USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Warner > The history of Warner, New Hampshire, for one hundred and forty- four years, from 1735 to 1879 > Part 2
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21
TOWNSHIP NUMBER ONE.
the said townships, and subsistence, to be paid as aforesaid."
"In Council, same day, Read and concurred, and William Dudley, Samuel Wells, Thomas Berry, Joseph Wilder, and John Chandler, Jr., Esqrs., are joined with the committee of the house for the line between Mer- rimack and Connecticut rivers."
To the Salisbury and Amesbury petitioners, a grant of a township six miles square, to be called Number One, was made to the following sixty persons :
THE GRANTEES.
Dea. Thomas Stevens,
Daniel Currier,
Capt. Richard Currier,
Joseph Peasley,
Eleazer Wells,
Samuel Straw,
Jacob Currier,
John Allen,
Daniel Ring,
Joseph Jewell,
Moses Sargent,
John Hoyt,
Jeremiah Flanders,
John Jewell, 2d,
Ichabod Colby,
Elihu Gould,
Paine Wingate,
Caleb Clough,
Jonathan Barnard,
Stephen Merrill,
Nathan Chandler,
James Ordway, Philip Quimby, Capt. John Sargent,
John Challis, Aaron Rowell,
Dr. Nehemiah Ordway,
Joseph Quimby, John Pressey,
Edmund March, Jonathan Currier, John Wells,
22
HISTORY OF WARNER.
Jonathan Pressey,
Orlando Colby,
Samuel Colby, 3d,
John Stevens, Francis Davis,
David Ring, Joseph Currier,
John Nichols,
Samuel Barnard,
Isaac Chandler,
. Jonathan Blaisdell,
Samuel Parsons, John Hoyt, William Nichols,
Benjamin Tucker, Jacob Fowler, Timothy Colby,
Timothy Sargent,
Jarvis Ring,
Gideon Rowell,
Stephen Patten,
Thomas Rowell,
William Straw,
Stephen Sargent,
Samuel Flanders,
Jacob Sargent,
John Jewell,
Joseph Jones.
These sixty proprietors lived in Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts,-most of them in Ames- bury. They received their grant of this township in the year 1735. Some of them, at a subsequent day, became residents of the town, but a majority of them did not. In this volume will be found clearly set forth the perils which they encountered, the discour- agements that beset them, and the victories which they achieved. In short, the reader will here find a faithful representation of the intensely interesting record which they made.
As not only most of the proprietors, but also a large proportion of the settlers of Number One, were of
23
TOWNSHIP NUMBER ONE.
Amesbury, that town may be considered the parent of Warner : and Warner need not be ashamed of her parentage, for Amesbury is a thriving, wealthy place, containing now a large population. The broad Merrimack rolls at its feet, the town being situated on the north bank of that famed river. Among its many attractions is the home of the world-renowned Quaker poet, John G. Whittier. Powow river, fall- ing down from New Hampshire, passes through the centre of Amesbury, and carries some of its small machinery, but the great factories there are run by steam. To the east of Amesbury, and on the north side of the Merrimack, lies old Salisbury, extending to the ocean. Salisbury beach, till it was disfigured and destroyed by the cottages which have been erect- ed there within a few years, was the grandest beach on the whole coast. On the north of Amesbury lies South Hampton, New Hampshire; on the west is Merrimac, Massachusetts ; and on the opposite side of the river, a little farther down, is old time-scarred Newburyport.
This is a desirable region, but it began to be filled up early with an enterprising population ; land soon became dear, and families with small means thought they could get a foothold in a new, wild country more readily than there. Hence the migration to Warner
CHAPTER II.
DESCRIPTION OF TOWNSHIP NUMBER ONE-ITS BOUNDARIES- ITS SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS-ITS PONDS AND STREAMS-ITS MOUNTAINS.
HE centre of Warner-Number One-is eighteen miles from the state house at Concord, in a direc- tion a little north of west. It is bounded on Henni- ker, Hopkinton, Webster, Salisbury, Andover, Wilmot, Sutton, and Bradford. It is 85 miles from Boston, by the most direct public road, and 95 by railroad. As granted by the Massachusetts government in 1735, its boundaries were as follows : "Beginning at a place called and known as Contoocook, then running north, 15 degrees west, 6 miles; then running from each end of this line, west 5 degrees south, 6 miles; thence cross- ing and running over on a straight line, from the west end of one of these last mentioned lines, to the other, so as to make up the quantity of six miles square and · no more."
There was no Contoocook village at this time, and no inhabitant anywhere in Hopkinton. The bound- ary did not begin on the Contoocook river; and the
25
DESCRIPTION OF TOWNSHIP NUMBER ONE.
language of the grantors would have been more intel- ligible if they had said, "beginning on the line of the township of Contoocook," for Boscawen had already been granted by that name. They intended to begin at the junction of the Boscawen and Hopkinton lines; but, as Hopkinton had not yet been surveyed, though it had been granted, they could not recognize a Hop- kinton line: it did not exist.
This corner of the town is in the midst of a swamp or bog; and the pole which marks it can be plainly seen from the road leading from Davisville to Contoo- cookville, some eighty or one hundred rods below the former place.
The grantors intended to convey "the quantity of six miles square, and no more;" but by the terms of the grant they did not convey that amount. The angles which they made were not right angles; and the area of the grant fell considerably short of thirty- six square miles.
Lots and ranges were laid off, but no official survey of the town was ever made under this grant from Massachusetts. No bounds were ever established. Other and grave matters crowded. The survey was delayed ; and in March, 1740, the decision of the king on the boundary question put an end to the Massa- chusetts claim in this region.
The town was re-granted in 1767, by the Masonian Proprietors, with boundaries precisely the same as
26
HISTORY OF WARNER.
those in the Massachusetts grant. The township was surveyed for the first time in August, 1772. Hubertus Neal, of Concord, a skilful and popular surveyor, su- perintended the job. His report of this survey is in the words following :
"At the request of the proprietors of New Almsbury [the town was now generally called by that name], I have laid out said Township, containing the quantity of six miles square, and no more, as followeth, viz .; Began at a stake in a meadow in the line of Bos- cawen, and run North 17 degrees west, six miles and 126 rods, to a birch tree, the north-west corner of Bos- cawen ; thence South 71 degrees west, three miles and 70 rods, to a beech tree by the corner of Stevens- town [Salisbury]; then same course, 290 rods, to a small beech in Perrystown [Sutton] line; then by Perrystown line, South 16 degrees east, 345 rods, to a beech tree and heap of stones, the south-east corner of Perrystown ; then South 85 degrees west, three miles and 70 rods, to a beech tree and heap of stones; then South 17 degrees east, four miles and 176 rods, to a beech tree in the line of Henniker ; then by said line, north 85 degrees east, and by Hopkinton line, to the stake first begun at.
" HUBERTUS NEAL,
" Deputy Surveyor."
The Warner of to-day is precisely this, with the Gore added; but it will be seen that the town does
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HENNIKER
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27
DESCRIPTION OF TOWNSHIP NUMBER ONE.
not correspond very closely with the terms of the grant. It is not six miles square, nor is it regular in shape as proposed. It is more than six miles and a third in length on the Boscawen end, and but little more than four and a half on the west end. Its length from east to west is above seven miles. The area of the town, without the Gore, is thirty-seven square miles, and with the Gore (which embraces seven square miles), it is. forty-four. The north line of the town, before the Gore was added, running from the south-west corner of Salisbury, near Bartlett Hardy's house, crossed the north road at the site of the Sawyer shanty, and struck Sutton on the line between land of William K. Morrill and Nathaniel Page, near Stevens brook.
The reason why the town was not surveyed and laid out in accordance with the terms of the grant is. obvious. Obstacles were found in the way. Henni- ker and Hopkinton on the south, Boscawen on the east, and Salisbury and Sutton on the north, had been granted and surveyed before 1772, and their limits had been established by due metes and bounds. The proprietors of Warner, therefore, had to take their territory where they could find it. Only on the west was the country unsurveyed, and their full comple- ment of land, and more, was made up by extending their limits in that direction. Had there been no ob- structions on the north, the Eaton neighborhood, and 3
28
HISTORY OF WARNER.
much more of Sutton, would have been in Warner. The town would not have extended as far west as it does by more than a mile ; and the two western ranges, which sought to be annexed to Bradford in 1832, would have always belonged to that town.
Township Number One,-New Almsbury,-War- ner,-is rocky and uneven, like most of the towns in central New Hampshire ; but the soil, as a rule, is loamy, warm, and productive. It is admirably adapt- ed to corn and apples. Wheat, on certain farms, is a safe crop. Hay is a good crop on most farms, and pasturing throughout the town is equal to that of Merrimack county generally. In a word, most of the staple crops of New England do well in Warner. The town has never been fairly appreciated, even by its own people. There is no better place on earth to live than in the town of Warner. It is a matter of regret that so many valuable farms have been de- serted. Look at the abandoned places between the old cemetery and Kimball Corner, on the Gould road, and at "Kiah Corner," near the residence of Evans Davis! Look at the abandoned Putney and Page farms in School District No. 8, the Kelley farm on the north side of the Minks, the Flood farm on Sutton line, the Savory farms in the Gore, and the great farm on Denny hill ! These, and many others that might be named, should never have been abandoned. They ought now to be reoccupied and rejuvenated. A resi-
29
PONDS AND STREAMS.
dence on any one of these old farms is to be preferred to a tenement in the attic of a three-story block in the city, or to a home on the exhausted lands in the fever-stricken South, or on the treeless and lonely prairies of the West. .
Then think of the mountains, and the unequalled grandeur of the scenery ! One view from Kiah Cor- ner, for instance, just at sunset, will do more towards lifting the soul heavenward than scores of ordinary sermons. It is said that the native forests of the town were gorgeous beyond description, in their autumn glory. The rock maple and the pine predominated, the golden hue of the one blending beautifully with the deep green of the other. One of the distinguish- ing features of the town at the present day is the large and thrifty sugar orchards found in nearly every section.
PONDS AND STREAMS.
Within the limits of Warner there are six recog- nized ponds,-viz., Pleasant, Tom, Bear, Day's, Sim- mons, and Bagley's. None of these are very large, or "very noted. Pleasant pond is a charming little body of water, embracing fifteen acres. Like the Dead Sea, it has no visible outlet. Massaseekum lake,-commonly called Bradford pond,-lies just beyond the west line of Warner. It is a beautiful sheet of water, a mile and a half long and nearly a mile wide. Its shores are attractive, its waters are
.
30
HISTORY OF WARNER.
clear as crystal, and its islands are perfect gems. Poetic justice requires that it be called after Massa- seekum, the last of the Penacooks, who dwelt on its evergreen shores, who remained after the departure of his tribe till the coming of the pale face, and who was found dead in his wigwam by an early English settler.
Warner river was formerly called Almsbury river. (This is the spelling of the word as found in the origi- nal writings.) One branch of it rises in the Sunapee range of mountains, and another in Massaseekum lake. It passes through Warner diagonally, from the north-west to the south-east corner, and falls into the Contoocook a mile below the village of Contoo- cookville. The Contoocook, above the junction of these rivers, makes a graceful bend to the left, and, as if to meet the weaker stream in its coming, flows due west at the point of the union. The united riv- ers make a double right-angle, and bear off to the eastward.
Schoodac brook rises in Long pond in Webster, flows south-westerly through White plain and Schoodac, and falls into Warner river. Willow brook rises in Duck pond in Salisbury, runs in a southerly direction, and unites with Warner river at the village. Stevens brook rises around the western base of Kearsarge mountain, takes a southern course, and joins Warner river a mile below Waterloo village. The French and
-
31
MOUNTAINS.
Meadow brooks are branches of this, coming down from the mountain and the Gore. Slaughter brook rises on the western slope of the Mink Hills, runs northerly, and empties into the river near Timothy Eastman's. This brook takes its name from the fact that Dea. David Heath, in hauling out timber in that locality, had the neck of one of his oxen broken. On the ice, in a broad part of the brook, the ox was hand- somely dressed, and the meat was carried home. Page brook rises in the western part of the town, and flows into Bradford pond. Harriman brook rises in the Har- riman meadow at the southern base of the Mink Hills, runs southerly, and, after uniting with one or two others, falls into the Contoocook river just below the old Dea. Connor muster-field. Silver brook rises on the eastern slope of the Mink Hills, passes through the North village, and falls into Warner river at the fair-ground. The Bartlett brook runs north-easterly through the farm of Levi Bartlett, and empties into Warner river a half mile below the village. Ballard brook rises in Joppa, flows in a northerly direction, and falls into the river near the old Ballard place, which is now owned and occupied by Marshall Dun- bar.
MOUNTAINS.
Rome was built on seven hills, but Warner stands on seven times that number. She is literally among the mountains. The Mink Hills are a range extend-
32
HISTORY OF WARNER.
ing from near the river, at Waterloo, back three miles in a south-westerly direction. Their name comes from the circumstance that minks were found in great numbers about the meadow at the foot of these hills, and the brooks that come down the ravines, by the surveyors, when they came to make the first division of the town into lots. This range consists of four distinct mountains, yet all are united in one. The most northern of the four is Monument hill; the next is Middle Mink; the next, Bald Mink, and the last is Stewart's hill. The summit of the latter is 1808 feet above the level of the sea. The view from this, and from the summits of the other three, is extensive and
4 elevating. Men and women make weary journeys, cross continents, and sail the seas, to obtain views not more enchanting than can be had from the top of Monument hill, not more than two miles from Warner village.
KEARSARGE.
The late Dr. Bouton called Kearsarge "the peerless mountain" of Merrimack county. It is closely identi- fied with Warner. It lifts its head 2943 feet above the sea level. It has no immediate competitor. To the traveller on the Northern Railroad it presents a bold and striking outline. It is a prominent landmark within a circle whose diameter is one hundred miles.
A controversy in relation to the origin of the name
33
MOUNTAINS.
of this mountain sprang up a few years ago. Some- body set afloat the absurd story that an English hun- ter, by the name of Hezekiah Sargent, came, some time previous to 1750, and made his home somewhere on this mountain, and hence its name; that, further- more, the said Hezekiah died about the year 1800, and was buried,-but, as in the case of Moses, "no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day."
It is a sufficient answer to this to say that no such man ever lived on Kearsarge mountain, on the top or on either side of it. The story is a fabrication. The best authority for it, so far as the writer knows, is a visionary, crazed man (now dead), who, in his last will and testament, bequeathed to his daughter four hedge- hogs, when she should catch them on his mountain ledge !
Two hundred years before the ridiculous tale is told of this Hezekiah Currier Sargent, the mountain bore the name of Kearsarge, in some of its variations; and a hundred and seventy-five years before this remark- able character is placed on the mountain at all, or is ever heard of anywhere, even in tradition, Kearsarge was known by its present name. This hero of the wild hunting-grounds puts in an appearance too late.
The name unquestionably comes from the Indians, who sojourned at its base, who roamed over its steep declivities, or who saw it from afar. It is not easy to convey, by the use of English letters, the precise
34
HISTORY OF WARNER.
sounds of the unlettered wild men of the forest. The thing is impossible, and, in attempting it, we have the orthography of the name in almost an unlimited num- ber of forms. The still further difficulty may be no- ticed, that, even among the Indians themselves, the pronunciation of the word varied as much as the orthography of it has varied among white men.
In 1652, Gov. Endicott's exploration of the Merri- mack river to Lake Winnipesaukee was executed. The Endicott rock, at the outlet of the lake, was then marked. A plan was made of this survey, and the proof is at hand that this plan must have been made before 1670. It is thus endorsed : "Plat of Mere- mack River from ye See up to Wenepeseoce Pond, also the Corses from Dunstable to Penny-cook
1
Jnº Gardner "
Kearsarge mountain is on this plan, and the name is spelled Carsaga.
Captain Samuel Willard, of Lancaster, Mass., the prince of Indian rangers, saw this mountain from the top of Monadnock, July 31, 1725, and called it Cusa- gec mountain.
On the margin of the ancient plan of Boscawen, which was granted by Massachusetts, as a township, in 1733, appears a rude representation of an irregular hill along the northern boundary line, with this ap- pended inscription : "Supposed to be one of ye Kia- saga Hills "
35
MOUNTAINS.
A plan of Kearsarge Gore, drawn by Col. Henry Gerrish subsequent to 1751, bears the following title : "A plan of Kaysarge Gore, near Kyasarge."
An English map, published according to Act of Par- liament, in 1755, by Thomas Jeffreys, geographer to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, near Char- ing Cross, and taken from actual surveys made in 1750 by Mitchell and Hazzen, puts our mountain in its true place, and spells it Kyasage.
The proprietor's records of Sutton state that a township of land " was granted to Capt. Obadiah Perry and others, in 1743, lying on the west side of Kiasarge Hill."
1164590
In June, 1750, a meeting of the proprietors of that town was called by Thomas Hale, who represented that the land laid "on the westerly side of Ciasarge Hill." Again, the proprietors of that town spell the name, Ciasargey ; again, Chia Sarge ; and again, Keyasargy. But words need not be multiplied. The position here taken required, perhaps, no substantia- tion at all. The story of Hezekiah Sargent is a myth. The mountain has been known, continuously, as Kear- sarge, more than two hundred years !
But another controversy concerning this mountain has arisen still more recently. The birth of this latter controversy, so far as the public are informed, was in 1875. The Union corvette, or sloop of war, Kear- sarge, became famous by sinking the Confederate Ala-
36
HISTORY OF WARNER.
bama, June 19, 1864. Eleven years afterwards the question is raised, whether this gallant vessel took its name from the Kearsarge of two hundred years' stand- ing, or from a mountain in Carroll county.
The Kearsarge was built at Portsmouth, N. H., in 1861. Major Henry McFarland, of Concord, a pay- master in the army, wrote a letter to the assistant secretary of the navy (G. V. Fox), on the first day of June, 1861, suggesting that one of the sloops of war, which were then being built at Portsmouth, be called Kearsarge. Gideon Wells, of Connecticut, was sec- retary of the navy. He accepted this name. He 1 thought, at first, that Kearsage, with the final "r" left out, was the true orthography, but the secretary of the treasury, Salmon P. Chase, corrected him. Con- cerning this matter, Secretary Wells wrote as follows : " I first directed that the corvette should be called Kearsage ; but Mr. Chase, a New Hampshire man, cor- rected my pronunciation and orthography. We had, I recollect, a little dispute, and that I quoted Governor Hill, but Mr. Chase convinced me that he was cor- - rect."
Major McFarland says, with much force and beauty, " The corvette appears to me to have been named when she received the precise designation which she defiantly carried through storm and battle." It will be well to remember here that Salmon P. Chase was a native of Cornish, a New Hampshire town, which
37
MOUNTAINS.
has the Kearsarge of Merrimack county in plain view.
Mr. Wells " quoted Governor Hill." This is further proof that it was the mountain in Merrimack county for which he named the corvette, Governor Hill hav- ing been a citizen of Concord, a large land-owner on that mountain, and an enthusiast in setting forth its lofty grandeur.
About 1865 a large hotel was built on the Wilmot side of this mountain, and named, in honor of the ship's captain, the "Winslow House." That hotel was destroyed by fire in 1867, and was rebuilt on a larger scale. A reception was given to Admiral Winslow, in the first house, and he was present at the opening of the second, in 1868, when he gave the proprietor a stand of colors and a picture of the battle.
Men of high station, both in the state and country, as well as others, were present on these occasions, participating in the festivities and congratulations of the hour. Nobody whispered that we were on the wrong mountain. Probably, into no one's mind, at that time, had the idea entered that a rival mountain was entitled to these honors.
In due time Admiral Winslow died, and a boulder was taken from the original Kearsarge to serve as a monument at his grave. And now the controversy as to the origin of the ship's name began ; but the fam- ily of the Admiral stood by our Kearsarge, and the
38
HISTORY OF WARNER.
boulder is found in Forest Hills Cemetery, Boston Highlands, supporting a bronze tablet with the
following inscription :
Rear Admiral JOHN ANCRUM WINSLOW, U. S. Navy, Born in Wilmington, N. C., Nov. 19, 1811, Died in Boston, Mass., Sept. 29, 1873.
1 He conducted the memorable Sea-fight in command of U. S. S. Kearsarge, When she sank the Alabama in the English Channel, June 19, 1864.
This boulder from Kearsarge Mountain, Merrimack County, N. H., Is the gift
Of the citizens of Warner, N. H., and is erected to his memory by his wife and surviving children.
A correspondent of the Boston Journal, writing from Petersburg, Virginia, July 16, 1864, says,-" The sinking of the Alabama by the Kearsarge gives great joy to the soldiers. They are as much gratified as if they had won a victory. The men of the Kearsarge
39
MOUNTAINS.
were mainly from New Hampshire. Their ship was built there, and it bears the name of the grand old mountain beneath the shadow of which Daniel Web- ster passed his childhood. The name was selected for the ship by one of the publishers of the New Hampshire Statesman. The tourist, passing through the Granite State, will look with increased pleasure upon the mountain whose name, bestowed upon a national vessel, will be prominent in the history of the republic."
Warner, Wilmot, Andover, Sutton, and Salisbury all claim ownership in this mountain. Warner and Wilmot meet on the very summit; Andover comes near the top; Salisbury and Sutton not quite as near.
The summit of Kearsarge is a bald rock. It was once mostly covered with wood ; but about seventy- five years ago the fire ran over the top of the moun- tain, increasing in intensity for several days, and con- suming not only the dead and living trees, but burn- ing up the greater portion of the soil itself.
Standing on that majestic height, one feels that he is, indeed, on the king mountain of all this region. It stands there without a rival. It has no neighbor on the east,-nothing to intercept a view of the ocean. At the south, fifty miles away, rises the Grand Monadnock, its equal, and its solitary neighbor in that direction. At the west lies old Ascutney, triple- pointed, and grand beyond description in the evening
40
HISTORY OF WARNER.
twilight ; but this mountain is " over the border," for, by the decree of King George the Third, in 1764, the west bank of the Connecticut river is our boundary. Then, to the northward and in fair view, though from thirty to sixty miles away, the nearest equal neigh- bors are Cardigan, White Face, and Chocorua, the summits of the two latter being seldom trodden by human feet. Each of these mountains is sublime in its way, but Kearsarge stands alone in solitary grand- eur,-the Mont Blanc of central New Hampshire.
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