USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Brookline > History of Brookline, formerly Raby, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire : with tables of family records and genealogies > Part 9
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32. THOMAS ALTON (Austin) served as a private in company, Col. Thomas Nichol's regiment, which was raised in July, 1777, to re-enforce the northern army.
33. CAPT. SAMUEL DOUGLASS, whose name appears on Raby's record list of its soldiers in the Revolution, was captain of a company of twenty men which marched from Townsend Hill, Mass., in response to the Lexington alarm, April 19, 1775. At that time, he was living in "Pad- dledock," now South Brookline, his house being located a few rods north of the State line, and on the east side of the highway which leads from South Brookline to the summit of Townsend Hill. Its cellar hole is still in existence at the present time, and is in a remarkable state of preserva- tion, considering the fact that it was built more than one hundred and sixty years ago. At a town meeting holden Feb. 15, 1783, it was voted-
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"That Capt. Douglass and Waldron Stone be allowed credit for war sarvis as on the town book"; and under date of Oct. 23, 1784, the town's order book contained the following entry-"Capt Douglass order for 3 pounds-3-4-1; it being for his war service."
34. MOSES LOWELL enlisted as a private in the 5th company of the second New Hampshire continental regiment, his term of service being for three years or during the war.
35. JEREMIAH HUBERT (Hobart), whose name is on the town's record list of its soldiers, in August, 1775, was a private in Capt. Asa Lawrence's company of Groton, Colonel Prescott's regiment.
36. JOSIAH SUARD (Seward?) enlisted for Raby April 25, 1775, in Capt. John Nutting's company of Groton, Colonel Prescott's regi- ment, and served three months and eight days. According to Raby's records, he was also-"at York 1 year."
37. WILLIAM McINTOSH, April 12, 1781,* was hired as a re- cruit by the town of Stoughton, Mass. His company, regiment and term of service are unknown. Opposite to his name on the town's list are the words-"For Nathaniel Patten to York."
38. WALDRON STONE was a volunteer from Raby in Capt. Daniel Stone's company of minute men of Ashby, Mass., which marched from Ashby for Cambridge, Mass., at the time of the Lexington alarm, April 19, 1775. August 1, of the same year, he was a private in Capt. Abijah Wyman's company, Col. William Prescott's regiment. His name appears on Raby's record list of its soldiers.
39. LIEUT. JOHN CUMMINGS was second lieutenant of the Hollis company of minute men, which, under the command of Capt. Reu- ben Dow, in response to the alarm from Lexington, marched from Hollis for Cambridge and Lexington on the evening of April 19, 1775. After some twelve days service at Cambridge a part of the company returned to Hollis. Of the men who remained at Cambridge, fifty-nine were or- ganized into a new company under the command of Captain Dow, and the company was mustered into the service for eight months as a part of Col. William Prescott's Massachusetts regiment. It completed its full term of ser- vice, and was in the battle of Bunker Hill. Among the names of the officers and men of the organized company were the following citizens of Raby : Second Lieut. John Cummings; second corporal, James McIntosh; pri- vates, Nathaniel Patten, Ezekiel Proctor and Ebenezer Gilson. Lieutenant Cummings at this time was, and for many years prior thereto had been, a
* Mass. Soldiers and Sailors .- Vol. X, page 512.
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resident of Raby. His name appears as a resident taxpayer on its first rate list in 1771, and also upon its rate list for every subsequent year up to about 1790. His dwelling house, a log cabin, was located in the eastern part of the township, as its limits were described in its charter in 1769, and about three-fourths of a mile northeasterly from the present village Main street. Its site at the present time (1914) is occupied by one of the oldest framed dwelling houses in town; which, about 1800, was owned and occupied as his home by James Parker, Ist, and after him, from about 1840 to some time in the seventies, by the late James H. Burgess.
40. EZEKIEL PROCTOR was a member of Capt. Reuben Dow's company of Hollis when it marched from Hollis for Cambridge, April 19, 1775. He continued to be a member of the company after its reorganiza- tion at Cambridge, and fought with it in the battle of Bunker Hill. His term of service in this enlistment was eight months. In 1776, he re- enlisted from Raby with twenty men from Hollis who enlisted during that year in the first and third New Hampshire continental regiments, a part of whom were in Capt. John House's company of the first regiment, and a part in Capt. Isaac Frye's company of Wilton, of the third regiment. Both of these regiments served in New York and New Jersey. His termn of service in this last enlistment was one year.
Before, at the time of, and for many years after these enlistments, Ezekiel Proctor was a resident taxpayer in Raby. His name appears as such upon its first rate list in 1771, and for many years afterwards. His dwelling house was located about one mile north of the village Main street on the west side of the north highway to Hollis. Its site until some fifteen or twenty years since, when it was destroyed by fire, was occupied by one of the oldest framed buildings in town which, at various times in its existence, was known from the names of its different owners as the Amos Blodgett place, the Pope place and the Luke Baldwin place.
41. EBENEZER GILSON was a private in Capt. Reuben Dow's company when in response to the Lexington alarm it marched from Hollis on the evening of April 19, 1775. He was probably one of those members of the company who, after an absence of twelve or thirteen days, re- turned to Hollis. For in the fall of the same year, he re-enlisted in the Hollis company of forty-five men which, under the command of Capt. Noah Worcester, responded to the call of the New Hampshire Committee of Safety for troops to re-enforce Gen. John Sullivan, then in command of the New Hampshire troops at Winter Hill near Boston. He was in the battle of Bunker Hill. His house was located in the disputed territory in
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the eastern part of Raby on the west side of the east highway from Brook- line to Milford, and about one and one-half miles north of the present village Main street. At the present time (1914) its exact site is a matter of doubt.
42. JOSHUA SMITH was a private in Capt. William Reed's com- pany in Col. Nahum Baldwin's regiment, which was raised in September, 1777, to re-enforce the continental army at White Plains, New York. He served five months. His house in Raby at that time was located in the disputed territory in the southeast part of the town on the east side of . the highway to Oak hill, and about one and one-half miles south of the present village Main street. A dwelling house standing on its site at the present time was known, sixty years ago, as the Christopher Farley place. At present it is known as the Moses Bohonon place.
43. JOHN GARDNER enlisted from Raby in 1776. He was hired by the town to help fill out its quota for that year, and was paid a bounty of six pounds. He served first as a private in Capt. Samuel Cornell's com- pany, Col. Daniel Moore's regiment. In 1777 he was in Capt. John Lang- don's company when it joined the army under General Gates at Saratoga. His term of service in this last enlistment was twenty-five days.
Concerning the war records of the following five soldiers of Raby in the Revolution, each of whose names appear on its record list, the writer has been unable to obtain any information other than that afforded by said list as follows :
44. GEORGE WOODWARD; "To Tigh for five months."
45. PHINEAS ASTON (Astin?); "Canada 1 year."
46. ALEXANDER McINTOSH; "Canada 1 year."
47. MATHEW WALLACE; "To Cambridge 6 weeks."
48. DAVID DAVIDSON; "Went on the alarms."
Raby's Committees of Safety.
1775. Ebenezer Muzzey, James Badger, Robert Seaver, Benjamin Shattuck, Clark Brown.
1776. George Russell, James Badger, Benjamin Shattuck, Swallow Tucker, Ebenezer Muzzey.
1776. (Re-organized Committee.) Alexander McIntosh, Eason Dix, Clark Brown, Mathew Wallace, Benjamin Muzzey, James Campbell, Daniel Shedd.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
1777. Alexander McIntosh, Eson Dix, Clark Brown, Mathew Wal- lace, Benjamin Muzzey, James Campbell, Daniel Shedd, William Spauld- ing, James Rolfe.
Raby's Commissioned Officers.
Captain Samuel Douglass. First Lieutenant, Robert Seaver. Second Lieutenant, John Cunmmigs.
Names of Soldiers in the War of the Revolution, Buried in Brook- line, Whose Graves are Marked by Memorial Tablets.
Cemetery on the Plain:
Capt. Robert Seaver, died Nov. 3, 1828, aged 85.
Swallow Tucker, 66 April 22, 1809, “ 67.
Benjamin Brooks,
April 2, 1829.
James Campbell, 66 July 5, 1799, aged 52.
Joshua Smith, 1838.
David Gilson,
July 10, 1839.
Pond Cemetery :
Randell McDaniels, died Jan. 27, 1825.
Adj't. William Green, 66 Nov. 29, 1809, aged 82.
George Russell, Nov. 25, 1812, 92.
Samuel Russell, Nov. 31, 1807, 74.
Isaac Shattuck, Nov. 19, 1807, 66
72.
James McIntosh,
Oct. 16, 1828, .€
80.
David Davisdon,
Dec. 3, 1796, 41.
James McDonald, 66 April 11, 1801, 84.
Benjamin Shattuck,
Sept. 12, 1813, $6 88.
Mathew Wallace, Sr.
Eleazer Gilson,
Sampson Farnsworth.
Dec. 21, 1851,
95.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
CHAPTER VII.
Raby, Continued.
1775-1786.
Classification of Raby with Mason in the Matter of Representation in the General Court-First Representative from Raby to the General Court-Second Representative to the General Court-Raby Classed with Milford in the Matter of Representation-Small Pox Scare-The Dark Day of 1780-The Pond Dam-Early and Modern Cemeteries-Disturbances over the Law Relative to Killing Salmon and Other Fishes-Ancient and Modern Inns.
From the beginning of the war in 1775 until the close in 1783, the records furnish but little information relative to municipal affairs; the town apparently having all it could attend to by way of raising money and supplies for meeting expenses incurred by, and exigencies arising from, the war.
There are, to be sure, occasional records of votes to raise sums of money for preaching, school purposes, and the building and repairing of highways and bridges. But in all these cases the sums voted were very small; and it not infrequently happened that a sum of money voted for some especial purpose at one meeting would, at some subsequent meet- ing, by vote, be changed from the use for which it was originally intended and applied to the carrying out of some other scheme. There are, also, during this period almost every year recorded votes for the appointment of committees-"To git two tiers of lots laid off to Raby from the west part of Mason"; or, "To git a portion of the west part of Hollis laid off to Raby." The desire on the part of Raby's people for more territory and their hopes of acquiring it, as expressed in the foregoing votes, while in the case of Mason they were destined never to be realized, were, never- theless, in the case of Hollis, afterwards fully realized, as will appear further along in these pages.
Of the highways which were accepted during this period little can be said. Many of them were mere bridle paths which have long since
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
ceased to be used as highways and, in the majority of cases, the descrip- tions of their laying out are as indefinite and hard to decipher as it is today to establish their original locations.
Representation in the General Court.
During these years the state laws allowed one representative to the General Court for every nine hundred inhabitants. Mason had at this time a population of a little over five hundred; while Raby's population, owing to the failure of its selectmen to return a census of its inhabitants in 1775, was unknown. It was probably this latter fact that caused the state authorities to guess at its population as being three hundred and twenty, in order that it might be classed with Mason and thus secure the number of people necessary for representation. Thus it happened that until 1794 Raby and Mason elected a representative together.
The joint March meetings for the election of a representative appear to have generally been held at Mason, the warrants for the same being posted in each town. In these meetings Raby does not appear to have played any particularly prominent part. Indeed, its books fail to record or even mention them. From the year 1775 to 1784 the two towns were represented by Deacon Amos Dakin of Mason. But in the latter year, either through a special dispensation of Providence or because of political paralysis on the part of the politicians of Mason, Capt. Samuel Douglass of Raby was elected representative and thus acquired the distinction of being the first of its citizens to attain that honor. The second Raby man to acquire the distinction was James Campbell, who represented the two towns in 1789.
In 1794 Milford was incorporated and thereafter until the year 1802 Raby was classed with the latter town in the matter of representation. During the period of the town's classification with Milford in 1796 and again in 1798, Benjamin Farley of Brookline represented the two towns in the legislature. Brookline continued to be classed with Milford until 1802. But in the latter year tlie General Court, upon the petition of its inhabitants, granted to the town the privilege of being classed by itself in the matter of representation in the state legislature. The original peti- tion, in response to which the right was conferred, has been lost; but the vote of the General Court in considering the same was as follows:
"State of New Hampshire, In the House of Representatives; June 16, 1802
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
Upon Reading & Considering the foregoing Petition and the Report of a Committee thereon Voted that the prayer thereof be granted and that the Inhabitants of the Town of Brookline be entitled to send a Rep- resentative to the General Court in future
Sent up for Concurrence
John Prentice Speaker
In Senate June 17, 1802 Read & Concurred
NATH' PARKER DY Sec're'y"
March 1, 1780, the citizens voted-"Not to have the small pox in town." March 22 of the same year Samuel Douglass was drawn as a grand juror-"to serve at the Superior Court at Amherst"; he being the first of Raby's citizens to act in that capacity.
As to the foregoing vote relative to the smallpox; while at first thought, because of its apparent presumption, it appeals strongly to one's sense of the ridiculous, at second thought both its presumptuous and its ridicu- lous features are eliminated when it is taken into consideration that the vote was really nothing more nor less than an expression of the popular opinion at that time relative to the employment of vaccination as a pre- ventive of that dread disease; a practice which was then beginning to be introduced, and against which there was strenuous opposition upon the part of the general public.
As bearing upon the question of the numbers and distribution of horned cattle among the farmers in Raby at that time, it may be stated here that in the spring of 1786 the dwelling house of Joshua Smith, lo- cated about one mile south of the present village Main street on the east side of the highway to Oak hill, was totally destroyed by fire; and that at the time of the fire Mr. Smith was the owner of nine milch cows.
The Dark Day of 1780.
"May 19, 1780, has long been known in the annals of New England as "The Dark Day.' The darkness commenced to come on about ten o'clock in the forenoon, and lasted until the middle of the following night. It extended all over New England and far along the Atlantic coast to the southward. During the daytime, its density was so great that men at work, out of doors, were unable to see and forced to cease from their labor. In doors lighted candles for seeing and doing were as necessary as in the darkness of ordinary nights. Fowls went to their roosts and birds to their nests as at nightfall. The atmosphere appeared to be charged
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
with yellow, brown and blue light intermingled; which imparted a weird and immaterial appearance to all objects in nature. The people were ter- rified; all labor was suspended or entirely dropped. To many it seemed that the judgement day was at hand. After midnight the gloom gradu- ally diminished, and long before morning the night had resumed its original conditions."
The Pond Dam.
At the March meeting of 1781 there was an article in the warrant- "To see if the town will give their consent to have a dam built across the stream at the mouth of Tanapus pond right in the highway by any per- son or persons that shall agree to build two good mills near the dam." This article contains the first mention of a dam at the outlet of the pond, or mills on the streams below it; and seems to furnish absolute proof of the non-existence at this time of either. The article was passed over; but the warrant for the March meeting of the following year contained an article similar to the foregoing relative to the building of the dam. In response to this last article it was voted-"That any person who will up- rear and build two good mills that is a saw mill and corn mill as near tanapos pond as may be convenient in Raby shall have liberty to build a dam across the stream at the mouth of sd pond so high as to raise the water one foot above where the ice now is where the bueoy is marked in presence of Capt (Isaac) Shattuck, Capt. " (James)" Campbell and Wil- liam Hall providing that raising the water to that height shall not tres- pass upon any owner of land above." The above vote is particularly interesting because of its assumption on the town's part of the right of building a dam at the pond's outlet, and also of limiting the height to which its waters should be raised.
Apparently, no one appeared to take advantage of the privilege offered in the above vote; for the following year, 1783, the town gave Waldron Stone a special privilege of building the dam, as appears by the following vote-"Voted, that Waldron Stone be granted of the privilege of building a dam across the stream at the mouth of tanapus pond in the highway to flow the pond for the mills he proposes to build on said stream & the selectmen are hereby directed to give grant of same to him and his heirs and assigns in consideration that he is answerable for all damage he may do to the owners of land above the highway & gulling &c if said Stone do not build sd mills in two years this grant to be void."
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
The foregoing abstracts from the town's record book contain all there- in recorded relative to the building of this dam. There is no proof, either written or traditional, that Waldron Stone built it; but if he did, he did not build it within the specified time of two years from the date of said vote; nor did he then or at any subsequent time build a mill or mills on the stream below the pond's outlet.
Dec. 31, 1781-"Voted to approve the Constitution lately adopted and not to send a man to convention." The above vote refers to the State Convention which met at Concord in June of that year and adopted a constitution which, upon its being submitted to the people for their ratification, was rejected by a majority of the towns of the state. It may as well be stated here that at the various conventions of the people held at Portsmouth, Exeter and Concord before, during, and for some years after the war, Raby was generally represented by Deacon Amos Dakin of Mason. Lieut. Sampson Farnsworth did, however, attend a county con- vention at Peterborough, in 1785, and received therefor the munificent sum of eleven shillings and sixpense.
In November, 1782, Clark Brown was paid six shillings-"For help- ing to find the Senter of the town." Tradition says that Brown was one of a committee of several citizens appointed by the selectmen for this purpose and that the committee acted, and finally reported the centre of the township as being located in the field to the west of the main highway to Milford at the point where the same turns to the left near the house, (now burned down), formerly occupied as a parsonage by the Rev. Daniel Goodwin, one mile north of the village Main street. The purpose of find- ing the town's "Senter" probably had to do with the location of the pro- posed meeting-house, the building of which was then under discussion; as public sentiment at that time demanded that the meeting-house should be built as near to the exact centre of the township as it was possible to locate it.
In 1783, Randal McDonald was paid one pound for one year's service as selectman; and the same year, Caleb Trowbridge, for teaching school five weeks, was paid one pound and ten shillings, or at the rate of about one dollar per week.
Cemeteries.
THE POND CEMETERY, or west cemetery, as it is sometimes called, is located about one mile north of the village Main street on the east side of the highway to Mason, and on the west side of Muscatanipus
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
pond. The first mention made of this cemetery in the town's records occurs under the date of March 3, 1784, when the town voted-"To give Mr. Hall 12 shillings for half an acre of land in square form where the burying ground now is in the south west side of the pond and that the westerly half of the town fence the burying ground above." The Mr. Hall named in the foregoing vote was William Hall, Jr., and an entry in an ancient order book of the town shows that March 6, 1787, the town paid him 12 shillings for said half acre of land. The language used in the foregoing vote would indicate that at the time of its being passed the land in question was already in use as a burying ground.
THE SOUTH CEMETERY, so-called, situated on "the plain" south of the village Main street, was in existence at the time of the town's incorporation in 1769, as is shown by the dates on some of its tomb- stones; one of them at least bearing a date as early as 1766. The original and, therefore, the oldest part of the cemetery was located in the south- east corner of the present enclosure. Its original bounds, in form of well defined ridges of grass covered earth, are at this date easily traceable. For many years after Raby's incorporation, its inhabitants continued to use this original part of the cemetery as a burial place for their dead; although up to the year 1796 it does not appear that the town was pos- sessed of even "color of title" in the land. On the 6th day of September of the latter year, however, Swallow Tucker, by his deed of that date, conveyed the same to the town-"For use as a burying place." Mr. Tucker's deed, for some unknown reason, failed to be recorded at the time it was given; but in 1840 it was entered in the Hillsborough County Registry, Vol. 203, page 602.
In 1850 this cemetery was enlarged by the addition to it of a tract of land purchased by the town from Joseph Jefts. The following de- scription of the tract of land so added is taken from the record of the town meeting holden September 1-6 of that year-"Commencing at the north-east corner of the old cemetery thence northerly on the main road 170 feet to stake and stones-thence westerly 380 feet to a stake and stones- thence southerly 320 feet by or near the road leading from the dugway (so called) to Townsend-thence easterly by said road 200 feet to the old burying yard wall." That part of the cemetery which at the present time is fenced in, with possibly some land south of the present enclosure, is made up of the said original burying ground and the fore- going described addition. In 1904-05 this cemetery was again enlarged by the addition to it of a considerable tract of land located on its west side. At the present time the entire lengths of the west and east sides of
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
this last addition are bordered by rows of young and thrifty white pine trees which were set out in 1909 by Clarence R. Russell, Esq., and it has been laid out in avenues and lots. In 1912-13 this addition was enclosed by an iron fence erected by the town.
THE NORTH CEMETERY is located about two and one-fourth miles north of the present village Main street on the west side of the highway from Brookline to Milford. Compared as to its antiquity with the South and Pond cemeteries, it appears to have been of more modern origin than either of them. It is very probable that in the beginning this cemetery was the property of some family in that part of the town who used it for the burial of their own dead. If so, it furnishes, with the ex- ception of the "Cemetery in the woods," the only known instance in town of what were formerly known as "Family burial lots."
This cemetery was taken in charge by the town on the 8th day of March, 1825, as appears by a vote cast at a town meeting of that date as follows-"Voted to recieve the burrying ground laid out in the north part of the town as town property."
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