USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Hanover > Hanover, New Hampshire, a bicentennial book : essays in celebration of the town's 200th anniversary > Part 2
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HANOVER Redrawn in 1961 by ROBERT B. BARWOOD
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Hanover Bicentennial Book
Next in importance to the laying out of the town was the pro- vision of access to it, and this was looked to at a meeting of the proprietors in September 1762, when it was voted "to join with the proprietors of mo[re] or less Townships, upon Connecticut River in Clearing a Road from Charlstown to and thro' the sev- eral Townships which shall join in the Cost and Labour thereof." It was resolved, further, to assess a tax of five shillings Lawful Money upon each right or share toward financing the project. In the end, Hanover's portion of the expenses, borne jointly with Lebanon and Norwich, reached a total £26-10-0, as appears from the action taken a year and a half later in settling this account.
Attention now was intently focussed upon improvements within Hanover itself in further preparation for settlement. In 1764 a twelve-shilling tax was voted for the laying out and clearing of internal roads, each proprietor having the traditional option of paying either in cash or in work. The continuing development of town roads during succeeding years is documented by frequent references within the proprietors' records, including the following unhappy account, set down in December 1768, which seems also to suggest that Hanover's body of founding fathers was not en- tirely made up of individuals adhering to a rigid Puritan code of honesty and virtue:
Whereas this propriety at their Meeting 17th December 1767 voted to allow to Gideon Abbe 18 shillings for 6 days work on highways and to John Sargeant 12 shillings for 4 days work on highways it now appears to this Meeting that sª Accounts were Misrepresented to sd Meeting and that sª Abbe had done but 2 days work and sª Sargeant had done no work at all[;] it is now voted that sd Abbey shall Receive and be al- lowed but 6 shillings of sª 18/ and that sd Sargeant shall not be allowed any part of sª 12 shillings-
Up to 1765, Hanover was still uninhabited. The surveying groups and work parties that had come northward had, of course, remained only for short periods during seasons of favorable weather and then returned to Connecticut. Most of the proprie- tors, it should also be recognized, had not the slightest intention themselves of removing to the area that had been granted them. A few, to be sure, were genuinely bent upon becoming pioneers of the upper-Connecticut frontier, some others evidently saw in the township a means of providing opportunities for their children, but the great majority of the Hanover grantees, as was generally the case with other like proprietorships during this era, were par-
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Of Colonial-Revolutionary Adventure
ticipants in this undertaking solely for the purpose of deriving financial gain from what they regarded an "investment"; they were speculators, adventurers, promoters, interested in the land because of the hope and expectation of monetary gain. This fact is dramatically demonstrated by citing Chase's count that only ten of the town's sixty-eight original proprietors ever actually settled within it.
In the spring of 1765, however, Hanover was to have its first permanent settler in the person of Edmund Freeman 3d. One of the best informed among the proprietors regarding the town, hav- ing helped his father (the leading figure of the proprietorship) with surveying operations there, and having himself had a central responsibility for laying out and clearing roads, the twenty-eight- year-old Freeman arrived in Hanover in May with his wife and two small children, accompanied also by his brother Otis and sev- eral other young men. An additional handful of settlers came later that same season, and still more during the following year.
In the spring of 1767 the first children were born within the new town: a son on May 25 to Edmund and Sarah Freeman, fol- lowed in early June by a daughter in the family of Benjamin Royce. But it was increased immigration, not local births, that was to account for the principal enlargement of population in those first two years-as reflected in the provincial census of 1767 which records the presence of no fewer than twenty-six married couples, eleven unmarried men, sixteen boys, and thirteen unmarried fe- males: a total of ninety-two.
With settlement under way, events now moved more swiftly in Hanover's development. On the same August day in 1761 that the proprietors had first met at Mansfield, they had also held, as a separate and distinct thing, the first town meeting. During the initial half-dozen years the two organizations-proprietorship and town-were in effect one; or, more accurately, the town organiza- tion was but a passive instrument of the proprietors, existing more in form and theory than in actuality. It met independently and elected its officers-a moderator, clerk, three selectmen, and con- stable-but it had no real business to transact, while the proprie- torship, by contrast, was busily occupied with dividing up its land and in making the town appealing to potential settlers. Once set- tlement was fairly started, however, the situation quickly reversed itself, and the town organization began to function in response to, and reflection of, the needs of serving and regulating life within
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Hanover Bicentennial Book
the growing community; whereas the proprietorship rapidly waned in both activity and importance.
The coming into its own of the town government took place in 1767. In July of that year the minutes of a town meeting for the first time proclaim the session to have been not of the proprietors but of "the Inhabitants" of the town, and the records immediately begin to reflect vigorous and expanding municipal enterprise. Just the number and kind of new officers elected to manage town affairs reveal, for example, something of this, as the moderator, clerk, selectmen, and constable were augmented by tythingmen, surveyors of highways, assessors, leather sealers, fence viewers, pound keepers, collectors of taxes and rates, deerriffs, sealers of weights and measures, hog howards, and even a choirester; as well as sundry committees for such purposes as "to procure preaching," to examine selectmen's accounts, to inspect and plan roads, "to pitch a place for a Meeting House," and to arrange for the installa- tion of a settled minister. Along with these went, too, the raising of money for various purposes and improvements.
Clearly the greatest stimulus to the growth of Hanover was the establishment there in 1770 of Dartmouth College, a product of the vision and dedicated energies of Eleazar Wheelock and an out- growth of the Indian charity school that he had conducted for a period of more than a decade previous. For varying reasons it had seemed desirable for Wheelock to remove his school from its Con- necticut location and, simultaneously, as an extension and en- largement of the institution's scope, to direct attention to the edu- cation not only of Indians, but also of English youths as well. Sev- eral locations were considered, but finally the western part of New Hampshire was decided upon, and on December 13, 1769, the governor, on behalf of the king, issued the charter that brought the College into being.
Although liberal promises of land had been made to Doctor Wheelock to induce him to settle at various sites along the Con- necticut, no "particular town or spot" had as yet been picked. Accordingly, in the spring of 1770, "as soon as the ways, and streams would allow," he set off, as he relates in a Narrative pub- lished the following year:
. I took the Rev. Mr. Pomer[o]y, and Esq; Gilbert, (a gentleman of known ability for such a purpose,) with me to examine thoroughly, and compare the several places proposed within the limits prescribed, for fifty or sixty miles on, or near said river; and to hear all the reasons,
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Of Colonial-Revolutionary Adventure
and arguments that could be offered in favour of each of them, in which service we faithfully spent eight weeks. And in consequence of our report, and representation of facts, the trustees unanimously agreed that the southwesterly corner of Hanover, adjoining upon Lebanon was the place above any other to fix . .. [the college] in; and that for many reasons, viz. 'Tis most central on the river-and most convenient for transportation up and down upon the river-as near as any to the Indians-convenient communication with Crown-Point on Lake Cham- plain-and with Canada, being less than sixty miles to the former, and one hundred and forty to the latter, and water carriage to each, ex- cepting about thirty miles, (as they say) and will be on the road which must soon be opened from Portsmouth to Crown-Point-and within a mile of the only convenient place for a bridge across said river.
With the determination of Hanover as the location for the col- lege and charity school, Wheelock quickly cleared up his affairs in Connecticut and in August "returned again into the wilder- ness" to establish himself in the southwest part of town, where adjacent grants in both Hanover and Lebanon were to provide well over 3,000 acres for his college and himself:
. .. as there was no house conveniently near, I made a hutt of loggs about eighteen feet square, without stone, brick, glass or nail, and with 30, 40, and sometimes 50 labourers, appointed to their respective de- partments, I betook myself to a campaign.
I set some to digging a well, and others to build a house for myself and family, of 40 by 32 feet, and one story high, and others to build a house for my students of 80 by 32, and two stories high. They had so near finished my house, that by advice of principal workmen, I sent for my family and students, but when they had dug one well of 63 feet, and another of 40, and found no prospect of water, and I had found it therefore necessary to remove the buildings, I sent to stop my family, and try'd for water in six several places, between 40 and 70 rods, and found supply for both buildings-I took my house down and removed it about 70 rods. The message I sent to my family proved not season- able to prevent their setting out-they arrived with near thirty stu- dents. I housed my stuff, with my wife, and the females of my family in my hutt-my sons and students made booths & beds of hemlock boughs, and in this situation we continued about a month, till the 29th day of October, when I removed with my family into my house. And though the season had been cold, with storms of rain and snow-two saw-mills failed, on which I had chief dependance for boards, &c. and a series of other trying disappointments, yet by the pure mercy of God, the scene changed for the better in every respect-the weather uncom- monly favourable-new resources for the supply of boards, &c. till my
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Hanover Bicentennial Book
house was made warm, and comfortable-a school-house built, and so many rooms in the college made quite comfortable, as were sufficient for the students which were with me; in which they find the pleasure, and profit of such a solitude; and since the settlement of the affair all, without exception, are sufficiently ingaged in their studies.
Life in Hanover had not run its first decade before angry over- tures of the forthcoming military clash with England began to penetrate even to so remote a North Country outpost. The town records of that era give succinct statements of steps taken locally as the erupting political situation within the colonies approached the verge of armed conflict.
August of 1774 found the townspeople meeting "in order to come into some resolves relative to a nonimportation agreement," an anti-British action that had grown out of a meeting of the Committees of Correspondence held at Exeter during July. Six months later, in January 1775, the inhabitants were not only choosing "an ajent to engage a man to come and make guns, and likewise to procure Ammunition," but were also providing "to Furnish the Town with a sufficient stock of powder and Flints and lead as soon as can be." Six weeks thereafter they convened once more, this time to vote
that we highly approve of the Measures entered into by the American Continental Congress held at Philadelphia last Summer and heartily adopt the association entered into by them in behalf of their Constitu- ents; and that our hearty Thanks ... are due to that reputable Body, and in particular to the Gentlemen who represented this province for thier indefatigable Zeal in concerting Measures for the security of the Liberties of the American Colonies against the attempts which have been made by desinging men to deprive us of them-
The passage of another six months found Eleazar Wheelock mak- ing the following fateful entry in his journal or "minutes of oc- currences":
June 16. the Noise of Cannon Supposed to be at Boston was heard all Day. 17. the Same Report of Cannon. We wait with Impatience to hear the Occasion & Event.
The occasion and event, despite the seeming incredibility that sound-even of artillery fire-could travel such a distance, appear veritably to have been that crescendo in the siege of Boston which climaxed with the Battle of Bunker Hill on the latter of the two dates. War, indeed, was now being waged in earnest, and but a
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Of Colonial-Revolutionary Adventure
year hence-fifteen years to the very day from the date of Han- over's chartering-delegates in Congress would boldly pronounce America's Declaration of Independence.
During these same years there had also been brewing in Hanover and its surrounding territory another revolutionary movement which, although it was barely to take on a military character, would nonetheless prove, politically, to be a campaign as bellig- erently fought as the attempt on the part of the colonies as a whole to free themselves of British rule.
It is hardly surprising that these "back settlements," far re- moved from the center of government and in less-advanced stages of development, should have differed markedly in interests from the other, older sections of New Hampshire; and perhaps it was inevitable that serious conflict should have arisen between them. Trouble, at any rate, was precipitated in abundance following the adoption by the Provincial Assembly at Exeter, late in 1775, of a scheme of representation to which Hanover and its neighboring towns violently objected as being inequitable and unjust. This dissatisfaction, protracted over many months and finally not as- suaged, was to give rise to two particular developments during the winter of 1777-78: the transformation of the College district of Hanover into a separate town and the confederation of this new town, as well as Hanover itself and several others along the east bank of the Connecticut, with the recently organized independent state of Vermont.
From the beginning it had been expected that the College area would, in and of itself, constitute a municipality. As early as July 1770, before Wheelock actually established his students on the Plain, the town had appointed a committee "to treat with Gove- nor Wentworth and the Trustees of Dartmouth College respecting setting off a part of said Town as a distinct district to sd College"; and, again, the following March,
It was put to vote to see whither the Town will comply with the con- dition of fixing Dartmº. College in the Town of Hanover required by the Trustees of sª College Viz. that sª Towns of Hanover and Leb- anon previously petition the Legislature that a contiguous part of at least three miles square in said Hanover and Lebanon: be set of[f] and incorporated into a distinct and separate parrish under the immediate Jurisdiction of the College-passed in the Affirmative-
Voted that we do agree that said tract may be set of[f] as a parrish or Town as shall be tho't best ... Voted that the Revd Dr Wheelock be
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Hanover Bicentennial Book
our Ajent to petition the General Assembly for the abovesaid incor- poration-
The town's consent to such a separation was also reaffirmed five years later at its March meeting in 1775, and Wheelock was once more designated its representative for the achievement of that end.
When at last, early in 1778, the grievances of towns in the Han- over region reached a point beyond either containment or pla- cation, the long-awaited opportunity for partitioning the College district was at hand; and on February nineteenth its independence was proclaimed by its inhabitants as "a separate town by the name of Dartmouth." Later, due to the realization that "Dartmouth" had already been assigned to the town now called Jefferson, the name was changed to Dresden.
The following spring the spirit of secession rose irrepressibly all along the upper Connecticut as towns of "the New Hampshire Grants (so called), east of Connecticut River," acted to join with the great body of towns of the "N. Hampshire Grants west of sd river," including those from "beyond the mountains"-towns that lately had renounced the authority that New York, despite their New Hampshire charters, had been given over them by the king in 1764 and which had, out of the "New Connecticut" movement, formed autonomous Vermont.
Through referendums held on both sides of the river the union of the New Hampshire communities with Vermont was mutually agreed to, and on June 11, 1778, the state legislature, meeting at Bennington, formally admitted Dresden, Lebanon, Lyme and thirteen other towns. Hanover had not yet taken action, but on July thirtieth it followed suit when its voters resolved "That this Town do Join with the State of Vermont for the same Reasons, and on the same Conditions that a number of the other Towns on the New-Hampshire Grants have already Joined said State."
The story of the events that followed as President Wheelock (until his death in 1779), Bezaleel Woodward, and the other leaders of the Dresden or "College Party" vied for advantage and control with Ethan and Ira Allen and their associates of the "Bennington Party" is a rare tale liberally sprinkled with trickery and intrigue.
It is plain that from the outset one of the objects of the "Col- lege Party" was to make Dresden the capital of independent Ver- mont. But this was not to be, and after only a few troubled months, the connection with Vermont of the towns east of the river was formally dissolved.
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Of Colonial-Revolutionary Adventure
By the following autumn a different course was being pursued, as is evident from Hanover's vote at a town meeting on Novem- ber twenty-ninth, wherein were prescribed
the following instructions to the delegates appointed by this Town to attend the Convention at Dresden Viz That they use thier influence that measures be taken to obtain an establishment of a distinct State on sd New-Hampshire Grants on both sides of the River, and 2dly if that be [not] obtained that the whole belong to New-Hampshire-
The attempt was now to be the uniting, through one or the other of these two approaches, of towns east of the river with those in Vermont east of the Green Mountains, thus subverting the "Bennington Party" by excluding most of its areas from the pro- posed union. In a surprise move in the spring of 1781, however, the rebel New Hampshire towns, now substantially enlarged in number, were again made part of Vermont in another ill-fated adhesion that was to last barely ten months before being once more repudiated by the state assembly at Bennington.
Various elements in a period of pronounced tension and confu- sion now joined to sweep away all possibility either of the estab- lishment of a separate state or of a boundary for New Hampshire other than the natural one provided by the river. Despite wide- spread defection from the now-hopeless cause, Hanover and Dres- den persisted down to 1783 in tenaciously opposing "unconditional submission" to New Hampshire's jurisdiction and authority. At the end of that year, however, their resistance, too, was abandoned, and Hanover submissively became a part of New Hampshire once again, while after approximately six years of independent existence, Dresden, except for that segment of its area duly returned to Lebanon, was quietly absorbed back within the Hanover township.
Both the revolution against England and that of the upper- Connecticut valley were now over-one victoriously, with the prize of American sovereignty; the other abortively, in dispiriting failure. But the end of these two conflicts provided again the set- ting for fresh beginnings-beginnings that would include the ad- venture of a new nation, as the United States took substantial form, was strengthened and grew. And from out of this colonial- revolutionary background the story of Hanover, like that of state and nation, was also to develop and enlarge through the move- ments, actions, and events that would form new chapters of its con- tinuing narrative as the town entered upon its unfolding future.
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2 The Town's Prehistory by John B. Lyons
F ROM the perspective of one's lifetime, or even from that of 200 years of history, the landscape about us is unchanging. We are conscious of artificial inroads on our natural en- vironment, and of the generally small changes which our culture impresses on the face of the earth. By and large, however, the hills and valleys about us may well be thought of, with what is actually a considerable stretch of poetic license, as everlasting.
Thus it is with Hanover. The forest has been cleared, the ground cultivated, and a town and college have spread over the countryside. Despite this, the river still flows past us, just as it has for eons of prehistoric time. The gullied plain has been built upon, but its outlines remain essentially unchanged. And the hills and intervales of the township are almost exactly as they must have been when the first Indians penetrated this region thousands of years ago.
From the perspective of millions of years of geologic time, how- ever, some of the seemingly commonplace and insignificant phe- nomena about us take on vastly greater importance. The soil and the bedrock of Hanover are constantly being disintegrated and dissolved; under the influence of rainfall and gravity the products of weathering eventually reach the streams, and are swept toward the ocean. This gradual wasting away of the land is almost immeasurably slow. Nevertheless, stretched out over pe- riods of thousands or millions of years, its effects are immense. To take an example-between its mouth and Sand Hill (at the eastern edge of the Hanover precinct), Mink Brook has excavated ap- proximately sixty million cubic yards of silt and sand within the past 11,000 to 14,000 years. Or using a different measure of time, the entire town of Hanover has lost approximately 150 cubic miles of bedrock to erosive processes during the last 300 million years.
The bedrock is the town's ancient and strong underpinning. It is the substructure on which we confidently rest our heaviest buildings; it is also the source to which we turn for artesian water
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The Town's Prehistory
and other natural resources. Through some mysterious osmosis, it is also the substance which is alleged (in song, at least) to enter the heart and brain of each Dartmouth man.
Under the Hanover plain the bedrock is generally hidden be- neath 40 to 140 feet of glacially-deposited silt, save for those places such as College Park where it pokes up through this covering. Throughout most of the rest of the town the bedrock is buried by bouldery soil (glacial till) varying in thickness up to 100 feet.
Perhaps the best mental picture of the structural and geometric arrangement of Hanover's bedrock was suggested thirty years ago by the late Professor J. W. Goldthwait, when he wrote, "The pat- tern is like that on a surface of a plank of quartered oak, where the curved and bent layers of the wood fiber are intersected by the planed surface of the board, in zigzags and ellipses." The curved and bent layers of the Hanover area are a group of green or black schist formations which trend north-northeasterly across the town. Two large knots of granite divert the schists into ellipsoidal trends about them. The more westerly of these, the Lebanon granite, has a maximum length in a northeasterly direction of six miles; it extends from Lord's Hill (a mile west of Hanover Center) to Far- num Hill in Lebanon. The western slopes of Balch Hill and the village of Etna coincide respectively with the western and eastern boundaries of this granite.
A much larger body, the Mascoma granite, underlies all of Hanover east of Moose Mountain, as well as large portions of the towns of Canaan, Enfield, and Lyme. The Mascoma granite ex- tends for sixteen miles in a north-south direction, and has a maxi- mum width (east of Moose Mountain) of six and a half miles.
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