The Merrimack River: its source and its tributaries. Embracing a history of manufactures, and of the towns along its course; their geography, topography, and products, with a description of the magnificent natural scenery about its upper waters./ By J. W. Meader.

THE MERRIMACK' RITER;
various purposes still occupy the site which is on the outlet of
Chocorua Lake, - a beautiful sheet of water at the base of the mountain of the same name.
That the pure mountain air, homely fare, and regular habits are
conducive to longevity may be said to be demonstrated by the case
of a life-long resident of Tamnworth, Mr. Stephen G. Philbrick, who
was born in Brentwood in 1771, and came to this town to reside the
following year. At that time there were but four families; the
country was a wilderness filled with catamounts, mioose, deer, bears,
wolves, etc.
At twenty-three years of age Mr. Philbrick went to Exeter and
worked four years at five dollars per moluth, and one year at six
dollars per month. At twenty-seven he married Ruth Rowe, of
Kensington, who met with a fatal accident in 1850, beiing uplwards of
eighty years of ag,e. Ile has always lived under the shadow of Old
Chocorua, and has never been sick since childhood.
On visiting him, Oct. 11, 1868, he was found huskling, corn in his
barn, which he said lie much preferred to idleness. Ilis mind and
frame still continue to be wonderfully robust, and all of his faculties
are in an excellent state of preservation. He had walked a mile to
the neighbors that moriling previous to commencing his day's work,
which was to husk eight or ten bushels of corn, as that auiount, lie
"reckoned," was "half a man's work."
On being interrogated as to the probable reason of his exemption
from sickness, lie declared he.hlad never been ambitious to overwork
or overplay; that he had been a moderate and industrious rather than
a great or spasmodic worker.
-Mr. Philbrick was present at the ordination of Mir. Ihidden, being
at that time above his majority, and was also one of the last surviving four who were present at the erection of the monument onl Ordination Rock, and is the last survivor of that venerable quurtette.
lie voted for General Washington for President, and has voted at
every presidential election since. Ihis two youngest brothers died
in the war of 1812, and his youngest child is approaching the allotted
threescore years and ten.'
Perhaps the most pleasant portion of the chronicle of this relic of
the past is his unswerving and inflexible honesty. Thlou,gh never a
member of any clhurch, his life has been a pattern of imorality and
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