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 32
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The Mirrour existed till 1799; its conductor publishing mean- while, for six months of the year 1797, a literary and miscellaneous weekly, called The Star, and printed " in a small octavo of sixteen pages." After the discontinuance of the Mirrour and The Star, Mr. Russell, in 1801, commenced the publication of the Republican Gazette, as the organ of the political party supporting the adminis- tration of Jefferson. This paper lived two years, or until 1803; Hough's Courier, till 1805.
When the first printing press was set up in Concord, and the first newspaper form worked off upon it, the population of the town, ac- cording to the first census of the United States, taken in 1790, was seventeen hundred and forty-seven-showing an increase of seven hundred twenty-five in fifteen years. A rudimentary postal system existed, under which inter-communication was somewhat expedited. Concord was a point whence and whither " post-riders " on horseback
296
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
passed through the country on various lines, carrying letters, news- papers, and packages of light transmission. Samuel Bean rode once a week from Boston to Concord and back, on a route lying through Andover, Haverhill, Atkinson, Kingston, Exeter, Epping, Notting- hanı, Deerfield, and Pembroke, and on return through Londonderry.1 About the same time and somewhat later, John Lathrop-already spoken of-also rode post from Concord through Boscawen and intermediate towns to Hanover, and thence up along the Connecticut river to Haverhill, returning by way of Plymouth and New-Chester, otherwise Hill.1 Lathrop, if not Bean, may have been a post-rider under the law passed by the state legislature of 1791, establishing "four routes for posts to be thereafter appointed to ride in and through the interior of the State." 2 Two of these routes proceeded from Concord, passing through the principal towns westward to Keene, and northward to Haverhill.3 Under this state law one per- son was appointed in each of the towns of Portsmouth, Dover, Exe- ter, Concord, Amherst, Keene, Charlestown, Hanover, Haverhill, and Plymouth, " to take charge of all matters conveyed by the posts "; 4 receiving as compensation twopence, advanced on the postage of every private letter or package passing through the respective offices.4 "The postage, which on single letters was sixpence for every forty miles, and fourpence for any number of miles under forty, was granted exclusively to the post-riders."5 New Hampshire assumed this temporary authority in postal matters for the reason, it seems, that the post-office department of the general government was not yet in complete working order; though there had been a postmaster- general since 1789 in the person of Samuel Osgood, and that of his successor, Timothy Pickering. Probably, George Hough was ap- pointed under the state law to take charge, in Concord, of what was conveyed by the posts. Certainly, in June, 1792,-the last year of Washington's first presidential term,-he received appointment as the regular postmaster of the town, with commission signed by Timothy Pickering, second postmaster-general of the United States.6 The first location of the post-office thus established was doubtless in the building before mentioned, where Mr. Hough was printing Con- cord's first newspaper.
Seven months after the issue of the first newspaper in Concord, another step of judicious progress was taken in proceeding to the erection of a public building to answer, primarily, the purpose of a state house, and secondarily, that of a town house. The New Hamp- shire legislature was then a migratory body, yet there were encour-
1 Bouton's Concord, 310.
2 Barstow's New Hampshire, 289.
Bouton's Concord, 310.
4 Ibid, 311.
5 Barstow's New Hampshire, 290.
6 Bouton's Concord, 588.
297
STATE AND TOWN HOUSE.
aging indications that Concord would ultimately become the perma- nent place of session and the capital of the state. Hence, the town resolved to take action, and, accordingly, on the 30th of August, 1790, voted " one hundred pounds for building a house for the accommoda- tion of the General Court."1 For the encouragement of this under- taking, fourteen prominent citizens 2 had subscribed five hundred and fifty-five dollars, " in labor and materials." The building was ordered to be " set on land 3 of Mr. William Stickney, near Deacon David Hall's." This land was given by the owner on condition that if the town should neglect or refuse to keep a public building on it for three years it should revert to him or his heirs.4 With Captain Reuben Kimball as building agent, a house was forthwith erected upon a sloping elevation, westward of the main street, and nearer to it than later structures that took its place. It was one-storied, eighty feet long, forty feet wide, and of fifteen-feet post. Its eastern front run-
ning lengthwise of the street, had its door without porch in the center, flanked on either side by three large windows, and opening inside upon "a spacious entry." On the north side of this pas- sage was finished a room for the house of representatives ; on the south side, one for the senate. These rooms not occupying the entire width of the build- ing, space was left along the rear or westerly side for small committee rooms. To complete the inside arrangement, a stairway led from the entry to a small Old Town House, 1790. gallery overlooking the two legislative rooms. Outside, from the cen- ter of the roof rose a low cupola, surmounted by a vane ; both being the handiwork of Ephraim Potter, the sailor, as well as the versatile mechanic, who had already made of wood some of the first clocks used in Concord, and had exercised his ingenuity upon the belfry and spire of the " Old North Church " at the time of its renovation.
The town-meeting, which, on the 30th of August,5 had ordered the erection of the building, was the last ever held in the meeting-house ; for on the 13th of the following December," the next meeting con- vened in the "Town House,"-as the yet unfinished structure was
' Town Records, 262.
2 See list in note at close of chapter; also, Bouton's Concord, 305-6.
3 Part of the lot where later was to stand the building known as the City Hall and Court House.
4 Bouton's Concord, 306.
" Town Records, 261-2.
6 Ibid, 262.
298
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
called,-being the first of the long line of Concord town-meetings which were to be held there for more than sixty years. There, too, the state legislature, migratory till 1808,-permanent afterwards,- was to find convenient quarters, to be exchanged in 1819 for a more commodious capitol. Though early so far completed as to answer the purposes of erection, the town house was not "finished " till 1796, upon an additional appropriation of sixty pounds.1
On the 7th of September, 1791, commenced the sessions of a con- vention for revising the state constitution. These were held in the meeting-house where, seven years before, that constitution had been adopted ; and where, too, three years ago, the constitution of the United States had, by ratification, been made the fundamental law of the American Union. To this convention the people had chosen many of their ablest men; one of whom was Timothy Walker, of Concord. The work of the convention, which required four sessions, -the longest continuing sixteen days,-was completed on the 6th of September, 1792, when it was ascertained that, upon a second ap- peal to the people, the amended constitution had been approved. The work as completed proved so satisfactory to the people that for nearly sixty years they allowed no attempt to amend.2 The amended constitution went into full operation in June, 1793, when the legisla- ture elected under it met in Concord, and Josiah Bartlett, President of the state for the two preceding years, was inducted into the chief magistracy as Governor, being the first to wear that title in New Hampshire since the days of the Province.
Hitherto, the Merrimack within the limits of Concord could be crossed by ferries only. In 1795 some of the public-spirited citizens of the thriving town bestirred themselves to substitute bridges. In January the legislature, in answer to a petition, granted to Peter Green and others the exclusive right to build and support a bridge between Butters's-formerly Merrill's-ferry and Concord south line, and prescribed the tolls for reimbursing the proprietors for expense incurred in building and supporting the bridge. Its stock was divided into a hundred shares, and was largely taken by residents of Concord.3 On the 9th of March, 1795, Paul Rolfe-son of Colonel Benjamin Rolfe-was chosen clerk of the proprietors, and Captain Reuben Kimball, Major Enoch Gerrish, and Captain David Kimball were selected as "directors or overseers." This bridge, named " The .Concord," was erected on the site always thus to be occupied by itself and similar structures, and, for nearly a hundred years, to bear
1 Town Records, 296.
2 How Concord voted upon the amendments does not clearly appear from the Town Records, pp. 272, 274.
" Bouton's Concord, 326.
299
BRIDGES AND TURNPIKES.
the same name.1 It was completed on the 29th of October, 1795, at an actual cost of thirteen thousand dollars, upon an estimate of ten thousand.2 On that day it was opened for public use, with consid- erable display of popular interest. A procession, headed by Major William Duncan, assisted by Captain David Davis, " with music and a guard of four men," 2 passed over the bridge in the following order, as set forth in the records of the proprietors: (1) The building committee ; (2) The treasurer and clerk; (3) The Rev. Israel Evans, with Mr. Wood and Mr. Parker, ministers of Boscawen and Canterbury ; (4) The proprietors ; (5) The workmen, with the master workman at their head ; (6) The spectators in regular order. The proprietors' dinner was served at William Stickney's tavern near the town house. Thus, "in conviviality and mirth," as the ancient record has it, was spent the opening day of the first bridge to spau the Merrimack in the town of Concord, and near the site of the first regularly established ferry in the plantation of Penacook.
On the 28th of December, 1795, two months after the completion of Concord bridge, another legislative act incorporated Timothy Walker, Benjamin Emery, William Partridge, Jonathan Eastman, Joshua Thompson, and others, their associates, to be known as the "Pro- prietors of Federal Bridge," for the purpose " of building a bridge over the river Merrimack, at or near a place called Tucker's Ferry in Concord." This ferry had formerly been called "Eastman's," for Captain Ebenezer Eastman, its first proprietor. It was on the prin- cipal thoroughfare between " the Fort," or East Concord, and " the Street," or main settlement. The charter required the completion of the bridge within three years, and the payment of four hundred and fifty dollars to the proprietor of Tucker's ferry. At the first meet- ing of the corporation, held at the inn of Ebenezer Eastman, in East Concord, on the 18th of January, 1796, Captain Benjamin Emery was chosen moderator, and Stephen Ambrose clerk. The stock, as in the case of the other bridge, was divided into one hundred shares, and mostly subscribed for by citizens of the town.3 All the requisi- tions of the charter having been duly complied with, the bridge was opened for use at a location somewhat above, or westward of, that of succeeding structures bearing its name.
This bridge building in Concord was closely connected with the inception of the turnpike system in New Hampshire. The legisla- ture on the 16th of June, 1796, passed an act incorporating the " New-Hampshire Turnpike," being the first of fifty-three corpora- tions of the kind in the state. Among the corporators named in the
1 By resolution of city council, Jan. 17, 1893, changed to " The Pembroke."
2 Bouton's Concord, 327.
$ Ibid, 328.
300
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
act was Peter Green, one of those to whom had been granted "the exclusive right to build and support " the Concord bridge. The turnpike charter was enacted in answer to the prayer of a petition, setting forth " that the communication between the seacoast and the interior parts of the State might be made much more easy, conven- ient, and less expensive " than hitherto, "by a direct road from Con- cord to the Piscataqua bridge "; but that "the expensiveness " of such an undertaking would render it difficult of accomplishment, " otherwise than by an incorporated company," to be " indemnified by a toll for the sums that should be expended " by it.1 This turn- pike was promptly completed, running thirty-six miles, through the towns of Durham, Lee, Barrington, Nottingham, Northwood, Epsom, Chichester, Pembroke, and Concord, and between the Piscataqua and Merrimack rivers. It led well on towards Portsmouth, whose " pro- gress and prosperity " were then thought by many usually sagacious observers to be "more assured than those of Boston." 2 The southern terminus of the road was at the Piscataqua bridge, which spanned the river, with half a mile of planking, between Durham and Newing- ton, and was esteemed a marvel of bridge building. At the Merri- mack, in Concord, the turnpike had two termini: one, at Federal bridge, being that of the main line; the other, at Concord bridge, being that of a branch diverging from the main line on the Dark Plains and running southwesterly to the river.
Here, to promote convenience and succinctness of narration, a few facts out of chronologie order will be added as to bridges and turn- pikes. About 1806, the Londonderry turnpike, one of the charter grantees of which was William Austin Kent, was opened. It had its northern terminus in Concord, at or near the subsequent junction of West and Main streets. It extended to Massachusetts line, at or near Andover bridge.& Its course in Concord lay along the thorough- fare afterwards to be known as Turnpike strect. Within thirty years after the first turnpike was chartered, the popular demand for free roads became urgent ; and in 1824 the town authorized the select- men to purchase " that part of the New Hampshire Turnpike-includ- ing the Branch-which " lay " in Concord, for a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars."4 Subsequently, likewise, the part of the Lon- donderry pike lying in Concord became one of its free highways. But not, until they had existed more than half a century, did the two bridges become the property of the town, and thus free from tolls. The proprietors' franchise in each was at last acquired by the town, through the payment of fifteen hundred dollars. This occurred in the case of Federal bridge in 1850, when that structure, in rebuild-
1 Mcclintock's New Hampshire, 456.
3 Afterwards Lawrence.
2 Ibid, 457.
4 Bouton's Concord, 371.
301
LIBRARY AND MUSIC.
ing, found location where a bridge of that name has ever since stood. Eight years later, Concord bridge also became free.1
While seeking corporate privileges for business enterprises promo- tive of material advantage, public and private, the leading minds of the community sought also, by similar organization, to supply good reading, and to encourage musical culture, for the enlightenment, elevation, and refinement of the people. Thus, in 1798, a legislative act was procured, incorporating Timothy Walker, John Bradley, Jonathan Eastman, and their associates, by the name of " The Pro- prietors of the Concord Library," and authorizing them to raise money by subscription, donation, and otherwise, and to hold property for the benefit of the library to the amount of one thousand dollars. This first public library in Concord, though neither a town institu- tion nor largely endowed, contained a fair collection of valuable books, and "proved highly useful for about twenty-five years."2 . Thus, too, in 1799, a musical society was incorporated, and its organ- ization effected, with Timothy Walker for president, John Odlin clerk, Timothy Chandler, Richard Ayer, and Jonathan Eastman for trustees. For years this society efficiently contributed to improve- ment in the art and science " of sacred music," its efforts being mate- rially aided by the funded gift of five hundred dollars, made by Dea- con Joseph Hall.3
Before the organization of this society Concord's third minister had, through the exercise of musical talent, been introduced to the favor of the people, and from the desk of the singing-school had gone to the pulpit of the town. Asa McFarland, a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, who was graduated at Dartmouth college in 1793, and was employed there the four subsequent years as preceptor of Moore's Charity School and as a tutor, had been wont to spend some of his vacations in Concord as a teacher of vocal music.4 In 1797 the Reverend Israel Evans resigned the pulpit and was regularly dis- missed after eight years' service. The " ecclesiastical council, com- posed of the elders and delegates of the neighboring churches," in dissolving " the pastoral relations between Mr. Evans and the church and people " of Concord, recommended him "to the churches and to the work of the ministry wherever God in his providence " might " open a door."5 He never resumed pastoral service, but continned to reside in Concord till his death in the month of March, 1807, in the sixtieth year of his age. To mark his grave in the Old Burying Ground was set the first monument of marble erected there.6
1 Sixth City Report, 24. 4 Ibid, 532, 582.
2 Bouton's Concord, 329.
3 Ibid, 532.
G Town Records, 308.
" Other facts in the life and career of Mr. Evans have their place in the special chapter of ecclesiastical history.
302
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Soon after the retirement of the second minister, Mr. McFarland had been employed to preach as a candidate; and in December, 1797, received a unanimous call from the church "to settle in the ministry in the town."1 With this action the town concurred on the 28th of the same month, in a vote giving " Mr. Asa McFarland three hundred and fifty dollars salary yearly, and the use of all the im- proved land belonging to the parsonage right, and liberty to cut wood and timber on the out lands, as much as he " might "want for his own use during his carrying on the work of the ministry in the town."2 To this vote twenty-two individuals entered their dissent ; most of whom, however, afterwards cheerfully contributed their an- nual tax to the salary.3
Mr. McFarland, having accepted the call, was, at the age of nearly twenty-nine years, duly ordained on the 7th of March, 1798. This service was superintended by a committee, consisting of Captain Richard Ayer, James Walker, Jonathan Eastman, Jacob Carter, and John Batchelder, " with power to make provision at the expense of the town for the council and delegates " that might attend from ten churches invited to participate.4 On that ordination day Concord was the center of attraction for the people of towns around it, even to the distance of twenty miles, and the main street was thronged with sleighs bringing spectators and participants. Around and near the meeting-house were displayed refreshments for sale-not exclusive of " spirituous liquors." With music, a procession, comprising with others the ordaining council, passed from the town house to the meeting-house, where the sermon for the occasion was preached by the Reverend John Smith, the learned professor of ancient languages in Dartmouth college. The usual bountiful "ordination dinner " was served, probably at " William Stickney's tavern "; where, as tra- dition positively asserts, " a splendid ball in the evening " wound up the exercises of the day.5
While the people of the town were intent upon pursuits of peace, two alarms of war had come, testing their readiness to aid their country. When, in 1794, a dangerous rebellion arose in Pennsyl- vania against a direct tax laid upon distillers of whiskey, and a fierce Indian war was raging in the West, the call for troops made by the general government in preparation for the worst was promptly met in New Hampshire. At a special town-meeting held in Concord on the 8th of December, it was voted " to give, in addition to the conti- mental pay for" the "town's quota of minute-men, so much as" should " make each one's pay eight dollars per month ; and that one
1 Bouton's Concord, 320; Town Records, 313. 4 Town Records, 316.
2 Town Records, 313.
3 Bouton's Concord, 320.
" Bouton's Concord, 321.
303
WAR ALARMS-POLITICS.
month's pay be advanced to each man when " he should " be called to march."] The call to march never came, for the " Whiskey Rebel- lion " was suppressed, and the Indian war was ended by forces already in the field. Again, in 1797, when, during the warlike embroilment with France, provision was made for raising eighty thousand men, with Washington at their head, the military spirit of the country was again aroused. Concord duly heeded the call. Forty of the most respectable citizens enrolled themselves as continental minute-men, while a company of volunteers from Concord and adjoining towns was organized with Nathaniel Green, of Boscawen, for captain ; Moses Sweat, of Concord, first lieutenant ; and Israel W. Kelly,2 of Salisbury, second lieutenant. Benjamin Gale, of Concord, also served as commissary. The town voted on the 28th of December, 1797, that the men enlisting should " have ten dollars with what the Con- gress " gave ; "and if called into service " should " have one month's pay in advance"; and further, that the selectmen should " give those persons that " enlisted "a handsome treat at the expense of the town." 3 How effective a stimulus to enlistment this last offer proved to be is not a matter of record. The company, however, after a short rendezvous at " Mother Osgood's tavern," marched to Oxford, Massachusetts, and there ' awaited further orders. But American naval prowess, the accession of Napoleon Bonaparte to power in France, and the wise policy of President Adams wrought peace, so that no active service was required of the troops called out for the anticipated struggle, locally called " The Oxford War." 4
In course of these years strong party spirit was generated from the foreign relations of the United States. Indeed, ever since the adop- tion of the constitution two parties had existed; the one strictly con- struing that instrument, and insisting more strenuously upon state sovereignty than upon a strong central government; the other con- struing more liberally the fundamental law, and laying less stress upon " state rights " than upon a strong government of the Union. The former were called Republicans, the latter, Federalists. Wash- ington was a Federalist, and, from the popular faith in him, was twice elected president without party opposition. But during his second term a fierce partisan spirit was aroused at his determination to main- tain neutrality in the war between France and England, especially as evinced in his earnest support of the Jay treaty with England, in 1795, by which peace, much needed by the United States, was pre- served with that country. This measure, the expediency of which time was ere long to vindicate, was opposed by the Republicans, sympathizing strongly with France, and favored by the Federalists,
1 Town Records, 286.
2 Afterwards a resident of East Concord.
3 Town Records, 313.
Bouton's Concord, 323.
304
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
with sympathies less decidedly set in that direction. Washington declined a third term, and, in 1796, after a warm contest, the Fed- eralists clected John Adams to the presidency, but by only three electoral votes over Thomas Jefferson, the candidate of the Republi- cans, who under the unamended constitution became vice-president. The Federalists were dominant in New Hampshire and in Concord ; though in the latter Timothy Walker several times received more than twice as many votes as John Taylor Gilman, the successful Fed- eral candidate for governor. Thus, in the spring of 1796, the vote in Concord stood one hundred and forty-four for Walker and fifty-three for Gilman. Both these gentlemen, however, were chosen in Novem- ber of that year to the electoral college of New Hampshire, whose vote was cast for John Adams. The same party complexion was retained in town and state during the Adams administration, and even to a later period ; though in the nation at large the Federal party, by incurring popular odium through the enactment of the "alien and sedition laws," and by partially breaking with the president in his policy of maintaining peace with France, came to defeat in the year 1800. But neither then nor for some years later did " partisan politics become permeated by enduring heat; and only few men, not the mass as now, had formed the habit of diligently following up current political events." 1
In 1785 a committee, consisting of Benjamin Emery, Joseph Hall, John Bradley, Reuben Kimball, and Joseph Farnum, was appointed "to lay out the Main street in Concord ; "2 but the work was not completed, and the final report, with plan annexed, accepted by the town till 1798.3 The width of the thoroughfare in the original allotment was ten rods ; but the settlers had advanced two rods on each side, leaving the public highway only six rods wide. In some cases even this width had been infringed upon by a few feet or inches ; and the duty of the committee had been to note the ill- fringements, and to define accurately the course and width of the road by permanent metes and bounds. This duty was done along a distance of nearly a mile and a half from Butters' tavern or "corner " northward to " Judge Walker's barn." This was " the Street ; " and by this name " the whole village was also known in town and out of it."4 It was, however, as yet only "the Centre road " 5-as occa- sionally designated in the records-and without sidewalks, so that pedestrians sometimes found inconvenience, especially in winter. The town sought to obviate this difficulty somewhat by voting " that
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