USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Lancaster > History of Lancaster, New Hampshire > Part 31
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M. T. Donahoe, Col. Peter Sanborn, Hon. Charles P. Sanborn' George A. Pillsbury, Col. Charles H. Roberts, Hon. John Kimball' John V. Barron, Capt. William Walker, Col. Thomas J. Whipple, and others of Concord, N. H .; Mayor James A. Weston, Hon. E. W. Harrington, Col. James S. Cheney, Hon. M. V. B. Edgerly, B. F. Martin, Aretas Blood, Judge L. W. Clark, and others of Manchester, N. H .; William B. Dodge, Benjamin L. Reed, Seth Adams, J. Avery Richards, Hon. G. B. Loring, G. H. Frothingham, A. F. Sise, William F. Homer, and John Cilley of Boston, Mass .; Hon. Gilman Scripture and Hon. A. H. Dunlap of Nashua, N. H., Hon. Daniel Barnard of Franklin, N. H., George W. Hills and Dr. Aaron Ordway of Lawrence, Mass., J. H. Huntress of Centre Har- bor, J. L. Goss of Hooksett, Stark Tolman of Lowell, Mass., Hon. William Blair, John C. Moulton, and E. A. Hibbard of Laconia, N. H., Col. A. H. Bellows of Walpole, N. H., Maj. George D. Savage of Alton, N. H., George M. Herring of Farmington, N. H., Hon. John G. Sinclair of Bethlehem, Gen. John Bedel and Gen. J. M. Jackman of Bath, N. H., Sylvester Marsh, Hon. Harry Bingham, Hon. George Bingham, Maj. E. W. Farr, Col. Cyrus Eastman, and Hon. C. W. Rand of Littleton, N. H., and re- porters for the press of Concord, Boston, Manchester, Laconia, Lake Village, and Portland.
The company having been seated at the table, divine blessing was asked by Rev. H. V. Emmons of Lancaster.
After dinner the gay and cheerful party were called to order by Marshal Kent, chairman of the committee of arrangements, when Hon. B. F. Whidden was called upon to preside, which he did with gracefulness and dignity. After-dinner speaking was indulged in by many persons until it was time to march back to take the train on its return trip. Hon. Mr. Whidden made a pleasant speech of welcome which was replied to by President John E. Lyon, in which he recounted some of the experiences of his company in building the new road. Other speeches were made by Colonel Kent, President Cogswell of the B. & M. R. R., Hon. Ossian Ray, Hon. John G. Sinclair; Hon. George A. Marden, editor of the Lowell Courier, read a poem; Hon. Jacob Benton, Col. J. H. George, Hon. Daniel Barnard, John B. Clark, editor Manchester Mirror, ex-Governor Smyth, Col. Peter Sanborn, Gen. Natt Head, W. B. Dodge, Hon. A. H. Dunlap, Seth Adams, and Hon. Chester B. Jordan all spoke briefly. The exercises closed with the singing of the doxology by the suggestion of a Rev. Mr. Stubbs of Lisbon. While these exercises were going on at the Lancaster House sim- ilar ones were being enacted at the American House, where speeches were made by Hon. Harry Bingham, Col. Thomas J. Whipple, Judge L. W. Clark, Hon. E. W. Harrington, and Gen.
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
M. T. Donahoe. These exercises, highly enjoyed by all present, but by none so much as Lancaster people, were closed in time to march back under the escort of the committee, band, and citizens to take the train at twenty minutes past three o'clock in the after- noon.
Thus was celebrated one of the most important events in the his- tory of northern New Hampshire, and one of the most significant railroad enterprises in the state, since the building of the main line of the road; but withal, it came twenty years too late to give Lancaster the full benefit that a railroad should have given. Had the effort of 1846 resulted in the building of the proposed road, there is no room to doubt that Lancaster would to-day have been one of the most prosperous cities in the state. Railroads make, and sometimes unmake, communities. At all events they exercise a potent influence in shaping the destiny of towns. Like all our blessings, if properly managed, they are a benefit, if not, they become a curse that eats out the life of a community.
The new road was without a proper depot building until the spring of 1871, when a moderate-sized one was erected north of where the present one now stands. This gave way in 1893 to the present most creditable structure, pleasing to the citizens and a credit to the company.
In 1872 the road was extended to Groveton in Northumberland to connect with the Grand Trunk Railway, an arrangement very gratifying to the people at both ends of the extension.
In 1873 these small roads were consolidated with the B., C. & M. R. R., the owners of them receiving the company's bonds to the amount of $30,000, at six per cent. interest as a consideration.
From June, 1884, to June, 1887, the road was under the manage- ment of the Boston & Lowell Railroad company, which company had leased the B., C. & M. R. R., for ninety-nine years. In 1887 the Boston & Lowell leased it to the Boston & Maine Railroad company, under which company its management now is.
The Atlantic & St. Lawrence forfeit of $20,000 .- Returning to this matter, we find that at a meeting held in the town hall, August 24, 1854, some sort of arrangement was made between the citizens and the representatives of the railroad company by which the latter were to build the branch from Northumberland to Lancaster. Fail- ing to keep their contract with the people, the company forfeited to them the sum of $20,000 as the outcome of proposed legislation at Concord.
There were fifty-four citizens who had carried on this measure in the interest of the town, but without any legal authority to do any act that would involve the town financially. Neither had there ever been any action taken by the town as a party to these transactions.
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They had from first to last been carried forward by private indi- viduals acting together for what they considered the interests of their town. Now finding themselves with so large a sum of money in their hands that did not legally belong to them, nor yet did it legally belong to the town, these men felt themselves morally bound to use it to promote some important public interest. After much deliberation it was decided, first to pay $2,000 for all expenses previously incurred, and to use the balance in building a good hotel, something the town was much in need of for many years. Accordingly these men met July 22, 1856, and took formal action to organize themselves into a private company to carry out this purpose. Several meetings were held, and officers were elected to carry their plans into effect. A committee was chosen to audit accounts for money spent, and time devoted to the effort to secure the branch road. That committee consisted of John Dewey, Rue- ben C. Benton, and William Heywood. Another committee was chosen to select a site, and buy land on which to build the pro- posed hotel, and consisted of William Burns, Jacob Benton, John W. Barney, John H. White, and Richard P. Kent. Five directors were chosen, and a treasurer, who was placed under bonds for the faith- ful disposition of the money according to the directions of the company, which now took the name of the Lancaster Hotel Com- pany.
An effort was later made to turn the amount of this money remaining after the expenses allowed by the auditors were paid over to Lancaster Academy, but the majority still favored the hotel project, and the committee for that purpose was instructed to go on and build the hotel as planned. Accordingly, the lot of ground where the present Lancaster House now stands was purchased of Dr. John Dewey, and a good three-story hotel, the first Lancaster House, was built. After its completion it was rented for some time, and finally the directors of the hotel company decided to sell it. Although the hotel represented a property value of about $15,000, it was decided to sell it for a nominal sum, regarding the difference between the price asked and the actual value of the property as a bonus to the purchaser in consideration of its proper management as a necessary convenience of the town.
The sum of $7,000 was realized out of the sale of the hotel, which was turned over to the Lancaster Academy upon condition of David A. Burnside of that institution using the money to com- plete a new building for the school, which it did, and it, in due time, received the money.
Out of this failure to get a railroad, the town got as an offset to the disadvantage sustained by the failure, a good hotel and the academy, then, as for many years, the pride of the town, a build-
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ing that gave it a new lease on life and sent it on a useful ca- reer for the next quarter of a century. It is difficult to think of any better use that sum of money could have been put to in order to serve the best interests of the town. Lancaster needed nothing, then, so much as a good hotel, and the one built by that committee was a first-class one. Then, too, it was before the days of high schools. The common school of that time was not equal to the demands for a practical education. For such the people had to look to academies, and the one located here could render the people better service than any other away from home; so the endowment to it was timely and wise. The committee was the town's " faithful steward " in these important measures.
The Kilkenny Railroad .- In 1879 the Kilkenny railroad, from Lancaster to the town of Kilkenny, was first projected and char- tered as a logging road to reach a heavy body of spruce and hardwood timber on Kilkenny mountains and about the foothills. It was projected by Lancaster men, some of whom were inter- ested in the timber of the section it was calculated to reach, while others interested themselves in the matter simply to help along an enterprise of considerable value to the business interests of the town, as connected with existing business.
A company was organized under the name of the Lancaster & Kilkenny Railroad company, and a charter procured July 18, 1879, to build a road "from some point on the B., C. & M. R. R. near the bridge over Isreals river to the forks of Garland brook, near the base of Round mountain in the town of Kilkenny."
The directors were : Henry O. Kent, Frank Smith, B. H. Corning, Joseph A. Dodge, and Samuel N. Bell. The officers were: H. O. Kent, president; J. I. Williams, clerk; S. H. LeGro, treasurer ; ex- ecutive committee : J. A. Dodge, H. O. Kent, and Frank Smith.
The company employed an engineer, Col. Charles C. Lund of Concord, to make a survey, which revealed a practicable route. This plan contemplated the erection of saw-, pulp-, and paper-mills, on the property of the Lancaster Manufacturing Company at the upper dam, in the village; but the land coming under control of " promoters," it was not carried out. The road would have gone up Isreals river to the Weeks meadow, and then across by the " Grange " to the "Willard Basin." Later, the " Littleton Lumber Co.," of which Charles Eaton and Henry C. Libbey were the prin- cipal men, secured a new charter, and built in 1887 a surface road leading from near the station via the rear of Summer Street cemetery to the old line near Spaulding mills, in District 15, and with this line cleared the land, manufacturing the timber outside the town limits.
The Maine Central Railroad .- As early as 1864 an attempt
CLO
COACHING PARADE, 1895.
T
BOSTON & MAINE STATION.
MAINE CENTRAL STATION.
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was made to get a railroad built through the White Mountain Notch, where the Maine Central railroad now runs. A company was formed under the name of the Portland, White Mountain & Ogdens- burg R. R. Co., and a charter procured from both the Maine and New Hampshire legislatures. The charter granted by the New Hampshire legislature was for a road "from any point on the east- erly boundary of the state, in Carroll county, to connect with the Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad of Maine, to some point on the westerly boundary of the state, in Monroe, Littleton, Dalton, or Lancaster."
For some reason no progress was made within the time prescribed by the charter, and on July 7, 1869, it was extended for five years. This charter also expired because no work was done on the pro- posed road within that time, and nothing came of it further than to keep the importance of a road through that section before the people until the right time came to secure it. The projectors of that road were Maine and Vermont parties.
In 1875 the Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad was built from Port- land to Fabyan's, reaching the latter place August 7, 1875. There connection was made with a branch of the White Mountains Rail- road, then under the control of the B., C. & M. R. R., by which means they reached Scott's Junction, and from there built two and one half miles of track, which enabled them to make connection with the St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain Railroad. The company concluded that they could not reach Littleton, and in 1877 asked the legislature to confirm their rights to the portion of road from Scott's to Lunenburg, which was conceded, and the arrangement still continues.
In the spring of 1883 a charter was granted the Upper Coös Rail- road Company to build a narrow-gauge road from North Stratford to Pittsburg, to connect with the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Their capital stock was only $45,000, a sum utterly insufficient to build, equip, and operate a good road, and there was a demand for a serviceable road over that route. Eleven thousand dollars of that sum was paid in, when Frank Jones of Portsmouth, Charles A. Sinclair of Portsmouth, and George Van Dyke of Lancaster agreed to take the enterprise off the hands of its promoters and build a standard-gauge road on condition of a bonus of $25,000 being raised for them. This offer was accepted and the bonus raised. The old directors at once resigned and a new board was elected, consisting of Frank Jones, J. B. Cook, G. M. Armstrong, I. W. Drew, Enoch Sweat, C. A. Sinclair, and George Van Dyke. The officers were : George Van Dyke, president; J. B. Cook, treasurer; Enoch Sweat, general manager. The capital stock was limited to $350,000.
The road was built and opened for traffic to Colebrook, Novem-
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ber 29, 1887. From Colebrook it was later extended to the Cana- dian Pacific. This opened up a short route to Quebec; and as the Canadian Pacific and the Maine Central roads were friendly to each other, it led to the construction of what is now the Maine Central road through Lancaster when in 1890 the latter road got control of the old Portland & Ogdensburg, through the White Mountains. In 1893 the Maine Central leased that road and the Upper Coos Rail- road, and laid a track from the main line, just over the line in the town of Carroll, through Whitefield, Jefferson, Lancaster, and Northumberland and thence across the Connecticut river, and up that stream, crossing over to connect with the line of the Upper Coös Railroad at Stratford Junction, where it also connects with the Grand Trunk. This gave Lancaster a second railroad connection, by which it now possesses good facilities for reaching any point of interest in the business or social world.
With the coming of the Maine Central Railroad in 1890, the popu- lation of the village was augmented more than at any time in its history, as there were many families connected with the operation of the road that have had to reside here. The location of the round-house here requires a number of men to care for the machin- ery of the road. It is expected that at no very distant day the road will erect repair shops here, also. The company have a fine depot and freight sheds and have made other improvements on their property that add to the attractiveness of the road and grounds.
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PART II.
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CHAPTER I.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
GEOLOGY-BOTANY-FISH-REPTILES-MAMMALS-INSECTS-BIRDS-ADDRESS BY COL. H. O. KENT BEFORE NEW HAMPSHIRE FISH AND GAME LEAGUE.
The history of Lancaster would be incomplete if we did not say something of its natural history. Lack of space, however, forbids us going into detailed treatment of the several branches of natural history of the town. It is thought best to give a brief account of its plant and animal life, as it exists to-day, with mention of the more important plants and animals that once abounded here but are now extinct.
GEOLOGY.
Lancaster is underlaid by the unstratified, or basic and acidic, rocks which are of the oldest formation. These rocks are a coarse granite or gneiss of variable composition. There is considerable syenitic gneiss met with in town, and a very little mica schist.
Overlying this bed of rock are several varieties of soils, deposited · as drift of the glacial period, or by sedimentation, decay of the old gneiss rocks, or by river drifts. The irregular angles of the primi- tive rock ledges were all polished and worn by the glaciers. Val- leys were plowed out, ridges thrown up, often leaving ponds, the bottoms of which now afford vast meadows of uncommon fertility.
Before the Connecticut river broke through the Fifteen-mile falls, in the adjoining town of Dalton, the valley where Lancaster now stands was a vast lake through which that river ran, and into which Isreals river and many smaller streams then emptied their waters. With the successive breaks in the rocks of the ledge form- ing these falls, the waters of the lake were drawn off with sufficient rapidity to cut new channels for the rivers and leave terraces in many places testifying to the magnitude of the lake and rivers. Four distinct terraces were formed within the limits of the village of Lancaster. The first is that on Pleasant street, extending to the end of Cottage street. It formed the plain on which the old town meet- ing-house stood. The second terrace, on the same side of Isreals river, is that level on which Elm street runs. This terrace forms the vast level of Main street. When the waters rushed out to form this level or terrace the mound, on which was located the first ceme-
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tery of the town, became an island around which the waters found their way, leaving it behind as a monument of their ravages. The third terrace is seen south of where the Boston & Maine Railroad crosses Isreals river, in the section once known as Egypt, while the fourth and last one is the level of the lower meadows along Isreals river and the Connecticut. In all these terraces the waters kept lowering until to-day they flow fully fifty feet lower than they did when the lake covered the valley. This change took place at the close of the ice flow of the glacial period, or when it melted so rapidly as to produce water faster than the channels could carry it off.
Throughout the town the glacial drift, or till, covers the slopes and often the summits of the hills. The bowlders and irregular blocks of stone spread over the town vary greatly in size and character of formation. Very few fossils are found, and those only in the drift. The drift varies greatly from coarse gravel to immense bowlders, some of them weighing many tons. One of these granite bowlders, near the line between Lancaster and Northumberland, afforded all the stone for the stone house in which I. W. Hopkinson lives on Main street, the county jail, and other buildings.
The vast deposits of the drift afford rock for building purposes, and the terraces sand for mortar and other uses. The soil varies in kind and quality from coarse, gravelly and often rocky, to sandy loam with many meadows where once were swamps in which deep deposits of vegetable matter were laid down, now a source of almost inexhaustible richness. The soil is generally fertile, and with proper treatment yields a fair return to the farmers and dairymen.
There are no minerals of any importance within the limits of the town. There are slight but unmistakable traces of gold-bearing quartz in the southern part. In the vicinity of Martin Meadow pond there is the outcropping of a quartz formation that bears slight traces of gold. There is also a fringe of drift around Mar- tin Meadow hills, extending northward toward the Connecticut river almost to the village on the South Lancaster road. The quartz in which it is found is attached to large bowlders that were trans- ported from across the Connecticut river. The same quartz is found over vast distances north and west of Lancaster. Slight deposits of iron ore, mostly bog ore, are to be found in several portions of the town. As early as 1794, when Emmons Stockwell rented a mill privilege on Isreals river (where Frank Smith & Co.'s mills now are) he reserved the right to take water out of the dam for the use of " iron works " that he contemplated building to use this bog ore.
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THE NATURAL HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
THE TREES AND PLANTS OF LANCASTER.
BY REV. GEORGE H. TILTON.
The botany of Lancaster does not differ essentially from that of other towns lying in the same range of vegetation. To an observer of its primitive forests, however, the sombre colors of the Canadian evergreens would appear somewhat modified. The dark, conical tops of the black spruce, mingled with the lighter fir balsams, would characterize the Vermont hills lying in our belt, and also the Kil- kenny and White Mountain ranges, but the forest-crowned heights of Lancaster were mainly of another sort. Here grew abundantly the rock maple, the spreading beech, the silvery white birch, and to some extent the red oak. Other trees were intermingled, but these predominated. One hundred years ago the whole town was heavily wooded, with the exception of a few small clearings which had been made by the early settlers. To an observer from the top of Mount Prospect, the eye would detect scarcely a break in the dense forest, except the pond at Martin Meadow, the waters of the Connecticut, the Beaver Meadows on the South Lancaster road, and the small clearing where the village now stands. As the eye swept down from the variously wooded summits of the hills, and rested on the higher swells, it would behold a luxuriant growth of maple and beech, dwelling with special delight upon the magnificent forests of rock maple, which furnished an abundant supply of sugar for the early settlers, and which it is a shame in the present scarcity of groves to destroy for the mere greed of gain. Descending still lower, and surveying the vast Connecticut intervale, the eye would scan hundreds of acres covered with tall and stately pines.
These primeval pines grew to an enormous size, and if standing to-day would be worth a vast fortune to their owners. Maj. J. W. Weeks, one of the town fathers, in his sketch of Lancaster, describes one of them as four feet in diameter with the trunk perfectly sound and straight ninety-eight feet from the ground where it was twenty- two inches in diameter. Specimen boards from these primitive trees may still be seen in a fence on the Holton premises at the head of Main street.
Shading off from the dense pines and nearer the river might be seen the butternut, which is indigenous to the soil, the black cherry of large size, the choke cherry, a few birches, and above all the stately elm towering, in some instances, to the height of sixty feet up to the first limbs. Glancing again over the landscape, the eye would also observe certain swampy areas, which were covered with cone-bearing trees, the black spruce, fir balsam, tamarack, and
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hemlock freely intermingling. This may answer in general for a description of our primitive forests, though, of course, one class of trees is wont to shade off gradually into another, and in some places the hard woods and the cone-bearers would be found growing to- gether.
Among the other trees may be mentioned the arbor vitæ, the black ash with its thin layers of wood used in basket work; the poplar, of which three species are found here: the large poplar, now in demand for the manufacture of wood pulp; the aspen-leaved poplar, noted for the tremulous motion of its leaves, and the balm of gilead (Populus candicans), which is often planted for ornament.
Besides the rock maple, the source not only of sugar but of the famous " bird's-eye " maple, there is also the white maple, a tall, handsome tree which is tapped for sugar, and often transplanted for ornament, the red maple which grows in swampy places, and which furnishes the variety called " curled maple," so esteemed in cabinet work.
In addition to the white birch already mentioned, there is the yellow and the black birch, both used for lumber. The largest white birches in the country are found in the White Mountain belt, some of them measuring two feet in diameter. The red cedar grows in this belt, but very few, if any, trees are now to be found in town. The hemlock has largely disappeared. No chestnut or white oak grow here. The red oak was most common on the Martin Meadow hills. The acorns were formerly fed in large quantities to the swine and the beechnuts supplied food to the' innumerable pigeons which came in the spring of the year and nested on the mountains.
The primitive vegetation of Lancaster was far more luxuriant than the present growth, owing partly to the richness of the virgin soil, and partly to the more abundant water supply. Now that the coun- try has been so largely denuded of its forests, there is less humidity in the air, and all plant life suffers loss. The lakes and streams are much smaller than formerly. On this point the oldest residents of the town speak very positively. They say that Isreals river, e. g., together with the streams and springs which feed it, have one third less water on an average than they had fifty years ago. Even sup- posing the annual rainfall to be the same, the moisture is not retained as formerly so as to sustain a luxuriant plant growth, and cause a steady, even flow in the streams.
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