USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > History of Strafford County, New Hampshire and representative citizens > Part 43
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Mrs. Marilla Marks (Young) Ricker, a biographical sketch of whom can be found in another part of this volume, is a native of New Durham. Her ancestors were among the first settlers in the town and her kinsmen still abide there. She is proud of her native town and pays it an annual visit. At her death she has made suitable provisions for the cremation of her body and the burial of the ashes in the old family burial ground on the beautiful hill.
Mrs. Ricker was given a good education, as well as a thorough training in domestic science by her good mother. She was a brilliant school teacher before marriage; she became a widow when a young woman ; she was ambi- tions to do things and not afraid to say things at the proper time ; she studied law in Washington, D. C .; she was admitted to the bar there and practiced her profession. In later years she returned to New Hampshire and resided at Dover. She applied for admission to the New Hampshire bar ; she was finally admitted by a very elaborate decision rendered by Chief Justice Doe of the Supreme Court, being the first woman admitted to the bar to practice law in this state or in New England.
Mrs. Ricker was born of good Free Will Baptist parents and is a strong admirer of Elder Benjamin Randall, and she bears the name of one of the most noted women of the Free Will Baptist denomination. Mrs. Marks, who
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was the wife of the Rev. David Marks. But, strange to say, Mrs. Ricker adopts and lives up to only a part of Elder Randall's creed; she is a thorough believer in free will and has practiced it for many years, omitting the Baptist part of the creed. New Durham had an Old Home Day celebration not long ago and Mrs. Ricker was the orator of the day. The celebration was a grand success and her address was applauded much in its delivery and will be long remembered by those who heard it. She praised her native town and set forth its beauties and its grand attractions for summer visitors. She made special note of the fact that there were no illiterate adults in New Durham, and never had been from the beginning of the settlement in the primeval forest before the Revolutionary war began. The town has always provided good schools and the families have raised good children to be educated in them. Its farmers and especially its housewives are and always have been among the best and most industrious in New Hampshire. New Durham has some very rocky places and hills hard to climb, but it has good farms and good farmers in the smoother places, and her forests are perennial. For a number of years Mrs. Ricker has made Dover her chief residence, spending the cold winter weather in warmer southland.
CHAPTER LIII
HISTORY OF MIDDLETON (I)
ORIGIN OF ITS NAME-LEADING POINTS IN ITS HISTORY
Middleton is in the middle of the most northern part of Strafford county. It lies in a wedge-shape form between Milton on the east and south, and New Durham on the west. It received its name from its location. It was granted by the Masonian proprietors to certain petitioners who had settled there, or proposed to do so, March 21, 1770. These settlers were immigrants into the forests from Lee, Rochester and Somersworth, a leader among whom was Thomas Morgan. It then included the present town of Brookfield, and when the original Strafford county was incorporated the Brookfield part was in the county, but is now in Carroll county. Up to the beginning of the Revolu- tion the settlements were all in the vicinity of Middleton Corners. In 1773 they presented the following petition to the General Assembly of New Hampshire :
Province of New Hampshire
To His Excellency, John Wentworth, Esq., Captain General and Com- mander-in-Chief in and over said Province of New Hampshire, etc., etc., and to the Honorable His Majesty's Council for the Same-
The Humble petition of a Number of the inhabitants and proprietors of the Township of Middleton in the county of Strafford and province aforesaid, being a tract of land granted by the Proprietors of Mason's patent so called on the 21st day of March, 1770-Most Humbly showeth that great progress is made and is still making towards the Compleat Settlement of said tract of land and that the inhabitants and proprietors thereof have been at great expense and Charge in making public roads through said Township for the benefit of His Majesty's Service-Your petitioners therefore pray that your excellency and Honours would be pleased to incorporate said tract of land into a Township with such priviledges as other Towns enjoy within this Province by the bounds and limits contained in sd. Grant and your Petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray.
Middleton, July 7, 1773-
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HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY
John Drew, William Hill. Nicholas Tuttle, Nathaniel Varney, Isaac Drew, Nathaniel Wentworth, Josiah Johnson, Henry Young, Joseph Cook, John Hanson, John Tash, Ezekiel Sanborn, Isaac Stanton, John Gage.
This petition was duly considered but not granted, but they were authorized to choose selectmen and a constable for the sole purpose of raising a province tax, and the following was the tax collected: in 1775, 7 pounds, 4 shillings; 1776, 4 pounds, 6 shillings, 6 pence; 1777, 27 pounds, 14 shill- ings, 4 pence. And in 1777 the inhabitants presented the following petition :
State of New Hampshire
To the Honorable General Assembly now convened at Exeter :
The Memorial of Simeon Dearborn in behalf of the Inhabitants of Middle- town and Leavits Town ( so called) Humbly shews that said Inhabitants are not incorporated into Towns, but were by the General Court of said State (when under the former Government ) Authorized to chuse Selectmen and a Constable for the Sole purpose of. Raising a Province Tax-Since the late distraction of the time have neglected to chuse said Officers, by which means they are returned to a State of Nature-Therefore your Memorilist Humbly Prays that said Inhabitants may be invested with Town priveleges, and in such a manner (if consistent ) as to retain the Proprietary privileges as here- tofore-and your Petitioner shall as in duty Bound ever pray-
SIMEON DEARBORN.
Exeter, March ioth, 1777.
The prayer of the petitioner was answered by the General Court by incor- porating Middleton March 4, 1778. The name Leavits Town disappears, which was locally applied to the northern part. now Brookfield. The two sections are separated by the almost impassable mountains : Great Moose, Bald and Parker's Mountain. In 1785 the following petition was presented to the General Court of New Hampshire asking for a division of the town along these mountains and have the northern section annexed to Wolfsborough.
State of New Hampshire
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in General Court Convened at Concord, third Wednesday of October, 1785.
Humbly Shew the Inhabitants of the Second Division of Middletown, in the County of Strafford, and State aforesaid, that they are situated at great distance from the place of holding the public meetings in said Town, prevented from going to the other part of the Town where most of the Inhabi- tants live, without traveling into another Town first, through roads almost impassible for the greater part of the year -- Your Petitioners being so cir-
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cumstanced have been and must be deprived of the benefit of all town privileges in Middletown while they belong thereto-That as your Petitioners can more conveniently attend public meetings in Wolfeborough, shold the Meeting House there be built at the place agreed on-They pray that they may be dis- annexed from Middletown and annexed to Wolfeborough, or otherwise relieved from their present grievance-And your Petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray.
NICHOLAS AUSTIN, for Petitioners.
The petition is signed by forty-six names but there is no date attached ; it was in 1785. When the inhabitants south of the mountains heard of this peti- tion they bestirred themselves and got up the following remonstrance which was sent to the October meeting of the General Court :
State of New Hampshire, Strafford, S. S.
To the Honorable the General Court of said State-The Petition of us the Subscribers, Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Town of Middletown in said State Humbly sheweth that we your Petitioners are much Surprised to hear that a Number of People Inhabiting the upper part of our Town have petitioned to be set off from us in the infant State of our Town as we all are but few in number and the State of our affairs both Public and Private being such that if granted we apprehend would be a great disadvantage to the General Welfare and Advancement of the Town, if not Ruin Both, Therefore we Humbly pray that their said Petition be not granted, or at least that it may be suspended to some futer Day, and Your Petitioners in duty bound shall pray.
Middle Town, May 28th, 1785.
This is signed by thirty-four men among whose names are Perkins, Hanson, Pike, Cook, Whitehouse, Baker, Horn, Ellis, Bickford, Richards, Garland, York, Wentworth, Johnson, Keniston, Burnham, Stanton. These remonstrants won and the devision did not take place until Dec. 30, 1794, when the north part was incorporated into a town named Brookfield. For a number of years these two towns united in sending a representative to the Legislature. In 1826 David Davis, Esq., who represented these towns in the Legislature, caused a special act to be passed, allowing each town a member, neither of which had the . constitutional number of votes.
The first settled minister was. Rev. Nehemiah Ordway (orthodox). His successor, Elder John Buzzell, a Free Will Baptist, established a church, since which time this has been the prevailing religions sentiment.
The southern and central parts of Middleton have a level surface, but while looking north, Great Moose, Bald, and Parker Mountains tower up
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HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY
before the eye of the beholder, forming a natural bulwark between this and the town of Brookfield. The soil yields good returns by that perseverance and industry which characterizes New Hampshire farmers; the mountains protect them from the cold north winds so the town affords some of the most delightful residences in New Hampshire. Many of the farmers are in pros- perous circumstances.
Middleton Corners, a little hamlet south of the center of the town, is the principal place of business. Here is the postoffice, the stores, a hotel, a public hall, and one Free Will Baptist Church edifice.
Middleton contains 7,154 acres, of which 4,000 are improved by cultiva- tion. The census of 1790 shows there were 107 heads of families in the town, and 613 inhabitants. The largest family had 13 to provide for ; 8 and so in a family was common; there were 164 boys under 16 years of age; there were 304 women and girls. Among the family names were: Furnald, Palmer, Willey, Drew, Durgin, Daniels, Brown, Stanton, Austin, .Johnson, Tibbets, Stodard, Nickerson, Coldair, Whitehouse, Lyford, Roberson, Pike, Dearborn, Hanson, Watson, Wiggins, Clay, Palmer, Keniston, Perkins, Cham- berlain, Kent, Edgerly, Stellings, Alley, Sanborn, Wentworth, Dearborn, Sawyer, Hill, Woodman, Colley, Bryant, Perkins, Gappy, Baggey, Hines, Bickford, Horn, Bennett, Davis, Twombly, Hix, Runnels, Place, Gerrish, Richards, Frost, and Baker. The present residents of the town, in 1913, are practically descendants of these families and are sturdy representatives of the English stock of New England. They have good schools there and every child goes to school. No illiterates in Middleton. The census of 1870 shows a population of 482, that is a decrease of 131; in 1890 it was 207; in 1900, 300; in 1910, 291, the smallest ever, 15 less than half the number it was in 1790.
The boundary lines of the town are sixteen in number, taking the highest record of any town in the county. The lines on the east and on the west run very nearly north and south, and are parallel and four miles apart; Wake- field is on the east and New Durham on the west. The south line, between Middleton and Milton, runs northeast-southwest, and is five miles and a half long. The north line, between it and Brookfield, has 13 angles and thirteen straight fines ; the surveyors could not do any better ; they could not get over the mountains which cover the way without zig-zagging in the manner the line appears on the map.
The most northern source of the Salmon Falls river has its rise in Great Moose mountain in the northwest corner of Middleton. In the southwest part of the town is a pond which is the source of the Cochecho river ; the orig- inal pond is much enlarged by a reservoir dam.
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CHAPTER LIV HISTORY OF MIDDLETONN (II)
NOTED PERSONS BORN IN MIDDLETON
Rev. William Buzsell, a Free Will Baptist minister was born in Middle- ton, Jan. 4, 1775. He was a son of William and a cousin of Rev. Jolın Buzzell, who resided there from 1768 to 1798. Their parents went there from Barrington. He was a farmer until he was about thirty years old, when he was converted under the Free Will Baptist influence and com- menced preaching at Middleton in 1804; he was ordained to the ministry in 1806 and served as pastor of the Free Will Baptist Church in that town un- til 1831, a period of thirty-seven years. During the time he had charge, some years, of the New Durham (Elder Randall's) Church. He preached more than one thousand funeral sermons, being well known and highly esteemed in all the towns around. He officiated at more than six hundred weddings, and baptized several hundred. He possessed marked ability as a preacher, and his commanding presence and sonorous voice made him specially serviceable in grove meetings. When he was tempted to remove from Middleton and change his pastorate such was the love of his brethren for him that they would not permit him to leave the Middleton Church. He died June 14, 1841; two brothers and a cousin and two nephews were ministers.
Rev. John York was born in Middleton, March 4, 1783; he died in East Dixmont, Maine, April 25, 1862, aged seventy-nine years. He was converted at a revival in his native town when he was a young man and was baptized by Elder Benjamin Randall; when he was twenty-four years old he married and removed to Dixmont, Maine, and soon after became a member of the Free Will Baptist Church at Newburgh when it was organ- ized in 1809, and he took the oversight of it as pastor, and in 1811 was or- dained as an evangelist. The ordination service took place at Wilton, Maine, where Rev. Ebenezer Scales was minister and officiated in the ordi- nation ceremonies. He retained his residence at East Dixmont, but did itinerary work as an evangelist in Monroe, Brooks and Jackson, Maine, be-
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HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY
sides holding the pastorate at Newburgh up to 1819. In the following years he labored in twenty-two towns in Eastern Maine and organized six churches. He was in active service up to 1857, but in the closing five years of his life he preached only occasionally.
Rev. Daniel Bussell Goodwin was born in Middleton Feb. 22, 1811, son of Dr. Joseph and Anna ( Hanson) Goodwin. He was converted when a young man, and being a good speaker he labored as a lay evangelist in the interval when he was not busy with his necessary work on his farm in Middleton. He was a welcome visitor in Wolfeborough, Tuftonborough, Moultonborough and Milton, and was an able assistant in many revivals. Occasionally he spoke in Maine, at Lebanon, Sanford and Berwick. He simply claimed to be a Christian. In January, 1858, he was ordained to the ministry at Moultonborough by the Stafford County Conference of Christians, and was minister of the church there 1858-71; at West Milton, 1871-80. He continued his residence in that town, but was without a charge the remaining eight years of his life. He died Oct. 10, 1888.
Rev. Edmund Chadwick was born in Middleton, Jan. 12, 1812; died at Eddytown, New York, April 7, 1899. He wa a student at Dartmouth Medi- cal College for a time, Waterville College, 1836-38, graduating from Bowdoin in 1840. Following that he was a teacher at Nashville, Tennessee, two years. In 1843 he commenced studying for the ministry at Lane Theolog- ical Seminary. He finished his studies at Bangor Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1845. He was licensed to preach by the Penobscot Association (Congregationalist), at Bangor, Maine, Nov. 12, 1844. Ordained at Franklin in 1845, agent of Sabbath School Assocition, Ohio, 1843-4; prin- cipal Starkey Seminary, 1847-61 ; principal of Dundee (New York) Academy, 1863-7 ; president of County Teachers' Association, and loan commissioner for the United States deposit school fund for the State of New York. He held high rank among the educators of New York state.
CHAPTER LV
HISTORY OF ROCHESTER (I)
GEOGRAPHICAL-TOPOGRAPHICAL-INCORPORATION-THE ROYAL CHARTER -THE TOWN NAMED-FIRST MEETING OF PROPRIETORS-FIRST CLERK- FIRST SELECTMEN- SURVEY OF THE TOWNSHIP-DRAWING THE LOTS- THE PIONEER SETTLER-OTHER EARLY SETTLEMENTS-SUBSEQUENT DIVI- SION OF LANDS-"NORWAY PLAINS"-CLOSE OF THE PROSPECTORS' REIGN- LAST MEETING-TOWN ASSUMES CONTROL OF AFFAIRS.
The town of Rochester lies in the eastern part of the county, and is bounded as follows: On the north by Farmington and Milton, on the east by Salmon Falls river, which separates it from Maine, on the south by Som- ersworth, Dover and Barrington, and on the west by Barrington, Strafford and Farmington.
The surface of the town is rolling, and the soil generally fertile. It is watered by the Salmon Falls, Cochecho, and Isinglass rivers.
Incorporation .- This town was incorporated by royal charter under date of May 10, 1722. The charter was granted in the name of King George I, and the signing of this document, which gave a "local habitation and a name" to this section, was the last act of government performed by Gov. Samuel Shute, his Majesty's Governor of the Colonies of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Its caption bears the following :
" George, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King Defender of the faith, etc."
The town was named in honor of the Earl of Rochester, a brother-in- law of King James II, and one of the most eminent men of his time. For a number of years he had held the exalted position of lord treasurer.
Immediately following the charter is "A Schedule of the names of the Proprietors of the Town of Rochester with their respective proportions ascertained being Part of the Charter." First appears a list of fifty-two whole-share proprietors, heading which is the name of Col. Richard Wal- dron, and at the close "Parsonage," "Use of Grammar School," and "First Ordained Gospel Minister." Secondly, "Half-share Proprietors;" of these 27
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there are eight. Then come twenty-four quarter-share proprietors, and, final- ly, "Associates admitted, Governor Shute for a home lot and five hundred acres; Lieut .- Governor Wentworth, ditto. Eight other members of the Gov- ernment Council a whole share each."
The petition for the charter of the town was signed by most of the in- habitants of Dover, with others from Portsmouth, Newington and Durham.
The first meeting of the proprietors was held at the meeting-house in Cochecho, July 9, 1722, "to consider, debate, and resolve such matters and things" as were necessary for the performance of the conditions of the char- ter. Col. Richard Waldron was chosen moderator, and Paul Gerrish town and proprietor's clerk.
The first condition of the charter required that within three years the proprietors should build a house and settle a family therein, and within four years plant or sow three acres of ground. The right of those who fail to comply was forfeited. It was therefore decided at this meeting that the most commodious part of the town should be laid out into "home lots," where the several proprietors might build their houses and settle their families. A committee was appointed to "pitch upon" the best location, and were also instructed to lay out roads and also a suitable "train-field." The clerk was instructed to procure a "book consisting of three quires of paper bound up in parchment, at the charge of the commoners," to keep the records in. This was all the business transacted. In consequence of the Indian troubles, which kept the border settlements in a constant state of alarm for the next few years, no meeting of the proprietors was held until April 24, 1727. At this meeting Paul Gerrish was reelected clerk and served until his death, in 1744.
The first selectmen were also chosen at this meeting, as follows: Capt. Francis Matthews, Capt. John Knight, and Paul Gerrish. At this time but little interest seems to have been taken in the new plantation. The selectmen notified the committee which had been appointed five years before to lay out the home lots to reconsider a plan of division, and after five months a plan was submitted which proved not acceptable to the proprietors, and was voted "void and of no effect."
Capt. Robert Evans was then chosen by the proprietors to survey and lay out the plantation in 125 lots, one lot for each share, of sixty acres each, ' in ranges from Salmon Falls river to the Barrington line.
The survey having been made, the drawing of the lots was commenced Dec. 13, at the meeting-house in Cochecho, by Rev. James Pike, and com- pleted on the following day at Oyster River (Durham), whither the meeting bad adjourned.
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The territory now having been properly laid out, and the home lots satisfactorily drawn, the next move was the settlement of the town; and to Capt. Timothy Roberts it seems is due the honor of having been the first to settle within the bounds of the present town of Rochester. This was Dec. 26, 1728. He was not a proprietor, but purchased a quarter of a share of Samuel Twombly, of Dover, for ten pounds. He located below Gonic on a part of lot 90, first division. The deed of Twombley to Roberts was the first conveyance of land in the territory. Captain Roberts was soon fol- lowed by other pioneers, prominent among whom were Eleazer Ham, Ben- jamin Frost, Benjamin Tebbets and Joseph Richards. From this time for- ward the settlement rapidly increased in population, and soon became known throughout the state as one of the most important of the border settlements.
Although some of the settlers were of the Scotch-Irish immigrants, still the town was settled principally by people from Dover, where the greatest number of the proprietors lived. Of the first sixty families not one-fifth part were families of actual proprietors. To the original proprietors the lands were evidently more a matter of speculation and profit than of occu- pation and improvement. It is worthy of notice that the names now most common in town are those which frequently occur in the list of proprietors. Among these are Hayes, Wentworth, Hanson, Bickford, Edgerly, White- house, Hurd, Horn, Foss, Ham, Evans, Roberts, Varney and Tebbets.
April 20, 1730, it was decided to make another division of land, com- prising a much larger tract than the first. Each share contained not less than two hundred and forty acres, extended from the head of the first divi- sion to the region of the Three Ponds, including a large part of the present towns of Milton and Farmington. In the first and second ranges, third divi- sion, was a level tract, quite large in extent, to which was given the name of "Norway Plain," from the Norway pines with which it was covered. A large part of the plain was left common, and was the site of the present village of Rochester.
December 17, 1730, the lots were drawn, and at the same meeting a town treasurer was chosen. Beside several votes in relation to the church and the minister, it was also voted that the ten-rod road running across the town by the meeting-house should be cleared "fitt for man and horse to pass and repass." An overseer was appointed, with authority to hire men to carry on the work.
The proprietors held the entire control of affairs in the town until about the year 1740, when their political importance rapidly declined. They, how- ever, kept up an organization until 1763, but their business was restricted to matters which concerned the property only. The last meeting of the proprie-
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tors was held at Stephen Wentworth's, in Rochester, June 28, 1784, when the town clerk was elected proprietor's clerk, and all books and papers of the pro- prietors were passed into his custody, and the office became vested in him and his successors forever.
CHAPTER LVI HISTORY OF ROCHESTER (II)
ANCIENT LOCAL NAMES AND LAND GRANTS
The territory of Rochester has an interesting history antedating 1722 by three score and ten years, at least. Although Dover began to be set- tled in the spring of 1623 its exact boundary was not determined, by com- missioners appointed by the general court of Massachusetts, until 1652. The committee consisted of William Payne, Samuel Winslow and Nathan Boyse. The northern line was started at the first falls in Lamperill river and ran on a "west by north" line to the Salmon Falls river, at a point four miles above the first falls in the Newichewannick river (South Berwick).
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