USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Charlestown > Annals of Charlestown in the county of Sullivan, New Hampshire > Part 3
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The first vote found in the town records, respecting schools, was passed in August, 1763, when it was voted that there shall be a school kept in town for the future, and that it shall be kept in different parts of the town in proportion to what each part shall pay toward said school.
In 1763 the small-pox made its appearance in the main fort, of which six or seven died; brought in by some of the British soldiers.
In May, 1768, Capt. Simon [?] Stevens was chosen a representative to represent the town in the General Assem- bly, at Portsmouth; the first representative of Charles- town.
In May, 1770, a vote was passed by the town that the
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SOME OF CHARLESTOWN'S SHADED STREETS
burying yard should be cleared, and fenced with a good and sufficient board fence, and that a burying cloth should be purchased for the use of the town.
In March, 1770, the town voted to raise, and assess on the inhabitants, twenty-seven pounds for the benefit of schools. At the same time it was voted that the town should be divided into three districts, and that each dis- trict should draw out an equal proportion, according to their other assessment, to be converted to the use afore- said; that they should otherwise forfeit their proportion, or such part thereof, as shall not be appropriated to the use aforesaid, to the use of such district, as shall convert the same to the use aforesaid.
On the 19th of March, 1771, the province of New Hamp- shire was divided into five counties, when Charlestown became a half shire. The Superior Court, however, did not hold their sessions here till a considerable time after.
In August, 1771, John Hastings, Jr., was chosen grand juror, to serve at his Majesty's Superior Court, to be hold- en at Keene on the third Tuesday of the following Septem- ber; and at an adjourned meeting a few days after, "a box being prepared according to law," Lieut. Samuel Hunt was drawn to serve as petit juror at the same court. Capt. Sylvanus Hastings was the first grand juror for the Court of General Sessions, and Seth Walker, Jr., the first petit juror.
On the 24th of October, 1774, Lieut. Samuel Hunt and Elijah Grout were chosen as a committee to join with oth- er committees from the several towns in the county, who were to assemble at the house of Capt. John Bellows in Walpole. It is recorded that the committee from Charles- town were furnished with instructions; but of their nature or the object of the meeting at Walpole, no information is given.
On the 19th of January, 1775, Mr. Elijah Grout was chosen to represent Charlestown, at Exeter, on the 25th of the month, to choose delegates to send to the general
Congress, to be holden at Philadelphia the next May.
In August, 1775, Samuel Hunt, Wm. Heywood, Abel Walker, Samuel Stevens, Esq., and Elijah Grant were appointed a committee of safety for the town of Charles- town.
In June, 1776, Samuel Wetherbe, Jotham White and Ebenezer Farnsworth were appointed a committee for preparing a place to receive persons infected with the small-pox, or who should accidentally take it.
On the 6th of February, 1778, it was voted that the rep- resentative of this town be instructed to assent to all the articles of confederation, as proposed by Congress, except the 8th article, relative to which he is instructed to use his endeavor to procure such alleviation, as that the charges and expenses may be defrayed in the United States, and be proportioned on all estates, real or personal, as has been usually practised in this State; and that this town instruct their representative at the next session to use his endeavor to appoint and call a full and free representation of all the people in this State, to meet in Convention at such time and place, as they may appoint, for the sole purpose of framing and laying a permanent plan, or system, for the future government of this State.
In May, 1778, Col. Samuel Hunt was chosen to represent Charlestown, at a convention to be holden at Concord on the 10th of the following June. At the same time it was voted, that 200 pounds be raised to defray the expenses of those families, whose heads were engaged in the conti- nental army.
On the 8th of December, 1778, Capt. Samuel Wetherbe was chosen to represent Charlestown at a convention to be holden at Cornish, on the 2d Wednesday of the month. The object of this convention was the adjustment of diffi- culties, which had arisen between Vermont and the towns admitted into their confederation on the eastern side of Connecticut river. In June, 1778, sixteen towns in New Hampshire, representing "that they were not connected
with any State, with respect to their internal police," re- quested to be received in union with the State of Vermont. After much deliberation and hesitancy the Assembly of Vermont granted their petition; and further resolved, that any other towns on the east side of the Connecticut river, might be admitted into the union by a vote of a majority of the inhabitants, or by sending a representative. In the Assembly of Vermont, convened at Windsor, a question arose, "whether the towns on the east side of Connecticut river, which had been admitted into union with Vermont, should be formed into a county by themselves;" and the vote passed in the negative. The members from these towns then withdrew from the Assembly, and were fol- lowed by fifteen of the representatives from some of the towns in Vermont, adjoining the river, with the deputy governor and two assistants. The members, who had withdrawn themselves from the Assembly, formed into a convention, and gave an invitation to the towns on both sides of Connecticut river, to unite, and to meet with them in convention at Cornish, N. H., Dec. 9, 1778. The people on both sides of Connecticut river wished to form a gov- ernment, the centre and seat of which should be upon the river.
On the 9th of March, 1779, Josiah Hunt was drawn as juryman to serve at the Court to be holden at Charlestown the next April. At the same time, Capt. Samuel Wetherbe was chosen to serve as grand juror at the Court of General Sessions of the peace, first to be holden at Charlestown on the first Thursday following the second Tuesday in April next. At the same time, Messrs. Elijah Grout and Simeon Olcott, were appointed a committee to give instructions to their representative respecting the grants on the west side of Connecticut river.
On the 16th of August, 1779, Elijah Grant, Samuel Wetherbe, Peter Laboree, Constant Hart and Bradstreet Spafford were appointed a committee to hire and pay five men, called for out of the town, to enter the service, and
pay them their respective bounties.
Sept. 13, 1779, Col. Samuel Hunt was chosen to repre- sent Charlestown, agreeably to the request of the select- men of Portsmouth, at a convention to be holden at Con- cord the 22d of the month.
On the 7th of December, 1779, the town voted to pay Constant Hart the sum of sixty pounds for going to New- bury, in Coos, to engage, and pay the bounties of several continental soldiers, who enlisted during the war for said Charlestown; also, to pay said Hart eighteen pounds for keeping a continental woman, while sick, and for trans- porting said woman to Walpole.
On the 13th of November, 1780, Col. Samuel Hunt and Dr. William Page were chosen to join a convention of com- mittees from the several towns in this county, to be holden at Walpole on the 15th of the month.
On the 8th of December, 1780, Col. Samuel Hunt, Dr. William Page and Capt. Samuel Wetherbe were appointed to represent Charlestown, in a convention there to be holden on the third Tuesday of the next January.
The convention was holden at Charlestown on the day appointed, and was attended by delegates from 43 towns. A majority voted in favor of uniting with the State of Vermont.
On the 16th of the following April, the town voted, "that, whereas this town has, since the commencement of the present year, been at sundry times called upon for beef, money, etc., by the State of New Hampshire, they will not pay to the said State any of the articles above mentioned."
On the 3d of the following May, upwards of forty of the inhabitants of Charlestown took the freeman's oath, re- quired by the State of Vermont.
On the 8th of August, 1782, the inhabitants of Charles- town agreed to comply with the demand, made by an act of the General Assembly for 1781, and which, on the 16th of April, 1781, they had peremptorily refused to answer.
"The continental Congress having proposed and recom- mended such an alteration in the 8th article of the confed- eration, as to make the population of the several States, instead of the value of the granted land therein, the rule for the apportionment of national taxes," the town voted, on the 2d of September, 1783, that they would not make the proposed alteration in the 8th article of the confedera- tion. On the same day they voted, that the Chief Magis- trate of this State have the title of President.
On the 29th of January, 1788, the town chose Benjamin West, Esq., to represent Charlestown, in a convention to be holden at Exeter, on the second Tuesday of the following February, for the investigation of matters, relative to the Federal Constitution.
Since the above mentioned period, Charlestown has "kept the even tenor of its way," and furnished no inci- dents worthy of particular mention. With respect to that quiet and peaceable life, which passes without observation, the inhabitants of the place have been rather a peculiar people; an honorable, though unhonored distinction. Charlestown is not distinguished as a place of business, having very few of the privileges, necessary to the manu- facturer; and is regarded as less favorable for the acquisi- tion of property, than pleasant for expending it. The salubrity of the place may be inferred from the fact, that during the twenty-four last years, the annual number of deaths in the south parish, containing between ten and eleven hundred inhabitants, has been fourteen only; and from the further circumstance, that an uncommon number of the deceased arrived at a good old age. Of those who died in this period, the ages of sixty-four, (the youngest of them being seventy), make an average of seventy-nine years for each. Of the sixty-four, two died at the age of 90 years, one 93, and one 97. The oldest person, now liv- ing in Charlestown, is a Mr. Carpenter, aged 95. The oldest native of Charlestown, now living in the place, is the widow of the Hon. John Hubbard, and daughter of
Capt. Stevens, the brave defender of the fort. She was born in the fort in 1750.
Of the public characters furnished by Charlestown, we can make but a cursory mention. The Hon. JOHN HUB- BARD was many years county treasurer; was appointed judge of probate for the county of Cheshire, 16 July, 1789, and continued in office until the close of 1797. He died in 1806, at the age of 54 years.
Hon. SAMUEL STEVENS, son of Capt. Phinehas Stevens, was often the representative from Charlestown; was six years one of the counsellors of the State, and many years register of probate, in which office he continued till his death, at the age of 88 years. He died 17 November, 1823. "By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted."
Col. SAMUEL HUNT, an active military officer in the French and revolutionary wars, was settled in Charles- town in 1759, and was appointed the first sheriff of the county, under the new constitution, in 1784, and filled the office till his death in 1799.
Hon. SIMEON OLCOTT, a native of Bolton, Connecticut, was graduated at Yale College in 1761; commenced the practice of law in Charlestown; was appointed chief jus- tice of the court of common pleas, in 1784; associate jus- tice of the superior court in 1790; chief justice in 1795, and senator in Congress in 1801. In his intercourse with society he was distinguished by that charity, which think- eth no evil, and does good, as it has opportunity; and in the character of judge, he manifested less regard for the letter of the law than for the spirit of equity. He died in 1815, aged 79.
Hon. BENJAMIN WEST, was graduated at Harvard Col- lege in 1768; settled in Charlestown in the practice of law; was a member of the convention for accepting the Consti- tution of the United States; was elected member of con- gress, but declined the office; was an elector of President and Vice President of the United States; and a member of the Hartford Convention. "At the bar he was among the
SOUTH PARISH CHURCH, destroyed 1842
first of his profession. His application, learning and integ- rity gave him great and merited influence." He died in 1817, aged 71.
Among the distinguished features of the village, are its neatness, its long and pleasant street, shaded by a row of elms on one side and a row of maples on the other; and its regularly located, well proportioned, though not splendid, buildings. But the building, worthy of special observa- tion, is the church, erected in 1820, at the expense of seven thousand and five hundred dollars. Its materials are brick, and its dimensions, 70 feet in length, 60 in breadth and 32 between joints. It contains an elegant and excellent organ, purchased in 1829, at the expense of about 1200 dollars. It occupies a conspicuous place precisely in the centre of the village. "Of the order of architecture, to which it belongs, we cannot speak with any confidence, as its founders, with a fearlessness and independence, pecu- liar to New England, paid no deference to the ideas of elegance, entertained either by their contemporaries or predecessors, but fashioned it according to their own taste; and satisfied with the result of their labors, they did not trouble themselves with the invention of a name, justly thinking, that, to the uninitiated, it was a matter of no consequence; and that to all, acquainted with the myster- ies of architecture, the work would speak for itself."
A few rods north of the meeting house, on the opposite side of the street, is the bank, a neat, well proportioned building of brick, erected in 1824. The capital is a hun- dred thousand dollars.
Opposite to the bank, on a lane, leading castward from the main street, stands the deserted court house; deserted, it having been considered expedient, in 1827, that "the place of judgment" should thenceforward be at Newport. On the opposite side of the main street, and not far distant from the court house, stands its natural accompaniment, the jail, rapidly hastening to dissolution. It is to receive no repairs, since a receptacle of a similar character is
probably to be erected in a more suitable meridian.
About a mile and a half from the village, there is in erection across the Connecticut, a bridge between Charles- town and Springfield, Vt., of "an elegant structure, sup- ported by two piers of granite, with abutments of the same material. The piers are about forty-two feet high, the floor of the bridge being about thirty-two feet from low water mark. The piers are sixty-two feet long at the bottom, and sixteen wide. On the up-stream side of each pier, and united with it, is an inclined plane of granite, and capped with oak timber, bolted to the stone work, to receive and break the ice, and other obstructions, which may float against them. The base of the inclined plane is about 25 feet. The piers are secured by iron bolts and bars, running from the down corners angularly to the centre. The superstructure is 506 feet long and 25 wide, and is built upon the plan of Ithiel Downes' patent. It is supported upon the piers at distances of 168 feet from the centre of each pier. The support of the superstructure is by two continued trellises 15 feet high, one on each side, and extending through the whole length of the bridge. These trellises are composed entirely of sawed plank three inches thick, and twelve inches wide, placed diagonally in the form of lattice work, having two string pieces on each side at top and bottom, the whole being secured together at each intersection by four two-inch treenails, and with- out the aid of iron work of any description, and without mortice or tenon, or any cutting of the plank other than by the auger. The trellises are closely boarded on the out- side, and the whole is covered with a handsome shingled roof, resting on the top string pieces. The bridge is to be lighted in the day by six dead lights in the sides, and six glazed sky-lights in the roof; and in the night by large lamps, suspended from the centre of the beam over head."
The contractors for erecting the bridge, are Mr. Isaac Damons and Mr. Lyman Kingsley of Northampton, Mass .; to the former of whom we are indebted for the above de-
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HALL GRIST MILL built in 1833
scription of the bridge. The stone work is under the superintendence of Mr. Isaac Silsby of Charlestown. It is estimated that the expense of the bridge will be twelve thousand dollars.
About a mile from the village, and on the spot where Spafford's mills were burned in 1746, and again in 1757, and where recently stood the mills, erected in 1804 by Oliver Hall, Esq., there is now in erection by his son, Mr. Horace Hall, a grist mill of a superior structure, and of durable materials. The edifice is a square, the breadth of its sides 40 feet, and its height on the west end is 80 feet. The materials of the front and corners are granite and the residue of stone from the neighboring hills. The whole edifice is founded on a rock, and during the preparations for the foundation, were discovered among the rubbish, fragments of the mills burnt by the Indians. The diame- ter of the waterwheel is 28 feet; and its weight about six tons. The extent of the fall is between 40 and 50 feet, and the borders on the stream beneath are beautifully variegated by trees and shrubs; the whole in the direction of the stream exhibiting a peculiarly romantic appearance.
In the village of Charlestown are two libraries, one con- sisting of about 400 volumes and the other of 480.
Of the religious character of Charlestown, it is reported to have been said by way of reproach, that they cared too little for religion even to quarrel about it. That they care too little; that they manifest far less, than the desirable interest in the subject, it would be presumptuous to deny; but that they are, in such deficiencies, a peculiar people, it would be equally presumptuous to suppose. We cannot but hope, that no inconsiderable portion in their apparent failure in the comparison, sometimes made, arises from their impression, that religion was designed for salutary effect rather than for display; that it is its chief purpose to make and preserve the heart right with God, and not to secure the observation of man; that its best display is the work of righteousness. We have adverted to the general
disposition of the people to lead quiet and peaceable lives; but whether they do it in godliness and honesty, must be determined before a tribunal, at which neither they, nor their accusers, are to preside.
Charlestown, October, 1833.
EXPLANATORY
The cut of the South Parish Church completed in 1798 shows the Walker house, Church, Darrah Tavern, Sylves- ter's Store, and glimpses of the Eagle Hotel and Jail. This cut, also the one showing the Church and Darrah Tavern which were burned in 1842 were made from old drawings.
The cuts of village homes and streets were used through the courtesy of the Advocate Press of Claremont, N. H. The house owned by Miss Clapp is the old Gov. Hubbard mansion; that owned by A. T. Morse, as a summer home, is the old Benj. West place, later owned by Geo. Olcott; that of Mrs. W. H. Labaree is on the site of the old Fort. The Memorial Boulder and Tablet marking this spot was placed in August, 1904 on the 150th. anniversary of the cap- ture of the Johnson family.
The historic Eagle Hotel was burned in December, 1904.
The original Johnson house forms a part of that now oc- cupied by John Fish.
The Evans House, which for a time was the home of Miss Pratt's School for Girls, was burned in 1891.
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