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Dublin Days OLD AND NEW
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01891 3597
GC 974.202 D85AL
Dublin Days, Old and New
The Pointed Spire of the Community Church Marks the Center of Dublin Village (1895)
Dublin Days Old and New
New Hampshire Fact and Fancy
HENRY DARRACOTT ALLISON
Illustrated with photographs by the author and others
EXP
EXPOSITION PRESS ยท NEW YORK
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT OF REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN ANY FORM COPYRIGHT, 1952, BY HENRY DARRACOTT ALLISON PUBLISHED BY THE EXPOSITION PRESS INC. 386 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 16, N. Y.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 51-11828
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONSOLIDATED BOOK PRODUCERS, INC. DESIGNED BY MORRY M. GROPPER
475
When Life Was Young ( Florence Gowing Mason Allison) 1871-1937
VINCET VERITA
Allison
To the memory of Florence Growing Mason,
my wife, whose companionship I have been privileged to enjoy from early childhood days until the final sunset hour; whose cheerful self, love and devotion to her family. made home a happy place
for all who dwelt therein, his book is affectionately dedicated. Henry Davracolt Allison
DUBLIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author is indebted to Harper & Brothers for the privi- lege of quoting generously from Albert Bigelow Paine's Mark Twain: A Biography.
To Little, Brown & Company, for their courtesy in permit- ting the publication of the poem "Glimpsewood," by Mary Thacher Higginson, and "An American Stonehenge," by T. W. Higginson, from Colonel and Mrs. Higginson's booklet Such As They Are.
To The Saturday Evening Post, and Esther Houghtaling, for permission to use her poem, "Idle Hands."
To The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire For- ests, through its Secretary, Lawrence Rathbun, and to Francis Chamberlain, for permission to quote from Allen Chamberlain's Annals of the Grand Monadnock.
To the Boston Herald for the privilege of quoting from its editorial pages.
To the magazine Appalachia, for the use of Hildreth M. Alli- son's poems, "Eidolons," and "The Phantom Fiddler."
To the History of Dublin, by the Reverend L. W. Leonard, D.D., containing the New and Augmented Edition by the Rev- erend Dr. J. L. Seward.
To the publishers of Collier's magazine, and Arthur Griffin, for the privilege of using Mr. Griffin's photograph on the jacket.
CONTENTS
Introduction
11
Chapter 1
Personal Recollections
19
The Allison Homestead
20
Neighbors
23
Chapter 2
District No. 5 27
Mr. Appleton's 1786 Teaching Experience 29
The Town Consolidated School 31
First Free Library Established Through the Vision and Efforts of the Rev. Levi W. Leonard, D.D. 31
Dublin School 32
Mountain Pastures
33
New England Weather
35
Chapter 3 The Four Seasons
Spring
38
Summer
41
Autumn
43
Winter
47
Chapter 4
Horse-Trades and Yankee Pluck
50
The Tin Peddler
51
Other Peddlers
52
Diplomacy
52
Dexter Derby
53
The Road to the Village
54
Food and Wages
59
The Rural Telephone
60
Chapter 5
The Church Vestry
62
Christmas
64
The Lyceum
67
The Sewing Circle
68
Picnics at Morse's Point
69
The Yellow Day
70
John Mason
71
The Village Blacksmith
73
Town Characters-Incidents
76
Chapter 6
Town Factions
81
Dr. Smith
83
The Old Homestead
85
Agricultural Fairs
86
The Old Harrisville Road
88
When You Retire
89
Dublin, New Hampshire, to Dublin, Ireland
90
The 1938 Hurricane
91
Chapter 7
Electricity, Fire, and Water
93
The South Side Road
93
One Hundred Years Ago
94
The Village Oval
96
Galen Clark
97
Nathan Methley
99
Dublin, a Summer Resort
100
Teatro Bambino
101
General Caspar Crowninshield
102
Chapter 8
Colonel Higginson
103
Abbott Thayer 106
Secretary MacVeagh
108
George Grey Barnard Dr. Osgood Mr. Brush
110
111
112
Chapter 9
Amy Lowell
114
Winston Churchill
116
The British Embassy
118
Admiral Byrd
120
Notes
121
A Letter From Mr. Whittier
123
Chapter 10
Mark Twain
125
Chapter 11
The Old Farmer's Almanac
139
Yankee Magazine
141
The Dublin Opinion
142
Summer Activities
143
The Gay Nineties
144
In Retrospect
146
Chapter 12
Monadnock
147
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE
1. The Pointed Spire of the Community Church Marks the Center of Dublin Village (1895)
2. When Life Was Young (Florence Gowing Mason Allison )
facing 5
facing 14
following 14
facing 15
facing 30
facing 30
following 30
following 30
following 30
following 30
facing 31
facing 31
facing 70
facing 71
facing 94
facing
94
following 94
following 94
following 94
21. John Lawrence Mauran
facing
95
facing 110
facing
110
24. "Glimpsewood"
PAGE
frontispiece
3. The Allison Homestead and James Allison
4. The Allison Family
5. Approaching Dublin Village From the West
6. Luther Darling's Home at the Foot of the Dublin Trail to Monadnock
7. From Snow Hill Looking North Fifty Years Ago
8. Dublin Consolidated School
9. Dublin Public Library
10. Mr. Lehmann's Dublin School-The Library
11. Soccer Practice on the Dublin School Memorial Field
12. Sugar House in Silas Frost's Sugar Lot
13. Cutting Ice
14. The Reverend Levi W. Leonard and the Second Church Built in Dublin
15. Dublin Residents
16. Dublin Village a Century and a Quarter Ago
17. Dublin Village in 1900
18. Thaddeus Morse, Serena Appleton Morse, and the Morse Homestead
19. The Simeon Bullard House
20. Hotel Leffingwell and Annex
22. Monadnock Lake and Mountain From the Catlin Shore
23. The Parting of the Ways
following 110
PLATE
PAGE
25. Barry Faulkner's Mural in the State Capitol at Concord
26. President William Howard Taft Leaving Church
facing
111
facing
126
29. Monadnock Lake and Mountain From Beech Hill
facing
127
30. Thoreau's 1860 Camp on Monadnock
facing
142
31. The Mountain House, Jaffrey Side
facing
143
32. Dublin's Lovely Lake, With Monadnock Mountain Beyond
following 110
27. Mark Twain
28. The Mountain Brook
facing
127
facing 143
INTRODUCTION
The pointed spire of the community church marks the center of Dublin Village. For a hundred years the white meet- inghouse has stood there, its gilded weathervane pointing un- failingly west in fair weather, toward the east in foul.
Once they changed its color and painted the church light green, the trimmings much darker. Eventually, the dark green turned black. Everyone rejoiced when its original color was restored and the mournful black had given way to a more cheerful white.
It was a problem of grave concern to locate this new edifice in 1852, after a decision had been made to take down the church on the common, with its beautiful spire, like those of Hancock and Fitzwilliam, all three of which were constructed by the same builder.
Those strong-willed, determined citizens who lived a cen- tury ago, were not easily swayed-the Pipers, Masons, Morses, Gleasons, Gowings, Allisons, Adamses, Appletons, Fiskes, Pierces, Twitchells, Richardsons, and a score or more of others.
It required the wisdom of three disinterested men of estab- lished integrity, from out of town, to make the final decision. Each came separately and all three were pledged to exercise their unbiased, impartial judgment and choose the spot for the new church best suited for the good of the town "although the heavens do fall."
Chamberlain's Tavern was moved east from its original site to make room for the new house of worship. A row of horse-sheds was constructed in the rear and on two sides, and a few additional ones were built along the highway to the west, for the good people of Dublin were punctilious attendants and drove to church from all parts of the town on Sunday morning behind the freshly groomed family horse hitched to a cleanly washed wagon.
Two stores stood nearby and a small brick church was built on the hill west by those followers of Trinitarian leaning who were dissatisfied with the liberal teachings of the Reverend Dr.
12
Leonard; his sermons, they believed, did not sufficiently em- phasize the warnings of Hell-fire and eternal damnation.
Just below the hill stood the schoolhouse in District Number 1, and farther east, on the "flat," was the blacksmith shop. Dr. Heald had become prosperous through his practice of medicine and erected there, out of brick, one of the town's most preten- tious dwellings. In times past the building was used for hotel purposes. On the upper floor, in the large hall, dancing parties have been held.
It is uphill to Dublin over all approaching highways, for the town lies on the eastern slope of Monadnock, 1,493 feet above sea level, and a Government survey has proclaimed it "the highest village in New England."
There are eight other Dublins in these United States, but this town is one of the oldest. The first settler came in 1752. King George the Third granted its charter in 1771. Dublin was first called Monadnock Number 3.
Here, in this delightful spot, is mountain air, blue skies, and golden sunshine where vision may wander to vast distant hori- zons over stretches of forest lands, far-away hills, green grassy mowings, and rocky pastures, which seemingly blend into the blue mist of distance.
Perhaps Dublin was not unlike the average small New Eng- land town up to the time of the coming of summer guests three quarters of a century ago. The resort business began in a small way. Campers pitched their tents on "Phillips Point," where the Joe Smiths live now; some others chose the cool banks of the mountain brook which flows from the side of Monadnock. A few vacationists came from Boston to board in private homes during the hot weather, but it was ten or fifteen years later that they commenced to buy land and build summer homes.
One fortunate resident paid $600 for a hay field bordering on the lake. Years later, half of it netted him $22,000 and the remainder was sold to equally good advantage. His $300 cow pasture attracted the attention of a copper-mine magnate who paid several thousand dollars for the property. Mr. Jencks bought the land afterward and built his elaborate residence there, nearly nineteen hundred feet above ocean level.
13
A good many farms were sold at an excellent price and those who had owned them usually retired to the village to enjoy an easier life. Nearly all the lake shore is now the prop- erty of summer residents.
Church weddings were events of importance in the past, just as they are now. Milton Mason and Ella Gowing were said to have been the handsomest couple ever to be married in the Unitarian church.
Like the average community of today, the town had its share of unfortunate happenings, but perhaps the proportion was less then than now. A young fellow drowned in the lake. Another similar fatality occurred at Farnum Pond, renamed Dark Pond by Mr. Leighton who bought the land surrounding it; the drowning victim was a youth in his employ. Another death took place on Monadnock in the wintertime when two college students left for the top of the mountain on a bright, warm, sunny afternoon. Sudden cold and a blizzard of inten- sity caused the death of one of the young men, who was thinly clad, cold, and exhausted.
There was sometimes scandal in town. A maid employed in the home of the Town Clerk robbed his safe of a small sum of money. A few chronic inebriates were classed as undesir- ables, but seldom disturbed the peace to an extent which made it necessary to lock them into the tramp house.
Two young fellows became expert with the rifle and dem- onstrated their skill by performing a William Tell act and shot apples off each other's head.
Close to the town boundary line in a neighboring commu- nity, a second wife discovered that her Civil War husband, well known in Dublin, had executed his will, making her the beneficiary. In order to hasten her ownership and assume pos- session quickly, she put Paris green in his food. He died in great agony. The widow was lodged in the Keene jail, but she, too, died before the date set for her trial.
A daily stage to Peterborough carried mail and passengers; another route was established between Dublin and Harris- ville, after the building of the Keene and Manchester railroad.
Butchers' carts drove in from adjoining towns; fish, fruit,
14
and vegetable peddlers found in Dublin a ready market; coal was supplied from Peterborough, and there was work on the estates for local men and for many more from out of town.
On Sunday mornings, Charles Preston swept out the church and rang the bell. There were rare occasions when he partook a bit too freely from "the cup that cheers," and, one Sunday morning during church services, the congregation was startled by the playing of the melodeon in the vestry below. But the janitor professed ignorance of its origin and declared the music must have been caused by spirits, which was, perhaps, a satis- factory explanation.
Many residents living on the village street kept one or more cows. Milk cost six cents per quart. On summer mornings the cattle were herded together and driven to the pasture on Beech Hill, or to the one in which the Pumpelly residence is now located.
On the whole, except for far too frequent fatalities from tuberculosis among young people and the untimely deaths of mothers at childbirth, a majority of the natives lived long and contentedly. They worked hard and were housed in fairly com- fortable dwellings.
Life went on uneventfully in this quiet little New Hamp- shire town at the foot of Monadnock. People accomplished their daily tasks, both congenial and irksome, with but little com- plaint, despite the absence of present-day conveniences.
They went to church, visited friends, and took turns in nurs- ing sick neighbors without thought of financial reimbursement.
Courageous wives gave their consent when husbands were called to the Revolutionary War. In their absence they carried on the farm, harvested the crops, fed the stock, and, while they hilled the corn in June, 1776, heard the roar of cannon at Bunker Hill dealing out death and devastation. Ever since, Dublin men and women have done their part willingly when conflict demanded help.
The community had its weddings, births, and deaths. Boys grew to maturity, girls to womanhood, and each passed on to middle age. Most of them, with an abiding faith in God, grew old gracefully and, at the approach of the sunset hour, looked
The Allison Homestead and James Allison
The homestead has been owned in the family for upwards of a century-first by Samuel Allison, who bought it for his son Captain Andrew and his wife Sarah Morse; followed by Andrew's son Eli and his wife Persis Learned; then by Eli's son James and his wife Sarah Jane Darracott.
The Allison Family Top: Grandmother Persis Learned and Father, the family head James Allison. Middle: Annie Maria and Flora Gertrude. Bottom: James Francis and Henry Darracott.
Top: Mother Sarah Jane Darracott and William Andrew, who died when seven years old. Middle: John Learned and Emma Jane. Bottom: Edwin Sherman and Mabel Persis.
Photo by Granite State Studio
Approaching Dublin Village From the West
15
back in peaceful content upon a useful past-a life well spent.
A few unfortunates became decrepit and burdensome as age progressed; some went to the town's poor farm and there passed their remaining days.
Hope and despair, joy and sorrow became a part of every- one's life. And so it will be in all the days that are yet to come!
Dublin Days, Old and New
1
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
In his book Wolden, Thoreau writes these words in the preface: "In most books, the I, or Erst person, is omitted, in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference.
"We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person speaking. I should not talk so much about my- self if there were anybody else I knew so wel."
The writer is confronted with a similar situation. In order
correctly to describe the incidents which follow which be has participated, or of which he bas personal knowledge. # seems necessary to use the first person promon, but with the hope that by so doing, so suggestion of egotism will be iz- ferred.
It is the past with which these pages are principally con- cemed. recorded here for the purpose of perpetuating some of the characteristics, events, and customs of men and women of high ideals who strove to build a town and community which they, themselves, might enjoy, and for those who would fol- low after-recollections of whom weave a spell about the minds of those who knew them.
20
THE ALLISON HOMESTEAD
"Lot 15, Range 4, was deeded to Eli Allison by his father, Andrew Allison, on April 20, 1819. Andrew was son of Samuel, one of the earliest Dublin settlers.
"Eli, born in 1791, was named for his mother's father, Eli Morse, of Lot 13, Range 5. He married, 1817, Persis Learned. Their seven children were born on the farm.
'Their son James, born 1830, succeeded to the homestead on his father's death in 1860, and lived there until 1898."*
The old white Allison farmhouse stood close beside the dusty road which led to the "Darling trail" up Monadnock, a mile beyond, then continued on to Troy, ten miles away. Travelers paused to ask the way to the mountain, or to the brook, a half mile distant, where young men from the city camped during vacation.
Returning pedestrians, hot and weary, after an arduous trip to the summit, stopped for a pitcher of cold milk, or a glass of water out of the bucket which had splashed in the cold well below.
When the tired tourist descended from the top of the moun- tain in days past, he could have read a well-lettered sign placed beside the path a half mile above the starting point, "Summit 3 Miles." After a hard journey it was perhaps easy for him to agree that the distance had been underestimated and that he was quite in accord with a previous fellow traveler who had penciled underneath: "Dam lie, 10 miles."
The yard in front of the house was level enough for a cro- quet set, then sloped away to the meadow beyond. Around a great boulder close by, sweet fragrance from clusters of lilac blossoms permeated the warm spring air; there were three large red-cherry trees east of the house; white rosebushes on both sides of the granite doorstep, and a row of Darracott red roses extended completely across the side of the house next the road. Apple trees grew near-Porters, Pippins, and one tree of natural fruit of unusual quality, true in taste to its name, "Dum-good."
* From Allen Chamberlain's Annals of the Grand Monadnock.
21
In tall pines behind the sandy knoll across the road, hungry young crows cawed for food in the daytime. At night turkeys, belonging to the farm, roosted there high above the ground and away from danger of keen-scented foxes. Soft-shelled turtle eggs were sometimes found in the sandbank. Watermelons grew readily in the sandy soil.
From the barn, on lower ground north of the house, could be heard the tinkle of old Jersey's cowbell. She was recognized leader of the small herd, gave the richest milk, mothered the best calves, and could whip any of the other cattle except the oxen, Broad and Bunkum, next to whom she was tied in her stanchion.
Swallows darted in and out of the old weatherbeaten barns, half filled with new-mown hay, fresh cut and fragrant. In the lower barn the faithful, hard-working white horse Jack and the hens were kept.
North of the house flowed the brook from the outlet of the lake, a mile away. It turned the great stones in Thaddeus Morse's gristmill, then, farther down, reached his sawmill with old-fashioned "up and down" saw. In Civil War days, bellig- erent old Peter Morse had come to the mill one morning and started an argument with his nephews, William and John. Dur- ing the heated controversy one of his nephews seized an auger and swung at Uncle Peter, clipping his head with the handle, which sent him sprawling to the floor.
Peter sympathized with the Southern Confederacy and was branded a "Copperhead" by those who knew him. His portly figure was topped with a tall hat. The morning following the news of President Lincoln's assassination, my father and Peter had started out to mend fence between their two pastures. The tragic news was uppermost in everyone's minds and Peter, anti- cipating the enjoyment of an argument, said, "I'm glad of it." His pride was keenly hurt when he received this unexpected answer, "Then, Mr. Morse, you're not as much of a man as I thought you were."
The stream continued on and wound its way through mead- owland where bobolinks flitted among the tall grass, butter- cups, and wild flowers; then it joined the mountain brook to
22
empty into the reservoir on the Keene road-"Great Road," Grandmother called it. This was officially the correct title, for the continuation went on to Vermont and Ticonderoga, and was known as The Great Road.
A plank bridge over the brook afforded crossing for highway travel. In the spring, the snow gone, sizable fish weighing two or three pounds, "suckers," which had wintered in Howe's reser- voir, ran up the brook and afforded good sport at night for the boys equipped with spear and torch.
Our farm, two and a half miles from the village, was never a lonesome place. There was no telephone, radio, television or moving pictures, but eight children exchanged visits with their mates in the neighborhood, went to school, church, and Sunday school, enjoyed library books by Miss Alcott, Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney, W. D. Howells, Horatio Alger, Jr., and Edward Eggleston, and eagerly awaited the weekly arrival of the Youth's Companion with entertaining serials of the "Old Home Farm" in Maine by C. A. Stephens, and similar human interest stories by J. T. Trowbridge: The Pocket Rifle, Neighbor Jackwood, The Jolly Rover, afterward published in book form. Father read aloud Ivanhoe, Kenilworth, The Hoosier Schoolmaster, and Uncle Tom's Cabin.
There were copies of Godey's Lady's Book in the house and Peterson's Magazine, each of these fashion publications having colored plates, unusual then, and containing entertaining read- ing matter. Yearly subscriptions brought the New Hampshire Sentinel, Peterborough Transcript, Boston Journal, and Christian Register.
During the long winter evenings there was entertainment in playing checkers, dominoes, parchesi, authors, and euchre. Lyceums in the church vestry in the evening gave the entire town enjoyment with presentation of dramas, farces, a literary paper, recitations, and music.
Each year the church held a "levee" with an oyster supper at 25 cents each person. The grab bag was of great interest; there were tables of knitted articles, fancy work, home-made candy, popcorn balls, and fancy cakes.
23
NEIGHBORS
Josiah Darling lived on the Troy road at the foot of the mountain. Luther Darling, his father, came to Dublin in 1840, and occupied this same farm where the mountain trail begins. The property passed to his son Josiah, who occupied it for more than thirty years, hence the path became known as the Darling trail. A continuance of the custom of using old original names seems highly desirable and, we believe, should be observed whenever possible.
Josiah lived off the products of the place, aided by teaming with his pair of oxen. When a horse-drawn covered wagon, driven by two peddlers, was wrecked by the runaway animal, the peddlers bargained with Mr. Darling to take the damaged vehicle to Keene. His terms were five dollars down and five dollars more when the load was delivered at the Eagle Hotel, where, Mr. Darling stated, he usually put up.
He was said to have lost considerable money in Keene in a card game with a couple of gamblers. Neighbors deplored Josiah's folly in playing cards with two "blacklegs," but over- looked the error of his ways in order to continue on good terms with their misguided friend.
The pasture south of the Darling house, through which the mountain trail passes, contains two hundred forty acres and af- forded sufficient feed for seventy-five head of cattle, owned and driven to Dublin annually by dairymen from Sudbury, Massachusetts.
The buildings, afterward occupied by William Farmer, burned to the ground in 1916. Mr. Farmer, a Civil War vet- eran, from Townsend, Massachusetts, had been a cooper, by trade. After coming to Dublin he followed his vocation to some ex- tent, by making excellent half-barrel containers, and firkins of a smaller size, which found a ready sale. His daughter, Gene- vieve, "Genie," was instrumental in having the mountain trail cleared and improved, and was first to commercialize it by act- ting as guide and escorting travelers to the summit.
Lydia Darling, Josiah's sister, married her neighbor, Asa
24
Knowlton. Asa enlisted and served as a private in the Civil War. He lived to be the last survivor of veterans residing in Dublin. Mr. Knowlton built the coal kiln south of his house in or about the year 1876, which caused the highway passing it to receive the name, "Charcoal Road."
Asa was of dark complexion, wore a full black beard, and spoke slowly in a deep bass voice. He emphasized an unusual statement by exclaiming, "By gor-rye," with accent on the final syllable. When working in the dusty charcoal his swarthy face resembled that of a colored man. His daughter Lucy went to school in District No. 5. Asa was invariably present on the clos- ing day of the term.
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