USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume II > Part 30
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that venture proved to be profitable, the increasing population of the country would lead to the completion of the entire scheme. A charter was granted to the Proprietors of the Mid- dlesex Canal June 22, 1793. James Sullivan was president of the company. Of the two routes surveyed the rejected one became forty years later that of the Lowell Railroad. The canal was thirty feet wide and four feet deep. Its cost was half a million dollars, and it was opened to traffic in 1803. The confidence of the public in this enterprise is shown by the fact that each of the eight hundred shares of stock advanced from twenty-five dollars in 1794 to four hundred and seventy-three dollars in 1804. Then the market value steadily declined, though in 1816 stock sold at three hundred dollars a share.
"Following the construction of the Middlesex Canal came the requisite works to render the Merrimack river navigable from the head of the Middlesex to the town of Concord, being a series of dams, locks, and short canals to overcome the natural rapids and falls of the river. The first of these works was a lock and short canal at Wicasee Falls, three miles above the head of the Middlesex, at what is now known as Tyng's Island. No fall is now perceptible at that point, the Lowell dam having flowed it out. The second work, fifteen miles further up the river, at Cromwell's Falls, consisted of a dam and single lock. Then came dams and single locks at Moor's, Coos, Goff's, Griffin's, and Merrill's Falls. About a mile above Merrill's Falls were the lower locks of the Amoskeag, a canal next in importance to the Middlesex. It was only about one mile in length, but surmounted, by works of very considerable magni- tude, the great fall of between fifty and sixty feet that now furnishes the water power for the manufactories of Manchester. Its construction was first undertaken by Samuel Blodgett as early as 1794, but it was not completed until 1807.
Eight miles above Amoskeag the locks and short canal of Hooksett overcame a fall of some seventeen feet; and six miles further on the Bow locks and canal afforded the final lift of twenty-seven feet to the level of the navigable water of the Merrimack river at Concord.
Short side canals with locks were subsequently built at the junctions of the Nashua and Piscataquog rivers with the Mer-
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rimack to facilitate the passage of boats from the Merrimack to the storehouse in Nashua and Piscataquog villages.
For forty years this line of canals formed the principal channel of heavy transportation between the two capitals, and, except that the canals did not effectually compete with the stages for carrying passengers, they held the same position for transportation as is now held by their successor and destroyer, the railroad.
During the entire season of open river, from the time that the spring break-up of winter ice permitted navigation to com- mence, until the frosts of fall again closed it, this eighty-five miles of water was thronged with boats, taking the products of the country to a market at the New England metropolis, and returning loaded with salt, lime, cement, plaster, hardware, leather, liquors, iron, glass, grindstones, cordage, paints, oils, and all that infinite variety of merchandise required by country merchants, formerly classed under the general terms of "dry and West India goods." The original bills of lading show that they brought up from Boston, for consumption in the country, flour, corn, butter, and cheese, which plainly indicates that the people of the Merrimack river valley gave more attention in those days to lumbering and river navigation than to agriculture."3
The Middlesex Canal Corporation contributed over eighty- two thousand dollars towards the construction of the locks and canals of the Merrimack river. The receipts of the entire enterprise in 1812 were $12,600 and rose to $32,600 in 1816. One hundred and twenty-three feet of fall had to be overcome in going from the head of Middlesex canal to Concord. The expense of repairs was great, and the destruction of ocean com- merce greatly affected inland trade. Had it not been for the railroad, however, this system of transportation must have been indispensable, enhancing greatly the value of lumber and agricul- tural products.
3 General George Stark, as quoted in Mcclintock's Hist. of N. H., pp. 476-9.
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Chapter XV SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHERN CONNECTICUT VALLEY
Chapter XV SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHERN CONNECTICUT VALLEY.
Attractiveness of Upper Coos-Chiswick or Littleton-Dalton-Lancaster- Jefferson-Stonington or Northumberland-Woodbury or Stratford- Cocksburne or Columbia-Coleburn or Colebrook-Stewartstown- Clarksville-All Town Histories Much Alike.
T HE fertile intervales of Upper Coos attracted early explorers and settlers. The river and Indian trails guided the first scouts and adventurers. Hunters and fishermen roamed the forests of this region long before the time of the Revolution, yes, before the French and Indian War. Forts were built as defense against incursions of the St. Francis Indians from Canada. Neither Indians nor hardships have ever stayed the onward march of whitemen who were land-hungry.
The region now embraced in Littleton and Dalton was chartered as Chiswick in 1764. The town was then granted to James Avery of Groton, Conn., and many of his relatives, together with some of the friends of Gov. Benning Wentworth. On the northwest it extended nineteen miles along the Connec- ticut river, where for fifteen miles there is a succession of falls and rapids in a descent of three hundred and thirty-five feet, still going to waste.1 According to the grant Chiswick con- tained about six square miles. The conditions of the grant were not fulfilled, and so this tract was regranted in 1770, under the name of Apthorp, in honor of George Apthorp, a merchant of London and friend of Mark Hunking Wentworth. The charter
1 Newspapers are now announcing a plan to develop this water power by the expenditure of $6,000,000 in the erection of three dams. The first will be across the river at Monroe and will be 160 feet high. There is a natural gorge at this place. The dam would cost about $2,000,000. The second dam is planned to be one hundred feet high and stretch across the river at Waterford, while the third will be eighty feet high and at the head of the fifteen mile falls near North Littleton. In connection with this is a scheme to raise the lower Connecticut lake seventeen feet for storage of water. The plans when carried into effect would develop five thousand horsepower, which would be distributed to manufacturing towns in northern New Hampshire and Vermont.
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gives its area as 40,850 acres. Some gentlemen of Newburyport, Mass., including Moses Little, were the managers of the enter- prise. In 1774 Dalton was set off as a separate town; the name Littleton was given to the southern part of Aphorp; and it was then incorporated. One of the active proprietors of Apthorp was Gen. Israel Morey of Orford.
The first settler was Nathan Caswell from Orford, who was born in Norwich, Conn., and married Hannah Bingham. He came in the spring of 1774, with wife and four sons, having previously built a cabin near where Parker brook empties into the Ammonoosuc river. The first night the family arrived a fifth son was born and was named Apthorp. The Indians were lurking around, and the next day Caswell and family retreated to Gunthwaite, now Lisbon, the next town south. Their cabin was burned by the Indians and some goods were stolen, but Caswell returned and built another cabin, to be swept away by a freshet the following spring. Then a log house was built on higher ground, with no iron, not even a nail, in its construc- tion, except the crane that hung in the fireplace. In 1772 Jonathan Hopkinson arrived from Rhode Island with his large family and settled on the Connecticut meadows, about four miles from Caswell. A few years later came Peleg Williams, Robert Charlton and Moses Blake. The last received a deed of three hundred and twenty acres for cutting a road from Haverhill to Lancaster. An ox-team could get through in spite of stumps and lack of bridges. Blake settled at the confluence of John river and the Connecticut, in 1782, in what is now Dalton. During the Revolution, from 1775 to 1780, there were but sixteen inhabitants in the town, yet the Caswell and Hopkinson families furnished soldiers for the war. Other early settlers were John Chase, Luke Hitchcock, James Rankin, Sar- gent Currier, Capt. Thomas Miner, Whitcomb Powers, Samuel Learned from Maine, and Solomon Parker. In 1782 the first grist mill was built by Jacob Bayley on Rankin Brook, which soon fell into decay, since every patron had to be his own miller. The first town meeting was held in 1787, when John Young was moderator, Robert Charlton clerk, and the select- men were Samuel Learned, John Chase and Peleg Williams.
A populous village has grown up in the eastern part of the
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town of Littleton by reason of the fertile fields and extensive water power on the Ammonoosuc river. The White Mountain Railroad brings many tourists to this region. A Congregational church was organized in 1803, with the Rev. Drury Fairbanks as pastor, and the first meeting house was finished in 1815. There are now five or more churches, representing the leading denominations of New England. Littleton has its newspaper and public library, its banks and varied manufactories. The air and scenery are worth a journey ; farming and manufactures entice many to stay.
The Apthorp proprietors quit-claimed a tract of ten thou- sand acres, which had been vacated by Lancaster when it changed its boundaries, to Col. John Hurd and he sold the tract to Tristram Dalton and Nat. Tracy. These bought six thousand acres more from Moses Little, and on the same day that Littleton was incorporated, November 4, 1784, Dalton also became a chartered township. The town was named for its principal owner, the Hon. Tristram Dalton of Newburyport, Massachusetts, a graduate of Harvard, prominent in the politics of his State and senator in the first United States congress after the adoption of the national constitution. He never lived in Dalton.
The next settler after Moses Blake was Walter Bloss, and then soon followed Coffin Moore. The first town meeting was held July 26, 1808, at the dwelling house of Joshua Whitney, innkeeper. Joel Crandal was moderator, and Agrippa Warren was clerk. Among other early settlers were Paul Cushman, John Blakslee, John Cram, Amos Kidder, Levi Osgood, William Wallace, John Crane, and Jared Barker. Three school districts were organized in 1809. A Congregational church was organized in 1816 and the first meeting house was erected in 1830. Lumbering and farming have always been the industries. The white pine that once covered a large part of the township has disappeared.
On the easterly boundary of Dalton lies Whitefield, an irregular township formed from what was left over after sur- rounding towns had been granted. Whitefield is supposed to have been named for the famous evangelist, George Whitefield, although the earliest records call the place Whitefields. It was
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granted in 1774 and incorporated December 1, 1804. The grantees were mainly from the southern part of the State, and few if any of them ever saw the town. The first proprietors, meeting was held at Dunstable and Col. Samuel Adams pre- sided. Some have thought this to be the revolutionary patriot of Boston, but it may have been Col. Samuel Adams of Exeter, son of Lieut .- Col. Winborn Adams of Durham. At the first town meeting, in 1805, there were but eight voters in the town. Major John Burns, the first settler, was chosen moderator, and Col. Joseph Kimball was clerk. John McMasters from Frances- town was another early settler. Whitefield has an acreage of over twenty thousand, about one-third of it improved land. Lumbering has been the principal business.
Lancaster, the next town north of Dalton, was first called Upper Coos. It stretches for ten miles along the Connecticut river, as fine meadow land as can be found anywhere, a mile wide. Then rise the uplands, good also for agriculture. As originally granted in 1763 Lancaster lay further south and included most of Dalton and a part of Whitefield, but the first settlers soon saw that their grant did not extend far enough north to take in all they wanted of the rich meadow land. So Lieutenant Joshua Talford was employed to resurvey the town. He went up the river seven miles beyond the original northern limit of the town, fixed arbitrarily upon a tree for a starting point and ran the northern line where it was wanted. Thus ten thousand acres on the south were cast away, out of which, with additions, Dalton was formed. It was easy to seize the land desired, because the township of Stonington on the north- ern boundary had been granted and the conditions were unful- filled, so that it was practically No-man's Land. When a little later Northumberland was laid out, it and all the towns north of it were pushed up the river and additions on the eastern sides were made to pacify the grantees. The first settlers of Lancaster took a large tract of very valuable land because they felt that they "needed" it, and then they got Governor Went- worth to sanction the seizure.
The town was granted, in 1763, to David Page and others. The village grew up on Israel's river, about a mile from the Connecticut. David Page was from Petersham, Mass., and he
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brought with him and his family, in 1764, Emmons Stockwell, who had been one of Rogers' Rangers, Edward Bucknam and other young men from Lancaster, Lunenberg and Petersham, Mass. They planted twelve acres of corn. By August 26th it was "twelve feet high," or less, and that night it was completely frozen and spoiled. Fertility and northern climate do not harmonize always. A good deal of farming in New Hampshire has always been done at a venture. Frost and insects, drouth or too much rain, may spoil the plans of the wisest and most industrious, but this is the exception. Goods had to be pulled up over the rapids of the fifteen mile falls in canoes by ropes. This was the only highway to the settlement. Later their goods came through the White Mountain Notch from Portland, one hundred miles away, or from Portsmouth, but they raised in the town almost everything they really needed to eat and to wear. In 1775 there were eight families in town, including sixty-one persons. Emmons Stockwell and family were the only ones that remained, when the invasion by the Indians was feared. In 1776 Dennis Stanley was here coming from Kittery, Maine. In 1778 came Major Jonas Wilder and built the first two-story house. Other early settlers were Col. Stephen Wil- son, Capt. John Weeks from Greenland, Joseph Brackett, William Moore, Phineas Hodgdon, Walter and Samuel Phil- brook. These were here by 1786. In 1790 the town had a population of one hundred and sixty-one.
When Coos county was formed Lancaster became the shire town or county seat. Later this honor was shared with Cole- brook. The town has prospered by reason of its agriculture, lumber mills and small manufactories. It has had its academy and public library for many years, two newspapers, banks, half a dozen churches, fine hotels and thousands of visitors.
Jefferson, southeast of Lancaster was granted to Col. John Goffe under the name of Dartmouth, in 1765. It was regranted to Mark H. Wentworth and others in 1772. Col. Joseph Whipple, Samuel Hart and others began the first settlement in 1773. The town was incorporated December 8, 1796. The sur- face is hilly and mountainous and summer tourists here are many.
The next town north of Lancaster is Northumberland,
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stretching along the Connecticut ten miles. It was originally granted as Stonington, in 1761, to John Hogg and others. It was regranted by its present name, January 25, 1771, to David Warner and sixty-eight others from Portsmouth and Newbury- port. A few of them made settlements in the town. Thomas Burnside came in 1767 and Daniel Spaulding with him. Burn- side was from Londonderry and had married Susan, daughter of the Rev. James McGregor. He had been one of Rogers' Rangers and knew the country well. He became the leading citizen and was the first justice of the peace, having walked to Portsmouth to obtain his commission from Governor Went- worth. Capt. Jeremiah Eames was another grantee and early settler. The town was incorporated in November 1779. During the Revolution fort Wentworth, built in 1755 by Capt. Robert Rogers, was repaired and commanded by Jeremiah Eames, at whose house the first town meeting was held, in 1780, when he, Joseph Peverly and Thomas Burnside were chosen selectmen. There were but twenty-one voters in 1783, and then they voted to make "a good cart road" through the town. In 1789 it was voted "to raise seven pounds and four shillings, to be paid in wheat at cash price, to hire preaching for the ensuing year," and the minister's pay increased gradually for several years. The town voted to build a meeting house in 1796, and it was completed three years later. Yet no church was organized in this town till 1867, when the Methodists established a church and built a meeting house. Agriculture and the manufacture of wood products have been the industries. The incoming of the railroad developed some mills and built up a prosperous village.
Next north of Northumberland a town was chartered in 1762 called Woodbury, in remembrance of the place in Connec- ticut, where many of the grantees lived. Some settlers from that region made "pitches" a few years after the grant was made. Owing to disputes about boundaries the town was regranted by Gov. John Wentworth, May 26, 1773, under the name of Stratford, which it retains. Its size was double that of Woodbury, containing seventy-one shares and over forty-eight thousand acres. The first settlers, as early as 1772, were Joshua Lamkin, Archippus Blodgett, James Brown, James Curtis,
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Isaac Johnson, Timothy DeForest, Benijah Blackman and John Smith. The first woman who came to town in 1773 was the wife of Joseph Barlow, and the proprietors voted her ten dol- lars for her brave example. Only seven families remained dur- ing the Revolution and six men of the town enlisted as soldiers. A fort was built for defense against the St. Francis Indians. It was commanded by Capt. John Holbrook, and a system of signals was arranged to warn adjacent towns on both sides of the river. This was then the farthest settlement north in New Hampshire. The town petitioned for a guard in 1780. It was incorporated November 16, 1779. Although there was occa- sional preaching and some of the inhabitants attended church in a neighboring town, no meeting house was built till 1808, when the Methodists established a church here. The Baptist church was organized in 1843.
Adjoining Stratford on the north is a town first known as Cockburne, granted in 1770 and named in honor of Sir James Cockburne, one of the grantees. It was incorporated Decem- ber 16, 1797. A tract of 5,822 acres, granted in 1773 to Seth Wales and seventeen others and called Wales' Location, was annexed to Cockburne in 1804. The name of the town was changed, June 19, 1811, to Columbia, which name remains. Abel Larned from Windham, Conn., was the first settler, before the Revolution. He died after a few years, and his two sons were captured by Indians and taken to Quebec. They were rescued through the agency of Col. Webb, of General Washing- ton's staff, who was an uncle of Mrs. Larned. This brave woman remained in the wilderness nine years without seeing another woman, dared the Indians and knocked down one of them with a fire-poker and dragged him from her cabin. Let her be classed with Hannah Dustin. Abel Hobart came in 1786 from Holland, Mass., walking all the way with an axe over his shoulder and only two and sixpence in his pocket. He cleared a large farm, built a house and in 1794 married Betsey Wallace. They lived together sixty-five years and reared five sons and five daughters. One of the sons was one of the founders of Beloit, Wisconsin. Other early settlers were William Wallace from Holland, Mass., Philip Jordan, born in Rehoboth, Mass., and his brother Benjamin. Philip and family had to subsist on
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bear and moose that his rifle brought down, added to potatoes and berries. The first settlers managed to get along without much preaching. Occasionally an itinerant gave them a call and religious services were held in dwelling houses, school houses and barns. The first church edifice was erected by the Methodists in 1851. About the same time a Union church was built at East Columbia, where the Christian denomination had long held services. Dissensions crept in by reason of wrangles over baptism, annihilation and other non-essentials that cer- tainly are not worth quarreling about. Columbia remains a farming community.
Colebrook is the half shire town of Coos County. It was first called Colebourne and was granted, December 1, 1770, to Sir George Colebrook and others. It was incorporated as Cole- brook, June II, 1795. The soil is said to be excellent, and every farm in town is a good one. Potatoes are raised in abundance, and formerly there were many small starch fac- tories. The fertility of the soil and the comparative ease with which it can be cultivated have made this a wealthy town. The names of settlers that appear in 1795 were Andrew McAllan, Josiah King, Andrew and William McAllister, Moses Smith, Ebenezer Brainard, Joseph Goddard, Isaac Covil, Joseph Griswold and Nehemiah Spencer. Over a century ago a road was built through Dixville Notch, and then the farmers of Cole- brook hauled their produce to Portland, Maine, for market, and brought back rum and molasses and a few other things. The population in 1810 was three hundred and twenty-five. About this time John Smith of Hartford, Conn., and Samuel Pratt of Marshfield, Vermont, formed a partnership and began to develop the town, clearing land, building stores, mills and factories, till they had over fifty thousand dollars invested. In five years the population had greatly increased. In 1816 there were fifty- six houses, and sixty-eight persons paid a poll tax. That year is recorded as remarkably cold, so that many sheep were frozen after being sheard. All New England felt that frost, and the crops were ruined, so that many emigrated to Ohio. The woolen mill built by Smith and Pratt in 1822 continued in operation many years after the failure of its builders. Cole- brook Academy was chartered in 1832, and the State granted
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ten thousand acres between Hall's and Indian streams in what is now Pittsburg to aid the institution.' This land was sold to John Bailey for $2,500 and thus the academy was built, cost- ing $1,200. In 1870 forty buildings in the main part of the village were destroyed by fire, yet new and better structures soon succeeded. The Congregational church in Colebrook was founded in 1802 under the preaching of John Willard, with ten members. The town and church sent out quite a colony to Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1838 and founded the Congregational church in that place. Besides the early settlers above named may be mentioned Edmund Chamberlain, Capt. Benjamin Buel, David Titus, Sylvanus Noyes, Caleb and Ebenezer Little, Charles Thompson, Joseph Loomis and Mark Aldrich.
Stewartstown adjoins Colebrook on the north. It was granted in 1770 to John Stewart and others of London. It was incorporated in 1795 by the name of Stuart, but because of legal doubts was reincorporated December 23, 1799, by its present name. No settlement was made till after the Revolu- tion for fear of Indian depredations. The settlers before 1800 were Daniel Brainerd, Jr., Richard Smart, Abner Powers, Abel Bennet, Jr., John French, Luther French, Longley Willard, Barzillai Brainerd, John Walls, Daniel Hurlbert, Elisha Dyer, Theophilus Durell, Clement Miner, Abner Wood, Jr., David Lock, Nathaniel Durell, and Boswell Merrill. All these signed the petition for incorporation in 1795. Henry Sullingham and Jeremiah Eames, Jr. also settled here before 1800. The early inhabitants sometimes went to Colebrook to meeting on Sun- days, and twenty-five members of the Congregational church in Colebrook were dismissed in 1846 to found a church in Stewartstown, with Rev. Josiah Morse as pastor. The early settlers raised grass seed and hauled it to Portland, Maine, in exchange for groceries and the things they could not do without. Shops and manufactories were set up on a small scale and with little capital, as the population increased. The railroad brought the modern luxuries, and now telephones and electric lights indicate the contrast between the beginning of the nine- teenth century and recent years. With little schooling and much hard work on the farm stalwart men have been reared, many of whom have helped to colonize the far West. During
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