USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Sullivan > A history of the town of Sullivan, New Hampshire, 1777-1917, Volume I > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
Sept. 18, 1883, Mrs. Napoleon Vigneau, whose husband subsequently lived for three years where E. C. Stone lives, met her death in Keene, by being thrown from a carriage and breaking her neck.
Dec. 5, 1884, Solon Estey, who lived for many years where Mrs. Preckle lives, committed suicide at Stoddard village, by hanging himself.
Jan. 6, 1888, Mary Davis, daughter of Silas, who lived a long time in the north part of Sullivan, died from the effects of burning. On the evening of Jan. 5, her cotton dress caught fire at the house of Sylvester L. Nash in Gilsum. Being feeble-minded, she started to run for the place in Gilsum where she was then living. In crossing the fields, following a footpath, the wind fanned the sparks into a blaze. She reached her home, where friends extinguished the fire, but expired before light on the morning of the sixth.
Nov. 19, 1890, Ambrose S. Wilder, son of A. Merrill Wilder, and a native of Sullivan, was killed at the bleachery in Waltham, Mass. He was a "shipper," and got crushed between a freight car and the bleachery station platform.
Apr. 27, 1894, William B. Hastings, while undoubtedly laboring under a temporary derangement, shot himself in his house at East Sullivan, where Lewis H. Smith formerly lived. He survived the occurrence but a few moments.
Aug. 22, 1894, Edwin J. Dunn was found nearly dead, in a field, near his house, in the east part of the town. He died shortly after, on the same day. He had been living by himself. Probably he had not taken a sufficient amount of nourishment. As a result of that and in connection, most likely, with some bodily ailment, his constitution had become enfeebled. He had probably, at the last, sustained some paralytic shock.
Nov. 2, 1897, occurred one of the saddest and most shocking tragedies which we have ever had in town. Leland Ernest Heald, a little boy two years of age, a son of Geo. W. Heald, who lived on the Chauncy W. Rawson farm, was fatally
370
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN.
shot, while sitting on his mother's lap. A neighbor, L. R. Wheeler, was calling upon Mr. Heald. They were looking at guns. While examining a gun, Wheeler happened to discharge it. The muzzle by an unlucky chance, was so pointed that the bullet pierced the poor boy's heart and he soon expired. It was another of the many cases of " I did not know it was loaded." It is needless to observe that no one could, for a moment, suppose that anyone could think of killing the innocent child, but it was a case of extreme carelessness. The boy was uncom- monly pretty, bright, and intelligent. The funeral was at Keene, at the house of its grandmother, Mrs. Alfred Richardson, and the burial in Woodland Cemetery in that city. Nothing could induce the mother to live any longer in the house where the tragedy occurred.
Nov. 6, 1898, Ira E. Chase, who married the eldest daughter of Justus Dunn, was found dead in Keene, near the river. He had been in dilapidated health. He had .perhaps suffered some from the lack of necessities. It appears not to have been a suicide, but a case of death resulting from physical exhaustion. His widow resides at East Sullivan.
Mar. 26, 1900, George Rufus Dane, a little son of Thomas W. and Almira (Gibbs) Dane, who were living in the "Lovisa Kingsbury house ", was fatally burned and died before midnight at the Elliot City Hospital in Keene. The child was born in Belchertown, Mass., Apr. 22, 1897, and was consequently nearly three years of age. It was one of the saddest tragedies that has occurred in town. The child's mother, Mrs. Dane, had deserted her family a short time before this. The household duties devolved upon a young and inexperienced sister of this child, who was only in her thirteenth year. Mr. Dane was employed in the portable steam mill of Mr. Wilcox, situated a short distance north of the Stevens house on the valley road. He was away from his house during the day. The child was playing with fire, early in the day, in a room with a little sister of five years of age. The boy's night dress caught the flames and was burned off. Dr. Prouty of Keene was summoned as soon as near neighbors, who had extinguished the fire, could get him, through the aid of the telephone. As there was no one about the house who could care for the injured child, an ambulance was taken up from Keene as quickly as possible and the little boy was carried to the hos- pital, where he expired just before midnight. The burial was in the Meeting- house Cemetery, in the lot marked "Dane lot," on the plan in the chapter on CEMETERIES.
Sept. 22, 1903, Asahel Wood Dunton died at the Elliot City Hospital at Keene, as the result of murderous blows which he received at the house of Malachi Barnes in Sullivan, on the evening of Saturday, Sept. 19, three days before. Mr. Dunton was employed at the mill of Will. H. Harris, formerly the Ellis mill, and boarded at the house of Mr. Barnes. Dunton was a widower. He had a son in the army and a married daughter in Ogden, Utah. He was an honest man. He had the quaint custom of keeping his money in stockings and hoarding it and had, at times, large sums in the house. He had been known to have two thousand dollars at a time. He slept in a bedroom at the east end of the kitchen, a room which burglars might easily have entered, had any such characters known of his habit of hoarding and desired to get his money.
Mr. Barnes, at whose house Mr. Dunton was boarding, had a wife, but no
371
CASUALTIES.
children. He was a person of strange eccentricities of manner and thought. No one who knew him well could seriously doubt that he labored under strange hallucinations and was really of an unsound mind. He had irrational notions about taxation, about the Roman Catholic Church, which he imagined was des- tined to ruin America, and also about Freemasonry, which he believed to be the embodiment of all evil. The writer knew him well for several years, and had repeatedly expressed to mutual acquaintances the opinion that Mr. Barnes was irrational.
On the evening in question, Dunton had assisted Mrs. Barnes in digging potatoes which her husband had required her to dig. Mr. Barnes appeared angry because Dunton had helped her. He had exhibited some symptoms of morbid jealousy of Dunton at other times and is said to have threatened them. On this evening, as it began to be dark, while Mrs. Barnes was passing through the entry leading to the side door, from the west end of the kitchen, she was assaulted by a man who descended the stairs which led to the chamber. This was an unfinished room under the roof of a low, one-storied house. There was a bark-peeler in this chamber, which had been used for breaking rock salt. The man had this instrument in his hand. It was probably his intention to murder Mrs. Barnes, but the blows did not prove fatal. She managed to escape, after sustaining very serious injuries, and fled to the house of Mr. Geo. Hubbard, who lived in the former C. F. Wilson house. His son, Henry W. Hubbard, gave the alarm, and soon the select-men, of whom he was one, were there. M. W. Hub- bard was chairman of the board, and the other was Winfred J. White. The constable was Chas. W. Hubbard.
As soon as these men began to arrive at the house of Mr. Barnes, it was discovered that Mr. Dunton, who was lying upon a sofa in the south-west room, had been murderously assaulted. Barnes denied having any connection with the affair, but Sheriff Tuttle was summoned from Keene and arrested him on sus- picion. Dunton was taken to the hospital at Keene. He had been struck and cut upon his head with that ugly bark-peeler in such savage fashion that he survived only till Tuesday, the 22d, and expired at 11.50 P. M. His funeral was on Saturday, the 26th, at which the writer of this book officiated. The services, to avoid a curious crowd, were at the grave in Woodland Cemetery, Keene, where the body was buried.
Barnes was taken to the jail at Keene, arraigned, and held for the grand jury, without bail. At a special trial, in the winter ensuing, he was convicted of the crime and sentenced for life to the state prison at Concord. This was the third murder in Sullivan. It is the firm conviction of the writer, which he be- lieves to be the prevailing, if not universal, sentiment in Sullivan, that the jury made no mistake in the verdict, nor the judge in the sentence. There can be no rational doubt that Mr. Barnes, for twenty years or more, had been the victim of a disordered mind. For that reason, it did not seem right that the sentence should have involved capital punishment. At the same time, it did not appear to be safe that so dangerous a person should be at liberty. It did not appear that the hos- pital for the insane would have been a sufficiently secure place for him. Hence a sentence not involving capital punishment, but a place of detention as secure as the prison, seemed to be the correct thing. Like the other two murders, this
372
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN.
was undoubtedly the outcome of mental derangement. An examination of Mr. Barnes just before the trial, by a physician in charge of the New Hampshire Hospital (for the insane), resulted in a statement that there was no insanity in his case. Notwithstanding this expert testimony, we do not believe that a longer acquaintance with Mr. Barnes, and a more thorough knowledge of his peculiarities, would have failed to lead the same expert to an opposite conclusion.
The prosecution was conducted by the county solicitor, Hiram Blake, under the direction of Attorney General Eastman. Barnes was ably defended by Hon. Chas. HI. Hersey and John E. Allen, Esq., who undertook to show that robbery might have been the motive for the act and that burglars might have committed the deed. The testimony of Mrs. Barnes, who who was the only witness, in reality, of any part of the tragic happenings, was not as strong against Mr. Barnes as it might have been, but she undoubtedly feared Barnes very greatly, not to speak of the unpleasantness of so testifying as to convict her own husband of murder. She was truthful, but probably felt in her own heart much more certain that the murderer was her husband than was made to appear by her actual testi- mony upon the stand. . The defence failed to make it appear even probable that any stranger had been near the Barnes house the day of the tragedy. The trial began Jan. 4, 1904. The jury found their verdict of guilty on Jan. 6, and Mr. Barnes was sentenced on the morning of the 7th.
Jan. 6, 1904, a man calling himself William Smith, who had been working for Thomas A. Hastings, at East Sullivan, was found asphyxiated with illumin- ating gas, in a room which he had taken for the night at Peter G. Marrion's restaurant building in Keene. He was a comparatively young man, but his age, and family connections are unknown. He had called himself 40 years of age and it was understood that he was a Pole, with an Anglicized name. It is not certain whether the man deliberately intended suicide. He was under the influence of liquor and was perhaps, to a certain extent, unaware of what he was doing.
Nov. 7, 1904, John McClure committed suicide at East Sullivan, by shooting himself. He was at the house of his daughter, Mrs. Shoults, where Lewis H. Smith formerly lived. It was a singular coincidence that this affair occurred in the same house where Mr. McClure's son-in-law, W. B. Hastings, had ended his life in a similar manner. It had formerly once happened that a man in town tried to hang himself in the same barn where another person had succeeded in doing so. It is, of course, noteworthy that there should be two buildings in so small a town in each of which there should have been two attempts at suicide. Of the four attempts only one was averted, the other three being fatal. We are not aware that Mr. McClure had shown special indications of insanity, but undoubtedly melancholia, or some morbid condition, lay at the bottom of the affair. It rarely happens, perhaps never, that a suicide is not the outcome of an abnormal condi- tion of mind. Especially is this view of the case likely to hold true, if the act be in no way connected with any wrong or unlucky incident, which has been true with respect to all who have committed suicide in Sullivan. Mr. McClure had been for some time in very poor health.
II. PERSONAL CASUALTIES NOT FATAL.
Besides the personal casualties which have resulted in death, a few personal injuries which did not prove fatal will be here
373
CASUALTIES.
mentioned, together with certain peculiarities in connection with one or two persons.
John Farrar, Sr., was a quartermaster in the Revolution. The British, in that struggle, resorted to a custom which had been practised by the French in the colonial wars, of engaging Indians to operate against the Americans. In some affair during the war, Mr. Farrar fell into the hands of the Indians, who scalped him and left him for dead. His descendants preserve this authentic tradition.
Peter Rice, who is said to have lived for a time upon the farm, then or formerly, owned by his uncle Charles Rice, and in the old Charles Rice house, is reputed to have been branded in the forehead with a letter T, as the initial of Thief. It was in the latter part of the eighteenth century that he lived in town.
James Davis, Sr., who lived in town from 1795 to 1799, had a bodily pecul- iarity which is worth noting, because it is one so seldom observed, and was prob- ably unique in Sullivan. All of his teeth, upper and under, front as well as back, were double teeth.
David Chapman, Jr., who was born in what we call the Chauncy W. Rawson house, suffered the amputation of one of his legs, before leaving Sullivan. The cause has not been made known to us.
William Baker, who was born on the farm where Joseph N. Nims lives, and who was a blacksmith at Sullivan Centre for a time, lost an eye. The particulars respecting the cause of the accident are not known to us.
Archelaus Towne, while returning to his home from Stoddard village, on the fourth of July, 1836, was thrown from his wagon, in Sullivan, not far from the place where the Kendall Lane diverges to the south from the main road, and dashed against the wall. One leg was so badly injured that amputation was necessary. The operation was performed by Amos Twitchell, M. D., of Keene. Mr. Towne lived where F. A. Wilson afterwards lived for many years. The accident was caused by a frightened horse. Mr. Towne survived the catastrophe nearly thirty- nine years and died at Langdon. While wearing his wooden leg. he accomplished a large amount of work, doing nearly everything that any man could do, and much more than many are willing to do.
Not long after the preceding accident, George Wardwell was severely injured in a forest, while cutting wood, by a tree falling upon him, which he was felling. Daniel Adams Nims was with him, and, with great difficulty, succeeded in extri- cating him. Dr. Twitchell of Keene was summoned, but, being unable to go, Dr. Douseman went in his place. He was a remarkable surgeon and did wonder- fully well in this case. He saved the life and even the limbs of Mr. Wardwell, but the latter's legs were never again in their normal shape, and did not have the accustomed vitality of sound limbs.
In May, 1842, James M. Estey lost an eye. He had been suffering from an acute pain in the eye for some time. It was thought, at first, that he had scratched it with the thorn of a gooseberry bush near which he was playing, but later cir- cumstances disproved this view. The eye had begun to obtrude from his head when the surgeons advised its removal. The operation was performed by Amos Twitchell, M. D., one of the ablest surgeons of New England. It was before the . days of ether. The poor fellow was fastened into a chair and the operation lasted
39
374
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN.
thirty-five minutes. The agony of the boy during the operation was almost inde- scribable. Ilis screams were heard a long distance. On removing the eye, it was found that seven tumors, of varying sizes, had begun to develop in the eye- socket, and had nearly pushed his eye out of his head. Young Estey was then eighteen years of age. He survived this ordeal many years.
Roswell Curtis Nourse, who came to town about 1843 and remained for about twenty years, had a very peculiar physical characteristic. The sudoriparous glands of the skin were either wanting altogether or inefficient in their operation. As a result, the accumulation of internal animal heat was superabundant, from which he suffered intensely, especially in warm weather. He could enter any cool place, or expose himself to currents of air, with impunity, where any other person would have endangered his life by so doing.
Charles K. Mason, who married Adra E., daughter of Jeremiah Mason, and whose second child was born in Sullivan, while at work, on Sept. 5, 1853, in the mill of Amos E. Perry at Harrisville, was caught in a belt by his left arm, which was torn off, making it necessary to amputate at the shoulder joint. Mr. Mason is still living in another state.
Elizabeth M. Howard, daughter of Henry H. Howard, who was born in Sullivan, Feb. 14, 1843, when she was between twelve and fifteen years of age, about 1856, suffered the amputation of a leg, as the result of a fever sore. She afterwards married Hiram N. Davis, who went to the war and was reported " miss- ing." Still later she married William R. Kenney.
Nahum Bridge, about 1865, sustained the amputation of a leg, as the result of a local disorder that would have terminated his life if it had not been done, The operation was at his house in East Sullivan, by Dr. George B. Twitchell of Keene.
Miss Julia M. Brown, a daughter of Oliver Brown of Sullivan, and a native of that town, suffered the amputation of a leg in Keene.
Eugene Seward Smith, when three years of age, about 1885, lost the sight of both his eyes. His parents once lived upon the Chauncey W. Rawson farm. About the time that his sight left him, he had suffered from the whooping cough. His family think that this disease caused the malady. About the same time, some older boys had thrown sand into his face and had even rubbed it into his eyes. Some of his friends thought this affair was, in some way, accountable for the loss of sight. At all events, whether it was a weakness produced by coughing, or an irritation and inflammation resulting from the sand episode, or a combina- tion of both causes, a paralysis of the optic nerve was developed and the sight destroyed. Young Smith was educated at the Perkins Institution for the Blind at South Boston, and became a very good scholar, using correct and choice English, and enjoying the benefit of a good training in several branches of study. He is an accomplished pianist and plays acceptably in public and tunes pianos well.
Arthur B. Thorning, who lived in Sullivan in his youth, received an injury, Oct. 4, 1894, that resulted in the loss of both eyes. He had been gunning, on that day, in Keene, with a companion named Frank L. Blake. On returning, when near the foot of Cottage St., in that city, Blake playfully, or for some reason, pointed his gun at Thorning. It was a shot gun loaded with shot. Blake claims that he did not know that it was loaded. Be that as it may, the gun was
375
CALAMITIES.
discharged and a quantity of shot entered the face and scalp of young Thorning. The shot was partially, though not wholly removed. The young man was taken to Boston for treatment, but it became necessary to remove both of his eyes. He is an intelligent person, greatly respected, and such a melancholy accident, depriving a bright fellow of his eyes for the rest of his days, ought to be a solemn warning to heedless simpletons to desist from the culpable, yea criminal, habit of aiming guns, whether loaded or unloaded, at any human being.
III. CALAMITIES.
Sullivan is so far from the sea that no one of our citizens has suffered shipwreck, and our boys have never had any serious desire to run away and join the navy. The town is located in a fortunate region, where there is never any fear of earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal waves, mine horrors, or railroad accidents, and little to fear from hurricanes, tornadoes, whirlwinds, or floods. The thrift of our citizens has been such as to remove all possi- bility of famine and there has been very little poverty, none indeed which was not suitably and speedily relieved.
Sullivan can hardly be said to have suffered from a pestilence, using that word in its strongest sense. There has never been any endemic disease in town, that is a disease which was peculiar to this locality and to no other. Three quite serious epidemics appeared in town, but were of limited duration. The first was a season of scarlet fever, then called canker rash, in 1795. The second was then called spotted fever, but would now, probably, be called cerebro spinal meningitis. This distemper prevailed in 1813 and 1814. The third was the old typhus fever, which visited this town in 1831. This disease when correctly diagnosed, is now seldom or never found in this region. These epidemics have been described in previous pages.
The diseases which have affected cattle and dumb animals so much in other states and in other parts of this state appear to have troubled Sullivan very little. Only one infectious distemper among the cattle appears to have been deemed of sufficient im- portance to have warranted any action by the town at a public meeting. This was in 1860. The account of the action of the town in that year is given in the MUNICIPAL ANNALS for 1860.
The town has been spared from sensational crimes in general. There has been no remarkable robbery, like that suffered by the Robinson sisters in Stoddard, for example. Now and then, a few
376
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN.
articles have been taken by sneak thieves. The following notice, taken from an old New Hampshire Sentinel, is a curiosity, as it shows the characteristics of human nature to be the same in every age, and as it shows the quaint articles which a sneak of that time would be likely to find in a well-ordered house:
"Stop Thief ! !
Stolen from the subscriber on the 22d inst [March 22, 1809], one watch, one pillow case, two new pairs of pantaloons (one black velvet and the other fustian), one woollen shirt, the most of a side of upper leather, some sole leather, some shoemaker's tools, a pair of mittens, and a purse with some change. Said thief called himself Joshua French. He is about 22 years of age, 5 feet 10 inches high, had on an old brown, scorched, great coat, old velvet pantaloons, and new thick boots, goes with his head bowed forward and stooping as he goes. Whoever will take said man so that he may be brought to justice may have said articles or ten dollars reward.
William Comstock."
It is not known that the thief was ever discovered. This and a few petty larcenies really not worth mentioning are all that Sullivan has suffered in that way.
IV. DEFECTIVE CLASSES.
Sullivan has been singularly free from such cases of physical infirmity as would place one in what is termed, in social statistics, a defective class. We recall no Sullivan person who was born blind. Two young men who lived here in youth have recently become blind, as stated under the second section of this chapter. Each of two others lost an eye, as stated in the same section. The total loss of sight by Mrs. Solomon White was noted in the first section of this chapter. It is possible that other persons, in advanced life, may have lost sight, as the result of cataracts or other diseases, of which special mention has not been made. We recall no deaf mute who was either a native or a resident of the town. In a single family, in the north part of the town, near the boundary line, in a house not now standing, were two children, a boy and a girl, who were feeble minded. We recall no other pronounced case of that description in the town. On the contrary, the general intelligence of the inhabitants has always been much above the average. Levi Nash, a son of the widow Lydia Nash, who once lived in the north part of the town, was deformed in consequence of rickets, and never attained normal size.
Fifteen natives or former residents of Sullivan have been committed for treatment to hospitals for the insane. Nine of
377
FIRES.
these were committed from Sullivan and six from towns to which they had removed. Insanity is simply a symptom of some bodily ailment. No blame is to be attached to the patient. It is a mis- fortune connected with the trouble that the patient does not under- stand the situation and usually feels abused by the very persons who are working for his, or her, good. Friends and neighbors of the patient are often just as ignorant with respect to the true nature of the malady and, through good intentions, by attempting in various ways to prevent such a patient from being taken to such an asylum, or by attempting to effect the removal of such a patient after commitment, often do much harm without realizing it. Our institution for the insane at Concord is so remarkably well managed that all fear that patients are abused is without foundation. It is the best and most fitting place for any person whose mind is unbalanced. It provides care, sympathy, and medi- cal attention for many who would otherwise suffer. The several cases of suicide reported in the second section of this chapter were, beyond any reasonable doubt, the result of disordered minds. Insanity often develops very quickly and leads to very hasty deeds of violence. The three homicides which have occurred in Sulli- van were the outcome, probably in every case, of mental derange- ment. The author of the first was a maniac for years, in another state. The author of the second has always been believed to have been deranged, by those whom the writer believes to have been well qualified to judge, although he was admitted to have been intemperate. The author of the last homicide was a remark- ably eccentric man, and labored under peculiar hallucinations. There have been about five other persons in town, who have been mentally abnormal, two or three of whom were admittedly insane, who were never committed to any asylum, because they were presumed to be harmless.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.