USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Salisbury > The history of Salisbury, New Hampshire, from date of settlement to the present time > Part 1
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1800
Glass
Book
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT
Da
cone Weller
THE
HISTORY OF SALISBURY
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
FROM DATE OF SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME.
THE WHOLE INTERSPERSED WITH NUMEROUS INTERESTING INCIDENTS.
EMBELLISHED WITH MAPS, CUTS, AND PORTRAITS OF DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
COLLATED BY
JOHN J. DEARBORN,
1)
EDITED BY JAMES O. ADAMS AND HENRY P. ROLFE 1
COPYRIGHT
TAN 2 1892 19299P
WASHING
MANCHESTER, N. H. PRINTED BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 1890.
F44
DEDICATION.
To the memory of the brave men and noble women who first made their homes in the wilderness of Salisbury, and for many years stood upon the borders of civilization, and kept watch and ward over the infant Province of New Hampshire: whose sweat and blood moistened her virgin soil : whose valor defended its rude cabins from savage violence and destruction -and especially to those whose bravery was displayed on many sanguinary fields through all the dark days of the Revolution ; whose fortitude in the times which tried men's souls was a theme of constant praise: to the mem- ory of all those sons and daughters who have served their day and genera- tion and have fallen asleep, illustrious in life and venerated in death ; and of those who became her children by adoption, and those whose eyes first beheld the light in this favored town, and have passed over " the silent river," and to all their descendants everywhere, who are living, this history is most respectfully dedicated by its authors.
JOHN J. DEARBORN. JAMES O. ADAMS, HENRY P. ROLFE.
COPYRIGHTEI 1884 BY JOHN J. DFAKRORN
:
J. J. DEARBORN, M. D.
1
4753 6437
PREFACE.
Previous to May, 1882, Dr. John J. Dearborn, of Salisbury, had been engaged by the town to collate a history of the same. He was a young man of much energy and enterprise, and displayed very commendable persever- ence in bringing together the material for a history. In his practice he had excellent opportunities to gather up a vast amount of material necessary for the work, and the records of the town were at hand for his inspection.
In May, 1882, he exhibited to me what he had collected. The collection was minute and comprehensive, but was in no condition to be published. He was indeed entitled to much praise for what he had done.
In the spring of 1883 the late lamented James O. Adams informed me that he had been employed by Dr. Dearborn to take the manuscript and edit the history for publication. Having learned that I was familiar with the town and its former inhabitants, and with its moral, social and political conditions, Mr. Adams desired me to join him in editing the work. 37
Dr. Dearborn then made an arrangement with Mr. Adams and myself to take the material and make such tranformations and additions as we should find necessary. I at once commenced to write the "Constitutional History," and when finished submitted it to Messrs. Dearborn and Adams. This was so satisfactory to them, as well as to the late George W. Nesmith. who took much interest in the history, that I was requested to write the " Preliminary Chapter." This was also undertaken and upon its completion Mr. Adams importuned me to continue my labors. In a few months I had finished all that was given me to do. With his other duties as Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, Mr. Adams was slow in the discharge of his duty to the history, but in time, with my assistance, he completed his share of the work, and on the 28th of October, 1884, a part of the manuscript went to the printer. In four years from that time the printing was still unfinished.
After six years of patient waiting and deferred hope, the History of Salisbury now makes its appearance. Such as it is, we commend it to the careful perusal and kind consideration of those who feel an interest in this
IV
PREFACE.
remarkable old town and the glorious achievements of her sons. She claims the home, the birth-place of "the greatest orator who ever spoke the lan- guage of Milton and Burke."
To the late George W. Nesmith is due the credit for the painstaking and finished chapter on " The Revolutionary War."
To that most worthy and earnest statistician, the late John M. Shirley, the thanks of the proprietors of the History of Salisbury are due. for the chapter on " Roads and Turnpikes," and the article on "Samaritan Lodge of Masons."
In his contract with the town, Dr. Dearborn agreed to submit the his- tory to the inspection and approval of a committee, consisting of Col. John C. Smith, Dea. Thomas D. Little, and Frank B. Calef, Esq., the two latter being natives of the town and life-long residents. Col. Smith, having had his home there for sixty-three years, was better acquainted with the inhabi- tants and business of the town than any one in it. Mr. Calef has died since the history was written. The remaining members of the committee have carefully examined and approved the entire work.
HENRY P. ROLFE.
Concord, N. H., Dec. 1. 1890.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction. .
Preliminary Chapter.
-
Chapter 1. Natural History of the Town.
Chapter Il. Discoveries and Titles. 25
13
Chapter III. Bakerstown. 31
Chapter IV. Stevenstown. .
Chapter V. The Men of Stevenstown. 50
.36
Chapter VI. Municipal History. 59
Chapter VII. Municipal History -continued. 67
Chapter VIII. Civil History Concluded. 81
Chapter IX. Constitutional History,
Chapter X. Ecclesiastical History, . 129
Chapter XI. Ecclesiastical History -continued. 146
Chapter XII. Ecclesiastical History -continued, 172
Chapter XII 1-2. Ecclesiastical History Concluded, 190
Chapter XIII. Educational History.
195
Chapter XIV. Educational History Concluded.
207
Chapter XV. Early Indian History.
225
Chapter XVI. The Revolutionary War. . 251
Chapter XVH. The War of the Rebellion. 269
Chapter XVIII. New Hampshire Militia, 277
Chapter XIX. County Organizations.
284
Chapter XX. Roads and Turnpikes. 290
Chapter XXI. Bridges, Ferries, and Canals. 316
Chapter XXII. Perambulation of Lines. 319
Chapter XXIII. Mills, Workshops. Stores, and Hotels. 334
Chapter XXIV. Beneficent Institutions. . 353
Chapter XXV. The Town House and Pounds,
359
Chapter XXVI. The Alms-House, 363
VI
CONTENTS.
Chapter XXVII. The Cemeteries. 367
Chapter XXVIII. Tax Collectors and Magistrates, 37 1
Chapter XXIX. Agriculture of the Town, 38I
Chapter XXX. Villages and other Locations, 390
Chapter XXXI. Physicians and Lawyers, 397
Chapter XXXII. Antiquities. 413
Chapter XXXIII. The Tornado, 417
Chapter XXXIV. Whipping the Cat, Etc., 424
Chapter XXXV. Visit of His Satanic Majesty. 430
Chapter XXXVI. Conclusion, . . 433
Chapter XXXVII. Genealogy and Biography. 439
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Daniel Webster, full length - Frontispiece.
John J. Dearborn.
Henry P. Rolfe.
J
Birthplace of Daniel Webster,
12
Map of the Town,
21
Webster Plow, .
386
Breaking and Swingling Flax,
388
Spinning Wool, Cotton, and Tow, .
389
South Road - The Crank,
391
Thomas W. Thompson,
407
George W. Nesmith,
409
Frank R. Woodward,
447
Ichabod Bartlett,
453
Samuel C. Bartlett, Sen., .
457
Samuel C. Bartlett, Jun.,
459
William H. Bartlett,
461
Moses H. Bean,
475
William B. Dunlap.
544
Joel Eastman.
550
Moses Greeley,
558 610 614
Joseph M. Greeley, .
618
George H. Hutchings,
641
Eliphalet Little,
656
William M. Pingree,
710
William Pingree,
712
Charles C. Rogers,
721
The Sawyer Homestead,
724
Nathaniel Sawyer,
732
John C. Smith,
757
Porter B. Watson,
S26
Daniel Webster.
836
Nathaniel Greeley,
616
Charles B. Haddock,
625
Thomas D. Little,
655
Stephen Pingree,
711
Isaac Sanborn,
794
Interior view of the Old Congregational Church,
145
Daniel B. Gale,
Carlos S. Greeley,
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
BY HENRY P. ROLFE.
"Sit at the feet of Ilistory. Through night Of years the steps of virtue she shall trace, And show the earlier ages, where her sight Can pierce the eternal shadows o'er her face, When from the genial cradle of our race Went forth the tribes."
The name, Salisbury, is derived from the Latin salus, which signifies safety, or health, and the Anglo-Saxon "burg," or "burh," a corporate town which is not a city -hence, the town of health and safety.
It was named directly from Salisbury, Massachusetts, which was so called from Salisbury, England.
It is situated in latitude 43° 23', on the west bank of the Merrimack and Pemigewasset rivers, sixteen miles north of Concord and eighty miles from Boston. It was originally bounded north by Andover, east by the rivers above named, separating it from Northfield (then Canterbury) and Sanborn- ton, south by Boscawen and Warner, and west by Warner and what was Kearsarge Gore, and contained 28,600 acres.
If, as Cowper has said, "God made the country and man made the town," Salisbury remains, at the end of nearly a century and a half from its settlement, very nearly as God made it. It has been the most productive town in the whole State. It has produced more brains than any other municipal- ity in New Hampshire. There are three, perhaps four, hamlets in the town, but the main dependence of her people has always been upon the native products of the soil.
2
HISTORY OF SALISBURY.
Over much of the history of this distinguished town the twilight of uncertainty has already thrown its shadows, and the long, dark night of forgetfulness is fast descending upon her traditions and her unrecorded acts. Soon the waters of oblivion will settle over them forever, unless the historian shall come forward to rescue them from the tomb. The lustre of her great names should be made to shine down the track of time and the fame of her illustrious deeds should never perish.
" When Julius' temple, Claudius' aqueducts, Agrippa's baths, and Pompey's theatre ; Nay, Rome itself shall not be found at all, Historian's books shall live : - these strong records, These deathless monuments alone shall show
What and how great the Roman Empire was."
The great Father of History, who was moved with a desire "to rescue from oblivion the memory of former events and render tribute to the many great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and Barbarians," had no more worthy themes for his immortal pen than this noble old town of Salisbury furnishes. For more than a decade of years her hardy and fearless settlers were the very pioneers of civilization, stood upon its extreme verge, repelled the assaults of savage beasts and more savage men, defended their rude dwellings " from violence and destruc- tion," and bared their brows to the tomahawk and scalping- knife and their breasts to the Indian bullet. "Through the fire and blood of a seven years revolutionary war" her sons shrunk from "no toil and no danger," that they might estab- lish and save to themselves and their posterity "a name and a country," and that, too, a free country. For several years after its settlement there rose no smoke from the habitation of any white man, between Salisbury and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Her women were slain by the tomahawk and her men and maidens were ambushed, seized, made to run the guantlet, and carried away into captivity ; and while the inhab- itants of other towns were obliged to abandon their recently made homes and flee for protection to stronger and more popu- lous settlements, the stalwart inhabitants of Salisbury stood firm, built their cabins, and defended them.
3
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
When Philip Call, Nathaniel Meloon, Benjamin Pettengill, John and Ebenezer Webster, Andrew Bohonan, and Edward Eastman and their associates built their rude dwellings in Salis- bury, then Stevenstown, they formed the exposed picket-line of civilization in New Hampshire, and they maintained it till the peace of 1763, notwithstanding Nathaniel Meloon, his wife and three children, were seized by the Indians and carried away to Canada, and sold into captivity, and the wife of Philip Call was murdered, and Samuel Scribner and Robert Barbour were also captured and sold into captivity, at Chamblee and St. Francis.
When the clash of arms with the mother country came, the people of Salisbury were ready at the country's call, and every one of her voters signed the Association Test, except two ; and it is no dishonor to their names to mention them, for they declined to sign on account of the fancied indignity implied in demand- ing that two such devoted men should sign their names to recommend their patriotism. Salisbury presented an unbroken column of patriots, and their zeal never abated and their con- stancy never wavered until peace was proclaimed.
When General Burgoyne was marching with his splendid army through the State of New York, at the tap of the drum Captain Ebenezer Webster and his comrades started for the field of Bennington. Most opportune was their arrival, and valiantly did the soldiers of Salisbury represent their town in this first successful battle of the Revolution. The result of the battle of Bennington strengthened and cheered the cause of American independence, revived the drooping spirits of the Continental Congress, and sent a thrill of joy and confidence to the hearts of our little armies throughout the colonies.
Before setting sail with his army, to crush "the colonial rebellion," the song says of General Burgoyne :
" Hle entered the House as mute as a mouse, With armor and shield to defend him, And straightway on board went this elegant Lord With all his blackguards to attend him."
When he reached the borders of New York he exclaimed :
" Boys, beat up the drum, the Indians will come, You ne'er need grant a petition."
4
HISTORY OF SALISBURY.
The soldiers from Salisbury came marching back to their homes from Bennington, singing :
"And now the poor soul is on his parole, Down by the banks of Stillwater."
When, in January, after the Declaration of Independence, General Washington with his little, diminished, defeated army of four thousand men crept into winter quarters at Morristown, when the difficulties seemed almost insurmountable, Congress discouraged, the Middle and Southern States full of cruel, revengeful and malignant tories, no man in Salisbury quailed, and the whole population were "steadfast, immovable, always abounding" in zeal and devotion to their country's cause.
When in the winter of 1777-78 Washington retired to winter quarters at Valley Forge, with his army of forty-seven thousand men diminished to less than twenty thousand, and the nation was nearly exhausted by the sacrifices made and the great effort put forth, the father of the wife of Rev. Jonathan Searle, Jethro Sanborn, of Sandown, a sea-captain of considerable means, gave half his fortune (more than twenty thousand dollars in gold and Spanish coin) to buy shoes and blankets for our bare-footed army at Valley Forge. The agent of the government gave in exchange to Captain Sanborn new, clean continental money, which he retained till his death, and having willed it to his daughter, Mrs. Margaret Sanborn Searle, all that was ever real- ized from it was seven dollars, which his granddaughter paid as taxes upon a chaise.
In the cause of religion Salisbury was not a whit behind any other town in the State. Religious teachers were maintained almost from the first sound of the settler's axe, and in 1773 a "learned minister," Rev. Jonathan Searle, a graduate of Har- vard College, settled over the Congregational church, and con- tinued to minister and break the bread of life to her people for eighteen consecutive years. The church then established has continued to this day. Long before Boscawen or Concord made a move Salisbury had established an academy, one of the noted institutions of learning in New Hampshire, where Daniel
5
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
Webster and his brother Ezekiel, Ichabod Bartlett, John A. Dix, Charles B. Haddock, William H. Bartlett, and Joel East- man studied for college. Before Boscawen or Concord, Salis- bury had furnished a bell to her church. Early in the present century a library of three hundred and twenty-four volumes was established, of books "that contained the best of information." When the Merrimack County Agricultural Society was formed Salisbury furnished more members than any other town, Salis- bury furnishing thirty-six, Concord only about two-thirds that number.
But when we come to speak of her great men, how illustrious does this noble old town appear. What an array of names does she present -what a roll of honor does she furnish! The Websters, the Bartletts, the Eastmans, the Haddocks, the Pet- tengills, the Pingrees, the Smiths, the Sawyers, the Gales, and the Greeleys. Thomas W. Thompson, Richard Fletcher, Parker Noyes, Israel W. Kelley, George W. Nesmith, Samuel I. Wells, Jonathan Searle, and Thomas Worcester became her citizens by adoption. There has been but one man who has gained the title of "Defender of the Constitution," and he was born and reared upon the soil of Salisbury. Fisher Ames has said "that the most substantial glory of a country is its great men." Governor Boutwell, of Massachusetts, when receiving the sons of New Hampshire who went to Boston to attend the funeral obsequies of Daniel Webster, said: "New Hampshire has pro- duced no other such son and Massachusetts no other such statesman as Daniel Webster." And Theodore Parker, who was the best critic of character and accomplishments that we knew in Mr. Webster's time, said of him that "he was the greatest orator that had ever spoken the language of Milton and Burke."
Ichabod Bartlett sheds lustre upon the town in which he was born. He who "could measure swords with Webster, Clay, and Jeremiah Mason, without either shield or shame," and who obtained the first rank at the head of the New Hampshire bar, in the company of Smith, Mason, Sullivan and Levi Woodbury, brings to the town of his nativity a precious jewel to be placed
6
HISTORY OF SALISBURY.
in the crown of her rejoicing. Ezekiel Webster, Charles B. Haddock, Joel Eastman, Samuel C. Bartlett, the present learned President of Dartmouth College, and William H. Bartlett, our beau ideal of a learned and just judge, cut off, alas ! in the morn- ing, before his sun had reached its zenith, fill up such a roll of honor as no town in New Hampshire can furnish. Said Mr. Philips, the young Irish orator, "It matters not what immediate spot may have been the birth-place of such a man as Washing- ton." But it does matter to us, the natives of Salisbury, and to their descendants, what immediate spot was the birth-place of Daniel Webster and the other distinguished men whose names we have mentioned. We take pride in them. We love to think of them as neighbors and townsmen of our ancestors. We rejoice in their achievements and feel a glow of satisfaction that they are an inheritance of our own. "Not to know what took place before one was born," says Cicero, "is forever to remain a child, caring nothing for the memories of the past and hoping nothing for the destiny of the future."
The chief charms of history are found in the recognition of the merits of those who have preceded us. How destitute of interest are mere facts and incidents, unless enriched and beau- tified with biographical sketches of those who were actors upon the preceding stage. "Mere names and dates do not in any proper sense make history or biography." Memory can never be surfeited by a knowledge of what has been achieved by the gifted and the good, if we can be made to feel a personal inter- est in the authors. Shall we then know nothing of our progen- itors ? Shall the line of the race from which we sprung be severed at our birth, and shall the living generation have no retrospect, but keep its eyes forever steadily gazing into the uncertain and illusive future, when there are so many of the glories of the past shining along the pathway which has been traveled by our ancestors? There is no command to us "to look not behind neither stay in all the plain." There is no city of iniquity to "look towards," no "smoke of the country" goes up from the plains of Salisbury. No lurid fires light up its consuming dwellings. It is a town of safety, where the twin
7
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
angels of civilization, Education and Religion, were welcomed and hospitably entertained, where enterprise had a home, where domestic virtue was constantly cherished, where knowledge increased, where patriotism was a ruling passion, where law and order reigned supreme, and where illustrious men and noble women were born and reared.
In the days of small things, in the midst of dangers, hard- ships and privations, the people remembered the source from whence came all spiritual and temporal blessings, and builded and maintained their temples for the worship of the Most High. Neither Exeter or Andover, Gilmanton or Atkinson, all noted seats of learning, can furnish such a catalogue of pupils as the rural town of Salisbury.
Cicero and Fisher Ames have been quoted, but nothing in ancient or modern times better illustrates the duties and im- portance of the historian than what has very recently been said by a distinguished and venerable son of New Hampshire, Hon. Marshall P. Wilder :
"To know nothing of our ancestors or from whence we came, to have no reverence for the precious memories of the past, is to ignore the elements and influences which have made us what we are, is to repudiate the natural instincts of the human heart and to suppress the aspirations and hopes of a soul that is to course on through the endless circles of eternity. And what more precious testimonial of your love of kindred and home can you leave than that which provides for the transmission of the history of your ancestors, yourself and your family, to future generations? And how consoling the thought that when you shall have been gathered to your fathers this history shall live through all coming time as a precious inheritance to your de- scendants. And who so dead to sympathy and affection, to kindred and country, that would not preserve the record of his ancestors, the place of his birth, the home of his childhood, and the sacred spot where repose the loved and the lost ones of earth?"
Charles C. Coffin, when contemplating the publication of a history of Boscawen, called upon the Rev. Dr. Bouton, who had
1
8
HISTORY OF SALISBURY.
written a most excellent history of Concord, and was then engaged in editing the Provincial Records of New Hampshire, for the State; and he, more than any man of his time, was conversant with the early history of the State and had a most intimate knowledge of the eminent men who have shed lustre upon the different towns in New Hampshire. To encourage and stimulate Mr. Coffin to undertake the pious work of writing that history, he said: "Mr. Coffin, you must write the history of Boscawen. No other town has exercised a more potent influence for good ; none can show a brighter record, or such a roll of honor." Ah, noble, illustrious old town! Thanks to Mr. Coffin, the glory of thy decds shall not fade, and the fame of thy sons shall not perish from the memory of men. Thou hast truly a brilliant roll of honor. Thy influence for good has been most potent ; thy record is bright, illumined with brilliant deeds, fragrant with christian influences, and adorned by the constancy and the heroism of thy gallant sons. Honor to her Dix, her Fessenden, her Greens, her Farmers, her Littles.
"Side by side" Boscawen and Salisbury went through the Revolution ; " shoulder to shoulder " they sustained the country in the War of 1812; and in the War of the Rebellion their sons fell on the same field, and their bones lie mouldering together in the same unknown graves. And to-day a great nation of fifty millions of people stands up, and with uncovered head makes its obeisance to her soldiers and statesmen. Within a limit of ten miles square, including Boscawen and Salisbury, no other rural space of equal extent on this habitable globe has produced such a column of great names.
It has been said that "the early settlers of Salisbury sat in the light of the civilization" of Boscawen. "Not till 1773," says Mr. Coffin, "thirty-three years after the settlement of the Rev. Phineas Stevens, was there a minister in Salisbury." But Nathaniel Meloon, Philip Call, and Ebenezer Webster, from 1748 to 1763, stood guard for Boscawen against the French and Indians, and constituted the exposed picket-line for fifteen years ; and no cabin was abandoned and no part of the settle- ment in Salisbury was deserted, notwithstanding Nathaniel
9
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
Meloon's and Ebenezer Webster's dwellings were the outposts of civilization in New Hampshire. No minister in Salisbury till 1773? Rev. Jonathan Searle preached in Salisbury several years before he was settled in 1773; even in 1769; and religious services were held in houses, and preaching supported as soon as any considerable number of settlers were located in the township. But softly, eminent historian of Boscawen! Salis- bury settlers never sat in the lurid light of the incendiary fire that consumed their only house dedicated to the worship of Almighty God. Salisbury men never applied the midnight torch to the district school-house, because it was not located exactly where one section of the inhabitants desired it. Salis- bury never used or adopted the whipping-post. Salisbury never prosecuted her citizens for traveling a few miles on Sunday morning, to reach a sick and suffering family. Salisbury never dragged a non-resistant preacher from her churches, simply because, unasked, he attempted to speak to the congregation a few words in opposition to that "sum of all villainies," Ameri- can slavery; but in 1819, in the Legislature, in the person of Ichabod Bartlett, Salisbury furnished the champion of religious toleration.
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