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 40
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military, and judicial, the main features of which have been inciden- tally depicted in previous narration. He virtually withdrew from public life when, in 1809, he retired from the bench of common pleas, or court of sessions, where he had sat for a quarter of a century,- for the last five years as chief justice. In the historic mansion built and occupied by his father, Judge Walker dwelt in domestic hap- piness, and, with his wife, Susannah Burbeen, reared to promising maturity his family of ten children. Concord never had a truer or more serviceable friend ; he was, indeed, the worthy son of a worthy father.
Captain Benjamin Emery, who died November 2, 1819, at the age of eighty-one, was not a native of Concord, but came hither about 1766. His mother, the wife of Stephen Emery, was Hannah Rolfe, who was the daughter of Henry Rolfe, and sister of Colonel Benja- min Rolfe, both distinguished in the early history of Penacook and Rumford. Captain Emery became prominent, and was called to fill many important civil and military positions. He did good service in the Revolution,-at home, and in the field. He was, in all respects, a strong man, a valuable citizen, and one whose memory deserves special honor.
Lieutenant Richard Herbert came to Concord about 1752. He first engaged in shoemaking, and afterwards in the manufacture of malt. In the Revolution he did duty in the field at Bennington and else- where. At home he was of the Committee of Safety for two years. At other times he held offices of trust and responsibility, and was never found wanting. Lieutenant Herbert was noted for his " shrewd- ness and knowledge of human nature," often evinced in "original and pithy sayings." He died July 17, 1823, in the ninety-fourth year of his age.
CHAPTER XII.
THE TOWN OF CONCORD. - TEMPERANCE REFORM. - RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, INTELLECTUAL AND MATERIAL PROGRESS .- CATHO- LIC-IRISH IMMIGRATION .- POLITICAL EVENTS .- CITY CHARTER ADOPTED.
1830-1853.
In the later years of the preceding period, the spirit of temperance reform had begun to move the popular mind and heart in many parts of the land. By 1827, " The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance " was efficiently at work; and the bold pulpit efforts of such eminent divines as Nathaniel Hewitt, Justin Edwards, and Lyman Beecher were arousing public thought and pricking the pub- lic conscience to the realization of total abstinence from intoxicants as the practical synonym of temperance. Early in January of that year, the voice of reform was heard in New Hampshire, when Jona- than Kittredge, afterwards chief justice of the court of common pleas, and a resident of Concord, delivered at Lyme a powerful address on the " Effects of Ardent Spirits," the publication of which, as a tract of many large editions, spread far and wide startling facts and con- vincing arguments. And now, the Reverend Nathaniel Bouton, the young and only settled minister in Concord, resolved "to lift up the voice of warning, and urge to reform," and having carefully collected " facts from traders, from the selectmen, from the elder and most judicious citizens," as well as other reliable sources, delivered on Fast Day, the 12th of April, 1827, at the Old North church, "the first temperance discourse ever preached in town, inculcating total abstinence from ardent spirits."1 Of the effect of the discourse, the preacher himself has said : " While the facts that were announced were astounding to all ; while some disbelieved, and some mocked ; and some declared the whole a slander on the town ; and some pitied and regretted the indiscretion of the young man; yet others gave him credit for honesty of intention; and many on that day, and under the impression of that discourse, formed the resolution, from which . . they never swerved, to drink no more." 1
The facts set forth in that carly discourse its author was spared to restate, nearly fifty years later, and when he could recount, in triumphant contrast, decisive victories of reform over the alcoholic evil. Said the Rev. Dr. Bouton, in his historical address, delivered
1 Bouton's " History of Temperance Reform," discourse delivered in 1843, p. 6.
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on the 17th of June, 1875, on the occasion of Concord's third semi- centennial : " At that time (1825) and for about five years later, the use of ardent spirits in Concord, in the form of rum, brandy, gin, whiskey, with wine and other mixtures, was universal. In the fam- ilies of the more wealthy and fashionable, they were displayed in clegant decanters in an ornamental case on the side-board, placed on the table at dinner, offered as a token of civility to visitors by day and evening, and regarded as among the indispensable comforts of life. These liquors were used equally on occasions of joy and sorrow, for cold and heat, at births and deaths, at marriages and funerals. Farmers carried well-filled bottles into the fields with them, mechanics kept them in their shops, and professional men in their offices. At funerals, it was the custom to pass round well-filled glasses to all the mourners and relatives-and bearers received a double portion.
"We aver that, in 1827, every store in town-then nineteen in number-sold ardent spirits, not only by the quantity, to be carried away, but by the glass, to be drunk by customers at the counter ; that all the taverns-ten in number-kept an open bar, glittering with glasses, and labeled decanters of the choicest liquors, to accommo- date their guests. The aggregate quantity of ardent spirits of all kinds,-not including wines,-sold from stores in Concord, in the year 1827, was equal to four hundred hogsheads, of one hundred and twenty gallons each, or about forty-eight thousand gallons ; enough to furnish more than one gallon to every inhabitant of Merri- mack county; and the portion of it actually sold to the people of " Concord, "as estimated and put down by the traders themselves, was about fourteen thousand five hundred gallons-equal to four and a half gallons to every man, woman, and child in town. The cost of these liquors to consumers was not less than nine thousand dollars, which was more than double the amount of all taxes, the year previous, for state, county, and town expenses, including schools, and the support of the poor. . These were the good old times of license, when any man who wished to accommodate his neighbors, and help himself, could, by asking for it, obtain a license from the selectmen to diffuse the curses of rum broadcast over the town-only he must pay twenty cents to the town-clerk for record- ing his license. And any man, on a certificate of good moral char- acter and the payment of two dollars, could obtain a license for a taverner-rum and all. This is not all. The product of every orchard in town, in those times, was converted into cider. From fifteen to twenty, thirty, fifty barrels, and often more, were stowed away in cellars for family use and for hired laborers-and at the end of the next season not enough left for vinegar !
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"Such was the exact state of things in Concord in 1825, and till 1830 and later. Has anything been done in the intervening years to stay and roll back the mighty flood of rum and cider which over- flowed our goodly town? In this temperance cause the first blow was struck on Fast Day, April 12, 1827, in that Old North Meeting- house. The battle there begun in weakness has been bravely fought out on the line of total abstinence, and many a glorious victory has been achieved. In proof, I point you to visible trophies: (1). That in the whole city there is but one place where spirituous liquors can be lawfully sold, and that only for 'medicinal, mechanical, and chem- ical purposes,' adding wine for sacramental uses. (2). That in all the stores in Concord, two hundred or more in number, there is not one where a glass of such liquor can now be bought to be drunk on the premises. If, as is conceded, it is sometimes sold by apoth- ecaries and druggists, it is presumed to be in the line of their profession, for medicinal or chemical purposes, rather than for use as a beverage. (3). That not a single tavern in our city keeps, as formerly, an open bar; and that there is not visible in all the fan- ilies of Concord, on side-board or anywhere else, any sign of having on hand intoxicating liquors for daily use, or for treating callers or visitors. (4). In brief, that the customs and usages of social life in th.3 regard have undergone a total change, in the last fifty, or, rather, the last thirty years. If the same proportion of people in town were now reckoned intemperate, as then, we should have a staggering battalion of not less than six hundred drunkards."
This historic view of facts and results vividly presented suggests that present narration may, with profit, trace more specifically the steps of temperance reform. Now, it was not until three years after the delivery of the discourse of 1827-the first public blow dealt in Concord, for the cause of temperance-that force enough could be gained against the inertia of conservatism and the imperious sway of social custom, to form a temperance society in town. In the mean time, liquors were retailed from every store; in the heart of the village, down eastward from Main street, near the northwest angle of what was to be Railroad square, Bullard's distillery had been set up in 1828; "and the great body of the people," yet unconscious of evil, "continued to drink, as their fathers had done before them." And, indeed, in this respect, the people of Concord were not sinners before all others in the land, for "the average quantity of ardent spirits sold and drank by them was a little less than the average amount consumed throughout the United States."1 At last, how- ever, a few friends of reform determined to try resort to organized
1 Bouton's " History of Temperance Reform," p. 7.
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effort, and at a meeting held in the afternoon of Fast Day, April 1, 1830, at the Old North church, took measures to form a temperance society. At an adjourned meeting held at the town house on the 8th of April, a constitution was adopted. It contained the pledge of the members of the society organized under it, "to abstain from the use of ardent spirits entirely, except for medicinal purposes ; to exert their influence to exclude them from social parties and visiting; to discountenance the use of them by the members of their families, and by laborers in their employment; " and to " use all proper influ- ence, at all times and on all occasions, both by precept and example, to suppress intemperance and to co-operate with the friends of tem- perance throughout the state and country."1 This pledge-deemed by some "too strict "-received thirty signatures, at the meeting, and the organization of Concord's first temperance society was com- pleted by the choice of the following officers: Timothy Chandler, president ; Albe Cady, secretary; Joseph Low, Ira Rowell, Elijah Colby, William Kent, and Henry Fisk, executive committee.2
In this movement, and at its beginning, two recently ordained clergymen, Moses G. Thomas, the Unitarian, and Nathaniel W. Wil- liams, the Baptist, united in earnest effort with the zealous pastor of the North church ; the three receiving the hearty co-operation of Samuel Kelley, the Methodist, when, a few months later, he became the first stationed minister of his denomination in Concord. And it is but simple justice here to add that the later ministers of churches then existent, and those of churches subsequently established, ear- nestly joined in urging and supporting the Reform; as did also the lawyers and physicians. The society at once commenced vigorous operations. Committees were appointed in each school district to solicit subscribers to the constitution. Temperance journals were, for two or more years, distributed gratuitously, and placed in each family of the town. In 1834 temperance meetings were held in every school district. The annual meetings of the society, occurring on Fast Day afternoons, at the Old North church, were occasions of great interest, on which the religious "congregations of the town har- moniously united and filled the ancient temple to its utmost capacity, while the ministers sat together in the pulpit," and preached in turn. Thus the people of all religious persuasions " had an annual oppor- tunity to see each other's faces, to exchange greetings, to unite in hearing able and eloquent discourses on a theme which, every year, commended itself more and more to their judgment and conscience." 3
By 1835 the members of the society numbered two hundred and
1 Bouton's " History of Temperance Reform," pp. 7, 8.
2 Bouton's Concord, 408.
3 Bouton's " History of Temperance Reform," p. 8.
.
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sixty-two, of whom ninety-two were females. But, in the growing light of experience, its constitutional pledge, which had been at first thought " by some too strict," was found not strict enough, and must cover broader and higher ground if the organization was to work out effectually the hoped-for beneficial results. "Hence, after three un- successful attempts to alter the pledge so as to exclude the traffic and manufacture " of ardent spitits, "and also wine-drinking," the Concord Total Abstinence Society was formed on the 2d of April, 1835. It " was composed chiefly of men in middle life," who "pledged themselves ' not to use, as a drink, ardent spirits, wine, porter, or any intoxicating liquors ; not to furnish them to their friends or to those in their employ; not to sell or manufacture; also to abstain from tobacco in all its forms.'" Under this pledge a large portion of the old society united, retaining still their first connection. "The annual meetings were held at the same time and place, and both societies moved on in concert for the accomplishment of the same object." 1 On the fifth day of April, 1835, only three days after the formation of the second society, a third was organized in connection with it, under the name of the Concord Young Men's Total Abstinence Soci- ety. It took a step in advance of any preceding society in pledging its members to entire abstinence "from ardent spirits, wine, cider, porter, strong beer, and all intoxicating drinks," together with " to- bacco in every form," and, also, " to temperance in eating as well as in drinking." This society urgently pursued the work of reform, and in five years had a membership of three hundred and seventy- six, about equally divided as to sex. From 1835 to 1838 a conflict on the "wine question " was vigorously waged, till finally absti- nence from wine, as " incorporated in what was called 'the compre- hensive pledge' of the Young Men's Society," was assented to " by all the friends of thorough reform as essential to ultimate success." 2
The women of Concord had all along manifested laudable interest in the cause. Especially-and before the reformatory movement began-had the directors and members of the Female Charitable Society tested to their sorrow the evils of intemperance as a cause of the destitution which they were called upon to relieve. Onward from 1817 " they lamented, exposed, and protested against the miseries produced by the sale and use of intoxicating liquors," and thus were indeed " the pioneers in the temperance reform." 3 And now in 1836 the Concord Female Temperance Society was organized, having for its special objects "to discountenance and do away the use of wine
1 Bouton's " History of Temperance Reform."
: Ibid. pp. 11, 12.
3 Dr. Bouton's discourse on the fiftieth anniversary of the Concord Female Charitable Society, January 26, 1862, pp. 17, 18.
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at social visitings, and to make appeal to all venders of intoxicating drinks, in behalf of husbands, sons, and brothers, and the poor fam- ilies that, in consequence of drunkenness, were objects of charity." 1
These societies as they arose marked eras of reform in Concord, corresponding to the progress of the temperance cause throughout the country. They wrought faithfully through the fourth decade. They saw to it that " temperance newspapers, tracts, and addresses were scattered broadcast over the town." They provided that the effec- tive voice of the temperance lecturer should be heard by the people. Hence, such eloquent champions of the cause as Nathaniel Hewitt, Justin Edwards, and Jonathan Kittredge-three already mentioned, -George B. Cheever, Lucius Manlius Sargent, and John Pierpont- all, with their breathing thoughts and burning words, "gave impulse as well as dignity to the reformation "2 in Concord. The societies, however, relied largely upon the individual, or combined, labors of their members ; " and means adapted to the end in view were varied as circumstances required." 2 Thus, in 1836, a committee of theirs, consisting " of three highly respected and influential citizens, visited all the taverners and retailers of spirits in town, to persuade them, if possible, to relinquish the traffic. The same year the ladies drew up a memorial, and a committee of their number went into all the taverns, stores, and cellars to present it, and to plead that the sale " might cease." Nor was the community allowed to remain in ignor- ance of the extent and consequences of the traffic ; for the Young Men's Society did not fail to collect and publish pertinent and alarm- ing statistics. Such and other efforts put forth by the societies were, however, but partially successful,2 though aided, as in 1836, by a vote of the town instructing " the selectmen to withhold licenses from the retailers of ardent spirits," and, as a last resort, by prosecutions for the violation of the license law, " which, though not successfully carried through, yet had a good restraining influence." The appetite of buyers and the cupidity of sellers still manifested a strong, though somewhat weakening, opposition, which, in one instance, became riotous. On Fast Day, in April, 1836, the Reverend George B. Cheever, whose famous temperance allegory, entitled, "A Dream about Deacon Giles's Distillery," had, the year before, subjected him to unjust persecution and a month's imprisonment at Salem, Massachu- setts, delivered on invitation, a powerful address at the North meeting- house. The ire of sundry opponents of the temperance reform was aroused thereby ; and, in the evening, six or seven of them passed noisily along Main street, and stopping before the pastor's house, where the lecturer had lodging, violently assailed the front door, and
1 Bouton's " History of Temperance Reform," pp. 9, 10. 2 Ibid, p. 13.
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threateningly called for the man "who dreamed a dream." Timely police intervention hindered any direct personal violence; and the inebriate disturbers of the peace having satisfied their insane malice by burning a man of straw in the state house yard, were the next day convicted in Justice Albe Cady's court, and fined three dollars each.
The reform movements had produced, and were producing, intended results. The fashions of society and the sentiments of the com- munity were undergoing a change. Even within a month after the formation of the first temperance society, Captain George T. Abbot's company of light infantry-one of Concord's six or seven military organizations at the time-abstained at its May training entirely from the use of ardent spirits-an incident of somewhat prophetic sig- nificance.1 In 18362 the proprietor of the distillery, moved by argu- ment and appeal, sold the "worm and still," and closed out a gainful business. Now and then a trader voluntarily gave up the sale of spir- ituous liquors ; the first to do so being Asaph Evans,3 whose place of business, at the northwest corner of Main and Pleasant streets, was on the site of Concord's first store, opened by Andrew McMillan in 1761. In establishments not completely relinquishing the traffic, sales of liquor, in quantity or by the glass, were lessening. Taverns were making less and less display of bars ; and two, the Phoenix and the Columbian, were to become by 1843 " strictly temperance hotels." 4 Wine was disappearing "from tables and sideboards," and falling under taboo "as a token of civility," and an accompaniment of " social parties, public dinners, and weddings." While, " as for ardent spirits," the homes of the people were becoming "as free from them," says Mr. Bouton, " as were the houses of the Israelites from leaven at the Passover." 5
Early in the month of April commenced a new era in temperance reform, when a drinking club of six, in Baltimore, became a temper- ance society under the pledge not to " drink any spirituous or malt liquors, wine or cider." This band of reformed men, now reformers, rapidly increasing in numbers and organized as "The Washington Temperance Society," soon had in its membership John H. W. Haw- kins, who at once commenced his wonderful work of eighteen years as a missionary of temperance. It was on Sunday evening, the 20th of June, 1841, that this " reformed inebriate," then in his forty-fourth year, "of manly form " 6 and " of much fluency, force, and effect " in speech, addressed, on his first appearance in Concord, more than a
1 Bouton's Concord, 408.
2 Bouton's " History of Temperance Reform," p. 14.
3 Bouton's Concord, 446.
" Bouton's "History of Temperance Reform," p. 16.
' Ibid, p. 7.
" Life of Hawkins, p. 97.
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thousand people assembled in the Old North church. "He told," says Mr. Bouton,1 " his own experience of the progress and woes of intemperance and the blessedness of reformation. Hearts as hard as adamant were melted ; eyes, unused to tears, wept ; resolutions, often broken, were renewed; and hands, tremulous from former intemper- ance, grasped the pen to sign the pledge of abstinence." Eight days later the "Concord Washington Total Abstinence Society " was formed with a membership of sixty, mostly made up of those who had recently been hard drinkers, and for the purpose, according to their constitution, " of promoting our mutual benefit, and aiding each other in our resolution to abstain from all intoxicating drinks as a beverage."2 To them the former friends of temperance extended cordial fellowship; and, when subsequently the society was opened to membership from all classes, its numbers, within two years after its original organization, reached nearly four hundred. Soon another society arose, composed of young men, and bearing the name of Tahanto, the Indian sagamore, who, nearly one hundred and seventy- five years before, had, at the trading fort on the east bank of the Merrimack, urgently protested against the sale of strong drink to the red man.
The spirit of reform thus effectually stirred was kept alive by varied efforts and instrumentalities. In the early '40s, Concord had its newspaper, The White Mountain Torrent, devoted to the temper- ance cause. Throughout the country " cold-water armies," com- posed mostly of Sunday-school children, with their teachers, were organized, and took a prominent part, especially in the temperance Fourth of July celebrations, which were held for some years. Con- cord had such an army, to which the religious societies respectively contributed their quotas. These were marshaled in distinct bands, each under its own banner, and marched in the procession of the day to the Old North, there to attend appropriate services, including temperance addresses; and thence to return, usually, to the state house yard for collation, where, as one has written, who, as a lad, participated in those occasions, " tired, hot, dusty and hungry, to be refreshed with cake and cold water or lemonade so long as the cake lasted, afterward with barrels of dry crackers brought from the bakery of Capt. Ebenezer Symmes."3 It was the 4th of July, 1841, that the first of these temperance celebrations was held, and everywhere with much preparation and enthusiasm. Concord's "cold-water army " numbered on that occasion eight hundred and sixteen : The Episcopal church contributed to this total, seventy-one ; the Metho-
1 Bouton's " History of Temperance Reform," pp. 14, 15.
2 Ibid, p. 10.
3 Henry McFarland's " Personal Recollections," p. 52.
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dist, eighty ; the Unitarian, one hundred and seven; the Baptist, one hundred and eight; the North Congregational, two hundred and twenty ; the South Congregational, two hundred and thirty.1 Three years later a temperance celebration of the nation's birthday was held which was more numerously attended, and, of its collation, prepared in the state house yard, more than two thousand persons, young and old, partook.2
In 1843 more intense local interest began to be manifested in the work of temperance reform. In the latter part of April of that year, a citizen's meeting, held at the court house, appointed a committee of twenty to report at an adjourned meeting, "such resolutions and plan as, in their judgment, would most certainly and speedily cause the use of intoxicating drinks," and " the traffic " therein, "to cease in town, except for mechanical and medicinal purposes." 3 The com- mittee-consisting of Franklin Pierce, Lewis Downing, Abraham Prescott, Hosea Fessenden, Nathaniel B. Baker, Moses T. Willard, Joel C. Danforth, Josiah Stevens, Jr., Zenas Clement, Joseph Low, Francis N. Fiske, Samuel Coffin, Richard Bradley, Chandler E. Potter, Abraham Bean, Joseph F. Dow, Harry Houston, Theodore T. Abbot, Moses Shute, and Atkinson Webster-reported, at the adjourned meeting held at the Old North, on the 7th of May, an appeal and preamble, with a resolution and pledge. The last two were as follows :
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