USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Antrim > History of the town of Antrim, New Hampshire, from its earliest settlement to June 27, 1877, with a brief genealogical record of all the Antrim families > Part 14
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About this time, in addition to expenditures in opposing divis- ion, and on the town-house, the town was beset with petitions for roads. All the town meetings had petitions for roads ; and extra meetings were called over and over ; and after being voted down again and again, the petitioners would put in the same article again. At one time (Nov. 9, 1835), as though fairly worried into concession, the town voted to lay out three different roads. But these were not very burdensome compared with two larger ones, and the " Forest Road," across the southwest cor- ner of the town. The latter had been built in passable condition for many years, making a road from Stoddard to Hancock at our expense, the town voting quite a sum every year to repair it, not, however, without all the swearing and scolding needed on each occasion ! Nor is it strange that they should be unwilling to be
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BUILDING ROADS.
taxed to support a road for which no citizen of Antrim could derive any advantage, it being in an uninhabited part of the town, entirely separated from the rest. But about this time, under the name of " Forest Road," the whole thing had to be widened and straightened, at a heavy expense to the town. And it always · has been a heavy and unfair tax upon us. To keep two miles of this road, remote from all the people of the town, in good condi- tion for stages and heavy teams year after year, was felt to be a burden.
Then, in 1831, the " Court's Committee," as they were called at that time, laid out a road from Stoddard line, near the Box tavern, to Hillsborough line, east of Miles Tuttle's, mostly on new ground, making more than six miles of new road, and in- volving a very large outlay. To this road the town made all possible opposition. Town meetings were called. Petitions were sent to court asking for discontinuance. Plans were made to improve the old route from Concord to Keene, through South Antrim, Hancock, and Dublin. Luke Woodbury, Esq., was chosen agent to fight this road. Other towns above also made vigorous opposition to said road.
At near the same time the " Court's Committee " laid out a new road from Hancock Factory (Bennington) to Cork bridge. This and the " North Keene Road," then so called, are first mentioned in the town warrants Nov. 5, 1832, and first appear together. The Cork-bridge road was laid chiefly on new ground, about three and one-half miles in Antrim. Both these roads were fought off for about two years, and considerable money was expended in the opposition ; but the town was compelled to build them in the end. Both were constructed in the year 1834. The town chose Jacob Tuttle agent to build the " North Keene Road " ; and Thomas McMaster, Jr., agent to build the " South " road. The expense of the Keene road was over $4,000, and of the South road about $2,000, - all of which was hired on the credit of the town. All the costs of these roads was about $8,000, from first to last. The road from Clinton Village to Mr. French's, built in 1836, was also quite expensive, and added to the town debt.
Another heavy item for the town at this time was the support of the poor. There were nearly twenty paupers. They had been sold out year by year, but the expense was large for so many, and some more thoughtful people believed the poor would
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CARING FOR THE POOR.
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be better off with a fixed home, and were not willing to see them " sold " at auction. As early as March 13, 1832, the town voted the " Selectmen be a committee to look out a farm, and report at a future meeting." They selected the Hutchinson Flint farm, now Henry D. Chapin's residence, which was purchased the fol- lowing year. March 11, 1834, the town " voted The Selectmen to take charge of Paupers and the Town Farm"; and this was the first year it was occupied by the town. Its cost, with stock and some repairs, was $2,500. Timothy Weston, a joking, jolly man, first took charge of the farm. Chandler Boutwell was the first man 'chosen to " superintend " the farm and the poor, and was annually chosen to that office for several years. The farm continued to be the comfortable home of our poor till 1869, when those dependent on the town being very few, and the tax for the county farm being heavy, it was sold. In November, 1868, the town chose J. W. Perkins, Cyrus Saltmarsh, and William S. Foster, a committee to sell. This change was made inevitable by the county-farm system, as no town could support its own farm for two or three paupers. But the county system was hard and cruel to all but foreigners, and very distasteful to the people of Antrim. Many protests has the writer heard. Some poor have been kept away from the county farm, by gifts of money and board. If some ONE state institution, with plenty of work, could have taken the foreign element, and the system of town farms, so acceptable, and so general, been retained, it would have saved money and pleased the people, besides saving the poor from many home-sick and bitter years !
In view of all these expenditures, the town debt in 1835 went as high as $9,000. Population was decreasing slowly by emi- gration and death, - and taxes were very severe. For the first time in its history, the town paid a large amount of interest money ; and town notes, hardly before ever heard of in Antrim, were now very common. At this time the prospect of help from the surplus revenue of the United States arose, most agreeably to the people. Congress passed an act, June 23, 1836, the coun- try being out of debt, and a large sum having accumulated in the public treasury, to distribute a certain part of the surplus among the States. It seems that our state legislature was in session, and passed a law to distribute this sum to the towns on certain conditions, Jan. 13, 1837. On the 14th of February fol- lowing, a meeting was called in Antrim, of which Amos Par-
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COLLECTION OF TAXES.
menter was moderator, at which they voted to receive the money and to " Execute a certificate of deposit therefor," according to the terms of the law. This is understood to be a bond of the town to pay back said sum on certain conditions. They chose Samuel Fletcher agent to receive the money. He obtained : $3,000. The town voted to invest the money on " undoubted security " ; but subsequently, as there was no probability that the money would be called for by the government, they appropriated the whole sum to the payment of town debts. At once the taxes were diminished, and the people were enabled readily to subdue the debt. And perhaps it would be well if, at the present day, town debts were viewed with the same abhorrence and alarm as then !
For many years it had been the custom to sell the collection of taxes to the lowest bidder, the town finding its security in. the bondsmen. This selling at auction was in open town meet- ing, and the bondsmen were then and there proposed, and they were accepted or rejected by public vote. These were generally the most excited, and often the most amusing, scenes in the town meeting. All the taxes of the town were generally col- lected for five or six dollars per year ; and sometimes the salary of this dreaded official was run down to almost nothing. At the March meeting of 1832, excitement was so great that they bid the collectorship down to nothing, when Bartlett Wallace offered the town fifty cents for the privilege of collecting, and it was struck off to him on those terms. And amid shouts of triumph and laughter, Jacob Tuttle and John Worthley came forward to be his bondsmen and were accepted by the town.
For the pleasure it may afford to the curious, the following resolution, passed in public town meeting March 12, 1839, is here given : -
Resolved that George Duncan has faithfully Served this Town in the Capacity of Clerk and that our only object in Displacing him is that we hold rotation in office a fundamental principle of the Democratic Creed.
Whether this was planned by way of letting-down easy some sensitive official, or to put a little salve of compliment over a sore place, or to give deserved praise, does not appear on the record. Strange to say, Mr. Duncan did not live a year ! But, as he was a worthy man whom the town had many times honored, it is fair to presume that their object was to honor him also on retirement.
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BENNINGTON. INCORPORATED.
In 1840, the population being 1,225, the number of names on the check-list was 299, - of which 296 voted at the presidential election, Nov. 2, that year. Of this number twenty-seven did not pay a poll-tax, indicating that as the number of men then in town over seventy years of age ; whereas now, with a population of about eleven hundred, we have thirty-four men in town about that age Life is not growing shorter in these days.
In January, 1840, there was a great scare in Antrim on account of the small-pox, and a town meeting was called (Feb. 11, 1840) to take public action. Of this meeting, Rev. John M. Whiton was moderator. They chose two agents, Dr. Burnham and Dr. Stickney, "to See that all the Inhabitants that is in town are vaccinated." These agents made rapid work and all the people were frightened into readiness therefor. A man had died of that loathsome disease at Bennington, so near, and in such fearful way, as justly to produce alarm, especially when we remember that very few of the people had been vaccinated. Dr. Jenner's discovery of vaccination had been announced in London in 1796, but was a long time opposed, and even preached against in the pulpit as " diabolical "; so that it was slow in finding general acceptance. Such a scare, probably, could not occur now. It seems to have filled the people with more alarm than any war ever did. But it soon died away, and only the curious mind will care to revert to it.
Dec. 15, 1842, the last of Society Land was incorporated as the town of Bennington. With this Antrim had been connected in the early days. From the original tract called Society Land, a part of Francestown was taken off June 8, 1772, in the incor- poration of that town. Another larger portion was set off as the town of Deering, June 17, 1774. Another slice was cut off for the town of Antrim, March 22, 1777. Still another was incor- porated as Hancock, Nov. 5, 1779. The south part of what was left, together with parts of Francestown and Lyndeborough, seem to have been made into the town of Greenfield, June 15, 1791. Both Antrim and Hancock were bounded on the east by the Contoocook river, and therefore what was left of the original Society Land .was only a small strip between Francestown and the Contoocook, lying along the stream. Its old name gradually dropped out of use, and it was called " Hancock Factory " for many years. To this unincorporated tract, inhabited in 1830 by about one hundred and thirty persons, small portions of Hancock,
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TEMPERANCE QUESTION.
Greenfield, Francestown, and Deering were added to form the little town of Bennington. On account of manufactures, its population had largely increased ; and the new town started with a population of about four hundred. This increased at the census of 1850 to 541. At the census of 1860, it was 450; at that of 1870, 401. But for the past few years Bennington has evidently increased in population. It is almost a child of Antrim, and is a smart little town, with busy factories, and a wide-awake, ambitious people. Its church, formed in part by members from Antrim, was organized July 6, 1839.
As noticed under the year 1822, the selectmen were authorized to license as many as they saw fit, to sell liquor in each town. This with little variation was the law for more than twenty- five years. There were plenty of these licenses in Antrim every year, and rum was free and cheap. But misgivings began to arise in the minds of good men concerning this traffic. Our town records contain hints of the progress of the temperance sentiment among us. Public opinion changed very slowly. An article was in the warrant March 10, 1846, " To See if the town will vote to instruct the Selectmen not to License the Sale of ardent Spirits except for mechanical and medicinal purposes." This made quite an excitement in town, and the friends of free liquor were not a little angry. Almost immediately after the organization of the meeting they called up this (the twelfth) article and voted to dismiss it, one hundred and fifty-three to eighty-seven. Thus more than one-third of the voters favored a practical prohibition. But the selectmen went on with the license as before, though with greater care, and a less number of licenses. The question of temperance had been carried into the church, and had made great disturbance there, and had been agitated with considerable bitterness among Christian people ; but was settled among them by the following vote, which is in force to this day : -
That when persons hereafter (1842) may offer themselves for admis- sion . . .. they be required to abstain from the use of intoxicating drinks, except as a medicine.
In the town, however, the discussion went on, as appears by this article in the warrant for March 14, 1848 : -
Is it expedient that a law be enacted by the Legislature, prohibiting the Sale of wines and other spirituous liquors, except for chemical, me- dicinal and mechanical purposes.
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ROBB MOUNTAIN.
It shows the intense feeling on the subject, that they passed all other articles and immediately called this up for action. The vote for this law was, in favor, ninety ; against, one hundred and two; showing a steady advance of sentiment.
In 1850 a convention was called to revise the constitution of this State. Previously, several times, the project to call a con- vention had been voted down. This town had gone steadily and strongly against it. But finally it had been decided to have a convention ; and a meeting was called Tuesday, Oct. 8, 1850, to choose a delegate. Of this meeting, John G. Flint was modera- tor. On the first ballot for delegate, John M. Whiton had fifty- six votes, and Hiram Griffin fifty-eight, besides scattering votes, and there was no election. On the next ballot, Mr. Griffin was elected by a very small majority. This convention met at Con- cord, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1850. They worked faithfully, had a long session, suggested many excellent changes, and supposed their work would stand. But it was voted down by a large ma- jority. Antrim voted against every article, generally by large majorities. The great labor and heavy cost of the " Convention of 1850" were thrown away ! And the old constitution went on for a quarter of a century more.
The first break in the town lines was in 1849, when the small farm of John Flint, in the southwest part of the town, was. annexed to Hancock, by act of the legislature, he having no access to Antrim except by passing first through other towns. A petition for consent of Antrim had been inserted by him sev- eral times in the town warrant; and the town voted, Nov. 7, 1848, that " Our representative be instructed to favor the disan- nexing John Flint & joining him to Hancock." This, it is believed, was completed at the next session of the legislature, and was no doubt beneficial for a time ; but, on the whole, it is to be regretted, as breaking the continuity of the town lines, and being of no present use, since the farm is now deserted.
About this time, began rapidly to disappear the whole popula- tion of a school-district of about a dozen families on Robb Mountain. More than sixty persons resided there at one time. About 1816, Andrew Robb, Moor Robb, Nathan Cram, Thomas Aucerton, Daniel Paige, Thomas Carleton, Luther Conant, Samp- son Reed, John Edwards, and others, were at one time living there near together. They all lived in log houses, had large families, had a school, were well off, were large raisers of stock,
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PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.
and were considered a prosperous community. But they began to leave for better accommodations, and in a few years all were gone. The log houses rotted down. And as no road was ever built to these habitations, and fences have gone to decay, almost every relic of this community has disappeared. Cattle roam · there ; trees have sprung up in the old fields ; and no one now passing there would think that within one hundred years that tract of land was cleared, turned into fruitful fields, inhabited till babes born there grew gray, was deserted, its buildings rotted down, and all gone back again to forest, or worn pasture, as if never inhabited! If all this may take place in ninety years, it becomes us to speak cautiously of what time may do! Will not six thousand years answer someway for all known effects on the earth ?
In 1852, Franklin Pierce was elected to the Presidency of the United States, - an event at that time of much interest and sat- isfaction to the people of Antrim, inasmuch as the farm of Gov. Pierce joined Antrim, and the family had long been intimately associated with our people. Before he entered upon the , high office to which he had been elected, his only son was killed by a railroad accident at Andover, Mass., Jan. 6, 1853 ; and this, from sympathy, kindled a new interest in the honored and afflicted man. But many thoughtful minds here were slowly alienated from him, by his course favoring the propagandists of slavery. Especially the act of May 30, 1854, sometimes called a " Com- promise," but really opening Kansas and Nebraska to slavery, awakened a sullen, deep opposition at the North, and multiplied the strength of the anti-slavery party. Pierce's administration ·was that under which the great forces that clashed in 1861 were really setting themselves. The "Free Soil " vote in Antrim, before almost nothing, now steadily and silently increased, and ultimately made this town a unit in resistance to the armies of slavery.
In the year 1860, the famous cattle-disease broke out, called pleuro-pneumonia. . One Antrim man (not born here) refused to buy meat out of a butcher's cart, because the creature he feared had had the " E pluribus Unum ! " This cattle-disease had been immensely fatal in some sections of the country ; and on its appearance in New Hampshire, our legislature hastily passed an act giving great power to the towns over live-stock, for the purpose of suppressing the disease. Immediately, a town meet-
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SECESSION.
ing was called in Antrim, and they chose William S. Foster, Cyrus Saltmarsh, and James Boyd a committee, with discretion- ary powers, to enforce the new act. This committee was con- tinued through 1861-62-63. They ordered cattle supposed to be infected, to be isolated. At great labor farmers made double fences, twenty feet apart, between their pastures, to prevent the communication of the disease. There was a certain Dr. Cutter who came here claiming to know all about the disease, and who ordered the killing of some creatures. The excitement among the people was universal, and among stock-raisers it was intense. Many were afraid to buy meat. Some of the more nervous ones said : " We shall come to bread and salt yet." The hills of An- trim were covered with herds of cattle, many of them from below ; and nobody could be sure his cattle were not infected. Men watched their stock constantly, and worried, and didn't always " remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy," in their zeal for the safety of the brute ! At one time, two hundred and fifty men and a crowd of boys assembled on the mountain north of the pond to see the slaughter and examination of a heifer supposed to be under the disease. By loss of the animals killed, extra fences, and time spent, the cost to the people was quite heavy. Yet not an animal died of the disease in this town. Less than a dozen were killed, all told. And I have heard cattle-men in town say that all of these would have lived to a fat old age, if the people had let them alone ! It was a great scare. No doubt there was some small temporary trouble with the stock ; but it wore away, and soon was unmentioned, save by way of jest ! How oft our fortunes are better than our fears !
The action of Antrim through the fearful civil war was loyal and vigorous. All through Buchanan's administration things were ripening for conflict. John Brown commenced his raid to deliver the negroes at Harper's Ferry, Va., Oct. 16, 1859. He was soon captured, was tried for treason, and was executed on the gallows, Dec. 2 following. This event created great excite- ment North and South. Parties were broken up. The Presidential contest of 1860 was very severe. But Lincoln being elected by a decisive vote, the Southern States began to "secede," as they called it. South Carolina passed an " ordinance of secession," Dec. 20, 1860, but was not remarkably successful in the business in the end. Six other States along the Gulf went through the same formality, in so short a time that they formed the " Con-
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RAISING MONEY AND VOLUNTEERS.
federacy," and held an election of their own Feb. 8, 1861, and thus had Davis and Stephens ready to be inaugurated as soon as Lincoln and Hamlin. The Southerners began the con- flict by firing on Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861. That cannon roar waked up the whole North like the sound of an earthquake ! There · was a swell of holy indignation in every heart. Old political enemies to a great extent rose up together all over the North, saying, -" The Union - it must be preserved." There was a call to arms ! Many marched to the front ! Solemn, determined preparations were begun. April 15, the President called on New Hampshire for a regiment of infantry for three months, - which was at once filled by volunteers, and in a few days started for Washington. There was a town meeting in Antrim, as soon as legal notice could be given, May 3, 1861. John G. Flint was chosen moderator. The town expressed at once, by resolution, its deep interest in those who had volunteered to defend the flag, its determination to assist them, and do its part in whatever struggle might come. Then they appointed a committee, consist- ing of Charles McKeen, William S. Foster, D. H. Goodell, N. W. C. Jameson, and John G. Flint, to assist volunteers ; and made an appropriation of money to carry it into effect. Surely, this was prompt and smart. The town meeting was called, the fourteen days' notice given, the committee was appointed and at work, all within less than three weeks of the hour when the first gun was fired on Sumter !
And the town was true to all the pledges then made, and more than true. At a meeting Sept. 5, 1861, J. H. Bates moderator, the town voted to hire $3,000 to assist the families of volunteers. At the March meeting, 1862, they voted a continuance of aid to the families of volunteers. At a meeting Aug. 12, 1862, Harold Kelsea moderator, voted $125 bounty " till the quota be full," and to hire an additional $3,000. This was besides the help to the families. In September following, the same offer was made to nine-months men. March 10, 1863, the town voted $3,000 for war purposes. At a meeting Aug. 15, 1863, M. B. Mellvaine moderator, they voted to pay a drafted man, or his substitute, $300. Also, Dec. 9, 1863, in legal meeting, the town voted to hire $7,500, and appropriated the same " for the purpose of encouraging voluntary enlistments to fill the quota of this town." At the March meeting of 1864, they appropriated $1,000 to aid families of volunteers. April 16, 1864, they voted a generous
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WAR DEBT.
bounty to soldiers who would re-enlist, and took efficient meas- ures to fill Antrim's quota. Aug. 10, 1864, they voted a bounty of $1,000 to every soldier enlisting to fill Antrim's quota ; also $200 to any man who might be drafted and choose to serve. And they authorized the selectmen to hire $15,000 to carry these votes into effect. At a meeting Nov. 25, 1864, James W. Per- kins moderator, they authorized the selectmen to pay the highest bounty allowed by law to twenty volunteers to fill Antrim's quota in anticipation of a future call, and keep our number full and a little more. For this they voted to hire $15,000. And still further, at the meeting March 14, 1865, after four years of strug- gle, they instructed the selectmen, by volunteers, or otherwise, to fill any and all calls for men, up to March 1, 1866, at any cost not exceeding $15.000. This was the last vote. Had the thing gone on, it is not known how much Antrim would have done ! Our quota was more than full when the war closed. Lee sur- rendered April 9, 1865 ; and soon all the other rebels did the same -and the terrible war was over. The selectmen of this town hired some substitutes and some volunteers from other towns ; but chiefly the quotas were filled from our own citizens. Some of the substitutes deserted ; but others of them were good soldiers, and stood by the flag to the last. And some of these substitutes were killed in battle, or retired from the service scarred with wounds. The number of our soldiers that lost their lives in the war of the rebellion, either by battle or dis- ease, was twenty-seven. Of these, ten were killed in battle. Others languished and died in hospitals or prisons. Three or four were fatally sick, but lived to reach Antrim and die at home. Further details will be given in the chapter on the mili- tary of Antrim.
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