Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/229

 The Residence of Counsellor Peto- Livhis.

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��John M. Brackett, of Wolfeborougb, informs me that he saw the house wlieii it took lire upon the roof and was burned down in 1820. By the old road it was nine miles to the residence of Judge Livius from the Weutworth House. Mrs. Wentworth thus writes : ''Mrs. Livius arrived here on Mon- day afternoon, and appeared nearly as tired as you was, but would not own it. Sh6 staid here three nights for fair weather, and at last went over the pond in a high gust of wind which made a great sea and white caps as large as the canoe."

I thought I would like to know the route of Mrs. Livius. In 18.51 I visited the site of the Gov. Went- worth house, at Wolfeborougb. Di- rectly across the road lived a Mr. Whitteu, who said his house was so constructed that bis front door was directly opposite that of Gov. Went- worth, and one could, when the doors were opened, look directly down through the ball to the shore of the pond where the governor bad his landing-place and kept bis boats. From this point Mrs. Livius must have started. Where did she land? Leaving Portsmouth in the morning, and taking in Rev. Dr. Alonzo H. Quint at Dover, I landed at Wolfe- borougb by the Alton Bay steamboat, where we took a carriage and drove over the old Moultonborough and Sandwich stage road, keeping as close to the lake as possible. About four miles from Wolfeborougb bridge, and about nine miles from Moulton- borough corner, and about nine miles from the old Gov. Wentworth house, we found Dishwater creek, or what is better known as Lang's pond or Livius pond. John Horn, an old

��gentlemen of the Dover Horn family, is the best known person living near there. The pond or creek was con- nected with the lake b}' a stream easily navigable for small boats. Mrs. Livius had sailed from the Wentworth landing across Smith's pond (now called by some Lake Weutworth) down the river, probably before the present bridge was built, into Lake Winuipiseogee, thence up the lake shore to the mouth of Dish- water creek or river, thence up that stream, where, a short distance from the lake, upon an elevated spot, the cellar of the old Livius house was pointed out. The original bouse had been destroyed by fire. Near the cellar, upon the same premises, lives Amos W. Kimball. The place showed the good taste of Judge Livius in its selection as a private residence, and we found a large number of families from the cities enjoving- it as a sum- mer residence.

We were informed that the late Hon. Nathaniel Wbitebouse, of Tuf- tonborougb Corner, had published in the Wolfeborougb paper some years since a very interesting sketch of Judge Livius, with a history of the title of his land. Dr. Belknap does not mention Judge Livius among those who, like Gov. Wentworth, had their estates confiscated. Perhaps he had sold it before be left the state. A friend applied at the newspaper office for permission to copy the arti- cle of Mr. Wbitebouse. He was informed that the publishers of the newspaper had preserved no files. I then applied to the family friends of Mr. Wbitebouse at Tuftonborough for information. Mr. William O. S. Hodgdon, now living there, whose

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