USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Incidents in White mountain history, fourth > Part 5
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" And (solitude profound !) Not even a woodman's smoke curls up Within the horizon's bound."
For two or three days he wandered thus until he was nearly famished. At last he bethought him of his dog, and he was gone; and he recollected that each day at such a time he had left him, and after being gone a short time would return. Impatiently he now waited his return, and, giving up the search, on the following day, guided by his dog, he reached his camp, not far from which he had been wandering.
Randolph, adjoining Kilkenny on the east, was granted to one John Durand, of London, in the year 1772. It bore the name of its proprietor till the year 1824, when it was
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changed to Randolph. Its southern boundary is far up on Mount Madison. The views of the whole mountain group are the best from this town that can be had. From Randolph Hill, Madison, Jefferson, and Adams, can be seen entire from base to summit. The hill is not many miles from the Glen House, and it is now a favorite resort of visitors, as in fact many eminences in this town are for their extensive prospects. Adams, as seen from its northern side, resembles an extinct volcano. But few ever ascend these peaks; the ambition of most travellers being satisfied with ascending Mount Washington. We accidentally have found, in the Portland Transcript, an account of a party who ascended several years since, which we copy at length.
" We had all the while determined on ascending the northern part of the range to Mount Jefferson, partly on account of its superior wildness and grandeur, and partly because of the exceedingly few visitants to this place, com- pared with those to Mount Washington-the facilities for reaching the latter being so much greater, and the curiosity of the traveller not sufficiently strong to induce him to take the necessary toil for the former. The difference in the height of the two is barely more than nominal. The view, too, is said to be better from Jefferson; and, in our scale of estimation, the great ones, whose names these summits bear, stand on the same parallel. One wielded the sword, the other the pen. One prepared the way, spread the ægis ; the other laid the platform on which to rear a nation's indepen- dence.
" We were informed by our guide, when we commenced the toilsome ascent, that one third of the mountains was hidden in clouds ; the truth of which was afterwards realized. The weather was warm and salubrious, with a gentle breeze from
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the north-west. We had advanced about half a mile, when the roar of the Moose and its tributaries, leaping down the mountain's declivity, broke upon our ear.
"In the vicinity of these streams the eye is greeted with many pleasing cascades. We had proceeded about a mile up the ascent, when we came into a mist, which, as we advanced, . grew into a shower of rain, that continued the whole day. Twice we held council whether to proceed or abandon the pursuit; but, on being assured the wind was north-west, which we had been led to doubt in consequence of the reigning storm, we pushed on.
" We had now ascended to the colder regions, which very sharply reproved me for my imprudence in the morning ; for, though I had taken thick clothing, the weather was so warm when we started, I concluded to travel thinly clad. Nor could we at the time define the sudden changes of weather from fair to foul, together with the duration of the storm ; and, what was the most singular phenomenon of all, while we were enshrouded in fog, and drenched to the skin in rain, we could look back to the spot from which we had started, and, far around as the eye could see, behold beautiful sunshine as ever lighted up the face of the earth ; houses dry ; yellow fields of corn waving in the western breeze, and rivers spark- ling in beams of light. This was at first a mystery ; but solved by recurring to a few simple principles. We are in- formed by philosophers that certain great natural conductors of electricity disturb the clouds and tend to produce rain, as proof of which the Andes are cited, in some parts of which it rains almost constantly. It is a fact, too, that when two clouds of different temperature meet, the one colder than the other, rain is produced. It is further a fact, that vapor, passing from a warmer to a colder region, will be condensed
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and fall in drops. There is vapor in the atmosphere ordi- narily, and at the time of which we are writing it must have been increased in consequence of the exceedingly warm weather and the heated state of the earth's surface. Borne rapidly forward by the breeze, in its ascent to pass the mount, it met the embrace of a colder atmosphere. This and the other causes cited, no doubt, had conspired to give us a thorough drenching.
" The majority of our number, to avoid cold and wind, had determined to go around a mile out of the way to ascend on the eastern side, against which we protested, till courtesy dictated we should yield, then making a minority report that they little understood the character of the mountains, the right of which experience proved too sadly ; for a part of the way was so steep, we were obliged, by the aid of shrubs, to draw ourselves up by our hands. We then retraced and travelled on till we arrived above the growth, which begins heavy at the base, gradually declining in size and height to a shrub, from this to a moss, and all beyond is naked rock.
" We had thought to reach the summit that night, but the sun was now not more than half an hour high, and we were obliged to travel back to the growth, where we erected a kind of Indian camp, covered with boughs and moss, to serve us for shelter. We then prepared to make a fire, when to our astonishment our guide had but six matches, and those he had carried in the wet all day. By means of an old spike, he had already struck the fourth, which failed to ignite. I then warned him of his folly, of the misery he had brought upon us, and in desperation told him, outright, if he missed the others, I was resolved to kill him on the spot.
" A more deplorable situation cannot well be imagined. Night had almost approached. We could not find our way
6*
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off the mount. If we attempted it we must be dashed to pieces over some tremendous crag. At an elevation of five thousand feet, cold and wet, with clouds above and below, in the midst of rain, and an atmosphere like the last days of December; if we went back we must die, if we staid where we were we must freeze to death.
" We then summoned all our prudence, succeeded in getting some dry wood, by divesting a dead tree of its wet outside, with a hatchet, and our guide ordering us, five in number, to sit down in a ring to break off the wind, taking off his hat and placing in it some birch which we had fortu- nately taken for buckets, struck his fifth match, which also failed. The sixth took, and firing the birch we added the wood, when he began to be alarmed for his hat, which we withheld from him till it was nearly burned to a scrap. We then cut some fir-trees, which kept us a good fire, and we got partially dry. A longer night I never experienced, and I never wish to again. Our guides by this time had become chagrined and almost inexorable, the one having lost his hat, and the other his tobacco, which threw him into such a fever, he openly said he would return in the morning, and never visit that mountain again. One of our party com- plained in the night that a flea had bitten him, and asked how he supposed he came there. He tauntingly replied, 'Just such a fool as we were - came up to look off!' His sanguine tem- per was now irritated to the pitch which bordered on wilful absurdity. He pronounced a curse upon the little roof that had sheltered us through the inclement night, and carried it into execution next day by setting fire to it on our return.
" Not ten rods from our camp there was a mountain ravine, a steep of two or three hundred feet, and it was terrible to stand upon the brink, and see the clouds beneath you, pass
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through like winged messengers of the storm. Ere morning it cleared away ; the stars shone out, the moon reflected on the hills, dawn threw forth his gray twilight from the east, ' shadow, nursed by night,' began to retire from the moun- tain's brow, we resumed our march, and reached the summit in time to see the sun rise.
" Strange majesty ! You stand upon that flinty cap, with feelings that you are not of this earth. Exalted to the third heavens, you seem almost in the very presence of Deity. Looking down on the habitations of men, the soul reels with the giddy height of so vast an elevation. The brain grows wild at the awful prospect. Ten thousand columns, supporting as it were the very heavens, spring up and compose one great family. To the east the ocean stretches along two or three hundred miles, like a vast white wall, -
' The glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form Glasses itself in tempest.'
" Apollo's showery bed, out of which he appears to rise, encircled in rainbow, dawning upon that colossal statue, and fringing the hills with his golden rays.
' What grandeur, Jefferson ! thy lofty head O'erlooking sea, and lake, and hill, and wilds ; The day-god loves to drive from ocean bed His heavenward chariot to give thee his smiles '
"The western view is bounded by the Green Mountain chain, traversing the whole length of Vermont.
" Within these limits the eye sweeps over every variety of natural scenery. Mountains dim in the distance; hills diminished to knolls; and houses but as bushels. All the
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creations of man are but as the works of the feeble insect. Lakes of sunniest waters, among which we noticed the Pequot, where, a hundred years ago, that fierce and warlike tribe, under the chieftain Paugus, was broken by the brave Captain Lovell and his Spartan band, when in full encounter the red man shrieked the defying death-shout, and where the crimson tide of life ebbed forth in sacrifice for our infant settlement. The story, the battle-ground, its horrors, the suffering, all come up before you, as you stand proudly over- looking it from that towering cliff. Beneath your feet start out the rivers Moose, Peabody, Ammonoosuc and Saco. To the north you trace the Androscoggin almost to its source ; while to the south, Mount Washington, with all its incidents and features,- the Notch, the Slide, the fated Willey family,- springs up to crown these natural wonders. But this were a twice-told story; its history has been written, and the many visitants to the spot would make its repetition stale.
" It would seem that nature had chosen for this stupendous mass her poorest material, and reared it to heaven to astonish and edify mankind. We discovered a single piece of felspar, the rest being nothing but the coarsest gray rock.
" On its top is a pond of considerable extent, which, Caspian- like, has no visible outlet; with water cold as ice and clear as crystal. In it you behold no living thing. The eagle is the only bird of heaven that sees himself reflected in its bosom. We drank of it several times, and if it is not the Castalian spring, and we were not impelled by classic thirst, but the cravings of nature, to taste its waters, we venture to say it is as beautiful as satisfying to the thirsty.
" I have never 'looked on Ida with a Trojan's eye,' seen ' the eagles fly on Parnassus,' the eternal glaciers of 'the
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joyous Alps,' visited Athos, Olympus, Etna, or Atlas ; but I believe we have mountains, for natural sublimity, as worthy of song, cascades as beautiful, cataracts as awful, and lakes as glorious, as any the Old World can boast. I have seen Mount Jefferson, than which no more wild or beautiful majesty exists in nature.
" The way to this eminence is toilsome and strange ; huge recesses beneath, the fit abodes of spirits of hate and demons of despair. You stand upon the dizzy verge, and at the gaze the heart recoils with dread. Around are scattered rocks of a thousand tons, tumbled down by frosts or some great natural causes ; high above project bold, ragged and impending cliffs, threatening your approach, as if ready to grind you to powder.
" Chiselling our names in the adamant of this everlasting monument, and taking a last survey of the sublime prospect, we left, silent, filled with reverence, at having 'looked on nature in her loftier mood.' "
Bounding Kilkenny on the west is the town of Jefferson, granted to one John Goffe, in the year 1765, under the name of Dartmouth. It is quite hilly; but the gently-rising slopes are cultivated to their tops, producing large crops of wheat, rye, barley and oats. The higher hills afford excel- lent grazing land, pasturing immense flocks of cattle and sheep. We know not a more beautiful pastoral scene than that which presents itself to one making the northern circuit of the mountains, as he ascends Cherry Mountain. Before him in all its loveliness is the town of Jefferson. Flourishing fields of grain are waving upon all the green slopes. Here and there, in the secluded valleys, or sheltered by overhanging cliffs, are snug farm-houses, amid the scores of out-houses ; and scattered amid all, and giving life to the scene, are the
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" cattle upon a thousand hills." Mount Pliny, in the eastern part of this town, and Cherry Mountain, if further from the higher peaks of the White Mountains, would be considered quite high elevations. John's river and Israel's river water the town. Two brothers, John and Israel Glines, who hunted beaver and other animals on these rivers previous to the settlement of any part of the country, gave their names to these streams.
Colonel Joseph Whipple, one of the most widely-known men in New Hampshire in his day, was one of the earliest settlers. He was an extensive land-holder, owning most of the valuable land north of the mountains. More thoroughly versed in the ways of the world than his poorer neighbors, his influence became almost absolute in this region. He, however, never abused his position and power. The early inhabitants invariably speak of him as a father to them. He made a ready market for all the region, always purchasing' whatever they had to sell. His annual visits to Portsmouth were regarded by the inhabitants with almost as much interest as the arrival of the yearly vessel by the first inhabitants of Greenland. "They have one bright epoch ; for it is a happy time, when the ice is loosed from the rocky coast, and they can expect the arrival of the vessel which alone reaches their solitude. Often deceived by the floating iceberg, forming itself in mockery into the shape of their friendly visitant ; at length they see the white sails, the towering masts, the blessed guest riding at anchor in the bay. By this vessel their wants are supplied. The active and pious housewife busies herself in arranging the stores of the en- suing twelvemonth. There are letters, too, from friends and from relations, and books, and newspapers ; and, banished as they are, they live again in Denmark, in 'their father-land.' "
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He was very exact in his dealings with his neighbors, paying and receiving pay to the smallest fraction. He always brought with him, on his return from Portsmouth, a large bag of half cents to make change with.
A good story is told illustrating his fatherly care and solici- tude for his own townsmen. During a time of great scarcity of provision, he refused to sell grain to any save his own neighbors, fearful lest there should not be enough to supply even them. A party of men from Bartlett, driven to extrem- ities, at last set out for Colonel Whipple's, a distance of thirty miles. It was in the depth of winter, and the journey at that season through the mountains was perilous in the extreme. Hunger nerved them on, and they at length arrived with their hand-sleds at the colonel's. Very unexpectedly he refused to sell them any grain. All their pleading could extort from him not a bushel. Determined not to return without it, they at last agreed upon a stratagem by which to obtain it. Apparently very much disappointed, they set out on their return. When out of sight, they stopped and waited
for the night. Under cover of the darkness, they stole back to the corn-house, which they had previously examined, and, getting under the floor, bored a hole up through with an auger, and through it filled their sacks. The colonel after- wards learned the fact, but, sensible that he had been wrong in refusing them, never mentioned it to them.
During the war of the revolution, he was captured by the Indians in his own house. The party acted under the author- ity of the English, and the object was to get information in respect to the designs of the Americans in this region. Sus- pecting nothing, he admitted them as usual to his house, and was a prisoner before he imagined their intention. With his usual presence of mind he made no objection to accompany
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them ; but said they must wait a short time for him to get ready. He immediately commenced active preparations, and contrived in the bustle to tell his housekeeper, Mrs. Hight, to take up the attention of the Indians with some articles of curious mechanism which he had, while he should escape from the window. So occupied were they in examining the curiosities, that they suffered him to go into his bedroom to change his clothes, as he told them, and through the window of this he fled. He went directly to a meadow, where he had men to work, and, ordering each man to seize a stake from the fence and shoulder it as he would a gun, soon presented himself again to the Indians, who were already in search of him. Seeing him in the distance, as they supposed at the head of a large company of armed men, they hastily seized what plunder they could lay hands on, and fled. A Mr. Gotham, residing in the family, chanced to be coming towards the house at the time the Indians arrested Colonel Whipple, but saw them in time to make good his escape. They fired upon him, as he was crossing the river upon a log, but did not hit him.
These lands were almost entirely valueless, at the time of their first settlement, for want of communication with the seaboard. A wide circuit must be made, either to the right or left, before one could get to the lower settlement. Hunters on foot did cross the huge barrier; but it was with much peril. It was for a long time a matter of much anxiety to the authorities of the state, how a way should be opened through this almost impassable chain, and many were the inducements held out to the fortunate discoverer of a pass. Nash, one of those solitary hunters of whom we have before spoken, climbing a tree one day on Cherry Mountain in search of a moose, discovered, as he thought, the long-sought
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pass. Steering with a hunter's cunning for the opening he had seen, he soon struck the Saco river, a mere brook, which he followed down until he was stopped at what is now known as the gate of the Notch. Here the huge rocks came so near together as to prevent his following further the stream. Per- ceiving, however, that, with a proper amount of labor and expense, a road could be opened at the point, he scaled the cliffs and continued on to Portsmouth, where he made known his discovery to Governor Wentworth. The wary governor, fearful lest there might be deception in the matter, told him if he would get a horse down through the gorge from Jeffer- son, and bring it to him, he would grant him the tract of land now known as Nash and Sawyer's Location. This was somewhat a difficult operation, and to accomplish it he admitted one Sawyer, a brother hunter, to a share in his trade. By means of ropes they succeeded in getting the horse over the projecting cliff, and carried him to the gov- ernor. Sawyer, as they lowered the old horse from the last projection upon the southern side, drank the last drop of rum from his junk bottle, and breaking it upon the rock, called it Sawyer's Rock, which name it has since borne.
It was many years before a carriage-road was cut through the gorge; but the inhabitants profited much by the dis- covery. A horse, with much labor, pulling him up and steadying him down with ropes, could be got over the obstruct- ing rocks. Two long poles fastened together by two bars in the centre, somewhat similar to the modern trucks, without wheels, the smaller ends serving as thills in which to harness the horse, and the larger ends resting on the ground, was their only carriage. This could easily be carried over the rocks, and the delay of three or four hours thus caused by lifting over the horse and load was trifling, compared with
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the long journeys they were formerly compelled to make around the extremities of the long range. The first articles carried over the pass show the great articles of trade in those days. One Titus Brown carried down to Portsmouth a barrel of tobacco, which he had raised in Lancaster, and the rudely-finished road was so crooked at that time, that between the Pass and Bartlett, but a few miles, they crossed the Saco river thirty-two times. The first article carried up through the Notch was a barrel of rum. A company in Portland had offered it to any one who would get it up through. This, Captain Rosebrook succeeded in doing with some assistance, though it was nearly empty, " through the polite- ness of those who helped to manage the affair," says Mr. Crawford, when he got it home.
Some years after its discovery, a road was attempted through the pass. The magnitude of this undertaking can be estimated only by remembering that the committee, ap- pointed to locate the road, deliberated for many days on which side of the river to attempt it. The cutting through this mountain of rock would be a gigantic operation, even at the present time, with all the improvements and inventions. How much more difficult fifty years ago !
Hart's Location, bounding Nash and Sawyer's on the south, was granted to one Thomas Chadbourne, by Governor Wentworth, for services rendered by him during the Indian wars. It was afterwards sold to Richard Hart for fifteen hundred dollars, and the present name affixed to it.
CHAPTER V.
EARLY SETTLERS.
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE LOCATIONS. - CAPT. ROSEBROOK. - MONADNUC. - MRS. ROSEBROOK. - SCARCITY OF SALT. - GREAT CROPS. - REMOVAL FROM MONADNUC. - SETTLEMENT AT GUILDHALL. - MRS. ROSEBROOK'S ADVEN- TURE WITHI THE INDIANS. - REMOVAL TO NASH AND SAWYER'S LOCATION. - DIFFICULTY OF FINDING HIS HOUSE IN THE DRIFTS OF SNOW. - WANT OF PROVISIONS. - HIS ENERGY. - CANCER. - HIS DEATH. - ETHAN ALLEN CRAWFORD, THE GIANT OF THE MOUNTAINS. - HIS EARLY YOUTH. - HARD- SHIPS. - THE TREACHEROUS SERVANT.
THE story of the early settlement of these locations, and the history of the few settlers, is very interesting. The hard- ships they endured, and the obstacles they overcame, in mak- ing themselves a home among these
- " mountains reared aloft to mock The storm's career, the lightning' shock,"'
are almost incredible. These hills have truly been
" The nursery of giant men, Whose deeds have linked with every glen, And every hill, and every stream, The romance of some warrior-dream !"
The first permanent settler in Nash and Sawyer's Location -if not the first, the first deserving of particular notice- was Capt. Eleazer Rosebrook. He was a native of Massa-
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chusetts, born, in the year 1747, in the town of Grafton, He married, when twenty-five, a Miss Hannah Hanes, and soon after left his native state for the wilds of New Hamp- shire. He first stopped at Lancaster, making, however, but a short stop, and then settled more permanently in Monad- nuc, which is now Colebrook, full thirty miles from any inhabitant, and with no path or road to their cabin but " spot- ted trees." Here life in the woods commenced in earnest. Frequently, when Mr. Rosebrook had been absent to some of his " neighbors," Mrs. Rosebrook would fasten her eldest child, a little girl, in their cabin, and, with an infant in her arms, set out in search of their cow, which roamed at large through the thick woods. Over logs and sticks, through bushes and brakes, now in some secluded glen, and now stumbling over rocks and wading rivers, she would wander, listening attentively for the " bell," until at last, as the moon came up over the trees, the " old cow" would be discovered. Getting her home as best she could through the darkness, she would milk with the infant still in her arms, and, after securing the cow for the night, retire to rest.
The forest so closely surrounding them abounded in wild game, easily taken, and easily prepared for food. This, in- deed, furnished them with a great part of their living, fresh in summer, but dried and smoked in winter. Salt was very scarce. At one time Capt. Rosebrook was compelled to go on foot to Haverhill, a distance of eighty miles, the whole distance through the trackless wilderness, following down the Connecticut river as his guide, in order to procure this arti- cle. One bushel he there obtained, and, shouldering it, trudged back over the same rude path to his home. So much did some families suffer for want of salt, that their children's necks swelled badly, and brought on disease in the neck,
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