USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Goshen > History of Goshen, New Hampshire : settled, 1769, incorporated, 1791 > Part 7
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To this shared home Joseph brought a home-keeper, Sept. 7, 1773, in the person of Mrs. Elizabeth Rand, the marriage- ceremony having been performed by Benjamin Giles, Esq., of Newport. That the bride was of kin to Benjamin Rand is un- questioned; hardly a daughter, the prefix "Mrs." (attested by the Sunapee Town Clerk, O. R. Haven, 1951) denoting a previous marriage, although the term Mistress - written "Mrs." - is known to have been sometimes applied to a maiden lady who had become the head of her household.
The hardships endured by the settlers of Saville are on record. Either they were more severe than in neighboring settlements, or were given greater prominence by their narrators. The reasons for this are not immediately apparent. Certainly the lot of the colonists was not ameliorated by the coming of the Revolution, but increased. In the spring of 1782, when the war was drawing to a close and the town's situation should have materially im- proved, its sad state is described by Samuel Gunnison in a peti- tion to State authorities, protesting their inequitable taxation, later in part abated. After a strict inquiry, he found but four families with bread-corn enough to last to "English Harvest" and all the rest were buyers of corn, some of them having noth- ing to buy with. Some of the families had but one cow, others two cows, others none at all.
"We humbly conceive," he continues, "there has been no Town settled by Inhabitants in Such Low Circumstances as this - as Some have ever been Obliged to go Twenty miles after Bread Corn to eat yearly (yet) we have Ever been Ready to Assist our Proportion in the Continental Army both Personal & in all other Exigencies . .. Our roads are in bad condition and having no mills we are obliged to go to the next Towns for Everything we may want in that way which makes our situation really distressing."*
*N. H. State Papers, Vol. 13, p. 496.
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Under the provisions of the Provincial Congress, Col. Ben- jamin Bellows of Walpole, on March 15, 1776, returned a list of officers in the proposed 16th Regiment of New Hampshire Militia to be raised in ten towns in his immediate area (State Papers, Vol. 14, p. 298). Of the 10th Company, Saville, Samuel Gunnison was named Captain; Benjamin Thurber, Ist Lieut .; William Lang, 2nd Lieut .; George Lear, Ensign. Col. Bellows used the phrase, "Commissioned Officers," but this must be taken with reserve.
The militia-system, whereby the countryside turned out as minute-men and then returned to their farms and shops until the next alarm, though of great primal value, proved inade- quate as a field-army and efforts were thenceforth made to pro- vide a more substantial military organization. Eventually the state raised three regiments for three years' service, or for the duration of the war, commanded by Colonels Joseph Cilley, Nathan Hale and Alexander Scammell .* Outmoded by this new program, the "16th Regiment" could have had no more than a temporary existence.
Col. Bellows, indeed, took his "Regiment" to the defense of Ticonderoga, May 7 to June 21, 1777, but it comprised but two companies - 113 men including officers, as given in S. P. Vol. 15, p. 13. In this task-force were listed Joseph Lear, a corporal, and Amos Hall a sergeant, while Samuel Gunnison, a titular captain, served as a private. Regardless of petty rank, the sight of the splendid fortress of Ticonderoga, on its far bluff over- looking Lake Champlain, must have thrilled them alike and acquaintances were made that furnished an invaluable basis of understanding and mutual effort in the years that followed.
Hardly could these troops have arrived home, following their discharge June 19, before "dispatches came stating that General Burgoyne was within a few miles of Ticonderoga and that the American troops stationed there were not sufficient to hold the fortress. The alarm was general, as it was expected that if the enemy captured Ticonderoga he would invade the western part
*Sanborn's Hist. of N. H., p. 182.
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of this state as well as Vermont. The militia was called upon to march at once and responded with alacrity."+
In this crisis Col. Bellows again took the field with a very creditable regiment, whose formation much resembled the pro- posed "16th," several companies being captained by men whom he had previously chosen; Oliver Ashley, of Claremont; Chris- topher Webber, of Walpole; Amos Shepard, of Alstead; Abel Walker, of Charlestown; William Keyes, of Acworth. A com- pany marched from Lempster and Newport, June 29, having a complete roster of officers from each town, but were discharged July 2, without active skirmish-duty. Of this joint company, Josiah Stevens, who will be mentioned later, was a sergeant from Newport, matched by William Story of Lempster.
Because its meager clearings were confined largely to the proximity of the Province Road, the northern end of the town being as yet practically uninhabited, Saville had too few men to put out even half-a-company. Eighteen men signed the Asso- ciation Test in July, 1776, and the selectmen declared that all in Saville had signed. Of these, at least three, William Lang (Jr.), William McBritton (Jr.)* and Samuel Sischo, were in full-time army-service. Benjamin Rand enlisted for the Rhode Island campaign amongst his old Rye neighbors. Captain Gun- nison declared (S. P. Vol. 13, p. 499) they had a just right to challenge the whole state for participation in the war; that, ex- cepting for a few old men, every man in the town had occasion- ally served in person, and whenever Col. Bellows sent out for them (Ibid. p. 500).
But in this major alarm, it was only Capt. Gunnison and his Ensign, George W. Lear, who set off July 4, 1777, by way of Charlestown, for beleaguered Ticonderoga. Though officers - with commissions? - they went as privates, a course of action for which classic example was not wanting.
Following their steps by parallel records and dates, it is evi- dent they were joined two miles from home by Samuel Thurber.
+Isaac W. Hammond, Ed. S. P., Vol. 15, p. 22.
*Will McBritton, Jr., of the First N. H. Regiment, only child of his widowed mother, Janey McBritton, and her sole dependence, was wounded in battle and died, subsequent to Jan. 28, 1778. More data may possibly be found in unpublished Warner records, as the Warner selemtmen asserted they had hired young McBritton from Saville (Ibid, p. 615).
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The three - with Stephen Gilman - were hastily enrolled in a company numbering twenty-two men under Lieut. Uriah Wil- cox of Newport, and hastily the group pressed on half-way to Ticonderoga - 56 out of 104 miles allowed previously to Saville men for travel-pay - when they were halted by the astounding news that Ticonderoga had been abandoned. A company from Hollis, which had marched out July 5, under Capt. Daniel Emerson, reached Cavendish, Vt., when, using the language of the official report, "we met Col. Bellows and his men on their retreat."
Stout Col. Bellows - at a later period he weighed 330 pounds - with all his energy and resourcefulness, was powerless to stay the result of policies from higher up. It was a retreat and all knew it. The swarming men were discharged at Charlestown and returned to their homes, disheartened and apprehensive, having been out, on an average, but six days.
When Stark was given command in the west, Saville men again responded. July 21 Daniel Grindle enrolled as corporal in Capt. Abel Walker's Company, with William Sischo, Benjamin Howard and Daniel Woodward, privates, to join the Northern Continental Army at Saratoga. (S. P. Vol. 15, p. 143). Grindle's name is on the Bennington Rolls.
Claims of further service for Joseph Lear are on record. Joseph re-married in April 1790, his wife being Mercy Woodward, born 1760-61. He died Jan. 29, 1819. In mid-October, 1832, Mercy Lear unavailingly applied for a pension, averring that her hus- band enlisted in April, 1777, and marched to New York state, where he continued to serve until January, 1778; that she had often heard him speak of his army-service and tell of being in several engagements, among them being the battle of Stillwater, and that he was present when Burgoyne surrendered; that he also performed a tour of service as substitute for his brother, George Walker Lear, particulars lacking (N. H. Rev. Pension Papers, Vol. 24). Mercy was then seventy-two and in her relation of events the lapse of many years must be taken into considera-
Note: The U. S. War Dept. preserves in its files a permit, granting Joseph Lear and others leave to pass from Mt. Independence to New Hampshire, signed by Col. Bellows at Mt. Independence, June 6, 1777; also an unsigned warrant of Joseph Lear as Sergeant in Capt. Samuel Gunnison's Co., Col. Benj. Bellows' N. H. Militia Reg't., dated Ticon- deroga, June, 1777.
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tion. Capt. Gunnison credited him with but 11/2 months' service, otherwise a period which corresponds to that spent at Ticon- deroga in the spring of 1777. A key to this seeming discrepancy may be found in the testimony of Samuel Sischo, in Mercy's be- half (Ibid), that Joseph Lear, then one of his intimate friends, with several others, joined the army in the spring of 1777 and were together frequently until after Burgoyne's surrender.
Sometime during this period, exact date not specified, Grindle served in the army five months "for the Messrs. Lear," and six months "for himself," in quaint phrasing.
Meanwhile, at Portsmouth, the war was bringing its vicissi- tudes to sister Margaret (Lear) Neal. Her story was well told by Hon. Thomas L. Tullock, in The Granite Monthly, April, 1881. For a short time after her marriage to Capt. Robert Neal she had resided at Newcastle. Tullock says: "The forts commanding the mouth of the Piscataqua river for the protection of Ports- mouth were liable to be attacked by the British fleet and most of the women left the island for places of safety more remote from the seaboard. Mrs. Neal remained, notwithstanding the exposed position of the place, until her husband, a master- mariner, sailed from Portsmouth in a privateer which was cap- tured by a British man-of-war, and the crew carried to England. .. . Then Mrs. Neal determined to visit her brothers, Joseph and George Walker Lear, who had moved previous to the war to Saville, now Goshen. ... At the time the two brothers signed the 'Association Test,' 1776, it had sixty-five inhabitants, of all ages.
"Mrs. Neal accomplished the journey of more than one hun- dred miles riding horseback with her only child, an infant son, whom she carried in her arms. The route, part of the way, was over roads made by the King's surveyors for the conveyance of masts and spars for the royal navy, and at times through dense forests with no other path than that indicated by 'blazed trees,' marked probably by hardy trappers or scouts in the perilous times of Indian warfare. At one time, being chased by wolves, she took shelter in a friendly hut, and, at another, in a de- serted one, the wild animals in the surrounding forests making
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the night hideous with their noises." Occasionally coming to a small village, she was welcomed for night-shelter in the log- cabins of the settlers. At length, having been several days on the road, she reached the dwelling of her brother Joseph. Mr. Tullock visited Goshen in quest of data for his research, in 1859, and was shown the cellar where the house had stood. It is evident that his informants failed to include George W. in the family-circle. One of Joseph's sons, Goshen's Tobias Lear, was then living on the Rand farm and "upon being questioned why his father selected that elevated position in preference to the rich intervale lands of the Merrimack and Conecticut rivers, he replied that the early pioneers felt more secure in locating on high grounds, the better for observation, and because the wild beasts frequented the low lands and the Indians pursued the water courses."
"Mrs. Neal remained there two years or more, until after the declaration of peace,* when she started for Portsmouth, meeting her husband on the way, from whom she had not heard since his capture. She died at Portsmouth, Nov. 22, 1845, aged 93. She was frugal and industrious, short and spare. Capt. Robert Neal, who accompanied his mother to Goshen, was a captain in the U. S. 40th Infantry Reg't during the War of 1812, and com- manded Fort McClary, opposite Fort Constitution, in Ports- mouth harbor. Died, 1852."
Rejoicing at the end of the long and costly war with England was everywhere manifest, the reunion of Margaret and her hus- band being duplicated a thousandfold throughout the colonies.
Within less than a year, however, Joseph's home was sad- dened by the death of Elizabeth, his wife, Aug. 15, 1784. Three children were born to them: Robert, b. Feb. 6, 1774, the first birth registered in Saville; Lucy, b. Aug. 7, 1777; Walker, un- doubtedly named for his paternal grandfather, Aug. 10, 1784.
Events transpired rapidly. On the 29th of the following Sep- tember, George Walker Lear, termed "Gentleman," deeded to Joseph, "yeoman," his half-interest in the Foss lot they had jointly purchased fourteen years previously, consideration, five
*The Treaty of Peace was signed at Paris, Sept. 3, 1783.
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pounds. By another deed, of like date, he conveyed to Joseph all his right and title "to half of that eighty-five acre lot No. One in the sixth range North division in Wendell, also the 1/2 of the undivided land which belongs to my right in said Wendell." These lots would have been situated in the northern portion of present Sunapee. For this second parcel Joseph paid three pounds.
It was a critical period in Joseph's domestic life when the two men came to a parting of the ways, but plans had doubtless long been made, even as they had worked to forward the de- velopment of a clearing and home for George over on his own proprietor's lot by Daniel Sherburne's.
On Oct. 18, 1784, George Walker Lear and Miss Deborah Woodward, both of Wendell, Saville's new name, were married by Charles Huntoon, J.P. (Sunapee records), and must have taken up residence in their own new home.
Owing to their eventual removal to Vermont, much less data has been preserved of the George W. Lear line than that of Joseph, from whom the local families, once so numerous, have all descended.
In two deeds, dated Nov. 18, 1816, and Feb. 19, 1817, George W. and Deborah Lear conveyed their home-farm of "31 acres and forty rods, including all the buildings," to Daniel Gage of Goshen, for the sum of $950.00. George Lear, Jr., then twenty eight years of age, signed both deeds as a witness. It is evident that this period marks the date of their emigration to Bridge- water, Vt.
The older generation of Bridgewater remembers the Lear family .* They at one time owned, or operated, a woodworking- mill which is no longer standing. It was supposed to be in Bridgewater, but was actually in the town of Woodstock.
George Lear, Jr., was born in Goshen in 1789 and died at Woodstock, Vt., Mar. 9, 1871, age 82. He married Miss Ruhama Tandy, who was born in Goshen, Mar. 24, 1793, dau. of Dea. Parker and Mary (Thorn) Tandy. She died in 1887, at the age of 94 yrs., 9 mos., and 20 dys. (Woodstock records) Children:
*Data furnished by James Ransehausen, Postmaster, Woodstock, 1953.
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Oliver, Betsey, Sylvina?, Lucinda, Deborah, Benjamin G. Lear who m. Evelena E. Raymond.
After careful search of the pension and bounty-land records in the National Archives, Frank E. Bridgers, of the General Reference Section, reported, Nov., 1952, "No evidence has been found of anyone ever applying for or receiving Federal pension or bounty-land as the widow of (George W. Lear)."
DANIEL AND ELIZABETH GRINDLE
Daniel Grindle, son of William, was undoubtedly of kin to the Daniel and Elizabeth (Blagdon) Grindle who, on May 12, 1721, at Star Island, renounced administration of the estate of her brother, George Blagdon, in favor of a sister, Lydia (Blag- don) Kelly (N. H. Probate Records).
The manner in which Daniel became acquainted with Eliza- beth Tandy of Kingston is unknwon. Elizabeth's sister-in-law, Mary, or Molly, Thorn, her brother Parker's wife, related (Rev. Pension Documents) that in 1780 she was living in Kingston, N. H., in the house with her Father Tandy (William) "and in the winter of that year Daniel Grindle of Saville came where I lived and set out with Elizabeth Tandy, sister of my husband, and in company with my husband, to go to Parson Page in the town of Hawke (now Danville) to be married." Family tradition implies that the newlyweds journeyed immediately to the home he had prepared in Saville. The recorded date of their marriage is Feb. 20, 1780.
His soldiering was past and there are good reasons to believe that his wife's people were unsympathetic to his tales of the camp. It was therefore the privilege of Betsey White, a niece, to lend an attentive ear while visiting at her uncle's house in April, 1804. He told of being in the army and at the battle of Ticonderoga and gave particulars of that battle, how much he suffered in the engagement from heat and thirst. A neighbor, too, Samuel Sischo, stated that in 1777, while at Ticonderoga and at Stillwater, he saw Grindle, "and he (Grindle) served as a soldier at the taking of Burgoyne." This statement bestowing as it did a high honor, was supported by the Grindle's daughter,
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Mary Brown, who, testifying in her mother's behalf (a pension) in 1839, stated that she had frequently heard her father speak of serving in 1776 and 1777 and of having been at Stillwater; that while living with her parents she saw his discharge, which he kept as long as he lived, and she meant to keep them (the papers), but in her absence they were destroyed (Ibid, Vol. 16, p. 143-5).
He died August 5, 1814 *. By his will dated April 13, 1802, he gave to wife Elizabeth one-half of the farm whereon he lived and one-half of all personal estate; to daughter Mary the other half; appointed Allen Willey his sole executor. Joshua Challis, Na- thaniel Sherburne and Allen Willey witnessed his signature.
Rev. Lorenzo Tandy, in an address before a family-gathering, 1877, said: "Great aunt Grindle had to depend very much on her own industry and economy as her husband was at Ports- mouth most of the time, working at his trade, a mason, and he lacked the energy which she possessed in a high degree."
This uncomplimentary view may have resulted from Grindle's failure to build a proper cabin for his wife's brother, Parker Tandy. Owing to poor management, or inclement weather, or both, when the Tandys arrived in the spring of 1788, expecting a house in readiness for them, they found only the walls of the new cabin erected; it had no roof; snow and ice filled the in- terior and would be long in melting. The Grindles boarded the disappointed family until their domicile could be made fit for occupancy, but it is doubtful if Daniel was ever quite forgiven. Yet, in spite of all criticism, he proved a very substantial prop beneath the structure of state.
Concerning Mrs. Grindle, or "Aunt Betty," as she was fa- miliarly called, a great fund of stories has collected.
It must have been a title of respect as well as affection, for its use was almost universal in Goshen. Perhaps it was somewhat owing to her long life among neighbors and their children and their children's children, that the bonds of esteem were knit so closely.
She lived to the great age of 104 years, not a large woman,
*U. S. Bureau of Pensions.
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but keen and alert, mentally and physically. Indeed, she becomes more an epic, almost, than an individual, so numerous and remarkable are the anecdotes told of her. Herein lies a pos- sibility of exaggeration, but Rev. Lorenzo Tandy certainly can be relied upon, for he said in 1877, "I remember well her looks and general appearance."
The writer is not enough versed in the vernacular to appre- ciate his pride in the fact that "the year she was ninety-three she spun 110 ten knot skeins of wool and tow on a great wheel." It sounds formidable. But his other contributions are readily understood. He says, "Aunt Grindle's experience in backwoods life was what our young folks would call pretty tough. She burned logs, (which undoubtedly her husband had felled dur- ing the winter - the writer's supposition), gathered up the ashes, leached them and made pot-ash. This she put in birch- bark boxes and, loading her horse with them, trudged off through the wild country to Dunbarton, where she exchanged her potash for provisions for her family."
The Sketch of Goshen, citing practically the same local in- formants earlier interviewed by Rev. Mr. Tandy, provides Aunt Grindle with a pair of rather lively steers with which she did her farming. She took a load of ear-corn to mill at Charlestown one fall with the steers. "An irregular road had been cut through the woods by this time and where the road was plainly defined she rode on the cart, (or possibly a wood-shod sled), but upon nearing open meadows or grassy stretches she hopped off and walked along ahead of the steers, coaxing them after her with corn-nubbins given at judicious intervals." The story of her overnight stay in a barn, connected therewith, must more prop- erly belong to one of those trips to Dunbarton, according to the late Dea. Oren E. Farr.
It was at a Mr. Martin's in Fishersfield, now Newbury, grand- father of Mrs. Samuel Gunnison, Mr. Farr believed, where Aunt Grindle intended to put in for the night. But it was over-late when she reached the Martins' and the house was in total dark- ness. Unwilling to disturb them, she put her team into the barn and, crawling up upon a haymow, slept the night out com-
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fortably enough. There Mr. Martin found her when he came to the barn next morning. "Why, is that you, Betty?" he ex- claimed. "If I had known you was here I'd have come out and stayed with ye."
The idea that she needed a man for protection was so laugh- able that she told the story ever after with great relish.
"The making of potash was one of the most important early industries," writes George B. Upham in "Early Navigation of the Connecticut River," 1919. "Until the great potash deposits of Strassfurt, Germany, were developed a century later, wood- ashes were the chief commercial source of supply. * * The upper Connecticut Valley remained for a period of forty or fifty years the principal source of potash for the world. The process of making was simple. The woodashes were leached with water, the lye boiled down and evaporated in great iron kettles, and the residue finally fused at red heat. The ashes of the wood fires which heated the kettles furnished material with which to begin the process anew. 'Potash houses' were every- where."
"Soon after moving to Goshen," to quote Rev. Mr. Tandy, "Aunt Grindle and Mrs. Lang, a near neighbor, obtained some sheep which they kept together, one caring for them one week and the other the next week. Mrs. Lang, however, becoming unfaithful to her trust, the wolves got among the sheep and killed several of them. So Aunt Grindle said, 'I will watch them all the time.' Not long after this she heard a noise one night among the sheep in the hovel, and jumping out of bed and throwing a sheet around her, she hastened to the hovel to find it empty. Undaunted, she followed their trail by moonlight into the woods and soon found the frightened creatures. Calling them together, she kept them bunched by talking to them and patting their wooly backs, the wolves growling and their eyes shining at a little distance; but she was not molested. In the morning she took her sheep home triumphantly."
One of the most exciting tales of my childhood was of Aunt Grindle frightening a bear away from her pig-pen with flapping sheet and lusty screams. The late Benj. Frank Lear said, "She scared it up over the hill with a firebrand." A certain inherent
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ability to do the right thing in an emergency characterized her. One more of those dateless experiences must be worth the tell- ing.
It is conceivable that in days burdened with unremitting toil and little money there should have been a woman who decided there was nothing more to live for. The nature of her trouble and her name are forgotten. But she turned in desperation to Aunt Grindle.
It is evident she knew her Bible, with its injunction, "Thou shalt not kill," and irrationally conceived the idea of personally escaping its convicting voice by getting Aunt Grindle to drown her. Of Aunt Grindle's moral responsibility she gave little heed, nor could Aunt dissuade her from her purpose. Endearments, Scriptural quotations and forcible common-sense all failed to have any effect.
With a plan forming in her mind, Aunt Grindle finally suf- fered herself to be led away by the despondent woman to some deep pool in the nearby stream, and the two waded resolutely into the chill water. Even here, in the presence of stark reality, the woman's determination to die remained unshaken and there was no course left for Aunt Grindle but to plunge her forcibly beneath the surface. With fearful heart Aunt held her there as long as she dared, before bringing her again into the air. I think she would have inquired tersely, "Changed your mind yet?" But unfortunately the dialogue has not been preserved. At least her charge stubbornly persisted in desiring to die and again Aunt thrust her under, this time longer than before.
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