USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > History of Coos County, New Hampshire > Part 52
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The Twin mountains are nearly 5,000 feet in height, and from the northern summit can be seen a vast panorama of valleys, highways and villages; on the west the Presidential range, and eastward, the Connecticut valley, while on the south an almost boundless stretch of craggy and wooded mountains form a pleasing variety to the views.
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Pleasant View House is capable of accommodating twenty-five guests, and meets the wants of persons who prefer a small house.
The Mount Pleasant House, which has been greatly enlarged within a few years past, is situated a short distance from Fabyan's, with a glorious outlook upon the grand peaks of the Presidential range. Mt. Pleasant, from which the hotel takes its name, rises in majestic form at the right; while the taller Mt. Washington is in front, flanked by Monroe and Frank- lin on one side, and Clay, Jefferson and Adams on the other. The railroad station is just in front of the house, and from the front piazzas and win- dows the Mt. Washington cars can be plainly seen on their winding way up the mountain side and frequently into the clouds. The quietness, with the railway conveniences, the attractions of the grove on the hillside in the rear, and the substantial comforts of this house combine to recom- mend it to a large class of people.
White Mountain House .- This hotel site was first built upon by one Hartford. He commenced a house which Phineas Rosebrook, Jr., moved into about 1827. and finished. This was a square. two story house, plas- tered on the outside. In 1845 the present building was erected. It is a mile above the Lower falls of the Ammonoosuc. One hundred and fifty guests can find pleasant rooms and a good table here.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
THE CRAWFORDS.
Abel Crawford, "the Patriarch of the Hills," was born about 1765. When a young man he made his home among the mountains. He was six feet, four or five inches in height, thin, straight, of dark complexion, pleasant and genial in disposition. He married a daughter of Eleazer Rose- brook. At one time he lived in a log-hut on the huge mound called "Giants Grave" for many months, alone. In 1792, when the Rosebrook family moved into it, the hut was so buried in the snow that the entrance could hardly be found. The weather was so severe that for six weeks, neither the heat of the sun nor the warmth from the cabin would cause the ice to thaw enough to make a drop of water fall from the eaves. They were de- pendent upon the game they could catch for their sustenance, and often fearing that Mr. Rosebrook might return with his game-bag empty, Mrs. Rosebrook would send the children down through the Notch, a distance of twelve miles, to obtain something for sustenance. Abel Crawford never wearied of relating stories of the hardships and adventures of the pioneers.
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He was rightly named the " veteran pilot " of the mountains, for he was the first guide to the grand scenery now so easily reached. When he was about twenty-five years old, he wandered through the region alone-dressed in tanned moose skin, lord of the
"Cradle, hunting-ground, and bier Of wolf and otter, bear and deer."
He assisted in cutting the first foot path to the ridge, and, in 1840, at the age of seventy-five, he rode the first horse that climbed the cone of Mt. Washington. The last ten years of his life he was an object of interest to the thousands of visitors to the mountains. His greatest pleasure during this time was to sit and watch the crowds of people come and go. He died when eighty-five years old, and is buried near Bemis's station.
In 1803 the first rude inn for the few visitors was erected on the "Giants Grave." In 1819 the first rough path was cut through the forest on the side of the Mt. Washington range to the rocky ridge. Ethan A. Crawford, who was then living on the "Giants Grave," together with his father, Abel Crawford, who then resided eight miles below the " Notch," marked and cleared this path. Ethan built the first protection for visitors under the cone of Mt. Washington. This was a stone hut, its furniture a small stove, an iron chest, a roll of sheet lead, and a plentiful supply of soft moss and hemlock boughs for bedding. The lead was the cabin-register on which visitors wrote their names with a piece of sharp iron or nail. This camp, and all the furniture, was swept off in 1826, on the night of the storm by which the Willey family were overwhelmed and destroyed.
Ethan Allen Crawford, the stalwart "son of the mountains," was born in 1792. His childhood was passed in a log-hut a few miles from the Notch. In later years, after a fire, in 1818, had consumed his home on "Giant's Grave, " he lived in a log cabin with but one room without win- dows. He afterwards built a two-story tavern; this was lathed, not plas- tered, painted red, and had a stone chimney, in which in the coldest part of the winter, over a cord of wood would be consumed in twenty-four hours. This was the nucleus of the Fabyan House. Twelve miles beyond was the Abel Crawford place, and these two houses comprised the hostel- ries of the White Mountains in 1827.
Ethan A. Crawford rejoiced in a giant's strength which he would ex- hibit in lifting five hundred weight into a boat or in carrying a buck home alive. He could carry an old-fashioned potash kettle on his head for a long distance, or catch a young bear, tie his legs, swing him over his shoul- ders and take him home; and if bruin behaved unruly, would unload, take him by the heels and rap his head on a rock or tree until he would hold still. At one time, when driving a load of hay through the " Notch," a furious gust of wind made it topple; he leaped to the ground, and caught
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it on his shoulder to prevent it falling over a precipice. He would break out the road for miles, through the wild winter drifts; he carried the mail on his back after a freshet to the next settlement, when a horse could not cross the stream; he climbed Mt. Washington laden with heavy burdens. without suffering more fatigue than ordinary men would feel after a level walk of ten miles, and would often return from the summit bearing some exhausted person on his back.
The wild animals in a circumference of twenty miles knew him well. Scarcely a week passed which was not marked by some encounter with a bear or a wolf-and with the latter he carried on a warfare of years. He trapped the sables and depopulated the banks of the rivers of otters, and cleared the hills that slope toward the Ammonoosuc of the furious free- booters-the wild cats. His affection for all these creatures of the forest was rare, and he tamed bucks and sable, and often had young wolves and "well behaved " bears around his premises; and his love for the Alpine plants was shown by his beautiful collection. Ethan Crawford experienced many changes of fortune. In his manhood and old age he entertained many wise and distinguished guests under his plain and rude shelter, and this bold mountaineer, educated in the school of Mother Nature, was never ill at ease in the presence of these men learned in law, literature and science.
Ethan Crawford's wife was Lucy Howe, of Guildhall. Her patience and faithfulness were just the qualities to hold in check his impetuous and ` hasty spirit. When heavy misfortune came upon him, her courage and cheer gave him new heart, and when his powerful frame was shaken and tortured by disease and pain, her kindness and trust proved an unfailing comfort. Every form of adversity seemed to beset him-new hotels drew the travellers from his public-house; the bargain for the sale of his lands was broken; his character was defamed and reputation injured by envious men: and, worse than all these, this man whose life had been passed among the fresh breezes of the mountains, was confined for debt in the close air of Lancaster jail.
After leaving his home at Mt. Washington, he went to Vermont, ac- companied by his wife, but his hard fortune continued, and he returned to Carroll to die; an old man before his time, scarcely fifty-six years of age. Few pioneers have done more faithful work or borne so much adversity and suffering, and, in his own words, "So it is that men suffer in various ways in advancing civilization, and through God, mankind are indebted to the labors of their fellow beings in many different spheres of life."
[Anecdotes of Ethan Allen Crawford, " King of the White Mountains," as related by James W. Weeks. ]
He was fiearly six feet and a half in height; broad shoulders, stooped a little; thin in flesh, of light complexion, with light hair and beard. and he would weigh about two hundred and fifty pounds. He delighted in a
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rough life, but must "rough it " in his own way. He enlisted in the army in the War of 1812. He said he was detailed as one of a scouting party one night under Capt. Weeks, and, after a watch of some hours in the dark, they were ordered to lie down, which they did, and covered them- selves with their blankets. In the morning they found themselves buried under six inches of snow, so that the men looked like so many logs of wood under their snow covering. Ethan said "that was too much for him and he got out of it."
He lived at the Fabyan place, and seemed to have a queer idea of har- mony. He had a wolf, a bear, a jackass, a peacock, a flock of guinea hens and a mountain horn six or seven feet long. This horn he delighted to blow to hear the echo; and he sounded it admirably. He would blow his horn, the wolf would howl, the old bear would grunt and growl, the ass would bray, the peacock would scream, and the guinea hens would cackle. If that did not make "music fit for the gods" it suited Ethan, and amused his visitors.
At one time Crawford was coming down Cherry mountain on the old turnpike and his dog treed a " gray cat " or Siberian lynx, a truly formid- able animal. He had no gun, and the cat was beyond his reach up the tree; so he cut a small birch sapling ten feet long, twisted the top into a noose, then climbing the tree, he quietly slipped the noose over the ani- mal's neck, and with a sudden jerk drew it tight, and brought the cat from the limb. The sapling not being long enough to reach the ground, Ethan came tumbling down, very much mixed up, but, with the help of the dog, the cat was killed and carried home.
In the winter of 1829 and 1830 Crawford brought into the old " Coos Hotel," at Lancaster, thirteen bear skins at one time, to get the bounty on them. They were the product of his fall hunting. He sat up to a very late hour that night. and amused a large company telling his adventures, but I cannot use the exact language which gave spice to his stories. He said that he wanted a pet bear at his house, and could not wait for a cub to grow up, so he thought to tame an old one. When he went to look at his traps, he took ropes in his old wagon to bind one if he found one there. He said, "I found a great lean, long legged old cuss, hitched by one fore paw, about half a mile from where I left my horse. so I noosed a rope around one hind foot, drew it back and tied it to a tree; then the other legs in the same way." Crawford now got on the bear, tied up his mouth, loosened one leg at a time, tied them together, took off the trap and, at last, shouldered the brute. He said the weight was about all he could stand under. He started for his wagon, "and," he said, "the bear sweat, and I sweat; his mouth being tied he could not loll, and when I had got almost to where I left my horse, the old cuss gave up the ghost and died on my back." Crawford was not going to be thwarted in this way; so he
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tried another bear and shouldered him as he did the first, but, before he got to his wagon, the bear got a foot loose; and, with one sweep of his paw, made sad havoc with the Mountain King's clothes; tearing out the back of his vest, stripping his shirt to his skin which also suffered somewhat, and ripping out the waistband of his pantaloons. Ethan then threw the bear over his head with such force that when it struck the ground it was killed.
Ethan was quite a favorite with the ladies. It was frequently the case that they would insist on walking to the top of Mt. Washington, and, on such occasions, Ethan always accompanied them. They would usually reach the top, but more than one gave out before she got down, and his herculean strength and good nature enabled him to perform grand service as a pack horse at such a time.
I have shown how Ethan dealt with wild animals. I will now try to give an idea of how he encountered " big " men. He was a Federalist of the Federalists. consequently a great admirer of Daniel Webster. In the days of the old red tavern with the moose-horns for a sign (which was superseded by a better house in 1832), Mr. Webster and his wife, with horse and chaise, were quietly passing through the mountains one over- cast morning, and called at Crawford's. He came to the door in his shirt sleeves, placed his hands on the upper easings, leaned upon them, and looked out between his arms to see what was wanted. Mr. Webster said, "Is your name Crawford?" "Yes," was the reply. "I have called to see if you will go with me to-day to the top of Mt. Washington?" "No!" Ethan replied, "In the first place, it is too late in the day: then the weather ain't suitable, and you couldn't see anything if you went." Mrs. Webster said, " Mr. Webster, perhaps we had better stop over until it clears up." Crawford looked for a moment, took down his hands, stepped out, and asked, "Is your name Webster?" "That is my name," was the reply. " What Webster? What's yer christian name?" "They call me Daniel," answered Webster. Ethan stepped forward, extended his hand, and said, "Daniel Webster, I am glad to see you. Give us yer hand. Get out and come in. I am ready to go to the top of Mt. Washington, or to the ends of the earth with you, to-day, or any other day you may choose." It is needless to say they " stopped over."
THE ROSEBROOK FAMILY.
Captain Eleazer Rosebrook, a pioneer from Grafton, Mass., where he was born in 1747, with his wife Hannah Haines, a native of Brimfield, and one daughter, came into the upper Coös as far as Lancaster, where they stopped temporarily, until Mr. Rosebrook should find a place to settle. They moved into the woods up the Connecticut river to Monadnock, now
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Colebrook, nearly thirty miles from any inhabitant, with no guide to his cabin excepting blazed trees. During the War of the Revolution, in 1778, he moved to Guildhall, Vt., in order to have his family in the neighbor- hood of settlements while he was absent performing military duty on the frontier,-not in the regular army, but in the more hazardous and arduous service of scout and ranger. Mrs. Rosebrook was a courageous woman. The Indians were troublesome at times (after having made free use of "fire-water"), yet when once visited by them in her husband's absence, she drove them all from the house, except one squaw who was unable to move, and she dragged her out. Mr. Rosebrook resided in Guildhall fourteen years, was one of the most active and useful citizens, and took a prom- inent part in the town affairs. In 1792 he sold his beautiful Connecticut river farm, and in the winter went into the wilderness to Nash and Saw- yer's Location. Here he soon built a large two-story house, at the base of what was known as the " Giant's Grave," occupying nearly the same site as the Fabyan House, and in 1803 opened the first house for summer vis- itors in the White Mountains. He was a man of great energy and enter- prise; he erected a saw and grist-mill, large barns, stables and sheds. Just as he had got his estate in good condition, and was about to enjoy the com- forts acquired by his laborious life, a cancer broke out on his lip, and after patiently bearing his intense suffering for a few years, he died, September 27, 1817.
PHINEAS ROSEBROOK.
Phineas Rosebrook, Sr., son of Eleazer Rosebrook, was born in Guild- hall, Vt., about 1778, and died in Carroll, September, 1846; his wife, Han- nah Stillings, a native of Bartlett, was born in 1780. In the spring of 1807 Mr. and Mrs. Rosebrook moved into a log cabin put up by Abel Crawford, some time previously, upon land where their grandson, Frank B. Rose- brook, now resides, where some trees had been felled the year before. Mr. Rosebrook's stock consisted of a yoke of oxen and a cow. He immediately began cutting up the trees, and clearing his land, but his laborious and persistent exertions brought on a lameness of the back, so that it was with difficulty that he crawled along and drove the oxen; however, his brave wife, with her hired girl, Betsey Tuttle, both strong women, did the logging and seeded the land. The next season, with restored health, Mr. Rosebrook engaged in farming, and also made black salts out of the ashes of elm and other kinds of wood. ("Salts" was their principal currency in those days.) These he carried to Portland and exchanged for corn, and other necessaries of life. After many long years of poverty, pinching economy, and hard labor, Mr. Rosebrook succeeded in paying for his land, and erected substantial buildings for a permanent and comfortable home.
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His eleven children were Franklin, Leander (dec.), Phineas, Mitchell (died young), Mitchell, Louisa (Mrs. Robert Tuttle) (dec.), Mary (dec.), Laura (dec.), Lee, Eleazer, and James F. D.
Mr. Rosebrook was a well-formed, muscular man, weighing about one hundred and sixty pounds. Ambitious to prosper, he was industrious, a hard worker, and a good type of the pioneers. He was an " old line " Democrat, and esteemed for his sterling, honest worth. He and his wife were members of the Free Will Baptist church of Bethlehem. When Ethan Crawford's house was burned, Mrs. Rosebrook, although a woman of extraordinary strength, injured her health by her exertions in getting the goods out of his house. This shortened her life; she died in 1832, aged fifty-two years.
Phineas Rosebrook, son of Phineas and Hannah (Stillings) Rosebrook, was born in Carroll, June 4, 1807. He was the first white male child born in the town. His education was acquired from female teachers hired to come to the house, and schools at Bethlehem. He remained with his parents until within a few months of his majority. He married, December 16, 1827, Sophronia, daughter of Benjamin and Jane (Folsom) Tuttle. [Mr. Tuttle was born June 11, 1764, and died October 20, 1847. Mrs. Tuttle was born September 26, 1761, and died January 31, 1840. They moved at an early date from Lee to Eaton, where Mrs. Rosebrook was born, the youngest of ten children, September 21, 1807. In 1816 they removed to Hart's Location, afterwards to Jefferson, where they passed their last days.] Phineas Rosebrook and wife commenced housekeeping in an unfinished house, which had been built by Hartford, on the site of the "White Mountain House "; this they finished. It was a square, two- story house, and, from the great expense of lumber, plastered on the out- side. Mrs. Rosebrook brought to her new home a few articles of house- hold furniture and a cow, the products of her own industry.
Mr. Rosebrook had, as he supposed, purchased this lot of land, but in time found he had bought the wrong lot, and was compelled to buy the one on which his house stood. Four years after, he sold both lots to a Mr. Den- nison, taking merely his personal notes for payment, but, disposing of the property, Dennison left the country, and Mr. Rosebrook lost the whole. He then moved to his father's house and remained two or three years, until his mother's death. In 1832, the year of the incorporation of the town. he located on the east branch of John's river, half a mile from his present residence, and put up a little saw-mill, which he conducted for four years, but lost everything, owing to the bad foundations of his dam and the resultant injury by water. He sold the place for a thousand dollars which just squared him with the world, leaving him without a dollar. But these reverses did not crush his strong nature, and, cheered and assisted by his energetic and industrious wife, he made his third attempt to establish a
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home, and purchased, on time, a lot of one hundred acres, where he now resides, from the heirs of Gen. Joseph Whipple, and moved into a small unfinished house on this place in 1836. Here he worked for several years getting out lumber, farming, etc., without adding much to his material wealth. In 1853 he borrowed one thousand dollars of his brother-in-law, and put up a potato starch-mill. This enterprise was very successful. At the end of the first season he was able to pay the borrowed money, and also, for the building of the mill and its machinery. He raised a large amount of potatoes, sometimes 5,000 bushels a year, and one year he manu- factured 50,000 bushels into starch, producing 250 tons. His product he hauled to Littleton, the nearest railroad station, as it was mostly sold to Boston firms. While manufacturing, with his son, Mark, he was engaged in buying wild land, from which Mark got off timber, and, for a few years, Mr. Rosebrook had a small store. He cleared up the one hundred acres on the home lot, and has purchased one hundred more, has erected a good house and out buildings, and laid a large amount of stone wall; he also built a new mill. He carried on manufacturing for fifteen or twenty years, and under his prudent and sagacious management it was a financial success.
The children of Phineas and Sophronia (Tuttle) Rosebrook attaining maturity were, Lee. Jennie (Mrs. Augustus Hodgkins), Amasa, Mark P., Frank B., Eliza J. (Mrs. Nelson A. Glines), Laura A. (Mrs. Frank Hobbs). and John W. Those surviving are Lee and Frank B.
This worthy couple have experienced many reverses and peculiar sor- rows, but have not succumbed to them. Mrs. Rosebrook, although four- score years of age, is yet active and industrious, and, at this writing, is busily engaged in making a patch-work bed-quilt for each of her fifteen grandchildren. She is a cheerful companion and faithful nurse to her hus- band. Mr. Rosebrook's vigor and health is much impaired, and he is quite feeble physically. He has been a man of diligence, shrewdness and enterprise. The rigid frugality and the unflagging industry in the home life of the pioneer, supplemented by the limited but practical learning of the times, have produced generations of clear and vigorous minds. Mr. Rosebrook is a good representative of this class; he is a man of sound judg- ment and clear understanding. He has always been interested in the af- fairs of the town. The first year of its organization he was elected select- man, and re-elected many times. His political principles have ever been in accord with those of the Democratic party as enunciated by Thomas Jef- ferson. He represented Carroll in the state legislature in 1861-62, but has preferred attending to his private affairs to political preferment. Although not a member of any religious denomination, yet his motto in life is the Golden Rule, and he will leave to his many descendants the record of an honorable and well-spent life, good deeds, and pleasant recollections.
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WHITEFIELD.
CHAPTER XLII.
Whitefield's Petition for Grant - The Grant - Charter of Whitefields - Considerations for Land Granted - Paul and Benning Wentworth - Other Grantees - Gerrish Survey - The First Moderator - Capt. Jonas Minot - Samuel Minot.
T HIS pentangular section of the ancient "Laconia " is situated near the southwest corner of the county about four miles east from where John's river enters the Connecticut, at the head of the "Fifteen- mile falls." It lies directly north from Concord, and is bounded by Lan- caster, Jefferson, Carroll, Bethlehem and Dalton. All of these surround- ing towns having been chartered previously to Whitefield, it was literally " what was left," and its metes and bounds were established by its outly- ing surveys. The grant of this unappropriated section was in answer to the following petition addressed to the governor and council :-
"Petition for a Grant .- To his Excellency John Wentworth Esquire Governor & Commander in Chief of ye Province of New Hampshire, and to The Honorable His Majesty's Council of the said Province.
" The Petition of Josiah Moody and his Associates humbly sheweth-That your Petitioners being desirous of carrying on some settlements in this Province, and having a number of Families ready to remove into it, if they can be accommodated with a suitable tract of Land: pray your Ex- cellency & Honors that they may have liberty to look out for such a Tract among the unappropri- ated Lands in the northern parts of the Province which they will engage to settle very speedily -- And that your Excellency & Honors will please to favor them with a Grant of the same on the usual conditions and reservations -- And your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever pray, &c. &c. "Josiah Moody, & for his Associates.
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