Sylvester Marsh
THE BAY STATE MONTHLY.
A Massachusetts Magazine.
VOL. III. MAY, 1885. NO. II.
Contents
THE WHITE AND FRANCONIA MOUNTAINS.
THE PAST AND FUTURE OF SILVER.
RAMBLES AMONG MASSACHUSETTS HILLS.
SYLVESTER MARSH.
[THE PROJECTOR OF THE MOUNT WASHINGTON RAILROAD.]
By Charles Carleton Coffin.
There were few settlers in the Pemigewasset Valley when John Marsh ofEast Haddam, Connecticut, at the close of the last century, with hiswife, Mehitable Percival Marsh, travelling up the valley of theMerrimack, selected the town of Campton, New Hampshire, as their futurehome. It was a humble home. Around them was the forest with its loftypines, gigantic oaks, and sturdy elms, to be leveled by the stalwartblows of the vigorous young farmer. The first settlers of the regionendured many hardships—toiled early and late, but industry brought itsrewards. The forest disappeared; green fields appeared upon the broadintervales and sunny hillsides. A troop of children came to gladden thehome. The ninth child of a family of eleven received the name ofSylvester, born September 30, 1803.
The home was located among the foot-hills on the east bank of thePemigewasset; it looked out upon a wide expanse of meadow lands, andupon mountains as delectable as those seen by the Christian pilgrim fromthe palace Beautiful in Bunyan's matchless allegory.
It was a period ante-dating the employment of machinery. Advancementwas by brawn, rather than by brains. Three years before the birth ofSylvester Marsh an Englishman, Arthur Scholfield, determined to makeAmerica his home. He was a machinist. England was building up her systemof manufactures, starting out upon her great career as a manufacturingnation determined to manufacture goods for the civilized world, andespecially for the United States. Parliament had enacted a lawprohibiting the carrying of machinist's tools out of Great Britain.The young mechanic was compelled to leave his tools behind. He hada retentive memory and active mind; he settled in Pittsfield,Massachusetts, and set himself to work to construct a machine for thecarding of wool, which at that time was done wholly by hand. ThePittsfield Sun of November 2, 1801, contained an advertisementof the f