|
Amherst NH conservation Land donated to the town by the Boutelle's.
The following was published in the January 27, 1999 edition of the
Amherst Citizen. This CONSERVATION
& MORE column, Notes From The Amherst Conservation Commission,
was written by Bruce B. Beckley and Anne Krantz.
Abby's Woods
The Boutelle Woods
Abby’s Woods are quiet now. Later in the day commuters returning
to Mont Vernon and up Christian Hill will be audible. But now only a little
peep is to be heard. Snowflakes the size of silver dollars sift down, signaling
the end of last night’s storm. High in one of the tall pines a restless bird or
perchance a red squirrel jiggles a branch releasing a crystalline shower.
It is a
Currier and Ives morning, the way William Drury would have painted it, with the
wintry light softened by a lingering haze over the hay field and the Great
Meadow below. A fox has preceded me down the farm lane after circling the field
in her quest for breakfast. Long stretching leaps by a hare across the snowy
meadow may easily have taken him away from the fox and off the menu. In the
lane, the hunter’s tracks are almost mechanically straight. They are far
straighter than mine as I look up into the tall, erect pines, nurtured by
generations of care by the owner and forester.
Near the point where Caesar’s Brook enters the Great Meadow an
anomaly rises alone in this stand of perfect trees. One bull pine, six feet in
diameter at waist height, sprouts eight trunks, each a tree in itself. Was this
giant already king of the woodlot before Harold Wilkins began grooming these
woods for the Boutelles? Perhaps it was a matter of seniority 60 years ago with
the tree winning. Or, do the few pieces of rotted wood held by rusty vestiges
of spikes say this was the owner’s chosen spot for his deer stand?
Further on,
small dirty foot prints dot the snow as they emerge from a tennis ball-sized
hole under a blown down red maple. Mrs. Mink must have told her mate to get his
dirty feet outside. He bounded off between the upright sensitive fern spore
cases, remnants of last summer’s greenery.
This land is a beloved gift to the Conservation Commission from a
beloved lady. Eight years ago when Abby Boutelle was 88, she donated the 60
acres she spent her life on for conservation purposes. In accordance with her
wish, no announcement was to be made during her lifetime. On December 23, 1998
Abby Boutelle died. Abby’s Woods will always be with us as open space, as a
memorial to her sister Charlotte and her father Fred, as a managed woodlot, as
part of a growing ring of green refuges around the village.
Thanks be to God for the life of Abby Boutelle and her generosity.
Old Name Lives On
The Boutelles were among the first settlers of Souhegan West in
the 1740’s. The name (sometimes spelled Boutell) appears frequently in the
historical records of Amherst.
The population during the early years was small but stabile at about 1,000 to
1,500 from 1810, when it actually dropped from a high of 2,369 in 1790, until
the 1950’s.
Abby was one of
four children of Fred (1865-1923) and Martha (1867-1907). All were born in the
white house at 5 Eaton Road
which Fred bought in 1894 for $1,800 from Eliza Eaton. Abby’s mother died when
Abby was three and after that her father raised the children by himself until
he was killed in a logging accident.
While Abby was still active, she arranged through her trustee and
friend Pat Spencer that her land except for the house lot be given to the
Amherst Conservation Commission in memory of her father and sister. The
Commission, speaking for all residents, is grateful to Pat for making Abby’s
wish a reality so the Boutelle name can continue to be a part of Amherst lore.
|
