USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 47
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I Fred Myron Colby.
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[1827
pitable squire, whose name could rally more voters to the polls than that of any other man in the State, after John T. Gilman:
Grand as the house is, one would hardly think that it had been the scene of so much romance and glory. Yet there is no dwelling within our State that can evoke more significant associations than does this rural mansion. Here dwelt the embryo statesman and president, Franklin Pierce, son of Governor Pierce, through all his boyhood days. Out of these windows looked the eyes that were to gaze on the splendors of the White House, and the varied scenes of foreign lands. In this very yard rang the voice which was to stir listening senates with its tones. Around this place centres all of the associations con- nected with his youthful years. Here was the theatre of his early sports, here his school-days began, here he had his first visions of future eminence, or of the possibility of it. Through this very door he passed with his college honors upon him, the friend of Stowe, of Hawthorne, of Longfellow, and others equally known to fame. Here, also, he came with the trappings of state upon him, surrounded by a galaxy of the noblest Americans. Great men, statesmen, writers, divines, and soldiers have been domiciled under this roof. Nearly all of the leading men of New Hampshire, for fifty years, vis- ited at Squire Pierce's house. Isaac Hill, the Athertons, Ebenezer Webster, fudge Woodbury, John T. Gilman, Samuel Bell, and Governor Steele were more than once guests of the governor. And, afterwards, Hawthorne, Dr. Appleton, the McNiels, and others came to see the young lawyer, their friend. John McNiel, in particular, was often a visitor there, coming every Sunday night to pay his addresses to a certain staid, beautiful maid, who afterwards became his wife.
The school system of the State was entirely reorganized in 1827. The law provided for the election of a superintending school committee, who were required to examine and license teachers, visit and inspect schools, to select school-books, and report in writing upon the condition of the schools at the annual town- meeting. They were empowered to withdraw certificates and dismiss teachers and scholars, and they were allowed pay for ser- vices rendered. District or prudential committees were consti- tuted the legal agency to hire teachers, to provide board for the teacher, fuel, and to repair and take care of the school-house. The inhabitants of a district were authorized to raise money by tax to build and repair the school-houses.1
November 9, 10, 11, 1827, were three of the coldest days ever known at the time of year. The Merrimack river froze over.
The election in the year 182S resulted in the choice of John Bell of Chester for governor. He was a brother of Governor ' John M. Shirley.
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ERA OF GOOD-WILL ..
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Samuel Bell, and the father of Governor Charles H. Bell. He was born in July, 1765, was educated in Londonderry, and com- menced business by engaging in the Canadian trade, occasioning frequent journeys to the business centres of that province, which with the slow transit of those days was no light task. Later he established business in Chester, where he continued to reside till his death in 1836. He had an active interest in politics, and in 1817 was elected a member of the Executive Council, to which he was four times re-elected. In 1823 he was appointed high sheriff of Rockingham county. He was elected governor, in 1828, at a time when the contending political interests took sides with the rival candidates for the presidency, Jackson and Adams, discarding old party ties and names. Mr. Bell was a staunch supporter of Adams. The struggles for supremacy be- tween the adherents of Adams and Jackson were more bitter than those between the old parties, and the factions were so evenly matched in numbers that candidates for office had to be selected with wise discrimination.
In the summer of 1828 Mr. Mason was chosen president of the branch bank of the United States at Portsmouth, and insti- tuted many reforms in the management of the institution.
The town of Franklin was incorporated December 24, 1828. The territory of the town was formerly in the towns of Salis- bury, Andover, Sanbornton, and Northfield, and, prior to 1823, in the three counties of Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Strafford, which joined near where the Pemigewasset and Winnipiseogee unite to form the Merrimack river, and where the present thriv- ing village of Franklin is located.
In the summer of 1748 the first settlement of the town was made in the neighborhood of the Webster place : a fort was built, and occupied four months. Upon the withdrawal of the garri- son to the lower settlements, Philip Call and his son Stephen remained, and thus became the first permanent residents of the town. In 1749 the Masonian proprietors granted the town as Stevenstown. Nathaniel Maloon and Sinkler Bean were the first settlers in the western part of the town, residing on the Blackwater, on the South Road, so called. In 1754 the former,
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with his wife and three children, were taken captives to Canada by Indians and disposed of to the French, with whom they remained for several years. Call's wife was killed by the Indians in August, 1754. Her husband witnessed the event while hidden, unarmed, in the bushes. Her daughter-in-law, with her grand-child, escaped death by concealment in the chimney. Her descendants are among the residents of the town to this day. Peter and John Bowen settled on the " Bur- leigh place," about 1748. John Webster and Ebenezer Web- ster, cousins, settled in the town, 1759-60; the former was a settler in Boscawen in 1754. The latter was the father of Ezekiel and Daniel Webster. They built a grist-mill on French brook, near the Shaw place. The earliest tombstone preserved in town is in the lower graveyard near the Webster place, and is to commemorate one Ephraim Collins who died in 1767, after a residence in town of at least fifteen years. Jacob Morrill, Tristan Quimby, and Benjamin Sanborn were among the early settlers of the lower village.
Aside from the grist-mill and one house there was no settle- ment in the present upper village until after the Revolution.
Ebenezer Eastman may be called the father of the village. He came from Concord in the year 1790, at the age of twenty- seven. He possessed property, ability, and enterprise. He built a saw-mill, kept a tavern, conducted a farm, and was exten- sively engaged in lumbering. The "Webster House " was his old homestead. He owned several hundred acres of land in the vicinity. He died in 1833 in the brick house south of Judge Nesmith's. Several families followed Mr. Eastman's lead, and so the village was started.
Hon. Geo. W. Nesmith has been identified with the town since 1822. He was born in Antrim, in October, 1800. He pur- sued his preparatory studies with Rev. John M. Whitton, Daniel M. Christie, and Henry Cummings, graduated from Dartmouth College, class of 1820, read law with Parker Noyes of Sal- isbury in the same office where Daniel Webster studied, taught school for a short time in Concord and in Bradford, and was admitted to the bar in 1825. Judge Nesmith has always
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been an honored citizen of Franklin, and has represented the town many years in the legislature. He was for a long time justice of the Supreme Court, and is now a trustee of Dartmouth College.
One of the most affable and genial gentlemen of the old school is Judge Nesmith. His years sit lightly upon him. An honor- able man, a just judge, a kindly neighbor, a good citizen, and a ripe scholar, he can calmly sit in his well-appointed libarry, sur_ rounded by his well-loved books and mementoes of the past, and review a well-spent life crowned with honors. He is of Scotch- Irish descent.
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MOUNT CARTER, FROM GORHAM.
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CHAPTER XVII.
TURNPIKES, CANALS, RAILROADS, 1828-1840.
JOURNEY FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE TO PHILADELPHIA - WAR AGAINST TURNPIKES -MATTHEW HARVEY - CONCORD - CANAL AND RIVER NAVI- GATION -SAMUEL DINSMOOR - VISIT OF ANDREW JACKSON - MURDER IN PEMBROKE - NEW HAMPSHIRE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE - WILLIAM BADGER -NATHANIEL P. ROGERS -PARKER PILLSBURY - RAILROADS -ISAAC HILL - SURPLUS REVENUE -JUDGE BOSWELL STEVENS - END OF TURNPIKES -JOHN PAGE - EDMUND BURKE - JAMES WILSON -EAST- ERN RAILROAD.
T HE 1 active business man of the present day scarcely realizes the advances that have been made during the last half century in facilities for travel and transportation. So accustomed has he become to the easy transition, in a single night, by palace car, or by more palatial steamer, from his place of business, in almost any of the southern New Hampshire cities or towns, to the great commercial centres of New York or Philadelphia, that such a magical annihilation of time and space seems to him as much a matter of course as the rising and setting of the sun. '
In the year 1828 the late Frederick G. Stark resided in Man- chester, and kept a country store near the site of the present city. He was also superintendent of the old Amoskeag Canal. His goods were bought in Boston, and two or three trips a year to the "New England Metropolis " comprised the extent of his customary travel. But occasionally his affairs required a more ex- tended journey, and being a man of method and close observation, he was in the habit of noting down what he saw when travelling out of his usual course. His journal, written during a journey I Gen. George Stark.
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from Manchester to the "City of Brotherly Love," before the days of railroads, has been preserved, and reads as follows : -
Saturday, October 4, 1828. Left home at about nine A.M. ; passed across the Amoskeag Falls with my brother Charles, who went with me to help carry my trunk; had with me a change of clothing, and just a thousand dollars in money; went to Amoskeag Hotel and waited for the stage, which came along in about half an hour, and I got on board of it and proceeded to Boston, where I arrived about eight o'clock in the evening.
Tuesday, October 7. Took the Providence stage at five o'clock in the morning, and arrived at Providence between eleven and twelve, and went directly on board the steamboat Chancellor Livingston, and soon after twelve left the wharf for Newport and New York. Arrived at Newport about half past three, and took in more passengers, making in all about a hundred ; ieft the wharf in about half an hour, and proceeded on for New York. Wind strong ahead ; at sunset we were in the open sea north-west from Block Island, which was just in sight, and a heavy sea was going, which pitched and rolled the boat so that few of the passengers walk the deck without staggering and stumbling.
Wednesday, October 8, 1828. Got up this morning at six o'clock. Wind blew hard all night, and been in heavy sea all night; the vessel rolled and pitched exceedingly, but the wind has abated some and the water is not so rough, we having got into Long Island Sound. We arrived at New York about nine in the evening. I and two other gentlemen went to a Mrs. John- son's in Pearl street, and put up; had a pretty comfortable night's lodging.
Thursday, October 9, 1828. Walked out in the morning before breakfast, to take a peep at the famous city of New York, and returned to Mrs. Johnson's to breakfast. After breakfast went to the landing place of the Union line steamboats to engage passage to Philadelphia ; wrote a letter to brother John and put it into the post-office; went back to Mrs. Johnson's, paid my bill of entertainment, and got a porter to carry my trunk to the landing, and went on board steamboat Bellona, bound for New Brunswick, where we arrived about four or five o'clock, and took stages for Princeton and Trenton. We arrived at Trenton about nine o'clock, where we took supper and lodging, for which they charged 75 cents, besides paying the boot blacker in the morning. About four o'clock, Friday morning, we were called up to go on board the steamboat for Philadelphia, and arrived at destination about nine o'clock.
1 The twenty years after the opening of the fourth New Hamp- shire turnpike wrought a marked change along the line and with the travelling public. Those who had little public spirit, and sought to get along in the world by paying as little as pos- sible, regarded the toll gate as a bar to progress, a restriction upon individual liberty, and a clog upon the inalienable rights of
I John M. Shirley.
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men. The tavern-keepers, with their retainers and dependants, who wielded a great deal of influence, felt that a free road would bring a large increase of public travel and consequent profits to their pockets. The general public felt that the corporation was made up of a few men, some of whom had acquired blocks of stock at low prices and summed up their opposition in the ugly word monopoly. A war was made upon the turnpikes such as afterwards in a more limited form fell upon the toll bridges. The result was that on January 23, 1829, the Grafton turnpike, in law, was made a free road.
1 Matthew Harvey was elected governor in 1830, defeating Timothy Upham. He was born in Sutton, in June, 1781. He was a son of Matthew and Hannah (Sargent) Harvey. He pre- pared for college under the tuition of the Rev. Samuel Wood, D. D., of Boscawen. He graduated at Dartmouth College in the class of 1806. He studied law with John Harris, of Hop- kinton, and was admitted to the bar in 1809. He then opened an office in Hopkinton, and began his professional career. Pos- sessed of merit and capacity, he rose to distinction ; endowed with certain temperamental characteristics, he became a promi- nent leader in Republican, or Democratic, politics. In a special sense he became an eminently popular public official.
In 1800 the town of Hopkinton was in a prosperous and thriving condition. Its population was increasing. It kept on increasing for at least thirty more years. Hopkinton, during a considerable portion of this time, was a town of public distinc- tion and celebrity. It was a centre of commercial, judicial, po- litical, and social activity and enterprise. Its influence was felt in every department of the Commonwealth. Besides, in 1800, the conditions of political classification in Hopkinton differed in no material respect from those of the rest of the State. Conse- quently, in 1804, when the tide of political favor was turning to- wards Republicanism, the public position of Hopkinton made it a favorable field for the location of some individual of political ยท ambition, who might improve the opportunity of the flooding tide of Republicanism to ride on to fortune. The opportunity
I C. C. Lord.
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witnessed the aspirant. The right man appeared. His name was Matthew Harvey.
Matthew Harvey was many years in office. He was the incumbent of smaller as well as of greater offices. He was moderator of Hopkinton's an- nual town meeting from 1826 to 1828; also in 1833 and 1834; again in 1840 and IS41; and finally from 1845 to 1850. He represented the town in the State legislature from IS14 to 1820, and was speaker of the House the last three years ; he was a member of the national House of Representatives from IS21 to IS25, and afterwards in the State Senate three years, being president the last two; and a member of the New Hampshire executive council in 1828 and IS29.
In politics Matthew Harvey represented the reactive element in govern- ment. In the position of a political leader, it was but natural that he should at times exhibit the tendency to outward indifference to formalism so natural to his political clan. It has been told of him that, being chosen to his fre- quent office of moderator of town meeting, instead of saying to the voters of the town, " You will now please forward your ballots for town clerk," he would sometimes say,-" You will now please forward your ballots for Joab Patterson for town clerk." In fact, it was a small perversion of formalities. Joab Patterson was a popular town clerk, and was frequently re-elected.
In personal stature Matthew Harvey was of medium height and proportions, and erect. In style he was tidy, dignified, and gentlemanly. In social nature he was generous, kind, and sym- pathetic ; in moral character honest and truthful ; in religious life fervent and liberal. His whole personal identity partook more of the ideal than of the actual, though he was not so ideal as to be impractical.
In 1850 Matthew Harvey moved to Concord, where he died in 1866.
1 In 1830 Concord contained three thousand seven hundred inhabitants. It was the shire town of the county and capital of the State. A flourishing village was rapidly growing. There were seven printing offices; three political newspapers pub- lished; and in the village eight attorneys at law and five physi- cians. The field for a pastor was large and the labor abundant, among a people distinguished for industry and morality. There were three other churches, besides an occasional gathering of "Friends,"-the First Baptist, organized in 1818, a Metho- dist, organized in 1828, and the Unitarian, organized in 1829.
I Rev. F. D. Ayer.
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Dr. Bouton estimated that the whole number connected with all of them was about one-fourth of the adult population, and one-seventh of the inhabitants, while one-third of the popu- lation attended services on the Sabbath and seven-eighths could be reckoned as church-going. The Old North, built in 1751, was still the rallying point of the town, and the great congrega- tion, averaging about a thousand, thronged it every Sabbath. They came from all directions, long distances, and many on foot. The young pastor, Nathaniel Bouton, had been here just long enough to get fairly at work, and to use the powers of church and parish efficiently. Large as was the church it was united, ready to sustain the efforts and plans of the pastor. Besides preaching on the Sabbath, the pastor appointed weekly lectures in different districts, and instituted four Bible classes. He followed this plan for seven years, going on horseback to all sections of the town, visiting the people and holding the services.
The church also was at work, and in 1831 there was connected with the church fourteen parish schools, taught in different districts, and containing four hundred and fifty-five scholars. Protracted meetings of three or four days' duration were also held, in which the pastor was assisted by neighboring pastors. Once or twice a year committees were appointed to visit from house to house, converse and pray with every family. The church frequently made appropriations of money to be spent in purchasing tracts to be distributed and books to be loaned to inquirers.
1 From " Regulations relative to the navigation of the Middle- sex Canal," a pamphlet published in 1830, it appears that boats were required to be not less than forty feet nor more than seventy-five feet in length, and not less than nine feet nor more than nine and a half feet in width. Two men, a driver and steersman, usually made up the working force; the boats, how- ever, that went up the Merrimack required three men, - one to s. steer and two to pole. The Lowell boats carried twenty tons of coal ; fifteen tons were sufficient freight for Concord ; when the water in the Merrimack was low, not more than six or seven
I General George Stark.
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tons could be taken up the river. About 1830 the boatmen received $ 15 per month.
It is difficult to ascertain the whole number of boats employed at any one time. Many were owned and run by the proprietors of the canal ; and many were constructed and run by private parties who paid the regular tolls for whatever merchandise they transported. Boats belonging to the same parties were conspic- uously numbered, like railway cars to-day.
Lumber was transported in rafts - about seventy-five feet long and nine fect wide; and these rafts, not exceeding ten in number, were often united in " bands." A band of seven to ten rafts required the services of five men, including the driver. Boats were drawn by horses, and lumber by oxen ; and "lug- gage boats " were required to make two and a half miles an hour, while " passage boats" attained a speed of four miles. Boats of the same class, and going the same way, were not allowed to pass each other, thus making "racing " impossible on the staid waters of the old canal. Whenever a boat approached a lock, the conductor sounded his horn to secure the prompt attention of the lock-tender ; but due regard was paid to the religious sentiment of New England. Travelling on the canal being permitted on Sundays, "in consideration of the distance from home at which those persons using it generally are, it may be reasonably expected that they should not disturb those places of public worship near which they pass, nor occasion any noise to interrupt the tranquillity of the day. Therefore it is estab- lished that no signal-horn shall be used or blown on Sundays."
The tariff varied greatly from year to year. In 1827 the rate from Lowell to Boston wss $2.00 the gross ton ; but many art- icles were carried on much lower terms.
On account of liability of damage to the banks of the canal, all navigation ceased at dark ; hence, at every lock, or series of locks, a tavern was established. These were all owned by the corporation, and were often let to the lock-tender, who eked out his income by the accommodation of boatmen and horses.
A trip over the canal in the passenger-packet, the "Governor Sullivan," must have been an enjoyable experience. Protected
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by iron rules from the dangers of collision ; undaunted by squalls of wind, realizing, should the craft be capsized, that he had nothing to do but walk ashore, the traveller, speeding along at the leisurely pace of four miles per hour, had ample time for observation and reflection.
With the accession of business brought by the corporations at Lowell, the prospect for increased dividends in the future was extremely encouraging. The golden age of the canal appeared close at hand ; but the fond hopes of the proprietors were once more destined to disappointment. Even the genius of James Sullivan had not foreseen the railway locomotive.
In 1829 a petition was presented to the legislature for the sur- vey of a railroad from Boston to Lowell. The interests of the canal were seriously involved. A committee was promptly chosen to draw up for presentation to the General Court "A Remonstrance of the Proprietors of Middlesex Canal against the grant of a charter to build a Railroad from Boston to Lowell." This remonstrance, signed by William Sullivan, Joseph Coolidge, and George Hallett, bears date of Boston, February 12, 1830, and conclusively shows how little the business men of fifty years ago anticipated the enormous development of our resources consequent upon the application of steam to transportation : -
" It is believed no safer or cheaper mode of conveyance can ever be estab- lished, nor any so well adapted for carrying heavy and bulky articles. To establish therefore a substitute for the canal alongside of it, and in many places within a few rods of it, and to do that which the canal was made to do, seems to be a measure not called for by any exigency, nor one which the legislature can permit, without implicitly declaring that all investments of money in public enterprises must be subjected to the will of any applicants who think that they may benefit themselves without regard to older enter- prises, which have a claim to protection from public authority. The remon- strants would also add that, so far as they know and believe, there never can be a sufficient inducement to extend a railroad from Lowell westwardly and northwestwardly, to the Connecticut, so as to make it the great avenue to and from the interior, but that its termination must be at Lowell, and con- sequently that it is to be a substitute for the modes of transportation now in use between that place and Boston, and cannot deserve patronage from the supposition that it is to be more extensively useful.
The Boston Transcript of September 1, 1830, remarks : "It is not astonish- ing that so much reluctance exists against plunging into doubtful specula-
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tions. The public itself is divided as to the practicability of the railroad. If they expect the assistance of capitalists, they must stand ready to guarantee the per centum per annum ; without this, all hopes of railroads are visionary and chimerical." In a report of legislative proceedings published in the Boston Courier, of January 25, 1830, Mr. Cogswell, of Ipswich, remarked : " Rail- ways, Mr. Speaker, may do well enough in old countries, but will never be the thing for so young a country as this. When you can make the rivers run back, it will be time enough to make a railway." Notwithstanding the pa- thetic remonstrances and strange vaticinations of the canal proprietors, the legislature incorporated the road and refused compensation to the canal. Even while the railroad was in process of construction the canal directors do not seem to have realized the full gravity of the situation. They continued the policy of replacing wood with stone, and made every effort to perfect the service in all its details.
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