USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Brookline > History of Brookline, formerly Raby, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire : with tables of family records and genealogies > Part 19
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DAVID ALLEN ANDERSON, a son of Levi and Anderson, was born in Brookline, April 19, 1840. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1868. Soon after his graduation he settled in North Adams, Mass., where he engaged in business. He died at North Adams, Jan. 1, 1907.
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FIRST MEETING-HOUSE-1791
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205
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
CHAPTER XII.
Ecclesiastical History.
Early Religious Movements-The Meeting-house War, So Called-The Completion in 1791 of the First Meeting-house.
During the first six years succeeding its incorporation, Raby's records contain no mention of any appropriation of money for religious purposes. But from this fact it must not be inferred that its people were indifferent to their religious or moral obligations. For tradition says that during this period religious meetings at which ministers from neighboring towns officiated were held at various places in town. Among those who thus officiated was the Rev. Jacob Burnap of Merrimack, who on one occasion preached in the barn of Capt. Samuel Douglass. This barn was located near Captain Douglass' dwelling house on the village Main street, its site being not far from that now occupied by the house late of the widow John Spaulding, deceased. Tradition says, further, that during this period, and for many years subsequently, the town was visited by itinerant preachers, who held services in the open, preaching to congregations who heard them gladly.
But the real reason for the town's laxity in the matter of raising money for the preaching of the Gospel, during this period, is undoubtedly to be found in the fact that its inhabitants continued to practice their long established custom of attending divine worship in Hollis and other neigh- boring towns. Coupled with this fact also are those of their paucity of numbers and poverty in possessions; powerful arguments against the expenditure of money for any purpose other than that of actual existence.
The first recorded action relative to public worship occurred at a town meeting holden March 6, 1775; when it was voted-"To raise the sum of eight dollars to pay the priest"; and James Campbell and James Badger were chosen as a "Committee to agree with the priest."
The foregoing vote would seem to indicate that there was already a minister in town. But there is no record of his name or origin. Whoever he was, during the time he was employed in preaching out that eight dol- lars appropriation, he must have often longed for the flesh pots of Egypt;
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
for three years passed before the town raised any additional sum for preaching; the second appropriation for that purpose occurring in March, 1778, when it was voted to raise ten pounds.
The number of the town's rateable polls at the date of the second ap- propriation was sixty, and its population not far from one hundred and fifty. It is possible that at this time the "priest" was still living in town, and that he continued to do so for the succeeding three years, or until the time of the next appropriation. But, if he did so, it is to be hoped that his was a case where Providence tempered the wind to the shorn lamb. For, owing to the depreciation in value of the Continental paper money which at this time was the only money in circulation, the ten pounds appropriated was really equivalent to only five pounds in silver, or one- half its face value; and, as this depreciation in the value of the currency was attended with a corresponding appreciation in the value of commodi- ties, it is evident that his position was no sinecure.
Under such circumstances as the foregoing, it is no wonder that so many of the early ministers in New England became experts as horse traders.
Speaking of the depreciation in the currency, both that issued by the state and also by Congress, it increased so rapidly as to cause general alarm; and early in the spring of 1777, the New Hampshire legislature, for the purpose of relieving the tensity of the situation, passed a law by which the price at which the common necessities of life could be sold were regulated. Among the commodities upon which prices were fixed by this law are the following:
s d
S
d
Oats per bushel
20 Beef, per lb.
Indian Corn per bushel
3 6
Pork per 1b. 0 412
Rye per bushel
4 6 Linen Cloth per yd. 4 0
Beans per bushel, 6 0 Flannel cloth per yd. 3 6
Salt per bushel, 10 0
Molasses per gal., 4 0
Butter per 1b.,
0 6
N. E. Rum per gal., 3 10
Cotton per 1b.,
30
W. I. Rum per gal.,
7 8
Wool per lb., 2 2
The passage of this law, however, was of little effect. For the cur- rency still continued to depreciate in value, and the necessities of life to appreciate in price; the latter being governed by the actual value, as a medium of exchange, of the former.
In the month of March, 1781, at the annual town meeting, it was voted to raise three hundred pounds for preaching. At the time this vote
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
was taken, both the State and the Continental currency had depre- ciated in value to the extent that, in exchange, seventy-five pounds of paper money was equivalent to one pound in silver. So that the three hundred pounds voted, when reduced to its value in silver coin, was equal to four pounds, or about twenty dollars. March 30, of the same year, it was voted-"To hire the Rev. Mr. Houston to preach out the whole of the money raised for preaching."
Who the Rev. Mr. Houston was, from whence he came to Raby, and whither he went when he departed, are questions which are answered neither by the records nor by tradition. But it is fair to presume that he accepted the offer and-"preached out the whole of the money"; and thus he became, so far as the records show, the town's first minister of the Gospel.
From the date of the vote, in 1781, to raise three hundred pounds, up to and including the year 1791, the town records contain no mention of any sums of money as having been appropriated for religious purposes. But in the latter year, a Reverend gentleman by the name of Wythe was hired-"To preach out the whole of the money." Mr. Wythe's ante- cedents, like those of his predecessor, Mr. Houston, are unknown. Tra- dition says, however, that previous to his coming to Raby, he had been preaching in Mason.
Up to this time (1781) religious meetings had been holden in private dwelling houses, a practice whichi was continued until the year 1783-84, when the town built its first schoolhouses; in which, after the latter date until 1791, when the meeting-house was ready for occupancy, public gatherings of all descriptions convened.
The town's first definite action relative to building a meeting-house occurred at a meeting of the citizens holden March 1, 1780; when it was voted to build a house 30 feet wide and 40 feet long; and Samuel Douglass, Alexander McIntosh, Clark Brown, James Campbell, and William Spauld- ing were elected as a-"Committee to find the place to set the same." At a subsequent meeting holden the same year, this committee reported in favor of a site located about midway of the south side of meeting-house hill, and on the east side of the highway leading up the same .* The people refused to accept the report, and immediately divided into factions upon the question of the location of the house. One faction favored the site selected by the committee. Another, and apparently the larger one, was in favor of the location on the summit of meeting-house hill, where
* This site was afterwards occupied by the dwelling house of the late Horace Warner. The Warner house which is standing at the present time is that which was owned and occupied hy the late Wlliiam Gardner Shattuck at the time of his death, 1892.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
the house now stands. In addition to these two principal factions, there were others, minor ones, composed of two or three persons, and even of single individuals, each of whom had opinions of their own as to the best site for locating the house.
From these differences of opinion there resulted a factional contest over the question of what particular spot or locality was most suitable for the location of the house, which was known locally as
The Meeting-house War.
This war between the several factions was carried on with more or less intensity and bitterness of spirit for a period of nearly eleven years in duration, during which neither side would yield; nor did either gain any permanent advantage. For if, by chance, at any of the numerous town meetings called in reference to the meeting-house, either faction succeeded in carrying a vote by which the location was fixed, the defeated faction would immediately cause the calling of another meeting; at which, aided by the smaller factions, and individuals who, because they couldn't rule, were bound to ruin, they generally succeeded in revoking the vote of the preceding meeting and passing another one by which the site of the house was fixed in a location more in accord with their own wishes.
After the first outbreak, there seems to have been a lull in the war of a year or so in duration during which the citizens were engaged in another and, for the time being, more engrossing controversy over the building and locating of a cattle pound.
But when in 1783 the latter question was finally settled, the meeting- house war again broke out, and with renewed intensity. At the March meeting of the latter year, after a lengthy and heated discussion, it was finally voted to set the house "On a hight of land north of the road and east of the burying ground, if the committee can agree with the owners of the land." The burying ground referred to in this vote was evidently that located on the west shore of the pond, and the "hight of land" the summit of the hill upon which the meeting-house now stands.
At a subsequent meeting in March of the same year, Capt. Samuel Douglass, Waldron Stone, Swallow Tucker, Lieut, Randal McDonald and Lieut. Sampson Farnsworth were elected as a committee "to oversee the business and conduct the matter of building the house." It was also voted that the house should be-"Forty feet long, thirty feet wide and eighteen foot posts"; and that "every man in town have an equal chance as may be in gitting stuff and laboring at the house."
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
The foregoing vote would seem to indicate that there was at last a prospect of making some progress in the matter of locating and building the house. But, alas! the next entry in the records shows that the ap- parently peaceable prospect was only an illusionary one. For at a meeting of the townspeople in June of the same year, the old question of the house's location again came to the front, and it was voted that-"The setting up of the meeting-house be put off till next April, and that the comittee git Mr. Brown."
Who "Mr. Brown" was, or what they wanted to get him for, does not appear in the records. Nor does it appear that the committee presented any petition to the Great and General Court. But the vote itself was a fine piece of strategy on the part of the partisans of the location on the hill. For it opened up the minds of the opponents to that site to a knowl- edge of the possibility that outside of the citizens of Raby there were others who, if called upon, had the authority as well as the power to settle the question at issue; and that their opponents had the will as well as the numerical strength necessary to call in tliat arbitrator.
For the four years succeeding the foregoing vote there was another lull in the proceedings relative to the meeting-house; occasioned, no doubt, by the town's being busily engaged in an effort to obtain additional terri- tory by adding to that which it already possessed the strip of land on the west side of Hollis to which under the terms of its charter it was legally entitled. But when in 1786 that important matter had been settled in favor of Raby, its inhabitants, with renewed zeal, returned to the prose- cution of the Meeting-house War.
At the March meeting in 1787 the town again voted, and for the third time, to build a meeting-house; and at the same time elected Samuel Douglass, James Campbell, Randal McDonald, Isaac Shattuck and Thomas Bennett as a committee-"To see the timbers got to build the same." Again the dimensions of the house were fixed; this time "38 feet long, 28 feet wide and two stories high." The committee was even in- structed as to the time -- "within which the frame must be set up."
But again the discordant elements warred. The spirit of contention got in its work, and at a town meeting in April following, it was voted- "To Chose a committee to say where the meeting-house shall stand and their judgment to be final and end all dispute in regard to that matter."
In the month of October following, in accordance with that vote, Capt. Samuel Douglass and Capt. James Campbell were chosen as the committee; and, at the same meeting they reported as follows: "That the meeting-house shall stand at or near where the fence comes to the
210
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
road from Foster's hovel and on the south side of the road and east of the grate bridge." The report was accepted by the meeting, and thus the problem of the location of the house, which had vexed and worried the people since when in 1780 they first voted to build it, at last seemed to have been satisfactorily solved.
The friends of the location as fixed by this vote were jubilant and, like David of old, exalted their horns. They rejoiced with exceeding great joy. In fact they evidently overdid the rejoicing act by indiscreetly boasting of their victory over their opponents. So that, at last, the eyes of the latter were opened; and it dawned upon them that both the prompt- ness of the committee in making its report, as well as the nature of the same, indicated that its members were, and had from the beginning been, in favor of the location which they had recommended, and were there- fore governed by their prejudices in selecting it. In fact, the opponents of the hill site soon realized that they had been the subjects of trickery, in that the said committee was, in its makeup, wholly one-sided, and that they were the victims of non-representation. Accordingly they hustled around and procured the calling on the 14th day of April, 1788, of an- other town meeting, at which, after much skirmishing and debating, they finally succeeded in carrying a vote-"To have a Court's committee to prefix a place to set our meeting-house."
In accord with the foregoing vote, on the 29th day of May, the se- lectmen framed and forwarded to the Great and General Court a petition, of which the following is a copy :
"To the Hon" the Senate and House of Representatives for the State of New Hampshire:
The petition of the Subscribers the Selectmen of the town of Raby in the county of Hillsborough in said State Humbly shews That the In- habitants of said Town have voted to build a meeting-house in said Town but cannot Exactly agree on any particular spot of Ground to set it upon, and have agreed to petition your honors to send a committee to find out a suitable place for that purpose.
Your petitioners therefore humbly pray your honours to Interpose and grant us such a Committee as your Honours in your great wisdom shall think fit and they as in duty bound will ever pray:
Raby May 29, 1788
JAMES CAMPBELL SAMPSON FARNSWORTH
RANDELL McDONALD
Selectmen of Raby."
211
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
On the 7th day of June following, the Court granted the prayer of the petition, and Timothy Farrer, of New Ipswich, Abiel Abbott, of Wil- ton, and John Goss, of Hollis, were appointed a committee-"to locate the meeting-house, the town to pay the expense." It is probable that this committee acted, selected the "spot" for the house's location, and reported accordingly. But a diligent search in the town records and State papers fails to reveal any record of such a report. Nor does it appear that the committee's decision, if they came to any, had any immediate effect by way of settling the question at issue. For, from the date of its appointment up to and including April 9, 1789, there occurred four addi- tional town meetings, at each of which the location of the meeting-house furnished the principal subject for discussion. At two of these meetings it was voted to delay the building of the house; and at one of them, that of March 4, 1789, a building committee was again elected. At this latter meeting occurred the first action relative to appropriating money to build the house; it being voted to raise thirty pounds for that purpose.
By this time, the fact that they were engaged in a foolish and profit- less warfare, seems to have dawned upon the minds of all the interested parties. Since the town first voted to build a meeting-house a period of nine years had elapsed, during which the entire population had been em- broiled in a bitter controversy, no substantial progress made, and the end as yet was apparently afar off. Meanwhile many of those who were alive and interested in the matter at the beginning, had succumbed to the in- evitable, and passed on to that mystical land, where, in all probability, both cattle pounds and meeting-houses are unknown. Others had passed into their dotage, and were unable to have distinguished the meeting- house, if it had been built, from the pound, which was built. The young men and women had reached maturity, married, had children of their own and, having divided up between the factions, were now asissting their elders in carrying on the war.
Such was the condition of affairs when, at a meeting of the inhab- itants in the month of April, 1789, the town took what appears to have been its final action relative to either the building or location of the house. For from this time the records contain no further references to the matter. At this meeting, after again voting to build a meeting-house, it was finally voted-"To send another petition to the court's committee praying them to come and view the town again and see if they can find a spot of ground for us to set our meeting-house on that is satisfactory to the town." And at the same meeting, Lieut. Ephraim Sartell, Lieut. James McIntosh, Benjamin Shattuck and Joshua Smith were elected as-"A committee to
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
wait on the court's committee." The records contain no evidence that the "court's committee" were ever called upon to act under the provisions of the foregoing vote. Tradition says, however, that it did act, and that it reported in favor of the site upon which the house now stands.
Soon after the passing of the vote of April, 1789, work on the house was begun, and continued with considerable regularity until it was ready for occupation in 1791.
The land upon which the meeting-house stands was a gift to the town from Richard Cutts, Shannon Esq. His deed of conveyance of the same to the town, recorded in Hillsborough Registry, Vol. 203, page 603, is dated Nov. 21, 1796.
The men who constituted the building committee were Benjamin Farley, Joshua Smith, Eleazer Gilson, and Daniel Spaulding. This com- mittee had the general supervision of the work. The house was built by the people; each one contributing to its construction in labor or materials, or both, according to their several means and circumstances. From time to time appropriations to defray necessary expenses were made. Besides these appropriations, money was raised by selling pew grounds.
The inconveniences and troubles to which the people were subjected in the matter of raising funds, and the straits to which they were reduced by reason of their poverty, are well illustrated by an article inserted in the warrant for a town meeting on the 15th day of April, 1790; which, referring to a prior vote of the town to sell pew grounds, reads as follows- "That it is thought by a considerable number of the inhabitants to be attended with great difficulties and inconveniences as well as a vast deal more expense and to hinder the building of the house as soon as the same might be done." The article concludes with these words-"And to act thereon as the town may think proper as well as for the interest as the Peace and quietness of the town." At this same meeting it was-"voted that Daniel Spaulding," who was one of the building committee, and also a carpenter, "should build the porches"; which, the vote specified, were to be ten feet square and ten feet high.
These porches were subsequently built by Mr. Spaulding, he furnish- ing all the materials and performing all the labor, for which he was to receive-"One pew in each corner of the South side of the meeting-house and what room he shall make above by building the porches."
In May, 1790, ninety pounds were voted for furnishing the house, of which amount it was stipulated that nine pounds should be paid in hard money. In this same year Minister's rates were levied for the first time.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
On the 12th day of March, 1791, eleven years and two months after the town's first vote to build it, the meeting-house was so far completed that it was used for the first time, the occasion being that of holding a town meeting.
Thus, after a war of words extending over a period of more than ten years, the meeting-house was so far completed as to be ready for occu- pancy and use. There is no record that it was ever formally dedicated, and tradition also is silent on that point.
Although it was erected as a house of God, the first meeting holden within the walls was a secular one. For many years, or at least as long as the town continued to look after the religious as well as the worldly inter- ests of its people, the house was used both as a place of worship and a town house. It still is and always has been used for holding the annual and special meetings of the town (with the exception of a few years in the latter part of the last century, when the town meetings were held in Tarbell's hall in the village).
But its use as a place of public worship ceased many years ago. Dur- ing its use for the latter purpose, it was occupied at various times by tlie Congregationalists, Methodists, Christians, and Universalists in turn. The house has received some severe usage in its day. Forty years or more ago, after it ceased to be used for religious purposes, the town au- thorities, influenced doubtless by a desire of obtaining from it some rev- enue for the town, were induced to lease it to a local company for the storage of furniture and lumber and, in order to make room for storage, authorized the removal of its furnishings, or the greater part of them. Under this authority the lofty, ornate and beautiful pulpit was ruthlessly torn down and carried away, disappearing from sight as completely as if it had never existed; the box-pews, the "sheep-pens" of our childhood, were removed from the main floor of the house, and only the gallery pews are now left, as samples of the architectural skill of the early fathers of the town, and proofs of their painful and loving endeavors to beautify and adorn the house with the work of their hands. It stands today as a most worthy monument to their memories.
It is perhaps the only representative of the type of meeting-houses common in New England a century and more ago now standing in Hills- borough County. The memories associated with it are holy. Partially despoiled though it is, it still retains sufficient marks of its original inside architectural beauty to attract the antiquarian and the lovers of the past, and it is to be hoped that no sacrilegious hand, moved by the spirit of despoilation, will ever again be lifted against it.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
CHAPTER XIII.
Ecclesiastical History, Continued.
1791-1837.
Rev. John Wythe-Organization of the Congregational Church, Dec. 20, 1795-First Deacons-Church Covenant-Call and Settlement of Rev. Lemuel Wadsworth-His Ordination, His Ministry, and Sketch of His Life-Inscription on the Tombstone of Rev. Lemuel Wadsworth-The "Rev." "Doctor" William Warren-Movements in Favor of the Formation of a Church of the "Christian" De- nomination in 1821-Rev. Jesse Parker-Rev. Leonard Jewett- Rev. Samuel H. Holman-The Pastorate of Rev. Jacob Holt- Sketch of Mr. Holt's Life-Opening of the Meeting-house to the Occupancy of all Religious Denominations and the Formation of a "Christian" Church in 1831-The Pastorate of Rev. Henry E. Eastman, and Sketch of His Life-Abandonment of the Old Meet- ing-house as a Place of Worship by the Congregationalists.
As has already been stated in a prior chapter, the old meeting-house was occupied for the first time on the 12th day of March, 1791, the occa- sion being that of holding a town meeting. For the consecutive five years following its opening the house continued to be used for both civic and religious meetings. During this period, as had from the beginning been the custom, all secular matters connected with divine worship con- tinued to be controlled by the town authorities; who attended to the expenditure of appropriations raised for that purpose, hired the minis- ters, and did such other acts as in their judgment were essential for the general religious welfare of the citizens.
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