East of the White Hills

NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES 3 3433 07954380 1 ^'!9s»r'ff<<'m>?:m2m J I EAST OF THE 1 WHITE HILLS. COMPILED BY " M. E. EASTMAN, NORTH CONWAY, N. H. -•i ' Blanchard's Book Press, North Conway, N. H. C ! THE KEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LENOX AWO "Touched by a light that hath no name, A gloiy never sung, Aloft on sky and mountain wall Are God's great pictures hung. How changed the summits vast and old No longer granite- browed. They meet in i-osy mist; the rock Is softer than the cloud; The valley holds its breath ; no leaf Of all its elms is twirled : The silence of eternity Seems falling on the world." , Whittier. Copyright by M. E. EASTMAN. 1900. TABLE OF CONTENTS. —o- PAGE CoNWAY, Town of 5 NoKTH Conway, 10 Lady Blanche Murphy, 21 Kearsarge, 27 Intervale, 28 Conway Village, 32 Mount Chocorua and the Legend, 37 The White Mountain Notch, 48 The Story of the Willey^ Family, 68 Summit of Mount Washington to * the Glen, 82 View From Summit of Mount Washington, 95 Jackson, . 112 Bartlett, ..... 117 Fryeburg, ..... 121 Notes, . ... • 137 PREFACE. The design of the compiler of the following volume was to collect some of the most thrilling sketches connected with the region East of the White Hills. Great care has been taken in selecting from the most interesting descriptions given of these events. The compiler also wishes to acknowledge the courtesy of Messrs. Dana Estes & Co., in granting permission to give in this volume historical and descriptive matter from ''The White Hills, Their Legends, Landscape; and Poetr}^" by Thomas Starr King. A handsome new edition. Illustrated with eleven beautiful full page photogravure plates, besides upwards of sixty wood engravings in the text. This edition of Starr King's famous "White Hills" has received nothing but praise and good words from the press and all who have seen it. The literature of the White Mountains has be- come very extensive since these chapters were written, but no one has seen so deeply into the beauties of that magnificent scenery, nor described them with so much feeling and poetry. Since then, too, a new generation has grown up, and a work of this never failing charm and artistic value is in constant demand. For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid by the publishers upon receipt of the price, $1.50. THE COMPILER. North Conway, N. H., 1900. < £ r, Z r. •AX.-' NORTH Conway From Sunset Hill. Mount Washington From Sago River. North Conway Meadows—The Ledges. Echo Lake—White Horse Ledge. Conway. "From the heart of Waumbek Methna, from the lake that never fails, Falls the Saco in the green lap of Conway's intervales." (^T^HE history of the locality can be traced through a ^ long succession of years. Long before the White Hills had been seen and named by the navigators who explored the Atlantic coast, this was the ideal home of the Pequawket In- dians, and for many years they held undisputed sway over all the country between the Notch and the sea. They were a hardy and daring race, possessing a higher degree of intelligence than the Algonquins. In this beautiful valley was a perfect home for any savage tribe, abounding as it did with fish and game, while the wateis of the Saco afforded access to the sea. Up this winding stream ("unchecked in all its sea- ward course"), passed Darb}^ Field in the year 1632, on his way to the White Hills ; the pioneer of the countless numbers who have followed in his footsteps, to visit the wonders of this mystical region ; and a little over a century later the few Indians remaining after the Lovewell fight saw the advance of the white man who was to occupy their homes, and trample the 6 EAST OF THE WHITE HILLS. ashes of their council-fires in the dust. Quoting from 1\L F. Sweetzer: ''Conway takes its name from that galhmt old statesman, Hcnr}' Seymour Conway, Wal- pole's friend, Commander-in-chief of the British army, and at the time when this raountain-glen was bap- tized, a prominent champion of the liberties of America." A charter dated October 1 , 1765 was obtained from George the Third (then reigning in England), and Benning Wentworth, governor of the province of New Hampshire. The charter called for 23,040 acres of land, with 1,040 acres for ponds, roads, mountains, etc. Grantees: Daniel Foster, Joseph Eastman, Asa Kimball, Andrew McMillan, and William Stark for building mills ; George Abbott. Joseph Eastman, Jr., Thomas Merrill, Moses Eastman, Henry Lovejoy, Obe- diah Eastman, Nathaniel Eastman, Andrew Buntin, Ephriam Carter, Reuben Kimball, Richard Ayer, Jacob Ayers, Perley Ayers, Nathaniel Perley, Ebenezar Bur- bank, Peter Ayers. Samuel Merrill, William Ladd, Samuel Ayers, Jr., Joshua Heath, James Osgood, Asa Foster, Moses Foster, Jr., Francis Carr, John Carr, Ephriam Foster, David Carr, Elias Heath, Caleb Fos- ter, Darnel Ingalls, Benjamin Ingalls, John Mastin, John Mastin, Jr., William Ingalls, John Ingalls, Moses Foster, Samuel Ingalls, John Johnson, David Hicks, Arthur Bennett, James Burleigh, Jonathan Stevens, David Davis, Josiah Johnson, Thomas Bragg, Peter Parker, John Beverly Watts, the Hon. John Temple, Esq., the Hon. Theodore Atkinson, Daniel Warner, Mark Hunking Wentworth, Theodore Atkinson. Jr., Nathaniel Banell, Peter Livius, Jonathan Warner, ; CONWAY. 7 Clement March, Elsq., John Lang, John Tufiin Mason, Esq., Henry Sherburne, Esq., Speaker of the Assem- bly. The land was divided into sixty-nine equal shares, each grantee receiving one share ; two shares containing five hundred acres, to be reserved for Gov- ernor Wentworth ; one for the support of the Gospel in heathen lands, one for the Church of England, one for the first settled minister, and one for the benefit of schools. "p]very grantee, his heirs and assigns, were re- quired to plant and cultivate five acres of land within the term of five years, for every fifty acres contained in his share. AVhite pine trees fit for masts were, of course, reserved for His Majesty, and before any divis- ion of the land be made one-acre lots near the centre of the township be reserved for each grantee, and each grantee should pay annually, if demanded, one ear of Indian corn in the month of December for ten years after the ten years one shilling proclamation money for every one hundred acres." Conway is now bounded north by Chatham and Bartlett, south by Eaton, east by Maine, west by Mad- ison and Albany. Its principal rivers are the Saco, Swift, and Pequawket; its largest ponds Walker's and Pequawket. The glowing accounts which hunters gave of the "Saco valley" attracted settlers early to Con- way from the lower towns. They came mostly from Lee and Durham. The first settlement made in this town was in 1764. The first settlers were James and Benjamin Os- good, John Doloff, and Ebenezar Burbank. In 1765 the town was granted to Daniel Foster. Most of the 8 EAST OF THE WHITE HILLS. settlers built their cabins on the intervales along the banks of the river. ^ "They regarded as of little con- sequence the sudden rises of the Saco until the year 1785, when the 'great freshet' taught them the folly of their course, and drove them back upon the high land. Houses and barns were all swept awa}^ by this sudden rise of water. Water ran many feet deep over the whole wide intervale. On the day following the storm houses and barns were seen sailing quietly down the current, the cocks crowing merrily as they floated on. This storm occasioned great loss of property." The white man was not as good a student of nature as the Indian. The latter built their dwellings on the land thirty of more feet above the level of the intervale, while the whites built on the intervales until this great freshet drove them to the uplands. The former had for convenience several clusters of wigwams up and dow^n the valley. One of them was beautifully located in North Conway, but a short distance from where the Kearsarge House now stands. One was near the crossing of the Saco by the Eastern Railroad. One called "Foster's Pocket," lay immediately south of- Indian Hill, and was an encampment of not less than twenty families of Indians. The intervales were covered with an extensive growth of white pine and maple, and for many years almost the entire support of the inhabitants was de- rived from the sale of maple sugar, which was manu- factured in enormous quantities. These meadows have 1 By Bcnjauiin Willey. 2 Indian Hill is noiir the B. & M. R. R. bridge, al)out one- and oue- fourth miles below Nortli Conway viUuLre. CONWAY. 9 gradually been cleared of their growth, but even to this day, orchards of this noble tree may be seen on the banks of the Saco. A Congregational church was formed in this town October 28, 1778, consisting of Thomas Russell. Tim- othy Walker, Abiel Lovejoy, and Richard Eastmnn. Soon after its formation, Noah Eastman, Abiathar Eastman, with their wives and others, were added to it. Rev. Nathaniel Porter, D.D., was the first pastor of this church, installed over it at the time of its formation. His pastorate extended over a period of thirty-seven years. He was a doctor, made such b}' one of the most discriminating, learned institutions in the land. Doctor Porter was a poor man all through his life, often in want of other light, writing his ser- mons by the blaze of pitch knots.

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