USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Chester > History of Chester, New Hampshire, including Auburn : a supplement to the History of old Chester, published in 1869 > Part 48
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Auburn > History of Chester, New Hampshire, including Auburn : a supplement to the History of old Chester, published in 1869 > Part 48
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built in 1761 by Colonel John Webster. It has been owned by quite a number of people. Abel G. Quigg kept a tavern here, also David L. Batchelder, father of Mrs. Arthur H. Wilcomb. Later Henry Thayer owned it, then George Dolber. At the present time this is the only hotel in town.
For the past thirty or forty years the town has been noted as be- ing a fine summer resort and there are many popular boarding houses, but none kept as those taverns of former years, when the steady travel of the time demanded that suitable places for rest and refreshments be provided for man and beast.
CHAPTER XX.
HISTORIC SPOTS AND HOUSES.
On the Manchester Road.
First house in Chester near Auburn line, two miles from Chester Square, was built by Jonathan Hall in 1741. He and his wife, Mehitable Kimball, came to Chester on one horse, she carrying in her hand a sapling pear tree, known for 140 years as the "Hall Pear." The Fitz house on Chester Street, one and one-half miles away, was the nearest house. Present house, which is included in the original one, is now owned and occupied by James McCannon, whose wife was a lineal descendant of the original settler.
One-half mile beyond is the Town Pound, a stone inclosure for straying cattle, built in 1804.
One-eighth mile nearer the town, on the left, is the "Jacob Chase place," house built in 1751. He married Prudence Hills and their son, Stephen, was a prominent man in town from 1788 to 1818. Present house includes the original. A stone "horse block" is a relic of "ye olden time." Present owner, William Butterfield.
The brick school house was built in 1835.
On Chester Street
"Elliot Tavern." Edmund Elliot settled here in 1747. In 1807, a son, Jacob Elliot, bought the present house, which was used as a tavern. Now owned by George E. Gillingham.
"Brown-Richardson House." (See following extended sketch.)
"Dexter House." Bullt by Tappan Webster in 1787. Purchased by Lord Timothy Dexter in 1796. Later owned by Ephraim Orcutt and used as a tavern. Purchased by Amos Tuck French, the present owner, in 1902.
Site of "Daniel French House," built in 1800. Birthplace of eleven children, among whom were Benjamin Brown French, grand-father of Amos Tuck French; Henry Flagg French, father of Daniel Chester French, and Mrs. Helen French Cochrane, known through her many years as a writer of prose and poetry. House was destroyed by fire in 1902.
"Noyes House." Built by Rev. Nathan Bradstreet in 1796. Owned for a short time by Samuel D. Bell. Bought by John W. Noyes in 1833. Still owned in the family.
"Aiken House." Built by Amos Kent in 1799. One of his daughters was "Lady of the White House" during President Franklin Pierce's administration. Purchased by Samuel Aiken, a teacher, mili-
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HISTORY OF CHESTER
tary officer and magistrate, and later sold to Lucien Kent. Now owned and occupied by Farish Lewis.
First Congregational Parsonage. The land and a house deeded to Rev. Ebenezer Flagg in 1736. He built a new house, which is still standing as the L of the present house. Main house built by Gov. John Bell in 1806; occupied by his widow until 1862. Remodeled by Dr. Arthur L. Emerson in 1900.
"Chester Inn." Built by Col. John Webster in 1761. Purchased by Dr. Benjamin iKttridge in 1807. Occupied by him until his death in 1830. For many years it has been used as a tavern. Now owned and occupied by Mrs. Sarah Dolber. Has been known as Quigg's and Batchelder's Tavern; also kept in the fifties by John S. Brown and Lucien Kent. The first post office was located in this tavern in 1793.
Near "Chester Square."
The first Congregational Church was a simple structure on the present lot, and Rev. Moses Hale of Newbury, Mass., was the first pastor, in October, 1728. After five years, he was succeeded by Rev. Ebenezer Flagg, who was pastor for sixty years. It was rebuilt in 1773 and remodeled in 1839.
On the right-hand side, just below the monument, is a Colonial house built in 1776, known as "Townsend House," lately given to the town.
Just below the "Monument Square" is the "Bell Tavern," built in 1795, now occupied by William E. Jones.
Opposite the Bell Tavern is the house now used as the "Congre- gational Parsonage" for sixty years.
Next to the former Parsonage was formerly the home of Judge Kelley, third Assistant Postmaster-General, under President Mckinley.
"Facing "Wilcomb Square" is what was one of the early build- ings, known as the "Glidden Tavern," built in 1749. This place. like all the taverns, was located on the main thoroughfare between Boston and Concord.
On the Haverhill Road
On the other side of the main road, known as the "Haverhill Road," is a house erected in 1739, and across the street were the tan pits of William B. Paine and the birthplace of his son, William H. Paine, a noted civil engineer who designed and built the "cable" system street railways of San Francisco, Calif., and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Farther along on this road will be seen the site of the First Baptist Church, built in 1819, and the Parsonage across the street, built in 1828.
On the Haverhill road, one mile from town, Capt. John Emerson, a Revolutionary soldier, son of Samuel Emerson, first settler of the name, erected in 1798 a three-story house of twenty-one rooms. His daughter, Clarissa, was one of the earliest missionaries to Ceylon and married in succession three missionaries, Frost, Woodward and Todd. His son, John S., was a missionary to the Sandwich Islands and the youngest son, Nathaniel F., kept a boarding school here for boys and girls from 1830 to 1850, called the "Emerson School." Place now owned by Nathan W. Goldsmith.
This side of the Wilson brook, down Walnut Hill, is where stood the "Wilson Tavern," one of the oldest. Farther on will be found the road that leads to the first saw and grist-mill, which date back to the incorporation of the town.
Wells &. Underhill
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HISTORIC SPOTS AND HOUSES
Walnut Hill Road.
"Great Brook," one-fourth mile east of Walnut Hill Road. Upper, Middle and Lower Falls. First grist-mill and saw mills on its banks. "Pulpit Rock," a curious stone structure like a pulpit, near by.
The "William Hazelton Homestead" was built by Ephraim Hazel- ton about 1736. It is situated two and one-fourth miles east of Chester Square and was the birthplace of Hon. Gerry W. Hazelton and his brother, Hon. George C. Hazelton, both of whom were Congressmen from Wisconsin, lawyers of renown and gifted orators.
The present house of Clarence O. Morse was built in 1883. The previous dwelling was erected by Major John Tolford in 1724, and was used as a garrison, and later as a tavern.
On the crest of Walnut Hill, three miles from Chester Square, was located the first frame house, built by Capt. Samuel Ingalls, the first settler of the town, in 1732. He had a daughter, Mehitable, the first white child born in Chester in 1723. He was one of the most prom- inent citizens of the town for many years, holding various offices. It is supposed he came to Chester in 1720.
On the Derry Road
First house ,situated on Gov. Shute's Home Lot, was erected in 1762 by Wilkes West, who served in the Battle of Bennington and was with Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga. He was the father of Dr. West and was a cabinet maker. His shop stood where the Baptist Church now stands. Stone steps led to it until 1900.
The Colby House was the "Ebenezer Dearborn, Jr. Homestead" in 1729. The L part of the building is reputed to be the oldest stand- ing structure in town.
On the Derry Road, about one-half mile from Chester Square, is a large white house, which was owned by Dr. Benjamin Kittridge in 1807. It was built by Robert Graham in 1733, and for the past seventy years has been in the Davis family.
On the Derry Road the home of County Commissioner William B. Underhill, about three fourths of a mile south of Chester Square, was built in 1833 by Samuel Bell, who was Governor of New Hampshire 1819 to 1823, and United States Senator 1823 to 1835, dying 23d Dec., 1850.
"Hall Farm," one and one-half miles southeast of Chester Square. Built by James Shirley, Sr., 1730. Chester Poor farm 1822-1869. Further notice elsewhere.
The Presbyterian Church, built in 1739, was situated on "Cunning- ham Lane" and was 38 foot long, 33 foot wide and 20 foot post. The land was donated by Rev. John Wilson, part of which was used as a cemetery. The Parsonage was across the road from the church site.
The first traveled road was the Jack Road, from Walnut Hill through Hall's Village, 1738. Cunningham Lane turned off from the Jack Road and led out to the Derry Road. It was in those days known as Parsonage Lane.
Hall's Village
In Hall's Village, the "West Place," builder unknown, dates back to 1730. Dr. Henry West, a seventh son of a seventh son, made re- markable cures, and lived there many years. He was the son of Wilkes West.
On the Raymond Road
Below the Cemetery, the old Town Hall and Chester Academy which formerly stood on the "Square." Academy, established in 1801 nd sus-
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HISTORY OF CHESTER
pended in 1821 and revived in 1853. Seat of learning for over sixty years for many hundreds pupils, who were fitted for college or business life. Noted teachers were S. Milton Moore, Prof. John K. Lord, Dana D. Patten, Alice Brown, the author, and Jacob T. Choate.
"Lane House," two and one-half miles from Chester Street. Erected 1737. Originally two rooms, now twenty. Always in Lane family. Sixth generation now occupants.
Next house east, the "Stevens House" formerly a garrison, Indian relics dug up on premises. There is a story of a woman occupant left alone one day, who thrust a chair leg through a porthole and frightened off approaching Indians.
"Wason House," erected 1743. Indian camps and mounds on es- tate. Eighth generation of same family living there today.
"Knowles House," erected 1776 by Nathan Knowles, three and one-half miles from Chester Square. Occupied by sixth generation of man who built it.
"Hills Garrison," one and one-fourth miles from Chester Square. Built by Benjamin Hills, Ist. Six of same name have lived there since. The first one was the first Representative from Chester. Port- holes now covered.
"Wilson Garrison," one and one-fourth miles from Chester Square on Sandown Road. Built by William Wilson in 1730. Portholes visi- ble.
Gov. Benning Wentworth, who was chief magistrate of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1767, owned several large tracts of land in Chester. The house now owned by Edward West on the Fremont Road is said to be on the spot where the Governor Wentworth house stood. There were also three large barns on the opposite side of the road. While it is not known that he lived there, there is no doubt about his conducting this estate of some fifty acres on the Exeter River.
THE BROWN-RICHARDSON HOUSE
"The Brown-Richardson House." Built by William Hicks in 1788. A few years later bought and occupied by Benjamin Brown, father of Rev. Francis Brown, President of Dartmouth College, and also father of Mercy Brown, first wife of Daniel French.
October 5, 1798, Gov. Gilman reviewed the Seventeenth Regiment in Benjamin Brown's field back of the house.
September 15, 1799. Daniel French and Mercy Brown were married here.
On 22d February, 1800, in accordance with resolution of town meeting, held February 10th, a large concourse of people from Chester and adjoining towns met as requested at the house of Mr. Benjamin Brown to pay a tribute of respect to the virtues of the late deceased General George Washington. At half-past eleven a procession was formed and the inhabitants marched to the meeting house, the bell tolling, and the military escort moving with arms reversed. Rev. Mr. Bradstreet delivered a discourse, pertinent and well adapted to the occasion. The procession then returned to Benjamin Brown's house.
On September 4, 1800, Benjamin Brown French, only son of Daniel French and Mercy Brown, was born in the house next door on the west.
1815. The news of peace with England came to Chester, Febru- ary 14, 1815. The President appointed April 13th as a day of public thanksgiving. The day was celebrated at Chester. A procession was formed near Benjamin Brown's, escorted by the Chester Light In- fantry accompanied by martial music, and marched to the meeting
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HISTORIC SPOTS AND HOUSES
house, where Mr. Bradstreet delivered a discourse. The procession then marched back and had a supper, toasts, etc.
In 1819, Chief Justice Wm. Merchant Richardson purchased the house and farm of Benjamin Brown, and lived here until his death in this house, March 23, 1838.
On January II, 1825, Miss Elizabeth Richardson slipped out of this house and was secretly married to Benjamin Brown French under the big cherry tree, a hundred yards down the lane. The moon was shining and the snow lay deep upon the ground. She then returned demurely to the family circle in the Richardson House, and the secret was kept for six months.
On September 12, 1837, Francis Ormond French, eldest son of Benjamin Brown French and Elizabeth (Richardson) French, was born in this house.
On October 9, 1838, Henry Flagg French, half-brother of Benja- min Brown French, was married here to Miss Anne Richardson, young- er sister of Mrs. B. B. French.
In more recent years the house was owned and occupied by the late Woodbury Marsters, Esq., and a few years ago passed into the hands of the French family.
THE ALMSHOUSE
Among the old houses worthy of mention is that of James Shirley, Sr., who was granted additional lot No. 13 in the year 1730. He was a native of Ireland, but of Scotch origin, and came to America with a large family, only three of his sons, however, came to Chester with him. They were John, Capt. James and Thomas. Shortly after they took up the grant, they built a two and one-half story house of 12 rooms and a large barn. James Shirley, Sr., passed away in 1754 at the age of 105.
The property remained in the Shirley family until 1822, when the town purchased it for use as an Almshouse. The price paid for the farm including the stock, tools, furniture, etc., being $3,426.39. After this transaction the homestead of the Shirleys became a haven of refuge for the poor, the infirm and the mildly insane. Numerous pathetic, weird and humorous anecdotes are to the present time told of those poor unfortunates. The town made many repairs and added several rooms, making a total of eighteen and a sheep barn and carriage house were also added.
The paupers were cared for by overseers, who were engaged by the Selectmen for a term of one year. Many of them served for several terms and lived on the place with their families.
About 1869 "Town Settlements," as such places were called, were abolished and the "Poor Farm" was sold at auction and in time be- came the home of Samuel Morse, who for many years carried on ex- tensive farming and lumbering operations. One day Mr. Morse, re- pairing clapboards on the house, found beneath them a mute testimonial of the hazards braved by James Shirley and his three stalwart sons, in the form of an Indian tomahawk. Whether these sturdy men took Indian attacks as a matter of course, or whether the tomahawk came to be there by some absent-minded, but harmless cause is a matter of speculation, for tradition has handed down no stories of Indian attacks upon this house.
About 1884 tthe house was purchased by Clark B. Hall, who com- bined it with the Hall estate, which it adjoined. When Mr. Hall's home in Hall's Village was destroyed by fire in 1888, he bought property in
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HISTORY OF CHESTER
Manchester and moved there with his family, but retained his prop- erty in Chester and for many years used the old "Poor Farm" as a summer home. It is at present the residence of his son, Wm. C. Hall, who has done much to reclaim its simple colonial architecture. Much of the original building is still in a state of perfect preservation, and one feature that has been much admired by many people, is the heavy hewn beams that are exposed in one of the principal rooms.
CHAPTER XXI.
REMINISCENCES.
CHESTER FIFTY YEARS AGO
From a Sketch Written in 1876 by Henry Flagg French Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
On the swell of land which divides the waters that flow directly into the Atlantic Ocean from those that flow into the Merrimac River stands the quiet village of Chester, in New Hampshire. The soil is fertile, though hard and stony; the air is pure and bracing, like that of a mountain region, and the place, though but twenty-five miles, as the crow flies, from the ocean beach, is just beyond the chilling east winds of spring. It has always been said that the sea is visible, and even that sails of vessels upon the sea may be seen from the house-tops there on a clear morning, but, though a native of the town and a constant resident in it for my first quarter-century, and though I sought for the vision often and with the aid of my spy-glass, I cannot give my testimony farther in this direction than to say that there is something away at the eastward that looks very much like the ocean, but rather more like a bank of mist or fog that often fills the low places about sunrise. I know it is almost disloyal to make this admission, for it seems a proud thing to say of one's native town that one can see the ocean from it, though exactly why we want to see the ocean in this doubtful way it is difficult to explain. It was very philosophical in Mr. Dick, when his landlady apologized for the small size of his room by saying that there was hardly room to swing a cat by the tail, to re- ply that he did not see why he should ever want to swing a cat by the tail there. If a view merely of a distant object be the point, there are the stars, a thousand times further off, that one may see every clear night.
"The street," a mile long and perfectly straight, was originally laid out by tthe hopeful proprietors ten rods wide, but, before many houses were built, it was wisely reduced to five rods, which is about the width of Broadway. As you enter the town from the east, on a hot summer day, you catch always a cool, refreshing western breeze, and you are struck at once with the sight of a row of rock-maples and elms on the right extending a half-mile or more and shading a well- worked sidewalk of liberal width the whole distance. The trees are flourishing and speak plainly of the culture and taste of a past half- century. Behind them and with room for the liberal "front-yards" which were formerly deemed indispensable to respectable dwellings, we see at intervals large and handsome houses, still in good repair, with gardens between and with fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs and vines about them. In the rear are old apple orchards, evidently
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REMINISCENCES
going fast to decay. The houses, many of them, have flattish roofs pitched four ways, which in their best estate had balustrades and seats upon them, so that the young people going up through the "scuttle" might sit there together and study astronomy in the evening, or try to see the ocean in the morning. The old stables and barns are very spacious, but some evidently have been replaced by new and smaller ones. The grass grows very near the wheel-ruts now, and as you look up the long, ascending street, you will probably see no team or carriage in the whole distance, and often no living person. You have passed the old grave-yard as you entered the village, and you have seen that the city of the dead is large and old and respectable. The older sec- tion is gray with the low granite and the taller slatestone slabs, decorat- ed with death's heads and cross-bones and moon-faced cherubs, while the modern additions are blossoming with white marble slabs and miniature Bunker-Hills, like the marble yards which are so significantly placed near the railway stations in our large towns.
The meeting-house has been modernized, and so of the school- houses and stores, which seem to be the only combustible material in town, having furnished the only occasions to run out and attempt to use the little hand-engine provided for such emergencies. Of course, the engine would not go. Who could expect it would go, with an alarm of fire only once in five years, and that without any previous no- tice, and the whole village asleep ?
An observant stranger driving through this village would not fail to see that its best days had already passed, that what had been laid out and builded and planted in the olden time was of a grander and higher type than what had been lately done. If he should inquire who now occupy the stately dwellings evidently built two or three gen- erations ago, he would find this occupied by a respectable man engaged in the manufacture of shoes, that by a farmer of limited means and but few acres of land, and alas! several by very aged widows living on the memories of years long past.
A friend who has lived forty years on Chester street informs me that there is not a single man, who was the head of a family when he came there, that now occupies the same dwelling on the main road be- tween Auburn and Hampstead, a distance of five miles through the best and most thickly settled portion of the town. That death should thus remove from their places those who controlled affairs forty years ago is not surprising, but the changes in the character and culture and in- fluence of the leading minds in most New England villages in fifty years are worthy of the most careful study.
The village thus briefly sketched is but a type of a large class all over New England. Men and women of three-score and more years, who now dwell in our eastern cities, or have helped to build up cities in the west, will look back to the days of their youth and remember these little New England "towns," as we called them, their important centers of trade and business, as well as of moral and religious and political power, now either going gradually to decay, their dwellings tottering to their fall and the streets overgrown with grass, or con- verted into modern, smart manufacturing places, built up by men hav- ing neither the names nor the associations connected with the memories of fifty years ago.
The secret of this change is not hard to fathom. Fifty years ago there was no railroad. Boston was then, as it is now, the great busi- ness center of New England. All travel was on horseback, or in pri- vate carriages, or in stage-coaches, which carried the mails and radiated from Boston in all directions into the country.
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HISTORY OF CHESTER
The "stage," as we called it, was fifty years ago drawn on our route from Boston to Concord by six horses, and often a second coach with four horses was added, and these, loaded each with from twelve to sixteen passengers, with the blowing of horns and cracking of whips as they dashed to the tavern door, produced a sensation in the village. By changing horses once in ten or fifteen miles, the stages usually ran from 75 to 100 miles in a long day. The Tappan Webster House, to be described hereafter, was for many years a tavern of the best sort in those times. The produce of Vermont and New Hampshire was carried to market in the lower towns in winter mostly in what were called "lumber boxes," drawn by two horses. They were merely oblong boxes on stout sleigh-runners, large enough to hold a fair load of butter, cheese, oats or other grain, or of stark and stiff-frozen hogs. Fifty years ago it was not uncommon in good sleighing for fifty such teams with their fifty men and a hundred horses to pass the night at this tavern. They carried back loads of merchandise of vari- ous sorts for themselves and the country stores. The driver usually stood on a projecting shelf at the rear of the sleigh, for convenience in stepping off to lessen the load in going up hill. Most farmers in our neighborhood did their work with oxen, doing their plowing and other farm-work in summer, and in winter drawing wood and timber to their houses and to the saw-mills, and their sawed timber, staves and hoop-poles to the stores, or "below" to market. These products of the forest really constituted a great part of the wealth of the town, and gave the farmer a large proportion of his money to pay for taxes and groceries. The better part of the building and ship timber has long since been stripped off, and these natural products no longer afford much profit to the farmer. Wheat and corn and beef even can be grown upon the cheap, rich lands of the west and freighted to all the principal towns by rail cheaper than they can be grown in New England and carried even ten miles by horses. Higher wages have been paid in factories than upon farms, and women, as well as men, have found employment in the mills. Farms along the railways have been found more profitable than those more distant, not only because the freight is lower upon them, but because the farmers along the line know the state of the market and can send perishable products, like small fruits, vegetables and milk, more conveniently than those a few miles more remote.
Thus, travel and business have left the small towns which are a little off the railroads. The sons of the men who fifty years ago oc- cupied, not only these stately houses, but the highest positions of honor in the State, have scattered to all parts of the country, not a single male descendant of all the families which we shall have occasion to mention being now a resident in the town.
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