USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire > Part 59
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meeting-house to the highest bidder of the inhabitants of this town, the money arising from the sale to be applied to defray the expense of fin- ishing the house.""
Daniel Campbell, Joseph Gould and Stephen Pea- body were appointed a committee to sell said pew- ground ; Daniel Campbell refusing to serve on the committee, Ephraim Hildreth was appointed in his stead.
By a vote of the town, passed at this meeting, there were to be three tiers of pews on the south side, one tier on the north side and two tiers each on the east and west ends. Alleys were to be left between the pews and seats and between the pews. The size of the pew-ground lots was left to the discretion of the committee. The sale of the pew-ground was to be within one month from the time of this meeting, and the purchase-money was to be paid into the meeting- house treasury within three months from the time of the sale.
The pews were ordered to be built within twelve months from this date, and in a uniform manner. If they were not built within the time and in the manner specified, the sale of the ground to the person or per- sons failing to comply with the conditions was to be void.
The house was so far completed that it was formally dedicated to the public worship of God on the 19th day of January, 1774, which date, curiously painted in gold, in old English letters, on a panel in front of the singers' gallery, directly opposite the pulpit, has been, in bygone years, an enigma to more than one of the younger members of the congregation. Of the gathering on that occasion and the sermon preached by Mr. Wilkins no written records remain. Tradition affirms that the discourse was, to some ex- tent, a historical one, treating of matters connected with the settlement of the town and the formation of the church. If so, its loss is to be regretted.
After the public services at the meeting-house it is said that the visiting elergymen were entertained at the house of Pastor Wilkins. While partaking of their dinner, of which hasty pudding and milk formed a part, the newly-elected deacon, "Sam " Wilkins, told them a ludicrous story of his exper- ience in catching a sheep, which pleased the reverend fathers, and "the pudding flew well."
March 14, 1774. A proposition to choose a com- mittee to procure a good bell for the meeting-house was rejected by the town; also, one to "allow the singers a seat in the new meeting-house that Psalm- ody may be carried on with greater regulation." Fifty pounds sterling money was voted to defray the new meeting-house charges, etc.
June 22, 1774. Daniel Campbell, Lieutenant Ken- drick and Israel Towne, Jr., were appointed a com- mittee to examine the accounts of the meeting-house and pew committees.
March 9, 1778. The town voted that the seats in the front gallery in the meeting-house, from the
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women's seats to the first pillar in the men's, be granted for the use of a number of persons skilled in singing, and Ephraim Barker, William Low, Amos Stickney, Abijah Wilkins and John Kimball were appointed a committee for seating said seats.
March 31, 1779. The town voted to accept the report of the committee appointed to adjust the accounts of the new meeting-house and pew commit- tees.
October 30, 1815. A committee, consisting of Wil- liam Low, David Stewart and Andrew Leavitt, having reported that the meeting-house needed some repairs, the town voted that said committee be authorized to make such repairs as were necessary.
March, 1818. The town refused to purchase stoves for the meeting-house.
For several years efforts were made to induce the town to provide for warming the meeting-house dur- ing Sunday services ; but when the matter was brought up in town-meeting a majority of the voters steadily refused to make an appropriation for the purpose. Perhaps they thought it well to have the temperature of their house of worship as unlike as possible to that of the reputed abode of lost spirits. Wood was cheap, and they could assemble at the taverns near by, where mine host always had good fires burning, around which they could gather, talk polities, discuss the forenoon's sermon,-the two being frequently identical,-drink flip or something stronger, watch the boys and get in good shape for the afternoon's campaign. The fairer half of creation took refuge in the neighboring houses, where they were welcomed to good fires and, just as the bell rung, furnished with a plenty of live coals to fill the fire-boxes in the little foot-stoves they carried.
So they worshiped. Some, however, were not satisfied, and occasionally used the columns of the Cabinet to give vent to their feelings. One of these, who evidently had a realizing sense of what was be- fore him and his fellow-sufferers, thus wrote in the Cabinet of December 26, 1818,-
"Even the Indians have STOVES in their meeting-house. Is it not astonishing that civilized and enlightened people have none ; but that they nearly freeze themselves and children every Sabbath in the winter, when the trifling expense of one dollar each would make them comfort- able ? A word to the frozen will, we hope, be sufficient to make them- weather-wise."
The subject was again brought up at the next an- nual meeting, but the town refused to take any action upon the subject. Finally, in 1824, some stoves were procured by individual subscriptions and placed in the meeting-house.
Still, the house was a cold, uncomfortable place, until it was removed and remodeled in 1836. After that time foot-stoves were dispensed with, and the few that now remaiu are shown as curious relies of the past.
March, 1821. The town voted to shingle the meet- ing-house and make such repairs of the elapboard- ing and doors of the same as were necessary ; also
voted to paint the house, and William Fisk, William Low and David McG. Means were appointed a com- mittee to procure the work done. They were author- ized to examine the steeple, and, if they thought proper, take it down and build a cupola in its place. The sum of five hundred dollars was placed at their disposal to lay out for the above, and for such other repairs as they might see fit to make upon the house.
In the winter of 1832 a movement was made for the sale of the house, the town reserving certain rights and privileges in the same. The matter was brought before the town at the March meeting in that year by appropriate articles in the warrant calling the meet- ing.
March 14, 1832. The town voted to sell the meet- ing-house at auction, and the sale was finally made, the First Congregational Church and Society in Amherst being the purchasers, and the property was transferred to them by the committee appointed for the purpose.
In Angust, 1836, the meeting-house was removed from the spot "on the training-field " where the fathers placed it, sixty-five years before, to the place it now occupies.
January 1, 1837, the repairs on the meeting-house being completed, it was again occupied by the society for Sunday services. The exercises on this occasion, under the direction of the pastor, Rev. Silas Aiken, were appropriate and of a very interesting character.
The centennial anniversary of the dedication of the second meeting-house was celebrated with appropriate services on Sunday, January 18, 1874.
The house had lately been thoroughly repaired and a new organ built.
The house is now in good repair, and its massive timbers promise a continuance for centuries. Long may it be spared from the fire and tempest, a con- necting link between present and bygone generations.
CHAPTER IV.
AMHERST-(Continued).
Amherst as the County-Seat-Schools-Aurean Academy-Post-Offices- The Press-The Amherst Journal and New Hampshire Advertiser- The Village Messenger-The Farmers' Cabinet-The Hillsborough Telegraph-The Amherst Herald-The Piscataqua Evangelical Maga- zine-Banks-The Hillsborough Bank-Farmers' Bank-Social Liter- ary-The Franklin Society-Masonic-Physicians-College Graduates -Civil History-Moderators -- Selectmen-Representatives-Population.
AN attempt to divide the province into counties was made in the House of Representatives January 22, 1755; but it failed to receive the concurrence of the Council.
The subject was brought up in the Council at a session held in March, 1769, at which time votes were passed for dividing the province into counties and fixing their boundaries. In these votes the House concurred.
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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.
March 29. 1769. The Council voted that one Superior Court, four Inferior Courts of Common Pleas, and four Courts of General Sessions should be held an- nually at Amherst for the county in which it was in- cluded.
This vote was returned by the House the next day without concurrence, as they were in some doubt whether the courts should be held in Amherst or Merrimack ; but they professed a willingness to abide by the decision of the Council.
After hearing the statements of parties interested, the question was put to the Council whether Amherst should be stricken from the vote and Merrimack put in its place, and it was decided in the negative. The vote of the Council was then concurred in by the House.
The meeting-house belonging to the town was pre- sented to the county for a court-house, and was sub- sequently moved from its original location, at the junction of the roads near the house now occupied by P. W. and Thomas Jones, to a site on the Plain, north of the soldiers' monument, where it was burned by an incendiary on the night following the 15th day of March, 1788.
A jail was built shortly after the organization of the county, which now forms a part of the old jail- house building, and some forty years later the stone jail building was erected.
At a meeting held March 31, 1788, the town voted to grant eighty pounds toward the erection of a new court-house. John Patterson, Captain Josiah Crosby, Samuel Dana, Esq., Daniel Campbell and James Ray were appointed a committee to superintend its erec- tion, and its "location, form and figure " were referred to the committee and the selectmen of the town.
The second court-house was built on the spot now occupied by the dwelling-house of David Russell, E-q. After the brick court-house was built it was sold and removed to the westerly part of the Plain, where it was fitted up for a chapel, for which it was used several years, when it was again sold and fitted up for tenement dwellings. It is still standing near the foundry buildings. West of it, as it was originally located, and near by, were the whipping-post and pillory,-those " terrors of the law " to evil-doers among the fathers. The whippings inflicted, we may judge, varied in severity according to the disposition of the officer who inflicted them. In one instance, still re- membered, the culprit was told privately that he " should not be whipped very hard," but was directed to make a terrible ontery every time he was struck.
After the State prison was built the pillory and whipping-post were dispensed with, and but very few persons now living can remember them.
William Gordon, David Everett, the elder Athertons, Levi Woodbury, George Sullivan, Arthur Livermore, Samuel Bell, Parker Noyes, Judge Richardson and others of lesser note; and here, greatest of all, Daniel Webster made his maiden argument before Judge Farrar. He had finished the study of his profession in the office of Christopher Gore, a distinguished jurist in Boston, and had been admitted to the Suf- folk County bar, on motion of that gentleman, in March, 1805. A few weeks later he visited Amherst, and argued a motion before Judge Farrar's court with such clearness that the presiding judge remarked to his associates: "That young man's statement is a most unanswerable argument," and at once granted the motion.
The town of Concord having presented a petition to the General Court, asking to be annexed to the county of Hillsborough, and that one-half of the courts then held at Amherst might be held in that. town, the people of Amherst, at a meeting held April 28, 1785, voted their unwillingness that the petition should be granted, and chose Joshua Atherton, Au- gustus Blanchard and Samuel Dana, Esqs., a com- mittee "to show the General Court the reasons of their unwillingness." Colonel Robert Means, then representative of the town, was instructed to assist the committee, who were directed "to confer with other towns relative to the premises before hearing- the petition."
The people of the towns in the northern part of the county requiring greater conveniences for the transaction of their business before the courts, the Legislature passed an act, which was approved De- cember 25, 1792, providing that the May term of the Superior Court and the September and December terms of the Court of Common Pleas and General Court of Sessions, helt annually at Amherst, should thereafter be held at Hopkinton, at the same time they had been held at Amherst, provided that the said courts should be held in or as near the meeting- house in said Hopkinton as they could conveniently be, and that the act should be null and void if, at the expiration of two years from its passage, the town of Hopkinton had not erected a suitable house, free of expense to the county, in which to hold said courts.
The required building was promptly erected, and Hopkinton became a half-shire town of the county, and so continued until the formation of Merrimack County, in 1823. A jail was also erected there, which continued to be used by the county of Merrimack after its incorporation until the completion of the new jail at Concord, in 1852.
A committee appointed by the town to examine and report, among other things, what part of the common the town should appropriate for a court- house, on condition that the town should have the privilege of using the same for a town-house, reported, at a meeting held September 21, 1818, recommending
In this second court-house the giants of the legal profession in New Hampshire, from 1787 to 1822, were wont to congregate at the semi-annual sessions of the Hillsborough County courts. Here came Jer- emiah Mason, Jeremiah Smith, the elder Plumer, "that the town should grant the county a right to
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erect a court-house and the necessary buildings for the accommodation of the same on the common, in front of the burying-ground, placing the back thereof, as far as may be convenient, into the burying-ground, provided the town shall ever have the privilege of using the house to hold their meetings in.
The present court-house was erected shortly after.
By an act of the Legislature, approved December 28, 1844, it was provided that a term of the Court of Common Pleas should thereafter be held at Man- chester.
An act passed July 12, 1856, provided that a term of the Superior Court should be held at Nashua.
An act was passed June 29, 1864, providing for the removal of the county records to Nashua.
The records were removed in 1866.
A jail having been built at Manchester, the jail, jail-house and small house near by, in Amherst, and the land around them, owned by the county, were sold at auction, October 8, 1867.
The land on which these buildings stood was pre- sented to the county by Jonathan Smith, in 1771.
By an act of the Legislature, approved July 15, 1879, the May term of the Superior Court held at Amherst on the first Tuesday of May, annually, was abolished, and a term of the court was ordered to be held in its stead at Nashua and Manchester, alter- nately, on the first Tuesday of May, annually.
This completed the removal of the Hillsborough County courts from Amherst, where they had been held wholly, or in part, for one hundred and eight years.
On the removal of the courts, the court-house, agreeably to the provisions of the deed given the county in 1824, became the property of the town.
It has since been fitted up for a town-house, and contains a large and convenient town hall, rooms for the town officers, the town library and a fire-proof safe for the preservation of the town records, etc.
We find no record of any schools in Souhegan West prior to its incorporation as town. مخ Probably private instruction was given by Mr. Wilkins, or some other qualified person, to such as desired and could afford it.
At the annual meeting of the town in 1762 a vote was passed "to keep a school this year in five divisions, the selectmen to divide," by which we may understand the selectmen were to divide the town into five divisions or distriets and employ a teacher, who should spend a part of his time in each district.
No mention is made of any effort being made to secure an appropriation for schools in the years 1763, 1765 and 1766. In 1764, 1767, 1768 and 1769 the town refused to make any appropriation for that pur- pose ; also, at a special meeting held in May, 1769.
Finally the matter became a serious one. The selectmen were in danger of being " presented " for neglect of duty in the matter of schooling. So the town voted, at a meeting held December 12, 1769, that " they will keep a school a part of this year,"
and granted the sum of £13 68. 8d. to defray the ex- pense of so doing.
At the annual meeting, March, 1770, they
" Voted, to keep a school the ensuing year to teach the children to read, write and cypher."
But no record remains that any money was appro- priated for teachers.
March, 1771. Twenty pounds, lawful money, was voted for schooling, and the town directed that " the school should be kept some part of the time in several parts of the town." Also, voted that the people of the town "keep as many schools as they think fit, and each family that does keep a school shall be en- titled to draw their proportion of the money above granted."
At a meeting held March 9, 1772, the sum of £26 13s. 4d. was granted for the support of schools that year. In 1773 the article in the warrant for the annual meeting relating to schools was referred to the selectmen.
A proposition to build several school-houses and to choose a committee to complete the same was rejected. at the annual meeting in March, 1774.
The lots reserved for schools by the proprietors of the township seem to have been sold about this time, as we find in the warrant for the meeting held March 13, 1775, an article, " to see if the town would allow that part of the town that was originally called Am- herst to use the interest of the money their school- right was lately sold for in private schools," which they refused to do.
No record remains of any provision being made for schools in the years 1775, 1776 and 1777. Other mat- ters of serious import engrossed the minds of the people in those years; but it is probable that the schools were not wholly neglected.
At the annual meeting in March, 1778, it was " Voted, to keep a grammar school the ensuing year."
And on the cover of the first volume of the town records are the following entries, in the handwriting of Colonel Nahum Baldwin, town clerk and first selectman that year. April 27, 1778,
"Agreed with Mr. William King to keep a town school at 6s. per day, and board him. Same day opened s'd school. July 27, 1778, Agreed with Mr. Brown Emerson to keep a school in this town at 35s. p'r quar- ter. ye school commenced this day.
"N. B., Town Clerk."
These were warlike times, and the fathers used war- like terms in the transaction of their business. So we find them voting, March 8, 1779,
" That the town be divided into squadrons at the discretion of the se- lectmen, that the inhabitants may be the better accommodated with a school, and that each squadron have their part of the money that shall be raised for schooling, Provided they lay it out for that purpose."
The sum of three hundred pounds was granted for the support of schools this year at an adjourned mect- ing held March 31st.
In March, 1780, the sum of six hundred pounds was voted for the support of schools, and the manner of keeping them was referred to the selectmen.
242
HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.
At the March meeting in 1781 the town voted to raise ten thousand pounds for schooling this year, and that "the schools be kept by each neighbourhood classing together." It may be well to remember that this was in the days of the depreciated Continen- tal " fiat " money. The next year they had reached " hard pan," as they voted eighty pounds for the sup- port of schools. The same amount was appropriated in 1783.
In 1784 they did better, and appropriated one hun- dred ponnils, and directed the selectmen to divide the town into school districts, and each district had liberty to lay out their money as they pleased.
The sum of one hundred and fifty pounds was voted for schools in each of the years 1785, 1786 and 1787.
At a meeting heldl 10th of April, 1787, the town voted to keep a grammar school in the centre district this year, on condition that the district shall make up to the master in a private way what their proportion of the school money falls short of an adequate salary.
A disposition was manifested at this meeting to se- eure the services of such persons as teachers in the schools as were qualified for the work, and a commit- tee, consisting of Rev. Jeremiah Barnard, Rev. John Bruce and Augustus Blanchard, Esq., was appointed " to examine the abilities of school-masters and mis- tresses," and it was voted that none but those that were recommended by them should be employed by any district as teachers of schools.
It was also voted that if any district should not school out their money within one year from the time it was granted, it should be paid into the town treas- ury for the use of the town.
One hundred and fifty pounds annually was granted for the support of schools from 1787 to 1793, inclusive.
At the annual meeting in March, 1789, the town voted to excuse a number of persons who had joined themselves together for the support of an academy in this town from the payment of any school tax so long as they should support the proposed academy. The use of the town-house for school purposes was also granted to them.
Lotteries were popular in those days, and we find that when the projectors of the academy asked the Legislature for an act of incorporation they asked for the grant of a lottery to enable them to support it. The Senate, however, gave them leave to bring in a bill for the incorporation of the academy only.
In December, 1791, a petition was presented to the Legislature by the academies in Amherst, Atkinson, Charlestown, Chesterfield and New Ipswich, asking for the grant of a lottery to enable them to raise five thousand pounds, which they proposed to divide equally among those institutions ; but the application was postponed to the next session, and was finally un- successful.
February 16, 1791, Joshua Atherton, Samuel D.ma, Robert Means, William Gordon, Daniel War-
ner, John Shepard, Robert Fletcher, Nathan Ken- dlall, Jr., Samuel Curtis, Joseph Blanchard, Samuel Wilkins and Daniel Campbell, Esqr's., William Read, Nathan Cleaves, David Danforth, Isaac Bald- win, John Eaton, David Stewart, Thomas Gilmore, Samuel G. Towne, James Roby, John Watson, Jere- miah Hobson, Ebenezer Taylor, Jonathan Smith, Jr., and Ephraim Barker, of Amherst; Moses Kelly, of Goffstown; Isaac Cochran, of Antrim; Timothy Tay- lor and Jacob MacGaw, of Merrimack ; and Stephen Dole, of Bedford, and their successors, were, by the Legislature of the State, formed into, constituted and made a body politic and corporate, by the name of the Aurean Academy, which corporation was empowered to transact all business necessary to the support and maintenance of an academy, the end and purpose of which was declared to be "to encourage and promote virtue and piety, and a knowledge of the English, Greek and Latin languages, mathematicks, writing, geography, logic, oratory, rhetoric and other useful and ornamental branches of literature."
An organization of the corporation was effected shortly after, and the school went into operation under the charge of Charles Walker, a son of Judge Timothy Walker, of Concord, N. H. He was succeeded by Daniel Staniford, Henry Moore, Jesse Appleton, Wil- liam Crosby, William Biglow, Joshua Haywood, Wil- liam Abbott, Daniel Weston, Peyton R. Freeman, James McPherson and Thomas Cole. The school was in successful operation for some years, but it was fin- ally closed in 1801 for lack of adequate funds for its support.
A select school was kept in the village during the summer months for several years afterward. Among the teachers employed in this school were Ephraim P. Bradford, George Kimball, James McKean Wilkins, John Farmer, Samuel Whiting, Abel F. Hildreth and Gideon L. Soule.
The sum of ten thousand dollars was left to the town of Amherst by the will of the late Isaac Spalding, of Nashua, the same to be paid in one year from the death of his widow, and kept as a perpetual fund, to be known as the "Spalding fund," the annual interest, dividend or income of which is to be added to the school money raised by the town in each year, and expended as such money is now, or hereafter may be, by law required or authorized to be expended.
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