History of Lancaster, New Hampshire, Part 40

Author: Somers, A. N. (Amos Newton)
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Concord, N.H., Rumford press
Number of Pages: 753

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Pitchers of cider and heaps of butternuts were at hand to regale the parers, for whom a bountiful supper was furnished when the work was done. The red apple, with its attendant salutation from sweetheart or " beau," was never overlooked, in attending to the store of fruit.

The spelling-school was another institution of much interest, if not usefulness, and was enjoyed throughout the town during the autumn and winter months. Sometimes a school was organized be- tween scholars of the same district, but more generally one district challenged another district, and occasionally some district challenged or was challenged by a district in an adjoining town.

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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.

The first thing in organizing the session was for the two most accomplished spellers to choose sides for the match, unless one district was pitted against another district. These leaders, male or female, alternately chose one clansman, personally for his or her excellence in spelling, alone. It was no anomaly for an adept to be a poor scholar generally but a wonderful speller. The attendance being thus enrolled on either side, the opposing forces took places, standing in line, in the back seats of either side of the schoolhouse. Some favorite was chosen,-perhaps the teacher, perhaps the pru- dential committee for the district, perhaps the local magistrate, or possibly some phenomenal adept from out of town,-to preside and " put out the words." Taking his place in the teacher's desk, the visiting citizens filling the lower seats or convenient chairs, the busi- ness of the evening commenced. The words first presented were simple and harmless. The leader of the side challenged had the first call; if spelled correctly, the next word came to his next in order ; but if failure ensued, the unfortunate member took his seat, and the next word went in like manner to the other side. Gradually the words grew harder, and the interest greater; man after man, or boy and girl after boy and girl, went down before the fateful battery of wonderful words, selected for the occasion by the erudite presiding genius; at last but a diminishing few remained, and the polyglot words grew fearful and strange to unaccustomed ears. At last, when excitement was at fever heat, all had missed and been "spelled down " but one; and then the decision came, that his or her side had beaten, and that he or she was the champion of the evening.

The ride to the rendezvous and the more thrilling ride home un- der the stars, over the crisp and snowy roads, through welcomed covered bridges where " taking toll" was permitted, was not an immaterial part of the evening's enjoyment.

The incidents of the trial, how such and such a one faltered at a new and astounding word; how they went down before the recur- ring bombardment, or gathered the forces of memory and intui- tion and repelled the shaft and won new honors, were topics of fire- side conversation and gratification to admiring friends.

Huskings occurred in the later autumn months, and were largely attended and popular. Every farmer raising a considerable crop of corn, invited his neighbors to help husk it out. The great farms on the intervale of the Connecticut, however , were more natural corn land, raised larger crops, and offered larger opportunities for this noticeable festival.

The husking at Col. John H. White's, Major John W. Weeks's, Esquire Adino N. Brackett's, William Brown's, Gorham Lane's, Roswell Chessman's, Ezra Brooks's, Emmons Stockwell's, Josiah Bel- lows's, Mrs. Holton's, Dr. Benjamin Hunking's, Col. Ephraim Cross's,

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GAMES, SPORTS, AND AMUSEMENTS.

Gov. Jared W. Williams's, were, half a century ago, notable affairs, and each place had its particular reputation for the gathering assem- bled, the variety of work and fun likely to be had and enjoyed, and the excellence of the husking supper that crowned the evening's observance.

Let us look upon a husking floor ready for use. The ears of corn are piled along the length of one side of the long floor from the big doors at one end to the big doors at the other, sometimes the pile being four feet on the floor, and reaching an equal height against the feeding-place or the mow. On this, at perhaps ten feet inter- vals, were placed the empty baskets to be filled with the husked corn ears as the work progressed, pumpkins were placed along the base of the heap for seats for the huskers, and pitchforks, the tines firmly stuck into the hay of the scaffold, the handles projecting out over the corn heap, suspended the lanterns of the period-round cylinders of tin, punched with holes in regular patterns, through which holes the light of the tallow-dipped candle inside struggled to give illumination.

Men were detailed to carry away and empty the baskets as fast as filled, and all was in readiness. The company assembled by 7 p. m., and the work was usually completed two hours later, some- times with a big pile of ears, or a scant company an hour later than this.

These were male gatherings, the damsels reserving their presence for " waiting upon the tables " at the supper later in the evening. As the work progressed singing was always in order. There were well-known and popular singers in each community whose presence was much sought on these occasions, and who prided themselves upon their accomplishments and their popularity. Melody and tune was not necessary, although of frequent occurrence. A strong voice and a collection of the popular songs were the chief requisites. Story-telling and practical jokes were not wanting, and the events of each neighborhood were the topics of homely and witty comment. Although the damsels were not present, the finder of the traditional red ear came in for the marked attention of the company in the form of a bombardment of hard ears of husked corn, from which he was glad to hide his head, or perhaps retreat temporarily from the scene.

The writer recalls a husking at the barn of a noted Democratic manager and politician, a barn once standing where the Lancaster House swings and tennis grounds now are, then standing directly back from the big elm where the barn of the William Burns place on Main street now is, now standing on Ethan Crawford's place near the Main street railroad crossing. (1897).

A good time was expected (and had) and the attendance large.

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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.

Among the crowd was a zealous Democratic lad from a home long ago laid in ashes, then standing on a road now for many years abandoned, and near the famous cold spring, from which the Lan- caster House is supplied. Harry had found a red ear, and the pelt- ing became fast and furious. For a time it was borne with good humor; but annoyance and a sense of personal injury followed, until in a voice choked with rage and tears, the victim announced if he could n't " come down to Colonel Cross's to a Democrat husk- ing without getting throwed corn at, he should vote the Whig ticket next election."

The threat was sufficient, the shower of husked ears ceased; but the logic of premise and conclusion is recalled as not wholly unlike that of many patriots of later years, as to their reasons for the votes they give.

Our description of a husking would be incomplete without recall- ing scraps of the favorite songs of those occasions as they linger in memory. They were a strange composite-sentimental, patriotic, and some bordering upon broad license, but never far enough to provoke deserved censure.

Here is a verse of a wailing song, descriptive of piratical life, a calling that always seems to have especial attractions to the young :

" We met a gallant vessel a-sailing on the sea. For mercy, for mercy, for mercy was her plea ! But the mercy that we gave her, we sunk her in the sea, Sailing down on the coast of the Low Barbar-ee."

Another favorite narrated the sad consequences that came to the young man who was false to his own true love :

" My father's in his winding sheet, My mother, too, appears, While the girl I loved is standing by, A-wiping off the tears. They all have died of a broken heart, And now too late I find That God has seen my crueltee To the girl I left behind."

"Lord Bateman" was always popular, as the interminable verses droned out,-

" Lord Bateman was a noble lord, A noble lord of high degree."

A song always received with hilarious applause, akin in rhythm and narrative to "One-Eyed Riley " of the " Fighting Fifth," started into full swing with,-

GAMES, SPORTS, AND AMUSEMENTS. 361

" There was a rich merchant in London did dwell ; He had but one daughter, a beautiful gell. For wit and for beauty none did her excel ; And she married for her husband a trooper. Li whack fol de riddle, fol lol de rol diddle, Li whack fol de riddle do da."

And another chronicled the adventures of a barber who had filled his pockets with stolen butter and cheese, and on the advent of the owner had hidden himself up the chimney:

" I being up the chimney and seated at my ease, The fire began to melt the butter, likewise to toast the cheese. The master being in the house, he thought the devil was there ; For every drop that fell in the fire, oh Lord ! how it did flare !"

Love and shipwreck came in the ballad of " Roy Niel ":

" They sailed away in a gallant bark, Roy Niel and his fair young bride. There were joyous hearts in that bounding oak, As she danced o'er the silvery tide. But a storm arose as they left the land, And the thunders shook the deep, And the lightning's flash broke the short repose Of the weary sea-boy's sleep. Roy Niel he clasped his fair young bride, And pressed her trembling hand. ' Oh, love ! 't was a fatal hour,' he cried, ' When we left our native land.' "

" Young Albion," a song of the Pemigewasset river, was always eagerly listened to. It narrated how

" On the Pemigewasset at break of the day, A birchen canoe was seen gliding away, As swift as the wild duck that swam by its side, In silence the bark down the river did glide. At intervals heard 'mid the bellowing sigh, The hoot of the owl and the catamount's cry, The howl of the wolf from his lone granite cell, And the crash of the dead forest tree as it fell. Young Albion, the chief of his warriors, was there, With the eye of an eagle, the foot of a deer."

The huskers were never tired of hearing how

" Down in the lowlands a poor boy did wander, Down in the lowlands a poor boy did roam. By his friends he was neglected, He look-ed so dejected, This poor little sailor boy, so far away from home."

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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.

Some lingering trace of the old fraternal feeling for France, for her help in our Revolutionary contest, I suppose warmed the hearts and prompted the applause that always greeted "The Bonny Bunch of Roses, oh !" and the filial devotion of the young king of Italy, as expressed in the words,-

" Then up stepped young Na-po-le-on

And took his mother by the hand,

Saying ' Mother, dearest mother, when I am able to command,

'Tis I will take an army, and o'er the frozen Alps I'll go,

And I will reconquer Moscow, and return with the BONNY BUNCH OF ROSES, OH !'',

Equally a favorite was the ballad of " Mary of the Wild Moor":

" One night the wind it blew cold, Blew bitter across the wild moor, When Mary came wandering home, Wandering home to her own father's door,

" Crying, ' Father, oh, pray let me in ; Take pity on me, I implore, Or the child at my bosom will die From the winds that blow o'er the wild moor.'

" But her father was deaf to her cries ; Not a sound or a voice reached the door.

And that night Mary perished and died From the winds that blew o'er the wild moor.

" Oh, how must her father have felt When he came to the door in the morn ! There he found Mary dead, and the child Fondly clasped in its dead mother's arms."

But the candles flicker in the swaying lanterns, a big pile of husks attests the labors of the evening, and the corn is safely spread on the chamber floor to dry. Adjournment is made to the farmhouse kitchen, illumined by the roaring fireplace and garnished by coils of drying pumpkin and strings of quartered apples. The tables groan under stores of pumpkin-pies, " sage cheese, spearmint-tinc- tured cheese, horsemint-tinctured cheese," brown bread, apples, and pitchers of cider, the incidents of the evening are discussed with the supper, and after an hour of moral fun the jolly huskers separate under the stars for the scattered farms on hillside or along the river, or wend their way down the sleeping street, past the Gun House and burying ground, under the weird shadows made by the straight Lombardy poplars that line the street, or the magic thrown by the Great Willow standing on the left of the line reaching south from the site of the present Lancaster House. Perhaps some adventur- ous spirits, spurning slumber, prepared an object lesson for the

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village fathers by launching " Old Hundred" in the muddy pool engendered by insufficient drainage near the sign-post of the Coös Hotel, or with lump of chalk striped the red sign-post of Brother Howe's Temperance House to the semblance of a barber's pole ; but these were occasional and harmless frolics, devoid of malice. Usu- ally a half hour after the close of the husking-supper, town and village were locked in slumber.

The amusements of the earlier days were simple, harmless, enjoy- able. They developed at once muscle, character, patriotism ; they nurtured a sturdy race. It is not without the province of a history of the town-the story of its birth, life, and condition-to record in its pages this imperfect record of our recreations and customs in the years that are gone.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MERCANTILE ENTERPRISES AND MERCHANTS OF LAN- CASTER.

At the time the town was settled, the trade in furs and skins had attained such proportions that these articles were as good as cur- rency. The first stock of goods brought to town was by David Page in 1766. It was stipulated in the bill of the goods that they were to be " traded out," and paid for in furs and skins, moose and bear skins being particularly mentioned as desirable. In those first years there was probably very little money in circulation, as every settler was on an equal footing with every other one. They had but little. The world lay at their feet, a great possibility to be tried, and, if possible, conquered, and homes built and made comfortable. Utility, not elegance, was the quality that recommended any- thing to them. When Merchant Molineau of Boston, Mass., was putting up a load of goods to be sent to Lancaster, he included : "Axes, grindstones, scythes, sickles, nails, flints for their guns, pow- der, blanketing, lampwick, and rum." Articles like these were indispensable to a new settlement, but their sale could only be effected by barter.

For several years David Page and Edwards Bucknam kept such important articles for trade, though they made no attempt at it as a business. The goods were carted here at an expense about equal to the first cost. They came high and left little profit for the sellers. Fortunately, furs and skins of bear and moose were plenty and everybody generous, so that the trader could no doubt square his accounts with the wholesale merchants in the cities.

As the community grew, and the wants of the people became

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more numerous, and they had more to buy with, traders began to multiply ; and soon the first merchant came to town in the person- age of a French ex-consul from Portsmouth, who lost his post by the accession of Napoleon Bonaparte to the throne of France on the overthrow of the Bourbons in 1799. Early in the year 1800, he came to Lancaster and opened a store in the south part of the town, just opposite the residence of Capt. John Weeks, on the east side of the road leading to South Lancaster.

Here for four years this man, John Toscan, sold goods as his only business in a log house. His house and its contents were burned in 1804, and he left town to return to Portsmouth.

The next person to become a merchant in town was Stephen Wilson. Although Mr. Wilson had kept goods in his hotel at the north end of Main street while Toscan was a merchant here, it was only for barter in a small way. After the loss of Toscan's store there was a demand for a better stock of goods, and Wilson im- proved the opportunity to make his store the leading one in the village. Very soon other stores were opened at that end of the street. These stores sold all sorts of things needed in a new coun- try, and took their pay in things as varied as those they sold. I have before me the ledger of Stephen Wilson, which shows a traffic in a variety of things that are no longer on the markets. He credits his customers against their debts to him with lumber, butter, cheese, ashes, salts of lye, furs, eggs, cloth (of home manufacture), livestock, and the labor of both men and women.

During the first quarter of this century stores were kept about the north end of Main street, mostly in dwelling houses, by James Dewey, Thomas Carlisle, William Cargill, George W. Perkins, George V. Eastman, William Carlisle, John M. Dennison, and Benjamin Boardman. Boardman kept his goods in the northeast corner of the house in which Ethan Crawford now lives. The Car- gills kept their stores in rooms connected with their dwelling houses.

Titus O. Brown, for some years one of the leading business men of the town, kept a stock of goods at the south end of Main street, near the south end of the bridge on the west side of the street. The site of his store is now occupied by the old post-office building, in which Charles Howe has his harness shop.

A little later, Samuel White, father of the late Nathaniel White of Concord, N. H., well known to the older people of Lancaster, kept a store in his bar-room in the old Chessman Tavern that stood where Kimball's block now does, on the corner of Main and Elm streets. He kept here as late as 1825.

Nearly all of these early storekeepers failed. Some of them lost all their property ; others, the greater portion of it.

Coming down to 1825, a new era in mercantile pursuits in Lan-

ROYAL JOYSLIN.

JAMES BRACKETT WEEKS.

RICHARD PEABODY KENT.

NELSON KENT.

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caster began. In that year the first merchants who ever made a success of the business came to Lancaster-Royal Joyslin and Richard P. Kent. About the same time, Guy C. and William Cargill came here. They were also quite successful as mer- chants. Royal Joyslin was a nephew of Thomas Carlisle, a mer- chant in Lancaster many years, but who did a small business. Mr. Joyslin had lived with his uncle from 1808 to 1812, when he went to Bath, N. H., as a clerk in a store belonging to his uncle, Carlisle, Bellows & Dewey, where he remained for ten years, when he left them to go into business for himself in partnership with Hosea Edson. In 1825 he sold out and came to Lancaster, bringing with him the late Richard P. Kent, who worked for him as clerk. He opened a stock in the " Carlisle Store," where John T. Amey's house now stands. He opened a second store in the old "Samp- son Store," later occupied by Hartford Sweet, on Elm street, oppo- site the old American House stable. For one year these two were the only stores in town.

In 1828 Guy C. Cargill came to Lancaster from Bath, N. H., and in partnership with William Carlisle, opened a store in the old Carlisle building. Richard P. Kent formed a partnership with his employer, Mr. Joyslin, that year, they occupying the Sampson store, or as it was often spoken of, the "Red Store." Business had by this time begun to drift toward the south end of Main street, in the vicinity of the mills. Very soon Guy C. Cargill moved his store down into the old " Green Store," where the Evans block now stands. About this time William Sampson came from Northumber- land and opened a store in the old Carlisle building.

Joyslin & Kent did a good business for four years, at the end of which time they dissolved partnership, each acting on his own account. R. P. Kent bought the Cargill stock (the Green store), while Joyslin remained for three years in the old stand. Joyslin moved the old "Red Store" (the Carlisle store) down Main street to where the Lancaster National bank now is, and occupied it until 1845. In 1845 the town removed the old meeting-house down from Sand hill to where it now stands as the main part of Masonic Tem- ple or Music Hall, and fitted up a store on the ground floor. The second story was used for a town hall, and the attic was fitted up as a hall for the Odd Fellows. Here Mr. Joyslin continued until 1867, when, on account of age and infirmities, he retired from bus- iness. He sold to Porter Brothers. Mr. Joyslin was in business here for the term of forty-two years.

R. P. Kent occupied the old "Green Store" until 1837, when he moved into the building formerly standing near the site of the stone house built by John S. Wells, and which, enlarged in 1853 and rebuilt in 1890, is now known as the "Kent Building," on Main

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street, where he remained until his death, in 1885. In April, 1837,. he took Lewis C. Porter into partnership with him, which relation lasted only three years. From 1840 to 1844 Mr. Kent had no partner. His brother Nelson was his clerk since 1836; but in 1845 he took Nelson into partnership, the firm name being R. P. Kent & Co. This partnership only lasted three years, when R. P. Kent became the sole owner of the store until 1862, when he took his brother Nelson and his son, Edward R. Kent, into partnership, as R. P. Kent, Son & Co. After seven years Nelson retired to form a partnership with John W. Spaulding. The old firm since that time has been known as R. P. Kent & Son. Mr. Kent, from his first venture in business in Lancaster, always kept what was known as a " general store "-his stock including almost everything on the market. Having for many years carried a heavy stock of stoves and tinware, also doing tin work, he made that a separate depart- ment in 1865, and took Erastus V. Cobleigh into partnership with him under the firm name of Kent & Cobleigh. This partnership lasted until 1882, when Mr. Kent sold his interest in the hardware business, and the firm became Cobleigh & Moore.

Mr. Kent was, at the time of his death, the oldest merchant in town, having been in business on his own account for fifty-seven years, and as clerk three years in Lancaster, and sixty-five years from his first service as clerk in a store at Lyman. The only one who has been in mercantile pursuits a longer time in the town is his brother Nelson, who has been behind the counter in stores over sixty years.

R. P. Kent was, with Gen. John Wilson, Royal Joyslin, and Apolos Perkins, a partner in the publication of the White Mountain Ægis, the first newspaper published in the town in 1838. From 1841 to 1885 he kept a diary, in which events that engaged the attention of men in town, state, or nation were recorded. In this way he saved much of local history from uncertainty, if not oblivion.

He says of mercantile business soon after he came to Lancaster :

" Nearly all our early sales were made on credit or barter. During my four years with Mr. Joyslin we bought 3,000 bushels of ashes yearly, which we worked into ' potash and pearlash,' mostly the latter, which netted about $800 by their sale in Boston. Large quantities of grain were brought in by farmers, much of which we had, often, to carry over one season. The weavil appeared in the Connecticut valley in 1831, and through the destruction of the winter crop we sold one thousand bushels of wheat at one dollar per bushel in the winter of 1831. Large dairies were kept those times ; and most of the milk was made into cheese, which we marketed chiefly at Rutland, Vt."

Mr. Kent for over forty years never missed making his regular semi-annual trips to Boston for the selection of goods; and even after commercial travelers were on the road with their samples, or

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it had become possible for merchants to order by mail, he still visited the wholesale houses and selected his stocks. He was one of the most careful and persistent of men. He met with many losses from casualties, and the failure or dishonesty of debtors, but never pined over them. Full of courage, purpose, and confidence in the integrity of business men with whom he had to deal, he went on about the business he loved, and made a success of it.

After the death of R. P. Kent his son, Edward R. Kent, continued under the same name. (Its business was closed in 1898, by reason of ill health of the remaining partner.)

Kent & Spaulding, Kent & Griswold, Kent & Roberts .- When Nelson Kent retired from the firm of R. P. Kent & Co., in 1869, he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, John W. Spaulding, under the firm name of Kent & Spaulding. They kept only dry goods, and for a number of years did a good business. Mr. Spaulding retired from the firm after a few years to engage in other business, when Charles L. Griswold, from St. Johnsbury, Vt., who had been a clerk in the store of R. P. Kent & Co. for a number of years, succeeded Mr. Spaulding as a member of the firm of Kent & Griswold. Mr. Griswold, who was son-in-law of Mr. Kent, died in 1883, and Mr. Kent took into partnership with him Burleigh Roberts, who remains in that connection with him still. (1897).

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History of Lancaster, New Hampshire, Part 40

Author: Somers, A. N. (Amos Newton) Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Concord, N.H., Rumford press Number of Pages: 753

Author: Somers, A. N. (Amos Newton)
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Concord, N.H., Rumford press
Number of Pages: 753