History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 70

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 70
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 70

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).

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

in order to gain notoriety or secure fame. Dennie confined his contributions, principally, to articles called the "Lay Preacher." They were essays on morality ; and such was the fame he acquired with his cotemporaries, that he was styled the " Addison of America." In the height of this paper's prosperity Dennie boasts of its being read by "more than two thousand persons !" If poor Dennie could wake from his slumbers, what would he say of American journalism to-day ? The publishers failed, Dennie left town, and the paper went into a de- cline. Various fortunes attended it till 1827, when Nahum Stone, a shoemaker, revived it, and continued it in Walpole till November 14, 1828, when it was removed to Keene, and now is published under the title of The Cheshire Republican.

John Prentiss, who was then editor of the New Hampshire Sentinel, on learning that Stone was about removing to Keene, and knowing him to be a shoemaker, facetiously remarked, " Well, I hope he wont lose his awl (all).

That old printing establishment did a large business for those days in the way of printing books, if one can judge by the catalogues pub- lished in the Museum. The first American novel ever noticed by the English press was printed in this town. The printing establishment here gave employment to a large number of typos, who were, according to accounts, a set of bois- terous, drinking vagabonds. Joseph T. Buck- ingham worked in this office at one time six months, and he says in his autobiography, "they were the most miserable months of my life." This drinking, roistering life was not confined to the classes above noticed, but obtained with the rural population, who were wont to assem- ble Saturdays and on festive days at Major Bullard's, and roll ten-pins, wrestle and get drunk or into a fighting condition. If neighbors had any old scores to settle, they took such days to settle them with fisticuff's in Bullard's bar- room. There was one Abraham Hall then liv- ing in town, who, it is said, possessed herculean

strength. He was generally present at those broils, brought thither in an ox-cart, as there was no other conveyance for him by reason of his weight, whose avoirdupois was four hundred and twenty pounds at the age of sixty. He officiated as a physical umpire in the broils of his neighbors, when they got in close quarters, by seizing the belligerents by the napes of their necks and holding them asunder till their ire cooled off, or, if they proved restive under such restraint, he would butt their heads together until they cried enough.

The eighteenth century closed with a very cold winter, and to-day (1885) there is but one person living in town who was born here in the last century. Thus it is seen that eighty- five years make nearly a clean sweep of all born before 1800.

FROM 1800 TO 1810.

About the year 1800 William Jarvis, of Ver- mont, was consul in Spain from the United States. He imported some merino bucks from that place, of which Joseph Bellows, a grandson of Colonel B. Bellows, purchased one and paid fifteen hundred dollars for him. Through this buck the farmers in town began immediately to improve the quality of their wool, by infusing the blood of this buek with their Irish floeks, till about 1825, when two brothers named Searles imported a flock of Saxony sheep into Boston, a few of which found their way into this town. In 1827 the same parties imported another lot into New England in the care of one Kreutchman, a German, one hundred of which were leased to Major Samuel Grant and Major William Jenuison, who had formed a copartnership in sheep husbandry. By the terms of the lease the company was to have one- half the increase. Major Grant then owned the farm in the southeast part of the town known as the "Seven Barns," and Major Jennison owned the farm where William T. Ramsay now lives, both of which were admirably adapted to sheep husbandry. To improve their stock

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Grant & Jennison purchased a buck of the Searles and paid one hundred and ten dollars for him: He was known to the farmers by the euphonic name of "Old Haunch." A disease among the sheep, known as the foot rot, was brought with those Saxony sheep. The most assiduous care was necessary to protect those sheep from the cold of winter and the cold storms of spring and summer ; especially was this the case in yeaning-time, when the lambs had to be kept before a fire in the house. Wal- pole was in a perfect sheep craze, when her pastures were dotted with 16,000 sheep. Al- though the farmers got one dollar per pound for cleanly-washed wool, they soon found that the average fleece was not more than two and a half pounds, and, moreover, the carcass being small, it was worth but little for mutton. The farmers soon learned that they, under such conditions, were losing money, and there was as much of a craze to free themselves from the dilemma as there was to get into it, and meas- ures were immediately taken which restored their old breed.

In 1802 or 1803 when New England was visited with that destroying scourge, the small- pox, Walpole was not exempt from it, and the inhabitants were dying daily. Several town-meetings were called for the purpose of taking the sense of the town on providing a pest-house, and giving license for vaccination ; but ignorant conservatism went strongly against both propositions, till at length Tliomas Jeffer- son and a few leading men at Washington, who had tried vaccination in their own families, issued a circular to the people of the United States, setting forth its harmless effect on the patient and its potent effect in preventing the spread of the dread disease. The physicians and some of the leading men of Keene issued a similar circular to neighboring towns. Wal- pole then at once dropped its ignorant conserva- tism and permitted sanitary measures to be adopted, when soon the dreadful scourge had nothing to feed upon.

At this time, 1803, a new newspaper was started, advocating the measures of Thomas Jefferson's administration. It was called the Political Observatory, and printed by David Newhall, with Stanley Griswold for editor. The proprietors were Thomas C. Drew, Elijah Burroughs, Amasa Allen, Alexander Watkins and Jonathan Royce, who were the first persons in town to cast a Democratic vote.

In 1805 Parson Fessenden, who had been the town's minister thirty-eight years, and whose age was now sixty-six, had become physically and mentally worn out, and the town was anxiously looking about for some one to supply his place.

Pliny Dickinson had occupied Mr. Fessenden's desk several Sundays and preached very ac- ceptably to the congregation, and the society looked forward to the immediate time when he would become the town's minister. Mr. Dick- inson had full knowledge of the sentiment of the parish, and he used it to further his ends, but did not succeed. The town called a meeting and voted to give Mr. Dickinson a call, and a salary of five hundred dollars per annum and some other things. The call was duly pre- sented to him with a request to return an answer at an adjourned meeting. The call was not loud enough ; he wanted six hundred dol- lars. He continued to postpone his answer at two meetings, in the mean time hoping to get the extra hundred.

Mr. Dickinson's vacillating course was not well relished by the parish, and when he under- took further postponement at the third meeting, the parish peremptorily demanded an answer then and there. Mr. Dickinson clearly saw his little game was lost, when he immediately returned an answer accepting the proposal by the parish. At first he was settled as colleague of Mr. Fessenden ; but after Mr. Fessenden's death he became sole pastor. He continued to preach as the town minister until the disruption of the old church, in 1826. He preached for five hundred dollars a year during his pastorate,

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

brought up a large family of children, and when he died, in 1834, he left his family sixteen thousand dollars. He was a favorite with the élite, but with the yeomanry it was otherwise, as proved by tradition and a singular document, published in 1826 and signed by sixty-six men, stating that they did not believe in the religious views held by Mr. Dickinson. He was very rigid in his church discipline, allow- ing no one to come to the communion-table but those of his faith. On one of those occasions two Amazonian Welsh girls, the daughters of Thomas Darby, a weaver by trade, who lived in the woods, just in the edge of Westmore- land, came to his church, and when the commu- nion service was served, they partook with the communicants. The parson, on learning before he left the church, who those strange personages were, and their place of domicile, declared he " would not have the sanctuary of the Lord so defiled," and before he had hardly swallowed his breakfast the next morning he mounted his horse and was on his way to their home. On arriving at the old log hut, he found old Tom busy with his shuttle, but the girls were gone. After stating his grievance, to the old man, to which he attentively listened, he replied : " Weel, weel, I'm soory, burned soory, for I've allus told my gals to keep oot of bad company !" It is not stated how sud- denly the parson left.

In 1806 West Street was built and the old brick store, which was burned in September 1849. The following year (1807) the village bridge was built across the Connecticut, the third on the river. It was built by a corpora- tion, and the superstructure was on wooden piers. The same year a mail-coach passed through Walpole to Hanover, N. H., three times a week, thus receiving mail from Boston every other day.

FROM 1810 TO 1820.

At the beginning of this decade the New England States had witnessed the rise and pro- gress of a singular disease known as the spotted

fever ; but it was not considered contagious. This town was not exempt from its ravages, and many homes were made desolate. The first in- dication of an attack was, not infrequently, a sudden pain in the extremities, quickly spread- ing over the whole system, and fatally termi- nating within twenty-four hours. In the spring of 1812 several children died of it. The following March seven adults died of it in as many days. The whole number of deaths in town from this disease is not known, but many. This disease, then known as spotted fever, is now considered the same as cerebro- spinal meningitis.

In the engagements of the War of 1812 none of the Walpole men participated ; but a com- pany under the command of Josiah Bellows (3d), twenty-eight in number, went to the de- fense of Portsmouth, in the fall of 1814. Eleven men also went under the command of Captain Warner. These companies were in service but a short time, and the trophies brought home and the laurels won were very few.

Thomas Collins Drew, an unlettered, penni- less lad, born in Chester, this State, in 1762, came to this town with the Derry Hill settlers, and made Walpole his life home. By dint of perseverance, at the age of fifty he had accumu- lated some property, and was about building a substantial brick dwelling in the village-the brick being already on the grounds-but owing to a rupture with those to the " manor born," he changed his mind and purchased a mile square of land in the northeast part of the town, now known as Drewsville, in 1810. He moved his brick thither and erected the hotel now owned by Thomas Taunt. The volume of water then in Cold River was three times what it now is, and was soon utilized in driving ma- chinery in cotton and woolen-factories, and also for many other needful purposes. Artisans flocked into the place, and stores sprang into being, which altogether, till 1835, made Drews- ville1 a lively place. This was the hey-day period

' Named for J. C. Drew.

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of Drewsville, and it is said the place did more business at that time than was done in Walpole village. Evidence of the thrift of the place once are seen in the large size of some of the old buildings ; but, like everything else, the place had its days of prosperity and those of decline.

FROM 1820 TO 1830.

As early as 1815 Jonathan H. Chase com- menced a new industry in the south part of the town, in the manufacture of sewed sole shoes in a small way, but in 1820 pegged work had ob- tained, and the shoe business began to increase, when Mr. Chase formed a copartnership with his brother-in-law, J. B. Kimball, of Boston, who furnished the leather and sold the shoes, while Chase manufactured them. In the course of twenty years several other firms engaged in the business, with varied success, till about 1835, when the business reached its maximum. Hun- dreds of men and women in town and adjoining towns found employment in the manufacture of brogans for the Southern market, while at the same time Jared Miller was manufacturing boots for the Western market. The sound of the shoe-hammer was heard, not only in the regular shops, but in very many of the rural homes, which gave one the impression of a miniature Lynn. Many of the workmen were young men, and a more roystering set of fellows could hardly be found. They dressed in the finest Saxony cloth, with other extravagant dressings to match, and being clannish in their affiliations, they controlled the measures of the town. The town can now boast of but one solitary cobbler, occasionally making a pair of shoes.

Meeting-house questions belonging to the town had slumbered now (1826) twenty-five years, but the subject was revived in 1825, and three meetings were called to see if the town would move the meeting-house into the village, which proposition was invariably voted down. The ostensible plea set forth was, by moving, the people would be better accommodated ; but the real purpose was to secure a place for Uni-

tarian worship, the sentiments of which had ob- tained a strong foothold in the village. At a town-meeting held October 6, 1826, those in favor of removal had secured the shoemakers and riff-raff of the village to vote with them by some sub rosa means, and a vote was declared in favor of removal, to the site where it now stands. It served the Unitarians about fourteen years, when it was converted into a town hall, and now, after forty years of service, the old ex- citement about town-houses is repeating itself. The removal wasattended with much ill feeling, and it is said one man was crazed by the act. The defeated party, one hundred and fifty-three in number, signed a protest against its removal ; but it was noticed only as a brutum fulmen.

The opposition party, composed of the old faith, Universalists and agnostics, immediately formed themselves into a new society called "The Independent Congregational Society," and forthwith took measures to build a new house on the old site, which was completed within a year. For a few years the worshippers of the old faith struggled on ; but in 1836 the "union" was dissolved and the Universalists had full control. At once the preaching of universal salvation was commenced and continued at intervals for some eight years, when it died out altogether. The Universalists then made over their policies to bats and owls, which held pos- session till 1869, when the original proprietors rased the house and sold the remnants at a loss of ninety-six per cent., besides the interest on the investment. In 1826 another newspaper was started, called the Cheshire Gazette, edited and managed by one Francis Parton, which in size and general appearance would compare favorably with similar papers of to-day. It lived but one year.

FROM 1830 TO 1840.

Those good people in town who lament over the degenerate times of to-day, on the liquor traffic and intemperance, have only to go back forty or fifty years and feel rejoiced that the

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

cause of temperance has made so much headway. Then there were six stores in town, a majority of which sold liquor. At one store fifty hogs- heads were sold annually, and if the other stores all put together sold as much more, an immense sale must have been made; but the story is not yet told ; there were seven taverns in town, all in full blast, the tavern-keepers mak- ing it a point to sell as much liquor as possible. At the lowest estimate of the liquor sold in town, it must have been a barrel to each voter.

Rum was everywhere,-in the hay-field and in the shops ; at marriages and at funerals ; drunk by the high and the low, males and fe- males, boys and sometimes girls. Fortunate for New England, the Washingtonian move- ment had just taken root, and the women put forth their potent influence to stay the progress of destruction. The damsels " boycotted " the young men by not allowing tipplers in their society, which effectually cured them. It is safe to say that not one-fifth as much liquor is sold in town to-day as was sold fifty years ago.

The census of 1830 gave Walpole two thou- sand and thirty-four inhabitants,-the largest number as yet counted. The stir and bustle in- cident to the business of those years made the village a lively place. Teams were doing the work of railways now. Heavily-laden wagons were passing through, drawn by six and eight horses. One of eight horses went from here to Boston once a week to supply the traders with goods ; stage-coaches from all points were constantly arriving and departing, bringing and carrying away the mail, which was distributed at the post-office here. The crack of the jehu's whip could be heard at most any hour of the day ; coach passengers, generally, either break- fasted, dined or supped here ; pleasure-seeking travelers, with their teams, made a choice of this place to rest at night in summer ; in winter the old tavern was filled nights with teamsters going to and returning from Boston. Such was Walpole in this decade.

FROM 1840 TO 1850.

This decade is void of any particular inei- dents that affected the people throughout the town.

In the fall of 1843, at the time of the annual regimental muster, a company of soldiers called the "saucy six " was stationed on the Common, which had been planted with shade-trees but a short time before with much care. Certain per- sons living out of the village ever appeared to feel jealous of the village peopleor any improvements they might make within its limits. Accord- ingly, those miscreants took this occasion, headed by their captain, to uproot and destroy every tree growing there. It was found that no legal measures could reach these vandals, and the vil- lagers showed their indignation by hanging the captain in effigy. At the next session of the State's Legislature, through the effort of Fred- erick Vose, a stringent law was passed, protect- ing shade-trees on public grounds. Never be- fore were the citizens of the village more shocked than at this unprovoked vandalism. Subsequently, in 1855-56, Benjamin B. Grant and Thomas G. Wells replanted the Common and also planted the principal streets with about nine hundred elms and maples, which have not been molested and are vigorously growing, serving not only to beautify the village, but af- fording a grateful retreat from the midsummer's sun.

In September, 1847, there was standing a large wooden building on Main Street, just north of Mad Brook, which extended east one hundred and seventy-five feet, with an L. The lower part was occupied by a tannery, founded in the eighteenth century by Daniel Bisco, but now owned and occupied by one Harvey Reed. The second story was occupied by the French Brothers, who afterward moved to Keene, as a carriage manufactory, and filled with all kinds of combustibles belonging to that business. In September of that year this building was totally consumed by fire. The owner sustained a heavy loss, without insurance,

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as the policy had just expired. Efforts were made to rebuild by subscription, but all proved futile.

In September, 1849, another conflagration took place, which destroyed the old brick store in the village, which was built in 1806. This building was three stories high and sufficiently long for three capacious store-rooms, fronting east. It was occupied at the time by Tudor & Rockwood, Philip Peck and William G. Wy- man, merchants, a library, and by Frederick

Vose, lawyer. The fire also reached three other buildings, which were consumed. As soon as possible new buildings were put up on the burnt district, to replace those destroyed. In 1855 this same site was burnt over, this time destroying two stores, a grocery and dwelling ; the last building was where the flames com- menced, through an illy-adjusted stove-pipe.

In the course of a few months the buildings now standing on the site were built.

In July, 1849, a charter was obtained for a savings-bank, which went into operation in 1850, and continued so until November, 1864, when it was robbed of $52,000 cash, and a large amount of securities of various kinds, by one Mark Shinborn, a Jew, and a Westmore- land boy named George M. White. At the time of the robbery the deposits amounted to $108,045.58, besides a surplus of $3841.58, although it had met with some losses by poor investments. The robbery caused its winding up ; but in October, 1875, a new bank went into operation, which is in existence now (1885).

FROM 1850 TO 1885.

Walpole, like other old, sleepy towns, did not furnish much material for the historian by decades ; therefore the following thirty-five years will be embraced under the above head.

One year after another passed, and the one was a counterpart of the other. Each was en- livened by the annual town-meetings, when the two nearly evenly-balanced political parties did not meet on common ground. On those occa-

sions large sums of money were expended by the rival parties, and much bad blood was stirred up, severing neighborly amenities. This was the state of feeling when, on the 12th of April, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired upon by the direction of Jefferson Davis, the leader of the Southern people in the great Rebellion in the United States. On the 14th instant the Presi- dent of the United States called for seventy-five thousand men to put down the Rebellion. Many young men had been told that the Southern people were a set of cowards, and that one Yankee was a match for four "secesh," which was believed by those who volunteered on the first call ; nor were they disabused of this belief till they had had a taste of Bull Run, where

" They went to fight, but ran away To live to fight another day."

On the first call for volunteers five re- sponded ; on the second call in May following for eighty-two thousand fourteen enlisted.1 In September, 1862, thirty-one more enlisted, receiving one hundred dollars bounty from the town. The bounty for volunteers during the month of September was increased to one hun- dred and fifty dollars. In the spring of 1863 volunteering had nearly ceased, but the enemy was pressing hard, and more men must be had. A draft appeared now the only alternative, and consequently the President of the United States issued a proclamation for a conscription of three hundred thousand men on the 8th of May, 1863. Fifty-two men was the quota of this town, and volunteers could not be procured. An enrollment of all the men in town between the ages of eighteen and forty-five was made, and, probably, at no time in the town's history could there have been so many men found who heaped anathemas on their natal day. If they could have been born a little earlier, or a little later, all would have been well. When the

1 The names of soldiers and other details cannot be given for want of space. See history of town.

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

draft was completed it was found that many of the uncoveted prizes had fallen to those who were not in a condition to comply with the de- mand. The drafted men had a choice of three ways to pursue,-one was to go, the second was to pay a commutation of three hundred dollars to the United States government, which would only clear them from the pending draft, and the third was to furnish a substitute, which was the one adopted, it is thought altogether. In this way, while the war part of the drafted man's bones might lie bleaching under a Southern sun, the real man was at home selling cotton cloth at seventy cents per yard.

Those who were liable to be drafted breathed freer, but they soon found that, although they had got their feet out of the mud, they im- mediately found them deeper in the mire, for on the 18th of July following three hundred thousand more men were called for.

This was a thunderbolt, because there was a less number to draw from. Town-meetings up to this time had been frequent, and many to raise money to pay bounties and provide for soldiers' families had been called, which were generally well attended by men of both politi- cal parties ; but now and until the close of the war there was but one party that attended the meetings, which was styled the " War Party." It was composed of parents who had sons liable to be drafted, and single men whose age did not exempt them from conscription. In order to fill quotas now, the town resorted to a new plan, which was to hire men outright for the service at the lowest price at the town's ex- pense. Meetings were frequent for this pur- pose. At one meeting a vote was passed au- thorizing the selectmen to procure men at any price ; but was subsequently limited to one thousand dollars. The prices paid were regu- lated by the law of supply and demand for substitutes, ranging from four hundred dollars to seven hundred and fifty dollars. Those men were a curse to the service rather than a benefit ; for it took one good soldier to keep

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History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 70

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