^I)c laimcr'g iltontl)Iu Visitor. 



133 



cal application, soon lo make it e(iual to tlie ex- 

 pulsion of liiin^'i;r iVoni llie cuiiiiii(;icial vvi>il(l. 

 We see that, (li'pi»nilniit upon llie coiirtiieicial 

 markets, our a^rii'iillnre in;iy liiiug upon oui' 

 country a hi^'li de^'iee of pi-ospeiity, and enalile 

 lis when extraonlinaiy o^ca^ior]s shall call for 

 its exc-n-ise, to practice a national henevoleiu'c as 

 gr.ili'ful to the hearts of the hilrnane as to the 

 Warns of the (lesriiute. And we see that, hy tlje 

 « iiler (litfiision aiid more seein-e estahli^hiiieni 

 of a SMCi'essful auiieulliire auioiii;- our i-ili/.ens as 

 a pi^ruranent eiuploVMieul, we are layiui; liroader 



and deeper the. fi dalions of oiu- free iMsiitii- 



tions, the pride and" !,'lory of our tliuiitry and 



prizeil liy its freetiien as their richest earthly 



hlessiu"; ; the history of all civil j^overnmeui, 



-•nflrmed hy the experieiu-e of this repiihlic, 



inishin^' demonstrative proof that a well edn- 



-ited, industrious and iiulcpendent yeomanry 



.'h; the salest repository of freedom and free 



iiislitniions 



CONCORD, N. H., SEPTRMBER 30, 1847. 



THE "NORTHERN RAILROAD' IN NEW- 

 HAMPSHIRE. 

 A Trip to the Sammit. 



Having been a third lime disappointed on an 

 invitation of the superinteiulinjr agent of the 

 Northern Railroad, to go uiil, others ajid look 

 njioM this greatest improvement as yet ettecled 

 within the limits of the Granite Slate, the geutle- 

 iiiaii, with an undeserved polite attention, on the 

 first Monday of September, invited the editor of 

 the Visitor to a special view of the road now al- 

 most finished for the passage of cars nearly or 

 quite to the foot of the gigantic ledge, which has 

 been blown out within the last eighteen months 

 at the summit, about forty-seven miles, as the 

 devious course of the valleys rendered necessary 

 the buililing of this road. 



Hitherto we had presented some account of 

 this road the first eighteen miles, directly upon 

 or near to the niar^'in of the Merrimack river to 

 FianiOin. To tfiat place, since the first of Janu- 

 ary last, the trains of merchandise and (lassage 

 cars have continued constantly to ply, presentini' 

 Kiich a result as to the profit and prospect of bu- 

 siness, as has constantly ke|)t the price at and 

 ibove its cost and nominal value, and enabling 

 he stock to make a divitlend not below six per 

 oenl. per annum from its commencement. In 

 the difficult way presented on this river bank the 

 first eighteen miles above, it would rather aston- 

 ish us that Mr. Adams, the experienced engineer, 

 had made not a single mistake of magnitude. 

 The substantial character which has been given 

 to this road, first when it leaves the villasre of 

 Concord, passing over what was the Horseshoe 

 Pond and morass— then touching and scaling 

 down a hill of great depth, which might have 

 'leen a ledge, but wh^cli turned out precisely to 

 iiethat kind of clay and gravel wanted for the 

 filling in— near by encountering and crossing 

 - >ver that perilous point of the river, called Far^ 

 .lum's eddy, now presenting through that a 

 barricade hank for the road, substantial as the 

 safest dry land-then further on, after arrest- 

 ing and shortening the channel of Long Pond 

 brook, passing upon, over its whole length, and 

 I off of Sewalfs island, with substantial embank- 

 nients at either end, with only one simple water 

 ■luicB to pass on ami off, and turning and short- 

 I uiiiig the channel of the whole Merrimack river 

 —further on, after aurniounting in the distance 



of a mile or so the slight inclination of about 

 twelve feet over Sewall's falls, again boldly cut- 

 ting off and turning the Merrimack into a chan- 

 nel, lessening nearly one mile the length of the 

 river around Goodwin's point, opposite which 

 the force of the stream had been nuderujiiiing 

 and breaking off acre afier acre of horizontal 

 clay and sand deposiles- going over the Rolfe 

 intervales, and finally within the limits of the 

 town, the Dustiii island at the inoulli of the 

 Contoocook, a stream forty and filly miles in the 

 soiilh-west, as large as the main or parent stem, 

 an equal distance north from the same point. 

 The seven or eight miles of the railroad track 

 within the limits of Concord seemed to present 

 great obstacles, all of which, without exaggera- 

 tion, have been encountered with greater success 

 than the most sanguine expectation of its iViends. 

 Indeed, now the road is built, to appearance now 

 there seems to be nolhing of the iiisecuriiy which 

 we had anticipated, either at the Farnuni eddy 

 or the mouths of the Contoocook. In this town 

 the new way even to the oldest inhabitant is a 

 novelty which could not fail to surprise him : 

 most of the distance a rich alliivian bottom, now 

 wide and now narrosv, in a continued level, su- 

 persedes the various rise and fall of miles upon 

 the travelled roads on either side through the 

 town : we see in a few minutes what hundreds 

 of persons who have been born and dieil in the 

 town perhaps had never seen. Very near nine 

 miles over both the Concord and the Northern 

 roads is the great way of travel from south to 

 north, through the capital and centre of the State. 

 As into a tunnel both from above and below 

 conies this great travSl, which is destined, with- 

 in the next five years, to extend to the Canadas 

 and the great West. The local business and 

 travel from northern New-Hampshire and Ver- 

 mont, which imist mainly pass through the tun- 

 nel of this central point, are but a small fraction 

 of the business after the immense trains of mer- 

 chandise and produce going both ways from the 

 western world shall be under way. 



Leaving Concord, at the north line of which 

 the busy village of Fishersville, with its ten thou- 

 saiul spindles, ami its stone factories from one to 

 three humlred feet in extent, has grown up as if 

 within the last few months — a place large enough 

 to supply business for a respectable depot — the 

 Northern road pursues its way through the whole 

 extent of Boscaweu with more quiet and less 

 abruptness of prospect. In all this way, nothing 

 of the business villages is seen from theioad: 

 these communicate at the nearest and most con- 

 venient points with local stations, with prepara- 

 tions to receive and let off passengers and mer- 

 chandise. Two of these stations are in Bos- 

 caweu — one of them against the plains village, 

 and tlie other near the Gerrisli farms, upon the 

 river farther north. 



Touching Franklin, the same easy access for 

 the road is found up the river in that town. At 

 the great turn of intervale, constituting the Bur- 

 leigh, Webster and Noyes (arms, the road short- 

 ens off the distance by cutting the two larger 

 liirms nearly in two, leaving the houses which 

 were the birth-places of the Websters and the 

 Haddocks, separated by the track from the an- 

 cient burial ground where repose the ashes of 

 their ancestors. A mile or more below Frank- 

 lin, and between the two villages, the rise in the 

 road to be encountered in the first gorge after 

 leaving the river conmiences. In the first five 

 miles, liere is the greatest inequality of the road 

 eastward of the summit.: the ease and rapidity 



with which it is encountered, seem to make the 

 whole comparatively trifling to what is encoun- 

 lered on other roads. The depot station at 

 Franklin rising upon the side hill stands almost 

 directly over, but in full view of the thickest 

 part of the village. At this point lately has been 

 commenced upon the same elevation the Bristol 

 railroad, coniimiing the Pemigpwasset or main 

 river way still further up a ilozeii miles. The 

 Northern road itself takes the gorge of a fine 

 mill stream, which finds its way through a beau- 

 tiful lake about a mile from the river, called 

 Chance pond : to this pond another stream com- 

 ing out of another pond at the centre of Ando- 

 ver, finds a way three miles more for the rail- 

 road. To equalize the rise, no where exceeding 

 fifty feet to the mile, sand bills were perforated, 

 and deep gullied vallies filled in : on the way 

 we have an excavation through a most peculiar 

 ledge of hard rock, where the channel of the 

 road is several feet below the level of a near 

 pond of water, which furnishes the momentum 

 of power carrying a saw-mill. Below this mill 

 we strike upon a level but little undulating^ 

 which carries the railroad some eighteen miles 

 by and down the north side of the Mascomy 

 ake or Enfield pond to Lebanon city. Soon 

 aAer leaving the summit, there is a beaiitifiil 

 continued level in a direct line of road over the 

 intervales of Orange and Canaan of full two miles 

 in extent. Against the village of Canaan, upon 

 [his straight line level, the buildings for the road 

 station, which accommodates a rich farmin" 

 country both north and south, are being erected. 

 Between this station and the elephant back of 

 Cardigan at the north-east, is the first side hill 

 and valley which constitutes the town of Orange, 

 much of whose forests have not yet been cleared 

 of their timber. Further west ami before reach- 

 ing Canaan we have the broader valley running 

 up to Dorchester and the hills of Lyme : both of 

 these vallies are rich and heavily timbered, where 

 the lauds have not yet been cleared. 



.About one mile north from the depot, at an 

 elevation of perhaps two hundred feet, is the 



beautiful location of the village of Canaan a 



town which, although so situated upon a hill as 

 to be seen fifteen or twenty miles around from 

 all sides of the amphitheatre west of the summit, 

 is evidently of alluvian formation, with a soil 

 strong, tenacious and highly productive, as is 

 the general character of the whole of the Con- 

 necticut river valley. If art had laid out the 

 street, which extends a mile over the village of 

 Canaan, the grading could not have been more 

 perfect than this in its natural position. More 

 than twice the usual width has the road been 

 laid out in a direct line through this village, mak- 

 ing for the village a most beautiful location. 



Not very far from the railroad depot stands 

 the humble one-story house erected half a cen- 

 tury ago by the venerable Thomas Baldwin, one 

 of the fathers of the Baptist church in America : 

 this bouse, while pursuing the trade of a black- 

 smith in the newly settled town, he assisted to 

 erect with his own hands. Eminent as a divine 

 as he was universally beloved for his many vir- 

 tues, the honest friend of toleration, ami foe to 

 some of the delusions which have marred the 

 usefulness of higher educated men of his profes- 

 sion, the memory of this seK-taught man deserves 

 to be long cherished by posterity: especially 

 should the State, from which bis high talents 

 called him to act in a more elevateil position, be 

 proud to number him among her distinguished 

 sous. 



