History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire, Part 38

Author: Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Concord, N.H. : Rumford press]
Number of Pages: 838

USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Haverhill > History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire > Part 38

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The prime mover in the establishment of the institution was the Rev. William A. Loyne, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Woodsville from April, 1900, to April, 1904. Woodsville was a railroad centre; a large proportion of its population consisted of railroad employees, married men with their families, and single men whose homes were in boarding houses. Woodsville was also the centre from which operations in large lumbering and logging industries to the north and cast were supervised and directed, and to which the sick and injured would natu- rally be taken for care and relief. Mr. Loyne became convinced of the imperative need of a hospital at Woodsville and labored enthusiastically in season and out of season to convince others of such need. During the last year of his pastorate he secured pledges which he believed warranted incorporation, and the purchase of the property on the river road at the junction of the Bath and Woodsville roads which was known as the Cobleigh place, and which had been a well-known tavern in the old stage days, and the days of sending rafts of lumber down the river. Necessary repairs were made, the interior was remodeled and the hospital was opened to patients in the summer of 1894. Mr. Loyne left the pastorate for a year in April 1894, and for the following year devoted himself exclusively to the work of superintendent of the hospital.

The by-laws adopted provided for a board of trustees of not less than seven and not more than sixteen members; a board of directors of not less than ten and not more than twenty-five, a clerk, treasurer, financial secretary, board of advice, house committee, each to serve for one year. The duties of these were defined, and are much the same as those of like officers in similar hospitals. The institution has been in the main excellently managed, and has done a work greatly needed. It has been generously supported by an appreciative public, but like other institutions of the same character is in need of funds for its maintenance, and for the payment of a mortgage and floating indebtedness. The town of Haverhill at its annual meeting has for several years maintained a free bed, and at the meeting of 1916 made an appropriation of $1,000 in its aid.

In the year ending March 22, 1916, the receipts were from patients $6,756.33; donations by individuals, $746.25, and from the free bed fund $127.55, a total of $7,630.18. The trustees for 1916 are Joseph M. Howe, G. E. Cummings, F. P. Dearth, R. E. Farwell, Newton Lang, Dr. E. M. Miller, E. W. Smith, Dr. F. E. Spear, S. E. Clark, Dr. F. C. Russell, W. A. Loyne, E. Bertram Pike, H. W. Keyes, Daniel Whitcher, L. C. Desautels, Chas. Butson. The board of directors is composed of ladies, of whom it may be said they have rendered most efficient service in securing funds for the support of the institution through the medium of fairs and personal solicitation and by their officers members of the

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House Committee. The directors for 1916 are Mrs. Mary D. Randall, F. A. Carr, Kate D. Lee, Geo. H. Clark, Newton Lang, W. F. Whitcher, F. L. Sargent, E. M. Miller, W. F. Eastman, A. R. Franklin, C. T. Gates, A. M. Pike, D. R. Rouhan, James Laurie, R. M. Stahl, Geo. E. Mann, W. S. Burton, Fred Gibson, Frank Sherwell, Misses Luvia E. Mann, and O. McLam. The institution has rendered most invaluable service, a large part of which has been without compensation. It needs an endowment, and merits generous support.

CHAPTER XIV

NEWSPAPERS AND LIBRARIES

PRINTING WAS BEGUN IN HAVERHILL PREVIOUS TO 1800-FOUR OR FIVE SMALL PAPERS -IN 1820 THE "GRAFTON AND COOS INTELLIGENCER" APPEARED; SKETCH OF NO. 3, VOL. 1-"NEW HAMPSHIRE POST" ANTI-MASONIC-REMOVED TO LEBANON- "DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN," 1828-1863-WOODSVILLE REGISTER 1883-GRAF- TON COUNTY REGISTER BY BITTINGER PRESS-REMOVED TO WOODSVILLE IN 1890 -SOLD TO W. F. WHITCHER IN 1899-SOLD MARCH 1, 1916, TO F. E. THAYER- THE SOCIAL LIBRARY-THE HAVERHILL-THE WOODSVILLE, GIFT OF IRA WHIT- CHER-NORTH HAVERHILL TOWN ASSISTED IN BUILDING-THE TOWN LIBRARIES.

JUST when the printing press came to Haverhill is uncertain. While the controversy relative to jurisdiction over the New Hampshire Grants during the War of the Revolution was raging, a printing press, and printer in the person of Alden Spooner, was imported from Connecticut into Hanover, and a press of some kind found its way to Haverhill not many years later. Previous to 1800 Daniel Caverly attempted the publication of a small weekly newspaper, but gave up the attempt after six months, and a small magazine printed by Wesley Dunham was even shorter lived. Another paper, under the name of the Coös Courier was projected in 1808, but publication was soon suspended. Still another attempt was made in 1810 when the Haverhill Advertiser was published by T. L. Houghten for about three months. This was a four-page paper of three columns each. The price was one dollar a year, partly to be paid by subscribers. In the issue of June 28, 1810, Volume 1, number 6, almost the entire paper is made up of miscellaneous, though a local flavor is introduced by the statement of James Whelelan concerning a survey of land to which he had testified in court in a case tried in the Superior Court in October, 1809, Thomas Johnson of Newbury seeking to recover from the proprietors of the Haverhill bridge for timber cut by them on his land. It was not till November, 1820, that Sylvester T. Goss began the publication of the first newspaper which might be regarded as a perma- nency. This was first published under the name of The Grafton and Coos Intelligencer. Two years later it was called the New Hampshire Intelli- gencer and Grafton and Coös Advertiser, and in 1825, the latter part of the title was dropped and the paper appeared until its suspension in 1827 as the New Hampshire Intelligencer. This was a four-page paper, and four columns to the page of 12 by 20 inches, and was published at "two dollars a year payable half in produce and half in cash." No subscrip-

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tion was received for a less time than one year, later changed to six months, and subscribers were required to pay the postage on their papers, and letters to the editor were required to be postpaid. The weekly newspapers of that day are curiosities at the present. The Intelligencer was much like its contemporaries. Number 3 of Volume 1, dated December 13, 1820, may be taken as a sample. On the first page is found the second part of an essay or sermon on "The Sabbath"; an article of two columns on" The Denominations of the Christian World"; an abstract of the pro- ceedings of the New Hampshire legislature for the last week in November and of Congress for the same week, and an announcement of the drawing of a prize of $40,000 in the Baltimore Cathedral Church Lottery. The second page is devoted mostly to extracts from newspapers "On last Thursday's Mail" under the titles of "President Boyer" of St. Domingo; "Singular Elopement," from the Bridgeport Courier; "A Discovery," from the New York Gazette; "Savage Outrage," from the New York Evening Post; "The Discovery Ships," "Kentucky"; "A Panther Hunt"; New York Grand Canal. The only items of news on the page are brief accounts of a robbery of the mail at Alexandria, Va., the capture of a mail robber at Fredericktown, Va., a fatal accident in Montreal, the murder of two soldiers, by Indians at Rock Creek Island, Mich., and an account of an Indian at Mackinac, Mich., who has in each arm and leg more than double the number of joints usually found in legs and arms. The third page contains a half-column summary, a column of "Latest from Eng- land," an account of a recently invented "cambouse" for the purification of air on closely crowded warships, and a letter describing the Massachu- setts Constitutional Convention then in session in Boston; a list of con- victs sent to the New Hampshire state prison during the year from the counties of Strafford, Rockingham, Hillsborough, Cheshire and Grafton. There is on this page a column and a half of advertisements; notice of a meeting of the Haverhill Bridge Corporation to see about raising money for rebuilding the bridge, and a notice informing the public that in spite of reports to the contrary Bedel's Bridge was safe for passengers and teams. Webster & Underwood of Boston advertise their staple and fancy goods. In the long list may be found "bombazettes, figured and plain, all colors"; "black and colored double chain Levantines"; "black sinchans and Sarsnetts"; "fine flag and bandanna handkerchiefs" and "mourning articles of the best quality." It is safe to say these articles are not in stock in the Boston department stores of today. Hamlin Rand, executor, advertises an auction sale of the personal property of the late James I. Swan of Bath. Among the articles to be sold are "a second-hand chaise and harness; secretary; pair card tables; set Northumberland tables; terrestrial globe; high post bedsteads; cook-stove and funnel; 2 buffalo skins; 1 bear skin, and fancy chairs, clock, looking glasses. On the last

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page is a poem, "The Voice of Nature," 1 Kings 3, 16; "Mary of the Mountains," a pathetic story from the Christian Journal, while three columns and a half are devoted to advertisements, monthly tax collector's sales in the towns of Haverhill, Piermont and Warren. There are notices of the annual meetings of the Coös Bank stockholders, and the Coös Turnpike Corporation. Benjamin Merrill, and Samuel Page, merchants, request settlement of accounts, which are the only advertisements of Haverhill merchants. John Slevinger of Lancaster gives notice that he has provided for the support of Samuel Springer and forbids the harbor- ing or trusting the said Samuel on his account, and the loss of a red mo- rocco work box containing valuable articles by the bursting of a trunk behind the mail stage between Concord and Boscawen is advertised and a handsome reward is offered for its recovery. Editor Goss evidently combined trade with his newspaper business, since he advertises "for sale at this office," Day & Martin's Real Japan Blacking; Maynard & Noyes' Ink Powder, and that he has just received evangelical reviews, for schools and all kind of school supplies, with Watt's Psalms and Hymns, Bibles, Testaments, spelling books, Murray's grammar and Reader, Scott's Lessons, Adams' arithmetic, last edition of Walker's diction- ary, etc., also "the Mother-in-Law," a useful instructive book for young people. He also wants an apprentice, and offers to buy linen and cotton rags.

The Intelligencer is well printed, is remarkably free from typographical errors, and wood pulp paper had evidently not at that time been heard of. As a local newspaper, the Intelligencer, was remarkable for containing, aside from the notices mentioned, nothing whatever in the way of news of a local character. It was printed at Haverhill, that was all, and in this respect it differed little from other weekly newspapers of the time. Gradually local merchants and artisans began to advertise, as five years later in November, 1825, three brief local advertisements appear, and there is also the publication of an act passed at the previous June session of the legislature incorporating "the First Musical Society of Haverhill" (South Parish) and a statement that the society has been organized and that Capt. B. Stevens has been engaged to instruct a singing school which will meet on Tuesday and Saturday evenings at the academy. Not only was there almost nothing in the way of local news, but abso- lutely nothing editorial, and it was conducted on the lines of its first issues until its suspension in 1827. In November, 1822, Mr. Goss published his prospectus of The Evangelist, a religious paper to be published once in two weeks beginning the following month. In this he said:

The cause of religion is now exciting a general interest in Christendom. Many very valuable religious papers are now published and circulated for the diffusion of Christian knowledge. But it has appeared that the great majority of these publications are con-

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ducted upon so large a scale as to render them too expensive to gain circulation among the majority of our Christian readers. The design of this publication is to remove this embarrassment, by giving an epitome of what ordinarily appears in the Missionary Herald, the Boston Recorder, the Religious Intelligencer, the New Hampshire Repository and the Evangelical Monitor. Original communications of the same nature in a concise form, are solicited of the Christian public and will receive notice.

The Evangelist consisted of eight large octavo pages and was to be delivered to subscribers for fifty cents a year to be paid at the expiration of six months. These liberal terms did not, however, secure a profitable circulation, and the life of this new religious venture was short.

Among the four advertisements of a local nature which appeared from time to time in the Intelligencer, one in the issue of November 22, 1825, may be noted as indicating that the virtues of so-called patent medicines were as great then as in these modern days. John L. Rix had come to Haverhill and engaged in trade, and through the Intelligencer notified the public that he had "just received a fresh supply of Chemical Embro- cation, or Whitewill's Improved Opodeldoc. This article is in the liquid form, and is considered by the first physicians in the U. S. to rank higher than any other composition in existence for the following complaints: Bruises, sprains, gout, rheumatism, croup, numbness, weakness or stiff- ness of the neck or joints, chilblains, chapped hands, sting of insects, vegetable poison, etc. It is applied to both man and beast-and is recommended by the celebrated Dr. Mitchell of New York." Mr. Rix also had on sale "the volatile aromatic snuff, so celebrated throughout the U. S. in cases of catarrh and headache. It is extremely grateful and fragrant to the smell."

Editor Goss evidently had the printers' proverbial difficulty in making collections. Under date of November 3, 1824, he publishes the follow- ing letter:

HAVERHILL June 7, 1824.

Mr. Goss, the statement that you have made to my Boy is not so for I told you that I must have the money & that if it does not come this afternoon I shall sell it to an attorney for what it will fetch.

STEPHEN ADAMS.

Mr. Adams had made good his threat and Mr. Goss had been served with a "Greeting to appear," etc., and made a fervent appeal to those indebted to him to pay in order that he might "settle with this dealer in tape and buckram." Mr. Goss also, in order to make both ends meet, had a circulating library, and also had on sale patent medicines, which he advertised extensively in 1821. Among these were Dr. Relfe's Botan- ical Drops, Dumfries Ointment for the Itch, British Anticeptic Denti- frice, Albion Corn Plaister, Asthmatic Pills, Cambrian Tooth-Ache Pills, Dr. Tibbs Rheumatic Liniment, etc. The publication of the Intelligencer was suspended, and presses and material were sold to John R. Riding who

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had come from Concord to establish a weekly newspaper in Haverhill. Mr. Goss had done his best but the Intelligencer lacked enterprise, spirit, ginger, and that it lived for seven years and more was remarkable. Dur- ing its lifetime the Masonic Cabinet, "designed for the benefit of Free and Accepted Masons," was first printed in 1824, but was discontinued in about two years, at the beginning of the famous anti-Masonic crusade.

In June, 1827, The New Hampshire Post and Grafton and Coos Adver- tiser, published by Atwood & Woolson, made its appearance and at once manifested the enterprise, spirit and ginger which the Intelligencer had lacked. In politics it was anti-Jackson, and was strongly partisan. It joined the anti-Masonic crusade, and was to say the least vigorous in its denunciations of the Masonic order. It secured advertising, something essential to success, and with a live rival competitor established the next year, intensely Jacksonian in its politics, and ably conducted, it main- tained itself for twenty years, a successful weekly newspaper. In the latter part of 1828, Woolson withdrew and for a time the paper was published by Moses G. Atwood. Later John L. Bunce, who had come from Hartford, Conn., to be cashier in the Grafton Bank, became part owner and later sole proprietor, the paper being printed by a young man, John English, who later became a well-known minister of the New Hamp- shire Conference. About 1839 George S. Towle bought the paper and published it until 1848 when he removed it to Lebanon, the name having been changed to the Granite State Whig. From the first the Post had liberal advertising patronage by the Haverhill merchants, and while articles from exchanges and miscellany abounded ever increasing space was given to local news and editorials. Mr. Atwood conducted a book- store in connection with his newspaper. The political position of the Post is indicated by an extract from its columns in its first issue after the inauguration of General Jackson as President: "We print in other columns the inaugural address of President Jackson. We have a few remarks to make. As a state paper it is absolutely beneath criticism or comment. When we turn back to the similar productions of the celebrated statesmen who have preceded Mr. Jackson in the exalted station he now holds, the mind sickens at the comparison," etc. In this same issue, Carleton & Tracy, cabinet makers, in a display advertisement mention among their attractive manufactures, "Grecian, card, dining, Pembroke, Extension, Work and Breakfast Tables, with or without bags." They had also recently opened a shop in Bath. In the next issue there appeared the following editorial mention of Hon. Levi Woodbury who had been a warm supporter of Jackson. "Levi Woodbury is to be sent somewhere, we don't exactly know to what place, not having the proofs in our pocket. Some say he is going to the Netherlands, others that he is to be sent to St. Petersburg,-others again assign him to Denmark thereby adding, if

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he should go, confirmation strong to the ancient truism that there will be found 'something rotten in the state of Denmark.' We pray him good deliverance from New Hampshire."

That Editor Atwood found it difficult to reconcile himself to the ad- ministration of President Jackson is evident from the following mild criticism which appeared in an editorial in April, 1829: "We should depre- ciate everything that looks like an unnecessary opposition to the acts of General Jackson-it would be following too close in the steps taken by the Jackson party-even before Mr. Adams began to act. But if ever there was reason to 'cry aloud and spare not,'-that is now. No Presi- dent ever yet acted through his whole course, so far contrary to the inter- ests of the whole nation, as has General Jackson in one little month of his administration."

Under the editorship of Mr. Bunce, the Post was an out and out anti- Masonic organ. At the head of its editorial columns it placed the names of the anti-Masonic nominees for President and Vice-President, William Wirt of Maryland and Amos Ellmahr of Pennsylvania. In an address to the anti-Masons of New Hampshire, Editor Bunce pointed to the success of the cause in Vermont, to the progress being made in New York, Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Maine, but was somewhat pessi- mistic regarding the cause in New Hampshire. "What shall be done?" he asks. "Go back one cannot, if we were so disposed; stand still we must not; go forward we must, and all the means in our power must be brought into operation to crush the foe that lurks in secret for blood." He complained of the attitude of the press of the state towards the insti- tution. "Look into the twenty different papers in New Hampshire, and then point to us a single syllable or letter or word that was ever published on the subject of Masonry or anti-Masonry unless it was to throw ridicule on every attempt of anti-Masons to spread the truth before the people." Mr. Bunce evidently felt himself alone and the sequel showed he was fighting a losing fight. The publishing of the Post was not his chief business. During his proprietorship he held the position of cashier of the bank, which he assumed about 1824. He married, June 17, 1824, first Louisa, daughter of Richard Gookin who died April 17, 1837. Shortly after her death he was offered the position of cashier of the Phenix Bank of his home city, and he closed out his interests in Haverhill and returned to Hartford where he spent the remainder of his life as cashier and later as president of that bank. He married, second, June 6, 1838, Louisa Merrill of Haverhill, and at the time his residence was given as Hartford.

Mr. George B. Towle, after his purchase of the paper, made it a Whig organ, and in the log cabin and hard cider campaign of 1840, it was in- tensely partisan. He was a native of Meredith, a graduate of Dartmouth, class of 1839. After his purchase of the Post, he studied law, was admit-

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ted to the bar and practiced his profession to some extent in connection with his duties as editor. He became active in the political life of Lebanon after the removal of his newspaper to that town in 1848, the name being changed to the Granite State Whig. He was representative in 1853, '56 and '57, and state senator in 1859 and 1860, being president of that body the latter year. In 1861 he went to Boston, having been appointed to a clerkship in the Boston Custom House.

The Democratic Republican was established in June, 1828, by John R. Reding and continued to be published by the Reding family until it was discontinued in 1863. Mr. Reding was born in Portsmouth, October 18, 1805. He received an academic education and before coming to Haverhill served his newspaper and printer's apprenticeship under Isaac Hill of the New Hampshire Patriot, and spent two years as foreman in the composing room of the Boston Statesman, afterwards the Boston Post. He purchased the plant of the Intelligencer, which had suspended publication a year or two previously, and was sole proprietor of the Dem- ocratic-Republican until his election to Congress in 1840, when the paper passed into the hands of his brothers, Silvester and Henry W., until the suspension of the publication in 1863. He published his editorial valediction, November 24, 1841. Mr. Reding was admirably trained for the conduct of a weekly newspaper, a man of great force of character, an uncompromising Democrat, and there was never any doubt as to the position of his newspaper on political questions. His relations with Isaac Hill, whose sister he married, were intimate, and these were of great advantage to him in the conduct of his paper. After his retirement from Congress he returned to his native city where he was one of its most prominent citizens, dying at the advanced age of 88 years. The Democratic-Republican was ably conducted, and during its thirty-five years of life was probably the most influential paper in the northern part of the state. Had its files been preserved they would be invaluable as furnishing historical material, but not more than two or three bound volumes are known to be in existence, and only now and then is a single stray copy to be seen. The paper was published at first on Eastern Avenue, now Court Street, but in 1840 the establishment with the post office which had been in the same building, was removed to Main Street four doors south of the Towle Tavern, and, at the time publication was suspended, it occupied the southerly end of the Buck block.

There was no mistaking the meaning of Mr. Reding in his editorials, as will be noted from examples given in a previous chapter. The following from the issue of September 4, 1833 is one sample of his style:

Report says that Ex-Pres. Adams stopped at Orford on Friday night last, having objections to riding in the stage in the evening: that on Saturday a coach and six went from this place to Orford, took his highness on board crossed into Vermont proceeded to

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the Spring Hotel in Newbury, deposited the invaluable cargo and then returned in ballast home: that on Sunday-mark the day-his highness recrossed the river and took lodgings in Bath. Many conjectures are afloat as to the immediate objects of the journey of his highness and the reasons why he was so very particular in running by Haverhill Corner, so recently the headquarters of anti-ism in this state. Some think he is ashamed of his former officials in Haverhill and was ashamed to be seen in their company.

On the issue of Masonry, Mr. Reding was not a Mason or its defender, but was opposed to political anti-Masonry on the ground that its object was to break down the Democratic party. "Queer indeed isn't it to hear tools of Joseph Bell and Ephraim Kingsbury president and secretary of the Washingtonian Benevolent Society, prate about Democracy and urge objections to such men as Nathaniel Rix, John Page, and Enoch Page because they belong to a secret society."

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History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire, Part 38

Author: Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918 Publication date: 1919 Publisher: [Concord, N.H. : Rumford press] Number of Pages: 838

Author: Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Concord, N.H. : Rumford press]
Number of Pages: 838