History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 76

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

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Thirteen were killed or died of disease in the ser- vice. Many of them returned home with painful, though honorable, wounds.

Colonel Moses Kelley mustered a part of these men into service, and was out a short time himself. Several were at the battle of Bunker Hill and a number continued through the war. Captain Eliphalet Richards, then a boy of seventeen, Nathan Hawes, not quite fifteen, Amos Richards, Robert Spear, Charles Sargent, Reuben Kemp, Samuel Remiek, Samuel Dunlap, William Houston and John Butterfield were at Bennington. Butterfickl had seen service in both wars and was a resolute soldier. The others leaned upon him for support and encourage- ment. Mr. Richards related that at the battle of Bennington they were marched up to where the Hessians were entrenched, and, like all frontiermen, took to a tree as a protection against the bullets, and commenced firing at the heads of the enemy, when- ever they raised them over the logs. There were six of the Goffstown boys behind a tree, and Hawes was squatting in a hollow in the ground, made by the np- rooting of a tree, loading and firing as fast as he could; but very soon the enemy's bullets began to cut the twigs and leaves all around him, when he leaped up, exclaiming, "Condemn it, Life, Ican't stand this," and got behind the tree; but in a moment an officer rode up and ordered them to charge, so, with a shout, they rushed forward, Butterfield leading. The enemy fled, and in the charge the Goffstown boys got separated.

Richards, in leaping the breast-work, saw a much

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

hetter gun than the one he carried lying beside a dead Hessian, which he exchanged for his own, and car- ried it through the remainder of the battle, and took it home with him, and afterwards soll it to some shoe- maker then living in town, forever after regretting that he had not kept it as a memorial of the fight. Richards and Charles Sargent kept together, and when following the retreating Hessians, one of their bag- gage-wagons passed near them ; they both drew up and fired, and one of the horses dropped dead; the driver immediately jumped down, cut it loose and drove on. "I" said Mr. Richards, " Butterfield had been with us, we should have captured the wagon ; but we we're both young and stopped to load our guns before rushing on." Hawes kopt with Butterfield, and in going through the woods came suddenly upon three Stalwart Hessians, grim in their tall bearskin caps; Hawes thought it was all up with him and began to ery ; Butterfield motioned them to throw down their guns and surrender, when, no sooner were their guns thrown down, than Hawes drew a bead upon one of them and let drive ; but Butterfield caught the motion in time, and knocked the muzzle of his gun up, and the bullet passed harmlessly over the Hessian's head, who expressed his satisfaction with many grimaces, imitating Hawes and the way Butterfiell saved him, which afterward afforded merriment to the boys from this town when seated in the evening around their camp-fire. They would make the Hessian, as every new-comer dropped in, go through with his descrip- tion of the manner in which Butterfield saved him from Hawes' hullet.

Previous to this battle Stark had become disgusted with his treatment by Congress, and as New Hamp- shire sympathized with him, at the time Congress re- ceived the news of the battle it was about reading this State ont of the Union. Of course there was a "'hom face," and each member started upon the " double quick " with his nose for the back track. Thus the boys of Goffstown participated in one of the most important engagements which took place during the war, previous to which the tide of battle was flowing disastrously to the American arms. Burgoyne, with an army of ten thousand veteran troops, boasted of his ability to march through the centre of our pos- sessions and forma junction with the southern depart- ment under Cornwallis. So sanguine were the Brit- ish officers of this that shortly after the affair at Hubbardstown, General Frazer said to three Ameri- can officers, prisoners of war, who were embarrassed with their Continental money, " Here," pulling ont a handful of guineas, " take what you choose; give me your note; I trust to your honor to pay me at Albany, for we shall probably overrun your country and I Shall meet you there." They took, upon these condi- tions, three guineas each. This was before the battle of Bennington. Not long after, October 7, 1777, this same General Frazer was opposed to the American Rifles, under Morgan, who could never endure a defeat.

It was in vain that Morgan drove him from one posi- tion to another ; Frazer, upon his iron gray steed, was forever rallying them and bringing them back to the front. Morgan became excessively chafed, as he was wont to be when victory long remained doubtful, and seeing, as he did, that it was only through the power- ful influence which the officer upon the iron gray exercised over them that the British soldiers could be brought back to face the deadly shots of the Ameri- can Rifles, he suffered himself, in the heat of the combat, to give an order, which no one in his cooler moments regretted more than himself. Riding up to three of his best shots, he exclaimed, pointing to the officer upon the iron gray, "Do you see that offi- eer ?" " Yes." "Well, don't let me see him much lon- ger; the success of the American arms is of more con- sequence than any one man's lite." The three riflemen sprang lightly into the lowermost branches of a tree, and as the tide of battle flowed in their direction, the three rifle-shots were heard, and Frazer, the brave and generous soldier, rides never more the iron gray to battle.

" The lightning may flash and the thunder may rattle, He hreds not, he hears not ; he's free from all pain. fte sleeps his last sleep, he has fought his last battle ; No sound ean awake him to glory again." .

The British grenadiers immediately broke after the fall of their leader, and fled to their entrenched camp. The notes were never paid. The battles upon the plains of Saratoga soon followed, and that army of ten thousand veteran soldiers, under the most ac- complished general of the age, surrendered to the American General Gates, -a result which the battle of Bennington led directly to, and, indeed, so much spirit did it infuse into the breasts of the de- sponding patriots that it was little else, ever after, but one series of victories.

The American arms triumphed, and to Stark and his brave New Hampshire boys forever rests the honor of beating baek, at Bennington, the first re- fluent wave of the Revolution, which shortly left us upon the high ground of Liberty and Union.

Ensign Jesse Karr, whose father first settled the Elnathan Whitney farm, died of small-pox at Crown Point. One of the old inhabitants, Mr. Shirley, used to say that Karr was the best built man in town, that he was a fine-looking soldier, and expected home, to be married to a young woman, on the very day that they received the news of his death. The young woman referred to (1859) died here in our midst at a very advanced age. Weeping in her old age, as she was wont to in her youth, the untimely fate of the young ensign, and though she had frequent offers of marriage -- as her family was of the best in town-in her younger days, she refused them all, and died faithful to her first affection.

" Yor would she change her buried love For any heart of living mould ; No! let the eagle change his phimne,

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The leaf its hue, the flower its bloom, But ties around her heart were spun That could not, would not be undone."

Collins Eaton and Andrew Newell were killed in passing through a place called the "Cedars," some- where in New Jersey. They were killed by the Indians, who had secreted themselves in the trees. Collins Eaton lived in the Deacon Ephraim Warren house. Eleazer Emerson was killed at the evacuation of Ticonderoga. Some one saw him by the roadside with his leg broken.

Joshua Martin was a soldier in the French war, and also served during the War of the Revolution. He was a member of a company of Rangers, under the celebrated Captain Rogers, in the old war, and in an attack from a party of French and Indians near Lake Champlain, January 21, 1757, was badly wounded in the hip.

Rogers and Stark had a great many wounded in this action, and killed of the enemy one hundred and twelve, beside taking many prisoners. On their retreat to Fort William Henry, while crossing the first nar- rows of Lake George, and just as the sleighs had come to their relief from the fort, they were looking back upon the ice, and observing something black following them at a distance, supposing it might be one of their stragglers, a sleigh was sent back for him; it proved to be Joshua Martin, of Goffstown, the grandfather of the present Joshua Martin (1859). His hip-joint had been shattered by a shot which passed through his body also, being in a crouching position when it was received. He was left for dead on the field of battle, but had revived and followed his comrades' tracks to the lake, and after that kept in sight of them. He was so exhausted that he sank down the moment the relief reached him. He was taken to the fort, recov- ered of his wound, served through the war and died at an advanced age. His escape seemed providential. On the night of their retreat the Rangers made a circuit to avoid a large fire in the woods, supposing it to have been made by the Indians, not being in a con- dition to renew the fight. This detour caused them to lose time, so that Martin, who had kindled the fire to warm himself, was enabled to follow and get in sight of them on the lake; otherwise he must have perished.

Joshua Martin was a son of one of the earliest set- tlers of this town. They were originally from what was called Harrytown, and had a ferry across the Merrimack River, known now as Martin's ferry. His father died when he was young, and his mother used to run the ferry-boat herself, and could manage it very well. Joshua and his older brothers obtained their support principally by hunting and fishing. It is related that the boys once went up the brook upon the east side of the river in a deep snow, in hopes of finding some deer yarded in the swamp near the head of the brook, taking no other weapon than an ordinary chopping axe. Upon entering the swamp they met

with a large track of some kind of an animal, and, fol- lowed it up; in a short time they came upon acata- mount beneath a hemlock-tree, gnawing at a deer it had just slain. Instead of running at the first sight of the animal, they determined to attack it. The ani- mal showed no intention of leaving its breakfast, and no signs of being disturbed, save an occasional whisk of its tail upon the snow. The young men, after some consultation and some signs of fear upon the part of the younger, commenced operations. The younger with a club made a feint of attacking the animal in front, while the other with his axe crept up in the rear of the catamount, which kept busily gnawing the bones of the deer with more fierceness, and, at intervals, as they approached, he lashed the snow with his tail, and throwing it in the air as if stirred by a fierce wind, at the same time giving vent in a low, deep growl, still gnawing at the dead deer, when the oldest boy dealt it a blow with his axe, breaking its back-bone, and Joshua dealt it some vigorous blows with his club, which soon dispatched it, when it was hanled home in triumph.

Joshua was quite a lad then. He had often heard his brothers relate tales of hunting and adventure exhibiting their courage, and before he was fairly in his teens he told his mother that he would like to see a bear. "Pooh !" said his mother, "you would run at the sight of one." "I guess not, mother," the boy would say. So, one evening, to test Joshua's courage, she threw a bearskin over her, and, imitating as well as she could the rolling gait of the bear, she burst into the house, and by the dim firelight looked for all the world like a veritable bear. Joshua was a good deal surprised, as well he might be; but seizing a pitch pine knot, with one crack he laid the old woman out as stiff as a maggot. She ever afterwards had a pretty good opinion of Joshua's courage.

CHAPTER III.

GOFFSTOWN-(Continued).

Educational-Witchcraft-McGregor's Bridge-Distinguished Early Set- tlers-Lawyers-Physicians-Samuel Blodgett- Early Customs.

THE inhabitants of Goffstown have never been dis- tinguished for their attachment to educational interests among themselves, or in the community at large. We can show a much larger list of graduates from the bloody battle-fields of the Revolution and the sub- sequent wars than from any institution of learning.

The first money designed to be appropriated to the employment of a school-teacher was used for the purchase of gunpowder and lead, and we have often thought that the boys of the present time woukl be the last to find fault if such a disposition of it now should be made. This is wrong; there is no good reason why Goffstown should be behind other towns

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

in the list of her educated men. We have material enough, keen, shrewd and active minds; all that is wanted is encouragement and opportunity. The early settlers, in carrying on their humbering operations, needed all of the help they could muster, and when hunting in the fall they must take the boys with them, so that they seldom saw the inside of a school-house, and Dillworth's spelling-book looked more formidable to them than the black bear or tawny catamount. These boys grew to manhood, practical men, without and considered that they were discharging their whole duty to their children by giving them a little better opportunity for education than they enjoyed them- selves.

fully comprehending the advantages of education, | large portion of the land and water-power now owned

Yet, notwithstanding these disadvantages, the gen- eration of which we are speaking presents some ex- amples of a most extraordinary business talent. In fact, for enterprise and business, the men of Goffstown have always occupied the front rank. They look al- ways to the main chance and the shortest cut to reach it. Pretension, show and charlatanry never prevailed here. This distrust of the utility of new things, though mainly a praiseworthy trait, has some- times in our history afforded considerable amusement. There are people now living who remember how those opposed to the innovation of having the meet- ing-house warmed by a stove perspired on the first Sab- bath after it was put up, and how rapidly they cooled off' when they discovered there had been no fire kindled in it during the day, and the stove had never been connected with the funnel. Before this fact was known they became so heated and were so sleepy that the preaching did them no good. It was amusing to see the martyrdom they endured wiping the sweat from their faces.

The epidemic of the Salem witchcraft barely entered the town, There were arrests made of two women for bewitching two men. One was tried before Esq. Mc- Gregor and the other before Dr. Gove and Esq. Dow. Both, to the honor of the intelligent magistrates, were acquitted.

Robert McGregor, son of the Rev. David McGregor, of Londonderry, settled in Goffstown in 1777. He volunteered his services and joined the troops must- ered in New Hampshire under the command of Gen- eral Stark, and was appointed his aid-de-camp, which office he filled at the surrender of Burgoyne. He was very energetic as a merchant and business man. He was proprietor and projector of the first bridge which crossed the Merrimack River on the site now occupied by the Old Central bridge.

Many in those days were incredulous as to the practicability of the enterprise. Among these was his neighbor, John Stark, who lived upon the opposite bank of the river, who remarked to him, "Well, Robert, you may succeed, but when the first passenger crosses I shall be ready to die."

In sixty-five days, however, from the time when

the first stick of timber was felled in the forest, the bridge was opened for passengers, and the general lived for many years to cross and recross it.

It was called MeGregor's bridge. MeGregor was one of the original proprietors and directors of the Amoskeag Canal, of which Samuel Blodgett, another of the celebrities of Goffstown, was the projector, which was one of the earliest works of the kind in this country. McGregor resided in Goffstown many years, and his farm on the Merrimack embraced a

by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company.

Among the most distinguished of the early settlers of this town were Samuel Blodgett, Moses Kelley, Colonel Goffe, Samuel Richards, Asa Pattee, John Butterfield, Thomas Shirley, James Karr, Matthew Kennedy, Joshua Martin, William MeDoell and the Poors. There was a Mr. Worthley who was one of the first settlers, and lived near where David A. Parker afterward lived, near the cove, so called, but was driven off by the Indians. He afterward returned and was again disturbed, and moved to Weare, and settled near the Cold Spring, and is buried with his wife near there.

The following is a list of the lawyers who have resided and practiced law here :

John Gove, graduated at Dartmouth College in .1792, read law with William Gordon and practiced here until 1803.

Thomas Jameson, graduated at Dartmouth 1797, read law with John Harris and practiced law here until 1813.

Jonathan Aiken, graduated at Dartmouth College 1x13, read law with Josiah Forsaith and practiced until 1838.

Josiah Forsaith, graduated at Dartmouth College, read law with J. B. l'pham and Caleb Ellis and practiced until 1823.

David Steele, graduated at Dartmouth College 1818, and practiced law here until his death.

John H. Slack, graduated at Dartmouth College 1814 ; here a short time.

Charles F. Gove, graduated at Dartmouth College 1817, practiced law here until 1839, and read law with J. Forsaith and at the Dane Law School.

Samuel Butterfield.

George W. Morrison, read law with P. West, Jr., commenced practice at Goffstown, 1837, and moved to Manchester in 1839.

John Steele, read law with his father and commenced practice with him in 1861, entered the New Hampshire Cavalry in 1863, served through the war as first lieutenant, returned at the close of the war and died in 1869.

There have been for physicians : Dr. Webster, Dr. Cushing, Dr. Jonathan Gove, Dr. David L. Morrill, Drs. John and Ebenezer Stevens, Dr. Walkers, Dr. Wrights, Dr. Renolds, Dr. Crosby, Ziba Adams, Drs. Daniel and John Little, Dr. Flanders, Dr. Carr, Dr. Newhall, Dr. Charles F. George and Dr. Frank Blaisdell.

Dr. Gove was considered to be the first physician in this section of the State. Dr. Morrill was Senator of Congress and Governor of the State, also a minister of the gospel, and altogether a man of talent.

Perhaps one of the most distinguished of the early settlers of the town was Sammuel Blodgett, who, in many respects, was a remarkable man.1

1 see History of Manchester.

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GOFFSTOWN.

The first settlers of Goffstown were very industrious in their habits ; they had no public amusements, but when it was convenient they used to assemble at each other's houses and have a social meal and a good time discussing the news which each one had picked up, as there were no newspapers then. Every member of the family attended these gatherings, the children amusing themselves with games suitable to their ages, the mothers taking care of the youngest, and in the mean time plying the knitting-needles or sewing, and sometimes, when much hurried, bringing the cotton and wool cards with them, while the men usually made their appearance about four or half-past four o'clock, and at five o'clock all partook, after invoking the Divine blessing, of a bountiful supper, which the good housewife had previously prepared.

Now, a supper in those days was a pretty substantial meal and was usually given the first of winter. First, early in the day, a big spare-rib was hung by a stout string before the blazing fire, and properly turned and basted by one of the younger girls, until it was beauti- fully browned and cooked through to an "iota," not a particle of it charred or scorched, when, meeting the mother's approval, it was removed to a convenient place to await the time for setting the table; then, with some steaming hot potatoes and gravy, the first course was ready.

Potatoes were considered quite a "nobby " dish in those early days, few families having them, the brown loaf being the usual substitute, and was seldom miss- ing from the table, even after potatoes became abundant.

The second course was a monstrous chicken-pie, upon the making of which all the good housewife's culinary skill had been exhausted. As large a milk- pan as could possibly be crowded into the mouth of the oven was covered with a crust, made out of home- made wheat-flour finely sifted as possible, which, with plenty of butter, was made nice and flaky. Covering the bottom of the pan first, then filling in the chickens properly cut up and duly moistened, salted and but- tered, a top crust was adjusted; a second and third one followed, each a little less in diameter than the first ; then a row of stars and hearts, artistically or- namented with a trunk key, the centre of the crust having a hole sufficient for the escape of the extra steam and moisture, and altogether giving forth such an appetizing odor, when removed from the oven to the table, that not a man or woman of them all refused to have their square wooden trenchers (which were used instead of plates as now) bountifully filled up with chicken-pie, and all pronounced it delicious, "just the nicest and most flaky crust they ever did see." And our ancestors did not fib.

How they ever managed to find room for the pudding, which succeeded the chicken-pie in regular order, must be set down as one of the lost arts, which has never been transmitted down to us dyspepties of the nineteenth century; but the truth of history

obliges us to state that not one of the guests present refused to have their trenchers filled with the pudding, and to have a cup of tea, which, Aunt Huldah affirmed, was made strong enough to bear a flat-iron up. This tea, which was not an every-day luxury, had the effect to loosen every. tongue, and conversation never flagged until the clock struck nine, which was the usual time for starting home. "Then there was gathering in hot-haste the steed," and each one was soon on the way home, pronouncing it a delightful time.

But such a bountiful repast was not always pro- vided. An old man many, many years ago related that a play-mate of his father's younger days came to his father once much excited, exclaiming, "Charlie! you must come over to supper at our house to-night; we are going to have the best supper you ever heard of." "What can it be?" said Charlie ; "do tell us right away." "Rye-doughnuts, fried in lamprey-eel grease, by crackee; what do you say to that?" "I'll be there," said Charlie. And sure enough, with the maple molasses to dip them in, it was no small job to fry them as fast as a half-dozen big, hungry boys could make way with them.

CHAPTER IV.

GOFFSTOWN-(Continued).

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

Congregational Church-Baptist Church-St. Matthew's Church (Epis- copal)-Methodist Episcopal Church.

Congregational Church.1-This town was settled in 1741 or 1742, and was chartered June 17, 1761. The people at that time were, as in all New England towns, a church-going people. It was considered disrepu- table to be habitually absent from Divine service on the Sabbath. Accordingly, we find that as soon as possible after receiving their charter, measures were taken to secure the ministrations of the gospel. At the first annual town-meeting, held at the barn of Thomas Carr (where the meetings were convened for many years), it was " Voted, that one hundred pounds be raised for preaching," and Deacon Thomas Karr and Asa Pattee were appointed a committee to expend it. It was also " Voted, that half the preaching be at James Karr's and the other half at John Smith's." It is probable that all the public religious services of that day were held in barns, as we find by a vote in March, 1763, that it was the will of the town that the preaching for that year be at James Karr's barn. At the same meeting one hundred pounds was appro- priated for preaching. At the annual meeting March 5, 1764, three hundred pounds was appropriated, and it was "Voted that two hundred pounds be preached

1 Contributed by Rev. Samuel F. Gerould, being part of a sermon preached by him in Goffstown, July 9, 1876.

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

out at John Smith's, and the other one hundred thereof be equally divided on each side of the Piscat- ! aquog River." The next year the same amount was appropriated, but the services were all to be held "at Thomas Karr's barn." In 1766 the amount voted for preaching was reduced to one hundred and fifty pounds, and the selectmen were instructed to expend it. In 1767 only nine pounds was voted for this purpose, but as three pounds was all that was raised for town charges, it is probable that the difference was owing to the shrinkage of the currency. Two somewhat curious votes stand side by side in connec- tion with the annual meeting of this year, which will serve to show the changes time and truth have wrought. The one is "that the town support no school this year;" the other, that it "pay for the rum used at the bridge by the Mast fordway."

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History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 76

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