History of Coos County, New Hampshire, Part 105

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1194

USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > History of Coos County, New Hampshire > Part 105

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Bazeleel Gates, who married Sarah, daughter of Jonathan Evans, moved here with his family, and bought the farm owned by William Newell. Caleb, the youngest son, married Bathsheba Porter and remained at home. They had four children, Woodbury, Cass, Matilda and Frank. Woobury married a daughter of Hazen Evans, and is in trade at Gorham. Jefferson Gates married Maria Porter, and lived on the farm adjoining his brother Caleb's. He died in 1866.

Simeon Evans was a brother to Jonathan, and came from Massachu- setts about the same time. Ezekiel, Elijah, Lydia and John were his children. Ezekiel married a lady in Massachusetts. They had a large family of children, of whom Mrs. Moses Hazeltine was a resident of Shel- burne. In 1781 Capt. Jonathan Rindge, one of the most respected of the early settlers, came. Elijah Evans, son of Simeon. lived on the Hitchcock interval. His son Henry married Joanna Leighton, and built the Hitch- cock cottage, where he lived several years. Afterward he bought the place owned later by his son-in-law, Trustam Minard. John Evans, third son of Simeon, died leaving seven children, among them were twin girls, after-

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wards Mrs. Abram Wilson and Mrs. Palmer. Mr. Clemens had a large family, but none of his decendants are now in town except those connected with the Evanses.

Jonathan Peabody came from Andover when young, married Phebe Kimball. of Bethel, and had five children, Priscilla (Mrs. Ben Bean), Phebe, Sally (Mrs. John Messer), Amos and Oliver. He afterward married Pru- dence Patterson, a widow with three children, Betsy, Jennie and Hosea. From this marriage there were five more children, Mercy (Mrs. Amos Evans), Philena, Charlotte (Mrs. Nathan Newell), Asa and Jonathan. Oliver Peabody married Susy Messer and lived with his father. His child- ren were John, Loammi, Nancy (Mrs. Noah Gould), Eliza, Betsey, Sally (Mrs. Peter Runnels), and Samuel. Jonathan Peabody, Jr., had three wives. His first wife and the mother of his children was Eliza Coffin, of Gilead. Three of his children, Warren, Augustus and Eliza, married, respectively, Mary, Lydia and Charles Tenny.

Jonathan Lary, son of Joseph Lary, Jr., married Susan Burbank. They had five children-Rachel and Elmira, Selina, Voltaire and Churchill. Dearborn Lary, son of Capt. Joseph Lary, of Gilead, married Polly Chand- ler, a sister of John Chandler, and had a large family of children. Frank succeeded to the old homestead. Elon settled in Gorham.

Peter Poor came in 1772, and in August of 1781 was killed by a band of Indians, after they had made an attack on Bethel and Gilead, Me.

In 1772 Nathaniel Porter settled here, and lived just below the stock- farm, and had a family of eight girls and one boy. He was fond of fun and practical jokes, and was the first blacksmith in town. The story of his shoeing the old buck so he might chase the boys on the ice is familiar to many.

Col. Head was an uncle of Gov. Head. Two sons settled here. Elsie married Hazen Evans. Among others were Jeremiah Gould and his son Noah, Jonathan Bullard and his son Dr. Bazeleel. John Chandler, Sam and Edwin Thompson, and William Newell and his descendants.

In later times Harvey Philbrook was a prominent and popular man. He furnished a good illustration of the advantages of natural gifts over a school education without those. He filled every town office from highway sur- veyor to representative, did a large and lucrative business in buying and selling cattle, and acquired a handsome property. He died in the prime of life, regrette l by all who knew him.

Dr. Oliver Howe was a student of Dr. John Grover, and came here when quite a young man. He married Esther Burbank, built the house now known as the Winthrop House, and is the only physician who ever lived in Shelburne for any length of time. He died in 1860. Mr. Howe was a man of tall, erect form, graceful in appearance, affable in speech, and a perfect gentleman of the old school. Hiram Cummings owned the

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upper half of the Great Island, and the farm opposite. He was a success- ful book farmer, as experimenters are derisively called. He moved to Paris, Me., about 1879.

Of the old names, Evans, Hubbard, Philbrook, Green and Ingalls are still among the prominent ones of the town.

CHAPTER CVIII.

Industries-" Peggy " Davis's Mittens-Transportation -- Mills-First Merchant -- Early Busi- ness Interests-Roads-Taverns -- Bridges.

NDUSTRIES .- For some years the people could only attend to clearing the land and raising food for their growing families. The largest and straightest trees were reserved for the frames of new houses; shingles were rived from the clearest pine; baskets. chair bottoms, cattle bows, etc., were made from brown ash-butts, and all the rest were piled and burned on the spot. Thousands of feet of timber and cords of wood were thus consigned to the flames as of no value. Corn, potatoes, wheat and rye grew abundantly on the new soil, enriched by the fallen leaves of many centuries. Plenty of sugar could be had for the making, and moose, deer and the delicious brook-trout were free to all, regardless of the game officer. On every clearing could be seen a little patch of blue blossomed flax. This was pulled, broken, combed, carded, spun and wove, entirely by hand, and made into tow "pants " and tow-and-linen shirts for men's summer wear, into serviceable checked-dresses and aprons, and the nicest of bed and table linen. A day's work was spinning two double- skeins of linen, carding and spinning four double skeins of tow, or weaving six yards; and for a week's work a girl received fifty cents. Mrs. James Austin has had a hundred yards out "bleaching" at once. Wool was worked up in about the same way, and all through the fall and winter the scratch, scratch of the cards, the hoarse hum of the big wheel, the flutter of the flies on the little wheel, and the rattling of the loom machinery, made cheerful music in the log houses. Piles of fleecy blankets and stockings were packed away against the marriage of the girls. Pressed quilts were part of the outfit, lasting for years. often to the third generation. Mrs. Hepzibeth Peabody had one over fifty years old. It was originally a bright green lined with straw color, and quilted with blue in inch squares. Mrs. Aaron Peabody had a blue one quilted in little

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fans. Mrs. George Green had several. One was quilted in feather-work, with a border of sun-flower leaves. and then cross-quilted in straight lines. Mrs. Ezekiel Evans was usually called upon to mark out the patterns. and the best quilter was the belle of the company.

To keep the snow from getting into the low shoes, gayly striped socks were worn, and every child could knit double-mittens in herring-bone or fox and-geese pattern. Peggy Davis could knit the alphabet; and in a pair of mittens she once knit for Barker Burbank, she knit a verse. [Miss Margaret Davis was a member of Lot Davis's family. At the age of twelve years she became perfectly blind. Her education was necessarily limited. Schools for the deaf, dumb, and blind were not for her. She had learned to read and write, and to "work " letters on coarse canvas. She became celebrated for her skill in sewing, spinning, and knitting. At one time Barker Burbank was exhibiting a pair of yarn mittens to some friends at his home. "Well," said' one, "those mittens are really fine; but there is an old blind woman up in Gorham who can match them." "Well," said Mr. Burbank, "I will bet twenty-five dollars there is not a woman in the state of New Hampshire who can do it." "Aunt Peggy" heard of it, and for a few nights she did not retire to bed as early asusual. She required no light, and in the night the house was quiet. In a few days she sent Mr. Burbank a pair of mittens. She had composed three or four verses, and, stitch by stitch, had knit them in the mittens :-

" Money will make you many friends, But do not prize them high; For should misfortune make you poor Such friends will pass you by."

Then came a few words of counsel, telling him that there were things of more worth than wealth or position. After that she "knit " several pairs of these for her friends, one pair of which is now owned by Abner Davis, of Jefferson. She died in Jackson at the home of her niece, Mrs. Joseph H. Dearborn. This history of the knitter and the mittens is fur- nished by Abner Davis .--- EDITOR. ] Others took pride in knitting remarkably fast. Many could knit a pair of double-mittens in a day; but the best job in that line was done by Nancy Peabody. Her brother Allen came out of the woods and wanted a pair of mittens as he had lost his. There was no yarn in the house, nor rolls, but plenty of wool. Miss Peabody carded, spun, scoured out and knit a pair of double-mittens (white), and had them ready for her brother the next morning.

No sooner had the new settlers begun to be comfortable than they cast about them for ways and means to make money. The nearest market was Portland, eighty-six miles away. Hay, grain and potatoes were too bulky to pay transportation: but Yankee ingenuity soon overcame that difficulty. The hay and grain was transformed into butter, cheese, pork

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or beef. Wood was condensed into potash, and in that state was easily carried away. The process of making potash is quite complicated and in- teresting. The wood was cut eight or ten feet long, piled, and burned to ashes. Leaches capable of holding ten or fifteen bushels were placed over a trough made from a large tree, filled with the ashes, and the resulting lye boiled down to a black, sticky substance called salts. Sometimes it was sold in this state at $5 a hundred, but where business of any amount was done, it was further reduced to potash. Then it was dissolved, boiled down again, and then baked in a long brick oven till changed to a white powder, called pearlash, which was used in bread. Mrs. Enoch Hubbard got her first print dress by bringing ashes from off the hill and selling them for nine pence a bushel.

Mills .- The first grist-mill was put up by the Austins on Mill brook. William Newell, Sr., worked there after he sold out to Mr. Gates. After- ward, saws were put in, and Stephen 'Peabody sawed the lumber for his house on shares. Clear pine boards, twenty-four inches wide, cost him only $6 a thousand. Still later the Newell brothers put in machinery for sawing shingles and spool-wood. The mill was washed away in the freshet of 1878, and has not been rebuilt. Another grist-mill stood on Scales's creek, now called State-line brook. On Clemens's brook were two saw-mills; one owned by Lawson Evans and one by Jefferson Hubbard. The Wheelers owned one on Ingalls brook, and Enoch Hubbard one on Lead-mine brook. All of these mills were local conveniences, not money- making enterprises. No manufacturing of importance is now conducted.

Logging has always been a standard industry. The pine went first. Nothing else was fit for building purposes in those days. Millions of nice timber have been taken from the intervals, and as much more from the uplands and hillsides. Mr. Judkins, from Brunswick, was one of the first contractors, paying from seventy-five cents to §1 per thousand, delivered on the rivers. Years later Stephen Peabody hauled from Success for $1.83 per thousand. Barker Burbank was agent for the undivided lands, and did an extensive business. No large pine trees can now be found. The Lead-mine valley has always been famous for nice spruce and hemlock.

The first merchant was Thomas Green, Jr., and he had a potash manu- factory in connection with his store. Years after, George Green and Robert Ingalls opened a store, first in partnership, then separately. The Bisbee brothers and William Hebbard each tried trading for a time.

The earliest carpenters were Mr. Peabody and his son Oliver; they framed C. J. Lary's barn. the second framed barn in town. Some men made a living by making sap-buckets, ox-yokes, or sleds. Others shaved shingles. Jacob Stevens made money by burning charcoal, and delivering it at the glen. Col. Porter was the first blacksmith, followed by John Chandler, Sumner Chipman, James Hall, and Isaiah Spiller. Joseph

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Conner made cart-wheels. Judge Ingalls had a brick-yard, and employed four or five men, about 1855. There were also shoe-makers in town.

"Chopping-bees " were quite popular while people were clearing their farms. Men often went five or six miles and considered a good dinner and what rum they could drink as ample pay for a hard day's work. "Raisings" and "haulings" brought together all the people in town, and were as handy for the diffusion of news as a local newspaper. Formerly girls attended "huskings " and boys "quiltings," and after the work was done they had a dance. "Quiltings" and "husking's " are now out of date, and have been superseded by the "sewing-circle" and other modern enjoy- ments.

When Stephen Messer returned from a visit to Andover he brought in his hand a willow stick for a whip. On reaching home he drove that stick into the ground near his house, just above Moose river, Gorham. The magnificent tree that sprang from it is the parent of all the English wil- lows in this vicinity. Those in front of R. P. Peabody's were broken from the Clemens willow, near Moses Wilson's, and were planted at least forty years ago.

Doubly imprisoned by mountain walls and trackless forests, the early settlers seldom communicated with the outside world. Fryeburg was the nearest village, and people went there on foot, carrying their supplies on their backs in the summer, and in the winter using snow-shoes and hand- sleighs, which was much the easier way. Girls were good walkers, and thought nothing of going from Capt. Evans's to Fletcher Ingalls's to meet- ing, or from one end of the town to the other to attend singing-schools, huskings, dances, or quiltings. One young girl walked over the mountains to attend protracted-meeting at Milan. Oxen were used for farm work, and as soon as roads could be cut, the teaming and most of the riding was done with them. Horses were kept by a few, and long journeys were made on horseback, and it was no unusual thing for a man to take his wife and one or two small children up behind him. Sleighs were in use long before wagons were thought of. A lady of seventy-seven says she was out "berrying" when the first wagon she ever saw passed by, but when she told her folks of the "four-wheeled carriage," they only laughed at her, never having heard of such a thing. The roads naturally run along as near the intervals as possible, and no material change has ever been made. Longer ago than the "oldest inhabitant " can remember, a rope-ferry run across from Manson Green's interval. Alfred Carlton kept a large boat that was seulled across, and later Enoch Hubbard put in a rope-ferry against his interval. The road came up from the river just below Moses Wilson's.

After good roads were built and the teaming from the upper part of the .country passed this way, Shelburne became a lively place. Three taverns

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found plenty of custom, besides occasional company at Barker Burbank's and Capt Evans's. John Burbank's tavern was a long, low, unpainted house, the sign hung on a post at the west end. Like all public places at that time, an open bar was kept where liquor sold for three cents a glass. John Chandler's, near Moses rock, was a two-story house, painted red with white trimmings. George Green's, at the village, was a stage station and postoffice, and the best tavern between Lancaster and Portland. A huge gilt ball hung out from the ridge-pole, and on it in black letters was "George Green, 1817." Horr Latham and others drove the stage to Lan- caster twice a week. In the fall of 1845 Randall Pinkham made his first trip in the employ of Barker Burbank. He drove two horses, one forward of the other, on a single wagon.

In the spring of 1851 Enoch Hubbard built a bridge across the river from the Great Rocks, but owing to some defect it did not stand. Nothing daunted by his failure, the next spring Mr. Hubbard built again, and peti- tioned the selectmen for a road. It was refused, not from any particular fault in the bridge, but because many wanted it further down the river at Gates's or Green's. But people found it much more convenient than the ferry: and at last the county commissioners came down and laid out the dugway. The natives called it the Great River bridge, but it was re-chris- tened Lead-mine bridge by city visitors. It did good service for fifteen years. The next one was built by the town; Merrill Head, Caleb Gates, and Jotham Evans building committee. An abutment of stone was put in by Moses Mason in place of the old log one, and a bridge built under the direction of Nahum Mason. This was blown down in November, 1870, and re-built the following winter by Enoch Hubbard and John Newell.

The building of the Grand Trunk railway through Shelburne began in 1851. Upon its completion, Jefferson Hubbard was appointed station agent, which position he held until his death in 1877.

CHAPTER CIX.

Religion-Church of Christ-Original Members-Free Church-Free- Will Baptist Church- Reform Club-Union Meeting-House-Schools -- Teachers-White Mountain Stock-Farm -- Judge. Burbank-Lead Mine-Hotels -- Soldiers-Town Clerks and Selectmen from 1839.

R ELIGION .- Many of Shelburne's first settlers were pious men and women, and the Sabbath and family worship was strictly observed in their new homes; but the first public religious services were con- ducted by Fletcher Ingalls. Every Sunday for years "Uncle Fletcher's "

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house was well-filled, many walking four or five miles. Young girls went bare-footed, or wore their every-day shoes and stockings till within sight of the house, when they stopped under a big tree and put on their best morocco slippers and white stockings. The seats were benches, kept care- fully clean, not quite so comfortable as the cushioned pews in the chapel, but better filled, and we think the long, dry sermons Mr. Ingalls used to read were received without cavil. People believed as they were taught, instead of wandering off into speculation by themselves. The reading over, exhortations were made by Samuel Wheeler, Edward Green and others. The singers were Nathaniel Porter, Jonathan Lary and his sisters. Betsey, Hannah and Mercy, in fact, most of the worshipers took part in this exercise. Sometimes a stray shepherd chanced along and fed this flock. Messrs. Pettengill, Jordan. Hazeltine, Trickey, Austin Wheeler and Elder Hutchinson were Free. Will Baptists, Sewall, Hidden, Richard- son and Burt, Congregationalists. Scores of interesting and curious inci- dents are related of these primitive christians, who at least possessed the virtue of sincerity. One summer the drouth was very severe, threatening to destroy the crops. At the conclusion of the regular Sunday services Deacon Green requested all those who were interested and had faith in prayer to meet at his house to pray for rain. Their petitions proved not only fervent but efficacious, for, before they were finished, a terrible thun- der-shower arose, and the deacon's shed was blown clear across the road.

The first church of which we find any record was organized in 1818 as the Church of Christ, with seventeen members; among them were Edward Green, Lydia Ordway, Samuel Wheeler, Anna Wheeler, Reuben Hobart, Anna Hobart, Amos Peabody, Mehitable Ordway, Laskey Jackson. Alepha Hobart, Cornelius Bearce, Lydia Bearce, John Wilson, Lucy Wheeler. The signatures are written on stiff, unruled paper, yellow with age, and would form an interesting study to those who read character by the hand- writing. The best specimen is the name of Lucy Wheeler, very fine and distinct, and written with good black ink.

In 1832 a meeting-house was built; Robert Ingalls, Edward Green, George Green and Barker Burbank being building committee. It was dedicated as a free church. Jotham Sewall preached the dedicatory ser- mon, and four or five other clergymen, Free-Will Baptist and Congrega- tional were present. The best singers in town had been well trained by the chorister, John Kimball, and the long, difficult Easter-Anthem from the " Ancient Lyre " was skillfully rendered.

A schedule of time for the year 1838 gives the Congregationalists twenty- four Sundays, the Free-Will Baptists twenty-five, Universalists one, and Methodists two. Whenever the pulpit was unoccupied Deacon Burbank or Fletcher Ingalls read a sermon, or Samuel Wheeler and others exhorted.

In 1841 a new organization was formed, called the Shelburne Free- Will

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Baptist Church. The covenant is in the hand-writing of Stephen Hutch- inson, and article 3d provides that " we agree to exercise a suitable care one of another, to promote the growth of the whole body in christian knowledge, holiness and comfort, to the end that we may all stand com- plete in the will of God." Article 8, "We will frequently exhort, and if occasion require, admonish one another according to directions in Matt. 18. We will do this in a spirit of meekness considering ourselves lest we also transgress, and as in baptism we have been buried with Christ and raised again, so there rests on us a special obligation to walk in newness of life." Delegates were sent regularly to the quarterly conferences with a report of the religious condition of the church. In 1848 the membership had in- creased to thirty-three. Of these most have since joined the Church Triumphant.

The Congregational church was formed many years ago, but there was no regular organization of Methodists till Daniel Barber was stationed here in 1861. During the following two years there was a great revival. Night after night lively and interesting meetings were held at Mr. Palmer's, Mr. Hebbard's or Mr. Hall's. Mr. Sinclair succeeded Mr. Barber; but though he came over from Bartlett every other Sunday, braving the cold winds and deep snows, the interest gradually abated. From this time till the reform movement, only occasional meetings were held. City ministers, "Orthodox " or Episcopal, sometimes preached half a day during the sum- mer. The old church was fast going to ruin, to say nothing of the people themselves. During this "reform movement " temperance lectures and meetings for two years occupied public attention. A " Reform Club " was organized; and it is said that every person in town, with one exception, signed the pledge. Like all such movements this ran its course. The religious element again felt the need of the offices of the church and reg- ular religious services, and the Reform Club meetings changed to prayer meetings. Mr. W. W. Baldwin, the Methodist minister stationed at Gor- ham, came down half a day each Sabbath, and an interest was awakened that increased during the next year, when Mr. Chandler preached. The meeting-house was repaired and re-dedicated in September, 1877. The death of Miss Fannie Hubbard the following spring broke up the choir. In 1881 Mr. Williams, a Congregational minister, stationed at Gilead, preached Sunday afternoons; an organ was purchased; a communion ser- vice presented by the sewing circle, and a baptismal bowl by Mrs. R. I. Burbank. Mr. Gridley succeeded Mr. Williams, in 1883. His pastorate closed in April 1887.

There is now a neat Union meeting-house in a pleasant location on the south side of the river where Rev. Mr. Trask, of Gorham, holds services. An active Sunday-school is connected.

Schools .- We have no means of knowing how the first generation

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obtained an education, but it is hardly likely there were regular schools where the children would be obliged to go long distances through the woods. Perhaps some went back to Massachusetts, while others learned at home. A little later we find plenty of well-educated men and women. In Moses Ingalls's family were three good teachers, Frederick, Nancy and Robert. Some seventy years ago Robert, or as he is more commonly known, Judge Ingalls. kept school near Moses rock. Among his scholars was a half-grown boy, whose parents had recently moved from Randolph. In those days Randolph was considered far removed from the benefits of civil- ization, and Mr. Ingalls naturally concluded the boy would be behind others of his age. "Can you read?" he inquired, taking up the old Perry's spelling-book. "I can read my A, B, C's," replied the boy, bash- fully hanging his head. Slowly slipping his finger along he repeated the alphabet correctly. "Very well. Now can't you say a-b ab ?" "I can try," was the modest answer. With the same slow precision that lesson was read, then the next, and the next, and not till Mr. Ingalls found out that with one exception his new pupil was the best reader and speller in school, did he see where the laugh came in. Barker Burbank also taught here, and was called one of the best instructors of the times. often spending a whole noon-time explaining some of Walsh's problems to a puzzled scholar. To this school came the Stowell boys, the Thompson boys and Ezekiel Evans's girls. Back of the Philbrook House, close to the foot of the mount- ain, stood a school-house, where Hannah Mason taught. Sometimes schools were kept at Capt. Evans's or Samuel Emery's. Susan Gates, Sally Austin, Elsie Head and Lydia Porter were teachers of fifty years ago; and good teachers they were, too, though they never heard of a Nor- mal school nor a Teacher's Institute.

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History of Coos County, New Hampshire, Part 105

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1194