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��BAKER'S RIVER.
��and Piertnont to Haverhill Corner, but at last they arrived in safety, at their rude homes and happy firesides.
The first settlements of the towns on Baker's River by the descendants of the English, were as follows : Plymouth was granted July 15, 1763, to Joseph Blanchard, Esq. and others. The first settlement was made in August, 1764 by Zachariah Parker and James Hobart, who before the next winter were joined by Jotham Cummings, Josiah Brown, Stephen Webster, Ephraim Weston, Da- vid Webster and James Blodgett, all of whom except Weston were from Hollis.
Rumney was first granted to Samuel Olmstead, afterwards on the 18th of March, 1767, to Daniel Braiuard and oth- ers. The first settlement was made in October, 1765, by Capt. Jotham Cum- mings. who was joined in 1766 by Moses Suiart, Daniel Brainard, James Heath and others. Wentworth was granted November 1, 1766, to John Page, Esq., and others. It received its name from Gov. Benning Wentworth. The first settlements were said to be made in 1765, probably before the date of the charter, .by a Mr. Davis, probably Abel Davis, who I find was an inhabitant of the town at the earliest date I can find on the rec- ords of the proprietors. Warren was granted July 14, 1763, being prior to the ■ Wentworth charter, but this charter ran out and was afterwards extended. The first settlement in Warren was in- the year 1767. The first settler was a Mr. Joseph Patch.
For many years after the first settle- ments in these towns, many of their arti- cles of subsistence, flour, potatoes and seed for the propagation of vegetables, were transported thither from Concord and the towns in that region upon pack horses, hand sleds and in knapsack's. There were no roads or even cart paths for a time.
The first time an ox tea'm ever came through from Haverhill to Plymouth down Baker's River, it was effected by a company of men, who went out express- ly for the purpose, with Jonathan McCon- nel of Haverhill as the leader. It was an expedition that excited much interest
��with the inhabitants at home, and the progress of the adventurers was inquired for from day to day and when they were returning and approached Haverhill Cor- ner, the men went out to meet them and congratulated them upon their safe re- turn.
Thus we see some of the hardships and privations that the first settlers in the neighborhood of Baker's River were sub- jected to. After the early settlers had got the wilderness so far subdued as to raise their own bread stuff, they were compelled to go from this quarter to Con- cord and Salisbury to mill, before they could get their flour and that when there was no road or hardly a path through the wilderness.
But soon the numbers of the settlers increased. Mills were erected, roads were constructed ; the forests were felled, farms were cleared and improved; more capacious and convenient dwellings were built ; schools were established ; churches erected and so civilization and the arts have advanced, and knowledge has in- creased. The people have become better and better educated, more and more in- telligent, until we find at this time, after a lapse of a century and a half and more from the time when the Indian's " As- quamchumauke" was first explored by the white man, that there is as enlight- ened, as intelligent, as enterprising, as active and as prosperous a people, scat- tered along on the banks of Baker's Riv- er, as any other tract of territory in our State or country can boast.
During all these changes Baker's River has continued to flow with the same ceaseless, constant, quiet current, re- gal ding not whether her banks are peo- pled by the red or white men ; whether encampments of Indians' huts and wis:- warns skirt her borders; or, whether the more stately habitations of the independ- ent husbandman, rise upon her banks; or, thickly settled villages are built on ebher side. It matters not to her whether she be called Asquamchumauke or Ba- ker's River. Under whatever name, she still remains what the rude native Indian called her, "The place of the mountain waters." But among all the change*
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