USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Lancaster > History of Lancaster, New Hampshire > Part 17
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When the Atlantic & St. Lawrence railroad (now the Grand Trunk) reached Northumberland in 1852, the people began to utilize their timber by getting it into shape for shipment on that line of road. An important interest was centered in what was called " ship knees." These were made from the stumps of the tam- arack, following the bend of the roots as they diverged from the trunks of the trees; a knee, or right-angled bend could be got out of most any tamarack tree. These were used for knees, or braces, in the old style of ship-building before metal came into use for braces, as at present. The swamps of this town and adjoining towns were covered with a large growth of tamarack, and for some years afforded the people an occupation that paid well. From the trunks of the trees, from which the knees were taken, what was called " ship tim- ber" was made, which was an equal source of gain to the people engaged in the enterprise. There were no persons who devoted all their time to this work; but the farmers and their farm-hands found it a profitable means of employing the winter months " to keep busy."
This industry was followed until the tamarack was all cut off. The late R. P. Kent noted in his diary, January 5, 1855, that teams numbering 40 horses had passed his store that day drawing ship knees and ship timber to Northumberland. This winter occupa- tion in no way interfered with the farming enterprises; but on the contrary made it more profitable, as it came at a season when the farmer would otherwise have lain practically idle for several months. It was an equal source of profit to the laboring class who depended upon being employed by others. At that time there was no float- ing population following the lumber business as now. The operator in those enterprises had to secure his help from the town, off the farms, and from the village; and what profit resulted from such un- dertakings helped more directly to develop the enterprises of the town.
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LANCASTER FROM 1850 TO THE PRESENT TIME.
When the ship timber was exhausted the people next turned their attention to getting out lumber for sugar boxes, shooks, and common grades of lumber, which for many years continued a profit- able business.
From 1850, until the breaking out of the civil war, times were good, and this section of country was prosperous. Those engaged in the various kinds of lumber business made money; and the farmer got good prices for his products. In 1855 farm produce was uncommonly high. Wheat was $2 a bushel; corn, $1.25; oats, 30 cents; buckwheat, 50 cents; butter, 20 cents a pound ; cheese, 10 cents ; lard, 14 cents; pork, 8 cents; beef, 4 I-2 cents ; potatoes, 50 cents ; hay, $10 per ton ; wood, $1.20 per cord.
With a railroad to Northumberland, only 10 miles distant, and another to Littleton, 21 miles, goods were being cheapened and com- petition in trade much encouraged by the lower freight rates, only then about one half what they had been a few years before. About this time the traveling salesman began to appear in almost all lines of commercial business. He could reach a wide territory by the combined service of railroads and stage-coaches. When the new Lancaster House was opened for the reception of guests for the first time on the fourth of August, 1858, commercial travelers were on hand to the number of eight, from which we may infer that they were pretty plenty. Business was brisk in this northern section of the state, and Lancaster was then, as now, a trading center for a large section of country about it.
About this time Lancaster, especially the village, began to be stirred up over the anti-slavery question. The centre of the " infec- tion," as it was then regarded, was the Rev. George M. Rice, minis- ter of the Unitarian church, who was a rabid abolitionist. He prob- ably never saw a slave in his life, but reached his position of enmity to the institution from the literary and humanitarian grounds, for it was then being vigorously discussed all over the country.
The Coös Republican, established by Daniel A. Bowe and David B. Allison, December 10, 1855, took strong anti-slavery position on all political questions; and being ably edited for a country news- paper, had considerable influence in the community. In the early spring of 1859, public lectures were delivered upon the subject. The first lecture of the kind, outside of the pulpit, was delivered by a Mr. Depp, an enfranchised negro, who had been a slave. He lectured in the town hall, March 7, 1859, to a large audience of Lancaster people. On August 5, 1859, William Lloyd Garrison, the famous champion of anti-slavery doctrines, lectured in the town hall on "American Slavery." But the people felt interested in that cause, as we may infer from the fact that in the fall of 1856, a popu- lar contribution was made for the so-called "Free State " sufferers
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
in Kansas. A box of things contributed for that purpose was shipped from here by the contributors on October 22, 1856.
When the question of slavery came into national politics as one of the causes contributing to the attempt at the disruption of the union, it was not a strange question to Lancaster people. They had given it serious consideration, as they had done all the great questions of the times, for they were not slow to take an interest in national affairs. From the formation of the town down to to- day its people have always been keenly interested in state and national affairs.
When the census of 1860 was taken it showed a population of 2,020. Of that number about 1,400 lived in the village, which then comprised 103 houses located on thirteen streets. The town then cast 345 votes in the November election. The growth in popula- tion was healthy, there being an increase of 461 for the last decade ; and the growth of wealth kept in about the same ratio of increase. Such was the community that young Emmons Stockwell must have dreamed of helping to plant, as alone he wandered through these broad meadow lands more than a century before, when returning from the expedition into Canada against the Indians, which had crushed out one of the cruellest bands of savages that this section of country had in it, making possible the settlement of these fine lands, heretofore a hazardous and dangerous undertaking from which the strongest heart shrank with fear. It had had its reverses, as we have seen, but it had also had its prolonged seasons of prosperity, and the last three decades had been prosperous ones for Lancaster. She had, in 1860, reached a point in numbers and wealth that only the most far-sighted of her former citizens had ever thought of. Little did any one surmise that there was awaiting this, as thousands of other prosperous and peaceful places, an experience that was to leave her people wiser, but infinitely sadder over the loss of the choicest of her sons who were destined to go to the slaughter of one of the most cruel wars in the history of this, or any other country, while those who were to survive and return to their native firesides were to come back broken in body and spirit to pass the remainder of broken lives where all had seemed to offer them so much pros- perity and happiness a year before. But such was to be one of the chapters in her history; and when the crisis came, when the red hand of sedition, rebellion, and disunion had been raised in defiance of law and the peace of the nation, Lancaster heard the call to arms as the lovers of their country only hear-to obey.
LANCASTER DURING THE CIVIL WAR.
In the fall election of 1860, the town cast 233 votes for Lincoln as against 110 for Douglas, and one each for Breckinridge and Bell,
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LANCASTER FROM 1850 TO THE PRESENT TIME.
the four presidential candidates. This fact shows that the union sentiment in Lancaster was strong; nor must we reckon the fol- lowers of Douglas as indifferent to the Union, for many of them were found among our volunteers when the Rebellion was de- clared and troops were called for.
One week to a day from the issuing of the call by President Lincoln for 75,000 volunteers, for three months, to put down the Rebellion, a recruiting office was opened here with Col. Henry O. Kent as recruiting officer, April 22, 1861. In two days twenty- four men were enlisted. Recruiting continued rapidly, until nearly a full company was raised and sent to Portsmouth, where the Second Regiment was then forming, making the bulk of Company F. The regiment left the state June 21, reaching Washington in time to be in the Union lines at the Bull Run battle. The First Regiment was mustered out August 9, 1861; but most of them re-enlisted under the call for 300,000 men for three years. Under this second call for volunteers there were enlisted twenty-three men from August 13-20, for the Third regiment, E. Q. Fellows, colonel, and sent to camp at Concord.
On August 27, 1861, Capt. Edmund Brown was commissioned to raise a company. He enlisted a number of men, and finally on October 7, 1861, joined the famous Fifth New Hampshire Volun- teers then being raised by Col. E. E. Cross, a native of Lancaster, at Camp Jackson, Concord.
We cannot here follow the Lancaster men who went into the service of their country at this trying time, for to do so would require that we recount a large portion of the history of the Civil War, as these men were in many commands, and often engaged in the hard-fought battles on which the settlement of the great conflict hinged. Others have told the story of their service ably; and the state has generously provided for the publication of a history of every separate regiment of its soldiers during the war, which his- tories are now or soon will be available in all public libraries.
Lancaster contributed the following men to the Second New Hampshire Sharpshooters: Joseph K. Hodge, James S. Kent, Reuben F. Carter, Thomas S. Ellis, Reuben Gray, Horace F. Morse, and Timothy Grannis.
During those periods, when enlistment of volunteers was going on, all interests centered upon the recruiting office. Martial music filled the air, and patriotic speeches were made, and in every way the younger men of the town were made to feel the call of duty singling them out as the ones who were needed at the front to put down the Rebellion, and save the Union inviolate and glorious to their posterity.
Mr. A. F. Whipple trained a band in 1860, which furnished the
II
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
music on those occasions of recruiting, and the departure of the men, which latter event called out many citizens to see them off for duty and danger.
In October, 1862, Jared I. Williams was commissioned as recruit- ing officer to raise a company for the Seventeenth New Hampshire Volunteers.
It was soon discovered that our army, so hastily massed, with nothing previously done for its health and comfort either in camp or on long marches, or in the hospitals, was the prey of diseases and casualties which the men were wholly unaccustomed to. Their sufferings were so great as to appeal to the sympathy and humane feelings of their fellow-citizens at home in that most practical manner that made the "United States Sanitary Commission " and the "United States Christian Commission" institutions of the war scarcely second to those of any of the army or government depart- ments. All over the country people who had friends at the front were aroused to send to the hospitals and camps such things as the revenues of government could not readily obtain. Not unmind- ful of their neighbors thus exposed, the citizens of Lancaster held a public meeting at town hall, October 21, 1861, to take measures for making a practical and generous response to the call of the Sanitary Commission. Richard P. Kent was chosen chairman of the meeting, and Mrs. H. F. Holton secretary. It was considered best to appoint one person in each of the school districts of the town to solicit such articles as the people might be able to contribute for that purpose. The following persons were appointed to solicit in their respective school districts :
No. I. (Comprising the village north of the river) Mrs. Howe, Mrs. George F. Hartwell, and Mrs. Henry O. Kent.
2. Mrs. William Rowell.
3. Miss Maria P. Towne (afterward Mrs. Dr. Bugbee).
4. Mrs. Asa H. Aspinwall.
5. Mrs. Samuel Twombly.
6. Mrs. Albert F. Whipple.
7. Rev. Moody P. Marshall.
8. Mrs. James McIntire.
9. Miss Sarah Smith.
IO. Mrs. Susan Boyce.
II. Mrs. S. H. Legro.
12. (That part of the village south of the river) Mrs. Thomas S. Underwood, and Mrs. Jared I. Williams.
14. Miss Sarah W. Emerson (now Mrs. S. W. Brown).
15. Mrs. George H. Watson.
On motion, Mrs. Jacob Hamlin, Mrs. A. L. Robinson, Mrs. I. S. M. Gove, Mrs. H. C. Walker, and Mrs. Nelson Kent were
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LANCASTER FROM 1850 TO THE PRESENT TIME.
appointed a committee to receive money contributed, and appro- priate it in making purchases of such articles as would best meet the object in view. Mrs. Royal Joyslin was made custodian of the articles collected, and the post-office designated as a depot for the deposit of them until ready for shipment to Dr. Howe, the agent of the Sanitary Commission at Boston, Mass.
On November 1, 1861, three large boxes of supplies were shipped to Dr. Howe. Other contributions were made at later dates, and at no time did the interest of the citizens in their neighbors at the front slacken in the least. The town made ample provision for the wives and children of the men who enlisted. It happened that there were a number of families wholly dependent upon the daily wages of the men who felt it to be their duty to volunteer in their country's defence. These the town made ample provision for the sustenance of, while the husband and father was in the service.
During the fall of 1862 a number of men were enlisted for the Seventh regiment by Capt. J. I. Williams. In the hope of stimu- lating an interest and making it more an object for men to enlist, a public war meeting was held at town hall, July 27, 1862, on a notice signed by seventy of the most prominent citizens. It was decided that a bounty of $100 should be offered to men who would enlist for three years, and $75 for nine months' enlistments. This meas- ure had some effect in increasing the number of enlistments for a few months, for it was certain that if the full number was not secured by volunteers a draft would be made, and most men would rather volunteer than run the risk of being drafted; a pride that is worthy of some commendation.
The coming of every mail was watched by the people with a keen interest for news from the seat of war. With feelings of dread would they scan the columns of the daily papers lest their sight should catch the name of a fellow-citizen among the dead or wounded of some dreadful battle, or from the scourge of diseases peculiar to camp-life. Often was that fear realized, for Lancaster men were in many of the hottest contests of the war, and at times the regi- ments to which they belonged sustained fearful losses in battle.
When a decisive victory was won by the Union army there were demonstrations of rejoicing on the streets. When the news came May 12, 1862, that Norfolk had fallen, and that the Rebel ram, Merrimac, had been destroyed by the Monitor, a national salute was fired, and general rejoicing was indulged in by all in the hope that the war would soon terminate; but alas! more defeats were needed to break the spirit of the enemy.
In 1863 the much-expected and talked-of draft came. On Sep- tember 26, a draft was made in presence of Henry W. Rowell of Lit- tleton, in which fifty-three men were drawn. This draft included
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
some of the best young men the town could boast of; and most of them willingly went to the front, some of whom made remarkably good soldiers. Others were able to secure substitutes by paying large sums.
In July, 1863, the news of the death of Col. Edward E. Cross, of the Fifth regiment, was received and threw the whole town into mourn- ing, for the people had come to recognize in him one of the bravest of officers. He had led his regiment through some of the worst battles of the war, and had come out of them all, although wounded, as though he possessed a charmed life. His regiment had been in the siege of Yorktown and Williamsburg, the battle of Fair Oaks, the seven days' battle in the retreat to Harrison's Landing, and at Antietam had won its name of " The Fighting Fifth." They were in the charge on Marye's Heights under Hancock, opposite Fred- ericksburg, at Chancellorsville, and finally at Gettysburg, where Colonel Cross received a fatal wound while leading a brigade. His body was returned to his native town for burial, and his shattered regiment was returned to Concord to be recruited.
A movement was at once set on foot to erect a suitable monu- ment to Colonel Cross, which after some delay was accomplished.
Renewed calls came for more men to fill the quota of the town. Enlistments had ceased, and now the town at a meeting, April 15, 1864, voted to pay a bounty of $300 to all men enlisting until the town's quota was filled ; and also $100 to such persons out of the town whose enlistment shall count to the credit of the town.
This liberal bounty did not have the desired effect. Only a few enlisted under its tempting offer. It was thought better to induce men to volunteer than to risk a draft, as the draft was a mere matter of chance, and was as likely to fall upon men that could least be spared from the support of their families or their business, and even upon such as were least able to secure substitutes.
Another town-meeting was called for August 29, 1864, when it was voted to offer bounties of $800 for enlistments for one year ; $1,000 for two years; $1,200 for three years; and $100, $200, and $300 to one, two, and three year men, aliens, but who should be credited to the town.
This offer had the effect to call out twenty-two men at once, and later a few others were enlisted. The town thus at considerable cost met its quota, and in every way discharged its obligations in furnishing the army for the nation's defence.
It was this year, of 1864, that marked the century point in the town's history ; and the event of its settlement and first century of growth was duly celebrated, the story of which we tell in Part II, of this history, and therefore simply refer to it here in its proper place in the narrative. The event was of more than ordinary importance.
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LANCASTER FROM 1850 TO THE PRESENT TIME,
It turned the people's thought upon themselves and their situation, their opportunities and responsibilities in a way to awaken in them self-consciousness, by which the community is as truly born to a higher life as is the individual; and we know how when one be- comes conscious of himself he enters into a higher life, not content with life as it is, but strives to make it like the ideal that floats before his vision. With the turning of the people's thought upon them- selves, and back along the way over which their forefathers toiled to build the institutions they enjoy, a community is born again.
New visions of life are evolved, and man is challenged by all that is best in him to make good the aims for which so many genera- tions, as he may be made conscious of, have toiled, and toiled for him, too. A community bestirs itself to make its second century better than its first by profiting by the accumulated experience of those who have gone before them over the same road they must travel. The first fruits of this new devotion to the ideal floating before the people, wafted hither on the wings of oratory, music, and good cheer, was the purchase of the plot of ground, on which the celebration was held, as a park, now named Centennial Park. With the coming of peace within a year from the date of the cen- tennial of the town, renewed interest was manifested in everything pertaining to the good of the community.
It was with feelings of unbounded joy that the people heard, on the 14th of April, 1865, that Lee had surrendered, and that the war was ended.
This bit of good news was made the occasion of a celebration. One of the old six-pounder iron cannon (known as the " Bennington cannon," because captured of the British at the battle of Bennington) was brought out of the arsenal, placed on the northwest brow of Baker hill and fired until it burst into fragments from an over-charge.
The joy with which families received their absent ones back, as they were mustered out of the service through the summer, was un- bounded, though many hearts were heavy almost to breaking over the lost ones who fell on Southern battle-fields, or on the long marches, or in camp or hospital, of diseases and fatigue little less fatal than the chances in battles. There went from the town a long and honorable list of men, of whom many were numbered among the dead and missing, and whose places have been vacant in the homes and hearts of their families and neighbors. Many of those who did return were battle-scarred and broken in health, illy able to take up again their tasks in civil life where they had laid them down four years before to try the uncertain fortunes of war; but bravely they applied themselves to the old tasks, or sought new ones by which to win a livelihood for themselves and those dependent upon them, grateful for what degree of success has come to them.
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
Lancaster is proud of her veterans; and she is justly proud of her part in the history of the great drama by which the Union was pre- served one and inviolate, a Union of free states.
Until 1866, a daily mail from the south and one from the east had been the quickest means of communication with the world at large. Those facilities, when first secured, put Lancaster very nearly on a footing of equality with other towns in New England ; but the times had changed. The age of electricity had come; the subtle force was beginning to do a larger share of the world's work, especially in the transmission of news. The telegraph, through its 60,000 miles of lines, had ramified almost the entire country, and had been ex- tended to unite the two hemispheres, bringing the world so close to our feet that we could send our thoughts and wishes around the globe in a few minutes.
No more did Lancaster want telegraphic connection with the rest of the country than the rest of the country wanted such means of communication with Lancaster-with every community where men lived and did business. Accordingly the American Telegraph Com- pany, later the Western Union, began the erection of its lines to Lan- caster from Littleton in May, 1866. This brought Lancaster and Boston within a few minutes of each other; and since then no service rendered the public by any corporation has been more welcomed than that of the telegraph, until the coming of the telephone, which now puts us within speaking distance of nearly one half of the continent.
After the close of the war an era of general improvement was ushered in. During the four years of carnage and waste, incident upon the diversion of attention and interest upon the questions at issue in the War of the Rebellion, but little improvement had been made in anything. Almost all enterprises of a new character seemed to stand still until weightier questions should be settled. No sooner, however, was peace restored, than the people began to inaugurate innovations of various kinds.
In 1868 the first concrete sidewalks were laid in the village. Un- til then sidewalks had been of a more primitive kind. Board walks had been in very general use for many years; and here, like in other villages where such walks were in use, there was continual complaint about their condition. As early as 1855, some one, I know not who it was, laid stones for a walk from the centre of the village toward the court-house on the west side of Main street. This walk, however, was not a success, and in the summer of 1868 the selectmen were induced to lay the first concrete walks in the village. Beginning in August of that year, Samuel H. Legro laid concrete walks from the Isreals river bridge, on Main street, as far as the store of J. A. Smith. He laid crossings on Main and Middle streets, and con- tinued a walk on Middle street, from Main street to L. F. Moore's
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LANCASTER FROM 1850 TO THE PRESENT TIME.
house. This experiment was so successful that in October of the same year he began at Smith's store and extended the concrete walks as far as to R. P. Kent's store. This was by way of experiment, but when the next season proved that there was nothing better for the construction of walks, it was decided by the selectmen to extend them from the points where they left off as far as the court-house and the Catholic church on Main street. Those walks remain to-day in a good state of repair, except between Bunker Hill and High streets on the east side, at which point the grade has been raised and some repairs made. Otherwise no repairs have been made upon them since they were laid down in 1868 and 1869. It has long since been accepted as the proper kind of walk for comfort and economy, and from time to time the amount of concrete walks has been in- creased until nearly every street of any importance has one or both walks laid of that material. It has become the settled policy of the town to lay a certain amount of that kind of walk every year, with the intention of finally covering the entire village walks with it. Some walks have been made of crushed stone since the town has owned and operated its own stone crusher; but these walks have proven to be but makeshifts. A few pieces of brick walk, laid by individuals in front of their premises, still exist; and there remains but a single section of wooden walk in the village-a short piece on North Main street.
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