USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Hanover > A history of the town of Hanover, N.H. > Part 25
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The fire department of the village continued with little change,
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Fire Protection; The Village Precinct
except for minor additions, until the construction of the water works in 1893, when the gravity system rendered the fire engines unnecessary. But in the interval it was the subject of constant discussion, the disastrous fires of 1883 and 1887 making evident its insufficiency for great emergencies. Additional reservoirs were constructed from time to time, but at the best the supply of water was inadequate, not to mention the difficulty of "manning the brakes" of the engines for any stubborn fire, especially when the students were absent during vacations. To meet the latter dif- ficulty a steam fire engine was advocated by some, but a defi- nite movement for one, under the lead of E. O. Carter, in the spring of 1888, was decisively defeated. Three years later the matter again came before the precinct on the petition of C. D. Brown and others. At a special meeting in May it was referred to a committee, in accordance with whose report in July the sub- ject was postponed, and with the establishment of the gravity system it ceased to be of moment.
The chief objection to such an engine was the inadequacy of the water supply. The subject of such supply had been considered in 1887, when a committee, privately appointed and headed by Professor Robert Fletcher of the Thayer School, reported and was then formally continued to examine the question and to secure the necessary legislation, but nothing came of it immediately. Five years later the matter, having been constantly simmering, came up again on the petition of C. F. Emerson and others and the precinct voted that a supply of water was necessary. But a vote of recognition of even so obvious a truth did not produce a supply or prevent a vote in the following February to continue the primi- tive methods by purchasing "for the Bucket Brigade pails to the amount of $15, and pumps to the amount of $16." But as it is said to be darkest just before the dawn, this vote of apparent help- lessness. in case of fire was followed, at a meeting held June 23 and 24, 1893, by a vote to establish the system of water works of which an account is given under "The Village." That system secured for the village ample protection against fire, as far as it could be secured by an abundant supply of water and a sufficient head. In due time the old engines were sold, but in 1912 a chemi- cal engine was bought for use in the early stages of fires, at a cost of $337.50 and the amount of hose was greatly enlarged, while hydrants were set at all desirable points. In 1916 an auto- mobile was bought and converted into a truck for carrying the chemical engine and the hose at a cost of nearly $1,700.
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History of Hanover
The fire apparatus was kept in the brick building at the top of River Hill until 1906. Its location at the edge of the village was objectionable, but no more central place could be found until the precinct purchased in that year the Walker house on Main Street and constructed in the rear part of it rooms for the fire and police departments. The quarters there soon proved somewhat strait and a movement was set on foot to have a precinct building, and at a precinct meeting in March, 1911, it was voted to prepare plans for a building to cost not over $35,000, but the plan was given up the following year on account of the more pressing need of a new school house.
The capabilities of the precinct organization for the convenient administration of other municipal interests than protection against fire, came to be recognized more and more throughout the State, and its powers were accordingly enlarged in various directions by a series of general laws, beginning in 1849; but the Hanover precinct was slow to take advantage of them. In the seventies it assumed the lighting of the streets by a contract with a gas com- pany that was formed in 1872, largely through the enterprise of Professor E. W. Dimond of the Agricultural College. Under his leadership a company was formed of which the first directors were Asa D. Smith, Adna P. Balch, Henry E. Parker, Elihu T. Quimby, James W. Patterson, Ezekiel W. Dimond, Cornelius A. Field and Ebenezer D. Carpenter. The company never was a financial success, but it continued in business until the introduc- tion of electric lighting in 1893, and its affairs were wound up in 1898, when $35 a share was distributed in liquidation. In 1874 the company placed an experimental lamp at the corner of Main and Wheelock Streets, and the next year the precinct, being dissatisfied with experiments with gasoline and naptha lamps (although some of the latter were continued in remote parts of the village for some years), made a contract with the gas company for twelve lamps at a cost of $20 for each lamp and of $25 each for annual maintenance.
It was at this time that the names of the streets were formally recognized, being placed in colored letters on the gas posts. An abortive attempt to name the streets had been made in 1858, when Nathan Lord, Russell Smith and Edwin D. Sanborn were appointed at the annual precinct meeting as a committee to assign names to them, but there is no record of any action on the part of the committee. The names taken in 1875 were those in common use at the time.
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Fire Protection; The Village Precinct
The care of the lights was first entrusted to Edward P. Haskell, who made the round of the lamps twice each night, except on moonlight nights, once to light and once to extinguish the lamps, the time of putting out being ten o'clock. As time went on the number of lamps was increased and the hour of putting out was delayed until at last they were allowed to burn all night and were in use without regard to the moon. On the introduction into the village of electric lighting in 1893 the gas lamps at the street corners were replaced by electric lamps, which were con- trolled from a single center and which after a time were left to burn all night.
The evident difficulty of meeting all the requirements of public health and convenience in the village through the machinery of town government led to an application to the Legislature in 1881 to confer special privileges upon the Hanover precinct, but the act then passed was not adopted by the precinct. It was perfected and extended by a supplemental act, passed August 28, 1885, and as thus modified was adopted by the precinct at a special meeting November 6 ensuing. The act as amended provided for the elec- tion of three commissioners to hold office for three years each, their terms to be so arranged that one should be elected each year, these commissioners to "have all the powers of mayor and alder- men of cities respecting all matters within the legal authority of the precinct and to be ex officio fire wards and health officers," and to "control and direct the expenditure of all moneys raised under authority of the precinct." The precinct was to have a highway surveyor, who was, however, to be an officer of the town, and through whom were to be expended, under the direction of the commissioners all taxes levied in the precinct, although these were to be paid into the treasury of the town and the liability of the town for the roads continued.
The first commissioners under the act, elected on its adoption by the precinct, were Newton S. Huntington, Carlton P. Frost and Frank W. Davison, but they decided not to assume their "full duties until the expiration of the terms of office of those who were elected to office at the last annual meeting of the precinct." The succession of commissioners has been as follows :
Newton S. Huntington
1885-1887
Frank W. Davison
1885-1888
Carlton P. Frost 1885-1889
Dorrance B. Currier
1887-1890
Newton S. Huntington
1888-1894
Charles Benton
1889-1891
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History of Hanover
Frank A. Sherman
1890-1893
George Hitchcock
1891-1895
Edward P. Storrs
1893-1896
Thomas W. D. Worthen
1894-1897
William T. Smith
1895-1901
Newton S. Huntington
1896-1897
Newton A. Frost
1897-1901
Walter D. Cobb
1897-1901
On March 19, 1901, the precinct adopted the provisions of a new act enlarging the powers of the precinct and requiring the election of an entirely new board of commissioners. Under this act the affairs of the precinct have since been administered and the succession has been as follows:
John V. Hazen
1901-1910
Perley R. Bugbee
1901-1909
Frank H. Dalton
1902-1905
John M. Fuller
1905-1907
Chandler P. Smith
1907-1908
Elmer T. Ford
1908-1913
J. Henry Foster
1909-1915.
Jesse S. Reeves
1910-1910 March-May
Howard N. Kingsford
1910-1913
Charles A. Holden
1913-1916
Arthur P. Fairfield
1913-
Jerome Chesley
1915-1918
Adna D. Storrs
1916-1926
Roland A. Lewin
1918-
Fred F. Parker
1926-
Fires
Like other towns Hanover has suffered from fire, but relatively probably no more than others. The more serious losses have naturally been in the village, where the nearness of the houses has given opportunity for the spread of a fire once begun. Yet even here fires have been generally limited, and since the installa- tion of the water system in 1893 there have been no extensive fires, the most serious losses having been Dartmouth and South Fayer- weather Halls. A complete catalogue of the fires throughout the town is impossible for many farmhouses have been burned of which the only record is the cellars, but the following list probably contains all the more important ones. In making it there has been no attempt to mention the small alarms, of which there have been many in the village and especially in the College buildings, but in which the fire has been extinguished without material damage. It is difficult to determine the exact date, or even year, of all of them.
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Fire Protection; The Village Precinct
1779 Blacksmith shop that stood on the northeast corner of the present Green, belonging to Charles Sexton, whom Wheelock had induced to settle in Hanover.
1795 The house of Benjamin True, which stood on the lot just north of the present Crosby Hall. This was the first of three houses stand- ing on this lot to be burned. The second was that of Mrs. Chapman, which burned in 1817, and the third was that of Betsy Shay, which was burned in 1847. A high wind prevailed at the burning of Mrs. Chapman's house and the roof of the church took fire from flying sparks, but the fire was extinguished by a student who, at the risk of his life, ran out on the ridgepole with buckets of water.
1797 February, the church at the Center Village. The fire was supposed to be of incendiary origin.
1798 March 6, Dartmouth Hall; see p. 243.
1800 February 3, Shop of Jedediah Baldwin, on the site of the lower end of Bridgman's block.
1810 April 19, a barn in the northeastern part of the village, belonging to Dr. Nathan Smith, and a couple of houses nearby. Two of Dr. Smith's horses were lost in the fire. Dr. Smith was absent at the time, attending a patient at some distance, and the next morning was much alarmed by the arrival of a serious-faced messenger, of whom he instantly asked, "What is the matter? Is any one dead?" On being relieved of that apprehension by the account of the fire, he said, "Well, it will make a good watermelon patch."
1817 Mrs. Chapman's house on Main Street.
1819 November. Medical Building, but no great damage.
1829 March, the "malthouse" of the first President Wheelock, which had been moved from its site just south of the present Wheeler Hall and fitted up for a storehouse and shops, and then for students' rooms, and was known as the "Fort."
1830 January 25, "The Acropolis" on Observatory hill; see p. 58.
1830 Grout house.
1833 House of Bezaleel Woodward on the lot north of Webster Hall, rebuilt in 1842, and again damaged by fire in 1865, when occupied by Senator James W. Patterson.
1846 July 5, blacksmith shop of William Tenney on Lebanon Street.
1847 House of Betsy Shay on Main Street.
1850 Augustus Slade's house at the Center village, with the records of Mr. Collins' church.
1851 November 10, store of John Smith at the Center village.
1852 House of Increase Kimball at the northeast corner of the present College park.
1855 December 8, the house of Joseph Pinneo, a nurseryman, standing between the road and the Medical Building, the latter building being saved with much difficulty.
1856 September 28, house on the site occupied by Culver Hall, owned by President Lord and known as the "Burke House."
1859 January 29, three barns in the rear of the Tontine, owned by Jonathan Currier, with the loss of several horses.
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History of Hanover
1859 The blacksmith shop of J. S. Smalley at Etna.
1863 January 1, the storehouse of E. K. Smith on North Main Street, supposed incendiary. 500 barrels of flour and 20 barrels of sugar with carriages and tools were burned.
1864 Store of Loren Kinne at the Center village.
1867 September 15, house of Dr. Dixi Crosby on Main Street, partially burned.
1868 May 6, candy shop of E. K. Smith on North Main Street.
1869 Commencement week, small house on River Street, owned by Webb Hall.
1881 February 8, house on Elm Street, belonging to Daniel Blaisdell's estate and occupied by Mrs. Nancy Cook. It was totally destroyed.
1883 May 5, the great fire on Lebanon Street, in which thirteen houses were burned; see History of Dartmouth College, p. 444f.
1885 Goodrich house, later occupied by Fred Runnels, burned.
1887 January 4, Dartmouth Hotel and all the buildings on the east side of Main Street to the south as far as and including the "Tontine." See History of Dartmouth College, p. 445f.
1887 House built by Dr. A. Benning Crosby, where Hitchcock Hall now stands, burned partially.
1888 July 11, South Hall on South Main Street totally burned and with it a College building known as "sub-south hall," and houses of Charles Clifford and P. H. Whitcomb.
1888 September 4, Rollins Chapel took fire from an overheated furnace and barely escaped destruction.
1890 Carleton Corey's house in Hanover Center burned.
1893 January 28, Frost's jewelry store on Main Street partially burned, considerable loss.
1896 House of Miss Hattie Abbott on College Street burned.
1898 House of Louis H. Dow on Webster Avenue, not quite completed, totally burned. It was a fierce winter's night with a high wind, severe cold, and the snow was very deep.
1900 February 8, a large building, owned and occupied as a store by F. W. Davison and known as the "Golden Corner," was burned. The upper stories were occupied by the 4 K E fraternity.
1900 May 10, house and barn of A. P. McPherson at Hanover Center burned.
1904 February 18, Dartmouth Hall burned; see History, p. 489f.
1906 October 30, Bridgman Block, Main Street, completely burned.
1906 April, house of Patrick Monahan between Etna and the Center burned; also the house of Mrs. Daniel Clancy on South Street and the house of G. F. Colby on Pleasant Street.
1908 North Fayerweather Hall barely escaped burning up.
1910 February 26, South Fayerweather Hall, completely burned; see History, p. 488.
1912 Simon Ward's house in Ruddsboro burned.
1914 May 3, printing office of Frank A. Musgrove on Main Street burned.
1915 Leon Hayes' house on "Etna Highlands," south of Etna, burned.
1915 September, house of Mrs. Nellie E. Newton on River Street burned.
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Fire Protection; The Village Precinct
1918 January 1, The "Dewey House," 35 College Street, burned in the night, the occupants escaping with little but their night clothes.
1918 May, barn of Elsid Trachier on the College Plain struck by light- ning and burned with two horses and twelve head of cattle. It had formerly belonged to E. K. Smith and had been moved from North Main Street.
1925 May 13, Inn Stables.
CHAPTER XVIII
TOWN PAUPERS
Town Care of the Poor
U NENVIABLE as is now the lot of paupers it was far worse in early times. Then they were held in hardly better esteem than criminals; the laws were unkind and towns not less so. Persons that were likely to become paupers were prevented from gaining a settlement in a town by notices to depart; and if they disregarded such notices they might be removed by the constable, though that course had its difficulties, as other towns were as unwilling to receive dependent poor as the ejecting town was to retain them. The following record, however, shows how the towns proceeded :
Grafton County ss. at Hanover
To Jabez Kellogg one of the Constables of the Town of Hanover- Greeting.
In the name of the State of New Hampshire You are required to warn Thomas George and his wife, Frederick Wiser and his wife Goram Lane and his wife with their children and Deborah Sprague, all residents in said Hanover (and who have not lived one year in said town) to depart from said town of Hanover thereof fail not and make return according to law.
Given under our hands and seal at said Hanover this 13th day of Novr AD 1792.
Ebenr Brewster Silas Tenney Selectmen
Returned served accordingly.
Towns were authorized by law to build or use any house for a house of correction or for a workhouse in which to set their poor to work, and the house might also "be used for the keeping, correcting and setting to work of rogues, vagabonds, common beggars, lewd, idle and disorderly persons." Punishments for breach of regulations were inflicted and were limited to hard labor, wearing of shackles or fetters, and whipping to the number of twenty stripes.1
In 1787 the house of Jabez Bingham on the College Plain, standing nearly on the site of the present Wheeler Hall, was
1 Act of Feb. 15, 1791; also 6 Geo. III, Ch. 135.
256
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Town Paupers
appointed for a house of correction and he the master of it. In 1790 the selectmen were empowered to build or hire a workhouse for the use of "idle, stroling persons," and to appoint a master. In 1793 the house of correction was located at Mr. Nathaniel Babbitt's and in 1798 at James Murch's in the Mill Neighborhood, and in 1799 Colonel Aaron Kinsman's house on the College Plain, where Rollins Chapel now stands, arrived at that dignity and it was ordered that the same or some other house in that vicinity be appointed a workhouse. In December, 1798, the town chose agents to prosecute Eleazer and Daniel Hill for the non-support of their father, a pioneer miller. In 1808 regulations were made by a com- mittee, consisting of Benjamin J. Gilbert, Jonathan Durkee and Richard Lang, and accepted by the town at a special meeting in June, for the government of the house of correction. The regu- lations are not to be found. In the same year it fell again to James Murch to be "overseer" and his house to be the "house of correc- tion for the poor," and the two succeeding years Samuel Slade's was designated a workhouse and he its master. The last appear- ance of a "house of correction" in the record was in 1822 when a committee was appointed "to consider the expediency of building a house of correction," but there is no mention of a report by the committee. All this had been done by vote of the town, but in 1812 the selectmen were ordered to set up the maintenance of the paupers to the lowest bidder; and in 1813 they were left by vote of the town to the discretion of the selectmen.
Some of the difficulties of the selectmen are shown in the follow- ing extracts from a memorandum of James Poole, one of the selectmen in 1822 :
March 23, 1822. Went to Mr. Haskils to see Old Bill Anderson. Mr. Haskil proposed to board Bill at 15 / per week while at his house, at 7 / 6 at Bills House, we find food. We concluded we could do better.
Thursday Rev. Mr. Shurtleff came and informed me that he could not keep Sam Pierce.
Saturday March 16th took Sam from Professor Shurtleff to Mr. Davis to live if Mr. Davis can keep him he is to be Bound till he is 20 years of age on sutch terms as may be agreed upon.
18th Mr. Zibe Durkee came and informed me that Mr. Jesse Bridgman was sick and his family must be helped, that the Town helped them last year. I delivered Mr. Durkee 1 B. Wheat, 1 Rye 1 Corn for Mr. Bridg- man.
20. Selectmen meet and went to see Old Bill. He agreed to go out in Town to Morrow. Capt. Chandler agrees to take him at 9 / per week till we can get some other person to take him.
March 21. Eleazer Wright came after Old Bill and agreed to keep him
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History of Hanover
6 Months at 7/6 per week if he keeps himself cleen. Old Bill carried with him a Large Chair sed to belong to Miss R. Fuller he took his rasors shears hammer small basket.
March 22 paid Mr. Haskel $285 (should be $2.85) for boarding Old Bill one Week one Day.
March 29th Mr. Eleazer Wright came and wished to git the articles that belonged to Old Bill Anderson. Took this day 1 small pot 1 small Kittle 1 spider cracked 1 pr cast dogs, 1 basket 1 Tin bason.
In 1816 the idea of building a poor house again came to the surface and a committee was appointed to report whether or not it was desirable, but in the succeeding year it was voted "inex- pedient." The matter came up again in 1821, 1822, 1828 and 1830, with the same result; and in 1831 a committee was chosen to see what should be done with the paupers and whether it was desirable to buy a town farm. In accordance with their report the follow- ing year it was again voted that it was "inexpedient to buy." In the meantime the town's poor, idle and unfortunate alike, con- tinued each year to be set up at auction by the selectmen at the annual town meeting. Ziba Durkee had them in 1831 and for several succeeding years at the Packard place, where they were housed in several small shanties.
At length, thanks to an overflowing national purse, humanity triumphed. Of the surplus revenue, distributed to the states by the United States in 1837, the town accepted the amount which fell to the town of Hanover at the March meeting, pledging its faith to the State to repay it when called for, and placed it in the hands of Jabez A. Douglass to invest in loans in town of not less than $100 or more than $300 each.
Dissatisfaction with the existing method of caring for the poor had been rife for some time and in 1836 a committee of five was appointed at the March meeting to consider the purchase of a town farm. A year later the committee reported that "adjoining towns had up the question of a joint farm for several towns," and advised a committee of conference with other towns. Timothy Owen, Jr. and Elijah Miller were accordingly appointed such a committee, but whatever their report may have been the subject was again passed over at the annual meeting of 1838.
In 1839 it was voted to apply the money invested by Mr. Douglass to the purchase of a town farm and buildings for the care and support of the poor and for a house of correction, and Timothy Owen, John S. Cram and James Spencer were appointed a committee to make the purchase. Several farms were offered, and the committee at first inclined to that of Eleazer Wright, but
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Town Paupers
finally, in 1840, bought that of James W. Tisdale in District No. 4. for $4,250. The committee, on which Richard Foster was substi- tuted for James Spencer, was directed to report locations and estimates for a new farm house, but none was built and it was determined to expend the balance of the surplus revenue in repairs of the existing buildings and in stocking the farm.
Almost from the beginning the farm was a subject of disagree- ment. Questions arose as to the economy and efficiency of its management and some wished to sell it. By 1849 the division was so sharp that a special meeting was held June 23rd at which it was voted not to sell the farm, but a committee of five was appointed "to take into consideration everything in relation to the Town Farm," including the repair of old buildings or the erection of new ones. The committee, consisting of Elijah F. Miller, Merrill Hayes, Washington Burnham and Daniel Blaisdell, reported at an adjourned meeting September 4, that the crops were good and that the wood land, about twenty-five acres of good second growth, was sufficient for the needs of the farm, but that the house was in a ruinous condition, altogether insufficient for the proper accommodation of the agent and the paupers. In response to an announcement that they would receive proposals for an exchange of the farm several properties were offered and examined, but none was found preferable to the farm already owned, nor were the terms of exchange proposed at all satisfactory. The committee therefore recommended keeping the farm, building a new house at a cost of $1,400 to $2,000, and a repair of the barns sufficient to make them last for some years. They further reported that on examination of the accounts the support of paupers before the purchase of the farm was shown to have been $564.23 a year, and for the nine years since the purchase to have been $306.96 including interest on the purchase money, estimated at $5,000.
The uncertainty of the feeling in the town was shown by the vote to postpone the question of building until an adjourned meet- ing in November and to appoint a new committee "to ascertain what the Town Farm can be sold for, also what farm can be bought and to get plans for a house and barns; etc." The com- mittee was Isaac Ross, E. D. Sanborn and E. T. Miller. On their report in November it was voted that "it is expedient to sell the Town Farm and purchase another with suitable buildings," and the same committee was given power to carry out the vote. But the matter hung fire and the vote to sell was reconsidered at the next March meeting (1850), and $1,500 was raised for a new
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