USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Manchester > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 1
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hudson > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 1
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Londonderry > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 1
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Derry > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 1
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Windham > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 1
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Salem > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01096 4077
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https://archive.org/details/londonderryceleb00mack 0
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Hallerson Newyork.
Es. W. Patterson
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The Londonderry Celebration. [ New Namepolice) EXERCISES
ON THE
150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE SETTLEMENT
OF
OLD NUTFIELD,
COMPRISING THE TOWNS OF
LONDONDERRY, DERRY, WINDHAM, AND PARTS OF MAN- CHESTER, HUDSON AND SALEM, N. H.,
JUNE 10, 1869.
COMPILED BY ROBERT C. MACK.
MANCHESTER : PUBLISHED BY JOHN B. CLARKE. 1870.
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PRELIMINARY.
1214118
AT the annual meeting of Derry, March, 1868, the select- men of that town were instructed to appoint a committee to make arrangements, in cooperation with Londonderry, for the observance of the one hundred and fiftieth anniver- sary of the settlement of the towns, united at first under the name of Nutfield, 1719, and three years later, at the time of incorporation, under the name of Londonderry. In obe- dience to the above instructions, the selectmen appointed George F. Adams, Henry E. Eastman, Charles C. Parker, James C. Taylor and James H. Crombie. Alfred Boyd, James Priest and William D. White, were afterwards added.
At the November election, 1868, the town of London- derry chose for a committee, Robert C. Mack, Jonathan McAllister, Daniel Wilkins, John Gilcreast and John Dickey. To these were subsequently joined Henry Crowell and Montgomery Dickey. James A. Weston, Samuel N. Bell, John D. Patterson and George W. Pinkerton served on the committee, under appointment of the City Council of Manchester, and Samuel Campbell and George W. Weston represented Windham.
The Committee of Arrangements, thus constituted, met December 9, 1868, and organized by choice of George F. Adams as Chairman, R. C. Mack, Secretary, and Jonathan McAllister, Treasurer. .
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At subsequent meetings, the 10th of June, 1869, was fixed upon as the day for the proposed celebration, and Derry Depot the place.
The committee selected, with entire unanimity, the Hon. George W. Patterson, of Westfield, New York, for Presi- dent of the day, and the Hon. Charles H. Bell, of Exeter, N. H., to make the leading address. The ability of Mr. Patterson, his commanding presence and his extensive ac- quaintance, in union with full sympathy with the objects of the celebration, indicated him to be the man for the occasion ; and it seemed to the committee eminently proper and right that the selection of Orator should come from a family which had contributed so much to the old and later renown of the ancient town.
Rev. E. G. Parsons, of Derry, Henry E. Eastman and the Secretary, were designated to arrange a programme for the exercises of the day, and to invite speakers. The latter was a matter of some delicacy, as the selection was to be made from a very large number of distinguished men who were expected to be present, and who could appropri- ately instruct and entertain the audience.
After careful consideration, letters of invitation were addressed to the following named gentlemen, nearly all of whom signified acceptance :
Hon. James W. Patterson, of Hanover, N. H .; Rev. John H. Morrison, of Milton, Mass .; Hon. Elias Haskett Derby, of Boston, Mass. ; Rev. James T. McCollom, of Med- ford, Mass. ; Hon. Horace Greeley ; Hon. George W. Mor- rison, of Manchester, N. H .; Rev. Rufus Anderson, D. D., of Boston ; Hon. Aaron F. Stevens ; Rev. Samuel H. Taylor, LL. D., of Andover, Mass. ; Hon. George W. Nesmith, of Franklin, N. H .; Rev. Nathaniel Bouton, D. D., of Con- cord, N. H. ; Hon. Wm. W. Campbell, of Cherry Valley, N. Y. ; Rev. Cyrus W. Wallace, D. D., of Manchester, N. H., and Rev. Dr. Martin Anderson, of Rochester, N. Y.
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Rev. Dr. Daniel Fitz, of Ipswich, Mass .- since gone to his reward-was selected to offer prayer.
Invitations to be present were extended to the Amoskeag Veterans, the City Government of Manchester, N. H., the Mayor and Aldermen of Londonderry, Ireland, etc., and some three thousand cards of invitation were sent to indi- viduals in various parts of the country, a fac-simile of which may be found on the succeeding pages.
NUTFIELD, APRIL 11, 1719, O. S.
1869.
LONDONDERRY, DERRY, WINDHAM, MANCHESTER, WILL RECEIVE THEIR FRIENDS AT DERRY, THURSDAY, JUNE 10th, 1869.
150+ ANNIVERSARY OF SETTLEMENT. "Should auld acquaintance be forgot."-BURNS. COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS.
Gobertle. Made Jona Mcallister,
Daniel Willing John Gilereast John Dieter HEmy Crowell Me Dickey
J'y66. Bashan
Charles @, Tanker James l. Taylor. James Abrambien Alfred Boyd James Priest X
Jannes A. Nesten
Geo. W. Pinkerton Samuel Campbell
Geo. W. Weston
THE CELEBRATION.
THE ringing bells and the booming cannon announced to the citizens of Londonderry and Derry that the morning of the 10th had arrived, and all were early astir. Shortly after eight o'clock, a large procession was formed at Derry Upper Village, Henry E. Eastman, Chief Marshal; Na- thaniel Warner, John L. Cunningham, Horace A. Hill and Thomas Savage, of Derry, Assistant Marshals ; the whole under escort of the Amoskeag Veterans, General Natt Head in command, Lt. Col. John B. Clarke second in com- mand, accompanied by the Manchester Cornet Band, with Major Francis H. Pike as drum major.
The route was through the village, to Adams Female Seminary, and back to the point of starting; thence through Derry Lower Village, to the large tent which had been erected for the purposes of the celebration on "Doak's Plains," near Alfred Boyd's. At the lower village, the procession received the students of Pinkerton Academy, marshaled by the preceptor, Mr. Hazen, and many pupils from the common schools.
On the arrival of the train from Boston, at ten o'clock A. M., another procession was formed, under direction of Marshals William S. Pillsbury, Gilbert Hills and Ephraim W. Harvey, of Londonderry, which proceeded without delay to the place of meeting. It consisted mainly of residents of Londonderry, Windham and Salem, who were joined by many eminent citizens of Boston, Lowell, and other places. The Rainbow Lodge of Good Templars, from Londonderry, in partial regalia, formed a conspicuous
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feature of this procession. Gilmore's Band, of twenty-five pieces, from Boston, Mr. Arbuckle, Leader, furnished the music.
At eleven o'clock the meeting was called to order by the chairman of the committee of arrangements, Mr. Adams, who commenced by saying, " Let us have peace," and the vast assembly subsided into as good a state of quiet as the circumstances would permit, while he made a brief wel- come address, and introduced the
OFFICERS OF THE DAY.
PRESIDENT.
HON. GEORGE W. PATTERSON, of Westfield, New York.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Thomas Patterson, Joseph Dickey, Aaron P. Hardy, Charles Hurd, Francis Manter, Jonathan Savory, Warren Richardson, Reed P. Clark, Samuel Boyce, Alexander Mc- Gregor, John Greeley, Londonderry ; William Anderson, David Currier, James W. Nesmith, Joseph Morrison, Humphrey Choate, Edward P. Parker, Samuel Clarke, Nehemiah Choate, Philip Nowell, Richard Melvin, James Miltimore, Derry ; Daniel Mack, George W. Pinkerton, Samuel P. Jackson, David R. Leach, Horace P. Watts, Augustus F. Hall, George Porter, Israel Webster, James P. Eaton, Manchester ; Samuel W. Simpson, James Ander- son, Loren Thayer, Theodore Dinsmore, Windham.
SECRETARIES.
Robert C. Mack, of Londonderry ; William W. Poor, of Derry; James M. Campbell, of Manchester; and George W. Weston, of Windham.
A highly appropriate prayer was offered by Rev. Caleb E. Fisher, of Lawrence, Mass., to which succeeded the Address of Welcome, by the President of the day.
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ADDRESS.
BY HON. G. W. PATTERSON.
MR. PATTERSON, on taking the chair, thanked the Com- mittee of Arrangements for the honor conferred in selecting him to preside at such a gathering of the sons and daugh- ters of old Londonderry, and spoke as follows :
The duties of the chair will not be arduous, for every person will be in order to-day. We have met to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of this good old town, and I am highly gratified in meeting so many of the descendants of the early settlers on this occasion, representing as they do, all of New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and, for aught I know, every state in the Union. Everywhere you go, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, you will see the de- scendants of old Londonderry ; and wherever one is met, you will find him every inch a man. They are the true representatives of civil and religious liberty. The first, second, third and fourth generations have gone to their rest, and it becomes us to remember their virtues and see that the liberties inherited from them are transmitted un- impaired to our posterity.
How little do those who now inhabit the town know of the privations and sufferings of the early settlers. When they came here they had no shelter but the broad canopy of heaven, and for many years the log cabin was their only dwelling place. They located themselves on each side of " West Running brook," in what was, and still is, known as the " Double Range." This was said to be for their safety in case of an attack by the Indians. History shows that the early settlers, when attending religious worship on the Sabbath, always went armed, and the first minister, Rev.
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Mr. MacGregor, carried his gun into the pulpit, well loaded and primed, ready to repel an attack. But had the early settlers known the true character of the Indians, they would have feared no danger from them. They had dealt fairly and honestly by the natives, and after acquiring title from the Crown of Great Britain they, like honest men, (as they were,) purchased and paid the Indians for their right to the township, which was originally about twelve miles square, and during all the Indian wars of New England, no man, woman or child in Londonderry was ever injured or disturbed in their persons or property by the Indians.
I have had occasion to know much of the Indian charac- ter. After my settlement in western New York, near the Genesee river, the Indians were my nearest neighbors for several years, and I never experienced anything but kind- ness at their hands, and I have never known an instance of Indian troubles, from the landing of the Pilgrims at Ply- mouth Rock to the present day, where the whites were not the aggressors. The Indian fires are hardly extinguished in their wigwams till the most worthless of the white race take possession. Even before the title to the land is ob- tained by the government, and when the Indians defend their rights, the newspapers are filled with accounts of " In- dian outrages."
I will not detain the audience with any extended re- marks, but I must be permitted to congratulate the Com- mittee of Arrangements upon their success in gathering to- gether so large an assembly of the descendants of the early settlers, and to one and all I give a most hearty welcome.
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[The following poem was read by Rev. J. T. McCollom.]
OUR HOME JUBILEE. BY LUCINDA J. GREGG.
Let Nutfield to-day sound its merriest notes ! Let the hills and the vales catch the strain as it floats ! Ring out the loud echoes from mountain to sea, And rejoice in the day of our glad Jubilee !
From the East, from the North, from the prairies afar, From the Pine Tree domains to the southern Lone Star, We wanderers come to the cherished home-fold, To unite in one song for the bright days of old.
A song for the true, and a song for the brave, Who came from afar o'er the easterly wave; One song for the lake on whose beautiful shore, Their wanderings ended, they worshiped of yore.
To-day we will sing of the brown homes they made, Where earnest hands toiled, and where loving hearts prayed; And the home for the Sabbath, just over the way, The sacred old church, that's one hundred to-day.
In our jubilant song comes a sadder refrain ; - For the forms of the fathers we see not again. In their green-covered houses on yonder wliite hill, With the marble doors locked, they are sleeping so still!
In that glorious day when the sleepers arise, When together we go to our home in the skies, It is then we shall know,-but, oh! never till then,- How much we all owe to those brave, faithful men.
Adown the long years comes a noble array; Ah! many are found on Fame's roll-call to-day. From these valleys and hills has an army of worth, Of talent and trust, gone to bless the wide earth.
Of those left at home, there is many a name, All heroic, all noble, unspoken by Fame ;- One sigh for the dead,-for the living, one song ! God bless the loved home-land that claims all the throng !
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Then hail to old Derry! its lake and its lea, Its beautiful stream winding down to the sea, Its wondrous old trees with the evergreen crest, Its fine, fertile fields, sloping green to the west!
All hail to old Nutfield! whose broader expanse Our forefathers claimed as the years did advance; We always shall love thee, wherever we roam, And breathe out a prayer for our earliest home.
But Time 's speeding onward; how soon in its flight
· Will it bear us afar and away out of sight! How few, on another centennial day, Will return and talk over the years sped away!
But we hope, oh! we hope, when our earth-day is done, When our tent 's taken down at life's last setting sun, On the Plains all immortal, with glory untold, We shall sing of the days that can never grow old.
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ORATION.
BY HON. CHARLES H. BELL.
WE have come together here to-day, from far and near, to visit the birthplace of our fathers ; to look upon the spot where the dust of our ancestors lies buried ; to refresh our recollections of the old home, whose traditions were among the wonders of our childhood, and whose history is a lesson to our riper years ; to do honor to the memory of those whose blood flows in our veins, and to whose example and influence we are deeply indebted.
On this birthday of this ancient and respectable town- ship, it is fitting that we, her children and descendants, should pause in our busy pursuits, lay aside the cares of the day and the anxiety for the morrow, and recall the mem- ories of the times which are past. We shall learn to esti- mate our advantages more justly, when we contrast them with the meagre resources of an earlier period ; we shall prize the names we inherit more highly, when we remem- ber the virtues which made them long since respected ; we shall order our lives more wisely, when we see the success and honor which have crowned years of industry and up- rightness.
This history of this township has been written by one, now no more, who fortunately survived to add that to his other labors of usefulness here ; and we are confidently expecting more copious annals from a son of the soil, whose tastes and pursuits fit him admirably for the work. I shall not, therefore, in this brief address, attempt anything like a historical sketch, but simply invite you to consider with me the character of the early settlers of Londonderry, and the influence of the settlement upon the community.
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There are two circumstances, peculiar to the history of Londonderry, which should be stated by way of introduc- tion. The early settlers were, almost without an exception, homogeneous ; of the same race, religion, interests and habits, and with little diversity of fortune or of education : in this respect the settlement here is almost without a par- allel in the annals of the country. The other fact, and which is no less remarkable, is the prodigious increase in numbers which the descendants of the early Londonderry stock have attained, in the four or five generations which have passed away since the colony, of such slender propor- tions, was formed. It is estimated by persons best qualified to pronounce upon the subject, that the aggregate, in every section, would now fall little short of fifty thousand souls.
On the eleventh day of April, one hundred and fifty years ago, sixteen families, from the north of Ireland, came to this place, the advance guard of a body of more than four times their number, who in the course of that and the succeeding year, established themselves here. They are at this day designated as Scotch Irish, a term which is not inappropriate, as descriptive of their origin and prior abode, though it has given rise to not a little mis- apprehension. It has been supposed by some writers, that the name denotes a mixed nationality of Scottish and Irish descent ; and, in order to adapt the facts to their theory, they have fancied that they could detect in the character of the Londonderry settlers the traits derived from each an- cestry. But history fails to bear out the ingenious hypoth- esis ; for it is certain that there was no mixture of blood in the little band who cast their fortunes here ; they were of Scottishi lineage, pure and simple. They sprang from a colony of Scots, which had planted itself more than a cen- tury before, in the province of Ulster, in Ireland, and whose numbers had been increased, from time to time afterward, by fresh arrivals from the parent country. The ancestors of the greater part of the Londonderry settlers made their
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way to Ireland in the latter half of the seventeenth cen- tury, during the relentless persecution of the covenanters in Scotland, under the leadership of the brutal Claverhouse.
In Ireland, the Scottish immigrants remained as distinct from the native population as if they had never crossed the channel. They were among the Irish, but not of them. The Scots were, to a man, Presbyterians of the straitest sect, while their neighbors were as uniformly Romanists. The barriers of a different nationality and religion would have sufficed to keep the races wide enough asunder ; but there were other circumstances to generate an actual re- pulsion between them. The lands in Ulster, which the Scottish community enjoyed, were allotted to them as a reward of their military services in extinguishing a rebel- lion of the Catholics ; and the Irish population regarded them with the jealousy and rancor which a proud and sub- jected race are prone to feel at the presence of those who have been victorious over them.
Nor had the residence of the Scottish colony in Ireland passed without overt demonstrations of this hostile feeling .. Repeated outbreaks of civil strife had succeeded each other, in which the rival races were arrayed in arms, in opposing ranks ; culminating in the memorable siege of London- derry, the horrors of which fill one of the saddest pages of history. The idea, therefore, that intermarriages, or any relations of intimacy, would have been tolerated between those of races so constantly and bitterly at variance, is sim- ply chimerical.
The main cause which impelled our ancestors to quit their home in the old world, and seek an abode in the wilds of America, is to be found, without doubt, in their desire for religious liberty. They were not the persons to take so important a step simply from love of novelty and excite- ment ; for the leaders of the expedition were men of ma- ture years, with families dependent upon them. They were no mere speculators or needy adventurers, for they were all
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in comfortable circumstances, and some of them persons of substance.
It is true that at the period of their emigration they were subjected to no persecution. The Protestant party was in the ascendancy in the government of Great Britain, and all were suffered to enjoy their religious opinions and worship without molestation. But they had abundant reason to know that the causes which engendered the religious ani- mosities of former days might at any time be revived, on the accession of a new sovereign. In addition to this, they were subjected to jealous and heavy taxation, to sustain the church establishment with which they had little sympathy ; and, as we have seen, were surrounded by a population for- eign in sentiment and feeling.
Accounts had reached them, that in the new world a people, holding a faith substantially like their own were permitted through every change of dynasty to enjoy their opinions undisturbed ; that here was no levying of tithes to' maintain an unfriendly episcopal establishment ; no zealots of the church of Rome to seize the first pretexts for draw- ing the sword and lighting the fires of persecution ; but an orderly society, abundant territory, fertile soil, easy to be acquired and of unfettered tenure.
If there were some dark shades in the picture which presented these attractions, if there was less of tolerance and more of a jealous and intrusive spirit in the new coun- try, a more inclement climate and greater risks and pri- vations in a frontier life, than they imagined, there is little probability that these drawbacks, if known, would have weighed with persons of their resolute nature and serious purposes, to induce them for a moment to hesitate in carry- ing out their design.
No change but the dread summons of death could have so completely sundered all their relations to those whom, outside their own circle, they held nearest and dearest on earth, as their removal to this country. The pang of sep-
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aration, which overflowed the eyes of those of the gentle sex and tender years, must have weighed heavily on the hearts of the grave seniors of the little company. But they did not falter. And so they bade adieu to the scenes and friends of their youth, and embarked on the voyage which shut them from their view forever ; and thenceforward their destinies were linked with those of another hemisphere.
So vast are the changes which the last century and a half have witnessed, that it is not easy at this day to form an adequate conception of the condition in which the Lon- donderry settlers found themselves, on their arrival here. They were literally upon the frontier of civilization. On the east and west there were indeed slender colonies of Europeans, but only at the distance of ten or fifteen miles, through the trackless woods; while on the north there was no human habitation between them and the line of Canada, save the wigwam of the savage.
It was in the early spring. The snows had not disap- peared from the shaded earth, and scarcely a bud had ven- tured forth, to give promise of the season of flowers and fruits. The country was covered with the primeval forest, and nature promised nothing for their support beyond the nuts upon the trees and the herbage of the meadows. All else was to be wrung from her grasp by stern and unre- mitting toil. A home was to be created in the wilderness. Neither beasts of burden, nor any of even the simplest contrivances for saving manual labor, were at their com- mand, but everything was to be accomplished by sheer force of human muscle and sinew ; so that their early life here was one continuous struggle to secure the bare neces- sities of existence,-shelter, warmth and food.
Nor had they the resources to divert and relieve the mind jaded by a life of daily interminable toil. The press, the lecture room and the post office were unknown to them, or existed but as a faint shadow of their present reality. There were books, indeed, but scanty in numbers,
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and in general little adapted for recreation and entertain- ment. They were in good part solid tomes of controver- sial theology upon speculative points of doctrine, remem- bered now (not unhappily) only by the Old Mortalities of our day. What would be the feelings of the farmer at the present time, if, after the fatigues of the day, instead of solacing himself with a well filled newspaper (perhaps fresh from the tireless press which the energy of a descendant of Londonderry sires has founded in the metropolis of the country), he should find himself reduced to the whole- some but somewhat meagre diet of the "Self Justiciary Convicted and Condemn'd," or the "Marrow of Modern Divinity "?
Another trouble soon came upon our colonists, in the form of a difficulty about their title to the soil. This was claimed by other parties, who had procured a conveyance of the land from some pretended Indian proprietor, and were jealous of the community of Irish, as they called them, which was so manfully intrenching itself in their vicinity. It is said that an attempt was even set on foot to dispossess our fathers by force, and that an armed party, for that purpose, came upon them when they were assembled at their devotions in the open air. The invaders, after waiting till the exercises were ended, became satisfied that it would be no child's play to attempt to eject the stalwart worshipers, and abandoned the project. But constant warfare was for a long time kept up about the possession of certain meadows, which the inhabitants of the lower towns claimed the right to mow, and it was there that the sturdy Londonderry clergyman waived the protection of his black coat, and proposed to settle the question of possession by the arm of flesh.
Amid such trials and difficulties did the early settlers of the township lay the foundations of a community that was destined to exert a marked influence in the history of the state and the country. As may be supposed, they were
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