BOOK VII - CHAPTER V
HOW AND WHEN THE RAILROAD WAS BUILT, WHICH WILL BE A WONDER TO FUTURE GENERATIONS, BUT IS QUITE A COMMON THING NOW.
The first railroad steam engine and railway, if we remember right, were built in England. The first railroad in this country was the short line from the stone quarries in Quincy, Mass., to the wharf "down by the sea," to transport stone. Then in New England, the Boston and Providence, the Boston and Worcester, and the Boston and Lowell railroads followed in quick succession, and after these were built, railroads began to multiply wonderfully all through the country.
From Lowell the iron horse crept up the Merrimack gradually to Concord, N. H. Here it paused a short time, but not long. The Northern railroad from Concord to Lebanon, was soon commenced, and then after the most fierce opposition from the Northern and Pasumpsic railroads at the June session of the Legislature in 1844, the Boston, Concord and Montreal was chartered.
The company immediately organized, Josiah Quincy,* of Romney, being President, and the people along the route freely paid their money for a survey, which was made this season by Mr. Crocker, throughout the whole line. Stock books were also immediately opened, a considerable amount was subscribed, the grading of the road was commenced upon its lower sections, and in about one year was completed eighteen miles, from Concord to Tilton. Then a year more and the cars ran to Laconia, and another year and they got up to Meredith village. Here they stopped a while, for the route by the beautiful ponds of Centre Harbor and over New Hampton summit was a hard one; but late in the autumn of 1849 the cars ran into Plymonth.
But the road was not to stop here; it had already been commenced above on the banks of the Asquamchumauke and Thomas Piersons was set stoutly to work to find a feasible route over Warren Summit. The first line surveyed by Crocker, came up the west bank of the Asquamchumauke, up Black brook, the Mikaseota, the same side to the Blue ridge, thence crossing the valley at the outlet of Runaway pond it passed up the east shore of the latter basin, up Black brook, over the Summit and down the Oliverian. Thos. Piersons took the east side of the valley through Warren, crossed the Asquamchumauke, with a "fill" for half a mile seventy-five feet deep, to the side of Knight hill, and thence up Berry brook to the Summit. Then he tried up the road to Noyes Bridge, kept under the bank on the east side of the lower village, thence across the plain by the place where James Aiken got burned out, and up his old route by Berry brook. He made his report and "the directors considered."
Two years they considered; and then another engineer was procured, T. J. Carter, and he surveyed and located the present railroad route through Warren. He did his work best of all, for no where else in town could the depot have been so satisfactorily located.
The road was already nearly graded to the south line of Warren, and a contract was made in the summer of 1850 with Warren H. Smith, an enterprising gentleman residing at Tilton, to complete it to Warren village. Mr. Smith commenced work the ensuing October, and then Warren glowed with life.
As many men as possible were put into the Clifford cut on the southern boundary, and there were a lot of shanties built at the east end of the bridge over the river near by, for the Irish shovelers to live in. Well do we remember tile pleasant little anecdote told of these transient residents here. One of the shanty families sent to Ireland for a friend of theirs. He landed in Boston and then came immediately to Warren. The next Sabbath as allone be was walking out for his health and a little pious meditation, he chanced to find as he thought a spotted cat by the wall. Catching it up in his arms he began to stroke its back saying, "Poor pussy," when suddenly dropping it he grasped his nose and exclaimed, "Howly Mither, what has the creature been aiten!" Not being particularly fond of sweet perfumes, he quickly returned to the shanty and with religious fervor related his adventures with the cat, much to the delight of all his friends.
The Reddington boys, brothers, finished the Clifford cut. Mr. Gipson was "boss" in the "side-hill cut," near the old Nathaniel Clough place. It took all winter to dig this out. William Clement, of Warren, son of Col. Beau., oversaw a gang of Irishmen near the long covered railroad bridge, making the fill above the bridge and the cut through the John Mills burying ground down by the Patch place to Patch brook. Old "St. Bowen" graded up about the depot, running his "dump carts" all winter down through the village over the Noyes bridge to the mound just below on the east side of the road. Pity he hauled sand from there, for he left an unsightly cut. All of Clement's and Mr. Bowen's men lived in shanties over by Patch brook where it leaps down Rocky falls. Batchelder of Lake village made the rock cut just west of the Moosilauke house, and the butments, and the great bridge, were built during the winter.
Before the first of April, 1851, the grading and bridges on the whole line from Plymouth to Warren village were nearly completed. As soon as the ground was sufficiently settled, Mr. Smith commenced to lay the track and on the 24th of May the first steam engine ran into Warrebn, and on the 25th its bell was rung at Warren Depot.
May 25, 1851, was a great day for Warren. It should not be forgotten. With that day came a new life. The great teams and covered wagons, the pungs of winter, driven by the Vermont farmers; the stages, the mighty droves of beef cattle tramping along the road; the flocks of sheep, thousands together; herds of swine more numerous than the one the devils of Mary Magdalene drove into the sea, going to market, all these shall now disappear from the highways of Warren forever. In their place shall come thundering cars, the iron horse with ribs of steel and heart of fire, screaming with its steam whistle loud enough to be heard far away beyond Glen ponds and Woodstock, passenger trains and freight trains, and telegraph.
The people of Warren did appreciate the day and celebrated it. Mr. Smith gave a bountiful and excellent supper at the Moosilauke house then kept by Levi C. Whitcher, and mirth, hilarity, music, and dancing prevailed.
On the first Monday in June, 1851, the cars began to run regularly from Warren, no longer a quiet, pleasant hamlet, but now a small, bustling little town among the mountains.**
At the railroad company's annual meeting, held at Wentworth on the last Tuesday of May, it was voted to prefer six hundred thousand dollars of stock, with which to construct the road from Warren to Woodsville; and early in the fall the grading was contracted for by Mr. Warren H. Smith, and rapidly commenced. Owen McCarthy made the great fill across the plain from Mt. Hellen down to the common. Mr. Dolloff cut the ledge near the basin of Runaway pond, called the Dolloff cut; "St. Bowen" made great cuts and fills around Pine hill, and the Redington boys had the deep excavation near Kelly pond. But the cutting through the ledge on Warren Summit was the great work, and it involved an immense amount of labor. For a year and a half a hundred and fifty men, superintended by two brothers by the name of Keyes, from Romney, seventeen horses, with a number of yokes of cattle, were employed. Tons of powder were burned, a man was killed, and more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars expended before a steam engine ran over the Summit.***
The cut at this, the highest point of our railroad, is nearly three-fourths of a mile in length, and in some places sixty feet deep. Near the north end a little rill of pure, clear water comes dashing down over the huge rocks, slid at tile bottom, divides itself into two streams; the waters of the one running north emptying themselves in to the Connecticut eventually find their way into the ocean, through Long Island Sound; while those running south unite with the Merrimack river which discharges itself into the ocean nearly two hundred miles from the mouth of the Connecticut.
The cars commenced running over this last section in the fall of 1852, as far as East Haverhill, and early the ensuing spring the road was finished to Woodsville, where it connects with the Passumpsic railroad and the White mountain railroad.
Green were the hills of Warren. The mighty spruces and hemlocks still stood untouched upon the mountains, and amongst them the wood-chopper's axe had not as yet been heard. The reason of all this was the inconvenience of getting tile timber to market, and the consequent unprofitableness of the business. But now, through the medium which the railroad afforded, a rapid and convenient communication was opened with the large towns down the Merrimack, and thereby the business of lumbering was much more profitable.
Wood also became an object of importance, and the once heavy forests fast began to disappear. Upon the side of Mount Carr, high up in the valley of Patch brook a large company of French Canadians, honest men every one, made a rural settlement and chopped wood, under the superintendence of Col. Charles Lane. This individual, more easily to facilitate its transportation from the mountain side, constructed a sluice nearly two and one-fourth miles in length, extending to the valley near the railroad. The sluice was twenty inches in width and sixteen inches in height. In it he turned the waters of Patch brook, the wild mountain stream, and placing the wood in this, it rapidly descended in its serpentine course, now crossing some deep gully, then spanning the torrent, and then creeping rapidly along on the side of some steep bank till at last it reached the valley, falling over a thousand feet.
Mr. Lane also constructed a large canal, half a mile long, through which he turned the water of Baker river into the large mill-pond on Black brook. The cost of the work was about two thousand dollars. It was finished late in the fall, and the water first let in on November 28, 1853.
This made an excellent mill-privilege and a great saw-mill went up in Warren village. Millions of feet of lumber have been manufactured here and sent to market. East-parte also waked up and a mighty mill was erected there. Warren Summit also got enterprising; numerous mills have been built, and the timber comes down from Black mountain, Owl's head, Webster slide, and Wyatt Hill.
What was the consequence of all this enterprise? Warren village doubled in size, and the population and wealth of the town much increased.
* OFFICERS OF THE BOSTON, CONCORD AND MONTREAL RAILROAD.
Presidents:
Superintendents :
Clerk:
Station Agents at Warren:
Col. Charles Lane's statement
** When they were surveying the railroad, Mr. Nathaniel Clough, 83 years old, who was incredulous about the enterprise, said that he did not want to live any longer than to see the cars run in into Warren. He was sick at the time the first regular train passed his house and they sat him up in bed to look at it. Two weeks after he was dead.
*** C. H. Latham had charge of the engineering. Jonathan Little kept the hotel on the Summit, and made money while the railroad was building; but the tavern was good for nothing after the cars began to run.