History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 54

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 54

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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY

to still belong to the old parish." They were permitted to do so. These persons lived in the district on the Exeter road, and it seems the northern part of the line between the two parishes was removed to the east to accommo- date them.

From the settlement of Kingston a part of the congregation at public worship came from that part of Exeter afterwards Brentwood. In 1750 thirty-three members were dismissed from the church in Kingston to. unite with a church in Brentwood. On April 6, 1756, the west part of the town was incorporated under the name Sandown, and in November, 1759, ten members were dismissed from Kingston to organize a church in it. On February 22, 1760, another section in the west of Kingston was incorporated and called Hawke (now Danville).

On October 25, 1749, the Masonian proprietors granted the Town of Salisbury (then Stevens Town), N. H., to fifty-seven grantees, of whom fifty- four belonged to Kingston. Soon after quite a colony from Kingston settled in that place. Among these was Ebenezer Webster, the father of Daniel and Ezekiel Webster, and soon after, Dr. Joseph Bartlett and his wife Hannah (Colcord), the parents of Hon. Ichabod Bartlett, of Portsmouth.

The people of Kingston felt a deep interest in the prosperity of the colonies that went out from the town. They divided their parsonage property with the society at East Kingston, and the proprietors voted "to assist to build a meeting-house in Salisbury like that in East Kingston, and a pulpit like the one in Hawke, and that Ebenezer Webster, Joseph Bean, and Capt. John Calef must see that the work is done in a workmanlike manner."

Some years later, when called upon to choose a representative to the Assembly to meet in Exeter, December, 1775, they voted that "No person [i.e., from Kingston] be allowed a seat in that Congress who shall, by himself or any other person, before said choice treat with liquor." (Showing they had already at this early day discovered the cloven foot of the old devil, Intemperance. )

Mr. Seccombe's ministry continued till his death, September 15, 1763, nearly twenty-three years, during which he baptized 1,257 persons, old and young, and received to the church 338 members, most of them joining after a revival, which commenced some five years after his installation.

Mr. Seccombe took no active part in the contention which arose in the churches respecting the labors of Mr. Whitefield. While Messrs. Coffin, of East Kingston, and Fogg, of Kensington, signed a letter desiring their brethren not to admit Whitefield into their pulpits, Mr. Seccombe probably sympathized with his views and profited by his labors.

In about eighteen months from the death of Mr. Seccombe the town gave a call to Mr. Amos Toppan, who accepted, and was their pastor for nearly nine years, till his death, June 23, 1771. From this time the church was vacant over five years, during which they were supplied by Mr. Stephen Pea- body, Nathaniel Niles, Stephen Lancaster, Joshua Noyes, Moses Everett, Joseph Appleton, and probably others. Some of them declined the calls which they received, and others were not invited to settle with them. The political discussions had invaded the religious societies. In 1757 the Baptists and the Quakers had refused to aid in the support of public worship. Afterwards, if any one did not wish to pay his proportion of such expenses, he could join

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the Quakers or Baptists and be released from that part of the taxes paid by the rest of the town.

In 1763 the town treasurer records, "Paid Benj. Collins £7 Ios. for being a Quaker, and Jonathan Collins £3 5 shillings."

In 1775 the town voted "not to raise any money for preeching." In the year following Mr. Elihu Thayer was called at a salary of sixty pounds lawful money, use of parsonage, and twenty cords of wood, and ordained December 18, 1776. He soon took a high place, not only in his parish, but in the com- munity about Kingston, as a man of piety and learning. For more than thirty-five years, till his death, April 3, 1812, he retained his well-earned reputation in the town and throughout the state. During this long period we have no account of any other organized religious society except the Metho- dists, a feeble band, organized in 1801.

The year after his death a census of the 129 families in the town "showed that eighty-two of them" preferred the Congregational denomination, and "forty-seven the Baptists, Universalists, or Methodists," who, it seems, united their forces.

Dr. John H. Church, of Pelham, preached the sermon at the funeral of Doctor Thayer, upon the text (Ezekiel xxxiii. 33), "Then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them." From this time the town had no settled minister till Rev. John Turner was installed, January 1, 1818. The town officers withheld a part of the income of the parsonage fund, and it was used to pay for preaching different doctrines. From this time any person in town who pays any tax can withdraw a portion of that money yearly, and direct that it be used for a different purpose.

Though the town had settled Mr. Turner, the party opposed to the rate shut the church against him, and Deacon Stevens, for forcibly entering it, was fined and imprisoned for thirty days. The opposition was so violent that Mr. Turner was dismissed May 1, 1823. Mr. Patton, in manuscript, says, "If Mr. Turner had possessed the wisdom of the serpent and the harm- lessness of the dove, he could not have escaped censure." The town officers set a guard from Saturday till Monday at the doors of the meeting-house, and the Congregational people withdrew from the place where their fathers wor- shiped, and in 1825 erected a new meeting-house, which was enlarged in 1841, and remodeled in 1879. From this time the town and the churches have been independent of each other, except that the town holds the funds given for the support of the gospel, including the legacy of the first pastor of the Congrega- tional Church, and that church and society have usually received about one- fourth of the income from it. The preachers in the Congregational Church since 1823 have been Rev. Ira Pearson, seven years; A. Govan, two years; George W. Thompson, three years; Samuel Mason, three years; John Smith, two years; John H. Mellish, twelve years; S. Bixby, three years; and J. Chapman, seven years, closing July, 1879, and several others for shorter periods. Mr. G. B. Balch was ordained pastor August 4, 1881, and served to 1884 and was followed by Thomas W. Minnis, 1884-86; Joseph Ham- mond, supplied, 1887-89; D. W. Morgan, supplied, 1889-93; William F. Warren, acting pastor, 1893-98; Joseph W. Strout, settled, 1899-1909; Fred V. Slavley, 1910-12; Henry R. McCartney, 1913-14.

Universalists ministers preached more or less regularly in Kingston in 1833 and probably before that time. The first record of an annual meeting

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under a constitution bears date March 28, 1851. The first settled preacher was Rev. Rowland Connor, whose term of service came to an end by resigna- tion April 17, 1865. Other ministers preaching for greater or less periods, were N. R. Wright, T. B. Thayer, D. D., Ada C. Bowles and A. J. Patter- son, D. D.

On the death of Mrs. Miranda S. Bassett, the homestead left her by her husband, in accordance with her will became the parsonage of the society.

Since 1902 this has been occupied by the present pastor, Rev. Frank W. Whippen and his family. Mr. Whippen began his ministerial services in the spring of 1899, and those have continued uninterrupted to the present time.

As stated before the Methodists organized in 1801. A church was built in 1846 and the vestibule, belfry and vestry were added in 1878 when Rev. Charles H. Chase was pastor. During Rev. J. H. Knott's pastorate in 1894 the pews which had faced the door were turned around and the pulpit also changed. In 1910, through the efforts of Rev. Clarence Reed, new pews were put in place and a bell was given by Mr. Albert Brown.

At the 1914 conference Rev. J. N. Bradford was appointed pastor. His immediate predecessors have been Rev. H. P. Copp and Rev. R. S. Gieplily.

The early settlers of Kingston were not unmindful of the education of their children. In 1700 they set apart lands for the support of schools. But the pursuit of knowledge then and there was attended by many difficulties unknown in the present age. The people incurring such great expenses in clearing their lands, erecting their houses, building roads, bridges, mills, etc., besides supporting the military companies necessary to protect their lives and their property, had but little money left to build the schoolhouse or pay the schoolmaster. Even when by hard labor they earned a little money, it was not safe to keep it long for use. Frequently in a few months their money would lose much of its value. Their paper money was of such a poor quality that it often deteriorated in the hands of the collector of taxes, or of the town treasurer, before he could pay it out for the proper objects, and the town would have to pay him for his losses.

Then the inhabitants were scattered so widely that it was extremely diffi- cult to bring the children together into the school when they were in danger, during the long, lonely walks through the forests, from the wild beasts and from the still more fearful savages waiting to kill the little ones or carry them into captivity. .

Notwithstanding all these discouragements they did not hesitate to tax themselves for the support of their teachers and their preachers. They wanted well-educated men for pastors and teachers.

Benjamin Choat, A. B., of Harvard, who was the first preacher, it is said, taught school in the garrison-house, where the children were safer from the attacks of the Indians. They had no spelling-books, grammars, and geo- graphies, but used the Testament and the Psalter as reading-books. For writing and ciphering they probably used, as in other places, the bark of the birch-tree. Still, some of these pupils became quite familiar with the science of numbers, and with practical geometry and surveying. When we consider the imperfections of their instruments, and the other difficulties they had to encounter, we wonder that they were so accurate in their surveys.

In respect to orthography, punctuation, and the use of capitals they were

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not particular. The modes of spelling differed widely, for Johnson, Walker, and Webster had not put the words of our language in proper shape.

The same writer would sometimes spell a word in two or three different ways on the same page, using such letters as would express the sound of the word as spoken. I will give a specimen, taken verbatim et literatim from a manuscript in the Provincial Court papers :

"Mar. 2, 1695 at a meeting of Kingstown men in Kingstown to chuse cunstabules & selectmen, we have chose John Mason & Ebenezer Webster for cunstabules & James Prescut sener & Isaac Godfrey Gershom Elkins for select- men of the town."

We find in the records frequent notices of the expenses incurred in sup- porting the schools. In 1733 "Pd. Mr. Choat for Keeping School £1 16s." In 1745, Matthew Campbell was a schoolmaster. Jeremiah Webster was for some time a teacher, and Jacob Bailey, a graduate of Harvard, and afterwards rector of an Episcopal Church in Annapolis, N. S. In 1750 a colony from Kingston settled in Stevenstown (now Salisbury). During twenty-five years the enterprising people of Salisbury sent fifteen students through Dartmouth College, including the Websters, Ezekiel and Daniel, and a son of the first physician (Dr. Joseph Bartlett), who became Hon. Ichabod Bartlett, of Portsmouth.

In January, 1770, the town "Voted to give the money for which the school lands were sold to the commoners or proprietors to settle the dispute with Hampstead, etc." The commencement of the war in 1775 was a great injury to the prosperity of the schools and the churches. After many years the interest in education was revived.

"In 1826, Lieut. Thomas Elkins left by will $2000, $1000 for schools & $1000 for the support of the poor. He was the first (except Rev. Ward Clark) who left any legacy to the town. He was the son of a farmer, descended from one of the first settlers. He was a man of Industry, integrity & economy." (C. Patten's MS.) Mr. Elkins had no child, and left about ten thousand dollars.

Mr. Peter French, afterwards left a certain sum of money the income of which is to be devoted to the benefit of the academy, if that institution is kept open, under faithful teachers. He always shrank from official position, but was bound up in the cause of education. As evidence of that he left in his will a bequest of a tract of woodland, which was to be sold and invested in safe corporations, the interest to be applied to the payment of teachers in Kingston Academy, who should be a Methodist or member of some other evangelical denomination, etc. This land was sold for $4,600, and after deducting expenses gave a permanent fund of $3,000. This amount given from an estate which inventoried not more than ten thousand dollars, shows the wonderful liberality of the gift and the giver. Mrs. French still survives, although in feeble health.

Kingston Academy .- The building was erected in 1819 at an expense of $1,500. It was commenced under the patronage of the Methodist denomina- tion, being, I think, the second institution of the kind under their management in New Hampshire. There was a hall finished over the school rooms, and after the old church became unfit for use the Methodist Society worshiped in this hall; but in a few years the control of the institution passed into the hands of a board of trustees of different denominations.

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About the year 1856, by a mutual arrangement, the town took charge of the academy building and lot, enlarged and repaired the house, and continued to occupy more than half of it, while the trustees held possession of two rooms on the first floor.

I have not space to name here the prominent men who have studied in this institution. The list of teachers contains the names of many well-known public men. Ex-Governor Noyes has been named. He married 15th of February, 1863, Margarette W. Proctor, of Kingston. He has been governor of Ohio, and United States minister to France, etc. Thomas W. Knox, the famous author of books of travel, and various others might be named.

The Hon. Josiah Bartlett, M. D., was perhaps more widely known than any other citizen of Kingston. He was great-grandson of the emigrant Richard Bartlett (I), who came to Newbury, Mass., in 1635, and died in 1647. His son, Richard (2), born in 1621, died in 1698, leaving a son Richard (3), whose sixth son, Stephen, born in 1691, was the father of Doctor Josiah (5), born in Amesbury, Mass., November 21, 1728, who mar- ried January 15, 1754, his cousin, Mary Bartlett, of Newton, and had twelve children. In 1750 he settled in Kingston and soon acquired celebrity by his successful treatment of the throat distemper, so prevalent and so fatal. In 1765 he engaged in political affairs, and became very popular and influential. In 1776-78 he was a member of the Continental Congress. He is said to have been the first man who signed the Declaration of Independence. His biography may be found in the first volume of "The Lives of the Signers of the Declaration," etc. He was the first governor of New Hampshire. For near ten years he held the office of chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas or of the Superior Court. He died May 19, 1795, aged sixty-five years.

Sanborn Seminary was built and endowed by Major Edward S. Sanborn, a native of Kingston, in order that he might provide better educational facili- ties for Kingston and the surrounding towns. The school qualifies for any college or technical school, or gives a literary and scientific training of the first order for students of both sexes, who do not intend to continue their school life after graduating from the seminary. The board of trustees con- sists of C. M. Collins, Joseph Wiggin, Samuel C. Prescott, Louis G. Hoyt, John F. Swasey and Rev. Rufus P. Gardner. Z. Willis Kemp is principal with nine instructors. The seminary commenced its twenty-fourth year with ninety-one students.

MILITARY RECORD, 1861-65

Simon P. Fifield, 2d N. H .; William H. Quimby, 2d N. H .; John S. Sweatt, 3d N. H .; Frederic Silloway, 3d N. H. ; Daniel P. Seaver, 3d N. H .; Samuel E. Moore, 3d N. H. ; Josiah F. Hunt, 3d N. H .; George W. Collins, 4th N. H .; Levin B. Martine, 4th N. H .; George E. Schelling, 4th N. H .; Andrew J. Collins, 4th N. H .; George F. Quimby, 4th N. H .; Edwin S. Brown, 4th N. H. ; Elbridge G. Towle, 4th N. H .; John Nickett, 4th N. H .; Frank Monihan, 4th N. H .; Andrew J. Johnson, 4th N. H. ; George Davis, 5th N. H. ; Andrew J. Davis, 5th N. H. ; Peter Handy, 6th N. H .; Timothy Littlefield, 6th N. H. ; George Crosbury, 6th N. H. ; Osborne P. Webster, 7th N. H .; Alexander Durant, 7th N. H. ; George W. Bean, 7th N. H .; James W. Marshall, 7th N. H .; Benjamin Silloway, 7th N. H .; David S. Davis,

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7th N. H .; John Silloway, 7th N. H .; John C. Coons, 7th N. H .; Perley P. Chase, 14th Mass .; George Stevens, 14th Mass .; Hazen Davis, 14th Mass .; Joseph Nickett, 14th Mass .; George P. Lowry, 14th Mass .; Frank Nickett, 14th Mass .; Joseph R. Sanborn, 8th Mass .; Stephen M. Bragdon, 5th Mass .; Josiah B. Gale, 12th Mass .; Samuel Curtis, 12th Mass .; Willian P. Chase, Ist Mass. ; John O. Davis, IIth Mass. ; Henry L. Patten, 20th Mass. ; Warren A. Webster, 22d Mass. ; Simon S. Johnson, 22d Mass .; Stephen S. Huse, 28th Mass. ; Amos George, 48th Mass. ; Robert George, 48th Mass .; Isaiah Tucker, 7th N. H. ; Daniel P. DeRochemont, 50th Mass .; Charles A. Davis, 50th Mass. ; George Huse, IIth N. H .; S. B. T. Goodrich, 7th N. H. ; John Peirce, 48th Mass .; James Peirce, 22d Mass .; Frank Prescott, 48th Mass .: Thomas Geer ; John P. Bean, IIth N. H .; Jeremiah T. Curtis ; Edmund Q. Brown, Ist Cav. ; Addison Griffin, Ist Cav. ; John T. Crosbury, Ist Cav .; John Bellows, Ist Cav .; George M. Keezer, Ist Cav .; John W. Quimby, Ist Cav .; Charles Tibbets, Ist Cav .; Samuel Goodwin, Ist Cav .; John A. Follet, Ist Cav .; Charles R. Schelling, 99th N. Y .; Howard DeRochemont, 5th Conn .; William M. Simonton, IIth Me .; Joseph H. Flagg; Daniel L. Goodwin; Nathaniel C. Brown, 7th N. H .; Elihu T. French, 7th N. H .; Thomas Martin, 7th N. H .; Hiram F. Davis, 7th N. H .; John Colby, 7th N. H. ; John Lucy, 7th N. H .: William G. Wilson, 7th N. H .; George S. Wetherell, 8th N. H .; Calvin D. Wetherell, 8th N. H. ; Abraham Sanborn, 9th N. H .; Henry Davis, 9th N. H. : Stephen M. Judkins, 9th N. H. ; Charles H. Webster, 9th N. H .; Joel S. Collins, 9th N. H. ; Joel Judkins, 9th N. H. ; Hiram Glines, 9th N. H .; Benjamin Severance, 9th N. H .; John C. McDaniels, 9th N. H .; Alfred P. DeRochemont, 9th N. H .; Oren S. Silloway, Ist N. H. Battery; Frank Center, Ist N. H. Battery; C. Fred. Myers, sharpshooter ; Daniel Colcord, 14th Mass .; Richard H. Davis, 14th Mass .; Marcus M. Bartlett, 14th Mass .; George A. Bartlett, 14th Mass .; William J. Bartlett, 14th Mass .; George P. Severance, 14th Mass .; John W. Swett, 14th Mass .; Moses E. Smith, 14th Mass .; Warren P. Shaw ; Joseph George; Franklin B. Goodwin ; Otis Tucker ; Elbridge G. Collins; Moses Chase; Gilman Crane, 11th N. H .; William A. Cheney, 5th N. H .; Edward L. Cheney, 5th N. H .; John T. Webster, 5th N. H .; James W. Silloway, 5th N. H. ; George B. Dudley, 5th N. H. ; John W. Hoyt, 5th N. H .; Obadiah S. Collins, 5th N. H. ; John A. Webster, 6th N. H. The quota of Kingston was 150 men; 152 were put in. This list contains 118. Re-enlisted soldiers and substitutes, residence unknown, twenty-four.

Nichols Memorial Library, Kingston .- In the year 1892 the town voted to establish a public library. In 1894 the library was opened in the select- men's room of the town hall building. In 1898 the present beautiful and commodious building was erected by Mr. J. Howard Nichols in memory of his parents, Nicholas and Mary Barstow Nichols, and on June 8th was pre- sented to the town and accepted and dedicated with appropriate exercises. The trustees of Sanborn Seminary and the trustees of the library made an arrangement for the mutual benefit whereby the library of the seminary, consisting of some fifteen hundred volumes, was placed in the new building, and the Kingston Public Library and that of Sanborn Seminary were prac- tically combined in the Nichols Memorial Library.

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The library has steadily grown since 1898, having at present 6,057 books. Mrs. Nellie F. Ingalls is librarian.

The lawyer is Louis G. Hoyt and the physicians are P. F. Joyce, T. O. Reynolds and H. L. Sweeney.

Societies .- Gideon Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; Corinthian Chapter, O. E. S .; Columbian Lodge, I. O. O. F .; Ruth Rebekah Lodge.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

LONDONDERRY

Geographical-Name Emigration Settlement-First Families-Allotment of Lands-Incorporation-Fisheries-Indian History-Garrisons-Mills -Highways-Animals-Revolution-Tories-Currency-Schools-War of 1812-15-War of 1861-65-The Churches-Leach Library.

Londonderry's population in 1910 was 1,533. The boundaries of Lon- donderry, as defined by the charter of June 21, 1722, included all the terri- tory of the present towns of Londonderry, Derry, and Windham, and adja- cent parts of Manchester, Hudson, and Salem. The history of these towns is one till division of the large tract became a necessity, thenceforward each town has its own history. As Windham was early set off, nothing pertaining to that town will be embraced in this sketch. Londonderry is the most western town in Rockingham County, is in latitude 42º 54' north, and longi- tude 5° 45' east from Washington. It is twenty-six miles from Concord, N. H., twenty-five miles from Exeter, and forty from Boston, Mass. There are a few ponds in town. Beaver Pond, called by the Indians, "Tsienneto," is a beautiful sheet lying between Derry East Village and the English Range. Northwest of this lie Upper and Lower Shield's Ponds in Derry, and Scoby's in Londonderry. Ezekiel's Pond is near the Windham line, and a part only of Island Pond lies in Derry. Beaver Brook, in the Indian tongue "Kiahiomtatie," is the only considerable stream. The surface of the ground, though broken, is not hilly. The highest elevation is probably Richey Hill, a little over one mile east of East Derry Village. The original growth of oak, hickory, and chestnut is everywhere succeeded by pine. The town has always been mainly agricultural, although much of its early thrift was directly derived from the manufacture of linen cloth within its own borders.

At the time of the settlement of Londonderry, April II, 1719, O. S., the people of Ireland were mainly divided into three classes : the descendants of the Celtic race, which had occupied the soil from time immemorial, and who were Roman Catholics; the descendants of the English emigration of 1612 and thenceforward, and who were attached to the forms and cere- monies of the Church of England; and the descendants of the Scotch emigra- tion of the early part of the seventeenth century, and who held with undying tenacity to the principles of the Presbyterian Church. From the former of these, the Irish and the English, Londonderry derived its name, and to the latter is it indebted for the hardy men and women who took possession of its virgin soil, and made settlements of its wooded hill-tops, its sunny slopes, and fertile vales.

Name .- The Irish name of Derry had come down with the race through the long centuries prior to 1612, when the great London guilds in taking

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possession and settling the sequestered lands granted by James I. prefixed to the old name that of their famous city. It was thus that the name of London- derry had origin, and our settlers shortly after their arrival adopted it from the mother country, although the territory they selected had for some years previous been known as a part of a very indefinite tract called "Nutfield." The latter name disappeared from the record early in 1722.

They were termed Scotch-Irishmen. New ideas and new facts demanded new names. It was necessary that a people originating in the blood of one nationality and born on alien soil should have a distinctive name. From this came the appellation of Scotch-Irish; nor is it inappropriate, barring a little long-forgotten misconception of the meaning of the term. Excepting a few of English descent and an occasional Scotchman to the "manner born," the Londonderry settlers were of Scotch lineage, born on Irish soil; and, although reared among and surrounded by the native Celt, whose origin antedated veritable history, little if anything distinctively Irish was engrafted upon the Scotch character by the ancestral 100 years' sojourn in Ireland. The antagonisms arising from the diversity of the races and widely differ- ing religions, in connection with the unforgotten confiscations of James I, were more than sufficient to prevent any intermingling of bloods. The peculiar circumstances that surrounded the Scotch-Irish kept them as homo- geneous a race as was that of their contemporaries in Scotland, who had never taken departure from their native heaths of Argyleshire. In this respect their isolation from the Catholic Irish was as complete as if an ocean rolled between them.

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History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 54

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