A History of Shapleigh (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A History of Shapleigh

The white man first penetrated this howling wilderness, in pursuit of game and timber, - nature's spontaneous productions. The hunter traversed the margins of its numerous streams and quiet ponds, to trap the beaver, otter, and musk-quash; with which those waters then teemed, - and crossed its rolling swells, or climbed its rugged hills, to drop the moose, deer, and bear; those early occupants of its solitudes.

The virgin soil bore a noble growth of pine and oak, whose lofty height, straight, sound and giant trunks, out-rival all that has succeeded them. The finest lumber of every description, - ship-timber convenient, and of a superior quality, could there be found, in rich abundance. As it was not far from navigable waters, its valleys, plains, and timber tracts were early threaded with logging roads, over which the long pine and sturdy oak were hauled to Berwick and Portsmouth.

It is said that the officers of the Crown explored these regions, and set the "Broad-Arrow" upon its largest pines, by which "sign-royal," all persons were forbid to cut them, save for "His Majesty's Navy." A Royal ordinance had been passed, that all pine trees, standing upon land claimed by the crown which measured more than two feet in diameter, "should be reserved for masting the royal navy."

So good a report of its soil, growth, and other facilities for settlement, went out from both classes of adventurers, - its hunters and lumbermen, - that it awakened a desire to break in upon its forests, in some, and a disposition to obtain its proprietorship, in others. Hence the title to its soil began to be agitated about the time that the first settlers "lifted up the ax upon its thick trees."

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