USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Goshen > History of Goshen, New Hampshire : settled, 1769, incorporated, 1791 > Part 12
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By "Capt." Barton: 'Andrew Jackson. The Washington of the second War of Independence; and like Washington he will find his reward in being elevated to the highest civil trust which the affections of a grateful people can bestow on him.'
By Maj. Huntoon: 'General Jackson, the Citizen Soldier' (this was com- plimentary to Jackson, as was the toast of Mr. H. Huntoon).
By V. Chase, Esq .: 'The Coalition Administration, Black as the darkness of midnight.'
It must be recollected that the individuals comprising this table had just come from the field, where they had heard their Candidate for the Presi-
*By the division of Cheshire County, Sullivan County had just been formed.
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TAVERNS
dency, and their party, denounced in the most unqualified terms. Are they to be censured as 'ill bred' for an honest expression of their sentiment? ... "
This was not the first time that John Quincy Adams, leader of the denounced "Coalition Administration," and Andrew Jackson had been pitted against each other. The presidential election of 1824 failed to provide a clear majority and the de- cision was therefore placed before the House of Representatives, Adams receiving the election. The two parties of that era were known as National Republicans and Democratic Republicans, although the Democratic Republicans eventually dropped the latter portion of the term and became known simply as Demo- crats. This explanation is needed in order to avoid confusion in The Spectator notice dated Apr. 20, 1828;
Democratic Meeting.
The Republicans of Goshen, friendly to the Election of Gen. Andrew Jackson to the Presidency of the United States are requested to meet at Trow's Tavern on Saturday, May 10, at Six P. M., for the purpose of choos- ing a Delegate to the State Convention at Concord.
Virgil Chase.
Undoubtedly, Oliver Booth (2nd?), a solid and conservative citizen of Goshen, attended this meeting, for at a Jacksonian rally in July, he offered as a toast, "General Jackson, the Friend of Liberty and the dread of tyrants." The sentiment so strongly burning locally was upheld in the country at large and, to Adams' 83 electoral votes, Jackson received 178 and was therefore elected .*
Political trends having been thus determined, the townsfolk turned to everyday things. On Oct. 25th., "at Capt. Levi Trow's Inn, a certain lot of land, situated near the center of the town and supposed to contain 73 acres," was consigned for sale at auction by Solon Bingham.
The day on which "Captain" Trow - a complimentary title - closed his door to the public is not definitely known. For many years the old tavern stood vacant, until, during a gale in February, 1878, a part of the roof was blown off, causing it to be demolished the following summer.
*Fiske's Hist. of the U. S.
CHAPTER XIII
The Militia System. The Goshen "Fusileers"
T HE State Militia of the first quarter of the nineteenth cen- tury may well be regarded as a counterpart of the present Na- tional Guard; not as efficient, nor as well-armed comparatively, but attempting to preserve the national safety without the known liabilities of a standing army. The system was predicated upon the proposition that a man's duty lay in defending his own household, without hire. That it was found inadequate does not diminish its one-time value.
A pamphlet entitled "The Militia Law of the State of New Hampshire," published in 1809, and belonging to Lieut. Royal Booth of Goshen has furnished much interesting information concerning military affairs of the period.
The Thirty First Regiment comprised two battalions, of which the companies in the towns of Newport, Wendell and Goshen formed the first battalion, and those of Croydon, Springfield and "New Grantham" the second battalion. The regiment was brigaded with the sixth, twelfth, fifteenth, sixteenth, twentieth and twenty-eighth regiments to form the Fifth Brigade. The Manual continued:
"Each company of Infantry shall consist of one Captain, one Lieutenant, one Ensign, four serjeants, four corporals, one drummer, one fifer and sixty-four rank and file; the corporals to be included in the rank and file.
Each non-commissioned officer and soldier belonging to the infantry shall furnish himself with a good fire-lock, with a steel or iron ram-rod, priming wire and brush, bayonet, scabbard and belt, a cartridge-box that will contain sixteen cartridges,* two good flints, a knapsack and canteen.
Commissioned officers shall be severally armed with a sword or hanger, and an espontoon; and all officers whose duty it is to be mounted on horse- back, shall be armed with a sword and pair of pistols, the holsters of which to be covered with bearskin caps . . .
Be it further enacted: That the selectmen of the several towns and unin- corporated places within this state, shall furnishe suitable meats and drinks
*This "cartridge" was a paper cylinder containing one charge of powder only. The end of the cartridge was torn off, its contents poured into the muzzle of the gun, the paper being used for wadding.
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THE MILITIA SYSTEM
for the refreshment of all non-commissioned officers and soldiers, within their several towns and places, or thirty four cents in lieu thereof, for each man, on regimental and battalion musters, which may be in the months of September and October; and also one quarter of a pound of powder to each non-commissioned officer and soldier; at the expense of said towns and places.
Be it further enacted: That every town and plantation in this state shall be constantly provided with thirty two pounds of good gunpowder, sixty four pounds of musquet balls, 128 flints, and three iron or tin camp-kettles to every sixty four soldiers enrolled in the militia ... and the same proportion for a greater or less number."
John Langdon, Governor.
Criticism has been leveled at the lack of details reported dur- ing the Inspection at Goshen before Col. Perry. Yet all necessary details - and some that may be deemed irrelevant, to say the least - are on record in Parmelee's rollicking Ballad, printed in Hurd's Hist. of Chesh. and Sull. Counties. His light-hearted satire spares no favorites; all the companies on parade are treated alike. He recounts:
"The annals of the 'Thirty-first,' -- That regimental corps,
That grandly marched and counter- marched
In the good old days of yore. .. .
Anon, the Wendell men arrived, At fat John Silver's Inn; And drummer Stephen Scranton came, And fifer Asa Winn .*
Then came the Goshen Infantry, No infants sure were there.
With bayonets glittering in the sun, And banner high in air.
And 'John the Man,' and 'John the Boy,'+ Ben Rand and Walker Lear, Accoutered as the law directs, In rank and file appear.
Some measured fully six feet four, And marched with powerful stride, While others, scarcely four feet six, Like ducklings, waddled wide.
The canteens dangling at their side Smelt of New England rum, And tall Scott Tandy played the fife, - Short Sammy beat the drum.
And John C. Calef, then a lad, A youngster full of life, Came with these Goshen fusileers, And played the second fife:
And now, at nearly four-score years, With recollection clear, The legends of his early time Delights to quote and hear.
And Belknap Bartlett, known to fame, And William Wonder (ful) Pike, Were members of that martial band Prepared to blow and strike.
Conspicuous among the rest Was Captain Maxfield seen, As in command he proudly strode Along the village green.
*Musicians in the War of 1812-14.
+The two John Sholes, of Goshen.
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HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
His white duck pants, somewhat too The man who's seen a "Pensioner' short, Must have himself grown gray! Were held by straps of leather From underneath his ample soles, Their graves are scattered o'er the land, And in his hat a feather.
In Croydon, Grantham, all around, The morning gun was heard,
But with the millions they have blest Their memory will endure.
And to those graves, wherever found, As sure as comes the spring,
They come no more to our parades,t Forsooth, in this, our day,
Each year on Decoration Day Fresh laurels will they bring."
The ballad should be read in its entirety to gain the author's description of the military personnel, the evolutions on the field, the attending crowd:
. Comprising types of human kind, .
From infancy to age, Both sexes, all conditions known .
Admitting "that jokes were often made, and sometimes gibes and jeers," the bard states that the "grand old musters, having become chiefly mediums by which designing politicians sought influence and preferment, were abandoned in 1849, in disgust."
A decade previous, the town's roster for the Muster of 1839 furnished many names having no representation among its citi- zens of today. For purposes of identification it is printed here- with:
Silas Booth
Page Maxfield
Dennis Lear
Ezra Purington
Emerson Stevens John Scott
Sgts -
Imri Purington Lovel Baker
Pri .-
Wm. D. Pike
Joshua How Jonas Parker
Charles Cutts mnd
mnd- Samuel Gunnison, 2nd
Samuel Gregg
Joshua Booth
Abram Hook
Solon Robinson
Benjamin Sawyer
Samuel Chandler
James C. Gordon
Amos L Baker
Samuel Bartlett
Arnold Martin
Stephen Doloff
Truman Philbrick Alvah Smith
Hiram Sholes
Edward Young
Leonard Smith
Ezekiel Tandy, Jr.
David Farnsworth, Jr.
Amos B. Thompson
Arial Cutts
Royal Booth, Jr.
Lauren Willey
James Babbs
James Trow
Hiram Tandy
Isaac Messer
Horace Bartlett
Samuel Baker
*A newsy citizen.
+The Revolutionary veterans.
Some nameless and obscure,
And distant Springfield felt the sound, Or Pollard* sent them word. . . .
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THE MILITIA SYSTEM
Pri .-
Artemas W. Chellis
Gilbert Lewis
Horace Baker
Joel(?) Farnsworth
Charles Thompson
Jenison Glidden Virgil C. Bartlett
Elbridge M. Dudley Ezekiel C. Baker
Almon Tandy
Theron Scranton
Company Roll for 1828
Silas Booth
Harris Robinson
Wm. Lewis, Serg't. Artemas W. Chellis
Leonard Rines
Luther Hall
Samuel Chandler
Joshua Booth
Samuel Bartlett
Horace Bartlett
Eliakim Tandy
Emerson Stevens
Parker Tandy
Joshua How
Lorenzo Tandy
Jonas Parker
Stephen Doloff
Arnold Martin
Edward Young
Wm. Smith
Daniel Farnsworth, Jr.
Hiram Sholes
Royal Booth, Jr.
x James M. Atwood Ezekiel Tandy, Jr.
James Baker
Charles Cutts
James D. Gordon
John Cain
Truman Philbrick
John Jones
Robert Gregg
Arial Cutts
Samuel Gregg
James Babbs
Alvah Smith
Dennis Lear
Reuben Willey, Jr.
Stephen Scranton
Samuel Meserve
Isaac Messer Benjamin Piper
Lauren Willey
Page Maxfield
John Scott
Ezra Purington
Samuel Baker
Imri Purington
Horace Baker
Sam'l Gunnison, 2nd Almon Gunnison
John Ayres
x Thomas J. George Lovell Baker Abram Hook
Sherburn Lakeman
Currier Maxfield, Jr.
Jennison Glidden.
Jewett Hatly
James Trow
Samuel Thompson
CHAPTER XIV
Wild Game
N TO better proof that the town was growing rapidly in popu- lation and spread of tillage-land could have been offered than items which appeared in the Newport Spectator in the spring of 1828. A "great hunt" was being organized in the towns surrounding Sunapee Mountain, the published rules providing that each town's contingent should elect a captain before enter- ing the woods and in orderly manner proceed toward the sum- mit from all sides.
The issue of May 13, 1828, carried the result of the hunt, un- der cautioning brackets that there was "not a word of truth in it."
"Upon bringing the circle to a close upon the top of the mountain, the hunters found the following game as a reward for their exertions - three rabbits, two partridges and - one skunk! The retreat was instantly sounded, and the party soon reached the base without the loss of a man, only one wounded in consequence of his throwing a few flip flaps down a ledge of rocks."
Despite the facetious turn given the report, no reason can be advanced for supposing the tally other than correct. The number of men engaged was not stated; their game would not have exceeded that expected today by a group of three or four hunters in the same territory. The reasons for such apparent scarcity of game are various, depending much upon the weather on the day of the hunt, and undoubtedly more upon the fact that, during the flush of immigration, clearings had been thrust close to, and frequently far up on, the mountainside, leaving less cover for wild creatures.
Yet, upon the heels of this statement, attention must be called to a wholly serious wolf-hunt advertised three years later for Croydon Mountain, twelve miles to the north.
"It is earnestly hoped," the appeal read, "that people will turn out, as the wolves have made great destruction among sheep in the vicinity of the
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WILD GAME
mountain within the last few weeks - Captain Comings has had 48 (?) killed and about the same number wounded." (N. H. Spectator, Sept. 10, 1831)
Except for the brief encounter with wolves shared by Aunt Grindle and Mrs. Lang, Goshen records pretty much omit men- tion of them. Civilization forced a retreat of the wolf to inac- cessible areas. Coupled with Croydon Mountain, there was an early haunt of the creatures in Lempster. The wolf-swamp, mentioned in contemporary writings, and Wolf Hill, on the road from East Lempster to the "Street," perpetuate the time and place of their banding.
So severe, indeed, were the trials suffered there from the dread beasts that, in 1778, Lempster offered a bounty of thirty dollars to any of its citizens who should "kill a grown wolfe in the town, or shall take a wolfe track in the town and follow him till he kill him." Helen Bingham, in her Lempster (Hurd's Hist. of Chesh. and Sullivan Counties), recalls that wolves in the early days of settlement made the nights hideous with their howls, often having severe battles amongst their own numbers, the morning light revealing the killed and wounded. The matter culminated in an organized hunt in the late fall of 1807, shared by Lempster citizens and those from surrounding towns, in which 347 men participated and four wolves were captured. (N. H. Sentinel, Keene, issue of Dec. 27, 1807, given in Kingsbury's Hist. of Langdon).
In one such hunt, possibly of later date, Captain Bradford of Goshen, assisted in killing the last wolf known in the region. He and a companion were stationed together and when the hunted animal appeared, the two, firing simultaneously, dis- patched it.
Bears, too, migrated to the deeper fastnesses of the north and only occasionally was one seen.
Strangely enough, no records of wild deer have survived in Goshen folklore. It was red-squirrels that Aunt Grindle cap- tured and salted down in a butter-firkin for her winter's meat, rather than venison. Certainly had there been deer in this region some anecdote regarding them would have been handed down to us.
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HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
Yet, around 1890, wild deer began to appear. For some time the belief was fostered that the occasional deer seen in the far edge of mowing-fields had escaped from the Blue Mountain Park in Croydon, but this explanation was eventually proven incorrect - the deer had come, whether from east, north or west none could definitely say, had found conditions to their liking and were to become permanent and graceful guests, some- thing they could not have achieved had wolves continued in the same territory as formerly. Old fields that were coming into brush, with apple-trees untended, following the sale of many back-farms to the Draper Corporation, provided ideal browse for the newcomers and they multiplied rapidly, a transformation that has been duplicated throughout New England.
A personal recollection of this period has been furnished by the writer's brother, Arthur W. Nelson, now of Haverhill, Mass., in which he and a neighbor, George E. Brown, boys of fourteen or so, figured in 1894. They were rabbit-hunting on the Goshen side of the mountain when, in a marshy glade, the unmistakable hoof-print of a deer was discovered. It was a moment of breath- taking import for the boys; mature hunters of great skill, known to our boyhood, had never seen a deer in the wild. George's reaction was positive. He knew that deer-hunting dogs were liable to be shot if apprehended and, with touching loyalty to the long-departed speed once possessed by his old pet, whipped a cord from his pocket and tied it securely to the dog's collar, to lead him safely home.
Of panthers, there is the story told by the settler who came along past Aunt Grindle's cabin just twilight and found her standing before the door. "There's a man lost out there in the woods," she said to him. "Listen and you'll hear him holler." Even as they stood in silence, waiting, a wail came to them as from a great distance. "You'd better keep pretty close around the house," the neighbor said, shaking his head, "That's a painter hollering." The tale is one that has been repeated in many different forms, in more than one backwoods settlement.
It remained, however, for the year 1864, or '65, to produce a panther-story with original features. It cannot be told in a wholly impersonal way, for the writer's father, Hial F. Nelson,
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WILD GAME
heard the panther's cry as he was going home from work at the Village, in the early dusk. His family was then living up on the hillside, just south of the Deacon Abell place; at seventeen he was the breadwinner, my grandfather, Ephraim Nelson, being then in failing health. The road he was traversing had threaded its way between the sand-hills that enclose the Basin, once a favorite ampitheater for baseball and Fourth of July picnics, and swung to the south and up Sugarloaf Hill, with pasture-land to the left.
Father was ascending this hill when the cry, loud, wild, full- throated, burst from the hemlocks bordering the river below him. It was such a scream as he had never before heard and in- voluntarily he made a hasty dash up the rise. On higher ground, with more open land between him and the river-valley, he paused a moment and looked back. Again the cry came, but muffled now by an intervening ridge and assuredly more distant. The creature was traveling southerly he determined. More lei- surely now, Father kept on toward home, on steadily rising ground. Once more he heard the terrifying cry from a point apparently near the Lempster town-line, but thereafter all was silence.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the river, the Gove twins, Marsha and Martha, were driving toward home up the long hill from the present Hi-Way Cabins of Nils T. Ronning, when the first scream came, near at hand and terrifyingly savage. They afterward agreed that, without a word between them, one slap- ped the horse with the reins and the other plied the whip, putting the horse, more than willing, into a tight run, regard- less of the heavy grade. Up the hill and across the flat the car- riage and its occupants sped and only as they were turning into their home yard at the brick-house, now the home of Frank Berquist, did they speak. As with one voice they gasped, "What was that?"
The panther, for panther it was unanimously adjudged to be, kept on over the mountain into Washington and killed some sheep in pasture. Discovering his loss during the following day, the owner of the sheep hastily organized his neighbors into an
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HISTORY OF GOSHEN, N. H.
armed posse. Before dark fell they had posted themselves in trees and thickets about the mangled carcasses of the sheep, hoping to get a shot at the marauder when it returned to com- plete its feast. The night was passed in cramped discomfort. When day broke they found that the beast had evidently pene- trated their cordon, eaten its fill of the mutton and vanished without detection.
From the time when Ephraim Gunnison killed three bears with a club, as recalled by his grandson* long afterward, new encounters with the creatures, if such happened, went unre- ported.
That is, until mid-December, 1929! That was the afternoon in deer-hunting season when Arthur W. Nelson, Jr., was follow- ing a deer's track up near the mountain, with the unwelcome discovery that another hunter had cut in ahead of him. At least young Nelson had no suspicion it was otherwise until the man- like footprints in the soft snow suddenly took to a leaning tree and walked half-way up the trunk before dropping off. Then the realization flashed upon him that he was following not only a deer's track, but a bear as well!
The short Winter afternoon was already on the wane and he was alone. The decision, whether to go on or return in the morning to take up the hunt, was resolved in favor of going on. Straight up the mountain the bear headed and the young hunter followed, but failed to catch sight of his quarry until the sum- mit was reached. Here, just over the top on the Newbury side, in the white granite-ledges, a spot known to all who have tra- versed the mountains, the bear had evidently taken refuge, for the track stopped. Peering down into the shadows of the crevice from above, Arthur could make out a splotch of black fur. There was no determining what portion of the bear's anatomy was showing, but he fired at it and the 30-30 bullet found its mark. With an explosive rush the bear charged out of the cavern, to be met by a second shot at point-black range that stopped it short.
It was a black bear, weighing 350 pounds, the only one known
*John V. Gunnison.
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WILD GAME
to have been shot in town for at least four generations. With night fast closing in Arthur hurried down the mountain as fast as possible, barely making it into open land before dark. Getting extra help next day, the bear was brought out. It is common knowledge that bears have again taken up their habitat here.
Experiments in releasing wild game in adjoining towns have had highly-interesting results in Goshen.
Reference is made to the beavers introduced about 1931-2 in Pillsbury State Park in Washington and the small herd of elk set free in the Lempster-Unity area. Both species have adapted themselves to regional conditions of climate and feeding-grounds to a point where some damage has been observed - by the flooding of some marshes from beaver-dams built at their outlets, and, in Unity, by the elk who have trampled newly-seeded fields and stripped bark from white-maple saplings in certain areas. Yet, in both cases, the value of these hitherto-unknown game- animals vastly outweighs for good the small damage caused by them. It is to be sincerely hoped that conservation measures, rather than extermination, will be pursued in future years.
CHAPTER XV
Happenings in the Town
A Youthful Revolutionary Fifer
A MOST extraordinary account of the enlistment and ser- vices of Oliver Corey, Junior, is to be found in the N. H. Revolutionary Pension Papers, typescript, Hist. Society, Concord.
In 1832, schoolmaster Corey, then living at Middlefield, N. Y., was notified that his pension was being suspended. After submis- sion of a detailed narrative of his services, however, he was restored to the pension-roll, though not until 1836. In his written testimony he stated that early in 1774 Capt. Murray came to Charlestown, N. H., where he became acquainted with the de- ponent and found out that the boy was adept with the fife.
"Soon after the battle on Bunker Hill he wrote from Cambridge to my father in Charlestown, informing him that he wished me to come down to Cambridge and join his company as fifer" Mr. Corey stated. "I being pleased with the idea of being in the army, my father immediately repaired to the place (in July, 1777). When we arrived we found him commanding a company in Col. Woodbridge's Regiment, with a fifer by the name of Adams, who had the misfortune to have one leg much shorter than the other, causing him to make so bad an appearance when marching that the Captain was determined to get rid of him. But as he could not honour- ably discharge him at once, after I had been there a few days he told me that if I would enlist and serve as a private till after Adams was dis- charged, I could be under pay. To this proposal I readily consented and did duty as a private long enough to be called out on guard-duty once; and well remember that I was in the night placed as a sentinel at a public storehouse opposite the Mansion occupied by General Washington."
This very clearly accounts for the five days' service credited Oliver Corey, Jr., in Capt. Murray's Company. His regiment was stationed near Cambridge till the first of the year 1776, when he immediately re-enlisted, "without leaving the regiment," for one year as a fifer, under Capt. Barnes, Col. Paul Dudley Sar- gent. The following autumn, having been transferred to New York, he was detached to serve in Gen. Sullivan's life guard as fifer until the expiration of his term, Dec. 31, 1776. He was
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HAPPENINGS IN THE TOWN
marched with Gen. Sullivan's troops to Trenton immediately after the British prisoners were taken on that memorable Christ- mas night, and "at the solicitation of General Washington in person," he again re-enlisted for six weeks, being discharged near Morristown, N. J., when he returned home. The personal ap- peal made by General Washington, on horseback, before the troops whose terms of service were then expiring, was so affect- ing that scarcely a dry eye remained among them. Young Oliver relates "that he stood so near the beloved General that he ob- served tears to trickle down his cheeks; many of the men at once re-enlisted with him and those who left the army for home were hooted at and covered with opprobrium."
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