History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 245

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 245

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llaverhill was a strong Whig town. There were, however, a few Tories, as they were then called- Loyalists, as we can afford to call them now. The best known of these was Col. Richard Saltonstall, of a distinguished family in the province and town, born 1732 and graduated at Harvard in 1751. At twenty- two, he was commissioned colonel of the militia regi- ment in which Haverhill was included. Serving in the French War with credit, he appears to have been under the command and so come under the influence of Gen. Timothy Rnggles, afterwards known as the Tory Chief of New England, a man of great ability

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and resolution. Appointed sheriff of Essex County soon after the war, his associates were probably largely with the crown officials. He was nnmarried and lived hospitably at the family residence. He was popular in the town as long as circumstances would permit, and represented it in the General Court from 1761 to 1768, inclusive. His action in voting for re- scinding in 1768-one of the seventeen held up to popular ridicule and contempt-the people could not well overlook. If the townsfolk had been inclined to overlook it, the leaders of the liberty party would not have permitted. Scarcely the redoubtable Ruggles even was able to retain his seat with a devoted con- stituency.

Even afterwards and during the war, Col. Salton- stall might have remained unmolested. But he prob- ably was imprudent, and assumed somewhat upon old popularity and influence. In the summer of 1774, Timothy Eaton, who was an ardeut Whig and one of the town Committee of Correspondence, headed a large party which called on Col. Saltonstall to inform him that his action and language were disagreeable and must be abated.

The colonel was at first a little inclined to ride the high horse, but probably realizing the senselessness of attempting to resist such a mass of people, he wisely changed his tone, assumed a pleasant and jocose air, however difficult it may have been, and offered hospi- tality to his uninvited guests, which they accepted with enthusiasm. Accordingly they departed in good humor, without violence or insult. Any other course would only have resulted in deep humiliation and af- front. Brigadier Ruggles was the only high Tory who escaped contact with the organized Sons of Lib- erty with dignity. Tact and good humor had saved Col. Saltonstall, but he doubtless realized that he could no longer remain in Haverhill and preserve his past attitude. Within a few days he had sought shel- ter with his friends in Boston, then filled with British troops. He soon went to England, where, more for- tunate than many of his fellow-exiles, he speedily re- ceived a pension from King George in recognition of his loyalty. He never returned to America, dying in England in 1785. His half-brother, Dr. Nathaniel Saltonstall, who graduated at Harvard in 1766 and fell under different influences, returned to Haverhill to practice medicine before the outbreak of the war, joined the Artillery Company of which we have spoken, and was a consistent, though never prominent Whig. He spent a long life in his native town, re- spected and beloved. A younger brother of Doctor Saltonstall, Leverett, swayed by the example and ad- vice of Col. Saltonstall, to whom he had been in the habit of looking as a mentor, obtained a commission in the British army, was captain of a company in Cornwallis' Southeru campaign, and died at New York in 1782. Thus families were divided. Rev. Moses Badger, of Haverhill, half-brother of General Joseph Badger, who was active on the patriotic

side, a graduate of Harvard (1761) and an Epis- copal elergyman, had married a sister of Col. Saltonstall, was a Loyalist and served as chap- lain on the King's side. The property of Col. Saltonstall and Mr. Badger, was confiscated in 1776. In Curwen's diary, there are glimpses of Col. Saltonstall, living in modest, but apparently dignified retirement in London. These were the two principal Loyalists of Haverhill. Samuel White and Joseph Haynes were delegates from this town to the first P'ro- vincial Congress; Nathaniel Peaslee Sargeant and Jonathan Webster to the second and third.

The town raised money by voluntary subscription for the sufferers in Boston through the Port Bill.

In general, the town followed the guidance of the Boston committees and the Continental Congress. It voted to raise minute-men, and to pay them when drilling, giving them bounties when called into ser- vice. The roll has been preserved. The town en- gaged a drill-master for them.

On the day of the Lexington alarm, one hundred and five men-nearly one-half the whole militia force -marched out. Nehemiah Emerson was on a roof on Main Street, helping to put out a fire. lle joined the minute-men, and came home but once till war was done, serving lastly as captain.

Dr. James Brickett, who had been ont in the French War, gathered the minute-men on the news of the British march to Concord. He was soon lieu- tenant-colonel of Frye's regiment (May 20th), and commanded it at Bunker Hill in the illness of his superior officer. He was himself early wounded and injured, but remained in care of the wounded. Tradi- tion says, that when he was coming off the field after his hurt, he met Dr. Warren just going on, to whom he transferred his arms. They were both ardent patriots, and Warren's example of glorious death was worth more to his country than the life of almost any man he left behind him.

The excitement of the Lexington alarm on the 19th of April was enhanced in Haverhill, by the anxiety and loss occasioned by a great fire (for that day) which had raged on the 16th of April on Main Street, ravaging from Court Street to White's Corner.

Two days after a burlesque alarm, which has been called the " Ipswich Fright," a cry that "The British are coming," spread ludicrous panic from the bay to the Coos country. The people waited around the common all night, ready to fly to the hills at a moment's warning. And the startled folks at the East Parish must long have remembered the " hem- locks" at the east side of the Great Pond, under whose coverts they lay concealed till dawn dispelled their terrors !

But sterner work than this was at hand. Seventy- four llaverbill men were in the battle of Bunker Hill, of whom two were killed. David How and Samuel Blodget, afterwards well known in the town, were in the battle, the former not yet quite seventeen years old.

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Thomas Cogswell had been an active member of the Artillery Company, and on the 19th of April, 1775, entered service as captain of a company in the Massa- chusetts line ; was afterwards major, lieutenant-colo- nel and wagon-master-general. January 7, 1781, General Washington wrote of him upon a question of promotion : " And I do further certify that Major Cogswell has been always represented to me as an intelligent, brave and active officer."

Hezekiah Smith, the Baptist minister, was able, by distinguished patriotic service, to allay at least some portion of the prejudice from which he had suffered. With the consent of his people, he entered the ser- vice as chaplain of Colonel Nixon's regiment. lle was with the army at Cambridge, before Bunker Hill.

He was in some of the most important battles of the war. His fame as a preacher ran through the army, and he was often summoned to officiate for the regiments of other States. Chaplain Smith was at the surrender of Burgoyne, and preached to his bri- gade at Tappan, the day before Major Andre was exe- cuted. Recalled to his pastoral work by the people who had loaned him to the cause, he resumed his labors with them again in the latter part of October, 1780, preaching from the text: "For a small mo- ment have I forsaken thee; but with great mereies will I gather thee."

In 1775 a post-rider was established between Cam- bridge and Haverhill, with a post-office here.

Like all the towns in Massachusetts, with at most one or two unhappy exceptions, Haverhill pledged herself to the Continental Congress in case of their declaring independence of Great Britain, " with their lives and fortunes to support them in the measure."

In September, 1777, a volunteer detachment turned out to reinforce the Northern army, arriving in ample season to witness the surrender of Burgoyne. Gen- cral Brickett accompanied this party as a volunteer, and by General Gates was put in command of about five hundred militia to guard a division of General Burgoyne's army from Saratoga to Prospect Hill, in Charlestown. Massachusetts never paid him, because he was not in her service, and the United States never paid him, presumably because he had not been regularly mustered into service. Israel Bartlett kept a journal of this march, which is printed in Chase's history.

The town seems really to have discharged itself of patriotic duty during the Revolutionary War at least fairly well. Perhaps it should have even higher praise, for there is no evidence of grumbling or de- spondency. And the demands were very great; scarcely was one quota filled, when another was called for. There were so many emergencies that life must have seemed full of them, and to contain nothing else. All this was terribly aggravated by the wretched want of regularity and system.

When all the men had gone and all the money had been sent, Congress made requisitions for all the

clothing and all the beef. As to the men, it is elaimed that Haverhill was deficient only one man in all the drafts. That did very well. Blankets, shoes, stock- ings and shirts were ealled for and rendered. Be- tween December, 1780, and June 22, 1781, requisi- tions were made upon Haverhill for 45,570 pounds of beet, which were obeyed.

There was the same terrible depreciation and loss of State and Continental currency, of course, here as elsewhere; the same abortive attempts to regulate the price of commodities.

In the midst of war the people were trying to make a Constitution for the State of Massachusetts. June 8, 1778, the town gave seven votes for and sixty- three against the Constitution sent out by the Legis- lature, which the people rejected by a great majority. May, 1779, the town held two. meetings to see if it wished a State convention, for the purpose of form- ing a Constitution. At both meetings the vote was no. Nevertheless, as a majority of the towns voted yes, precepts were issued for a convention at Cam- bridge in September, 1779. August 5th, Isaac Red- ington was chosen moderator and Nathaniel Peaslee Sargeant delegate to the convention. May 2, 1780, that noble instrument-the Constitution of Massa- chuseets-was submitted to the voters. General Brickett was moderator. He counted the voters pres- ent and found there were one hundred and nineteen. After " considerable debate " the meeting adjourned to May 8th, when there were one hundred and seventy- five voters present. The great subject of debate was the third artiele of the Bill of Rights, regulating relig- ious worship. The Baptists and others objected to the provision that moneys paid for the support of worship and religious teachers should be paid, in the absence of special request, "towards the support of the teacher or teachers of the parish or precinct in which the said moneys are raised." The Baptists wanted no favoritism; they wished all sects served alike. This " was a subject of much altercation and considerable time was spent in arguing upon it." "91 voted to have it stand, and 85 voted for an amendment." "This last vote was reconsidered by a majority of 64 and on a second Tryal there were but 40 for the article and 104 against it." Then Judge Sargeant proposed one plan of amendment and Mr. Smith another. Seventy- nine voted in favor of the former and sixty -six for the latter. Then there was another adjournment.

At the adjourned meeting it was moved to amend chapter six, so that the Governor, Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, Councilors and legislators should swear, on taking office, that they respectively believed in the Christian Protestant religion. Eighty-five voted for the third article ; sixty-nine against it." Mr. Smith then offered an amendment, which was agreed to. And then the town voted that, notwithstanding the amendment they had adopted, they preferred to take the Constitution as it was rather than have it come again to the people. They evidently were fatigued

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with their labors. But the Constitution had been agreed to by a large majority of the towns, so that Monday, September 4, 1780, there was an election for the first time of State officers under it. The vote did not show much interest. For Governor, John Han- cock had forty-seven votes, and James Bowdoin, forty-one.

When, in 1778, the Articles of Confederation pro- posed by Congress were submitted to the people, they chose a committee of which " Hon. Judge N. P. Sar- geant was the first named, and adjourned for one week, when certain votes were passed," probably in a form reported by the committee. One of them puts a finger upon the weak spot of the proposed confedera- tion, which brought ruin to the fabric : " Voted, as the opinion of this town that it appears necessary some plan or mode should be added to the Confederation for compelling such states as shall be defective in raising men or money for the common defence to per- form their duty."

One precedent was established for other wars, when the town chose a committee of ten "to supply the families of such non-commissioned and private sol- diers as are in the Continental service." Thomas West was first named on the committee.

" Greenleaf's Tavern " was long familiar to the townspeople. It was kept by Lieut. William, who entered service as a private in 1776, and did not come out till 1783, with the reputation of a brave officer.

In 1781 the currency had so depreciated that, hav- ing more than ten thousand pounds of it in the treas- ury, the town coneluded not to receive any more for taxes. Seventy-five paper dollars would buy one silver one. Nathaniel Bradley charged the town £14 8 s. for four mugs of flip. "To 3 half mugs for myself, £5 8s." Nobody was willing to serve as constable, town clerk or treasurer.

The discontent about taxation, debt and poverty, fostered among the ignorant by artful men, brought about Shay's Rebellion in 1786. In the Autumn, the town of Boston sent out a circular letter to every town in the State, " concerning the common interest of the country." A committee, of which Gen. Brickett was chairman, reported a response October 10th, which was adopted by the town. It is an admirable document, prudent, thoughtful, patriotic. The rebellion, as is well known, was crushed as soon as vigorous meas- ures were resorted to.

In 1789 it was "voted to choose a committee to in- spect the schools." This was the first ever ehosen, and it consisted of the settled clergymen, the seleetmen, Isaac Osgood, Esq., llon. Nathaniel 1'. Sargeant, Mr. John White, Capt. Francis Carr and Capt. Samuel Merrill. After this the committee was continued, and next year were " desired to recommend such rules and regulations in the schools as they shall think proper."

And November 4, 1789, was the visit of Washing-

ton, thestay at the Mason's Arms, or Harrod's Tavern, " a brown old building standing on the site of the City Hall ; " the calls of ceremony at Bailey Bartlett's, the sheriff, and at Mr. John White's, whose son had married the daughter of Washington's friend, Senator Tristram Dalton, of Newhuryport. Hezekiah Smith's biographer says that the President called upon the chaplain too.

He paid a visit to the duck factory of Samuel Blodget. Perhaps all will not recall the fact that Washington Square and Washington Street are named in honor of his visit. The general acted in his usual practical manner when his principal entry in the diary about the town, was a mention of the " Duck manufactory, upon a small but ingenious scale." He certainly walked through the town, for he says so in his diary. And perhaps he would have made a more grandiloquent entry in his journal than the following if he had realized it would be reprinted in all the books, even after a hundred years: "The inhabitts of this small village were well disposed to welcome me to it by every demonstration which could evince their joy."

Two days before, another gentleman had entered in his diary : " Monday, ye 2d Nov., 1789. I went to see Blodgett's spinning and weaving works & they beat everything. The old man is really proud of it.

" They tell me they have a prospeet yt. Gen. Wash- ington will be in town this week."

General Washington called at Parson Smith's, and the other diarist, who was a parson of the "standing order," called en Mr. Smith, for fear some of his proper tythes should escape him. " I called on Mr. Smith ; talked about giving certificates to people who only pretend to be Baptist. Mr. Smith says he will be honest-and the men shall not be sheltered who are not honest also."

A hundred years ago, the tendency was to exalt Washington as a demi-god. In the early part of this century, historians and biographers treated his eharae- ter and fame as if he were an idol, whose shrine was only to be approached by the worshipper prone upon the earth and with averted face, lest blindness should punish the too audacious gaze. Now there are per- sons who boldly say they are going to tell everything about Washington. They are about to strip the veil off from that august countenance. Well, that will do no harm either. It will work no injury to him nor will it strip humanity of one of its most precious jewels. At the worst, it will only be known that he was not an image carved of stone ; that in his youth, the blood ran very red in his veins; that he had strong passions and an imperious will ; and that he could be profane upon provocation. The grand result will remain that experience and famili- arity with great affairs, taught him self-control. The fact will remain that in him were abnormally blended the firmness of a soldier and the prudence of a judge. As a king or emperor, he would have come near

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being to mankind what the ignorant Russian is taught to believe bis Czar is-father and God. As President of a free people, he will never cease to deserve and receive reverence, for the sublime self-abnegation with which he put aside guilty ambition, and himself set the highest example of obedience, both in letter and in spirit, to the laws he may be said to have preserved. To the people of the modern city, as of the "small village," he will still be the Father of his Country !

CHAPTER CLX.

HAVERHILL-(Continued).

Business after the war-Chief Justice Sergeant-Other prominent men- Progress of ereuts.

THE Marquis de Chastellux, one of the French gen- erals under Count de"Rochambeau in America during the Revolutionary War, wrote thus near its close of this place and its vicinity : "The North Parish, or North Andover, is a charming place, where there are a great number of very handsome houses, a quantity of meadows and fine cattle. Almost on quitting this handsome township you enter Bradford, where night overtook us, and we traveled two or three miles in the dark before we reached Haverhill Ferry. It was half- past six before we had crossed it and got to Harward's (Harrod's) Inn, where we had a good supper and good lodgings. At Haverhill the Merrimac is only fit for vessels of thirty tons, but much larger ones are built here, which are floated down empty to Newbury. Three miles above Haverhill are falls, and higher up the river is only navigable for boats. The trade of this town formerly consisted in timher for ship-build- ing, which has been suspended since the war. It is pretty considerable and tolerably well-built; and its situation in the form of an amphitheatre on the left shore of the Merrimac, gives it many agreeable as- pects."

Jedediah Morse's " Gazetteer," printed in Boston in 1797, says of Haverhill that it has " a considerable in- land trade." "It lies chiefly upon two streets, the principal of which runs parallel with the river. Ves- sels of one hundred tons burden can go up it. Trav- elers are struck with the pleasantness of the situation ; and a number of neat and well-finished honses give it an air of elegance; .. . three distilleries, one of which has lately undergone a laudable transmutation into a brewery. Some vessels are annually built here, and several are employed in the West India trade. A manufactory of sail-cloth was begun here in 1780, and is said to be in a promising way. The trade of the place, however, is considerably less than before the Revolution. The whole township contains three hundred and thirty houses, and two thousand four hundred and eight inhabitants." The "Gazetteer "

was probably a little behind the times, as such works are apt to be. The trade of the town was mueh injured by the War of the Revolution; but in 1797 it was again prosperous. Ship-building was carried on with renewed euergy. There were two ship-yards in the village, and one at the "Rocks," the last of which, however, was discontinued about 1800. Persons liv- ing in 1860 could remember when three vessels were launched in a single day at the village. In 1810 nine vessels were built and fifty to sixty men were kept constantly employed in the yards. The vessels were ships, brigs, sloops, schooners and snows.

There was considerable inland trade and foreign commerce. Several Haverhill merchants were direct exporters and importers between New England, Eng- land and the West Indies. The smaller vessels, es- pecially in the latter trade, came up the river to the town. The larger came either to Boston or Newbury- port, and their goods were transferred to Haverhill in snows or other small vessels, or in gondolas from Newburyport.

The town's exports were corn and grain, beef, fish, lumber, pearl-ashes, linseed oil, tow cloth and other things. Flax-seed was sent to Ireland, pot and pearl- ashes to England and Ireland. All sorts of goods came back from London, sugar and molasses from the West Indies. A part of the latter was converted into rum at the distilleries. A large part of the im- ported goods were sent into the country by ox-teams, great numbers of which were employed, and which brought back rural products.

Among the principal merchants were John White, Benjamin Willis, James Duncan, James Duncan, Jr., and Isaac Osgood.

John White and his fine mansion on Water street, have been spoken of before. He owned the only chaise in Haverhill when Hezekiah Smith came here. "Sept. 20, 1764, went with John White in his chaise to New- bury." The old hall and stairs in John White's house on Water Street are fine and well preserved to- day. Though no longer owned by the White family, a portion of it is occupied by a venerable and inter- esting lady whose memory is well stored with the town's unwritten lore.

Mr. Willis was a son of Capt. Benj. Willis, a ship- master living at Charlestown before the Revolution. Taken prisoner by the British and carried into St. Eus- tacia, in the West Indies, he came home after exchange to find his house burned by the British, and his faux- ily refugees in Haverhill, where, when peace came, be was largely engaged in shipping. The son, going out to London as a young man, supercargo of his father's vessel-the good brig"Benjamin and Nancy"- secured the confidence of John Dickinson, a merchant there in a large way, by whose advice and assistance he started with a full stock of foreign goods, and be- came a large and successful importer in Haverhill.

James Duncan, already named, started as a pack- peddler, but was settled in Haverhill before 1750, and

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as we have already had occasion to notice, had in a ! semi-weekly to and from Concord, N. H., and Salem.

few years become a man of some importance. His son James succeeded him in business, carrying on both a domestic and importing trade, and also inter- ested in shipping. He built at Lebanon, N. H., a store, potash-works and a mill for grinding flax-seed. In twenty-six months he sent over $90,000 worth of goods by the great ox-teams to the Lebanon store. Mr. Duncan is said to have been a man of good busi- ness talents and enterprise, who, without the advan- tages of early education, had acquired much general information. He was Major Duncan of the militia and commanded the cavalry companies which escorted Washington, in 1789, from Boston to the New Hamp- shire line. He died in 1822, at sixty-five.

Isaac Osgood came from Andover to Haverhill long before the Revolution. His store was a wooden build- ing with gambrel roof, which stood a few rods east of the bridge. He was at first in the West India trade; after the war, in the London. He built and operated " Osgood's Still-house," which afterwards was brewery, and, falling into the hands of John Dickin- son, of London, before referred to, he gave it to the younger Willis, by whom it was torn down, and in 1811, Willis, Warner Whittier, Kimball Carleton and James Hazeltine built upon the site the first brick block of the town. The Bannister brick block was built in 1815.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 245

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1672

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672