USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Sanbornton > History of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, Vol. I - Annals > Part 33
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About this time, and for several subsequeut years, Individuals are llecused for a specified number of days, usually from three to ten, in connection with the aunual towu meetings in March, or the milltia musters In September. The
places are also generally specitied, as "near Jesse lugalls's," "near Licenses for special veca- bills. school-house ou Kelly fill," "near Thounis Eastman's," "near the meeting-house," etc. (This temporary license was extended to Samuel Thayer, iu 1821, for one mouth. ) John E. Badger columes in as " taveruer or retailer," 1819; Nathan T. Moore, the same, "at house now occupied by Badger," iu 1521. Also, 1821, John Swazy, " retailer at his store," and Silas Parker, "retailer at his store," for one year. 152", lleury Thorndike retails at store, near Sanbornton Bridge. James P. Tillon and Sauintel Tiltou are to have taverus at their dwelling-houses, in 1523. The sign-post of the old "Elkius tavera," near Tin Corner, - carrid ou by Wit- liaum P'rescott, as above, - was about this time cut down for mischier, and carried to Gridley's tiu-shop! Other licenses may be brielly noted, as fol- lows : To Noah Buruhai, "at his store," 1825; Charles Lane, "taverner at lis house," 1826; Josiah l'hilbrook, 3d (afterwards Josiah C. ), store aud tar- eru at dwelling-house, Union Bridge, 1527. Same year, at their stores, to James Thoupson, Lewis Laue & Co., and John IH. Clark (sometimes speci- ly ing " by the pint or less "!). Jouathau Robertson is taveruer at the former Abel Kimball staud, in 1825; sueeceded by Daniel Sanboru, Jr., iu 1829. (This should be added to the list of public-houses at Sanboruton Square, on p. 225.) Pluuter W. Dodge and Aaron S. dudkins (1829), Nataniel Leavitt (1831), Eliplalet Glidden (1836), and Thomas A. Ambrose (1839), were all " permitted " to keep taverns at their dwelling-houses; while Joliu Greer & ('o. (1832) and Isaac Whittier (Union Bridge, 1835) were to have the customary privilege of trading iu strong drink at their respective stores.
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287
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.
But the spirit of reform begins to appear in the entry of 1843, when " Joues & Commer are first licensed by the selectimen to sell wine and spirithouts
The dawning liquors for medicinal and mechanical purposes ouly, at their
of' reform. store"; and in 1848 the town voted, one hundred and seventy-
tive to eighty-four (majority of voters not being present, or not expressing themselves), that "it is expedient that a law be enacted by the General Court, prohibiting the sale of wines and other spirituous liquors, except for chemical, medicinal, and mechanical purposes."
Previously to this, however, should be noticed the " Resolutions " passed at the animal meetings of 1842 and 1848. First (1842) : " Whereas, Our town meetings are frequently disturbed by drunkards, who are made drunk by ardent spirits kept near the town house, contrary to the laws of New lamp- shire; therefore, Resolved, That there be a committee of three
Temperance appointed by the moderator to enforce the law at the expense of
resolutions int
town meeting. the town." Whereupon, the moderator appointed Ira Woodman,
John Carr, and Walter 11. Sleeper for said committee. Second (1843). Town " Resolved, That the selectmeu be instructed not to grant a license to any man in Sanbornton to sell ardent spirits." But this resolution was virtually repealed at a meeting May 20, when the selectmen were author- ized to license one or more to sell ardent spirits for medicinal and mechanical purposes only, and to keep a record of such sales, open to inspection; also chose a committee to prosecute all found trafficking in ardent spirits contrary to law, - eighty-two rising in favor of this resolution, and twenty-nine against it. Chellis Sargent, Daniel Sanborn, and John Crockett were appointed said committee. Finally, Oct. 21, at a town meeting called to see if the town would authorize the selectmen to grant licenses indiscriminately, the article was dismissed by a vote of one hundred and ninety to eleven. All this had paved the way for the entry of the same year ( 1843) already inserted.
1856. A " Report of the Liquor Agent" is for the first time on record, under the law of th June session, 1855; chief items being, " Amount pur- chased, 8589.87; all expenses, 8712.97; amount of sales, 8388.96; Win. W. Whitcher, agent." 1858, the report of another liquor agent shows
The liquor " Amount bought, $871.44; agent's salary, $135; amount sold, Naeucy,
1535-60. STO6.18 "; but " 1,404 sales of New England rum," in all three hundred and seven gallons es. two hundred and fifty-seven gal- lons of all other kinds. 1860, a long report of "committee to investigate the business of the liquor agents from their first appointment, in 1855," - eleven pages, - is accepted (B. M. Colby, chairman) ; and at meeting of October, same year, "Voted that the liquor agency be discontinued."
In illustration of the fact that the Sanbornton traders, as shown above, were very generally engaged in the sale of liquors, it is well remembered that some of them were in the habit of keeping grog upon their counters, and ^ treating " each customer as soon as he had traded one dollar's worth !
cideuts. Among the many laughable incidents which this topic calls up, "Some boys," it is said, "including John B. Perkins and G. C. Ward, were one evening visiting the Woodman children at the parsonage, in their parents' absence, when in their
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
sport, having found the key to the 'arch' (or dairy cellar, where the parson kept his beer), they not only secured a good draught of that wholesmue beverage, last of something stronger, by mistake, with wonderfully inspiring effects ! " This incident was the cause of coll- siderable good-natured bantering between the two individuals just uamed, at the " old meu's party," on the same spot, which was given by II. P. Wilson in 1875 !
Il' all rumors are true, this spirit of alcohol has also had much to do with the witchcraft believed to have been practised in some por- tious of the town, and especially on oue occasion in the near vicinity of Clark's Coruer ! (See p. 62.)
" Posting up the tipplers " was a custom in vogue in Sanbornton
l'osting the about 1822. One prominent man was made indignant tippler's. by finding his name at the head of the list!
But the effects of intemperauce, here as everywhere, have much oftener proved deplorable than ludicrous. One man, in early times, is said to have drawu his lumber to a mill, at some dis- More serious resulla. tance, and to have "drank by the way each day more than his lumber came to ! " (meaning, perhaps, more than the net profits of his labor) ; and several excellent farms in town are reported in former years to have been " drunk through " by their pre- vious owners.
A note appended to the paper of the venerable Jacob N. Knapp, ou school-teaching in Sanbornton (see pp. 114-117), bears upou the sub- jeet before us : -
" I never received an unkimut word or an nnkind look during my four years' residence in Sanbornton, except in une instance, when the lady of the faunly
Mr. Knapp's in which 1 then boarded gave me an ummeasured lecture for not
telaperance hindering her husband from getting a little ' too good-natured'
fethinisecuee. at a Fourth of July celebration. I told her that I did not con- sider it becoming in mue to act as guardian to a gentleman fir- teen or twenty years older than mysch, and in many respects my superior. Unavailing !"
Some account of " The Sanbornton and Gilmanton Teetotal Tem- perance Society," which has lately come to the writer's knowledge, may form a fitting and cheering close to this chapter. It was organ- ized February, 1833, in the new Methodist meeting-house at U'uion Bridge, and was greatly aided by the Methodist preachers of that and the following years ; especially by Mr. Pierce, who was physically
* We thus have evidence that this house was built cartier than is stated in the sketch on page $9; as early, our informant thinks, as 1832. The names of Rev. James B. H. Norris, 1833, 1834; Rev. Mr. Pierce, 1835, 1836; and Rev. Mr. Gleason, IS37, should also be prefixed to the list of pastors on page 90.
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289
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.
a large man, and whole-souled in every good enterprise. The pledge of this society was as follows: " We agree not to drink, make, sell, or give away cider, strong beer, or any other kind of fermented liquors or distilled spirits, to be used as a beverage " Its first gen- eral meeting was held on the Fast day of 1833, and its annual meet- ings on Fast days afterwards for several years. Elijah Bean of Upper Gilmanton (now Belmont) was the first president, and Benjamin Mor- rill, also of Belmont, first secretary.
The society contiuned in flourishing existence till 1841 or 1842 ; Benjamin Morrill, former secretary, being the last president, and Josiah R. Morrill, his sou, the last secretary, who still resides in another part of Belmont, and has kept the pledge of that temperance society in good faith ever since. Mr. Dyer H. Sanborn, while teach- ing at the Square, is remembered to have leetnred on temperance for this organization in the spring of 1840; also Dr. Thomas P. Hill and the senior Mr. Morrill at a Fourth of July celebration.
After the disbanding of this society, the temperance work was car- ried ou at Union Bridge by the churches ; the Freewill Baptist Church, about that time, adopting a temperance article among their Sunday-school By-Laws. Efficient service was also rendered in the good Church and temperance work at Union canse by the Freewill Baptist Sunday school, which was Bridge. under the superintendenee of Mr. Josiah R. Morrill for fourteen and one half years, after 1839, and increased in numbers from two classes to a total membership of one hundred and twenty- three. Two boys ouly were members of the school when Mr. Morrill took charge of it, and both quite young. Of these, one, Mark M. Philbrook, found an carly and lamented grave ; but the other, Frank- lin L. Mason, has become in recent years one of the most earnest and able advocates of temperance in Belknap County.
19
CHAPTER XXVIII.
FRUIT CULTURE. - FARMLING NOTES.
"Poma quoque, ut primum truncos sensere valentes, Et vires habuere suas, ad sidera raptim Vi propria uituntur, opisque haud indiga nostre." VIRGIL (GEORGIC II.).
"Thus apple-trees, whose trunks are strong to bear Their spreading boughs, exert themselves in air, Want no supply, but stand secure alone, Not trusting foreign forces, but their own, Till with the ruddy freight the bending branches groan."
DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION.
ErruER because of successful experiments previously tried in the older towns, not far distaut, or for some other reason, our carliest settlers seem to have presimed (or "' believed by anticipation ") that the virgin soil of Sanbornton was to prove peculiarly well Benjamin Colby's apple adapted to the growth of apple-trees. Hence we not only have the incident related on page 47, but it is said that " Benjamin Colby, Sen., near the time of his early settlement, brought on foot from Ilaverhill, Mass., one peck of apple seeds on his back in a bag, planted the same on the late Emerson Giles place, and in seven years ( ?) made cider from the apples of the trees thus started !"
That the primitive apple-trees in some cases attained an enormous growth, the writer has had evidence upou his little home lot of two acres at the Square. Yet, from changes in the qualities of the soil. or other causes, orchards have almost wholly ceased to exist in several localities where they formerly flourished ; as, instance, on the Rev. Joseph Woodman homestead, and to some extent the Colby-Giles farm just referred to. From the latter, as also from the Apple-trees as affected by svil and luca. livni. famous Thompson orchard, now existing, - both of which have occupied slight northern declivities, - it is evident that a southern exposure is not absolutely essential to the successful growth of these trees ; though a protected valley opening southward - as at the lower part of the Square hamlet, and in the
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FRUIT CULTURE.
neighborhood of the present Ebenezer Burleigh and Daniel A. Sanborn farms, on the line of Franklin - seems, on many accounts, peculiarly favorable to the forwarding of the trees and the maturing of their fruit.
The orchard of Mr. Jeremiah S. Thompson, as being now the lar- gest and most profitable in the town, if not in Belknap County, deserves special uotice. In 1837, Mr. Thompson returned from his four years' sojouru in Roxbury, Mass., " with his trunk full of scions," and fully impressed with the idea that fruit-raising might be rendered profitable in his native town. So he resolutely set to work upon his father's old orchard of one aere. He propagated mauy trees from the seeds, set out others, and grafted all from year to year, chiefly with the Bald- win and Roxbury Russet varieties.
Now the original acre is increased to about tive acres, and the uum- ber of thrifty trees is not far from two hundred and seveuty-live. " Mulching " is Mr. Thompson's hobby in the way of culti-
The Thomp.
sou orchard. vation, and no grass is taken from the orchard. He has inet with some drawbacks, which his perseverance has yet overcome : e. g., in 1852, " the great mouse year," one hundred aml twenty-five of his choice young trees were destroyed by mice in the winter, and two or three years later another hundred trees were lost by the excessive cold ; but in both cases they were immediately re- placed. This orchard, on the first of October, 1881, presented a sight worth travelling many miles to behold : one hundred and fifteen trees in continuous rows and squares, all richly laden with the choicest Baldwins, and twenty-five more with Russets, in a solid phalanx ! The yield of this year was four hundred and seventy-tive barrels of merchantable apples, and their entire value in market
Its yield iu would have been $1,000 if some had not been slightly Issi.
damaged by the unprecedented cold of Oct. 4, and if the season for picking had afterwards been usually favorable. Mr. Thompson has several other good varieties, among which might be named the Danvers and Pudding Sweet, Nonesuch, Porter, and Rhode Island Greening. ITe has also about two hundred crab-trees, and is beginning to introduce the Russian apple.
Passing to the other corner of the town (extreme northeast), we find among the bowlders the apple-raising enterprise of Messrs. David Smith and Joseph N. Sanborn, second only to that just described, and in point of variety probably exceeding it. Mr. Sanborn has kindly furnished us with the following list of the choice apples which his father-in-law and himself are now making it a business to raise for the market, with the times that each variety is in its prime. This list may prove of value to future fruit-growers in this and the neighboring towils : -
2012
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
Primate, July and August. Red Astrachan, July and August. Early Har- vest, August and September. Sweet Bough (old standard), August and Sep- Lember. Benoui, August to December. Year Flavor, or Perkins Apple, September to January. Gravenstein, September to November. Fameuse, or Snow Apple, October and November. Nod Head, December and January. Washington Sweet, November; of great size and very sweet, but
I.I-t of the apt to water core If kept late. Jonathan, winter; of a spicy
raised by davor, and a good keeper. Granite Beauty, winter. Blue Pour- smith &
E.uborn. main, winter. Gillidower, winter. Rhode Island Greening, wlu- ter and March. Danvers Sweet; n wluter variety, and different from that raised by Messrs. Jeremiah S. and Jesse Thompson. Baldwin (dif- ferent varieties), winter. Northern Spy, winter; thin-skinned, and not so good a keeper as the Baldwin. Roxbury Russet, winter to spring; a few only, as this apple does not thrive so well in the northeast as lu other parts of the town.
The estimated apple crop of Messrs. Smith & Sanborn was, for 1880, of all kinds, 1,620 bushels ; for 1881, 650 bushels (4,400 bush- els in four years) ; though the value for 1881 was still about equal to that of 1880, - those sold amounting to $300, - as the prices in 1880 were less, and the expense of picking considerably greater. Mr. Sanborn thinks there is no danger of producing too many Deductions from their
apples of good quality ; that the market would be better experience. if all the farmers of Sanbornton should go into it. He has found it an advantage, also, to have the variety above named. Dur- ing one prolific year he had $1.00 per barrel offered for a large lot of his, whereas the same parties would have given him but eighty cents per barrel if they had all been of one kind.
OTHER: FRUIT.
Dr. Jolm Carr obtained his noted grapevine from Cambridge, Mass., in 1827 (or spring of 1828). It was trained by the side or end of his house, till it became twelve or fifteen feet high and twice as long, and continued in a thriving condition till 1868 or 1869. An TIw Carr offshoot from this, transferred some twenty years after
grapevine. the parent vine was started, became the yet more vek :- brated Sanbornton grapevine, owned, 1865-75, by Messrs. Smith & Sanborn, as above. In 1865 its trellis was eighty feet long and forty feet wide ; the main " canes," near the ground, from two to four inches in diameter ; produce for that year, eight hundred pounds of grapes. This vine was called, in an article in the Concord Independent Statesman, Oct. 27, 1871, " the largest and most produc- The large sahi- tive cultivated vine in the United States " ; some wild ones bornton vine. in California, ouly, being larger. The variety of grape is the Isabella, or nearly akin to that, - perhaps modified by the San-
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FRUIT CULTURE.
bornton climate, - and it usually ripens well. This vine has since suffered from hard winters, and is now in a state of decadence, and much smaller than formerly ; but slips from the same have been mul- tiplied on the Smith farm and in other parts of the town. The follow- ing is a list of the grapes now cultivated by Smith & Sanborn : -
Sanboruton Isabella or Smith's Isabella, as above. Delaware; Muscatine; Allen's Hybrid; Eumalan (early) ; Cottage; Crevelling ; Dracut Amber; Bel- knap (a seedling from the oldl Sauboruton vine, ripening the middle of August) ; and the following numbers of the celebrated Rogers Hybrids, -
Additional of which there are ility in all, -viz., No. 3, Massasoit ; No. 4,
varieties of grapes. Wilder (unmed after Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, and one of the best) ; No. 15, Agawait; No. 19, Merrimack; No. 22 (?), Salem ; with still other varieties of grapes, as well as of other small fruits, " started in," but not yet proved. The value of their grape crop for Isst, though essen- tially injured by frost, was about $250.
Mr. Smith took his first premium on grapes at the State Fair, Mere- dith Bridge, 1852; since then has received awards for
Premimus
at fairs. grapes and other fruit from several similar fairs ; the last
being that of the State and county, at Laconia, 1881, from which $11 in " premimus on fruit " were received.
Smith & Sanborn have never mulched for grapes or other fruit, but the soil is kept rich and mellow, especially under the vines. .. Grapes will not grow in grass " is their motto, which might be advantageously heeded by all. By virtue of its " fruitage " their farm is given in by the census-taker of 1880 as affording the largest " income " of any in the town of Sanbornton.
The famous Wadleigh pear is claimed as Sanbornton's peculiar pos- session, the original tree having grown ou the old Wadleigh home- stead, under the Salmon Brook Mountains .; It disappeared many years ago, but its descendants are found at several places The Wadleigh
pear. in other parts of the town. It ripens carly, is very juicy, and of a rich, sui generis flavor, which leads the children of our town to conclude that they never find other pears so much to their taste ! The Seckel and the Flemish Beanty are raised upon the Smith farm, though the trees are apt to crack in most localities.
Of phuns, the Lombard is chief at Smith & Sanborn's, but inclined to overbear. The other more common varieties of phim-trees usually fall a speedy prey to a species of curculio, or plum weevil.
In the line of cherries and other small fruit, this town can claim no marked distinction. Jeremiah S. Thompson, however, - to finish this . account of fruit culture where we commenced it, - shows A profitable cherry-trees of an excellent variety in his front yard, one cherry-tree. of which has been known to yield $16 as the net value of its product in a single year. Not to name other successful producers
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HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
of fruit, especially of apples, in almost all parts of the town, our record must not be considered complete without some allusion to the .. PENGEWASSET NURSERY." . It was started about the year 1865 by N. B. & F. C. Shaw & Co., with David Shaw as agent, ou the old Shaw homestead, Lot No. 1, Second Division. Many trees were prop- agated from seeds by N. B. Shaw, the light, warin soil of the river valley promoting an early growth. Many others were added by pur- chase and transplanting, so that at one time the company had, as claimed, not less than 75,000 young apple-trees aud 13,000 pear-trees, with au estimated value, at catalogue prices, of about $10,000. They also dealt in grapevines (the writer has a valuable one from their nursery), ornamental shade trees, cherries, plus, small fruits, roses, honeysuckles, etc. A large hothouse was built, oue hundred and sixty by twenty fect, in 1868, ou the west side of the highway, which was largely stocked with rare plants and flowers. This was burned in 1871. The present hothouse of Shaw & Co. (N. B. Shaw having left the business) was built ou the east side of the road, nearer the Tomato and
dwelling-house, in 1876. It is sixty by fifty feet dimen- small- fruit sions, glassed on both sides, with another part thirty by
Irade of the Messrs. Shaw. eighteen feet ; the whole being chiefly devoted to the rais- ing of early fruits and vegetables, especially tomato-plants, of which they furnish 1,000 dozen each spring, well rooted in boxes of a dozen plants each. In this house, tomatoes are now being fruited (December, 1881) for the Boston market, as also lettuce and rad- ishes. The cultivation of strawberries, gooseberries, currants, etc .. is at present a specialty of this nursery, and its estimated value to the owners is about $0,000.
FARMING NOTES.
In so large a towu, and one from the first so largely agricultural, much might be gathered of special interest under this head. Fifty years ago, when the farming population was more numerous and help more abundant, fewer farms suffered from neglect and a failure of interest to keep them up than at present. The Woodman and the Taylor farms were among the best in town, and the two rivals at the Square. Upon the Joseph G. March farm (Calef Hill), not a bush uor a sprig of " Roman wormwood" was allowed to grow ! Space
* THE OLD HIERSEY NURSERY. - Another nursery, planted and owned by Mr. William Hersey (see Vol. 11. p. 340 [30]), ou land opposite the present Stephen ller- sey homestead, in what is now Tilton, flourished for several years prior to 1500, but was soon after discontinued. It covered some less than two acres, and contained, for the time, several choice varieties of apples, pears, quinces, and even of nut-trees, which it was thought might thrive in this climate.
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RESIDENCE OP J. B. CALEY.
RESIDENCE OF D. C. CLOUUL.
295
FARMING NOTES.
would fail ns to specify the many other excellent farms of former years in all parts of the town, some of which are now overgrown with wood, or turned out to pasture.
For New Hampshire, Sanbornton has always ranked as a good wheat-growing town. We are informed that wheat was once raised
Wheat for here for exportation, as by Jeremiah Conner, at the Tin
export. Corner, who had his wheat ground at Darling's Mills, and then conveyed it to Newburyport in exchange for grocer- ies. This was before the Western country was opened up, or rather when Sanbornton, to dwellers on the seaboard, seemed as a part of the great West! In later years, fine fields of this commodity have been harvested, especially on our hill-tops and fertile ridges, like those of the Calef farm, which were well exposed to the wind, thins diminish- ing the danger from rust and noxious insects.
Indian corn is also a staple among our farmers ; more easily raised and in larger fields in the river valleys, with quite as large a yield per acre on some of the hills .* A field of four acres, " broken
Cora upon . the hills. up " on the Taylor farm in the autumn of 1881, is to the present writer the most prominent object of vision as he gazes from his study window, on which he hopes to watch the waving corn another season.
Mr. L. B. Hathon, since returning to Sanbornton, the home of his youth, in 1873, has achieved the honor of being one of the most extensive corn raisers, thus far, in the history of the
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