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 39
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The one room resulting from the union of the two was to answer the specific purpose of a town hall in the transaction of municipal business for thirty years more, though at an increasing disadvantage, from proving too small to accommodate the steady increase of the voting population. But it answered other purposes, and many. " In this room," as one has racily said, " were enacted scenes that assumed all the characteristics of the kaleidoscope. It was, emphatically, a free hall. In it were enacted all kinds of transactions, from a free fight to a conference meeting; from a prosy sermon to a violent polit- . ical harangue. All kinds of religions were inculcated and enforced there. The old hall welcomed all kinds of isms, at all times, upon all subjects, and upon all occasions."
1 Bouton's Concord, 370.
2 Ibid. 583.
3 Woodbridge Odlin, in Concord Monitor, March 28, 1884.
363
POLITICAL MATTERS.
In the new upper room of the building was held, in January, 1824, the first term of the Superior Court of Judicature for Merri- mack county-the first, too, of any duly established court of law ever held in Concord. The town supplied one of the justices of that court in the person of Samuel Green, spoken of in an earlier chapter. During the session, an association of the Merrimack County bar was organized, and the event was celebrated by a supper served at the Columbian hotel, then in charge of John P. Gass. This general sketch will not dwell upon the participation of Concord in the doings of bench and bar in that first court house, for thirty years, and thenceforward, in the second, but leaves that subject to be especially treated in its own chapter.
After the war, and in course of the two terms of Monroe's adminis- tration, the Federal party became disbanded, and the Republican party was dominant in the state without organized opposition for most of that period. But by 1823 some division had come into the Repub- lican ranks, and at the state election of that year two candidates for governor, one regular and the other irregular, were in the field. Large numbers of former Federalists voted for Levi Woodbury, the irregular nominee, who was elected over Samuel Dinsmoor, the regu- lar. The Republicans of Concord were divided in their support of the nominees, and, as the New Hampshire Patriot, then in sole occu- pancy of the field of political journalism at the capital, was vigorously advocating Dinsmoor's election, Woodbury's friends had determined to have a newspaper to represent their views. Hence, on the 6th of January, 1823, the New Hampshire Statesman had appeared.1 The next year (1824) Judge Woodbury was again a candidate, but, there being no choice by the people, the legislature elected his competitor, David L. Morril, then of Goffstown, but afterwards of Concord.
The tenth presidential election came in 1824, with its four candi- dates : John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay- all bearing the Republican name. In Concord, the Patriot advocated the election of Crawford, while the Statesman and the Concord Register,1 another newspaper recently started by the veteran George Hough, and edited by George Kent and George Kim- ball, supported Adams, for whom New Hampshire went. Jackson stood highest on the electoral count, with Adams standing next ; but the choice of president having been thrown into the national house of representatives, Adams was elected.
During the heated political contest, amid the loud and discordant campaign cries for and against Adams and Crawford, Clay and Jack- son, General Lafayette arrived on his last visit to America. In his
1 See additional particulars in special chapter on Journalism, etc.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
triumphal progress through the twenty-four states of the Union, the harsh voices of partisan politics, whenever and wherever the patriot of two hemispheres appeared, became softened and attuned to harmo- nious acclaims of welcome. His visit to the capital of New 'Hamp- shire was an event long anticipated, and for which due preparation had been made by state and town authorities. How the elaborate programme of reception on the 22d of June, 1825, was carried out is specifically told in a special chapter.
In the presidential campaign of 1828, early begun and warmly prosecuted, political parties became more distinctly defined-one, as the Adams, or National, Republican ; the other, as the Jackson, or Democratic, Republican. The Adams party contained many that had been Republicans, as against Federalists, under the old classification. For instance, in Concord, such former Republicans as Adjutant- General Joseph Low, Jacob B. Moore,-the latter associated with Isaac Hill in the conduct of the Patriot till 1822,-Richard Bartlett, secretary of state, Samuel Sparhawk, cashier of the upper bank, and General Robert Davis, found themselves in party affiliation with such former Federalists as William A. Kent, Stephen and Robert Ambrose, Richard Bradley, Benjamin Gale, Abel, Charles, and George Hutchins. The Jackson party was largely made up of old- time Republicans ; of whom in Concord were such as Isaac Hill, William Low, Francis N. Fiske, Abel Baker, Jeremiah Pecker, and Jonathan Eastman. Its newspaper organ was the New Hampshire Patriot. The other party was supported by the Concord Register and the New Hampshire Statesman separately till 1826, when the two newspapers were united. In September of that year, also, Jacob B. Moore, a printer and bookseller, commenced the publication of the New Hampshire Journal, that should more definitely represent, than did the Statesman and Register, the views of such of the Adams party as were not originally Federalists. The new venture in jour- nalism proved a success ; and with the business push and editorial ability of the publisher, aided by the capable pen of Richard Bartlett, the Journal, with its four thousand subscribers, became the strong antagonist of the Patriot in the eleventh presidential contest. The intense heat of that contest was felt in New Hampshire, and espe- cially in its capital. The newspaper press on opposite sides of the taut-drawn party line "gave no uncertain sound "; and the fierce blows dealt were fiercely returned. A corresponding antagonism existed in the community. "I have not known a time," has written Asa McFarland, " when the people of Concord stood in such hostile attitude on each side the dividing line as in 1827, 1828, and 1829. There was a cessation of that harmony which has been,
365
NEW HAMPSHIRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
and still is, a delightful element in Concord society, and that causes the name of the city to be in the highest degree appropriate."
Politics developed able journalism ; but, outside the newspaper, considerable literary activity was manifested within the last decade of the period under review. This activity took a strong historical turn, yet with many miscellaneous diversions, such as the efforts of Nathaniel H. Carter-already noticed-and the productions in prose and verse of George Kent, Philip Carrigain, Richard Bartlett, and Mary Clark.
In 1821, John Farmer, a native of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, came from Amherst to Concord, at the age of thirty-two, and engaged in business with Dr. Samuel Morril as an apothecary. But the druggist had a genuine aptitude for antiquarian, genealogical, and historical research, in which he labored with conscientious zeal and eminent success. His work was of incontrovertible authority, crown- ing his life of only forty-nine years with unfading honor. In Con- cord he found appreciative and congenial companionship. His lit- erary connection was especially close with Jacob B. Moore, "a gentleman of much ability as a writer, well read in general litera- ture,"1 fond of historical investigation, and a capable printer and journalist. The two, in collaboration, prepared the "Gazeteer of New Hampshire," which was published in 1823, and became the model of many similar productions. The next year, appeared the "Annals of Concord," the pioneer history of the town, prepared by Mr. Moore with important material supplied by Mr. Farmer; the publication having been encouraged by the town in its vote authoriz- ing the purchase of a sufficient number of copies to supply each family with one. Somewhat later, the same industrious collaborators gave to the public their valuable " Historical Collections "-a treas- ury of antiquarian wealth.
Moreover, John Farmer, Jacob B. Moore, George Kent, and Richard Bartlett attested their literary activity by co-operating with William Plumer, Levi Woodbury, Ichabod Bartlett, Samuel D. Bell, Salma Hale, and other intellectual spirits of that day, in the estab- lishment of the New Hampshire Historical Society, the object of which should be " to discover, procure, and preserve whatever may relate to the natural, civil, literary, and ecclesiastical history of the United States in general, and of" New Hampshire " in particular." 2 They were of the original thirty-one members of that society, formed at Portsmouth on the 20th of May, 1823, incorporated by the legis- lature on the thirteenth of the following June, and duly organized, under a constitution, in the council chamber at Concord, on the
1 Asa McFarland's Address before N. H. Printers' Association, 1872, pp. 39, 40. 2 Constitution of the Society.
366
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
evening of the very day of incorporation. The society found in Concord not only its permanent home, but also literary talent ready to aid in promoting its worthy purposes. John Farmer became, in 1825, its corresponding secretary, and for the remaining thirteen years of his life, dignified the office by eminent ability of service. All the while, too, he was enriching the Society's Collections with the fruits of diligent research, and doing other important work along his favorite lines of effort, whereby his own fame became widespread and reflected honor upon the society which he loved and served so well, and which was never to lose, in its long succession of member- ship through future years, the earnest, well-directed literary spirit of its founders.
There was also manifested a growing intellectual interest in the general mind of the community. In 1830 four bookstores existed,1 providing for school wants, and supplying the larger public de- mand for miscellaneous reading. A reading-room, supported by the contributions of seventy subscribers, was opened on the 24th of May, 1827, in the second story of a building occupying the site of the later Sanborn's block.2 Then there was "The Concord Mechanics' Association," consisting of fifty master mechanics, having a library, in 1830, of nearly one hundred volumes for the use of its members and their apprentices. At the annual meeting of this organization, on the 6th of January of that year, Richard Bartlett delivered an address, and the following list of officers was chosen: George Hough, president ; Timothy Chandler and Isaac Eastman, vice-presidents ; Jacob B. Moore, treasurer and librarian ; Lewis Downing, Benjamin Barker, William Restieaux, and David Allison, directors.8
Literary amusement, in the form of dramatic entertainments, 4 enlivened Concord in July, 1828,-in the very heat of summer and of a hotter presidential canvass. It was then that Gilbert & Trowbridge of Boston presented a series of plays at " Grecian hall " of the Eagle Coffee House, or at "Theatre Concord," as the bills had it. The plays presented Monday evening, July 28, were Shake- speare's " Othello," and a farce entitled "The Young Widow." The performances were continued during the week, exclusive of Satur- day. The company consisted of John Gilbert, Mr. and Mrs. Trow- bridge, Mr. and Mrs. Ashley, and two or three others. Gilbert was then only eighteen years of age, and was soon to make upon the boards of the old "Tremont " in Boston his first appearance in regular acting-the debut to a famous career of more than sixty
1 Directory.
2 Bouton's Concord, 202-3.
3 Newspapers; Bouton's Concord, 408.
4 See First Dramatic Entertainment, in note at close of chapter.
367
SCHOOLS.
years upon the stage in Europe and America. The company, having been urged to return in the fall, did so; being, as they an- nounced, "impressed with grateful recollections of the indulgence experienced from their friends and the inhabitants of Concord." This second engagement began on the 17th of November, and con- tinued until the last week in December. The small orchestra was led by the noted violinist, Abraham Pushee, of Lebanon. The leading people of the town very generally gave this experimental theatre their patronage; and strangers dwelling fifty miles away sometimes came to attend it.
Soon after the second theatrical presentation, two home dramatic societies were formed: the "Evergreen Fraternity," composed of lads, and the " Myrtle Wreath," of young men. The theater was, for a time, much in favor. But it had its enemies; for, in 1831, a resolution was adopted in town-meeting " respectfully " requesting "the selectmen not to grant a license permitting any theatrical corps, circus, caravan, or any showmen to exhibit, or to be exhibited, within the limits of the town during " the ensuing year. Histori- cally, however, this sweeping resolution has more interest, as naming the forms of popular amusement then prevalent, than as causing any general or permanent desistance therefrom.
Among the subjects demanding at this period the attention of the the community, the School was prominent, and the public interest herein was healthy and well directed. The annual appropriation increased twenty-five per cent. in the course of fifteen years; rising from one thousand dollars to twelve hundred and fifty. This con- tinued until 1829, to be distributed among the districts, according to the number of scholars between the ages of four years and twenty- one ; but in that year the plan was adopted to divide equally a part of the appropriation to aid and encourage " the smaller, less wealthy districts."1 From this beginning came the settled policy thus to distribute about twenty-five per cent. of the town appropriation, and the whole of the town's annual share of the literary fund.
For years the examination of teachers and the visitation of schools had been ex-officio duties of the Rev. Dr. McFarland, as the minister of the town; but in 1818 was chosen for the first time a regular superintending school committee, which consisted of twelve members from different parts of the town, and of whom the minister was one. This practice, or a similar one, continued until the revi- sion of the school system of the state in 1827. The committee, in annual reports, revealed the educational condition of the town, and sometimes made progressive recommendations. One of these the
1 Bouton's Concord, 391, 393.
368
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
town adopted, in 1823, to the effect " that a sum not less than three per cent. of the moneys raised for the support of schools " should " be placed at the disposal of the committee, to be expended," partly, in premiums to schoolmasters distinguishing " themselves for ability and success in instruction and government; and," partly, "in useful books, to be given as rewards of merit to scholars " making "the greatest improvement in their studies." The figures of reported school attendance showed laudable appreciation of school advan- tages ; reaching, in 1823, nearly one thousand, and averaging for some years between one fourth and one third of the whole popula- tion.
In the Reverend Timothy Walker's petition1 presented in 1753 to the "King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council," it was set forth as one of the grievances of the inhabitants of Rumford for which relief was sought, that, being without town privileges they were "not able to raise any moneys for the support of their minister, and the necessary charges of their school and poor." The liability to "charge " for the public support of "the poor" was thus early recognized ; though the actual public expense incurred as to pau- perism for a long period seems to have been small. In fact, for eighty years after settlement-as found by thorough investigation- only "three different cases of paupers are mentioned in the records," or by tradition. It was not until 1810 that the support of the town's poor began to involve considerable expense with a corres- ponding increase of public interest in the subject of pauperism. Doubtless one efficient eause of the previous comparative fewness of the town poor had been the enforcement of the state law, whereby persons coming into town without property, and with the liability of becoming a town charge, might be warned to depart, and thus pre- vented from gaining a residence, with the consequent right to sup- port as paupers. While Judge Walker was of the Court of Sessions for Rockingham county, he took special care that this law should be enforced in Concord.2 In 1791 John Bradley, constable, officially reported by name fifteen persons who had come into town during the year from Boscawen, Bow, and Loudon, and whom, "having no estate," he had " warned immediately to depart ont of and leave the town." 3
From 1813 to 1827 the question how best to deal with pauperism, increasing with growth of population, and from other causes, was not infrequently the subject of careful deliberation and tentative action in town-meeting. It was steadily becoming more and more apparent
1 Cited in Chapter VI.
2 Rev. Mr. Bouton's Commemorative Sermon, 1830, p. 46 (note).
3 Bouton's Concord, 307 (note).
369
THE TOWN FARM.
that the long prevalent system of bidding off the poor of the town to whoever would provide for them at the lowest rate was-other con- siderations waived-not even the most economical. As early as March, 1813, the feasibility of hiring or purchasing "a house to keep the poor in " 1 was considered, and a board of five overseers of the poor was chosen. In June of the same year, Jonathan Wilkins, William A. Kent, John Bradley, Captain Ayer, and Joshua Abbot, Jr., were appointed "to inquire into the expediency of the town's build- ing or purchasing a house for a Poor House, and to report at the next meeting." 2 In March, 1814, the committee were not prepared to report definitely, but recommended that it should be left to the "overseers of the poor or the selectmen to devise the most economical plan for the maintenance of the poor, and to ascertain the expense of a suitable building, and the most eligible situation for it." 3 Again, in 1818 and 1819, the subject was referred to committees, without reaching any practical result ; the committee of the latter year report- ing in 1820 that in their opinion it was not expedient to make at present any alteration in the mode of supporting the poor.4
But the almshouse project, though delayed, was not forgotten. It steadily grew in popular favor, until, at the annual town-meeting of 1827, it received the sanction of these two decisive votes : "That the poor of the town be supported on a farm; " and "That the town will purchase a farm on which the poor of the town shall be sup- ported." To give practical effect to this action, Timothy Chandler, Stephen Ambrose, Abiel Walker, Abel Hutchins, and Isaac Dow were " authorized and directed to purchase, stock, and put in repair a suitable farm, on which all paupers which this town may be com- pelled to relieve or maintain may be placed for support." The select- men were also instructed to employ a suitable person to have charge of the paupers and farm aforesaid.
. The next year the committee reported to the town that they had examined six farms, all of which embraced many advantages for the purpose required ; but considering the farm of Mr. Timothy Walker, near the West Parish village, under all circumstances the most profit- able, they had purchased it for four thousand dollars. "The farm," said the committee, " contains over two hundred acres of land, about forty acres of which are good interval; also a number of acres of brook land, which will make good mowing. The land on the west side of the road amounts to about one hundred acres, on which is a large quantity of valuable timber and a great quantity of wood, which, being only two miles from market, must render it very valua-
1 Town Records, 454.
* Ibid, 462.
3 Ibid, 467.
4 Ibid, 516.
25
370
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
ble." The expenditure for stock, repairs, et cetera, added to the purchase price, made the total original cost of the establishment four thousand four hundred eighty-four dollars and fifty-seven cents.
Thus, at last, with Joseph Parker as first on the list of Overseers of the Town Farm, was instituted in Concord a new system of pauper relief and maintenance, more humane and economical than the old, and which was to continue in satisfactory operation for more than fifty years.
NOTES.
Military Facts. On the occasion of President Monroe's visit in 1817, Captain Abbot's cavalry, Captain Samuel Herbert's artillery, and Captain Long's company of infantry did duty on the exercises of reception-a fact denoting that Concord's military organization was not neglected at that date. Nor was it to be neglected in later days. "In 1825 there were," as Asa McFarland has written, "at least seven if not eight military organizations in Concord, as follows: One company of cavalry, in which were from sixty to sev- enty mounted men; one of artillery, forty to fifty men ; a company of light infantry, about forty men; and four companies of militia (men dressed in their every-day apparel), with guns, knapsacks, and cartridge boxes. One of these last named companies was composed of men residing in the center part of the town; another, of those in the southwest part and Millville ; a third in West, and a fourth in East, Concord. There was a company known as the Borough riflemen, composed of men living in the northwestern part of the town, including the neighborhood then known as The Borough ; but whether all the preceding were then in existence the writer is uncer- tain. The fields of Mars, in Concord and Pembroke, where these troops made manifest the valor they would have displayed if called into the service of the country, are many. The earliest recollection of a militia muster was upon what was known as the lower interval, in East Concord, sixty or seventy years ago. It was a notable day. Two companies of cavalry, two of artillery, several of light infantry, and ten to fifteen companies of men with arms, but not dressed in uniform, from Canterbury, Loudon, Concord, Chichester, and Pem- broke, and men, women, and children, upon the ground in numbers greater even than the troops, were assembled. The exhilarating .effect of the spectacle, especially upon young' folks, can be readily imagined."
Change of Constitution of First Congregational Society. In 1846 " the taxing system was laid aside and the voluntary subscription plan adopted " for paying " the minister's salary and incidental ex-
371
OBITUARY.
penses." Rev. Dr. Bouton's Commemorative Discourse, March 23, 1865, p. 25.
Sale of Parsonage Lands. This sale was made as follows: To John Eastman, Jr., eighty acre lot, for $3,277.70 ; to Abiel Walker, six acre interval lot, for $494.47 : to Richard Bradley, twenty acre grant, on Little pond road, for $542.06; five acre interval lot on east side of the river, to William Hurd, for $357.64; three aere Emendation lot, on Contoocook plain, to Abiel Rolfe and Henry Rolfe, for $147.34 ; twenty acre Emendation lot, on Little pond hill, to Henry Chandler and Henry Martin, for $129.07; Parsonage house lot, near schoolhouse, north end of State street, to Robert Davis, for $176: Last Division lot, on Beaver meadow, to Abner Farnum, for $210.50 :- the whole amounting to $5,335.51, which constituted the parsonage fund.
First Dramatic Entertainment. The first dramatic entertainment in Concord was given by amateurs of the town in the town house April 11, 1793. Mr. H. Rogers was manager of the affair. The play was a tragedy entitled "The Revenge." Four days later the Concord Mirrour said : "This was a virtuous, sentimental, and rational amusement to the respectable inhabitants of the town, and, as it was performed, was certainly an honor to Concord. The char- acters were as follows: Zanga-Mr. Philip Carragain, Jr .; Alonzo- Mr. Obed Carragain ; Alvarez-Mr. Russell ; Don Carlos-Dr. I. San- born ; Manuel-Mr. A. Sanborn ; Leonora, the wife of Alonzo, per- sonated by Master John Roche; Isabella, wife to Zanga, by Master J. Chase." For several weeks following, correspondents argued pro and eon, in the local newspapers, the question as to the propriety and effect of such entertainments.
OBITUARY.
On the 5th of May, 1822, Timothy Walker, the only son of Con- cord's first minister, and bearing his name, died at the age of nearly eighty-five years. Born in Rumford, June 27, 1737, graduated at Harvard in his teens, teaching for two years, studying for the min- istry and licensed to preach at the age of twenty-two, the young man came to his life-work. But this was not to be done in pulpit or pas- torate. He preached occasionally for six years, notably in Rumford, during his father's visit to England in 1762-63; and there, too, the young minister contributed service as a schoolmaster, at a time when Rumford, deprived of rights as a town, could not regularly raise sup- port for the school. Relinquishing the profession of the ministry he was for some time engaged in mercantile pursuits, and, ere long, had entered upon his public career of varied and honorable service, civil,
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