USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Warren > The history of Warren; a mountain hamlet, located among the White hills of New Hampshire > Part 39
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So successful have been the gold prospectors and the men with divining rods that a large number of other minerals and pre- cious stones have been found in Warren; the most interesting of which are rutile, plumbago, molybdenum, cadmium, scapolite, tremolite, talc, tourmaline, beryl, apatite, garnet, idocrase, epidote, brown hematite, hyalite, cinnamon stone, quartz crystals in great variety, besides others of less importance and all the rocks common to New Hampshire. It is already known that forty-one different kinds of specimens are bedded in the neighborhood of Sentinel. mountain ;; but not content with these, several enthusiastic min- eralogists, with a wise look and a sly manner, aver that platinum, mercury, tin, and rough diamonds likewise abound, although as yet they fail to produce the samples.
Some also there are who in an undertone will tell you how they know of a mine up in the mountains where they can cut out pure lead with a jackknife or axe just right to run into bullets - Obadiah Clement and Joseph Patch got lead of that kind there
* They drove a shaft a hundred feet into the mountain. Capt. Truscott had charge of this job.
t For a list of these see Appendix.
453
WONDERFUL MINERAL DEPOSITS.
when they were hunting- how they can find mica in sheets a foot square, worth its weight in topazes, sapphires, and rubies, and how they know the very mountain stream and the stone monument beside it, where Roger's ranger picked up nuggets of pure gold as large as robins' eggs. Yet they will not show the places for fear they cannot buy the land, or that they will in some way be robbed of all their hidden treasures. But we will not vouch for their statements, and it is only safe for this history to say that no other spot on earth contains so great a variety of minerals, in so limited an area, as our town of Warren.
But if all the mines in Warren have failed as yet, still it is safe to say that one person has made a profit out of the minerals. Mr. James Clement keeps an abundance of them to sell, and hun- dreds of people have derived real pleasure in buying and examin- ing them. "Jim " enjoys himself and improves his health, he says, when with basket, cold chisel, and miner's hammer slung ou his shoulder, he takes a tramp through the valley and over the hills seeking to find all the metals, minerals, and precious stones known in the books, in this, as he alleges, "the most wonderful mineral deposit on earth."
CHAPTER II.
HOW THE BERRY BROOK ROAD WAS BUILT AND A PATH ON TO MOOSEHILLOCK WAS CUT, WITH A PLEASANT ACCOUNT OF SEV- ERAL INDIVIDUALS WHO NICKNAMED EACH OTHER IN THE HAPPIEST MANNER.
THE people in all this northern country were disappointed in the failure to build the canal. They wanted an easy route to the seaboard. The old Coos road " was a hard road to travel," and the turnpike which superseded it, although nearly straight and very well made, being over hills and lofty mountains, all known as the Height-o'-land, was a very difficult highway on which to transport heavy freight.
Gen. McDuffee's survey had one important result, it informed the world that there was an easier route than the turnpike and that was the one through the Oliverian notch. Individuals from Wells River and northern Vermont, came down and examined this pass through the hills and went back with a glowing report of the ease with which a road could be built through it. They sent messen- gers and letters to Warren urging the inhabitants to build it; but our little democracy was violently opposed to the enterprise for the reason that it would subject them to much expense, and as it passed through an uninhabited section it would cost a large sum each year to keep it in repair. Besides, the landlords upon the turnpike knew it would kill them, and they worked against it with all their might.
But something must be done for the clamor came down even
455
THE BERRY BROOK ROAD.
from the boundaries of Canada saying, " Build the Berry brook road." So an assembly of the people was held in the selectmenship of Moses H. Clement, Samuel L. Merrill, and Samnel Merrill, July 22d, 1834, and Nathaniel Clough, Solomon Cotton, and Samuel Bixby were chosen a committee to examine and explore all routes thought proper for a highway through the town.
The committee acted. They went up the banks of the Mikas- " eota or Black brook, and down Berry brook valley. Whether or not they went over the low pass between Waternomee and Cush- man mountains to Woodstock, or climbed the old route surveyed by Abel Merrill and Joseph Patch by Glen ponds to Trecothick, we are unable to say, for the committee made no report and never intended to ; the only object was delay.
The people of the upper country waited, then became impa- tient, finally came to the conclusion that our little democracy did not intend to do anything, and getting mad went before the grand jury at Haverhill, and got Warren's public highways indicted, as Col. Obadiah Clement did once before, and the court ordered a large fine to be imposed upon our modest town, to be paid in work upon her bad roads. The citizens were disgusted and indignant, but they worked out the fine.
The subject of a new road was also presented to the court. After a patient hearing of the matter that august tribunal decided that the road should be built through Berry brook valley, and appointed a committee to lay it out. They immediately proceeded with their work, bushing it through and setting the stakes upon the west bank. Then the court ordered the town of Warren to build it.
When it was evident that the work must be performed, and that they could no longer avoid it, an assembly of the citizens was held on the 8th of December, 1834, and it was voted that the road should be built. They would not fight the court in the matter. So they chose Solomon Cotton, Samuel L. Merrill, and Joseph Bixby a committee to carry the work through, and authorized them to raise five hundred dollars to commence with. But this sum hard- ly made a commencement, only cutting the trees and digging the stumps, nothing more. Then it was let out in different sec- tions to several individuals, Maj. Daniel Patch and his son Joseph
456
HISTORY OF WARREN.
building the one upon the Summit. Carlos D. Woodward, Henry Noyes, Roper Noyes, John Buswell, Stevens Merrill, Win- throp and Roswell Elliott, and Ebenezer Calef, built the sections south. Stephen Whiteman said he was a sub-contractor and cut bushes, and that Rev. Horace Webber did the same thing.
Before it was finished two years of time had passed, more than three thousand dollars expended, and the town was heavily in debt. December 22, 1836, the town voted that although the, Berry brook road was not completed, the selectmen should post up notices at each end of said highway, that people might travel over it at their own expense and their own risk.
The debt! It looked like a mountain. Warren hitherto had been an economical town. They were not used to paying big bills. How could they now? The citizens were almost discouraged. But kind Providence, as some of the more pious ones will have it, came to their relief. It happened thus :-
For many years a large amount of money had been accruing in the United States bank. When Gen. Jackson, who was very hostile to the bank, was elected president, that institution was dis- solved, and government after paying the debts of the nation passed a resolve that the surplus should be divided among thie different States, and then distributed to the towns of which they were com- posed. By a vote passed at the regular annual meeting, the select- men were empowered to go to Concord and receive the "Surplus Revenue." They brought home with them eighteen hundred dol- lars. At first they hardly knew what to do with it; but at a town meeting held for the purpose, voted that the selectmen put the money out at usury, not letting any one individual have more than two hundred dollars. Then in 1838, the town voted that the select- men call in enough of the surplus revenue to pay up for the build- ing of the Berry brook road,-a very sensible vote-but they coupled on the following rather ambiguous clause, " That Solomon Cotton be an agent to take charge of the money, and that the selectmen hire it of him, giving their notes for the same and pay the town debt with it." What became of the notes we are wholly unable to say. The town certainly never paid them.
With the new road through Berry brook valley built, a hotel must be erected on the Summit. Moses Abbott, the fat man, kept
457
A PATH CUT UP MOOSEHILLOCK.
it at first, and then it passed into the hands of Benjamin Little, and he was mine host in that section for many years .*
Travelers who stopped at Mr. Little's inn, frequently sug- gested that they would like to climb to the bald crest of Moosehil- lock. To gratify the wish, one summer day he raised all High street by giving them what grog they could drink and they bushed out a path right up the side of the mountain to the topmost peak.
It was a beautiful day when the party of road makers came out upon the bald crest. The wind was blowing strong from the north west, and the little flowers growing upon Moosehillock's bare peak shook their white heads in the breeze.
Our landlord is standing upon the north peak. His friends and their dogs, wild dwellers of the Summit and of High street, are in a group around him. Nathan Willey, playfully called " Mr. Nutter;" Moses Ellsworth, who had the title of "Fortyfoot," on account of the shortness of his stature; Isaac Fifield, a tall man, gifted in prayer in time of revivals, whom the Summit boys face- tiously called " Aunt Isaac,"-" Fortyfoot " had " Aunt Isaac's " prayer learned by heart, and could repeat it with unction on occa- sions when he had put himself outside of two or three beverages ; t Sir Richard Whiteman ; Stephen Whiteman, with the pious title of . " Elder Binx ;" John French, the school-master, an early riser, who had the economical habit of lying in bed with his wife till the clock struck three in the afternoon, in winter, to save fire-wood; Welches, father and two sons, Silas and Bartlett; Stephen Martin, Calvin Bailey, Samuel Whitcher, James Harriman, husband of Mrs. Harriman, and others, and Joseph Whitcher, the bear-catcher, wolf-killer, and story-teller, were there-all good men, who thus good naturedly nicknamed each other .¿ Their beards were un- shaven, and their long hair streamed out in the pure air that was blowing so steady over the mountain.
The blue sky is above them; no smoke, no haze, no clouds are there. Silver lakes and flashing rivers lay beneath them. A thou-
* In early times Chase Whitcher kept entertainment for man and beast on the Summit, Maj. Daniel Patch also, but neither of them kept tavern.
t We once saw Jim Clement burst every button off his vest laughing at " Forty- foot," when he was repeating " Aunt Isaac's " prayer to " Aunt I." himself, and a crowd of listeners.
# Some well bred people have said that it was mean business for the above gentlemen to call each other names.
.
458
HISTORY OF WARREN.
sand mountain peaks bathing their heads in the bright sunshine are around them. There are peaks sharp and angular, wavy wooded mountain crests, great cones standing alone, dome shaped moun- tains dark and sombre.
Mr. Nathan Willey wanted to know what that great sheet of water in the south was, and John French, the school-master, said it must be the Smile of the Great Spirit, the beautiful lake Winne- pisseogee. Mr. Stephen Whiteman asked what that ragged look- ing mountain over there to the north-east was, and the school- master told how he had heard Dick French, the hunter, tell about the great Haystacks that had white furrows down their sides, and that they were terrible hard mountains to climb. Capt. Benj. Little pointed out the long river down in the west as the Connecti- cut and Richard Whiteman said he could see Black mountain, Owl's-head, Webster slide, and Wachipauka pond, -he knew them. Stephen Whiteman stuck to it that he could see Boston; and said it was not a great distance either, only a hundred and forty miles by the road; and that Maj: True Stevens had walked it in less than two days when he came back from Brighton, where he had been with a drove .* Capt. Ben. Little said he could beat that, and then he told how Col. Moses H. Clement went down to Brighton with a flock of sheep, and had a little brindle dog Bose to help drive them, that just at dark in Brighton he lost the dog, and that before night the next day, Bose whined and barked at the door in Warren, and Mrs. Clement let him in, terribly tired and footsore. The dog had run a hundred and forty miles in less than twenty-four hours. Joseph Whitcher said he didn't care any- thing about such stories, and then he went on to tell that he had been all over the mountain a good many times before, hunting wolves. Said he, " I caught one down there in the Tunnel where you can hear Tunnel brook roaring. Once I followed one down Mooschillock river that rises over there in that dark fir woods and runs down into the Pemigewassett, but did not get him."
" Where does Tunnel brook go to?" said Stephen Whiteman. Whitcher said it ran down into the Swiftwater, and the latter stream emptied into the Ammonoosuc. Then the bear catcher said
* John Libbey once did the same thing. He walked from Boston to Warren in two days. He got up to Concord the first day the sun an hour high .- Anson Mer- rill's statement.
:
459
THE SUMMIT OF MOOSEHILLOCK.
he got'two deer once in the meadow where was the little pond which was the head of Baker river, and that once he fished clear down to the East-parte and got more trout than he could lug, and Mr. Fifield said he didn't believe a word of it. But Joseph Whitcher did not care a copper whether he believed it or not, and went on to say that he had a sable line every year on the Oliverian, and that every one of these streams, Tunnel brook, Swiftwater, Moosehillock river, Baker river, and the Oliverian, had its source within a rod of the mountain summit where they stood. Moses Ellsworth said he knew this was a lie for he hadn't had a drop of anything for an hour to wet his whistle with, and he was most choked to death and would like to see the springs from which the streams started.
Just then three eagles rose out of the great Tunnel where the brook was roaring, and came hovering over the grassy mountain crest, hunting for small birds and mice. "See there ! " said Mr. Willey. The dogs snuffed the air, erected the hair on their backs, and their ears stood straight. One of them barked. The eagles, one with white breast and tail, the others gray, caught sight and sound. Wheeling in the air, seemingly without moving feather or wing, around and around in great circles, each time higher up, they soared thousands of feet above the mountain peak, until they were almost lost in the deep blue. Then, a speck in the sky, they sailed slowly away castward over the great Pemigewassett valley. Stephen Whiteman said he would like to know how those birds could get up so high without " floppin " their wings once.
But it was getting cold, the men were dry, and away they went through the matted hackmatacks down the mountain. When they were gone, as great novelists would tell it, the wind still sighed on the rocks, the little birds sang their vesper hymns in the dark firs, the eagles screamed again, and a wolf howled down in one of the great gorges ; but no human ear was there to listen. The moun- tain peak was left alone, a mighty solitude in the great waste of mountains, just as it had been for ages. As the men went home Isaac Fifield said that " the rain might descend, the winds blow, the frosts come, and the snow fall and no human being for years would again gaze upon this wild magnificence." But Mr. Fifield's
460
HISTORY OF WARREN.
reflections did not prove true, and scattering visitors from that day forth began to climb Moosehillock mountain :*
This last road cost Warren nothing; the burden of the first the surplus revenue removed. Both brought prosperity and hap- piness, one by attracting visitors with its mighty grandeur, the other by turning a still larger tide of travel through our pleasant hamlet valley.
* Dr. Ezra Bartlett, Samuel Knight and others went on to Moosehillock about the year 1800. They did not succeed in lighting a fire, and it was so cold they had to leave the summit at night. They went down on the north east side over the great ledges in the ravine where they had to let themselves down with a pole. There was snow on the mountain at the time .- Miss Hannah B. Knight's statement.
Explanatory Note .- The substance of the story about cutting the Moosehillock path is true. But our authorities said they would not vouch for all the minute particulars.
CHAPTER III.
OF A GREAT LAWSUIT ABOUT MRS. SARAH WEEKS, WHOM FOOLISH PEOPLE CALLED A WITCH, CONCLUDING WITH PLEASANT REC- OLLECTIONS OF A PARING BEE AND A "SHIN-DIG," IF ANY -. BODY KNOWS WHAT THAT IS.
WARREN in olden times had waged fierce lawsuits. Col. Obadiah Clement, fighting for victory, indignant teamsters and stage drivers getting numerous indictments to cure bad roads, had cost the town many a hard battle. But these old fights buried under nearly half a century were almost forgotten, living only in the memory of the most aged inhabitants. Even the recollection of the would be lawsuit Stevens Merrill might have had with James Aiken, had he not taken the law into his own hands and a house been burned up, had almost faded away forever.
But now when the third generation of Warren's white inhabi- tants were on the stage the slumbering volcano of litigating wrath once more burst forth and our peaceful hamlet among the hills was tossed from centre to circumference .* It happened in this wise.
* Death by Fright .- Warren never has had many lawyers, but has been blessed with plenty of law. Joseph Patch, Jr., for a while was deputy sheriff, and he once went on to Pine-hill to arrest one Goodwin on a civil process. Goodwin stood looking at him till the sheriff got within a rod of him, and then fell dead in his tracks. It was said by some that his imagination killed him.
Serious Law Case .- Capt. Samuel L. Merrill once kept store on the turnpike, near the Blue ridge. Some one hitched his horse and sleigh in the store shed one day and went in to purchase goods. While there a person supposed to be tipsy, went up behind the old fashioned, high-backed, blue-painted sleigh, to answer to one of the calls of nature. The sleigh back was five feet high to keep the wind off the driver, and there was a crack near the top of it. The copious flood poured forth by the tipsy man ran through the crack, down on the inside and wet the owner's
462
HISTORY OF WARREN.
Mrs. Sarah Weeks, of whom we have spoken before, and who had the very enviable reputation of being a witch, wife of Benjamin Weeks, Jr., had become chargeable to the town of Wentworth for support as a pauper. She had once lived in Warren on the Height- o'-land, and Wentworth thought our good town should support her. Wentworth requested Warren to do so. Warren refused. Wentworth was indignant-mad -and said she should. Warren was stubborn and a suit was brought.
Our neighbor across the southern border employed distin- guished counsel,-Hon. Jolin P. Hale, U. S. Senator, and after- wards minister to Spain, and Hon. Josiah Quincy. Our beloved hamlet engaged the services of Hon. Franklin Pierce, afterwards President of the United States, and Thomas J. Whipple, Esq., to assist him. The case was in the Eastern Judicial District of Graf- ton county, and was tried at Plymouth. It turned upon this point: Did Benjamin Weeks, Jr., have a residence in Warren? He had never paid taxes there seven years in succession ; but on the books was this record: " 1817, Benj. Weeks elected hogreeve." There was no record of his taking the oath of office, and unless he had done so, he would not have gained a residence. There was great , excitement about the case in both towns, and it greatly increased when the witnesses were summoned. On the part of Wentworth, the following were cited to appear:
Richard Whiteman and Stephen Whiteman, of Warren, Wil- liam Whiteman, of Canada, Joshua Copp, Jr., of Northumberland, N. H., William Kelley, and Anson Merrill .*
dinner, thereby spoiling it. It was a case of trespass; the owner was mad, and swore he would have satisfaction. Moses Ellsworth, sometimes called Forty foot, was present, tipsy, and he was at once suspected as the culprit, and taken into custody. There was uo judge present, so a "reference " was appointed and they immediately proceeded with the investigation. Fortyfoot plead "not guilty," whereupon a two foot rule was procured and the culprit's legs were measured. They were found to be only two feet four inches long, while the crack in the back of the sleigh was three feet six inches from the ground, consequently the reference after great deliberation, brought in that Fortyfoot could not have possibly done the dirty deed, and he was acquitted. It is said that the accused wept tears of joy over the result of the trial, and that the court, counsel, and spectators, all took a smile at the bar of justice inside the store.
Moses Abbott and Joseph Whitcher once bet on an election. Each staked his hog against the other. Abbott lost but would not give up his hog. After a good deal of discussion they left it out to William Pomeroy, Enoch R. Weeks, and Ste- vens M. Dow, who brought in that Whitcher should have Abbott's hog ; a very proper decision according to the betting code, but decidedly illegal. This case created immense excitement on the Sununit.
* ANSON AND MAHALA (Burns) MERRILL'S FAMILY RECORD.
Married Oct. 1831. He was born Dec. 4, 1804. She was born Aug. 15, 1815. Their children are Elizabeth, Van, an infant, Ada A. and Ellen L.
Jan Blago
463
GREAT LAWSUIT.
On the part of Warren, Moses H. Clement, Jesse Little,* Page Clement, son of old Jonathan Clement, innkeeper, David Fellows, and Nathaniel Clough, were summoned.
William D. McQuestion was agent for Wentworth; Enoch R. Weeks was agent for Warren.
And now the battle began. Wentworth's witnesses testified that Benjamin Weeks, Jr., was chosen hogreeve ; but they could not swear that he was sworn in. Warren's witnesses testified that he was chosen, but that he was not sworn in. The lawyers on the trial were very smart as might be expected, and fought tenaciously. They wanted to show their present and future clients what great ability they had.
The evidence was all in; they were about to commence the arguments ; silence reigned in the court room. There was a pause. Then Richard Whiteman, sometimes called Sir Richard of Tama- rack swamp, again took the stand. His countenance shone, his recollection was refreshed, and he testified as brave as a lion that Benjamin Weeks, Jr., was elected, that he was sworn in, and that he, Whiteman, had helped him on several occasions both yoke and ring hogs. Most satisfactory evidence !
The arguments were made, the Judge delivered his charge, the jury retired, and returning in a few minutes, gave a verdict for Wentworth. Warren's agent and his witnesses went home feeling cheap enough.
That night Wentworth had a jollification. Their old cannon was brought out. It was double charged every time, and again and again it sent the notes of victory up the Asquamchumauke valley, over every hill of our hamlet, even to Warren Summit. Of
JESSE AND SUSAN COPP (Merrill) LITTLE'S FAMILY RECORD.
He was born July 4, 1800.
She was born July, 30, 1808. Married Nov. 18, 1829.
Joseph, born Oct. 28, 1830.
William, born Mar. 20, 1833.
Thomas B. born Sept. 7, 1838. George A. born May 23, 1847.
GENEALOGY OF THE LITTLE FAMILY IN WARREN.
GEORGE LITTLE, a tailor by trade, came from Unicorn street, London, Eng- land. to Newbury, Mass., in 1640. He married Alice Poor.
Moses, 4th child of George, born March 11, 1657, married Lydia Coffin. Tristram, 2d child of Moses, born Dec. 9, 1681, married Sarah Dole. Samnel, 3d child of Tristram, born Feb. 18, 1713, married Dorothy Noyes. James, 1st child of Samuel, born Feb. 18, 1737, married Tamar Roberts. Amos, 3d child of James, born Feb. 28, 1766, married Betsey Kimball. Jesse, 5th child of Amos, born July 4, 1800, married Susan C. Merrill.
464
HISTORY OF WARREN.
course the citizens of Warren were perfectly delighted with the gentle music.
Wentworth's celebration had a wonderful effect. It waked up the musty recollection of every old man in Warren. They began. to remember how the case was. Old Mr. Nathaniel Clough was the first man to recall it. The facts were something as follows: There were in town two men, father and son, by the name of Ben- jamin Weeks, Benjamin, Sen., and Benjamin, Jr. The son was chosen hogreeve, but as he was not in the meeting at the time, to take the oath, his father, Benjamin Weeks, stepped forward at once and said, " Choose me and I will serve." He was immedi- ately chosen, took the oath, and the record on the town book, " 1817, Benj. Weeks elected hogreeve," was correct; but it had no relation to Benj. Weeks, Jr. Many other men now remembered the fact and the town could not give the case up so.
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