History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 127

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200

USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 127
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 127

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

" I know very little about Newport after the year 1798, and the few facts prior to that date lie scattered along the borders of an early memory. When quite a small boy, I remember standing round Mr. Reme- lee's knees, with other boys of my own age, in the old Proprietors' House to learn my letters. That stood on the Plain on which were the houses of Robert and Jesse Lane. It was covered with rough boards, like a barn, and my recollection is lively that they were fastened on with wooden pins. It was both school-house and meeting-house.

" I was among the boys that lay on the boards above the beams, with our faces over the edge look- ing down at Mr. Remelee as he was preaching, and at the people as they sang good old Lenox and Weare and Wells. When the boys were too playful the Tithingman, of whom we were much afraid, would lift up his rough stiek and rap upon the edge of the boards, when we would be whist as mice.

" Mr. Remelee was a good scholar, an able preacher and a man of much wit and humor.

"Our neighbors were Absalom Kelsey, Jesse Wil- cox, Jesse and Robert Lane, Dea. Josiah Stevens, Dea. Elias Bascom and Uriah Wilcox, all with sons and daughters."

He speaks of the ladies as follows :

"It was not the fortune of the women of those days to be clothed in soft raiment, made compara- tively without hands, as is the privilege of the women of this day. For them were the spinning-wheel and the loom to be run, as regular as the revolution of the seasons. There was the wool in the fleece and the cotton in the seed to be cleansed and carded by hand- cards, and spun thread by thread. There were piles

of flax also to be spun and woven into cloth. It was their ambition to show the highest pile of linen cloths, flannels and blankets, and their pride to ex- hibit long pieces of dressed cloth for family use. In recompense of this stern toil, their constitutions were clear of scrofulous diseases, the effects of indul- gence. They needed not the disguise of cosmetics, their teeth were like rows of ivory, their beauty bright, their morals free from the corruptions of tie- tion and their minds full of purity and innocence."

In regard to the first newspaper which came to the town, he says,-

"About the year 1790 appeared the first newspa- per which visited our community. It was called the Farmers' Museum, printed at Walpole, at that time the metropolis of this region. It was carried by post on a circuit through Charlestown, Claremont, Newport, Unity, Lempster and Acworth to Alstead.

" How impatient were we to see the weekly post ! (Read Cowper.) He was made welcome to a plate at the table and lodging all the way round. He was burdened with parcels and errands from one family to another and from town to town. In this was fore- shadowed in a small way the great system of ex- presses which extended throughout the land."

The new town building became a rallying- point of great interest to the community. It was here the proprietors now came together, and the citizens of the town to regulate their muni- cipal affairs ; here the magistrate held his court ; here the children collected to receive instruction from appointed teachers ; here gathered on Sun- days the people in their tidy homespun apparel ; many on foot ; some on horseback ; the wife or daughter or sister riding behind, on a pillion, while, perhaps, a juvenile of the family may have had a front seat on the pommel of the saddle, or in arms, or the long-horned oxen hauling a cart prepared with suitable seats and coverings, were driven forth-a team such as Uzza drove out from Kirjath-jearim to the threshing-floor of Chidon in Old Testament times, and the whole family, and as many neigh- bors as possible, found transportation.

At the annual meeting March 8, 1774, the town " Voted to build a bridge across the East

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NEWPORT.

branch of Sugar river, near the East End of the first division of lots." Fifteen pounds were raised to defray the expense, to be paid in labor or grain at market price. “ Aaron Buel, Phineas Wilcox and Ezra Parmelee were chosen as a building committee to have charge of this work." The bridge was located on or near the site of the present bridge on Main Street.

At the annual meeting March 13, 1775, the town " Voted to build a bridge over the South branch between lots No. 16 and No. 17 in the first division." Twenty-five pounds were ap- propriated for the expense. Amos Hall, Ebe- nezer Merritt and Aaron Buel were chosen a building committee. The bridge was built in October, 1776. This was the intervale bridge, now on Elm Street.

On the 22d day of January, 1783, by the concurrent action of the town, Rev. John Remele was installed as the first pastor of the Congregational Church in Newport.

A more particular account of the personal characteristics and ministry of Rev. Mr. Remele is given in connection with the article on the Congregational Church, on another page of this sketch.

That the clergy in the early New England times were called to secular trusts and duties, as well as sacred, and that they were greatly reverenced by parishioners and people, arose from the fact of their superior education and more general intelligence.

During the residence of Mr. Remele in this town, as may be supposed, he mingled some- what in political affairs, and it is in this regard that we refer to him in this place. The colonies had achieved their independence. The con- vention for the formation of the Constitution of the United States had accomplished its work at Philadelphia, and it was now before the people of the States for ratification. At the New Hampshire State Convention held for this purpose at Exeter, in February, 1788, Rev. John Remele was chosen by the classed towns

of Newport and Croydon as their representa- tive. The bias of public opinion in the State and the temper of the convention rendered its adoption doubtful, and the friends of the Con- stitution, without coming to a vote, caused an adjournment, to be reassembled at Concord in the month of June following. At the adjourn- ed meeting the matter was thoroughly discussed and the Constitution adopted. The vote in the convention stood 57 for adoption and 46 against, Mr. Remele voting with the forty-six.

From our standpoint of time and intelligence we can hardly imagine any reasonable ground of objection to the Constitution under which the country has gone forward to so much of pros- perity and power. But there was a respectable minority in the convention, led by Joshua Ath- erton, of Amherst, that opposed its ratification. We propose to state one or two of these objec- tions in order that the position of our local mem- ber may be better understood. The first was the clause in regard to the African slave trade- providing for its abrogation after the year 1808, and prohibiting any action on the subject, be- yond a trifling tax on the importation of Afri- cans before that time. The discussion on this occasion involved the slavery question, which culminated three-quarters of a century later in the grandest civil war of modern times. An- other objection was that provision had not been made for a sufficiently strong government; but this and some others were of little consequence compared with the first. New Hampshire be- ing the ninth state to ratify, her action secured the establishment of our general government. Time has vindicated the strength of the Consti- tution and slavery has gone to the wall.

In the year 1790 the census of Newport rep- resented a population of seven hundred and eighty souls. This increased population and a general prosperity demanded larger and more suitable accommodations, both secular and re- ligious. The good people of the town had no idea of living in houses of cedar and pine, while the Ark of the Testimony abode in the old

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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Proprietors' House, which had served them for nearly twenty years. Accordingly, at a meeting held November 7, 1791, it was " Voted that some land be procured from Mr. Absalom Kel- sey for the purpose of erecting a meeting-house upon it." Christopher Newton, Jeremiah Jenks, Phineas Chapin, Samuel Hurd and Aaron Buel were appointed a committee to superintend the work. The site secured was a pleasant elevation of land, lying in the southeasterly of the four cor- ners at the foot of Claremont Hill. The com- mittee reported progress at an adjourned meeting, and the sum of two hundred pounds was appro- priated to pay Mr. Kelsey for the land, and commence the work. The building was raised June 26, 1793, and was soon in order for religious services and town-meetings.

The new meeting-house and town hall were in due time appropriately finished. The ap- pointments of the interior accorded with the fashion of the times. There was the high pul- pit, flanked by the stairs, and the deacons' seats about half-way up ; the sounding-board sus- pended from the ceiling like a huge inverted toad-stool ; the square, high-backed pews, with panels, and open space about the top filled with turned pieces, which supported the rail. This meeting-house was occupied by church and town for about twenty years, and would prob- ably have maintained its position and character much longer had not the village or the busi- ness part of the town taken an unceremonious leave of it where it stood. The building was afterwards taken down and re-erected as a barn at a homestead on the Unity road, where it still stands. The ornamental wood-work re- ferred to was incorporated into a door-yard fence on Main Street, at the south part of the village, where it remained many years.

During the year 1770, and from that time forward, there was a coming in of new settlers from Massachusetts as well as from Connecticut. Many of them gathered upon Baptist Hill in a community which will have special attention in connection with a sketch of the Baptist

Church. The smoke of their cabins and slashes arose from Pike Hill and Thatcher Hill, the East Mountain, from the slopes of Blueberry Ledge and the valley of the Sugar, towards Claremont.

They were the Metcalfs, Wheelers, Cham- berlains, Wakefields, Pikes, Perrys, Osgoods, Peabodys; Dunhams, Bowmans, Fletchers, Saw- yers, Noyes, Richardses, Howes, Kelleys and many others of time-honored and worthy citi- zens, whose labors and influence aided in mak- ing for the town of Newport its good reputa- tion and place in comparison with other towns in the western part of the State.

The fathers of the town, as heretofore stated, made liberal arrangements for a village and business centre on the western side of intervale. On the magnificent avenue they had pro- jected, eight rods in width and extending from Captain Parmelee's to the Jenks' place, were scattered the homes of the leading and wealthy men of the town. On the plain stood the Proprietor's House, and after a while, far- ther north, at the corners, stood the new Congre- gational meeting-house, and still farther on among the Lombardy poplars, rose the sightly residence of Rev. Abijah Wines, while stores and shops clustered about the corners at the foot of Claremont Hill.

While all this was going on so pleasantly, a power they little appreciated or feared at the time was asserting itself among the rocks and alders not more than a mile distant, on the east- ern side of the valley, where stood the Dudley mill.

This was no other than a water-power, and a mill to which came the farmers with their grists. And while the grinding was going on it was convenient to get the horse shod or the share sharpened, or something mended ; and the next thing in order was a blacksmith-shop, and the mill and the smithy begat other shops and trades. In the mean time the Croydon turn- pike, extending from Lebanon to Washington, had been opened-1806-to travel and traffic.

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NEWPORT.

This road passed through the town north and south on the eastern margin of the valley, cross- ing the main branch of Sugar River at right angles, and had become a thoroughfare between the northern towns and Boston.

About the year 1790-92 Isaac Reddington erected on the northeast corner of the present Main and Maple Streets, in this village, the first framed building that appeared on the eastern side of the intervale,-the intervale road at that time and place crossing a highway that after- ward became the Croydon turnpike. A store- room was suitably arranged in the south end of this building, in which he carried on a mer- cantile business. The premises were otherwise occupied by Reddington as a public-house. In 1797 this establishment became, through pur- chase, the property of Jesse Wilcox, Jr., who continued the hotel and store business, as here- tofore, until the time of his decease, February, 1811. The place remained in possession of the Wilcox family, and in course of time the three sons of Jesse, Jr.,-Calvin, Albert and Jesse,- came to their majority and revived the mer- cantile part of the business at the old stand. . Amos Little was afterward connected with the senior Wilcox in trade at this stand. About the year 1835-36 the place was abandoned as a business location and became a tenament-house, known as the " old red store." In 1840-43 the store-room was fitted up as a hall and became the headquarters of the Millerites. Since 1865 the old store has given place to a handsome private residence.

About the beginning of the present century Sylvanus Richards removed with his family from Dedham, Mass., to Newport, and settled on a tract of land in the western part of the town, on the main road to Claremont.

Mr. Richards was, for a time, one of the largest land-holders and tax-payers in the town. In connection with his farming business he kept a wayside inn, where rest and refreshment awaited the weary traveler,-summer and win- ter,-man and beast.

This was nearly three-quarters of a century before the neigh of the iron horse was heard in this part of New Hampshire,-a time when the people were dependent upon their own re- sources in regard to methods of travel and transportation.

We may digress to illustrate some phases of life at this period. In the early winter season the forehanded up-country farmer loaded his sled, or cutter, or pung, with pork, poultry and other products of his farm, and drove independ- ently to Boston, Salem or Newburyport, and bartered, or sold, and invested the products of his load in dry-goods, fish, salt, rum, snuff, to- bacco and groceries generally, for family use during the year.

The main roads leading to the sea-ports were busy, and the country inns and village taverns literally swarmed with pungs, sometimes called pod-teams, and their drivers.

In course of time, as the country became more settled and the roads better improved, and business increased, the great six or eight-horse teams -- or land schooners-came to be em- ployed in the carrying trade to and from the interior and the markets.

To meet the wants of this travel and traffic, at convenient distances along the routes the wayside inn, as well as the more pretentious village hostelry, opened its hospitable doors.

It was here the teamsters gathered after their day's drive, and around the glowing wood- fire cracked their jokes, while the firelight flashed upon the beams and panels and lattice- work that guarded the mysterious precincts from whence, over a bar of unusual height, were dispensed to the jolly cirele the slings and toddies that inspired the festive scene, and which. for the time being, doubtless, more than matched the " slings and arrow of outrageous fortune."

About the year 1812, Sylvanus Richards re- moved to the village and assumed the proprie- torship of the Rising Sun tavern, a public- house erected the year before by Gordon Buel.

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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

He was succeeded by his son, Captain Seth Richards, who continued the business until March 1, 1826, when Captain John Silver be- came the proprietor of this famous hostelry.

Mr. Silver afterward removed to the Eagle Hotel, and the Rising Sun came to a setting in a private house.

The original Newport Hotel was built on the site of the present Newport House, corner of Main and Sunapee Streets, in the year 1814 by Colonel William Cheney. It was purchased and improved by Captain Joel Nettleton and remained in the hands of the Nettletons, father and sons, for more than a quarter of a century. It was burned in 1860, and the present building was erected the same year by the Messrs. Cross, then proprietors. The establishment was pur- chased by E. L. Putney, the present owner, in 1866, and is widely known as the Newport House. It has been a popular hostelry for more than seventy years.

The Eagle Hotel, built by James Breck and Josiah Forsaith in 1825, remained a favorite house under various proprietors until 1856, when it was converted to business purposes.

It was at the height of its popularity, under the proprietorship of John Silver, during the " hard cider " campaign of 1840.

About the year 1810 Wm. Cheney removed his business from the west side to a location north of the bridge, the site of the present Richards Block, and thus the stores came over, and finally the meeting-houses surrendered and the victory was complete. In 1821 the Baptist meeting-house at Northville was abandoned and a new house of worship erected at the north end of the village common.

In 1822 the Congregational Society erected the brick meeting-house at the south end, and the old house on the west side was left for town purposes exclusively -- the union between church and state had been abrogated by the Legislature of 1819, and the ministers and churches of the different denominations were sup- ported by their several adherents and societies.

The present county of Sullivan, comprising fifteen towns, was originally a part of old Cheshire County, which extended some sixty- five miles along the Connecticut River. The courts were held at Keene and Charlestown, alternately. The increased population and busi- ness of the upper towns were such that, on December 26, 1824, a law was passed by the Legislature removing the May term of the Supreme Court of Judicature from Charlestown to Newport.

By an act of the Legislature, June 23, 1826, the question of dividing the county of Cheshire was submitted to the people of the several towns, and decided in favor of division.

On July 5, 1827, an act incorporating the county of Sullivan was passed, to take effect the September following; and the question of establishing the shire-town of the new county as between Newport and Claremont was also submitted to the popular vote and decided in favor of Newport by a majority of three thou- sand seven hundred and twenty-eight votes. By consulting a map, it will be clearly seen that Newport is the geographical centre of the county, as nearly as can be practically attained. And still it was not without a struggle, even after so decisive a vote, that the courts were formally established there.

Of those who were specially influential in the Legislature and otherwise in the organization of the new county, and in making Newport its shire-town, were Colonel William Cheney, James Breck, James D. Walcott and other lead- ing citizens of the town and active business men.

At a meeting held June 13, 1825, the town voted almost unanimously to raise the sum of two thousand dollars to assist in the building of a court-house and town hall ; the remaining one thousand five hundred dollars necessary to meet the estimated expense of the building to be raised by individual subscription. The lot on which the building was placed was purchased from Aaron Nettleton, Jr., for the sum of four hundred and ten dollars.

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NEWPORT.

A building committee, consisting of William Cheney, James Breck, James D. Walcott, was appointed to superintend the work. On Feb- ruary 11, 1826, Oliver Jenks, James D. Wal- cott and David Allen, selectmen of Newport, and Salma Hale, clerk of the court, certified that the new court-house was ready for occu- pation.

This building, with desirable additions and improvements, was occupied as court-house and town hall until the year 1873, when it was con- veyed exclusively to the town and by the town to Union School District for a term of ninety- nine years and became the Central School building and the home of the Intermediate, Grammar and High Schools, of the district.

The county jail at Charlestown continued to be occupied until April 1, 1842, when it was set on fire by one of the criminal inmates and destroyed. The same year a new jail was built in Newport at a cost of three thousand three hundred dollars. It was reconstructed and improved in 1876 and again 1883.

The necessity of a fire-proof building in which to locate the public offices and their im- portant books of record became more and more apparent ; accordingly, on August 1, 1843, the town voted to lease the southwest corner of the court-house common for the purpose of erecting a county building for officers and safes to be held so long as used for that purpose.

About the year 1871-72 the question of a new court-house became a subject for the consid- eration of the people of the town. There were obvious reasons that something must be done in that direction. In the first place, the building of 1825-26 had been in use for nearly fifty years and had become somewhat dilapitated, out of style and unsatisfactory to the people of the county.

Again, the town of Claremont, ever on the alert to become the shire-town, stood ready to furnish more suitable accommodations for the courts without expense to the county-a plaus- ible consideration which it was not slow to ad-

vance. The State had assumed the war debt of its towns, and the proportion which came to the town of Newport was about sixteen thousand dollars. It was thought advisable to appro- priate this money as far as it would go, to the building of a new town hall and county build- ing.

A meeting was called and plans and estimates were presented and considered. After a some- what exciting controversy, a location was agreed upon, and the plan of Edward Dow, architect, of Concord, was adopted. The work of erect- ing the building was accomplished by W. L. Dow & Co., at an expense of about forty thou- sand dollars. This amount, over and above the value of the old county buildings, which were reconveyed, was paid by the town.

The new building is said to be one of the most spacious and convenient for publie uses to be found in the western part of the State. It stands as the concession of the town of New- port to the county of Sullivan.

The Proprietor's House of 1773 and the spacious town hall and court-house of 1873 may illustrate in some degree the progress of the town of Newport during the one hundred years intervening.

Colonel William Cheney, who established himself on Main Street as early as 1810, and whose name was so intimately connected with the social and public affairs of the town for many years, died June 15, 1830. He was sue- ceeded by his sons in the mercantile business he had successfully founded, who continued the same until the year 1835, when they disposed of the Cheney stand and stock, and removed from town.

Captain Seth Richards, their successor, was a man of great personal activity and tact, and the business was continued by him, assisted by his sons, until about the year 1867, when he retired from active life. He died

1 Destroyed by fire Sunday morning, June 21, 1885,- since the above was written.

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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

October 30, 1871, in the eightieth year of his age. The business was afterwards continued under the direction of the sons-Dexter and Abiathar Richards.

As early as the year 1816 James Breek had erected the two-story brick store on the corner of Main and Elm Streets, opposite the Wilcox store and dwelling, and was a prominent mer- chant and man of affairs.

For a long time previous to 1840 the river and the village bridge formed a dividing line between rival interests and rival parties in the village. The Rising Sun tavern and the Breck and Wilcox stores and some trades and shops clustered about the four corners at the south end ; and the Newport Hotel and the Cheney and Nettleton stores, with a like following, had a centre near the corner of Main and Sunapee Streets, at the north end, near the common. A contention as to which should be considered the most popular side of the river, or end of the town, largely prevailed, and each party had its supporters. The partienlar adherents of each side were grouped around these social and busi- ness leaders, Breck and Cheney, and the spirit of the Montagues and Capulets of Verona seemed to prevail.

The appearance on the north side of an ur- chin from the south side, and rice rersa, amount- ed to a challenge at single combat, or the jeers of a crowd. This feeling was carried into social relations and business affairs. When, on Mon- day afternoon, June 27, 1825, the nation's guest, General Lafayette, was escorted into town, en route from Concord to Montpelier, Vt., it appears from a record of the event found in the village paper of that time, that he was accorded a double reception,-first, by Colonel William Cheney at his residence on the north side of the river, and afterwards by James Breck, Esq., at his residence on the south side, the crossing at the bridge being under a tri- umphal arch, ornamented with flowers. Speeches and introductions were made at both houses, and Montagues and Capulets, and their wives

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History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 127

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1200

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200