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 43
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Dr. Jackson mentions in his report the following metals and minerals found within the limits of the state : "Talc, limestone, talc and soapstone, iron, lead, zinc, tin, copper, pyrites, silver, gold, titanium, titanic iron, plumbago, beryl, mica, manganese, arsenic and molybdena."
The report of Professor Hitchcock contains the following re- marks upon the Relations of Geology to Agriculture : "The mat- ter of all soils capable of sustaining vegetation exists in two forms, inorganic and organic. The first contains twelve chem- ical elements, viz., oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, silicon, and the metals-potassium, sodium, calcium, aluminum, magne- sium, iron and manganese. In the organic part the elements are four, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen. The inorganic elements are derived from the rocks ; the organic elements from decaying animal and vegetable matter, so that it is of the earthy constituents we must speak. They do not indeed occur in their
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simple state, but as water, sulphates, phosphates, carbonic acid, silicates of potassa, soda, lime, magnesia, alumnia, iron, etc. The average amount of silicates or sand in soil is eighty in one hundred parts. Since the rocks differ considerably in composi- tion, we should expect a corresponding difference in the soils derived from them. Such is the fact to a great extent, where the soil is simply the result of the disintegration of the rock beneath it. It is sufficiently so in many districts to form char- acteristic soils. Thus, over quartz rocks and some sandstones, we find a very sandy and barren soil, though it is said that in nearly all soils enough silicates of lime and magnesia are pres- ent to answer the purposes of vegetation ; but the alkalies and phosphates may be absent. When the rock is limestone, the soil is sometimes quite barren for the want of other ingredients, and also in consequence of the difficulty of decomposition. Clay, also, may form a soil too tenacious and cold. The sand- stones that contain marly beds, and some of the tertiary rocks of analogous character, form excellent soils. So does clay slate and especially calciferous mica schist. The amount of potash and soda in gneiss and granite often makes a rich soil from these rocks, and the trap rocks form a fertile though scanty soil.
* *
* There are beds of limestone for agricultural purposes in Plainfield, Lyme, Orford, Haverhill, Lisbon, Lyman, Little- ton and elsewhere. The slaty soils of the Connecticut valley are superior to those along the coast. * * * * *
The greater portion of the state is underlaid by gneiss. This is practically the same as granite ; so that the words granite and gneiss convey the same meaning so far as mineral composition is concerned. The gneiss is apt to produce better soils than the granite. The soluble element present is usually potash, from ten to twelve per cent. This is certainly a very valuable sub- stance to be added to the soil, and nature is crumbling down the granites continually. This is done by the action of the atmos- phere." The sun, air and rain are constantly wearing away "the everlasting hills" and filling up the plains and valleys with the debris.
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CHAPTER CX.
THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
An article on the distribution of plants in New Hampshire, prepared by William T. Flint, appears in Professor Hitchcock's Geology of the state. From that paper many of the following facts are gleaned. There are twenty-seven orders which consti- tute the flora of New Hampshire. The white pine has been the best known and most valued of our timbers, ever since the offi- cers of king George provoked the displeasure of the early set- tlers, by carving their "broad arrows" on the tallest mast trees' in valleys of the rivers. These trees in some localities grew to an immense height. In the biography of the elder Wheelock, trees were said to be found on the Dartmouth plain two hundred feet high ; in one instance, by actual measurement, a tree was found two hundred and seventy feet long. The pitch and red pines are more limited in their range. The pitch pine is found on the sandy plains and drift knolls of the river valleys. It is most abundant in the southeastern and central portions of the state. In the White Mountain regions the balsam fir and black spruce grow together in about equal quantities. The hemlock is found in almost every section of the state. The first growth
equaled the white pines in diameter and height. Most of these evergreens have been felled and sawed into boards during the last forty years. The arbor vitæ grows in the swamps in the northern part of the state. The hackmatacks, spruces and firs form the most attractive features of our mountain scenery in the winter. Every variety of the maple is found in nearly all towns in the state. The beech and sugar maple make up the larger part of the "hard wood " forests ; and in later years these have fallen by the woodman's axe, to feed our engines and stoves. So great has been the destruction of our forest trees, that Penn- sylvania coal is carried as far north as Hanover, for fuel. Birch, of which there are four species, and the poplar are scattered broadcast over the state. These trees, formerly considered quite worthless, have now become exceedingly valuable for manufac- turing purposes. The entire family of ashes and oaks, of which there are six species, are extensively used in the making of furr niture and the finishing of houses. The same is true of the butternut and chestnut. These native woods are by many pre- ferred to the imported. The elm is a majestic tree for shade
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and beauty. It is also used at the present day for timber, es- pecially in the manufacture of carts and carriages. Shrubby plants have greatly multiplied since the forests have been cut down. They spring up spontaneously about every walk and hedge, and in the uncultivated pastures. Many of them yield a large revenue in berries to the busy hands that pick them. Mr. Flint enumerates, in his catalogue of plants in New Hampshire, more than twelve hundred varieties.
Of the common animals which constitute the fauna of our state, it is not necessary here to write. Their names are too familiar to need repetition. The fox, wild-cat, bear and wolf have become quite rare and are usually confined to the moun- tainous regions. The beaver, deer, moose, otter and martin have, with few exceptions, disappeared. After the learned Buf- fon wrote his natural history, Mr. Jefferson made some criticisms upon the work and pointed out some errors in it, in his "Notes on Virginia." When these gentlemen met in Paris, Buffon gave to Jefferson a copy of his work, saying: "When Mr. Jefferson shall have read this, he will be perfectly satisfied that I am right." Mr. Jefferson was determined to prove to him that the American deer was not the red deer of Europe; nor the moose the reindeer of Lapland. He therefore procured the horns of a Virginia deer and the skeleton and stuffed skin of a New Hampshire moose. He wrote to General Sullivan to procure the latter. He was obliged to raise a company of twenty men to capture a moose near the White Mountains. The expense of the foray, the bill of the taxidermist and the freight to Paris were forty guineas, which Mr. Jefferson cheerfully paid to gain a scientific victory over the learned Frenchman.
CHAPTER CXI.
UNDECIDED QUESTIONS IN NEW ENGLAND HISTORY.
" Here," said a student to Casaubon, as they entered the old hall of the Sorbonne, "is a building in which men have disputed for more than four hundred years." "And," asked Casaubon, "what has been settled?" There is a sad meaning in the ques- tion of the aged professor. There are many important questions in American history, relating both to facts and opinions, which are constantly debated but never decided. Some of these con-
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cern the reputation of the early settlers of New Hampshire. In studying the records of our state, a question meets us at the very opening of our investigations: Were our fathers justifiable in their treatment of the Indians? Most censors and critics of the past unhesitatingly answer, "No!" Moralists and historians frequently give the same reply. It is proper to remark, in the first place, that we must judge of men of former ages by the light they enjoyed, and the circumstances in which they were placed. They differ from us in several particulars. They were strangers and pilgrims among savages, and in a wilderness. They were in the minority ; consequently their perils and their fears were greater. They had never been taught the equality of all races, nor the necessity of treating all men as equals. They believed that men should be estimated according to their moral worth and intellectual power. The Indians, whom modern phil- anthropists think they ought to have treated with greater kind- ness, were suspicious, treacherous, revengeful, and implacable. They sought occasions of assault ; they had no responsible gov- ernments which could enforce obedience to treaties. Their chiefs ruled by their personal influence and bravery. The tribes were numerous, and the promises of one chief had no influence over others. The subjects of these sagamores were ignorant, and could not appreciate arguments ; they were passionate, and would not wait for a legal investigation of wrongs ; they were revenge- ful, and set no limit to the degree of penalty inflicted, or the number involved in it. The crime of a single white man was avenged upon the race wherever found. The Indians had no social qualities ; they were filthy in person, repulsive in habits, unprincipled in morals, and, in a word, very disagreeable neigh- bors. They made war, like beasts of prey, by stealth, in the night and from places of concealment. They avoided the open field and the light of day. They lay in ambush, near your path or about your dwelling, till they could murder you alone and un- armed. Under the garb of friendship, their spies entered your house ; and, while enjoying your hospitality, opened at mid- night your doors to their associates. So they destroyed men, families, hamlets and towns. When the house of the aged Waldron of Dover was thus entered, and those grim savages hacked that venerable man in pieces with their hatchets, that single councilor was worth more to the world than all the sav- ages then roaming the wilds of New Hampshire. When his eagle eye was quenched in death, more virtue, intelligence and magnanimity passed from earth than all the surviving savages of the continent possessed. After the lapse of more than two centuries, with an entire change of the relative condition of the Whites and Indians, we do not to-day treat the natives of the
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country so kindly as did the early settlers of New Hampshire. Still, the sins of " the living present " are passed over in silence by the indignant philanthropist, while the faults of "the buried past " are greatly exaggerated. It is safe to war upon the dead. They offer no resistance. Juvenal chose, for satire, those whose ashes reposed in the Flaminian way ; so the cowardly Falstaff fleshed his sword in the body of the dead Percy.
There are other charges which still more deeply affect the reputation of our ancestors in New Hampshire. They shared in the intolerance and superstitions of the age. They joined in persecuting Quakers and in prosecuting witches. Many authors condemn them, for both these facts, unheard and undefended ; others attempt to vindicate their conduct in both cases. The present brief narrative allows of no detailed account of that sad portion of our history, nor of any elaborate vindication of the actors in it. A brief quotation from a lecture of one of the ablest jurists who ever sat on the bench of the supreme court of New Hampshire may suffice. With regard to the banishment of Quakers and other sects hostile to the government of the colony he says : "The right of the colonial government to ex- clude persons actually settled in the colony existed from the power to make laws, constitute courts and magistrates, and punish offences. Banishment was a recognized mode of pun- ishment, and this was their common penalty for grave of- fences against their religious policy. It was peculiarly adapted to a commonwealth which was to be governed on religious prin- ciples, and to suppress the promulgation of religious doctrines inimical to its welfare. The Puritans desired to remove the dis- turbers of their peace; and many, if not most of these, were .religious controversialists." Every question, in those days, took a religious turn ; hence the policy of the age was religious, and the religion of the people was political. Danger to the state might grow out of fanaticism as well as from treason ; and the safety of the state required the suppression of both these ele- ments of ruin. Dr. Palfrey, the learned and candid historian of the Puritans, writes : "No householder has a more unqualified title to declare who shall have the shelter of his roof, than had the governor and company of Massachusetts Bay to decide who should be sojourners or visitors within their precincts. Their danger was real, though the experiment proved it to be far less than was at first supposed. The provocations which were offered were exceedingly offensive. It is hard to say what should have been done with disturbers so unmanageable." Our fathers were, undoubtedly, chargeable with intolerance. Are we better than they ? Is not our toleration of all sects, in religion, rather the result of indifference than charity? In politics, we are not a
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whit behind the most bigoted of our ancestors in disarming op- ponents ; it is true we do not peril their liberty or lives, but we destroy their reputation, which, to many, is still dearer. The persecution of witches was the delusion of the age. All classes shared in the folly and the crime. "In England, the law against witchcraft was enforced with as little doubt of its existence and of its being a proper object of criminal cognizance, as prevailed in Massachusetts ; and the executions there were much more numerous." The wisdom of our day does not punish, but pro- motes, " spiritual manifestations " quite as puerile and absurd as those that were once suppressed by law.
The people of New Hampshire and Maine have a personal interest in the character of the early proprietors and settlers of these states. The question is still debated, whether Mason and Gorges, the early owners of Maine and New Hampshire, ought to be classed among mercenary adventurers or the founders of States. Captain John Mason received such title to the territory of the Granite State as kings and corporations could bestow. He planted colonies upon the soil and gave name to the state. He persevered where most men would have failed ; he hoped where others would have despaired ; he made magnificent plans for himself, but they came to nought. He expended a large es- tate upon his plantations in the wilderness, and received no re- turns. When he died he bequeathed to his heirs nothing but a legacy of quarrels and lawsuits which lasted for nearly a cen- tury. His whole life may be illustrated by the troubled sleep of the hungry man, who "dreameth, and behold he eateth ; but he waketh and his soul is empty." He was a martyr to "a great idea."
In the distribution of New England territory by the English. king, Maine fell to the share of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who received, with the title to the soil, unlimited authority to found a state or kingdom, as his ambition might dictate. Now it cer- tainly concerns the people of Maine to know the character of their proprietor, and the settlers he introduced. Bancroft says of him : "The nature of Gorges was generous, and his piety sin- cere. He sought pleasure in doing good; fame, by advancing christianity among the heathen ; a durable monument, by erect- ing houses, villages and towns." There is, at this moment, a warm discussion maintained by the Maine Historical Society and some literary gentlemen out of the state, respecting this man and the first colony he planted. The friends of Gorges adopt the views of Bancroft and defend him and his followers. His op- ponents affirm that he was a mere adventurer, a follower of
" Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell From Heaven ; "
and that the company which he hired to make the first settle-
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ment in Maine, at Popham, in 1607, were convicts and felons ; and that this colony was a precursor of Botany Bay. Mr. Wil- liam Willis, in a work entitled, "Voyages to the East Coast of America in the XVI. Century," says : "Another serious cause of failure should not be omitted ; and that was the employment, in the various expeditions, of vagabonds and convicted felons, of whom the English nation was but too glad to be rid, in voyages of unusual danger." While Mr. Willis admits that criminals were employed as sailors, he denies that Popham was settled by such men ; because Gorges designed to found a state, not a colony of convicts, and he knew his own interests too well to choose idle vagabonds for the founders of a new colony. A writer in the Historical Magazine for May, 1869, says in reply : "Popham's sole idea was to get riches by convict labor ; and Gorges' plan was to rid England of dangerous riffraff." He quotes Lloyd, a biographer of Popham, who says of the chief justice : "Not only did he punish malefactors but provide for them. He first [in 1707, at Sagadahoc] set up the discovery of New England to maintain and employ those who could not live honestly ; who would rather hang than work." Lord Bacon, also, called them " the scum of people, wicked and condemned men." Fuller speaks of men who "leapt thither from the gal- lows," "spit out of the mouth of England." In fact, the same charges have, at times, been made of every colony on this con- tinent. Perhaps it is well to heed the advice of Juvenal to the Romans, in tracing genealogies :
" Go trace thy boasted way through ages past, Bethink thec where thou needs must land at last ; A base renown thy very nation draws From banded culprits that defied the laws, And he from whom those floods of glory roll, Or tended sheep, or-canst thou bear it ?- stole!"
But the Popham colony came to nought. All the magnificent schemes of Gorges failed. He was the victim of "great expec- tations." At the hour of his decease, after forty years of labor and the expenditure of more than twenty thousand pounds, he grasped " a barren sceptre,"
" No son of his succeeding."
Success, with most men, is proof of virtue ; but failure is dem- onstration, "strong as proofs of Holy Writ," of corruption. Had Mason and Gorges succeeded in their plans, the hundred voices of fame would have blazoned their deeds down
"To the last syllable of recorded time."
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CHAPTER CXII.
PROPER NAMES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Coleridge remarks "that the history of a word is often worth more than the history of a campaign." This is specially true of proper names. England, alone, has about thirty thousand surnames. They originated about the time of the conquest, A. D., 1066. Originally, men had but one name. When heathen nations became Christians, they received new names, usually of Hebrew origin. Of course many families had the same name, and they could be distinguished only by sobriquets or nick- names. When these new converts became citizens, owned land and held offices, it became necessary to distinguish them by such appellations as would be recognized in law. Hence surnames were invented. These were so called because "they were, at first, written, not in a direct line after the Christian name, but above it, between the lines," and, hence they were called in Latin supra nomina; in Italian, supra nome; in French, surnoms -over-names. The "sur" is the French preposition, meaning "over," not the English sir, which is formed from the Latin " senior," which in the Romance tongues became senhor, seign- eur and sieur, and in English, passed into sire and sir. The Latin word for mistress, "domina," with the prefix "mea," my, has undergone a more remarkable transformation ; mea domina has passed into "madame," "madam," "marm," "mum," and "m" as in the response of the maid-of-all-work, "yes 'm," which means, etymologically, "yes, my lady." The names of places of Saxon origin are often compounded of two or more roots. An old proverb says :
"In ford, in ham, in ley and ton The most of English surnames run."
As the names of men and of their residences are often identical, this distich applies to local as well as surnames. Mr. Lower adds to these familiar terminations, the following :
"Ing, Hurst and Wood, Wick, Sted and Field, Full many English surnames yield ; With Thorpe and Bourne, Cote, Caster, Oke, Combe, Bury, Don and Stowe and Stoke, With Ey and Port, Shaw, Worth and Wade Hill, Gate, Well, Stone, are many made. Cliff, Marsh, and Mouth and Down and Sand, And Beck and Sea with numbers stand."
Ford, from the Saxon faran, English fare, to go or pass,
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means a place where a stream is so shallow as to be passable. Ham is the Saxon for home. Ley, lea, leigh, or legh, is a pasture or field. Ey, ig or ea, either denotes an island or a place near to the water. Ton, tune or town, denotes an en- closure. England is dotted with inclosures. The old Germans, says Tacitus, delighted in separate abodes. Ton or town origi- nally meant a twig, the first element of a hedge ; hence tun, ton or town was a place surrounded by a hedge. Hurst is a wood or grove; wick, a village, castle or fort ; stow, a perma- nent residence or mansion ; sted, a fixed abode ; combe, a val- ley ; cot, a cottage ; thorpe, a village ; worth, a farm or estate ; burg, bury or borough, a hill or stronghold. Thorpe is of Dan- ish origin. It occurs as prefix and suffix in more than three hundred local English names. It is nearly equivalent to ham. The termination "ing" has a variety of meanings, in the Gothic dialects. Ist, It means a son or descendant ; as in the Saxon, Byrning is the son of Byrn; in the Swedish, Skiolding is the son of Skiold. 2d, It means action when affixed to a verb, as in burning, feeding, etc. 3d, It means a field or country and is found in Icelandic and German proper names, as Lotharingen, the country of Lothar. Bec and burne are Saxon words mean- ing brook or stream ; they often appear in names of places as Beckford, Beckley, Beckwith, Burnham.
The Celts or Kelts were the earliest inhabitants of Great Brit- ain ; of course, they have left many names of places and of men in the English language. An old couplet runs thus :
"By tre, ros, pol, lan, caer and pen, You know the most of Cornish men."
We may add, also, that by these monosyllables, used as pre- fixes or suffixes, you may detect many Celtic names of places. These words mean in English, a town, a heath, a pool, a church, a rock, and a head or promontory. Our local and surpames are borrowed from all the successive races that have peopled Great Britain, the Celts, Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. These names were originally significant of natural features in places or of something peculiar in form, color, figure, residence or occu- pation in men. With us, they have lost their original meanings and are, for the most part, positive misnomers, etymologically considered.
NAMES OF TOWNS.
Acworth is composed of ac or aec, an oak, and worth, land or estate, and is equivalent to oak-land.
Alton. The first element is uncertain. It is probably the Gothic root alt, old. Alton, therefore, is "old-town."
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Alexandria is the name of an ancient town built by Alexan- der, which word in the Greek means "an aider of men."
Alstead. The first root is uncertain. It may be formed from the Saxon ald, old and sted, a fixed abode or home, meaning old home ; as Alford is oldford.
Allenstown. Allen is from Alan, or Ulfwin, "wolf of victory," the name of a chief ; and town is the Saxon ton, an enclosure.
Amherst is possibly composed of ham, home, and hurst or herst, a grove, a town in the forest. Some derive the first root from Hamo, a sheriff of Kent.
Antrim, so named from a county in Ireland, whence the ances- tors of many of its inhabitants had emigrated in 1719 and in subsequent years.
Andover. An, andr, endr, in the names of towns, are sup- posed to be abbreviations of Andred or Andrew ; as An-caster, Anston. And-efer now Andover, or Andred's place near a stream.
Atkinson. Atkins is derived by Camden from At, an abbre- viation of Arthur, and kins, a child, allied to the German kind, a child, meaning the son of Arthur ; as Wilkins is the son of Will and Simkins the son of Sim. Atkinson is the son of At- kins or the grandson of Arthur, which in the Celtic means a strong man, a hero. Colonel Theodore Atkinson of Portsmouth owned a large portion of this town when it was chartered, and gave his own name to it.
Barnstead. Barn is supposed to be a compound of two Saxon words, bere, barley, and ern, a place ; Barnstead would seem to mean "Barley-place-home." Barton is barley town ; and Ber- wick is barley village.
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