USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Warren > The history of Warren; a mountain hamlet, located among the White hills of New Hampshire > Part 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
t James Dow, like Mr. Knight and a good many others, believed in witches; also that the world neither turned over nor went round the sun. Said he, "If the world did turn over would not my mill-pond spill ont ?" He would get up and turn his shoes the other side up in the night when he had the cramp. He said that was a cure.
+ Mr. John Whitaker once believed he saw a ghost on the east side of War- ren common. He lived at the time in the East-parte regions four miles away, but had a very bad habit of drinking hard and stopping out late nights. Folks thought it was a shame, and George Bixby and Mr. Gould determined they would scare Whitaker and make him stay at home. . So they got Lemuel Merrill, son of Joseph Merrill, inn-keeper, to dress himself up as a ghost and stand behind a large pine tree. When Whitaker arrived at the spot, Lemuel, the ghost, stepped forth. Whit- aker had heard that if one asked in the name of the Lord what the ghost wanted, the apparition would immediately disappear. He put the question and his ghostship vanished instantly. Whitaker was terribly frightened, ran back across the com- mon shonting, "Bixby ! Bixby ! Gould ! Gonld !" so loud that he was heard a mile. He trembled all over, paid Bixby nine shillings to carry him home and did not show himself at the stores or taverns for months after. But he was awful mad when he found out the trick.
440
HISTORY OF WARREN.
The learned Baxter, who lived in the seventeenth century, consid- ered all persons as obdurate Sadducees who did not believe in it, and Sir Matthew Hale, one of the brightest ornaments of the Eng- lish bar, tried and convicted several persons for the crime of witchcraft. Even Blackstone, the profound commentator of English common law, swallowed and believed implicitly this great hum- bug of the church.
But the hallucinations of other generations are passing, away and few are the persons at the present time who indulge in the belief .of goblins, ghosts, and witches. True it is that the me- diums, clairvoyants, and cabinet gentlemen bring to mind the diab- lerie of old Salem, when our fathers, the good puritans, made fools of themselves and hung thirty old women as witches; but such things don't go for much except as a means of speculation in money matters. They are first rate for that.
The dwellers in a new settlement, far away from the older towns, were just the ones to indulge in the belief of the supernat- ural. Around them were thousands of old solitudes; and as the deepening shades of night cast her sombre mantle over the forest, it required no active imagination to picture the forms of huge giants stalking away among the trees; to see numerous jack-o'- lanterns gliding noislessly along to guide the lone traveler onward until he was lost in the dark intricate windings of some dismal old swamp; to hear the infernal music of old crones as they charged in huge battalions through the tops of the lofty trees mounted upon their never tiring steeds,- broom-sticks. But they are all gone. No more do we see the individuals who indulge in such fancies, and although there were such, and they still live in history, we have little right to laugh at them. If our ancestors did indulge in them, still they liad exalted notions of piety, and did thousands of good deeds which latter it would be well if we would imitate.
.
1
CHAPTER X.
THE FIRST STORE IN WARREN AND ITS SUCCESSORS, AND OF A ROARING, RAGING CANAL THAT NEVER WAS BUILT.
THE first store in Warren was built near Joshua Merrill's, sometime in the last century. It was kept by Samuel Fellows,* and after trading a short time in English and West India goods he was taken crazy. He would sometimes leave home and wander to the neighboring towns; and when his friends went for him it would be extremely difficult to influence him to return. At one time he went to Haverhill and a young man was sent after him. He found him at the tavern, and to make good friends, asked him if he would have flip or brandy before going home. Fellows looked up sharply and said he guessed he would have brandy while the flip was making.
To him succeeded first Charles Bowles, then George W. Copp, who traded for several years just at the close of the eighteenth century. Col. Obadiah Clement at this period, 1825, a very old man, used to relate what he saw in this store. He said it was a long building on the east side of the old Coos road, not the turn- pike, just at the foot of the Beech-hill and fifty rods south of the summit of the Blue ridge. It had large windows with shutters, and door wide enough to roll a hogshead of molasses through; door and shutters always used as advertising boards for our mer- chant himself and the public generally. Here, in winter, the peo- ple would congregate, and with them he would sit by the old fashioned fire and talk over the news and pass away the hours.
* Samuel Fellows came to Warren in 1789.
442
HISTORY OF WARREN.
He said he was there all one day when it snowed so hard that look- ing out the back window he could hardly see Mt. Helen, much less the eastern mountains. First the flakes came down slowly like feathers shading and mottling the sky. Then the storm in- creased, the wind blazed and racketed through the narrow space between the house and the hill and catching up the falling snow sent it twirling and pitching skimble-skamble, and anon slowly and more regularly as in a minuet, and as they came nearer the earth they were borne by the current in a horizontal line like long quick spun silver threads far adown the landscape. As he watched he saw a flock of snow buntings, their white sides flashing before the eyes, hurried on by the wind. They had come down to avoid the dark night of the Arctic continent, the place where they were hatched. Black brook, the Mikaseota, was ice-bound, covered with snow, and scarce a murmur was heard from beneath its white mantle.
The post-rider was snowed up that day; he had not got through from Plymouth yet, and 'Squire Abel Merrill was without the little seveu-by-nine paper which he took, and the visitors at the store lacked their customary news, which was always months old before they got it.
But late in the afternoon it cleared off, the sun shone out, and in the thick woods beyond the Mikaseota he saw a pair of nut- hatches, several golden crested kinglets, a downy wood-pecker, two or three brown creepers, and half a dozen chickadees, birds that bide the New England winter. What pleasant music they make! For a wonder, from the cluster of great hemlocks high up . on the side of Mt. Helen, came the cawing of crows as if they were glad to see the sunshine, and that the winds had gone down.
While it snowed that day Col. Clement and his friends amused themselves reading the notices posted on the doors and shutters; one was a sale on execution, another informed them that beeswax, flax, skins, bristles, and old pewter, would be taken in exchange for goods ; and another read as follows :-
" WARREN, May 18th, 1799. SIR :-
I send you the following description of a dark brown gelding horse, taken up by me, damage feasant, he appears to be about six
443
THE OLD COUNTRY STORE.
years old, is a natural pacer, mane hangs on the near side, well shod, and is about fourteen hands high-the oner is desired to prove property, pay charges and take him away.
AMOS LITTLE.
A true copy : Attest, JONATHAN MERRILL, Town Clerk."
Sitting by the fire, he saw a motley array of dry and fancy goods, crockery, hardware, and groceries. On the right were rolls of kerseymeres, calimancoes, fustians, shalloons, antiloons, and serges, of all colors, purple and blue calicoes, a few ribbons, tick- lenburgs, and buckrams. On the left were cuttoes, Barlow knives, iron candlesticks, jewsharps, black-ball, and bladders of snuff. On naked beams above were suspended weavers' skans, wheel heads, and on a high shelf running quite around the walls was cot- ton warp of all numbers. The back portion of the building showed to him a traffic far more fashionable and universal in New England than it is now; and the row of pipes, hogsheads and barrels indi- cated its extent. Above these hung a tap-borer, faucets, and inter- spersed on the wall were bunches of chalk scores in perpendicular and transverse lines. Near by was a small counter covered with tumblers, toddy sticks, and sugar bowl, and a few ragged will-gill looking men; either from old Coventry, " Pearmount," or the land of Wentworth, (of course Warren men didn't drink, they never " have,) were standing there mixing and bolting down liquors.
The colonel said that a favorite and common drink at that period was flip, which was made in this wise: a mug was nearly filled with malt beer, sweetened with sugar, then a heated iron called a loggerhead was thrust into it, which produced a rapid foam. Instantly a quantity of the " ardent,"- a half pint of rum was allowed for a quart mug,- was dashed in, a little nutmeg was grated on the top, and the whole was quaffed off by two men or more, as they could bear it, which had the effect often to set them at loggerheads. Price, twenty-five cents a mug.
Another drink was toddy, which was made of rum and water well sweetened. A stick six or eight inches long was used to stir
444
HISTORY OF WARREN.
up the delightful beverage, called a toddy-stick. Price, six cents a glass.
Another favorite drink was egg-nog, which was composed of an egg beaten and stirred together with sugar. The stick used for this purpose was split at the end and a transverse piece of wood inserted, which was rapidly whirled around backward and forward between the palms of the hands. Skillful men made graceful flourishes with toddy and egg-nog sticks, in those days. Price, a sixpence a mug .*
In the farther end was the counting-room with another large fire-place in one corner, a high desk, round backed arm chairs and a little good wine in a keg ..
But good-bye to Col. Obadiah and to the old first store, which is a sample, contents, drinks and all, of all the others down to the time of which we write, viz: the close of Warren's second genera- tion ; for Geo. W. Copp sold out to Abel Merrill, who traded in 1804, and then the building was converted into a dwelling-house.
Trade in Warren by no means stopped on account. of this sale. Benjamin Merrill, son of 'Squire Abel, built another store at the forks of the road where one ran away north, to Coventry, and the other over the Height-o'-land. Although many families have lived in this second store, and under its roof your humble historian drew his first breath, it is still occupied for trade, and stands nearly in the same place. In it Benj. Merrill traded till about 1812,t although it was much disturbed by witches as we have already narrated, when he sold it out to Lemuel Keezer, Jr. Mr. Keezer, father of Ferdinand and Fayette, died of the spotted fever, and the property passed into the hands of Michael Preston, who traded about three years. Preston having married Mary Merrill, was
* Sling was sugar, warm water, and whisky, mixed. Sometimes half a cracker was toasted and put with it. This was called a toad. Price for the whole 64 cents.
t Captain Ben. Merrill started to go home one night, after closing up, with a large hum in his hand for family use. Before he left the yard he found he had for- got something, laid down the ham in a feed-box for horses, and went back. He was gone sometime, and when he returned the ham was missing. He never said a word, was as silent as the grave, for he thought the thief would show himself in time. One day, six months afterwards, a neighbor said to him standing in the store door, " Captain, did you ever find out who stole that ham from you ?" " Yes," said Capt. Ben., " I know who it was, you are the very fellow ; walk in and pay for it, or you'll catch it." It is needless to say that the money was forthcoming at once, and the culprit acknowledged that he could not keep his mouth quite as close as the captain.
445
OLD TIME TRADERS.
anxious to move away to Canada, and sold out to Amos Burton. The latter having high ideas of living, changed the Benj. Merrill store into a dwelling house, and built another store directly oppo- site where is now a peg-factory and wheelwright shop by the pond. Others who traded in the latter place are, respectively, Samuel L. Merrill, William Merrill, Anson Merrill, and William Wells, who was famous for building up rousing fires, raising the windows and playing lively airs on his fiddle for the amusement of Mr. Asa Thurston and George W. Prescott, who were making music about this time hammering away in the cooper's shop that stood where the old first school-house was located on the river bank opposite. Wells was succeeded by John T. Sanborn, who traded at or about the time of the chronological order of this chapter. Others who have traded in town we will mention in the Appendix, a very necessary thing for this history, for what would it be good for without one?
Mercantile business was good about this time, for the town was growing, and it cost so much for freight that our traders, and in fact all the others in the regions round about, began seriously to consider how they could get their goods brought to their door at a cheaper rate. Considering culminated in acting; a petition was circulated and signed by our merchants and many citizens and nu- merous signatures were also obtained down the valley. It was then presented to the legislature asking that a roaring and raging canal might be incorporated. The General Court could not refuse so respectable a request and two canals through the central portion of New Hampshire were immediately chartered. One was to commence at Dover, thence by way of Lake Winnepisseogee to the Pemigewassett at Bridgewater; the other followed up the Merri- mack to Bridgewater, and uniting with the first, followed up the Asquamchumauke to Warren Summit, and from there down the Oliverian to the Connecticut. It was fashionable to construct canals in those days, and the great canals of New York, of the West, and of southern New England, were then in the course of being built. The United States government also assisted and sent distinguished engineers to all parts of the country where they were needed.
Gen. McDuffee, who laid out the turnpike, now surveyed the canal through our valley, and spent weeks in Warren trying to
446
HISTORY OF WARREN.
overcome the obstructions that the Summit presented. Capt. Gra- ham of the United States army assisted him, and the general, the captain and his lady, with their assistants, boarded a long time at Joseph Merrill's inn.
The chief difficulty which they found in the building of the canal was the inadequate supply of water upon the Summit. Two routes were surveyed through Warren, one up Black brook, the Mikaseota, and the other up Berry brook. If the Black brook route was adopted, water was to be taken from Tarleton lake and made to run winding round the hills to the place required. This would be a costly job. If the route up Berry brook was preferred, the Asquamchumauke river was to be tapped near the East-parte school-house and canalled round Knight hill to the Summit, thus affording an adequate supply of water for the numerous locks needed. Gen. McDuffee reported that with sufficient money all the difficulties could be overcome, and that either route was feasi- ble. Which he preferred we never could learn.
And now the canal would surely be built, goods, wares, and merchandise would come cheap, population would greatly increase, and prosperity would bless the land. Alas! the bright dream was never realized. Money was hard to be got, a sufficient amount of stock could not be disposed of, and we are sorry to tell what every body knows, the canals were never built and Warren's traders were doomed to disappointment.
But before we close this entertaining book and say good-bye to Warren's second generation, we must briefly mention one impor- tant event which partly grew out of a desire to trade in Warren and enjoy the benefits of the great canal. The people residing in the south portion of old Coventry, now Benton, having said desire and being very poorly accommodated in town affairs, were anxious to be annexed to Warren and made application to our free and independent democracy for that purpose.
This happened in the selectmenship of Enoch R. Weeks, Mo- ses H. Clement, and Samuel L. Merrill. These rulers called an assembly of the people, otherwise a town meeting, and the ques- tion was discussed and voted upon. Maj. Daniel Patch modestly presented the claims of the dwellers of the Summit, and of High
447
ANNEXATION PROPOSALS REJECTED.
street .* Moses H. Clement, one of that year's triumviri, was the chief opposition speaker. He maintained that the legal voters of Warren were now nearly strong enough to send a representative themselves, (they had previously been joined to Piermont and Coventry for that purpose,) that the land to be annexed was very poor, that the people were poverty stricken and inclined to whisky drinking, and that Warren would not be benefited.
His counsels prevailed, although we wish they had not, and Warren lost, perhaps forever, the right of jurisdiction over the fine and luscious blueberry fields of Owl's; head, the millions of feet of excellent timber growing upon Mt. Black, and the noble and majestic summit of the lofty Moosehillock, to which so many pilgrims annually journey.
* This section of Benton should be joined to Warren, the Benton Flats should partly go to Haverhill, while North Benton and East Landaff would make a beauti- ful town of Benton with its centre at " Danville."
East Piermont should also be joined to Warren, where it would be so much better accommodated.
-
HAVERHILL>
OLIVERIAN
OWLS HEAD
BLACK MT.
BEAVER P.
MOOSEHILLOCK
B.C.Y M. R.R.
WEBSTER SLIDE
BENTON'
BRIDLE
PATH
M.
-
W ACHIPAUKA
BLACK B.
F
MERRI
EAST BRANC
BALD H.
KINEO B
LIBBY B
MARSTON H.
--
MIKI NE
SILVER R BAKER R.
BATCHELDER B.
EASTMAN P.
TAHMINE.
ORE HILL B.
R
CLEMENT H.
FOX GLOVE
ROCKY F.
CARR
BLACK H.
TCH B.
PICKED H
WATERNOMEE
FALLS
CLEN PS
ORFORD
RED OAK H
HR RICANE B.
==
ROMNEY
WENTWORTH
H. C. CROSS, S.C.
MAP OF MODERN WARREN.
MOULTON B.
PIERMONT
BEECH HH/
ASQUAMCHUMAUKEI
MOUNT
MARTIN B.
GARNETS.
SENTINEL MT
DEPOT
ANCIENT BOUNDARY
TARLETON
MI. MIST .V
PINEH.
BERRY B.
KNIGHT
PATCH H.
, MI CUSHMAN
WYATT HIAS
DEPOT
OAK
MT. WATERNOMEE
GORGE B
WOODSTOCK
ELLSWORTH
ORE H .
BOOK VII.
WHICH BOOK IS BUT A CONTINUATION OF BOOKS V. AND VI. AND CONTAINS THE HISTORY OF THE THIRD GENERATION OF WAR- REN'S WHITE INHABITANTS.
CHAPTER I.
HOW GOLD, SILVER, AND DIAMONDS WERE DISCOVERED IN WARREN, AND OF SEVERAL INDIVIDUALS WHO GOT IMMENSELY RICH MIN- ING, ESPECIALLY IN THEIR IMAGINATIONS.
As the third generation of Warren's white citizens are step- ping upon the stage, and at the commencement of the period when this last book of our great history opens, a discovery of mighty importance was made in our hamlet. Mr. True Merrill, who lived upon the Height-o'-land, found upon the north bank of Ore-hill brook, what was first known as the " Copper mine," then as the " Warren silver-lead mine," and latterly as the " Warren zinc mine."
It was a rich deposit of minerals. Dr. Charles T. Jackson, a great geologist from Boston, came on and examined it, made a report such as all well paid geologists know how to make, namely a favorable one, and a company was formed, stock sold, and the buyers of the stock it is said were sold too.
Mr. H. Bradford was the head and front of said company.
0*
450
HISTORY OF WARREN.
They worked for a time, made a great hole in the side of the moun- tain ; but not a cent to put in their pockets, and eventually failed up; the usual fate of most great mining companies.
Then as time rolled on for a decade of years several small but terribly enterprising companies wrought the mine on Ore hill. At intervals visions of riches, silvery and golden, would flash before the eyes of individual speculators and operators, only to vanish like a phantom, and as a result every one of the little companies . failed.
About 1840 this vein of ore fell into the hands of a certain Mr. Brooks. We never had the pleasure of his acquaintance; but Warren miners say that they knew him, that he was like the dog in the inanger; that he would neither work the mine nor let any one else; and that he believed that the property was richer than the silver mines of Mexico or South America.
But after a great deal of diplomacy a heavy company, headed by Mr. Baldwin of Boston, got possession of this wonderful deposit of minerals and ores. They went to work and Ore hill glowed and sweat.
They built half a dozen dwelling-houses- a little village - a mill, put in stamps for crushing ore, set up a steam engine, pro- cured a large number of separators, erected a whim house, sunk the shaft in the copper mine a hundred feet deep, drifted north from the foot of the shaft into the mountain a hundred and fifty feet further in the black blende and galena, raised hundreds of tons of ore, crushed, separated, and sent it to market, and then failed. Too bad! Mr. H. H. Sheldon* was the superintendent,. and Captain Samuel Truscott, a Cornwall miner, was the overseer in the shaft. They worked the mine for silver, copper, and lead, but it paid not a cent.
Ore hill slumbered then for a time, and the well wishers of the mine were sad.
Captain Edgar came next. He drove an adit from the new highway a hundred feet into the hill, then abandoned it and the mine too, after sending a hundred tons or so of ore to England to see whether or not it was good for anything.
* When H. H. Sheldon, Esq., had charge of the mine, the town built the road from the old turnpike, at the forks of Ore hill stream up to the works. It made a great saving in distance and freightage.
451
MINING OPERATIONS.
Then the mill and the engine were sold at auction, the shaft and the drift filled up with water; there was no more clicking of hammers nor ringing of drills, and the fires of the forge went out.
About five years after, Captain Edgar came back and com- menced work again, this time for zinc. He set up a small station- ary engine to pump the mine and raise the ore, and put his men to. work in the large chamber at the end of the drift. The ore raised was made into a kiln and set on fire by burning a large pile of wood underneath to desulphurize it. This was done to save weight in freight as from every thirty tons of ore about ten tons of sul- phur was expelled. After cooling it was put up in bags and sent to Pennsylvania to be worked into metallic zinc. Captain Edgar suspended work, and the mine is now silent and deserted again .* More than a hundred thousand dollars have been expended upon it. We hope a hundred thousand more will be spent, and that somebody will make an immense fortune there.
One good thing has happened by reason of mining on Ore hill. A large and beautiful cavern has been formed, the most extensive in the State, and hundreds of persons visit it when the depth of water will permit.
From Mr. True Merrill's wonderful discovery flowed another result; a mining and mineral fever immediately began to prevail and different individuals discovered first a small vein of copper pyrites, distant forty rods south west from the discovery of True Merrill, then two and one-half miles north east, copper and pyrites in small veins; and one hundred yards north of the first mine an extensive vein of black blende, zinc ore, mixed with copper pyrites and galena. A few years after, copper, beryls, and epidote in large masses, were found upon Warren Summit. Subsequently James Clement discovered copper, iron pyrites, nickel, antimony, arsenic, and beautiful garnets by Martin brook on the south east slope of Sentinel mountain, and Albert M. Barber found gold in Hurricane brook that comes down from Mount Carr. Also James Clement found gold in Martin brook near the spot where the gar- nets are located. And afterwards the same gentleman found that the Asquamchumauke, the stream by which the Indian chief,
* Capt. James Edgar resumed work in the fall of 1869 and suspended business in the winter of 1870. Now at the end of 1870 he has commenced work again.
452
HISTORY OF WARREN.
Waternomee, and Captain Baker fought, and on which Stinson died, was far richer than either in golden sands.
Besides these discoveries others have been made in a most wonderful manner. It is told how a party of tourists from New York, visited Moosehillock mountain. There they fell in with a spiritualist who went into a fit, and looking with shut eyes towards Sentinel mountain saw fourteen different mines upon that green wooded eminence, the best of which was located at a certain clump of spruces. The oracle was believed, a company was organ- ized, and they actually worked a year and a half at the spot indi- cated .* They indeed found iron and some other minerals, but nothing that would pay, and the undertaking was abandoned after a useless expenditure of from five to six thousand dollars. Another individual, probably a cousin to the tourists, paid one thousand dollars for a worthless piece of land upon which some " golden specimens " had been deposited. It was a regularly " salted claim," and the buyer was out and swindled to the extent of his investment.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.