$tt)c .farmer's ittontljln teiitor. 



121 



travellcil after much money had been expended 

 upon it. The road iiself as well as the settle- 

 ment has become liitle belter than a " solitary 

 desert," and the lake about it for all practical, 

 use is at present as a " waste of waters." It is 

 said, however, that this valley, called the Ellis 

 river valley, may he made the most eligible and 

 nearest railroad route from Portland to Montreal 

 In looking out for railroad ways through difficult 

 points to he encountered, almost any town near 

 the range can present as good if not a better 

 than any other. The enterprising people along 

 the rich valley of Ellis river in Riunford and 

 Andover think they have such a claim in this 

 way: they represent that Mr. John M. Wilson, 

 living in the township No. 5 in Maine near the 

 Richardson lake, has explored the route; and 

 that the distance is full twenty miles less than 

 any other yet surveyed with a grade no where 

 exceeding fifty-four feet to the mile. I'm suing 

 the Ellis river up, the route passes over an arm 

 of the Richardson lake, thence north of the 

 Dustin mountain strikes the Margallaway, thence 

 up the Dead Diamond branch in New Hamp- 

 shire passing over nearly as far north as lake 

 Connecticut in the Indian stream country, it 

 crosses the highland boundary a few miles 

 north of Canaan in Vermont, and from that 

 point down the valley of a stream which unites 

 with the St. Francis near Coinptou in Lower 

 Canada takes a direct course to Montreal. This 

 line would at once reach a railroad into a most 

 valuable timber country of New Hampshire and 

 Maine. Whether this shall he adopted or not at 

 this late hour of exploration on that interesting 

 route, it can be only a question of time as to the 

 opening of this beautiful country which is here- 

 after to become of great value; for if the road 

 shall be built as now expected down further 

 south than Riunford reaching the Androscoggin 

 high up in Bethel, and thence entering New 

 Hampshire at Shelburne, leaving that river to go 

 off more southerly when it reaches Milan, still 

 the building of the road can be hardly completed 

 before a branch will be projected which passing 

 the distance of less than twenty miles along the 

 Androscoggin will reach the country and shores 

 of the Uuibagog and other lakes discharging 

 their waters in that direction. Timber to the 

 value of millions of dollars would be opened to 

 the market from this source, the worth of which 

 on the stump will at once be increased more 

 than the amount of the whole cost of the road. 



Andover in Maine was one of those townships 

 picked out for the inviting fertility of its beauti- 

 ful intervales along Ellis river: it seems to be 

 nearly enclosed by the mountains. The face of 

 the country changes as we turn the highlands 

 enclosing the lake country above : the soil is not 

 as good in the gorge above or in Andover sur- 

 plus as on the westerly side of the ridge. 

 Rut the Andover plain at the point of its village 

 location is exceedingly level and beautiful : the 

 higher and dryer level from its soils and pebbles 

 seems to have been the bed of a former lake : 

 looking down south we see where the waters of 

 this lake broke through the chasm leaving a 

 ridge in coincidence on either side. Then 

 again, in a series of long subsequent ages the 

 waters have worn down now reposing in different 

 periods on the beds of still lower and lower 

 levels. This valley is an elegant farming coun- 

 try: the intervale farms are aided by the best 

 of pasturage on the hills and up the mountain 

 sides. 



Rumford, the town next below Andover, cov- 



ering intervales upon Ellis river and both sides 

 of the Androscoggin, was a town granted to the 

 original proprietors of Concord as part of the 

 consideration for losses sustained by a long con- 

 troversy for ownership of soil in the title to this 

 town. There were conflicting grants from both 

 the governments of New Hampshire and Massa- 

 chusetts, two sets of grantees claiming nearly 

 the same territory. To settle this conflict the 

 Rev. Timothy Walker, the father of the late 

 Judge Walker and of his two sisters as collate- 

 rals in interest, made three several journeys 

 across the Atlantic. The proprietors of Con- 

 cord, shrewd in estimating the value of land, 

 sought out and located their township grained 

 by Massachusetts, in the fertile intervales of the 

 Androscoggin nearly a hundred and fifty miles 

 north. To this point junior members of several 

 Concord families emigrated in its first settle- 

 ment: others continued to follow them down to 

 the time since which the editor of the Visitor 

 was a resident here. Nearly the whole of Butu- 

 ford in its farming interest is allied by family 

 affinity to Concord : the Abbots, the Rolfes, the 

 Wheelers, the Virgins and the Grahams came 

 from Concord, and in the spread of population 

 have become numerous in all that section of 

 country. It is among the striking family peculi- 

 arities to be found every where that the manners 

 and customs, similarity of face as well as dress, 

 corresponding farm and building arrangements, 

 are the same in the descendants of Rumford as 

 in those of Concord, whose original name was 

 not only taken for the town, but adopted for the 

 titles bestowed by two crowned heads of Eu- 

 rope as a mark of distinguished merit and talent 

 to Benjamin Thompson, whose daughter inherit- 

 ing his titles and the estate which he left her by 

 will, now resides on that part left by her mother 

 of the Walker family who died in this town 

 more than fifty years ago. 



The distance in line of Rumford is seven 

 miles east ami west : in this distance the Andros- 

 coggin*is said to fall nearly two hundred feet. 

 There is nn almost perpendicular fall of seventy 

 feet in Rumford seven miles below the Point 

 where there is a considerable village on both 

 sides of the river. Relow this village we did 

 not proceed. Above it is the township of Bethel 

 opening a broad expanse of intervale of nearly 

 twelves miles on the river. Bethel Hill is a 

 beautiful village eleven miles above Rumford 

 point on the south side of the river: it has an 

 elegant new congregational church and an acad- 

 emy. Doct. Moses Mason, a member of Con- 

 gress from the Oxford district from 1833 to 

 1837, first settled and built on Bethel Hill thirty- 

 three years ago : this village is now the scat of 

 several merchant traders and mechanics' shops. 

 The present intended route for the Portland ami 

 Montreal railroad comes into the river valley 

 three-fourths of a mile below Bethel Hill: the 

 summit level down south is so low that in a high 

 freshet the water flows bach lo the pond which 

 discharges its waters in the other direction. 

 Gilead in Maine is six miles above Bethel Hill 

 on the Androscoggin ; and Shelburne, the first 

 town in New Hampshire, is twelve miles from 

 the Bethel Hill. The course of the river from 

 Bethel lo Shelburne is nearly east ami west: 

 above that to Milan the river turns north at al- 

 most right angles until it reaches the point pass- 

 ing the ridge which divides the. waters of the 

 Androscoggin from those of the Upper Amonoo- 

 suck which here turn in a delightful valley a lit- 

 tle south of west in its direction and not very 



far from a level to Connecticut river in the town 

 of Northumberland opposite Guildhall court 

 house in Vermont. Below Bethel is a large 

 bend of the Androscoggin towards the north: 

 cutting ofT the distance against this bend several 

 miles is the valley of the Little Androscoggin in 

 which the Portland and Montreal railroad has its 

 course. All the way the ground seems favorable 

 for the easy construction of this road. At Ber- 

 lin falls in New Hampshire twenty-eight miles 

 above Bethel the entire waters of the great An- 

 droscoggin are compressed to a width not ex- 

 ceeding two rods: the perpendicular fall is here 

 twenty feet. 



Bethel was a town settled long before the wild 

 country around it. Along a valley coming down 

 from the north-west is the town of Newry in 

 Maine and between the high hills southwesterly 

 is the Fryehurg Academy Grant, lately named 

 Mason in honor of the Doctor at the Bethel Hill. 

 The beautiful river intervale was selected for 

 settlement prior to the revolution ; Mr. Clark, 

 the first settler from Newton, Ms. was taken by 

 the Indians and carried prisoner to Canada dur- 

 ing the war of the revolution. He returned and 

 died upon his own farm. Among the early set- 

 tlers of Bethel were three sous of the late Tay- 

 lor Walker of this town, and four brothers of 

 the name of Twitchell, uncles to the celebrated 

 physician of Keene of the same name: one of 

 these now alive, aged 87 years, from choice 

 walks out and home six miles each way every 

 Sunday lo church. 



Of the towns on the Androscoggin in New 

 Hampshire, Shelburne, lying at the very foot of 

 Mount Washington, is said to be excellent in 

 the quality of its lands: Gorham, next above, has 

 good farms. Berlin, further on, has several good 

 settlements, although it is broken in upon bv the 

 spurs of the White Mountains; but Milan, further 

 north, is said to he one of the finest of the open- 

 ing townships of New Hampshire. Twenty-five 

 years ago the authors of the very valuable 

 Gazetteer of New Hampshire said of this coun- 

 try : " Coos is the largest county in the State, 

 and within its limits are situated the greater 

 part of the ungranted lands— most of which, 

 being very mountainous, cannot be cultivated, 

 and wi|t probably never be settled." The au- 

 thors in this statement but expressed the general 

 opinion; and this opinion, without doubt, has 

 had its effect in retarding the settlement of the 

 country. As Coos is now by far the largest 

 county, so are we of the opinion that it has 

 more gooil and feasible land for cultivation than 

 any other county of the State. It is not at this 

 moment of less value that four-fifths of it 

 remain uncleared of forest. Its grand trees, its 

 growing timber and wood, will become a mine 

 of wealth to its owners at no very distant day. 



The philosopher and the weatherwise among 

 the mountains has a good opportunity for the 

 exercise of skill in predicting the changes of 

 the weather: sure of (idling rain may we be 

 when we see the mountains of the second de- 

 ree capped with a cloud at their lops, ami the 

 scattered mists arising out of points part way up 

 their sides. Our ride along the Androscoggin 

 valley a long way fur a single town mainly in 

 Bethel by its lower settlements and centre was 

 marked by unerring prognostications of rain. 

 On the bill was the stage-tavern inviting a slop 

 for dinner and refreshment lo our horses in- 

 •reased at Rumford point by the sudden pur- 

 ■hase of a Canadian mare colt — a sort of dodger 

 ike the pony of the circus, who ingeniously 



