USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Dublin > The history of Dublin, N.H. : containing the address by Charles Mason, and the proceedings at the centennial celebration, June 17, 1852, with a register of families > Part 12
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But enough of this, and enough of anything from me, at this time, when there is so much to be said, and so many to say it. I thank you sincerely for the honor of an invitation to be with you to-day. I am glad to meet the citizens of Dublin, and the returned wanderers from the old paternal roofs, on an occasion of so much interest to them. I thank you for the compliment, personal to myself, to which I have attempted to respond.
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If the "random shots" which I have "let off," and the reminis- cences which the occasion has called up to my own mind, shall have recalled any pleasant memories of scenes lang syne, in which those most dear to me took part, and who now "sleep in the valley," away from their native hills, they will have more than answered my hopes.
In conclusion, let me pay a compliment to your town for the high stand she has taken in everything that exalts a town or a nation. Her devotion to religion, to morality, and to education, has given her a name to be honored; while religion, morality, and education are anything but a name.
23. "FAREWELL:" - SUNG BY THE CHOIR.
The meeting was adjourned for a hundred years.
CHAPTER III
NATURAL HISTORY - SITUATION, BOUNDARIES, SOIL, CLIMATE, FLORA, FAUNA, ETC.
T HE town of DUBLIN, in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, is situated in latitude 42° 54' north, and longitude 72° 03' west, from London. The spire of the First Congregational (Unita- rian) meetinghouse is in latitude 42° 54' 20.8" north, and longi- tude 72° 3' 38.6" west, from Greenwich.1
Dublin was formerly bounded on the north by Hancock and Nelson, on the south by Jaffrey and Marlborough, on the west by Marlborough and Roxbury, and on the east by Peter- borough and Hancock. The formation of the town of Harris- ville, which was incorporated, July 2, 1870, took from the origi- nal town of Dublin the northern three ranges of lots. Each range contains twenty-two lots. Sixty-six lots were therefore transferred from Dublin to the new town of Harrisville. Dub- lin is now bounded north by Harrisville, east by Peterborough, south by Jaffrey and Marlborough, and west by Marlborough. It is forty-four miles from Concord, the capital of the state; about thirteen miles, in a south-easterly direction, from Keene, the shiretown of the county; and seventy miles from Boston.
Dublin has the same diversity of hill and valley that is found in the other towns in this section of the state. It is distinguished, however, by having, in its south-westerly border, a large part of the Grand Monadnock 2 Mountain. The boundary line be-
1 Hitchcock's Geology of New Hampshire: Vol. I., p. 242.
2 Monadnock, according to S. G. Drake, signifies "Mountain of the Great Spirit."
According to William B. Cabot, who has devoted considerable attention to the Al- gonquin dialects, the etymology of the word Monadnock would imply an isolated hill of prominence, that is, a hill standing apart from other hills of equal prominence, giving it, as the landscape is viewed from its summit, the appearance of an isloated mountain of imposing size.
In the New York Sun of Nov. 9, 1904, is a review of an article by William Wallace Tooker, in the Journal of American Folk-Lore, entitled "Algonquin Names of Some Mountains and Hills." The following is what he says of Monadnock: "Man, or mon, is a significant prefix to many word combinations in the Massachusetts of John Eliot, meaning 'wonderful,' 'wonder,' 'vision,' 'revelation,' 'marvellous,' etc. It is from the primary verbal root -an, 'surpassing,' 'going beyond,' 'is more than common,' with the indefinite impersonal prefix m added, which, with its generic -adn, 'mountain,' and the locative -ock, 'place,' gives us a synthesis of man-adn-ock, 'land (or country) of the surpassing mountain,' i. e., one going beyond all others in that vicinity for size." Again he says: "It will be observed that it included the mountain and the immediate
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tween Dublin and Jaffrey crosses the mountain, passing near its summit.1 The highest point of Monadnock, according to Dr. Dana, who ascertained the height by a barometer, in the year 1816, is 3,450 feet above the level of the ocean. The latest esti- mates fix the elevation at 3,166 to 3,186 feet above the sea. Its elevation above the surrounding country renders it, from a great distance, a conspicuous object. Its summit is visible from the top of the state-house in Boston; and it is said to be a landmark for sailors on approaching certain parts of the sea- coast. Its highest point above the level of a pond in the centre of the town, formerly called Centre Pond, but now generally known as Monadnock Lake,2 is 1,581 feet. From the summit there is an unobstructed view in all directions and a magnificent panorama is exhibited to the eye of the observer. More than forty lakes and ponds of various sizes, scores of villages, and innumerable mountains and hills are plainly visible, while powerful glasses bring many more objects into the field of vision, which extends to the seacoast near Boston.
The highest elevation of land next to that of Monadnock is Beech Mountain, situated north of the centre of the town. It is 391 feet above the level of Monadnock Lake. These heights (of Beech Mountain and Monadnock above the level of the lake) were ascertained by measuring a line on the frozen lake for a base, taking the angle at each end, and making the usual calculations by trigonometry. From the top of Beech Mountain, - so called from the large number of beech-trees with which it was formerly covered, - a beautiful view may be obtained, both of the Contoocook and Connecticut river-valleys, and especially of the Green Mountains in Vermont, as they rise in the form of successive terraces from the Connecticut River. From the same place, the Kearsarge and Ascutney Mountains may be seen; also the Saddleback and other mountains beyond the Merrimack River; and, when the atmosphere is favorable, the summit of one of the White Mountains is visible, looking like a thin, white, stationary cloud, a little above the horizon.
country round about it." This harmonizes well with Mr. Cabot's etymology of the word, which was substantially the same thing in other words. The preceding defini- tion might be condensed into the words, - place of the grand mountain.
I The summit is in Jaffrey.
2 The first proposition to change the name of Centre Pond to Monadnock Lake is said to have been made by Miss Laura Ann Fiske, afterwards Mrs. Mark True, at a meeting of the former Dublin Literary Society, about 1840. This lady read several papers on that subject before the society, which, by vote, approved the suggestion. From that time the new name was used gradually and eventually sup- planted the old one.
MONADNOCK MOUNTAIN AND LAKE FROM MONADNOCK POST OFFICE
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Hardy Hill, in the west part of the town, near the summit of which several generations of Hardys lived, and more recently the Spauldings, is another eminence from which an observer has an unobstructed view, for a long range, in all directions. Many prominent peaks of the Green Mountains, some of the more prominent in Massachusetts, and others in south-western New Hampshire, are distinctly seen, with some ponds and a few villages.
The ponds in Dublin, besides Monadnock Lake, are Farnum (or Dark) Pond and Wight Pond, to which we may add the Howe, Knight, and Electric Company Reservoirs. The North, Beaver, Dinsmore, and Stanford Ponds, with the southern point of the Harrisville Pond, and the Chesham and Russell Reservoirs, all of which were formerly in Dublin, are now within the limits of the town of Harrisville.
Monadnock Lake is a beautiful sheet of water, which has lured many families of wealth and refinement to establish summer homes near it, or in sight of it. It is surrounded by picturesque hills wooded to their summits and, from its surface, may be seen the summit and north-west sides of Monadnock Mountain, which, at the right hour of the right kind of a day, is clearly reflected by the glassy water like a huge inverted pyramid. By far the largest portion of the water in this lake is supplied by springs, which have their outlets beneath its surface. The bottom of the lake is mostly a pure whitish sand. The contour of the lake bed resembles somewhat a human ear, there being a small oval area, not far from one side of the lake, where the water is much deeper than it is elsewhere. Mr. Samuel Wadsworth of Keene, who made a careful survey of the lake, found that the greatest depth was 117 feet. The deep places are generally not more than sixty feet, but the depths vary greatly. The water is beautifully clear and always cool. In some seasons the ice has been found to be two feet in thick- ness, and, when preserved for use in summer, it is found to be of the very best quality.
Monadnock Lake, in addition to its scenic charms, has been justly celebrated for a variety of trout which Agassiz declared to be unique. As to flavor and other qualities, they have been pronounced, by persons whose good taste in such matters was unquestionable, inferior to none which can be found in any waters. Formerly, they could be caught at any time, but, at a later date, they became scarce. They are now protected by law, except for a few weeks each year, and the supply may be- come more abundant.
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In the Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. 8, No. 1, is a monograph on "The Fishes of New England. The Salmon Family. Part 1. The Trout or Charrs." It was written by William Converse Kendall, Scientific Assistant of the United States Bureau of Fisheries. He quotes a letter from Prof. Louis Agassiz, written in acknowledgment of some speci- mens of these trout that had been sent to him, which we here reproduce:
"DEAR SIR: I duly received the two specimens of trout which you have forwarded to me. They reached Cambridge in a perfect state of preservation, and I was not a little surprised on examining them to find that they belonged to an undescribed species. I have carefully compared them to-day with all the trout occurring in the United States which I have thus far been able to secure, from Lake Superior to Labrador and as far south as they reach, and I find them to differ specifically from all. As the specimen's are all three females, I should be much obliged if you would secure some males for me.
"Should so-called lake herring, or whitefish, as they are also called, be found in your waters, which I suppose to be the case, I would be much obliged if you could secure some of them for me.
"Allow me to close by returning my best thanks for the specimens you have sent me, which I have at once put up in my museum.
"L. AGASSIZ.
"CAMBRIDGE, MASS., Oct. 12" [Year not stated].
Mr. Kendall, quoting from the Boston Journal of March 22, 1884, adds that "after some male specimens were sent, as Pro- fessor Agassiz requested, he wrote that the examination of them only confirmed his previous opinion that the trout were spe- cifically distinct, adding that there must be others like them found elsewhere, as nature did not make a distinct species for one little locality. This last letter cannot now be found."
Mr. Kendall has himself carefully described these trout, which Mr. Samuel Garman, of the Harvard Museum of Com- parative Zoology, in 1885, concurring with Agassiz regarding the fish, and describing it as new to science, named the Salmo agassizii. It has been popularly called the "silver trout." Mr. Kendall, in his monograph, has called it the Salvelinus agassizii. He has given an elaborate description of the fish, which, being peculiar to this Dublin lake, partly in deference to a just local pride, but more particularly in the interest of science, we give below in full:
"During the last part of October, 1912, the present writer [Mr. W. C. Kendall] made a visit to Monadnock Lake. Mr. James DeRocher,
1
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of the Nashua Fisheries Station, was detailed to assist in the effort to secure specimens of the trout, and Mr. Walter H. Rich accompanied the party in order to make a colored drawing of the fish from life should any be secured. Expectations were not very high, however, owing to the lateness of the season, the stated spawning time being about October 20.
"Mr. DeRocher was supplied with two gill-nets, each 100 feet long, of different-sized mesh, the larger perhaps two inches and the smaller of one inch, stretched. On the night of the 29th, these nets were set on 'the reef,' said to be the spawning grounds of the fish, and in about two to four feet of water. Previous to setting the net some small fish were observed close to shore, which, from their shape, were thought to be trout. In the small-meshed net ten small trout were caught, one and two at a time, at intervals, and in the large-meshed net, which permitted the small fish to pass through, one large trout was taken. These were kept in an extemporized live car until the next morning, when Mr. Rich made color sketches of the large specimens and two of the smaller ones. During the fishing the party was favored by some visitors, one of whom was Mrs. Grenville Clark, formerly Miss Dwight. . . . The present writer is also indebted to Mrs. Clark for much in- teresting and valuable information concerning the trout. Mr. Milton D. Mason of Dublin, who from boybood has had an intimate ac- quaintance with the trout and its habits, and possesses a traditional knowledge of the lake and its early conditions, furnished much valuable information.
"The descriptions immediately following are from specimens se- cured at the time of this visit to Monadnock Lake.
"DESCRIPTIONS OF RECENT SPECIMENS OF Salvelinus agassizii. [The detailed measurements in millimetres of the various parts of the fishes are here omitted.]
"Male. - Description from a specimen 16.5 inches long, taken on the night of October 29, 1912. Dark grayish green on upper part of back, becoming lighter and yellowish toward the lateral line; below decidedly yellow, paling into pearl gray, and suffused with light Saturn red, deepening toward the abdomen, where, from the ventral fins forward, the color stops abruptly against the clear white of the abdo- men and throat; light red appearing more or less along the lower edge of the body behind the ventrals, excepting on a sharply defined clear white patch in front of and at the base of the anal fin. Dull orange- yellow spots scattered over middle of body and five ocelli of pale lilac with crimson centres. Head, color of body on top, fading to the lighter greens and numerous metallic colors of rose, pearl, yellow, purple, and reddish; lower jaw whitish, mottled with dusky, the tip slightly tinged with flesh color or dull orange. Iris, straw yellow; dorsal, dull yellow, crossed by several irregular dusky bars, the dark color mainly between the rays; a small dusky spot on body at the base of each
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HISTORY OF DUBLIN
ray; adipose dull purplish, somewhat lighter on upper edge, with a narrow sub-marginal dusky line; pectoral, ventral, and anal fins pale purplish pink, deepening basally, anterior edges white with black line behind, the pectorals growing somewhat dusky basally; caudal, dull purplish pink becoming somewhat orange centrally and dusky basally, with purplish black band at tip and several incomplete and somewhat indistinct dusky bars across it; the upper edge dull orange yellow, the lower white, and both with irregular narrow line of dusky behind the light color.
"Female .- Description from a specimen 776 inches long, taken on the night of October 29, 1912. The colors are generally olive green above shading into the silvery opalescent of the side and white of the belly; the dorsal is somewhat barred, but the caudal shows scarcely any bars, but merely dark marginal shades. The spots of the side are fewer than in the large specimen, usually wholly absent or only one or two present.
"In a letter to Dr. B. W. Evermann, of the Bureau of Fisheries, Mr. W. O. Robinson wrote, that, for a period of about ten days in the spring, generally commencing with the tenth of May, the trout leave the deep water and come to the surface, rising freely in the morning till nine o'clock and again from five o'clock till dark. In the fall of 1912, and in a letter to the present writer, Mr. Milton D. Mason of Dublin, N. H., of many years' familiarity with the trout, said that they evidently frequented deep water most of the time, except in the month of May, when they rise to the surface for the little black fly. At this time, early in the morning, and toward night, they are jump- ing all the time. But, after warm weather comes on, and the black flies depart, the fish retire to deep water.
"Bigelow stated that the breeding time, which lasted about two or three weeks, began about the first of October, when the fish congre- gated on shoals, formerly on the south, but, at the time of his visit, on the south-west shore, where they spawned at night. Having reached the beds, he said, they lose their natural shyness and seem wholly absorbed in the object of their visit. If frightened, they did not go far away and soon returned. The males followed the females very closely, in about the proportion of one male to four females.
"Mr. Robinson's letter to Dr. Evermann stated that the stomachs contained two kinds of food; one was a shrimp about one inch long, and the other apparently a dark greenish-brown vegetable material. He said, however, that in the spring they appeared to be feeding upon larval mosquitoes or some other dipterous insect. Mr. Mason stated that they were feeding upon "the small black flies."
"Mr. Mason said that some eighty years ago persons living near the lake used to send their boys out to catch a pailful for their hogs, which could be done in a very short time. Within thirty years, there
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were large numbers caught through the ice, but this was prohibited later on. It is said that up to perhaps thirty years ago cartloads were seen on the spawning beds, where trout were taken in large numbers and of good size; in recent years, however, they had decreased greatly in numbers and former state commissioners had advanced the opinion that the small perch which abounded there were destroying the trout.
"Bigelow stated that they varied in size from one quarter of a pound to five pounds, but those taken were seldom less than one quarter or over three pounds. . .. Mr. Mason says that the size at present is much smaller than it was years ago, and it is seldom that one is caught weighing over one and one half pounds."
The Thorndike or Bullard Pond is mostly in Jaffrey, but the northern end extends a few rods into Dublin. This is also an attractive body of water, and, like its more famous neighbor (Monadnock Lake), is yearly drawing near its shores those who are building handsome summer residences.
The eastern end of Stone Pond, a handsome sheet of water, is also in Dublin, although the greater portion of the pond is in Marlborough. Its shores have been made beautiful by the handsome buildings and grounds of Mr. Edward H. Kidder; which he sold to another person, while these lines were being written.
There are no streams in Dublin of considerable size. Stanley Brook is the outlet of Thorndike Pond. It flows north-easterly through the south-eastern part of the town, forming, in its course, the Knight and Electric Company Reservoirs. Near the present residence (1913) of Arthur T. Appleton, it receives the waters of the Wilder Brook, which is formed by the union of Cobb Meadow Brook with smaller streams. At the Knight Reservoir, it also receives the waters of Frost Brook, the out- let of a small pond of that name whose northern edge is in Dublin. Between Thorndike Pond and the Knight Reservoir, it also receives the waters of Mills Brook, which is formed by the junction of Woods Brook and Hinds Brook. The small stream flowing easterly through Dublin village, known as Greenwood Brook, likewise empties into the Stanley Brook. The latter stream, in Peterborough, empties into the Nubanu- sit (or Goose) Brook, which forms the outlet of the long pond below Harrisville, which was known, before the division of the township, as North Pond. This body of water was once known as Skatutahkee Pond, a name borne by a near-by prominent mountain in Hancock, also by a brook flowing from the slopes
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of the same mountain into the Nubanusit Brook. Monadnock Brook, the outlet of the lake of the same name, receives, as it flows north-westerly, the waters of Mountain Brook, Hurricane Brook, and Wight Pond Brook. It forms, along its course, the Howe and Russell Reservoirs, and forms a junction, a little north of P. W. Russell's mill, with the Breed Pond Brook, and, flowing through Marlborough, empties into Otter River near South Keene.
The streams in town that rise east of the elevated land which divides the town into two parts run into the Contoocook River, and thence into the Merrimack, above the city of Concord; and those that rise on the west side run into the Ashuelot, and thence into the Connecticut. The second meetinghouse in Dublin, which stood upon the dividing ridge, on or near the site of the summer residence of Mrs. Farnham, was so situated that the water which flowed from the eastern slope of the roof ran into the Contoocook River, and that which flowed from the western slope of the roof ran into the Ashuelot River.
The most valuable fish in town are the unique trout of the Monadnock Lake. Trout are found in the brooks of Dublin, and they may be taken at any season suitable for fishing. They are so small, however, that a few score of them are required for a meal for a family of the average size. The long pond be- low Harrisville yields good pickerel, but no trout. Pickerel and trout, it is said, are not found in the same pond. The former, with their capacious mouths and numerous sharp teeth, are able to destroy the trout. Horned pouts are found in some of the reservoirs. In the small ponds eels are found and, occasion- ally, perch and minnows. In the spring, suckers are also some- times caught by spearing.
Originally, the wild animals were the same as in the other settlements of this vicinity, - bears, wolves, deer, moose, cata- mounts, foxes, raccoons, woodchucks, hedgehogs, squirrels (gray, flying, red, and striped), rabbits, beavers, otters, minks, muskrats, and perhaps some others. Bears and wolves were exterminated as an act of necessity. Beavers and otters, be- cause of their valuable furs have been hunted to the point of extermination in this part of the country. The delectable flesh of the moose and deer, in addition to the insatiable desire to hunt big game, put the lives of these beautiful animals in jeopardy, until they disappeared altogether from this part of the state. As a result of protective laws, however, and the diminution of the rural population, as well as the abandon-
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ment of a great number of old farms, deer again became quite plentiful in the early part of the twentieth century; but the passion for hunting those animals is so intense in boys and sportsmen that, if the deer are not again protected by law from their destructive work, they will soon disappear from this part of the country.
Wild turkeys, in the early times of the settlement, were fre- quently taken. Timothy Adams, 2d, who first settled lot 12, range 9, found, on one occasion, a nest containing fourteen eggs, on which a turkey was sitting. He took the eggs, and put them under a hen; after a few days, each egg produced a young turkey, and the whole brood were raised and sent to Boston for a market. That valuable bird, in its wild state, has probably disappeared altogether, at least from the eastern portions of the United States. The domesticated turkey, derived from it, is a difficult fowl to raise successfully.
In the summer of 1909, Mr. Gerald H. Thayer, an esteemed resident of Dublin, a man remarkably well informed in bird lore, prepared for "The Dublin News," a summer periodical, published for two seasons by the brothers, Gerard and George Henderson, a list of Dublin birds, with brief notes. It is a unique work, and of such an inestimable value to scientists that we asked his permission to reproduce it in this chapter, that it might be thus preserved for all time. He very kindly gave his consent, and the list follows, with the major part of his observations upon the same, which were of nearly as much value as the list itself :
[Unless otherwise noted, the birds mentioned nest here.]
1. BLUEBIRD. Fairly common, but varies much from year to year. In the year 1909, there was a dearth of bluebirds. End of Feb- ruary to end of November.
2. AMERICAN ROBIN. Abundant, as everybody knows. End of February to December. One or two sometimes linger through De- cember, in sheltered nooks.
3. HERMIT THRUSH. Very common. Early April to November. The Hermit's second song season begins late in July, and lasts till about the middle of August.
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