USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. I > Part 22
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At the adjourned meeting, hield on March 26, the committee reported, rearranging some of the districts and creating two addi- tional districts. It also favored an appropriation of "$600 to furnish said town with school-houses, and the appointment of one man in each district to lay out the money." This report was ac- cepted, and the money raised in accordance with its suggestion. The committee consisted of Bethuel White, Abijah Allen, Isaac Miner, James Williams, James Jackson, Barney Hoskins, Joseph W. Morse, and Alexander Albee. The collectors of the school- tax, chosen at this meeting, were Wadleigh Leavitt, James Glea- son, Jr., Henry Bemis, Hesekiah Smith, Walter Bowman, Joseph Robins, John Millen, and Denison Lathrop. It was the purpose of the town to replace the log houses with frame buildings. And the work was entered upon at once, but was not completed until 1806.
Nearly every year, during this decade, an article was inserted in the warrant for the annual meeting to see " If the town would hire preaching during the ensuing year ; " and once, in 1806, the arti-
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cle was " To see if the town would raise any money to hire some young candidate to preach the ensuing summer." Even this mild proposition was without avail. All efforts of this character were uniformly rejected by the voters. Some years before 1807 Moses Little, who was anxious to promote the cause of religion here, had made an offer to deed to the town a lot for a church whenever the town would decide to build such an edifice. The matter was mildly agitated, but without action, until 1807, when the town appointed Peter Bonney, Bethuel White, and Joseph W. Morse " a committee to center s'd town." This committee represented each of the triangular corners of the town. At a special meeting, held May 27, Nathaniel Webster, David Goodall, and Asa Lewis were chosen a committee "to talk with Mr. Moses Little about a minister lot." At the same meeting it was voted to raise twenty- five cents on a poll, and other estate equal thereto, for the purpose of hiring a minister. Whether this tax was levied does not appear. If it was, the fund created by it passed into the general account, for no minister was hired by the town.
The committee to fix the centre of the town attended to that duty and reported at the annual meeting in 1808, and its consid- eration was postponed to the following year. After this long deliberation and much discussion the report was accepted, which located the meeting-house lot where, subsequently, the road by the Fitch place formed a junction with the Waterford road, and two acres of land were deeded to the town by Moses Little. The men who had for twenty years contended for town action in behalf of public religious worship won a partial victory, as this action of the town was soon followed by the erection of a meeting-house.
The office of town auditor was unknown in those early days, and the auditing or " settleing" with the selectmen and town treasurer was a function discharged by a committee chosen each year in town meeting. These committees did not always attend to the duty assigned, and sometimes a disagreement over allowing an item of the year's expenditures would cause several years' delay in accepting and closing up the accounts of the town officers. In 1808 such a committee was chosen to settle with the selectmen, treasurer, and the committee to build the school-houses in 1805. Their report was made to the annual meeting in 1809, and the bills of those years settled.
The number of ratable polls in 1808 was 153, and the fol- lowing year the town was, for the first time, entitled to repre- sentation in the General Court. To this position Rev. David Goodall was elected without opposition. He had previously rep-
1
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History of Littleton.
resented the classed towns, Littleton, Bethlehem, and Dalton, several terms, and had acquired great experience and consequent influence in the Legislature. The town at this time also elected a board of school inspectors. The duties of these functionaries were similar to that of superintendent of schools. The persons elected to fill this important position were Rev. David Goodall, Robert Charlton, and Dr. William Burns. The names of the two former are familiar to the readers of this narrative. Dr. Burns was a young physician who had settled at the Ammonoosuc Mills in 1806, and was the first doctor to locate in the village. At the time of his coming a vacant house stood on the site now the north- easterly corner of Main and School Streets. It had been built about 1801 by Thomas Webster, who soon after moved from town. It was a small one-story building; the Doctor built a front addi -. tion in 1808, which now forms the rear portion of the Hodgman house, and hither brought Mary Patterson as his bride in the early summer of that year. About 1818 he built the structure as it now stands. It was for many years the most imposing residence in town.
In 1809 Joseph Emerson Dow, son of Gen. Moses Dow of Haverhill, then but recently admitted to practice as an attorney, located at North Littleton. In 1810 he succeeded Robert Charl- ton as a member of the board of school inspectors. For the first time in the history of the town this board could be, and was, made up of representatives of the three learned professions, - a minister, a lawyer, and a doctor.
Among other important additions to the citizenship of these years were Amos Town, Solomon Fitch, Tillotson and Vespatian Wheeler at the north end, Jonas Bowman, William Hibbard, Comfort Day, and Solomon Whiting at the west end, Amos Hubbard and Levi Ward Cobleigh on Farr Hill, and Simeon Dodge on the Mann's Hill road.
This year the town voted to rebuild the bridge over the Ammo- noosuc. A committee, consisting of Peter Bonney, David Rankin, and Andrew Rankin, was chosen to provide a plan for the bridge, and to report at an adjourned meeting.
In the old days the business in town meeting was transacted with great deliberation. In order to enable each citizen to state his views informally it was, for many years, the unfailing rule for the meeting to take a recess after the election of a moderator, during which a conference or caucus was held, at which all mat- ters, including the election of town officers and the sums of money to be raised, were considered, and when a decision was made it
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was usually ratified in town meeting without dissent. In rare in- stances, when the conference had failed to reach an agreement, the contest was transferred to open meeting, and sometimes fought out with considerable bitterness.
This decade witnessed a rapid advancement in the material wel- fare of the town. Its population had increased from 381 to 873, or more than 228 per cent. The number of ratable polls grew from 71 to 167 in the same period, and the number of acres of cultivated land, including pasturage, from 308 to 501. The addi- tion to the live stock was in a somewhat larger ratio. A fair esti- mate would show that the wealth of the town had increased fully 200 per cent, - not so large as the gain in population, but it should be remembered that many of the emigrants brought little with them save brawn, and a determination to conquer a home in the rugged wilderness.
The gain had not been without serious loss among the pio- neers. Aside from the large number who removed from town, death claimed its share. James Rankin passed to his reward in the summer of 1804, and Jonas Nurse in 1809. Mr. Nurse was numbered among the first settlers. He was a prosperous inn- keeper and farmer, and one of the most substantial residents of the town.
Among the men who have contributed to the advancement of the moral and business welfare of the town, James Rankin holds a prominent place. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1745 or 1746, and with a large family came to the American Colonies in 1776. He purchased a considerable tract of land in Thornton, and was one of the first to settle in that remote mountain valley. He was active in promoting the welfare of the new settlement. In the spring of 1780 he and his wife Margaret were among the twelve persons who organized the first church in Thornton, the meeting for that purpose being held at his house. In 1786 he was chosen to the double office of Ruling Elder and Deacon. In 1787 the pastor of the church, Rev. Experience Eastabrook, was dis- missed, and was succeeded in the pastorate by the Rev. Noah Wor- cester. Mr. Rankin had been educated in the Scotch Presbyterian Church, and held strictly to its teachings and creed. The Rev. Mr. Worcester and the Elder soon came in conflict concerning questions of doctrine, and as the Elder was free with his criticism of what he regarded as doctrinal error, a church council was the inevitable result of their differences. The pastor was the com- plainant, and the charge, briefly stated, was that the Elder was untruthful, and not a suitable person to hold the position of Elder
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History of Littleton.
in the church. After many sessions, extending through the sum- mer and autumn of 1790, the council reached the conclusion that the charge of untruthfulness had not been proven (a Scotch ver- dict), but that the character of Mr. Rankin, self-willed and obsti- nate, was such as to render him unfit for the position he held in the church, and he was accordingly deposed. He was also required to make a public confession of his alleged sin before the church. Notwithstanding the conclusions and requirements of the council, the Elder remained of the same opinion still, and refused to make any confession or apology. Nothing that we know of his character tends to disprove the correctness of the verdict of the council that Mr. Rankin was "self-willed and obstinate," but as to the cause which led to the church controversy time seems to have justified the contention of Elder Rankin, for within a few years the Rev. Noah Worcester renounced the creed of the Presbyterian Church and became an avowed Unitarian. Doubt- less it was a tendency in that direction which Mr. Rankin de- tected in his sermons that caused the trouble in the church at Thornton.
The last act in the church controversy was reached in Novem- ber, 1790, and Mr. Rankin at once took measures looking to a severance of his connection not only with the church, but with the people at Thornton. During the same month he came to Littleton and entered into the negotiations which finally resulted in his be- coming a resident of this town. He exchanged all his landed pos- sessions in Thornton with Colonel Little for ten hundred and fifty acres of land lying in a body near the Connecticut River, and the mills and privilege at West Littleton. The deeds were passed on the 22d of January, 1791, and within a few weeks Mr. Rankin and his sons Samuel, Andrew, Henry, William, James, Jr., and David, and his daughter, with her husband, Nathaniel Webster, were enrolled as citizens of Littleton.
Mr. Rankin established himself at the mills. His son David, the youngest of the family, was but a lad. Both mills were put in operation, and remained under the management of the Elder, or his son David, for more than half a century. The Elder took a prominent part in town affairs, and frequently was called upon by the people to serve them in an official capacity. He was Mode- rator in 1794-95-97-98 and 1800, Treasurer in 1794, Selectman in 1794, and Representative from the class in 1798, being the second resident of Littleton to occupy a seat in the General Court. As a member of the Legislature he served on a committee to frame a deer law, and voted against an act to incorporate the Baptist
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Society at Northwood, a proposition to keep alive certain State claims, and a bill providing for a bounty on crows.1
James Rankin was intellectually a strong man, and maintained a large influence among his fellow-citizens in shaping local politi- cal, religious, educational, and industrial affairs. His judgment was sound and clear, and his purposes and actions always tended to advance the highest interests of the community. The church council was right, " he was self-willed." He was slow in reaching a conclusion, but when once his mind was settled it could not be moved.
While he lived the large family remained within call, but when he died they soon separated. Henry, William, James, Jr., and Nathan- iel Webster went to Canada and settled in Stanstead, Brompton, or Windsor. The exodus from this town to the eastern town- ships deprived Littleton of some of its most enterprising citizens. During the years intervening between 1795 and 1810 the emi- gration included entire families, among whom were Caswells, Larneds, Rankins, Caleb Hopkinson, Smith and Providence Williams, Levi Aldrich, and others, who moved once more into the unknown wilderness, allured by the cheapness and fertility of the lands. Their descendants are numbered among the most pros- perous and useful citizens of that country, where the speech and customs of ancient France blend with those of modern England.
1 See Address of Hon. A. S. Batchellor, Littleton Centennial, p. 49.
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History of Littleton.
XVI. CHURCH AND STATE. 1810-1820.
TN the preceding narrative frequent reference is made to the continued but generally ineffectual efforts of some of the citi- zens to establish public religious worship at the expense of the tax-payers. The Puritans made church membership the corner- stône of the Commonwealth. No person could become a citizen who was not a member of the church, nor exercise its privileges unless he had partaken of the communion within a prescribed period.1 The first settlers at Portsmouth and Dover were more interested in trade with the natives and the fisheries than in the promotion of religion, and the founders of Exeter and Hampton had fled from Massachusetts to escape its church exactions and secure in the wilderness the privilege of worshipping God accord- ing to the dictates of conscience. But emigration did not enable the pioneers to escape the law. It followed them, and while not always rigorously enforced, the Act of the 13 of Anne, author- izing towns to hire and settle ministers and raise money by taxa- tion for the payment of their salaries, with the additional power to appropriate money for building and repairing meeting-houses, was the law of Province and State down to 1819, when the pas- sage of the Toleration Act placed all religious denominations on an equality before the law in fact as they had long been in theory.2
1 Church membership was never a prerequisite to suffrage in New Hampshire.
2 The law of the State as it stood with slight modifications prior to the passage of the Toleration Act of 1819 was as follows : -
"SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the inhabitants of each town in this State, qualified to vote as aforesaid, at any meeting duly and legally warned and holden in such town, may, agreeable to the constitution, grant and vote such sums of money as they shall judge necessary for the settlement, maintenance and support of the ministry, schools, meeting houses, schoolhouses, the maintenance of the poor, for laying out and repairing highways, for building and repairing bridges, and for all necessary charges arising within the said town, to be assessed on the polls and estates in the same town as the law directs." (Amendment to an Act for the regu- lation of taxes and the choice of town officers passed Feb. 8, 1791; Laws of N. H. printed by John Melcher, 1792, p. 173, Ed. of 1797, p. 184.)
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Church and State.
While the acts of 1791 and the amendments thereto did not create a union of Church and State, the action of a majority of the people, reinforced by the decisions of the courts, practically estab- lished the Congregational denomination as the State church.
As has been shown elsewhere, the people of this town were averse to raising money for religious purposes. A very large ma- jority of the church membership were Congregationalists, or Presbyterians who acted with them. The Baptists, Methodists, and Universalists, in the early days of the settlement, joined with the majority in providing public worship, but as the increasing population added to their numbers, they withdrew from the union and held services under the direction of ministers of their own order. As no attempt was made to enforce the law, this division naturally operated to postpone the organization of a church society and the erection of a meeting-house.
A Congregational church was organized in 1803 by Rev. David Goodall, assisted by the Rev. Asa Carpenter, of Waterford, Vt., with a membership of ten persons. This action brought into co- operation an influential body of citizens, who began to agitate the question of building a meeting-house. Such progress as was made prior to 1811 has appeared in the account of the transactions of the annual meetings of the town. The most important of these events was the location of the site for a meeting-house by " cen- tering the town," and the appointment of a committee to receive from Moses Little, of Newbury, Mass., a conveyance of the location.
The warrant for the annual meeting of 1811 contained this article : " To see if the Town will build a Meeting House and what method to take." At the meeting, by virtue of this brief article, three important votes were passed : first, " to build a Meeting House ; " second, " to raise two hundred dollars towards building a Meeting House ; " and third, "to have a committee to draw a plan for the Meeting House and lay before the town." The committee for this important purpose consisted of Peter Bonney, David Rankin, and Deacon Asa Lewis. The tradition is that this conclusion was not reached without determined opposition inspired by different mo- tives. Some opposed on account of the cost ; a few for the reason that they had no use for a meeting-house ; and others because they were not satisfied with the proposed location.
The dissatisfied element determined to bring the question once more to a crucial test, and on the 15th of May a special town meeting was called to act upon the following questions as stated in the warrant: " To see if the town will reconsider a vote passed
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History of Littleton.
at the adjournment of our last March meeting to build a meeting house. To see where the town will agree to set said Meeting House if the former vote is not reconsidered, and to sell the pews. To see if the town will build a meeting house and what method they will take to do it if the vote in second article shall be reconsidered."
The meeting was held at the inn of John Gile, who had suc- ceeded Jonas Nurse as landlord at the Fitch place. It was voted not to reconsider the vote passed at the adjourned March meeting to build a meeting-house. It was also voted, " To set the meeting house where the centre was struck by a committee for that purpose, viz., on the Ainsworth lot, or the two acres Moses Little, Esqr., proposes to give the town at that place." The remaining articles were disposed of by being passed over.
A special meeting was held at Gile's inn, July 12, to act upon the report of the committee appointed to provide a plan for the meeting-house and choose a committee to dispose of the pews. The committee, through Peter Bonney, its chairman, presented a plan which was accepted after it had been so amended as to pro- vide for additional pews in the gallery. Asa Lewis, John Gile, and Rev. David Goodall were constituted a committee, for what purpose is not stated in the record, but presumably to sell the pews in accordance with the vote passed by the meeting. The meeting " Voted, that each person purchasing a pew shall pay one third of the purchase in money and the other two thirds in neat stock or grain, except the purchaser shall choose to pay in lumber, then he shall have a privilege to turn in such lumber as the superintend- ing committee shall direct to the amount of his purchase of what lumber is needed to build said house." The following vote was also passed : "That each payment shall be made at the time the com- mittee shall appoint, which shall be made known at the time of sale ; " and " that each person shall procure a good and sufficient Bondsman for said payment."
A third meeting assembled on the 16th of September and con- stituted David Goodall, John Gile, and James Williams a commit- tee to select a lot on which to erect a meeting-house and receive from Moses Little a deed, or security for the conveyance of such lot. Mr. Little had signified to a former committee his purpose to make the town a gift of a lot when it had taken action which would insure the building of a meeting-house.
The next vote was a wide departure from a long-established custom, and indicates in unmistakable terms that the citizens of our town were, at that early day, in sympathy with the spirit
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Church and State.
which was rapidly sweeping over New England and supplanting the theological exclusiveness of the Puritans which had been dom -. inant for nearly two centuries. That this policy had been pro- ductive of much good there can be no doubt, but it was not in har- mony with existing conditions or the fundamental law of the State, and the hour was fast approaching which was to usher in a new and more tolerant system by the passage of the Toleration Act. But our town was to anticipate that beneficent legislation by eight years, by granting to each religious denomination such equality as was in its power to bestow. This meeting voted, " That each denomination of Christians shall have a right to occupy the meeting house in proportion to the money they pay for building and repairing the same, so far that in that proportion each denomination have a right to put what preacher they please into the pulpit. And each person paying said money shall have a right to choose to which denomination he shall be considered as belonging."
The committee on location, and other purposes, reported in favor of the location established by the committee to centre the town ; and it was " Voted, that the meeting house stand on the spot where the committee have set the stake, or not more than four or five rods from said stake, according to discretion of the committee." On this site the building was finally erected. It was a commanding location. To the north and west there was a gradual slope of from one to two miles, to the swift current of the Connecticut ; to the east and southeast a more abrupt and irregular descent for about the same distance into the valley of the Ammonoosuc. To the south alone, in the immediate vicinity, were heights whose summits towered above " meeting-house com- mon." Through the narrow vistas cut in the forests by roads and farm clearings were glimpses of the Franconia mountains, and in the other direction the rolling domes of the Green Moun- tains were clearly visible.
The business of the meeting was finished by the election of John Gile, Asa Lewis, and Ebenezer Pingree a building committee invested with full discretionary powers.
The plan adopted provided for a building forty-five feet wide, fifty-five in length, and two stories in height. The committee pro- ceeded in their work with due deliberation. During the following winter timber for the frame was cut, and the next summer there was a " raising " which called together the brawn and courage of the town. If the expense account of that building committee could be scanned by the church membership of to-day, many would be sur-
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History of Littleton.
prised to learn that the godly men of old deemed New England rum, in large quantities, an indispensable article on such an occa- sion, and would speculate as to the final destination of brethren who were so unmindful of some of the creeds and disciplines of the present which regard such indulgences as placing the practi- tioner beyond the pale of the church or benefits of the clergy.
The work progressed slowly. In 1812 the town provided a system of registration of titles to pews by requiring that sales should be entered in the town records, and the original sale and subsequent transfers are so recorded.
The action of the town in regard to building a house of worship gave an added stimulus to religious matters. Methodist itinerants were especially active, and one result of their zeal was the conver- sion to that faith of James Rankin, Jr., who was for several years afterward an exhorter who achieved a fame that was more than local. Another form in which this interest was manifested was in the election of six tithing-men in 1815. The men thus honored were Andrew Rankin, Asa Lewis, Luther Thompson, Isaac Miner, Joseph W. Morse, and Ebenezer Farr. All were men of dignity of character and bearing, a fact that doubtless had something to do in determining their selection.
The house was finished in 1815. It was without architectural adornment. In simplicity of form and structure it was of the ancient Puritan type, firm, strong, and severe. Before the outer staging was removed it received a coat of white paint which served to add to its solemn dignity for a time; but the blasts of winter and storms of spring and autumn soon toned its complexion to a natural gray, and thenceforth its form blended harmoniously with the landscape. The entrance was at the eastern front through a large main door which led directly through a commodious hall to the main aisle. This door was flanked on either side by one much smaller which communicated with the side aisles. At each end of the hall a winding stairway led to the gallery above, which covered both sides and one end of the house. The pews were about five feet square, and save the space occupied by the door were sur- rounded with seats of pine. Those against the walls were raised a step above the pews in the centre of the house. The pulpit was a plain but imposing structure, elevated high above the audience and approached by a flight of steps. The interior was entirely barren of furnishings and unheated until 1822, when the Rev. David Goodall presented the Congregational Society a stove upon the condition that the members should supply the necessary pipe. This failed to warm the house, and only those occupying seats near it
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