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Gc 974.202 N56e 1853786
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
CEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00056 0844
.
TALES -
From The HISTORY
Of NEWPORT
N.H.
By SAM. H. EDES
FOREWORD
When there lives in any town a man with a passion for history, with the patience to seek out its bits and piece them together, with a con- suming love for his town, and with the literary skill to weave all his patches together into a colorful story, warmly forgiving the sins of the past that have left their scars on his era, that town is indeed fortunate.
Such a town is Newport, New Hampshire.
And such a man is Sam. H. Edes, a man of great personal charm, salty wit and perceiving wisdom. In this volume he has set down some of the tales that he has gathered in a lifetime of observation and fact-gathering. They are tales he has selected to give the reader some of the high spots in the life of the town he loves and to tell about some of the men and women who have helped shape it.
E. D. Newport, New Hampshire 1963
1853786
CONTENTS
Chapter
Page
Chapter I, Earliest Times 1
Chapter II, Settlement 3
Chapter III, The Charter of the Province of New Hampshire
6
Chapter IV, The Survey
12
Chapter V, How a Country Milliner Became a Great Editor and Lived to the Age of 94 16
Chapter VI, Turnpikes 25
Chapter VII, The American Revolution 32
Chapter VIII, The Time Newport Seceded 36
Chapter IX, We Build A Church 41
Chapter X, Storm 60
Chapter XI, The Corbin Story
67
Chapter XII, Our Benefactors
73
Chapter XIII, The Civil War
83
Chapter XIV, A Civil War Diary 87
Chapter XV, Town Hall Fire 92
Chapter XVI, Spanish American War 97
Chapter XVII, The World Wars 99
Chapter XVIII, Veterans' Organizations 103
Chapter XIX, Newport and the Governorship 106
Chapter XX, Writers 110
Published by The Argus-Champion Newport, New Hampshire
$5.00-1.0 2852-2-10-15 Justle
Sarah Josepha Hale lived in house at right. Later it became Methodist parsonage, and since then it has been moved to Myrtle St. Richards Free Library in center demolished in 1963.
si
THE
The Little Red School House, located two miles south of New- port on Route 10. Originally built in 1835, it served as a district school for over 50 years.
TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT 1
CHAPTER I EARLIEST TIMES
I have often wondered when, on some pleasant afternoon, I have been from some high point contem- plating the pleasant and mild piece of land which, owing to a brain-storm which once passed over the mind of His Excellency Benning Wentworth, for the time being Royal Governor of New Hampshire, is familiar to us now under the name of "Newport" - what this same valley looked like five or ten thousand years ago. It seems a bootless line of thought, but of one thing we may be sure - at some time way back there this landscape was very different from this one with which we are now familiar.
Geologically it is a pretty old country. Authorities say that the first land of this western continent rose out of the deep along here somewhere, but of course that was not a matter of a few thousands of years, but pro- bably the time must be reckoned in the millions. So our query of five or ten thousand years is surely a modest one, and not beyond hope of a reasonable answer.
We can be sure that Lake Sunapee was already glittering in well developed sunlight and that the sweet river we call the Sugar was making pleasant music over the rocks at the East barrier, but then we come to a pause. For there is sure evidence that the valley of the Sugar itself has been at some time a lake. It was probably six to eight miles long, and a narrow arm extended around the Hill and followed the course of the present river through North Newport and came to an end somewhere near the high walled valley at Chand- ler's. Probably it was not too deep. Seventy-five to 100 feet perhaps - well above the highest of our present steeples and towers. It may be there was life in it and on it - but of this we know nothing.
Then, one day there came an event- earthquake perhaps, or such a storm as we moderns never dreamt of - maybe a spring freshet of tremendous and unpre- cedented violence. At any rate it appears that the rock barrier which for ages had barred the waters from the
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TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT
West gave way, and with a tremendous roar, accom- panied by thunderings and vivid flashes of lightning, if you like it that way, the lake - nameless of course - went roaring and plunging down through the gap, tumbling great rocks like jackstraws along its path, leaving no living thing in all the area which used to be a pleasant and smiling lake.
For such is the way of the waters when released from proper bounds, and answering the demands of mere gravity to develop a fury undreamed of a few moments before. Ah yes, that would have been some- thing to see! And it surely happened, a small copy of that Flood which the Bible still talks about as a fact of the ancient time. And what of the fair plains of Clare- mont and below? We don't know, but there's many a half-buried and rotting boulder in the fields to the west that could tell us if they suddenly were blessed with power of speech - a story of terror, even to a rock. But we can be pretty certain that their silence, now held for these thousands of years, will continue for thousands more, barring the interposition of some other cataclysm.
After all, the termendous racket incident to the scene we have just been witnessing was a thing to which the valley must have become accustomed, because these hills and valleys were not formed throughout the ages without many scenes of violence and fury, all accom- panied by great amounts of noise - if you will admit that noise can exist without the aid of human ears.
However that may be, there seems to be no other event on which we may fasten for a good many thou- sand years. Not indeed before the coming of the white man. How much scurrying around the American Indian may have done in the centuries during which he had no rivals in this wilderness we do not know. His hunting parties, his war parties - if they came and went, they did so very quietly, leaving nothing, not even a burnt- out campfire to record the fact of his presence. So we may disregard him and look for the entrance of the first white settlers, who, we may be sure, made plenty of noise to announce their presence in these ancient woods.
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TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT
CHAPTER II SETTLEMENT
The White Man Arrives - Terms of Governor's Charter
Jumping over, now, any number of centuries, not over 10 perhaps, to give Nature, with her wonderful healing properties, time to eradicate the ugly scars of the flood and make this area beautiful again, we find the next event of note to be the arrival of the white man. The official date of this event is generally rec- koned as 1761 because the Charter from the Royal Governor of New Hampshire bears that date.
However, the event itself was as much due to the breaking of barriers as was the flood. The barrier this time, however, was the presence of the Indian tribes, who not only threatened but actually did work with ar- row, gun, scalping knife and fire so effectually as prac- tically to bar all our lands here in the North from set- tlement for just about 200 years. Only along the coast and a few great rivers durst the Englishman venture to raise his humble cabin throughout all that time - and then it was only at great peril of life, hair and limb. Raiders drove the settlers out of Keene, beseiged Charlestown, in spite of the fort there, and drove their raids to the borders of Portsmouth even, before they could be stopped. Three separate wars, following close upon one another, and all lumped together in New Hamp- shire history under the general title of the French and Indian wars, kept the country-side in a perpetual state of alarm throughout most of this period.
But of this our fair valley knew nothing. There was nobody here to be alarmed. Then in 1759 a per- manent peace was arranged, Canada passed into the hands of the English, and without French assistance the Indian was helpless.
All New Hampshire and Vermont became available for settlement. And this was not all, the claims of George Mason to much of the country, and the uncer- tainty as to who had the power to dispose of this land, was, in 1741, cleared up by the courts. Benning Went-
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TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT
worth, well liked, courtly and urbane, had become the first Royal Governor, and things were really all set for progress.
Benning Wentworth was not only the Royal Gov- ernor, he was the first Royal Governor of New Hamp- shire, all who had previously represented the King in that capacity were also governors of Massachusetts, and generally lived in that state. But New Hampshire now enjoyed a separate entity-not only that, but for good measure claimed most of Vermont as well.
So in the events we are now describing, Governor Wentworth granted to various individuals 16 towns- eight on each side of the Connecticut. Even now, how- ever, it was easier to secure the grant of a township than really to establish a settlement. The Indian trou- bles were over, but how could people be certain of that! It was no light matter for any but the boldest to plunge into an unbroken wilderness where none of the benefits and institutions of what civilization then existed were to be found - where they were no roads, no schools, no cleared lands, no churches, no doctors, no contact with the outside world.
But certain parts of New England were already becoming crowded. In that day there was little to do but farming for a livelihood. Connecticut was one of these parts. So it happened that certain people in the old town of Killingworth, over in the eastern part of Connecticut, near Long Island Sound, heard about this new land, their interest was aroused and it wasn't too difficult to get up a party willing to take the risk, since nothing better seemed to present itself.
It seems, though, from some accounts which are not readily available and are not, therefore, generally known, that it was only on the third attempt that a charter for the land now known as Newport was made to stick. "Grenville" was the first name assigned. This was doubtless in honor of George Grenville, a close ad- visor of the King, and sponsor of the infamous Stamp Act - which fact later rendered him vastly unpopu- lar in America.
5
TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT
So, when Newport was again chartered and the land was assigned to certain persons who lived in or near Newport, Rhode Island, the name was changed to "Newport" in honor of that place. Whether this was a help, we do not know. At all events, the project fell through and this land was granted a third time. This time the Governor's office didn't bother about a new name - probably none was suggested, and we were baldly put forth under the name of "Newport," there and then starting a query in the minds of a great many people as to the why and wherefore of this name for an inland town with not even a wide place in its river by way of justification. Neither has it annoyed Newport, Rhode Island, to any noticeable extent, and we've gone right on each Newport blandly ignoring the other and refusing to be annoyed by non-essentials.
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E
The Common about 1875. Note the Dexter Richards mansion peeking out from the extreme left. In foreground, at foot of Common, GAR Memorial Tree, which has since grown to full height and been cut down.
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TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT
CHAPTER III
It is time to be inquiring just what was necessary in that day to get a town started. Well, most of these towns were, purely and simply, a land speculation. The Gov- ernor contacted some people who wanted to make money in land -- or they contacted him - - an association of about 60 people was established and shares issued. Of these, the Governor himself received certain shares, so that in the course of a few years he became the state's greatest landowner. But let us look at the town's char- ter and see just what sort of agreement was entered into between the Governor and the "Proprietors":
THE CHARTER PROVINCE of NEW HAMPSHIRE
"George, the Third, By the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith & etc
"To all persons to whom these presents shall come Greeting, Know ye that WE of special grace, certain knowledge and meer motion, for the due Encouragement of settling a new plantation within our said province, by and with the advice of our Trutsy and Well beloved Ben- ning Wentworth Esq: Our Governor and Commander in Chief of our said province of New Hampshire in New England and of our council of the said Province - Have upon the Conditions and Reservations hereinafter made given and granted, and by these Presents, for Us our Heirs and Successors, do give and Grant in Equal shares unto our loving subjects, inhabitants of our said Pro- vince of New Hampshire, and our other Governments, and to their Heirs and Assigns for Ever, whose names are entered on this Grant, to be divided to and amongst them into Sixty Eight Equal Shares, all that Tract or Parcel of Land Situate lying and being within Our Pro- vince of New Hampshire, Containing by Admesure- ment, Twenty Three Thousand and Forty Acres, which Tract is to contain six miles Square and no more, out of which an Allowance is to be made for Highways, and unimprovable Land, by Rocks, Ponds, Mountains and
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TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT
Rivers, One Thousand and Forty Acres free, according to a Plan and Survey thereof made by our said Gover- nor's order, and returned into the Secretary's Office and hereinto annexed butted and bounded as follows: (viz) Beginning at a Stake and Stones which stands 78 degrees East, at the distance of Six Miles and One Half Mile from the North-westerly corner of Charles- town, a town formerly Granted in the Province, and runs from the said Stake & Stones N. 8 degrees E. five miles and Seven Eighths of a mile to a Stake and Stones, then S. 60 degrees E Eight Miles and One Quarter of a Mile, then S. 10 degrees W. six miles to a stake and stones, then N. 63 degrees, W. six Miles and one quarter of a mile to a stake and stones, the Bounds first men- tioned being six miles and one half miles from the bank of the Connecticut River.
"And that the same be and hereby is incorporated into a township by the name of NEWPORT. And the Inhabitants that do and shall hereafter inhabit the said township, are thereby declared to be enfranchised with and entitled to All and Every the privileges and im- munities that other Towns within our Province by law exercise and enjoy-And further, that the said Town as soon as there shall be Fifty Families resident and settles therein, shall have the liberty of holding two Fairs, one of which shall be held on the-and the other on the- annually, which fairs are not to continue longer than. the respective-following the said-and that as soon as the said Town shall consist of Fifty Families, a Mar- ket may be opened and kept, one or more days in each week, as may be thought most advantageous to the in- habitants.
"Also, that the first meeting for the choice of Town Officers, Agreeable to the Laws of our said Province shall be held on the Third Tuesday of November next, which said meeting shall be notified by Mr. George Har- ris, who is hereby appointed the Moderator of the first meeting, which he is to Notify and Govern Agreeably to the Laws and Customs of our said Province, and the Annual Meeting for ever hereafter for the choice of
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TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT
such officers for the said town, shall be on the second Tuesday of March Annually-To have and to hold the said Tract of Land as above expressed, together with all Privileges and Appurtenances to them, and their Res- pective Heirs and Assigns forever, upon the following Conditions (Viz)
"1st. That every guarantee, his heirs or Assigns shall plant and cultivate Five Acres of Land within a term of five years, for every Fifty Acres contained in his or their share or proportion of land in said Township, and to continue to improve and settle the same Addition- al cultivations, on Penalty of the forfeiture of his grant or share in the said Township, and of its Reverting to us our heirs and successors, to be by us or their them re- granted to such of our Subjects as shall effectually Settle and Cultivate the same.
"2dly. That all White and Other Pine Trees within the said Township, fit for Masting our Royal Navy be carefully preserved for that Use, and none to be Cut or Felled, without our Special Lease 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.
"3dly. 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 Marked Out for Town Lots one of which shall be allotted to every Grantee of the Contents of One Acre.
"4thly. Yielding and paying therefor to us our Heirs and Successors for the space of Ten Years, to be com- puted from the date thereof the Rent of One Ear of Indian Corn, only, on the Twenty-fifth day of Decem- ber Annually, if Lawfully Demanded, the first payment to be made on the twenty-fifth day of December, 1762.
"5thly. Every Proprietor, Settler or Inhabitant, shall yield or Pay unto our Heirs and Successors, Year-
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TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT
ly and Every Year Forever, From and after the Expira- tion of Ten Years from the Above Said Twenty-fifth Day of December which will be in the year of our Lord, 1772 one Shilling Proclamation Money for every hun- dred acres he so owns, settles or Possesses, and so in propation for a Greater or Lesser Tract of Land, which money must be paid by the respective Persons above said, their heirs or assigns, In our Council Chamber 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.
"In Testimony Thereof we have caused the Seal of our Said Province to be hereunto Affixed. Witness Benning Wentworth Esq., Our Governor and Command- er in Chief of our said Province, the 6th Day of Octo- ber in the year of our Lord Christ, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-one, and in the First Year of Our Reign.
"B. WENTWORTH
"By his Excellency's Command, With Advice of Council THEODORE ATKINSON, SECRETARY
"Province of New Hampshire, Recorded in the Book of Charters, p. 221-222 Oct. 6, 1761. Per Theodore Atkinson, Secretary
"A true Copy, Benj'n Giles, Proprietors Clk.
So Newport was duly chartered in the name of King George III via his well beloved Governor and Command- er in Chief, Benning Wentworth. In addition Governor Wentworth had reserved to himself 200 acres as his personal share. This tract, afterward known as "the Governor's farm" was located in the extreme southwest corner of the town, cornering on Claremont, Charlestown and Unity. How this came about we do not know- maybe the Governor's share was always in the SW cor- ner of the township. Anyway, his share of Clare- mont was similarly located, but it happened in Newport that this share occupied the very highest land in the township and, as it now seems, about the most worth- less land of all. But it seems very doubtful, consider- ing the very limited knowledge of the alloting commit-
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TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT
tee-I mean limited knowledge of the value and desir- ability of the various tracts, that there was any local desire to "short change" His Excellency. It may be as I have said, merely the standard procedure.
As to the other provisions-the specified ear of In- dian corn were never required, and seem only to have been designed as something to rely upon in case the set- tlers failed to make a suitable effort to clear and settle the land. The provision concerning white pine and other trees suitable for masts for the Royal Navy, also never came into effect, although for a number of years such trees were carefully preserved. In many New Hamp- shire towns these great trees were carefully cut and transferred to the coast, where they were trans-shipped to England in special ships designed for the purpose. I do not believe any were ever shipped from Newport because a rather special roadway was required and none such seems ever to have been prepared. Eventually the King's masts went into the general stock of trees, which, in the process of clearing the land were yarded into great piles and burned in order to get rid of them. It is a matter of tradition that such a burning place was established at the foot of Claremont Hill on the west side of the meadows. The really profitable part of the venture, so far as the Governor was concerned, would seem to have been the shilling tax for every hundred acres a person possessed. But as this tax was to come into effect only at the end of ten years, and as violent political events intervened before the end of that time, it seems probable that very few, if any shillings were ever paid, although the charter said that this tax would be payable to the Governor's officers or representatives "forever." When the American Revolution came along it was almost certain that the Governor's "farm" was confiscated when he was obliged to flee to Canada, but further details have not been unearthed. Who finally secured this property is field for the future and more careful historian.
We do know, however, that clearing and planting the required acreage proved no small task. Much of
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TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT
the land proved, upon being laid bare of its forest cover, to be rocky and sometimes barren as well as covered with a well nigh inpenetrable tangle of fallen logs and debris. This area has been subject to prehistoric hur- ricanes throughout the ages, and those who saw what happened in the woods in the hurricane of 1938 can well imagine the condition of the ancient forests. So it hap- pened that in 1766 a committee was formed to go to Portsmouth to have the charter extended, an effort that seemed to have been easily accomplished, although the success of the mission must have caused the settlers more or less anxiety.
The same year a committee consisting of Ebenezer Merritt, Deacon Jeremiah Clement and Steven Wilcox were named to "open" a cart road into town from North Charlestown. This road was the only link with the out- side world for some years. Probably not much of a road, but served to guide the settlers and their families into the wilderness from North Charlestown. No further roads seem to have been built for three or four years at least. Just how the settlers found their way to the various tracts assigned to them we are not told, except that we hear of Thomas Wilmarth coming into town on foot, with a 40-pound pack on his back and finding his land, which was over near the Governor's Farm, by following marked trees.
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TALES FROM THE HISTORY OF NEWPORT
CHAPTER IV
SURVEY
Somewhere around 1760 Governor Benning Went- worth sent surveyors up into this region to survey or at least outline 16 townships in the wild country North of Charlestown. Charlestown was then known as "Number Four," that is fourth and last of the chain of forts ex- tending northward from the Massachusetts line. Con- sidering that these surveyors had little information to go on, crude maps and only fairly reliable instruments, remembering also that men of their time relied largely upon rum for sustenance in the wilderness or anywhere else, we'll have to admit that they did a pretty fair job. Still, looking critically at the map of the township
which we know as "Newport," there are some questions we'd like very much to ask these old surveyors. Having laid out "Claremont" in a fairly regular rectangle, why did they have to give "Newport" such a decided twist? To be sure, north of here the westward setting of the Connecticut River in its progress southward, made a shifting base, but at this point the river is fairly straight, and it is hard to see why the North and South boundaries of the town couldn't have progressed in a fairly straight course from those of Claremont. But they didn't. And do not. If they did our north line would include Croydon Flat and our south boundary would have cut Route 10 somewhere near the Red School House.
As it is, the town presents a decided lozenge shape on the map, with the east side a bit longer than the west. But in the course of time it transpired that the settlers had ideas of their own about these matters and some of them doctored the original layout to suit their own purposes. Croydon and Grantham, for instance, arranged to have their own west lines coincide roughly with the top of the Croydon-Grantham mountain range, and rearranged their eastern boundaries to make more homogenous townships.
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