SAC0 VALLEY SETTLEMENTS AND FAMILIES.
HISTORICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL, GENEALOGICAL, TRADITIONAL, AND LEGENDARY.
EMBRACING The Most Important Events in the Towns on the Saco River,
FROM Their Plantation to the Present, with Memorials of The Families and Individuals Instrumental in Their Settlement, Advancement and Prosperity.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN PREPARATION
By G. T. Ridlon, Sr.,
Author of "Early Settlers of Harrison, Me," *' Burbank Genealogy." "History OF Ancient Ryedales," and "Rambles in Scotland."
Beautifully Embellished with Portraits, Views of Family Seats and Other Illustrations.
" How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood, When fond recollection presents them to view; The orchard, the meadow, the deep tangled wild-wood, And every loved spot which my infancy knew."
PORTLAND, ME.: PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 1895.
BARTLETT (Keep in mind, this was written in 1895)
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This town was incorporated June 16, 1794, and was named in honor of the distinguished Josiah Bartlett. If we were to describe the various tracts of land once comprised in the township our vocabulary would be exhausted. The geography of this wild, rugged, and forest-covered country was long in a transition state. The alternating of slices of territory, varying from fifty to a hundred acres, was like a game of "give and take" upon an extensive checkerboard. Boundary lines were as uncertain as New England weather, and indefinite as a passing cloud. In consequence of this transitory state of affairs the early inhabitants did not have any permanent place to "hail from." If a pioneer of Hart's Location went "down country" to have his grist ground
he might return and find his family living in Adams; or if he went to Dover for a supply of groceries, leaving his cabin in Jackson, he might, on his "hameconiing," have to acknowledge that he was an inhabitant of some other grant or township. On Monday the planter might cultivate his field in the county of Coos, and on Tuesday find the same acreage transferred bodily across the line into Carroll. No anchor was strong enough to keep the territorial ship from drifting: the land was constantly crawling from grant to township, and from shire to shire. Let us prove our assertion true.
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The town of Bartlett is comprised in a grant to Col. Andrew McMillan, of 2,ooo acres, dated Oct. 25, 1765; a grant to Capt. William Stark, consisting of 3,000 acres, of the same date; a grant to Lieut. Vere Royse, of 2,000 acres, dated Sept. 6, 17O9; a grant to Adjt. Philip Bayley, of 2,000 acres, dated Aug. 9, 1770, and one to Maj. James Gray, of 3,856 acres, June 12, 1772. By an act, June 19, 1806, the town received a grant of 600 acres from the state lands situated in Adams, 300 for support of the gospel and 300 for schools. On June 3, 1822, a tract belonging to Nathaniel Carlton was cut from Bartlett and annexed to Jackson. A tract owned by Jonathan .Mclntire was annexed to the town by an act dated July 3, 1839. The farms of Nathaniel Tufts and Stephen Carlton, 2d, were sawed from Bartlett and "joined" to Jackson in 1853. In 1853 the town was transferred from Coos to Carroll county. A tract was taken from Chatham in 1869 and "spliced on" to Bartlett. A slice was cut from Hart's Location and consigned to the town in 1878. The area is now 38,000 acres, a large part waste land; no, not actually waste, for the inhabitants ask an admission fee of the city folk who go to view the grand, majestic, natural scenery of the mountains.
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This was a stern, uninviting country for settlement. It was broken, rocky, and resisting. The word spontaneous applied only to the growth of wood and wild plants. It required a good deal of harrow-tickling and hoe-coaxing to produce productive farms ; but when the soil had been curried into a generous mood it gave forth bountifully from its rich properties.
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The isolation of the inhabitants made them mutually dependent upon each other, and stimulated a spirit of good-will and reciprocal attention to their needs. In the early days of settlement there were but few neighbors within thirty-six miles. The provisions were drawn over the snow on handsleds from Dover, seventy-five miles away. One of the pioneers went seven miles to borrow a plow and carried it home on his shoulders over a rough, stony path, interspersed with break-neck steeps and hard-scrabble hills.
Many of the inhabitants were non-resident and their land exempt from taxation ; this made the burden of expenses for public improvement, such as the building of roads and bridges, very heavy for the few who lived in the town. This condition of affairs was a source of discouragement and anxiety with the settlers, and culminated in a pointed petition which brought the snail-paced authorities to their feeling. In about two years after the prayers of the inhabitants had been ofiered for material mercies a tax of one penny an acre was levied upon the lands of non-resident owners.
The fluctuating character of the streams that come rushing down from the hills in their untamed madness has made it difficult to keep any bridges on them, and the people have been taxed many times to rebuild such.
FOUNDERS OF BARTIETT.
Richard Garland was one of the first five settlers who entered this mountain-hidden locality in 17S3. These suffered many deprivations, and numerous anecdotes are told about their adventures. He was the first constable and collector; was from Dover; had served in the army of the Revolution. He married Sarah Watson, of Rochester; died in 1853, an aged man; had children, and descendants reside in town.
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Sergt. Jonathan Tasker, descended from John Tasker, who came from England to Madbury, N. H., was an early adventurer and settler. A brother of Jonathan, Ebenezer, also settled in town. Sergeant Tasker had served in the Revolutionary army under Colonel Reed; was one of the first selectmen; had two sons and several daughters, who intermarried with descendants of other old families.
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Clement Meserve came from Marlburg, near Dover, N. H., to Jackson, but soon removed to Bartlett. His sons and descendants constituted a large per cent, of the population, and were prominent and useful men. (See Genealogy.)
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Hon. Obed Hall came from Madbury, N. H., and owned a farm in Upper Bartlett ; kept a house of entertainment for travelers. He was a gentleman of many fine parts; was a member of Congress in 181 1; had a family of intelligent sons and daughters, the latter known as the pink of beauty. His first wife was twenty years his senior, and the second wife twenty years younger; the latter was the mother of his children. She spent her latter years with her children in Portland, as the wife of Richard Odell.
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" Master " Ebenezer Hall, brother of preceding, was a man of superior education, possessed of excellent business capacity. He was called to fill the town offices, and in 181 1 was appointed judge of probate for Coos county; was a man of kindly heart and graceful manners. His integrity was unciuestioned and his influence remarkably useful. He left a family of children of extra intelligence, who have filled stations of responsibility.
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Joseph Pitman descended from one of Britain's ennobled families; was born in London in 1759, and came to New England prior to the Revolution. He espoused the cause of the colonists and served as a privateer. Having married Alice Pendexter, sister of Hon. John, he settled, before the organization of the town of Bartlett, in Hart's Location. He was one of the fort-most pioneers, and was active in town affairs diirin}; life; filled many town ortices. He left more descendants who have tilled honorable positions than any of the first settlers.
HARTS LOCATION.
This township was granted to Thomas Chadbourne for his services during the French and Indian wars, before the Revolution, by Governor Wentworth. It was named for Richard Hart, who purchased the territory by payment of the small sum of one thousand and five hundred dollars. In this wild region the waters of the Saco find their way from the Notch of the White Mountains, and along its borders the Indians made their trail which led to Canada. But few white families have lived here. The Willey house was built three miles from the narrow pass in the Notch, in 1791, for the accommodation of a few travelers and the \'Vermont market nicn when on their way to Portland. Dr. Samuel Bemis, an invalid, who was seeking for a locality where he could find health, found his way to Hart's Location, and became so much attached to it that in consequence of its wild grandeur he built a sort of castle-mansion of the native granite, in which he spent the remainder of his days; his death occurred at the age of 87. From this man Bemis Station derived its name. The Frankenstein gulf was named for a German artist, who was a companion of Doctor Bemis. On .Avalanche brook there is a remarkable waterfall, one hundred and fifty feet in height and at the base seventy feet wide. Below this there is a fall on Bemis brook one hundred and seventy-si.x feet in height, but so difficult of approach as to be seldom seen.
It was in Hart's Location that the remarkable "Willey slide" occurred in .August, 1826. During an awful tempest an avalanche started more than a thousand feet from the base of Mt. Willey and swept down with terrible momentum behind the dwelling of the Willey family. Had they remained within doors they would have been saved; but the roar of the descending mountain side and shock of falling boulders so terrified the family that they ried from a place of safety into the very jaws of destruction. The family, consisting of seven, were overtaken and with two men stopping there, David .Mien and David Nickerson, were buried under the earth, stones, and trees. The bodies of three of the children were never found. There was a great boulder behind the house which held its place and divided the descending debris, saving the buildings.
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FOUNDEKS OF HARTS L0CATIO.N. (Keep in mind, this was written in 1895)
Abel Crawford, from Guildhall, Vt., came through the rock-bound wilderness to the White Mountain Notch when a young man, clad in garments made from moose skin. He was born about 1765. His wife was Hannah, daughter of Kleazer Rosebrook, and inherited strong traits from both her
parents. Mr. Crawford became a mountaineer when a young man, and in old age was known as the "Patriarch of the Hills." In personal appearance he was attractive and remarkable. He was of stature six feet four, not broad but muscular and wiry; his complexion dark; in temperament genial and generous. He was the first guide to the mountains, and assisted in cutting the first foot-paths. At the age of seventy-five he rode the first horse that ever reached the summit. When eighty he was a strong, hearty man. He and sons built the old Crawford House, kept many years by his son Thomas J. Crawford. During the last five or six years of his life he represented the eight voters of Hart's Location and those in Nash and Sawyer's Location and Carroll. He died July 15, 1851, aged 85, and lies buried by his wife, who died October 28, 1848, at the age of 76, near Bemis Station. His sons were men of gigantic physical proportions; none were under six feet; the eldest, Erastus Crawford, was six feet six, and Ethan Allen Crawford, who inherited his grandfather Rosebrook's estate, was nearly seven feet, a stature that entitled him to the designation, "The Giant of the Mountains."
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Capt. Samuel Willey moved from Lee, N. H., about 1775, and opened a clearing in Stark's Location, now Bartlett, but subsequently moved to North Conway, where he passed the remainder of his life, dying June 14, 1844, at the advanced age of 8o years. His wife, Betsey Glazier, was of Scotch descent and lived to the age of 83. Their children were eight in number, named as follows :
1. Polly, m. Jonathan Thompson.
2. James, a lieutenant in the 1812 war; lived in Conway.
3. Samuel, b. Mar. 31, 1788 ; m. Polly Lovejoy, Sept. 17, 1812, and had a family of five children. He removed from " Humphrey's Ledge" farm, the first cleared in Bartlett, to a house that had been built by one Davis near the Notch, in October, 1825. Mr. Willey was a most estimable man. He was kind hearted, of gentle spirit, sound judgment, and a sincere Christian. His companion was a person of many virtues ; an excellent wife and mother. By industry and frugality these found enough to meet their daily needs, and with their children formed a happy and contented family. But the entire household was destroyed by a landslide from Mt. Willey, Aug. 28, 1826. In a small enclosure, on the Bigelow place, lie the remains of the parents and two children. Three, Jeremiah, Martha, and Elbridge, were never found and their bodies are still under the debris of the slide. On the base of the monument erected to their memory are these lines :
" We gaze around, we read their monument ; We sigh, and when we sigh we .smile. "
Children: Eliza Ann, b. July, 1813; Jereviiah, b. July, 1815; Martha G., b. Sept., 1817; Elbridge G., b. Sept., 1819; Sally, b. in 1822.
4. Hannah, m. John M. Barnes.
Betsey, m. Jacob Bray.
Rev. Benjamin G.
Stephen, succeeded to homestead, went West.
Sally.
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This is but a sample from the book. The contents consume more than 1400 pages. includes hundreds of biographical names, nearly all the local towns founding details, Indian Tribes. illustrations, tales of people, mountains, rivers and folklore.The book is available digitally free of charge. (The link was functional as of August 2026)