USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Candia > History of the town of Candia, Rockingham County, N.H., from its first settlement to the present time > Part 28
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Aerolites of great size have fallen in Ohio, New Jersey, Texas and various other states of the Union.
A very large aerolite which fell in Texas was among the curiosities at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876. It had the form of an irregular, jagged ring and weighed over 1,500 pounds. One in the British Museum weighs upwards of a ton. These meteors consist of matter much resembling iron which has been melted and then cooled.
It was formerly conjectured that aerolites were thrown up from the earth or moon by volcanoes. This theory has long since been abandoned and it is now almost universal- ly believed by scientists that they are small bodies which have been formed from the nebulous or gaseous matter which floats in space and, becoming consolidated in solid spheres, come within the attractive force of the earth and fall upon it.
This theory was in accordance with the nebular hypo- thesis first formed and announced by Laplace, the cele- brated French astromomer, to the effect that our earth and other worlds once existed in the form of a vast revolv- ing nebular mass of matter like a haze or cloud, and, that this mass gradually became cooled and condensed, and, in obedience to chemical and other physical laws, successive rings of matter were formed, which, subsequently became incandescent spheres, then planets, sateleites and other celestial bodies. It is now claimed that by the spectro- scope, new worlds may be seen in the process of forma- tion.
NORTHERN LIGHTS.
Many very brilliant and remarkable displays of the au- roraborealis have been witnessed in this town. In some of them the rays were of various hues, white, red and green, and other tints, with streams of light stretching to the zenith. In the winter of 1836, there was a very peculiar display at a time when the ground was covered with snow and the sky was partially obscured by fogs. The great streams of light which shot up into the sky were mostly
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of a red color, and the snow upon the ground and the vapors in the air became very red like the reflections of a great conflagration. In 1839 there was another dazzling display of northern lights of various colors. In some there was a crackling. noise
STORMS.
During many of the summers which have come and gone since the town was settled there have been many terriffic thunder storms. One of the most remarkable of these vis- ited the town in July, 1844. The forenoon of the day had been very hot and sultry. At about one o'clock in the afternoon great black clouds were seen gathering in the west in the direction of Kearsarge Mountain in Warner. Soon the great clouds grew blacker and rose higher and higher, until the great mass stretched across the whole western horizon,-a space of more than twenty miles. The great mass, which seemed at first to move slowly, became blacker and more dense. The perpendicular lightning flashes became more and more vivid and frequent, and the peals of thunder louder and louder, until at length Hall's mountain was reached, and, in the space of half a minute,
. was completely covered from sight. As the storm passed through the town, the rain fell in great torrents and the great sheets of lightning flashed with intermissions of less than half a minute and the thunders roared peal on peal for more than half an hour without the least cessation. Many people were greatly frightened and seemed to wonder that they escaped without injury. While the storm was at its height the lightning struck a tree in the Village near the present residence of Dea. Jacob S. Morrill and from thence to a shoemaker's shop in which the late Benjamin Taylor and the late Ezekiel Gilman were at work. Both these men were stunned and Mr. Taylor's shoes were torn from his feet, but neither were seriously injured. There have been many such thunder storms in the town like that which is here described, and in some of them buildings have been struck and burned, sheep and cattle have been destroyed, but no person has been killed.
J. LANE FITTS.
Sketch, page 518.
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Some of the thunder storms were accompanied by hail. In August, 1851, a tremendous shower passed over Pembroke, Allenstown, Hooksett, Candia and many other towns in the vicinity. This shower was accompanied by incessant flashes of lightning and heavy thunder. The rain fell in torrents, and when the storm was at its full height hail began to descend and soon the ground was completely covered. Many of the hailstones were nearly as large as hens' eggs. In many places great damage was done to crops and the glass in many windows was broken.
Speaking of showers, one is reminded that some of the older persons in town of a very religious turn of mind used to tell the children, many years ago, that the thunder heard in a storm was God's voice.
THE SEPTEMBER GALE.
On the 23d of September, 1815, the famous September gale occurred. The wind blew with great velocity over New Hampshire, Massachusetts and vicinity for about four hours and many buildings were unroofed or blown down and a great amount of damage was done to fruit trees and forests.
TORNADOES.
On Sunday, Sept. 9, 1821, a great tornado or whirlwind passed over various towns in Merrimack and Sullivan coun- ties, including Croydon, Sutton, Wendell, now Sunapee, New London and Warner. Several persons were killed and a considerable number were much injured. The tornado had a whirling motion and cut a clean path about half a mile wide through forests striking down the trees of all sorts and sizes. Buildings were blown down and the air was filled with broken limbs of trees and various other mater- · ials. The thunder rolled fearfully and the forked lightning flashed on the intense darkness. In its passage many objects, some of which were quite large and heavy, were taken
23 . .
1
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high up in the air. Many marks of the great tornado are still visible in the towns mentioned.
On a Sunday afternoon, during the summer of 1881, the town was struck by the rear end of a great tornado which visited Gilmantown and towns in the vicinity and caused considerable damage. The storm came down from Hall's mountain with incredible velocity and passed over Candia in the space of about twenty minutes, but no damage was done in this town. It was accompanied by ligntning and heavy thunder.
THE COLD 'SUMMER.
The spring and summer of 1816 were very cold and backward in a large section of New England. There were heavy frosts in many places during every one of the sum- mer months. In the latter part of the season but little rain fell and crops suffered on that account, as well as from the frost. The most of the farmers in Candia raised but little corn, and what they did raise was stunted and of the poor- est quality. It was mostly pig corn. Some of the farmers on High Street and other elevated lands were more fortu-' nate. Esq. Daniel Fitts raised a fair crop in his fields on the Plain. In the spring of the next year it was a difficult . matter for most of the farmers to procure good corn for planting. Esq. Fitts sold a large number of bushels for this purpose, and it is said that he had much sympathy for those who had no seed corn of their own and supplied a large number at a very moderate price. There were good crops of rye, wheat and potatoes, but the hay crop was very light. The spring and summer of 1817 were quite warm, and great crops of all kinds were raised -
COLD WINTERS.
The winters of 1836 and 1846 were intensely cold. In some places the mercury in the thermometer went down to from thirty-five to forty degrees below zero. In both the years referred to, Boston harbor was covered with ice more than a foot thick for four or five weeks as far down as the
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lower light house, a distance of nine or ten miles and ves- sels could neither come in nor go out. The British mail steamer Brittania, which was advertised to sail for Liverpool on Feb. 18, 1845, was completely hemmed in at her berth at East Boston ten days before that date. During the last three or four days of January, a great gang of men, with cutting machines attached to horses, opened a wide channel for the ship to pass out to the ocean. The ice was sawed and cut into great blocks, each of which was drawn under the remaining ice at the sides of the channel. The great vessel sailed promptly on time in the presence of a great multitude of people who gathered on the ice and loudly cheered the passengers and crew. Many young men followed the vessel two or three miles, but found it impossible to keep up with her.
There have been several days within the last sixty years that have been colder than the cold Friday of 1810, but there was but little wind blowing at the time and the cold therefore did not seem as intense as it was on the for- mer occasion. In some of the past years the snow has re- mained upon the ground until the middle of April. In view of this fact some brilliant genius of former days declared that people were favored with six weeks' sledding in the month of March. In 1843, there was a great snow storm about the 20th of October The weather was cold and the sleighing was excellent for about a week.
TREES ENCASED IN ICE.
Sometimes a very cold day in winter is followed by a rapid rise of temperature and a gentle rain. In such cases. the frozen sap in the inside of the tender boughs and twigs of the trees and shrubbery congeals the water that adheres to the barx on the outside and forms a coating of ice of various degrees of thickness. When the rain clouds dis- appear and the sun shines brightly all the trees seem to be completely covered with glittering diamonds, reflecting all the colors of the rainbow. Nothing on earth can be grand- er or more sublime and beautiful than an exhibition like this.
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As the weather grows warmer, the sparkling gems begin to fall in great masses with a crash upon the thick crust of the snow, producing a metallic ring or jingle, quite pleasing to a person of musical taste.
It has frequently happened that the great weight of the ice upon the trees has broken off many of their branches and nearly caused their destruction. In the winter of 1885, there was a very remarkable period of the kind referred to and the ice formed upon the trees was thicker and heavier than ever known before. Many fruit and shade trees in the town were greatly damaged. The three old chestnut trees, which have been standing a great many years in the pas- ture formerly owned by Nathan Carr on High Street, oppo- site the old cemetery, were very badly damaged. Various branches near their tops were completely broken off. Since that time, nature has kindly come to the relief of the old trees by partially healing their wounds and by starting new branches to take the place of those which were destroyed, and it now seems probable that their obituaries will be written, if written at all, by some antiquarian of a generation many years in the future.
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DROUGHTS.
Since the town has been settled there have been many very dry seasons, some of which were very severe.
In 1826, there was a long continued drought throughout the state and the crops were much injured. During the succeeding winter, Samuel Anderson, the tavern keeper on the turnpike, paid $20 per ton for first-class English hay. The drought continued until about the 22d day of August, when a heavy rain set in and continued for several days.
In 1854, a great drought prevailed all over the northern part of the United States east of the Mississippi river. No rain fell of any account in New Hampshire from the 4th day of July until the middle of August. At the annual meeting of the New Hampshire Association of Congregational Ministers, which was held in August of that year, there was a special season of prayer for rain, and a considerable num- ber of ministers earnestly prayed to God to send copious
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showers of rain forthwith. After a few more days of with- ering drought, the long needed rain came in great abun- dance. There was a great drought in the summer of 1882. During the fall and winter of 1885 there was but little rain in the state, and the water in the ponds and streams be- came remarkably low. The Merrimack river became so reduced that much of the work in the mills in Manchester, Nashua and Lowell was stopped. In 1891, the drought was again severe, many wells in Candia became dry and many people suffered much inconvenience. In the summer and autumn of that year many farmers had to go a long dis- tance to get water for their cattle.
FRESHETS.
There were great freshets in New Hampshire in 1826, 1835, and in May and October of 1869, and also in several other years. Bridges were carried away and much damage was done. On the 26th of August, 1826, the famous great slide in the Notch in the White Mountain region occurred by which the Willey family was over- whelmed and destroyed, During the long drought, the soil on the sides of Mount Willard became dry like powder all the way down to the solid rock of which the mountain was composed. When the rain came at last, the upper portion of the soil became so saturated with water and so heavy that it slipped in a great, wide mass from the underlying rocky ledge and carried a great forest of trees together with boulders and gravel to the valley below.
GRASSHOPPERS
About the Ioth of August, 1826, great clouds of grass- hoppers appeared in Candi& and nearly all other sections of the state. They flew in great masses several hundred feet above the earth as thick as snowflakes. In some places they alighted and destroyed corn and other crops, and in some cases they were gathered up in baskets by the far- mers; but the people of our town were not so unfortunate. In 1885, these insects came again to some of the farming
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towns in the state, particularly in Merrimack county, caus- ing much injury to crops. Some of the farmers at that place, who were greatly troubled by the pests, swept them together in great quantities and destroyed them.
THE BIG CHIMNEYS, FIRE-PLACES, ETC.
It has already been stated that the early settlers of the town first lived in dwellings built of of logs. These dwell- ings or cabins had stone chimneys with great fire-places. Two pieces of wood called cross-bars were fitted into them to support a "lug pole", so called, made of green maple or beech wood, to which the " pot hooks " and "trammels " were attached. The pot hooks and trammels on which the pots and kettles were hung were so constructed that they could be moved up and down at will. The ovens were built in beyond the back of the fire place
In the course of a few years the people of the town pro- vided themselves with better houses in all respects. These were generally of one story, with two front rooms, in the rear of which there was a large kitchen and a bedroom at each end.
The old two-story houses which were erected from eighty to one-hundred and thirty years ago were furnished with chimneys which contained a vast quantity of brick. The base of the chimney in the cellar was often ten or twelve feet in diameter. At the base of some of these there was frequently one and sometimes two great brick arches which formed the top and sides of a good sized room for storing potatoes and other vegetables. Forty thousand bricks were often required for building the largest of the chimneys here described. There were two big chimneys in the tavern which stood for many years on the old Chester turnpike in Hooksett about a mile west of the boundary line between that town ard Candia. In the larger chimney there were forty thousand bricks and in the smaller one thirty eight thousand. Among some of the largest of the old chimneys in Candia are those of the old Benjamin Bean house on the hill northeast of the Village, the old B. Pillsbury Colby house near the Corner, the dwelling house of Mrs. Abraham Fitts,
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built by Daniel Fitts, Esq., the old Master Fitts house, now John F. Patten's, and the house which belonged to the late Maj. Nathan Brown. The cost of the bricks of which these chimneys were built, probably was about four dollars a thousand besides the cost of hauling them ten miles from the brick yard. By far the greatest proportion of the bricks that have been used in Candia ever since the town was settled were brought from Pembroke.
The fire-places were large enough to burn wood four feet long. The great ovens were a great improvement on those in the log cabin which preceded them. In making a fire, a back log from a-foot to a foot and a half in diameter was first placed at the back of the fire-place On the top of that was placed a stick of wood, seven or eight inches thick, called the backstick; then, in front, was placed the forestick, about five inches thick. Five or six sticks of small and well seasoned hard wood with kindlings completed the pile. When all these materials were ablaze, a great amount of heat was the result. In the earliest days, the forestick was often supported by small stones, but later on, andirons came into general use.
OLD STYLE AND NEW STYLE.
The two natural divisions of time are the day of 24 hours, representing one revolution of the earth upon its axis, and the year of 365 days, approximately represent- ing one revolutfon of the earth around the sun. The month represents nearly the period of the moon's revolution around the earth, (about 29 1-2 days,) while the week is approximately one-fourth of this. By the Julian calendar, established by Julius Cæsarr, 46 years B. C., the year had 365 I-4 days, so that its length exceeded the true solar year by 11 minutes and 14 seconds, causing the vernal equinox in the course of centuries to fall back several days. To correct this error, Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582 altered the calendar so as to nearly conform to the true solar year. The Protestant countries of Europe and America were un- willing to adopt the new calendar because of its Popish
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origin and continued to hold on to the Julian system, or, old style, as it was called.
At length in 1752, the British Parliament adjusted the calendar by providing that eleven days should be taken out of September, 1782, by calling the 3d day of that month the 14th, and that the year 1754 should commence with the Ist day of January. Also that every fourth year, a day should be added to the month of February. This was called new style. The former mode, or old style of reckoning time, ' prevailed when Chester and Candia were first settled. When the change was made there was much confusion in endeavoring to make the dates as reckoned by the old style conform to those reckoned by the new.
THE NEW STANDARD TIME.
As the earth revolves on its axis at the rate of over 1, 000 miles an hour, the true or solar time at any one place can- not at that moment be the same at any other place that is situated on another degree of longitude. When it is noon in London it is fourteen minutes past seven in the forenoon at Boston, and three minutes before four o'clock in the morn -.
: ing at San Francisco. The true or solar time at one end of a line of railroad extending from east to west greatly differs from that at the other end at the same moment. Hence there was formerly much perplexity and confusion in run- ning railroad trains upon long lines extending east and west, where the clocks and watches were set according to the solar time in each.
To avoid this difficulty, four standard meridians were adopted within the limits of the United States, in 1884, by general agreement and partial legislation, by which rail- way trains are run and local time is regulated. These meridians are 15 degrees apart, there being a difference of just one hour in time from one to another, as there are 360 degrees in the earth's circumference, which, divided by 24, gives 15 degrees to an hour.
. The territory of the United States, thus divided, extends from the boundary line between the British Provinces in the east to the Pacific ocean in the west. The first or cast-
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ern meridian extends from the longitude of Eastport, Me., near the eastern boundary line of the United States, to the longitude of Sandusky, Ohio. The second, or central meridian, extends from the longitude of Sandusky to the longitude of Yankton, Dakota. The third, or mountain meridian, extends from the longitude of Yankton, to that of Salt Lake City, Utah, and the fourth, or Pacific meridian, extends from the longitude of Salt Lake City to the Pacific ocean. The standard time for the people living within the limits of the several meridians is the solar or true time at the centre of each, and the difference between the solar and standard time at any place must vary according to its distance from that point. Eastport, Me., is situated 7 1-2 degrees of longitude east of New York. and when it is noon in the latter city it is 30 minutes past 12 o'clock in East- port by solar time. At the longitude of Sandusky, Ohio, it is half past [I o'clock by the true time, when it is 12 o'clock or noon in New York by both solar and standard or railway time.
As Candia is situated a little more than 4 degrees east of New York city, the standard or railway time for the town is a little more than 14 minutes behind the solar or true time. In other words, when it is 12 o'clock by standard time it is about 15 minutes past 12 by the solar or true time.
METHODS OF COOKING.
Before the year 1820 the cooking in the family was done over or before the fire in the fire-place and in the oven.
Beef, lamb, pork ribs, turkeys and other fowls were roasted before the great blazing fire or baked on the oven. If fowis or pieces of meat were to be roasted, they often were hung before the fire by a piece of strong twine, to a nail attached to a beam in the ceiling. The materials to be cooked were turned round and basted from time to time until they were done and fit for the table. Pots of beans, puddings, brown bread and cake of all kinds were cooked in the oven. Sometimes a corn or rye bannock or cakes made of flour were baked before the fire, the pan or plate in which they were placed being supported by a flatiron or
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a brick. Potatoes were often roasted In the fire-place in a bed of hot ashes. At length, the Dutch oven was intro- duced. This was a shallow cast iron kettle. The articles to be baked were placed in the kettle over the fire and cov- ered with a cast iron basin filled with live coals. The Dutch oven was followed by the tin kitchen, which was used ex- clusively for roasting meat and poultry. This utensil was placed before a hot fire and the meat or poultry which was attached to a spit were turned from time to time as became necessary.
A cooking apparatus called the tin baker was introduced into the town about the year 1830. It consisted of a tin box about eighteen inches long. The, bottom, about a foot wide was set upon legs and inclined at an angle of about 22 1-2 degrees. The back, which was four or five inches wide, was fitted with a hinge. The top was inclined at an angle similar to the bottom and a sheet iron pan was sus- pended between them. When the baker was set before the fire the inclined faces of polished tin reflected the heated rays to the top and bottom of the pan that contained the material to be baked.
Many of the families fried their salt pork and fresh meats of all kinds in a cast iron pan, a foot or more in diameter, to which was attached an iron handle five or six feet long. By the use of the long handle the pan could be placed over or taken off the hot fire by the good house-wife without danger of being burned.
About the year 1820, the patent fire place, so called, was introduced into the town. The device consisted of a sort of cast iron fire place which was set inside the larger brick fire place close up to the back of the chimney. The top connecting the sides was in the form of an iron shelf a foot or more in width. In front of the outer edge of the shelf and connected with it throughout its entire length there was a perpendicular iron plate from six to eight inches in width. When there was a brisk fire the iron sides and shelf ab- sorbed a considerable amount of heat by which the room became more comfortable than before. The shelf being quite hot was a convenient place for warming and keeping warm
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food already cooked. When cooking stoves were intro- duced the patent fire-place went out of fashion.
In some of the oldest houses in the town which were built more than a hundred years ago, the old fire-places around which the fathers and mothers and the children of those earlier times sat, still remain with the iron cranes, pot hooks, trammels and all; but the shining brass andirons which graced the sitting-rooms of the more gen- teel and wealthy families are seen no more, neither are the long-handled iron shovels with which the hot coals were removed from the big ovens after they had been properly heated for baking the beans, the bread and pies of former . days. Parlor stoves came into general use many years after the cooking stoves were introduced, but, at this date they may be found in the houses of all well-to-do families. The invention of the stove has saved a great amount of labor and promoted the comfort of the people in a very high degree. A hundred years ago, the brass warming pan with long, highly finished handles was considered an article of prime neccessity in all well-to-do families. Elder- ly people and invalids belonging to this class had their beds made warm and comfortable in very cold weather with warming pans filled with hot coals from the fire-place. Those persons who could not afford to own one of these pans were obliged to content themselves with a hot brick covered with an old blanket or a junk bottle filled with hot water.
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