USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Haverhill > The story of a New England town; a record of the commemoration, July second and third, 1890 on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Haverhill, Massachusetts > Part 8
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We see, their ra de-built huts beside, (Have men and women anxious-eyed. And wistful youth remembering still Den homes in England's Haverhill
''e summon forth to mortal view Dark. Passaquo and Saggahew, --- Wild cinels, who owned the mighty away Ot wizard Passaconaway.
Weird memories of the border town, By old tradition handed down, In chance and change before us pas .. Like pictures in a magie glass,
The terrors of the midnight rand, The death-concealing ambuscade. The winter march through deserts wild, ( captive mother, wife, and child.
All bleeding hands alone subdued And tamed the savage habitu le Of Forests hiding beasts of prey, And human shapes as fierce as tory.
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Slow from the plough the woods withdrew, Slowly each year the corn-lands grew ; Nor fire, nor frost, uor foe could kill The Saxon energy of will.
And never in the hamlet's bound Was lack of sturdy manhood found, And never failed the kindred good Of brave and helpful womanhood.
That hamlet now a city is, Its log-built huts are palaces ; The cow-path, which the founders Inew, 1 : Traffic's brick-walled avenue.
And far and wide it stretches still Along its southward sloping hill, And overlooks on either hand A rich and many-watered land
And, glddening all the landscape. fair As Pison was to Eden's pair, Our river to its valley brings The blessing of its mountain springs.
And Nature holds, with narrowing space, From mart and crowd, her old-time grace, And guards with fondly jealous arms The wild growths of outlying larms.
Iler sunsets on Kenoza fall, Hler autumn leaves by Saltonstall ; No lavished gold can richer make Her opulence of hill and lake
Wise was the choice which led our sires To kindle here their householt fies, And share the large content of all Whose lines in pleasant places fall
More dear, as years on years advance, We prize the old inheritance, And feel, as far and will we Both ... That all we seek we leave at home'
NEAR THE RAHID.
مالك :- كودتي
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Our palms are pines, our oranges Are apples on our orchard trees ; Our thrushes are our nightingales, Our larks the blackbirds of our vales.
No incense which the Orient burn- Is sweeter than our hillside ferns ; What tropic splendor can outvie Our autumn woods, our sunset sk; '
If, where the slow years came and went, And left not affluence, but content. Now flashes in our dazzled eyes The electric light of enterprise ,
And if the old idyllic ease Seems lost in keen activities. And crowded workshops now replace The hearth's and farm-field's rustic grace ;
No dull. mechame round of toil Life's morning charm ean quite desp oil , And youth and beauty, hand in hand, Will always find enchanted landl.
No task is ill where hand and bram And skill and strength have equal gain And each shall each in honor hola, And simple manhood outweigh gold.
Earth shall be near to Heaven when all That severs man from man shall fall, For, here or there, salvation's plan Alone is love of God and man.
O dwellers by the Merrimack, The heirs of centuries at your back, Still reaping where you have not sown, A broader field is now your own.
Hold fast your Puritan heritage, But let the free thought of the age Its light and hope and sweetness and To the stern faith the father had.
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Adrift on Time's returnless tide, As waves that follow waves, we guide. God grant we leave upon the shore Some waif of good it lacked before ; Some seed or flower or plaut of worth, Some added beauty to the earth : Some larger hope, some thought to make The sad world happier for its sake.
As tenants of uncertain stay, So may we live om little day That only grateful hearts chall fill The homes we have in Haverhill
'The singer of a farewell thyme. Upon whose ontmost verge of onie The shades of night are falling down, I pray, God bless the good old town!
The reading was followed by most et - thasiastic applause, not only for the porta it. elf, but also for the unaffected and loquent rendering.
After Whittier's poem, Mrs. Julia Houston West sang " The Pilgrim Fa- thers," in her most soul-inspiring manner. People in Haverhill, as in other places, always heartily ap- preciate Mrs. West's glorious voice, and it is unnecessary to say more in praise of her rendering of this patriotic phes.
Hängt on Jumer retur un Lide us waren that follows womens we yleds, your grunt hoe lomme ufer the shore. Some wall of yord it tached by'ne Some real is flam a planty conthe Some lange hope, some things i make. she said world hopping for its stake. Я, Столь высокий Лей. They only grateful heart whalefall The Keiner we Grann in thenew hale . The display a fareerede shopue 1 Chou whore outmost respe j'aime The shade of withit are prodlup & sun
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THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
1. The breaking waves dashed high On a stern and rock-bound coast, And the woods against a stormny sky Their giant branches fossed.
2. And the heavy night hung dark
The hills and waters o'er, When a band of exiles moored their bank On the wild New England show.
Not as the conqueror comes They, the true-hearted, came ; Not with the roll of the stirring drums, And the trumpet that sings of fame.
4. Not as the flying come In silence and in fear , -- They shook the depths of the desert gloom Will. then hyums of lofty cheer.
5. Amidst the storm they sang
And the stars heard and the sea, And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang To the anthem of the free.
The ocean eagle soared From his nest by the white wave's foam, And the rocking pines of the forest roured, - This was their welcome home.
7. What sought they thus afar? Bright jewels of the mine? The wealth of seas, the spoils of wir? They sought a faith's pure shrine.
Ay, call it holy ground. The soil where first they trod . They have left unstained what there they found, Freedom to worship God. Mis LIPMANS.
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At this point a telegram was brought to Mayor Burn- ham. It proved that this despatch was received at a most opportune time. It was a cable message from Haverhill, England, as follows : --
Hearty greetings and congratulations from old Haver- hill to new.
When this greeting from the mother town was read to the audience by the Mayor, the most hearty and prolonged applause followed; and the delight with wlach the allusion to this message which Dr. Duncan afterwards so enthu- siastically made in his address was also received, was but an- other proof of the cordial feelings which the Am cican daughter entertains towards Haverhill across the sea.
The following message was returned, bring first read to the sodience : --
To DANIEL GURTEEN, ESQ., HAVERHILL,, ENGLAND:
The new greets the old. Two hundred and fifty years of prosperity reflect credit on the mother town.
The day and the celebration a paleet success. The new Haverhill honored by the presence of your distinguished representative.
THOMAS E. BURNHAM, Mayor of Hatchill Muss, U. S. A.
The Orator of the occasion was den introduced by Mayor Burnham in the following words :---
I have the honor of presenting as the theater of this occasion, Rey. Samuel White Duncan. D. D.
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It was particularly appropriate that this gendeman should have given the oration. Apart from the fact that he was finely qualified by his accurate scholarship, intellectual ability, and eloquence, he is a direct descendant of some of the old- ist and most respected families of Haverhill, was born and brought up among us, and now again reside in this city. For all these reasons Dr. Duncan might well be enthusias- tically applauded. He spoke as follows . --
Me Mayor, La- dies umi Gentlemen, - Two htoared and fifty yetlo ago a vine was planted here in the That vine has grown into a simdy talk. with far- outsprawling branches, beautiful with an abun- dant foliage. Mean- while, well-nigh eight generations have com- pleted their _mortal toim and left their impress upon human sock tv. It is not strange that all of us, who, proud and glad. call this fair city by the Merrimack "Hom ," should be moved to pause for a brief space, reverently to confess our deb. to the past, and gratefully commeriorate the initiatory events in our history. To many here the occasion is one of peculiar and tender interest. Gladly herding the summons,
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you have come from afar to this festival, and tread once more with joyful feet the old familiar paths. How many of us are among the scenes of our most affecting memories. Here we were born ; here, by the fireside. we heard the first aevents of affection ; here are the graves of our fathers; here is the school-house where we learned om earliest lessons ; here is the house of God where we received the elevating and consoling truths which have fortified os for the tempta- nous and sustained us amid the trials of life. We think of the great cloud of witnesses, who, invisible to mortal eyes, look. down upon us.
Apart from indulging thise encobling sentiments of our mature, there is surely the highest wisdom in reviewing the two hundred and fifty years that stretch backward across the chasm between the feeble sapling set in the savage wilder- ness of the past, and the spirited, thriving city of the present. We all appreciate that the past is a mighty factor in making the present : that if we really want to know ourselves. if we would rightly measmi . the forces that throb and palice in society about us, we must study our ancestors. The Haverhill of to-day, it: complex interests and busy life. its men and women, its thought and spirit, is an emanation of the Haverhill of the past ; not only impossible of existence without it, but just as impossible to be understood without it. as our own broad river, apart from its originating springs Tar up in the moun- tain glens and forest glades of New Hampshire.
Moreover, our history for more than two centuries is the history of a New England town. And what is there so note- worthy about this? Why, in getting back to these primal New England towns, one finds himself at the fountain head of our present political system. In these unique communities, of which Haverhill was a worthy type, was first tried on Ameri- van soil the great experiment of a free commonwealth. Here, as never before, the now world-renowned principle of a gov- (rmment of the people, by the people. took organized shape. Out of the e miniature democracies. we subsequently carved, when " the felness of time had count ; " " the colo al grandeur
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of our great Republic." And federal constitution and govern- ment were not merely the natural growth from institutions and influences originating in New England towns; but under these same influences also, through a thorough training of upwards of one hundred and fifty years. the popular mind was prepared for the responsibilities which national indepen- dence, and the formation of the national government brought. This is no extravagance. For that koen and impartial observer of American institutions, De Tocqueville, saw the sune thing, when he said, a half-century ago: " The impul- tion to political activity was given to America in its towns."
Eclow Citizers: Sach are some of the factors that give value and interest to the topic before us. Would that one better fitted stood in my place to unfold the diversified pan- orama of our history. I feel deeply seusible how difficult is the task before me. The story of two hundred and fifty Cous wasnot be compared within the limits of an hour. Much must of necessity be altogether omitted. Wherein I fail, whether by treating some points with too much, others with too little, fulness of detail, I must throw myself upon your indulgence, and ask you, each fre himself, to make up t !. deficiency.
The settlement of Haverhill was coincident with the close of the Puritan exodus to America. which, viewed in the light of moral and political results, is unqualifiedly the most important migration the world has known. It began with the violent dissolution of Parliament by Charles 1., in 1628, when the prospects of the non-conformists and of civil liberty were the darkest : It terminated with the assembling of the Long Parliament in 1610, when the bat- tle became set between king and people, and on English soil was furnished to the Puritan a fair beld for his world- significant struggle for freedom. Time will not permit of any detailed reference to the causes of this emigration. It was one of the issues of the struggle that had been going on in England, for more than a hundred years. So far as the Puritan was concerned, it was a struggle in
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which intense religious convictions, zeal for liberty, and an indomitable spirit of personal independence, were intimately blended. The objections of the Puritans to the doctrine and ceremonial of the Anglican Church were not superficial, but grounded in their deepest sense of the spirit and nature of religion itself. The determination of the king to enforce conformity, coupled with the most offensive assertion and exercise of the royal prerogative, they regarded as an affront to conscience, subversive of free government and the rights of Englishmen. In such a conflict compromise was impossible, and when no alternative seemed left to them but conformity, or expatriation they reluctantly chose the latter. In the eleven yours that followed the arrival of den Endicott at Salem, in 1628, some three hundred ships brought twenty-one thousand souls, from their comfortable hennes in England to the shores of Massachusetts Bay. They came from the stur- dies part of the baglish dock, and many of them were representatives of the best social life of England Among them were men of wealth, learned sehetara great divines, eminent lawyers and statesmen. Religious enthusiasm in rare combination with practical wisdom, dauntless, courage, the instinet of self-goverment, and the spirit of personal inde- pendence gives them a prominence among all the men of history. If they were intolerant in matters of religion, we must remember that they belonged to an age when toleration, as we understand it, was unknown. They had not yet advanced to the grandeur of such a conception as that of opening in America a refuge to which the prosecuted of any rreed night fly. This was logically involved in their princi- plus, and sure to develop itself in due time . But as yet their controlling idea was to plant a commonwealth composed ex- elusively of persons of the same mind and faith, and where they might worship God in their own way, ummolested by civil or ecclesiastical authority. I would not intimate that all of this large company of colonists were alike actuated by the une lofty spint and purpose. Doubtless with some the greed of gan, and the opportunities For the improvement of fortune
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which the new world opened. were powerful inducements. But of all migrations of people, as has truthfully been said, " the settlement of New England is preeminently the one in which the almighty dollar played the smallest part, - however important it may since have become. -- as a motive power."
With the close of the Puritan Exodus in 1610, for more than a century, there was no considerable migration to New England. These original colonists grew and multiplied on their own soil in remarkable sechsion from all other commn- nities. On the basis of the Royal Charter which conferred the power of local self-government. brought over by Winthrop and his followers in the "Arabella," they built up their insti- Intions, civil and religious. Independent of foreign influences, amid hardships and dangers, they developed a character so distinet and strong, that though their descendants now consti- tute at least one-third of the present population of the United States and are widely scattered thoughout the land, they still retain characteristic marks of their grand original.
Of such men were the early settlers of Have:hill. The idea of the settlement, though he himself never lived here, may be traced directly to Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich, " equally distinguished as author, preacher, jurist, and scholar." Ile was at this time at work upon the " Body of Liberties," which has justly been styled "the foundation stone of our State's independent sovereignty" and in commemoration of his great services to the State, a mural tablet will soon be placed in the Court House at Salem. Casting about for a promising opening for his son, John Ward, just come from England, and his son-in-law, De. Giles Firmin, that the hamlets along the court, already crowded with the recent large accessions from the mother country, could no longer furnish, his mind turned to the unoccupied wilderness along the Merrimack.
With the zeal and skill of one in dead carnest, during the winter of 1639-10, he plied Governor Winthrop with letters. aldy seconded by Firmin. In the May following, in conjunction with Newbury men, he petitionat the General Court on the subject of his settlement. A favorable answer
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is returned, provided the petitioners make choice of a locality " within three weeks from the 21st present, and build there before the next Court." No letter, no record in diary or chronicle, has yet been found, by which to fix the precise date of the settlement of Haverhill. Under the limitations of the grant. however, there was need for haste It must there- fore have been early in June, 1610, that twelve resolute men Trom Newbury and Ipswich, having toilsomly worked their way up the river, - so it would seem - in a great pimmace, just such as Firmin wrote of, landed here upon its banks their semay household goods, and began the work of rear- ing homes in the wilderness. One of Nathaniel Ward's letters contains a suggestive hint with regard to the charac- ter of these men. " Our company," he writes, " increases apace from divers towns of very desirable mien whereof we desire to be very choice. We have already more than twenty familie, of very good Christians proposed to go with us." The names of these " desirable men and good Christians," whose memories we embalm to-day as the pioneers of our fair city, wore: William White, Samuel Gile, James Davis, Henry Palmer. John Robinson, Christopher Hussey, John Williams, Richard Littlehale, Abraham Tyler. Daniel Ladd, Joseph Merrie, Job Clement, - the last four being from Ipswich.
The average moral worth and maaly virtue of this little company was musually high, as subsequent history shows. Down to the present time, the primitive " salt has not lost its savor" in their descendants, who are known among us as useful and esteemed citizens. The wright and influence of White and Clement were felt from the first William White was a pillar in the church, strong and wise in action and emun»J, a master spirit in all public affairs to almost the close of the century. His mantle descended to his son and gramsons, who, like their sire, were men honored and in- Ilmential in church and town, large contributors to the pros- perity of both. His descendants has been very numerous, and their impres may be distinctly traced in the religious.
£
PARISH CHURCH, HAVERHILL, ENGLAND,
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social, and civil life of New England. He built, in 1680, the house on Mill Street, which still remains in possession of the family.
Job Clement was soon followed in the settlement by his father, Robert, with two sons, John and Robert, Jr., and a daughter. They came from England in 1639 in their own ship, the "Clement and Job," indicating the possession of consider ible means. Robert Clement, Jr., signed the Indian deed. Robert, Sr., was the first deputy to the General Court, an associate judge, and county commissioner, and was appointed by the General Court to give the path of fidelity to the inhabitants of Haverhill. The important stations that he filled, in douch and town, testify te the esteem in which he was held. His publie spirit and sterling qualities survived in his sons. The two fine estates, the one in North Parish and the other just below Rocks Village, now as From earliest time: in the hands of Clements, perpetuate to the present day the ancient family traditions.
The first recognition by the outside world of this infant settlement was the action of the General Comt the follow- ing October. appointing a committee to view the bounds be- tween Salisbury and Mr. Ward's plantation.
There is no trace of Rev. John Ward's arrival among them, to cheer their labors by his lofty counsel and noble example, until the fall of 1611. Religion held so para- mount a place in the minds of our fathers that the meeting- house and the minister were the chief maleuses around which the carly New England settlements were gathered. Grants to form new plantations, in fact, were mainly condi- tioned upon the circumstance that the petitioners were sufficient in number and character to properly maintain a min- ister. To a very large extent the primitive communities of Massachusetts received their distinctive stamp from the char- actor and qualities of their ministers. In this respect the plantation on the Merrimack was highly favored. John Ward was born in Haverhill, Essex County, England. He was the third in a succession of distinguished divines in his
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family, his grandfather having been the minister of old Haverhill. A gradoate of the University of Cambridge, he brought with him, as did many others, the culture ac- quired at that noble seat of learning, to invigorate and beautify the wilderness of this new world. He was a devont preacher, a ripe scholar, a wise administrator, a genial friend, strong, agile in body as well as in mind, in every sense a man, when men were needed. The hardy set- tlors, who had hitherto toiled in hope, overjoyed at Ward's coming mited in naming their plantation. hitherto called Penticket, after the Indian tribe which formerly dwelt here, Haverhill. from the birthplace of their honored minister. Doubtless to each of them the childhood home in England was very dear, and gladly would they have had the sound of it. familiar name reproduced on this foreign shore. That all so heartily accorded this privilege to Ward, is the strong- est evidence of their high regard. In a Laihlal ministry of more than half a century, until he was gathered to his fathers, the last of his generation, he proved himself richly worthy of this esteem.
It is a matter of hearty congratulation to ns all, that you, si. ' as a worthy representative of this old Haverhill of sacred memory, have crossed the ocean to be with us to-day. thus happily renewing in this nineteenth century the associations and friendships of the seventeenth.
The first rude cabins of the settlers were located in the eastern part of our city, near where the outlet of what is now Saltonstall Lake, after winding through the dense fon f. joined the Merrimack. This was then called "the Mill Brooke," probably from a corn-mill soon built upon it. The larg. tract adjacent was held in common, and called the " milt lot.' The winter of 1611-12 was a terribly, bitter one. Boston Harbor was frozen over, and for six weeks remained passable for horses and oxen with loaded carts. The faith and courage of our fathers, imprisoned in snow-covered forest
' Addressed 6 Hon. Daniel Gusteen, Jr.
MARIO
ALMAMAL TABLET TO LIMA ME NE
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and imperfectly sheltered from the cold, was severely tested. There is a tinge of pathos in the simple record of the un- cimely death of the children who were born at this period. Ir tells its own story of exposure and hardship.
The intention in beginning this settlement was to hon- orably purchase the Indian title to the land. This purpose, I am satisfied. would at once have been carried into effect, had there appeared any of the aborigines with whom to negotiate. Such an opportunity seems not to have been offered, wil the 5th of November. 1612. On that day Pas- Laquo surl Saggahew, in consideration of duce pounds and ten shillings, sold to the settlers with the fall consent of Passaconnaway, the chief sachem of this region, all the lands they had hore. The tract embraced in the deed of convey- auce extended eight miles westward from the junction of Lit- tle River with the Merrimack, six miles to the northward, and six miles to the westward of the same point, " with the island and the river." The chiefs each made their mail: of a los and arrow, and the instrument was daly witnessed, on the part of the settlers, by John Ward, Robert Clement, Trinisu Collin, Hugh Surratt, William White and Thomas Davis.
At a meeting of the General Court, May, 1643, the town was assigned to Norfolk County one of the four counties into which the Massachusetts Bay Colony was then divided. This included, besides Haverhill, S. lisbury, Hamp- ton, Exeter, Dover and Portsmouth, the territory of Massa- chusetts, under the interpretation she put upon her patent, embracing all the settlements then existing in New Hamp- shire. This legal relationship with om w ighbors across the border continued until 1680, when it was dissolved by the Crown, Salisbury and Haverhill being then assigned to Essex County, and the Norfolk of that day ceased to exist, save in history.
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