USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Peterborough > An address delivered at the centennial celebration, in Peterborough, N.H., Oct. 24, 1839 > Part 4
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I would now speak of the characteristics of our inhabitants .
In the first place they have been always distinguished for their mental activity, and love of knowledge. The original emigrants from Ireland were by no means an ignorant people. They were brought up in the common school education of the day, and most of them were imbued with the religious education then more common in Scotland and the North of Ireland, than in the sister kingdom of England. What was wanting in outward instruction, was, in some measure, supplied by their own intellec- tual energy and zeal. The respect which has always been paid to learning, may in part be understood from the number and cha- racter of our educated men. Twenty-eight* have graduated at
* Jeremiah Smith, 1781; James Wilson, 1789; Walter Little, 1796 ; John Wilson, 1799 ; Stephen Mitchell, 1802 ; John Stuart, 1803 ; William Ritchie, 1804 ; Stephen P. Steele, 1808 ; Charles J. Stuart, 1809; David Steele, 1810 ; James Porter, 1810; Jonathan Steele, 1811; Isaac P. Osgood, 1814; Jesse Smith, 1814; David Steele, 1815; Joseph Brackett, Jonathan Smith, 1819; James Wilson, 1820; Albert Smith, 1825 ; Josiah Ballard, John H. Morison, 1831 ; Robert Wilson, 1832; Artemas L. Holmes, 1835; Solomon Laws, 1836 ; Horace Morison, 1837; Nath'l Holmes, 1837; Nath'l H. Morison, 1839 ; Bernard B. Whittemore, 1839.
The above list, in which one or two may possibly be omitted, has been kindly furnished me by S. P. Steele, Esq. Others not born here, have gone to College from this place, as Dr. Reuben D. Mussey.
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our different colleges. James Wilson, for a time Representative in Congress, and Jonathan Steele, a Judge of the Supreme Court, were widely known. Nor must we omit the name of Jesse Smith, who having graduated at Dartmouth College in 1814, studied medicine with Dr. George C. Shattuck, of Boston, and afterwards established himself in Cincinnati, where as a pro- fesser in the Medical College and a practitioner, he stood de- cidedly at the head of his profession. He died of the Cholera in 1S33, universally lamented, having fallen a victim to his humane and fearless exertions for the suffering, during the rava- ges of that frightful pestilence.
Among the educated sons of Peterborough, is another, yet happily numbered with the living, who was your first choice for the task which I am now laboring to perform. I cannot but regret that it was out of his power to accept your call ; for there is no man alive so intimately acquainted with our history, or so well able to do justice to the character of our people. He was born November 29, 1759; - his father, William Smith, per- haps the best educated of our early settlers, and who was a delegate to the Provincial Congress in 1774, was a man of singular discretion, modesty and goodness ; and his mother, (the daughter of John Morison,) was a driving, energetic woman. He was one of seven sons, * all (except one who died before his strength was brought out,) uncommon men. Until recent- ly, for the last sixty years, they have had here an influence possessed by no other family, and have done more than any others to form the character and advance the prosperity of the town. Seventy years ago, if we may trust to one who then knew them well, a more rude, uncouth, impudent set of boys was not to be found in Peterborough. Very early, however, Jeremiah's enthusiastic love of knowledge began to act. But the facilities for learning within his reach, were greatly inferior to what may now be enjoyed by the poorest and most neglected child among us. There were no books to be had; and the
* Robert, John, William, James, Jeremiah, Jonathan, and Samuel.
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schools were wretched. I have heard him speak of going, when a small boy, three or four miles to procure the loan of some ordinary volume, and the tears of disappointment with which he often came away from his teacher's blundering explanation of subjects which he was longing to understand. But never yet did the youth, urged on by an unquenching desire to know, stop short through outward obstructions. They only quicken his zeal, and give new energy to his powers. So was it with our townsman. At the age of twelve he began to study Latin at the public school, which was then kept in the old meeting- house by Master Rudolphus Greene. After this he studied for a short time with a Mr. Donovan at New-Boston, and then with Rev. Mr. Emerson, of Hollis, where he began Greek, and finish- ed his preparation for college. He entered Harvard College in 1777. Just at this time he enlisted for two months in the service, was present at the battle of Bennington, where a portion of his gun was shot off in his hands, and a musket-ball grazing his throat, left its mark there for many years. He left Cam- bridge in 1779, and was graduated at Rutgers College, N. J., in 1781. He now began the study of the law in Barnstable, 1782 '83 ; spending after this a year at Andover and two years in Salem ; filling at each place the office of teacher in connec- tion with his studies.
He began to practice here as a lawyer in 1787, was a mem- ber of our legislature three years ; during which time he revised the laws of the State. Previous to this time, Peterborough had been notorious for its lawsuits, and furnished no small portion of the whole litigation of the county. These foolish disputes he always discountenanced ; sometimes cooling down his angry client by pleasantry, and sometimes dissuading him by more serious considerations. It was the opinion of our most intelli- gent people at the time, that the town might afford to pay Jerry Smith five hundred dollars a year, simply for his influence in preventing lawsuits.
But a wider field was opening. In 1791, he was chosen a representative to Congress. To this office he was appointed at four successive elections, and continuing in it through nearly the
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whole of Washington's Administration, he resigned during the Presidency of the elder Adams, after the May session of 1797. Here it was his privilege to become acquainted with the great men of the time; with Washington, with John Adams, with Jefferson and Madison, with John Jay, John Marshall, Samuel Dexter, and Fisher Ames, during the interesting period when the French revolution was breaking out with the suddenness of a new volcano. Upon leaving Congress, he was appointed United States Attorney for the District of New Hampshire, and soon after, while holding this office, was made Judge of Probate for the county of Rockingham, having in the mean- time removed to Exeter. In 1801, he was appointed Judge of the Circuit Court of the United States, and during a part of the year 1802, was at the same time Judge of Probate, Judge of the United States District Court, and Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. He continued Chief- Justice till 1809, when he was chosen Governor of the State. He returned to the bar in 1810; in 1813 was again made Chief-Justice, and continued in this office till 1816, when he withdrew from public life. In 1820, he gave up his practice at the bar. It is not my purpose, nor am I competent to speak of the ability, learning, uprightness, and independence with which the duties of these high, various, and responsible offices were dis- charged. His acts, are they not written in the Chronicles, and themselves an important part of the public history, of our State ? The assaults of party violence are over ; and they who were once the most earnest to assail, are now among the fore- most to acknowledge his intellectual vigor, great learning, and above all the spotless purity of his character as a public man. It is not for such as me to praise or censure him. The verdict has been made up.by his peers ; and if they are to be trusted, his name will be handed down as one of the two most able and accomplished public men that New Hampshire, during the first two centuries of her political existence, has produced.
In this our great family meeting, may we not indulge in the expression of personal feeling ? Especially may not a younger
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brother speak of what he owes to one full of honors as of years, whose heart is with us though he be not here ? From my childhood up, I have been the creature of kindness, and should I die with the consciousness of having done no other good than to have called out the kind acts which have been extended to myself, I shall go down to the grave feeling that I have not lived in vain. There are others towards whom the fullness of my gratitude can be known only by the Searcher of all hearts. But for them, I should not now be among the living. What I should have been without him I almost tremble to think. Just standing upon the verge of life, with principles unformed, with a yearning indeed for knowledge, which had followed me like some mystic spell from my earliest recollections, hoping and yet despairing, with no claim but inexperience and helplessness, I received from him all the kindness. that a father could give. Dull indeed must I have been, if I have not profited from the richness of his mind and the advantages which his aid has placed within my reach.
I have dwelt on this example, not for the purpose of gratify- ing private feelings, but because it is the brightest illustration that our town has furnished to the young, of a really great in- tellect, strengthened and adorned by a finished education. When I see such a man, and feel his strength of mind, the rich- ness and variety of his intellectual stores, his vivacity and wit, and, more than all, his utter scorn for everything mean or dis- honest, I forget the offices through which he has passed. They have borrowed much, but added little to the dignity of the man. And the elements which have made him what he is, belong pe- culiarly to the Peterborough mind, and may be seen, less clearly developed indeed, in many of our citizens.
But while the intellect of our people is shewn in the number and character of educated men that have gone from among them, it is shewn still more in their general character. I might select many among those whom I have personally known, who, if not polished so as to bring out all the shades and rich veins of in- tellect, have yet been sufficiently cultivated to shew minds ca-
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pable of grasping strong thoughts, and acting upon the most important interests of public and private life. Many excel them in every species of intellectual refinement, in the taste for poetry, the fine arts, and the niceties of literature. But in ยท sterling good sense, in close and severe reasoning, in solid infor- mation, especially an acquaintance with the standard works of history, theology, and some branchies of philosophy, the people of few towns are superior, if indeed, as a whole, they are equal to those who have lived here for the last twenty or thirty years. Like every place, it has those who recognise no such thing as purely intellectual tastes and wants. But thanks be to heaven they are few, and their influence in the town has been only to make men shun their example. Our young men, kindling with nobler hopes, look to other quarters for instruction.
The next remarkable feature of our town during the past century, has been courage. It was shewn by our fathers in Ireland, and has not deserted their sons. As a people they have never shrunk from peril. At the first sound of danger, their custom has been to fly to the scene of action. So was it in the Indian and French wars, in which, when there were not in town more than forty families, six of our citizens were slain in a single day .* So was it after the news of the battle of Lexington. Of the seventeen engaged at Bunker- hill, one man (John Graham, remarkable for his skill in throw- ing stones) after exhausting his ammunition, unwilling to retire, seized upon stones and hurled them, not without effect, against the enemy ; another (John Taggart) after fighting as long as it was possible to fight, in the retreat stopped his companions while yet in the midst of danger, and when they had refreshed themselves from their canteens, exclaimed, " Neu let us trust in God and tak the tother run." Randal M'Alester was severely shot through the neck ; Thomas Green, in a fainting and almost expiring state was saved by his friend Gilchrist, who carried him on his back from Bunker-hill to Medford. Lieutenant (after- wards Captain) William Scott, early in the action had one of
* In a ranging company commanded by Robert Rogers, in 1757. See Farmer's Belknap.
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the bones of his leg broken just below the knee. He continued coolly paring musket balls and handing them to his soldiers. He was among the very hindmost in the retreat, when he re- ceived in his thigh and the lower part of his body four addition- al balls, and, bleeding at nine orifices. fainted upon the field. When he came to himself, a British soldier was standing over him, with his bayonet, and asked with an oath if he did not deserve to be killed. "I am in your power," was the reply, " and you can do with me as you please." He was rescued by a British officer and permitted to remain unmolested upon the field through that cold frosty night. The next morning he was taken to Boston, and thence to Halifax, where he was imprisoned. With a gimblet, a bayonet, and an old knife, furnished by a friend without,* he, and six of his companions broke the prison, and by the help of that saine friend got on board a vessel and reached home the following August. He set out immediately for the American army which he joined on Long Island, was taken with two thousand others at the capture of Fort Washington ;+ but the night after, tying his sword to the back of his neck and his watch to his hat-band, he swam a mile and a half to Fort Lee upon the Jersey shore, eluding the vigilance of the British frigate, that had been stationed there to guard the pri- soners. He continued in the army till after the retreat of Lafayette before Cornwallis, and from that time was engaged upon the ocean.
The same intrepidity which he had shewn in war continued in peace. The following is from the Boston Independent Chronicle of July 12, 1792, under the head of news from Philadelphia, July 2. After stating in general terms a terrific tempest that occurred the day before, and some of the accidents caused by it, they add ; " Since writing the above account, we
* John Morison, Esq. the brother of Thomas and Jonathan. He lived in Nova-Scotia, was a Whig, and like others of the family not being able to keep his opinions to himself, became suspected, fled from the British Provinces and lived for a time in Peterborough.
November 16, 1776. See Holmes's Annals of America, Vol II, p. 251.
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further learn that a boat from this city to the Jersey shore, was overset within fifty rods of Samuel Cowper's wharf. There were in the boat Captain Scott, Mr. Blake, his wife and four small children, a young woman and Mr. Betis - in all nine persons-none of whom could swim but Captain Scott. The Captain by the most astonishing and praiseworthy exertions, was able, providentially, to save them all. He swam ashore with one child hanging to his neck and one to each arm, and he returned to the boat amidst the boisterous waves raging in a furious and frightful manner, and brought the others, who had with much difficulty held by the boat, safe to land."
The editor of the Boston paper adds : "For the honor of Captain Scott, an old and valiant soldier, a son of Massachu- setts, this circumstance should be handed down to posterity. Those who revere the virtues of the benevolent Howard, must ever remember with veneration the successful exertions of Captain Scott."
He fell at last a sacrifice to a higher spirit than can ever be shewn by mere courage in the field. " In 1793, he went in the suite of General Lincoln, to settle a treaty with the Six Nations of Indians at or near Sandusky - where his health was impair- ed. In 1796, he was connected with a party in surveying lands on the Black River, near Lake Erie, and in the vicinity of the smaller lakes. They were attacked by the lake fever, and he returned with a division of the sick to Port Stanwix. Find- ing it difficult to procure any to go back after the sick persons left behind in the wilderness, he determined to go himself, though strongly dissuaded by the physician, who affirmed that he could not return alive. 'I think I shall,' was his reply, ' but if not, my life is no better than theirs.' He succeeded in his benevolent attempt, but died on the 10th day after his return, at Litchfield, N. Y., September 19, 1796, in his 54th year."*
This instance, which by no means stands alone in our history, may serve to illustrate the courage which has been always a prominent feature in the character of our citizens. And it has
" See N. H. Historical Coll. Vol. I, p. 135.
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run through their whole character, distinguishing alike their hab- its of thought, of social intercourse, of public and private enter- prise. In whatever they have undertaken, they have gone forward with the same fearless spirit. If at any time a man has had hard thoughts of his neighbor, he did not whisper it about in private scandal, but the offender was the first to hear it. There has been no secret underhand dealing, but their voices were always loud,* their gait erect, their conduct open. While ready to maintain their own and their neighbor's rights, they have also, it must be acknowledged, never been backward in proclaiming their own merits. Yet they have not been a con- ceited, boasting race, but men who knew their strength, who judged correctly of their merits, and would not suffer others to , destroy or impair their just appreciation.
Closely allied to this was another prominent trait in their character. They were always a high-minded, generous people. Though poor, they were never mean in spirit. Sometimes in- deed a foolish pride has been among them. It is related of the wife of the oldest John Morison, that when her husband was building his first habitation in Londonderry, she came to him, and in a manner unusually affectionate, (as is sometimes the custom of wives when they have a great favor to ask,) said, " Aweel, aweel, dear Joan, an it maun be a log-house, do make it a log heegher nor the lave" (than the rest.) A portion of this spirit may have come down to some of her descendants, and perhaps to a few who are' not her descendants. But if they have had a little sprinkling of this, they have also been marked by a true loftiness and generosity of soul, which in all their trials has not forsaken them. It mingled with their courage in war. We have seen how prominent it was in the character of Scott.
* Loud talking has always prevailed here ; and at least in one case served an important purpose. At Bennington the company belonging to New Ips- wich and Peterborough were surprised by an ambuscade of tories, when Lieut. Cunningham of Peterborough cried out with the voice of a lion, " Bring up those four hundred men," which put the tories to flight and left an open passage to the main army.
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And in the last war, when our townsman made himself con- spicuous in the eyes of the nation by his coolness and gallantry, in the most perilous enterprise ever ready to "try," and to succeed where he tried, he gained the confidence of his sol- diers and townsmen, by his humane, and generous attention, even more than by his unquestioned military ability and cour- age. * The same spirit of liberality guided their intelligence in politics. When it was proposed in our Legislature to give some. assistance to Dr. Belknap, who was then preparing his invaluable history of the State, the representative of a neighboring town objected, saying that he would as soon sup- port an appropriation for the purchase of Tom Thumb. The next morning your representative,; in the presence of the House, gave to him a copy of Tom Thumb, adding, that it af- forded him much pleasure to be able to make the gentleman a present so appropriate in size and character to the liberality which he had shewn the day before. In their influence, great or small, in high or in low stations, upon the councils of the state or nation, our people, as a body, have always been on the side of a liberal, generous policy, whatever might be its effect upon their private interests. The same may be said of their conduct as a town. The whole amount of their property at the present hour would not probably exceed $500.000 ; yet the amount of taxes this year (and for several years past they
* James Miller, son of James and Catherine Miller, born in 1776, began to practice law in 1807, and was appointed Major in the U. S. Service in 1808. The family from which he sprang lived in the Northeast corner of the town, which seemed cut off from the rest. James Miller, sen., and a twin brother inherited a farm together, which they lived upon fifteen or sixteen years, enjoying the produce in common, with no exact division of labor or the fruits of their labor. The whole family were remarkable for simple hearted truth and kindness, and at the same time great manliness and courage. Gen. Miller's history after entering the U. S. Service is too well known to be given here.
t John Smith, Esq. whose sudden death in 1821 threw a gloom over the whole town. He perhaps united in himself all the characteristics of our town in a more remarkable degree than any other man, joining to the gushing emotions of a child, strong powers of thought, integrity, courage, and an in- finite fund of wit.
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have varied little) is $4.768 22. If to this we add $900 paid for the support of private schools, $1.500 for the support of public worship, and remember that of three hundred and eighty taxable polls only two hundred and six (and many of them by no means the most competent) contribute anything towards the maintenance of religion, we certainly must conclude that our citizens now are by no means backward in their contributions for public objects. In addition to the usual taxes in 1825, $14.000 were raised without great effort for the erection of churches and school-houses, and in roads the town has been liberal almost to excess.
The same spirit has been even more conspicuous in private donations. Losses by fire have sometimes been more than made up to the sufferers by voluntary subscription, and gene- rally he whose house has been burnt has hardly borne a greater share of the loss than many others in proportion to their means. Nor has this liberality been confined to cases of want ; but it has often happened that when, by the sudden providence of God, a portion of a man's goods have in this way been destroy- ed, many whose property was less than what remained to him have cheerfully contributed to make up his loss. There have been, we all know, and still are, mean men among us, but I do not believe that in the history of the town a single instance can be found in which a mean act, public or private, has been for a single day countenanced by the general feeling of the community. It has been my privilege, beyond the lot of most men, to reside among high-minded, generous people, but I have never lived in a place where in thought, speech and conduct, there has been so general a detestation of what is paltry and little as in my native town.
The same spirit has been carried into their quarrels and en- mities. Who has ever heard in Peterborough of a sullen, Indian-like hatred, cherished for years or even weeks, watching stealthily for the opportunity of revenge ; or of a fawning dis- like veiling itself under the semblance of friendship till the secret stab might be given ? They have been impetuous in
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their feelings, and have given way too readily to the impulse of anger ; but the cloud passed quickly off. The storm was too violent to last. They who have quarrelled to-day are to- morrow the more earnest to do each other a kind act. And acts of neighborly kindness in the common intercourse of life have been a leading feature from the earliest settlement of the town. It has made an important part of the good fellowship of the place ; and if the kind office had not its intended effect, instead of going sulkily away and determining to do so no more, they enjoyed it as a good joke, and were quite as ready to repeat the act when a new occasion might require it. A man who had not been long in town, was poor, lazy and shiftless. The neighbors came together and mowed his grass, leaving it for him to do the rest. " It is very light," said the old man, after they went away, " very light, worth mowing indeed, but not worth mowing and raking too," and so he permitted it to lie upon the ground. They were not angry, but simply laugh- ed at his awkward excuse, and for aught that I have heard to the contrary may have mowed and raked his hay too the year following.
This brings me to what has perhaps from the beginning been their one trait. standing out from all the rest ; I mean their love of fun. The sun would go down before I could tell half the stories we still have which might illustrate this point .* No occasion, no subject was kept sacred from their wit. The thoughtless and the grave, the old and the young alike enjoyed it. When Capt. Scott had been pierced by five bullets, and his life almost lost, he said the minister had prayed in the morn- ing that their heads might be covered in the hour of battle. " His head," he added, " was safe enough, but the prayer
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