History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 177

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 177
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 177

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In April, 1855, he married Ellen M. Burleigh, youngest daughter of Jolin and Phebe Burleigh, of Sandwich, N. H. He had five children, viz. : Charles S., Grace M. J., Nellie and Jessie, who died in in- fancy, and Harry W.

Dec. 26, 1876, he married Abbie McD. Whitehouse, daughter of John McDuffee (banker), and had two children, Sarah MeD. and Maud H.

During the first year of the war he was elected as one of a committee to pay out the funds due the fam- ilies of soldiers who had enlisted in the service of the United States. He took a decided and unflinching stand for temperance, rum-shops and rum-drinking having increased to an alarming extent as one of the results of the war. He was appointed one of a com- mittee of five by the town to prosecute all violations

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HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

of the prohibitory law. The other members of the committee were Franklin McDuffee, cashier of Rochester bank ; J. Frank Place, editor of the Cour- ier ; Charles W. Brown, merchant; and Robert Me- Ilroy, superintendent of the Norway Manufacturing Company. They were in a great measure successful in their work, as all the liquor saloons in town were elosed, which credit was not due to the committee alone, but to the temperance part of the community, backed by the strong arm of the law and the sym- pathy of the court, especially Joshua G. Hall, county solicitor, and Judge Doe. They were threatened many times with violence. Chase's store was dam- aged one Saturday night by being fired into with a gun in the hands of some person employed to do it, shot going the length of the store, but it did not take fire, as it was supposed was their intention. A reward of two hundred dollars was offered by the selectmen of the town for the conviction of the person who did it, but without success. The friends of temperance made up the loss to Mr. Chase. At the call of the first State temperance convention Mr. Chase was present in sympathy with the movement, believing in the ballot-box as well as the law to suppress the evil. He voted with that party as long as it existed.

In August, 1878, the old brick store built by his father was fired by an incendiary and destroyed with its contents. The loss to Mr. Chase was very heavy, but he was not discouraged. As soon as possible the ruins were cleared away. Oct. 1, 1878, the foundation was laid for a fine new block. The work was pushed rapidly, and the new store was completed and opened with a new stock of dry-goods April 29, 1879.

CHARLES GREENFIELD.

Charles Greenfield, son of John and Phebe Green- field, was born in the town of Rochester, N. II., Feb. 18, 1826. Ilis father, John Greenfield, was the eldest son of Simon Torr and Sarah Ham, and was born in 1781, in Rochester, on the old Torr farm. (See biog- raphy of John F. Torr, Rochester, N. 11.) His name was changed by the Legislature to John Greenfield because he was in trade in Rochester, and soon after he began business his brother. Jonathan Torr, opened merchandising in the same place, and their goods would get badly mixed; henee to avoid this difli- culty he had his name changed.

John Greenfield was reared as a tanner, shoemaker, and farmer, and very early showed signs of great fore- sight. Soon after he attained his majority, about 1812 to 1813, he commenced merchandising in Rochester, and for nearly or quite fifty years was one of the most successful business men in town. He was full of en- ergy, and possessing a sound judgment was always able to make good investments. Ile was somewhat ad- vanced in years before he married. He had four children, viz. : Charles, Sarah E. (wife of E. G. Wal- lace, of Rochester), Ella G. (Mrs. Daniel J. Parsons),

and George, who married Mary F., daughter of John Parsley, of Strafford, and had five children. George died September, 1871.

John Greenfield died at seventy-five years of age, Jan. 13, 1863, leaving his family an ample fortune and, what is much better, a good name. Some of his children are among the most highly-educated people of Rochester, and all are good, worthy citizens. Charles Greenfield received a common-school and academic education till he was fourteen, when he commenced farming, which has been his principal em- ployment since. Upon the death of his father in 1863 he received his proportion of his father's estate, and this has accumulated till now (1882) he is considered one of the wealthy men of the town. He possesses quick perception, clear judgment, and sound reason. He has seldom or ever made a financial mistake, and his word is as good as his bond. He owns several hundred acres in Rochester, and though a farmer nominally, yet he makes his money otherwise. In polities he is a Republican. Ile is a director of the Rochester National Bank, of which John MeDuffee is now (1882) president, trustee in the Norway Plains Savings-Bank, and stockholder in various railroad and manufacturing interests. He married Areline B., daughter of Gershom and Sally P. Downs, of Rochester, July 5, 1846. She was born May 17, 1826, in Rochester. Their children are Millie A. (wife of Horace L. Wor- cester, a newsdealer in Rochester), John, at present high sheriff' of the county and a farmer by occupation ; Ella S. (Mrs. Justin M1. Leavitt, of Baxton, Me .; he is a mail-agent), Sarah E., Hattie A., and Frank, a newsdealer with his brother-in-law, Mr. Worcester, in Rochester. Mrs. Greenfield is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Greenfield is very reticent in all matters, modest, not given to show or ostentation, intelligent, and economical. Ile com- mands the esteem of all and the love of many.

JOIIN F. TORR.

John F. Torr, one of the wealthiest farmers in Roch- ester, or Strafford County, is a lineal descendant from one Vincent Torr, who came from England when a young man, and settled in the town of Dover, N. H., on the farm which has been in the name ever since, and is now (1882) owned by Simon J. Torr.

Vineent had children, one of whom was Simon Torr, who married Sarah Ham, and had seven chil- dren, viz. : Betsey, Polly, Abigail, Sarah, John, Simon, and Jonathan H., all of whom were born on the old Torr homestead in Rochester, where John F. Torr, the immediate subject of our sketch, resides.

Simon Torr settled in Rochester about 1775 on the same farm which has been in the family ever since, or more than one hundred years. A part of the old house then built is still standing, and the same old wooden clock which was put in place by this venerable sire about the time he settled there is still marking

Charles Greenfield

John F. For

Charles Dennett

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ROCHESTER.

accurately the time of day. The faces of four gener- ations have looked upon this old elock, and it bids fair to keep time for many generations more.

Simon Torr was a man of great energy and force of character. He was a tanner and farmer by occu- pation, and was successful in all his business enter- prises. He died at about seventy-two years of age, his wife surviving him.

Simon Torr, son of Simon Torr, was born Oct. 5, 1789, in Rochester, and died Feb. 17, 1858. He mar- ried Betsey Davis, daughter of Thomas Davis, and had four children, viz. : Charles, deceased at sixteen ; Simon A., who died at nine ; John F., born April 8, 1829; and Sarah E., wife of Lewis E. Hanson. She died at twenty-six, leaving children.

Simon Torr (2d) was a farmer and tanner by oc- cupation, a Whig in politics. His wife died Nov. 6, 1854, having been born Sept. 11, 1794.

John F. Torr, whose portrait accompanies this sketch, received very limited advantages for an edu- cation. As he is the only chill of his parents who lived to survive them, he received the homestead in 1858, and has continued on it till now (1882). He is a man of most wonderful energy and force of character, having inherited many of the virtues of his ancestors. Ile is respected wherever known, and is justly con- sidered one of the most intelligent and substantial men of his native town. He married Mary C. Downs, March 17, 1868. She was born Jan. 14, 1840, in Farm- ington, N. H. Their children are Charles C., Simon A., and George A. He is a Republican in politics, and though he has been selectman of his town, he neither seeks nor desires official positions.

CHARLES DENNETT.

Charles Dennett was born in Barnstead, N. H., Sept. 28, 1788, and died March 4, 1867.

He was a cabinet-maker originally, and came to Rochester in 1812 to work at that business, which he continued until about forty-one or two years of age ; then became deputy sheriff, which office he filled for eighteen years. He was town clerk and county treasurer for some years, and was in the Legislature also. He did much in the way of surveying land and settling up estates, making wills, deeds, etc.

He was very prominent in the temperance cause, and spared neither time nor money in his efforts in that direction. In short, he was unusually public- spirited, and was active in everything that might conduce to the public good. He was one of the prin- cipal movers in establishing the Methodist Church in town, and always did all in his power to aid it in every way. He was active as a Freemason and Odd- Fellow also.

He had much mechanical ingenuity, and many years ago invented a lock, which was long used upon the bank, and defied repeated efforts of burglars. He

also invented a corn-sheller, which did its work very successfully, shelling a bushel of corn in three min- utes, separating corn and cobs.

He had so much versatility of talent that he usually succeeded in whatever he attempted, and was wholly a self-made man, his early advantages being very limited, but he was very observing, fond of reading, and interested in all modern progress and discoveries, and by the strictest honesty and most upright prob- ity of character won the esteem of all right-minded people, though, of course, he made enemies by his temperance zeal and straightforward course.

JEREMIAH D. RICHARDSON.

Jeremiah D. Richardson, son of Thomas and Nancy (Odiorne) Richardson, was born in the town of Roch- ester, N. H., Sept. 19, 1809. The line of descent as far as known is as follows: Jeremiah D., Thomas, John, and William. The writer is unable to trace the line of descent further back. The ancestors were a hard-working, God-fearing people as a whole. Thomas had three children, viz. : Jeremiah D., Caro- line (deceased), and Mary Ann (deceased). Ile was a Democrat in politics. He was a brickmaker by trade, also a shoemaker and farmer. Naturally he was a fine man, and possessed good judgment and a noble spirit, but drink caused his downfall, and be died in 1834. His wife died Dec. 30, 1859, and both lie buried side by side in the Hayes burying-ground. Mrs. Thomas Richardson was a member of the Con- gregational Church, was a good and true wife and mother, and left the fragrance of a good name to her children.

Jeremiah D. Richardson remained at home working, as most boys in those days did, on the farm summers and attending the district school winters till he was fourteen years of age. He worked on the farm and in the shop till he was twenty. At twenty-one he worked for one Moses Young six and a half months. at seven dollars and fifty cents per month. In 1832 he worked for Mr. Woodman, in Rochester, and the following winter in the harness business for Peter Folsom. Soon after he made a trip to Roxbury, Mass., and was gone six months, when he returned home to take care of his parents, which he did till their death. He has spent some fifteen years with the Wallace Brothers, of Rochester, N. H. He owns a farm of some eighty acres in Rochester, and in all his dealings with men he has not lost their confidence. He has met with more than average success, especially when we consider the disadvantages under which he has had to labor. Politically he was formerly a Dem- crat, but upon the organization of the Republican party he joined it. He has been twice married,- first, to Martha, daughter of John Place, by whom he has had two children, viz. : Caroline, who married Edward C. Hurd, a farmer in Rochester ; George A., who died at fourteen. Mrs. Richardson died October,

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HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

1848, and he married for his second wife, March 11, 1849, Mary C., daughter of Moses and Elizabeth Hopkinson, of Buxton, Me. She was born April 9, 1822. Their children are M. Bardbury, born June 20, 1851 ; Charles T., born Nov. 22, 1853; Louis M., born April 18, 1860; and J. Sherman, born Aug. 2, 1865. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has held some offices.

OSMAN B. WARREN.

The subject of this sketch was born in Rochester, N. H., and son of Rev. James and Lydia (Perkins) Warren, and grandson of Daniel and Sally Warren.

Daniel was born Dee. 12, 1768, and died in Roches- ter, Dec. 12, 1844, aged seventy-six years. Sally was born July 15, 1767, and died in Rochester, May 15, 1857, aged eighty-nine years and ten months. Their family consisted of Joseph, James, Mary, Ilannah, and Emily.

James, the father of Osman, was born in Lebanon, Me., March 13, 1802, and died in Rochester, Feb. 5, 1880, aged seventy-eight. Lydia, the mother, was born in Sanford, Me., Nov. 12, 1812, and died in Rochester, Dec. 18, 1875, aged sixty-three years. Their family consisted of Horatio H., Arethusa K., Melvin M., Sarab F., Osman B., and Wilbur F. ( Mel- vin and Sarah died in infancy).

Horatio II. was born in Paris, Me., May 9, 1837. Enlisted Ang. 5, 1862, in the Thirteenth Regiment, Company B, New Hampshire Volunteers, for three years; was sergeant of his company two years. En- gaged in eleven battles, and severely wounded at Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1864.

Wilbur F. was born in Rochester, Oct. 28, 1848. Enlisted in Company C, First New Hampshire Cav- alry, and served till July, 1865; was sergeant of his company at the time of his discharge, and was con- nected with Sheridan's command through all his term of service; was representative in the session of 1881-82.

Osman B. was born Sept. 15, 18-15, and of his his- tory prior to the war of the Rebellion we can say nothing more than of school-boys generally. Fired with the patriotism which characterized many of the citizens of his native town, he enlisted Aug. 1, 1862, at the age of seventeen, in Company II, Ninth Regi- ment New Hampshire Volunteers. Promoted to first sergeant on arriving at the seat of war; was engaged in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, in Maryland, after which was in the battles of Freder- icksburg, Sulphur Springs, and Wheatland, Va. His company was then sent with the Ninth Corps, under Sherman, to assist Gen. Grant at Vicksburg. While there they had an engagement with Johnston's army at Big Black River and at Jackson, Miss. The Ninth Corps then returned to Virginia, and he was engaged in Grant's three days' fight at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court-House; at the latter place was

captured by the rebels, May 12, 1864, and taken to Andersonville prison, Georgia, arriving May 29, and received the hospitable fare and treatment of Capt. Wertz (whose name is sufficient to tell more of the sufferings of the prisoners than whole pages of biog- raphy could do) for four and a half months. Sher- man's march to the sea caused the rebels to break up this prison, and he was carried first to Charleston, S. C., and from there to Florence, N. C., and there kept until Feb. 29, 1865, when, with the other pris- oners, he was paroled, as the rebels had got nearly sur- rounded by the Union forces. After the capture of Mr. Warren, news came to his home that he was killed in the engagement at the court house, and our local paper had an obituary notice in its columns. On ar- riving at his home he presented such an emaciated appearance that many thought the notice had better stand in the paper as a fact, and not call it a mistake. The war having closed, and Mr. Warren having re- cruited his health, engaged in the service of the Messrs. Wallace, and continued in their employ until April, 1878, when he retired to take charge of the post-office, having been appointed to that position March 25th, by President Hayes, and again reap- pointed, April 18, 1882, by President Arthur. Hle was twice honored with a seat in the Legislature by the suffrage of his fellow-citizens, serving as repre- sentative in the sessions of 1875 and 1876, and was placed each year on the Committee of Military Affairs. He was commander of Sampson Post, No. 22, G. A. R., for three years.

Mr. Warren was married, April 20, 1870, to Luella J., daughter of Ephraim HI. and Jane Brown, of Nor- way, Me., and have children as follows : Frank S., Fannie C., and Alice, who died in infancy. Mr. War- ren is now (June, 1882) thirty-seven years old, and for one of his age has seen as many of the vicissitudes of life as naturally fall to a man in a lifetime.

CHAPTER CXI.

DOVER.1

The Settlement of Edward Hilton .- The Rev. William Ilubbard, in his "History of New England," says, ---

"Some merchants and other gentlemen in the west of England, belonging to the cities of Exeter, Bristol, Shrewsbury, and towns of Plymouth, Dorchester, etc., . . . having obtained patents for several parts of the country of New England, . . . made some attempts of beginning a plantation in some place about the Paseataqua River about the year 1623. .. . They sent over that year one Mr. David Thompson, with Mr. Edward Hilton and his brother, Mr. William

1 By Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D.D.

J. D. RICHARDSON.

BWaren

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Hilton, who had been fishmongers in London, with some others that came along with them, furnished with necessaries for carrying on a plantation there. Possibly some others might be sent after them in the years following, 1624 and 1625, some of whom first, in probability, seized on a place called the Little Har- bour, on the west side of Pascataqua River, towards or at the mouth thereof; the Hiltons in the mean while setting up their stages higher up the river to- wards the northwest, at or about a place since called Dover."

The information thus given would seem to be deci- sive that the settlements in Dover and in the present town of Rye were in the same year and under similar auspices. The historian himself says that he availed himself, in writing his history, of the memory of the ancient settlers. He was a graduate of Harvard in 1642, and was settled as minister in Ipswich in 1658, while the original settler, Edward Hilton, was still living near Exeter, not a day's journey distant. His stand- ing was such that he was once temporary president of Harvard College.

Some doubts have lately been cast, nevertheless, upon the date of the settlement of Dover. It is need- less to revive them, inasmuch as an original paper recently found in the Suffolk Court files is decisive. It is a petition of a nephew of Edward Hilton, and son of William Hilton, in 1660, for a confirmation of a sale of lands made in 1636 by Tahanto, sagamore of Penecooke, to William Hilton, Sr., and his son, this petitioner. In this petition he says,-

" Whereas your petitioners father William Hilton came over into New England about the yeare Anno : Dom : 1621 & yor petitioner came about one yeare and & an halfe after, and In a little tyme following settld ourselues vpon the River of Paschataq. with Mr Edw : Hilton, who were the first Inglish planters there."

The William Hilton, Jr., making this application was a person of standing and character, and his inci- dental testimony is conclusive. The senior William Hilton came over to Plymouth in the "Fortune," Nov. 11, 1621. Ilis wife and two children followed in the "Anne," July or August, 1623. This agrees with the "about a yeare & an halfe after" given above. The settlement of Dover is thus seen to be as declared by Hubbard.

This colonization required courage, energy, and self-denial. It is true it was not an unknown coast. On the 10th of April, 1603, under the patronage of merchants of Bristol, Martin Pring left that port with two vessels, one of fifty tons, the other of twenty- six. In his explorations of our coast he entered the Pascataqua. He rowed up ten or twelve miles, the first European who ever saw the woods of Dover. " Very goodly groves and woods," his narrative says he found on the shores of our rivers, "and sundry sorts of beasts ;" but he left it to its silence. On the 3d of March, 1614, Capt. Jobn Smith sailed from

London. On the 30th of April he reached Monhe- gan. There he built seven boats. In one of these boats, with eight men. he explored the coast and en- tered the Pascataqua. Probable it also seems that John Mason, while plantation governor in Newfound- land, also explored our shores, and this personally learned of the advantages of the place which he chose for colonization.

Nor is it unlikely that fishermen who touched at the Isles of Shoals had sometimes found a harbor in the safe inlet of the mainland.

But in that spring of 1623, from Plymouth harbor to the Pascataqua, there is no substantial evidence of the residence of a single European; and from Pascat- aqua eastward there was nothing save temporary visiting places of fishermen till one reached the French settlement at Mount Desert. Inland were the savage tribes, beginning at the very harbor, and peopling the unknown forests. Along the coasts were often ships of other nations, or vessels whose easy allegiance made them no desirable visitors. The neighbors of the Pascataqua settlers for some years to come were to be the fishermen who might land upon the Isles of Shoals.

Of Edward Hilton, who most of all men deserves to be considered as the father of New Hampshire, as he certainly was its first permanent settler, we have but one item on English soil. The very defective records of the Fishmongers' Guild, in London, show that he was admitted to that wealthy fraternity in 1621. Much research has thus far failed to find the place of his birth. It is not improbable that he was a remote descendant of the old baronial family of the name of IIilton, but no connection is known. He was certainly a man of some property at the time of his emigration, and his character during his whole life was that of a gentleman.

Who were his associates and emigrants, beyond his brother and nephew, no record tells us. IIis associ- ates in England, not the emigrants but the projectors, were merchants of Plymouth and other towns of the west of England. Probably his few men, and cer- tainly the emigrants who followed a few years later, were of that hardy stock, particularly of Devonshire, which gave to the ocean such men as Gilbert, Drake, Hawkins, and Raleigh, and contributed so essentially to the glory of the reign of Elizabeth.

So vague is the knowledge of the men, the vessel, the date of departure from England, and the anchor- age in the river. The emigrants have left us no records of these things. Plymouth had its Bradford and its Winslow. Massachusetts Bay had its Win- throp. The records of their beginnings are minute. But Plymouth was the refuge of Pilgrims whose con- sciences enforced their separation from the Church of England. Massachusetts Bay was the refuge of Puritans whose consciences serupled at some of the ceremonies, but not at the existence, of the national church. Each of these had the histories of peculiar

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IIISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

ideas to write. The New Hampshire colonists, nei- ther Pilgrims nor Puritans, satisfied with both the existence and the ceremonies of the Established Church, came here as bold and hardy pioneers in commercial enterprise, whose number of beaver-skins bought of the Indians, or of fish cured for the Eng- lish market, had none of the romance to attract a historian. Only one other single item as to this set- tlement is found in history for half a dozen years. It is when Mr. Hilton, in 1628, paid one pound of the expenses incurred in breaking up the obnoxious settlement of Morton at Wollaston, the entire cost being twelve pounds and seven shillings, and Ply- mouth colony at Paseataqua, each paying two pounds ten shillings.

" These settlements," says the historian, " went on but slowly for seven years, and in 1631 . . . there were but three houses in all that part of the country adjoining the Pascataqua River. There had been also some expense about salt-works."

The spot of the first settlement is given by tradition, and the tradition seems probable. It was at the ex- treme southern point of Dover. The dwellers on the beautiful plateau, a summer resort, dwell upon its site. The view southward is across the broad, deep, and rapid Pascataqua, which flows from Great Bay ; westward it is over the Bellamy River and fertile meadow lands beyond ; eastward it is across the New- ichawannock, which now separates Maine from New Hampshire, and to the Eliot fields and Agamenticus. Later emigrants built their houses upwards on the commanding slopes whose banks are washed by the salt tides of the two rivers. But the beginnings were limited to the southern extremity of the Point. Here the settlers " set up their stages," and on the land ar- rayed their flakes. The great river at proper seasons was richly supplied with fish. Even in the boyhood of old men known to the writer in his boyhood there was no scarcity of this source of wealth.

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History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 177

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