USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Haverhill > History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire > Part 5
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 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90
There was a warm and intimate friendship between the two men formed in boyhood and early manhood and which, cemented by intimate associa- tion in adventures of hardship and danger, continued until the death of Hazen at the comparatively early age of forty-three years. He was born in Haverhill, Mass., August 11, 1731. His early home was in that part of the Massachusetts town known as Timberlane or Haverhill district. When the boundary line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts was established in 1741, this part of Haverhill together with a part of Ames- bury fell within the limits of New Hampshire, and in 1749 these tracts were elected by the New Hampshire government into a township under the name of Hampstead. The Bayley family had removed to this district from Newbury about 1747. During the French and Indian wars, Hazen and Bayley saw much service together, and as previously noted both men more than once held commissions in the same command. Captain Hazen was active in the affairs of Hampstead serving as selectman and in other official positions, and also resided for a time in Plaistow from which town he was enrolled in the Provincial Militia. Having obtained from Gover- nor Wentworth promise of charters, they at once began preparation for settlement. The early summer of 1761 found them on the ground, where
32
33
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
they made a more careful and extended examination of their proposed settlement and arranged more definite plans. It was agreed that Hazen should settle and have his township on the east side of the river, and Bayley on the west. Bayley went on to Crown Point on military business and Hazen returned to Hampstead by way of Charlestown, where he engaged several men to go to Coös, cut and stack the hay on the Oxbow clearings. There is a tradition to the effect that they secured on both sides the river no less than ninety tons.
In the meantime a stock of cattle, mostly young cows and steers, were purchased, and in August Michael Johnston, John Pettie and Abraham Webb started with these from Hampstead by way of Charlestown and, following the line of spotted trees made by Blanchard the previous year, reached their destination in October. They built for themselves a rude improvised shelter, and, as the advance guard of settlers who were to fol- low a few months later, they spent the winter alone. The winter was exceptionally long and severe, but the time was employed in caring for the cattle, and in breaking the steers to the yoke that they might be ready for the plough and the other work in the spring. It is to be regretted that one of these three, Johnston, who was the better educated, . did not keep a journal of the happenings of this first winter of white men in Haverhill, though the happenings were probably few. One day was much like another. Charlestown, seventy miles distant down the river was the nearest settlement. The meadow clearings, by the side of the frozen river were surrounded by the unbroken forests of giant pines; the nearby hills were covered with the old time depth of snow; Black Hill and Sugar Loaf could be discerned to the east, and Mount Gardner to the north and Moosilauke in the east glistened bare and white on sunny days as now, but the three passed the lonely winter in what must have seemed a silence which could be felt, a solitude which made loneliness something real.
Their welcome for Captain Hazen and the men who arrived in the early spring of 1762 must have been a hearty one, and it is little wonder that Johnston and Pettie were ready to make use of the canoe they had con- structed during the winter and go down the river where there were people. Johnston, whose home was in Hampstead, was drowned by the capsizing of the canoe at Olcotts Falls, but Pettie made his way safely to Charles- town. So far as known he never returned to Haverhill. The experi- ences of that memorable first winter were probably enough for him.
Captain Hazen came, by way of Charlestown, up the river with a small force of men. They brought with them the necessary material for con- structing a primitive saw- and gristmill, and the work of building at once began. This first mill was built on Poole Brook, on the site, as near as can be ascertained, of the mills afterward erected by Obadiah Swasey,
4
34
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
just north of the iron bridge on Depot Street at North Haverhill, and he made his "pitch" for a home on the Oxbow Meadow, which later the proprietors by special vote authorized him to select as his share in the division of land. Of Captain Hazen's party in 1762, Joshua Howard and two others came up the Baker's River trail over the height of land and down the Oliverian.
John Hazen was much more than an ordinary man, and was well fitted for the pioneer task he undertook. He came of excellent family, was fourth in descent from Edward Hazzen who came from England and settled in Rowley, Mass., about 1640. He had the genuine soldier's spirit. He was a lieutenant in the company of Capt. Jacob Bayley, his townsman, in the Crown Point expedition of 1757. The next year he was a captain in Colonel Hart's regiment, and in 1760, he was as pre- viously noted captain in Colonel Goffe's regiment, of which his friend Bayley was lieutenant-colonel. In each of these expeditions in which he served he distinguished himself for bravery and capacity. He was a man of undaunted courage, of great physical strength and of wise fore- sight. This latter quality he evinced not only in securing the nam- ing as grantees of the new town those whose rights he might without difficulty secure for himself, but also in immediately beginning settle- ment without waiting for the issue of the charter, and in the desirable class of men he was instrumental in securing as early settlers most of whom were not numbered among the grantees. Among the more prom- inent of those who became settlers prior to 1774 were: Timothy Bedel, John Page, Joshua Howard, Joshua Poole, John White, James Bailey, Maxi Hazeltine, Elisha Lock, Uriah Stone, James Woodward, Jonathan Elkins, Ezekiel Ladd with his six brothers, Jonathan Goodwin, Edward Bayley, Jonathan Sanders, James Abbott, Joseph Hutchins, Simeon Goodwin, John Hurd, Willaim Eastman, Joshua Hayward, Timothy Barron, Nathaniel Weston, Asa Porter, Andrew Savage Crocker, Charles Johnston, Ephraim Wesson, James Corliss, Jonathan Ring, Thomas Simpson, Amos Kimball and Charles Bailey. Some of these men would have had marked influence in any community in which they might be placed. Captain Hazen had doubtless an ambition to become a large land owner, and he became one, but he did not attempt the formation of a community in which a single personality, and that his own, should be dominant. Some of these men named were his superiors in culture and qualities of leadership, and none recognized this more clearly than he, but these were men who could secure for his town county seat honors, who could establish schools and churches, who could give the new town enviable prominence, and they did it.
From the very beginning Haverhill was the first town in Coös. These men above named and such as these gave tone and character to the
35
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
Haverhill of their day, and the Haverhill of subsequent years as well. They were of sturdy English stock, of Puritan ideals and training, of frugal habits and virtuous life. They were possessed of the pioneer spirit, born of the racial hunger for land ownership. Among them were men of liberal culture, like John Hurd and Asa Porter, graduates of Harvard; men of rugged integrity and devout piety, like John Page and Charles Johnston; men of indomitable purpose, like Ezekiel Ladd, James Woodward, Timothy Barron and Jonathan Elkins. There were no weaklings among them. The War of the Revolution gave proof of their courage, endurance and self-sacrificing, undying patriotism.
Captain Hazen from the time of his arrival to begin settlement in 1762 till his death September 23, 1774, was a man of incessant activity. The burdens were to be borne, the herculean tasks accomplished at the very beginning. He was a leading spirit among the proprietors, and served on their important committees in dividing the town into lots, in the cutting out of roads, and the erection of mills. Active in the civic affairs of the new town, he was the first moderater of the town meetings, and served in that capacity most of the time till his death. He served also as town clerk and selectman and filled the various other town offices. His burial was probably in the grave yard at Great Oxbow though this is uncertain. The bond of the administrators on his estate, William Simp- son of Plymouth and Abigail Hazen, his widow, was filed in the Probate Court of Grafton County October 22, 1774. Charles Johnston, Andrew Savage Crocker and Joseph Hutchins were appointed appraisors Novem- ber 4, 1774 and made return of the inventory of the estate six days later November 10. Though he had disposed of his Oxbow farm and the large tract adjoining it, extending to the Coventry line, in 1771 and 1772 to John Fisher, he still had large holdings of real estate. These consisted of one right through the town and 8th lot House appraised at Meadow £100; a part of two rights without the meadow and house lots Nos. 27 and 28 on it with undivided land £120; 100 acres upland £8, 8s. He still occupied the Oxbow farm as is indicated by the inventory of his personal estate, which amounted to £729, including notes of hand for £360, 6s. The list of property making up the remaining £368, 14s; is worthy careful perusal indicating as it does the manner of life, and character of possessions of the more prominent of the early settlers. [See Genealogy, Hazen.]
1127472
Just how many and who came with Captain Hazen in the settlement near 1762 is not definitely known, but among them were Thomas John- son, who after a brief stay went to Newbury; John Page, Simon Stevens, Joshua Howard, Jaasiel Harriman, John White, who probably did not become a prominent resident, Uriah Morse and Joshua Poole. In 1763, the year of the charter, Nathaniel Merrill, James Bailey, Maxi Haseltine,
36
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
Elisha Locke, Jonathan Sanders, Uriah Stone, James Woodward and John Taplin were among the new comers. Taplin and Stone remained but a short time, the former removing to Newbury and the latter to Piermont. Jonathan Elkins, Edward Bayley, James Abbott, Jonathan Goodwin, and Joshua Hayward were among those who came in 1764. In 1765 Ezekiel Ladd of Haverhill, Mass., purchased a lot on what is now Ladd Street, and settled there and was immediately followed by his six brothers, Daniel, Samuel, John, David, James and Jonathan. They settled near each other, and the family became one of large influence in the first half century history of the town. Others who came this year were Joseph Hutchins, Asa Bailey, Richard Young, Simeon Godwin, and William Eastman. Reuben Young settled in 1766. Timothy Barron, John Mills, Ebenezer Rice, John Way and Nathaniel Weston came in 1767. In 1768 came John Hunt, Asa Porter, Andrew Savage Crocker, brother-in- law, Charles Johnston, Ephraim Wilson, Joseph Haines; 1769, James Corliss, Jonathan Ring, John Chase, John Hew; 1770, Thomas Simpson, Amos Kimball, Leal Crocker; 1771, Charles Bayley, Daniel G. Wood; 1772, Luther Richardson, Stephen Smith, Samuel Hall, Daniel Stevens, Jonathan Hale; 1773, Ebenezer Sanborn and Bryan Kay.
The settlements were for the most part along the river. There had not been time as yet to undertake the subduing of the forest and wilder- ness country to the east. There were sixty-six families. They were comparatively young people. But one male member of the population was over sixty years of age. They were men and women, boys and girls of stern stuff who were facing hardships and facing them cheerfully. And there were hardships; life was simple, but its simplicity did not detract from its strenuousness. The first log cabins had begun to be succeeded by frame houses, but these were small and scantily furnished. The Hazen house on the Oxbow, still standing, seems small and inconven- ient today, but it was one of the most pretentious then. Colonel Porter and Colonel Johnston perhaps had larger and better furnished dwellings, but the difference was hardly appreciable. Money was not plenty. Each home was a center of numerous industries. There were a few pieces of furniture here and there brought by great effort from the old homes in Haverhill, Hampstead, Salem, Hampton, Newburyport and Newbury, Mass., but the larger part were of home manufacture. Cloth- ing was for the most part the product of the home, and was for protection and comfort rather than ornament. The spinning wheel and the hand loom were in evidence in nearly every household.1 Calf skins, deer and moose skins and hides from cattle were dressed at home. The shoe-
1 Items taken from various accounts filed against the estate of Captain Hazen may be of interest as showing wages paid and cost of articles purchased for the household. The dates of charges are in the years 1773 and 1774. Ebenezer Dame and his wife worked
37
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
maker journeyed from house to house or turned his own kitchen into a shop. Ebenezer Sanborn and Ebenezer McIntosh were the shoemakers of the settlement. Jonathan Ring and Glazier Wheeler, the blacksmiths. Maxi Haseltine made the machinery necessary for the primitive mills. Nails for building were made by hand, and all building material except glass for windows was of home manufacture. Ornamentation of dwelling was practically unknown. The soil was fertile, and food though plain was plenty. The first ten years of town life subsequent to the charter were years of strenuous endeavor, but in that time the town had become established. There were in spite of hardships comparatively few deaths. Births were numerous. It was the day of large families. Race suicide had not become a question. Hardships and privations were borne cheer- fully, since those by whom they were borne believed in the future of their town.
The character of any community is, of course, influenced by soil and climate, by mountain, lake and river, and Haverhill has been fortunate in these; but underlying these in any town or community are the lives and characters of its men and its women, and Haverhill has also been fortu- nate in these, doubly fortunate in the character of John Hazen, and those associated with him in her founding, establishing her churches and schools, building her roads and transforming her forests into fertile fields.
Captain Hazen married November 30, 1752, Anna Swett of Haverhill,
for Captain Hazen during the summer of both years. In July and August, 1774, there is a charge for 36 days at 3s per day, and some of the charges for the work of his wife were: spinning 9 skeins wool yarn, 2s, 6d; knitting 2 pairs stockings, 2s; making pair "britches," 28, 6d; making 2 pairs trousers, 2s; footing 4 pairs stockings, 8s; spin and make 2 pairs mittens, 2s, 6d. Here is a charge without date, but not earlier than September, diggin grave for Captain Hazen, 3s. Elisha Cook had a charge for sawing and stacking up 2,000 boards, 18s, and for dressing two deer skins, 8s. Jonathan Ring presented a long account for shoeing horses. The last item in his bill was September 12, 1774 "shoein horse," 2s. In the account of Daniel Clark, items were for 1 pound tea, 5s; 1 ax, 6s; 1 bread trough, 48; 1 almanac, 6d. Captain Hazen had dinner at Ezekiel Ladd's tavern for which including a bowl of toddy he was charged 9d. Joshua Sanders charged 5s for 3 pounds of "loaf shugar." In the account of Ebenezer McIntosh in 1773, these items appear: "making shoes for John, 3s"; "making shoes for Anna, 2s, 6d," "making shoes for wife, 38." The leather was of course furnished by Captain Hazen. His daughter Anna was at school in the spring of 1774, where does not appear, but at a private school as appears from the account of Seth Wales: "Boarding your daughter, 16} weeks at 38, £2, 98, 6d; cash paid for schooling, private school, 9s." In the same account were charges for "} case knives and forks and making 2 gowns, 6s, 6d." "Four yards Tanny and 2 skeins silk, 148, 6d; 9 yards camblet, £1, 7s; 3 yards quality, 6d." Asa Porter in his account included "3 yards Baize, 10s, 6d; 2 yards serge, 18s; 1} yards shallow, 68; 1 breeches pattern, 13s. 4d; 8 yards quality, 3s; 1} quire paper, 3s." John Ward presented an account for 40 panes 7 by 9 glass omitted in previous settlement, £1, 3s, 4d. Flip and toddy and rum frequently appear in the charges made by Luther Richardson, Ezekiel Ladd, Asa Porter and Andrew Savage Crocker. A quart of rum was 3s, a mug of flip 3d, a bowl of toddy the same price.
38
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
Mass., who died soon after their removal to the Oxbow, September 19, 1765. Of their four children [see genealogy] two died about 1759. Sarah, born 1754, married October 10, 1771, Nathaniel Merrill [see genealogy, Merrill] and John went to reside with his Uncle William Hazen in New Brunswick. John Hazen married, second, 1766, Abigail, daughter of Rev. Josiah Cotton. They had one child Anna, born August 1, 1768, who came under the guardianship of her Uncle Moses Hazen after the death of her father and the remarriage of her mother, January 23, 1775, to Henry Hancock of Lyman. Mr. Hancock was one of the first settlers of that town.
Moses and William Hazen, brothers of John, were each grantees of both Haverhill and Newbury but neither settled in either town. Moses had a somewhat distinguished career. He rendered conspicuous service in the French and Indian Wars, and for special gallantry on the Plains of Abra- ham under Wolfe, where he was severely wounded, he was retired on half pay in the British army. He settled at St. John, married a French lady, and became a large owner of land. The outbreak of the Revolutionary War found him in warm sympathy with the patriot cause. He sacrificed his large Canadian estates and his half pay for life, raised, partly in Canada and partly in the Northern Colonies, by his own personal exer- tions, a regiment, the service of which he tendered to Congress, which he commanded and which won distinction as "Hazen's Own," or "Congress' Own." At the close of the war he held a commission as Brigadier-General. He cut out and constructed, in conjunction with Gen. Jacob Bayley, the larger part of the military road from Wells River in through Peacham and through a notch in the Green Mountains to Montgomery, Vt. The notch and road still bear his name. He died without issue in Troy, N. Y., February 4, 1803. William Hazen, though, like John and Moses a grantee, never visited Haverhill. He conveyed his holdings to his brother John, August 24, 1764, and October 19, 1770. Soon after this latter date he went to New Brunswick when he became owner of extensive tracts of land and held high official position. He was a member of the Governor's Council from the organization of the Province till his death in 1814. He had a large family of sixteen children and his descendants have been prominent in Provincial and Dominion affairs.
With the death of John Hazen the name passes out of the records and history of the town of which he was preeminently the founder. The house which he built about 1769 is still standing on the Oxbow farm, his only visible monument. It is to be regretted that the location of his grave is unknown. It has been generally supposed that he was buried in the Oxbow graveyard on the Newbury side of the river, but the charge in the account of Ebenezer Dame, the hired man, of 1774 for " diggin' a grave for Captain Hazen" raises the inquiry whether the grave may not have
39
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
been on the farm he had cleared and made. His descendants, however, through his daughter Sarah Hazen Merrill and her ten daughters, bearing the names of Hibbard, Swasey, Runnells, Pearsons, Morse and Page have been and are still numerous in Haverhill and Newbury and other sections of the old Coos County.
An exceptionally long time was taken for the settlement of Captain Hazen's estate, if indeed it was ever really settled. There is no record of settlement. After the return of the inventory, a commission of insolvency was appointed to allow claims against the estate, but the War of the Revolution came on and the functions of the newly established courts of Grafton County were suspended until nearly its close. In April, 1783, the administrators petitioned for the appointment of a new commission in insolvency, and in May, 1784, Asa Porter, Ezekiel Ladd and Andrew Savage Crocker were named as the new commission. They made report in October, 1792, eight years and more later, allowing claims to the amount of £762, 19s, 8d. The administrators were apparently slow in settling these claims. In February, 1798, Moody Bedel, administrator of the estate of Timothy Bedel, a creditor of the Hazen estate petitioned the court for leave to bring suit against Asa Porter, one of the bondsmen of the Hazen administrators, and in June the same year, John Page, Joshua Howard, Ezekiel Ladd, Josiah Burnham, James Ladd, Simeon Goodwin and David Weeks, other creditors, presented a like petition, alleging that the estate had been and was being wasted by the administrators. As late as May 23, 1816, more than forty-one years after the death of Captain Hazen, the administrators were cited to appear at a probate court to be held in Enfield in July for settlement, but the probate records are silent as to action taken. A settlement of some kind was doubtless made since there is a family tradition that Sarah Hazen Merrill finally received the sum of twelve dollars as her share of her father's estate, with which sum she purchased a large family Bible, which is still in the possession of her descendants and known as "the Hazen Bible." The name is appropriate though the imprint bears the date of 1817.
Simon or Simeon Stevens came to Haverhill with Captain Hazen's party in 1762, but remained only a short time, choosing rather to settle in Newbury of which town he was also a grantee. He sold his Haverhill lands in 1765 and later to Joseph Blanchard of Merrimack, Robert Rogers of Portsmouth, James Wyman of Woburn, Mass., and David McGregor of Londonderry. Blanchard was also a grantee but it does not appear that he ever came to Haverhill. He sold his original right to David Page of Petersham, Mass. The descendants of Simeon Stevens became prominent in Newbury. He rendered valuable service in the French and Indian and in the Revolutionary wars. One of his daughters married Capt. Uriah Stone of Haverhill and Piermont.
40
HISTORY OF HAVERHILL
Thomas Johnson, Haverhill grantee, came to Haverhill with Hazen in 1762, but soon after settled in Newbury on the Great Oxbow, of which town he was, in the early days, next perhaps to Jacob Bayley its leading citizen. He rendered distinguished service in the War of the Revolution. One of his sons, Moses Johnson, married, first, a daughter of Gen. Moses Dow of Haverhill, and second, Betsey Pierson also of Haverhill. A daughter Hannah Johnson married David Sloan of Haverhill, a leading lawyer of the section for nearly half a century. [See Genealogy, Sloan.]
JAASIEL HARRIMAN was one of the three who came up by the Baker's River and Oliverian trail in 1762 and was a grantee of Bath as well as of Haverhill and Newbury. Until 1765 he lived for a part of the time in Haverhill and a part in Newbury but in 1765 his was the first family to settle in that part of Bath now known as Lower Village. He cleared land and established his home on the meadow just south of the village and tradition has it that the first vegetables raised in that town were from seed planted on the great rock in the upper end of the meadow and near the present highway. One of his daughters married Jesse Carleton who lived for years in Haverhill as did also their son Isaac Carleton. [See Genealogy, Carleton.] Jaasiel Harriman, while living in Haverhill, fol- lowed his trade of blacksmith, using a hard rock for an anvil.
JOHN WHITE of Haverhill, Mass., was chosen by the proprietors select- man at their first meeting in 1763, and is thought to have been among those who came with the first settlers in 1762, but if he was of their num- ber he probably did not remain long at that time. He disposed of a part of his rights as proprietor to Joshua Howard in 1764. He returned to Haverhill later, however, and held a commission as first lieutenant in Colonel Bedel's regiment in the War of the Revolution.
URIAH MORSE not only came with Hazen in 1762, but he brought his family with him, the first white family in town. He was born January 7, 1730-31, the son of Isaac and Elizabeth Morse of Halliston, Shrewsbury and Worcester, Mass. He was a descendant in the fifth generation of Samuel Morse of Dedham, Mass. He married previous to 1760 and set- tled in Northfield, Mass., from which town he came to Coös and settled on the bank of Poole Brook west of the bridge on the main road and a little southwest of the house now owned by W. H. Ingalls. This was the first house built in town and here in the spring of 1763, the first white child was born. Here also occurred the first death in the settlement, that of Polly Harriman, a young woman of eighteen, a death the records say "much lamented." Here Captain Hazen and his men boarded while they were building mills and dwellings, and clearing land until Captain Hazen moved his family to town two years later. Uriah Morse is described in the conveyances of the time as "taverner," and his house was the stopping place of such strangers as came to Coös, the first tavern as well as first dwelling house in town.
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.