HISTORY OF SHELBURNE, COOS COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE
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History of Coös County, New Hampshire by George Drew Merrill; Syracuse 
N.Y.: W.A. Fergusson & Co., 1888, 1888, 1018 pgs.
page 867

SHELBURNE
The name Shelburne may be formed from shel, or shal, or the Saxon
sceol (shallow) and burn or bourn, a brook.  WHy or wherefore this
town was so named is not known.  The village is six miles below Gorham.
Shelburne abounds in grand mountain scenery, not to be excelled by any
town in the state; no drive of the same distance equals or offers more
variety in beauty of scenery than the one ten or twelve miles from
Gorham down the Androscoggin, on its right hand bank through Shelburne
to Gilead, and then up the river on the easterly bank, crossing it at
Leadmine bridge.  The beauties and charmes of the town have been
finely described by August Larned, and we extract as follows from her
graphic articles in the "Christian Register." -- Editor

The river which waters Shelburne is not divided into "four heads,"
neither is there much gold nor "bdellium" nor "onyx stone" found here,
nor in adjacent lands.  It is called Androscoggin, and it keeps the
secret of beauty as sacredly as did that river of the first paradise.
  The great mass of the White Mountain group blocks up the valley
with its wedgelike form to the south.  Madison is here easily king of
the vale, as his broad side is turned genially toward us--a mighty
canvas on which the sun paints its innumerable freaks and fancies.
The peak of Adams "perks" itself up over the high shoulder of Madison,
as if standing on tiptoe to peek into the valley.  In some states of
the atmosphere, the whole line of its west side can be dimly seen
separating itself from the mass of its more forward brother.  Behind
Madison, to the southeast, rises the broad, lazy back of Washington,
with the "ledge" showing white on its near side, and the Summit House
to be made out in clear weather.  It is a lion couchant, with head
turned tranquilly eastward.  This group is like the altar of a
cathedral toward which the devout turn to pray; but the nave, choir
and aisles are hardly less beautiful than the high seat shadowed
by the wings of the cherubim.  To the east rise the long slopes of
Moriah, a fine mountain of peculiarly rich purple hue.  Nearer to us,
and close to the river, is thickly wooded Winthrop, with the great,
smooth, granite ledge on its side, up which Moses Ingalls once had the
temerity to climb.  The ledge looks much like a very steep barn roof,
a hundred feet high, and smooth as glass.  Bold Moses glided over it
like a bird; and for his courage was presented with a farm, so the
story goes.
  On the west side of the river rises Mts. Hayes and Baldcap, both
strongly marked and individual mountains.  To the north are the
softly-folded Gilead hills melting into every shade of blue and violet,
and with the great bend of the Androscoggin at their feet, enclosing
many fairy-like islands all feathered over with the most delicate and
living green.
  The valley is like a beautiful child nourished by grim guardians.
They bring to it rain and dews and wild brooks tumbling over stony
beds, and keep its perfect in verdure.  The Androscoggin fairly leaps
for joy.  It is a swift, untamed river.  Its feet run night and day
toward the sea, and murmur round its multitude of islands in the
extremity of haste.  These thickly-wooded islands, perfectly virginal
and lonely, are a feature of the river.  At the famous Lead-mine
bridge, two miles above, they are seen in the full perfection of their
feathery beauty.  On the bridge, the eye climbs up the blue wall of
Madison as a bird scales the house.  You seem to be in the very heart
of the mystery, where the hills will tell you all their secrets.
Near the bridge, on the west side of the river, a Detroit gentleman
has built a vast, fifty-thousand dollar house of the native stone and
pebbles picked up from the top of the ground.  It is among the first
of those rich men's dwellings built here, which are springing up all
over the land.  From my window I see the picturesque gables of a 
New Yorker's cottage across the river.  So Shelburne has at last been
discovered by the opulent.  I have travelled much through these hills,
but I know of no other place which presents a more perfect pictures
of WHite Mountain scenery, whose dower is beauty rather than Alpine
grandeur.
  These mountain intervals, with the elms grouped for the artist eye,
have a peculiar charm.  They are unlike other meadows, for their
smiling beauty makes a gem-like contrast to the rugged setting of the
hills.  THere is little cultivation up here.  A good many of the old
clearings on the mountain-sides seem growing up to wilderness.  One
asks why these heights are not used for sheep pastures.  The
shepherd's pipe would sound as sweet here as in the Arcadian vales.
It is a world of grass, still and soundless, save for the noises of
nature, which seem to punctuate the silence,, and to make the great
unwritten poem easier to read.  A world of grass and leaves and
flowing water and granite and earth piled up into the sky.
What joy to come into this world, where there is no dirt, no smoke,
no importunate ringing of bells, no tramps or beggars, no barking of
dogs or crowing of cocks.  You wake in the night, and feel that you
are in the very tabernacle of the Lord, held in a sacred bowl of
peace.  The air is of delicious sweetness.  It has no harsh quality;
but, at night, a blanket is not amiss.  There is no doctor nearer
than Gorham, six miles distant.  When I asked how the people managed
for medical attendance, the answer was that the people are seldom
sick.  Look on these mountains and live, seems to be the great
command written on the bases of the hill.  It is delightful to come
into a region where there is no poverty visible to the naked eye,
and the mutterings of the conflict between capital and labor are not
heard.  The hill folks are conservative, like their mountains.  They
move slowly; but everywhere there is comfort and often some attempt
at fashion.  The old village with the station and postoffice has
somewhat changed.  Several new boarding-houses have been put up in
various parts of the valley, and are generally filled during July and
August.  Nothing ever happens here in this blessed land.  The events 
are driving afield with horses or oxen or digging in the potato patch.
What a contrast to the life of the tramp in Madison Square!  The genus
tramp is scarcely known up here.  Occasionally one appears in the
village and the rumor runs through the country.
  One needs to be all eye in these days up here, when the thunder
growls around the horizon, and little showers come up without warning,
and bring the most splendid cloud scenery.  They gather in vast,
solid, sculpted masses over the White Mountain group, and sweep with
a broad wing over the whole land, blotting out miles and miles in
gray rain, letting in sudden gleams of light, turning the nearer
slopes to the most brilliant purple, clearing suddenly to blue spaces,
changing every moment, and bewildering one with beauty.  Never have I
seen such cloud-scenery as this, such wonderful shifting and play of
light and color, such webs of purple and green and cerulean, torn and
shattered and knit up again in a moment, as if by the power of some
celestial Penelope, who is forever unravelling her work and netting it
up anew.  This valley does not raise much what or corn, but it raises
cloud by a spell stronger than Merlin's.  I rejoice in this granite
formation, which gives fine, hard roads and soon dries after a shower,
leaving the earth bright and shining, as if new-minted and stamped 
with the superscription of God.  The deciduous forest, with only a
sparse mingling of fir and pine, give great cheerfulness to the 
landscape.  We have a beautiful waterfall on the side of Baldcap; but
why mention particular beauties, when every prospect is so fair and
each day seems a golden possession in the treasure-house of life?

TOPOGRAPHY, POPULATION, ETC.--The Androscoggin river divides Shelburne
nearly in the center, receiving the waters of two parallel ranges of
moutains.  Rattle river is the largest tributary on the southern side,
and Lead-mine brook on the northern.  The town is six miles square,
bounded north by Success, east by Gilead, Me., south by Bean's
Purchase, and west by Gorham.  The intervals vary from a few rods to
half a mile in width, and were formerly covered, as the encircling
mountains are now, by a mixed growth of spruce, hemlock, pine and
hard wood.  Mt. Moriah is the highest elevation, 4,711 feet in height.

The town was granted to Mark Wentworth and six others, and was surveyed
in 1771.  In 1820 when it was incorporated, the population was 230.
In 1859 it was 480, but after the building of the Grand Trunk railway,
and the establishment of the machine-shops and lumber-mills at
Gorham, the younger people kept moving away, till by the last census
the population is only 252.

The first or original grant of Shelburne was made in 1768; but, as on
a survey there was not found habitable land enough to allow the
proprietors to comply with the provisions of the charter, a second
grant was made, which included the present territory of Gorham
(Shelburne Addition), which see.  This second grant was nominally
signed by Gov. John Wentworth November 21, 1770, but was really not
issued or recorded until January 14, 1771.  It is needless to give
the charter.  It had all the ornate and magniloquent verbiage
peculair to those documents, and made these conditions: 1st, that the
grantees should construct a good carriage road four rods wide through
the tract within two years; 2d, that there shall be twelve families
resident on and cultivating some portion of the land on the first of
March, 1774, and sixty famlies actually settled on the grant by the
first of March, 1779, under penalty of forfeiture of the grant; 3d, 
that all white or other pine trees fit for masting the Royal Navy
should be preserved for that purpose, and not cut or felled without
especial license; 4th, that a town-plot shall be laid out into the
town lots of one acre, one for each grantee, near the center of the
town; 5th, payment of annual rent on or after March 1, 1771, of one
ear of Indian corn, if demanded; 6th, that every proprietor, settler,
or inhabitant shall pay annually beginning on March 1, 1780, one
shilling proclamation money for every 100 acres he owns, settles or
possesses.

NAMES OF GRANTEES--Mark Hunking Wentworth, Daniel Pierce, Daniel
Rogers, John Rindge, Daniel Rindge, Isaac Rindge, Jotham Rindge.

DESCRIPTION OF ORIGINAL GRANT--"Beginning at a hemlock tree, marked,
standing in the Province Line, about three-quarters of a mile south
of Little Ameroscogin River, and from said hemlock runs north eight 
degrees east by the needle on the Province line six miles to a
maple tree, marked, and standing in the Province line aforesaid,
thence turning off at right angles and running north eighty-two degrees
west six miles to a beech tree, marked; thence turning off at right
angles and running south eight degrees west six miles to a red birch
tree, marked; thence turning off again at right angles and runs south
eighty-two degrees east six miles to the hemlock tree in the Province
line began at, containing by measurement twenty-three thousand and
forty acres."

page 871
EARLY SETTLERS--The history of the brave men and women who left the
comforts of civilization to make a home in the wilderness a century
and more ago, and the records of their privations and sufferings
would startle their descendants.  Their rude shelters were constructed
without any regard for comfort; the only thing attempted was a
protection from rain and snow.  The ravages of the bears and wolves in
this neighborhood were exceedingly terrific.  The inhabitants were also
subjected to Indian invasions.  They endured not only the hardships
of isolation and cold, attacks from wild beasts, devastation by
mountain torrents, loss by freshets, but experienced the terror of 
the war whoop, and felt the tomahawk and scalping knife.

One of the first of these pioneers was HOPE AUSTIN, who came to
Shelburne in 1771, and began a clearing on the north side of the river,
near the Maine line.  The snow was five feet deep when his wife
walked up from Bethel, carrying one child in her arms, while two
others clung to her skirts.  Mr. Austin had neglected to provide even
temporary shelter for his little family.  But spruce boughs were 
handy, and in a short time a roof was thrown over the log cabin, some
rough boards nailed together for a door, the snow shoveled out and
a fire built between stones or green logs.  Here they lived,
making occasional improvements, until prosperity enabled him to build
a more convenient frame-house.  Of the family of five children,
Mary and Judith remained single.  Lydia and Hannah married Samuel
Wheeler, James married Sally, daughter of Joseph Lary Jr. of Gilead,
and built a handsome two-story house a little below his father's.
Of his children, John and Caverno died, and Dearborn married Rose,
daughter of Rev. Ezekiel Coffin, and lived at home till after the
death of his father, when he moved to Gilead, and the name of
Shelburne's first resident was dropped from her records.  Mr. Hope
Austin is remembered by elderly people of to-day as a pleasant-spoken
old gentleman, very much bent, walking back and forth from his house
to the mill, with his hands clasped behind him.  The Austins, as a 
family, were pleasant, hospitable and industrious.

DANIEL INGALLS, one of the earliest settlers, lived just across the
river, and was Mr. Austin's nearest neighbor.  He was much esteemed
for his high moral character.  Religion was a part of his daily life,
but he was cheerful and could even make a dry joke now and then.
MOSES, his oldest son, was a sailor; energetic, resolute and rather
rough.  He married Susan Heath.  They had four sons, Daniel,
Frederick, Robert and Fletcher.  Robert, third son of Moses, married
Rowena Hills, and bought the farm on Clemens brook, cleared by the
Evanses.  He was one of the most prominent men in the place, filling
many offices with honor and ability.  It is remarked of him, as of
J.R. Hitchcock, "He always recognized an acquaintance, rich or poor,
high or low, with the same readiness and courtesy."  His daughter
Caroline, a most estimable lady, died at Gorham in 1870.  RUFUS,
son of Robert, married Emeline, great-granddaughter of Capt. Joseph
Lary, of Gilead.  She died, and Mr. Ingalls married Hattie McKentry.
  FLETCHER INGALLS, the younger son of Deacon Daniel, like his father,
was of a very high moral nature.  Every birth-day he religiously kept
as a day of fasting and prayer.  At a time when intoxicating liquors
were free almost as water, he was a firm advocate of temperance.
The Cold-Water Army, an organization designed to embrace the youth of
both sexes, was his conception, and the first temperance lecture 
given here was by his appointment.  He married Mercy Lary.  His
daughter Polly married Barker Burbank, son of Capt. Eliphalet Burbank,
of Gilead.  Mr. Burbank was a practical farmer, a successful merchant,
and a lawyer of considerable ability.  He built a large, handsome
house a short distance from his father-in-law, acquired a comfortable
fortune, and reared a family of fourteen children.  Payson married
Mary Smith and has six sons; Martin married Mary, granddaughter of
Capt. Joseph Pinkham, one of the first settlers of Jackson.  Judge
Robert Ingalls Burbank, of Boston, now owns the homestead, and has
added to it till his estate is the largest in town.  The Ingallses
have always borne a stainless name, and in wealth, social position,
and age, rank as one of the first families of Shelburne.

The names of Messer, Peabody, and Hubbard are closely entwined, and
their descendants comprise a large proportion of our present
population [A sketch of stephen Messer is given in the history of
Gorham].  Nancy Messer, a daughter of Stephen, married AMOS PEABODY,
and after living in Gilead and Randolph, came to Shelburne and
settled on Peabody brook, where three of their children, Aaron, Nancy,
and Allan, have since resided.  Their son Stephen married Hepzibah
Evans and cleared the adjoining farm.  He was intimately connected
with town business, and also with the affairs of the church.  He
was never very strong, but lived to the age of fifty, when he died
with that scourge of his family, consumption.  Enoch, another son of
Amos Peabody, married Judith Wheeler, and lived for several years next
to his brother, Stephen, then moved to Berlin, Stark, and finally, to
Milan.  Betsey Messer, daughter of Stephen Messer, married Thomas
Hubbard and lived at Andover, Dracut and Bradford, Mass., before they
came to Shelburne.  Mrs. Hubbard rode from Massachusetts on horseback.
They reared a large family of children.  Afterwards they lived on the
farm now owned by John Head, and finally settled near the top of what
is now known as the Great Hill.  Of their children, Erastus and
Rufus married daughters of Abraham Wilson and removed to Whitefield.
Enoch and Leonard married daughters of Amos Peabody.  Jefferson
married a daughter of George Green, and for twenty-five years was
station agent of the G.T.R. at Shelburne.  No other proof is needed of
his honesty and fidelity.  Maria Hubbard married Joseph Kendall.

THOMAS GREEN began a home in the heart of the forest; by good
calculation and economy he not only made a living, but laid up
considerable property.  In his old age his mind became feeble and
disordered, and though worth enough to buy half the town, he was
haunted by a fear of starvation.  One evening in early spring he came
out of his room and went out at the back door.  He was never seen
again.  Edward, a son of Thomas, married Nancy Birdin.  Three of his
children, Lyman, Darius and Mason, ten grandchildren and eight
great-grandchildren, resided in Shelburne in 1881.  George, another
son of Thomas, when he became of age, received $100 in cash, and a
piece of land on the Magalloway.  He sold this land, bought a lot
just across the river from his home, built a tiny house containing
only a kitchen and bedroom, and set up housekeeping by himself. Three
or four years after he married Hannah Lary.  As fast as his means
allowed he built additions, till, in 1817, it was a long two-story
house, with large, square rooms above and below.  It was furnished
for a tavern, and fore more than fifty years afforded accomodation
for the travelling public.  The large yellow globe for a sign on which
the date was given, was an object of great interest to the boys in
those days.  People from Upper Coos on their way to Portland,
frequently fifteen or twenty double-teams at once, stopped here to bait
their horses.  When the Grand Trunk railway was built, the glory of
Green's tavern departed.  Mr. Green was an honest, plain-spoken man.
It is said of him that, knowingly, he would not defraud a person of a
single cent.  Jonas, youngest son of Thomas Green, a hard-working,
stern, and somewhat unsocial man, lived on the home-place until the
death of his parents; married, first Mercy Lary, second her sister
Susannah.  Oliver, his youngest son, bought the green tavern-stand
in 1880, and remodelled it into a summer boarding-house.

SAMUEL WHEELER was a Revolutionary soldier, and dearly loved to
recount the dangers he had passed and the privations he had endured.
His clearing was on Ingalls brook close to the base of the mountains,
where the sun lay warmly till past noon, and the cold, northwest
wind could not strike.  In the cold season of 1816, when snow fell
every month of the year, he was the only one whose corn got ripe 
enough to grow again.  The next spring he sold it for two dollars
a bushel.  Among his children were Samuel, Lucy, and Amos.  His home,
the place on which he settled, is now in possession of his descendants,
and is the only farm in town which has been inherited in a direct line
for four generations.  Samuel Wheeler Jr., was a licensed preacher,
and conducted religious exercises in the absence of regular ministers.
He married first, Lydia Austin, second, her sister Hannah.  His
children were Austin, Joseph, Samuel, Hannah (Mrs. Reuben Hobart),
Margaret, and Judith (Mrs. Enoch Peabody of Stark).  Austin was
well educated and talented, and became a Free-Will Baptist minister.
Samuel, grandson of the old soldier, married Eliza Burbank, by whom
he had four children.  By a second marriage he had four children also.
A few years ago he removed to the Austin farm, which he purchased,
and his son Ellery became the owner of the old homestead.

JONATHAN EVANS and BENJAMIN CLEMENS came to Shelburne early and nearly
at the same time.  They were both soldiers of the Revolution, and
probably stationed at Fort Ticonderoga.  DANIEL EVANS, son of Jonathan,
married Phila Clemens, and cleared the farm afterwards owned by
Otis Evans.  He was a man of influence and wealth, owning what is now
four farms.  OTIS EVANS, son of Daniel, who for three-quarters of a
century led an upright life in Shelburne, the town of his nativity,
died October 13, 1886.  Mr. Evans was a hard-working and successful
farmer, and well informed upon the general topics of the day.
His wife was Martha Pinkham.  THey have descendants in Gorham and
Shelburne.  Jonathan Evans Jr. married Mary Lary, and lived on the
Charles Philbrook farm.  He was a large, portly man, and his three
sons, Hazen, Jabez and Augustus resembled him in this particular.

BAZELEEL GATES who married Sarah, daughter of Jonathan Evans, moved
here with his family, and bought the farm owned by William Newell.
CALEB, the youngest son, married Bathsheba Porter and remained at
home.  They had four children, Woodbury, Cass, Matilda and Frank.
Woodbury married a daughter of Hazen Evans, and is in trade at
Gorham.  Jefferson Gates married Maria Porter, and lived on the farm
adjoining his brother Caleb's.  He died in 1866.

SIMEON EVANS was a brother to Jonathan, and came from Massachusetts
about the same time.  Ezekiel, Elijah, Lydia and John were his
children.  EZEKIEL married a lady in Massachusetts.  THey had a large
family of children, of whom Mrs. Moses Hazeltine was a resident of
Shelburne. ELIJAH EVANS, son of Simeon, lived on the Hitchcock
interval.  His son Henry married Joanna Leighton, and built the 
Hitchcock cottage, where he lived several years.  Afterward he bought
the place owned later by his son-in-law Trustam Minard.  JOHN EVANS,
third son of Simeon, died leaving seven children, among them were
twin girls, afterwards Mrs. Abram WIlson and Mrs. Palmer.  Mr. Clemens
had a large family, but none of his descendants are now in town
except those connected with the Evanses.

In 1781 CAPT. JONATHAN RINDGE, one of the most respected of the
early settlers came.  

JONATHAN PEABODY came from Andover when young, married Phebe Kimball,
of Bethel, and had five children, Priscilla (Mrs. Ben Bean), Phebe,
Sally (Mrs. John Messer), Amos and Oliver.  He afterwards married
Prudence Patterson, a widow with three children, Betsy, Jennie and
Hosea.  From this marriage there were five more children, Mercy
(Mrs. Amos Evans), Philena, Charlotte (Mrs. Nathan Newell), Asa and
Jonathan.  Oliver Peabody married Susy Messer and lived with his
father.  His children were John, Loammi, Nancy (Mrs. Noah Gould),
Eliza, Betsey, Sally (Mrs. Peter Runnels) and Samuel.  Jonathan Peabody
Jr. had three wives.  Three of his children, Warren, Augustus and
Eliza, married, respectively, Mary, Lydia, and Charles Tenny.

JONATHAN LARY, son of Joseph Lary Jr., married Susan Burbank.  They
had five children--Rachel and Elmira, Selina, Voltaire and Churchill.
Dearborn Lary, son of Capt. Joseph Lary, of Gilead, married Polly
Chandler, a sister of John Chandler, and had a large family of
children.  Frank succeeded to the old homestead.  Elon settled in
Gorham.

PETER POOR came in 1772, and in August of 1781, was killed by a band
of Indians, after they made an attack on Bethel and Gilead, Me.

In 1772 NATHANIEL PORTER settled here, and lived just below the
stock-farm, and had a family of eight girls and one boy.  He was fond
of fun and practical jokes, and was the first blacksmith in town.
The story of his shoeing the old buck so he might chase the boys on
the ice is familiar to many.

COL. HEAD was an uncle of GOV. HEAD.  Two sons settled here. Elsie
married Hazen Evans.  Among others were Jeremiah Gould and his son,
Noah; Jonathan Bullard and his son Dr. Bazeleel; John Chandler;
Sam and Edwin Thompson, and William Newell and his descendants.

In later times HARVEY PHILBROOK was a prominent and popular man. He
furnished a good illustration of the advantages of natural gifts over
school education without those.  He filled every town office from
highway surveyeor to representative, did a large and lucrative
business in buying and selling cattle, and acquired a handsome
property.  He died in the prime of life, regretted by all who knew him.

DR. OLIVER HOWE was a student of Dr. John Grover, and came here when
quite a young man.  He married Esther Burbank, built the house now
known as the Winthrop House, and is the only physician who ever lived
in Shelburne for any length of time.  He died in 1860.  Mr. Howe
was a man of tall, erect form, graceful in appearance, affable in
speech, and a perfect gentleman of the old school.

HIRAM CUMMINGS owned the upper half of the Great Island, and the
farm opposite.  He was a successful book farmer, as experimenters
are derisively called.  He moved to Paris, Me., about 1879.

Of the old names, EVANS, HUBBARD, PHILBROOK, GREEN and INGALLS are
still among the prominent ones of the town.

page 876
CHAPTER CVIII
INDUSTRIES-TRANSPORTATION-MILLS-FIRST MERCHANT-EARLY BUSINESSES-
ROADS-TAVERNS-BRIDGES

INDUSTRIES--For some years the people could only attend to clearing
the land and raising food for their growing families.  The largest
and straightest trees were reserved for the frames of new houses;
shingles were rived from the clearest pine; baskets, chair bottoms,
cattle bows, etc. were made from brown ash-butts, and all the rest
were piled and burned on the spot.  Thousands of feet of timber
and cords of wood were thus consigned to the flames as of no value.
Corn, potatoes, wheat and rye grew abundantly on the new soil, enriched
by the fallen leaves of many centuries.  Plenty of sugar could be had
for the making, and moose, deer, and the delicious brook-trout were
free to all, regardless of the game officer.  On every clearing could
be seen a little patch of blue-blossomed flax.  This was pulled,
broken, combed, carded, spun and wove, entirely by hand, and made 
into tow "pants" and tow-and-linen shirts for men's summer wear,
into serviceable  checked-dresses and aprons, and the nicest of bed
and table linen.  A day's work was spinning two double-skeins of
linen, carding and spinning four double skeins of tow, or weaving six
yards; and for a week's work a girl received fifty cents.  Mrs. Jane
Austin has had a hundred yards out "bleaching" at once.  Wool was
worked up in about the same way, and all through the fall and winter
the scratch, scratch of the cards, the hoarse hum of the big wheel,
the flutter of the flies on the little wheel, and the rattling of
the loom machinery, made cheerful music in the log houses.  Piles of
fleecy blankets and stockings were packed away against the marriage
of the girls.  Pressed quilts were part of the outfit, lasting for
years, often to the third generation.  Mrs. Hepzibah Peabody had one
over fifty years old.  It was originally a bright green lined with
straw color, and quilted with blue in inch squares.  Mrs. Aaron
Peabody had a blue one quilted in little fans.  Mrs. George Green
had several.  One was quilted in feather-work, with a border of 
sun-flower leaves, and then cross-quilted in straight lines.  Mrs.
Ezekiel Evans was usually called upon to mark out the patterns, and
the best quilter was the belle of the company.
  To keep the snow from getting into the low shoes, gayly striped
socks were worn, and every child could knit double-mittens in
herring-bone or fox and geese pattern.  Peggy Davis could knit the
alphabet; and in a pair of mittens she once knit for Barker Burbank
she knit a verse. [Miss Margaret Davis was a member of Lot Davis's
family.  At the age of twelve years she became perfectly blind.
Her education was necessarily limited.  Schools for the deaf, dumb
and blind were not for her.  She had learned to read and write,
and to "work" letters on coarse canvas.  She became celebrated for
her skill in sewing, spinning and knitting.  At one time Barker
Burbank was exhibiting a pair of yarn mittens to some friends at his
home.  "Well," said one, "those mittens are really fine; but there
is an old blind woman up in Gorham who can match them."  "Well,"
said Mr. Burbank, "I will bet twenty-five dollars there is not a woman
in the state of New Hampshire who can do it."  "Aunt Peggy" heard of
it, and for a few nights she did not retire to bed as early as usual.
She required no light, and in the night the house was quiet.  In a few
days she sent Mr. Burbank a pair of mitten.  She had composed three
or four verses, and, stitch by stitch, had knit them in the mittens:--
    "Money will make you many friends,
     But do not prize them high;
     For should misfortune make you poor
     Such friends will pass you by."
Then came a few words of counsel, telling him that there were things
of more worth than wealth or position.  After that she "knit" several
pairs of these for her friends, one pair of which is now owned by
Abner Davis, of Jefferson.  She died in Jackson at the home of her
niece, Mrs. Joseph H. Deaborn.  This history of the knitter and the
mittens is furnished by Abner Davis--Editor]  Others took pride in
knitting remarkably fast.  Many could knit a pair of double mittens
in a day; but the best job in that line was done by Nancy Peabody.
Her brother Allen came out of the woods and wanted a pair of mittens
as he had lost him.  There was no yarn in the house, nor rolls but
plenty of wood.  Miss Peabody carded, spun, scoured out and knit a 
pair of double mittens (white) and had them ready for her brother
the next morning.

No sooner had the new settlers begun to be comfortable than they cast
about them for ways and means to make money.  The nearest market
was Portland, eighty-six miles away.  Hay, grain and potatoes were
too bulky to pay transportation; but Yankee ingenuity soon overcame
that difficulty.  The hay and grain were transformed into butter,
cheese, pork or beef.  Wood was condensed into potash, and in that
state was easily carried away.  The process of making potsh is quite
complicated and interesting. [process not included here].  Mrs. Enoch
Hubbard got her first print dress by bringing ashes from off the
hill and selling them for nine pence a bushel.

MILLS--The first grist-mill was put up by the Austins on Mill brook.
William Newell Sr. worked there after he sold out to Mr. Gates.
Afterward, saws were put in and Stephen Peabody sawed the lumber for
his house on chares... Still later the Newell brothers put in machinery
for sawing shingles and spool-wood.  The mill was washed away in the
freshet of 1878,, and has not been rebuilt.  Another grist-mill stood
on Scale's creek, now called State-line brook.  On Clemen's brook
were two saw-mills; once owned by Lawson Evans and one by Jefferson
Hubbard.  The Wheelers owned one on Ingalls brook, and Enoch Hubbard
one of Lead-mine brook.  All of these mills were local conveniences,
not money-making enterprises.  No manufacturing of importance is
now conducted.

Logging has always been a standard industry.  The pine went first.
Nothing else was fit for building purposes in those days.  Millions
of nice timber have been taken from the intervals, and as much more
from the uplands and hillsides.  Mr. Judkins, from Brunswick,
was one of the first contractors, paying from seventy-five cents to
$1 per thousand, delivered on the rivers.  Barker Burbank was agent
for the undivided lands, and did an extensive business.  No large
pine trees can now be found.  The Lead-mine valley has always been
famous for nice spruce and hemlock.

THE FIRST MERCHANT was THOMAS GREEN JR., and he had a potash 
manufactory in connection with his store.  Years after, George Green
and Robert Ingalls opened a store, first in parternship, then
separately.  The Bisbee brothers and William Hubbard each tried
trading for a time.

The earliest carpenters were Mr. Peabody and his son Oliver; they
framed C.J. Lary's barn, the second framed barn in town.  Some men
made a living by making sap-buckets, ox-yokes, or sleds.  Others
shaved shingles.  Jacob Stevens was the first blacksmith, followed by
John Chandler, Sumner Chipman, James Hall and Isaiah Spiller.  Joseph
Conner made cart-wheels.  Judge Ingalls had a brick-yard, and
employed four or five men, about 1855.  There were also shoe-makers
in town.

"Chopping-bees" were quite popular while people were clearing their
farms.  Men often went five or six miles and considered a good dinner
and what rum they could drink as ample pay for a hard day's work.
"Raisings" and "haulings" brought together all the people in town,
and were as handy for the diffusion of news as a local newspaper.
Formerly girls attending "huskings" and boys "quiltings" and after
the work was done they had a dance.  "Quiltings" and "huskings" are
now out of date, and have been suspended by the "sewing-circle"
and other modern enjoyments.

When Stephen Messer returned from a trip to Andover he brought in his
hand a willow stick for a whip.  On reaching home he drove that stick
into the ground near his house, just above Moose river, Gorham.
The magnificent tree that sprang from it is the parent of all the
English willows in this vicinity.  Those in front of R.P. Peabody's
were broken from the Clemens willow, near Moses Wilson's and were
planted at least forty years ago.

Doubly imprisoned by mountain walls and trackless forests, the early 
settlers seldom communicated with theoutside world.  Fryeburg was
the nearest village, and people went there on foot, carrying their
supplies on their backs in the summer, and in the winter using
snow-shoes and hand-sleighs, which was much the easier way.  Girls
were good walkers, and thought nothing of going from Capt. Evans's
to Fletcher Ingalls's to meeting, or from one end of the town to the
other to attending singing-schools, huskings, dances or quiltings.
One young girl walked over the mountains to attended protracted-
meeting at Milan.  Oxen were used for farm work, and as soon as
roads could be cut, the teaming and most of the riding was done with
them.  Horses were kept by a few, and long journeys were made on 
horseback, and it was not unusual thing for a man to take his wife
and one or two small children up behind him.  Sleighs were in use
long before wagons were thought of.  A lady of seventy-seven says
she was out "berrying" when the first wagon she ever saw passed by,
but when she told her folks of the "four-wheeled carriage," they only
laughed at her, never having heard of such a thing.  The roads
naturally run along as near the intervals as possible, and no material
change has ever been made.  Longer ago thatn the "oldest inhabitant"
can remember a rope-ferry  run across from Manson Green's interval.
Alfred Carlton kept a large boat that was sculled across, and later
Enoch Hubbard put in a rope-ferry against his interval.  The road
came up from the river just below Moses Wilson's.

After good roads were built and the teaming from the upper part of
the country passed this way, Shelburne became a lively place.
Three taverns found plenty of custom, besides occasional company at
Barker Burbank's and Capt. Evans's.  John Burbank's tavern was a long,
low, unpainted house, the sign hung on a post at the west end.
Like all public places at that time, an open bar was kept where liquor
sold for three cents a glass.  John Chandler's near Moses rock, was
a two-story house, painted red with white trimmings.  George Green's,
at the village, was a stage station and postoffice, and the best
tavern between Lancaster and Portland.  A huge gilt ball hung out from
the ridge-pole, and on it in black letters was "George Green, 1817."
Horr Latham and others drove the stage to Lancaster twice a week.
In the fall of 1845 Randall Pinkham made his first trip in the employ
of Roger Burbank.  He drove two horses, one forward of the other, on
a single wagon.

In the spring of 1851 Enoch Hubbard built a bridge across the river
from the Great Rocks, but owing to some defect it did not stand.
Nothing daunted by his failure, the next spring Mr. Hubbard built 
again, and petitioned the selectmen for a road.  It was refused, not
from any particular fault in the bridge, but because many wanted it
further down the river at Gates's or Green's.  But people found it
much more convenient than the ferry; and at last the county
commissioners came down and laid out the dugway.  The natives called
it the Great River bridge, but it was re-christened Lead-mine bridge
by city visitors.  It did good service for fifteen years.  The next
one was built by the town; Merrill Head, Caleb Gates, and Jotham
Evans building committee.  An abutment of stone was put in by
Moses Mason in place of the old log one, and a bridge built under
the direction of Nahum Mason.  This was blown down in November 1870,
and re-built the following winter by Enoch Hubbard and John Newell.
 
The building of the Grand Trunk Railway through Shelburne began
in 1851.  Upon its completion, Jefferson Hubbard was appointed station
agent, which position he held until his death in 1877.

CHAPTER CIX
RELIGION--CLUBS--SCHOOLS-TEACHERS--WHITE MOUNTAIN STOCK FARM--
JUDGE BURBANK--LEAD MINE--HOTELS--SOLDIERS--TOWNS CLERKS & SELECTMEN

RELIGION--Many of Shelburne's first settlers were pious men and
women, and the Sabbath and family worship was strictly observed
in their new homes; but the first public religious services were
conducted by FLETCHER INGALLS.  Every Sunday for years, "Uncle 
Fletcher's" house was well-filled, many walking four or five miles.
Young girls went bare-footed, or wore their every-day shoes and
stockings till within sight of the house, when they stopped under a 
big gree and put on their best morocco slippers and white stockings.
The seats were benches, kept carefully clean, not quite so comfortable
as the cushioned pews in the chapel, but better filled, and we think
the long, dry sermons Mr. Ingalls used to read were received without
cavil.  People believed as they were taught, instead of wandering
off into speculation by themselves.  The reading over, exhortations
were made by Samuel Wheeler, Edward Green, and others.  The singers
were Nathaniel Porter, Jonathan Lary and his sisters Betsey, Hannah
and Mercy, in fact most of the worshippers took part in this exercise.
Sometimes a stray shepherd chanced along and fed this flock.  
Messrs. Pettengill, Jordan, Hazeltine, Trickey, Austin Wheeler and
Elder Hutchinson were Free-Will Baptists; Sewall, Hidden, Richardson
and Burt, Congregationalists.  Scores of interesting and curious
incidents are related of these primitive christians, who at least
possessed the virtue of sincerity.  One summer the drouth was very
severe, threatening to destroy the crops.  At the conclusion of the
regular Sunday services Deacon Green requested all those who were
interested and had faith in prayer ot meet at this house to pray for
rain.  Their petitions proved not only fervent but efficacious, for,
before they finished, a terrible thunder-shower arose, and the
deacon's shed was blown clear across the road.

The first church of which we find any record was organized in 1818
as the CHURCH OF CHRIST, with seventeen members, among them were
Edward Green, Lydia Ordway, Samuel Wheeler, Anna Wheeler, Reuben 
Hobart, Anna Hobart, Amos Peabody, Mehitable Ordway, Laskey Jackson,
Alepha Hobart, Cornelius Bearce, Lydia Bearce, John Wilson, Lucy
Wheeler.  The signatures are written on stiff, unruled paper, yellow
with age, and would form an interesting study to those who read
character by the handwriting.  The best specimen is the name of
Nancy Wheeler, very fine and distinct, and written with good black
ink.

In 1832 a meeting-house was built; Robert Ingalls, Edward Green,
George Green and Barker Burbank being building committee.  It was
dedicated as a free church.  Jotham Sewell preached the dedicatory
sermon, and four or five other clergymen, Free-Will Baptist and
Congregational were present.  The best singers in town had been well
trained by the chorister, John Kimball, and the long, difficult
Easter-Anthem from the "Ancient Lyre" was skillfully rendered.

A schedule of time for the year 1838 gives the Congregationalists
twenty four Sundays, the Free-Will Baptists twenty five; Universalists
one, and Methodists two.  Whenever the pulpit was unoccupied Deacon
Burbank or Fletcher Ingalls read a sermon, or Samuel Wheeler and others
exhorted.

In 1841 a new organization was formed, called the Shelburne Free-Will
Baptist Church.  The covenant is in the hand-writing of Stephen
Hutchinson.... in 1848 the membership had increased to thirty-three.
Of these most have since joined the Church Triumphant.

The Congregational Church was formed many years ago, but there was no
regular organization of Methodists until Daniel Barber was stationed
here in 1861.  During the following two years there was a great
revival. Night after night lively and interesting meetings were held
at Mr. Palmer's, Mr. Hebbard's or Mr. Hall's.  Mr. Sinclair succeeded
Mr. Barner; but though he came over from Barlett every other Sunday,
braving the cold winds and deep snows, the interest gradually abated.
From this time tillt he reform movement, only occasional meetings
were held.  City ministers, "Orthodox" or Episocopal, sometimes
preached half a day during the summer.  The old church was fast
going to ruin, to say nothing of the people themselves.  During this
"reform movement" temperance lectures and meetings for two years
occupied public attention.  A "Reform Club" was organized; and it is
said that every person in town, with one exception, signed the
pledge.  Like all such movements this ran its course.  The religious
element again felt the need of the offices of the church and regular
religious services, and the Reform Club meetings changed to prayer
meetings.  Mr. W.W. Baldwin, the Methodist minister stationed at
Gorham, came down half a day each Sabbath, and an interest was
awakened that increased during the next year when Mr. Chandler
preached.  The meeting house was repaired and re-dedicated in
September 1877. The death of Miss Fannie Hubbard, the following spring
broke up the choir. In 1881 Mr. Williams, a Congregational minister,
stationed at Gilead, preached Sunday afternoons; an organ was
purchased; a communion service presented by the sewing circle, and a
baptismal bowl by Mrs. R.I. Burbank.  Mr. Gridley succeeded Mr.
Williams in 1883.  His pastorate closed in April 1887.
  There is now a neat Union meeting-house in a pleasant location on
the south side of the river where Rev. Mr. Trask, of Gorham,
holds services.  An active Sunday-school is connected.

SCHOOLS--We have no means of knowing how the first generation obtained
an education, but it is hardly likely there were regular schools
where the children would be obliged to go long distances through the
woods.  Perhaps some went back to Massachusetts, while others learned
at home.  A little later we find plenty of well-educated men and
women.  In Moses Ingall's family were three good teachers, Frederick,
Nancy and Robert.  Some seventy years ago Robert, or as he is more
commonly known, Judge Ingalls, kept school near Moses rock. [more info
and anecdotes included in original document, not included here].
Barker Burbank also taught here, and was once called one of the best
instructors of the times...To this school came the Stowell boys,
the Thompson boys, and Ezekiel Evan's girls.  Back of the Philbrook
House, close to the foot of the moutain, stood a school-house where
Hannah Mason taught.  Sometimes schools were kept at Capt. Evans's
or Samuel Emery's.  Susan Gates, Sally Austin, Elsie Head and
Lydia Porter were teachers of fiftey years ago....
  The Bean Hill school-house, just below H.P. Gates's was moved up
about half way between Allan and Roswell Peabody's and here
Merrill C. Forist taught school and penmanship.  Mrs. John Willis
kept one term in William Newell's barn at the "Dugway" corner.
Isabel Gates, Mrs. C.J. Lary, Mrs. M.L. Burbank, Judge Burbank
and Manson Green were a few of many experienced and popular teachers.
  The law allowing women a voice in school meeting is of no practical
value in this conservative town, and on general principles we doubt
its propriety.  Sanford Hubbard, while examining committee, was said
to be very thorough in his examinations, and whoever received a
certificate was considered amply qualified to teach all the studies
required.... The first singing masters that those now living can
remember were Reuben Hobart and John Kimball...

WHITE MOUNTAIN STOCK FARM--Judge Robert Ingalls Burbank, of
Boston, Mass., a native of Shelburne, has never lost in his active
duties and life of the city his love and reverence for the charming
town of his birth, and has added to its wealth and attractions in
making this large farm from the large homestead of his father,
Barker Burbank, who was for many years the most prominent man in
all this section.  To this home the Judge has added the farms formerly
owned by Fletcher Ingalls, Nathaniel Porter, Oliver Peabody,
Edward Green, and "Echo Farm," formerly the Hazeltine place.  This
makes a manorial estate of over three miles in length, comprising in
its whole extent the fertile interval land along the Androscoggin.
The "manor-house" a large two-story building erected about 1840,
by Barker Burbank, stands in the center of an amphitheater of a rare
and peculiar beauty, and although modernized, retains many of its old-
time features.  On the lawn back of the house, among other attractions,
stands the stone settee formed in blasting "Granny" Stalbird's rock
into railroad underpinning, and rescued by the Judge from destruction.*
[*A history of this remarkable woman is given in "Jefferson." When 
quited aged she was called on a mission of healing to a sick woman
in Shelburne.  Overtaken at night and a terrible storm of wind and
rain, she could not keep the road, and drove her horse under a
projection of granite which jutted from a ledge by the roadside.
Here the brave woman held "watch and ward" until the afternoon of the
next day, before the tempest abated.  From the memorable day Granny
Stalbird's rock has preserved her heroism and remembrance of her
kindly deeds.  The stranger who is shown the settee finds his pulse
beat faster while listening to the tribute tradition presents to her
labors, endurance and skill].
On this farm the Judge has a fine herd of high grade catttle, Jersey,
Ayrshire, Holstein, Swiss, etc., and many farms in Massachusetts
have paid large prices for pure blooded animals reared here.
Parker C. Burbank, a graduate of the scientific department of
Dartmouth college, is the superintendent.  Peacocks, goats, doves,
Shetland ponies, a Rocky Mountain eagle, and a bear, are some of the
pets of the place.
  JUDGE R.I. BURBANK, son of Barker and Polly (Ingalls) Burbank,
and grandson of Eliphalet Burbank, is also grandson of Fletcher
Ingalls, who built the first framed house in Shelburne.  He graduated
from Dartmouth in 1843; from 1844 to 1846 was private secretary of
Daniel Webster; afterwards entered the Massachusetts bar, and made his
home in Boston.  He has held many offices, has been city councillor,
state representative, state senator, chief justice of one of the
courts, and a prominent milita officer.  He is also a writer and
lecturer of note, especially on agriculture, for which he has great
natural taste, and has occupied a lecturer's chair at Dartmouth.

LEAD MINE--About 1820 Amos Peabody discovered fine specimens of galena
on Great, or as later called, Lead-mine brook.  Shafts were sunk in
1845 and 1846, and a rich deposit found.  Considerable capital was
invested, and mining was conducted for some years and abandoned.
In 1856 another short-lived attempt was made to work the mine.
In 1879 and 1880 a stock company, composed with one exception of 
Portland men, commenced operations, expending some money, and finally
abandoned work.  A specimen, nearly of cubical form, weighing
2,400 pounds, was taken from the mine and exhibited in London,
England in 1851, attracting much attention.

HOTELS--The summer hotels in such a romantic town as Shelburne are
objects of peculiar attraction in the summer, and all are of merit,
and give satisfaction to their guests.

THE PHILBROOK HOUSE is one of the finest among the mountain regions.
It lies in the valley like a pleasant English country seat in
Devonshire or Essex.  It is like this, too, in providing accomodations
for only a limited number of guests.  Those who have the good fortune
to be located here once, will remember its generous hospitality
as a marked episode in their life.  A.E. Philbrook, proprietor.

GROVE COTTAGE, Charles E. Philbrook, proprietor, is a fine 
resting-place in the midst of lovely rural scenery.

On the south side of the valley at the "village" is the 
long-established hostelry THE WINTHROP HOUSE, the "hotel" of the town.
DUring its existence many distinguished people have been its guests,
and become satisfied with its neat, airy rooms, its quiet,
unobtrusive service and well-cooked meals.  Charles C. Hubbard,
the proprietor, is also the postmaster.  A bell is hanging in the
room, and when mail is to be called for, the postmaster or assistant
is speedily brought up by ringing it.

Side by side with the Winthrop is Silas J. Morse's MOUNTAIN COTTAGE,
a summer house very much valued by sojourners here.  Other places
wthere are whose doors are opened to the tourist or artist who
wishes to revel in the natural beauties of Shelburne.

A.S. Jewett carries on merchandising, and is an enterprising and
"pushing" business man.  He has recently put up a mill and is
engaged in the manufacture of the native woods into various products.

SOLDIERS--SHelburne has always done her part in her country's service.
Many of her early settlers were in the Revolution, among them were
Wheeler, Evans, Jonathan Lary and Benjamin Clemens.  Samuel Wilson,
Hosea Young, Thomas Marston, Peter Wheeler, Reuben Hobart were soldiers
of the War of 1812.  During the War of the Rebellion many enlisted
from Shelburne and did noble work in that brave struggle for the right.
Nearly all are mentioned in Col. Kent's comprehensive and valuable
article "Soldiers of Coos".  Albion Abbott enlisted in the Fifth NH
Vols and was probably killed at Fredericksburg, as was Solomon Wilson.
Henry Gates was in the Fourth Maine Battery, was in eleven engagements
and never wounded.  Ira Gates was in the Thirteenth Mass.  Woodbury
Jackson, John Newell, Delevan Hubbard, Rufus Hodgdon, William Ingalls, served in the Second New Hampshire; Ellery Wheeler was a corporal in
the Seventh NH.  Darius Green and Leland Philbrook were in service;
Sanford Hubbard, Albert Green and Harlan Ingalls, enlisted in the
navy.  Isaiah Spiller served in the Fifth Main Battery.  William
Ingalls, Rufus Hodgdon and Leland Philbrook died in service.

EARLY TOWN CLERKS AND SELECTMEN FROM 1839-
[only a few years of the original document are listed here]
1841. T.J. Hubbard, clerk; Robert Ingalls, Alfred Carleton, Barker
Burbank, selectmen.
1842. Samuel Peabody, clerk; T.J. Gates, Jotham F. Evans, Barker
Burbank, selectmen.
1843. Robert Ingalls, clerk; Oliver B. Howe, Thomas J. Gates,
J.F. Evans, selectmen.
1844. Robert Ingalls, clerk; Robert Ingalls, H. Philbrook. B.B.
Head, selectmen.
1845. T.J. Hubbard, clerk; Harvey Philbrook, B. Burbank.
B.B. Head, selectmen
1846 T.J. Hubbard, clerk; B. Burbank, H. Philbrook, B.B. Head
selectmen.
1847. R. Ingalls, clerk; R. Ingalls, J.F. Evans, D.L. Austin
selectmen
1848. B. Burbank, clerk, B. Burbank, H. Philbrook, D.L. Austin
selectmen.
1849. O.B. Howe clerk, J.F. Evans, C. Gates, S. Chipman, selectmen.
1850. O.B. Howe clerk, B. Burbank, S. Chipman -- selectmen.


(end)