Roxmont Poultry Barn - Winnipesaukee Inn - Geneva Point Center

[mcdude]

The second of
t of these two men to arrive in that decade was Dr. J. A. Greene, who came to the Lakes

Region in 1885. Although possessed of a medical

degree, the good doctor did not practice medicine. He
was independently wealthy, being one of the heirs of the
“Nervura” patent medicine fortune. Dr. Greene was
enchanted by the beauty of the Lakes Region, and
soon his brother, Dr. F. E. Greene, and his sister,

Mrs. George W. Armstrong,

came to see this place he
had praised so highly. When they and their
families had seen the lovely sheet of water, which the

Red Man had euphonically

named Winnipesaukee, or
“Beautiful Water in a High Place,” they knew that Dr.

J. A. had been too stingy in his description of it. Barely

has a family not born there fallen so deeply in love with
this beautiful lake. Dr. J. A. Greene soon
purchased land atop the hill on Long island
overlooking the bridge, and built a replica of a
medieval European castle. Following this, land was
purchased on the lower end of Moultonborough Neck,
where the Roxmont Poultry Farm was established, with
the doctor’s son, Frank A. Greene, as manager.
Dr . F . E. Gr e e n e purchased the Lamprey
farm on the lower end of Long Island and in 1889
built the luxurious summer home that still dominates
those broad acres. M r s . G e o r g e W .
Armstrong and her husband purchased a large
tract of land on the western approach to Centre Harbor
and established there one of the showplaces of the
Lakes Region.

Thus arrived the Greene family, and their coming

was to have a significant

impact upon this section of

the Granite State. Dr. J. A. Greene was an
astute businessman. He was a complete extrovert
and this, together with a fine sense of humor, made

him very popular. He was soon being proposed as a

candidate for public office.

Although he campaigned

at various times for the office of congressman and

for governor, he never quite succeeded in winning

nomination against his locally-born opponents.
That Dr. Greene was well-liked and much admired is
shown by a widely copied article that appeared in the
Veterans’ Advocate, a paper that was very popular with
veterans of the Civil War:

C omr a d e Dr . J . A .
Greene, of Long Island, Town of Moultonborough,
is mentioned as a possible candidate for governor of
this state. The doctor is a veteran
and accompanied General Freemont in his second
expedition to Pike’s Peak in 1860; enlisted in the First
Colorado Cavalry at the age of sixteen, and to use
one of the doctor’s favorite expressions, “I was one
of the few privates who remained in the ranks
throughout the entire war”. Twice wounded he carried
the marks of several bullets in his face and wrist,
and received permanent injuries by being thrown
from his horse. For many years he was a member of
Gettysburg Post, No. 191 of Boston, and much against
the wishes of the Post, he was transferred to Darius
A. Drake Post, of Lakeport. In 1901 Dr. Greene was
elected mayor of the City of Laconia and served in that
capacity for two years. While Dr. Greene was
receiving public attention, a boat named CARROLL
arrived on the scene, and was soon to become

identified with him. Carroll

was brought to the lake
from upper New York State, where she had been used as
a canal hoat. After a couple of seasons, during which
she was used as a partv boat, she was purchased by
Dr. J. A. Greene, who had her rebuilt and changed
her name to Roxmont. She was put into regular
service, running from Roxmont Poultry Farm to
Lake Village, with stops at Melvin Village, Union
Wharf, Long Island, Birch Island, Jolly Island and the Weirs.
Her Captain was Wilbur Lamprey and
Dr. J. A., whose enjoyment of steamboating knew no
bounds, acted as engineer. When the wharf at The
Weirs would be crowded with summer visitors, it
was Dr. J. A.’s greatest delight to wipe a smear
across his forehead with an oily rag, then climb up
out of the engine room to where he could he seen,
and hear the shocked summer visitors inquire,
“Is that greasy-looking man the famous Dr. Greene?”
L e v i Bl a k e , j o v i a l proprietor of the Island
Home, a summer hotel adjoining Dr. J. A.’s estate
on Long Island, often acted as straight man to the

doctor’s rapid-fire wit. On

one occasion when Levi
was “feeling poorly,” as he would have expressed it,
Dr. J. A. suggested, “Why don’t you try a bottle of
Nervura,, Levi?” “Huh!” snorted Levi, “I’d
just as soon have a glass of my well water.”

“It would probably do you just as much good,” was

the quick reply. “Did you ever hear of

anybody who was helped by Nervura?” asked Levi.
“Yes, I did,” answered the doctor.
"Who was it?° persisted Levi.
“J. A. Greene!” was the quick reply. It is perhaps
needless to say that the loudest laughter came from
Levi Blake. Increased business
interests soon forced Dr. Greene to give up
his favorite hobby, so he retired from his short
career as a steamboat engineer and turned over
the management of the steamer Roxmont to his
son, Frank. Business was good enough so that
by 1895 a contract was arranged with the Boston
and Maine Railroad for Roxmont to run as a feeder
line to the steamer Mt. Washington. This arrangemen t

lasted only a year, after which poor management

by the younger Greene caused the closing of the
Roxmont Poultry Farm and the steamer Roxmont
was withdrawn from trade. She was hauled out of
the water on the shore of the farm property. Her
next appearance was to be under another name, but
more of that later.

Great stands of virgin timber graced the shores
of Lake Winnipesaukee in the nineteenth century.
Much of it was white pine and hemlock, but there
were also groves of oak, ash, maple and other
hardwoods. A large part of this timber was cut during
the winter months, hauled onto the ice-covered lake
on sleds drawn by horses or by the more surefooted
oxen, and placed in sheltered coves. Booms
fashioned from strings of logs fastened end to end
were placed around the logs to contain them after
the ice had melted in the spring. Before the logs could he
towed to the sawmills, they had to he formed into rafts.
Rafting was a relatively slow job. First, rafting
poles were cut. These were saplings, usually of gray
birch, and not over 3 inches in diameter at the thick
end. U-shaped bows of thin tough hardwood, together

......

available help, turned to, and in a remarkably
short time a great raft took shape. In addition to the
conventional methods of rafting, the metal staples
and chains were used, and the completed but loosely
formed raft was entirely enclosed in a boom.
At dusk on a quiet evening, both MAID OF
THE ISLES and MINEOLA attached their long manila
towlines to the immense raft and started a tow that
ended before daylight next morning with the safe
delivery at the sorting boom in Meredith of slightly over
one million board feet of timber! It was a tow of
approximately 20 miles, and it was the largest and
fastest tow ever made on Lake Winnipesaukee
It had been a calculated risk, because the chance
of a breakup of the raft was ever-present, but it
paid off.

Immediately the pencils of competing boatmen started
scribbling, and soon came the stunning thought that
these two boats had earned $1500 for a tow of less than
five hours. The reaction was, “If they can do it, so
can we. Why, we can even make money at $1.00 per
thousand.
Reason was obscured by envy. They did not take
into consideration the tremendous towing power
of these two steamboats. the shortcuts that could be

used in rafting if they waited for the right weather, and

the many other factors. So, the price was cut to

$1.00 per thousand feet. Financial losses caused by
broken rafts, long delays and damage suits followed,
and soon the towing price returned to the original

figure.

After the turn of the century, the diminishing
sup p l y o f s t and ing timber and the rapidly
increasing number of motorboats, whose safety
would be endangered by

loose floating logs, finally

eliminated this source of income for steamboat men.
Today, logs may not legally be towed in state waters of
New Hampshire.

.

Excerpts from an Article that appeared in the Weirs Times
October 4, 2007 - "Concerning a Newspaper, Chickens and Logs"

See COMPLETE ARTICLE here.
(requires pdf)