History of Strafford County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 13

Author: Scales, John, 1835-1928
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 988

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Thus it is manifest that the political history of Dover did not begin with a general government, but was first, and the government developed from it. Dover was never incorporated. The name of the town was Northam when the people voted to come under, or rather unite with Massachusetts. It was made one of the towns of Norfolk county, and the representatives who were sent to the Massachusetts General Court were among the leading men of the Bay Colony. The town continued to transact its own local affairs in

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its own town meetings, being subject only to the general laws that were enacted by the General Court. It was the sole grantor of lands within its limits, and its citizens held these lands in fee simple. It levied and collected its own taxes. It made its own municipal regulations. The town records contain many examples of this sort; just what the local conditions demanded; they they did not ask the General Court to do anything of this kind for then. They decided in town meeting whether or not a man might become a resi- dent among them. Not every one who came along was allowed to reside in its settlements; they looked carefully at the quality of its citizens. They did not require everybody to become a member of the Church to have the right to vote, but they took good care that none but reputable men were made freemen and voters in town meetings. No man could be taken out of his neighborhood for trial as to his person or property; the local courts had entire control in such matters. No person or soldiers could be drawn out of Dover without the consent of the town.

Dover was under the authority of the general laws of Massachusetts for forty years. It sent its Representatives to the General Court; they called them Deputies. Maj. Richard Walderne was one of the number many times and was seven years Speaker of the House in that General Court, and was one of the most influential men in that official body, but his constituents kept close watch of him and the Court. Dover repeatedly passed such votes of instruction as this: "You shall stand to maintain our privileges by virtue of our articles of agreement and bring the proceedings of the Court that concern us in writing." And again: "In town meeting voted orders for the Deputy to the General Court: He shall not with his consent pass any act impugning our privileges, but shall enter his dissent against all such acts." And again: "You shall stand to maintain our priv- ileges concerning military affairs that we may not be drawn out of our county of Dover and Portsmouth according to our first ( 1641) agreement." These instructions were not solely for Deputy Walderne, but for every Deputy the town sent to the Massachusetts General Court. They did not have newspapers in those days, so when the Court was through its session Major Walderne had to read his report of the proceedings, and laws enacted, to the people assembled in public meeting in the meeting house on Dover Neck. No doubt the leading men cross questioned him closely, as he read his reports.

At the end of forty years, the same number that the Patriarch Moses led the Israelites in the Wilderness, the New Hampshire towns were made into the Province of New Hampshire, which made its own laws but had a common Governor with Massachusetts. In 1742 the province was separated completely from Massachusetts and had its own Governor. In 1775 the Province changed to a Colony, and very soon to a State. Dover men took an active and important part as the various changes were made, through

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wars and revolutions. Dover continued the town meeting form of govern- ment down to 1856, two centuries and a quarter. The town had grown so numerous that the town meetings were very unwieldy bodies to govern and transact public business in an orderly and satisfactory manner, so in 1855 the New Hampshire General Court granted the petition of the citizens for a city charter. The last regular town meeting was held March 13, 1855; Joseph Dame Guppy was moderator. The selectmen elected were Charles Clement, Daniel Hussey and David Steele; town clerk, Amasa Roberts; Rep- resentatives to the General Court, Daniel M. Christie, Nathaniel Wiggin, James Bennett, William S. Stevens, Ivory Paul and Edmund J. Lane. These were the last before the city government was organized. The last special town meeting was August 15, 1855; Charles A. Tufts was moderator. At this meeting the city charter was accepted, and the ancient town meetings came to an end. The first city election was held in November, 1855, at which Hon. Anrew Peirce was elected mayor, and the city government was organized on March 25, 1856.

CHAPTER X

HISTORY OF DOVER (VI)

IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF DOVER

Following are some of the most important events in the history of Dover, mentioned in the order of their occurrence. There are others, but these are milestones which will mark the journey of the school boy and school girl and every student in search of Dover history. The complete story of each one would make an interesting chapter, but that will not be attempted in this work.

First, 1623: The beginning of settlement of Hilton Point in the spring of 1623. by Edward Hilton and his party.

Second, 1633: The arrival of Capt. Thomas Wiggin's company in Octo- ber, 1633. They organized the village on Dover Neck, and established the First Parish.

Third, 1638: The organization of the First Church in December, 1638, by the Rev. Hanserd Knollys and Capt. John Underhill.

Fourth, 1640: The Combination Agreement for government of the Dover settlement, signed in 1640, Thomas Roberts being Governor.

Fifth, 1642: The vote in 1641 to unite with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which union was completed in 1642, which remained in force. prac- tically, a half century.

Sixth, 1643: Settlement of the boundary line between Bloody Point and Strawberry Bank by commissioners from the Massachusetts General Court. Practically the line now between Portsmouth and Newington ; the latter town was "Bloody Point in Dover" until it was made a separate town by the Pro- vincial Assembly in 1712 with the name of Newington.

Seventh, 1642: Beginning of the settlement at "Cochecho in Dover," and the erection of a sawmill and gristmill by Richard Walderne, later known -

as "Major Richard," at the falls east of Central avenue bridge. He was granted fifteen hundred trees, either oak or pine, for the accommodation of his sawmill he was shortly to erect.

Eighth, 1650: Grants of waterfalls to various persons for sawmills, with timber adjacent, at the second falls of the Cochecho, and the second falls of the Newichawannock.

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Ninth, 1652: Disputes about boundaries of sawmill grants.

Tenth, 1652: Capt. Richard Walderne contracted to build the meet- ing house, on Meeting House hill, Dover Neck, between April. 1653. and April, 1654. And it was so built.

Eleventh, 1652: The boundary of Dover was fixed by a committee appointed by the General Court, consisting of William Payne, Samuel Wins- low and Matthew Boyse. The territory included what is now Dover, Som- ersworth, Durham, Madbury, Lee and Newington.

Twelfth, 1662, December 22: Order by the Court, Richard Walderne presiding, for the expulsion of the Quaker women who had made disturbance in town; and they were whipped and expelled in accordance with the order.

Thirteenth, 1665: Peter Coffin was authorized to "Build a Turrett upon the Meeting House for to hang the Bell which we have bought of Capt. Walderne." It was built and the bell was hung. It is supposed that the tra- dition is true that that bell forms a part of the bell metal which composed the old bell on the First Parish meeting house.

Fourteenth, 1666: Various persons were warned out of town as being undesirable inhabitants.

Fifteenth, 1667: Left. (Peter) Coffin engaged by the selectmen to build a fort around the meeting house, one hundreed feet square, with two sconces sixteen feet square, all of timber twelve inches thick, and the wall to be eight feet high with sills and braces.

Sixteenth, 1675: The beginning of Indian wars in 1675 which continued fifty years, ending at Knox Marsh in 1725. The first garrisons were built in 1675. There had been no trouble with the Indians in Dover up to that date.

Seventeenth, 1675: The advent of the Capt. John Mason claimants in 1675, who demanded rent from every land owner; and the settlements here on the Pascataqua river were then first called "New Hampshire."

Eighteenth, 1674: The first execution of white men in any of the Pas- cataqua plantations. The record says: "A fisherman about Pascataqua had two servants, who in anger conspired to kill yr master, did so, tooke his money & fled, but were taken & both executed." Where they were hung is not stated, but probably on Dover Neck.

Nineteenth, 1678: Rev. John Pike came to Dover and became minister of the First Church November 1. He commenced keeping a diary which is of great historical value.

Twentieth, 1679: September 18, the union with Massachusetts was dis- solved at this date by royal proclamation. John Cutt was appointed president of the province with a Council of six of the principal inhabitants, of whom Richard Walderne of Dover was one. Agreeably to the royal direction these six chose three other gentlemen into the Council, of whom John Clements of Dover was one. President Cutt nominated Major Walderne to be his

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deputy, or vice-president, and John Roberts marshal. That was the begin- ning of New Hampshire. Dover is fifty-six years older than New Hampshire.

Twentieth, 1685: The attempt of the heirs of Capt. John Mason to obtain possession of lands claimed by them, and the countenance which they received from the courts which had been established for that very purpose, at the instigation of Governor Cranfield, led to forcible resistance on the part of some of the inhabitants in Dover. Executions were issued for the arrest of Major Walderne and other principal citizens of Dover.

Twenty-first, 1689, June 27-8: Destruction of Cochecho, in which Major Walderne's garrison was burned, as also Richard Otis' garrison, and their bodies were burned in the buildings, etc.

Twenty-second, 1690: End of the provincial government of 1680. Steps taken to return to a union with Massachusetts, as before 1679.

Twenty-third, 1691: New Hampshire reorganized as a province, with a Lieutenant-Governor, having the same Governor as Massachusetts.

Twenty-fourth, 1694: Massacre of settlers at Oyster river, on July 17.

Twenty-fifth, 1709: The first pound at Cochecho Falls was ordered built this year.

Twenty-sixth, 1712: Meeting house built on Pine Hill by the residents of Cochecho.

Twenty-seventh, 1715: Place for town meetings changed from Dover Neck to the meeting house on Pine Hill.

Twenty-eighth, 1717, September 18: Rev. Jonathan Cushing was ordained as minister of the First Church, which position he held fifty years.

Twenty-ninth, 1724, August 27: Is date of the end of Indian wars in Dover, when the house of John Hanson at Nock's Marsh was attacked by the Indians, two of his children killed, and his wife, maid servant and four children carried to Canada, prisoners.

Thirtieth, 1744: Capt. Samuel Hale raised a company of Dover men and was in command of them at the capture of Louisburg in 1745. He was a noted schoolmaster in Dover for two or three years preceding that war and later far more famous as a schoolmaster and public official in Portsmouth.

Thirty-first, 1754, April 22: The parish of Somersworth incorporated as a town.

Thirty-second, 1755: Madbury was made a parish separate from Dover.

Thirty-third, 1758: A new meeting house was built on Tuttle square, and the old house on Pine Hill was torn down in 1760; the last town meeting was held there March 31, 1760.

Thirty-fourth, 1762: First Parish was incorporated by the Provincial Assembly, to be distinct from the town.

Thirty-fifth, 1768: The parish of Madbury was set off from Dover and made a town.

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Thirty-sixth, 1772, November 10: This day Rev. Jeremy Belknap, min- ister of the First Church, preached a sermon before his Excellency John Wentworth, Esq., Governor of His Majesty's Province of New Hampshire, at a review of the Second Regiment of Foot, at Dover, in said province; and met so favorable a hearing that the officers requested a copy for the press, which was granted. (Life of Doctor Belknap. )

Thirty-sixth, 1774: Beginning of the Revolution. Dover men in town meeting took patriotic action.

Thirty-seventh, 1792, June 6: The State Legislature held its first and last session in Dover this year. It closed its work on June 22. During the session there was a presentation of an opera, called the "Beggar's Opera," at the theatre in Dover. The entertainment on another evening was Garrick's "Satyracal Farce Lethe, or Aesop in the Shades."

Thirty-eighth, 1805, May 17: The Dover turnpike road from Dover to South Berwick was opened to public travel.

Thirty-ninth, 1817: President Monroe visited Dover in July this year and was given a grand reception.

Fortieth, 1821: The corner-stone of the new factory was laid on the 4th of July, with Masonic ceremonies; Col. Andrew Peirce delivered the address. The Nail Factory was also set up at the Lower Falls this year.

Forty-first, 1825: General Lafayette's visit to Dover in June, this year. He was given a grand reception.

Forty-second, 1824-1830: Period of great religious excitement and dis- cussion. Division of the First Church and formation of the First Unitarian Church. The Unitarians dedicated their brick church on Locust street Feb- ruary 18, 1829. The First Parish dedicated its new brick church December 31, 1829.

Forty-second, 1840: The turnpike road from Dover to South Berwick was made a free road February 7, by decree of Court of Common Pleas.

Forty-third, 1841: Boston & Maine Railroad was opened for business at the west side of the cut through the hill at Washington street, September Ist, and the company held its annual meeting in Dover.

Forty-fourth, 1842, June 30: Cars of the Boston & Maine Railroad crossed the Cochecho for the first time, arriving at the new depot on Frank- lin square at 10:30 o'clock, which, with the bridge across the river, was com- pleted a few days before.

Forty-fifth, 1860, March 2: Abraham Lincoln addressed a mass meeting in the city hall, Dover. The hall was packed to the doors.

Forty-sixth, 1861, April 15: A mass meeting of citizens was held in the city hall to take action in relation to President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteer soldiers. The first recruiting office was opened April 17, by George W. Colbath, and in three days more than one hundred and fifty men had volunteered.

CHAPTER XI HISTORY OF DOVER (VII)

DOVER NECK

Dover Neck is that section of Old Dover which is separated from Hilton Point by Pomeroy's Cove, over which the Portsmouth & Dover Railroad crosses. It is bounded on the east by Newichawannock river, on the west by Back river, on the south by the Pascataqua river, and on the north by "Upper Neck," which is the land included between three rivers, Back river on the west, Cochecho river on the north and the Newichawannock on the east. The ground is level for a third of a mile above Pomeroy's Cove and Sandy Point, then rises gradually to the summit of Huckleberry Hill, a distance of a mile or more. It was on this hill that Capt. Thomas Wiggin's company settled in the fall of 1633. It is a beautiful location; no finer view of hills, rivers, bays, broad fields and forests can be found in New Hampshire. It was on this hill the first meeting house was build in New Hampshire, and the outlines of where the second meeting house stood are yet preserved and properly marked. The First Church owns the land. Margery Sullivan Chapter D. A. R. paid the expense of constructing a wall along the roadside of the lot and enclosed it with iron rails, that mark where the stockade was placed when it became necessary to fortify it against possible attacks by the Indians, about 1670. But they never made any attempt to attack the settlement on the Neck, although they wrought havoc all around it.

The hill slopes gently to each river. For convenience the inhabitants called the river on the cast Fore river, and that on the west Back river. Along the summit of the hill they built a road and called it High street. This was the business street of the settlement. About an eighth of a mile from this, toward Back river, they built another road and called it Low street. Between these, at various points, were cross streets called lanes, some of which also extended down to landings on Back river. Back Cove especially was a busy shipping point on that river. The historic "Hall's Spring" is near there and was marked with a curbing a few years ago by Col. Daniel Hall, a lineal descendant of Deacon John Hall, from whom it received its name.

There were also lanes, at several places, from High street to shipping points along Fore river. The dwelling houses were along each side of High

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street, and also along Low street. Each householder had an acre or two of land connected with his house, on which he raised his garden stuff and had his various outhouses for whatever work he carried. The cooper business was especially flourishing. Everybody had a trade and everybody worked. There were no gentlemen of leisure or lords of manors. Every known trade in England was in some way represented by a tradesman who was an expert in that line of business. All the boys were compelled to have a trade. If they could not be instructed by their parents they were set to "serve their time" of apprenticeship with someone competent to properly instruct them to become good workmen and good citizens.

It was in the fall and winter of 1633-34 that Captain Wiggin and his men staked out the bounds of the village and began clearing the forest. It must have been a very busy time, and strenuous work was put forth in muscle and brain to cut down the trees, convert the logs into houses, clean up the brushwood and keep comfortably warm in the cold weather. The winds from the northwest blew very cold there in winter, having a clear sweep from the mountains in the White mountain region. It is easy to understand why those sturdy Englishmen built their first meeting house under the south- west protection of the hill; it was a warmer place, less exposed to the fierce blasts and blinding snowstorms from the east. Twenty years later, when the village had become well built up with substantial houses and other comfort- able surroundings, they then built the historic meeting house on the summit of the hill, ready to withstand fierce winds, howling storms and all sorts of weather, and they had leisure hours to enjoy the beautiful, grand and pic- turesque views, as you can see them today.

At the beginning Captain Wiggin is said to have had authority to make allotments of land to each man. Just how he did it there is no record. There is no record of when the first town meeting was held. It is doubtful if they held any as long as Captain Wiggin remained in supreme control as governor. Of course they had their parish meetings from the beginning. As they had a minister, one of the first public undertakings was to build a meeting house for him to hold the services in on the Lord's Day. The fair inference is that the parish meetings antedate the town meetings by several years. Probably the era of town meetings began when the first "combination" was formed in 1637. When the town meetings came to be a fixture, the right of making grants of land to individuals, which Captain Wiggin exercised as long as he was in control, was assumed by the town meetings, and it was in those meet- ings that all grants were made, as long as there was any public land remain- ing in control of the town.

As tourists pass along High street, now the State road, they do not, from present appearance, have anything in view to indicate this locality was the busy center of business, with two streets lined with dwelling houses and

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places of business. Yet for ninety years this was "Dover," and when you read history of the times, up to and past 1700, and Dover is referred to, this is the locality, and. not where the present city building stands. What is now called the Dover Point road was called the "road from Dover to Cochecho."

The cellars can now be traced by hollows in the fields and orchards, where for a hundred and fifty years was a very busy and prosperous business center. There was the meeting house in which religious meetings, town meetings, courts and public assemblies in general were held. In the early years near by were the jail and the stocks. On the bank of Fore river is the spot where the first brewery and the first tannery were built in New Hampshire. For a great many years shipbuilding was largely engaged in at shipyards on Fore river. At a cove about a mile and a half above Pomeroy's Cove a frigate was built for the English navy before 1660, being the first ship of its kind built on this side of the Atlantic. In the next century Capt. Thomas Millet, who came there in 1720, was a famous shipbuilder and sailed his ships after he built them, and while he was away his wife, Love Bunker, bossed the shipyard work and kept everything in perfect order until the Captain returned from his voyage to the West Indies. An apple tree is now standing near where his house stood, which he set out 190 years ago; it was brought over from Eng- land in a tub; it was kept in a tub in order to keep it properly watered while on shipboard.

It was here at the meeting house that the Quaker women were tried in a court held by Richard Walderne, and were sentenced to be whipped and sent out of town; and it was here the order began to be executed, and not at Chochecho, as the poet Whittier states in his poem. It was here that from time to time all the great men of the period assembled for business that con- cerned various public interests. The great shipping point of the town in those years was Sandy Point at Pomeroy's Cove, the landing place of the first settlers. The cause of the change to the present conditions of that of a farm- ing district is easy to explain. Business changed as the province progressed. The young men went to points where new business called them. The old men died. The deserted houses went to ruin. The cellars were filled. The farmers changed the land into fertile fields and flourishing orchards. But the far-reaching landscape of land and water remains as beautiful and grand as ever.

CHAPTER XII HISTORY OF DOVER (VIII)

COCHECHO

What is called Cochecho-in-Dover for the first seventy-five years of its existence, has been the leading part of the town since 1715; it is the business center around which cluster the chief manufacturing interests. Hilton's Point began to be settled in 1623; Dover Neck, which for several years was called Northam, until 1652, began to be settled in 1633; Cochecho had its first beginning in 1642, when a grant of land at the lower falls was given to Richard Walderne, who later won fame as Major Walderne. Up to that year the water had run undisturbed. In that year is the first we find notice of them ; the settlers had been too busy elsewhere to come here. On the Ist of the 6th mo. 1642, granted Walderne fifty acres on the north side of the falls. This grant covered the territory up as far as New York street and up the river to Fourth street bridge. On the 30th 6th mo. 1643 the town gave him another grant of sixty acres on the south side of the falls, so he came into control of the waterpower here, and it remained in possession of his family one hundred and seventy years, the last of his descendants who owned it being Daniel Waldron, as the family had come to spell the name.

Major Walderne built mills on both sides of the river; a sawmill on the south side and a grist mill on the north. In 1649 Joseph Austin bought a quarter part interest in the south side mill. In 1671 Peter Coffin bought a quarter interest of Walderne's south side mill. Mr. Coffin lived in a house that stood on Orchard street, near the Williams belt factory about where the south end of Freeman N. Davis' bowling alley now is, but the house stood on a hill as high as the roof of that building is. The hill was cut down when Orchard street was constructed, up to which time it had remained in posses- sion of the Coffin family, more than two hundred years; and the street was called Orchard street because the Coffin orchard covered the ground west of the house.

Major Walderne's house stood where the east end of the courthouse stands and out near to Central avenue; that house was made a garrison by a stockade around it about 1673, when the Indians began to become dangerous ; it was burned June 28, 1689, when the great massacre took place. The land

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History of Strafford County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 13

Author: Scales, John, 1835-1928 Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold Number of Pages: 988

Author: Scales, John, 1835-1928
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 988