History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 106

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520

USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 106
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 106

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"Voted to set the meeting-house not more than 40 rods distant from the mouth of Hutchine' road, so called.

"Voted, Samnal Messer, Nath'l Goodwin and Samuel Brocklebank a committee to pitch the place to set the meeting-house, sell tha pews, and go forward with the same as far as the money that the paws are sold for will forward the building of said meeting-house.

"Voted to have a hurying-yard near where said meeting-house is to staod."

This meeting was adjourned several times, and the committee appointed had located the house and sold the pews and provided that those who bought them might pay for the same in corn at four shillings and rye at five shillings per bushel.

"Voted to raise twenty dollars for preaching this year, and that Levi Harvey see the same expended, and that the selectman should settle with Mr. Ambrose and pay any balance dne him for preaching out of the town's stock."

In these votes of 1786 originated the old meeting- house (which was located on the ground which now constitutes the southerly part of the cemetery) and also the burying-ground which adjoined it, and which has since been enlarged and improved. The Hutch- ins road, referred to in the location of the meeting- house, was the road that led across from the four corners to the other road on which the cemetery is now located.

In this year, also, 1786, a census was ordered by the Legislature of the State, by a resolution passed March 3d. New London responded to this call, which is the first census of the inhabitants of the town. The re- turn is as follows :

The number of inhabitants of New London in 1786 is as follows :

" Males 21 years of age and upwards 46

Males under 21 years of age 66

Females 18 years of age aod upwards 46

Females under 18 years of age 61

Total 219

" The above is a true account, as witness our hande.

" LEVI HARVEY,

Selectmen

" JOHN ADAMS, for

" JOHN MORGAN,

New Loudon.

"Naw London, June 5, 1786."

In 1787, at the request of many of the people who had come here from Attleborough, Mass., and had there known Elder Seamans, he visited New London and preached here June 24, 1787. That autumn the town

" l'oted To giva Elder Seamans a call to settla in this town as a minis- ter of the gospel.

" l'oted To give him forty ponads yearly as a salary, three pounds in cash and thirty-seven pounds in labor and grain and other produce that he may want, all to be paid at the common price, and all ministerial privileges in town except one half the parsonaga lot."

In February, 1788, Elder Seamans visited New London again and spent some two months there in preaching from house to house and in visiting the people, and it seems that he concluded to accept the call, for in March of that year the town instructed a committee to engage Mr. Seamans' salary to him; that in paying the part to be paid in corn and grain, corn should be reckoned at three shillings and rye at four, and

"I'oted To remove Mr. Seamans' family from Attleborough to New London on the cost of the town, and that his salary begin on the 24th day of February last and that the selectmen do forward the moviog of Mr. Seamans' family."

On the 20th day of June of that year the arrange- ments for moving had been completed, and he started with his family for New London, where he arrived July 1st, and as he says in his diary "went into a very poor house of Mr. James Brocklebank."

He commenced his labors at once, working on his farm through the week and preaching on Sunday ; he studied his sermons while engaged in manual labor.

A church of eleven members was formed October 23, 1788, over which he acted as pastor, and on the 25th day of November of the same year, at a town- meeting called for the first time at the meeting-house, the town voted to unite with the church in the call they had given Mr. Seamans, and arrangements were made for his reinstallment as pastor of the church and minister of the town. At this town-meeting the town also elected singers to sing at their public religious meetings, as follows :

" Voted, For singers, Ebenezer Hunting, Lieutenant Samuel Messer, Nathaniel Fales, Asa Burpee, Moses Hill, Jonathan Adams and Captain Samuel Brockle- bank." The time for the reinstalnient was fixed for the 21st of January, 1789.

On the 13th of December, 1788, Elder Seamans gave his final answer to the town, approving of their arrangements and consenting to the reinstallment as proposed, and the same came off, with all proper cer- emonies, on the day appointed. Mr. Ebenezer Hun- ting had been elected by the church as deacon Janu- ary 8, 1789.

At the reinstallment of Mr. Seamans, on January 21st, the exercises were held in the meeting-house, on which occasion Rev. Amos Wood, of Weare, preached the sermon; Rev. Thomas Baldwin, of Canaan, gave the charge to the candidate ; aud Rev. Samuel Am- brose, of Sutton, announced the fellowship of the

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HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

churches. On the next Sunday, January 25th, the church and their new pastor had their first commu- nion season together.

The meeting-honse in which these exercises were held was only partly finished, being without pews or seats (except such as were extemporized for the occa- sion) and mostly without floors, but there was a large gathering of the people, and everything passed off in a satisfactory manner.

In 1790 the census taken in the State shows that New London had three hundred and eleven inhabi- tants,-a gain of ninety-two in four years. I find the first mention made of Joseph Colby, as a citizen of New London, in March, 1788, when he was elected as a surveyor of highways. In 1792 the town voted against adopting the amendments to the Constitution proposed by the convention of that year, seventeen votes being recorded iu the negative and none in the affirmative.

The church, which commenced with eleven mem- bers, October 23, 1788, had gained but seven members up to 1792, consisting then of eighteen members, and there were then about fifty families in town. An ex- tensive revival broke out that year under the preach- ing of Elder Seamans, and in that year there were about fifty conversions, and the work continued through the years 1793 and 1794, so that in the last year the members of the church had increased to one hundred and fifteen, the additions having been made from all classes and of all ages, from seventy down to eight or ten, and, what was quite remarkable, there were thirty- seven men who, with their wives, were members of the church,-the united heads of thirty-seven out of the fifty families in town.

In 1795 they had got their meeting-house so far completed that the town voted to hold their meetings in it for the future. They had hut recently built the pulpit and got the floors laid in the porches above and below, but it was only partially glazed and not painted at all, and the singing-pew, as they called it, was not completed, nor was the honse finished without or within. During this year, also, the town appointed a committee to confer with Elder Seamans, and see upon what terms he would give up the bond he held from the town, to ensure his annual salary. The town had already got in arrears, and were largely indebted to him, and they evidently desired to close up their contract with him as a town, and leave it for the church and for voluntary contributions to supply his salary. The committee waited upon the elder, and he, after due consideration, made the town a proposi- tion in writing, giving them a choice of three alterna- tives, as follows :

"Ist. That he receive a dismission from his pastoral and ministerial office in church and town, together with such a recommendation as he brought to them from Attleborough ; that his salary should cease from the date of such diemission, and he to give up said bond when his salary should be paid np to such diemission.

"2d. The church and town should wholly surrender, give up and re- linquish his ministerial services in church and town, and he would sur-

render, give up and relinquish his salary, so that it shall be a matter of judgment and conscience between them, he to serve them as much in the work of the ministry as his judgment and conscience should dictate, and they on their part to communicate of their temporal good things toward the support of himself and his family, as much as their judgment and conscience should , dictate to them, and that, too, insuch a way as they might choose.

"3d. But if neither of these offers should prove satisfactory, then he reqneste the town to unite with him in calling a mutual council to look ioto any matters of dissatisfaction between them on either side, and de- cide npon the whole whether it was not beet for him to ask and for them to give him such a dismission and recommendation as above mentioned ; and if such council should be in favor of such diemission, then that they should also settle tlie conditions, after being informed what the town had done for him, and of his services in return, whether the town should pay him hissalary in part or in full or give him something more, or whether he should relinquish his salary, which shall be then due either in part or in whole, or shall give the town something more, for reasons which to the council may appear."

It was very evident that it was of no use to seek a controversy with a man who was so willing to settle in any way, and the town, by vote, accepted of his second offer, by which the town gave up all claim to his ministerial services and he gave up all legal claim to his salary, and after that his support was derived mainly from the church and from voluntary contribu- tions. The town at the same time voted not to unite with him in calling a council.

In 1797 they also voted that those inhabitants of the town that do not belong to the Baptist Society, so called, have a right to invite preachers of the gospel into the meeting-house to preach such part of the time as shall be in proportiou to the interest they own in the meeting-house, and this was so voted for several years. Almost every year there was an article in the warrant to see about finishing the singing-pew or to see about finishing off the meeting-house, but there seemed a great reluctance to complete the house, aud the town refused to act.

Thus we come down to the year 1800, the close of the eighteenth century. By the census of that year it appears that New London then had six hundred and seventeen inhabitants, having gone from three hundred and eleven to six hundred and seventeen in ten years. But while they had been thus prosperous in that par- ticular, their meeting-house was still unfinished. It was only partially glazed, the gallery was not comple- ted, the singing-pew was not built, nor was it plastered or painted at all. A controversy between Levi Har- vey and the town had arisen about his mills, which was still undisposed of, and many were the articles in the warrants for town-meetings, and many were the special town-meetings called to consider and act upon these two subjects, but the town never seemed ready to finish either the meeting-house or this controversy.

Captain John Mason, of London, to whom the grant of New Hampshire was made in 1629, as we have seen, died in 1635, and his heirs held and tried to en- force his claims to the land till about 1692, when they sold and conveyed the same to one Samuel Allen, of the same London, who came to this country to enforce his claims. But Allen died in 1705, and the lands de- scended to his heirs, who prosecuted his claims vigo-

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rously for a time, until the heirs of Mason found some defect, either real or pretended, in Allen's title to the lands, and set up a claim to them for them- selves.

One John Tufton Mason, a descendant of Captain John, the first grantee, came to this country, claiming to own the Masonian patent, and sold his rights to certain parties in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and conveyed to them by deed in 1746. The names of these purchasers were as follows: Theodore Atkin- son, Mark H. Wentworth, Richard Wibird, John Wentworth (son of the Governor), George Jaffrey, Na- thaniel Meserve, Thomas Packer, Thomas Walling- ford, Jotham Odiorne, Joshua Pierce, Samuel Moore and John Moffat. Atkinson had three-fifteenths, M. H. Wentworth had two-fifteenths and all the rest one- fifteenth each. These men were afterwards known as the Masonian proprietors.

The persons to whom they granted the town of Al- exandria and also the Addition were as follows : Jonas Minot, of Concord, in the county of Middlesex, gen- tleman ; Jonathan Bagley, Esq., and William Bailey, gentleman, both of Amesbury, in the county of Essex and all in the province of Massachusetts Bay ; Matthew Thornton, Esq., and Robert McMurphy, gentlemen, both of Londonderry ; John Talford, Esq., and William Talford, gentlemen, both of Chester; and Daniel Rindge, ot Portsmouth, all in the county of Rockingham and province of New Hampshire; and Joshua Talford, of New Chester, in the county of Grafton, and province last mentioned, husbandman.

In the deed of the Addition of Alexandria the original grantors, the Masonian proprietors reserved one-third part of said land to themselves, their heirs and assigns forever ; one-half of the balance, or one- third of the whole, was conveyed to said Minot; and the other half of the balance, or third of the whole, was con veyed to the remaining grantees in the following proportions, viz. : To Matthew Thornton, twelve forty- ninths; to said J. Bagley, five forty-ninths; to the said W. Bailey, five forty-ninths; to the said John Talford, seven forty-ninths and one-third; to the said William Talford, eight forty-ninths and one-third ; to said Robert McMurphy, eight forty-ninths and one- third; to the said Daniel Rindge, two forty-ninths ; and to the said Joshua Talford, one forty-ninth. The grant to said William Bailey was conditional upon his accepting the rights granted him in the new char- ter of the town of Alexandria in full for his claims under the old charter, which he refused to accept, and therefore he drew no lots in the Addition, which was afterwards New London.

The addition was surveyed and laid out in one hundred and thirty-seven lots of one hundred and fifty acres each. Certain lots were reserved for schools, for the first settled minister, etc. There were reserved for the Masonian proprietors forty-five lots and two fractions ; and drawn to Captain Joseph Minot, forty- four lots and two fractions; to Colonel Matthew

Thornton, ten lots and a fraction; to Robert McMur- phy, seven lots and two fractions ; to Deacon William Talford, seven lots and a fraction ; to Major John Talford, six lots and a fraction ; to Jonathan Bagley, Esq., five lots and a fraction ; to Hon. Daniel Rindge, two lots; and to Joshua Talford, Esq., one lot.

These lots were drawn September 7, 1773. I have a plan of the drawing, with the numbers of the lots drawn to each owner.

Having gone along in the order of time for the first twenty-one years' of the town's history, up to the year 1800, let us now go forward for a similar period of twenty-one years, to the year 1821, and there make a stand and from that stand-point look back over thespace oftime,-that second period of twenty-one years of the town's history. Let us select our time now with some particularity -- well, suppose we call it the 9th day of September, 1821. It is one of the earliest days that I can remember, and, yet, though I was then only five years of age, I shall never forget it. The day was Sunday. The morning was bright and sunny. The air was soft and halmy. The day was hot, and espe- cially in the afternoon was still and sultry. About five o'clock there were signs of a thunder-shower: dark clouds gathered in the west and soon overcast the sky. The stillness that precedes the storm was soon interrupted by the mutterings of the distant thunder, the clouds grew darker and blacker, until presently a strange commotion was seen among them in the west ; vivid lightnings light up the dark and angry masses, the roaring of the distant tornado is heard as it ap- proaches, and anon the most terrible whirlwind ever known in the State burst upon the terror-stricken in- habitants of New London.

I gather the following facts from a description of the great whirlwind of 1821, as found in the " Collec- tions of the New Hampshire Historical Society," volume 1, page 241. The whirlwind entered the State in Cornish, and moving easterly through Croyden, demolished the house and barn of Deacon Cooper, thence through Wendell (now Sunapee) to near Sun- apee Lake, where it blew to pieces the house, barn and out-buildings of Harvey Huntoon, destroying and blowing away all the furniture and other property in his house and the contents of his barns and other buildings, and blowing an infant nearly a year old, that was lying on a bed in the house, away into the lake, where the mangled body was found the next Wednesday, on the opposite side of the lake, and the feather-hed on which the child was sleeping was found in Andover by a Mr. Durgin and restored to Mr. Hun- toon. A horse was blown up a hill a distance of forty rods, and so injured that it was necessary to kill him. No human lives were lost in that town except the child, though the other seven members of Mr. Hun- toon's household were injured, and some of them very severely. From Wendell the hurricane passed across Lake Sunapee in a most terrific manner, assuming the

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HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

form of an inverted pyramid in motion, and drawing up into its bosom vast quantities of water. Its appear- ance on the lake was in the highest degree sublime and terrible : apparently about twenty rods in diame- ter at the surface of the water, it expanded on each side towards the heavens, its vast body as dark as midnight, but occasionally illuminated by the most vivid flashes of lightning.

From the lake it passed into New London and through the southerly part of the town, destroying property to the estimated value of nine thousand or ten thousand dollars. But fortunately no per- son in the town was killed. The house and other buildings of John Davis, standing directly in the path of the tornado, were entirely demolished. Not a tim- ber nor a board was left upon the ground where the house had stood, and not a brick in the chimney re- mained unmoved. A huge hearth-stone weighing some seven or eight hundred pounds, was removed from its bed and turned up on one edge ; all the fur- niture of the house, beds, bedding and clothing was swept away, and not the value of five dollars of it was ever found. The family chanced to be absent from the house. Three barns belonging to Josiah Davis, with their contents, were blown entirely away, and his house much shattered and damaged. A house be- longing to Jonathan Herrick was unroofed, the win- dows broken out and much furniture and clothing blown away, but fortunately none of the family were injured. A new two-story house frame, nearly cov- ered, belonging to Nathan Herrick, and two barns, were blown down. A house and barn of Asa Gage were unroofed, and two sheds carried away. Anthony Sargent had one barn demolished, another unroofed and two sheds blown away. Deacon Peter Sargent had a barn blown down, another unroofed and a shed blown away. A barn of J. P. Sabin was torn to pieces ; another barn of Levi Harvey was blown to pieces, his saw-mill demolished and some twelve thousand feet of boards in the mill-yard carried away ; his grist-mill was moved some distance whole, and was left standing on dry land, and a hog-house, containing a hog weighing from three to four hundred pounds, was carried away whole several rods and dropped on the top of a stone wall, where it fell into fragments, and the hog, released from his prison, walked away unhurt. A pair of cart-wheels, strongly bound with iron and nearly new, with the spire and axle, were carried ten rods, the spire broken off in the middle, all the spokes but two broken out of one wheel and more than half out of the other. All the trees in an orchard of one hundred, without a single exception, were prostrated, and one-half of them were wrenched up by the roots and carried entirely away, root and branch. The trunk of one of these trees, divested of its principal roots and branches, was found half a mile distant and at the top of a long hill ; near the top of this hill was an excavation some forty feet long, and in places two to three feet deep, partly filled with mangled boards

and broken timbers, apparently made by the perpen- dicular fall of the side of a barn, which must have been blown whole at least eighty rods.

The track or path of the whirlwind in New Lon- don was some four miles long, and varied in width from one-fourth to one-half a mile, as the column rose and fell, and passed off upon the north side of Kearsarge Mountain. In passing, it seemed to hug to the mountain, so that its course was changed more to the south, and it passed down the mountain on the easterly side into the Gore, touching a corner of Sal- isbury, and into Warner, and finally terminated in the woods of Boscawen. A great amount of property, many buildings and several lives were destroyed in the Gore and in Warner.

The track of the whirlwind is thus described : "It appeared as if a rushing torrent had been pouring down for many days; the dwellings, buildings, fences and trees were all swept off in its course. The earth was torn up in places, the grass withered, and nothing . fresh or living was to be seen in the path of the desola- tion." It is difficult for us to conceive the horrors of that instant-for it was but an instant-when horses, barns, trees, fences, fowls and other movable objects were all lifted from the earth into the bosom of the whirlwind, and anon dashed into a thousand pieces. Probably no event has occurred in this town during the hundred years of its existence that was so well calenlated to teach man his utter impotence, and to impress upon his mind the awful sublimity, the terri- ble grandeur of the scene, where the hand of Omnip- otence, even for a moment, displays its power, as the great whirlwind of September 9, 1821.

Let us now look back and briefly review the events that have occurred since the year 1800. June 9, 1801, the Social Library was incorporated, which had about 'one hundred volumes of very valuable books.

The library was kept at the house of Josiah Brown, Esq. I recollect that from about the year 1825 to 1833 I obtained most of my reading-matter from this library, and found it very profitable and interesting. Whether this institution yet remains I do not know. In 1803 the town first had the necessary number of ratable polls to entitle it to send a representative alone, and Joseph Colby, Esq., was elected as the first representative of the town, and he was re-elected every year until 1816.

In 1817 there was a political revolution in the town, and everything was changed. Daniel Wood- bury, Esq., was the moderator, first selectman and representative for that and several succeeding years ; and the dominant party held a celebration over their victory in the spring of 1817, at which, as I am in- formed, the liberty-pole was erected, which used to stand in front of the old meeting-house, around which the people in the olden time used to congre- gate and spend their intermissions between the fore- noon and afternoon services on Sunday. My first recollections of attending church are associated with

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hearing Elder Seamans preach and Elder Ambrose pray; of riding to church in the wagon with father and mother,-standing up behind and holding on to the back of the seat in order to preserve my perpen- dicular equilibrium. This I did until, growing older, I preferred to walk rather than to ride in that way. It was the fashion in those days for the whole family to go to church as soon as the children were large enough to be carried.

In 1804 a committee was appointed to cause an ac- curate survey of the town to be made. This was in pursuance of a law requiring each town in the State to make a plan of the same and return it to the Sec- retary of State, with a view to the making of a State map, which was afterward published by Philip Carri- gain. This committee consisted of Green French, Levi Harvey, Jr., and Anthony Sargent.

The meeting-house was still a subject of contention. Articles were frequently inserted in the warrants for town-meeting to see if the town would vote to finish glazing the house, or to plaster the house, or to paint the house, or to finish off the house, but the town uniformly voted in the negative upon them all. Probably some of this work was done by voluntary subscription or contributions, and the house was occupied for all purposes. Finally, in 1818, at a special meeting holden for that purpose, June 1st, it was voted to raise three hundred dollars for the purpose of repairing and finishing the outside of the meeting-house in this town, and Joseph Colby, Esq., was appointed, as agent of the town, to see to repairing and finishing the outside of the meeting- house, and I find no further articles in the warrants for their town-meetings relating to finishing the meeting-house. Thus, the house which was com- menced in 1786 was finished in 1818, having been thirty-two years in building.

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 106

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1520

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520