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 14
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The settlers, thus busily intent upon advancing the interests of their
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plantation, received, on the 6th of August, 1728, from the legislature of Massachusetts, upon a petition presented by John Osgood, permis- sion "to extend the south bounds of the township one hundred rods, the full breadth of the town," as an equivalent for the five hundred acres formerly laid out to the right of Governor Endicott,-otherwise the Sewall Farm. On the same day, and by the same legislature, was granted to the volunteers under Captain Lovewell, a portion of the wilderness to the southward, six miles square, and named Sun- cook, described as "lying on each side of the Merrimack," and " of the same breadth from the river as Pennicook," and " beginning where Pennicook new grant determines." The territory of Suncook was largely included in that of Bow. As New Hampshire had, the year before, laid the township of Bow over the greater part of Pena- cook, so Massachusetts now laid the greater part of Suncook over Bow. Such territorial overlapping-such a shingling of hostile grants, so to speak-was not conducive to peaceable occupation, as subsequent events were to attest.
As already mentioned, action had been taken by the settlers, early in the year, with a view to securing regular religious service. Little is known of the immediate result of that action. It is certain, how- ever, that Reverend Enoch Coffin and Reverend Bezaliel Toppan, both proprietors, and both Harvard graduates, occasionally occupied the pulpit of the log meeting-house ; for early the next year (1729) an allowance of four pounds was granted to the heirs of the former, and thirty shillings to the latter, "for preaching and performing divine service at PennyCook."1 At the meetings of the settlers, held in May and June of 1729, the subject of "procuring a minister " was a prominent one. At the June meetings, a committee, enlarged from two to seven, and consisting of John Osgood, John Pecker, John Chandler, Ebenezer Eastman, Nathan Simonds, William Barker, and Joseph Hall, was appointed " to call and agree with some suitable person to be minister of the town of PennyCook," at a salary of " one hundred pounds per annum " to " be paid by the community." Another sum of "one hundred pounds " was " allowed to be paid out of the company's treasury as an encouragement to the first minister for settling as " such, "and taking pastoral charge." At the subse- quent adjourned meeting in October, "every proprietor or intended settler " was assessed " in the sum of twenty shillings, towards the support of an orthodox minister, . for the current year." Though the permanent supply of preaching had not then been secured, yet it is probable that, in course of the year, Timothy Walker, of Woburn, a young man of twenty-four, and four years out of Harvard
.
1 See note at close of chapter.
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THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
college, made his first appearance in the Penacook pulpit, and there continued his services, more or less constantly, until his "call " to the pastorate in 1730.
In those days, too, the attention of the settlers was steadily directed to providing suitable roads within the settlement, and the region to the southward which had been their home. To facilitate the crossing of the Soucook and Suncook rivers fell to them exclu- sively, in the absence of neighbors to share the labor and expense. As a westward branch of the original Haverhill road, a new path, also, had to be opened leading directly from the Soucook crossing to the southerly part of the main settlement growing up along the west bank of the Merrimack. Hence, in proprietors' meeting on the 6th of May (1729), William Barker, Timothy Johnson, and Nicholas White were instructed " to make a fordway over Sow-Cooke river, and clear a way thence to the Merrimack river against the Eleven Lots, at the charge of the community." Within a year, and to another committee, consisting of John Pecker, Ebenezer Stevens, and Abraham Bradley, was assigned the duty, "to amend and repair the necessary roads in Pennycook, and also, to build a good bridge over Sow-Cook river, at the cost of the settlers "; being the first structure of its kind to span a Concord stream. At the time when the branch way to the Merrimack against the " Eleven Lots" was ordered to be cleared, Nehemiah Carlton was " desired, for the sum of ten pounds to build a ferry-boat, about nineteen feet long, and of suitable breadth, well timbered well caulked, pitched, or turpentined, and furnished fit to carry people and crea- tures." This was forthwith "to be delivered, with a pair of good and suitable oars, at PennyCook, for the use of the society." Already Henry Rolfe had built a " ferry-boat for the carrying of the com- munity and company over the river Suncook," for which he was allowed five pounds. Carlton's boat was soon plying on the Merri- mack, at the Eleven Lots ; and in March, 1730, in accordance with the action of two years before, a ferry was definitely established at or near the former "ferry place." It was then decided that "John Merrill " should "have the ferry, with twenty acres of land near ": the ferriage to be " two pence for a man, and four pence for a horse " or other " beast "; and, after twenty years, " one penny per man " of " the inhabitants of PennyCook," and " three pence " a head for " beasts." This ferry, which later bore the name of Butters's, had location at some distance to the northward of the place where, more than sixty years later, a bridge-ever after to be maintained- was to be built over the Merrimack. On the hillside towards the west, the ferryman's twenty acres were laid out; and there his house
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stood near the lower end of the main thoroughfare, where has long been a parting of roads.1
By 1729 " Mr. Simonds and company "-as designated in the record-had completed, on Mill brook, the first sawmill, and, half a mile below this, the first grist-mill, as provided for by the settlers the year before. The stones of the latter were taken from Rattle- snake hill ; 2 the crank of the former was brought from Haverhill on horseback. Soon after the mill was put to use it was disabled by the breaking of this iron crank-with no blacksmith short of Haver- hill. But necessity suggested relief. A forge of blazing pitch-pine knots having been extemporized, the broken member, splintered with beetle-rings and wedges, had its fracture so reduced, and so knit in a thorough weld, that it was almost as good a crank as ever.3 The inconvenience of having the nearest blacksmith shop fifty miles away must have been felt by the settlers in other instances than this. So the next year (1730), provision was made to secure the services of a resident smith, in the vote " that Mr. Cutting Noyes " should " have fifty acres of land : ten of which " were to " be laid out against Mr. Pecker's lot, . . sixteen rods front, and extending back from the highway," ten rods ; 1 while " the other forty acres " were " to be laid out in some of the other divisions : provided " he should " do the blacksmith work for the town for ten years." On these terms the first smith cast in his lot with the farmers and carpenters of Pena- cook.
The new sawmill supplied convenient lumber. The settlers were not slow to avail themselves of this advantage in repairing their meeting-house, and providing it with " a floor of planks or boards." The mention of this improvement suggests the more important fact that soon the pulpit of that modest edifice was to be occupied by a settled " orthodox minister." On the last day of March, 1730, the settlers reappointed the committee of seven, selected in June of the preceding year, and instructed it " to agree with the Rev. Mr. Timo- thy Walker, in order to his carrying on the work of the ministry in PennyCook for the year ensuing, and to treat with " him "in order to his settlement " in that " work." At the same time provision was made for " a speedy " additional " repairing of the house of worship." Six months later, " the General Court's committee " notified "the pro- prietors and grantees to assemble at the meeting-house " in "Penny- . Cook, on the fourteenth day of October," and "then and there to choose a minister," fix the terms of settlement, and arrange " for his ordination." At the meeting held in accordance with this order, it
. 1 See note at close of chapter.
2 Bouton's Concord, 545.
8 Annals of Concord, 11 (note); Bouton's Concord, 93.
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was " voted by the admitted settlers, that they" would " have a min- ister "; that " the Rev. Mr. Timothy Walker " should "be the minis- ter of the town "; that the committee of seven should " agree with " him " upon terms " of settlement ; that he should "have one hundred pounds for the year ensuing "-this to " rise forty shillings per annum till " coming " to one hundred and twenty pounds," 1 which should " be the stated sum annually for his salary "; that " salary " should " be paid in whatever " should " be the medium of trade, for the time being, in " the "province, at silver seventeen shillings per ounce "; and, finally, that " the one hundred pounds formerly voted, to enable the minister to build a house " should "be paid in eighteen months' time." These stipulations were rounded off with the careful pro- viso, "that if Mr. Walker, by extreme old age," should " be dis- enabled from carrying on the whole work of the ministry, he " should abate so much of his salary as " should be rational." A committee was then selected, consisting of " Deacon John Osgood, Mr. John Pecker, Mr. Benjamin Nichols, and Mr. Ebenezer Eastman, to dis- course with Mr. Walker about the time of his ordination, and to appoint the day ; also to request " such churches as they " might think proper, to send their ministers and messengers to assist in" the services, the committee being authorized "to appoint suitable entertainment " for the guests.
Mr. Walker having formally accepted, by letter, " the invitation to settle in the ministry," his ordination occurred on the 18th of No- vember, 1730. As to this important event in the history of the new settlement, present information is but meager. No tradition describes that earnest assemblage of strong-hearted pioneers, the early men and women of Penacook, gathered, with their guests, in the humble church on the cleared rim of the leafless forest of that November day. Something is known of the services of the impressive occasion, though of the visitants, present on invitation, the names of only three,-ministers of Massachusetts churches,-have been preserved. These, John Barnard of North Andover, Samuel Phillips 1 of South Andover, and John Brown of Haverhill, were of the coun- cil, if not its sole constituents. The charge was given by Mr. Phil- lips ; the right hand of fellowship by Mr. Brown. The sermon was preached by Mr. Barnard, and in this the preacher urged the people " always to rejoice and strengthen the hands of their min- ister by their concord "-words which embodied an appeal not un- heeded in the coming years, while, by pleasant accident, they included the future permanent name of the settlement. On that occasion, too, the first church in Penacook was organized, with eight members,
1 See note at close of chapter.
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including the pastor. The expenses of the ordination, as afterward allowed and paid, amounted to thirty-one pounds ten shillings. Thus the new pastor embarked with the people of his eharge; and, to them, in things secular as well as religious, he was ever to be a safe pilot. The week after his ordination, he brought to Penacook his wife, Sarah Burbeen, of Woburn, the bride of a fortnight, in company with the wives of several other settlers, all withi brave and hopeful hearts, making the journey on horseback, over the wilderness road to their new homes beside the Merrimack.
The requisition made in the beginning, upon " the intended set- tlers," as to a place for divine worship and the settlement of a minister, had now been com- plied with, while other requirements of " the community " had been or were to be duly met. Henee, this same year (1730) Henry Rolfe, John Peeker, and John Chandler were ap- pointed to lay out a suitable burying-place. Accordingly, the house-lot situated between numbers thirty-eight and forty in the third range, or the continuation of the second, on the west side of the highway afterward named State street, and left vacant in the original drawing of lots in 1727, was appropriated to that purpose.1
Old Burying-ground,
The proper fencing of the interval was another requirement, to meet which demanded persistent effort in the early years. The action taken upon this matter, in March, 1728, has already been mentioned. The result of that action seems to have been unsatisfactory, for in December the court's committee was petitioned to appoint a meeting of " the community and society of PennyCook, to see if they " could " come into some way and method to preserve their corn," inasmuch as they "received great damage last year, in " their " corn for want of a fence." At the meeting appointed in compliance with the peti- tion, and held by adjournment on the 12th of March, 1729, it was voted "that a good and substantial fence, according to law," should "be made, to enclose the great interval, and secure the corn and mowing grass from the encroachment of cattle, horses, &c."; this to be done " at the charge of the proprietors in said field in equal shares . . . and to be completely finished on or before the 15th day of May" ensuing. At the same time, Messrs. Ebenezer Eastman, Ebenezer Stevens, John Chandler, John Pecker, and Nathan Simonds, were
1 The site was the present " Old Burying Ground;" also, see plan of lots at close of chap- ter.
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THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
instructed as a committee, " to see that the fence be made sufficient, according to the law and maintained accordingly "; with power, should " anyone refuse to make and maintain his part of the fence, to hire " it " made at the charge of the delinquent," who should " pay ten shillings per diem for every laborer employed by the committee to make or repair such delinquent's fence." The next year similar and effectual action was taken respecting " the general fence at PennyCook." Moreover, as additional security against dam- age from stray beasts, a pound was ordered to be built, and David Barker and Jacob Shute were chosen "field-drivers," whose duty it was to look after wandering animals, and to impound them, if neces- sary. It was not, however, till the next year and under a new vote that the pound was built ; when, also, Nathaniel Abbott and Ezekiel Walker served as field-drivers, and the former as poundkeeper.
The financial requirements of the pioneer community occasionally encountered individual delinquency. But the delinquents met with no favor from the body of proprietors, who manifested the steady purpose to bring every admitted settler to contribute promptly his part towards advancing the enterprise. Hence, as early as 1728, Solomon Martin was " admitted a settler in place of Nathaniel Bar- ker," who had forfeited his right by " refusing to pay his proportion- able charge." The next year complaint was made that " sundry persons " had " refused to pay in their respective proportion of charges," to the hindrance and discouragement of the settlement. Therefore " due inquiry " was ordered to be made as to " what per- sons " were "in arrearages," so that immediate payment might be demanded of them. "Upon their refusal or non-payment," they were to be reported "to the General Court's Committee . that their honors " might " proceed with them with the utmost rigor and severity." And so, in 1730, William Whitcher, Nathaniel Sanborn, Thomas Coleman, and Thomas Wicombe forfeited their rights, and their lots were assigned to Joseph Gerrish, Henry Rolfe, Nathan Webster, and Joseph Parker each of whom paid five pounds for the lot thus received.1 But there was one requisition in the original grant which the proprietors were unanimously reluctant to meet ; hoping that it might be partially, if not wholly, remitted. This was the stipulated payment of five hundred pounds to the prov- ince of Massachusetts,-five pounds for each of the hundred admitted settlers. To secure this payment, the proprietors, after ineffectual application for relief from what seemed to them an onerous condition, and before drawing their lands, had each given a bond for his share, payable on demand. And now in the last week of September, 1730,
1 Bouton's Concord, 90-1.
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the General Court's committee, in calling the grantees to a meeting in " PennyCook," to choose and settle a minister, " more especially notified each proprietor to prepare the sum of five pounds ordered by the General Court in the grant of the township,-and respectively pay the same to the committee at the house of Mr. Sted- man, taverner, in Cambridge, on Wednesday, the twenty-first of October, at ten o'clock before noon, as " thus would be avoided " the trouble and charge of having their bonds put in suit at the next court." At the meeting thus notified, which was held in Penacook, on the 14th of October, "Mr. Pecker and Ensign Chandler were chosen to " meet the General Court's committee at the time and place specified and " to pray their forbearance with the proprietors, relating to the five pounds due from each proprietor to the province." What " forbearance," if any, was obtained, is not known. But that the five hundred pounds were paid before the next March seems certain, for at that time, in a petition to the Massachusetts legislature for the con- ferring of town privileges, the proprietors set forth that "they " had " paid into the hands of the committee of the General Court the con- sideration money for their lots "; and they prayed " that the court would order that one hundred pounds, or more, of the money " thus paid in might "be reimbursed them, for the extraordinary charges they " had " been at," in " building a meeting-house, settling a min- ister, making highways, et cetera." It appears that, upon this peti- tion, or some other, the entire sum of five hundred pounds was in some form reimbursed. 1
Penacook was still a plantation, though, all along, it had been fre- quently designated as a " town " or "township." Indeed, in 1729, the settlers had petitioned the General Court " to empower" them to raise money to pay public charges, by making the settlement a town- ship invested with " the powers and privileges " of other towns with- in the province. This petition proving ineffectual, another was pre- sented in 1730, likewise without attaining the desired result. But in March, now that " the conditions of the original grant of the plan- tation had been complied with," 2_including the five hundred pounds of "consideration money " paid in,-the settlers presented to the General Court the petition mentioned in the preceding paragraph, setting forth expenses incurred and the likelihood of " difficulty " to be met with " in gathering the money thus laid out," and "therefore praying that they " might be made a township.
This petition having been somewhat considered by the General Court, was, on the 6th of March, "referred " to the May session. But this reference was accompanied by an important order regulating
1 Bouton's Concord, 132.
2 Ibid, 103.
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THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
the plantation, and granting it approximate town rights and privi- leges. It authorized Henry Rolfe to call a meeting of the inhabitants and grantees "at the meeting-house," on the 29th of March, 1731, and of which he was to be moderator. It provided for the choice of a clerk, assessors and collectors of taxes, a constable, fence-viewers, and hog-reeves-all to be sworn by the moderator. It empowered the grantees and settlers to agree on ministerial and other "rates and taxes," to be "levied equally on the lots except" those " of the ministry " and the " school," and all to be "paid into the hands of the assessors, by them to be disposed of for defraying the ministerial and other charges of the plantation." It instructed " Henry Rolfe to take an exact account of what " was " done in each lot in fencing, building, and improving," and lay the same before the court at the next May session. It authorized " the committee for the settlement of the plantation " to grant anew the lots of delin- quents "to such other persons as " should " speedily and effectually " comply " with the terms of their grants and the orders of the Court." And, finally, the order declared the plantation "to lie in the county of Essex,"-a declaration for which the settlers had petitioncd two years before.
At the meeting held pursuant to this order, the list of officers sug- gested by the general court was filled by election. Benjamin Rolfe, son of the moderator, and a recent graduate of Harvard college, was chosen clerk. He was a rising man, and had already served as recording officer at the meeting of "the admitted settlers," held the previous year for the choice of a minister. About that time, too, John Wainwright, who had kept the records of the court's committee and of the proprietors, resigned, Rolfe becoming his successor, as proprietary clerk, or, as he was sometimes designated, " clerk for the settlers and grantees of PennyCook." At this first meeting, in connection with the choice of two hog-reeves, it was voted " that the hogs" might "go at large." It was also voted "that the fence " should "be made up round the general field by the fifteenth of April, and also creatures kept out of it after that day," and " that the general field be broken, the fifteenth of October." To effectuate this action, fence-viewers and field-drivers were chosen, and also a pound was definitely ordered to be built,-as before men- tioned,-and a pound-keeper chosen. Moreover, " Abraham Brad- ley, Ebenezer Eastman, and William Barker, Jr.," were made "a committee to mend the highways . ,
. " in other words, to be highway surveyors. "Two hundred pounds" were raised for the payment of the "minister, and defraying other necessary charges "; while the assessors-who by committee assignment per-
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formed some of the duties of selectmen in the absence of these offi- cers from the official list-were instructed "to clear the minister's and ministery's six acre lot, at the charge of the community."
The meeting was kept alive during the year 1731 by. three or four adjournments, with Henry Rolfe as permanent moderator. At the first adjournment, on the last day of March, the attention of the set- tlers was almost exclusively devoted to taking the first steps towards establishing the "School." This important action was embodied in votes, ". . . that ten pounds " should " be levied on the grantees, to be laid out for the instructing of the children in reading, et cetera ; that the school " should " be kept in two of the most convenient parts of the township "; and "that Mr. Ebenezer Eastman and Mr. Timothy Clement " should, as a committee, "lease out the six acre lot belonging to the School, to David Barker for the term of four years." Unfortunately, no further historical record, no additional tradition even, is extant as to this interesting initial movement in education-the future pride and blessing of the community.
At the third adjourned meeting, on the 21st of October (1731), a committee was " chosen to settle the bounds of Sewall's Farm". Hitherto, repeated mention has been made of this valuable tract of five hundred acres, originally Endicott's grant. It had sup- plied, as will be recollected, a leading motive for changing the origi- nal purpose of the Penacook grant, which was to locate the first fifty settlements on the east side of the river. In 1729 Captain Eben- ezer Eastman had taken from Judge Sewall a lease of the farm for thirty years ; agreeing to pay as rent ten shillings the first year, with an increase of ten shillings each succeeding year, till fifteen pounds should be reached,-this sum to be paid annually afterwards. He was to improve the land by cultivation to the value of one hundred pounds; to build a timber house and barn together worth the same sum ; to leave on the farm one hundred pounds' worth of fences of stone or timber; to plant, in a regular orchard, five hundred apple trees, and to set out one hundred other fruit trees, such as cherry, pear, quince, and plum.1 Before 1731 the farm was sold to Joseph Gerrish and Henry Rolfe, of Newbury, to whom the annual rent was afterwards paid.2 In that year Captain Eastman was reported as having " broken up, cleared, and mowed eighty acres," 3 ." 3-a portion of which doubtless belonged to this farm.
The plantation was thus trying its capability for town government, as best it might, in the leading strings of the general court of Massa- chusetts. That capability the court would test, under liberal though
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