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 26
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The act of incorporation obtained, at last, was " humiliating," 3 in one respect at least, "to the inhabitants of Rumford," who would have preferred to be expressly " erected into a town," rather than into a "parish of Bow "-a style of expression denoting how hard it was for the provincial authorities to make the concession so long withheld. But the people made the best of the disagree- able style thus given, inasmuch as Concord was essentially and practically a town; and order was to come again out of the munici- pal chaos of the last fifteen years ; during which, as in all the for- mer years of their settlement, they had manifested an "unanimity of purpose and action "4 fitly commemorated in their new corporate name.
The new apportionment of the province tax, mentioned in the act of incorporation, came nearly three years later. Until that time Concord and Bow proper were rated together. But the arrangement was unsatisfactory to both ; and in August, 1767, the inhabitants of Bow, by their selectmen, complained in petition to the general assembly that they were " greatly abused "5 by being so rated. In September a new apportionment was ordered upon an inventory to be taken ; and early the next year " a bill for a new proportion " was passed and approved, in which Bow and Concord were rated apart, and another disagreeable entanglement was forever relieved.6
The boundaries assigned to the parish of Concord differed some- what from those of Penacook and Rumford. The portion of the
1 See next chapter.
2 Town Records, 105-6-7-8.
3 Bouton's Concord, 243.
4 Ibid, 242.
5 Ibid, 245.
" See note at close of chapter.
240
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
north line west of the Merrimack which was understood originally to have begun at the middle of the "Contoocook's mouth," now begun at the southerly side thereof, where the south line of Boscawen, incorporated by New Hampshire in 1760, had origin. Originally, too, the part of the north line east of the Merrimack ran easterly three miles to the east boundary line-the junction of the two form- ing the northeast angle of the old township ; now the north line ran eastwardly only six hundred and six rods to what was called the " south west line of Canterbury." Thence along this line one was run southeast two miles and eighty rods, to meet the original east line of Penacook, and the latter was thence pursued southerly to the Soucook river, but did not cross it as it formerly did. From the southern extremity of the west line, which was the original one, the south line coming eastward on the old course crossed the Merrimack, and stopped also at the Soucook without crossing it. Thus neither of these lines completed its original seven miles ; while the Soucook between their termini became a part of the boundary of Concord.1
By this bounding the original northeast corner of Penacook and Rumford-being a triangle of ten hundred and twenty-five acres, more or less-was left to Canterbury. This piece of land had been asked for by Canterbury in a petition presented to the general assembly in 1760, to which remonstrance had been made by the leading men of Rumford.2 After Concord was incorporated the gore was a bone of contention between its proprietors and those of Canterbury, for sixteen years-or till 1781-when a settlement was effected ; the former quitclaiming one hundred and fifty acres, and the latter eight hundred and seventy-five acres.3 Finally, on the 2d of January, 1784, by the act of the state legislature, the gore was severed from Canterbury and annexed to Concord.4
To give a connected and satisfactory view of the boundaries of Concord, it becomes necessary still further to anticipate dates. Be- yond the easterly line of Concord there was left to Bow a triangular piece of land enclosed by the Soucook river, the westerly line of Canterbury- afterwards Loudon-and the original east line of Rum- ford. This " Bow Gore " came to a point in the highland a little to the east of Oak hill, and contained about thirteen hundred and seventy-nine acres.5 Southwestward of this was left out of Concord, by stopping the original south and east lines at the Soucook, a gore included by the prolongation of those lines and the part of the river between their new termini. The former of these gores was, on De- cember, 13, 1804, by legislative act, annexed to Concord,6 and the
1 See Badger's map accompanying History. ‘N. H. Laws, 1780-1784, p. 501.
2 Bouton's Concord, 226-7-8. 5 Bouton's Concord, 242.
& Proprietors' Records (manuscript), Vol. III, " Ibid; N. H. State Papers, Vol. XXVII, 151.
241
CONCORD A PARISH OF BOW.
latter to Pembroke.1 At the same time still another gore, sometimes called " Bow Gore" or "New Concord," lying southward of the south line, and enclosed by it and the Merrimack and Soucook rivers, was severed from Bow and united with Concord. The south boundary line at the " Great Bend," or " Bow," of the Merrimack, below the " Eleven Lots," crossing the river at two points, left on the Bow side a tongue of land containing about forty acres, which, in 1856, became a part of Concord. Thus, finally were settled the bounds as they have remained to the present day.
The act incorporating Concord was declared to be "an act for setting off a part of the town of Bow, together with some lands ad- joining thereto, with the inhabitants thereon." These " adjoining " lands comprised that fourth part of Rumford which was not covered by the incubus of Bow lying obliquely over it. There were ten families upon that fraction of territory when the act was passed ; a fact showing that population had spread out to some distance from the main settlements along the Merrimack. Pioneers had made their homes on the outskirts of Rumford, especially towards the west and north. Thus Ezekiel Dimond had built his log house close by Hop- kinton, on the hill 2 which was to bear his name. There he dwelt having Daniel and Jonathan Chase as neighbors, and sometimes be- ing compelled by Indian alarms to seek refuge for himself and family in Parson Walker's fort, where once his good wife finished the weav- ing of her web, snatched from the loom at home, and borne away with "yarn-beam," wound about with "reed and harness." $ To the northward, near "Broad Cove" of the Contoocook, was the home of Enoch Webster. Down the river at the "Borough," Richard Elliot, returning from ranger service in the recent war, had settled, and had erected his sawmill at the "Outlet." North- eastward, near the mouth of the Contoocook, the brothers, Benjamin and Nathaniel Rolfe, had their farm. The wildwood site of modern Penacook was coming under white occupation, though the occupants might hear at night the howling of wolves near by, and see the " cattle, conscious of danger," huddled "in some corner of the field," with the older and stronger enclosing the younger and weaker in an instinctive posture of defense.4
While the unoccupied lands were turning into farms, the first decided moving of that mercantile activity which was to distinguish Concord was felt in the principal settlement. In 1761, Andrew Mc- Millan, who had arrived in America at the beginning of the recent
1 Senate Proceedings, Pamph. Ed., 146; see also note at close of chapter.
? Where is now (1900) the farm of Isaac N. Abbott,
3 Bouton's Concord, 642.
' Ibid, 236.
17
242
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
war, in which he had served, came to Concord, and commenced trade in a one-story shop standing at the northwest angle of the modern Main and Pleasant streets. This enterprising merchant and influen- tial citizen carried a miscellaneous stock of dry goods and groceries, including, after the custom of the time, a supply of liquors and wines. His ledger showed sales of tea and coffee; of sugar, pepper, and raisins ; of buckram, cambric, and gauze; of broadcloth and blue "camblet"; of hat-crape, men's gloves and women's ditto, white and black ; of buttons and silk thread ; of chalk and powder, mugs and punch-bowls ; of combs, pipes, and post-paper; of snakeroot and clove-water ; of rum (West India and New England), brandy, and wine, by the quart or gallon -- sometimes, the glass-to say nothing of the occasional " bowl of toddy."} These items indicate the de- mands of the community, and the mention of them is suggestive of the wants and habits of the people. Colonel McMillan's business part- ner for one year-the year when Rumford became Concord-was Timothy Walker, Jr., the minister's only son, who subsequently opened a store of his own at the North End, near his father's resi- dence, and there continued in trade "until the beginning of the Revolution." 2
There exists no record of the public school in Rumford during the troublous years of war and litigation, and of confusion resulting from deprivation of town privileges; but it is safe to infer that school instruction found some support from voluntary contribution, in the absence of power to make a school tax. Certainly, home instruction was not entirely lacking, and boys and girls, with no more than six wecks' schooling in their lives, became, through the efforts of intelli- gent parents, fairly adept in reading, arithmetic, and penmanship. Such training, some, at least, of the ten children of Ezekiel and Miriam Dimond received-and not infrequently under difficult conditions ; as, when, on winter evenings, they lay down before the great kitchen fire, and in the light of blazing pitch-pine knots practised their writ- ing lessons upon birch bark.
Inasmuch, too, as the minister's salary could not be mnet by taxa- tion, that charge had to be defrayed, for sixteen years, from the vol- untary offerings of the people, who, even amid Indian alarms and land litigations, would not forsake the public worship of God. And when, in 1751, the ancient log meeting-house by West's brook be- .came too small to accommodate the worshipers, and was falling into decay, a way was found to secure a new one, notwithstanding the disability to act in the capacity of a town. Individuals, called " The Proprietors of the Meeting-House," purchased the acre and a half lot,
1 Bouton's Concord, 233-4-5.
" Ibid, 579.
243
CONCORD A PARISH OF BOW.
lying eastward of and near the burying-ground, and numbering four in the second range of house-lots, as " laid out to the original right of Nathan Fisk, alias, Zachariah Chandler."1 On this was erected, in that year, " the main body " of a house, which in time was to under- go much change. This structure was framed "of the best white oak," and "was sixty feet long, forty-six wide, and two stories high."2 It was three days in "raising," commencing on the 12th of June. A " large gathering of people" was in attendance, and the women of the parish cooked and provided food " on the spot." The new house of worship, when made reasonably available for use,- though it was to remain unfinished for years,-had neither porch nor gallery, belfry nor spire. Its one door opened from the south upon an aisle that led to the pulpit on the north side. Along the aisle, and flanking the pulpit, "were coarse benches," on which sat the wor- shipers,-men and women apart; the former, on the west side, the latter, on the east. The pulpit had near it the minister's pew,-the only pew,-and before it the " deacon's seat," on which those digni- taries sat confronting the congregation. Such was the Old North church when it was new,-an unadorned temple, but endowed with an untold wealth of social, moral, and religious blessings for a whole community dwelling upon an area of more than forty square miles.
NOTES.
Captain Chandler's Scout, 1754. The following are the names of the men in command of Captain John Chandler: Obadiah Maxwell, Phineas Virgin, Moses Eastman, Edward Abbot, Jr., Jacob Potter, David Kimball, John Hoyt, Jonathan Fifield, Thomas Merrill.
List of Rumford Men in Fifth Company of Colonel Blanchard's Regiment, 1755. Besides the names of the officers and men of the company given in the text, the following complete the list: David Copps (sergeant), Nathaniel Morse (clerk), David Evans (corporal), Obadiah Maxwell, Nathaniel Rix, Jonathan Chase, Ebenezer Copps, Asa Kimball, Ebenezer Simonds, James Farnum, Reuben Simonds, Judah Trumble, Isaac Walker, John Webster.
Rumford Men in Colonel Meserve's Regiment, 1756. Major John Goffe of this regiment was also captain of its seventh company, in which were the following persons enrolled from Rumford : Thomas Merrill, 2d lieutenant ; Joseph Eastman, sergeant (perhaps, of Bos- cawen); John Straw, Jonathan Fifield, James Blanchard, Paul Fowler, Isaac Walker, 2d, Zebediah Farnum.
Rumford Men in Colonel Hart's Command and Elsewhere. The three mentioned in the text as connected with Colonel Hart's regi-
1 Bouton's Concord, 285,
? Ibid, 230,
244
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
ment in 1758, were: Edward Abbot, Ebenezer Simonds, and Nathaniel Eastman. It is also known that Daniel, Joshua, Samuel, and Jacob Abbot, Benjamin Bradley, Amos and Stilson Eastman, Richard Elliot, David Evans, Benjamin Hannaford, Stephen Hoyt, Philip Shute, and "no doubt others," as says Dr. Bouton, " were, for some time, engaged in the French and Indian wars, either in the regular service, or as Rangers."
Bow and Concord in 1768. Bow, at that time, counted 48 polls ; Concord, 179. Bow had £1,500 of ratable estate, and its propor- tion to £1,000 of the Province tax was £3 11s. Concord showed, under the same heads, £6,500, and £15 10s. N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. VII, 143 and 166.
Bow Gore. This included the territory east of the Merrimack, about Garvin's Falls.
Another Parcel of Bow Annexed. The parcel of Bow annexed to Concord in 1856 was, at that time, owned by Albert Foster and Leonard Bell. At an earlier date it belonged to Paul Rolfe, son of Benjamin Rolfe, so prominent in the early history of Concord.
William Phillips. After the French and Indian War, Phillips lived for some time in Rumford. Forming an acquaintance with Miss Eleanor Eastman, daughter of Ebenezer Eastman, Jr., he married her on a forged license. Tradition says that the marriage took place in Lieut. John Chandler's tavern. Instead of a minister, the marriage service was performed by a justice of the peace. They had one son. About the year 1784, Phillips's wife left him and joined the Shakers at Canterbury. Phillips afterwards led a roving, unsettled life. He finally became a town charge. It was at length discovered that he had once gained a settlement in Northfield, and he was put upon that town, where he died about the year 1819, supposed to be nearly one hundred years old. His wife died at the Shaker settlement in Canterbury, November 17, 1816, aged seventy. Bouton's Concord, 201.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PARISH OF CONCORD .- THE PERIOD OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
1765-1784.
By the act incorporating Concord, Samuel Emerson, of Chester, was appointed to call the first meeting of the parish for the choice of town officers, to be held on the third Tuesday of August, 1765. But some unexplained " accident intervening," the meeting was not duly called, and, of course, was not held. The general court tried again at the November session, and by special resolve, " directed and authorized the said Emerson " to call the meeting within the parish, "on the third Tuesday of January, 1766." This time the legislative order was complied with, and the first " legal meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of the Parish of Concord " was held "on the twenty-first day of January, 1766,"1 with Lieutenant Richard Haseltine, for moderator, and Peter Coffin, parish clerk. Certain other town officers, deemed of immediate necessity, were chosen ; such as, selectmen, tythingmen, surveyors of highways, a constable, a sealer of leather, and a sealer of weights and measures.1 This action served to lubricate the long disused wheels of town government, which were to be put into complete running order at the coming annual meeting in March, when the tenure of the officers elected at this time would expire.
On Tuesday, the 4th of March, that first annual meeting of Con- cord came, and Dr. Ezra Carter was chosen moderator, and Benjamin Rolfe, Esq., parish clerk. The officers elected in January were, with a few changes and additions, rechosen ; and the official list was completed by the choice of fence-viewers, field-drivers, hog-reeves, and surveyors of lumber. After the choice of officers, the first and only important business transacted was a vote to raise one hundred pounds, lawful money, "for paying the Reverend Mr. Walker's salary " for one year, "from the 26th of May, 1765, together with other necessary charges of the parish." ?
At a special meeting held on the 25th of March, the school was the main subject of action ; and it was voted " that the school shall be kept on the easterly side of the river, such part of the year as their rates for the school shall come to of the polls and cstates that
1 Town Records, 109.
2 Ibid, 110-11.
246
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
lie to the northward of Sugar Ball; also, at a place that will best accommodate those persons that live upon Contoocook road, north- ward of Nathan Colby's, and those persons that live westward of said road, such part of the year as their rates will pay ; also, at a place that will best accommodate those persons that live upon Hop- kinton road, westerly of Theodore Stevens, and westerly of Turkey river, such a part of the year as their rates will pay; and the remainder of the year it shall be kept in the town street, about the middle way from Captain Chandler's to Lot Colby's.1 This arrange- ment for "keeping the school in the several parts of the parish " was continued for some years.2 The "middle way" location of the school "in the town street," or principal settlement, was on the west side of Main street, between the points of junction therewith of the modern Park and Centre streets ; 3 Captain John Chandler's resi- dence being near the Bradley premises, and on the southerly side of the road running westerly by them; 3 Lot Colby's, at the Eleven Lots.3 Provision was also made during this year and the next, for letting the " interval lots," belonging to the school right, on the east and west sides of Merrimack river.
The highways, also, received early attention; for at the same meeting at which the school was regulated, it was " voted that each man " should, that year, " work five days upon the highways," and the "pound " -- the latter to be placed by the selectmen, where they should think best. One of the highway surveyors was Lieutenant Ebenezer Virgin, an original proprietor, a pioneer settler in East Concord, an enterprising man, and a valuable citizen. He died in office, and on the 10th of November, at a special parish meeting, Phinehas, the eldest of his seven children, was chosen to succeed him.4 Six years later, the specific sum of sixty pounds was raised for making and repairing highways-being the first definite appropri- ation for that purpose.
Among the matters requiring attention, under restored municipal order, was the province tax, which seems to have been promptly raised, though at first in entanglement with Bow. "For making the rates," the selectmen were allowed special compensation, and Benja- min Emery received "six pence on the pound for collecting the tax."5
It was at the annual meeting of the parish, in March, 1767, that Dr. Ezra Carter, presiding as moderator, performed the last of the many official duties entrusted to him by his fellow-citizens. His death occurred on the 17th of the following September, when he was
1 Town Records, 112.
4 Town Records, 113.
2 Ibid, 116.
3 See notes at close of chapter.
5 Ibid, 116.
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THE PARISH OF CONCORD.
only forty-eight years old. Since 1740, when, at the age of twenty- one, he had come up from South Hampton, with his father, three brothers, and a sister, to find a home in Rumford, he had successfully practised his profession, the regular study of which he had pursued. He had taken as a wife, while yet in her early teens, Ruth, the only daughter of the late Captain Ebenezer Eastman, and thus had con- nected himself with a family influential in the town. His own ability and usefulness as a citizen had been duly appreciated and put in re- quisition. As a magistrate, in the capacity of justice of the peace, he had striven to reconcile the differences of his neighbors,-often throw- ing in his fees to accomplish the result,-so that he had come to be called the "peacemaker." His genial wit and pleasant conversation made him a social favorite ; while, as has been said of him, "when called to visit the sick and desponding, he never failed to administer with his remedies for the body a cordial to the mind."1 " Benevolence and mercy " eminently characterized his life.
The first physician of Concord soon had two successors: Ebenezer Harnden Goss, who married Mary, a daughter of the Reverend Timo- thy Walker, and subsequently served as a surgeon in the Revolution ; and Phillip McCarrigain, or Carrigain, of Scotch descent, and of note in general and surgical practice. Henceforth, the medical profession was ever to be well represented in Concord.2
It was also in the year 1767 that Peter Green came hither from Worcester, and, at the age of twenty-one, opened a law office ; being the first representative of the legal profession to settle in Concord, and the only one, until sixteen years later, when Edward St. Loe Livermore became a resident practitioner in the parish. These two head the long list of Concord members of the bar.3
The same year the first census of the province was taken. The return for Concord showed seven hundred and fifty-two inhabitants, as follows: Sixty-two unmarried men, from sixteen to sixty ; one hundred and twenty-five married men, between the same ages; eigh- teen men, of sixty and above; one hundred and eighty-nine boys, of sixteen and under; two hundred and four unmarried females ; one hundred and twenty-six married women; fifteen widows; thirteen slaves-nine male, and four female.
The last item of enumeration is a reminder of the fact that slavery existed in those days north of Mason and Dixon's line, and even in New Hampshire. As it existed in this province, including Concord, it was of mild form; and the treatment of slaves was generally hu-
1 Annals of Concord, 35.
2 The special chapter on the Medical Profession will supply details as to these and other members thereof, which, consequently, will be omitted from this general narrative.
3 See special chapter on the Bench and Bar for detailed information as to these and sub- sequent members of the legal profession in Concord.
248
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
mane, and "their labor not more severe than that of white people."1 In Concord though the slaves were few, and the masters merciful, yet strange to the philanthropic sense of to-day seem the deeds of sale by which property in human chattels was then transferred. As when in 1761, " Hannalı Bowers of Billerica, widow, .
. sold unto Lot Colby of Rumford, a mulatto negro boy, named
Salem, and . . received forty-five shillings sterling in full con- sideration for the said boy."2 Or, as again, when Benjamin Osgood of Concord, in 1767, gave the following deed : " Received of Andrew McMillan, the sum of forty-seven pounds ten shillings lawful money, in full consideration for my negro boy slave named Caesar, aged about eleven years, which negro boy I have this day sold to said Mc- Millan, and promise to warrant and defend the property of the said negro boy to him the said McMillan, and his heirs or assigns forever, against the claims of any other person or persons whatsoever." 3
In accordance, however, with the spirit and fashion of that time, some of the worthiest men of the parish were masters of slaves. Colonel Benjamin Rolfe left, at his decease, as part of his property, a negro, appraised, in inventory, at fifty-five pounds lawful money.4 Abraham Bradley paid thirty bushels of corn for Pompey, a slave, who became " a favorite in the family." In his will, the kind master gave his slave to his grandson John, with this order to his executor : "To take especial care that my said negro be not wronged by my aforesaid grandson in any way; and if he should wrong him, I give him power to do him justice." Pompey was also given " the use and improvement of one half-acre of land, " on the family premises, "dur- ing his natural life."4 The Reverend Mr. Walker once had in his service a good-natured, faithful man, Prince, “ much attached to his master," and also two women, Luce and Violet, as domestics. These had their freedom " on the adoption of the State Constitution."5 Lieu- tenant Richard Herbert bought, in 1768, for five dollars, the little girl Nancy, when about eighteen months old, and brought her up with his family. She learned to read, and used to say in after years that she " was treated just the same as the other children," but she sup- posed " she did not expect so much "; and also that " she was never conscious of a wish that she had been born white."5 When she was fifteen years of age, the constitution of New Hampshire was adopted, with the declaration of its Bill of Rights, " All men are born equally free and independent," under which it was generally held that slavery in the state was abolished. The poor girl had dreaded the adoption of the constitution that would make her free, fearing that she might be
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