Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/379

 Moosilauke.

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��" Meremock " river, as Capt. White spelled it.

Tlios. Jeffrey's map of New Eng- land, 17oo, calls Baker river the " Remithewaset or Pemoo-evvaset W. Br."

Blanchard & Langdon's map, 17G1, calls Baker liver by the very fine name of "Hastings' brook," the words being printed in the territory of the present town of Wentworth, which town did not then appear on the map. It also ai)pears as " Hastings' brook" on another map in the state library, upon wiiich are the towns in that region granted before 1764. This last map was probably published by Jeffrey.

The first writer we have found who called the River Baker '• Baker's river" was Capt. Peter Powers, of HoUis, N. H. In his Scout Journal he says, un- der date of 1754, June 20th, — "We steared our course * * * fpom the mouth of Baker's river, up said river, north-west by west, six miles. This river is extraordinary crooked, and good intreval. Thence up the river, about two miles north-west, and there we shot a moose, the sun being about half an hour high." Powers's Hist, of Coos, p. I'J.

Ten years later, 1764, Matthew Patten, of Bedford, N. H., a noted surveyor, wrote in his celebrated Diary, —

"bet. 18th. We arrived at Mr. Zechariah Parker's on Baker's river and lodged there." — Granite Month- ly, Vol. I, p. 213.

Holland's map, 1784, says " Baker's River."

Dr. Belknap's map, 1791, says " Baker's R."

Carrigaiu's map, 1816, says '' North

��Branch of Baker's River," in Warren, Coventry, and Peeling.

Dr. Belknap's History says " Bak- er's river." Vol. Ill, p. 45.

Thus it appears in all books and maps till 185o, when Judge Potter, in his Visitor, Vol. XHI, p. 257, says, — "A river in Rumney, N. H., now called Baker's river, but called by the Indi- ans Asquamchumauke (the water from the mountain side)." In 1857, in a letter. Judge Potter says, — " Baker's river was called by the Indians 'As- quamchumauke,' from asquam (water), tvadchu (a mountain), and auke a place), the m being thrown in for the sound, and means the place where the water comes from the mountain. This name, written Asquamgumuck, is mentioned as a bound in an early deed had or seen by the late Judge Livermore." We once searched many loi]g hours in the Registry of Deeds office, Grafton county, to find that deed, but we did not meet it.

A writer in the N. H. Hist. Coll., Vol. VIH, p. 451, mentions the As- quamchumauke, and says the name means " The place of the water from the mountain."

Thus we see that Moosilauke's largest stream has been called by many names : Pemichewashet, Rem- ithewaset, Pemogewaset W. Br., Hastings' brook, Baker's river, As- quamchumauke, and Asquamgumuck, of which any one can take his choice.

6. Pemigewasset River.

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In the near view from Moosilauke's higli crest are seen long reaches of this stream. The name Pemigewasset is from the Indian words peiiiiquis (crooked), ivadchu (a mountain),

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