History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 166

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

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At the age of eighteen he picked his flint, shoul- dered his musket and became a real soldier in the Volunteer Militia Company of his town. He plucked easily whatever of laurels for military achievements were obtainable in the militia service, and, with ac- eumulating honors, he joined, first, the Goffstown Light Infantry and after that he achieved distinction in a riffe company of that time.

Every year, to the date of the disbandment of the State militia, he did military duty, in every rank of the line, and was hence admirably prepared, by instinct, education and experience to take upon himself the high honor and supreme mili- tary distinction of becoming a member of the Amoskeag Veterans, then in its infancy, which he did in 1855. For thirty years he has been one of its most useful and influential members, holding, in succession, every office in its gift, until, at the last an- nual meeting in 1885, he was honored by a unani- mous election to the office of Commander, which he declined to accept, preferring to retain the command of Company A as its captain, which position he has held for several years and still continues to fill most accepta- bly. The prosperity and high standing of this famous battalion, at home and abroad, is largely due to his devotion, prudence and careful oversight in the man- agement of all its affairs.

This brief history of the life of one of Manchester's most honored citizens would be incomplete if due em- phasis were not laid upon the sterling integrity and innate moral dignity of its subject in every walk in life and under all circumstances.

Erect in stature, elastic in step, fresh and well pre- served, though bearing the weight of seventy years, amiable, kind and always genial, his acquaintances are The reasons are obvious. In his earlier years he was too much engrossed in his own affairs to seek po- litical preferment, and latterly fortunately, doubtless, universally his friends, whose confidence and approba- tion noman in community possesses to a larger extent. Absolutely temperate as to intoxicants, he has also for him, however much community may have suffered | abstained entirely from the use of tobacco, in all it

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

forms, and no man ever heard from his lips a violent or profane word. In short, Lewis Simons is, in the broadest and truest sense, an honest man.

MOSES SAWYER.

Moses Sawyer was born in the picturesque little town of Henniker, N. H., October 26, 1803. He was the seventh generation from William Soyer, who emigrated from England to America in 1632, and commenced the hard life of a pioneer in the little town of Newbury, now Newburyport, Mass. Some "of his children united with the Society of Friends, of which religious organization his descendants have remained members to the present time.

The subject of this sketch was little indebted to our public institutions for the unusual fund of in- formation which he possessed. The world was the school in which he was taught. and a few well-chosen books constituted his early library.

At about the age of fourteen he left the home of his childhood to learn the trade of dressing cloth, and subsequently went to Amesbury, Mass., and per- fected himself in the art of manufacturing woolen goods. Here he made the acquaintance of John G. Whittier and William Lloyd Garrison, and at the solicitation of the latter subscribed for the first num- ber of the Liberator, which is now in his possession.

When twenty-eight years of age he determined to go into business for himself, and bought a water privilege in North Weare, N. H., where he erected a mill and formed a company to manufacture woolen goods. He had little other capital than his hands and his natural energy of character, yet he started one of the first, if not the first successful woolen mill in New Hampshire, when Manchester contained only one house, and Peter Cooper was trying experiments with the first locomotive.

After several years of prosperity a new company was formed, of which he is still the agent. He has

always been known as a straightforward, honorable business man.

A member of the Society of Friends, both by faith and inheritance, he has been prominent in Church- work, particularly that which showed itself in deeds rather than words.

He was an Abolitionist from the very first; in the days when the name was as repugnant to what is called "Society," as the name " Christian " was to the Jewish Sanhedrin, or "Puritan " to the established Church of England in the days of Charles the First. No heart beat more ardently for the great subject of human rights, or felt more keenly the injustice of holding human beings as slaves ; and he let no oppor- tunity pass to do his all in aiding the cause. His house was one of the stations on the "underground railway," and it was there that Frederick Douglass commenced the writing of his autobiography.

The temperance movement, and every other philan- thropie work has always had in him a strong advocate, and he has given freely of his means for their support. To champion wearisome causes and take the part of the oppressed was his nature. It was never a burden. But he never sought publicity in any field or held political offices except at the earnest request of his friends, yet he represented the town in the Legislature in 1866, was the first president of the Hillsborough County Bible Society, one of the trustees of our State Orphans' Home, beside holding many other offices. And now that for him the sunset hour has come, and the activities of business life are over, he has leisure for reading and study, and we trust he may be long spared to gather the fruits of a well-spent life.

Mr. Sawyer has been twice married. First to Re- becca B. Morrill of Seabrook, N. H., and, several years after her 'decease, to Hannah Bassett Jones, of Gilmanton. He has three children still living :- Henry Abbott, a graduate of Dartmouth College ; Ellen Rebecca, wife of J. Fred. Smith, of Fishkill, N. Y., and Mary Elizabeth.

TFFIMI M PHASPOROUGE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

always been known a & s mais forv: h honorable

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Moses Sawyer

HISTORY OF WILTON.

BY REV. A. A. LIVERMORE.

CHAPTER I.

WILTON.

THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE TOWN, ITS GEOLOGY, STREAMS, HILLS, TERRITORIAL LIMITS, SCENERY AND CLIMATE.

THE town of Wilton is situated in the southwest part of the county of Hillsborough, State of New Hampshire, in latitude 42° 50' north, and in longi- tude 5° 8' east from Washington, D. C. The original grant of territory by the Masonian proprietors in- cluded forty-six shares of two hundred and forty acres each, or one hundred and thirty-eight lots of eighty acres each, or about twenty-eight square miles, and not far from sixteen thousand and seventy acres. But, August 26, 1768, a range of lots, half a mile wide, was set off to the adjoining town of Temple, on the west, leaving Wilton an oblong parallelogram, seven- teen hundred rods long from north to south and fifteen hundred rods wide from east to west. It lies eighteen miles from Nashua, forty from Concord, thirty from Keene and fifty-eight from Boston. It is bounded on the north by Lyndeborough, on the east by Lyndeborough and Milford, on the south by Mason and Greenville and on the west by Temple.

Its geological formation is chiefly granite and schist, making a very uneven surface and hard but strong soil, rising into lofty hills, which crop out with extensive ledges, and sinking into deep valleys, the beds of whose streams are filled with bowlders, large and small. There are but few plains or patches of sandy soil. The original forest growth was very thick and heavy, and indicated a deep, rich soil. The most valuable mineral products are clay, suitable for brick- making, and beds or large bowlders of granite, capable of being worked for building materials.

Only a small portion of the town is covered by water. There are no lakes or ponds, except artificial ones, to create mill-power. The principal stream is the Souhegan River, said to be so called by the Indians as "the River of the Plains," which rises in Great and Little Watatic Lakes, in Ashburnham, Mass., runs under the name of the South Branch into New Ipswich, where it joins the North Branch com- ing from Pratt's Pond, in Jaffrey, passes through

Greenville and enters Wilton on the south, from eighty to one hundred rods east of the southwest cor- ner of the town. Thence its course is northeasterly until it enters Milford. Two streams join it from the west and north as it passes through Wilton,-Gambol Brook, with north and south branches, and North Stream or Stony Brook, which also has two con- siderable branches. The Souhegan falls into the Merrimack in Merrimack. These streams, with smaller brooks falling into them, form the water- courses of the town, and supply the power for numerous mills and factories.

The bold sand-hill bluffs at various points, especially along the Souhegan Valley, indicate the points where the great eddies left their deposits when immense streams filled these valleys to their brim, after the glacial period in the history of the earth gave way to a warmer temperature. Owing to the granite forma- tion, there are no actually perpendicular falls or cas- cades in town, as in the limestone formations; but in several instances there are rapids of considerable height and interest, as Barnes' Falls, on a branch of Stony Brook.

While there are no mountains proper, there are many high hills, commanding wide prospects and separated by deep valleys. Such are Abbot Hill, in the southeast part of the town, a long, broad eleva- tion, sloping up gradually from the bed of the Souhegan ; Kimball's and Mansur's Hills, on the southwest, the highest elevations in town ; Russell's, or Lone-Tree Hill; Bade's IIill, near the Centre ; Flint's Hill, in the northwest ; and Bale's Hill, in the northeast. All are high eminences, commanding a complete view of the basin, which centres in the town, formed by the Temple, New Ipswich and Lynde- borough Mountains, called the Pack Monadnock.

The climate of Wilton is the climate of New Eng- land on its northern hills and mountains,-a long, severe winter, usually with high winds and deep- drifting snows, a short and checkered spring, a hot and luxuriant summer and a brilliant autumn, with the foliage turned to brown, crimson and gold. Its climate is one of extremes of heat and cold, but vivid and picturesque with the drifting snows of winter, the green herbage and foliage of summer and the gor-

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

geous colors of autumn, and stimulating to body and mind. In the early history of the town, autumn and spring were more nearly merged into winter and summer. The snows fell into deep forests, where they lay comparatively uninfluenced by sun or wind until a late spring, when the sun was high. Then overflowing freshets rushed down the hills and moun- tains and filled the valleys, sweeping everything before them, and summer suddenly burst upon the land. Then, too, the transition from summer to winter was not less rapid, and not seldom the fruits of field and orchard were surprised by sudden frosts and snows. But since the heavy forests have been largely cut down, or have been succeeded only by slight second growths of young trees, and the surface has been more exposed to the direct sun and wind, the seasons have become more changeable and fluctu- ating, and rapid extremes of cold and heat succeed one another. The cutting down of the dense forests has dried up the smaller brooks and meadows, caused severer droughts and opened the way for the more rapid descent of the rains and melted snows into the water-courses, and sudden and more injurious floods, as in the disastrous freshet of October, 1869.

But if we take all the features of the climate into consideration, we shall come to the conclusion that it is fitted to develop a hardy and vigorous race of people, with great activity and endurance of body and mind.

Of late years a marked social change has come, and many people from the cities and the seaboard annu- ally resort to the hills and mountains for health and invigoration, in the summer months. From one to two hundred boarders find accommodations in Wilton during the warm season, and enjoy its healthful air, its charming drives and walks and its beautiful scenery, while not a few build here tasteful country cottages for their homes nearly half the year.

CHAPTER II. WILTON-( Continued). FLORA AND FAUNA.

THE vegetable and animal productions of the town have not differed essentially from those of the other towns in this county already described in this work. The original forests consisted of pitch, white and Norway pines to a great degree, and furnished excel- lent timber. White, black and yellow birch, beech, white, red, yellow and scrub oak, poplar (native and Lombardy), chestnut, butternut, walnut, white, red and rock or sugar maple, ash, willow, basswood, horn- beam, leverwood, elm, cherry (white and red), hem- lock, spruce and fir abound. While the first, and even the second, growthis of timber have been princi- pally cut off, probably more acres are now in woodland

than were fifty years ago, but the trees are, many of them, only saplings.

The shrubs and flowers are those common to a northern climate and a mountainous country. The fields, woods, pastures and roadsides are gay with a great variety of flowering plants,-from the wind- flower and May-flower of the spring to the laurel, daisies, lilies, primroses and buttercups of summer, or to the golden-rod, John's-wort, life everlasting and cardinal flower of autumn. Many exotics also have become domesticated in the town. Numerous wild berries-mulberries, sumac, bogberries, barberries and others-beautify the summer and autumn scenery. The herbage, too, of the northern temperate zone, the fine, green turf and the many delicate grasses give exquisite pleasure to the eye as compared with the coarse grasses of warmer climates.

The wild animals were, at the time of the early settlement of the town, the bear, the moose, the deer, the wolf, the catamount, the muskrat, the mink, the weasel, the woodchuck, the skunk, the rat, the rabbit, the fox, the hedgehog, the red, gray, striped and fly- ing squirrel, the otter, the raccoon. which peopled the woods and fields.

Abiel Abbot, one of the early settlers, was treed by a bear, which watched him till, wearied by the delay and annoyed by a small dog, he withdrew. Lieuten- ant Abraham Burton sometimes trapped bears. In the winter wolves came down from the mountains in search of food, and were killed by hunting-parties. Tradition reports that two moose have been killed in town, one near Mason and one near what is now French village. Beaver-dams are yet to be seen on the Whiting and the Dale farms. But the hunter finds little now to raise his enthusiasm or reward his toil. The aboriginal animals have departed with the aboriginal men. Civilization has driven them from their ancient haunts.

Of birds, the largest, the wild turkey, was shot in town as late as 1797; but, owing to the absence of ponds or lakes, few wild geese or ducks or loons have been known, though the long, black lines of the for- mer, ranged in harrow-like array against the blue sky, may be seen making their semi-annual migrations, and heard by their peculiar penetrating notes. The eagle has been occasionally shot in town. The smaller summer birds are numerous, and increase rather than diminish by civilization, as their means of procuring food are improved by the gardens and grain-fields of the farmer. The robin, sparrow, yellow bird, whippoorwill, thrush, crow, hawk, king- fisher, woodpecker, oriole, catbird, blackbird, bobo- link, pigeon, bluejay, snowbird, scarlet tanager, par- tridge and butcherbird are found here, and the sum- mer woods and fields are musical with these natural choristers.

Few or no reptiles of a venomous kind are known to exist at the present day. The rattlesnake has dis- appeared. Tradition reports that one was killed on

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WILTON.

the spot where the house of the late Mr. Isaac Blanch- ard stands. The black-snake, striped snake, green snake, the house adder and the water snake are the chief species. Lizards are occasionally seen. Frogs and toads are abundant. Bats are common.

The insect world is largely represented. Flies of all species, wasps, bees, wild and tame hornets, ants, spiders, mosquitoes, bugs of every variety and grass- hoppers, which, though small in size, often produce serious results upon the harvest-fields of the farmer, are abundant in summer.

Of fishes, the largest, the salmon, were caught in the Souhegan as late as 1773 and 1774. The trout, shiner, sucker, minnow, pike and pickerel were com- mon in the streams, but seldom now reward the angler's patience and skill.

CHAPTER III. WILTON-(Continued).

PROPRIETARY HISTORY-SALEM-CANADA-THE INDIANS -NO. 2-INCORPORATION-SLIP ADDED TO TEMPLE.

THE first movement toward the settlement of Wilton was made in 1735. On the 19th of June of that year a petition was presented to the General Court of Mas- sachusetts, by Samuel King and others, for relief, in consideration "of their sufferings" in the expedition to Canada, under Sir William Phips, in the year 1690. Agreeably to the old Roman method of rewarding military services, by colonizing the veterans, a com- mittee was chosen, consisting of Samuel Wells, Esq., Samuel Chandler and John Hobson, to lay out a township, containing six square miles, west of the Narragansett town, called No. 3, and return a plat thereof to the court, within twelve months, for con- firmation.

This tract, including Lyndeborough and the north part of Wilton, received then the name of Salem- Canada. The term Canada was obviously given on account of the remembrance of the expedition to Canada. The prefix of Salem was, probably, due to the fact that, in the early history of the country, Es- sex County, Mass., of which Salem was the shire town, or capital, was represented as extending back, west- ward from the sea-board, to the Connecticut River, covering, of course, as may be seen by the map, the territory now occupied by the towns of Lyndeborough and Wilton. It has also been suggested that the signers of the petition to the General Court, for relief, may have been residents of Salem and the vicinity. The town of Salem-Canada, six miles square, was to be divided into sixty-three equal shares, one of which was to be for the first settled minister, one for the ministry and one for the schools. The conditions of settlement were: that on each share, within three years, a good family should be settled, a house built,

eighteen feet square and seven feet stud, at least; that six acres of land should be cultivated ; that the in- habitants should settle a learned orthodox minister, and build and finish a convenient meeting-house for the public worship of God.

Sewall Putnam, Esq., who is authority on all ques- tions relating to the early history of Wilton, says,-

" There is no doubt that the southeast part of Lyndeborough was the southeast part of Salem-Canada. The old people of Wilton, many years ago, used to say that the south line of Salem-Canada was between Mr. Mark Ilolt's and Mr. Doe's houses. A continuation of the line between the southeast part of Lyndeborough and Milford to the west would run near Mr. Harvey A. Whiting's house, on the Hopkins place, and as it continued west would run between Mr. Mark flolt's and Mr. Doe's houses. That shows that about one-third of the present town of Wilton was in Salem-Canada.

" In 1739. Jacob and Ephraim Putnam, John Dale and John Badger commenced a settlement on the southerly part of the territory thus laid out of Salem-Canada. Ephraim Putnam located on what is now lot No. 14, in the 5th range, at the intersection of the roads near the north ceme- tery, and a daughter of his was the first child born in Wilton.

"Jacob Putnam located on the southeast part of lot No. 15, in the 5th range (the original bound of the lots was a large pine on the north bank of the stream, a short distance below the old saw-mill). He built the house where Michael Mccarthy now fives. It was two stories in front and one back, the front rafters being short, and the back ones long. Many of the old honses were built in that style of architecture. The house remained in that shape until it was remodeled, with some addition, by Mr. Joseph Wilson, a few years before he sold it and removed to West- ern New York.

"John Dale's first camp was near where the roads cross, east of the old house that he afterwards built, now owned by S. H. Dunbar, and is said to be the first two-story frame house built in Wilton. It is lined be- tween the outside and inside finish with brick, for protection against the Indians. The farm remained in possession of John Dale, John Dale, Jr., and John Dale (3d), who died April 3, 1843, and was sold at auction by the administrator, in November, to Abel Fisk, Jr.

"John Badger located about one-third of a mile east of Dale. When the winter came on, all but Badger and his family went to a block-house, situated on the hill, northeasterly from the glass-works in Lyndeborough. Ile was taken sick, and with no medical aid or nursing but what his wife could supply, after two weeks' illness he died, February, 1740, the first death in town."

Dr. Peabody gives a pathetie description of the sad circumstances :

"He died in the night. The nearest neighbor was three miles distant, and the ground was covered deep with snow. His wife composed him on the bed, as for rest, left her children with their breakfast, and with strict injunctions not to awake their father, as he was asleep, and putting on hier snow-shoes, proceeded to seek assistance. . . Neighbors returned with her. A tree was hollowed out for a coffin, and so, in- the solitude, was he committed to the earth,"

After her husband died, Mrs. Badger and her child- ren, of whom she had three, the oldest butt eight years old, went to Hollis.

The remarks of Mr. Putnam follow :

" August 27th, after Mr. Badger's death, a daughter was born to Mrs. Badger, named Mary. She married David Cram. Their son David was the father of our respected townsman, David Cram. Mr. Gideon Cram, late of Lyndeborough, was their son, who was the father of Mrs. Mary Pettengill, who was named for her grandmother, Mary Badger.

" At the time of the first settlement there was a controversy between the New Hampshire and Massachusetts authorities, relating to the juris- diction of the territory of Southern New Hampshire. A definite account of the controversy and its settlement is given in Dr. Bouton's 'History of Concord.' For ten years the inhabitants here were under the authori- ties of Massachusetts."

The first settlers were from Danvers, Mass. For three years after the settlement began, the wife of

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Jacob Putnam was the only woman who resided per- manently in the town. During one winter, such was the depth of snow in the woods, and such the distance from neighbors, that for the space of six months she saw no one but the members of her own family.

Indians .- The Indians of this vicinity consisted principally of the Pawtucket tribe, who had their head- quarters, and, perhaps derived their designation from Pawtucket Falls, on the Merrimack River, near Low- ell, Mass. The back country and the streams feeding the Merrimack River were their chief hunting and fishing-grounds. No permanent settlements of the aborigines seem ever to have been made in Wilton, though they traversed its territory for game. There were no large ponds or rivers to attract them, and they had no motive to make their habitual residence on the granite hills. They left few, if any, traces be- hind them,-perhaps a few arrow-heads, or hatchets of stone. Mr. Putnam reports that on lot No. 13, range 4, in the pine woods east of the Stockwell place, was a place dug out some ten or twelve feet square, which was supposed by many to have been an Indian camp, occupied when on hunting expeditions. Hill and valley, river and mountain, remain as the unalterable features of nature, but the children of the ancient wilderness have passed away forever, leaving scarcely a trace behind them. The one certain memento of their race is the name of the principal stream, the Souhegan, or Sowhagon, as it was sometimes spelled, signifying, as is said, in their dialect, " the river of the plains."

So far as is known, no person belonging to Wilton was carried into captivity or killed by the Indians, except Henry Parker, Jr., in the French and Indian War, 1757, in the massacre of Fort William Henry, on Lake George.

When apprehensions of attack arose, the settlers went into neighboring garrisons. Danger existed for about ten years. One garrison was in Milford, near the Peabody place, on the north bank of the Souhegan River. Another was in Lyndeborough, near Mr. Eph- raim Putnam's. The anxieties of the pioneers were such that, in 1744, they sent the following petition to the Governor and Council of the Province :

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History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 166

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