Cornish Colony - New Hampshires Cornish Colony

In his poem, The Gift Outright, Robert Frost reminds us that the land was ours before we were the lands. Colony members would have understood this gift outright. All the open land seen in this image of the Goward School (at center) would have impressed them, but they probably would not have considered how far pupils had to walk between home and school. Todays residents, accustomed to forest and scrub, are amazed when they realize how many fields were once visible. (Courtesy CHS.)

In the 1890s the area around the village of Cornish Flat seemed more open than it does today. The configuration of these roads has been maintained for over a century. Edith Rue Jewett Philbrick wrote, Home of Grandma Jewetts sister Delilah, on the back of this image of Cornish Flat, looking east toward School Street. (Courtesy CHS.)

The western boundary of Cornish proves that the openness of the gift outright existed everywhere. This postcard shows Windsor, Vermont, as viewed from the Cornish hills. JMC (the postcards writer) reported on November 30, 1913, that there had been quite a lot to do since Lizzie was gone every day on the milk cart and a mutual friend was unwell, perhaps because she had too much to do and not enough help. (Courtesy WHS.)

The primary use of the land around Cornish was for agriculture. Here Elwin W. Quimby digs his potato crop on the farm of his father-in-law, William Westgate. Elwin was a member of a quartet that sang at many local affairs, and his son, Arthur, played the organ at the Congregational church in Cornish Center. (Courtesy CHS.)

The land could also serve as pasture. We should not expect, however, that the Cornish Colony would graze merely conventional cattle. Here a herd of buffalo forages in the Blue Mountain Forest Association, which by 1887 stretched for roughly 40 square miles. The area is better known as Corbins Park after its founder, Austin Corbin Sr., a successful lawyer, reorganizer of failed railroads, and founder of Americas first national bank. (Courtesy CHS.)

In 1904 Austin Corbin Jr. invited journalist Ernest Harold Baynes to supervise the wildlife of Corbins Park. Even unconventional and unexpected animals were found to be useful. Seen at the reins here, Baynes was proud that he broke these two buffalo, named War Whoop and Tomahawk, to yoke, though their training cost him some fine black eyes. The posted notice warns (though one would hope unnecessarily), See that your Harness and Brakes are in order before starting down the Mountain. (Courtesy PHS.)

This mess hall at Corbins Park fed the workers, a large staff, and Ernest Harold Baynes, a New York journalist interested in conservation and photography. His numerous glass slides document his and Austin Corbin Jr.s ecological concerns. There were deer, elk, boar, antelope, caribou, bear, mountain goats, moose, and wolves in the park, but local people often referred to the entire area as Buffalo Mountain. (Courtesy CHS.)