USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, from its first discovery to the year 1830; with dissertations upon the rise of opinions and institutions, the growth of agriculture and manufactures, and the influence of leading families and distinguished men, to the year 1874; > Part 16
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
149
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
and soldiers and even between the boys and the soldiers. Though the British parliament censured, with great severity, the rebel- lious spirit of the legislatures and people of the colonies, still they deemed some concessions necessary. Accordingly, on the fifth of March, 1770, the very day of the murder of four citizens in Boston by the British soldiers, Lord North proposed the re- peal of all duties imposed by the act of 1767 except that on tea. This measure was carried against a violent opposition. By the reservation of tea, the English government determined to adhere to the right to tax her colonies. In Boston, the tea when im- ported was destroyed ; in New Hampshire, it was, by the advice of the governor and magistrates, reshipped, without disorder, and sent to Halifax. This act was repeated ; and the second cargo, like the first, left the port ; but not till the consignee's house was assaulted and he had appealed to the governor for protection. The citizens, in town meeting assembled, interposed their vote to secure its reshipment. The colonies were a unit in their resistance to taxation without representation. The adher- ents of the government were a small minority in every state.
· The crisis was approaching, and the people seemed resolved to meet it. The colonial assemblies had appointed " committees of correspondence " and proposed a continental congress. The assembly of New Hampshire, in May, 1774, appointed a similar committee. The governor, who was anxious to defeat that meas- ure, dissolved it. He appeared in person and ordered the sheriff to bid all persons "to disperse and keep the king's peace." They heard him respectfully and, after he retired, adjourned to another house, where they wrote letters to all the towns to send deputies and money for their fees, to Exeter, for the purpose of choosing delegates to the general congress. They also appoint- ed a day of fasting and prayer, to be observed in all the churches, on account of the gloomy state of public affairs. The day was devoutly observed ; and the other requests were complied with. The money was conscientiously raised and eighty-five delegates were sent to Exeter, where they chose Nathaniel Folsom and John Sullivan, Esquires, to represent New Hampshire in the proposed congress, which met at Philadelphia in the September following. Contributions were also raised for the relief of the citizens of Boston who were suffering from the suspension of business in consequence of the Boston Port Bill: The gover- nor's influence was gone. He attempted secretly to aid Governor Gage in building barracks for his soldiers in Boston, by sending carpenters from New Hampshire ; but even his own relatives denounced him as "an enemy to the community." At this dark hour of his official life, he wrote to a friend : "Our atmos- phere threatens a hurricane. I have strove in vain, almost to
150
HISTORY OF
death, to prevent it. If I can at last bring out of it safety to my country and honor to our sovereign, my labors will be joy- ful." Alas ! "Othello's occupation was gone." Royal gover- nors were no longer needed in America. The people had re- solved to govern themselves. They had ceased to plan and had begun to act.
An order had been raised by the king in council, prohibiting the exportation of gunpowder to America. A British ship of war was also ordered to Portsmouth to take possession of Fort William and Mary. The people anticipated its arrival and, un- der the leadership of Major John Sullivan and John Langdon, on the fifteenth of December, 1774, proceeded to Newcastle, entered the fort, took the captain and his five soldiers pris- oners and carried away one hundred barrels of gunpowder. The next day another company removed fifteen cannon, with the small arms and stores from the fort. The guns, powder and military stores were secreted in the adjacent towns, and afterwards were used in defence of the country. At a sec- ond convention of deputies held at Exeter, in January, 1775, the heroic leaders of this attack on the fort, Major Sullivan and Captain Langdon, were chosen delegates to the next general congress to be holden at Philadelphia in May following. Mr. Brewster, in his " Rambles about Portsmouth," gives a detailed account of the capture of the fort and the removal of the pow- der and guns. He makes Captain Thomas Pickering the chief actor in this bold enterprise. He first suggested it to Major Langdon. He was the leader of the boats' crews that seized the fort. He first waded ashore, from his own boat, about mid- night. "The rest of the company landed unperceived by any one, when Pickering, in advance of the main body, scaled the ramparts of the fort and seized the sentinel with his muscular arm, took his gun and threatened death if he made the least alarm. Signals of success were given to the company, which soon had charge of the sentinel, while Captain Pickering entered the quarters of Captain Cochran ; and before he was fairly awake, announced to him that the fort was captured and he was a prisoner." This narrative is based on traditions current among the descendants of Captain Pickering. It shows, if true, that Ma- jors Sullivan and Langdon were not the leaders, but associates, in one of the most daring achievements of the Revolution.
151
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
CHAPTER XLI.
OFFICERS AND MINISTERS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE IN 1768.
According to a Register of New Hampshire published for 1768, we find the following account of its civilians and clergy- men.
John Wentworth, Esq., Governor.
John Temple, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor.
Hon. Theodore Atkinson, Daniel Warner, M. H. Wentworth, James Nevin, Theodore Atkinson, jr., Nathaniel Barrell, Peter Livius, Jonathan Warner, Daniel Rindge, Diniel Pierce, and G. Jaffrey, Esquires, Councilors.
Hon. Theodore Jaffrey, Esq., Secretary.
Hon. George Jaffrey, Esq., Treasurer.
Hon. Peter Gilman, Esq., Speaker of the House.
The House consisted of thirty-one members, representing thirty-two towns. Portsmouth sent three representatives ; Do- ver, Hampton and Exeter, two each.
Superior Court of Judicature : Justices-Hon. Theodore At- kinson, Chief Justice ; Thomas Wallingford, Meshech Weare and Leverett Hubbard, Esquires, Associates; Wyseman Claggett, Esq., Attorney-General ; Mr. George King, Clerk; Thomas Pecker, Sheriff.
Inferior Court of Common Pleas : Hon. Daniel Warner, John Wentworth, Clement March and Peter Livius, Esquires, Justices ; Hunking Wentworth, Clerk.
John Wentworth, Esq., Judge of Probate ; William Parker, Esq., Register.
Daniel Pierce, Esq., Register of Deeds.
Mr. Eleazer Russell, Postmaster for Portsmouth.
Wyseman Claggett, Esq., Notary Public.
Hon. William Parker, Deputy Judge of Admiralty.
Mr. John Sherburne, Register.
Hon. James Nevin, Collector of Customs.
Robert Trail, Comptroller.
Leverett Hubbard, Surveyor and Searcher.
John Tucker, Naval Officer ; Eleazer Russell, Deputy.
Eight practising attorneys are mentioned. Sixty-eight minis- ters of the gospel are registered. Eight regiments of militia were then in existence. Eighty justices of the peace are enu- merated, including all the state officials above named. In 1800
152
HISTORY OF
the number was 472 ; in 1815 about one thousand had been commissioned. It deserves notice, that in 1768 the principal offices were confined to a few families ; and frequently one man served his state in several important capacities.
CHAPTER XLII.
ORIGIN OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE.
BY PROF. H. E. PARKER.
Dartmouth College grew out of the Christian enterprise and missionary spirit of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock. A pastor greatly beloved, a preacher of rare gifts, possessor of a hand- some competency by patrimony and marriage, his influence, tal- ents and means he devoted with ardor to Christian and philan- thropic ends. Settled over a Congregational society, at Leba- non, Conn., but not receiving a full support from the society, he thought it right to employ a portion of his time in other than parish labors ; and like Eliot and Brainerd, animated with a deep desire for the christianization and civilization of the Indians, he opened a school, about the year 1740, in his own house, for the education of Indian youth, receiving also English youth, whom he hoped would become missionaries among the Indians. His work soon attracted the attention of the philanthropic and be- nevolent. Mr. Joshua Moor, of Mansfield, who owned a house and two acres of land adjoining Mr. Wheelock's residence, pre- sented them to the latter for the occupancy of his school, to which, in commemoration of the donor, he gave the name of "Moor's Indian Charity School."*
Other benefactors, in the colonies (one of the largest of whom was Sir William Johnson) and in the mother country, gave con- tributions to further the objects of the school. A board of gen- tlemen of the highest character was formed in England to re- ceive the contributions made in Great Britain for the object, ex-
* It is an interesting fact that the celebrated Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant (Thayendane- gea), was, with Samson Occum, among the first of Dr. Wheelock's pupils. The correspon- dence between Dr. Wheelock and Sir William Johnson was quite active upon the subject of the school, and Joseph was himself employed as an agent to procure recruits for it. Thus in a letter from Sir William to the Doctor, dated Nov. 17, 1761, he says-" I have given in charge to Joseph to speak in my name to any good boys (Indian) he may see, and encourage them to accept the generous offers now made to them, which he promised to do, and return as soon as possible, and that without horses."-Stone's Life of Brant, vol, Ist, page 21.
153
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
cept those made in the northern part of the realm, for which the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge acted as almoners. At the head of the English board was the eminent and excellent William, Earl of Dartmouth, secretary for the colonies, himself a liberal donor, and using his influence to secure gifts from other quarters, the king himself cheerfully and generously responding. At about the same time, and significant of the esteem entertained towards him abroad, Mr. Wheelock received from the University of Edinburgh the title of Doctor of Divinity.
With that prudential wisdom always a characteristic of his movements, Dr. Wheelock secured increasing public confidence in his undertaking by inviting a few gentlemen of the highest standing in Connecticut to act as a Board of Trust, supervising his management of the school and its funds. In carrying out the objects he had in view, particularly in preparing missionaries for the Indians, the need was soon felt of a more extended course of education, and Dr. Wheelock, with the approval of the board of trust in Connecticut, and also of friends in Great Britain, engrafted a college course of instruction upon that already estab- lished in the school. This led to the contemplation of a change of locality, for Yale being already established it did not seem best to have another college within the bounds of the Connecti- cut colony. As soon as the proposed change became known several places sought for the institution. Liberal offers came from more than one town in Western Massachusetts. The city of Albany made generous offers. One liberal proposal was made for its transfer to the banks of the Mississippi. But none, on the whole, were so inviting as those from the province of New Hampshire, seconded by the excellent, large-hearted colonial governor of New Hampshire, John Wentworth. After a care- ful inspection· by Dr. Wheelock, in company with one or two of his trustees, of many different localities in the province, the town of Hanover, about midway in the valley of the Connecticut between the northern and southern boundaries of New Hamp- shire, was selected as the site for the new college, and the name of Dartmouth was given to it in honor of the pious and illustrious English earl who had been so serviceable a patron of the Indian school, the germ, of which the college was the flower. Through the services of Sir William Johnson and Governor Wentworth a royal charter was obtained for the college in 1769, from George the Third.
In the latter part of the summer of the following year the transfer of the institution was made. The long and tedious journey, as roads were then, of a couple of hundred miles, was made by a part of Dr. Wheelock's family in a coach which had
154
HISTORY OF
been presented to him ; but by the rest, with all the students, on foot ; the company, numbering some seventy in all, wending their way along the streams and through the forests, driving a few swine before them, the meat most easily raised in the new settlements. So they moved on-that novel spectacle of a col- lege turned emigrant-pioneer settler-up into the then northern wilderness, for Hanover had barely been entered by settlers ; not a half dozen years had elapsed since the first family had located within its limits, and the primeval forest had to be felled where Dr. Wheelock erected the first log structures.
One reason which had led to the selection of the new site was its nearer proximity to the Indian tribes Dr. Wheelock hoped to benefit. Neither previously nor subsequently, however, did the results of his efforts in behalf of the Indians realize his hopes, although it is difficult to conceive how those efforts could have been more wisely or energetically conducted. Apart from other causes, the French and Indian war proved very unpropitious in its influence in keeping pupils away from the school before its removal from Connecticut ; and afterwards the Revolutionary War, in which the Indians were again arrayed against the colo- nists, was similar in its effects. Still, with all that was untoward and disappointing, Dr. Wheelock's efforts for the Indians did accomplish much good ; nor is its amount to be measured alto- gether by the one hundred and fifty or more Indian youth who were under his instruction ; although such instances as the cele- brated Colonel Brant and the eloquent preacher Joseph Occum, both of whom, as mentioned on the preceding page, were among his Indian pupils, sufficiently attest the value of his educational efforts for the Indian. He originated a large amount of mis- sionary labor, reaching in its influence the Mohawks, Delawares, Mohegans, Narragansetts, Oneidas, Senecas, and others, besides the varied good which resulted in his awakening and giving form to benevolent interest and sympathy, both in this country and abroad, towards our Indian tribes.
Dr. Wheelock lived only nine years after the founding of the college, and was succeeded in the presidency by his son, who continued in office thirty-six years.
There have been, including its present energetic head, seven presidents of the college, all with but a single exception clergy- men, and, as a body, conspicuous for their pulpit and administra- tive abilities ; alike eminent as preachers and divines, and suc- cessful as executive officers.
Near the close of the last century a Medical Department be- came connected with the college, which, from the first, has been distinguished by having among its lecturers some of the most honored names of the medical profession in our Northern States.
155
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
A Scientific Department has been in successful operation for twenty-one years. In accordance with an act of the legislature, in 1866, establishing "The New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts," and authorizing its location at Hanover, in connection with Dartmouth College, this new department has been organized and put in operation. Two magnificent edifices, especially for this department, have already been erected, and a valuable farm, contiguous to the college grounds, is also in the possession of the department and available for its purposes. Through the liberality of General Sylvanus Thayer the means have been furnished for establishing in the college an especial "School of Civil Engineering," designed mainly as a supplemen- tary post-graduate course. The valuable Astronomical and Me- teorological Observatory was established mainly through the lib- erality of the late George C. Shattuck, LL.D., of Boston. The libraries of the institution contain about fifty thousand volumes. Fifty-seven permanent scholarships, besides other funds, are avail- able for the gratuitous assistance of students.
The college may be said to have been fortunate in the class of students frequenting its halls, since they have not been so much those sent to college as those who have sought college advantages. Hence, perhaps, is the explanation why its graduates have to so great an extent been efficient workers in after life. Says one long familiar with the operations and influence of the institution, though himself a graduate of Yale :
"The whole country is indebted to Dartmouth College, as may be seen from its Triennial Catalogue, and facts known to all. It has sent forth more than nine hundred able ministers of the gospel, who have done good service to the churches in all parts of the land, and many of our best foreign missionaries, like Goodell, Temple, Poor, Spaulding and Wright. It has furnished thir- teen governors of states, thirty-one judges of courts, and several of these chief-justices of states, and one chief-justice of the United States; four cab- inet officers, five diplomatic agents abroad, that have done honor to their country ; more than fifty members of Congress, eighteen United States Sen- ators, eighty-nine college professors, and thirty-one presidents of colleges. It has filled seventeen theological chairs and thirteen medical chairs with its graduates, to say nothing of more than one thousand medical gentlemen of skill, and distinguished men in all the walks of life."
A hundred years have passed since the founding of the col- lege ; its friends may appeal to its history thus far as giving in- creasing illustration and emphasis to the words of Mr. Webster, in his celebrated plea for his Alma Mater before the supreme court of the United States :
"Dartmouth College was established under a charter granted by the prov- incial government ; but a better constitution, or one more adapted to the con- dition of things under the present government, in all material respects, could not now be found. Nothing in it was found to need alteration at the Revo- lution. The wise men of that day saw in it one of the best hopes of future times, and commended it, as it was, with parental care to the protection and guardianship of the government of the state."
156
HISTORY OF
CHAPTER XLIII.
-
EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN COHOS.
All the northern portion of the state, which, in 1773, received the name of Grafton county, was originally called Cohos or Ca- wass. As late as 1760, there was no settlement by white men in the Connecticut valley above Charlestown, and only three , towns were settled south of this point. Hinsdale was settled in 1683, Westmoreland in 1741 and Walpole in 1752. These towns, except Walpole, were settled by emigrants from Massachusetts ; for until 1741 the north line of that province was supposed to include these towns. Hinsdale (Fort Dummer) and Charles- town (Number-Four) were military posts maintained most of the time by the province of Massachusetts, to guard the frontiers against the Indians. In 1754, Captain Peter Powers of Hollis, N. H., was appointed by the government of that province to lead an exploring party into the Cohos region. They left Rum- ford (now Concord) on the fifteenth of June, 1754, and pene- trated through the wilderness as far north as Northumberland, then returned and encamped on what is now the "Common," at Haverhill Corner, on the sixth of July, 1754. During "the seven years' war," no further attempt was made to explore or settle the Cohos country. In 1761, when the colonies no longer feared the forays of the French and Indians, the spirit of emigration re- vived in the older towns, and some brave men and braver wo- men ventured into these unoccupied regions of the north. War had revealed to them the "Cohos Meadows." The "Little Ox Bow" on the east of the Connecticut, and the "Great Ox Bow " on the west side, were then "cleared interval." The Indians had cultivated them in their imperfect way, for the raising of corn. They still occupied these meadows, but were now friendly to the whites. They had formerly resisted the encroachments of the English upon these rich lands. The country abounded with game, bear, deer, moose and fowls. The streams yielded the best of fish, salmon and trout. The soil was fertile and easily tilled. While the Indians were strong and were backed by the French, they allowed no pale-faces to make even a tem- porary stand in this region. Major Rogers and his rangers had humbled them ; the last war had made them English subjects, and they with silence and sorrow permitted new comers to live among them. Haverhill and Newbury derived their names from
157
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Colonel James Bailey of Newbury, Mass., and Captain John Hazen of Haverhill, Mass., who first planned the settlement of these towns. The work was begun in 1761. For the next ten years, settlements advanced into the interior and northern por- tions of the state quite rapidly.
Mr. Webster, in his autobiography, says: "Previous to the year 1763, the settlements of New Hampshire had little or no progress into the country for sixty or seventy years, owing to the hostility of the French in Canada and the neighboring In- dians, who were under the influence of the French." Salisbury was one of those towns granted by Benning Wentworth, and was at first called Stevenstown, from one of the proprietors. Set- tlements were made in it as early as 1750. It was incorporated in 1768. Among the early settlers was Ebenezer Webster, the father of Daniel and Ezekiel Webster. He, with his wife, “ trav- eled out of the road or path, for it was no better, and they were obliged to make their way, not finding one, to their destined place of habitation." "My father," adds Mr. Webster, " lapped on a little beyond any other comer, and when he had built his log cabin and lighted his fire, his smoke ascended nearer to the North Star than that of any other of his majesty's New England subjects. His nearest civilized neighbor, on the north, was at Montreal."
Coös is an Indian name signifying "crooked," and is said to have been given originally to a bend in the Connecticut river and the territory on either side of it, including in New Hamp- shire the towns of Lancaster, Northumberland and Stratford ; and in Vermont, Lunenburg, Guildhall and Maidstone. Lan- caster was granted and incorporated in 1763, by Benning Went- worth. The proprietors were David Page and sixty-nine others. Besides these seventy shares, six others were reserved for the governor and for public uses. The settlers came into this un- broken wilderness in 1764. There was then no mill for the grinding of corn nearer than Charlestown, a distance of one hundred and ten miles. About thirty years after the first settle- ment, a Congregational church was formed and Rev. Joseph Willard installed as pastor. His salary was eighty pounds per annum.
All the towns founded in the wilderness, in our country, have a common history. The description of one is almost identically the description of all. The later settlements escaped the Indian wars, but in other respects the toils and triumphs, the joys and sorrows, the sufferings and successes, were nearly identical. Here is the picture of a new settlement drawn by a master's hand :
" Soon the ax gives its clear, metallic ring through these valleys. The
158
HISTORY OF
giant Anaks of the forest creak, groan, stagger and come thundering to the ground. Fires roar and rush through the dry fallow. In the dim night, flames gleam from either side across the creek. Smoke obscures the sun, giving the day the mystic hue of Indian summer. The sprouting hay grows rank among the stumps. The reapers sing as they bind the tall and golden sheaves.
Rude but pleasant homes rise along these hill-sides. The buzz of the wheel, the stroke of the loom, tell of domestic industry, of the discreet and beautiful women, once so aptly described by a king's mother. Hearts are knit for life, while fingers are busy in knitting the woolen or flaxen fibre. Nuptials are celebrated in homespun. Little children look out the windows and run among the trees. The town-meeting is called. The school-house goes up. The master is abroad. Mutual necessities and hardships among neighbors awaken mutual interest and hospitalities. Each has a helping hand to rear up a house for the new comer, to sow and harvest the fields of a sick brother. The funeral, as it files through the woods to the final rest- ing place, calls out a long and sympathetic procession. It does not cost the living the last pittance to bury their dead. Those scant in pocket can afford to die. Poor laws are superseded by the laws of kindness and reciprocity.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.