USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Wilton > An address delivered at the centennial celebration in Wilton, N.H., Sept. 25, 1839 > Part 1
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01188 5008
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AN
ADDRESS,
DELIVERED AT THE
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
IN centennial Celebration
WILTON, N. H., SEPT. 25, 1839.
BY EPHRAIM PEABODY.
WITH AN APPENDIX.
Boston ;
PUBLISHED BY B. H. GREENE.
PRINTED RY I. R. BUTTS.
1839.
181135
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1811117
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Peabody, Ephraim, 1807-1856.
F 84296 .66 An address, delivered at the centennial celebration in Wil- ton, N. H., Sept. 25. 1839. By Ephraim Peabody. With an appendix. Boston. B. H. Greene, 1839.
103 p. 23cm.
SHELF CARD
1. Wilton, N. H .- IIIst.
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Library of Congress
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77094
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At a legal Town-meeting held April 30, 1839, it was " Voted, That the Town, some day in the course of the present year, celebrate the One IIundredth Anniversary of the settlement of the same." The town at the same time appropriated a sum of money to defray thie expenses of the Celebration.
It was also " Voted, That a copy of the Address to be then delivered, be furnished, i printed, to each family in the town, at the town's ex- pense."-The following gentlemen were chosen for the Committee of Arrangements, viz. Messrs. Jonathan Livermore, Jonathan Parkhurst, Zebediah Abbot, David Wilson, Ezra Abbot, Abel Fisk, Joseph Smith, Abram Whittemore, John Dale, Elijah Stockwell, Caleb Putnam, Josi- ah Parker, Daniel Batchelder, Oliver Whiting, Asa Stiles, Sam'l King, Moses Lovejoy, Jr., Joseph Newell, Joseph Gray, Jr., Timothy Park- hurst, Samuel Sheldon, Jr., Timothy Abbot, Jonathan Burton, Ashby Morgan. The 25th day of September was appointed for the festival.
At a meeting of the Committee of Arrangements, Jonathan Liver- more, Timothy Parkhurst, Abel Fiske and Abiel Abbot were ap- pointed a sub-committee to collect materials respecting the history of Wilton for the Address, and were instructed to invite Rev. Ephraim Peabody, of New Bedford, Mass., to prepare said Address. .
After the day of celebration, Jonathan Livermore and Abiel Abbot were appointed a publishing committee. Having requested and received a copy of the Address, they have added to it such statistical details as they have thought might be interesting, and also an account of the Proceedings on the Day of Celebration ; all of which they now sub- mit to their fellow citizens of Wilton.
JONATHAN LIVERMORE. ABIEL ABBOT.
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ADDRESS.
WE meet this day to commemorate our Fathers. Around us are the products of their toil. In laborious poverty they accumulated this abundance for their children. Our comforts speak of their hardships; our advantages, of their deprivations. On every side, are the proofs of their thoughtful, self-forgetting care for the welfare of their descendants. Here are the institu- tions established by their wise foresight ; on every side, lying warm in the sun, spread out the cultivated fields, freed by their labor from the forest; here yet may be seen the foundations of their dwellings; and here too - forever sacred let them be ! - are their graves.
We stand on the horizon that divides two centuries. As the subject suitable for the occasion, I would dwell, first ; on the history of the town during the past cen- tury ; - and secondly, a topic suggested by the pre- ceding one, consider some of the chief causes on which our New England towns have been dependent for their growth and prosperity.
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When we point to a well-peopled town, to a commu- nity possessing all the comforts and desirable luxuries of life, and blest with settled institutions to bring within reach of all the means of mental, moral, and relig- ious instruction, and then say that a hundred years ago none of these existed ; that the region which is now sending emigrants over the whole world, was then itself first explored by emigrants who watched against the Indian, the wolf and the bear; we see the whole amount of change, but we have a very imperfect idea of the hardships and labors encountered in bringing it about. A single incident may show us through what our fathers passed. The first death that occurred was that of John Badger, in Feb. 1740. He died in the night. The nearest neighbor was three miles distant, and the ground was covered deep with snow. His wife com- posed him on the bed as for rest, left her children, (of whom she had three, the oldest but eight years of age,) with their breakfast, and with strict injunctions not to awake their father, as he was asleep, and putting on her snow-shoes proceeded to seek assistance. That indeed was a dreary morning as she went forth through the soli- tary woods of winter. Death is in her home, and her children wait her return. Uphold her trembling heart, thou Father of the fatherless and the widow's God ! Neighbors returned with her. A tree was hollowed out for a coffin, and so in the solitude was he committed to the earth. Death at all times comes, chilling the hearts of men with awe and fear. Even in populous cities, in the midst of the throng and busy voices of life, an awful sense of solitude rests on those who witness the departure of the dying ; and days and years shall pass, and they who beheld the scene shall enter that chamber
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with silent steps and hushed voices and a shadow over their souls. What then must have been her loneliness, - a solitary widow in the wilderness. She must watch by the bedside of her children alone ; her tears shall be shed alone - she shall no more kneel by her hus- band's side to pray - his voice shall no more waken her at morning, and when the night approaches she shall unconsciously look forth to the forest, watching for his return, who shall never return again.
A single example like this shows the hardships of the first settlers of a new region, better than any general description, however extended. But turning from the deprivations to which individuals were subjected, it may be interesting for us to trace briefly the gradual growth of the town.
In June, 1735, the Massachusetts General Court granted to Samuel King and others,* in consideration " of their sufferings " in the expedition to Canada in the year 1690, the township of Lyndeborough and about one third of Wilton on the north side, under the name of Salem Canada. In this part of Wilton, in June, 1739, was the first settlement made. The first settlers were Ephraim and Jacob Putnam and John Dale,t
* We are indebted to Joseph H. Abbot, Esq. for consulting the records of the General Court of Massachusetts on this point, where under date of June 19, 1735, the petition of King may be found. A copy of the same has been deposited by Mr. Abbot in the Wilton ministerial library.
+ For the first three years after the settlement of Wilton, the wife of Jacob Putnam was the only woman who resided permanently in the town. During one winter, such was the depth of snow in the woods and such the distance of neigh- bors, that for the space of six months, she saw no one except the members of her own family. A part of the farm which belonged to Jacob Putnam, is still in the possession of his grandson, Caleb Putnam, who on the day of the centennial cele- bration exhibited at the meeting-house, a hill of corn raised on the land where a settlement was made a hundred years before.
The farm which was owned by John Dale is also now in the possession of his grandson, John Dale. This year he raises upon it more than four hundred
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who removed to this place from Danvers, Massachu- setts.
In 1749, the Masonian Proprietors made a grant of the rest of the town, under certain conditions, to forty- six persons. Forty-six shares were conveyed to them by a deed, dated October 1, 1749, each share containing two hundred and forty acres, to be drawn by lot. Besides these, two lots of eighty acres each, were granted " for encouragement for building mills." One share for the first settled minister, one share for the ministry and one for schools. The principal conditions were, that the grantees should make all highways, - the proprietors not being subject to any tax ; - should build a church by November, 1752; - should have made settlements and built a house on forty lots; and that cach settler should pay thirteen dollars and thirty-three cents to aid in bringing forward the settlement. Delinquents were to forfeit their land, except in case of an Indian war ; - and white pine trees were to be reserved for the British navy. The grantees had it laid out, and annexed to a part of Salem Canada, and called No. 2. It was incor- porated June 25th, 1762, under the name of Wilton, a name probably derived from Wilton an ancient bor- ough in Wiltshire, England; and the first town-meet- ing was held July 27th, 1762, twenty-three years after the first settlement. Before the Revolution, a range of
bushels of grain. The house that he now resides in, was the first two story frame house in town. A man was killed in the raising of it - an iron bar falling acci- dentally on his head from the hands of a man on the frame above, and killing him instantly.
John Dale's (the first settler) eldest daughter taught the first school in town, and for some years was the only female teacher.
Ephraim Putnam, the remaining one of the first settlers, after residing here a short time, removed to Lyndeborough. His farm was taken by Jolin Crane.
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lots, half a mile wide, was set off to Temple ; and thus the town finally assumed its present size and shape .*
Improvements of all kinds, of course, were slow and gradual. The first settlers went to Dunstable to mill ; and when Shepherd's mills in Milford, seven miles dis- tant, were built, it was so great a convenience, that it was hardly thought less of than a modern railroad. The first grist-mill in Wilton was built by Deac. Samuel Greele, of Nottingham-West, at the same place where there is one now carried on by Fiske Russell. The first saw-mill was near Philip Putnam's set of mills on the North Stream. The second grist and saw-mill was Hutchinson's, at the East Village, on the same spot as now. These were all the grist-mills erected before the Revolution.
The roads were at first little more than footpaths, marked by spotted trees. For a long time there were apprehensions of danger from Indians. Wilton seems, indeed, never to have been a fixed residence for them, but merely a hunting ground. They, however, lived along the Merrimack, and in time of hostility, or when hostility was feared, the first settlers went into garrison. This continued about ten years. One garrison was in Milford, north of the Souhegan, near the Peabody Place. The other was in Lyndeborough, near where
* The first settlers of that part of Wilton south of Salem-Canada, were Scotch, about a dozen families of whom were in the town when it was incorporated. As other families came in, they left, till at the time of the Revolution all but two families had disappeared. The present inhabitants are entirely of the Puritan stock. John Burton, the ancestor of those of that name now residing in the town, was from Middleton, Mass. The Holts, Abbots, Thomas Russell, Samuel Pet- tengill were from Andover; Kings, Stevens, Parkhurst were from Chelmsford. And nearly all the remaining families that came here before the Revolution were from the same towns.
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Ephraim Putnam settled. Descendants of his live there to this day.
The Ecclesiastical History of our New England towns has always been of great interest and importance. It must be gratifying to all whose native place is Wilton, that the means of religious improvement have always been carefully provided by its inhabitants. When the town was first laid out, one share of two hundred and forty acres was set apart for the first minister, and another for the support of the ministry. From the sale of the latter arose the ministerial fund, amounting now to about two thousand seven hundred dollars, the inte- rest of which is appropriated annually to the support of the ministry in the town. There had already been oc- casional preaching most of the time ; and from the re- cords it appears that at least two persons had been invited to settle here ; but the first minister actually set- tled was Mr. Jonathan Livermore, who was ordained Dec. 14, 1763. On the same day a church was formed consisting of eight male members. Mr. Livermore was minister thirteen years and resigned. It may be men- tioned as an interesting fact, that there were only two families in town during his ministry whose children were not baptized. The first meeting-house was built in 1752. It was used twenty-one years and then taken down. The second meeting-house, - the one in which we are now assembled, - was built during the ministry of Mr. Livermore. They commenced raising it September 7, 1773. Such things were conducted differently then from what they are now. It was con- sidered the work of two days. People came from dis- tant towns to see the spectacle. There was great note of preparation. A committee of the town appointed
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the raisers, and ample provisions were made to enter- tain strangers .*
It was a beautiful September morning. And now might be seen coming in by every road, and from the neighboring towns, great numbers, men, women and children, to see the show. Some came on foot ; some practised the method, unknown in modern days, of riding and tying ; some were on horseback, with their wives or sisters behind on a pillion. It was an occasion of universal expectation. The timbers were all prepar- ed, the workmen ready, and the master-workman, ful of the dignity of his office, issuing his orders to his aids. All went on prosperously. The good cheer, the excitement of the work, the crowd of spectators, men looking on, women telling the news, boys playing their various games, all made it a scene of general rejoicing. The sides of the house were already up, and also a part of the roof at the east end of the building. One of the raisers from Lyndeborough, Capt. Bradford, had brought over his wife, whom he left, on account of illness, at the place where Mr. Baldwin now resides, while he himself went on to take part in the work. Having to pass along the centre of the building, he observed that the middle beam, extending across the church, was not pro- perly supported. A post was under the centre, but it was worm-eaten, and was already beginning to yield and give way under the pressure. In raising the middle part of the roof, the weight of the workmen would come in great measure on this beam, which was evidently not
* Among other things, - which might, indeed, in part account for the accident that followed, - the town " Voted to provide, one barrel of West India rum, five barrels of New England rum, one barrel of good brown sugar, half a box of good lemons, and two loaves of loaf sugar, for framing and raising the meeting-house."
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strong enough to bear up the timbers and men. He immediately ascended the roof and informed the master- workman, who, being made over-confident by the suc- cess thus far, replied to him, that if he was afraid he might go home ; that they wanted no cowards there. Indignant, he immediately went down, and started off for his wife, with the purpose of returning home. But before he had reached Mr. Baldwin's, the men had al- ready proceeded forward, confident and clated at their progress. They were swarming upon the unsupported beam and the planks and timbers which rested on it. They were raising up, with much exertion and shouts of direction and encouragement, the beams and rafters, when - suddenly, as he was anxiously looking back, he saw the frame already erected, tremble, the men shrink back aghast ; the building seemed to rock for a moment to and fro, and suddenly all, timbers and tools and men, rushed down together in one mingled mass, in the centre. The crash was so loud as to be heard nearly a mile. For a moment all was silent, and then the air was filled with groans, and outcries, and shricks of terror. There were fifty-three men on the frame that fell. Three were instantly killed; two died very shortly afterwards; others were crippled for life, and most of them were more or less mangled or wounded. To understand the impression that the event made at the time, it must be remembered that the whole popula- tion of the town, men, women and children, was scarce- ly five hundred. It was like so many men lost over- board from a ship at sea. It caused a general mourn- ing, for there were few families which had not lost a friend, or connexion, or some one of whose friends were not among the wounded. At a Fast which was kept,
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Mr. Livermore preached from the words, (Ps. cxxvii, 1,) which then must have been peculiarly impressive : " Ex- cept the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." Superstition came in to darken the event. A man by the name of Isaac Russell had been killed by the fall of a tree which he had himself cut, and it was ascertained that the fatal beam was made of this self- same tree .*
The people soon met again to erect the building, and the superstition of the day seemed to have some rea- sonable ground ; for a new beam substituted in the place of the former, likewise fell. The house was, however, finally completed near the end of the year 1774, and dedicated Jan. 5, 1775, when Mr. Liver- more preached a sermon from 1 Chron. xxix, 14 : " But who am I and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things came of thee, and of thine own have we given them." In July 20, 1804, the house was struck with lightning, and the middle post at the east end rent from top to bottom, where it may now be seen clamped together by an iron bolt.
In former days, (to continue the history of the meeting- house,) before people had become so delicate and lux- urious as now, there was no fire in the church in winter. How it might be with those of riper years I know not. I believe that the older men chose to have it under- stood that their zeal kept them warm; while the
* The event furnished a subject for one of our native poets. His somewhat antique melodies were rewarded with a household, domestic honor, to which many poets of greater note have never been able to attain. Long after the event and within the memory of many now living, they were familiarly sung by the young ladies of the town, as they carded and spun by their firesides. These memorable stanzas may be found in the Appendix.
ملعقة الط رب
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young men, fearing perhaps lest their reputation for har- dihood might suffer in the eyes of the gentler sex, would not confess that they were to be made to feel cold by any weather. But I can bear witness, that there were young lads, who, when the thermometer was at zero, by the middle of the afternoon sermon, were ready, after some misgiving, to give up reputation for zeal and pride of sex, for the chance of holding their fingers for a few moments over their mother's foot- stoves.
Fires were first introduced in December, 1822, and the belfry raised and bell hung in 1832.
The Universalists united together in 1812. The Baptist Church was organized April 7, 1817, and Soci- ety incorporated in 1818, and meeting-house erected in 1827. The second Congregational meeting-house was dedicated January 1, 1830. The Church was embo- died June, 1823, and the Society formed under the gen- eral act of incorporation.
But this part of our Ecclesiastical history is too re- cent for me to dwell on. As illustrative, however, of the changes of the times, I may refer to one fact. When Mr. Beede was settled in 1803, there was not one dissenting voice in the town, not one who declined paying the minister's tax on any ground whatsoever. There was a singular harmony of religious views and feelings. All met in the same house to worship together the common Father of all. One of the results, which may deserve to be mentioned, of this harmony, was the comparatively light expense of maintaining public wor- ship. At that time, besides what was derived from the ministerial fund, the whole amount assessed for the sup- port of religious institutions was about two hundred and
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sixty-five dollars a year. Now it amounts yearly to more than twelve hundred dollars. The number of in- habitants is very nearly the same now as then, while the tax for religious objects has increased about nine hun- died and fifty dollars per annum.
At first sight one may be inclined to lament that the children have not been able to walk together in the same harmony as their fathers. But there are higher considerations than that of mere unity of opinion. It must be gratifying to every native of the place, as showing the general interest felt in religion, to witness the readiness with which this heavy tax is paid for the support of religious institutions, and the liberality which has characterized the town in all such matters. And it must also be gratifying, if men in their examinations do not arrive at the same views, that there are so many different churches, that every one may enjoy the privi- lege, which the Pilgrim Fathers came to New-England to secure, of worshipping God according to his own conscience. Nay, this separation may be merely tem- porary and only for the greater advantage of each and all. If the means of religion, which all possess, be faith- fully used, there shall be a higher union. I observed as we walked towards the place where we are assembled, that two of the churches, (and I presume that it was only necessity that caused the other to be omitted,) though widely separated on the earth, were, above the earth, united -tower to tower-by a band wreathed with evergreen. So may we hope that many souls, that find it for their spiritual improvement to worship apart here, shall be united in eternal bands in heaven.
Another object of essential importance is that of schools. And I think we may look with pride to our
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native town and see how willingly and well they have been supported. The school-tax, assessed by the town has always been more than was required by law, and of late years nearly double that amount. The sum re- quired by law has been about three hundred dollars ; - whereas the sum actually raised, has never, for many years been less than four hundred - while of late years it has been five hundred, five hundred and fifty, and six hundred dollars per annum. Besides this should be reckoned in what has been raised for private and subscription schools ; and a much larger sum, - some years much more than all the rest, - which has been expended by young men and women in schools, academies and colleges abroad, where they have. gone to seek further opportunities of education.
To this liberal support of schools and religious insti- tutions, I think we may trace, in great measure, several very important results, such as a general intelligence and a taste for intellectual pleasures and pursuits, and the general good morals. It is not known, for example, that any native of Wilton has ever committed a crime which has subjected him to any of the severer penalties of the law.
To this may in part be attributed the small number of paupers compared with what is to be found in most towns of the same size ; so that if the people here have paid more for the support of schools and religion, they have thus prepared men better to provide for themselves, and have been obliged to pay less for the support of the poor.
It may be owing to this that Wilton has never been able to support a lawyer. The only one who ever attempted to settle in the town, I am told, was starved out in about three months.
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Wilton, too, has furnished very much more than her proportion of professional men. Twenty-nine have re- ceived a college education. Thirteen of those born here have entered the ministry : eleven have become physicians, two of whom have been professors in med- ical colleges ; and five have become lawyers. Were we to reckon the children of those who have emigrated from the town, this number would be very much in- creased. Besides this, are a very large number of school-teachers, than whose office none can be more important ; and three have gone missionaries to heathen lands.
The great increase of the expenses of the town for schools and religious purposes has taken place, while other taxes have not diminished, and the population has not increased. Since 1790, when the number of inhab- itants was one thousand one hundred and five, the population has been nearly stationary, and has never been greater than at that period.
The political history of the town is too important to be passed over entirely, though in referring to it, I would express no opinion as to the political questions that have been agitated.
The state of New-Hampshire during the revolution- ary war was more free from toryism, than any state in the union. After the Revolution, the federal party was the dominant one, and New-Hampshire continued a federal state, unitedly, longer than any other, with the exception of Connecticut. Indeed, for fifteen years after the adoption of the Constitution in 1783, there was but one ticket in the state for United States and state officers. The republican party gained the as- cendancy in 1805. Since then, at different times 3
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