£l)c .farmers iUontljlt) ilisitor. 



was an officer. The father of Mr. Haines is one 

 of the few men living who was a magistrate and 

 memlier of our State legislature as far back as 

 the year 1803. John Haines in that and we believe 

 the two following years was the representative 

 of Concord, (now Lisbon.) He is of the very few- 

 left who were friends and contemporaries of John 

 Langdun : it was almost a wonder for ns to find 

 such a matt so far in the woods. He went to the 

 Indian stream thirty-five years ago, and was sev- 

 enty-eight years of age last April : far removed 

 as he has been, he has not forgotten either the 

 manners of the dress of the gentlemen of olden 

 times: he ceremoniously entered in a black 

 broadcloth suit with a white cravat, and a golden 

 chain to the watch suspended from his neck. 

 The titles to the lands of these far interior set- 

 tlers were first derived from the Indians: the 

 three families who first went in, were Messrs. 

 Plumley and Goodwin, with Col. Haines. 



There are three farms laying along the west 

 bank of the river and nearly reaching north to 

 the lake which belong to three sons of Colonel 

 Haines: that of Clark J. Haines consists of four 

 bundled acres, beautifully sloping from his house 

 to the river. The soil of this land by nature is 

 highly fertile: Indian corn and other crops usu- 

 ally raised two hundred miles south grow here. 

 The he.rdsgrass and clover crops were growing 

 about his premises: he assured us that he now 

 cut crops of between one and two tons of hay 

 upon mowing ground having no advantages of 

 wash, which had neither been manured or plough- 

 ed for twenty-five years. Besides his large stock 

 of cattle, Mr. H. had this year in keeping 175 

 sheep of the finer wool. 



Further up the stream above Mr. Haines' resi- 

 dence is a hollow extending westerly, and beyond 

 that a hill cleared into farms: the hill strikes 

 down in a point to the east, making the main 

 stream take a circuitous course. The first Eng- 

 lish travel up and down was upon the stream ; 

 but old Mr. Haines informed us that the Indians 

 soon told him of a more direct path over the hill 



where the distance to the lake was shortened 



■ 



- some miles. 



The lowerofthe three Connecticut lakes is six 

 by three miles in extent — it is beautiful all around 



its shores, the land being of the best quality. At 

 the rise of ground near Mr. Haines' residence 

 we look over the undulating woods as seeming 

 at a long distance. There are no mountains or 

 rocks here to interrupt an acre of the cultivation ; 

 and the evenness of the well sized timber be- 

 speaks the soil of the first quality. As far as yet 

 settled there is none hut good land there found. 

 Below upon the river longtime ago the intervale 

 ground was taken up by the first farmers: better 

 than the intervales have since been found the 

 high lands back from the river in Stewartstown 

 and Colebrook. 



Of the country to the north-east of lake Con- 

 necticut is the Carlisle grant, a tract said to con- 

 tain eighty thousand acres, for whose disposition 

 the Legislature of 1840 was made to believe there 

 was a pressing necessity from the burden of its 

 absolute worthlessness ! Every acre of that grant 

 we believe now to be worth at least one dollar: 

 . anil when ten years more shall complete a rail- 

 road all the way up the Connecticut river to its 

 sources, ten times the amount may not be made 

 to cover its value. 



The rich intervales far up the Connecticut 

 river on both sides were occupied almost as long 

 ago as those above Concord on the Merrimack : 

 the settlements oft* the river have made slow 



progress. There was more snow and a longer 

 winter farther going north, and little of the pro- 

 duce would pay for carrying it to market the long 

 distance. As high up as Northumberland, Caleb 

 Marshall settled prior to the revolution. He was 

 of that Marshall family remarkable for indepen- 

 dence and talent which we have long known in 

 Hampstead, N. H. : Capt. William Marshall, the 

 patriarch of Hampstead, for nearly the last twenty 

 years of his life, was continuously the agent for 

 distributing through his neighborhood some 

 twenty numbers of the weekly newspaper of our 

 publication, always paying in advance for the 

 paper, and charging nothing for his services. His 

 descendants through their mother are the Dyer 

 family at Enfield, the eldest of whom is now the 

 well-known financier and manager of the Shaker 

 fraternity of that town. This family left a farm 

 in Stewartstown, when the elder Caleb Dyer at 

 the instance of his wife united with the brethren 

 at Enfield : her talents and obstinate persever- 

 ance have been proved by the trouble she has 

 given the Shakers in the last thirty years: all the 

 children, we believe, have proved in their works 

 their constant devotion to the fraternity with 

 which their parents both united. The lather is 

 yet a hard working veteran at near the age of 

 eighty years. — Alarmed for the fear of the Indians 

 on the breaking out of the war of 1775, Zeruiah 

 Harritnan, the wife of Caleb Marshall, at North? 

 umberland, the outside settlement up the Con- 

 necticut, mounted on horseback with her infant 

 in her arms, and rode all the way over the by- 

 paths of the continued woods about one hundred 

 and fifty miles, to her original home in Hamp- 

 stead. 



From the view of the first forty miles out of 

 Canada down Connecticut river, we should judge 

 it to be a most favorable route for the construc- 

 tion of the contemplated railroad fram Portland 

 to Montreal. The second shelf from the river 

 has fewer interruptions and the breaks are much 

 less abrupt than the general character of the river 

 bank lower down, nearly all the way of New 

 Hampshire and across Massachusetts. 



The Maine interest has done well early to start 

 the idea of their Montreal road in its whole dis- 

 tance. They were in advance, in securing the 

 favor of the British capitalists, of any other road. 

 Coming down from Montreal to Sherbrooke, the 

 route will be as near to Boston by Canaan as the 

 Passumpsir. route branching from Stanstead to 

 Sherbrooke. The policy of the Passumpsic road 

 should he to cut off the distance and reach Mon- 

 treal by passing further west, in the valleys of 

 Orleans county, leading down to Memphemagog 

 at its south-west point, and pursuing a track as 

 near as may he to that of Gen. Hazen's road from 

 Connecticut river to Montreal. The route of the 

 Hazen road directly will be impracticable be- 

 cause it passes over steep mountain acclivities; 

 but it is said that the avoidance of Stanstead will 

 shorten the distance to Montreal some forty miles, 

 and encounter a less rise and fall : Stanstead vil- 

 lage at the line stands several hundred feet higher 

 than the level of 'Magog lake. 



We have said that the ground in Canada be- 

 yond Canaan was very favorable over the Maine 

 and Montreal route : that part of the road will as 

 soon be made by British capital as it can be made 

 through .Maine and New Hampshire. The con- 

 templated road is a long way; but the native re- 

 sources of the country through which it will pass 

 are not to be exceeded in any other part of the 

 northern States. When this country shall be 

 opened, it will be found that the severity of the 



climate and the long winters are not so much to 

 its disadvantage. The deep snow laying steadily 

 upon the ground is favorable rather than injuri- 

 ous in this region to agriculture. Decidedly bet- 

 ter is the soil than in that portion of New Eng- 

 land along the seaboard further south. 



The Portland and Maine road in northern New 

 Hampshire has but recently been called to a par- 

 ticular survey. It is fountl on examination that 

 the road cannot pass the Dixville notch or any 

 point higher up ; but must come down forty miles 

 from the line on the Connecticut river bank to 

 the mouth of the Upper Ammonoosuck ; and it 

 is even thought it maybe brought seven miles 

 farther, to the Israel's river at Lancaster. It is 

 remarkable that these rivers coining in from the 

 east preserve very nearly a level for twenty miles 

 across the distance of the width of New Hamp- 

 shire. Most magnificent white pines, the timber 

 of which has been little better than wasted, were 

 the original growth of the lower vallies near the 

 river: a good deal of this timber is yet left : both 

 rivers interlock with the waters of the Andros- 

 coggin, down which the railway is to pursue its 

 course. 



At Lancaster or Northumberland, in no great 

 length of time, will the Maine and Montreal road 

 be tapped by the roads running up near the Con- 

 necticut river the whole distance south. It is 

 our impression that the Northern and Montreal 

 railroad from Concord must have its course this 

 way. The fifteen miles falls upon the Connecti- 

 cut river bank will be best surmounted by pur- 

 suing the valley of the lower Ammonoosuck 

 above Haverhill through the flourishing business 

 villages of Bath, Lisbon, Littleton, through White- 

 field and Dalton. It seems to us that nature here 

 has left for this purpose a valley shutting down 

 the mountain ridge to the bend of the Connecti- 

 cut along the fifteen miles falls, for the more easy 

 construction of a railroad upon the shorter route. 

 The value of the Maine anil Montreal railroad in 

 more than half its distance would he greatly en- 

 hanced by such an addition as this branch in the 

 direction of the Merrimack. 



Expensive mills for the manufacture of lumber 

 have been erected at Dalton, at the head of the 

 fifteen mile falls, by Mr. Sumner, who owns large 

 quantities of standing timber on the vallies of 

 Vermont and New Hampshire above. The clear 

 boards at his mills are worth eighteen dollars the 

 thousand. A great lumber business down the 

 Connecticut river to Hartford has been done in 

 past years; but a great part of the amount of 

 sales has been swallowed up in the tolls and other 

 expenses. The lumber prepared at the Sumner 

 mills is carried in wagons over a hilly road down 

 to the foot of the falls, at an expense of three 

 dollars for a measured thousand feet of boards 

 and fifty cents for a thousand shingles. 



Four or five miles from the Connecticut is the 

 village of Littleton, at which there are several 

 mills for the manufacture of lumber. Since the 

 railroad reached Concord the lumber made upon 

 the Ammonoosuck has been carried over land by 

 heavy teams; and the market that way for the 

 use of the new towns growing up along the 

 MerrimaCk, has had quite a sensible effect upon 

 the price of limber lands. Littleton village is 

 distant only about twenty miles from the White 

 mountain notch in the nearest direct line from 

 take Champltiin, through Vermont centre to the 

 State of Maine. 



Horseradish is an excellent remedy for 

 hoarseness, cough, sore throat, and diseases of 

 the lungs. 



