USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 37
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
This fourth burying-ground having been filled, past further service, several gentlemen of the town in 1843 conceived the plan of establishing a private cemetery which could be increased in extent as occasion might require, and would be permanent and not liable to be abandoned and neglected. For this purpose they organized under the statutes of the State a company incorporated as the Exeter Cemetery Association. Dr. D. W. Gorham, Amos Tuck, Henry F. French, James Burley and Charles C. P. Moses were the principal promoters of the scheme.
They procured a lot of land and laid it out for the purpose. The lots found purchasers readily, and the cemetery has now been in use for more than forty years. It is situated somewhat too near the village, perhaps, but the successive enlargements which have increased its dimensions to thirty acres or more, have all been in the opposite direction. It is well planted with trees and shrubs, and is an attractive spot. Much good taste has been manifested in the fitting and ornaments of the lots, and in the
411
HISTORY OF EXETER.
monuments erected upon them. The late William P. Moulton was at his decease president of the Association, Charles Burley is the treasurer, and William HI. Belknap the secretary.
In addition to the public burial-places enumerated, another situated in the southwestern part of the town, near Great hill, should be mentioned. It is for local use, and its age has not been ascertained.
There are also several private or family burying-yards in dif- ferent parts of the town. Two of them are near the main village, on the east side of the river, and have been used chiefly, if not wholly, by the families of Leavitt and Folsom respectively.
THE " WHITE CAPS."
A natural transition from the subjects of the earlier part of this chapter, murders and church-yards, would be to ghostly apparitions and the diabolical pranks of witches, if there were any such to relate. But in the times when the great witchcraft delusion, two centuries ago, subverted the religion and the common sense of the people of other neighboring places, Exeter main- tained its equipoise. A town of so much antiquity might, perhaps, be expected to have its old time traditions, at least, of visitations from the unseen world, but none such have been heard of. Not a haunted house is known to the oldest inhabitant. Nearly everything that can be said to verge on the supernatural, is modern. A story is indeed told of the re-appearance of an elderly gentleman after his decease, for the purpose of warning his youthful widow that she must follow him within a year, which she did. But the story is only a single generation old, and has excited curiosity rather than awe.
One house, in which a servant girl accidentally inflicted a fatal wound upon herself with a pistol, is said to have been avoided since by her countrywomen, but it was never asserted that her spirit walked there. Another house was for a time the scene of some strange and inexplicable freaks of self-propelling articles of furniture, and the like ; but it never received a bad name on that account.
Towards the close of the last century, however, an occurrence took place in the town, which denoted, at least, that the belief in the existence of supernatural agencies was common. Indeed we know, from various sources, that at that time, and much later,
412
HISTORY OF EXETER.
the mass of the people hardly questioned the existence of witches, or the appearance and interposition in human affairs of disem- bodied spirits. This credulity was often taken advantage of by the mischievous to cause affright, and by the mercenary to extort money. Unprincipled impostors are known to have travelled the country to work upon the hopes and fears of those whom they could influence by pretending to magical powers, in order to swindle them out of their property.
One such sharper, a perfect Dousterswivel in the art of impos- ture, was named Rainsford Rogers. IIe was a native of Con- nectient, but lived also in Massachusetts and in New York. Though illiterate he was once a school teacher. He pretended to a deep knowledge of chemistry, and claimed that he possessed the power to raise, or to lay, spirits, good and evil, at his pleasure. He began his career of operating on the superstitions belief of people, at Morristown, New Jersey, in 1788. There he succeeded in defrauding his followers ont of a large sum of money, by the pretence that he could secure for them a concealed treasure, through the agency of the spirits. Then he absconded. The story of his methods of deluding his dupes is told at large in a little volume entitled The Morristown Ghost, published soon after the occurrence.
The same person, with sometimes a different name, was said to have depleted the pockets of the people in several of the Southern States, afterwards, by similar means. In 1797, he appeared in Adams county, Pennsylvania, under the alias of Rice Williams. There, with a confederate or two, he repeated his tricks upon con- fiding persons, and succeeded in making off with a considerable sum.
It was not far from that time that he came to Exeter, bearing his true name of Rainsford Rogers, which had, perhaps, not acquired so bad an odor in New England as in some other quarters. In a short time he formed the acquaintance of a number of persons whom he judged to be suitable for his purpose. They were, of course, men of substance, able to furnish the money which he was planning to transfer to his own pocket, and sufficiently credulous to put entire faith in his representations. When he had enlisted a dozen or more, after fully sounding them, he broached to them his project. He informed them that he had reason to believe that a subterranean treasure of great value existed in the neighborhood, which, by his magical skill and with proper means and aid, he
413
HISTORY OF EXETER.
could discover and appropriate for their common benefit. He secretly visited several localities for the purpose of " prospecting," and at meetings of his followers, reported his discoveries. So skilful was he in stimulating their greed, and so plausible in explaining every successive step of his operations, that they never dreamed of any trick or dishonesty, but followed all his directions to the letter.
Ile repeatedly conducted them on dark nights to out-of-the-way places, to dig in the swamps with spades and other implements, and kept them at work, sometimes, it is said, for hours, in delving for the hidden prize. He instructed them that on those expedi- tions it was essential that they should wear white caps - a circum- stance which afterwards gave the name to the company. On one of the nocturnal excursions there appeared before the eyes of the awe-stricken diggers a figure all in white, representing a spirit, which uttered some words which were not well understood. One of the " white caps," anxious to lose nothing of the weighty com- munication, responded - " a little louder, Mr. Ghost ; I'm rather hard of hearing !"
But dig as diligently as they might, they reached no treasure. After a time Rogers disclosed what he declared to be the reason of their want of success. The golden deposit was there, beyond question ; but they needed one thing more to enable them to find and grasp it. That was a particular kind of divining-rod. It must be made of dear materials, but it was infallibly sure of doing the business. It could not be obtained this side of Phila- delphia, and would cost several hundred dollars. But if they would contribute the necessary sum, he would at once proceed to Philadelphia, purchase the needful implement and then return and introduce them to a golden hoard that would reimburse them a hundred-fold for their advances.
It is a marvel that the faith of his adherents was not shaken by so transparent a device, but he had tutored them so adroitly that their cupidity got the better of their caution and common sense. The deluded company raised the money required, and delivered it to the sharper, who mounted his horse, with a saddle and bridle borrowed from one of his dupes, and rode off -to parts unknown, never to return.
It was but a little time after his departure before the whole affair was made public. The white caps had not held their clan- destine meetings unobserved. Each midnight rendezvous, each
414
HISTORY OF EXETER.
delving excursion in the swamps, had been watched, and all their credulity and imbecility were revealed. The worthy but super- stitious persons who had been seduced into this ridiculous position, became heartily ashamed of themselves, and prayed that their folly might never be mentioned. But the joke was too good to be kept in silence, and many a sly allusion to their white head-gear made their ears tingle for years after. The deaf man who required the ghost to "speak a little louder " never heard the last of his unfortunate speech.
The names of most of the sufferers by this imposture have been preserved, but as their conduct was weak rather than culpable, to publish them could serve only to gratify an idle curiosity, and might cause pain to the feelings of their descendants.
Possibly the exposure of this frand may have had a beneficial effect upon succeeding generations. The belief in the supernatu- ral does not appear to have misled any to similar acts of credulity in later years. Digging for hidden treasure has never been attempted in the town, since the memorable experience of the "white caps."
CHAPTER XXII.
THINGS NEW AND OLD.
THE town of Exeter is noted for its fine ornamental trees. In the early years of the century the Lombardy poplars in trim rows mounted guard around the principal edifices, but they did not take kindly to the northern climate. The stately sycamores were next introduced, but those, too, drooped, and disappeared. Maples and elms supplied their places, and thrive in the congenial soil, giving refreshing shade and adding beauty to the village.
The elms are not all of recent growth. Some of them can boast a life more than double that usually assigned to man.
The oldest elm in Exeter is probably that which stands in front of the house of the late Isaac Flagg on Front street. A hundred and fifty-eight years ago the residence of Judge Nicholas Gilman was there. His son, the Rev. Nicholas Gilman, afterwards of Durham, on the third of April, 1730, according to his diary, " set out elms before father Gilman's house." The father died in 1741 and his son followed him in 1748. How long the house stood we know not, but the elms lived on and survived them all.
One of them had a narrow escape from destruction in the early part of the present. century. The axe was already laid at its root, when Colonel Nathaniel Gilman, who loved a fine tree, interposed. " What are you going to cut that elm down for?" he inquired of the occupant. " For firewood." "Let the tree stand," said the colonel, " and I'll give you a load of firewood." The offer was accepted and the doom of the tree was averted for the time.
When Deacon John Williams purchased the lot, about 1828, two of the elms were standing in the prime of their beauty, and he was very proud of them. "I gave five hundred dollars for the lot," said he, "and I would not take that sum for the trees." But since then one of them has succumbed to the ravages of time, and has disappeared. The other is still standing, and has been stayed by iron bolts, where the branches diverge from the trunk. It has
415
416
HISTORY OF EXETER.
now seen more than a hundred and sixty summers and winters. Eight generations may have enjoyed its shade, from Judge Nich- olas Gilman to his great-great-great-grandson who is now living.
The old tree is a living link that binds us to the distant past. Long may it continue to lift on high its venerable crown.
A notice of a few of the old houses in Exeter and of their occu- pants, will not be out of place here. The distinctive names given them are those by which they have been popularly known. The first is
THIE CLIFFORD HOUSE.
The oldest house in the town is undoubtedly that on the northerly corner of Water and Clifford streets, now owned by Manly W. Darling. It was built by Councillor John Gilman. He was living in it in 1676, and there is ground for the belief that it dates back to 1658. It was constructed of square logs, the upper story projected a foot or more beyond the lower, and the windows were scarcely more than loop-holes. It was thus completely adapted for the defence of its inmates against the attacks of the savages, and is known as a " garrison house."
The original structure was small, and constitutes the main body of the present honse. No doubt additions must have been soon made to it, for the first occupant had sixteen children, all but four of whom lived to maturity. The wing which protrudes towards the street was a much later appendage.
In this wooden castle lived Councillor Gilman till his death in 1708. His son, Colonel John Gilman, succeeded him in the ownership of the house. He was then about thirty-two years of age, with a wife and three or four children. He was active and energetic, and acquired property and influence. In 1719 and 1720 he was licensed by the provincial Assembly to keep a place of public entertainment in " his log house by the bridge." Colonel Gilman was the father of eleven children, and died in 1740.
His eldest son was Peter, born in 1703, and married seven days after reaching the age of twenty-one. His father, realizing that no house is large enough for two generations, then proceeded to build himself another dwelling near by, to which he presently removed ; and in 1732 executed to Peter a deed of gift of the old mansion.
Peter's family would not be considered a small one in these degenerate days. He had seven daughters, but it was doubtless
417
HISTORY OF EXETER.
a sore trial to him that he had no son to inherit the house that his grandfather built, so as to "keep it in the name." Peter Gilman was a man of note, in civil and military life. He was Speaker of the House of Assembly and a councillor of the province, and rose to the rank of brigadier general in the militia, through his exploits in the French and Indian wars. He was much esteemed by his townsmen. It is related that on one occasion a press-gang came from Portsmouth to Exeter to seize men to serve in his majesty's navy, but the brigadier warned the party that any whom they might capture would surely be rescued before they reached Strat- han, and they desisted. When the separation between the mother country and her American colonies was impending, the brigadier felt bound by the oaths of allegiance he had taken to Britain, to set his face against all disloyal proceedings. If he had been less respected by his neighbors, he would have been tabooed, or perhaps maltreated, by the " high sons of liberty ; " but no insult was offered to him.
He was a man of strong religious feelings, and a great admirer of the evangelist Whitefield. An amusing story has been pre- served of his being so deeply affected by a discourse of the great preacher that he fairly rolled on the ground, in an agony of penitence. Of course when the schism took place in the First society in 1743, the brigadier went off into the new church, and became one of its chief supporters.
It was during Peter Gilman's occupation of the house that the front wing was added to it. It was probably built in 1772 or 1773, while he was a councillor. John Wentworth was then the governor, young, popular and fond of show and ceremony. His Exeter councillor, the first in the place since the century came in, was desirous of showing him due honor, on occasion of his visiting the town. The low-storied rooms of the old house seemed hardly suitable for the reception of the highest dignitary of the province. The brigadier, therefore, had this addition made to it, of two stories, so as to lodge the governor, and perhaps to furnish a chamber for the meeting of the council also. The whole was finished inside with panelled work, in the elaborate style of the joinery of the time.
As the brigadier left no son to succeed him in the homestead, the place after his death in 1788 went into the possession of Ebenezer Clifford, who removed from Kensington to Exeter about that time. He was an ingenious mechanic, and studied architect -.
27
418
HISTORY OF EXETER.
ure and made scientific experiments outside of his regular calling.
He manufactured a diving bell, with which he brought up from the bottom of the sea valuable property from one or more wrecked vessels. A relic of the old diving bell is still extant. It is the wooden duck which now serves as a weather vane upon the rear wing of the old house. This was the float by means of which the diver in the water below, was enabled to communicate his wants to his assistant in a boat at the surface.
While Mr. Clifford was master of the house he had for a boarder a lad who was destined at a later day to become the pride and boast of two States, that of his birth, education, and professional training, and that of his matured powers and later life. Daniel Webster came to Exeter to attend the Phillips Academy in 1796, and was an inmate of Mr. Clifford's family for several months. He had lived in a frontier settlement without instruction in the minor graces of life, and was habitually guilty of some breach of etiquette at the table, which Mr. Clifford was desirous of cor- recting. But knowing that young Webster was diffident and sensitive he was reluctant to hurt his feelings by pointing out the fault directly. Trusting to the youth's quick sightedness to make the proper application, he one day reproved his apprentice, who in the homely fashion of the time sat at table with the family, for committing the self-same fault which he had observed in Webster.
He did not overrate the latter's discernment. Never again did he give cause for criticism on that account.
THE DEAN HOUSE.
On the site of the present town-house, formerly stood a hand- some dwelling with a gambrel roof, which dated from about the year 1724. It was erected by Nathaniel Gilman, or by his father Judge Nicholas Gilman for him. He, according to tradition, was commonly known as " Gentleman Nat," probably on account of his nicety of dress or manners. Ile was a man of property and lived handsomely, but died at an early age, leaving a widow and one or more children. The eldest of these, John Phillips would have afterwards taken to wife, but she preferred another. He therefore wooed and won her mother, the widow, in despite of a slight disparity in their ages, she being forty-one while he was but twenty-seven. But she was well dowered. It is highly probable that they occupied the house after their marriage, but this is not positively asserted. At a later date Mr. Phillips
419
HISTORY OF EXETER.
erected for himself a house on the north side of Water street near by, and there lived with his second wife, until his death.
Joseph Gilman resided in the earlier habitation, afterwards, through the Revolution, and until his emigration in 1788, to the Ohio country, which in those days was a greater undertaking than it now is to cross the continent. He had obtained a thorough business training in Boston, and returned to Exeter in 1761 to become a partner in the firm of Gilman, Folsom & Gilman, which was largely engaged in commerce and trade. He was then a widower, but in 1763 married again, and probably at that time set up his establishment in the house. He made a singular dis- covery there. In the middle of the structure was a large stack of chimneys. Between the flues was a secret repository, left perhaps for the purpose of concealment of property or persons, and in it he found deer-skin pouch filled with old French crowns. The history of the deposit he could never learn, but suspected that some former occupant had bestowed his stock of specie in this secret storehouse, when he was about departing on some hazard- ous errand, to the Indian or French wars, and never returned, nor revealed the secret to others.
During the Revolution the house was the place of meeting of the Committee of Safety of the State, of which Mr. Gilman was a member, and a resort of the Whigs, of the town and elsewhere. The second Mrs. Gilman was a superior and highly accomplished woman. To some of the young French officers who were in the American army it was a great boon to visit Exeter and converse with a lady who understood their language so thoroughly, and was accustomed to the elegancies of life. The Gilmans had no lack of distinguished visitors. One of them was Samuel Adams. It was in the darkest hours of the Revolution. His spirits were depressed, and not even Mrs. Gilman's sprightly talk could rouse him to cheerfulness. He walked the room and wrung his hands. " Oh God," he cried, " must we give it up !" His ailment was one which nothing but a military success could relieve.
Not many years after Mr. Gilman left Exeter, John Gardner came there to live. He married Deborah, daughter of Ward Clark' Dean, and occupied the house that Mr. Gilman quitted. Mr. Gardner was a native of Boston, and became a merchant. Of a confiding disposition, he suffered himself to become responsible for others, until he failed in business. His creditors pocketed their percentage and reconciled themselves to a loss in which there
42(
HISTORY OF EXETER.
was nothing dishonorable. But he did not. He never rested until he was able to repay to every creditor the full amount of his claim, with interest. Mr. Gardner is remembered by the older citizens, as a man of pleasant address, and remarkable even after he had long passed his threescore years and ten, for his cheerful- ness and buoyancy of spirits.
Somewhere about the year 1820, probably, Mr. Gardner built the house on Court square now occupied by his grandchildren, and removed into it. His father-in-law, Ward C. Dean, then came into the occupation of the old habitation, and resided there until his decease in 1828; after which his widow lived there till her death in 1843. In 1855 the land on which the house stood was purchased by the town, and the present town-house was erected there. The old building was razeed by cutting away one of its stories, and removed to Franklin street, where it now remains.
THIE LADD HOUSE.
On a little elevation a few rods south of Water street is the residence of John T. Perry. It has an old time look, never having been modernized without, so that no one can see it without feeling that it has a history. It consists of two sections, of differ- ent dates, the earlier of which was built by Nathaniel Ladd in 1721 or soon after. It was of brick, which is now covered with wood, to correspond with the portion which was added later.
The Ladd family is an old one in the town. We have already mentioned one of the name who sounded the trumpet in Gove's rebellion against Governor Cranfield, and was afterwards slain in an expedition against the Eastern Indians. There were other notable characters in the family. Simeon Ladd, who came upon the stage at least three generations afterwards, was keeper of the jail. He was something of a wag, and the president of a society of choice spirits called the " Nip Club," who used to assemble at one of the taverns on regular evenings for convivial purposes. He perhaps inherited a tendency to eccentricity from his father, who is said to have long kept a ready made coffin in his house to meet an emergency, and who invented a pair of wings which he fondly believed would enable him to cleave the air like a bird, until he tried the experiment from an upper window.
Eliphalet Ladd was born in 1744, and while young developed much aptitude for business. He was a shipmaster and merchant during the Revolutionary contest, and made at least one voyage
421
HISTORY OF EXETER.
in the war time to the West Indies, from which he returned after an absence of sixty days, with a cargo of rum, molasses, etc. His vessel was several times chased by English men-of-war. He also built several ships, one of which was among the largest ever launched in Exeter, and was called the Archelaus. She was of about five hundred tons, and was nearly three years in building. Captain Ladd's energy and pluck were rewarded by the acquisition of a competency. In 1792 he removed to Portsmouth.
His son, William Ladd, born in Exeter in 1778, and a graduate of Harvard College, was well known as the " apostle of peace."
The Nathaniel Ladd who built the house which is under notice had two sons, to whom he conveyed it, and who probably occupied it until 1747 when it was bought by Colonel Daniel Gilman. His son Nicholas then moved into it. This was " Treasurer " Nieli- olas Gilman who was afterwards distinguished as the financier of New Hampshire in the Revolution. He had three sons, John Taylor, afterwards governor of the State many years, Nicholas, an officer of the Revolution and a senator of the United States, and Nathaniel who was State senator and treasurer. The father was a man of much business and many cares. He was a devoted Whig, notwithstanding he was a particular friend of the royal governor, who would have sacrificed much if he could have secured Mr. Gilman's support to the British cause. In his capac- ity of treasurer of the State he had his office in this house, and there, no doubt, he affixed his handsome signature to the paper bills of credit to which the State and the country were obliged to resort, to carry on the war. The treasurer lived to thankfully witness the termination of hostilities and the virtual establishment of the independence of his country, and died April 7, 1783.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.