USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > Exeter in 1776. Sketches of an old New Hampshire town as it was a hundred years ago > Part 1
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Gc 974.202 Ex2ba 1771759
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01096 3590
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/exeterin1776sket1776bell
EXETER IN 1776.
Sketches of an old New Hampshire tówn as it was a hundred years ago.
PREPARED FOR THE LADIES' CENTENNIAL LEVEE
HELD IN
EXETER, FEB. 22, 1876.
C. H. Bell
EXETER: NEWS-LETTER PRESS. 1876.
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EXETER
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Exeter in 1776. Szetches of an old New Hampshire town as it was a hundred years ago ... Exeter, 1876. 0. F 84226 :27
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EXETER IN 1 776.
The approach of the national Centennial has exerted a , wide and perceptible influence upon the community. People in the active walks of life have hitherto usually paid little heed to the memory of the past; many of them had hardly the curiosity to learn the names of their own grandfathers, and cared no more for the relics of a former generation, than for the dust beneath their feet. But the near prospect of the birthday of the nation's Independence, with its prelimi- nary celebrations and preparations, has kept the public at- tention directed to the Revolutionary epoch, until all classes have begun to feel a genuine interest in the subject. No longer are the events of the last century the exclusive prop- erty of the antiquary ; they are fruitful topics of conversa- tion and study in numberless households. N.Nonger are the clothing and ornaments, the weapons and domestic uten- sils of our ancestors allowed to moulder in attics and dusty corners ; they occupy conspicuous places now, and are handled tenderly, as objects of interest and pride. In short, the antiquarian fever has become in a manner epidemic, and the past takes the precedence of the present, in a double sense.
In view of this happy direction of the popular taste, the present occasion has been thought a favorable one for pre- senting to the inhabitants of Exeter a sketch of the town, and of some of the leading spirits who dwelt and figured in it, one hundred years ago. The picture may be somewhat
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crude, for it is necessarily drawn in haste ; but it will have the merit of being truthful, if records and apparently au- thentic traditions can be relied on.
It is extremely questionable if one who only knew Exeter as it was in 1776, would be able to recognize the Exeter of to-day as the same place. The conformation of the ground in the vicinity of the river and falls must have greatly changed. The slope from the higher lands down to the water was formerly much more abrupt than it now is. The ridges have since been cut down, and the low ground filled up. A century ago, in very high tides, the western part of Water street used to be inundated, so that boats could be row- ed through it for a considerable distance. The road to New- market, in the earlier times, did not run down by the water's edge, but back from it, over the high land. The fact that the bed of Water street has been artificially raised, was de- monstrated by an excavation made not long since in front of Messrs. Porter & Thyng's store, which exposed a stratum of gravel, several feet in thickness, evidently deposited there by successive generations of highway-surveyors.
And if we can believe the accounts that have been handed down, there has been a still deeper fill in front of where Mr. John W. Getchell's store now is. The house of Col. John Phillips was built there, more than a century ago, and was destroyed by fire only a few years since. When the house was erected, the front is said to have been three stories in height ; within the memory of those now on the stage only two stories have ever been visible, and the lower one of those was sunken at the last considerably below the level of the sidewalk. If the case was as represented, it is plain that Water street, at that point, has been built up at least a dozen feet above its original level. But it is prop- er to say that the foundations of the house, which were ex- posed when Mr. Getchell's building was erected, do not ap- pear to confirm the tradition. Still, there can be no doubt
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that the street has been a good deal raised there; if not so much as the height of a story of a house.
The change in the character of the public highways, since 1776, is worthy of special notice. For many years be- fore the Revolution the lumber-trade was the chief business of the town. Vast quantities of the choicest spoils of the forest were brought each year from inland points, to the Ex- eter landing,-a part to be used for the construction of ships here, and the remainder to be rafted, or otherwise transported down the river. The greater share of the money raised for the repair of the highways was expended on the roads towards Brentwood and Epping, over which the staple commodity in which our citizens were so deeply interest- ed was hauled to tide water and a market. The result of it was that the other ways were sadly neglected. Fortu- nately this was of less consequence from the fact that most of the travel at that period, was upon horseback. The river, too, served admirably as a public highway, in former times, between the settlements upon its banks. So long as people could do their business by means of boats, they were not so particular about the condition of the roads.
The basin of the salt river, six score years ago, pre- sented a far busier scene than it does to-day. The channel was then capable of affording a passage to vessels of con- siderable size, and ships of from two hundred to five hun- dred tons' burden were built here ; six or eight of them each season, it is said. Several vessels were owned here, and made voyages along the coast and to the West Indies and Europe. With ships unloading their cargoes at our wharves, with carpenters and caulkers plying their busy trades in our shipyards, and with long lines of teams dragging the mighty pines to the river side, the spectacle must have been full of life and animation. Perhaps something of the same sort may again be realized, when the obstructions to the naviga- tion of the Squamscot shall be removed.
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As the Revolution drew nigh, the lumber trade declined, and the business activity of the place diminished. The breaking out of hostilities sent some of the most enterprising citizens into the army; commerce was suspended and ship building was no longer lucrative. The mechanics became soldiers or sought employment elsewhere, and Exeter, its limited resources drawn upon to the utmost to sustain the war, looked forward with anxious hope to the issue that was to bring peace and restore prosperity.
Of course there were no sidewalks in 1776; those have come in mostly within the last half century. A few shade trees then flung their protecting arms over a part of the village, some of which are still standing, or have but recent- ly disappeared. A giant elm, here and there, remains to tell the story of the past century, and some sturdy buttonwoods of equal if not superior age, on both sides of the great bridge, succumbed to disease and were cut down, within the recollection of many persons. But the great bulk of our present ornamental trees are of more recent date even than the sidewalks.
The size and extent of the village was of course much less a hundred years since, than now. The entire popula- tion of the town at that period did not quite reach 1750 souls, which is something less than one-half what it now is. And as a large proportion of the inhabitants lived in the less com- pact parts of the town, the village could not have greatly ex- ceeded one-third its present dimensions. The character of the buildings, too, was generally inferior. To be sure the best of them were spacious, handsome and constructed from the choicest materials, as a few surviving specimens still attest ; but probably the major part of them must have been comparatively small and poor. Unpainted houses were the rule then ; they are the exceptions now. On the southerly side of Front street there used to be nothing but fields and woods ; Bow, Court, Elm, Elliott and Pine streets, with all
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their branches, are the growth of little more than forty years last past.
In 1776, Exeter could boast but two churches, and those both Congregational ; nor was there either Academy or Semi- nary, then. But in the article of public houses a hundred years have probably given us no increase. There were then two taverns on the east side of the river, and the whole number was no doubt greater than it is now. This is to be explained by the different habits of the earlier generation. Auction sales and many kinds of public business were form- erly transacted at the inns, as they were usually called. They were places where the citizens of all classes used to meet, especially in the evenings; and the convivial habits of the past age contributed essentially to their being well patronized. Exeter during the period of the Revolution was a place of great resort, and as those were not days when men could whirl into town from their homes by the train in the morning, and whirl back again to their own firesides in the evening, nearly every visitor here had to pass a night or two under the roof of one or another of our hospitable landlords.
Exeter, a century ago, had but just assumed the posi- tion in the province to which its size and importance en- titled it. Forty years before, the town had become an ob- ject of jealousy and dislike to some of the dignitaries under the crown, at Portsmouth, and in consequence thereof had been tabooed and " left out in the cold," so far as it was in their power to accomplish it. The last royal governor, John Wentworth, however, was too sensible and politic to allow his conduct to be influenced by an old grudge. He took par- ticular pains to conciliate the inhabitants of Exeter ; visited the town repeatedly, in much state ; formed and commission- ed a company of cadets here, embracing many leading men, as a kind of body-guard to the occupant of the guberna- torial office, and established relations of intimacy with several of the prominent citizens.
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He labored zealously and conscientiously for the good of the province, and at the same time to uphold the power of Britain over it. He hoped no doubt that his special friends in Exeter might adhere to the cause of the crown. as so many of his connections and dependents in Portsmouth did. But he reckoned without his host. When the tocsin of war was sounded, Exeter might be said to be a unit, on the side of liberty, and the men whom Gov. Wentworth had delight- ed to honor were the first to declare in favor of their oppress- ed country.
Exeter then became, and remained for many years, the capital of the province, and state. The Legislature held its sessions here, and during its adjournments, the Committee of Safety took its place, and exercised its functions. The courts were again established here, and the town became practically the headquarters of all military undertakings, in which New Hampshire was concerned. And here on the fifth day of January, 1776, was adopted and put in operation the First Written Constitution for popular government, of the Revolutionary period. The honor of taking the lead of her sister colonies in this momentous " new departure " be- longs to New Hampshire, and Exeter may well be proud to have been the scene of an occurrence so interesting and so memorable.
The structure in our town which has perhaps retained its old-time appearance most perfectly for the past century, is the powder-house, situated on the point near the river on the east side. It was built about 1760, and has apparently un- dergone little repair since that tiine. It probably first held military stores destined for the French and Indian war. which, however, terminated before they could have been much needed. A few years later it was opened, no doubt, to receive a part of the powder captured by the provincials in the raid, under Sullivan, upon Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth harbor, in December, 1774. But as powder with-
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out ball hardly met the requirements of the times, the select- men of Exeter purchased lead for the " town stock" from John Emery, and sent for a further supply to Portsmouth by Theodore Carlton ; employed Thomas Gilman to "run it into bullets," and finally stored the leaden missiles in a chest, which Peter Folsom made for the purpose, at the cost of three and sixpence. The ammunition was dealt out from time to time to other places which stood in greater need, very sparingly though ; for notwithstanding Exeter had a powder mill in 1776, the explosive dust was too precious to be wasted, through a large part of the Revolutionary war.
The old powder house is now somewhat weather-beaten and dilapidated, and perhaps past its usefulness; but we hope it may be spared, on account of the good service it has done in former days. May no vandal hand be laid upon it, but may it be left to the gentle touch of time, and remain a landmark for many years to come.
Another prominent object, on the east side, which survir- ed until a recent date, was the jail, on the spot now occupied by the house of Mr. N. K. Leavitt. It is supposed to have been built about the year 1770, when the province was divid- ed into counties. It was a wooden structure, of limited ca- pacity, and at first was surrounded by no exterior fence or wall. It could not have been a very secure place of confine- ment for a person of ingenuity. and resources ; and indeed more than one prisoner made his escape from it. The notorious Henry Tufts, who published his memoirs thirty years after- wards, tells us that he was incarcerated there before the Rev- olution, and made his way out without much difficulty. After 1775 the jail became crowded; not only were the persons in this province, suspected of disaffection to the American cause, committed there, but tories from other jurisdictions, counter- feiters of the colonial paper money, and deserters and skulkers from the Continental army. So much apprehension · was then felt that the building was not strong enough 2
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to contain its inmates, that armed guards were constantly stationed at the door.
The court house, known also as the town house and state house, stood at what is now the easterly corner of Front and Court streets, on the site of the dwelling of the late Mr. Joseph Boardman. The building had formerly been the meeting house of the first parish. When it was moved across the street and devoted to judicial purposes. it was flanked by the stocks and the whipping post. Possi- bly the former instrument of discipline may have disappeared before 1776, but the latter undoubtedly lasted till then. The horse-thief Tufts was flogged there, shortly before that date : unfortunately without eradicating his inborn propensity to appropriate unlawfully the property of other people to his own use.
One of the town schools, (for the excellence of which Exeter was early noted) was long kept in this town house. A "grammar school " was likewise maintained at the es- pense of the town, in 1775-6, under the charge of Clement Weeks, a room being hired of Samuel Davis for the purpose.
The town and court house was the place of assembly for the Legislature of New Hampshire, whence it received the . additional name of state house. Its halls, in the " times that tried men's souls," continually echoed to the tread of the wisest and bravest of the dwellers among our granite hills. Sullivan and Folsom, Stark and Poor, Cilley and Scammell. Dearborn and Reid, in their military attire of blue and buff, often trailed their swords along its corridors ; while Weare and Langdon, Gilman and Bartlett, Thornton and Whipple, and a host of other patriots in civil life, assembled periodi- cally within its walls to devise the ways and means for keep- ing an army in the field, until the power of Britain was at length broken, and peace crowned the independence of · America.
The meeting house of the first parish occupied nearly 1
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the same spot which its successor, the present church, does now. But the yard which surrounded it was then of greater extent, and was filled with substantial stone monuments, bearing inscriptions in memory of the dead who were inter- red beneath. A number of years ago those monuments were carefully levelled with the ground, placed above the bodies they were intended to commemorate, and thinly covered with earth. The rank grass soon sprang up and obliterated all traces of the burying ground. Subsequently the street was widened in front, and it is understood that the present sidewalk passes over a portion of what was formerly the church-yard. The good taste and propriety of these al- terations has been questioned by some of the present genera- tion, we believe ; but there is a consolation in the reflection that the memorial stones were neither destroyed nor removed from their proper locations, so that should occasion require, the information they contain can at any time hereafter be made available.
A portion of the main floor of the old meeting house was left open to all worshippers indiscriminately, except that the men and women occupied different sides. Com- paratively few persons had private seats. The privilege of erecting a pew was highly prized, it would appear ; for in 1775 the rights to build three of them in the meeting house were sold at auction to the highest bidders, and realized handsome premiums.
The services in the religious meetings, at that period, were conducted in most respects as in our own day. We no longer have tithing men, however, to look after the sleepers and the uneasy youngsters in sermon time. And we do have church organs and an abundance of hymn books, which our predecessors did not ; by reason of which there has been an essential change in the style and manner of the sacred music. The " pitch pipe" alone was formerly employed to " set the tune," and in good old Deacon Brooks' day, the hymn in the
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first church was " deaconed" out, a line at a time, before it was sung by the choir.
In 1776 the meeting house was opened on two occasions of peculiar interest' to the society. The first was on the fourteenth of January, when funeral services were performed over the remains of the Rev. Woodbridge Odlin, who had been the pastor of the church for many years. We learn from a contemporary record, that a great congregation as- sembled to witness the solemn ceremony ; for the deceased clergyman was highly esteemed.
The other occasion was on the ninth of October, when the Rev. Isaac Mansfield of Marblehead, Massachusetts, was ordained as the successor of Mr. Odlin. The Rev. Messrs. Thayer of Hampton, Fogg of Kensington and Webster and Noyes of Salisbury were present and took part in the exercises. Ordinations were great events in the last centu- ry; and we read of one in a town in Massachusetts during the Revolution, where the Council during their session dis- posed of no less than thirty-eight mugs of flip, twenty-four mugs of cider, eleven gills of rum bitters, and two mugs of sling ! But we have no reason to suppose that the good eler- gymen and brethren who assisted on the occasion referred to in our town, found it such thirsty work. On the contrary it seems to have been accomplished with all due decorum.
It may be necessary to remind readers of the present day that houses of worship a hundred years ago contained neither fire-places, stoves, nor other heating apparatus. The congregation, so far as temperature was concerned, were not much more comfortable, in the winter season, indoors than out. But the generation of that day was brought up to bear hardships without complaint. The good mother, with- in the remembrance of people not aged, used to rely upon & few coals in a foot stove, to keep up the vital heat, and per- haps the youngest child was bundled up so as to be kept comfortable ; but the big boys had to take the severity of the
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weather, seated on the bare boards, with little protection in the way of extra clothing. It is a question how large the attendance in our churches would be, if the old fashion of cold rooms were to be resumed. Luckily for the enjoyment as well as for the size of the congregations, in the matter of conveniences and comforts there is no retrogression. Im- provements once introduced become necessities ; and New England will never go back to cold churches.
The meeting house of the first parish had long been pro- vided with a bell, and the town books inform us that in 1776 it was daily rung by Pompey Peters at one and nine o'clock P. M., according to ancient custom, which has also been con- tinued, down to our own day.
The present church was not built till more than twenty years after that date. It has been much admired for its archi- tectural proportions, and is undoubtedly a fine specimen of the ecclesiastical edifices of the last century. Having fortu- nately escaped destruction by fire which recently threatened to consume it, it is to be hoped it may now safely survive its centennial, in perfect strength and condition.
The other meeting house in the Exeter of 1776 was that of the second parish, and stood on the lot now occupied by Mrs. Cobbs' house. It was a building of ample size, and had resounded to the voice of the eloquent Whitefield, in former years. It has now been gone for more than a generation ; and the church in the Academy yard is its lineal successor.
No other place of religious worship existed in the town, a century ago, unless the few Quakers who lived here and in the vicinity, may still have occasionally held meetings. Twenty years before, they are said to have used a building which stood upon Front street, where now the residences of Mr. J. M. Lovering and Mrs. Kennard are, as the place for their dumb devotions. No doubt they here received occa- sional visits from itinerant brethren of their sect, who in " good old colony times " perambulated the whole country,
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and kept up communication and interest between the fami- lies and communities of Friends in every section. In the Revolutionary times, however, the peaceful principles of the Quakers became unpopular, and their numbers here had probably dwindled, so that it may be doubtful if the small re- mainder did any acts to attract public attention.
The residence of the Rev. Woodbridge Odlin was in Front street, on or near the spot where the house of Mr. B. L. Merrill now stands. Mr. Odlin's father, the Rev. John Odlin, lived there before him, and the Rev. John Clark occupied the same premises at a still earlier date. And as the Rev. Dr. Isaac Hurd subsequently passed some forty years of his life in the same place, it would be difficult, probably, to find another lot of land in New England, which has been the home of successive clergymen for so long a period. . The Rev. Woodbridge Odlin is described as portly in person, and a perfect gentleman in his conduct and deportment. He was outspoken in his patriotic sentiments.
The Rev. Mr. Mansfield, his successor, lived not far from the locality where Mr. Charles Conner's house now is.
The Rev. Daniel Rogers, the pastor of the second parish, was a very estimable man, and possessed much learning. During the long term of his residence here, he kept a daily journal of occurences, which our local antiquaries, a genera- tion ago, greatly relied on as containing materials for the history of the town, that somebody has been always going to write. What has now become of that journal, we know not. It is to be hoped that it has been somewhere safely preserved, for the loss of it would be irreparable. Too many interesting facts respecting the olden times have already passed into oblivion.
Mr. Rogers lived in a house that formerly stood about where the entrance to Franklin street now is. It faced towards Water street, and was long ago removed to another situation.
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The "great bridge," perhaps the grandfather of the present one, spanned the river in 1776, as at present. Of course it did not receive its designation from its abstract magnitude, but by way of distinction from its neighbor, the "string bridge, " which, much less than a century ago, con- sisted of merely a single string-piece of timber flanked by a hand-rail, over which only pedestrians could pass.
The next house to the Rev. Mr. Rogers', probably, on the west, was that of "Brigadier" Peter Gilman, as he was universally called. It is still standing, and is now the resi- dence of Mr. Manly Darling. It was built by Councillor John Gilman, if we may credit tradition, near two centuries ago, and is undoubtedly the oldest structure in the town. The main body, which was the original edifice, has its walls composed of squared logs, making it what was called a garrison house, for protection against the attacks of the Indians. It was form- erly much more quaint in its external appearance than now : but the interior is still worthy of inspection, as an example of the primitive domestic architecture of the country. The front wing, which has been for several years occupied as a store, is an addition of later date, made by the Brigadier.
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