History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 71

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 71
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 71

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).

two of the substitutes from running away, and he did not succeed in that. These men were of all nationalities, without patriotism, honesty or morality.

" They went to war, and jumped away To 'list again where best 'twould pay."

Some of those fellows were so adroit after getting their money that they never saw the army.

The soldier's life, abstractly considered, is not a coveted one, and it is curious to note at this late day some of the apparent reasons that in- duced the men in town to enlist as volunteers. It is not claimed that any of our men were destitute of patriotism, but many had no relish for the turmoils incident to a soldier's life; on the other hand, there were those whose whole being was wrapped in excitement and danger ; those, generally, were the first to volunteer. Another and larger class of men felt it to be their duty to enlist, but were reluctant to leave their cheerful homes ; but the impending drafts hung over them like a pall. There were but two ways for them to do-one was to take their chances in a draft, or enlist as volunteers with a reasonable town bounty, which last was chosen, and at this time a large number en- rolled themselves in the New Hampshire Four- teenth Regiment, September 22, 1862. How- ever paradoxical it may seem, there was another class, small in number, of staid, sober, quiet young men, who hardly had ever heard the roar of the cannon, and who had never been a score of miles from home; they were among the first to volunteer. This class must have been im- bued with true patriotism or a strong religious sense of duty, or it may be both, that induced young men to leave all that was cheerful and home-like to battle with the rough and danger- ous scenes of a soldier's life.

Of the personal reminiscences of the men who participated in the Rebellion from this town there are but few, and those are too lengthy for insertion here. Most of those who returned did so with a clean soldier's record.

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No one achieved distinction, and but one was promoted from the ranks to corporal.

There were one hundred and eighty-five per- sons credited to this town in all, volunteers and substitutes, as going into the service, of whom seventy-five were actual residents. Eight of the three months' men re-enlisted, nine died of disease, four were killed outright, eight wounded and six missing, while fifty-three of the substitutes are known to have deserted, and one volunteer from town-not a native-and eight were discharged on account of disability. There was but one volunteer from this town who gave his superiors any trouble, and he was from "auld Ireland." He entertained the vague fancy that a " free country " meant free rum, and when he got a sufficient supply to make him spiritually-minded he fancied himself a second Samson, and his soldier comrades had to take care of their heads and ribs. He was locked up a great portion of his time, where he had leisure to cogitate on the incongruities of American freedom.

The indebtedness of the town in 1862 was five thousand three hundred dollars, and in 1866 it was forty-six thousand dollars ; and it is safe to say that forty thousand dollars of this sum was incurred in consequence of the war. In 1869 the town debt, to the amount of thirty- six thousand dollars, was funded, and is now (1885) all paid.

In connection with the Rebellion was the Sanitary Commission, which took six more of our men, who discharged the duties assigned to them faithfully, from a physician to a teamster. When the Commission was fully organized, under the presidency of Rev. Henry W. Bellows, the women (good souls!) emulated their great-grand- · mothers in ministering to the needs and con- forts of the soldiers in field and hospital, by sending them tid-bits for their appetites, and warm clothing to prevent colds and sickness.

THE CHURCH.

It appears by the old church records that

a church was formed as early as 1757, but it does not appear who the members were till after the ordination of Thomas Fessenden. Jonathan Leavitt was ordained pastor June 10, 1761, and dismissed June 19, 1764. January 8, 1767, Thomas Fessenden was ordained, and a church was formed the same day, consisting of the following members, viz. : Thomas Fes- senden, Benjamin Bellows, John Graves, John Parmenter, William Smead, Jonathan Hall, James Bundy, Joseph Barrett, David Dennison, John Marcy, Samuel Holmes, Samuel Trott, John Kilburn, Jr., Timothy Delano and Na- thaniel Hovey, and the wives of ten of the above-named, making the number twenty-five.

Eight years later the church numbered one hundred. During the active pastorate of Mr. Fessenden, of thirty-eight years, the number admitted to the church, by letter and pro- fession, was three hundred and sixty-five, and in that time he solemnized two hundred and ninety-nine marriages. The church was called "The First Congregational Church of Wal- pole," and the religious tenets of its members were like those of the Puritans. This Church in olden times was denominated " The Standing Order." The members were very strict in their observance of the Sabbath and the sanc- tuary, and in looking after each other with as- sidnous care and concern, as will appear by the following transactions of the church. One Isaac Johnson was in the habit of taking a little too much " for the stomach's sake," and James Bundy felt disturbed. The transaction reads thus: "November 18, 1769 .- James Bundy complained of Isaac Johnson for intem- perate drinking-supported. Voted, that he be suspended from spiritual privileges until he make satisfaction." He appeared, made confession and was restored to fellowship. On another occasion, October 11, 1770, "Nathan Bundy complained of Isaac Stowell as guilty of falsehood and theft, wherein he also him- self was an accomplice. Voted, to suspend both till it appears which is criminal." "They

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afterwards make satisfaction and are restored." The above are but simply specimens of a large number of similar ones.

In 1772 they " Voted, one shilling per pole to provide for the Lord's table, and those who refuse to pay the church tax be suspended."

Every member of the church who committed any irregularities inconsistent with its discipline, whatever its nature, or whether male or female, was required to make open confession in the broad aisle at the preparatory lecture before communion.

Mr. Fessenden was born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1739, graduated at Harvard in 1758, settled as minister of the town in 1767, and died May 9, 1813. His entire pastorate was forty-six years, eight of which he had a col- league. During this long period his labors were generally satisfactory to the town, but on one occasion, however, he preached a sermon (about the year 1800) which was of a political kind, that disturbed a portion of his hearers, and. by them he was requested to make an apology the next Sabbath, which he promised to do. Accordingly, after his last sermon on the next Sabbath, he remarked, "I have been requested to apologize for some remarks I made in my last Sabbath's discourse, which I will willingly do : if I said anything in that discourse that I did not mean to say, I am very sorry for it, and I hope this will be a sufficient apology."

He had lived long enough in town to see two generations come upon the stage, when those of his age extended to him the brotherly hand, the youth reverenced him, the ungodly respected him and the children loved him. He lived at a period when pamphlet disquisitions were rife on the subjects of election, predestination and free agency, in which he found delight in dab- bling. In 1804 he wrote a book entitled, " The Science of Sanctity," which is said by theolo- gians to be the most erudite work on that sub- ject extant.

It is said that he was a man of good nature and acquired abilities, full of life and anima-

tion, jovial with the townspeople, good at repartee, and fond of social gatherings and their concomitants,-a good dinner and a mug of flip.

After the death of Mr. Fessenden, Mr. Dick- inson was sole pastor till the disruption of the church, in 1826, before noticed, after which time he preached a few times in the old church in the village, then a few years in the new house on the hill, but never again had a settle- ment. He died August 27, 1834, of apoplexy, at the commencement dinner-table, in Amherst, Mass.

Mr. Dickinson's life in Walpole was not altogether a pleasant one ; his austerity of man- ner made him many enemies ; but the unkindest cut of all was in his matrimonial alliance.

He was born in Granby, Mass., in 1777 and consequently was twenty-eight years old when he was settled in town. He went to board with Colonel Caleb Bellows, a grandson of the founder of the town. The colonel then had a daughter, Mary Brown, who was five years old, born in 1800. Mr. Bellows did not like Mr. Dickinson, but tolerated him in his family. When Mary arrived at the age of womanhood the colonel discovered a closer intimacy between his daughter and the parson than mere friend- ship, and he was wroth; but when, soon after the discovery he had made, he learned that their bans were to be cried the following Sun- day, he was mad. His objections were : first, her youth ; second, the disparity of age ; and the third was that he did not like the man who was to be his son-in-law. When the next Sun- day arrived, Mr. Bellows was at church in season, and, when the congregation was all scated and the parson in his pulpit, N. Townsly, town clerk, cried the bans of Pliny Dickinson and Mary Brown Bellows. As soon as the last word had dropped from the lips of the crier, Mr. Bellows rose from his seat, as pale as a sheet, and, in an excited manner, cried out, " I forbid the bans ! I forbid the bans !" If a thunderbolt had struck the church, no

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greater shock would have been given to the congregation. Mr. Dickinson very calmly went through his day's service, and the next Sunday preached from the text : " I am a mall of sorrows and not unacquainted with grief."

The parties were bound for the state of mat- rimony, and a father's injunction and blasts of heated breath did not avail anything, and, con- sequently, the next nine days' thrill was the an- nouncement of their nuptials. When, where and by whom they were married no one living in town seems to know. She lived to be mar- ried to three husbands and had children by two. She outlived her husbands, and, in 1884 or 1885, died in Minnesota.

THE UNITED RELIGIOUS CHRISTIAN SO- (IETY .- In the year 1800 one Abner Jones, of Vermont, seceded from the Free-Will Baptists and began preaching through Vermont and New Hampshire a doctrine of his own, and gathered together many believers in the new doctrine. They denominated themselves Chris- tians. Edward B. Rollins, a convert of Jones', came to Walpole in October, 1817, and began holding meetings in private houses, barns and cider-mills. He was a powerful, persuasive preacher, and soon gathered a church in the " Hollow," which was formed in the December following. Jacob B. Burnham was a convert of Rollins, who supplanted him (Rollins) in 1823, through some disagreement. The church was sundered, one portion adhering to Rollins, the other to Burnham. The Rollins party built a church at the foot of March Hill, which was ephemeral, and the Burnham party, in 1826, built the church now standing in the " Hol- low." Burnham continued to preach and bap- tize till 1845 or 1850.

During Mr. Burnham's pastorate he gathered around him as large a number of communi- cants as any society in town had, and the church was filled every Sunday for a number of years. One word from Parson Dickinson's mouth did more to the building up of this society than all the influence of preaching, and that word was

" defiled." Mr. Levi Allen, an admirer of Mr. Rollins, one day asked permission of Mr. Dickinson for Mr. Rollins to occupy his desk some day, that Mr. Diekinson's hearers might hear him preach. His reply was, "I should be very happy to please you, Mr. Allen ; but I cannot have my sanctuary defiled by such a man as Mr. Rollins."

The men that followed Mr. Burnham, as preachers there, were Abiah Kidder, Jona- than Farnam, C. W. Martin, W. H. Ire- land, Jared L. Green, Seth Hinkley, David B. Murray, N. S. Chadwick, J. W. Woodward and Clark W. Simonds.

The present pastor, H. M. Eaton, has done more missionary work in that vicinity than all others put together, although an old man.

WALPOLE TOWN CONGREGATIONAL SO- CIETY.1-After the disruption of the old town church, in 1826, and when the religious caldron was boiling and seething hot, the Unitarians, under the guise of the old society's name, hired one Thayer, a kind of hybrid preacher, but those of the sterner faith kept aloof.

This state of things continued till February 3, 1830, when a full-fledged Unitarian was or- dained. His stay was short, for it is found that, on May 23, 1833, Orestes A. Bronson was installed, who resigned in March, 1834.

Horatio Wood was installed September 24, 1834, and resigned June 22, 1838. This was a period of prosperity for the Unitarians. The élite of the town all attended church, if for nothing more, to hear the good music, which was better then than it has been since that time.

William Silsbee was ordained July 1, 1840, and resigned September 3, 1842. This year the present Unitarian Church was built, and Mr. Abiel Chandler presented the tablets.

Martin W. Willis was ordained December 6, 1843, and resigned May 1, 1848. He was the first settled minister after the completion of the new house.

1 This is a misnomer. It should be " Unitarian."

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

William P. Tilden was installed September 27, 1848, and resigned January 1, 1855. Mr. Tilden was esteemed not only by his society, but by all the citizens in town, as the dissem- inator of good morals and the promoter of the best interests of the town.

Mr. Lathrop was installed November 6, 1856, and preached one year, when a Mr. Ran- ney supplied the year following. Charles Rit- ter, an cecentrie man, was installed November 3, 1858, and left after preaching a little more than one year, when Mr. C. T. Canfield sup- plied the desk, from January, 1860, to the fol- lowing June, after which Thomas Daws was installed, December 15, 1861, and resigned January 1, 1865.

The same year Nathaniel Seaver, Jr., was ordained, November 23d, and resigned May 23, 1868. Russell N. Bellows supplied from October 18th, the same year, till October 1, 1869; and on the 10th of June following George Dexter was settled, who continued till May 3, 1873. The next minister was William Brown, who was installed in August, 1873, and resigned in August, 1883. The present incum- bent is Rev. John Williams, who was settled April 1, 1884.

THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHI AND SOCIETY IN WALPOLE (ORTHODOX) .- There were a number of persons in town who could not see their way with clearness through Unitarian spectacles, and they resolved to have a place of their own wherein to worship. Ac- cordingly, six of those people-all but one as poor as church mice-formed themselves into a church and society, and immediately, through their own feeble efforts and those of the Rev. Z. S. Barstow, of Keene, with the sister churches, procured funds sufficient to build the present church edifice, which was completed in 1833. It has since been raised one story and remodeled. Edwin Jennison, a grandson of Captain John, one of the first settlers, was the first to occupy its pulpit. He preached there till March, 1835, when, by reason of impaired

health, he relinquished his charge to one B. B. Beekwith, who preached to the society less than ten months.

For what reason he left his charge so soon is not known to the writer ; but the story current at the time was that the charges brought against him by the church were that " he wore a fashionable beaver, a frock coat and rode a horse through the streets on a galloping gait."

Abraham Jackson, who resembled the like- nesses of Old Hickory, was settled January 10, 1837, and dismissed June 5, 1845. August 6th, same year, Ezekiel H. Barstow was or- dained, and continued to be the pastor till De- cember 30, 1851, and Alfred Goldsmith was installed the same day, who continued with the society till March 7, 1853, when he was dis- missed and the society was without a settled minister till January 31, 1855. At the last- mentioned date John M. Stowe, of Hub- bardston, Mass., was settled and remained with his people till February 4, 1862, when he returned to his native home, soon to die from injuries received by a load of wood on a sled passing over him. Mr. Stowe was a man that had few enemies, and, like Mr. Tilden, of the Unitarian Church, was ever ready to lend his influence for the promotion of good in society. The society was without a settled minister till August 31, 1865, when Rev. Gabriel II. De Bevvice was settled, who remained till August 6, 1868. June 2, 1870, Rev. William E. Dickinson was settled, and dismissed March 31, 1875. Thomas S. Robie occupied the desk one year, from September, 1875. September 20, 1877, Frederick Lyman Allen was ordained and remained with the society till June, 1884. From September, the same year, till now (1885) W. H. Teel has supplied the desk.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH .- In the summer of 1842, Increase S. Guild secured the appointment of John P. Prouty for Walpole station. During the next few years several preachers came and went, till 1845, when a

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chapel was built, now standing on Washington Square. Services were held there until 1860. During this period the ministers that officiated, twelve in number, lived on starvation diet, for the society was very poor, and depended largely on outside benevolence. The society fell to pieces in 1860, and the worshippers divided ; one part joined the Orthodox and the others trusted themselves to the tender mercies of the Unitarians.

EPISCOPAL SOCIETY .- This society at Drews- ville was incorporated in 1816, under the name of the First Protestant Episcopal Society of Walpole. The first rector's name was Luman Foote. In 1836 the present stone chapel was built, and at the time of its consecration the original name was changed to St. Peter's Church. The Rev. E. A. Renouf is now its rector.

BAPTISTS .- In 1837 Samuel Nichols, a mer- chant of Drewsville, built a small chapel at that place for the use of a Baptist society formed there, but the society was short-lived, and now there are no Baptists in town.

The Roman Catholics have a church at North Walpole, but it is not old enough to have a his- tory.

MEN OF NOTE.

Following are a few brief notices of men who have, by accident or otherwise, risen from the general level of their townsmen, and made themselves conspicuous members of society, and also of their descendants, whose influence has been felt in other places. For convenience, their names are arranged alphabetically.

AMASA ALLEN came to this town in 1776 from Pomfret, Conn., a poor young man twenty- six years old, and commenced business as a merchant. He continued in the business some thirty years, and died at the age of seventy, leav- ing $75,000. He was very popular with the townspeople, and they elected him to represent them in the Provincial Legislature, at Exeter, seven times, and was State Senator in 1802-3. He was general of the State militia, and held numerous minor town offices. He gave the old

church the organ, afterwards used by the Uni- tarian Society, and was present at the casting of our old town-bell (now intact) and dropped in the silver composing a portion of its metal. When he died his funeral was largely attended. Although married twice, he left no children. He lived in the house now owned by Mrs. Philip Peck, which he built.

AARON ALLEN was from Mansfield, Conn., and was an early settler. He was a farmer and owned a very large area of land in the south part of the town. He represented the town at Exeter in 1788-89. He held numerous town offices, his name occurring most frequently in the town records. His oldest son, Levi, was also popular with the people, and was so much engaged with town business, settling estates, etc., that he neglected his more paying business and became poor, when his pride forced him to move from town.

OTIS BARDWELL was born in Deerfield, Mass., October 17, 1792, and died March 27, 1871. He began life as a stage-driver ; but being a man that took good care of his earnings, he soon ac- cumulated money to own a team, when he formed a copartnership with George Hunt- ington. The firm soon owned all the mail-lines in the vicinity, at a time when their bids were the only ones for carrying the mails. The firm soon became well off. In 1849, when the Chesh- ire Railroad was completed, staging came to a stand-still. He then purchased a plot of land in Rutland, Vt., and built the well-known " Bardwell House." During the latter part of his life, owing to his financial standing in town, he was honored with financial trusts. When a stage-driver, in the month of January, 1819, in coming over Carpenter's Hill, he plucked blos- soms from an apple-tree and gave them to the lady passengers.

BENJAMIN BELLOWS was born May 26, 1712, and died July 10, 1777. He came to Walpole from Lunenburg, Mass., when he was forty years old and founded the town (1752), and for twenty-five years thereafter he was the

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

common centre, around which all the satellites moved. During these years he held two or three town offices each year.

A general notice of his life in town may be found in the earlier pages of this sketch.

BENJAMIN BELLOWS, JR., was the second son of the founder. He seems to have had a greater controlling influence over the townspeople than any man who ever lived in town ; he was the Bellows among the Bellows'. His judgment was good and his word law among the towns- people. At his bare-headed nod the rough boys took their seats in the old church, and catch- penny showmen he drove from town on his own responsibility. He was town clerk thirty-two years, and held various other town offices. He was State Senator from his district, and also Councillor ; was chosen a member of the Con- stitutional Congress in 1781, but declined sery- ing. He was a member of the Convention that ratified the Federal Constitution of February, 1788. He was president of the Electoral College in this State in 1789, and again elected in 1797. In the State militia he rose from corporal to the command of a brigade, and was colonel of a regiment during the Revolutionary struggle. He is described as being six feet in stature and of dark complexion, courteous in manners, but firm in purpose, persuasive in language and ever kind to his neighbors. His education was mostly gained by observation, as the Bellows family were never considered book-worms. The saying formerly current was that, " If you shut up a Bellows in a room with books, if there is no other way of escape, they will go through the window." Seated in an easy chair in the chimney-corner of his own house, 1 neatly dressed in Continental garb, he rounded his pe- riod with his brother John, in discussing the gossipof the day over aclay pipe. Hedied June 4, 1802, aged sixty-two. Some mention has been made of his brother John and his son Caleb in the foregoing pages, both of whom were

active, influential men. John Bellows had one son, Josiah (2d), who had some influence in town in his way. He is remembered by the old citizens as being a smooth, fluent talker, and story-teller. On this account he obtained the sobriquet of "Slick Si." If anything was wanting in his stories, his conscience never troubled him in supplying the deficiency.

THOMAS BELLOWS, familiarly known as the "'Squire," to whom the old colonel bequeathed his homestead, was an entirely different man in character from either of his half-brothers, Ben- jamin or John, in that he had little or no am- bition, only to be considered an honest man, which feeling in some instances he carried so far as to do injustice to himself. He was born 1762, the same year his father built his new house, now standing and occupied by his son Thomas. His name appears frequently in the town records as a town officer, and he was the first man to represent the town in the General Court after the adoption of the State Constitu- tion, in 1792.

Early in 1794 he was appointed councillor for five years, and in 1799 sheriff for the county of Cheshire, an office which he held more than thirty years, and during this period he was haunted with the morbid idea that he might be called upon to hang somebody. He had an ample fortune left him, which he kept intact, but did not add much to it during life. He manifested much interest in the welfare of his neighbors and townsmen, and had a strong penchant for not only knowing their business, but the business of all others. At times this matter was carried so far as to call forth ungen- erous rebuffs, which sorely grieved him. He was fond of conversation, but had an impedi- ment in his speech, which made it appear quaint and laughable to strangers. He was tall and gaunt, with a heavy face, and wore modest eloth- ing, which never could be made to fit. His memory was remarkable ; he could remember everything he ever saw, even to the first rat. In religion, he was a Unitarian. He lived a

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History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 71

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