USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Milford > Celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Milford, New Hampshire, June 26, 1894 : including the proceedings of the committee, addresses, poem, and other exercises of the occasion > Part 6
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We declined to retain funds obtained from the proceeds of local concerts, given from time to time. A considerable sum was realized from one benefit entertainment for planting and protecting the trees now shad- ing the encircling public ground on the square. Our venerable and. honored townsman, Rev. Mr. Moore, set the elm now standing in the centre. He said to me, "The sterile soil needs fertilizers. Will you allow me to take a few wheelbarrow loads from your field ?" " Most cer- tainly." We assisted him to do what every one ought to do, plant a tree. His industrious habits were a constant stimilus to well doing. His humor and cheerful sayings were the life and spur of the town. Origi- nality was a marked feature along his professional career, as when he " brushed in his wild oats " at college. I recall his mystic prayer on a masonic occasion, " We pray for we know not what. If it is good, bless it; if bad, cuss it. Amen." Being a Congregationalist, he could do no better. He was a sprinkler. Immersion with him was superfluous. I heard him pray thus, at a Baptist revival. "One Lord, one faith." The latter word was very much suppressed and qualified. He did not wish to offend. And he was asked by brother Joshua, concerning his health, and answered in his lisping way: "I am perfectly thound above my knees."
"It was said of him, as representative, while discussing, at the State House at Concord, some question of thrift among his constituents, that he remarked, "one man, Jesse Hutchinson, beside his other products, is making money by raising boys. He built a house for his Euclid, and Harriet, his wife, both comparatively small people. The question was asked him, " What are you going to do ?" He said he was going to raise Tom Thumbs.
Rev. Mark Carpenter, of the Baptist Church, was more of a horse jockey than Bro. Moore. He would swap until his steed would win in the race. He could hammer his pulpit when his brains refused activity. He was a lover of music, however, and could teach. My brother Asa and I, being denied the opportunity to attend the public school in the village, requested the privilege of reciting our lessons to him, but horse was on his mind, he could not take in the jacks, so we repaired to the Lyceum, and they heard us gladly.
One day, being in the Unitarian meeting in the old Town Hall, I was seated by Mr. Livermore and daughter. Seeing I had no hymn-book that day, he brought me one the following Sunday. He handed me a
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book, supposing it was the very kind. The hymn was called. Opening the book, I discovered that a mistake had been made. I had an arith- metic, but being satisfied no evil was intended, I kept it open and most lustily sang on the hymns as they were given out, and no one noticed any discrepancy. In the afternoon he gave me the real hymns, while he had the figures and wrestled with the problem. I struggled to suppress a smile until meeting was done, when we shook hands, as honors were equal. This proved a tie of warm friendship ever after.
I think I was the first come-outer in New Hampshire, having with- drawn, for conscience' sake, in 1835, after membership from the age of 10 to 15.
Looking backward over the century just rounded out, we realize that, compared with any previous 100 years, it has proved an eventful period in the march of civilization. The inventive genius of the race has been taxed to its utmost. We have had handed down to us, as it were from some ethereal sphere, the wonders of the ages. The arts and sciences have filled the land with culture, and produced revolutions in numerous appliances in the mechanical world, all of which are labor sav- ing. When adapted to the necessities of the generation, they will prove inestimable blessings to the whole race of man. We mention here a few of these great developed powers : Steam, in its multifarious adaptations to mechanics. In navigation, it makes the ocean a highway for ponder- ous vessels, freighted with the products of all nations. It drives the engine with its numerous trains loaded with its human beings over the railroad tracks of the land, it "speeds the plow " and sets the millions of spindles in our factories in motion. It cooks our food, it warms our homes, and to make all safe, it seems but to utter this injunction,
" Harness me down with your iron bands, Be sure of your curb and rein."
Edison, Thomson, and Houston, with their electric plants controll- ing the most powerful element in nature, with its " still small voice," commands the thoroughfares of city and country-with its staff pointing up toward heaven, touching by its revolving trolley the electric cord, de- manding in no uncertain way the mighty propelling power, and with its neatness and purity displacing the animal kingdom, whose over-burdened draught has so long taxed the sympathies to pity. This power turns night into day, and brightens our way, aiding the struggling moonbeam's misty light until the orb of day, the eye of the Father of light, elimi- nates all darkness. With the advent of these inventions shall many more enter smiling at the door.
But social has not kept pace with mechanical progress. A struggle is now pending. The monopolies of wealth have usurped the inventive genius of the people for their own aggrandizement, and humbled the man to a beggarly attitude. They heed not the voice of the populace, " We starve, we die, O give us bread " ( work). There must be something wrong.
BAPTIST CHURCH.
٠
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The wide door to the arena of politics is about to open, and woman is waiting to step in and occupy her sphere as helpmeet to her brother man. Our national Congress is a stigma before the world, a satire on progress. Its members refuse the light as men alone may do, for their deeds are evil.
VOTE IT RIGHT ALONG.
Who votes for women suffrage now Will add new laurels to his brow, His children's children, with holy fire Will chant in praise their patriot sire. No warrior's wreath of glory shed A brighter lustre o'er the head Than he who battles selfish pride And votes with woman side by side.
This shall unfold his better part,
Delight his spirit and warm his heart; No jealous thought shall haunt his brain,
And Eden's peace he shall regain. For an equal partner shall be his bride, No holy joy shall be denied, As equal rights their motto be Together journeying o'er life's sea.
Their first great vote to close shall be These gilded haunts of infamy -
The poor, besotted wretch shallsknow That woman has closed the gates of woe, The light of truth shall shine again, And temperance on the earth shall reign ; The night of darkness disappear,
The millenial day shine bright and clear.
Then let us all unite in love To emulate the hosts above ; Be just, be brave, be good and true Doing to others as they'd to you. Build high humanity's sacred cause, Obeying conscience and its laws, We.reach at last the ethereal sphere, Know God, and all his works revere.
It would be a good plan to send more educated laymen and fewer lawyers to Congress, or else some industrial army will grasp the sceptre, and a revolution will succeed this indifference to the cries of God's poor. " Life is the time to serve the Lord." This principle has stimulated the action of the Hutchinson family, and as opportunity offered, we have availed ourselves of a chance to work in His vineyard. At the lec- ture given by Frederic Douglass in Boston last month, I was introduced to say a few words and to sing a song. I begged the privilege, previous to the singing, of introducing George Latimase, once a slave, who had accompanied me to the platform. I said that 52 years ago, I went with my brother Jesse from Lynn to Boston to rescue this man. We sang, as we entered the chapel to meet the convention, "O liberate the bond- man." While discussing the plan of rescue, it was announced that the slave was free. Some friend, then unknown, had furnished the price
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set by the master, and $400 [was paid for his ransom. I said, " What lack of wisdom in our legislators and the community at large to sacrifice a million of the flower of the land, and thousands of millions in treasure when the policy adopted by the mother country, to purchase all the slaves and save the agony of transformation might have been adopted. This man has been an industrious citizen for more than half a century. We then sang ""Over the mountain," etc.
With my family, son Harry, and daughter Viola, I sung to the sol- diers on the Potomac, and so provoked the rebel element in the army as to cause our expulsion. But Lincoln and his cabinet reinstated us, and Gen. McClellan was asked to report at Trenton. The government was not in favor of returning these contrabands of war. We had sung Whittier's great song, "The Furnace Blast."
At the funeral of Johnf.G. Whittier I said a few words, and Sister Abby helped me to sing: -
"As man may, he fought his fight, Proved his truth by his eadeavor ; Let his name in golden light Live forever audįforever."
In behalf of all my brothers and sisters in the Spirit Land, I would say, as they would, be steadfast and ardent; help one another; be zeal- ous in love's high calling - "slow to smite and swift to spare "; labor for the country's good.
Mothers, sisters, lovers ! The millenial day is about to dawn. Lay aside the habiliments of mourning ;the day of rejoicinghis at hand. You need not apprehend the babes at your breasts will be nursed to sup- ply the army of greed and be slaughtered to nourish averice All future vexing questions of diplomacy with the nations of the earth will be adjusted by arbitration.
"O, then will come the glorious day, And may it lastiforever, When all the nations of the earth In peace shall dwell together."
Let this be our motto as we enter in upon the second century of our municipality : " The Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of Man."
S.a Rams dell
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HON. G. A. RAMSDELL.
President Wallace :- The first century of the town is replete with important and interesting events, which it is desirable should be pre- served in historical form for the use of the future generations, and not be suffered to pass into oblivion. The town is fortunate in having a distinguished son descended from two of the noted families of Milford, who has kindly undertaken the task for which he is so well fitted by education and ability, the Hon. George A. Ramsdell, who will now favor us with some historical sketches of Milford.
MR. PRESIDENT :
We are celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the incorpor- ation of this town. But when we think and talk of its real history, it is fit and proper to add half a century and think and talk of everything which has transpired for one hundred and fifty years, upon the soil which today we proudly call the town of Milford.
The first white man to build a human habitation within the present limits of the town was Thomas Nevins. His location was in the south- eastern part of the town. Nothing remains to mark the spot save evi- dences that a cellar once existed. The permanent settlement of the town began when William Peabody commenced to clear the farm on the north side of the river, which as a part of Amherst had been given to his father by the State of Massachusetts, on account of the service of his grandfather in King Phillips war, and which remained in the Peabody name more than one hundred years.
In imagination let me roll back the wheels of time one hundred and fifty years and what do we here behold. Peabody established on his farm-John Shepard with his grist and saw mill erected on the Gilson privilege, given to him by the town of Amherst, on condition that he build a mill, the machinery of which was to be dragged part of the way by hand through the forests-Benj. Hopkins, with his friend and hired man Caleb Jones, laying the foundations of his bullet proof dwelling a little north of the residence of the late Luke Smith, on his magnificent farm of over eleven hundred acres-John Burns hocing his corn on the Geo. W. Duncklee farm about a mile and a half from where we stand. These five men with their families (excepting of course the Nevins set- tlement) made up the entire population of our territory one hundred and fifty years ago. It is not certain that Hopkins and Burns had com- pleted their dwellings so as to be counted actual settlers in 1744, but they were here a part of the year at least at work upon the land.
These men were followed by Nathan Hutchinson, who bought of Hopkins a part of the Charlestown school farm and settled where Edwin D. Searles now lives-by Elisha Town whose cabin was built a little northeast of the East Milford railroad station-by Andrew Bradford, who settled upon the J. Fitch Crosby place-by Abner Hutchinson whose
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home was near the residence of the late John Bartlett on the north side of the river-by Capt. Josiah Crosby, who chose the farm now owned by his descendants on the Wilton road-by William Wallace who built upon the hillside, near the residence of the late David Hutchinson, on the old Mont Vernon road. Caleb Jones, after serving Hopkins, for a sufficient time, but less than seven years, took his daughter Deborah for a wife, and set up keeping house in what was then known as the mile slip.
The prosperous condition of things all about us cannot be ac- counted for without some reference to the men and women who made the first permanent settlement in this valley. Of the first;eleven families clearing the forests and making the homes here, nine were from Massa- chusetts, and presumably of Puritan stock; two were from the London- derry colony and of Scotch-Irish origin, a good mixture of blood for a town, state or nation. I am not unfamiliar with the histories of the New Hampshire towns, and with confidence born of careful study, I know it can truthfully be said that the men who laid the foundations of this town were of no common mould, and that the names of Peabody, Shepard, Jones, Nathan Hutchinson, Bradford, Town, Crosby, Wallace and Abner Hutchinson, should be pronounced with reverence, notwith- standing Jones was a little eccentric and early in life planted a cherry tree, had it cut into boards, out of which he made a coffin for his own burial, and kept it in his dwelling until the time of his decease.
These men, with wives who were help meets indeed, were all settled upon our soil before the year 1735, and"were in the front ranks of the founders of the town of Milford. There were, in fact, but few other in- habitants within our limits at this early day. Of these forefathers it can be remarked, that as a whole they were men of uncommon strength of character; that all had honorable careers; that, without exception, they remained in town, and were buried by their children, and I believe without exception today are honorably represented among the inhabi- tants of the town. I have made search for something like it, but find no instance where all the early settlers are so well; represented after the lapse of nearly a century and a half.
Jonathan Towne, the ancestor of the latejWm. E. Towne, to whose well-directed zeal in historical matters and productive labor upon; the early history of Milford familes we are much indebted, came here in 1759, and was followed by Ebenzer Pearson, in 1762, and long line of worthy settlers.
I pass by all that these men and their children did in the last cen- tury. You have already heard how nobly Capt. Josiah Crosby and others bore themselves at Bunker Hill, how valiently Andrew Bradford's son, Capt. John, and others, fought at Bennington, and come to the opening of the present century.
The year of 1802 saw the settlement of Humphrey Moore, and the year 1809, brought to town the young lawyer, Solomon K. Livermore.
They were men of large minds and warm hearts, graduates of Har- vard College and life-long friends. I doubt not that these men, during
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.
the earlier days of their active manhood, had many good and true help- ers, but to us who knew them well, they stand out with commanding prominence, when we think of the first half of the century. The town had the best they had to give .. They were servants of the public, and every man their neighbor. None were too poor or ignorant to cross the threshold of their dwellings. The impress of their lives appears in many another life, and your streets and public places continue to tell of them. While in the early history of many towns social distinctions, founded on the uneqal distribution of wealth, have existed, and some houses have been counted too good for common people to enter, there was not and never has been any of it here. The only aristocracy I have ever heard of in Milford has been and is the aristocracy to which we all aspire to belong-the aristocracy of noble souls.
The fathers whom I have named in connection with Stephen Pea- body, Abiel Lovejoy and Dr. John Wallace, laid the foundations of the Milford Lyceum in 1831. I refer much of the past and present intellec- tual activity of the town to this most helpful institution. In it two gen- erations were educated. While it issued no diplomas every man grad- uating from it took with him something in some respect better than the traditional sheepskin-the ability to think and write and defend himself "and his cause" in public speech. The town has been fortunate, not only in its men who laid the foundations; the men who guided affairs in the earlier [part of the century, but in the men as I remember them from the year 1840 to "the close of the Civil war (most of whom have joined the majority and can be spoken of freely), who bore the burdens of society, giving it the tone it has had and the character it now bears. They were men of thought as well as action, and I believe were in large measure intellectually developed by the village lyceum. Without doubt the business impetus which the town took on during these years would have come without the lyceum; that manufacturing under Geo. Daniels, Hiram A. Daniels and others would have flourished; that the business zeal which Daniel Putnam and Leonard Chase possessed, and which was such a powerful factor in the development of the towns' resources would have shown itself without a lyceum and yet I am persuaded that the posi- tion of the town as a community of commanding influence in the state ; as the home of many actors in the temperance and anti-slavery causes has been attained very largely by reason of the existence for thirty consecutive years of the Milford Lyceum. The Hutchinson family of singers afterwards famous and the givers of fame and name to the town, were in part at least brought out by the lyceum. All honor to the old lyceum.
In smaller and less prosperous towns we walk about the streets and within ancient burial places where
" The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep,"
with feeling akin to that experienced in visiting old and decayed coun- tries, and can hardly suppress the words " Illumfuit," for all about us are evidences that at some former time there was more of thrift, intelli-
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gence, and solid acquisition than at present. But in our history it can truthfully be said that much as the present is debtor to the past, and much as we revere the men who laid the foundations of present prosper- ity, their descendents with new blood from almost every quarter of the compass, are proving themselves equal to the task of making the town all that has been hoped for and prophesied of it in the past.
In closing his remarks, the historian is glad to certify that he has played the part of the inquisitor, and finds that at all times and under all circumstances during the century and a half, in war as well as peace, Milford has honored all drafts made upon the town, and that in the exer- cise of the prophetic gift which all historians are allowed to call into use, he sees nothing but abundant prosperity in store for the good old town.
HON. ALBERT E. PILLSBURY.
President Wallace :- The Town of Milford has with her to-day, one of her sons, a descendant of one of New Hampshire's best families, who in winning the highest distinction in the legal profession in Massachu- setts, has reflected credit and honor on his native town, and for whom there is always a warm spot in her heart, the Hon. Albert E. Pillsbury, Ex-Attorney General of Massachusetts, who will now address you.
( Mr. Pillsbury's remarks are here reproduced, so far as they can be, from recollection, aided by noted made at the time.)
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, CITIZENS AND NATIVES OF MILFORD :
At this hour of the afternoon I suspect that you will pay most attention to the voice of the clock, which has just reminded us that these exercises, with the heat of the day, may overtax your commendable patience, and that the things which are left unsaid may please you best. Fortunately for us who come after them, the orator of the day and the town historian have admirably covered the ground of the occasion. I think of one thing, however, which the orator and the historian have not said, though doubtless they have thought of it. It must have floated across their minds, as perhaps it has across yours, that when the history of your second century is written, we shall find on one of its earlier pages, something like this : "It was a happy and appropriate coincidence that New Hampshire joined with Milford to celebrate her centennial year by taking one of her sons to fill the office of Governor, while the legislature chosen at the same time elevated another to a seat in the Senate of the United States."
As the parent town of Amherst is officially represented here, and has been heard from, it may be in order for a citizen of Massachusetts to say a word in behalf of the parent Commonwealth. If I were not here as a son of Milford, but as a Massachusetts man, I should say that Milford is only a part of Massachusetts gone astray. The earliest juris-
HON. ALBERT E. PILLSBURY.
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diction exercised over this territory was by Massachusetts. The earliest land grants here were made by Massachusetts. And while the people of New Hampshire have a notion that the order of snuffy old George II in 1740 fixed and settled the southern boundary of the state over yonder where it now is, that boundary has always been the subject of much dispute, and I warn his Excellency, the Governor, that Massachusetts still has a covetous eye on the southern part of his province. I have heard of an old woman who lived near the southerly line of North Carolina, who objected loudly to a proposed scheme to annex her strip of territory to South Carolina, on the ground that she had always heard that South Carolina was a very unhealthy state. If it should turn out by some new correction of the surveyor's lines that Milford really belongs in Massachusetts, I can assure you of a hospitable reception into that Com- monwealth, and that its climate is salubrious. And in view of this pos- sibility I congratulate my friend Ramsdell that he is running for gov- ernor now. I have some reasons to believe that New Hampshire is a better state for that purpose than Massachusetts, at least for a New Hampshire man.
If I should indulge in the reminiscences which the day naturally suggests, I fear this audience would be as far away before I finished, as my memory is at this moment. The orator of the day has made a just and appropriate reference to the old brick school-house ; but I must re- mind him that another generation has passed across this stage since his time. I cannot forbear to say a word of the Milford High School, one of the earliest and one of the best in New Hampshire. In that school we were taught that most valuable lesson, which we have had occasion to apply every day of our lives,-to find out the reason of things. We were taught not only facts, but the meaning and significance of the facts. I am glad of this opportunity to acknowledge my own obligation to a teacher who understood that the end of education is not to cram the youthful mind with a mass of information of which half is misunder- stood and the other half likely to be forgotten, but to awaken and train it to the right use of its own powers.
It would have given me pleasure to say something of my early recol- lections of this Town, and of the men who built it up and established its character, and especially to speak of the Milford abolitionists, the men and women who made the heroic chapter in the history of this Town; but they have already been fitly and eloquently eulogized. I must pass by these and other topics, to say something which may be of more practical consequence, which has been suggested to me by a very recent occurrence in this hall.
Among the changes which time has worked in this quiet country village, none is more striking than the change in the people themselves. There are new men here now, and new races. I remember the time when a foreigner was almost a curiosity in the streets, where now three languages are familiarly spoken every day. Among this people there are differences of opinion and of belief on many subjects. But there must
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