History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 30

Author: Hazlett, Charles A
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 1390

USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens > Part 30

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1785 .- Moses Barnard, representative to General Assembly, Concord.

1786 .- Moses Barnard, representative to General Assembly, Concord.

1787 .- Voted not to send.

1788, January 14 .- Dr. Edmund Chadwick, delegate to Exeter, February 13th, agreeably to request of General Assembly.

1788, March 18 .- Richard Jenness, representative General Assembly at Concord.

The Philbrick-James Library at Deerfield was established December 18, 1880. It is a free public library, although it did not receive state aid. It is located in the town house and has over four thousand volumes on its shelves. It is soon to move into a new building of its own to cost about eight thousand dollars. The first donors were Hon. Frederick P. James of New York, a native of the town and Hon. John D. Philbrick also a native of Deerfield who soon after left a large amount and the library was named the Philbrick- James. Carroll E. Legro is the librarian.

The Societies are the Jere E. Chadwick Post, G. A. R .; Woman's Relief Corps; Union Lodge, I. O. O. F .; Silver Lake Rebekah Lodge; Deerfield Grange, P. of H .; Progressive Grange, P. of H. For eminent lawyers, see Bench and Bar Chapter.

CHAPTER XXIV

DERRY

Geographical-The Academies-The Banks-Derry Fair-Military Record- 150th Anniversary-The Press-Public Library-Ecclesiastical History.

As the territory of Derry formed a large and important part of "Nut- field," or Old Londonderry, its history, down to the time when division became a necessity, is to be found in connection with that town. Derry was incor- porated July 2, 1827. Prior to that time the town-meetings had been held alternately at the East and West Parish Meeting-houses with equal division of the offices. It was found, however, that the large size of the town made it very inconvenient to attend the town-meetings. The East Parish therefore called for a division, the West opposed it ; but after a short, sharp, but decisive, contest the New Hampshire Legislature divided the town. In the autumn of 1827 a meeting was held, officers were chosen, and the new town put upon its course. The basis of division gave to Derry three-fifths of the valuation of the old town and three-fifths of the population. The number of inhabit- ants in Derry at that time was about twenty-two hundred. The population by the 1910 census was 5, 123. It is the largest town in Rockingham County.

It is an hour's ride by train from Boston and many of its residents com- mute daily. The distance from Manchester is twenty minutes. There are ten trains to Boston daily, and trolley connections are with East Derry, Beaver Lake, Chester, Londonderry, Manchester, Nashua, and by the two latter points with practically all New England.

The principal industry is the manufacture of shoes. For years, in fact, since the town first began to develop more than a generation ago, it has been a shoe town, known as such far and wide. At present there are five big shops with 1,800 employes and nearly seven acres of floor space.

There are turned out every working day more than twenty thousand pairs of shoes from the Derry shops. Assuming that every man, woman and child gets a new pair of shoes every three months, the shops of Derry would be able to keep shod four states the size of New Hampshire.

Street railway service is by the Derry and Chester Street Railway, which is one of the smallest independent railways in the country. It operates only between Derry Village, East Derry, Beaver Lake and terminates in Chester.

The public school system is strictly up to state standards. The schools were among the first to be graded years ago, and the development of the system recently has been under the carful supervision of a superintendent of schools. Instead of a high school the town has Pinkerton Academy, one

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of the oldest and best known private institutions of higher education in the state.

While Pinkerton Academy is governed by private trustees, the town has an arrangement with the board whereby any graduate of the common schools of Derry may attend the academy just as soon as he or she would an ordinary high school. The tuition fees are paid by the town.

Pinkerton Academy .- Pinkerton Academy has been in successful opera- tion since 1815, the year following its incorporation. It was named for Maj. John Pinkerton and Elder James Pinkerton, "old-time merchants of London- derry," who gave an endowment sufficient to assure the permanence of the school during the first seventy years of its existence.

John M. Pinkerton, a son of one of the original founders, at his death in 188I left a munificent bequest which became available in 1886 and enabled the trustees to increase the facilities in respect to buildings, apparatus and number of instructors, and to provide for an enlarged and advanced form of work.

The Pinkerton Memorial Tablets placed in 1906 in the outer vestibule of the main building were designed by Daniel Chester French and the inscrip- tions arranged by President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard University read as follows :

"In memory of Maj. John Pinkerton, 1736-1816, and Elder James Pinker- ton, 1747-1829, old-time country merchants of Londonderry, whose far- sighted beneficence in 1814 made this institution.

"In memory of John Morrison Pinkerton, 1818-81, a native of London- derry, Alumnus of Yale and lawyer in Boston, whose generous bequest in 1881 strengthened the good work begun here by his uncle and father."

The act of incorporation was secured by the name of the Pinkerton Academy in Londonderry. This name was afterward changed to Pinkerton Academy.

The trustees named and appointed by the act of incorporation were "the Rev. William Morrison, John Pinkerton, Jr., Esquire, John Burnham, Esquire, Isaac Thom, Esquire, Deacon James Pinkerton, Rev. Edward L. Parker, John Porter, Esquire, Alanson Tucker, Esquire, and Dr. Robert Bartley, all of said Londonderry."

The first president was Elder or Deacon ( for he was called by both titles) James Pinkerton, the younger of the original founders. Then followed, in 1819, Rev. Edward L. Parker, the minister of the East Parish. In 1822, Rev. Daniel Dana, then minister of the West Parish, and afterwards presi- dent of Dartmouth College. Doctor Dana was succeeded in 1826 by Hon. William M. Richardson, of Chester, long the chief justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. Rev. John H. Church, D. D., of Pelham, became president in 1838, and Rev. Edward L. Parker, the second time, in 1840. On the decease of Mr. Parker, in 1850, John Porter, Esq., of Derry, "an eminent jurist," was chosen his successor. In 1858, Samuel H. Taylor, LL. D., of Andover, Mass .; in 1871, John M. Pinkerton, Esq., of Boston; and in 1881, Rev. Ebenezer G. Parsons, of Derry, were successively elected to the office on the demise of their predecessors.

The first preceptor was Samuel Burnham, Esq., who had been teacher of

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a classical school many years in the Upper or East Village. Mr. Burnham resigned in 1818. Mr. Weston B. Adams was preceptor one year, and was followed by the most renowned of the teachers who have successively filled this chair, Abel Fletcher Hildreth. Mr. Hildreth was born in 1793, fitted for college at Phillips' Exeter Academy, and graduated at Harvard in 1818. He entered upon his duties as preceptor of the academy in October, 1819, and resigned in 1846. He died in Somerville, Mass., October 6, 1864, aged seventy-one years.

Space is not allowed to give the honored names of gentlemen who have successively and nobly filled the offices of president, trustees and preceptor in this school, nor of the long list of students who have received their earlier education here. Several thousands is their number. Very many of them have been greatly useful in the different walks of life; a large proportion of them have been eminent in the professions or pursuits in which they have engaged. One hundred and thirty of them are included in the roll of honor reported at the semi-centennial anniversary, which gives the names of former members of the school who served in the late war, and of whom many laid down their lives for their country.

Pinkerton Academy was originally a mixed school. This arrangement continued until the opening of the Adams Female Academy in the Upper Vil- lage, now East Derry. It was then changed into a boys' school, and remained such till 1853, when it was again opened to both sexes.

The semi-centennial anniversary of this institution was celebrated Sep- tember 12, 1866, by special services commemorative of its founding, history, and influence. The citizens of Derry and Londonderry engaged in it with zeal. A great crowd of the members and friends were present, including a number of those who were members of the school in its earliest years.

In 1881 a princely bequest of $200,000 was made to the funds of the academy by John Morrison Pinkerton, Esq., of Boston, son of the younger of the original founders, a trustee since 1850, and president from 1871 until his death.

The academy has had a long and honorable record as a college prepara- tory school. It sends yearly a large number of its graduates directly to posi- tions of usefulness in the world.

In September, 1909, several new courses have been added and old ones strengthened. While continuing to fit for any college, the academy now attempts to serve as well the needs of those pupils who cannot go to college by providing courses intimately related with the life of the home, the farm, the office and the shop. However, the necessity for a broad, general education is not forgotten in this more specialized work. The academy is not, and never will be, a trade school. Equal opportunities are provided for all students in the pursuit of knowledge of an essentially cultural nature, such as Latin, English literature, history and modern languages.

As set forth in the act of incorporation, the academy was established "for the purpose of promoting piety and virtue and for the education of the youth in the liberal arts and sciences of languages." While it is not sectarian, it is truly Christian. It is not forgotten that character is more than scholarship, that "life is the highest of arts," that education means knowing how to live so 16

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as not to fail of life's great end. Daily chapel exercises are so conducted as to furnish an incentive to scholarly ideals, true manliness and to purity of character.

The present trustees are: Rev. Robert W. Haskins, Reading, Mass .; Rev. John P. Newell, Litchfield; George L. Clark, Esq., Worcester, Mass .; John C. Chase, Esq., Derry ; Frank N. Parsons, LL. D., Franklin; Greenleaf K. Bartlett, Esq., Boston, Mass .; Perley L. Horne, A. M., Honolulu, T. H .; Rev. Charles L. Merriam, Newton, Mass .; Charles W. Abbott Esq., Derry.

Officers : Rev. John P. Newell, president ; John C. Chase, secretary ; Fred- erick J. Shepard, treasurer. John J. Marrinan, B. S., principal; George W. Bingham, A. M., principal emeritus.

The library is given more than the usual prominence in the school plan. It has been brought to a high state of efficiency as a working library, numbering over six thousand volumes of reference materials and general literature, to which additions are made systematically according to the needs of the school. It is kept open a large part of each day, and constant recourse is had to its shelves in every departinent of work. Under the instructor in charge, not only is reading encouraged, but direction and instruction are given in the right use of books. The library room, large and well lighted, has recently gained in attractiveness, together with the other rooms of the building, by numerous accessions in art, reproductions of famous paintings and casts from the antique.

The main building was opened for school use September 5, 1887. Its arrangements for lighting, heating and ventilation are first class and no pains are spared to secure the safety, convenience, health and comfort of students and teachers. In this building are the chapel, library, laboratories, office and five large, well-lighted and well-furnished recitation rooms. The basement contains the lavatories, coat rooms, heating apparatus, storage room and work- shop.

The old building, dating back to 1815, having been repaired and re-ar- ranged, is now devoted to the departments of domestic science and agriculture.

In Hildreth Hall, non-resident students are domiciled under the immediate charge of one of the faculty. It is named for Abel F. Hildreth, preceptor of the school from 1819 to 1846, a man of strong Christian character, who con- tributed much to the earlier successes of the school. Two hundred and eleven students were enrolled in 1913.

Adams Female Academy .- This is the first academy in New Hampshire that received incorporation from the Legislature as an institution for the education of young ladies alone. They had been allowed the privileges of the Pinkerton Academy for a few years after its establishment, but when a change was made allowing only males to attend the school the citizens thought best to have an academy where their daughters as well could get a suitable educa- tion. Hence the origin of the Adams Female Academy. A classical school had been taught for several years previous in a building erected about 1793, on the East Parish Meeting-house common, near the cemetery. The first teacher in this school was Z. S. Moor, subsequently president of Williams and Amherst colleges. His successor was Samuel Burnham, a noted teacher in his day, who held the position more than twenty years. In 1814 a new and larger academy was built on the site of the old one, then gone to decay.

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In 1823, upon receiving a bequest of $4,000 from the estate of Jacob Adams, the school was incorporated by the name of the "Adams Female Academy." The next year it went into operation under charge of Miss Zilpah P. Grant, assisted by Miss Mary Lyon. After three years' continuance with the school, during which it enjoyed great prosperity, they resigned. Follow- ing are the names of the successive teachers: Charles P. Gale, ten years; John Kelley, three years; Miss Laura W. Dwight, three years. In the winter of 1841-2 extensive repairs were made upon the building. The next teacher was Edward P. Parker, who had charge of the school four years. He was suc- ceeded by Miss Mary E. Taylor, afterwards the wife of Governor H. Fair- banks, of Vermont; Rev. E. T. Rowe, Henry S. Parker, N. E. Gage, Miss E. C. Bubier, A. J. Marshall, Jennie M. Bartlett and Mary A. Hoyt.

In 1860, Miss Emma L. Taylor took charge of the school. She held the position seventeen years and was succeeded by Miss E. F. Billings, Miss Carrie Clark and Mrs. David S. Clark. The academy celebrated its semi-centennial on July 1, 1873. The academy is leased by the town of Derry for one of its district grammar schools. The building remains unchanged in outside appear- ance and the inside is practically the same as it has always been.

BANKS

In 1829 a bank was incorporated in the town by the name of Derry Bank. Alanson Tucker was chosen president, and James Thom, cashier. They were chiefly instrumental in its organization, and held their positions respectively as president and cashier until the expiration of the charter in 1849. Mr. Tucker was born in Bridgewater, Mass., January 25, 1777, and died at Derry, June 16, 1863. He was for about seventeen years a successful merchant in Boston, Mass. He retired from business at middle life, came to Derry, then London- derry, with an ample fortune, and purchased the historic Livermore-Prentice- Derby estate, upon which he resided for a time. Subsequently he built the large mansion where he passed the closing years of his life. James Thom, born in Londonderry, August 14, 1785, was the son of Doctor Isaac and Persis (Sargent ) Thom. He graduated at Dartmouth in 1805, studied law, and prac- ticed his profession in his native town until chosen cashier of the bank. He served as captain for a short time of a company during the last war with England. He possessed fine conversational powers, a social disposition, and had large influence in town. He died November 27, 1852.

Derry National Bank was chartered in 1864 with $60,000 capital. The first cashier was David Currier, from Chester, N. H., who was succeeded by his son, George C. Currier, John P. Newell, and Fred Johnston Shepard. The present officers are : F. J. Shepard, president; J. B. Bartlett, cashier. Direc- tors: F. J. Sheppard, J. B. Bartlett, V. H. Moody, H. Alexander, G. K. Bart- lett, W. H. Benson and Chas. Bartlett. The surplus and profits, $15,870 and deposits, $265,770.

The First National Bank was established in 1906. Its capital is $25,000, surplus and profits $4,100 and deposits $63,460. President, F. N. Young; cashier, J. H. Weston; directors, C. G. Emerson, L. M. Packer, J. G. Mac- Murphy, E. N. Whitney, F. N. Young and E. L. Davis.

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Derry Savings Bank was incorporated in 1903. It has total resources of $142,252. Volney H. Moody is president and F. J. Sheppard, treasurer.

The Nutfield Savings Bank was incorporated in 1905. It has total resources of $73,464. John C. Chase is president and J. G. MacMurphy is treasurer.

Cemetery .- The old part is on land laid out to Rev. James McGregore. It was the first land in the old town used for burial purposes, and has date very near the first settlement. There were deaths shortly after the settlers set foot upon the soil, and nothing is known of other places of burial. Three additions have been made, one in 1826 and another about 1845, and in 1852 a cemetery association was formed, and land purchased on the western side of the old yard. The new part occupies all the ground between the resting-place of the fathers and the highway. No more beautiful repose for the dead can anywhere be found. All that art, money, and taste can command has been summoned to the task of fitting a place

"Where the long concourse from the neighboring town, With funeral pace, and slow, can enter in, To lay the loved in tranquil silence down, No more to suffer, and no more to sin."

It is, however, to the middle part of this cemetery that the steps of the antiquary are directed. Here he will find much to gratify his taste and stimu- late his peculiar lines of thought. The curiously-carved stones with the quaint inscriptions carry him back to the "good old times" so much celebrated in story and in song. Let us pause for a moment at the grave of John Wight, whose wit and skill as a maker of headstones for his contemporaries have survived the rough discipline of one hundred and seven years. His stone, a single one, with two heads for man and wife, with a dividing line down the middle, evidently the work of his own hands, stands very near the entrance of the cemetery, "Here lies the body of John Wight, who died December 3, 1775, aged seventy-two years." He lived on what is now the Thomas Bradford place, where he plied his calling as a gravestone cutter. The traditions of the town delight to recall the sharp repartee he made to Dr. Matthew Thornton a few months after the doctor came to Londonderry. It is well known that Thornton had an endowment of wit that often cropped out. Riding up one morning on horseback to the shop of Wight, who was busily engaged on a stone, the doctor accosted him, "Good-morning, Mr. Wight, I suppose you quarry out your headstones, and finish them so far as to cut the words 'In memory of,' and then wait till some one dies, when you complete it with the appropriate name." "Well," replied Wight, "that used to be me practis till one Doctor Thornton come to town, but now when I hear that he has called upon any one I just keep right on." Many of the grantees of the town are buried in this cemetery, and the first six ministers of the East Parish lie among the people to whom they ministered. Rev. David McGregor, the first minister of the West Parish, found also his last resting-place here. Very few of the stones furnish any history of the sleepers who lie beneath. The inscription on the stone placed to the memory of the wife of John Barr very nearly fixes the date of the emigration of the Barr family: "Here lies the body of Jean

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Barr, who died November II, 1737, in the sixty-sixth year of her age, who lived seventeen years in this land." On the east side of the old part of the cemetery is a stone inscribed as follows :

"Here lyeth the Body of the Revend Mr. James Morton Minister of Glasg ows daughter Gr izel. She died June 22, 1746."

Postoffices .- The first postoffice was established September 30, 1795, and Dr. Isaac Thorn appointed postmaster. He kept the office in the house taken down by Hon. William H. Shepard, at the time he built his house; February 20, 1817, the office was removed to Derry Lower Village, on the turnpike and Daniel Wiltmore was appointed postmaster.

Postoffice at Derry Depot .- The first postoffice "set up" at this place was on the 18th of September, 1854, Samuel H. Quincy, postmaster. The office was discontinued February 6, 1855, but restored November 5, 1860, and the Hon. James Priest appointed postmaster. He kept the office at the depot of the Manchester and Lawrence Railroad. July 21, 1869, it was removed across the road to the store of Henry E. Eastman, who was postmaster until the appointment of George S. Rollins, June 2, 1876.

East Derry Postoffice .- This office was established, and Frank W. Parker appointed postmaster, April 7, 1870.

Derry Fair .- This in its day was a matter of great importance to the people, and until it fell into abuse was of much service before stores had been "set up" for the public accommodation. It had its origin in the charter, which granted the "privilege every Wednesday in the week forever to enjoy a market for the selling and buying of goods, etc." Also two fairs annually, one in the spring and the other in the autumn. It does not appear that much account was ever made of these privileges except the last, which was held on the 8th day of October annually, unless that day fell on Sunday, in which case the fair began on Monday, the 9th. Many are the sayings and doings told of Derry Fair. Beside the usual accompaniments of such gatherings, horse-racing was the favorite pastime. The fair was continued until about 1834 or 1835, when it was transferred to the tavern stand of Capt. Reuben White, in the north part of Londonderry, he claiming a right to hold a fair under the pro- visions of the charter. Nothing but evil resulting from it, the citizens of Lon- donderry procured a repeal of that part of the town's charter relating to the matter, and "Derry Fair" passed into history.

Derry East Village .- This place, for many years the most important part of the old township, has never lost the beauty of its immediate situation or its surroundings, although business has sought more convenient localities. From here the eye takes in a prospect that won the admiration of General Lafayette at his visit in 1824. The view extends from Kearsarge on the north, and sweeping over the vally of the Merrimac, includes the lesser summits of the

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Unconoonocks in Goffstown, the historic Jo English hill in New Boston, and the loftier heights of the Temple and Peterborough Mountains, to the Wachu- sett, in Massachusetts, on the south. It is here we find the town hall, the Taylor Library, the first church on the hill, and the burial-place of the old and later generations; and around here cluster many of the memories and tradi- tions of the fathers. The beauty of the place and the high character of the people invite the stranger from abroad during the summer months.

Derry Village .- There were but few houses in this village prior to the incorporation of the Londonderry turnpike in 1804, and but little business was transacted. The turnpike was built soon after the charter was granted, and immediately thereafter stores were erected and various kinds of business gravi- tated there, so that in a few years the village became a center of considerable importance. Jonathan Bell, son of Hon. John Bell, had some years before kept a store in a building which then stood in front of the Thornton house. In 1806, James and Peter Patterson, of the West Parish, built a store in which they traded a few years. They were succeeded by Peter Patterson and Capt. William Choate, and they again by the Nesmiths-Thomas, John and Colonel James. This store was the residence of Mrs. William Butterfield. No store in its day was better known that that of Adams & Redfield, built about 1810. A very large and profitable trade was carried on by them for several years. As an illustration how modern ways have supplanted the old, it may be stated that all of their heavy goods, such as salt, molasses and rum, were brought from Boston to Lowell by way of the Middlesex Canal, and thence up the Merrimac River by boat to a landing below Thornton's Ferry, and thence across the sands and through the woods of Litchfield ten miles to the store. Col. Samuel Adams was a man of note in his day. He was born in Newbury, Mass., April 2, 1779, came to Londonderry with his father when quite young, and died there September 12, 1861. The village has always enjoyed the services of the physician and the lawyer. In the past generations Dr. Matthew Thornton, a hundred years gone by, and in later years Dr. Luther V. Bell held high prominence. Dr. James H. Crombie and Dr. David S. Clark are now in successful practice. Hon. John Porter, born in Bridgewater, Mass., Feb- ruary 26, 1776, a graduate of Dartmouth in 1803, a resident of Derry from 1806 till his death, December 4, 1857, held high rank as a counselor-at-law. He was many years a member of the House of Representatives, and in 1827-8 he served on the commission that revised the laws of New Hampshire. Hon. David A. Gregg, nearly a lifelong resident of the village, was held in high esteem as a lawyer and a citizen.

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History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 30

Author: Hazlett, Charles A Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold Number of Pages: 1390

Author: Hazlett, Charles A
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 1390