USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II > Part 51
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History of Littleton.
following up the course of the Connecticut River ; Robert Charl- ton, Moses Little, John Gile, Levi Burt in this town, and Samuel Martin, Noah Burnham, Daniel Wilson, and the " New Hampshire & Franconia Co." one cent each.
The controversy passed through all the phases of an old-time " road fight." The towns postponed the constructive part of the enterprise for several years, and it was not until 1823 that work on the section in this town was begun. That part lying between the old meeting-house and the first bridge on Connecticut River was built in 1824-1825. It was divided into two sections, and John Gile had the contract to build half, beginning at the meeting- house, and Nathan Pike, of Waterford, Vt., the other half. In the mean time a warm contest was waged over building that part around Gile Hill which had been laid by the Selectmen, and several town meetings were held at which the action of the pre- ceding meeting was reversed, but in June, 1826, the road was con- structed. This road from the foot of Gile Hill to the Buck tavern passed through continuous woods, except the two-acre lot where stood the meeting-house, and much of it, especially that part on the flat below the Gile tavern, was difficult to build owing to the swampy nature of the land.
Franconia, too, was slow to take action. In 1836 Isaac Smith, then agent of the Iron Company, promised the people that if they would elect him to the General Court he would procure an appro- priation from the State to aid the town in building the road through the Notch. The voters accepted his proposition and sent him as their Representative. True to his promise, Representative Smith secured an appropriation, and the Governor and Council appointed Putnam, also of the Iron works, agent to build the road.
The agent advertised for bids in the Haverhill paper, and by posting notices in post-offices and taverns in his own and ad- joining towns asking for bids for constructing mile sections of the road. John Gile, Nathaniel Rix, Jr., Jonathan Rowell, and Isaac Abbott formed a partnership, and their bids were accepted for building three miles, and that of Parker and Horace Cushman was accepted for the mile beginning near the Profile farm. Rix & Co. had three sections beginning near the Lafayette House, the present site of the Profile House, and extending through the Notch. The company had camps along the way for their men, whom they paid $12 a month and board. While the work was in progress the agent offered a prize of $50 to the party who built the mile that at the end of a year had stood the best. This prize
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was awarded the Cushmans. When this road was completed to Lincoln line, the agent had not expended the appropriation, but had a considerable sum left which was used in repairing the road the following year.
A movement was inaugurated in 1826, largely through the in- fluence of Portland merchants who had become aware that some of their former trade had been diverted to Dover and Portsmouth by the construction of the Franconia Notch road, to shorten the route and avoid the hills of the road through Bethlehem. Little was accomplished for several years. In 1831 the Legislature of Maine passed an act appropriating $3,000
" for the purpose of repairing and improving the road leading from this State, through the Notch of the White Hills, to the State of Vermont ; Provided that the the Legislature of the State of New Hampshire, shall give consent thereto, and Provided Also, that the sum of $2,000 be raised by voluntary subscription for the same purpose by the in- habitants of the town of Portland and the States of New Hampshire and Vermont."
The conditions named in the act were complied with, and of the sum thus raised $200 was paid to this town to aid the construction of the road up the valley of the Ammonoosuc to Bethlehem line near Alderbrook. The road through Bethlehem to connect with the old road to Carroll was built, and subsequently that from Wing Road to connect with the Whitefield road was opened. Before this time Littleton's connection with the Coos town was by way of Bethlehem street.
This link completed the thoroughfares through Littleton. Roads radiated from them in such directions as the public interest re- quired, but this network of highways, known in former days as the County road, the Portland road, with its various changes, and the Franconia Notch road, have been the only ones dignified by the name of thoroughfares, and their building or alteration the only cause of public strife arising in this town on account of this class of public utilities.
Highway districts were erected as often as they were required, and were regarded as neighborhood affairs. The office of sur- veyor seems never to have been much sought except in recent years, when there was an exception to this rule in District No. 10, which extended from Bethlehem line to the Connecticut River in- cluding the village streets. This was regarded as one of the most desirable positions in the gift of the town. For more than a century the highway tax was paid in labor, -" worked out " was
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History of Littleton.
the term by which it was designated, -and the road tax was usually subject to a reduction of from 15 to 33} per cent when paid in cash to the laborer, or a fixed discount, which varied in different years, when paid to the surveyor. Until about 1870 the money raised for highways was appropriated in a fixed sum. Then the percentage method was adopted, the usual rate being one half of one per cent on the valuation. This gave a highway fund that has shown an annual increase. Stated in round numbers, it was $6,000 in 1880, $7,800 in 1890, and $8,500 in 1900. Beside the general tax large sums in the aggregate have been added by the Select- men from the fund raised for " town charges," generally the pur- clase of lumber for building and repairing bridges ; the cost of much of the stone work and such other material as was required and paid for in cash, came from this fund. In these two decades the price of labor was fifteen cents an hour for a man and ten cents for a yoke of oxen and a corresponding rate for a horse and cart.
The entire system, financially and practically, was vicious to an extreme. The cost was excessive, and it seldom or never resulted in permanent improvements. On the first of June in each year the surveyor, with such men as were notified to appear with a team, cart, plough, scraper, bar, pick, shovel, or hoe, was at work plough- ing out the roadside ditches and scraping or shovelling the alluvial deposit of the year to the centre of the travelled road. It sloped toward the ditch on either side, into which it was sure to be washed again by the summer and autumn rains, and this was annually repeated for more than a century. During this time the only lasting improvements consisted in removing the stumps and rocks and bridging the streams and sometimes changing the course of the road. This was paid for at the maximum price, while the amount of labor obtained was the minimum. Re- peated efforts were made to reform the system, but without avail until the village residents appealed to the Legislature in 1891 and secured the passage of an act erecting " The Village Highway Precinct," which emancipated them from the thraldom of paying their highway tax in " labor," and gave them an opportunity to inaugurate a system of permanent improvements which have since been executed.
The first sidewalk was built in the village in 1844, of stone drawn mostly from the Hinds lot or Brackett pasture on the Mt. Eustis road. This stone was quarried in slabs, some of them five or six feet in length and three or four feet in width. They were laid on the south side of Main Street, and in 1845 extended from
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the Cobleigh tavern to Mill Street at the east end of Tilton's Block, which was then occupied by the small shop of R. H. Curtis. Previous to the building of this sidewalk there was a bank of earth somewhat above the level of the road and separated from it by the open gutter which served as a pathway for pedestrians. About the time of the close of the war between the States a plank walk was laid on the north side of the street from Jackson Street to Woolson's shop, and before 1870 the stone walk on the south side had also been replaced with plank. This in turn gave way to a brick walk which was laid in sections in the years extending from 1871 to 1884. In this period, too, plank sidewalks were built along nearly all the village streets and extended the length of Main Street. But the history of the advance of street improve- ments need not be recounted here, as it is told in the concluding chapter of the first volume of this work.
In importance as well as in cost the highways of the town have been second only to our public schools, and the long indif- ference of the people to the adoption of better and more economi- cal methods in building, repairing, and improving them, must be regarded as one of the inexplicable incidents of town government.
An account has been previously given of the building of the early bridges crossing the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc rivers. It was not until 1810 that a substantial bridge crossed the river in the village. A freshet in the spring had torn the bridge from its foundations, and Ephraim Curtis, David Rankin, and Parley Robins were chosen members of a town committee to " examine the timbers" of the wrecked bridge and report their value to the next meeting. The bridge was rebuilt in the summer, and with occasional repairs did excellent service until 1826, when the wild storm that swept through the mountains, destroying the Willey family and all bridges on the mountain streams, also swept this away. It was a trestle bridge and was replaced by another of the same style. Each of these structures, so far as we can learn, cost less than $1,000. For the purpose of building that of 1810 but $400 was raised, and it appears that less than $300 additional was expended in its erection. Much of the timber used in the construc- tion of the bridges of 1810 and 1826 was cut on the banks of the river near by. ·
The high water in the spring of 1837 tore the bridge away, leav- ing not a vestige in its place to show that it once existed. At a special town meeting it was decided to rebuild a structure of similar character, and Jolin Gile, Josiah Kilburn, and Isaac Abbott were made Building Committee. The new bridge was in use before
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History of Littleton.
the close of the summer, and the report of the committee shows that it cost $1,343.57. The bridge had a short life, for in February, 1839, the weight of a passing drove of cattle broke it down, and the restoration of the bridge was once more considered in town meeting.
These bridges were placed much nearer the water than were those built subsequently. They were but five or six feet above the level of the meadow on the south side, and the hill on the road at the north end had an elevation above the floor of the bridge that was nearly twelve feet above the present grade.
The town voted that the new bridge should be of a more sub- stantial character than any of those preceding it. Isaac Abbott, Simon B. Johnson, and Stephen C. Gibb were appointed a com- mittee with full powers. They decided upon a covered bridge, and the 15th of February contracted with Elias Nichols to build a lattice bridge to be 165 feet in length and 20 feet inside width, to be completed in May following. . The town was to build the abutments and furnish all the timber and other material except the oak pins by which the lattice work was to be held together, which were to be supplied by Mr. Nichols. For his part of the construc- tion lie received $725. Its entire cost was not far from $1,500.
That it was an excellent structure is shown by the fact that it stood for a generation. The only serious accident in that long period occurred in 1849. A large drove of cattle being driven from Vermont to market while on the bridge broke into a run. The flooring gave way, and some of them were injured on the rocks in the bed of the river. This was soon repaired, and at the same time the structure was strengthened by a supporting arch on each side. Travel on the bridge was increased in 1853, and for the conven- ience of the public a sidewalk was built on its westerly side, and in 1868, when the bridge was practically rebuilt, a sidewalk was attached to the other side. At the time the town building was constructed, in 1894-1895, the scheme of improvements contem- plated a new bridge of iron, and the existing one was condemned and torn down.
The erection of the present iron bridge required many changes. The approaches were regraded ; on the south side bank, walls were constructed on each side of the road and the grade raised to within a few rods of the railroad crossing; on the north side extensive and substantial granite walls were built on the road- side, and changes made in the grade; that near Main Street was lowered, while that at the bridge end was raised several feet. New abutments were built of an enduring character, and many minor
MAIN STREET, LOOKING WEST, BEFORE 1870.
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OLD COVERED BRIDGE.
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Highways and Bridges.
improvements made at this time that were not strictly required on account of the erection of the bridge. The stone work was by Smith & Getchell, of Plymouth, and the superstructure by the Schultz Bridge & Iron Co., of Pittsburg, Pa. The cost of the new structure, as shown by the town reports, was $16,652.48.1
In 1852 the covered bridge at Apthorp was built in contempla- tion of opening a new stage route to Bethlehem, but it was not opened until many years after. It was constructed by P. H. Paddleford, and is a substantial structure still, after having stood for more than half a century with but occasional inexpensive repairs.
The bridge crossing the river at the lower end of the village was built by the town in 1878, in partnership with Henry L. Tilton, who contributed $500 to the fund for the project. Its cost was about $3,500. The location was both inconvenient and ex- pensive, and about the only benefit from its use the larger public has derived was on the two or three occasions when the old bridge was being repaired or the new one built.
The bridge at South Littleton was constructed by the Littleton Lumber Company in 1883, which was at that time operating an extensive plant at that place. The town contributed $1,000. Since the destruction of the mill by fire the bridge has been maintained, as it has been found to be a necessary public utility.
1 This bridge bears a tablet with this inscription : -
" Rebuilt in 1894 by the Selectmen of Littleton Henry F. Green,
Frank P. Bond, George H. Lewis. Designed by Edward S. Shaw, Engineer, Schultz Bridge and Iron Co.
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History of Littleton.
XLIX.
CEMETERIES.
T' THE first death in Littleton was that of Charlotte, daughter of Nathan and Hannah Bingham Caswell, which occurred on the day of her birth, April 20, 1778. The infant was buried in a field adjoining the log cabin, but the location of the grave is not known. The first adult known to have died in town was a man who was stricken with illness while making a clearing on Mann's Hill, probably on the Quimby place. He was unknown to any of his townsmen, and when discovered a few hours before his death was too weak to give his name. His remains were brought from the hill and interred in ground now traversed by Pleasant Street near its junction with Main. Another unknown grave was made near where Meadow Street debouches from Main Street. These deaths occurred before any burial ground had been provided by the people, - that is, before 1790, - and were solemn reminders that provision for such inevitable events should no longer be deferred.
At the annual town meeting in March, 1790, it was " voted that the Selectmen agree upon suitable places for Burial Yards." In compliance with these instructions lots were selected and donated by their several owners, and burial grounds established at each of the principal settlements in the town. That at Rankin's Mills was given by the proprietors of the township, that at North Little- ton by Moses Dow, of Haverhill, and the one on the " Ammonoosuc Meadows " by Ephraim Bayley. These lots were in an exceed- ingly rough condition, encumbered with pine stumps, and that at the north end was also very rocky. In 1794, at a town meeting held on the 8th of December, it was " voted to alter the Burying Yard, or have a new one," and at the same meeting it was decided that it should be located " on the east side of the road adjoining Gen. Dow's land on Mr. John Wheelers land." The burial- place thus located was that at North Littleton now, by a change in the road, on the west side of the thoroughfare. No further
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Cemeteries.
action was taken by the town in regard to its cemeteries for twenty-one years. They remained unkept and unfenced until 1816. In March, 1815, the town at its annual meeting " voted that the Selectmen have leave to take conveyances to the Town of all the Burying Yards in town and Build and Keep in repair fences round the same and refund the money paid out by the In- habitants for making a fence round the Burying Yard on the Ammonoosuc Meadows last fall." It is presumed that the Selectmen followed instructions in so far as to procure deeds of the lots, but no fences were built until the following year, when the town at its March meeting raised $75 to pay for the work, which was soon after executed.
What is now known as the Clark Cemetery on Mann's Hill was established by the town in March, 1816, when it was " voted that the Town accept a plot of ground for interment, in the neighbor- hood of William Burkleys when furnished by the neighborhood free of expense to the town." Other neighborhood burial grounds are those known as the Wilkins Cemetery, also on Mann's Hill ; the Albee, at the west end of the town ; the Hildreth and the Farr, on Farr Hill. The last two named being family grounds, it does not appear that the town has had jurisdiction over them. Glenwood Cemetery was founded as the White Mountain Cemetery in 1850. It is a private corporation. The Roman Catholic Church has its cemetery on the road leading from Apthorp to Bethlehem. It was established in 1888, through the instrumentality of the Rev. Father Hurley, then the clergyman in charge of this parish.
Neither legend nor record tells whose remains were the first to be interred in either of the grounds set apart by the town in 1790 for the burial of its dead. They slumber in peace in unknown graves covered by the gathered dust of more than a century. The first monument erected in town stands at the head of the grave of Soule Cushman, in the " burial yard " near Rankin's Mills. Time has effaced some of the ancient inscription, which once read :
" In Memory of Mr. Soule Cushman, died Nov. 15, 1795, Æ. 46."
and beneath is this version of an epitaph that has many forms : -
" Afflictions sore long time I bore, Physicians were in vain, Till Christ was pleased, To give me ease, And free me from all pain."
VOL II. - 32
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History of Littleton.
Soule Cushman was an uncle of the late Parker Cushman. He was of the fifth generation from Robert Cushman, the Pilgrim, who came to Plymouth in the " Fortune " in November, 1621.
In the northwest corner of the grounds is now a granite head- stone, placed there by direction of a great-grandson of those whose names it is designed to commemorate. It bears this simple legend, "James and Margaret Rankin." To those familiar with the rugged character of these Scotch Presbyterians the stone will be regarded as a peculiarly fitting memorial.
Not far away are the graves of the Rev. David Goodall and Elizabeth his wife, marked by plain but substantial marble slabs. Carved on that of the old " priest " is a text from which he once preached a funeral sermon, and which now truthfully proclaims his own best loved and longest remembered characteristics : -
" He hath dispensed, he hath given to the poor ; His home shall be exalted with honor."
In death, as in life, the first minister and the first doctor of the town are near neighbors. 'T is but a step from the grave we have just mentioned to that where rest the mortal remains of Dr. Calvin Ainsworth. The headstone bears no epitaph.
The mortuary inscriptions on the monuments in our graveyards are not original productions, most of them having served a similar purpose in many burial-places. Some are admonitions from the tomb, like this engraved on the stone that sentinels the resting place of Lieut. Richard Peabody, the minute man of the Revolution : -
" My loving friends as you pass by, As you are now so once was I, As I am now so you must be, Prepare for death and follow me."
Another is a shout of joyous triumph, which the widow of Deacon Thomas Briggs caused to be engraved on his headstone :
" The gospel was his joy and song, E'ne to his latest breath ; The trust he had proclaimed so long Was his support in death. Now he resides where Jesus is, Above this dusky sphere; His soul was ripened for that bliss, While yet he sojourned here."
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Cemeteries.
This widow, who outlived five of her six children, bore her afflictions with Christian fortitude, and this lengthy epitaph is written on her gravestone : -
" Give glory to Jesus our head, With all that encompas his throne, A widow, a widow indeed, A mother in Israel is gone. The winter of trouble is past, The storms of affliction are ore, Her struggle is ended at last And sorrow, and death are no more.
The soul has oretaken her mate
And caught him again in the sky, Advanced to her holy estate And pleasures that never shall die."
The grave of Zuriel Albee is designated by a stone slab bearing this version of what is a common epitaph : -
" My mortal body from the grave Friends nor physicians could not save Nor can the grave confine me here When Christ shall call me to appear."
The same verse is carved upon the stone in memory of Priscilla, wife of David Richardson, an adjoining grave.
On the tombstone of Ezekiel Kellogg, of old-time militia fame, who departed this life in 1839 at the ripe age of eighty-six, is this command : -
" Depart my friends, dry up your tears, I shall arise when Christ appears."
From the slab at the grave of Anna, wife of Jonathan Bowman, is copied, as there engraved, this epitaph : -
" Death cease me and holds me fast And you must soon the tyrant feel Tho now as lothe yet you must yield The arrow goes where they are sent And soon the stubborn will relent Then O dear reader now prepare To welcome deaths grim messenger That when he strikes the fatal blow Your hope you may not then let go."
Her son David, when a young man of twenty, died fifteen years before she was called to her reward, and this double quatrain is graven on his tombstone : ---
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History of Littleton.
" In bloom of youth behold I die, Dear friends prepare, death may be nigh, This grave's my house, here I must rest, Till Christ shall call me from the dust. The stroke of death hath laid my head, Down in the dark and silent bed, The trumpet shall sound, I hope to rise And meet my Savior in the skies."
On many of the stones in this graveyard are engraved brief and appropriate texts from the Bible. We transcribe but one, that which is given beneath the name of Robert Charleton, " A native of England," who died in 1833, aged ninety years : -
" With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."
In these grounds repose the remains of Solomon Whiting, born in 1751, died in 1836, and those of his son Solomon, born in 1792, died in 1886, their lives covering a period of one hundred and thirty-five years from the birth of the elder to the death of the son, their united years being one hundred and seventy-nine. Near them sleeps Robert C. Whiting, a son of Solomon, Jr., who met his death suddenly in March, 1874, by falling upon the log-carriage in his sawmill and being decapitated by the circular saw. In Sep- tember following his only son, an infant, passed away, and the aged grandparents in their bereavement inscribed upon the headstone of the last of their race bearing their name this pathetic lament : -
" Little Robert gone too."
Solomon Whiting, Jr., married Maria, daughter of Robert Charleton, the pioneer. She died in 1882, aged eighty-eight years, being at that time the oldest native resident of the town.
Within this narrow enclosure repose the mortal remains of three hundred and twelve persons whose graves are marked by memorial stones. Of these the number who attained a great age is remarkable. Nine had passed their ninetieth year, - one, Mrs. Elizabeth Markley, being nearly one hundred and two years of age at the time of her death, - and ten others were more than eighty-five. The first list contains the names of Simeon Eastman, ninety years of age ; Robert Charleton, ninety ; Elizabeth Goodall, ninety-three ; Solomon Whiting and Ezra Foster, each ninety-four; Laban Tift and Russell Steere, each ninety-six, and Sarah Williams, ninety- nine. In the other are found those of Joseph Tolman, Michael Shute, Jacob Markley, Solomon Whiting, Sr., Simeon Dodge, Timo- thy B. Hurd, Carter N. Huntoon, Maria Charleton, Daniel Carter,
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