USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Shelburne > History of Shelburne, New Hampshire > Part 3
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Oxen were used for farmwork. and a: soon as roads could be cut, the teaming and most of the riding was done with them, Horses were kept by a few. and long journeys were made on horseback. When Stephen Messer returned from a visit to Andover he brought in his hand a willow stick for a whip. On reaching home he drove that stick into the ground near his house, just above Moose river, Gorham, and the magnificent tree that sprang from it is the parent of all the English willows in this vicinity. Those in front of R. P. Peabody's were broken from the Clemens willow, near Moses Wilson's, an I were planted by his
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sister Elvira and himself at least thirty- five years ago. Horses were formerly supposed to be able to carry all you could pile onto them, and it was no un- usual thing for a man to take his wife and one or two small children up behind him. Capt. Daniel Evans and Phila Clemens rode across the river together when they went to Esq. Ingalls' to be married ; and twenty years later their daughters, Eliza and Hepsy, rode to Lancaster to visit their aunt, Mrs. Good- dale. Sometimes accidents happened, as when John Clemeus started to go to a dance with Dolly Jackson. Probably the clinging arms around his waist. or the bright face so near his own, kind of flustrated him, for he lost his bearings, got into a deep hole, and swashed poor Dolly around in the water till she was wet to her waist.
Sleighs were in use long before wagons were thought of. A lady of seventy- seven says she was out berrying when the first wagon she ever saw passed by. but when she told her folks of the " four- wheeled carriage," they only laughed at her. never having heard of such a thing.
The roads naturally run along as near the intervales as possible, and no materi- al change has ever been made. From Manson Green's to Churchill Lary's it
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has been moved from the top of the hill to the base. From Andrew Jewett's to the Gates place a similar change has been made. From Jotham Evans' the road was on the intervale, but after the railroad went through the farms were cut up in such narrow strips that Messrs Jotham and Henry Evans built a side hill road at their own expense. Near Moses' Rock the road again diverged, coming out by the meeting house.
Longer ago than the "oldest inhabi- tant" can remember, a rope ferry run across from Manson Green's intervale. Alfred Carlton kept a large boat that was sculled across, and later Enoch Hub- bard put in a rope ferry against his intervale. The road came up from the river just below Moses Wilson's. An English willow and a bed of red roses mark the site of a house on this road once occupied by Benjamin Clemens.
After good roads were built and the teaming from the upper part of the coun- try passed this way. Shelburne became a lively place. Three taverns found plenty of custom beside occasional con- pany at Barker Burbank's and Capt. Evans'.
John Burbank's tavern stand stood just back of Jotham Evans' stable. A long, low, unpainted house, the sign
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hung on a post at the west end. Like all public places at that time, an open bar was kept where liquor sold for three cents a glass.
John Chandler's, near Moses Rock, was two story, painted red with white trimmings. While at work here Jeffer- con Hubbard received the injury that crippled him for life, cutting his knee with a shave so badly as to cause a stiff joint.
George Green's. at the village. was a stage station and Post Office, and the best tavern between Lancaster and Port- land. A huge gilt balı hung out from the ridge-pole. and on it in black letters was "George Green, 1817." Jonas Wells and Jefferson Hubbard each served as hostlers and a hard berth it was. Often they had to be up every hour in the night.
Horr Latham and others drove the stage to Lancaster twice a week. In the fall of 1845 Randall Pinkham made his first trip in the employ of Barker Bur. bank. He drove two horses. one for- ward of the other, on a single wagon. and his only passenger from Lancaster was Lovisa Ann Peabody.
The August freshet in 1826, is remem- bered as a terrible flood, but probably there" has been much larger rainfalls
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since. The banks of the river and brooks have worn away so much that now they hold a much larger volume of water. Peabody brook was a small, narrow stream, that one might step across, but according to eye witnesses a wall of water, rocks and trees came suddenly rushing down, carrying all before it. A point of land on which was a rock maple eight or ten inches through, was cut off, and the little bridge swept away like a straw. The water rose to the doorstep of Mrs. Cates house near by, and a large rock dropped into a potash kettle stand- ing on the bank, showing the depth and force of the current. A little spot of and, planted with corn, was all that could be seen of the Great Island. Pota- toes were washed out, uncut grain laid flat and soaked in mud, and pumpkins torn from the vines went bobbing up and down in the water.
Joseph Lary and William Newell lost their entire crop of wheat from the Gates' intervales. As the water rose higher and higher the stooks were lifted up, and away they sailed down river.
As great a rise of water occurred dur- ing the ice freshet of December, 1838. Hugh cakes of ice floated out over the fields, and before the waiter had time to subside it cleared off cold, and the whole
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valley was one sheet of ice
In the spring of 1851 Enoch Hubbard built a bridge across the river from the Great Rocks, but owing to some defect or
miscalculation it did not stand. Nothing daunted by his failure, the next spring Mr. Hubbard built again, and petitioned the selectmen for a road. It was refused, not from any particular fanit in the bridge, but because many wanted it further down the river at Gates' or Green's. But people found it. much more convenient than the ferry, and at last the County Commissioners came down and laid out the dugway. It is said one of the selectmen, hoping to find a legal quibble in the proceedings, inquired :
"Did you lay out the road to and from the bridge?"
"We laid out the road to and from the bridge and right across it." Was the crushing reply.
The natives called it the Great River bridge. but it was re-christened Lead Mine bridge by city visitors, it being a fashionable resort for artists and roman- tie young couples.
It did good service for fifteen years. and then oue night quietly dropped down. The next one was built by the town; Merrill Head, Caleb Gates and
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Jotham Evans building committee. An abutment of stone was put in by Moses Mason in place of the old log one, and a bridge built under the direction of Na- hum Mason, This was blown down in November, 1870, and rebuilt the follow_ ing winter by Enoch Hubbard and John
Newell. Much discussion and opposi- tion has been raised on the subject of a bridge. Some are in favor of a road through to Gorham on the north side. Others want the bridge at Green's ferry. where the river is wider, the banks lower and the intervales flooded at every rise of water. So far commonsense has pre- vailed over prejudice and self-interest. and a good bridge stands on the ouly good site in town.
The building of the Grand Trunk Rail- road through Shelburne began in 1851. Most of the workmen were Irishmen who camped along by the way with their wives and children. They only required limited quarters, Mr. Hebbard's wood- shed affording ample accommodation for three families. The houses, or hovels, rather, which they made for themselves were simply four posts set in the ground boarded over and banked up, oftento the eaves. with earth. A barrel stuck in one side allowed some of the effluvia to escape. There were two classes or clans
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of these workmen, Corkmen and Far- downs; and a fight always signalized their meetings.
Porter's Ledge was so called from the contractor who cut the road through it. In July. 1852, an engine, the Jennie Lind. came up as far as Potter Smith's. now John Wilson's. Such a sight as it was for old and young ! Even the few who had seen an engine before had never heard the whistle. "O, how funny it did sound !" says one.
Much of the wonder was due to the lack of newspapers. Very little was known of the outside world. The electric light and various kinds of ma- chinery were as wonderful inventions, but we heard of them at every stage of their progress, and when finaily perfect- ed the wonder had fled. It was only what we had long expected.
Jefferson Hubbard was appointed station agent, a position he held till his death in 1877. About two years ago a siding was put in at the bridge crossing. and thousands of cords of wood and bark have been sent to market from there. Upon the advent of the railroad Shel- burne's prosperity began to wane. In thirty years her population has decreas- ed one half. Yet Shelburne is not a bad place in which to make a home. Most
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of the farms are capable of a high state of fertility, work is plenty at fair prices, and Gorham affords a good market and plenty of entertainments and school privileges to those who wish to avail themselves of them,
CHAPTER V.
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS,
Solitude and danger conduce to a de- votional trame of mind. Cut off from human aid, we instinctively turn to the Divine. Alone with the vastness of Nature the character acquires a depth and earnestness in harmony with the gloom of the forests and the rugged grandeur of the mountains. Natural phenonema, that modern science has re- duced to mere curiosities, were formerly regarded as forerunners of dire calami- ties ; war, pestilence. and even the de- struction of the world.
But few famines lived here during the dark day May 19.h, 1780, but doubtless those few suffered more mental agony than would be possible to us of to-day. A brilliant display of northern lights has twice been seen; once before the war of 1812 two lines exten led across the sky. and flashes of light passed from one to the other. Finally the western line ab-
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sorbed the other, and they fadel out. Of course after the war every! ody knew the western line meant the victorious American army.
In the year 1834 or 1835. what is known as the red northern lights were seen. In the north-east lay a heavy red cloud, something like a thunder pillar. In the wierd light the snow looked as though stained with blood. The Bible was the only book of reference, and the timid and irreligious remembered with a thrill of horror that "the rivers shall be turned into blood before that great and terrible day." Pious men, fearing they knew not what. gathered their families and their neighbors around them and prayed for "the peace that passeth understanding."
Many of Shelburne's first settlers were pious men and women. and the Sabbath and family worship was strictly observed in their new homes. but the first public religious services were conducted by Fletcher Ingalls. Every Sunday for years "Uncle Fletcher's" house was well filled, many walking four or five miles. Young girls went barefooted or wore their every day shoes and stockings till within sight of the house, when they stopped under a big tree and put on their best morocco slippers and white
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stockings.
The seats were benches, kept carefully clean, not quite so comfortable as the cushioned pews in the chapel, but better filled, and we think the long, dry ser- mons Mr. Ingalls used to read were received without cavil. People believed as they were taught instead of wander- ing off into speculation by themselves. The reading over, exhortations were made by Samuel Wheeler, Edward Green and others. The singers were Nathaniel. Porter, Jonathan Lary and his sisters. Betsy. Hannah and Mercy, and in fact most of the worshipers took part in this exercise. Sometimes a stray shepherd chanced along and fed this flock. Messrs. Pettingill, Jordan, Hazeltine, Trickey. Austin Wheeler and Elder Hutchinson were Free-will Baptists, Sewall, Hidden. Richardson and Burt Congregationalists. Scores of interesting and curious inci- dents are related of these primitive christians, who at least possessed the virtue of sincerity. One summer the drouth was very sev. re, threatining to destroy the crops. At the conclusion of the regular Sunday services Deacon Green requested all those who were i !!- terested and had faith in prayer to meet at his house to pray for rain. Their petitions proved not only fervent but
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effacious, for before they were finished a terrible thunder shower arose and the deacon's shed was blown clear across the road. The first church of which we find any record was organized 1818 as the Church of Christ. with seventeen men- bers :
Edward Green. Lydia Ordway,
Samuel Wheeler,
Anna Wheeler.
Reuben Hobart,
Anna Hobart.
Amos Peabody, Mehitable Ordway,
Laskey Jackson. Alepha Hobit.
Cornelius Bearce, Lydia Bearce.
John Wilson,
Lucy Wheeler.
'The signatures are written on stiff. In- ruled paper, yellow with age. and would form an interesting study to those who pretend to read character by the hand- writing. The best specimen is the name of Lucy Wheeler, very fine and distinct, and written with good black ink. while in others the ink looks as though it hid been frozen.
In 1832 the meeting house was built ; Robert Ingalls, Edward Green. George Green and Barker Burbank being build- ing committee. It was dedicated as a Free Church. Jotham Sewall preached the dedicatory sermon, and four or five other clergymen, Free-will Baptist and Congregational, were present. All the best singers in town had been well train-
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ed by the choirister, John Kimball, and the long, difficult Easter Anthem from the Ancient Lyre was skillfully rendered.
A schedule of time for the year 1838 gives the Congregationalists twenty-four Sundays, the Free-will Baptists twenty- five. Universalists one, and Methodists two. Whenever the pulpit was unoccu- pied Deacon Life Burbank or Fletcher Ingalls read a sermon. or Samuel Wheel- er and others exhorted.
In 1841 a new organization was formed. called the Shelburne Free-will Baptist Church. The covenant is in the hand- writing of Stephen Hutchinson, and arti- cle 3d provides that "we agree to exer- cise a suitable care one of another to pro- mote the growth of the whole body in christian knowledge, holiness, and co.n- fort to the end, that we may all stand complete in the will of God." Article 8, "We will frequently exhort, and if occa- sion require, admonish one another ac- cording to direction: in Matt. 18. We will do this in a spirit of meekness con- sidering ourselves lest we also trans- gress, and as in baptism we have been buried with Christ an I raised again. so there rests on us a special obligation to walk in newness of life." , Delegates Were sent regularly to the quarterly conferences with a report of the religious
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condition of the church. Of the eight original members only one is still living. Mrs. Stephen Hutchinson. In 1848 the membership had increased to thirty- three. Of these more than half have since joined the Church. triumphant. prominent among which are Stephen Hutchinson. Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Pea- body, Samuel Wheeler and Jonas Green.
The Congregational Church was form- ed many years ago. but there was 10 regular organization of Methodists till Daniel Barker was stationed here in 1861. During the following two years there was a great revival. Night after night lively anl interesting meetings were held at Mr. Palmer's, Mr. Hebbard's or Mr. Hall's. It is an undecided question whether such religious excitements are advisable. Certainly a proportionate re- action always follows. Mr. Sincluir she- Ceded Mr. Barker; but though he came over from Bartlett every other Sunday. braving the cold winds and deep shows. the interest gradually abateo.
From this time till the reform move- ment, only occasional meetings were held. City ministers, Orthodox or Episcopal. sometimes preached half a day during the summer. The old church was fast going to ruin. to say nothing of the people themselves. The temperance
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wave struck Shelburne broadside. Such excitement, such rallying to the work, such confessions of weakness, such promises of future uprightness ! The blacker the sin the greater the reforma- tion, and it was awful to hear one manly idol after another shatter himself in the presence of his adoring female relatives and friends, A good, moral young man, who never drank a glass of intoxicating liquor in his life, was nowhere; but the most dissipated were greeted with deat- ening cheers.
Lecturers labored to prove that alco- hol in all its forms was a deadly poison, equal to arsenic or strychnine, yet one member of the association said that he had probably drank a barrel for every year of his life! He must have been poison proof. Only one person in all,the town, A. J. Bartlett, ridiculed the moye- ment and persistently refused to sign th; pledge,
"I'll give you two years to get to the end of your rope," he said one day, after a hot argument with an enthusiastic Ironclad.
He did not live to see the fulfillment of his prophecy, but he gave them time enough. One evening. some mouths be- fore the second aniversary, the President requested all those present who had not
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·
signed the pledge to rise, and only one solitary Frenchman responded. Every- body had reformed. The work was done. What sense in struggling for what we already have? The Reform Club meet- ings changed to prayer meetings. Mr. W. W. Baldwin, the Methodist minister stationed at Gorham. came down half a day each Sabbath, and an interest was awakened that increased during the next year, when Mr. Chandier preached. The meeting house was repaired and re-dedi- cuted in September, 1877. The death of Miss Fannie Hubbard the following Spring broke up the choir. and thongh we have many good singers, no> choir has since been organized.
Mr. Williams, a Congregational minis- ter, stationed at Gilead, preaches here Sunday afternoons; an organ has been purchased ; a communion service pre- sented by the sewing circle. and a baptismal bowl by Mrs. R. I. Burbank. Nothing seems to be lacking to our reli- gions society but the main part-a dis- position in the minds of the people to support it by their presence in the house, their appreciation of the preacher's efforts, and the cultivation of a charitable unselfish spirit among themselves.
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SCHOOLS.
We have no means of knowing how the first generation obtained an education. but it is hardly likely there were regular schools where the children would be obliged to go long distances through the woods. Perhaps some went back to Massachusetts. while others learned at home. A little later we find plenty of well educated men and women. In Moses Ingalls' family were three good teachers, Frederick, Nancy and Robert. Some sixty-five years ago Robert, or as he is more commonly known, Judge Ingalls, kept school near Moses Rock. Among his scholars was a half grown boy, whose parents had recently moved down from Randolph. In those days Randolph was considered far removed from the benefits of civilization, and Mr. Ingalls naturally concluded the boy would be behind others of his age. .. Can you read?" he inquired, taking up the old Perry's spelling-book. "I can read my A B C's," replied the boy. bashfully hanging his head. Slowly slipping his finger along he repeated the alphabet correctly. "Very well. Now can't you say a-b ab?" "I can try," was the modest answer. With the same slow precision that lesson was read, then the
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next and the next, and not till Mr. In- galls found out that with one exception his new pupil was the best reader and speller in school, did he see where the laugh came in .. Barker Burbank also taught here. and was called one of the best instructors of the times, often spend- ing a whole noon-time explaining some of Walsh's problems to a puzzled scholar. To this school came the Stowell boys. the Thompson boys and Ezekiel Evans' girls.
Back of the Philbrook house. close to the foot of the mountain. stood a school- house. where Hannah Mason taught. Sometimes schools were kept at Capt. Evans' or Samuel Emery's. Susan Gates. Sally Austin, Elsie Head and Lydia Por- ter were teachers of fifty years ago, and good teachers they were, too, though they never heard of a Normal school nor a Teacher's Institute.
The Bean Hill school-house, just below . H. P. Gates, was moved up about half way between Allan and Roswell Pea- body's, and here Merrill C. Forist taught school and penmanship. Mrs. John Willis kept one term in William Newell's barn at the Dugway corner. Isabel Gates. Mrs. C. J. Lary, Mrs. M. L. Bur- bank. Judge Burbank and Manson Green are a few of many experienced and popu-
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lar teachers.
The text books formerly used were the Understanding and American readers, Perry's and Webster's spelling-books, Walsh's and Welsh's arithmetics. and Olney's geography. The geography would be quite a curiosity to young peo- ple now. Michigan, Indiana and Illinois were territories. Mississippi Territory was bounded north by Tennesee, east by Georgia, south by Florida, which be- longed to the Spanish. and west by the Mississippi river. Louisiana was divid- ed into two governments, State and Territory. The State comprised the Island of Orleans, the country east of the Mississippi to the Perdido. and all west of it south of latitude 33º. The Territory was bounded south by the state of Louisiana, west by Mexico, east by Ten- nesee. Kentucky, and Illinois and Miss- issippi territories, and north by unex- plored regions. Supposing one of the teachers in 1815 or '20 had thus address- ed the class in geography : "Children. those of you who live to be elderly men and women will see all that blank space on the map of the United States dotted with towns and cities; an iron horse. capable of drawing ten or a dozen carri- ages as large as this school room. at the rate of a mile in one minute. will carry
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you from George Green's intervale to the fartherest verge of that unknown region in eight or ten days. You will hand a short letter directed to a friend in Boston to a man at the depot, and in ten minutes you will receive the answer. You can go to the summit of Mt. Moriah and converse in your ordinary tones with a friend in Shelburne Addition. That burning spring which is now re- garded as one of the curiosities of Virgi- nia will prove to be the outlet of a vast, subterranean lake of oil, much superior for illuminating purposes to tallow can - tles or pitch pine knots, and after this oil has come into general use a new light will be invented or discovered (which ?) that will rival the sun in brilli- ancy."
Wouldn't the whole school have stop- pod study to listen to such outrageous fallacies? Wouldn't the parents have bren all by the ears and the committee been blamed to death for hiring such a teacher? Yet how far short would the prophecy fall of the reality? Viewing the future by the past, have we the right to say anything is impossible ?
Esq. Burbank's sons and A. R. Evans we believe are the only Shelburne boys who have been through college, and the only natives now engaged in teaching
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are the Misses Lary and Ernest Hubbard. C. S. Cummings, of Paris, is also a suc- cessful and popular teacher.
The law allowing women a voice in school meeting is of no practical value in this conservative town, and on general principles we doubt its propriety.
Sanford Hubbard, Fannie Philbrook and Edward Green are examining com- mittee. Mr. Hubbard is said to be very thorough in his examinations, and who- ever receives a certificate may be con- sidered amply qualified to teach all the studies required.
The way in which the first generation acquired the art of singing is as doubtful as how they learned the alphabet. As most of the parents were singers perhaps the children took it up naturally. The first singing masters that those now living can remember, were Reuben Ho- bart and John Kimball. "Mr. Kimball could sing more base than any six men now-a-days." No doubt they could all make good music from the pieces in the Handel and Halyn and the Ancient Lyre, but heard across] the wide waste of years perhaps it sounds swerter to- day than at first. Jefferson Hubbard taught in the church some thirty-four or five years ago. and used a book in which figures were used to denote the sound.
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Horatio Newell was the last singing master here, and taught in the red school- house above the village.
Before closing this chapter we wish to relate a little incident of school life; one of those every day happenings that bor- der so closely ou darksome tragedies. Little Mary Smith went down to school one morning with an elder sister. The
novelty of her surroundings soon wore off, and she slyly started for home. as she thought. Elder Samuel Wheeler met her a short distance below the school-house, and asked her name, whose girl she was, and if she would ride with him. Her baby answers he could not understand, but as she positively de- clined to ride he drove on, told the teacher. Betsey Maun, and saw the children start after her. Mı. Wheeler stopped at Aaron Peabody's. and the family were just eating dinner when the alarm was given that Mary Smith was lost. "O!" exclaimed the old gentle- man. "I'm to blame for that! I ought to have taken her right up." Everyone joined in the search. The hillsides down to the brook, and the pine woods below were hunted over, and Mrs. Smith, half distracted with fear, kept calling her name. for they thought the child would recognize and answer her mother's voice
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