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 6
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Philip Riley (or Raleigh), who fled with the Hillsborough settlers before the Indians in the spring of 1746, went directly
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1.
20
RILEY AND OTHER SETTLERS.
to Sudbury, Mass., where his family were, and there he resided for fifteen years. The capture of Canada from the French, in 1759 and 1760, relieving the borders from danger, the settlers on the frontier began to creep back to their deserted cabins. Riley was the first to return to this section, coming back in the spring of 1761. A thick growth of young wood had spread over his clearing, and it was a matter of difficulty to find the little cabin he had left. His cabin was the only one left in the vicinity. Every building in Hillsborough, even the church, was burned, excepting only the small house afterwards called tlie
" parsonage." Riley found his ax and other tools where he had concealed tliem, and soon prepared the way to bring on his family. Of his twelve children, several had grown up, and some came with him here. It has been said that the refugees from Hillsborough returned with Riley; but this is a mistake, as none of the first settlers of Hillsborough ever returned to reside there at all, though the children of some of them located where their parents had begun. Riley was in the wilderness one year alone ! The second settlement of Hillsborough was by Daniel McMurphy on Bible Hill in 1762. After this Riley had near neighbors in Hillsborough, but for five years his was the only family of white persons within the present limits of Antrim. But in the first part of the year 1766 the Masonian proprietors sent far and wide an advertisement of their lands on the Contoo- cook, announcing their beauty of situation and great fertility, and inviting an examination by any who thought of seeking a settlement. Some way this document conveyed the idea that these lands were free. Accordingly, Riley had companions in Antrim in the summer of 1766, in the persons of James Aiken, William Smith, James Duncan, James Hogg, George Otterson, James Otterson, and a young man by the name of Perry, who came here in the early summer of that year, ax in hand, and made their beginnings in the east and south parts of the town, chiefly in the neighborhood of South Village. They had come on the strength of the advertisement, were greatly pleased with the lands, each marked out his farm, and on the approach of autumn they all returned to Londonderry to spend the winter, expecting to come back in good earnest the next spring. At that time Aiken returned very early, and completed his cabin and prepared his ground. Then going after his wife and chil- dren, they arrived at their new home here Aug. 12, 1767. But
21
AIKEN'S DIFFICULTIES.
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he was not joined by his comrades of the previous year. On hearing that the land was not given, but to be purchased, though at a mere trifle, they threw up their claims, or determined to wait till there was some change for the better. Only two of them, Smith and Duncan, ever settled in Antrim, and that after some years. But Aiken was not the man to give up anything that energy and perseverance could accomplish. The place which he began, and on which he lived and died, is now the Whittum farm, South Village. He was obliged to pay to the Masonian proprietors about nine cents an acre for this land, or less than fifteen dollars for one hundred and sixty acres, - a very small sum, yet, for a poor man, for wild land, and in that day, it was considerable. Besides, he supposed he was to have the land free. But he resolved to hold his clearing alone, hoping that others would join him in time. Yet his position was a very hard one, and he and his family, submitting to many discomforts, not seldom also felt the pinch of actual want. Bears and wolves in great numbers prowled about them in the woods, and it was dangerous by day or night to venture out unprotected and unarmed. Within ten weeks of his removal here, his pigs running loose were killed and torn in pieces by bears. Provisions were very scanty. Very little could be raised the first year. No help could be obtained from others. The nearest neighbor was Riley, six miles through the woods to the north. On the east, William McKeen and two associates had planted themselves in the southerly part of Deering, six or eight miles away. About the same distance off, John Grimes and another settler lived in Hancock. And the nearest settler to the west was in Walpole on the Connecticut river, in the person of Col. Benjamin Bellows, noted in the Indian war. But some of the settlements, like Peterborough, New Boston, and Hills- borough, were making good progress ; and there was a cheerful and determined spirit in the pioneers of the adjacent towns. A census taken in 1767 makes the population of Londonderry, 2,389 ; of Bedford, 362 ; New Boston, 296; Lyndeborough (and Greenfield), 272; Peterborough, 443 ; Hillsborough, 64; Fran- cestown contained about twenty inhabitants, and Antrim (two families) about twelve. The whole State had a population of 52,700, and of slaves 633. 6
In the fall of 1767, a boy, Thomas Nichols, who had run away from the man he was apprenticed to in Newburyport, and who
22
FIRST DEATH AND FIRST BIRTH.
now sought some remote cabin for concealment, came to Dea. Aiken's, and, through an abode with him of some years, proved a very desirable addition to his family. This was the Capt. Thomas Nichols that afterwards settled the Dea. Shattuck farm, and of him a notice will be found elsewhere. He was an adven- turous and smart boy, fearless, and roving, as witnessed by his descendants and proved by his removal to New York when ripe in years, and by his movements there. He bravely entered the forests alone, shot the bears that encroached upon the deacon's domain, killed a moose that fall near the Dea. Worthley place, and his keen, smart undertakings were such as would do credit to an experienced hunter.
But soon winter, the first he had seen in the woods of Antrim, drew its cold arms about the deacon's cabin. It was a hard winter, with deep snows and little respite from the cold. Riley, who had spent the five previous winters in Antrim, and who had several neighbors within two or three miles, in Hillsbor- ough, got along very comfortably. . But Aiken suffered many trials. His good wife, Molly, saw not a woman's face, save her own, through all that dreary winter, yet she was called to see one of her little ones die when thus alone. This occurred in February following their settlement in Antrim (February, 1768). The little child had come into the wilderness to die.
This was the first death among the settlers of the town. There were no minister, and no mourners, and no coffin, and no burial- ground. No neighbors could come to help. No kindred could come to sympathize. No procession followed the little body away. Probably that burial-day of their child was the loneliest and darkest those parents ever knew. Dea. Aiken split out some boards of ash as well as he could from a log, and pinned these together, making a rude but strong casket for the dead child ; and then the parents covered the little form, and fastened down the heavy lid. The depth of snow was immense. There was no road, nor even a path ; but, assisted by the boy, Thomas Nichols, Dea. Aiken carried the body up over the hill northward from his cabin, and buried it near the spot now occupied by the house of Mrs. Anna Woodbury. There the " little dust " reposed till its removal to Meeting-House Hill in. 1781. Two months later, April 15, 1768, Mrs. Aiken gave birth to a daugh- ter - the first American child born in this town. They called her Polly ; and she died Dec. 14, 1862, aged nearly ninety-five.
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DANGER FROM STARVATION.
More may be learned of her under the names Aiken and Kim- ball. She was a strong woman, and left a revered and noble name ; and was worthy to be the leader in the long and honora- ble line of Antrim's sons and daughters. The first male child born in Antrim was James Aiken, Jr., son of Dea. James, the event of his birth occurring in the spring of 1772.
In the summer of 1768, Dea. Aiken was obliged to go to New Boston for corn, and was detained there by lameness four days. It was a serious undertaking to carry a bag of corn on one's back sixteen miles through the forest. Soon after the deacon's de- parture, the cows, apparently following him, crossed over the river and were lost on the other side in the woods. As the family depended on milk for their food, they were now absolutely destitute. Friday and Saturday they hunted for them in vain. Saturday night Mrs. Aiken put her children to bed crying with hunger ; and the starving mother knelt down beside them, and commended them all to God in prayer. Sabbath morning, early, a flock of pigeons alighted on a tree near the cabin. Very re- luctantly and only on the ground that they were starving, Mrs. Aiken consented to let the boy Thomas Nichols shoot them on the holy day. Only one was brought down, but this, being made into a broth, relieved the distress of hunger, and was all the family had through the day. By the middle of the afternoon, however, the cows were found a little beyond where the village of Greenfield now stands, - nine miles off in the woods, - and, being hurried home, the family were preserved from starvation.
At this time the nearest grist-mill was at Hillsborough, but Dea. Aiken often went to Peterborough or New Boston instead ; probably being better accommodated in purchasing in those places. He used to speak in after years of this carrying to and fro as the severest of all the hardships he endured. He had no road, and no horse, and no help except the boy Thomas.
In the fall of 1768, he and the boy started for Bradford's mill, Hillsborough, with a bushel and a half of grain on their shoul- ders. They made their way through the woods six miles to Riley's cabin, where they learned that the mill was under repair which would require several days. Storing the grain at Riley's they immediately returned ; but being driven by necessity he hastened in another direction. To avoid the terrible task of carrying the grain on his back through the woods twelve miles to Peterborough, he tried to paddle his way there in a canoe.
24
FIRST FRAMED BUILDING.
With great labor he towed his load nine or ten miles up stream before dark, when suddenly the heavily-loaded canoe capsized, and the grain went to the bottom and was spoiled before it could be recovered. The family were compelled to make the best turn they could, without bread of any kind, to quell hunger and sup- port life. What do the modern heroes of luxury and ease think of such endurance ?
In the spring of the next year (1769), the first framed build- ing in Antrim was erected, - it being Dea. Aiken's barn. It stood about half-way between the McKeen barn (Mr. Whittum's barn) and the old Aiken building-spot by the poplar-tree.
The timber for this barn was all " got out by hand " near by ; but the boards were sawed at Hillsborough Bridge, the nearest saw-mill being there, and drawn home on the ice of the river, there being no road whatever. (The people of Hillsborough petitioned the governor and provincial assembly, Feb. 15, 1770, to compel the " owners of Society's Land " to maintain a road, which, they say, " We have maintained on our own Cost near seven years, being the only way we could come to our own Lands." This was therefore made, i. e., " cut and cleared, " as early as 1764. But this road was through Deering - possibly West Deering.) It would have been impossible for Dea. Aiken to get his plank and boards except upon the ice of the river. This made a good as well as an only way.
Later in the same season he built a new log house, adjacent to the barn, only a few steps to the south and west of it, by the old poplar-tree. It was in a better position, larger, and other- wise an improvement upon the old log house hastily made at the foot of the hill over two years before. It was constructed of peeled logs, white and clean, and is said to have looked very neat. The family were happy in it as in a " brown stone front," and not a little proud of it. The children called it their " new white house," and cherished the memory of it, even to old age. Nothing further of importance is known of Dea. Aiken or of Riley during 1769. In this and the preceding year a few families of settlers were creeping into Hancock, Francestown, and Deering. Capt. Isaac Baldwin of Sudbury, Mass. (whence Riley came to Antrim), had moved into Hillsborough about two years before this date, making the fifth family in that town, and being soon joined by others. In the fall of 1769, John Gordon came to Dea. Aiken's and seems to have remained a long time.
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25
GEORGE BEMAIN.
As he was a Scotch Highlander and soldier, and as he had been through the French war, it may be supposed, that, as in many other cases, he had slipped out of the service in his own way and preferred to winter on the frontier for obvious reasons.
In the spring of 1770, the Contoocook overflowed its bounds to greater extent than ever known by the settlers before, and effectually shut off Dea. Aiken from the rest of the world. For a large part of March it was impassable. The family were with- out bread of any kind for several weeks. While thus isolated by the freshet, Mrs. Aiken gave birth to her second child in Antrim, Nancy, who died in Antrim in 1814. When the waters subsided so that Mr. Aiken could wade the river, he went to New Boston for a nurse and for meal, leaving his wife and her infant and the baby Polly, two years old, under the care of John Gordon, the - Highlander, and the little girls Jane, Kate, and Barbara, eleven, nine, and five years of age.
In April of this year George Bemain came to Antrim, being another of those homeless ones whom Dea. Aiken sheltered. He seems to have been acquainted with the Scotch, probably having found them as comrades in the war. He was a deserter from the British army in Boston, having grown tired of the ser- vice, being now in mature years, and had probably been directed to this obscure cabin as a place of concealment by friends in Londonderry. By means of marked trees and swimming the swollen streams, he found his way, and here he begged to stay and work for his board. There were already in that small house, the deacon, his wife, and five children, John Gordon, and probably the boy Thomas Nichols ; yet it was not in the dea- con's line of life to turn any one away, and the wanderer stayed. He proved to be a great blessing to the children. On his first morning here he took up the Bible, saying " he'd scarcely seen the Good Book for forty years." He was a good reader and a good scholar for those times, and was for a long time a teacher in Dea. Aiken's family, working also part of the time on the land. More is said of him in another place.
In the early summer of 1770, William Smith made a second visit to Antrim, four years after the first visit, and was so much pleased with the land that he purchased a lot with the deter- mination to come here and spend his days. The lot he pur- chased, probably the same he began on in 1766, joined that of Dea. Aiken's on the west, being that now Thomas Poor's, and
26
ARRIVAL OF WILLIAM SMITH.
other land west and south. He paid nine cents per acre, - or " half a pistareen." With him came John Duncan, afterwards " Hon. John," and bought, at the same price, the lot on which he afterwards settled, being now the homestead of his great- grandson, John Moore Duncan, Esq. Smith was fifty-five years of age, and Duncan forty, when they thus planned to begin in the forest anew.
In 1771 Dea. Aiken experienced great comfort in the removal to this place of his old friend, William Smith. Having pur- chased his land the previous year, and made a little beginning upon it, he now put up a small framed house and something that could be called a barn, on a spot southwest of Poor's mills, and south of the present road. Here he lived till 1800, and died in good old age. Notice of his family may be found heading the list of Smiths. He was a devoted and good man, and though sixteen years older than Aiken, they were most intimate friends, and lived in great confidence and love together till death. An instance of their confiding in one another was told the writer almost the first thing on coming to Antrim for a Sabbath's preaching, and many times since, and, though told in Dr. Whiton's History, is too characteristic to be omitted here. After they got rich enough to have oxen, long after Aiken's settle- ment, the latter bought a pair of Smith, and not having ready money wrote a note for the same. But Smith said to Aiken, " I hav'n't any desk to keep it in, so you keep it till I call for it." Consequently Aiken kept the note till he was ready to pay it, and then delivered it up, at the same time paying it in full. And then Smith took the note !
Smith brought with him four children, the oldest twenty-two years of age, the youngest ten, and made a decided addition to the settlement. Himself and son soon began a lot west and north of the first, on which the second son, John, afterwards settled and died. The descendants of William Smith stand high and well in the world. He was the oldest of all the pioneers of Antrim, except Riley, and on this account, proba- bly, being a pious man, lie was the one they chose to make the prayer when all the men in Antrim marched off to meet the British, on news of the battle of Lexington. Smith's was the third family in town, and the only one that came in 1771, though others who afterwards settled were here most of the year, like Gordon and Nichols, and though several young men
27
VISITING NEIGHBORS.
from Londonderry visited the place and made plans to locate here at some future time.
The fourth family in Antrim was that of Randall Alexander, who came in the spring of 1772, and began northeast of Dea. Aiken; on the farm now Arthur Miller's, his lot extending to the
river. 3 The fifth settlement was that of John Gordon, who, having been in town most of the time for two years and made a thorough examination of the town, determined to make a begin- ning in the north part, and struck the first blows in that section in the early spring of 1772, or perhaps in the fall of 1771. His log house, put up that spring, stood about on the site now occu- pied by the house of Oliver Swett in North Branch. To this he brought his young wife, Mary Boyce of Londonderry. In the course of his first summer in his new home, his only cow was killed by a bear. Gordon had no neighbor on the west for nearly forty miles, and the nearest one in any direction was Dea. Aiken, or Philip Riley. The latter in midsummer attempted to visit Gordon, taking the best course he could over the moun- tains ; but he had miscalculated the distance, darkness came on, he was lost in the woods, and was compelled to spend the night on the mountain. But nothing daunted, he found Gordon's cabin hid in the deep woods then skirting the banks of North Branch river, after a few hours' hunt in the morning, and Gordon declared the mountain Riley was the first man to sleep on should be called " Riley's Mountain." So it has been called to this day, and so may it be in all the future.
At a festival of the sons of New Hampshire, in Boston in 1849, Samuel Gregg, son of Maj. Samuel Gregg of Peterborough, a near relative of the Greggs of Antrim, gave a narrative of a visit of his parents to Dea. Aiken, which he fixes at about March, 1772. Circumstances lead to the conclusion that he was right in fixing the time of the visit, but wrong in saying it was a matter of " distinct recollection," as the said Samuel Gregg was not born till Oct. 25, 1772. He probably told the story correctly from hearsay. As narrated by Dr. Whiton, it was as follows : Maj. Samuel Gregg, a companion in arms with Dea. Aiken, and an old friend, having been some years settled in Peterborough, and having never seen Antrim, together with his wife (Agnes Smiley of Londonderry) "determined to visit their nearest neighbor on the river, James Aiken of this town. On a cold winter's day his mother threw on her the scarlet cloak worn by
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JOHN DUNCAN.
the great-grandmothers of the present generation, and walked with her husband on the ice of the river twelve miles to Antrim. On their arrival they found their friends absent, they having gone on a visit to New Boston. Jane, the eldest daughter, about twelve years old, prepared for them the refreshment of a cup of tea and a short-cake, then considered a first-rate article, an almost indispensable accompaniment of tea for company, - an article truly excellent as baked by our great-grandmothers before a glowing bed of coals. After tea the disappointed visit- ants retraced their steps on the river ice, arriving at their home in the evening, wearied with the long and fruitless walk (twen- ty-four miles). Their return was none too soon. That very night brought a sudden change of weather, and a rain so power- ful as to break up the ice of the river, and there being a great depth of snow and no roads, their return home, had they lin- gered on their visit, had been for weeks impracticable."
It was in 1772, also, that Maurice Lynch began the James Wallace or William Stacey farm, west of John Gordon. He built his log house a little west of the present house, and on the opposite side of where the house is now. The cellar is now nearly filled, yet the depression of ground made by it is plainly visible at the present day. Lynch was a native of Ireland, thirty-four years old, brought with him three children, was an educated man, and first town clerk of Antrim. But before his year as clerk was out, he went back to New Boston, to the general regret of the people, and there soon after died in the prime of his days. His was the sixth family in town ; but there were nearly thirty families here when he left after a sojourn of five and one-half years.
The seventh family in town was that of John Duncan, - after- wards " Captain John," "Esquire John," "Deacon John," and " Hon. John." He had been here at work on his land somewhat in the summers of 1770, 1771, and 1772. His coming to town was the principal event among the few settlers which is put on record for the year 1773. He was a man of good connections and already had won some reputation. He had been very deliberate in his coming, having made more preparation than any that pre- ceded him, and having his goods brought here in a cart, - the first ever driven into Antrim, - whence we infer that he had more than others to bring. His log house was near the site of the present residence on that estate ; and he arrived at its hum-
29
OTHER SETTLERS.
ble door with his family (wife and five children), Sept. 20, 1773. It must have been a tough and weary journey, - forty miles in an ox-cart, - and much of the way no road. They drove across the Contoocook in a shallow place, and reached their new home without any serious accident. Here John Duncan lived fifty ยท years, dying at the age of eighty-nine. This farm, purchased in 1770, is now in possession of the family, after one hundred and ten years. The only other farm a hundred years in the family of the pioneer settler, is that of Dea. James Carr, who began his lot in 1778. A census of New Hampshire was taken in the fall of 1773, making the population of Hillsborough county 13,514, and of the State, 72,092; but in the record of places no mention is made of Society Land.
The year 1774 witnessed. the arrival in Antrim of eight settlers and their families ; and others, if they did not move here that year, made preparations to do so at no distant day. Probably ten or twelve log houses went up that year in different parts of the town. Joseph Boyd, afterwards " Dea. Joseph," settled on the Goodell farm ; James Duncan on the Saltmarsh farm; Dall- iel McFarland bought all between Aiken's lot and Boyd's, and located his dwelling about where N. W. C. Jameson now lives ; James Dickey settled where Samuel M. Thompson now lives (the large brick house over east is about on the spot ) ; John Warren settled at the Branch, on the south side of the stream a little be- low the present village ; James Moor settled on the same side of the stream somewhat above Warren ; while John Burns struck off alone into the High Range, locating near where for many years the High Range school-house subsequently stood; and James Hutchinson reared his cabin half a mile to the west of Lynch, north of the river. The buildings on Hutchinson's lot are now gone. It was at the foot of the mountain west of the Webster or Daniel Swett place, and has been known as the "Old Reuben Boutwell farm." Before Hutchinson moved his family here, the war broke out, he went to the scene of strife with the others, and lost his life by reckless daring at Bunker Hill.
This is all of the brief record for 1774. Counting Hutchinson, who was here alone, expecting to bring his wife from Amherst the next spring, there were in the autumn of 1774 fifteen fami- lies in Antrim; two in the east part of the town; six at the Branch or vicinity ; and seven in the vicinity of South Village, . making a population of about sixty-two. _ Things now looked
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