Whitcherville

                                                                          Witcherville 

                                                                        by Rick Russack

The town of Witcherville was along the present Rt. 112, west of Wildwood, also on the Wild Ammonoosuc.  According to Stanley P. Currier’s, History of Landaff, there was a large sawmill (with a shingle machine, and a clapboard machine) owned by Daniel Witcher, a bobbin mill, a starch factory, a tannery, a blacksmith shop,  a store and several houses. Witcherville does not appear on the 1860 Walling map of Grafton County although that map does show the buildings listed. The town does appear on Crawford’s 1890 map of The White Mountain.  That map shows 5 buildings where Whitcherville Brook joins the Wild Ammonoosuc River.  Witcherville’s Post office was in service from 1883-1893.  Although included in the 1895 atlas, no population figure is given. Between 1860 and 1870, the starch factory consumed about 11,000 bushels of potatoes annually, and bought those potatoes from about 50 different farms.  There are substantial cellar holes today on both sides of Rt. 112, as well as stone piers that probably related to the dams or booms for river driving.  Much of the lumber cut in Landaff, Easton and Benton, was moved by four horse teams to Whitcherville, which was the starting point for log drives down the Wild Ammonoosuc to the Connecticut River.  In 1909, about 10 million feet of lumber went down the river.  The last river drive from Whitcherville took place in May 1911.