Colonials

In the autumn of 1650, the Reverend Gabriel Druillettes, a Jesuit missionary, became the first white man known to have visited Weirs Beach. In 1652 an expedition sent by the colonial Governor Endicott of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and guided by Native Americans Pontanham (“The Trapper”) and Ponbakin (“The Arrow Maker”), followed the Shad’s migration trail of water in reverse, discovering Lake Winnipesaukee upon arriving at Weirs Beach on August 1. Endicott Rock was then carved with the initials of the explorers to mark the northern boundary of the colony. The rock is still there today, protected by a monument dedicated on August 1, 1892.

Long forgotten, the rock was rediscovered in 1833 when the Weirs Channel was being dredged to allow the Lake’s first steamer, the Belknap, as well as other large craft, to pass between Lake Winnipesaukee and Paugus Bay. The steamer Belknap was 96′ long, had a beam of 17′, and a top speed of only 6 mph. It was so slow because it was so heavy, carrying a brick furnace around its crude boilers. The steamer carried no passengers, only freight, during its brief existence. It wrecked on Steamboat Island in October, 1841. Belknap County was named in 1842 after the Reverend Jeremy Belknap, of Dover, the “first historian of New Hampshire”.

In 1833 the channel was perhaps twice as wide as its current width, but relatively shallow. Only the east side of the channel was dredged*. Rather than being removed, the dredgings were dumped in the center of the channel, creating a barrier down its middle, with a deep, dredged eastern side, and a shallow, western side. It was not until 1938 that the shallow western side was completely filled in to expand Endicott Rock Park, and the Weirs Channel became the narrow body of water with which we are familiar today.

Initially connected to land by a wooden bridge, a more substantial steel bridge connected the Endicott Rock monument from 1901 until 1938, when the part of the Weirs Channel separating the monument from land was finally filled in.

*In his 1923 booklet “Ancient Aquadoctan”, Edgar H. Wilcomb wrote, “It should be borne in mind that the river channel in its natural state was unobstructed by the present central section of earth and that water flowed the whole width of the channel. To save time and expense in making the river navigable, only the east side of the channel was excavated, and the debris was thrown over towards the west side, where it still remains, practically an island or dividing mound through the center of what nature intended for a fine, wide passageway from the upper to to the lower lake. Since then additional dredging has been done, at various times, on the east side, but the west side remains practically the same as in early days.”

Sunset on Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H. This postcard showing the dredgings was postmarked in 1915.

In 1652, when visited by the Endicott party, the village of Aquedoctan was fully occupied by several hundred villagers. Even after 1696, when the village was finally abandoned, when the small band left relocated to Pequaket (the Conway, NH – Fryeburg, ME area), Native Americans continued to sporadically visit the area to fish and hunt, as the white man had yet to arrive in any numbers.

Visitation was made easy by the several Indian trails that led from every direction to Weirs Beach. From the East, the Coheco-Winninanebiskek trail led from Dover Point to Alton Bay to Weirs Beach; from the South, the Merrimack-Winnipesaukee trail led from Pawtucket Falls in Lowell to Franklin to Weirs Beach; from the West, the Mascoma-Aquadoctan Trail led from the Mascoma River in Lebanon to Bristol to Meredith to Weirs Beach; and from the North, the Ossipee trail led from Ossipee Lake thru Sandwich and Moultonborough to Weirs Beach.

Besides the trails, there were several water routes to Weirs Beach. There was, of course, the southerly water route to Weirs Beach, following the Winnipesaukee River northward from its junction with the Merrimack in Franklin. Then, there was also an oft-used northerly water route to Weirs Beach. From the Pemigewasset river, the route was to canoe to Ashland, then up the Squam River, to Little Squam Lake, to the southeasterly arm of the larger Squam Lake. From there, there was a “carry”* of a half-mile to Wakondah Pond in Moultonboro, a 1000-foot carry to Lake Kansatka, and a final, 1/3-mile carry to Blackey Cove on Lake Winnipesaukee. These are no great distances to carry a canoe. Once on the lake, it was an easy paddle to Weirs Beach.

The first white men to regularly visit the area arrived in 1736, with the construction of a fort on the East bank of the Weirs Channel. This marked the definitive end of the era of Native American habitation of Weirs Beach. Eventually, the Natives withdrew, died out or were driven out of New Hampshire entirely. Today, New Hampshire is one of only 10 states nationally, and the only one in New England, with neither federally-recognized nor state-recognized tribal entities.

It was not until the 1760’s that white settlement really began to take hold in Weirs Beach, with the arrival of the first farmers and millers, which only began to take place once clear titles to the land could be acquired.

A 1784 map shows that one of the first settlers in the area was the family of Jacob Eaton, whose name, displayed as the “Eatons” on the 1784 map, is positioned at the Weirs. Historian Solon B. Colby states, “Eaton started to build on Hilliard Road, near Pickerel Cove, in 1765. By September 28th, 1766, he had built a house, cleared three acres, and felled the trees on six additional acres. This was done on what was later the George Hilliard place.” According to historian D.H. Hurd, the first birth among the early settlers was Eatons’ daughter Tamar, on March 11, 1767. A few months later, the second birth was the first son, Daniel Smith, born on July 4, 1767, to parents Ebenezer and Sarah Smith.

For the next 100 years or so, Weirs Beach was a sleepy little agricultural town, very little known by the outside world. But that was all about to change in a very big way. The arrival of the steamboats, the railroad, the Civil War veterans, and the Methodists, would soon speed the town’s transformation into a renowned tourist magnet.

*Edgar H. Wilcomb described a “carry” as follows:

“In traversing the rivers with their canoes, the Indians found it necessary, as do their later-day brethren, to lift their canoes out of the water and “carry” them around the falls and dangerous rapids, so numerous in New Hampshire rivers and smaller streams. These places were and are still called “carrying-places”. The most frequently used Indian carrying-places in the lake region were at the Weirs, at Lakeport and at Laconia.

There are also numerous places of this kind across the “necks” of peninsulas extending into Lake Winnipesaukee, particularly across Moultonboro neck, which is nearly seven miles long. There are two or three of these old carrying-places across this neck, between Moultonboro Bay and the main body of the lake, still marked by the blackened soil of Indian campfires and remains of stone implements. Another notable carrying-place that has not changed much is upon Bear Island, at a narrow neck that nearly separates it into two islands. Finally, at the Long Island bridge, there was formerly another carry, before the level of the lake was raised several feet by artificial means.”

The full size maps corresponding with the above map details.