USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume I > Part 13
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The committee made report, the next month, to the General Court of Massachusetts, setting forth that, " on the east side of the Merri- mack," they found " little or no water, [and] the land near the river extremely mountainous, and almost impassable, and very unfit for and incapable of receiving fifty families, as the Court " had " ordered ; more especially," as, " near the center of the town, on the east side of the river Merrimack, the Honorable Samuel Sewall, Esq.," had "a farm of five hundred acres of good land formerly laid out to Gov. Endicott : " and " that, therefore, . . . one hundred and three lots of land " had been " laid out for settlements, on the west side, contiguous to each other, regularly and in a defensible manner
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THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
In conclusion the committee humbly offered, that ." " inasmuch as the generality of the land" did not answer "the grantees' expectation," and " five hundred acres " had been laid out before, a grant of "the like number of acres of the unappropriated lands adjacent to the township " should "be made to the settlers as an equivalent." The General Court at once accepted the commit- tee's report so far as to allow the settlements to be made on the west side of the river ; but no action was taken at that time upon the re- quest for a grant of land equivalent to the Sewall Farm.
Immediately upon the return to Portsmouth, on the 15th of May, the New Hampshire committee-Messrs. Weare, Waldron, and Atkinson-reported to the lieutenant-governor and council, that they had been "at Pennecook," where they "found his Hon. Col. Will. Tailer, Esq., John Wainwright, Esq., and Col. Eleazer Tyng, Esq., with sundry others, mostly unknown to" them, "to the num- ber of near forty men, who were felling the trees and laying out the lands there." "Whereupon,"-the report continues,-" we presented the order of Court, and assured them that their proceedings were highly displeasing to the government which sent us thither, and their persisting therein would be at their peril, for they might depend upon it, when the controversial boundary between the two Provinces should be determined, the poor misled people who might be induced to settle there under the color of a Massachusetts grant, would be dispossessed of the said lands, or suffer some other inconveniences equally grievous ; and that the message on which we were sent, and the fair forewarning they had by us, would take away all occasions of complaint when they should be compelled to leave the said lands, and lose the benefit of their improvement. To which the gentlemen above-mentioned were pleased to reply, that, as we were sent by the government of New-Hampshire, so were they, by the government of Massachusetts, and that when they returned home, they " would " lay before their General Assembly, the order of Council we had delivered them, who, without doubt, would pass thereon as they should think proper." 1
The council of Massachusetts took notice of this forewarning, by passing an order, on the 28th of June, that a letter be sent to " Mr. Agent Dummer " in London, instructing him "to take effective care to answer any complaint " that the New Hampshire government might make against the grant of Penacook "lately made." On the other hand, Mr. Henry Newman, having " received letters " from the New Hampshire authorities, "complaining of the encroachment of Massachusetts Province," addressed, on the 8th of August, an urgent
1 1 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. IV, 12.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
communication to the "Lords Commissioners of Trade and Planta- tions," informing them that he had " some time since lodged in the Council office, to be laid before His Majesty, a memorial requesting that the boundaries of " those "provinces " might " be settled "; and begging their " Lordships," that, "as that " might " require time to be considered," they " would be pleased, in the meanwhile, to inter- pose " their "authority for securing His Majesty's interest in the Province of New-Hampshire from any detriment by the grants already made ; and for suspending all grants of land on or near the boun- daries in dispute, till His Majesty's pleasure therein " should "be known." 1
The summer and autumn of 1726 passed, but the admitted settlers had not yet drawn their lands by allotment. They had met the court's committee, on the 7th of September, at the house or inn of Francis Crumpton, in Ipswich, "to draw their respective lots," as specified in the call for the meeting, but, from the lack of some prep- arations deemed requisite by the committee, especially the cutting of a road from Haverhill to the intended settlement, they did not then receive the expected allotment. However, they "came into certain orders and rules for bringing forward and effecting the settlement," which were put into the hands of the committee. They chose Cap- tain Benjamin Stevens, treasurer, to receive the balance of money paid the court's committee by the settlers, after defraying the com- mittee's charges ; this balance " to be disposed of in marking out and clearing a way to PennyCook." They appointed "Ensign John Chandler, of Andover, John Ayer, of Haverhill, and Mr. William Barker, of Andover, a committee to go out and clear a sufficient cart-way to PennyCook, the nighest and best way, from Haverhill "; the expense to be " defrayed by the community." They also ordered " Mr. Obadiah Ayer to make application to the General Court," .. . in their behalf, "to have the five hundred pounds abated, and the five hundred acres,-being the equivalent for Mr. Sewall's farm, added to the township." Moreover, they completed their payment of twenty shillings each, for making up the hundred pounds, ordered by the committee to be raised for defraying the expense of " laying out a way to the settlement."
During the autumn the committee on the "cart-way " were en- gaged in the duty assigned them, with the help of Richard Hazzen, who went "to search out and mark " a path by way of "Chester " to " PennyCook." This new road, thus selected and "cut through," was a more direct and otherwise better one than that taken by the committee in May, as already described. It kept farther to the east
1 Original in office of secretary of state; Bouton's Concord, 82.
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THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
from the Merrimack, without deflections towards it at the several falls. It passed up through the Chester woods, including those of modern Hooksett; and having skirted along " White Hall " and the eastern edge of " Lakin's Pond " 1 it reached the Suncook. From the ford at the site of the present village which bears the river's name, the path ran northward for a portion of its distance, over the course of the later thoroughfare, known as " Pembroke Street," onward to the ford of the Soucook,2 and thence beyond to Sugar Ball ; whence was passage by boat to the west bank of the Merrimack.
In course of the summer and autumn some of the admitted settlers were on the ground, and made hay upon the tempting intervals on the west side of the river, stacking it for the future use of " the com- munity." 2 It seems also that two of them at least-Henry Rolfe and Richard Urann-spent the ensuing winter, or a part of it, in Penacook, and hence it is sometimes claimed that they were the first settlers.3 It is said that the winter of 1726-'27 was one of unusual cold and depth of snow, and that these hardy pioneers suffered not a little from the severity of the season and lack of provisions, but were relieved by the kindly services of friendly Indians, who still lingered in the home of their fathers.4
Towards the close of winter, on the 7th and 8th of February, 1727, a meeting of the court's committee and the admitted settlers was held at the house of Benjamin Stevens in Andover. "A bond of five pounds " was taken from each settler, " for the payment of five hundred pounds for the use " of the province of Massachusetts, when the General Court should " demand the same; on penalty of forfeit- ing title . . to the lands respectively." The settlers, having complied with this condition, as well as that of opening, at their own charge, a cart-way from Haverhill to Penacook, were allowed to draw their allotments of land.
Each allotment consisted of a " House Lot " and a " IIome, or Six Acre, Lot"; the former containing an acre and a half; the latter, six acres, more or less, according to quality. There were one hun- dred and three allotments, being those of the hundred admitted set- tlers, and three others-the "minister's," the "ministerial," and the "school,"5 all laid out upon the west side of the river. The "house- lots " were laid off in ranges. The first range ran along on the east side of a highway-space, ten rods wide,-afterwards to be contracted
1 In modern Hooksett. History of Pembroke, 94-95.
2 See note at close of chapter.
3 Annals of Concord, 11 (note).
Bouton's Concord, 83.
6 At the close of this chapter will be found an alphabetical list of the proprietors, with the house- and home-lots drawn by each in their respective ranges. This is accompanied by a plan, by the aid of which the description in the text may be more easily understood. See Bouton's Concord, 122, 123, 124, with plan.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
to a width of six rods, known as Main street,-and extended from Horse Shoe pond hill, or "the minister's lot," 1 southward about a mile and a half. This range contained thirty-seven lots, regularly numbered from north to south, with the sixth and thirty-fifth vacant. Parallel to this, and along the west side of the same thoroughfare, and extending about the same distance, was the second range, con- taining thirty-four lots, numbered in the same direction as those of the first, with the thirtieth vacant. Westward of the second, and separated from it by a highway-space ten rods wide, being a part of what was to be State street, was the third range, which ran southerly to the present Washington street, from a highway reservation, ex- tending westerly from Horse Shoe poud hill. It contained twelve lots, numbered from north to south in continuation of those in the second range, with the thirty-ninth vacant. A short range, perpen- dicular to the northernmost lots of the third range, extended west- ward, and contained the school lot with three others. These four lots were not numbered in the record, and took, it seems, the place of the vacant ones in the other ranges. The "Island Range " lay along the highland on the west side of Horse Shoe pond, and reached northward to Wood's brook. It comprised nine "house lots," num- bered from south to north, which had their accompanying "home lots " on " Horse Shoe Island " near by, a fact that gave the range its name.
As has been seen, with these one hundred and three "House Lots " went the same number of "Home, or Six Acre, Lots,"-the latter generally detached from the former, though the minister's allot- ment had the two contiguous. The eleven allotments of the portion of land variously styled " The Lowest Range," "The Lowest Inter- vale," or "The Eleven Lots," extending northward from " The Great Bend " of the river nearly to the southern extremities of the first and second house-lot ranges, already described, had the peculiarity of being, each, a combination of "house-lot " and " home-lot," and of being designated exclusively by the latter name. Of the other " home-lots," ten lay in " Wattauummon's Field," to the northward of Horse Shoe pond, and southward of the Merrimack, as it there flows; seventy-two in " The Great Plain," comprising all the interval northeast and east of the first range of "house-lots," and between " Wattanummon's Field " and the " Frog Ponds "- the latter desig- nating an area embraced by the river's curve north of " The Eleven Lots "; and, lastly, ten on Horse Shoe Island. Through these lots, highways-some four rods wide, others two-were here and there reserved.
Thus, the allotments that had been surveyed and laid out in May, 1 See note at close of chapter.
119
THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
1726, came at last, in February, 1727, into the hands of individual proprietors. Each " admitted settler" had now his little farm of up- land and interval, with the assurance of future enlargement of pos- session out of lands yet unallotted ; and in this freehold tenure he was to find a natural stimulus to the earnest exertion requisite to accomplish the civilized occupation of the wilderness.
As soon as the settlers had drawn their land they held a meeting, February 8, 1727, and voted to build "at Pennycook, a block- house of twenty-five feet in breadth and forty feet in length, for the security of the settlers "; John Chandler, Moses Hazzen, Nehemiah Carlton, Nathan Simonds, and Ebenezer Stevens being a committee to examine the charges arising from " building a block-house, . or any other charges, that " should "arise in bringing forward the settlement," and, upon allowance, "to draw money out of the treas- ury," for payment. They levied a tax of one hundred pounds to " be paid in to the treasurer by the first day " of the succeeding March, " for defraying past and future charges." They appointed John Chandler, Henry Rolfe, William White, Richard Hazzen, Jr., and John Osgood, "to lay out the intervale that " had "not yet" been "laid out," so that the "whole,"-including the part already laid out,-should " be equally divided among " the settlers, " as to quan- tity and quality." While adopting promptly such wise measures, they thought it not premature to declare a war of extermination against the venomous reptile, already found to be dangerously preva- lent in the Penacook woods, by providing a bounty of "threepence " for every " rattlesnake killed within the bounds of the township, to be paid by the settlers' treasurer upon sight of the tail." 1
The "Second Division of the Intervale," ordered at this meeting, was surveyed and laid out in May, 1727, by the committee appointed for that purpose,-Richard Hazzen, Jr., being the surveyor,-and was accepted by the court's committee in March, 1728.2
The division comprised, on the east side of the river: (1) The " Mill Brook Intervale," or the lands in the vicinity of Mill brook, the outlet of Turtle pond into the Merrimack, lying in two ranges- the first containing twenty-four lots, the second, twelve. (2) The "Sugar Ball Division," situated in the valley south of Sugar Ball hill, and containing sixteen lots. (3) "The Middle Plain," includ- ing the interval extending from Sugar Ball plain to the river's curve at the "Frog Ponds," and being in twenty-eight lots, numbered,-as were all those hitherto mentioned,-down Merrimack river. (4) The east-side " Lowest Intervale," opposite the " Eleven Lots," extending from the ancient south line of the plantation, northward to the "Mid-
1 See note at close of chapter.
Bouton's Concord, 85.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
dle Plain "; being in thirty-one lots, numbered up the river, and with "a driftway of three rods through " their " westerly " ends, "as nigh the Merrimack river as " might be convenient.
This second division included, on the west side of the Merrimack : (1) "Rattlesnake Plains," comprising the interval reaching north- ward from " Farnum's Eddy to the hills and bluffs which border the river, northeast of West Parish village,"1 in seventeen lots, num- bered up river, and with allowance for a highway. (2) "The Frog Ponds,"-already often mentioned,-south of "The Great Plain," and divided into sixteen lots.
In addition, nine small lots not in range were laid out in various localities.2 Those persons whose allotments, in the first division, had fallen in the "Eleven Lots," obtained, in the second, the same num- ber of lots opposite in the "Lowest Intervale " on the east side of the river, and also eleven others in the " Middle Plain." 3 In some other cases, " two parcels, in different localities, were allotted to the same per- son."4 The number of lots in the second division was one hundred and sixty-seven ; and these, exclusive of the nine scattered ones, varied in size from two and a half acres to six.5
In the early spring of 1727, nearly a year before the second as- signment of lands was completed, the set- tlers had gone to work in the plantation. By April and May a pio- neer band of propri- etors, comprising Eb- enezer Eastman, Jo- seph and Edward Ab- bott, John Merrill, and forty or fifty others, including employees, had arrived, and at once engaged "in The Meeting-house. building the meeting- house, in clearing and fencing lots," and in other labors incident to the beginning of a permanent settlement.6 The "meeting-house "-
1 Bouton's Concord, 86.
2 Ibid, 127.
9 Ibid, 126. 4 Ibid, 125.
" The allotments of the second division are tabulated at the close of this chapter, with quantity of land, locality, and names of owners. No plan is to be found. See notes at close of chapter. See Bouton's Concord, 125-27.
6 Depositions of Richard Hazzen, Joseph and Edward Abbot, and others in the Bow con- troversy, cited in Bouton's Concord, 210-11.
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THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
otherwise denominated the "block house," or the "garrison house " --- was the first building to be reared, and was early completed for use. It was a modest structure of hewn logs, newly felled in the primeval forest where it was placed. Its length was forty feet, and its width twenty-five. Its roof was low-ridged, and without chimney or tower. Its door opened midway the length, and unglazed port-hole windows pierced the sides. The exterior of the structure, in its solidity with- out beauty, was matched by an interior of rude finish and scanty fur- nishing. It stood in the second range of house-lots, on the west side of the main highway, by an eastward-flowing brook, not then named " West's," and where, in after years, was to be the northwest corner of Main and Chapel streets. With repairs and "amendments," it was to answer its purposes, religious and secular,-in other words, as a church and a town house, for nearly a quarter of a century.
During the season, some of the uplands were put in process of clearing, and portions of the interval were plowed and planted with Indian corn, while the native grass was cured into hay. It is asserted that Samuel Ayer, a young proprietor, was the first to plow " a field in Penacook." House-lots were prepared to receive the home build- ings of hewn logs. Indeed, Ebenezer Eastman, a veteran of the Port Royal and Canadian expeditions of fifteen years before and now a leading spirit in this plantation enterprise, had his house ready for occupation in the fall of 1727, and there resided with his wife, Sarah Peaslee, and his six sons-Ebenezer, Philip, Joseph, Nathaniel, Jere- miah, and Obadiah-the first family of settlers resident in Penacook.1 The house-lot where was then the Eastman home, was the ninth in the second range of the original survey, not far south of the angle made by the modern Franklin street with the main thoroughfare. But in the second division of lots, early the next year, Captain Eastman received the sixteenth lot in the " Mill Brook range," on the east side of the river, and there he finally settled. It seems from tradition that Captain Eastman's team of six yoke of oxen, with a cart, accompa- nying the removal of his family to their new home, was the first out- fit of the kind to pass over the road lately cut "through the wilder- ness," from Haverhill to Penacook.2 The outfit proving somewhat unwieldy, found difficulty along the route, but especially towards the end, where, at precipitous Sugar Ball, the driver, Jacob Shute; after- wards a settler in the plantation, could secure a safe descent into the plain bordering the river, only by felling a pine tree and chaining it top foremost to the cart.3
1 Bouton's Concord, 90; Annals of Concord, 11 (note).
2 Bouton's Concord, 88; Annals of Concord, 11 (note).
3 Ibid; also, see notes at close of chapter.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
The arrival of Captain Eastman's family was probably soon fol- lowed by that of others. Certainly, Edward Abbott and his wife, Dorcas Chandler, passed the ensuing winter in the settlement. Pos- sibly they dwelt upon the lot, marked by the junction of the present Main and Montgomery streets, where they surely dwelt some years later.1 However that may be, to the worthy pair was born, on the 15th of February, 1728, a daughter, to whom was given the mother's name, and who was the first white child born in Penacook. It was not till nearly two years later that the first male child, Edward Abbott, was born in the plantation and of the same parents.
Now, of the work of settlement, thus successfully pushed in the plantation established by Massachusetts, the government of New Hampshire was not an idle spectator. On the 20th of May, 1727, it granted-"as it is believed without actual survey " 2-the town- ships of Bow, Canterbury, Chichester, and Epsom. The grant of Bow, to one hundred and seven proprietors and "their associates," comprised eighty-one square miles, and covered about three fourths of the plantation of Penacook, and much adjoining territory on the south and southwest. This action was taken with a view to the practical enforcement of the warning given in May of the previous year, to the committee of the General Court of Massachusetts, then engaged in laying off the lands in Penacook. New Hampshire was determined to resist, pending the settlement of the boundary line be- tween the two provinces, the claim of Massachusetts to the posses- sion of all lands to the southward of the line three miles " northward of the Merrimack from mouth to source." The grant of Bow in- volved mischief to the Massachusetts settlers of Penacook, for there was to come of it to them a long, vexatious, and injurious contro- versy, the history of which belongs to a period twenty-five years later.
The next year (1728), at a meeting of the settlers, called at their " desire " by the court's committee, and held, on the 6th and 7th of March, at the house of John Griffin, in Bradford, an appropriation was voted to discharge accounts for " laying out the second division of intervale, for building the block-house, making canoes," and for other purposes. A committee, consisting of Ebenezer Eastman, Joseph Hall, and Abraham Foster, was appointed "to amend the new way from PennyCook to Haverhill." The same committee had in charge " to fence in," by the last day of May, " all the first divis- ion of intervale "; each proprietor having the choice "to fence in his proportion, or else to pay the committee for doing it."
1 On or near the site of the residence of the late Eliphalet S. Nutter.
2 Bouton's Concord, 206 (note).
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THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
At this meeting action was also taken towards securing the regu- lar preaching of the gospel. Accordingly, Joseph Hall and John Pecker " were empowered to agree with a minister to preach at Pen- nyCook, the year ensuing ; to begin the service from the fifteenth day of May." The committee received also injunction "to act with all prudence, and not assure the gentleman more than the rate of one hundred pounds per annum for his services."
Other business of a financial character, or connection, having been transacted, as, ordering one hundred pounds to be raised " for defray- ing past and future charges "; appointing collectors " to demand and receive, and, if need be, sue for and recover in the law," arrcarages on sums previously raised ; making appropriations to individuals for services rendered, and choosing Deacon John Osgood, treasurer, the meeting was continued by adjournment to the 15th of May, then to be held " at the block-house in Penny-Cook."
At this adjourned meeting,-the first of the kind held by the set- tlers on the soil of their new plantation, and the earliest forerunner of " Concord town-meetings,"-Captain Henry Rolfe was moderator, with John Wainwright, of the court's committee, clerk. The prog- ress of the settlement was evinced in the appointment of Henry Rolfe, Ebenezer Eastman, and James Mitchell, as a committee, to procure the building of a sawmill within six months, " to supply the town with good merchantable boards of yellow pine, at thirty shil- lings per thousand, and white pine boards at forty shillings per thousand-or to saw of each sort to the halves "; and also "to agree with some person or persons to erect a grist-mill," within a year, and " to oblige the builder or builders to grind the town's corn of all sorts, well and free from grit, for the usual toll." It was fur- ther provided that " fifty pounds of bills of credit " should be paid, and " fifty acres of land " granted for building each of the mills, and that the builders should " be entitled to the said lands and also to the stream or streams upon which the mills " stood, " so long as they " were "kept in repair, and the design of the town in having them built " was " answered "; this title to hold good, if the mills should be "providentially consumed." As already scen, provision had been made for canoes to navigate the river ; but now another ad- vance was made in taking steps towards a more effective mode of crossing the stream by authorizing Ebenczer Eastman, Abraham Fos- ter, and Joseph Hall, "to agree with some person to keep a ferry on Merrimack river," and "to clear the best way they " could "to the ferry-place "; the ferriage to be sixpence for " each man and horse," and fourpence " for each horned beast."
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