History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 130

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 130
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 130

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After having been thus fortified, the" signal was given. At once a hundred hands spring to the work. The huge, oaken timbers are seized and raised on high. Long do they tug and push and lift and pant and shout, and finally grow thirsty, and a halt is called, and again the friendly glass goes its rounds, whispering courage to one and all ; and again, with strength renewed, they hoist the timbers. And so the work moves on until the dinner-hour proclaims an- other halt, when, seated by hundreds, on timbers, boxes, fences and ground, they wait impatiently while the cart, laden to its utmost capacity with the wheaten loaves fashioned so well by the hands of the domestic Hills of Bay Hill, is driven forward by ox-driver Hill, goad in hand. Others bring on huge piles of brown bread. Another company advances, with Mrs.

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Knowles, from Bay Hill Pinnacle, at the head, who had been superintending the hissing masses of fish- hash and fish-chowder which had been stewing throughout the forenoon in huge iron kettles sus- pended from horizontal poles laid on upright crotched posts, set in the ground near the edge of the wood, and between which the flames had been roaring since morning. The steaming results were now brought forward by the tugging assistants. Beans and bean- porridge were there, we know not whence; but if there's anything in a name, Bean Hill must have fur- nished the supply.

After dinner, a good afternoon's work succeeded, so that the body of the church was raised the first day. The next forenoon they put on the roof, and finished up the second day with games of various kinds,-as foot-races, trials of strength, such as running up the hill to the east with two bushels of wheat or rye on their backs. Then succeeded a wrestling-match for the "Honors," the Northfield men being pitted against the champion wrestlers from Boscawen, Salis- bury, Gilmanton and the other towns represented. Two captains chose their men and the contest began, and was kept up with varying success till, narrowing down to a few wrestlers, it began to look as though Northfield must be driven from the ground by a pow- erful man from Boscawen by the name of Elliott, when the Northfield captain, as his last man, said he would bring forward a boy, and accordingly led in young Abram Simons, eighteen years old. Elliott scorned the encounter at first with one so youthful, but saw his mistake after having been thrown twice by Simons,-once at "arms' length," the other at "side hugs,"-and the "Honors" remained with Northfield. And there may the honor and "Honors" ever remain.

Other matches were tried for fun or for the rum. Thomas Simons, with a bushel of rye on his shoul- ders, outran a man without any load. Again, he won a race on "all fours," so many rods out and back, over a man on horseback.

In Rev. Mr. Runnels' "History of Sanbornton" I find this account of a reading-match at the same time and place, written by Mr. Jacob N. Knapp when eighty-six years of age. Mr. Knapp, then in his seventeenth year, was teaching in Sanbornton at six dollars a month and board. Says he,-

"Soon after Ibegau my school I went to Northfield, an adjoining town, to see a meeting-house raised. There I met three other echool- masters. One of them, an Englishman, had in his hand a copy of Ad- * dison's 'Cato.' He proposed a trial of reading among us four instructors, The multitude heard the challenge, and formed a ring round us. The Englishman selected as the trial passage the last part of the first scene hetween Marcus and Portius, and read it with theatrical tone and em- phasie. Next came Master Fuller, then Master Clark ; then came my turn. The ring, probably in sympathy for my youth, declared loudly in my favor."

To conclude the whole in a befitting manner, Aa- ron Collins, the first born in town, who, as he had already immortalized himself once by becoming its

first native, determined now to do it again by per- forming what has never been attempted before or since,-namely, as they had neglected to place a steeple on the house he enacted the part of one by climbing to the ridgepole and standing on his head, being posi- tively the first and only example of a man's immor- talizing twice in the town of Northfield.

And so the " Old Meeting-Honse " was raised. It was not completely finished and painted till 1800, as a date in the roof, by a painter's brush, still testifies. At first there were no means of warming the build- ing, yet in early times this large house used to be completely filled with hearers from back gallery to pulpit.

Master Durgin did his work well, and the carpen- ters and nailers and rivers and shinglers needed not to fear in after-years the memory of slighted work ; and old Father Knowles, who turned the banisters, turned them well. But its work is done. Its mission is accomplished. No more within its walls will be heard the mild tones of its first pastor, Rev. Liba Conant, nor the sounding-board echo the thunders of Father Corser. It stands to-day a battered hulk, still spacious indeed, with galleries and pulpit sounding- board intact, and with timbers as sound as they were ninety-one years ago, yet a shell,-windowless, door- less, floorless,-soon to be torn down and removed.

After the completion of the great church and town- house, as above described, we meet with nothing of especial importance to describe for many years. The town still continued to grow and prosper, owing to the good management of its public officials, the industry of its inhabitants and the arrival of new settlers, among whom we briefly note the following :

Elias Abbott moved from Concord, N. H., in May, 1801, and settled and died on the farm at Bean Hill, occupied so long in after-years by his grandson, Gardner S. Abbott.

Deacon G. S. Abbott now resides on the Northfield side of the river, near Tilton, in a pleasant grove overlooking the village. He has held office in the church and town.

G. A. Gorrell came to town not far from 1810 and settled on the farm next west of that of James N. Forrest, where his son Albert now lives.

Deacon Jeremiah Hall, the son of Obadiah, came to Northfield from Canterbury in 1801; had several children, among them Dr. Adino B. and Eliza B. (Cofran), and two at the West; died at Bean Hill, not far from ninety years of age. He had a younger brother Obadiah, who lived in West Northfield ; had several children, one of whom-Obadiah, Jr .- was a physician, and died in Southern Ohio a few years ago, aged about forty.

The excellent and very pleasant farms at present owned and occupied by Messrs. Munroe and William Clough were purchased from Captain Samuel Gil- man about the year 1802 by their grandfather, Jona- than Clough, who emigrated thither from Salisbury,

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HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Mass., and died in 1836, aged eighty-six, leaving the farms to his two sons, Jonathan and Samuel-the former the father of William, the latter of Munroe. There was quite a rivalry in barn-building in that neighborhood at one time. Captain Gilman built a barn-the first in town-a wonderful barn, so con- sidered at the time, which barn still stands on the old place. The owner of W. H. Smith's farm de- termined to surpass it, and the next year built a barn twenty-five feet longer; whereupon Esquire_Glid- den built another with a still further addition of twenty-five feet, which gave him the superiority. It may be of interest to state that the first Methodist sermon in town was preached in William Clough's dining-room, and that his ancient Gilman-built barn was used as a Methodist Church for quite a while, later meetings being held at the house of Mr. Knowles and the school-house, and baptism was administered in Chestnut Pond. Martin Rutter was the first pastor.

Thomas S. Clough, a younger brother of Munroe, is now a resident of Paw Paw Grove, Lee County, III .; has a son and daughter, and is a successful farmer ; but his fertile Western farm has not had the power to banish from his memory Bay Hill, the beautiful home of his earlier years. He was the first Republican representative Northfield ever sent to the Legislature.

Captain Isaac Glines came to town in 1813 from Salem, Mass., and bought a farm at the Centre, where he lived till his death, at the age of eighty-four.

In the fall of 1813 Benjamin Winslow, born in Candia, N. H., emigrated hither from Loudon; mar- ried Miss Betsy French, also from Loudon, the next year ; bought and cleared the land and, after four or five years, erected the buildings of the farm now occupied by Mr. John S. Winslow; died in 1840. Mr. Winslow, the present occupant, has been a teacher here for several years and has held many and varied offices in town.

The intervale upon which the Crosses and Joseph Hancock settled (once a part of old Northfield, but now included within the limits of Franklin) is one of the largest and richest on the Merrimack. Here Joseph Gerrish, Esq., settled in the year 1804. He was a native of Boscawen, born in 1784, and was the son of Colonel Henry and grandson of Captain Steven Gerrish, one of the first settlers of Boscawen and a native of Newbury, Mass.

Joseph Gerrish was a man of great shrewdness, business tact and enterprise, hospitable and genial. After the War of 1812 he bought the George Han- cock farm on an adjoining ridge, and thus enlarged his domains to ample size, with due proportions of upland for grazing and intervale for tillage. He had thirteen children, and was respected as one of North- field's most substantial farmers. His wife was Susan Hancock, of Northfield. At his death, in 1851, his broad acres were divided among his three sons, Mil- ton, Leonard and Steven, the two former taking the

intervale, the latter the upland farm. Milton and Leonard still cultivate their ancestral fields, but Steven, a few years ago, sold his patrimony to John Kelley, Esq., the present possessor and well-to-do farmer.

The Foss family, in two divisions, appeared in town in its early days, and settled one on the main road and one on Oak Hill, owning a very large tract there, which for a long time was called Foss Hill. Jason is the only surviving male descendant; has been selectman for several years, and has sisters living in Sanbornton.

Dr. Keyser was one of the early settlers, but very little about him have I beeu able to learn ; but he had a son, Joseph Smith Keyser, of general intelli- gence, a close observer, a good citizen, industrious, frugal and acquired a good property, but the embodi- ment of eccentricity, a determined old bachelor, shunned womankind, and finally turned hermit, raised but little from his land, would sell nothing, and, as far as the writer knows, was induced to break through this custom in only one instance on any con- siderable scale. He had kept his barn full of hay for over thirty years, refusing all applications to buy, till, at a time of great scarcity, an offer of thirty dol- lars, or more, a ton broke down his obstinacy; and the swallows that haunted the ancient building saw with astonishment something never seen by them before-the old barn empty. He died alone, and the fact was not discovered for several days. The filth of his dwelling showed the want of woman's hand, and his gun was found filled to the top with silver dimes.

A Miss Sally Thornton used to teach and preach in town, but when, nobody knows, so far as I have been able to learn.

Ebenezer Morrison settled in Northfield in 1814. Had the following children : Thomas L. Morrison, now living in Northfield ; Robert G., organ manu- facturer in Concord; Amos H., a blacksmith in Con- cord; Obadiah H., book merchant, Washington, D. C., died 1875, aged fifty-two; Liba C., a farmer on one of the original Hill farms in Northfield ; Ebenezer, paper merchant in Washington, D. C.

Probably no individual has exercised so strong and decided an influence on the policy and politics of Northfield as the late Judge Asa Piper Cate.

Judge Cate was the son of Simeon and Lydia Dur- gin Cate, born June 1, 1813, in Sanbornton (now Tilton), whence, in his early childhood, his parents removed to Northfield, where he passed the remainder of his life. He was educated at the academies at Sanbornton Square, Sanbornton Bridge and Boscawen ; read law with Judge Nesmith, of Franklin; was ad- mitted to the bar August, 1838, and opened an office at Sanbornton Bridge. He was colonel of a regiment of militia for several years ; was elected moderator at the annual elections from 1838 to 1874, with the ex- ception of two years ; represented the town of North-

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field in the Legislature five years,-1839, '40, '64, '65, '66; was State Senator two years, 1844-45, the second year president of the Senate; was solicitor for Merrimack County from 1845 to 1851; judge of probate, 1871, '72, '73 and '74, when he resigned a few weeks previous to his death. He was candidate for Governor, 1858, '59 and '60; railroad commissioner three years; member and secretary of the board of trustees of the New Hampshire Conference Semi- nary ten years, and an active member and senior warden of the Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church at Tilton. He was president of the Citizens' National Bank at Tilton ; a director of the B., C. and Montreal Railroad, and a liberal investor in its property. His fondness for agriculture was shown by his well-culti- vated farm, his choice fruit, his well-filled and well- ordered garden. A fine specimen of the country gentleman, genial, social, highly respected by his fellow-citizens, of all degrees and politics. He died December 12, 1874, aged sixty-one years, leaving a wife (formerly Miss Clara Proctor) and two children, Clara Moulton and Abbie Josephine.

Morrill S. Moore was born in Canterbury in 1798; married Sally Hancock, of Northfield, and removed to his wife's native town, and settled on the main road, somewhere near the Alvah Hannaford place; afterwards lived on the Bean Hill road, where his five children were born. Both houses have since been burned. He died at his son's residence, in Sanboru- ton, in 1860.

His son Morrill married Lavina A. Huse, a native of Campton, and daughter of Daniel M. Huse, a native of Sanbornton, who, after several removals, finally settled on a pleasant farm in West Northfield, where he died in 1883.

Here Mr. Morrill Moore now resides, seemingly enjoying himself as a substantial farmer ought.

Dr. Enos Hoyt was a native of Sandwich, N. H., and came to town immediately after the death of Dr. Alexander T. Clark, which took place March 10, 1821, Dr. Hoyt resided in Northfield many years; had an extensive practice, and finally removed to Framing- ham, Mass., where he died.

Daniel Sanborn settled on the Hall place in 1836. His sons were Josiah Sullivan, Braley, James, Daniel, Samuel C. and John, of whom Daniel clings to the old homestead.

Joseph Clisby came to town in 1826; married, the next year, Sally Hill, of Bay Hill; built a very pleas- ant cottage home, surrounded by trees; set up a blacksmith's shop ; hammered iron and shod horses for many years, till, compelled by rheumatism, he left the shop for the open-air work of farming. He had four daughters,-Mandana F., Maria D., Sarah C. and Clara A.,-all, with their mother, deceased, ex- cept Mandana. Mr. Clisby states that there is not a person living in District No. 1 (that is the Centre) that was there when he came, the last one dying in 1881.

John Copp arrived at Bay Hill, perhaps, about the year 1825, and settled next cast of John Hill's farm. His own farm was not so extensive or valuable as his neighbor's, but it has one of the most charming out- looks in the State. He married Ruama Rollins and had two children, Evelina and John G .; all now deceased. Mr. Copp was a good farmer, fond of sport and a great mimic, so much so that had he followed an actor's calling, his mimetic ability must have given him a high reputation on the stage. Many probably still remember his " Raising of the Barn," and various comic imitations of other people. His farm, since his death, has passed into the possession of Daniel E. Hill.

Next beyond this is the farm where Henry Tebbett, Sr., lived to an advanced age, and whose son Henry studied medicine and died elsewhere after a few years' practice.

Among the later arrivals was that of John Mooney, who transferred his residence from Loudon to the Cen- tre in 1834. Kind and social, and of a stirring nature, his person, perhaps, was the most familiarly known among his fellow-citizens ; careful and economical, he accumulated a handsome property, becoming, accord- ing to my impression, the wealthiest man in the town ; strictly temperate and regular in his habits, he enjoyed good health to nearly the close of an ex- treme old age, dying at Nashua. April 5, 1878, at the age of eighty-seven years and five months, leaving a large charitable and educational fund to the town, of which the schools and individuals are now reaping the benefits. Mrs. Mooney's maiden-name was Susan Chase. Her death occurred several years previous to that of her husband.

Celestia S. was his only child,-a woman highly esteemed for her many virtues; brilliant, scholarly, refined, of quick wit, a fine writer, with a mind stored with the rich results of extensive and varied reading. She married Hon. John H. Goodale, at present of Nashua, and died October 12, 1863, in the thirty-third year of her age.

Let us now return to Benjamin Blanchard, whom we have left so long-forty years or more-in his solitary cabin on the Wadleigh farm, but whom we have not forgotten, though our attention has been called away for a time by public transactions, and we have been kept so busy in introducing the new-comers to the notice of the reader. Mr. Blanchard has prospered, as his enterprise and perseverance deserved. His buildings are improved, his farm productive and he free from debt, all encumbrance having been re- moved from his land by his services in running out the boundaries of the town, and by the payment of seven hundred and fifty dollars in furs. He was a man of strong judgment, decided purpose and untiring industry, and, as was natural, had great influence in directing the destiny of the colony and town.

But a change now took place in his affairs. He was eighty, or thereabouts, and Old Age began to whisper

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HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

that it was time to release himself from the burden of hard labor to which he had been subject during the most of his fourscore years. He transferred his farm to his eldest son, Edward, whom we recollect as probably bringing up the rear during the family march from the Canterbury fort to the wilds of Bay Hill. What was the nature of the transaction we are unable to say,-whether he sold the farm to his son outright, or gave it up to him on condition of receiving a support during the remainder of his life ; probably the latter, as he lived with his son ever after. Besides this, he had settled his other chil- dren in good circumstances around him. Edward was destined to have a more commanding influ- ence in town than his father ever had. He served and was captain through the Revolutionary War, was twenty-five years a selectman and was often chosen moderator of their town-meetings. "His wife was Isabella Wasson, a native of Scotland, and one of the early emigrants to Londonderry, N. H. They reared a large family of children, nine sons and one daughter, all of whom the parents contrived to settle well in life, the most of the sons on good farms in Northfield. One son, John, was an emi- nent school-teacher in Philadelphia, and over his remains in a cemetery in that city is a monument erected by his grateful pupils. Elizabeth, the only daughter of Captain Edward, became the wife of Thomas Chase, Sr., of Northfield," to whom his father-in-law gave a tract of land in a pleasant loca- tion, still well known as the Tom Chase place. Captain Edward sold the paternal farm on Bay Hill to "Squire " Charles Glidden, Sr., for two thousand dollars, about the year 1805, and bought a large tract of land in West Northfield; afterwards sub-divided into several homesteads, on one of which Edward built a substantial dwelling, planted apple-trees, many of which still bear bouutifully, and, accompanied by his father, whose wife had previously died on Bay Hill, he settled for life on what was to be known in after- years, down to the present time, as the Uncle Daniel Blanchard farm. Here Benjamin, the aged father, the patriarch, the pioneer, glided quietly along through the remainder of a peaceful and honored old age; freed from the necessity to labor, but still busy. His favorite occupation seemed to be the manufac- ture of white-oak ox-goads, which he used to whittle out deftly and neatly with his knife down to his last days, protecting his pantaloons by a casing of tanned woodchuck-skin, while at work. He was short and stout, wore his long, thick, white locks floating over his shoulders, imparting to him a truly venerable aspect. "Benjamin Blanchard died in the ‘ west-fore- room' of the 'Uncle Daniel' homestead, aud it is interesting to add that Captain Edward and Uncle Daniel, great-grandfather, grandfather and father, all in successive generations, passed their last years and ended the final scene peacefully in the same home." Benjamin was buried with his wife on Bay

Hill, it is supposed, under a large sweet apple tree in the old orchard, known as the "Granny Tree." Years after, the old lady's gravestone was found among some stones hauled to repair the well, and it was said that at the building of the chimneys of the Wadleigh house, in 1812, the stone erected at the grave of Benjamin Blanchard, and marked B. B., was found among the bricks in the ruins of the old cellar.

Captain Edward, after reserving the "Uncle Dan iel" farm as his homestead, gave to his son Richard what is now the Abram Brown place, to his daughter Elizabeth the Tom Chase farm, a tract to Daniel, and had, besides, the tract now known as the Gile farm, and another, the Jason Foss place.

The Uncle Daniel homestead, which at present comprises about two hundred acres, " located upon an eminence commanding picturesque beauty and grand- eur, views of diversified mountain and water scenery, far and near, a spot of unrivaled attractions for a summer home," is now in possession of Mr. Edward C. Rice, a retired and successful man of business, whose wife-formerly Miss Ianthe Blanchard-is the daughter of Daniel, and the fourth in direct descent from the original pioneer, Benjamin. It must be a source of great satisfaction to be thus able to retire to one's ancestral home, so beautiful, and which has been an heirloom in the family so long. Her eldest daughter, Laura, is a fine artist in oils and crayon portraits, and has published several works, and among them a gracefully-written little book, called "Sunshine and Shade." Another daughter is Mrs. Fannie Purdy, the opera-singer and cornetist, whose songs and music at the Northfield Centennial are so well remembered still. The youngest, Miss Inez, was married within the past year, at the ancestral mansion, to Mr. Artemas Tirrell Burleigh. No one of the name of Blanchard is left in Northfield. One sur- vivor, John, resides in California.

The " commission " of her grandfather, Captain Edward Blauchard, is still in the possession of Mrs. Rice, framed and well preserved. He was appointed "captain of the Fourteenth Company of the Four- teenth Regiment of Militia in the Colony of New Hampshire, by order of Congress, September 5, 1775. E. Thompson, Secretary; Matthew Thornton, Presi- dent."

"'Squire" Charles Glidden, Sr., who bought the Bay Hill Blanchard farm of Captain Edward some eighty years ago, was a leading man in his day, who died in 1811, at the age of sixty-seven. Mrs. Judge Wadleigh was a daughter of "'Squire" Glidden, and inherited the Blanchard place from her father, which, at that time, was much improved, and the house re- built and enlarged. Mrs. Jeremiah Smith, known to the people of Northfield so long, was also his daugh- ter. She died at the ripe age of ninety-one; and her husband, whose prosperous and useful life three ad- ditional years would have rounded out to a century, after a union with her of seventy-three years, all of

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th, Chas slid der

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which were passed on the old homestead, and having voted for every President from Washington to Lin- coln, at last sunk to rest like a patriarch of old, crowned with length of days, and, like a shock of corn, fully ripe. He left three children, viz., Mrs. Mills Glidden, for many years a resident of Ohio; Mrs. William Gilman, now of Lexington, Mass., but for the most of her life an inhabitant of Northfield, a lady of culture, of vigorous intellect, a graduate of the Boston College of Medicine, whose influence has long been fearlessly exerted and felt for good on the moral questions of the time in her native town and elsewhere; and Warren H. Smith, Esq., now leading the life of a prosperous farmer, and who maintains the honor of the patrimonial estate with becoming dignity in the old family mansion, which has been renovated, modernized, improved and beautified.

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 130

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