USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Peterborough > Historical sketches of Peterborough, New Hampshire : portraying events and data contributing to the history of the town > Part 15
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tendent. We understand that in conse- quence of this arrangement the companies in which the mill and adjoining build- ings are insured have materially reduced their rates of insurance. "
This was the beginning of what after- wards proved to be of great benefit to the town as well as to this corporation. At the annual meeting of the town in March, 1871, the following article was inserted in the warrant. "To see what action the town will take in reference to laying water pipes through Main and Grove streets from the Phoenix factory force pump for purposes of protecting property thereon from fire." At this meeting the town voted: "That the Selectmen be au- thorized to lay sufficient pipes from the force pump of Phoenix factory for the protection of the Town hall." This ac- tion of the town was unsatisfactory to the voters and property holders on Main street and no action was taken by the Se- lectmen in reference to the matter. At a meeting of the town held Nov. 5, 1872, Article 3 of the warrant was as follows : "To see what action the town will take in relation to purchasing a fire engine for the use of the town." This article of the warrant was the result of the vote of the town at a previous meeting in refusing to lay pipes on Main and Grove streets and from a desire on the part of many citizens that the town should purchase a steamer for fire protection. Under this article of the warrant, D. W. Gould, Esq., offered the following motion: "That the chief and assistant engineers be constituted a committee to take into consideration what measures are necessary for the better pro- tection of property in town from loss by fire and to report thereon at the annual meeting next March, in writing, and to recommend such change as they deem expedient and necessary." This motion passed. At the next annual meeting in March, 1873, the committee made a long report to the town closing their report with a recommendation as follows: "That the town vote to purchase a steam fire engine and appropriate therefor at the
sum of $4500, out of any money not other- wise appropriated." This report was re- ceived, placed on file, and remains there to this day.
No further movements occurred rela- tive to fire protection until the year 1874. During the early part of that year the citizens and property holders on Main street conferred together in relation to better protection of their property from fire and each agreed to subscribe an amount based upon their taxed valuation, towards laying water pipes in Main street to connect with the Phoenix factory force pump, extending to Granite bridge, with sufficient hydrants for fire service. A subscription was raised amounting to about $1100, to which sum the town added the sum of $485.58 and the extension was completed and ready for use in November of that year. On the evening of Dec. 10, the same year, an incendiary fire occurred in the second story of the east portion of French's block, directly over the store of J. H. Steele. This fire proved the value and efficiency of the force pump system, for by its use the fire was quickly subdued and what might have proven a serious conflagration and entailed a large finan- cial loss, was saved. At the following March town meeting in 1875, there was an article in the warrant "to see if the town would vote to accept the water pipes as laid in Main street from the Town house to the Granite bridge." The town voted to accept the water pipes as laid and to purchase new hose to the amount of $300.
In 1879 an agreement was made between P. C. Cheney, representing the old bell mill, the Phoenix Factory corporation and the town of Peterboro to extend the water pipes from the Phoenix mill up Main street to connect with the force pump at the Old Bell mill, each to pay a third of the expense. This enterprise was consumated under the supervision of Mr. William Ames, and at the annual meeting in March, 1880, the town voted to appropriate a sum not exceeding $300, and instructed the fire engineers to pay
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Sketch of Fire Department and Aquarius Engine Company.
said sum or any part thereof to the Phœ- nix Manufacturing company. The cost of this extension was about $900.
In 1884 the citizens owning property and doing business on Grove street, feel- ing that they had not equal protection from fire with other portions of the village procured the following article to be in- serted in the warrant at the November town meeting : "To see if the town will vote to lay a water pipe or pipes from a point on Main street to a point on or near Depot street and erect a hydrant or hydrants on or near said Depot street to be used for fire purposes, or take any other action in relation thereto." At this meeting the town voted : "That a com- mittee of three be appointed by the chair to take the subject into consideration and report at the next annual meeting. The Moderator appointed George W. Farrar Amzi Childs and William Ames. Amzi Childs declining to serve, J. Henry Steele, who was then chief engineer, was ap- pointed to fill the vacancy. At the an- nual meeting in 1885 this committee made a report recommending the laying of pipes from near the Town hall on Main street down Grove street to School and down School to some point in school house yard and reported the total cost in their estim- ation to be $725. The town voted to ac- cept and adopt the report and instructed this same committee to make the exten- sion and appropriated $725 for that pur- pose. The pipes were laid down Grove to School and down School to school- house yard as directed by the committee, but the Shoe factory owners and occu- pants were desirous of a further extension to their factory and a connection with their force pump. This committee had expended the appropriation allotted them and had no authority to make further ex- tension. The matter was laid before the Selectmen and they authorized the exten- sion and connection with the Shoe factory force pump, trusting to the town to ratify their action at the next annual meeting. At the next annual meeting in March, 1886, the town voted to appropriate the
sum of $570.91 to pay the amount expend- ed by the committee above the appropri- ation for water pipes and hydrants on Grove and School streets. This action completed what is known as the force pump system. The connection with the three pumps is now maintained and the entire system in working order for fire service.
In IS91 several citizens interested in providing the town with a supply of water for fire protection and domestic purposes obtained an act of incorporation by the Legislature under the title of the Peterboro Water Company. This com- pany allowed its charter to lapse, but it was renewed in January, 1893. At the annual meeting of the town in March, 1893, this company procured the follow- ing article to be inserted in the warrant : "To see what action the town will take in relation to putting in water works into the Center Village and elsewhere in town." Here was the beginning of a long and earnest struggle for the introduction of a system of water works. It early became evident that if done it should be owned and controlled by the town.
An act of incorporation was passed at the January session of the Legislature in 1905, enabling the town of Peterboro to establish water works with all the powers and privileges usual in charters of that character, and at the annual meeting in March, 1906, the town voted by the decisive vote of 210 yes to 167 no, to con- struct a system of water works the pres- ent year. Water commissioners were chosen and were given full power of con- struction and supervision, and by Dec. I, 1906 the works were entirely finished and ready for domestic use and for fire protec- tion.
The original source of water supply, the "town line brook" has recently been augmented by the addition of Cunning- ham pond. The expense of this addition was borne one-third each by Mrs. Eliza- beth S. and Miss Elizabeth Cheney, and one-third by the town. This is a valuable auxiliary to our water supply and settles
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forever all fear in case of a serious con- flagration. The introduction of this sys- tem was of so recent a date that I refrain from further trespassing upon your time in detailing the interesting and at times almost thrilling events and happenings leading up to the final accomplishment of this grand enterprise. If they are not fresh in your memory. I refer you to a careful reading of the town clerk's rec- ords, where will be found a full and cor- rect account of all that transpired.
I think it may truthfully be said that with our gravity system of water works, with a fall of 280 feet, with 83 hydrants upon it and our force pump system with 13 hydrants, and engines Aquarius and Deluge for use in localities not reached by the water system, there are few, if any towns in New Hampshire better equipped for fire protection than our own town of Peterboro.
Our present organization for combatting fire consists of a chief and six assistant engineers, two Hose companies of ten men each, a Hook and Ladder company of ten men, and Deluge company of fifteen men. The hose men and hook and ladder men are expected to man Aquarius where hydrants are not available.
It will be noticed that none of these en- terprises were won without patient and persistent effort, but I assure you that not one of the promoters ever regretted their action. To be a pioneer and not a laggard in matters tending to the upbuild- ing and uplifting of the community in
which one lives is noble and praiseworthy, whether it be in matters of education, morals or internal improvements. The results of the work of these pioneers may be seen on every hand. Our beautiful village is cleaner, sweeter and healthier ; our abandoned, neglected and worn out farms are being taken at good prices, the old rickety buildings replaced by beauti- ful modern structures, the worn out stinted fields made to yield abundantly, and the old hillsides to blossom as the rose. Not only is it a true saying "that it is the early bird that catches the worm," but equally true that it is the up-to-date town that catches the desirable home seekers.
I trust my friends I have not wearied you in the recital of such facts as my memory serves me and such as I have been able to obtain from other sources relative to means of protection from fire from the incorporation of the town to the present time, and now as I close, allow me a few words in behalf of our firemen. Be just and generous toward them, the men who volunteer their services for the protection of your property, your families and homes. They are the men who at an alarm of fire leap to duty, by day or by night, expose health, endanger limbs, and life by suffocation, falling walls and other casualties. They deserve a warm place in your hearts and are little less entitled to be called heroes than the men who volunteered their services from 1861 to '65 in defence of the nation's honor.
[From page 130 to here was published in the Peterborough TRANSCRIPT, August 30, 1906.]
THE WALKERS OF PETERBOROUGH.
BY FRANKLIN BENJAMIN SANBORN, OF CONCORD, MASS.
READ BEFORE THE PETERBOROUGH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1909.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :- In ad- | Justice and Governor of New Hampshire, dressing this Society, formed, as I trust, for the sake of perpetuating the memo- ries of those who dwelt here of old, and of those who, going forth from these picturesque hills and valleys, streams and woods, to distinguish themselves elsewhere, I come to bring to your re- memberance a family hardly seen here for the past half-century-the Walkers ; and particularly my brother-in-law, George Walker, Esquire, who was born here, and here spent the first twenty years of his life. That is to say, it was his home, when he was not at school, col- lege or in the law school, where he fitted himself for those tasks in life, of a varied character, that he took up, after finally changing his residence to Springfield "I shall never forget the joy which filled my heart when your happy broth- ers first greeted their little sister-how their eyes glistened with joy and love when they were permitted to take you in their arms. Your father, too, looked with delight upon his infant daughter ; I believed he nursed you more than both your brothers. * The world was bright to me then-but sorrow came. My poor mother died ; then my dear brother John, and to fill my cup of bitter- ness, my darling James was taken from me." 60 years ago. His father, James Walker, Esq., had come hither from the neigh- boring town of Rindge, ten years after graduating from Dartmouth College in 1804, where he made the early acquain- tance of Daniel Webster, and after sev- eral years of school-teaching and law- study, of which his correspondence has preserved some record, now in the hands of his daughter, Mrs. McDaniels of Lowell, and of his grandson, Philip Walker, Esq., of Washington, D. C. James Walker established himself here in the practice of law in 1814, and died here James, a gentle and promising youth, died in 1840 while at Yale College ; his brother George then left Yale, where he had entered, and was graduated at Dart- mouth 38 years after his father, in 1842. Both brothers had fitted for college at Exeter, under Dr. Abbott, and their on the last day of the year, 1854. His life covered but little more than forty years in this village ; during which period he spent two years in Exeter, N. H., near the villa and park of his wife's uncle, Judge Smith, Congressman, Chief-
and himself a native of Perterborough. Mr. Walker married in 1819 Miss Sarah Smith of Cavendish, Vt., eleven years younger than himself-he born at Rindge, in 1784, and she at Cavendish in 1795- and settled on the hill overlooking the village, in what used to be called "the Carter house ;" where his two sons, James Smith and George were born-James in 1821 and George, April 1, 1824. A daugh- ter, Ariana Smith, named for Judge Smith's lovely daughter Ariana, was born there in November, 1829, and died in this village, August 31, 1854, as my wife. Mrs. James Walker, in November, 1841, a year before her own death, wrote thus to her daughter on her birthday, November 8 :
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mother was a favorite niece of Judge Smith, then living near the Academy, and helping to govern it as. Trustee. In his later years George Walker, while Consul- General of the United States at Paris, find- ing that the handsome estate of Judge Smith was for sale by the Cilley family of Nottingham, who had bought it of the Judge, purchased it for his own residence, when he should return to America ; but he did not live to occupy it, and it was sold by his widow. Asa boy he had been inti- mate with the Judge, his grand-uncle, and there saw Webster, in the height of his fame and the pride of his manly beauty, at the Abbot Festival in 1838. Miss Betsy Clifford, with whose father Webster had boarded in Exeter, in the ancient Gilman Garrison house, near the bridge; and who had seen Webster asan awkward school boy, outgrowing his clothes, saw him also at this Festival, and told me "he looked like an emperor." Judge Smith was of a milder type of beauty, but a lawyer as good as Webster, and much more witty. In the school of these illus- trious friends, Federalists and afterwards Whigs, the Walkers were politically edu- cated ; and they were also bred in that school of affectionate politeness, in which the Smiths of Peterborough and Caven- dish excelled. James Walker himself was not of that warm-hearted Scotch- Irish type which the Smiths inherited ; although George once fancied that his father was descended from that Parson Walker who figured in the famous siege of Derry in Ireland in 1689. In fact, James Walker was the son, grandson and nephew of Revolutionary soldiers, and his first New England ancester settled in Lynn or Woburn sixty years before the siege of Derry, at which George's Irish ancestors sung-
We're the boys that fear no noise, And never will surrender ; We shut the gates of Derry walls On the 19th of December ;
though in fact it was April 19 when Par- son Walker and Major Murray refused to open their gates to the monarch who had
abdicated his English throne, and claimed passive obedience on an Irish one. James Walker of Peterborough was a first cousin of Rev. James Walker of Charlestown, afterward President of Harvard College, and of Dr. William J. Walker, an emi- nent surgeon, who endowed Amherst College as liberally as our James Walker's nieces, (daughters of Rev. Charles Walker of Groton,) did Bowdoin College. It was perhaps in deference to the fact that his father's cousin was professor of phil- osophy in Harvard University in 1843, that George went to study law with Story and Greenleaf at Cambridge, and to read Spanish with George Ticknor in Boston. At any rate, there he was in 1844, vibrat- ing between Cambridge and Boston in the spring of 1844; just turned of twenty. calling on the young ladies, and receiv- ing through the letters of his sister, then under 15, the tender sympathies of Miss M. and Miss P., and escorting them to church and to the opera ; at the same time watching over the motherless sister with the most ardent affection. In that year James Walker married again, and his wife was a niece of Dr. Abiel Abbot of Peterborough, a cousin of Dr. Abbot of Exeter. She was also the aunt of a schoolmate of mine, now Mrs. Folsom of Winchester, Mass., who that winter went to spend months at Peterborough, and take lessons at the old Academy, near the second home of James Walker on Grove street, where I first made the acquaint- ance of the family in February 1852. Mrs. Folsom writes me :
" I was invited to spend the winter of 1844-5 with Uncle Walker and Aunt Mary Ann ; and I attended the Academy there, near Mr. Walker's house on the Jaffrey road. It was in the winter after my aunt's marriage ; but, though married the preceding February, they had not yet taken their wedding journey. So, soon after my arrival in November, 1844, they set out for New York and Washing- ton; they were absent two weeks, and Anna, fifteen, and I sixteen, were left as
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The Walkers of Peterborough.
housekeepers. George Walker, not quite 21, and Aunt Lucy Abbot, (twenty) soon to be Mrs. John Kebler of Cincinnati, spent most of that winter with us- George in his father's law-office, and she with her elder sister, Mrs. Walker. The winter in this bright and gay family was stimulating and most interesting. One of my schoolmates was Maria Edes, who afterwards married Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith, George's second cousin, and also, through his mother, the second cousin of Lucy Abbot and Mrs. Walker, whose uncle, Abiel, was Abbot Smith's grand- father. I had never seen George or Anna till I went to Peterborough, but there grew to be a close friendship between us, which continued until her death. Their friends were people of the best and truest education ; and it was my privilege to know many of them. George and his wife were afterwards with us at Hampton Falls during the summer and autumn of 1853 ; and he had before that become so intimate with Anna's dear friend, Miss Ednah Littlehale of Boston, who was al- most exactly his age, that they were sometimes supposed to be in love with each other."
This acquaintance with the late Mrs. E. D. Cheney had begun perhaps in Exeter ; for Ednah's aunt, Miss Dow, had been engaged to Judge Smith's son, William, and afterwards married his cousin, the father of Abbot Smith. The Dows were an Exeter family, and Ednah Dow Little- hale had once dined at Judge Smith's, as a girl, with Daniel Webster. She also, after her own father's death, had busi- ness relations with James Walker, who was a wise and safe adviser in matters of property. She made a long visit in Peter- borough in 1848, and it was at her house in Boston that the artist Morse made for George Walker that lovely crayon of his sister, of which a copy is in your town library, I think. George had hesitated where to fix his professional office ; and although he had commenced business in Chicopee as a lawyer, in 1846, he was
urged by his father to return to Peter- borough and take up the work of his law office, with which George had become familiar. He had done this for a time in 1845-6, much to the delight of his sister, but with her generous desire for the wel- fare of others, she felt that a wider field would suit his talents better. In Febru- ary, 1848, she being then eighteen and George almost twenty-four, she wrote to Miss Littlehale :
" George's return home is nearly de- cided upon. I cannot help regretting in many ways that it is so ; and yet I know not what is best. I feel my own inability to make him happy more than ever, now that he is to depend so entirely on me. I dread so much lest I should disappoint him. He speaks of my reserve, and I feel he is right ; why it is I know not- but I have never been so open with him as he with me. Feb. 11 .- It is decided, dear Ednah-George returns to Peter- borough ; I have today received his letter saying so. He told me I should have a home before him ; ' You will marry first,' said he. I have written, 'I shall never marry and my home is with you if you will have it so.' In his reply he says : "As you say of my reasoning-I don't think you are correct-but if it be so, then there is in store for me one happi- ness which I have not ventured to ex- pect.' In George's presence how much there will be of blessing ! how much of deep and true communion ! "
A short experiment however, showed all parties to this family arrangement that it could not well be carried out. George Walker had talents and acquirements that demanded a broader and more con- centrated life than Peterborough, the year round, could then furnish. His graces and his tendencies were those which urban customs require ; urbanity, indeed-his chief characteristic, after the altruism which formed its basis-was originally the fruit of the city life which gave it a name. George Walker was a student, inclined to go to the bottom of
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any subject he investigated ; but once | Weekly Courier, published every Satur- master of that learning which can best day morning at Springfield and Cabot- ville, by J. G. Holland, editor and propri- etor," This was commenced in January 1847, and the 15th number of the first volume is before me. It contains a short story, "Edith Carleton, a Sketch" by Miss Walker, written at the age of sixteen, and furnished to Dr. Holland by her brother. It has little merit save as the youthful expression of gentle sentiment for the unfortunate-for the heroine is blind, and meets an early death. The author had not yet formed her own style, which in letters was vigorous and grace- ful ; nor did George himself early ac- quire the easy style that afterward dis- tinguished his copious essays on topics financial, social and historical. He re- moved to Springfield in 1848, was mar- ried there in 1849, to Miss Sarah Bliss, only daughter of George Bliss, a finan- cier and railroad president ; who had married Miss Dwight, sister of William and Edmund Dwight of Boston, and whose younger sister was the first wife of George Bancroft, the historian and Dem- ocratic politician. The only brother of Mrs. George Walker was afterwards known in New York City, where he chiefly resided, as Colonel Bliss, and was active in state and national politics there. The Walkers long lived in the fine house of Mr. Bliss, on the hill where now the Episcopal church stands ; but after 1854 occupied the house on the same street which had been Mr. Bancroft's residence in Springfield, before he removed to Boston as Collector of the Port there, under his friend, President Van Buren- with whom and succeeding presidents Mr. Bancroft long corresponded. be gained in the solitude of the study, either rural or urban-it makes little odds which-he then needed an audi- ence, such as only centers of civilization can supply. In conversation he was fluent, and but for his exquisite polite- ness might have been excessive ; indeed, when living at Chicopee and calling on his neighbor, John Wells, afterwards an eminent judge, Mrs. Wells and her friend, one of the piercing and sometimes sar- castic Dwights, had a name for George, -" Walker-Talker," which Mrs. Park- man communicated to me, thoughtless of my connection with him. He there- fore tended all his life, unlike his sister, more and more to social centers-the smaller first, like Exeter and Keene, and Cambridge, and then to Boston, Spring- field, New York, Washington and Paris. He returned to Cabotville, since called Chicopee, where he had formed in 1847 the acquaintance of two persons after- wards much distinguished, but wholly unlike each other- John Brown of Kansas and Virginia, and Dr. Holland, of the Springfield Republican and Scrib- ner's Magazine, soon to be the Century. George .Walker was legal counsel for one of the banks which Brown used in his five years' experiment of wool-sorting and wool-dealing at Springfield ; which ended in financial defeat, but left with Mr. Walker, who was the soul of honor, a high esteem for Brown as a man of strict integrity, and lofty character- points which Brown's detractors are con- tinually seeking to bring into disrepute. Ten years later, in early 1857, George in- troduced Brown to my acquaintance ; and, though unprepared for the trench- ant methods of the old hero afterwards, he sorrowfully defended him from asper- sion.
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