USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hudson > History of Hudson, N.H., formerly a part of Dunstable, Mass., 1673-1733, Nottingham, Mass., 1733-1741, District of Nottingham, 1741-1746, Nottingham West, N.H., 1746-1830, Hudson, N.H., 1830-1912 > Part 29
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ITEMS OF INTEREST AND LOCAL NAMES
July 4, 1764. Roland Rideout, Judith Rideout, Susan- na Rideout, Nathaniel Rideout and Abigail Rideout warned to depart and leave the town.
June 16, 1769. Order to warn Robert Bettys, Hannah Bettys, Andrew Bettys, Jr., and Esther Bettys to leave town.
August 28, 1769. Rhoda Lund warned to leave town.
April, 1770. Mary Brown warned out of town by the constable and returned to the Court of General Sessions.
Also Esther Jarvis and her children warned out and returned at the same time, by Samuel Greele, Jr.
January, 1771. Rhoda Lund and Esther Blanchard warned out of town by Jeremiah Blodgett and Samuel Hills and "returned to ye clerk of ye court of General Sessions."
September 30, 1776. Order to John Hale, constable, to warn Thomas Campbell to leave the town.
September 30, 1776. Order to John Hale, constable, to warn Patrick Lanagee and Elizabeth Lanegee, his wife, to leave town.
March 3, 1777. A like order to warn William Bailey, a minor, to leave town.
October 27, 1779. Order to warn Joseph Parey to leave town.
At the annual town meeting, March 1, 1790, the elev- enth article in the warrant was as follows:
To see if the town will vote to take David Campbell out of the Gould (Jail) at Amherst where he is confined for his Rates for the year 1788.
It was "Voted, that the selectmen take this article into consideration and act as they think proper."
MURDERS
The first murder committed in this town, so far as is now known, occurred June 26, 1775, when Samuel Davis, son of Ensign Nathaniel Davis, was slain with an ax in the hands of Roland Rideout, an insane person.
Davis was engaged in constructing a water hedge at the shore of the Merrimack river, on the line between his
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HISTORY OF HUDSON
father's land and the Cummings farm, about sixty rods north of Taylor's Falls bridge. He was born in this town December 21, 1757. Probably Rideout was assisting in the work, as on March 6, 1775, the town voted to give Nathan- iel Davis four shillings per week, lawful money, for keep- ing Roland Rideout. Rideout continued to cause the town much trouble and expense, until 1779, when he was removed to Wilton at an expense to the town of £30-5s-0d lawful money.
A very sad event occurred in this town June 14, 1873, in the cold-blooded murder of a beautiful, promising, chris- tian young woman, which cast a gloom over the entire community.
A happy family, residents of a humble home in the north-east section of the town, comprised Charles Wood, his wife, Louisa (Cummings) Wood, and two daughters, Ella F., nearly twenty-one years of age, and Emma E., who was in her twentieth year.
A young man, William H. Jewett, who had no steady employment, but who traveled upon the road a portion of the time, selling goods in a small way, had become ac- quainted with the family, and very much attached to the elder daughter.
He was very persistent in pressing his attentions upon her, and continued to do so for a considerable period of time. Finally, acting in accordance with parental advice, the young lady rejected the ardent wooer. He immediate- ly became desperate, and on that beautiful June day, hav- ing come to her home prepared for the deed, he discharged his revolver at her point blank. 3 The bullet entered her forehead and passed through her brain.
From the same weapon he sent a second bullet into his own head. He died from the wound two days later, while his victim lived just one week after the fatal shot was fired. She died on June 21, 1873.
This was a stunning blow to the unfortunate family, from which they never fully recovered.
CHAPTER XXVIII
GREAT STORMS AND FRESHETS
The Merrimack River, usually so calm and beautiful, at times is transformed into raging violence and becomes appalling in its appearance. Freshets at irregular periods have been recorded when great damage was done. These floods resulted from sudden thaws, with excessive, warm rains, melting large bodies of snow, especially when the ground was frozen, or from long storms when great quanti- ties of rain fell. Usually the first form proved the most dangerous, as in addition to the uncommon volume of water the river would be filled with floating cakes of ice broken up by the warm weather and rain.
With the present system of storage of surplus water, and lack of the great forests to hold the snow, great fresh- ets are not liable to occur as frequently as formerly. Still it is only a few years since that the Merrimack in forty- eight hours was transformed from a peaceful river flowing gently down to the sea into a foaming, roaring torrent car- rying terror and destruction in its pathway. The proprie- tors of locks and canals on the Merrimack River were the pioneers in the matter of retaining, as far as possible, any overflow to be used in times of drought and low water. This was done for the benefit of the big mills along the stream, and by means of dams at the outlet of Lake Win- nepesaukee, and other bodies near the head-waters of the Merrimack, hundreds of square miles of country have been flowed to several feet in depth, and held in reserve to the time of need. These reservoirs are mostly in Bel- knap and Carroll counties. This partial control of the sur- plus water has served to check somewhat the volume of the floods at the periods of overflows. A few of the most noted and destructive freshets within the records of those times
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HISTORY OF HUDSON
are described here. Chase, in his History of Haverhill, Mass., gives the following account of a freshet in 1740:
"The summer of 1740 was remarkable for the amount of rainfall which fell and flooded the country, as the subse- quent winter was for the severity of the cold. It was prob- ably the most severe winter that had been known since the settlement of the country.
"After a very wet summer and fall, November 4th it set in 'very cold. On the 15th a foot of snow fell, but on the 22d it began to rain, and it rained three weeks togeth- er. This produced a freshet in the Merrimack 'the like of which was not known by no man for seventy years.' The water rose fifteen feet in this town and floated off many houses.
;" On the 12th of December, the river was closed by the severity of the weather, and before the first of January, loaded teams, with four, six and eight oxen passed from Haverhill and the towns below to the upper long wharf at Newburyport."
FRESHET OF 1818
90
A destructive freshet occurred in the spring of 1818, of which Chase speaks in his history, as follows:
"In the spring of 1818 occurred one of the most re- markable freshets recorded in the history of the Merrimack towns. The snow had been suddenly melted by a violent rain, and the water rushed down the valley of the Merri- mack with the greatest fury, tearing up the ice, which was nearly two feet thick, with the noise and convulsions of an earthquake.
"Driven into immense dams the ice rolled and flew about in every possible direction. The river was raised twenty-one feet above common highwater mark; the coun- try around inundated; buildings were removed and de- stroyed; and ruin spread on every side. The noble bridge across the Merrimack at Rocks Village became a total
From Photo by C. E. PAINE LIBRARY PARK, FROM SOUTH-WEST
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GREAT STORMS AND FRESHETS
wreck, and its fragments were soon lost to sight in the an- gry and merciless flood. The appalling sublimity of the great freshet of 1818 will never be forgotten by those who witnessed its desolating march."
Bouton's History of Concord, N. H., describes the freshet of 1818 in the following words:
"On Tuesday, May 5th, was an unusual freshet. The intervale was covered with water, and the river extended from its usual channel to from one to two miles. Bridges in the town were impassable for a number of days. No spring freshet is recollected to have been so high. The bridge between Boscawen and Canterbury was carried away."
FRESHET OF 1824
Bouton's History of Concord, page 771, contains an extract from the Diary of John Kimball, which speaks of this freshet as one of great violence. February 10-11 a great thaw set in, and on the 12th the ice left the river and carried off Federal bridge.
FRESHET OF 1839
Another extract from Mr. Kimball's Diary says: "1839, January 26, Rained for twenty-four hours; the river rose fifteen feet in fifteen hours, and came within three feet of the door steps of the house, and to the top of the sills of the barn, which was occasioned by the river being damned up by ice.
"It carried off all the bridges on the river except Fed- eral bridge and that so damaged as to be impassable."
At Amoskeag Falls this freshet created great havoc and presented a sublime spectacle. Great cakes of ice went tearing over the dam, and for a time the first cotton mill which had been recently built on the river bank near to the brink of the tumbling waters was seriously threat- ened. It subsided without doing any particular harm.
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GREAT FRESHET OF 1841
In his History of Concord, page 444, Bouton speaks of this freshet of January 2, 1841, as "one of the most re- markable ever known on the Merrimack in the winter. On Tuesday week the cold was excessively severe, the mercury down to sixteen, eighteen and nineteen degrees below zero in the morning. Wednesday moderate, eight degrees be- low zero, and commenced to snow. Thursday, rain and strong south wind. Friday, as warm as April. At noon the river had risen four or five feet; by night its banks were nearly full.
"About seven in the evening the ice started, and im- mediately a crashing sound, nearly as loud as the report of a small cannon announced the destruction of the east part of the Free bridge, and pier after pier, and section after section followed, till a little past eight, all but one pier on the west was carried away.
"One pier of the Federal bridge and two lengths of stringers were carried away. The ice blocked up the chan- nel of the stream above the Lower bridge, and turned the water over the intervale, thus saving the bridge. Fears were entertained that the river had cut a new channel for itself, but it soon resumed its old channel.
"The ice between Wattanummons and Federal bridges was piled up in such quantities that some of it remained till the following May."
The writer of this-at that time being a boy of twelve years of age-well remembers the freshet of 1841, together with the sudden and severe thaw which caused it.
The early winter had been severely cold, and an un- usual amount of snow had fallen for the season, The change in the temperature was sudden and radical. The weather became almost as warm as summer, with south and southwest winds accompanied by a great fall of rain. The snow nearly all was quickly melted and this water ad- ded to the large amount of rain that fell, raised the river to
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GREAT STORMS AND FRESHETS
an uncommon height. The ice was broken up the whole length of the river from the lake to the sea, which created furious onslaughts of the swirling flood and caused much damage to property, to say nothing of lives that were en- dangered.
Nearly all of the bridges above that at Taylor's Falls were swept away.
FRESHET OF 1843
The winter of 1842-3 was remarkable for its deep snows and cold weather. The first of April, 1843, about four feet of snow lay on the ground at Hudson. The melt- ing of the snow during this month caused a very high river. Bouton's History, page 453, gives the following account of this outcome:
" April 27. The freshet in the Merrimack River has been higher at Concord than has been known for a great number of years. The water, which a week ago last Mon- day was the highest, fell some four feet by the last of the week. Since that time, in consequence of rains and rapid melting of snow, it has been rising again. A great portion on the intervale is submerged, and the entrance into Con- cord from the east over Federal and Free bridges is im- possible."
FRESHET OF 1852
A very noted freshet occurred in the Merrimack val- ley about April 23, 1852. A wooden bridge over the Nash- ua river in Canal street, Nashua, was carried away. The water in the Merrimack came up on the boarding of the Taylor's Falls bridge about twenty inches, rising nearly to the floor of the bridge. The water overflowed the road from the end of the bridge nearly to the Concord railroad station, covered Bridge and Hollis streets, so that it was necessary to use boats.
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HISTORY OF HUDSON
HIGHWATER OF 1862
April 20, 1862, the Merrimack River was very high, but not as high by two or three feet as it was in April, 1852. The ice having left the river earlier, very little dam- age was done by the high water along this part of the river.
FRESHET OF APRIL 16, 1895
A freshet occurred in April, 1895, which raised the Merrimack to a higher point than any previous for many years. The river overflowed its east bank opposite the mouth of the Nashua river, and covered the land as far east as Webster street. The ice had principally left the river sometime previous, so that at this time little damage was done along this section of the Merrimack.
GREAT FRESHET OF 1896
On March 2, 1896, the Merrimack was higher at this point than it had been since 1852. It was not far from the same height it had reached at the latter date-probably a little higher. If this is true it was the highest freshet that has taken place here for about a century, so far as I have been able to learn by historical evidence or family tradition.
It rained almost continuously Saturday and Sunday, February 29 and March 1. The river was rising very rap- idly on Sunday, and the ice, having been weakened con- siderably from the warm sun of the previous days, was broken up and went out on this day before the water had become extremely high. Before midnight, March 2, the river gained its highest point, and began, slowly at first, to recede. The weather turned colder Tuesday, March 3, and the water fell very rapidly.
At the highest point during this freshet, the water covered all of the traveled part of Webster street directly
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GREAT STORMS AND FRESHETS
west of the house of Kimball Webster, so it was just six feet, six and one-half inches lower than the top of the stone underpinning of that house near the front door. The sur- face of the flood was between three and four feet only be- low the floor of the iron bridge across the Merrimack. This was two feet higher than the deck of the wooden bridge that spanned the river at the same point in 1852. The water was several feet deep in Hollis and Bridge streets on the west side in Nashua, and it became neces- sary to resort to boats for transportation between Hudson and Nashua.
Accounts of other freshets, of greater or less severity, on the Merrimack might be given, but these few, which are the most noted and remarkable that are recorded, will suffice.
GREAT SNOW STORM OF 1888
A most remarkable snow storm took place in March, 1888. In the forenoon of Monday, the 12th, snow began to fall moderately, but increased during the afternoon and that evening it fell furiously. A strong wind was blowing from the north-east, and the damp, heavy snow was drifted badly on the country roads. The storm did not stop until the morning of the 13th, and as it cleared away all of New England, New York, Pennsylvania and other sections of the country were blocked by the storm. The highways were universally impassable for teams, and a large amount of shoveling was required before they could be opened. Almost all of the railroads in New England were complete- ly tied up for one or two days, and some of them for much longer.
The annual town meeting in New Hampshire fell upon Tuesday, but very few were held in the state on that day. In Hudson a few of the legal voters whose residences were near the town house-the place of the meeting-met and legally adjourned until Saturday, March 17. On that date
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HISTORY OF HUDSON
the town meeting convened, and its regular functions were performed, officers elected and business transacted as usual.
A majority of the towns in the state took similar ac- tion, only a very few being able to carry on the regular business as intended.
CHAPTER XXIX
FERRIES AND BRIDGES
Eleazer Cummings established the first ferry across the Merrimack of which there is any account. This was soon after the town of Nottingham was incorporated, and crossed just below the mouth of the Nashua river. The ferry was continued at this place by Mr. Cummings until about 1742, when, as family tradition relates, in considera- tion of an agreement to convey himself and family over the river free of expense at all times when practicable, he re- linquished his rights to another person, who established a crossing below the present location of Taylor's Falls bridge. If this person's name was Dutton or not there is nothing to show now, but the ferry was called Dutton's Ferry, for Jo- siah Dutton, who owned it at one time.
The old ferry road on the east side descended the river bank near where the present highway meets the bridge, and the way to the ferry on the west side was where Crown street intersects with the river.
February 6, 1749, John Snow conveyed to Ezekiel Page a certain tract of land in the Township of Dunstable, now in Nottingham West, containing thirty-six acres, in consideration of £460 Bills of Credit, Old Tenor, the deed recorded in Vol. 2, page 377, Hillsborough County Reg- istry of Deeds:
Beginning at the south east corner (S W) at a Black Oak tree stand- ing on the Bank of Merrimack River marked with I. B. being the north west corner of Joseph Lemon's Esqr's land, thence easterly by marked trees to a pine marked I. B. being the south east corner. Thence north- erly by Josiah Cummings land 30 rods and a half to a stake and stones in the north east corner. thence westerly a straight line to a stake & stones being about 10 rods fromn said River, keeping the same width as at the east end-that is 30 1-2 rods from the south line.
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Thence running north west to Merrimack River to a stake & stones. on the bank of said River. Thence southerly down said River to the first bound.
Bounded northerly by Nathan Cross' and Morgson's land & Easterly by sa-
Witnessed by Eleazer Cummings and Benjamin Snow.
The land conveyed by this deed included all that was used for the purpose of the ferry on the east side of the river, extending northerly of the bridge several rods so as to include the Ferry road. Ezekiel Page and his brother John probably carried on the ferry for many years.
Captain Joseph Kelley owned and operated this ferry for nearly twenty years, beginning about 1776, and he was succeeded by Joshua Hamblet, who was proprietor until he was drowned in 1812. His son Josiah then owned and con- tinued this ferry until Taylor's Falls bridge was completed, when it was discontinued, after a continuous existence of eighty-five years. It is possible there were other persons owning the ferry during these many years, but if so it was only for short periods and the names of the parties have not been preserved.
HILLS' FERRY
Not many years after the incorporation of Notting- ham, Nathaniel Hills, who had settled about half a mile northerly of the old Hills garrison place in 1739, established a ferry across the Merrimack known as the Hills' Ferry, soon after his settlement here. Mr. Hills died April 12, 1748, and he was succeeded in the ownership of the ferry by his son Oliver, born November 18, 1727, and died after 1783. His son, Philip Hills, born May 2, 1754, appears to have been the next owner of this ferry, which he operated for many years, though he probably resided on the west side of the river in his later life. There was a ferry house on that bank. He died July 14, 1841. Oliver, son of Philip Hills, lived at the Hills Ferry place, where he died April 6, 1863, aged 56 years. His son, George E. Hills,
TAYLOR'S FALLS BRIDGE, 1827-1881
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FERRIES AND BRIDGES
was the last of that family to reside there. He was born there in 1836 and died in 1904. 3 Hills' Ferry was always owned and operated by the family, until 1827, when it was discontinued.
HARDY'S FERRY
This ferry was located in the southerly part of the town, and was established by Jonathan Hardy, who was first assessed in 1743. The earliest mention of the ferry in the records was at the laying out of a highway, March 26, 1746, running from the county road to Hardy's Ferry. This crossing of the Merrimack was nearly oppo- site the South Nashua station on the Boston & Maine rail- road The cellar of the old ferry house may be seen on the east side of the river.
This was later known as Pollard's Ferry, and appears to have been owned for many years by Capt. John Pollard, son of John Sr., who was born November 20, 1752. Later this was called Corey's Ferry. This ferry, like the others mentioned, was discontinued about the time of the building of the bridge at Taylor's Falls.
TAYLOR'S FALLS BRIDGE
As the number of inhabitants increased and the traffic across the river became greater, the need of a bridge was apparent. Accordingly, in 1826, some of the more promi- nent citizens of Hudson and Nashua Village signed a peti- tion to the State Legislature calling for a charter to build a bridge, and this was granted to "The Proprietors of Tay- lor's Falls Bridge" for that purpose. At that time there was no bridge across the Merrimack between Lowell and Manchester, though there was one at each of those places.
Taylor's Falls bridge was completed in 1827, and opened as a toll bridge. The structure was built of old growth native white pine teamed from New Boston, and was of lattice work. It was 509 feet in length, with a road-
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way about sixteen feet in width, but had no sidewalks. The sides were covered with boards, and it had a shingled roof over it. The easterly span was 153 feet and ten and one-half inches in length ; the middle span was 143 feet and seven inches; the westerly or Nashua section was 164 feet and eight and one-half inches, not measuring any part of the pier or abutments. The piers had one tier of faced stone on the outside filled with loose stones, all laid dry without any cement.
The expense of building this bridge was a little less than twelve thousand dollars. This was no small under- taking for the stockholders, but it proved a profitable in- vestment in the end. It should be remembered that Nash- ua Village, had, but a short time before the building of this bridge, sprung into existence.
Seven years before the completion of Taylor's Falls bridge, a few of the leading citizens of that part of Dunsta- ble now comprising Nashua had conceived the idea of build- ing mills at Mine Falls on the Nashua river, where a saw mill had been erected on or before 1700, according to Fox. This original idea was finally abandoned, and the present site of the mills was adopted, thus locating the town three miles east of the position it would have occu- pied had the first plans been carried out.
In 1823, a charter was granted to Daniel Abbott, Moses Tyler, Joseph Greeley, and others under the name of the Nashua Manufacturing Company, with a capital stock of $300,000, divided into three hundred shares of $1,000 each. The capital stock was afterwards increased to one million dollars. Within a year considerable of this stock had been disposed of to capitalists, work was begun on the dam at Mine Falls, and the excavation of the canal which was to lead to the proposed factories. This canal is about three miles in length, with a width of sixty feet, a depth of six feet, with a head and fall of thirty-three feet. In 1824, a charter was obtained by the Nashua Manufacturing Com- pany for the purpose of building a "canal with the neces-
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sary dams and locks to connect the Nashua with the Mer- rimack River." This work was carried out so the way was open for the transportation of goods in the spring of 1826. The lower dam across the Nashua river was built at this time.
The locks, which were near the east end of what is now Lock street, were of solid stone, twenty-four feet high; each lift being ten feet wide and eighty-one feet long. They cost $20,000, while the canal dam added ten thousand dollars to this sum.
The canal was of great advantage to the growing vil- lage, which was rapidly becoming the center of business for the surrounding towns. It was well situated as regard- ed the transportation of the merchandise of the day. Boats plied up and down the Merrimack between Concord, Man- chester and Lowell, while the route was continued to Bos- ton by the Middlesex canal.
In May, 1825, a portion of the lower water privilege, now occupied by the Jackson Company, was sold by the Nashua Manufacturing Company to Charles C. Haven and others, who were incorporated under the name of Indian Head Company, for the purpose of erecting woolen facto- ries. These works went into operation in 1826. The pop- ulation of Dunstable in 1820 was 1,142, and in ten years it had increased to 2,417, the gain made mostly at the manu- facturing village which had come into existence within the period.
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