USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Sanbornton > History of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, Vol. I - Annals > Part 37
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" Harmony Lodge, No. 65," of the "Independent Order of Odd Fellows," was also established in Tilton, May, 1881, with a member- ship originally of twenty, already increased to thirty-six. On the roll of its officers, Joshna Lane of Sanbornton appears as chaplain, - a name of the past already so frequent in the annals of this volume.
A branch of the " Washington Benevolent Society," supposed to have been a political or federal organization, was instituted at San- bornton Square, March 26, 1812 : Nathan Taylor, presi- The " Wash- dent ; Master Joshua Lane, secretary. This society had its origin in New York, July, 1808. Mr. Lane was quite active in organizing the Sanbornton branch, and labored to establish similar branches in some of the neighboring towns, as at New Hampton, Sept. 12, and at New Chester, Dee. 7, 1812.
Jumping again to the present time, we may notice the " Sanborn- ton Mutual Fire Insurance Company," whose articles of agreement were entered upon March 28, 1874, and have been signed
Sauboruton by seventy-six citizens of the town. As yet it has met
Mutual Fire Insurance but few losses, and reports at its annual meeting, Jan. 2,
Company. 1882, $722.26 in the treasury. Officers : Jonathan M. Taylor, president ; Jonathan M. Taylor, Otis S. Sanborn, George N. Sanborn, Cyrus Swain, Jeremiah B. Calef, directors ; Herbert J. I .. Bodwell, secretary ; Albert M. Osgood, treasurer.
: ington Benevo- lent Society." 1812.
329
SALMAGUNDI.
Of the three libraries alluded to in the Weekly Visitor, special infor- mation of but one has come down to us, to which the Rev. Frederic T. Perkins refers, in his eloquent address at the dedicatiou of Tilton Town Hall, in the following terms : -
"1 hold in my hand the ' Constitution of the Sanboruton Library, Instituted January, 1796.' From this constitution of twenty-five articles, we find that our ancestors - yours, sir, and mine - did, eighty-five years ago, institute a pub- lie library and provide for its enlargement and careful management. That library of abont three hundred volumes of the best books of that time - his- tory, travels, biography, religious works, and some of the old standard works of fletton, such as 'Arabian Nights' Entertainment' - wis cqual, as books now are, to a library of several thousand volumes. I remember one silly romance, which I read, not much if any better than what MIr.
The Sanborn- lon Town Li- Vanderbilt has recently forbidden to be sold on any railroad
brary. train or at any station under his control. All honor to him for the noble stand which he has thus taken. I know not that I owe much to that library -though it held about all the books to which in my carly days I had access - except my name. The life of Baron Frederick Treuek, who tigured in the court of Frederick the Great, so interested my grandfather that he determined that his first grandson should bear the name. 1 happened . to be the boy, and never have I been more fascinated than I was in my boy- hood by the ' Life of Baron Trenck.'"
This library, to the speaker's regret, was " broken up and distrib- uted among the heirs of the proprietors."
The label of one of its volumes - " Ilora Solitaria," a solid theo- logical work in two volumes, four hundred and thirty-six and three hundred and ninety-tive pages, with an Albany imprint of 1815, owned by the present writer - reads as follows : -
" THIS BOOK IS THE PROPERTY OF THE SANBORNTON LIBRARY SOCIETY. "NOTE. - The ammal meeting is to be held at Woodman Sanbornton Academy, on the first Wednesday of January, at + o'clock P. M.
"US" This book is not to be lent out of the house of the Proprietor who takes it from the Library. To be returned in ten weeks."
It is well known that the burning, or proposed burning, of one or two books, supposed to be of' objectionable or infidel tendency, which had by some means found their way into this library, was one cause of its dissolution. There is a tradition - which must, how-
The burning of' infidel ever, be received with some allowance - that the book was literature. one of Thomas Paine's ; that considerable discussion eu- sned on both sides, and great excitement ; that the " burners," or the more strictly religious part of the library society, finally prevailed ; also that one of the stanch Sanborus, " walking around the bonfire for pointing, more probably, to the blazing hearth or box stove to which the obnoxious volume had been committed], exclaimed, 'Sec
330
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
the devil fry l' from which circumstance he was ever afterwards styled . Fry Sanborn.'" .
In 1817, according to a New Hampshire Patriot of that year, San- bornton's proportion out of every thousand dollars of the State public taxes was $13.01, ouly four towns in the whole State being higher, - viz., Portsmouth, $55.30 ; Barrington, 813.64 ; Gilmanton, $13 62, and Londonderry, 813.22 ; and the three last on account of the greater Sanbornton'a size of the townships. Concord, for the same year, was apportionment only $12.20. As a place of business. about the same and valuation. time, Sanborntou is reported to have ranked at least third among the towns of the State. The apportionment ou each $1,000 of State tax for 1870 was, to Sanbornton, $3 15 ; to Tilton, 82.04. Val- uation (1868) of Sanbornton, $408,761 ; of Tilton, $499,598. The apportionment for 1880 was, to Sanbornton, $2.86 ; to T'ilton, $3.00. Valuation (1876) of Sanbornton, 8592, 184 ; of Tilton, $635,008.
Comparisons may be odious, but our friends of other towns will "suffer" us, that we may " boast ourselves a little " upon the Puritan- ism of our ancient town. Not to call any names, one aged man has alleged within the last fifteen years that in the early times
Alleged Purl-
Lau influence. of his remembrance "land was worth twelve per cent more in Sanbornton than in -," owing chiefly, as he supposed, " to the Puritan character of our settlers, and the fact of their supporting the institutions of religion."
Among the miscellaneous industries not yet noted, the making of " shooks " was quite a branch of business in town, at vari-
Industrien;
shuok-making. ons times, on the part of those who were coopers by trade : instance, Mr. Moses Carr. (See Vol. II. p. 98 [20].) These shooks were molasses hogsheads all made up and then knocked to pieces, so as to be packed up in smaller compass for transportation.
When the old cotton-mill was first started at Sanbornton Bridge, in 1814, there was no such invention as a cotton gin for cleansing the cotton, which was sent to market in the crude state. It was brought up from Boston to Sanhornton Bridge in bags weighing one hundred pounds or more, and sent out from the mill iuto all the Picking cot. country round to be picked - i. e., relieved of seeds and tou woul. dirt - at the farm-houses. The " cotton wool," as it was then called, was thus picked at four to five cents a pound, and No. 12 yarn sold at eighty to ninety cents a pound. The cleansed article and the separated seeds, etc., were each weighed back when returned by
* On the supposition that this whole transaction is more mythical than real, and that the " burning " was a thing talked about instead of being actually accomplished, the expression of Mr. Sanborn probably was that he would be pleased to "see the devil fry "!
331
SALMAGUNDI.
the farmers to the mill. This picking business, however, was not of long duration, as the mill wound up its enterprise in about two years.
The braiding of palin-leaf hats was for several years the favorite occupation of lads aud misses (by which their spending mouey could be carned), within the experience of many now upon the stage. But all this work has been superseded in recent years by the " seaming of Hat braiding stockings" on the part of females ; the woven articles as
and seatuing produced at the hosiery mills of the neighboring villages stockings. being farmed ont by traders aud others among many of the families of the rural districts, to be supplied with toes and heels by hundreds of busy needles ! The compensation is small, only on an average from ten to twenty-five cents for each bunch of a dozen stockings, according to the quality ; but it is far more profitable than idleness !
Driving teams to Portsmouth and Boston, first with oxen and after- wards with horses, was a separate and important branch of business in Sanbornton for many years. Andrew Lovejoy, especially, in the days of his highest prosperity as a merchant at the Square, kept two teams coutinually npon the road. Trueworthy Smith (see The business of teaming. Vol. II. p. 737 [181]), James Wadleigh (sce Vol. II. p. 816 [8]), Thomas Taylor (see Vol. II. p. 758 [99]), Nathan Taylor (see Vol. 11. p. 763 [158]), Chase Weeks, Ensign Piper, and several others were more or less employed in this way. The first named has been known to make the trip to Boston, with oxen, dowu and back, in so short a time as cleven days! Business men now frequently accomplish the same journey by rail in as many hours !
The first five young ladies who dared to go from Sanboruton to Lowell as operatives in the mills (when publie sentiment was very
First Lowell . strongly against it) are said to have been Susan Clay, Lucia operatives Durgin, Marcia and Sally Thompson, and Betsey Wallace. I'rum Sauboru- The younger of the Thompson sisters died in Lowell, aud tuu. it was supposed that they all would pay a similar penalty with their lives !
To illustrate ou the one hand the permanance of the Sanbornton populatiou, and on the other the numerous changes to which some farms have been subjected, the following facts may be cited : In 1876 it was found that twelve contiguons farms, between Steele's Ilill and the Bay, were then occupied by persons of the same family aud name as those who were occupying thein fifty or seventy five years before, and iu several cases the same as the first settlers ; these were, -
Christopher Sanborn's, Joseph S. Clark's, Simon R. Morrisou's, Bradbury Morrison's, James W. Sanders's, Asaph and Sally Edgerly's, Widow Jonathan
332
IHISTORY OF S.LNBORNTON.
Eagerly's, Widow Dudley Folsour's, Stuurt Smith's, Widow Zebulon Smith's, Ira Woodman's, and Dea. Daniel Huse's.
On the other hand, the late Ingalls place, on the old meeting-
Permanance house hill, has had fourteen consecutive ocenpants, most ex. change. of whom were also owners, the names and order of the fourteen being as here stated : -
Josiah Sanborn (probably ), - Hoyt (probably ), Theophilus Folsom, Israel Adams, Caleb Rogers (a morocco dresser), Jesse Ingalls (longest), John P. Smith (now of Gifford), Arthur Crockett, - Moultou (owuer), Ephraim L .. Frost, Samuel W. Morrison, Rev. Richard Ward, Andrew P. Gilman, Charles S. Boardman ( 1882).
The names of certain prominent citizens residing in the neighbor- hood of the late Ede Taylor place, cast of Cawley Pond, many years ago, nsed to be given in the following couplet : -
"General Ellsworth, Sargent Giles, Corporal Smith, and Major Miles."
The homesteads of those beroie men are now being fast remanded to a state of nature, and the whole neighborhood is nearly or quite deserted of inhabitants !
The following table of vital statistics in Sanbornton, down to the Vital statistics. year 1824, was at that time published : -
"Total marriages in town by Rev. Messrs. Woodman, Crockett, and Bodwell (by record) .
· 8337
By all parties, probably, over 1,000 ·
Deaths in town to 1824, from 1790
. 1,036
Of which number, drowned .
1G
Accidentally killed
Burued .
Frozen ·
3 Suicide . .
4132 4 1
The greatest number of deaths in any one year was . 67
The least number in any one year 8
The average number yearly, about 31
The whole number estimated at that time (1824) [in the whole history of the town] about 1,275"
The Rev. A. Bodwell afterwards reports : " Total number of deaths from Jan. 1, 1790, to June 30, 1830, - forty years and six months, - (as per record, ) 1,284.
The year referred to in the above table, when the greatest mmmber of deaths had occurred, was 1803. This was the most sickly year ever experienced in town prior to 1824, and " the dysentery prevailed alarmingly." (Sce p. 141.) The number of deaths, however, is else- . where reported as ouly sixty-four.
333
SALMAGUNDI.
Mr. Bodwell continued his excellent record of deaths in Sanborn-
Rev. A. Bod- ton, which is evidently complete, from 1825 to 1850, giv-
well's record ing the names, ages, and diseases (or causes of death) of of deaths. all who died in town, which items are largely incorporated in the " Genealogies " of Vol. II. Ilis record is here tabulated : -
Years.
No. of Deaths.
Years.
No. of Deathn.
1825
50
1838
1890
74 *
1839
1827
36
1840
45
1828
37
1841
47
1829
28 t
1842
28
1830
20
1843
30
1831
27
1844
1832
40
1845
42
1833
30
1846
41
1834
34
1847
43
1835
33
1848
35
1836
23
1849
50
.1837
30
1850
52
The whole number of deaths for the 26 years is thus shown to be 979, or an average of nearly 38 for each year.
Mr. Bodwell commenced a new record book, most of whose pages are still a blank, and its leaves uncut, precisely as he left it. "A par- tial record for six additional years here appears : -
No. of
Years.
No. of Deaths.
Years.
Deaths.
1851
25
1854
1+
1852
32
1855
1833
47
1856
18
The total number of deaths in the town for one of these years (1852) he indicates as fifty-seven. We have not been favored with a similar enumeration for the whole town since his day.
For a table of longevity, which was commenced and proposed for this stage of the present chapter, the reader is referred to Appendix F.
The following was the old-fashioned method of " crying marriages " at the close of public service on the Sabbath : " Oh, yes ! Oh, yes ! ! " Crying " the Oh, yes ! !! Mr. - and Miss - intend marriage."
marriages. This was in vogue as lately as the days of Dr. Carr, whose stentorian voice is well remembered often to have shouted
* Another fatal year, -thirty-eight of these deaths being of children, mostly with dysentery. (See p. 146.)
Now without the northeast corner of Franklin.
334
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
those or similar words above the noise of a dispersing congregation at the First Baptist meeting-house !
As a remarkable case of somnambulism, well authenticated, we are told that the night after the present Rollins house, near Union Bridge, was raised, the owner, Mr. Elijah Rollins, was missed by
A case of Full-
mumsbulient. his wife, who, on arising, found her husband mounting the timbers and standing high upon the frame ! She had pres- ence of mind enough not to disturb him, and when ready, he came down, still fast asleep !
Among the household furniture seemingly peculiar to Sanbornton might be named the circular table which was once very common, and
is uow seen in the kitchens of several of our farmers. It
Pecullar
furniture. may not have been confined strictly to Sanboruton, but
the writer has never seen the like in other places .. It is furnished with a single circular leaf, which may be turned up by a hinge perpendicularly against the wall of the room, when the lower part presents a large armed chair !
The dining-table, with extension leaves folding up beneath the main leaves, instead of being taken out and carried to another room, and the "Patent Refrigerating Cupboard," were both the inventions of the late Mr. John M. Blaisdell. The last-named article is worthy of especial commendation as a convenient and labor-saving arrange-
Blaisdell's ment. It is virtually a capacious closet under the floor,
refrigerating cupbourd. which rises at a signal, and saves the weary housewife many steps in ascending and descending the cellar stairs ! It is also one of the best refrigerators in the market, and is still manufactured to some extent by Mr. Jason J. Burley, who was the business partner of Mr. Blaisdell.
Further back in our annals, Bradstreet Moody, Esq., when a men-
Bradstreet ber of the Legislature from Sanbornton, is said to have Moody's first been the first to devise the check-list, and recommend its check-list. use in the town meetings of New Hampshire.
In 1798, the town " voted that the selectmen petition the Postmaster- General to have a post-office in this town." (For lists of the past- masters, see Appendix G.)
Ezekiel Moore of Canterbury was the first mail carrier through town from Concord to Plymouth. He brought the mail once a week on horseback, distributing the Columbian Centinel and a
Earliest and later mail few other newspapers to subscribers along the route. Ilis facilities. weekly visits were greatly prized. He sold out to Samuel Tallant (erroneously stated by some to have been the first mail carrier
* Ile is informed, on going to press, of two of them found in old country houses on Cape Cod.
335
SALMAGUNDI.
in Sanbornton), who continued his weekly trips on horseback, bring- ing the mail in the same way for several years. The first stage-coach was put on the route about the year 1815, with two horses. Soon after, the famous Peter Smart came on with four horses ; and the coaching business continued very prosperous through Sanbornton, with fonr and six horse teams and daily trips. till the "iron horse " had reached our borders. Thenceforward, the present mail route, from Tilton through Sanbornton and North Sanbornton to New Hampton, again, with a two-horse coach, down in the morning and 'back at noon, became an established fact.
-
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE TOWN CENTENNIAL, 1876.
"Oh, what shall be, In this dominion of the free, When we and ours have rendered up our trust, And meu uuborn shall tread above our dust !
"Oh, what shall be ? Ile, - He alone The dread response can make, Who sitteth on the only throne That time shall never shake ; Before whose all-beholding eyes Ages sweep on, and empires sink and rise.
" Then let the song, to Ilim begun, To Him in reverence end ; * Look down in love, Eternal Que, And Thy good cause defend ; llere, late and long, put forth Thy hand, To guard and guide the l'ilgrims' land." CHARLES SPRAGUE (Boston Centennial Ode, 1830).
Tu significant fact that the date of signing the " Association Test," on the part of the Sanbornton fathers of 1776, was "July 3" (as seen on p. 155), had led to a tacit agreement all over the present town that movements should be made for a Sanbornton celebration of that day in connection with the centennial Independence Day of 1876.
Accordingly, at the March meeting of that year, the town " voted to have a centennial celebration ou or near the ensuing Fourth of July," and that a committee of arrangements be chosen, " con- Preliminary sisting of the superintending school committee, Rev. F. arrangements.
W. A. Rankin, Jr., and four others, who shall represent the territory of the four religious societies respectively." - viz., Messi's. Joseph N. Sauborn, Thomas Webster, Esq , Joshna Lane, and Orville E. Brown ; to which committee were afterwards added " the ministers of each of the other three societies."
* An allusion may be suggested in these two lines to the poetical heading and opening paragraph of Chap. I.
一
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AT SANBORNTON SQUARE.
SCHOOL-HOUSE, DISTRICT NO. 11. (See p. 205.)
337
THE TOWN CENTENNIAL, 1876.
This committee, especially through the timely and indefatigable efforts of their chairman, Rev. Mr. Rankin, succeeded in awakening a genuine interest in all the school districts of the town, contributions being cheerfully raised in the separate districts to meet the general expenses, and teachers and pupils culisting in the enterprise with characteristic zeal. A mammoth tent was engaged from Boston, which it was finally decided to pitch upon the green between and in front of the old academy school building and the Congregational meeting-bonse.
The evening of July 3 was one of the most delightful of the season. when an informal gathering of citizens and visitors who then happened to be in the vicinity of the Square was held at the tent. This, though unpremeditated, proved a happy, and the only exclusive anniversary celebration of the signing of the "Test." Brief congratu-
Memorial ob- latory addresses were delivered, and as many from the
serVance on
the evening andience present as were known to be direct descendants
of July 3. of some of the eighty-three signers were requested to parade in line upon the stage. Among these were Messrs. Jay M. Jewett of Boston ; Abram L. Morrison of Laconia ; Joseph W. San- born of Tilton ; Jona. M. Taylor of Sanboruton ; and about a dozen others, some of whom could claim that they found not merely one, but tico of their grandfathers or great-grandfathers among the origi- nal eighty-three !
On the following day, a large crowd began early to assemble in the vicinity of the teut from all parts of Saubornton, and many from adjoining towns. The committee of arrangements had made choice of Jona. M. Taylor, Esq., to act as chief marshal, and also as presid- ing officer for the day. He was efficiently aided by Messrs. Joseph l'. Sanborn and Cyrus Swain as assistant marshals, representing the east and west sections of the town respectively. Mr. Reuben Dudley had carly appeared with his big bass drum, as in oldl militia times, to the beats of which, accompanied by the music of a fife, quite a procession was extemporized, and marched around the triangle, * while the patient multitude at the tent were waiting for the delegation from the north-
west part of the town. This was attended by the Hill and
Processions to
the tent on
Sanbornton Cornet Band, and made a fine display, with
the Fourth. the school children of one of the districts in a large ox- team gayly decorated ! When it arrived, the grand procession was formed to march again around the triangle, the school children being in advance with appropriate banners from the several districts. 1
* A circuit of half a mile, made by the main street at the Square, the west road, and a section of the new or Clark's Corner road.
338
HISTORY OF SAANHORNTON.
slight embarrassment was met when this procession filed into the tent, which, with all its capacity, was found insufficient to hold the man- bers already assembled and still thronging in. But quiet was in due time secured ; the marshal called forward Dea. A. B. Sanborn and Mr. Joua. S. Taylor to serve as vice-presidents ; and the Throne of Grace was addressed by Rev. Daniel M. Dearborn of New Hampton.
Other preliminaries, besides the enlivening strains of the band, consisted of patriotic odes and songs, sung (as also after the address) The foretoou by the united choirs and school children, under the leader-
ship of the late Jonathan B. Kelley, and the reading of the Declaration of Independence by the late Edward P. Boutwell, M. D.
The historical ihilress was delivered by the Rev. Freilerie T. Per- kins of Tilton, the designated orator of the day, and held the undi- vided attention of the audience to the last.
At the intermission, strangers and invited guests were served with refreshments from liberally supplied tables in the town and academy halls ; while the townspeople repaired with friends to their neighbor- ing homes, or " picnicked " by families in all the available nooks and corners conveniently near the place of meeting. The morning had been quite warm, and a heavy shower, accompanied by violent gusts of wind, a little before the audience was to reassemble at
A collapse. the tent for the afternoon, had caused the collapse of a portion of the canvas. As this could not be seasonably righted, a change in the programme beeaune necessary, and the old town hall was speedlily tilled to overflowing for the rest of the day's entertainment.
Here, after appropriate introductory remarks from the presiding officer, several sentiments were offered by M. T. Runnels, in response to which addresses were delivered by the IIon. Arthur B. Calet of Middletown, Ct. ; Hlou. John W. Shnous of Franklin ; Rev.
Afternoon at the town hall. Samuel F. Lougee of Danbury ; and Rev. Daniel M. Dear- born. A poem, prepared for the occasion, was also read by Mr. Edwin W. Laue of Hill. Rev. Mr. Rankin felicitously alluded to his numerons charge as school superintendent, - the orators, it may be, of similar anniversaries in years to come, - and introduced the pleasing recitations of Miss Nellie R. Batchelder, Master Oscar S. Wadleigh, and others of the school children present.
As a whole, the celebration was pronounced a decided success. It was estimated that fully fifteen hundred people were assembled in and around the tent during the forenoon. No serions accident
General satis-
faction. occurred, and there seemed to be a unanimous opinion that
the committee of arrangements, marshals, officers, musi- cians, and speakers had all acquitted themselves creditably and hon- orably, to themselves, to the town of Sanbornton, and to those two
339
THE TOWN CENTENNIAL, 1876.
conspicnous days, both in its own and the nation's history, which had rendered a Sanboruton celebration in 1876 thus doubly appropriate !
No abstracts of the able and eloquent addresses of the afternoon were prepared at the time, and no copies at this day could probably be procured. The historical address of Rev. Mr. Perkins, and the poem of Mr. Lane, as promised in the " Prospectus " of this work, are here given in full, very nearly as delivered.
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