USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Haverhill > History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire > Part 11
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Another step in bringing the town into accord with the Exeter govern- ment was taken at a special meeting here December 8, 1783, the purpose of which was recited in the second article, viz .:
To elect one person, being a reputable freeholder and an inhabitant of said town and qualified as the law directs to represent said town in the General Assembly of said state, to be convened and held at Concord on the 3d Tuesday of December next, and to im- power such representative to transact such business and pursue such measures as he may judge necessary for the public good until the first Wednesday of June next and par- ticularly to impower such representative to vote in the choice of delegates for the Con- tinental Congress.
At this meeting James Woodward was elected representative, an ad- mirable choice, a man of sterling integrity, sound judgment, unimpeach- able character, and a reputable freeholder. His successor, elected February 10, 1784, for the classed towns of Haverhill, Piermont and War- ren was Col. Timothy Bedel. There seems to have been at this time some uncertainty as to how the representative was to be compensated for his services, as in the warrant for the meeting of the voters of these towns there was an article "To see what wages or pay said representative shall receive for his attendance at said Assembly and how the same shall be apportioned among said towns and how and when paid." That this article was dismissed indicates that the voters came to the conclusion that the state would provide "wages, " as the Assembly was to meet under the provisions of the New Constitution.
The lack of money in these years of readjustment, led not only to appropriations for preaching, schools and other town expenses being made payable in corn and wheat, but a meeting was called for December 11, 1786, "to see if the town is of the opinion that a paper currency be emitted on the plan proposed by the sub-committee of the general court of the state or any other plan which may be thought proper." The following was unanimously passed.
Voted that a paper currency be emitted on the following plan, viz .: that one hundred thousand pounds be emitted,-twenty thousand pounds to be in suitable bills to defray the charges of government, and to exchange for such public securities as may be offered
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
at this current exchange, which is to be ascertained, and to carry no interest, but to be receivable in taxes and all demands of government and a tender in all cases equal to silver and gold, and to be called in by taxes annually,-the residue to be made in different bills expressing their import, and to be loaned to individuals at five per cent, on landed security of double the value, and to be paid into the treasury at proper times, which shall carry an interest of two and a half per cent, and so receivable in all demands of govern- ment and a tender in all cases as above-with the interest due on said bills at the time of payment.
This emission was of course to be by state authority, and favorable action on the plan was taken by many other towns beside Haverhill. That such a plan was proposed and indorsed showed the desperate financial condition prevailing, but the legislature finally decided that it was without authority to "make paper bills of credit a tender to dis- charge private contracts made prior to the passage of such an act." This early irredeemable currency was quickly repudiated by the second sober thought of the people, but a century later the similar Greenback proposition found ardent advocates in Haverhill.
Besides those who had been classed as Tories, the town had in this decade following the war other residents whom it regarded as "undesirable citizens," and drastic measures were taken to deport. February 8, 1784, Timothy Stevens, constable, was commanded to warn no less than twenty- eight persons, named in the command, out of town, and he made due re- turn of his action except in the case of six who could not be found. In November, the same year, Charles Johnston was voted 6s for man and two horses to convey Abigail Baxter and two children from town to Warren. What Warren had to say is not a matter of record. Ephraim Wesson was voted 13s for ordering thirteen of these undesirables out of town. Some of these must have returned or the proportion of the unwel- come was phenomenally large for, in 1789, Jonathan Ring was voted 27s or a shilling per capita, for warning out twenty-seven poor. There was a current classification of the poor-"the Lord's poor, the devil's poor and poor devils."
The town was not without desirable immigration, however, during the war and the years immediately following. Among the newcomers who added materially to its prosperity were Stephen Smith, Daniel Mills, Moore Russell, Aaron Wesson, Ebenezer Gray, Charles Wheeler, Moses Dow (who came in 1782, and at once became prominent), John French, Thomas Miner, Deliverance Sawyer, Joseph Pearson, Simon Rodiman, Israel Swan, Phineas Swan, Daniel Greenleaf, Stephen Morse, Daniel Stevens, Daniel Hunt, John Sly, John Morse, John Montgomery, Samuel Brooks and Dr. Martin Phelps.
The first census taken by the Federal government for the purpose of Congressional apportionment was in 1790, and the population of Haverhill had then increased to 522, Hanover, Lebanon, Enfield and Plymouth
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
alone of the Grafton County towns leading. In this census of Haverhill the names of ninety-four males appeared as heads of families. These were:
William Abbott
David Young
David Ash John Beads
Samuel Bunker
Paul Adams
Moody Bedel
Timothy Barron
Samuel Brooks
Amos Chapman
Samuel Bonley
John Clark
James Corliss
Edward Clark
Andrew S. Crocker
Benjamin Crocker
Samuel Corliss
William Cross
Moses Dow
Ephraim Cross
Josiah Elkins
Jonathan Eames
Moses Doty
Joseph Flanders
Bezaleel French
Samuel Emerson
Simeon Goodwin
Samuel Gould
Richard Goodwin
David Greenleaf
Jeremiah Harris
Ebenezer Gray
Joshua Howard
John Howard
Robert Haseltine
Daniel Hunt
Joseph Hutchins
Abner Hunt
Charles Johnston
Michael Johnston
David Jewell
Amos Kimball
Edward Kendall
Bryan Kay
James King
George Knapp
Benjamin Keniston
Asa Ladd
Ezekiel Ladd
James Ladd
John Ladd
Joseph Ladd
David Ladd
Samuel Lee
David Lock
Samuel Ladd William Lock
Nathaniel Merrill
Ebenezer McKentosh (McIntosh)
Annis Merrill
John Morse
John Montgomery
Moses H. More
John Page
Stephen Morse
Jacob Page
Asa Porter
Joseph Pearson
Martin Phelps
Daniel Richardson
Moses Porter
William Porter
Moore Russell
Jonathan Ring
Simon Rodiman
Jonathan Sanders
John Sanborn
Avery Sanders
Daniel Staniford
Enos Sayer
John Sly
Phineas Swan
Daniel Stevens
Israel Swan
Charles Wheeler
Samuel Thompson
Peter Wesson
John Winslow
Samuel White
Ebenezer Whittaker
Joshua Young
Benjamin Wiser
James Woodward
James Luroy
In this census seven women were enumerated as heads of families, viz .: Anne Chase, Marian Chase, Abigail Eastman, Elizabeth Fifield, Mary Fisk, Elsie McCormick and Mary Simpson.
The ten years from 1790 to 1800 were years of progress. The questions. growing out of the war were settled, professional men were establishing themselves, mills and various small manufactories were erected, the cause of education received more and more attention, a Haverhill church was organized. "The Brook" and "the Corner" begun to come into prom- inence as business, social and political centres; improvements in roads, bridges, and in matters pertaining to health were made, and Haverhill began to recognize and appreciate her opportunities. The town records, while meagre and fragmentary, abound with significant entries.
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
There was difficulty in 1789 and 1790 in securing selectmen who were willing to serve. At the annual meeting of 1789, Charles Johnston, A. S. Crocker and Joseph Hutchins were elected. The latter refused to serve, and at an adjourned meeting, March 26, Nathaniel Merrill was elected in his place. He also refused the honor and at another meeting, March 30, Simeon Goodwin was elected. In 1790 Moses Dow, Nathaniel Merrill and Amos Kimball were elected. Dow and Merrill refused to serve, and at an adjourned meeting, March 18, Charles Johnston and A. S. Crocker were elected to fill vacancies. Kimball would not qualify, and at another meeting, held March 31, Johnston and Crocker were again elected, and Ezekiel Ladd was chosen in place of Kimball. The trouble seems to have arisen concerning an act passed by the legislature "for the better observance of the Lord's Day." This act required the select- men to inform against all persons who traveled on the Sabbath between sunrising and sunsetting, except to "attend to public worship, visit the sick, or do works of charity." The vigorous enforcement of this law caused angry protests. The selectmen "informed," the tythingman was vigilant, and many persons overtaken on the road by sunrise, almost in sight of home, were compelled to pause in their journey until the sun had sunk behind the western horizon. John Page, for example, had been on a business trip "down country." He had arrived as near home as Warren when the Sabbath dawned. He would have gone home, but the Warren tythingman invited him to stay, and he was only permitted to go home the next morning after payment of fine and costs for violation of the Sabbath act. The Haverhill selectmen, less pious perhaps than like officers in Warren and other towns, but endowed a little more gen- erously with common sense, would not take oath to enforce the law in question. Johnston, Crocker and Ladd kindly accepted office in 1790 by taking a modified oath, with observance of the Sabbath law omitted. In 1791, Joseph Hutchins, Nathaniel Merrill and Moody Bedel were elected selectmen, but they would not take the oath of office until the town had formally voted to eliminate obedience to the provisions of the Sabbath act so called from their oath. The rights of conscience were thus observed.
There was evidently a division of sentiment in the earlier days as to the wisdom of employing vaccination as a preventive of smallpox, and anti- vaccinationists were more numerous then than now. In the warrant for a special meeting, held November 21, 1791, the question was stated boldly in the 5th article: "To see if the town will vote to have the small- pox in said town by way of innoculation." The town said no. At an adjourned meeting, January 3, 1792, the negative vote was reconsidered and it was "voted that Dr. Martin Phelps have liberty to propogate smallpox by way of innoculation." January 23, this vote was rescinded.
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
The controversy raged, as did also the smallpox to quite an alarm- ing extent, until at a special meeting, held January 7, 1793, the town voted to "have such form of smallpox as would come by way of innoculation."
As late as 1792 wheat and corn were receivable for taxes, money still being conspicuous by its absence. The sum of £25 was raised to defray town charges payable in wheat at 4s per bushel and £50 in addition to the amount required by law for keeping grammar school, also payable in wheat. James Woodward .was chosen to receive the wheat in the district where he lived and pay the same to the schoolmaster.
In 1798 a long standing debt against the town for patriotic services was provided for, the town voting to pay Capt. Ebenezer Sanborn the sum of £10 "for fetching 200 lbs. balls, 50 lbs. powder and a quantity of flints from Exeter in 1775 for the use of the town."
During the Revolutionary War, and for several years subsequent to its close, the finances of the town seem to have been managed loosely. Col- lectors of taxes had collected only a part of the taxes committed to them for collection, and not all of the moneys collected had been turned over to the town treasurer. The official accounts of as prominent a citizen as Andrew Savage Crocker were in questionable shape and at a special meet- ing in September, 1790, Nathaniel Merrill was chosen collector, Amos Kimball, selectman, and Michael Johnston, town clerk, in place of Crocker, "said to have removed from the state." Litigation followed which was not fully settled till 1796, when the annual meeting voted to raise £15 "for the benefit of A. S. Crocker to be assessed the present year in full of all disputes between himself and the town." Crocker returned later, and was prominent in town affairs as before. There were several other disputes, but at the annual meeting in 1800 there was a report from a committee which had been appointed to settle with all collectors of taxes previous to that year, and there was a general cleaning up and settlement of all accounts with collectors and other town officers, so that the new century was started with new books, and new methods of accounting.
The care of the poor had become a problem. Previous to 1798, the maintenance of the town's poor had been settled by turning the paupers, no matter what their previous condition, over to the lowest bidder for support. In 1798 Ezekiel Ladd was voted the sum of £22, 6s, 2d for care of the poor from April 1, 1797, to March 31, 1798, and then it was voted to take care of the poor in accordance with a law which permitted the town to have houses of correction or workhouses in which to set their poor at work, and these were also to be used when towns saw fit for the "keeping, correcting and setting to work of rogues, vagabonds, common beggars, lewd, idle and disorderly persons." Inhuman perhaps, but an
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
inhumanity which at that time was prevalent. It is to the credit of Haverhill that this system was given but the briefest trial.
The Brook and Corner had begun to outgrow and surpass the Plain in enterprise and manufactures, and a rivalry, not always friendly, grew up between the two sections. At a special town meeting, November 21, 1791, Charles Johnston, Nathaniel Merrill, Dr. Martin Phelps, Amos Kimball, Ezekiel Ladd and Joshua Howard were appointed a committee to settle all disputes between the two ends of the town, and various votes were passed designating the place of holding town meetings. At this same town meeting, it was voted that the annual town meetings be held alternately at the dwelling house of Moses Dow, then at the Corner, and the court house at the Plain, and that district meetings be held at the meeting house or court house or such other place as shall be provided at Horse Meadow. The division of interest necessitated the building of two pounds, one at the north end on land of Joshua Howard, the other at the south end on land of Moody Bedel. Persons liable to taxation at the south end of the town-south of the Fisher farm-were notified to meet the selectmen of 1795 at the house of Joseph Bliss, April 14, and at the house of Ezekiel Ladd, April 15, to give under oath invoice of their taxable property.
In 1797 Joshua Howard, Amasa Scott, Asa Boynton and Joseph Bliss were licensed to keep tavern and sell liquor, and other licensees were William Mitchell, John Montgomery and Josiah Burnham.
Party lines were being drawn in politics, and Federalists were in an overwhelming majority, judging from the vote for governor in 1798 when John Taylor Gilman received 55 votes, John Langdon 16, and Timothy Walker 8.
Schools were being given what was a liberal support for that time: an academy had been established, the courts had been removed from the Plain to the Corner, roads had been inproved, settlers had begun to push out east from the river along the Oliverian, lands had been cleared and homes had begun to be established to the east of the Plain and to the north of the Fisher farm on Brier Hill. Sufficient settlement had been made in the extreme north end of the town so that a school district had been set off, and a schoolhouse built, in later years known as the Pine Plain school- house. The beginning of the new century may well be taken as marking the beginning of a new period. The day of pioneer settlement was over. The log cabins were disappearing, frame dwellings taking their places on the farms and in the villages; especially at the Corner and Ladd Street more pretentious residences, a church-a Haverhill church distinct from Newbury had been organized, and a meeting house built to which wor- shippers were called by a sweet and clear-toned bell, the only bell in the north country. Institutions had become established, the town meeting,
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
the church, the school, the courts, and the story of the town from the year 1800 on is the story of its institutions, of its social, political, educa- tional, professional and religious life, of its business activity and enter- prise, of its people, for, after all, it is the people who are the centre of all story and history.
The increase in population had been marked in the decade 1790-1800. In the latter year it was 875 as against 559 in 1790. In 1800 there were 145 polls. The list will be found interesting by comparison with the list of heads of families as given by the census of 1790. Some of the names which have become familiar in the preceding pages are missing. Many of the earliest settlers had passed away in 1800. New names appear: new blood has been infused into the life of the town.
The number of polls in 1800 was as follows:
Moses Abbott
Joseph Dow
Michael Johnston
William Abbott
Joseph Dow, Jr.
Bryan Kay
Cyrus Allen
Moses Dow
Amos Kimball
Ozias Allen
Lanson Drary
John Kimball
Webster Annise
Moses Edgerly
James King
Phineas Ayers
Joseph Edmunds
Asa Ladd
Zechariah Bacon
Jonathan Elkins
Daniel Ladd
John Baptiste
Moses Elkins
David Ladd
Jonathan Barron
Stephen Elkins
Ezekiel Ladd
Caleb Bayley
John Fifield
Ezekiel Ladd, Jr.
Joseph Bayley
Barzilla French
John Ladd
Samuel Bayley
Richardson French
Joseph Ladd
Jacob Bedel
Samuel Goode
Moody Ladd
John Bedel
Simeon Goodwin
Samuel Ladd
Moody Bedel
Benjamin Gould
William Ladd
Joseph Bliss Asa Boynton Samuel Brooks
John Haddock
John Merrill
Charles Bruce
Abel Hale
Nathaniel Merrill
Moses Burbank
Henry Hancock
Abner Miles
Amos Carleton
Daniel Hanniford
Robert Miller
Edmund Carleton
Nathaniel Harris
William Mitchell
Daniel Carr
John Haseltine
John Montgomery Stephen Morse
Daniel Chaffin
Olney Hawkins
Stephen Morse, Jr.
Edward Clark
Reuben Heath
Stephen Morse, 3d
John Clark
William Heath
Artemus Nixon
Ross Coon
William Hicks
Joseph Noyes Herbert Ormsbee
James Corliss John Corliss
Amos Horn John Howard
Andrew S. Crocker
Joshua Howard
John Osgood John Page
William Cross
Rice Howard
Asa Porter
John H. Cummings
Daniel Hunt
Billy Porter
Sargent Currier David Dailey
Jeremiah Hutchins
John Porter
Charles Johnston
Moses Porter
James Gould
Ebenezer Larvey
Ebenezer Gray
Stephen Larvey
Amos Chapman
William Hastings
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
William Porter
Ephraim Stocker
David Webster, Jr.
William Rowell
Israel Swan
Ephraim Wesson
Nathaniel Runnells
Joshua Swan
Kern West
Moor Russell
Joshua Swan, Jr.
Clark Wheeler
John Sanborn
Phineas Swan
Joseph Whitney
Avery Sanders
Phineas Swan, Jr.
Jacob Williams
Oliver Sanders
Ezekiel Tewksbury
Abiel Willis
Amasa Scott
John M. Tillotson
Jahleel Willis
Ephraim Skinner
Leopold Tissot
Clark Woodward
Jonathan Soper
John True
Jacob Woodward
Alden Sprague
Joshua Ward
James Woodward
Daniel Stevens
Uriah Ward
James Woodward, Jr.
Joseph Stimpson
John Warrill
Benjamin Young
Haverhill was a community of farmers. Few tradesmen and mechan- ics were needed in a state of society where simplicity in style of living prevailed, and the famous Jeffersonian simplicity was just coming into vogue. Each family had its farm, or at least house lot and garden, with pigs, poultry and cattle. The minister, in addition to his pastoral duties and the preparation of his sermons-and the preparation involved in some of these causes one to shudder-carried on his farm, laboring with his own hands; and lawyer and doctor by no means relied on the emolu- ments of their profession for a livelihood. Then again scarcity of money made the farmers in turn tradespeople, mechanics and manufacturers.
Almost everything required for sustenance and comfort was produced within the town limits, and each family was in a large sense sufficient unto itself. Each had its own field of rye, oats, wheat, corn and potatoes, and each raised its own supply of garden vegetables. Beef, mutton, pork, poultry were home products, as were the home cured hams, shoulders, sausage, dried and smoked beef. There was, of course, exchange of com- modities for mutual accommodation, the excess on one farm contributing to the deficiency on another. Nearly every household was a manufactur- ing establishment. Household and farm utensils, the common articles of furniture were home made. There was the large spinning wheel for the wool, and the little wheel turned by foot on which the linen was spun had its place in every household. Every family raised its own flax, rotted it, hackeled it, dressed it and spun it, and the hum of the spinning wheel was seldom unheard, keeping time with the shuttle on both large and small looms. The chimney corner for the household dye tub was seldom unoccupied. There was "a fulling mill" at the Brook where the home- made cloth for men's wear was fulled, dyed and dressed, was for custom work only as were also the two or three tanneries. The leather was worked up into foot gear by the itinerant shoemaker who set up temporary shop in the kitchen corner, until the household was shod. The village tailor, from the best of the home-made cloth, brought him fashioned gar-
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
ments for "best" for the heads of families and the young men, while gar- ments for every day wear, and for the boys of the family were made by housewife and daughters, or by the itinerant tailoress-usually a maiden lady of uncertain age and temper-who, armed with a single pattern, journeyed from house to house, leaving in her wake habiliments fearfully and wonderfully made, with stitches unrippable, and with wearing quali- ties defying the roughest kind of rough usage.
Butter, cheese, soap, candles were all of home manufacture. Soap boiling and candle dipping days were household events. Sugar and mo- lasses for the most part came from the West Indies, though sugar maples were made to pay their utmost tribute. Tea and coffee, though the latter was very little known, were of course imported, but each farm had its orchard, and there was the fruit of the orchard. There were winter apples, apples for table use, apples for apple sauce, and apples for cider. The latter was the main thing. No winter's supply of provisions was complete without several barrels of cider. It was the common drink, and nearly everybody, it may also be said, drank rum. The farmers sup- plied their day laborers with it, especially during the summer months. Neglect to offer it to male callers or visitors, the minister included when he made his pastoral visit, would have been regarded as an unpardonable breach of good manners. There were various kinds of delicate elixirs and cordials of which rum was the basis, in which women indulged, and hot toddy was deemed an infallible remedy for soothing crying babies troubled with "wind."
The farmhouse cellars were veritable storehouses. The cellar of one of the well-to-do class was, in the autumn-with its barrels of beef, pork and cider, its bins of potatoes, turnips, beets and carrots, its stacks of cabbages -a picture of plenty, while the garret depository for wool, flax and tow, with its ornamentation of long strings of dried apples and pumpkins, with large bunches of various kinds of savory herbs, presented a picture hardly less attractive. Then there were the barns and outlying sheds and gran- aries, the cows, oxen, horses, sheep, and swine; the poultry, especially the flocks of geese, source of supply for feather beds and pillows. Haverhill had entered upon its era of prosperity at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The winters were long and cold, but there were the big fireplaces, and wood was fortunately plenty, since the amount consumed in one of the fireplaces, six feet long by four feet deep, seems in these modern days almost incredible. To build a fire and keep it was no small undertaking.
At the beginning of the century the men still wore long broad-tailed coats with huge pockets, long waistcoats and breeches. The hats had low crowns and broad brims, sometimes so broad as to be supported with cords at the sides. The stockings of the parson and a few others were of silk in summer and of worsted in winter. Those of the
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HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
common people were generally of wool, blue and gray mixed, though linen was worn in summer. The hair was worn long, either loose and floating down to the shoulders; or in a diminutive queue tied with a ribbon, or turned up and tied in a sort of club- queue. . . But this style of dress was doomed; early in the century, round hats and pantaloons began to make their appearance. Jefferson was, or pretended to be, very simple in his taste, dress and manners. He wore pantaloons instead of breeches, and leather shoestrings in place of buckles; and his inauguration as President, in 1801, seems to have given the signal for the change. Powder and queues, cocked hats and broad brims, white top boots and breeches, shoebuckles and kneebuckles began to disappear with the departure of the Elder Adams from office, while the establishment of democratic rule, short hair, pantaloons and round hats with narrow brims became the prevailing costume of men of all classes. Never a style of dress went so completely out of date and became antique in so short a time.
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