USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Sanbornton > History of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, Vol. I - Annals > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
15
NATURAL, FEATURES. - TREES.
The dips are mostly to the northwest through the northwest part of the town. The whole of the foregoing may be better understood by the following diagram from the same volume, representing the
Penigewasset River.
MONTALBAN.
ROCKINGHAM SanborntonMt. Ridge. MICA SCHIST.
BLAKE GNEISS.
LAKE GNEISS.
ROCKINGHAM MICA SCHIST.
MONTAL BAN. Tilton Wini. cogee River.
LAKE GNEISS
section from Bristol through Sanbornton to Northfield, and thus described on page 578 : -
" It starts near the Pemigewasset River, in Bristol, exhibits the antielinal in that valley in the Montalban series, then a syuelinal hill, and mostly north- west inclinations over the Sauboruton Mountain ridge, and two ridges ot gneiss, the last in the valley of the outlet of Cawley Pond. After this follow the mica schists with the same dip on the 'Square' ridge, and the various gucisses of Tilton aud Northfield."
What Dr. Jackson from his earlier survey of New Hampshire con- cluded in regard to Franklin is doubtless true of Sanbornton, .. It contains but few and unimportant minerals." Ile says, page 133, "Geological Report," - and this is his only allusion to Dr. Jackson's Sanbornton, - .. Sanbornton Bridge village, three and one Report of San- bornton, 1842. half ( ?) miles from Shaker Village, was visited, and the rocks were searched for limestone, which had been supposed to exist there ; but it proved to be feldspar of a coarse granite vein, which traverses the gneiss. No limestone occurs at this place. Speci- mens of decomposed feldspar containing garnets were also shown me, under the impression that they were gypsum. But gypsum," he wisely adds, " belongs exclusively to a Secondary formation, and of course none will ever be found in the Primary districts of New Hampshire," to which, therefore, according to Dr. Jackson, Sauboruton Bridge belongs. From other sources we learn that black oxide of chee of pre.
.Alleged exist- manganese has been discovered near the northeast corner viotta wuelais. of the town, half a mile from the bay shore ; and it is cou- tidently affirmed that gold ore bas of late years been found in the ledges of the " gulf," which yieldled, on assay, $11 to the ton.
To speak briefly in conclusion of our trees and forests : The hard- wood or deciduous trees, and the evergreens, common to Northern New
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
England, have from the first abounded here ; the former originally ou
the ridges and hills, the latter in the valley's and plains, as
Primitivo also on the highest elevations. It is noticed, however, that pine-trees are very generally springing up all over the hill pastures of the town, which were cleared, many years ago, of their hard-wood growths. This upspringing would indicate a Pinen succeed- prehistoric seedtime. The most valuable pine forests are ing the hard wuudn. along the valley of the Pemigewasset and the plains adjoin.
ing. By far the most serviceable of the natural trees is the sugar maple, widely diffused over town, with its vernal sweetness. The chestunt is found in limited numbers in Tilton and Franklin ; scarcely at all in the more northern sections, except on the borders of the Bay.
The elm and willow are probably exotics ; at least, wherever found growing for shade or ornament in town, they are invari- Exotic trees. ably ascribed to some ancestral or later planting. The poplars were popular half a century ago, but now only a sickly specimen here and there survives, as on the Sanborn Road near J. W. Sauborn's, or at the Hunt place, east of the Hunkius neigh- borhood. Of the willows, one of the oldest and largest in town, origi- nally a walking-stick, was blown down near the .. Smith place," on the Bay Road, May 26, 1880. Too much cannot be said in praise of the elin, whether for its shade, beauty, or majesty ; they are quite generally scattered over town, singly or in small groves near many an old homestead. Among the interesting groups are or were those growing together on the old Woodman and Lovejoy places at the Square ; on the David Taylor, now Bickford place, near Elm-trees worthy of remark. the first Baptist meeting-house ; and at the Prescott, latterly the Kuox homestead, in the " New State." The
most graceful as well as one of the thickest in trunk and broadest in shade of the single elms in town is thought to be that in the old Mill l'asture (at the house site), as viewed to the right while travelling from Clark's Corner to the Square. Another, near T. W. 'Taylor's at the Square, is remarkable for sending out one of its aruis or main branches several fret at right angles from its trunk, which arm then commences its upward progress almost at another right angle ! Two of the tullest elms are thought to be standing near the old Knapp (now Leighton) place, at the Bay. Finally, the elm nuder Steele's Hill, near the Simon R. Morrison place, presents another natural curiosity, -that of a small but thrifty currant-bush growing in its fork, and producing leaves and fruit of the white variety, twelve or fifteen feet above the ground.
HEY
SIMON R. MORRISON HOUSE AND ELM.
THE Big BOWLDER. (See p. 12.)
-
..
CHAPTER III.
WILD ANIMALS IN SANBORNTON.
"Έιταΐθα ... ην καί παράδεισος μέγας αγρίων θηρίων πλήρης." In this place was also a great park full of wild animals. - XENOPHON.
Tur pertinence of this quotation is proved by another from the former annalist of Sanbornton : " In the early part of the
Numerous in
eurly times. settlement of the town, deer and wolves were plenty here "; or, according to another statement, " Wild beasts, [in 1770] were numerous and troublesome." Hence the settlers, as soon as they felt able,
" Voted, To give ten dollars bounty for a grown wolf's head, and five dollars for a wolf's whelp, for all that shall be killed in this town."
These bounties were offered by the town for several years after the
Bounties on close of the Revolutionary war, "for the purpose of
encouraging the destruction of the wolves, while the . deer wolves. keepers' were intended to prevent the destruction of that useful animal."
It is related that Thomas Eastinan (north of Steele's Hill) " had put up the frame of his barn, but had not covered it, when on one occasion in the fall, he found it necessary to continue
Corn-husking
all night. Isking corn all night, with ineessant shouting, to keep
the wolves away from his stock." We have also this published statement, 1871 (Cong. Church Centennial, page 34 ) : --
"There is a man still with ns [Capt. John B. Perkins] who has lived eighty-seven years in Sanbornton from his birth, and who well remembers how he and his brother Chase used to dread to go only a little Childhood's distance from the house to fetch the sheep home at evening, and fears recalled. how the night was made hideous by the howling of the wolves, congregated in packs near the spot where the bark mill and tan-pits afterwards Were."
This must have been as late as 1790. Yet the work of destruction. encouraged by the bounties as above, soon proved effectual, and it was not many years after that the "last wolf in town " made his
18
HISTORY OF SANHORNTON.
appearance, as claimed by the venerable Peter Burleigh, who was then just old enough to crawl in under his father's barn, and drag out the nine of their doch which had been despatched ; to say The Last wolf nothing of the secen other sheep which had just been lu www u.
killed by the same animal for Joseph Smith on the lot north of Mr. Burleigh's. The wolf' had merely sucked the blood from the neck of each, and making his escape, was tracked through the woods cast for half a mile, and was soon after caught on Hopkinsou Ilill in a trap set for foxes by Moses Emery, and by him killed. 1 bounty of thirty dollars was awarded Mr. Emery by the State for that operation.
Adventures with beurs were still more frequent among the carlier in- habitants of the town. As they were prized for their meat,
Adventures with bears. it was considered quite an object to capture them. The most heroic achievement with Bruin is that accorded to Mrs. Abijah Sanborn, on what has since been the Colby and Col. D. Sanborn place, and probably as early as 1772. One evening she heard a strange noise near their house in the absence of her husband, and going out with a little dog, found a bear and two enby prowling about their corntiekl. The animals betook themselves to a large Mra. Samboru's exploit. tree, or couple of trees, near by ; at least the old bear and one of the cubs. She immediately built fires around the trees, patiently watched the intruders till morning, and then gave the customary shout of alarm, which the settlers had agreed upon to indi- cate dauger. This soon brought Master Abraham Perkins to the scene of action with his gun. He shot the old bear and one cul ; and cutting down a tree, his dog and himself soon despatched the third. " Few of our matrons at the present day," says the annalist of '41, " can boast of a feat like this ; and fewer still of our maidens can say that they have ever treed a bear."
Mr. Winthrop Durgin, in the early settlement of the Durgin lot, above Tiu Corner, is said to have set three gun traps for
A disastrous bear trap. these animals. Ile heard one of them " go off" (which mortally wonuded or killed a bear), and theu ran to secure his game, without thinking of the other traps, over one of which he passed safely ; but in crossing the second he was himself' severely shot in the thigh, rendering amputation necessary, and a painful jour- ney to Concord for that purpose, before proceeding on his way to Epping, his former home. (See Vol. II. p. 233 [37].)
Mr. Nathaniel Burley killed a bear near what is now Jeremiah B. Calef's residence ; and the rock is still shown (though smaller than formerly), near the late Peter Burleigh's, where the carcass was hung up for dressing, proving very
Acceptable provision.
19
WILD ANIMALS IN SANBORNTON.
acceptable for meat just then. In the same neighborhood was living the notorious ". Bear" Folsom. who is supposed to have had this sobri- quet prefixed to his name, more frequently than his real
"Bar "
Foloui. name John, on account of the number of bears that he had doubtless succeeded in capturing. Among the other numerous bear catchers of Sanboruton, the names of Esquire Harper and Mr. Wadleigh have come down to us ; the former taking Lis game in a trap, east of his premises, on the old meeting-
Other remi-
Liscences. honse hill. On the Billy Smith place (mountain east of Taylor C. Prescott's), the family used to look out of their window at night and see the bears gnawing their wash-tubs.
There are two versions of the " bear-pig story " related of Mr. Buz- zell, one of the earliest residents in the northwest corner of the town, uear the present Isaac N. Lane place. One is that a bear attacked his pig, which ran for the house and in at the door ajar ;
The " bear- pig story." that Bruin had seized or was about to seize his prey, when the door was shut in his face and he beat a retreat, the pig being safe within. The other account -less happy for the pig - represents the bear as attacking the entry of the cabin in which the pig was stored, and to have seenred, or rather carried him captive, in spite of Mr. Buzzell's efforts to the contrary.
Yet more remarkable is the well-authenticated legend respecting the oxen of Mr. Hill, who lived back of the present Andrew Taylor's ( Hill l'asture), prior to 1779. The story is that at one time
Chivalrous oxen. these oxen heard the loud bellowing of a cow that was being worried by a bear on the north side of Salmon Brook (Weeks or Dustin lot), more than a mile distant, when they instinctively rushed at full speed to the scene of distress, and either drove away, or according to one account, killed the bear.
One Mr. C -- , an old hunter from Boscawen, used to come up to catch bears in this town. Ile is said on one occasion, when he had gone into a den for the capture of some cubs, to have experienced the not enjoyable sensation of the darkening of the cave's Close encounter. mouth by the return of the mother bear, which resulted in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter, and victory to the hunter's knife. But whether that occurrence was on Sanbornton soil is uncertain. It is certain, however, that Ebenezer Sanborn did not seenre the bear which he " brought down" from the stub Last bear in Fahboruton. of a tree just south of the present Sammel Hersey place. Sanborn Road ; and it is probable that the lust bear in Sanbornton, which so frightened A. Dalton as he was returning home of an evening to the l'lains from the Square, was soon after shot in the west part of the town.
20
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
In 1835, Mrs. Josiah Philbrook saw a deer in the pasture, and was alarmed at the strangeness of the sight, supposing it to Later appear- uuces ul deer. be " some beast of prey" ; and as late as 1845, Peter Cate drove a deer into the bay from the Gilford side, which was killed in the water by Joseph Johnson, when it had nearly reached our shore. Finally, the killing of the last moose in Sanbornton was thus described by Mr. Peter Burleigh, as ocemring some sixty or seventy years ago : -
" The Blakes, well-known hunters of New Hampton, had driven hlin out of the mountain with their dogs, and had pursued him as far as Nicholas Giles's, east of Cawley Pond. Here the hunters passed the night, and the dogs ' lay by,' that is, kept guard over the moose in the neighboring swamp. The next morning the chase was resumed In a southwest direction, passing The last moose the site which the first Baptist meeting-house has since occupied. captured in Near this spot, Jona. Cass, on going to mill, was greatly frightened towu. at the sight of an animal hurrying by ' with so much rigging ou his head.' The moose finally came to bay at a tree, the roots of which were lately to be seen near Frederick Osgood's, and backed up against it for self-defence. He broke the thigh of one of the dogs, so that it had to be killed, but was at last shot by David Dustin, several inen from the north part of the town having joined the hnuters. The Messrs. Blake gave the meat to Mr. Dustin for shooting, and themselves bore baek the hide and antlers to New Hampton, as their trophies from the chase."
-
CHAPTER IV.
INDIAN RELICS AND ANTIQUITIES.
""T is good to munse on nations passed away Forever from the land we call our own." - YAMOYDEN.
" Yet Ileaven hath angels watching round The Indian's lowliest forest-inound, - And they have made it holy ground." - WuITTIEn.
EXCEPT as occasionally visiting the borders of this town with their canoes ou fishing excursions, the "red men " had
Disappearance
of' tite Ludiants. entirely deserted it at the time of its first settlement. But little is therefore known of their early history. Con- clusive proof was, however, afforded that our territory had -
". Once been the residence of a powerful tribe, or at least a place whither they had resorted for defence. Ou the Winnipiseogee, at the head of Little Bay, were found, as late as 1841, the remains of an ancient fortification. It consisted originally of six walls, one extending along the river and across a point of land into the bay, and the others in right angles, connected by a circular wall in the rear. Traces of these walls were yet to be Judtau fort, as seen (1841), though most of the stones, etc., of which they were described in composed had been removed to a dam thrown Across the river at this place. Within the fort had then been found numbers of Indian relies, implements, etc., and also on an island (Atkinson's) iu the bay. When the first settlers arrived those walls were breast-high, and large vaks were growing within their enclosure." ("Annals," and " Hayward's N. E. Gazetteer.")
From the copy of a letter written by James Clark, Esq., to Jacob B. Moore, of Concord, Dec. 8, 1847, we learn further particulars respecting these ludian fortifications from a then recent visit : -
"I found the remains of the walls, in part, plainly to be traced; but the ground, since our former examination [ in company, as at this time, with MIr. Bamford, son of the first settler on the spot], has been several years ploughed and cultivated, so as now to give a very indistinct view of what they were at our previous visit, when the foundation of the whole could be very distinctly traced. No mounds or passageways can now be traced [implying that they could be on his former visit]. A canal to carry a saw and grist mill occu-
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
ples the place of the mound, marked . M.' The slone used lu the walls [referring evidently to their appearance at first] were such as a man could easily lift, and were laddl as well as our common walls for fence
Letter of in the North are laid, and very regular. They were about three
Jumuen Clark,
Kmq. with feet in thickness and breast-high when first discovered (1765). measuremente. There were no embankments In the Interior. The width between the outer and Inner wall was about sixty feet, and the distance south from the north to the south wall was about two hundred aud fifty feet, and from the outer wall on the west to the river on the east about two hun- dred and twenty feet. There were two other walls, extending south to Little Bay, which I have marked on your skeich. The general elevation of the works was about ten feet above, and gently sloping to the river bank, five feet above the water. The distance between the Great Bay and Little Bay is about one hundred and sixty rods, with a gradual fall of fifteen feet. Here was a great fishing place for the Indians, where they caught
An Giulian Iching re- great quantities of cels lu their pots, and in the spring and fall, bort.
vast numbers of shad."
Mr. Clark adds a remark respecting the large number of Indian bark canoes said to have been seen here at the same time by the first settlers, Jacob Bamford (see Vol. II. p. 19 [3]) and Mr. Gibson. He says, " This may have been in consequence of the number of bays and lake ucar the place, but perhaps should be received with some llowance." It now seems quite improbable that such extensice fish- ing excursions to this region from the lakes above should have been
Iwon frequented continued by the Indians after the settlement of the towns, after the sentfe- as they must have occasioned collisions with the settlers tment of the
whites. themselves, who, as elsewhere shown, relied much upon the same fishing privilege, and no knowledge of such collisions with the Indians has ever come down to us by tradition or otherwise.
S-
LITTLE BAY
RACE
MILL
0
RIVER
23
INDIAN RELICS AND ANTIQUITIES.
We supplement the two accounts already given (still descending from the general to the particular) by a draft found among the papers (" Ilistorical Facts of Sanbornton ") left by the late A. G. Weston, M. D. (Vol. II. p. 312 [97]). It is said to have been taken originally in 1822, and is entitled an " Indian fort, situated on the right bank of the Winnipiseogee River, near the head of Little Bay, in Sanbornton."
Dr. A. G. Weston's dia- graum of the
fort. It may serve to make the previons descriptions of the "Gazetteer" and of Esquire Clark's letter more intelligible, if we also add those points of Dr. Westou's interesting " Sketch," accompanying the draft, which have not already been brought out : -
" At the time of the first occupation of the country by the whites, the walls were between three and four feet high and three feet in thickness, faced with stones regularly laid up outwardly, and filled with clay, shells, gravel, etc., from the river and the shores of the bay. Within the walls were found great numbers of Indian ornaments, pipes of stone and cluy, fragments of coarse pottery, arrow-heads, and hatehets of stone. [This is probably
Belknap.
Remark of the origin of the statement in Belknap's ' History of New lamp- shire,' Vol. III. p. 88, that .' some pieces of baked earthenware
have been found at Sanborn town and Goffstown, from which it is supposed that the Indians had learned the potter's art,' ete. ] On a small island fresutn- ing Dr. Weston's account] in the bay, and not far distant, many bones and other remains have been uncovered, leading to the inference that here was a considerable burial place. It seems very evident that this work
Dr. Weston's was erected for defence, and for keeping possession of the bay, descriptive which was a fainous fishing place, and much frequented by the sketch. powerful tribe of Penacooks, who, before their destruction by the Muquaas or Mohawks, sometimes mustered here as many as three hundred canoes at a single gathering. It certainly displayed considerable skill in con- struction, and if the walls were surmounted with palisades, would be almost impregnable under the system of warfare practised by the Indians. The inner mounds, covering the entrances to the principal enclosure or citadel, form a feature peculiar to this work, and one not observed in any other now known to the eastward of the Alleghanies. It is, furthermore, unique in its regularity of form, and in being built of stone."
A glance at the plan of the fort will show how readily variations might occur in its description. For example, Belknap's allusion
(Vol. III. p. 89) reads : " At Sanborn town there is the
Variations of
statement. appearance of a fortress consisting of fice distinct walls, one within the other"; while still another account has been supplied, as follows : " The Indians had siz walls for their fort [as before stated ], the largest outside with passageways to the bay." That there was a favorite " burial place " for the Indians just outside the fort, on the main-land as well as on the island, is proved from the fact that the remains of at least seven of their bodies (and one
24
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
account gives seventeen !) are said to have been disinterred while building the Boston, Concord, and Montreal Railroad.
In discussing the question when and by whom these works were When aud by built, we will first append all that the " Annals" of 1841 whota built. further give us in regard to them : -
". It is not unlikely that the Penacook tribe of Indians may have been familiar with the ishing places along the Winnipiseogee River. They ocen- pied what is now Concord, and the country above and below, on the Mer- rimuck River, to some considerable extent. It is therefore probable that these Indians may have resorted to this town occasionally for fishing and hunting purposes, if it was not a regular residence for a portion of their tribe. The Peqnawket halians, however, may have had a place of resort here, which increases the uncertainty as to what tribe constructed these fortifications ; and at this distance of time, it is not likely to be ascertained with any degree of certainty. The Pequawkets inhabited the eastern part of this State, and the adjoining part of Maine upon the Saco River. In foss, Alliance of the an alliance was formed between the Pequawket and Penacook Penacooks and l'equawkels. Indians, in order to defend themselves against au expected inva- sion of the Mohawks, a formidable and warlike tribe inhabiting the borders of the Hudson River, in the State of New York. From these circumstances, the probability is increased to almost a satisfactory conel- sion, that some part of one or the other of these tribes had inhabited this territory, and that these fortifications had been prepared by them for their mutual protection against their commou quemy. It is said that four friendly Indians came from Albany to Penacook (Concord), with the information that the Mohawks had been induced by Governor Crantleld, of this State, to commence a war of extermination upon the Eastern Indians, and upon this information the alliance to which allusion has been made was formed; and this information tended, in no small degree, to exasperate these savages against the English, who were, at that carly period, forming settlements in the more southerly parts of the State. It cannot, however, be supposed that the fortifications in this town were intended as a means of defence against the whites, as they had then scarcely dreamed of penetrating so far into the wilderness; but when we consider that the course of communication between the l'enacooks and Peqnawkets must have been by way of the Winnipiscogce River, we may discover munch skill and judgment in their selecting the site between the two bays in this town as a place of defence, or perhaps of retreat in case of disaster at Penacook, from the anticipated invasion of the savage foc."
A defence wrainat the Mohawks.
We would add that in the first Indian war (King Philip's), or as early as 1676, the Eastern Indians are represented by Belknap ( Vol. I. p. 145) to have had " a strong fort of timber, fourteen feet high, with flankarts, at the Ossipee poids, which they had hired some English carpenters-to build for them a Ji " years before, as a defence against the Mohawks, of whom they were always afraid." He elsewhere adds that ~ a long and inveterate animosity had subsisted between the Mohawks and these Eastern
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.