USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Hanover > A history of the town of Hanover, N.H. > Part 27
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To resume the story of the newspapers, nearly seven years passed after the end of the Dartmouth Herald before the next attempt at journalism. At length on the 12th of March, 1828, there was commenced the Hanover Chronicle, a quarto of four pages, eighteen and one quarter by eleven and one half inches, "published weekly at Hanover, N. H. (north side of the plain), by Mann and Sweetser," which continued but a short time. After another interval of seven years there followed in October of 1835 the Independent Chronicle, which was also short-lived, stopping November 21. No copy of this paper is known, but a copy of the first number of the Hanover Chronicle is in the library of the New Hampshire Historical Society.
Contemporaneous with the latter was a magazine, The Magnet, of sixteen handsome octavo pages, "published once in two weeks for the 'Social Conclave' by T. Mann, Printer." The first number was issued October 21, and the fourth, December 2, 1835. Whether there were any later numbers we do not know.
A similar publication in October, 1837, under the name of The Scrap Book, "conducted by a literary Club of undergraduates in Dartmouth College," extended only to a single issue. It was a handsome pamphlet of twenty-four pages, with a cover, filled exclusively with original articles of a literary character.
In the course of two years more the journalistic spirit in the College, evidenced by the Magnet and the Scrap Book, gathered sufficient momentum to carry a third attempt to a triumphant success. It took shape, as before, in an octavo pamphlet, this time containing thirty-two pages, eight and a half by five inches, with a cover, and styled The Dartmouth. It was issued monthly and was maintained with regularity during term time through five volumes of ten numbers each, beginning in November, 1839 and · ending with July, 1843. It was conducted by editors chosen by the senior class, and was filled with literary matter of a high order. The magazine has never been surpassed and hardly equalled by any subsequent College publication.
At the same time with the Dartmouth there was published for a short time, also by Mr. Allen, the enterprising printer, another short-lived monthly magazine, "edited by an association of gentle- men" and entitled The Iris and New Hampshire Literary Record, which, beginning in March, 1841, obtained a good degree of
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patronage. Each number contained thirty-two pages, royal octavo, with double columns, and was distinguished by a stylish cover of colored paper. Three copies are in the College Library, April, 1841, in blue covers ; October, 1841, entitled The Iris and Record in pink covers ; and December, 1841 (Vol. II, No. IV), in yellow covers. A volume covered but half a year and the magazine stopped in its second volume.1
"This was a period of much literary activity, and Mr. Allen believing that a weekly newspaper properly conducted might be handsomely sustained, resolved to hazard and experiment with such materials as he happened to have in his book and job office," and Mr. Adams in writing of it says, "that it succeeded beyond our most sanguine expectations." The paper was edited by Mr. Adams, then a member of the freshman class. When the scheme was first broached to him he remarked that it was a "doubtful experiment." Allen caught at the word, and the paper, under the appropriate title of The Experiment, began Monday, May 4, 1840, upon a demy sheet of four columns to a page, and prospered so well that it was enlarged November 17, 1840, to a page of five larger columns, rechristened The Amulet and published on Tuesday. On the 22nd of July it passed "into the hands of two young gentlemen," one of whom was Adams, though it was still published by Allen, and was again changed in form to eight pages, of half the former size, devoted more exclusively to literature. and published on Friday. Mr. Adams retained his connection with it until late in the fall of 1841, but on passing into other hands it died of "neglect" in the course of the following winter.
Sometime in August, 1841, the committees of the Anti-slavery, or "Liberty," party in New Hampshire and Vermont established in Hanover a printing office in the second story of the building which stood on the site now occupied by the north part of the "Davison" block, and published an organ entitled the People's Advocate. A part of the edition, designed for circulation in Ver- mont, bore the name of the Vermont Freeman and the imprint of Norwich. The paper was published under the names of St. Clair and Briggs, and had a subscription list of about 1500. Alanson St. Clair was the general agent of the party and Briggs also was officially connected with it. For a year and a half there was asso- ciated with them a Mr. Colby, but he is otherwise unknown.
1 J. O. Adams, of the class of 1843, in a letter says that there were originally two magazines with these names respectively, which were united and con- trolled by a very eccentric man, S. H. N. Buonaparte Everette, who assumed the name of "Rag Emperor," and which ran more than a year.
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In June, 1843, the Advocate passed into the control of a mem- ber of the state committee, Joseph E. Hood of the class of 1841, who in July bought out the old printing office, and consolidating it with his own set up the "Dartmouth Press." He continued the publication of the paper until January, 1844. In the previous October the Liberty party in Vermont had withdrawn the Freeman and established it independently at Montpelier, leaving the Advocate on a very precarious footing on account of the reduc- tion in the subscription list, which was cut more than half and was still declining. A convention of the party, held in conse- quence at Concord, December 20, decided to remove the paper to that city, where, after a preliminary failure, it was established in June, 1844, under the name of the Granite Freeman. Pending these arrangements Mr. Hood continued the Advocate at Han- over at considerable personal sacrifice until January 23, 1844, and then from February 6 to June 5, 1844, furnished his sub- scribers with seventeen numbers of a smaller paper of eight pages in quarto form, entitled the Family Visitor, and designed, he tells us, as a temporary expedient to keep faith with his subscribers to the Advocate and to retain a means of communication within the party until the arrangements for the new paper at Concord could be perfected. The Visitor was an admirable family paper, ably and skillfully conducted. During its short existence it was a valiant champion of the temperance cause, dealing vigorously with the rumsellers and stirring up a temperance spirit in this section with a good deal of power.
Mr. Hood removed to Concord in June, 1844, and edited the Granite Freeman until July, 1847, and from that time until Feb- ruary 1, 1847, together with G. G. Fogg, the Independent Demo- crat and Freeman. For five years he was a superintendent of telegraph service in Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts, and was then assistant editor of the Springfield Republican from 1854 to 1868, when he removed to Denver, Colorado, where he died November 16, 1871.
The desire for a local paper, after the departure of Mr. Hood, was shown by several attempts in succession to establish one; but no attempt had long continuance. The first of these was the Parents' Monitor and Young Peoples' Friend, a small quarto of eight pages, designed for a family paper, owned by the Rev. James Thompson of Sanbornton, but edited and published by David Kimball at Hanover from 1845 to 1850 or later, volume X being in the latter year. The Valley Star, a Democratic paper,
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edited by Henry C. Simpson and John Weeks, passed through four numbers or more in September and October, 1850, and ceased. The Dartmouth Advertiser was published monthly from March, 1853, to April, 1854, primarily as an advertising medium, by Israel O. Dewey, an enterprising merchant of the place. Eleven regular numbers were issued, being edited and published by E. H. Kimball of the class of 1852 until November, and after that by David Kimball. It was preceded by Morton's Advertiser and Mercantile Gazette, published occasionally beginning with June, 1847, by Levi P. Morton, then in business here.
There have been numerous publications of an even more ephemeral nature, but besides those already mentioned there was none of a permanent character until the establishment of the Hanover Gazette May 23, 1885, published by P. H. Whitcomb under the editorial direction of Dorrance B. Currier. This was a weekly paper modeled upon the old Dartmouth Gazette, but with the improvements to be expected from the times. Mr. Currier's editorship ceased with the edition of September 10, 1892, and for more than a year Mr. Whitcomb was both editor and publisher until, on November 18, 1893, he sold the paper to Linwood C. Gillis of Manchester, who continued it until June 30, 1899, when it was bought by Frank A. Musgrove, of Bristol, New Hamp- shire, a graduate of the College in that year, who since that time has conducted it with great success. In May, 1903, it was enlarged from a four to an eight page paper.
From 1844 to 1851 College journalism suffered an eclipse. The first indication of its revival was the appearance in April, 1851, of a modest sheet of four pages, nine inches by twelve, contain- ing a College directory and entitled the Dartmouth Index. There appeared in October a second number of eight pages octavo, and one or two each succeeding year to October, 1854. In July, 1855, this was supplanted by the Dartmouth Phoenix, a folio of the ordinary size, which was issued three times a year for three years, the last number being that for July, 1858. It contained a complete directory of College officers, students and societies, together with a few columns of editorials. It was originated by Henry M. Kimball of the class of 1855, under the pseudonym of "Themistogenes," and continued by his brother, F. D. Kimball, of the class of 1858, who appeared as "Diogenes," both of them being sons of the printer.
The Phoenix coming to an end in July, 1858, the junior class, that was to graduate in 1860, undertook to carry it forward under
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the name of the Aegis, on the same plan that was then prevalent at other colleges, through editors chosen from the class for each term. The price of the paper was five cents a copy, and appearing as it did within a week or two after the opening of each term, with the information which everybody wanted, it found a ready sale in good numbers, so that it not only paid expenses but accumulated something of a fund. It was continued in this form by the successive classes until 1867. In April of that year it was altered into an octavo pamphlet and since that time has been greatly modified and enlarged, and by custom elaborately made up at heavy expense, which the proceeds do not cover, and issued but once and then late in the year. Its restricted range of interest and the high price at which it is sold, several dollars a copy, prevent any large distribution of it, and its chief value is its record of the fraternities and of the various College organizations of other kinds and of the athletic and social interests of the College.
In January, 1867, The Dartmouth, modeled after its predeces- sor of twenty-five years before, was revived as a monthly literary magazine of thirty-two or forty octavo pages, of ten numbers a year, under the conduct of editors selected by the senior class. In 1875 it was changed in form to a quarto of sixteen pages, and for a time issued weekly during term time. In September, 1879, it was made a bi-weekly and so continued for twenty years, when in September, 1895, it again became a weekly though retaining its former size. In 1907 it became a semi-weekly, and in 1910 it was issued three times a week and its form changed to a quarto of eleven and a half by eighteen inches. In September, 1910, it was still further expanded to a daily. It has lost its literary character, being devoted wholly to current College matters and to advertise- ments.
The literary field abandoned by The Dartmouth was occupied in September of 1886 by the Dartmouth Literary Monthly, "edited by students of the Senior and Junior classes,"1 a magazine of forty-eight or more pages, nine by six and a half inches. This continued fourteen years without change, when, in November, 1900, it became the Dartmouth Magazine with a slightly different shape but still issued monthly during the College year. For the next few years it underwent minor changes in shape and size, but with diminishing support, until it succumbed to inanition in Feb-
1 The first board of editors consisted of Wilder D. Quint, J. C. Stimpson, D. L. Lawrence, A. J. Thomas, W. F. Gregory and H. J. Stevens, with S. E. Junkins as business manager.
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ruary, 1908. It was revived, however, in the following November in a much reduced form, enlarged again in 1909, but after a pre- carious existence it finally came to an end with the June number of 1912. Its unquiet ghost reappeared in January of 1913 as The Bema, a monthly magazine of forty-eight pages of the size of the earlier Literary Monthly. The Bema ended with the issue of June, 1925. Meantime the Dartmouth Literary Magazine was revived for one year from May, 1922, in the attempt to establish a real literary magazine, and The Tower was established in Octo- ber, 1924. The Dartmouth Pictorial, issued three times a year, was begun in the fall of 1925. A comparison of the early Dart- mouth and the later magazines shows the change that has come over the literary taste and standards of the College. The philo- sophical, literary or critical essay, which with occasional poems of considerable length formed the staple of the early magazine, has given way to the lighter story, the character sketch, and the fugitive poem, which in various forms has maintained an uneasy seat upon the college Pegasus.
A more important departure in the journalism of the College was the establishment by the Trustees in October, 1905, of the Dartmouth Bi-Monthly, a small quarto of about fifty pages, ten inches by seven, which began under the editorial management of Ernest Martin Hopkins, then Secretary of the College, with whom were associated after 1905 some members of the faculty, and these, after the retirement of Mr. Hopkins from the College in 1910, became its editors. The magazine, at first a bi-monthly, was rechristened in the fall of 1908 the Alumni Magazine and was issued monthly, nine numbers in a year. As the later name implies, it was intended as a means of giving directly to the alumni of the College information about College affairs. Although it is a subscription periodical the Trustees, in order to assure the accomplishment of this purpose, have supported it to some extent.
From time to time there have been ephemeral publications issued by those connected with the College. Thus La Scientifique, a paper of small quarto size, was issued in October, 1863, by J. E. Johnson, a member of the Chandler Department in the class of 1865 and later a graduate of the College in 1866, but no more than one number appeared. The Anvil, a sparkling weekly of ten quarto pages was the personal venture of Fred A. Thayer of the class of 1873, begun in January of that year and continued successfully under his management until his graduation in the following June, but on passing into other hands it came to an end with the number
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of December 4 of that year. The Agora, a small eight page publication, nine by seven and a half inches, printed on yellowish, dyspeptic-looking paper, ran from January 14 to February 25, 1911. Its announced purpose was to offer an open forum for the discussion of College matters, but it soon assumed the hue of the paper on which it was printed and degenerated into a sheet of captious criticism, whose early demise was gladly welcomed. The Third Rail was a small paper first issued in the summer of 1915, under the superintendence of the English Department of the College, as a means of arousing enthusiasm in writing, through the publication of selected specimens of the work of the students. It had no fixed time of appearing, but was expected to have several issues during the year. This ended with the issue for June 1, 1925.
In March of 1909 the College entered the field of comic journal- ism in the appearance of the Jack O'Lantern. This was a monthly publication, ten inches by seven, changed in 1912 to eleven by nine, and it promised to present a change of cover with each issue, and among its illustrations to have a large one of two pages. It announced that "brief poems and short humorous stories would be in order" and that "the joke columns would be in the hands of able men," a promise that time has shown to be easier to make than to keep. Communications were to be addressed to William T. Atwood and business matters to J. Howard Randerson, but in the next October the names of the editors were given and there was added the sub-title of The Dartmouth Comic Monthly.
CHAPTER XX
SOCIETIES
Freemasonry in Hanover 1
THE early years and perhaps centuries of Masonry are shrouded in mystery. It cannot, then, be expected that the early days of the order in any one community will be entirely clear. Hanover not only had one of the earliest Lodges in the State, but was the location of the first chapter, the second Council, and the first Commandery organized within the boundaries of New Hampshire.
Any study of the early days, however, requires some reference to the general form of Masonic organization and history. Free- masonry today operates under the Grand Lodge system and has been so organized since the revival in England in 1717. Each Grand Lodge is supreme unto itself, subject only to the ancient landmarks. Today there are practically no territorial conflicts. In the eighteenth century, however, this was not true.
Freemasonry was brought to the American Colonies as a part of English civilization. The first Lodge in the then Province of New Hampshire was established at Portsmouth in 1736 under authority leading back to the Grand Lodge of England. This was the only Lodge in New Hampshire established through this chain of authority. Another chain of authority emanating from the Grand Lodge of Scotland led to the chartering of five Lodges in New Hampshire and Vermont of which the last was "Dart- mouth Lodge" in Hanover.2 The two branches united in 1792, but in the meantime a Grand Lodge had been formed in New Hampshire in 1789.
The first Lodge known to have jurisdiction in Hanover was a Lodge established as a result of a petition for a charter dated at "Cornish, Vermont" November 8, 1781. The charter granted was for "Vermont Lodge" to be located at Springfield, Vermont,
1 The editor is indebted to Mr. Halsey C. Edgerton for this section, which he has rewritten incorporating the material gathered by Mr. Chase and Mr. Lord, with much new material.
2 The list includes St. Patrick's at Portsmouth, 1780; Vermont at Charles- town and later Springfield, 1781; Rising Star at Keene, 1784; Faithful at Charlestown, 1788; and Dartmouth at Hanover, 1788.
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but actually organized at Charlestown, New Hampshire. Among the charter members of this Lodge were the following men from Hanover : Col. John House, officer in the Revolution; Lieut. John Payne, Jr., innkeeper ; and Dr. George Eager. The first meeting was held at the inn of Abel Walker in Charlestown, November 29, 1781. Dr. Eager was one of those present and at the first election of officers John House was chosen Junior Deacon.
It is known that at Vermont Lodge the following men from Hanover received degrees : Eleazer Wheelock (son of the founder of Dartmouth College), July 4, 1782; James Wheelock, October 2, 1782; Abel Holden, December 6, 1786; and Lemuel Hedge, January 3, 1787. In 1788 the Lodge was moved to the location originally specified, Springfield, Vermont, and Faithful Lodge was chartered, February 2, 1788, to take its place at Charlestown.
In the same year "Dartmouth Lodge" was chartered by the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, i.e., the Grand Lodge which had derived its authority originally from the Grand Lodge of Scotland but had organized in 1777 as the first independent Grand Lodge on this Continent. The charter was granted at a special occasion at the Bunch of Grapes, December 18, 1788, when the record says : 1
"Bro. Lowell in behalf of Davenport Phelps presented a Petition Signed Beza (Bezaleel) Woodward and others, praying for a Charter of Dispen- sation, for a Lodge to be Established at Hanover, in the state of N : Hamp- shire under the Title and Designation of Dartmouth Lodge.
"On motion of Bror (Paul) Revere-Voted, that a Committee of Five be appointed Brors. Revere, Scollay, Cabot, Dexter and Hunt were chosen to Examine into the Business. The Committee having proceeded on the Sub- ject, reported the Propriety of a Charter being Granted. Agreeably to the Prayer of the Petition-provided the Fees and Charges are paid down. A Charter was accordingly granted."
The fees, amounting to £4.4.0, were paid and the Charter accord- ingly issued on the same date. An assessment of £3 was made upon the Lodge in 1790 by the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, but there is no record of its payment.
Little can be found regarding "Dartmouth Lodge." In a Historical Address presented at the Centennial Anniversary of Franklin Lodge in 1896 Albert S. Batchellor of Littleton, a thor- ough and careful Masonic scholar, reports as follows :
"It is not supposed that the records of Dartmouth Lodge are in existence, and our information concerning its work and membership is very meager. It naturally drew its patronage from the populous towns of the vicinity.
1 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, 1733-92, p. 353.
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Its rolls would doubtless show a preponderance of members from Hanover and Lebanon, and would add much interesting material to the Masonic per- sonals of this region."
It has been suggested that the loss of its regalia and funds were due to the lack of a Grand Lodge to receive them. The Massachusetts Grand Lodge asserted no authority in New Hamp- shire after the establishment of the Grand Lodge of New Hamp- shire, and Dartmouth Lodge failed to acknowledge the jurisdic- tion of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire, formed in 1789 at Portsmouth under what appears to have been the leadership of St. John's Lodge located at Portsmouth. Batchellor says :
"Why Dartmouth Lodge did not recognize the authority of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire cannot be definitely stated. As a possible explan- ation it might be surmised that some of the old antipathies of the Vermont controversy still lingered in the minds of the men of influence in Hanover and Lebanon, and the establishment of a superior Masonic authority in the eastern part of the state might have stirred some of the smouldering embers of the recent conflict between the valley towns and the Portsmouth party. There is indication of a definite sentiment on the subject of a transfer of the Masonic capital from Portsmouth to Concord, or some other central point, at a much later period, in a communication from Franklin Lodge, now in the files of the Grand Secretary, dated Sep. 24, 1807. It is quite evident that some potent cause operated to the disadvantage of the Lodge and served to bring its career to a premature conclusion."
Some further indication of this difference of thought between the men from the opposite sides of the State may be drawn from the Valedictory Address of Grand Master Thompson of Ports- mouth sent to the Grand Lodge April 27, 1808, attacking the establishment of Royal Arch Chapters and other, now common, Masonic bodies.1 The first Royal Arch Chapter in the State had been organized at Hanover in the preceding year.
At a meeting of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire held in Portsmouth, April 27, 1796, "a petition being presented by a num- ber of brethren in the town of Hanover praying a charter may be granted them for erecting them into a Lodge by the name of FRANKLIN LODGE, which appearing for the good of Masonry Voted That the prayer of the petition be granted, and they have a charter accordingly."
The original Charter is still in the possession of Franklin Lodge and reads as follows :
1 See Proceedings of New Hampshire Grand Lodge, Reprint of 1860, Vol. I, p. 140-2.
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"FRANKLIN LODGE
"To all the Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, to whom these presents shall come:
"The Most Worshipful HALL JACKSON, Esq., Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons, duly authorized and appointed, and in ample form installed, together with his Grand Wardens, SEND GREETING.
"Whereas, a petition has been presented to us by James Wheelock, David Curtis, Abel Holden, Lemuel Hedge, Joseph Julien Legonidic, Simon B. Bissel, Eleazer Wheelock, Mel- choir Strohn, Abraham Hedge, Josiah Dunham, and Manoah Hubbard, Jr., all ancient Free and Accepted Masons, resi- dents in the county of Grafton, and State of New-Hampshire, in New-England, praying that they, with such others as may think proper to join them, may be erected and constituted as a regular Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, under the name, title and designation of Franklin Lodge, No. 6, with full power to enter Apprentices, pass Fellow Crafts, and raise Master Masons, which petition appearing to us as reasonable, and tending to the advancement of ancient Masonry and the general good of the Craft, we have unani- mously agreed that the prayer of the petition should be granted.
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