USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, from its first discovery to the year 1830; with dissertations upon the rise of opinions and institutions, the growth of agriculture and manufactures, and the influence of leading families and distinguished men, to the year 1874; > Part 34
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The lakes and ponds which everywhere dot the surface of the state form one of the most interesting features of its landscapes. In these natural basins, during the rainy season, are treasured the waters that, in periods of drought, give verdure and freshness to the farmers' meadows and furnish the power that drives the machinery of the manufacturers.
The land upon the Piscataqua and its tributaries is excellent for tillage and highly productive. It is more level and less stony, and consequently more easily cultivated than other por- tions of the state. New Hampshire has only nineteen miles of sea-board, yet its long reaches of beautiful beach are unsurpassed by any state in the Union. Boar's Head, which overlooks the Atlantic at Hampton, and Rye Beach have a national reputa- tion. Large and commodious hotels have been built in the vi- cinity of both, and numerous visitors from the cold north and the sunny south throng them and all the farm-houses for miles around them, for the purpose of sea bathing and beach drives, during the summer months. The mountains and the ocean fur- nish centres of undying interest to those who visit the Granite State, and yield a liberal revenue to those who live beneath the shadows of the "everlasting hills " or upon the borders of "the great and wide sea."
The Magalloway river is the outlet of a small lake of the same name in northern New Hampshire, near Crown Monu- ment, which marks the point where Maine and New Hampshire meet the Dominion of Canada. The lake has an area of about three hundred acres. It is situated more than two thousand feet above the ocean, amid dense forests and under the shadow of high hills, and exhibits in its solitude the gloom and grandeur of primeval nature. The river, soon after its rise, enters the
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state of Maine. It reenters New Hampshire in the Dartmouth College grant. It flows about one mile and then crosses the line into Maine and returns to the state in Wentworth's Loca- tion, and flows into the Androscoggin about a mile and one half from Umbagog lake. The entire length of the Magalloway and the Androscoggin in New Hampshire is eighty-six miles.
The tributaries of the Androscoggin in New Hampshire are Swift Diamond river, entering from the College grant, Clear Stream at Errol, Moose river at Gorham, Peabody river at Gor- ham and Chickwalnipy river from the east side at Milan.
The streams which drain the eastern slope of the White Mountain range and those whose waters flow through the Notch from the west side find their way to the Atlantic through two of the largest rivers of Maine. The Saco rises a few miles above the Notch, and, by a winding course of thirty-four miles, leaves the state at East Conway. Along its banks are found some of the most marvelous of nature's works. Travelers tell us that no land presents more attractive scenery. The eye of the be- holder is never satisfied with seeing.
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CHAPTER LXXXVII.
CLIMATE AND SCENERY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
New Hampshire lies between the Province of Quebec on the north and the state of Massachusetts on the south. On the east lies the state of Maine ; on the southeast it is bounded by the Atlantic ocean and the county of Essex ; on the west and northwest by Vermont and partially by the Province of Quebec. Its shape is that of a scalene triangle, almost a right-angled triangle. The western boundary measures one hundred and ninety miles ; the eastern one hundred and eighty. The greatest width of the state, from Chesterfield to the eastern point of Rye,
is ninety-three miles. It lies between 70°37' and 72°37' of lon- gitude, west from Greenwich ; and between 42°40' and 45°18' 23" of north latitude. Its area, according to the measurement of Prof. Hitchcock, is nine thousand, three hundred and thirty- six square miles. A considerable portion of the state is so rough and mountainous as to be unfit for profitable tillage. Those regions are very sparsely populated.
The annual amount of rain and melted snow varies from
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thirty-five to forty-six inches. The largest fall of rain is in the central portions of the state; the smallest on the sea-board. The temperature varies in different localities, from 100° of Fah- renheit in summer, above zero, to 50° below in winter. Notwith- standing these extremes of heat and cold, New Hampshire is justly considered a healthy section of the country. Statistics show that its climate is eminently favorable to longevity. Dur- ing one century, from 1732 to 1832, more than one hundred per- sons lived to be more than one hundred years of age.
The lakes of New Hampshire constitute one of the most at- tractive features of the scenery. These are fed from the "streams which run among the hills." During the periods of "the early and latter rains" they are swollen to mountain torrents, which often bring ruin and desolation to the meadows upon their banks ; but they discharge their surplus waters into these peaceful lakes which become so many "basins of reserved power " for the pro- pelling of machinery.
Among the largest of these beautiful sheets of water we may mention :
I. The Ossipee Lake. It is renowned as the headquarters of the Indians in 1720. It is situated in Ossipee and Effingham and has an area of seven hundred acres. It contains no islands and its clear blue waters form a perfect mirror for the attractive scenery upon its borders.
2. Squam Lake, occupying a part of Holderness, Sandwich, Moultonborough and Centre Harbor, is about six miles in length and three in breadth, covering about seven thousand acres. It is described as " a splendid sheet of water, indented by points, arched with coves and studded with a succession of romantic islands."
3. Sunapee Lake is situated upon the borders of New Lon- don, Newbury and Sunapee. It is about nine miles in length, and varies from half a mile to one and a half miles in width. This lake occupies a very elevated position, being eight hundred and twenty feet above the sea. Its extreme elevation prevented, in 1816, the use of its waters for a canal uniting the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers.
4. The most celebrated of all our lakes is the Winnipiseo- gee, now frequently spelled Winnipesaukee. The orthography of this word has at least forty variations. This lake charms all travelers. It has no peer ; not even Lake George surpasses it. Its scenery is wild and romantic ; its waters are pure and deep ; its fertile islands equal in number the days of the year ; its fish, various and numerous, furnish rich repasts at the tables of the commodious hotels upon its borders ; and the steamers and boats that ply upon its bosom give to the lovers of pleasure ample
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opportunity for sailing, rowing and steaming. It lies in the counties of Belknap and Carroll, and is surrounded by the pleas- ant towns of Moultonborough, Tuftonborough, Wolfeborough, Centre Harbor, Meredith, Gilford and Alton. It is about twenty- five miles in length and varies in width from one to ten miles. It is four hundred and seventy-two feet above the sea.
The transition from scenery to climate is easy and natural. Climate affects all human relations, whether of body, mind or estate. It determines the rank of nations in the scale of civili- zation. It regulates the standard of physical strength, intellect- ual power and moral worth. There is not a nerve, tissue or fibre of the human frame that is not modified by cold and heat. The body is the fit tabernacle of the indwelling spirit ; and to a great . extent determines for time and eternity the character of its tenant. Extremes both of heat and cold are unfavorable to the highest development of the human race. Hence the best speci- mens of our race have always been found in the temperate zones. Here the necessity of procuring food, clothing and shelter has stimulated the physical and intellectual powers to their highest activity and proved to be, literally, the mother of inventions. The climate of New Hampshire is rigorous and severe.
"Rough, cold and bleak, our little state Is hard of soil, of limits strait ; Her yellow sands are sands alone, Her only mines are ice and stone. From autumn frost to April rain Too long her winter woods complain ; From budding flower to falling leaf Her summer time is all too brief."
For more than one half of the year we are compelled to war with the elements and contend, day and night, with wind and storm, frost and snow. During the other half of the year, we are employed in making provision against this elemental strife. It is well for us that it is so. The people of the Granite State owe their health, vigor and longevity to their ungenial climate and rugged soil. Both have compelled them to labor to subdue nature and repel the cold. Labor is the weapon of honor. It is the ordination of Heaven, and no people becomes great, good or wise without it. Liberty lives where the snow falls. Man is enfranchised only in the temperate zones. Between the tropics, where nature supplies men's wants spontaneously, great men and great nations have been few. Where the chief wants of our nature, food, clothing and shelter, are scarcely needed beyond what the earth itself liberally supplies, there is no stimulus to industry. Artificial wants have no existence. Men are rendered effeminate, indolent and sensuous by the climate. Despotism is the normal state of the government, slavery that of the governed. In such a climate, men cannot be educated to freedom. They
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have neither the energy nor the industry necessary to achieve and defend their liberty. The tropical man, therefore, in his native home, is not destined to be the teacher, law-giver, gover- nor or even the equal of the pale-faces of snowy climes. The warm regions have their inconveniences ; the cold have their compensations. When we consider our long winters, our drift- ing snows, our early frosts and our stubborn soil, we are apt to complain of New Hampshire as a place of residence and repeat the stale proverb about its being "a good state to emigrate from." It is a good state in which to have a home and to be- come virtuous and happy. Its scenery is unsurpassed by any country on the globe. Men visit foreign lands to be excited, elevated and enraptured with the grand, gloomy and majestic aspects of nature. They throng the retired vales of Switzerland, and gaze, reverently, upon the glittering pinnacles of the Alps ; and for once in their lives worship that God of whom Moses said, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or even thou hadst formed the earth and world, even from everlasting to ever- lasting, thou art God." Even Byron, the poet of passion, the profane scoffer, felt the emotions of reverence beneath the frowning battlements of Mont Blanc; and, in poetic rapture, exclaimed :
" Above me are the Alps,
The palaces of nature, whose vast walls Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps And throned Eternity in icy halls Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls The avalanche-the thunderbolt of snow ! All that expands the spirit yet appals Gathers round these summits, as to show How earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below."
Coleridge, in that magnificent poem entitled "Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni," has this apostrophe to the same mountain :
"Oh, dread and silent mount! I gazed upon thee Till thou still present to the bodily sense Didst vanish from my thought : entranced in prayer I worshiped the Invisible alone."
New Hampshire is called the Switzerland of America, and is · admitted by travelers to present scenes of attractive beauty and awful sublimity which compare favorably with any of which Eu- rope can boast. Fashions in travel change as often as those of dress. Men are ever wandering in search of pleasure which is never found in perfection except at home. Multitudes who live in sight of Mount Washington never visit it. Multitudes who breathe the stifled air of cities delight to climb its rugged sides, pierce the clouds that encircle them, and enjoy the sunshine that lingers and plays upon its summit. The time is not very remote when the tide of European travel, like the " course of empire," westward shall take its way, and the valleys and pinnacles of
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our own familiar mountains will echo with strange tongues and become populous with visitors from the old world. Why not? The railroad, even now, can lift the traveler to the top of Mount Washington, and the great valleys that lead to the moun- tains present unparalleled attractions to the lovers of the pic- turesque and the most sublime of geological records to the sci- entific explorer. Why, then, may we not expect the lovers of pleasure and the explorers of nature from populous Europe to throng our thoroughfares which lead up to the Notch, the Flume, the Franconia valley and the Old Man of the Mountain, around whose venerable head great white clouds
"Are wandering, in thick flocks, among the mountains, Shepherded by the slow, unwilling wind" ?
Nay, more, why may we not expect, when the real seclusion is broken from the oriental world, to see among us the cautious Japanese, the philosophic Brahmin, the contemplative Chinaman and the imaginative Persian, traveling for pleasure or profit under the shadows of our granite hills or on the banks of our silver streams ? This may all be "in the prime of summer time " in some coming year, when
" Spring's warm look has unfettered the fountains."
There are four great avenues to the two highest ranges of New Hampshire mountains. These are through the valleys of great rivers, the Saco, the Merrimack, the Androscoggin and the Connecticut. Two of these are all our own. The tributaries of the Merrimack and the Connecticut are chiefly within our state.
Man is enfranchised only in the temperate zones. All cli- mates have their inconveniences and compensations. Rich soils and sunny climes produce gross bodies and sluggish brains. Nature is lovely, and
" All but the spirit of man is divine."
Necessity is the mother of inventions and of inventors too.
" Souls are ripened in our northern skies."
Mr. Reavis, in his pamphlet upon St. Louis, says :
" It is a noteworthy observation of Dr. Draper, in his work on the Civil War in America, that, within a zone a few degrees wide, having for its axis the January isothermal line of forty-one degrees, all great men in Europe and Asia have appeared. He might have added, with equal truth, that within the same zone have existed all those great cities which have exerted a powerful influence upon the world's history, as centres of civilization and intellectual progress. The same inexorable law of climate, which makes greatness in the individual unattainable in a temperature hotter or colder than a certain golden mean, affects in like manner, with even more certainty, the development of those concentrations of intellect of man which we find in great cities. If the temperature is too cold, the sluggish torpor of the intellectual and physical nature precludes the highest development; if the
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temperature is too hot, the fiery fickleness of nature, which warm climates produce in the individual, is typical of the swift and tropical growth, and sudden and severe decay and decline, of cities exposed to the same all power- ful influence. Beyond that zone of moderate temperature, the human life re- sembles more closely that of the animal, as it is forced to combat with ex- tremes of cold, or to submit to extremes of heat; but within that zone the: highest intellectual activity and culture are displayed."
New Hampshire, lying and being within those charmed circles that begirt the globe and enclose its nobles, has furnished abun- dant proof of the theory above quoted ; and what was said of Zion anciently may be applied to her, with all reverence: "This and that man was born in her, and the Highest shall establish her." Let us thank God and take courage, that we have so few temptations and so many inducements to virtue. Truly, " the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places."
"Why turn we to our mountain homes With more than filial feeling ? 'Tis here that Freedom's altars burn And Freedom's sons are kneeling."
Our little state has been a fountain from which there has been a ceaseless flow of able men who have largely influenced the destinies and developed the resources of other states. Fifty years ago New Hampshire was so rich in intellect that she could have furnished, from her citizens, a president, vice-president, cabinet and supreme court, equal in fitness to any holding those high positions since the formation of the government. In this connection we may cite the names of Langdon, Sullivan, Stark, Thornton, McClary, the Websters, Woodburys, Pierces, Bart- letts, Smith, Richardson, the Livermores, Gilchrist, the Ather- tons, Cass, Fessenden, the Bells of both Hillsborough and Grafton counties, Plumer, Whipple, Lord, Cilley, Miller, McNeil, Mason, Hill, the Dinsmoors, the Uphams, Hubbard, Chase, Parker, Clifford, Perley, Fletcher, Greeley, Dix, Grimes, Hale, Healey, Wilson, John Wentworth and others, as some of the representative men of the state.
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CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
THE ISLES OF SHOALS.
The Isles of Shoals as a part of New Hampshire deserve something more than a passing notice. Their discovery ante- dates that of the Piscataqua. "These islands bore some of the first footprints of New England Christianity and civilization. They were, for a long time, the abode of intelligence, refinement and virtue, but were afterwards abandoned to a state of semi- barbarism." In 1614 John Smith took note of their existence, and in 1623 Christopher Leavitt landed on one of them. In 1645 three brothers, Robert, John and Richard Cutts, emigrated from Wales, and on their passage landed at the Isles of Shoals, and being pleased with their attractions commenced a settlement there. Other persons from England and Wales soon joined them and formed a prosperous colony. In 1650 Rev. John Brock became their minister. He is mentioned by Cotton Mather as one of the excellent of the earth in knowledge and devotion. From that date to the present time the place has been filled with men "good, bad and indifferent," till christianity has nearly lapsed into heathenism. In 1661, the islands having be- come quite famous as places of resort, were incorporated into a township called Appledore. "Hog Island then contained about forty families," who afterwards, through fear of the Indians, passed over to Star Island. William Pepperell, the father of Sir William Pepperell, so distinguished in the annals of Maine, lived and traded there for twenty years. From this period to the time of the Revolution the population of the Shoals varied from three to six hundred, and the settlement grew and prospered. They had all the symbols of a well regulated Christian commu- nity, the church, school-house, court-house and a fort. Their chief occupation was fishing. At the commencement of the war with England they, from their exposed condition, were entirely at the mercy of the enemy, hence the best portion of the popu- lation migrated to the neighboring seaports. Capt. White, who was murdered by Crowninshield in 1830, was one of those exiles from his rocky home in the ocean. The people who remained were ignorant, degraded and worthless. "They burned the meeting-house and gave themselves up to quarreling, profanity and drunkenness till they became almost barbarians." Since
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that time the little education and religion found in the settle- ment have been imparted by visitors and missionaries under the greatest disadvantages. Mrs. Celia Thaxter, in her work entitled " Among the Isles of Shoals," has given us the best description of these "low, piratical reefs " which has ever been written. It has the fidelity of true history with the marvels of the wildest romance. Nine miles from Portsmouth, twenty-one from Cape Ann in Massachusetts, and sixteen from Cape Neddick in Maine, these perilous ledges, like huge sea monsters, lift their backs above the water. There are six in number if the tide is ow, but if it is high there are eight, and would be nine but that a break-water connects two of them. Appledore, for many years called " Hog Island," from its resemblance to a hog's back rising from the surface of the ocean, is the largest and most regular in shape. It has an area of four hundred acres, divided by a valley, in which the hotel is situated, into two nearly equal parts. The following entry occurs in the records of Massachu- setts, dated May 22, 1661 :
"For the better settling of order in the Isle of Shoales, it is ordered by this Court, that henceforward the whole islands appertaining thereunto, which doe lie partly in the County of York and the other part in the juris- diction of Dover and Portsmouth, shall be reputed and hereby allowed to be a township called Appledore, and shall have equal power to regulate their town affairs as other townes of this jurisdiction have."
Next, almost within a stone's throw, is Haley's Island, named Smutty-Nose by the sailors. At low tide, Cedar and Malaga are both connected with it, the latter by a break-water. Here storm and darkness have wrecked many a ship. The area of these three islands comprises about one hundred acres. Star Island contains one hundred and fifty acres. Toward its northern ex- tremity lies the famous town of Gosport, famous in early times for its culture and commerce, now famous as a resort for sum- mer visitors.
" Not quite a mile," says Mrs. Thaxter, " southwest from Star, White Island lifts a light-house for a warning. This is the most picturesque of the group, and forms, with Seavey's Island, at low water, a double island with an area of some twenty acres. Most westerly lies Londoner's, an irregular rock with a bit of beach, upon which all the shells about the cluster seem to be thrown. Two miles northeast from Appledore, Duck Island thrusts out its lurking ledges on all sides beneath the water, one of them running half a mile to the northwest. This is the most dangerous of all the islands." It is the home of those timid sea-fowl that shun the haunts of men. "Shag and Mingo rocks, where during or after storms the sea breaks with magnificent effect, lie isolated by a narrow channel from the main granite
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fragment. A very round rock west of Londoner's, perversely called 'Square,' and Anderson's Rock off the southeast end of Smutty-Nose complete the catalogue." Appledore, Smutty-Nose and Duck islands belong to Maine, the rest to New Hampshire. Till within a few years the inhabitants have been left very much to themselves, and have been as little disturbed by state officials as the gulls and loons that share their dreary homes. The fol- lowing sketch of Hon. Thomas B. Laighton is taken from the Newark Journal :
"In the year 1839, the Hon. Thomas B. Laighton, formerly editor of the New Hampshire Gazette, at Portsmouth, and a politician and literary man of some note, was keeping the White Island Light-House at this watering place, where he engaged to some extent in the business of fishing. One day the thought struck him that this might be made a delightful summer re- sort for a large class of people, who, while they wanted the invigorating sea breezes, did not care either to take them diluted or modified by the land tem- perature and influences, or to undergo a long and tedious voyage for this purpose. Mr. Laighton, himself an invalid, had experienced great relief from his sea residence, and at once reasoned himself into the belief that the Isles of Shoals was the best place on the coast for a successful summer boarding-house, and acting upon this idea he suceeeded in purchasing for the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars the islands known by the not poetic titles of 'Hog' and 'Smutty.' The first he named 'Appledore,' which is simply a pile of granite rocks, thrown up in some obscure age of the world, without form or comeliness. Here Mr. Laighton built a moderately sized house, nine miles out from the New Hampshire coast, and waited his chances. There was no doubt of his being 'at sea,' near one of the rough- est, bleakest and most exposed coast lines upon the continent; but a man who for several years had tended White Island Light could not be fright- ened or moved from his property by any exhibitions or freaks of old ocean. One thing was certain : these islands were anchored fast to the unseen cen- tre of the globe, wherever that might be, or else they must have disappeared thousands of years gone by. But who could tell their story or sing their dole- ful or terrible requiem? What by-gone races of human beings had landed upon these outposts in the dim past ? What vessels had been stranded and wrecked upon these treacherous shoals, dashing in a moment high-wrought hopes, glorious visions, ambitious views? But no matter. Tom Laighton, when he left Portsmouth and its mixed politics, was said to be not a little disgusted with the world, and his vision teemed with ideas of an independ- ent government of his own, over which he might exercise supreme sway. To be sure, Hog Island was under the nominal territorial jurisdiction of Maine, but that state had never taken great pride in its dependency. Curiously enough, the state of New Hampshire owned an adjoining island which is called Star, which has been a little fishing settlement during the entire his- tory of our colonial and federal governments. It is a village of twenty or thirty old houses, with a church as the central building. The town has an old incorporation by the name of Gosport, and it yearly sends a representa- tive to the legislature, whenever a man is to be found who can afford to spend the time and the money. Star island is now chiefly owned by a cor- poration whose business it is to entertain strangers. The success of the Appledore House as a resort for invalids cannot fail to lead to the profitable occupation, at an early day, of all the habitable islands of this group. The business of the Appledore House is increasing rapidly. The house is capa- ble of accommodating about three hundred boarders, and this year they have
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