USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Canterbury > History of the town of Canterbury, New Hampshire, 1727-1912, v. 1 > Part 28
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There were few unoccupied houses and no abandoned farms. The latter were well stocked with cattle. Flocks of sheep grazed upon the hillsides and the barns and granaries were filled at the close of the harvest season. Interest in agriculture was stimu- lated by the organization of a farmers' club, while the holding of an annual town fair excited keen rivalry in the exhibits of
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CONDITIONS AT THE CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR.
the products of the town. At the larger farmers' gatherings of the state, Canterbury was well represented, and, as a farm- ing community, it was favorably known throughout New Hampshire.
While the large families of children of fifty years before were no longer to be found, the schools had a sufficient number of pupils to make them interesting. The town had a good number of its youth attending the academies of the state, and they, spending a part of the school year at home, contributed to its social life. These young people taught school, worked on the farm and assisted in the household cares when not away at the seminary and the college. An educational society was organ- ized for the instruction and entertainment of the inhabitants. In every family was to be found one or more weekly newspapers, usually indicating the political faith of the household, while the more prosperous subscribed for agricultural publications and for magazines. The ten years succeeding 1865, therefore, gave every indication of continued progress.
Many of the old customs, however, still continued. The farmer raised most of his table supplies from the land. Late in the fall he killed a steer or two, or a cow whose profit for dairy purposes was past, and one or two hogs. With the excep- tion of such portions as could be kept by the natural freezing of winter weather to be eaten fresh, the beef and pork were salted and packed in barrels and supplied the family with meat eight months or more in the year. Salt codfish and a kit or two of salt mackerel were practically the only variations of this diet during the spring, summer and early fall months. In the summer, if a calf or lamb was killed, a quarter or a half was reserved for family use and the remainder distributed among neighbors, who returned it in kind later. Occasionally a hen or two might be sacrificed for specially invited guests. The only fresh meat that came to the farmer's table from March to November was supplied from these limited sources. The meat and fish carts running regularly from neighboring villages were later innovations.
Corn huskings, apple bees, spelling matches and quiltings still lingered as sources of amusement. The boys took turns in winter building the fire at the school house and the girls in keeping it clean. Half of those in attendance brought their
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HISTORY OF CANTERBURY.
dinners in tin pails and partook of the noonday meal in the build- ing where their studying and reciting was done. A man teacher, however, was exceptional even at the winter term, the ages of the children no longer requiring his masculine strength to main- tain order. The Sunday services at church, forenoon and afternoon, were fairly well attended, and the hour intermission was the occasion for the exchange of neighborhood gossip, the discussion of general news and friendly visits. Preaching at the Center, the Baptist's and Hill's Corner was regularly main- tained. The school district bounded a neighborhood, and each made its social life more or less enjoyable by means of debat- ing clubs, lyceums, surprise parties and teas. Occasionally a dramatic entertainment was undertaken to raise funds for the church, the library or the educational society. In summer there was a return home of the young men and women who had gone elsewhere to seek their fortune, this visit perhaps being returned by the old folks during the succeeding winter. Summer visitors were in town, but few of them were summer boarders. For the most part, these guests abided with relatives and friends.
The Canterbury of this decade from 1865 to 1875 had a min- gling of the past and the present in its life, but it was after all the beginning of a transition period from old to new and from growth to decline. The succeeding years brought a radical change in conditions. Like other rural communities of New England without a manufacturing village to add to their growth, this town for fifty years prior to 1875 had been contributing its ambi- tious young men and women to people the large centers of the East and to help make up the emigration to the West without being conscious of the drain upon its population. For a long time, it was only the surplus people, those not needed at home who emigrated. But as the size of families decreased from ten or a dozen boys and girls to three or four and this departure became a choice as well as a necessity, the community began to suffer.
The building of the Pacific railroads soon after the close of the war opened up a great agricultural country beyond the Mississippi River. It was not many years before the farmer of the East found himself at a disadvantage when brought into competition with the cultivators of the soil in the West. There were rocky farms on the hillsides of Canterbury that might
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CONDITIONS AT THE CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR.
still be carried on at a profit so long as the labor was performed by the father and his growing family of boys, whose only wages were their board and clothes. But, when it became necessary to hire help, it was no longer a question of profit but a struggle for existence. As the sons scattered and the parents aged, these farms had to be abandoned as homes. Traveling over the Canterbury hills today, one marvels how the subsist- ence for a household of from six to a dozen people could have been wrung from some of these farms. Yet, when the soil was new, the wants of the family small and each member above the age of seven a contributor by his labor to the support of the whole, there was at least a prosperity which brought content.
The more acres under cultivation the larger the harvest, and much land was taken into tillage which later proved to be more profitable for the production of timber. The pastures were becoming exhausted. Western beef, reared on the free ranges of a new country, was sold cheaper in the East than the New England farmer could raise cattle for the market, and the system of general farming by which the increase and growth of stock furnished the Eastern farmer with his ready cash was now at a discount. Machinery could not be used to advantage on these rocky farms, and they gradually deteriorated in value. Hard manual labor was essential to their successful cultivation, and it was not forthcoming. Hence, much of the land which had been used for the growing of crops and the pasturing of cattle was suf- fered to relapse into its former wild state, while the grass from the remaining acres was cut and sold by the owner who resided in a neighboring village. Specializing in agriculture by growing what would find a ready market, while it was advocated at this time by those who foresaw the future, was not readily adopted by men whose habits of life had become fixed. Moreover the attractiveness of the New Hampshire hills as summer homes and the cash returns from the summer boarder had not then impressed themselves as assets upon the people of Canterbury and other rural towns of the state.
These were the causes of the decrease in population and wealth of the town, not exceptional to this community but per- taining to nearly all purely rural towns of New England. The closing years of the nineteenth century and the opening years of the new are, therefore, not so replete with stirring events as
1
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their predecessors, but the story is still interesting and shows the efforts that were made to stem the tide of deterioration, the course of which could not be changed. Pride in its past and hope for its future animate the present inhabitants of the town who, though fewer in numbers, are still for the most part of the good New England stock that for nearly three centuries has risen superior to its environments.
Soon after the close of the Civil War, the Farmers and Mechanics' Association was formed in Canterbury. Its object was to promote interest in agriculture and the mechanics' arts, its scope being made broad enough to include any industry in town. Weekly meetings were held during the winter, at which papers were read and discussed. For more than a decade, this association was a feature of the educational and progressive life of the community.
Within a very short time of its organization, the society under- took the holding of a town fair. This local display of the prod- ucts of Canterbury was held annually in the fall of the year. The first fair occurred in 1871, and, for a dozen years, it was an event of more than local significance. The common at the Center was fenced in and on these grounds were exhib- ited horses, cattle, sheep, swine, poultry, grain, fruit and dairy products, while in the Town House was displayed the handi- work of mechanics and of the household. The fair usually lasted two days and was made interesting to both young and old. Plowing matches, trials of strength of draft teams and rural sports were attractive features. The rivalry of the various school dis- tricts was intense, and these exhibitions contributed materially to secure for Canterbury the high rank that it then held as an agricultural town. The display in the Town House was most varied, including as it did home made cloth, wool frocking, rag carpets, stockings, rugs, needle work, cut flowers and specimens of painting and drawing executed by young women of the com- munity. The blacksmith, the cooper and the shoemaker also had specimens of their work. Premiums were offered for all of these exhibits in addition to the usual prizes for agricultural excellence.
A fair bill or poster for the year 1872, preserved by Sam W. Lake, shows that the fair that year was held Wednesday and Thursday, October 16 and 17, and that William C. Sturoc of
Residence of Leroy A. Glines. Probable location of Capt. Jeremiah Clough, Jr.
Town Fair.
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THE TOWN FAIR.
Sunapee was the orator of the day. The officers that year were Sylvanus C. Moore, president; Joseph G. Clough, secretary; Alfred H. Brown, treasurer; Edward Osgood, general superin- tendent; William P. Small, Robert S. Morrill, Philip C. Clough, Myron C. Foster, Charles N. Clough, Nahum Blanchard and John J. Railey, committee of arrangements.
The town agricultural fair was very popular in New Hamp- shire for a decade or more in the seventies. While it had not some of the features of the state and county fairs, it did more to promote interest in agriculture than these larger exhibits. It was at these local gatherings that the people saw what their fellow townsmen could produce, and the premiums and prizes awarded led to more active competition the next year. The town fair was the one event of the year to bring the people of the community together, and former residents made it an occa- sion for returning to visit relatives and friends. It was a fore- runner of the present Old Home Day. The Canterbury fair was one of the most popular of these local exhibits, and its nearness to the capital of the state secured the attendance of a large number of visitors who had no special interest in agriculture.
In 1873 a grange was organized, one of the earliest in the state, and it has continued active ever since. At first, the con- ception of its members was that the organization would become a kind of farmers' alliance to protect their interests in the sale of products and the purchase of supplies. When this idea was eliminated, the social and educational features of the order came to the front and its benefit to the town was pronounced. The program of its meetings took a wide range, the public exer- cises affording interesting and instructive entertainment for the people. The Canterbury grange, in fact, gradually took the place of the Farmers and Mechanics' Association, in time absorbing the members of the latter organization. Of larger purpose and broader connections than a local farmers' club, the contribution of the grange to the welfare of the town, especially in its social life, has been continuous.
Canterbury was one of the towns in the state where an early effort was made to divorce local affairs from state and national politics. After more than a generation of strenuous campaigns, where everything had been subordinated to partisan success, the old leaders on both sides became weary of the strife and
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HISTORY OF CANTERBURY.
dissatisfied with the results as applied to the management of their town business. Under the stress of heated political con- tests, the welfare of the community had been frequently obscured. Until 1878, the town and state elections of New Hampshire occurred on the same date in March. To eliminate party spirit from the choice of town officers, it was necessary to have an understanding between the two opposing organizations. Therefore, in 1871, the leading Republicans and Democrats of Canterbury drew up an agreement, covering a period of four years, by which for two years the Republicans were conceded the representative to the legislature, one of the select- men and the town clerk, while to their opponents were given the moderator, a majority of the board of selectmen and the town treasurer. At the end of two years, the order of arrange- ment was to be reversed. The organization thus created was known as the First Union party.
Never a movement gave promise of more immediate success. It had the endorsement and support of substantially all those who for a quarter of a century had transacted the public busi- ness of Canterbury. Its purpose, which was commendable, had in view the benefit of the town and the elimination of those reprehensible features of party politics which each side had hitherto justified by the fact that its opponents were equal transgressors. The leaders, however, failed to take into con- sideration the equation of personal ambition among the younger men of the town.
These young men had been doing political work for years under the direction of the old leaders, looking forward to the time when they could be honored by election to some impor- tant office. That time seemed to them near at hand. They had not been consulted in the new arrangement, which was to change old methods, and they looked upon it as an alliance of their seniors in age to continue themselves in office. This view was strengthened by the course pursued by the First Union party in making its nominations. They were largely of men who had long been tried in the service of the town. It was the old story of weariness of "hearing Aristides called the Just." New men were coming upon the stage and were demanding recognition. They saw no prospect of this in the organization just formed and they set out to oppose it. They created a
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Second Union party made up of those who were not affiliated with the First. Under this new alignment, the contest of 1871 was fought.
The personal element took the place of partisan feeling, but the battle was waged with all the intensity of previous political strifes. If the First Union had the better cause, the Second Union had the better men, or, in other words, the more numer- ous following, and for four successive elections, the latter won the day. The two Unions were then dissolved, and the voters returned to their former party allegiance. While the movement did not secure the immediate results expected by those who started it, there is little doubt that it contributed to the present arrangement, entirely feasible under the amended constitution, separating town from state elections, whereby local affairs are conducted on a purely non-partisan basis.
An educational society was organized June 3, 1870, the call for the meeting of the inhabitants for this purpose having been issued by the school committee of the town. The preamble of the constitution adopted reads, "Believing that all great and good objects can best be promoted by associated effort, we organize ourselves into an association to promote the cause of education in the town of Canterbury and the state of New Hampshire."
Thirteen persons signed the constitution at the first meeting. No superstition appears to have influenced these pioneers of progress, for the thirteen fixed the regular day of the monthly gatherings on Friday. At the second meeting, twenty-eight joined, and during the more than quarter of a century of its activities, one hundred and seventy-eight different members were enrolled. All expenses of the association were met by voluntary contributions or subscriptions. The officers elected at the first regular meeting July 1, 1870, were: president, Edward Osgood; vice-presidents, John J. Railey, Rev. Josiah Higgins; secretary, Martha J. Foster; treasurer, Alfred H. Brown; executive committee, Lyman B. Foster.
The first lecturer to address the association was the Rev. Alpheus C. Hardy, who was then state superintendent of public instruction. At the early meetings, the subjects of lectures and discussions had to do entirely with education in the public schools. After the first few years, other topics were considered.
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HISTORY OF CANTERBURY.
Although the association paid only the expenses of its lecturers, the people of Canterbury had the pleasure of listening to some of the prominent public speakers of the state. The records dis- close these names as among those who in the early life of the society came to Canterbury: Jacob H. Gallinger, Orrin C. Moore, James W. Patterson, Amos Hadley, Stephen S. Foster, John H. Goodale, Abba Gould Woolson, Parker Pillsbury and James O. Adams.
Prizes were given by members for excellence in speaking, reading, grammar and geography, the competitors to be the youth of the schools of the town. Evenings were set apart for this kind of entertainment. When for any cause a lecturer could not be secured, local talent contributed to the instruction of the meeting. Except for a period of three years from 1876 to 1879, the gatherings were held with regularity and public interest in the association continued unabated.
Through the influence of this educational society, Canter- bury very early gave voice to its desire for the school enfran- chisement of women. At a meeting June 2, 1871, the following resolution offered by Galen Foster was adopted:
"RESOLVED, That this association ask the legislature to pass an act allowing women in the town of Canterbury to vote in our district school meetings on the same terms as men."
A copy of this resolution was forwarded to the clerks of the Senate and House of Representatives of the Legislature then in session. In no town of the state have women taken a greater interest in school affairs since the privilege of suffrage was con- ferred upon them than in Canterbury.
In 1873 the Educational Association aroused public interest in the observance of the Fourth of July, and a very creditable celebration was carried through under its superintendence.
The benefits of the association came not only from the instruc- tion of the lecturers who addressed it but also from the consid- eration of the topic after the speaker had closed. Following every lecture, the audience took up the subject and discussed it. Woe to the speaker if he was not well grounded in his opinions ! He was sure to be challenged by some one present and called upon to define his position. The discussion would frequently take a wide range, and before the meeting adjourned the topic
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PAYMENT OF THE WAR DEBT.
of the formal address would sometimes be completely ignored. However these discussions following a lecture might wander from the topic under consideration, no salient point of the speaker's discourse was ever lost upon the audience.
The records of the association indicate that from 1876 to 1879 its work was in abeyance, as no meetings appear to have been held. In the latter year there was a revival of interest, and, for twenty years succeeding, the society continued to hold regular sessions. The last public meeting was March 28, 1899. Then for a period of eight years nothing was done under its auspices. The recollections of its excellent work of instruc- tion and entertainment still lingered, and in 1908 an effort was made to revive it. While this failed, a new organization was formed called The Canterbury Social and Educational Club to take its place. This new society became the successor and legatee of the Educational Association. The surviving members of the latter were called together November 16, 1908, and they voted to turn over the funds in the hands of their treasurer to the new organization and to deposit their records in the town library.
The close of the Civil War found the state, counties and towns deeply in debt and a period of economy followed, that surplus revenue might be applied to the discharge of outstanding obligations. The voters of Canterbury scrutinized every item of expense, and at the annual meetings the town officers were specifically instructed as to their charges for services.
Canterbury raised by taxation each year a sum more than sufficient for its running expenses and applied it to the reduc- tion of its indebtedness. Several efforts were made to fund these obligations by the issue of bonds to take the place of notes which were largely held by its citizens. It was argued by some that the expenses incurred by putting down the Rebellion and preserving the Union were for the benefit of posterity as well as themselves and that posterity should bear some of the burden. On the other hand, there were those, like Col. David M. Clough, who reasoned that the town debts could be paid more easily while the period of inflation of currency and of prices continued than by postponing their discharge. They urged that special taxes be levied to secure the early payment of these debts. The outcome was a compromise by which an average of about
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two thousand dollars a year was raised to take up the notes of the town.
Year by year these obligations were discharged, and at the annual meeting in 1887, twenty-two years after the close of the Civil War, the selectmen were able to announce that the town was free from debt with a surplus in the treasury. It was a sea- son of rejoicing, and the citizens voted to celebrate the event with a supper at the expense of the town. The committee of arrangements were William H. Carter, Smith L. Morrill, Moses A. Foster, Alfred H. Brown, Nicholas A. Briggs, Henry L. Clough, Billy E. Pillsbury, Frank S. Davis, Olwyn W. Dow, John L. Nelson, Lewis Colby and John F. Lake.
With a few exceptions, this list included men who were tax- payers when the debt was incurred, but the names of most of those who were prominent in town affairs during the war were missing. They had joined the great majority. Almost a new generation of voters had come upon the stage to whom the con- flict had but historic meaning, yet all could rejoice over the ex- cellent financial condition of Canterbury. The celebration was local in its character, but it was largely attended by citizens of the town. Then for several years, the people raised only the nominal sum of one dollar to pay town charges, the income from the savings bank and railroad taxes being sufficient to meet these expenses.
In 1878 the county buildings at Boscawen having been de- stroyed by fire, a special meeting was called April 13 to act upon the following articles in the warrant:
"Are you in favor of a return to the plan of supporting all paupers who have had a settlement in any town or city in the county by such town or cities or by the present plan?
"Are you in favor of rebuilding the county buildings recently destroyed by fire and of continuing the county farm?"
The vote on the first article was 114 yeas to 3 nays to provide for the support of paupers by the town, and the second was an- swered in the negative by a vote of 3 yeas to 122 nays. The county as a whole, however, voted in favor of continuing the county farm and erecting new buildings.
The improvement of the highway from the Center to the Depot was a subject of consideration and contention during this period. Application to the selectmen to lay out a new highway
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for part of the route was refused and an appeal was taken to the county commissioners. The town voted at the annual meeting in 1879 to instruct the selectmen to appear in court and oppose the request of the petitioners. Special town meetings were called in October that year and again in February, 1880, at which the town reaffirmed its opposition by decisive votes, but without avail, for the county commissioners laid out the highway. The next board of commissioners, upon petition to the court, reversed the action of their predecessors. This was the last of the con- tested struggles in Canterbury to change existing routes of travel.
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