Jonesville, Jericho, Dundee and Lewisville.
Jonesville, Jericho, Dundee and Lewisville
by Rick Russack
There were some towns about which very little is known but they owed their existence to logging enterprises. There may be just a name on an old map or a brief mention in a town history to let us know that once there was a town.
Jericho was a town on the 11 mile Rocky Branch Railroad which ran north and west from Glen. It shows on several old maps. That railroad was part of the Conway Lumber Company, which operated one of the region’s largest sawmills in Conway. The rail line, and the accompanying logging operation, lasted from 1908 to 1914[1]. As many as 500 people worked for the company, but details have yet to be uncovered[2].
Jonesville was above Jericho on the Rocky Branch RR. It was a large settlement of between 200 and 300 men. It had a “pest house” for small pox victims, a boarding house that served liquor, and probably additional structures.[3] Also shows as Jones Mills on an 1899 map of North Conway and Jackson, published by Wm. T. Oliver of Lynn, Mass.
Dundee is the name of a town that appears on maps of Jackson. It’s off the East Branch Railroad, which was another, slightly later enterprise of the Conway Lumber Co. This rail line was in operation from 1916 to 1920.[4] An early AMC map of Jackson map shows 6 houses in Dundee.
Lewisville was 1 ¼ miles south of Upper Bartlett, along today’s Bear Notch Road. It was part of the Bartlett Lumber Company and had a hardwood mill and facilities for the mill workers[5]. Again, specific details have yet to be uncovered.
[1] C. Francis Belcher, Logging Railroads of the White Mountains, Boston, 1980
[2] Aileen Carroll, Bartlett, NH in The Valley of the Saco, 1990, W. Kennebunk,. Me
[3] Aileen Carroll, Bartlett, NH in The Valley of the Saco, 1990, W. Kennebunk,. Me
[4] Aileen Carroll, Bartlett, NH in The Valley of the Saco, 1990, W. Kennebunk,. Me
[5] Aileen Carroll, Bartlett, NH in The Valley of the Saco, 1990, W. Kennebunk,. Me