From Maine to Montreal,
Circa 1827 – Part III

by Tom Seymour

Lamson likely passed this house on his journey through Paris, Maine in August,1827. On the main road through town, it would have been one of the grander homeshe passed on his trip. Hannibal Hamlin was born in this house, Paris Hill, in 1809. Hamlin ran the farm there from 1827 to 1830. As an adult, Hamlin moved to Hamden where he practiced law. He was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1836 and again in 1847. He was Maine governor for one year, in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and was Vice President under Abraham Lincoln from 1861-1865. Photo courtesy Maine Historical Society

Our last installment ended with Joseph Lamson’s description of the Plains of Abraham and the events that precipitated in the failure of Colonial American troops to subdue the town during the American Revolution. Now, Lamson, feeling a little short on time, decides to forgo any further perusal of the sights of Quebec and instead to continue on to Montreal. Note that all passages in quotes are from Lamson’s own hand. Punctuation and spellings are his.

“At four o’ clock I took passage for myself and horse in the steamboat La Prarie for Montreal; this being a cheaper as well as a more expeditious and pleasanter mode of travelling than a long ride on horseback. We passed the rapids of Rivhelier, fifty miles above Quebec, in the night, without difficulty. At twelve A.M. we arrived at Berthier, a considerable village forty five miles below Montreal, situated upon one of the immense champaigns that border on the St. Lawrence from Three Rivers to its source.” Note that what Lamson describes as a “champaign” is a large, flat, or open expanse.

Lamson continues: “Opposite the village is a large island perfectly flat, covered with a verdant coat of grass, and shaded with a growth of large and handsome maples. Hundreds of sheep were feeding under these trees, and altogether, it was a most beautiful scene. We passed many other small but handsome villages, most of which were adorned with a church. The scenery upon the river is delightful: verdant fields, handsome white cottages, churches, villages, and windmills are continually in view.”

The steamship arrived at Montreal that same evening, but Lamson decided to stay the night aboard ship because he was unfamiliar with the city. The next morning, Lamson entered Montreal on his horse and signed in at the General Brock Inn. “The accommodations were poor, and I should have left the house had I intended to prolong my stay in town; but as I was to leave the place the next day, I had no time to search for a better house.”

Lamson packed a lot of sightseeing into his one day at Montreal, visiting the Cathedral of Notre Dame, where he remarked at the solemnity of a procession of nuns. Leaving the cathedral, he witnessed a military band playing a quickstep march on their way to church and thought that this military music was not inspiring toward religious devotions.

After this, Lamson rode to the top of the Mountain of Montreal and surveyed his surroundings. He was impressed with the number of public buildings and the great number of churches. In comparison to Quebec, Lamson found Montreal superior in every way, including climate: “The climate of Montreal is sensibly milder than that of Quebec. As a proof of this, Indian corn is raised in abundance at the former place, while at the latter, it is not attempted.”

On August 13, Lamson left Montreal on horseback and crossed the St. Lawrence Lonquiel at the rapids of St. Mary and after that, crossed the river Sorel at Chambly. Finally, he reached St. Sanrear, the last French settlement between Montreal and Vermont. After this, Lamson had a long ride to Stanstead, where he crossed the St. Francis River at its source in Lake Memphremagog and continued on to Derby, Vermont. “I halted at night at Derby, a flourishing little village in Vermont. There is a collector of the customs stationed here, and another at Stanstead on the Canada side.”

White Mountains

On August 16, Lamson wrote: “My horse, which had been sick for several days past, gave out today; but after bleeding him in the mouth, and giving him a potion of salts, he recovered, and I continued my journey to a corner of St. Johnsbury, where I arrived at nine in the evening.”

After spending the night in St. Johnsbury, Lamson continued his journey and on August 17, “I crossed the Connecticut river over a toll bridge, which connects Waterford, Vermont with Littleton New Hampshire. Crossed the Ammonoosuck in Breton Woods.” There Lambert rode six or eight miles to a tavern kept by Ethan Crawford, nine miles from the summit of Mt. Washington. Lamson had planned to ascend the mountain, but decided not to because the atmosphere was “obscured by thick clouds of smoke, which had arisen from numerous fires made by the farmers.”

On August 18, Lamson took up his journey, “…in company with a gentleman from Bartlett. I came to a little brook running in an opposite direction. This brook passes through the notch, and is the source of the Saco River. I passed the Notch, the road through which was destroyed last year by the avalanches.”

The scenery here inspired Lamson to wax poetic: “The sublime and awful grandeur of this passage baffles all description. Geometry may settle the heights of the mountains, and numerical figures may record the measure, but no words can tell the emotions of the soul, as it looks upward, and views the almost perpendicular precipices, which line the narrow span between them, while the senses ache with terror and astonishment, as one sees himself hedged in from all the world besides.”

Lamson goes on to describe the late avalanche: “On the 26th of June 1826, there was a tremendous avalanche, or slide as it is there called, from the mountain which makes the southern wall of the passage. An immense mass of earth and rock from the side of the mountain was loosened from its resting place and began to slide towards the bottom. In its course it divided into three portions, each coming down with amazing velocity into the road, and sweeping before it shrubs, trees, and rocks and filling up the road beyond all possibility of its being recovered.

“With great labors, a pathway has been made over these fallen masses, which admits the passage of a carriage. The place from which this slide or slip was loosened, is directly in the rear of Mr. Willey’s house; and were there not a special Providence in the fall of a sparrow, and had not the finger of that providence traced the direction of that sliding mass, neither he, nor any soul of his family would ever have told the tale.

“They heard the noise when it first began to move, and ran to the door, in terrour and amazement, they beheld the mountain in motion. But what can human power effect in such an emergency? Before they could think of retreating, or ascertain which way to escape, the danger was past. One portion of the avalanche crossed the road about ten rods beyond that; and the third and much the largest portion took a still more oblique direction.”

“But this was only a precursor of the dreadful event, which was soon to follow; a warning to Mr. Willey and his family to prepare for the doom which awaited them. In August of the same year, during one of the most violent storms of rain ever known, in a dark night, the family were suddenly aroused from their sleep by the rushing of another avalanche. With the utmost precipitation they fled, but in vain, the slide met them, and in an instant they were in eternity-not one was left alive.

“I passed the house in which they lived; no one inhabited it; all was silent as the tomb. The slide divided directly in rear of the house, and passed on either side of it. One part of it carried away a stable with two horses in it, which were both destroyed, and the stable crushed in pieces. The house was nearly surrounded with rubbish, which was piled upon the back side nearly to the roof. There were a great many avalanches on that dreadful night in addition to that just mentioned.

“A great number of bridges over the brooks and rivers were swept away by the sudden rise of the water; and such a scene of desolation as was there presented to view, even after the lapse of a year from the event, I never before witnessed.”

Lamson had 30 more miles of travel after leaving the avalanche scene. “After leaving the mountains I passed through Conway, and arrived at Fryburg in Maine. About a mile from this village is Lovel’s Pond, celebrated as the place where a desperate battle was fought on the 8th of May 1725 between a company of Indians, about eighty in number, under Pauges, a Sachem noted for his bravery and his hostility to the whites.

“The action continued a whole day, and the greater part on both sides were either killed or wounded. Lovel was mortally wounded by a straggling Indian just before the action commenced, and Pauges fell in the progress of the battle. The Indians at last retired, but the whites were so weakened as to be unable to pursue them. I did not visit the ground, being in haste to reach the end of my journey.”

Back Home

“Aug. 19th. I rode through Paris, a pleasant and flourishing village, and the shire town of the County of Oxford. Passed the night at Buckfield.”

“Aug. 20. Arrived at Wayne. My friends were much surprised at seeing me so soon again.”

“Aug 24th. I resumed my journey, and the third time since I had left home retraced the road between Wayne and Milburn. I stopped during the night at the latter place. I called at the house of Mr. Shaw, who accompanied me through the woods, but he had not then arrived.”

“Aug 25th. Rode sixty miles and arrived at Sebec, having in the space of thirty four days accomplished, chiefly on horseback, a fatiguing, though very pleasant journey of nine hundred miles.”