38 ^ Fragment — Putnam's Rock. 



to roll large rocks from the sides of those hills. These often 

 set others going with them, to the great terror of those per- 

 sons who were below. One day when this laborious amuse- 

 ment was over, Col. Rufus Putnam (in whose regiment I 

 served as Lieutenant,) proposed going up to take a peep of 

 this curiously situated rock ; it was found situated on a flat 

 rock of great extent, and near the brink of a considerable 

 precipice, and hung very much over it. Col. P. believed 

 that it was moveable, and if once moved would roll over; 

 and, falling from 20 to 50 feet, commence its route to the 

 river. A iew days after we formed a party of officers, with 

 our servants, who took with them axes, drag-ropes, &;c. in 

 order to procure levers for the purpose of moving the rock, 

 which we soon found was in our power. The levers being 

 fixed with ropes to the ends of them all. Col. Putnam, who 

 headed the party, ordered us to haul the ropes tight, and at 

 the word Congress to give a long pull, a strong pull, and a 

 pull altogether. This we did ; the levers fell, the rock roll- 

 ed over, tumbled from the precipice, and took up its line of 

 march for the river ! ! The party then had the satisfaction 

 of seeing the most majestic oaks and loftiest pines bowing 

 down in homage and obedience tc this mighty traveller,which 

 never stopped till it reached the bed of the river, where it 

 now lies on the edge of the flats, and far enough from the 

 shore for a coasting vessel to sail around it. The party fol- 

 lowed after in its path, and were astonished to see that rocks 

 of many tons weight, and trees of the largest size, were 

 ground to powder; on arriving at the river the party em- 

 barked, and landed to the number of sixty or seventy on 

 the rock, where Col. Putnam broke a bottle of whiskey, and 

 named it '^Putnam^s Rock" I may have forgotten some 

 of the rainutias of the transaction in the lapse of forty-three 

 years, but it is a fact that the rock now in the river was re- 

 moved from the extreme top of Butter-Hill, by the officers 

 of Col. Rufus Putnam's regiment, in the Revolutionary war, 

 jn the service of the United States, sometime in the month 

 of June, in the year 1778." 



