USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Amherst > History of the town of Amherst, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire (first known as Narraganset township number three, and subsequently as Souhegan West) > Part 25
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By this report the town was divided into eleven districts.
The following communication was received by the town- clerk 29 December, 1870, and entered upon the town records :
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AMHERST, NOV'T 23d, 1870.
GENTLEMEN: With the approbation of the persons named as advisers in the Will of the Late Aaron Lawrence, of this town, his Executors have deposited with the Nashua Savings Bank Fourteen hundred Dollars in trust for the benefit of the Common Schools in Amherst. This deposit is made on condition that the principal shall remain with the Bank and be increased by the extra Dividends of the Institution, while the regular annual interest shall be payable to the order of the Treasurer of the town for the use of the schools.
By this arrangement we hope to keep alive the memory of an esteemed citizen. and subserve the cause of public education. The proper vouchers for the deposit have been placed in the hands of the Town Treasurer, and labelled " Lawrence fund for schools, ' and we respectfully request that this letter may be entered upon the records of the town. In behalf of the Executors, I am yours,
J. G. DAVIS. To the Selectmen of the town of Imherst.
The sum of $173.27 was received from the interest of this fund in the year 1873, and applied to the support of schools, agreeably to the provisions of the will. Since that time the sum of seventy dollars has been received annually.
11 March, 1873. The town voted to appropriate a sum not exceeding $200 to purchase a set of outline maps for the use of each school in town.
The sum of $2,500 was appropriated for the support of schools for the year commencing March, 1874.
10 March, 1874. Voted that a committee of one from cach school district should be chosen to consider the expe- diency of abolishing the school districts in town, agreeably to "an act enabling towns to abolish school districts in certain cases," passed June session, 1868 ; and it was also voted that each school district should choose its own mem- ber of the committee.
9 March, 1875. It was voted to take no further action in regard to the abolition of the school districts.
At the annual meeting in March, 1876, it was voted to give the literary fund, amounting this year to the sum of $120.60, to school district No. 2 (the Acre), for the sup- port of its school.
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31 March, 1877. Josiah G. Davis and Miss Rebecca A. Davis were appointed school committee by the selectmen.
2 November, 1878. The sum of fifty dollars was appro- priated from the town treasury in aid of the schools in District No. 2.
2 November, 1880. A vote was taken by ballot to abolish the school districts within the town, in accordance with the statute in such cases made and provided, which resulted in favor of the project, 74 votes being cast in favor and 61 against it, and it was declared to be adopted.
The selectmen were authorized to take all necessary steps in the appraisal of property, and any thing that might be necessary to carry out the change of the school system, or to appoint a committee to act in the matter.
29 November, 1880. Frank Hartshorn, James U. Prince, James P. Nourse, Thomas M. Harvell, and Frank P. Phelps, were appointed by the selectmen to appraise all the school- houses, land, apparatus, and other property owned and used for school purposes, which the several school districts might lawfully sell or convey.
The committee attended to the duties assigned them, and appraised the property specified
In Dist. No. 1, the Village, at
$5,680.00
In Dist. No. 2, the Acre, .
160.00
In Dist. No. 3, Cricket Corner,
184.00
In Dist. No. 4, Christian Hill,
500.00
In Dist. No. 5, Danforth's, 316.00
In Dist. No. 6, Pond Parish,
540.00
In Dist. No. 7, Noyes's,
496.00
In Dist. No. 8, Mack's,
506.00
In Dist. No. 9, Chestnut Hill,
466.00
In Dist. No. 10,
.
380.00
$9,228.00
The sum of $2,500 was appropriated for the support of schools for the year commencing 1 March, 1881.
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SCHOOLS.
The sum of $10,000 is left to the town of Amherst by the will of the late Isaac Spalding, of Nashua, the same to be paid in one year from the death of his widow, and kept as a perpetual fund, to be known as the " Spalding fund," the annual interest, dividend, or income of which is to be added to the school money raised by the town in each year, and expended as such money is now, or hereafter may be, by law required or authorized to be expended.
.
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HISTORY OF AMHERST.
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CHAPTER XV. COURT HOUSES AND COURTS IN AMHERST.
1771-1879.
DIVISION OF THE PROVINCE INTO COUNTIES .- AMHERST SELECTED AS THE SHIRE TOWN OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY .- THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE PRESENTED TO THE COUNTY FOR A COURT- HOUSE, BURNED BY AN INCENDIARY .- A JAIL BUILT .- CON- CORD PETITIONS TO BE ANNEXED TO HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, AND MADE A HIALF SHIRE .- HOPKINTON MADE A HALF SHIRE. -INCORPORATION OF MERRIMACK COUNTY .- EFFORTS MADE TO REMOVE THE COURTS TO MONT VERNON .- COURTS REMOVED TO MANCHESTER AND NASHUA .- A PROPOSITION TO REMOVE THE COUNTY RECORDS FROM AMHERST TO MANCHESTER RE- JECTED BY THE VOTERS OF THE COUNTY .- COUNTY RECORDS REMOVED TO NASHUA .- SALE OF THE JAIL BUILDINGS .- FINAL REMOVAL OF THE COURTS FROM AMHERST .- A HILLS-
BOROUGH COUNTY COURT IN 1796. - APPOINTMENT OF SHERIFF OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY DURING THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELING."-A JAIL DELIVERY BY SHERIFF PIERCE IN 1818, MICHAEL KEIFF, DANIEL D. FARMER, LETITIA S. BLAIS- DELL, NATHAN CARR .- PUNISHMENT OF THIEVES IN YE OLDEN TIME .- ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF A THIEFT.
An attempt to divide the Province into counties was made in the House of Representatives 22 January, 1755 : but it failed to receive the concurrence of the Council.
The subject was brought up in the Council at a session held in March, 1769, at which time votes were passed for
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dividing the Province into counties and fixing their bound- aries. In these votes the House concurred.
29 March, 1769. The Council voted that one superior court, four inferior courts of common pleas, and four courts of general sessions, should be held annually at Amherst, for the county in which it was included.
This vote was returned by the House the next day with- out concurrence, as they were in some doubt whether the courts should be held in Amherst or Merrimack ; but they professed a willingness to abide by the decision of the Council.
After hearing the statements of parties interested, the question was put to the Council whether Amherst should be stricken from the vote and Merrimack put in its place, and it was decided in the negative. The vote of the Coun- cil was then concurred in by the House.
1 April, 1769. William Parker and Samuel Livermore were appointed by the House to act with such as the Council might join to draft and present a bill for the divi- sion of the Province into counties, agreeably to the votes recently passed. The Council appointed Daniel Warner and Peter Livius members of the committee on its part.
The bill prepared by the committee received the sanction of both houses 25 April, 1769, and the signature of Gov. John Wentworth on the 29th day of the same month, the counties constituted by it receiving the names of Rocking- ham, Strafford, Hillsborough, Cheshire, and Grafton.
It was provided that the counties of Strafford and Graf- ton should remain and be considered a part of Rockingham county at present ; but that the other counties should be organized as soon as the necessary provisions for the accommodation of the courts could be made, after "His Majesty's royal approbation of the law should be made known."
The last provision delayed the organization of the coun- ties for some time, but the king's consent was finally given.
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and the necessary arrangements for the accommodation of the court being made, the first session of the superior court for the county of Hillsborough was held at Amherst in the month of September, 1771.
While the division of the Province into counties was under consideration, there was much discussion concerning the shire towns of the proposed counties. In Hillsborough county there seems to have been considerable feeling mani- fested on the subject. Petitions were presented to the General Court from the towns of Bow, Chester, Hampstead, Londonderry, Pelham, Plaistow, Salem, and Sandown, asking that those towns might be included in the county with the towns lying between Peterborough and the Merri- mack river. Petitions were also sent from Peterborough and New Boston for the same purpose. On the other hand petitions were presented from Bedford, Dunstable, Hills- borough, Monson, New Ipswich, Society Land, and Wilton, protesting against the annexation of any towns east of Merrimack river to the new county. Several of these last petitions evidently originated in Amherst, as they were written by that accomplished scribe, John Shepard, jr.
In the petition from Dunstable the petitioners beg leave to return thanks to the legislature for the wisdom and prudence they had displayed in fixing upon the Merrimack river as the boundary line between the counties, and express the opinion that not a single town should be added to those already proposed to form the new county. In some of these papers reference is made to the fears expressed by some that the county will be unable to support its organization, from the lack of a sufficient number of inhabitants, which fears they think are unfounded.
The petitioners from Wilton coneur with those from Dunstable, and ask further that Amherst may be made the shire town of the county.
In this matter, as in all others in which the welfare of the town was concerned, Pastor Wilkins took a deep
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interest. The following letter, written by him to one of the members of the Governor's Council, at that time, has been preserved :
" To the Hon'ble George Jaffery, Esq'r, in Portsmouth :
HON'D & DEAR S'R : After due salutation, I beg leave to inform your Hon'r that the proposal of the General Court that Merrimack be the Shire Town of the County on the West side of Merrimac River, has raised a general uneasiness throughout the whole County, evin many thinking men in Merrimac itself (as I have been credibly informed) are well satisfied that if the Proposal be established, it will be greatly to the Town Damage in general, as they are small in Number, consisting of seventy odd Families, no more, and them exceeding much scattered, and many of the number on New Places, and no ways accommodated to entertain a Court, especially with Hay & Pastoring, neither do they ever expect to be well accommodated with the Primeses, as great Part of their Land is poor and clothed with shrubs. The uneasiness of the People arises from the said Pro- posals not being for Amherst rather than Merrimack. Not only as Amherst has been talked of for a Shire Town, evin from Its Infancy, thereby fixing the minds of the People upon it, but for its situation Nearer the Hart of the County, so that many Towns can come from Home in the Morning and return Home in the Evining, that ca' n't possibly do the like if the Court be at Merrimac, and thereby save a great deal of Charge to poor People ; and now S'r, I beg leave to give a Discription of Amherst in a few Words: It is Situate about Eight Miles from Mr. Lutwytche's Ferry, on Merrimac River, the contents of which is about six miles Square, containing about one Hundred and sixty Famelies, and accommodated, according to men of the best Judgment, to settle an Hundred Families at least, more than is already settled, and near an Hundred of them good Country Farms, Well accommodated with fields and Pastures, and chiefly all good Husbands, the Middle of the Town pleasantly situated, a good coach Road to it from the Eastward and Southern Parts of the Province, and all Roads centering there. The People in general knowing the situation and accommodations of Amherst to entertain the Court, suppose that the General Court's proposal for Merrimack sprung from a mis-Representation.
The occasion of these lines to your Hon'r was the cries of the Peo- ple, and to beg leave to subscribe your humble serv't,
DANIEL WILKINS.
AMHERST, Oct. ye 1st, 1767.
22
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[Chap.
P. S. S'R : I must beg leave to tell your Hon'r that Mr. Willard, a son of Coll. Willard, of Winchester, and one Mr. IFall was at my House the Last Evening as agent for Keen and other towns, toward the great River, to desire that the Shire Town might be Amherst, and likewise that there is a general uneasiness of its being at Merrimack and also Walepole, as that every town save two would be greatly Discommoded if the Court was had at Walepole and not at Keen, and also beg the favor of its being established at Keen, as Keen will much best cominode the People in General, or at least that his Exelency, with your Hon'rs, would grant them Liberty to bring Down the minds of the People.
D. W.
The meeting-house belonging to the town was, as else- where stated, presented to the county for a court house, and was subsequently moved from its original location, at the junction of the roads near the house now occupied by P. W. and Thomas Jones, to a site on the Plain, north of the soldiers' monument, where it was burned by an incen- diary on the night following the 15th day of March, 1788.
A jail was built shortly after the organization of the county, which now forms a part of the old jail house build- ing, and some forty years later the stone jail building was erected.
At a meeting held 31 March, 1788, the town voted to grant eighty pounds toward the creation of a new court house. John Patterson, Capt. Josiah Crosby, Samuel Dana, Esq., Daniel Campbell, and James Ray, were appointed a committee to superintend its erection, and its " location, form, and figure," were referred to the committee and the seleetmen of the town.
The second court house was built on the spot now oceu- pied by the dwelling-house of David Russell, Esq. After the brick court house was built it was sold and removed to the westerly part of the Plain, where it was fitted up for a chapel, for which it was used several years, when it was again sold and fitted up for tenement dwellings. It is still standing near the foundery buildings. West of it, as it was originally located, and near by, were the whipping-post and
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pillory, those " terrors of the law " to evil doers among the fathers. The whippings inflicted, we may judge, varied in severity according to the disposition of the officer who inflicted them. In one instance, still remembered, the culprit was told privately that he " should not be whipped very hard," but was directed to make a terrible outery every time he was struck.
After the State prison was built, the pillory and whip- ping-post were dispensed with, and but very few persons now living can remember them.
In this second court house the giants of the legal profes- sion in New Hampshire, from 1787 to 1822, were wont to congregate at the semi-annual sessions of the Hillsborough county courts. Here came Jere. Mason, Jere. Smith, the elder Plumer, William Gordon, David Everett, the elder Ather- tons, Levi Woodbury, George Sullivan, Arthur Livermore, Sam. Bell, Parker Noyes, Judge Richardson, and others of lesser note; and here, greatest of all, Daniel Webster made his maiden argument before Judge Farrar. He had finished the study of his profession in the office of Christo- pher Gore, a distinguished jurist in Boston, and had been admitted to the Suffolk county bar on motion of that gen- tleman in March, 1805. A few weeks later he visited Amherst, and argued a motion before Judge Farrar's court with such clearness that the presiding judge remarked to his associates, "That young man's statement is a most unanswerable argument," and at once granted the motion.
The town of Concord having presented a petition to the General Court, asking to be annexed to the county of Hills- borough, and that one half of the courts then held at Amherst might be held in that town, the people of Amherst, at a meeting held 28 April, 1785, voted their unwillingness that the petition should be granted, and chose Joshua Atherton, Augustus Blanchard, and Samuel Dana, Esqs., a committee " to show the General Court the reasons of their unwillingness." Col. Robert Means, then representative of
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the town, was instructed to assist the committee, who were directed " to confer with other towns relative to the prem- ises before hearing the petition."
The people of the towns in the northern part of the county requiring greater conveniences for the transaction of their business before the courts, the legislature passed an act which was approved 25 December, 1792, providing that the May term of the superior court and the September and December terms of the court of common pleas and general court of sessions, held annually at Amherst, should thereafter be held at Hopkinton, at the same time they had been held at Amherst, provided that the said courts should be held in or as near the meeting-house in said Hopkinton as they could conveniently be, and that the act should be null and void if, at the expiration of two years from its passage, the town of Hopkinton had not erected a suitable house, free of expense to the county, in which to hold said courts.
The required building was promptly erected, and Hop- kinton became a half shire town of the county, and so continued until the formation of Merrimack county in 1823. A jail was also erected there which continued to be used by the county of Merrimack after its incorporation until the completion of the new jail at Concord in 1852.
A committee appointed by the town to examine and report, among other things, what part of the common the town should appropriate for a court-house, on condition that the town should have the privilege of using the same for a town house, reported, at a meeting held 21 September, 1818, recommending that the town should grant the county a right to crect a court-house and the necessary buildings for the accommodation of the same on the common, in front of the burying-ground, placing the back thereof as far as may be convenient, into the burying-ground, provided the town shall ever have the privilege of using the house to hold their meetings in.
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The plan of forming a new county for the better accom- modation of the people residing in the northerly part of Hillsborough and the north-western part of Rockingham counties, began to be discussed about this time. A plan of the proposed county of Rumford, containing substantially the same territory as was at first contained in the county of Merrimack, appeared in the New Hampshire Patriot, 19 January, 1819; and a bill providing for its incorporation was introduced into the Senate and advocated by Hon. Isaac Hill at the session of the legislature held in Decem- ber, 1820, which was postponed. The subject was again brought up in the legislature at the session held in June, 1821, and referred to the voters of the towns interested at their next annual meeting, at which a large majority of the votes cast were found to be in favor of the project. The town of Hopkinton and some others in its immediate vicinity, however, voted almost unanimously against it.
Finally the legislature passed an act constituting the county of Merrimack, which was approved by the governor, 3 July, 1823, and Concord was designated as its shire town. By this act the towns of Andover, Boscawen, Brad- ford, Dunbarton, Fishersfield, Henniker, Hooksett, Hopkin- ton, New London, Salisbury, Sutton, Warner, and Wilmot, were taken from Hillsborough county and became parts of the new county.
It was then proposed in some quarters to remove the courts and county offices of the county of Hillsborough from Amherst to Mont Vernon, and liberal offers were made by some of the citizens of the latter place toward defraying the expense of erecting the necessary buildings in that town for the accommodation of the courts and county offices. Citizens of Amherst also offered to provide better accommodations in this town than the county officials had hitherto had, free of expense to the county. On being brought before the legislature, the matter was referred to the decision of the voters of the county, who at the election
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in March, 1824, decided, by a vote of about three to one, to continue Amherst as the shire town.
ECH
THE THIRD COURT-HOUSE, NOW THE TOWN-HOUSE.
A new court-house-the present town-house-was erected shortly after, on land given by the town for that purpose. The town also relinquished all the right they had in the old court-house to the committee for building the new one, their share of the proceeds of the sale of the house to be expended on or about the new house, and to be entered on the subscription paper as the subscription of the town of Amherst toward the erection of the new court-house.
The balance of the expense of its erection was defrayed by contributions of citizens of the town.
Fire-proof safes for the reception and safe-keeping of the county records, and rooms for the use of the county officers, were provided in the additions built on the north and south ends of the court-house by the county in 1828.
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By an act of the legislature, approved 28 December, 1844, it was provided that a term of the court of common pleas should thereafter be held at Manchester on the fourth Tuesday of October, annually, provided that town should furnish suitable accommodations for its sitting, free of expense to the county, and the selectmen of the town were to notify the clerk of the court when such accommodations were provided.
An act passed 12 July, 1856, provided that a term of the superior court should be held at Nashua on the first Tues- day of February, annually, on the same conditions as pre- scribed in the act providing for a session of the court of common pleas to be held at Manchester. By an act passed 8 July, 1859, the time for holding the term of the court at Nashua was changed to the first Tuesday of May, annually.
Prior to this time the subject of the removal of the county records from Amherst was discussed.
An act providing for their removal to Manchester when- ever suitable buildings for their reception and the accom- modation of the county officers should be provided there, free of expense to the county, was passed 8 July, 1862. This, however, was made subject to the approval of the voters of the county at the annual meeting in the following March, at which time a majority of the votes cast were against the proposed change.
At the same session of the legislature the time for holding the session of the superior court at Amherst was changed to the first Tuesday of May, annually.
An act was passed 29 June, 1864, providing for the removal of the county records to Nashua, whenever that city provided suitable buildings for their reception, free of expense to the county. This act was subject to the approval of the voters of the county at a special meeting called in the several towns and cities in the month of August follow- ing, when a majority of the votes cast being in favor of the
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proposed change, buildings were erected in Nashua for the accommodation of the county officers and the safe-keeping of the county records, which were removed there in August, 1866, and the offices were opened on the eighteenth day of that month.
A jail having been built at Manchester, the jail, jail-house, and small house near by, in Amherst, and the land around them, owned by the county, were sold at auction, 8 October, 1867.
The land on which these buildings stood was presented to the county by Jonathan Smith, in 1771.
By an act of the legislature, approved 15 July, 1879, the May term of the superior court held at Amherst on the first Tuesday of May, annually, was abolished, and a term of the court was ordered to be held in its stead at Nashua and Manchester, alternately, on the first Tuesday of May, annually.
This completed the removal of the Hillsborough county courts from Amherst, where they had been held wholly, or in part, for one hundred and eight years.
On the removal of the courts, the court-house, agreeably to the provisions of the deed, given the county in 1824, became the property of the town.
It has since been fitted up for a town-house, and contains a large and convenient town-hall, rooms for the town offi- cers, the town library, and a fire-proof safe for the preser- vation of the town records, etc.
A HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY COURT IN 1796,
As described by a prominent lawyer of Amherst in a letter to Jeremiah Smith.
" Judge - wore a wig, alias a scratch, which was upon the whole tolerably ridiculous, especially as it was frequently made to change its position, to our no small amusement. As to the rest I will say nothing.
Gordon had the bar to dine with him on Thursday, and it happened that I had previously asked the judges to dine with me, and therefore
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