USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Dublin > The history of Dublin, N.H. : containing the address by Charles Mason, and the proceedings at the centennial celebration, June 17, 1852, with a register of families > Part 1
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THE HISTORY OF DUBLIN NEW HAMPSHIRE
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THE LAMSON COLLECTION UNIVERSITY OF N.H. DIMOND LIBRARY DURHAM, N.H.
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THE HISTORY OF DUBLIN, N. H.
Leve W Leonard
THE HISTORY OF DUBLIN, N. H.
CONTAINING THE ADDRESS BY CHARLES MASON, AND THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, JUNE 17, 1852, WITH A REGISTER OF FAMILIES
BY REV. LEVI W. LEONARD, D.D.
CONTINUED AND ADDITIONAL CHAPTERS TO 1917, BY REV. JOSIAH L. SEWARD, D.D.
DUBLIN, N. H. PUBLISHED BY THE TOWN OF DUBLIN
1920
Copyright, 1920 BY THE TOWN OF DUBLIN, N. H.
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
FOREWORD
AT the annual Town Meeting held on March 8, 1904, the following resolutions were passed:
"Resolved, that the present Town History be reproduced and printed in a new volume, and that a history of the town from 1852 to the present time be added in such a manner as the Historian may think best."
" Resolved, that the town be surveyed for the purpose of producing a new map of the town, to be used in connection with the Town History, and for the State, if required, and that the sum of $500 be raised and appropriated for this purpose."
" Resolved, that the Selectmen be instructed to secure the services of Rev. J. L. Seward, D.D., as Historian."
"Resolved, that the town choose a Committee of Five to assist the Historian and to have charge of the compiling and publishing of the Town History and Map, and at the next annual meeting to report their progress, together with recommendations for a necessary sum of money to be raised and appropriated for these purposes."
"Voted, that the Selectmen be a committee to appoint, or recom- mend a Town History Committee, and report to the meeting after the noon hour."
The Selectmen recommended the following persons to con- stitute a Town History Committee, who were accepted by the meeting: Milton D. Mason, Henry D. Learned, Warren L. Fiske, Henry D. Allison, Charles F. Appleton. Mr. Fiske died on September 2, 1918, aged ninety-two years, at that time the oldest life-long resident of Dublin. Samuel Wadsworth of Keene, whose reputation for accuracy in his work is seldom excelled, was engaged to make the survey and drawings for the Map, which was published in 1906.
At a later meeting it was voted "that whenever the new Town Map, or Town History shall have been published, that they be placed in the hands of the Town Clerk who shall receipt for the same, and place them on sale."
Dr. Seward died during the summer of 1917, having finished the eighteen chapters of the History, and to that date the records are completed, the article on the last War excepted. Dr. Seward had finished a considerable portion of the Gene-
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alogies the remainder of this work being carefully and thoroughly accomplished by Mrs. Florence C. Howes, of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston.
Dublin is probably the first town in the country to include in its published town history, a record of its participation in the World War. This addition may seem a compensation to those who have waited so long for the completion of the volume.
The Committee is grateful to two of Dublin's sons, Prof. S. C. Derby, for his admirable sketch of Dr. Seward; and Dr. Henry H. Piper, for the equally valuable Preface to the new edition. The records and portraits of Civil War veterans were obtained through the persistent efforts of Henry D. Learned. The landscape photographs are by Henry D. Allison, and the engravings by the Scientific Engraving Com- pany, New York. The book is printed by the University Press, Cambridge, Mass., the same firm, then John Wilson and Son, which produced the first "History of Dublin," sixty- four years ago.
DUBLIN TOWN HISTORY COMMITTEE.
MAY 1, 1919.
PREFACE
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 re- covery. It happens 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 atten- tion, 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.
To some persons it may seem a work of little labor to pre- pare a history of a small, retired country town, whose ex- istence 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 judg- ments 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-
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PREFACE
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 docu- ments alluded to in the Address, was all that was contem- plated. 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 Cele- bration, 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 necessary to recopy the whole number furnished. Many of them, however, were gathered from the recollections of in- dividuals, 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. Fre- quently, 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 were correct. Sometimes one Register was found to be inconsistent with an- other, 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 residents 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 materiais for this book, we tender our thanks. We offer it to the town,
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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 contributed 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 ex- pensive survey by measurement of the whole town. Many parts of it were drawn from actual measurement; 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 im- pressions 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 Pub- lication, died October 3, 1853. He was active and earnest in his efforts to collect information respecting the history of Dublin, his native town. Had he lived, he would have afforded us much aid in preparing the Registers 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. Fiske, a member of the Committee of Publication, have been added in the belief that to many per- sons it will be gratifying to have old friends and fellow-towns- men 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
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with entire indifference; for they once had their home here, and many of them strove with their fellow-townsmen to pro- mote 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 in- creased 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 manufacturing 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.
DUBLIN, N. H., 1855.
LEVI W. LEONARD.
PREFACE
TO THE
REPRINTED AND AUGMENTED EDITION, 1919
IT is a happy circumstance that the revised and augmented history of the town should be published a few years after the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town's settlement, which event rather tardily it may be said to celebrate, and from which without doubt the suggestion of a new history arose; happy for the historian when not a few individuals are still living who can recall all the important events which have taken place in the town since the publication of the earlier history in 1855.
It can scarcely be urged that the frequent writing of local history is unnecessary for the reason that official records and statistics are wider in their range than formerly and as a rule more accurate, that they are not subject to decline and death like the human beings to whom they usually have reference; for even the best of these records lose much of their significance with the passing years, the personal quality gradually fades out of them and interesting and intelligent comment upon them becomes more and more perplexing. Nor is it a valid objection to the frequent writing of orderly history that it is more difficult to preserve a right proportion and maintain a balanced judg- ment when facts are to be presented and events described which are near at hand; this is indeed difficult, or well-nigh impossible, and a true perspective may not be secured; but the disadvantage is more than outweighed in obtaining impressions of eyewitnesses and by greater fullness and freshness in the presentation of periods lying thirty, forty and fifty years in the past, which if left for eighty or a hundred years would be- come in no small degree dim and irrecoverable. And yet again in a town like Dublin where fire protection is to an extent inadequate there is the danger that valuable records and documents will be destroyed, a mischance which would be prevented if this material were published in book form and distributed.
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PREFACE TO THE AUGMENTED EDITION, 1919
On turning the pages of this augmented history one is likely to receive the impression that the later chapters are, in their way, as interesting as the earlier, despite the fact that a certain indefinable charm will associate itself with things remote. In the earlier period are the settlement of the town, the Revolu- tionary War, the increasing prosperity, the picturesque per- sonality of Rev. Edward Sprague, the town's early benefactor, the advance in education and the awakening of interest in all matters intellectual under the inspiring leadership of Dr. Leonard at a time when population and property values were slowly declining, the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the town and lastly the publication of a hundred years of history. In the later and shorter period we find the Civil War, the division of the town, the influx of summer boarders, the building of summer residences, the return of material prosperity, a more general diffusion of the so-called comforts and luxuries of life, an abandonment of the soil as a main source of livelihood, the war in Europe and the publication of a revised history. It might be interest- ing to enter into a comparison of these two periods, but the brevity of a preface forbids.
Any one who reads the later record will scarcely fail to be impressed by the fidelity with which the various lines of interest, ecclesiastical, educational, political, military, social and genealogical, have been brought down to the present time. In one of the chapters there has been a material amplification of older matter in the list of soldiers of the Revolution. Several chapters or parts of chapters are of a character somewhat unusual and seem to call for a brief special mention. One of these is an account of war activities in Dublin during the past two years. The story is mainly told in reports of concerted action, meetings, celebrations and the like, and a clear impres- sion is given of the feeling in the town during the great conflict. An outline of the relation between camouflage and concealing coloration is fittingly inserted. Another feature, and one unique, is a list of the birds of the region. The topography of Dublin with its low-lying meadows and its mountain ridges presents possibilities for bird life and the opportunity for studying it probably unmatched in an extensive region with Monadnock as a center. The history is fortunate in the possession of a list at once so accurate and so interesting.
The later history would be incomplete without an account of Dublin as a summer resort, traced from the far beginnings
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now two generations in the past; and this account it has, prepared with a minuteness of detail which a few years hence would be difficult or impossible. The value of this chapter will become evident to every reader. The list of cemetery inscriptions is, first of all, a laudable effort of the historian to defy the gnawing tooth of time. Wind and rain, snow and sleet, seem to have little effect on marble and slate when one reckons by decades or even by generations, but in the slow moving centuries the elements prevail. The hour will at length be reached when name and date will have become a blur, or the stone will fall and be forgotten, but the record on the printed page will endure, of many a humble man or woman the only existing record. If it should be urged that it is not important that memorials should last so long, there yet remains the satisfaction that the historian has won his point.
The later developments in the life of a New England town as set forth in chapters of so varied interest are not likely to be judged lacking in significance. Nor can it be possible after so many generations of changing conditions that the end has now been reached and that little material will be hereafter available to engage the attention of the historian. In these smaller New England towns, these nurseries of democracy, life in an organized form is found at the fountain head, and the unfolding of this life will go on unceasingly. What the next important change will be one can only surmise. There may be a return of interest in the soil, so enthralling a motive with the earlier generations; not perhaps in the cultivation mainly of corn and wheat or in the raising of cattle, but, under more favorable state laws, in the production of timber by scientific methods for which nearly all the land within the limits of the town, at present regarded with so listless an eye for pro- ductive purposes, is admirably adapted.
But it is not with the future that we are now definitely concerned but the past, in the ability of vanished lives to weave their spell about us, in the power of events and happen- ings long since outlived to teach, to admonish, to fascinate and to inspire. Happy the man who in reading the records of the past finds it once more a living thing; - men and women moving toward their ideals with an undiminished high desire, entering on the daily round of duties with the old-time joy in work well done, touched with the beauty of earth and sky, wearied and perplexed by the annoyances of life and sobered
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PREFACE TO THE AUGMENTED EDITION, 1919
by the shadows which haunt all earthly things. To such a reader the following pages are commended.
The reprinting of the first history will bring vividly to the minds of the oldest readers the editor, and in the main the author, Dr. Leonard. Seldom has a man been more completely identified with the interests of his adopted town than was Dr. Leonard with Dublin through nearly all his working years. Seldom have the spirit, the purpose and the ideals of a man so situated entered a larger number of lives and been more widely diffused. A sketch of the later editor, Dr. Seward, has fittingly been prepared for this volume and there is little need that anything be added to it. If in any sort he could appre- hend our thoughts and feelings he would be gratified that we gratefully remember him and hold his name in association with that of Dr. Leonard. To the Publication Committee and their helpers, and all those who have contributed in any way to bring this history to a successful conclusion, the gratitude of readers will go forth.
HENRY H. PIPER.
WEST MEDFORD, MASS.,
May 1, 1919.
REVEREND J. L. SEWARD, D.D.
JOSIAH LAFAYETTE SEWARD, the principal editor of the re- vised "History of Dublin," was born in Sullivan, N. H., April 17, 1845, and died in Keene, N. H., July 14, 1917. He never married.
His parents were David and Arvilla (Mathews) Seward, of English stock and worthy members of the sturdy yeomanry of New England. The emigrant ancestor, Thomas Seward, came to Pepperell, Mass., about twenty years before the American Revolution. In the paternal line, Dr. Seward was a lineal descendant of Thomas Morse, the first permanent English settler of Dublin, N. H. His boyhood was spent upon the ancestral farm. He early won in the local district school a reputation for scholarship which was well maintained for two years in the Westmoreland Valley Seminary and later at Phillips Academy, Exeter, which he attended 1861-64. For this famous school he retained a lifelong affection and seldom neglected to recommend it to ambitious young men of good promise. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1868, with the degree of A.B. In school and college he was known as an earnest and capable student. At Harvard, in his sopho- more year, he received a Detur (a prize for good scholarship) and was assigned a Thesis, "Thomas-a-Becket," at commence- ment. Between his graduation and 1871, when he took the degree of A.M., and entered the Harvard Divinity School, Dr. Seward taught a year in Frankford, West Virginia, a year in Boston, and, 1870-71, was the first principal of the Conant Free School in Jaffrey, N. H.
In education he always retained a warm interest and gave private instruction to many pupils preparing for college. An excellent linguist, a good botanist and mineralogist, he never hesitated to uphold the value of classical and mathematical studies in secondary and higher education.
At the end of the usual three years' course in the Harvard Divinity School he received the degree of Bachelor of Divinity and was settled over the Unitarian Church in Lowell, Massa- chusetts, and ordained there, December 31, 1874. His pas- torate at Lowell ceased, July 31, 1888. He was next the pastor
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REVEREND J. L. SEWARD, D.D.
of the Unitarian Church at Waterville, Maine, from August 1, 1888, to November 25, 1893. From November 26, 1893, until October 8, 1899, he was pastor of Unity Church, Allston, Massachusetts. In 1898 Colby College gave him the honorary degree of D.D. In the autumn of 1899 Dr. Seward removed to Keene, N. H., and resided there until his death.
In May, 1902, Dr. Seward became the pastor (the eleventh) of the First Congregational' Church in Dublin, N. H. This pleasant relationship lasted until his death, and was made more intimate by ties of blood and previous acquaintance with many citizens of that town.
A Mason of high rank, having received the thirty-third degree, Dr. Seward held many offices in that body, master of his lodge, master of his council, and for twenty-five years was grand prior (chaplain) of the Supreme Council of the Thirty- Third Degree for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States. He was a frequent and copious writer upon Masonry.
As a member of the Sons of the American Revolution he felt a justifiable pride that he could count among his ancestors five soldiers who served in that heroic struggle. He was an in- terested and active member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, and many other associations consecrated to worthy ends, literary, charitable, and religious.
During the later years of his life, Dr. Seward devoted much of his time and strength to the preparation of the "History of Sullivan," his birthplace, and to the revision of the "His- tory of Dublin." For both tasks he had certain obvious quali- fications, a facile pen, a knowledge of the civic, ecclesiastical, and business life of these communities, and a remarkable famil- iarity with the family history of their carly and later resi- dents. Of Dr. Seward's numerous publications, these two Histories are the most elaborate and will, without doubt, be the most permanent.
Dr. Seward's acquaintance with members of various or- ganizations, unusual knowledge of local history, especially that of southwestern New Hampshire, and his sincere desire to aid worthy causes, brought to him numerous invitations to deliver addresses at public gatherings and included a large variety of subjects.
On such occasions he was invariably instructive and inter- esting. There can be little doubt that he well understood that the labor of preparation and the fatigue involved in travel
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