USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > New Castle > Bi-centennial souvenir, 1693-1893 : New Castle, New Hampshire > Part 4
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This daring enterprise, in which your townsmen took part, assigns to the spot where we now stand a place of honor as the scene of the first overt act of rebellion in the colonies. New Castle is thus brought into the very fore- ground of the opening scenes of the Revolution.
You well know the story of Governor John Wentworth's coming hither to seek the shelter of the fort, and of the ships of war in the harbor. There are in the town office two letters written by the governor at that time to the selectmen of New Castle.
On the 13th August, 1775, the selectmen (John Simpson, Henry Pres- cott, and George Frost, Jr.) addressed the governor, stating that the town had kept a watch at night, and that "about Twelve o'clock last night they were attacked by a number of men from His Majesty's ship, the Scarborough, one of whom was taken and carried aboard, and another wounded." The select - men pronounce it " a very extraordinary and alarming piece of conduct," and they ask that the man be released and set on shore. The governor prom- ises to look promptly into the affair, with what result it does not appear.
On the 17th August, the governor requests the seiectmen that he be sup- plied with provisions, for which he will pay, he having at least twenty in the family, and no communication with Portsmouth. The selectmen reply in a tone respectful, but spirited, as follows :
"May it please Your Excellency :
" In answer to Your Excellency's Letter of this Day we are sorry to inform you that this Town is so poorly furnished with Provisions of any kind that it is quite out of our Power to furnish your Excellency, and as the Com- munication is now stoped with Respects to the Transportation of Provisions from the Country to this Town it is not in our Power to procure more than a bare sufficiency for our own subsistence, all which we are obliged to go to l'ortsmouth for.
" We are Your Excellencies most obedt. Humble Servants
" John Simpson, " Henry Prescott " Selectmen of New Castle
"New Castle Augt : 17 : 1775"
During the Revolution earthworks higher up the river were relied upon for the defence of Portsmouth. The fort here was left with but a handful of men. Captain Meshach Bell at one time had just six men under his com- mand. In the War of 1812 it was fully garrisoned under Captain Marshal. In 1861 the state troops garrisoned Fort Constitution.
As an incident of the Revolution, it may be mentioned that on the Ist
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December, 1777, a ship arrived here from Europe bringing Baron Steuben, who came over to aid us. To that gallant officer's wonderful work in per- fecting the drill of the continental soldier was due, as you know, no small measure of our success.
On Monday, the 2d November, 1789, this fort gave a glad welcome of thir- teen guns to George Washington, president of the United States, who was being rowed by in a barge. At this date Captain John Blunt, who had piloted Washington's boat across the Delaware on the memorable eve of the Battle of Trenton, was living on Blunt's Island. It is thought that Wash- ington went ashore there to see Captain Blunt in his own home. 1
The military service required of the inhabitants of this town, it must be remembered, was promptly furnished at the fort. Yet there were those who enlisted and went forth to military duties in the field. Ten years ago there were living in New Castle one pensioner of the War of 1812, Abram Ama- zeen ; and five widows of soldiers that served in that war,-Mrs. Mary White, Mrs. Hannah F. Vennard, Mrs. Grace Beal, Mrs. Mary Kinnear, and Mrs. Mary Lear. Mrs. Kinnear died at the age of 95 years and 9 months.
During the War for the Union New Castle contributed of her men and means. On last Memorial Day flowers and the flag that we love so well marked the spot where those lay sleeping at Riverside and at Tarltons who died in order that the Union might live. They number eight at the former and ten at the latter cemetery.
A full list of officers of the army who have been stationed at Fort Constitu- tion would be interesting. I have not had time to prepare it. Of the com- manding officers the following partial list is, I think, approximately correct : 1821, Major John B. Walbach ; 1822, Captain Fabius Whiting ; 1829, Cap- tain Felix Ansart ; 1839, Captain Justin Dimick; 1849, Major Charles S. Merchant; 1849, Captain Richard D. A. Wade ; 1850, Major John M. Wash- ington ; 1853, Captain William Austine.
In December, 1853, Lieutenant-Colonel Washington and Captain Horace B. Field (who had been stationed here), of the 3d Artillery, were lost in a gale on the ill-fated steamer San Francisco, when four officers and one hun- dred and eighty men perished. As a boy I can remember the company marching up across the Parade at Portsmouth, on their way to Fort Colum- bus, New York harbor, thence to be transferred to the Pacific coast. Lieu- tenant Winder was among the saved .?
Colonel Justin Dimick and his family were long identified with New Cas- tle and Portsmouth. I may also mention the fact that Major Robert Ander- son, of Fort Sumter fame, was stationed here as first lieutenant in 1834-'35. Another officer was Francis Vinton, second lieutenant (1833-'36), who re- signed and became eminent as the Reverend Doctor Vinton, of New York city.
Sergeant James Davidson, who had sole charge of the fort for many years,
1 During their terms of office President Pierce came here in the Wabash, man-of-war, and President Arthur was taken through New Castle on his way to Portsmouth.
" His son, Lieut. William Winder of the navy, was born at Fort Constitution.
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deserves honorable remembrance. On the morning of the 2d June, 1855, the frigate Constitution, lying off this harbor, fired a salute. It was returned from the fort, the sergeant himself firing it alone. I can easily recall with what admiration, when a boy, I regarded the soldierly bearing of Sergeant Davidson.
New Castle in 1686 became a port of entry. The trade was then confined to the products of the forest-masts, planks, and staves,-the fisheries having been given over. Twenty vessels of 290 tons belonged to Great Island in IGSI.
In 1839 the fishing business was very extensive. Fifty schooners were owned here in whole or in part. Captain Thomas Tarlton was a large owner. So was Captain Thomas E. Oliver. Other owners were the Bickfords, the Batsons, Whites, Curtises, and Amazeens.
Some years later the manufacture of shoes was carried on here for a while with some success.
In former times, when the fishermen were off at their business, political excitement occasionally dropped to a low ebb. A town meeting was duly warned for the last Monday in August, 1794, to vote for four representatives in the Congress of the United States. The following entry appears on the back of the warrant :
" Monday, August 25, 1794. The select men assembled at the meeting House agreeable to the within warrant but as no others came except Henry Prescott Jun'r, they thought best to depart without doing any business. Henry Prescott, Town Clerk."
There has never been over much wealth in New Castle, and the sea-faring element las predominated. Boys did not go to college : they went to sea. New Castle's claim to men of distinction is a modest one.
Theodore Atkinson was chief-justice of the province. Colonel Shadrach Walton was a man whose career would have done honor to any locality. Ilis great-grandson, Benjamin Randall, also a native, was a man of rare merit, the founder of the Freewill Baptist denomination. The first president pro tem. of the senate of the United States, the patriot John Langdon, was born in the town of New Castle. John Frost is the name of one of New Hampshire's best and most useful citizens. Sampson Sheafe was councillor for more than twenty years; Jacob Sheafe, his son, was born here in 1715. George W. Prescott (who died in 1817) was graduated from Dartmouth, be- came a lawyer, and was United States attorney for the district of New Hamp- shire. I am told that Harriet Prescott Spofford is of this Prescott family.
Now that a new era has dawned for New Castle, and summer visitors are more than charmed by its attractions, the town gets the benefit of some re- flected light in a literary way. If the poet be neither made nor born here, he at least sojourns here awhile. John Albee is one of us. The Town Report shows that he is still in the sunshine of civic distinction, being number three on the board of education. Arlo Bates was a bird of passage, but Stedman and Barrett Wendell are of our summer population. The latter is identified with our home industries, for I understand that he keeps a literary work-
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shop at full blast here in a little building hid away somewhere in the woody region of Frost Fields. . Besides these whom I have named, as brilliant a historian as ever wrote English loves New Castle so well that he comes and dwells where on summer days he can from his window at Little Harbor look out upon the river view that he has so faithfully painted in a late volume of that fascinating series, " The Conquest of Canada."
There remain not a few subjects which for lack of time I am obliged to pass over without mention. The topography of the town, with special ref- erence to territory once of incorporated New Castle, that now belongs to Rye or to Portsmouth ; the bridges, early and late, and the means resorted to for raising funds wherewith to build them; the joining of Rye to New Castle in sending a representative to the General Court ; the experiment of annexing Star Island in 1716, and how it turned out ; the old custom of nightly hanging a lautern upon the flagstaff at the fort before a light-house was thought of; the long line of faithful ministers of the gospel who have labored here, not forgetting in this connection the Reverend Mr. Chase's negro man Cuff, " the saxton," who rang the bell and cleaned the meeting-house; the changes that followed the opening of The Wentworth, the enterprise of its owner in beautifying the grounds, sparing no paius to render it a summer dwelling-place worthy of the views one gains there, views that once seen are never forgotten. These, and many other topics, were full of interest could we bring them before us.
We have thus for a few brief moments contemplated the New Castle of the past. We have seen her the home of a sturdy, a frugal, a self-respecting people. We have seen her true to the traditions of her Anglo-Saxon, lib- erty-loving ancestry. We have seen her prompt in war; hardy and industri- ous in peace. We have seen in her annals the bright incentive to the main- tenance of a high standard of activity for the future.
Let us in turn uphold her honor and dignity. Grateful that Providence has watched over and protected our whole country, let us for the new century upon which we have now entered look forward to blessings yet to come, in the full hope that as prosperity shall dwell within our borders as a Nation, so shall the Divine favor in no small measure continue to rest upon this good, old, island town of NEW CASTLE.
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