LEGENDS OF THE POND—Stories of Big Island Pond, Atkinson, Derry and Hampstead

“The first people to walk the shores of Big Island Pond were spear-carrying indigenous people in search of the mastodon, the woolly mammoth and the giant sloth,” observes Alfred Kayworth, a long-time resident of Big Island Pond. He then brings pre-history into modern times with the discovery that Chief Escumbuit of the Abenaki Tribe had lived on same island. The Chief, as few may know, was an avid warrior during the French Indian War. Fighting on the side of the French and, after having scalped more than one humdred English settlers, Chief Escumbuit was summoned to Paris where he was knighted by the French King.
After having built his summer estate on the Pond, the first Provincial Governor married a local 22-year-old hired maiden, scandalizing friends and inflaming critics at the same time.
However, no one would think that a 90-year-old resident would operate a leg of the Pond’s Underground Railroad for runaway slaves from the South.
Perhaps the Pond’s most famous resident was Alan Shepard, the first American in Space. The astronaut spent eleven childhood summers on Island Pond. His cottage still stands today and is regularly used as a summer vacation place.
Mr. Kayworth also delves into the lives of less famous resident, including the death of an unrequited young woman who threw herself off of a cliff.