History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 57

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124

USA > New Hampshire > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, New Hampshire > Part 57

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1889, clerk, George S. Dorr; selectmen, Albert F. Wood, Fred. B. Shorey, Edward E. Brown.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Topography - Masonian Proprietors - East Town - Early Settlement - Lots - Early Settlers - Lieutenant Jonathan Gilman -Captain Jeremiah Gilman -John Horn - Captain David Copp - Deacon Simeon Dearborn -John Dearborn - Josiah Page -John Kimball - Noah Kimball - Colonel Jonathan Palmer - Andrew Gilman - Clement Steel - Benjamin Perkins - Rev. Avery Hall - Samuel Sherborn - William Moore.

W AKEFIELD, since 1840 the southern sentinel of the then new county of Carroll, has now for neighbors on the south five miles, Milton, before 1802 Rochester; on the west for three miles, Middleton since 1788, and Brookfield since 1794 for seven miles, and for about one quarter of a mile the privilege of Wolfeborough's companionship; on the north Ossipee, for three and a half miles, shares with Effingham two and a half miles the northern neighbor- ing ; albeit Province pond's inviting and calm waters, with a bit of Parsonsfield (1785) formerly, if not now, touched on the northwest; while on the east New- field for four, East pond and Acton (formerly Shapleigh) for five, form the nine miles of that side. We must not forget that we are but joint owners with Acton of the Great Northeast pond, known also by the more romantic and hospitable name, the Indian Newichwannock, "come to my house," the lake from which proceeds the river of the same name, called also Salmon Falls river, which separates the sister states for a space ; and though near its source never much noted, yet has furnished a water-power which the Great Falls Manufac- turing Company and other mills of greater or less capacity have been perfectly willing to use.

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TOWN OF WAKEFIELD.

" Walk about Zion: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generation following."

Much of the early tradition has escaped beyond the reach of the historian, because the lips of those who knew the early settlers are silent, and there have been presented but few of the facts and anecdotes of informal annals that season the solid food of the more sober written history.

The twelve Masonian Proprietors, to whom in fifteen lots Mason sold the tract of land within the limits of the Masonian patent, long a subject of con- tention, were after lucre and for making money rather than history. In 1749, April 27, that section of their grant known as "East Town," or "Easternmost Township," said to have been a part of a town chartered in 1737 as "Kings- Wood," was granted by vote to John Ham, Gershom Downs, John Horn, and seventy-six others, proprietors, all described as being residents of Dover and Somersworth, with the one exception of Noah Emery, of Kittery, Maine, and survey made. In 1750, April 11, at Ann Slayton's inn in Portsmouth, the lot was cast, and the lots in East Town (in first and second divisions) fell to the several proprietors, very few, if any, of whom settled in the township. But others were ready to buy of them, and to go up and possess the land nearly twenty years later, after the long-continued and harassing French and Indian wars were over.

Until then the forest was not invaded by the foot of the white settler, though its trees were spotted by the surveyor, and also by the Indian long before, and his inveterate foe, the daring Captain Lovewell, whose name is pre- served by the beautiful sheet of water, where once in winter, February, 1725, he slew the sleeping Indians by the frozen pond, and bore away to Boston in triumph their ten scalps. But the first tree felled within the township was in 1766. Whose was the axe neither history nor tradition tells us. According to a memorandum made by the first minister on the back of an old deed, the first family wintered in town in 1767, father and son by the name of Gilman, prob- ably either Jonathan or Jeremiah his cousin, both of Exeter. And the first wave of colonizers seems to come from that old town, followed by waves from Dover and Rochester (the then adjoining township), and Portsmouth, and its adjacent Greenland and North Hampton. In 1769 the number of families had increased to eleven.

" Dover, Exeter, Hampton, Portsmouth, and Newbury, after they had been settled one hundred years, seemed to the active young men of 1760 to be getting thiekly peopled. The best of the pine and the oak had been cut down. With succeeding generations and increasing numbers the farms had been divided and subdivided, until the young and enterprising turned their thoughts to nearer lands and easier avenues to wealth. . The Masonian Proprietors were surveying their lands in this region and offering them

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

for sale. Visions of wealth loomed up to some from the pine forests of the Salmon Falls and Saco valleys. To others the thought of possessing broad aeres and founding a new estate was a fascination, and so the young and stalwart from the older settlements below came and settled this town." Peace was declared in 1763. The first family in 1767 was inereased to eleven in 1769, and in 1770 to thirty, when there should have been thirty in 1767 and forty in 1768.

Lots and Settlers. - The one hundred lots of 100 acres each would not make a township of six miles square as designated in the charter, but the second division of lots would secure this 23,000 aeres. The lots, diamond in shape if not in value, first laid out were thus located : lot 1, southwest of the town at (now) Union village, the first division reaching north to the check- line near the brick schoolhouse at Wakefield Corner. The surface then, as now, " diversified with hills, rocks, and ponds; the soil stubborn, but when subdued and brought under cultivation, very productive." The second division was also surveyed, while the gore on the east side was not laid out in regular lots.

EARLY SETTLERS. - Lieutenant Jonathan Gilman, the first settler, in 1767, the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth Gilman, at forty-seven married, December 1, 1746, Mehitable Kimball, born 1724, the daughter of Caleb, the fourth by deseent from Richard Kimball, the emigrant, born 1595. He was moderator and second selectman in 1777. He settled on the old main road from Wakefield to Milton, nearly opposite the house of the late John Kimball. His descendants for three generations have owned and occupied the farm where his great- grandson, Jonathan R. Gilman, now resides, on the road from Union village to Brookfield.

Captain Jeremiah Gilman came with his family perhaps as early as 1767, and built his house just opposite the " Old Maid's Tavern," where he lived up to the time of his death, May 1, 1791, his farm extending westerly to the river. He was born in Exeter, June 3, 1719, whence he removed to this town, and is the fourth in descent from Edward Gilman. His father and unele were taken prisoners by the Indians while at work in a sawmill at "Pickpocket," in Exeter, in the spring of 1709. Andrew escaped and returned home, and his son probably imbibed some of his hatred for the Indian, and was a warrior before he came to East Town. Though his recorded exploits are not many, his military prowess made him a desirable man in the community. He married Sarah, sister of Jonathan Gilman's wife, who lived from 1720 to 1778. Of their nine children several married men of Wakefield, - Noah Kimball, Samuel Hall. Thomas Cloutman, John Gilman, - so that the Kimball and Gilman stock was quite plenty in the early days.

John Horn, third settler, perhaps in 1767, in age not far from thirty, of the same name as one of the proprietors, was born in Dover, February 22, 1738;

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TOWN' OF WAKEFIELD.

died in 1829, the day before Christmas, the oldest person in Wakefield, almost ninety-two : the first town officer, it being organized by the election of him as town clerk, and he continued as such for some years, and when his house was burned he bore away the records in a basket from the flame. His lot was probably 48, and he lived in the "Gondy field" on " Witch-trot" road.

Captain David Copp was for many years a conspicuous figure. He was born in Rochester, December 11, 1738, the son of Jonathan and Esther Copp, prominent members of the Congregational church, on whose record stands his name as having received infant baptism February 12, 1739. At the age of thirty, in July, 1769, he bought of Samuel Austin lot 37, below the G. W. Copp place, but he built his home on lot 15 on (now) Sanborn hill, bought earlier, it may be. He became an extensive landowner, and was clearly the foremost man of the town at its incorporation. He headed the petitioners and was appointed to call the first town-meeting "within seventy days from date of charter." His male descendants here are John and Frederic A. He was the first moderator at thirty-five, and for most of the next fifteen years shared that honor with Simeon Dearborn. He lived nearly eighty years, not dying until 1817. He was captain in the Revolution. His military bearing he carried in time of peace long after the war. He led men, and held offices without number in town, and was prominent in the state. He was first major in Colonel Joseph Badger's regiment in August, 1775; in November, 1775, he commanded a company for the defence of the Piscataqua harbor and fortresses ; in November, 1780, he was lieutenant-colonel of militia.

Deacon Simeon Dearborn (1727-87) came from Greenland before 1770 (one of the numerous descendants of Godfrey Dearborn) ; he owned lot 42, next to the " minister's lot, 44." He lived for several years in a log hut and erected the first two-story house. He was a man of superior mind, and had a valuable library of books not usually found in those days. He was justice of the peace, and served the town and church well until he fell asleep at sixty. He was allied by marriage with the famous Haven family of Portsmouth. His first wife was Anne Gookins; his second, Martha, the talented sister of the Rev. Dr Samuel Haven, of Portsmouth, born in Framingham. Her brother, John Haven, came later, and was quite a dealer in lands, and, for the few years that he was a resident, a man of note. He sold in 1789 his house and home lot to Joseph Leavitt, and "Leavitt's tavern " became one of the institutions of the day. This was near the main road just below the present home of Charles Page (whose grandfather, Josiah Page, bought of Simeon Dearborn "10 acres in s. w. of 42" in September, 1773, and lived to the south of him). He had six sons and five daughters.

John Kimball, when twenty-seven, bought, 1768, lot 40, not far from Jona- than Gilman's, whose wife was Kimball's cousin. The lot has remained in the family since, only two generations occupying it, - Ward . W. and John, - one

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

hundred and twenty-one years. John Kimball died October 14, 1807, fifth in descent from Richard Kimball, and his first wife was Dorothy Dudley, of Exeter. John W. Kimball and Alonzo are his grandsons. His younger brother, Noah Kimball, married Jeremiah Gilman's daughter Mehitable, living in East Town, bought the next lot above 38 in 1770, when he was twenty-six years old. He was one of the second board of selectmen, and father of " Master John," the last of the male line of descent. His daughter Sally is one of several reputed to be " the first white female child " born in the town, June 17, 1770. He died at sixty-six.

Lieutenant, later Colonel, Jonathan Palmer was younger than these, but became quite a prominent Federalist in the town and state. He was the son of Barnabas and Elizabeth Palmer, of Rochester, and brother to David Copp's wife. His father was the leading member of the church in that place. He "lost an arm at the siege of Louisburg in 1745." He was col- lector for the proprietors, 1770-74. His mother was the town physician, "skilled in the use of roots and herbs." His father lived to a great age, as did Colonel Palmer, who had a constitution of great strength.

Lieutenant Andrew Gilman was the son of Captain Jeremiah Gilman.

Clement Steele, from Brentwood, located, I judge, back of the Kimballs.

Benjamin Perkins, the story goes, came from Dover Point near 1768, felled the trees, went back to Dover, and returned in the fall to build a house into which he could move the next spring. His provisions failed just before his work on the house was completed ; whereupon he went to the river, shot a duck, then sat down on a rock and sang a hymn of thanksgiving. He lived on the home place of Noah Kimball Nutter, and his brother Thomas not far away. In the war he was a drummer, so he seems to have been of a musical turn. Joseph was a fifer.

Rev. Avery Hall, a man of forty, came in 1777 from a nine years' pastorate of the Rochester church. He very soon was assigned a high place in the community. He was first selectman from 1779 for nine years, and for ten years town clerk after the pen of John Horn was laid down. He was a leader as well in the organizing of the church. He was called "Esquire " Hall, and obtained much land, and long retained an influence in the town affairs.

For the first ten years these men had a large influence in shaping the . town. As one of our sons has said, "These early settlers were made up of more than common good stock. The older settlements furnished for the emigration hither of the flower of their youth and of the strongest and best of their men and women of middle life; " they came largely from families of prominence and high standing in the older towns. Generally they were well abreast of the times in matters of education, and no town in this vicinity could boast among its citizens so many men of liberal culture as Wakefield

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TOWN OF WAKEFIELD.

in its early days. This will apply not alone to these mentioned as living within the area of the Piper district. This was the most thickly settled section (though the landmark of the Old Maid's Tavern may feebly suggest it) along the old road for two miles, some of it very near the range-line, as at Leavitt's tavern.

Samuel Sherborn lived just above, opposite the "minister's lot." William Moore, the first constable, lived over the hill beyond Simeon Dearborn.

CHAPTER XL.

Early Settlers Continued - Samuel and Joseph Haines - Robert Hardy - Extract from Diary of Robert Hardy - Josiah Hunford - Samuel, Samuel, Jr, and Abner Allen - Nathan- iel Baleh - Eliphalet Quimby - Daniel Hall - Samuel Hall -John Scribner - Reuben Lang - Jacob Lock - Weeks Family - Mayhew Clark - Nathan Mordough -Joseph Maleham - Daniel IIorn-John Iluggins - Benjamin Safford and Others - John Wingate - Eliphalet Philbrook - Captain Robert Calder - Captain Joseph Manson - Joseph Wiggin -Richard Dow - Isaac Fellows - Nathan Dearborn - Thomas Cloutman - Benjamin and David Horn - Simeon, Isaiah, and Jacob Wiggin.

T 0 the southwest now lies fair Union village, along the riverside. But before the Revolution this was occupied by no settler until, in 1775, came Samuel Haines, or his son Joseph, the grandfather of George W., who at one time owned all Union village - lots 1 and 2. Their dwelling was opposite Pike's hotel, long ago a very ancient structure. Samuel sold his homestead in Greenland in 1766. These two men lie buried directly opposite the railroad depot. The Haines' mill was long a useful institution, and to their gristmill in 1777, March 4, it was voted to clear a road from the governor's road, near Robert Hardy's, the road to be two rods wide on the easterly side of the marked trees. Robert Hardy was interested in the mills, and later his sons Dudley and James had some woolen machinery and cotton-mills.

The young men of this part of the town before the Revolution were not many in number, but they had the spirit of enterprise. The Gilmans, Nathaniel Balch, and others were advancing in years, but the next generation had young blood, and they stepped to the front, filling important positions in society before reaching the age of thirty-five. Several were boys together in Exeter. The two Kimballs, with Andrew Gilman and Robert Hardy, no doubt played in the streets of that town while Captain Jeremiah Gilman and his men were fighting the redskins in 1755. Seventeen years later found

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

those boys strong men in the new township which allured so many to heed the voice which told them of the rich unbroken soil where all they would have to do would be to "tickle the soil with a hoe and it would laugh out loud in a harvest."

John Kimball had bought in 1768; Noah in 1770. The same year, June 26, Robert Hardy bought one half of lot 4 (first and second divisions) for ten shillings, of the Hussey heirs. He lived on the Willey place. Edward Gilman was conspicuous in that important era in the life of Exeter and a right-hand man in the church. Godfrey Dearborn was also there in 1639, in the " com- bination " with parson Wheelwright. Their descendants may have made humbler history in Wakefield, but they had the inspiration of their ancestors.

Glimpses of the life of the little hamlet are given in the rather informal diary of Robert Hardy on the blank spots of his daybook, which I may be pardoned for quoting. "Left Exeter Dec. 25, 1771; arrived to Easttown Dec. 27." They journeyed in the winter, thus observing Christmas. His oldest boy, Dudley, then five years old, settled in Wolfeborough near 1788. In the next February, twentieth day, 1772, Robert helped his friend, Andrew Gilman, on the "mill " and "huen " timber two days for six shillings ; sold him one-half bushel " pertaters " for two shillings. December 20 he charges him one day's work "boarding his house." Andrew helped him in the fall, September 17, with his oxen; October 9, "cuten stocks " and " binden up." Hardy also helped in June "2 days work on the frame," five shillings, and "laen a barn floor," six shillings. September 20, "one day on the house," three shillings. This looks like something more comely than the log hut. The same year he helped Josiah Hunford in May "clearing one acker" of land, £1 4s. June 4, one-half acre. August 15 he charges for " halen rye into the Barn." September 24, for "3 days' work on the barn," six shil- lings. November 24, for "six days' gathering corn and husking." December, for " digen the saler."

The building suggests that they have " come to stay." This Hunford lot, No. 28, east of Hardy's, was sold, I judge, in 1774, December 9, to John Haven, of Greenland, and by him to Avery Hall, " with building and one-half corn-mill." The next year he helped Jonathan Palmer on his barn, who had come from Rochester, the son of Barnabas, who was just "of age " in 1772, and who became the possessor of a very large farm, and was of considerable repute, but died in poverty.

Above Hardy's, in lots 5 and 6, Samuel Allen, Samuel Allen, Jr, and Abner Allen, across the way, came early. They carried on blacksmithing and run a mill (for sawing) near the Allen bridge. James Hardy, the son of Robert, naturally enough, married neighbor Abner Allen's daughter Lydia ; and another daughter, Mary, married neighbor Page's son Daniel. That was later-1811. These families mentioned were nearly all occupying that section

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TOWN OF WAKEFIELD.

of the town for the first few years, though much of the land came into the hands of David Copp or Avery Hall.

Already not a few homes above the " minister's lot " were dotting the land- scape. The meeting-house, started in 1771, interrupted by war's dread alarms, was two miles north from the first settler, and Captain David Copp was beyond that ; while in the district now called " Witch-trot," to the north and east of the meeting-house, was John Horn and the Horn brook.

Nathaniel Balch, on lot 64, "Runnell's place," bought in 1776, February 23, of Jolm Horn. He was at this time fifty-eight years of age, the senior of most of the settlers ; a man of wisdom, experience, and of dignity of character, as he was selected as the deputy to represent the town in the provincial con- gress at Exeter, and to be their trusty agent in war matters ; a man evidently looked up to by our first citizens, and I am confident that he did much to arouse the patriotic spirit, though none of his words are preserved. His descendants of that name are not in town, but his daughter, Hepzibah, became Mrs Tobias, or Joseph, Hanson.

Beyond him to the south, on the Garvin place, Eliphalet Quimby, of Exeter, "pitched his tent " very early, for, June 30, 1768, his was the first white child that lived born in this town, and received the name of Dorothy Quimby. She married Nathaniel Willey, of Brookfield, father of the late Colonel Willey, and lived to see many years.

To the north of Nathaniel Balch, Daniel Hall with his wife, Patience Taylor, of Sanbornton, found a home for himself and his descendants. His only child, Hannah, married John Sanborn. Their son was Daniel Hall Sanborn, whose son is too well known in Wakefield to be here mentioned by name. Four brothers and sisters of this Hall family located here.

Tivo miles across lots to the north, on the slope of the hill, in from the homestead of Algernon S. Weeks, came Samuel Hall, born in 1747, a Dover boy who went south in 1777 and found a wife at the hospitable home of Jere- miah Gilman, his daughter Bridget, who lived but four years. Her little boy became one of the men of the very first rank of the years after 1800, Joshua Gilman Hall.

Only a little way to the east, this Samuel could visit a sister, Peniel, who became the wife of John Scribner, March 19, 1775, and to the south and west still another sister, Hannah, the wife of Reuben Lang. They both sleep in the little burying-ground near the " Lang " or " Lock " schoolhouse ; for hard by Jacob Lock, born 1751, and Mehitable, his wife, settled and had a good-sized family, as was quite the custom in those days. His grandson carries his name just over the line in Brookfield.

The Weekses, John, etc., fitted in along here, coming from Greenland, the home of their common ancestor, Leonard, the emigrant, who came to Ports- mouth before 1660, married Mary, daughter of Deacon Samuel Haines, and

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

held positions of responsibility. An old record says: "The Weeks family in England did not spring from obscurity." In this locality the name is far from run out.

Mayhew Clark must not be passed by. Hailing from North Hampton, a neighbor of Deacon Dearborn, he bought of Captain Copp, in May, 1772, lot 15, in from the road over Tuttle's hill; the cellar of his house is still standing. He was called " Ensign." He served five years on the board of selectmen, and probably died in office, February, 1786. The name Mayhew was retained in his brother's family, but none of his descendants are in town. To his home came Jacob, his brother, from the south, with his young bride ; he located a mile across the lots, near the sweep in the North Wakefield road that brings us in sight of Mt Washington. He had three sons, Johnson, John, and Mayhew, the preacher.

To this fourth group add Nathan Mordough, of Greenland, another neighbor; he bought lot 11, south of the Weeks place (13, I suppose, and Clark, 15), in 1772; and 44 before that time, which takes in John F. Farn- ham's field. He sold one half of lot 11 to Judith Lang, perhaps the widowed mother of Reuben, who was then a young man. So the neighbors were not far apart. This may have attracted Joseph Maleham, who bought, December 13, 1793, most of lot 89, of Mayhew Clark, and sold to Daniel Horn the " Wormwood place." He built on the next lot, 90, in the second division, whose southwest "peeked " corner is just back of the brick schoolhouse. To this home he brought his second bride, Frederica Lang. His son, " Uncle Joseph Maleham," married Rachel, daughter of Daniel Horn. He was long known for his endurance and sturdy character. Ile was a successful farmer, living with acute faculties until only four years since, when he died at ninety- four. His father, Joseph, appears as the first of the third selectmen. At the battle of Bennington his scalp was plowed on the surface by a shot, but he kept on fighting. On being told by some one that if it had gone half an inch lower it would have killed him, he answered with a laugh, "If it had gone half an inch higher, it would n't have hit me at all."

The Huggins brook gets its name from John Huggins, who lived near it as early as 1790. Nathaniel, I judge, was a family name. Adjoining Nathan Mordough, were Benjamin Safford, on G. H. Gage's place, and beyond, Moses Gage, on Richard's lot, and the Lucas lot was occupied by Joseph Pike, whose brother Robert lived on Brookfield side.

We are now at lot 90, first division, below the schoolhouse, taking in Wakefield Corner to the guide-board, to become a beautiful village. Here John Wingate broke the first ground, though to Eliphalet Philbrook belongs the credit of constructing the first house, on lot 54 below the Philbrook farm (not now to be recognized in the pleasant Lieutenant Chesley house), occupied later by his son-in-law, Captain Robert Calder, who kept store, and others, including Dr McCrillis and Tobias Hanson, the tailor.

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History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 57

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co. Number of Pages: 1124

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124