Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/359

 KEARSARGE MOUNTAIN.

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��chusetts, as a township, in 1733, ap- pears a rude representation of an irreg- ular hill along the northern boundary line, with this appended inscription : " Supposed to be one of ye Kiasaga Hills. "

A plan of Kearsarge Gore, drawn by Col. Henry Gerrish subsequent to 1 75 1, bears the following title : "A plan of Kaysarge Gore, near Kyasarge. "

An English map, published according to act of Parliament, in 1755, by Thomas Jeffreys, geographer to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, near Charing Cross, and taken from actual surveys made in 1750 by Mitch- ell and Hazzen, puts our mountain in its true place, and spells it Kyasage.

The proprietor's records of Sutton state that a township of land " was grant- ed to Capt. Obadiah Perry and others, in 1 743, lying on the west side of Kia- surge Hill. "

In June, 1 750, a meeting of the pro- prietors of that' town was called by Thomas Hale, who represented that the land laid " on the westerly side of Cia- sarge Hill. " Again, the proprietors of that town spell the name, Ciasargey; again, Chi a Sarge; and again, Keya- sargy. But words need not be multi- plied. The position here taken re- quired, perhaps, no substantiation at all. The story of Hezekiah Sargent is a myth. The mountain has been known, continuously, as Kearsarge more than two hundred years !

But another controversy concerning this mountain has arisen still more re- cently. The birth of this latter contro- versy, so far as the public are informed, was in 1875. The Union corvette, or sloop of war, Kearsarge, became fa- mous by sinking the Confederate Ala- bama, June 19, 1864. Eleven years afterwards the question is raised, wheth- er this gallant vessel took its name from the Kearsarge of two hundred years standing, or from a mountain in Carroll county.

The Kearsarge was built at Ports- mouth, N. H., in 1 86 1. Major Henry McFarland, of Concord, a paymaster in the army, wrote a letter to the assistant secretary of the navy (G. V. Fox), on

��the first day of June, 1861, suggesting that one of the sloops of war, which were then being built at Portsmouth, be called Kearsarge. Gideon Wells, of Connecticut, was secretary of the navy. He accepted this name. He thought, at first, that Kearsage, with the final " r " left out. was the true orthography, but the secretary of the treasury, Salmon P. Chase, corrected him. Concerning this matter, Secretary Wells wrote as follows : " I first directed that the cor- vette should be called Kearsage ; but Mr. Chase, a New Hampshire man, corrected my pronunciation and or- thography. We had, I recollect, a lit- tle dispute, and that I quoted Governor Hill, but Mr. Chase convinced me that he was correct. "

Major McFarland says, with much force and beauty, " The corvette ap- pears to me to have been named when she received the precise designation which she defiantly carried through storm and battle. " It will be well to remember here that Salmon P. Chase was a native of Cornish, a New Hamp- shire town, which has the Kearsarge of Merrimack county in plain view.

Mr. Wells "quoted Governor Hill. " This is further proof that it was the mountain in Merrimack county for which he named the corvette, Governor Hill having been a citizen of Concord, a large land-owner on that mountain, and an enthusiast in setting forth its lofty grandeur.

About 1865, a large hotel was built on the Wilmot side of this mountain, and named in honor of the ship's cap- tain, the "Winslow House. " That hotel was destroyed by fire in 1867, anc l' was rebuilt on a larger scale. A recep- tion was given to Admiral Winslow, in the first house, and he was present at the opening of the second, in 1868, when he gave the proprietor a stand of colors and a picture of the battle.

Men of high station, both in the state and country, as well as others, were present on these occasions, participat- ing in the festivities and congratulations of the hour. Nobody whispered that we were on the wrong mountain. Probably, into no one's mind, at thai

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