History of Coos County, New Hampshire, Part 6

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

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4. Cherry Mountain District .- Mt. Deception range consists of four peaks, -Mt. Mitten, Mt. Dartmouth. Mt. Deception, and Cherry mountain. It is separated by a considerable valley from Mt. Jefferson. and its gentler slope lies on the northern flank towards Israel's river. The road from Fa- byan's to Jefferson passes between Cherry and Deception. Cherry moun- tain has a northerly spur of large dimensions. called Owls Head, where occurred the great slide of 1585.

5. Mt. Willey Range starts from near the White Mountain House in Carroll, and ends in Mt. Willey. Its northern terminus is low, the highest peak being at the southern end of the range. Six granitic summits appear before reaching the high summit of Mt. Tom, just back of the Crawford

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House. The stream forming "Beecher's Cascade " passes between Mt. Tom and the next summit south, which was named Mt. Lincoln, but, as that name was already occupied by a peak in Franconia, was re christened Mt. Field by Prof. Huntington. From Mt. Field to Mt. Willey, the high land is continuous, reaching an elevation of 4,300 feet. It then drops off abruptly, and terminates. Ethan's pond, the head of the Merrimack river waters, lies a little to the southwest of the precipice. The Field-Willey range is directly opposite Mt. Webster, and the valley between is the most striking part of the White Mountain notch, the head of which is formed by Mt. Willard, only about 550 feet above the Crawford plain.

History .- The first mention of the White Mountains in print, occurs in Josselyn's "New England Rarities Discovered," printed in 1672. This writer, in his "Voyages," published a year or two later, gives us the best part of the mythology of our highest hills. The story. as Josselyn tells it, is curious enough: and its resemblance to one of the most venerable of Caucasian traditions should seem to suggest some connection of the peo- ple which transmitted it with the common Asiatic home of the bearded races. "Ask them," says Josselyn, "whither they go when they dye ? they will tell you, pointing with their finger to Heaven beyond the White Mountains, and do hint at Noah's Flood, as may be conceived by a story they have received from father to son, time out of mind, that a great while agon their Countrey was drowned, and all the People and other Creatures in it, only one Powaw and his Webb foreseeing the Flood fled to the White Mountains carrying a hare along with them and so escaped: after a while the Powaw sent the Hare away, who not returning, emboldened thereby, they descended, and lived many years after, and had many children, from whom the Countrie was filled again with Indians." The Indians gave the mountains the name of Agiocochook. The English name of our moun- tains, which had its origin, perhaps, while as yet they were only known to adventurous mariners, following the still silent coasts of New England, relates them to all other high mountains, from Dhawala-Giri, the White Mountain of the Himmalayah to Craig Eryri of Snowdon of Wales; but it is interesting to find them also, in this legend, in some sort of mythical connection with traditions and heights of the ancient continent, the first knowledge of which carries us back to the very beginnings of human his- tory. Dr. Belknap says that Capt. Walter Neale, accompanied by Josselyn and Darby Field, set out, in 1632, to discover the " beautiful lakes " report placed in the interior, and that, in the course of their travels, they visited the White Mountains. Merrill, in 1817, after an examination of the best authorities, concludes that Walter and Robert Neal, and others, visited the mountains in 1631, but it is to Darby Field, of Pascataquack, that the credit is now generally assigned of being the first explorer of the White Mountains. Accompanied by two Indians, Winthrop tells us, Feld climbed

HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

the highest summit in 1642. We believe with C. E. Potter that Belknap's account is correct, and Field's first visit was in 1632. It appears that " within twelve miles of the top was neither tree nor grass, but low savins, which they went upon the top of, sometimes, but a continual ascent upon rocks, on a ridge between two valleys filled with snow, out of which canie two branches of Saco river, which met at the foot of the hill where was an Indian town of some 200 people. By the way, among the rocks, there were two ponds, one a blackish water, and the other a red- dish. The top of all was a plain about sixty feet square. On the north side was such a precipice, as they could scarce discern to the bottom. They had neither cloud nor wind on the top and moderate heat." This appears to have been in June, and a short timeafter he went again, with five or six in his company, and "the report he brought of 'shining stones,' etc., caused divers others to travel tither, but they found nothing worth their pains." It is passing strange that men, reputed honest, could make such a wild report of regions that required no invention to make them attrac- tive and wonderful. Among those who expected rich treasure from these mountains were the proprietors, Mason and Gorges, and no discourage- ment could lessen their hopes. The Spaniards had found riches in the mountains of Mexico and Peru: why should not these New Hampshire mountains prove equally rich in the precious metals ? In August, of the same year, another party. led by Thomas Gorges, Esq., and Richard Vines, two magistrates of the province of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, set out on foot to explore "the delectable mountains." (Winthrop's History calls this "Darby Field's second visit.") "They went up Saco river in birch canoes to Pegwaggett, an Indian town. From the Indian town they went up hill, mostly for about thirty miles in woody lands, then about seven or eight miles upon shattered rocks, without tree or grass, very steep all the way. At the top is a plain about three or four miles over, all shattered stones, and upon that is another rock or spire, about a mile in height, and about an acre of ground at the top. At the top of the plain arise four great riv- ers, each of them so much water, at the first issue, as would drive a mill, Connecticut river from two heads, at the N. W. and S. W., which join in one about sixty miles off, Saco river on the S. E . Amascoggin which runs into Casco bay at the N. E , and Kennebeck, at the N. by E. The moun- tain runs E. and W. thirty miles, but the peak is above the rest."

There can be but little doubt that Darby Field, the first explorer, enter- ing the valley of Ellis river, left it for the great southeastern ridge of Mt. Washington, the same which has since been called Boott's Spur. This was the "ridge between two valleys filled with snow, out of which came two branches of Saco river," and it led him, as probably the other party also, to the broadest spread of that great plain, of which the southeastern grassy expanse, of some forty acres, has long been known as Bigelow's

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Lawn, and the "top," to the north, where the two ponds are, furnished Gorges with a part, no doubt, of the sources of his rivers.

" Fourscore miles," says Josselyn, " (upon a direct line) to the north- west of Scarborow, a ridge of mountains run northwest and northeast an hundred leagues, known by the name of the White Mountains, upon which lieth snow all the year, and is a Land-mark twenty miles off at sea. It is rising ground from the seashore to these Hills, and they are inaccessible but by the Gullies which the dissolved Snow hath made, in these Gullies grow Savin bushes, which being taken hold of are a good help to the climb- ing discoverer; upon the top of the highest of these Mountains is a large Level or Plain of a day's journey over, whereon nothing grows but Moss; at the farther end of this Plain is another Hill called the Sugar loaf, to outward appearance, a rude heap of massie stones piled one upon another, and you may, as you ascend, step from one stone to another, as if you were going up a pair of stairs, but winding still about the Hill till you come to the top, which will require half a day's time, and yet it is not above a Mile, where there is also a Level of about an acre of ground, with a pond of clear water in the midst of it: which you may hear run down, but how it ascends is a mystery. From this rocky Hill you may see the whole Country round about ; it is far above the lower Clouds, and from hence we beheld a Vapour (like a great Pillar) drawn up by the Sun Beams out of a great Lake or Pond into the air, where it was formed into a Cloud. The Country beyond these Hills Northward is daunting terrible, being full of rocky Hills, as thick as Mole hills, in a Meadow, and cloathed with infinite thick Woods." Gorges and Vines' party named these mountains the " Crystal Hills, " but their provisions failed them before the beautiful lake was reached, and though they were within one day's journey of it, they were obliged to return home. Josselyn also says : "One stately mountain there is, sur- mounting all the rest, about four-score miles from the sea; between the mountains are many rich and pregnant valleys as ever eye beheld, beset on each side with variety of goodly trees, the grass man-high, unmowed, uneaten, and uselessly withering, and within these valleys spacious lakes or ponds well stored with fish and beavers; the original of all the great rivers in the countrie, the snow lies upon the mountains the whole year excepting the month of August; the black flies are so numerous that a man cannot draw his breath but he will suck of them in. Some suppose that the White Mountains were first raised by earthquakes, but they are hollow, as may be guessed by the resounding of the rain upon the level on the top." The pond on the top in this account. may have been due to extraordinary transient causes: it is not mentioned by the other visitors of the seventeenth century, and has not been heard of since.

We next hear of an ascent of the White Mountains by a "ranging company," which "ascended the highest mountain, on the N. W. part."

HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

so far, as appears, the first ascent on that side, April 29, 1725, and found, as was to be expected, the snow deep, and the Alpine ponds frozen. Another ranging party, which was "in the neighborhood of the White Mountains, on a warm day in the month of March," in the year 1746, had an interest- ing and the first recorded experience of a force, which has left innumer- able proofs of its efficiency all through the mountains. It seems that this party was "alarmed with a repeated noise, which they supposed to be the firing of guns. On further search they found it to be caused by rocks fall- ing from the south side of a steep mountain."

The Western Pass (Notch) of the mountains was undoubtedly known to the Indians, but we have no account of its use by the English, till after 1771, when two hunters, Timothy Nash and Benjamin Sawyer, passed through it. It is said that Nash, in pursuit of a moose, drove it into a deep gorge, and expected an easy capture. The moose, however, took an old Indian trail, which brought it safely to the other side of the mountain. A road was soon after opened by the proprietors of lands in the upper Cohos, and another, through the Eastern Pass, was commenced in 1774. Settlers began now to make their way into the immediate neighborhood of the moun- tains. The townships of Jefferson. Shelburne (which included Gorham), and Adams (now Jackson), successively received inhabitants from 1773 to 1779, and the wilderness, if as yet far enough from blossoming, was opened, and, to some extent, tamed.

It was now that the first company of scientific inquirers approached the White hills. In July, 1784, the Rev Manasseh Cutler, of Ipswich, a zeal- ous member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Rev. Daniel Little, of Kennebunk, also a member of the Academy, and Col. John Whipple, of Dartmouth (now Jefferson), the most prominent inhabi- tant of the Cohos country, visited the mountains, "with a view to make particular observations on the several phenomena that might occur The way by which Cutler ascended the mountain is indicated by the stream which bears his name in Belknap's and Bigelow's narratives, and was doubtless very much the same taken and described by Bigelow. President Dwight passed through the Notch in 1797. and a second time in 1803, and his beautiful description of the scenery is still valuable and correct. He says: "The Notch of the White Mountains is a phrase appropriated to a very narrow defile extending two miles in length between two huge cliffs, apparently rent asunder by some vast convulsion of nature. The entrance to the chasm is formed by two rocks, standing perpendicularly at the dis- tance of twenty-two feet from each other; one about twenty, the other about twelve feet in height. Half of the space is occupied by the brook, the head stream of the Saco; the other half by the road. When we entered the Notch we were struck with the wild and solemn appearance of every- thing before us. The scale, on which all objects in view were formed, was

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the scale of grandeur only. The rocks, rude and ragged in a manner hardly paralleled, were fashioned, and piled on each other, by a hand operating only in the boldest and most irregular manner. As we advanced, these appearances increased rapidly. Huge masses of grauite, of every abrupt forin, and hoary with a moss which seemed the product of ages, recalling to the mind the . Saxum vetustum' of Virgil, speedily rose to a mountain- ous height. Before us the view widened fast to the southeast. Behind us it closed almost instantaneously; and presented nothing to the eye but an impassable barrier of mountains. About half a mile from the entrance of the chasm, we saw in full view the most beautiful cascade, perhaps, in the world. It issued from a mountain on the right, about eight hundred feet above the subjacent valley, and at the distance of about two miles from us. The stream, which I shall denominate the 'Silver cascade,' ran over a series of rocks, almost perpendicular, with a course so little broken as to preserve the appearance of an uniform current, and yet so far dis- turbed as to be perfectly white. At the distance of three quarters of a mile from the entrance, we passed a brook known as the 'Flume.' The stream fell from a height of 240 or 250 feet over three precipices; down the first and second it fell in a single current, and down the third in three, which united their streams at the bottom in a fine basin immediately below us. It is impossible for a brook of this size to be modelled into more diversified, or more delightful, forms; or for a cascade to descend over precipices more happily fitted to finish its beauty. The sunbeams, penetrating through the trees, painted a great variety of fine images of light, and edged an equally numerous, and diversified, collection of shadows; both dancing on the waters, and alternately silvering and obscuring their course Purer water never was seen. Exclusively of its murmurs, the world around us was solemn and silent. Everything assumed the character of enchantment; and, had I been educated in the Grecian mythology. I should have been scarcely surprised to find an assemblage of Dryads, Naiads, and Oreades sporting on the little plain beneath our feet. As we passed onward through this singular valley, occasional torrents, formed by the rains and dissolv- ing snows, at the close of winter, had left behind them, in many places, perpetual monuments of their progress in perpendicular, narrow, and irreg- ular paths, of immense length; where they had washed the precipices naked and white, from the summit of the mountain to the base. Wide and deep chasms, also, at times met the eye, both on the summits and the sides; and strongly impressed the imagination with the thought, that a hand of immeasurable power had rent asunder the solid rocks, and tum- bled them into the subjacent valley. Over all, hoary cliffs, rising with proud supremacy, frowned awfully on the world below, and finished the landscape."

This incident connected with the re-discovery of the Notch is interesting.

HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

On the report of its re-discovery to Governor Wentworth, he warily agreed to grant Nash and Sawyer a tract of land if they would bring him down a horse from Lancaster, through this Notch. By means of ropes they succeeded in getting the horse over the projecting cliff, and down the rug- ged pathway of the mountain torrent, and brought him to the governor. When they saw the horse safely lowered on the south side of the last pro- jection, it is said that Sawyer, draining the last drop of rum from his junk bottle, broke the empty flask on the rock, and named it "Sawyer's rock," by which name it has ever since been known. The earliest articles of com- merce taken through the Notch appear to have been a barrel of tobacco, raised at Lancaster, which was carried to Portsmouth, and a barrel of rum which a company in Portland offered to any one who should succeed in taking it through the pass. This was done by Captain Rosebrook, with some assistance, though it became nearly empty, "through the politeness of those who helped to manage the affair." The difficulty of communica- tion was often the occasion of serious want, and it was no rare thing to suffer from scarcity of provisions.

The first person passing through the Notch to settle in the lands north- west was Col. Joseph Whipple, who came from Portsmouth in 1772. He brought tackles and ropes by which his cattle were brought over the preci- pices along the way. In 1803 the legislature authorized a lottery for the building of a turnpike through the Notch of the White Mountains, twenty miles in extent, at an expense of forty thousand dollars. (It was custom- ary in the early history of the country to raise money by lottery for the general welfare. Roads were built, literary institutions founded and religious societies aided, by such questionable means.) Tickets were issued exceed- ing the prizes by the sum of thirty-two thousand one hundred dollars; but, through the failure of agents, the loss of tickets, and the expense of man- agement, only fifteen hundred dollars came into the state treasury. This road, winding down to the west line of Bartlett through this gigantic cleft in the mountains, presents to the traveller "some of the most sublime and beautiful scenery which the sun, in his entire circuit, reveals to the curious eye." In July of this year, Dr. Cutler visited the mountains a second time, in company with Dr. W. D. Peck, afterwards Professor of Natural History at Cambridge, Mass. In 1816 Dr. Bigelow, Dr. Francis Boott, Francis C. Gray, and Chief Justice Shaw visited the mountains. In 1819 Abel Crawford opened the footway to Mt. Washington, which follows the southwestein ridge from Mt. Clinton. July 31, 1820, Messrs. A. N. Brack- ett, J. W. Weeks, Charles J. Stuart, Esq., Gen. John Willson, Noyes S. Dennison, and S. A. Pearson, Esq., of Lancaster, with Philip Carrigain, and Ethan Crawford as guide, ascended the southwestern ridge by the new path, from the head of the Notch, and explored the summits of the whole range as far as Mt. Washington. They took the height of the mountains

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with a spirit-level, and were seven days in this slow, fatigning labor. They must have been the first party which passed the night upon the summit. Benjamin D. Greene. Esq., collected the plants of the southwestern ridge in 1823, and the same year, Henry Little, a medical student, explored this part of the mountains. In 1825, William Oakes, Esq., and Dr. Charles Pick- ering, made, together, extensive researches of much interest. Dr. J. W. Robbins explored carefully the whole range in 1829. descending into and crossing the Great Gulf, and traversing for the first time, so far as scien- tific interests were concerned, all the eastern summits. Rev. T. Starr King, whose artistic appreciation and eloquent writings did so much to bring this region into notice, came here in 1837. In 1840, a party, includ- ing Dr. Charles T. Jackson, reached Mt. Washington on horseback by the way of the Notch.

First Settlers. - The first settlers among the mountains came from below, and settled Conway in 1764, Jefferson in 1772, Franconia in 1774, Bartlett in 1777, Jackson in 1778, Bethlehem in 1790. In 1792 Captain Rosebrook established himself and home on the site of Fabyan's, and opened the first house for summer visitors there in 180S. Abel Crawford settled at Bemis in 1793. Ethan A. Crawford succeeded to the Rosebrook place in 1817. But thirty years before any of these thought of making a home in this wild region, so runs the story, Thomas Crager sought among the solitudes of the mountain rocks, relief for a grief so intense as almost to eraze him. His wife had been executed as a witch ; his little daughter Mary, his only child, had been carried into captivity, and after a long and unavailing search, he went up to the mountains, and lived for a long time, where the pure water and air of the region brought health and strength, protected from the evil intent of the Indians by their belief in his being the adopted son of the Great Spirit. After long years, he found his daughter among the Indians of eastern Maine, married, and living as a squaw. Many wild legends are told of Crager and the Indian captor of his daughter, but the fact of his existence and residence here is all we need record.

Nancy's Brook and Nancy's Bridge take their name from a girl who perished here in 1778. Her tragic story has so often been told, that we only allude to it.

The First House in the Notch was the historic Willey House. It was kept as a public house for some years, then abandoned, and again occupied in 1825, by Samuel Willey, Jr., who, with his wife, five children, and two hired men, perished in the great slide of August 28, 1826. As there would be a dozen people desirous of visiting the mountains coming to Ethan A. Crawford's hostelry, in 1821 he most effectively advertised it, by cutting a path, which shortened the distance, and made it easy to go up the moun- tain. Soon after this, increased travel brought a demand for some place on the summit where visitors could pass the night, and Ethan constructed

HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

a stone cabin. near the large spring of water, and furnished it, first with a large supply of soft moss for beds ; and afterwards with a small stove, an iron chest to hold the blankets, and a long roll of sheet lead, as a reg- ister of names of visitors.

The first hotel on Mt. Washington was the old Summit House, built in 1852, by L. M. Rosebrook, N. R. Perkins, and J. S. Hall. The Tip Top House was built in 1853, by John H. Spaulding and others. He was part owner of that and the Summit House, and conducted them for several years. The present Summit House was built in 1872. The old Summit House was torn down in the spring of 1884, to give place to a new build- ing, used as lodging rooms for the employees of the hotel.

The first winter ascent of Mt. Washington was made by Lucius Harts- horne, a deputy sheriff of Coös county, and B. F. Osgood, of Gorham, De- cember 7, 1858. John H. Spaulding, Franklin White, and C. C. Brooks, of Lancaster, made the ascent February 19, 1862, and were the first to spend the night on the mountain in winter.

The carriage road from the Glen House to the summit of Mt. Wash- ington was begun in 1855, under the management of D. O. Macomber, C. H. V. Cavis being surveyor. The first four miles were finished the next year. Financial troubles stopped the work for a time, but the road was finally opened August 8, 1861. It is eight miles long, and has an average grade of twelve feet in 100. The ascent is made by stages in four hours, and the descent in an hour and a half.

George W. Lane drove the first Concord coach that ever ascended Mt. Washington over this road, August 8, 1861.

The Glen House in Pinkham Notch, at the eastern base of Mt. Wash- ington, is fifteen miles north of Glen station, near North Conway, eight miles south of Gorham, on the Grand Trunk railway, and has a full and unobstructed view of the highest peaks of the Mt. Washington range. Mt. Washington is ascended from the Glen by the carriage road, eight miles long. Glen Ellis Falls, and Crystal Cascade, near the Glen, are two of the finest water-falls in the mountain. Tuckerman's Ravine is most easily reached from the Glen House.

Pinkham Notch takes its name from Daniel Pinkham, an early resident of Jackson. In 1824 he commenced a road through the wilderness between two ranges of the White Mountains ; this road was about twelve miles in length, and connected Jackson with Randolph, and in two years time it was completed. The Notch is situated at the Glen Ellis Falls, and the mountains here are only a quarter of a mile apart.

The Mt. Washington railway was projected by Sylvester Marsh. The building of the road was begun in 1866, and finished in 1869.

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History of Coos County, New Hampshire, Part 6

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