History of Lancaster, New Hampshire, Part 8

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

USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Lancaster > History of Lancaster, New Hampshire > Part 8

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As settlements were made on the Vermont side of the river soon after Lancaster was settled there soon came the demand for some means of crossing the river. To build bridges was out of the question, so ferries were provided. About 1790 some interest was

HISTORY OF LANCASTER.

manifested in ferries, and the legislature was applied to for charters for them. In 1792 there were three of them chartered and in operation within the limits of the town. Uriel Rosebrook had the first one, located at the south line of the Dennis Stanley farm, now owned by Capt. A. M. Beattie. Just how long he operated it, and how profitable it was we do not know, but it may be inferred that it paid a good return, for very soon Rosebrook had competition in the business. John Weeks procured a charter for a ferry, and con- ducted one about thirty rods above Union bridge at South Lan- caster. Neither history nor tradition can enlighten us very much upon the success or period of duration of this ferry. About the time these two ferries were started a movement was set on foot to take out a charter for one to be owned by the town. A petition to that effect was laid before the legislature praying for a charter in the name of the town but the legislature refused to grant one. Whether opposed to towns holding such franchises or the indi- viduals owning the other ferries, convinced that body that no need existed for another competitor is not known. The journal of the house shows that the petition was seriously considered several times before a committee and reported unfavorably to that body.

About the time this charter was refused the legislature granted one to Maj. Jonas Wilder. He located his ferry on his own farm, now known as the Holton farm. This ferry existed for a period of some ten years, and was in operation when the Lancaster Bridge company was formed in 1804. Although Major Wilder was an enterprising, public-spirited man, we do not find his name, nor that of John Weeks, on the list of original stockholders in that remark- able enterprise. Uriel Rosebrook, whose ferry was already declin- ing in its earning power, took one share of stock in the Bridge company. The distance of Weeks's ferry from the bridge, and the fact that at that time the Bucknam neighborhood was almost as populous and important as that where the Pages and Stockwells lived, may have enabled that ferry to continue doing a good busi- ' ness for some years later than its rivals.

The earliest settlers for many years forded Isreals river in summer and crossed it on the ice in winter. The place where the new iron bridge now crosses it on Main street was known as " the fording- place," and is so referred to in very early documents. After a time, but just when we do not know, Emmons Stockwell built a bridge at this old "fording-place."

In their petition for authority "to levy and collect a tax of three pence per acre on all lands (public lands excepted), and a continua- tion of one penny per acre for a term of five years," the petitioners name as the objects upon which it was to be spent, roads, bridges, and meeting-house. That petition of 1787 was favored by the

ROADS AND BRIDGES.

passage of an act giving to the town the right prayed for. Such a tax was levied and collected in part; and it is fair to presume that as Isreals river was the only stream of any magnitude in the town, it was bridged by the use of that tax. It was probably about 1790 that Stockwell built the first bridge, of which we have no descrip- tion whatever. Tradition has preserved the story of Stockwell being the first person to cross his bridge, but whether on foot or in some vehicle, no one seems to know. The right to cross the new bridge first was sold at auction, and Stockwell bid it off for five · gallons of brandy, which must have cost him a handsome sum, for I find by reference to old accounts of that year that brandy cost forty-two shillings a gallon. Tradition does not say what became of the brandy, but it may be presumed that the jolly crowd dis- posed of it in celebrating the event. This old bridge took the name of its builder at a very early date, for we find it referred to as "Stockwell's bridge " in a contract between a committee appointed to let the mill privileges of the river in 1792 and Emmons Stock- well, the original of which I have before me.

This old bridge served until 1805, when it was pulled down, and another of a better design took its place. At a special town meeting held July 6, 1804, a committee consisting of Richard C. Everett, Jonathan Twombly and Levi Willard recommended a plan for building a bridge over Isreals river, which report was adopted, and a committee consisting of Richard C. Everett, John Moore, and Nathaniel White, were appointed to superintend the construction of this bridge.

The committee procured the materials, and had everything in readiness by the following spring, when it was voted at the annual meeting in March to pull down the old bridge, and make a tempo- rary one of its timbers, to be used while the new one was being built. In that vote it was stipulated that this work was to be done at "no expense to the town except for liquor for the men invited to pull down the old bridge by what is called a Bee." Of the " Bee" we know positively nothing, as it was never made a matter of record ; but we may safely presume that any man, in those days, would have considered it an honor to be invited to participate in such an enter- prise. The liquor, of course, was used as the stuff now is, as a safe- guard against sickness from contact with the water, or as a stimulant to fit them for the excessive fatigue from such heavy work. It may reasonably be doubted that the free liquor was intended as a com- pensation, or to induce men to perform a severe and dangerous task at a cheap rate. Lancaster had some old "topers" at that time, but they would hardly be invited to so dangerous and heavy a service. Liquor was freely used by nearly everybody those days, and especially at gatherings like house-raisings, and " Bees " of all

HISTORY OF LANCASTER.

sorts. The town could not be expected to be less hospitable and generous than its individual citizens. This practice of giving liquor on such occasions was general throughout the country at that time, and continued down to within a few decades. Happily, however, with improved methods of doing such work, and the growth of bet- ter sentiments and public opinion, those practices have passed away.

This second bridge was a well-built one that served its purpose until 1837. It was replaced by an uncovered structure of hewn timbers resting on strong stone abutments, with one pier in the middle of the stream, and green posts supporting the double spans . of heavy sills. The grade of Main street, on both sides of the river, was then much lower than at the present time. The height of the bridge was very nearly as great as that of the iron bridge of the present time, and was reached by long, and rather steep, graded approaches on both sides.

In 1848, this one gave place to another wooden bridge, with latticed sides, about six feet high. These two bridges were along the line of improvement in bridge architecture, but they had to give way to the " covered bridge," which made its appearance about forty years ago.

At the annual town meeting in 1862, steps were taken to erect a covered bridge on the same site of these previous uncovered ones. All preparations being made, and the material for the new structure being ready for its erection as soon as the old one could be pulled down, work began on its demolition, October 2, 1862; and by November 18th, teams were passing over the new bridge, which was not completed, however, for some weeks later.

This bridge was by far the best that had ever been thrown across Isreals river. It had a double track for teams, and two side- walks. The people felt a pardonable pride in their covered bridge. They had a bridge of the regulation style, for at that time a covered wooden bridge was considered the best thing in that line. This bridge was doomed to meet a fate, however, that none of the poorer old structures before it had ever met.

In 1886, there was a heavy freshet when the ice went out of the river. An ice gorge formed at the head of the dam of Frank Smith & Co.'s mill, and forced a large stream of water down Mechanic street, which broke over the banks just above the bridge, and car- ried the two-story door, sash, and blind factory of N. B. Wilson & Son, standing above the bridge on the south side of the river, out into the stream, and against the bridge, damaging it so much that a new one became necessary. By this time the art of bridge-building had been so developed as to have abandoned wooden bridges for iron and steel ones, on account of the many advantages of the latter kinds over the wooden structures.

FLOOD, ISRAELS RIVER, FEBRUARY, 1870.

AMERICAN HOUSE AND ICE FRESHET, 1870

ICE FRESHET, 1.870.

ROADS AND BRIDGES.

The people having become aware that to build more wooden bridges over this stream, so liable to excessive rise from the more rapid drainage of a section of country nearly divested of its forests, was unwise, and liable in the long run to be more expensive, decided upon a steel bridge. The contract for it was let to the Boston Bridge Company. Work was begun on it at once, and the bridge was open to the passage of teams in a very short time. This proved a wise choice as to the architecture of the bridge, for it did away with the unsightly covered structures formerly in use. The new bridge was entirely satisfactory, and even an ornament to the village, and what was better still, the people felt safe as to its future. But, alas ! a sad disappointment was in store for the town. In the spring of 1895, when the ice went out of the river, a dam in Jeffer- son broke letting into a very much swollen stream 700,000 feet of logs, which added to a vast quantity of ice came rushing down, carrying everything before it. When this mass of ice and logs reached the dam of Frank Smith & Co.'s mills where they had about 500,000 feet of logs, and where an equally large quantity of ice had accumulated their boom broke leaving this entire mass of ice and logs to pass over their dam in one of the wildest scenes of confu- sion the village ever witnessed, the bridge with all its Herculean strength of steel could not resist the strain upon it, which was not only against its side but upward, lifting it bodily off the abutments and carrying it some eighty rods down the stream upon the mass of logs, where it was dropped a distorted and dilapidated mass.

The selectmen at once set about the task of building a foot-bridge of the pontoon style of architecture above the dam by which travel was only impeded for a half day. The Mechanic street bridge re- ceived no serious injury in consequence of its great height above the water, and was available for teams at the risk of those who cared to use it.

It was decided by the selectmen to use such portions of the steel bridge as were not too badly damaged in its reconstruction, which was undertaken at once. The Boston Bridge Company again took the contract on the work, supplying such new portions as were necessary to a good bridge. The structure was completed in August at a very moderate sum. The reconstructed bridge was raised nearly two feet higher than it was in 1895, and the ap- proaches graded up, making a slight increase in the grade, and yet not materially affecting the appearance of either street or bridge. This bridge has a double track, and two sidewalks. It seems well adapted to meet the requirements of the community ; and so far as human wisdom can forecast the future it may be expected to stand until worn out by use and the ravages of time.

The river, however, has become very much changed in character 6

HISTORY OF LANCASTER.

from the denudation of the country of its timbers, and through the drainage of a number of swamps that served in early times as a sort of check upon the river by holding portions of the surface water back to run off more slowly. At present when the snows of winter go off, and the ice breaks up, if it happens to be accompanied by rain the streams become rapidly and greatly swollen, by which all bridges are endangered. This condition of things is likely to grow worse rather than better as time goes by. It has become necessary for the protection of property to raise the banks by the addition of stone walls of rubble at several points within the village limits.

The Mechanic Street Bridge .- In early days a wooden bridge was built over Isreals river on Mechanic street. It was a single- span, wooden structure that served its purpose well until 1862, when it became unsafe, and was replaced by the present one. This bridge has rendered good service, aud although it sustained some injury from the great freshet of Feb. 18, 1870, remains serviceable yet.

There are a few small bridges in various parts of the town, mainly over very small streams, which are substantial and meet all demands upon them in a satisfactory manner, and little need be said of them here.

THE LOCAL ROADS.

For the first three decades after the settlement of the town the roads were marked by committees of the proprietors, and built by . assessments on proprietary rights in the town lands. The history of the very earliest roads, during the proprietary period of the set- tlement, is obscure, a mere matter of tradition, due to the loss of the proprietors' records in the court house fire of 1886.

From 1792, down to the present day, the records of laying out, changing, or abandoning of roads are complete, and preserved in the Town Records. The earliest record of any highway we have, then, is that of the road from Stockwell's bridge to Colonel Wild- er's mills on the north side of Isreals river, a distance of seventy-two rods, the width of which was three rods. Most of the principal roads of the town were laid out by the selectmen in 1795, and full records of them are to be found entered upon the Town Records. The roads back from the rivers have been much changed from their first locations. They formerly ran over the higher grounds for the sake of escaping the wet lands on the levels. These roads were laid for the convenience of the new comers who invariably settled on the high lands back from the rivers to escape the early frosts, and because the soil is equally pro- ductive.

The road to Dalton, Main street, and North Main street remain

THE LOCAL ROADS.

to-day where they were first laid out. All others have changed more or less.

The road to Northumberland was from the head of Main street, by North Main street, past the house of E. B. Stockwell, following the river bank, thence to the Stanley house along the bank of the river, until it united with the present road near the Hadlock place.

The first road east was a continuation of the road from Stock- well's bridge to Colonel Whipple's mills, to beyond the top of the hill about twenty rods back of the Plummer Moody house, thence passing over Sugar Hill to the bridge over Great Brook and on to the eastern settlement. A branch of this road extended past the Faulk- ner and Crandall places, over the hill, joining the Jefferson road near the George W. Webster place. In passing through Jefferson it ran twenty rods east of the present highway from the Samuel Marden house, and high above the Waumbek House, crossing Stag Hollow brook a mile above the present bridge across that stream. The road from Lancaster to Whipple Meadows ran from Stockwell's bridge along the south bank of the river. At an early date it was changed from near the old meeting-house and ran south of the present road to near the Jefferson mills. Old and rotten corduroy, sunk in the mud, marked the course of these old highways until within a very few years.

The old road toward Whitefield has been changed from about three quarters of a mile south of Stockwell's Bridge to near where the old red schoolhouse stood in old District No. 8. This old road reached some noted old homesteads. Some fifty rods be- yond General Willson's, the James Boutwell place by the cold spring, Isaac Darby, noted bear hunter, miller, and gun- smith, lived, and reared a large and respectable family. A mile beyond, and near the cross-road to the Richard Eastman farm, was the Levi Willard farm, afterward owned by Asa Wesson. Levi Willard was one of the most prominent men in town in his day. He was sheriff of the county of Coos for the first seven years after it was erected. He held other responsible positions and offices.

Some forty rods farther on was the farm of Jonathan Twombley, and later of his son Elijah D. Twombley. Thirty rods farther on was the farm of Esquire Joseph Farnham, later occupied by William Elliot. At the height of land was the home of David Perkins, later of Ephraim Leighton. There were at that time six large and valua- ble farms with good buildings, of which to-day not a vestige remains, unless it be an old dilapidated barn on the Willard farm.

Those early roads were rude highways, crooked, and almost wholly undrained. The small streams and boggy places were crossed by corduroy, made by laying timbers lengthwise of the road, six or seven feet apart, covered with cross-timbers, usually round

HISTORY OF LANCASTER.

poles, some eight feet long. These primitive highways answered the wants of the people quite well as they used only ox-carts and a lumbering sort of "two-horse wagon," a two-wheeled vehicle. Those primitive roads continued to serve their purpose until the advent of the four-wheeled vehicles, which was in 1822. Imme- diately the habit of horse-back riding, and the stately old chaise began to give place to the one-horse, four-wheeled wagon, with a crooked frame firmly bolted to its wooden axles. It is claimed by Alonzo P. Freeman that Dr. Lyman brought the first four-wheeled wagon to Lancaster, and he says he remembers it distinctly with its wooden springs. It excited no little curiosity on the streets, and well it might. The innovation was as great as the modern horseless carriages of to-day. Dr. Lyman is said to have procured his famous wagon in Connecticut. He was himself from that state, as were many other prominent men who came to Lancaster. The next vehicle was one with wooden springs, and regarded as a great improvement on the original wagon. Nothing but "chaises" until 1854, when Wallace Lindsey bought the first four-wheel buggy or phaeton. Not long afterward, however, the real covered "buggy " made its appearance, since which the vehicles in use have been fully up to date with the progress in construction. The most important vehicle, the one to compel better roads, was the stage coach. When travel began to demand more rapid progress, and more comfort than the primitive means would furnish, this grand vehicle made its appearance, and once on the roads they had to be kept in good condition to insure dispatch and ease.

Another incentive to road-building was the unparalleled pros- perity of this section from 1790 to 1800. The farms produced as they never had before, and some other commodities were produced, all demanding better roads to the markets.

The territory of the town was at an early day divided into high- way districts, and a surveyor of roads was annually elected over each one. The system was a very satisfactory one in some respects, though it failed for lack of uniformity of method in road work. There was no sufficient supervision, and sooner or later every sur- veyor was working on his differing plans, giving good roads, it is true, in some districts, while in others the roads were poor. If one surveyor did good work during his term of office the next one to suc- ceed him might undo it all or do little or nothing to sustain what had been well built. Even a much-increased highway tax did not guarantee good roads. They were a disgrace to the town after a time, and later became actually unsafe to travel. This state of things lasted until 1886, when the town made the radical change of employing a superintendent to have charge of all the road work, requiring him to give bonds for the faithful performance of his duties

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

and the expenditure of the public moneys raised for repair of roads. The result in a single season fully justified the change, for the con- dition of the roads bore no comparison to what they had been for many years previous. The stones were removed, and the old " water-bars" on the hills, that had been a nuisance for a whole generation, were done away with, and seventy out of the eighty-two miles of roads in the town were put in good condition, and have so remained to this date. The roads are now entirely safe, and of easy grades, and wider of track. The cost of repairing roads has been reduced fully forty per cent. by the new system, with the result of making better roads every year.

In 1884, the town procured a Victor road machine, and in May gave it a thorough and satisfactory trial, after which it purchased the machine.

This new method of road-working has proven a great advantage to the town, both in point of economy and better roads. It has enabled the repair of roads to be reduced to a system under a com- petent head. The road agents are now engaged with reference to their knowledge of the business of road repairing; and as very many less of them are necessary under the new system than under the old, one man is not undoing one year what his predecessor did the year before. Permanent improvements are added every year no matter who the agents may be; and so in time a good result is seen in the cumulative efforts of the agents.

In 1893 the town invested in a second road machine.

These machines do more work now in one day than was often done by a large crew of men in a week under the old methods.

In 1892 the town bought a stone-crusher, since which time there have been several of the streets, most notable Elm and South Main streets, macadamized. Sidewalks of crushed stone have been some- what in use, although the tendency has been in favor of concrete walks, and every year there are additions to the amount of that kind of walks made in the village.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

From the settlement of the town to the breaking out of the War of the Revolution the population had not probably reached four- score souls all told. A census taken, by order of Gov. John Went- worth, in 1773 gave the following numbers:

HISTORY OF LANCASTER.

" Unmarried men from 16 to 60 .

Married men from 16 to 60

3. 6.

Boys 16 and under

Females unmarried .

IO.

Females married

Widows

Slaves

I. o."

When the war-shadows had begun to gather, the new govern- ment ordered another census taken; and this time, 1775, we find a considerable increase for the last two preceding years. This census taken by Edwards Bucknam, as one of the selectmen, shows as follows :

" No of souls in Lancaster Sept. 22, 1775 :

Males under 16 17.

Males from 16 to 50 not in the army 15.

Males above 50 gone in the army

Females . 27.

Negros & Slaves for life

8 guns fit for use, 7 guns wanted, and II lbs poder wanted." .

Although the number of people here was not large, and the country was an immense, little-known region, yet there were in it homes that meant everything to the little band of brave men who had endured so much to create them. Their future was full of promise, and already they had begun to make plans for the welfare of their children. They loved their rich acres whether cleared or bending beneath the burdens of their forests. They were hardy and intelligent men who had tasted the sweets of prosperity, liberty, and social life before coming to this wilderness to found an Ameri- can town. They were men and women with a purpose, and among other things that purpose included the intention to develop here a typical New England township, not apart from their former neigh- bors but with them. They fully shared with the people of Massa- chusetts and Connecticut, from which states many of them had come, the pride and love of independence. They despised tyranny, as we have seen, and did not hesitate to debate their civil relations and questions with the governor and the general court when they felt that they had been dealt with unwisely or unfairly. They had sacrificed and endured much in order to protect their homes against the French and Indians, and now when a new combination of enemies of their safety had been formed, and a price put upon their scalps and bodies, they were not going to flinch, though some of those enemies were of their own race and country. They had no use for kings and foreign governments for they had learned to govern themselves in their own town meetings and provincial congress, which latter body, composed of one hundred and thirty-three mem-

00 .= 61

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

bers sent by one hundred and two towns, had dismissed the king's governor and council, together with many other civil officers.

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History of Lancaster, New Hampshire, Part 8

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