As the earliest settlers arrived in Concord during the 1700s they stepped onto the shores of the Merrimack River. The settlement, then known as Pennycook Plantation, offered spectacular views from the river. High sandy bluffs, fields cleared for farming by the Native Americans along the river and the dominant image of Rattlesnake Hill.
Decades before the harvest of granite and the lore of wealth, Rattlesnake Hill offered optimal beauty and afforded the people that journeyed to the summit an unmatched view of our little village and beyond. The boulder strewn hill provided hunting grounds, timber, recreation and gold to the people. Not the traditional form of gold, but gold in the form of wealth provided so eagerly by the abundant supply of superior granite. The hill made many men wealthy while claiming lives at the same time. It has provided tranquility and inspiration while punishing others with the extremity of the elements. Rattlesnake Hill has provided a relationship steep in natural resources that are enjoyed to this very day, with many people benefiting.
Rattlesnake Hill is located about one mile from the New Hampshire State House and is about three miles in length, running north to south. Rattlesnake Hill stands at 580 feet above the Merrimack River high water mark and has provided for our ancestors since the very beginning of our settlement. Our ancestors quickly observed the large boulders and outcroppings of granite as they explored the hill. The surface granite was harvested to build early structures such as the old Concord State Prison where the granite was obtained on Rattlesnake Hill in 1812 to build the walls holding the prisoners within. The New Hampshire State House was also built with Rattlesnake Hill granite during the years 1816 to 1819. The granite used to construct these two early buildings in Concord was not obtained by quarrying but rather from the large granite boulders found on the surface of the hill. The large boulders would be harvested and cut into blocks used in the building construction. The granite offered a resilient building material that remains both intact and beautiful two centuries later.
Rattlesnake Hill has provided so much more than granite to the residents of Concord over the past two centuries. My family has handed down rich lore from one generation to the next as sure as I share this story with you today. The granite from Rattlesnake Hill can be found scattered around the globe in many different forms. From functional curbing to beautiful monuments honoring our war dead. From local gravestones to some of the most prominent and historic buildings in the world. During the mid-1800s it was often said that Rattlesnake Hill granite could be found stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi. In modern times it reaches so much further and continues to provide granite for multiple uses with no end in sight.
Simeon Abbott was born on August 3, 1807 here in Concord. He was descended from the well known and prominent local Abbott family.
Simeon was very practical, and enjoyed a career as an attorney. He was also very successful as a beekeeper and held a very good understanding of farming. Simeon produced some of the finest crops in the area as well as many children with his wife. Simeon also told a very good story, his stories remembered by my ancestors and consequently handed down to me as well as local historians of his day.
Simeon Abbott enjoyed telling his Concord friends, family and associates about his father, Amos Abbott. It seems that Amos did very well for himself, he was one of the very first investors on Rattlesnake Hill, long before the many investors followed him investing in the lore of granite. Simeon said that his father actually purchased thirty-six acres of Rattlesnake Hill at a cost of 50 cents per acre. For the sum of $18 the Abbott family took control of the natural resources on our beautiful hill and searched immediately for a way to pay for the $18 debt now held by Amos Abbott.
Simeon told this story time and again, and then some more. He told everyone that would listen, one of the youngest children in his audience being my great grandfather, Martin Spain. Simeon lived to almost 90 years old and the children were intrigued by the early tales of Concord rattlesnakes, wolves and Native Americans. When the stories turned towards the early years on Rattlesnake Hill the children listened even more intently.
Simeon continued with his story, telling my great grandfather and the other young children how his father, Amos Abbott, immediately set about to retire his large $18 debt acquired by purchasing those 36 acres on Rattlesnake Hill.
Simeon said his father walked the hill of his newly acquired forest and observed so many boulders strewn about. There were some very large boulders made of quality granite and Amos decided to choose the largest, most prominent granite boulder and sell it for use in constructing a building. Amos Abbott was not set up to harvest and work the boulder into a square block so he took the easiest route available, sell the boulder wholesale as it sat to satisfy his debt.
Amos Abbott immediately sold his large granite boulder to the Gass & Johnson Granite Company. They were using convict labor from the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord and very well equipped to not only move the large granite boulder but to process it into workable and transportable shape. Simeon beamed with pride as he told the children about the selling priceโฆ his father purchased the hill for $18, sold the very first granite boulder to Gass & Johnson for $110. Amos was quickly debt free and holding a very valuable piece of real estate in the form of the granite laden Rattlesnake Hill.
The story did not end there, Simeon had more to tell about this boulder that was so giving to his father Amos. The Gass & Johnson Granite Company down at the prison used the prison laborers to work the boulder a little more and they also sold it on contract for the sum of $1,540. Of course, Gass & Johnson Granite Company was very pleased to realize such a large profit. The contractor that purchased the Amos Abbott Rattlesnake Hill granite boulder set about hammering and shaping the stone some more and in turn sold this boulder for the sum of $6,000 to the United States Government in New Orleans.
To this very day, this granite boulder with so much history, profit and lore resides in New Orleans as part of the United States Custom House, which was one of the most historic structures in the United States during the Civil War period.
Simeon Abbott sure told a good story, andย my great-grandfather told my grandfather. My grandfather told my father, and now I share this story with you. Please take a moment to make the story of the Amos Abbott granite boulder from Rattlesnake Hill a part of your family. A classic gold story from Concord. Caveat emptor.