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 15
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1 Original lease in archives of N. H. Hist. Society.
2 Bouton's Concord, 553 (note).
$ Ibid, 129.
133
THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
temporary concessions, before granting absolute and permanent township rights and privileges. Definite information, also, as to the actual condition of the settlement was insisted upon; hence, the order had required "an exact account " of what the settlers had done upon their lands to be taken and rendered. This duty, though assigned to Henry Rolfe, seems to have been done by John Wain- wright and John Sanders, two members of the court's committee, whose signatures alone stand attached to the report dated October 20, 1731, and certified to be "The account of the present state and circumstances of the Plantation of PennyCook, taken there by as careful a view as we could, and the best information of the principal settlers and inhabitants." 3
The general court's order of March, 1731, was substantially re- newed in January, 1732, but without empowering any person to call the first meeting. This omission hindered the holding of the " anni- versary meeting " in March, for the choice of officers and the raising of money, as authorized by the order. A legal way was at length found out for obviating somewhat the consequent embarrassment: A meeting of the settlers, not as "inhabitants " or " freeholders," but as "proprietors," had to be summoned. Richard Kent, of Newbury, a justice of the peace for the county of Essex, upon application of Jeremiah Stickney and four other "proprietors of PennyCook," issued to Nathaniel Abbott, a warrant "for calling a proprietors' meeting." Upon due notification, the settlers convened on the 14th of September (1732), and chose Ebenezer Eastman, moderator, and Benjamin Rolfe, clerk. They elected no other officers; but they agreed upon a more expeditious method of calling meetings, whereby, at the written request of ten of the "proprietors," the clerk could call a meeting "by giving fourteen days' warning." Five of these proprietary meetings were held in course of the year; and thus the settlers contrived to meet some of the requirements of the plantation. Thus, in September, they appointed a committee of six, with Ebenezer Eastman at the head, "to lay out a first division of upland to each grantee consisting of twenty acres in quantity and quality, in one or more pieces," leaving "land for sufficient highways." This "Twenty Acres Division " 2 was completed within two years. In October they raised " one hundred pounds for the support of" the minister. In November they ordered another division of land. This was entrusted to a committee of five, headed by Abraham Bradley, with instructions " to make amendments to the interval lots, in interval or other land." It required about two years
1 Bouton's Concord, 13 (Proprietary Records).
2 See note at close of chapter; Bouton's Concord, 127.
134
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
to accomplish this division, known as the "Emendation Lots."1 Preliminary measures were also taken at several of these meetings, as to building a sawmill and a grist-mill on Turkey river, for the use of the proprietors. The settlers, in a large majority, dwelling on the west side of the Merrimack, probably, found the location of the mills on Mill brook, on the east side, inconvenient; while from a vote of inquiry as to the condition and management of the latter mills, adopted about that time, it is a reasonable inference that there were other causes of dissatisfaction.
In December, 1732, the settlers of Penacook, by Henry Rolfe, made petition to the authorities of Massachusetts that " some meet person " might be empowered " to call the first meeting of the inhab- itants for the ends and purposes " of the January order of that year ; thus affording relief from " many hardships and difficulties." Where- upon, on the 21st of December (1732), Governor Belcher " consented to " the following order, which, the day before, had been concurrently agreed upon by the council and the house of representatives : " Or- dered that Mr. Benjamin Rolfe, one of the principal inhabitants of the plantation of PennyCook be and hereby is fully impowered to assemble and convene the inhabitants of said plantation, to choose offi- cers and to do other matters, in pursuance of an order of this court at their session, begun and held at Boston, the first day of December, 1731 ; which officers, when chosen, are to stand until the anniversary meeting in March next."
In accordance with this order, Benjamin Rolfe, on the 8th of Jan- uary, 1733, "set up " the following notification at the meeting- house door in PennyCook : "The inhabitants of the Plantation of PennyCook are hereby notified to assemble and convene at the meet- ing-house in PennyCook, on the eleventh day of this instant January, at nine of the clock in the forenoon, then and there to choose a town- clerk, selectmen and constables, and all other ordinary town officers ; which officers, when chosen, are to stand to the anniversary meeting in March next." 2
This first meeting of the " settlers " was to choose " town officers" for the plantation. Having organized by selecting Ebenezer Eastman for moderator, and Benjamin Rolfe for town clerk, the settlers pro- ceeded to the elections. Under the privilege of choosing selectmen, -the privilege pre-eminently distinctive of the New England town, and now for the first time exercised,-they chose Captain Ebenezer Eastman, Deacon John Merrill, and Mr. Edward Abbott. These were also elected assessors. The purpose of assembling was fulfilled
1 See note at close of chapter; Bouton's Concord, 128.
2 Town Records (1732-1820), 1.
---
--
135
THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
by the choice of a constable, a town treasurer, a collector of taxes, a sealer of leather, two surveyors of highways, two tythingmen, two hog-reeves, two fence-viewers, and two field-drivers.
The first meeting having been dissolved, the newly-elected select- men, forthwith, as their first official act, issued a warrant to Nathaniel Abbott, constable, to summon "the inhabitants and freeholders" to a second meeting, to be held "at three of the clock in the after- noon " of that same 11th of January. Thus warned by the consta- ble's notification, set up at the meeting-house, the settlers met, and, with John Chandler as moderator, transacted the business specified in the warrant. This was comprised in two votes, raising one hundred and ten pounds " for the support " of the minister, and one hundred pounds " for defraying the necessary charges of the town or planta- tion."
The town-meeting, in its full import, had come to the " inhabi- tants " of Penacook, even before their plantation could legally be called a town. To this date the proceedings of the settlers' meetings had been exclusively matters of proprietary record; thenceforth the proprietary and town records were to be kept separately, but both, for some years, by Benjamin Rolfe.
The regular " anniversary " town meetings came on the 6th of March, 1733, and officers to serve for the ensuing year were elected, those chosen in January holding place only till March. There was an inclination, it would seem, to make the most of the newly-acquired privilege of choosing selectinen ; for a board of five, instead of three, was elected,-an incident of the office not again occurring in Con- cord, save in the years 1749 and 1850. In their town legislation the settlers, as usual in those days, first remembered the minister, and voted one hundred and five pounds for his support ; following this by an appropriation of two hundred pounds for other town charges. They provided for the safety of flock and herd by offering a bounty of twenty shillings to encourage the killing of wolves ; for the pro- tection of the crops, by promising a penny for every head of blackbird brought to the selectmen and burnt; and for the better security of human life, by ordering the payment of sixpence for every rattlesnake killed, the entire tail or black joint of it having been brought to the selectmen by " the destroyer of such snakes."
At a proprietors' meeting, held on the 26th of March, twenty days after the town meeting, the arrangements begun the year before for building mills on Turkey river were completed. Henry Lovejoy and Barachias Farnum were accepted for building the mills. They were to have the whole stream of the river in Penacook, forty acres of land adjoining the mills, and one hundred acres-within a
136
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
mile or two, and forty pounds in money or forty pounds' worth of work. In case of forfeiture, the proprietors were to pay them the value of one half of the iron work and stones. They were allowed to flow as much swamp as they could "for a mill-pond betwixt the first and second falls, below the lowest pond on Turkey river in PennyCook." They were not to be obliged to tend the grist- mill save on Mondays and Fridays, provided that during the term of ten years they should grind all the grain brought to the mill on those days. The mills were completed before 1735, at the lower falls of the Turkey, in the locality which came to be known as Millville.
At special town meetings, held in course of the year, special re- quirements were met. Thus, on the 5th of December, it was voted that thirty pounds should " be drawn from the town treasury to buy ammunition for the use of the inhabitants and freeholders of the plantation." 1 This action probably resulted from fears " entertained of the hostile disposition of the Indians, although no act of aggres- sion had been committed."2 At the same time, also, education re- ceived attention in a vote to appropriate sixteen pounds to the sup- port of " a school " for the winter and ensuing spring.8 It is said that James Scales, of Boxford, afterwards the minister of Hopkinton, was the first teacher, and that James Holt, of Andover, was his suc- cessor.4 Again, on the 16th of January, 1734, fifty pounds were given the minister " for building him a dwelling-house upon his giving the inhabitants and freeholders a receipt in full for his salary in times past until this day, for the decay of money, it not being equal to silver at seventeen shillings the ounce." 5 Hitherto Mr. Walker had lived in a log-house on the brow of the hill over- looking Horse Shoe pond. In course of the year 1734 he erected the frame house, two-storied and gambrel-roofed, which was to be his home through life, and in which were to dwell his descendants from generation to generation, standing through the years, " the oldest " structure of its kind " between Haverhill and Canada."
Penacook's transition from plantation to township, through the three years, 1731-'33, was now nearly made; indeed, for a year, the leading strings of foreign authority had been relaxed to virtual drop- ping. That town-meeting of January 16, 1734, was the last for Penacook as a plantation. For the petition of Henry Rolfe " for himself and the other grantees " was already, or forthwith would be, before the general court of Massachusetts, praying that the planta- tion might be erected into a township. That prayer would be an- swered, not many days hence, in an act of incorporation, whereby the Plantation of Penacook should become the Town of Rumford.
1 Town Records, 14.
2 Annals of Concord, 16.
3 Town Records, 14.
Annals of Concord, 16.
5 Town Records, 15.
137
THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
For eight years now had the favorite abiding-place of the red Pen- acooks been in the occupation of white men exclusively English in descent. The Massachusetts towns of Andover, Haverhill, Newbury, Bradford, Ipswich, Salisbury, and Woburn had contributed the strong, wise, and energetic pioneers of the settlement-the first two towns in nearly equal quotas. The record of the doings of these original set- tlers, given with some minuteness in this chapter, has shown them to have been a well selected hundred, and fully competent successfully " to prosecute their noble and hazardous enterprise." Such names as Rolfe, Eastman, Abbott, Merrill, Pecker, Chandler, Stevens, Walker, so often recurring in the narrative, while they individualize, do but represent the sterling New England qualities of the body of Penacook's early settlers, by whom the beginning was made which costs.
NOTES.
List of Admitted Settlers. The following list of the one hundred persons admitted "to forward the settlement " of Penacook appears in the Proprietors' Records, under date of "Saturday, Feb. 5th, 1725," as cited in Bouton's Concord, 67-68 :
Zebediah Barker, Christopher Carlton, John Mattis, William Whittier,
John Osgood,
John Austin,
Benjamin Parker,
Samuel Kimball,
Joseph Page,
Moses Day,
Nath'l Clement,
John Bayley,
John Sanders,
Samuel Ayer,
Joseph Hall,
Robert Kimball,
Joseph Davis,
Benjamin Niccolls,
Nathaniel Abbott,
Nehemiah Heath,
John Jaques,
Stephen Osgood,
Nath'l Sanders,
Bezaliel Toppan,
John Wright,
Abraham Foster,
Nathaniel Jones,
Ebenezer Stevens,
Nath'l Barker,
Eben'r Virgin,
Thomas Page,
Samuel Davis,
Thomas Wicomb,
Robert Peaslee,
Samuel Toppan,
John Peabody,
John Grainger,
Ammi Ruhamah Wise, Jona. Hubbard, for Jonathan Pulsepher, Daniel Davis, John Ayer, Jacob Eames,
William White,
Samuel Reynolds,
Joshua Bayley,
Nath'l Lovejoy, John Saunders, jun., John Chandler,
Thomas Perley, for Nath'l Cogswell, David Dodge, Benja. Carlton,
Isaac Walker,
James Simonds,
Thomas Blanchard,
Nath'l Page,
John Coggin,
Joseph Parker,
Edward Clark,
Jacob Abbott,
Nathan Parker,
Ephraim Davis,
Moses Hazzen,
John Foster,
Stephen Emerson,
Moses Bordman,
Timothy Johnson,
Richard Coolidge,
138
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Ephraim Farnum, Mr. Samuel Phillips,
Andrew Mitchell,
Nathan Fiske,
Benja. Gage,
Zerobbabel Snow,
Eben'r Eastman,
Nath'l Peaslee,
Nathan Blodgett,
David Kimball,
William Gutterson,
John Pecker,
Nicholas White,
Enoch Coffin,
Richard Hazzen, jr.,
John Merrill,
Samuel Grainger,
Richard Urann, Ephraim Hildreth, Thomas Colman,
Isaac Learned, Jonathan Shipley,
Benja. Stevens, Esqr.,
Edward Winn,
Eben'r Lovejoy,
David Wood,
Nathan Simonds,
William Barker,
Joseph Hale,
Obadiah Ayer,
James Parker,
Nehemiah Carlton,
Henry Rolfe.
Colonel Tyng. Colonel Eleazer Tyng, one of the committee, was somewhat prominent in Lovewell's war. He has also been mentioned as quartering at the " Irish Fort " in Penacook in 1725.
Lieutenant-Governors Wentworth and Dummer. At this time the two provinces had one governor, Samuel Shute, who was absent in England, and his functions were performed by the lieutenant-gover- nors.
First Religious Service in Concord. More than one hundred and seventy-three years later, or on the 26th of October, 1899, a commemorative monument of Con- cord granite, seven feet in height, and of becoming proportions, was erected upon the table land directly overlooking " Sugar Ball Plain," and the spot where -in the words of the inscription-was " conducted the first religious service ever held in the central part of New Hampshire, on Sunday, May 15, 1726." It was erected by the five Congregational societies of Concord. The movement was initiated at the fifty- sixth annual meeting of the Concord Congregational Union, November 10, 1898, when, upon a resolution presented by Joseph B. Walker, a committee of five, one from each society, was appointed upon the subject, consisting of John C. Thorne, Lyman D. Ste- vens, Charles E. Staniels, Charles H. Sanders, and
Monument to Commemorate First Service,
139
THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
Fred A. Eastman. On the 26th of February, 1899, the committee recommended " the erection of a monument upon a suitable spot at Sugar Ball, and that the sum of two hundred dollars be raised by apportionment among the five churches." The report having been adopted, and the committee authorized to carry into effect the recom- mendations made, the work was completed; Dr. Alfred E. Emery, of Penacook, giving nearly an acre of land upon which to erect the mem- orial stone. The introductory dedication exercises took place at the monument, consisting of Scripture reading by the Rev. George H. Dunlap of the East church, dedicatory prayer by the Rev. George H. Reed of the First church, and benediction by the Rev. Nathan F. Carter. Carriages were then taken for the East church, where the remaining exercises were held. A poem, written for the occasion by Harry A. Batchelder, of Melrose, Mass., was read by the Rev. Harry P. Dewey of the South church ; an historical address was delivered by Joseph B. Walker, and after dinner in the vestry, a sermon was preached by the Rev. Henry M. Goddard of the West church, fol- lowed by the rites of holy communion and the final benediction.
The Ford of the Soucook. It is said in the History of Pembroke, that this ford was probably located " about sixty rods northerly from the old PennyCook line, and about eighty above the old Head's Mills in Pembroke."
Early Haystacking. Joseph Abbott, in a deposition taken in 1752, during the Bow Controversy, testified that, the next spring after the allotment of lands, those engaged in building the block house in Pen- acook, " turned their horses to some stacks of hay, said to be cut there by some of the admitted settlers the year before."
The Minister's Lot. This was not " adjoining the land where the " first "meeting-house stood," as would seem to have been literally prescribed in the original grant.
An Ancient Vote. "Agreed and Voted-That threepence per tail for every rattlesnake's tail, the rattlesnake being killed within the bounds of the township granted at PennyCook, be paid by the in- tended settlers ; the money to be paid by the settlers' treasurer, upon sight of the tail." Proprietors' Records, Feb. 8, 1727.
The Plan Destroyed. Richard Hazzen was requested "to draw a plan of PennyCook," to be annexed to the "town's books." "The tradition is," says Dr. Bouton, "that he drew the plan, but, on account of some misunderstanding about the pay for it, he burnt it up."
Difficulties and Mishaps of Travel. It is related that Samuel Ayer, a young proprietor, once took a barrel of pork in a cart, drawn by six or ten pairs of oxen over the road from Haverhill to Penacook, and
140
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
having reached Sugar Ball descent, succeeded in getting down with- out accident, by taking off all but one pair of cattle, and fastening behind the conveyance a pine tree so trimmed that its stubby limbs would retard motion. But, in swimming the oxen to the west side of the river, he lost one of them by drowning. The flesh, however, being immediately dressed, the unfortunate animal afforded an acci- dental supply of beef, as a variety to the contents of the pork barrel which it had helped to bring forty miles over the rough road through the wilderness. The anecdote is told of Captain Eastman that, on a horseback journey to Haverhill, he bought a barrel of molasses, which he intended by some means to bring home with him to Penacook. He contrived what was called a " car," a conveyance made with two shafts which were fastened to the horse and to a drag on the ground. . With his barrel of molasses lashed to the car with ropes, on his homeward journey he got along well until, having crossed Soucook river, he had to ascend a high hill, near the top of which the horse made a short stop. On a new start, the ropes gave way and the barrel, in mad rush down hill, was dashed in pieces against a tree.
Enoch Coffin and Bezaliel Toppan. Mr. Coffin, as has been seen, preached on Sugar Ball plain, at the first survey in 1726. He was of Newbury, and died in the summer of 1728, at the age of thirty- two. Mr. Toppan was, at this time, about twenty-two years old, and a physician as well as a minister. He was a son of the Rev. Chris- topher Toppan, of Newbury, a clergyman of some note, who had taken much interest in the establishment of the plantation. The tradition exists that the son preached the first sermon after the settlement in 1727, under a tree, before the log meeting-house was built. He was afterwards settled in the ministry at Salem, Mass., where he died in 1762.
The Ferryman's Abode. The house of John Merrill, the ferryman, was at or near the junction of what were to be Turnpike and Water streets, northerly of the gas works.
The First Blacksmith. The ten-acre lot of Cutting Noyes, the blacksmith, seems to have been on the west side of Main street, somewhat south of the modern Warren street junction. Pecker's lot was No. 23 in the first range, and north of the modern Depot street. (See plan appearing elsewhere in these notes.) Cutting's forty acres were subsequently laid out on the east side of Main . street.
The Minister's Salary. "The late JJohn Farmer, Esq., estimated Mr. Walker's salary of £100, at $131.67; adding £20, it would be $156.83." Bouton's Concord, 97.
Rev. Samuel Phillips. This gentleman was an original proprietor,
-
141
THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
and was much interested in the plantation. He wrote to the court's committee, in 1726, requesting to be entered " as one of the proprie- tors," adding : "I have sons growing up, and the land which I have here settled upon is parsonage land." Two of those sons, John and Samuel, together founded Andover academy; while the former founded Exeter academy and the professorship of divinity in Dart- mouth college.
The " Twenty Acres" Division. No plan of this division has been preserved. The lots were laid off in different parts of the township. The original bounds are recorded in the Proprietors' Records, Vol. II. Ten of the lots were laid off north of the Contoocook road- extending from the north end of Main street into the neighborhood of the West village ; ten on the Hopkinton road, in the vicinity of the jail, westward of the Bradley monument; and several west of the " second range," on Main street. Bouton's Concord (Proprietary Records), 127.
" Emendation Lots." These lots were laid off in different parts of the township, and in different quantities, in order "to make the interval lots belonging to the proprietors equal as to quantity and quality." The bounds are given in the Proprietors' Records, Vol. II, but can scarcely be recognized at the present day. The division was made between November, 1732, and December, 1734. Bouton's Concord (Proprietary Records), 109-110.
142
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
FIRST SURVEY AND DIVISION OF HOUSE AND HOME LOTS ON THE WEST SIDE OF MERRIMACK RIVER, IN MAY, 1726, WITH PLAN.
Here follows the alphabetical list of the proprietors, with their house and home lots, and the plan thereof, referred to in a note to the text :
THE NAMES OF PROPRIETORS
ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED, WITH THE HOUSE AND HOME LOTS, LAID OUT IN MAY, 1726, AND SEVERALLY DRAWN IN 1727.
[By reference to the accompanying plan, the exact location of each settler may be ascertained.]
Number, Quantity, and Range of House Lots.
Six-Acre, or Home Lots, and Range.
No. Quan.
Range.
No. Quan.
Range.
Abbot, Nathaniel.
12
1%
Second Range.
53
8.74
Great Plain.
Austen, John ..
7
1%
First Range. Island Range.
9
5.
Island.
Ayres, John.
2
11%
Island Range.
6
9.16
Island.
Abbot, Jacob.
12
1%
First Range.
47
6.126
Great Plain.
Ayers, Obadialı
5
9.69
L'w'st Range*
Barker, Zebediah, alias Ed- ward Abbot.
16
1%
Second Range.
57
6.20
Great Plain.
Blanchard, Thomas
21
11/2
Second Range.
42
5.150
Great Plain.
Barker, William
36
172
Third Range.
59
634
Great Plain.
Barker, Nathaniel, alias Sol- omnon Martin.
19
1%
Second Range.
47
7. Great Plain.
Bayley, Joshua. .
33
11%
First Range.
24
6.104
Great Plain.
Boardman, Moses, alias Jo- sialı Jones. .
32
11%
First Range.
23
6.96
Great Plain.
Blodgett, Nathan.
15
112
Second Range.
56
6.
Great Plain.
Bayley, John, alias Samuel White .
14
1%
First Range.
8
5.130
Great Plain.
Clement, Nathaniel.
6
9.54
L'w'st Range* Second Range.
68
6.66
Great Plain.
Carlton, Benjamin.
18
1%
First Range.
12
5.110
Great Plain.
Carlton, Christopher.
5
115
First Range.
7
5.128
Great Plain.
Carlton, Nehemiah.
13
1%
First Range.
46
6.94
Great Plain.
Coolidge, Richard, alias Sam- uel Jones.
11%
3
10.
Wat'num.'s.
Coggin. John.
10
11%
Second Range. Island Range. First Range.
26
7.104
Great Plain.
Coleman, Thomas.
S
1%
First Range. Third Range.
2
8.50
Wat'num.'s.
Day, Moses.
25
11%
First Range.
19
4.100
Great Plain.
Davis, Joseph.
44
11%
Third Range. Third Range. First Range.
10
61
Wat'num.'s.
Dodge, David.
4
11/
48
5.73
Great Plain.
Davis, Ephraim
10
11%
2
5.32
Great Plain.
Eastman, Ebenczer.
9
11%
First Range. Second Range. Second Range.
70
63/4 Great Plain.
. Eames, Jacob.
23
1%
53 Great Plain.
Emerson, Stephen
9
11
3
5.128
Great Plain.
Foster, John.
20
11/2
First Range. First Range.
14
5.105
Great Plain.
4
113
Island.
Coffin, Enoch.
36
1%
4
5.128
Great Plain.
Cogswell, Nathaniel.
38
1%
8
6.93
Wat'num.'s.
Davis, Samuel.
46
115
Clark, Edward.
7
71
7}
Great Plain.
Chandler, John ..
7
1%
5
5.128
Great Plain.
Ayres, Samuel.
5
116
Names, Alphabetically Arranged.
* The Lowest Range was " The Eleven Lots," and (9 acres 69 poles) included House and Home Lots.
40
143
THE PLANTATION OF PENACOOK.
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