History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 73

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 73
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 73

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Other persons have lived in town, who per- haps are just as deserving as the foregoing ; but want of space forbids an account of them. Among them are the Biscos, Bonds, Barnetts, Bradleys, Stephen Rowe (who lived in town from 1818 to 1830), Burts, Campbells, Carpen- ters, Crehores, Dunshees, Eatons, Evanses, Fos- ters, Fishers, Fays, Fields, Griswolds, Gold- smith (Josiah), Jennisons, Johnson (Dr.), Kid- ders, Lymans, Lanes, Martins, Maynards, Mel- ishes, Putnams, Russells, Seavers, Steamses, Starkweathers, Townsleys, Tudor (Henry S.), Wightmans, Weirs, etc.

WALPOLE TO-DAY (1885) .-- The town of Walpole is situated in the northeast corner of Cheshire County, N. H., and is about nine miles long and four broad, with an area of 24,- 331 square acres of land, about eighty per cent. of which is under improvements, and more than

one-half of the improved land is arable and of the best quality. Its population in 1880 was 2018 inhabitants, and would have been many less in number had it not been for the rapid influx of people of Irish descent, within a few years, in- to North Walpole, where now is a hamlet of more than five hundred people. The pursuits of the people are principally agricultural, there being but little water power in town. The in- voice of the town, taken April 1, 1884, for the purpose of taxation, was $1,431,244, including 598 polls, which is about the number of legal voters. The town has fourteen school dis- tricts, fifteen school-houses and eighteen schools, one of which is a High School, and the expendi- ture for school purposes, yearly, is about forty- five hundred dollars. The number of scholars is four hundred and sixty-one, and the average length of schools is twenty-nine weeks. There are five churches, to wit : Orthodox, Unitarian, Episcopal, Christian and Roman Catholic, all of which have men of ability for pastors.

The traveling public can find lodging at four public-houses, buy goods at five stores and get their mail at two post-offices. There are two lawyers, five doctors, one brewery, doing a large business, and two summer boarding-houses, which are well filled during the hot season. There are several shops of minor importance that are very convenient for the people, which are found in every country town. Two livery-stables furnish fine teams for the fine drives about town, and for other purposes, at reasonable rates.

The soils of the town on the river and table- lands east are fluviatile, while back on the hills they are more tenacious, being a heavy loam, with sometimes an admixture of clay ; most of the soils are arable and well suited to all kinds of farm crops in this region. Fruit-trees of all kinds produce well but the peach, which does not do well here now, but apple and pear-trees yield an abundant harvest.

Much of the town is superimposed upon micaceous and argillaceous slate. The rocks

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composing Fall Mountain are gneiss, sienite and mica slate, merging, in some places, into fibrolite, a very hard formation, which is almost inde- structible. A vein of serpentine has been found in the south part of the town and a bed of graphite also, but the per cent. of iron is so great in it that it is unfit for commercial pur-

poses. Peroxide of iron is found in the north part of the town in considerable quantities. At- tempts were made at one time to utilize it, but proved futile. There is a fountain of chalyb- eate waters about two and one-half miles north of the village, called "Abarakee Springs," the name being derived from an Indian tribe that once, in bygone days, used to bathe in its waters for cutaneous diseases. There are a few angular and water-worn boulders scattered about town but, only one of magnitude. The town can boast of a free library of well-selected books, numbering three thousand volumes, which annually receives additions and is well patronized. It also has a savings bank, a tem- perance lodge, which is doing much good, and a lodge of Free-Masons, which was established June 13, 1827, called " Columbian Lodge, No. 53." The charter members were Christopher Lincoln, Wm. G. Field and Jesseniah Kittredge. The charter was surrendered to the Grand Lodge during the Morgan troubles and held by it till 1861, when it was applied for and ob- tained by Dr. Jesseniah Kittredge, Wm. Mitch- ell, Jacob B. Burnham, Dr. Hiram Wotkyns and sixteen others. Dr. Kittredge was elected Master of the new lodge and was re-elected several times. The second Master was George Rust; third, Joshua B. Clark ; fourth, Samuel W. Bradford; fifth, Abel P. Richardson ; sixth, Geo. G. Barnett ; seventh, Curtis R. Crowel ; eighth, Geo. G. Barnett; ninth, Abel P. Richardson ; tenth, Geo. B. Holland ; eleventh, Andrew A. Graves; twelfth, Rosalvo A. Howard.

A Thief-Detecting Society was established here in 1816, and is in a flourishing condition now. The village has an efficient Fire Depart- ment, and the young men of the town have

formed a brass band. Geo. B. Williams has a fine stock farm, with a large herd of Jersey cat- tle, which it will richly pay the curious to visit.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

JOSIAH G. GRAVES, M.D.

Among the most honored names of medical men in New Hampshire during the last half- century is that of Josiah G. Graves. No his- tory of the State would be complete that did not give a sketch of one for so long a period identified as one of its representative physicians, and who, to-day, retired from practice, retains the vigor of middle life, the power of accurate thought and just and quick conclusion, the firmness of an honest and truthful nature and the suavity and courtesy of the gentleman of the "old school."

Josiah Griswold Graves, M.D., was born July 13, 1811, in Walpole, N. H., one of the loveliest villages of the beautiful Connecticut Valley. His father was a well-to-do farmer, and his mother a woman of superior mind and excellent judgment, who looked well to the ways of her. household, as did the notable women of that period. Ralph Waldo Emer- son affirmed that man is what the mother makes him. Much of truth as there undoubtedly is in that assertion, it does not tell the whole truth. Past generations, as well as the beloved mother, have contributed to the buikling of the man. Physical peculiarities, physical aptitudes and mental tendencies have been transmitted by the ancestors, and in the case of this mother and son, who shall say that the mother's nature, intensified by the inheritance of powers from progenitors strong physically and mentally, did not so influence the son as to make his successful career certain from the start, forcing him from the uncongenial vocation of a tiller of the soil

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into a mission of healing during a long range of years.

From an able article in "Successful New Hampshire Men " we extract as follows : "Not having a fancy for farming, and thus acting contrary to the wishes of his father, he left home at the age of eighteen, with his mother's blessing and one dollar in money, determined upon securing an education and fitting himself for the medical profession. He defrayed the expenses of his education by his own individual efforts and native will and industry, by teaching both day and evening, and was remarkably suc- cessful in his labors. Being a natural penman, he also gave instruction in the art of penman- ship."

He commenced the study of his profession in 1829. He was a student in medicine in the office of Drs. Adams and Twitchell, of Keene, and subsequently attended medical lectures at Pittsfield, Mass., and graduated at the Medical Department of Williams College in 1834. Af- terwards he spent six months in the office of Drs. Huntington and Graves in Lowell.

Dr. Graves commenced the practice of medi- eine in Nashua, N. H., September 15, 1834. At this time Nashua was a comparatively young town. It was but a brief period, however, be- fore the energy, determination and superior medical and surgical skill of the young physi- cian carved out for him an extensive practice. For forty years he followed his profession in Nashua and the adjoining region with untiring assiduity and with a success that has but few parallels. He loved his profession and gave to it his best powers. He was gifted in a remark- able degree with a keen insight into the nature of disease, and, of course, his success was in proportion to his fitness for his calling. He did not need to be told symptoms ; he knew by in- tuition where the break in the constitution was and how to rebuild and give new life. He was made for his profession, and not his profession for him, which is too often the case. After several years' practice, desirous of further im-

provement, he took a degree at Jefferson Col- lege, Philadelphia. At the time of the Rebellion the Governor and Council of New Hampshire appointed him a member of the Medical Board of Examiners.

Dr. Graves retired from active practice in 1871. He has been for many years a valued member of the New Hampshire State Medical Association. In 1852 he delivered an address before that body on a subject which was of the greatest moment, and at that time occupied the attention of the leading members of the medical profession in all manufacturing centres. This address was on "The Factory System and its Influence on the Health of the Operatives." It was bold, incisive and fearless, and won high praise for the careful investigation which it showed, its exhaustive treatment and its con- vincing logic. He took the ground (in opposi- tion to Dr. Bartlett, who stated that the death- rate of Lowell was less than the surrounding towns), that the young people went to the mills, and the old people stayed on the farms, and after a few years, when mill-life had broken their constitutions, the operatives returned to their birth-places and did not die in Lowell. Much care was taken in the preparation of the ad- dress. Factory after factory was visited, and hundreds of operatives consulted. The conclu- sions reached by Dr. Graves were accepted as correct.

He has had a most remarkable practice in obstetrics, and has a complete record of five thousand cases. We give as an illustration of Dr. Graves' wonderful accuracy and system one fact well worthy the attention of all physicians. From his first day's practice he, every night, posted his books for that day's business and now has the entire set bound in fine morocco, with all entries in his own clear writing and without a blot to mar the symmetry of the page. Every business transaction has been in- serted in his "diary," which is equal in accuracy to that famous one of John Quincy Adams, and many an old soldier has had occasion to thank

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Dr. Graves for the facts derived from these books, by which he has secured his bounty, back pay or pension.

Dr. Graves has been much interested in rail- roads, east and west ; has been a dircetor in the Nashua and Lowell Railroad and other roads He is a director in the Faneuil Hall Insurance Company and in the Metropolitan Steamship Line, and is also connected with many other financial interests of a comprehensive character. He has a business office in Boston, and manages his large estate with as much foresight and sagacity as many younger men. He has always manifested a deep interest in the application of science to business purposes, believed firmly in the financial success of the electric light where many shrewd men considered it an impractica- ble scheme, and was one of the earlier investors in its stock. His faith has been munificently repaid, and he is now a large holder of the most valuable stock in this field.

From the first, Dr. Graves has been in warm sympathy with the principles of the Democratic party as enunciated by Thomas Jefferson, An- drew Jackson and other leaders, and has fear- lessly, at all times and under all circumstances, championed what he believed to be for the " greatest good to the greatest number," con- ceding with a broad liberality the same rights to every other citizen which he exercises him- self. He has received the thirty-second degree of Masonry, and is a Unitarian in religion. He believes " in a Christian observance of the Sab- bath ; that Sabbath-schools should be supported, I and friends may reflect with just pride."

for on them rests the moral safety of the coun- try ; that the 'Golden Rule' should be the guide for all our actions.' "

The family relations of Dr. Graves have been most felicitous. He married Mary Webster, daughter of Colonel William Boardman, of Nashua, in 1846. She was descended from two of the ablest New England families,-Webster and Boardman,-and was a most estimable and Christian lady. For many years she was a de- voted member of the Unitarian Church and an earnest worker in all good causes. Kind and sympathetic, courteous to all, with a quiet dig- nity and purity of demeanor, she was a cher- ished member of society and an exemplar of the highest type of Christian womanhood. She died December 26, 1883.

" As a man, Dr. Graves is distinguished for his firmness. His opinions he maintains with resoluteness until good reasons induce him to change them. He means yes when he says 'yes,' and no when he says 'no.' He is a man of pos- itive character. It is needless to say that, while such a manalways has enemies (as what man of ability and energetic character has not ?), he has firm and lasting friends,-friends from the fact that they always know where to find him. Among the many self-made men whom New Hampshire has produced, he takes rank among the first, and by his indomitable energy, indns- try and enterprise has not only made his mark in the world, but has achieved a reputation in his profession and business on which himself

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND.

BY WILLARD BILL, JR.

CHAPTER I.

BOUNDARIES, GEOLOGY, FLORA, ETC.

THE township of Westmoreland constitutes one of the four towns that border upon the Connecticut River within Cheshire County. It is bounded on the north for 1460 rods by Wal- pole; on the east for 800 rods on Surry and 960 rods on Keene ; on the south for 390 rods on Keene and 2524 rods on Chesterfield, and upon the western low-water mark of the Connecticut River on the west. Its longitude is 72° 27' west from Greenwich and latitude 42° 48' north. It is of irregular outline, owing in part to the serpentine course of its river bound- ary. By the terms of the Wentworth grant, the township was to contain 23,040 acres or equivalent to six miles square ; 1040 acres extra was allowed for highways and unimprovable lands. In 1769 a portion of this area-1654 acres, known as the " Westmoreland Leg," ex- tending to the Ashuelot River -- was taken by legislative enactment, with a portion of Gilsum, and constituted into the township of Surry. Its surface is hilly, but it has a considerable amount of intervale land. For the most part, the soil is produetive and the town deservedly ranks high for agricultural purposes. It has no elevation of land particularly prominent above the others, and all bear a similitude of general outline.

GEOLOGY .- Westmoreland presents to the · geological student a field of much interest. Traces of a glacier are seen upon the striated rocks in different sections of the town, as it

flowed, a mighty river of ice at least one thon- sand feet in depth from the iey throes of the north toward Long Island Sound, moving with the velocity of no more than twenty-five feet yearly, leaving in its wake vast deposits of earth, or " till," in the form of smooth, sym- metrieal, rounded hills. Round Hill, near the house of Mrs. G. W. Daggett, the Paine Pasture Hill, the hill north of the East Depot, are good illustrations. These are ealled lenticular hills. Southeast of the North Depot is an eruptive granitie hill.

The valley of the Connecticut is of modi- fied drift formation, terraced by the action of the river. The higher terraces, like the site of F. G. Parker's house, are some four hundred feet above the level of the ocean, while the lower terraces, like the county farm, are some two hun- dred and fifty feet.

Transported boulders are occasionally found. Some of these are visitors from Ascutney's stony bosom.

Dunes formed of Champlain sands are found in four different localities. The most promi- nent of these is located nearly opposite the dwelling-house of Mrs. C. F. Brooks. In the southwest part of the town, on land of the J. L. Veasy estate, are to be seen a series of in- verted conical depressions that are suggestive of vent-holes to the earth's interior gases at an early age. At some former period the valley of the Connectieut must have been covered with a large body of water extending from the Wan- tastiquet barrier upon the south to Mount Kil-

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burn upon the north. Then Partridge Brook discharged its waters into the lake before reach- ing the county farm meadow, and flowed over a rocky bed now plainly to be seen on the north side of highway, just west of the intersection of roads near the C. Q. A. Britton bridge. Near the house of G. J. Bennett is to be seen the suggestive journey of a huge boulder as it traveled unresistingly down the steep hill-side. The Harvey Pond is the only sheet of water in the town that can be called a natural pond, and this is of inferior extent. Of the many brooks flowing through the town, the Partridge Brook is by far the most important, being the outlet of Spofford Lake ; it enjoys the benefit of a large reservoir for its source, and having a descent of five hundred feet ere it reaches the Connecticut River, distant about six miles, it furnishes numerous water-powers. It is not known how it derived its name -- a name given it previous to 1752.

The Mill Brook rises in Walpole, flows through the East Parish and empties into the Connecticut River. It is a wild stream, but furnishes water-power to a limited extent, and was the first to be harnessed to the uses of man. Other streams of lesser size abound in different sections of the town.

The rocks of Westmoreland belong princi- pally to the Coos Group, and consist of quart- zite, gneiss, mica slate, mica schist, hornblende rock and conglomerate. Granite is found in the east part, while quartz is often seen. In the southwest part is a vein of molybdena. There, in 1830, Samuel Lincoln expended con- siderable money in driving a horizontal shaft into the ridge of rock, with the view of strik- ing a richer vein than the outerop; his labor proved to be unremunerative, but for years it has been a favorite resort for specimen-seekers. At the Curtis mine, in the south part of the town, have been found beautiful specimens of fluor- spar.

FLORA .- The flora of Westmoreland does not differ essentially from that of neighboring

towns. It was formerly covered by heavy forests of pine, hemlock and the hard woods. The pine growing in the valley was in especial favor with His Majesty, and reserved by him in his grants. Nor does the fauna differ. In early times wolves were common, and some- times troublesome, while bears, panthers, lynxes and deer were by no means rare; but these are now of the " things past." Until within recent years some of our brooks bore evidence of the curious handiwork of the beaver, whose dams survive their architects many years. No veno- mous reptiles have been known. In early years the shad and salmon abounded in the river and furnished an abundance of excellent food. But that was long ago. To-day the smiling face of a successful fisherman is, like angel visits, few and far between.

CHAPTER II.

WESTMORELAND-(Continued). EARLY HISTORY.

To the enterprise and energy of Massachu- setts do we owe alike the first settlement and the first incorporation of Westmoreland under the name of No. 2. The settlement of New England, commencing with the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620 upon Plymouth's icy shore, at first concentrated around Massachusetts Bay, from whence it wended its way backward and upward along the arterial rivers, which fur- nished the readiest communication with the older towns, and far the safest. But in those days settlement proceeded painfully slow, and utterly unlike the experiences of to-day in our Western States. Sixteen years after the coming of the Pilgrims, Springfield, Mass., was settled, in 1636. In 1654 it reached Northampton, and in 1670 Deerfield. Three years more and it had reached Northfield. Here it halted in its progress up the river for fifty-one years, until 1724, when Fort Dummer was built, a short distance north of the line that separates Vernon

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from Brattleborough. About seventeen years more pass away, and a settlement was com- menced, in 1741, in the present township of Westmoreland. Thus we see that more than a century elapsed before a settlement reached West- moreland from Springfield, Mass. Let us sur- vey briefly the circumstances and enumerate some of the impediments in the way of more rapid strides of civilization upward along the most important water artery of New England, in the valley of the Connecticut.

The colonies at this period were weak in re- sources and could not furnish an adequate base of supplies to meet the natural necessities of its distant frontier, -a frontier constantly ex- panding, and particularly exposed to the merci- less hostility of the Indians, whose thirst for blood was kept constantly inflamed by the in- trigues of the French, who had pushed their settlements along the St. Lawrence. During these times France and England were frequently engaged in warfare. There existed between them a deep-rooted national hatred. This feel, ing was brought to America by the emigrants from each country. Both nations pushed their settlements in America to their utmost capacity. They found the country inhabited by the red men. To them the French exercised a wise spirit of conciliation, and easily moulded them into serviceable allies. The English, unfortunately, pursued a contrary course, and made of them implacable foes. The English sought to push their settlements from the south up the valley ; the French from the north, with their Indian allies, sought to beat them back, and thus the valley became a scene of imminent danger, both of life and property. Thus was settlement retarded ; at times driven back, now pushed forward, and, like a nicely-balanced beam, os- cillated to and fro, but slowly, yet surely, mov- ing up the valley.

To the Massachusetts Legislature came the problem of how best to protect their frontier from these depredations. It was a problem of difficult solution. It was successfully accom-

plished, and in a way that furnished the best possible protection to an exposed, well-nigh de- fenseless frontier, and at the same time led the way to extending settlement farther back.

At this time the settlements along the valley of the Connecticut constituted the extreme frontier. Westward to the Hudson no settle- ment broke the wilderness of unbroken forest. It was a long distance to the eastward through the primeval forests to the older towns upon and near to the Bay. Trails, marked by blazed trees, furnished the only communication thereto. Nor can we conceive of a greater contrast than the circumstances of living then and at the pre- sent day. Then the settler must keep constant watch both by day and by night. He lived, moved and labored under a cloud of constant peril. He needs must keep his fire-arms within easy reach of his daily toil. Even there, with the fullest precaution, he fell the prey to some Indian am- bush, his family massacred or, worse, led into captivity and his home destroyed. Along the frontier it was an absolute necessity to construct and maintain garrisons, or forts, and support a body of soldiers, whose duty was to scour the woods in quest of lurking savages, and to repel attack. This necessity led to the first incorpo- ration of the town, and, in after-years, settle- ments followed. As carly as December 12, 1727, the Massachusetts Legislature considered the project of establishing a tier of townships to the north, as outposts against the raids of the Indians. No action, however, was taken, until June following, when it was voted to lay out these townships, to build a series of forts and to provide for each a small garrison of troops and a cannon. A committee was chosen to make the necessary survey. They were directed to lay out these towns eight miles north and five miles south of a straight line running from the northeast corner of Northfield to Dunstable (now known as Nashua), and thence up the Mer- rimack River to Rumford (now Concord). This committee was directed to act within reasonable time. Owing, no doubt, to the difficulty of the

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

work, they were unable to report until January 15, 1736. With their report they presented a recommendation " that, for further defense and protection, a line of towns be laid out from Rumford to Great Falls (now known as Bel- low's Falls), and from thence on the east side of the river to Arlington (now Winchester)." This recommendation was accepted by the Legisla- ture. A committee was chosen to make the necessary survey, who reported November 30, 1736. This report was accepted, and the town- ship of No. 2 was thereupon chartered.

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History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 73

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