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 TD THE 
 
 J^istoryof Old Derryfield, 
 
 BY WILLIAM ELLERY MOORE. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
/ 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS JJJlL 
 
 TO THE (j ^^* ^ 
 
 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD, 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY AND LANDSCAPE 
 
 AS MODIFIED BY TORRENTS FROM MELTING ICE-FIELDS, TOGETHER 
 
 WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF EARLY FLOODS AND OTHER 
 
 LOCAL EVIDENCES OF A GLACIAL EPOCH. 
 
 BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE 
 
 MANCHESTER HISTORIC ASSOCIATION. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
 /^9(o 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress 
 
 in the 
 
 Office of the Librarian at Washington, D. C. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD 
 
 BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PRELIMINARY — LANDMARKS — ROCK RIMMON — THE PINNACLE — MERRI- 
 MACK — PISCATAQUOG — BLACK BKOOK — COHAS — MASSABESIC 
 LAKE — SPECIAL FEATURES, ETC. 
 
 THE conscientious and self-respecting historian will always 
 aim at relating not only the truth but the whole truth. His- 
 tories of Derryfield have been written, but none of them began 
 at the beginning. It does not need to be added that very much 
 was omitted. 
 
 The present undertaking will give some account of pre-his- 
 toric times and will be brought down to date. The whole period 
 covered embraces more than a thousand centuries — how much 
 more cannot with certainty be computed. In the presence of 
 this time-problem the wisest are ignorant, since the facts with 
 which we have first to deal refer to times so remote as to make 
 ancient history a tale of yesterday The story to be related in 
 these opening chapters relies for evidence upon no witnesses — 
 there were none — neither upon myth, kgend or tradition. Our 
 sole authorities are certain eloquent " sermons in stones " and 
 sundry decipherable "books in the running brooks." These, 
 however, supply ample and conclusive testimony. 
 
4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 All the available sources of information will be examined, and 
 the animal, vegetable and mineral creation interrogated. No 
 stone will be left unturned, no field unploughed, no plant or 
 animal permitted to escape. 
 
 LANDMARKS. 
 
 For the present we defer giving details of the early occupa- 
 tion and settlement of Derryfield and confine our view to some 
 prominent features of its natural scenery and topography. To 
 present these in intelligent order it will be necessary to broaden 
 our hoiizon to include the entire landscape, from the highlands 
 on the east to the mountains rising west of the Merrimack. 
 
 From the river valley the ground ascends rapidly at first, then 
 broadening into an extensive and nearly level plain, and again 
 mounting abruptly to the height of land in the eastern fore- 
 ground. Here the chief elevations are known as Wilson, Bald, 
 and Oak or Heath-Hen hills. From these highlands a magnifi- 
 cent panorama salutes the eye, and as the sun illuminates the 
 picture a thousand points of splendor punctuate the wide and 
 varied scene. 
 
 To the north may be seen Mt. Belknap and the Gilford moun- 
 tains, as well as a portion of the Ossipee and Sandwich groups, 
 while with favoring conditions glimpses of the Franconia range 
 may be seen without a glass. To the northwest is a distinct 
 view of Kearsarge and Ragged mountains, while in Vermont 
 the distant crest of Ascutney breaks the line of the horizon. 
 Westward and trending south we aie confronted with Crotchet 
 and Temple mountains, dominated by Pack and Grand Monad- 
 nock, the blue lift of Wachuset in Massachusetts closing the 
 grand sweep as if of a hemisphere. 
 
 But these, with others scarcely less conspicuous, form only 
 the background of the picture, for nearer and in front stand the 
 Uncanoonucks and Joe English, flanked by the Dunbarton, 
 Mount Vernon and Lyndeborough ridges, while nearer still are 
 the rounded slopes of Hackett, Shirley, Scribner's, and Yacum 
 
HISTORY OF DEKKVFIELD. 5 
 
 hills, with a host of lesser eminences completing the details of 
 a picturesque landscape, which for quiet and restful beauty is 
 unrivalled in southern New Hampshire. 
 
 Ancient Derr) field included the whole river front, from above 
 the falls at Amoskeag on the north to below Goffe's falls on the 
 south, and the mile-limit to the east crossed the summit of 
 Wilson hill. 
 
 ROCK RIMMON. 
 
 Directly west of Amoskeag falls, upon a level plateau extend- 
 ing from the ancient river terrace, Rock Rimmon lifts its solid 
 shoulder of gneiss above the plain. This rock is an object of 
 great interest, attracts many visitors, and offers a most superb 
 view of the Piscataquog and Merrimack valleys. The easterly 
 escarpment is a sheer and inaccessible precipice of one hundred 
 and seventeen feet, the crest reaching an altitude of more than 
 three hundred feet above the bed of the river.* The summit is 
 easily reached from the western and northern slopes. 
 
 THE PINNACLE. 
 
 Eight miles away to the north, on the west bank of the Mer- 
 rimack, is another bald and rocky peak, mounting also from a 
 terrace-plain, rising even higher than its Derr)field rival. Just 
 west and touching the base of the Pinnacle is a small lake. The 
 water is very deep, is popularly believed to have no bottom, and 
 in area and contour is said to exactly match the outline of the 
 Pinnacle itself. It has been contended that this great mass of 
 rock was lifted bodily from the bed of the lake and the hole 
 afterwards filled with water. When the Pinnacle slides back to 
 its old quarters we may the more reatlily assent to this theory. 
 A substantial observatory hass been erected upon the summit, 
 from which exceptionally fine views may be had. 
 
 * The exact figures, taken from the field-notes of the City En.£;ineer, are as follows : Top 
 of rock above city elevation, 296. -!5 feet ; base above the same level, 179. S3 feet, and about 95 
 feet above low-water mark at Amoskeag eddy. Extreme height of rock, 116.53 ^^^^' 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 THE MERRIMACK. 
 
 This river is now a continuous stream from its sources to the 
 sea, but there is little doubt that the present valley was once 
 filled with a great chain of lakes, extending from the Winne- 
 pesauke on the north to an indeterminate point to the south, 
 certainly as far as ancient Dunstable. The evidence in support 
 of this view is conclusive and will be considered in detail here- 
 after. Along the course of the river the ancient terraces form 
 a conspicuous feature. 
 
 THE PISCATAQUOG. 
 
 This river enters the Merrimack on the west bank, some two 
 miles below Amoskeag falls. The valley extends in a north- 
 westerly direction, passing to the west of Rock Rimmon. The 
 old terraces on either bank are remarkable. 
 
 BLACK BROOK. 
 
 This considerable water-course has its source in the Dunbar- 
 ton hills, twelve miles away, flows southeasterly and enters the 
 Merrimack on the west bank a short distance above Amoskeag 
 falls. The significent relation of this now somewhat reduced 
 stream to our history will become more apparent as the record 
 proceeds. 
 
 COHAS BROOK. 
 
 Aside from a number of inconsiderable brooks and rivulets, 
 this is the only local water-way remaining unnoticed. It is the 
 outlet of Massabesic lake and enters the Merrimack on the east 
 bank, immediately below Goffe's falls. The foregoing, therefore, 
 comprise all the principal water systems properly belonging to 
 the Derryfield map, or which are of importance as relating to 
 our present inquiry. 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 7 
 
 MASSARESIC. 
 
 Four miles to the east, and wholly within the bounds of an- 
 cient Chester, this fine body of water lies in a series of bays, so 
 joined by necks and separated by headlands as to include a shore- 
 line of not less than thirty-six miles. From this lake the great 
 manufacturing city of Manchester derives its water-supply. The 
 Massabesic is dotted with numerous islands and surrounded by 
 highlands, conspicuous among them being a splendid rocky 
 prbmontory on the Auburn shore, Minot's ledge, and the moun- 
 tain in Chester familiarly known as the "Devil's Den." The 
 old water-marks plainly show a much higher lake-level in a not 
 remote period, the water then wholly covering the present high- 
 way and involving the out-lymg meadows and lowlands. Several 
 smaller ponds are found within the limits of ancient Derryfield, 
 but none calling for more than passing recognition, 
 
 SPECIAL FEATURES. 
 
 Over and above the more prominent landmarks of the terri- 
 tory we have attempted to describe there are in addition a num- 
 ber of less conspicuous but even more striking points of interest. 
 Chief among these are the following : 
 
 1. The great clay deposits about the Hooksett Pinnacle, and 
 extending north, especially on the east bank of the river. 
 
 2. The enormous accumulations of sand upon the site of Der- 
 ryfield proper. 
 
 3. The stupendous bulk of water-worn stones and gravel, high 
 above modern water levels, in ancient terraces and moraines. 
 
 4. Certain remarkable instances of rock-wear performed by 
 pre-historic streams. 
 
 5. Travelled blocks and rock-fragments transported from dis- 
 tant centres of dispersion. 
 
 6. Curious survivals of tropical trees and shrubs. 
 
8 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 These, with added evidences of the work done by water in 
 another age, will be considered in the proper place, when it will 
 be shown that these wonderful monuments now bear mute but 
 unimpeachable testimony to the existence of powerful and long- 
 continued currents, flowing in so vast a volume as to make the 
 proudest river of to-day a pla) thing. These propositions, with 
 the facts referable to them, are as certain as anything in Deut- 
 eronomy, but we regret to say there are still otherwise intelli- 
 gent people who refuse to believe them. The Agnostic claims 
 that he can know nothing, and is aware of it ; but even such 
 an one is less difficult to convince than he who likewise knows 
 nothing but has no knowledge of it. 
 
 Should it be desired to prove beyond question that New Eng- 
 land was once the scene of volcanic activity, a piece of Roxbury 
 pudding stone would be sufficient. So, in reference to our pres- 
 ent purpose, any strip of land in New Hampshire, with hills 
 and valleys and water-courses, will serve for illustration. Such 
 a region was Derryfield — a territory one mile wide and eight 
 miles long — ranging upon the Menimack, and now the river- 
 front of Manchester. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE A(;E of ice-water — GRADUAL DISAPPEAR ANXE OF WATER — EARTH 
 MAKES STEAM — A WITNESS OR TWO. 
 
 Stated by the best obtainable evidence, this zone of ours has 
 passed through at least one — possibly several — glacial epochs. 
 We have now to consider only the last, the effects of whicli are 
 still to be seen about us on every hand, when sought for with 
 asking eyes. 
 
 The gl.'.cial and inter-glacial theories, as now understood and 
 generally accepted, offer a wondcrlully inviting ficdd for study. 
 No time will be lost in any discussion of the causes which made 
 necessary an age of ice, and we shall now simply illustrate our 
 history with some pictures showing the action of water, notably 
 of streams proceechng from rapidly melting ice-fields. 
 
 We are tempted to record much matter not wholly within the 
 scope of our storv ; we find it difficult to avoid asking and even 
 attempting some answer to questions which trooj:> about and 
 beset us at every turn, but must be content with a few prelim- 
 inary generalizations. 
 
 We may conceive Earth in its desolation, its first-boni naked- 
 ness, before desire arose, absolutely without life other than that 
 which may have been potential. We then reach a later period in 
 which there was indeed life, existing in low forms, maintained 
 with difficult)', intermittent and migratory. Still later we recog- 
 nize a true life-bearing age, in which [jlant-^ and animals inclus- 
 ive of man appeared, moved and died. 
 
 To the foregoing it seems necessary to add that as there were 
 life-bearing and non-life-bearing [periods so there were non-life- 
 producing as well as life )ielding zones. Moreover, that climatic 
 changes in the same zone rendered it now fit now unfit tor life, 
 and this entirely without reference to elevation and sub.sidence 
 
lO CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 or any other so-called cataclysmal operation of the crust of our 
 planet. We intend to mean that the surface of solid Earth has 
 been by turns so blasted with fire, devastated by ice, and deluged 
 with water, that for long periods of time and large continental 
 areas life ot most sorts was out of the question. 
 
 Our orthodox friends will observe that we have no wish to 
 ignore the flood ; on the contrary, we insist upon several and 
 as many rainbows as called for. 
 
 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF WATER. 
 
 We assert with some confidence that there was once much 
 more water upon the surface of our globe than at present; the 
 oceans were larger, the inland waters and streams of greater 
 volume. Should this position need reinforcement let us admit, 
 as it seems we must, that the earth once nourished no life, either 
 animal or vegetable, and we have at once nameless millions of 
 fluid tons to be somehow accounted for. Nor can it be claimed 
 that the atmosphere then and always held moisture in suspen- 
 sion as now, or that absorption by percolation was a process of 
 the earlier as well as ot the later stages of creation. We are 
 thus brought face to face with a curious problem : Without 
 plants or animals, with an atmosphere totally rejecting it and 
 the earth stubbornly declining to take it in at the pores, what 
 was the status of water and where its abiding place ? 
 
 THE EARTH MAKES STEAM. 
 
 Not to be entirely in the dark or beyond our depth, we may 
 hint at the appearance and concede the existence of steam in 
 the earlier cycles and must give it a place as one of the prime 
 factors in the complicated processes of evolution, and to this 
 day and hour a powerful agent in its still uncompleted opera- 
 tions, to which it is not our present purpose to refer. Our read- 
 ers are expected to comfortably fix upon dates, either as to the 
 appearance or duration of the phenomena described or to be 
 
HISTORY OF DEKRYFIELD. II 
 
 described in these opening chapters. We say only and stand by 
 by it, that there was fire, water and steam, fume of gas and' 
 molten flood, ice and snow, by turns and altogether, in such 
 horrible fashion as no new nor old notion of hell can illustrate. 
 If we seek for evidence, present and eloquent witnesses await 
 our interrogations. 
 
 Let us first suppose such a state of things as has been hinted 
 at, when there was this preponderating amount of surface water ; 
 that following this period, in necessary sequence, the effects of 
 evaporation and condensation succeeded ; that in simple obedi- 
 dience to cosmical laws milder methods of dissipation of energy 
 were made possible, and that finally, during a period of intense 
 cold, the whole or nearly the whole maximum mass of water at 
 this parallel was converted into ice, and we are furnished with 
 at least a tentative theory if not a working hypothesis. 
 
 One familiar with the testimony of the rocks and the environ- 
 ment of our modern water-systems cannot doubt that something 
 much like this did happen ; that the very zone we now inhabit 
 was once and probably more than once delivered over to the 
 rigors of an arctic winter. In the light of the highest and best 
 equi[)ped recent scientific authorities no prime fact is more 
 rightfully believed than that a large portion of this now temper- 
 ate belt was once deeply covered with ice, and for so vast a 
 cycle that it must have been regarded as perpetual by the people 
 of that age, if people there were. 
 
 A WITNESS OR TWO. 
 
 Again without pausing to discuss the causes which brought 
 about this condition, and not even considering the possibility of 
 its recurrence, it assuredly follows that such an age of ice could 
 not and did not come and go without leaving its mark. 
 
 During a long and busy life Prof. Agassiz accumulated a vast 
 amount of information as to the agency of glacial action in pro- 
 ducing geological effects. A student of glaciers for forty years, 
 
12 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 and growing up in a glacial region, he was familiar with their 
 phenomena. He says : " As soon as geologists have learned 
 to appreciate the extent to which our globe has been covered 
 and fashioned by ice, they may be less inclined to advocate 
 changes of level between land and sea, whenever they meet with 
 the evidence of the action of water." 
 
 Charpentier speaks of "perpetual snow-sheets and glaciers 
 reaching the sea, as far down as the middle of the present tem- 
 perate zone." Prt)f. Gunning characterizes the New England 
 ice-sheet as "colossal." Prof. Newbury, of Columbia College, in 
 a review of the evidence, reaches this conclusion : "The glac- 
 iers and snow-fields of Greenland stretched continuously down 
 the Atlantic coast, to and below New York. * * * * The 
 highlands of New England were com])letely covered and pr(jba- 
 bly deejily buried in sheets of ice and snow." Prof. Dana says 
 the ice-sheet was "semi-continental," and adds: "The height 
 to which scratches and di'ift occur about the White Mountains 
 prox'es tiiat ihe upper .surf. ice of the ice in that region was 6, GOO 
 or 6.500 feet in heigl.t, and hence that the ice was not less than 
 5,000 teet in thickness over the whole of that pait of northern 
 New England. P^icts also show that the surface height in south- 
 western Massachusetts was at least 2,800 feet, in southern Con- 
 necticut 1,000 feet or more." He again remarks that "the 
 continent underwent great modifications in the featiu'es of the 
 surface thiough the agency of ice," and points out in great 
 detail the effects produced by glacial torrents. 
 
 It would be easy to multiply authorities, but since they can 
 be consulted by questioners and (.loubters we will not forestall 
 their studies. We assume, then, tiiat there is no one prime 
 fact in the [last annals of our planet better proved than that of 
 an age of continental glaciers. Evidence of this is increasingly 
 convincing and ma\- be found for the seeking upon nearly every 
 square yard of the hillsides and valleys of New England. 
 
 Mankind are j^rone to treat with indifference that which is 
 common, and the familiar aspect of our lakes and rivci's, even of 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE I3 
 
 the sea, provoke in us no commensurate idea of the stupendous 
 force vvliich water is capable of exertin_o^. 
 
 Two hundred and odd years a<j:o the earhcst printed descrip- 
 tion of Niagara was given to the world by Father Hennepin. 
 His account of this "vast and pi-odigious cadence of water" is 
 a mixture of childish exaggeration and sober truth." But the 
 sublimity ot this great cataract, which discharges the enormous 
 volume of eighteen million cubic feet of water every second, 
 needs not the aid ot description. About 9,800 cubic miles of 
 fresh water — nearly half the quantity on the entire globe — are 
 in the upper lakes, and all the water from these huge reservoirs 
 makes the circuit of the falls, the St. Lawrence, the ocean, 
 vapor, rain, and a retuin to the kikes in a little more than a 
 century and a half. 
 
 But how shrinks this brief cycle of time and how fade the out- 
 lines of the scene wdien in imagination we stand beside the 
 gigantic operations of the past. What some of those operations 
 were let Mr. Cla''ence King tell in his own words. In alluding 
 to volcanic activities he speaks of "what was once a world-wide 
 and immense exhibition of telluric energy * * * distortions 
 of the crust, deludes of molten stone, emissions of mineral dust, 
 heated waters and noxious gases," and asserts that modern vol- 
 canic phenomena are "insignificant when com|)ared with the 
 guhs of molten matter which were thrown U[:) in the great mas- 
 sive eruptions " of the past. 
 
 He adds : " Of climatic catastrojjhes we have the record of 
 at least one ;" and in reference to a glacial period he sets forth 
 the destructive effects of the invasion of our latitude bv polar 
 ice, and the devastating power of the floods which were charac- 
 teristic of its recession. He contends that the modern rivers 
 are mere echoes of their parent streams in the early quai ternary 
 age and utterly incaj^able, even with infinite time, to perform 
 the work of glacial torrents. Citing the wonderful canons of 
 the Cordilleras, he sa)S "they could never have been carved by 
 the pigmy rivers of this climate to the end of time." In view 
 
i4 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 
 
 of all the ascertainable facts, Mr. King believes they present 
 " perfectly overwhelming evidence that the general deposition 
 of aerial water, as compared either with the phenomena of the 
 immediately preceding period or with our own succeeding con- 
 dition, constituted an age of water-catastrophe whose destructive 
 power we only now begin distantly to suspect." 
 
 We have thus briefly cited the few foregoing authorities, in 
 order to reinforce and fortify our interpretation of certain local 
 phenomena, and to the end that our theories may not wilfully 
 be divorced from fact. To the mathematician, the geologist, 
 the astronomer — to those who walk without stumbling in the 
 wide ways leading to the sun — we leave the task of explanation. 
 
 We call to our support at this point but one other authority, 
 and quote from the works o.f Prof. Hitchcock, whose researches 
 in the very field of our inquiry are precisely in point and entitle 
 him to a hearing. He says : " The evidence is clear of the pas- 
 sage of the ice-sheet over all the higher New England summits." 
 The facts illustrating this statement may be found in the geo- 
 logical reports for IMaine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Mas- 
 sachusetts ; for example as to Katahdin, the White Mountains, 
 the Green Mountains, and for Greylock in the state last named. 
 These reports are easily accessible. Prof. Hitchcock describes 
 in detail the moraines and the upper and lower till, and of the 
 former he says: "The capping of the hill is loose, the frag- 
 ments are rough, not far removed from their source, commonly 
 lying naturally." He concludes that these materials were held 
 in the ice at the time of its melting. He also refers to exten- 
 sive "sloping plains of gravel and sand, deposited by streams 
 from melting ice acting upon the moraine." He concludes by 
 remarking that "the numerous kames, elevated sand plains and 
 river terraces came into existence with the copious floods of 
 water resulting from the dissolution of the ice. The history of 
 the ice-age is incomplete without a discussion of the events 
 occurring m this great continental freshet." 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 1 5 
 
 Our own century beholds Earth, as if newly-awakened from 
 a dream ; draped in beautiful orarments, she has striven to hide 
 the scars of her terrific struggle for life. Time has obliterated 
 much ; but there still remain records of an age that is past, and 
 the clear eye of science — the vision of him who seeks to know 
 — may still see the ancient ice-cap moving majestically over the 
 spruce and fir-clad hills of our own horthland. 
 
 In the tremor of forgotten earthquakes and the outburst of 
 crater fires ; in the fall of dew and the music of rain ; in waiting 
 flakes of snow or crystals of frost ; in the quiet creep of glaciers 
 or the rush of enfranchised waters we recognize the play of the 
 old terrestrial forces by which the frame-work of our Earth has 
 been evolved. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 CONXERNING EARLY FLOODS. 
 
 There is at this flay no excuse for descendants of our Derry- 
 field ancestors not knowing that a literal river of ice once flowed 
 down the now peaceful valley of the Merrimack. Its direction, 
 volume and extent are mapped upon their rock-wiinkled home- 
 steads. It crawled southward, grinding- along at the rate of 
 a foot a week — a mile in a century. It at some time halted, 
 for how long we may oidy guess, and then began the terrible 
 retreat. The rate of recession is not so well determined, but 
 was without doubt comparatively rap'd, though probably arrested 
 at various stages and for undefined periods. To judge from the 
 wide-s|ircad havoc to which this near section has been subjected 
 tiiere must have been a halt near us. We know — since we 
 stand upon the scene of the event — that from the foot of this 
 retreating, melting glacier, poured frightful down-rushes of tur- 
 bid water, by whose action the landscape acquired its present 
 characteristic leatures, and by which the suiface materials of 
 this region have been so strangely sifted and assorted. 
 
 The touii.stof to-day who shall stand beside the source of the 
 Arveiron, " who drinks in the sublime view at the foot of the 
 glacier ; he wlio beholds this marvel, glorious with icy portico, 
 facade and pyramid, who hears at night the scornful roar of the 
 Alpine flood," may peradventure frame some dim conce[jtion of 
 energies which seem to know no yesteiday nor morrow. But 
 greater things than these, which promised to flow forever, have 
 passed away. 
 
 Let us come nearer home. Passing westward from the river 
 let us climb the isolated ridge of Rock Rimmon — if, indeed, it 
 be not also submerged — and from that point observe. To the 
 west and trending northerly lies the valley of the Piscataquog ; 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 1/ 
 
 to the east front, ranging north and south, the valley of the 
 Merrimack, and between these the lesser valley of Black Brook. 
 From the point of time we have chosen — a matter of seventy 
 or eighty thousand years ago — these little resemble the peace- 
 ful landscapes with which we are now acquainted. 
 
 Three powerful, ice-fed streams, terrible in their energy, are 
 forcing their way southward, carving channels as they move ; 
 bursting their banks, assaulting rocky barriers, raging, roaring, 
 eroding ; with counter and cross-currents, eddies, whirlpools, 
 horrible, precipitous narrows, and tremendous rapids, forerun- 
 ners of still more tremendous cataracts. Borne along and 
 whirled hither and yon in the midst of these frightful torrents 
 we see indistinguishable masses of debris and angular blocks of 
 frozen clay, with an interminable procession of rifted fragments 
 of inland icebergs, accompanied with stones and rocks of differ- 
 ing dimensions, from the pebble to the bowlder. Add to this 
 the gloom of a cloudy sky, the ceaseless fall of rain, the riot of 
 winds, the song of the tempest. Try to picture the indescriba- 
 ble, continuous rush and turmoil of the elements, the intermit- 
 tent thunder of the pounding ice and bowlders, then turn to the 
 shrunken rivers of to-day. 
 
 The figures of the transporting power of water are startling. 
 We know the force is as the sixth power of the velocity ; that 
 is, by doubling the rate we increase the power sixty four times. 
 To give concrete examples : A stream running at the rate of 
 three inches per second will wear away fine, tough clay ; with 
 a velocity of thirty-six inches per second the current will remove 
 angular fragments of rock from two to three inches in diameter. 
 The latter rate is quite moderate — a little more than two miles 
 an hour — and presents but a picture in little of the rapidity of 
 our earlier floods. We have taken no account of the influence 
 of gravity operating on descending slopes, and we may also call 
 to mind the fact that rocks lose nearly one-third of their weight 
 in water. 
 
 2 
 
10 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 Let US now inquire in a general way what we find to be the 
 environment of our typical New England river. At its sources 
 we usually discover great rock masses, detached from the cliffs 
 of the mountains. Along the course of the precipitous, tum- 
 bling torrent — the trout-water of the sportsman — we find im- 
 mense bowlders, more or less carved and water-worn, their angu- 
 lar projections rounded, their bulk diminished and lessened as 
 they course down the rough miles of attrition. At the foot of 
 the descent we shall find aggregations of smaller bowlders, with 
 cobble-stones and pepples. He who wades and follows, rod in 
 hand, the bed of one of these mountain tributaries may step 
 confidently from one stone to another and find firm footing, rare- 
 ly meeting one that turns under his tread. The reason is as 
 simple as it is significant, for each of these detached rocks has 
 been many times rolled over and wrenched from its lodgment 
 until it has at length found the groove that fits and holds it. 
 
 Where two mountain streams unite we shall generally find a 
 tongue of land, or rather a delta of stone, usually symmetrical 
 in form and built of assorted layers of stones and pebbles, seem- 
 ingly put together with the discrimination of design. These 
 shining, parti-colored beds are the bowlders in miniature. Still 
 lower we find the smaller pebbles, gravels of varying fineness, 
 then sand, and last of all mud or silt. 
 
 We can never view a bank of earth, laid bare by accident or 
 design, exhibiting its curiously stratified layers, without refer- 
 ring to this sorting and sifting process, this violent picking and 
 choosing of torrents, while we stand in wonder at the delicate 
 threads of deposition laid almost tenderly in place by succeeding 
 quiet waters. 
 
 We have space merely to mention other tremendous agencies 
 which have contributed to the landscape some of its most rugged 
 features. We can only now hint at the ruin caused by streams 
 dammed by drifting ice, or by the accumulation of more perman- 
 ent obstacles, but there should not be left out of account the 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. I9 
 
 more terrible effects of land-slides choking the mountain gorges 
 until the gathering waters burst the mighty barriers, carrying 
 everything before them. That almost inconceivable havoc was 
 not infrequently caused by these agencies our torn and ravaged 
 plains attest. The White Mountains afford evidence of ancient 
 land slides in many places. The Willey slide, though not large, 
 became widely known from the loss of life which accompanied 
 it. The great slide in VVaterville was the most extensive ever 
 known in this region. An immense mass of loosened earth and 
 rock was precipitated to the valley from the steep western slope 
 of Tri-Pyramid mountain, the material covering acres in extent 
 and reaching as far as Mad river. The writer has personally 
 visited and examined the scene of this great land-slip. Within 
 quite recent years a considerable slide occurred on Cherry moun- 
 tain, to which excursion trains were run to enable the curious to 
 witness the unaccustomed sight. 
 
 But by far the most striking and picturesque slide ever occur- 
 ring in New Hampshire took place in the town of Albany, in 
 the county of Carroll, only a few years since. The north side 
 of Passaconaway mountain was cleft from peak to base, laying 
 bare the solid granite bed for the entire distance. The slide is 
 narrow at the top, gradually widening as it descends and comes 
 down in a straight line until the foot-hills are encountered. 
 Here the mass was sharply deflected to the west and forced in- 
 to the valley of Downs's brook. The north slope of Passacona- 
 way is uncommonly steep and is densely wooded to the summit. 
 But every tree and rock, inclusive of every inch of the soil, was 
 carried down, leaving the very core of the mountain as clean as 
 if swept with a new broom. The brook-valley was completely 
 choked up with earth and stones piled with trees in inextricable 
 confusion, rising many feet in height, and for nearly three miles 
 the banks of the stream were lined with the blackened trunks 
 of great firs and spruces. The water rose incredibly and finally 
 forced its way through, but a splendid trout stream was ruined. 
 
20 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 The event occurred in the night and had no witnesses, but its 
 horrible rumble and grinding roar shook the earth and was dis- 
 tinctly heard and felt by the inmates of houses more than five 
 miles distant. Passaconaway — signifying Child of the Bear — 
 rises to a height of more than four thousand feet and is the high- 
 est summit of the Sandwich range. The writer has repeatedly 
 visited the locality and made himself familiar with the scene by 
 climbing for a prudent distance up the slippery bed of this huge 
 but unworked quarry. Viewed from the Swift river valley, com- 
 monly known as the "Great Interval," at a distance of some 
 four miles by an air-line, the picture is magnificent. The great 
 rock-floor appears as steep as the sides of a church roof, but the 
 feat of climbing it has been successfully accomplished, and what 
 is more astonishing and apparently incredible, several persons 
 have ascended the summit by way of the "Kirch Intervale Trail" 
 on the south or Tamworth side, and safely walked down the 
 slide to the foot. It is well that they walked ; to run would be 
 fatal, for once running there could be no stopping, and an at- 
 tempt to put on the brake by lying down would be simply a 
 changed mode of motion, as one would get about two miles of 
 roll, with an accompaniment of bumps better imagined than de- 
 scribed. In the exercise of an instinct quite common to many 
 of us, we have quite decided to go down in a sitting posture, with 
 a series of short hitches, which may consume time but will con- 
 tribute to our peace of mind. A number of ladies have climbed 
 Passaconaway, but none have made use of the rock-toboggan. 
 This is reserved for the new woman. 
 
 Flowing from the east flank of Tri-Pyramid mountain and en- 
 tering the Swift river a mile or more west of the base of Passa- 
 conaway is Sabbaday brook. Two miles from its mouth may 
 be seen the finest waterfall in the White Mountains. It is a 
 right-angled fall, the first plunge being to the north, the second 
 to the east. At the foot of the upper fall is a large, bowl-shaped 
 basin, some twelve feet in diameter. At the foot of the lower 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 21 
 
 fall is another basin, and leading from it is a deep flume cut in 
 solid trap rock. In the white, rushing foam of this flume, in the 
 summer of 1873, the writer caught his first genuine "rainbow 
 trout." The surroundings of this waterfall add a gloomy gran- 
 deur to the scene. The deep gorge is enclosed by vertical walls 
 of trap rock, the ascent to the top being up a natural stone stair- 
 way, the steps as sharply defined as if cut with a chisel. Some 
 miles further up, the stream has been overwhelmed by extensive 
 land-slides and for a mile or more is entirely buried. The two 
 brooks referred to are mountain streams of the first order, with 
 wide valleys and free water-courses, averaging from two to three 
 rods in width, and flowing, the first for a distance of six and the 
 second for more than ten miles of winding water. 
 
 The above, with many other features of great interest in this 
 New Hampshire "garden of the gods" are little known, owing 
 to remoteness of situation and difificulty of access, the distance 
 from the nearest railway at Conway Corner being fifteen miles — 
 the entrance between the frowning walls of Moat mountain and 
 the peak of Chocorua. There is but one road by which to enter 
 or return, and if one seeks a shorter way he must climb over 
 the enclosing mountains. But woe to him who loses the trail, 
 for there are thousands of acres of timber blown flat by hurri- 
 canes, the passage of which is next to impossible. 
 
 The foregoing, although removed from the immediate sur- 
 roundings of our story, is given in cumulative support of what 
 has gone before, and as furnishing striking instances of the pow- 
 erful forces still reserved by nature. 
 
 We shall not fail to find along the Merrimack valley at every 
 mile of its course just what we might expect to find, in the light 
 of the previous considerations. To localize the inquiry, we may 
 now see both above and below Amoskeag falls, notably on the 
 west bank, vast mounds of water-worn and water-borne deposits, 
 consisting of sand, gravel and cobble-stones, the latter ranging 
 from a few inches to a foot or more in diameter, and as various 
 
22 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 in composition as in size. These accumulations lie many feet 
 above any high water mark of which record or memory remains. 
 To be reckoned in millions of tons, they lie where they were left 
 of old in the rocky peninsulas between the floods. We may find 
 them at greater or less elevations, alternating with deposits of 
 sand, earth or clay, now presenting beautiful banks with differ- 
 ing colored strata, or again in a rude aggregation of unassorted 
 drift. Wherever found, and whether near or remote from exist- 
 ing water-courses, from which many of them are far removed, 
 these terrace-like elevations tell us of the waters that brought 
 them there, 
 
 A mile south of Rock Rimmon, passing over an elevated sand- 
 plain, one comes suddenly to the brink of high bluffs, which as 
 surely once looked upon a lake below them as Boar's Head looks 
 upon the sea. The height, the waving contour-line following 
 the shores of bays and inlets, the sunken river beds beyond and 
 the shoals stretching between, all testify to the occupation and 
 conquest of water in that sub-glacial era, of which so little is 
 known, but concerning which so much still remains in records 
 awaiting research and interpretation. 
 
 We know in a half-thinking way that a great city occupying 
 the site of ancient Derryfield is built upon sand. How came it 
 here } To this there can be but one answer : It was made in 
 the first instance and fetched here by water, however much it 
 may have since been tossed about by the wind or shovelled about 
 by man. In a similar mood we carelessly tread beneath our feet 
 in the concrete foundations of our public walks the stones worn 
 smooth in the beds of the elder floods. Our forests grow, our 
 harvests thrive upon soil leached and filched from the moun- 
 tains, while the very walls that give us shelter are built of clay 
 ground in the glacial mills and precipitated in the still waters 
 of glacial lakes. 
 
 With the approach of summer the thoroughfares to the White 
 Hills will be thronged with pilgrims. In the ceaseless but un- 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD, 23 
 
 recognized work carried on in the laboratories of nature, asking 
 only time and patience, how many inconceivable changes have 
 been already wrought. Time and patience — given these what 
 wonders have been achieved in the brief span of human effort ; 
 with these, nature will continue to supplement her tireless work 
 until the hills that remain shall follow those which have gone 
 before. Slowly but surely water is performing its allotted work 
 — the rivers are removing mountains. 
 
 Let no false conclusions be drawn from the record, and no 
 theory of unmixed evil be too hastily reached. Nature knows 
 no wrath. Earth, rent and torn in its early struggle with titanic 
 forces, succeeded to a period of rest and preparation. The 
 ordeal through which she passed was not beyond the measure 
 of her endurance, the baptism of water and fire was a consecra- 
 tion to a nobler use. Nothing is sweeter than the memory of 
 hardship and privations passed ; our planet shivered in a wintry 
 night, with rattle of driving sleet, a season of frowning skies, 
 a burden of icy sheets and snow-piled plains ; but in the infinite 
 reaches of time, healed and pacified, there came a spring of 
 grace and glory, a summer of fruitful seed, a harvest of plv^nty. 
 So, from the womb of appalling danger, has been begotten the 
 last inheritance — life. 
 
 In the menacing roar of the thunderous fall, in the rainbow 
 of its mist, and in the sea that swallows all, we seem to behold 
 a glorious trinity of Power, Law and Order ; we bow reverently 
 before the majesty of that Creative Will which walked in dark- 
 ness upon the face of the primeval deep, which brooded upon 
 the face of the waters. 
 
[A succeeding paper is in preparation, which will deal with 
 added evidences and consider other effects of the epoch under 
 discussion in the foregoing pages. It will form part second of 
 the series and will be paged continuously from the present num- 
 ber. Among the topics reserved for discussion are "The Sand 
 Area," the " Great Clay Beds," " Pot Holes and Rock Wear," 
 the "Devil's Pulpit," etc.] 
 
<5o9tribtJtio98 
 
 TO THE 
 
 J^istoryof Old Derryfield, 
 
 BY WILLIAM ELLERY MOORE. 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD, 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 SOME SPECIAL LOCAL FEATURES 
 
 AS PRODUCED BY TORRENTS FROM MELTING ICE-FIELDS, TOGETHER 
 
 WITH A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF EARLY FLOODS AND OTHER 
 
 ALLIED EVIDENCES OF A GLACIAL EPOCH. 
 
 BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 
 
 A. PAPER READ BEFORE THE 
 
 MANCHESTER HISTORIC ASSOCIATION. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 
 
 District of Columbia. 
 
 1897. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD, 
 
 BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ROCKS IN PLACE — BOWLDERS — THE SAND AREA — THE GREAT CLAY BEDS 
 
 — VEGETABLE SURVIVALS — RHODODENDRON SWAMP — POT HOLES 
 
 AND ROCK WEAR, ETC. 
 
 Evidences of a former period of volcanic activity in this imme- 
 diate section are not wholly wanting, but it may be said roundly 
 that there is no such evidence manifesting itself to the untrain- 
 ed eye. We have no volcanic cones, no active or even extinct 
 craters, and no lava beds. Aside from the presence of altered 
 or metamorphic rock, and occasional trap dikes, we are aware of 
 no plutonic material in the region we have described. 
 
 The rocks in place within a radius of ten miles, an area extend- 
 ing from the mountains on the west to beyond the water-shed 
 line upon the east — consist generally of mica-schist, gneiss and 
 granite, with the usual variety of quartzites. The principal 
 beds in Derryfield proper are composed of gneiss, or bastard 
 granite, and fine specimens of this archsean rock may be seen in 
 the pillasters of the city hall. Quarries of pure granite are rare 
 in this vicinity, although new ones are being from time to time 
 opened and developed. 
 
 We are not without a large representation of travelled blocks, 
 and numerous enormous bowlders, which have been transported 
 
28 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 from a distance may be seen in the neighborhood. One block, 
 reckoned at not less sixty tons in weight, lies near Ray brook. 
 Ten miles away, in the old settlement of Charmingfare, is one 
 nearly double the former in size. Hundreds of others in assort- 
 ed bulk are perched here and there in every direction and at 
 all elevations. On Shirley hill, upon the very apex of the crest, 
 are three heavy bowlders lying close together, evidently parts 
 of one parent piece, and known far and wide as the "Tipping 
 Rocks." Two of these, weighing many tons each, may be put 
 in motion by the hand of a child ; the third could formerly be 
 rocked back and forth with a slight pressure, but the experi- 
 ments of thousands of visitors, and the efforts of vandals with 
 lever and fulcrum, moved it at last once too much, and it now 
 waits in place some power greater than the hand of man. Sev- 
 eral of the larger rock masses are in the vicinity of the falls and 
 some remarkable fragments lie upon the bank of the river, near 
 the great eddy below Amoskeag. 
 
 Mere coincidence cannot reasonably be assigned for the very 
 frequent recurrence of the great bowlders in doubles or triplets, 
 split apart, and the text-books do not appear to treat of the way 
 in which this has been done, most writers making no allusion to 
 it whatever. This phenomena, however, is so common and char- 
 acteristic of transported rock-masses, carried for long distances 
 through the agency of ice, that we are impelled to attempt some 
 explanation. It must be conceded that rocks held fast in a mov- 
 ing ice-sheet, or borne upon its surface, must during their jour- 
 ney be subjected to great vicissitudes. A mass beginning with a 
 position on top might end with a place at the bottom, or even 
 be stranded along a lateral moraine. These incidents of its 
 progress would be sufficient to account for the loss of angular 
 projections as well as for the wearing, since they would be more 
 or less rounded by coming in contact with other stones. But 
 these conditions would hardly explain the separation of heavy 
 bowlders into two or more fraerments. Our solution is that dur- 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 29 
 
 ing the dissolution of the ice-cap these masses were released and 
 fell headlong, sometimes for great distances, striking the earth 
 with a force sufficient in many instances to shatter them in 
 pieces. This theory would not only answer the question raised 
 but would also account for the varying intervals between the 
 parts of the pareiit mass. In our field studies we have frequent- 
 ly met with such a rifted fragment and queried as to the where- 
 about of its companions. We need hardly add that the eviden- 
 ces of rock-weathering and the accumulation of moss or lichen, 
 even upon the riven surfaces of the bowlders alluded to, show 
 the fractures to be of great age, and that they must necessarily 
 be referred to the time of impact at the point of deposition. It 
 is quite easy to make allowance for the character of the surface 
 upon which the rock chanced to strike ; the problem of the dis- 
 tance through which it fell we gladly leave to the physicist. 
 
 Garnet-bearing gneiss is quite common hereabout, some of 
 the ledges near Rock Rimmon containing good specimens, but 
 probably of no commercial importance. No valuable minerals 
 have ever been found here, so far as we are aware, although 
 beautiful crystals of quartz, felspar, hornblende and tourmaline 
 are encountered, and small quantities of graphite are found in 
 local ledges. Small but finely-polished porphyritic pebbles are 
 found near by in the bed of the Merrimack, brought down from 
 the neighborhood of Moosilauke mountain by way of Baker river 
 and the Pemigewasset, others reaching us by way of the Winne- 
 pesauke. Larger fragments of porphyritic rock are found at 
 various levels, even upon the water-shed ridges, which points to 
 the wide dispersion of this peculiar rock, as we understand it is 
 not found in place nearer than the region of Winnepesauke lake. 
 The text-books will sufificiently describe the character and trace 
 to their habitat other transported minerals, some of which came 
 to us from the Laurentian hills or even the remote wilds of 
 Labrador. 
 
30 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 THE SAND AREA. 
 
 Roundly speaking, Derryfield was built upon the sand. Every 
 chink, crack or crevice, every depression is filled with it ; plenum 
 is the word. The depth of this vast deposit varies from twelve 
 to twenty or more feet, and the great sloping sand-plains lie on 
 either flank of the river valley. Before the Massabesic water- 
 supply was introduced the people had mainly to rely upon wells, 
 although there were a considerable number of fine springs, some 
 of which are in use at the present day. A copious spring on 
 Hanover square has been walled in and the water conducted in 
 pipes to various points in the heart of the city, so that our citi- 
 zens have the luxury of cool spring-water throughout the warmer 
 months. An iron fountain in front of the city hall is fed from 
 this supply, where thousands of our thirsty operatives daily slack 
 their thirst. Most of the old wells are now disused or filled up, 
 but in nearly every instance the digging of each well told the 
 same story : First, an excavation though clear sand, both wind- 
 blown and stratified, then smooth and rounded cobble-stones, 
 beneath them coarse, water-bearing gravel, usuall}'- over-lying 
 clay or hard-pan. The water-worn stones rest upon the gravel 
 beneath the overlying deposits, precisely as they rested upon 
 the beds of open and flowing streams, in that far-off epoch before 
 the sand-burdened floods buried them. 
 
 THE GREAT CLAY BEDS. 
 
 As we have before hinted, there are along the course of the 
 Merrimack, to the northward and mainly upon the east bank, a 
 series of beds of very superior brick-clay, so extensive as to be 
 practically inexhaustible. As elsewhere, these deposits are over- 
 laid with a mantle of recent till, gravel, sand and loam. No one 
 familiar with the structure of clay can conceive of its being de- 
 posited in rapid water. These clays were laid down in the still 
 waters of ancient lakes, having been ground between the upper 
 9,nd nether^ mill-stones of the glaciers and transported to the 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 3I 
 
 basins they afterwards occupied. It is true that they no longer 
 occupy anything that resembles a basin, but lie high above the 
 present water-level. But before the bed of the Merrimack be- 
 came continuous and finally sank to the level of our time, the 
 rock-barriers at Garvin's, Hooksett, Amoskeag and Goffe's falls 
 must have given way, at least sufficiently to drain the lake. The 
 first business of the released water would be to carve a channel 
 through materials of the least resistance, and prodigious quanti- 
 ties of clay went out, possibly to form new deposits elsewhere, 
 leaving the remainder of the beds where they are found to-day. 
 
 It is not easy to conceive of the origin of such vast accumula- 
 tions. We know that the chief ingredient of the finer clays is 
 decomposed felspar — pure kaolin — and we are at no loss to 
 locate this mineral in the almost universal presence of felspathic 
 rocks in this region, notably granite and gneiss. These rocks, 
 then, supplied the materials, and the very fact that it was yield- 
 ed in such enormous quantities is an independent witness to the 
 magnitude of those sub-glacial phenomena to which so many of 
 the common facts of to-day are to be referred. The former 
 presence of felspar in excessive quantities in this locality is evi- 
 denced by the composition of the rocks in certain abandoned 
 quarries, notably along the Hooksett road, where may now be 
 found remarkably fine crystals of felspar of unusual size. 
 
 As to the precise method by which the clays as we know them 
 were in the first instance formed there is scant evidence, and 
 the subject asks for further treatment at the hands of geological 
 experts. Authorities assert, however, that the stones in the 
 ever moving and shifting ice were ground together and that the 
 fine dust thus liberated was transported by water to suitable 
 points of deposit, resulting in beds of clay or earth. 
 
 It may further be borne in mind that during and immediately 
 following the final melting of the ice-cap much of the accumu- 
 lated earth, clay, gravel and stones were left in unstratified de- 
 posits, in immense quantities and often of great height, and that 
 
32 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 these were attacked, re-transported and the materials re-arranged 
 through the agency of water, still flowing in great volume from 
 the receding ice to the northward. So that when we contem- 
 plate the fact that the bowlder clay and in fact the great bulk 
 of all unstratified drift was used over and over again, the prob- 
 lem of the origin of the great modern clay beds does not seem 
 obscure. 
 
 Prof. Dana says the melting of the great ice-sheet was the 
 cause of mighty floods in the valleys, so vast as not to be com- 
 pared with those resulting from the breaking up of the ordinary 
 winter. He adds that with the melting of the lower one thous- 
 and feet of ice came the principal deposition of the coarser gravel 
 and stones, the material being " heaped pell-mell over the land," 
 This happy phrase accurately describes the condition which we 
 find prevailing to-day in the fields, pastures and plains about us. 
 A map of our farm-lands, drawn upon a scale to give the stone 
 wall division lines, would show an almost inconceivable bulk of 
 this material in single and double walls, while thousands of fields 
 dotted with the familiar rock-heaps, and numberless ravines, by- 
 places and road-side ways serving as unloading places for name- 
 less millions of tons of this "pell-mell" material, yet represent 
 but a very small fraction of the original deposit. These modest 
 monuments of New England thrift and industry give us but a 
 faint conception of the operation of the beneficent forces of na- 
 ture, which, while they seemed destructive, were making Earth 
 a fit abiding-place for man. We should add that most of the 
 material was at first left unstratified, while that which found its 
 way to'lake basins or to shoals and bars in flowing streams would 
 have become stratified, and that is precisely what is found in 
 the region under consideration. 
 
 Dana also remarks the coarsely stony character of the upper 
 part of the terrace formation, and concludes that the glacial 
 flood was greatly and suddenly augmented in depth and violence 
 toward the close of the melting period. 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 33 
 
 In Wright's "Ice Age in North America" the author says: 
 " In the deltas of rivers the sifting power of water may be ob- 
 served. Where a mountain stream first debouches upon a plain 
 the force of its current is such as to move large pebbles, or bowl- 
 ders even two or three feet in diameter. As the current is 
 checked the particles moved by it become smaller and smaller 
 until only the finest sediment is transported * * * and this 
 is deposited as a thin film over the previous coarse deposit. 
 Upon the repetition of the flood another layer of coarser mate- 
 rial is spread over the surface, and so, in successive stages, is 
 built up a series of stratified deposits. Water moving with vari- 
 ous degrees of velocity is the most perfect sieve imaginable." 
 
 The author reaches many conclusions, specially applicable to 
 the restricted field of our inquiry, which we have only space to 
 epitomize : When a glacier dissolves, the torrents of water aris- 
 ing tear down and distribute as sediment to distant valleys the 
 material accumulated by the slow movement of centuries ; that 
 the transportation by water from the front of glaciers is certain- 
 ly of immense extent ; that the glacial debris still remaining is 
 but an insignificant remnant of the total amount transported, 
 and that sub-glacial streams must have sent their turbid currents 
 down through every New England outlet. 
 
 Prof. Shaler estimates the total amount of drift in New Eng- 
 land and its neighboring terminal moraines at 750 cubic miles, 
 or more than the mass of the White Mountains. If evenly dis- 
 tributed this would make a layer of about sixty-five feet. 
 
 Prof. Wright says that New England is gridironed by a system 
 of gravel-ridges deposited by glacial streams, and that in these 
 and in the terminal moraines we may study the skeleton of the 
 continental ice-sheet as intelligently as the anatomist can study 
 the skeleton of a dissected animal. 
 
 The same authority says : "The scenes to have been wit- 
 nessed during the advance of the ice-sheet are as nothing com- 
 pared with those which must have occurred during its retreat." 
 " During the last stages of the great ice-age, through the months 
 
34 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 of July, August and September, warm southerly winds and a 
 glowing sun were combining to dissolve, with utmost rapidity, 
 the vast masses of ice which still lingered in the country. The 
 channels were then compelled to carry off not only the annual 
 precipitation, but the stored-up precipitation which had been 
 accumulating as glacial ice for thousands of years." "These 
 floods along the lines of glacial drainage have left their marks, 
 and their direction and extent can be traced almost as readily as 
 in the case of the present streams." 
 
 The careful observer upon our own ground, within thirty min- 
 utes walk of the mayor's ofifice, will find sand and gravel terraces 
 one or two hundred feet above the present flood-plain ; and these 
 terraces approximate if they do not accurately mark the highest 
 stage of the closing floods of the ice-age. 
 
 VEGETABLE SURVIVALS. 
 
 Scattered at not rare intervals throughout this section a few 
 sassafras trees may be found, but they are more frequently met 
 with upon the shore and islands of Massabesic lake. Two spec- 
 imens of the slippery elm are growing in the fine grove known 
 as Arcadia, northwest of Rock Rimmon and upon the east ter- 
 race of the Piscataquog. These are the only specimens of this 
 tree, growing wild, with which we are acquainted in this vicinity. 
 Cedars are not uncommon, and are frequently seen, being more 
 plentiful toward the sea-coast. 
 
 These with other curious survivals of a former tropical climate 
 in this latitude, probably closely following the age of ice, are of 
 great significance, and we offer them in cumulative support of 
 the existence of such a period ; and the recorded and published 
 facts concerning the discovery of the remains of tropical animals 
 and plants as far north as southern Greenland, removes our mod- 
 est assumptions from the charge of improbability. On the oth- 
 er hand we have purposely refrained from giving here a cata- 
 logue of survivals of an arctic flora and fauna, which undoubt- 
 edly accompanied the age of arctic ice-fields. 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 35 
 
 RHODODENDRON SWAMP. 
 
 About two miles northwest of Amoskeag falls, lying to the 
 east of and near the valley of Black brook, is a great thicket, 
 covering from sixty to eighty acres, and known as Rhododendron 
 or Cedar swamp. A portion of this territory is covered with a 
 thick growth of cedars, and large areas are overgrown with rho- 
 dodendron. So dense is the cover that its depths are penetrated 
 with difficulty, but it is visited by scores of people whose time 
 and toil are rewarded in securing specimens of this rare and 
 fragrant flower. 
 
 POT-HOLES AND ROCK Vi^EAR. 
 
 The vicinity of Amoskeag falls, below the present dam, pre- 
 sents fine examples of the well-known but little understood pot- 
 holes, found there in great number. These are of all sizes and 
 depths, from those of a few inches in diameter or groove to those 
 of .several feet in width, and of varying depth. The largest 
 example is located high upon the sloping shoulder of a great 
 boss of granite, lying south of the highway bridge, between the 
 two main streams leading from the dam, and overhanging the 
 current. Here may be seen a large excavation running down 
 entirely through the east shoulder of the rock, the rapid water 
 having worn away the ledge beneath, allowing the stone tool or 
 tools which performed the work to drop through into the stream 
 below. This curious hole is nearly circular in form, more than 
 six feet in diameter, and not less than fourteen feet in depth. 
 Since this remarkable excavation was made a large angular frag- 
 ment of rock has fallen into it and lodged about half-way down, 
 where it is now securely wedged in place. This pot-hole — if, 
 indeed, it be such — offers a notable exception to the remaining 
 members of the group and is a geological puzzle. The top of 
 the rock in which it occurs is high above ordinary flood-mark 
 and has not been completely covered by the waters of any fresh- 
 et of modern times, with possibly two or three exceptions, and 
 
36 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 then for only a few hours at a time. So that this particular ex- 
 cavation must be singled out with confidence as having been 
 formed by a pre-historic stream, flowing at a level very much 
 above the known water-lines of to-day, and in a time so remote 
 as to be conjectural, if not at once referred to a glacial epoch 
 ante-dating that under discussion. 
 
 There are some remarkably significant facts connected with 
 the group of pot-holes we are considering. In the first place the 
 larger part of them occur in the bottom or bed-rock ; again, they 
 were found just as they now appear when the first dam was 
 built upon the stream above them. They remain precisely in 
 the form of their first discovery by the early salmon-fishers, not 
 less than two centuries and a half ago. Old residents at the falls 
 unite in the statement that so far as their observation or knowl- 
 edge extends there has been no change in their number and 
 character. It is altogether probable that under the required 
 conditions pot-holes are somewhere even now being made, but 
 there is not the slightest evidence here of the formation of new 
 ones within the historic period. 
 
 Beautiful and symmetrical examples of pot-holes are likewise 
 found at Hooksett and Goffe's falls on the Merrimack, at Kelly's 
 falls on the Piscataquog, and at a point on the latter stream near 
 Arcadia, where there was formerly a dam. 
 
 We have examined a pamphlet by Bouv6, entitled "Indian 
 Pot-Holes," in which the writer sets up an ingenious theory as 
 to the manner of their formation. He conceives that some may 
 have been formed by plunging falls, descending from a sufficient 
 height, proceeding from ice-fissures, and continued long enough 
 to produce the effects. He concedes the difficulty of requiring 
 the ice-sheet to remain stationary, but offers nevertheless no 
 other explanation. It is certain that continued plunging falls 
 will excavate remarkable basins in rock-floors upon which they 
 impinge ; these are frequently very symmetrical, and the rock- 
 wear has undoubtedly been in part produced by stones carried 
 
HISTORY OF DERKYFIELD. 37 
 
 round in the cavity, thus reinforcing the labor of the water. But 
 true pot-holes are so unlike any other rock excavations that they 
 can never be confounded. Their cylindrical form and vertical 
 direction, as well as their peculiar situation, preclude any but a 
 modified acceptance of the theory of Bouve. 
 
 One pothole or "giants' kettle," described by Bouve as in the 
 "form of a cylinder," is sixteen feet deep by five broad. An- 
 other has a depth of about forty feet and a diameter of eight to 
 twelve. Much more remarkable than either is his account of 
 two others, found near Archbald, Pennsylvania, which we quote : 
 "The Archbald pot-holes are one thousand feet apart and were 
 both discovered in coal-mining, their bottoms being in the coal 
 bed. When the drift filling them was cleared out, one was found 
 to be thirty-eight feet deep, with a diameter of about fifteen feet 
 at the bottom, increasing to a maximum of forty-two feet and a 
 minimum of twenty-four feet across its top ; and the second, the 
 diameter of which is not definitely noted, was about fifty feet 
 deep in rock, with a covering of about fifteen feet of drift." 
 
 In his remarkable work previously quoted, Prof. Wright gives 
 this: " On the water-parting between the Merrimack and the 
 Connecticut, there is to be found the dry bed of a river which 
 for a time flowed through a pass from the Connecticut valley 
 into the Merrimack, which is now five hundred feet above the 
 valleys. Here, upon this mountain axis in central New Hamp- 
 shire, nine hundred feet above the sea, are numerous and large 
 water-worn circular cavities in the rock, technically known as 
 pot-holes, such as are formed in shallow rapids, wherever gravel 
 and pebbles become lodged, first, in some natural slight depress- 
 ion, and then, through the whirling motion given them by the 
 running water, these continue to wear a symmetrical depression 
 so long as the supply of water continues, or until a channel has 
 been cut through. Pot-holes may be seen in the rapids of almost 
 any rocky stream, with the gravel and pebbles, which do the im- 
 mediate work when set in motion, still partially filling them. 
 
38 . CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 Such pot-holes exist in the anomalous position mentioned in 
 New Hampshire, where no present stream could by any possi- 
 bility be made to flow. One of them, measured many years ago 
 by Jackson, was eleven feet deep, four and a half feet in diame- 
 ter at the top, and two feet at the bottom, and when discovered 
 was filled with earth and rounded stones." 
 
 The instance referred to above is in Grafton county, between 
 Grafton Centre and East Canaan. 
 
 The whole account is no less wonderful than admirable, con- 
 forming wholly with what we have independently observed, with 
 the single exception of the reference to "shallow rapids." We 
 have become convinced that pot-holes are rarely if ever formed 
 except at the bottom of deep eddies and whirlpools, where there 
 is set up a continuous and nearly equable circular movement of 
 the water. Their formation in rapid and at once shallow cur- 
 rents could not occur, for the reason that the force of the stream 
 would continually wash down and away the stone tools which 
 might elsewise undertake the work. Besides, were Professor 
 Wright's assumption true, we should see the making of the char- 
 acteristic pot-hole going on under our very eyes. But this is 
 precisely what we do not see, and we are unable to assign such 
 examples as have come to our knowledge to any but a remote 
 era and to operations taking place at a very considerable if not 
 great depth of water. It is true that they may be still found in 
 shallow rapids, and even partially filled with pepples, but the 
 perhaps unintentional inference that they were now in process 
 of making does not appear to be warranted by observed facts. 
 
 We venture to set down four important factors in the forma- 
 tion of the true pot-hole, to wit : i. Sufficient depth of water. 
 
 2. A whirling and nearly equable movment of the current. 
 
 3. Sufficient length of time. 4. Varying hardness of the rock 
 attacked, and hardness of the excavating tool. Under these 
 varying conditions the differing features of pot-holes, wherever 
 found and whether single or in groups, may be accounted for. 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 39 
 
 With reference to more common examples of rock-wear, these 
 may be found at the various falls in this section to which allu- 
 sion has been made, and no finer instances of the action of run- 
 ning water are afforded this side of the upper Ammonusuc. At 
 Amoskeag this is exhibited upon a grand scale, and in a spring 
 freshet the rapids below the falls are not matched in grandeur 
 elsewhere in New Hampshire. Here the evidence is overwhelm- 
 ing as to the former existence of a rocky barrier, holding back 
 the water in a great lake basin, extending as far north as Hook- 
 sett. Beyond that point there is equally conclusive evidence of 
 the existence of two or more great lakes stretching northward, 
 with rock-dams at Garvin's and Sewall's falls, and another and 
 final barrier at Franklin, where the Pemigewasset and Winne- 
 pesauke unite. Further reference to examples of rock-wear per- 
 formed by pre-historic streams, and the part played by glacial 
 dams in the stupendous terrestrial drama, may be found in the 
 succeeding chapter. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE devil's pulpit — GLACIAL DAMS, ETC. 
 
 After what has been brought before us in preceding pages 
 our readers will not be surprised at the introduction of another 
 witness to the series of events occurring in past ages, of which 
 no written evidence is obtainable and concerning which tradi- 
 tion is and must be forever silent. With the admission of the 
 claim for the presence of quaternary or even tertiary man, we 
 acquire no new source of information, and may look for no addi- 
 tion aid from any assumed living contemporaries. The science 
 of anthropology has kept pace with other kindred lines of inves- 
 tigation, and a consensus of conclusions in this department of 
 inquiry leads us to hope for no enlightenment from a race of 
 savage men, scarcely less brutal in their instincts than the wild 
 beasts with which they contended. As herecofore, our reliance 
 must be wholly upon evidence put upon record by the operations 
 of natural forces — records which have fortunately been so endur- 
 ing as to survive the ravages of time in the vast lapse which 
 has succeeded. 
 
 We turn, then, with undisguised satisfaction, to the testimony 
 given by a most remarkable and almost unique example of rock- 
 wear performed by a pre-historic stream, located in our own im- 
 mediate neighborhood, in the adjoining town of Bedford, and 
 commonly known as the "Devil's Pulpit." With the exception 
 of a brief and inaccurate allusion in Savage's " History of Bed- 
 ford," we are not aware that any account has ever been published 
 or any accurate description attempted. How little importance 
 was attached to this phenomena, and how absolutely void of sig- 
 nificance it was regarded no longer ago than 185 1, is shown by 
 Savage's reference, which we append. 
 
 The historian says : "There are some objects of curiosity 
 worthy of note. On the west line of Bedford, near Chestnut 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 4t 
 
 hills, is a vast fissure or opening in a mighty mass of rock, ap- 
 parently made by some convulsion of nature ; over the precipice 
 thus formed is a fall of water some 200 feet into the gulf below. 
 Here are found several excavations in the solid rock, sufficiently 
 large to contain several persons, and one of them, bearmg some 
 resemblance to a pulpit, has given name to the place; at the 
 bottom there is always a small pool of water, where, in the hot- 
 test day, the warmth of the sun scarcely penetrates. As one 
 stands on the verge of this tremendous precipice, emotions of 
 sublimity will be awakened ; and any lover of nature, who should 
 find leisure on a pleasant day, would find himself well paid by 
 a visit to this wild and romantic spot." 
 
 About nine miles from Manchester, as the bird flies, or near- 
 ly twelve by the highway, the "convulsion of nature" referred 
 to is found upon the farm of Mr. Clinton French. Our first 
 visit to this locality was more than twenty years ago, when it 
 may be said to have been in a state of nature. Since that time 
 an increasing number of visitors suggested to the owner the 
 idea of making it more accessible to the general public, and with 
 this in view he caused to be constructed a good carriage road 
 leading from the highway to the Pulpit. Convenient paths were 
 made, plank walks laid where necessary, and a substantial stair- 
 way built, so that the leading points of interest can be easily 
 reached. A turnpike gate guards the entrance and a small toll- 
 fee is exacted, sufficient to reimburse the owner for his care and 
 outlay. 
 
 The road descends to the level of a wet run, which it crosses, 
 and the Pulpit is located in an old pasture a short half-mile from 
 the highway. The swampy run is the source of a small brook, 
 entering upon the extreme left, and a still smaller stream, which 
 is frequently dry during the summer months, enters upon the 
 extreme right of the Pulpit. The direction of this curiosity is 
 west by south from the city hall, lying to the south and some 
 distance west of the Uncanoonucks and east and south-east of 
 4 
 
42 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 Joe English. Between these mountains and their contiguous 
 highlands is a deep, well-defined valley or basin, generally trend- 
 ing north and south, and for much of its course more than two 
 miles broad. Standing upon the height of land near the French 
 homestead this great valley extends in either direction as far as 
 the eye can reach, the stretch to the southward forming such a 
 remarkable depression as to at once suggest the idea of an old 
 lake basin, and the contouf of the country is such as to entirely 
 favor that assumption. From the near highlands is an uninter- 
 rupted view of the valley for certainly not less than twelve miles, 
 and the scene from the point of view looking towards the sharp 
 southern escarpment of Joe English is one of surpassing loveli- 
 ness, aside from a consideration of its more striking and sug- 
 gestive features. Another fine view of the extension of this val- 
 ley northward may be had at Dunbarton village, looking west. 
 
 In following the half-mile carriage way to the bottom of a lat- 
 eral valley, at nearly a right-angle with the larger basin, one 
 comes suddenly and without any manner of warning upon the 
 brink of an abrupt and forbidding chasm in the ledge. This is 
 the opening to the famous Devil's Pulpit. It is neither more 
 nor less than a water-worn gorge in solid granite, extending in 
 a west by south course for about a half mile in nearly a straight 
 line. In width the gorge varies but little and will average from 
 one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet. At the head of the 
 chasm is a fifty foot wall of rock, the cliffs upon either side main- 
 taining this altitude for from forty to sixty rods, gradually low- 
 ering until the level of the valley plain is reached. The whole 
 of this imposing rock fissure has been eroded by the action of 
 water, as the evidence conclusively shows the former existence 
 here of a long-continued and powerful stream. The main fall 
 plunged over the precipice, causing a whirlpool below sufificient- 
 ly violent to excavate the bed-rock in a great circular cavity, worn 
 apace with the depth eroded, so that instead of there being found 
 the usual bowl-shaped pool or basin the floor was level with the 
 bottom of the cliff. The height of successive stages of water is 
 
HISTORY OF DEKRVFIELD. 43 
 
 distinctly marked by great semi-circular grooves worn into the 
 face of the wall ; of these not less than five are shown, each from 
 fifteen to twenty inches vertical diameter, and from three to five 
 feet apart. The section directly above the base, to a height of 
 more than twelve feet, is eaten in back of the vertical line for a 
 considerable distance, and high upon the front of the cliffs the 
 granite plainly shows the wear of the great churning movement 
 of the whirlpool. 
 
 At the immediate left of the main plunge the action of the 
 water is even more remarkable. Here has been sculptured out 
 a huge stone chamber many feet in diameter; hanging midway 
 is an enormous hulk of rock detached from the cliff; the cavity 
 beneath this has been likewise eaten away, and an extending 
 flange of rock between the lower chamber and the main fall is 
 smoothly worn and polished, standing up edgewise like a stone 
 knife-blade. The hanging rock above described is the " Devil's 
 Pulpit," and its gloomy and mysterious origin must have seemed 
 a sufficient excuse for the name bestowed by some superstitious 
 godfather. The vertical height of the wall at the centre of the 
 cataract is a little less than fifty feet, but the out-crop of the 
 ledges above on either side is some feet higher; the width im- 
 mediately over the fall is thirty-six and at the base from thirty- 
 one to thirty-seven feet, with a forward elongation of fifty-three. 
 The whole mass of rock eroded and removed at this point will 
 be seen to have been enormous. With the exception of the 
 supply from melting snows or occasional heavy rainfalls no water 
 now flows over the cliff and for the greater part of the year there 
 is but an insignificant drizzle. 
 
 At the left of the Pulpit there is a high, protruding mass of 
 rock, forming the south wall of the upper gorge, and at the foot 
 of the projection lie heavy masses of rock, thrown down from 
 the cliff above, the water having worn away the supporting ledge 
 beneath. These fallen rocks now have trees of considerable size 
 growing upon them. At various other points along the cafton 
 there are other great heaps of fallen rock ; some of these lie, 
 
44 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 curiously enough, midway of the glen, showing conclusively, if 
 other evidence were needed, that the whole area between the 
 enclosing walls was carved out of a solid rock-bed by the action 
 of water. The upper gorge is sixty feet wide by ninety-four in 
 length. 
 
 The foregoing, however, is but the beginning of a series of 
 wonders. Seventy-eight feet from the upper fall is " No-Bottom 
 Pool." Unlike some other so-called bottomless pits, this is well 
 named. We made an attempt to probe it in the autumn of i8g6, 
 reaching a depth of seventeen feet without difficulty with an iron 
 probing-rod of that length, but the bottom seemed as far off as 
 ever. Mr. French informed us that, in company with others, 
 he some years ago penetrated the pool, with birch poles spliced 
 together, to a depth of forty feet, without finding bottom. This 
 pool is fifteen feet in diameter, is nearly choked up with debris, 
 among which are several logs firmly wedged horizontally, and is 
 filled to the brim with water. If this excavation is a pothole it 
 is certainly the most remarkable example in New England and 
 fairly parallels the largest known anywhere. It is, however, 
 possible that the bed-rock at this point has been worn through, 
 affording an entrance into what geologists describe as a fault. 
 The question can only be determined by a thorough examina- 
 tion by a properly equipped scientific expedition. So far as ob- 
 served it appears to have all the characteristics of true pot-holes. 
 It is circular, vertical, and at the top fifteen feet in diameter. 
 
 The same authority informed us of his discovery of another 
 excavation near the foot of the stairway, in which no bottom was 
 reached at a depth of twenty feet. Its existence would not now 
 be suspected, as it is entirely filled up and covered with earth 
 and stones ; and it is altogether likely there are others which 
 have similarly escaped observation. These instances are suffi- 
 ciently wonderful to invite scientific exploration. 
 
 A few rods below, occupying a lower level, is a second gorge, 
 with a twenty-six foot wall, and a basin below thirty feet in diam- 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 45 
 
 eter. The supporting side-walls are from fifteen to thirty-two 
 feet vertical height. Still lower along the canon, and at varying 
 intervals, are other pools and basins, some of them many feet in 
 depth, and in diameter much larger than those described. At 
 all of these points, and high upon the front of the lateral walls 
 upon either side, is exhibited the same evidence of water-erosion, 
 as distinctly mapped upon the granite leaves as if drawn upon 
 sheets of modern card-board. 
 
 At the extreme left of the upper fall, separated from it by 
 high, protruding masses of rock, and flowing at a little lower 
 level, is the run-brook before referred to, which courses through 
 the entire length of the gorge, entering the sunken valley below. 
 Tills brook has at first a winding and steep descent, and goes 
 trickling along the bed of the canon, broken in its course by a 
 series of beautiful cascades and miniature waterfalls, with many 
 fine pools and basins, some of them quite large and symmetri- 
 cal, with carved rock channels intervening. The brook itself, 
 however, as we know it to-day, is utterly incompetent to produce 
 even these minor but attractive features, the volume of water 
 being insufficient to account for them. The stream ran down 
 for a considerable distance independently, until it coalesqued 
 with the main current from the upper right hand fall. 
 
 But this brook affords another and striking feature to which 
 we are impelled to direct attention. Just above the point of its 
 entrance, upon a level ledge, ten or twelve feet higher than any 
 conceivable stage of water within modern times, is a well-defined 
 and undoubted pot-hole, whose age must certainly be referred 
 to the same period as that of the gorge itself. As will appear 
 hereafter, it is important to remember that after a course of sev- 
 eral miles the water of this brook finds a way to the Souhegan, 
 through the extension of the valley southward. 
 
 There is, almost of course, the inevitable Devil's Oven, the 
 interior blackened with smoke, the most reasonable and obvious 
 inference being that His Bedford Majesty united in his person 
 the functions of preacher, sculptor and cook. 
 
46 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 The foregoing description of the Devil's Pulpit, although ex- 
 tended, is inadequate when viewed from the stand-point of its 
 importance as a factor in the measurement of geological time or 
 the value of its testimony to the stupendous work performed by 
 water in a distant age ; and the preparation of this paper was un- 
 dertaken partly with the hope that the attention of geological 
 experts might be enlisted in explaining its further relations to 
 the general subject of ^'lacial phenomena. 
 
 We now find established, by evidence as ample as it is con- 
 vincing, four prime facts : i. A remarkable example of water 
 erosion upon a grand scale. 2. The dry bed of a once powerful 
 and long-continued stream. 3. That the stream was fed mainly 
 by water from melting ice-fields. 4. That there is no evidence 
 of the existence of any stream capable of performing the work 
 within the historic period. 
 
 It must further be concluded that a stream of great volume 
 flowed at the same time through the great north and south val- 
 ley to which allusion has been made, and that extensive sections 
 of this valley were occupied by one or more great lakes. It on- 
 ly remains to corroborate the conclusions reached by citations 
 from admitted authorities. The following extract from Wright's 
 " Ice Age in North America " will well support the views ad- 
 vanced, and at the same time afford an impressive example of 
 the part played by glacial dams. Prof. Wright's account is 
 based upon detailed surveys by Mr. Upham, the results of which 
 are published in the New Hampshire Geological Reports: 
 
 " The Contoocook river now empties into the Merrimack a lit- 
 tle above Concord and flows in a direction north-northeast. The 
 present outlet was, towards the close of the glacial period, ob- 
 structed by ice some time after it had melted off from the south- 
 eastern portion of the valley. During that period a lake was 
 held in the portion of the valley-freed from ice, at a height suffi- 
 cient to turn the drainage temporarily to the south and south- 
 east. At first the drainage was over the water-shed in Rindge, 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 4/ 
 
 through Ashburnham and Winchendon, Mass., and thence into 
 the Connecticut. The reality of this line of drainage is evi- 
 denced by the extensive knmes and gravel deposits extending 
 from the Contoocook valley through the towns of Rindge and 
 and Winchendon." 
 
 This evidence is as interesting as the facts are remarkable, but 
 that which follows is to us of more absorbing interest, since it 
 reinforces our assumption of a great water-way, fed from the 
 the same sources, and stretching southward immediately west 
 of the Dunbarton ridge and the Uncanoonucks. Our authority 
 continues : 
 
 '• When the ice had withdrawn a little further north, an outlet 
 was open to the southeast into the Souhegan river, and thence 
 into the Merrimack. The evidence here is also conclusive that, 
 for a period, a stream of water eighty feet deep poured through 
 this piss, and the lake formed in front of the ice was in its great- 
 est extent thirty miles long, and from two hundred to two hun- 
 dred and fifty feet in depth. The evidence of this remains in 
 delta terraces at that level formed at various points where 
 streams came into the lake." 
 
 Here, then, we have high testimony to the existence of other 
 ice-fed streams and lakes nearly at our own door, distinctly cor- 
 roborative of the claims heretofore advanced. We are unable 
 to determine whether any portion of the current of this great 
 water-course contributed to swtll the tremendous torrent which 
 rushed down through the gorge of the Devil's Pulpit. It is cer- 
 tain, however, that the outlet of this lateral valley opened into 
 the great Contoocook lake, finally finding its way into the Mer- 
 rimack ; and it is altogether probable that the enormous water- 
 supply required was derived wholly from the glacial sheet which 
 still hung upon the summit and flanks of the Uncanoonucks. 
 
 We are able to add an additional link to the chain of evidence 
 already presented, in the existence of extensive clay-beds at the 
 site of the lake referred to. Before the day of railroads these 
 deposits were extensively worked, as many as twenty million of 
 
48 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 brick being made in a single year. These were hauled to Reed's 
 ferry and transported down the Merrimack to Lowell. In the 
 famous Manchester and Milford Railroad hearing a witness tes- 
 tified that he had clay enough upon his farm to build another 
 city as large as Manchester. Much other testimony to the same 
 effect sufficiently demonstrates an immense deposition of clay in 
 the basin of this ancient lake. 
 
 For the present we reluctantly draw the curtain upon the 
 series of scenes presented, some description of which has been 
 attempted in these opening chapters. For the most part there 
 has been little exhibiting nature in her gentler moods, having 
 thus far witnessed her more terrible yet fascinating aspects. It 
 is still reserved to modern science to continue the investigation, 
 to add to the already vast store of accumulated facts, and by 
 its method of patient investigation and research interpret for us 
 other problems which await solution. We confidently abide the 
 future ; the spirit of inquiry, the interrogating attitude of the 
 age, made not less but more reverent by its courage, assure to 
 us further and perhaps more astounding revelations. 
 
 Time and circumstances permitting, some following chapters 
 will be devoted to the " Flora and Fauna " of Derryfield and its 
 contiguous territory. 
 
^OQtributio^s 
 
 TD THE 
 
 [iistoryof Old Derryfield, 
 
 BY WILLIAM ELLERY MOORE. 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD, 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 THE LOCAL FLORA AND FAUNA. 
 
 BRIEF BOTANICAL SKETCH — EVIDENCES OF ARCTIC LIFE — PARTIAL 
 
 LIST OF TREES, SHRUBS AND FLOWERS — WILD ANIMALS, 
 
 BIRDS, FISHES, INSECTS, ETC. 
 
 BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE 
 
 MANCHESTER HISTORIC ASSOCIATION. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
^ . . .^ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 
 
 District of Columbia. 
 
 1897. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD 
 
 BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BRIEF BOTANICAL SKETCH — EVIDENCES OF ARCTIC LIFE — PARTIAL LIST 
 OF TREES, SHRUBS AND FLOWERS. 
 
 All plants are animals, minus the power of locomotion. This 
 lack is in large measure supplied by their wonderful power of 
 adaptation, and in the myriad methods of dispersion by which 
 they really move. Having neither wings nor feet, they do not 
 walk but contrive to be transported. They lie in wait for the 
 wind upon which they ride ; lakes and rivers bear them from 
 shore to shore, from mountain to plain, and ocean currents waft 
 them to friendly or inhospitable coasts. They hide in the depths 
 of earth and lurk in the crannies of rocks ; they cling to claws 
 and talons of bird or beast, and with deceitful simulation procure 
 themselves to be swallowed, that peradventure they shall be cast 
 out upon propitious soil, to await their resurrection morn. We 
 behold everywhere this curious paradox of the plant-world, inca- 
 pable of motion and yet migratory ; and we may well look with 
 amazement upon the exercise of this marvellous instinct which 
 enables plants, under all the countless mutations of climate and 
 soil, to reproduce and perpetuate their kind. 
 
 The word extinct, written after the names of vegetable forms 
 which no longer exist, need not here concern us. That this 
 
52 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 was once the home of a pre-historic flora is not open to question, 
 but our limits forbid more than this mere allusion, leaving the 
 imagination to supply the details of that first world-garden whose 
 leaves fell and whose flowers faded unseen. 
 
 We do not design to add to our description an account of the 
 large number of trees, shrubs, flowers or weeds, not indigenous, 
 but introduced by accident or design, and the writer's limitations 
 preclude any attempt at a scientific botanical essay. From an 
 unpublished " History of Andover," New Hampshire, we ven- 
 ture to make the following extract: "The dwarf willow and 
 white birch were probably our earliest trees, succeeding lichens 
 and mosses, after the climate of the ice-age of this region became 
 sufificiently ameliorated to allow a growth of shrubs. The dwarf 
 willow now grows at the extreme north part of Spitzbergen, 
 within eight degrees of the Arctic pole, and the white birch 
 appears near the north cape of Norway." 
 
 To the foregoing we are tempted to add the Norwegian pine, 
 the mountain cranberry, and the hardy highland blueberry. It 
 is probable that the hemlock, the pines, firs, spruces and hack- 
 matacks, with their congeners, came next, followed later by the 
 remaining deciduous trees which are with us to-day. The little 
 willow, now found growing in cold land, is the descendant of its 
 dwarf ancestor referred to. For thousands of years the struggle 
 for life went on, the law of the survival of the fittest prevailing 
 in this as in other organic kingdoms, until the rich covering of 
 our hill slopes and mountain crests, and the deeper soil of plain, 
 valley and meadow gleamed with verdure. Beneath the forest 
 and field growth of to-day the fallen generations lie, in their de- 
 cay enriching a soil which had scantily served their wants. 
 
 We share with others a deep regret at the destruction, almost 
 extermination, of our forest trees ; throughout nearly the entire 
 area of central and southern New Hampshire there are roundly 
 no old growth trees remaining, while the great timber tracts of 
 Coos are attacked year after year, its wooded acres despoiled by 
 the axe of the lumberman. Appeals and protests have been 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 53 
 
 made in vain ; lovers of nature have bewailed the rapid razing 
 of our mountain groves, on the aesthetic ground of disfigurement 
 and consequent loss of attraction to the summer tourist. But 
 these sentimental appeals have no effect upon the lumber kings 
 who have possessed themselves of our fair heritage. We must 
 first create an educated public sentiment, resting upon grounds 
 of public interest, and powerful enough to invoke the strong arm 
 of the state. To accomplish this it must be shown that the de- 
 nudation of the mountain slopes is a distinct menace to the prop- 
 erty and lives of our citizens. A paid employe has written and 
 caused to be printed in one of our city dailies an article in apol- 
 ogy and defence of the lumber interest. This was evidently 
 inspired by the unexampled freshet of the spring of 1896, which 
 involved wide-spread disaster, a burdensome interruption to pup- 
 lie travel, and a financial loss in the state of more than a million 
 dollars. The writer says the unprecedented and rapid rise of 
 the mountain tributaries was owing to a warm sun acting upon 
 reserves of snow ; that the exposed slopes were coated with ice, 
 and that the melting snow, reinforced by rain, sped unchecked 
 into the valleys. This was all true; but he did not tell us how 
 the slopes became bare and ice-covered, nor did he suggest that 
 if the protecting timber-fringe had been allowed by the lumber 
 magnates to stand upon the steep flanks of the White Hills, that 
 the disastrous freshet of March would have been averted. We 
 utter this warning, at the risk of its being considered out of 
 place, anxious only to contribute to public enlightenment upon 
 a theme which must soon compel attention. The eyes of our 
 great manufacturing interests already look askance toward the 
 north, and their ears are primed to hear the roar of advancing 
 floods. It has already become a question of self-protection, and 
 efficient action is to-day imperatively needed. 
 
 Without further digression, we proceed at once to present a 
 list of the more common trees and shrubs now to be found in 
 or near this locality, a list necessarily incomplete, adding occas- 
 ional observations concerning them : 
 
54 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 White Pine, Pimis strobiis. This magnificent tree, which in 
 colonial clays alone had the honor of being marked with the 
 broad arrow of King George, formerly grew in great abundance 
 in this neighborhood, especially along the river and brook val- 
 leys. Forty years ago great pines flourished in what are now 
 compact portions of the city, along the ravines, and upon Ray, 
 Mile, Christian, Cemetery, and Cohas brooks, while the various 
 highways were lined with primitive forests. A group of huge 
 pines occupied a ravine on the south of Granite street, now the 
 site of wholesale warehouses, and more than fifty years ago the 
 children of the "cold-water army," in what was known as the 
 Washingtonian movement, held a picnic in this grove. A little 
 later the children of the Unitarian sunday-school, not standing 
 in fear of ghosts, enjoyed a picnic in the then beautiful grove 
 of the Valley cemetery ; in both these celebrations the writer 
 was an interested and hungry participant. 
 
 Pitch Pine, Finns rigida. Fifty years ago the sand-plains of 
 Derryfield were covered with a dense growth of these trees, ex- 
 tending over large areas to the north, south and east, as well as 
 upon the plains west of the river. Nearly the whole section not 
 actually built upon or under tillage, was invaded by pines. The 
 growth reached to Lowell street, immediately back of the first 
 high school building, over nearly all the territory east of Pine, 
 and rabbits were hunted and trapped in what is now Tremont 
 common. Parker was murdered in the pines just east of Beech 
 street, and a man tired of living in the woods hung himself on 
 Monument square. 
 
 Norway or Red Pine, Pimis resinosa. This beautiful variety 
 was once not uncommon, but is now rarely seen hereabout. It is 
 remarkably free from knots and grows "as straight as a loon's 
 hind-leg." 
 
 White Spruce, Abies alba. Formerly existing upon Bald hill 
 and the Uncanoonucks, but now exterminated. 
 
 Black Spruce, Abies nigra. Never plentiful here, and now 
 scarce, growing only as a shrub. 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 55 
 
 Balsam Fir, Abies bahamea. A graceful and symmetrical tree, 
 formerly adorning our hill and mountain crests, but now very 
 rare, being brought here from a distance to supply the demand 
 for Christmas trees. 
 
 Hemlock, Abies Canadensis. This extremely beautiful tree 
 is still common in moist woods, in plateau ravines, and upon the 
 higher ridges. But the once great hemlock groves bearing fine 
 specimens of the old-growth giants, have long since disappeared. 
 It may not be generally known that the trunk of a full-grown 
 hemlock yields a bitter, resinous gum, which has never become 
 popular for chewing purposes. One of our earliest recollections 
 is the gathering of materials for hemlock-brooms for one of our 
 grandmothers. 
 
 Juniper or Ground Hemlock, Jiiniperus communis. This low, 
 creeping shrub prevails in open woods and dry pastures ; the 
 more arid the soil the better it seems to flourish, and a field or 
 pasture attacked by it is doomed, as nothing else can grow up- 
 on the ground it covers. This pasture-pest seldom reaches a 
 height of more than two feet, while single shrubs are frequent- 
 ly more than twelve feet in diameter. Axe and fire supply the 
 only remedy, and must be used without stint. It is the vegeta- 
 ble octopus of creation. 
 
 Rock or Sugar Maple, Acer saccharinnm. With the exception 
 of scattered groves and single specimens, this valuable tree has 
 disappeared, although never sufficiently plentiful here to encour- 
 age the manufacture of maple sugar ; but a few thousands are 
 fortunately growing as shade-trees. 
 
 White or Soft Maple, Acer dasycarpiim. This variety grows 
 abundantly in moist lands, and is still common perhaps because 
 it has little value. 
 
 Red Maple, Acer riibrum. This extremely beautiful tree fav- 
 ors vv^et lands, but flourishes at considerable elevations. Its 
 scarlet blossoms ofter to the eye one of the earliest and most 
 grateful promises of spring. 
 
 Striped Maple, Acer Pennsylvatictim. This member of the 
 
$6 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 maple family is commonly known as Moosewood, and is encoun- 
 tered in low woods. 
 
 Mountain Maple, Acer spicatiim. This was formerly common 
 but is now infrequently seen. 
 
 Swamp Maple. This variety we thus christen independently, 
 as the authorities do not aid us. It is undeniably a maple, but 
 bears a large single-winged seed vessel, while all the text books 
 assign a double-winged pod to the maple and make mention of 
 no other. We have observed another variety which produces 
 a double seed-pod, the winged halves of which are almost invari- 
 able shed single. This curious habit is not referred to by the 
 authorities. We dismiss the maples by observing that among 
 living specimens of these trees those of first or ancestral growth 
 in Derryfield can be counted upon the fingers of one hand. 
 
 White Oak, Qiiercus alba. These were very common in this 
 locality, but have now largely gone the way of the rock maples, 
 alike hewn and consumed, their diminished successors occupy- 
 ing the scrub lands. An ancient oak, a relic of the native woods, 
 still stands in the southwestern quarter of Concord square, and a 
 few others similarly survive. A very fine specimen stands on 
 the south side of Milford beyond Carroll street, and here and 
 there are others at wide intervals. 
 
 Red Oak, Qiierciis rubra. This was the rail-splitting, stave- 
 making tree of our ancestors, in the days of hand-made barrels 
 and casks. Though formerly plentiful and attaining a great size, 
 from sixty to eighty feet, good specimens have become as rare 
 as cooper-shops. 
 
 Scrub Oak, Qtierciis illicifolia. This little tree, scarcely more 
 than a shrub, supplants a once nobler growth and like many an- 
 other worthless thing flourishes. 
 
 Beech, Fagas ferrugiuea. This strikingly handsome forest 
 tree is fast disappearing, noble specimens being extremely rare. 
 None miss it more sadly than the squirrels, the harvest of nuts 
 supplying them with food. Gone are the ancient groves through 
 which the wild turkey stalked ; gone are the initials of colonial 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 57 
 
 lovers, rudely carved upon the smooth and mottled trunks. Civ- 
 ilization has brought us much, but of how much have we been 
 robbed ? 
 
 Elm, Ulmus Americana. The elm is still flourishing, growing 
 wild about us in all directions, and native and transplanted spec- 
 imens of great size are numerous. We cannot be too grateful 
 for the wise forethought which resulted in the fine avenues of 
 shade elms which now adorn our older thoroughfares. 
 
 White Birch, Betula populaefolia. The ancient growth is but 
 a memory, having gone with the canoe of the Indian, but the 
 birches are so persistent and prolific that their diminished rep- 
 resentatives are still seen on every hand. We add to the above 
 the Grey, Silver, Red, and Yellow or Golden Birch. Whole 
 generations have gone to peg and toothpick-mills, and countless 
 cords to the wood-yards. One would now stand in amazement 
 before a birch large enough to furnish bark in one piece to make 
 a canoe fifteen feet long. There is said to be a golden birch in 
 Andover with a circle of shade large enough to seat five hun- 
 dred people. 
 
 Black Birch, Betula lenta. This is not uncommon and may 
 be recognized by the aromatic flavor of the twigs. The larger 
 trees were formerly made into table-tops, which may still be 
 found in old farmhouse kitchens, and also supplied hand-made 
 yokes and other wares of husbandry. 
 
 Brown or Basket Ash, Fraxunis sambucifolia. Once common 
 but now met only as scattered trees. The White, Prickly, and 
 Mountain Ash are now scarce. The ash is undesirable as a 
 shade tree, the leaves coming late and going early. 
 
 Chestnut, Castanea vesca. This tree grew and still grows in 
 all directions, and flourished in such profusion as to cause the 
 whole section hereabout, including all the adjoining towns, to be 
 known as the " Nutfield country," long before permanent settle- 
 ments were made. Many extensive groves have been swept 
 away and the forests culled for material for fence-posts and rail- 
 road ties, the work of extermination still proceeding. The near 
 
58 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 extinction of our nut-bearing trees will soon deprive us of the 
 red and grey squirrel. 
 
 Hickory, Carya alba. In addition to the Shagbark there were 
 several other nut-bearing varieties once numerous. The great 
 value of the wood for fuel, as well as the demand for its use in 
 wood-working arts, have contributed to its practical extinction 
 in this locality. Doubtless, God could make a better nut than 
 the hickory, but doubtless God never did. 
 
 Butternut, Jiiglans cinerea. This is still common in open pas- 
 tures and along roadside ways. The outer bark of the nut was 
 extensively used by our grandmothers in dying wool. The wri- 
 ter well remembers wearing the brown home-spun. 
 
 Poplar or American Aspen, Populous tremtdoidiis. Formerly 
 quite common, now comparatively infrequent. The bass wood 
 is still here and still valueless. 
 
 The Black Cherry is frequently seen in open fields and pas- 
 tures. This is the " rum-cherry" of our spirit-loving forefathers, 
 bad 'imitations of which are sold to-day in various rum-holes. 
 There is also a wild red cherry and the choke-cherry. A great 
 many boys have not died by drinking milk after eating freely of 
 the latter fruit. 
 
 There are still a number of varieties of the genus Willow, in- 
 cluding the Osier or Basket Willow. The common willow is 
 undoubtedly doomed to immortality, as it is impossible to destroy 
 a tree that will grow without roots and flourish after death. 
 
 A Wild Plum, Primus Americana, formerly grew in plenty 
 but is now rare. 
 
 Other varieties of trees, both native and introduced, will sug- 
 gest themselves to the reader, such as the alders, elders, leather- 
 wood, mountain sumach, horn beam, leverwood, etc. 
 
 The group of shrubs is large, but we must content ourselves 
 with a mere mention of the more common examples : We still 
 have the white-rod or withe-wood, the fence-mender of the old- 
 time farmer ; the witch-hazel, curious and interesting in its habit 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 59 
 
 of late flowering, the towsled yellow blossoms surrounding the 
 ripe seed-pods, which like miniature howitzers discharge their 
 contents to an incredible distance ; the button-bush, swamp and 
 highland huckleberry, blueberry, high and low blackberry, red 
 and black raspberry, thimble-berry, hardhack, iron-weed, high- 
 land and swamp laurel, sheep laurel or lamb-kill, cornel, poison 
 sumach or dogwood, bayberry, sweet fern, swamp and sweet 
 brier rose, skunk currant ; creeping, bush and climbing poison 
 ivy, thorn-bush, etc.. The number of shrubs omitted probably 
 largely exceeds the number above enumerated. 
 
 The grasses, native and introduced, now number more than 
 thirty varieties. 
 
 We append a partial list of additional flowering and non-flow- 
 ering plants : Wild grape, clematis, woodbine, cranberry, May- 
 flower, club and tree-club moss, columbine, true and false Solo- 
 mon's seal, checkerberry, partridge berry, sarsaparilla, cardinal 
 flower, arrowhead, pipsissewa, the blue closed, five-fingered and 
 fringed gentian, Jack-in-the-pulpit, Indian tobacco, bunch berry, 
 skunk cabbage, fire-weed, pyrola, gold-thread, garget, pitcher- 
 plant, mullein or the American velvet plant, purple and yellow 
 lady's slipper, several sorts of milk-weed, St. John's wort, white 
 and pink yarrow, pearl everlasting, cinquefoil, yellow, and sour 
 or narrow leaved dock, nettle, sweet flag, cat-tail, white water- 
 lily, cow-lily, pickerel weed, flower de luce, blue flag, blue-eyed 
 and star-grass ; yellow, and red or tiger lilies, many varieties of 
 violets, the rushes, the thistles, purslane, robin-run-round, pig- 
 weed, called in the south lamb's quarter and used for greens; 
 burdock, screw-stem, self-heal, wild morning glory, smartweed, 
 purple orchis, spring and fall dandelion, wild sunflower, daisy or 
 white weed, black-eyed-Susan or ox-eye daisy, horsetail, many 
 species of goldenrod, several members of the aster group, spear- 
 mint, peppermint and other square-stems, pennyroyal, mother- 
 wort, thoroughwort, elecampane, wild buckwheat, artichoke, 
 garden wormwood, formerly supposed to be necessary to digest 
 
60 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 new rum and prevent nausea ; ragweed, accused of causing hay- 
 fever ; primroses, plaintain, snake's head, buttercup, cowslip, 
 wild pink, chickweed, Indian mallow, field and wood sorrel, twin 
 Linnsea, jewel weed, may weed, touch-me-not, deadly nightshade, 
 wild carrot, wild parsnip, wild strawberry, yellow gerardia, etc. 
 Besides these and many others we have lovage, liverwort, sweet 
 Sicily, baneberry, joint-weed, bind-knot weed, vervain, skull-cap, 
 hoarhound, crowfoot, horse-radish, mustard, blue harebell, wild 
 honeysuckle, colt's-foot, tansy, bell wort, queen of the meadow, 
 and others unnamed but not unknown. Of parasitic plants we 
 have the curious form known as the "Dodder." We have also 
 growing here the dog-tooth violet, which is really a lily, as well as 
 several native orchids, among them the so-called Lady's Tresses, 
 the pink Arethusa, and the most exquisitely beautiful flower of 
 our wild collection, the Pogoiiia ophioglossoides. 
 
 For a full list of ferns and cryptogamic plants we refer the 
 reader to the text-books, since any attempt to array them here 
 would be a servile reproduction. Should our brief and inade- 
 quate account serve to arouse in others a love of forest and field 
 lore we shall be contented ; and we venture to indulge the hope 
 that some one better fitted will soon prepare an elaborate and 
 more exhaustive monogragh of our local flora. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE WILD ANIMALS OF DERRYFIELD. 
 
 It requires no severe exercise of the imagination to associate 
 the presence of arctic animals with an arctic climate. During 
 the rigor of the glacial epoch there is little room for doubt that 
 the arctic fox, reindeer and polar bear roamed over the plains and 
 that the seal and walrus were found upon the coast. It is equal- 
 ly certain that other forms, partly owing to the absence of food, 
 became extinct, their embedded bones alone remaining. Among 
 these extinct types were the mastodon and woolly elephant. At 
 the same time a great exodus of animals took place to the south, 
 fleeing before the threatening advance of the great ice-sheet, 
 again returning as the ice retreated. 
 
 The Panther or Puma, Felis concolor. This ferocious and dan- 
 gerous animal once lurked in our forests, and was occasionally 
 killed by the early hunters and trappers. Almost alone of all 
 others, this beast had no fear of man, who at any time was liable 
 to be attacked. A panther was killed in Pittsfield some years 
 before the settlement of the town, in 1770. A party of hunters 
 came up from Durham, through what was then an unbroken 
 wilderness, after a pack of wolves which had been killing their 
 sheep. There had been a snow-fall, hardened with a firm crust, 
 over which new snow had fallen, so that travelling: was good 
 and the wolves easily tracked. These hardy men followed the 
 trail over the summit of Catamount. Here night came on, and 
 being tired with the long tramp the party, three in number, 
 went to sleep upon a ledge. When preparing breakfast the next 
 morning they discovered an enormous panther watching them 
 as he laid crouched upon the limb of an oak. The three men 
 fired simultaneously and the animal fell dead. This incident, 
 the details of which were given to us by Mr, John C. French, 
 
62 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 gave rise to the name of " Catamount," a considerable eminence 
 to the east of the village. Some confusion has long prevailed 
 and still exists concerning the panther, his true habitat being 
 Asia and Africa, while his cousin in our continent is limited to 
 South America, the Mexican Cordilleras and the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, and is otherwise known as the puma or cougar. Its pres- 
 ent range is probably from Texas to Patagonia, but there is no 
 doubt that it was formerly wider and more northerly. In North 
 America it has been in the east generally known as the cata- 
 mount, and in the west as the painter. 
 
 Wild Cat or Bay Lynx, Fe/is catus. This variety is also dan- 
 gerous and will sometimes attack man. It is known in the ver- 
 nacular as the " bob-tail," and is a very ugly customer at close 
 quarters. Before Manchester became a city, the highway lead- 
 ing to Goffe's falls ran through thick woods for nearly the whole 
 distance. A man was hauling a load of wood into town, accom- 
 panied by a small dog, and after reaching a point near the Val- 
 ley cemetery, a wild-cat came out of the woods and attacked the 
 dos:. The driver took a round four-foot stick of wood from his 
 load and killed the cat, bringing the carcass into town, where it 
 ■was for some time on exhibition in a window of the old town 
 house, and the writer well remembers seeing it. They were in 
 the early days quite common, but are now seldom seen, though 
 occasionally encountered to this day. Only last September the 
 writer with his nephew heard the wailing, long-drawn and lone- 
 some cry of a lynx, probably calling for its mate. This was in 
 the thick woods of Tamworth, sixty miles away, but in a short 
 half-day journey these wild-cats might make a honeymoon trip 
 to Derryfield Park. 
 
 Canada Lynx or Loupcervier, Felis Canadensis. This is an 
 extremely shy little animal, not prone to attack man or beast un- 
 less driven to a corner. It is also popularly known as a wild-cat, 
 and was once common here. 
 
 Wolf, Canis occidentalis. None have been seen here outside 
 of a menagerie for a hundred years ; before that time they had 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 63 
 
 to be reckoned with, especially in winter when food was scarce. 
 These destructive beasts were persistently hunted by early set- 
 tlers, and large numbers were trapped or shot, each capture at 
 once ridding the settlement of an enemy and giving the captors 
 a valuable pelt. The writer has never seen a wolf but has met 
 an old gentleman who saw one in his boyhood. He said they 
 looked at each other for a minute ; the boy then threw up his 
 hands, yelled and ran towards home, and the wolf ran the other 
 way. The cowardly nature of wolves and their habit of hunting 
 in packs is well known. 
 
 Wolverine, Gulo liiscus. This diminutive, carnivorous glut- 
 ton has been supposed to be not nearer to us than Michigan, but 
 on the authority of the late William Little this animal was once 
 in New Hampshire and had been seen in Warren. 
 
 Black Bear, Ursjis Americaims. This terror of sheep, calves, 
 pigs and woman-folk was common in this locality in the time 
 of the first settlers and long afterwards, disappearing about the 
 first of the present century, with the exception of wanderers, 
 which were seen here as late as 1834. Though classed with the 
 carnivora, the black bear is a vegetarian, subsisting mainly upon 
 edible plants and fruit, especially blueberries, of which he is ex- 
 tremely fond, and indulging in a diet of honey whenever he can 
 get at a wild hive. He is fond of green corn and created more 
 havoc in corn-fields than in any other way. He is not especially 
 dangerous, and stories of terrific hand-to-hand encounters with 
 bears are greatly exaggerated. Bears very rarefy permit them- 
 selves to be seen. The writer has climbed, fished and camped 
 among the mountains in the wooded regions about Albany and 
 Waterville, and from Livermore Falls to Ossipee, where they 
 are still somewhat numerous, but in twenty-five years of such 
 experience has not had the pleasure of seeing or even hearing a 
 black bear. We were finally permitted to see one from the top 
 of a stage-coach, on an excursion from the Crawford House to 
 the "Flume and Bowlder." When young the bear is playful, 
 easily tamed, and is an expert in the art of hugging. 
 
64 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 Moose, Alee Americanus. Hunters now seek Canadian covers 
 or the wilds of Maine to kill these magnificent animals, which 
 are even there becoming scarce. They were once numerous in 
 this section, but withdrew before the advancing settlers. The 
 well-known moose yards on sheltered slopes and thickets of the 
 neighboring mountains, especially in Deerfield and Nottingham, 
 were visited by early colonial hunters, the deep snow making 
 the herded moose an easy prey. 
 
 Deer, Cervus Americanus. This is the common fallow-deer, 
 known generally as the red or brown deer. One hundred years 
 ago and earlier deer were more common than cattle are to-day, 
 and were especially valuable, serving both for food and clothing. 
 The skins were home-tanned and made into jackets, mittens, 
 leggins and boots, or made useful in a great variety of ways, in 
 making chair seats, snow-shoes, etc. While the deer was at first 
 killed solely for these purposes, there came a time when they 
 were hunted nearly to extermination, at the close of the Revo- 
 lution, on account of the great scarcity of grain. The crime of 
 the deer consisted in their eating and tramping down the grow- 
 ing crops of wheat, corn and rye. So much mischief was done 
 in this way that many towns offered a bounty for their destruc- 
 tion, and the office of "deer keeper" was created, the duty of 
 that official being to abate the deer nuisance. They are still 
 common in the northern part of the state, and have been seen 
 even within the city bounds during the last twelve-month. 
 
 Caribou or American Reindeer, Tarangns zangifer. This is a 
 woodland ranger, now confined to Canada and northern Maine, 
 or found in the region of the great lakes. 
 
 Beaver, Castor fiber. This wonderful animal has furnished 
 the world with an example of intelligent instinct scarcely paral- 
 elled in the whole range of the brute creation. Engineer, sur- 
 veyor, architect and builder, his achievements are comparable to 
 those of men supplied with the tools of civilization. The exist- 
 ence of beaver-meadows and the finding of logs knawed asunder 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD, 6$ 
 
 by their industrious teeth testify to their former residence here. 
 The beaver passed with the last century, but we were informed 
 by the late Joseph M. Rowell, one of the oldest native-born res- 
 idents of Derryfield, that he had in his boyhood seen their fresh 
 skins brought in by trappers, and he distinctly remembered what 
 was pointed out to him as a "beaver slide," on the bank of an 
 inlet to the Piscataquog river. The fur of this animal has always 
 been valuable, and many an old settler paid for his first cow with 
 a bundle of beaver skins. 
 
 The Black or Silver-Grey Fox, an animal of the genus Vulpes, 
 is now seldom found within the limits of the state ; once here in 
 considerable numbers, stray specimens having been seen within 
 the last quarter-century. The skins are now valuable and are 
 sometimes in use for hearth-mats. 
 
 Red Fox, Vulpes fulvus. This cunning and mischievous ani- 
 mal still survives in this and neighboring towns, and notwith- 
 standing there are more hunters than game the fox is said to be 
 upon the increase. His favorite dishes are domestic fowls, the 
 larger and fatter the better, and he makes nothing of carrying 
 off a full-grown gobbler. When young they are easily tamed, 
 but not easily kept, as they will escape if possible. The fox is 
 a thief by nature, a criminal by heredity, and takes to the road 
 as inevitably as a highwayman. He is the embodiment of cun- 
 ning and adroitness, and in folk-lore tales is always assigned the 
 part of combined rogue and villain, which he perfectly plays in 
 real life. It is said that he has never less than two holes to his 
 burrow, and it is certain he has a good many strings to his bow. 
 His survival to this day, amid the civilized surroundings of a 
 great city, is little less than a miracle. 
 
 Raccoon, Procyon lotor. Most of our older citizens have seen 
 and hunted the "coon " in his hollow. Year after year, since the 
 larger sorts of game became scarce, the sport of coon-hunting 
 has gone on under the eyes of the October moon, but in spite 
 of men and dogs the sly old coon contrives to live, even within 
 6 
 
66 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 gunshot hearing of the mayor's ofifice, and coon-suppers are still 
 served by the chef oi the Derryfield Club. In old times the fur 
 of this animal was extensively used for home-made overcoats 
 and winter caps. As long as there are country corn-fields there 
 will be coons. The raccoon belongs to the bear family and like 
 him lives upon both a flesh and vegetable diet. 
 
 Otter, Liitra Canadensis. This aquatic, fish-feeding animal 
 was formerly not infrequent here, haunting the trout-streams, 
 being partial to fish without scales. They are expert swimmers 
 and divers and marvellously swift in movement. A single pair 
 of otters will depopulate an ordinary trout brook in an incredibly 
 short time. They are now rare this side the upper Coos mead- 
 ows. Their fur is very valuable. 
 
 Mink, Patorins vison. This fur-bearing animal belongs to the 
 weasel family and is- carnivorous. It is semi-aquatic and makes 
 its burrow usually in the bank of a river or brook. Lines of 
 traps were laid along the Merrimack, Piscataquog, Black Brook 
 and their tributaries, and along other streams to the north, by 
 down-country trappers, many years before any permanent occu- 
 pation or settlement. The "Mink Hills" in Salisbury received 
 their name more than one hundred and sixty years ago. The 
 animals most sought after were the beaver, otter, fisher-cat and 
 mink, but the traps were sometimes sprung by less desirable 
 creatures. Mink skins were early esteemed and even passed 
 current in lieu of money for many years. The mink is here 
 practically extinct, though stray specimens are occasionally met. 
 They are also fond of trout and will travel long distances to 
 obtain them. The late Bradbury P. Cilley had for years a small 
 trout-pond on his premises at the corner of Amherst and Walnut 
 streets. These fish, which had attained good size, disappeared 
 in a night. The owner supposed some one had caught them 
 with line and hook, until the real culprits were discovered to be 
 a pair of minks. These had made their way along the course of 
 Mile brook, which ran for a distance of many blocks in a closed 
 culvert through a thickly settled part of the city. The outlet of 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 6^ 
 
 the brook was then into a pond on Hanover square, within a 
 few rods of the trout. And yet many people think that man 
 is the only animal that knows anything. The fish in the large 
 Derryfield trout-preserves, a few miles south of us, have been 
 also destroyed by minks. These depredations were committed 
 within the last ten years. 
 
 Muskrat or Musquash, Fiber zibithiciis. Common to-day and 
 in all places where there is water and comparative seclusion. 
 It is probable they even now prowl through the covered culverts 
 of the city. The Indians made use of them for food, and Dr. 
 Saccalexis Glossian, an Oldtown Indian formerly residing here, 
 pronounced them delicious. This depraved taste is hard to be 
 understood by delicate white men accustomed to pig's liver and 
 stewed kidneys. 
 
 Hedge Hog or American Porcupine, Hystrix dorsata. This 
 curious animal is seldom seen, as it is strictly nocturnal in its 
 habits and haunts the most secluded spots, usually among rock- 
 masses at the foot of high cliffs. Their food is said to consist 
 of insects, worms, snails and salamanders. The dog that tackles 
 a full-grown hedge-hog will be consumed with regret and his con- 
 fidence in himself will be impaired for about three weeks. 
 
 Skunk or Pole Cat, Mephitis Americana. The less said about 
 this unsavory animal the better, but we regret being obliged to 
 record the fact that he is still with us, even at our cellar-doors. 
 Within three years, in the basement of a house on Union street, 
 between Concord and Lowell, and hard by the Bishop's palace, a 
 box-trap was baited with the neck of a chicken, and his crown- 
 lavender highness captured therein and afterwards successfully 
 chloroformed by a woman ; and yet some of us are deluded with 
 the idea that woman needs our protecting care. 
 
 Woodchuck or Ground Hog, Arctomys monax. This trouble- 
 some farmer's pest has always been and is still common here, 
 and is destructive to bean-vines and other growing crops, espec- 
 ially to the red clover, trampling down much more than is eaten. 
 The tanned skins are extremely tough and durable, and were 
 
68 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 formerly cut up in narrow strips and braided into whip-lashes. 
 The process used by farmer boys fifty years ago was as follows : 
 Bury the hides in wet ashes, to remove the hair ; then put them 
 in soft soap over night ; take out and scrape the skin and hang 
 it over the back of an old chair in the attic — this is important ; 
 let it get dry but not too dry, and finally work by hand until it 
 becomes soft and pliable. The writer has used these home-made 
 whips when riding " the old mare," in the delightful pastime of 
 plowing on a side hill. It is not generally known that the wood- 
 chuck is a good whistler ; he has a habit of sitting in front of 
 his burrow in a thunder-shower and uttering a series of short, 
 sharp notes, twelve or more in number, in a curious diminuendo. 
 They will sometimes whistle when about to be taken from a trap, 
 but that performance is usually brief. 
 
 Rabbit or Northern Hare, Lepiis canicubis. Common always 
 and even now plentiful though hunters are numerous. It is a 
 rodent and very prolific. From being brown in the summer the 
 fur, which is of small value, changes to nearly white in winter, 
 and affords an instance of protective coloring. 
 
 Weasel, Piitorioiis vulgaris. There are several varieties, in- 
 cluding the white weasel, stoat or ermine, the tawny weasel, the 
 small weasel and the little nimble weasel. Though so small as 
 to make a hole in the snow no larger than a broom-handle, the 
 weasel is a terror to hens and chickens, which he kills by a bite 
 in the neck from which he sucks the blood. They are said to 
 be spry enough to get away between the flash of a rifle and the 
 bullet. The fur is valuable, and some weasels with glass eyes 
 may still be seen clinging to the necks of fair women. 
 
 Grey Squirrel, Sciiirus Carolinensis. The grey and black, the 
 chickaree or red, the chipping, chipmunk or striped squirrel, and 
 the flying-squirrel, once very common here, are now compara- 
 tively scarce. In size the black squirrel equals or exceeds the 
 full-grown grey ; these are now rarely seen but have been killed 
 here within forty years. A white chipmunk is said to have been 
 recently shot in Pembroke ; probably a freak. 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 69 
 
 Several other valuable fur-bearing animals were once found 
 here, among them the sable or pine-marten, and Pennant's mar- 
 ten or fisher-cat. These were formerly trapped in great numbers 
 but are now generally confined to the White Mountain region 
 and northerly. We have seen the tracks of the fisher-cat along 
 the mountain brooks in Albany. 
 
 There were several varieties of moles, some of which are still 
 with us. Among these were the star-nose, shrew, Say's least- 
 shrew, and Brewer's shrew mole. Similarly, we had Wilson's 
 meadow mouse, American white-footed mouse, Leconte's pine 
 or field mouse, the jumping mouse, and soon after the settlers 
 had provided themselves with homes the house mouse appeared. 
 The last-named are extremely dangerous. With advancing civ- 
 ilization came also black and Norway rats, which now make the 
 lives of women one long-drawn and suspicious misery. We have 
 also the common little slate-colored bat, which, unlike the flying 
 sqirrrel, actually flies. There is not the slightest truth in the 
 nursery fable that bats will suck the blood of sleeping infants, 
 or that they purposely fly into heads of hair. 
 
 Concerning birds, now or formerly found here, it will be con- 
 venient to divide them into four classes : First, game birds or 
 birds fit for food, hunted for that purpose. Among these were 
 the wild turkey, spruce partridge, wild pigeon, and the ruffed 
 grouse ; our woods once abounded with these fine game-birds, 
 but they are now practically extinct. Of those surviving, the 
 brown partridge or American quail, woodcock, wild goose, the 
 black duck, wood duck and sheldrake, and very rarely upland 
 plover, may be mentioned. Second, song and other birds now 
 rare — bald eagle, golden eagle, black hawk, goshawk, great horn- 
 ed owl, and long-eared and short-eared owl; three-toed banded 
 woodpecker, the pileated, red-headed, yellow-bellied, and black- 
 banded-three-toed-woodpecker, and the green and night heron. 
 Third, in addition to the above the ears of the early settlers were 
 greeted with the notes of not less than twenty native birds, all 
 
70 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 rare at this day and rapidly becoming extinct. Fourth, the mi- 
 grants, rapidly joining the class of rare birds ; these include also 
 about twenty varieties. 
 
 Of birds which were considered common twenty-five years ago 
 Mr. William Little gave a list of eighty-five, and even in the 
 brief period which has since elapsed not less than one-third of 
 the whole number may now be classed as rare. In another place 
 we intend further comment upon the threatened extinction of 
 our songbirds. 
 
 Under the head of reptiles we find to-day, although some are 
 very rare, the following : The black or snapping turtle, and the 
 mud turtle or musk tortoise ; also the painted, spotted, box and 
 Blanding's box tortoise and the wood terrapin. 
 
 Of snakes wq have the common striped snake, the green or 
 grass snake, ribbon snake, house or milk adder, field and swamp 
 adder, the black snake, the red or brown wood snake, the ring- 
 necked snake, black water snake and rattlesnake. Ring-necked, 
 ribbon, and rattlesnake are now rare. The latter, the only pois- 
 onous variety, was formerly common here. The writer knows 
 of but one authenticated case of a rattler being killed within the 
 city limits in the last twenty-five years, but it is said they still 
 haunt the neighborhood of "The Pinnacle" and other rocky 
 ledges in Hooksett. Until quite recently it was claimed they 
 were killed there at the rate of about one per annum. Notwith- 
 standing a wide spread, popular belief to the contrary, not one 
 of the other snakes mentioned is poisonous. The black water- 
 snake, still common in the Massabesic and other neighborhood 
 ponds, and the cause of so much unreasoning terror, is entirely 
 harmless, its bite being no more fatal than that of a pickerel, and 
 finally they never bite anything but frogs. They can be easily 
 caught by tying a live frog to a string and sinking it in the bay 
 or inlet which they haunt ; said snake having swallowed the frog 
 aforesaid may be pulled ashore, whereupon he will at once dis- 
 gorge his prey. The released frog, like Jonah of old, sometimes 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 7I 
 
 escapes unhurt, perhaps to furnish food for another of these ter- 
 rible freshwater sea-serpents. 
 
 Under the head of fishes we can make only brief mention of 
 the commoner sorts remaining. The salmon, shad, sturgeon, 
 ale-wife and lamprey-eel will be considered later, observing here 
 only that their great abundance in these waters led to an occu- 
 pation and settlement much earlier than that usually assigned 
 by historians. The rivers once abounded with the red roach or 
 bearded chub, the white chub or dace, suckers, shiners, silver 
 eels, etc., the lakes and ponds with pout, perch and pickerel, and 
 the contributing streams hereabout were fairly alive with the 
 speckled trout. More than forty years ago the writer caught 
 the red roach in the rapids of the lower canal weirs, and great 
 pickerel, weighing from six to seven pounds each, were in those 
 days caught from the end of a short plank wharf on the Offutt 
 shore of the Massabesic. Several alewife brooks run into this 
 lake and in recent years large numbers of alewives have been 
 taken from them in the annual spring runs. Their presence is 
 an anomaly, and like land-locked salmon they must be referred 
 to a time when the sea covered a large part of the state. Sixty 
 years ago silver eels were so plentiful in the Massabesic that 
 they were salted down by the barrel for winter use. To-day a 
 native fish worth the catching in brook, lake or river is almost a 
 curiosity. We still have a few fine trout streams, some of which 
 have been restocked ; the removal of the timber, however, has 
 so reduced their volume that we can never hope, even under 
 "protection," that the brooks will again offer to anglers more 
 than a shadow of the old-time sport. The lakes have also been 
 stocked — with bass which no one wants, with wall-eyed salmon 
 which no one can catch. Meantime lake, pond, river and brook 
 grow less yearly and threaten by and by to dry up; meanwhile 
 the work of felling the woods along the water-courses and upon 
 the sloping shores of lakes goes on, and people begin to wonder 
 if our water-supply will fail, and why. Massachusetts has in the 
 
72 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 past come to us more than once for ice ; she now very strongly 
 hints that she needs some of our water. While we desire to 
 be very neighborly, it is just possible we shall soon have none to 
 spare for either love or money. 
 
 We seem to see in dim colonial vistas a scene like one painted 
 upon the canvas of a dream. Hardy trappers and hunters roam 
 the woods ; through the thick glades the crack of the flint-lock 
 musket rouses the echoes, answered by the call of early-risen 
 birds, the noise of waters, the trampling feet of beasts. Over 
 the wooded plains sweeping to the Merrimack, following the 
 paths of brooks and guided by the roar of river rapids, children 
 ranged without fear through thickets far from the rude shelter 
 of their homes. The smoke of the settler's fire had supplanted 
 the smouldering heap of the Indian ; but for years every sense 
 was alert to interpret the sounds borne in upon the air of night, 
 to question each fresh trail through the dew of morning. A 
 broken twig, a fall of moss, the crushing of a tuft of deer-grass 
 — did these betray the heel of a foe or of a friend ? No strange 
 noise escaped the settler's ear; startled, perchance, in the pur- 
 suit of game by a sudden bruit and clamor, he leans to listen 
 only to the far-away cry of the loon or the crescendo in the for- 
 est where the partridge beats his drum. 
 
<5o9tribiJtio9S 
 
 TD THE 
 
 JHistoryof Old Derryfield, 
 
 BY WILLIAM ELLERY MOORE. 
 
 PART FOURTH. 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
 1/ 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD, 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 INDIANS AND EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 PKELTMINARY — THE XIPMUCKS — INDIAN HABITS AND RELICS— MARRIAGE 
 
 AND MOTHERHOOD — PATRONYMICS — FAMOUS SQUAWS — SERMON ON 
 
 FISH — TRANSITION PERIOD — OCCUPATION AND SETTLEMENT. 
 
 BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE 
 
 MANCHESTER HISTORIC ASSOCIATION. 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
^f 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 
 
 District of Columbia. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD, 
 
 BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 The historian who attempts to draw aside the veil which has 
 for centuries hidden the annals of an obscure people, scant in 
 numbers, low in civilization, destitute even of a written tongue, 
 has before him no easy task, and one rendered still more difficult 
 from the fact that in his first contact with civilization the Indian 
 was surrounded with white men who were themselves illiterate. 
 Only after the passing of the tribe was the effort made to put 
 into some sort of order the scattered records and traditions con- 
 cerning them, and this was so scantily done that a single para- 
 graph might set forth the story, as who should say : There 
 were Indians ; there are no Indians. 
 
 THE NIPMUCKS. 
 
 There appears to be a general agreement that one or more 
 tribes of Indians inhabited a belt of inland country in Massa- 
 chusetts and southern New Hampshire, more or less removed 
 from the sea, and that these were known as Nipmucks, signify- 
 ing by a license of free translation, freshwater Indians. They 
 seem to have been neither numerous nor warlike and probably 
 
^6 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 held a position of little importance among the stronger and more 
 ambitious tribes surrounding them. It is quite certain they 
 took no prominent part in the bloody drama of the French and 
 Indian wars, since no Nipmuck name adorns nor deed disfigures 
 the page of history. It is said that the tribe with which we are 
 more immediately concerned was subject to the Penacooks ; and 
 this is rendered more plausible from the fact that the headquar- 
 ters of that tribe, generally made at Penacook, were sometimes 
 transferred to Amoskeag, probably in the height of the fishing 
 season, and in virtue of the right of the stronger. 
 
 INDIAN HABITS AND RELICS. 
 
 From evidence which appears conclusive we locate the head- 
 quarters of the Nipmucks at or near Amoskeag Falls, a place 
 famous for hunting and fishing. Hunting has become a thing 
 of the past, though to this day the search is kept up for any stray 
 fish which may have escaped the Nipmuck nets. The chief vil- 
 lage, or more accurately the village of the chief, was situated on 
 the hill-bluff known as "The Willows," now owned by Ex-Gov. 
 Frederick Smyth. In the steep banks of this bluff, and where 
 the soil had been upturned, there was found a great number of 
 broken fragments of rude pottery and other utensils used by the 
 Indians. Nearly everything naturally grouped under the head 
 of Indian relics has been found on the site of this village, includ- 
 ing arrow and spear-heads in great variety, stone mortars and 
 pestles, stone axes, gouges, clubs, and fish-knives, stone tools for 
 removing fish-scales or scraping skins, bone fish-hooks, needles, 
 hairpins, and numerous other relics, some broken, but many per- 
 fectly preserved. When making an excavation on the premises, 
 for the purpose of forming a small artificial pond, there was un- 
 earthed a deposit of arrow and spearheads, knives, etc., of quartz, 
 flint or chert, which with unfinished specimens and chipped frag- 
 ments amounted in the whole to several bushels. This was 
 probably one of the workshops or armories of the tribe, and un- 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 'JJ 
 
 doubtedly the first Aiiinskeag manufactory. Over the whole sec- 
 tion surrounding the falls, on either side, in fact from Goffe's 
 Falls to Martin's Ferry, a great number of the various relics 
 above enumerated have been picked up, several valuable collec- 
 tions having been made, perhaps the most interesting being that 
 of the late Samuel B. Kidder. They were more numerous up- 
 on the village-site referred to, on the elevation west of the P. C. 
 Cheney Company's mills, as well as elsewhere and near by, on 
 the large island below the falls and the level stretch of land im- 
 mediately below the great eddy. At all these points, as well as 
 in the bed of the river, valuable finds have rewarded the patient 
 relic-hunter. At the mouth of Christian brook, known also in 
 later times as the " fair-ground brook," and also at the mouth of 
 Ray brook, there have been found many interesting relics. The 
 bank of the river north of the latter stream is quite steep, and 
 here about twenty years ago the writer found a nest of a dozen 
 or more large chipped slate-stones, wholly unlike the convention- 
 al spear-head, but yet of undoubted human workmanship, which 
 had been probably used for cleaning fish. They were buried at 
 a considerable depth, having been uncovered by a fall of earth 
 occurring because of high water. There are signs of old fires, 
 pieces of charred wood remaining at a depth of three or more 
 feet. Throughout this entire section similar mementos have 
 been discovered, especially on the sandy margins of lakes and 
 ponds. A symmetrically chipped arrow-head of milk-quartz was 
 found by the writer, when a mere boy, on the beach at Massa- 
 besic Lake. 
 
 The foregoing facts, even in the absence of other evidence, 
 is ample to establish the presence of Indians here in considera- 
 ble numbers and for a long period, probably centuries before the 
 advent of the whites. Tradition assigns no spot which we can 
 point out as an Indian burial place. It is said there are several 
 Indian graves near the entrance from the highway to the Devil's 
 Den in Chester. It is also said and has long been currently 
 believed that the site of a number of wigwams was upon Brown's 
 
78 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 Island in the Massabesic, and this is altogether likely. The sole 
 indication of a burial place in this immediate vicinity, which has 
 come to our knowledge, was the finding of human bones sup- 
 posed to be those of Indians, in the grading of Penacook street, 
 about 1875. 
 
 The only approach to a permanent settlement was that around 
 the home of the chief. More than forty wigwams were scattered 
 over this picturesque knoll, a fine view of the Merrimack being 
 afforded from the willow palisades surrounding the village. It 
 is quite certain that numerous temporary wigwams were erected 
 at or near the more important points above mentioned, on both 
 sides of the Merrimack, some of which may have been perman- 
 ent. From the well-known roving character of the Indian it is 
 likely that in the summer months at least they grew like the 
 mushroom in a single night and as soon vanished. 
 
 The traditional, dark-red, fawn-like Indian maiden was not of 
 the Nipmucks. She is the creation of a diluted sentimentality, 
 a mere dream of a class of poets too lazy to saw wood but able 
 to invent aboriginal lies by the gross. The bewitching squaw 
 who leaped for love from the top of Rock Rimmon was not after 
 mayflowers ; it is much more likely that she was overloaded with 
 muskrats and lost her way. The noble Nipmuck lover was also 
 an invention, patented by Cooper. If these romantic types ever 
 existed it was before the era of discovery. In contact with the 
 white man the Indian adopted only his vices ; these, superadded 
 to savage traits, could not well produce heroes either in love or 
 war. We have ransacked the records of the past, turned to the 
 testimony of the dead, and listened to the lies of the living, but 
 have failed utterly to discover proof of greatness, or even the 
 dawn of a progressive and civilizing instinct among either the 
 Nipmucks or Penacooks. 
 
 The red man was fond of fishing and hunting, but he killed 
 solely to obtain food, clothing, or materials to give him shelter, 
 and was not ennobled by the zest of sportsmanship. In him the 
 instinct of self-preservation scarcely rose above the level of the 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 79 
 
 wild beasts he slew. Our people, however, seem to have a weak- 
 ness for idols of all colors and stand ready to bow down and 
 serve them. All that is needed is a remote historical episode, 
 recounted by a white Ananias, and an ideal Pocahontas appears. 
 But we soon tire of the old favorites, and one by one the saints, 
 martyrs and heroes of history are knocked off their perch. His- 
 tories are no longer tales agreed upon, but begin to be viewed 
 with suspicion. William Tell is a myth, the Scottish Mary was 
 freckled, even King Richard was not a hunchback, and George 
 Washington swore. Soon shall the frivolous generations pass, 
 and as they die will fade the memory of men once deemed im- 
 mortal. Philip, Tecumseh, Logan, Oceola and Passaconaway 
 have vanished, to be followed by the red drunkard of the reser- 
 vation. 
 
 With as little success we have sought for an aesthetic trait in 
 the Nipmuck character, or for some evidence of a moral sense. 
 Surrounded upon the one hand with beauty and upon the other 
 by terrifying aspects of nature, he was blind to the one and by 
 the other affrighted, A seen enemy he attacked and tried to 
 kill ; before an unknown danger he cowered and prayed, his so- 
 called acts of worship inspired alone by ignorance and fear. 
 
 About him grew myriads of flowering plants and shrubs, in 
 dell or defile, glade or glen, in the natural meadows and over the 
 upland slopes, terraces and plateaus. When following the chase 
 or crouching in wait for game the moccasined foot could scarce- 
 ly fall without crushing a blossom. Here the wind-flower and 
 the blue and yellow violet grew, the laurel and the flower de 
 luce ; the blue closed gentian and its white-fingered sister, and 
 the great fringed orchis. These do not detain the hunter. He 
 hears not the oration of Jack-in-the-Pulpit ; the wild rose spreads 
 its bloom to him who hastens. To such a woodsman the scarlet 
 robe of the cardinal-flower has no meaning, the sweet-brier no 
 fragrance, the queen of the meadow no style. The red scalp or 
 flaming coat of tanager or wood-tapper may allure him, but the 
 
80 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 rare blush of Arethusa he passes with indifference. Concerning 
 the world of plant life his thought is, if he has one, Can I eat it, 
 or will it cure snake-bite ? The wild deer for which he waits 
 will reason as acutely. 
 
 The hues of the sky at sunset may suggest to the Indian rain 
 or drowth, but never beauty ; and as he looks from his hemlock 
 bed to the crimson light of dawn upon the western summits, in 
 his breast no emotion kindles, as with gutteral accent he says, 
 This is another day. To a meteor he gives a grunt, to a comet 
 two ; and when the Northern Lights begin to flash and in the 
 intermittent gleam the stars grow pale, he sees only a reflection 
 from the campfires of a mightier race of hunters in the far and 
 frozen north. 
 
 The wants of the Nipmuck did not make him unhappy, though 
 in this very evil case we find the civilized citizen of to-day. The 
 savage saw neither virtue or sweetness in a useless plant ; the 
 average society atom sees no sweetness in character or loveliness 
 in life without a bank-account. We wish to be just — even to 
 an Indian. 
 
 The agriculture of the Nipmuck was of a rude sort, the rich 
 soil of natural meadows or intervales being usually selected as 
 planting places, and when these were not available other tracts 
 were reclaimed by fire and the larger trees killed by the process 
 of girdling. The preparation of the ground, planting, hoeing 
 and harvesting — nearly everything coming under the head of 
 work — was performed by women and children. The men were 
 kind enough to furnish the raw material for the manufacture of 
 tools, such as the axe, the stone or clam-shell hoe and other cut- 
 ting implements, his own time being otherwise fully occupied 
 in making arms and equipments for the hunt and allied mascu- 
 line occupations. So that numerous avenues of employment 
 remained open to the gentler sex, and we are beginning to recog- 
 nize in our time the wisdom of this arrangement. We now per- 
 mit our wives and mothers, but more especially the larger class 
 of sisters, cousins and aunts, to whom these relations of life are 
 
HISTORY. OF DERRYFIELD. 8l 
 
 closed, or which have been declined with thanks, to assume some 
 portion of our burdens, at a reduced rate of compensation. 
 
 The range of cultivated food-products was generally limited 
 to corn, squashes, pumpkins, melons and kidney-beans. They 
 derived, however, a large part of their winter food-su])i)ly from 
 nuts, sweet acorns, dried fish, smoked meats, etc., prepared in 
 various unpalatable ways, but capable of supporting life. There 
 were no seasons throughout the year when fresh flesh food, of 
 fish, fowl or animal, could not be had in abundance, and if there 
 were times of scarcity the cause usually proceeded from indo- 
 lence or improvidence. 
 
 We are unable to give the Nipmuck name of the Indian after- 
 wards known as Christian or Christo. This name is said to have 
 been bestowed upon him soon after his conversion to Christian- 
 ity by the Apostle Kliot, but this lacks probability. It is much 
 more likely that he had it from the Jesuits, or assumed it for pur- 
 poses of his own. Like St. Paul he was at times all things to 
 all men — a Nipmuck, an Arosagunticook ; a Puritan, a convert 
 to Catholicism. Christo is first heard of in company with a St. 
 Francis Indian called Plausawa, a not very good pronunciation 
 of Francois. They had sufficient intercourse with the settlers 
 to ascertain that white christians made slaves of black men, 
 and that the profits of the trade were large. Acting upon this 
 hint they stole two negroes in Canterbury and started with them 
 for Canada, one escaping^ upon the way and the other being sold 
 to a French officer. Christo seems to have had seasons of back- 
 sliding and repentance, such as the praying Indians generally 
 enjoyed, and after a series of apochryphal adventures he settled 
 at Amoskeag. His cabin or hut was near the mouth of Chris- 
 tian brook, which entered the Merrimack immediately west of 
 the Amoskeag Paper Mills. Here he lived in an outward show 
 of peace for some years, professing friendship for the whites, 
 by whom he was distrusted. At length he was suspected of 
 conveying intelligence and giving secret aid to the hostile St. 
 Francis or Arosagunticook Indians, whereupon, during his ab- 
 
82 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 sence they confiscated his personal belongings and burned his 
 cabin. Potter says that Christo subsequently returned and for- 
 gave the whites for this cruel injury. Other accounts, more in 
 consonance with the Indian character, say that he openly joined 
 the Arosagunticooi<s and became an active and implacable foe. 
 This little trout-stream is now hidden beneath the surface by 
 the march of improvement, for nearly a mile of its course, and 
 the generation to come will know neither name nor place. 
 
 Plausawa had also been an occasional visitor at Amoskeag, 
 accompanied by another drunken brave called Sabbatis, a name 
 representing his baptism into Christianity, literally St. Baptiste, 
 These Indian thieves and murderers, after the commission of a 
 series of outrages in Canterbury, Salisbury and Warren, as well 
 as in this neighborhood, were finally killed in Boscawen by one 
 Peter Bovven. The full details of this affair are given in Little's 
 History of Warren. 
 
 Upon the authority of certain early historians we are asked to 
 believe that upon the death of the great chief of the Micmacs 
 or Taratines, a powerful and warlike tribe in the Province of 
 Maine, to whom the Penacooks were subject, a war of succes- 
 sion arose, which resulted in the choice of Passaconaway to 
 succeed the dead Bashaba, who had been slain in battle. This 
 war for supremacy became general and involved all the tribes 
 from New Brunswick to the Hudson river and from Massachu- 
 setts to Canada. The exact limits were not known and proba- 
 bly can never be determined. The numbers engaged were large, 
 the war continued for years ; it is said to have been conducted 
 with great ferocity and to have been especially disastrous to the 
 coast tribes, who were no match for the hardy inland hunters. 
 Many of the names preserved to us are those of chiefs and war- 
 riors who had become famous in this great war, which was the 
 most sanguinary and relentless ever waged among the Indians 
 of the east. The great plague, to which nearly all the earlier 
 accounts refer, raged among the Nipmucks towards the close of 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 83 
 
 this war. The origin of this plague has never been satisfactorily 
 accounted for, or its nature clearly understood, but we hazard a 
 conjecture that the contagion was communicated by the Indians 
 of New France, who in turn received it from the whites then in 
 Canada in considerable numbers. At all events it was believed 
 the loss by battle and plague literally decimated the ranks of the 
 savages and brought the war to a close before the landing of the 
 Pilgrims at Plymouth. The early accounts must be received 
 with great caution, ample allowance made for the time in which 
 they were written, and due regard had to the sources of inform- 
 ation. " Broken English " is scarcely a fit vehicle for the trans- 
 mission of historical data. The skeletons of those who fell in 
 savage strife, or succumbed to plague and famine four centuries 
 ago, might as easily be clothed with life as could the details of 
 that distant scene be dug from their oblivion. 
 
 Upon this middle ground, between the Plymouth Puritan and 
 the pioneer Jesuit of New France, there was another curious en- 
 counter, an episode in the struggle between two forces, whose 
 declaration of war ante-dated the discovery of America. When- 
 ever and wherever these met, in the long centuries, the hostile 
 lines were drawn. And so it came to pass that in a new world, 
 for the soil of which kings contended, the adherents of Pope and 
 Prostestant, in savage bands, the one inspired by a Mather, che 
 other by a Marquette, each in the name of a common Redeemer, 
 stood opposed in conflict. Thus, upon the virgin soil of New 
 Hampshire, in that first century of its occupation, was shed the 
 blood of religious hatred. Time has fortunately softened these 
 asperities, and in the new dawn of a wiser christian charity we 
 seem to see the promise of brotherhood and reconciliation. 
 
 As the light of the fire-fly is illusive or intermittent, so Indian 
 lore and tradition lead us along a pathway sometimes overcast 
 with darkness and often difficult to follow. The time is distant, 
 the actors are defunct, and the record is becoming more indis- 
 
84 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 tinct and uncertain. But we still follow the trail with ardor in 
 an endeavor to enrich our barren annals, and we know that we 
 are on the ground. Some may even thank us for this attempt 
 to restore these fast-fading pictures of the past. 
 
 MARRIAGE AND MOTHERHOOD. 
 
 It is not certain that the Nipmucks were polygamous, but the 
 line was not far removed. They seldom lived with more than one 
 squaw at the same time, but on the other hand a healthy brave 
 generally contrived to marry from six to nine maidens during an 
 average life of four-score and ten years. The squaw was wedded 
 when quite young, frequently at twelve years of age ; but con- 
 stant drudgery and exposure broke them down early, so that at 
 thirty they became prematurely old and were wrinkled at forty. 
 They endeavored for a time to keep up appearances, just as we 
 observe the old hens of our generation in their efforts to parade 
 with spring chickens. It made little difference to the mother, 
 and none whatever to the pappoose, whether the medicine-man 
 was called in or not. When his services were invoked he com- 
 monly made a great pow-wow in front of the wickyup before en- 
 tering, and more pow-wow upon emerging, concluding with an 
 invocation or chant addressed apparently to the great Square of 
 Pegasus. In order that the old wife might be supplanted by the 
 new, separation was made easy, and the discarded wife and moth- 
 er did not complain, afterwards contenting herself with adopting 
 some captive as a son or husband, as the case might be. Some 
 of these captives, thus summarily wedded without ceremony or 
 consent, were white men, and part first of the very pathetic story 
 of Pocahontas rests solely upon this custom. 
 
 We have purposely omitted the disgusting details of home-life, 
 suggesting merely that an ample water-supply was not dimin- 
 ished or contaminated, as the Nipmuck squaw never took a bath 
 or any other step toward cleanliness. 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. S$ 
 
 INDIAN PATRONYMICS. 
 
 We have so long been familiar with the names of the neigh- 
 mountains, streams and lakes that we seldom pause to inquire 
 concerning their godfathers, and in many cases have not even 
 suspected their Nipmuck origin. As will have been observed, 
 the names of most of our larger rive-'s, lakes and highlands are 
 purely Indian ; the Merrimack, Piscataquog, Souhegan, Nashua, 
 Cohas, Soucook, Suncook and Contoocook ; the Baboosic and 
 Massabesic, Pawtuckaway and the Uncanoonucks — supply us 
 with instances. The manner of spelling these various names 
 has from time to time been curiously varied, while their pronun- 
 ciation has been no less capricious. The examples heretofore 
 given, however, may from long usage be now regarded as settled. 
 
 The etymology of Indian names offers an attractive field for 
 study, and if many are involved in obscurity it only adds zest to 
 the chase. The scope of our contributions will not permit us 
 to enter upon this department of inquiry, and it is relegated to 
 experts in barbarous philology. We have observed that the 
 modern author appears over-anxious to disagree with writers 
 who have preceded him. Each latest-adopted history or school 
 atlas requires the student to commit to memory a new set of 
 names of persons, places and things never before heard of, and 
 should he attempt in after years to repeat these his own children 
 will laugh at him. 
 
 As to the survival of certain names to the exclusion of others 
 we have been impressed by its significance ; the law of euphony 
 undoubtedly plays a part, but the reason must rest upon deeper 
 principles. The sight of certain names appeals to the ear like 
 strains of music ; but they also evoke pictures to the eye, as if 
 the name was the ghost of its owner, while we seem to see the 
 shifting scenes summoned by these memories of sound. 
 
 Passaconaway is certainly the most striking figure among our 
 native chiefs, and all accounts agree in assigning to him the 
 
86 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 highest place in war or peace. We pass in silence the old-wives 
 tales concerning him, his superhuman strength, his miraculous 
 cures, his astounding feats of divination, nor shall we add anoth- 
 er to the list of seven dying speeches reported by as many sober 
 histories. The authentic record is brief, his fame rests largely 
 upon tradition, but that by his people he was esteemed great 
 is the highest praise that can be accorded. He was born about 
 1540 and was an old man when the Pilgrims landed. His old 
 age was passed in poverty ; once lord of thousands of acres, he 
 was compelled to beg the poor privilege of living upon a patch 
 of intervale and two little islands in the Merrimack. Even these 
 were taken from him by the puritan rulers of the godly Com- 
 monwealth of Massachusetts. But the title-deeds to his vast 
 possessions, wrung from him by white cunning, served to enrich 
 the state, assisted in the spread of the gospel, and erected the 
 cradle of liberty. 
 
 It is known that Passaconavvay had four sons and two daugh- 
 ters ; of the sons Wonolancet alone became famous in his time, 
 and the Appalachian Club has given his name to a small moun- 
 tain of the Sandwich range, which nestles like a pappoose under 
 the towering shoulders of his sire. 
 
 When the first white hunter or trapper actually settled at the 
 falls of Amoskeag, Acteon was one hundred years old and was 
 alive twenty years afterwards; in 1726' he was known as "Old 
 Acteon," The terrible Pehaungun, " Beware of Me," was killed 
 in a drunken frolic in 1732. He was then one hundred and 
 twenty-four years old, and in his youth no white man had stepped 
 upon the soil of Derryfield. It will serve but little purpose to 
 recount a further list of long-forgotten names, to which nothing 
 authentic can be added. Acteon has gone to the home of the 
 Coosucks, Wahowa lives only in the classic yell of Dartmouth ; 
 Watannumon rests by the Mikaseota, the bones of Paugus lie 
 hidden in the white sands of Ossipee, and P.issaconavvay sleeps. 
 
 Forty years ago a worn-out locomotive of the Northern Rail- 
 way was sent to the junk-shop. Emblazoned letters upon the 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 8/ 
 
 cab spelled the word "Tahanto." But this evokes no memories 
 — it is a name but it is no more, and may as well be that of a 
 cloud at midnight. The roar of iron and the rush of steam have 
 supplanted the war-cry of the savage, but to-day the path of the 
 shining steel follows northward the ancient trail to the home of 
 the Arosagunticooks. 
 
 FAMOUS SQUAWS. 
 
 It is not from choice that we have spoken slightingly of the 
 Nipmuck squaw. She may have filled her place, and there is no 
 doubt that wherever her home it was humble. But she must be 
 put without prejudice in the column of silent factors — passing 
 away without sign. Record, journal, memoir, narrative or his- 
 tory, shed little lustre upon her life or character ; fiction and 
 poetry have alone befriended her. The eldest daughter of Pas- 
 saconaway, by her marriage with the great Nobhovv, became a 
 queen, but not even her name survives. Her younger sister, 
 the fair Wetamoo, became the bride of a seven-syllabled son of 
 Paugus and has been apotheosized in Whittier's verse. The 
 wedded life of Wetamoo was not a happy one ; the youthful pair 
 soon separated and she went back to the paternal tie-up in Der- 
 ryfield, where she held court for many years as a grass-widow. 
 These are the facts — the rest is fancy. 
 
 After all, it is but a step from the dawn of tradition to our 
 own times ; with a stroke ot the pen, the turning of a leaf, we 
 pass to the century of base ball and cotton batting. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A SERMON ON FISH — THE TRANSITION PERIOD — EARLY OCCUPATION AND 
 
 SETTLEMENT. 
 
 All narrators recount the same fish-stories about the falls of 
 Amoskeag. Great salmon and salmon-trout, shad, and even the 
 sturgeon were plentiful, while ale-wives and lamprey-eels were 
 so numerous as to impede navigation. Probably the most com- 
 plete account of the manner of taking these fish is found in Pot- 
 ter's History of Manchester. 
 
 Early in the last century there was printed a curious sermon, 
 the title-page of which is as follows : " Business and Diversion 
 inoffensive to God, and necessary for the Comfort and Support 
 of human Society. A Discourse utter'd in Part at Ammauskeeg- 
 Falls, in the Fishing-Season. 1739. * * * Boston, Printed for 
 S. Kneeland and T. Green in Queen-Street. Mdccxlim." 
 
 The very quaint dedication is as follows: "To the Honora- 
 ble Theodore Atkinson, Esq ; and Others the Worthy J-'atrons of 
 the Fishing at Ammauskeeg. Gentlemen, It's not to signify to 
 others that I pretend to an Intimacy with you or that I ever had 
 a Share in those pleasant Diversions, which you have innocently 
 indulged yourselves in, at the place where I have taken an an- 
 nual Tour for some Years past. Yet I doubt not you'l Patronize 
 my Intention, which is to sence against Bigottry and Supersti- 
 tion. All Excess I disclaim, but pretend to be a Favorer of 
 Religion, and of Labour as an Ingredient, and of Recreation as 
 a necessary Attendant. I believe the Gentlemen who moved 
 me to preach there in some odd Circumstances, and those at 
 whose Desire and Charge this Discourse is Printed, (asking 
 their Pardon if my Suggestion appear to them ungrounded ) were 
 moved more from the uncommonness of the Thing, than any 
 Thing singular in it. I have put off the Importunity for near 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD, 89 
 
 these three years ; but least it should be, that I fear, it's being 
 seen by the World, I submit it to sight and Censure, So little 
 as I know you. Gentlemen, I heartily present it to you ; tho' all 
 the Reason that I intend to offer is, that we have fished upon 
 the same Banks. And tho' I know this will be no Bait, I am 
 fond of being esteemed, in the Affairs of Fishing. Gentlemen, 
 your most Obedient and very humble Servant. Fluviatulis 
 Piscator." 
 
 This sermon was by the Rev. Joseph Secombe, a minister of 
 Kingston, New Hampshire, and was delivered before a mixed 
 assemblage of hunters, trappers, fishermen, settlers and Indians. 
 From the tone of the dedication it is evident that among his 
 hearers were a number of civil or military officers in the service 
 of King George the Second, together with other "gentry-folk," 
 from Portsmouth, Ancient Dover, and Exeter. The "some odd 
 Circumstances " alluded to probably had reference to preaching 
 in the open air, perhaps to the mixed quality of the congrega- 
 tion. The most significant statement, however, is that to these 
 fishing-grounds he had "taken an annual Tour for some Years," 
 and that the distinguished company, the Gentlemen of the ded- 
 ication, had "fished upon the same Banks." This very clearly 
 shows that the Amoskeag fisheries were not only known consid- 
 erably earlier than the spring of 1739, but that the sport cifforded 
 was more enticing than that offered at " Great Salmon Falls " in 
 Somersworth or the falls of the Cocheco at Dover. Otherwise 
 we should not hear of annual tours to Amoskeag, made by con- 
 siderable parties, involving a journey of from thirty-five to forty 
 miles through the wilderness. We shall be prepared to show 
 in another place that the reputation of Amoskeag as a great 
 hunting and fishing place was known to white men for much more 
 than a hundred years before Secombe's sermon was delivered. 
 
 Our preacher chose his text from John 21-3, "Simon Peter 
 saith unto them, I go a Fishing." The discourse sets forth that 
 the Apostles were fishers, and that " fishing is innocent as Busi- 
 8 
 
90 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 ness or Diversion " ; that " in fishing we are so far from delight- 
 ing to see our Fellow-Creature die, that we hardly think whether 
 they live. We have no more of a murderous Tho't in taking 
 them, than in cutting up a Mess of Herbage." That God " has 
 implanted in several Sorts of Fish, a strong Instinct to swim up 
 these Rivers a vast Distance from the Sea. And is it not re- 
 markable, that Rivers most incumbered with P'alls, are ever 
 more full of Fish than others. Why are they Directed here .''" 
 The preacher concludes from his ingenious reasoning that, " If 
 they may be taken, any may make a Business of taking them 
 for the Supply of others," and adds, " If I may eat them for Re- 
 freshment, I may as well catch them, if this recreate and refresh 
 me. It's as lawful to delight the Eye, as the Palate." 
 
 The bulk and balance of the discourse is in the approved or- 
 thodox style of that age, with frequent reference to scripture 
 texts, citations from the church fathers, Latin quotations, etc. 
 The whole sermon seems to have been inspired by its romantic 
 surroundings, and to be addressed not so much to unconverted 
 men but more to a fellow-feeling of sportmanship in the minds 
 of his hearers. While the way was pointed to godly living, the 
 pleasant invitation of foaming waters held fast his fancy, and in 
 the sunlight the glint of leaping salmon made a present heaven 
 stronger to allure than the pictured joys of a new but remote 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Twenty-odd years ago certain enthusiastic citizens so exerted 
 themselves as to move heaven and earth and the legislature, out 
 of which agitation a fish-way was built at Amoskeag, to enable 
 salmon and other fish so inclined to pass up to the headwaters, 
 to deposit their spawn at their leisure and return unmolested to 
 the sea. Time and money were expended, the fish protected by 
 law, and everything was in readiness to revive the old time sport 
 except the salmon and Massachusetts. It was said the fish-ways 
 at Lowell and Lawrence were constructed, either in ignorance 
 or by design, to prevent the passage of fish. Finally, after long 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 9I 
 
 waiting, a few stray salmon, accompanied by a small colony of 
 eels, actually made their way to the foot of Amoskeag falls and 
 possibly some passed up the fish-way. Great things were hoped 
 but never realized ; each spring the number grew less, and in a 
 few years entirely ceased. The fish-way is falling to pieces with 
 rot, the fish commissioners of two great states catch nothing but 
 their salary, and the dream is over. The real clifificulty, however, 
 was not so much in the way as in the water; this had become 
 so contaminated by the wash and refuse of mills and the sewer- 
 age of cities that fish would not enter a stream loaded with saw- 
 dust, colored with dye-stuffs, and flavored with extract of gar- 
 bage and gas-works. As with felled forests game-animals and 
 birds have departed, so from our polluted streams the noble sal- 
 mon has disappeared ; and these are among the sorry penalties 
 exacted in exchange for calico and gingham. 
 
 THE TRANSITION PERIOD. 
 
 Not the least curious and interesting portion of the early his- 
 tory of Derryfield is the transition period — that stretch of time 
 during which the white man appeared while the Indian had not 
 yet departed. For the sole purpose of setting forth in orderly 
 sequence the procession of events leading to permanent settle- 
 ments in North America, we introduce the following dates as 
 landmarks: The Cabots, under Henry VII, in 1497, seventeen 
 months before Columbus touched the mainland of America ; 
 Verazzano, 1524; Cartier, 1534. This is undoubtedly the date 
 of the first but not of the first permanent settlement. But the 
 fisheries at Newfoundland had in the meantime become known. 
 Parkman says there is strong evidence that the trade began as 
 early as 1504, and it is well established that in 15 17 Spanish, 
 French and Portuguese vessels were engaged in it ; he adds that 
 from 1527 the Newfoundland fishery was never abandoned. In 
 1578 more than three hundred and fifty vessels visited the banks, 
 and in 1607 there was an old French fisherman at Canseau who 
 
92 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 had sailed thither for forty-two successive years. We pass rap- 
 idly to De Monts, at Nova Scotia in 1604, wintering with the 
 colony at St. Croix. During that year he wrote from the banks 
 of the St. Lawrence, "The Indians tell us of a beautiful river 
 far to the south, which they call the Merrimack." The dream 
 of this river haunted him, and in 1605 he accompanied Cham- 
 plain on a voyage of discovery southward along the coast. In 
 that year we find him at the Isles of Shoals and Portsmouth har- 
 bor. Passing down the coast they discovered the Merrimack, 
 which Champlain named "La Riviere du Gas," (duGuast) in 
 honor of De Monts. In 161 1 the Jesuits came, to rescue the 
 perishing souls of the natives, and incidentally to become pro- 
 prietors of "the greater part of the future United States and 
 British Provinces." To quote the text of Parkman, "On the 
 banks of James River was a nest of woe-begone Englishmen, a 
 handful of Dutch fur-traders at the mouth of the Hudson, and 
 a few shivering Frenchmen among the snow-drifts of Arcadia; 
 while deep within the wild monotony of desolation, on the icy 
 verge of the great northern river, the hand of Champlain upheld 
 the fleur-de-lis on the rock of Quebec." 
 
 In this brief recount of years we have almost unconsciously 
 drawn the lines of a historical triangulation, with New Hamp- 
 shire at the centre. The converging lines, in the years imme- 
 diately following, drew toward us from three cardinal points — 
 south, east, and north. Nearly a full quarter-century elapsed 
 between the earliest white settlements at Quebec and Montreal 
 and that of the Plymouth colony in 1620 ; this was separated by 
 thirteen years from the date of the Popham colony at the mouth 
 of the Kennebec, in 1607, while the Piscataqua settlement in 
 1623 closely followed that at Plymouth. The whole time em- 
 braced between 1600 and 1750 —a round century and a half — 
 constituted this great transition period from barbarity to civili- 
 zation. It is the task of the careful student of the past to illus- 
 trate the striking details, at once picturesque and shameless, of 
 this border-land of American history. 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 93 
 
 OCCUPATION AND SETTLEMENT. 
 
 In the century preceding the first settlement upon the soil of 
 New Hampshire numerous attempts at colonization had met 
 with failure, and it will have been seen that the first permanent 
 settlements, made respectively by the French, Dutch and Eng- 
 lish, were nearly contemporaneous. It is definitely known that 
 there were not less than four great through Indian trails leading 
 from points upon the coast to the country of the St. Lawrence. 
 One of these was from Portsmouth up the Salmon F'alls valley, 
 passing to the east of Winnepesauke, west of Ossipee, and so 
 northerly through the Pequauket region, leaving the White 
 Hills to the left. This was the line of subsequent white exten- 
 sion from Exeter and Dover. The great Nipmuck trail followed 
 the Merrimack, Pemigewasset and Baker River valleys, passing 
 Moosilauke on the right, over Warren summit, and thence up the 
 valley of the Connecticut. This was likewise the line followed 
 by the stream of settlement from Massachusetts. These con- 
 spicuous routes, if they did not coalesque, were joined here and 
 there by cross-country trails, one of these being from Ancient 
 Dover, through old Chester to Amoskeag, to which further ref- 
 erence will be made. 
 
 These old Indian ways were probably first trodden by the feet 
 of French explorers, nearly if not quite three centuries ago, 
 accompanied by Indian guides from Quebec, and their footsteps 
 were followed northward a few years later by the English. The 
 Pilgrim father played the double rdle of Puritan and pioneer ; 
 while austere and saintly, he was adventurous and daring. The 
 wilderness had no terrors and the sea no dangers to deter the 
 hearts of oak who in the wake of the Mayflower settlers every- 
 where pushed on beyond the Plymouth homesteads. Without 
 guide or compass they followed the fertile valleys ranging to the 
 north, camping only when arrested by the gloom of night. Be- 
 side the flowing waters each hunter halted where he wished and 
 chose his home. 
 
94 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 There was another and darker side to the Puritan character. 
 He was not only selfish but greedy ; compelled to be prudent, 
 he became stingy. In a trade with his neighbor he stretched 
 the tenth commandment and for the time being forgot the other 
 nine. It was small wonder that the rights of savages weighed 
 little in the presence of his wants, which he persuaded himself 
 were necessities. It soon came to pass that bloody reprisals 
 followed Indian cruelty and outrage, the sole answer which a 
 barbarous people could make to civilized treachery. The wasp 
 did not sting until the nest was ravaged ; smarting with pain, in 
 hot revenge the spoiler trampled to death those whom he him- 
 self had driven to madness and revclt. 
 
 In a review of the first contact of the whites with the Indians, 
 and by an impartial consensus of the records, the whole story of 
 that contact, with scarcely an exception, is dishonorable to the 
 whites. Bad faith and broken promises, advantage gained by 
 guile and dishonest diplomacy, were followed by encroachment 
 and dispossession. Through the centuries which have inter- 
 vened our children have been taught to revere the rugged vir- 
 tues of their Puritan ancestors ; poetry and romance, even the 
 historic page, has surrounded them with a shining aureola of 
 sanctity, but in this era of research and impartial scholarship an 
 awakened national conscience sees them beneath ihe deceitful 
 glamour of distance clothed upon with the old frailties of human- 
 ity. Again we witness the old paradox of saint and sinner ; the 
 one erects a church, but for convenience of the other "the devil 
 builds a chapel hardby." 
 
 Without a single exception, so far as disclosed by the record, 
 every permanent settlement in New Hampshire was preceded 
 by an actual or quasi-occupation. This took various forms ; the 
 territory afterwards formed into townships was early overrun 
 with hunters, trappers, fishers, adventurers of all sorts ; some of 
 these were employed by French companies in Canada, some by 
 the Dutch traders of New Netherland. Others came from the 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 95 
 
 Massachusetts colony, and many from the settlements at Ports- 
 mouth or Dover. The wilderness was threaded with lines of 
 traps, running to and from depots of supplies, while to provide 
 necessary storage for fur or other commodities bark-cabins and 
 log-houses were built here and there at points of convenience. 
 With the anival of each vessel from the old world, there came 
 an accession of rough and turbulent spirits, many with nothing 
 to lose and all inspired by the hope of gain. Fabulous stories 
 of wealth and exaggerated accounts of mineral treasures found 
 ready acceptance, and the decks of vessels clearing for New 
 England were crowded with saints and swash-bucklers, dissen- 
 ters and desperadoes. To these, indiscriminately, some of our 
 genealogical cranks are crazy to trace their ancestry. 
 
 Along all the avenues of exploration, on sea or land, by way 
 of lake or river, the wilderness was traversed ; some merely in- 
 spired by the strong lust of adventure, some inflamed by the 
 thirst for gold, others more soberly in search of homes. Out of 
 these early exploitations came the first definite information of 
 the character and topography of New England. Toiling through 
 dense forests, the sudden sight of a mountain was as welcome as 
 the first glimpse of land to the mariner, and afforded a landmark 
 to direct his steps. One by one these great natural boundary 
 marks were at least approximately located, lakes were plotted, 
 and the course of rivers roughly indicated, sketched perhaps up- 
 on birch-bark maps with pencils of coal. Sometimes accompan- 
 ied by friendly Indian guides, familiar with the territory, the 
 way was made easier; here a mountain or height of land, there 
 a swamp or thicket was avoided ; here he was led past a broad 
 lake or conducted to river shallows where the stream offered a 
 fording place. One by one names were given to mountains, 
 rivers and lakes, or other natural features, and it is one of the 
 astonishing facts of the time that these early pioneers gener- 
 ally accepted without question the names given by the Indians, 
 and that so many of these survive. 
 
96 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 It is somewhat difficult for us to understand and appreciate the 
 tremendous difficulties to be overcome, the hardship and priva- 
 tion encountered, and the resolute courage required to face the 
 dangers that beset the first settlers, even in times of peace. The 
 mere exhibition of physical strength and endurance almost sur- 
 passes belief. Aside from the inseparable musket and hunting- 
 knife, powder-horn and shot, an axe or hatchet was always a part 
 of the outfit ; to these was frequently added a pack of blankets, 
 a pot or frying-pan, and other utensils and tools, the combined 
 weight of which was often fifty or more pounds. In summer 
 the pack was sometimes slung on poles, between two sets of 
 stalwart shoulders, or in winter drawn upon sledges, and the 
 varied yield of the chase or the treasures of traps were trans- 
 ported in like manner. 
 
 Further evidence of this early occupation and settlement will 
 be considered in the next and concluding part of the series, to 
 which will be added some sketches of home-life, churches and 
 schools, the whole to conclude with an account of the rise, de- 
 cline and fall of the Derryfield Social Library. These contribu- 
 tions will not at present bring the record of events later than 
 the first quarter of the present century. 
 
(^optributiops 
 
 TO THE 
 
 JHistoryof Old Derryfield, 
 
 BY WILLIAM ELLERY MOORE. 
 
 PART FIFTH. 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
 47546^ 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD, 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 OCCUPATION AND SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 EARLY OCCUPATION AND FIRST SETTLEMENTS CONTINUED — HOME LIFE- 
 
 CHUKCHES, SCHOOLS, ETC. — THE DERRYFIELD SOCIAL LIBRARY — 
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE 
 
 MANCHESTER HISTORIC ASSOCIATION. 
 
 PART V. 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 

 ur/-<^- 
 
 '(j 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 
 
 District of Columbia. 
 
 1897. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD 
 
 BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EARLY OCCUPATION AND SETTLEMENT CONCLUDED. 
 
 In the preceding chapter the attempt was made to present a 
 long-disrance view of the times preceding and immediately fol- 
 lowing the first permanent settlements in New England. Con- 
 tinuing the inquiry it will be our endeavor to ascertain and set 
 forth in order the dates of the first authorized expeditions into 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 The first patent granted by the London Company to the May- 
 flower Pilgrims was applied for in 1617 and granted in 1619. 
 Landing and luncheon over, like cats in strange garrets, these 
 colonists sent out exploring parties in every direction, and were 
 not long in discovering the Merrimack, which they approached 
 in the neighborhood of Haverhill, the course of the river at that 
 point being nearly due east. Disregarding an earlier patent of 
 1606, under which some abortive attempts at colonization took 
 place, we come next to the Gorges and Mason patent of 1620, 
 superseded in 162 1 by what was then known as the " Mariana" 
 grant. It is only necessary for our purpose to remember that 
 the grantors were so ignorant of the territory granted that they 
 had supposed the east and west course of the Merrimack contin- 
 ued to its source, which was thought to be Lake Champlain. In 
 
100 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 1622, however, another patent to Gorges and Mason conveyed 
 what was known as the Laconia grant, including land "situated 
 between the Rivers of Merrimack and Sagadehock, extending 
 back to the great lakes and rivers of Canada." Under this last 
 grant settlements were simultaneously made at Portsmouth and 
 Dover Neck, in the spring of 1623. In March, 1627, a grant to 
 Henry Roswell conveyed "the territory between a line running 
 from the Atlantic ocean three miles south of the mouth of the 
 Charles River, and every part thereof, and a line extending from 
 the Atlantic ocean, three miles north of the Merrimack river and 
 every part thereof." How far inland this great paralellogram 
 extended from the sea no one knew, and at that time no one be- 
 lieved, not even the grantees, that the northern limit extended 
 more than three miles beyond an east and west line projected 
 from Newburyport to Haverhill. The last fatal misconception 
 was the source of much subsequent trouble and disagreement, 
 the last echo of which did not die for two hundred and seventy 
 years, when the boundary line between New Hampshire and 
 Massachusetts was finally and definitely agreed upon — in favor 
 of Massachusetts. 
 
 Up to this time every grant and patent, and all the territory 
 held or claimed to be held under them, as well as every occupa- 
 tion and settlement, were made in entire disregard of the right 
 or ownership of the Indians to any of the territory in question. 
 In the spring of 1629, however, the famous Wheelwright deed 
 was executed by Passaconaway and three other owners of the 
 soil in fee simple, conveying an extensive tract of land for a con- 
 consideration of ten or twelve pounds in lawful money. This 
 deed was subsequently pronounced a forgery, but no sufificient 
 proof has been produced to show that it was not a genuine con- 
 veyance. Our interest in the question is mainly historical and 
 especially in the local trend of the northerly line, described in 
 the instrument as passing through the present towns of Straf- 
 ford, Northwood, Deerfield, Candia, Hooksett and Manchester, 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. lOI 
 
 thus covering the whole of our title to Derryfield and the lands 
 immediately adjoining. It is of further interest to remember 
 that the identical territory thus acquired by purchase under this 
 deed was afterwards, in November of the same year, granted to 
 Mason by the "Council of Plymouth," at his request. No con- 
 sideration was mentioned, but the obvious inference is, in the 
 light of all the known subsequent facts, that this new grant was 
 designed not only to repudiate the Passaconaway deed but to 
 forever disallow an Indian claim of ownership anywhere. Thus 
 early did these god-fearing and land-loving people of Massachu- 
 setts covet the soil, and from that time on they grabbed what 
 was in sight and claimed the remainder. 
 
 In the meantime the Roswell patent of 1627 had been merged 
 in an exclusive and inclusive charter from King George to the 
 "Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New 
 England." It is scarcely necessary to explain that this charter 
 included Boston. About this time the authorities discovered 
 what had long been known to hunters and rangers in the north 
 country that the Merrimack made a great right-angled bend at 
 Dracut and thereafter ran northerly, whereupon not only their 
 maps but the plan of possession was modified accordingly, and 
 a new boom of geographical discovery and exploration was born. 
 Scouts and surveyors were at once privately commissioned to 
 spy out the land and report. Some years passed, during which 
 a number of expeditions were quietly set on foot to explore the 
 country in various directions, some of which followed the coast, 
 some the Merrimack and others the Connecticut valley. 
 
 From these various sources of information the Massachusetts 
 Bay people took their cue, and in 1638 openly sent out "a com- 
 mittee to find out the most northerly part of the Merrimack 
 River." The committee rejDorted that "some part of it above 
 Penacook was more northerly than forty-three and a half de- 
 grees." This means literally, allowance for error considered, 
 that upon reaching Franklin the committee took the Pemige- 
 
102 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 wasset branch, which they followed beyond Plymouth and past 
 Baker river to the neighborhood of Woodstock. Here they 
 would naturally halt for two reasons : First, the Pemigewasset 
 near this point divides into a net-work of headwater streams, of 
 which the East Branch, Hancook, and Franconia are the chief. 
 Second, the explorers would find themselves in a veritable cul 
 de sac formed by the mountains ; on the right the water-shed of 
 Sawyer and Swift rivers, tributaries of the Saco ; on the left the 
 water-shed of Baker river, and in front the steep dividing crest, 
 down whose northern slope the Wild Ammonusuc tears down 
 to the Connecticut. On the other hand the committee may 
 have followed the valley of Baker river to Warren. Here they 
 would have been surrounded by a circular sweep of mountains, 
 among them Mt. Carr, Mt. Kineo and Moosilauke ; it is likely 
 the way by Baker river would be chosen, rather than that of the 
 Pemigewasset, as the old Indian trail followed the former. On 
 the other hand they must have halted before reaching the height 
 of land at Warren summit ; had they climbed to this point they 
 would have seen the white foam of trout-streams tumbling down 
 toward the north, might have caught glimpses of the frightful 
 precipice of Owl's Head, and could not have failed to see spread 
 before them the broad valley of the Connecticut, with the great 
 ox-bow in Haverhill. None of these things were alluded to in 
 the report of the 1638 committee. It is equally certain they did 
 not follow the Winnepesauke, since the lake would have been 
 encountered before the parallel of 43/^° was reached, but the 
 lake is likewise unmentioned. So that we are forced to con- 
 clude either that this committee followed the Pemigewasset, 
 that they were themselves mistaken as to the distance traversed 
 or that they made a false report. 
 
 In 1639 another committee was sent "to find out the north- 
 ernmost part of Merrimack river." This committee must have 
 made a lame and inconclusive survey, for they established the 
 line at a great pine tree three miles north of the junction of the 
 Pemigewasset and Winnepesauke. 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. IO3 
 
 Early in 1652 still another commission was appointed by the 
 General Court of Massachusetts, to establish the north head of 
 the Merrimack, and on the first of August, 1652, it was formally 
 fixed at 43° 40' 12" — namely, at the outlet of Winnepesauke, 
 with an allowance of three miles more north, " wch run into the 
 Lake." Thus, with rare forecast, the surveyors drove all other 
 contrary-thinking people into deep water. This was the famous 
 " Endicott Rock" expedition, concerning which there has been 
 much misdirected enthusiasm. Upon the soil of the Bay Slate 
 the shaft at Bunker Hill bears witness to the unselfish heroism 
 and self-sacrifice of the sons of New Hampshire ; the monument 
 at the Wiers commemorates an act of Puritan greed and perfidy, 
 committed against men of their own blood and lineage. The 
 heirs of Mason, the assigns of Gorges, the possessors by pur- 
 chase, and every claim of occupancy whatsoever was for years 
 stubbornly denied by Massachusetts. Forced construction of 
 charters, chicanery, indirection, falsehood and fraud failing to 
 be sufficient, the General Court resorted to threats of force, in 
 turn followed by arrest or banishment. The whole history of 
 this usurpation, however, is too black to be painted. 
 
 All of these expeditions, with others set on foot by other par- 
 ties in interest, passed directly through Derryfield and around 
 Amoskeag Falls ; and yet we are soberly told that these were 
 first discovered in 1739, a hundred years later than the excur- 
 sion of the first Massachusetts committee. 
 
 We should be glad to believe that the Apostle Eliot preached 
 and taught at Amoskeag. Potter labors to show that he came 
 here by invitation of Passaconaway a little later than 1650, and 
 asserts that here were a number of praying Indians who were 
 preached and prayed to, and that schools for the youth were also 
 established. In 1648 Eliot wrote, with undoubted reference to 
 Amoskeag, " There is another great fishing place about three 
 score miles from us, whether I intend (God willing) to go next 
 spring." In 1649 he again writes, " I had and still have a great 
 
I04 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 desire to go to a great fishing place, Namaske, upon the Merri- 
 mack river." In the same letter he adds, " But in the spring 
 when I should have gone, I was not well, so that I saw the Lord 
 prevented me of that journey." There is no direct evidence that 
 Eliot ever carried out his intention, or that he came farther in 
 this direction than Nashua. But it is important to note this 
 cumulative evidence that Amoskeag was not only thus early 
 known, but that it had been long familiarly known as a great 
 fishing place. 
 
 Let us now briefly trace the course of advancing settlements 
 in this direction from Massachusetts. Many towns contiguous 
 to Boston were early settled, several of which, like Rehoboth, 
 embraced extensive tracts afterwards formed into three or more 
 townships. The date of settlement is given for Beverly, 1630; 
 Andover, 1634; Newburyport, 1633; Salisbury, 1639; Haver- 
 hill, 1640, and Dunstable in 1659. A considerable number of 
 other towns in Massachusetts were settled between the latter 
 date and 1700, but few in southern New Hampshire. This was 
 mainly owing to the fact that comparatively few emigrants came 
 to New England during the period following 1640, and it is said 
 that for a century and a quarter thereafter more people went 
 back to England than came hither. These facts have been too 
 often overlooked by historical students, who found it diflficult to 
 account for the delay in making settlements in this part of New 
 England. The rigor of the climate, the fear of wild beasts and 
 Indians, even necessary hardship and privation, had less effect 
 in checking the tide of immigration than the dis'.llusion of the 
 dream of wealth in which many of the earlier adventurers had 
 indulged. The golden bui)ble had been pricked, no longer com- 
 pelling by its false and glittering allurements. 
 
 Old Dunstable, a portion of which was settled as early as 1659, 
 embraced more than two hundred square miles, and out of this 
 seven entire townships and parts of several others were subse- 
 quently carved. Litchfield was one of these, where a claim of 
 settlement is made as early as 1656. 
 
HISTORY OF DEKRYFIELD. 10$ 
 
 Following the list of towns referred to above we find Pelham, 
 1721 ; Amherst, 1728; Goffstown and Bedford, 1733, and Derry 
 and Londonderry, 17 19. 
 
 Looking to the east we see the settlers creeping toward us 
 in much the same order, from Exeter and Dover. From these 
 towns the people came to the Merrimack valley and became ac- 
 quainted with its fisheries long before 1650. As to this western 
 extension of our sea-coast towns most historians begin with the 
 records and not with the facts. They agree in assigning 1719 
 as the date of settling the "Chestnutt Country," afterwards 
 " Walnut Hill," " Cheshire," and finally Chester. Charles Bell's 
 notes are extremely valuable, although written when he was but 
 eighteen years of age. He died young, as the editor's preface 
 naively says, "at the early age of 29^ years," and in his death 
 the state lost a born historian. The courts have always claimed 
 that records make the best witnesses — but there are others — 
 and although we are historically limited to 17 19 we shall attempt 
 to project the reverted eye to an earlier date. For some years 
 many towns not included in Ancient Dover were within the lim- 
 its of Exeter, and those not in either were included in Chester, 
 which embraced Epping, Raymond, Candia, Auburn, Hooksett, 
 and parts of other territory known to the geography of guess- 
 work. The early surveyors ran lines hither and yon, forcing a 
 balance among the figures read from their rickety transits, but 
 being always careful to add, include and reckon enough, with an 
 extra allowance for error. So these early surveys, reinforced by 
 conjecture, allotted the whole woodland acreage about us, with 
 the exception of Derryficld, which was providentially reserved 
 for greater things. 
 
 Here we are impertinent enough to inquire, Why not Derry- 
 field .'' Let these four points be remembered : That the first step 
 was discovery, the second occupation, the third either grant and 
 survey or survey and grant as it might happen, and fourth an 
 actual settlement. In the case of Derryfield the surveyors hes- 
 
I06 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 itated and finally halted, not because they were weary nor at the 
 command of conscience, nor elsewise by any claim of prior grant 
 or survey, but because they found the soil occupied and actual 
 settlers in possession. This fact alone strongly reinforces our 
 claim that the accepted dates must be revised and put back to 
 a time certainly not later than the year 1700 and undoubtedly 
 much earlier, 
 
 A society was formed in 1719 "for settling the Chestnutt 
 country." The members were familiar with the land they de- 
 sired to erect into a township, for they had hunted and fished in 
 it for years and had eaten of its nuts. The record recites that 
 a previous petition had been preferred in the autumn of 17 18, 
 by virtue of which the petitioners claimed some rights, setting 
 forth that they had "been at a vast expense of blood and treas- 
 ure to maintain the same against the enemy." No precise de- 
 scription is given of the enemy, but it was intended that those 
 to whom they ever prayed should believe them to be Indians, 
 though we are inclined to think them certain down-country peo- 
 ple from Haverhill, who then claimed to have an Indian deed to 
 the whole territory. In any event nothing is more certain than 
 the fact that a considerable number of hunters, trappers, fisher- 
 men and scouts, if not actual settlers, had ranged back and forth 
 for years before the society was formed and that the organiza- 
 tion was only a step taken to keep what they already had, and 
 at the very least to prevent others from getting it. 
 
 There was at this time and had been from time immemorial 
 what was known far and wide as the "Pennacook Path," which 
 ran all the way from Exeter through Chester, passing over the 
 east shoulder of Mine Hill and so on by "Jake Chase his house," 
 to the present highway in Auburn ; thence, skirting the Auburn 
 shore to Sucker Village, the trail turned west, making a detour 
 northward around the Merrill brook swamp, and again easterly, 
 leaving the Massabesic to the south, thence to Amoskeag and 
 by way of the Merrimack valley to Concord. We are informed 
 that the nearer easterly section of this path ran through " Sam 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 10/ 
 
 Bell's orchard," and down over Wilson Hill south of the poor- 
 farm to the old falls road. There was a similar path to King- 
 ston, another to Haverhill by way of Tyngsborough. At about 
 the same date the bridge over Exeter river was only passable 
 for foot-passengers or riders in single file, but was made "con- 
 venient for carts " in 1720. It is said the incorporators of old 
 Chester had no shadow of right upon which to base their peti- 
 tion, which was only granted by preference over earlier combin- 
 ations, although the secretary credited himself with five shillings 
 for a "copy of an Indian deed." This was one of the pretences 
 early employed by our forefathers, as it was an easy matter to 
 induce any Indian under the seduction of Jamaica rum to affix 
 his mark to a deed or any number of them, and the wily settlers 
 were quick to employ these opportunities. 
 
 That the soil of Chester was occupied by actual settlers long 
 before 1719 is sufficiently shown by the action of the new pro- 
 prietors at their first meeting, when the selectmen were empow- 
 ered to eject all trespassers upon the land covered by Governor 
 Shute's charter, and a committee was subsequently chosen for 
 the same purpose. 
 
 In August, 1737, Chester had a visit from Goverror Belcher, 
 and in the earliest account of his tour we read that " His Excel- 
 lency was much pleased with the fine soil of Chester, the extra- 
 ordinary improvements at Derry, and the mighty fall at Skeag." 
 This was two years before the date of Secombe's famous sermon 
 at the falls, and conclusively shows that even at that date there 
 were good bridle-paths from Portsmouth to Amoskeag and from 
 the falls to Derry. As a matter of fact nearly every part of the 
 territory under consideration was much better known and easier 
 of access than the historians would have us believe. 
 
 In May, 1739, John McMurphy was granted a privilege to 
 build a grist-mill at " Massabesic River," below the great fall, 
 "provided said McMurphy shall not stop or impede the course 
 of the fish up the said river, but shall and will leave, continue 
 and make sufficient passage for that purpose." This allusion 
 
I08 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 to " great falls " upon what we now know as Cohas Brook very 
 clearly indicates that a much heavier volume of water commonly 
 fiowed from the lake at that date than has been known for two 
 generations. The cause of the present greatly decreased and 
 diminishing flow is obviously to be attributed to the disappear- 
 ance of the great forests. The object of this old provision for a 
 fish way was to protect the ale-wives in their run to the lake, as 
 they furnished a considerable food-supply to the settlers. Laws 
 were also passed to prevent the killing of deer and "Deer In- 
 spectors " were duly appointed. On the other hand a bounty of 
 twenty shillings was offered for each head of "a full-grown 
 wolfe." In this year more than twenty wolves were killed in 
 Chester and Derryfield, of which John Stark killed two. 
 
 In 1745 a man by the name of Bunten was killed by Indians 
 in Hooksett, He was from Pelham and on his way to Penacook, 
 following the old path to which reference has been made. 
 
 The 1719 Chester petition before referred to was "signed by 
 about 100 hand," and modestly asked for a tract " on the east to 
 Kingston and Exeter, on the south to Haverhill, and on the 
 West and North to ye woods." This elastic piece of " waiste 
 land," originally intended to be eight miles square, was after- 
 wards increased to ten and finally to fourteen, which was untler 
 the limit, and extended from the Exeter line westerly to the 
 Merrimack north of the Derryfield reservation. This latter ap- 
 pears to have been first known as Harrytown or Henrysburg, 
 and originally consisted of about eight square miles, but in 175 1 
 eighteen square miles from Chester and nine from Londonderry 
 were added. 
 
 At various dates between 1639 and 1733 — the Massachusetts 
 century of dishonor — that commonwealth made an extensive 
 series of land grants in the disputed northern territory, ranging 
 as far north as Lake Winnepesauke. These gr.mts were of two 
 classes, those given to friends and supporters of her claims and 
 those made to soldiers. It was well understood that none others 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. IO9 
 
 need apply. Many of the grants issued to soldiers who had en- 
 gaged in the old French and Indian wars were hastily made, the 
 bounds illy defined and the land hard to locate. Whole town- 
 ships were granted by guesswork. Of these the record remains 
 as to Bow, Todds-Town, Beverly-Canada and Bakerstown. Of 
 other early grants known to have been made one was of a part 
 of Derryfield, but the records are lost, and we are inclined to 
 believe this to have been the original Harrytown grant. The 
 charter for Derryfield was not issued till 175 1, and did not even 
 then include that part of old Harrytown near Martin's Ferry, 
 which was added later. The evidence as to Bow and Dunbar- 
 ton is conclusive and the lines stand. Some grants were early 
 settled while others were not ; but the Derryfield grantees came 
 without delay, the fishery alone presenting the principal induce- 
 ment, much of the soil being very poor. 
 
 Not a few towns changed names from three to si.x times in ten 
 years, were granted and regranted to differing parties, lines and 
 bounds over-ran, fell short or conflicted, and order only came 
 after the Revolution, when the original claimants, like Gridley, 
 had died out of court and chancery. The history of those old 
 claims and counter-claims, though full of stirring incidents, can 
 never be written ; many a settler defended his homestead gun 
 in hand against the emissaries of the Great and General Court 
 of Massachusetts, and his dogs were trained to discover in the 
 wind the smell of Boston. In the general absence of fences, cat- 
 tle and hogs ranged at long and at large, and we read of farmers 
 who turned out cows to graze in Haverhill and the next day 
 found them in Hooksett. Thus here and there are caught brief 
 glimpses projected upon the scene by the side-lights of history. 
 The most patient research and scholarship is in our day engaged 
 in unravelling the tangled threads of our early colonial annals, 
 and in this task any contribution, however slight, must be of 
 value, and to this end we have labored. 
 
 The date of the settlement of Salisbury, for instance, is given 
 as 1748, and yet it is traditional that as many as eight families 
 
no CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 resided in the township before that year, the " Mink Hills " hav- 
 ing been known and named in 1737, and Kearsarge certainly as 
 early as 1657. A similar state of facts is generally true of all 
 the earlier townships. 
 
 Nutfield gives a good example of historical uncertainty, the 
 probable occupation ranging from 1629 to 17 19, the latter date 
 alone standing for settlement. But it is known that not less 
 than four Indian deeds previously passed to the whole or a por- 
 tion of that territory, one of which from Indian John was dated 
 March, 1701. In one deed the description recites "a certain 
 tract of land about thirty miles square, to run from the Merri- 
 mack river eastward and so up the country." In another the 
 " northerly bound was the westerly part of Oyster river, which 
 is about four miles northerly beyond Lampereele river." As 
 Oyster river is in Durham and the Lamprey in Raymond it is 
 easy to see the Nutfield people had a good margin. 
 
 Finally, the first presence of white men in Derryfield must be 
 put not later than 1636, the date of a probable survey by Bur- 
 det, under instructions from Governor Winthrop, carried out by 
 Captain Wiggin, and even at that time the route was familiar to 
 hunters and scouts, to which the record adds "artists," which 
 term was probably intended to mean surveyors. Waldron's 
 testimony is conclusive as to this point. Peter Weare says that 
 since 1637 he had "in the same way become familiar with the 
 same region," he having " oftentimes travelled the country," and 
 "some of the natives always with him." He adds that he had 
 been on "a great mountain north of Lake VVinnipicioket." All 
 these expeditions went up the Merrimack because that river was 
 the bone of contention, and without doubt followed and contrib- 
 uted to make the famous " Pennacook Path." We find also the 
 record of Woodward and Stratton's survey in 1638, of Wood- 
 ward, Howlet, Jacob Clarke and Manning, in 1639, and after 
 that a deluge of expeditions by opposing factions. Some of these 
 long-lost records may yet be brought to light. 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. Ill 
 
 The earliest map of the Merrimack river from its source to its 
 mouth is also the latest discovered, but is unfortunately without 
 dale. It is finely drawn and certainly the work of an "artist." 
 The " plot " gives the photography of the river, with lakes and 
 mountains on either side. It shows the islands, bends and falls ; 
 the Uncanoonucks, Massabesic Lake and Amoskeag Falls are 
 laid down, and the Suncook river is put where it belongs. The 
 work is of such a character that the whole valley from Dun- 
 stable to Penacook is seen to have been pictured from an actual 
 survey, probably the first undertaken by competent hands. 
 
 We cannot now further prolong our researches in this field of 
 inquiry. We have purposely abandoned the beaten route hith- 
 erto followed by historians, and have hazarded an attempt to 
 revise some of their conclusions by methods of historical deduc- 
 tion. Wherever possible ascertained dates have been assigned, 
 and whenever by reasonable inference these were found to be 
 misleading the known facts have been compared and the logical 
 interpretation followed. In concluding our pictures of the past 
 we may be pardoned for renewing the suggestion that we claim 
 for them nothing not included in the title chosen, and that they 
 pretend to be no more than contributions. Should these serve 
 to awaken a new dawn of inquiry and rouse the spirit of research 
 the writer will be well contented. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 HOME LIFE, CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS — THE DERRYFIELD SOCIAL LIBRARY 
 — SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 The home life of the first settlers of Derryfield, so far as the 
 direct testimony can be relied upon, was in marked contrast to 
 that of most New England settlements, and outwardly presented 
 few characteristic Puritan features. All accounts agree in pro- 
 nouncing them generally a rough lot, much more closely resem- 
 bling the frontiermen of our own day than the traditional relig- 
 ious community of that age. The negative evidence as to this 
 point is still stronger, as the record discloses no movement or 
 organized effort to provide for preaching or religious teaching of 
 any sort whatever ; public means of grace and an active spread 
 of the gospel were of so little impt)rtance as utterly to escape 
 the notice of local historians. If gospel privileges were enjoyed 
 the opportunities were wide apart. There were no settled min- 
 isters, no stated supply, and occasional preaching was as rare as 
 earthquakes. Before Secombe's salmon-sermon in 1739 it is not 
 certainly known that any religious exercise or exhortation what- 
 ever took place within the limits of Derryfield, nor for rather 
 more than a quarter of a century thereafter. 
 
 The rehgious record — or non-record — would be amusing if it 
 were not distinctly disgraceful. Potter says McDowell probably 
 preached here now and then before 1754, in which year the 
 town voted to build a meeting house, but this was the next year 
 reconsidered. In 1758 the frame was raised and the building 
 boarded and shingled in 1759, though still without underpinning 
 and having but one door, one layer of rough flooring and no 
 pews, and this skeleton of the visible church was then badly in 
 need of repairs. Fifteen years later, though some preaching in- 
 tervened and the Rev. George Gilmore was called, the call was 
 not answered, and the ravages of decay continued to affect both 
 God's house and people. 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. II3 
 
 The Revolution now became matter of concern to the exclus- 
 ion of a multitude of interests ; there was no Sunday for soldiers 
 or citizens, and the cause of Zion languished. In 1780 an effort 
 to repair the building failed, three years later the repairs were 
 not completed, and this state of affairs continued without better- 
 ment until 1790, at which time the "pew-ground" of the main 
 floor was sold at public auction, and the gallery area similarly 
 disposed of three years later. But the gallery pews were never 
 built and no part of the house' ever finished. In the thirty-five 
 years which had elapsed the progress of decay had outstripped 
 the process of repair. Potter says, "The house was fit for a 
 place of worship at no time, but in summer and of a fair day it 
 answered better than a barn." The old, weather-beaten struc- 
 ture is well remembered by the writer, and remained in a dilap- 
 idated condition in Hallsville till 1853, when it was sold, moved 
 a short distance, and converted into a dwelling-house block, 
 which is still standing. 
 
 Throughout this entire period we hear next to nothing about 
 schools. It is said there were none in Derryfield before or dur- 
 ing the Revolution, and Dr. Wallace asserts that no steps pro- 
 ductive of actual results were taken until some years later than 
 1788, and adds that "for nearly a century after the settlement 
 of the town there was neither lawyer, physician or minister 
 among its permanent inhabitants." It is certain there was no 
 schoolhouse untill 1795, and even that was built by private sub- 
 scription, none being built by vote of the town earlier than the 
 year 1798, possibly later. 
 
 In such a community the morals of the people must have kept 
 pace with their ignorance and inattention to godliness. The 
 pursuits of fishing, hunting and river-rafting were not calculated 
 to favor a devout frame of mind, and the conventional restraints 
 of the church were lacking. A considerable number of the ear- 
 lier inhabitants were rollicking, devil-may-care roysterers, who 
 spent their spare time in wresting, bowling, or pitching horse- 
 10 
 
ii4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 shoes for pennies, accompanied with a daily diet of rum. The 
 records show frequent brawls and fighting, sometimes among 
 themselves, sometimes with kindred spirits from Londonderry, 
 who were not averse to liquor at home or abroad. The annual 
 reproduction of Donnybrook Fair by our Scotch-Irish neighbors 
 included the more lively features of its old-world model. The 
 reverend historian of Londonderry, with an unusual devotion to 
 truth, says that this fair " proved a moral nuisance, attracting 
 chiefly the more corrupt portion of the community and exhibit- 
 ing for successive days in each year scenes of vice and folly in 
 some of their worst forms." These fairs were attended by large 
 delegations of the rougher element of Derryfield. Our limits 
 permit us to give no more than the setting and outline of the 
 picture ; details are not difficult to be supplied, since the same 
 causes and like effects still surround us. 
 
 DERRYFIELD SOCIAL LIBRARY. 
 
 An opportunity has been afforded us to examine the book of 
 records of the " Social Library," which has never been printed. 
 Contrary to our first design, which contemplated a mere epito- 
 me, we have thought best to reproduce the entire record, with 
 the exception of the charter, which may be found in the first 
 number of the published papers of the " Manchester Historic 
 Association." A verbatim copy follows : 
 
 At a Library Meeting held December 12th, 1796 
 
 Voted to form a society by the name of the Proprietors of The Social Li- 
 brary in Derryfield — 
 
 Voted To Raise Two Dollars on each Right or share 
 
 Voted Capt John Goffe Clerk to said Meeting 
 
 Voted Daniel Davis Receive the money & purchase the books 
 
 At a Library Meeting held January 12th 1797 
 Voted Capt John Goffe Moderator 
 Voted Daniel Davis Librarian & Clerk 
 Voted Capt John Perham Daniel Davis & John Goffe Inspectors 
 
History of derryfield. ii^ 
 
 At a Library Meeting held on the 6th November 1797 
 Voted Capt John Goffe Moderator 
 Voted Daniel Davis Librarian & Clerk 
 Voted That the Proprietors keep their books three months 
 Voted Capt John Perham, Daniel Davis, & David Young Directors 
 Voted to accept Capt John Goffe book at 50 Cents 
 
 Voted To Raise Fifty Cents annually as an increasing fund to support 
 said Library 
 
 At the Annual Meeting Held on Monday the 5th November 1798 At 4 
 oClock P M 
 
 Voted Daniel Davis Moderator 
 
 Voted William Farmer Librarian & Clerk 
 
 Voted Samuel P. Kidder, Daniel Davis, & William Farmer Directors 
 
 Voted That the Words ( Derj-yfield Social Library Annual Meeting First 
 Monday itt A^ovcniber )hfi printed in each book belonging to said Library 
 
 Voted That the Fifty Cents as an increasing Fund be Omitted the ensu- 
 ing year — 
 
 Voted that the Two Vollumes of the Magazene shall be taken out & Re- 
 turned as one other Vollume 
 
 At the Annual Library meeting on the First Monday of November 1799 
 at Four O Clock P M 
 
 Voted Daniel Davis Moderator 
 
 Voted Daniel Davis Librarian & Clerk 
 
 Voted To Raise Fifty Cents on a share the present Year 
 
 Voted Samuel P. Kidder, Daniel Davis & William Farmer Directors 
 
 Voted that the Fifty Cents be paid to the Clerk by the 20th December next 
 
 Voted That Daniel Davis Purchase the books 
 
 Voted That new subscribers be admitted the year ensuing at two Dollars 
 Each share 
 
 Voted that no Proprietor that keeps a book three months shall take it out 
 again at Return. 
 
 [ Here follows the Charter.] 
 
 At a Meeting Legally Warned and holden on Monday 3d Novr 1800 
 Voted Capt John Perham Moderator 
 Voted William Farmer Librarian & Clerk 
 
 Voted Samuel P. Kidder, Benja F. Stark & Daniel Davis Directors 
 Voted To Raise Fifty Cents on each share for purchasing New Books 
 Voted Daniel Davis be the Person to purchase said Books 
 Voted to allow Danl Davis $1.60 Cts for Paines writing 
 Voted to Purchase two Blk Books one for the purpose of Making Records 
 the other for accompts — 
 Voted that the Clerk make the proper Records in said Books 
 
tl6 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 Voted that Fifty Coppys of the Constitution be printed 
 Voted that Benjn F. Stark be the person to hire the aforesaid printing — 
 Voted that any person may be admitted the ensuing year For two Dollars 
 Voted that the Directors be authoris'd to purchase a book Case for the 
 use of the Proprietors. 
 
 At the Annual Meeting holden on the First Monday in Novr 1801 at the 
 House of Wm Farmer 
 
 Voted Lft Benja F. Stark Moderator 
 
 Voted Daniel Davis Librarian & Clerk 
 
 Voted Samuel P. Kidder Daniel Davis & John Perham Directors 
 
 Voted To Raise Fifty Cents on a share 
 
 Voted that the Librarian Collect all arrearages by the First Day of Janu- 
 ary next ensuing 
 
 Voted that Daniel Davis Purchase the Books 
 
 Voted that New Proprietors Come in at Two Dollar the year Ensuing 
 
 The Subscribers Finding it necessary to Call a special Meeting do hereby 
 Notify and warn the Proprietors of Derryfield Social Library to meet at the 
 Dwelling House of Daniel Davis in said Derryfield On Monday the Fif- 
 teenth Day of March next at Four OClock P. M to Act on the Following 
 Articles (Viz) 
 
 ist To Choose a Moderator to Regulate s'd Meeting 
 
 2d To Choose a Clerk Librarian & one Director for the Remainder of 
 the present year A punctual attendance of the Proprietors with their Books 
 are Requested — 
 
 Derryfield 24th Febry 1802 John Perham "i 
 
 Daniel Davis > Directors 
 
 Sam'l P Kidder ) 
 
 At a Special Meeting Legally Warned & Holden on Monday 15th March 
 1802 at the House of Daniel Davis — 
 Voted Benja F. Stark Moderator 
 Voted Saml P. Kidder Clerk & Librarian 
 Voted David Flint Director 
 
 We the Subscribers acknowledge ourselves to be members of the Derry- 
 field Social Library Company and promise to Conform to all rules and regu- 
 lations which may at any time be adopted by the society while we remain 
 members of said society 
 
 James Grififin paid Asa Haseltine sold his rights to his son 
 
 Philip Haseltine Jr Asa 
 
 John Dickey Jr paid David Flint 
 
 Stephen Worthley Reuben Sawyer 
 
 Peter Hills Ephraim White 
 
 Moses Davis interest of John G. Moor Joseph Farmer Jr 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. II7 
 
 James Parker Wm Walker 
 
 Jesse Baker Israel Webster 
 
 Moses Heseltine for Pingrey James Nutt 
 
 Amos Weston William Perham 
 
 Isaac Huse David Webster Jr 
 
 John Proctor Job Rowell 
 
 Elijah A. Nutt John Ray 
 
 John Hall Saml McAllaster 
 
 John Frye paid By Book No 30 David Adams 
 
 Nathan Johnson paid Phinehas Pettengail 
 
 Daniel Hall Jr Ephraim Stevens 
 
 John Dwinell Paid Jacob Chase 
 
 Samuel Jackson John Stark Jr paid 
 
 Nathaniel Conant Saml Moor Jr paid 
 
 Phinehas Bayley Stephen Moor 
 
 John Perham Joseph Moor paid 
 
 Benja F Stark Robert Hall in lew of John Gammel 
 
 Saml P Kidder Asa Heseltine 3rd 
 
 [ These names were all signed in the handwriting of the subscribers. The 
 following names were also written, but for some unknown reason were after- 
 wards crossed out with a pen: " Benjn Leslie, Ann E Couch Paid Stephen 
 Pingrey Wm Farmer transferd to John Gambel Mrs Edna Davis".] 
 
 At a Library Meeting held on the first Monday of November 1802 
 Voted Lt Benj F Stark Moderator 
 Voted to admit new members at two Dollars Each 
 Voted to Relinquish John Tufts fines 
 Voted Saml Moor Jr Clerk and Librarian 
 
 Voted Saml P Kidder Saml Moor Jr Capt John Perham Benj F Stark and 
 David Adams directors 
 Voted to except the Constitution in lue of the old one that was lost 
 Voted that all fines due be paid the first of January 1803 
 
 At the annual Library meeting held on 7th Novr 1803 
 Voted, John Stark Moderator. 
 
 Voted, to excuse Philip Heseltine Jr his taxes and fines for the Book case 
 Voted, Philip Heseltine Jr Librarian — 
 Cash on hand six Dollars and seventy two Cents 
 
 Philip Heseltine ) 
 Voted, Samuel Hall > Directors 
 
 William Farmer ) 
 Voted, to buy Gordens History and Rollins, s antient History 
 
 At the annual meeting of the members of Derryfield social Library held 
 on the fifth of November AD 1804 
 
 Voted, to adjourn the meeting until the 12th of Novr 
 
 Derryfield 12th Novr 1804 meeting being opened according to adjournment 
 
 Voted, B F Stark Moderator 
 
 Voted, to admit new members at two Dollars each down 
 
Il8 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 Voted, Samuel P Kidder Treasurer — 
 
 B F Stark ^ 
 
 Samuel Moor Jr | 
 Voted, Capt John Perham )>Directors 
 
 John Stark Esq j 
 
 Ephraim White J 
 Voted, the Directors meet the first Monday in February May and August 
 Voted, Benjamin Leslie Librarian and Clerk 
 
 Voted, that the Librarian collect all the Debts and fines that now is or 
 may become Due the year ensuing 
 
 Voted, to give Lieut Daniel Davis two Dollars in full of all accounts he 
 hath against the society — 
 
 Voted, to abate Samuel Hall his fine of twenty five Cents 
 
 Derryfield, November 4th 1805 at a Libraiarys Meeting held for the pur- 
 pose 
 
 Voted Saml P Kidder Moderator 
 Voted to Choose three directors 
 
 ! Nathaniel Moor 
 Ephraim White 
 Capt John Perham 
 Voted Samuel P Kidder Treasurer 
 Voted New members be admitted for two Dollars 
 Voted to Choose an agent to Collect the tax and the fines that are due 
 Voted Capt Perham Collect the above tax &c 
 Voted the Money be Collected in thirty days 
 
 Voted the directors overhall the Books and Select out such as they think 
 proper and sell them to the highest bidder this night 
 
 Voted to Choose an agent to lay out the money and purchas the new books 
 Voted Saml P Kidder purchas the Books 
 Voted Saml Moor Jr Librarian and Clerk 
 
 Derryfield November 3d 1806 Annual Meeting 
 
 The proprietors of the Derryfield Social Library Met Novmr 3d agreeable 
 to Constitution and acted on the following articles 
 
 ist Voted Capt Joseph Moor Moderator 
 
 2d Voted John G Moor Librarian and Clerk 
 
 3d ) Lt Job Rowell 
 
 Voted [ Benjamin Leslie 
 
 Directors ) John G Moor 
 
 4th Voted that Each man pay the Money which is due Before he recev a 
 Book 
 
 Voted New members Come in at 2 Dollars Each 
 
 Voted to reconsider Capt Perham as Collector 
 
 Voted John G Moor Collector of the whole 
 
 Voted the Librarian Purchase the Books 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 1 19 
 
 Voted the Librarian Call on the last years treasurer for Money which be- 
 longs to the Library 
 
 Derryfield November 2nd 1807 
 At an annual Meetino^ of the proprietors of the Derryfield Social Library, 
 holden at the house of John G Moor's in sd Derryfield, proceeded as follows 
 Voted ist Lt Job Rowell Moderator 
 
 2nd To ajourn this Meeting to the 2nd Monday in November to Meet at 
 John Hall's Jr in sd Town at four of the Clock Afternoon 
 
 Novemr 9th Mett according to ajournment 
 Voted Mrs Farmer Clerk & Librarian 
 
 James Nutt ) 
 
 Voted John Stark, Jr [ Directors 
 
 Job Rowell ) 
 Voted the Directors Collect all Taxes & Moneys that shall be found due 
 Voted not to raise Money the present year 
 
 Voted the Directors sell all such Books as they may think proper 
 Voted to Reconsider the 4th article in a Meeting of the year 1806 
 
 At a meeting of the proprietors of the Derryfield Social Library holden at 
 Mrs Farmers house on February 8th 1808 
 
 Voted Joseph Moor Moderator 
 
 Voted To Excuse Mr Flint one Dollar for the two first Taxes Charged to 
 him 
 
 Voted to relinquish 50c of Capt Moor's fine 
 
 Voted The remainder of the fines be Colected 
 
 Voted to Disolve this meeting 
 
 Mrs Farmer Clerk &C 
 
 Derryfield Novr 7th 1808 
 At an anual Meeting of the proprietors of the Derryfield social Library, 
 holden at the hous of Mrs Farmer's in sd Derryfield preceded as follows 
 Voted ist Robt Hall Moderator 
 
 Voted 2d To ajourn this Meeting to the ist Monday in December next at 
 four of the Clock P. M. 
 
 December 5th 1808 
 Met according to adjournment and Chose Amos Weston Clerk and Li- 
 brayan 
 
 Samuel Moor Jr f 
 Amos Weston | 
 Voted Joseph Moor <[ Directors 
 John Adams | 
 
 Robert Hall L 
 
 Voted the Directors Collect all the Money that shall be found due to Li- 
 brary by the next annual meeting Voted the directors lay out the Money 
 due to the Library and purchase the Books 
 
I20 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 Derryfield 6th of November 1809 the proprietors of Derryfield social Li- 
 brary met and voted as follows 
 
 ist Voted to adjourn the meeting the 13 day of this month at 6 of the clock 
 P M 
 
 November 13th 1809 then met according to adjournment and Voted as fol- 
 lows ist Amos Weston Clerk and Librarian the present year 
 
 2nd Voted Amos Weston Collect all moneys due to the society and be 
 treasurer 
 
 3rd Voted Isaac Huse Esq Robert Hall & Saml Moor Jr be Directors the 
 present year 
 
 4th Voted that new proprietors be admited to the society on paying two 
 Dollars 
 
 5th Voted that the Laws of the State of New Hampshire be bought for 
 the society 
 
 6th Voted that the Laws of New Hampshire be returned within forty five 
 days from the time it is taken out 
 
 7th Voted the Directors purchase such Books as they see proper 
 
 Manchester 5th of November 1810 
 At an annual meeting of the proprietors of the Derryfield Social Library 
 holden at the house of Amos Weston in S'd Manchester proceded as follows 
 Voted ist Isaac Huse Moderator of sd Meeting 
 Voted 2nd Amos Weston Clerk and Librarian 
 
 Isaac Huse ) 
 
 Voted 3d Samuel Moor Jr > Directors 
 Robert Adams ) 
 
 Manchester November 4th 181 1 
 At an anual Meeting of the Proprietors of the Derryfield Social Library 
 holden at the house of Mr Amos Weston in said town proced as follows 
 Vot ist Isaac Huse Moderator 
 Vot 2nd to adjourn this Meeting to the last Monday in November 
 
 November 15 1811 
 Met according to adjournment Voted Isaac Huse Librarian and Clark 
 
 Job Rowell ') 
 Voted Robert Adams > directors 
 
 John Perham ) 
 November 2d — 1812 Four of the proprietors met and agreed to ajorn our 
 anual meeting to 16 Novr ins at 4 oclock P M 
 
 Novr i6th 1812 Met agreable to ajournment 
 
 Voted Samuel Moor Moderator 
 
 Voted Moses Haseltine Librarian & clerk — 
 
 Voted Capt Perham Job Rowell & Robert Adams directors 
 
 Voted to Relinquish to Mr Ephraim White a claim of 50 cts 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 121 
 
 Voted Isaac Huse Agent to Collect what appears to be due to the Incor- 
 porators 
 
 Manchester November ist 1813 Isaac Huse Moderator the proprietors 
 Met and Agreed to ajorn our anuel meeting to the 15 of November Instant 
 at Six oclock P M 
 
 November the 15 1813 Met according to adjournment and voted to ajourn 
 to the twenty Ninth of November Instant Met acrding to ajournment and 
 procded as follows Voted Robt Perham Libirian and Clark 
 
 Robert Adams ) 
 
 Samuel Moor > Directors 
 
 Job Rovvell ) 
 
 November Manchester November 7th 1814 this Being the Day of the 
 anual Meatting For the Proprietors of the Manchester Socel Library Not a 
 Nuf to hold a meaten or to Do Buseness Chose John G Moor Moderator 
 and adyourned the meating to this Day Fortnight at the house of Robert 
 Perrams at four Clock P M 
 
 November 21th this Day Met accordang to adjournment and Chose John 
 Dwinnell Clark and lybrarein 
 
 And 
 Samuel Moor ( 
 
 Samuel P Kidder } Durectors 
 John Stark Esq ( 
 
 November 6 — 1815 
 
 The Members of Manchester Social Library Met and proceeded to the 
 Choice of officrs for the year ensuing 
 Choose John Stark Moderator John G Moor Clerk protem 
 Choose ; John Dwinel Clerk & Librarian 
 
 ( Isaac Huse 
 Directors < John Stark 
 ( Job Rowel 
 Voted John Frye be Treasurer 
 
 Voted that the directer be authorized to examin the Books and sell at auc- 
 tion all such Books as they shall think propper for sale 
 
 Voted that new propritors be admitted for the usual price of $2.00 
 Voted to adjourn the meeting to the 20th November 
 
 attest John G. Moor Clerk p t 
 November 4th 1816 
 At a meating of the Proprietors of the Derryfield Library holden at the 
 house of John Dwinell on Monday the 4th of November 1816 and preceded 
 as follows 
 
 1 Chose John Stark Esq Moderator 
 
 2 Chose John Dwinell Librarien and Clark and Colector and treausury 
 Chose ( Isaac Huse ( 
 
 John Frye < Drectors 
 James Nutt C 
 
122 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 November Monday the 3th 1817 
 at a meatin^ of a number of the Proprietors of the Manchester Library 
 holden at the house of John Dwinells and Chose Isaac Huse Esq Moderator 
 and Voted to agorn said meeting till the 17th Day of November instant at 
 4 oclock afternoon 
 
 November 17th 1817 the proprietors of the Social Library met according 
 to a agournment and Voted that Isaac Huse Esq stand Moderator of said 
 meeting and Chose John Dwinell Clerk and libarien and Chose 
 
 John Dickey i 
 
 John Stark Esq [ Directors 
 and Nathan Johnson ) 
 and Chose Isaac Huse Colector and tresurer and Voted that all the fiens 
 Due on the Book be Corlected 
 
 Voted not to have anything to do with any Books of Elijah Nutt Except 
 that one which was Excepted and that was the Columbian orator Price 
 $o^7S John Dwinell Clark 
 
 November Monday 2th 1818 
 the members of the Manchester Sochal Library met and 
 
 1 Chose James Griffen Moderator 
 
 2 Chose John Dwinell Clark and Libaran 
 
 3 Chose James Nut ) 
 
 Capt Ephraim Stevens Jun > Derectors 
 
 John Proctor ) 
 
 4 Chose Israel Webster 3 (?) treasury 
 
 5 Chose James Nut Collecttor 
 
 6 Voted to adjorn this meeting till the first Mondy in febury Nex at 4 
 oclock at the hous of said Dwinells 
 
 Monday Febary ist 1819 Som of the Propritors Met according to agorn- 
 ment and Chose John Dicken Moderator Protem and Did adjorn said meet- 
 ing till the first Monday in march next at 4 oclock 
 
 Novembr Monday the ith 1819 
 At a meeting of the Proprietors of the Manchester Library Holden at the 
 House of John Dwinell and Quimby and Chose Isaac Huse Esq Moderator 
 and Chose John Dwinell Clark and librarien and Voted that the Clark Be 
 autherized to Examon all the Books that are taken out of the Librey from 
 time to time and to Examon them when taken in and to see if any Damiges 
 are Don to any Book and to Prise the Damige Done and to keep a true a 
 Count of Said Damage and make a Return of the same to the Directors at 
 Each of their meetings and the Directors are to Exhibit the same at the 
 aneuel Meeting and Chose Isaac Huse i 
 
 and Jobe Rowell ] Directors 
 
 and John Dickey ( 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 123 
 
 Novembr Mondy the Sixth Day 1820 
 This Day a full Number met at the house of John Dwinells and Elijah 
 
 Quimby of the members of the Sochal lybry in Manchester and Voted John 
 
 Dwinell Moderator of said meeting 
 Voted John Dwinell Clark and lybarin and Voted Elisha Quimby for 
 
 Clark Protem 
 
 Chose Jams Grifin ^ Directors 
 
 Samuel P k.dder Esq , p 
 
 Capt Joseph Moor ( ^ 
 
 Voted adjourn this Meeting until the ith Monday of Feb Next 1821 5 Day 
 
 at 4 oclock 
 
 John Dwinel Clerk 
 
 Met agreeably to the adjournment and Read the Constitution and Voted 
 
 as Follows 
 
 ily to excuse Saml P Kidder from the office of Director 
 
 Chose Robt Adams in his stead 
 
 Voted to excuse said Adams 
 
 Chose Capt Ephraim Stevens 2nd Director 
 
 Voted to dismiss this Meeting 
 
 John Dwinell }>Clerk 
 
 Manchester Nov 5 1821 
 Met at the Annual Meeting a Few of the Members and Voted to adjourn 
 this meeting until Saturday the first day December Next at 4 Oclock P M 
 
 Saturday December i. 182 1 met according to adjournment 
 ist voted Capt Dwinell Moderator 
 2d voted Samuel Jackson Librarian 
 3d voted John Dickey ) 
 
 John Gamble > Directors 
 
 John Proctor ) 
 4th voted to adjourn the meeting until the 4th Instant at three OClock P. 
 M. to be holden at Dwinell & Ouimbys tavern 
 
 Tuesday December 4th met agreeably to adjournment and voted to make 
 a further adjournment until Tuesday the i8th of December instant at 4 
 O. Clock P. M. to be holden at Dwinell & Quimbys tavern 
 
 December 8th 1821 
 
 We the directors met and examined the Library and found in said Library 
 
 Seventy four Books besides those that are taken out — 
 
 John Gamble \ directors 
 John Dickey \ 
 
 Manchester, December i8th 1821 
 
 Met agreeable to adjournment 
 
 Voted Coll Nathl Moor Moderator 
 
 Voted S P Kidder Clerk and Librarian 
 
124 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 Voted J. G. Moor Assistant Clerk 
 Voted John Dickey l 
 
 Robert Hall S Directors 
 Robert Adams ) 
 Voted Capt John Dwinell Collector 
 Voted Samuel Jackson Treasurer 
 
 Voted That an Inventory of all the Books be taken by the Directors pre- 
 vious to the Removal of the Library 
 
 S. P. Kidder, Clerk 
 
 Manchester December 2th 1822 
 this Day the Members of the Sochal Librey a Greeable to agornment 
 
 1 and Chose John Stark Moderator 
 
 2 and Chose John Dwinell Clark and Librarian 
 
 the moderator has withdrawn 
 
 3 Chose Jese Bakar moderator in the Room of said Stark 
 
 4 Chose Ruben Sawyer ) 
 
 Nathan Johnson [ Directors 
 Job Rowell ) 
 
 5 Voted that the Director shall Be Colectors of all moneys Bac 
 
 6 Votted to Give mis Elize Stark hir fine 
 Voted to Desolve said meeting 
 
 Manchester November 3th 1S23 
 this Day a Number of the membrs of the Sochal Librey met but not a Nuf 
 to act Business only to open the meeten, and Chose John Proctoter modera- 
 tor and adjorned said meeting untill the 17 Day of this Present month at 5 
 oclock afternoon 
 
 Manchester November 17th 1823 
 this Day a nomber of the Proprietor met But not a Nuff to act Busies But 
 have a Gorned said meeteen untill the first monday in November Next 
 
 John Dwinell Clark 
 
 Manchester November i Day 1824 
 
 and a fool meeting of the Propriertors and held thir meeting and Voted as 
 follows 
 
 first Chose Israel webster moderator 
 
 secontly Chose John Dwinell Librain and Clark 
 
 thirdley Chose Capt Ephraim Stevens John Gambel and Isaac huse Di- 
 rectors 
 
 forthly Chose John Gambel Corlector 
 
 fifthly Chose John Dwinell tresurer John Dwinell Clark 
 
 1824 at a meeting of the Directors of the Derryfield Social Library Decem- 
 ber II, 1824 
 Examined the Records and found due to the said Library from sundrys 
 persons — fines — $2,62 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 12$ 
 
 Manchester December 25 1824 
 
 This day settled with Lieut Job Rowell and found due to the Social Lybra 
 
 seventy eight cents John Gamble ) r->- 
 
 ^ " Isaac Huse [Directors 
 
 Manchester January 14th 1823 this Day Receved of Lieut Job Rowell the 
 Sum of Seventy Eight Cents Receved by me John Dwinell 
 
 November 7th 1825 
 this Day a number of the Proprietors of the Social Library in Manches- 
 ter met but not a nuf to hold a meeting But Called the meeting and Chose 
 Isaac huse moderator and ajorned said meeting untill the 28 Day of Novem- 
 ber instant John Dwinell Clark 
 
 November 28th 1825 this Day the Proprietors of the Sochall Libre met ac- 
 cording to ajornment tho not a Nuf to transact Busines and Voted to aGorn 
 said meeting untill the first monday of November in the year 1826 at four 
 oclock after Noon at the place whear the Libra is kept 
 
 Manchester December nth 1826 this Day I the Subscriber have taken the 
 Sochall Librey and 92 Books from John Dwinell which I am a Countabel 
 for as witness my hand Daniel Hall 
 
 Received December 8th 1827 the Social Library consisting of 81 volumes 
 and it appears by Lieut Daniel Hall's account there are eleven Books out 
 
 Samuel Jackson, Librarian 
 Attest Ephraim Stevens Jr ) r^,>,^;tfo^ 
 Job Rowell [Committee 
 
 [The foregoing include all the meetings of the proprietors. Meetings of 
 the directors were held during this time in November, 1817, December, 1819, 
 January, 1823, November, 1823, February, 1824, September, 1825, and Novem- 
 ber and December, 1826. Subsequently to the last meeting of the proprie- 
 tors the directors held two meetings in 1828, and one each in 1829, 1830, 1831 
 and 1832. The following books were bought in 1823 : " The holy War Price 
 $0 80, Gaseteer Price 1-67, the life of Eaton 1-75 and one Vollom on the 
 World to Come which we have receved of Mr finis Baley for a shear in the 
 librey $2-00." In addition to the list of fifty-four subscribers before given 
 on pages 116 and 117, we give the following additional names : John Goffe, 
 Daniel Davis, David Young, John Tufts, Samuel Hall, Nathaniel Moor, 
 John Adams, Isaac Huse, Robert Adams, Elizabeth Stark, Mrs. Farmer, 
 Israel Webster, Thomas Stickney and Elisha Ouimby. Tlie whole number 
 of names of proprietors as shown by these records appears to have been sixty- 
 eight. Of these but four have middle names; nine have military titles; two 
 have the title of "Mr." and two — John Stark and Isaac Huse — are honored 
 with the title of "Esq." The whole number of books on hand in 1826 was 
 eighty-seven, with "one Book misen."] 
 
126 CONTRIBUTIONS TO TH£ 
 
 Eight additional names are given by Mr. William H. Huse, 
 from records in his possession, which names appear in the paper 
 before referred to. He gives also a list of books which exhibits 
 some inaccuracies. In the copy of the charter which he repro- 
 duces the attesting signature is given as " Philip Carrigian," but 
 in the copy engrossed in our record-book it is given as '* Nathl 
 Parker, Depy Secy." The appended lists give the titles of all 
 the books bought, with the cost of each in pounds, shillings 
 and pence up to the close of 1798, after which the accounts were 
 kept in federal currency : 
 
 The Proprietors of Derryfield Library Bot of E Larkin Boston 4th Jany 
 1796 I Spectator 8 Vol ^1.16.0 i Fool Quality 3 V 15.0 i Newton on Proph- 
 ecies 2 V 136 I Christian & Farmers Mag 2 V 18.0 i Cooks Voige 2 V 
 15.0 I View of Religion 10.0 i Watts on the Mind 6.00 i Pleasing Instruc- 
 tor 5.3 I Franklins Works 6.0 i Valuable Secrets 6.0 i Burtons Lectures 
 5.3 I Farmers Letters 4.6 x Carvers Travels 50 i Female Jockey Club 
 4.6 I Looking Glass for the Mind 4 6 i Forresters 6.0 i Pomfrets Poems 
 4.0 1 Medical Pocket Book 4.6 i Ovids ,A.rt of Love 3.9 i History of Amer- 
 ica 2.3 I Bold Stroke for a Wife 1.6 i Provoked Wife 1.6 i Agreeable 
 Surprise 0.9 I Arabian Nights Entertainments 2 V 10.6 i Winchester's 
 Dialogues 4.6 [This amounted to ^9.13.9.] Deduct 10 pr Ct 19.4 — leaving 
 ^8.14.5 I Blank Book 3.0 Equal to ^29 57 Seven Wise Masters Rome 06 
 Howards Life 72 Priest Craft 3 Vol 2.09 Infant Baptism 50. Total 532.94 
 
 The Proprietors of Derryfield Library Bot of E Larkin 
 
 I Morses Geography 16.6 i Don Quixote 12.0 i Dyers Titles 6.0 i Ers- 
 kines Sermons 6.0 i Doddridge Rise & Progress 53 i Ditto Sermons 3.3 
 I Ditto Ditto 3.0 I Ditto on Regeneration 5.3 i Boyles Voyage 4.6 i Re- 
 ligious Courtship 4.6 i Saunders Journal 3.0 i Ladys Miscellany 4.6 i 
 Gentlemans Ditto 4.6 i Hive 4.6 i Rassalas & Dirabus 5.3 i Browns Ora- 
 cles 3.9 I Christian Life 4.0 ^4.17.9 Discount 10 pr Ct 9.9 ^4.8.0 Equal 
 to $14.67 Deer 1797 
 
 The Proprietors of Derryfield Library Bot of E. Larkin Deer 26 1798 
 
 I Josephar 6 Vol ^i.io.o i Mores Journal 10.6 i Robinsons Proofs 10.6 
 
 ^2.11.0 Discount 10 pr Ct 5.2 ^2.5.10 Equal to $7.65 
 
 The Proprietors of Derryfield Library Bot of E. Larkin 26th Deer 1799 
 I Goldsmith's Animated Nature 4 Vol 9.00 i Morses Gazetteer 2.50 i 
 
 Pilgrims Progress 75 i Herveys Meditations 87 1-2 i Maria Cecilia 87 1-2 
 
 14.00 Disct 10 pr Ct 1.40 $12.60 
 
HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 12/ 
 
 Derryfield Social Library Salem Feb 12th 1802 Bot of Gushing & Appleton 
 
 Adams History of England 2 25 Davis Sermons 2 Vol 4.00 Hunters Sa- 
 cred Biography 3 V 6.00 Adams Flowers of Travels 2 V 2.00 Lendronis (?) 
 American Revolution 2 V 2.00 Ortans Discourses to the Aged i.oo Life 
 Joseph 62 1-2 Petitpierre on Divine Goodness 87 1-2 Pliillip Quarll 75 Re- 
 pository 75 Dickinsons Five Points 75 Female American 75 i Blk Book 
 2.00 I ditto I 00 24.75 Disct 10 pr Ct 2.47 1-2 $22.27 1-2 the Washing- 
 tonia I ct (?) 
 
 Manchester January ist 1813 
 Mr Thomas Stickney Brot forward i Book Exercises of Piety i An Expli- 
 catory Catechism i a Short and Easy Method with Deists 
 
 In addition to the foregoing five volumes were subsequently 
 bought of Capt. John Dwinell ; three of Job Rovvell, one of Mr. 
 Piiineas Bailey and five volumes of Washington's Life, bought of 
 Job Rowell ; two books were added in 1800 and one in 18 17. It 
 appears from these records that the whole number of titles was 
 eighty-two and the number of separate volumes not less than 
 one hundred and twelve. In 1825 Betsey Kidder executed a 
 deed to the I^ibrary, conveying her right and title to Jonathan 
 Young. These names should be added to the list of proprietors 
 previously given. It is probable that all the books were finally 
 sold at public vendue. As each volume, by vote of 1798, was 
 inscribed "Derryfield Social Library," etc., it is probable that 
 some of these books are still in possession of the descendants of 
 original proprietors or purchasers and may thus be identified. 
 The suggestion is made that should any volumes of this curious 
 collection be brought to light that they be deposited with the 
 Manchester Historic Association for safe keeping. 
 
 CONCLUSION, 
 
 With this number we conclude the series of contributions to 
 the early history of Manchester, throughout which we have kept 
 up the pleasant fiction of Derryfield. The work has already 
 outgrown our first design, but the field of inquiry is still inviting 
 additional research. We have scarcely more than covered the 
 
;/ 
 
 128 HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 
 
 period antedating the first actual settlements in Derryfield, and 
 in the events occurring from 1750 to the date of the city charter 
 much matter of interest remains to be made of record. 
 
 We may attempt the task of gleaning the field already reaped, 
 gathering perchance here and there a straw which has been jolt- 
 ed from the historical wain, and prolonging a little further the 
 search amid fast disappearing annals. For the period following 
 1841 the writer will have the advantage of personal recollection, 
 and he has already reached that over-ripe stage of life in which 
 the pictures of past events are more vivid than those of recent 
 occurrence. We should be permitted to add that the work is a 
 labor of love, undertaken and published wholly at the expense 
 of the writer, with little prospect of reward, but he is abundantly 
 satisfied if he has succeeded in casting an added light upon the 
 fading pages of the past. 
 
 4