History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 139

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 139
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 139

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).

{ Thomas Richardson, of Malden. Ileira of Timothy Knox, of Suncook.

566

HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

township of Bow is known from the petition which was presented by a committee of the latter to the Gen- eral Court of New Hampshire, dated January 1, 1757.

This petition, presented by Daniel Pierce, Esq., Thomas Wiggin and Daniel Marston, gentlemen, William Pottle, blacksmith, and Benjamin Norris, yeoman, in behalf of the proprietors of Bow, repre- sented that many persons claimed a right to lands in the township by titles not derived from the proprie- tors of Bow, who had made considerable improve- ments, and with whom many expensive suits at law had been had, which impeded the settlement of the township ; that many of the claimers and settlers, par- ticularly those who held their title from the proprietors of Suncook, were desirons of an accommodation and settlement of the disputes, and were willing to be- come not only inhabitants of Bow, but to hold their title from the proprietors of Bow ; that the proprie- tors of Bow were desirous of having the question set- tled without further expensive lawsuits by reason- able concessions on their part. Notwithstanding the amicable and peaceable disposition of the parties concerned, certain impediments existed to the solu- tion of the question, which the General Court was called upon to remove, the most important of which were the conflicting plans of the two townships.

The proprietors of Bow were willing that those who had made improvements should enjoy the fruit of their labor ; and, accordingly, they asked the court to annul and vacate the survey of the home-lots of Bow, so far as they interfered with the divisions of land already executed in the township of Suncook, and that a new survey of the undivided lands in the township should be ordered.

This petition was favorably received, and, no one objecting at the hearing ordered, the petitioners were given liberty to introduce a bill in accordance.

The inhabitants thus gave up the struggle, and be- came, for the time being, citizens of Bow, having ef- fected a compromise by which they retained their homes and cultivated fields, but sacrificed the un- divided lands of the old grant, curtailing their re- spective rights more than one-half.

So the township of Suncook, or Lovewell's town- ship, ceased to have an existence save in the memory of gallant men and women who, for thirty years, had braved the hardships of frontier life to secure homes for themselves.

John Noyes, in behalf of the inhabitants of Bow living on the east side of the Merrimack River, peti- tioned the General Court for parish privileges, and were granted the liberty of bringing in a bill April 25, 1758.

Pembroke was incorporated a parish November 1, 1759, by the General Court of New Hampshire, the agents of the town of Bow not making any objection, but favoring the charter, claiming that it would be to the advantage of both.

People are naturally curious as to the origin of the

name of their native town. The name of Pembroke was bestowed upon the township by Governor Ben- ning Wentworth, probably in honor of the Earl of Pembroke, an influential member of the Court of St. James at that period. The word is derived from the Welsh, penbroch, signifying head of the foam. The old town of Pembroke is situate in Pembrokeshire, the southwest county in Wales. The town is of great antiquity, and is on a peninsula extending into one of the bays of Milford Haven. A part of the walls which once surrounded the town still remain.

The charter of Pembroke included that part of Bow east of the Merrimack River, between the Soucook and the Suncook Rivers, a place called Suncook and a place called Buck Street.

Rev. Daniel Mitchell was ordained pastor over the Presbyterian Church December 3, 1760.

The Presbyterian meeting-house, which stood on the west side of Main Street, opposite C. L. Dow's house, was probably erected this year.

The Scotch-Irish, so-called in New England history, were of the purest Saxon lineage, with their blood unmixed, in the seventeenth century, with the half barbaric Scotch highlanders, or their more rude cous- ins, the Irish Celts. They were rigid Presbyterians, followers and admirers of Oliver Cromwell, enemies of Popery and the Established Church of England, brave, zealous lovers of learning and liberty, and withal, bigoted in their advanced notions. Cromwell had peopled the wasted districts of northern Ireland with these, his most trusted and reliable troops, to pacify that land most effectually.

They could present a brave frout to an open attack, but they were not equal to withstanding the petty en- croachments of the Established Church insidiously undermining their beloved Kirk. The Pilgrims had found religious freedom in a new and undeveloped country, and thither the Scotch-Irish sent agents to spy out and report the condition of the land and its fitness for occupation. The Irish had not intimidated them ; they scorned the untutored Indian. Like a horde they flocked to the sea-board and poured into New England, Pennsylvania and the southern prov- inces, pushing the frontiers rapidly into the untrodden wilderness, and settling the fertile valleys and hill- sides far in advance of their predecessors. One stream striking Boston was diverted to Londonderry. In 1719 a Scotch-Irish colony located there to stay. Hundreds followed in their footsteps, tarried awhile with their friends so happily settled, and pressed on into the wilderness, over the hills to the Falls of Amoskeag, up the Merrimack, by Hooksett Falls, to the fertile valley of the Suncook, still farther to the blooming intervals of Pennycook and the wide mead- ows of the Contoocook. Early in the records of this township we find the Scotch-Irish holding "original rights," admitted as proprietors and freeholders, and even as early as 1737 claiming a majority. Being in a majority, they claimed a voice in the settlement of

567

PEMBROKE.

a minister to preach the gospel, but were "counted out," and paid their rates toward the support of a minister not to their liking with evident disrelish.

The Presbyterians were exempted from paying to- ward the support of the Congregational minister, and were incorporated a distinct parish by a special act of the General Assembly, passed December 16, 1763. It was enacted that all persons living in the par- ish of Pembroke, who belonged to the Presbyterian con- gregation and assembly, or should join that society, should be included in the new parish, and Lieuten- ant Thomas McLucas was authorized to call the first meeting.

The breach between Great Britain and the colonies was widened during 1766, although Parliament re- pealed the odious Stamp Act. Peace prevailed in Pembroke, for not a ripple of trouble has reached us from that remote year. The Congregationalists and Presbyterians had agreed to disagree, and pursued their respective ways with ontward amity. There is a tradition that the families ostracized each other, for- bidding the young people to associate or mingle together, and absolutely prohibiting intermarriage with those of the other sect, under pain of disin- heritance. At this day the difference between the two denominations is so small that the common reader could hardly comprehend it were some one to fully explain.

Rev. Aaron Whittemore died November 16, 1767.

The first census of the town on record was taken this year, from which it appears that there were 49 unmarried men from sixteen to sixty, 85 married men from sixteen to sixty, 134 boys under sixteen, 16 men over sixty, 169 nnmarried females, 97 married women, 5 widows, 2 slaves,-a total of 557 sonls.

In 1774, Dr. Richard Eastman and Captain An- drew Buntin were chosen a committee to run the lines of the new township granted by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay to the "sufferers of Suncook." The following Jannary, Captain Joseph Baker was directed to deposit the plan in the office of the Secretary of State, which he accordingly did. This township was located in the State of Maine, called Sambrook, and is now known as Lovell and New Sweden, on the banks of the Saco.

At Pembroke the people were up with the times. A Mr. Dix persisted in selling tea in town; but a company of "Sons of Liberty " from the adjacent towns, under the command of Andrew McClary, made him a visit, and taking the tea from the store, made a bonfire of it in the public street.

Nearly a century had elapsed after the landing of the Pilgrims before the settlement of Pembroke; a half-century more had passed, and the descendants of the early pioneers, who had filed from persecution in the mother-country, had become accustomed to self- government in the vast wilderness of America, and more and more alienated from the dominion of the King. They had been joined by the discoutented

spirits from Great Britain, notably the Scotch-Irish, and were ready to resist any and all encroachments upon their rights, and were ripe for rebellion.

A foolish King and a stubborn ministry at home hastened the catastrophe-a long and exhaustive war, which resulted gloriously for the United Colonies, and gave birth to a great nation.

Before this date Pembroke had been a parish with- out a representative,-a part of a royal province withont a representative in the home government, ruled by a royal Governor. From this time the town was a republic, soon, with other towns, to be nnited in a great and free State, which, in turn, was to become, a few years later, one of the United States of America.

The first overt act of open rebellion had been com- mitted in December of 1774, in the attack upon and dismantling of Fort William and Mary, at the mouth of the Piscataqua, by the people of New Hampshire, and the citizens of Pembroke seemed alive to the importance of the crisis upon them. With the rest of New England, they sprang to arms to resist the invasion of their soil by British troops, and to drive them from their borders. The differences of creeds were forgotten in planning and doing against the common enemy. The veterans of the French War flocked to the standard of the intrepid Stark, fought by his side at Bunker Hill, hemmed the British within the limits of Boston and helped to force them to evacuate the town. From that time onward, through the darkest days of the unequal struggle until the disbandment of the victorions army, Pembroke did her share in achieving our independence, and in caring for the dependent families of those who were absent in the field.

In the city of Paris, September 3, 1783, David Hart- ley, for the King of England, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay, for the United States, signed their names to a treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, making the thirteen States forever independent.

This war, as it affected Pembroke, should be con- sidered as a whole.

It was the struggle of a small body of free, poor, liberty-loving and unorganized patriots against the land and sea forces of the most powerful nation of modern times. That the contest was finally decided for the weaker party was owing to their perfect unan- imity of sentiment, their bravery, their endurance and the opportune assistance given by France, Eng- land's great rival. Eight years of warfare had disci- plined the raw troops, who, by their bravery and zeal, had hemmed the British within the limits of Boston, until, when disbanded by General Washington, they were war-scarred veterans of whom any commander might be proud and of whom any enemy might stand in dread.

With the close of the war came the complete col- lapse of the Continental currency. It disappeared

568

HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

from commerce as worthless. But the rich land was left, with its abundant crops; freedom had been assured, and barter answered for currency.

In 1792 there were licensed six tavern-keepers. Two years later occurs the first record of a post-rider through the town and a weekly line of stages.

The charter for the first New Hampshire turnpike was granted in 1796.

Mr. Stickney was the first postmaster, appointed in 1806, and from this date Pembroke became a post- town.

The establishment of a post-office in Pembroke was, without doubt, very welcome to the inhabitants, and may be justly considered an important event in its history.

In earlier times it was customary to intrust to some friend or acquaintance who might be traveling in the right direction a missive for an absent friend or rela- tive. Doubtless the post-rider, in his journeying through the town, accommodated those living on his immediate route, and the blowing of his horn an- nonnced his welcome approach. As a matter of course, few letters were written in those days, so that high rates of postage were not onerous.

It was decided to erect a town-house in 1811, and Isaac Morrison, John Knox, Jr., Jacob Emery, Jr., Robert Martin, James Cochran, Jr., Asa Robinson and Timothy Barnard were chosen a committee to determine the "center of money and travel," aud report at an adjourned meeting. Their report was accepted ; the site of the town-house was located near the pound. The sum of four hundred dollars was voted toward building it. The sum was afterward increased to five hundred dollars, and the construction was entrusted to John Knox, Jr., Samuel Cochran, Jr., and Robert Martin.

An effort was made to have the town accept the use of the north meeting-house for public meetings, but it failed.

A meeting was called iu the new town-house in October, when enough money and labor was voted to thoroughly repair the various bridges in town.

Manufacturing of cotton into cloth, which has since become an industry of great importance in the village of Suncook, was first undertaken in 1812, by Major Caleb Stark, a Revolutionary soldier and a son of General John Stark. He purchased the establish- ment known as Osgood's Mills, which was being enlarged or rebuilt by a company, and introduced machinery lately invented.

In July, 1813, Christopher Osgood contracted to build a stone pound "in the corner of Mr. Lakeman's pasture, by the town-house," for one hundred and thirty-five dollars.

The act of incorporation of Pembroke Academy was dated June 25, 1818. The building for the school was erected by subscriptions raised among the iuhab- itants of Pembroke. The trustees of the corporation were Rev. Abraham Burnham, A.M., Hon. Boswell

Stevens, A.M., Daniel Knox, Esq., John H. Merrill, Timothy Barnard, Deacon Moses Haseltine, William Haseltine, Captain Jacob Elliot and Rev. Jonathan Curtis, A.M.

John Farmer wrote of the town, in the year 1823,-

" There are many water privileges, four paper-mills, the cotton-fac- tory of Major Stark and several mille, together with a flourishing village. The main street extends nearly on a parallel with Merrimack River in a straight course about three miles, and is very pleasant. On this are situated the academy, one of the meeting-houses and the principal village."

The visit of General Lafayette to Pembroke in 1825 shall be described in the words of his youthful companion, Colonel A. A. Parker, aide-de-camp of Governor David L. Morril, now living at a venerable old age and in the full possession of his faculties, in Glastonbury, Conn. (1883),-

" Our route lay through Suncook village, at the south end of Pem- broke. There Major Caleb Stark, son of Major-General John Srark, lived ; and, as he had a slight acquaintance with General Lafayette in the Revolutionary War, had written him a request that he would call at bis house, as he very much wished to see him and introduce him to his family. We called, and, on introducing him to the general, be seized bis hand and begau an animated speech about Revolutionary times, which did not seem soon to terminate. His family were standing on the opposite side of the room, waiting to be introduced, but he seemed to have forgotten them.

" I was acquainted with the major, but not with his family, and could not introduce them myself. In this dilemma the spirited Miss Harriet Stark, no longer able to hrook delay, came forward, seized General La- fayette's band aod said : ' Permit me to introduce myself to you as the eldest daughter of Major Caleb Stark, with whom you are talking, and the granddaughter of Major-General John Stark, the hero of Benning- ton ; and now permit me to introduce you to my mother, brothers aud sisters,' which she did, with her usual promptness and energy.

"When we were seated in the carriage, General Lafayette said,- 'Miss Harriet Stark does, indeed, inherit all the fire and spirit of her grandfather, and would have been a heroine had she lived in the excit- ing scenes of the Revolutionary times.'

" Near the close of a beautiful summer day (Tuesday, June 21st), one of the longest in the year, we entered upon the long, main street of Pem- broke. The sun, having moved round his long circle in the aky, was resting in crimson robes on the western hills, and soon retired for the night. Not so Pembroke village ; that was wide-awake and gave the general as enthusiastic a welcome as he had received anywhere on the route. Sometimes, it seemed, the less the numbers the greater the zeal. " We bad used due diligence and had traveled rapidly when not hindered; but our coming had been so well advertised by the well-known Walker, the stage-driver on the route, that it was known to all people, far and near. And so it was, that we were not only detained at villages, hotels and cross-roads, but even at a single cottage. Our approach seemed to have been watched; and, at the report of a musket or bugle-blast, people would rapidly appear from their lounging-places where none were visi- ble before ; and the general must neede pause a moment, take by the hand those near by and speak a few words. Infancy and age were alike presented, and the halt and the lame were sitting in easy-chairs before the cottage doors. At one of these cottages an invalid old lady, 'cadav- erons and pale,' was brought by two men, in her arm-chair, to the car- riage ; she seized the general'e hand with both of bers, and with tear- ful eyes exclaimed, ' Bless the Lord !'

"At Fiske's hotel, ou the main street of Pembroke, five miles from Concord, we rested for the uight. A large concourse of people gave the general a hearty welcome and shook hands with him, and he made a short speech. On my suggesting to the most active men that the gen- eral had had a long and fatiguing day and needed rest, the people promptly retired and Pembroke village could never have been more quiet. "

After supper the general leaned back in his easy chair, and carried on a long and agreeable conversa- tion with his escort before retiring.

GUISE OEL

RESIDENCE OF GEORGE P. LITTLE, PEMBROKE ST., PEMBROKE, N. H.

569

PEMBROKE.

The next day (June 22, 1825) a committee of the Legislature, then in session at Concord, consisting of Hon. Stephen P. Webster, of the Senate, and four members of the House, came down in a coach-and-six to escort the general to Concord. Six white horses were attached to the barouche, in which were General Lafayette and Mr. Webster, and the procession, made up of a long line of carriages, proceeded on their way, being met on the Concord line by twenty inde- pendent companies of the New Hampshire militia, under the command of General Bradbury Bartlett.

The town was shocked, on Sunday, June 23, 1833, by the rapidly-spread intelligence that Sally, wife of Chauncy Cochran, had been murdered by Abraham Prescott, a boy of eighteen, who had been living with the family.

Prescott accompanied Mrs. Cochran into a field near the house to pick strawberries, and struck her the fatal blow, in a secluded spot, with no motive that was ever known. From the testimony at the trial, it was evident that he was of weak mind.

He was lodged in jail at Hopkinton, and was al- lowed two trials, in which he was ably defended by Hon. Ichabod Bartlett, of Portsmouth, and Charles H, Peaslee, Esq., of Concord, who firmly believed in his moral irresponsibility. At this period in the his- tory of the town the farmers were simply farmers and nothing more. They raised nearly all the supplies for their own tables, and largely for their cloth- ing, which was manufactured from the raw materials in their homes. Wheat was much more generally grown then than now, but not in sufficient quantities to furnish bread for the household. Flour was rarely bought by the barrel, and barley, rye and Indian corn were extensively used. In those earlier days flour bread was, with large numbers of families, dignified with the name of "cake," and considered a luxury for use on extra occasions, when company was entertained. A story is told in one of our old Rockingham County towns which illustrates this fact. A high-toned gen- tleman, known as the "'Squire," called at a farm-house one day on some business, and when he had finished his errand and had remounted at the door, the good house-wife, wishing to impress the 'squire with the dignity and thrift of her family, said to him: "Squire, won't you stop and have some flour bread and butter?" thinking it now too late for him to accept her invita- tion. To her chagrin the doughty 'squire replied : "Thank you, marm, I don't care if I do," and promptly dismounted and entered the house. The poor woman could only explain that, to her surprise, she found the flour bread all out, and offered him the best she 'had, some Indian bannock. When a boy, the writer had often seen at the neighbors' a string of these bannocks, eight or ten in number, set upon tins in front of the fire in the broad fire-place, there being room then left in the corner for him to sit and look straight up the chimney into the blue heavens. There was very little market for farm produce in those

days, except in the larger towns; long journeys had to be made, mostly to such as were known as "sea- 'ports," as there were no interior towns of sufficient population to be centres of such trade. Every farmer kept a flock of sheep, and wool constituted a large por- tion of the clothing. It was carded, spun and woven at home, and made into garments for both sexes. The best clothes for men and boys were made of what was called "fulled cloth." This was made at home, of the finest material, and taken to the mills known as "full- ing-mills," where it was put through a process of thick- ening, dyeing and finishing. The women used to wear gowns of cloth which was called "pressed woolen." This was simply home-made flannel, taken to the mills above named, and pressed, so as to present a glossy surface.

Every farmer had a small patch of flax. This was pulled and spread out in rows on the ground, "rotted," and then "broken " and "swingled," and was pre- pared for the combing, carding and the "little wheel," as the machine was called, on which the flax was spun, to distinguish it from the larger machine for spinning wool. It was woven into cloth for table-covers, towel- ing, sheeting and shirting. The "tow," which was the coarse portion combed out on the "hatchel," was spun into a coarse yarn, of which a cloth was made for summer suits for men and boys. The tow shirt, so commonly worn, was, when new, an instrument of torture to the wearer, as it was full of prickling spines left from the woody part of the stalk.

Pembroke Academy .- From the first, New En- gland has been noted for her regard for the intellec- tual welfare of her people. Not to be behind others, the people of New Hampshire early made provision for the mental and moral instruction of their chil- dren. In 1647 the first law establishing town schools was enacted. In 1693 an act was passed requiring the different towns to raise money, by assessment on the inhabitants, for building and repairing school- houses and for providing a school-master. In 1719 every town of fifty house-holders or upwards was re- quired to provide a school-master to teach children to read and write, and every town of one hundred house-holders to have a grammar school, kept by " some discreet person of good conversation, well in- structed in the tongues." In 1805 the district sys- tem was established. In 1807 the assessment for school purposes was increased and the law requiring grammar schools to teach Latin and Greek was re- pealed. From that time to the present, laws have with great frequency been passed regulating educa- tional matters. The act repealing the law requiring towns to have instructions given in Latin and Greek was probably owing to the fact that previous to this time nine academies had been incorporated. What- ever may have been the influence operative in the abolition of such instruction, it is evident that the class of work attempted by the grammar school was now left to the academies. It appears, then,

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HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

that very early was felt the need of a classical educa- tion, and so the same spirit which had originated the previous enactments led to the founding of institu- tions of a higher grade. In accordance with the law referred to above, there was formerly in this town a grammar school, the house being located on land between the dwelling-house of Mr. William Fife and the Ferry road, so called, there being but one house to accommodate the people of Suncook and Pem- broke Street. Thus early, then, was evinced in the history of this town a desire to give to the youth a higher education. It was about this time (1807) that there came to this town three men, who, no doubt, had the shaping of Pembroke Academy,-Dr. Abel Blanchard, Rev. Abraham Burnham and Bos- well Stevens, Esq. ; physician, clergyman and law- yer. Dr. Blanchard was born in Wilton, October 10, 1782. At the age of seventeen he was a clerk in a store in Concord, where he remained two or three years. He afterwards studied medicine in the same city. In October, 1805, he commenced practicing at Pittsfield. Here he showed an interest in education, as he conceived the idea of establishing an academy. He made certain proposals to the town, but they were rejected. In 1808 he removed to this town.

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 139

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