History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 62

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

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Our later coasting trade was principally with Boston. Household goods, clothing, military equipments, and implements of husbandry were imported, and returns made in lumber, dry hides, and buckskins. Capt. Joseph Fur- nald ran a packet from Exeter to Portsmouth, by which our traders received all their heavy articles of trade. Our merchants went by stage to Boston one day, spent three or four days purchasing goods, and returned on the fifth or sixth day. The goods were shipped at Portsmouth by the regular coaster. Here they were transferred to Captain Furnald's packet and brought up the river, generally arriving about two weeks after being purchased. This was before the era of railroads.

MANUFACTURING

Mechanics and artisans are important personages in every community. Shoemakers, carpenters, masons, and blacksmiths are indispensable in a new settlement. The wives and daughters of the Newfields patriarchs manu- factured the garments which clothed themselves and their husbands and brothers. The flax was pulled, rotted, broken, swingled, hetchelled, spun, woven, and bleached by hand. The wool was carded, spun, woven, and fulled by hand, and it was colored in the old butternut, logwood, or indigo dye-tub. Persons in comfortable circumstances used wooden table-ware, and drank their daily beverages out of glazed earthen mugs, one mug going in course the rounds of the table. In times of the scarcity of currency, old iron and old pewter had value as articles of barter and merchandise. Taxes might be paid in tar at twenty shillings the barrel.

New Hampshire at the present time ranks high as a manufacturing state, and is especially noted for its textile industries. Only three states in the Union out-rival it in the value of cotton goods produced, while its woolen, leather, and iron products are very large. The Merrimac is said to be the busiest stream in the world. The Piscataqua with its tributaries is also greatly utilitarian. Newmarket has always been a busy town. Mechanical

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labor in its various departments is extensively pursued. No towns of its size produce more valuable manufactured goods. While the Squamscot offers no mill privilege, the Lamprey and the Piscassic afford numerous fine mill sites. Other smaller streams in their day have furnished motive-power for many wheels.

The first settlers on the Piscataqua were compelled to secure most of their bread from England and Virginia. There were saw-mills at Cocheco in 1631, but there was no grain-mill in New England previous to 1633. A corn- mill is mentioned at Cocheco in 1640. The earliest mention of a mill of any kind in Newfields is in 1653. That year a grant of land some two miles square was made to Edward Hilton, "in regard to his charges in setting up a saw-mill." This mill is probably mentioned again in 1758. It stood on the stream south of the Hilton estate and west of the Exeter road.

Iron works were set up at Lamprey Village in the year 1719. To encour- age this enterprise the General Court appropriated a slip of land two miles in breadth above the head line of Dover, for the purpose of supplying fuel and of introducing foreign artists and experienced workmen. There was "ye first Dam," and therefore a second dam, and "ye old Dam," and so a new dam across Lamprey River in 1723. We read in the Portsmouth Mercury Novem- ber I, 1785, "The fulling and grist mill belonging to the Hon. Major General Sullivan have been carried from their situation at Packer's Falls."

The Newmarket Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1822, and the corner-stone of cotton-mill No. I was laid the next year.

Iron works were commenced at Newfields in 1830. The first blast was blown on Christmas day. The South Newmarket Iron Foundry was incor- porated in 1834.

In 1846 the Swamscot Machine Company was incorporated, and Amos Paul chosen agent. This company purchased the iron foundry and united both branches of the business. For many years a large number of work- men were employed.

MILITARY RECORD

It has been said that if every other record of the civil struggle from 1760 to 1775 should perish, the true character and full history of the Revo- lution could be written from the records of the New England town-meetings. The resolutions adopted and the instructions given to representatives in con- vention, Legislature, and Congress are the wonder and admiration of students of political philosophy everywhere. The Town of Newmarket is exceedingly unfortunate in the loss of all its records prior to the year 1784. We were a free people, loving and prizing our liberties. We did not wish independence of the English crown; we were impelled to it by necessity, not by choice. As soon as Great Britain had conquered Canada and made peace with France, the king and Parliament turned against the American colonies. Such con- duct was high treason and rebellion against British freedom. In an evil hour the mother-country set her eyes upon the colonies for imperial taxation. We denied the right. When the Stamp Act was passed we resisted, peace- fully but pertinaciously, and the act was repealed. The tea tax followed. It was opposed by solemn leagues and covenants, and its demands were annulled. The Boston Port Bill, cruel and tyrannical, exasperated to the last

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point of endurance a brave and generous people. The regulation acts of 1774 were revolutionary and suggestive of "a general disarming of the colonists."

The Town of Newmarket was not indifferent to the momentous agita- tion that preceded the Revolution. A large number, if not a majority, of our leading men were stanch loyalists, and friends, if not members, of the Church of England, brave men, but more loyal to the king than to their country. During three generations of bloody Indian warfare our soldiers fought for British supremacy no less than for personal safety.

The selectmen of Newmarket, Samuel Gilman, James Cram, and Samuel Pickering, returned, July 12, 1776, to the New Hampshire Committee of Safety the celebrated Association Test. It contained the names of 164 persons. It also contained the names of thirty-eight individuals who "Refuse to sign the within Declaration." We read, among others, the names Badger, Gilman, Lord, Marsters, Mighels, Odiome, Parsons, Pease, Pickering, Shute, Rogers. Some were Quakers, who had scruples against bearing arms. Some were sick and infirm, who thought it bombast to pledge themselves as able- bodied men "to resist with arms." Some there always are in every com- munity who never put their name to paper. But more were Tories, who had always been loyal to the church and government of Great Britain. Respectable family ties allied some to British officers. Governor Benning Wentworth had married, in 1760, Martha Hilton, of Newmarket. During the Revolution she was living with her second husband, Col. Michael Went- worth, a retired British officer. The home of Lady Wentworth, of Went- worth Hall, Newcastle, was a noted resort of royalists. The Confiscation Act of 1778, extending to John Wentworth and seventy-six others in New Hampshire, included James and John McMasters, and George Ball and Jacob Brown, traders of Newmarket.

The early years of the war were noted for the large number of arrests of persons charged with Toryism; but it was seldom that they were kept long in durance. After the detention of a few days or weeks they were generally dismissed on giving bonds to return when called for, or upon tak- ing oath not to bear arms against the country or to aid and comfort the enemy. The Rogerses were Conformists. In December, 1775, Nathaniel Rogers, Esq., was granted leave to go about his business fifteen days, and January 3, 1776, his disability was wholly removed. Capt. William Torrey was put under arrest for Tory proclivities in 1775; he had leave to go about his business fifteen days in December, 1775, and his disability was wholly removed on January 3, 1776, but in 1777 he was committed to jail. Capt. Peter Pease was put under guard as a Tory February, 1777, and petitioned for release May 19, 1777. Dr. John Marsters would not sign the Associa- tion Test in 1776, and was placed under arrest in 1777, from which he humbly prayed the Committee of Safety to be released.

The number and social position of these "gentlemen Tories" suggest one of the great trials that beset the patriot cause. Secret enemies, opponents at home, were like thorns in the side or serpents in the bosom. It cost a severe struggle to overcome these patrician sentiments. It was not all done at once. It was achieved only through provocations long endured. But nothing was suffered ultimately to mar the patriotic enthusiasm. At length

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royalist and rebel rejoiced together in the emancipation of their country from a foreign scepter.

Newmarket contributed her full quota of men and money for the war. When the first mutterings of the storm were heard, she sided generally, not unanimously, with the colonies. About the middle of December, 1774, Paul Revere rode express from Boston to Portsmouth, bringing word that royal troops had been ordered to the harbor to secure Fort William and Mary.

The battle of Lexington, on the 19th of April, 1775, aroused our people to a more vivid sense of their danger. Couriers bringing the startling news reached Newmarket about daybreak, April 20th. At once the drum beat to arms. In less than three hours minute-men were on the march for Boston. Tradition includes among those first to enlist the names of Colcord, Folsom, Hilton, and Pike. At Exeter they joined other volunteers under Capt. John Taylor Gilman. That night they reached, by way of Haverhill, Bragg's tavern, in Andover. On the night of the 21st they reached Cambridge, and were assigned quarters in the college buildings.

Detachments to and from the Continental army frequently passed through Newmarket.

By the 3d of May, 1775, all the men being gone from the southward and westward of this place, the Durham company paused at Exeter, and the Provincial Congress resolved that they should return home and keep them- selves in readiness to respond when called.

The Newmarket soldiers were "minute-men" who started at the alarm from post-rider and beat of drum. They left shop, field, or home at once, in shirt, and frock, and apron, with cold victuals from the cupboard, and a few Yankee notions in sack or pillow-case, and the old ducking-gun, fowling- piece, or shaky king's arm that had seen service against game in the woods or Indian skulking in the thicket. The convention at Exeter, May 17, 1775, organized this ununiformed, undisciplined, yet enthusiastic yeomanry into a brigade of three regiments. Nathaniel Folsom was appointed major-general; the colonels were John Stark, Enoch Poor, and James Reid. The regiments of Stark and Reid had their headquarters at Medford, while Poor's regiment remained on duty at home. Israel Gilman, of Newmarket, was lieutenant- colonel of Reid's regiment, and led many of his townsmen in the glories of the battle on Breed's Hill. The preceding day, June 16th, he wrote home to the Committee of Safety, describing the position and plans of the opposing armies. On the memorable 17th of June the New Hampshire troops fought with their accustomed bravery and force. Their position was behind the rail fence between the redoubt and Mystic River. The old Indian hunters and rangers of the woods were "dead shots." Thrice they hurled back and nearly annihilated the gaudy British grenadiers sent against them. They maintained their ground during the entire action, and were the last to leave the field, retiring with the order of veteran troops.

After the battle of Bunker Hill Colonel Poor's regiment was ordered to the seat of war. But New Hampshire had her own harbor and frontier to defend, as well as to furnish men for the Continental army. Some soldiers were employed in building fire-rafts on the Squamscot, others in guarding the sea- coast or scouting with boats up and down the Piscataqua. Thirty-four New- market men under Col. Joseph Smith were thus employed. We have their "Acco't of Labor on Fire Rafts built at Newington Oct. 22, 1775." We have

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also the pay-roll of twenty-five others, "Men and Oxen Percuring Pich wood & other Combustables for Fire Rafts."

The next month, November 5, 1775, a Newmarket company of forty men, rank and file, James Hill, captain, Samuel Baker, first lieutenant, Samuel Gil- man, second lieutenant, Zebulon Barber, ensign, under Col. Joshua Wingate, of Stratham, joined the forces in the harbor, and were stationed on Pierce's Island.

Those who remained at home, as well as those who went into actual service, were called upon for military duty. British fleets were expected at our land- ing. If a strange vessel appeared in the harbor below, the alarm quickly spread far into the country. Many times the minute-men were called out on the appearance of an armed force or the rumor of one. In fact, however, the invader's foot never touched New Hampshire's soil.

An express arrived, December 1, 1775, from Brig .- Gen. John Sullivan, who was in command at Winter Hill, stating that the Connecticut regiments refused to tarry longer, and requesting urgently that troops might be sent from New Hampshire to fill their place. These detachments were called "six weeks' men." A Newmarket company under Samuel Baker, captain, Zebulon Barber, first lieutenant, John Allen, second lieutenant, responded to the call. They re- mained with General Sullivan till the British evacuated Boston, when they were discharged.

But space does not allow us to narrate the whole history of Newmarket in the noble struggle of the Revolution. The town was represented by true and determined men on nearly every battle-field of the war. The Committee of Safety compliment our selectmen, July 12, 1776, upon "the truly for- ward and patriotic disposition often shown by the inhabitants of Newmarket in the common cause."

The following is a partial list of the men who bore military commissions and served in the Revolution: Colonels, Jeremiah Folsom, John Folsom, Thomas Tash; lieutenant-colonels, Israel Gilman, Winthrop Hilton; adju- tants, Joseph Smith, Walter Bryant; captains, Samuel Baker, James Hill, Samuel Gilman, Zebulon Gilman, Edward Hilton, Robert Barber, Samuel Shackford, Asa Folsom, Levi Folsom, Peter Drowne, Robert Pike, Jonathan Leavitt; lieutenants, Nathaniel Gilman, John Colcord, Bradstreet Doe, Andrew Gilman, David Gilman, John Burleigh, Joseph Hilton, Robert Clark, Zebulon Barber.

War of 1812-15 .- With the opening of the nineteenth century the busi- ness interests of Newmarket had revived and she recovered her former pros- perity. But Napoleon I was disturbing the peace of Europe, and war- clouds soon appeared between England and America. Bonaparte promul- gated the Milan Decree December 17, 1806. It declared every vessel dena- tionalized and subject to seizure which had submitted to be searched by a British cruiser or had traded at an English port. This was the prelude to the War of 1812. As early as 1806 the depredations of British cruisers on American commerce commenced. In 1807 Congress prohibited the sailing of vessels from American ports, and the year 1808 became the era of the general embargo. Non-intercourse with Great Britain and France was estab- lished March 1, 1809. So effectual was the blockade that it was about impossible for vessels to leave or enter our ports. Now and then a privateer would slip by or through the blockading squadrons. The embargo acts of

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Congress were severely denounced and resisted in almost all of New England. At length long-continued aggressions, without apology or redress, led the American Government to prepare for another conflict with Great Britain. Congress declared war on the 18th of June, 1812.

Soon after Governor William Plumer called the attention of the general government to the defenseless condition of our seaboard and the public works in Piscataqua Harbor, and ordered a portion of the militia into service. The Fourth Regiment of New Hampshire militia in 1812 was commanded by Lieut .- Col. Winthrop Hilton, and the First Battalion was under Maj. Joseph Pease, both of Newmarket. A company was drafted for thirty days, and placed under Capt. Joseph Towle, of Epping. It entered the service July 3d, and was discharged August 31, 1812, and contained several Newmarket non- commissioned officers and men. A second company under the same com- mand from September Ist to November 30, 1812, included nearly the same individuals.

A British squadron was committing depredations upon the Atlantic coast and spreading alarm far into the interior. An all-pervading apprehension that Portsmouth would be attacked led to renewed calls for the mustering of the militia. On the 20th of May, 1814, Governor Gilman issued orders for raising eight companies to march in five days for the defense of Portsmouth. The Newmarket company of fifty-three officers and men under Capt. Peter Hersey responded to the call. It was mustered May 24th, and discharged July 6, 1814. Other soldiers in Capt. William Marshall's company were credited to Newmarket. While the Newmarket soldiers were quartered at Portsmouth expresses came riding into town on the night of June 2Ist with the alarming intelligence that the British were landing at Rye, and about to march upon the town. Alarm-bells were rung, drums beat, and signal- guns fired. The militia turned out and hastily prepared for defense. The report was unfounded, but the alarm spread into the interior and was not allayed for some days.

On the 7th of September, 1814, Governor Gilman again called for soldiers to defend Portsmouth. The call was obeyed with the greatest alacrity. Newmarket is credited with nine commissioned officers and men in Capt. Jacob Dearborn's company, enlisted September 26th for sixty days. Maj. Nathaniel Lias, of Newmarket, commanded a battalion of detached militia, enlisted September 9th, and discharged September 27, 1814. It included a Newmarket company of forty-one officers and men under Capt. Peter Hersey, also fifty-one officers and men under Capt. John Colcord. Thus by October, 1814, about three thousand drafted soldiers were at Portsmouth, and Governor Gilman had his headquarters among them. We have it on British authority that the English made every preparation to destroy the navy-yard and the Town of Portsmouth. But the defenses were so formid- ably manned that the intended attack was accounted too hazardous. The danger to Portsmouth and its harbor soon passed away. By October, 1814, the major part of our forces were discharged. A treaty of peace was signed at Ghent December 14, 1814. It was ratified by the Senate February 18th, and signed by the President February 23, 1815. Nowhere were the people more grateful for the return of peace than on the Piscataqua and its branches. It is related as a singular fact that not a man of New Hampshire was killed in this war.

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War of the Rebellion .- The patriotism of South Newmarket was again manifested in the late struggle to perpetuate the Federal Union. Imme- diately on the news of the firing on Sumter the spirit of 1776 fired the hearts of her citizens. She furnished her full quota of soldiers for the struggle. Many of our noblest young men offered their services. Enlistments pro- ceeded with enthusiasm. Companies were raised and equipped first for three months, then for three years or during the war. We cannot mention here all the noble hearts which beat for the honor of our flag and volunteered for its defense. The history of the gallant Second and Eleventh New Hamp- shire regiments would tell the story of many South Newmarket soldier- boys. This town gave some of her most promising young men as a sacrifice to sustain the Government in the hour of peril. The blood of her heroes enriched the soil from the heights of Arlington to the remote southern boundary.

The names of soldiers and navy men of Revolutionary war, the War of 1812, and the Civil war are given in the excellent "History of Newfield," by Rev. James H. Fitts. The estimated number entering the army and navy from 1861 to 1865 was ninety-five.

The Rev. John Moody, A. M., belonged to a family that well may be called remarkable. He was born at Byfield Parish, Newbury, Mass., January IO, 1705. He was the son of John Moody, the grandson of Samuel and Mary (Cutting) Moody, and the great-grandson of William and Sarah Moody. These patriarchs of the family had emigrated from Wales, Eng- land, to Ipswich, Mass., in 1633, and to Newbury with its first settlers in 1635. From the sturdy Newbury blacksmith, there has descended a long line of distinguished ministers.

The first pastor of Newmarket was graduated at Harvard College in 1727, his name standing the fourteenth in a class of thirty-six. He also received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Harvard. Having studied theology, he was invited to settle at Biddeford, Me., in 1728, but modestly declined the invitation that he might have further time for study. He was ordained at Newmarket, November 25, 1730.

Mr. Moody preached the sermon at the ordination of Robert Cutter, a graduate of Harvard, 1741, the first minister of Epping, December 9, 1747. Text, Ephesians iv. 11, 12. The phrase so common in the old town charters, "a learned orthodox ministry," is a very expressive one. Mr. Moody was a patron of sound learning, and evinced a marked interest in general and higher education. He was an original member of the New Hampshire Ecclesiastical Convention, and bore an active part in establishing a collegiate institution in New Hampshire previous to the granting of the charter for Dartmouth College.

Mr. Moody married, April 5, 1730, Ann, daughter of Deacon Edward and Mary (Wilson) Hall, of Newmarket. This pastor's wife was a descend- ant of Thomas Dudley, the second governor of Massachusetts, and also of John Winthrop, the first governor of New Hampshire. She died July 14, 1771, seven years before the decease of her husband.

Mr. Moody continued in the pastoral office in Newmarket till his death, October 15, 1778, at the age of seventy-three years. His only settlement in the ministry covered a period of half a century lacking two years. To his

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manly integrity and intelligent piety Newmarket owes much of her social, civil, educational, and religious character.

The second minister of Newmarket was the Rev. Nathaniel Ewer. His ministry overlapped that of Mr. Moody about five years, and he is generally thought to have been a colleague with his predecessor. He was born April 17, 1726, son of Nathaniel and Mary (Stuart) Ewer, of Barnstable, Mass. He married, before leaving Barnstable, Drusilla Covill, by whom he had a large family of children. Mr. Ewer was not a graduate of college. He was a member of the Congregational Church, but became a follower of White- field and a New Light preacher. He preached at Durham about one year, and commenced preaching at Newmarket Plains in 1773. He joined the Presbytery over which Rev. John Murray, the friend of Whitefield, presided, May 31, 1774. The "East and West Societies" in Newmarket united June 29, 1789, and Mr. Ewer was accepted as minister for the whole town. In 1792 the old meeting-house which stood near the burying-ground had become dilapidated, and a stately new edifice was built near the present railroad junction. Mr. Ewer continued in the pastorate here nearly a quarter of a century, and was dismissed by vote of the parish July 10, 1797. He still resided in town, and showed himself interested in its welfare. He died in April, 1806, aged eighty years. His wife died in 1810, aged eighty-three. They were buried at the Plains, close by the west meeting-house he had so long occupied.

The Rev. Samuel Tomb was the colleague of Mr. Ewer in the pastorate. He was born at Wallhill, N. J., January 1, 1767. He studied at Columbia College without graduation, and with Reverend Dr. Mason. The church at Newmarket extended to him a call July 28th, and he was ordained October 22, 1794. But the connection of the two pastors was not a harmonious and cordial relation. A mutual council, April 27, 1797, failed to reconcile the parties, and Mr. Tomb was dismissed by vote of the parish, July 10, 1797. He was afterwards installed over the Second Church in Newbury, Mass., November 28, 1798, where he remained about ten years. He removed to his native place, where his stormy but efficient ministry closed. He died March 28, 1832, aged sixty-five years. Among his printed discourses was an ora- tion on the death of Washington, pronounced February 22, 1800, and a sermon which he delivered at the annual fast, April 7, 1803.

The Rev. James Thurston was born at Exeter, N. H., March 17, 1769, the son of Capt. James and Mary (Jones) Thurston. ' He entered the first class at Phillips' Academy, but did not pursue a collegiate course. He taught school a year or two, and entered business in Exeter and in Boston. After some years, by the advice of friends, he entered the ministry. He preached at Raymond 1798-99, and was ordained at Newmarket, October 15; 1800. Parsonage land and buildings for the use of Mr. Thurston and successors in office were deeded to the parish, May 30, 1803. During the summers of 1805, 1806, and 1807, he was in the employ of the Piscataqua Missionary Society to the northern parts of New England and Canada. He was dis- missed January 6, 1808.

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History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 62

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