USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > A history of the town of New London, Merrimack county, New Hampshire, 1779-1899 > Part 17
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177
SCHOOL-DISTRICTS AND SCHOOLHOUSES.
ing, Jonathan Hunting, David Hobson, Dea. Zebedee Hayes, Lieut. Ebenezer Shepard, Ebenezer Shepard, Jr., Jesse Shepard, John Slack, John Stinson, Benjamin Straw, David Smith, Joseph Trussell, Lieut. Benjamin Woodbury, Jonathan Woodbury, Daniel Woodbury, Eliphalet Woodward, Greene French, James Gilmore. The second schoolhouse was built in 1824.
The schoolhouse " at Jesse Dow's corner near the meeting house " seems to have been the only accommodations open to the children in the northern district, which included in its limits what were later known as the north, Burpee hill, village, and Pleasant street districts. The tax-payers here were John Adams, John Adams, Jr., Lieut. Solomon Adams, Solomon Adams, Jr., Moses Adams, Lieut. Thomas Burpee, Asa Burpee,' Calvin Burpee, Jeremiah Burpee, Josiah Brown, Benjamin Bunker, James Brocklebank, John Brocklebank, Lieut. Joseph Colby, James Colby, Moody Clement, Dr. John Cushing, John Dole, Jesse Dow, Jonathan Everett, Lieut. Levi Everett, Levi Harvey, Esq., Levi Harvey, Jr., Joseph Harvey, Ezekiel Knowlton, Samuel Messer, Esq., James How Messer, Zaccheus Messer, Jacob Messer, Joseph Messer, Nathaniel S. Messer, Daniel March, Samuel Norris, Jeremiah Pingree, Caleb Segur, Peter Sargent, Ebenezer Sargent, Stephen Sargent, William Sargent, Ezekiel Sargent, John Sargent, Rev. Job Seamans, Capt. John Woodman, Abner Whittier, Joseph Wood.
In the western district the first schoolhouse stood a little to the east of the present site, on the opposite side of the road leading to Herrick's cove. There were in this neighborhood Benjamin Adams, Matthew Adams, Capt. Samuel Brocklebank, Capt. Thomas Currier, Edmund Davis, Josiah Davis, David Gile, Ensign Jonathan Herrick, Jedediah Jewett, Robert Knowlton, Ezekiel Knowlton, Jr., Capt. John Morgan, John Morgan, Jr., John Morgan, 3d, Henry Morgan, Samuel Messer, Jr., Lieut. Thomas Pike, Joseph Pike, Jonathan Shepard, Jonas Shepard, Anthony Sargent, Peter Sargent, Jr., Amasa Sargent.
The town voted £25, to be divided among these districts, for schooling purposes in 1801, and $83.33 in 1802. During the latter year the question of dividing the northern district was agitated, and in December, 1803, was brought to a successful conclusion, resulting in the centre or village district, the north-
13
178
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
west or Burpee hill, and the north. It was found necessary to rebuild the chimneys in the three old schoolhouses at this time, and this marks an innovation on primitive customs-the intro- duction of stoves in place of the mammoth fireplaces which, in spite of the disproportionate space occupied, allowed the pupils on the back row of benches to freeze while those in front were gradually " baked " in the fierce heat. It was voted " to give " the east district fourteen dollars and the bricks of the old " chimney in their schoolhouse, provided the said district pro- " cure at their own expense a stove which shall answer as " good a purpose as a common chimney." The stove was furnished by Joseph Colby for $14.
The proposed change in the boundaries called for new schoolhouses, and at the March meeting in 1803 the town, in addition to the $roo appropriated for schooling, had voted to raise $260 for the erection of the needed buildings,-one to be located at the foot of Burpee hill, " near Jeremiah Burpee's," the other " near Peter Sargent's," the Four Corners of to-day. Maj. Eliphalet Gay, Lieut. Benjamin Woodbury, Lieut. Thomas Burpee, Capt. Thomas Currier, and Josiah Brown were the committee " to lay out the money voted for building school- houses in such a manner as they shall think just." The Bur- pee hill schoolhouse, which was accepted at the meeting in December, 1803, was finally built " near Asa Burpee's," a little farther up the hill than the site first proposed. The only record of the building or acceptance of the schoolhouse at Four Corners is a receipt for $143.36, " towards building the school- house near Ebenr. Sargent's," under date of April 9, 1804. The lot was given by Ezekiel Sargent. The selectmen's accounts also mention a payment to Josiah Brown " towards building a schoolhouse in the north district," and a few years later there is a record of the school being kept in the house of John Morgan, 3d, with Lucy Pingree as teacher, John Dole and Joseph Messer being allowed school money "for schooling their own children." March 28, 1804, the settlers in the north- east district (John Clay, William Clay, Stephen Clay, Nicholas Holt, Jabez Morrill, John Russell, Robert Fowler, Samuel Fowler, Edward Buswell) were provided with schooling privi- leges, $70 being the sum voted to build a house 30x16 feet. Josiah Brown was chosen to view the completed structure, " to
179
SCHOOL-DISTRICTS AND SCHOOLHOUSES.
determine whether the seventy dollars is well laid out or not." Prior to this date Nicholas Holt was paid " for Mrs. Holt's services in keeping school." For the year 1805 the annual appropriation for schools was $125, and four years later the amount exceeded $200, which set the standard for quite a period.
In 1805 the legislature passed an act empowering school- districts to build and repair schoolhouses and regulate schools. In accordance with this act, the following year a committee, consisting of James Minot, Joseph Harvey, Daniel Woodbury, Stephen Currier, and Josiah Brown, was appointed to divide the town into districts, with a view to the final settlement of the much-vexed and oft-recurring question of bounds and locations. Reference to the map on p. 64 will make plain the work per- formed by this committee, as embodied in their report of Oct. 20, 1806, which was accepted by the town. The districts by lots were as follows :
No. I .- Nos. 123, 104, 98, 86, 63, 33, and all the lots lying southeasterly of them. No. 2 .- Nos. 124, 125, 105, 106, 126, the southwest half of 107, and all the land disannexed from Wendall [the first parcel]. No. 3 .- Nos. 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 113, III, IIO, 109, 108, the northeast half of 107, 95, 94, 93, 92, 91, 90, 89, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 59, 64, 84, 96, 97, and two thirds of 60 on the northwest part thereof. No. 4 .- Nos. 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 62, 61, 65, 21, 36, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 58, 55, 54, 53, with one third of 60 on the southeast part thereof, and all the land disan- nexed from Kearsarge Gore. No. 5 .- Nos. 133, 134, 135, 136, 117, 116, 115, 114, 88, 56, 57, 47, 48, 85, 75, 76, 72, 73, 74, 49, 41, 50, 51, 52, 37, 38, 39, 40, 17, 18, 19, 20. No. 6 .- Nos. 16, 15, 42, 43, 46, 118, 137, and all the lots lying north- easterly of them.
But " chance and change are busy ever," and the limits so laboriously set for the first four districts were subjected to numerous "improvements" within the ensuing twenty years, while districts 5 and 6, which lay in that part of New London set off to Wilmot, passed out of the town's jurisdiction in 1807. In 1815 a new district, known as No. 5, was constituted, and included lots Nos. 70, 55, 54, 35, 34, 22, 23, and all that part of 24 lying northeasterly of the outlet of Pleasant pond. This
180
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
later became the Scytheville district, but the first schoolhouse stood near the Wilmot line. When the second parcel of land was added from Wendall (in 1817) it was known for a time as No. 7 and then merged in No. 2. The north and Pleasant street districts were set off in 1821, and at that date there were at least eight schools. The first schoolhouse in the north district by this time had evidently fallen into disuse, for a second building was erected in 1820, and was located a short distance north of the present structure, near the site of the old brickyard.
Brickmaking in New London, like the fulling-mill and the hatter's shop, is an industry long since relegated to the past, yet it flourished to some extent for a good half-century. About 1800 Capt. Amasa Sargent helped John Dole build a kiln in the north corner of his farm on Morgan hill. The greater part of the product was sold in Springfield, but there are bricks in the chimney of the Henry W. Putney house marked " 82- 1800," "96-1800." It was Ebenezer Sargent's brickyard which was just west of the old school-house in the north dis- trict. The pit was very near the site of the present building, and the clay was drawn from there to the kiln. The bricks for the Stephen D. Messer house were burned here. The third brickyard was at the foot of Pleasant street, on the left hand side of the road beyond Little brook bridge, and was run by Stephen Sargent. The last bricks from this kiln were used in the chimneys of the Jacob Waite house, which was built by Abel Hobbs soon after 1850.
There is no mention of a school committee until 1809, when the selectmen for that year, Josiah Brown, Daniel Woodbury, and Nathan Herrick, were chosen to visit and inspect the schools. A committee of four was appointed the following year, and Elder Seamans and the board of selectmen officiated in 1811. In 1813 the town gave the schoolhouses to the several districts "for their use forever," and no more "committees" were chosen until 1819, when they were appointed regularly for several years. In 1818 and 1819 the selectmen were author- ized to make an enumeration of the children between the ages of three and twenty-one, as the basis for a proportionate division of school money. According to the returns for the latter year there were 330 children and youth, divided among
18I
SCHOOL-DISTRICTS AND SCHOOLHOUSES.
IOI families ; Ebenezer Shepard furnishing the largest quota, II. The tax-payers who had no representatives in the schools numbered 67.
The oldest book of school records that has been preserved is that of the Burpee hill district, or No. 2, which dates back to 1813. Peter Eaton was clerk of the first meeting held, which was warned by John Williams under authority from the select- men. Among the early town papers, however, was a little packet of time-worn receipts, some of which afford interesting details of the primitive customs of pioneer days. For compari- son with modern methods and demands a few of these docu- ments will bear transcription.
" New London March th 10 1800
" Received one Dollar in part for Lime used for
" plastering the School houses in sd town
"John Woodman"
"Esquire Harvey Sir, please to let Lieut Hutchins " have two bushels of the rye that Mr Dole was to leave at "your house for me towards what I have Due for my teach- " ing school and you will oblige your humble Servant Jonathan ·· Harvey
"New London April 10 1800"
" The Town of New London to Thomas Burpee Debr
" September 30th 1800
" To Boarding Miss Lois Sargent the School Mistress
" Six Weeks and To Bringing her from and carrying A $5.00
" home Sundry times from and to the School
" the whole amount is
" True Amt Errors Excepted Thomas Burpee
" New London March 2nd 1801"
"N-London Oct 14 1801
" Recd of the town of New London Thirteen Dollars and thirty
" three Cents, in full for teaching a school for said town Ten
" weeks in the year 1801.
" Rapsima Woodbury"
182
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
"Jesse Shepard Collector for 1801
" You are directed to pay Peter Sargent Jun. One dollar and
" fifty Cents It being for boarding school master two weeks
" and we will allow the same to you on settlement "Joseph Colby ) Selectmen " Josiah Brown S of N London"
" Recd of the selectmen of New London thirteen dollars and
" forty two cents in full for the school belonging to the
" North west school district in this town for the 1803
"New London March 14, 1804 Thomas Burpee"
No trace has yet been found of the tax-lists and selectmen's accounts before 1800, so with the exception of Mary (Messen- ger) Everett, and Jonathan Harvey, who taught the Hominy Pot school, there is no record of the teachers employed during early times. Beginning with 1800 the selectmen kept a book apart from the regular town record, and among other disburse- ments are those for schools. It will be seen by the following list that very few out-of-town teachers were employed, and the names of the native-born youths and maidens who aspired to pedagogic honors during the first quarter of the present century cannot fail to be of interest to their descendants.
Mindwell Shepard, Jonathan Woodbury, Daniel Woodbury, Olive Woodbury, Rapsima Woodbury, Lois Sargent, Joseph Trussell, Philip Harvey, Matthew Harvey, Job Seamans, Jr., Mary Seamans, Abigail French, Samuel Dow, Mehitable Hersey, Moody Currier, Susan Everett, Samuel Colburn, Betsey Gile, Nathan Herrick, Daniel Brocklebank, Jr., Mar- garet Harvey, Sarah Trussell, Roxana Woodbury, John H. Slack, Anthony Colby, James Seamans, Betsey Brown, Mary Everett, Nancy Greeley, Lucy Pingree, Asa Gage, Ruth Herrick, Sylvia Sargent, Comfort Everett, Judith Colby, Rebekah Sargent, James Greeley, Fanny Everett, David S. Gile, Emily Adams, Sarah Trussell, Sarah Messer, Han- nah Collins, Rhoda Everett, Daniel W. Shepard, Betsey Gay, Rapsima Gile, Anna Burpee, T. J. Kimball, H. Hun- toon, Sarah Everett, Betsey Herrick, Phebe Haskins, Mary Adams, Moses H. Harvey, William Whittier, John Bunker, John J. Sargent, Martha W. Keith, Louisa Woodbury, Mar- garet W. Sawyer, Lois Adams, Aaron Shepard, Samuel
183
SOLDIERS OF 1812.
Little, Hannah Sargent, Mary M. Woodbury, Samuel Straw, Daniel Adams, Judith Whittier, John Trussell, Jeremiah Adams.
There are but few items of general interest in the mass of routine business transacted during the first quarter of the cen- tury. Like other New Hampshire towns of that period, New London was required to keep up a quota of minute-men for public defence. As far back as Jan. 1, 1798, the town voted " to give one Dolar as bounty to each man for in Listing and " in case they are cald for to march to advance five Dolars to " Each man as part of his wages and to make up Each mans " pay with what Congress gives to ten Dolars per month while "he is in Serves." One of the men who enlisted under this provision was Ebenezer Sargent, as witness his receipt :
. January 2, 1801 Received one dollar of Levi Harvey Esqr in " full for my inlisting as A minute man for the town of New " London
" here to fore witness my hand-Eben Sargent "
When the War of 1812 became imminent, the town voted a bounty of two dollars, and in addition to make the pay of the enlisted men ten dollars per month if called into actual service. The outbreak of hostilities roused the martial spirit of the Revo- lution, and there were numbers of volunteers who quickly responded to their country's call. The official rolls are incom- plete, and lacking in detail, but a careful examination places a goodly quota of men to the town's credit. " Capt. Eliphalet Gay" of pioneer times had become a citizen of Wilmot, but it is interesting to note his promotion to major and his service as lieutenant-colonel commandant of the Thirtieth from 1810 to 1815 inclusive.
In February, 1813, Capt. Thomas Currier raised a company in New London and Sutton, serving himself as commander, with James Minot (then of Sutton) as first lieutenant; John Gage of New London was ensign, and Simeon Blood, Moody Brocklebank, Joseph Chase, Jr., Edward Chadwick, David Jewett, Daniel March, Hezekiah Mills, Aaron Rowell, and John M. Williams were enrolled as privates. Very few of the New Hampshire companies were in active service, but among those ordered to Portsmouth were two in which were several New London men. In Capt. Silas Call's company, which was com-
184
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
manded for a time by Lieut. Stephen Sargent of New London, were Samuel Messer, Zenas Herrick, and Nathan Smith. John Davis, David Marshall, Nathaniel Messer, and David Gile, with Sergt. Robert Knowlton, served under Capt. Jonathan Bean. The contest was terminated by General Jackson at New Orleans in 1815. The town at the March meeting voted to allow the detached men at the rate of twelve dollars per month for their service the preceding year, and once more settled down to an epoch of peaceful prosperity.
The corporate organization of the New London church as the First Baptist society was in 1801, anticipating by this step the Toleration act of 1819, which freed the towns from respon- sibility in the matters of building houses for public worship and providing support for the ministry,-conditions which had been deemed of prime importance in the early township grants. An increase in the town's population had naturally introduced new elements of religious belief, and the arrangement adopted in 1797, whereby each denomination might occupy the meet- ing-house in proportion to the amount of money they felt called to contribute for the pleasure of sitting under a minister of their own particular persuasion, was a simple yet generally satisfac- tory policy of accommodation. Once a special meeting to discuss the wisdom of this measure was appointed for a day in February. At the time fixed, the brethren gathered at the meeting-house ; but the wind evidently set from the wrong quarter, for they promptly adjourned-" to assemble at Mr. " Benja. Woodbury's immediately or as soon as we can get " there." The good cheer provided by mine host Woodbury must have soothed the troubled spirits, for there the matter appears to have rested. Part of the " parsonage lot," No. 81, had been sold, and with the rental of the remainder formed the " ministerial fund." A certain proportion of the interest from this fund was each year devoted to " the support of the minis- try,"-Baptists, Freewillers, and Universalists alike figuring as beneficiaries.
The Baptists as a denomination predominated in numbers, and in their capacity as a society continued Elder Seamans as regular supply up to 1828, though his advanced years and feeble health allowed him to preach only occasionally after 1824. In 1807 the Elder had suffered a light stroke of apo-
185
TERRITORIAL CHANGES.
plexy, and when he was again able to preach experienced great discomfort from the extreme cold of the fireless meeting-house. Perhaps the brethren were glad of a legitimate excuse for introducing a stove ; at any rate, one was procured and set up. The first Lord's day that it was in use, December 24, 1809, the Elder wrote in his diary,-" although it was an exceeding cold day I was quite comfortable : of the two, rather too warm." In strong contrast appears this entry, three days later : "A cold " snow-storm began as a little before sun down we retired to " the water side : the Ice being cut and the place prepared by " faithful brethren I buried 4 brethren and 3 sisters (all young " people ) with Christ in Baptism."
For two years the stove did its best to thaw the frigid atmo- sphere of the meeting-house, and then the town fathers decided it was safe to " continue " its use, and appropriated money to pay for what would now be deemed a most necessary piece of furniture. The question of its continuance was again brought up in 1819, and this time was emphatically decided in the affirmative. Precisely what movable articles of virtu or value were kept in the building in 1804 does not appear, but the question of suitable protection having been brought up at town meeting, it was voted " that the town procure a lock." Stephen Sargent procured the lock and made the necessary repairs on the door for sixty-seven cents. The lathing and plastering of the house had been finally accomplished some three years before the introduction of the stove, and in 1818 the sum of $300 was expended under the supervision of Joseph Colby, Esq., in repairing and finishing the outside of the structure. At last the meeting-house stood complete-pulpit and awe-inspiring sounding-board, square box-pews and the " singing-pue " wrought out with much tribulation, all snugly inclosed by four tight walls and a roof-just thirty years from the framing of the foundation timbers by 'Squire Samuel Messer, over whose grave in the quiet churchyard the grass had waved for nearly a decade.
Beginning in 1793 with the annexation of seven lots from the northwesterly part of Kearsarge Gore, the state legislature had in the ensuing quarter-century brought about a marked change in the boundaries of the township, and the final result was a territory whose irregular contour widely differed from the clear-
186
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
cut lines run by the surveyor of Alexandria Addition in 1773. In December, 1804, quite a slice was taken from Wendall and added to New London. As a result of this the red schoolhouse " near Asa Burpee's " was moved up the hill until it rested on the ledge that crops out along the patent line which was the original boundary between the towns.
About 1806 the settlers in the northeast district petitioned the legislature for the creation of a new township out of that part of New London which lay to the northeast of the second tier of lots above Lake Pleasant and the unappropriated part of Kear- sarge Gore. From the first these settlers had labored under the disadvantage of remoteness from the business centre of the town, coupled with financial disability to construct roads fit for the travel of man or beast. The opening of the Fourth New Hampshire turnpike (in 1806), which passed through the northeast district in its course from Concord to Hanover, not only afforded an avenue of communication with the outer world but also the opportunity to inaugurate an independent existence from the mother town. The charter of Wilmot was granted in 1807, and on the second Tuesday in March, 1808, the forty-six resident tax-payers in the two sections met at the house of James Philbrick and held their first town-meeting, over which Samuel Messer, Jr., who had removed from New London, presided as moderator. Maj. Eliphalet Gay, who was then " keeping tavern" with his son William in the new township, was elected to the first board of selectmen.
The second addition from Wendall, which was made in June, 1817, included the settlement near Otter pond. This was the last change, and the famous patent line which had originally marked the northwesterly limit of the township, gave place to a boundary that, beginning at a given point in Lake Sunapee and running north, 16° east, 108 rods to Otter pond, followed the same direction across the pond to Spring- field south line. The accompanying map is a copy from the original one, executed in accordance with an act of the legisla- ture, authorizing a state survey, now on file in the office of the secretary of state, and portrays the re-created township, the New London of 1897. Alexandria Addition at the time of its survey in 1773 contained 20,550 acres ; 700 acres were added from Kearsarge Gore, and 9,000 were given to Wilmot, leaving
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187
TOWN POOR.
12,250 to New London, besides the two parcels added from Wendall, the total number credited on the map, as determined by official survey, being 13,560. Up to July, 1823, the town belonged to the shrievalty of Hillsborough county, but was one of the twenty-six towns then taken from the counties of Hills- borough and Rockingham and incorporated as Merrimack.
The first mention of town poor is in a vote passed at the March meeting of 1802, whereby Lieut. Levi Everett was allowed $75 "for supporting Olive Titus, a poor person." This item in various forms makes its appearance in the records for several years, and Lieutenant Everett seems to have cared for her until her death, July 10, 1830, at the age of 64 years. In 1817 an action was brought against the town by the select- men of Wendall, for the support of Henry Achilles and his wife, who appear to have drifted thither after their disappear- ance from New London in 1814. The first board of over- seers of the poor was appointed at this time, and consisted of Jonathan Greeley, Capt. John Woodman, and James Hayes. In 1819 the question of caring for Moses Smith and his wife came before the tax-payers, and was settled as per the follow- ing documents :
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