USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 11
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In 1799 the streets of the town for the first time received authoritative names, recommended by a committee of citizens, and adopted by the town, as they are given upon the plan drawn by Phineas Merrill in 1802, a copy of which is contained in this volume.
In 1801 the "Exeter Aqueduct" received incorporation from the Legislature of the State, and brought into the village water drawn from springs not far from the present station of the Boston and Maine Railroad. It was conveyed through perforated logs, and, of course, the supply was quite limited. Benjamin Clark Gilman was the projector of the enterprise in 1797; and in later time the management of the aqueduct fell into the hands of Nathaniel S. Adams, and finally of John Bellows. It was abandoned a number of years ago.
At the annual town meeting in 1804 it was voted that the select- men, in case of blocking snows, should employ proper persons to open the roads, at the expense of the town.
In 1811 the town voted that the selectmen purchase for the use of the town a new fire engine and appurtenances at a cost not
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exceeding three hundred dollars ; the engine of 1794 being deemed insufficient.
TEMPERANCE ; WAR OF 1812 ; PRAYER IN TOWN MEETINGS.
As early as 1812 germs of the temperance reform began to show themselves in the action of the town. A vote was passed at the annual meeting to request the selectmen to prevent the selling or having of any liquors at the court-house on town-meeting days, and to make it the duty of a constable to see that the vote should be carried into full effect. The following preamble and resolution were also adopted :
Retailers of ardent spirits duly observing the laws are a nec- essary class of men. But when they so grossly abuse the trust and confidence reposed in them as to sell ardent spirits in less quantities than the laws permit, harbor citizens of the town in their stores and shops day after day and night after night, spend- ing the money which ought to be expended in the support of their families in corrupting the morals and setting a destructive example before others, it is time for the town to arouse from their slumbers, płace the axe at the root of the tree of vice and idle habits by rigidły executing the laws amply sufficient to effect it. This is an increasing evil, and for which a remedy is immediately wanted.
Resolved, therefore, That the selectmen and overseers inspect all disorderly licensed houses, etc., and prosecute such offenders with the utmost severity of the law.
The war against England, which was declared .in 1812, was regarded by the majority of the people of New England as un- necessary and wrong. Exeter partook of that feeling, and when a meeting of the town was called in August, 1812, to see what pay and bounty should be offered to the militia called into the service of the United States, appointed a committee, consisting of John T. Gilman, Oliver Peabody, Samuel Tenney, Gideon Lamson and Joseph Tilton, Jr., to take the subject into consideration. At an adjourned meeting the committee submitted a written report, setting out that for reasons therein given, the town ought not to pay bounties or add to the compensation provided by law for men employed in the military service in that war. The report was accepted.
On the second of November following, the meeting of the citi- zens for the choice of representatives in Congress and presidential electors, was opened by "a well adapted prayer by the Rev. Mr.
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Rowland." This appears to have been the inauguration or possi- bly the revival of a practice which afterwards continued for more than a quarter of a century.
SUPPORT OF TIIE POOR.
In 1817 the town passed a vote that the selectmen and over- seers be authorized to purchase a farm or house for the use of the town where they might place the poor, and that they hire for that purpose a sum not exceeding four thousand dollars. A purchase was accordingly made of a house and land near Beech hill ; and in 1821 the town voted to enlarge the town farm by the addition of the "Cuba" land adjoining it, and to establish an ahnshouse and house of correction. Prior to that time the mode of providing for those who needed support was by letting them out by auction, or rather by diminution, to the lowest bidder. Their number was comparatively small, and their several capacities and incapacities were well known. The responsible citizens who were willing to board, clothe and care for them at the least cost to the town, were allowed to take them to their homes, and have the charge of them. It is believed that under this system the paupers usually received good treatment ; and they certainly were not sent far away from their acquaintances and familiar surroundings, to pine among strangers in a strange place.
In 1823 the town adopted an act of the Legislature for the es- tablishment of police in towns.
In 1826 the town appropriated four hundred dollars to procure a lot of land for the use of the county, to erect a fire-proof build- ing upon, for public offices and the preservation of public records. The building was constructed of brick with stone vanlts to contain the books and files of the county, and was located on Front street, just easterly of the Phillips Exeter Academy. It answered its purpose satisfactorily for half a century, but the increase of the records, and the demand for greater care for their preservation, will soon render necessary enlarged and better constructed accom- modations.
At the annual meeting in March, 1832, the town appropriated three hundred dollars for the purchase of a hay scale. It was placed nearly opposite the First church and in front of the lot on which the Squamscot House was afterwards erected, in 1837.
The situation of the court-house was felt to be inconvenient on
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many accounts, and in 1834 the town gave the selectmen authority to purchase a lot of land, and remove the court-house thereon, and fit up the same at the expense of the town, upon condition that one hundred and fifty dollars of the cost should be contributed by individuals. The condition was complied with, and the build- ing was removed to the southerly corner of Court and River streets, where its immediate successor still stands. Petitions were subse- quently presented for the sale or lease of the lot where it had stood, but the town wisely declined to part with the control of the land, and it has since constituted what is known as Court square, and now has a very useful drinking fountain in the centre.
In 1838, at the annual meeting, the town again put upon record its sentiments in relation to the mischiefs of the habit of strong drink, as follows :
Resolved, That as much of the panperism, disease and misery existing among us may be attributed to intemperance, it is desir- able that all suitable means should be used for the promotion of the temperance cause, and we, the citizens of this town, in town meeting assembled, authorize our selectmen to take all lawful and equitable measures for the removal of this evil from among us.
CELEBRATION OF BI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY.
The year 1838 being the two hundredth anniversary of the foun- dation of the town, was recognized as a proper occasion for public exercises in commemoration of that event. The necessary prep- arations were seasonably made, and the Hon. Jeremiah Smith was designated to prepare a historical address to be pronounced on the occasion. The fourth of July was chosen as a suitable day, and the citizens of the neighboring towns which had once formed parts of Exeter, were invited to join in the celebration.
The day was favorable. A procession, composed of a large body of citizens, the children of the Sunday schools and of the town schools, and the students of the Phillips Exeter Academy, escorted by the company of Exeter Artillery, all under the direc- tion of Captain Nathaniel Gilman, 3d, chief marshal, marched through the principal streets of the village to the meeting-house of the First parish, which was filled to overflowing. After music by the band, and the singing of appropriate pieces by the choir, the Rev. Isaac Hurd offered an impressive prayer. Then the ven- erable Judge Smith delivered his interesting and valuable address, extracts from which will be found in the appendix to this volume (III).
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After the close of the exercises at the meeting-house a proces- sion was again formed, of the invited guests and subscribers to the public dinner, and moved to the court-house, in the lower story of which the tables had been arranged. The Hon. Timothy Farrar presided at the dinner, assisted by the Hon. William Plumer, Jr., of Epping, Captain Nathaniel Gilman, 3d and William W. Stickney, Esq., of Newmarket. After the cloth was removed the presiding officer made an address of welcome and congratulation. A series of sentiments were then read, which were severally responded to, by the Hon. William Plumer, Jr., the Hon. Prentiss Mellen, and other gentlemen of note present.
In the evening there was a levee at Howard hall, and the day was closed with a brilliant display of fireworks. The entire cele- bration was most satisfactory, and was highly enjoyed by the numerous assemblage which had gathered from far and near. The chairman of the committee of citizens, to whom much credit was due, was Joseph Tilton, Esq.
RE-NAMING STREETS ; NEW COURT-HOUSE.
In 1840 the selectmen received authority to name the streets anew, and performed that duty as follows :
The street leading from Great bridge towards Hampton is to be called High street.
From Mary Jones's corner towards Stratham, Portsmouth avenue.
Great bridge to James Grant's, Pleasant street.
to Joseph Furnald's, Water street.
to Christian chapel, Franklin street.
Franklin street to Court street, South street.
Joseph Tilton's to John Gordon's, Front street.
Kimings's brook to James Bell's, Main street.
James Bell's to Jeremiah Smith's, Middle street.
Squamscot house to Little river bridge, Court street.
Widow Odiorne's to Exeter bank, Centre street.
" Margaret Emery's to Colonel Chadwick's, Ladd street.
Sherburne Blake's to William Lane's, Spring street.
66 J. Robinson, Jr.'s to Main street, Academy street.
6 Isaac Leavitt's to Samuel Philbrick's, Winter street.
Samuel Philbrick's to Water street, Back street.
Rev. Mr. Rowland's to Joseph Furnald's, Summer street.
66 Samuel Moses's to Back street, Cross street.
Cross street to Water street, Green street.
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Most of the streets still retain the names here given them, but a few have taken others, more in accordance with the fitness of things. Cross street, for example, has given place with great pro- priety to Cass street, as it contains the house where the Hon. Lewis Cass was born. And therein is a hint that ought to be taken and improved. The town is noted for the number of dis- tinguished men who have resided in it. What more appropriate nomenclature for its streets could be adopted than the names of its principal inhabitants and families? Wheelwright, Hilton, Dudley, Gilman, Folsom, Phillips, Sullivan and other historic names are far preferable for this purpose, in every point of view, to such unmeaning appellations as Front, Back, Middle, Centre, and the like. This would be a graceful method of keeping green the memory of the Exeter worthies of the past, and the quarter millennial anniversary of the town is a peculiarly suitable occasion to make the change.
In the spring of 1841 the court-house, that had been moved seven years before into Court street, was destroyed by fire. An exhibition called the "Burning of Moscow " had just been held in it, and was the cause of this less extensive conflagration. The town held a meeting on the sixth of April of the same year, and appropriated the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars for a town-house, to contain a town hall and court rooms. The building committee were James Burley, Nathaniel Gilman, Jr., William Conner, James Bell and Ira B. Hoitt. The building was promptly erected, of wood, and is still standing on the lot where the former court-house was situated, but is now occupied by the Town Library, the Natural History Society, the Grand Army of the Republic, etc. It was used for the purposes for which it was originally designed, only about fifteen years.
At the March town meeting in 1842 a resolution was passed, to license one apothecary to sell spirituous liquors, for medicinal pur- poses and the arts only, and to grant no further license therefor. And the next year it was resolved, with but a single dissenting voice, to license one town agent and no more, and to prosecute offenders against the license law.
In 1844 the useful practice was begun of printing the annual accounts of the selectmen and overseers, for distribution among the tax-payers. The practice has been kept up each year since, and has been extended to the reports and accounts of all the officers of the town.
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The selectmen had been empowered in 1840 to procure to be made a survey and plan of the town. This was accomplished in 1845. Joseph Dow of Hampton was the surveyor employed, and from his draft two plans were published, the one of the village and the other of the entire township. Similar plans had been issued forty-three years previously, by Phinehas Merrill of Stratham ; and a plot of the village on a larger scale has been since published from a survey made in 1874.
In 1844, at the annual meeting, an appropriation of four hun- dred dollars was made for the purchase of a town clock, which was set up in the tower of the First church.
On October 8, 1850, the town appointed Gilman Marston, John Kelly and Joseph G. Hoyt delegates to the convention to be held at Concord on the sixth of November following, to revise the con- stitution of the State.
In 1852 the town, taking warning from a disastrous conflagra- tion which had recently occurred, by which the two principal hotels had been laid in ashes, caused the purchase of another fire engine at the cost of six hundred and fifty dollars, and laid out a further considerable sum in the improvement of the reservoirs.
The wooden town-house which was erected in 1841 was found to be ill located, and insufficient, and a movement was made in 1853 to build another, better suited to the public needs. For that purpose the town authorized an appropriation of thirty thousand dollars. The measure was not carried without strenuous and bitter opposition. Some of the older and more conservative citi- zens contended that the building then in use answered its end suf- ficiently, particularly as it had been erected only twelve years before, and were especially aggrieved by the exorbitant sum pur- posed to be expended. The question of the location of the pro- posed building, too, caused a difference of opinion, which was not settled until March, 1855. The Dean lot, at the northwestern corner of Court square and Water street, received the majority of suffrages, and there the new building, which is of brick, and of fine architectural proportions, and has from that time to the present been equally ornamental and useful to the town, was placed.
It was in 1853 that the first appropriation was made by the town for the establishment of the Public Library. The project originated with some public spirited citizens, who laid the founda- tions for its success by contributing to the infant Library, from
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their own collections, a considerable number of useful books. The town was quite ready to adopt the enterprise, and appropriated for the care and increase of the Library for the first few years three hundred, and since then five hundred dollars annually, besides providing suitable rooms for its accommodation in the old town-house. As the expense of library service is small, the chief part of the annual appropriations has been laid out in books, and from that source, and by donations from various quarters, the shelves have been gradually filled.
A fund of five thousand dollars for the enlargement of the Library was given by the late Dr. Charles A. Merrill ; the income of which is to be applied to the purchase of works of sterling value.
The number of volumes now in the Library amounts to more than six thousand. They are, with few exceptions, well selected, and are very generally circulated in the households of the town, and diligently perused.
LIGHTING STREETS ; SIDEWALKS ; STEAM FIRE ENGINE ; WATER WORKS.
The streets of the town were first lighted in 1863, although gas works had been in operation several years previously. The lights at first were rather few and far between, and some persons com- plained that they only served to make the darkness more visible ; but the number has since been so much increased that there is no longer any question of their utility.
In the same year it was voted to fund thirty thousand dollars of the debt of the town, which had been incurred in building the town-house, and in bounties and aid to soldiers' families in the War of the Rebellion.
About the year 1871 the sidewalks of the village underwent a very general renovation. Before then they were mostly made of gravel, except in the business part of Water street. It was felt that they were hardly up to the requirement of the times, and an order was adopted to encourage the citizens to reconstruet them in an improved fashion. The town agreed to repay to all land- owners in the village one-half the expense of sidewalks of con- crete, briek or other durable materials, which they should cause to be laid in front of their respective lots. The offer was quite generally taken advantage of, and the village has since afforded better facilities for pedestrians than are to be found in most places of equal population and means.
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Notwithstanding Exeter had for a century been quite in the fore front of country towns in providing against the danger of fires, and had made very considerable annual payments for that purpose, yet, up to the year 1873, nothing more efficient than hand engines had been procured. It was then determined that a steam fire engine was a necessity. Though the expense of it and of all the needful accompaniments, including a substantial house of brick on Water street, was somewhat onerous, yet the service rendered by the acquisition, on one or two occasions, fully out- weighed the cost. The fire department of the town is highly effi- cient, and its members have shown their pluck and endurance on many a hard fought field. And now that abundant hydrants have been added to all other safeguards, the risk of any wide conflagra- tion seems reduced to a minimum.
A new convention to revise the constitution of the State was ordered, to be held at Concord on the sixth of December, 1876, and the town elected as delegates thereto, William W. Stickney, Gilman Marston, William B. Morrill and John J. Bell.
The "Exeter Water Works" went into operation in 1886. This is the title of an incorporated company, which has established its reservoirs and pumping apparatus on a little stream which leads to the historic "Wheelwright's creek." Thence the water is driven to a stand pipe on the summit of Prospect hill, which gives it a sufficient head to reach the top of the highest building in the village. A contract has been executed between the corporation and the town, by which the former, in consideration of an annual subsidy of two thousand dollars, engaged to furnish to the town for the term of twenty years, all the water needed for the extin- guishment of fires and for other municipal purposes ; and also, on certain conditions, to turn over to the town, its works, plant and property, upon being reimbursed the cost thereof.
CHAPTER V.
BOUNDARIES AND DIVISIONS; ROADS AND BRIDGES.
THE original township of Exeter, as described in the deeds of the Indian sagamores to John Wheelwright and his associates, embraced all the territory between the Merrimac river (or three miles north of it) on the south ; the sea on the east; the Pascata- qua patents on the eastern northi, and a line one mile beyond the Oyster river on the western north; and extended from the sea thirty miles into the country. This was a goodly domain, and must have contained, at the lowest estimate four or five hundred square miles. But only a fraction of it was ever occupied by the people of Exeter. It was soon curtailed on nearly every side.
Winicowet, or Hampton, was settled shortly after Exeter. Its entire original territory, including the present townships of Hamp- ton, North Hampton, Seabrook, South Hampton, Hampton Falls and Kensington, and containing not less than seventy square miles, was carved from the Indians' grant to Wheelwright. Dover, on the north, pushed her occupancy, under the claim of a purchase from the Indians, not only to Oyster river, but southerly across the intervening space to Lamprey river, excepting a small triangle of land bordering on the Great Bay. Of the western north part of the Wheelwright Indian purchase, not less than thirty square miles were held to belong to Dover ; the greater part of it in the present township of Durham.
The western bound of Exeter was fixed by a committee of the General Court of Massachusetts at about twenty miles distance from the sea, instead of thirty miles, the limit of the Indian grant ; so the area of the town was thus further shorn of about one-half its original dimensions.
A single addition to the town's territory is also to be recorded. In 1656, or earlier, Thomas Wiggin, agent of the owners of the southern division of the Squamscot patent, by his deed of gift conveyed to the town a belt of land from the southerly end
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thereof, about a mile in breadth and between two and three miles in length.
When all these subtractions and this addition were made, Exeter, in place of its original ample preeinets was reduced in territory to about seventy square miles. This is occupied by the present townships of Exeter, Newmarket, South Newmarket, Epping, Brentwood and Fremont.
These various alterations of boundary were not accomplished without objection. Towns are as averse as land-owners to any diminution of their possessions, and there are few more fruitful subjects of contention than conterminous boundaries.
There is scarcely a doubt that the bounds of Dover and of Hampton were laid out by committees of the General Court of Massachusetts, before Exeter acknowledged the jurisdiction of that colony. It was claimed by Dover that Lamprey river was thus fixed as the line between that township and Exeter in 1641 or 1642 ; and the western bound of Hampton, where it adjoined the eastern extremity of Exeter, was early assumed to be distant two miles from the meeting-house of the latter town, and, without much question, had been so defined under the anthority of the Massachusetts colony.
When the petition of Exeter to be received within the govern- ment of Massachusetts was presented, May 12, 1643, the consent of the deputies and of the magistrates was indorsed thereon, and Samuel Dudley, Edward Rawson and Edward Carleton were ap- pointed a committee for laying out the bounds. It is not known what, if anything, was done by the committee. On the seventh of the following September, when the petition was formally granted, William Payne, Matthew Boyes and John Saunders were appointed to settle the bounds between Exeter and Hampton, within two months. If they performed that duty, it was not very satisfacto- rily, for the General Court on the sixth day of May, 1646, in response to the petition of several inhabitants of Exeter, appointed Samuel Dudley, Edward Rawson and Edward Carleton to "lay out Exeter bounds next to Hampton, and so round about them, provided there be no entrenching on the bounds of the patent of the lords and gentlemen mentioned in the patent of Squamscot, or in any grant formerly made to Dover by this court." This resulted, no doubt, in fixing the location of the line between the eastern extremity of Exeter and Hampton, but not of that dividing the two towns farther to the westward.
8
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THE HAMPTON BOUND OF 1653.
On the fourteenth of October, 1651, Hampton petitioned the General Court for a committee to lay out the west end of the bounds of their township, and Samuel Winslow, Thomas Bradbury and Robert Pike were appointed for the purpose. Thereupon, the people of Exeter, wishing to adjust all matters of boundary which were in dispute with their neighbors, on the twenty-ninth day of December following, gave authority to Samuel Dudley, Edward Hilton, Edward Gilman, John Legat and Humphrey Wilson, to " make an agreement with Hampton and Dover about the bounds of the town, or to petition to the General Court about it if they cannot agree with the other towns." And on May 10, 1652, having then probably received notice of the appointment of the commissioners by the General Court in the preceding October, the town chose Samuel Dudley, Edward Hilton, Edward Gilman and Thomas King, to meet with those commissioners " to lay out the bounds between us and Hampton, to agitate and conclude with them, or to make their objections according to the court order, if they cannot agree."
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