i
1792-1892.
TAMWOKTII. M<\V HAMPSHIRE
W. B. HIDDEN. M. D. BALTIMORE.
REV. SAMUEL HIDDEN.
F
TAMWORTH, N. H.
Ever}- Town, City, State and Nation has some epoch
or turning point in its history from which its tem-
poral and spiritual progress dates, while Providence
points out the right man to accomplish the great
work. Such an event and union occurred when
Rev. Samuel Hidden was ordained as minister of
the town of Tarn worth, N. H., on the famous "Ordi-
nation Rock," September 12, 1792. The day seemed
to smile on the proceedings and made the people
happy, as only an early autumnal day can, when
abundant harvests and forests foreshadow a comfort-
able winter to such hardy pioneers.
From all the surrounding towns came people of
all ages, in home-spun and home-made clothing, on
foot and horse, guided by spotted trees, fifteen or
twenty miles, to witness the event which was to
1 066727
make " the wilderness a fruitful field " and cause
u the Rose of Sharon " to blossom in their own
borders.
When the day was far spent, in an orchard near
by the rock, discussing the question of baptism, the
time and method of administration and the quantity
of water to be used, &c., Mr. Hidden proposed that
u we exercise all due candor and benevolence in con-
descension to each other's ' infirmities ' ; that none
should be considered offenders for acting agreeably
to the dictates of their own consciences and no form
of baptism should be a bar to Christian communion
and fellowship.'" At length Airs. William Eastman
came into the council and declared, with great energy
and decision, u Mr. Hidden shall be ordained to-day."
And it was so. The council accepted the proposal
and the joy was unbounded. " The people kneeled
on the ground and gave thanks to God, while tears
of gladness flowed freely." Christianity has wrought
great reforms, but in non-essentials the Christians
of to-day are much less inclined to overlook each
other's "infirmities" than was this primitive church
and pastor. The council, with the pastor-elect,
ascended the old rock, whose environment it taxes
the imagination to depict. In the midst of a dense
forest, at that hour when everything that has life
voices its eventide praise to the Great Creator and
mingles harmoniously with the evening breeze
among the leaves of the forest and the singing of
SWIFT RIVER VIEW.
the brook, all constituting nature's orchestra, and
led by the common instinct to praise; with the
great rock for a pulpit, the town for the floor to the
house, the mountains, like those round about Jeru-
salem, for the walls of the house, and the canopy of
heaven for a roof, the impressiveness of the scene
can be pictured only by the exercise of a vivid
imagination. The people, clad in garments as prim-
itive and varied in color and texture as the sur-
rounding forest, gathered about the rock, completing
the picture. Would that we could reproduce that
charming scene: those upturned faces, strong in
resolution, inured to hardship, with eyes full of hope,
longing for u the words of life," were they not
caught in the camera of divine love, only to be
visible to us in the flashlight of eternity ? The
ordination exercises were of necessity brief, and
described as intensely interesting. From this small
beginning on the great rock 503 united with this
church during Mr. Hidden's ministry and 56 pastors
and teachers went out from it who received the
directing impulse of life from his preaching and
teaching. Mr. Hidden's early environment and
experiences, his great thirst for knowledge, vicissi-
tudes as a soldier and sailor in the war for inde-
pendence, as a school and music teacher, in his
struggle with poverty, working his way through
Dartmouth College, gave him great strength of
character and power to overcome the antagonisms of
life, and a knowledge of human nature and sympathy
with struggling humanity, that made his personal
influence over those about him so great.
The "dreamer boy M thus by force of environment
became the rock Samuel, not Peter upon which
this church was built, and from which has flowed so
many streams of u living water " to thirsty souls in
our land.
What wonder that, when this gigantic human oak
which had braved so many storms, had become plant-
RESIDENCE OF MRS. NATHANIEL HUBBARD.
ed on the "Rock of Ages," "he came into a wilderness
and left it a fruitful Held?" Mr. Hidden was an
enthusiastic optimist. Xo cloud long darkened his
10
horizon. His patriotism and optimism are well
illustrated in the following, written after enlistment,
when about 18 years of age, to the lady he subse-
quently married :
A WAK S()N<J.
t'ome all ye sons of tempest stead, come, hark to war's alarm ;
Leave sports and plays and holidays, and haste away to arms.
A soldier is a gentleman, his honor is his life.
And he that won't stand by his post, will ne'er stand by his wife.
For love and honor are the same, or else so well allied.
That neither can exist alone, hut flourish side hy side.
So fare ye well, sweethearts, awhile, ye smiling girls, adieu,
And when we've drove these dogs away, "we'll kiss it out with you.
The spring is up, the winter's gone, the lields are green and gay,
And all-inviting honor calls, away, my hoys, away;
To shady tents, hy cooling streams, with heart so linn and free,
We'll toss the cares of life away in songs of liberty.
No foreign king shall give us laws, nor IJritish tyrants reign.
For independence makes us free, and independence we'll maintain.
We'll charge our foes from post to post, attack their works and lines,
Or by some well laid stratagem, we'll make them all lUirgovnes.
And when the wars are over. hoys, then down we'll sit at ease ;
We'll plow and sow. we'll reap and mow. and live just as we please.
Ka-h hearty lad shall take his hiss, all shining like a star.
And in her softer arms forget the dangers of the war.
The rising world shall sing of us a thousand years to come,
And to their children's children tell the wonders we have done.
('Hue. honest fellows, here's my hand, my heart, my very soul.
With all the songs of liberty, good fortune and the howl.
A monument was placed upon the rock September
12, 1862, by a grandson bearing his name, when
Rev. K/ra K. Adams, I). I)., delivered the following
oration :
I 1
"Friends and I^ellow Citizens :
u Toward this day your minds have long thought-
fully, hopefully turned. It is a happiness to the
people of Tamworth and of the neighboring town-
ships to celebrate such an occasion, to recount
together the past and link themselves anew and
more firmly, if that were needful, to the origin of
their present social and religious pre-eminence.
u Nor is it less joyous to us, who come up from the
plain, from the city, from the places of political
MOUNTAIN VIEW.
strife and commercial friction, where the wheels of
life grate and grind against each other for want of
the generous oil of charity, from the central places
of power, where care sits on the brow and agony
12
wastes the heart, and from the hot fields of battle,
on which brothers bleed and the question is decided
whether we shall keep or lose the inheritance
bequeathed to us by the glorious dead ; to stand in
the shadow of these old mountains, listen to k wood
notes wild/ look on the streams as they run in their
beneficent mission to the sea ; to take in the lessons
of this changing' foliage, to grasp the hand of honest
labor and refresh our eyes with a view of the true
sources of national mind, virtue and hope. It is
worth a journey from the most distant shore to
breathe this air, to lift our eyes to these pillars of
heaven and crown by our transactions here a history
of seventy years. We may almost hear, in the
words of the minstrel, the voice of God putting to us
the solemn question :
' ( lli. lin\\" canst tliciu renounce tin- hidden stores
< M' charms thai Nature to her v< >tary vide Is -
The warhlin'.; woo dlunds. the resound'nm 1 shores.
The |MIIII|I of Droves ;IIK| iraniitnri 1 of Melds.
And all that echoes to the |>om|> of even :
All that the \\oodlandV -hdteriii'^ ho-mn shield-.
And all the dread inairiiiMet'iiec of heaven
( >h . ho\v canst t lion rein iiiinv and hope to he forgiven '.' '
" \\'e arc here to consecrate this marble to the
memory of a great and good man. To place among
these hills themselves undying mementoes of his
labors, his virtues and his prayers a silent, endur-
ing cenotaph, that all who pass this way may read
the name that hallows it and be reminded of no
ordinarv worth.
13
kl In this work of our hands we pay tribute to filial
piety, for no other son ever felt or demonstrated a
deeper self-sacrificing devotion to parental want.
From the toil of months and years he laid all his
gains on the board, which the hands of a mother
spread and the lips of a father blessed. We honor
consistent, personal, modest godliness ; for no man
of his time stood before the people of our State with
more convincing proof of that divine endowment.
We pay homage to mind, which, while it grasped
with intuitive vigor subjects of philosophic thought
and academic culture, was equally at home among
the deeds of history, in classic lore, in the glories of
poetry and sentiment and in the amenities of social
life. We commemorate the spirit and the deeds of a
lofty patriotism which, born in his soul among the
first warm passions and glowing aspirations of
youth, grew into fruition on his country's war-fields
and on her seas. At the age of fifteen years he
desired his master, in accordance with an old militia
law, which had been too much neglected, to procure
for him a musket, with the stipulated amount of
powder and balls, with bayonet, knapsack, cartridge-
box and rlints.
''This petition was not heeded. At length the
gallant boy managed, by additional labor, to procure
the coveted equipment. He at once showed it to his
master, saying, ' \Yhat I have earned 1 may use;
this shall make the British do<>'s howl/ At the au'e
of twenty-one he had enlisted four different times
and served through stipulated periods of the war,
having distinguished himself in all, especially in the
battle of Stillwater, when Burgoyne surrendered his
whole army as prisoners of war.
u His last enlistment was on board the ship Pil-
grim, commissioned by the State of Massachusetts,
his native State, to harass British commerce. A
few days after the sailing of the Pilgrim she fell in
with the British brig Alfred, which she captured, and
Hidden was sent into Salem with the prize. We erect
a monument to affections most lively and pure, to a
heart that beat in generous sympathies with all who
suffered and sinned, giving electric power to the utter-
ances of the pulpit, to every word spoken in private life,
to every line which flowed from his pen, to his prayers
and praises, his persuasions and his rebukes.
" In all these his people and his family felt the
gush of a fountain flowing up, not for its own dem-
onstration, but for the happiness of others, as the
rills flow out from these mountain steeps, giving
birth to the spring verdure and summer bloom,
making the valleys jubilant with springing grass
and the uplands to deck themselves in the glory of
harvests. Rearing this stone to the memory of him
whose name it bears, we honor labor ; for not with
the head only, but with his hands, did he work in
these granite fields, causing them to teem with
abundance, and making the wilderness and solitary
place glad for him.
MIDDLE WANALANCET FALLS.
i6
%i He caused the music of labor to ring from these
rocks, to mingle with the song of the robin and with
the roar of the mountain winds. Like Oberlin, he
toiled with his people, demonstrating the power of
Christianity over the dumb and rigid earth. And
at this day. when in the deadly strife so many brave
men have met to vindicate the honor of labor against
the imagined glory of a slave system, it is a refresh-
ment. The venerable, holy man whose memory we
so fondly cherish here had character ; he was origi-
nal, strong, tender, full of sympathy with nature,
with truth, with sorrow, with greatness of thought
and of soul. The people who dwelt in these towns
looked ii]) to him, and were overshadowed by him,
while their happiest hours were spent in his pres-
ence. His greatness was not like that of the Gothic
temple, exaggerated to the eye by giving length and
height to a narrow nave, but like that of St. Peter's
in Rome, whose grand dome, filled with statues and
adorned with richest art, seems to stoop to the
beholder, and conciliate where its vastness would
otherwise overpower him. \Ve are drawn to such a
mind ; it is fresh, strong, original. Our thoughts
bloom and ripen in its beams. It is to such, and
near such, as Goethe said, 'that thoughts come, like
blessed children, trom the presence ol God."
" Said one who knew him, and knew also how to
delineate character: 'There was a decision, a daring,
an uutanieableness in the structure of his mind even
17
ill boyhood, combined with a tone of authority to
command, and a talent in the exercise of these qual-
ities, to which the minds of his associates yielded in
implicit subjection. Fear of consequences never
entered into his view; opposition, particularly if
accompanied with anything like severity or oppres-
sion, awakened unrelenting resistance. Yet this
bold, untameable spirit was allied to a noble and
generous disposition. There was a magnificence in
his mind. It was too noble to have recourse to
other means, or to aim at other ends, than those
which he avowed, and too intrepid not to avow those
which he did entertain so far as might be required
or expedient. Notwithstanding this trait of char-
acter, he possessed a deep sympathy, which sprang
less from that softness and sensibility which are the
ornament of the female character, than from the
generosity of his disposition. He would have all
men happy, and it gratified his generous, noble
nature to ease the burdens of suffering man.' 1 And,
we may add, when these qualities became so many
Christian virtues they constituted a character at
once commanding and gentle, filling men with awe,
and yet winning them to grateful confidence and
love. \Ye recognixe by this memorial an instance of
distinguished success in the ministry of the gospel.
"Father Hidden possessed qualities which ensure
success in any calling, especially in the work of
pastor and preacher. Along with his genuineness
i8
of character, his stern purpose, his vigorous under-
standing, knowledge of human nature and solid
sense, he had a large and familiar acquaintance with
the Scriptures, fervent piety, an earnest soul, strong
assurance of faith, love for his work and for his
people, a studious habit, adaptation to the varied
circumstances in which he was placed, abounding
wit, a faculty for governing men, a cheerful bearing,
the spirit of contentment, a clear, strong voice, deep
feeling, which spoke in his features, his gestures
and his tears, and a soul of song which mellowed his
severity and charmed those whom his sterner
attributes had awed. If these endowments would
lead us to expect success in any man, actual history
furnishes us with their complete realization in point
of fact. For surely he did succeed who, in the course
of a ministry of forty years, was blest with at least
six revivals, some of which lasted successive years
with but little intermission ; who added to his church
more than five hundred members gathered from the
world and out of a sparse population; who formed
churches in all the neighboring townships, diffused
the light of education throughout the county, pre-
pared scores of young men for college and hundreds
for their various professions; who gained such an
influence among the people that the militia did not
meet without listening to his prayers, nor elections
proceed until he had addressed the citizens on behalf
of their dutv and (iocl on behalf of themselves; to
19
whom the poor came for aid, the rich for counsel, the
ignorant for light, and all for sympathy ; who stood
at the head of the ministry for judgment and wis-
dom; who preached 12,000 sermons many written
in full or in part each containing some new, pro-
found, attractive thought, and who, when he de-
parted to heaven, left none upon earth that could
refuse to his memory the tribute of tears.
"But here we check the strain of eulogy. Were
he now looking down on us from his beatitude, were
his celestial ear to catch the words we utter, he
would turn away from our worthless praise. He
entertains nobler themes. He would have us bless
God for the life he was permitted to spend here, for
the work he was enabled to do, for the glory of truth
by which his life reali/ed its end, for the grace that
wrought in him, and through him upon multitudes
of men. Not one note of praise would he accept, if
it were offered to anything less than the glory of the
Master. While, then, we gratefully recognize all
the qualities we have already named, while we unite
our sentiments and our affections with those of his
grandson, who bore his name and inherited many of
his virtues, whose devotion to his grandfather
prompted him to provide this lasting memorial, as
he himself was about to rejoin him in heaven, we
would rise to a still higher theme ; we would sec in
the life of the venerable servant of God the illustra-
tion of a power which, however the world overlooks
THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
21
it, is really at the foundation of all true social happi-
ness, of all vital, lasting nationality. We mean the
religion of the Bible, as enforced and preached by a
pure and qualified Christian ministry. This thought
may be embodied in a variety of formulas. I have
chosen this: ' The pulpit a civilizer.' By the pulpit
in this connection we mean the preacher, the pastor,
the minister of God \ve mean preaching. We take
the container for the contained the cup for that
which sparkles and glows within it. By civilization
is understood the condition in which man is most
developed, not individually only, but socially,
unitedly. We believe in the unit}' of the race, and
that man is to be elevated as a unit}'. No single
portion of mankind is ever permitted permanently
to rise at the expense of another portion. When
one part of our species gets from another part more
than it gives, God adjusts their relations anew. This
is the law of progress. Kgvpt rejected this law; she
lived on the sweat of other brows and the agony of
other hearts. But the Red Sea washed out the
enormity the grand national lie. Babvlon tried
that abnormal state, and her grandeur became her
ruin ; the black scorpion basked in her palaces.
Rome tried it. and the blood of slaves, mounting"
o
into patrician life, coursed in the veins of the
Scipios; and Rome went down like a smitten giant
into the dust. We have tried it, and our nation now
groans as in death throes, and we are giving back
22
the wealth, the power, the glory, which have ripened
for us in cotton balls and rice fields. We are wading
with broken chariot wheels in the Red Sea of sorrow.
Civilization, says Guizot, is progress in the indi-
vidual and the state physical, intellectual, moral.
The increase of comforts, of sentiment, of taste, of
culture. A writer of considerable power and correct-
ness maintains that there is civilization where there
is not progress.
u It is evident, however, that civilization is either
actual progress or the result of it. If a state is
civilized, it has come out of barbarism and gone on
toward some high goal of material, mental and moral
attainment into social comforts, into art and science,
into knowledge of law, of property and its uses, into
a j uster view of social and civil relations. 'To
civilize,' says Webster, ' is to reclaim from a savage
state, to introduce among a people civility of man-
ners and the arts of regular life/ Contrast Great
Britain now with what she was in the time of the
Druids, and you have the definition of civilization.
Contrast the Indian tribes that roamed and hunted
among the mountains and lakes of New Hampshire
a hundred years ago with the population that now
dwells here, and you have a just idea of civilization.
And yet there are degrees of civilization as there are
of harmony. In an organ two-thirds of the notes
may be in accord, while the rest are discordant. So
in the organism of society. The varied elements
are discordant, and it is the office of the Gospel
through the ministrations of the pulpit to harmonize
these elements, and lead men up to a nobler life and
larger hope. Grace sanctifies every affection and
hallows ever}- tie. It is the office of the Christian
minister not to deal with dry formulas, to rattle on
the desk the skeletons of dead creeds, to smother his
SUMMER RESIDENCE OF CHARLES H. DOW, TAMWORTH VILLAGE.
hearers with the dust of scholastic championship,
but to stimulate their minds with truths, which,
while old as eternity, are ever new. To set before
them not alone the majesty, the power, the stern
laws of Jehovah, but also to make them feel that
i the beauty of the Lord Our God is upon them. 1
24
The pulpit is thus an educator of the understanding,
the conscience and the heart. The clergy have been
and still are educators in a more minute and super-
visory manner. The}' guarded learning, history,
philosophy, even during the ages of moral gloom,
from which, like morning from midnight, the
reformation sprang. Throughout the East, in
Europe's universities and libraries, and in our own
land, the voices, the pens, the watchfulness of the
ministers of God have promoted, and still promote,
learning and art. They write the books, they stim-
ulate and control the press, they give law to litera-
ture, they superintend the education of youth. In
New England especially is intellectual culture under
the guiding minds of the clergy. They began the
work of education at Plymouth Rock, and among
these States the people have not yet been disposed
to set their agency aside. It is this very influence
that has gone forth in a thousand channels, spring-
ing up in Western colleges, appearing in the books
and schools of the nation, breathed in song, radiant
in poetic conceptions, thundered in oratory, sounded
in a thousand pulpits, revealed in the wisdom of
state papers, lived in the retreats of literary labor,
and in the silence of cottage homes. The pulpit is
an exponent of law.
" There cannot be civilization without govern-
ment, this men need, to this their instinct prompts
them; but those instincts must be urged by stern
25
necessity, or aided by the influence of example,
before they will break the chains of barbarism and
bear man on to organize national life. It is the
work of Christianity to honor law. It recounts a
mighty sacrifice for the moral order of the universe.
It teaches that the power is ordained of God. Legis-
lators, therefore, owe much to the pulpit for a high
sense of law, and where the preacher of divine truth
is bold, and honest, and enlarged, where society is
formed and taught under the healthful power of the
decalogue, under the example of Christ and the
Apostles, the government is comparatively secure.
Church and state touch each other here. And whv
~>
should they not? There are three divine institu-
tions among men the family, the church and the
state. They are distinct, and yet united. The
family is to be the nurserv of the church and of the
state. The church gets its materials naturally from
the household, and by conquest from the state. The
state receives its materials from the family and its
solidness, its life, from the church. This is God's
theory. He inaugurated it in the family of Noah,
repeated it in the household of Abraham, and again
in the May Flower. But man sinks below that
standard, that divine ideal ; man labors downward.
God finds it necessary in successive epochs to lift
the race to a higher platform. The base element
drags us down. The Gospel uplifts, ennobles, is
our anchor and hope.
26
" We render all honor to the pioneers of the New
Hampshire pulpit. We speak with glad hearts and
grateful of those whose light shone on the last gen-
eration ; but we do not surrender even to them the
power of the pulpit in these times. We believe
there is more learning, more fervid eloquence, better
knowledge of the Bible and equal piety now. We
have not the Puritanic magnificence of mien, the
stern, rock-like command, the mysterious distance
from secular things and men, but we have a pulpit
that comes nearer to the affections, nearer to the
homes and bosoms of men, to prepare the way for
which the illustrious Father Hidden did not a little.
kk Many problems are yet to be solved in politics,
in science, in philosophy ; but the Gospel shall live
011 unchanged. Christ will adjust the \vorld and
man to it. The time is at hand when Himself and
His truth shall take their place in the centre of the
universe, and throw out their glories over all minds.
His shall be the law. He shall make all things new.
Till then let us thank God for the pulpit. Let us
thank God for such preachers as he was whose
memory we hallow to-day. Let us become such our-
selves, and pray that thousands more may arise like
him to lift up the voice in the wilderness, to change
the desolate places into Hdens, and to glorify the
work, the truth and the holiness of God. Let this
old rock preach to us. It is henceforth and forever
the property of historv and of the church. Let no
flood remove it ; no force of nature or man rend it
asunder. Let it speak to this people of things and
days most holy. Let them draw from it the mem-
ories of truth and promise. Let it be to them the
symbol of their faith.' 1
THE ORDINATION ROCK.
"Old rock, uM ruck. IVuin thy mountain tliroiu
In the silent air. in the upper /one.
Of the ancient Hood didst tliou feel 111' shock.
As it hurled tliee hither? Old rock, old rock:
Is that thy brother on Plymouth shore,
Forever still, tho' the mad waves roar.
As tliou art still when the thunders knock
At thv granite sides, old rock, old rock '.'
28
Thou hast a lesson in thy repose
Of strifes ;m<I conquests, joys and woes ;
Thou art a preacher of truth and faith ;
We come to learn what the preacher saith
Of the olden days and the holy men
Who walked with (iod in the desert then ;
The hardy sires of a sterling stock,
As brave and (inn as thy heart, old rock.
And thou shalt hear to the cominir age
A thought, a life, on thy solid page,
And men shall say, as they muse alone,
(iod's finger hath touched this gray old stone.
Hock in the wilderness once wast thou,
Rock of the church and of history now :
Here shalt thou rest till the final shock,
Type of our hope, old rock, (iod's rock."
Tamworth occupies a unique position among her
sister towns in Northern New Hampshire, almost
surrounded by mountains, yet having none within
her borders ; abundantly blessed with hills, from
whose sides gush springs of never-failing water to
quench the thirst of flocks and herds and feed the
brooks that go singing their way through the val-
leys to the rivers, forming many a slv nook, where
the spotted beauties retreat as the modern Isaac
Walton draws near; hills from \vhose tops nature
spreads out such a panorama of loveliness that it
exhausts the adjectives of the young and silences
those to whom words fail to express the beauty;
hills, forest clad, whose variegated foliage, mingled
with the bloom of spring and gorgeous colors of
autumn, charm the eye and inspire the poetic spirit
to love and aspiration ; forests where the maple, oak
ROAD VIEW.
and elm vie with each other in spreading out their
protecting green arms over all who need shelter from
the sun's rays, and affording homes for the natural
occupants of the woods ; forests where the fir, spruce
and pine, in close bond of fellowship, protect the
"stay-at-homes" from the cold blasts of winter, and
in whose dense shade the wearied city pilgrim can
lie upon a soft bed of moss or pine needles, and, as
Emerson savs, hear
The ( iods talk in tin- breath of the wood-.
They talk in tin- shaken pine.
And fill the lonir reach of the old >eu>hoiv
With dialogue divine.
"And the poet who overhears
Some random word they say,
Is the fated man of men
Whom the a<res must obey."
Pen can not describe nor words portray the
beauties, the charms, the melodious cadences of
nature as seen and heard in the forests of Tain-
worth. If we visit them at dawn of day the stillness
is almost painful, but when the tops of the trees first
catch the rays of the morning sun, everything that
hath life bursts forth in rapturous welcome to a new
day ; the birds and squirrels in the tree tops seem to
lead the grand orchestra, which, without the usual
painful process of tuning, harmoniously sends up a
paeon of joyous praise to the Great Creator. Again
at eventide, as the waning twilight slowly fades into
the gloom of night, nature's orchestra closes the day
with a similar outburst of melodious song, only the
evening concert is prolonged by the answering notes
of the sparrows and the plaintive tones of the
cricket, the owl and the whippoorwill. So liquid are
the notes of this sparrow, and so full of melody, that
the twig he tilted on seemed a conductor through
which the mingled magnetism of brook and forest
flowed into him and were precipitated in song. He
who would enjoy to the fullest this high mass in
nature's grand cathedral must enter the forest aisles
silently and reverently ; then, unobserved, he may
participate in that grand chorus which raises to the
Creator the most sanctified of praise. From the
highways of Tarn worth, Chocorua presents a great
variety of charming views, and soon becomes to the
lover of nature a delightful personality ; catches his
eye from every turn in the road and gives a different
aspect from every hilltop. At its base to the south-
east is a pretty body of water bearing its name,
which, as the sun declines, often through fleecy
clouds mirrors on its placid bosom, in perfect har-
mony of green and gold, the mountain and adjacent
forests. It is worth a season's watching to catch a
glimpse of such a marvelous display of reflected
color and beauty, as the writer once beheld from its
shore. Silver Lake, or White Pond, situated on the
plains near the road leading from the railroad sta-
tion to the village, is one of the prettiest bodies of
water in the world. It is fed almost wholly by
springs near its centre, has a smooth, rockless beach,
clear, transparent, sparkling water, in which a car-
riage can be driven nearly round it with safety and
satisfaction to man and beast. The clay is near at
hand when its beauties so lavishly spread out will
be utilized and a carriage drive constructed around
it, with bathing houses and boats in abundance.
The points of interest in the town are very numer-
ous, and the lovers of nature will here rind delightful
occupation. The roads arc excellent and usually
kept in good repair. The rushing mountain torrents
which, leaping down the sharp declivities, have laid
bare the massive rock which now forms their bed ;
UPPER WONALANCET FALLS.
the babbling brooks, forming cascades and pools
among the giant boulders, left here and there as
memorials of the great ice period, interest and soothe
those who ride or walk beside them. Xo malaria
lingers round the streams and meadows of Tain-
worth, and though St. Patrick never visited the
town, there are no harmful reptiles within her bor-
ders. The soil does not reflect the heat, as would
sandy soil ; hence, when the sun declines, it quickly
becomes cool, and a hot night is very rarely exper-
33
ienced. The air is dry and invigorating. Said a
visitor : u I never realized what the Psalmist meant
when he said, ' O God, for the strength of the hills
we thank Thee/ until I looked upon these hills and
breathed this pure, life-giving air."
To those who desire to renew their youth and
recuperate their exhausted energies by air and exer-
cise, with good, wholesome food, Tamworth affords a
WIGGIN HOUSE.
superior environment. Her hotels and cottages
have been enlarged and improved from year to year;
farmers have opened their homes to summer visitors,
and are making efforts to supply early vegetables,
&c. She offers special inducements to those seeking
country homes.
34
SUMMER RESIDENCE OF MRS. GIGNOUX.
TAMWORTH IRON WORKS
111 the eastern section of the town, especially,
there is a boom in real estate, which promises to
increase and extend to all parts of the town. Farms
and attractive building lots and building materials
are surprising!}' cheap. People are beginning to
realixe the fact that the greatest need of the well-
to-do city family is a country home, where they can
spend the summer and return in the fall, free from
that class of ailments incident to the heated term
and physically strong for the active duties of city
life. Parents can make no investment for their
children that will be of so much help to them all
through life as to give them the freedom and exer-
cise of outdoor country life during the summer. It
has been truly said that our cities have never bred
their own giants. They who have towered to pre-
eminence among their fellows in the professions or
in the busy marts of commerce, the most healthful,
energetic and enterprising citi/ens, were once coun-
try boys and girls ; and if we are to maintain in our
children the same physical stamina, we must give
them the same experience with old Mother Earth.
The familiar and attractive Chocorua grows more
and more interesting as we approach the top. A
carriage road has been constructed almost to its base
and a stone house been built there to accommodate
those who wish to refresh themselves or remain to
see the sun set and rise in all its glory.
TIP TOP VIEW OF CHOCORUA.
The view from the top of Chocorua well pays the
effort made in the ascent, and surpasses that of any
other peak in the variety and grandeur of scenery.
Not only do we behold mountains piled together in
WONALANCET FARM HOUSE.
MISS SLEEPERS.
massive majesty, with lavish prodigality, as though
they were a "very little thing" to the Great Creator,
but interspersed among the hills and valleys, the
forests and green meadows, lie more than a score of
lakes and ponds, in full view, giving variety with
37
most fascinating contrasts. And when the early
autumn days tint the whole picture, the variety and
harmony of color surpass any possible description or
conception of the imagination. The highest and
most inaccessible of the neighboring mountains,
Passaconaway, was explored last season, and through
the influence of the enthusiastic proprietress of
u Wonalancet " Farm, a road was opened to its sum-
mit. Indeed, that corner of the town has taken on
" a new life." The Wonalancet Union Chapel, fres-
coed and painted, has become the centre of an organi-
zation which promises well for the future. The old
farm house has grown to be a rustic paradise, where
many a city pilgrim has found health and comfort ;
which shows what an influence a refined, intelligent
and enthusiastic young lady can exert, as a farmer,
in a farming community.
We present photographic views of the old and the
new, showing the improvements that have been
made as an example of what is to be on a larger
scale, and views of scenery old and yet ever new
with each returning season, hoping to give the
reader some idea of what is and is to be in the near
future in this interesting old town.
\\ e close with a few lines linking the past and
present in the history of the l> ()ld Rock/'
To this ru<*i*ed old rock our forefathers came
One cent'ry a>ro t midst the earth's desolation.
To form here a church, and ordain in His name
One. to tell them of Him who redeemeth our nation ;
That the banner of .Jesus should here he unfurled,
And the seed here he sown that shall conquer the world ;
And the hanner of .lesus those pilgrims unfurled.
As they sent forth their loved ones to leaven the world.
We come here to-day, and how wondrous the clianire.
' The Kock," decked with marble, is vocal with jjlory.
While rocks, hills and plain, with the vast mountain runjje,
Re-echo our sonjrs and repeat the jrhul story
I low this servant of < iod so untiringly wrought.
That the whole region round heard the word, and besought
That the banner of Jesus in triumph ini^ht wave
O'er the homes of our country, most miirlity to save.
1 lis life, in the lives of this people enshrined.
Iiecame potent in moulding his own generation :
(iave impulse to preachers and teachers, reliued.
Who tautrht and proclaimed to the youth of our nation.
That the < iospel of , lesus true freedom imparts.
Kxalteth our nature and cleanseth our hearts :
That the banner of .lesus. those pilgrims unfurled
( >n tliis famous old rock, shall yet conquer the world.
w
r
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