USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume III > Part 28
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Nathaniel Upham was born in Deerfield, June 9, 1774; mem- ber of the state house of representatives ; elected as a Democrat to the 15th, 16th and 17th congresses, 1817-23; died in Roches- ter, July 10, 1829.
Charles Christopher Brainerd Walker, representative from New York, was born in Drewsville, a village in the town of Walpole, N. H., June 27, 1824; moved to Corning, N. Y., in 1848; postmaster there 1856-60; elected as a Democrat to the 44th con- gress, 1875-77 ; died in Corning, N. Y., January 26, 1888.
William A. Walker, representative from New York, was born in New Hampshire in 1804; moved to New York City; held several local offices; elected as a Democrat to the 33d con- gress, 1853-55; died in New York City, December 18, 1861.
Rodney Wallace, representative from Massachusetts, was born in New Ipswich, N. H., December 21, 1823; engaged in the manufacture of paper ; selectman of Fitchburg, Mass., for three years; representative in the general court of Massachusetts in 1873 ; councilor of state in 1880-82 ; elected as a Republican to the 5Ist congress, 1889-91 ; died in Fitchburg, Mass., February 27, 1903.
John Wingate Weeks was born in Greenland, March 31, 1778; captain in the War of 1812; promoted to rank of major ; held several offices in Coos county ; elected to the 21st and 22nd congresses, 1829-33; died in Lancaster, April 3, 1853.
Joseph Weeks was a native of Massachusetts and moved to Richmond, N. H. He was elected as a Democrat to the 24th and 25th congresses, 1835-39.
John Wentworth, Jr., was born in Salmon Falls, N. H., July 17, 1745; graduated from Harvard College in 1768; prac- ticed law in Dover; member of the state house of representa- tives, 1776-80; delegate in the continental congress, 1778-79; one
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of signers of the articles of confederation ; member of the state council, 1780-84; died in Dover, January 10, 1787.
John Wentworth, representative from Illinois, was born in Sandwich, N. H., March 5, 1815; moved with parents to Dover in 1819; graduated from Dartmouth College in 1836; moved to Chicago and engaged in newspaper work; attended the Harvard Law School and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1841 ; elected as a Democrat to the 28th, 29th, 30th and 3Ist congresses, 1843- 51; re-elected to the 33rd congress, 1853-55; mayor of Chicago as a Republican, 1857-63; elected as a Republican to the 39th congress, 1865-67; died in Chicago, October 16, 1888. He was known as "Long John Wentworth" and complied the Went- worth Genealogy in three volumes full of genealogical and his- torical detail. It is said that this work cost him $30,000.
Tappan Wentworth, representative from Massachusetts, was born in Dover, N. H., February 24, 1802; began practice of law in Great Falls, in 1824; moved to Lowell, Mass., in 1833, served several years in both branches of Massachusetts legislature; elected as a Whig to the 33rd congress, 1853-55; defeated for re-election ; died in Lowell, Mass., June 12, 1875.
John O. Whitehouse, representative from New York, was born in Rochester, N. H., July 19, 1817; moved to Brooklyn, N. Y .; merchant and manufacturer; elected as a Liberal to the 43d and 44th congresses, 1875-79.
Elias Whittemore, representative from New York, was born in Pembroke, N. H., March 2, 1772 ; moved to New York; elected to the 19th congress, 1825-27; died December 26, 1853, in Wind- sor, N. Y.
James Wilson was born in Peterboro, August 16, 1766; graduated from Harvard College in 1789; practiced law in Keene; was several times a member of the state legislature; elected as a Federalist to the IIth congress, 1809-II; died in Keene, January 4, 1839.
John Wilson, representative from Massachusetts, was born in Peterboro, N. H., January 10, 1777; graduated from Harvard College in 1799; began the practice of law in Belfast, Maine; elected as a Federalist to the 13th congress, 1813-15; re-elected to the 15th congress, 1817-19; died in Belfast, Maine, August 9, 1848.
William Wilson, representative from Ohio, was born in
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Hillsboro county, N. H .; moved to Ohio; elected to the 18th and 19th congresses, 1823-27; died in Newark, Ohio, May 29, 1827.
Samuel Thomas Worcester, representative from Ohio, was born in Hollis, N. H., August 30, 1804; graduated from Cam- bridge University in 1830; began the practice of law in Norwalk, Ohio; member of the state senate; judge of the court of common pleas, 1859-60; elected as a Republican to the 37th congress, 1861-63; died in Nashua, N. H., December 6, 1882.
Timothy Roberts Young, representative from Illinois, was born in Dover, N. H., November 19, 1811; educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and Bowdoin College, where he graduated in 1835; studied law in Dover and admitted to the bar; moved to Marshall, Ill., in 1838 and practiced law ten years; elected as a Democrat to the 3Ist congress, 1849-51 ; engaged in agriculture and trade ; died at Oilfield, near Casey, Ill., May 12, 1898.
Chapter XIX ORGANIZATION OF CITIES
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LIBBY MUSEUM, WOLFEBORO, N. H. ERECTED 1912
Chapter XIX ORGANIZATION OF CITIES
T HE eleven cities of New Hampshire are of recent origin. Railroads and factories increased the population of some places till the old-fashioned town meeting, so well adapted to small towns and so harmonious with the spirit of democracy, became unsuited to pressing needs. Some towns of limited popu- lation felt that a city charter would add to their dignity and importance, thus attracting capital and leading to the develop- ment of natural resources. Tradition says that Senator Charles G. Atherton first urged that Nashua be made a city because he preferred to be known in Washington as coming from a city rather than from a town. Cities attract and country towns repel. Cities are expected to grow and small towns shrink. Cities have a supply of water, are lighted and furnish amusements and societies. Change a big town into a city, and at once it begins to expand and attract. Nearly every city that has been planned, and even before it was chartered, has had its boom. Fields and pastures for miles around have been staked out into house- lots, and inflated prices only increased the number of purchasers. Small investors began to speculate in future possibilities. Cap- italists bought up the most promising sites and obliged the toilers to pay big prices for small house-lots or high rent for poor places to live in.
In the organization of the earlier cities of New Hampshire the idea of government prevailed that had existed long in states and nations. There was the same system of checks on the will of the people. There must be the mayor with his power of veto, and a board of aldermen to correspond to a senate, and a larger board of councilmen to deliberate as a house of representatives. Sometimes it required as much argument and log-rolling to get a necessary rule of conduct established in a city as to get a bill with its rider through congress. The government of a large city by a very few commissioners was not thought of in New Hamp-
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shire. To entrust the government of a city to one expert busi- ness manager, who should appoint his subordinates, a generation ago would have been considered the height of folly and misrule. In order to have self-government many think they must have a chance to talk, agitate and vote on every debatable question. Such think that wisdom resides with a multitude of counselors. Such government costs more and accomplishes less, but it dis- tributes power and honor.
A city with large boards of aldermen and councilmen is bet- ter suited to the wishes and plans of political bosses. They can manage large boards more easily than they can the expert man- ager or the commission of three or five. There is more chance for graft. Large boards contain the needed few who can be induced to vote right, in the judgment of political and business schemers. Those who are seeking for monopolies in the intro- duction of public utilities rely upon the use of graft to secure desired concessions. The government of American cities has become a reproach and an oppression. The bigger the city, the more its many officials have to be watched.
Nearly all the business of a city has nothing to do with politics, yet the political leaders seek to divide the population in every local issue into Democrats and Republicans. The cities and towns must be politically divided in order to control the states and the nation. The political machine breaks down, if party lines are often transgressed in local elections. Hence in choice of mayor and local boards the question forced upon the attention of the voters is not, whether the candidate is the best business manager and the most trustworthy person, but is he a Republican or a Democrat. Revolts against this regime more and more frequently appear in the nomination of coalition candi- dates on a Citizen's Ticket. To break away from an old organi- zation, to do one's own thinking and to vote independently, even in a local election, is more than can be expected of those who have long been driven by the party whip. Never to scratch a political ticket is the proud purpose and boast of many.
Such matters probably were not considered, however, in the chartering of cities in New Hampshire. The custom of many generations was followed without asking any questions as to its utility and reasonableness. Experience and the leadership of
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new and distant places are raising the question, whether the method of city government copied from old English law and custom is the best one for recent American cities.
Manchester was the first booming city, built like a western town almost in a day. It was all staked out before the charter was obtained in 1846. The development of the largest water power in the State, on Amoskeag falls, insured future growth. The Namaskee Mills, The Langdon Mills, the Stark Mills, the Manchester Print Works, the Manchester Locomotive Works, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company are some of the leading industries. The city has nine ward's, like Nashua and Concord. The population was only about ten thousand at the beginning, but it grew to seventy thousand at the last census and is now estimated at eighty-five thousand, only one-fifth being of native stock. The largest element of the population is French Cana- dian, but the political leaders have been natives of the soil. They seem to have known how to use the mixed population, and the large ballot thrown by Manchester may account in part for the fact that it has been the home of so many governors, as Moody Currier, Frederick Smyth, Person C. Cheney, Ezekiel A. Straw, James A. Weston and Charles M. Floyd. Here also lived sena- tors Daniel Clark and Samuel N. Bell, as well as congressmen George W. Morrison and Cyrus A. Sulloway, if it is proper to speak of the last as passé. In the early days small towns like Durham, Kingston and Hillsborough furnished governors; now political aspirants move into a city and "go through the chairs," as they say in some fraternities and sororities.
Manchester employs twenty thousand of its population in the textile industries and ten thousand in the manufacture of boots and shoes. The Manchester Traction, Light and Power Company furnishes electricity to private persons and corpora- tions, as well as for municipal purposes. Electric cars connect with Concord, Nashua, Derry, Goffstown and Auburn. The water supply comes from Lake Massabesic, only four miles away, and the system of water works cost nine million dollars. There are two hundred and ten miles of streets. Manchester is the seventh city in the United States in the production of boots and shoes. She makes more brushes than any other city in the world. Two millions of baseball bats are turned out annually, and sev-
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enty-five thousand automatic knitting machines are made. The estimated wealth of Manchester is $150,000,000, and the annual pay-roll is $12,000,000. Among the public institutions are fifty churches, eleven banks, the Carpenter Memorial Library con- taining seventy thousand books, the free Institute of Arts and Sciences, three hospitals, a Masonic Home, a Home for the Aged, several orphanages, the State Reform School, a large armory and eleven theaters. The leading newspaper of the State is the Manchester Union. St. Anselm's College is located on the border of the city, in Goffstown. There are three busi- ness colleges. The railroad connections are unsurpassed.
The city of Portsmouth received its charter in 1849. It then had three wards, since increased to five, a mayor, seven aldermen and twenty-one in the common council. The three wards had some town privileges and could elect their own mod- erator, selectmen and town clerk. The growth of the city has not been what was hoped, the present population being a little above eleven thousand. Portsmouth once was a seaport of con- siderable importance, but the building of railroads sent shipping to Boston. Shipbuilding has declined to zero. The boast of Portsmouth is her old traditions and houses. The manufacture of beer and ale keeps some alive and kills others. A big paper mill in the northern part of the city attracts attention and should have many operatives. Portsmouth has a fine court house, sharing with Exeter the legal and judicial business of Rock- ingham county. Its churches and schools are a credit to the city. The old Portsmouth Academy, built in the year 1809, was remodeled in 1896 and made the Portsmouth Public Li- brary. The Athenaeum was built over a century ago for the use of the Fire and Marine Insurance Company. In 1817 the Pro- prietors of the Portsmouth Athenaeum were incorporated as owners and directors of a private library. The reading room,
remodeled in 1893, contains portraits of Sir William Pepperrell, Sir Peter Warren and other celebrities. The growing library of the Pascataqua Pioneers, a historical society that welcomes the descendants of all the early settlers of the original four towns of New Hampshire, is stored in the Public Library for the present.
Some of the prominent citizens of the city of Portsmouth in recent years have been Governor Ichabod Goodwin, William
FIRST WENTWORTH HOUSE, 1670; PORTSMOUTH
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GOV. JOHN LANGDON HOUSE, 1784; PORTSMOUTH
GOV. ICHABOD GOODWIN HOUSE, 1811; PORTSMOUTH
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GOV. JOHN WENTWORTH HOUSE, 1769; PORTSMOUTH
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H. Y. Hackett, and Calvin Page. Those who have made themselves well known in the world of letters have been named in the chap- ter on the literature of New Hampshire.
Among the colonial houses that visitors like to see are the residences of the Wentworths, of Gov. John Langdon, where Louis Philippe and his brothers were entertained in 1780, the Warner House, once thought to be the finest in the old town, the birthplace of Thomas B. Aldrich, and the Whipple House, the residence of Gen. William Whipple, who signed the Declaration of Independence. This last was built in 1783. The old State House, built on a ledge of rocks in the midst of Market Square, formerly called the Parade, was erected in 1758 and removed in 1837. Part of it is still used as a dwelling, at number 47 Court Street. Portsmouth has three daily newspapers and three weeklies.
Nashua became a city in the year 1852 by a union of Nashua and Nashville. It is a part of the old town of Dunstable. It has large water power and is a railroad center. At the beginning it had a population of 8,942, which has grown to about thirty thousand. Its manufactures are extensive, including cotton and woolen goods, boots and shoes, machinery for the production of paper from wood pulp, and products of small factories. The manu- facture of refrigerators and freezers is a specialty. Nashua has some fine buildings, notably a Masonic Temple, erected at a cost of eighty-seven thousand dollars, and the Odd Fellows' Build- ing, which cost one hundred thousand dollars. The county court house is a beautiful structure of granite. The Public Library was built by a gift of fifty thousand dollars by John M. Hunt; his widow, Mary A. Hunt, built the Home for Aged Couples and endowed it with eighty-eight thousand dollars. Other! evi- dences of wealth, patriotism and social service are the Highland Spring Sanatorium, the Soldiers' Monument, an emergency hos- pital and many beautiful churches. Nashua has good hotels, an abundant supply of pure water, and all the comforts and con- veniences that modern city life demands. Its future growth is well assured.
Among the leading men in the history of the city have been Gen. George Stark, Senator Charles G. Atherton, Gen. Aaron F. Stevens, Judge Edward E. Parker, Gen. John G. Foster and Gov. George A. Ramsdell. Its first mayor was Josephus Baldwin.
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The charter for the city of Dover was granted June 27, 1855. It contains perhaps a sixth part of the ancient township. The city government was inaugurated March 25, 1856, and Andrew Pierce was the first mayor. It has five wards and the population at the last census was somewhat above thirteen thousand, prob- ably now increased to over fifteen thousand. Its water power has made the city. Mills on the Cochecho and Bellamy rivers date back to earliest times. The Cochecho Manufacturing Com- pany, that did business here many years, went out of business in 1909 and the plant was bought by the Pacific Mills Company of Lawrence, Mass. This company carries on the manufacture of cotton goods as a branch or department of their larger work in Lawrence.
Mention has been made in a former chapter of the woolen industry established by Alfred Sawyer. The Sawyer Woolen Mills went out of business in 1899 and the American Woolen Company bought the plant and developed it on the Bellamy river falls. The Pacific Mills Company owns all the falls on the Cochecho up as far as Rochester. The industry of next greatest importance is that of the I. B. Williams and Sons Belting Com- pany, which now claims to be a larger concern than that of the Page Belting Company of Concord, and its products are dis- tributed throughout the world.
The county court house, a fine building, stands on the site, or near it, of the old garrison house of Major Waldron. The old William Dam garrison house, once called the Drew garrison, has been removed from Back river to the city proper and con- verted into a museum of local antiques. Dover has placed markers on all the spots of historic interest, and this work has been fostered by the historical Society named after the old name of Dover, the Northam Colonists.
Men of political prominence lived here in times past, such as Senator John P. Hale, Congressman Daniel M. Durell, Daniel M. Christie, Governor Noah Martin, Thomas E. Sawyer, who was second mayor and whig candidate for governor in 1851 and 1852, Charles Henry Sawyer, who was governor of the State in 1886. Other prominent men are Hon. Daniel Hall, Elisha R. Brown, president of Strafford National Bank, John Williams, Moses Paul and Judge Robert E. Pike.
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The public institutions include the Wentworth Hospital, the Hayes Hospital, the Wentworth home for the aged, founded in 1885 and endowed by Arioch Wentworth in 1898 by a donation of thirty thousand dollars, the Dover Children's Home built in 1897, and a Public Library. The City Hall is a noble brick struc- ture with spacious grounds in its vicinity. Trolley lines con- nect Dover with Portsmouth, Rochester, Somersworth, South Berwick and York, Maine.
Formerly the Star, organ of the Free Baptists, was published at Dover. The leading journal now is Foster's Daily Democrat, founded in 1873.
A part of ancient Dover was made into the parish of Somers- worth in 1729 and became a township in 1754. It included what is now the town of Rollinsford, which was set off from Somers- worth in 1850. Rollinsford Junction was the center of the town of Somersworth. Here stood the meeting house and near by lived the Rev. James Pike who officiated in this parish from 1730 to 1790. Here the father of Governors John and James Sullivan taught school, either in the meeting house or in a school house not far away, and here Hercules Mooney had taught before him. Tradition says that George Whitefield was entertained by the Rev. James Pike, while on his tour of evangelization. Joseph Tate also taught here many years and left a genealogical record of this region, which is now often consulted. The prominent men of this town in the olden times were Paul Wentworth, Hon. John Wentworth, who was representative, colonel and judge, Col. Thomas Wallingford, Ichabod Rollins, Captain James Hobbs and Dr. Moses Carr.
In the northeastern part of Somersworth, on the Salmon Falls river, water ran to waste for many years. Saw mills and grist mills were in operation after 1755. In 1822 Isaac Wendell visited the place and saw the water descending one hundred feet within less than a mile. He purchased all the water power, mills and adjacent land, erected a blacksmith shop and made most of his machinery, built a wooden mill, cut a canal a quarter of a mile long, built a second mill of brick and organized a company with a capital of one million dollars. Then he sold out to stock- holders at his own price, continued to act as general agent and business manager and built two more mills. He discovered
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something that others could not see, bought it for a little and sold it for much. His woolen mills were in full operation in 1826, weaving carpets and broadcloth. In 1835 machinery for weaving cotton had taken the place of old machinery, and the cotton industry has been the leading one of Great Falls until today. Thus the center of population was shifted from what is now Rollinsford Junction to Great Falls, where the town voted to build its Town House in 1845, at a cost of four thousand dol- lars. Rebellion arose in the southern part of the town and the legislature heeded their petition to be made a separate town. They left the business and the name of Somersworth to Great Falls and took the name Rollinsford in honor, as some say, of the Rollins and Wallingford families. Others claim all the honor for the Rollins family. Old Somersworth has the distinc- tion of having established the first High School in New Hamp- shire, on Prospect Hill, in 1849, at an expense of ten thousand dollars. The roundabout view from this point is the foundation of a good education.
The city of Somersworth was chartered in 1893, and imme- diately the former name of Great Falls, by which the business center was known for many years, dropped out of mind and speech, and the city of Somersworth took its place. Franklin N. Chase was its first mayor. It had a population in 1910 of nearly eight thousand, and Berwick, just across the river in Maine, is a thriving suburb. Somersworth has cotton and woolen mills, a shoe factory, and its own newspaper, the Somers- worth Free Press. Its leading men in the past have been Daniel G. Rollins, Nathaniel Wells, Oliver H. Lord, David Buffum, Micajah Burleigh, and later Christopher H. Wells, Edgar I. Carter, B. F. Hanson, Hon. Sidney F. Stevens, Hon. William D. Knapp, and Hon. James A. Edgerly.
Rochester was the seventh city to be chartered. Its city government was organized January 6, 1892, and the population has grown to about ten thousand. The town was incorporated in 1722 and adjoined Dover on the north. The first settlements were on a hilltop, about two miles from the present city proper, whence in every direction a broad view greeted the eye. Many of the original settlers came from Dover, and Timothy Roberts was one of the first. The site of the first settlement is known
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as Haven's Hill. Here stood the first church, and the burial- ground near by, with its few lettered headstones, tells a tale of interest to historians and genealogists. Low mounds and rude granite stones tell the resting places of unknown and heroic pioneers, who fought against Indians and to keep the wolf from the door in two stern meanings of that phrase. Truly the work- man dies and his work goes on. On this hill was the Wolfe tavern, where recruiting was done for the Revolutionary army. An old garrison house is now part of a dwelling.
A new parish was formed and a new meeting house was built in 1780, on what was called Norway Plains, and thus the present city was founded. The meeting house, removed and remodeled, still serves the Congregational church.
Saw mills and grist mills were built on the Salmon Falls and Cochecho rivers at an early date. A fulling mill was set up by Jabez Dame and Col. John McDuffee in 1788. The woolen industry was started in 1811 by Eliphalet Horne, who intro- duced a carding machine. Today there are three large corpora- tions for the manufacture of woolen goods. One of these is at the village of Gonic, or West Rochester, two miles distant from the main village. This dates from 1838. The Cochecho Woolen Manufacturing Company has its plant at East Rochester. Their mills were started by John Hall in 1862.
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