Elenora French

On a beautiful May morning in 1864, four young people, including 11-year-old Eleanora French, climbed Megunticook Mountain, stopping to admire the view. Eleanora's sister, Antilla, recalled seeing her sitting on a rock at the edge of the cliff. When she looked away for a moment, she heard a scream. Eleanora was gone. Randall Young, one of the party, climbed 300' down the cliff to where she lay. Help was summoned and the unconscious child was taken to the Young farm, today's Youngtown Inn, where she died later that night. 

Antilla remembered she was wearing a print dress and a hat with a hand-knit silk net. Deborah French had planned to have her young daughter photographed the next week. 

A cross was erected at what became known as Maiden's Cliff. Stories were told about a maiden who leapt to her death on her wedding day, and other versions that romanticized what had been a tragic accident. Read about them here.