Ask Norma

Explore History

Like us on Facebook and receive updates on upcoming OBHS events!

For Research

Home

Ask Norma

Ask Norma Got a question about local history of the Berwicks, southwestern Maine and the Salmon Falls River area of New Hampshire? If you write us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , our volunteers will do their best to find answers in the Counting House Museum archives and reference books.

Here, Old Berwick Historical Society volunteer Norma Keim answers some frequently asked questions.

Where did the name of South Berwick’s Witchtrot Road come from?

The earliest mention of “Witchtrot” found so far is in an 1834 South Berwick deed. A property on Old South Road is identified as being on the way to Witchtrot. The legend of Witchtrot Road comes from local story telling, by generations of South Berwick folk. The name is associated with the Salem witch trials and a minister from Wells named Rev. George Burroughs.

Reverend Burroughs was the minister at the Wells meeting house. He was held in high regard in Wells, an Indian fighter and a hero, for leading the successful defense of the village garrison during a recent Indian attack. However, he had formerly been the minister in Salem village, where he had made some enemies among some of the townspeople. He also was at odds with Cotton Mather, the politically powerful Puritan minister of Massachusetts Bay.

In 1692, three men burst into the dwelling house of Burroughs, then living in Wells with his wife and children.

Was Cow Cove in Vaughan Woods State Park the landing place of the first cows in America?

The cattle unloaded at Warren’s Cove in Vaughan Woods in 1634 were NOT the first cows in America. They undoubtedly were the first cows in Berwick, brought for the men and their families who were employees of John Mason, who was encouraging development along the Salmon Falls River and eastward, to the Atlantic.

Cows were in Colonial Plymouth ten years earlier, according to Craig S. Chatier, in Livestock in Plymouth Colony. “The first cows were brought to the Plymouth Colony in 1624," he writes. "The cattle present in 1627 in Plymouth included black, red, white-backed and white-bellied varieties. The black cattle may have been of a breed or similar to those today called Kerrys. Kerry cattle are descended from ancient Celtic cattle and were originally from County Kerry, Ireland . . . .”