History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 159

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 159
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 159

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Of the value of money, land and labor during the early history of the town, a few facts gleaned from the town records and other sources will give one a good understanding. It should be premised that the "pounds" spoken of in the early records was in the "new tenor" currency, which was six shillings to a dollar. A pound, therefore, was equal to $3.33, and a shilling to sixteen and two-thirds cents. One stipula- tion made in regard to Rev. Mr. Kelley's salary in 1771 was to give him one hundred dollars in labor, at two shillings and six-pence (forty-one and two-thirds cents) per day, or, if dinners were found, then two shillings (thirty-three and one-third cents) per day. Work on the highways was reckoned at three shillings (fifty cents) per day in 1785. March 22, 1791, the town voted to reckon work on the highways as follows :

"From the first of June to the last of August, three shillings per day ;

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HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

from the last of August to the last of September, two shillings aud six- pence per day ; from the last of September to the first of November, two shillings per day ; from that to the first of April, one shilling and six- pence (25 cts.) per day ; and from then to the first of June, two shillings and six-pence per day."

December 28, 1797, the town voted to allow men for work in building bridges two shillings per day till April 1st and after that three shillings per day until the bridges were finished. February 8, 1798, it was voted to pay minute-men enlisted by the town enough to make up to them ten dollars per month while they did duty, including what they were allowed by Con- gress.

Several lots of land, varying from forty to eighty acres, were sold at public auction for non-payment of taxes in 1784, for which prices were paid varying from six-pence to one shilling per acre, with taxes and costs.

At a similar sale, in 1797, different lots were sold at five cents, seventeen cents, thirty-one, forty-one, sixty and a dollar and fifty-four cents per acre. Twenty lots were sold in the same way in January and February, 1812, the average price per acre being twenty cents. In 1782 the furnishing of the twenty cords of wood, which were a part of Rev. William Kelley's salary, was struck off to the lowest bidder, as follows: Ten cords to Esq. Joseph Sawyer, at four shillings and six-pence (seventy-five cents) per cord ; five to Francis Ferrin at four shillings and five-pence ; and five to the same at five shillings (or eighty-three and a half cents).

When the first pound was built, in 1798, which, by popular vote, was to be thirty feet square and seven feet high, of green white-pine logs, with the bark taken off, with a white-oak door and a heavy lock, its building and providing all the materials was struck off to Tappan Evans for ten dollars and a half, all of a quarter less for what it could be built for now. At the close of the last century a girl's wages were two shillings a week and hoard. The commonest quality of calico was four shillings a yard, so that a woman could no more than pay for a dress by three months of hard labor. In the year 1788 wheat was rated in Concord at seven shillings per bushel, Indian corn at four shillings, potatoes at one shilling, cheese at six-pence per pound and stall-fed beef at four-pence.

The census statistics of Warner from the close of the Revolution to the census of 1880 will show the period of its greatest growth and likewise of its de- cline. The increase for the first decade was remark- able, and that of the second as much so, the popula- tion nearly doubling in each instance. The large in- crease between 1810 and 1820 must, in part, be at- tributed to the annexation of the Gore in 1818, the population of that territory being one hundred and twenty-five persons by the census of 1810. The pop- ulation of the town has been constantly decreasing since 1825, though at the present time there are more voters than at any previous period. Population in 1783 was 458; 1790, 863; 1800, 1569; 1810, 1838; 1820,

2446; 1830, 2221; 1840, 2139; 1850, 2038; 1860, 1970; 1870, 1667; 1880, 1537.

Upon looking at the map of Warner one will see a narrow neck of land stretching northward, like a mason's apron, between Sutton and Salisbury, till it reaches the Wilmot and Andover lines. This terri- tory constitutes the famous Kearsarge Gore. It orig- inally stretched over the mountain northward to the present site of Wilmot Centre. Up to the year 1807 this Gore was a sort of a town by itself, the inhabit- ants holding their own town-meetings and electing officers like any corporate organization. When Wil- mot was incorporated, in June, 1807, the new town- ship took a third of its territory from the Gore. The description of its boundaries on this side reads as fol- lows in the charter of incorporation : "Also all the lands and inhabitants within said Kearsarge Gore, north of a straight line beginning at the southwest corner of Andover; thence running westerly to the highest part of said mountain; thence westerly to Sutton line." The territory on the south side of the mountain continued separate until 1818, when, by an act of the State Legislature, approved June 13th, the Gore, with the inhabitants thereof, was annexed to Warner. By this the fine mountain of Kearsarge, its glorious bold summit, overlooking the whole central and southern part of the State, became, to all intents and purposes, our mountain.

The first post-office was established in Warner in 1813, at the Lower village, then the chief business centre of the town. Henry B. Chase, who was ap- pointed postmaster at that time, held the office till 1817, when he was succeeded by Dr. Henry Lyman. Levi Bartlett was appointed to succeed Dr. Lyman in 1825 and held the office until 1830, when it was dis- continued. An office meanwhile had been instituted at Waterloo, with Philip Colhy, Jr., as postmaster. In 1830 this office and the one at the Lower village were consolidated and established at the Centre village, when Harrison D. Robertson was made postmaster. Mr. Robertson was succeeded as follows: George A. Pillsbury, 1844; William Carter, Jr., 1849; Gilman C. Sanborn, 1851; Ahner B. Kelley, 1855; Hiram Buswell, 1861; E. H. Carroll, 1877; E. C. Cole, 1884; Lloyd H. Adams, 1885. In 1865 a post-office was re- established at Waterloo, which was discontinued after two years. Walter H. Bean and T. Leavitt Dowlin served successively as postmasters. In 1885 another office was established at the same place, with Roger Gage as postmaster. In 1871 an office was established at Roby's Corner and Moses H. Roby was appointed postmaster. In 1884 offices were established at Mel- vin's Mills, W. Tappan Melvin as postmaster, and at Bagley's Bridge, Fred. H. Savory as postmaster. In 1885 an office was also established at Davisville, with Moses Twitchell as postmaster, making six post- offices in town.

The Simonds Free High School was established in 1871. It received its name from Hon. Franklin

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Simonds, who left the bulk of his property for this purpose. Mr. Simonds died in 1869 and Mrs. Simonds the following year.

At a legal meeting of the inhabitants at the town hall, March 18, 1871, the following resolution was adopted by unanimous vote :

."Resolved, That the Town of Warner, in view of the bequests of Frank- lin Simonds, late of Warner, of twenty thousand dollars, and of Abigail K. Simonds, late of Warner, of five thousand dollars, as a fund, the in- come to be applied for the purpose of a high school, establish a high school, and that said town be and hereby is constituted a high school district, including the whole territory of said town."

The following summer a brick school building was erected on a pleasant site, and in December the school was opened. The building cost about ten thousand dollars. The succession of principals have been as follows: E. C. Cole, 1871; N. N. Atkinson, 1874 ; William Goldthwaite, 1876; E. H. Farnsworth, 1880; Charles A. Strout, 1881; H. S. Roberts, 1884.

A home fair was inaugurated in Warner, in 1871, by several of the leading farmers During two years the exhibitions were at the town hall and in the street. In 1873, Hon. N. G. Ordway laid out twelve acres of land near the village for a fair-ground, erec- ted buildings and stalls and made a race-course. River Bow Park Association was incorporated by the Legislature in 1875. The association, which em- braces a dozen or fourteen towns around Kearsarge Mountain, purchased the grounds and buildings in 1876 and have held several successful fairs at the place. In the summer-time the park is open and is used as a driving resort by the citizens.

The Kearsarge Mountain Road Company was char- tered in 1866. For several years the company endeav- ored to secure the co-operation of the town in building a road to the summit of the mountain, but unsuccessfully. At the Presidential election in No- vember, 1872, a resolution was introduced by S. C. Pattee, authorizing and instructing the selectmen to subscribe for and hold, in the name of the town, twenty shares, of the value of one hundred dollars each, of the stock of the Kearsarge Road Com- pany, provided, however, that the foregoing resolu- tion shall not be binding on the town until said road is completed, or until responsible parties shall furnish a bond to the satisfaction of the selectmen, to build said road, without further assist- ance from the town. An amendment proposed by Major Samuel Davis, providing " that the town have two-fitths of the five directors, and that the first and second selectmen shall be ex-officio said directors," was adopted. The resolution, thus amended, passed. Subsequently N. G. Ordway and William E. Chand- ler furnished a bond in the sum of four thousand dol- lars to complete the mountain road, without expense to the town beyond the appropriation of two thon- sand dollars, and binding themselves to finish the road on or before the 1st day of June, 1874, to a point some eight rods below the summit of Mount Kearsarge, the selectmen for the town coming under

obligation to pay over the two thousand dollars on these conditions.

Work was begun on the new road in the fall of 1873, and by June, 1874, the five miles were completed, a wide roadway being made from Hurricane Gate to the top of the mountain. July 4th of the same year the road was formally opened, a large crowd being present, and addresses being made by Hon. N. G. Ordway, Hon. W. E. Chandler, Hon. M. W. Tappan, Robert Thompson, Esq., and Hon. Walter Harriman.

In 1876 there was a decisive change of political opinion in the town. Warner had always been a Democratic town, and in some years had been the banner town of the Democracy in New Hampshire. In 1838 the town gave a majority of 311 votes for Isaac Hill, which was the largest given him by any town in the State. From the beginning of the century the Democratic vote of the town had averaged 150 in excess of the opposite party, sometimes no opposition being recorded. But after the formation of the Republican party the Democratic majority was constantly reduced. In 1854, the vote for Gov- ernor was as follows : For N. B. Baker, Democratic, 257; Jared Perkins, 75; James Bell, 24. In 1874 the vote stood as follows : James A. Weston, Demo- cratic, 242; Luther MeCutchins, 172. In 1875, Hiram R. Roberts, Democratic, had 238 votes; Person C. Cheney, 202. In 1876, Person C. Cheney had 253 votes; Daniel Marcy, 222; giving the Republican candidate a majority of 31. For the first time in the history of the town the Board of Selectmen was Republican, and one of the representatives to the General Court was also a Republican. In 1878 the Democrats regained the Board of Selectmen, and at the gubernatorial election Frank Mckean, Demo- crat, received 247 votes, while Natt Head received 272 votes. Since then the Democrats have carried all the town elections, though most of the biennial elections have gone Republican by a small majority.

Warner being such a Democratic stronghold, it was perfectly natural that her leading citizens should play prominent parts in the politics of the county and the State. We wish to notice a few who in their day and generation " strutted upon the stage," acting a part at home and abroad that recalls the Scriptural statement,-" There were giants in those days." One of the most prominent men of the last century was Hon. James Flanders, who lived on Burnt Hill, between the Clough and Bartlett places, the buildings having long since been taken down. He was a native of Danville, N. H., and came to Warner about the close of the Revolutionary War. He was by occupation a farmer and cordwainer, but was almost constantly in public life. He was repeatedly moderator of the town- meetings, was representative several years to the General Court, both of Warner alone and of the three classified towns-Warner, Sutton and Fishersfield (now Newbury). Beginning with 1794 and ending with 1803, he was State Senator from his district every

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HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

year excepting 1799, when Colonel Henry Gerrish, of Boscawen, was elected, and during all this time was a leading man in the councils of the State. His large natural abilities, his sound judgment, his talent as a speaker, gave him an influence much greater than that exercised by men of larger culture and educa- tion.

The man of the most commanding influence in town during the first of the present century was Hon. Henry B. Chase, who came to Warner from Cornish, N. H., in 1805, and practiced law at the Lower vil- lage. He represented Warner several years in the Legislature of the State, and in 1817 was the Speaker of the House. He was the first postmaster of the town, and in 1823 was elected the first register of Probate for Merrimack County, serving in that office until 1840. His reputation as a sound lawyer was second to none in the State. Mr. Chase died in 1854, aged seventy-seven years. Another of the " giants " of that period was Hon. Benjamin Evans, son of Tap- pan Evans, one of the early proprietors of the town. He was born in Newburyport, Mass., but was, during the greater part of his life, a citizen of Warner. He was a man of the Benjamin Pierce stamp, and, like him, was a power in his own town and in the State. He had great business capacity, and though his education was limited, his energy, penetration and sound judgment were untiring and unerring. The town elected him its representative several times ; in 1830 he was elected Senator in old District No. 8, and in 1836 and 1837 he was in the Council of Governor Hill. In 1838 he was solicited to run as Democratic candidate for Governor of the State, but because of his advanced age he refused the honor, at a time when a nomination was practically an election. From 1838 to 1843 he held the office of sheriff of Merrimack County, resigning the same a few months before his death. Hon. Reuben Porter, the son-in- law of "Squire Evans," was a man of influence in his day; served as selectman in both Warner and Sutton (he resided at the latter place a few years); was representative from Sutton, and was elected Sena- tor in District No. 8 in 1834 and 1835. Robert Thompson, Esq., has been a prominent man in the county for many years, and Major Samuel Davis is a marked man in his party in the State.

The era of greatest prosperity in Warner was un- doubtedly from 1820 to 1850. The town had reached the acme of its populousness at the beginning of this period, and that enterprise and activity which make the prosperity of a municipality wasjust then begin- ning to operate in a large measure. There was more wealth then in the town, although that fact is not shown by the amount of valuation as recorded in the town-books. We must remember that one dollar in 1825 was certainly worth two at the present day. There were not so many horses in town in 1820 as now, but there was a greater number of oxen, cows and sheep. Farms were more productive. Every

farmer raised his own corn, flour and hay. There was a greater number of useful industries. Every brook turned one or more water-wheels, and there were sixteen mills and factories on Warner River and its tributaries. More money was brought into the town than was carried out ; the stores and taverns did a prosperous business, and everything was "rushing."

That was the age of style and aristocracy. The village 'squire, physician, lawyer and minister lived in a more expensive way than their neighbors. Their houses were statelier, they wore richer clothes, had the foremost seats in public places and were recog- nized as beings of a superior order. These old patri- cians, like Dr. Lyman, Hon. Henry B. Chase, Major George and "Squire Evans," constituted a class by themselves. Their influence was great, and they practically ruled the town. They expended liberally of their means for the good of the town, and they set the tide a-flowing toward a better and more elegant way of living. The first piano in town was brought in by Mrs. Herman Foster in 1832. The first two stoves, of the James patent, were introduced and used by H. G. Harris, Esq., and Elliot C. Badger, in 1825. The first brass door-knocker was put ou the residence of Rev. Jubilee Wellman, about the year 1830. A few of the "best families" used carpets as early as 1836.

One of the causes which operated to develop Warner industries and stimulate activity was the building of several new roads. Highways may he considered as an excellent standard of civilization. In fact, there is no better physical sign or symbol by which to understand an age or people than the road. The savage has no roads. His trails through the for- est, where men on foot can move only in single file, are marked by the blazing of trees. In half-civilized lands, where law is weak and society insecure, wheeled vehicles are seldom seen, and roads are oh- structed, rather than opened. The strength and enterprise of men are utilized in fortifying themselves against the invasion of danger. Huge castles are built on inaccessible rocks, walled cities cover the plain, and horses and mules offer the only means of transportation and communication, by which, along rude bridle-paths, the traveler and the merchant are conveyed from one country to another. It is only civilized art that constructs a royal highway or a magnificent railroad, and by these means offers con- veyance for men and goods over rugged steeps and along frightful precipices by routes once deemed in- superable. Roads are the ducts of trade, and com- merce is one of the pillars of a civilized State. No nation can become great without intercourse with its surrounding States, and necessarily roads must be built. Something can be learned of the status of society, of the culture of a people, of the enlighten- ment of a government, by visiting universities and libraries, churches, palaces and the docks of trade ; but quite as much more by looking at the roads. For,

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if there is any material or art enterprise in a nation, or any vitality to a government, it will always be in- dicated by the highway,-the type of civilized motion and prosperity. All creative action, whether in government, industry, thought or religion, constructs roads.

Prior to 1820 Warner had no highway leading directly west ; consequently no great degree of travel passed through the town. Reposing in the deep valley, shut in almost on all sides by high hills, War- ner seemed to be cut adrift from the rest of the world. It was distant from all the great lines of travel, and, in fact, the travel that might naturally have come to the town was diverted from it by those very lines. The turnpikes had been the exciting topic for several years, the craze in this State beginning in 1795 and culminating twenty years afterwards. Fifty-three turnpike companies were incorporated in this State, and the enterprise wrought a revolution iu public travel, relatively, nearly as great as that brought about by the railroad system between 1840 and 1850. The second New Hampshire turnpike road, which was incorporated December 26, 1799, ran from Claremont through Unity, Lempster, Washington, Marlow, Hillsborough, Antrim, Deering, Francestown, Lynde- borough, New Boston, Mont Vernon and to Am- herst. It was fifty miles in length, and took, of course, all the travel that passed west and south of our town. The following year the fourth New Hamp- shire turnpike was incorporated and laid out. (The third New Hampshire turnpike road, running from Bellows Falls and Walpole, through Westmoreland, Surry, Keene and Jaffrey, towards Boston, was incor- porated December 27, 1799.) This turnpike was at the north and east of Warner, and extended from Lebanon, through Enfield, Andover, Salisbury and Boscawen, to the Merrimack River, thus opening the means of communication between the two great river valleys.

It will be seen that these two routes combined to turn the public travel directly from Warner. The condition of affairs aroused the attention of certain of the enterprising business men of the town, and they devised a way to remedy it. The only road leading any way west was the old Perrytown highway, laid out in the early period of the settlement, which went over Kimball's Hill (now Eaton Grange) to South Sutton and Sunapee and Claremont, and thence into Vermont. Just beyond Eaton Grange, at what was called the old Potash, a road branched off from the Perrytown highway which led to North Sutton, Springfield, Hanover and White River Junction. Both of these roads were indirect and exceedingly hilly, and consequently not very inviting to the traveler. A committee of the leading citizens of Warner, Bradford and Fishersfield (now Newbury) met in consultation, and after a thorough examination of the ground, decided to lay out and construct a road from the head of Sunapee Lake to Bradford, thus

opening a convenient route from Windsor, Vt., through the Sugar and Warner River valleys to Concord. There was one obstacle in the way: the people of Fishersfield were so poor that they did not feel able to construct their part of the road. What was to be done? Warner necessarily would be bene- fited more than any other town by this new road. Our citizens saw this, and a number of them took hold of the affair of their own free will, and without any vote of the town or any help from the municipality. Several of the most able and enterprising men, inclu- ding Benjamin Evans, Daniel Bean, Sr., and John E. Kelley, accordingly drove to Fishersfield, took their families and plenty of provisions, and boarding in an old school-house, labored there for weeks, giving their labor and "finding themselves." Before the autumn of 1821 the road was completed.

The result was all that its designers could wish. It. turned a portion of the travel which had formerly passed around Warner on either side along this new thoroughfare. It became a stage-route, connecting Western New Hampshire with Concord and Boston by the shortest and most easily accessible way. Travel poured in abundantly, and Warner became a grand centre and halting-place for the caravans of people and merchandise. During nearly a decade of years the travel was unchecked, and the individuals who had labored so hard and expended so liberally of time and money found themselves amply recompensed both in the increased prosperity of the town and in their own natural share of the general prosperity.

In 1830 the adjacent town of Henniker on the south went to road-building, and constructed a good highway from Bradford to Weare, thus devising a nearer cut from the west to Nashua and Lowell on the south. This as effectually diverted the travel from Warner as water would be turned from a barrel by knocking out its head. Warner people did not, how- ever, give up the battle, but went to work to tap the channel of travel from the west, higher up on the Connecticut. To do this, it was necessary to construct a new highway through Sutton, New London and Springfield, to intercept the stream of travel that naturally poured along the fourth New Hampshire turnpike. The road was laid out in 1831, a serpent's trail from Hanover, through Springfield, New London, Sutton, Warner and Hopkinton, to Concord. The town of Hopkinton shortened the line by building the Bassett Mill road. Springfield and New London did their part, but Pike's Ledge in Sutton was so formid- able that the people of that town refused to take hold of the enterprise. Again the spirit and the enterprise of the citizens of Warner met and overcame the dilemma. These citizens met the authorities of the town of Sutton, and gave a bond holding them to the building of two hundred and nine rods of their part of the road, if the town would do the rest. So the work went on. The first ten rods were built by Henry B. Chase, the second ten rods by Harrison G.

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Harris. Benjamin Evans built forty rods, and his son-in-law, Nathan S. Colby, built forty rods. Robert Thompson built five rods. Levi Barlett four rods. Zebulon Davis two rods. Daniel Runels two rods, and Daniel and Stephen George constructed the road over the formidable Pike's Ledge. The road was fin- ished that fall, and Robert Thompson, Esq., of Warner, was the first person to drive over it in a carriage.

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 159

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