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 II > Part 16
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825
THE SWEDISH BAPTIST CHURCH.
alcoved sanctuary affords a fine setting for a very ornate gothic altar ; and over the tabernacle, in a central niche, is a good statue of the Sacred Heart. The building is of brick, with granite trimmings and an attractive pedimental porch.
Father Plante was born in St. Mathieu, province of Quebec, April 22, 1860. After finishing his clerical studies at St. Hyacinthe's, he entered Montreal seminary, where he was ordained December 19, 1884. Serving for a time as assistant at St. Aloysius church, Nashua, he was named as first residential pastor of Whitefield, June 7, 1886, with a missionary field embracing the whole of Coos county. He built St. Matthew's church in Whitefield, and St. Joseph's church in
Upper Bartlett. From White- field he was sent to organize the new church at Concord.
Father Plante's training in the missionary field of northern New Hampshire well fitted him for the new undertaking at Concord. Here, as there, he had to strug- gle with the limited means of the people and their migratory character. Too often their pur- pose in coming to the States from Canada has been to accu- mulate a modest sum and then return to the land of their birth, Church of Sacred Heart. there to pass their remaining days. Father Plante's aim has been to discourage this return ; his observation and experience teaching him that his people are better off to remain in the land of their adoption, take on its citizenship, and identify themselves with its growth. The fruit of his industry since 1892 is seen in a well-organized society of fifteen hundred members and a Sunday-school with two hundred pupils.
THE SWEDISH BAPTIST CHURCH.
This church had its inception in the zeal of two members of the Swedish Baptist church of Manchester,-Charles Thorsen and C. A. Bolin,-who, coming to Concord to reside, made arrangements with their pastor, Reverend J. P. Westerberg, to hold services here. The first service was held in July, 1892, in a house on Tremont street. Almost immediately a Sunday-school was organized, and its exercises were conducted for a time in the Pleasant Street Baptist church. Public meetings were also held there through the courtesy of that society. The Swedish population increasing, a movement for a
826
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
church organization was started. Those residents of Concord who were members of the Manchester church, seven in number, requested letters of dismissal from that church, and together with a delegation of church members from that city held a meeting at No. 108 North Main street, the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Johnson, to take the initiatory steps to organize a society. Reverend J. P. Westerberg called the meeting to order, was elected temporary chairman, and the following permanent officers were chosen : Chairman, J. A. Johnson ; clerk and treasurer, C. A. Bolin ; deacon, J. A. Johnson.
This organization was effected March 27, 1894. At a subsequent meeting others joined the society, and a call was extended to Rev- erend A. F. Borgendahl, of Brooklyn, N. Y., to become the pastor. He came here in April, 1894, and did good and faithful work. The society held its meetings, free of charge, at the chapel of the First Baptist church on State street. During the pastorate of Mr. Borgen- dahl the membership increased to thirty. After a pastorate of a little more than a year, Mr. Borgendahl tendered his resignation July 15, 1895, to take effect the 1st of September following, when he went to New Bedford, Mass.
The pulpit was supplied until December, the same year, when a call was extended to Reverend August Rohnstrom, of Colorado, which was accepted, and on the 1st of January, 1896, he began his labors. The society was now renting rooms formerly occupied by the Young Men's Christian Association at No. 88 North Main street, and there meetings were held for a year with good success. At the close of that year the society moved to Temple hall, in Sanborn's block. At the annual meeting in 1897, the question of building a chapel was agitated by members of the society. The undertaking, however, was begun with no little hesitation, owing to the dulness of the times. The zeal of the pastor and the enthusiasm of the congre- gation overcame this difficulty, and a lot was purchased on Albin street and sold in shares to members of the society. The price paid for the lot was four hundred dollars, and nearly all the shares were subscribed at the first meeting. The pastor was then authorized to appeal to the citizens of Concord for assistance. A building com- mittee was appointed at a meeting held January 11, 1897. With the encouragement received from donations, the work of grading the lot and constructing the chapel was pushed forward. The entire cost of the church and lot was one thousand six hundred dollars and seven cents. Of this amount, the Swedish society subscribed and paid six hundred and fifty-three dollars. From other churches in Concord were received donations amounting to four hundred and three dollars and forty-five cents. From New York city was received a gift of one
827
THE SWEDISH LUTHERAN CHURCH.
hundred dollars, and from individual friends in Concord, eighteen dollars and sixty-two cents. The society then negotiated a loan of four hundred and twenty-five dollars, which has since been paid.
J. M. Anderson, a member of the society, was the builder. On the 13th of May, 1897, the church was dedicated, various pastors of the city participating in the exereises.
The society then numbered thirty-six members, and had a good congregation. August 1, 1897, Rev. Mr. Rohnstrom, to whose active efforts so much was due, tendered his resigna- tion, to take effect October 1, that he might return to his old home in Sweden. With much regret the society accepted his resigna- tion, and extended a call to Reverend Ola Lindh of Cambridge, Mass., who accepted and began his labors the first Sunday of October, 1897. He continued his pastorate until Feb- ruary 1, 1899, when he resigned to accept a call to New Haven, Conn. He was succeeded by Reverend Victor Sandell of Wilmington, Del., who came March 20, 1899. This is Mr. Sandell's second pastorate. The present mem- bership of the church is sixty ; the average attendance on Sunday is seventy-five. The Sunday-school has been growing with the church. There is a Young People's society of thirty-five members. Several have been added to the church during the present pastorate, a consid- erable number have been baptized, and the society, free of debt, is in a prosperous condition. There are now under consideration plans for a new church in a more central location.
Swedish Baptist Church.
The Swedish people of Coneord now number about five hundred, largely accretions of the past decade. They are a valuable addition to our citizenship.
THE SWEDISH EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CONCORDIA CHURCH.
This church was organized February 7, 1894, with eightcen mem- bers, by Reverend N. G. Johnson of Manchester, and Reverend J. V. Soderman of Lowell, Mass. Mr. Johnson was called to take charge of the society, and he held services in the First Methodist Episcopal church about twice a month until October of that year. The first officers of this church were John Gustafson, John Johnson, and C. W. Johnson, deacons ; Peter Olson, C. E. Forsberg, and Emil Rossell, trustecs ; John Johnson, secretary ; Peter Olson, treasurer.
At a meeting held June 27, 1894, it was voted to incorporate the church, to join the New York Conference of the Lutheran Augustana
828
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Synod of the United States, and to purchase a building lot. John Gustafson, Peter Olson, and Hugo Lindgren were appointed a com- mittee to select a suitable lot and report. This committee reported in favor of a lot at the corner of Bradley and Penacook streets, and it was unanimously voted September 7, 1894, to purchase it. The pur- chase price was one thousand one hundred dollars. It was voted at a meeting of the society held October 25, 1894, to build a chapel, and the following were appointed a building committee: Hugo Lind- gren, Gust Nyden, Peter Olson, C. W. Johnson, and John Gustafson. At this same meeting Reverend A. Carlsson of Manchester was called to take charge of the society.
At the annual meeting, January 15, 1895, the treasurer reported an income for the year 1894 of one thousand one hundred and thirteen dollars and one cent, of which sum seven hundred ninety-five dollars and thirty-four cents was raised by Mr. Lundstrom and Peter Olson through contributions made by the Swedish people of Concord and others who were induced to help the society. Work on the chapel was completed in Au- gust, 1895. The cost of its erection was one thousand four hundred and forty-eight dollars and thirty-one cents. The value then placed upon the lot and building was three thousand dollars, and there was left a debt of one thousand four hundred and eighty-three dollars and twenty-seven cents. This debt has since been reduced to nine hun- dred dollars. As soon as the chapel was completed services were held thercin.
Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church.
At a missionary meeting held in Concord by the Boston District of the New York Conference, December 18, 1895, the chapel was dedicated by Reverend C. F. Johansson of Boston, assisted by several clergymen, among whom were Reverends A. Carlsson of Manchester, J. V. Soderman of Lowell, Mass., and J. N. Brandelle of Lynn, Mass.
September 1, 1895, Mr. Carlsson was succeeded by S. W. Swenson, a student of Rock Island, Ill., who had charge of the congregation for one year, when he returned to college. Mr. Swenson's work was most beneficial to the society. The church under his ministry in- creased both in numbers and in strength. He was succeeded the first Sunday in October, 1896, by F. W. Lindstrom, a licensed lay preacher, who remained until the last Sunday in January, 1900. Mr. Lindstrom was followed by Carl W. Ronge, who occupied the pulpit
829
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH.
from the second Sunday in February, 1900, to the last Sunday in June of the same year.
From this time, until the first Sunday in November, the church had no regular preacher. Oscar Lindstrom served as preacher from the first Sunday in November, 1900, to the last Sunday in March, 1901, inclusive. Later a call was given to Reverend A. H. Hogberg, who became the first pastor of this church. He continued with the society for a year, and was succeeded by Reverend Charles J. A. Holmgren, the present pastor. Mr. Holmgren has secured subscrip- tions to build a parsonage and to make other improvements. It is now contemplated to move the church to give room for the parsonage on the lot.
At the close of 1902 this society had a membership of eighty com- municants and fifty children attending the Sunday-school. The aver- age Sunday attendance at church is about seventy-five, and that at the Sunday-school about forty. The church has a ladies' sewing circle and a young people's society, both very active. A male and a mixed choir are both led by F. E. Lindquist.
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST.
.
Contemporaneously with the preparation of this history of Con- cord, there was transformed into a modest chapel the building sit- uated at the corner of School and State streets, the gift of Mary Baker G. Eddy, who is the recognized leader of the adherents of a faith which has among its believers people of almost every clime. This city has been for several years the home of Mrs. Eddy, and answer- ing the wishes of those who are her followers, she has provided for them a meeting place, which she describes as a "Christian Science Kindergarten for teaching the 'New Tongue' of the Gospel." This chapel, known as Chris- tian Science hall, is understood to be the precursor of a more substantial and imposing church edifice, for which she has set apart a fund of one hundred thousand dollars. Except the addition of tower and porch, and the alteration of windows, the exterior of the hall presents little change from that of the original building. The upper story is occupied by a hall, which has a scating capacity of over two hundred, and the lower floor by a reading-room and reception-room. There are two large arched windows at each end of
The Church of Christ, Scientist.
II
830
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
the hall. In the window at the right of the readers' desks are a cross and crown; in the one at the left is an open Bible, and in those at the rear are a star and anchor. In an arch above and to the right of the door, is a small seven-pointed star, just risen above the cloud, and radiating light. In a panel below is a stanza from the old hymn by an unknown author, beginning " Daughter of Zion, Awake from thy Sadness," which Christian Scientists claim to be a prophecy of this age.
The first service held in this chapel was in December, 1897, and a church organization was perfected later with seventy-four charter members. The first organized effort of Christian Scientists was on July 4, 1876, when Mrs. Eddy and six of her students formed a Christian Science Association at Boston. In 1879 the First Church of Christ, Scientist, was organized at the same place, of which Mrs. Eddy became pastor. Two years later she was ordained. In the same year she established an institution known as the " Massachu- setts College for Teaching the Pathology of Spiritual Power or Science of Meta- physical Healing." In 1889 the college was closed by her direction.
The fact that Mrs. Eddy has chosen Concord as her home, and selected a residence in one of its most delightful localities, has led many of her followers to look toward this city with very much more than ordinary interest. There have Home of Mrs. Eddy. been numerous pilgrimages here, some from far-off countries, with the view of seeing Mrs. Eddy and for the purpose of visiting her birthplace in an adjoining town. The most notable of these was July 5, 1897,-the Fourth that year coming on Sunday,-when about twenty-five hundred people came to testify their loyalty. This concourse of people was welcomed by the mayor and addressed by Mrs. Eddy and others.
It is not alone through these visitations that Mrs. Eddy has become known to the people of Concord. She has proved herself a public- spirited and generous citizen, and her interest in the growth and improvement of the city has been shown in many ways. Her follow- ers in this her home are as devoted to her as her adherents else- . where. Even those who are not of her faith acknowledge the cor- rectness of her life, the benevolence of character, and the public spirit she manifests on all occasions.
831
THE FRIENDS' CHRISTIAN UNION.
THE FRIENDS' CHRISTIAN UNION.
This is the latest religious society of Concord, and is the out- growth of a series of Sunday evening Bible lectures given in the First Methodist church in the fall and winter of 1898. There had been a withdrawal from the First Baptist church of some of its con- gregation, and these people secured the First Methodist church for Sunday evening services, and then invited Dr. Roland D. Grant to speak to them. These meetings continued for about four months. Then an organization known as the Friends' Christian Union was formed, the organization taking place March 7, 1899. Those active in bringing about its organization were Fred W. Cheney, Lyman Jackman, Gilbert J. Benedict, Isaac F. Mooney, Milon D. Cum- mings, E. H. IIouston, David Webster, W. M. Colby, Mrs. Hannah G. Hoit, Mrs. Ellen M. Hall, and Mrs. Louise Welch. Mr. Cheney was made chairman of the organization ; Napoleon B. Hale, clerk ; Milon D. Cummings, treasurer; and Orville Upton, collector.
A Sunday-school was organized immediately and a library started. By-laws were adopted May 23, 1899. Very soon after organization the society arranged to hold its meetings in Grand Army hall, and there its preaching has since been supplied. The society has drawn in the main for its supplies upon students of the Newton Theologi- cal seminary. Among those who have supplied the pulpit for any considerable time may be mentioned Reverends Roland D. Grant, E. S. Philbrook, J. D. B. House, J. H. Harding, E. D. Webber, and S. Pidle, the last four being students from the seminary. The church polity is practically that of the Calvinist Baptist church. The question of erecting a house of worship has been discussed by the society, but no definite action has been taken. Its church work is supported by voluntary contributions of its members and congrega- tion. There is less conventionality in the services of this church than in those of other churches, and its evening meetings have enlisted considerable interest.
CHAPTER XX. CANALS, STAGE LINES, AND TAVERNS.
HENRY MCFARLAND.
Long before the steps of a settler had rustled the leaves on the shores of Horseshoe pond, Canadian voyageurs had chanted the songs of France on the upper St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Father of Waters ; but when men of English descent came at last to dwell in the upper Merrimack valley, in May, 1726, they knew what they wanted. It was to possess themselves of broad, productive meadows, and woodlands bearing oak and pine strong enough and tall enough to carry an admiral's flag in his majesty's navy. The mishaps which befell them on the way from Massachusetts were so many inducements to complete, in the following autumn, a sufficient cartway between Haverhill and Penny Cook. This settlers' road, without important change of line, was long the route for travel into our portion of the valley. Along that way went the wood-cutter, the huntsman, the lumbering ox-cart, the pacing horse carrying a fron- tierswoman with a child in her arms, the soldier hurrying to Bunker Hill, the village parson driving to Boston in a chaise, or Benjamin Thompson (afterward Count Rumford) with his span in a curricle going to Woburn.
As gain in population was slow, so was increase in travel and traffic; but by 1790 Haverhill and Newburyport were regarded as important commercial towns. Their shipwrights had for fifty years been building ships that sailed to London and the Indies, and their merchants had credit in Threadneedle street and the Windward Islands. The linens and woolens of Londonderry had found sale, and were borne up and down the country in the packs of peddlers. Concord had ceased to be on the frontier; that border line had moved away gradually toward the Canadian settlements. The five towns of Salisbury, Claremont, Lebanon, Plymouth, and Hanover had in 1775 rather more than two thousand, and in 1790 almost six thou- . sand, inhabitants. The " college road," from Boscawen to Dartmouth college, was laid out by authority of the state in 1795.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the demands of the north country had so grown that one prosperous merchant of Haver- hill was sending annually to Lebanon foreign goods valued at forty
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CANALS, STAGE LINES, AND TAVERNS.
thousand dollars, on slow ox-carts, which returned laden with potash and pearlash, flax-seed, and other marketable products.
During the toilsome period between 1726 and 1800, the Merri- mack, most interesting of New England rivers, was of course pour- ing its abundant waters southward, making its power manifest to the dullest dweller on its lower shores by an occasional freshet, and by a famous one in 1740. Raftsmen entrusted ship and house- building timber to its bosom, to find domestic and foreign markets by the way of Newburyport; but its falls were barriers to upward navigation, and to shoot its rapids taxed the nerves of canoemen skilful as any who swept inland waters with a paddle.1
In the last decade of this period, people were not quite content to keep to the older ways: perhaps contentment is a flower that rarely comes to full bloom in the New Hampshire air. Then, too, the second great wave of emigration was breaking on the coast, and with it came men who had driven in a mail-coach to Bath, or lodged at the Red Horse Inn at Stratford. There were also those who knew the value of canals in the old countries. So it came about that in 1794 a stage wagon was put on to run from Concord, by way of Chester, to Haverhill, where it connected with a conveyance to Boston.
Between 1796 and 1809 state charters were obtained for twenty- four turnpike roads, at least six of which when built were of direct concern to Concord, namely, the New Hampshire (inc. 1796), to Portsmouth; the Fourth (inc. 1800), from the Merrimack in Bos- cawen to the Connecticut in Lebanon; the Grafton (inc. 1804), from a junction with the Fourth in Andover to Orford; the Mayhew (inc. 1803), from Hill to Plymouth; the Chester (inc. 1804), between Pembroke and Chester; and the Londonderry (inc. 1804), from Concord, via Hooksett and Londonderry, to a point on the Merrimack where is now the city of Lawrence.
The Concord end of the New Hampshire or Portsmouth turnpike road was that street in East Concord which bears the name of Portsmouth. The junction of South Main and Turnpike streets was the point of departure of the Londonderry turnpike road, and within the memory of living men the stone which marked its begin- ning was standing, inscribed " Boston, 63 miles."
. Among the canal enterprises of that period were some of special local interest. It being expected (1793-1800) that there would be navigable water from Boston to Concord, ambitious minds were
1 In 1761 a number of persons petitioned for colonial permission to blow up the rocks in Amoskeag falls. This was (to quote their own words) " in order & more Especially that the Trees provided for his Majesties' Navy may not be attended with so much difficulty as it now is."
834
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
agitated with other projects, for instance such as would carry nav- igation beyond Concord, up our river and Winnipiseogee stream to the lake; and a still larger scheme was to unite the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers, by the way of Sunapee lake, at a cost of two million dollars.
In the office of our secretary of state are excellent maps and profile drawings, made in 1816, for a waterway from a point on the Merrimack river, just below Sewall's falls, to the outlet of Sugar river on the Connecticut. The necessary surveys were made by the younger Loammi Baldwin, John Farrar, and Henry B. Chase, who were acting, two of them in behalf of the state of Massachusetts, the other for New Hampshire. The scheme which these drawings dis- close contemplated making use of the Contoocook, Warner, and Sugar rivers, deepening them wherever necessary, and providing many locks ; a new channel was to be constructed from the Merri- mack to a point on the Contoocook where are now Holden's mills, and another like channel was to be cut from the head-waters of the Warner river into Sunapee lake. A resurvey for this canal was made by engineers of the United States Army, and results reported to con- gress by the secretary of war in 1828. There were those so bold as to mention in this connection Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence, but money could not be obtained for undertakings so vast.
The Middlesex canal, a Massachusetts enterprise, to connect Boston harbor with the Merrimack river at Chelmsford, opened in 1803, was incorporated in 1793, and in that or the following year Samuel Blodgett, a native of Woburn, attempted a canal at Amos- keag falls, whereby water-power was to be obtained as well as tolls from traffic. He was an adventurous gentleman, who had served in that dauntless New England enterprise, the capture of Louisburg. He had gained money by buying and floating a tea-laden ship stranded at Plymouth, and sought permission to raise the Royal George, a line-of-battle ship sunken at Spithead, but the canal, and the quarrels which grew out of it, exhausted his means, beside funds derived from lotteries,-in which our townsmen, Peter Green and Timothy Walker, served with others as commissioners,-and he bare- ly lived to see it in operation in 1807. It was poorly constructed, and almost entirely rebuilt in 1816.
Boston, ten years older than Haverhill, had by this time twenty 'thousand inhabitants, and was the chief market of New England, yet the people on the lower Merrimack strove to keep the business of our valley in what was deemed its natural channel, and the canal around Pawtucket falls at Lowell, completed in 1797, availed them something. It is a newspaper statement that in 1817 the sum of
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CANALS, STAGE LINES, AND TAVERNS.
eighty thousand dollars was subscribed at Newburyport toward a contemplated eanal across Rockingham county to the Merrimack river above Hooksett falls.
After the Middlesex canal had entered the Merrimack, two miles above Lowell and twenty-seven from Boston, there remained several minor falls to be surmounted, and the more lordly ones of Hook- sett and Garvin's, but, as we have seen, a canal had been built at Amoskeag. In 1812 the Merrimack Boating company was formed among Middlesex eanal people, and under the supervision of its agent the way was cleared to Coneord. The New Hampshire Gazet- teer of 1823 says the Middlesex canal cost five hundred and twenty thousand dollars, the works at Wicassee, fourteen thousand dollars, Union loeks and eanals (by which Merrill's, Griffin's, Goffe's, Coos, and Cromwell's falls were overcome), fifty thousand dollars, the Amoskeag ea- nal, fifty thou- sand dollars, Hooksett, sev- enteen thou- sand dollars, Bow, twenty- one thousand dollars, and it appears that for these junior undertak- ings the parent company provided the sum of eighty- two thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven dollars. The Union canals obtained thirty thousand dollars as the avails of lotteries. The Bow, Hooksett, Amoskeag, Union, and Wieassee enterprises had independent charters and gathered independent tolls. The original dam at Garvin's falls (Bow) appears to have been built under the superintendence of John Carter, of Coneord, a soldier of the Revolu- tion and a lieutenant-colonel of the War of 1812. The Middlesex company owned, as a corporation, shares in the Bow, Hooksett, and Union canals; it owned the whole of the Wieassee; and its share- holders as individuals owned the whole of the Amoskeag. John L. Sullivan is reported to have said, in 1817, that the assessments paid in to the Middlesex company, which covered its interests in the smaller eanals, amounted to five hundred ninety-two thousand dol- lars. Other accounts say the sum was twice as great.
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