USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Peterborough > Historical sketches of Peterborough, New Hampshire : portraying events and data contributing to the history of the town > Part 16
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With Dr. Holland, not yet known to fame, though five years older than Walker, he formed a friendship, and seems to have aided him somewhat in his . first journalistic venture, the " Bay State
As intimated already, the politics of the Walkers, father and son, were the re- verse of Mr. Bancroft's, and followed the tradition of New England Federal- ismn ; in which Judge Smith, and Web- ster, and a greater lawyer, Jeremiah Mason, had been illustrious in New Hampshire. Under the dissolution of
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parties following the Monroe administra- tion, these gentlemen called themselves Whigs, and formed a powerful party, led by Henry Clay, himself originally a Jeffersonian Democrat. Mr. Bliss in Springfield was of the same political faith, as were the college authorities at Harvard and Dartmouth-indeed at most of the colleges of New England and New York, and in the older newspaper offices, such as the Springfield Republican, the Hartford Courant, the New York Com- mercial, the Boston Advertiser, and the Keene Sentinel. Mr. Bliss, about 1827, had been the father of the present County Commission system in Massa- chusetts, and was Speaker of the Massa- chusetts House in one of the trying Coa- lition years, when Gen. B. F. Butler, a Democrat from Lowell, threatened, sotto voce, to "knife the old cuss." He was a mild and sagacious elderly gentlemen when I first knew him in 1853 ; and his wife was a stately and gracious person to those whom she affected, as she was kind enough to regard me. As their son- in-law, and with their extensive connec- tion, social, political and financial, Mr. Walker soon rose to distinction, and was certain of some share in the State gov- ernment, when the Native American or "Know-Nothing " party sprang up like a mushroom, and broke the two old par- ties asunder, by the mere force of its vegetable growth. The better grounded and more serious anti-slavery and Free Soil party had already given a death blow to the Whig ascendancy in Massa- chusetts, and Sumner was in the Senate at Washington, in place of Webster ; who in 1852 died at Marshfield, leaving his personal friends to annex themselves to the pro-slavery Democrats, under Gen. Pierce, Jefferson Davis and Caleb Cush- ing. This was too much for the Spring- field Whigs, and Mr. Walker and the Republican joined the new Republican party of Fremont and Banks in 1856. When Banks became Governor in 1858 he found George Walker in the legisla- ture, and made him one of his military
staff : which gave our graceful George the courtesy title of Colonel Walker. Well do I remember the family agitation which attended the choice of a new uni- form, and particularly of the chapeau, with its Napoleonic suggestions. I had already come into close relations with him 1n consequence of my engagement to marry his sister, first made public in 1853 ; and with him and many friends and relatives we had mourned her death in August 1854, and her father's death four months later.
During most of that year, from June till the opening of 1855, I had lived with the Walkers at Peterborough, abandoning my college studies ; and I was present at the death of James Walker, in the midst of a severe winter, when his son had not yet arrived from Springfield. I had known him well for some years, and came to understand his calm and rathersevere character, which to me always presented a just and affection- ate side. An invalid much of his life, he had borne the burden of much busi- ness, as well as that of a depressing ill- ness; but had maintained among his neighbors a just reputation for good citi- zenship, and a due regard to the claims of rich and poor, without affectation and without parade - par negotiis neque supra, as the Romans said. He did not live to see the distinction which his son attained ; and their characters were nat- urally unlike ; but a true paternal and filial relation existed between them. The father had the rare trait of a high re- gard for qualities foreign to his own life, and for which he had neither ambition nor envy ; and he had, as his own, that balance of judgment which was more conspicuous, but not more useful, in his cousin and namesake, Dr. Walker of Harvard University.
George Walker had his father's quali- ties of justice, diligence and fidelity to all engagements ; but was more. widely known and more hopeful and expansive in his ideas ; hardly, however, so judi-
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cious in his investments and pecuniary calculations, with regard to the much larger interests at his disposal. Having known little of the struggles attendent on narrow means, with which his father began active life, he was more regardful of the public and private interests en- trusted to him, than of his own fortune ; which at several times was larger than the amount he left to his family at his rather sudden death. He had lived gen- erously, but never selfishly, and was never so well pleased as when he could exercise a liberal hospitality. His house, his library, his patronage were ever at the service of his friends, of whom the num- ber was great and ever increasing. He was seldom out of public life after first entering on it in 1857, when chosen a State Senator from Hampden County. He soon became Bank Commissioner of Massachusetts, and in that capacity had much to do with the maintenance of the credit of the State in the difficult period of the Civil War, and with the adoption and success of the National Bank system by Congress. during that war. He went to Europe in 1865, charged with the im- portant duty of making known in Ger- many and France the actual resources of the United States, which, after the haz- ardous strain imposed by the slavehold- ers' rebellion, were but imperfectly un- derstood by most financiers in Europe ; although the sympathy and admiration of the peoples of almost every nation were with the triumphant North-as the sym- pathy of the ruling classes in those na- tions was apt to be with the less demo- cratic South. He had by this time, 1865-7, mastered the extensive literature of finance and public economy, and was writing extensively on those topics in newspapers and magazines. He joined himself early to the newly formed Amer- ican Social Science Association, became one of its officers, and contributed to its papers and debates ; and his acquaintance, personally or by correspondence, with able editors and men of financial affairs, was more extensive than that of most of
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his fellow members of the different so- cieties to which he belonged.
To him do I owe my introduction to the field of Public Charities, in which for now more than 45 years I have been rather ac- tive-at first as practical a iministrator, by appointment of Governor Andrew of Mas- sachusetts and his successors-and more recently as connected with the education of the blind and the deaf, and with the powerful organizations known as the National Conference of Charities and the National Prison Association. As a friend of education, he effectively co-operated in 1867 with his friends, the late Gardi- ner Hubbard and Dr. S. G. Howe, in ob- taining the establishment of the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, and he was until he went abroad, about 1880, one of the twelve trustees of that school, whose investment of their funds he wisely promoted. He was president of a new and successful national bank at Springfield, organized under the laws he had advocated, and managed with dis- cretion ; and he was long connected with the Western Union Telegraph Company, whose affairs drew him to New York for residence, after a long and honorable social life in Springfield, where I joined him for a few years from 1868 to 1872.
Of course I had known George well during the years preceding my marriage to his sister, and from the time - about 1853, when I first made his acquaintance. Probably it was in 1852 that he learned of me, and suspected my attachment to his sister ; with whom, later in that year he reasoned against any serious engagement on her part, with one of whom he knew so little. She met his kindly reasoning, as I suppose most young women would, and, without admitting any engagement, assured him it was a matter in which she should act for herself. This he under- stood, and generously allowed ; nor was his bearing towards mne otherwise than the friendliest. In my recently published " Recollections " I have said on this sub- ject what I had privately printed before, (in 1899, ) and may here be cited :
" Her brother George, her affectionate brother, seemed at first to stand like a lion in the path that was to bring two lovers together. From earliest years he was distinguished, like his mother and sisters, for tender and helpful sympathy with those related to him, and for courte- sy and kindness to all. His relation to this sister, nearly six years vounger than himself, after the death of their mother, and in the feeble health and engrossing occupations of their father, was peculiar-
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ly admirable; and when she found her- | regard the prudence of it-no right at all self more closely bound to another, this to implicate others. To do that now would not only be an abuse of confidence, but, so far as a well-meaning man, can be base, would be "the extreme of base- ness." * * * * * * * new tie was not allowed to weaken the fraternal affection. He adopted the youth who had so unexpectedly become dear, as a younger brother ; and George's delicate generosity in circumstances that often produce estrangement was never forgotton by those who experienced it."
In the circumstances of a few years later, connected with the arrest and exe- cution of his old friend John Brown, George Walker showed a like considera- tion. He would hardly have approved of the course which I took, and certainly Brown's predestined attack on negro slavery went far beyond what his politi- cal opinions allowed. But he saw that it was a revolution, not an election, in which the country was engaged, and he stood bravely by his friends, who had not imparted to him what their purposes were. My name and that of Dr. Howe having become publicly associated with Brown's after his arrest, Mr. Walker did what he could to keep a bad matter, as he viewed it, from growing worse. When in November, after Brown's conviction and sentence, Dr. Howe (Nov. 14, 1859, ) published a letter calling attention to certain legal possibilities in his own case, and expressing his high regard for Brown, while professing ignorance of his plan of attacking Harper's Ferry, I at once re- ceived two letters from friends concern- ing it. Mr. Walker wrote me, with the caution of a lawyer, that Howe's letter, in which our friend, John A. Andrew, had a part, "was the height of impru- dence." Wentworth Higginson, with the warmth of a revolutionist, wrote me it was " the extreme of baseness." I ex- plained to my brother-in-law the motives of Howe, and to Higginson I wrote (Nov. 17) :
" I don't think Dr Howe's letter either the height of imprudence or the depth of baseness; though I am a little sorry it was written. I do not think the time has yet come for declaring the whole truth about Brown; better the numbers, the names and the plans of his accomplices should be unknown, for then they can work in the same way hereafter if they choose. I don't see why it is any worse to conceal the facts now than before the outbreak ; provided that Brown and his men do not suffer by such concealment. What has been prudence is prudence still -- and may be for years to come. But if any person wishes to come out and de- clare himself in Brown's plot, he would have a right to do so, however we might
Dr. Howe has not acted in all ways as I should have done, neither have you ; but so long as each person acts for himself, we must allow such diversities. If, how- ever, the Doctor or yourself should act so as to compromise others, I should have a much stronger feeling about that."
No harm was in fact done by Howe's letter-and Brown understood, from a long talk with Howe in the May preced- ing the foray in Virginia, exactly what Howe's opinions were on his affair. Each hero trusted the other, even when their opinions clashed a little. When in early December, Wendell Phillips brought down from the Adirondac home of Brown a mass of letters written by myself, Hig- ginson, Edwin Morton and others, writ- ten to Brown, it was George Walker who notified me that my letters were at Andrew's law office, where he had looked them over, and indicated in his familiar hand whose letters they were. Andrew gave me mine in a large envelope thoughtfully directed to himself, in case it were dropped in the street ; and I took them to the house of a classmate in Kingston street, where I was to dine and pass the night-and there I destroyed such as might compromise Howe and others, before I slept. I then wrote to Higginson a day later-
(Dec. 20, 1859.) "Do you know that John. A. Andrew has five letters written by you, which ought to be in your possession, as my own are in mine ? (Jan. 2, 1860. ) " Charles Brace spent Sunday with me (in Concord); he is stanch for John Brown, and says at the West there is great sympathy for him ; that Carl Schurz told him the Republicans are stronger in Wisconsin for his effort."
Later in this year, 1860, while Mr. Walker and his friends of the Springfield Republican were urging Mr. Dawes, then in Congress, as the candidate for Gov- ernor to succeed Banks, I was chosen a delegate to the State convention, along with the late Judge Hoar and George Heywood of Concord, as supporters of John A. Andrew, who was nominated and triumphantly chosen. In 1863, during the summer, my brother-in-law called my attention to a new law creating a Board of State Charities in Massachusetts, and said he had suggested my name as its Secre- tary to Gov. Andrew. My friends of the
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Bird Club, and George's friends of the | trait or another, of George Walker. Panks Club. rallied to my support, and I was appointed and reappointed, until I resigned in 1868, to take an editorial po- sition on the Republican, and to live near the Walkers in Springfield, as has been said. I continued a member and officer of this state board and its success- or until November, 1888-an official ser- vice of nearly a quarter century. Mr. Walker's state service was about twenty years ; and for seven years, in latter life, he was in the national service as financial agent, or Consul at Paris.
My four years in Springfield gave me re- newed opportunity (which I had often had before, from 1853 onward) to witness the domestic and social life of Mr. Walker. He was by nature and training a student, but also an active citizen, and much given to friendship and hospitality. His children® were growing up around him, and he had many friends in all parts of the North. From 1854 he had been specially intimate with George William Curtis ; and the best of the many portraits of Curtis was drawn by an English artist, Lawrence, for Mr. Walker's library. The volumes of this library were collected during many years, with special reference to historical and financial works, and with a good array of elegant literature. George was an adept in French, and he also read Latin, Greek, Italian and Spanish with some facility, and spoke and read German, though. with less facility than French. His knowledge of law, his first profession, was extensive, but more in books than in court ; and he acquired in Paris a good acquaintance with French law and inter- national law. He wrote with ease and point, rather than with force, and he wrote much.
Mr. Walker was, in fact, an accom- plished man, who made friends everv- where. In 1850 his friend Ednah Little- hale, writing to his sister from the White Mountains, where she found Starr King, then a Boston clergyman, among other friends, in these words :
"Starr King and his charming, pretty, childlike wife, I found very agreeable. He reminds me very much of your brother George-not so much in looks, for he is not so handsome-but in manners, tone of thought and voice. Mr. King looks somewhat like George and somewhat like Abbot Smith."
I have met several persons in my later life who reminded me strongly, by one
When I first saw Gen. Hayes, then Gov- ernor of Ohio, in 1870-dining with him in Cincinnati along with Dr. Emery Soule, George's special friend, I was struck with a certain resemblance between his modest and polite manner and that of my brother-in-law; and in my long inti- macy with Mr. Brockway, the reformer and organizer of model prisons, I have more than once noticed the same sunny temperament, beneath which was a far greater strength of character. Mr. Walker was equal to every situation in which he was placed ; but he was formed for co- operating and pleasing more than for leading. In summing up his qualities, long since -. for he died more than twenty years since, alas ! I wrote in my " Recollections :"
"In public as in private life, he was the same considerate and high-minded gentlemen ; not regardless of the advan- tages which social position and moderate wealth give-but ever ready to share his blessings, instead of engrossing all with- in reach to himself and his circle. With- out the commanding talents or the decis ive character which make men illustrious, and secure unchanging worldly fortune, he had, as Ellery Channing said of our neighbor Henry Thoreau-' what is bet- ter-the old Roman belief that there is more in this life than applause and the best seat at the dinner table-to have moments to spare to thought and imagi- nation, and to those who need you.'"
From Peterborough as a place of resi- dence George Walker departed June 3, 1848, more than 61 years since, nor did his father and family abide here many years longer. In 1854 his father and sister died, in 1856 his stepmother, and their graves, with his own, are found here or in Springfield, where none of his family now reside. Of the three towns, Peter- boro, Exeter and Springfield, where this interesting household once resided, none of the connection now live in either ; so soon do the transitory ties of locality cease to bind the variable American ex- istence to one spot.
Yet in these ample surroundings of groves and mountains, amid what Lan- dor calls
" The neighborly-saluting, warm-clad race,"
of their ancestors and kindred, do I love best to recall the memory of the Walkers of Peterborough.
[From page 140 to here was published in the Peterboro TRANSCRIPT, Sept. 16, 1909.]
SCHOOL HOUSES IN PETERBOROUGH AND DESCRIPTION OF DISTRICT No. 5.
BY EZRA M. SMITH.
READ AT THE OLD HOME GATHERING IN DISTRICT NO. 5, PETER- BOROUGH, N. H., AUGUST 22, 1910.
The early proprietors of the town after surveying sixty-three lots to be desig- nated as settlers lots, set aside one lot for the first settled minister, one lot for the second settled minister and one lot for the schools out of said surveyed lots. They provided that a good family be settled on each home lot within three years ; that a dwelling house eighteen feet square and seven feet studs, at the least be built on each lot and finished ; that they have six acres of land well fenced and brought to English grass or plowed on each home lot, and that they settle an orthordox minister, and build a decent, convenient meeting house for the public worship of God, but they made no requirement for the building of a school house and the records do not show that a school house was built within the limits of the town before 1790, although the town raised money for schooling many of the preceding years. Sept. 20, 1790 the town voted to have four dioceses and at an adjourned meeting changed the num- ber to five, they instructed the selectmen to vendue the building the school houses to the lowest bidder at the adjourned meeting, Oct. 18. The town chose Chas. Stuart, John White, Jr., Moses Cunning- ham and James Miller a committee to notify the dioceses to meet and to pitch upon places in the several dioceses to set school houses.
The five dioceses were not divided by metes and bounds, but the school houses were located in different parts of the town. These houses were designated as the south west, south east, middle east, north east and north west.
The south west school house was built . on or near the spot where the present school house stands in the south village.
The south east school house was built on the north side of the cross road lead- ing from the street road towards the Cun- ningham Pond near an apple tree a few rods east of the house where Charles F. Bruce formerly lived and now owned by Robert P. Bass.
The middle east school house was built on the north side of the highway leading from the Gen. John Steele place past the Mathew Templeton house about twenty rods east of the place now occu- pied by Frank S. Parker formerly the Jane Edes place.
The north east school house was built on the north side of the highway leading past the Andrew Miller farm, so called, a few rods west of the house formerly of Mary Jane Parker, now being the sum- mer residence of Prof. J. D. M. Ford.
The north west school house was built on the north side of the cross road lead- ing from the Faxon place toward the Ruben Washburn place, a few rods west of the brook near a large rock.
Several attempts were made to build a school house in the present village but they were not successful until March 5, 1799 when the town chose James Wilson, Jonathan Smith, William White, Jr., Abner Haggett and David Steele, Jr., a committee to take into consideration the situation of the schools, and they recom- mended that a sixth school house be built east of the great bridge near the guide post, and the town built a two-story bouse on the east side of the road a little south-east of the present library build-
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ing. It was occupied for school purposes until the school house was built on High street then it remained unoccupied until James Whitney bought the lot north of the library in 1829, when the building was sold and removed to the Whitney lot and is now the dwelling house owned by James H. Whitney. The inside arrangement of these six school houses were alike, and where the seats were placed the floor rose in an inclined plane about three feet. April 8, 1817, the town instructed the selectmen to divided the town into dis- tricts, define the limits of the school dis- tricts and number the school houses, they attended to their duties, but their report was not recorded on the town rec- ords until after the annual meeting in 1824. They divided the town into nine school districts and gave the boundry of each, and the number of each.
The school house in No. I was located on High street, was built of brick and is the house now occupied by Mrs. Samuel W. Nichols. For the school house in No. 2 they took the same location as the school house in the south west dioceses, which is reported to have been a log house, they built of brick and it remained so until 1878 when the brick house was taken down and replaced by the present house of wood. The school house in No. 3 was located on the west side of the street road between the Wilson corner and the Oliver Felt place, built of brick and remained there until it was burned in 1877, when the location was changed and the present wooden house was built on the west side of the street road at the Wilson corner. The school house in No. 4 was built of brick and located at the junction of the roads west of the Benja- min Brackett house and near the north shore of Cunningham Pond, where it re- mained until the district was given up and part of it annexed to No. 3 and the balance to No. 5, in 1855, since that the house has been taken down. The school house in the middle east dioceses was re- tained as the school house and location in No. 5.
At the first meeting called by the select- men and held at the school house in said district July 1, 1817, the district voted to move the school house and chose John Gordon, John Leathers and William E. Treadwell a committee to measure and find the center of said district and that the location of the spot to set the school house be referred to the selectmen of Peterborough. The district voted to as- sess seventy-five dollars to move and re- pair the school house and chose Timothy Holt, Asa Carley, John Steele, William E. Treadwell and John Leathers a com- mittee to superintend the moving and re- pairing said school house.
The itemized report made to said dis- trict in March 1818 shows that the whole expense was seventy dollars. The school house was removed to a lot on the north side of said road a few rods east of the brook east of the house of Caleb F. Wil- der where it remained until it was burned in 1844, after the house was burned till the new one was built the school was held in the house formerly occupied by Peggy Freeman. April 20, 1844, the dis- trict voted to locate the school house about twenty rods west of Peggy's brook, so called, at the east side of the sand knoll. Also, voted to build a school house and chose Isaac Edes, Capt. Asa Carley, and Capt. Samuel McCoy a com- mittee to examine school houses and re- port at the next meeting what would be the suitable dimensions for a school house, the plan for said house and the probable expense of building.
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