USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Orford > Centennial celebration of the town of Orford, N.H. : containing the oration, poems and speeches delivered on Thursday, September 7, 1865 : with some additional matters relating to the history of the place > Part 2
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The second condition specified in the charter is this : " All white and other pine trees within the said township fit for masting our royal navy, be carefully preserved for that use, and none be cut and felled without our special li- cense for so doing, be first had and obtained, upon the pen- alty of the forfeiture of the right of such grantees." It was well enough for the king to take good care of his pine trees ; and it is not to be expected that kings should know . everything, or that his loyal subjects should tell him every- thing. I presume there were pine trees enough on my fa- ther's farm to have furnished the whole navy of England, as it then was, with masts for many years. Had he, and other settlers, waited for permission from the crown to cut pine trees, they would have been in danger of starving for want of bread and potatoes. They might have found it difficult to pay the rent specified in the charter, which was " one ear of Indian corn on the 25th day of December, annually," small as was that Christmas tribute.
The Charter was signed by His Excellency Benning Wentworth, Governor of the Province, and Theodore At- kinson, Secretary, also by sixty-four Grantees.
The first meeting of the proprietors under this charter was held in Hampton, near Portsmouth, Oct. 6, 1761, " to transact the affairs of the town of Orford." At an ad- journed meeting seven days after, " a committee was ap- pointed to go up and look the township well over and bring in, at the next meeting, a particular account of the good- ness of the land." That committee reported "the land very good, and a great deal of interval." The first meeting for appointing town officers was held on the 19th of March, 1762, at the house of Jonathan Leavitt, in Hampton. A committee was then appointed to lay out the township into lots.
At a legal meeting of the proprietors, Aug. 1, 1763, it was voted that " the first six settlers have fifty acres each,
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twenty-five acres of that to be in the first division joining to the river, and to stand an equal chance in drawing with the other proprietors ; and that the first six settlers who move their families into the town, liave a privilege of a stream and build a gristmill and sawmill, provided they build said mills in one year from this date. Voted also, that the first six settlers have one hundred pounds, old tenor, each to be paid,-for the first year, fifty pounds, in two months after they are settled ;- the second year, twenty-five pounds, and the third year twenty-five." This was a liberal en- couragement for immigrants to plant themselves in the wilderness. Squatter sovereignty had not come into vogue ; for here were no prairies which have no forests to be felled. Another judicious method of securing a population here, and of sustaining it was, " the first six women who settle there shall have one cow each." My good mother was one of those honored six.
It was also voted that " the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth settlers shall have fifty pounds each, old tenor, in two months after they are settled." The term for them to settle was limited to eighteen months from July 25, 1763. The interval land was to be equally proportioned among the proprietors.
The river road from Lyme to Piermont was originally ten rods in width ; afterwards it was reduced to six rods. In 1770, Messrs. Mann, Morey, Palmer, Loomis and Bald- win were appointed to lay out and survey the highways and roads that are necessary in the town. Their report of sur- veys is very particular, and closes thus : "Finding this to be nearly the centre of the town, and very commodious for to accommodate the situation of a meeting house, we thought it necessary to make it twenty rods for that pur- pose, and also for a town common." This is the origin of your ample public square. A few days after, it was voted to have the road through the town, four rods in width.
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The first recorded act respecting public schools was passed in the year 1770, Oct. 8, when it was resolved " to hire a schoolmaster for six months." From this good be- ginning the education of the young has been cherished as a work of prime importance. The school-house was also used for public worship.
At a meeting of the proprietors in Hampton, Jan. 22, 1770, important action was taken in reference to the loca- tion of Dartmouth College, a Charter having been granted under the great seal of the Province. It was voted, " that in case the college should be located in the said township of Orford, to give and grant for the use and benefit of said college, forever, one thousand acres of land in said town ; equal in quality with the lots in general ; and the convey- ance to be made to the Trustees and their successors." " And as the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock is appointed Presi- dent of said college, and doubtless will settle himself and family in the town where the college shall be,-voted to give and grant to him, his heirs and assigns forever, one thousand acres of land in said town." And further, it was resolved in case the college should be located here, and Mr. Wheelock be settled here, " to give him the sum of one hundred pounds, lawful money," to be paid immedi- ately on his removal to this place. A committee was appointed to carry this into execution.
To us who know the beauty of this landscape, the purity of the water, and the grandeur of the scenery ; and the unsightliness and destitution of attractiveness in the imme- diate vicinity of the place where the college now stands, it seems very strange that the liberal offers above cited were not accepted.
The first church in this town was of the Congregational denomination, and was formed in 1770, and the Rev. Oba- diah Noble was its first pastor. The proprietors offered that in case no tax was laid upon their lands, they would
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pay three fourths of his salary for the first and second years, and one half for the third and fourth years.
The terms proposed by the town to him were these : "To give him, as a settlement, sixty pounds lawful money, also forty pounds as a salary for the first year, and that sum to be increased two pounds annually till it amount to sixty pounds, to be paid in wheat at four shillings, rye at three, Indian corn at two, and oats at one shilling and three pence per bushel, so long as he shall continue the pastor." Also " to provide and deliver to him twenty cords of good wood annually." At the same meeting Mr. Noble accept- ed this call, and was ordained and installed Nov. 5, 1771. Also a committee was raised " to agree with him relative to a plan of church discipline," meaning, as I suppose, church polity.
In April, 1773, the selectmen were empowered to pur- chase of Rev. Mr. Noble and Israel Morey, a suitable tract of land for a training field, a meeting house spot, and a burying ground. Your present church edifice, and the north portion of your common, and your well arranged burying place, occupy the land thus purchased.
This is an occasion intended expressly for reminiscences of things in the past ; and I suppose that I have the honor of my present position, because I know personally what there was here nearly seventy years ago. I remember the old log fence, made of the primitive pines, extending on each side of the road through nearly the whole of the vil- lage, and the stumps thickly scattered along, showing the fallen grandeur of the primitive forest. I remember well the old unpainted, weather-beaten school house, which stood on the corner of the road leading eastward, opposite the present one of brick. There it was, that under the tuition of the kind hearted Miss Abigail Hale, I commenced the acquisition of what little knowledge I have, by learning that puzzle of childish brains, the A, B, C. There on Sat-
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urday, at the close of the forenoon exercises, we were rev- erently taught the Shorter Catechism, repeating after our much loved mistress the words of its sublime doctrines, quite incomprehensible to our youthful minds. But there is great utility in sound words. That, with the faithful maternal instruction at home was the beginning of our theo- logical education which some of us have been permitted to carry on to this day ; and yet we feel that we have very much to learn.
I remember, as though it were but last year, the meeting of the singers in that school house on the Sabbath days of summer, to practice music under the leadership of my brother John with his silvery tenor voice, who was the chorister for about thirty years. At one of those meetings they sung the touching, soul-subduing tune, called Repent- ance, so sweetly and solemnly, that it affected me to tears ; and that melody has rung in my soul ever since. O, that I could hear it again, as I heard it then in my child- hood. How different from much of the monotonous, in- expressive music now in use. I remember the erection of the other school house, dignified with the name of Acade- my, where our education was continued, though very im- perfectly for want of system and thoroughness in the man- ner of instruction. There, afterwards, I was called to ex- ercise the functions of teacher ; and, at my solicitation, a bell was procured, the first that ever sent its echoes among the sloping hills and lofty mountains with which we are environed.
I remember the erection of the first meeting house here, which has given place to its more ornate successor, and disappeared. Over the pulpit was suspended a heavy sounding board, which vibrated when the wind blew heav- ily ; and I used to think what would be the consequence if it should fall upon the reverend preacher's head. In that pulpit I made my first attempt at preaching the gos-
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pel. I remember the first chaise that came here, owned by Capt. Storey. How we wondered when we beheld that luxurious vehicle.
In giving the history of things which transpired here many years ago, I should not be excused, perhaps, if I passed, unnoticed, the beautiful mall which is so note-wor- thy a feature of this village. It was commenced in my boyhood in this way. The width of the street was to the line of trees nearest the center. A row of trees was set just within the fence, for protection, by my father. This row commenced at the road leading to the east village, and extended northward as far as to his house. After some years, the trees having grown to a handsome size, the fence was moved back to its present position, thus adding about one-third to the width of the street. The land was given for public use, my father being the owner of it for half a mile. This was done without solicitation, spontaneously, merely for ornament. Capt. Samuel Mo- rey was induced to do the same, he being the owner of the land the remainder of the distance to the public common, across which it has been since extended. I have been thus particular because it has sometimes been a question, who did the generous act ? I deem it desirable, therefore, to give my testimony to what myself saw done. This is now, and has long been, the chief ornament of this village, and is a lasting memorial of the public spirit and liberality of those who made it. In that spirit it should be carefully preserved and kept in perfect order.
The following description appeared some years ago in the Evening Traveller of Boston, in a letter addressed to the editor, advising him to make an excursion to this place. "On no account fail to pass one full day in and around Orford. As it lies across the river from the rail- road, and is hidden under a luxuriance of foliage, a stran- ger would not be attracted by it; but let him cross over
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and he will begin to see the charms of what I consider the most charming country village I have ever seen. Observe that magnificent terrace, some dozen feet high-nearly a mile long-level and even as a work of art, but grand as the works of nature always are. It is one of the original banks of the river, built not so much for the use of the river, as for the site of those dozen elegant and comfort- able dwellings ranged along upon it. Now look at that mall, (and if you are not too weary, measure it on foot) one mile long-level as a house floor-straight as a line, and skirted with trees on both sides, the whole distance. Is there a parallel to this in the whole country ? In the next place I enjoin it upon you to awake in the morning at half past three, and hear the chorus of singing birds- and such a chorus-numberless-as from voices blest- uttering joy. It will make you forget that you ever heard a singing bird before. What wealth in nature! There are two reasons why so many feathered musicians have settled here. 1st. The great number of ornamental trees. Tasty tenements will always find tenants, and birds have taste. 2d. Public sentiment in the village sets strongly and tenderly towards birds. Should one be wantonly killed, I verily believe they would toll the village bell, and then hang the murderer in effigy.
Finally, cross over the river again to Fairlee, and make your way to the top of that majestic precipice that is low- ering down upon you. It seems to be one of nature's grand battlements, with here and there bastions projecting, as if to protect the nestling village beneath. When you have satisfied your taste for the terrible, look off and re- lieve your eye by the beautiful ; look down on church spires and tree tops under whose cool shades the village is reposing. See the fertile intervals stretching up and down the river for miles, the different farms and vari-colored crops, giving the appearance of a magnificent patchwork,
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along which, ever and anon, the winding river shows its bosom, silvery in the sunbeams. If I mistake not the remembrance of your summer day at Orford will cling to you like the image of a beautiful friend so long as memory does its office."
RAMBLER.
I may be pardoned, perhaps, for introducing here a few lines of our talented poetess, Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, as expressive of my own feelings.
" Sweetly wild, sweetly wild !
Were the scenes which charmed me when a child.
Rocks,-gray rocks, with their tracery dark, Leaping rills, like the diamond spark,
Torrent voices thundering by,
When the pride of vernal floods swelled high. Here 'twas sweet to sit till the sun laid down
At the gate of the west his golden crown. Sweetly wild, sweetly wild !
Were the scenes which charmed me when a child."
The natural beauty and fertility of this part of the town attracted to it inhabitants of considerable wealth from other places. I may mention particularly, Capt. Joseph Pratt, Capt. Alexander Storey, Capt. George Ropes and his brother Hardy Ropes,-all from the fine old city of Salem, Mass. They purchased large farms, and helped greatly to support the religious and educational interests of the town. Their titles were acquired, not in the military service, but in maritime pursuits. They left the ploughing of the ocean for the safer though less remunerative work of ploughing the land.
Capt. Pratt commanded the privateer which captured the " Grand Turk," a large English merchant ship, the model of which I have often seen in the Museum of Salem. As the privateer was owned by Mr. Gray, of Boston, the capture of that ship contributed much to his great wealth.
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Gen. Israel Morey was one of the early settlers, a placid, easy gentleman, with benignant countenance ; and when I knew him his hair was blanched to perfect whiteness. It seems almost as if I could see him on his gentle horse passing by on summer days, with a slow trot, dressed in light colored garments, much in Quaker style, with a cloak thrown over one arm, the very personification of quiet enjoyment.
What a genial man was his son, Samuel Morey, who built the house in which Dr. Hosford now lives. His phil- osophic mind was ever studying out some new invention for the benefit of mankind. Had he lived where there were skillful mechanics and artificers to construct readily good models of what he invented, he would have been extensively known as an ingenious, practical philosopher, and valuable contributor to the arts. His experiments in steam and the rarefaction of atmospheric air to produce motion for propelling machinery, were among the first in this country. His various methods of heating rooms with little expense of fuel were very serviceable, as many of us know by agreeable experience, when the mercury was courting the small figures. To him, as is supposed, belongs the honor of being the inventor of the steamboat, though the public has accorded that honor to Fulton; but I claim that honor for our townsman. If I am not mis- taken, Fulton obtained his first ideas of such a vessel from Morey, and secured a patent just as Morey had secured or was preparing to secure one for himself. Cer- tain it is, that the first boat moved by steam was a little thing constructed by him, and its trial trip was on this river, opposite this village. The trial was made on a Sab- bath, when the people were at meeting, to avoid notice ; when he with a brother of mine, passed up in it near to where the bridge now is ; for it was important to ascertain whether it would go against the current as well as with it.
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My brother Cyrus, a few years ago, collected and published the proofs of the fact, that Morey was the real inventor of the steamboat, so far, at least, as steam could be applied to the propelling of such a craft. Had our ingenious townsman lived in Boston or New York where his facilities for constructing and making improvements would have been such as he needed, he would now probably be ac- knowledged as the projector of those floating palaces which are crossing oceans and visiting the remotest portions of the world.
Morey was not a mere visionary experimenter or super- ficial sciolist in hydrostatics and pneumatology. His cor- respondeice with the late Professor Silliman, of Yale Col- lege, shows that he was an ingenious inventor and practical philosophier. In the first volume of " Silliman's Journal of Science and Art," there is an article by John L. Sulli- van, Esq., of Boston, describing and commending Morey's apparatus for producing heat and light from tar or rosin, and the steam of water. He says: "The inventor, not unskilled in chemistry, and aware of the attraction of oxy- gen for carbon, conceived it practicable to convert the con- stituents of water into fuel by means of this affinity." Morey succeeded in producing carburetted hydrogen gas, which, issuing from a pipe and being ignited, gave a blaze as large as that of a candle, or " many hundred times as large," just at pleasure by increasing the steam ;- indeed a flame sufficiently large to fill a common fire-place. Thus Morey showed by his simple apparatus, that the burning of water is no hoax, but a reality ; and that private and pub- lic buildings could be lighted and warmed by the same gas. In the same volume is an article entitled, "The revolving Steam Engine recently invented by Samuel Morey, and patented to him on the 14th of July, 1815, with four engravings." A scientific description of it is { given by the same author.
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There is also a long, well written article, " On Heat and Light," by Mr. Morey, in which he details various experi- ments made by himself, showing that the fumes of heated tar, rosin, or oil, mixed with steam of water, gives " a great body of flame and intense heat."
In the eastern part of the town was the respectable fam- ily of Strong ; and the name was verified in the character of its members ; intelligent, upright, and thriving, obtain- ing an independency from a soil not the most propitious. The Rev. Jonathan Strong, D. D., long the loved and revered pastor of the Congregational church in Randolph, Mass., was the second male child born in this town. He was educated at Dartmouth College, and was the most impressive preacher I ever heard. His tall, full developed frame, his countenance strikingly expressive of firmness and decision, and his dignified manner bespoke attention to all that he uttered. His occasional visits here to his aged mother and family, were hailed with joyfulness ; and we felt a strong desire to improve every opportunity of . hearing him. I remember well two of the texts on which . he preached when he paid his last visit to his native town fifty years ago.
In the same neighborhood were the Palmers, steady, industrious, upright, estimable members of society, a good stock which has produced much good fruit. Time would fail me to speak particularly of the families of Sargent, Tillotson, Dame, and the two exemplary deacons, Taintor and Niles. Jeremiah Marston and Nathaniel Rogers were stable pillars in our social edifice, and held, as they well deserved, various offices in the town. I name these, because in my boyhood my feelings towards them all were of respect and veneration. They were the fathers of the town, and worthy to be had in long remembrance.
I might mention, also, the families of Phelps, Blood, and Quint in the east part of the town, and Cross, Dayton,
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Wm. Rogers and Wm. Howard in. this part, industrious, upright, respected citizens.
John Mann, Jr., was the first, and for many years the only merchant here. He was also the first postmaster and held that office for a long period. Rogers and Doubleday were the next to establish a store. After them came John B. Wheeler and his brother Daniel, who prosecuted a large and successful business, and did much for the prosperity of the place.
The physicians here in my youth were Todd and Hale. Unfortunately the temperance reformation did not begin its benevolent work till long after their decease. After them came the kind and attentive Dr. Eliphalet Kimball.
The first lawyer was Abiather G. Britton, who was at one time a member of the State Legislature, and later, Jeduthan Wilcox, once a representative in Congress.
The pedagogue rule was held for some years by that indefatigable teacher, Ephraim Kingsbury.
The following extract from an obituary notice was written by a lawyer, our townsman, in the city of New York, and appeared in the New Hampshire Journal : "I was informed a few days since that the aged and venerable John Mann, Esq., has been gathered to his fathers. He lived to see a generation grow up who ought long to cher- ish the name of him who may justly be styled the Founder of Orford. His memoirs, if well written, would be a valuable addition to American History, and a collection of facts of which the people among whom he lived could well be proud. Few towns can boast of as great and good a founder ; and I hope for the honor of the town, that something will be done, that the name of this man shall not cease to be heard by this or any coming generation. Let his name be handed down to posterity with the legends of the town. Let the children of future generations be gathered around the fireside to hear the details of what his
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own eyes saw and his own ears heard. Let them hew from their own granite, a monument which shall tell, long after the hewers of it are gone, who it was that pros- trated the forests, and bade all civilized men welcome to his hospitable home. Let its inscription be simple, that children may read it, and remember that the foundation of society in that beautiful town was laid by a good, a virtuous, an industrious man, who lived and labored until more than eighty winters had passed over his head."
We must now go back in our chronological reminiscences to that memorable period in which the struggle for our national independence commenced. The year 1775 begins a new epoch in our history, an epoch which developed a true sense of civil liberty and human rights, and awakened the courage and patriotism necessary to assert and defend them. Though this town is not signalized by battle scenes with the Indians or the British, yet the spirit of the revo- lutionary time stirred the hearts of the people and caused them to act their part in those trying scenes which gave birth to a new nation.
On the 8th of May, 1775, Israel Morey and Nathaniel Rogers were chosen deputies to the convention to meet at Exeter on the 17th inst., and were instructed to "adopt and pursue such measures as may be judged most expe- dient to restore the rights of this and other colonies." The nature of this instruction can not be mistaken. Rights had been ignored and taken from the people, and they were determined to get them restored. No shilly shally hesitating policy was to be countenanced. The deputies were to adopt measures to restore the lost rights of this and other colonies.
That the fire of patriotism was quickly kindled and burned brightly, is manifest from the following record, dated Nov. 23, 1775. The inhabitants of Orford, Pier- mont, Lyme, Dorchester, and Wentworth, who own real
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estate of two hundred pounds value, were notified to meet at Orford to elect one person to represent them "in Gen- eral Congress to be held in Exeter, Dec. 21, of this year, to transact such business and pursue such measures as they may judge necessary for the public good. And in case there should be a recommendation from the Conti- nental Congress that the Colony assume government in any particular form which will require a House of Represen- tatives, that they resolve themselves into such a House, as the said Continental Congress shall recommend."
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