USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 23
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In the year 1785 there were comfortably ensconced in log cabins forty families, besides a respectable contingent of bachel- ors. After the first influx subsequent to the war, emigration in some degree abated ; yet each year witnessed a sure and steady increase, and evidently the morning of prosperity began to dawn upon the new colony. The genuine prosperity which had rewarded the efforts of the Gunthwaite proprietors was coveted by the original grantees. They came forward, laid claim to the township, and, as is surmised, made some kind of a compromise with certain influential citizens. The controversy thus raised was followed by litigation, which culminated in the restoration of the Concord charter. Hence, as by a single stroke of the pen, the Gunthwaite titles were extinguished, and the poor set- tler, who with his wife and children during these years had shared all the privations of pioneer life and had begun to enjoy some of the comforts so dearly earned, was at once deprived of his home, with nothing left but his pittance of personal property. A part of the settlers abandoned their claims and went to Canada and places further north ; others endeavored to sell their improvements, - but no one was willing to purchase, so
I Samuel Emery.
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prevalent was a feeling of distrust and uncertainty. Every one knew that the first charter had actually been forfeited, and that points had been carried by the dint of bulldozing and fraud ; and yet there was no redress, inasmuch as the courts had decided against them. By far the greater number of citizens remained upon their farms and awaited the issue ; and when the claims of the Concord proprietors were fully established and acknowl- edged, finding they must yield to the inevitable, they pur- chased their farms over again. At length the excitement and disturbance subsided, and by an Act of the Legislature the name of Concord was resumed, and retained until 1824, when it was changed to Lisbon.
The first settlers of the town were Samuel Martin, Ebenezer Richardson, William Belknap, and Samuel Sherman ; then followed the Youngs, the most influential family through a considerable period ; afterwards came these, being the surnames, - Dexter, Darley, Judd, Parker, Aldrich, Jesseman, Bishop, Harris, Howland. Northey, Hildreth, Jewett, Colby, Quimby, Streeter, Spooner, Oakes, Priest, Noyes, Jameson, Taylor, Haines, Applebee, Morse, Bailey, Ash, Whitcomb, Smith, Page, Wells, Knapp, Kinneston, Burt, Kay. Emery, Cushman, Moris, Kelsea, Gurnsey, McIntire, Cooley, Whiting, Bar- rett, Clark, Walker, Palmer, Robins, Cole, Eastman, Whipple, Cobleigh, Kimball, Savage, Gould, and Ela, -besides individuals and other families, perhaps equally early, but not so numerous.
1 Gilsum originally included the larger part of both Sullivan and Surry, and was first granted in 1752, under the name of Boyle. It was regranted in 1763, and received its present unique name from a combination of the names of two of its lead- ing proprietors, Colonel Samuel Gilbert and his son-in-law, Rev. Clement Sumner. Its earliest settlers were from Connecticut, largely from Hebron, Bolton, and Glastonbury. The promi- nent family names of the first few years were Kilburn, Dewey, Wilcox, Adams, Pease, Hurd, Bliss, and Bill, of which only Hurd and Bill now remain.
Gilsum had no Tories in the Revolution, and has always fur- nished her full quota of men when called to defend the liberties ยท of the people or the nation's honor. Twenty names are credited to Gilsum on the Revolutionary rolls of the State, while the I Sylvanus Hayward.
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Abbott F: Graves
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whole number of men between sixteen and fifty, in 1777, was only thirty-nine. Seven Gilsum men served in the war of 1812, and seven more volunteered, but were not called for. In the war of the Rebellion, Gilsum furnished seventy one men, twenty-nine of whom were her own citizens.
A Congregational church was organized here in 1772, but no minister was secured till 1794, when Rev. Elisha Fish was set- tled by the town, and remained till his death in 1807. Opposi- tion to the old system of supporting preaching by public taxa- tion was very early developed, and after Mr. Fish's death no minister was settled by the town. The only church in Gilsum at the present time is the original one above mentioned, now passing its one hundred and ninth year, with about forty resi- dent members. A Methodist church, of considerable numbers and activity, flourished here for some years, but is now dis- banded. A Christian church was established here about sixty years since, and numbered many converts, now mostly dispersed to other churches. A feeble Baptist church was removed here from Sullivan, but survived only a few years. A branch of the Mormon church was organized in town in 1841, numbering nearly fifty resident members. Some perished on their way to Utah, and some are now residents of that Territory.
A grist mill and saw-mill was built in 1776. In 1813 Luther Whitney built a clothing mill on the brook near his father's house. Seven years later he removed to the village. In 1832 the manufacture of cloth was first undertaken by David Brig- ham and H. G. Howe. Since then woollen manufactures in va- rious forms have been the most important industry of the place. Though Gilsum has sent out almost no men of national reputa- tion, yet many useful men, and men of considerable local dis- tinction, are identified with Gilsum history.
1 Lancaster was incorporated on the 5th of July, 1763, and owes its early settlement, like many other events in the world, to passion. David Page, Esq., grand uncle of Governor Page, dissatisfied with the division of the rights in Haverhill, and having been advised of the extent and fertility of our 1 John W. Weeks.
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"meadows " by some of the survivors of that party of Rogers' Rangers, who, after the destruction of the village of St. Fran- cois, reached and passed down the waters of the Connecticut, being a man of great resolution, resolved to penetrate at once to the Upper Coos. With this view, in the autumn of 1763, he sent his son, David Page, Jr., and Emmons Stockwell, to build a camp, and winter in Lancaster. In the year. 1764, David Page, Esq. ( called by the settlers Governor Page), with his large family, "moved" to Lancaster, followed by several young men, eager to improve, or rather make, their fortune. The best tracts of land were immediately occupied, and were so pro- ductive that for many years manure was considered unnecessary, and was actually thrown over banks and into hollows, where it would be most out of the way. At this period there was no settlement between Haverhill and Lancaster, and but few north of Number Four, now Charlestown. There being no roads, the settlers suffered inconceivable hardships in transporting their necessaries, few as they were, being obliged to navigate their log canoes up and down the "fifteen mile falls," now known to be twenty miles in length, with a descent of more than three hundred feet ; and in winter to pass the same dangerous rapids in sleighs and with ox-teams, frequently falling through the ice, and sometimes never rising above it. High water to descend, and low water to ascend, were thought the most favorable times.
The first town meeting was held on the 11th of March, 1769.
The first mill was operated by horse power, but so illy con- structed, that it was little better than the large mortar and pestle attached to a pole, which was used by many. A "water mill " was erected, and soon after burnt ; another and another met the same fate. These disasters, with the Revolutionary war, reduced the settlers to extreme distress. Newcomb Blodgett and some others being captured by the Indians and carried to Canada, led to the determination of abandoning the country ; and for this purpose the settlers collected at the house of Emmons Stockwell, whose resolution never forsook him, even for a moment. "My family," said he, " and I shan't go." This
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remark changed the opinion of several families, who remained, yet with but very few accessions to the end of the great and glorious struggle.
On the 7th of January, 1776, Joseph Whipple was chosen to represent the towns of Lancaster, Northumberland, Dartmouth ( now Jefferson ), Apthorp ( merged in other towns ) and Strat- ford. Voted to give their representatives "instructions from time to time." At a subsequent meeting, Joseph Whipple was again elected to the same office,-a vote of thanks passed for his past services, and a committee of five was chosen to give him instructions for the future. Thus was the right of instruc- tion established to govern the first representative. Near and soon after the close of the war, several families, who had lost much of their property during the conflict, migrated to Lan- caster. Major Jonas Wilder, with a large and highly respectable
family, was of the number. He built a "grist and saw mill." In May, 1787, Captain John Weeks, for a like reason, came to this town. At the March meeting in 1789, twenty votes were cast for State officers ; and even this small number were divided by important political considerations; twelve friends to popular rights however prevailed.
In the year 1763 charters were granted with a lavish hand. Poplin, or Fremont, Alstead, Candia, New Boston, Warren, Haverhill, Woodstock, Lancaster, Gilsum, Plymouth, Cornish, and Croydon were incorporated.
Claremont, Weare, Benton, Lincoln, Franconia, Piermont, Lyndeborough, Raymond, Newington and Unity were incorpor- ated in 1764.
Claremont was chartered by George III., October 26, 1764. Josiah Willard, Samuel Ashley and sixty-eight others were the grantees. It received its name from the country-seat of Lord Clive, an English general. The first settlement was made in 1762 by Moses Spafford and David Lynde. In 1763 and 1766 several other inhabitants arrived. In 1767 a considerable num- ber of proprietors and others from the towns of Farmington, Hebron and Colchester, in Connecticut, made settlements in different parts of the town. The first native of Claremont was
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Elijah, son ot Moses Spafford, who was born in 1763. Among the early inhabitants to whose enterprise the town was essen- tially indebted for its prosperity, may be mentioned Samuel Cole, Esq., who graduated at Yale College in 1731, and was for many years very useful as an instructor of youth. He died at an advanced age. Dr. William Sumner, a native of Boston, who came to this place in 1768 from Hebron, Connecticut, was a resident several years in Claremont, where he died in March, 1778. Colonel Benjamin Sumner, who was many years a civil magistrate, died in May, 1815, aged seventy-eight. Colonel Jo- seph Waite, who was engaged in the French and Indian war, was captain of one of Rogers' companies of Rangers, and com- manded a regiment in the Revolutionary war, died in October, 1776. Captain Joseph Taylor, who was engaged in the Cape Breton, the French, and the Revolutionary wars, who was, with one Farwell, taken prisoner by the Indians in the summer of 1755, carried to Canada and sold to the French, returned to Claremont, and died in March, 1813, at the age of eighty-four. Hon. Samuel Ashley moved to this town in 1782. He was in the wars of 1745 and 1755. He sustained several civil offices, and was judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He died in February, 1792.
At the outbreak of the Revolution the town was divided between the Whigs and Tories, the Loyalists being in a min- ority. No overt acts on their part having been undertaken, they lived at peace with their neighbors throughout the war, although under the watch of a self-appointed Committee of Safety from among the citizens of Claremont and adjoining towns.
The early inhabitants were about equally divided in their attachment to Episcopacy and Congregational principles. The churches of these denominations may be considered as coeval. At a town meeting held at the house of Thomas Jones, May 9, 1771, it was decided to settle in town a minister of the Gospel. A committee of three was chosen and instructed to apply to Mr. Elijah Parsons to come and preach as a candidate ; "but if he fails, to apply to Dr. Wheelock (president of Dartmouth
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College) for advice who to apply to in his room." The first minister settled by the Congregational society was Rev. George Wheaton, who was ordained Feb. 19, 1772.
The first minister of the Episcopal society was Rev. Ranna Cossit, who sailed for England for holy orders in December, 1772. He was ordained by the Bishop of London, but was succeeded in 1775 by Rev. Daniel Barber, who continued in the ministry there until 1818.
The first services were held in the " South School-house," the meeting-house of that day, which stood on Jarvis hill, in the west part of the town. It was a frame building covered with rough boards, furnished with rude benches for seats, and having only the ground for a floor. The first meeting-house was built in 1791, on the road from Claremont village to the Junction, near the Draper place. It was subsequently enlarged and was occupied by the society until 1836, soon after which it was moved to the village; it is now a part of the town-house.
Raymond, Conway, Concord, Centre Harbor, Dunbarton, Hopkinton, Stark, Lee, and Deerfield were incorporated in 1765.
Acworth, Bridgewater, Burton, Eaton, Albany, and Farns- worth were incorporated in 1 766.
1 The town of Wentworth was chartered by Gov. Benning Wentworth in 1766. There were originally sixty grantees or proprietors, mostly residing in the towns of Kingston, East Kingston, Hawke (now Danville), and South Hampton, which originally included what is now Seabrook, and Salisbury, Mass. The charter is in the usual form of the charters of those days. " In the name of George the Third, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith," etc. A tract of land six miles square was granted, containing 23,040 acres, " out of which an allowance is to be made for high- ways and unimprovable lands, by rocks, ponds, mountains, and rivers, 1,040 acres." The land was to be divided into sixty-six equal shares, and was bounded on the north by Warren, east by Rumney, south by Dorchester, and west by Orford -and to be
I Hon. J. E. Sargent.
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known as the town of Wentworth ; and its inhabitants were de- clared to be enfranchised with and entitled to all the privi- leges and immunities which other towns exercise and enjoy. When the town should consist of fifty families resident therein, they were to have the liberty of holding two fairs therein annu- ally, and that a market may be opened and kept open one or more days in each week. Provision is made for the calling of the first meeting of the proprietors, and the annual meetings thereafter. " To have and to hold " said granted premises upon the following conditions : Every grantee shall plant and culti- vate five acres of land within five years, for every fifty acres contained in his or their shares or proportions, in said township, on penalty of forfeiture, etc. All white pine trees in said town- ship, "fit for masting our Royal Navy," to be preserved and not to be cut without permission ; upon the division of the lands, a tract of land as near the centre of the town as may be, to be marked off as town lots of the contents of one acre, one of which lots shall be assigned to each proprietor. The rent to be paid for the same is one ear of English corn per annum ; and in 1777, on the 25th day of December, one shilling procla- mation money for every hundred acres of land owned by him, was to be paid by every proprietor and owner to the King, and in the same ratio for a larger or smaller tract, which was to be in full of all future rents and services.
Dated November 1, 1766.
There was a reservation of five hundred acres in the north- west corner of the plan of the town, marked "B. W. " and known as the Governor's reservation.
This charter was granted to John Paige, Esq., and fifty-nine others. There were five sons of said John Paige, Esq., who were, with him, grantees and proprietors of the town, namely, Samuel, Moses, John, Ephraim, and Enoch. They all lived in Salisbury, Mass., and so far as we know only two of them ever came to Wentworth. The two younger sons, Ephraim and Enoch, afterwards settled in Wentworth and died there. Proba- bly but few of those original proprietors ever saw any part of the township thus granted to them. We cannot learn that any
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others of the whole sixty original proprietors ever settled in Wentworth, except Ephraim and Enoch Paige.
John Paige, Esq., the first grantee, was the son of one Onesi- phorus Paige of Salisbury, Mass., and was born February 21, 1696. He married Mary Winsley, of said Salisbury, April 16, 1720. They had five sons and several daughters, none of whom, so far as we know, ever came to Wentworth, except the two youngest sons as before mentioned. But they were not among the first settlers of the town.
During the year 1770 the first settlement was made in town by David Maxfield, Abel Davis, and Ephraim Lund, and in the order above named, though all in the same season. David Max- well settled on the White farm, as it was formerly called, on the intervale since occupied by Richard Pillsbury and Colonel Joseph Savage. He lived in town about two years. Abel Davis cleared a small piece of land and built a log house on the Jonathan Eames place, so-called, and since occupied by Daniel Eames, and now by Amos Rollins. This house was west of the pres- ent buildings toward the river. He remained in town but a short time, removing to Vermont. His daughter, Mary Davis, after- ward came into town and lived with Enoch Paige's family, and became the second wife of Ebenezer Gove, one of the early settlers, about 1780. Ephraim Lund erected a log house on the east side of the river, near where the red school-house now stands in District No. I. He resided in town for five or six years, and then removed to Warren, where he afterward lived and died at an advanced age.
Ephraim Paige, son of John Paige, Esq., and Mary Paige, of Salisbury, Mass., was born at said Salisbury, March 16, 1731. He married Hannah Currier there, and had ten children born in Salisbury, and then in the summer of 1773 he moved his family to Wentworth, where he had three more children, mak- ing thirteen in all-ten daughters and three sons. John Paige, the eldest son, was born at Salisbury in 1769. Samuel, the sec- ond son, was born in Wentworth in October, 1773, and is said to have been the first male child born in the town of Went- worth. His third son, Currier Paige, was born in Wentworth,
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March 29, 1781, and was the youngest of the family. Ephraim first settled in a log house. on the lower end of the intervale, since owned by James K. Paige, and afterward occupied as a town farm, near the brook. The road that then passed up the west side of the river went east of the village, round the hill and back of it, to the intervale above.
Salisbury was incorporated in 1767.
1 In the political canvass in our State which closed with the March election, 1858, it was publicly stated by some of the speakers that Judge Webster, the father of Hon. Daniel Web- ster, could neither read nor write. There is sufficient evidence in Franklin and Salisbury to satisfy the most sceptical that he could not only read and write, spell and cipher, but he knew how to lend the means to found a State. Daniel Webster, in his autobiography, gives a brief but too modest outline of the life of his father. His acts and works gave him deserved in- fluence and fame in the region of his home.
Ebenezer Webster was born in Kingston, in 1739. He resided many years with Major Ebenezer Stevens, an influential citizen of that town, and one of the first proprietors of Salisbury. Salisbury was granted in 1749, and first named Stevenstown, in honor of Major Stevens. It was incorporated as Salisbury, 1767. Judge Webster settled in Stevenstown as early as 1761.2 Pre- vious to this time he had served as a soldier in the French war, and once afterwards. He was married to Mehitable Smith, his first wife, in 1761. His first two children died while young. His third child was Susannah, who married John Colby, and recently died in Franklin. He had also, by his first wife, two sons - David, who died some years since at Stanstead ; and Joseph, who died in Salisbury. His first wife died in 1774. Judge Webster again married-Abigail Eastman, in 1774. By his last wife he had five children, viz .: Mehitable, Abigail ( who married Wm. Hadduck ) ; Ezekiel, born March 11, 1780 ; Dan- iel, born January 18, 1782, and Sarah, born in May, 1784, and,
I Hon. George W. Nesmith.
2 When Judge Webster first settled in Stevenstown, he was called Ebenezer Webster, Jr. In 1694, Kingston was granted to James Prescott and Ebenezer Webster and others, of Hampton. He descended from this ancestry.
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with his last wife and many of his children, now lies buried in the graveyard originally taken from the Elms farm. For the first seven years of his life, after he settled on the farm now occupied by John Taylor, in Franklin, he lived in a log cabin, located in the orchard west of the highway, and near Punch Brook. Then he was able to erect a house of one story, of about the same figure and size as that now occupied by William Cross, near said premises. It was in this house that Daniel Webster was born. In 1784 Judge Webster removed to the tavern house, near his intervale farm, and occupied that until 1800, when he exchanged his tavern house with William Had- . duck for that where he died.
In 1761 Captain John Webster, Eliphalet Gale, and Judge Webster erected the first saw-mill in Stevenstown, on Punch Brook, on his homestead near his cabin.
In June, 1764, Matthew Pettengill, Stephen Call, and Eben- ezer Webster were the sole highway surveyors of Stevenstown. In 1765 the proprietors voted to give Ebenezer Webster and Benjamin Sanborn two hundred acres of common land, in con- sideration that they furnish a privilege for a grist mill, erect a mill and keep it in repair for fifteen years, for the purpose of grinding the town's corn.
In 1768 Judge Webster was first chosen moderator of a town- meeting in Salisbury, and he was elected forty-three times after- wards, at different town meetings in Salisbury, serving in March, 1803, for the last time.
In 1769 he was first elected selectman, and held that office for the years 1771, '72, '74, '76, '80, '85, '86 and 1788 ; resigned it, however, in September, 1776, and performed a six months' service in the army.
In 1771, 1772, and 1773, he was elected and served in the office of town clerk. In 1778 and '80, he was elected represen- tative of the classed towns of Salisbury and Boscawen ; also, for Salisbury, 1790 and '91. He was elected senator for the years 1785, '86, '88, and '90 ; Hillsborough county electing two senators at this time, and Matthew Thornton and Robert Wal- lace of Henniker served as colleagues, each for two of said
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years. He was in the. senate in 1786, at Exeter, when the insurgents surrounded the house. His proclamation then was, "I command you to disperse."
In March, 1778, the town chose Captain Ebenezer Webster and Captain Matthew Pettengill as delegates to a convention to be held at Concord, Wednesday, June 10, "for the sole purpose of forming a permanent plan of government for the future well being of the good people of this State."
In 1788, January 16, Colonel Webster was elected delegate to the convention at Exeter, for the purpose of considering the proposed United States Constitution. A committee was also chosen by the town to examine said constitution and advise with said delegate. This committee was composed of Joseph Bean, Esq., Jonathan Fifield, Esq., Jonathan Cram, Capt. Wilder, Dea. John Collins, Edward Eastman, John C. Gale, Capt. Robert Smith, Leonard Judkins, Dea. Jacob True, Lieut. Bean, Lieut. Severance, and John Smith. At the first meeting of the convention in February, Colonel Webster opposed the constitution under instructions from his town.
A majority of the convention was found to be opposed to the adoption of the constitution. The convention adjourned to Concord, to meet in the succeeding month of June. In the mean- time Colonel Webster conferred with his constituents, advised with the committee on the subject, asked the privilege of sup- porting the constitution, and he was instructed to vote as he might think proper. His speech, made on this occasion, has been printed. It did great credit to the head and heart of the author :
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