USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume II > Part 29
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February 17, 1791, there was an act to establish an academy at Amherst, which had been previously called the Aurean School. Charles Walker, son of Judge Walker of Concord, was its first Principal. This institution was closed in 1801 for lack of funds.
Haverhill Academy was incorporated in 1794, a building
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having been erected the year before, in the upper story of which the county courts were held for many years. The insti- tution has continued till the present time, and has educated many honored men, among whom was Justice Nathan Clifford of the United States Supreme Court. Its Principal in 1836 was Peter T. Washburn, who became governor of Vermont. The first wooden building was burned in 1814, and a stone struc- ture succeeded it. It was thoroughly repaired in 1880 at an expense of one thousand dollars. This school has a long and honorable career and has given special attention to fitting stu- dents for college. It needs an ample endowment.
There was an academy at Plainfield, in 1785, that with the academy at New Ipswich was associated with Dartmouth Col- lege as a beneficiary and helper. This was, doubtless, the precursor of Kimball Union Academy, established in 1813.6
The founding of Dartmouth College has been narrated in a preceding chapter. Its growth was rapid and remarkable. In September, 1772, there were seventy in attendance, including eighteen Indians. In November, 1774, there were one hundred students, twenty-one being Indians. The number of students fell off during the Revolution, and fewer Indians appeared there- after, the last one leaving in 1785. But in 1786 the number of students was again one hundred, and in 1790 one hundred and sixty were enrolled. A large majority of them came from out- side of New Hampshire. The college, in 1791, graduated, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, forty-nine men, to twenty-seven each to Yale, Harvard and Princeton. In the decade 1780 to 1790 Dartmouth graduated 363 men, Harvard 394, Yale 295 and Princeton 240.7 Dr. Jeremy Belknap attended the college commence- ment in 1774 and from him we learn its character. He was six days in making the journey from Dover. He says the college build- ing was seventy or eighty feet long and thirty broad, containing twenty chambers. The hall was a distinct building, serving also for a meeting house, and the kitchen was in one end of it. There was a president's house, and a new college building was then talked of, to be built of stone from a neighboring quarry. About a mile distant were saw and grist mills, run by six
6 Chase's Hist. of Dartmouth College, p. 585.
7 The Story of Dartmouth, by Wilder D. Quint, p. 76.
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of the college students, who were thus paying their way. They took the mills at the halves. The commencement exercises began at eleven in the forenoon, in a large tent. First there was a prayer by the president; then an English oration by one of the bachelors, complimenting the trustees; then a syllogistic disputation on the question, Amicitia vera non est absque amore divina; then a philosophic oration; then an anthem; then a forensic dispute, whether Christ died for all men; then another anthem; then dinner at the president's house and in the hall. In the afternoon the exercises began with a Latin oration on the state of society, by Professor Ripley; then there was an English oration on the imitative arts, by John Wheelock, who became the second President of the college; then the degrees were conferred and Latin diplomas were given; after that two bachelors spoke a dialogue of a humorous character, on good eating and drinking. An anthem and a prayer concluded the public exercises. There was a large concourse of people. "The Connecticut lads and lassies, I observed, walked about hand in hand in procession, as 'tis said they go to a wedding.8 With all the preaching, chapel exercises and study of religion to which the students were obliged to submit they are described as "unruly, lawless, and without the fear of God." One night they burned the Commons Hall. They acted plays upon the stage that offended piety and decency. In the class of 1799 there was only one man that was a professor of religion.
John Wheelock succeeded his father as president, so named in his father's will. . It was, evidently, the thought of the Wheelock family that the institution was almost privately owned, although it had a board of trustees and money was solicited and obtained for it, both in Europe and in America. During this time the college had a continuous struggle with poverty and was usually in debt. The president resigned his military commission as lieutenant-colonel to take the office almost thrust upon him, and he served gratuitously the first seven years. No wonder that he felt he had a right to rule. His asserted obstinacy led to divisions, that may better be related in a subsequent chapter. In spite of all difficulties the
8 Chase's Hist. of Dartmouth College, Vol. I., p. 290.
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college continued to grow, and the Medical School was founded in 1797.
The struggle with debt was continuous, and the efforts to secure funds and land grants were very discouraging. The township of Landaff had been granted in 1764 to James Avery and others, and the grant had been forfeited by non-performance of the conditions prescribed. The forfeiture was declared by the governor and council without any judicial determination. At this time Samuel Fuller was the only settler in the town. In the year 1770 the township was regranted, this time to Dart- mouth College, from which it was not far removed. It contained over twenty-five thousand acres of land. The conditions of the grant made it necessary that a road four rods wide should be made through the township within two years from the date of the grant, and that sixty families should be settled within four years. The town was incorporated in 1774. Up to this time fifteen hundred acres had been given to twenty families of settlers, and some improvements had been made on a college farm of two thousand acres on the Ammonoosuc river. Roads and bridges were built, and by the end of 1775 the college had expended about one thousand pounds. In 1779 the Rev. Ebenezer Cleveland was induced to settle in Landaff, with seven other families; a building for a public grammar school was erected on the college farm; and two hundred acres near the centre of the town were set apart for the school, which was maintained for two years and a half at the expense of the college. It was named the Phillips School, in honor of John Phillips of Exeter.
The political attitude of the river towns was ascribed to the influence of Dartmouth College, and this secured the oppo- sition of some in the old part of the State. One of the principal opponents was Colonel Nathaniel Peabody of Atkinson, who with his friends bought out a large part of the original pro- prietors for five to six pounds for each right. A few years later they were selling these purchased rights for from one hundred to one hundred and twenty pounds. The land speculators were willing to ruin the college in order to make money. These speculators began to introduce settlers about the year 1781 and by 1788 more than sixty families had settled under their patron- age and had forced nearly all the college settlers to surrender
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and take new titles from the original proprietors or their assignees. This cut off an annual rent to the college of about one hundred pounds. The affair was taken to the General Court; efforts were made to compromise with Colonel Peabody and others; all was in vain and the trustees of the college relinquished all claims to the township in 1791, having expended in improvements and in defense of their claim about ten thou- sand dollars. Thus the provincial grant of land proved to be a damage rather than an aid. The State tried to compensate the college by granting, in 1789, a tract of land, now known as Clarksville, in the northern part of Coos county, estimated to contain forty thousand acres. Pressure of debt compelled the college to sell portions of this from time to time. The last remnants were sold in 1872. The aggregate amount received was about ten thousand dollars. Thus after a century the college got back about the amount of money expended on Landaff. In 1795 the State granted to the college the privilege of a lottery, by which it was hoped that fifteen thousand dollars would be "raised," but the net proceeds were only four thou- sand dollars. The price of a lottery ticket was four dollars, and eight hundred tickets were sold in Boston. The lottery was divided into seven classes, drawn at different times and places. The first five classes contained 8,555 prizes, ranging in value from six dollars to three thousand dollars. There were forty-one thousand tickets, so that the gross receipts must have been over one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. As only four thousand dollars were realized in profits, it would be inter- esting to learn where the rest of money paid in disappeared.9
Moor's Indian Charity School, established in Lebanon, Connecticut, by Colonel Joshua Moor, was removed to Hanover at the same time that the college was planted. It served as a fitting school for the college and is sometimes styled an academy. Here Indian youths were found from time to time well into the nineteenth century, but some years all were white, both male and female. It had thirty pupils in 1780, eighty in 1794. Nearly a quarter part of the pupils were charity students. The institution was supported by rents from lands, by tutitions, two dollars a quarter, and by gifts of the benevolent.
9Chase's Hist. of Dartmouth College, p. 612.
Chapter XIV
ROADS, TURNPIKES AND CANALS
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Chapter XIV ROADS, TURNPIKES, AND CANALS.
Rivers as Highways-Mast Roads-Bridle Paths-Post Roads and Riders-
Earliest Post Routes-Era of Turnpikes Built by Private Enterprise- Principal Lines of Travel-Six Hundred Miles of Turnpike-They grad- ually Were Abandoned, or Bought by Town or State-The Railroads May Learn a Lesson-The Middlesex Canal-Locks and Tributary Canals.
IN the earliest days the rivers were the highways. Produce and merchandise were transported in canoes or sailing vessels along the Pascataqua, Merrimack and Connecticut rivers. Portage around the falls and rapids and the propelling of boats by oars and poles made this a long and expensive way of trans- porting goods, yet it was easier than to pack freight on the backs of horses led along a bridle path. There were no roads for wheeled carriages for the first century or so. When towns became more thickly settled, attention was given to the con- struction of roads. These were laid out usually four rods wide, to provide for all future needs. Thus much land has been wasted, for more than half the width of country roads is left to briars and bushes, while the way actually prepared for carriages is often too narrow.
The first great roads skirted the river banks, because the settlements were there and the construction of roads was less difficult in the lowlands. The roads from river to river, over the height of land and through unbroken forests, were more difficult. In some instances these were first mast-roads, for the hauling of masts and ship-timber. Horsemen and ox-carts could pick their way along, where stages and chaises would be upset. It was the introduction of the private traveling carriage that necessitated better roads, just as the automobiles now are macadamizing our highways.
At the time of the revolutionary war it took travelers six days to go from Hanover to Boston. In 1771 Governor Went- worth made his trip to the college commencement by way of
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Plymouth and Haverhill. The next year a sort of a road was opened from the college to Wolfeborough, but no carriage passed over it for many years. Every three weeks a postrider carried mail from Portsmouth to the college and returned. The postrider was Lieutenant Nathaniel Porter. The earliest post office had been established at Portsmouth before 1695 and it did business for the entire province. After postal routes were established the cost of sending letters was prohibitive of ex- tensive correspondence. For forty miles it was sixpence, later reduced to eight cents for distance under forty miles, twenty cents for over three hundred miles and twenty-five cents for over five hundred miles. Every letter composed of two pieces of paper paid double those rates, and so the rates were propor- tioned to size and weight. In 1781 the General Court ordered that a suitable person be employed by the Committee of Safety to carry letters from Portsmouth to Haverhill, New Hampshire, by way of Concord and Plymouth, and from Haverhill down the river by way of Charlestown and Keene to Portsmouth. John Balch of Keene carried the mail over this route for two years, setting out from Portsmouth alternate Saturday mornings. About the year 1785 the route was from Portsmouth, by Exeter and Nottingham, Concord and Plymouth, to Haverhill, return- ing by Charlestown, Keene, Amherst and Exeter to Portsmouth. After 1787 a road was partly built from Hanover to Boscawen, by way of Moose Mountain to North Enfield and the east side of the pond to Canaan.
New Hampshire for the first time enacted a law, February 12, 1791, establishing four post routes and ten postmasters. The first route was from Concord, by way of Weare, New Boston, Amherst, Wilton, Temple, Peterborough, Dublin, Marlborough, Keene, Westmoreland, Walpole, Washington, Claremont, New- port, Lempster, Washington, Hillsborough, Henniker, and Hop- kinton, to Concord; and Osias Silsby of Acworth was post rider.
The second route was from Concord, by way of Boscawen, Salisbury, Andover, New Chester, Plymouth, Haverhill, Pier- mont, Orford, Lyme, Hanover, Lebanon, Enfield, Canaan, Grafton, Alexandria and Salisbury, to Concord, and John Lathrop of Lebanon was post rider.
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The third route was from Portsmouth, by way of Exeter, Kingston, Plaistow, Hampstead, Chester, Londonderry, Litch- field, Goffstown, Bow, to Concord, and return through Pem- broke, Deerfield, Nottingham and Newmarket bridge to Ports- mouth, and Samuel Bean of Weare was post rider.
The fourth route was from Portsmouth, by way of Dover, Rochester, Wakefield, Ossipee, Tamworth, Sandwich, Center Harbor, Plymouth, New Hampton, Meredith, Gilmanton, Barn- stead, Barrington and Newmarket bridge to Portsmouth, and the post rider was Moses Senter of Meredith.
These routes made necessary only good paths for horsemen, but probably at that time on all these routes there were passable roads for wheeled vehicles. The routes changed with increase of population and growth of new towns. Even after the United States extended its postal system to New Hampshire, private riders were sometimes employed to carry letters and newspapers.
In the last decade of the eighteenth century began the era of Turnpikes in New Hampshire. In 1791 a petition was ad- dressed to the General Court, asking for a road from Concord to Durham, that being the nearest point on the Oyster River branch of the Pascataqua, to which merchant vessels could sail. The petition represents that the roads from the sea coast inland were crooked and indirect and that trade would be greatly facilitated by straightening the same; that a road could be built from Durham Falls to Concord in thirty miles, thereby saving to the consumer the expense of forty-five miles of car- riage, all of which had been demonstrated by survey and plans already drawn. The same year a committee was appointed with full powers to survey and establish this road, with a branch to Newmarket Bridge. Within the next twenty years fifty-two more turnpikes were laid out in New Hampshire.
The first turnpike extended from the Falls at Durham through Lee, a corner of Barrington, Nottingham, Northwood, Epsom, Chichester and thence to Concord. It was incorporated in June, 1796. After the building of the Pascataqua Bridge, in 1794, the turnpike was extended down the north side of Oyster River to Meader's Neck. This bridge was one of the wonders of New England. It was 2,362 feet long and 38 feet wide, built from Fox Point in Newington to Rock Island, thence to Goat
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Island by an arch of 240 feet, thence to Tickle Point, on Meader's Neck, where there was a toll gate. The architect was Timothy Palmer of Newburyport, Massachusetts. The cost of the bridge was $65,947.34 and it was sold half a century later for $2,000. It gave way in 1830 and again in 1855, and six hundred feet of it were carried away by ice, February 18, 1855. It was never rebuilt, and therefore an important line of travel was closed. A century ago a caravan of one hundred teams might have been seen along the turnpike from Durham to Concord. It was the easiest and cheapest way of getting goods into and produce out of the valley of the Merrimack. There were eighteen toll-bridges in New Hampshire in 1819, estimated to have cost $187,783.1
The second turnpike road extended from Claremont to Am- herst. Its course was through Unity, Lempster, Washington, north corner of Windsor, southwest corner of Hillsborough, northeast corner of Antrim, part of Deering, Francestown, south- west corner of New Boston, and Mont Vernon to Amherst. The distance is nearly fifty miles. The road was completed in 1801 and stages were put upon it. This was for a time the main line of travel to Boston, and taverns were built along the route for the accommodation of travelers. The toll-gates were eight miles apart, and the charge was eight cents at each gate. At a proper bed-time the gates were locked.
The third turnpike extended from Bellows' Falls in Walpole through a part of Westmoreland and Surry, thence through Keene, Marlborough, Jaffrey, New Ipswich, and a corner of Mason, to the south line of the State, near Ashby in Massachu- setts. The distance is forty-five miles. This road was incorpora- ted December 27, 1799. At Ashby it connected with a direct road to Boston, and thus it was the main line of travel for the towns through which it passed.
The fourth turnpike in New Hampshire extended "from the east bank of the Connecticut river in the town of Lebanon, nearly opposite to the mouth of White river, eastwardly to the west branch of Merrimack river in the town of Salisbury or Boscawen." Its course was through Lebanon, Enfield, a corner of Grafton, Springfield, Wilmot, Andover and New Salisbury,
1 House Journal for 1819, pp. 53-55.
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forty miles. It was incorporated December, 1800. There were four hundred shares, and the shareholders were largely people of Portsmouth, Hanover and Lebanon.
Branch Road and Bridge Company was incorporated June 16, 1802. This road extended from the south line of Fitzwilliam to the village in Keene, a distance of about fourteen miles, running through Marlborough.
The sixth turnpike road extended from the bridge over the Connecticut between the towns of Hinsdale and Brattleborough, through Hinsdale and Winchester to the line of Massachusetts at Warwick. The company was incorporated June 16, 1802.
The Dover turnpike extended from Dover landing, on the Cochecho river, near the bridge, through Somersworth and what is now Rollinsford, to the Salmon Falls, or Newichawannock river, at the landing just below the present bridge from Rollins- ford to South Berwick. The company was incorporated De- cember 21, 1803. This road is still much used.
The Coos turnpike, leading from Haverhill to Warren, about twelve miles, was incorporated December 29, 1803.
Orford Turnpike was incorporated December 27, 1803, and led from Orford bridge to Aiken's bridge in Wentworth.
A turnpike from the upper line of Bartlett, through the notch in the White Mountains, about twenty miles, was in- corporated December 28, 1803.
The Charlestown turnpike, incorporated December 27, 1803, extended from the Connecticut river, through the central part of Charlestown and Acworth, to the second New Hampshire turnpike, in Lempster, about twelve miles.
The Mayhew turnpike, incorporated December 29, 1803, extended from New Chester to the east side of Newfound pond and thence through Plymouth and Rumney to the Coos turn- pike. The distance is about forty-six miles.
Chester turnpike, incorporated June 12, 1804, extended about fourteen miles from Pembroke through Allenstown and Candia to Chester.
The Londonderry turnpike, incorporated June, 1804, led from Concord through Bow to Hooksett bridge, thence through Chester, Londonderry, the easterly corner of Windham and Salem to the state line, near Andover bridge, Massachusetts. The distance is about thirty-five miles.
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Grafton turnpike led from near Orford bridge through Lyme, the northeast corner of Hanover, Canaan, the westerly part of Orange, Grafton, Danbury, and New Chester (Hill). It joined the fourth turnpike in the northwest corner of Andover. The distance is about thirty-five miles. This road was incor- porated June 21, 1804.
The Jefferson turnpike, incorporated December II, 1804, extended from the end of the turnpike from Bartlett through the Notch, through Bretton Woods, Jefferson and Lancaster to the meeting house. The distance is about eighteen miles.
The Croydon turnpike, incorporated June 21, 1804, ex- tended from near the branch turnpike, where it intersected the fourth turnpike in Lebanon, through or between Plainfield and Enfield, New Grantham, Croydon, Newport and Lempster, to the second turnpike, in Washington. Its length was about thirty-five miles.
Cheshire turnpike, incorporated December 18, 1804, extended from the Connecticut river to Charlestown meeting house, through Langdon, a part of Walpole, Alstead, and Surry to the third New Hampshire turnpike in Keene. The distance is twenty miles.
Ashuelot turnpike, incorporated June 18, 1807, led from the turnpike in Winchester through Richmond to Fitzwilliam vil- lage, about fifteen miles.
Rindge turnpike, incorporated June 12, 1807, extended from the state line in the southwest corner of New Ipswich to the branch turnpike leading from Keene to Boston.
The Cornish turnpike, incorporated December 9, 1808, ex- tended from Cornish bridge to the Croydon turnpike at New- port, a distance of eleven miles.
The Fitzwilliam Village turnpike, incorporated December 9, 1809, extended from Fitzwilliam to the state line.
Most of the turnpikes incorporated thereafter were short lines tributary to the main, or trunk, line of travel. Thus were constructed about six hundred miles of road by private cor- porations. Some roads paid for twenty years an average divi- dend of nearly five percent. They increased trade and travel, but soon objections were raised against them as private monopo- lies. It was felt that public roads ought to be owned by the
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people collectively. There were various ways of evading the paying of toll. One by one the roads were made free, and in some cases something was paid by the state to the stockholders, who were willing to release their roads when they could no longer be kept up at a profit. Herein, perhaps, may be a lesson for the more recent railroads. If they can not be run and pay dividends, let them be surrendered to the state or nation at actual present value, and be managed by the public for the benefit of all the people. The experiment with turnpikes has worked well. Why should not the people as a whole own all their means of travel and transportation ?2
The problem of cheap transportation early engaged the attention of traders and manufacturers. The roads, at their best, were tortuous and expensive. The waterways were blocked by numerous rapids and cataracts. It cost more than freight was worth to transport it several hundred miles. Hence only the bare necessaries of life found their way into the interior and northern part of the State. Lumber could be floated down the rivers, and live stock could be driven to Boston market, but the products of manufactories could not be easily distri- buted, and water power went to waste, when not utilized for saw-mills and grist-mills.
The construction of the Middlesex canal was the outcome of a scheme to connect the upper Merrimack and the upper Connecticut rivers with Boston and open up a highway for com- merce to the St. Lawrence. The distance from Charlestown, Mass., to Middlesex village, just above where Lowell now is, was only about twenty-seven miles. Then there were eighty miles of water way to Concord. From this place it was thought that a canal could be cut to the Connecticut, at Windsor, Vermont, by way of Lake Sunapee, and thence by use of intermediate streams to the St. Lawrence. The scheme originated with James Sullivan, later governor of Massachusetts, a native of what is now Rollinsford, New Hampshire. He was a brother of General John Sullivan. It was planned first to connect Concord, New Hampshire, with Boston in this way, and if
2 Most of the information above given about turnpikes was taken from a Gazetteer of New Hampshire, published in 1817, by Eliphalet and Phinehas Merrill. Cf. also the House Journal for 1819, pp. 55-57. The cost of turn- pikes, up to 1819, was estimated at $545,715.
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