Lake Umbagog.
1907.
August 8
  Hollis I. Abbott of Upton, a man
reputed by his friends and neighbors to be scrupulously
accurate and reliable of statement, has just given me
an interesting account of the first settlement of the
region about Lake Umbagog. It is based, he tells
me, on information which he obtained when a
youth by questioning original settlers many of whom,
including his grandfather, Enoch Abbott, were then
living. He wrote down what they told him and
the manuscript remained in his possession for
a number of years but was finally lost or
destroyed. He assures me, however, that he still
remembers its contents very distinctly and that
the dates, as well as all the other particulars,
which he has communicated to me can be
relied on. They are as follows: -
First Settlement of the Region (1)
  Previous to 1823 there were only a very
few white men about the lake. All of them
were hunters and trappers some of whom built
camps or even crude log houses and "squatted" for
longer or shorter periods on land of which they
made no especial use and to which they acquired
no legal title. Nicholas Hoyt was the first real
settler in Upton or "B. Plantation" as it was then
called. In 1823 he took up a farm and built
a house on East B. Hill. In 1824 Hiram Goud
settled where Jack Burke now lives. Enoch Abbott
came in September of the latter year. He was
granted land for three separate farms on
condition that he erect and maintain a saw mill
and a grist mill at the mouth of Cambridge River.