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 5
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 5
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It is a great subject. I was thinking about that imperial township, how generous we were in donating sister-townships from our territory. And I have always thought that the parent mother was altogether too generous, and made a serious mistake, when she gave away the crystal
*See A History of the New Hampshire Convention by Joseph B. Walker, p. 54 and note 2.
¡See Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 4 Wheat, 518.
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HISTORY OF CHESTER
gem that Auburn wears upon her breast to-day. It would have con- nected us with the metropolitan city of the State and made us of much greater power and much more prosperous, with a larger population, and is a right that we should have enjoyed. But the sister-towns have come here as I understand to extend their hands of loyalty to the mother town who holds her bicentennial reception here to-day; for which we and they are to be congratulated.
Speaking now of the men, of the families, who have been a power here and who have promoted the civilization :
In a pillared temple in the capitol at Washington, there now appears in native marble a majestic form of the immortal Lincoln, and it is so wrought that on its face still rests that tender, anxious look as when he held the cause of the Union in his hands and struck the shackles from the wrists of slaves-a classic work by an American sculptor,* of Chester-name and lineage. And I supposed he would be here to-day with an offering of filial love at the birthplace-home of a distinguished father and family heritage.
And, as I stand here now on this memorable day, I regret the death of that fair and gifted one,t the last of that kindred to occupy the grand old home, and that on a fatal night, which, with all its lore of love and peace, of art and time, went down to dust and ashes, into a silent, lamented, God-hallowed memory; and as Tom Moore says :
"You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still."
I would mention, if I had the power and the time, those who fall within my memory who were here when I was here, those on the heroic line as well as the civic line-men who were my comrades and friends and who encouraged me in all the walks of life.
Many of their names are on the monument here which we dedicated in 1904.
On the civic line, we have had some strong men, great men.
We have had a long line of ministers who have been an honor to their profession and have carried the faith forward with great strength and power.
But my mind runs now to John W. Noyes, for instance. He had a face and personality as sweet as summer; and, if his lines had fallen in some of the cities of the country instead of this place, he would have occupied strong places in the commerce and the social life of such an environment.
Thomas J. Melvin was born for a jurist, for a publicist, and made his mistake in touching merchandise.
There has been here a character for every spot that can be named and every profession and every place where humanity moves; and that is the character of its population.
You see, here, we have three great nations-the English, the Scotch and the Irish. It is a combination of those three nations, and we call it Anglo-Saxon, but it is the combination of those three nations that has carried forward our civilization and has carried the work of the covenant of Liberty throughout the world. And if you should wipe them from the map, there would be no government left on this earth.
*Daniel Chester French.
+Helen (French) Cochrane.
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CELEBRATION OF 200TH ANNIVERSARY
Now, this Nation of ours has survived two or three crises in its solidity and power; three of its Presidents have been assassinated, friends of Liberty; twice it has been threatened from within-first in 1861 and then in 1917 and '18, and along there. It has survived both. The Rebellion came, but our boys put that down. In the last, the tenth article-that was put in as a mandate in the Versailles treaty, called the treaty with Germany-took away from this Nation the three great principles of power embodied in its Constitution: the power of the President to command the army and the navy, the power of Congress to declare war and the power to make treaties and to determine peace. What would there be left of this government? Not only that, but it gave that organization in Europe, the super- government, it gave them the vote of six to one and the power to summon from our manhood the flower of our civilization at will-and from our treasury the funds to support them-an army to maintain their lines and the independence of their governments. And we owe to our delegation in Congress, to the men who were of granite rock. to the men who understood how to analyze and present and reject such a proposition,- we owe it to them, that this was defeated; and it is a debt we can never pay.
Just see how America, under her Constitution, has done the work.
Franklin coquetted with lightnings that cleft the air; then came Fulton with the power of steam; then Morse with the telegraph to write at a distance; then Field with the cable to go under the sea and make connection with all of the world; then we built the first ship for aerial navigation, which Professor Langley fashioned from the moving wings of the humming bird; then we invented the sub- marine, that sank the Lusitania to the bottom of the sea and that destroyed the commerce of the sea; and then American genius gave us the graphophone that keeps alive the voices of the dead: and I have often thought, if this had come when the Christian era came, how it would have reproduced the Voice that delivered the first sermon on the mount, and the voice of Cicero and of our friends in England,- and, then, how we could hear to-day the voice of Webster at Bunker Hill, at the laying of the corner stone, when he said: "Let it rise ! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit ;" and the voice of Lincoln, at Gettysburg, and, then, in his second inaugural, when he uttered that sentence that challenges the depth of the world, just before Grant had closed the war: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away." Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." And so down for one hundred years, these lovers of the opera will hear Caruso sing and the prima donnas sing with him the great operas that have thrilled the audiences of New York and the other great cities of the world. That is pretty much all American.
Well, may I speak a moment of my own? I am here in the sunset of life. My sister, Sophia, who died in the rich bloom of life was a teacher and was the inspiration of all that her brothers have achieved in life, and I pause to bless her name and memory. My brother, Gerry W. Hazelton, never missed one year in forty-nine
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HISTORY OF CHESTER
years in coming back to the native home until his name was known in the households of the people here; and his love for this native home and its people never diminished until he passed away. He became a strong man in his convictions, in the purity of his life, in the achieve- ments that he made; and, when he died in Milwaukee, that great city hung her flags at half mast on all her public buildings out of respect to his memory. My brother, Major John F. Hazelton, cherished the same strong love, but could not come here. He was a captain in a Wisconsin regiment under Grant in the army of the Tennessee and the Potomac, and he was in the last battle that was fought on Virginia soil, and was promoted for gallant service to major. He was there when Lee surrendered-when the rifted walls of the Confederacy went down never to rise again.
For myself, I am here on my native heath; I count it one of the highest privileges of my life to be here; and memories awake from their slumbers.
*The tell-tales of memory wake from their slumbers,- I hear the old song with its tender refrain, -- What passion lies hid in those honey-voiced numbers ! What perfume of youth in each exquisite strain !
Long hushed are the chords that my boyhood enchanted, As when the smooth wave by the angel was stirred, Yet still with their music is memory haunted, And oft in my dreams are their melodies heard.
I feel like the priest to his altar returning,- The crowd that was kneeling no longer is there; The flame has died down, but the brands are still burning, And sandal and cinnamon sweeten the air.
And, now, my friends, the curtain falls on the part assigned to me in the exercises of this day, a day that links three centuries together in the golden chain of history, and which brings back to us the ancestral inheritance we now enjoy, an inheritance of free repre- sentative government in township, State and Nation; and may we not say with Bancroft that, "At the foot of every page in the annals of nations, may be written, 'God reigns?' "+
(Applause)
President Chase, to Mr. Hazelton :-
"I need no authority from this audience to extend to you, sir, their thanks for the interesting and instructive address with which we have been favored and to assure you that no one else would have been considered in this connection so long as you were able to officiate."
(Applause )
*From "For the Moore Centennial Celebration, May 28, 1879" by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
+Mr. Hazelton died at Walnut Hill, Chester, Sept. 4, 1922.
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CELEBRATION OF 200TH ANNIVERSARY
THE PARADE
TUESDAY A. M., AUGUST 29
Tuesday, the closing day of the celebration, was one of ideal weather, and the village was crowded by thousands who came from far and near. The parade was a splendid affair under the direction of Herbert H. True as Chief Marshal. From the Wilcomb common to the old brick school house at the head of Chester street and back, the gay-colored procession in four divisions of over 500 people, 150 horses, several yoke of oxen and many automobiles marched under a sunny sky. Numerous floats, artistically arranged, gave evidence that the citizens of Chester and her daughters were proud to reproduce her history in impersonation.
In the line of march were the town officials, the officers of the celebration, the invited guests, representatives of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, the Fusilier Veterans of Boston, the Amoskeag Veterans of Manchester, the Grand Army of the Republic, the Woman's Relief Corps (the oldest woman's organization in the state), the American Legion, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, the Grange, the Chester Schools and others - all furnishing a colorful and in- teresting series of floats. To illustrate the military history of the two hundred years, there was an inspiring group representing the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish War and the World War. Each man wore the uniform appropriate to the conflict he represented, and carried a banner on which was inscribed the number of men Chester furnished in each war. The range from 254 in the Revolution, 108 in the Civil War, to 22 in the World War, illustrates two points in the history of the town - her ready response to every patriotic call, and the steady decline in population wrought by the annexation of large parts of her original territory to form other towns and her failure to secure a steam railroad through her territory.
The old methods of responding to a fire with a hand tub in 1842 were contrasted with a modern motor fire truck from the Haverhill Fire Department, with Chief John B. Gordon, a native of Chester, in command. The first post office of 1793 was con- trasted with the present of four mails daily and three rural carriers. Old time methods in the industries were shown by floats carrying ancient agricultural implements and by represent- ing the old time hand processes in cooperage, blacksmithing, shoemaking, spinning, weaving and lumbering. There was a pioneer log-cabin in course of construction. The Congregational meeting-house of 1773, Lord Timothy Dexter, the Baptist Church and Finnerty with his funny cart were all reproduced. Chester Grange portrayed the graces Ceres, Flora and Pomona.
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HISTORY OF CHESTER
Auburn, the youngest of Chester's fair daughters, under the direction of George P. Griffin, filled the entire third division, having 100 horses, 50 men and 20 floats depicting important events of the town, the float "Massabesic" being especially at- tractive. Other daughters, Raymond, Candia, and Manchester each contributed many beautiful floats, and one furnished by the business men of the adjoining town of Derry was an attractive feature of the parade.
One of the unique features of the parade was a representation of the modes of travel from horseback riding to the modern motor car, including the ox-cart, the two-wheeled "shay" and the stage- coach. The riders were dressed in colonial costumes befitting the station they represented. There were flowers, there were "Calithumpians," there were paint-smeared Indians, there were hunters and even hucksters, and numerous artistically decorated automobiles were an attractive feature.
Not the least in interest was a group of old natives and residents. Elijah Sanborn, 103; James M. Heath, 92; Hon. George C. Hazelton, 90; Susan J. Webster, 88; Carlos W. Noyes, 88; Samuel A. Blackstone, 88; Cyrus W. Hills, 87; Hannah (Wilcomb) Williams, 84; Mark Sanborn, 83, and Cyrus F. Marston, 80.
ORDER OF PARADE.
FIRST DIVISION.
Police.
Chief Marshal Herbert H. True and Staff.
Rainey's Cadet Band of Manchester, 25 pieces.
Selectmen and Town Officers.
Invited Guests.
American Legion.
The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co. of Massachusetts.
The Fusilier Veterans of Boston.
The Amoskeag Veterans of Manchester.
The Grand Army of the Republic.
The Women's Relief Corps.
The Indians.
The Early Settlers.
"Spirit of '76."
Representatives of the Wars of 1776, 1812, 1846, 1898, and 1917. The Old and New Fire Apparatus.
Floats, representing old-time Farming, Cooperage, Shoemaking and Lumbering Industries.
SECOND DIVISION. Edwin P. Jones in Command.
Highland Scotch Band of Manchester, 15 pieces.
Junior Order United American Mechanics. The Chester Schools.
Floats, representing the First Church, the Grange, Lord Timothy Dexter and the Industries.
Finnerty and his Funny Cart.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Edward C. Chase George L. Fitts Nathan W. Goldsmith
John D. Fiske Isabelle H. Fitz Edwin P. Jones
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CELEBRATION OF 200TH ANNIVERSARY
THIRD DIVISION. George L. Fitts in Command. Industrial School Band of Manchester, 25 pieces. Contingent, representing the Town of Candia. Contingent, representing the Town of Auburn.
FOURTH DIVISION. Dr. George H. Guptil in Command.
Raymond Brass Band, 26 pieces, Charles Poore, Leader. Contingent, representing the Town of Raymond. Industrial Floats from Derry and other Towns. Automobiles.
THE ACADEMY REUNION.
Immediately after the parade the former students of Chester Academy, nearly a hundred in number, assembled in Stevens Memorial Hall. The gathering was called to order by the President of the Day, John Carroll Chase, who presented William T. Morse of Derry as Chairman of the meeting.
MR. MORSE.
It is a great pleasure to meet former schoolmates and old friends and recall the happy days we had in the old academy, and I highly appreciate the honor of being made chairman of the reunion. This is an unusual occasion and for those present will never occur again, and I wish we might remain here much longer that the limited time at our disposal will permit. There are many things that this meeting will bring to mind and which we would like to dwell upon, but it will be impossible to give more than a few minutes each to the large number from whom we would like to hear. I will not .detain you with any further remarks but present as the first speaker a former Principal of the academy, in fact the only one present today, Jacob T. Choate, Esq. of Amesbury, Mass.
MR. CHOATE.
It gives me great pleasure to be with you today. I am not a son of Chester. You know in old New England it was the custom to take in some girl or some boy from another family; if a girl, she did the housework and she remained until the father or mother were laid away. And perhaps that person really had a stronger tie for the home than the children themselves. And I think of the courtesies that have been displayed and the hospitality of the old days, and I think that in some of those adopted children we have got the cream of Chester. There is another thing now I wish to do. I wish to give a belated apology forty-two years after for something I said, probably due to my inexperience and want of education. That was that Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a young man on the other make a university; and that is always said to the credit of Mark Hopkins. I want to give you a new view of that today. Mark Hopkins could sit on the end of a log all his lifetime and be no university; the student on the other
.
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HISTORY OF CHESTER
end of the log is the necessary factor in making a university. And what was the success, if success we had in Chester Academy? It was from the fact that in this town, which has had United States Senators, Members of Congress, governors, lawyers, physicians and teachers, there was the material to make the university, no matter how in- competent the teacher might be. I think we succeeded fairly well in learning something, in keeping the academy going. Now what was the secret, if there was any, of that success? I think it was individual- ity. If there was any one thing I tried to preach it was individuality. A pupil had the right to express any opinion at any time and to differ from the teacher, provided it was done respectfully, and we were on a pretty good basis. Now the modern schools make too much, possibly, of team work; everything is team work. In our old days it was every man for himself, everyone could have an opinion, might be wrong, might be right, but we could have an opinion, and if it was wrong we would soon find out which was right. I must be brief but those were very pleasant days. And now we feel sad when we look at the history of Chester and find it has decreased from perhaps 2,200 to 700, and we say, what of the future of America? What will happen when the old New England stock is gone? Something else just as good will take its place.
After I taught in Chester a few years I became the principal of what was by courtesy a high school in Michigan, and there a large part of the population were people whose parents had come from New Jersey and were descendants of Old New Jersey Dutch, and they had retained the old Dutch names. And yet they were as American and as progressive as if their names had been John Bartlett or Tom Jones.
I was a member of a draft board whose duty it was to select men for the army, and when I saw the great spirit that was displayed, when I found that in order to find one slacker (and I speak of men who were naturally of Class A, and who would go as single men to war) you would have to stand up two hundred men; ninety-nine and one- half per cent. pure patriotism, it was a spectacle I would not have missed for the world. And when you find Koloskys and other names so difficult to pronounce that it is almost necessary to sneeze three or four times, and find the spirit with which they went to defend this country, then immediately you make up your mind that although the old English of New England pass away, so long as their spirit survives our country is surely safe.
MR. MORSE.
We have present one who, years ago, went into the far west to make his home and I know you will be pleased to hear from Rev. Morris W. Morse, of Moscow, Idaho.
REV. MR. MORSE.
I am sorry that we have so short a time for when I get in com- pany with these old students the old scenes come rushing upon me. It is fifty years ago this fall that I began my educational course in the little building which stood where that barn stands. Two years after, having learned the multiplication table, I had progressed far enough to be taken into Chester Academy. The one thing necessary was forty cents a week with which to pay the teacher.
When I came into the Academy I was admitted to a new world. A large group were just completing their course and awaking early this morning I tried to bring them to mind. It was easy to recall the girls.
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CELEBRATION OF 200TH ANNIVERSARY
We were called "Academy Greenheads" in those days, and in winter time there was a series of battles carried on with snowballs. My home was the other side of the district school house and when all the boys came from the academy I was safe, but when they got me alone it was another thing. So, many days I came in late to escape the snowballs.
My earliest recollections were of Miss Lucy Greenough, who was was followed by Miss Alice Brown. She was quite lionized. Every issue of the newspaper had something about what Miss Brown had done. And after Miss Brown we had Mr. Choate, who has spoken for himself. He introduced a new era and became master of even Tom Curtis.
Well, we will pass on to the days of Mr. Smith and there are certain scenes that are rivetted upon my memory.
Following Mr. Smith came Mr. Curtis, and I must say that I owe a great deal to Mr. Curtis. If it had not been for him it is quite possible that I may not have had the opportunity of going to college. But I will show that I learned something by stopping before my time has gone too far.
MR. MORSE.
We are not forgetful of our schoolmates of the gentler sex and we are pleased to have with us Mrs. Nellie (Sleeper) Fleming of Lowell, Mass., who will now address us.
MRS. FLEMING.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : It gives me great pleasure to be present at this reunion of the former students of Old Chester Academy and I certainly feel highly honored by being allowed to take even a small part in these exercises.
The welcome that the old town's people have given us during the last few days has proved very emphatically that, although her children in many cases have left her to take up their abodes elsewhere, she still has a mother's love for them and receives them with open arms whenever they see fit to return. We assure you that it is as great a pleasure for us to come back to the old home town as it is for the old town's people to receive us.
We have heard during the last few days from different sources of the many men and women who have gone out from this old town to different parts of our country, have won for themselves high and responsible positions and have been a credit to their native town. Why is this true? Partly because of the sterling qualities inherited, through their parents and grand parents, from the good old New England stock, and partly from influences brought to bear on their minds in the old town while in childhood and youth.
Today, as we, the former students of Old Chester Academy, meet here to renew old friendships, and perhaps form new ones, let us remember that this old school, during its existence, had no mean part in shaping the lives and ambitions of those who were priveleged to attend it.
We must all concede that broad education, strong lives and real character, are not formed and made up by any one great influence, but by many. The fact that some of the pupils of this school have gone out and made their mark in the world must be good evidence that Chester Academy furnished some of those influences.
We each of us remember the teachers who presided over our destinies while we were pupils, in those years (not) so very long ago,
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HISTORY OF CHESTER
and while at that time we may have noticed errors in judgment on their part and may have felt somewhat grieved at some of their rulings, (being somewhat prejudiced) yet we think on the whole that they must have been pretty sensible instructors after all.
Who can estimate or determine the worth to the world of a good school or a good teacher. They touch the lives of the pupils under their charge and they in turn touch others as they pass along the way, and the influence passes on and on till, like the proverbial pebble thrown into the ocean, the ripple extends to the other shore.
Yes, the old school has left its mark in the world for a large army of young men and women, not satisfied with what she could give them but fired with a thirst and zeal for knowledge received at her hands, have gone on to higher achievements in other schools and have become useful citizens in our great country. Think of the vast number of ministers, doctors, lawyers, statesmen and business men and women, who owe some part of their success in life to the Old Chester Academy.
I am sure that after this great anniversary and reunion our hearts will be bound to our old home town with stronger cords than ever before and, as we separate and go to our respective homes to take up our busy lives again, in the lines of the old poem,
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