Category:Coos County, New Hampshire

 

Gorham, New Hampshire

A Few Early Historical Notes from

History of Coös County, New Hampshire by George Drew Merrill; Syracuse N.Y.: W.A. Fergusson &amp; Co., 1888 page 888

GORHAM Shelburne Addition, as it was known until its incorporation as Gorham, June 18, 1836. It was never of any special value to Shelburne, for it paid no taxes....

In 1800 there were but eight or ten families resident in the "Addition," and the total population was about forty-five.

In 1802 the town was surveyed by Uriah Holt, of Norway, Me.... To the practical minds of the early frontiersmen there was no inducement for a settlement. A township with no upland of any account, the mountains running close to the river, giving only a limited amount of interval compared with that of towns lower down the river, with no timber to attract the attention of the lumbermen, Shelburne Addition had but little to attract the attention of any one having capital to invest. There was only a simple trail through the town for those on the river below to reach the Connecticut river and Vermont.

POPULATION IN 1815--Mr. Griffin and his son Benjamin lived in a little log house in A.J. Lary's pasture, on the rise of the land near Peabody's mill. He had seven children....

The pioneer was of necessity forced to hard manual labor. Felling trees, piling and burning logs, hacking in wheat with a hoe among the stumps and rocks, and building heavy log fences were the necessary avocations. The frugal diet was aided by equally frugal and inexpensive drinks. In place of coffee, a decoction of the chocolate root growing plentifully everywhere was used. Dried raspberry leaves and clover blossoms were steeped for tea. A corn-cob, or dug out briar-root or potato, served as a pipe-bowl in which to smoke the hanging moss collected from the forest-trees, or the lung-wort from the trunks of the maples. Snake root, a valuable medicine, was dug and brought a dollar a pound. A board served as a table. They made their own baskets and wash-bowls, and often wooden spoons. Sometimes they would obtain lead sufficient to run some spoons, which were a little more aristocratic than those of wood. The neighboring brook or spring supplied them with water. A dipper served them a good purpose for drinking their rum. They made their own spinning wheels and looms, and tanned skins of all kinds for mittens, shoes and boots.

BENJAMIN GRIFFIN came about 1825. Up to this time log houses had been the rule, and when a man was ready to raise one, men came from all quarters to assist in the work. Plenty of rum was the only reward desired and it was always remembered a jolly occasion.

By 1830 the population had increased to 111.... There was now a chain of settlers stretching through the town from Shelburne to Durand.

The period of prosperity began really in 1834. Mr. Benjamin Griffin lived on the John T. Peabody place; next to him lived Andrew G. Lary, on the place he bought of Jordan Saunders...

The settler's nearest market towns were Lancaster, twenty-five miles west, and Bethel, Me., twenty-one miles east. Here the produce of the little holdings, some bear, moose and fox-skins, with the fur of beaver, otter, and fisher, were taken and exchanged for "store-goods."

TAX PAYERS 1836-- Benjamin Griffin,

1840. Peter Griffin, dropped from the list of voters. from the list of 1839.

1841. Israel Griffin, Daniel Griffin, become voters making thirty-eight in town.

1844. Joseph C. Griffin added to that of voters,

GORHAM SOLDIERS-- Volunteers who enlisted in Gorham, as appears on the town records of 1862... Israel Griffin, 5th NH Regt ...(numbering thirty-four men). --- ---