USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Northwood > History of Nottingham, Deerfield, and Northwood, comprised within the original limits of Nottingham, Rockingham County, N.H., with records of the centennial proceedings at Northwood, and genealogical sketches > Part 41
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Nottingham > History of Nottingham, Deerfield, and Northwood, comprised within the original limits of Nottingham, Rockingham County, N.H., with records of the centennial proceedings at Northwood, and genealogical sketches > Part 41
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Deerfield > History of Nottingham, Deerfield, and Northwood, comprised within the original limits of Nottingham, Rockingham County, N.H., with records of the centennial proceedings at Northwood, and genealogical sketches > Part 41
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JONA CLARK. JOHN BATCHELDER. SAMUEL JOHNSON. INCREAS BATCHELDER. SHERBON BLAKE. HENRY BATCHELDER.
With this exception, Mr. Pillsbury was not the minister of the town, and was not settled as such, since the first settlement was made near the lines separating Northwood from Nottingham, Barrington, and Strafford; and here they built the first meeting-house, which could of necessity accommodate bnt a fraction of the town. This meeting- house was erected in 1772, while the upper mecting-house was not erected until 1780. Thus Mr. Pillsbury's congre- gation was drawn not only from his own town, but from four ; chiefly, however, from Northwood, Nottingham, and Barrington. The active ministry of Mr. Pillsbury contin- ued about twenty years, until about 1799. And his suc- cessor, Rev. Eliphalet Merrill, a native of Stratham, was not ordained until December 30, 1804. He closed his pas- torate in 1828, and died 18 -.
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
A meeting of such as were in sympathy with Congrega- tionalism was holden November 7, 1780, when it was voted to build a meeting-house, forty-five by thirty-six fect. Dur- ing the following year such a building was erected, and Mr. Allen, afterwards settled in the ministry at Wolfeborough, preached six months as a candidate, and the pulpit was supplied a part of the time by different clergymen nntil 1788, when the Rev. Josiah Prentice of Alstead was em- ployed by the town, and was ordained May 29, 1799, by a council composed of Rev. Mr. Upham of Deerfield, who
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presided as moderator ; Rev. Mr. Haseltine of Epsom, the scribe ; Rev. Isaac Smith of Gilmanton, who preached the ordination sermon, Rev. Messrs. Lanckton of Alstead, Car- penter of Chichester, and Coe of Durham ; the Congre- gational Church having been organized on the 29th of November preceding.
When the town gave Mr. Prentice the invitation to be- come their minister, fifty-two men subscribed an agreement on the town book, to the votes respecting his settlement and salary, and engaged to pay their proportion thereof during his ministry, and none were taxed for his support except such as were in sympathy with the doctrines he preached. Mr. Prentice was born in Grafton, Mass., Feb- ruary 17, 1772. He graduated at Dartmouth College, 1795. Having studied theology with Rev. Dr. Burton of Thetford, Vt., and Rev. Dr. Emmons of Franklin, Mass., and having been ordained pastor of the church in Northwood, May 29, 1799, lie sustained that relation until May 10, 1842, a period of forty-three years. He died October 28, 1855, aged eiglity-three years. Mr. Prentice commanded the respect of all who knew him, and his influence upon the morals of the people was clevating and happy as well as enduring.
FREEWILL BAPTIST CHURCH.
The Freewill Baptist socicty was incorporated in 1832, and a church organized through the agency of Rev. Daniel P. Cilley, June 4, 1833.
EDUCATION.
We have already seen that the town was early divided into districts, money raised and expended in teaching the young, and, from the first, the general intelligence of the community and the instruction of the children in the com- mon schools were surpassed by no neighboring town. On the contrary, we believe it has been conceded that North-
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wood, in general intelligence and mental activity. hore the palm. Her children have found fields for their activity iuviting their entrance ; and their testimony has been to the effect, that, while Northwood was a good town in which to live, it was also a good town whence to emigrate, since it had a good reputation abroad for intelligence and manli- ness of character. Her leading men were a pledge that the community where their influence was felt must he intelligent, virtuous, and enterprising, and consequently that the education of the children must be an object of lively interest.
The pioneer settlers, and those attracted to them, came hither with the hope of improving their fortunes, well know- ing that success depended upon bodily vigor and a resolute will. But they kuew, also, that those energies of body and mind must be controlled by intelligence ; that if they cast their lot in a dense wilderness, and warred with the storms of winter and the ruggedness of the soil, the intellect of their children must not be lost sight of amid the clearing of land, the rearing of houses, and the constructing of highways. Hence, like wise men. they reared school houses and hired teachers as their straitened circumstances would allow. And the number of those that could not read and write was exceedingly small ; and no small portion were sufficiently educated to correctly do the business of the town, as well as private business. True, the town, for many years, could boast but few classical students, John L. Blake being the first college graduate. At different times, select schools were established, and brought educational ad- vantages to many beyond those had in the common schools. As early as 1844, efforts were muade to establish a perma- nent institution for learning, to be called Harvey's Acad- emy. to the permanent endowment of which the Hon. John Harvey pledged funds on condition that the town should erect a suitable building, near the center of the town. But, unhappily, the question of location could not
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be settled, and the funds were lost. In 1864, an effort was made in the same direction, and the enterprise proved a failure for want of harmony. In February, 1866, North wood Academy was incorporated, and opened its first ses- sion in August of the same year, at the center of the town, near the Congregational meeting-house, and from that day it has enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity.
In March, 1866, after the incorporation of the academy, the effort was renewed for a school near the Freewill Bap- tist Church, and a building was erected and a school was commenced soon after the opening of the academy, and in the following year was incorporated by the name of North- wood Seminary. This school has been in operation until now.
The academy has received a small permanent endow- ment from the estate of the late Mrs. Abigail Cate, formerly the wife of the late Deacon Thomas Wiggin. Should these institutions he sustained by generous endowments and lib- oral patronage, they will do for the town what the early set- tlers would have been glad to sce in their day, but died without the satisfaction. In the future, Northwood will not fail to profit by the past, and will, first of all, seek the glory of having her youth intelligent and virtuous, of hav- ing . her sons as plants grown up in their youth, and her daughters as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace," by careful and thorough training of the head and the heart.
TURNPIKE.
Three important events were of special interest to North- wood. The first was the construction of a turnpike road from Concord to Piscataqua bridge in Durham, through the entire length of the town of Northwood. This was the first constructed turnpike in New Hampshire, the com- pany building it being incorporated in June, 1796. The roads leading from Portsmouth, Exeter, Dover, and other. towns near' the sea-shore, to Concord, the capital of the
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state, were irregular, and at times almost impracticable for traveling, and the demand for an improved highway from Concord to the castern parts became imperative. But no town on the whole line between Concord and Durhanı was so much benefited as Northwood, lying midway between the capital and the Atlantic. Hence there was extensive travel through the town, public houses werc patronized, and trade from neighboring towns centered here ; and mcr- chants, acquiring an enviable reputation for shrewdness and integrity, not only amassed wealth for themselves, but en- hanced the business and the wealth of the people, the prin- cipal points of business being the extreme easterly part, Clark's Hill, the Center, and the Narrows.
PRESIDENT MONROE.
The second cvent referred to was the visit of President Monroe in the summer of 1817. During this season the president visited the principal towns in New England ; among these was the capital of our own state. From Con- cord he passed to Dover, through Northwood, halting for a while at the public house kept by Deacon Jonathan Piper. This house became greatly noted as one of the best-kept taverns in the state ; where order and excellent fare glad- dened the hearts of wcary travelers, and a feeling of liome was realized. Hence it became the frequent resting-place of Daniel Webster and other distinguished jurists and pub- lic officials. It was here that Monroe, and tliose accompa- nying him, halted, and received the hearty congratulations of the people, to whom it was no small privilege to see a live president, the friend and coadjutor of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and the noble men of Revolutionary times. Our hardy and hard-handed, but warm-hearted fathers, civilians and military men, veterans of the Rev- olution, and survivors of the recent war, greeted and cheered him on his way, and returned to their homes witlı higher resolves and nobler aims, and taught their sons to
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reverence the great and good, and to cherish in heart's memory the patriots who organized and strengthened our government.
LAFAYETTE.
The third event to which we have alluded was the advent of Lafayette, the noble patriot and friend of the republic, and associate of Washington. By invitation of the presi- dent, he visited this country in 1824, and was received in every part of the country with the warmest expressions of delight and enthusiasm. He was proclaimed by the popu- lar voice, " the guest of the nation," and his presence was every where the signal for festivals and rejoicings. He passed through all the states - twenty-four - of the Union in a sort of triumphal procession, in which all parties joined to forget their dissensions ; in which the veterans of the war renewed their youth, and the young were carried back to the doings and sufferings of their fathers. Having cele- brated, at Bunker Hill, the anniversary of the first conflict of the Revolution, and at Yorktown that of its closing scene, in which he himself had borne so conspicuous a part, and taken leave of the four ex-presidents of the United States, he received the farewell of the president in the name of the nation which had sought to reward his service in the Revolution in the gift of two hundred thousand dollars and a township of land, and sailed for France, September 7, 1825. It was in the summer of this year, 1825, that La- fayette visited Northwood, traveling in a private convey- ance, attended by his son, and an escort of fifteen gentlemen from Concord to Dover. Leaving Concord early in the morning, he breakfasted at the well-known inn of Deacon Jonathan Piper. The house was elaborately trimmed with flowers. and a sumptuous repast was provided, which the ex- cellent landlady, still living, fresh and happy, knew well how to temptingly spread for her noble guest, while hundreds of people gathered from all parts of the town to shake hands with the friend of the nation. Amid the shouts of welcome,
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tears flowed down many a furrowed cheek ; tears not of sad- ness, but tears of joy and gratitude to the nation's benefac- tor. Among the rest, the black race had a representative in the person of Tobias Cutler, the gardener of Deacon Pi- per. This man waited upon the table when Lafayette breakfasted. In the war he served as an attendant on one of the officers, and so met the general amid the perils of war. The recognition was followed by manifestations of tender interest. " We, who had been in the war," said the late Deacon Simon Batchelder, " were all introduced to the general together ; and when we took his hand, not one of us could say a word, but wept and went away feeling that he must stay with us. But he was too good to stay long, and so we followed him as far as we could, and sent up three hearty cheers and swung our hats."
On the general's return to Concord, he passed a night here very quietly, grateful for rest.
Lafayette is gone; the patriots of the Revolution are dead, but not forgotten. The third and fourth generations to-day gladly testify their gratitude to them for their sacri- fices in the cause of human freedom.
CHANGES.
Vast changes have been wrought on the face of the land as well as in civil and educational institutions. The forests have been laid low, and in their places may be seen green pastures and fields of repaying harvests. Instead of the rough paths that threaded the land, winding and hard to travel, now may be seen the smooth and beaten highways, thronged with easy, noiseless vehicles, bearing the gay and happy of all ranks. The bridle-path and the pillion are among the things that were. The dwellings, contracted in dimensions and inconvenient in arrangement, have given way to commodious and cheerful structures. The wheel and the loom no longer make music in the dwelling. Light machinery, in the house, on the farm, and in the shop, makes
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work less a task. Could the men and women of three gen- erations past be allowed to revisit the land of their choice, they would find themselves among strangers and in a strange land. They would come to their own only to be unrecognized. Those March winds must have been pierc- ing, and those storms must have been dismaying, to Godfrey and the Batchelders in 1763. And great must have been the power of endurance in the Bickfords, when, in that cold December of the same year, they found rest amid the lofty pines of the Narrows. Startling must have been the cry, "Our fire has gone out !" when the flint and the steel re- fused to yield the spark, and the long way to the Godfreys' must be traversed to obtain the desired fire. Those rude beginnings ; those mighty struggles with eold and want; those great removes of families, depriving them of frequent social intercourse ; those deprivations of alinost all that seem essential to comfort at present, can be but imper- fectly realized at this day by those who have come into pos- session of all the fruits of their endurance. Could we but glance at the seenes through which they passed ; could we but take their places amid hardships and privations, and struggles for life even, amid necessities, - befitting, indeed, it would seem, to pause here amid the on-rushing tide of activity and enjoyment, to pay a tribute of respect, to give utterance to gratitude of filial hearts to the ancestors that subdued the wilderness, cleared the soil, fenced the land, planted the orehar is, and reared the dwellings that make North wood the pride of their children at home and abroad. Few of us but would shrink from repeating in our experi- ence the history of the founders of this little republic. We have been borne in their strong arins so long, we have been so long indulged in all our appetites and tastes through their tenderness, that we have beeome unfitted for the endurance of their toils and frightful privations. But we can honor their memories, care for their graves, make mention of their deeds, aud gratefully aeknowledge our indebtedness to the
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hard hands and the loving hearts of the fathers and mothers who blessed us while they lived, by their labors, example, and prayers. We can tell their deeds to our children, and let them know to whom, under God, they owe the inherit- ance which will be theirs. To do less than this, would argue a sad degeneracy in the present generation ; to do less, would prove us unworthy of a noble ancestry. Now is the hour, and here the place, in which to rear a monument to their glory, and which shall be for our credit when the sun of 1973 shall shine on our children's children, and theirs, and they review from their standpoint the history of our town through the long period of two hundred years. May the example which we set them of paying appropriate respect to our ancestors, stimulate them to remember the generations that shall have preceded them, and keep in re- membrance the deeds and the virtues of the men and the women, actors amid the scenes of to-day, that, then, though dead, we may still live in appreciating hearts.
DESCRIPTIVE AND STATISTIC HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
CHURCHES.
Calvin Baptist. - Edmund Pillsbury. - Eliphalet Merrill. - Elias Gregory. - George W. Ashby, and others. - Congregational. - First Meeting-house. - Call to Josiah Prentice. - Pledge of Support. - Ordination. - Meeting-house repaired. - Revivals. - Second Meeting-house erected. - Mr. and Mrs. Coe. - Mr. Prentice's Dismissal. - His Successors. - Freewill Baptist. - Meeting- house erected. - Pastors.
TT is well known that religious worship was first main- tained in the east part of the town. There the first set- tlements were made. And these first settlers, if not decided Baptists, yet inclined not to sympathize with Orthodox Congregationalism. From 1750 to 1790, there existed great uneasiness in the religious mind. Not a few were restive under what seemed staid Orthodoxy. The people generally reveled in unrestrained liberty, and this passion for liberty ran into extravagance. There was a wild prejudice against what had the least claim to antiquity, whether in doctrines or in customs. Hence new lights sprung up, wild and fa- natical notions were entertained, and customs or modes of expression and worship came into vogue that strangely jarred and contrasted with the decorous and measured no- tions and customs of what was reproachfully termed the standing order. The great ancestor of the Batchelders was an eccentric man, though evidently of much ability. His descendants that came to this town, and those that
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affiliated with them, were good men, but their religious bias was against Congregationalism. Some of them were members of Baptist Churches, and though they well understood that the town could not, and would not, settle as minister one who was not thoroughly educated accord- ing to the standard of the times, and of decided orthodox views, and though they well knew that their church was on the extreme southern limit of the town, and could not command the gathering of the people generally, yet they early purposed to secure to themselves a house of wor- ship, and the ministrations of the gospel, according to their cherished conceptions of right. They were aided in this by their dislike of Orthodox Congregationalism. The Baptist Church had at this time but few men in the minis- try who had been liberally educated, and they claimed to have a dislike of college-learned ministers. They held to lay preaching ; that any man, who felt himself called to hold forth, in whom the church might see evidence of being called of God to preach, might be set apart to this office. Mr. Pillsbury was of this character. He had been educated to a degree that enabled him to be a successful teacher in the limited branches of study of those days, and had the gift of speaking to the edifying of the people who were in sympathy with Baptist notions. And so he was ordained by the churches to the work of the ministry in the church in East Northwood. He had no stipulated salary, but de- pended upon the voluntary contributions of his hearers, and his own industry. The contributions to his support werc very irregular and unsatisfactory, tantalizing his hope, while he was ever stung with the conviction that his ser- vices were unappreciated and unrewarded. In 1789, Mr. Pillsbury farcd best of any year in all his ministry, when the town in its corporate capacity hired him to preach half the time at the upper meeting-house, and the other at the lower, and agreed to give him for his services as support, fifty bushels of corn, one hundred pounds of beef, fifty
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pounds of flax, five barrels of cider, twenty eords of wood, and the keeping of three cows, ten sheep, and one horse, summer and winter.
It is said that Mr. Pillsbury, before he elosed his min- istry with the church in the east part of the town, changed his theological views in respect to final salvation of men, and came to believe and affirm that all men would finally be saved, irrespective of moral character. What more could be expected than that a man whose early labors command, at the very best, and that only for one year, the small con- sideration of fifty bushels of corn, one hundred pounds of beef, fifty pounds of flax, five barrels of cider, twenty cords of wood, and the keeping of three cows, ten sheep, and one horse, - what more natural than that any man, under such requitals, should either come to believe that all will finally be saved as being one as good as another, or that all would finally be lost as universally unfit for the kingdom of heaven, since nonc can enter that world who are not honest and just ? Wonderful grace is needed to keep the best man from apostasy when stung by the conviction that even the church are willing that he should labor and want for the ordinary comforts of life, while they have enough and are increased in riches, or grow poor through indolence or want of enterprise. What more natural than that a church thus treating its pastor with such starving penu- riousness, should long years pay the penalty through dimin- ished numbers, internal dissensions, and diminished spirit- nality ? Here may be seen the inevitable effects, flowing from a given cause. No lesson in all the history of the church is more clearly tanght than this, that a church that starves its minister itself perishes of hunger.
It appears that a church structure was erected for wor- ship in 1772, some nine years after the first settlement was made, and was rebuilt in 1816, and dedicated August 4, 1817. Rev. Edmund Pillsbury was ordained November 17, 1779, and continued about twenty years. His successor,
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CALVIN BAPTIST MEETING HOUSE.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWOOD.
Rev. Eliphalet Merrill, was ordained December 30, 1804, and dismissed 1828. Rev. Elias Gregory succeeded Merrill in 1832, and he was followed by Rev. George W. Ashby.
Mr. Ashby was the son of George Ashby of Salem. His mother was Nancy Hartwell, married January 12, 1808 ; Mr. Ashby was born February 16, 1809, studied at New Hampton, and married, September 12, 1834, Eliza, daugh- ter of John Batchelder, whose wife was Betscy, daugliter of Abraham Batchelder.
Mr. Ashby was ordained pastor of the Calvin Baptist Church in East Northwood, September 11, 1833, and re- mained until 1840. when he went to South Hampton. After two years he returned to Northwood, and, because of ill health, purchased a small farm, and supplied such vacant churches as desired his services. Mr. Ashby died May 4, 1873, aged sixty-four, greatly lamented by a large circle of friends, as a sound, orthodox preacher, a good pastor, and a worthy citizen ; he was one of the centennial committee, where his knowledge and sound judgment were greatly needed, and where his death was felt to be an irreparable loss. Few men are found more genial, and truer in friend- ship, than he.
Mr. Ashby was succeeded by Rev. B. Knight, May, 1840. Rev. S. G. Gilbert succeeded in 1845, and he was followed, April, 1857, by W. H. Jones, and he by S. H. Smith, Jan- uary 5, 1860, and he by P. Favor, February 20, 1869, and he was followed by G. B. Chase, August 27, 1872. Rev. D. Taylor, born in New York City, graduated from Madison University, N. Y., succeeded Mr. Chase, November, 1877. Intervals of some years intervened between several of these pastorates. The congregation has been increased within a few years, and the church strengthened, by an increase of business in the eastern part of the town. A tower has been erected upon the meeting-house, furnished with a bell and clock.
35
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CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
During all this time there were efforts made for stated worship according to the Congregational order, near the center of the town. But the people had much to contend with. Those in sympathy with the Baptist Church, and who were opposed to making any other part of the town a center than the extreme east, naturally enough resisted every effort to build a church in the central part of the town. And, then, the people had to raise men from among themselves for the armies, and were compelled to furnish money to such as would enlist, to care for their families, and in various ways to aid in carrying on the war. So that, embarrassed by a depreciating currency, they made no effectual effort to erect a meeting-house until 1780, though meetings were occasionally held in private houses by neighboring ministers. "The Rev. Mr. Tucke, of Epsom, is believed to be the first minister that preached occasion- ally in Northwood. It is said, that on the church records of Epsom, frequent mention is made of baptisms here. of the children of the first inhabitants."
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