called from Jerry, or Jeremiah, Bradley, who formerly owned the land. From the summit of this hill a grand and picturesque view is had far to the north and east, . taking in the Franconia Mountains, White Hills, Red Hill, and on the southwest the grand Monadnock. North of Jerry's is a hill hav- ing a large and curious cave on the southwest side of it.
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