Some things about Coventry-Benton, New Hampshire (town history), Part 1

Author: Whitcher, William Frederick, 1845-1918
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Woodsville, N.H., News print
Number of Pages: 394


USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Some things about Coventry-Benton, New Hampshire (town history) > Part 1
USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Benton > Some things about Coventry-Benton, New Hampshire (town history) > Part 1


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20



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GENEALOGY COLLECTION


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TOWN & BENTON


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SOME THINGS ABOUT COVENTRY-BENTON


NEW HAMPSHIRE.


BY WILLIAM F. WHITCHER.


NEWS PRINT, WOODSVILLE, N. H. 1905.


ONLY 200 COPIES PRINTED. No. 1114


1180995


PREFACE.


This volume does not purport to be a complete and ex- haustive history of the town of Coventry-Benton. It is simply a collection of some things connected with its history. It is a small town, one of the smallest in the state. During all its life it has been one of the typical back-towns, but there are many now living in other towns and other states who cherish a strong love for it as the place of their birth and early life. The collection and weaving together of the facts and traditions contained in this volume has been a source of recreation to the author, and if the sons and daugh- ters of the town find a source of pleasure in the perusal of its pages he will be amply repaid for time and labor spent. Only two hundred copies of the book have been printed. The work has been done at odd times in a village printing establishment, and the fact that the printer has kept pace with the writer, distributing his type whenever eight or six- teen pages were printed, may be made the excuse for the page and more of errata at the end of the volume, and for typographical errors which have passed the proofreader un- noticed. The volume makes no pretension to literary style or finish, but the author believes it contains much valuable historical material which is worthy of preservation. He of- fers the book, without apology, for what it is, not a town history, but "Some Things about Coventry-Benton, N. H.


Woodsville, N. H., September, 1905.


12.50


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S. Canne


TABLE OF CONTENTS.


I. THE PROPRIETARY 1-15


II. THE FIRST SETTLEMENT 16-34


III. LATER COMERS AND GROWTH 35-65


IV. COMING AND GOING . 66-113


V. THE BENTON OF RECENT YEARS 114-123


VI. RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL LIFE 124-142


VII. TOWN MEETINGS AND POLITICS 143-202


VIII. THE SCHOOLS 203-209


IX. THE MILITIA AND SOLDIERS 210-218


X. THE CEMETERIES 219-236


XI. BIRTHS, MARRIAGES AND DEATHS 237-276


XII. A FUTURE SUMMER RESORT 277-281


XIII. SOME MORE THINGS 282-290


ERRATA


291-292


INDEX


294-213


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


SURVEYOR'S PLAN OF TOWN


Frontspiece


EARLIEST PLAN OF TOWN


Facing Page


10


WILLIAM WHITCHER


26


PETER HOWE .


28


DARIUS K. DAVIS


50


EDWARD F. MANN 58


GEORGE W. MANN


60


AMOS WHITCHER


62


CHARLES H. WHITCHER


62


WINTHROP C. WHITCHER


62


JAMES E. WHITCHER


62


IRA G. HOWE


72


IRA WHITCHER


74


WILLIAM F. WHITCHER


78


CHASE WHITCHER


84


DANIEL WHITCHER .


90


PRESCOTT PARKER


94


DAVID WHITCHER


94


vi


EZRA B. MANN 94


GEO. HENRY MANN


94


JAMES H. KEYSER . 108


WILLIAM D. VEAZEY 114


WILLIAM W. EASTMAN


116


LEBINA H. PARKER 66 118


WILLIAM KENDALL .


122


MEETING HOUSE 130


REV. GEORGE W. COGSWELL


130


WINTHROP G. TORSEY


130


"THE HOLLOW," TOWN HALL, STORE


AND POST OFFICE


138


GILBERT P. WRIGHT


174


BARTLETT MARSTON


174


SILAS M. WELCH


174


CHARLES C. TYLER


174 1


CALEB WELLS


180


JAMES PAGE


180


WILLIAM T. TORSEY


180


CHARLES B. KEYSER


180


GEORGE H. CLARK


190


ORMAN L. MANN


190


REV. GEORGE E. BROWN


190


1


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CHARLES A. VEAZEY


190


MOSES B. MANN


194


PAUL M. HOWE


194


NORMAN J. PAGE


194


A. ELMORE TYLER


194


DANIEL M. HOWE


214


PARDON W. ALLEN


214


CARRIAGE ROAD AND SUMMIT OF


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PARKER HOUSE


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.


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Some Things About Coventry-Benton, N. H.


CHAPTER I.


THE PROPRIETARY.


In the early part of the decade between 1760 and 1770, His Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esquire, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of New Hamp- shire, George the Third, By the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., would have been an exceedingly busy official had he given personal attention and superintendence to his official acts. During these years he granted charters to some scores of townships, lying in what is now the northern part of the state of New Hampshire, and the north-eastern part of Ver- mont, opening the way for the settlement of what was an unknown country until the close ot the so-called French and Indian wars, a decade before. The charter of Haverhill was granted May 18, 1763, and its settlement began immediate- ly. The township of Warren was granted a little later, July 14, 1763, and this was followed by the issue of a char- ter to the township of Peeling, now Woodstock, September 24, in the same year. Rumney had been chartered in 1761, as had also the towns of Orford and Lyme, to the south of Haverhill, and Bath and Lyman to the north. The charters granted had taken in the territory in the Connecticut and


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SOME THINGS ABOUT


Baker's river valleys, of which some knowledge had been gained by soldiers participating in the wars of the decade before, and by hunters, trappers and an exploring expedition or two. After these grants had been made in 1763, Governor Wentworth's geographers made the discovery that there was an ungranted territory lying to the east of Haverhill, and to the west of Peeling (Woodstock) which had not been disposed of; and so, January 31, 1764, he granted to Theophilus Fitch and sixty-four others, a new township by the good old English name of Cov- entry, which, by the terms of the charter, was "bounded and butted" as follows : "Beginning at the south-easterly corner bounds of the town of Haverhill, thence running south fifty-eight degrees east six miles and one-half mile, thence north twenty-four degrees east, seven miles and three-quarters of a mile, thence north fifty-five degrees west, about six miles to the north-westerly corner of Haverhill aforesaid, then south twenty-five degrees west by Haverhill aforesaid to the bounds begun at."


The charter contained the usual provisions : Whenever the township should have fifty families resident and settled therein, it should have the liberty of holding two fairs annu- ally ; a market might also be opened and kept one or more days each week as might be thought most advantageous to the inhabitants ; the first meeting for the choice of town officers should "be held on the second Tuesday of March next" and the said meeting should be notified by Theophilus Fitch, Esq., who was appointed the moderator of the first meeting. There were also the usual charter con- ditions, viz. :


"1st. That every grantee, his heirs or assigns, shall plant and cultivate five acres of land within the term of five


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COVENTRY-BENTON, N. H.


years, for every fifty acres contained in his or their shares or proportion of land in said township, and to continue to improve and settle the same by additional cultivations on penalty of the forfeiture of his grant or share in the town- ship and of its reverting to us, our heirs and successors, to be, by us or them, re-granted to such of our subjects as shall effectually settle and cultivate the same .-


"2nd. That . all white and other pine trees within the said township fit for making our royal navy be carefully pre- served for that use and none to be cut or felled, until our special license for so doing first had and obtained, upon the penalty of the forfeiture of the right of such grantee, his heirs and assigns, to us, our heirs and successors, as well as being subject to the penalty of any acts of Parliament that now are, or hereafter shall be enacted .-


"3rd. That before any division of the land be made to and among the grantees, a tract of land as near the center of the said township as the land will admit of, shall be reserved and run out for town lots, one of which shall be allowed to each grantee, of the contents of one acre .-


"4th. Yielding and paying therefor, to us, our heirs and successors, for the space of ten years, to be completed from the date hereof, the rent of one ear of Indian corn only, on the twenty-fifth day of December, 1764 .-


"5th. Every proprietor, settler or inhabitant shall yield and pay unto us, our heirs and successors, yearly and every year forever from and after the expiration of ten years from the aforesaid 25th day of December, namely, on the 25th day of December in the year of our Lord 1774, one shilling proclamation money for every hundred acres, he so owns or possesses, and so in proportion for a greater or less tract of said land,-which money shall be paid by the respective per-


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SOME THINGS ABOUT


sons aforesaid, their heirs or assigns, in our Council Cham- ber in Portsmouth, or to such officer or officers as shall be appointed to receive the same, and this to be in lieu of all other rents and services whatsoever."


The names of the sixty-five grantees were :


Theophilus Fitch, Esq.


John Fancher


Eliphalet Sealey


James Banks


David Stevens


Joshua Ambler


Amos Weed


Samuel Weed


Benjamin Weed


Isaac Weed


Hezekiah Weed


Josiah Waterbury


Joseph Davenport


Gideon Leeds


Samuel Cressey


Obadiah Sealey


Deodate Davenport


Ebenezer Schofield


Isaac Armsdale


Samuel Belding


Ephraim Smith


James Smith


John Bettis


Jesse Smith


Peter Husted


Samuel Bowton


Jehiel Bowton


Zebulon Husted


David St. John


Charles Smith


Joseph Ambler John Bates


Abraham Weed


Reuben Weed


Nathaniel Loundsbury


Abner Stevens


Obadiah Stevens


Obadiah Stevens, Jr.


Nathaniel Weed


Eleazer Bowton, Jr.


Eliphalet Sealey, Jr.


Wix Sealey


Sylvanus Sealey


Silas Hoit


William Fancher


Daniel Benedict


Nathaniel Hoit


Enos Weed


Theopholis Hanford


Hezekiah Davenport


Nathaniel Waterbury


James Schofield


Peter Weed


Ebenezer Hoit


5


COVENTRY-BENTON, N. H.


James Bates Thomas Seymour, Jr.


John Fancher, Jr.


Sylvanus Weed


Matthew Fountain


Joseph Lockwood


Adonijah Brown


Mark H. Wentworth, Esq.


Theodore Atkinson, Esq. Theodore Atkinson, Jr., Esq


The Hon. John Temple, Esq.


Aside from these sixty-five shares there were granted four other equal shares :


One for the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts :


One for a Glebe for the Church of England as by law es- tablished :


One for the first settled minister of the gospel, and


One for the benefit of the schools in said town.


Thrifty Benning Wentworth also took care that in the granting of townships he himself should be provided for, and so he reserved for himself five hundred acres in the north-west corner of the town, which was to be accounted as two shares. His own immediate and official household was also provided for by making The Hon. John Temple, Esq,, Theodore Atkinson, Theodore Atkinson, Jr. Secretary of the Province, and Mark H. Wentworth, Esq., a relative, four of the sixty-five individual grantees.


The township thus granted was ample in territory, but it was not territory attractive to settlers. It contained Moos- ilauke, Sugar Loaf, Black, Owl's Head and Blueberry mountains. There were corners and patches of territory next to Warren line, along the Oliverian, in what were afterwards called Coventry Meadows, at the foot of Sugar Loaf, and the base of Blueberry mountain next Haverhill line, and a strip of territory running along the north part of the town next to Landaff line, and a little way up the three


6


SOME THINGS ABOUT


streams afterwards called Whitcher Brook, Davis Brook and Tunnel Stream which were capable of settlement, but the remainder of the 24,000 more or less acres in the town- ship was mountain and nearly one-seventh of the entire township was inaccessible to the hardy surveyors of the latter part of the eighteenth century, and was never divided into lots, but remained for a century or more undivided non- resident lands, appearing in the investigation made in recent years only as shares of the original proprietors.


Warren, Haverhill and Landaff were quite early and quite rapidly settled, but the settling of Coventry through the one hundred and forty years of its history has been slow, and for the past fifty years has been at a standstill,-more, the settlements of earlier years are reverting again to forests.


Just who the original grantees were, from what section or town they hailed, just why Governor Wentworth gave The- ophilus Fitch, Esquire, the eleven Weeds, the Sealeys, Smiths, Stevens, Husteds, Davenports and Fanchers a town- ship does not appear, but so far as can be learned, they never went to Coventry, but sold their rights or shares in the township to others.


It was not till just prior to the war of the Revolution that any settlements were made in the town, and these were few, and were all on the Coventry Meadows, so called, and near the Warren line, until the beginning of the 19th century when settlements were begun in the north part of the town.


These settlers held their lands by titles somewhat preca- rious, as the grantees and their assigns and successors made few attempts to protect their interests and realize on their holdings until 1797, when they held the first meeting of which record exists at the inn of Amasa Scott in Haver- hill, April 12, in that year. It appears from the record


7


COVENTRY-BENTON, N. H.


of that meeting that the ownership of the shares in the township had by that time passed into hands other than those of the original grantees. The seventy-one shares, in- cluding the Governor's reservation, were represented as fol- lows : Nathaniel Peabody, by Nathaniel Webber as agent, 34 rights or shares ; Obadiah Eastman, 4 ; Josiah Burnham, 9; Jonathan Hale, by A. Nixon agent, 9; Reuben Page, 3; John Weed, by Salmon Niles agent, 1; John W. Chandler, 7; Mark H. Wentworth, by Ben Porter atty., 2; Onesiphorous Flanders, 1, in all, seventy rights or shares.


Hon. John Winthrop Chandler, of Peacham, Vt., was chosen moderator of this meeting and Obadiah Eastman, Esq., of Coventry, clerk. That proprietors had held pre- vious meetings somewhere appears from the fact that John W. Chandler, Maj. Moody Bedel and Obadiah Eastman, Esq. were made a committee to examine into the appropri- ations and expenditure of monies previously made, and to examine and settle all demands against the pro-


prietary for services and expenditures. It was also voted that the monies advanced by Joseph Pearson for the redemption of the town, which had been sold for the county tax in 1795, be considered a just charge against the proprietary. Provision was made for roads, one from Haverhill through Coventry Meadows to Warren town line, a road which had been surveycd in 1796, and another called "The North and South road", to to be constructed from Warren town line to Landaff town line, a road which was surveyed by Maj. Caleb Willard in September, 1797. A tax of four dollars and fifty cents on each proprietor's right was levied for the purpose of building these roads, and the meeting was adjourned until Sept. 19, 1797.


The proprietors held meetings with greater or less fre-


8


SOME THINGS ABOUT


quency until surveys had been made so far as practicable, the last meeting of which a record was made being held July 4, 1818.


Some of the most important votes passed at these various meetings were :


Sept. 19, 1797. Voted that an account exhibited by Obadiah Eastman, Esq. for sundry services done in behalf of said proprietors in the years 1788, 1789, 1790 and 1794, be allowed, amounting to thirteen pounds, sixteen shillings, £13, 16s. Voted likewise that another account be allowed to the aforesaid Eastman for labor on the road, and for other services done in the year 1796 amounting to thirteen pounds, twelve and nine pence, £13, 12s 9d.


Sept. 20, 1797. Voted, that John W. Chandler and Obadiah Eastman Esquires and Artemas Nixon be a com- mittee to receive and examine claims to lands of all persons settled in said township, the rights said pitches have been made under, the time of pitching, settling and the im- provements made on each settlement, the claims and merits of each claimant, and that each claimant make out a return of all lands so claimed, by length of line and point of com- pass, commencing each with some known and established boundary and monument and file the same with the clerk of said proprietary on or before the second Tuesday of June next.


Voted, that each person who has not pitched any land to his right or rights in said town have liberty to pitch one hun- dred and five acres to each right at any time previous to the last day of February next, and not after. Said pitches to be made under the direction of the committee before mentioned, and the persons who neglect to make their pitches as afore- said shall have one hundred and five acres of land drawn to


9


COVENTRY-BENTON, N. H.


each right, in lieu of the pitch above mentioned by such per- sons, and in such manner as shall be hereinafter mentioned.


"Voted, that the return of a road leading from Warren to Landaff through the town of Coventry made and surveyed by Major Caleb Willard, dated the 11th day of September, A. D. 1797, be accepted by the meeting and be considered as a direction for the road committee in the expenditure of one-half the monies voted for making and repairing high- ways."


June 14, 1798. At this meeting Obadiah Eastman, Henry Gerrish and John W. Chandler were chosen a com- mittee to lay out the town into one hundred acre lots. And it was voted, that the committee complete a survey of the first division of one hundred acre lots in said town already begun, and that they immediately afterwards go on and make a sec- ond division of hundred acre lots, and that they proceed to make such other and further divisions of the lands in said town into hundred acre lots, or into fifty acre lots, as in their discretion may be most beneficial to the proprietors, with the addition of five acres to each hundred acre lot, and . two and a half acres to each fifty acre lot, for the purpose of highways.


June 15, 1798. "Voted, that Samuel Mastin, Moses Noyes, Samuel Eaton, Barnabas Niles, Joseph Lund, Jehiel Niles, Onesiphorus Flanders, Ezekiel Chapman and Ephraim Lund and their assignees, heirs, etc., be quieted in the pos- session of the several lots of land as stated in the report of the committee appointed to receive and examine the claims of settlers."


January 17, 1799. "Voted, that the account of Col. Hen- ry Gerrish, for surveying the town of Coventry in October, 1798, be allowed, amounting to $30.65, and the account of


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SOME THINGS ABOUT


John W. Chandler, amounting to $29.67, for the same ser- vice be also allowed."


January 18, 1799. "Voted, that Alden Sprague, Jona. Hale, Esquires, and Stephen P. Webster be a committee to investigate and establish the boundary line between Haver- hill and Coventry, also that Jonathan Hale be added to the committee to complete the survey of the town.


"Voted, that Alden Sprague, John W. Chandler and Ste- phen P. Webster be a committee to petition the General Court for abatement of state taxes now existing against the town of Coventry.


"Voted, that Obadiah Eastman be allowed $49.25 for ser- vices of himself and hands in lotting out the town of Coven- try, boarding the surveyors and hands, keeping their horses, procuring spirits, etc., as per bill." [At this meeting ad- ditional accounts were also allowed to Stephen P. Webster, Obadiah Eastman, Nathaniel Webber, Onesiphorus Flanders, Jonathan Hale, Reuben Page, Joseph Pearson, John W. Chandler and Artemas Nixon, amounting to $105.95 for services in surveying, warning the proprietary meeting, tav- ern expenses, etc. ].


May 28, 1800. "Voted, that John W. Chandler, Jona. Hale and John W. Tillotson, Esquires, be a committee vest- ed with discretionary powers to lay a statement of facts be- fore the General Court at its next session relative to an en- croachment of the town of Warren upon the town of Coven- try, in consequence of the doings of a committee appointed by the General Court to determine the boundary lines be- tween the following towns, viz. Piermont, Orford, Went- worth and Warren, and request to know if it was the inten- tion of said Court that the boundary lines of said Coventry should be affected by the proceedings of said committee."


brooks and streams, and the north and south road through centre of town.


enclosed in heavy lines, made in 1799. The plan also outlines the various


of town, made in 1798. John McDuffie's Survey, the lots on the east, hill line, made July, 1786. Colonel Gerrish's Survey, the 110 lots in centre Earliest plan of Coventry. Caleb Willard's Survey, 10 lots next to Haver-


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11


COVENTRY-BENTON, N. H.


[This committee doubtless attended to the duty assigned them, but it does not appear that they were able to reverse the decision of the committee above mentioned appointed by the General Court. The charter line between Warren and Coventry was south 58 degrees east, but Warren, by the de- cision of the General Court committee, overlapped the origi- nal charter line so that the new line between Warren and Coventry ran south 74 degrees and 30 minutes east, and this was never changed. Warren thus obtained several hundred acres from the originally chartered Coventry, much of which has since proved to be valuable timber land.]


February 3, 1803. "Voted, that the plan of survey made by John McDuffie of certain lots of land lying in the town of Coventry, under the direction of Obadiah Eastman, Es- quire, be accepted.


"Voted, that the plan of certain lots of land surveyed by Caleb Willard and known by the name of Willard's survey be accepted.


"Voted, that James Masters, James Curtis, Robert Whit- tom, Samuel Marston, Moses Noyes, Onesiphorus Flanders, Samuel Eaton, Barnabas Niles, Joseph Lund, Ezekiel Chap- man, Ephraim Lund, Pelatiah Watson and Samuel Jack- son, their heirs and assigns be quieted and confirmed in the possession of the several tracts of land that have been here- tofore voted to them."


At a meeting which had been called by the proprietors and held at the tavern of Dr. Amasa Scott in Haverhill Feb- ruary 29, 1804, Obadiah Eastman was chosen moderator and William Coolidge clerk. The following shares or rights were represented ; Moor Russel, 4; Simeon Eastman, 2; Obadiah Eastman, 4; Nathaniel Webber, 6; Stephen Couch, 1; John Montgomery, 1; Jona. Hale, by his attor-


12


SOME THINGS ABOUT


ney, William Coolidge, 10 ; in all 30 shares. This compar- atively small number of shares represented, and the change in ownership from the date of the first meeting, heretofore mentioned, in 1797, is explained by the fact that, during the intervening seven years, most of the lands which the survey- . ors had been able to reach had been divided into lots, each shareholder or proprietor obtaining his lots in fee ; the claims of first settlers, because of pitches made, had been settled and clouds on their titles removed ; and during the previous year, 1803, a town government had been organized. The meet- ing, however, was an important one. It ratified, established and confirmed the first and second division of hundred acre lots, it authorized the laying out a road through the north part of the town embracing the road from Porter's ferry and the old court house in Haverhill and from Wells River to the road which was already travelled through the north-east part of Coventry to Portland, or in such other direction to- ward Peeling as might be judged most beneficial to the pub- lic. Obadiah Eastman, Jonathan Hale and James East- man were made a committee to lay out the road. It was also voted to pay the amount of an execution which had been obtained against the proprietors in favor of Chase Whitcher of Warren. At an adjourned meeting, however, held May 2, 1805, it was unanimously resolved that the suit against Chase Whitcher for encroachment on the lands of the proprietors be revived and prosecuted.




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