History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 84

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

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A social library was founded in 1851, numbering over one hundred copies, and was destroyed by fire April 7, 1856.

Nesmith Library in Windham .- In 1781 Col. Thomas Nesmith of Lowell bequeathed $3,000 to found and perpetuate a free public library in his native town. It was opened in the town hall on June 24, 1871, with 741 volumes and increased in 1872 to 1,600. In 1898 George W. Armstrong of Brookline, Mass., a native of Windham presented the town with a building for the library. The Armstrong Memorial Building, as it is called, was dedicated January 4, 1899. Bessie Emerson, the librarian, has charge of the 4,000 volumes in the building.

The name of the grange is the Windham Grange, P. of H.

Our Schools .- The early residents possessed considerable education, hav- ing acquired it in Scotland or in the Scotch settlements in the north of Ireland before their removal here. In accordance with the laws of the province and their own elevated views, provision was immediately made after the settle- ment for the education of the young. Four common schools were sup- ported in Londonderry in 1727, of which Windsor was then a part. Of the earlier schools in town we have no record: the preceding years have borne away all specific knowledge of them. The first school of which we have a positive account was in 1766, and James Aiken was the teacher. He taught a singing-school evenings, and a day-school for the children. Nicholas Sauce, a discharged British soldier, in 1760, of the French and Indian war, after- wards taught for a long time. He was a cruel teacher, as was the custom of those days, yet his scholars owed him a great debt of gratitude for the instruction received from him.

Master McKeen was the next teacher in order, and taught about the year 1776. He was a man of fine acquirements and ripe scholarship, but his mind was not upon his calling, and if he chanced to see a squirrel by the roadside he would catch that squirrel if it took "all summer."

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The schoolhouses were but rude affairs at the best, and often unfit for school purposes, oftentimes the school in summer would be kept in shops or barns. The schoolhouses were wholly discarded in winter and the schools taught in private houses. Family schools were much in vogue, the elder child teaching the younger ones. In one family there were eighteen children who were thus taught.

Williams' Academy .- This academy was the most potent influence ever exerted in town for the higher education of our youth. It was taught by Rev. Simon Williams, commencing about 1768, and terminating a short time previous to his death, in 1793. His scholarship was of the highest order, and he was a celebrated teacher while in town and previous to his coming here. Among those whom he fitted for college were Joseph McKeen, first president of Bowdoin College; Rev. Samuel Taggart, the distinguished clergyman and Congressman, of Coleraine, Mass .; Silas Bolton, M. C., of Salem; and Dr. John Park, editor and physician; Rev. John Goffe; John Dinsmoor; Silas Dinsmoor, the noted Indian agent; and the elder Governor Samuel Dinsmoor.

In the fourth class ( 1773), graduated at Dartmouth College, nearly one- half were fitted for college by Mr. Williams. The school often numbered forty to fifty scholars.

Authors, Books, and Pamphlets .- Rev. Simon Williams wrote previous to 1793 an introduction to the American edition, and published Thomas Blackwell's book on "Genuine Revealed Religion."

He also published a small book by the presbytery.

Rev. Samuel Harris printed in 1816 a sermon on the death of Miss Mary Colby, of Chester ; in 1820 the "Memoir of Miss Mary Campbell," of Wind- ham; in 1827-28 two editions of "Questions on Christian Experience and Character ;" also his farewell sermon about 1826.

Rev. Loren Thayer wrote a sketch of the Windham Church for the "New Hampshire Church."

Deacon Robert Dinsmoor (the "Rustic Bard") printed a volume of his poems, 264 pages, 1828.

Leonard A. Morrison compiled in 1881, and placed in the Nesmith Library, the Thanksgiving Sermon of Rev. Calvin Cutter, 1835; Sermon by Rev. Loren Thayer on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, May, 1865; Centennial Sermon of Rev. Charles Packard, 1876; and a complete set of printed reports of Windham. In 1880 he published 1, 100 copies, 470 pages, of his "History of the Morison, or Morrison, Family." In 1882 he re-wrote and condensed this work for "The Highlander," a magazine printed at Inver- ness, Scotland. He published ( 1882) his complete "History of Windham," 1719-1882.

Early Settlers and Later Residents .- David Gregg was one of the earliest settlers. He was born in Londonderry, Ireland, being the son of John Gregg, born 1655, in that place, and the grandson of Capt. David Gregg, who was in Argylshire, Scotland, and was a captain in army of Cromwell in 1655, and assisted in the conquest of the rebellious subjects in Ireland, was a tanner, and received a deed of land in Ireland from Cromwell.

David Gregg, of Windham, came to Watertown, Mass., in 1712, staying nine years, then came to Windham in 1721, settling in the west part of the town. There were then few if any white inhabitants within ten miles of him, and the woods abounded with game of all sorts. He hewed his farm from

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the wilderness, and after the activities of life were over he found a quiet spot in which to sleep in the old cemetery on the plain. He was the ancestor of the Greggs of Windham.

John Cochran came to Londonderry in the autumn of 1720, and perma- nently located in East Windham in 1730, and is the ancestor of the family of that name. He was of unadulterated Scotch blood, the son of John and Elizabeth (Arwin) Cochran, of Londonderry, Ireland, born there, 1704, and his father shared in the defense of that memorable city against the Catholics in 1688-89. When young Cochran came to Windham (then Londonderry) the country was almost unbroken wilderness, and he displayed great endurance and fortitude amid the hardships and privations of his life. He married his cousin Jenny, daughter of Justice James McKeen, of Londonderry, and died at eighty-four. Their life was long and pleasant together, and side by side they rest in the cemetery on the hill.

Alexander Simpson, ancestor of one branch of the Windham family, came to Windham about 1747, and located in the southeast part of the town. He was a weaver, and could do exceedingly fine and nice work, could weave anything "where the warp was strong enough to bear the weight of his beaver hat." He married Janet Templeton, and died December 12, 1788, at sixty- nine years.

James Belton was not one of the earliest settlers, but came about 1753. He was born in Scotland in 1727 or 1728, and died March 18, 1803. He settled in the north part of the town. He became a very active, popular, and influential citizen, was well educated, and became an auctioneer, sur- veyor, and justice of the peace. He filled all the prominent positions in town, and was in 1777 an agent from the State of New Hampshire to the seat of the national Government at Baltimore, and brought to the New England states a large amount of money with which to prosecute the Revolutionary war. He was the father of Hon. Silas Belton, at one time member of Con- gress from New Hampshire.

Lieut. Samuel Morison was born in Ireland, at or near Londonderry, was the son of James Morison and Mary Wallace, of that place, emigrants to Londonderry, N. H., in 1719. His grandfather was John Morison, a native of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, who died in Londonderry, N. H., 1736, at the reputed age of one hundred and eight years. Lieut. Samuel Morison came to Londonderry when a lad of fifteen years, and settled in what is now Wind- ham about 1730. He was well educated in Ireland, and became prominent in the little settlement where his lot was cast, often held public positions, was a lieutenant in Massachusetts regiment at Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia, in 1760, during the French and Indian war. He married Martha Allison. the first female child born in Londonderry, and daughter of Samuel Allison. one of the first sixteen settlers. She was born March 31, 1720, and died December 3, 1761. He died February II, 1776. He is the ancestor of the Morrisons of the town.

Henry Campbell came to Windham in 1733. He was born in London- derry, Ireland, 1697, and married Martha Black in 1717. He was the son of Daniel Campbell, a descendant of Sir John Campbell, of Scotland, Duke of Argyle. Henry Campbell located in the west part of the town, and his descendants still reside upon the ancestral acres.

John Dinsmoor, of Scotch blood, came from Londonderry, Ireland. He

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came to Londonderry, N. H., in 1723, and is ancestor of the Dinsmoors here. His house was in Londonderry, the front door stone being on the line between the towns. His grandson, William Dinsmoor, was a man of parts, and possessed quite a poetical gift. He was the father of Samuel Dinsmoor, of Keene, governor of New Hampshire, 1831-33.

Robert Dinsmoor, the "rustic bard," was born in Windham, October 7. 1757. He wrote much, and generally, when for the press, in verse. He wrote in the Scotch dialect, which was spoken by many in the Scotch settle- ment, and understood by all, and the Scotch brogue has not been so long extinct among the descendants of the Scotch settlers but that some of the younger members of the community have listened to it with pleasure.

Among the most eccentric persons who ever resided here was F. L. Bis- sell. The most romantic place was his camp, so famous when standing in its glory, and so well remembered since its decay.

Kenny E. Ilovey

Representative Citizens

REV. HENRY EMERSON HOVEY, who at the time of his de- cease, on August 6th, 1909, was rector of St. John's Church, at Ports- mouth, N. H., was born in Lowell, Mass., November 23, 1844, a son of Charles and Catherine Smith Hovey. He prepared for college in the Lowell public schools, and entered Trinity College at Hartford, Conn., in 1862, graduating near the head of his class in 1866. There- upon he at once entered the General Theological Seminary in New York City and was graduated from that institution in 1869, being or- dained deacon in the same year by Bishop Williams of Connecticut. Shortly after his graduation he went abroad, spending much of his time at Oxford, England. The period of his diaconate was passed as rector of St. John's Church, Fort Hamilton, in New York Harbor. Ordained priest by Bishop Littlejohn of Long Island in 1870, he was shortly after elected rector of the Church of the Ascension, at Fall River, Mass., and had charge of this large parish until 1872, when he accepted the rectorship of the new and then struggling parish of St. Barnabas, Brooklyn, New York. Here he remained ten years, declin- ing all other offers. In 1883 he left St. Barnabas parish firmly estab- lished and a center of power and influence in the Eighteenth Ward of that great city.

In 1880 Mr. Hovey took a vacation on the continent of Europe. In 1882 he was simultaneously offered the rectorship of the American Episcopal Church in Geneva, Switzerland, and that of St. John's Church in Portsmouth, N. H. He chose the latter and came here in February, 1883. His work here is well known. During his rectorship St. John's Church was largely restored and beautified; St. John's Guild, now so fruitful in good works, was organized. He was also the organizer of Christ's Church, and its first rector, serving as such until 1894, when it was placed in a position to maintain itself, Mr. Hovey retiring from connection with it, except that he was retained in the honorary capacity of rector emeritus. Among his other labors, the Cottage Hospital (now by an act of legislature called The Portsmouth Hospital), of which also. he was the organizer, was founded and partially endowed, Mr. Hovey being president of the board of trustees of this corporation for several years, as well as of that of the Chase Home for Children, pre- siding as president of both until his death.

In 1884 Mr. Hovey delivered the address of welcome on behalf of the citizens of Portsmouth to the Greeley party coming from the Arctic regions, and in 1885 the civic oration at the local commemoration of the death of General Grant. He was elected a trustee of the Faith Home for Indigent Women in this city in the last mentioned year, a trustee of St. Mary's Diocesan School at Concord in 1886, in 1887 a

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member of the Board of Instruction here, and in 1893 president of the New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the Revolution.

With the multifarious duties connected with these various offices, with the care of a large parish and the management of two Sunday schools, with the calls made upon his time by the Hospital and the Children's Home-which institutions, though wholly unsectarian, nat- urally looked to him for many of their services-and with a . large amount of other work quite outside of his parochial relations Rev. Mr. Hovey probably was as busy a man for seven days of the week as there was in the community.

A man of wide reading, of strong convictions, and of generous sympa- thies, an accurate scholar, an admirable organizer, a stanch churchman and an affectionate rector, the people of St. John's had reason to be proud of his leadership. As a preacher Mr. Hovey was unusually simple, direct and logical. His sermons, graphic, tender, earnest, were entirely free from sensationalism, yet he held the hearer's attention from the first word to the last. No doubt the hope expressed by many was the wish of the townspeople generally-that Mr. Hovey might remain the incum- bent of the venerable parish of St. John's as long as he lived-which wish was fulfilled.

In 1871 Mr. Hovey was married to a remote cousin, Miss Sarah Louise Folsom, daughter of the late Charles J. Folsom, of New York City. They had five children, as follows: Sarah Whittier Hovey; Kath- arine Emerson, who is the wife of Hon. William S. Seabury of New York City and Phoenix, Arizona; Louise Folsom, wife of Lieutenant- Commander Austin Kautz, U. S. N., of Washington, D. C .; Ethelreda Downing, wife of Lieutenant Scudder Klyce, U. S. N., and Ensign Charles Emerson Hovey, U. S. N., who was killed in action on the Island of Basilan, Philippine Islands, September 24, 1911. In memory of Rev. Henry Emerson Hovey, a very fine window was given to St. John's Church by his parishioners and friends. His remains were laid to rest in St. John's Churchyard.

ENSIGN CHARLES EMERSON HOVEY, U.S.N., was born in Portsmouth, N. H., January 10, 1885, and was killed in action in the Philippine Islands, September 24, 1911. He was a son of the late Rev. Henry Emerson Hovey and Sarah Louise (Folsom) Hovey.

Charles Emerson Hovey attended the Portsmouth, N. H., public schools and the Portsmouth, N. H., High School, graduating from the latter in the class of 1902. He attended Holderness School at Plymouth, N. H., one year and then, for one year, was a student at the Boston (Mass.) School of Technology. In 1904 he was appointed to the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated with his class in 1907. While in attendance at the Naval Academy he became president of the Naval Academy Y. M. C. A., which was brought, through his efforts, up to a very fine standard. He was on the Battleship "Ohio" on its trip around the world.

He published (1911) the "Watch Officer's Manual, United States Navy." The Manual covers in a brief and accessible way all the duties of the officer of the Deck of the Navy and of the Naval Militia, as re- quired by regulations and custom. This was a work of great impor- tance and was admirably conceived and executed and received the hearty

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recommendations of naval officers and authorities on naval affairs. This work was revised in accordance with the 1913 Navy Regulations by Lieutenant-Commander Austin Kautz, U.S.N.

Ensign Charles Emerson Hovey, U.S.N., was ordered to the Phil- ippines in 1910. He was commanding a detachment of men from the U.S.S. Pampanga, September 24, 1911, in pursuit of outlaw Moros in the Island of Basilan when his party was ambushed and he himself mor- tally wounded. He was a member of the Delta Psi, a literary college fraternity, and he was also a member of the New York Yacht Club and of the Lambs Club of New York.

His memory is preserved in Portsmouth by a very handsome and artistic drinking fountain erected near the post office. It was made in Italy. The basin and pedestal are of Carrara marble, surmounted by a bronze figure of young Neptune (renaissance), originally in a palace garden in Sienna. A marble memorial tablet has been placed in St. John's Church in Ensign Hovey's memory by his young friends. His remains are interred in St. John's Church Yard.

HARLAN PAGE AMEN, A.M., Litt.D., for eighteen years principal of Phillips Exeter Academy, whose sudden death on Sunday, November 9, 1913, deprived Exeter of one of its foremost citizens, was born at Sinking Spring, Ohio, April 14, 1853, the son of Daniel and Sarah J. (Barber) Amen. The Amen family is of Huguenot origin. Branches use the form Ammen and the late Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen was a kinsman of Dr. Amen.

After attending the common schools in his birthplace, Mr. Amen was for two years a pupil at the High school in Portsmouth, Ohio, when he was obliged to seek employment. This he found in a congenial post, a clerkship in a Portsmouth bookstore. Meanwhile, encouraged by his former teacher and friends, he devoted all available time to reading and study. In the fall of 1872 he came East and was by the late Dr. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, of Boston, to whom he brought letters of intro- duction, induced to enter Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he was graduated in 1875. Despite the fact that he was compelled to support himself, Mr. Amen maintained a high rank in scholarship throughout his course. He also found time heartily to enter into other phases of school life, religious, social and athletic. In strength and agility few were his equals and he was a member of a school crew. From the Acad- emy he went to Harvard, where he was graduated in 1879, likewise with high rank. Throughout his course at the Academy and at Harvard his roommate was William DeW. Hyde, now president of Bowdoin Col- lege and a trustee of the Academy.

Choosing teaching as his profession-in which at least two class- mates, Dr. Hyde at Bowdoin and Prof. William B. Hill at Vassar, have achieved distinction, Dr. Amen was in 1879-82 instructor in classics, mathematics and English at Riverview Academy, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. In 1882-95 he was its instructor in Latin and Greek and also joint prin- cipal. In the latter post he revealed an administrative ability that brought steadily increasing prosperity to Riverview and led to his election in June, 1895, as the seventh principal of Phillips Exeter Academy. For two years he was also professor of Latin. He had since given sole atten- tion to administrative work.

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· Under his wise and far-seeing administration the ancient school has wonderfully prospered. The number of students has increased from 191 to 570, of teachers from 10 to 32. The curriculum has been enriched. The helpful system of advisers has been instituted, as has preceptorial instruction for boys in need of this help, and other salutary changes have been quietly effected. Finely appointed dormitories, Alumni hall, the Merrill buildings, the Davis library, the Plimpton fields and other valu- able additions have been made to the physical equipment of the school. A crowning achievement was the raising of the urgently needed teach- ers' endowment fund of $350,000. In the discharge of this difficult task Dr. Amen visited every section of the land, devoting practically an en- tire school year to the work. He literally gave himself to the school, never sparing himself in discharge of the manifold duties and responsi- bilities of his principalship. Phillips Exeter has been signally fortunate in the succession of great teachers who have devotedly served her, but to none does she owe more than to Harlan Page Amen. The great school of to-day is his best memorial.

The numerous messages of regret, sympathy and condolence re- ceived after death feelingly testified to the esteem in which he was held by leaders in educational work and to the strength of his hold on the affection of former pupils and the alumni in general. In his premature death the Academy sustained a loss, the magnitude of which can hardly be realized.

Williams College in 1886 conferred upon Mr. Amen its honorary A.M. ; Dartmouth, its Litt.D. in 1911. At the last commencement pre- vious to his death he was elected an overseer of Harvard College. He was a member of many scholarly societies, among them the Archeologi- cal Institute of America, the American Philological and the American Historical associations and the New Hampshire Historical society. He was an honorary member of the American Whig society of Princeton University. He was a member of the New England association of Col- leges and Preparatory Schools, of which he was president in 1909-II; the Head Masters' association, which he served as preident in 1910; the Harvard Teachers' association, of which he was president in 1900; the New Hampshire association of Academy Teachers, its president in 1900, and the Massachusetts School Masters' club, of which he was vice- president in 1910-II. He had been president of the Harvard club of New Hampshire. He was a member of the New Hampshire committee on the selection of Rhodes scholars at Oxford from this state. He also held membership in the Twentieth Century club of Boston and the University club of New York.

As a citizen of Exeter Dr. Amen was thoroughly loyal to the old town and intereted in all pertaining to its welfare. His life touched the community at many points. The Cottage hospital was dear to him. He contributed $1,000 to its building fund, had given other proofs of interest and had long served the hospital as a trustee. He was a zealous mem- ber of Phillips church and one of its deacons. He had served the New parish as assessor and otherwise. He was chairman of the trustees of the Merrill Institute and of judges at the High School and Seminary Merrill prize contests. He was a director of the Exeter Banking Com- pany and of the Exeter and Hampton Electric company and a former di- rector of the Exeter, Hampton and Amesbury Street Railway company.

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He was a trustee of the Joseph C. Hilliard estate, from which the Acad- emy will eventually receive $200,000 or more. So far as other cares per- mitted Dr. Amen was zealous in the discharge of duties pertaining to these varied posts. He was an associate of Cincinnati Memorial hall and a member of the Renaissance and the Musical clubs. He was a Mason of Knight Templar rank, a member of Star in the East lodge and his other affiliations in Poughkeepsie.

In political faith Dr. Amen was a staunch Republican. He attended the last Republican national convention as an alternate delegate-at-large from New Hampshire.

As previously stated, Dr. Amen had traveled widely in this country. He had also visited Mexico and had made several trips to Europe. When circumstances permitted, he was wont to spend the summer vacation at Mt. Desert, Me., where at Hancock Point he owned a tract on which he planned to build, at Lake Sunapee or among the White Mountains. Their charms were fully known to him and had a strong hold upon him. He was naturally a member of the Appalachian club. Appreciative of the best in literature, Dr. Amen was a lover of books and collected a large library, which comprises many rare and valuable works. Shortly before his death he announced his intention to give to the Academy 5000 vol- umes as a memorial of his late wife. Music and art powerfully appealed to Dr. Amen, as did all the finer things of life. Generous, broadminded and sympathetic, he was quickly responsive to every appeal, whether from a student in distress or any in special need. Courtesy and kindness ever characterized him. To his intimates he was the most genial and delightful of men. He was at his best in his home, as those can testify who have been privileged to enjoy his hospitality. Its inner shrines are private and sacred. It may be said in closing that in Dr. Amen Exeter lost a citizen of the finest qualities, who had endeared himself to the entire community.

On April 5, 1882, Dr. Amen was married to Mary Browne Rawson, of Whitinsville, Mass., whose death on August 18, 1901, at Lake Sunapee, was a sore bereavement. Dr. Amen has left three daughters, the Misses Margaret R., Elizabeth W. and R. Perne Amen, and a son, John H. Amen, a member of the Upper Middle class at the Academy.

GEN. STEPHEN H. GALE. One of the most perplexing prob- lems in modern political economy is that presented by the tendency of the times towards concentration of industrial enterprises in the cities and the consequent depletion of industrial opportunities throughout the towns and villages, especially those of New England, where agricul- tural possibilities are not so favorable as in many other sections of our country.

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History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 84

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