History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 246

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 246

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Isaac Osgood died in 1791 and was succeeded in business by his son Peter.

The town valuation in 1790 was $1,519,411.

Samuel Bean was "post-rider" from Boston to Con- cord, N. H., carrying letters and newspapers on horse- back. He passed through Haverhill going and return- ing, making the whole route once a week. One Gage started a two-horse coach about this time from Haver- hill to Boston, only running it when he had passen- gers enough. Robert Willis remembered that when, in September, 1792, his mother took her children to Boston to be inoculated with the small-pox, they went over the Haverhill ferry just as the sun was rising and crossed Charlestown Bridge after the lamps were lighted-a journey of about twelve hours. In 1793 a coach was running regularly twice a week. It left the ferry in Bradford " at 6 o'clock precisely, expect- ing to reach Boston before one." " Fare, 3d. per mile." Judge Samuel Blodgett was doubtless the projector. Soon a stage ran in connection with it twice a week to Concord.

In August, 1811, Morse & Fox began running a coach twice a week between Haverhill and Salem. In March, 1818, the Haverhill and Boston Stage Com- pany began operations, continuing them until, in IS37, the railroad was opened to Boston, when its name was changed to the " Boston and Eastern Stage Company." Before the advent of steam-cars there was a daily and semi-weekly " stage " between Boston and Haverhill, a daily to and from Newburyport, Lowell and Methuen, Exeter and Dover, and a

In 1790 the town, on the petition of Judge Sar- geant, granted leave for "trees to be set out on the public land "-the common-and the trees were pro- bably sycamores, long since removed.

Nathaniel Peaslee Sargeant was at this time casily the most eminent citizen of the town. lle bore the name of his grandfather, Colonel Peaslee, of Haverhill, whose daughter, Susanna, married Rev. Christopher Sargeant, the first minister of Methuen, who lived to a great age and was long known as "Father " Sar- geant. Young Sargeant graduated at Harvard in 1750 and was early here in practice. He was perhaps the first regularly educated lawyer who practiced in this town. He had influential connections, was the attorney of the Haverhill proprietors, who had ex- tensive and important law-suits on hand, in which intricate questions were involved. He was studious, and doubtless early made money and reputation. He was never a brilliant advocate, but had a high repu- tation as a judicious, learned and upright lawyer. He was a safe and moderate Whig; probably his temper- ament did not permit him to be an ardent one. But he enjoyed the full confidence of his townsmen, and represented them in the Second and Third Provincial Congresses, and in the House of Representatives in 1776. He was one of the first justices appointed at the reorganization of the Superior Court at the out- break of the Revolution, holding that position till he succeeded William Cushing as chief justice in 1790. He had a very high standing for ability and candor as a judge. In 1788-89, when the Federal Constitu- tion was trembling in the balance, he addressed an able letter in its favor to his cousin, General Joseph Badger, of Gilmanton, N. H., a member of the Con- stitutional Convention of that State, which was thought to have had considerable influence in aid of the ratification.

Mirick says, "We have heard much in his praise from the lips of the aged."

Judge Sargeant married a sister of the famous Timothy Pickering, of Salem, who was thought to have been a great acquisition to the limited but good soci- ety of the village. Her fair, large grave-stone thus far defies time and vandalism in the old burying- ground. When she married Judge Sargeant she was widow of the Rev. Dudley Leavitt. One can still hear from the lips of aged ladies that the grave chief justice was a great favorite in society. One of the ministers, exchanging at Haverhill took tea at his house and entered in his diary : "The judge was very entertaining." He lived opposite the common, on the site of the Unitarian meeting-house. Ilis house, which was removed to make a place for it, may still be scen by the curious on Spring Court, in a good state of preservation. Judge Sargeant died October, 1791.

In 1791, General Brickett and others petitioned,“ to

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have the trees lately set out in the Training Field re- moved," but no action was taken on that article.

Hitherto, swine had run at large, but a district, in- cluding the village, was now marked out, within which they were warned not to trespass.

In 1790 the town adopted an admirable code of regulations for the government of the grammar schools, which were reported from the school com- mittee by Samuel Walker. The next year Mr. Walker was chairman of a committee to divide the town into school districts.

In 1791 the town, contrary to its usual custom, sent two representatives to the General Court, "pro- vided it should not be any expense to the town." Samuel Blodget was the member chosen under this queer arrangement, and the next year, at the town- meeting, he counted out on the table the money he had received for his services. He wanted to go to the Legislature, to further a scheme of his own, of which he had many. It is a pity his example was not more followed at the present day, when gentlemen who are dying to reach the Legislature for personal ends are yet cunning enough to make their fellow- citizens conceive the brilliant idea of morally eoere- ing them to consent to an election, at great supposed personal loss and discomfort.

Samuel Blodget, Jong known in Haverhill, seems to have been a remarkable man. Born in Woburn, he was at the taking of Louisburg in 1745, and as we have seen, at the battle of Bunker Hill, doing good service there. He was in Haverhill before 1748, established pot and pearl-ash works in 1759 here eon- ducting them some years successfully. For some years before the Revolution he was judge of the Inferior Court in IHillsborough County, New Hamp- shire. He was an ingenious mechanic. Raising a valuable cargo with a machine of his own invention from a ship sunk near Plymouth, he afterwards went to Europe to raise Spanish galleons and the war ship "Royal George" in England; but the obtuse authorities would not allow him to make the attempt. We have heard of the duck manufactory in Haverhill, where he also ran coaches and had many other projects. Leaving Haverhill in 1793, he began Blodget's canal at Amoskeag Falls, where he spent several years and all his property, trying to make the canal in the river and to lock the falls, but without success. In 1791 he tried to persuade the General Court to encourage home manufactures. Judge Blodget seems to have been a visionary, chiefly because he was in advance of his times. He tried to bring about things im- practicable of accomplishment.

His favorite scheme was to live forever. Ile was temperate and active ; he slept with open doors and windows in the severest weather, and he had gradu- ally hardened his body by abstaining from the use of overcoats, mittens, gloves and such appliances. He was eighty-five years old, vigorous and cheerful, when unluckily, early in 1807, he took a severe cold riding

from Boston to Haverhill on a stormy night in an open sleigh, and died of consumption in the following August, Some of his schemes have been worked out ; that for immortality is still open for perfection.

In 1793, the town, which was usually moderately Federal in politics, adopted resolutions approving President Washington's proclamation of neutrality. September 6th, E. Ladd and S. Bragg issued the first newspaper, ealled The Guardian of Freedom. It was a weekly, at nine shillings per annum, and edited by Benjamin Edes, Jr. It was of the town politics, Federal.

In 1794 was completed the great bridge, considered at the time a wonder of skill. In 1796 President Dwight, of Yale College, wrote of it: "No bridge which I have ever seen, except that over the Piscata- qua, can be compared with this as a fine object to the eye. The arches, above and below, have a degree of boldness and grandeur unrivaled in this country." It was undoubtedly an important undertaking, taxing the resources of the little town ; but alterations in it were necessary before many years. It was rebuilt in 1808. It is perhaps unnecessary to say it was a toll bridge, and could not have been built otherwise at that time.

Merrimae Bridge, at the Rocks, was built in 1795. It was a thousand feet long, being the longest upon the river. Neglected by the proprietors, it was swept away by the ice in 1818. A new bridge was built in 1828, and has been repaired within a few years.

President Dwight was much interested by the fact that there had long been a floating island in Plug Pond ; this was undoubtedly the case, but it broke up at last, about 1800.

In the Boston Public Library is a bound volume containing a sketch of Haverhill Bridge, made by Robert Gilmer, of Baltimore, under the following eireumstanees, to accompany his unprinted " memo- randums made in a tour of the Eastern States, in the year 1797": "At four o'clock on Monday I got into the stage and returned to Boston by the way of Exeter and Haverhill, both of which are very pretty little villages, especially the latter, which is situated very pleasantly on the banks of the Merrimack. Aeross the river is thrown one of the new constructed bridges, like that of Piscataqna, only this has three arches instead of one, and the work which supports the whole is above instead of being just below the bridge. I had time enough before dinner to step to the water's edge and take a sketch of it. While I stood there, with my drawing-book resting upon a pile of plank which happened to be convenient, and intent upon my work, I did not observe the tide, which rose to my feet ; and, on looking down, per- ceived myself np to my ankles in the river. The water rose so gradually that I did not feel it, and never suspected that it could be the ease."

Under the lead of Bailey Bartlett, the town, in 1796, adopted a memorial to the national House of Repre-

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sentatives, urging its carrying out the provisions of the Jay treaty. And in 1798 the town presented to President John Adams, by Mr. Bartlett, then Rep- resentative in Congress from the district, an address congratulating him on the course of his administra- tion, to which the President made an appropriate reply.

In this year the first written school report to the town was made by Rev. Hezekiah Smith, who was chairman of the school committee for the First Dis- trict. The committee for this district was at that time always a large and able one, which paid much atttention to its duties.

In 1798 it appears by the list of householders and dwelling-houses belonging to or occupied by them, exceeding in value the sum of one hundred dollars, that the most valuable residence was that of Dr. Na- thaniel Saltonstall, built on Merrimac Street iu 1789, now removed to Lake Saltonstall, which was valued at $3000 ; John White's at $2600; Bailey Bartlett's at $2000; Hannah Woodbury's, $1500.

Of Haverhill village in 1794, Dr. Jeremiah Spof- ford thus wrote in 1860: "It consisted at that time of Merrimack, Water and Main Streets, and the only brick building in the village was part of Sheriff Bartlett's house, so long and so lately and so well oe- cupied by Dr. Langley. A row of small wooden stores occupied the river bank, above the bridge, in one of which David Howe, Esq., and in another, Moses Atwood, father of Harriet (Atwood) Newell, kept stores at that time.

" About this time a three-story brick store, per- haps sixty feet long and forty feet deep, was built by Mr. Howe and Phineas Carleton, on the west side of Maine Street, of which Mr. Howe occupied what is now two stores or about forty feet square, and Mr. Carleton twenty by forty, and from Mr. Carleton's store, which was the southerly one, it was vacant land to the corner. From the corner lot a house had been burnt some years before, belonging, we think, to Es- quire (Samuel) White, a citizen long well-known, and possibly yet remembered by some in Haverhill.

" The old First Parish and the Baptist Churches then furnished ample accomodations, although a much larger proportion of the people then were con- stant attendants at church than at present.

"Mr. Shaw preached at the Congregational and Mr. Smith at the Baptist Church. Mrs. Shaw was a Smith, and sister to the wife of President John Adams." Haverhill was indeed most fortunate in the character of its ministers in long succession. She had had for the old church, Ward, Rolfe, Gardner, Brown and Barnard. To the latter, after three years, succeeded the Rev. John Shaw, who graduated at Harvard in 1772, and was ordained in 1777. He was son of the Rev. John Shaw, of Bridgewater, and younger brother of Rev. Oakes Shaw, minister of Barnstable for forty-seven years, and father of Lem- uel Shaw, the great chief-justice of Massachusetts.

Mrs. Elizabeth Shaw was perhaps the most re- markable of three famous sisters, daughters of Rev. Mr. Smith, of Weymouth. Admirable women as were her sisters, Mrs. Abigail Adams, wife of the second President, and Mrs. Cranch, mother of Judge Cranch, there were many who awarded the palm of superiority to the handsome, dignified and most notable wife of the Haverhill pastor. Her influence over the society of the village was large and good. Mr. Shaw was a good scholar, and so much did her relatives and friends prize the advantage of their united talents and influence that there were always-some youths about the parsonage preparing for college. Among these were the sons of John Adams, one of whom afterwards married one of the handsome daughters of Joseph Harrod, the inn-keeper; William Cranch, who returned to Haverhill, after graduating to prac- tice law under the auspices of Chief Justice Sergeant, till he removed to Washington, where he became himself chief justice of the Circuit Court for the Dis- triet of Columbia. Cranch joined the Haverhill Fire Club in 1792. He took in Haverhill the law busi- ness of Mr. Thaxter, a relative who had deceased. This must have been John Thaxter, who joined the Fire Club in 1785.

In 1874 John Quincy Adams, then seventeen years old, wrote from Auteuil, France, to William Cranch, his cousin : "I have serious thoughts of going in the spring (to America), so as to arrive in May or June, stay a twelvemonth at Mr. Shaw's (who I hope would be as kind to me as he has been to you and is to my brothers), and then enter college for the last year, so as to come out with you." The scheme was carried out, and young Adams became a pupil of Mr. Shaw.

Mr. Shaw was Calvinistic in his theology, and thus, perhaps, his influence tended to counteract that exer- cised by his predecessor, the Arminian Barnard. But Mr. Shaw, though intelligent, amiable, hospitable and charitable, was not a forcible man. He died very suddenly in 1794, and the town adjourned its meet- ing to attend his funeral.

There were still some relics of the old days. The seats in the meeting-house were equipped with hinges and usually turned up in prayer-time, that the occu- pants might lean against the railing during the long petitions, after which they were apt to shut down with a bang. So the following vote passed in the parish in 1791: "Voted that Coll. James Bricket, Deacon Joseph Dodge and Doct. Saltonstall be a committee to speak to the Rev'd. Mr. Shaw that he would speak at some convenient season unto the Peopel that they would let their seats down without such Nois." In the same year "a pew for the women to sing " was built in the gallery of the meet- ing-house ; and it was voted "that the company of singers should choose such Persons among them Selves to Lead in the Musick and Regulate the same as they shall think proper."

Dr. Dwight seems to have thought well of the peo-

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ple. He says, "The manners of the inhabitants, in general, are very civil and becoming. Those of the most respectable people are plain, frank, easy and unaffected. Both the gentlemen and ladies are well- bred and intelligent, and recommend themselves not a little to the esteem and attachment of a traveller. We saw at the church a numerous congregation, well dressed, decorous and reverential in their deportment."

After Mr. Shaw's death, the church and parish seemed still to be fortunate. They unanimously invited the Rev. Abiel Abbott, of Andover, who accepted and was ordained June 3, 1795. Mr. Abbott had been a distinguished scholar at school and at Harvard, where he graduated in 1792. He had been an assistant to his brother, Benjamin Abbott, the famous principal of Phillips Exeter Academy, and then principal of Phillips, Andover. He wrote much and published much, and what he wrote was exceed- ingly admired.

When Washington died there was a town-meeting, January 9, 1800, "at the request of James Brickett and others," to see what measures should be taken. February 22d, Mr. Abbott delivered an eulogy before the inhabitants in the meeting-house on the Common, which was printed and much admired. But, mnch to the regret of his people, he insisted upon a dis- missal in 1803, on account of inadequacy of salary. He died in 1828, minister at Beverly.

When he began to preach, MI. Abbott was a Trini- tarian in views ; but eventually his opinions changed and he became a decided Unitarian. Many of the flaverhill Society, not a majority, were in sympathy with him. But there was as yet no breach between the two wings.

Rev. Joshua Dodge was ordained in 1808, remaining till 1827, when he, too, asked for a dismissal, and was succeeded in 1828 by Rev. Dudley Phelps, of Andover. Mr. Phelps was a man of talents and convictions,- social and genial in private life, but bold and aggres- sive in public. He entered with zeal into the new temperance and anti-slavery movements. Before long there was dissension, as might be expected. Some funds had accumulated and a series of intrigues to get possession of them ensued, not very creditable to any of the parties concerned. Eventually, a sum was paid to certain seceders who were in sympathy with Uni- versalism. The orthodox members withdrew, forming what afterwards became the " Centre Congregational Society," organized April 27, 1833, which erected a meeting-house the next year. They were largely the church, taking away the Trinitarian doctrines, but none of the money. Out of this society again grew, by separation in 1859, the "North Congregational So- ciety." The secession of the Calvinists from the First Parish church and society lett the organization, the records and the funds in the hands of the Unitarians. The society quit-claimed to the town its interest in the Common in 1837, and built a new house on the ground north of it, at the corner of Main Street.

The second pastor of the church in the North Pre- cinct, Rev. Gyles Merrill, ordained March 6, 1765, was one of the most excellent of the ministers of IIaver- hill. He remained pastor till his death in 1801, after a ministry of thirty-seven years. 11e was orthodox, sufficient in learning, prudent in conduet, simple, kindly and beloved.

The first Sunday-school was collected in the First Parish in July, 1817, when Rev. Mr. Dodge was min- ister there. The school was large and the work suc- cessful.

In October, 1804, a committee, of which Bailey Bartlett was chairman, was appointed to draft By- Laws, which were adopted in the following December. Some were to be in force only in the " compact part of the village."

The first powder house was built on the north side of Powder House Lane (now White Street) in 1805. It was about eight feet square. The second was built on Golden llill, about 1845.

The town was opposed to the embargo, and, indeed, to most of the measures which led to the War of 1812. But the Haverhill Light Infantry, organized in 1810, performed a tour of duty at South Boston, in 1814, in a handsome manner. This company had a high reputation for discipline and military skill. It dis- banded in 1841. The " Hale Guards," afterwards "The Guards," were also, for years, an efficient company.

In 1812 the first musical organization, known as the " Haverhill Musical Society," was formed. It is said the first singing school was held in the same year.

Fortunately for the town, the immediate horrors of war were not experienced by it in the War of 1812. But the news of peace caused the greatest rejoicing to a people whose trade and commerce had been cruelly interrupted.

Ship-building was never quite the same again after- wards that it had been before. Captain William Caldwell carried it on from about 1735 to 1740, when the " North Bend," of about four hundred tons, was launched.

At different periods efforts have been made to re- move obstructions in the river above and below Haverhill, with the expectation of developing manu- factures and increasing commerce, but they have not been very successful. The town did not have an almshouse or poor farm until 1820. There was a singular reluctance to abandon the old and unfeeling methods. But ever since there has been a gradual improvement, and it is believed this establishment is highly satisfactory at the present time.

Bailey Bartlett, Moses Wingate and Charles White represented the town in the convention of 1820 to revise the Constitution.

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CHAPTER CLXI.

HAVERHILL-(Continued).

Educational, Reformatory and Business Movements-Men and Families- The Saltonstulls,

Ix 1827 the Haverhill Academy was dedicated-an institution which was of great usefulness for many years, till superseded by the high school. The thor- ough history and progress of schools in the town would consume time and space not compatible with the scope of the present work, interesting subject as it is.

There was great agitation and excitement when the first temperance society was formed upon the principle of total abstinence. It was called the Society for the Promotion of Temperance in Haverhill and Vicinity, and it was organized February 5, 1828. Rev. Gard- ner B. Perry, of East Bradford, was president; Rev. Dudley Phelps, of the First Parish, was vice-president ; Abijah W. Thayer, then connected with the Gazette, was secretary and treasurer. They were bold and uncompromising men, and their course was an aggres- sive one. Neither was the opposition slight which they encountered. On account of the resolute attitude assumed by Mr. Thayer in the Gazette, the circulation fell off from one thousand to six hundred copies weekly.

March 24, 1831, the " Youths' Temperance Associ- ation of Haverhill and Bradford " was organized, thirty-seven signing the constitution the same even- ing. Elias T. Ingalls, still living, was chosen presi- dent.

In 1833 the temperance people took the question into town politics. In 1842 the selectmen were in- structed not to grant licenses for the sale of intoxi- cating liquors. A committee was appointed to prose- ente such dealers as would not retire from the business. Captain William Caldwell's distillery was sold to Alfred Kittredge about 1836, who put out the fires on the night of taking possession, and built the Kittredge Block upon the site in 1840. Credit for these initia- tory movements towards temperance is largely allotted to Isaac R. Howe and William Savory.

The people were doubtless much surprised when it was announced that town-meetings could no longer be held in the First Parish mecting-house without paying for it. They had been held in the meeting- house for nearly two hundred years. It may have seemed that the world was coming to an end. At all events, the town refused to pay thirty dollars a year for the privilege. So the next meeting was hekl in the West Parish meeting-house; and the next, after that, in the East Parish meeting-house. Then there was a meeting in the Baptist meeting-house, and then in a variety of places till the Town Hall was built, in 1847. The subject had been agitated since the First Parish proposed to charge rent for its meet- ing-house. The Town Hall cost over sixteen thousand

dollars, twice as much as was first expected. It was built on the "south part of the Harrod lot, so call- ed"-where the Mason's Arms used to be. In 1848, the town voted to allow the county the free use of the hall for the County Courts, if the latter should be removed from Ipswich to Haverhill. In 1859 the town of itself was thought to have outgrown the hall, without the aid of the county, and au able com- mittee was appointed to consider the subject and report. January 7, 1861, a plan was reported and work was immediately begun. The result was the present City Hall, the cost of which was estimated at forty-two thousand dollars. It was not built too soon. It has served the needs of the place very well for twenty-seven years; but much greater expansion of the town, its business and its population, would revive the cry of 1849, that the place has outgrown its municipal edifice.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 246

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