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 37
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"North, and South, and East, and West, Grateful homage have expressed- Greeting loud the nation's guest: Son of Liberty ;- Whom tyrants cursed-whom Heav'n approved- And millions long have mourned and loved- He comes, by fond entreaties moved, The GRANITE STATE to see."
John Virgin. This eccentric character, commonly called " Unele John," was always proud of his war service with General Harrison of " Tippecanoe " fame. Though in his later days he was an invalid, he determined to live upon his pension of ninety-six dollars a year, independently of everybody. For the last three years of his life he dwelt alone in a little hut near Sugar Ball, where he was found on the 24th of February, 1853, lying dead upon the floor, almost naked, with one hand in the stove, and with lower limbs frozen. Dr. Bouton (in History of Concord, 496-7) says of him : "He would
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
occasionally visit the main village, where his haggard appearance, and his loud, patriotic harangues always excited attention."
Captain Leonard's Artillery. 1812. The following Concord men served in Captain John Leonard's Artillery Company : Keser C. Powell, sergeant : Samuel Powell, Jonathan Stevens, corporals ; Eben Flanders, musician ; Solomon Mann, James Foster, Abial Bradley, Jonathan Elliot, 3d, Jonathan F. Elliot, Benjamin C. Waldron, Ebenezer Frye, Daniel Weeks, Benjamin York.
Captain Joseph Flanders's Company. 1813. The following men from Concord were in Captain Joseph Flanders's Company : Marshall Baker, lieutenant ; Ebenezer Frye, James and Samuel Emerson, Jona- than and John Urann, Daniel Arlin, Jonathan B. Worth, Nathaniel Parker, James Elliot.
Captain Nathaniel G. Bradley's Company. 1814. Concord sup- plied the following officers and men to this company: Nathaniel G. Bradley, captain ; Keser C. or Keyes B. Powell, sergeant ; Joseph Hutchinson, Elijah Munsey, Robert Haynes, Enoch E. Bradley, Willey Tasker, Loammi Reed, Amos Abbot, Hazen B. Elliot, Ben- jamin Bradley.
Captain Edward Fuller's Company. 1814. In this company were the following men from Concord: Reuben Osgood, corporal; John Farnum, David Knowles, Joseph Glines, Ephraim and Jerry Abbot, Barnard C. Elliott, Peter Powell, John Blanchard, Isaac Runnells, Jeremiah N. Howe, Joseph F. Dow, Joseph Tasker, William Hoit, Jr., Hazen Kimball, Ephraim Pettengill.
Captain Peter Robertson's Artillery. 1814. This company- officers and men-was entirely supplied by Concord, as follows : Peter Robertson, captain ; Samuel Herbert, 1st lieutenant ; Chandler Eastman, 2d lieutenant ; Walter W. Hill, Jacob Hosman, John Rob- ertson, William Bell, sergeants; Jeremiah Birch, Nathaniel Parker, Jeremiah Elliot, William Moody, corporals ; Jeremiah Glines, Harmon Eastman, Samuel Hosmer, musicians ; Moses Bumford, Moses East- man, Jonathan Elliot, Josiah Fernald, Cooper Frost, Thomas Green- leaf, Samuel Blanchard, Jacob Carter, Moses Dickerman, John Gould, Josiah Knowles, Robert Rogers, John Stanyan, John Wheeler, Charles Wait, Charles Whipple, Charles Herbert.
The Company of Volunteers. With Stephen Ambrose, captain, other officers were chosen, as follows: Samuel Sparhawk, secretary 'of state, 1st lieutenant; Nathaniel Ballard, 2d lieutenant; Ezra Hutchins, ensign ; Dr. Moses Long, G. W. Rogers, Samuel Davis, Samuel Runnells, sergeants. A majority of the more than one hun- dred privates comprised some of the oldest and most respectable cit- izens. among whom were: John Bradley, Charles Walker, William
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DEATHS.
Stickney, Captain Richard Ayer, Major Timothy Chandler, Captain Edmund Leavitt ; Captains John, Charles, and Jacob Eastman ; Jon- athan Eastman, Jeremiah Pecker, Millen and Asa Kimball, Asa Gra- ham, William A. Kent, Isaac Dow, John George, Philbrick Bradley, Ballard Haseltine, John Garvin, and Daniel Clark.
First Fire Engine Company. The New Hampshire Register for 1811 contains the following statement :
"CONCORD ENGINE CO .- No. 1."
" Incorporated Dec., 1808. The annual meeting is holden on the first Monday of October. Daniel Greenleaf, Captain; Abel Hutch- ins, Clerk ; James Ayer, Treasurer; Bowen Crehore, William Huse, Timothy Butters, Trustees."
Samuel F. B. Morse. "Repeatedly have we been honored with the presence among us of the late Professor S. F. B. Morse, who, we are proud to say, came to us early in his illustrious career as a painter of portraits, and who, leaving us, carried with him not only the picture but the heart of the fairest of our daughters. After he had completed his great invention of the electric telegraph and entered on his wide-world fame, he came back to us, and asked the privilege to look once more upon the very spot where he first met and was introduced to the beautiful bride of his youth-Lucretia P. Walker." [Dr. Bouton, in " Discourse on the Growth, etc., of Con- cord," June 17, 1875.]
Passed Away. During the sixteen years embraced in this chapter of the text, four citizens, whose names had been especially prominent in former narration, passed away: In 1804-September 1-in his ninety-first year, Philip Eastman, who accompanied his father Eben- ezer in the earliest planting of l'enacook, and took a leading part in the business of the proprietors and in town affairs; in 1809- January 26-in his eightieth year, Colonel Thomas Stickney, who filled places of important civil trust and duty in his town, and led his regiment to victory at Bennington; in 1815-July 16-in his seventy-second year-John Bradley, conspicuous for half a century in town affairs, and who had served repeatedly as a representative in the legislature, and as a senator five years in succession, from 1804 to 1808 inclusive ; and, in 1815, on the 8th of December, at the age of eighty-two, Colonel Gordon Hutchins, another honored citizen and Revolutionary veteran, to whose useful and patriotic services preced- ing pages have borne testimony.
CHAPTER XI.
THE TOWN OF CONCORD .- THE STATE HOUSE ERECTED .- THE TOLERATION ACT, WITH CONSEQUENT SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND TOWN .- MERRIMACK COUNTY FORMED .- OTHER EVENTS IN CHRONOLOGIC ORDER. a
1816-1830.
The town house, which had accommodated the general court since 1791, came, after nearly a quarter of a century, to be regarded as quite inadequate to the purposes of a state house. Accordingly, at the June session of 1814, a committee, appointed to consider the subject, reported in favor of building a state house: declaring that all the States of the Union, except New Hampshire, had provided themselves with a state house, and "located a seat of government"; and that it was "derogatory to a respectable and independent State to suffer the officers of its government to sit and transact the busi- ness of the State in a building mean in its appearance, and destitute of suitable accommodations." A committee was thereupon raised, consisting of John Harris, of Hopkinton, Benjamin Kimball, Jr., of Concord, and Andrew Bowers, of Salisbury, to sit during recess, designate a location, prepare a plan, ascertain the probable expense of erection, receive proposals therefor, and report to the next legisla- ture.
As instructed, the committee reported, in June, 1815, a plan, with an estimate of thirty-two thousand dollars for expense of a building of stone, according to an offer made by Stuart J. Park to complete the structure for that sum. The majority of the committee-being the members from Concord and Hopkinton-recommended the pro- posed building to be located in Concord, near the town house, and in a westerly direction therefrom. The report also announced that the inhabitants of Salisbury would contribute seven thousand dollars if the building should be located in that town. Thus, not so readily as Hopkinton, did Salisbury acknowledge defeat in the contest to become the capital of the state which had been settled in favor of Concord, seven years before. The legislature then appointed another committee to ascertain what appropriation would be made by Con- cord, or its citizens, should the building be located in accordance with the report just made. The committee found two local parties
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ERECTION OF STATE HOUSE.
of townsmen-the North End and the South End-contending, one against the other. Each party was willing to contribute a satisfac- tory sum, but to do so only upon condition that its own favorite site for the proposed capitol should be selected. One insisted upon the "Town Hall or Stickney lot:" the other upon a "piece of ground " down town, once belonging to Peter Green, the lawyer, and hence distinguished as the "Green lot." The North Enders, while making much of the fact that their lot had already been recom- mended by a legislative committee, contrasted it, as elevated, dry, and commanding a wide prospect, with the other, characterized by them as "low and wet,"-a "quagmire " even,-and needing ruin- ous expenditure to render it fit for the purposes in view. . The South Enders, on the contrary, strenuously insisted upon their lot, maintaining it to be more central, easier of access, and, consequently, more eligible than the "sand heap" of their rivals. This disagree- ment as to exact site, and the straitened condition of the treasury owing to the recent war, caused the state house question to go over to the next legislature.
A year having elapsed, the legislature, in June, 1816, passed a res- olution "that a State House, agreeably to the plan communicated by Stuart J. Park, be erected in the town of Concord ; the spot of ground to be selected, and the place on which to erect said State House to be located, by His Excellency the Governor and the Honorable the Council." The resolution also authorized the governor and council to appoint a committee to make contracts, and to superintend the erection, with instructions to begin the work as soon as practicable, and to employ the convicts at the state prison in hewing the stone. For commencing operations the sum of three thousand dollars was appropriated. These provisions of the resolution were to be of effect only upon condition that the town of Concord, or its inhabitants, should "convey to the State of New Hampshire " a suitable building lot, "level and well prepare " the same, "give all " the necessary stone, and "convey " it to the lot-all to be " performed frce of any charge or expense to the State." Having thus disposed of the mat- ter, without settling the hotly contested question-one rather of local than of public interest-whether the location of the state house should be " north or south of a given line on the main street in Con- cord,"1 the legislature, on the 29th of June, adjourned till Novem- ber. The resolution of 1816, however, fully confirmed that of 1807, whereby the session of 1808 was held in Concord, and really made it the capital of the state.
Within a week after this adjournment, Governor William Plumer 1 Life of William Plumer, cited in Mcclintock's New Hampshire, 542.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
and his council proceeded to take action under the legislative resolve. The two contending parties of townsmen had been active in efforts to influence opinion in and out of the legislature ; had made liberal subscriptions-that of the South End amounting to four thousand dollars-and now each bound itself to comply with the terms im- posed by the legislature, if its favorite site should be selected. On the 3d of July the North End bond was presented to the governor and council by Charles Walker, and that of the South End by William A. Kent and Isaac Hill. One of the councilors, Colonel Samuel Quarles of Ossipee, had leave of absence for that day and was away on private business. The governor and the four remain- ing councilors, acting as a committee, duly examined lots and pro- ceeded by ballot to make selection ; no one objecting to so doing, though the governor asked each of the councilors if he was ready thus to proceed. The "Green lot " was selected by a vote of three to two-the governor and two of the council constituting the ma- jority. The next day, upon the return of Colonel Quarles, who favored the "Stickney lot," a motion was made to reconsider "the vote of yesterday, selecting a lot of land whereon to erect a State House," but it failed by the vote of three to three, which clenched the decision of the day before. With a sense of relief, doubtless, did Governor Plumer jot down in his private diary, under date of July 4th, 1816, the brief record, "Fixed the site for the State House." On the following day the governor and council appointed three Con- cord men, Albe Cady, William Low, and Jeremiah Pecker, as a com- mittee on contracts and of superintendence, and adjourned till Sep- tember.
This committee entered upon its duties with commendable prompt- ness. Stuart J. Park, whose original plan of the proposed structure had been approved by the legislature, and whose skill as a builder had been tested in the erection of the state prison, was appointed chief architect, with Levi Brigham, of Boston, for assistant. The entire "plot " of two acres having been purchased as a present to the state, beginning was at once made to prepare it for its new use. Thus, Captain Peter Robertson's house, standing on the northeast corner, was sold to William Kent, and removed to Pleasant street ; the Friend's meeting-house, occupying another part, was transferred up State street to a location given by Benjamin Hannaford, north of and near the burying ground ; and preliminary steps were taken "to level " and otherwise transform the selected site into a park suitable for the state capitol. Moreover, initial steps were forthwith taken towards the actual construction of the building ; and the granite, which was to be its material, was soon beginning to be hewn by con-
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ERECTION OF STATE HOUSE.
victs at the state prison, under the special oversight and instruction of John Park Gass, nephew of the chief architect, and afterwards Concord's famous taverner. On the 24th of September, 1816, the corner-stone of the capitol was laid.
Though it could not have seemed probable that, with the work upon the state house and its grounds thus progressing, a change of location could be effected, yet those who had been disappointed at the selection of the site were clamoring angrily thereat all the while till the November session of the legislature. They asserted that a location had never been " made agreeably to the true meaning " of the legislative resolve; since-as they charged-contrary to the in- tention of the legislature, the governor and council had not, in deciding the matter, voted separately in executive board, but together in committee ; and since, too, this action had been taken in the ab- sence of one councilor, contrary to an agreement to await his return. Now, the case was, that with all six present, to act as a committee or an executive board, and with three of the five councilors in favor of the North End lot, the governor could, in executive board, by voting with the minority, in his right to negative the majority, have pre- vented a selection ; but, in the absence of one favoring that lot, the governor would have had no vote in executive board,-there being no majority to negative,-while in committee he had one of the three votes to make up the majority for the South End lot.
During the recess the North Enders succeeded in stirring up considerable feeling in their favor among members of the legislature, so that at the November session an investigating committee was appointed, to whose inquiries the governor replied that he did not understand that any agreement had been made to delay proceedings on account of the absence of Colonel Quarles, and produced clear evidence that there was none, though the three defeated councilors, with less clearness and definiteness of proof, asserted the contrary. The governor also made answer that he and his council, in making the selection, had acted as a committee appointed by legislative re- solve, and not in their executive capacity, a statement sustained by a majority of the council. The house of representatives, notwithstand- ing an adverse report of the investigating committee, sustained the governor, and on the 25th of December, not only killed a resolution to take from the governor and council the power of appointing the building committee, but passed another, by a vote of ninety-one to seventy, appropriating four thousand dollars towards the erection of the building.
Thus discouraged by adverse legislative action, the unprofitable controversy came to an end, and the work of construction went on
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
undisturbed. By the 18th of July, 1818, such progress had been made that the gilded eagle to crown the dome was raised to its place with public ceremony. A procession having formed in front of the state house, under direction of Major Robertson, passed down State street, and returning entered the capitol, where an address was made by Philip Carrigain. Refreshments were served and toasts were drunk amid cheers and the firing of cannon, with a band, at intervals, playing appropriate airs. Of the toasts, the thirteenth was the cli- max, and in phrase patriotic enough, albeit somewhat more " spread- eagle " than the six-foot golden . image of the bird, with partially expanded wings, upon the dome, ran thus : "The American eagle- May the shadow of his wings protect every acre of our united Conti- nent, and the lightning of his eye flash terror and defeat through the ranks of our enemies." 1
The work went forward to its completion in 1819, with a total expenditure much exceeding the early estimate, and reaching nearly eighty-two thousand dollars, for building, furniture, fencing, prepar- ing the lot, supplying the stone, and hauling the same; the last three items, amounting to four thousand dollars, having been con- tributed by citizens of Concord. In June of that year the general court commenced its sessions in the new capitol,2 and Governor Samuel Bell, in his inaugural message, uttered these words of con- gratulation : " The splendid public edifice in which you now for the first time assemble will add another honorable testimonial to future ages of the enlightened public spirit and liberal views of the citizens of New Hampshire. It reflects honor upon the Legislature, and upon that enlightened Chief Magistrate under whose auspices it was erected, and who has now retired from an office, the duties of which he has discharged with honor and usefulness."
The next year, the three Concord men, Cady, Low, and Pecker, who constituted the building committee, and had faithfully and suc- cessfully performed their responsible duties, were honorably dis- charged. The comely and convenient edifice, with its pleasant grounds, became an object of interest not only within the state, but in other parts of the country, so that within one year from the 1st of July, 1819, "six thousand eight hundred and seventy-two persons visited it, and were shown its apartments." It was praised by visi- tors, some of whom had traveled extensively, as "a very elegant stone edifice," and "one of the handsomest buildings in the United States." Praise of the capitol became even an inculcation for early childhood, for in a little educational work, entitled "A Book for New- Hampshire Children, in Familiar Letters from a Father," -- the first
1 Bouton's Concord, 376.
? See frontispiece in this volume.
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THE POST-OFFICE.
of several editions of which was published four years after the com- pletion of the state house,-is found the following description, ex- pressed in simple style to suit " the infant understanding ": "The State House is the grandest building in New Hampshire. It is built of hewn stone, almost as beautiful as white marble. The body of the house is much higher and longer than any meeting-house you ever saw. The windows are of the largest glass, with mahogany sashes. The front of the building has a noble projection and pedi- ment with a large elegant door ; and the whole is set off with a most beautiful cupola, with a great gold eagle on the top of it. There is a very large and beautiful yard in front of the State House, with a wide and smooth gravel walk up to it. I have seen many elegant buildings in the course of my life : but I never saw one so elegant as the State House."
With such appreciation from abroad, and the evident natural ten- dency of events, the people of Concord themselves might well look with pride upon the capitol, and with satisfying assurance as well, that its erection upon their soil would date a new era of progress and prosperity in the history of the town.
The strife over the location of the capitol had been warmer than the weather in the spring, summer, and autumn months of the year 1816, as the designations, "the cold season " and "the poverty year," denote. Indeed, it had almost seemed that the polar circle had slip- ped to the tropic, making of the temperate zone the frigid. This abnormal atmospheric condition prevailed over New Hampshire and the rest of New England. Snow fell in June, and killing frosts came in every month save August. Indian corn could not ripen, the crop of other cereals nearly failed, apples and other fruits came to naught. In consequence, " there was," as Asa McFarland has recorded, "a real lack of food throughout New Hampshire in the autumn and winter of 1816-17."1 Even in Concord there was privation ; and the scarcity of provisions, with consequent high prices, caused some suffering among the poor, which the Female Charitable Society, then four years old, contributed to relieve.
The same year the post-office was removed southward from the extreme North End, where it had hitherto been kept by David George, to an ancient building, soon afterwards remodeled into a dwelling by John West, and standing on the west side of Main street, opposite the site subsequently ocenpied by the Merrimack County bank, and later by the New Hampshire Historical society. The removal was made by Lieutenant Joseph Low, who had come from service in the recent war to dwell in Concord, and had succeeded to the postmastership in
1 In "An Outline of Biography and Recollection."
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
1816. After the completion of the state house, in 1819, he removed the post-office still farther southward to a store on the east side of Main street, opposite the foot of School, on the site of the later Rum- ford block, and next south of his residence. General Low,-for he became adjutant-general of the state in 1820,-having held the office of postmaster for thirteen years, was succeeded in 1829 by his elder brother, William, who took the office across the street to his own premises on the north side of School street, near its junction with Main. The new quarters became known as the "Old Post-Office Building," and were occupied by Mr. Low for eleven years, and by later post- masters for a dozen more. Besides these homes the post-office was to find, in the course of years, others at various points between a line at a short distance south of Centre street, and one along the south side of School street-but never, as during the first nineteen years of the century, north of the line of contention between the North End and the South End.
In the spring of 1816 the Republicans had regained control of the state government, and, in the autumn, at the eighth presidential elec- tion, they chose electors to cast eight of the one hundred and eighty- three votes which made James Monroe president; Rufus King, the Federal candidate, having received but thirty-four. Concord, how- ever, was still upon the Federal side, and remained there for three years longer.
The suspension of party hostilities in the national field of politics, which generally prevailed during the administration of Monroe, had a pleasant beginning in the president's tour through the Northern states in the summer of 1817. The appropriate demonstrations of honor for the man and his high office which were shown everywhere, and by all, without distinction of party, fitly inaugurated "the era of good feeling." That tour included Concord in its course, where the president's reception 1 was marked by enthusiastic cordiality, and where he tarried from Friday the 18th to Monday the 21st of July.
The Dartmouth college controversy, beginning in 1815 and con- tinning until 1819, has more than a passing interest in the history of Concord. Two of its prominent citizens, Thomas W. Thompson and the Rev. Dr. Asa McFarland, of the board of college trustees, were upon one side of the controversy, while, upon the other side, their townsman, Isaac Hill, in his influential newspaper, earnestly support- ed the cause of those who sought to change the charter of the insti- tution. Politics as well as religious preferences entered into the con- troversy and kept the question before the people for several years. In 1815 the dissatisfaction long existing, from various causes, between
1 See description in a special chapter.
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THE DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CASE.
John Wheelock, the president of Dartmouth college, on the one part, and the trustees and members of the faculty of that institution on the other, reached an acute stage. The president memorialized the legis- lature, setting forth his grievances, charging the trustees with im- proper "acts and operations," and praying that a committee might be appointed "to look into the affairs and management of the institution, internal and external." The legislature, against the strong opposi- tion of the trustees, granted the prayer of the president by a vote of more than two to one. The legislative committee of investigation proceeded to duty, and, on the 16th of August, gave hearing to tlie contending parties : but only ten days later, and with the legislative inquiry still pending, the trustees removed Dr. Wheelock from the presidency, which he had held for thirty-six years, and chose as his successor the Reverend Francis Brown, only thirty-one years of age, but of sufficient capacity for the position even in days of severest trial.
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