USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Sanbornton > History of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, Vol. I - Annals > Part 39
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Did our time allow of it, we would recall incidents respecting the men who signed the Test, and give the names of the twelve Test-men who were in active service, tive of whom were of the sixteen who hastened to Charlestown in June, 1775 ; and also the names of those who served at Ticonderoga, eight of whom, if not all, served in Whit- comb's famous independent company of Rangers ; and, too, the names of the twenty who served with Capt. Chase Taylor at Bennington, and the West Point men, and the " 1780" men ; and put in large letters the names of those who enlisted for the war, and were in the Conti- mental service, - but these will all be given, I presume, in Mr. Run- nels's history of the town.
The name of one who was engaged in an important action near Ticonderoga ought to be mentioned, - that of Nathan Taylor. He stood high in the confidence of his superiors, as he had done at Cam- . bridge two years before, when, for personal services rendered to Gen.
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Washington. he received from him a sergeant's warrant. Ou the 16th of Jimte, 1777, when an attack was anticipated from Gen. Burgoyne, who had just arrived in Canada with innnense preparations to sweep down and effect a junction with the British army at New York, Taylor was sent out with twelve men to ascertain whether the British army was advancing or not. The movement was one of grent peril. Large numbers of Indians were known to be hovering around the American encampment ; but the young lieutenant fearlessly undertook the task, and with two days' rations moved, as ordered, to an elevated point fifteen miles distant, on Champlain, commanding an extensive view of the lake. Discovering no signs of the enemy, he encamped for the night. On his return the next day, at about eleven o'clock, he was waylaid by a party of sixty to one hundred Indians, who had lain in ambush, near a bridge over a creek which they knew he must cross. As he came, with his men, within a few yards of them, the Indians sprang up with a war-whoop, and feeling already sure of their captives, greeted them with " Ilow do yon do, brothers?" Taylor, undaunted, instantly ordered, " Fire !" So sudden, so effective was this fire that it threw the savages into confusion ; but confident in their number, they rallied, and with horrid yells returned the fire. For a few minutes the fight was sharp and general. Taylor and his men loaded and tired as rapidly as possible. As Indians had been seen, and an attack upon this scouting party feared, a re-enforcement of one hundred men had been sent out, and were now within hearing of these guns ; but their captain, Hutchins, instead of pressing on, drew up his men, inspected their arms, and waited, - "entrenched," perhaps, - for which, as he deserved, he was cashiered.
The Indians probably knew of the approach of these men, and from the courageons tighting of the little band, supposed the re- enforcement must be near at hand, were frightened, and scattered. Three of Taylor's men had fallen, mortally wounded ; and he himself had received, as he then supposed, a fatal wound. "Soldiers," he ordered, " retreat to the shore of the lake ; if pursued, face the enemy and sell your lives as dearly as possible ; should any escape, hasten to the fort with the report that . All is well on the lake.'" They offered to stand by their commander ; but no, he said, "You can be of no service to me. In a few minutes the tomahawk and scalping knife will finish the work which I feel has already marked me for a victim." Reluctantly they left, and were not pursned. Faint and bleeding, Taylor erept beneath the leafy top of a tree recently fallen, where he lay concealed, while the Indians returned, passed over the trunk of the tree, and even sat down upon it. They finally disappeared, when he crept ont and attempted to wade the creek, as the Indians had nneov-
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ered the bridge ; but being unable to do that, he managed to cross on a stringer of the bridge, and with much difficulty, from loss of blood, reached the fort just at the firing of the sunset gun. That creek, ou some maps, bears the lieutenant's name.
Ilis men, all but the three killed, reached the camp during that night, and for their heroism received warm commendation from Gen. St. Clair. Lient. Taylor was found wounded in the shoukler, the ball having entered near the collar-bone, and passed out just below the shoulder-blade. In a few months he was able to return to duty, and contiuned in the service till near the close of the war, when he felt compelled by his impaired health to resign his commission. He returned home a few weeks before peace was declared. Here we knew him as the model Christian gentleman.
It is worthy of record, in these times when greed for gain carries down so many, that Nathan Taylor, though entitled to a pension, declined to receive it until after the death (1805) of his father, Capt. Chase Taylor. who was pensioned for his wound received at Benning- ton ; for, said the noble sou, "One pension in a family is enough." Not many men refuse, as he did, for twenty-eight years, what he had so honorably earned.
Of the twelve men with him in that fight, five were from this town, - Samuel Smith, 1st (who was killed), Samuel Smith, 2d, Ezekiel Danforth, James Lary, and Michael Coffin. My father says Uncle Nathan used to relate with umeh zest how James Lary, in his intense carnestuess in that tight with the Indians, let fly in about equally rapid succession bullets and tobacco juice.
At the battle of Bennington, Ang. 16, 1777, when Gen. Stark, at the head of a body of New Hampshire militia, defeated a detachment of Gen. Burgoyne's army muder Col. Baum, there were present twenty men from this town, under command of Capt. Chase Taylor, my great- grandfather. During that and the previous year the captain had four sous in the service, - Chase, Nathan, William, and Thomas. He himself was wounded in the thigh at Bennington ; his son Nathan was wounded, as before stated, at Taylor's Creek, near Ticonderoga ; Thomas died nine days after the battle of Bennington ; Chase had died not long after his carlier enlistment ; and William was left, while on a march, so sick of camp disease that there was no hope of his recovery. A daughter also died at home. For particulars respecting the rest, I must ask you to wait till your town history is published.
As to the war of 1812, by which our complete independence of Great Britain was effected, I may only state that the number of men who volunteered or were drafted was about one hundred. The volunteers were of the famous Light Infantry, made up of men of spleudid
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physical form, of nearly equal height, and in drill and martial bearing said to have been unsurpassed by any other company in New Hamp- shire. A large part of this company, under the command of my uncle, Chase Perkins, volunteered in 1814, and marched to Portsmouth, where they attracted much attention as the best of all the companies that entered the town.
The late war of the Rebellion I must pass without remark.
The one great fact that moves us to-day is this : that the heroic men and women who settled this town made an intelligent, voluntary offering of their lives and fortunes upon the altar of their country, - all for the sake of a liberty which they believed God had to give them as individuals and as a people. They asked not how perfect a liberty nor how great a country they should have ; they left that to Him who determines the issues of battles and the destiny of nations. They knew well that the offering must be one of blood. It is this fact - uot the field of the most successful battle, but this cross of self-sac- rifice - that speaks to our hearts to-day. We here honor, we here commemorate their patriotic sacrifice. In this we find our most need- ful lesson. By this commemoration we hope the old patriotic spirit will be revived ; that it will characterize the people of our old town for the century to come ; that it will live in each heart, and be strong enough, as in those of a lumdred years ago, to rise to the highest style of personal heroism, and to rise thus by its own vital force, without the exciting stimulants of daily journals and hourly telegratis ammonneing the sentiments and movements of the multitude, - a spirit that will beat and throb in time and tune with the most patriotic throb- bings of the national heart; that each man, by the force of his own thought aud the fire of his own emotion, will be able to stand in his lot, conscious that he is entitled to personal liberty and summoned of God to a personal work. This spirit may make the future of our town bright, and achieve results that shall be worthy of commemoration a century hence.
Manufacturing interests and railroad stations have changed the centres of population and of business, but have not changed the charms of this beautiful natural scenery. Beautiful dwellings, occupied by the return- ing sons and daughters of our dear old town, may yet adorn these choice places for the homes of intelligent families. There is a thrift, a commerce of thought, of ideas among cultured families possible here, of more valne a thousand times than all that was ever done in the palmiest days of the town, when business was carried on here ou a large scale for those times, - even a wholesale trade for a wide region of country around; when one individual, Andrew Lovejoy, with a capital of 850,000, - large for a country town at that day, - kept
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thirty men in constant service, and strong teams continually on the move to and from Boston with merchandise. We remember, many of us, when business was brisk at four stores and two hotels, where now there is not a place for Yankee notions. But is there to be no return of the ebbing tide ?
An intelligent town interest, that shall hold local affairs high above outside and impertinent questions ; shall manage them without the heat and rancor so often stirred up by political partisans ; determine every measure by its bearings on the elevation of the generations coming forward ; make the children's homes more and more attractive ; give the boys a personal interest in the farm, so as to arrest the bad ten- dency of our times to desert the farm for the store, the country town for the crowded city ; deem no expense too great to perfect schools for the training of noble characters, - such a town interest, coupled with a high Christian spirit, that will keep your churches bright and alive with the Divine presence, and will, in all your relationships, maintain the manly bearing and beautiful fellowship of the good old pastors, Bodwell and Crockett, will produce on these hills characters grand and beautiful as the hills. Is that little fellow, now in his cradle, greater, better, more immortal than these hills and all that is thereon? Has he a wider outlook than this which we now enjoy? Is that little closed hand to hold a vote? May that little busy brain, in half a century, be presiding over the destinies of the American Republic, - then with one hundred millions of people and with unmeasured power? Then train him for his great mission.
There were here, one hundred years ago, men and women who had been trained to have ideas, and to hold on to principles, and to walk in the light of truth ; men and women who, conscious of an individual responsibility, held to their allegiance to the King of kings. You may remember Mr. Webster's answer to the question, " What is the greatest thought that ever occupied your brain?"-" It is the thought of my personal responsibility to God." That is a great thought. It makes strong characters. It made those whom we to-day honor, great in purpose and in achievement. That uprising of the people was not from thoughts as new seeds just then sown, but was the outbursting of fruit from seed long before sown. It was the mustering of forces long before girded for the conflict. We notice incidents which agitate the surface ; but Almighty Providence, never aimless, works with forces deep and wide-reaching. " All the revolutions of our latest times," it has been said, " are only the breaking erests of a wave of light that has been rolling on ever since God divided the ocean from the land."
The world is not a self-impelled caprice. History is not a tangled skein. Civilization is not scattered by chance, but grows by law. We 23
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call single events or lordly men the cause of great epochs ; but the causes lie deeper and act farther than single eveuts or lordly men. They are bedded deep by the Creator in the bosom of humanity. They act through long reaches of social successiou. Moses, inspired prophet as he was, did uot rear the Hebrew commonwealth nor emau- cipate Israel, but He who said to Moses, " The I Axt hath seut thee." The Roman republic was overthrowu, uot by Cæsar and Pompey, but by that condition of things which made Caesar and Pompey possible. Luther, Calvin, and Zwingle did uot reform Europe aud trausform the church, but Ile who said once and says again, " If the truth shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." For this freedom - in the truth, by the truth, and for the truth - educate every child, as the greatest interest, the greatest work possible for you ; and so crowu these grand hills and valleys with the glory of characters adorned with the brilliant settings of Christian virtues. Let the children know what has been the history of the towu, what may be its future history, that they may be inspired with the laudable purpose to make it worthy of a record.
It is fortunate that at just this time you have amoug you a lover of historical research, enthusiastic enough to traverse the town from end to end to determine an old house site, and to press on his work with or without encouragement from the towu. But cucouragement Le should have. If you would leave anything worth commemorating at the end of another century, let the completion of this town history be the worthy work of its beginning. Without this permanent record of this tirst century, that of any other century will be impossible. We Americans have been too indifferent respecting our local histories. In the number and extent of their histories, the Chinese stand murivalled. They have their great histories of their dynasties, their annals, their complete records, miscellaneous histories, historical excerpts, histories of the provinces, of the prefects, of the districts, and minute histories of famous places. The celebratious of this day, in our country, will bring forth local histories of more worth than the gold of Ophir. Have faith in a future worthy of a record. We have faith in the future of the American Republice, because we have faith in the progress of human thought, in the Christian training of the centuries, and in the purposes of God. We have faith in a future of growing greatness and brightness, because we cannot believe that the wheel of revolution is to be rolled back over all the fruits of a thousand struggles for · liberty ; because we cannot believe that the tree which has been grow- ing here for oue hundred years, and been watered by so much blood, and rooted so deeply in the hearts of the people, and guaranteed by so many statutes, is to be torn up, - thereby not only breaking up the
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surface, but rending the very underground of constitutional liberty the world over. We hope God has not let go of our nation. As " the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," so the blood of patriots is the seed of constitutional governments. The blood of our fathers has borne fruit that remains and will remain in the institutions of our towns and States, - in the American Republic.
May this our Republic, which came out from the clouds of war and forth in the face of the world as the morning sun from his chamber, move ou in its mission, unobscured by dark clouds, - on over a path- way of light, bringing blessings to all the people in the ceaseless flow and brimming fulness with which the rivers pour their waters into the sea.
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COLUMBIA :
A CENTENNIAL POEM.
BY E. W. LANE.
Tues " Fourth of July " Is the song that I slug ; And though not a poet desirous of fame, I tell of our nation, and publicly bring This tribute, - a simple centennial clalmn.
I come with a word of our forefathers' day, And how, iu the battles so bravely once fought, Those noble old heroes long since passed away, Immortal by deeds that shall be'er be forgot.
Now, poets, you know, on much similar themes Have writ, till one thinks there were little to write; Historical labrinths are endless, it seems, So I have concluded the same to indite.
With this introduction, at once I'll proceed; And while a few moments we wander away Over the past, with imaginable speed, Let all criticistus be silenced, I pray.
Then back through long years we in fancy will roam, Before to this country our forefathers came; Old England, we find, was their earlier home, And many long years had they dwelt in the same.
"I was there that oppression held absolute sway, And cursed their existence; though, sad to relate, For Liberty's voice it would never make way, But ruled every act by a rigorous fate.
The lives of our ancestors thus did begin ; But, like the volcano upheaving the earth, Fierce and wild elements were burning within, - All queuchless, and threatening Liberty's birth.
Then came the eruption, - they strove to be free; All England was wrapped in the powerful flame, For there was discovered beyond the broad sea A country, - Columbia, that country's name.
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Regardless of sanering, danger, or death, Those lovers of freedom, the strong and the brave, Inspired by inhaling pare Liberty's breath, Embarked and crossed over the turbulent wave.
And though 't was on Columbian soll they stood, Not a haven of peace here welcomed them then, For they found but a wild and unexplored wood, Where roumed the wild beasts, and were hostile the men.
But little they heeded such perils as these ; The work they had started could not be undone; They had not a thought of recrossing the seas, But civilization was quickly begun. .
And then came an era of carnage and fear; A long, bloody strife through the nation did reign, That deluged the country for many a year With the innocent blood of tortured and slaln.
The red man thus fought for his right of the land, To drive the new-comers away from his shore; But the white man coutesting, firmly did stand, Determined to never abandon it more.
Ah, fearful, indeed, were the following days ! Men, women, and children, while pleading for life, Were tortured in the most infernal of ways The foe could devise as he raged in the strife.
And thus passed the time in our country's ilrst day ; Those martyrs of liberty never had tired, But they toiled and they fought, and time wore away, For freedom to worship, their souls had inspired.
You've all doubtless read of those old Indian wars, How slowly but surely the red man did yield, And triumphant proved the American cause, - The white man had won and commanded the field.
They nobly had fought, and a home did obtain; Columbia won by the white mau at last ; And the axe and the plonghshare sped o'er the plain, - The joys of the present had cancelled the past.
Alas, for the hopes of those patriot braves! A cloud was arising, nor rose it in vain ; Oppression had followed them over the waves, And sought by its forces to crush them again.
Yes; England, old England, the land of their birth, Hlad long watched their fortunes this side of the sea, And saw them becoming a people on earth, Which promised a powerful uation to be.
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What though they acknowledged, respected thelr king, Were loyal as subjects, and fought In his name, And promised much wealth to that nation to bring, And had never opposed a reasonable claim, -
Yet England then saw, and she learned it with drcad, That desire to be free, which planted them here, Dled not, but was ever Increasing fustend ; And for the result, she was trembling In fear.
And then she began, with quallclousness bent, To rule them with many tyranulcal laws; And carried her power to such an extent, That a result most fearful followed that cause.
But you have heard all this historical fact, - How unjust taxation was sent to the free; How well they resisted that cruel Stamp Act, And how Boston Harbor they flooded with tea.
For those sons of liberty, strong in the land, Resolved that their rights they would ever maintain; And e'en against England in war they would stand, Before they would yield to oppression again.
Then, enraged at his oft-unheeded command, The king, when all threats were but issued for naught,
Determined by arms he would conquer the land; So war, bitter war, was the crisis he brought.
For now on our shores did the British appcar, - This the beginning of that long, bloody strife, That was destined to plagne and trouble them here, Filled deep with the woes of destruction to life.
But it's useless, indeed, for me here to-day This national theme to attempt to narrate; Great authors and poets but illy portray The sorrows of all of these scenes they relate.
We may only consider, the best we can, How hard must the struggle for freedom have been, When this single motto inspired every man, "To die in the battle, or victory win."
Turn over our history's page, if you please, And dwell on its past as you read it to-day, And see how we've sailed through the bloodiest seas, Iu centennial years that have passed away.
We see in the battles our fathers of fame, Fighting for their country and liberty's right, That we, their children, might inherit the same, When freed from oppression's tyrannical might.
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Among those first conflicts. - memorials still, And prominent in the historleal past, - Are Lexington, Concord, and old Bunker Hill, Whose names will be sacred while histories last.
But now, please attend ; for a glorious day O'er Columbia dawned in the midst of strife, That gave the patriots a powerful sway, And their destiny changed for all after life.
Oppressed by old England, they loved her no more ; 'Neath British dominion no longer would be ; They met and cast off' every prestige they wore, And thence and forever declared themselves free.
I refer to that time, - that glorious time, - To gain independence and tyrants deny, They made themselves free, and the nation did chime, In seventy-six, on the Fourth of July.
Ah! great was the joy in the colonies then, And wild the scenes of that memorable day, That shall live in the aunals of those brave men, Till annals and men shall have both passed away.
From old Philadelphia rang the first bell, And quickly the others caught up the glad strain, And echoed o'er all of the nation, to tell That here independence forever should reign.
The tyrant should rule Columbia no more : Republican goverment now should have birth; A nation should be, as was never before, Since man had found wisdom to reign on the earth.
They fought for liberty, and long would they fight, And no more would they yield to slavery's rod; For their cause it was just, and justice was right, And the justice they sought was worship of God.
"Then away, harsh tyranny ; back to the East; We're a nation ourselves, and know thee no more ; Henceforth our connection with England has ceased, The ties that have bound us forever are o'er.
"Then loud and long accents peal forth from the bell ; Let it tell as it rings over ull the earth, Thongh of old slavery it sounds the death-knell, "Tis also the herald of liberty's birth."
This was the spirit that in perfect control Governed our fathers that illustrious day ; And a radiant hope illumined each soul, And swept the last vestige of slavery away.
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They hoped; but how fearfully long were the years Destined to follow ere that hope was fulfilled ! Time fraught with the horrors of war und its fears, With which all the land was now deeply instilled.
But why longer dwell on those old earnest wars? I could not describe thetu, not e'en if I would; On history's page you may read of this cause, And how the Invasion was uriuly withstood.
Sadlice it to say, though the struggle was long, Y'et the contest thus fought had not been in valu ; For a glorious right then triumphed o'er wroug, And Columbia rejoiced in freedom agalu.
O'er her last hope defeated, England hins wept; And conquered, has wisely sought long to atone For this forced conclusion, which since she has kept, "T were better, by l'ar, to have let us aloue.
And thus, independence asserted at last, Prosperity over the nation did duwn; Aud the blessings of peace succeeded the past, And the old ship of state sailed quietly on.
So the words of the prophets came to be true, While peace and prosperity governed the day ; And a morning resplendent broke iuto view, Which scattered the national darkness away.
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