USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > New Ipswich > The history of New Ipswich, New Hampshire, 1735-1914, with genealogical records of the principal families > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00055 5430 E
Gc 974.202 N38c
1127787
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyofnewipsw1735chan
PROFESSOR CHARLES HENRY CHANDLER
THE
HISTORY OF NEW IPSWICH NEW HAMPSHIRE 1735-1914
WITH GENEALOGICAL RECORDS OF THE
PRINCIPAL FAMILIES
COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY CHARLES HENRY CHANDLER 1
WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF SARAH FISKE LEE
FITCHBURG, MASS. SENTINEL PRINTING COMPANY 1914
1187787
MEMORIAL
T HE life of Charles Henry Chandler was spent in the devoted service of his fellowmen.
Born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, in 1840, Mr. Chandler prepared for college at its district schools and acad- emy, in each of which he had been teacher as well as pupil. In 1865, he entered Dartmouth College, from which he was grad- uated with highest honor in 1868. Although first scholar of his class, his greatest achievement was not that of scholarship. A classmate has said of him: "I doubt if he committed a single act in college which he would wish concealed from his oldest friends : so consistent was his life with his profession of Christian principles." The integrity of such a character, to- gether with his sound mind and high ideals, made him a great power for good among his associates.
After a useful experience in academic teaching, he was called in 1871 to the chair of Physics and Chemistry in Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. He occupied this position for ten years. Efficient along various lines, Professor Chandler's work was peculiarly valuable to a college not at that time rich in resources ; and he left upon it a permanent impress of his abilities and character. From Antioch, in 1881, he went to Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin, as professor of Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics. In this service he remained until 1906, being then retired as Professor Emeritus. The words of one formerly a student at Ripon are an impressive tribute to his value and influence :
"He was a rare teacher. He knew his subject and spoke in terms of his pupils. Being thus found in fashion as a pupil, we highly exalted him as a teacher. He imparted that intangi- ble force which is the true essence of a teacher: teaching what he was, not voluntarily but involuntarily. We remember rare pauses and parentheses in recitation-the getting off the
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Memorial
track, which is characteristic of a teacher whose tracks are laid into the souls of his pupils, as well as into the more definable lines of a text. He was a teacher who lived in his pupils, made better by his presence; a teacher who scorned all aims which end in self. He revealed himself who was, to us, even better than the mathematician. Scientist, yes, but also something of a mystic in the best sense. A college is essentially its men who teach and are taught; and in this sense Ripon College is very much Professor Chandler."
Though mathematics and applied science were the channels of Professor Chandler's most marked abilities, he was a good classical scholar. An habitual reader of the best English wri- ters, his teaching in these branches, during his academic experience, had been thorough and effective. Accurate and demanding accuracy, he possessed the rare gift of clear ex- planation, reenforced by characteristic illustration. His habits of mind were direct and forceful, as of a man with something to impart. His literary productions in the classroom were en- livened by a vivid imagination and a keen sense of humor. Something poetic in his nature also found expression at times, in quaint guise. With a keen love of nature and reverence for the creative plan, he saw in it the vital truths: love, faith, and promises to which the eyes of many are blinded. Deeply in- terested in the church, he took an active and important part in its work, wherever he might be, and won the respect and affection of many whom he did not reach through professional channels.
After 1906 he returned to the town he loved and in which he was born. He devoted himself to its interest; a loyal citizen, always, with high civic ideals. Wise and broad- minded, his counsel and efforts were applied not merely to present but to future welfare. An educator, he gave largely of his experience to the problems of the public schools and served upon the School Board for a number of years.
In the midst of many other interests and duties, he devoted himself to the writing of the present History-a labor of love for the people dear to him. It is difficult to estimate adequately this great service-a service which speaks strongly for itself, but which in all its detail of tireless, persistent effort,
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Memorial
can be realized by few. Its value will be wholly appreciated only by following generations. To them will come a knowl- edge not only of its historic worth, but a knowledge also of the man who so greatly loved the history and people of his birthplace.
Of such a son as Charles Henry Chandler, New Ipswich may be justly proud-a son who represented the highest standards of honor, and whose achievements were possible because of an unfaltering fidelity to his ideals.
KATHARINE PRESTON.
V
PREFACE
F OR many years citizens of New Ipswich have felt the need of a history of the town which should not only give the history of the last half century, but should put in accessible and permanent form the many facts and traditions which have come to light in later years. This feeling took tangible form from the offer of Professor Charles H. Chandler to give his services as a historian, and in October, 1907, a meeting of those interested in this project was held at the Library. A Committee was chosen to aid as might be needed, consisting of Caroline F. Barr, Sarah F. Lee, Frederic W. Jones, Anna A. Goldsmith, and Edward O. Marshall.
It was thought most convenient for Professor Chandler to have his office at my house. For more than four years each morning he came to his task, and each hour until the twilight was filled with the work of a mind trained to systematic and patient, accurate labor. His purpose was to make the work largely a Genealogy of the older families of the town. This necessitated research and inquiries that would have discour- aged one less persistent and determined. He deemed the conclusion of the work near at hand, but while away seeking for final data, at Leominster, Mass., his life ended. March 29, 1912, while conversing with a friend he ceased speaking, and "was not, for God took him."
His children, Professor Elwyn F. Chandler and Miss Edith B. Chandler, at once felt that they wished to ensure the com- pletion of the work which had become so dear to their father's heart. Through all these years I had been able to keep in touch with Professor Chandler's methods of research, and they asked me to finish the History as he would have done it. I consented to try to do this so nearly as I should be able. Fortunately the chapters relating to the earliest history were completed ; all the genealogy was outlined and many family records had been written in full. His children, therefore, were able to assist in the revision and completion of all that he
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Preface
had planned in that department. It is their wish that this History should be a tribute to their father's memory, and for its completion they have given a trained proficiency that could not otherwise have been available, have taken time needed by them for rest, and have given more than five hundred dollars in money.
For the imperfections of the Index I alone am responsible. My only regret is that my part of the work has not been done in a better way. It is given to the town which has been the home of my lifetime with the hope that it may help to quicken and cherish reverence for those who laid the broad founda- tions on which later generations should build the structure of education and enterprise which has given New Ipswich its honored place among New England towns.
Personal thanks are due from me to the children of Pro- fessor Chandler, who have done all that was possible to lighten my labors, to friends who have aided me by literary criticism and in proof-reading, and to the intelligent and helpful advice of the Sentinel Printing Company.
New Ipswich, N. H.
SARAH FISKE LEE.
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Preface
BY PROFESSOR CHARLES H. CHANDLER
The following page in Professor C. H. Chandler's hand has been found, which evidently he intended to insert in the preface :
"Little more than half a century ago, by the careful and patient labor of two efficient sons of New Ipswich was pro- duced a town history, now a rare book but still mentioned with rare encomiums by students and lovers of local history. At the time of the loyal labors of Mr. Kidder and Dr. Gould the facilities for work like that which they so successfully ac- complished were far less than at the present time. Many old documents, then only to be found after long search, have now been collected and laid open to the student in convenient form ; the work of national surveys has given accurate measurements in place of the estimates formerly necessarily used; and the accessible volumes of family history are probably twenty times as numerous as those which were published prior to 1850.
"It has therefore seemed best that a volume presenting the last fifty years of New Ipswich history should not be entirely confined to those limits, but rather that the special field should rest upon a second presentation of the story of earlier times, with such additions and amendments as the suc- ceeding years have made practicable.
"In order, however, to avoid an undue extension of the volume it has been thought best to follow a medium course, abbreviating much that was fully related by the authors of the previous volume, and in cases where the importance of the topic or the close dependence of later history upon it . makes such abbreviation undesirable, by the kindly consent of near representatives of the authors considerable extracts have been made in the language retaining its attraction for those who remember the former history."
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Preface
NOTE
It was the original intention of Professor Charles H. Chandler to prepare one large map of the town, showing on the same map the town with its villages, and all the roads, houses, and former houses, and also the lot lines, and he personally traversed with compass in 1908 or later every road in the town (except a few in the northwest corner and west of the mountain) in making surveys for this map. There are doubtless some accidental errors, but it may be considered as in general a very excellent map; it is probable that there are few portions where any distances are more than a dozen rods in error.
The final drawing of all the maps was done under the direction of E. F. Chandler, and it was found advisable to make separate village maps on a larger scale; the surveys for these were accordingly made by E. F. Chandler in August, 1912, and they are in general accurate within two rods. It was also found that it would detract from clearness to place the lot lines on the town map, so their general location has been shown on a separate plan.
Chapters I, II, III, IV, and V of the history had been com- pletely written by Professor Charles H. Chandler, and were finished except for such small amendments as he would have made in the final revision; the material had been collected by him for large parts of Chapters VI to IX, but the final ar- rangement and writing of the greater portion of each of these has been done by Miss Sarah Fiske Lee. All the work on the history, from its first inception to its conclusion, has been greatly forwarded by the indefatigable efforts of Miss Lee; her complete knowledge of local conditions and relations, her enthusiastic assistance, and her keen-eyed examination of every statement have been indeed indispensable.
E. F. C.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I .- THE OLD COUNTRY ROAD-LATER ROADS AND EARLY SETTLERS. The Old Country Road; New Highways; the Turnpike
1-19 CHAPTER II .- NEW IPSWICH IN VARIOUS FORMS-GRANTS, CLAIMS, CHARTERS, AND SURVEYS. Error in Early Grants; the Massachusetts Claims, Gorges and Mason Claims; Survey of State Line; the Ipswich Grant; Changing Boundaries; Early Settlers; Fear of Indian Invasion; John Tufton Mason; Ma- sonian Proprietors; Col. Blanchard's Changes; Masonian Char- ter; Final Incorporation .
20-43
CHAPTER III .- ON THE WAY TO MATURITY - PROPRIETORS AND Lors. Origin of the Settlers; First Proprietors' Meetings ; Assignment of Lots; Table of Lots; Proprietors' Work Ended ; Plan of Lots and Principal Roads .
44-56
CHAPTER IV .- THE OLD SCHOOL-HOUSES. First School in 1762; Grammar School; Division into Districts; Town Appropriates Money; First School-houses; Location of District Bounds ; School-house Locations; Consolidation of Districts; School Appropriations; Wages of Teachers; Prudential Committee; Superintending School Committee; Statistics
57-72
CHAPTER V .- THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. The First Uprising ; Roll of Men Who Went at the First Call; Capt. Towne's Com- pany; Call from Gen. John Sullivan; New Hampshire's Lead- ership; Praise from Gen. Washington; Help Given to North- ern Army; Capt. Smith's Company; reinforcements for Ticon- deroga; Continental Army; Col. Heald's Detachment; Capt. Briant's Company ; Col. Hale's Regiment; Three-Months Men; Equipment of Soldiers; Ephraim Adams' Resolution; Bounties and Pay; Depreciation of Currency; New Ipswich Tories; Committee of Correspondence . 73-106
CHAPTER VI .- THE CIVIL WAR-1861-65. Action of the Town; Bounties for Volunteers; First Recruits; Record of Sixth Regiment; Thirteenth Regiment at Richmond, 1865; Work of Women; Death of President Lincoln; Freedmen's Aid; Prices during Civil War; Union League; Soldiers' Monument . 107-121
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Contents
CHAPTER VII .- ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. First Meeting-house ; Seeking a Minister; Church Organized and Mr. Stephen Farrar Ordained; Meeting-house Completed 1770; Assign- ment of Pews; "Great Revival" in 1785-86; Death of Parson Farrar; Mr. Richard Hall Ordained; Sunday School in 1818; Ordination of Mr. Charles Walker; Pastorate of Rev. Samuel Lee; Meeting-house Remodeled; Centennial Anniversary of Church; Ordination of Mr. Calvin Cutler; Several Brief Pas- torates ; Church Burned; Program of Stated Meetings; Baptist Church; Organized, List of Pastors; Unitarian Church; Meth- odist Church; Second Congregational Church 122-136
CHAPTER VIII .- NEW IPSWICH ACADEMY. Incorporation ; Buildings; Gifts from Boston Friends; New Building; Change of Name; List of Preceptors; Faculty Sketches; Alumni As- sociation ; Present Condition . 137-143
CHAPTER IX .- MISCELLANIES. Manufactures; Library; Coun- try Club; Children's Fair; Revere Bell; Cemeteries; Stearns Lecture Fund; Homestead Inn; Iowa Colony; Drinking Foun- tain; Telegraph and telephone; Sidewalks and Street Lights; Post Office; Free Masons; Fire Department; Children's Oak; Portraits in Town Hall; Census Returns; Valuation of New Ipswich, 1914 144-157
GENEALOGY
171-720
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PORTRAIT OF PROFESSOR CHARLES HENRY CHANDLER frontispiece
THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT . opposite 113
GROUP OF CHURCHES . 66 129
NEW IPSWICH APPLETON ACADEMY 66
137
THE LIBRARY
147
FOREST HALL, RESIDENCE OF GEORGE R. BARRETT 66
215
MAPS :
The Old Country Road
1
The Grants .
20
Plan of Lots .
55
New Ipswich .
opposite 161
Center Village
162
Bank, High Bridge, and Smith Villages .
164
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HISTORY OF NEW IPSWICH
NEW IPSWICH
CHAPTER I
"THE OLD COUNTRY ROAD"-LATER ROADS AND EARLY SETTLERS
AT a meeting of the Proprietors of «Brown · Stevens White "Upper Ashuelot," Perham ·R Kidder (now the city of Appleton « . Foster B.Adams Keene,) held at E. Adams · Pudney Concord, Massa- J. Kidder . D Chandler · A. Kidder J. Bullard. chusetts, on the Tucker E. Bullard» last Wednesday Hoar Woolson of May, 1735, a Heald . committee was appointed to "join with such as the lower town pro- S. Adams prietors shall ap- point, to search and find out whether the ground will admit of a convenient road from the two townships on Ashuelot river, down to the town of Townsend." On June 30, 1737, a meeting was held at the meeting-house frame, and "Jeremiah Hall was recom- pensed for his services in searching for, and laying out, a road to Townsend."
At that time the Townsend grant extended farther to the north and west than in later years, and embraced about 800 acres now included in the southeastern corner of New Ipswich, shown upon an ancient map of the town as granted by Massachusetts. That map shows a straight line dotted di- rectly across the map and bearing the explanatory note "This Single Prickd line is the Cleard way to Ashawelott." This line enters the town from Townsend a short distance north of the site of the "Wheeler tavern," runs northwesterly
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History of New Ipswich
though the region now occupied by the Center Village, and, passing a little south of the position of Wilder Village, crosses the western line of the town a half-mile south from its northwestern corner.
Without a doubt this perfectly straight road was easily constructed upon paper, but it is somewhat remarkable that the turnpike, constructed almost seventy years later, should have followed so nearly the early line, in no place departing from the route there marked greatly more than half a mile. But the former New Ipswich history, recalling the construc- tion of the turnpike, declares that "its location was as bad as it well could be;" and it is not strange that the committee of the Keene proprietors chose a route less steeply inclined, even though it were somewhat more devious, as is shown on the small map presented above. For the road there shown, called in the records for many years the "main road," or in earlier times the "old countrey road," is undoubtedly a part of the Keene road of 1735-37, preceding the first permanent settler in New Ipswich by at least a year; and the preliminary temporary residence of two or three others, which may have been in the summer of 1737, may safely be said to have been of later date than the location of the road reported by Jere- miah Hall, but of course at first hardly more than a marked trail. The "old country road," the first token of civilization established within the town bounds, naturally had a great in- fluence in locating the sturdy pioneers in the wilderness, as is indicated by the positions of the homes of twenty early settlers placed upon the map with the belief, after careful examination, that they were the earliest twenty resident "fathers of the town."
That the position of this road was well chosen is shown by its long continuance, more than three of the four miles of its length within the town bounds being still open for travel, and a considerable part of the abandoned portion ap- parently owing its abandonment to other causes than unwise location. The records show some slight changes in its loca- tion from time to time, but practically the present position of the part still open is as it was when Abijah Foster settled but a few rods from its faint line of communication almost 175 years ago. The more definite course of this early high- way, so early that more than twenty years after its location the town voted "not to fell the trees on the main road
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The Old Country Road
through the town," may be traced upon the larger map in this volume, and any difficulties in following it may be re- moved by reference to the following descriptive notes.
It entered the town only a little distance south of its pre- viously mentioned successor, the turnpike, that is a little south of the site of the house of entertainment long known as "Wheeler's tavern," giving to Timothy Heald, a few years later, a desirable position for establishing his home in the northern part of 186 A. D. Passing on a mile toward the northwest, from the first half of which the road is practically obliterated, the home of Jonas Woolson appears in IV: 2, S. R., the present property of the Country Club, and but a short distance farther, in V: 2, S. R., that of his early asso- ciate, Benjamin Hoar. now the Preston place. Crossing the river, where later the first bridge of the town was to be built, the old road passed the place soon to be the home of Moses Tucker, continued over the hill and then between the loca- tions of the first meeting-house, denoted on the small map by a square and affixed cross, and the first burying-ground, both situated in the eastern part of VIII: 1, S. R., to the house long the home of Judge Farrar, and now the summer residence of Charles S. Brown. Descending the hill and past the present grounds of the Academy, the road unites, where the Soldiers' Monument now stands, with an east and west road eight or ten rods in width, as laid out upon the early map before mentioned, and extending upon that map from the eastern line of the town directly westward through the centre of that portion of the town, four miles square, which had been divided into lots. This road is denoted by a dotted line upon the preceding small map, but no indications have been found that it has ever been used as a highway except for the distance of a little less than a mile between the sol- diers' Monument and Davis Village. Along the western part of this extent the walls still stand, and the coincidence of the eastern part with the "old country road" from the monu- ment to School street and on past the Preston house until the latter is turned aside by the steep ascent, gave a broad space, in later years known as the "Village Green," around which in due time, despite its marshy location, the activities of the town largely clustered.
On the north side of this broadened "country road," but not very far distant from it, on 33, N. D., a little westward
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History of New Ipswich
of the site of the former bank, and perhaps a little toward Union Hall, stood the earliest dwelling erected in the town, that of Abijah Foster, and directly opposite upon the south side of the road was the home of Joseph Kidder, where since has been the dwelling of Judge Champney, and later the home of John Preston, Esq., and his descendants, IX : 1, S. R. Continued progress due westward in the broad central road of the early survey being here forbidden by the steep ascent, a southerly detour of a few rods was necessitated, the first part along the broad, grassy road still open in the rear of the Preston land, and the later return to the direct course on a line still traceable under favorable conditions, through the northern end of the small triangular wooded spot lying across the road from the open space north from the old "hill burying-ground," and south from the site of the second and third meeting-houses. As this open area was without doubt included in the "common land" left for a highway, this de- tour, now seeming so considerable that the location of the "country road" is not always recognized, did not really ex- tend at that place beyond the limits of the broad central road as surveyed. But that proposed straight highway was followed by the Keene surveyor only a very short distance. It may, indeed, have gone directly across the later meeting- house site, at least until the erection of such a building caused travel to be carried on a little farther west. At all events, from very nearly that spot the road entered upon an almost direct northwesterly line across the lot upon which the meeting-house afterward was built, 37 N. D., later the prop- erty of Oliver Proctor ; then past the site of the first dwelling of Isaac Appleton on the southern side and that of his second house, still standing and bearing over its entrance the figures 1756, upon the northern side, both in 41, N. D. Be- tween these two sites the old road crossed the line of the present turnpike, and from the meeting-house site to that point of crossing all traces of the ancient highway have dis- appeared. Continuing the same general northwesterly direc- tion it passed in 46, N. D., the future home of Reuben Kidder. on the east, and a little farther that of Samuel Perham, an employee of Mr. Kidder, upon 50, N. D., on the west. The remaining route, through lots 51, 52, and 56, N. D., to the northern line of the town is not known to have passed other early dwellings. The last quarter-mile or more before leaving
4
The Old Country Road
New Ipswich was not along the present Temple road, but by the "Todd road" diverging toward the west, now legally discontinued, but still clearly defined and passable.
The effectual charter of New Ipswich, known as the Masonian charter, of which an account is given later in this volume, was issued in 1750, and in it are named thirty grantees, thirteen of whom are designated as being "of a place called New Ipswich," and their names are included in the twenty names presented upon the preceding small map. The names of two sons of one of the grantees named in the charter as a resident of Ipswich, Mass., and one son of an- other grantee of the same town, a brother and an employee of one of the New Ipswich grantees, and two other early settlers, constitute the twenty pioneers in New Ipswich who, as far as careful examination determines, were resident in their new homes before the close of the year in which the charter was granted. Nine of this number made their homes beside the old "country road," and of the remaining eleven seven were apparently within a half-mile of that route. There can be no doubt of the determining influence of that road, then hardly more than a trail, upon the location of the early settlements in the northeastern corner of the town, and an examination of the records giving in order the story of later roads, demanded by the increasing population, presents quite clearly the direction and progress of advance.
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