USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Antrim > History of the town of Antrim, N.H. for a period of one century from 1744 to 1844 > Part 6
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The vicissitudes of the war kept the public mind for almost three years in a state of constant excitement. The welcome news of peace came Feb. 1815, and produced an outburst of joy. The citizens of the town held, a few days after, a social meeting without distinction of parties, for mutual congratulation.
Sept. 25th, a tempestuous wind extended over a wide region, un- roofing or demolishing old buildings, and prostrating immense num- bers of fruit and forest trees. The injury to orchards and woodlots was greater in the northern section of Massachusetts than in New- Hampshire.
Memorable as the cold season, or " poverty year," was 1816. Snow fell in June ; autumnal frosts were early and severe ; very little In- dian corn came to maturity. The next year also was cold and com- paratively unproductive. In both seasons, however, the crops of English grain were fine and heavy, yielding a supply of breadst
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sufficient to prevent much actual suffering. There being a scarcity of materials for fattening pork, many families resorted for a substitute to pickled mackerel, and these seasons were sometimes jocosely called " the mackerel years."
Deacon James Aiken, the first settler of South Antrim, having lived here half a century, died 1817 ; esteemed and venerated by his townsmen.
Violent thunder storms occurred, 1819, with more frequency than was remembered by the oldest persons living; sometimes every day for several successive days. No damage was done in Antrim by the wind except in one instance to the house of Dea. Josiah Duncan. In various other parts of New-England, buildings were set on fire and many persons killed by lightning.
The census of 1820 returned the population of Antrim as being 1330 ; a very small increase during the preceding ten years ; attribu- table partly to the ravages of spotted fever, and still more to numer- ous emigrations of families and young men to the West.
On a week day, in the summer of this or the next following year, the first meeting-house was struck by lightning. It was a time of bright sunshine, after a sprinkle of rain, a little after noon ; but a single cloud, and that small, being visible. The flash was vivid and the report violent, but soon over ; no other thunder clap it is believed was heard that day. The electric fluid entered the roof directly over the pulpit, being attracted by the large bar of iron by which the can- opy, that old-fashioned appendage of ancient meeting-houses, was suspended over the stand of the minister. It set the canopy on fire, and flames began to burst forth, when the people in the vicinity ar- rived in season to extinguish them. The casings of the pulpit win- dow, and the finishing of one or two adjacent pews, were injured. Had the shock occurred in time of divine service, probably several persons must have been killed.
Communication between the south and north sections of the town, over Meeting-house Hill,being always inconvenient, and in winter often difficult, the result had been a degree of non-intercourse, in the way of social relations, which had led for many years to some sectional feelings and jealousies. To cement union and facilitate communica- tion between the two portions, a new road, west of the hill, was con- structed, 1822 ; being the one leading from Solomon Buckminster's to Thomas Twiss'.
It was about this period (the precise year not ascertained,) that in- dividuals in this and other towns were deluded into the belief that at some former period, more than a century before, the noted pirate, Capt. Kidd, had penetrated into the wilderness and buried a treasure on the shore of Rye ponds Rods were resorted to, for the purpose of determining the precise locality. Individuals dug in search of the fancied treasure, but "had their labor for their pains ;" the whole affair was a hoax on the part of some mischievous person, to see how far he could impose on popular credulity. Similar delusions have ex- isted at almost all times, and in all parts of the world.
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HISTORY OF ANTRIM.
Aware that the new road would divert the travel from the old meeting-house, the people began to regard the location of that house, always inconvenient, as having become intolerable; especially in the season of wintry storms and drifting snows. The subject of either removing the old house, or building a new one, began to be agitated in earnest. Some informal meetings for consultation were followed by a town-meeting, Feb., 1823, when the town voted not to remove the old, but to take measures to build a new house ; and chose a committee, one person from each school district, to select a location. At an adjourned meeting, in April, the committee reported that they were unable to agree on a site ; it was found that there was a conflict of opinions and interests ; the subject was dropped for the present, and the town, in their corporate capacity, never resumed it.
It was resumed, however, by individuals early in 1825, and a so- ciety was formed, not without serious opposition, for building the present Centre house. The transactions relative to the erection, con- tain such an intermixture of town action and society action, that it is not easy in this matter to run the line between the civil and ecclesi- astical portions of our history. It was erected 1826, at an expense of $6,200, and furnished by subscription with a bell at a cost of about $400. Dissatisfied with the location, a number of citizens, in the east part of the town, united with others in Deering and Society Land (now Bennington,) and built, the same year, the East meeting-house, at a cost of about $5000. At a town meeting, Nov. 27, it was voted to discontinue public worship at the old house; also that the town's minister, Rev. John M. Whiton, should thenceforth officiate in the new Centre house ; and on the question whether he should preach any part of the time in the east house, the vote stood, yeas 34, nays 126.
There was a great drought in the summer of this year, and such surprising multitudes of grasshoppers that by some persons they were caught in nets and fed out to swine. For years after, it was referred to as " the grasshopper year." The hay crop was di- minished nearly one half. On the afternoon of Aug. 28 a tremen- dous rain swelled the little brooks into raging torrents, so that by evening they were impassable, and the roar of foaming waters was heard in almost every direction. Much expense was incurred by the town for the repair of damaged roads and bridges. The autumn yielded an exuberant growth of grass, cold weather was late in com- ing, and the cattle found, till into December, ample supplies of food in the fields ; happily disappointing gloomy anticipations of distress- ing scarcity.
Prior to 1827, almost all the citizens paid a tax for the support of the gospel, and diversity of denomination was scarce known. There being now two houses for public worship, and of course a conflicting state of feeling, a considerable number withdrew from the support of religious institutions at the Centre, of whom a part contributed to the support of preaching at the East house, and others stood aloof from any religious organization. A sufficient number remained 4
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attached to the Centre house to sustain the ministry there, effectively and permanently.
Within a short space after the erection of the new churches, the old town burying-yard being remote from inhabitants, difficult of ac- cess, and a large part of it filled with graves, three new cemeteries were prepared : one near the Centre church, one near the East church, and one on the Plain in the north part of the town. All these bury- ing grounds were opened for use in or near 1828.
The commencement of manufactures in Antrim, on any consider- able scale, is referable to this year. There were then in the town three tanneries, six grain mills, seven saw-mills, two fulling and dress- ing mills with machinery for carding wool, four blacksmiths' shops, with the usual proportion of other mechanics. Imla Wright erected, 1828, a cotton factory on Great Brook, a large half mile from the Centre; an enterprise which gave birth to the present Clinton Vil- lage, of which Mr. Wright may be justly regarded as the founder. He prosecuted for some years the manufacture of cotton yarn, wick- ing, batting, and twine, a part of the time alone; another part in connection with associates, under an act of incorporation ; and is be- lieved to have been the first who manufactured and brought into market the cotton wrapping twine. But the business was at last re- linquished, and the factory sold ; it was afterwards converted into a manufactory of bedsteads, tables, bureaus, and other articles of house- hold furniture. A large business has been done in this line by Hall & Putnam, by Pratt & Putnam, and by I. B. Pratt, and much of the work sent to Boston for sale. Samuel W. Abbot and Imla Wright commenced in Clinton Village, 1835, the manufacture of hat boxes and window shades; after they dissolved partnership, Abbot continued the business, adding to it the manufacture of paper fans. Since Abbot's removal, the window shade business has been continued by Samuel Abbot, by Abbot & Buckminster, and next by I. R. Ab- bot, to a considerable extent ; a portion of the work finding its way to South-American markets. For the sake of a connected view of the progress of the manufacturing interest in Antrim, we must an- ticipate dates. Baldwin & White began the manufacture of cast-steel hoes in the South Village, 1835, being the first in the State who em- barked in the enterprise. They continued in company about five years, and were succeeded in the business by Robbins & Flint, who continued it two or three years longer, to an amount of from $2,000 to $3,000 annually. In 1835, Thomas Poor, the owner of mills and a large tannery in South Village, entered on the manufacture of patent leather, continued it about two years to an amount of a few thousand dollars, when his shop was burned and the business was not resumed. At this time shingle mills had been introduced and been operative from 1829, and a large lumber business had sprung up in South Village, which still continues to be prosecuted. Boards, planks, shingles, and other kinds of lumber, have been manufactured in quantities sufficient, not only to meet the home demand, but also to furnish large supplies to other places. The timber is obtained from
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HISTORY OF ANTRIM.
some others in the vicinity, attended his ministry. A small Baptist church was organized, of which he was pastor, and in which Benja- min Nichols officiated as deacon. After an existence of about ten years its members thought it expedient to dissolve it, and the greater portion of them united with the Baptist church in Bennington. After Mr. Davis ceased to occupy that desk, other temporary supplies were obtained occasionally, chiefly from ministers of the Baptist and Meth- odist connections.
From 1832 to the close of 1835 the religious aspect of the town exhibited no noticeable change. In these four years, seventeen were received into the church, and the total number of resident members during this period exceeded two hundred. But the spirit of emigra- tion had begun to make inroads into the number, and, from this time, towns and villages presenting higher encouragements to business and enterprise, drew away many of the more youthful members, and some of the more aged. Near one third of a Congregational church then existing at Alexandria, N. H., was composed of emigrants from Antrim. Death was rapidly removing the original and earlier mem- bers, and the additions, though more than equaling the number of deaths, were not adequate to make up both for that diminution, and also for the continued drain by emigration. In 1835 Samuel Fletcher and James Hopkins, Jun., were added to the board of elders, both of whom have deceased. The death-bed scene of Dea. Hopkins pre- sented one of the most striking exhibitions ever witnessed in Antrim, how calmly, and sometimes joyfully, a christian can die. Dea. Fletcher was for years one of the most prominent and valued citizens of the town, being not only an elder of the church, but selectman, town- clerk, representative, justice of the peace ; a man always to be trusted. The disease which proved fatal to him was malignant erysipelas, con- tracted, as was supposed, by innoculation, while aiding in preparing for the grave the body of his neighbor and friend, Mr. Joseph S. Atherton.
In 1836 occurred a revival of limited extent, almost confined to Clinton village and its immediate vicinity, resulting in several hopeful conversions. The church received that year an accession of twelve members, most of them young.
In the eight years from 1837 to the close of 1844, the Presbyte- rian church admitted to its fellowship forty-three individuals, and con- tained, at the close of this period, one hundred and seventy resident members ; possibly a few more. The numbers stated in the preced- ing narration as added, include the additions both by profession and by letter ; far the greater portion by profession. Soon after the or- ganization of a Congregational church at the village, now Benning- ton, 1839, seven or eight members of the church in Antrim, having nearer and easier access to Bennington, requested and received letters of recommendation to that church. The Congregational church at the East meeting-house being much reduced in number by the remo- val of its members, was dissolved, 1843, when the most of its remain- ing members united with the Presbyterian church at the Centre.
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HISTORY OF ANTRIM.
We have now brought the details of our ecclesiastical history through a period of a century from the first settlement, to 1844. Å continuation must be left to some other pen. As an aid, however, to the future annalist of the church, it may be stated (though it is traveling beyond our prescribed limits,) that the total of additions to the Presbyterian church from 1845 to 1851, inclusive of both years, was fifty-seven; of whom thirty-five were added in 1851; making the total number for a period of 434 years to be four hun- dred and thirty-three. In the religious interest of 1851 all the de- nominations in the town shared, but the details fall not within the limits of time proposed for this sketch.
A brief notice of the singing choir in Antrim will be of interest to some readers, and may be not unfitly added to the chapter of eccle- siastical history. The vote of the town, 1782, appointing Daniel Nichols " to read the psalm," is not easily explained ; possibly it was meant to designate him to lead the church music. Dea. Arthur Nesmith came here, 1786, and is believed to have been the leader from that time to 1814 ; a period of twenty-eight years. From 1794 he was formally designated to the office by successive reëlections in town-meeting. His courteous, amiable manners made him acceptable to the choir and to the congregation. John Taylor officiated as first chorister a few years from 1814, having as associate choristers, Wil- liam Gregg and David McAuley. Capt. McAuley died, 1817, and Mr. Taylor removed to the west about 1821. After the year last named the choir was led by William Gregg, with Charles Gates as associate chorister. Capt. Gregg died 1829. The leaders of the choir since that date have been, successively, Charles Gates, Giles Newton, Joel Wilkins, Solomon J. Buckminister, and Frederic S. Little.
The religious denominations existing in town, and holding meet- ings for worship, in 1852, (the year of the publication of this sketch,) are the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists. A very large ma- jority of the families, attached to any religious organization, are con- nected with the Presbyterian society. A society of Baptists resident in Antrim, Bennington, and Deering, worship in a hall in South Vil- lage, to whom the Rev. Mr. Lovejoy statedly ministers. A number of families of the Methodist denomination hold religious meetings in North Branch Village and at the East meeting-house, alternately, to whom the Rev. Mr. Dudley has preached for a period of from one to two years. A considerable number of families are not connected with any religious organization.
NOTICES OF THE EARLY SETTLERS OF ANTRIM.
PHILIP RILEY, the first settler, has been already noticed. He was a man of very limited information, and in old age became de- pendent on the town for support. A son-in-law, named Cochlan, was for some years freed from taxes on condition of keeping the father from becoming a charge on the town, which after a time he failed to do. Riley's death occurred not far from 1790.
JAMES AIKEN, afterwards the well known Deacon Aiken, the first settler of South Antrim, 1767, was the grandson of Edward Aiken, who came from Ireland, 1722, to Londonderry. His sons settled around him,from whom the neighborhood was called " Aiken's Range." Deacon Aiken had served as a soldier in the second French war, in the celebrated corps of Rangers commanded by Major Rogers, and used to relate thrilling incidents of olden time. He was once out on a scout with the Major near Lake George; the party was almost famished with hunger and thirst ; nothing remained save one glass of rum in a soldier's canteen, to whom the Major offered a dollar for the rum. The soldier, suffering not less than his officer, replied, Major Rogers, I love you, but love myself better,"-at the same moment turning up the canteen and swallowing the rum. Dea. Aiken was a man of energy and benevolence ; his house was a father's house to early settlers, whom he befriended to the extent of his power, and the home of the ministers who preached here occasionally in early times. He died, 1817, aged eighty-five ; universally respected and leaving a numerous posterity, of whom a few remain in Antrim, and more are dispersed in other and distant States.
WILLIAM SMITH, the second settler of South Antrim, came from Londonderry, 1771. He was a quiet, peaceable, pious man; died 1800, aged eighty-five. His son, John Smith, a celebrated marks- man and hunter, died 1826, leaving a widow who still survives. Another son, Robert, lived many years on the John Wallace farm, and removed into the State of Maine.
JOHN GORDON was a Scottish Highlander, came here as early as 1770, and in 1772 settled on the Dustin place. After a few years he removed to some neighboring town, and thence to some place in or near Canada ; died many years ago, among strangers. His son, Daniel, having resided successively in Hillsboro', Washington, and Windsor, returned to Antrim, 1850, and died a few weeks after, aged
5
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HISTORY OF ANTRIM.
eighty-two. He remembered working at felling trees, in Mr. Dustin's garden, on the intensely hot day of Bunker-hill battle ; being then a boy seven years old.
MAURICE LYNCH was from New-Boston, and began the Stacey farm, 1772. He was a man of some education, a land surveyor, and the first town-clerk. Having lost a child by death, before it was known where the centre of the town would fall, no mode of burial was in his power, other than to inclose the body in a rough box or trough, to carry it in his arms into the woods, and bury it in a spot as near as he could guess to the future centre. He remained here but a few years; returning with his family to New-Boston about 1784, where he afterwards died.
RANDALL ALEXANDER, the descendant of an early settler of Lon- donderry, began to subdue the farm now Lyman Dow's, 1772; had been a soldier in the last French war ; removed his family from town about 1784 ; and after an absence of forty years, returned as a pau- per, with locks whitened by age, scarce remembered by the aged in- habitants. He died, 1826, aged ninety-two. Some one objected to ringing the bell at his death from an impression, perhaps erroneous, that in Canada he once stood a passive spectator of the murder, by a brutal soldier, of a little French girl, for her gold beads, when the child flew to him for protection, and he"might have prevented the bloody deed.
JOHN DUNCAN, afterwards Esquire, was the great-grandson of George Duncan, who lived and died in Ireland. His son, George, emigrated to America soon after 1720, settled in Londonderry, was a magistrate, and a prominent citizen. Deacon George Duncan, son of second George, married a Bell, a descendant of a Scottish emigrant, who settled in Ireland in 1612, and was the father of Esq. John, of Antrim. He removed his family here, 1773, making the seventh in town. He was long an eminent citizen, being selectman, town-clerk, magistrate, representative, and senator. In one instance he was Speaker of the House, pro. tem. . His cheerfulness, candor and in- tegrity won him many friends. As a magistrate, he was eminently a peace-maker, often relinquishing his fees to induce contending parties to settle their disputes. As an elder of the church, he labored to advance the moral and religious interests of the town. Sometimes, but sparingly, he indulged in sallies of wit. A Mr. Pickering, an eminent lawyer, once said in the House of Representatives that lawyers were the pillars of the State, as without their aid not a sin- gle important bill could be drafted. Mr. Duncan rose and said, in his Scottish accent, "Mr. Speaker, there are different kinds of pall- yars ; there is a kind of pallyars that supports buildings ; there is also another kind of pallyars called caterpallyars, that devour men's substance ; if the gentlemen refer to the latter kind of pallyars, I perfectly agree with him." Mr. Duncan closed his long life, 1823, aged eighty-nine ; it being justly said at his funeral that no man in
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HISTORY OF ANTRIM.
town had done more good. His only son William, died, 1846, leav- ing the old homestead to the present Josiah Duncan. John's grandmother was a native of one of the Orkney Islands, on the north of Scotland.
JAMES DICKEY, a descendant of an early emigrant from Ireland to Londonderry, planted himself in Antrim, 1774, on the farm re- cently purchased by Reuben Boutell ; enlisted into the Revolutionary service, and mysteriously disappeared, as before related, at White Plains, 1776. His widow and family, who were very respectable, removed, many years ago to New-York.
JOSEPH BOYD, afterwards Deacon Boyd, son of William, an cmi- grant from the north of Ireland to Londonderry, became a resident of Antrim, 1774, and began the Jesse Goodell farm. He was a man of singular industry, candor and sincerity, an elder of the Pres- byterian church, and enjoyed the general respect of his townsmen. It used to be said of him that no man ever saw in him any thing un- fair or dishonorable. He died, 1816, of a disease of the bladder ; his death probably hastened by being thrown violently out of his carriage, near the old meeting-house on the Sabbath. Dea. Boyd had two brothers who settled in Antrim : William, who came here a year or two later than Joseph, began to cultivate the farm now Mr. Starret's, and after a residence of about twenty years returned to Londonderry ; and James, who began, about 1791, to subdue the large and valuable farm now his son's, the present James Boyd. James, senior, died 1835, aged sixty-seven. He married Fanny Baldwin, of Hollis, a woman of great excellence of character, who died 1828.
JAMES DUNCAN, a cousin of Hon. John Duncan, settled in 1774 on the place of Cyrus Saltmarsh, Esq. ; died 1825, aged seventy- nine.
DANIEL MCFARLAND, a native of Goffstown, began, 1774, the place now N. W. C. Jameson's. He was a man of many eccentrici- ties. Under some mental hallucination, he at one time fancied him- self to be the heir of an earldom in Scotland, and built, as a proper appendage to his supposed dignity, a very large house, which stood in his day unfinished. Part of it has been taken down, and the re- mainder converted into a tasteful residence by the present owner. Mr. McFarland died, 1829, aged ninety-six. It may amuse the reader to. learn the origin of the name. As tradition will have it, a stranger, named John, came some centuries ago from a foreign coun- try to Scotland; to distinguish him from other Johns, and to indicate that he came from a far country, the people called him Far-land, and by adding the Scottish prefix, Mac, John McFarland.
JOHN WARREN began the clearing of the John Wallace farm 1774 ; built the first saw-mill in town, two years after; removed his family to Canada about 1800. Little is known of the incidents of his life while a resident of Antrim.
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HISTORY OF ANTRIM.
JAMES MOOR was an emigrant from Ireland, settled in Antrim, 1774, on the farm once owned by Josiah Wallace, at present owned in part by Isaac C. Tuttle ; built the first grist-mill in town, 1777; was familiarly known as Miller Moor. His nephew, Samuel, came hither from Ireland about 1778, and married James' daughter, Han- nah. He was from a respectable family, well educated for the times, and served as town-clerk. Miller Moor died about 1788. Samuel, who had twelve children, removed his large family to Walpole, 1790, and has been dead many years.
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