TITLE:  Descritive About Rochester

SOURCE:  History of  the Town of Rochester New Hampshire, From 1722-1890      	         
         by Franklin McDuffee, A.M. edited and revised by Silvanus Hayward.     
         In two Volumes.-- Vol. I., Manchester,  The John B. Clarke Co.,
	 Printers.  ©1892.  Pages 8-12.

SUBMITTED: Transcribed by C Parziale

ROCHESTER: CHAPTER I.

	Rochester is situated on the 71st meridian west of Greenwich.  The 
village is about one mile east of this meridian, and in latitude 43° 18’ 
north.  The town is approximately a trapezoid containing about 52,000 acres, 
with its diagonals extending nearly ten miles north and south, and a little 
over eight miles east and west.  Its northeastern boundary is the state line
on the east bank of the Salmon Falls river which separates Rochester from 
Lebanon and Berwick in Maine.  On the southeast it is bounded by Somersworth 
and Dover, on the southwest by Barrington and Strafford, and on the northwest 
by Farmington, touching Milton for a short distance between Farmington and 
the river.
	Of natural ponds or lakes Rochester is almost entirely destitute. 
The line between Rochester and Farmington crosses Ricker’s pond near its 
center; and a small portion of Round pond extends over Barrington line.  
"Little Long pond" also crosses the same line about half a mile farther east.
The Salmon falls river flows along the northeastern side, and the Cocheco 
river crosses the town towards the southeast from Farmington to Dover.  
Isinglass river (probably named from the mica in its bed or along its banks)
loops into Rochester from Barrington, making a large ox-bow, where it is 
crossed by the Nashua & Rochester railroad; then returning to Barrington it 
bends back again across the line and enters the Cocheco near where Rochester
corners on Dover.  Owing to the level surface of the town the brooks are few
and of little importance.  The principal ones are Robert’s brook, flowing 
from Ricker’s pond; Berry’s brook, which supplies the reservoir recently 
built; Willow brook and Heath brook.
	Bowlders are not unfrequent, but none of remarkable size have been 
observed.  Coarse glacial drift and finer modified drift deposited by rivers 
of the Champlain period, cover most of the town, forming extensive plains 
which obscure the underlying rock.  These plains extending for eight miles 
along the Cocheco, are in many places, as especially at Gonic, underlaid by 
clay.  Their height at Rochester Village is two hundred and twenty-six feet,
and at East Rochester and Gonic two hundred feet, above sea level.  The 
river falls much more rapidly than the plains, so that it lies seventy-five
feet below them in the south part of the town.  There are five "lenticular
hills" in Rochester.  The finest of these is the one now owned by Walter S.
Hussey.  
	"It rises with a very regularly rounded outline one hundred and fifty
feet above the lowland or valleys which surround it on every side.  Another
of similar height but less typical in form, lies one mile southeast near 
Gonic Village.  Two of these occur east of the Cocheco, being Haven hill 
crossed by the road to Great Falls, and Gonic hill a half mile south.  The 
former is less steep and prominent than usual, but was shown by a well at its
top to be composed of glacial drift at least forty feet deep.
	Dry hill lying near Barrington, and the range toward Farmington 
called chestnut hills, are probably the highest points in town, being a 
little over five hundred feet above sea level.
	The most important natural feature of the town is undoubtedly the 
peat bog already mentioned.  A large portion of it lies between the village 
and the first crossing of the Great Falls & Conway railroad.  The greatest 
depth found in building that road was a little over twenty feet.  East of the
railroad there are fifty or sixty acres more, varying in depth from five to
fifteen feet.  A few persons have used this peat for fuel with good success.
  It yields a large amount of light, dusty ashes which are found useful for
polishing.  The market value of these peat beds depends almost entirely on
the price of coal.  Largely through the exertions of Franklin McDuffee, the
Strafford county Improved Peat Company was organized November 13, 1866, at 
the office of Nathaniel Wells, Esq., in Great Falls.  The capital stock was 
one hundred thousand dollars, all owned by less than a dozen men.  D.H. 
Buffum, A.A. Perkins, and Royal Eastman of Great Falls, E.G. Wallace of 
Rochester, and Jeremiah Evarts of Boston were chosen directors; and Franklin
McDuffee treasurer and clerk.  The company was not designed for stock 
speculation but for business, fully intending to enter upon the work the 
following spring, but so great a fall in the price of coal intervened that 
they were compelled to abandon the enterprise.  The land is still owned by 
these men and their successors.
	Evidently Rochester has superior natural advantages for man- ufacturing.  With the Cocheco flowing diagonally through the town, and the 
Salmon Falls forming its eastern boundary, our water privileges are rarely 
surpassed.  Its location also necessarily makes it a railroad center.  It is
not possible that our great advantages should fail to excite a sure and 
continual growth in manufacturing pursuits.
	The soil of Rochester is largely sandy or slaty, and not favorable 
for the highest agricultural success.  In some parts, however, it yields good
crops.  The plains are easily tilled, and, with a large supply of dressing 
frequently renewed, will well repay the diligent farmer.  The soil is 
specially favorable for pines.  White Pines, pitch pines, and Norway pines 
have always abounded.  These with several varieties of oak, hemlocks, 
chestnuts, birches, maples, and larches are the principal trees.  Shrubs and 
smaller plants are such as are usually found in the light soils where pine 
and white oak prevail.
	Formerly, here as elsewhere, wild animals were numberous.  Wolves, 
bears, deer, and moose fed or annoyed the early settlers, and busy beavers 
built their curious dwellings along the streams.  They are now only 
traditions of the remote past.  The level country affording no rocky 
hiding-places, these larger wild beasts were sooner exterminated here than in 
many other places.  The forests also being early cleared away, no shelter is
left even for the larger birds.  For the same reason, foxes and raccoons are
fewer than in most New Hampshire towns.  Mr. William N. Hastings, who has 
made a special study of microscopic objects, has found diatoms of forms 
apparently somewhat rare, such as are assigned by other investigators to 
distant localities only.  On the whole, it must be said that neither the 
fauna nor the flora of Rochester presents any remarkable features.

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