Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/147

 BAKER'S RIVER.

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��BAKER'S EIVEB.

��BY HON. J. E. SARGENT.

��Baker's River is located in Grafton County, mainly in the towns of Ply- mouth, Rutnney, Went worth and War- ren, and has a history, like all the other rivers and mountains in the State, and particularly in the northern part of it, many of which histories, if they could be written and read and understood, would prove rich in stirring incident and fraught with instruction.

This river is made up of two principal branches, known as the North and the South branches, and of many smaller streams or brooks that flow into them and into the main river after those branches are united. The North or principal branch of the river rises in Moosehillock mountain in the town of Benton, formerly Coventry. Its source is north east of the northerly or highest peak of the mountain. There is a cas- cade a little way down the slope of the mountain, and about north east from the Summit House, which is visited by many travellers, the waters of which descend to a level piece of bog or swampy land at the foot of the mountain, which is some half a mile in diameter and out of which flows a small stream which is the origin of the North branch of Baker's River. After descending a mile or two, a branch from the west unites with it, which comes down in the ravine between the two spurs, which extend easterly from the two principal peaks of the mountain. At Warren Village, there is another stream entering it from the west, affording valuable water power and mill sites, and a half a mile below, near the old Clough house is another stream, en- tering it from the east, in the bed of which, up toward the mountains, were discovered the first grains of gold, that were found in the neighborhood of War- ren.

��At Wentworth "Village, a branch, some- times called the South Western branch, but more commonly Pond Brook, which is the outlet of Baker's Pond, so called, in Orford, unites with Baker's River from the west. This stream was so swollen by the great freshet in August, 1856, that it swept away mills, shops, dwelling houses, barns and out-buildings, and utterly destroyed all of Wentworth Village that was located upon the street that extended up by the side of this stream towards Orford, carrying away all the foundations even, and the soil- upon which they stood down to the solid ledge, which remains to this day in near- ly the same condition. This river has a general direction nearly south down through Warren and perhaps * half through Wentworth, then it turns south easterly and then easterly, passing out of Wentworth through Rumney and Ply- mouth, and empties into the Pemiege- wassett, just north of Plymouth Village. Just* before it passes from Wentworth into Rumney, the stream known as the South Branch flows into it from the south west. This branch is said to have its rise in the town of Orange, takes a circuitous route through the easterly and north easterly parts of Dorchester, thence through the south easterly part of Wentworth to its union with the North Branch, which is known as Baker's River. Just below Rumney meeting- house, another branch called Stinson's Brook, which is the outlet to Stinson's Pond, so called, unites with Baker's River from the north. The whole length of the river from its source in Moosehil- lock to its mouth is something over thirty miles. The length of the South Branch is something less than that of the North Branch, though not very materially less, on account of its very circuitous course.

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