USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Jaffrey > History of the town of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, from the date of the Masonian charter to the present time, 1749-1880 : with a genealogical register of the Jaffrey families, and an appendix containing the proceedings of the centennial celebration in 1873 > Part 39
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The social privileges connected with the organization must not be overlooked. It made the inhabitants of the small tract of territory within its limits a brotherhood,- promoting the welfare of each other and of the whole com- munity, by the meeting-house, the school-house, and the highway,-and in these, and other ways, establishing good order, social intercourse, and a kindly feeling towards each other.
The town was the efficient means which secured the prosperity of the household. The several families, farmers, mechanics, laborers, and professional persons needed for the development of their resources and the greatest enjoy- ment of their privileges something beyond their isolated households, something beyond even the mutual support of each other in their various neighborhoods ; and they found it in the town. It enlarged while it concentrated their sympathies, formed and moulded their opinions, and gave expression to their united will. Lastly, the military com- pany organizations were mostly within the town, two communities sometimes uniting to furnish an extra article in this line. From these companies the ranks of the army have been recruited in time of war, being liable to draft, if necessary.
In the time of the Revolution, when the ordinary mode of supplying the army seemed likely to fail, requisitions were made upon the towns to furnish ammunition and pro- visions, and were promptly answered. They were often the storehouses of ammunition.
If any one who does not know would seek an exemplifi- cation of the utility of the town incorporations, let him look at Jaffrey to-day, and study her history.
An admirable result of the town organization was, that the Revolution, which followed almost immediately upon the incorporation of this town, did not place the country in a state of disintegration. The town organization remained, its efficiency necessarily somewhat impaired ; but the town
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officers, having been elected by the people, still retained their confidence and support. Such powers as could be exercised only in the name of the king, or under the royal authority, were at first suspended, and then abrogated,-but the same powers were immediately exercised under the authority of the people ; and the towns, during all the time, served to a great extent the purposes for which they were established.
A revolutionary convention, called by the committee of correspondence, in 1775, recommended that those who had been chosen into office in the usual manner, should, as formerly, be considered the proper officers ; and that the town, selectmen, and other officers proceed in the usual manner in granting and collecting moneys, etc., unless some particular direction was given,-adding this significant para- graph :
" If any, inimical to their country, or inattentive to the ruin which must ensue upon a contrary conduct, should re- fuse, we trust that all friends of the country will effectually strengthen the hands of the selectmen, constables, and collectors."
It is not supposed that any one here, by his refusal, ren- dered it necessary even to hint at a resort to the peculiar strengthening-plaster thus indicated.
February 13, 1775, the town voted unanimously to visit Mr. Williams, of Keene-a very extraordinary civility on the face of the vote. Williams was a lawyer, but the call on him was not for professional advice. He was a tory, and this unusual demonstration had reference to that fact. The further proceedings in relation to the proposed visit are not of record. It is a fair presumption that there was - no tory in Jaffrey, who might be visited with much less trouble.
No other system could so well have supplied civil govern- ment, under such circumstances.
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It was more difficult to deal with matters of which the courts of justice had jurisdiction. The courts, on recom- mendation of the convention, adjourned.
Justices of the peace could not well issue compulsory process under the royal authority, in the existing circum- stances. The collection of debts by suit was suspended, and the natural consequences were, in one instance at least, exemplified here. In the files of the convention of 1775 is a memorial or representation address to the " Honorable Provincial Congress," signed by Jethro Bailey, William Turner, and Roger Gilmore, committee of correspondence, setting forth that Benjamin Nutting, of Peterborough Slip, so called, had entered a complaint to them against John Davis, junior, of Jaffrey ; that upon the second day of Octo- ber, instant, as he came to the house of John Eaton on some business, he was assaulted by said Davis, and abused in the most "solem" manner, as appears by sundry evi- dences ; that notwithstanding Davis was notified to attend and hear the evidences examined, he refused ; that he had often been requested to settle the matter, but remained ob- stinate, and persisted in his villainy, with insolence.
The committee enclosed the depositions, and earnestly desired the convention to take the matter into consideration, and either determine it between them, or invest the com- mittee with a proper authority to act, with instructions how to proceed in the case. It does not appear that any action was taken upon the subject.
On the fifth of January, 1776, a "form, or plan, of civil government" was adopted by a convention, or congress, which met for the purpose, under which the affairs of the towns were again transacted in legal form. The form of government was limited by its terms to continue "during the present unhappy contest with Great Britian," but served as a state constitution for many years, and is said to have been the first state constitution.
This caused no change in the organization of the town
37
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or in its proceedings, except that the latter were now con- ducted once more under what proved to be a sufficient legal authority.
A few items in relation to the increase of the population and the rate of taxation may serve to show the comparative progress with the other towns.
The convention of 1775 ordered a survey to be made of the people in the several counties, for the purpose of deter- mining the ratio of representation in the assembly, from which it appears that Jaffrey had 351 inhabitants. Of thirty towns in the county, ten or eleven had a larger number. She had sixteen men in the army. This was a very strong delegation for such a small community, just organized,- larger than any of the towns not having more inhabitants. Keene had 756 inhabitants; Chesterfield, Westmoreland, and Richmond a still greater number.
The census in 1790 gives Jaffrey a population of 1,235. There were then only six towns in the county with a popu- lation greater than this, and these, with the exception of Keene, lay on the south border, or on the Connecticut river, and so were more easy of access. Keene had 1,314 inhabi- tants.
In 1800 the population was 1,341. Eleven towns had a larger population, mostly much more favorably situated. Keene had 1,645.
By an act of the assembly, in 1777, determining the pro- portion of each town for every £1,000 of the state taxes, Jaffrey's proportion was £5 9s. 5d. There were nine towns in the county having a greater valuation, that of Keene be- ing £10 5s. 9d., twenty-two having less.
When, in 1780, a requisition was made for a hundred and twelve thousand weight of beef for the army, the proportion of Jaffrey was 7,326 pounds ; the proportion of Keene, 11,309. The same year a new proportion of taxes gave Jaffrey £6 Ios. IOd., Keene, LIO Is. IId.
Another proportion, in 1789, shows a comparative in-
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crease favorable to the prosperity of Jaffrey ; that is, sup- posing that the duty to pay a larger proportion of taxes indicates in fact a larger ability to perform the duty, which probably is not always the case. Jaffrey is set at £7 12s. 5d., Keene, £9 19s. 6d.
Another proportion, in 1794, gave for Jaffrey £7 9s. 8d., Keene, £9 14s. 6d. But in this year the valuation of Ches- terfield, Walpole, and Westmoreland, lying on the Connec- ticut river, each exceeded that of Keene.
It is not my purpose to refer in detail to the proceedings of the town in the exercise of its rights and the perform- ance of its duties. This is the special province of the future historian, and to him, whoever he may be, I remit it. But a few brief notes, having reference to some of the subjects which have been mentioned, may find a place upon this occasion.
The first meeting under the act of incorporation was for the choice of town officers only. It was called by Jonathan Stanley, specially authorized by the charter, August 27, 1773, and was held September 14.
Another meeting was held September 28, to raise money for the building of roads and the support of the gospel.
April 26, 1774, it was voted to build a meeting-house, and July 6, to build one of larger dimensions, to let the building at public vendue, that it should be raised by the middle of June next at the town's cost, with several other votes on the subject.
It was voted in March, 1775, that the committee to build provide all things necessary to raise the house at the cost of the town. But March 30, 1780, there was a vote to make allowance to Captain Henry Coffin for the barrel of rum which he paid for, to raise the meeting-house. The captain, it would seem, intervened patriotically to supplement the deficiency of the provision made by the committee, and waited a long time for reimbursement.
There is a tradition that the meeting-house was raised on
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the day of the battle of Bunker Hill, and that the guns of that battle were heard here. But this must be a mistake. When the matter is examined, the probabilities are against it. It is hardly probable that guns fired at Charlestown could be heard here, with the New Ipswich hills and the forest intervening, even on a quiet day, when there was no meeting-house to raise. Moreover, the battle was on Satur- day, which was as good a day for a battle as any other day, but would hardly be selected as the time to raise a meeting- house, lest there should be some work remaining which ought to be performed the next day.
The conclusion to be derived from the improbabilities is fortified by direct hearsay evidence. I received a letter a few days since from Dr. Jeremiah Spofford, of Groveland, Mass., in which he says,-"My father, Jeremiah Spofford, as a master-carpenter, framed that church. He was em- ployed to do it by Captain Samuel Adams, whose wife was his sister. Jacob Spofford and Joseph Haskell went up with him to work on the frame. * * My father often related, seventy years ago, that they raised the house, and that ending his job, they set out for home the next day, travelling "ride and tie," three men, with one horse to carry tools and ease the men in turn ; that coming down through Townsend, in the forenoon, they heard the roar of cannon, which proved to be the cannon of Bunker Hill, and coming over the Westford hills, in the evening, they saw the light of Charlestown burning. * Captain Adams was one of the contractors to build the house, and was a carpen- ter himself."
It may be objected that " unlucky" Friday was as little likely as Saturday to be selected as the day to begin such a work. But the explanation seems easy. The town had voted to raise by the middle of June. The contract would naturally specify that as the time of performance. There would be a desire and time enough for compliance. The fifteenth of June was Thursday. If we suppose that to be
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the day selected, and that there was some unfinished work to be done on Friday to complete the job, we shall have the carpenters on their homeward way on Saturday, in the localities in which Mr. Jeremiah Spofford placed them. We may give up the tradition without a sigh. Neither the meeting-house nor the battle will suffer by the loss of it.
There was some delay in settling a minister. Several candidates were hired. There was a vote that young men supply the pulpit, and some others indicating that the ser- vices of some of the candidates were not quite satisfactory. But June 1, 1780, it was voted to hear Mr. Caleb Jewett more if he can be obtained, and September 4, a vote to con- cur with the church in giving him a call. Why he did not accept does not appear : perhaps from the insufficiency of the salary offered. He was, I think, a graduate of Dart- mouth, of 1776, a native of Newbury, Mass., and afterwards settled in Gorham, Maine.
In 1782, they settled the Rev. Laban Ainsworth, a native of Woodstock, Conn., a graduate of Dartmouth college in 1778.
The first vote for a salary was for £70 "while he sup- plies the desk," which was afterwards changed to "while he remains the minister of the town." Choosing with deliber- ation, they are entitled to the credit of having abided by their determination. Mr. Ainsworth lived to the age of more than a hundred years, officiated without a colleague until 1832, and remained as the pastor of the church until his death, but his labors were discontinued a few years ear- lier. As many of you knew him well, I need not speak of his appearance or services. A withered right arm was probably the reason why he did not write his sermons. If, as has been said, he sometimes looked up his text on Sun- day morning, after breakfast, the fact will serve to show his confidence in his powers of discussion. The tales respect- · ing the jokes, practical and otherwise, passing between him and Father Sprague, are numerous, many of them probably
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fictitious. But there was, unquestionably, a sufficient en- counter of wits to lay a good foundation for some of them.
In the infancy of such a settlement, the difficulties of establishing and maintaining a school or schools would necessarily be very great. If the means of support had been abundant, the facilities for the attendance of the scholars must have been quite limited. The first appropri- ation of £8 was made April 13, 1775. Soon we find votes for the division of the money, indicating schools in different parts of the township, then a division into districts. That the interests of education have received full support here may be inferred from the fact that twenty-four young men have graduated at the different colleges, twenty of them at Dartmouth.
It is not surprising that they deemed expenditures upon the roads as of the first importance. Will you think it strange when I say that they appropriated much larger sums for highways than they did for the support of the gos- pel and the schools? Will you be astonished that at their second meeting they voted £80, lawful money, to be worked out on the roads, and only £6 to procure preaching, and that this disparity increased so that April 13, 1775, when they voted £8 for the school, they again voted £6 for preaching and £130 for the roads? We must recollect that the efficiency of their maintenance of preaching de- pended upon their first mending their ways.
It may be said that roads lay at the foundation of their prosperity, spiritual as well as temporal. Without roads the settlement could not succeed ; and if that failed, the support of religious teaching, and the school, failed with it. As the roads were made better, settlements were encour- aged, the ability to support the institutions of religion was enlarged, and the appropriations were enlarged also.
It is with great regret that I refer again to my inability to give some better account respecting the earliest inhabi- tants. Perhaps my recollections of a later date may possess
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some interest, and serve, with those of others, to fill a page of local history.
In the early part of the present Christian century, there was clustered in the vicinity of the meeting-house, which then had no steeple, the house of Rev. Mr. Ainsworth, at the south-east corner of the common ; Danforth's tavern, where Cutter's hotel now stands; the store of Joseph Thorndike, Esq., and David Page's store, on the east side ; Cragin's saddlery-shop, on the north-east corner ; and on the north, a large pile of buildings belonging to Joseph Cutter, Esq., of which only the main dwelling-house now remains. He kept a tavern, and had very ample accommodations for his customers. He was, I think, much the largest land- holder in the township, and had an ambition to settle each of his numerous sons on a farm, which he accomplished to a great extent. At the south-west corner of the burying- ground was a school-house. East of Danforth's tavern was his blacksmith-shop, north of which was the dwelling-house of Capt. Samuel Adams.
Commencing at the common, the road to the north-east, leading to Peterborough, and to the south-easterly part of Dublin, passed by a small house on the corner, at the left, no longer there, which was occupied at one time by Mr. Cummings, afterwards by Dr. Johnson and by Jonathan Lufkin ; there turning north, the road extended by the place where the Melville academy now stands, less than a quarter of a mile, where it forked, the direct road proceed- ing northerly towards Dublin, by the houses of Mr. Newton and Thomas French,-the easterly fork, which was the principal road, running over the hill by a house occupied by David Smiley, Esq., attorney-at-law. This house has gone, and the road over the hill has gone with it. The more modern route, north-east, by Mr. John Cutter's tannery, and easterly of the meadow, entered this old road at the foot of the hill, on the east.
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Nearly a mile east of the village was the house of Widow Bryant.
The road forked a few rods easterly. On the northerly branch, which branched again, lived Samuel Cary, Benjamin Lawrence, Deacon Jesse Maynard, Azael Gowing, Moses Stickney, Samuel Stickney, Silas Adams, Jacob Jewell, Benjamin Frost. Proceeding a short distance, the easterly branch appeared to run into a north and south road, but the northerly part was the main road to the north-east. A few rods to the south was the house of Alpheus Crosby ; in front, that of Asa Sawyer. Pursuing the main road, at a distance of about half a mile, on the right side, was the house of Lieut. Thomas Adams, which has disappeared. Another was built near, on the left side, many years since, occupied by Daniel Emery. Not far beyond, at the place where a road now leads off to the East village, there came into this road, from the west, a short branch road, on which lived Mr. Bates. At this point came another fork. On the northerly branch, which has been slightly changed at its commencement, a quarter of a mile brought the traveller to another fork, the westerly road being merely a local branch, terminating at the house soon after owned by Samuel Pierce. On the easterly or main branch, we came next to the school-house of the district of my early boyhood, and in the field some quarter of a mile south-east was the house of Ebenezer Burpee.
Miss Hitty Brooks was one of the teachers of the sum- mer school,-a most estimable young lady, whose kindness dwells in my memory. She afterwards married Samuel Pierce.
The old school-house has disappeared, and a few years more will carry all its memories with it. A few of its inmates at a later date still remain.
Starting once more upon our way, we find next where was the house of Whitcomb Powers, at the base of the hill, on the left. It is no longer there. There was none a little
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onward, where the residence of my late friend, Levi Fisk, Esq., has stood for many years. On the northerly branch of a fork of the road a few rods further, running to Twitch- ell's mills, in the easterly part of Dublin, was the house of his father, Thomas Fisk. At the fork last mentioned was formerly the shop of John Pushee, of which nothing but the ruins remained, so far back as I can recollect. I have the impression it had been burned. Thence, pursuing the east- erly branch of the highway, next came the house of my father, who came here from Pepperell in May, 1780, settled in the unbroken forest, and cleared his farm himself, with such assistance as he could obtain. Some of you know the place. I am not aware of the particular inducement which led him to settle there : probably a representation that it was a nice bit of land, dog cheap ; and cheapness was a consideration not to be despised .* It proved rough and rocky, and admitted of any amount of hard labor. Twenty- five years of patient, persevering industry had made a dif- ference in the appearance of things. There were rods of stone wall, requiring some knowledge of the mysteries of compound addition to say how many. There were cattle and sheep, hay in the barn, a patch of flax in the field, and a little wheel and a great wheel and a great loom in the house .; The wood-pile would have deemed itself neglected if it had not extended a hundred feet, "more and not less," along the wall, with an indefinite breadth, and a height which no one undertook to measure. The fire-place in the common working-room received back-logs two and a half feet in diameter : I am tempted to put on the other half foot, but refrain. From the great brick oven by the side of the fire-
*Consideration 260 pounds, lawful money ; 102 acres of land, -part of lot 20, in the first range.
+Girls " hired themselves out" to spin. When the cloth was fulled and dressed, the tailoress of the neighborhood came, cut and made up the clothes. When the hides were tanned, the shoe-maker, in his rounds, came once or twice in the year, and made up a stock of boots and shoes for the family, staying perhaps a week for the purpose.
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place, there issued, from time to time, baked pumpkins, such as no cooking-stove, invented or to be invented, can ever produce ; and there was no watering of the milk.
On winter evenings apples were roasting and sputtering upon the hearth,-and there was a mug of cider there. Checkers and jack-straws were seen occasionally, and some card teeth were set .* +
My brothers caught minks, musquash, partridges, pick- erel, rabbits, and woodchucks,-and, in haying time, I took up bumble-bees' nests, getting poor pay for my labor.
In order to economize time, I give this brief sketch of a single household, instead of a more elaborate statement which I was preparing, respecting farming life generally in the town, and in the hope that the personality may be ex- cused in consideration of its brevity. Any one, by pursu- ing things to their natural antecedents and conclusions, may judge somewhat of the whole from these few partic- ulars ; exceptions of course.
Half a mile onward was the house of the Widow Turner. The widow relished a joke,-and perhaps I may be pardon- ed for telling a short story which she told herself. She had taken her grist to be ground at the mills of Samuel Twitch- ell, Esq., the father of the celebrated surgeon, Dr. Amos Twitchell, just within the limits of Dublin, riding, of course, upon the top of the bags. The Squire, who was somewhat of a humorist, had a hired man named White, certainly not beautiful to behold. The widow's description of what
*The manufactures of cotton were those of the household, operated by hand power. Edmund Snow, of Peterborough, manufactured hand cards for cotton and wool, punching the holes in the leathers and prepar- ing the teeth, and distributing them among the different families in the region round about, to be set by the young people, who in that way put "store pay" in their purse. At the Peterborough centennial, in 1839, my brother Isaac gave some account of his achievements in setting these card teeth. Perhaps it was in this way that he was led to take an interest in the establishment of cotton manufactories in Peterboro' and elsewhere.
tSee NOTE 3, at the end of this address.
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occurred further was in this wise: "When I got there the Squire was in the yard, and I said to him, 'Help me off my horse, Squire;' which he did. Then I said to him, 'Now kiss me, Squire; and he turned and called ‘White, White, White!' as if he was calling some great dog; and there came out of the mill the ugliest looking critter that ever I set my eyes on, and the Squire said, 'Come here, White, and kiss this woman. I always keep a man to do that drudgery for me.'"
A short distance farther, at the extreme north-east cor- ner of the town, was Samuel Saunders, a very good carpen- ter as well as a farmer. Here the road turned short to the south, and passing the house of Elijah Welman, connected near the line of Peterborough with the southerly branch, which we left soon after passing Lieutenant Adams's. A house has existed south of Welman's, occupied by Andrew Holmes, but I think of a later date. Turning back to the southerly branch, and taking the direction to Peterborough, there was, near the fork, the house of Roger Brigham. Then came the house of David Sawtelle, then Parker Maynard, then Samuel Patrick, then Mr. Snow.
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