USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Candia > History of Candia: once known as Charmingfare; with notices of some of the early families > Part 5
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NOTICES OF EARLY FAMILIES.
named Nabby, who married Col. Ebenezer Webster, and was the mother of Daniel Webster. Daniel Fitts was father of Abraham Fitts, who came to Chester and to Candia.
The following is an account of the town of Candia, found among the papers of Licut. Abraham Fitts, sup- posed to have beon written by him.
" It was settled at first by a number of mon from Lon- donderry, Chester and Brentwood, by the name of Mc- Cluer, Turner, Ramsey, Bean, Clay, Rowell, &c., and Eastman, from Kingston, built a saw mill, which went by the name of Eastman's for thirty or forty years after. "They were hard laboring men, the land being new they fared protty hard for some years. They paid their taxes to Chester till they were incorporated into a Parish by the name of the Parish of Candia.
In the year -, the inhabitants, tho' few in number, being weary of paying taxes at Chester, and eight or nine miles to go to meeting to Chester, whore they paid taxes to Mr. Flagg and Mr. Wilson, they met together and chose a committeo to petition to Chester, and from thence to the General Court, to be incorporated into a Parish by themselves. Accordingly they had their request granted both by Chester and tho General Court, and the bounds fixed as above, and Samuel Emerson, Esq., of Chester, was appointed to call the first meeting, which was held in the houso Mr. Joseph Palmer now lives in, it then stood not far from where the meeting house now stands. Dr. Samuel Moores was chosen moderator, then Esq. Emerson quit his seat. Dr. Moores was chosen Parish Clerk, Jer-
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emiah Bean, Capt. John Sargeant, Lt. Batchelder chosen Selectmen. There was sixty-three ratable polls at 16 years old, the first."
FOSTER, SAMUEL
Was born of English parents in Billerica, Mass. He came to Candia in 1789, in which year he married Mary Colcord, of Brentwood. They had ten children : Samuel, who married Huldah Lund, of Nashua, where he lived and died ; Eben C., who married Betsey Ad- ams, daughter of Dr. Adams, of Pembroke, and lives in Manchester ; Moses, who married Abigail Huntley ; Polly, who died in Brentwood ; Franklin, who married Mercy Huntly, sister to Abigail, and both of Lowell, Mass,; Hannah, who married Nathaniel Chase, of Brent- wood ; Lydia B., living at Nashua ; Lucinda, who mar- ried Samuel McQueston ; Sally, who married Stephen French ; and Betsey, who married Phinehas French, all of Bedford, where Betsey died.
Dr. Foster served three years in the army during the War of Independence, and was at the battle of Mon- mouth. He used to live in the Parsonage house, which was torn down for the building now occupied by Dr. Isaiah Lane, where he for a time boarded Mr. Rem- ington. He afterwards built the house where Mr. Eben Eaton now lives. In 1812 he removed to Canterbury, and returned in 1815. He died in Brentwood, in 1826,
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His widow still living with her son, Mr. Franklin Fos- ter, of Nashua, at the age of 87, retains, to a remark® able degree, her memory of past events.
HALL, OBEDEDOM
Was born in Chester, N. H., in 1745, and came to Candia about 1776. He was the first settler in the northwesterly part of the town. It is said of his wife, that on one occasion when Mr. Hall was confined by some injury, or sickness, to the house, she threshed out enough of the newly harvested rye for a grist, and then with a child in her arms, caught the horse in the woods. Putting saddle, bridle, the rye and herself, upon his back, she rode to Trickling Falls, a distance of some twenty miles, to mill. Mr. Hall died in 1805. His wife died in 1799.
HILLS, JOHN
Came to Candia from Chester about 1765, and settled where Mr. Parker Hill now lives. He married Mary Morse, of Chester, - they had seven children : Molly, Susanna, Eliza, Edward, Josiah, John, Parker.
Mr. Hills was at Concord, at the battle of Bunker Hill, and at the taking of Burgoyne. When at Bun. ker Hill, laying down while he loaded his gun, " with his back to the field and his feet to the foc," a bul- let finding its way through the fence, struck him on the 11
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foot ; he picked it up with the intention of returning it to the rightful owners, but it was too large for his gun, so putting it in his pocket, he brought it home as a token of the first decisive struggle. Mr. Hills was one of the three first deacons.
HILL, JETHRO
Came to Candia from Stratham, in 1765, and settled where John Fitts now lives. He married Mehitable Jewett, of Stratham. They had ten children: James, who died in Minot, Me., Reuben, who went to New Portland, Me., Rachael, Phebe, Mehitable ; Wiggin be- came an extensive merchant in Bangor, Me .; Sarah died in Sebec, Me .; Joshua lives in Sheffield, Vt. It is some- what remarkable that Mr. Hill and his wife both met with a very tragical death ; he falling and being burned while clearing land, and she escaping from the house in a state of insanity, wandered away in winter, and was found dead in the snow some miles from homo.
HUBBARD, BENJAMIN.
In the good old days of yore, says tradition, was born in England, one Richard Hubbard, probably of a family in easy circumstances, if not wealthy. An uncle, living in France, offered to make Richard his heir. Accords ingly his passage was paid across the channel by his father, but fortune had determined otherwise than that
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he should become a citizen of France, where his de- scendants might have lost their heads in the chances of revolution. The captain of the vessel proving to be a rogue, our young voyager was carried to the West Indies, and sold for his passage money. There he was bound apprentice to a blacksmith. After serving his time, the New World, then the El Dorado of all adven- turous spirits, attracted his attention, and he eame to Boston. He was there married and had two sons, one of whom moved to Salisbury, Mass., and was the an- eestor of BENJAMIN HUBBARD, who came to Candia in 1772, and bought the place of James MeCluer, on High Street, where Benjamin H., his grandson, now resides. He married Mary Pike, of Salisbury, in 1771. They had three children : Joshua, who married Sarah, daugh- ter of John Robie, and settled where he now lives, Joseph, who married Sally Stevens, of Salisbury, Mass., and lived on High Street, where Elias P. Hubbard now is, died in 1821, and his wife in 1851; Sally, who died at the age of 20.
Mr. Hubbard enlisted for a short time during the revolution and afterwards went to Bennington, as a vol- unteer under the gallant Stark. It is said that after an engagement in which a number of British were tak- en prisoners, a Col. Welch was ordered to guard them to Boston, and he had the address to make some of the volunteers, whose term of service had expired, be- lieve that they were obliged to go with him. Among them
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were Mr. Hubbard, Lieut. Fitts, and some other men from Candia. As may be supposed, they were not over- fond of their rations of salt beef, and on one occasion, coming to a fine garden of vegetables, owned by a fat Dutchman, they eagerly offered their money for the food, but the old fellow, it seems, preferred the hard cash of the prisoners to the continental bills of the soldiers, and they were denied. Lieut. Fitts was set as sentinel over the garden to sce that no one plundered. The rest of them, not on duty, determined in spite of guards, to have, at least, one meal of vegetables. So they se- lected Mr. Hubbard, who, doubtless, was a man who knew how to talk when occasion required, to engage the attention of the sentry, while they procured the wished for articles. The scheme worked well, and when all was done, and the supper cooked, they asked the Lieutenant to partake with them. He saw into the thing at once, but such was his honesty that not a mouthful would he eat. No doubt the soldiers were right in taking food for their necessity, and the sturdy blacksmith right in sticking to his duty.
When Mr. Hubbard came to Candia, he had, of course, but few neighbors besides the bears and wolves, agreeable company enough when seen in a menagerie, but not particularly pleasant in one's door-yard. Once on a time, he went to Pembroke to mill, with a sled and oxen. On his return, as he got along by White- hall, a place where Mr. Davis had built his cabin, it
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began to grow duskish. Davis endeavored to persuade him to stay all night; but he, being very courageous, laughed at his neighbor's fears and drove on. He had got down by Talford's, now Sawyer's mills, when a dis- tant cry struck on his ear. The mists of night, mean- while, had settled down on all the scene; the mournful echoes of that cry died over the snow clad trees of the swamp, the startled partridge whirred away right and left, as he cheered on his oxen ; but again and again the cry is repeated. He needs not stop to hear, for now from a turn in the path, bursting into full chorus come the wolves in that long exhaustless gallop which never fails or tires. The affrighted oxen strained every nerve, while the driver seated on the front of the sled, with his axe in his hand, heard, in the intervals of their deafening howls, the snapping teeth of his relentless pur- suers. Four miles away from any dwelling and alone with such companions ! then did the hardy settler wish, too late, he had taken his neighbor's advice. He had sel- dom known fear, but then, said he, " my hair stood on end." Fortunately for him, it was decreed of Provi- dence, that instead of being food for wolves, he should live to a good old age, and so he escaped.
The wolves were very troublesome for a long time, and often killed the sheep near the house, and even came into the cowyard, from whence they were driven by Mr. H. An old sheep, which was bitten through the windpipe in three places, lived for several years afterwards.
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Once a couple of bears were treed near the house, and Mr. Brown, a near neighbor, getting word of it, came up with his gun. At the first discharge, one of the " critters " was dislodged and came tumbling down. The second time the guns missed fire; they snapped and snapped, for a long time to no purpose, and at length both guns went off together, but bruin was n't hit ! The sportsmen were undoubtedly somewhat exci- ted, so the bear, if we do not mistake, succeeded in scrambling off into the woods again. Guns were often set in the corn, which, when green and juicy, was much destroyed by the bears. Going out one day to pick up the fallen and trampled ears, Mr. H. found an old she bear munching away in broad day light, with much apparent satisfaction. Not having the wherewith in hand to dispatch her, she escaped.
These stories serve, with others of a like nature, to illustrate the border life, and are undoubtedly true, as they differ only in their dress, from those told by Mr. Joshua Hubbard, who remembers often to have heard them from his father's lips.
LANE, JOHN
Was a native of Poplin, N. H., born in 1771. He came to Candia at the age of 23, and bought the place where Mr. Ezekiel Lane now resides. He married Han- nah Godfrey, by whom he had eleven children : Ruth, Susannah, Joseph, Josiah, John, Hannah, Joshua, Eze-
NOTICES OF EARLY FAMILIES.
kiel, Sally; Isaiah, and Abigail ; who all settled in town; with the exception of Joseph, who died in 1842, at Milledgeville, Ga., Josiah, who went to Ogden, N. Y., and Sally, now living in Charlestown, Mass.
Mr. Lane was a carpenter and cabinet-maker, by trade. He held a Justice' commission, and was for many years town clerk, and within the memory of many now living, used to " cry " candidates for matrimonial honors, in meeting on the Sabbath. He was a man of much influence in town affairs, and was retained in office until the time of his death, which took place in 1822, at the age of 72 years. His wife, having survived him 22 years, died at the age of 89. A memoir of Dea. Joshua Lane, (grandfather of John Lane,) who was killed by lightning while standing in the door of his house, was published. It has not, however, been the writer's fortune to meet with it.
John Lane, Esq., son of the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this notice, married Nabby; daugliter of Nathaniel Emerson, Esq., and settled on the north road, about one-fourth of a mile west of the homestead.
It is with a feeling of sadness that I am here called to notice his sudden death, in the summer of 1851. Seldom have the people of Candia been more striking- ly reminded, by the removal of one of their number, of the uncertainty of life. For fifty years had he been of more than ordinary note in town affairs, and at the
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age of sixty-eight, was taken from a large circle of friends, while his usefulness was yet unimpaired by ap= proaching infirmity.
Esquire Lane enjoyed, in a high degree, the con- fidence and respect of a numerous acquaintance with whom he was brought in contact, in the discharge of his duties. He was Justice of the Peace throughout the State, in which capacity he was often and largely employed, and by his pacific advice, frequently saved a resort to law.
He was an extensive reader, intelligent in regard to public affairs, a supporter of social order, an able teacher and superintendent in the sabbath school. As a man and a christian he leaves a void which will long be felt by the community in which he lived.
MARTIN, MOSES
Came to Candia about 1777. He was born in Ames- bury, Mass. The family came from England to Ips- trich, from thence to Amesbury and Candia. Mr. Martin's father was out in the French War. His wife being a woman of slender constitution was rendered very nervous from the frequent alarms of war -in order to escape from which, they removed, by advice of a physician, to Candia, intending to have built a house in town, but as it happened, so near were they to the line, that all save the door-step was in Deer field.
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MCCLURE,* DAVID
Came to Boston from Edinburgh, or vicinity, about the year 1720. His marriage to Martha Glenn, ten years after on the 11th of June, was the first nuptial ceremony performed by the Rev. Dr. Morehead, after his ordination as Pastor of the first Presbyterian, now Federal Street, Church. Most of their children were there born and baptised. The wife, of the noble race of Scotch Covenanters, was a brave woman, and fled from Papal persecution in the land of her fathers.
About the year 1740, Mr. McClure and his wife moved to Chester, N. H., at a time when fear of the Indians compelled the inhabitants to seek the se- curity of a garrison. It so happened, on a certain occasion, that the men were obliged to be absent, leav- ing the women and children alone. No one among them, but the courageous Martha Glenn, dared to act as sentry. With the confidence which inspired her, when she offered up her prayer to God, among the misty mountain caves of Scotland, she kept the dan- gerous watch with a loaded musket. It turned out that the place was actually reconnoitered for an attack. The spy is said to have reported, "Me see nothing but de one white squaw." A superstitious fear, or the hand of Providence, kept the Indians from their design. Mr. McClure moved into the limits of what
· Spelled MaClure and McCluer.
12
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
is now Candia, about 1773, bought lot No. 30, in the. second part of second division, in the original right of Michacl Whidden. Near the centre of this lot he built a log house. The well which he dug and the remains of the cellar wall are still to be scen.
In a few years this structure was removed for a morc commodious dwelling, glazed with very green French glass, and having an enormous stone fire-placc, with mantel- tree of pine thrce fect through. This house, the oldest in town, is standing on the farm of R. E. Patten, Esq. Mr. Turner used to come down here to borrow firc. Mr. McClure once contrived to fall a large tree on his only cow, at which he was so much disheartencd, that he would have given up his location, had it not been for the persuasion of his wifc.
Bears and wolves greatly infested the place, and rat- tlc snakes were plenty. In later days, a grandson of the family killed an enormous wild cat, after the creature had destroyed a whole flock of sheep in the barn now standing. Mr. McClure was past middle age when he came to Candia. About the winter of 1770, while re- turning, an old man, from a visit to his daughter, in Raymond, he became bewildered in a severe snow storm, and sunk exhausted but a few rods from the path he had lost. His voice, borne by the fitful gusts over the drifting hill sides, was heard at a mile's distance. Ere he was found, he had perished. A pine, at whose foot he fell, had the bark bruised off as far as the
NOTICES OF EARLY FAMILIES.
old man could reach, in the vain effort to keep off the chill which bound his aged limbs in death.
Such was the melancholy fate of the first settler in Candia. So perish multitudes whose restless spirits send them, in advance of civilization, to encounter the dan- gers of the frontier, or plunge into the unexplored re- cesses of the wilderness.
Here in this book, when he, seventy years agone, has fallen to be forgotten, is his only epitaph, written by a stranger :
DAVID MCCLURE, AN OLD MAN,
1 NATIVE OF SCOTLAND AND THE FIRST SETTLER OF CANDIA, FELL AND PERISHED BY THE WAYSIDE,
ABOUT THE WINTER OF 1770.
MOORE, ANDREW
Was the only son of John Moore, who was killed in the American Army, in 1778, leaving him at two years of age in the care of his mother.
He grew up, not a man of close and rigid business habits, but with rather more than a fair share of wit and humor, which often found its way out in the shape of practical jokes. Many a time did he perplex ,me, when just aspiring to the dignity of trousers, with sundry questions concerning the growth of my calves. He
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was a man of large frame, and great muscular strength'; stooped a little and had a slight limp when walking, the result of a fractured thigh when a young man.
In the time when the turnpikes were turnpikes, when Anderson kept a tavern known far and wide, and Duncan received the produce of half " Up Country," when a brisk business was done at the Corner, at Master Fitts' and at Capt. Eaton's, when every oth- er man in town was a cooper, and the road to New- buryport was crowded with loaded teams, then " Uncle Andrew " was in his prime. One night while on the road, it so happened that six or eight teamsters were stowed away in one room. Two of them, weary with traveling and laden with over-much supper, fell asleep and snored so prodigiously that no one else could close an eye. Uncle Andrew having turned and twisted for an half hour or so, in vain, finally revolved the mat- ter in mind, and arrived at a satisfactory result. Ris- ing, he softly placed a chair under each foot at the bottom of the obnoxious bed, upon which the nasal ca- dence gave place to some most extraordinary variations, growing thick and short by degrees, and beautifully shorter, until the climax was reached, in one inde- scribable snort, as both sleepers landed on the floor. The chairs were removed, and the author of the dis- turbance in bed before their astonished faculties could assign a cause for the trouble.
Mr. Moore was provided with an exhaustless fund of
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anecdotes, mostly from personal experience, which, could they be written as he used to tell them, would be worth the reading. He died at the age of 69 years, generally respected, and was a man who held a pleas- ant place in the memories of most who knew him.
MOORE, COFFIN
Was a native of Stratham, N. H., and came to Can- dia about 1760. He married Comfort Weeks, by whom he had seven children : William, John, Coffin, Jacob B., Patty, Polly and Comfort. Jacob B. married Ma- ry, daughter of Ephraim Eaton, by whom he had four children : Jacob B., formerly of Concord, N. H., now Postmaster at San Francisco; Henry E., a musical Professor of deserved distinction, at Concord, N. H., who died at Cambridge, Mass .; Mary, widow of the late Dr. Thomas Brown, of Manchester, widely known for his exertions in the temperance cause ; and John W., formerly editor of the Bellows Falls Gazette, and Postmaster at Bellows Falls, Vt.
Patty married Dea. Prinee. Polly died in Stan- stead. Dr. Moore was the first physician who prac- tieed in Candia. He is reputed to have been a very skilful practitioner, but was a little too much addict- ed to the prevailing folly of the times, drink. Both he and his wife were persons of excellent education, and it is said that when Mrs. Moore had occasion to talk to her husband for his occasional misdemeanors;
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HISTORY OF CANDIA.
she used the French language, so that the children might not understand what was said. He dicd in Stephen Palmer's house, in 1768.
MOOERS, SAMUEL
Was a man of much influence in the early times of the town. He came from Hampstead and lived at " the Corner, " where Mr. John Bcan now lives, married a Miss Ingalls, by whom he had five chil- dren : Peter, Samuel, Timothy, Nathaniel and Josiah ; none of whom, nor their descendants, are now living in town.
He is said to have been a man of remarkable tact in settling all troubles and disputes among the people. Indeed, said the old gentleman who told me about him, " Esq. Mooers and Licut. Fitts used to rule the town." At town meetings, nothing was ever done till Esq. Mooers got there. Hc sometimes, before a physician came into the place, used to pull teeth, if occasion re- quired, and perform some of the lesser surgical opera- tions ; hence he was called Doctor ; while his wife was one of those useful women, whose services were absolutely indispensable at the auspicious events, which usually take place prior to a christening.
PALMER, STEPHEN
Came to Candia from Epping, in the month of April; " when the snow was over all the fences," although
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the year is not certainly known. He was one of the first three deacons. He married a Miss Hoyt, of Strat- ham, and they had eight children: Joseph, Stephen, Timothy, Patience, Jemima, Abigail, Hannah and Sa- rah. He first moved on to the place where Capt. John Pillsbury now lives, and afterwards to the north road, where he died. His son, Joseph, married the widow of Lieut. Thomas Dearborn, by whom he had five chil- dren : Moses, Joseph, Polly, Lydia and Salome. Ste- phen married widow Abigail Brown, and had five children : Olive, Josiah, Lucy, Betsey and Polly. He died on the old place.
Josiah, grandson of Dea. Stephen Palmer, married Betsey Carr, of Raymond, by whom he had seven children : Nathaniel, Sally, Stephen, Asahel, Elisabeth and Abigail. IIc also died on the old place.
PATTEN, ROBERT
A native of Boston, Mass., came to Candia about the year 1774, and bought his farm of Zebulon Winslow, the same now occupied by Mr. Willis Patten. HIe mar- ried Catharine Carr, of Chester. There is a story re- lated in the family, in regard to this Catharine Carr's history. It is said that she was the daughter of John Carr and Betsey Smith, who came from Ireland. John, it seems, was a person of fine appearance, so that he won the affections of the daughter of a noble family. She married him, and in consequence was banished
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from her home. He took her to the Emerald Isle ; there they endured all the hardships of the siege of Londonderry, at which place they were at that time, and soon after came to seek their fortunes in America.
Robert and his wife had nine children; of whom William kept the old place. One day, being out hunt- ing in the vicinity of "long meadows," Mr. Patten got treed by the wolves, in which pleasant position he was obliged to remain all night, before his tormentors would leave him. William married Abigail Turner, a daugh- ter of the first settler of Charmingfare. They had two children : Willis and Lucy. After the death of his first wife, he married, in 1779, Abigail Clark. They had five children : Francis, Keziah, Betsey, Abigail and Me- linda.
PATTEN, THOMAS
Came to Candia in 1754, and bought a part of the farm owned by Mr. David McClure, whose daughter, Mary, he had married two years before.
He was a son of Dea. Robert Patten, born in Boston, in 1725, on what is now called Common Street. He was baptised by the Rev. Dr. Morehead, as were most of his younger brothers and sisters. There he attended school until about the age of 15, on Pemberton Hill, when the family went to Exeter, N. H., from which place they, in a few years, removed to the " long meadows," so called, now Auburn, where Dea. Robert died in 1754,
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This last named gentleman came from Edinburgh, Scot- land, about 1724. He was a stone mason by occupa- tion, and was employed by the colonial government on the fortifications in Boston Harbor.
Thomas was father of fourteen children, two of whom died young. Elisabeth married John Varnum, and, af- ter his death, Moses Clark, of Deerfield ; Thomas died unmarried ; Mary married Simon Norton ; Jean mar- ried Joshua Moore, of Chester ; Martha married Joseph L. Seavy, of Rye ; Sarah married Benjamin Wadleigh ; Rachael married Samuel Dimon ; Margaret married Jacob Sargent ; Hannah married Ephraim Fullington, of Raymond, and moved to Cambridge, Vt .; Ruth mar- ried Andrew Moore; Samuel married Lydia, daughter of Nathaniel Emerson, Esq .; Moses married Hannah; daughter of Ephraim Eaton.
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