History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 132

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 132
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 132

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

This store was burned and rebuilt by Thomas Chase and sold to Warren Hill, and occupied by Deacon Peabody until succeeded by J. F. Taylor & Hill. This was also burned.

At the west entrance to the bridge stood for many years the carding and fulling-mill established and owned by Benjamin Chase, who also owned the farm and built the buildings so long occupied by Hon. Asa P. Cate, and still held by his heirs. This was for many years the only establishment of the kind for fifteen or twenty miles. Farmers came from Loudon, Canterbury, etc., often on horseback, with their wool to be carded. This business declined after the factories were established, and after being carried on for several years by Moses Morrill, the manufac-

ture of shoddy was begun there by James Earnshaw and continued till the building was burned. A new grist-mill took its place, which was also burned several years after. On this site-dam No. 2-Hazen Copp, in 1872, built a large mill, one hundred feet long, and leased it to Richard Firth, who is now run- ning it with three sets of cards, producing ladies' dress-goods. Annual production, about seventy-five thousand dollars.

On dam No. 3 is the hosiery-mill erected by George S. Buel & Co., who in 1880 built a three-set mill, and are now running a hosiery mill. Annual production, about seventy-five thousand dollars.

The saw-mill in which Joseph Dearborn manufac- tured lumber for many years, standing by the lower dam and old bridge, has been torn away.

The Chase tavern, still standing at the entrance to the Bay Hill road, was kept for many years by Esquire Chase, who, with his son, owned the hill on which now stands the Tilton Memorial Arch, also the resi- dence of Joseph Hill.

At Northfield Centre for many years there was a post-office. A store also was kept by Squire Glid- den. This was a jolly place, indeed, where, during the long winter evenings, his many customers gath- ered; for the barrel of New England in those days was ever on tap. It was here that the corpse of old Mr. Danforth was taken, after having been exhumed from his grave by lawless medical students, set up- right in a chair and au ox-goad put into his hand. Here practical jokes were perpetrated enough to fill volumes.

Northfield Depot has also boasted of a store and post and telegraph facilities nearly all the time since the opening of the Montreal Railroad ; the former having been kept by A. & Charles Ayers, Amos Cogswell, Merrill Moore and at present by William Keniston. The post-office was for several years dis- continued, but afterwards re-established through the efforts of S. A. Dow, who still holds the office.

The part of Northfield now constituting Franklin Falls village was also well supplied with shops, stores, a paper-mill and factory.

The manufacture of palm-leaf hats was for many years an almost universal occupation of the women and children of the town, many families supporting themselves by this branch of industry and increasing greatly the business of the merchants. The leaf for some time was brought in the rough and split and otherwise prepared at the old store-room of Captain Glines. opposite the old meeting-house. This in- dustry has been almost wholly superseded by the seaming sent out by the many hosiery-mills.

General Remarks .- In old times it seems to have been an article ot implicit belief that roads must be laid out at right angles with each other, never avoid- ing a hill however steep. An iunovation was made on this custom in after-time, when the new road to Bay Hill was opened and which recently was ex-

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tended by private enterprise to Bean Hill. Another road was opened from the lower part of Tilton village past the freight depot towards the Centre, thus open- ing up a large tract for settlement which is fast being occupied by fine residences, near which, on the one side, is the trotting park, and on the other, a little farther away, is the Memorial Arch.

Witches were never abundant in Northfield, only two being mentioned as decidedly belonging to that profession, whose names we hardly dare mention, lest they avenge themselves by making the writer a visit in their old familiar guise of a large white cat, and pass an interdict on the appearance of the butter at his weekly churning. Old Mr. Danforth, to be sure, did appear to his boon companions after death, at the Glidden store, but that was hardly in the nature of witchcraft, and I can say this in good old Northfield's favor, that, notwithstanding all my researches on the subject, I have never been able to discover that a witch has ever been hung within her borders.

There are now twelve persons in town over eighty years of age.

The original Oak Hill School-house was entirely without windows,-no glass to be had.

In old times the big boys had a custom, on the last day of school, of selling the school-ashes and invest- ing the proceeds in rum, and having a high time, and many a story might be told of the result.

Many laughable things might also be said, had we space, about the catching of eels, the stealing of eels, and the catching of the stealers.

Edward Blanchard was the first selectman of North- field and the first captain. Esquire Glidden was the first representative.

Northfield's Overflow .- During the first sixty years of Northfield's existence its population steadily and rapidly increased, owing to the income of new settlers and the advent of new children, and the in- crease was more largely due to the second cause than to the first during the latter part of that period. Families were families in those days. In proof, let us introduce a few,-

Joseph Gerrish had 13 children; Charles Keniston, 15; Isaac Glines, 13; William Davis, 16; William Forrest, 14; Steven Cross, 13; Benjamin Blanchard, 9; Deacon Sawyer, 22.

What family in town can now produce the smallest of these numbers? No wonder our schools dwindle, when a family of one is considered a curiosity, three a wonder, and half a dozen an unheard-of thing. And there has been a steady decrease in the popula- tion, except in the village, during the last half-cen- tury ; so much so, that we are tempted to believe that the strictly rural districts of our little commonwealth contain not more than half the people they once did. On every old road buildings have been removed or torn down, but in most cases burned and never re- built, traces of which are scattered all over town. Not to speak of the cellars of the old settlers, on Bay

Hill, which are still to be seen, there are on the road leading from the Centre to Bean Hill-a mile and a half-nine cellar-holes, all the dwellings connected therewith having been burned and not rebuilt ; twelve cellar-holes in Oak Hill District, and no less than eighteen on the main road from Canterbury to Tilton, including Windfall road and others else- where.

Every farm but three in No. 1 (that is, the Centre) has passed from its owner of twenty years ago, and the same is true, to some extent, in other portions of the town, notably so on the road from the Hodgdon School-house to Northfield Depot.

A greater loss than that of buildings, or of the territory which Franklin has taken, and one far more to be deplored, has been the constant drain for the last half-century of our young men, notably of our young farmers, to the cities, and especially to the far West.

Some of the town's best life-blood has been lost in this way. Had all remained, and divided and subdivided her large farms into smaller ones, and employed on them the same energy they have dis- played elsewhere, what a garden Northfield might have been, and what full school-houses in this year of 1885! Her capabilities for sure and profitable farming are not yet exhausted. Her upland is among the best in New Hampshire, and we predict a time will come when a return tide will set in towards our beautiful hills, and their productive resources de- veloped in a tenfold degree.

Yet to the professional man, or those following other vocations than farming, this place might not offer so desirable a field of action. Accordingly, some of Northfield's talented sons have sought other fields of labor, and there achieved success and a name.

Dr. Richard Malone emigrated to Illinois years ago and became a member of Congress, with a full measure of success in other respects, we presume.

One of Northfield's worthy sons who sought a home in a neighboring State was Dr. Adino B. Hall, son of Deacon Jeremiah Hall, who, after having completed a medical course, and practiced for a time in Natick, Mass., studied a year in Paris, and finally settled in Boston, where he soon obtained a large and lucrative practice; was a member of the School Board for many years, delivered an address on music on the occasion of a children's festival in Faneuil Hall, acquired a respectable competency, and died April 21, 1880, aged sixty, respected and regretted by all who knew him, and leaving behind a reputation for geniality, kind- ness and professional skill that would place him among the foremost in the city.

His accomplished lady (now Mrs. Cummings) has decided to devote a portion of the property left by him to the literary benefit of the people of his native town and Tilton by the erection to his memory of an elegant library building, at a cost of some fifteen thousand dollars, to be located on the Northfield side

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NORTHFIELD.

and not far from the banks of the beautiful river he knew so well.

Another of Northfield's worthies is Charles G. Chase, son of Benjamin Chase, who, after reaching maturity, removed to Boston, engaged in the whole- sale mercantile business, acquired wealth, and then like a wise man placed himself beyond the reach ofthe fluctuations and risks of trade by withdrawing from the business, and is now leading the life of a retired gentleman of leisure on his estate near Boston. Ac- companied by his wife, a lady of culture and literary tastes, he has made the tour of Europe, we think, twice and has donated to the Union Church at Northfield Depot a well-selected library of nearly two hundred volumes. Long may his banner wave !

Still another of our town's enterprising sons, who went abroad to seek his fortune, is William F. Knowles, born on the pinnacle of Bay Hill, the son of Father Knowles, who turned the old meeting-house banisters so well. He was in the employ of the wealthy firm of Beebe & Co., Boston, twelve years, and is now New England agent of the Western Trunk Line Association, and chairman of the New England Agents' Committee.

Centennial .- June 19, 1880, was a proud day for Northfield ; perhaps her proudest. The only day that could possibly rival it was that of the old meet- ing-house raising, four-score and six years before. But the crowd on that distant day was composed largely of visitors from the neighboring towns ; and of the inhabitants of Northfield at that time, not many were born there; so that of all the multitude that saw the huge timbers of the frame go up, probably not one-tenth were natives of the town; whereas, on her glad memorial day of five years ago, not only was the gathering greater, but to a large extent was com- posed of natives or the descendants of natives. It was Northfield's centennial birth-year, she having begun her corporate existence just one hundred years before by the act of incorporation, June 19, 1780.

The day was auspicious ; all that could be desired, warm and cloudless.

The executive committee, which was composed of the following, viz., J. E. Smith (chairman), O. L. Cross (secretary), F. J. Eastman (treasurer), William C. French, James N. Forrest, Mrs. John S. Winslow, Mrs. William H. Clough, Mrs. William C. French, Mrs. Lowell M. French, and Mrs. John S. Dearborn, had perfected the arrangements of their programmeso thoroughly in all its details that the exercises were carried to a very successful termination.

" At an early hour the place of meeting, Hanna- ford's Grove, at Northfield Depot, assumed its festal attire under the direction of those skillful decorators, Hiram Streeter and Mrs. D. C. Tibbets." The people began to assemble about eight o'clock, and kept in- creasing in numbers until the afternoon. Trains from above and below brought crowded cars, and over six hundred carriages, it was said, reached the grounds

from the adjoining towns and portions of Northfield, and between three thousand and four thousand souls were supposed at one time to be present. The exer- cises were conducted in accordance with the follow- ing

PROGRAMME.

Invocation

Rev. J. W. Adams.

Music .

Belknap Cornet Band.

Historical Address. Professor Lucian Hunt.

Soug .

Miss Fanny C. Rice.

Music .

By the Band.

Poenı. . . Mrs. L. R. II. Cross.

Song.

Miss Rice,

COLLATION.

Cornet Sulo .

Miss Rice.

SENTIMEN I'S.

" The Methodist Church ' Rev. J. W. Adanis.

" The Military " . Captain Otis C. Wyatt.

Reading of Letters from Former Residents . O. L. Cross, Esq , Secre- tary Town Com.

Music By the Band.

Then followed the presentation of a copy of Web- ster's Unabridged Dictionary to each school dis- trict in town, by Mrs. Cross, through whose efforts the funds for that purpose had been raised, by solicit- ing contributions from former pupils. Next followed short speeches by former residents, the most prom- inent of which were those by Hon. Jeremiah Hall, of Portsmouth, Marshall P. Hall, of Manchester, and Hon. Daniel Barnard, of Franklin ; also, Mrs. Nancy Smith Gilman gave a characteristic and ring- 9. dan ing speech about the olden times. President of the jog. chas day, A. S. Ballantyne ; J. E. Smith, marshal.

It is safe to say that representatives of most, and, perhaps, every family of early times were present,- the Blanchard, Glidden, Hancock, Smith, Forrest, Hall, Chase, Conant, Simonds, Gerrish, Rogers, Cate, Clough, Hill, Haines, Dearborn, Foss, Brown, Win- slow, Eastman, Hannaford, Cross, Keniston, Gilman, Sawyer, Sanborn, Hodgdon, Cofran, Glines, Wad- leigh, French, Gile, Moore and others which we do not now recollect.

On reviewing the proceedings of the day, it is interesting to note the difference in the modes of enjoyment adopted on the first great public occasion and the last-the raising and the Centennial. At the former the chief amusements were games, betting, trials of strength or skill, as running or wrestling, with frequent applications to the barrel of New Eng- land; while at the latter they were mostly literary or musical. And thongh no Collins was found, as on the former occasion, to stand on the ridgepole of the highest house in town on his head, yet, when night approached, it was certain that all could stand firmly on their feet. Indeed, a more orderly company of equal numbers was never gathered together on any public occasion. It is our firm belief that there was not a tipsy person on the grounds during the day. In Northfield, to her credit be it said, the ardent is not to be had.

In only one thing did the two gatherings agree,-

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HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

there was a dinner in both cases; for the wants of the body are the same at all times, and man must eat in whatever age he lives. On which of these par- ticular occasions the prize of superior excellence in cookery should be awarded, it would now be hard to tell; but of their extra skill in the culinary art in modern times, the writer claims to be a reliable witness, he having had the honor, when young, of teaching no less than five winters in the good old town, and during a portion of the time enjoyed the delights of " boarding round." .

Finally, the long, eventful day came to an end, as all days must; and as the sun approached his setting, the tired participants in a festival, the like of which they would never see again in their native town, began quietly to depart singly or in parties. Old acquaintances separated, many never to meet again, the sounds died away, the crowd grew less, and when night threw her dark mantle over the Hanna- ford Grove it was entirely deserted. The few inhab- itants left at the Depot village were soon and gladly buried in slumber, and the stars shone brightly down, as once they shone one hundred and twenty years before on the slumbers of the family of the first settler during their first night's rest in the narrow clearing and lonely cabin of Benjamin Blanchard.

Friends of Northfield, my work is done; would it were better done. But the application to write came late, and the time was limited. Acknowledgments are due to Mrs. L. R. H. Cross for assistance in gath- ering historic material; to the Merrimack Journal for information respecting the Blanchard family; and to many friends who have furnished for me important facts.

That prosperity may attend good old centenarian Northfield, and her worthy sons and daughters, even to the dawn of her next centennial, is the fervent wish and confident expectation of their humble servant,

THE AUTHOR.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

LUCIAN HUNT, A.M.

Deerfield, N. H., about two months younger than himself-a woman of strong character, industrious, careful and conscientious. This union lasted above half a century, he-surviving to the seventy-fifth year of his age, and she to the eighty-seventh. After re- siding in Gilmanton, Sanbornton and the Wiers- a year or two in each,-the family, with others, took up its march in quest of a home in a neighboring State.

Between two ranges of the Green Mountains, in the northern part of Vermont, lies the romantic town of Woodbury, sparsely settled, full of ponds, hilly, yet with an excellent soil wherever the rocks allow it to be reached. Near the southern border, some four hundred feet in height, rises a perpendicular cliff called Nichols' Ledge. Between this and Cabot ex- tends a plain about a mile in width, then covered with primeval forest, whither emigrated from San- bornton and vicinity, about the year 1815, a colony of from twenty-five to thirty persons, and among them Anthony C. Hunt and wife, with several of his wife's relatives.

Mr. Hunt at first built a log house, in which Lucian was born, a few rods south of the big ledge, and a few years later, a framed house, still nearer the mountain, the birth-place of his daughter, Almira. His eldest daughter, Sarah, and his eldest son, Lucian, who died in his fifth year, before the birth of his second son, were both natives of Sanbornton.

Their life here was such as was generally experi- enced by first settlers in New England. Trees were felled and burned on the ground, and from their ashes a kind of potash-or salts, as it was called- was manufactured. This and maple sugar were the principal exports, and their backs the only means of transportation.

The settlement seemed to flourish for a time, but what with hard labor, few and distant markets, the want of the necessaries-to say nothing of the luxuries-of life, discouragement crept in, and one by one the settlers sought other homes, until Mr. Hunt and family were left alone. He struggled manfully a few years longer, but finally yielded, like the rest, and removed to Cabot, whence, after having passed seventeen years in Vermont, he returned to Sanbornton. Thus ended the Sanbornton exodus. Not a house, no memento, except the old cellars, scattered over what is now a broad pasture, remains to tell of the once bustling little New Hampshire colony of Woodbury, Vt.

Once on a time three brothers migrated from Amesbury, Mass., and settled in New Hampshire. Two of these, Humphrey and William Hunt, went to Guilford, while the third, Philip, Sr., removed On leaving Cabot, Mr. Hunt went first to Union Bridge (now East Tilton), whence, after a residence of four years, he removed to Sanbornton Bridge, where Luciau, the subject of this sketch, eagerly availed himself of the advantages there afforded for acquiring an education. He was an incessant reader, and long before he had fairly settled himself down to a regular course of school study had acquired a very respect- to Sanbornton, into what was afterwards called the "Hunt Neighborhood," about midway between the Square and Union Bridge. He had twelve children. Of these, the oldest, Philip, Jr., remained on the homestead till his death. Eleven children were born to him, of whom Anthony Colby, the father of the subject of this sketch, was the seventh. When only eighteen years of age he married Mary Chase, of | able fund of information in regard to history and

Lucian Hunt.

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NORTHFIELD.

general literature. At school, or privately, he was fond of taking up one study or branch at a time, and pursuing it till his curiosity or ambition was satisfied in that particular direction. Thus he commenced Latin one Spring, and, confining himself to that, finished Virgil during the ensuing autumn. He also became somewhat noted in those days as a swimmer, in which noble art he used to consider himself a match for any in the State, and by which accomplish- ment he has had the good fortune to save several persons from drowning in the course of his life. His favorite mode of exercise has ever been walking, and this at times has carried him considerable distances. The walk which seems to have afforded him the most pleasure was one from the Bridge to the top of Mount Washington and back, which he took in company with a fellow-teacher, calling from time to time at farm-houses for rest and refreshment, at one of which the mistress would take nothing for payment, as she said, "She never lost anything by giving to the poor." At another they were each charged twelve cents for a good supper, lodging and breakfast. Verily that was the day of small prices. They stopped one night at Centre Harbor, another at the foot of Chocorua Mountain, and the good part of a day on the Sandwich Plains, among the blueberry pickers who had come from far and wide with their families -and some were pretty large,-ox-teams, bushel bas- kets, and where they remained day after day, many of them, till the berry season was over. Proceeding. they reached the Notch just at dusk, amid a fearful thunder-storm, which served as a grand introduction to this gate of the mountains, and which attended them with its lightnings and crashings till they reached the hotel, at ten o'clock.

Lucian once had the right side of his face filled with gunpowder from a horse-pistol at short range, which powder employed a doctor one long summer afternoon to extract, kernel by kernel. While still young, a boy, he received a commission in a some- what notable military company of the time-" The Phalanx "-with Willis Russell, commander. To this, one fine day, the ladies of Sanbornton Bridge, in long procession, presented a beautiful flag through the hands and voice of Miss Betsy Kelley, then pre- ceptress of the academy. Lucian was appointed to receive the same, and to respond in behalf of the company, all which was duly published in the local papers of the time, from the pen of the Hon. Asa P. Cate.

English branches required by the college curriculum. He attained to this mostly by his own private efforts, without pecuniary assistance from any quarter, paying his way as he went along, and thus keeping entirely clear of debt. When the funds from his winter's teaching gave out, he went to Boston in the summer and earned enough to float him over the rest of the year ; so that, when he started in his profes- sion, he was even with the world, with no debts to harass, or interest to eat up his earnings. This road to an education is longer, indeed, as it proved to be in his case; but it was sure and safe. He received his degree from the Wesleyan University, Middle- town, Conn., in 1863.

About this time Mr. Hunt was invited to take charge of the Marlow (N. H.) Academy. This school, which had become much reduced-the pupils at the start barely amounting to twenty-after passing into his hands, increased rapidly and steadily, till, at the close of the second year, it numbered one hundred and forty members, mostly adults, as a large class of smaller scholars were necessarily refused admittance from the want of accommodations. The third year was also one of continued prosperity. Such and so rapid a revival of a run-down academy we believe to be unexampled in the record of New Hampshire schools.

This unexpected success and liberal addition to his exhausted finances determined Mr. Hunt's vocation, and in the following spring he accepted an invitation to the High School of Castine, one of the oldest and most romantic little seaports on the coast of Maine, where he remained two years, receiving a generous increase of salary the second.

Next succeeded a two years' principalship of the academy in Standish, Me., where Mr. Hunt's good fortune was crowned by securing as a partner of his joys and sorrows Miss Caroline Higgins, one of the noble women for which that region is famous-social, kind, cheerful and generous.

After a two-years' rest Mr. Hunt became seated in the principal's chair of Powers Institute, Bernards- ton, Mass., where his predecessor had sunk the school to less than a dozen pupils. At the close of his five years' engagement he could point to nearly one hun- dred and twenty members then belonging to the institute. Though strongly urged by the trustees to continue his engagement for another five years, he preferred to heed a louder call from Falmouth, Mass. Here, as principal of Lawrence Academy, he re- mained twelve years, where he introduced improved educational methods, and, in fact, effected a revolu- tion in the old academy, and with beneficial effect on the public schools of the town.

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 132

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