USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Lancaster > History of Lancaster, New Hampshire > Part 14
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Added to the natural growth of population was a considerable number of families that came from farther south hoping to profit by the cheap, productive lands of the town, which could be purchased at very low prices, and seemed to promise much to home-seekers. Among these families were some with a sort of roving disposition who had tried their fortunes in several other places and had failed to succeed. It may be doubted if some of them would have suc- ceeded anywhere or under any conditions. They helped to swell the population, and some of them opened up farms and built houses, mostly of the primitive sort that soon fell into decay and contributed little or nothing to the advancement of the town. Many of them, coming up the Connecticut river, pitched upon lands on the northerly slope of the Martin Meadow hills in the vicinity of General Bucknam's residence. Bucknam probably offered them every encouragement in building homes, as no one ever appealed to him in vain. He wanted to see the population of the town in-
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creased. If the town was to become of any importance it must have as large population as possible ; and newcomers were always welcomed. General Bucknam and Captain Weeks in the south end of the town were especially hospitable to the new settlers; and about the year 1800 there were more people living south of the village limits of to-day than were north of it. The old meeting- house was the geographical center of the town, so far as the settle- ment had then gone, for none had crossed the Martin Meadow hills. So entirely was the town an agricultural community that up to 1804, there were only ten houses north of Isreals river within what is now the limits of the village on that side of the river, and five on the south side, between Parson Willard's and the river. Those on the north side were: The Major Wilder's house, then open to the public as an inn (now known as the Holton place). The Stephen Willson house, a tavern, where the Benton residence now stands. In this building Mr. Willson carried on a store for some years prior to this time. The little house on North Main street, now owned by Col. H. O. Kent, was then standing as the residence of Samuel Hunnex (an old Revolutionary soldier). The houses of Artemas and Jonathan Cram, William Lovejoy, one Faulkner, Richard C. Everett (the old Cross house of to-day), one Bruce, known then as " Governor Bruce," and Miller David Greenleaf's. Standing on Middle street, near where Clough's house now does, comprised all the dwellings on the north side at that time. On the south side there were the residences of Titus O. Brown, in one end of which he kept a small stock of goods, Sylvanus Chessman's house, then just completed and intended for a tavern (later known as the Amer- ican House), Edmund Chamberlain's house, Dr. Chapman's house, Chessman's old house under the Meeting-house hill, Mr. Hinman's house, near the " clothing mill " that stood for many years where Frank Smith & Co.'s sawmill now does. These were all the resi- dences then in the village. In addition to these there were the fol- lowing business houses: Boardman's store (where Ethan A. Craw- ford lives), a pearl-ash south of the store, Carlisle's store, a school- house near where the court-house now stands, and the meeting- house on the south side of the river. These, with the residences mentioned above, comprised the whole village in 1804.
The number of houses and families outside of the village at that time is not known, but must have been considerable to house a population of some five hundred souls. In 1799, there were ten houses within the village limits, and ninety-one voters, so there must have been as large a population as we estimate in 1804. In 1807, one hundred and five votes were offered in town-meeting, at which time the population was closely approaching six hundred.
The one event that drew attention to the "Upper Coos," and
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induced emigration to it was the erection of Coös county in 1803, the act to take effect in 1805, and the designation of Lancaster as the shire town. As we have seen elsewhere the people had long been anxious to be set off in a new county and have the county courts and offices of record more convenient than when they were at Haverhill, about fifty miles distant. Now that this long-wished- for event was soon to be realized the people were jubilant. It meant vastly more to them than simply having a court and the offices of record for their new county; it meant that Lancaster was to assume her place as something more than a frontier town, and enjoy the prosperity that had long been expected, to make it a desirable place for the home-seekers. In this the people were not disappointed, for the number of residences in the village more than doubled in the next twenty years, while the number of farms was greatly increased.
Lancaster was the most favorably situated of all the northern towns to become the shire town of the new county. It was the most populous one in the county, situated most favorably on the roads down the Connecticut River Valley, and through the White Moun- tain notch, giving it the most direct communication with the older towns in the southern part of the state and Portland, which had then become the chief port or market for Lancaster and all the towns to the north of it.
A new impetus was given to the various business enterprises of the town. With an increasing population and prosperity the people began to build more comfortable houses, and furnish them better, and in every way the town took on an air of general improvement. The merchants began to carry larger stocks of goods. Benjamin Boardman was taxed on a stock of three thousand dollars worth of general merchandise. That was a large stock for those times when we take into consideration the fact that the kinds of goods he dealt in were such as we should consider only the barest of necessities of any community, with, perhaps, none of our accustomed luxuries. Prices were very unstable during the first ten years of this period- 1800-1810. The town records show at what prices certain com- modities were figured into the minister's salary, as two thirds of it were payable in produce. This arrangement, that may provoke a smile with the reader, was only one of the necessary features of busi- ness in an almost entirely agricultural community. The people had but little beside the products of their farms; and as markets were so far from them it was a costly operation to convert their produce into cash with which to pay their bills. It was counted fortunate to be able to raise enough money in hand to pay taxes with, and a moiety for trade. Then the minister had to have a certain amount of farm produce for his own use, and it was an economical arrangement to
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pay him in the produce and save the waste that would have resulted from sending it to market a hundred miles off to get money which he should have been compelled to pay out for the same kind of things. Then, too, there was a custom of making exchanges of pro- duce with the merchants by which a bushel of wheat could be made to do the same service in exchange that a dollar now does with us through our banks of exchange. I have before me accounts show- ing that farmers, and makers of potash, deposited their products with some of the early merchants and then used it just as we would treat a deposit at a bank that we did not care to take the risk of carrying about in our pockets. A farmer would deposit his wheat with the merchant, and then give his creditors orders upon the merchant for such small sums as he owed until the amount was traded out by, perhaps, a score of his creditors. Those old-timers understood political economy fully as well as we of to-day do. By reference to the single transaction of paying their minister, which was done as a town function, we learn the customary prices of the leading commodities of the town. In the year 1800 the following schedule of prices was made out by the selectmen as " the going prices," and at which people could pay their minister's tax : " Wheat one dollar, rye five shillings six pence, corn four shillings six pence, oats two shillings, flax ten pence per pound." In 1804 prices ran higher. Wheat was $1.17 per bushel, rye 83 cents, corn 75 cents, oats 33 cents, flax 17 cents per pound. Wheat was the most un- stable in price of all the produce mentioned as a legal tender to the minister. In 1807 it was up to $1.33, while the other produce mentioned remained the same as for the previous years. In 1809 wheat jumped up to $1.50, and remained at that price two years, when it fell to $1, for the next year; but during 1812 it again ad- vanced to $1.50. The following year it fell to $1.33, with rye at $1, corn 83 cents, and oats 33 cents. In 1814 wheat advanced to the astonishing price of $2 per bushel, corn and rye to $1.34 per bushel, and oats 38 cents.
There was never the same fluctuation in the prices of goods, and it is not strange that the merchants of those days were all bankrupt at the end of a few years of business ventures. Every merchant who was in business before 1825 met that fate, some of them losing large amounts.
The first of those dealers only carried small stocks of goods in a room of their residences, and had other business, giving at most only a divided attention to their merchandise. Such business must always prove a failure. Even Benjamin Boardman's store fell into decay when he began to buy up stock and drive it to Brighton market. The volume of business was considerable, but the distance from the markets in which the merchants had to buy and sell was so great as
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to consume much of the value of goods and produce in effecting their exchanges. A trip to Portland took five days under the most favorable conditions of the roads and weather. The farmer who produced large quantities of wheat, or other grains, butter, cheese and poultry, and the pelts of the animals slaughtered for meat on the farm, and the skins and furs of the animals he hunted, partly for meat and partly for sport to break the tedium of the dreary life, could better afford to haul these to market with his own teams than trade them at the stores. He could make the profit there was in them and wages for his teams and men while on the road. For many years the most thrifty farmers kept up this practice of going to market once or twice a year, at which times they would sell their produce at the best prices and buy their supplies to last for all, or a portion, of the year. They not infrequently carried home in addition to those purchases, handsome sums of money with which to pay taxes and make many improvements on the farms or in the houses.
While the more thrifty farmers had learned to get along without the middle-men-the store-keepers and drovers-there were yet some so situated for lack of business tact, or circumstances over which they had no control, to whom these middle-men were a great blessing. The poor farmer could buy on credit of his home mer- chant, who would wait on him, until his crops were matured and gathered, for his pay; and the drover would buy his few fat cattle, sheep, or hogs at reasonable prices which was better for him than to have undertaken to drive them to market himself. Thus the drover was able to range over a large territory and collect a pro- fitable drove of live stock to take to the markets. For many years this business was alike profitable to drover and farmer. Vast droves of choice cattle were taken out of the country for which the farmer received a good return, most always in ready money. Every farm could sell something at certain times during the year. The ashes from the hearth commanded a good price; the poultry-yard could almost any time of the year furnish eggs, fowls, or at least the feathers of the fowls eaten; fat swine, cattle, sheep; potash could be made during the winter season when the weather would not admit of other work being performed ; grain and flax could always be sold in any quantities that the farmer might happen to have; he could sell the wool from his flock of sheep; or his wife and daughters could spin it and sell it as yarn; or if they wished to put still more labor into it in order to realize still more from it they might knit or weave it into fabrics of various sorts, even garments ready to be worn by the purchaser.
For a period of more than ten years this remarkable prosperity went on uninterrupted, and the population ran up to 717 in 1810, with 130 voters residing here. This must have seemed grand to
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the men and women of twenty years before that date, when they could count only a hundred and sixty-one inhabitants in the town.
The financial troubles that threatened the seaport towns with ruin, in consequence of the embargo and the non-intercourse acts of congress, did not affect Lancaster seriously. In fact, Mr. Board- man who had lost several vessels in his shipping trade came to Lan- caster because he could follow his business here undisturbed by the piracy under the guise of law that lost to American owners 900 vessels from 1803, to 1811. This section was much excited over the embargo and non-intercourse measures while in force, and con- siderable smuggling was carried on between the states and Canada, chiefly, however, by the border towns of this state and Vermont. Lancaster was but little concerned in the matter as its citizens were a law-abiding people, and they had satisfactory access to the mar- kets in which their cattle and other produce brought good prices. The people of Lancaster came early into a measure of political prominence in the state, and being patriotic Americans they easily could forego the temptation to violate the laws of the nation in deal- ing with a province of Great Britain, for a mere pittance of extra prices for their live stock, or a saving of a few pence on the pound on the few articles of import, chiefly of the character of luxuries.
Some writers have attempted to condone the offense of the smug- glers of those days on the ground that by selling their fat cattle to the British they received a little better return for their labor; but we must not forget that it was a war measure, and that it was the duty of every patriotic citizen to honor it for the good of his country, just as their fathers and mothers during the Revolutionary War period refused to use tea, and other taxed articles, the use of which by them would have put into the hands of their oppressors the power to oppress their posterity for generations to come.
We find no respectable or prominent citizen of the town aiding the unlawful trade, and that many of them took an active part in both discouraging and breaking it up. Their fathers had suffered much for the freedom they were enjoying, and they could forego a little gain for the sake of maintaining that liberty. The elm-log jail, that stood on the same lot that the present jail does, was often the temporary lodging place of those early smugglers, none of whom seem to have been notorious characters like the smugglers of later years.
Some people in Lancaster, no doubt, sold their cattle to drovers when they knew that they were to be taken to Canada, contrary to the proclamation of the president of the United States. Many people here shared the general feeling of disapproval of President Madison's administration, and especially his war measures, the latter being severely condemned throughout New England. No disloyal acts
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ever were laid to the charge of any citizen of the town, and a large number of its younger men entered the American army. The num- ber of the young men who left to take part in the war was a large factor in reducing the population from 717, in 1810, to about 600, in 1816, when the number of voters was only 113, whereas it had been 130 in 1811. This decrease of population was, in the main, due to the removal of many families to the newer states in the West. Many of the more adventurous families that had settled on the northerly slope of Martin Meadow hills, having found that getting a living in Lancaster involved about as much hard labor as at any other place, left for what they fancied were " greener pastures." The town lost little by their removal, as they were not of the class that possessed the hardy qualities necessary to success in any com- munity.
Many of the young men who enlisted in the army never returned to the place of their birth or adoption, having become wonted to other places with which they had become acquainted during the years of their adventures as soldiers.
The following is the roster of Captain John W. Weeks's company : Captain .- John W. Weeks.
Lieutenants .-- First lieutenant, Richard Bean; second lieutenant, James Green.
Ensign .- F. A. Sawyer.
Sergeants .- Benjamin Stephenson, William Smith, Daniel Bailey, Amaziah Knight, Elisha B. Green.
Corporals .- William W. Bailey, Peter Gamsby, Obed S. Hatch, Josiah Reed, Benjamin Wilson, Robert Hoskins.
Musicians .- Allen Smith, Orrin R. Dexter, Silas Whitney, Solo- mon B. Clark.
Privates .- Henry Alden, Samuel Abbott, Thomas Alverson, Daniel Bennett, Zera Bennett, John Brown, Chester Bennett, Hazen Burbank, Daniel Burbank, Stephen Bullard, Benjamin T. Baker, Ebenezer Ball, Thomas Brigham, Gad Beacher, John Burns, John Burgin, 2d, John Bickford, Nathaniel Bennett, John Brainard, Zebulon Carter, Stephen Chase, Levi H. Christian, Seth Clark, Winthrop Collins, John Collins, Guy Clark, Jere Clough, Charles Collins, Moses Cooper, Sylvanus Currier, Otis Chaffee, Samuel Abraig, Benjamin Cross, Phineas Davenport, Eliphet Day, John Dodge, Moses Davis, Eli Davenport, Luimer Dodge, John English, James French, Luther Fuller, Jeremiah Fuller, Joel Farnham, John French, Timothy Fuller, Lemuel Fuller, Abner Gay, Wells Good- win, Samuel Gotham, Robert Gotham, Samuel Henry, John Holmes, Neh. Houghton, Willard Huntoon, Alpheus Hutchins, Joseph Henderson, James Harvey, Sheldon Holbrook, Henry Hall, John Hicks, John M. Holmes, Daniel Holmes, Greenleaf Huntoon,
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
George Huntoon, Warren Cassin, Joshua Knapp, Peter Labare, Joseph Labare, Samuel Linsey, George W. Lucas, Jacob McIntire, James Mellen, Harry Moore, Shephard Morse, Ebenezer Mudge, Jacob B. Moore, John W. Moore, William Merriam, Nathaniel Moore, James Nesbit, Stephen Orr, Daniel Perkins, James Perkins, Theodore Phillips, Benoni Potter, Orange Pixley, Caleb Prouty, Daniel Pinkham, Levi Pratt, Albert Rathbone, Anthony C. Read- field, Abram Rogers, Martin Ray, George Shirland, Edmund San- born, John Sanford, John Shirley, Job Smith, Luther Southworth, Elihu Spencer, Jacob Sperry, James B. Stanley, Joshua Stephens, Abram Sanborn, Reuben Stevens, David Stodard, John C. Swain, Israel Sanderson, Daniel Stratton, Jacob Trussell, Daniel Utley, Samuel Vanschork, Jere Wheeler, Barney B. Whipple, James Whit- ney, Jeremiah White, Jotham Wilkins, John Wilkinson, Absalom Wilson, John Wilson, James Witherell, John R. Wyatt, John M. Williams, Joseph Weed, Allen White, Andrew Woods, Thomas Whiton, George Warren, Simon Warren, Josiah Washburn, Robert H. Robertson, Alexander Jones, Peter Hamilton, Jedediah Robin- son, Samuel Wright, Samuel Stackpole-146.
This company assembled, and was organized, on the farm of Captain Brackett, from whence they marched to the front, and during the war did faithful service. They won distinction at the battle of Chippewa or Niagara as among the bravest of the brave soldiers of General Hazen's army.
The majority of these men were from Lancaster, and were among the personal friends and acquaintances of Captain Weeks. Only a small number of them returned to Lancaster at the close of the war. A few of them were lost by casualty or sickness during the service, but most of them became dispersed over many other states, where they chose to locate and try the fortunes of peaceful industries. Their loss to Lancaster was a heavy drain upon its population as it took the young and strong and left the old and feebler members of their families behind to care for the interests of the settlement; but this heavy drain upon the working force of the town did not wholly discourage the people. Some viewed the departure of so many of their young men with gloomy forebodings, while others were glad to see them go to answer the call of the country for defenders of the hard-earned liberties some of them had shared in winning from a tyrannical foreign government that was again trying to subvert our government and humiliate our people.
During all this fluctuation of population the village gained steadily in numbers and prosperity as compared with the outside neighbor- hoods. By 1810 there was an increase of six houses. In 1820, with the population of the entire town at six hundred and forty, the village had all the stores in town, numbering four. There were two
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good hotels, or as they termed them, taverns. Wilson's tavern at the north end of Main street was the leading one, as it was in the centre of the business portion of the village and was near the court- house and jail. Chessman's tavern at the corner of Main and Elm streets, at the south end, was a good house with ample accommo- dations for the traveling public, and had a hall in it for the use of dancing parties and other entertainments, and a stock of goods at one time. This tavern was then called the American House. There was but one minister of the gospel, the venerable Joseph Willard, minister of the First church. Three lawyers found a means of livelihood in the practice of their profession, while an equal number of physicians looked after the health and comfort of the people. There were then five justices of the peace, which is slightly under the proportion for our present population. It was probably then as now, while there were more of those public func- tionaries than were needed, a few of them did all the business. The town then had eight school districts and four schoolhouses.
The greater proportion of the population and business enterprises tended toward the village after the period of decline set in, about 1812. The seasons of 1804 and 1807 had been unfavorable ones to the farmers. Heavy snows came early and laid until late. Frosts were so frequent and severe that crops were greatly damaged. On May 1, 1807, snow laid four and a half feet deep in the woods. The losses incurred by those unfavorable seasons fell heavily upon many families, but the old-timers stood it better. They knew how to adapt themselves to reverses, and most of them were in comfort- able circumstances by that time. Just after passing through the interruption to business enterprises, brought upon them by the late war, there came another most unfavorable season that proved a disastrous one for many of the people of limited circumstances. The season of 1815 was a cold and dry one. As late as May 22d snow fell to a depth of nine inches. During the whole of that summer the days were hot, but the nights were colder than had ever before been experienced. There was but one compensating feature in the whole of that year-it proved a good season for making maple sugar, and those who were favorably situated for it and took advantage of the abundant and long flow of sap, made vast quantities of the commodity, which was as staple as wheat in the local trade.
The following year was even more disastrous to the farmers than that of 1815. So cold was the season of 1816 that it is remem- bered by some of the oldest inhabitants as the " cold season," and as the coldest ever known in this section. On the 8th of June snow fell all day until six inches laid a frozen mass that buried the hopes of the farmer for that year. It is said that the frost worked into cellars that day as in the coldest winter weather. The water in the
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aqueducts from the springs froze. Thermometers were not then in use, so that we have no certain knowledge of just how cold it was that unlovely June day. By a comparison of the phenomena described as the characteristics of that memorable day with what takes place now, when we can measure the cold, I should think that the temperature must have gone down very near to zero on that occasion. When the cold period passed it was followed by a long period of drouth that ruined all crops except potatoes, of which there was a moderate crop of inferior quality; but there was no choice, people had to put by their fastidious tastes and notions, and subsist upon the scanty store of produce that a most careful effort coaxed from Mother Earth that year.
The next two years were more encouraging, for they were at least free from such calamities, and the people gathered courage and addressed themselves to the tasks of life with energy, and their labors were rewarded. The season of 1819 was known for many years as the "Dark Year." The weather was dreary and cloudy all through the year. On November 9th the day was so dark that the stars shone brightly through the rifts in the clouds, at times. This phenomenon terrified the more ignorant and timid people greatly; they did not understand it, and no doubt it had much to do in determining some of them to leave the town for other fields of adventure in the great Western regions then looked upon as a sort of Eldorado.
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