USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Sanbornton > History of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, Vol. I - Annals > Part 30
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STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY NINE.
AN ACT TO CONSTITUTE THE TOWN OF TILTON FROM A PART OF THE TERILI- TUBY OF THE TOWN OF SANHORNTON.
Be it enacted by the Senute and House of Representatives in General Court concerned:
SEcriox 1. That all that part of Saubornton lying withlu the following lines and boundaries, to wit, Beginning at the centre of the Wlunipiscogee River, at the southwest corner of said Sanboruton, ou the llue of the town of Franklin; thence northerly, on the line between sald Franklin and said San- borutou, to the north side of the third range of lots In sald Saubornton ; thence casterly, ou the north side of sald range liue to the highway leading from Union Bridge to Lacoula, across the Bay Bridge; theuce ou the north line of said highway to the Sauborntou town line, on the northerly side of said Bay Bridge; thence on said Sanborutou town line, down the Winniplseogee River to the place of beginning, -be, and the same hereby Is, severed from the town of' Sanborntou, and made a body politic and corporate by the name of Tiltou.
SECT. 2. All reul and personal property, including all debts, claims, and demands of every kind now owned by and due to the town of Sanbornton; all school and other funds belonging to said town, and the proportion of the literary fund, which, muth a new apportionment of State taxes, shall be pay- able to said towns, shall be divided between them In the proportion of $4.50 to Sanbornton aud $5.50 to Tilton. Aud If said towns cannot agree upon the division of any such property, the County Commissioners for the County of Belknap, for the time being, upon the request of either town, may make division of the same, or assign the same, or any part thereof, to either of said towns, and may order the town to which such property may be assigned to pay over such sums of money to the other town as in their opinion is equi- table, according to the foregoing proportion, and may fix the time of payment.
SEcr. 3. All taxes assessed since March last upon the polls and estate of persons residing in said town of Tiltou, as hereby constituted, and all non- resident taxes assessed since March last in said town, shall be collected by the collector to whom the same has been connnitted for that purpose; and after deducting therefrom the State and county taxes, shall be by him paid over to said town of Tilton, in the same manner iu which he is directed to pay the same to the town of Sanbornton before this division thereof; and the treasurer of the town of Tilton, when duly chosen and qualified, shall have the same power to issue an extent against such collector for any neglect to comply with the provisions of this Act that he would have if such collector had been chosen by said town of Tilton.
SEcr. 4. All debts and liabilities heretofore incurred by said town of San- bornton, and all municipal expenses of said town since the first day of March last, shall be paid by the aforesaid towns in the same proportion as hereinbe- fore prescribed for the division of property.
Sker. 5. All paupers now supported by, and in the actual receipt of assist- ance from, said Sanbornton shall be supported by the towns of Saubornton
TOWN
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-
TO
Samvils Proti LRg. 750% Fon
MONUMENT SQUARE AND STREET. (Tiltou.)
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259
DIVISION OF THE TOWN.
and Tilton, each contributing in the same proportion as hereinbefore men- tioned for the division of property, until such time as elther of said towns shall call for a division of said paupers; and if said towns do not agree upon a division, the aforesaid county counmissioners for the time being shall, upon the request of either of said towns, determine and assign to each of them its proportion of said paupers, upon the same basis, as near as practicable, as that prescribed for a division of the town property, and determine which of said paupers shall be supported by each of said towns.
SECT. C. In all assessment of State and county taxes, until the Legisla- ture shall otherwise order, Sanbornton, as constituted after this division thereof, shall pay $3.15, and Tilton $2.94; and the State and county treas- urers shall issue their respective warrants accordingly.
SEcr. 7. Jeremiah C. Tiltou, Alexander H. Tiltou, Addison B. Wyatt, or any two of them, may call the first meeting of said town of Tilton by posting up a warrant for that purpose, as the law direets, at which meeting either of said persons may preside until a moderator be chosen, and at such meeting all necessary town officers may be chosen.
SECT. 8. This Act shall take effect from and after its passage.
SAM. M. WHEELER, Speaker of the House of Representatives. JOIN Y. MUGRIDGE, President of the Senate.
Approved June 30, 1869.
ONSLOW STEARNS, Governor.
A true copy of bill as engrossed and signed.
Attest : FRANK KIMBALL, Engrossing Clerk.
According to the provisions of this Act, as we learn from the San- bornton town records, Tiltou's portion of " cash in the treasury " was $414.02 ; Sanbornton's, $338.75 ; total, $752.77. Debt, in notes, - Tilton's portion (33), $48,369.20 ; Sanbornton's (2%), $39,574.80 (but in reality Tilton assumed $17 less, - $48,352.20, - and San- bornton $17 more, - $39,591.80, -that sum ($17) being paid by Tilton to Sanbornton, in order to distribute the notes between the towns without changing) ; total, $87,944. Whole amount of school and parsonage fund, $5,757, - Tilton's portion (28), $3,166.35 ; Sau- bornton's (2%), 82,590.65. Railroad stock, thirty-eight shares and $30 Division of in scrip, equalling £3,830, - Tilton's portion, $2,106.50 ; the town Sauborutou's, $1,723.50 ; but Tilton takes for its portion property. twenty-one shares and $30 in serip, and pays Sanbornton $1.35, and Sanbornton takes seventeen shares for its portion, the serip only selling for about ten cents on a dollar. Amount of taxes assessed in Sanbornton for 1869 (before division), $17,207.60, - Sanborn- ton's portion, $9,886.10 ; Tilton's, $7,321.50. Whole amount of real and personal estate sold, $4,750.07 ; expenses, $141.78 ; balance, 84,608.29, of which received by the town of Tilton, $2,534.55 ; by Sanbornton, $2,073.74. Expense to the town of Sanbornton (as left) incurred by the division of the town, $3,375.40.
CHAPTER XXIV.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN SANBOIINTON AND TILTON.
" The hand that rounded Peter's dome, And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, Wrought in a sad sincerity ; Ilimself from God he could not free ; le builded better than he knew ; - The conscious stone to beauty grew." - R. W. EMERSON.
BESIDES the original town meeting-house, already mentioned in Chap. IX., few other public structures are referred to on the town records of the earlier years. The " pounds" and the " powder- house " are chief. Having previously used the barn-yards of certain individuals for pounds, as elsewhere noted (for the continement of stray cattle, etc. ), the town first voted, March 31, 1778, " to build a pound on y" corner of Aaron Sauborn's land, made by ye
The first pound. main road and ye Bay road so called." This must have stood either near the site of the late Walter Ingalls house, or on the corner opposite, since occupied by the gardens of the Lovejoy and present A. M. Baker houses ; and it must have been quite an elabo- rate structure for the times, as in 1780, it was " Voted, to give Jacob Garlon $140 for building ye pound." In 1786, it was " Voted, not to move ye pound nearer to the centre of the town," as had been desired ; but Dec. 13, 1790, it was "Voted, to build a Pound near ye meeting house, and to vandne ye same to ye lowest bidder"; and in 1804, at annual meeting, it was further ordered "to build a Pound of wood, the Selectmen to draw a plan, and let out the building." This was also a little west of the old meeting-house, and in process of time, after the town house had been moved, was found in a less conven- ient location ; whereupon, in 1839, the selectmen were again instructed to " provide a pound in the most suitable place," which resulted in the erection, soon after, of the still standing but now venerable and deserted structure of stone ou the right hand of the highway, a little west of the family residence of the late Noah Eastman, Esq.
The building of the powder-house was also attended with considera- ble legislative formality, of which we have the following record : -
261
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
"November, 1808; first Friday. Town voted to build a powder-house, and
The powder. chose a committee of three - Bradstreet Moody, Jeremiah Til-
house. ton, and Nathan Taylor - to make draft of the same, estimate cost, and receive proposals, reporting at the next annual meeting. " March 18, 1809. Powder-house committee reported that it stand on the top of a ledgy hill, on the easterly part of Esq. Lovejoy's land : round ; ciglit feet in diameter on the inside; elght feet high; and then to be topped off in the fashion of a cone. Material, stone or hard-burned brick, laid in, and pointed with lime on the outside. Door of white-ouk plank, well hung, with iron hinges, and secured with a good lock. Job to be bidden off at the ven- due of the poor; but not to go over $CO, there being offers to do it for that amount. Thickness of wall, time of contract, and lightning spire (whether this year or next) to be left discretionary with the selectmen. Report accepted."
The town meeting-house, already several times referred to, was a conspicuous object to dwellers in the lower parts of Sanbornton and in several of the neighboring towns. It stood at the Square, upon the southern crest of the Centre or Colby Hill, which also, from the com- manding appearance of the building itself, took the name of " Tower
Prominence of Ilill." It needed no steeple to give it prominence, thongh the old town meeting-house.
its architectural attractions were few, and it failed to excite the admiration of new-comers to the town. One gentle- man, Esq. Stephen Perley, on first arriving in town, in company with Mr. Ward from Salem, in 1789, is said to have asked his travelling companion, " What is that great building on the hill?" and on being told, " It is the Lord's house," replied, "I should think it looked more like the Lord's barn." For its religious associations was this building peculiarly endeared to the hearts of the first and a large portion of the second generations of the town's population. To the children it seemed much larger than it really was. The orator at the church centennial, in 1871, having stated its historical dimensions, as given on p. 68 (ante), was taken to task by another son of the parish, in his after-dinner speech, in the following humorous strain (" Centennial Anniversary Proceedings," p. 69): -
"'But as to swallowing all he said about the size of the old meeting-house on the hill, as only sixty by forty-three feet, - all that won't go down! Just as if anybody who ever saw that old house were to believe any Youthful im- pressious coll- such thing ! That stately old house not so large as this newer one! Why, that was the biggest house ever seen! How high it cerning it. stood ! How grand it looked to all the people on this side of the circling hills, from the Gilford to the Ragged Mountains !' The speaker said he had seen the Trinity and other large churches in New York (where they have many big things, besides big thieves and other political rascals), and the large churches of Chicago, which the flames have made so small; but never saw any that seemed half so large as the 'old meeting-house' on the hill .! Why, so large was it, that to help tlie sound, so that the minister could be
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262
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
heard by all the people, there was that curious thing up over the intulster's head | The great Interest felt by the youngsters in that ' sounding-board . was in the fact that It looked as though It might come down some day; and our speculations used to be on the probable results to the minister's head, being wickedly curlous to see how it would strike ! "
In March, 1834, the town voted to relinquish their right in the town meeting-house ; and a movement being made to buy it back for the exclusive use of the town, at a special meeting, the following May 12, it was finally decided, by a vote of " seventy-eight to thirty- Town's right relinquished.
six, not to purchase the meeting-house, but to build a town house, to raise $600 therefor, and to locate it as neur Dr. Benaiah Sanborn's as will be expedient." This was the origin of the present Town Hall of Sanborntou, situated just below the Academy building and the new Congregational meeting-house, which was the same year (1834) completed and dedicated. This building is of one story, with a gallery in the front end, (originally designed for minors and spectators, and by them noisily improved !) under the north extremity of which the selectmen's room was afterwards Later San-
borntou Town
finished off. Its internal arrangements were similar to
House. those of most town houses in the State, with rows of long seats (seldom used as seats) on either side, with a lower open space between, at the head of which is the enclosed platform for the town officers on election days. It contained nothing peculiar but the so-called " sausage-filler," - a long, heavily built alley-way or walk, enclosed on the sides with plank, shoulder high, and extending to the moderator's desk. Into this the voters were obliged to file in passing
Peculiar Inter- round to deposit their ballots. Crowding at the polls was
pal arrange- thus effectually prevented, though there was usually quite menw. a " jam " at the entrance of this alley, and a dense mass of citizens would be surging and palpitating through it while their votes were being cast. This arrangement dates back to Jan. 12, 1850, when the town voted, on report of committee on repairs and alterations, that the " selectmen be instructed to make a walk to protect the people in going to the moderator in voting." Though now removed, it was formerly found ahuost a necessary convenience ; and the hall itself was none too spacious for the large meetings of the old town, in those years before Tilton was set off, when nearly seven hundred voters were con- vened, and the two great political parties were nearly equally divided.
We supplement this unavoidably meagre account of our public buildings with a particular description of the new Town Hall in Til- ton, from the pen of F. J. Eastman, Esq., the Tilton correspondent of the Laconia Democrat, premising that the building itself is certainly a credit and an ornament to the town as well as an honor to its generous
.
٠
OUIGINAL SATCHEL CLALK HOUSE. (See p. 244.)
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NEW TOWN HALL. (Tilton.)
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263
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
donor ; and that the people of the present Sanbornton take an honest pride in this hall, as the village of Tiltou is still essentially their own in many points of view. Mr. Eastman's account, though of a recently constructed editice, will prove of interest to the present residents of both towns, and must ever remain a worthy matter of history to those who shall come after us.
TILTON TOWN HALL. -
" From the date Tilton was incorporated, in 1869, to 1879, a Town Hall was a subject of conversation as much as the weather. Its pro- duction was never coupled with the idea of expense to its inhabitants ; but a building for public use, some way or other, was to be the outgrowth of the formation of the new town, and without cost to its citizens. The Tiltons, for whose ancestry the southern section of glorious F. J. East- man's account old Saubornton was christened, were associated with the
of Its inception. enterprise whenever it was canvassed. The Sanborn and Tilton families, from days prior to the Revolution of '76, had been foremost men in times of peace and times that tried the stoutest hearts. Side by side they had upheld their country's flag, and their genera- tions had left honored names and memories. If its division was to be, no more fitting name could have been chosen for the new birth.
" We know that the late A. H. Tilton entertained the project favor- ably, and was ready to join with his two nephews, Alfred E. and Charles E., in erecting and presenting to the town a suitable hall, several years before the present structure was built. Two of the three named hav- ing been removed by death, one might have supposed that popular expectation would have been quieted. On the contrary, it grew more positive, and perhaps, like approaching events, it cast the shadow of coming reality.
"Speculation became certainty when it was made known that Mr. Charles E. Tilton, surviving son of Col. Samuel Tilton, had purchased
The gift of Mr. the site of the Batchelder store, ou the corner of School Charles E. and Main Streets, and good authority announced that he, 'Tilton. singly and alone, would give shape and materiality to eastles that had been years in building by commou report.
" The solid logie of grauite foundations for a brick block, fifty-two by sixty-four feet, manifested itself in 1879, on which, the succeeding scason, the beautiful structure called Tilton Town Ilall now rests. Two hundred and sixty-four thousand of briek were required in
Its material and dimen- its construction. They were made at Boscawen ; trans- sious. ferred by rail to Franklin, and from thence by teams to where used. They are laid in mortar composed of black lime, sand, and eement.
26.1
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
" The walls are twelve inches thick, and in height, with French roof, to the cresting, forty feet. The superstructure is strengthened by brick pilasters on cut-stone buses, while window sills and belting show the liberal use of well-hammered granite. The basement con- tains the needed conveniences for the ocenpants above, and an ample market-place occupies its sonthern end. A strongly appointed lobby, finished in stone and iron, gives reasonable accommodations to foreign and domestic peace-breakers. On the ground floor is the vestibule. as you approach the principal stairway to the hall. From this and another door the post-office is reached, which for elegance and con- venience will compare with any in the State. There is
Post office ac- cuttulnudations. sufficient frontage for the usual box arrangement, for lock- boxes, facilities for receiving mail matter and delivering the same, which would be difficult to improve. In connection with it. there is a partitioned recess where money orders can be purchased, and any private business pertaining to the mail service trausacted without outside notice. The selectmen's room is on this floor, and also ticket office at the foot of the main stairway. The casteru half of this story is finished into a first-class storeroom, especially adapted to the manu- facture aud sale of clothing.
" There are two entrances to the basement on School Street, as well as to the building, from the sidewalk ; on the south front there are three, - one to the post-office, hall, and store, respectively. The hall above has a seating capacity of four hundred or more. It is rectangular in form, forty by forty-eight feet, with a height of eighteen and one half' feet. Ou its north side, and relatively in its centre, is a stage elevation of three feet, twenty-two by forty-eight feet, with a beau- titul proscenim, dressing-room, drop-curtain, and varions Size, style, and
finish of the changes of scenery, operated by the most approved appli-
hall itself. ances, with all the appurtenances desirable for exhibitions and theatricals, including furniture. The hall is finished to corre- spond ; it is most elaborately frescoed in water-colors and gold gilt, with beautiful designs. There is but one feeling expressed by visitors, and that is admiration.
"The premises are supplied with water from the river, and the overflow goes into a public watering-trongh, erected by the same public-spirited citizen. The whole property, with a fixed rental of $500 annually besides an income from occasional letting of the hall, its neatly made seats, stage furniture, gas fixtures, and Steinway piano, costing nearly or quite $30,000, quietly passed into Cost and over. right of con- possession of the town. Its construction, iu all its stages, struction. from fonudation to flag-staff, was under the supervision of Leonard Conant, Esq., of Tilton. During that time no serious acci- dent occurred to person or property.
NEW TOWN HALL. (Interior View.)
265
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
". This well-appointed bnikling stands, in its solid and graceful indi- viduality, a witness of skilled and honest workmanship, as well as of the large generosity that bestowed it. Although it is seen outside the limits of the old town to-day, for more than a century the name and jurisdiction of Sanbornton covered its site. It gave birthplace to the honored sire, as well as the son whose inniticence has erected this momment. Geographical lines cannot bound admiration for generous deeds or noble acts. They will live in the memory of ages to come, when mortar and bricks may have crumbled. Such acts may become the inspiration for nobler benefits to mankind. Tilton can better con- gratulate itself in the possession of such a citizen than in the gift of such a hall."
Of the other public buildings in town, the Academy at the Square, and the Congregational and Methodist meeting-houses in Tilton, are the only ones that have ever presented the traditional New England spire, " pointing towards heaven." For the houses of Meeting-house
aleeples. publie worship in other parts of the town which have had steeples, the square-turreted style of architecture. usually with two decks, which prevailed forty and fifty years ago, was invari- ably adopted. The spire of . Trinity Church," at Tilton Village, contemplated in the original plan, will in due time be added.
Within the limits of the original Sanbornton there is not found, at present, in either of the three towns, a single specimen of the un- sightly, old-fashioned school-house (" dark, dingy, and dismal"), of which so many were to be seen half a century ago. The
The old school- lwtises sup- following " description of the school-honse in Sanbornton
planted.
District, No. 11, as given by Mr. Charles S. Morrison, builder," appears on page 216 of the " Annual Report of the New Hampshire Superintendent of Public Instruction for 1875." As being deemed worthy of the former publicity, it ought assuredly to claim a place in the history of the town : -
"Size, nineteen feet wide, twenty-five feet long, ten feet high. Underpin- ning, fourteen inches high, of brick. Outside finish, pine. Style, 'balloon pro- jection,' trimmed with O. G. moulding. Windows trimmed with moulding; slide blinds, painted green. Large door head, trimmed with mouldings. Corner boards, trimmed with mouklings and capitals. Pine clapboards, cedar shingles; hewn granite doorstep. Sign over door, in gilt letters, 'No. 11, 1874.' Inside finished with brown ash, up to the bottom of the
That of No. 11, windows ; red-oak floor. Brown-ash benches, twelve in number; as described in The N. 11. old style, much improved. Entry across one end, four feet wide,
inteident's
School Soper- nineteen feet long ; two doors into the school-room. Blackboard,
nine feet long, Your feet wide. Doors, seats, and finish all stuffed repori. and grained Woodshed, eight feet wide, ten feet long, seven and a half feet high ; clapboarded and finished the style of house. House and shed painted while. Cost the district $520; cost the builder $620; value, STOU.
266
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
Size of the lot, four and a half rods long, five rods wide; fenced with oak and hemlock. Cost of road leading from one highway to the other, SG5; cost of grading und fenelug around school-house, $34. Windows, eight in number; two ou cach eud, two on each side, 9 x 13, twelve lights. Que out- side door."
The old school-house in the Stone Bridge district has proved the last The luicat re- to yield its place, being now transformed into the newest built, by C. S. and one of the neatest and best furnished of our modern Murriaum, 1b51. structures ; built, like that of No. 11, by Charles S. Morri- son, and bearing over its doorway a tasty inscription, " No. 7, 1881."
CHAPTER XXV.
THE TOWN'S POOR. - FINANCES.
" The primal duties shine aloft like stars; The charities that soothe and heal and bless Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers."
WORDSWORTH
" For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good." - MARK xiv. 7.
PREVIOUSLY to the purchase of the town farm in 1829, the poor, as individuals, were vendned by the selectmen annually for support to the lowest bidder. Sometimes they were thus subjected Bidding off
the pour. to discomfort, and even cruelty. Yet the town, at its meetings, would pass humane aud sympathetic votes from time to time ; for instance, April 4, 1796, " 'To allow the Doctors' accompts respecting Mrs. Shores and her daughter, Nancy Falls, as follows : Dr. Sanborn's, for Mrs. Shores, £3 15s. 6d. ; Dr. Jacobs's for Mrs. Shores, $13.75, and for her daughter, $3" (showing both kinds of reckoning as then in vogue). Also, in 1798, town " empow- ered the selectmen to put out Mr. - and wife for their maintainance during their natural life."
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