Mt. Moosilauke (1885) - Forest History - Ira Whitcher
". . . Ira Whitcher was born in North Benton in 1815 and died in Haverhill in 1897. His early life was one of the hardships of poverty, unceasing toil, and of educational advantages the most limited. In a few weeks in a backwoods school for two or three winters, he learned to read, write and cipher, and there his school education ended. Sixth son of William Whitcher, Ira was the hardest bitten in appearance and actions. Many are the tales told of the unrelenting shrewdness with which he worked his way to a larger holding of mountain land than probably any other north country native ever possessed.
Whitcher intuitively sensed the growing demand for mountain lands before it had become apparent to the other members of the community. Prior to 1880 his activities were restricted to the acquisition of small lots which could be picked up for payment of back taxes. He was inevitably present at every tax sale proceeding in the town. Although not given to high bidding he usually managed to secure his object, for there was little competition for abandoned farm land or inaccessible stands of timber.
In 1880 he held only a slim toehold of four original shares or rights to the undivided Benton lands in the mountainous corner of that township. In 1885 he acquired thirty four more, given up by the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad when they shifted from wood to coal burning engines. By 1889 he had collared the rest of the seventy eight shares which since the earliest history of the town had been "Und," which "denotes undervided Shares" according to the 1865 inventory books; how he did so is in most cases a story lost even to hearsay, although auctions for tax delinquency probably played a considerable role.
Although some of his titles were perhaps dubious, in 1889 Whitcher began the division and sale of these lands. On January 17, a tract containing much of the Big Brook basin, Gorge Ravine, and the upper tip of Jobildunc Ravine was sold to the Winnipiseogee Paper Company. (In December, 1891, this tract was re-sold to William R. Park, Jr.) On April 12, 1890, Whitcher executed his largest transaction, deeding all but one portion of the remaining land on Moosilauke, plus a tract on Mt. Clough and other lots, to the Fall Mountain Paper Company, which thus gained title to the bulk of the Wild Ammonoosuc logging unit.
The portion of the Moosilauke tract which Whitcher reserved from this sale comprised the Oliverian drainage on the west slope of South Peak. The trustee for the Whitcher estate finally sold this tract to James Jewell of Warren, who resold to the Pike Manufacturing Company in November, 1901. The various Whitcher deeds reserved from sale the Tip Top House property and the rights of way for the Carriage Road and Benton Path. . . ."
From the "Forest History of Mount Moosilauke" by J. Willcox Brown, pp.135-162, The Moosilaukee Reader (Vol.1). ©1999.
