History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 33

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 33
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 33

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or as the author of educational works, or of contributions to natural science, or as the mover of benevolent associations, more as he appeared in his daily life.

" The good man-as he lived and still lives in the hearts of his people ; the Christian man- whose graces made him honored by all who knew him, whose very presence scemed a regen- erating atmosphere, whose example was so spot- less that he seemed conformed to the image of the Master.

"In this town Dr. Leonard has been pre-emi- nently one of the people. He was interested in their pursuits. Not negleeting his own profes- sion, he knew something of all others. The lawyer thought he must have studied jurispru- dence. He knew more of teaching than the teachers. He knew more of mechanism than the mechanies. And it was not long before the farm- ers found out that he knew more of agriculture and horticulture than they. So they were glad to seek his counsel. And no one came away without valuable suggestions; for, aside from his own accurate observations, the best periodi- cals and the latest books on science found their way into his library. There was no austerity in his manner to repel the humblest from approach- ing him ; there was no obtrusiveness to make any one feel that his advice must be acted upon, however freely given. Men were not slow to learn the value of his caution and sagacity.

"Measures concerning the publie interests of the town, if he did not originate them, were brought to him for his indorsement. Before they were set on foot they were talked over and modified in his study. And when there arose causes of dispute between neighbors, or of alienation in families, to whom could they more confidentially appeal than to him ? Each felt him so much a personal friend that there was no fear of favoritism. All believed in his kindness and uprightness and impartiality. He seemed a physician for their private griefs, and many times, more times than any of us can ever know, did this faith make them whole.

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"He was a most ardent and true lover of chil- dren. You may infer from this what power he would obtain over the young in so long a minis- try. It was a natural instinct with him. His heart could not help reaching out after the little ones ; and when once he had known them he never forgot them. Last summer he told me -- and no one who knew him here, where he labor- ed so long, will doubt me-that when he went away from you there was no child of four years old in all the town whom he could not have called by name. And well do you know how greatly he won both their love and their respect. Never have I heard a young person who was a native of this town speak of him but with reverence. How could it be otherwise where his name had been a household word for more than a generation ? For more than thirty years, alike in summer's heat and winter's cold, he saw these children in their several schools. He knew what they studied ; he watched their progress ; he cared for them with a parental solicitude, as though in some sense they were a household en- trusted to his influence. Every child knew him and was glad to see him, for he never went away without leaving some word of encouragement.

"Latterly, as I have seen him often and talked with him, I have thought there were no children to him like Dublin children. Enfeebled in body as he had been for some time, his mind corre- spondingly lessened in its activity, he seemed to dwell much with the past. And the young men and the young women of this town-where they were and what they were doing-furnished a theme which never failed to arouse his interest and call forth his emotion. As I said before, he never forgot them. Often and often, have I been surprised to find how far out into the world he had traced them. Not unfrequently has he been able to tell me the fortunes or the fate of my own school-mates whom I had almost forgotten. And when a boy or a girl had done well, or their characters blossomed out with promise, it made the eye of the feeble old man grow bright, there came an honest pride to his heart-it was

as though he shared the honor. And, my friends, it does not seem to me too much to say, that if any youth who has gone out from this community has won for himself a noble name or a lofty character, he is a debtor in no mean degree to the influence of that spirit which has so recently freed itself from the bondage of this mortal clay.

"About a year and a half ago, after an absence of considerable time from these scenes of his life- work, he revisited them, you remember, for the last time. Almost worn out with exhaustion from the long stage-ride over the hills, unable to deseend the coach-steps without help, he spied a little boy standing upon the threshold of the house near by where we stopped, when, forgetful of his weakness, away he tottered, his face all ra- diant with his accustomed smile, to take him by the hand and ask him who he was, for the mo- ment less mindful of older persons standing by. And in the room where he lived for several months, and where he died, I have seen, for weeks and weeks together, an open miniature lying upon his table ; and many times I have found him bending over it. It was the minia- ture of a little girl, now a woman grown. And when I have spoken to him of her : 'It looks as she did once,' he said. 'We thought it a good picture,' and tears ran down his cheeks- and they were tears of warmest affection.

"Again, as showing the æsthetic side of his nature, he had more than an ordinary love for and appreciation of the beautiful. Fond as he was of the exact sciences, and little imagination as his sermons ever exhibited, he had an exqui- site taste for poetry. Let any one look over the files of the Exeter News-Letter, for the eight years he was editor, and the selections will be ample proof of that. Then the collection of ' Christian Hymns,' which not long ago was used in more churches of our denomination than any other, of whose committee of compilation he was chairman, was in no small measure a testi- mony to the excellence of his taste in lyric verse. Moreover, I have been told that several hymns

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in the collection are from his own pen, but char- acteristic of his modesty, his name never appears with them ; they are only ' Anonymous."

" He was a great lover of flowers, and eulti- vated them with rare success. His garden was tastefully laid out and kept, and contained the most cherished varieties. Hon. John Prentiss. of Keene, writes me that he well remembers Dr. Leonard's 'display of dahlias when first introduced in the town hall at our county agri- cultural fair,' and adds, 'he doubtless obtained a premium.' Well do I remember what a marvel of beauty we school children thought that flower garden was, and lingered by the white railings that inclosed it with no indefinite longings. Our eyes had seen nothing like the minister's garden in splendor, and we thought its supplies must be inexhaustible. True, there were hundreds of flowers for which we knew no name, but the most unskilled of all could ask for and knew the value of roses and poppies and pinks and lark-spurs; and no one who asked was turned away empty-handed. But there was another means of obtaining a nose- gay more delicate than asking outright.

"' There is a country town,' says the author of 'The District School as it Was,' in a late work, 'one of the roughest in New England, which was favored with a clergyman who well understood the true methods of education.

1 For convenience a list of Dr. Leonard's published works is subjoined,-

1826, " Literary and Scientific Class-Book ; " 1829, "Sequel to Easy Lessons; " 1835, "North American Spelling-Book ; " 1844, " Remarks on Modes of Instruc- tion ; " 1844-53, " Reports of Schools in Dublin ;" 1845, one of the compilers of the Hymn-Book entitled " Christian Hymns ;" 1845, " Sermon on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of his Ordination ;" 1848, " The Natural and the Spiritual Man" (being No. 247 of the Unitarian Association Tracts); 1848, "Analysis of the Elementary Sounds of the English Language, with a Chart, Etc .; " 1851, "A Lecture delivered before the American Institute of Instruction at Keene, N. Hf. (in a volume with other lectures delivered on the same occasion );" 1853, " Sermon at the Dedication of the New Meeting-House in Dublin ; " 1855, Editor of the " History of Dublin."

Among other investigations, he devoted some of his leisure to entomology. Somehow, he in- spired the people of the whole town, more or less, with his spirit, and especially the young. All eyes were opened and sharpened to discover some new bug, or worm, or butterfly ; and hap- py was the boy or girl that could run with some prize of the kind to the minister, receive his thanks and get a peep through the microscope at the wonders.' 2 Besides the rewards named by this writer, he who brought a perfect beetle or butterfly received also a bouquet of flowers, and we always thought the flowers that came from that garden a badge of honor. With them came a kind word and a benignant smile, that lived many days in the child's heart.

"Dr. Leonard was a thorough proficient in the natural history of insects. Most of you remem- ber tiers of glass cases or cabinets, disposed abont his study, filled with flies, queer and com- mon, with bright beetles and enormous butter- flies. The late Chancellor Hoyt, of Washing- ton University, St. Louis, speaks of him as having ' contributed to the late Dr. Harris, his class-mate, not a few of the most important facts in his published works, and as being undoubt- edly at this time (1859) the best entomologist in the State.'3 So, in like manner, mineral, bird and star, as well as insect and blossom, taught him Divine lessons, and served his pur- pose of doing good.

" Last summer I called upon him one morn- ing, and he showed me a beautiful pond lily, one of the first of the season, which some one, thoughtful of his love of flowers, had given him. Nothing could have pleased him more, and as he spoke of it and perceived its perfume, he contemplated it with all the delighted interest of a child. He was not well that day, and I called again toward evening. He had lain down for the night, but he still held that same white lily

2 " Helps to Education," by Warren Burton, p. 177.

3 " Addresses, Lectures and Reviews," p. 140.

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in his hand, wilted, indeed, but its fragrance was not yet spent. To me, my friends, that flower seemed no unfit emblem of his life.

" Dr. Leonard was a lover of goodness, and, therefore, a Christian. He gave himself to Christian work. And, if reports be true, few towns stood more in need of moral regeneration than Dublin at the commencement of his min- istry. It has grown into a proverb that minis- ters have little or no knowledge of human nature. Those who knew Dr. Leonard will need no further proof that the rule has had its exception. In that matter few had clearer vision than he. His acute observation was not limited to inanimate nature. He knew his man, and, therefore, when a work that required co- operation was to be accomplished, his confidence was not misplaced. When he came here, in- temperance, with its kindred evils, alarmingly prevailed. But gradually there came a change. A new power was felt among the people. It was an influence very quiet, but very persistent. Soon it became known that the study of the pastor was the centre from which it radiated. Afterwards he lectured upon temperance in all the school districts. Some men, in consequence, withdrew from the society. For about ten years he reduced his salary in proportion to the amount these paid him, that others might not be embar- rassed by a heavier assessment, and urged the cause more industriously than ever. In these latter days, my friends, you have a just pride in the result. I am not old, yet I have seen something of many towns, both small and great, and, comparing any that I have known or heard of with this, I have never had occasion to be ashamed of the moral character of the town in which I was born.

"In the published correspondence of Theodore Parker occur these words of tribute, in a letter to Dr. Francis, in 1855: 'Here I am,' says Mr. Parker, 'rusticating in one of the nicest lit- tle towns in New Hampshire or New England. Good Dr. Leonard has written his natural piety all over the town and in all the people. How

much a noble minister may do for mankind in such a town as this! There are twenty-three copies of the New York Tribune, and nearly as many of the National Era, taken here. No rum in town, excellent schools, not eleven hundred inhabitants and twelve hundred dollars devoted every year to schools. I often mention Lincoln, Dr. Stearns' old parish for so many years, to show what a minister may do. Concord is also a good example; but Dublin, I think, will bear the palm from all the rest. But why is it that such cases are so rare ? There is not a town in New England but would rejoice to have such a minister as Dr. L. Why is it that we don't raise that sort of minister ?' 1

" It matters little, perhaps, what the the- ology of such a man may be; for his life passes all theologies. No denomination can monopo- lize its benefits ; so we may be sure he was no sectarian or dogmatist. Yet his theological views were well-defined. He was educated in and belonged to the older school of Unitarians. But he ' believed with Robinson, the teacher of the pilgrims, that God had more truth to break forth from His holy word.' He was the friend of a liberal and progressive faith, for he was the friend of independent thought. His words ded- icated this edifice in which we are assembled to religious uses. Many of you will remember when he said : ' Preaching, in order to be effec- tive or profitable, must be free. That which gives it life and energy, and without which it is but a vain parade, is this: that preachers be al- lowed to form principles of their own, and that what they say be the fruit of their own thought. Command a man to utter the thoughts and views of others, as they have been contained in confessions of faith, and threaten him at the same time with some temporal deprivation or spiritual denunciation if he ventures to follow his own conclusions and to proclaim his senti- ments, and you pass upon all he says a sentence

1 Weiss' " Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker," vol. i., p. 362.

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of death. You come to the sanctuary for in- struction, not merely to hear your own opinions declared and confirmed.' 1

" His theology excluded no sincere and de- vout and striving soul from Christian fellow ship. Ah, my friends, his faith was a good one to live by, if it produce so beautiful a life ; sure- ly a good one to die by, if a well-spent life can make death pleasant. Whatever value he placed upon any articles of belief, he did not forget to dedicate this house of God, with special words, to the love of charity, to the spirit of progress and liberty. He said, 'All mankind are brethren. When one is oppressed, all are implicated in danger. If one human being may suffer wrong with impunity to the wrong-doer, then all are exposed to the like fate. . . . Every church, therefore, every house consecrated to God and to Christ, should be open to the defense of human freedom and human rights.' What another has written of him is indeed eminently true : 'He was the friend of his race-yea, the friend of every race made in the image of God.'

" Dr. Leonard was a benevolent man. You would know that from his very face. Without wealth, with only a competency, no one in need, no needy enterprise, made calls upon him in vain.

When first he came here there were few juvenile books published. But he saw what a power for good they might be made to be. He obtained what he could from time to time, and when he made pastoral visits was seldom with- out some in his pockets for the children. There grew such an interest in the minister's collec- tion, and constantly, that a regular system of borrowing and lending was adopted, so that all might share alike. In three or four years there were as many as a hundred volumes in the min- ister's collection, and constantly visited by the children at the minister's house. Thus was formed what is supposed to have been the first

Sunday-school library in New England .? It is true, however, that any children in the town who wished to enjoy its privileges were free to do so. There was no spirit of exclusiveness in the pastor's heart; every child was alike wel- come.

"' He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.'

"For many years he furnished all the text- books for the Sunday-school and gave each child a story-book when it closed for the winter. He gave hymn-books for the choir ; and in the common schools, for the sake of securing uni- formity of text-books, if any poor family was to suffer by the change, the required school- books were often supplied by him. Since he left Dublin, instance after instance of his private charities have come to light, unknown before. Said a family, which had suffered great adver- sity, not of his own parish, 'There has been no such friend to us ; we do not see what we shall do when he goes from us.'

"Seldom was a man more richly endowed with

2 In a private letter to the son of Dr. Leonard, the Hon. Thos. Fisk, of Dublin, who was a co-laborer with the latter in the cause of education and other good works in that town, and, although in his eighty-third year, still retains his mental vigor in a remarkable degree, after stating in substance that he thinks Rev. Mr. Learned has fallen into an error in calling this library the first Sunday-school library in New England, says "that the historian of Peterhoro' is mis- taken when he states in his work that, 'giving all due credit for previous attempts to establish free public libraries, we think the claim of Peterboro' to be the first to have sue- ceeded in it is indisputable.' " Mr. Fisk 'goes on to say "that the first meeting held in Peterboro', in relation to it, was April 9, 1833. Your father (Dr. Leonard) instituted in Dublin the Juvenile Library, in 1822, eleven years before the Peterboro' library was organized, and it was, to all in- tents and purposes, a free public library throughout the town, and has been in successful operation ever since. To your father is due the honor of instituting the first free, public circulating library within my knowledge, and he ex- pended some three hundred dollars of his private meaus for books before others contributed to the expense. The Dublin Juvenile Library was founded in 1825, and since that time has been replenished annually by the voluntary contributions of its members."

1 Discourse : Delivered March 2, 1858, p. 7.

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patience and Christian resignation. With health never firm, seldom would those about him have discovered it from any word of his. Latterly, the premature infirmities of age bowed and par- alyzed him. In general, I do not think there was that acuteness of suffering which is often witnessed. But there was a greater or less de- gree of consciousness to the very last. For many months, from slight paralysis, it had been difficult for him to converse. He could not longer mingle in company, as he was wont, and it had inclined him to sit much by himself in his chamber. Yet no murmur was ever known to escape his lips. Yea, even when, towards the last, soreness and racking pains came upon him, those who stood by were astonished at his fortitude. There was not even a complaining look ; while, for the slightest efforts for his re- lief, his face lighted up with gratitude and af- fection.

"There is a heroism that unflinchingly fronts the cannon's mouth and the deadly charge of battle. But to me that is a grander heroism that, with a sweet religious faith, utters no mur- mur in the face of lingering death."

The degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- ferred upon Dr. Leonard by the corporation of Harvard University in 1849, and President Jared Sparks, in his letter announcing the honor, says: " I am happy to be the medium of communicating this testimony of the high csteem in which we hold your distinguished services in the cause of religion and education."

It remains only to add that Dr. Leonard was twice married. His first wife was Elizabeth

Morison Smith, daughter of Hon. Samuel Smith, the founder of Peterborough village. She died September 13, 1848. Two children were the fruit of this marriage,-William Smith, born October 13, 1832, a graduate at Dart- mouth College in the class of 1856, and for the last twenty-five years a practicing physician in Hinsdale, N. H .; also Ellen Elizabeth, born June 25, 1846, who married Joseph H. Hough- ton, and has resided for many years in New Tacoma, Washington Territory.

He married for his second wife Mrs. Eliza- beth Dow Smith, of Exeter, N. H., widow of Samuel G. Smith, and soon after removed to Exeter, where he passed the declining years of his life, assuming, for a time, the editorship of the Exeter News-Letter, and interesting himself in the schools and all other things pertaining to the public welfare. Yet Exeter was never a congenial abiding-place to him; like a tree transplanted after it had reached maturity, he could not take root and thrive in a new soil, and as the evening shadows gathered around him, he yearned more and more for his old home, and so at last he was laid at rest in the ancient graveyard at Dublin, by the side of the wife of his best years and the mother of his children ; all around him the graves of his parishioners, for whom he had so many years broken the bread of life. In the shadow of the grand Monadnock, by the shore of the crystal lake he loved so well, a plain granite monument emblematical of his character, marks the last resting-place of this pure, noble and devoted minister of God.

HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM

CHAPTER I.

THE township was granted by the Masonian proprietors, January 15, 1752, to Roland Cot- ton and forty-one others, and was known by the name of Monadnock, No. 4. The conditions of the grant not being complied with, a re-grant was made to Colonel Sampson Stoddard and twenty-two associates, and it was sometimes called Stoddard's town until May 19, 1773, when it was incorporated by the Governor and Council by the name of Fitz William, in honor of an English earl. In 1760 settlements were commenced by James Reed (who afterwards commanded one of the New Hampshire regi- ments in Bunker Hill), John Fassett and Ben- jamin Bigelow.

When the town of Troy was formed, June 23, 1815, about four thousand acres of Fitzwilliam territory was taken from the north part of the town and now constitutes a part of Troy. The line between this town and Rindge was estab- lished by an act approved June, 17, 1847.

PETITION OF COLONEL STODDARD RELATIVE TO INCORPORATION.

" To His Excellency John Wentworth Esqe Captain General Governor & Commander in Chief in & Over his Majestys Province of New Hampe, the Honebo his Majestys Council for Said Province-

" The Memorial of Sampson Stoddard of Chelmsford in the County of Middlesex & in

the Province of the Massachusetts Bay Shews- " That there is a Tract of Land in the Prov- ince of New Hampe of the Contents of about six Miles Square Granted by the Purchasors of the Right of John Tufton Mason Esqe to your Memorialists & Others Called the Township of Monadnock Nº 4-That the Greater part there- of is finally Vested in him, that he has at a Great Expence Settled a Very Considerable Number of Inhabitants thereon

" Wherefore your Memorialist humbly prays that the Lands aforesa may not be Incorporated into a Town & the Inhabitants there Infran- chised with all Town priviledges without their first Giving Notice to him of their Design of applying to yr Excell' & honors and your Memorialist Shall (as in duty bound) Ever pray-

" SAMPSON STODDARD " Portsmh July 11, 1768-"

INCORPORATION OF TOWN .- The following is a copy of the petition for incorporation :

" To His Excellency John Wentworth Esquire Captain General, Governor and Commander in Chief in and over his Majestys Province of New Hampshire and Vice Admiral of the Same in Council.

" The l'etition of James Reed of Monadnock Nº 4 in the County of Cheshire in the Province aforesaid Esqe and Clerk of the Proprietry of said Monadnock Nº 4 unto your Excellency & Honors humbly Shews

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" That your Petitioner together with Joseph Hemmenway and John Millins at a legal Meet- ing of sª Proprietors held in sª Monadnock Nº 4 on the 31st of March last were chosen a Com- mittee to petition this Honorable Court to in- corporate the said Monadnock Nº 4 into a Town- ship with the usual Priviledges and Franchises of other corporate Towns in the said Province for the following Reasons Vizt

" That the Inhabitants of said Monadnock have settled a Minister & built a Meeting House and have a large Number residing there, besides others daily coming to settle there That they humbly conceive their Number intitles them to the Indulgence of this Honble Court as in the present Mode of Provincial Taxation, they are subject to the controul of the Selectmen of Neighbouring Towns, and they would humbly wish to have the Privilege of chusing Selectmen and other Town Officers of their own which would quiet the Minds of the Inhabitants and promote the Interests & good Government of sª Monadnock Nº 4-That being destitute of Town Privileges the Petitioner's cannot legally warn out any vagrants that may come there, and many other Inconveniences Wherefore. Your Petitioner in behalf of sd Proprietors humbly pray that this Honble Court would grant their Petition & as in Duty bound he & they shall ever pray-

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History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 33

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