USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Sanbornton > History of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, Vol. I - Annals > Part 31
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Occasionally we find upon the town records, votes reimbursing indi- viduals for special service in the care of paupers ; as March 12, 1806, "To give John Silver $10, in full satisfaction for his trouble Town's voted respecting the and expenses of the - girl, who was sick and died at pour.
his house last fall." Similar vote to Capt. Ebenezer Sau- born, the next year, for " keeping" a certain child; and in 1808, " compensation voted to Lieut. William Robinson, for his trouble in the sickness of the girl at his house last fall, - discretionary with the Selectmen."
At a special meeting, June, 1813, voted " that the Selectmen appoint one man in each school district to inquire into cases of people who may be sick and need assistance " (reporting to themselves) ; and on the second day of the annual meeting, 1817, " chose Caleb Kimball, Jere- miah Sanborn, Esq., and Simon Lane, a Committee to make a draft for a poorhouse, and report the same with probable expense." Also voted,
.
268
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
" to procure a house to be used as a poorhouse or house of correction the present year." The number of the town's poor that year was meom- mouly large, on account of the cold and failure of crops the year before. There is no evidence that a poorhouse was then actually purchased, though for the first time contemplated, for the first content. reason just stated. The subject was again brought up,
March 15, 1821, looking towards a change in the old régime, when the selectmen were instructed to receive proposals for the maintenance of the town's poor on the 27th of March, and to accept that most favorable for the town, " and the accommodation of those who may need such relief" ; also directed to bind out all children, to be maintained by the town, as soon as they arrive at the age of seven years.
The action of the following year, however, shows that no more feasi- ble method of supporting the paupers had then been adopted ; at least it betray's a tendency to fall back upon the old system, - the vote of March 12, authorizing the selectmen " to receive proposals for tak- ing charge of the poor up to March 27, and if no acceptable proposals were made, to vendue them out, wholly or in part, to any one man for one year, if satisfied that he is a suitable person."
March 12, 1828, the first decisive vote was passed " to purchase a pour farm," which, however, was " reconsidered" later in the day ; and a committee of five was finally chosen to " receive proposals for a farm on which to support the poor, and make report, giving their views on the subject." Noah Eastman, Nathan S. Morrison, Thomas Taylor, Jr., Joseph W. Clement, and Zebulon Smith, Jr., were thus designated ; who, on the 3d of November succeeding, presented an able report, having made inquiries of intelligent and respectable citi- zens of Goffstown, Londonderry, Chester, and Boscawen,
Report of comt- and found that a great saving had been made of one third, mittee recon-
mending the one half, or even more, since these towns had purchased suite, 152s. their farms (Boscawen in 1821) ; stating also that the poor would have as many or more comforts, with the advantage of a more permanent home. Hence the committee recommended the purchase of such a farm for this town, and were renominated as a committee to effect the purchase at their discretion. The number of the poor in town is stated in this report to be in all from thirty-five to forty- two.
This new commission was promptly executed, and at a special meeting, Dec. 31, Joseph Woodman, Stephen Gale, and John Doe were chosen a second committee ~ to engage a man and woman lo take charge of the poor one year from March 20 next"; also " voted that the selectinen be authorized to borrow for the committee who pur-
209
THE TOWN'S POOR. - FINANCES.
chased the poor farm a sum not exceeding $500." At the next town meeting (1829), voted that the poorhouse be also a house of correc- tion ; that $700 be raised and $1,000 borrowed " to pay for the town farm "; and a sum not exceeding $650 (to be raised ) " for the support of the poor." For some reason, the report of the purchasing com- mittee was not finally made, or at least entered, till the March incet- ing of 1830; to effect that they had procured of Joseph Johnson, for $1,800, a part of the lands formerly owned by Nathaniel Iloit, - eighty-one acres of the homestead in Sanborutou ( Lot No .. 23, Second
Division), and one undivided half of a ninety-acre lot in the south part of Meredith.
Reports of purchasing committees, 1530.
The selectmen, as overseers of the poor, also reported,
to the extent of seven pages ou town records, how they had laid out the $500 which they had been authorized to borrow (prob- ably referring to the $500 above mentioned), for procuring stock, tools, provisions, furniture, etc. Beer is here quoted at three and a half cents per pound ; potatoes at twenty-five cents per bushel ; corn, sixty-five cents per bushel ; cider at $1 per barrel, ete. The " great- est possible smm " otherwise expended for the support of the poor in the year 1829 was $180.95. A similar account appears each subse- quent year.
The Committee on " Rules and Regulations" for the establishment of a poorhouse and house of correction (D. C. Atkinson, Charles Gil- man, and John Comerford) reported the same in eleven sections, covering five pages of the town records. Seet. 9 provides that five persons, in different parts of the town, shall be appointed as " inform- ers or complainants," whose duty shall be to complain of
Informers or
complainants. all persons who shall be guilty of any misdemeanor, offence, or disorder, and see that they are proscented and sentenced to the house of correction ; expense of prosecution to be borne by the town, provided that the town be entitled to the labor of all such per- sons during the time of their detention in said house of correction, in some useful and proper employment, according to ages, health, and ability, at the discretion of the superintendent, from the Inmates aud hour of suurise to sunset each day, Sundays excepted.
keepers of the lidt se of correction. In March, 1831, it was voted that the overseers of the
poor should choose their superintendent before the annual meeting, and that he should theu be elected . keeper of the house of correction." Jonathan Taylor, 3d, was thus elected March, 1833. March 14. 1837, town authorized the selectinen, by vote, to purchase a seat in the Bay Baptist meeting-house for the town's poor. and Sam- uel Wallace was elected keeper of house of correction. Also voted to purchase stoves for the almshouse.
270
HISTORY OF S.ANDORNTON.
Theneeforward, for thirty years, this house afforded a quiet and comfortable home for its unfortunate inmates ; but in 1867 the town at last voted, two hundred and forty-live to nineteen, in favor of " abolishing pauper settlements by the towns, and throwing the entire support of panpers upon the counties," - a custom bor- Pauper settle- ments abul-
rowed from the West, and at first very seriously questioned lobed.
in New England as to its propriety, both on the score of ceonomy and humanity. There was considerable feeling here shown against the idea of taking panpers away from their own town for main- tenance, which may have deferred the giving up of the farm for a few years.
But the division of the town made it a matter advisable, if not requisite ; and accordingly, Oct. 29, 1869, David C. Clough was elected agent to sell the town farm, and other property connected therewith, belonging jointly to the towns of Sanborntou and Tilton.
Practically, the town had continued an oversight over some
Town's farm of its paupers even after the vote of 1867 to abolish the wold in 1800. settlements ; for at the division in 1869, the whole number of paupers of the nuited town was stated to be seven, five adults and two children, of whom Tilton took two adults and two children, and Sanbornton three adults. In 1858 ouly eleven paupers, four males and seven females, were reported at the almshouse.
EXPENSES AND FINANCES.
Agrecably to the law of contrast, we add to this chapter (to give it suitable length) a few notes upon the expenses and finances of the town, arranged in chronological order. So moderate were the charges of the town officers during the first twenty years of our Early charges history that the citizens were inclined to exceed their moderate.
claims, as when, March 31, 1789, it was voted that the "selectmen be paid for their services, over what they were formerly allowed, $5.00 each"; and the next year, " $6.00 each to the select- men besides common expenses."
For general expenses a limitation was sometimes made, as in 1798, " Voted that the Selectmen shall not raise more than $400 for town expenses this year." But in 1802 they are " to raise what sum they see fit for town charges." .
The town once or twice took special measures for making sure of the tax collections, and frequently inquired into the condition
Town's care of
ils securities.
of its fund securities, by committees or otherwise. Instance,
March 18, 1809, voted that " collectors must settle with the selectmen by Friday before annual meeting, or forfeit their bounty
271
THE TOWN'S POOR. - FINANCES.
for collection." Also, same date, chose Josiah Emery, Esq., Lieut. Jeremiah Sanborn, and Bradstreet Moody a committee " to exam- ine School and Parsonage seenrities, and get better securities if they think proper," adding further that " if the interest is not paid up, seasonably, the securities be put in suit." Report of the same committee was the next year accepted, substantially as follows : -
" Single note not to remain unsued by the Treasurer till it shall become six years old, unless secured by mortgage; nor then, unless the interest is punctually paid as it becomes due. When changes of property are made, landed security shall be taken by mortgage to double the amount
Regulations of sum due; or three indorsers shall be required, each of whose Instituted in landed interest in or in vicinity of this town must be equal to the 1810. debt signed for. In making new loaus, preference shall always be given to townsmen, and no land out of the State is to be received as secur- ity [surety]."
In 1815, another committee to examine town securities and give instructions to the treasurer were Josiah Emery, Esq., Nathaniel Piper, and Joshua Lovejoy ; and yet again, in 1818, " chose Charles J. Stuart, Samuel Dustin, and Eliphalet Ordway a committee to exam- ine the town securies, with directions to put all doubtful ones in suit, through the treasurer. At same time (March 12) voted that the selectinen make a non-resident tax this year.
In the second volume of town records appears, for the first time, a tax list of nineteen pages in length, without date, but pertaining to some year between 1801 and 1821. The columns are headed after each name, " Polls " (number), " Orchards " (aeres), " Arable - Mowing - Pasturing, Horses, and Cattle " (numbers, of various descriptions and ages), " Money at Interest" (a blank, except after Earliest tax seven names), " Stock in Trade " (thirteen names), list on record. " Wild Lands," " Appraisal," and "Sum Total." From this list it appears there were about four hundred and thirteen tax-payers, including widows' and non-resident estates, and three hundred and ninety-five polls. Ouly seventy-five names are taxed over $10 and less than $20, and only the following six, in addi- tion, are taxed over $20: viz., Stephen Gale and son, $20.25; William Harper, Esq., $20.55 ; Nathaniel Piper, $21 95 ; Moses Thompson and son, $25.62; Dr. B. Sanborn and son, $28.30 ; and Andrew Lovejoy, $31.80. These, therefore, may be reck- Wealthiest then in San- oned as the wealthiest men iu town at that time. It is
burnton, 1809. also proved from this list that there were at the same time at least forty-one voters and forty-three tax-payers by the name of Sanborn, ten voters by the name of Taylor, ten by the name of Clark, ten by the name of Colby (or " Coby "), nine voters and ten
272
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
tax-payers by the name of Morrison, nine voters by the name of The most conl. Lane, eight voters and nine tax-payers by the name of
then In tow u. Prescott, six voters by the name of Philbrook. Compar- ing the number of polls above with the votes for governor during the several years, this list could not well be assigned to a later date than 1809. Since making this computation, we are gratified to find it agreeing with the statement of the " citizen " annalist of 1841, so often referred to. He says : -
"There Is no record of the taxes assessed by the selectmen prior to the year 1809, aml but little can be gathered of the business operations in those early day's from the town records. It was usual for the town to vote to accept the reports of the auditors, and other persons whose bushiess It was to make reports to the town, without recording the report or giving any Early Huan- account of It by which the standing or condition of the finances
cial reports. of the town can at this time be ascertained. It is probable that the reports were usually made in writing, and were satisfactory at the time ; but it is not likely they are preserved lu the files of the town so that any information can hereafter be gained in relation to those huportant matters."
The anditors' reports on acconuts of the selectmen begin to be entered on the records in 1824. That year, -
" Taxes assessed and committed to collect, $3,284.01. Pald schools, 81,285.19.
Abstract of the Town charges, roads and bridges, $727.80. Support of poor, firat recorded 1822, $316.52; 1823, $533.27. State tax, $371.70. County tax, lu 1524. $137.28. Religious societies, $521.82."
In 1825 the selectmen's charges for service were $30 for each of two and $31.73 for one ; in 1820, only $27 to 828.
1827. Selectmeu still employed as overseers of the poor ; expense for services, 826.62 (cach?). Same year, voted a sum not exceeding $29 for " town charges."
1828, March 12. "Sim not exceeding $3,000 for support of poor and other town charges." 1828, Nov. 3, chose the selectmen as a committee to secure the school aud parsonage fund by mortgage.
In 1833, the auditors, in their report, recommend that the selection be required to present vouchers for moneys paid ont, and that the office of anditors be dispensed with as " a mere formality, without any utility." Same year raised " a sum not exceeding $500
of 1533 not
The auditors for town charges [which must have been a somewhat clas- " magnifying their office." tie designation, embracing some years more than others ] ; $600 for the support of the poor, and $70 to pay interest on money borrowed." Items of iterest from the auditors' (select- men's ) report for 1835 are as follows : -
" Received, For county panpers, 821.92; licenses, $6.00; of School and Par- sonage Treasurer, $5.12.98; Literary Fund (last year), $117.23; Joseph Sau-
273
THE TOWN'S POOR. - FINANCES.
born's Pension, 846. Paid, Town charges, $577.10; State and County taxes,
$603.03; highway, and bridges, $574.00; external poor, $112.56;
thief finan- ahushouse, for poor, 8253.22; additional buildings at ahushouse,
vial items in $245.11 ; premiums on crows and foxes, 505. 10; erecting Town 1 %%5. House, $1,306.03; religions societies, $152.31; several school dis- tricts, $1, 112.33."
In 1836, of the $6,025.25 left to the town funds, after Franklin's share had been paid over, the sum of 83, 426.63 is said to be secured by " note and mortgage on real estate, " while the balance, $2,598.02, is " in notes alone, considered safe and good." This year, $220 was paid the superintendent of the poor-farm for his services.
Feb. 1, 1837. Town " Voted to accept its proportion of the public money deposited with this State by the United States [the so-called " surplus revenne "], pledging faith for safe keeping and
The U. S. sur-
plus revenue. repayment as per provisions of the Act of the Legisla- ture." Charles Lane chosen agent. He reported, March 14, that the town's proportion of this surplus revenue was $9,213.80, one fourth having been paid Feb. 8, the rest expected on the first days of April, July, and October; that the same had been and would be loaned to citizens of the town on good security, at six per
Devoted to school pur- ceut interest, to be paid annually, Jan. 1, and principal on demand, and that $318 interest money would be due Jan. 1 next : which the town afterwards voted, by advice of com- mittee, to appropriate for schooling, according to the number of schol- ars between three and twenty-one.
The committee on town funds further reported (same date) that the amount of parsonage fund is $2,937.30 ; school fund, $3,008 ; total,
Losning of the $6,005.30, - making, with the surplus revenue (as above),
town's funds. $15,219.10, the entire town funds, which are to be loaned in sums of not less than $50 nor more than $500, under the charge of a town treasurer, to which office Charles Lane was elected.
March, 1838. Town treasurer's report for the first time appears ou record.
March, 1840. Prices current (as per invoice of overseers of the poor) are registered as follows : -
"Oxen, $100 per pair; cows, $25 per head; sheep, $2.50; shoats, $0; hay,
Prices current $12 per tou; fax, $0.10 per lb .; corn, $1 per bushel; wheat, in 1540. $1.50; oats, $0.50; jens, $0.50; bens, $1.50; potatoes, $0.30; turnips, $0.25; pork, $25 per bbl. ; hummus, $16 per bbl."
1811. A heavy damage of $1,199.28 was paid, occasioned "' by the falling of Sauboruton Bridge." (See p. 249 [14].) Selectmen were paid, respectively, $78.75, $80, and $80.25. 18
274
INSTORY OF SANBORNTON.
In 1542, school and parsouage funds are reported at $5,018.61, a fulling off of nearly $100 in five years, - by which it seems that with all the town's preeantion, bad debts could not be wholly avoided ; also, that one or two notes of this quonut are " insecure, and onght to be renewed or collected." As the surplus revenue fund at this sume time is given in as ouly $1,766, we are to Palbaz oll' of the Juuds.
judge that either it was not all paid as proposed, or else that a considerable portion of it had been recalled. This amount ($1, 766) was secured by mortgages, some of which the treasurer had found it necessary to foreclose. .. Voted, that the treasurer do not loan anty money without consulting the selectmen."
1844. Voted a discount of live per cent on taxes paid before Nov. 20, and three per cent before Jan. 20. Paid Wn. II. Sauders for the support of the gospel at the almishouse, $5.
Ists. Voted "one day on the poll for repairing highways," and sums raised as follows (" not exceeding") : $1.000 V'acious fluan- cial imalters for town charges ; $800 for support of the poor ; $500
from die for roads and bridges (the year before, actually paid $643.87). records.
1650. A sim not to exceed $1,300 for roads and bridges.
July 11 (same year). Matilda Weeks advertises on the town records, $2 found on the road between her father's aud Piper's Mills, " the owner to her unknown."
1834, Jan. 20. A list of the stockholders of the Citizens' Bank
Mockholders is given upon the town records by Charles Minot, cashier, of the Cinzens' - in all seventy-four, thirteen being from Saulwinton. By Bank, 15%1. report of the fund treasurer (same year), it appears that the town invested $8,000 of the " literary find " in the Boston, Con- cord and Montreal Railroad, purchasing thirty shares.
1864, March. Town voted to .. instruet the selvetmen to burn the conuterfeit money that is in the hands of the treasurer," reminding us of
Counterfeit the seriy in circulation during the late war, so often spuri- molicy burued. ots, Voted also, that " if the citizens of Sanborntou Bridge and viciuity will purchase a new fire-engine, the town of San- bornton will appropriate a stuin not to execed $800 for that purpose." This is a seeming uitigation of the vote of June, 1857, elsewhere noticed (see " Division of the Town," p. 256). 1866. Money's raised Fire-engine ap- ( .. not to exceed "): $500 for the poor, $1,000 for town charges, $5,000 for roads and bridges (yet this is exeep- propitation. tional, as in 1865 only $600, and in 1867 only $1,200 were raised), and eighty cents per poll in labor ou the same. A sum not to exceed $5.000 (in 1563, $1,000) was also voted to pay the debts of the town, and the capital and machinery of any cotton or woollen facto-
-
275
THE TOWN'S POOR. - FINANCES. -
ries which might be erected in the town were exempted from taxa-
Manufactur. tiou for ten years from July 3, 1860, as per provision of ing corpora. pamphlet laws, -au advantage then sought for the first tions exempled
from taxation. time in favor of certain new establishments talked of at Union Bridge. A similar vote of exemption was passed in 1867.
We here give two sums after the names of each of the religious societies which, in 1868 and 1669, just before the division of the town, received the avails of the parsonage fund, being the sums paid to cach, for the two years, respectively : First Baptist, 832 67, 838; Second Baptist, $23.43, 822.05 ; Third Baptist, $13.53, $19.69 ; First Congregational, $23.43, 825.08 ; Second Congregational (Bridge), $17.49, $13.89 ; Methodist (Bridge), $17.49, $13.22 ; Methodist,
(Union Bridge), $9.00, 88.50; Freewill Baptist, 89.87,
Divisions of the parsonage $11.56 ; Episcopal (Northfield), $21.09, $19.01. Total for interest. the former of the two years (1868), $171. In 1872 the amount of parsonage money received by Sanbornton (as remaining after the division) was $73.73, divided as follows : First Baptist, $20.50; Second Baptist, $19.93 ; Third Baptist, $8.89 ; Congrega- tional, $14.59 ; Freewill Baptist, 80.82. The same " Parsonage In- terest" for 1880 and 1881 was $77.72, disribnted among the societies in nearly the same proportion as in 1872, with an addition of $2.00 to the Methodist society at East 'Tilton.
The old town, by appropriating liberal sums towards its indebted- ness (from $1,000 to $5,000 during several years), tinds the balance
against itself reduced, March 1, 1881, to $3,228.75; or Final Indebt- educes of San- including the School and Parsonage Find, of $2,590.65
boruton, 1581. (which in its present condition is hardly to be reckoned as a part of the town's indebtedness), to $5,819.40. Comparing this with its large debt at the time of the division (1869), ample ground for congratulation is certainly afforded.
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CHAPTER XXVI.
THE FISHING INTERESTS OF SANBORNTON.
" Our plenteous streams a varied race supply : The bright-eyed perch, with fins of varions dye, The silver eel, in shining volumes rolled, The yellow carp, in scales bedropt with gold, Swift trout, diversitied with crimson stains, And pikes, the tyrants of the watery plains." - PorE.
WE have previously observed how essential, as a means of sub,ist- ence to the earliest settlers of the town, were the shad and sahou for which our streams were formerly famous. A class of settlers seem to have been invited along the banks of the Winnipiseogee in advance of those in other parts of the town, by the fishing facilities which that river afforded. Since the channel of the river has been obstructed by dams thrown across at the several mills, these valuable fish Importauce to The first out- have become entirely extinct in its waters ; or rather. the tlers. buikling of the large dams and manufacturing cities on the Merrimack, below us, have hindered them from making their annual pilgrimage from the sea. Though we hear much of the building of fish-ways, and other means by which these watery denizens shall be invited to their old haunts, yet very rarely is a stray shad or salmon captured, even so far up the river as Manchester. In the early days these fish were thought of sufficient importance to induce special attention from the State Legislature, and we find several Early legis- Acts passed at different times by that body to preserve the lalluu. fish in our main streams. The town also, for several years, chose a committee called fish-wards, or wardeus, to see that the law was enforced.
The earliest recorded action of the town upon this subject was at a special town meeting, called on July 30, 1772, for two purposes. one of which was -
"To regulate y" fishing on Whopesoco river"; voted " to choose surveyors to see that ye river is not incumbered by wares; and that one half the river be kept clear against each ware, ou a penalty of 20 shillings, lawtul, upon every man who shall build a ware more than ball across."
277
THE FISHLING INTERESTS.
These " wares " or " weirs " (spelled also " wiers " and " wears") were for the most part ouly temporary structures made for the cap- ture of eels in the fall, at various places upon the river, where the current was swift and shallow ; and if the bed of the stream was also broad, or the water spread over considerable surface, so much the better. Two walls of stone would be loosely built, coming 'The weird nearly to an angle, with the vertex pointing down stream,
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