History
The Webster Lake watershed covering parts of West Franklin
and
East Andover feeds Webster Lake. It includes the area on both
sides of the main tributary, Sucker Brook, all the way to Highland
Lake - our East Andover neighbor to the west. There are several
other smaller tributaries around the lake which carry the rain and
the melting snows of winter to the lake. In addition, there are
numerous springs that help to make up the lakes 700 plus acres.
The lake was probably formed by the damming of a small river
when the Pemigewasset Valley contained a glacier. The stream
serving as an outlet to Webster Lake could not deepen its valley as fast as the Pemigewasset and so became a "roaring brook" flowing into the river over falls of its own
Naming the Lake
The lake and outlet were named Clough Pond and Clough Brook in 1748. It is believed they were probably named after William Brown Clough.
It was originally known to the people near its shores as the “Big Pond” or the “Upper Pond” to distinguish it from the “Mill,” or “Blanchard’s Pond.” A little later it was called “Chance Pond,” and sometimes poetically “Lake Como.”
The well known statesman, Daniel Webster spent many summers along the shores. He made a speech in the oak grove near Aiken Point in 1851 when the lake was named in his honor. He died a year later as a result of a head and arm injury from the breakdown of his carriage in Marshfield, Massachusetts on October 24, 1852. Ten thousand people attended his funeral.
Some of the information above was taken from “A day on Webster Lake” written
by
Mary A. Rowell.
