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 19
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If the country pours its best blood into city arteries, it is not long after the public library springs up in the city that it springs up in the country village. The district school, the church, the cemetery, show, by various improvements, the counter current running up hill. The railroads that bring this secluded valley and these lonely hill-tops so near to the focus of New England's thought and work, could not have thus brought the world to our doors, with all its resources for the improvement of our sequestered life, had not the country boys first gone down to make the money that built these residences, and to develop the business that sus-
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RESPONSE OF REV. J. M. WHITON.
tains them. Let the boys go, then, and the girls too, as the boys and girls of past generations have gone. We are neither to check nor to grieve over an emigration that has made the land far richer and stronger than if all the young adventurers had taken root on the hill-sides. The Great Brook, let it run never so full to find the mill-wheels, will never drain the deep reservoir from which it flows. Nor will the young people who seem to hear the voice of destiny calling them hence to more ex- hausting labors and more uncertain harvest than the home farm proffers, ever drain away the strength of this town. As my college class sung of themselves at graduation, a hundred strong, -
"Some will go to Greece or Hartford, Some to Norwich or to Rome, Some to Greenland's icy mountains; More, perhaps, will stay at home."
So we may be sure that that Providence, whose invisible influences impel us, in our freedom, to go just where we are wanted in his plans, will see to it that the life of these hill-towns, refreshed and adorned, as it will ever be, by the reflex influences of the constant emigration of the flower of our youth, will ever retain a charm adequate to bind to their birthplace enough to hold the plow, and swing the ax, and fill the church, and feed the stream of our national energies with an unfailing procession of sons and daughters, as of yore.
One word, just uttered, suggests to me the thought with which I should bring these remarks to a close. It is through the church, that the hill-towns are to hold in the future, as in the past, a share in shaping the destiny of our republic. What their share has been, may be seen by referring to the lists of preachers of the gospel that have been raised up in some of the hill churches. One such church in Connecticut has sent out, during two hundred years, forty ministers. How far that little can- dle throws its beams! And many a city church is indebted, if not for its minister, yet for its strong men and helpful women, who supply its charities and wield its influence, to little, weak, sister churches (mother churches ought they rather to be called) upon New Hampshire hills.
These mother churches, then, must live. Here, in these days of shift- ing novelties, we find religious conservatism. Here the social focus is still found at the sanctuary, and the house of God is still "the meeting- house "; the weekly social rendezvous is still at the prayer-meeting. Here the simple Bible truth, which the fathers accepted, is received by the children, who have not yet learned that the book is unfit to be read, as the best of classics, in our schools. And, as a familiar word in our language records the historical fact that Christianity originally spread from the city to the country, and reached the village dwellers, " pagani," or pagans, last of all, so we may be sure that any partial reverse move- ment will be felt here last of all, and Christianity find in our villages her most permanent seat. Whatever city temples may be deserted, the peo- ple will still offer sacrifice in "the high places," and will love to say, "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain." So long as our hill churches shall stand as reservoirs fed from heaven, so long shall streams of the water of life flow throughout the land.
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RESPONSE OF HENRY REED, ESQ.
And so shall the praise which old Homer bestowed upon the hills of the Ithaca, that produced the most gifted hero of the Greeks, the praise which the greatest of Roman orators and philosophers borrowed from Homer to bestow upon the rugged hills of his native Arpinum, express the influence with which the hill-towns shall never cease to sway the destiny of the republic, - a glory which will never pass hence, as, with the decay of religion, it has passed from the birthplaces of Ulysses and Cicero, -
"Rugged however they be, they be noble mothers of men."
RESPONSE OF FRANK H. PIERCE, ESQ., OF CONCORD.
"Lawyers of Antrim."
This sentiment was responded to by Frank H. Pierce, Esq., of Concord, in a short but very eloquent and interesting address, one of the best given during the day. We regret, exceedingly, that our efforts to procure a copy for insertion in this place have been unsuccessful.
LETTER FROM E. A. WALLACE, ESQ., OF HAVANA, ILL.
"England and Scotland, - fatherlands of our ancestry; together they have given us the best stock the human family can boast."
E. A. Wallace, Esq., of Havana, Ill., having been invited to respond to this sentiment, wrote the following letter : -
REV. W. R. COCHRANE.
Dear Sir, - Your favor, extending me an invitation to be present at, and take part in, the centennial celebration of Antrim on June 27, was duly received. With many thanks for the same, I regret that my engagements are such that I cannot be with you on that occasion to join in glad rejoicing with the many friends and acquaintances who will be there, as well as to respond to the sentiment proposed. Although sep- arated by many miles, I shall often think of those there assembled in the dear old town of my nativity, for nearly three-quarters of a century the home of my parents, the scene of my early childhood and youth; and, with the recollection, will ascend to heaven a prayer for the peace and prosperity of all its inhabitants.
Hoping that the celebration will be a grand success, I remain,
Yours respectfully, E. A. WALLACE.
RESPONSE OF HENRY REED, ESQ., OF LOWELL, MASS.
" Reminiscences of old Antrim."
Henry Reed, Esq., of Lowell, though unable to be present, sent the following response : -
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN, - I am very grateful for the invitation to be present and join in the festivities and exercises
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RESPONSE OF HENRY REED, ESQ.
of this interesting occasion. The proper observance of anniversaries of important municipal, as well as state and national, events, is a custom that surely ought to be fostered and encouraged.
Said the eloquent Patrick Henry, " I know of no other way of judging the future, but by the past." There is no way by which a town or nation can make safer or surer progress, than by recalling the past, avoiding its errors, and emulating its virtues. I came to this good old town fifty- three years ago. Almost two generations have passed away since that time, and marvelous changes have taken place during this half-century. When I came here there was not a railroad in New Hampshire, and not even one projected. Now, the iron horse carries mountain visitors, with the greatest ease and comfort, up among the clouds, to the very summit of Mount Washington. Then, it required two days to carry a message from Antrim to Boston. Now, you can send your thoughts around the globe with the rapidity of lightning. Then, the application of steam for mechanical purposes was almost unknown. Now, there is scarcely a town or village in the Granite State but has machinery driven by steam power. As great changes have also taken place regarding other indus- tries. . When I lived in this old town, every farmer employed from one to half a dozen men to cut and cure his grass. Now, every important farmer has a mower, a tedder, a horse-rake, a horse hay-fork, and a loader. Instead of doing his haying by the sweat of his brow, he makes his horses and oxen do it for him. Fifty years ago, a barrel of old New England rum was considered as essential, in haying-time, as one of Colby's New London scythes. Now, I trust, that, in the old Granite State, at least, ginger and water, sweetened with molasses, is the strongest beverage allowed on any well-regulated farm. Then, the girls milked the cows, made butter and cheese, washed, baked, mended, spun and wove, and knit, and were thorough-going housekeepers, by the time they were eighteen. Now, the girls, - well, you know better than I do about the farmers' girls of to-day. There have been changes on every hand. The people that I knew fifty-three years ago are nearly all gone.
The number in this large gathering who were in active business life when I came here, is comparatively small. I recall, with many pleasant memories, some of the old families that were then prominent in the town. There are numerous incidents that come back to me in connection with the old homes of Antrim. I can only say here, that these homes were noted for the honest industry, as well as strict integrity and Christian virtues, of their inmates. There were faults, but they are dimmed and overshadowed by the predominating influences making up honest, patri- otic, and noble character. May this generation emulate the lives of the fathers and mothers of half a century ago!
And, in closing, Mr. President, let me offer you this sentiment: The old homes of Antrim, - may their benign influences be felt and cher- ished by all who have emanated from them to the latest generation!
.
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LETTER FROM REV. ARTHUR LITTLE.
LETTER FROM REV. ARTHUR LITTLE, OF CHICAGO, ILL.
" The host that have gone from Antrim to bless all parts of the land."
In response to this sentiment, Rev. Arthur Little, of Chicago, Ill., sent the following letter : -
REV. WARREN COCHRANE.
My Dear Friend, - I trust you will pardon my delay in answering your card of invitation to be present and share in the centennial celebra- tion at Antrim. Had there been any possibility of doing myself so great a pleasure, I should have given you speedy notice. I like this centennial business first-rate, and am sorry to lose any opportunity of having a hand in it. I should enjoy speaking, for a few moments, in response to the sentiment mentioned in your note. It is a grand theme. Antrim is rich in history. Settled by a little the best stock the world ever saw, she has been sending out a continuous stream of blessing during all the years of the century. Her sons and daughters have marked the whole breadth of the continent with their footsteps. Wisconsin is, to-day, in possession of one gifted clergyman whose mother was an Antrim woman, the daughter of Dr. Whiton, - Rev. C. H. Richards, of Madison. He is an honor to the State capital, a power for good throughout the commonwealth. I am so glad that my father had the good sense to marry an Antrim girl. I shall not seem to boast if I say that a better, purer, truer, nobler woman was never born, or reared, or married in that good old town. If I am anything, or shall ever do anything, it will be owing very, very largely to the influence of that mother. I love Antrim for my mother's sake. To review the history of Antrim, or almost any other New Hampshire town, for a hundred years, were enough to fill the heart of any son of the Granite State with honest pride.
The past is secure. I glory in it. The future is what troubles me. It will be a sorry day for this republic, for this great, expanding West, if the time comes when Antrim, and other towns like her, has no more sons and daughters, rich in tried qualities, good character, and rugged enterprise, to send forth to the great work of molding and fashioning these new States and opening territories into Christian commonwealths, after the New Hampshire pattern. Sometimes I fear that time has almost been reached. But I will not indulge in gloomy forebodings. The fathers' God is still the God of the children, and he will preserve us.
Be kind enough to assure the good people of Antrim of my interest in their anniversary, and of the joy it would give me to be with them, per- sonally, in its observance. I know the retrospect will bring strength and hope to your hearts, for the years to come. Know that my prayer mingles with all yours that the century to come may be as rich in good men and women, and good works, as the century that closes with this hour.
Faithfully yours,
ARTHUR LITTLE.
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LETTER FROM HON. GEORGE W. NESMITH.
LETTER FROM AMASA EDES, ESQ., OF NEWPORT, N. H.
The following letter from Amasa Edes, Esq., of Newport, N. H., nearly eighty-five years of age, was sent in reply to an invitation to be present at the centennial celebration : -
REV. W. R. COCHRANE.
Dear Sir, - Your favor of the 8th instant is received, and I reply that there is no prospect that my health will be such as to enable me to be present with you on your centennial day. I much regret this, for there is much to attach me to Antrim. There was I born, there repose the ashes of my mother, and there was I first inspired with a love of letters. When about five years old, I attended the common school, taught by a Mr. Gregg. From being much his smallest scholar, or from some other cause, he held me in his lap for hours, while hearing his classes recite, drew me pictures with his pen, and gained my love for himself and my studies, so at the end of the term I could read well in plain reading. I hope you will have an agreeable meeting, and that everything will pass off according to your plan, that your town will be prosperous and celebrated for the intelligence and virtue of its people, and at its next centennial will show improvements and progress greater even than the present.
With great respect, AMASA EDES.
LETTER FROM HON. GEORGE W. NESMITH, OF FRANKLIN, N. H.
The following letter from Hon. George W. Nesmith, of Frank- lin, N. H., will be read with interest, because of its numerous personal allusions : -
REV. W. R. COCHRANE.
My Dear Sir, - Be pleased to receive for yourself, and convey to your associates upon the committee, my warmest expressions of gratitude for your kind invitation to be present at your approaching centennial festival. It would afford me sincere pleasure to revisit the scenes of my early days. Nearly all the companions of my youth have gone to their rest. Not enough survive to recount the interesting events and achievements of their own day and generation, much less the history of their virtuous ancestry. I congratulate your town upon your patriotic efforts to obtain a full record of its early and progressive history. Rev. Dr. Whiton res- cued from oblivion much valuable material, which will necessarily con- stitute the corner-stone, upon which foundation you will build a rich edifice for us to look upon.
Antrim can boast of a worthy ancestry. I imagine myself upon my father's old homestead, and there located I look south for his nearest neighbor, and find the good old Deacon Joseph Boyd and his excellent wife, both models of industry and benevolence. They never turned away the hungry or naked from their door without some supply. No
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POEM BY JAMES AIKEN, ESQ.
boy ever returned home from district school, in good health, without a sharp appetite, and many times we can attest to the generous donations of food from the hand of good Mrs. Boyd - blessed be her memory! With much interest we used to hear her relate how, in the early days of her residence in Antrim, she drove off the bear with a broomstick, that had attacked her pig in the pen. Now I recollect the first settler on the east next to my father's house, Mr. McKean, who resided there for many years, and where his son Joseph was born, who afterward became the eminent school commissioner for the State of New York. A gentleman capable of judging his merits, one who knew him well, says he has never been surpassed by any successor, in the able discharge of the duties of this responsible office, in that State. Dea. John Taylor, a man of great moral worth, succeeded Mckean. On the north, our neighbor was Thomas Brown, who was a brave Revolutionary soldier, and recounted with much interest his personal achievements. He lived to a good old age, and led an honorable and blameless life.
On the west, the first settler and nearest neighbor was John Gilmore, from Londonderry. For a number of years he occupied the Cole, or Ten- nant, or Weston, or Whiton farm. He was a highly respectable citizen, and emigrated to the State of Ohio. Just north of Gilmore was Capt. Daniel Miltimore, who held the rank of lieutenant in Capt. Peter Clark's company, in the battle of Bennington. With this company you will find enrolled, if I mistake not, many of the good citizens, then of Antrim, who rendered memorable service in that glorious struggle one hundred years ago. Now we may place ourselves in the various districts of the town, among the early inhabitants. We shall find occasion to record similar meritorious conduct, illustrating the deep, virtuous, moral princi- ple which stamped the character of our ancestry. They have given to their posterity splendid examples, worthy of imitation by this and future generations. I regret exceedingly that I cannot be with you in person, on this festive occasion, but my pressing engagements at Dartmouth will not permit. I shall be with you in spirit, and I adopt Goldsmith's language in remembrance of his own native city, -
" Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see, My heart, untraveled, fondly turns to thee."
With sentiments of great respect,
GEO. W. NESMITH.
POEM BY JAMES AIKEN, ESQ., OF LEWISBURG, PENN.
The following poem is from the pen of James Aiken, Esq., a venerable man of Lewisburg, Penn., and relative of Dea. James Aiken, the first permanent settler of Antrim : -
Ye men of Antrim, these rude lines Are written by a friendly hand; And my forefathers, like your own, Helped to subdue your land.
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POEM BY JAMES AIKEN, ESQ.
And though my feet have never trod New Hampshire's hills, so grand, so high, Long, long your scenery sublime Has charmed my mental eye.
Oh, call me brother! for my sires, Like yours, were patriots, true and brave; They periled life, and all they had, Our nation's life to save.
Our town, - one hundred years of age! Not one, now living, saw its birth. Its history shows us change on change, Like all the things of earth.
Change seems the universal law; Suns, planets, systems, never rest; But all, in silence, onward move, Obeying God's behest.
Man's intellect and moral state Must change, - for better or for worse : The former be a blessing pure, The latter be a curse!
Nations, communities, as well, When not advancing, must recede; And those that wiser, better grow, Are largely blest indeed.
We cannot boast; but surely, we Have light our fathers never saw; And what, with them, was theory, With us is fixed law.
Oh, had our moral growth kept pace With intellectual advance,
Then duty's pathway we might see At the first searching glance !
Our noble ancestors were men And women of high moral worth; And who can tell how fast, how far, Their influence marks the earth!
In a smooth lake a pebble drops ; We see the waves approach the shore; Even so, the influence of our deeds Moves onward evermore.
Lord, make us worthy of our sires! And oh, may our superior light Show us the way to noble deeds, Make coming ages bright!
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LETTER FROM STEPHEN G. ABBOTT.
LETTER FROM HON. W. B. DINSMORE, OF NEW YORK.
The following letter from Hon. W. B. Dinsmore, of New York, was received in reply to the invitation extended to him to be present at the centennial anniversary : -
REV. W. R. COCHRANE.
Dear Sir, - It would give me pleasure to accept your polite invitation to be present at the centennial celebration of Antrim, on the 27th instant, but my engagements are such as to prevent my enjoying the good things to be seen and heard on that interesting occasion. I trust there may be a delightful gathering of old and young, to listen to the glowing accounts by the speakers of the energy, perseverance, industry, and moral power of the first settlers of Antrim, in their trials, tribula- tions, and sufferings to subdue the forests and provide homes for them- selves and their offspring. New England thrift and pluck have made their mark wherever its people have wandered, and will continue, I hope, to make their impress felt " while the earth bears a plant or the sea rolls a wave." Regretting the necessity which keeps me at home, I remain, Your most obedient servant,
ยท W. B. DINSMORE.
LETTER FROM STEPHEN G. ABBOTT, OF NORTH ADAMS, MASS.
" The past of Antrim contrasted with the present."
Rev. Stephen G. Abbott, having been invited to respond, sent the following letter from North Adams, Mass., where he was preaching for a season : -
REV. W. R. COCHRANE.
My Dear Brother, -I very much regret my inability to accept your kind invitation to be present at the approaching centennial anniversary of the good old town of Antrim, and participate in the exercises of the occasion. For thirty-eight years it has been the only spot on earth that I could call by that peerless name, - home!
Most of the tender recollections of my childhood seem to have been transported, with the family and household goods, when we became the adopted children of your goodly town. Whenever, in the wanderings of my pilgrimage, my thoughts rove in search of a pleasant and a final resting-place, they settle down in the ancestral homestead at Clinton, the repository of all those memories, painful and joyous, which give to the word home its indescribable and incomparable fascination. There I passed the point of transition from irresponsible youth to the stern reali- ties of life's mission. There I consecrated myself to the work of the gos- pel ministry. From the little church now worshiping at South Antrim, I received my license to preach. There was the scene of those early struggles, weaving a variegated web of successes and failures, which form the most marked and profitable period of every poor but ambitious young man's experience. In the old mansion, or adjoining cottage, I closed the eyes of father, mother, three sisters, a brother and a brother's
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RESPONSE OF COL. SILAS DINSMORE.
wife, dear to me as a sister, and of her brother, who had, for many years, been to me. what only a brother can be, and their precious dust lies in your beautiful cemeteries, awaiting the voice of death's conqueror, call- ing them forth to life and immortality. There was born my only son and child, who has proved himself worthy a better father, and whose filial devotion none but loving parents' hearts can appreciate. During the vicissitudes of these years, I, with my family, learned, by grateful experience, what great, warm, sympathetic hearts beat within the bosoms of the sturdy yeomanry of your rough hills and verdant vales. Nor can I ever forget the tender, self-denying, delicate attentions of the revered Dr. Whiton and his devoted wife, during the sicknesses and deaths in our family. It is no wonder that their pure example and faithful instruction, for so many years, should be left upon the character of the people.
Love Antrim! Why should I not ? With a home around which gather such associations, in a State that has no peer in the nation, I should be less than human if I did not love it ! It will be just forty years, the third of July next, since I first entered the town, and, on the following day, so cold that fires were kept in all the houses, I aided in raising the house that became my future home. I can realize the flight of this long period of time, only when I note the changes it has wrought. The old men and women of that time have all gone to their rest. The middle-aged have become old. The young are just passing, with me, over life's summit. So the stream of life, like a great river, is flowing steadily along, constantly emptying its treasures into the great ocean of eternity. This thought must come up, most impressively, before you on the day of your gathering, and, though it may beget a feeling of sadness, it will more tenderly link the past with the present, and so chasten your festivities as to inspire sentiments in more delightful harmony with the occasion. How varied will be the emotions awakened in the hearts of the people, by memories that will come trooping from the past, and by messages from the future which will respond to the prophetic imagina- tion! And how sublime, as well as delightful, the thought, that He to whom the past and the future are alike present, will preside over you, and harmonize all with His own grand purposes.
It is one of the very painful self-denials of my life, that I cannot be with you in person, as I certainly shall be in spirit. Accept the sincere expression of my heart in the following sentiment : Glorious old Antrim, -in all her inhabitants, her institutions, and her interests, may the sec- ond century of her history be to the first as the meridian sun to the morning star!
Very truly your friend and brother, STEPHEN G. ABBOTT.
RESPONSE OF COL. SILAS DINSMORE.
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