History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 83

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

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The first fair was held September 16 and 17, 1875. As a social gathering it is greatly enjoyed by both young and old, and the exhibits of farming imple- ments and other results of scientific research, utiliz- ing the latent forces of nature to lessen manual labor, serves to awaken the dormant energies of many a son and daughter of toil.

All the towns and cities of Hillsborough County, and the towns of Jaffrey, Dublin, Harrisville and Stoddard, in Cheshire County, are comprised within the limits of this association.

The grounds are finely located, easy of access and within three-fourths of a mile of the depot of the

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Nashna and Lowell and the Manchester and Keene Railroads.

The track of the Manchester and Keene Railroad runs within twenty rods of the grand entrance gate to the grounds, and passengers are left and taken on at that point.

Temperance Work. - The Hillsborough County Convention of the Woman's Christian Temperance I'nion met in the Congregational Church, December 25, 15$1. At the close of the afternoon session a union was formed under the auspices of Mrs. Charles Rich- ardson, of Amherst, N. H., president of the county society. The names of the first officers were Mrs. S. II. Partridge, president; Mrs. Charles F. Peavey, Mrs. Charles H. Hopkins, Mrs. Henry Holt and Mrs. Levi Holt, vice-presidents; Mrs. Sarah M. Pol- lard, secretary; Mrs. Henry Holt, treasurer. These, with a membership of thirty, have been actively en- gaged in temperance work until the present time, 1885.

Motto,-"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit."

The following petition has been presented to the selectmen, asking for the enforcement of the law :

" In behalf of The officers and members of the Woman's Christian Temperance I'nion, we respectfully represent that we have cogent rea wins for believing that intoxicating liquors are habitually sold in our village, in violation of law, and to the detriment of the place and good opler of our community. We therefore respectfully but urgently pray your honorable body that you will promptly proceed to execute the law in such case made and provided, to the end that the sale of intoxicating drinks shall be effectually suppressed, so far as your jurisdiction extends. And we fully believe that in so doing you will have the support and ap- proval of the great majority of our citizens."

Greenfield Grange was organized by C. C. Shaw, secretary of State Grange, March 14, 1874, with the following officers: Master, John Fletcher; Overseer, David Starrett ; Lecturer, Samuel G. Hartshorn ; Steward, Willis D. Hardy; Assistant Steward, George D. Pollard; Chaplain, Alfred N. Hardy ; Secretary, Sidney I. Hardy; Gate-Keeper, Nahum Russell ; Treasurer, Alfred W. Savage; Ceres, Mrs. John Fletcher ; Pomona, Mrs. Taylor D. Lakin ; Flora, Mrs. Willis D. Hardy ; Lady Assistant Steward, Mrs. Samuel G. Hartshorn.

Through the influence of this grange agriculture has received a new impulse, and much practical knowledge has been diffused.

The most formidable impediment to successful farming consists in the deterioration of the pasture lands, which do not afford ford for more than one- third of the number of cattle that they did fifty years ago .

Milk is sold for the city markets and for the Wilton Creamery, and the town grange, with neighboring granges, it agitating the subject of more creameries.

Organ Festival. - A meeting was called, and an association formed, and arrangements were made for a grand organ festival, to be held February 22, 1871.

The committee of correspondence sent out over a hundred letter- of invitation to former residents of

Greenfield, and to the many and generous replies received George S. Peavey responded as follows :

"Greenfield remembers her absent sons and daughters, especially her distinguished ones. She rejoices at their prosperity. She is ever proud to meet them, and gladly do we meet so many here to-night ; and remem- bering those who are separated by many an intervening mile, some of whom have sent us substantial tokens, as we have just seen, of the in- lerest they still feel in the town, and in the prosperity of its religious insti- tutions ; therefore, Resolved, that we, the citizens of Greenfield present, give expression to our gratitude by a vote of thanks to all former resi- dents and friends of Greenfield present for their presence and aid, and also to those who have responded by letter with expressions of sympathy and material aid."

The evening passed pleasantly, and the result was very gratifying.

CHAPTER V.

GREENFIELD-(Continued). BIOGRAPHICAL.

MAJOR AMOS WHITTEMORE settled in town as early as 1771. He was born in 1746 and died in 1827. He was a soldier of the Revolution and was with Wash- ington when a battle was fought at White Plains, when New York was in possession of the British and the Americans were obliged to retreat.

William Whittemore, Esq., son of Major Amos, was born in 1781 and died in 1876. He was a native and almost a life-long resident of Greenfield. He held many trusts in the gift of the county and repre- seuted the town in the Legislature for sixteen con- secutive sessions. He was one of the original mem- bers of the Bunker Hill Monument Association. His remembrance dated back to the time when Green- field was almost a wilderness, two houses comprising all that the town then contained.

One of the first settlers in town was Simeon Fletcher. He was born in Chelmsford, Mass., May 2, 1722. He married Mary Davis.

Deeds say that he owned a farm in Chelmsford in 1744, which he sold. Then he removed to the prov- ince of New Hampshire (a few years later), and took up some five hundred acres of land in what is now known as the southeast part of Greenfield, built a house and there founded a life-long residence. Five generations of Fletchers have lived there, and four were born there.

A daughter, born soon after they came here, was the first white female born in town. He had two neighbors, who settled north of him, one on a hill near Crotched Mountain. He was a man of philan- thropic heart, for when roads were unknown he would elevate a pine torch-light at night as a token that all was well with him, and receive a similar signal if all was well with his neighbors. He was the first man in town that ever cut hay enough to winter a cow.

Simeon and Mary had seven children,-Persis, married a Beasom ; Annie, married an Ordway; and

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GREENFIELD.

Mary, a Balch ; John and Olive died at the old home- stead ; Philip married Mary Harper, and tilled the ancestral acres.

He was a brave man, for he took under his own roof his father, mother and mother-in-law. He had twelve children ; one lived to be nearly ninety- nine. He always had a bed for the poor who might be strolling over the hill in those days. One morn- ing, as he was going through the woods to his brother Simeon's, unarmed, he met a bear, which stopped and looked at him, but when he raised his voice and brandished his walking-stick Bruin made a hasty retreat into the wilderness, and the courageous man went on his way undauntedly.

When one of his neighbors was bodily injured, and liable to die before a physician could be procured, he hastily constructed a stretcher, and, with a few others, carried him to Milford, by marked trees, to receive medical aid.

He and his brother Simeon were in the Revolution- ary War, and at West Point they were on guard the night that General Arnold attempted to surrender the fortress to the British. After his return home we find the following receipt, now extant :

" TREASURY OFFICE, New Hampshire, January 19, 1790.

" Received of Mr. Philip Fletcher Thirty-seven pounds, six shillings, in part of State Certificate Tax ; of Fifty Pounds, eleven shillings, in part of Continental Facility Tax, of Lyndeborough for the year 178S.

" W'M. GARDNER, Treasurer."

Philip died at the age of seventy-two. Simeon married Mary Huston, and lived to see all of his children laid in their graves. He died at the age of eighty-tour.

Philip, Jr., lived at the old homestead with his father ; he raised hops for sixty years, and sold them in Boston. For seventy-one consecutive years he never failed to assist in getting hay from his meadow. From pine-trees that grew near this meadow he and his brother-in-law, Gates Perry, made shingles, and carried them to Boston with an ox-team to buy groce- ries to be used at the ordination of the minister, Rev. John Walker. He carried the first load of soap-stone from Francestown quarry to Boston with an ox-team, and made more journeys to Boston with oxen than all the other men in town.

Of the fourth generation now living in town are Deacon John, Gilman P. and Franklin C. Deacon John attended Hancock and Francestown Academies. He has taught school in New Hampshire, Massachu- setts and Kentucky. For a decade of years he has served as Sunday-school committee in this town. He still owns a part of the original land bought by Simeon more than one hundred and thirty years ago.

Gilman P. has been a trader here for many years. Franklin C. is an enterprising farmer.

The children of Deacon John, who are the fifth gen- eration, were born on the original homestead, and, doubtless, received inspiration from the grand and romantic scenery with which nature has surrounded

their ancestral home. This sacred homestead has been the birth-place of thirty Fletchers, twenty of whom have died there.

Thus we find the Fletchers identified with Green- field since the first white man made his home on her soil.

Ramsey Ancestry .- Captain Hugh Ramsey, of Scotch-Irish descent, from the north of Ireland, part owner and captain of a sailing-vessel, sailed into Bos- ton Harbor eight or nine times between the years 1718 and 1725, bringing many of his relatives bearing the name of Ramsey, who emigrated to this country in order to escape the religious intolerance of the Es- tablished Church.

They sought homes in different States, -in Penn- sylvania, South Carolina, Georgia, New York and New Hampshire. Many settled in Londonderry, N. H., from which place Captain John Ramsey, with his nephew, James Ramsey, Jr., came to Society Land (now Greenfield) in 1774, and bought adjoining farms about three miles west of the present site of the village, where they lived and died.

From these two were descended all the Ramseys of Greenfield. Captain John's children were William (father of John Ramsey, M.D.), Lieutenant John, Samuel, Ebenezer, Mary (Mrs. Boyd, of Francestown), Margaret (Mrs. David Parker, of Antrim), Anne (Mrs. John McKeen, of Deering) and Jane, a droll and sarcastic spinster, stories of whose eccentricities have enlivened many an hour for the present gener- ation, while walls echoed and re-echoed to merry peals of laughter at the rehearsal of her quaint jokes and witticisms.

Captain John's wife is said to have been a strict oh- server of the Sabbath, and whenever the children manifested undne levity during sacred hours she was accustomed to remonstrate with them in the follow- ing original and forceful words: "You'll be sweet nuts for the de'il, come cracking time ;" the mere mention of which undesirable fate doubtless pro- duced the desired effect of repressing their childish mirth, and restoring the solemn silence regarded by the ancient Puritans as necessary to the contempla- tion of themes naturally suggested by holy time.

James Ramsey, Jr., had several brothers and sis- ters, viz. : Hugh, of Holderness, N. H. ; William, of St. Johnsbury, Vt .; Matthew, of Rumney, N. H. ; Robert, of the State of Maine; John, who died . un- married in Derry ; Mrs. Steele, of Walpole, N. H .; Mrs. Martha Boyce, of New York; and Mrs. McGilo- then, of Walpole, N. H.

The children of James Ramsey, Jr., and Mary Nesmith, his wife, were David, who married Hannah Marshall ; John, who married Margaret Steele, of An- trim ; James, who married Nancy Tenney ; Elizabeth B., who married Thomas Hohes; Margaret, who died at twenty-six, unmarried ; Mary Nesmith, who married Ebenezer Hopkins, of Francestown. John M. Ramsey, of Grand Rapids, Mich., born November

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY. NEW HAMPSHIRE.

27, 1809, and David Ramsey, born December 27, 1811, and the only remaining resident of Greenfield of the name of Ramsey, are the only surviving children of David, son of James Ramsey. Jr., the other seven having " passed over the river" at a comparatively early age.

Abbott Biography. William Abbott and his wife, Hannah Bailey, came to Greenfield from Andover. Mass., about the year 1501, and settled near the base of Peterborough Mountain. In this secluded but ro- mantic spot, partly inclosed by forests, while a gentle Slope stretched away into meadow-land toward the south, they saw seven of their thirteen children grow up to manhood and womanhood, content with the simple pleasures afforded by the surroundings of their rural home and adorned with those Christian graces which are the fruit of early Christian training.

Reared thus amid God's great pictures, so full of beauty and inspiration, and in air melodious with the sweet, liquid notes of the nightingale and the rap- turous songs of ecstasy the bobolink pours forth from his little throat in spring, it is no wonder they early manifested a remarkable fondness for music, and that some of them developed a rare musical ability, well appreciated both in their native town and in places where they subsequently lived. And no wonder they have since so often revisited this enchanting place with enthusiastic delight, and lingered with reluctant feet upon the threshold where a thousand joyous memories of earlier years made dearer than ever the " home, sweet home," on the rugged mountain-side. (See Abbott history.)

Deacon Joshua Holt, of Andover, Mass., had six sons and five daughters, each of whom was baptized in the Orthodox Church the first Sabbath after his or her birth. Previous to 1780 he purchased a tract of wild land in what was then called Lyndeborough fiore, and subsequently Peterborough Slip, and after- wards incorporated into Greenfield. For the entire tract he paid a pair of oxen.

His son-Rev. Peter Holt, settled in Epping, and his son. Deacon Solomon-remained with him as home soll

Hi- other sous-Deacon Joshua, Deacon John, Deacon Timothy and Deacon Stephen-settled on the above-mentioned land, and became industrious, enter- prising and successful farmers.

They were pillars in the church, and held various town offices, and were prominent in carrying out every enterprise connected with the welfare of the town.

They were liberal in the support of religions, mili- tary and educational institutions, and so educated their families for the various duties of life that many of them have occupied positions of trust in almost every State in the Union. Many of them became prominent instructors, and their influence still re- mains, for the town has always furnished a large pro- portion of teachers. All the brothers spent their lives and died on their farms.

The daughters,-Mary, married Isaac Foster ; Phebe, married Deacon Joseph Batchelder; Chloe, married Captain Francis Bowers ; Hannah, married Captain Ephraim Holt, all of Greenfield ; Bethia, married Deacon Daniel Kimball, of Hancock. Their father always evinced a generous interest in the temporal, as well as the religious, welfare of the settlement. He gave the church its first communion service. In 1793, Ephraim Holt, of Andover, Mass., bought a lot of wild land in the southwest corner of Greenfield. His first crop was a large yield of rye, which he car- ried to Salem, Mass., with an ox-team, and sold for silver money, which he brought home in a stocking, and which amounted to enough to pay for his land.

He was a successful farmer, a military captain and a justice of the peace. He held various offices of trust, represented the town in the Legislature and was one of the selectmen seventeen years in succes- sion.

He had seven children. Himself and wife and all his children now repose in the same lot in the ceme- tery near the church.

In 1789, Major Peter Peavey, of Wilton, N. H., pur- chased a lot of wild land near the base of South Mountain, in Greenfield.

He built a log house about eighteen feet square, with a huge stone chimney reaching just above the chamber-floor, and from there it was topped out with sticks plastered with clay on the outside and inside. In one of its three windows, about a foot square, was a rude lattice covered with oiled paper; the others, in- stead of glass, had boards, which were removed when light was needed. The crevices between the logs were filled with moss. The door was wide enough to ad- mit a hand-sled loaded with logs to fill the yawning fire-place. He moved his effects on an ox-team, and his wife rode on horseback with a pair of large saddle- bags, a bundle strapped to the rear of the saddle, a tin lantern dangling from the saddle-horn and baby Peter, Jr., in her lap. Her horse walked faster than the oxen, and when she reached the last house she lighted the candle in her lantern, entered the forest and pursued her roadless way, guided by blazed trees, and arrived at their house before her husband, and kindled the first fire in their new home.

Subsequently, his brother Thomas purchased an ad- joining lot, and both brothers carved fertile farms out of the primitive forests, reared large families and occupied a front rank among the sturdy settlers of the town.

Zebediah, son of Captain Thomas Peavey, one of the early settlers of Greenfield, was born in the south- east part of the town in 1795, and is the oldest person now living there. He was liberally endowed with common sense and a discriminating judgment.

He was enterprising, honest, industrious and per- severing. His occupations were farming and deal- ing in cattle and sheep, which he successfully followed. He was early chosen captain of a military company,

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMDEHTDE

Jebediah Perry

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GREENFIELD.

and was often honored by his townsmen with posi- tions of honor and trust. His family consists of two sons and two daughters. His sons follow the occu- pations of their father, and honor the town by devo- tion to its interests.

In 1824 he married Mary B., daughter of Deacon David Patterson, and subsequently purchased her father's homestead in Greenfield village, which he has owned and occupied ever since.

On the 24th of March, 1884, they celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of their wedding in the same room where the original ceremony was performed.

Friends came from far and near to congratulate the aged pair. Although the groom had seen eighty-eight birthdays and the bride eighty-two, they were both, mentally and physically, in a remarkable state of preservation. Their countenances retained the ani- mated expression of middle-life, and they greeted their guests with youthful vivacity and pleasant allu- sions to former days. Their cheerful rooms were filled with the perfume of fragrant flowers, the gifts of absent friends. After a social season, letters from friends (unable to be present) and a poem, written for the occasion, were read. One letter was writ- ten by the only surviving witness of their mar- riage. The blessing of God was then invoked by their pastor, Rev. Mr. Partridge, short speeches were made, old-time songs and hymns were sung and joined in by the bride, who, for threescore and ten years, had aided the church choir and enlivened social gatherings with her musical voice.

Refreshments were temptingly displayed on tables loaded with wedding and other tastefully arranged cakes and fruits. Tea and coffee were served in the identical cups and saucers which the bride set before her guests sixty years ago. At an early hour the visitors retired, feeling that they had enjoyed a re- markable occasion, and wishing the happy pair many more wedding anniversaries.

Jacob Richardson, Esq., an carly settler of the town of Greenfield, was born at Billerica, Mass., on the 10th day of August, 1769, and of the sixth gen- eration from Thomas Richardson, who, with his two brothers, Ezekiel and Samuel, came from England to this country prior to 1740. He received a better education in the schools of his native town than fell to the lot of most young men of that day. When about twenty-one years of age he came to Milford, N. H., or the territory which was soon after incorporated into the town of Milford. In 1793 he married Sarah Lewis, daughter of Benjamin Lewis, who then resided on the banks of the Souhegan River, where Captain E. P. Hutchinson now lives. He re- moved to Greenfield in 1798, built a house in the village, which is now in good condition and owned by one of his descendants. He followed blacksmithing and farming, and represented the town in the State Legislature in the years 1815 and 1816; he held other offices of trust; left five sons and four daughters.

He died there on November 9th, 1839, aged seventy years.

Jacob Richardson, Jr., eldest son of the above- named Jacob Richardson, was born in Milford, N. H., January 17, 1794, and was the first male child born in that town after its incorporation. He obtained a good education, and on the appoint- ment of General James Miller as Governor of the Territory of Arkansas, accompanied him, arriving at the port of Arkansas, the Governor's headquarters, December 26, 1819. He rejected his appointment to the clerkship of Phillips County, because in that sparse settlement the fees would not pay. A year or more afterward he rejected the appointment as one of the judges of a court, because of fever and ague and other malarial diseases, which had so greatly reduced him that he decided to return East. He arrived in New Hampshire in August, 1821, after an absence of two years. In 1822, and for forty years afterwards, he was connected with Barrett's silk-dyeing establish- ment, the latter part of which as a partner under the firm-name of Barrett and Richardson. He accumu- lated a handsome property. Died November 3, 1864, from an injury received by the horse-cars in front of his office, 140 Washington Street, Boston.

Colonel Lewis Richardson, second son, was born there August 3, 1801. He early went to Massachu- setts to reside; represented the town of Medford in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1838 and 1839, re- turning to Greenfield in 1840. He was selectman twelve years, moderator twenty years; represented Greenfield in the New Hampshire Legislature in 1848 and 1849; was county commissioner for Hillsborough County for three years ; died at Greenfield on the 21st day of August, 1878.

Albert Lonis Richardson, third son, was born at Greenfield October 16, 1803; has mainly resided in Massachusetts. His early occupation was that of a civil engineer ; has been postmaster at East Woburn, Mass., for about thirty years. For several years prior to 1876 he took a lively interest in procuring, arrang- ing and publishing the " Richardson Memorial," a volume of about one thousand pages, giving a history of the three brothers first mentioned, their posterity and many others of that name.

Charles Richardson, the fourth son, was born at Greenfield July 30, 1809, where he resided until 1853; in early life was prominently connected with the militia of the Twenty-sixth Regiment ; represented Greenfield in the New Hampshire Legislature in 1850 and 1851; also a member of the Constitutional Convention for the revision of the constitution in 1850, and held other offices of trust; elected register of deeds for Hillsborongh County in 1853, when he removed to Amherst, where he now resides, and has been for the last thirty years a successful pension attor- ney.

Colonel Cyrus Richardson, the youngest son of Jacob Richardson, was born there August 23, 1812;

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

was a blacksmith by trade, and carried on largely, in connection with his brother Charles, the manufacture of cast-iron plows; passed some time in California ; held the office of town clerk in Greenfield in the years 1856 and 1857 ; was town treasurer several years, and conoanded the Twenty-sixth Regiment of New Hampshire militia ; died at Greenfield February 10,

Edward A. Richardson, son of Charles Richardson, above mentioned, and of the eighth generation from Thomas, was born in Greenfield on the 27th day of April, IS43; attended the schools of Greenfield and Amherst : fitted for college at Meriden ; spent three years at Dartmouth College; went to California in 1565; about two years later was connected with the Bank of California, with a capital of ten millions, and then considered the great moneyed institution of the West. Some years since, while there was great activity in mining stock, he, as dividend clerk, paid to the stockholders of two mining companies, which Were in part controlled by the bank, a monthly divi- dend of a million dollars to each of the companies. He is still connected with the bank, and is its foreign correspondent.

TOWN OFFICERS.

MODERATORS .- 1591, Daniel Emerson, Jr .; 1792, John Savage ; 1793, Bolwert Day ; 1794. Amos Whittemore : 1795, Joshua Holt ; 1796-97, Amos Whittemore ; 179s, Joshua Holt ; 1799, Joseph Ellin wood; 1800, Amos Whittemore ; INGHI, Joseph Ellinwood ; 1802, Joseph Herrick ; 1803, Am- brose Could ; IMM, Joseph Ellinwood; 1805, James Miller, Esq. ; 1806-12, Viumi Burnham ; 1813 14, David Ramsey ; 1815, Ebenezer Farrington ; I-16, Ammi Burnham ; Is17, Ebenezer Farrington ; ISIS, Ami Burn- ham; 1-1, Stephen Holt; 1820-23, Abraham Whitemore ; 1821-26, John Ramsey ; 1827-29, Ephraim Holt; 1830, Abraham Whittemore ; 1-11, John Ramsey ; 1832, Ephraim Holt ; 1833, Joshua Holt, Jr. ; 1834, John Ramsey ; 1835-36, Paul Cragin ; 1837 38, John Ramsey ; 1839-40, Viim Burnham : 1x11-12, William Whittrmore; 1843-44, Lewis Rich- odsun 1-15, Charles Richardson ; 1846-58, Lewis Richardson ; 1859-60, Gilman P. Fletcher; 1861-66, Lewis Richardson ; 1867-70, George S. Pravey . Is71-75, Henry H. Duncklee ; 1876-77, Charles F. Peavey; IS-, Henry H. Puneklee; 1>79-81, John Fletcher; 1882, Sidney II. Hardy ; 1>>3-84, Gilman P. Fletcher ; Iss, Henry II. Duncklee.

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History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 83

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