History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 155

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1168

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He was very desirous to get an education. He walked, several terms, three miles to the village to attend the academy. If he went to college he must depend mainly upon himself for the means. He re- solved to try. At an early age he commenced to teach in the district school. He taught a number of months at Amherst and made there many valuable friendships. His studies, preparatory for college, were pursued mainly at Francestown Academy. He graduated at Amherst College in the class of 1851, with a high rank in scholarship. During his college course he taught four successful fall terms in the old academy at Henniker. On graduating he accepted the charge of the academy at Limerick, Me., and the school soon had an unprecedented patronage. At the end of the second year he left in the face of an urgent invitation to remain. In the spring of 1854 he accepted the charge of the academy at Lyndon, Vt., and remained till the summer of 1855, when he became principal of Appleton Academy, at Mont Vernon, where he remained five years, and left to enter the ministry. He was a popular and successful teacher. More than a thousand different pupils have been under his instruction, a large number of whom have filled and are filling important positions in society. A brief quotation from a private letter of a pupil who has attained reputation at the bar, and now has a high position in the Judiciary of the State of New York, will indicate something of the character of his teaching. He says, "I have learned to value the effort you always seemed to make to distinguish between individual minds and to seek to meet their special aptitudes. To my mind this is the secret of all valuable instruction in school or elsewhere. I can say with confidence that under your instruction more than anywhere else I received that training and

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discipline in habits of thought which have been use- ful to me in all my pursuits."

In 1857 he received a license to preach, and fre- quently supplied the pulpit in Mont Vernon and neighboring towns. In the autumn of 1860 he went to Andover and remained during the seminary year, and attended the lectures of the middle and senior classes. In October, 1861, he was settled over the church in Pelham, where he is still pastor. As a writer he is distinguished for perspicuity and purity of style. His productions are characterized by a ful- ness of thought. A ministerial brother, pastor of an important city church, and whose reputation as scholar, critic and preacher is acknowledged, gives the following estimate of him : "He is held in pecu- liar esteem by those who have become familiar with his mental qualities and habits. There is unfailing freshness in his thinking, because he holds his mind unvaryingly open to the acquisition of new truth. With a sound scholarship and broad reading he holds the field of knowledge a broad one and still open for conquest. He evinces a remarkable spirit of candor in dealing with the living issues of the day, and with a commendable modesty in the estimate put upon his own attainments, shows a power of penetration and sound judgment not often surpassed. The fairness and kindness of his consideration for others is re- warded by a universal regard on the part of his brethren in the ministry."

He was married to Miss Dora Richardson Snow, of Peterborough, November 24, 1853. She died March 15, 1873. January 30, 1877, he married Miss Mary Currier Richardson, of Pelham.

Apart from the specific duties of his pastorate, he has maintained a living interest in the cause of edu- cation, and kept himself familiar with the new methods of instruction and the educational thought of the present time. The subject of agriculture, both practical and scientific, engages his attention, and he makes the social problems of the age his study.

Of a retiring disposition, he has never sought place or position. With a passionate love of nature, and courting the retirement that a country life furnishes for study, he has had no other ambition than to faitli- fully serve in the gospel ministry an intelligent, agri- cultural population, who have ever been very chari- table towards him and considerate of him.

JOHN WOODBURY.

John Woodbury, of Salem, had a son, Isaiah Wood- bury, who married Lois, daughter of Captain Israel Woodbury, another branch of the Woodbury family of Salem.

John Woodbury, son of Isaiah and Lois (Wood- bury) Woodbury, was born in Cornish, N. H., March 25, 1819. His father dying when he was but eight months old, under the pressure of limited circum- stances, John was obliged, while but a mere lad, to labor; and, at the age of six years, his mother re- moving to Salem, N. H., he went to live with an unele in Haverhill, Mass., with whom he remained five years, working on the farm; from there he re- moved to Salem, and was with another uncle for four years. During this time his advantages for education were limited to the district schools of the towns where he resided. When he was fifteen he went to Methuen, Mass., to learn the shoemaker's trade, which he mastered thoroughly in all its details. Here he remained for about two years, then came to Pelham, where he worked at his trade one year, and continued at shoemaking and farming for a year or more in Salem and Pelham.

At this time, having saved some money and feeling the need of education, he attended the New Hampton Academy for the summer term. In the fall of 1838 he was employed in the famous Saxonville Mills, where he continued three years. Returning to Pel- ham he established himself as a butcher in the east part of the town, and after being there a year and a half, he came to Pelham Centre and carried on butchering for four years. In 1847 he commenced trade as a merchant in Pelham and continued mer- chandising for over thirty years, when he retired from business life and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits, more from a desire to be active and to be engaged in work than from any expectation of gain.

Mr. Woodbury married, December 26, 1843, Betsy A., daughter of Captain Samuel Hobbs, a life-long resident of Pelham. They have had four children, - John Otis (who died December 11, 1871), Alice A., Mrs. Ezekiel C. Gage (she has one child, Frank P.) Frank M. (the present postmaster, and who suc- ceeded his father in business), Eliza H., Mrs. Wil- liam H. Peabody, (she has two children, Harry O. and Frederick H.)

Mr. Woodbury has been largely indentified with the affairs of the town of his adoption ; has frequently been called upon to discharge important local trusts, which have been uniformly done to the satisfaction of his constituents. He was town clerk twenty years consecutively; treasurer for fourteen years; select- man for six years; was moderator eleven, and post- master for many years. In his political belief he is a Democrat, and as such represented Pelham in 1857, '58, '75 and '76. He is a prominent Freemason and a member of Pilgrim Commandery of Lowell, Mass. He has taken much interest in the military organiza-

The Woodbury family is of English deseent, men- bers of which emigrated to America as early as the year 1626, and many of them have since been promi- nent in law, politics, &c. John Woodbury, of Som- ersetshire, England, who was among the first settlers of Salem, Mass., has numerous descendants in New England. He was a man of considerable ability; was admitted freeman in 1630 and was a representative to the general court in 1635 and 1638. A namesake, | tion of the State and has held important official

John Woodbury.

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positions,-adjutant and major in the Eighth Regi- ment Militia and was a member of General Joshua Atwood's staff and Inspector in Third Brigade, New Hampshire Militia.

fully in the station to which he is called or circum- stances have placed him, that the particular denomi- nation is of little worth, but that we shall be judged

by deeds and not creed. He occupies a high position in the esteem of the worthy citizens of Pelham. He is modest and unpretentious, social, genial, hospi- table, upright and honorable, and possessed of great sympathy and kindness of heart. A good citizen and an honest man, he has always acted up to the

Mr. Woodbury is liberal in religion, not a member of any church, and believes as long as a man acts according to his convictions and does his duty faith- | Scriptural command, "owe no man anything," and by his own unaided exertions, perseverance and ability, has acquired a comfortable independence.

HISTORY OF PETERBOROUGH.

CHAPTER I. PETERBOROUGHI.

Original Grant-Name of Town-The First Settlements-Names of Pio- neers-Incorporation of Town-First Town-Meeting-Officers elected -Town Clerks- Selectmen-Representatives.

THE town of Peterborough lies in the western part of the county, and is bounded as follows:

North, by Hancock and Greenville ; east, by Green- ville and Temple; south, by Temple and Sharon ; . and west by Cheshire County.

The original grant of this township was made by the Legislature of Massachusetts to Samuel Heyward and others, December 8, 1737, approved by Governor Belcher, January 16, 1738, and surveyed in May fol- lowing. The survey was accepted and the grant confirmed June 14, 1738. Proprietors' meetings were held in Boston until 1753. On the 26th and 27th of September in that year a meeting was held in the town, at which time the name Peterborough first appears on the proprietors' records. It is probable that it was named in honor of Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough.

The settlement of the province line in 1741 decided the town to be within the limits of New Hampshire. Being within the limits of the Masonian proprietors' claim, a settlement with them became necessary, and means were used which resulted in procuring a quit- claim to all the territory in town but three thousand four hundred acres.

The First Settlements .- The adventurous spirits who threaded their way through the wilderness, and first located in what is now the town of Peterborough, were William Robbe, Alexander Scott, Hugh Gregg, William Gregg, Samuel Stinson, William Scott, Wil- liam Wallace and Wallin Mitchel, in 1739. These pioneers, however, made no permanent settlement. The tract was subsequently visited by others, but no permanent settlement was effected until the year 1749, after the cessation of hostilities between Great Britain and France and the settlement of the claims of the Masonian proprietors.

The following is a list of the early settlers from 1749, taken from Smith's "History of Peterborough :"

William Ritchie came from Lunenburg, Mass., where he paid a poll-tax in 1746, to Peterborough

with his family, probably in 1749, and settled on the Ritchie farm, so called, in the south part of the town. His son John was born February 11, 1750, the first child born in town.

Deacon William MeNee moved his family here May 1, 1752, and settled in the south part of the town. He removed from Roxbury, in Massachusetts.

Deacon William MeNee, Jr., was twelve years of age when his father removed to Peterborough. He removed to Dublin in 1760, and after remaining there a few years, returned to Peterborough, where he died. His oldest child, Robert, was the first male child born in Dublin.

Joseph Caldwell (called Ensign), supposed to have occupied the Pitman Nay farm, which he sold, and which passed into the hands of Deacon Willian McNee, Jr., about 1765 or 1766. He erected the first buildings on this farm. He removed from town about 1770.

John Taggart came with his family, about May 1, 1752, from Roxbury, Mass., having bought a framed house that had been built on the Caldwell place, and removed it to his lot in 1751. He is represented in the "History of Dublin" as residing in Peterbor- ough and Sharon till 1797, when he removed to Dublin, where he died November 15, 1832, aged eiglity-two years.

Gustavus Swan began the Samuel Morison place, in the south part of the town, and came to town from Lunenburg about the year 1750, before the birth of his second child, Robert, in 1752. He went early to New York to make brick, and his father, "old John Swan," came from Lunenburg and lived and died on that place. He was the progenitor of all the Swans in this town. The place was sold by his son, Lieutenant John Swan, to Aaron Brown and a Mr. Stowell in 1774. Brown lived on it before the Revolution. He was one of the selectmen in 1776. The same place was occupied a few years by Mathew Wallace, and then sold to Samuel Morison in 1789.

William Stuart came from Lunenburg about 1750. He was the father of Thomas and Charles Stuart. He died March 15, 1753, aged fifty-three. He was the first man who died in the town. He was buried in the little cemetery on Meeting-House Hill.

William Smith, son of Robert Smith, of Lunen-

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burg, settled on the west side of the street road, in the south part of the town, in 1751, or possibly in 1750, as he was married December 31, 1751, and at that time began life with his wife on this place. The estate remained in the family till 1873.

Samuel Miller (spelled formerly Millow), a race en- tirely distinet from the other race of the same name in this town, though both came from Londonderry, re- moved to the town in 1753, before the birth of his daughter Ann, in 1754. He settled on the east side of the street road and had twelve children, the first eight of whom were born in Londonderry.

Thomas Cunningham emigrated from the north of Ireland, and was of Scotch-Irish descent. He came to Peterborough probably about 1750. He left a fam- ily of eight children. He died in Peterborough, Sep- tember 23. 1790, aged eighty-four. The name of Cunningham was originally pronounced in Peter- borough, " Kinnacum."

Alexander Scott was among the five who made the first attempt at settlement in town in 1739. He, and probably the others, came from Lunenburg or Townsend. Little else was done except to purchase the land and make a beginning. He settled on the west side of the street road, south of the Captain Wilson farm, in 1750 or 1751, and kept a tavern, as it was called in those days. The proprietors of the town met at his house September 26, 1753. He was a relative of William Scott, who came to Peter- borough from Hopkinton. He afterwards lived east of the old cemetery, and about 1760 removed to Dublin. He was the father of Major William Scott.

James Robbe, supposed to be a son of William and Agnes (Patterson) Robbe, settled the Thomas Cald- well place. After 1774 his name does not appear on the town records, nor is anything known of him after this. He has the births of three children recorded in 1760, '62, '64.

John White came about 1760. His first seven children were born in Lunenburg,-date of the last birth, November 4, 1759. Two children were born after his removal to Peterborough ; viz., Susan (mar- ried David Grimes) and Dr. Jonathan White. Jere- miah Gridley and John Hill deeded to him the lot, on which he settled, of two hundred and sixty-eight acres, May 5, 1762.

John Morison, the progenitor of the Peterborough Morisons, came somewhere from 1749 to 1751, and occupied the place afterwards owned by Deacon Robert Morison. He was one of the first settlers of Londonderry, and resided there about thirty years before his removal to Peterborough, and then became one of the first settlers of this town, and lived here twenty-six or twenty-seven years before his death, 1776, aged ninety-eight.

Jonathan Morison, his son, probably came at the time his father did. He built the first grist-mill in town, on the site of the " Peterborough First Fac- tory," in 1751, and was for a time the owner of the 42

mill lot, so called, which he purchased of - Gor- don, of Dunstable, containing sixty-eight acres, which he sold to James and Thomas Archibald, saddled with a mortgage to - Gordon and Hugh Wilson. He was the first male child born in Londonderry. Hle left Peterborough late in life. Supposed to have died somewhere in Vermont, about 1778.

Captain Thomas Morison came from Lunenburg in 1749 and built a house made of hard pine logs ten inches square, and moved his family in the fall of 1750, and his son Thomas was born in town April 20, 1751. He occupied what was called the "Mill farm," South Peterborough.

John Smith, son of Robert Smith, came from Lu- nenburg in 1753 and settled on the place so long occu- pied by William Smith, his son, in the south part of the town. He raised a large family.

Deacon Thomas Davison was born in Ireland, and first settled in Londonderry on his emigration, but removed to Peterborough about 1757, soon after his marriage. His first child was born December 20, 1758. He settled a lot in the southwest part of the town, and owned a large tract of land bordering on Jaffrey. He had a large family ; was a deacon in the Presbyterian Church.

Thomas Turner was born in Ireland in 1725, and was accompanied by his parents when he emigrated to America, both of whom died in town. He came probably in 1751 or 1752. When the proprietors of Peterborough met in town, September, 1753, they granted him fifty acres, or lot 92, adjoining his lot No. 29, in consideration of his relinquishing to them lot No. 7, of fifty acres.

Deacon Samuel Mitchell came in 1759. He bought of James and Thomas Archibald the " Mill farm," so ealled, of sixty-eight acres, on which had been built some years before, by Jonathan Morison, the first grist-mill in town.

William Scott emigrated to America, accompanied by his father's family, in 1736, and first lived in Hop- kinton, and is represented as one of the very first settlers of Peterborough. He took up his lot on the north side of the road, and between Carter and Hunt Corners. He left a large family. He lived and died on this place.

William Mitchell, father to Isaac Mitchell, began the James Wilson place. Isaac succeeded his father, and next followed James Wilson.

Rev. Mr. Harvey, called "old Mr. Harvey," prob- ably began what was afterwards known as the Hunt farm. He was succeeded by James Houston, black- smith.

Samuel Stinson was one of the first settlers in town, and probably took up his permanent residence in 1749, with his family. He settled on the John Little place, north of the Meeting-House Hill. Moor Stinson was surveyor in 1767, and James Stinson in 1773. These are the only notices of the name on the town records.

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

William Robbe came from Lunenburg in 1739, but probably did little else but prepare for the settlement. He is the progenitor of all the Robbes in town. He was driven away by fear of the Indians, and did not return for a permanent residence with his family till 1749-50. He settled on land west and north of the John Little place, afterwards called the "Mitchell farm."

Samuel Todd, son of Colonel Andrew Todd, of Londonderry, began the Todd place, so called. It was the first improvement made in this part of the town. About 1751 or 1752, Samuel Todd and Deacon Samuel Moore came and purchased a lot of land, at a crown an acre, of the proprietors, JJohn Fowle, John Hill and Jeremiah Gridley, for four hundred and thirty-nine acres, comprising lots Nos. 57, 58, 66, 67, 68, according to a deed dated November 15, 1753. This lot was in the northwest part of the town, and comprised the Todd and Spring farms. They held it in common about ten years, but divided it a short time before Samuel Todd was killed by the falling of a tree. In the division Moore took the westerly part, while Todd improved the easterly.

Deacon Samuel Moore came to town in company with Samnel Todd, and purchased land, as related above. Deacon Moore, on account of the Indian war, returned with his family to Londonderry in 1754, and remained there till about 1762 or 1763. He lived on the westerly part of the lot originally pur- chased,-the "Spring place," long since abandoned,- on which he built a house. In 1779 he exchanged this place with Dr. Marshall Spring, and began the farm where Benjamin and Jonathan Mitchell lived, and died there.

John Ferguson came from Lunenburg, Mass. Tradition has it that he came to Peterborough before there were any inhabitants in town, and lived three months in a log cabin. If so, he was among the very earliest pioneers of the town. He purchased six hundred acres of land. This he divided among his children. He probably came to town as soon as it was deemed safe after the close of the French war.

David Bogle was at one time the owner of farm B, drawn by John Hill, one of the proprietors. He had two sons, Thomas and Joseph, and one young daughter, named Martha.

James McKean came from Londonderry about 1765, and began the David Blanchard place.

Jotham Blanchard. We know nothing of his family or his antecedents, or the man, any farther than is recorded in the town records. He was a selectman in 1777, '78, '79; moderator in 1776, '77, '78, '80, '81. He was elected a representative to a convention held in 1783. With all these offices and honors of the town, not the least trace has been dis- covered in relation to him, as to where he came from, the time he first appeared, or whether he had a family, or what became of him after 1783, when he disappeared.

Major Samuel Gregg came from Londonderry and took up a traet of land in the north part of Peter- borough, constituting a part of farm C, extending to the Contoocook River, about three miles north of the present village; the precise time is not known, but probably before 1760. It is the same farm afterwards owned by John S. White. His name does not appear on the town records till 1768.

Lieutenant John Gregg settled on the same lot C, on the east side of the Contoocook, and just south of Major Gregg, where his son, James Gregg, lived. It was deeded to him by his father, John Gregg, of Londonderry, October 8, 1765. He came about 1759. It appears that the whole farm C was deeded to John Gregg by John Hill, of Boston, December 6, 1743, as land granted to Samuel Hayward and others,-" East Monadnicks."

Hugh Wilson came to town for a permanent resi- dence in 1752 or 1753. He bought three lots a mile long that made six hundred acres, nearly a mile square, in the north part of the town. This land, in the early settlement, was supposed to be the most desirable in town, but was found by experience to be cold, wet and unproductive. This was among the first settlements in the north part of the town.

William McCoy was an early settler, and made one of the first settlements on the East Mountain, on the farm afterwards occupied by John Leathers. He probably removed here in 1752 or 1753. All his chil- dren were born here; the oldest born July 2, 1753.

George McClourge was an early settler, and settled somewhere near the hill now known as the McClourge Hill. Nothing more is known of him or his family, except the record of the births of six children from August 22, 1752, to January 10, 1760.

Thomas McCloud settled in the east part of the town; had a family of eight children, all born in town, beginning with September 2, 1769, and extend- ing to July 29, 1783.

Captain David Steele came from Londonderry, with family, in 1760, and purchased the farm where he always lived,-the same afterwards occupied by General John Steele.

Samnel Miller purchased certain lots of land in the north part of Peterborough, for his sons, from the thrift and earnings of his wife in the manufacture of linen.

Joseph Hammill, not far from 1770, began the farm at Bower's Mill, so-called; built a saw-mill in 1778, and a grist-mill in 1781, and was the owner of considerable land in the vicinity.

Major Robert Wilson removed to Peterborough from West Cambridge, Mass., in 1761 or 1762, soon after his marriage, and bought the farm and suc- ceeded to Alexander Scott in a tavern a few rods south of the Captain Wilson place, on the west side of the road.

Dr. John Young came to town in 1763, from Wor- cester, Mass., as a physician. He lived and owned

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land at Carter's Corner, it being a portion of the Mill lot, lying on the east side of the Contoocook.

Samuel Brackett came to town from Braintree, Mass., soon after his marriage, December 17, 1765, and settled on a farm situted on the north border of the Cuningham Pond. He reared a family of thir- teen children.

Thomas Little came to town in 1763 or 1764, from Lunenburg, and settled on a lot of land east of the John Little farm, long since abandoned.

Abraham Holmes removed to town from London- derry about 1765. He settled in the north part of the town, near the mills. He raised a family of eleven children.

Abel Parker was an early settler. He began land on the East Mountain, probably before 1760.

Elijah Puffer came from Norton, Mass., in 1764. He first located himself north of the General David Steele farm, which he exchanged with General Steele for wild land in the northwest part of the town.

Peterborough was incorporated January 17, 1760, "to be in continuance for two years only ; " it was, how- ever, rechartered in April, 1762, to continue until disallowed by the King.

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History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 155

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1168

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1168