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THE HOLLIS HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND BEAVER BROOK PRESENT FINDING “THE OLD CITY” September 18, 1993..
This was written by J. Tinklepaugh for the town by BBA and HHS.
Narrative of History Bibliography Important Dates In the History of "Old City" What to Look For When Exploring "The Lost City"
There is in every town a place that has a special aura, a combination of the people who live there and the nature of its surroundings. In old Hollis that place was Proctor Hill. In very early days this region led a life of its own somewhat removed from the rest of Hollis. Within its confines were little neighborhoods such as “The City" and "The Meadow". These were designated as "down the lane" and "up the lane" by the nineteenth century residents of The Hill. Stories of its people and landscape became part of the legendary tales that future generations were to tell, garnishing them with little gems of gossip as the years passed. These are the tales that we tell you today, embellished with as much fact as we can gather.
Moses Proctor came from Chelmsford Massachusetts with his wife Mary Byam in 1736. He chose to settle on The Hill because it was one of the highest spots in town and he envisioned the town center as being about where Hollis Four Comers is today. The arrival of Moses and Mary marked the beginning of a special settlement. Time would see the families on the hill multiply and intermarry. The names Abbott; Austin, Pierce, Wright, Clough and Shattuck would be added in the future as the children of Moses and Mary began their own homesteads. The Proctor children, Mary, Rebecca, Cyrus, Moses and Philip were born in Hollis between 1740 and 1750. Before too many years had passed The Hill became known to all as Proctor Hill.
Sometime in his early days as a settler Moses Proctor had a confrontation with a rattlesnake and the rattlesnake won temporarily. Quick action saved Moses and he lived to wreak his revenge. . Every spring he rounded up a group of Proctor Hill farmers. They marched into the woods to meet the sleepy rattlesnakes as they crawled from their winter den. This yearly ritual, accompanied by the bounty of one shilling placed on their heads, resulted in extinction of the Hollis rattlesnake. The one-shilling bounty to be given for each rattlesnake caught in Hollis was passed in 1740 when Moses Proctor was a Selectman. Moses knew how to beat a rattlesnake!
The famous den of snakes is located on Proctor Hill by Bertha Hayden, a past Hollis resident, as “on a bluff east of the brook. An article in the Hollis Times of April 1906 called “ Granddaughters of Proctor Hill" draws a brief picture of this legendary place now a part of Beaver Brook.
Turning to the left a scramble of a few rods brought us to the foot of the cliff where by climbing the top of a great boulder we peered into the yard-wide opening to the den. A breath of cool air, met us there and we strained our eyes to see into the darkness. Although the den is now the home of some animal saw no gleaming eyes and heard no pattering feet”.
Moses Proctor died in 1780 at age 7O, more than forty years after his encounter with the rattlesnake. By the time Moses and the snakes had gone most of his children had married and had their homes on Proctor Hill. It was daughter Rebecca’s marriage in l787thatbecame the talk of the town. Rebecca was the last of Moses children to marry. She was probably living with her younger brother Moses and his new bride Ruth Austin when Joseph Crossman, a neighborhood fortuneteller, arrived at the house one evening in 1737. According to town gossip he stayed the night courting Rebecca and they were married the next day. " Married in haste to repent in leisure” was her great-great niece Abby Flagg's comment when she retold the tale one hundred fifty years later. Rebecca was in her forties at the time of her marriage. In a brief moment of weakness she undoubtedly considered even a husband who told fortunes for a piece of salt pork better than none.
The newly wed Crossman's lived briefly at Joseph's cottage which was "down the lane'' at the bottom of The Hill in an enclave of cabins that came to be called “The City”. Abby Flagg in her notes for the Hollis DAR Book of Homes described it as "that region between Rocky Pond Road and the Proctor Hill Road where there were some open places which bore good crops of hay". Crossman was probably one of the itinerant settlers in The City, which seems to have been established about the time of the Revolutionary War. There were several houses within a half-mile of each other and a few scattered farms this area of Proctor Hill, which was home to those of lesser means. Here lived the Crossmans, the Austins, the Abbotts and a smattering of other families over a period of about 75 years.
The families in "The City" seemed to gather gossip. The Abbotts who lived farther "down the lane" than the Crossmans were to be surrounded by it. Benjamin Abbott was the kind of man that creates talk in any small town. He was the son of an earlier Benjamin Abbott who had been a prominent man in Hollis. When his father died in 1776 Benjamin Junior was twenty‑five, unmarried and something of a "dandy". Abby Flagg calls him "Old Terror" but how he got this nickname is unclear. Supposedly he jumped off his horse every time he saw a girl worthy of his attentions and kissed her. Perhaps it was the young girls of Hollis who dubbed him so but then it would seem he was a "Young Terror". In his later years when he turned to the bottle for solace he might have created "Terror'' in the minds of many including his family.
Young Ben was a fancy dresser, a big drinker, and a ladies' man. The story is that he courted all three of the daughters of Captain Joshua Wright. He married the youngest Sarah in 1778 while he was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. The responsibility of home and family were not for young Ben Abbott. He was more an adventurer than a farmer. As each of his eleven children arrived he became more of a souse and the family began to dissolve. The sons went to sea and one of the daughters married a sea captain. She soon rescued her mother from "The City" leaving "Old Terror" to his drink with the company of the youngest son Abial. In spite of his vices, "Old Terror" lived to the age of 88 when he died at the Town poor farm.
Not five minutes by foot from the Abbotts in "The City" were the Austins. It is believed that Benjamin Austin who married Betsey Farley in 1768 built the first Austin House on the road in the "The City" that ran to Rocky Pond. Benjamn and Betty had three children. Son Benjamin raised his family in this house as well. Henry Little in his book "Hollis Seventy Years Ago" claims that this family of the younger Benjamin had as many as seventeen children. Between the Abbotts and the Austins we can see why this little settlement was given the name "The City'' by Hollis residents.
The younger Benjamin Austin had two wives. He first married Sarah Jewett daughter of Jacob Jewett and Methitable Mitchell in 1800. In 1810 he married again. This tilne his choice was the girl next door, Sally Abbott, who was 12 years his junior. She was the widow of Nathaniel Rideout whom she had married in 1805. With her young daughter Sally, she returned to her old neighborhood "The City" to be young Ben's wife and add to the growing number of Austins. It was young Sally Rideout who purchased property "up the lane" in the Meadow and moved the Austin family out of "The City" many years later in 1843.
It is probable that the Austins were among the last to leave The City. Most of the houses were abandoned by 1850. "Old Terror" Abbott had died. The Crossmans had long ago disappeared to be replaced by Widow Lee and her daughters, who too were gone. The houses crumbled leaving only chimneys and rock piles as monuments to remind Hollis of the colorful lives that had once been lived in this special place. As time passed this little village that was, became know as "The Old City, or "The Lost City".
Bibliography
History of Hollis NH 1730 to 1789, Samuel T. Worcester, 1880 The Rattlesnake Den, Bertha Hayden The Granddaughters of Proctor Hill, Hollis Times, April 1906 Hollis Seventy Years Ago, Henry G. Little, 1894 Notes from DAR Book of Homes, Abby Flagg, 1953 Hollis Times 1886‑1906 Where the Past Has Been Preserved, Hollis Historical Society,1979 Old City Notes, Jeff Smith
Important Dates In the History of "Old City"
1736 Moses and Mary Proctor settle on Proctor Hill. 1740 Selectman Moses Proctor places a shilling bounty on the head of every rattlesnake In Hollis. 1770 The settlement on the area to be known as the" The City" begins around this time. The first home probably belongs to Benjamin Austin and his wife Betty Farley. 1778 "Young Terror Ben Abbott, Junior marries Sarah Wright and moves to "Austin City". 1780 Moses Proctor dies. 1737 Rebecca Proctor marries Joseph Crossman and goes to live In "The City". 1813 Widower Ben Austin, Junior marries his former neighbor Widow Sally Abbott Rideout. 1837 "Old Terror. Ben Abbott, Junior dies at the town poor farm. 1843 Sally Rideout buys property "up the lane" in the meadow and builds a fourteen gabled home for her mother and half brothers and sisters 1850 About this time "The City" becomes abandoned forever.
What to Look For When Exploring "The Lost City"
1. Dimensions of cellar hole.
Think about the number of people who lived in these small houses.
2.Materials used to construct walls and foundations. You can tell the age of a cellar hole by the type of rock used. Round boulders usually mean an older foundation.
3.Location of chimney and fireplace. Most of the family cooking was done at the hearth.
4.Location of main doorway. Look for broad flat stone, usually facing South.
5.Look for remnants of cultivated trees, lilacs, yews etc. Search for the marriage trees, two trees located at the front of the house planted when it was built to represent the husband and wife.
6.Look for foundations of out buildings and barns.
7.Locate the well and other sources of water.
8.Note stonewalls that mark boundaries of property. Large stone piles may indicate efforts to clear the land.
9.Notice the roadway and path system leading to "The Lost City".
10.Remember 150 years ago there were probably more fields and less trees. Where were the animals pastured? |