USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Lancaster > History of Lancaster, New Hampshire > Part 16
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Its elasticity and life will bring it back to its normal conditions sooner or later. Lancaster is a good example of these facts ; it has gone steadily on developing without any of the " hot-house" methods that promise so much and perform so little for a community. For sixty years its growth of population, business, and wealth has been normal. The growth from 1820 to 1850, was a solid one, neither rapid nor slow. It indicates that the people were intelligent, industrious and honest, and that all their affairs received careful attention. From 1825 to 1840 there had been a gain of a number of houses in the village, which prior to that time was called very truly " the street." With its thirty-four houses strung along more than a mile of street, dusty in summer and piled full of snow in winter, there was little of the appearance of a village,-simply a street where the houses were a little thicker than through the farm- ing sections. The population had reached the number of 1,316, about one fourth of whom lived in the village and found employ- ment in its mills, sawmill, cloth mill, tannery, clapboard mill, shingle mill, carriage and furniture factories, blacksmith shops, stores, cooper shops and the various professions of law, medicine, divinity and the like. About everybody was employed at some use- ful occupation, and plenty blessed every home where happy wives, mothers, and children even, were busy with some of the many tasks
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
that go far to stop the leaks and add to the productive power of a community. It was a settled doctrine of the people of those times that every able-bodied person should be a producer as well as a consumer of wealth. In an address delivered before the Coös Agricultural Society in 1821, Adino N. Brackett urged the prop- osition that every one in the family should have some share in its work with many very cogent arguments, devoting a large portion of his address to that one doctrine. So generally was that doctrine believed and acted upon that the town was free from habitual loafers and idlers. There were a few old " topers," who squandered the most of their substance on "flip," and rum at the taverns, and a very few who did small jobs about the village at small prices. There were many workmen of a high grade of skill employed at the various trades, then followed in the village, who became independent in their worldly circumstances.
Lancaster had gone through the panic of 1837 without scarcely feeling the disturbance that carried down so many business enter- prises elsewhere. There was not an instance of bankruptcy in the town; but on the other hand there was a condition of prosperity, while other sections of the country suffered so severely from the panic.
The Millerite excitement of 1843, although creating some interest among its few adherents in town, had not called attention away from business affairs as it had done in Whitefield, and several adjoining towns in Vermont. There had come to be quite a variety of religious beliefs held by Lancaster people, but they were of the less fanatical types, and consequently things were more even in their way through that distressing craze about the world's ending, than in many another section of the country. When the twenty-third day of October, on which Millerites predicted the end of the world was to be witnessed, came, the people went about their business as usual. I have not been able to learn of any persons who gave up their occupations to look for the end of things. The late R. P. Kent recorded in his diary on that day, "This day, according to the predictions of the Millerites is the end of world"; but he went on waiting on his cus- tomers just as if it were not the last day of time. So did the rest of the people, I fancy.
But if religious excitement had no effect upon the people of the town they were not proof against the excitement of war or politics. When the " Indian Stream" war broke out in 1835, a number of men flocked to the village to offer themselves for service in the Twenty- fourth regiment; but of the number only the five following persons were needed to complete Capt. James Mooney's company : James H. Balch, Douglas Ingerson, Dennis Jones, John Perkins, and Charles F. Stone. Although this was not an affair that affected the town in any way yet there was much interest felt among Lancaster people in hav-
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A TRANSITION PERIOD.
ing the trouble speedily settled as it had kept the country to the north in an unsettled state ever since 1819.
When the call to arms came again in 1847, on the occasion of the war with Mexico, Lancaster furnished a number of men for the service who were included in Pierce's and Ransom's command, the Ninth or New England Volunteers.
Although the sentiment of this section of the state was strongly against the war, a number of men yielded to what they were pleased to consider their country's call to duty and went to the front. The recruiting officer arrived here Sunday, April II, 1847, and on Tues- day, the 13th, a detachment of recruits left for the front. Some of them died during the hard marches in Mexico. Those who served in that war have been mentioned in our chapter on military affairs in Part II, and the reader is referred to that chapter for fuller in- formation.
The political and civil consciousness of the people of this town and surrounding section of country was early awakened, hence the more than common interest felt by them in all public matters. Seldom was a town settled by such public-spirited men as the pioneers of Lancaster; and for many years the best men who came to the then distant town were men of like mind with the first settlers. The same was true of the other towns with which they were brought most in contact, - Haverhill, Jefferson, Northumberland, and Guildhall in Vermont. In all those towns the leading men took a deep and vital interest in the affairs of the state and nation. Then conditions were such here, on the frontier of the nation, that they felt a responsibility in standing as the advance guard of the state and country in Northern New England. These facts cultivated in them an interest in matters of politics and state, and that interest has never lost its hold upon the people of this town. No political movement of any magnitude is ever contemplated in the state without reckoning on Coös county, and particularly on Lancaster.
Perhaps no decade in the history of the town saw so many, and such radical changes as that from 1840 to 1850, during which nearly all vestiges of the old, provincial customs gave place to new and cosmopolitan customs. By its own success the older life of the town had worked this change, which was in no wise announced with heraldry or trumpets. The people never said by convention, " Go to now, we will make radical changes, and many of them in our town." They came as silently as growth does in the life of a child, so slow and insidious that the most careful observer does not see it until it is accomplished. So with the passing of the old forms and customs once so prevalent in the life of the people of Lancaster. No revolutions were planned and executed with rancor and conten- tion over the relative merits of things old or new; but a grand evo-
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
lution was working out results that involved the best thought and efforts of four or five generations since the Puritan ancestry of these people had landed on the shores of New England. Few, if any, of the men and women of that period were conscious of the results that were destined to follow the earnest and persistent efforts they were putting forth in the competition and cooperation that was going on in the life of the community. Perhaps they were content with their daily bread, the comfort and the happiness they enjoyed from well-ordered lives, not for a moment aware that these things were the greatest factors of change in the life of a village or town.
To the student of history there were present symptoms of all the changes that have since taken place; but one never seems to be able to fully comprehend the remote significance of the activities with which he is most intimately connected, and the movements of which he is a part. The business, social, and intellectual life of the town was struggling for closer connection with the life of the coun- try at large. There were earnest efforts being put forth to render communication with the larger centers of trade and social life easier and quicker. With the coming of railroads so near as Lowell, Mass., the distance to Boston did not seem quite so long; and when the railroad reached Concord, N. H., it was possible to reach Boston in a little over twenty-four hours by stage and rail in 1849, and later, when the Passumpsic railroad reached McIndoes Falls, the trip was still shortened by some hours. People at once began to travel more ; their products and the merchandise for which they were exchanged could reach their destinations in their respective markets in a few days. The entire life of the people in all their concerns now as- sumed a quickened pace. The quiet and deliberate manners of the past began to yield to the nervous, impulsive manners of the larger communities. The merchants caught up the proverb of the city merchant-" Quick sales and small profits"-and the people began to look for those quick sales and cheaper goods in the hope of get- ting more for their labor.
No sooner had the commercial life of the town come under the spell of the new era of rapidity of action than the whole life of the town pulsed with the almost wild enthusiasm. The business men and farmers were alike interested in inducing a railroad to connect Lancaster with Concord, N. H., or Portland, Me. The valley of the Ammonoosuc and the notch through the White Mountains were explored in the hope of engaging some company to build a road through either one or the other of those regions. Everything seemed to depend on the quickening of the activities of the town, and in keeping in step with the onward march of progress through- out the country.
While all this effort was being put forth there was going on every
JAMES W. WEEKS.
WILLIAM D. WEEKS.
WILLIAM D. SPAULDING.
ENOCH LIBBEY COLBY.
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A TRANSITION PERIOD.
conceivable degree and kind of change in the life of the people. They began to see how, with railroads, could be turned to account the hitherto unused resources of the section of timberland to the north, and which could be handled here with profit to the com- munity. Such routes were to be opened up through this northern section, and Lancaster was anxious to have them pass through its territory.
The circumstances of life we have been recounting had the ten- dency to produce a class of men of great capability in many ways. From the earliest times the conditions had been such, in this north- ern section of country at least, as to produce in the inhabitants a degree of versatility or readiness to adapt themselves to a variety of occupations. Such conditions and traditions tended to make the men of the second and third generations conscious of their inherited abilties, and led to a disposition to assert and maintain their posi- tion before the public. They were frequently called into the service of the state and nation because of their capability of rendering val- uable services.
Many of the men of that time living in the town could take a surveyor's compass and run a line with as much accuracy as any man of our day. Their education was of a practical kind. It was no uncommon thing for surveying to be taught in almost any school that was in the least degree above the ordinary school of the " three R's." Almost every family had in its membership some bright boy who would learn to use the compass.
When the boundary survey between the United States and Canada was made in 1845, four Lancaster men were called into the service and did very good work during the course of that portion of the survey under the charge of Commissioner Albert Smith of Portland, Me., from Hall's Stream to Lake Champlain. These men were: Hon. James W. Weeks, his brother, John Weeks, John Hubbard Spaulding, John M. Whipple, and Joel Hemmenway. To James W. Weeks was assigned the task of making the preliminary surveys and sketches for the topographical map of the entire line, while the other Lancaster men acted in various capacities as chain carriers, setters of the monuments, and using the compass on the topographi- cal work. This party was fitted out in Lancaster, April 29, 1845. The commissioner and some of his surveyors and engineers arrived in Lancaster on April 28, and at once sought some one who pos- sessed a knowledge of the section of the country between here and where their work lay. It was soon found that the man who pos- sessed the knowledge they sought was James W. Weeks, a land- surveyor of some reputation who had been engaged in the survey of state lands on Hall's stream in the town of Pittsburg, some years previous to this time. He produced a rough map of the section
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
which the commissioner and his chief engineer copied, after which Mr. Weeks was engaged to join the party which he did in a few days as soon as he could arrange his business to be absent for some months. He at once joined the party, and found the three other Lancaster men I have named already engaged for their respective parts in the business.
The actual work began in May, and lasted until September. After the completion of the survey and the party was disbanded, the work of completing the topographical map of the line was assigned to Mr. Weeks to be done in Lancaster. Mr. Weeks com- pleted his map, and upon the direction of Major John Pope of Bull Run fame delivered it to him on September 26, 1845, at Richford, Vt. This piece of work gave the best of satisfaction, and has never been found defective in any respect.
Surveys and Marking of the Eastern Boundary of N. H .- When the boundary line between the states of Maine and New Hampshire became a matter of greater importance than when at first established, giving rise to disputes, the two states, by commis- sioners appointed by their respective legislatures, caused a survey to be made in 1828. The commissioners on the part of New Hampshire were the Hon. Ichabod Bartlett of Portsmouth and Hon. John W. Weeks of Lancaster.
These commissioners, acting with those of Maine, began work at East pond, the head of Salmon Falls river, and during that and the next season ran the line to the northern limit, marking the same by a few stone monuments and by blazing trees. In time this marking became a matter of uncertainty, giving rise to disputes as the timber lands of that region were rapidly increasing in value. Accordingly, the two states again appointed commissioners in 1858 to " ascertain, survey, and mark " the boundary line from the northwest corner of Fryeburg to the Canada line.
The governor of New Hampshire appointed Col. Henry O. Kent, then clerk of the house of representatives, as commissioner on that survey on the part of this state.
Receiving his appointment on June 28, 1858, Colonel Kent at once began preparations for the task before him, and he took as assistants Lieut. James S. Brackett and Lieut. John G. Lewis of Lan- caster. Joining the commissioner of the state of Maine, the party started September 14, 1858, from Wilson's Mills on the Magalloway, for the northern end of the line.
The task was an arduous one, but was finished on October 13, 1858, by the erection of the last monument at the northeast corner of the town of Fryeburg. The line was marked by renewing the old markings and monuments, and the erection of many new monu- ments at road crossings and other conspicuous points along the line.
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A TRANSITION PERIOD,
Their work was so well performed that the line has never since been a question of important uncertainty or dispute.
The men of the decade between 1840 and 1850, those who were leaders in thought and action in the community, were of good sense and judicial judgment. There were then a number of men in Lancaster who could have filled any position of responsibility in the state, and others who were shrewd men of affairs. A lively interest was taken in all the important questions of the day, and not a few men and women among them were possessed of a considerable criti- cal faculty. One of the most knotty problems, however, that Lan- caster men ever ran against was what was known at the time as " spirit rappings." The notorious Fox sisters of Hydeville, N. Y., in 1848, set the world wild over what were supposed to be the rappings of the spirits of the dead. All over the country ignorant and visionary people were being frightened almost out of their wits by a self-imposed delusion. But long before the Fox sisters, the delusion reached Lancaster, and, as usual with it, the attack was upon a bevy of school-girls in the stilly and mysterious time of early night when all things are hushed into that stillness in which one can almost hear the workings of his own mind. All of a sud- den rappings were heard by them, as they supposed, on the wall be- tween the room they were in and an adjoining one. Alarm at once took hold of everybody. Was it some one trying to work upon their fear or credulity? A search by an irate father of some of the girls failed to discover mischievous boys hidden away in the house. He laid by the whip with which he intended to administer a mer- ited punishment upon the wicked boys, and gave his thought to a solution of the mysterious rappings, becoming more bold and loud as longer the frightened family listened to them. What could it be? Was it not a miracle? Was it some token of good or ill given by a good God? Or was it the work of a demon? If not one or the other of these, might it not be what everybody had heard so much about-the raps from spirits ?
Court was in session, and the village was favored with the pres- ence of some of the ablest jurists on the bench in New Hampshire. Why not call into requisition this and the local talent at solving mysteries ?
That is just what was done. A gathering of distinguished men was summoned to investigate the mysterious phenomena, among whom we find the names of such reputable men as Judge Tillotson, Judge Cushman, Maj. John W. Weeks, Esq., A. N. Brackett, Reu- ben Stephenson, Gov. J. W. Williams, Col. John H. White, Gen. John Wilson, besides many others almost as noted for learning and sound judgment.
This company set themselves seriously to the task of unravel-
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
ing the mystery that had thrown the village into a furor of excite- ment. They observed, they experimented, and they discussed the question ; but in the end they had to give it up as unsolved, if not, indeed, unsolvable, and the community in general accepted their decision as wise and just. The matter never reached as high a degree of excitement here as in many other villages throughout the country, but there have always been a few persons who regard the so-called phenomena as a mystery, portentous of something, they hardly know what.
Such delusions have never carried many people into the extremes so well calculated to mislead the unscientific minds of the masses in this town. So far as we can learn, there has never been subse- quent occasion for the formation of investigating committees in town to study this or any other delusion. An occasional ghost story has been invented by the "smart young fellows of the streets," whose tastes have been about as crude as their ignorance was dense. Nothing of importance has ever come of such attempts to play upon the fear and credulity of the ignorant and unwary. One of such attempts called out from an editor at one time the suggestion that a shotgun was the best antidote for ghosts, and volunteered to go as one of the pall-bearers. The ghost took the hint. Such has invariably been the attitude of the community toward ghosts.
CHAPTER XI.
LANCASTER FROM 1850 TO THE PRESENT TIME.
The middle of the present century marks a point in time when Lancaster was rapidly leaving off her old characteristics and taking on the new ones that were destined to make her a community like all others throughout New England. The old pioneer customs and institutions were practically gone by 1850. The community was astir with feelings of anxiety to get into line with other towns in the acceptance of all sorts of improvements. Lancaster was only forty-eight hours from Boston by the means of travel then in vogue, and the railroad was expected to shorten that by nearly one half within a few years. In 1848 steps had again been taken to get a railroad to Lancaster, and it was only a few years until the "White Mountain" did get as far as Littleton (1853), running up from Wells River.
Times had been fairly good, and the people were in a prosperous condition by the middle of the century. The population of the town had grown to 1,559, a majority of whom lived in the village and found means of livelihood at something else than farming. In
MT. PROSPECT.
MT. PLEASANT.
MT. ORNE. FROM BUNKER HILL ..
VILLAGE AND MEADOWS FROM BUNKER HILL.
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LANCASTER FROM 1850 TO THE PRESENT TIME.
fact, the town did not then seem so much a farming community as it had for so many years. This of itself may be taken as an indica- cation of prosperity. No town is prosperous when all its people follow the same occupation, be it what it may. It does not take a body of workers long to produce more of a given class of things than it has use for, and decline must as inevitably follow such accum- ulation of goods that are steadily decreasing in value in propor- tion to their increase in volume. The tiller of the soil can only find a profitable sale for his commodities when there are many people producing something else while they are not competing with him. When Lancaster ceased to be a town in which every man was a farmer, or again every man a maker of potash or potash barrels, it began to expand and prosper.
By the time of which I am speaking, a majority of the people were following occupations that were practically new ones in the town, such at least as their fathers had not been called upon to follow. Some vocations had ceased to exist, but the growth was from the demand for new ones to meet the changes that had come.
All kinds of business transactions were greatly accelerated by the approach of the railroads. Even in 1850, when the railroad had reached no nearer than Wells River, the merchant could order goods from Boston by mail and have them upon his shelves inside of six days, a thing that fifty years before would have been thought utterly impossible within that length of time. Such, however, was the truth. I find in the diary kept by the late R. P. Kent that he ordered goods from Boston by the noon mail on Monday, Nov. II, 1850, and received them at noon the Saturday following, November 16. That event was considered one of importance, and rightly, too, for it was fraught with great significance to the business interests of the place. The most important feature of the transaction was in in the lessening of the freight rates. This change brought the rates down to seventy-three cents from Boston to Lancaster, by rail and team. This was a portentous event, one that stands as a milestone on the road of development. A little circumstance like this often has the effect to throw the schedule of economic values out of order and demand their readjustment on a basis of new facts; and that is just what occurred then in Lancaster. For a few years all kinds of business affairs were restless. Some accommodated themselves to the changed condition of things and prospered the more for it, while others, either unable or too slow to make the change in methods of transacting business, suffered loss or failed.
The greatest gain from the coming of the railroads so near was in connection with the lumber interests. The wealth of timber that covered the hills of Lancaster and towns adjoining it was practically of no commercial value on account of the distance from the markets.
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
It was then considered feasible to use the rivers as highways for the shipment of lumber, but it was not possible for an individual of limited capital to float logs a hundred miles or more into close proximity to the markets, and there cut the lumber, as is now done by such large corporations as the Connecticut River Lumber Com- pany, which cuts some years as many as seventy-five million feet of lumber from logs chiefly floated down the river from this country.
The most valuable pine, and other timber, had been extravagantly cut, and in some instances wasted in the early days of the present century. No one seemed to see in the timber of the town any great wealth until about the time the railroads came so near that it was profitable to cut the lumber and haul it to the roads for shipment to the large markets ; by that time very little good timber remained in Lancaster.
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