History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 87

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

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Gardner, his brother, enlisted at the same time from Nelson.

This regiment was in twenty-five regular battles, or forty engagements in all.

SEVENTU REGIMENT.

Ileber J. Davis, second lieutenant Company I, July 19, 1863 ; first lieu- tenant Company A, February 6, 1864 ; was on the staff of General Hawley ; was severely wounded at Fredericksburg.

Alden S. Johnson, Company K, - Regiment ; enlisted October 12, 1861 ; discharged February 12, 1863.

EIGHTH REGIMENT.

Jesse Willson, enlisted December 23, 1861 ; discharged for disability April 10, 1862.

THIRTEENTH REGIMENT, COMPANY G.

William H. Clark, enlisted September 19, 1862; wounded September 22, 1864.

Samuel Hadley, enlisted September 19, 1862.

G. W. Matthews, enlisted September 19, 1862 ; discharged November 30, 1863.

Myren R. Todd, enlisted September 19, 1862 ; died May 18, 1863. Porter B. Weston, enlisted September 19, 1862.

Edwin Ware, corporal, promoted to first sergeant and to lieutenant, enlisted September 19, 1862 ; wounded four times.

Charles W. Washburn, musician, enlisted September 19, 1862.

This regiment was in about fifteen regular battles, among which were Fredericksburg, Suffolk, Drury's Bluff, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Fort Harrison, etc., and was the first to enter Richmond after Lee's re- treat.

SIXTEENTH REGIMENT, COMPANY G.

Alden S. Wood, enlisted October 24, 1862 ; first sergeant, November 13, 1862; mustered ont August 20, 1863.

Albert A. Buxten, enlisted November 13, 1862; mustered out August 20, 1863.

Elverton G. W. Duncklee, enlisted October 24, 1862 ; mustered out Au- gust 20, 1863.

Horace Farrer, enlisted October 24, 1862; died at Baton Rouge, La., June 23, 1863.

James HI. Jolinson, enlisted October 24, 1862 ; drowned at Springfield Landing, July 2, 1863.

Edward P. Kimball, enlisted October 24, 1862; mustered out August 20, 1863.

Hartwell II. Shepherd, enlisted November 3, 1862; died on his way home.

David L. Wood, enlisted October 24, 1862; died at Baton Rouge, La., July 12, 1863.

The service of this regiment was short, but it suf- fered severely from the climate and hard marches.

Coryden D. Keyes and his son, Owen B., were in the Sixteenth Regi- ment. They enlisted from Wilton, but they had always lived in Hancock, and their monuments are here. The father died at Baton

Rouge, La., June 28, 1863, and the son at Cairo, Ill., August 20, 1863.

Franklin Dne, served three years in Company C, Fourth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers.

Horace Bowers was a member of Company H, Twenty-third Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers.

James H. Begbee, enlisted in au Indiana regiment, but was counted from this town. lle was killed at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863.

Albert Beghee was in the Twelfth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers ;

mustered in September 17, 1861, and served nearly four years. lle wastwice wounded, being in nineteen engagements.

John C. Wilkins was a member of the Thirteenth Massachusetts Battery. John A. Bullard, enlisted from Peterborough in the Thirteenth Regiment but he was many years a citizen of Hancock, and was buried here.

Charles L. Symonds was a member of Company 1, One Hundred and Fourth Illinois Regiment, and died in the service.

Albert 11. Taft, of Nelson, but for several years afterward a citizen and physician of llancock, was mustered into Company E, Ninth Regi- ment, as corporal, August 6, 1862 ; discharged for disability Septen- ber, 1863.

William W. Hayward was mustered into the Thirteenth Regiment Maine Volunteers, September 26, 1864, as chaplain ; mustered out on account of expiration of regimental organization, January 6, 1865 ; was offered a commission as chaplain of Second Maine Cav- alry in March, 1865, but declined to serve.

James Emory Boutelle, enlisted in the Second Company, Massachusetts Cavalry, in 1862. Ile was severely wounded at Fredericksburg.

Charles A. Wood was the first volunteer enrolled in Wisconsin, his adopted

State, in April, 1861 ; made orderly-sergeant of Company HI, First Wisconsin Infantry Volunteers; elected captain August 1, 1861 ; made lieutenant-colonel Eleventh Wisconsin Infantry Volunteers November 2, 1861 ; resigned on surgeon's certificate June 28, 1863.

The parents of Major-General John Gray Foster were natives of Hancock.

It is not necessary to give a sketch of his eminent services here, as there is a notice of him in the his- tory of Nashua, which was for many years his home and where he was buried.

Several patriotie citizens of Hancock put in substi- tutes. Some of these "subs" served faithfully, but more deserted.

Ecclesiastical History .- At a town-meeting held April 24, 1780, it was voted that the meeting-house and burying-place be on Norway Plain. This was a little more than five months after the town was in- corporated.

On the Sth of June, the same year, it was voted that money be raised to hire preaching. The sum of money raised each year to sustain preaching was small, only enough for four or six Sundays. Most of the meetings, until the first meeting-house was built, in 1790, were held at the house, or rather the barn, of Mr. Joseph Symonds.

The Congregational Church was organized in August, 1788. It consisted of seven female and ten male members,-John Cummings, Sarah Cummings, William Williams, Mary Williams, James Hosley, Joseph Symonds, Mile Symonds, Joseph Dodge, Molly Dodge, James Duncan, Salmon Wood, Sybel Wood, John Bowers, Elizabeth Bowers, Samuel Tur- rell, Abner Whitcomb, Susanna Gates.

The first pastor of the church, Rev. Reed Paige, A.M., was ordained September 20, 1791. Mr. Paige was born in Hardwick, Mass., August 30, 1764. He was the son of Colonel Timothy Paige (a gentleman of ability, who filled a number of important stations,

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

both civil and military, with fidelity and honor). He was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1786, studied divinity with Dr. Emmons, of Franklin, Mass., was a Hopkinsian of the straightest sect and, what was then very unusual among the orthodox clergy, was an ardent Democrat in politics. He published two ordi- nation sermons, an election sermon, 1805, and several others on different occasions. He is described in the " Gazetteer" of New Hampshire "as a learned, pions, able and faithful minister, a good citizen, an honest and upright man, a firm patriot, and zealous and able advocate of his country's rights, which very much endeared him to the people of his charge, who frequently elected him to represent his town in the State Legislature, of which he was a member at the time of his death." Mr. Paige died, much lamented, July 22, 1516.

During the six years after the death of . Mr. Paige the pulpit was supplied by different ministers. An attempt was made to settle some of them, but no one seemed able to unite all the elements in the town until December 25, 1822, when Rev. Archibald Bur- gess was ordained. Until about the year 1817 or 1818 the town was the parish. At that time the town core to act, and a society was organized to act in conjunction with the church.

Mr. Burgess was the son of Asa Burgess, and was born in Canterbury, Conn., February 2, 1790. He Was a graduate of Yale College in the class of 1814. He was a strong man, and was decidedly of the opinion that it would be for the best interest of the town to retain all the religious elements within his own church. When he was aroused few men were his superiors, or were more active than he. No one could sympathize more tenderly with the sorrowing and the afflicted. He died February 7, 1850.

His successor, Rev. Asahel Bigelow, was installed May 15, 1850.

Mr. Bigelow was born in Boylston, Mass., May 14, 1797. Ile was the son of Andrew Bigelow. He graduated at Harvard College in 1823. Soon after he went to the seminary at Andover, where he gradu- ated. He was ordained at Walpole, Mass., in 1828. He had there a pastorate of twenty-one years.

His work in Hancock was eminently successful. Reared in the severe school of adversity, and coming to Hancock in the mature years of his manhood, with ant earnest Christian spirit, he endeared himself to all who became acquainted with him. August 16, 1877, at the ripe age of fourscore, he passed on to the higher lite.

Rev. Hervey Gulick, the present pastor of the church, was born March 27, 1816. llis ancestors for bencrations have resided in Northampton County, Pa. He graduated from Pennsylvania College in

He Studied and began the practice of law; but find- ing his profession uncongenial, he abandoned it and entered I mon Theological Seminary, from which he

was called to preach at Hancock. He was ordained and installed pastor of the church November 5, 1879, the hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town.

He has proved himself to be a Christian gentleman, and it is to be desired that his term of office will be as long as that of his predecessors.

As early as 1792, John Cummings asked to be re- lieved from his ministerial tax, presenting as a reason therefor a certificate from a Baptist minister in Hollis.

In 1798, there was in the town warrant the follow- ing article :

"To see if the town will exempt those who profess to belong to a Baptist society in this town from paying towards Mr. Paige's salary this present year, or a longer term if they shall think best."

Nine men were exempted.

A Baptist Church was organized May 6, 1840. It was an offshoot from the church then known as the Baptist Church of Hancock and Society Land.

Services were sustained till 1852, when the church ceased to be active.

Several pastors served the church ; but as no records have come to hand, the compiler will give from memory the names of Revs. Mr. Pierce, Frederick Paige, Lorenzo Tandy and Mr. Guilford.

In 1822, Rev. Lemuel Willis, then a young man, was instrumental in forming a Universalist society, that sustained preaching at intervals for nearly forty years.

About the same date Rev. Zenas Adams, from Mar- low, organized a Methodist Church, which has also ceased to exist.

In the interval between the pastorates of Mr. Paige and Mr. Burgess several Unitarian elergymen occu- pied the pulpit of the church at different times. There was also growing out of the anti-slavery move- ment some trouble in the church ; fifteen or more be- came what were then known as " Come-outers." The Miller excitement in 1843 had its share of attention, but the steady hand of Mr. Burgess guided his church safely through it all.

An apostle of what was known as the " Latter-Day Saints" visited the town, and once, at least, occupied the church, but it is not recorded that he made any converts.

MEETING-HOUSES .- The first meeting-house, as has already been recorded, was built after a long struggle in 1790. It was a plain structure, without steeple and without bell. In 1819 it was burned to the ground.

In 1820 a new church, more commodious than the first, was erected, with comparatively little effort. In one day the pews were sold for seven thousand dollars. In 1851 this church was removed from nearly the centre of the common to a position deemed more suit- able, and repaired and modernized, having an at- tractive audience-room in the upper story and a com- modious town hall below.

There was a small Methodist meeting-house built in the western part of the town some years ago, but not a vestige of it remains.

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HANCOCK.

In 1836 the Congregational Society erected a two- story brick building, the upper story of which is used for a school and the lower story for a chapel. The chapel has within a few years been remodeled, and is at the present time one of the most attractive rooms for the purpose for which it is used that can be found anywhere.

The sons and descendants of Hancock who have entered the ministry can be counted by scores, among whom we will mention Rev. Brown Emerson, who, after a course of study with his pastor, Rev. Mr. Page, was a pastor sixty-eight years, most, if not all, the time in Salem, Mass.

Two of his brothers. Noah and Reuben, were also ministers of the gospel.

Rev. William Clark, D.D. (son of John Clark of Hancock, and grandson of William Clark, of New Boston), was born September 28, 1798. He fitted for college at Bradford Academy, and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1822, and at Andover Theological Seminary in 1827. He was employed as an agent for the A. B. C. F. missions in Massachusetts and Con- necticut until settled over the Congregational Church in Wells, Me., in 1829. After a pleasant and profita- ble pastorate of six years, he was again called into the general service of the Congregational Church of New England.

During forty consecutive years he acted success- ively as agent of the American Tract Society at the West District, secretary for Northern New England of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and secretary of New Hampshire Home Missionary Society.

Dartmouth College conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity on Mr. Clark in 1875. On re- tiring from official labor, in 1876, he became a perma- nent resident of Amherst, N. H.

Mr. Clark responded to the sentiment "The Clergy of Hancock," at the centennial of the town, as did also another descendant of Hancock, Rev. Josiah L. Seward, of Lowell, Mass., a prominent representative of the Unitarian denomination.

We would also mention Rev. Horace W. Warthen, who is now a leading preacher and worker in the Methodist denomination in the State of Vermont; Rev. Ared S., son of Jonas Lakin, presiding elder of the Marion District, Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church and Rev. F. M. Chapin, now a missionary of the American Board at Kalgan, North China, who unites in his veins the blood of the fam- ilies of Wheeler, Knight and Goodhue, all belonging to Hancock.

ORLAND EATON, EsQ.1- The Eatons of this country trace back their ancestry to five early emigrants,-

I. Francis Eaton, who, with his wife Sarah, came over in the "Mayflower," in 1620.

II. John and Abigail Eaton, who came in 1635,

and settled in Dedham, Mass., where members of the family continue to reside. John? occupies the ancient homestead of his ancestors. Hon. Dorman B. Eaton, now the head of the Civil Service Commission, is of this branch.

IHI. William and Martha Eaton settled in Reading, Mass,, about 1636. Ex-United States Senator Eaton, of Conneetient, represents this branch.

IV. Jonas and Grace Eaton came to Reading, Mass., about 1640. The wife of Rev. Mr. Guliek, of Hancock, is descended from that family.

V. John and Ann Eaton settled in Haverhill. Mass., about 1644. Among their descendants we notice General John Eaton, United States commis- sioner of education.

The Eatons of Hancock are descended from John and Abigail Eaton, who settled in Dedham, Mass., in 1635. John1, John2 and William3 lived and died in Dedham. William3 married Mary Starr, a grand- daughter of George Bunker, of Charlestown, Mass., who was the owner of the top of "that hill of glory " (see "History of the Star Family"). His son, Jer- emiah4, married Elizabeth Woodcock in 1751, and settled in Needham, Mass., dying there about 1800. He had four sons and four daughters. Three of the daughters died young. The youngest, Alice5, mar- ried Ebenezer Ware, of Hancock. All the sons re- moved to Hancock. Jeremiah 5 remained unmarried. Moses 5, Lemuel5 and Samuel5 married and had fam- ilies; many of their descendants are now living in Hancock and the neighboring towns. Lemuel? was a soldier in the Revolutionary War; he was present when Washington took command of the army at Cambridge. He was disabled from doing military duty in the later years of the war by the bursting of a gun, which tore off his left thumb. He married Sarah, daughter of Ebenezer and Esther (Hunting) Ware, of Needham, February 16, 1792, and removed to Hancock the same year, where he was a useful citizen.

His oldest son, Lemuel6, was born October 17, 1794. Lemuel 6 was a man respected by his townsmen. He served several years on the Board of Selectmen, being a member of the board when the separation took place between the town and the new town of Bennington (the other members being John I. Whittemore and Samuel Knight). He married Eunice, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Chandler) Jewett, of Nelson, June 2, 1831. Their only child, Orland, was born July 11, 1836. He is one of the few men in town who retain the old homestead of the first settlers of the name.

His advantages for education were such as were af- forded by the common schools and the academy of his native town. He carly developed a taste for historical and genealogical research. He was the prime mover for the celebration of the centennial of the incorporation of his native town, in 1879, and as chairman of the town history committee, and as its agent, he has been indefatigable. Without his persistent and earn-

1 By Rev. William W. Hayward, B. D.

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

est efforts the undertaking would have been a disas- trous failure. Letters have been sent all over the country, and a rich harvest of facts have thereby been garnered, which, in due time, will be given to the world.

Mr. Eaton served four years as one of the selectmen of the town, and one year as its representative to the Legislature. He has held a commission as justice of the peace for over fifteen years.

Desiring railroad facilities for the town, he drew up, signed and circulated a petition to the selectmen for the call of the town-meeting at which Hancock voted its gratuity to the Manchester and Keene Railroad, which vote decided the question in regard to the locality of the road, not only bringing it through Hancock, instead of Peterborough, but also making necessary the Peterborough and Hillsborough Railroad with the junction in Hancock.

At the age of twenty-two Mr. Eaton united with the Congregational Church, and has been either a teacher in, or the superintendent of, its Sabbath-school nearly every year since that time.

Hle was chosen deacon ofthe church in October, 1874, and has been re-elected by a unanimous ballot for the same position, holding it at the present time. He married Almeda E., daughter of Sherburn and Hannah (Poddleford) Barker, of Hancock, November 21, 1861. Mrs. Eaton is the seventh from Richard Barker, of Andover, Mass.,-Richard1, Ebenezer 2, Philemon3. Ebenezer+, Jessie 3, Sherburn ", Almeda 7.

They have no children ; an adopted child of much promise, Albert Orland, died June 19, 1883.

REV. WILLIAM WILLIS HAYWARD B. D.,1 the sub- jectof thissketch, was born in Hancock, N. H., October 17, 1834. His ancestors were identified with the earlier colonial and Revolutionary history of Concord, Mass. Joseph Hayward, the fifth in regular descent from George Hayward, of Concord (1635-71), emigrated, with his wife, Rebecca, daughter of Colonel Charles Prescott, to Dublin, N. H., and settled on the shores of that most beautiful of all the small inland lakes of that picturesque region. At the age of twenty Charles Prescott Hayward, born in Concord, son of the above, settled in Hancock, where he soon after married Sarah Mason, of Dublin.

Charles Hayward, the seventh from George, of Concord, born February 22, 1806; married Ann Lakin, November 15, 1833. Miss Lakin, we find in the record, was the great-granddaughter of William Lakin, the third man who settled in Hancock ; also the great-granddaughter of Moses Morrison, the second settler in Hancock. We find, also, that both the father and grandfather of Miss Lakin -- the mother of the subject of our sketch-were closely identified with the interests of the town for a period covering over half a century.

William Willi- Hayward, born October 17, 1834,

is, therefore, the eighth in descent from George Hay- ward, who settled in Concord in A.D. 1635.

Before proceeding, let us go back to the earlier period in the history of William Willis & Hayward. We find that George1 Hayward's estate yielded an income of five hundred and six pounds,-a large amount in those early days. In the direct line we find the name of Joseph2, the third child and second son, who married Hannah Hosmer in 1665, who died, when he married Elizabeth Treadwell, in 1667. The youngest child of this marriage was Simeon H.3, born in 1683, who married Rebecca Hartwell, in 1705. The wife of Simeon lived to the great age of ninety-four. She died in 1776, Simeon having died in 1719 at a con- paratively early age. In the wife of Simeon3 we have a connecting link between the colonial and Revolutionary periods of American history, in which Joseph + Hayward, the fifth son by the marriage of Simeon Hayward and Rebecca Hartwell, became a conspicuous character. He married Abigail Hosmer. His son Joseph married Rebecca Prescott, a daugh- ter of Colonel Charles Prescott, who was the leading man in Concord during the entire Revolutionary War.2 The social positions of Colonel Prescott were such in those times as to greatly enhance the value of a family relation possessed of so much military tact and dash as Joseph Hayward displayed upon many trying occasions. In the French War he be- came noted for his courage and skill. Soon after, when the storm of the Revolution had burst upon Lex- ington and Concord, Lieutenant Hayward, by his undaunted bravery, captured a British soldier after having slain his two comrades with his own hand, actually seizing from one of them a gun as it was pointed at his own person from the window of the room where they were concealed. He then seized upon two chaises in Cambridge, slaying a hostile occupant in each, and brought the chaises to Concord.3

NOTE .- Advertisement in the Esser Gazette of the 10th of May, 1775 .- " Lieut. Joseph Hayward, of Concord, gives notice that on the nine- teenth of April last, in the Fight, he took from the Regulars in Mon- otomy, a Horse and Chaise. The Chaise was owned by Mr. Reuben Brown, of Concord. What remains in his hands is a mouse-colored Horse near 13 hands high, -old, poor and dull ; a good Bed Quilt, Tawn- ny on both sides ; a good Camilet Riding hood, brown color ; one Pillow and a piece of Bed-Tick. The owner may have them by telling the mark and paying the charge of this advertisement."

Thus it will be seen that the subject of this sketch can boast of an ancestry of which any New Eng- lander may well be proud. His early educational advantages were such as were at the time offered in the country towns of New England, supplemented by some two years at the academies in Hancock, Peter- borough and Francestown, and one season at the New England Normal Institute, in Lancaster, Mass. He taught in the country schools nine winters, and sub-

2 Colonel Prescott was the son of Dr. Jonathan Prescott, of Concord, and was descended from Sir James Prescott, of Standish, Hull, England. 3 One of the guns captured was still owned by his son in 1835. (See Shattuck's Concord.)

Contributed by Rev. S. Elliott Lane, D.D.

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HANCOCK.

sequently three terms in a private school. His suc- cess as a teacher was marked. At the age of twenty- one he was chosen as a member of the superintend- ing committee of schools in Hancock, and at later periods served one year as superintendent of schools, in Newfane, Vt. ; three years on the School Board in Keene, N. H .; and one year as superintendent of schools in that eity.

He spent about two years in private study with Rev. Lemuel Willis, of Warner, N. H. ; was ordained as a Universalist minister June, 1859. Subsequently he spent two years at Tuft's Divinity School, and took the degree of B.D. in 1871.

He has had settlements in Newfane, Vt .; Fairfield, Me .; in Wakefield, Acton, Methuen, Plymouth and South Framingham, Mass., and Keene, N. H., besides several short engagements elsewhere. His present residence is South Framingham. On Septem- ber 7, 1859, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Ellen Chase, of Keene, N. H., a daughter of Mr. Hosea Chase, a near relative of Hon. Salmon P. Chase, who for over twenty-five years, has ever proved an efficient helpmeet to him, beloved by all.

He served a few months as chaplain of the Thir- teenth Maine Volunteers during the late war, and proved himself as one willing to share with the soldiers in the perils of the field, as well as in the comparative safety of the camp and hospital. It was during the brief experiences of Mr. Hayward with the army in Virginia (now West Virginia) that he was joined by his wife at Martinsburg, then Sheri- dan's base of supplies, who was winning great and constant victories in the valley of the Shenandoah. The little army at Martinsburg, therefore, was the object of repeated and untiring attacks on the part of the Confederates, led chiefly by Mosby, the noted guerrilla. Mrs. Hayward reached Martinsburg, to the surprise of her husband, by a night ride from Baltimore at a time when firing upon the night-trains over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was a constant occurrence ; and her whole sojourn with the army was marked by this same spirit that always captivates the soldier. She was a splendid horsewoman-so rare an accomplishment-and even appeared on the field. Nor did she fail to improve her opportunity to minister in a Christian, womanly way to the welfare of those with whom she met in the hospital,-writing letters for the sick and wounded and taking care of money for their families, which she concealed in times of danger about her person. God cared for her in the midst of many dangers.

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History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 87

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