USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Keene > An historical address : delivered in Keene, N.H., on July 4, 1876, at the request of the city government > Part 2
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In 1788, Rev. Aaron Hall sits, as the delegate from Keene, in the Convention at Exeter, called for the discussion of the proceedings of the Convention which framed the United States Constitution, and his oration, delivered in Keene, on June 30, on which day Keene celebrated its ratification, is advertised in the New Hampshire Recorder. The same journal, upon Oct. 14, 1788, states that the dedication of the new meeting house in this town, will be on Wednesday, the 29th, when a sermon, suitable to the occasion, will be delivered by Rev. Aaron Hall. This church still stands, although twice remodelled.
We also find that some customs could be abandoned in the eighteenth, as well as in the nineteenth century, when we read that " Isaac Wyman, begs leave to inform the public, that he shall not in future vend any liquors, but would be glad to serve travellers with boarding and lodging, and the best of horse-keep- ing." To all the items in this last clause, Rev. Dr. Barstow is understood, (as he at length occupied this very house) to have been faithful, horse-keeping included, although his guests may have been chiefly of a clerical cast. Did Isaac " feel it in his bones " that the soul of this staunch friend of Temperance
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was marching on towards this planet, and so conclude thus early to " set his house * in order" for him ?
.. This New Hampshire Recorder, to which allusion has just been made, first appeared in 1787, being printed by James D. Griffith. The column nowadays headed "Poetry," was de- nominated by " Griffith " "The Parnassian Packet," seeming by its designation to challenge a lofty flight, on the part of Pegasus. Of this challenge he seems to have availed himself in these stanzas, which I extract from a contribution to the " Packet " about nine years before the death of Washington, to whose virtues it refers :
" And when he drops this earthly crown, He's one in Heaven of high renown, He's deified, exalt him high,
He's next unto the Trinity.
My language fails to tell his worth, Unless in Heaven, he is the fourth, This tribute due to Washington. Exalt him, every mother's son !"
In the whimsical interrogatory of our own day :- " How's that for high?" In the " Parnassian Packet" the Father of his Country is evidently made to rank the angel Gabriel. Literature appears also not to have been neglected by Mr. Griffith, for we find (printed upside down to attract at- tention) this advertisement : ". That Ruby of inestimable value, The œeconomy of human life, translated from an Indian man- uscript, written by an ancient Brahmin, will be put to press within fifteen days. James D. Griffith." The same editor discloses the prince of sextons, in furnishing the obituary of one of that guild in Derbyshire, who, during his seventy years of service, according to his own statement, had " buried the parish twice over." An illustration of some of the difficulties which beset the craft in those days, is afforded in the follow- ing paragraph from the same sheet : " As paper of the usual size could not be obtained at the paper mill for this day's pap- er, our customers will excuse the present size."
On March 11th, 1799, the first number of the New Hamp- shire Sentinel appears, Mr. John Prentiss, then twenty-one
* It was in this house that the Trustees of Dartmouth College held their first meeting.
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years of age, being its editor, a post which he honorably held for about forty-nine years, surviving twenty-five years after his retirement. "Payments," we read, " must be made quar- terly, to enable the editor to satisfy the demands of the paper- maker, the boarding-house, and various other necessary cred- itors. Wood, butter, cheese, grain, and almost every article used in a family, will be as acceptable as the cash, if brought in season. The editor promises to use every customer well that will use him well." We find this advertisement : "Want- ed immediately : A Post-rider to circulate this paper in the towns of Surry, Alstead, Marlow, Washington, Stoddard, Sullivan, Packersfield, Hancock, Dublin, &c. A steady, active person may find his account in immediately commencing this work."
And now, as men curiously scan the annual rings in some venerable and prostrate oak, let us glance at some of these scars of time, as they give us- occasional glimpses into our local history, and into what was going on in the minds of our people. How tame must sidewalk and post-office discussions have been in a community, which, in 1799, gave to Governor Gilman one hundred and seven votes, while the opposition rallied only two " scattering" votes ! But over the sea, for a score of years, matter was daily brewing for agitation, in our New England villages. No wonder that the Sentinel revelled chiefly in the publication of foreign news. Sixteen years be- fore the exile to Elba, we read, under date of March 18th, 1799 : " Confirmation of the death of Bonaparte. Seven ex- presses from Egypt, report Bonaparte and a number of French officers assassinated." Nine days afterwards, the same paper says : "Our readers will see that after report upon report, and confirmation upon confirmation, of the death of this mighty man, he still lives." We infer that once more there was suspense upon this subject, for in the issue of Angust !, 1799. we read, ". of Bonaparte we hear nothing, whether he is dead or alive." But, Mr. Editor; you will hear from him, and he will live to go crashing through your columns of foreign intelligence for more than twenty years !
A classic writer says, "There lived brave men before the time of Agamemnon ;" so, lest we should think that the
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Keenites had not begun, in days unblessed with all our modern effulgence, to get at books, let us notice this advertisement under date of May 4, 1799 : " The Proprietors of the Social Library Society are requested to attend punctually to their an- nual meeting, on Monday next, at the Court House, at 2 p. m. Aaron Hall, Librarian."
And see, this same year, to what flights of patriotism our neighboring town of Swanzey rises, on her Fourth of July cele- bration, seventy-seven years ago. Here are two of the toasts : "The ever-memorable Fourth of July ; may it be celebrated with tokens of joy and sentiments of gratitude, as the birth- day of American Independence, until time shall be no more." " The illustrious Washington ; may his life be prolonged, and his sword abide in strength ; may fresh gems be added to his crown of glory, and he have a name better than that of sons and daughters !" Ah, Swanzey, Westmoreland, Keene, Wal. pole and Surry, each in your own borders, rejoice and be glad while you may, exalt your great leader and pray for his lengthened life while you can. It is the last Fourth of July on which you will. The great patriot's life goes out with the ebbing tide of the eighteenth century, in the waning days of December. What a night it was in Keene, when men learned that all was over! Listen : "Immediately on receiving the afflicting tidings in this town, on Thursday evening, the citi- zens caused the bell to be tolled ; the doleful knell was heard until morning. Yesterday, at twelve o'clock, the American flag was hoisted in mourning and the bell again tolled until two." But we may toll the bells with a deeper, heavier knell, if the day ever comes, when the pure, unbribed patriotism of men like Washington, exists only as a shadowy tradition of a former age !
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On the following twenty-second of February, a more elabo- rate observance of the occasion took place, reproduced in Mr. Hale's Annals.
What a man "leaves," when he dies, is still sometimes a topic of discussion in the community. But in 1802, we find the record, in the Sentinel, of the death of a patriarch whose accumulated treasures are recorded, although somewhat of a different character from any California " Bonanza." At Al-
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stead, Mr. Joseph Hatch, aged 84, "left one hundred and twenty grand and great grand-children." How closely bound together the scanty villagers were in that early day, is affect- ingly shown from the following incident : For what means, in August 1803, this procession of five hundred people as they move toward the burying-ground ? Two little sisters, Roxana and Mary Wright, mistaking the floating moss in the Ashuelot River for solid earth, were swept away by the current, and Mr. and Mrs. Phineas Wright find that the whole village are mourners with them.
A suggestive commentary upon legislation, is afforded thus early, as we read among the chronicles of 1803, the appeal of a Mr. Samuel Ewalt to his constituents in another State, that inasmuch as he has fallen from his horse, and is rendered inca- pable of business, he thinks that he is just the man for them to send to the Legislature ! And why, friends and neighbors, is illness still found among us, and why do the Doctors still lin- ger within our borders, when, even seventy-three years ago, so priceless a discovery had been made as that of " Dr. Jona- than Moore's Essence of Life," which we are assured "is good in almost every case of disease, and will be the means of snatching thousands from the jaws of death. Whooping cough cured in a week." ". Some persons," we are informed, " will bear double the dose that others will," a statement which has just enough of a tinge of mystery and horror, to make the remedy more fascinating.
In 1808, the following vote in town meeting gives us a glimpse into the existing relations at that period between church and State : "Voted, to grant fifteen dollars to purchase velvet to cover the pulpit cushion." Under date of February 17, 1810, we read of the beginning of Dr. Amos Twitchell's forty years' career as a renowned surgeon and physician, in Keene, through the following advertisement : " Dr. Amos Twitchell has removed from Marlboro' to Keene, and has taken a room at the house of Albe Cady, Esq., where he will punctually at- tend all commands in the line of his profession." What this eminent man did while he lived, we all know. But now for a tale to match what we hear of the marvels wrought beyond the sea, by the relics of the Saints ! A worthy matron once
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said to me, upon her recovery : "I suppose they had doubts about my getting up, and I know I had doubts, myself. Well, they kept urging me to send for a Doctor, and at last I almost gave in to them. But just then, as I fixed my eyes on the likeness of Dr. Twitchell, all that he had said to me about my being no case for medicine and Doctors, came back to my mind. So, as I set my eyes firm on the picture, I got strength to say ' No.' And finally, I may say, sir, that it was Dr. Twitchell's picture that cured me."
In 1813, on June 7th, it appears that hailstones fell, one inch and a quarter in diameter, in Keene, and that on the next morning the ground was covered with them to the depth of three inches. In the procession that year, upon the fourth of July, we find that there were forty boys, each with a por- trait of Washington suspended round his neck.
On May 28, 1814, Rev. Aaron Hall writes to the town : "Sensible of my age, and often infirmities of body, it is my earnest desire to have a colleague settled to help me in the work of the Gospel ministry, provided it can be a voluntary thing with church and town, and for the mutual harmony and peace of both." In this connection, how touching is the re- cord which not long afterwards follows :
"September 23, 1814. Voted, To give to the widow of the late Rev. Aaron Hall, all the minister tax from the time of his decease " (which occurred on August 12) ." till March next."
As we shall soon see, the passing away, at the age of sixty- two, of this genial pastor, was a signal for contentions hith- erto unknown among the people. Hon. Salma Hale testifies that "he was much beloved ; " Rev. Dr. Barstow. says that " he was universally respected."
But before these graver contentions began, the following town vote indicates that there were two sides also upon lesser questions. What would we not all give to be present and hear every word of the discussion which led to the follow- ing vote :
"December 8, 1815. Voted, not to suffer a stove put in the meeting house, provided it could be done without any expense to the town."
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This vote makes only more probable, what is attested as a positive occurrence, that a leading man in the parish found the air so insupportable, (at a subsequent period) upon the Sunday after a stove had been introduced into the building, that he walked out of the church in hot rage, when a by- stander, upon careful examination, discovered that whatever internal fire had existed that morning, it was certainly not in the stove !
In accepting a call to preside over the town, Mr. David Oliphant writes thus from Andover, March 28, 1815: "It is a pleasing circumstance that amidst the tumults and convul- sions, which, for a few years past, have shaken the political world to its centre, the Kingdom of the Redeemer has been growing in strength, and gradually advancing to its summit of predicted glory." Alas, he little knew what tumults and convulsions would so soon centre around the Zion to which he had come. Hon. S. Hale simply records the fact of his ordi- nation upon May 24, 1815, and there his " Annals " stop.
On April 24, 1817, when scarce two years of his ministry had expired, we find the town summoned to vote upon the fol- ' lowing article : "To see if the town will vote to dismiss the Rev. David Oliphant."
In the course of a communication from a Committee of the First Church to the town, dated May 1, 1817, these words oc- cur : " Does not conscience advise you to refrain from this man, and let him alone, lest haply ye be found to fight even against God !"
Upon December 1, 1817, Rev. Mr. Oliphant writes, "While you retain your present feelings towards me, I can neither en- joy peace nor happiness among you, nor overcome your pre- judices so as to be useful." Thereupon, not long afterwards, the relation is dissolved by aid of a council. An inspection of the church records vindicates Dr. Barstow's statement in his Half-century Sermon. that " there was not a union of the people in the settlement of Mr. Oliphant, and a remonstrance against it was presented by the minority." Moreover, Mr. Oliphant, when addressing us all at the dinner upon our Centen- nial Anniversary, in 1853, under the tent where Mr. George W. Ball's dwelling now stands, on Main street, said in a
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graceful and cheerful way, that when he came here he was a very young man, and that doubtless he should act differently in some respects, were he to begin over again. His personal character was always regarded as unblemished. He was soon afterwards, for sixteen years, pastor of a church in Uppe :. Beverly, Mass., and subsequently settled in Maine. He died in 1872.
Rev. Zedekiah Smith Barstow, was the last minister settled by the town. He was ordained on July 1, 1818. In accepting the call, he says, " To whom shall an inexperienced advent- urer on life's troubled and tremulous ocean look for counsel and direction? The ocean is tempestuous, while the voyage for eternity is hazardous beyond comprehension !" When the " adventurer " had completed his fifty-five years' residence among us, his style had long before become more compact and vigorous. In 1824, six years afterwards, the " Keene Con- gregational Society," known more familiarly as " Unitarian," was organized, being chiefly composed of seceders from the First Congregational Society. We might infer that a division of theological sentiment, so marked as was developed during Rev. Mr. Oliphant's ministry, would not be quickly harmon- ized. Circumstances minutely recorded in pamphlets printed at the time. led to the withdrawal of the dissentients, to whom, in 1823, the church is voted for five Sundays, and in 1826 for thirteen, and in 1827 for seventeen Sundays. But in 1828 the First Congregational Society secures the full use of the building, upon certain conditions, the chief of which consist · in paying seven hundred and fifty dollars, to the seceders, and agreeing to remove the church edifice to the rear, from the common, and thus securing effectually the bounds of Central square, as they now are.
As an efficient member of the School Committee for many years, as a life-long advocate of Temperance. as an indefati- gable trustee of Dartmouth College. Dr. Barstow is remem- bered ; and especially as a friend and neighbor whose sympa- thies widened and deepened as his years rolled on. He died March 1st, 1873. aged 82. having for upwards of forty years retained the sole charge of his Society. Upon the fiftieth anniversary of his settlement. there was a dinner in his honor
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at the town hall, subsequently to the delivery of his appro- priate historical discourse in the church .*
We might gladly follow the fortunes of this church, since, and the fortunes of the various churches in our city, six of which have edifices of their own wherein to worship. But we may suppose them to be competent to make their own records ; at any rate, the time will not permit us to pursue the thread of our local ecclesiastical history further than it is identified with the town as a corporation.
Keene was not slumbering in years gone by, quite so much as the youth of to-day may imagine. So early as October 6, 1819, upon the second anniversary of the Cheshire Agricul- tural Society, three hundred and fifty-six dollars were paid out in premiums.
In Faulkner & Colony's office, whose woollen mill, founded by another generation of the same name, has so long given employment beneficial to so many people, may be seen a piece of the first water-wheel which was set up near that spot in 1776, by Eliphalet Briggs.
In 1814, the proprietors of the New Hampshire Glass Company are asked to meet at Salem Sumner's Tavern, by John Elliot. clerk. Their factory was on the common, at the upper part of Washington street. Twenty-five years ago its even- ing lights gleaming through the windows and crannies of the old building, still blazed upon the outer darkness.
In 1817, Justus Perry advertises " a complete assortment of glass bottles at the Flint Glass Factory, in Keene, and at much .lower prices than the Hartford bottles." His stone building was on Marlboro' street. About the year 1800, Abi- jah Wilder advertises that he has patented a new and useful improvement in sleigh-runners, and in 1813 “ A. & A. Wilder offer patent wheel-heads at twelve dollars a dozen." These were made, it appears, in the old wooden store-house. near Faulkner & Colony's saw-mill. The tan-yard on Main street is an evidence that this industry is not a thing of yesterday
* Seven weeks afterwards, (ou August 19, 1868) occurred the Golden Wedding of Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Barstow, when numerous guests assembled at his homestead, -the old Wyman Tavern already referred to. We may here add that the North room of this mansion, witnessed the consultation, in 1775. ( the evening previous to the march ) of the company which, under Capt. Isaac Wyman, set off for Lex. ington, from " the green " in front of this building.
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among us, being established by that man of enterprise, the late William Lamson, who died between forty and fifty years since. It is now a quarter of a century since our first steam-planing mill was established. And if at an early period there was not so much recreation afforded by the spectacle of the drill of fire companies, the announcement, in 1815. by Isaac Parker, captain, that " the Keene Light Infantry meet for practice," indicates that some sort of drill was going on here. It was as the commander of this company, that General James Wilson delivered the fourth of July oration more than forty years since, standing, as he tells me, in the pulpit of the old church, in his military equipments. .
It may surprise some of us to read an advertisement so early as August 27, 1835, of the " Keene Railroad Company," Salma Hale, Samuel Dinsmoor, Justus Perry, Phineas Han- derson and John A. Fuller being " Commissioners." The stockholders make choice of seven directors. It is stated that " the road is expected to strike the Massachusetts Line in the direction of Lowell or Worcester." How different an as- pect, already, has the Cheshire, actually completed thirteen years after that period, together with the Ashuelot Railroad, not long afterwards, given to Keene? And when we place by the side of this railroad gift, secured for us at so great a sacrifice on the part of its projectors, our * Goose Pond water, which the people love so well that they feel loth to coax it to find any way out of town if it will only come in, we may feel that with the addition of gas and the telegraph, we of the nineteenth century, can, on the whole, as regards the material comforts of life, keep rather more than abreast of our fathers. And yet it did not cost these men as much to travel fifty years ago, as we might now suppose. Under date of July 26, 1825, we read these words, " Seats may now be had from Walpole to Saratoga for the trifling some of one dollar and fifty cents." In 1834, appears the announcement. " The North Star Line of Coaches will take passengers from Keene to Boston for $2.50, and to Lowell by the same price." " By taking this line," it is is added, "you are but twelve hours on the way
* The first report made by any town committee on the subject of " Water," bears date April 14, 1860.
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from Boston to Keene. Try it!" Three years earlier, in 1831, appears this inviting programme, "Connecticut River Valley Steamboat Company. Leave Bellows Falls, Walpole, Westmoreland, for Hartford every Monday; Putney, Chester- field, Brattleboro, Vernon and Hinsdale, every Tuesday ; Northfield and Gill every Wednesday. Return Boats leave every Monday."
In 1840, appears a notice of the annual meeting of the " Keene Thief Detecting Association." When it was formed, and how long it lasted, we do not know. It is, at all events, plain that Keene has not always been slumbering as regards its great moral interests. ·
Look at the subject of Temperance. Let us abundantly rejoice at the existence of a " Reform Club," organized in our city during this centennial year, and numbering more than twenty-four hundred strong, which has aroused us from our transient lethargy. Rev. Dr. Barstow used to say that when he came hither in 1818, he found the custom existing, of pro- viding " spirit" at funerals, for the " bearers," and that he steadfastly resisted it. Under the date of 1820, the Town Records contain this vote : " In order to remove a principal cause of pauperism, Voted, that the Selectmen be requested to see that the laws relating to licensed and unlicensed houses be strictly enforced, and to take such other measures for the suppression of intemperance. as to them may seem advisable."
In 1'829, the " New Hampshire State Temperance Society" was formed. The late Hon. Thomas M. Edwards was choos- en vice president of this Society in 1835. In 1831 we find in Keene, the "Society for the promotion of Temperance," with Dr. Amos Twitchell for president, and * Rev. T. R. Sullivan secretary. In 1836 we perceive a notice of the meeting of the " Young People's Association for the Promotion of Tem- perance."
Upon October 16th, 1841, the .. Keene Total Abstinence Association" is formed, with six hundred signers, Hon. Salina Hale, president. This Society continued its existence more
* At the centennial dinner Rev. Dr. Barstow alluded to Mr. S. as " The distin- guished Thomas Russell Sullivan." He died near Boston, in December, 1862, aged 63. While in Keene he edited The Liberal Preacher.
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than ten years. The " Cheshire County Washington Total Abstinence Society," of which the late Dr. Amos Twitchell was president, held meetings until within about ten years, and has never been formally dissolved. From 1852 to 1855, there were numerous lectures upon this subject delivered among us ; but after the enactment of the desired law, there was too great a disposition to lean too heavily upon their new ally. Yet the " Sons of Temperance," the "Good Templars," the " Keene Temperance League"and the "Keene Temperance Alliance," have been sending forth gleams of light, at inter- vals, into the moral wilderness of Intemperance.
On March 15, 1848, some eight years before the enactment of a prohibitory law, a ballot was taken in town meeting upon this question : "Is it expedient that a law be enacted by the ' General Court,' prohibiting the sale of wine or other spiritu- ous liquors, except for chemical, medicinal, or mechanical pur- poses?" The Town Records show that the vote stood - yeas 183, nays 95.
In 1764, it appears from Hale's Annals, that the town voted six pounds sterling to defray the charges of a school, and in 1766, it is " voted that the security for the money given to the town by Captain Nathaniel Fairbanks, deceased. the in- terest of which was for the use of a school in this town, be delivered to the care of the town treasurer, and his successors in office for the time being." Judge Daniel Newcomb is cred- ited by Josiah P. Cooke, Esq., in Hale's Annals, with having founded a private school abont 1793, mainly at his own ex- pense ; and as the best friend of "good learning" that the town had. "In 1821 the Town Records state that it is voted that the town will, at their annual meeting, in each year, choose five or more suitable persons to constitute a committee of examination, whose duty it shall be to examine those per- sons who shall offer themselves as instructors of the public schools within the town ; and in 1823, it is voted that Zede- kiah S. Barstow, Aaron Appleton, John Elliot. John Prentiss and Thomas M. Edwards, be a committee to examine teach- ers, agreeably to the vote of the town."
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