USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Incidents in White mountain history, fourth > Part 12
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Not far from this little pond is a high, craggy ledge, far up whose inaccessible side, on a shelf of the rock, an eagle for many years built her nest, and reared her young. The fierce mother became a terror to the region, and many a bold heart has quailed at her scream. Her nest, consisting of sticks and twigs woven strongly together with rushes, measured more than two yards square. No hunter dared attack her alone.
Jackson is rich in mineral resources. Iron ore exists in inexhaustible quantities on Bald-face Mountain, between the rocky branch of the Saco and Ellis river in Bartlett, near the south line of the town of Jackson.
Bald-face Mountain is composed of granite, having a few dykes of greenstone trap cutting through its midst. The elevation at which the iron ore occurs is fourteen hundred and four feet above the rocky branch of the Saco, and about one mile distant. One of the veins at the upper opening meas- ures thirty-seven feet in width in an east and west, and sixteen feet in a north and south, direction.
The second opening, two hundred feet lower down the slope of the hill, exposes the ore, maintaining the same width. Three hundred feet lower down the vein is observed to narrow, and is but ten feet wide; and four hundred feet further down the width increases to fifty-five feet.
Five hundred and forty-six feet lower still there is a small opening, or cave, twenty feet deep, where the ore narrows again. A small quantity of bog iron ore has also been dis- covered, five miles north from Chesley's Tavern, in the midst of the forest.
Near the house of Captain J. Trickey occur several dykes of greenstone trap, which are so highly charged with carbo- nate of lime, as to effervesce strongly with acids.
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On Thorn Mountain occur several veins of magnetic iron ore, which are contained in a kind of granite, consisting of felspar and quartz, without any mica; being, so far as it respects its mineralogical composition, a porphyry ; but not marked by squares of felspar, like a true porphyritic rock.
The iron ore is found near the top of the mountain, and on its western side. The veins are from a few inches to two and a half feet wide.
Tin ore was unknown in the United States anterior to the discovery in Jackson, and here but four veins have thus far been discovered. Here, also, are found phosphate of iron, ar- seniate of iron, tungstate of manganese and iron, fluor of spar, mispickel, copper pyrites, purple copper, and a native copper.
Jackson is bounded north by unlocated lands, and south by Bartlett. "It is watered principally by the two branches of Ellis river, passing from the north, and uniting on the southern border, near Spruce Mountain. The principal mountain elevations are Black, Bald-face, and Thom Moun- tains." When first settled, this town was called New Madbury, from the fact that most of its early settlers came from Madbury, in the lower part of the state. It retained this name till the year 1800, when it was incorporated by the name of Adams. Some years after, it was again changed to Jackson, its present name. This was done to suit the politics of the times ; all of its voters but one being for Jack- son, when the question was whether he or Adams should be president.
This town was first settled by Benjamin Copp. He moved into it in 1778, and, with his family, resisted the terrors of the wilderness quite twelve years before any other inhabitant moved into it. During this time, his hardships and privations
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must have been great. No one can well conceive of them unless he has had some acquaintance with a forest residence. Living at the present day amid a sparse population will not give one such conceptions, much less will a residence in a city or larger village do it. To be surrounded in every di- rection by a dense forest, extending for miles, with no neighbors to whom you might resort in times of want or sick- ness - with no one to whom you could speak, for months, - these form a condition in life, such as those not acquainted with them can appreciate but poorly. Mr. Copp knew what they were, and was the very man to meet them, being healthy, strong and courageous in his nature. His powers of bodily endurance were wonderful. They must have been so, or he could never have sustained the various hardships and priva- tions he encountered.
Poor food at best, together with seasons of scarcity for ar- ticles of living, such as they were, must have worn him out soon unless he had had what we sometimes call an "iron consti- tution." As a specimen, to illustrate his powers of bodily endurance, it is said that he has been known often to go ten . miles to mill, with a bushel of corn on his shoulders, and never take it off from the time he started from his door till he put it down in the mill. He did the same, too, on his re- turn home. And when he stopped to talk with any one by the way, he seldom relieved himself of his burden. He rested with the bag on his shoulders.
In the year 1790, five other families came into this town from Madbury, that of Captain Joseph Pinkham, Clement Meserve, Jonathan Meserve, John Young, and Joseph D. Pinkham. Daniel Pinkham, then ten years of age, a son of the first of the above named, and the builder of the road, called by his name the " Pinkham road," thus describes the
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moving of his father and his family from Madbury to Jack- son :
" In company with my father, mother, two brothers and one sister, I came to the town now called Jackson, the 6th day of April, 1790. I was then ten years of age. At that time the snow was five feet deep on a level. There was no road from Bartlett, about eight miles, and we travelled on the top of the snow, which was sufficiently hard to bear us. Our entire stock of provisions, household furniture and clothing, was drawn upon a hand-sled.
" I remember one incident, connected with this first trip, which shows the extent to which boys' ingenuity will go to avoid labor. We had a hog with us, which constituted our entire stock of animals. Thinking that this hog, though not very well trained to the harness, might still afford us some aid in getting the sled along, we contrived a harness for him, and hitched him on. He worked much better than we expected, and, though less fleety than the horse, and less powerful than the ox, he did us good and sufficient service.
" Arrived at our destination, we found the log-house, erected the autumn previous, half buried in the snow, and had to shovel a hole through to find a door. It had no chim- ney, no stove, no floor, and no windows, except the open door, or the smoke-hole in the roof. We built a fire-place at one end, of green logs, and replaced them as often as they burned out, till the snow left us, so that we could get rocks to supply their place. We had but two chairs, and one bed- stead. Thus we lived till the summer opened, when we moved the balance of our furniture from Conway, where we left it on first moving to the town."'
Mr. Pinkham says, further, in regard to things generally in the town, at the time his father moved into it: " At the
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early period of the settlement of this town, there was much poverty, and great scarcity as to means of living. Some families had cows, and could afford the luxury of milk-por- ridge, while others, who had no milk, were obliged to eat their porridge without milk, made of water and meal only.
" The river afforded trout, and these constituted a large portion of the living for a number of families quite a length of time. These trout were first dried in the sun, and then roasted by the fire. When salt could be had, this was used with them, to give them relish. But often, not only the fish and the meat, such as they could get, were cooked and eaten without salt, but even porridge was eaten without it. This was the best they could do in relation to sustenance. For transportation they used only hand-sleds for a number of years. For barns they built hovels of logs covered with bark. Want and hard labor were familiar to them; but hope in the future sustained them, and in time they were surrounded with sufficient luxuries of life to make them com- fortable and happy."
Soon after Captain Pinkham, the father of the man giv- ing us the above account, moved into this town, an event transpired, near his residence, of thrilling interest. He lived near a river. One night he heard, some distance below his house, on the river, what he thought was the hallooing of a bear. It resembled that of a man; but, as it was a time when men were seldom abroad, and as bears often halloo very much like a man, he thought it was one of these, espe- cially as they were plenty in the region. Acting under this impression, he took his gun, and went out to shoot him. Coming near to the spot whence the voice sounded, and wish- ing not to disturb the bear, he crept softly till he came in sight of him, as he supposed, and prepared to fire. Just at
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this instant he heard a coughing. It was a man he was pre- paring to fire at, - a Captain Vere Royce. He was a sur- veyor, from Fryburg, come into town to survey some land ; but, being late in his arrival, and intercepted by the river, he went to that point on it where he was first seen, and hal- looed for assistance to get across. Waiting for somebody to come and aid him in crossing, he escaped the peril to his life we have just recited. He coughed at an instant to save him from death.
At an early period in the history of this town, one of those terrible tornadoes passed over it, which are occasionally expe- rienced in New England. It was so strong that scarcely anything could stand before it. Houses and barns were lev- elled to the ground, and trees were whirled about in the air like sticks. Men and children were caught up and carried along by its resistless force for many rods. Unlike most of the other violent winds which have passed over New England, this took place in the winter. The fearful tornado, which so desolated Warner and New London, in 1821, occurred in September, and was preceded by some of the hottest weather of the season. During the prevalence of this wind in Jack- son a most ludicrous expedient was adopted by one of its inhabitants to save his children from being torn from him, and borne away on its current. His house had been razed by it to the ground. Chairs, beds, bedding, tables and chil- dren, were all flying in the wind. Snatching his babes with almost superhuman strength from the embraces of the rude monster, he thrust their heads between two rails of fence, and left them thus secured, and their legs dangling in the wind, to look after his other property. The five little chil- dren remained fast to their fastening, and, uninjured, out- rode the tempest.
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The hill-sides in this town afford excellent grazing, and hundreds of cattle are driven here yearly for pasturing. The great number of sheep scattered upon the mountains make it the principal place of resort for what bears and wolves are yet left among these hills. Occasionally one is killed, but rarely. Several years since, a Mr. Meserve acci- dentally came upon one, coiled up under the roots of an up- torn tree. His little son, a lad of some eight or ten years, was with him, and first espied the monster. The boy could not make out what it was, and, much frightened, retreated precipitately to his father, exclaiming that he saw something under the tree. Trembling through fear, he could only say that it looked awful ugly, had great glaring eyes, and that he guessed it was the devil. Advancing to see what it was that had so frightened his little son, the father saw, rolled up under the roots, a large she-bear. He had with him only a gun loaded with a small charge of shot for a partridge. The prize was, however, too tempting to be lost. He had with him a huge jack-knife, which he opened and gave to his son to reach him when he should want it. He then fired directly into the face of the bear. "The old woman didn't like the treatment ; but Meserve loaded, and gave another dose, when the bear starting to run, he seized his knife, jumped on to her back, caught her by the head, threw her over, and cut her throat. She was a monstrous beast, and so fat she could hardly waddle."
A Freewill Baptist church was formed in this town in the year 1803, which has existed to the present time, and flour- ished. Elder Daniel Elkins was its first minister. He was an honest, good man, and labored much and successfully for the good of the church and town. Nor were his labors con- fined to these alone. For years he was a sort of bishop in
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all the region. In our earlier years we have often seen his smiling face, and heard his full, earnest voice at funerals, and on other occasions, in Conway and Bartlett. We re- member him, as he appeared at such seasons, very distinctly ; and if we could put on canvas the exact image of him, such as now exists in our minds, we could furnish a portrait of him true to life.
His pretensions to learning were small, and, yet, he seldom failed to interest those truly learned, by his honest simplicity and meekness. He can hardly be better described than in the words of the ancient poet, Chaucer :
" Benign he was, and wondrous diligent, And in adversity full patient. *
Wide was his parish, and houses far asunder,
But he never felt nor thought of rains or thunder,
In sickness and in mischief to visit
The faithful in his parish much and oft,
Upon his feet, and in his hand a staff; This noble example to his sheep he gave,
That first he wrought, and afterwards he taught. Out of the gospel he the words caught, And this figure he added yet thereto, That if gold rust, what should iron do ? And if a priest be foul, on whom we trust, No wonder if a common man do rust.
Well ought a priest example for to give,
By his cleanness, how his sheep should live."
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CHAPTER XIII.
CONWAY.
BEAUTIFUL SCENERY OF CONWAY. - AUTUMNAL FOLIAGE. - ATTRACTIONS OF CONWAY TO HUNTERS AND EARLY SETTLERS. - ELIJAH DINSMORE. - EX- PEDIENT TO KEEP FROM STARVING. - STORY OF EMERY. - GREAT FRESHET. -MAPLE SUGAR. - MR. WILLEY'S ENCOUNTER WITH A BEAR. - STEPHEN ALLARD'S BEAR STORY. - SCHOOLS. - BOYS AND THE HOGS. - CONGREGA- TIONAL CHURCH .- DR. PORTER. - BAPTIST CHURCH. - CHATAUQUE. - NORTH CONWAY. - LEDGES. -- FAMILY BURYING-PLACE. - NAMES OF THE FAMILY DESTROYED AT THE NOTCH.
" My own green land forever ! Land of the beautiful and brave."
" ONE who visits the Conway meadows, sees the original of half the pictures that have been shown in our art-rooms the last two years. All our landscape painters must try their hand at that perfect gem of New England scenery. One feels, in standing on that green plain, with the music of the Saco in his ears, hemmed in by the broken lines of its guardian ridges, and looking up to the distant summit of Mount Washington, that he is not in any county of New Hampshire, not in any namable latitude of this rugged earth, but in the world of pure beauty - the adytum of the temple where God is to be worshipped, as the infinite Artist, in joy."
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The mountains in Conway, and those on her borders, are among the most important things pertaining to her location. They help, essentially, to make her what she really is, one of the most delightful spots on earth. They surround her, particularly North Conway, almost as entirely as the moun- tains surround Jerusalem. To appreciate this fully you have but to take a position somewhere on the main road, about three miles south of Bartlett, standing with your face to the north. On your right will stretch up a line of mountains from Rattlesnake Mountain, situated about south-east, to Pequawket or Kearsarge on the north-east. Sweeping round from this, you pass over Thom, and Double-head, and Black Mountains, till you come, at length, to the long range of the Motes that separate Conway from Upper Bartlett. From this point you follow them down on your left till you come to their terminus, a point in the heavens about south- west from where you stand. It is a grand post of observation to occupy at any time of the year, but keep it through the season, and for majesty and beauty you get a view of scenes such as can be obtained scarcely anywhere else. In winter you will see a parapet of mountains around you, shorn, in- deed, of their summer attractions, but still commanding your attention from the naked and unadorned sublimity of their appearance. Pequawket will rise up before you, like an old sentinel who has stood his post for centuries amidst the many lightnings and storms that have beat on his defenceless head.
On either side of him will be his companions, reposing soberly and solemnly under their mantle of snow. In spring you will see nature in her loveliness - the hill-tops and mountain-sides blooming in their greenness ; and especially on the smooth, beautiful intervales, skirting along close under your feet, you will see grasses and flowers in such abundance
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as completely to cover the surface of them with their strong luxuriance. In summer, you will see the plains and the val- leys, less cheerful with swelling buds and blossoms, and fresh leaves of trees, and plants, but fragrant with fruit, the corn- fields ripening towards the harvest, and the golden wheat- fields reddening for the sickle. In autumn, you may see the sober, mournful change upon the trees, on the mountain tops and sides, the bright green verging to the solemn carmine, and almost every other sombre pallid hue of which an Amer- ican forest is susceptible. The Rev. T. Starr King thus writes to the Boston Transcript, in the fall of 1852 :
" The only way to appreciate the magnificence of the autumnal forest scenery in New England is to observe it on the hills. I never before had a conception of its gorgeous- ness. The appearance of the mountain-sides, as we wound between them and swept by, was as if some omnipotent magic had been busy with the landscape. It was hard to assure one's self that the cars had not been switched off into fairy land, or that our eyes had not been dyed with the hues of the rain- bow. No dream could have had more brilliant or fantastic drapery.
" Now we would see acres of the most gaudy yellow heaped upon a hill-side ; soon a robe of scarlet and yellow would grace the proportions of a stalwart sentinel of the valleys ; here and there a rocky and naked giant had thrown a brilliant scarf of saffron and gold about his loins and across his shoulders ; and frequently a more sober mountain, with aristocratic and un- impeachable taste, would stand out, arrayed from chin to feet in the richest garb of brown, purple, vermilion, and straw- color, tempered by large spots of heavy and dark evergreen. It did not seem possible that all these square miles of gorgeous carpeting and brilliant upholstery had been the work of
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one week, and had all been evoked, by the wand of frost, out of the monotonous green which June had flung over nature. The trees seemed to have bloomed into roses, or rather to be each a nosegay, done up into proper shape, and waiting to be plucked for the hand of some brobdignag belle."
Darby Field says that he " found ten falls on that (Saco) river, to stop boats, and there were thousands of acres of rich meadow to Pegwagget (Conway), an Indian town." At- tracted by the glowing accounts which hunters gave of these " rich meadows," settlers early came to Conway from the lower towns. The extensive tracts of intervale, from fifty to two hundred and twenty rods wide, and extending through the entire length of the town, were then covered with a thick growth of white pine and maple. Game was nowhere so plenty ; fish and fowl and animals were almost as thick as in the jungles of Africa. Settlers came mostly from Durham and Lee, following an easterly course until they reached the Saco, and then going north guided by the stream. Indian villages were thickly scattered along its banks, poor and small, however, in comparison with the once flourishing set- tlements of the Pequawkets. This tribe had received its death-blow, and nothing but deep hatred was left them. Fear alone prevented them from murdering the hardy pioneers following up their beautiful river to take possession of the rich hunting-grounds of their fathers.
The first settlement was made in this town in 1764. James and Benjamin Osgood, John Doloff and Ebenezer Burbank, were the first settlers. Their hardships in reach- ing their northern homes were similar to those we have related in the history of most of these towns. One Elijah Dinsmore and wife performed the journey in the dead of winter, travelling on snow-shoes from Lee, a distance of eighty
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miles. A huge pack contained all their furniture, which he carried on his back. They spent their nights in the open air, and slept, if they slept at all, upon the " cold, cold snow."
An expedient of the settlers to sustain their strength, dur- ing times of great scarcity of provisions, is worth noticing. A wide strap of some skin was fastened around them; each day, as they grew more emaciated and thin, the strap being drawn the straiter. Often the buckle was drawn almost to the last hole, the wearer anxiously eying and counting the number of holes, beyond which was complete prostration.
One persevering man, named Emery, had actually buckled into the last hole, and, hardly able to stand, tottered round, expecting on the morrow to be unable to rise. A neighbor, in nearly as bad a condition as himself, crept to his door, and informed him that a moose was not far from his cabin. The poor neighbor himself would have killed him had he had a gun. The intelligence brought a little strength to Emery, and could his strap be drawn a little tighter they yet might live. They cut a new hole, and, with all their strength, the skeleton men tightened the strengthening strap. As noiseless as a shadow he crept out, and, steadying his aim with great effort, killed the moose. Together the two famished men sat down to their repast, and before the close of the following day, it is said, their straps would hardly reach round them.
In 1675 the town was granted to Daniel Foster, the grantees agreeing to pay one ear of Indian corn each annually for ten years. Most of the early settlers built their cabins on the intervales along the banks of the river. They regarded as of little consequence the sudden rises of the Saco until the year 1800, when the " great freshet " taught them the folly of their course, and drove them back upon the high land. Houses and barns were all swept away by this
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sudden rise of water. Water ran many feet deep over the whole wide intervale. On the day following the storm houses and barns were seen sailing quietly down the current, the cocks crowing merrily as they floated on. This storm occasioned great loss of property.
The extensive growth of maple afforded for many years almost the entire support of the inhabitants. Maple sugar, in almost incredible quantities, was yearly manufactured. These meadows have gradually been cleared of their growth, but even to this day orchards of this noble tree may be seen on many of the islands around which rush the waters of the turbulent Saco. The operation of making the sugar is so well described by the authoress of the " Backwoods of Canada," that we extract it in this place :
" A pole was fixed across two forked stakes strong enough to bear the weight of the big kettle. The employment during the day was emptying the troughs and chopping wood to supply the fires. In the evening they lit the fires, and began boiling down the sap. It was a pretty and picturesque sight to see the sugar-boilers, with their bright log-fire among the trees, now stirring up the blazing pile, now throwing in the liquid, and stirring it down with a big ladle. When the fire grew fierce, it boiled and foamed up in the kettle, and they had to throw in fresh sap to keep it from running over. When the sap begins to thicken into molasses, it is brought to the sugar-boiler to be finished. The process is simple ; it only requires attention in skimming, and keeping the mass from boiling over, till it has arrived at the sugaring point, which is ascertained by dropping a little into cold water. When it is near the proper consistency, the kettle or pot becomes full of yellow froth, that dimples and rises in large bubbles from beneath. These throw
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out puffs of steam, and when the molasses is in this stage it is nearly converted into sugar. Those who pay great attention to keeping the liquid free from scum, and under- stand the precise sugaring point, will produce an article little if at all inferior to Muscovado."
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