History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 125

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714

USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 125
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 125

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What is known as the last French and Indian war, 1754-60, again threw the colonies into anxiety and distress. Robert Barber, who had lately removed to Salisbury, was captured by the St. Francis Indians, August, 1753, and afterwards redeemed. Other stories of Indian depredations still are told at our firesides which are doubtless true, but they do not have the requisite name, place, and date to secure narrative here. Newmarket had officers and men in the varions campaigns against the French Forts Du Quesne, Ni- agara, and Crown Point in 1755, under Col. Joseph Blanchard, where they won distinction by a well- directed and prolonged attack; in 1756 and 1757, under Col. Nathaniel Meserve, in expeditions against Crown Point; in 1757, under Maj. Thomas Tash, posted at Number Four; in 1758, under Col. John Hart, in another expedition against Crown Point; in 1760, under Col. John Goff, in the invasion of Canada.

Hostilities ended with the fall of Montreal in 1760. Great and universal joy spread through the colonics. From this time may be dated the flourishing con- dition of New Hampshire. Population and cultiva- tion progressed with unprecedented rapidity.

CHAPTER LXXIX.

SOUTHI NEWMARKET .- ( Continued.)

Incorporation-Roads and Stages-Ship-building and Commerce-Man- ufacturing.

CAPT. EDWARD HALL was, after the death of Col. Winthrop Hilton, the principal man of affairs at New- fields. Ite headed a petition to the Legislature pray- ing that a parish be set off by meets and bounds from the north part of Exeter, and that the inhabitants be excused paying to the ministry of the old parish. The petition was granted Dec. 15, 1727, and the new parish was called Newmarket. About ten years after, Sept. 2, 1737, the parish was granted town privileges. When incorporated is not definitely stated. South Newmarket was afterwards detached from Newmarket by act of the Legislature, June 27, 1849.

Capt. Edward Hall was deacon of the church, justice of the peace, representative for Exeter in 1736, and for Newmarket in 1739, lot-layer, and surveyor of high- ways and of the boundaries of towns. Arthur Slade, Walter Bryant, and James Hersey, Esqs., were the king's surveyors. The eastern boundary of New Hampshire was a subject of hot dispute from 1737 to 1766. Walter Bryant, Esq., was ordered by Governor Jonathan Belcher to run the line between the province of New Hampshire and that part of Massachusetts Bay called the county of York. About half a century later, Oct. 9, 1790, Esquire Bryant was living to cor- respond with Rev. Dr. Belknap respecting this matter. Ile set out from Newmarket with eight men to assist him on Friday, March 13, 1741. He proceeded by way of Cocheco, with snow-shoes and logging-sleds, through Upper Rochester, up Salmon Falls River to the head of Nechawannock River. Here, on Thurs- day, March 19th, he set his compass north two degrees west, making an allowance of ten degrees for its east - erly variation. At the end of every mile he marked a tree, where the place would adinit of it. Thus he traced the line for about thirty miles. He was pre- vented from proceeding farther, partly by the melting of the snow and breaking up of the ice, and partly by meeting unfriendly Indians and the backwardness of his men to proceed. On Friday, March 27th, he turned back, and he reached Newmarket Wednesday, April Ist. His return to the Council was made May 22d, and his account of £116 14s. was allowed Feb. 12, 1742.

Roads and Stages .- The Newmarket settlers had such easy communication with other towns up and down the Squamscot and Lamprey by their boats that they were slow in adopting other methods of convey- ance. The roads to neighboring towns were only narrow bridle-paths through the forests. There were no carriages, but considerable distances were traveled on foot and on horseback. They forded the Squam- scot previous to 1700. That year Richard Hilton

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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

established a ferry at Newfields. There was no bridge across the river till the time of the Revolution.

The road to Piscassic is described in 1731 as "al- ready a pretty good cartway, commonly called Halls- way, four or five miles from the landing-place at [South] New Market towards Nottingham." In 1733 a highway was laid out along this cart-path, and extended to Nottingham. The Hall's Mill road was laid out in 1763. In 1768 a road was laid out from the bridge at Lamprey River to Durham.

When Governor Jonathan Belcher, of Boston, con- templated a visit to New Hampshire he wrote Rich- ard Waldron, Sept. 19, 1734: "I am told there is between Haverhill and Exeter 10 miles of very bad Road and that Gov's Shute or Burnet could not pass that way with wheels, and the Cavalcade will not look so well with the Gov' o' Horseback." Three- fourths of a century later came the era of turnpikes and stages. . The incorporated turnpike, though a great convenience, was never a very popular institu- tion. It was looked upon as a sort of monopoly, and the toll was evaded with no compunctions of con- science.

Two lines of stages passed through here daily from Dover to Boston, one line going by way of Haverhill and the other through Newburyport. They passed about nine o'clock A.M., changed horses at the tavern of John Emery, of Exeter, and dined at Haverhill and at Newburyport. Horses were changed again between these places and Boston, which they reached between four and five o'clock P.M. They returned through here about five P.M. The fare to Boston was two dollars and fifty cents, except when competition sometimes reduced it to fifty cents. Each driver was furnished with a tin horn, which hung by the side of his seat, with which he announced his coming at the entrance to the village. The blowing of the horn was always a signal for the gathering of the village quidnunes, who were interested in the arrival of tray- elers and the mails. This was before the era of rail- roads. The opening of the Boston and Maine Rail- road in 1840 cut off the drivers as fast as the rails were laid from place to place. These genial knights of the whip are now all gone.

Ship-building and Commerce .- New Hampshire, with only eighteen miles of sea-coast, and but one commodious harbor, yet bears for its seal a ship on the stocks. And previous to 1784, when the Constitu- tion and seal were adopted, ship-building was a prom- inent branch of business on the Piscataqua and its tributaries. It is not ascertained when this business first began. Robert Moulton was appointed commis- sioner of the navy at Portsmouth, April 5, 1651. He had come to America at the head of six ship-earpen- ters in 1629. At first only vessels of small size were con- structed, such as sloops, pinnaces, ketches, shallops, barks, and skiffs. Sometimes these were framed and set up in the woods where the timber grew. Then they were taken down and hauled to some suitable

landing on the river, completed and launched. Nav- igators two and a half centuries ago traversed the seas in the merest cockle-shells. Could they now revisit the main they would be amazed at the size, comfort, and sailing qualities of our present ocean steamers. In 1666 a seventy-ton vessel was designed for Euro- pean voyages. The largest ship launched on this side of the Atlantic prior to 1725 was one of seven hun- dred tons burden at New London, Conn.

The early settlers on the Piscataqua availed them- selves of the facilities offered by the natural advan- tages of the place to engage in ship-building. The "Falkland," of fifty-four guns, in 1690, was the first war ship launched on this side of the Atlantic. Richard Earl of Bellamont, Governor of New Hampshire in 1698, credits the State with " eleven ships of good bur- then, five brigantines, four ketches, and four sloops." It is believed that previous to the Revolution more national vessels of war had been built at Portsmouth than at any other seaport on this continent.

To what extent ship-building was carried on in Newmarket down to the Revolution it is impossible to tell. No record of the business is known to exist. The owners and tonnage of the craft built are not fully ascertained. The Lamprey River meets the tide- water over falls of more than twenty feet. At high tide vessels of one hundred and twenty tons freight now land, bringing eoal, salt, and other heavy articles. Seven vessels, some of them of large size for the times, have been seen on the stocks together in process of building. A score of all kinds have been built here in a single year.

The Squamscot is navigable at high tide for vessels of over two hundred tons burden. Heavy freights of iron, coal, and moulding-sand still sail up the river. In times past ship-building flourished on its banks. At Exeter twenty-two vessels, large and small, have been seen on the stocks in a single year. At Newfields the people were busily engaged in lumbering and ship- ping. Her landing was occupied by ship-yards. The busy hum of the shipwright's hammer and awl was heard from morning till night. So pressing was this work that in the busy season he was exempted from military training. Masting required a large number of men and oxen to move the massive king's pines. One of them is said to have been eight feet in diame- ter at the butt end and one hundred and ten feet long, requiring seventy yoke of oxen to draw it to the river's side. From the landing these masts were floated to Portsmouth and shipped abroad. In 1746 objection was urged against a bridge over the Squamscot at Newfields, on the ground that it would obstruct ves- sels, masts, and rafts passing along the river.

The Squamscot abounded in fish, which furnished subsistence for the inhabitants and also an important article of commerce. In 1665 exports to France, Spain, and the Straits consisted of fish, lumber, pitch, tar, and turpentine, for which were brought back salt, preserved fruits, tea, and coffee. Shipments to Virginia

531

SOUTH NEWMARKET.

embraced pork, beef, and peltry, and returns were received of rice, sugar, and tobacco. Great quantities of deal boards, masts, pipe-staves, and shooks were sent to Barbadoes and the West Indies, for which were returned logwood, sperm oil, molasses, and spirits. Before the Revolution this foreign trade with the West Indies was very profitable. So great were the gains that vessels of all sizes and description were pressed into the service. Vessels of fifteen tons burden and upwards were used.

During the Revolution New Hampshire fitted out several private armed vessels. The privateer " Gen- eral Sullivan" was overhauled and refitted at New- fields' Landing in 1778.1 After the Revolution, ship- building on the Squamseot again became profitable. Commerce, however, never reached its former extent.2 The ship-building and commercial interests of New- market were seriously injured by the war of 1812. Her population was nearly two hundred more in 1767 than in 1820. The decrease was owing to the decline in ship-building. Very little had ever been done by the general government for defense of our harbors. The embargo well-nigh annihilated all our commerce. After the spring of 1813, our sea coast, thousands of miles in extent, was blockaded by a British squadron. A few enterprising captains ran the blockade, and privateers were fitted out which were successful in escaping English cruisers. But the relief was only partial. Three years of blockade destroyed ship-

1 This brigantine was built at Portsmouth, and lind made a cruise previous to 1778. At a meeting of her proprietors at Portsmouth, April 9, 1778, " Voted This proprietary pay Capt [ Eliphalet] Ladd twelve hun- dred and fifty pounds lawf1 money, for which the said Ladd agrees to take the brigt . Gen' Sullivan' from Portsmouth to Exeter, nud lengthen her for two more guns on a side, in a proper manner, and return her here again as soon as may be, the proprietary to pay the iron bill, joiners' lull, oukun, pitch, and turpentine." A fortnight luter, April 23, 1778, " Voted, To stop Capt Ladd's proceeding any further with the 'General Sullivan,' and agree with Messrs Hackett, Hill & Paul for the lengthuns the said vessel, and pay Capt Ladd the charges he has been at. Accord- ingly have agreed with Messes Hackett, Hill, & Paul to take said vessel at Newmarket, where she now lies, and lengthen her for two more guns on a side, caulk, iron and fix her for a ship, complete in a proper mauner, lengthen her forecastle agreeable to Capt Dalling's instructions, and de- liver her at Portsmouth by the first of June next; for which the proprie- tors agree to pay the said llackett, Ilill & Paul fifteen hundred pounds lawi money in cash, and give them one barrel of New England rum; proprietors to find iron-work, pitch, turpentine, and vakum." The " Gen- eil Sullivan" nmde several cruises, and captured some valuable prizes. Among these were the "Caledonia," the " Mary," and the " Charlotte." It is understood that the career of the "General Sullivan" was termi- nated in the year 1780, by her being captured by two British ships of vastly superior force, after a spirited resistance. Maj. Nathaniel Me- Clintock was in command of her marines, and was killed in the engage- ment by a ball through the head.

2 Washington, in his diary, Nov. 4, 1789, says, " Before 10 I reached Exeter 14 miles distance. This is considered as the second town in New lampslure and stands at the hend of tide water of the Piscataqua River, but ships of 3 or 400 tons have been built at it."

Timothy Dwight, D.D., writes, Oct. 4, 1796, " The highest rise of the tidle is about eleven feet. The river is therefore navigable to the falls for vessels of five hundred tons. The trade of Exeter is much smaller than it was formerly, five or six vessels only being employed by the in- habitants in foreign commerce. Ship-building was heretofore a consid- erable und profitable business in this town. A few vessels, however, nre built annually."

building on the Squamscot. Neither has it been re- sumed on the Piscataqua, except at the government navy yard at its mouth.

Among the last to engage in ship-building at New- fields were Zechariah Beals, Dudley Watson, Samuel Tarlton, and George Hilton. The last vessel built here was the "Nile," in 1827. She was of about three hundred tons burden, and built for parties in Salem, Mass. Joseph Coe was the contractor and Nathaniel Garland did the blacksmith work. Up to that time we were a ship-building town. The launel :- ing of a ship was an event of great interest, to be prop- erly celebrated. Men, women, and children living in the vicinity all attended. They expected an ample supply of good cheer. Bountiful provision must be made, codfish and crackers, cider and rum for the men, egg-nog and metheglin for the women.

Our later coasting trade was principally with Boston. Household goods, clothing, military equip- ments, and implements of husbandry were imported, and returns made in lumber, dry hides, and buek- skins. Capt. Joseph Furnald ran a packet from Ex- eter 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 pur- chasing goods, and returned on the fifth or sixth day. The goods were shipped to Portsmouth by the regu- lar coaster. Here they were transferred to Capt. Fur- nald's packet and brought up the river, generally ar- riving about two weeks after being purchased. This was before the era of railroads.

Manufacturing .- Mechanies and artisans are im- portant personages in every community. Shoemakers, carpenters, masons, and blacksmiths are indispensable in a new settlement. The wives and daughters of the Newfields patriarchs manufactured the garments which clothed themselves and their husbands and brothers. The flax was pulled, rotted, broken, swin- gled, hetehelled, 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 bever- ages ont of glazed earthen mugs, one mug going in course the rounds of the table. In times of the scar- city 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 labor in its various depart- ments is extensively pursued. No towns of its size produce more valuable manufactured goods. While

532

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

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 Vir- ginia. 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 New- fields 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 encourage this enterprise the General Court appropriated a slip of land two miles in breadth above the head line of Dover, for the purpose of sup- plying 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 Nov. 1, 1785, "The fulling and grist mill belonging to the Hon. Major General Sullivan have been carried from their situa- tion at Packer's Falls."

The Newmarket Manufacturing Company was incor- porated in 1822, and the corner-stone of cotton-mill No. 1 was laid the next year. Hall's nut and bolt works are situated at the lower falls of the Piscassic. Ilaines' cotton batting-mill is located about two miles above on the same stream. Neal's mills, still farther up the Piscassie, and about one mile from Newfields, consist of a saw-mill, grain-mill, planer and matcher.

Iron works were commenced at Newfields in 1830. The first blast was blown on Christmas day. The South Newmarket Iron Foundry was incorporated in 1834. The officers were Amos Paul, president ; George O. Ililton, treasurer; Amos Paul, John B. Rider, and Joseph Skinner, directors.

In 1846 the Swamscot Machine Company was incor- porated, and Amos Paul chosen agent. This com- pany purchased the iron foundry and united both branches of the business. They employ about two hundred and seventy-five hands, and the monthly pay-roll is eleven thousand dollars.

The engine-shop of George E. Fifield does a fine business. They build a special form of engine and boiler adapted for the Southern lumber trade.

Theodore Moses learned his trade of hatter with Nathaniel Lord, of Newfields. He soon moved to Exeter, where he entered into trade as a wool manu- facturer. The business, much enlarged by his son and grandson, has become a source of wealth to the family. Ira Choate carried on the manufacture of machinery of various kinds at South Newmarket until 1865, when he removed to Exeter, and in 1867

sold out to Exeter Foundry and Machine Company. Charles Lane ran a bark-mill, and carried on the busi- ness of tanning leather for many years. Still earlier Col. John Rogers and Capt. Joseph Furnold, New- fields men. carried on the business of tanning near the residence of the latter, in Exter, where they erected a tide-mill for the grinding of bark. Col. Rogers afterwards manufactured " patent leather" on the Hampton road. John Hennard was the New- fields elock-maker, and previous to the Revolution, William Cario was her silversmith.

CHAPTER LXXX.

SOUTHI NEWMARKET .- ( Continued.) MILITARY HISTORY.

The Revolution-War of 1812-War of the Rebellion.

Ir 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 Revolution could be written from the records of the New Eng- land town-meetings. The resolutions adopted and the instructions given to representatives in conven- tion, Legislature, and Congress are the wonder and admiration of students of political philosophy every- where. The town of Newmarket is exceedingly un- fortunate 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 Eng- lish 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 conduet 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, peacefully but pertinaciously, and the aet 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 point of en- durance a brave and generous people. The regula- tion aets of 1774 were revolutionary and suggestive of " a general disarming of the colonists."

The town of Newmarket was not indifferent to the momentous agitation 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 gener- ations 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

RESIDENCE OF JACOB HERSEY, SOUTH NEWMARKET, N. H.

533

SOUTHI NEWMARKET.

the celebrated Association Test. It contained the names of one hundred and sixty-four persons, who "hereby solemnly engage and promise that we will, to the utmost in our Power, at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes, with Arms oppose the Hostile Proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies against the United American Colonies." 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 bear- ing 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 community who never put their name to paper. But more were Tories, who had always been loyal to the church and government of Great Britain. Re- spectable family ties allied some to British officers. Governor Benning Wentworth had married, in 1760, Martha Hilton, of Newmarket. During the Revolu- tion she was living with her second husband, Col. Michael Wentworth, a retired British officer. The home of Lady Wentworth, of Wentworth Hall, New- castle, was a noted resort of royalists. The Confis- cation Act of 1778, extending to John Wentworth and seventy-six others in New Hampshire, inchided 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 taking 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 Jan. 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 re- moved on Jan. 3, 1776, but in 1777 he was committed to jail. Capt. Peter Pease was put under gnard as a Tory February, 1777, and petitioned for release May 19, 1777. Dr. John Marsters would not sign the As- sociation Test in 1776, and was placed under arrest in 1777, from which he humbly prayed the Committee of Safety to be released.

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History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 125

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1714

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714