History of Coos County, New Hampshire, Part 15

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1194

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The shrewdest and best informed lumbermen had a very erroneous idea of the amount of spruce standing in Northern Coos. Lots that they esti- mated would cut from 75,000 to 100,000, actually cut from 300,000 to 400, - 000. Spruce trees, though less in size, stand much nearer together, and the man that could give a close estimate of standing pine to the acre, utterly failed in his estimate of spruce, and it was only after experience gained by actual cutting and scaling, that anything like a correct estimate of standing spruce could be made by the most experienced lumbermen.

The state line passes through the entire length of Umbagog lake, and crosses the Magalloway river some ten miles north of it, running through this immense tract of spruce timber, leaving the larger portion of it in the state of Maine. A trip to the summit of Es-cho-hos mountain (the name is of disputed orthography, but I give that corresponding to the universal local pronunciation, ) will give a better view of it than any other. Escho- hos mountain rises from the Magalloway river about a mile east of the state line, and from its summit is seen a vast tract of country extending eastwardly and northwardly as far as the eye can reach, covered with a dense spruce growth, on mountain and valley alike, in its natural state. This spruce timber belt at one time covered Northern Coös, a portion of the province of Quebec, and the northwestern part of the state of Maine.

There are railroads on all sides of it, but none penetrate it as yet, and only those portions of the timber standing within ten or twelve miles of the Connecticut and Magalloway rivers, including their tributaries. are available for market at present; ten miles being considered about as long a haul as will ensure a profit at present prices. This distance, however, covers nearly all of Northern Coos, and at the rate of its present destruc- tion, the time is coming in the near future when spruce in the county will be as scarce as pine is now. From Milan. Success, Dummer, Cambridge, Millsfield. Dixville, Errol and Wentworth's Location it floats, or has floated, down the Androscoggin; from Columbia, Colebrook, Stewartstown,

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THE TIMBER INTERESTS OF NORTHERN COOS.

Clarksville, Pittsburg and the unsettled grants down the Connectieut: and steam mills and the Grand Trunk railway are fast executing the same destruction for East Stratford and Stark. On the east, Milan is largely settled. Dummer and Errol partially so, while the other towns are sub- stantially a wilderness, and of little value after the spruce timber is gone, until the manufacture of hard wood is inaugurated; there being little pros- pect that the hardy back-woodsman will make his home there until some such inducement is held out to him. Some of these townships are good settling lands, but they lie too far back at present to encourage settlement.

When the spruce timber in Coos county is all destroyed, a railroad will e.c necessitate and run up the Androscoggin valley into the Maine forest spoken of, and this will probably cause some of them to be partially settled.

On the west. Columbia is about half settled, a range of precipitous. ledgy hills passing through the centre of the township, which will never make farms or be of any practical value except for the wood and timber growing upon them. The spruce has been mostly taken off. and the pres- ent winter that portion of Odell that was recently annexed to the town is being cut; one man having taken a contract to put 5,000.000 feet upon the river, at a haul of about ten miles. Others are putting in smaller quanti- ties, aggregating as much more. Colebrook (the only town in the county that can be called wholly settled, and probably the only town in the state. of which every lot, with proper cultivation. will make a good farm.) has not sufficient spruce or pine timber to supply the prospective needs of its own inhabitants. Stewartstown and Clarksville have two or three tiers of lots on the east end that are not as yet settled, but have been operated to some extent by lumbermen. Pittsburg, whose territory embraces all the remainder of the state north of Clarksville, is settled in the southwest corner, the remainder of its vast territory being timber land, owned mostly by the "Connecticut River Lumber Company," a New York corporation whose policy is to "gobble up " every little tract of spruce timber that they can lay their hands on, and that policy has succeeded far too well for the present or prospective interests of the inhabitants. The high tariff on foreign lumber, which is virtually prohibitory. at least, so far as Cana- dian lumber comes in competition with the lumber of Northern Coos, tends to accelerate the already swift destruction of the spruce lumber of this section.

The waterway that transports this vast amount of natural wealth em - braces the three Connecticut lakes, Perry's stream, Indian stream, and Hall's stream, which empty into the Connecticut on the west, and Dead Water, which empties into the Connecticut on the east side. Hall's stream takes its rise in Canada, and for a portion of its course forms the boundary line between Canada and the United States, and though its mouth. where

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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

it empties into the Connecticut, is in Vermont, much of its course is well adapted to receive the lumber growing on the western border of Pittsburg. Indian stream takes its rise near the boundary line, and empties into the Connecticut a few miles east of Hall's stream. Perry's stream takes its rise between the headwaters of Indian stream and Third lake, and, flowing more eastwardly, empties into the Connecticut a few miles below the out- let of Connecticut lake. Third lake lies but a few miles from the boundary line, and a glance at the map will show that these four waterways are so situated as to easily receive all the spruce lumber in Coös county west of the Connecticut lakes and Connecticut river. These streams are all com- paratively small, but by means of dams, sufficient water is retained from the melting snows, and let out as needed, to so prolong the spring freshets as to float out the lumber into the Connecticut the second season after it is landed on the streams. This, however, is subject to contingencies Deep snows and continued rains may keep the water up so as to prolong the driving season, and a light fall of snow, or a short warm rain, followed by hot, fair weather, may materially shorten the driving season, and soon leave the timber high and dry upon the rocks above the water. Whenever this takes place, the operation of driving ceases, and the timber remains until the next spring freshet. The depreciation of the timber, thus left over the summer, is estimated at from five to ten per cent. The Dead Water, which takes the lumber from the east part of the towns of Stew- artstown and Clarksville, is a small stream, and the results of driving it, uncertain. The territory lying east of the Connecticut lakes, with the exception of a strip bordering on the state line, which will go down the Magalloway waters, will be hauled to the lakes. Thus it is that this vast growth of spruce timber, intended by nature to enrich Northern Coos, when railroad facilities for transportation should be furnished to convey it to market in a manufactered state, is cut and transported, by a foreign corporation, down the Connecticut to Massachusetts and Connecticut, where its manufacture serves to build up cities and villages, while the county of its growth receives no benefit, but does receive a serious injury to its river farms by the prolonged high water, every spring, caused by the flow of water from the reservoirs which the corporation has built on nearly every stream that flows into the Connecticut. For this injury the farmers along the river are virtually without remedy. The corporation is legally liable to make compensation, but the farmer, to obtain it, has generally to resort to an expensive litigation, the costs of which sometimes exceed the amount which he eventually recovers. In contrast to this, the Berlin Mills Company, by the manufacturing of its lumber at Berlin, has been the means of building up a large and flourishing village, which is a permanent benefit to the county. This company manufactures at Berlin, and has done so since its first establishment, on an average some twenty or twenty-five

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THE TIMBER INTERESTS OF NORTHERN COOS.

million feet of lumber each year, and there are two other companies at the same place which use a large amount of spruce lumber, annually, in making paper stock, the employees of all these companies being largely residents of Berlin. These manufactures all find a market by way of the Grand Trunk Railway. The manufactures of the lumber mills in Strat- ford and Stark find their way to market by the same road.

The Connecticut River Lumber Company ent and drive down the Con- necticut river, on an average, about seventy five million feet of lumber a year. Their employees are mostly transient men from Maine and Canada, who work in the woods in the winter and on the drive in the spring, but few, if any, ever become permanent residents of the county.

We have thus far confined ourselves to spruce lumber, and possibly may have, unintentionally, conveyed to the casual reader an impression that spruce is substantially the only growth of this section. Such is not the fact. There are small sections that have no other growth, and larger sections having a mixed growth, while still larger sections have no spruce at all.

In every town there is more or less cedar, which is very valuable, but, as it can be floated down the rivers the same as spruce, and is included in the estimates of the companies above named, it requires little further mention. It has, however, a home value for fencing, that no other lum- ber possesses. In Northern Coös, which is substantially free from granite, stone fences are almost a curiosity, and cedar for posts and rails (where rails are used ), is in universal, and nearly exclusive use. When the Atlantic & St. Lawrence, and the St. Lawrence & Atlantic railroads were first built, cedar was exclusively used for ties, but experience soon proved that, the grain of the wood was not dense enough to hold the spikes, and they were taken up, and spruce, hemlock, and oak substituted. But for fenc- ing and shingles, cedar is the most valuable of any timber used.

The hard wood timber, consisting mostly of maple, birch and beech, growing upon this section, exceeds in quantity all the soft or black growth, and there are few, if any lots in any town that does not bear more or less of it. This timber, being more dense than water, soon sinks, and cannot be floated down the rivers, and, if ever manufactured, it must be done within hauling distance of where it grows. This can be done, and will be, whenever an outlet is found for it. It is of greater value for many pur- poses than spruce, but the home market, as yet, is not great, and it cannot be brought into any other, until there are railroads to convey it. and even then little will be moved except in a manufactured state. Much of the maple is valuable for sugar purposes as it stands. As a rule, the pioneer, when clearing up his farm, sought out, and left standing, a "sugar orchard," and there are few farms that have not retained them. Probably no section of New England, with the same number of inhabitants, makes

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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

more maple sugar than this. Many of these orchards produce from five hundred to twenty-five hundred pounds of sugar annually, according to the number of trees tapped, and the character of the season. This sugar, over and above the home consumption, finds a ready and favorable mar- ket everywhere. These " sugar orchards " are permanent, self-renewing, and, if properly attended to, inexhaustible. When a tree becomes old, and shows signs of decay, it is cut out, and others spring up to take its place. The trees vary in size from the young sapling to trees twenty-four and thirty inches in diameter. The young trees are of rapid growth, and in a decade will grow from a young sapling to a tree suitable for the tap- ping iron and the tin bucket. Another peculiarity of these sugar maples is, that constant tapping by the present method, neither exhausts nor injures the tree. The holes soon grow over, the tree continues as thrifty as ever. and the tapping being done near the ground, it produces no injury to the tree when used for timber. for it remains as clear and free from de- fects as if no sap had ever been drawn from it. The beech, birch. and ash have not the same faculty of producing a revenue to their owner while standing and growing, and with the exception of natural growth, pro- duce none. Like the maple, they are now largely used for fuel, but are far more valuable for lumber, and the time is coming in the near future when this value will be utilized. Hard wood lumber enters into the construction of nearly every article that can be named, from the backwoodsman's cabin with its rude furniture, to the palatial residence of the city million- aire, with its wainscoting and cabinet work of oriental magnificence. The ax of the common laborer, the various tools of the mechanics, and the machinery of the largest manufactories, are alike dependent upon this article for construction. It is found in the common farm wagon; the palace cars upon our railroads, and the magnificent steamers that plough the rough ocean. In brief, it will be difficult to mention many articles in common use in city or country, that are not wholly or partially com- posed of this valuable article.

Why then are the vast quantities of this valuable timber still standing untouched upon the hillsides and valleys of this enterprising people? The answer is obvious. It cannot be floated down the rivers, and the expense of conveyance to market by teams will more than eat up its market value. A limited quantity of this lumber may be in future transported in the log, but the great bulk of it must be manufactured near its place of growth. [This conveyance can only be done by steam, and the means of obtaining railroad facilities, has been, and still is, the most important question of any that ever agitated this community. By means of promises, which they could not or would not fulfill, the Boston, Concord & Montreal railroad, obtained, and for many years held a virtually exclusive charter through to Canada, and, like the dog in the fable, would neither eat the hay, nor let

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THE TIMBER INTERESTS OF NORTHERN COOS.

the ox; or, in plain English, would neither build the road, nor let any one else. But the long suffering patience of the people gave away at last, and they rose in their might and demanded a different state of things. When- ever the people of Northern Coos unitedly and earnestly set out to accom- plish any purpose, they usually succeed, and they did so in this case. In 1883 they secured to themselves a charter which they now hold and con- trol. This charter took effect January 1, 1884. About this time the rail- road interests of the state became involved in litigation, which was not settled until March, 1887. Since then a movement has been set on foot, which has resulted in the building, this season (1887), a road from Strat- ford to Colebrook .* This movement will soon produce developments in this section that will surprise every one who has not carefully studied the subject.]

It is sometimes said that Northern Coos is destitute of water-power, but this idea originates in a superficial view and an utter ignorance of the facts. On the Connecticut river between the outlet of Connecticut lake and West Stewartstown bridge are at least four sites where sufficient power can be obtained for the manufacture of hard wood to any extent desired. South of there you cannot now travel ten miles in any direction without passing one or more mills of more or less capacity. These small water-powers, occupied and unoccupied, dot the country like dandelions in June. Some of them may not hold out the year round (as some of the largest factories in the state fall short of water in the dry season of summer), but suppose the lesser of them run but six months out of twelve, while the remain- der of the season is devoted to getting the lumber in winter, and other pursuits in summer, and then the result will not be inconsiderable in the product of any of the small articles of manufacture from hard wood.

But it is too late in the age to assert that this or any other section of country is dependent upon water as a motive power. Steam has become its competitor, even on its own ground, and it is a disputed question as to which is the cheaper and more economical; but, for manufacture of wood, where the refuse goes so far towards supplying fuel to feed the engine, it is claimed that steam is the more economical, even where water can be obtained. The extensive cotton factories of Dover are run wholly by steam, as are the large lumber mills at Whitefield, and not only this, but they run their own railroad miles and miles into the woods for the purpose of trans- porting the logs to their mills. Their mills are built where they are, that is on the railroad, for the convenience of sending away their manufactured lumber, and whenever that railroad extends to the Connecticut lakes, little spruce or cedar will float down the river. When that is done, the hard

* See railroads in another chapter.

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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

wood timber will be worth more than the soft. It not only exceeds it in value per thousand, but in this section it far exceeds it in quantity.

Comparatively few people have any definite idea of the growth of the northern part, where the hard wood growth stands in its native state undisturbed by the woodman's ax. In the settled towns much of this growth has been cut off in clearing land and for fuel, but east of the lakes, in the unsettled townships, are large tracts of "birds eye " maple and birch, the trees of which are of the largest size, standing straight, smooth, and free from knots and limbs for a half hundred feet at least. In easy reach of this valuable timber, steam mills can be erected not only for the pur- pose of reducing it to coarse sawn lumber, but for making the innumerable articles that are made from it. This will be done as soon as railroad facili- ties are furnished. The possibilities in this line are incalculable.

When the spruce was first operated, the idea attained to some extent that it was inexhaustible: that by cutting out thelarge trees and leaving the small ones, the natural growth of the small trees would supply the vacuum. Experience has proved this idea to be erroneous. The large spruce trees have over a century's growth upon them, and when these are removed, the small trees grow short, knotty and knurly, and are of very little value for timber. Especially is this the case where it is cut, as is now the practice, down to four and five inches.

Though birch and maple, in their natural state undoubtedly attain a very great age, they are of very rapid growth while young, and obtain their size substantially in a short period. The writer has seen a strip of three or four acres, on the outskirts of an old pasture, thickly covered with birch trees from eighteen to twenty-four inches in diameter, standing straight, smooth, and without limbs, for forty or fifty feet and holding their bigness remarkably for that distance. Being upon the ground with the owner, then a man between sixty and sixty-five, he was told by him that he once cleared the land on which these trees then stood, and reaped on it as stout a crop of rye as he ever saw growing. These trees must have attained this remarkable growth from the seed in less than forty years. The rapid growth of maple is also clearly demonstrated in their use for ornamental and shade trees, where the middle-aged man may set out trees that he can carry in one hand, and live to enjoy the coolness of their shade and eat maple sugar made by himself from their sap.

The man who looks only at present gains and immediate returns may see little encouraging in all this; but he who looks to the future benefit and prosperity of the country, conscious of the fact that untold generations are yet to follow us, and alive to the fact that all this material must necessarily be manufactured on the spot, and that this enterprize will result in the rapid settlement of the country, especially those portions denuded of their spruce growth, will see a hardy, enterprizing and prosperous people cover-

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Coos COUNTY PRESS - AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES - RAILROADS.

ing this now dense wilderness, who will continue to sustain the reputation which New Hampshire has already acquired, of raising men capable of competing successfully with the men of any section of any land, and that this vision is not a mere chimera, but will be, in the near future, an accom- plished fact.

CHAPTER XV.

COOS COUNTY PRESS; AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES; RAILROADS.

White Mountain Egis-Coos County Democrat-Coos Republican-Prohibition Herald- Independent (now Lancaster) Gazette-Coos Herald, Ete .- Northern Sentinel-Colebrook Weekly News-News and Sentinel-Whitefield Blade-Coos Advertiser-The Mountaineer, Etc .- Coos Agricultural Society-Coos and Essex County Agricultural Society-Railroads: Atlantic and St. Lawrence-White Mountains-Portland and Ogdensburg-Upper Coos.

LANCASTER.

T HE White Mountain Ægis was the first newspaper of the county. It was issued in the spring of 1838, by an association composed of Royal Joyslin, Richard P. Kent, Gen. John Wilson, and Apollos Perkins, as an organ of the Whig party. Apollos Perkins was editor. After an existence of one year it was removed to Haverhill and became the Whig and Ægis. The paper was published in the old Masonic Hall in C. E. Allen's building on Main street.

The Coos County Democrat was the next paper established; its first issue being dated in the summer of 1838. The Democrat, like the _Egis, was started by an association of the prominent men of its party, chief among whom were Hon. John W. Weeks, Jared W. Williams, John S. Wells, Hon. John H. White, and others of subsequent state reputations, but it afterward passed under the control of Mr. Rix, until his death in 1856, when its shares were disposed of by the original holders or their rep- resentatives. The imprint bore the names of James M. Rix and James R. Whittemore as publishers, Mr. Rix for the first year working at the case in addition to preparing the editorial labors of the journal. After this year Mr. Rix gave up the case, retaining editorial management until his death.

The Democrat was first issued from the second story of a building on Main street, then owned by John S. Wells, now the ell of the store of Richard P. Kent & Son. In 1851 it was removed to the store building of James A. Smith. After Mr. Rix's death at the City Hotel. Boston, March 25,

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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

1856, the office was moved to the " Postoffice building," now the Shannon building, on the south side of Israel's river. Jared I. Williams, Esq., being editor, and Joseph W. Merriam, Esq., a native of Stratford, subsequently one of the editors of the Patriot, being assistant editor.

In 1859 the Democrat was moved to North Stratford under the control, as editor, of Charles D. Johnson, Esq., then but recently admitted to the bar of Coos county. Mr. Johnson died October 29, 1860, and after his death, the paper, as a party organ, practically ceased to have existence. The material was purchased by sundry parties, members of the opposing organization, and for a time the Democrat was a nondescript. Frequent exhibitions of the internal dissensions among its owners, such as placing a cut of a bull bottom-side up, entitled " A man overboard " at the head of its columns by its nominal editor, followed the next week by denunciations of said manager from the owners, characterized its last days. Ultimately, about 1862, the material was sold to A. J. Walker, of Lunenburg, Vt.

The roster of employers and employed of the Democrat is long and hon- orable. Hon. James M. Rix, subsequently president of the state Senate, was a nervous, vigorous writer, and acute politician well known to the public of the state. His death occurred from consumption, aggravated beyond doubt by the cares of editorial and political life.

Among the Democrat employees was Edward E. Cross, of Lancaster, who " served his time justly and legally " as an apprentice, and then assumed management of the office as foreman. From Lancaster, Cross went to Cin- cinnati, entering the Dollar Weekly Times office. Soon he appeared as traveling correspondent of that paper, and for several years his letters writ- ten from all parts of the land, under the nom de plume of "Edward Ever- ett," were among the most agreeable matter in its columns. Charles Francis Brown, better known as "Artemas Ward," began his career of letters as an apprentice in this office. From here he went to Cleveland, Ohio, where, on the Plaindealer, he acquired his world-wide reputation as a humorist. He died in Southampton, England, March 7, 1867. Col. Rich- ard E. Cross, another valiant soldier of the Civil war, was an appren- tice. Albert B. Davis, so long manager of McVicker's theater, Chicago, was also an apprentice. It is but justice to say that under the management of Mr. Rix, the Democrat was one of the ablest and best country newspapers in New England. He had a brilliant mind, strong reasoning powers, and a great taste for the preservation of local history.

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History of Coos County, New Hampshire, Part 15

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1194