USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Sullivan > A history of the town of Sullivan, New Hampshire, 1777-1917, Volume I > Part 33
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It will be observed that the inscriptions upon the monument are so arranged that the two who were killed in battle occupy, as they should, the place of honor, on the front, or east side, of
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the monument, together with one who went from the west side of the town. Three who went from the easterly side of the town are also grouped together on the south side. The three Spauld- ings are on the north side, and a native of the town, who went to the war from Illinois, is commemorated on the west side. Per- haps this grouping, except in the case of the Spauldings, was simply accidental, but it is quite fitting. The following are the inscriptions :
[On the front of the shaft.] In memory of our noble sons who have fallen martyrs for Liberty and Union.
[East.] HENRY McDONALD-killed in the Second Bull Run battle,- Aug. 28, 1862, - Ae. 36 yrs. Member of 6th Reg. N. H. Vols.
CHARLES C. WILSON,-killed in battle, near Winchester, Va.,-Sept. 19, 1864,-Ae. 21 yrs. Member of 14th Reg. N. H. Vols.
EDWIN T. NIMS died at Poolesville, Md., Dec. 18, 1862, Ae. 20 yrs. Mem- ber of 14th Reg. N. H. Vols.
[North.] DAUPHIN SPAULDING 2d died at Washington, D. C., Feb. 7, 1864, Ae. 37 yrs. Member of 14th Reg. N. H. Vols.
HENRY D. SPAULDING died at Natchez, Miss., July 11, 1864, Ae. 25 yrs. Member of 14th Reg. N. H. Vols.
ORLAND K. SPAULDING died at New York, Mar. 12, 1865, Ae. 31 yrs. Member of an Illinois Reg. [It was the IIIth Iowa Reg.]
[South.] SILAS L. BLACK died at Budd's Ferry, Md., Dec. 20, 1861, Ae, 22 yrs. Member of 2d Reg. N. H. Vols.
ANDREW J. RUGG died at Philadelphia, July 25, 1862, Ae. 20 yrs. Mem- ber of 2d Reg. N. H. Vols.
RUSSEL T. HOLT died at Washington, D. C., June 21, 1863, Ae. 24 yrs. Member of 14th Reg. N. H. Vols.
[West.] GARDNER H. RUGG died at Carbondale, Ill., Apr. 21, 1866, Aged 32 years. Member of the 38th Reg. Ill. Vols.
VI. ADDITIONAL CEMETERY FACTS.
MEETINGHOUSE CEMETERY.
II. 14. LOT OF THEODORE S. RICHARDSON.
Since the foregoing pages went to press, we have discovered that lot II. 14, in the Meetinghouse Cemetery, was engaged by Theodore S. Richardson, who afterwards moved to Keene, where another lot was engaged for his family. In this lot, however is one
Unmarked grave: WARREN RICHARDSON, born at Woburn, Mass., Jan. 31, 1800 ; died, at the house of his son, Theodore S. Richardson, in Sullivan, Feb. 2, 1885.
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EAST SULLIVAN CEMETERY.
III. 18. LOT OF MARCUS DAVIS.
Unmarked grave, just as we go to press : Mrs. LYDIA LANE WILSON, widow of MARCUS DAVIS, born in Stoddard, Aug. 10, 1814; died at East Sullivan, Apr. 15, 1905, in her gIst year.
The statement on page 344, that Mrs. Dunn's body was the last to be buried, as we close this cemetery record, is not changed in reality by the preceding fact of the burial of the body of Mrs. Davis, because the body of Mrs. Dunn, being at first entombed, was not buried until after that of Mrs. Davis.
VII. FARM BURIALS.
Besides the burials of several children's bodies on farms, the places of which burials are too generally neglected and forgotten, two family burial grounds were started upon farms. The first was the burial lot of Enoch Woods, upon the lawn north of his house, where his body was buried at first, and where it lay for nearly 69 years. The headstone was once conspicuous upon the lawn as one passed. For the inscription and account of the re- moval of the remains, see the bottom of page 317 of this volume.
Another burial lot was established upon the farm of Joseph Felt, where Mr. Burpee lives. One grave was made in it. The headstone bore the following inscription :
LESTINA R., Daut. of Dea. Joseph & Lefy W. FELT, died June 3, 1850, Ae. 23 yrs. 7 mos., & 27 dys.
This body was removed to the old cemetery at Nelson. Mrs. Lucius Nims was first buried upon her husband's farm. See the account of the East Sullivan Cemetery, on page 341. Miss Lucy A. Goodnow's body was first buried near that of Mrs. Nims, but both were removed, as stated on page 341. These were the only farm burials of adults. Burials should invariably be in cemeteries, where the graves can receive proper care.
VIII. SEXTONS FOR THE CEMETERIES.
Previous to 1797, burial arrangements were privately made. and often with no expense to the bereaved family. Beginning with 1797, the town hired burial sextons to dig and close graves, carry the bier and "burial cloth", so called, to the house of the deceased, on the occasion of the funeral, and escort the remains to the grave. After 1827, the town had a hearse which the sex-
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ton was expected to drive at funerals. The following is a list of the burial sextons, elected at the annual town meetings in March :
1797, Lt. Elijah Carter. 1798, Josiah G. White. 1799, Capt. Abel Allen. I Soo, Josiah G. White. 1801 to 1807, Timothy Dimick. 1803, Elijah Carter. 1809 to 1812, Abel Allen. 1813 to 1818, Michael Saunders. 1819 to 1827, Samuel Locke. 1828, William Brown. 1829, Samuel Locke. After this, the burial sextons were appointed by the selectmen, until 1897, their terms of service be'ng supposed to extend from the annual town meeting of one year to the annual town meeting of the next year. The appointments were as follows : 1830 to 1833, Samuel Locke. 1834 to 1838, George Hubbard. 1839 and 1840, Samuel Locke. 1841 and 1842, George Hubbard. 1843 to 1845, Hersey Wardwell (Hosea Foster drove the hearse for him in 1843, and occasionally afterwards). 1846, Leander Felt. 1847, George Washington Nims. 1848, Hersey Wardwell. 1849, Samuel Locke. 1850 to 1854, Hersey Wardwell. 1855, Alonzo Farrar. 1856 and 1857, Hersey Wardwell. 1858 to 1867, Alonzo Farrar. 1868 to 1870, Dea. Asa E. Wilson. 1871 to 1900, both years inclusive, thirty in all, Joseph N. Nims, who served in that capacity more than as long again as any other person has done. Election of sextons by the town began in 1897 again and has continued since. The later sextons have been : 1901, Marshall J. Barrett. 1902, Chas. F. Jewett, who did not serve, and M. J. Barrett was appointed by the selectmen on Apr. 4. Asahel N. Holt was elected in 1903 and continuously since.
IX. COFFIN MAKERS.
Previous to 1831, coffins were made by private individuals, citizens of the town, as they were asked, the price of a coffin ranging from a dollar to a dollar and a half, for adults, and much less for children. The men most frequently employed were Daniel Wilson, Thomas Spaulding, Ephraim Applin, and John Wilson. Beginning with 1831, the selectmen, by authority of the town, made special contracts with some person, for each year, to make coffins at stipulated prices, and in a stipulated manner. These coffin makers were the following :
1831, Thomas Spaulding. 1832 and 1833, Ashley Spaulding. Prices, to this time, $1.50 each. 1834, Thomas Spaulding, at $1.33 each. 1835 and 1836, Ashley Spaulding. 1837, Thomas Spaulding. 1838 and 1839, Ashley Spauld- ing. 1840 to 1848, Hosea Foster. 1849 to 1851, Alexander B. Brown, at $2.25 each, for adults. 1852 and 1853, Enoch W. Winchester of Keene, $1.34 to $2.67, according to size. 1854, Wm. S. Briggs of Keene, at $1.75 to $3.25, according to size, coffins to be painted, with two coats of varnish, and plated screws, etc. 1855 to 1859, S. D. Osborne of Keene, same specifications as just given, prices $2.00 to $3.25, according to sizes. From about 1860 to 1874, M. T. Tottingham of Keene.
From 1875 to 1900, both years inclusive, the town appropri- ated $5.00 towards each coffin, and the purchasers could get
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them where they chose. In 1901, and since then, the town has made no appropriation for coffins. The caskets now used are quite expensive and much better in many respects (though per- haps no stronger ) than the old time coffins. They certainly look much better and are far less depressing in their effect upon mourning friends, although it is said that they are really not as durable as some of the old-fashioned coffins.
x. SUPERINTENDENTS OF CEMETERIES.
This office was established in 1884. It was none too early. It is very essential that the burying places should be kept in proper condition. The following men have filled the place : 1884 to 1900, Joseph N. Nims. 1901 and 1902, Marshall J. Barrett. 1903 and since, Asahel N. Holt.
XI. CEMETERY TRUST FUNDS AND THEIR CUSTODIANS.
Three cemetery trust funds have been provided. The first was accepted by the town on Mar. 8, 1892 (see page 156 of this book), from Charles Franklin Wilson of Keene, formerly of Sul- livan, the income to be used in keeping in repair the lot of Mr. Wilson in the Meetinghouse Cemetery. The principal of the fund is one hundred dollars. The second, also of one hundred dollars, was accepted by the town, on the same date as the preceding (see page [ 56), as a legacy left by the will of Mrs. Emily (White) (Dunn) Fassett, " to keep in repair and beautify the old cem- etery" at the Four Corners, where her "near relatives were buried." The third was a fund of one hundred dollars, placed by Charles Mason, Esq., of Marlborough, in the keeping of the East Sullivan Cemetery Association, on Nov, 23, 1903, they having voted, on Nov. 14, of the same year, that they would receive it. See pages 343-344 of this volume. The first two of these trust funds are in the care of the superintendent of cemeteries, who acts as keeper of them. Each of the superintendents has had charge of them.
CHAPTER VII. CASUALTIES.
I. DEATHS UNDER UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES.
It is proposed in the following paragraphs to give a very brief account of deaths from murder, suicide, burning, lightning, drowning, accidental shooting, serious injuries, and virulent dis- tempers, together with those which were very sudden, or were connected with some interesting circumstance. Soldiers who died while employed in the military service of the United States will be noted here, as well as all whose names are on the Soldiers' Monument, but the mention here will be brief, because they will be more particularly noticed in the chapter on MILITARY HISTORY. For genealogical details of those named in the following para- graphs see GENEALOGIES.
Oct. 7, 1773, William Comstock died, being the first person who died on what is now Sullivan soil, and the first whose body was buried in the old Four Corners Cemetery.
June 17, 1775, Asahel Nims was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill. He had begun to clear and settle the farm where Charles A. Brooks lives.
Jan. 8, 1779, young Josiah Comstock, son of the aforenamed William, died in the army, a soldier of the Revolution.
Mar. 22, 1783, John Locke, 8th child of James Locke, then about to move to Sullivan, died of yellow fever, on the frigate Hague, near Dominica, W. I., where he had gone partly for his health, partly to serve his country during the Revo- lution.
June 5, 1792, Luther Locke, the 12th child of James Locke of Sullivan, was drowned in Thetford, Vt. He was subject to fits of epilepsy. He was drowned in a river in which he was fishing. He was a young unmarried man.
In 1795, a serious epidemic prevailed in town, called canker rash upon the town records, probably scarlet fever with the rash. Six children died of it in less than three months : on Mar. 7, a child of John Dimick; on Mar. 20, a child of Luther Wilder; on Mar. 25, a child of Roswell Hubbard; on May 7, a child of Jonathan Heaton ; on Mar. 29, a child of Fortunatus Eager ; and on June 3 a child of Jonathan Kendall. The death of another child of John Dimick on Aug. 30 was probably from the same cause.
In 1802, small-pox became epidemic in Cheshire County and very fatal. There were 30 sick of it in Surry and many in Keene. In the latter town, 70
37
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were inoculated with "kine pox." Inoculation was then a new thing and was quite generally feared and by many bitterly opposed. Sullivan escaped the malady, but refused decisively, at a town meeting, several years before, on Dec. 21, 1791, and again on Feb. 21, 1793, to allow Doctors McCarty and Prescott of Keene to try the new method of inoculation.
Oct. 10, 1805, James Rowe, while intoxicated, fell into his fireplace and was burned to death. It occurred in the evening. He then lived, not on what is now the town farm, but a short distance west of Winfred J. White's residence.
In 1813 and 1814, spotted fever became a most alarming epidemic in this vicinity. On Apr. 12, 1813, Elias P., son of Rev. Chas. Cummings, died of it, at Roxbury. On Dec. 1, 1814, Electa, and two days later Samuel C., children of Roswell Hubbard, Esq., died from the same cause. Each was sick about 16 hours. Dec. 3, 1814, Laura and Sarah, daughters of Rev. William Muzzy, were seized with this disease in the morning and both died before 9 P. M. On Dec. 5, of the same year, Elvira, eldest child of Oliver Brown, died of the same distemper. This terrible epidemic prevailed in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, from 1807 to 1815. It first appeared in Medfield, Mass., in March 1806. It spread rapidly, raging with greatest violence from Jan. until April, usually disappearing through the summer. The patient was covered with a red rash and purple spots. It was most prevalent in the spring and in the country, rather avoiding the cities. It most generally attacked healthy adults, although in Sullivan the cases were confined wholly to children. It was very fatal and physicians differed, even an- grily, about the mode of treatment. It last appeared in Berwick, Me., in 1815. The best medical experts declared it to be a malignant typhus, being variously designated as typhus petechialis, typhus syncopalis, or typhus gravior. It is now believed to be the same as cerebro spinal meningitis, which is getting to be com- paratively common again, and has prevailed extensively in New England the past winter (of 1904-5).
Feb. 12, 1814, Sarah, wife of Samuel Winchester, died very suddenly. On the day before, she was seized with a terrible pain in her head. It increased with great violence until she expired, on Saturday evening, Feb. 12. According to the very minute account of the affair in the Keene Sentinel, the date of Feb. II, on her headstone, should be Feb. 12.
Sept. 11, 1814, James Wilson, a former Sullivan man, who built the house recently standing on the town farm, was killed at the battle of Plattsburg. He was a brother of the father of D. W. and C. F. Wilson.
Nov. 10, 1814, Walter Leland died at Portsmouth of small-pox. He was a soldier in the second war with Great Britain, known as the " War of 1812."
Oct. 20, 1817, Capt. Charles Carter of Keene, formerly of Sullivan, died from the effects of a melancholy accident. On Wednesday, May 21, 1817, at Keene, in or near a hotel, a pistol was discharged accidentally by James Sumner, who claimed that he did not know that it was loaded. The ball passed through the body of Carter who was standing near. The wound was known to be serious, but hopes of his recovery were entertained. Ile lingered just five months, when death ended his sufferings.
Mar. 27, 1818, Ebenezer, the young son of John Mason, who lived where Hon. D. W. Rugg resides, died from the effects of having a tree fall upon him
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in the woods. He had felled the tree to prepare wood for boiling sap. His death was about 48 hours after the accident. His little brother was with him when the accident occurred and Ebenezer had told him to hold the dog. The brother tan for help as soon as possible. The neighbors eventually extricated Ebenezer from his position under the tree. Dr. Twitchell was summoned from Keene, and several pieces of bone were taken from the patient's head, but he expired the second day after the accident.
Aug. 12, 1818, occurred the death of Esther, wife of Col. Solomon White, ae. 66, of a cancer. The circumstances of her illness were simply horrible. The Sentinel of Aug. 22, 1818, thus describes it: "The cancer commenced on her upper lip, about 17 years previous to her death. Ulceration began 7 years after that. In its progress, it destroyed the whole of the face, skin, muscles, and bones, excepting about half the lower jaw. For six months previous to her death, she had been a moving spectacle of horror, her bodily health being perfectly good, but totally blind, deaf, and speechless. She prepared her own food after it was cooked and, with a spoon, but latterly with her fingers, put it into the æsophagus, or passage to the stomach. After destroying the eyes and eyebrows, it made its way into the brain and she died without pain or even a struggle, with a full re- liance on the promises of the Gospel, and perfectly resigned to the will of her Heavenly Father."
Feb. 21, 1822, Benjamin Eaton died, ae. 60. At the funeral, on Saturday, Feb. 23, according to the Keene Sentinel, "just as the services were concluded, and the people began to move, one of the rooms being crowded, the floor gave way and the spectators were precipitated into the cellar. Fortunately one person only had his ribs broken, and another considerably bruised, but no limbs were broken." There was a tradition that the corpse went into the cellar. This is probably not so, or the Sentinel would have noted it. The negative is sustained by another tradition which is authentic, as the writer heard it from the lips of his grandmother who was present. As the floor crashed, the widow loudly scream- ed, "Save my soap." As the corpse was probably in the "spare" room and the "soap" in the kitchen, it was most likely the kitchen floor that collapsed.
Oct. 2, 1822, Mrs. Lucy Brown, widow of Eleazar, died very suddenly, ae. 76. It was towards night. Her grandchildren had gone for the cows. A thunder- storm was approaching and the thunder and lightning were startling. Anxious for the children, she went to the door to look for them. Approaching it, she fell out upon the steps, dying almost instantly, probably of a heart affection.
Dec. 7, 1822, Mrs. Betsey Nims, wife of Dea. Zadok, died. As a proof of her worth, 71 relatives attended the funeral.
Feb. 23, 1823, Nathan Bolster died very suddenly at Keene, on the street, probably of a heart affection. The date of his death upon the headstone is wrong. The facts are fully noted in the Sentinel.
Dec. 8, 1826, Samuel Osgood died. At his funeral, on the tenth of the month, his body was taken to the grave on a wagon, the first in town on such an occasion, not carried by hand on a bier, except two or three which in midwinter, had been carried upon sleds. This led to the building of a hearse (see pages 289-290).
Apr. 4, 1827, Sparhawk Kendall died, ae. 35. At his funeral, an old custom
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was observed for the last time and a new custom for the first time. It was the last time that liquors were served to funeral guests, and it was the first time that the body of any deceased person had been taken to its grave upon the hearse, which was hurriedly finished to be used on this occasion. See pages 290-293.
Jan. 31, 1828, Josiah Parker of Nelson, who was supposed to be in perfect health, fell dead, while driving his team through town, and when near the resi- dence of Dr. Messer Cannon, where George Hubbard lived later, also George C. Hubbard, on the hill west of the old cemetery.
Feb. 16, 1828, David Kemp, a child of Erastus Kemp, at the age of three years, died from the effects of having fallen into a kettle of boiling water five days before. His parents then lived on the Breed Osgood place, just north of the Roswell Osgood house, now owned by Mr. Giffin of Keene.
June, 13, 1829, occurred the first of three murders which have been commit- ed in the small town of Sullivan. It would be needless to remind any person at all acquainted with Sullivan that it is one of the best towns morally on the face of the earth; but three men, all of whom were undoubtedly insane, have happened to plunge the town into deep grief these three times.
The circumstance to which we here allude was the murder of Mrs. Matilda Nash, widow of James Nash, who was killed by Daniel H. Corey, near the latter's house in Sullivan, and a few feet south of the Gilsum line. Mr. Corey was subject to epileptic fits and to violent fits of insanity. He had been seized with them on various occasions, at home and in public. On the morning of the tragedy, most alarming symptoms of insanity were developed and his family, greatly fright- ened, fled for safety to the house of Daniel Nash, across the line in Gilsum. Mrs. Matilda Nash had come that day, for a visit, to her son Daniel's house. Mr. Corey had a high regard for her and it occurred to her that she could calm him and bring him to reason. As an excuse for calling, she carried some flax to hatchel, and her young granddaughter, a daughter of Daniel Nash, accompanied her. When they arrived at Corey's, he was lying on his bed. As soon as he saw Mrs. Nash, he exclaimed " Get out of here, you old witch, or I'll shoot you." Being frightened, she turned to run. Corey sprang from the bed, took down his gun, which was placed on some hooks at the side of the room, and pursued her. He snapped the gun, but, as there was no priming in the pan of the old flintlock, it did not explode. Having overtaken her, he struck her several times on the head with the butt of his gun, with such force as to break off the stock and bend the barrel. The blows broke in the left side of her skull, driving her earring completely into the head. While Corey was dealing these fatal blows, young Emily Nash, granddaughter of the murdered woman, escaped and ran rapidly home and gave the alarm. She was the sole eyewitness of the tragedy, but old enough to give a very clear and accurate account of it. The death of Mrs. Nash must have immediately followed the first blow. Her remains were taken to the house of her son Asa, where the funeral services were held. The burial was in the Bond Cemetery in Gilsum.
Corey ran away, but was soon discovered by a searching party, arrested by the town constable, Col. Solomon White, assisted by Rufus Mason one of the select-men, lodged in jail, and tried. At the trial, two of New Hampshire's ablest lawyers, Hubbard and Woodbury, defended Corey. Levi Chamberlain, another
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eminent jurist, appeared for the state. The evidence left no reasonable doubt that Corey was insane. He had a mania for killing black cats, which he thought the embodiments of witches. He thought his wife had hired some one to kill him. He fancied that there were precious metals on his farm and he had begun to dig for them and had made a hole about four feet long and two or more feet wide and deep which he called his mine. It was developed at the trial that his father, grandmother, and sister had been insane. The latter, Polly Corey, had once jumped into a well. The prosecution undertook to show that Corey was intemperate, which may have been to a certain extent true, but the over-heated brain of an insane man craves drink quite frequently. His subsequent life, as we shall see, proved insanity unmistakably. The jury disagreed and Corey remained in jail a long time without a decisive trial. He finally escaped, as is confidently believed, with the connivance of the authorities, for he had become a burden to the county and the courts. A wax impression of the old jail locks having been obtained, it is generally understood that false keys were made by David M. Smith of Gilsum, a very ingenious mechanic. By aid of these keys, Corey escaped. His Sullivan farm was sold and he removed, with his family, to the state of New York.
Acute insanity developed in his new home and he was confined in a cage. The writer of this volume has conversed with a son of Mr. Corey, who gave him full particulars of his father's life in their new home. Once, when this son was about to ride to a grist-mill, thinking his father to be much calmer and saner than usual, he ventured to take him from the cage and allow him to start for the mill with him. Not knowing what might happen, he had put ropes and other con- veniences into the wagon, in case of an outbreak. It proved timely. On enter- ing a dark forest, the old man, at once, became restless, and, finally, seized his son with great violence, intending to kill him. Fortunately, a team overtook them and, with the assistance of the man driving it, he bound his father, who was never again permitted to have his freedom. Not being allowed stimulants, the mania was proved to have been independent of the drink habit. Mr. Corey died, during the sixties, in Louisville, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. It is just and fitting to observe that the children and descendants of Mr. Corey have been honored in life and successful in business. Mr. George W. Corey, the son, said to the writer that, when they sold their Sullivan home, and started to a then new country, with the father a raving maniac, the circumstances were so painful that the remem- brance of it was melancholy in the extreme.
During the summer and fall of 1831, there was an alarming epidemic of typhus fever in the town. We have already, in this chapter, mentioned the epi- demic of canker rash (doubtless scarlet fever), which prevailed in the place in 1795, and of that of spotted fever (or cerebro spinal meningitis), which was so fatal in 1813-14. This was the third serious epidemic which prevailed in Sulli- van. It attacked with peculiar violence the family of Josiah Seward, Jr., a son of Dea. Josiah. The eldest son, Josiah Seward, 3d, a very brilliant young man, about fitted for college, was seized with the malady on the eleventh of July and died on the eighth of August, just four weeks to a day from the time he was taken ill. Doubts have been entertained as to whether life was extinct in his body at the burial on the 10th. The body was warm and there were drops of moisture on the forehead. The funeral was in the old meetinghouse. There
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