The Legend of Chocorua

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It is likely that the White Mountains were first inhabited by humans about 12,000 years ago, after the last ice age. These first peoples had migrated from the west and were the forebears of those whom Columbus would mistakenly call Indians. The region was rich with wildlife, fish, and edible plants.

Formal “Tribes” began to form about 3000-4000 BC. There were two overlapping groups of Native Americans in this region: the Penacooks and the Penobscots, with the Penacooks being dominant as the Penobscots were located largely in what would later become the State of Maine. Both were tribal branches within the regional Abenaki nation.

In the early 1600s the Penacook confederation had 17 tribes, all of whom spoke the Algonquin language. Because there was no written form of this language, much of what we now know of their life is derived from the records of European colonists. The tribes resided along the Pemigewasset and Merrimack watershed and near Great Bay. The Pequawkets, Chocorua’s tribe, were originally part of the Penobscot tribal confederation, but became allied with the Penacooks after the Europeans began to settle the White Mountains.

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Chocorua was a Sachem, or chief, who led his small band after most of the Pequawkets had moved north into Canada to avoid conflict with the white man. Chocorua, a proud and courageous man, refused to go. He was unwilling to leave the land of his ancestors. He had raised his son Tuamba to believe that the land belonged to all of the great spirit’s creatures. He remained and made efforts to live in harmony with the new settlers, despite their differences. He befriended settler Cornelius Campbell and his family. Setting in motion one of the great tragedies of Native American history.

 Chocorua trusted the Campbells enough to put Tuamba in their care while he went north for a tribal council and pow-wow. According to the legend, while Chocorua was away, Tuamba ate some poison that was meant to kill marauding wolves and died. Some time later, while Cornelius was away from the farm, Chocorua returned to find his son had died. Stricken with grief and anger. he killed Cornelius' wife and young son.

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Returning to his mountains heartsick at the loss of his beloved Tuamba, Chocorua must have known that this story was not over. When Cornelius discovered that his family had been slain, he knew that Chocorua was responsible and set off to avenge his loved ones. Cornelius pursued Chocorua to the top of the highest mountain peak in the area, a jagged pointed peak - the peak that now bears the name of Chocorua. Chocorua climbed atop the highest boulder on the summit and, knowing that death was at hand, raised his arms to the sky and is said to have shouted, "Evil spirits breathe death upon the cattle of the white man! Wind and fire destroy your dwellings! Panthers and wolves howl and grow fat on your bones. Chocorua goes now to the Great Spirit!" Chocorua then leapt off the mountain and fell to his death on the rocks below.

Two years later, the body of Cornelius was found dead, partially eaten by wolves.

It is said that one hundred years to the day of his death a devastating plague killed all the cattle from Albany to Conway, New Hampshire. The cause of this plague has been explained by scientists, of course, but those of us inclined to the romance of the mountains still believe that the curse of Chocorua was involved.

Yankee Editor - Hot Off the Press

Hot Off the Press
by Edward J. Bennett

When radio stations began to move into smaller communities after World War II, they were staffed by an engineer to run the station, some salespeople, and an announcer or two.
Most radio people had no newspaper experience.  They were not equipped to gather, edit and process news.  In many cases the stations in small communities relied heavily for their news on the hometown daily; so fortunate indeed was the broadcaster with a newspaper in town.
One early radio station licensed to broadcast in the western part of New Hampshire was located at Claremont.  WTSV was fortunate to have in town the Eagle which has been published there as a daily since 1913.
Soon after I became publisher of the Eagle in 1961, its managing editor, Nelson Bryant, complained frequently – and often bitterly – that WTSV was cribbing local news from our newspaper, then broadcasting it over the air; of course with no attribution to the Eagle.
Bryant explained that the station would send someone up to the Eagle’s pressroom right after the papers began to roll off the press around 1 o’clock in the afternoon.  With a copy hot off the press, the radio station messenger would hightail it back to the station, just in time for the 1:30 PM news which would be read over the airwaves, direct from the pages of the Eagle.
“You can even hear the pages rustling,” complained the disgusted Bryant.  The managing editor was outraged at this blatant plagiarism and argued with ingenuity that we manufacture a special edition, “just for the radio station”.
The Eagle’s news staff were pitched into this project with alacrity.  Assignments were handed out by Bryant for all sorts of bogus stories, and when the work was done and set into type, it was a work of geniuses, motivated in their work as never before.
Before the plates of the regular afternoon edition of the Eagle were strapped to the press, this very special page passed through the stereotype room to the pressroom, where only one or two were in fact run through the press.
When WTSV’s representative arrived at the Eagle on schedule, he unknowingly picked up this bogus edition and hurried back to the station.  Everyone at the Eagle gathered around the radio that afternoon for the news.  And startling news it was.
“The fire department had been called out for suspicious fires at the Moody Hotel,” one story read.  The broadcaster continued, “And the police report that the chief’s car was stolen right in front of the station.”  Also, “the school superintendant was apprehended for impaired driving – and in a school bus.”
WTSV had swallowed the Eagle’s bogus front page hook, line, and sinker.  The entire newspaper’s staff was rolling in the aisle.  It was the best show to hit Claremont in a year.
Pretty soon the radio station’s phone was ringing off the hook.  “What the hell do you mean,” asked the chief of police, “that my car was stolen?  And the school superintendent (a known teetotaler) driving a bus under the influence?”
The station’s distraught manager soon admitted that its source of information had been that afternoon’s Eagle.  “Blame them,” he said, “not us.”But no copy of the Eagle to match the one at WTSV could even be found, and for good reason: Theirs was the only one extant.

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Hot Off the Press is taken from "Yankee Editor" Vignettes & Anecdotes by a New England Country Editor and Legislator by Edward J. Bennett. The first printing of Yankee Editor was sold out and a second printing was released November 1, 2004. You can order a copy of the book by clicking on the link below.

“Yankee Editor”

“Yankee Editor”
Vignettes & Anecdotes by a New England Country Editor and Legislator
By Edward J. Bennett.
227 pp
$25.00 Plus $4.95 Priority Shipping & Handling
Heart of New Hampshire Publishing
Second Printing

ISBN 0-9618624-0-8

Library of Congress No. 87-70800

Ed Bennett is a legendary figure in New Hampshire journalism and politics. At various times. a Newspaper Editor, a State Senator and a Commissioner, Bennett was named as Commissioner of Economic Development by the notorious Governor Meldrim Thomson. During his tenure, Bennett took a strong stand against a pet project of the Governor - a polluting paper mill on the Connecticut River, and was subsequently relieved of his duties. . . the paper mill was never built.

The only person to ever successfully sue the infamous William Loeb, Publisher of the Manchester Union Leader, Bennett’s more than 79 years of service to the state of NH and the newspaper business make this book a great read for those interested in politics, publishing or just getting a glimpse behind the scenes in those worlds.

“With a newspaperman’s eye for the unique and a veteran storyteller’s easy sense of humor the author takes you from the smoke-filled rooms at the state capitol and the barnyards of the rugged yankee folk to the sedate ambience of Boston’s most exclusive clubs. This book is an absolute must for anyone who apppreciates New England folklore crafted with old-fashioned color and style.”
Dean Dexter - New Hampshire legislator and newspaperman0-9618624-0-8

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New Hampshire Trivia Part 1

The Elwell Trail

The Elwell Trail, named for long time resident Colonel Alcott Farrar Elwell,  runs from Bear Mountain on the Southwest side of Newfound Lake to Mt. Cardigan. It was pioneered in two parts, first closest to Mt Cardigan and then in the 1980's between Wellington State Park and The Summit of Sugarloaf Mt. What NH Camp was the Pioneer of the Elwell Trail?

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