USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Dublin > The history of Dublin, N.H., Volume 1852 > Part 1
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Gc 974.202 D85L 1142904
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GENEAL CC" COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01096 2113
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyofdublinn1852dubl
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1.
Mr Newell Withington with the legend of L. W. Leonard
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Amos Twitchell
THE
HISTORY OF DUBLIN. N. H ..
New Ham I
CONTAINING THE
ADDRESS BY CHARLES MASON,
AND THE
Proceedings at the Centennial Celebration,
JUNE 17, 1852; -
WITH
A REGISTER OF FAMILIES. 1
BOSTON: PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, 22, SCHOOL STREET. 1855.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, BY LEVI W. LEONARD, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of New Hampshire.
MAP OF THE TOWN OF
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EXPLANATIONS
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PREFACE.
1142904
IT has become quite common at the present day, especially in New England, to publish histories of towns. The practice is a good one. The traditions of past events are always fading from the memories of successive generations ; and, unless they are written and printed, many of them will be lost beyond recovery. It hap- pens already that the existing inhabitants of towns, the histories of which have not been published, are but slightly acquainted with the events that moved the hearts, and aroused the energies, of their
progenitors. This has been made very evident in our case by many unsuccessful attempts to obtain information in reference to the early history of Dublin. Passing events have so absorbed interest and attention, that the transactions of former times - transactions, too, which have made or marred their own fortunes - have received little or no consideration. The aged, it is true, are apt to dwell upon the past; while the young look intently to the future, speculating more upon what will be than upon what has been. But the history of the past, even in a small town, contains lessons from which those who now live, even the young, may learn wisdom for the future. Many instructors of youth have urged the importance of beginning the study of geography with that of their own town. If they are right, then the same may be urged, to some extent, with regard to history, which, if thus begun, cannot fail to have in the minds of the young a more living reality.
- 7.50
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iv
PREFACE.
To some persons it may seem a work of little labor to prepare a history of a small, retired country town, whose existence dates back only one hundred years. To others it may seem to be a labor not worth the pains. The Committee of Publication are experimentally certain that what they have done with regard to the preparation of the " History of Dublin " has cost them no small amount of labor. Of what value the result of their labor may prove to be must be left to the judgments of those who read the book. These judgments will be various. Some persons will not find in it what they looked for, and others will find what they did not look for. Both may feel disappointment, and perchance find fault. To the native-born citizens of Dublin, whether resident or emigrant, we trust the book will not be wholly without interest.
It was not the design of the Publishing Committee at first to make so large a book. The printing of the Address, with the Proceedings of the Centennial Celebration, and some documents alluded to in the Address, was all that was contemplated. But, on further consideration, they concluded to add other matter, which could not properly be comprehended in an address on a public occasion. Some repetition of facts stated in the Address were introduced, in order to keep up a connection in the matter added, and to avoid too frequent reference. Although a large portion of the additions are rather materials for a history than a history itself, yet, in connection with the Address and the Proceedings of the Centennial Celebration, we trust the book will be found to contain a tolerably complete history of the town from its first settlement to the present time.
The Registers of Families occupy more space than was at first apprehended. In order to make them uniform, it was found neces- sary to recopy the whole number furnished. Many of them, how- ever, were gathered from the recollections of individuals, and from the scanty and imperfect records of the town-clerks who held the office previous to 1820. As these Registers are principally made up of names and dates, no one should be surprised if numerous errors are discovered. Frequently, the Registers handed to the Committee differed as to dates from the town-records. It was not in our power, in most instances of this kind, to determine which
V
PREFACE.
were correct. Sometimes one Register was found to be inconsistent with another, which gave dates respecting the same person. In such cases, we occasionally discovered, as we believed, the true date ; and this will account for the variations from the original copies, which the persons who furnished them may perhaps regard as errors. Of the soldiers of the Revolution, we have inserted nearly in full all the notices that were received. The living resi- dents of Dublin are left to the future historian. The names of those who have held offices in town will be found under their appropriate heads in the course of the history. If the Register of any family is omitted, it is because none was received, or could be gathered from any accessible sources of information.
To the persons who have aided us in collecting materials for this book, we tender our thanks. We offer it to the town, which has taken the responsibility of its publication, as the best we could prepare during the time we were employed upon it. Taking all circumstances into consideration, we do not feel that there has been any needless delay. A copy of the Address was not received till nearly a year after its delivery. Sickness in the family of the Chairman of the Committee, and his residence, most of the time, during the last year and a half, in another town, have also contri- buted to hinder the progress of the work. The map which we prefix to the book is believed to be as correct as could be made without an accurate and expensive survey by measurement of the whole town. Many parts of it were drawn from actual measure- ment ; and its errors, if any shall be discovered, will be found to be less numerous, we think, than in most other town-maps.
The portraits, with the exceptions hereafter mentioned, were furnished by the persons whom they represent, or by their friends. The plates for the portraits of Samuel Appleton and Dr. Twitchell were kindly furnished, for the taking of impressions from them ; the first by Mrs. Appleton, and the second by Dr. G. W. Twitchell. The plate for the portrait of L. W. Leonard was the same that was procured by his friends in 1850. The portrait of Mr. Sprague was lithographed from the original painting by Belknap.
Mr. Lawson Belknap, a member of the Committee of Publica- tion, died Oct. 3, 1853. He was active and earnest in his efforts
vi
PREFACE.
to collect information respecting the history of Dublin, his native town. Had he lived, he would have afforded us much aid in preparing the Register of Families, which were not begun to be collected till after his death.
The Chairman of the Committee of Publication may here be permitted to say, that he is not responsible for the insertion of the laudatory remarks respecting himself, contained in some of the addresses made at the Centennial Celebration. Over this portion of the book he had no control. He could not, with propriety, either erase or modify what the gentlemen thought fit to offer for publication.
The names on the list of emigrants from Dublin, collected and arranged by Mr. Fisk, a member of the Committee of Publication, have been added in the belief that to many persons it will be grati- fying to have old friends and fellow-townsmen thus brought to their recollection. Though some of them removed from town before most of the persons now living here were born, we cannot think that their names will be read with entire indifference; for they once had their home here, and many of them strove with their fellow- townsmen to promote the common welfare. A large portion of them are no longer alive; but their children, in many instances, survive, and have doubtless heard from the lips of their parents some account of their temporary sojourn in Dublin. Though they never saw our hills and valleys, nor the faces of those who now dwell here, yet they cannot but feel some interest in the town from which their fathers and mothers emigrated. The list is a long one ; and it shows that, though the town has not increased in population of late years, yet Dublin has furnished a large number of persons for the settlement of new states, and for the cities and manufac- turing villages of New England.
With regard to the spelling of names, there will not be found a uniformity in all parts of the book. The records and papers used as sources of information exhibited no little variety in this respect. The same name was, in many cases, variously spelled ; and our copy was often conformed to the original documents.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
ADDRESS BY CHARLES MASON .
3
PROCEEDINGS OF
CENTENNIAL
CELEBRATION .
49
HISTORY OF DUBLIN, SITUA-
TION, &c.
117
DUBLIN UNDER THE
MASONIAN
PROPRIETORS .
124
NAMES OF PROPRIETORS
128
INCORPORATION OF DUBLIN .
139
INVOICE OF 1771
·
142
WARNINGS OUT OF TOWN
144
REVOLUTIONARY WAR
148
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
152
SECOND CONGREGATIONAL SO-
CIETY
182
THE BAPTIST CHURCH
190
SACRED MUSIC, &c.
196
NEW MEETING HOUSES
201
POPULATION AT DIFFERENT PE-
RIODS
208
CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES
209
SUMMARY OF CENSUS
220
POLITICAL AND MUNICIPAL HIS-
TORY .
222
TOWN OFFICERS
229
VOTES FOR CHIEF MAGISTRATE
235
VALUATION, TAXES
237
SURPLUS REVENUE
242
PAUPERISM
242
SCHOOL AND MINISTERIAL FUNDS
243
POST OFFICE, MAIL STAGE
245
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-HOUSES
.
246
VIEW OF SCHOOL-HOUSE NO. 1
252
INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS .
254
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
255
APPLETON FUND
259
LIBRARIES
261
GRADUATES OF COLLEGES
264
PHYSICIANS
.
264
SICKNESS, MORTALITY
265
TEMPERANCE REFORMATION .
268
ALTEMONT LODGE
270
MERCHANTS OR TRADERS
271
MECHANICS
272
MANUFACTURES, &c.
273
MILITARY AFFAIRS
277
HARDSHIPS OF EARLY SETTLERS
279
ANECDOTES
281
FATAL CASUALTIES
286
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE
287
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
288
OCCUPANTS OF LOTS
291
REGISTER OF FAMILIES
309
EMIGRANTS
424
LOCATION OF ENGRAVINGS AND LITHOGRAPHS.
1. MAP.
2. DR. TWITCHELL . . facing titlepage.
3. CHARLES MASON
3
16. JOHN BIXBY .
318
4. JONATHAN K. SMITH
54
17. JOHN CROMBIE, JUN.
326
5. DR. EBENEZER MORSE
61
18. A. H. FISK
336
6. SAMUEL APPLETON
88
19. WILLIAM GREENWOOD
344
20. EBENEZER GREENWOOD
346
21. JAMES HAYWARD
352
9. REV. L. W. LEONARD
180
22. MOSES MARSHALL .
362
10. SOLOMON PIPER
199
23. THADDEUS P. MASON
366
11. OLD CHURCH ON THE HILL
205
24. CYRUS PIPER
383
25. JOHN PIPER .
384
13. RUFUS PIPER
233
14. ISAAC APPLETON
313
15. AARON APPLETON .
314
7. DANIEL ELLIOT .
105
8. REV. E. SPRAGUE .
162
12. NEW CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
207
26. CHARLES WHITTEMORE
412
ADDRESS
BY CHARLES MASON.
1
Charles Masow.
ADDRESS.
WHETHER a particular settlement were made within the limits of this town or of that, or when made, or by whom, are questions which, in themselves, may be of little moment. But from our habits of viewing things, and from the relation in which we stand to them, matters of this kind sometimes assume a grave significance, and become invested with a peculiar interest. We are accustomed, for some purposes, to consider a given portion of territory, or period of time, as detached from the rest, and possessed in itself of the attri- butes of unity and completeness. Thus, we are used to look upon our native town as a separate domain, having a history of its own, constituting a distinct chapter, - a chapter, too, of deep and absorbing interest to us, however obscure and unimportant the place it may hold in the annals of the world at large. In the same way, we attach a like idea to a speci- fied measure of duration, - to a year or a century ; which, when we have once fixed the beginning and the end, wears a seeming of entirety, - becomes something that we can con- template as one ; as though it were a piece clipped from the web of time, and submitted, as an isolated, tangible reality, to our deliberate inspection.
We are assembled today upon the Hundredth Anniversary of the settlement of this town. We stand upon the confines of two mighty conventional tracts of time, - upon that nar-
4
CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.
row belt, the living present, which divides the dead, receding past, from the new-born, advancing century. We are the remnant, shattered and scanty, of the generations which the first centenary of its inhabited existence has gathered within the borders of our town, -the balance, which, in the final closing up of its own affairs, it now transfers to the account of its successor.
It is fitting in us to commemorate an event which natu- rally carries back our thoughts to the time when the history of the town, as the abode of civilized man, takes its date ; when the first hardy adventurer dared to brave the toils and hardships and privations of a wilderness-life, and the sounds of human labor were, for the first time, heard in the depths of the primeval forest, where before silence reigned, and nature slept, undisturbed save by the voice of the thunder, the roar of winds, and the wild beasts' howl. And it well becomes us to trace and contemplate the course of events, as, from that primal day, through the long progress of a hundred years, it has swept adown the stream of time.
In performing the duty which, by the kindness of the committee, has been assigned to me, I shall endeavor to bring to view such incidents in our local history as seem to be of most interest and importance. There are no extraor- dinary events to be recounted. Nothing of a very remark- able character has ever taken place in the town. With the exception of a single individual (Dr. Amos Twitchell), who attained to eminence in his profession as a surgeon, it has produced no men particularly distinguished for talents or learning or enterprise, or any other of the qualities or pos- sessions which go to make up vulgar greatness.
Neither would we regard it as an especial calamity, that we have in our history so little that is allied to fame. It is but the common lot of humanity. As it is of familiar, every- day incidents, mainly, that the texture of life is woven ; so, of the grand aggregate of human existence, by far the greater, and, in that view, the more important part, is lived and suf- fered and enjoyed by humble mediocrity.
5
CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.
We claim, then, for ourselves but to be mere common human people; and as such we are here today. We are assembled as townsmen, kindred, friends, for our own proper satisfaction and purposes. Dealing with common, homely materials, I shall pretend to nothing beyond treating them in corresponding style. I shall undertake neither to philo- sophize upon facts, nor to expatiate upon fancies.
The tract of land, constituting the town of Dublin, was originally granted, by the proprietors of land purchased of John Tufton Mason, to Matthew Thornton and thirty-nine others named in the grant. These forty grantees resided in different towns, mostly in the middle and eastern parts of New Hampshire. None of them, it is presumed, ever be- came settlers in the township. The deed of grant, which bears date, November 3, 1749, was given by Col. Joseph Blanchard, of Dunstable, pursuant, as the recital states, to the power vested in him by the proprietors, by a vote passed at a meeting held at Portsmouth, in June preceding. This grant, embracing a territory of thirty-five square miles, - being seven miles in length and five in breadth, - was made upon certain conditions, of which the most important were the following : -
The whole tract of land was to be divided into seventy- one equal shares, each share to contain three lots, equitably coupled together, and to be drawn for, at Dunstable, on or before the first day of July, 1750.
Three shares were to be appropriated, free of all charge, " one for the first settled minister in the town, one for the support of the ministry, and one for the school there, for ever ; " and one lot of each of these three shares was to be first laid out, near the middle of the town, in the most con- venient place, and lots coupled to them, so as not to be drawn for.
The lots were to be laid out at the expense of the grantees, and within four years from the date of the grant, forty of the shares, or rights, as they were called, were to be entered upon,
6
CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.
and three acres of land, at the least, cleared, inclosed and fitted up for mowing or tillage ; and, within six months then next, there was to be, on each of these forty settling shares, a house built, the room sixteen feet square, at the least, fitted and furnished for comfortable dwelling, and some person resident in it, and to continue inhabitancy there for three years, with the additional improvement of two acres a year for each settler.
A good, convenient meeting-house was to be built, as near the centre of the town as might be with convenience, within six years from the date of the grant, and ten acres reserved there for public use.
All white-pine trees, fit for masting his majesty's royal navy, were granted to him and his heirs and successors for ever.
There was a proviso, that, in case of any Indian war hap- pening within any of the terms and limitations for doing the duty conditioned in the grant, the same time should be allowed for the respective matters after such impediment should be removed.
The township was accordingly divided into lots, making ten ranges running through it from east to west, with twenty- two lots in each range, or two hundred and twenty lots in all. The lots varied considerably, especially in length. They were drawn for on the first Tuesday of June, 1750. The seventy-one shares, of three lots each, would, of course, leave seven lots undrawn. Some of these, though not all, were upon the Monadnock.
The terms of settlement and the like, imposed by the grant, cannot have been complied with, to the extent specified, till certainly more than ten years later than the times prescribed. Whether the grantors dispensed with the conditions as to time, on the score of Indian wars apprehended, or for any other cause tacitly waived those conditions, or whether they granted an extension of the times, does not appear.
Of the first settlement of the town, but little is known with accuracy or certainty. The first settler was William Thornton,
7
CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.
who established himself where Mr. Isaac Appleton now lives, probably in the year 1752. His daughter, Molly Thornton, it is said, was the first child born in the township. He remained but a few years, - it is not known how long, - when he abandoned his settlement, it is supposed through fear of the Indians, and never returned. He was a brother of Matthew Thornton, who was the first named, as he was by far the most distinguished, of the proprietors of the town- ship, and was much the largest landowner in it; having, at one time, it would appear, twenty-eight shares, or eighty-four lots. Matthew Thornton was born in Ireland. He was a physician, and settled first at Londonderry, but afterwards resided in Merrimack. He was a colonel of militia, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was also a Judge of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and was, in short, one of the leading men of the State.
The settlers who next came into the township were Scotch- Irish, as they were called, being the descendants of Scotch people who had settled in the north of Ireland, whence they came to this country, and established themselves at London- derry and elsewhere, and, at a later date, settled in Peter- borough and numerous other towns. As early as 1760, or thereabouts, there were in the town, of this description of persons, John Alexander ; William McNee ; Alexander Scott, and William Scott, his son ; James Taggart, and his son, William Taggart ; and perhaps others. They came mostly from Peterborough. Henry Strongman came at a later day. With the exception of him, none of this class of settlers became permanent inhabitants of the township. They left probably at different times, but all prior to the year 1771, as none of them are found upon the tax-list of that year. Most or all of them returned to Peterborough. This William Scott is the same Captain William Scott, of Peterborough, who, in his youth, served in the French War, and who signalized himself by gallant achievements during the war of the Revolution, and by no less heroic deeds in scenes of
8
CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.
danger afterwards. He is said to have settled, when in Dublin, on the lot where Mr. John Gleason now lives.
As early as 1762, several of the settlers from Sherborn, Mass., were in the township, and worked upon the roads. Probably none of them established themselves here that year. During the next two years, several became permanent inhab- itants. Among the earliest settlers were Thomas Morse, Levi Partridge, William Greenwood, Samuel Twitchell, Joseph Twitchell, Jr., Ivory Perry, Benjamin Mason, Moses Adams, Silas Stone and Eli Morse.
Of the first settlers, Captain Thomas Morse appears to have been the leading man. He was doubtless the oldest person in the settlement, being sixty-three or sixty-four years of age when he came to reside here. He was a man of stability and force of character, and, it is said, of remarkable shrewdness. Withal, he was ardently attached to the cause of liberty. He was the first captain of the earliest military company in the town. His commission bore date June 2, 1774.
It would seem that a road was opened through the town- ship as early certainly as 1762, as in the record of a meeting of the proprietors, held in November of that year, "the main road through the town " is spoken of; and a committee was, at that same meeting, appointed to lay out from it a road " from near the centre to the south part of the town, and another from the centre to the north-west part of the town, where the settlers are beginning," with authority to " employ proper help to open and clear the same, so that it be feasible travelling." The sum of ten pounds, old tenor, was assessed upon each right (of which there were fifty), in the township, liable to the payment of taxes, to be expended upon the roads. As may well be imagined, the roads in those times were of the most rude and primitive description ; being, in fact, little more than openings cut through the dense, con- tinuous woods, with some slight demonstration towards a partial removal of the rocks, logs and stumps, and levelling of the grosser inequalities of the surface.
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