USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Keene > An historical address : delivered in Keene, N.H., on July 4, 1876, at the request of the city government > Part 1
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Gc 974.202 K25wh 1770894
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01096 2410
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AN
Historical Address,
DELIVERED IN
KEENE, N. H.,
-ON-
JULY 4, 1876.
AT THE REQUEST OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT,
- BY -
WILLIAM ORNE WHITE.
OF
LEE
CITY
NEW
LIRE
1871
MPSI
THE NEWCURRY
LIBRARY CHIL,AGO
7
KEENE : SENTINEL PRINTING COMPANY, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 1876.
1770894
251
White, William Orne, 1821-1911. An historical address, delivered in Keene, N. H., on July 4, 1876. At the request of the city government, by William Orne White. Keene, Sentinel printing company, printers, 1876. 34 p. 22cm
LELF CARD
1. Keene, N. II .- Hist. 2. Fourth of July orations. -
1-8018
Library of Congress
F44.K2W5 ·
CITY OF KEENE.
In the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
A RESOLUTION in relation to printing the Historical Address of WILLIAM O. WHITE, July 4th.
Resolved by the City Councils of the City of Keene, as follows :
That the thanks of the City Government be presented to the REV- EREND WILLIAM O. WHITE, for the address delivered by him on the 4th inst.
That a copy of the same be requested for the Press, and that two thousand copies, in pamphlet form, be printed for the use of the cit- izens; one copy of the same to be forwarded to Washington, in at ;- cordance with the recommendation of the President, and one copy to the clerk of the County Courts.
CHARLES SHRIGLEY, President Common Council. E. FARRAR, Mayor.
A true copy .- ATTEST :
H. S. MARTIN,
City Clerk pro tem.
ADDRESS.
We are all an hundred years old to-day. For this day. at least, we identify ourselves with our country, and we know that it will not be the privilege of the youngest, any more than of the oldest among us, to lend our bodily presence at the next centennial. So there is, indeed, a significant sense in which, to-day, we are all of one age. I do not forget that Deacon John Whitman, of Bridgewater, Mass., lived to be one hundred and seven years old-but upon what conditions ? His son testifies that no matter what terrific events were occur- ring in the world, no matter what instances of depravity were reported in private life, the most vehement expression of dis- approbation which he could recall hearing the patriarch use was, "Oh strange !" Now I think it may be conceded that the Young America of Keene will hardly be willing thus rigidly to rule their spirits. We shall hardly find them bartering all their interjectional exclamations for the mild regimen of "Oh strange !" even to secure the hope of living past an hun- dred years.
Resigning, therefore, to the unborn the privilege of being eager and active participants in the next centennial, we stretch one hand to the shadowy forms of the past, and the other to the shadowy forms of the future, content to be, to-day, only a connecting link between the two.
The pity is that this call of Congress and the President, for some glimpse of historical research to-day. on the part of the various localities in our land, should not be more generally heeded. In any one instance, there may not be much evoked from the records of the past, to stir the sympathies of the listeners. But when we think of the country as a whole, when we consider all our cities and villages, we are reminded
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of the coral reefs on the coast of Australia, a thousand miles in extent, the combined work of innumerable myriads of mi- croscopic creatures, each one of which has performed his indispensable part in this marvellous architecture. Thus each contribution, however humble, to the history of any village in the land, is so much added to that historic reef, into which, with microscopic eyes, the investigator of future centuries will be glad to pry. The time may come when we of this generation shall be laughed at for thinking ourselves so wise. They that come after us will wish that we had been more spar- ing of our theories, and had been more patient in recording facts. The theories which an Egyptian astronomer held five thousand years ago, it may not greatly concern us to know, but his record of the appearance of the star Sirius, once more, after having been concealed by the sun, enables us, with one stroke of the pen, to add seventeen hundred and seventy years to the already venerable years of the third pyramid of Gizeh. So let us refresh our minds with a few of the incidents that are connected with our own story as a frontier settlement, as a village, and subsequently as a city, assuring posterity, in advance, of our thanks, should it add brighter lustre to the name of Keene than all which it has worn before.
Yet it is hard to divert our minds even for a moment, from Philadelphia, to-day.
In imagination, we are all under the shadow of Indepen- dence Hall ; we hear the charge, as of yore : "Proclaim liberty .throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." We see its avenues re-peopled with those patriots of an elder day. "How long will it all last?" is the whispered prayer in their minds, as they think of the germ of national freedom which they are patiently committing to the soil. We turn our eyes away for a moment, and, as we look again, behold their prayer answered in the bursting from the soil of the "Century Plant" of American Liberty. its petals wet with dew drops from heaven,-the oppressed from other lands, ave, even from our own borders, all clasping hands exultingly beneath its beneficent shelter !
It was through the legislation of Massachusetts, in July 1732, that the proprietors of the Upper Ashuelot, (for thus
the tract was designated,) derived their rights. On June 26th. 1734, (one hundred and nineteen years before the observ- ance of the town's centennial in 1853, which celebration com- memorated, strictly, only the one hundredth anniversary of its charter under its present name,) we see these proprietors meeting in Concord, Mass., "at the house of Mr. Jonathan Hall, inn-holder. " In the following September, a very few of these proprietors reach the unfrequented wilderness of their choice, by the way of Northfield, Mass., its nearest civilized neighbor. In the year 1740, they find themselves, upon the adjustment of the disputed boundary line between Massachu- setts and New Hampshire, "excluded from the province of the Massachusetts Bay. to which they alwaies supposed themselves to belong, " and vainly beseeching the powers that be, that "they may be annexed to the said Massachusetts Province."
It would be a great piece of historic treason, to imagine our beautiful valley, as being first settled only a hundred years before the commemoration in 1853, for it was in fact as early as the year 1736 that Main street enlarged its borders, the following vote being then passed : "Forasmuch as the Town Street is judged to be to narrow conveniently to accomidate the Propriators, That every Propriator whose Lotts Ly on the West side of the street, that will leave out of his Lott at the front, or next adjoining to sd street, four rods in depth, the whole bredth of their respective Lotts. to accomidate the sd street, shall have it made up in quantity in the Rear, or other end of their Lotts." What would these wide-heartel men have said of some of the streets laid out a century later by their successors ?
There soon steps upon the scene a helpful man indeed, "the worthy Mr. Jacob Bacon," as he is designated ; the Clerk and Treasurer of the Proprietors three months before May Ist, 1738, when he "was chosen by every vote," as a suitable per- son to settle in the ministry of this place.
In his letter of acceptance, he says "But. with this. I de- sire your candor in attending upon my administrations, con- sidering yt I am but a man Liable to ye Like passions, temp- tations, failings and imperfection with other men, and indeed, more in ye way of Satan's malice, than you or any else are.
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but those who are engaged in ye like cause against his publick interest, as ye ministers of Christ are." It is a firm, round hand that "worthy" Mr. Bacon writes, a model for a Scribe. No wonder that he remained Clerk of the Proprietors, as long as he remained their pastor. He appears to have continued with them until 1747, nine years after his settlement, when they were all on the eve of abandoning the place to the Indians. He was one of a class numbering thirty-four, who graduated at Harvard College in 1731. Among the twelve ministers who belonged to the class, I notice the name of my mother's great-grandfather, Rev. John Sparhawk of Salem, Mass. How different their lot! The "First Church" in Salem, had been gathered more than a century before! It is not hard to imagine Jacob Bacon as writing to his Salem classmate concerning his " perils by heathen," and " perils . in the wilderness." "Come over into Macedonia, and help us, Oh, John Sparhawk." may he not have written ?
And after the discovery in 1745, of the lifeless body of Deacon Josiah Fisher, near where the late Mr. Charles Lan- son's bark-house is, we may imagine him writing thus : " Ah, Sparhawk, little can you dream what a sorrow has befallen us here ! My right-hand man, Deacon Josiah Fisher, is gone ! You will scarce believe me, when I tell you how. His lifeless form was found on the road over which he was taking his cow to pasture, and I shudder to tell you that it had been also scalped ! There lay, now silent and cold, that face which had so often beamed upon us from the Sanctuary. It was but yesterday that he had said : "Let us take courage ! Having put our hand to the plough, let us not look back." "And now the Lord hath gathered him, as ripened wheat, into his garner."
And again, hear him addressing his classmate. the following year, just after the tragedy, which culminated in the slaughter of others of his flock. "John Sparhawk, I can say with Jeremy : 'Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people !' Again hath the Indian enemy been let loose, like Satan, seeking whom he may de- vour. He stealthily pursued good mistress McKenny, stab- bing her in the back, as she, unconscious soul, was wearily
9
stepping toward her barn, to milk her cow. And John Bullard, moreover, hath been fatally shot. Running from his barn, he was nigh to grasp the gate of the fort, when the cruel foe took deadly aim at his back, and he gave up the ghost. But Ephraim Dorman hath received from the Lord the mantle of Samson, for he prevailed marvellously in a fierce wrestle with a stalwart savage, and went off victorious." Let me add that whenever these imaginary letters actually come into my hands, they shall surely find their way into the archives of Keene ! As "worthy" Jacob Bacon, walked from his church, near where the Robinson farmhouse now stands, past the fort, near where that courtly gentleman, the late Dr. Charles G. Adams, so long resided-that luckless fort, so succorless for John Bul- lard,-and as he glanced across the road to the McKenny house on the sight of Mr. E. C. Thayer's mansion,- as he walked over such a road, how vividly the imagery of the Old Testament must have occurred to him ! With the Psalmist. he must have said, " My soul is among lions," and he must have also rejoiced that he too could say to Jehovah, "Thou hast known my soul in adversities."
How all this stern participation in the hardships of his flock, must have endeared this picturesque valley to him only the more. And when, just after all the colonists had forsaken the settlement, he learned that scarce anything was left behind them by the Indians, but smoking rnins; even the church turned to ashes, with its " pulpit, and table and Deacon's seat, built all completely workmanlike." his heart must have sunk within him.
Nor could his subsequent ministry in Plymouth, Mass., ter- minating just a hundred years ago, and lasting twenty-seven years, have ever weaned him wholly from the exciting frontier life in which he was evidently so practical a helper. He died in Rowley, Mass .. in 1787, at the age of eighty-one, having preached a while after leaving Plymouth. in what is now the town of Carver.
To his latest days, we can imagine how young and old gath- ered around him to hear him describe the discovery of Mark Ferry. the hermit, who in his terror of the Indians, had crawled from his cave near the river-bank into the boughs of an over- 2
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hanging tree ; and to listen to his recital of the picturesque career of Nathan Blake, who, resisting an impulse secretly to stone his captor to death, was advanced to a vacant chieftain- ship among the Canadian Indians, gained at times the mastery over them in athletic sports, and was at length released after two years' captivity, surviving until the year 1811, and falling but seven months short of being a centenarian. A lad once told me in a similar case, that a man had become " almost a cen- turion !" "Mr. Nathan Blake, both among Indians and white men, had certainly long enjoyed the honor of being a sort of centurion, even if he were not quite a centenarian.
After the three or four years' vacation granted to the Upper 'Ashuelot settlers by the plots of their Indian enemies, we find these colonists returning in 1750 and 1751, and wearing in 1753 the corporate name of Keene, a name which the late Hon. Salma Hale, in his terse, but invaluable "Annals," conjectures to have been borrowed by Governor Wentworth from Sir Ben- jamin Keene, who at about this time, was "Minister from England to Spain."
The late Rev. Aaron Hall writes: "The inhabitants of Swanzey and Keene, after they returned from their dispersion on account of the wars, desirous of having the gospel preached among them, however they were few in number ; accordingly the two towns covenanted together to hire preaching in con- nection." Rev. John L. Sibley. the indefatigable librarian of Harvard College, a rare and accurate antiquarian, writes me that on April 21, 1753, the churches of Keene and Swanzey · thet at the school house in Swanzey, and united in installing Rev. Ezra Carpenter, who had at a previous time been the minister of Hull for twenty-five years. He was re-installed, (and this re-installing, Rev. Aaron Hall alludes to) Oct. 4, 1753, when the two towns agreed to be one religious society. bearing the expenses equally for three years. Afterwards the union was continued by annual assessments till 1760, when Keene voted not to join with the people of Swanzey in main- taining the worship of God ; the minister having the choice of places, preferred Swanzey. The tradition, adds Mr. Sibley, is, " that he was dismissed from Swanzey about 1765 (though another authority says 1769) at his own request, and the eccle-
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siastical council had but just left the meeting house when a tornado struck it and turned it one-quarter round, so that it faced the East instead of the South."
What omen was attached to this right-about-face movement from the skies, we do not learn. Mr. Carpenter died at Wal- pole, Aug. 26. 1785. When. in 1753. Rev. Ezra Carpenter · began to preach here, a rude fabric had been erected that sea- son, where Mr. Reuben Stewart's house now stands, but in De- ceniber the people voted to build a meeting house forty-five feet long and thirty-five wide, several rods West of Mr. Henry Colony's present residence on West street. In January it ap- pears to have been removed to a spot near where the Soldiers' Momment now stands. The removal appears to have been made " in consideration of the unfitness of the ground, and the exposedness to fire, and to the enemy, in case of war." The " worthy" Mr. Clement Sumner was ordained as minister of Keene. June 11, 1761. remaining their pastor for eleven years. Rev. Dr. Barstow, in his .. Half-century Sermon " says that " he was a graduate of Yale College in 1758. and that in 1772. in consequence of difficulties, he was dismissed at his own request, by an ecclesiastical council."
On the 18th of February, 1778, Rev. Aaron Hall. a gradu- ate of Yale College in 1772. entered upon his thirty-six years' ministry of peace and joy, going in and out among his people like a brother beloved. The inhabitants have scarcely been anchored twenty-one years after their return, when the cloud of war is again seen heavily rising, this time over the whole country. Froin the Provincial papers published by the New Hampshire Historical Society, it appears that the population of Keene in 1775 was but 756, of whom 31 ont of the 171 males between 16 and 50 years of age, were in the army. It is gratifying to notice that no " negroes or slaves for life " are reported from Keene. while Exeter reports 36. and Somersworth. with a pop- ulation of but 965, reports 80. and Winchester and Walpole 10 each. and even Dublin, 1. The town of Surry, according to the Provincial papers. reports seven . parsons" as . gone in the army." a liberal proportion of the cloth, one would think, for a population of 215. and suggesting the idea that the town might be willing to spare a few of them. But the enigma is
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solved when we find Lancaster, Hawke, and Boscawen all sending their parsons, and no persons.
The Adjutant-General's Reports indicate that as early as 1775, Col. Josiah Willard, of Keene, was at the head of a reg- iment marching to Crown Point. William Ellis appears as Captain, and Benjamin Ellis, as 2d Lieutenant of the Third N. H. Regiment, in 1777. both of Keene.
It is a significant fact that the one hundred and thirty-three names which the State papers report as signing the agreement to " oppose with arms the hostile proceedings of the Brit- ish fleet and armies," reads as if it were copied from our pres- ent voting lists. We find ourselves in a wilderness of Blakes and Metcalfs, and Ellises and Crossfields and Nimses and Wheelers and Wilders and Briggses, &c .. while the smaller list of thirteen who refused to sign, has scarcely a repre- sentative among us. Captain Eliphalet Briggs. though dying in Keene, of small pox, at the age of forty-one. in 1776, had already been in the army, and had been sent delegate from Keene, on August 2d of that year. to consult at Walpole with delegates from other towns. concerning the public safety. Our local antiquarian, (William S. Briggs. Esq .. ) his great grandson, tells me that he well remembers .. Eliakim Nims" (" Captain," all called him) as he went the round of the streets, a ready rhymer. Seated, like a Turk. on the table. he would tell the story of Bunker Hill over and over again, to the charmed ears of the children. his voice waxing pathetic, as these words came slowly forth : " But alas. our ammunition failed," and deepening in impressiveness as he added, "When we went into battle, there stood my brother, close at my side, but after the firing began, my brother was to be seen never- more." This Eliakim Nims once resided in the cottage for- merly occupied by Mr. Lucien B. Page. And in this connec- tion it may be interesting to know, that there is a well-supported tradition, that Mr. Luther Nurse's barn. on Beech Hill. was "raised" by one Wheeler, on the very day of the battle of Bunker Hill. There, then. towering far above us. is our mon- ument of that battle. " Zach Tufts." known by some per- sons as Morgan Tufts, because he was one of Morgan's Rifle- inen. is well remembered still ; a man, one blow from whose
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brawny fist, was long a terror to any interloper who dared to play any mischievous pranks when the removal of a building was going on. Ebenezer Carpenter, J. P. Blake and others, are also recalled. *Mrs. Betsey Houghton-now within less than ten years of the full century of years to which her mother, Mrs. John Leonard, attained, twenty-one years ago-graphi- cally recalls Capt. John Houghton, her husband's father, as he was wont to tell of his march to Bennington, and the big cheese at one farm house on the road, which he was fired with an ambition to discuss, but which held siege, both against love and money, and yielded only when he made signal for some of his soldiers to approach. Nathaniel Kingsbury and Dan- iel Kingsbury and Aaron Wilson, were all Revolutionary sol- diers ; and they all have descendants still among us. Silas Perry, I met in 1851, and followed him to the grave in 1852. He lived to the age of 89. He came to Keene at about the age of 30, having enlisted in the war from Westminster, Mass. He was wont sadly to recount, how it fell to his lot to be one of the guard at the execution of Major Andre. Once more the name of " Bacon," gleams before us, as we find that the Revolutionary lieutenant, Oliver Bacon of Jaffrey, by the testimony of our fellow citizen, Gen. James Wilson, who hap- pily helped him out of a law suit, was a son of our Rev. Ja- cob Bacon, the well-beloved pioneer pastor of Upper Ash- uelot.
The exploit at the battle of Bennington, resulting in the capture, by Josiah Richardson and Joshua Durant, of three Hessians, is familiar to those who have studied Hale's ; Annals as faithfully as they should. The most vivid incident, however, connected with our part in the Revolutionary war, is reported in the same work, where Captain Dorman calls on Captain Isaac Wyman, giving him the news from Concord, in April '75, and adding, " What shall be done?" The inhabitants meet, by Captain Wyman's direction. .. on the green ;" Capt. Wy-
*Mr. Abel Blake vividly recalls Lieut. Samuel Heaton, who lived on Marlboro' street, in the house below Mr. Cole's residence.
t The annalist himself died November 19, 1866, in his 80th year, leaving two children, Hon. Geo. S. Hale, a successful and greatly trusted advocate, in Bos- ton, and Mrs. Sarah, widow of the late Hon. Harry Hibbard, M. C., of Bath, New Hampshire.
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man is chosen leader, and " though far advanced in years, cheerfully consents to go." Thirty volunteers are forthcom- ing. At sunrise next day, they meet, too early to be cheered by the good word from Gen. Bellows and others of Walpole, " Keene has shown a noble spirit," as they hasten on in the track of the Keene party.
But of the hardships endured by the women and children who were left at home at the time of the Revolution, we, at this day, can form little conception. A lady once pointed me to the spot, in Winchester, which was the scene of her grand- mother's hardships. Her mother had heard from her the story full often : "Your father," she would say, "left his hoe in the potato hill, and was off for battle at once upon the sum- mons." "But what shall we do, the little children and I, who are left behind, when winter threatens?" "Kill the cow, and have it salted down, when cold weather begins." But when, scarce a month afterwards, the cow was found dead on the edge of the forest, the poor woman's heart was broken, and as she sounded her lament in the ears of a friendly neighbor, he replied, as they walked through the woods to the spot where he buried the cow, "It's no use, Ma'am, crying for spilt milk." This loser of the cow was the great-grandmother of a much respected resident of this place, Mrs. Farnum F. Lane.
" Do you remember about the Revolutionary war?" I said to the late Mrs. Dorcas Rice, of Jaffrey, three years since, she then being almost one hundred and four years old. "I re- member it," she replied, " because mother took on so bad when father went away to the war." Thus. we find a child's remem- berance of a mother's tears over her sacrifice to her country, lasting well nigh an hundred years !
When you are walking, for hours together, you know how it feels, after climbing some craggy hill, or descending some sharp ravine, to come out upon a long, dull. level stretch of country, even although the fields on either side be fertile, and the road good. There is little to break the uniformity of the view. And yet, travel over the level you must. if you would get to your journey's end. So it is with me. friends ; be pa- tient. we are coming out upon the level of our " historical
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sketch," but we must move forward upon it, or else we shall never get through with the century. But we have one comfort. We may get over the ground a little faster, even as we can take longer strides over the plains, than over the hill-tops.
The embittered feelings engendered by the war did not soon die away, for in June, 1783, we find the town unanimously in- structing their representative, Daniel Kingsbury, "to use his influence that all who have absented themselves from any of the United States, and joined with, or put themselves under, the protection of the enemies of the United States, be utterly de- barred from residing within this State." And in 1784, one Elijah Williams, who, as early as 1773, had been compelled to -stop issuing writs in the name of George the 3d, (by his an- .gry fellow-townsmen) is seized and threatened with running a gauntlet of black beech rods ; and there is a violent riot oc- casioned by this attempt to maltreat him. The Court in Charlestown, before which he appeared, next day, allowed him to transact his needful business, and then peaceably to leave the State.
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