USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Warren > The history of Warren; a mountain hamlet, located among the White hills of New Hampshire > Part 16
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What shall be done? It must be planted and cultivated in the space of five years. This not done and the charter is forfeited.
We have seen how the lines were run and went with the com- mittee to view the lands. It was necessary to set up the bounda- ries so that the proprietors of other towns should not trespass upon our woody territory. That the proprietors, owners, and would-be settlers might journey thither without difficulty, a road must be cut. But two years had passed already and one had not as yet been begun. Perhaps the worthy proprietors waited for those of
188
HISTORY OF WARREN.
other townships on the river below to cut out their roads, so that it might be more easy to get to the boundary of Warren to begin theirs; perhaps they had no money in the treasury to pay for the work; perhaps they thought there would be such a spontaneous rush to buy their lands that there would be no need of their doing anything. But time dispelled the first and last of these illusions.
The year 1765 was nearly passed; almost half the time given for the settlement was gone, when at a proprietors' meeting held late in autumn it was voted to pay for clearing a public road through the township, and a committee was chosen to attend to the same. It consisted of Col. Ebenezer Stevens, Col. Jonathan Greeley, Jacob Hook, Esq., Samuel Page, Esq., John Page, Jun., John Page, Esq., and Capt. Ephraim Brown .* The road once cleared, and then emigrants would flock to the land of the hills. Our mountain hamlet would certainly be settled, and the first requirement of the charter fulfilled.
But that there might be no failure in this matter of cultivation and settlement, they determined to divide a portion of the land into lots and distribute them among the several grantees. Then each one would have a separate personal interest, and would labor with more energy for the settlement. Accordingly at the annual meeting in 1765 it had been voted that a division of home lots should be made by the above-mentioned road committee, to con- tain eighty acres each, respect to be paid to quality as well as quantity.
But this vote was all for nought. The season went by, and late in autumn, the proprietors being again met, they voted to lay out a home lot to each grantee, containing one hundred acres to the lot, as convenient as may be. That there might be no repeti- tion of failure they further voted to raise money to defray the charges of laying out the same, and also instructed the road com- mittee to lay out said lots. The vote to raise the funds to pay for the work was the best vote passed. The work must now move. Something will surely be accomplished.
We have seen how difficult it was for our former committee to procure a surveyor. The one headed by Col. Ebenezer Stevens
* See Proprietors' Records.
1765. The proprietors voted to raise money to defray the charge of clearing the public road now about to be laid out through the township of Warren.
189
AN INDIAN TRAIL MADE USEFUL.
encountered the same obstacle. Procure a surveyor they could not. The year 1766 passed, and nothing was done. The grantees waited for their committee to act, and did not even call a proprie- tors' meeting. Individually they exhorted the committee to work -but all to no purpose.
As we have before said, and as every wide-awake proprietor knew, the time for fulfilling the first condition of the charter was fast flying, and their claim to the little mountain territory seemed slipping from their grasp. The spring of 1767 came. Only one year of the five given was now left. The work must be done at once or all would soon be lost. At this critical juncture of affairs John Page, Esq., rallied. A meeting of part of the committee was held at the usual place, Col. Jonathan Greeley's inn, at which it was emphatically redetermined to run the lines, locate the road, and lay out the lots.
To accomplish all this a surveyor must be had, and John Page, Esq., said he was happy to inform the committee that Benjamin Leavitt, who had formerly run the lines, could be procured. Sam- uel Greeley, Fry Bayley, Abraham Morrill, Samuel Page, Joseph Eastman, and Jacob Morrill were to be his associates. They were to perambulate the boundaries and lay out the first division of lots.
It was spring time when the surveying party and the commit- tee chosen to clear the road came to Warren. They established themselves in the old camp on the end of the ridge between the Mikaseota or Black brook and the Asquamchumauke or Baker river, and while Surveyor Leavitt went over the lines again and was laying out the lots, the road committee attended to their duties.
And now our worthy readers will naturally inquire what kind of a road they made and where it was located. We have no doubt concerning the truthfulness of the reply we shall give, for we have the facts vouched for by many of the ancient settlers and also recorded by history itself. Our indefatigable committee did not locate any new road -they simply cleared out the old Indian trail, and made it into a tolerable bridle path.
This Indian trail was a very ancient way, about as much so as the old Roman roads. For centuries back the Indians had followed it. Wonalancet and his friends had journeyed over it nearly a
1
190
HISTORY OF WARREN.
hundred years previous to the little improvement undertaken by our committee. Waternomee knew every rod of it. Arosagun- ticook warriors had led their captives on it northward to Canada .* Capt. Baker's "marching party" had hurried down it to fight the Indians at the mouth of the Asquamchumauke. Capt. Peter Powers t made use of it in his glorious retreat, and along its wind- ings Robert Rogers had marched his whole company of rangers. It was the shortest road to the sea board, and those in a hurry to reach the lower country have always traveled it.
Many a hunter, trapper, and explorer journeying northward in those primitive times availed themselves of its facilities. The Rev. Grant Powers, a most truthful historian, narrates how the very first settlers who came up the Merrimack valley to Coos employed it. In April, 1762, he says that Col. Joshua Howard, Jesse Harriman, and Simeon Stevens engaged an old hunter at Concord to guide them through the wilderness. They came west of Newfound lake, in Hebron, followed up the northwest branch of the Asquamchumauke or Baker river into Coventry, and down the Oliverian to the Connecticut. They performed the journey in four days from Concord .;
Most of these things happened when the Pemigewassetts, the Coosucks, or the Arosagunticooks had a right of way over it. But this very summer, after our committee had so much improved it, a lady, solitary and alone, took a romantic journey along its woody windings. The story is this-a simple tale-told in an ancient record: Thomas Burnside and Daniel Spaulding were journey- ing with their families to settle at the upper Coos. At Plymouth one of Mr. Spaulding's children was so badly burned as to be unable to proceed, and Mrs. Spaulding was left behind to attend to it. Her husband and friends having gone she became lonesome and resolved to follow them. A friend living at Plymouth had agreed to accompany her through the woods with a horse thirty- four miles to Haverhill, but he left her at a house in Romney, the last one, nine miles on, and turned back. Mrs. S. was not discour-
* Acteon's Narrative.
t Powers' History of Coos, 46.
+" Some of the early settlers of Haverhill and Newbury took the same route to Plymouth, kept on the north side of Baker river into Coventry, and then down the Oliverian."-Powers' History of Coos, 169.
191
A WOMAN AND CHILD IN THE WOOD.
aged; with her child in her arms she proceeded. She waded through Baker river, which was low from drouth, and all day long toiled up the blazed path to Warren. Across Black brook and up the meadow she met two men, whom she tried to avoid by stepping out of the path. They saw her and endeavored to per- suade her to turn back, and among other things told her that she must " wade through a part of Wachipauka pond where there was nothing to direct her." But she still persisted. In the course of the afternoon a heavy thunder shower passed over and thoroughly wet both mother and child. She continued travelling until in the darkness the track could be no longer followed. Then quietly seating herself by the side of a tree she leaned against it with her child in her arms, and there rested without sleep till morning. It was a lonely night. The rumble of Oak falls echoed through the leafy wood, the whippoorwill sang in the alders by the brook, and the bullfrogs in the neighboring pond croaked and "chugged" the whole night long.
At early dawn she continued her journey and soon arrived at the pond, through part of which she waded waist deep. Fortune favored her and she found the path on the opposite shore without difficulty. She also waded the Oliverian which, to use her own language, "looked wild and terrifying," being probably swollen on account of the shower of the preceding day. Pushing rapidly on at eleven A. M. she reached the settlements on the Connecticut .*
Where through Warren did the Indian trail run-that most ancient way over which Indian kings and princes of mighty tribes had travelled, and where Mrs. Spaulding took her romantic jour- ney? It followed up the west bank of the Asquamchumauke to the mouth of the Mikaseota or Black brook, crossed the latter stream and followed up its east bank, going some of the way just where the road is located now, to the neighborhood of Beech hill bridge, where it crossed to the west bank and continued along the same to its source in Wachipauka or Meader pond. Crossing the pond at the outlet it continued round the east shore to the head, over the little summit, down the slope of Webster Slide mountain to the Oliverian, and down the latter stream to the Connecticut.
The surveyor and his party did even better than our road
* 1st Farmer & Moore's Historical Collections, 85.
192
HISTORY OF WARREN.
committee. Benj. Leavitt with his assistants, as we said before, perambulated the old lines and then procceded to lay out the lots. They began on the south side of the town and laid out the first division. The crest of Mount Carr, where the hackmatacks grow, they did not think worth spending any time upon, but Surveyor Leavitt spotted his lines across Hurricane brook, and washed down his dinner one day by a draft from "Diana's bowl," which is carved in the rock at the top of Wolf's Head falls.
They made nine ranges in the first division, and as high as eleven lots in a range, as can be seen by looking at any old plan of the town. The land was lotted as far north as the " Eleven mile tree," so called, which stood beside the Indian trail, and is often spoken of in the proprietors' records. This work accomplished the whole party, road clearers and surveyors, returned to the southern country.
Benj. Leavitt, Esq., took his time. He made up his report carefully, drew an accurate plan of his survey, and when the com- mittee to notify proprietors' meetings notified said proprietors to meet on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 1767, he was ready to hand it in. The meeting was called for that purpose. Art. 2d of the warning was, "To hear a report of a committee returned from running the lines of said township, and as they have laid out part into lots, to see if the proprietors will vote to accept it." At the meeting held on said day it was voted to allow the committee for their services in the sum of twenty-one pounds and four shillings .*
Thus the lots were laid out, the report made and accepted, and it now remained to divide the land. After due consideration it was voted that it should be distributed by lot, and that one man should draw the lots for the whole proprietary, and also voted that the moderator was the man to draw said lots. The meeting then adjourned for half an hour, the slips of paper were prepared, and being again met the lots were drawn.
At the drawing Thomas True got the first lot in the first
* 1767, Nov. 17. Voted that we allow the committee above mentioned in full for their services, as followeth, viz :
To Fry Bayley, 4 days at 5 shillings per day, 0 1l 0
" Benj. Leavitt, Surveyor, 14 days at 6 shillings per day, 4/ 4 0
" Abraham Morrill, 14 days at 5 shillings per day, 34 10 0
" Samuel Page, 11 days at 5 shillings per day,
21 15
0 .
" Joseph Eastman, 11 days at 5 shillings per day,
21 15
0
" Jacob Morrill, 14 days at 5 shillings per day, 34 10 0
Samuel Greeley, 14 days at 5 shillings per day,
37 10 0
193
TEMPUS FUGIT.
range, Ebenezer Stevens got the second lot in the first range, and so on until all were drawn. The names of the drawers were then entered respectively upon the original plan and this constituted their title to the land. It was real estate which did not come to them either by descent, purchase, escheat, forfeiture, execution, or directly by grant. The land was granted to the proprietors as a corporate body, divided by lot, and when so divided each gran- tee had a good title, which he could alienate either by deed or devise. In the old proprietors' records are recorded the drawings, the divisions, the ranges, the number of the lots, and the names of the proprietors by whom they were drawn. Thus was the land in our beautiful mountain territory most equitably divided.
At an adjourned meeting, held November 26th, 1767, it was voted "that we will raise nine shillings on each right in addition to what has been already voted to be raised, to defray the charges that have arisen on account of laying out the lots." Our worthy proprietors, now severally rich in lands, were yet compelled to pay somewhat for the privilege of being considered rich land owners, But the distinguished grantees were now perfectly cer- tain that the town would be settled and cultivated and the first condition of the charter fulfilled. So much were they of this opinion that they passed by without notice an article in the war- rant of the meeting to be held in November, 1767, which was to vote "what encouragement they will give to any person who will undertake to build a saw mill in said town the next year." There was no need of spending their money for such a thing. They also passed by without action another article in the warrant, as they did a similar article at the meeting the previous spring, which was "to vote what encouragement they will give to forward the settlement of the township." There was likewise no need of this -- the condition would be fulfilled sure.
But there were some not so sanguine; the time was almost out. If terms could not be made with His Excellency the Gov- ernor, then time, taxes, treats, dinners, and purses of gold would . all be lost, and they would get no profit whatever from their spec- ulation. Something, thought the wiser, must be done, and upon this thought they acted. What they did we shall proceed to show in our next chapter.
M
CHAPTER VII.
HOW THE PROPRIETORS' PROSPECTS GOT DESPERATE, SO MUCH SO THAT THEY WERE WILLING TO GIVE AWAY SOME OF THEIR LANDS; HOW PHILLIPS WHITE CAME TO THE RESCUE-GOT THEM OUT OF A TERRIBLE DIFFICULTY, AND FINALLY PROCURED A NEW CHARTER-WHICH ENDS THIS BOOK AND INTRODUCES US TO AN ALTOGETHER NEW LIFE IN WARREN.
LONG and faithfully have we toiled over the Proprietors' Records, extracting therefrom, as a bee honey from a flower, every- thing sweet and beautiful. Our duty as an accurate and truthful historian compelled us to do this-as a sample of which witness the disagreeable passages of the last chapter-and our most com- prehensive history would never be complete without such consci- entious regard for facts.
John Page, Esq., and the most energetic of our venerable proprietors, were now very anxious about the township. They must work or the charter would be forfeited, and all the line-run- ning, lot-locating, and road-making would go for nothing. Ac- cordingly at a proprietors' meeting held the 2d Tuesday of May, 1767, the question of what should be done came up, and among other things it was determined to send a committee to the new governor to obtain if possible a longer time in which to fulfill the first condition of the charter. Col. Jonathan Greeley and the . Hon. Dr. Josiah Bartlett were chosen as the committee.
We have said they were to treat with the new governor. His Excellency Benning Wentworth had been compelled to resign, and his nephew, John Wentworth, had been commissioned in his place, under date of August 11th, 1766, as "Governor of New
195
A NEW GOVERNOR.
Hampshire and Surveyor of the King's Woods in North America." He had been installed in office with even more pomp and cere- mony than Benning Wentworth himself. . On the morning of his entrance into Portsmouth-we have it on the authority of one of the best historians -all the bells rang a regular double-bob-major, the cannon of the forts and batteries thundered till their brazen throats were hoarse, and the numerons ships anchored in the stream and at the wharves flung out all their bright bunting, flags, and streamers to the harbor breeze.
Col. Greeley and Dr. Bartlett found no difficulty in gaining access to His Excellency. He was a jolly soul and loved to wel- come company, especially when he could see a fee in prospect. The committee laid their case before him in the prettiest manner possible ; told him of the great difficulties which they had met; that there were no roads, that it was far in the wilderness, and that men could not be found to settle all the towns which had been granted.
Governor Wentworth sympathized with the committee and sought to console them by ordering up three bowls of " creature comfort." After drinking enough to remove their melancholy, Governor Wentworth told them to go on as well as they could, just as though their time was not out and would not be out, and he would do what was right in the matter. But His Excellency, like his uncle Benning, was exceedingly fond of the root of all evil, and so he told the committee that he thought that by and by they would need a new charter, gently intimating that considerable expense generally attended the granting of such new instruments.
Our committee were exceedingly well pleased with their reception by the young governor. They went home and reported their success to the proprietors individually, no meeting being called, and as the season was nearly passed-the fall rains had come and the winter was coming soon-they concluded they had better wait until the next annual meeting, and not try to do any- thing that year. But when the winter was gone then they would act. There would be three beautiful spring months before July 14th, 1768, and in that time they could accomplish wonders. Be- sides, they would send the committee to the governor again, and they had no doubt but that they could get excellent terms from him.
196
HISTORY OF WARREN.
During the early part of the winter they discussed numerous plans, and when the annual meeting of 1768 came they adopted one very much in vogue among the proprietors of various other townships and were thus prepared to act most efficiently. As a preliminary to their grand plan they passed the following votes:
1st. To give to each family, to the number of twenty-five, that shall settle in said township before the first day of October next, 1768, fifty acres of land.
2d. That the first settler shall take his first choice of the fifty acre lots and so each in their order.
3d. That each family that shall settle agreeably to the above vote by the first day of October next shall have six pounds lawful money.
And they did not stop here. To show their decided deter- mination to clear and cultivate the land, and not forfeit their title as grantees, they chose another committee to finish clearing the road through the town. It was a strong committee chosen for that purpose, and consisted of Mr. Samuel Page, Col. Jonathan Greeley, Lieut. Joseph Page, Phillips White, Esq., Ensign Jacob Gale, Jacob Hook, Esq., and Mr. Enoch Page. This committee really worked sometime on the road, and also laid out the land as above voted for the settlers, and at another meeting they were allowed five shillings a day for their time .*
All that men could do by voting was now done. They shall surely succeed this time. Everybody is going to work. So each one thought as he waited for his neighbor; but as is usual in such cases, where each depends upon the other, nothing at all was done. Our committee did not even go again to the mountain territory of Warren before the fatal day of July 14th, 1768.t
That day came and the charter was forfeited. All legal right was gone. The only hope of the proprietors now lay in executive clemency. Col. Jonathan Greeley and the Hon. Dr. Josiah Bart- lett had got encouraging promises from the governor, and on these they relied.
* Feb. 6th, 1769. "Voted to give those that worked clearing the road thro' Warren five shillings a day for the time they worked on said road." See Proprietors' Records.
t But the committee did go to Warren, where they worked sometime during the season of 1768.
197
TERMS OFFERED TO SETTLERS.
Yet our proprietors had done as well as most of those of other townships. Benning Wentworth had granted towns and made himself rich in so doing. John Wentworth's great plan was to regrant them and make himself equally rich.
The committee saw His Excellency again. This time as be- fore he promised them fair things, and again gently hinted at the great expense which usually attended the regranting of charters.
Again they went home encouraged and determined to work. Another proprietors' meeting was soon called. They paid those who had worked on the road. They voted six shillings a day to those who had been engaged laying out the lots. They further voted to those who should settle in said town lands and money. They agreed to give " ten more settlers" who should settle in said township fifty acres of land and six pounds in money to each, or one hundred acres of land without any money, which the said set- tlers shall choose; and further voted that said land " shall be laid out on the road which is cut through said town."* At a subse- quent meeting it was voted that Col. Jonathan Greeley, Lieut. Joseph Page, and Mr. Enoch Page be a committee to lay out said lots and agree with settlers.
These several things were done as an earnest of their good intentions, and they then voted that Col. Greeley and Phillips White, Esq., go to the new governor and treat with him for a new charter.
Phillips White was not one of the original grantees. We first find his name in the Proprietors' Records, March 14th, 1768, as having been chosen one of a committee to get the road cleared through our mountain territory. He had become possessed of a certain portion of the lands by heirship; he had bought out the rights of a few of those grantees who had become discouraged in the enterprise, and afterwards, for meritorious services, the gran- tees themselves gave him several large tracts of land located east of the new reservation, and upon the side of Waternomee moun- tain. Next to John Page, Esq., he had become one of the most prominent men among the grantees. He held all the important offices of the proprietary, was entrusted with all the funds, served ou all the principal committees, and during his long life frequently
* See Proprietors' Records.
198
HISTORY OF WARREN.
came to Warren to look after his own interests and those of the other proprietors. He had much wealth and good common sense, and therefore much influence. He was just the man to go to the governor with mine host, Col. Jonathan Greeley .*
Col. Greeley had learned the way to the governor's heart. He told Phillips White, Esq., what must be done, and Phillips White, Esq., was prepared to do it, and to become the saviour of the pro- prietors' inheritance. How ?- by his gold. If Benning Went- worth liked the musical jingle of the filthy lucre, so also were the ears of John Wentworth delighted with it.
It was on a cool September day that our new committee rode their two strong saddle horses to Portsmouth. They had 110 diffi- culty in gaining access to His Excellency, and the latter was glad to see the proprietors' committee. Well he might be-for he knew that when Phillips White, Esq., came something was certain to be accomplished. The governor rang his bell and a servant ap- peared. He ordered four bowls of punch just as before, and as was always the custom called in his secretary, the Rt. Hon. Theodore Atkinson, Jun., Esq.,-who was not dead yet nor out of office either-and they then began to discuss the subject of a new charter.
All the difficulties which the grantees had encountered were enumerated; how a mistake had been made in surveying the grant, whereby the proprietors of other towns had claimed a con- siderable portion of the lands; how much difficulty they had experienced in cutting roads in such a far foreign land, and how
* He was a member of the Continental Congress, 1782, 1783. Also a member of the Committee of Safety, from Jan. 20, 1776, to Jan. 20, 1777, and from Dec. 27, 178], to the autumn of 1782.
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