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 40
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Samuel Dakin, Esq., attorney-at-law, who afterwards re- moved to New Hartford in the state of New York, pur- chased land north of Capt. Adams's, in the middle of the, town, and built the house now occupied by Dr. Fox about 1805. My father, having bought a corner lot of Mr. Dakin, erected the house at the northerly end of that street, and I became an inmate of the school-house at the corner of the burying-ground. There is a reminiscence of discipline con- nected with this house. The rules of the school forbade whispering, of course. Having a desire to say something to a young miss who sat near me, I forgot the rule, I sup- pose, and she must have joined in the transgression, for the eagle eye of the teacher, Miss Maria Blanchard, detecting this violation of order, we were forthwith sentenced to sit each with an arm around the other's neck. I do not give this
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as an instance of the ordinary discipline. On the contrary, it was an unusual as well as a cruel punishment, and may therefore be regarded as unconstitutional. But to prevent misapprehension, I here take occasion to say that I have since seen the time when I should have borne such a dis- pensation with a much greater degree of philosophy .*
Pursuing the road north-westerly from the school-house, there was, at the foot of the hill, a house occupied by Widow Hale, then one occupied by Hugh Gragg, and a few rods westerly, at the junction of the old road running westerly to Marlborough and the road running northerly to Dublin, there was in the corner the house of Dr. Adonijah Howe, the elder, the beloved physician. He afterwards built a much larger one just north, which you have known as occupied by Daniel Cutter. The place is now designated as the Shattuck farm. Jonathan Gage lived off north-east from this point, on a private road. A house has since been built farther on, on the Dublin road, by Joel Cutter, and be- yond this point was another fork. The left hand, running towards the mountain, led to the houses of Joseph Cutter, Jr., John Cutter, 2d, and Daniel Cutter, who afterwards occupied the house built by Dr. Howe. All these were sons of Joseph Cutter, Esq. A southerly branch turning off near Joseph Cutter, Jr.'s, led to the houses of Joseph Mead, Mr. Brooks, David Cutter, and Jacob Hammond. The principal road, which turned to the right at the fork, led northerly over the hill to a house owned by Joseph Thorndike, Esq., afterwards by John Conant, Esq., who has made himself widely and favorably known by his very lib- eral donations to divers public objects. It is now owned by the president of the day, who speaks for himself.
The travel over the hill has since been diverted to the
* The school-books were Webster's Spelling-Book, with a grim fron- tispiece supposed to represent that ambitious lexicographer, Webster's Third Part, American Preceptor, The Columbian Orator, Young Ladies' Accidence, Murray's Grammar, Morse's Geography, and Pike's Arith- metic.
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other branch by a slight alteration, in consequence of the modern discovery (especially unknown to turnpike propri- etors in former days) that in some cases it is no farther to go around a hill than it is to go over it, and that the larger load can be drawn on the level ground. Beyond, on the road to Dublin, were David Corey, Mr. Bullard, and Mr. Johnson.
· Of the other highways in the town, and the persons living upon them, my early recollections are of course less particular. I have a note of most of the inhabitants of the different sections, but for the location and even the names of many of them I am indebted to Mr. Ethan Cutter, whose early opportunities for acquiring a full knowledge of the dif- ferent localities were of the best, and whose memory of them is of the same character. Were there no reason but lack of time, I must leave this part of the subject to others who may be heard to-day, craving indulgence for subjoin- ing a few notes respecting the Third New Hampshire Turn- pike.
This turnpike was incorporated in December, 1799, run- ning from Bellows Falls, Vermont, to Ashby, Mass., fifty miles, and cost, it was said, fifty thousand dollars. It occu- pied portions of the old road in various places, near the mountain, near the middle of the town, and eastward of it. It struck off from the old road at John Cutter's tannery, and at Spofford's mills, and ran by Col. Benjamin Prescott's tavern, in the east part of the town, and through "Tophet swamp " into New Ipswich.
The three men just named were marked men in their day. Mr. John Cutter carried on a large tannery, for that time, and made it a profitable business, which has since been enlarged. His children were among my old school- mates, and I am pleased to see some of them with us to- day. With the exception of Joseph Cutter, Esq., he has probably more representatives in town than any other of his contemporaries.
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Deacon Eleazer Spofford, who purchased of Mr. Borland his farm and mills in 1778, was a tall gentleman, of a grave demeanor, pleasant smile, and a kind heart, I think univer- sally beloved. He led the singing for very many years. If he had an enemy in the world, that enemy must have been an unreasonable man. He lost a young son in the burning of Rev. Mr. Ainsworth's house, in 1786. His mills were complete for that day. In the grist-mill was a "jack," which, if it was not the progenitor, was the prototype, of the mod- ern elevator in hotels and stores. It was worked by water- power, to carry the wheat as soon as ground to the bolter in the attic. A ride on it with his son Luke, then miller, afterwards clergyman, was a treat to the boys who brought wheat to be ground .*
A grandson of Deacon Spofford was chief-justice of Louisiana at the time of the breaking out of the Rebel- lion, and another is now librarian of the congressional library.
There must have been some controversy respecting the location of the turnpike. In a poetical New Year's ad- dress, sent from Parnassus to New Ipswich, soon after, it was said that the muse could relate
" How Prescott and Merriam made a stand, And bent the road to suit their land"-
but she did not do it, and I cannot.
Col. Prescott, as I remember him, was another of the tall men of Jaffrey, of powerful frame, and an influential man in the town. If any man could bend a turnpike, he might be expected to do it.
The principal taverns on the turnpike were those of Sweetser in Marlborough, Milliken, Danforth, and Prescott
* Dr. Spofford says,-" He had for many years the best flouring- mills in that part of New Hampshire."
He removed to Bradford, Mass., now Groveland, in 1821, and died there in 1828.
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in Jaffrey, and Merriam and Batchelder in New Ipswich, celebrated houses in their day.
It was one of the principal throughfares from Central Vermont to Boston, and the transportation over it in the winter was of course quite large, as the route through Rindge was not then a great highway. This winter trans- portation was generally by two-horse teams, attached to square lumber-boxes, so-called, loaded on the downward transit principally with pork, grain, beans, butter, cheese, and other country produce, and on their return trip with iron, molasses, rum, sugar, codfish, and other groceries. The dry goods of that day were principally of home manu- facture.
Occasionally a severe storm, blocking the roads badly, would compel these teams to stop at the nearest of the tav- erns named, where the loggerhead was always in the fire in winter, and the landlord ready to make a "good stiff mug of flip."
Some of my auditory may not have heard the name be- fore. It was concocted of home-made beer, well sweetened, -a suitable proportion of West India rum,-and heated by the loggerhead to a proper temperature. When an egg was beaten in, it was called " bellows-top," partly, perhaps, from its superior quality, and partly from the greater quan- tity of white froth that swelled up on the top of it.
With ten or fifteen teamsters gathered together by one of these snow blockades, and a fair allowance of flip, of course "the mirth and fun grew fast and furious ;" and when the storm was over, and the road began to be " brok- en out," the long line of teams, especially those ascending the hills to the west, was something to see.
The mail-stage between Keene and Boston for a long time ran over this road once a week,-twice,-daily, ex- cept Sundays,-then a despatch line, called the telegraph,*
* This line was established by Col. French, then of Keene, now of Peterborough, and Col. Shepherd, then of Boston, now of Manchester.
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through in twelve hours,-superseded by the railroad through Fitchburg ; so that the crack of the stage-driver's whip and the blast of his horn no longer echo among the hills.
The wayside inn, for the accommodation of the passing traveller, has fallen from its high estate through the intro- duction of the railroads; and from the same cause, along with the introduction of other beverages, the institution of temperance societies, and the passage of prohibitory laws, the glory of flip has departed, and its name is almost for- gotten.
The turnpike was not a source of great profit, and was finally laid out as a common highway, the towns paying the proprietors a moderate sum in damages.
The beautiful and busy village of East Jaffrey, with its large cotton factory and divers other manufactures, its ho- tels, stores, bank, and dwellings, and with a railroad run- ning through it, is comparatively of modern creation.
A short time since I summed up my recollections of its people and business as I first knew it,-Dea. Spofford and his mills, Abner Spofford and his blacksmiths' shop, and Jo- seph Lincoln and his clothiers' shop. William Hodge's farm constituted a northern suburb.
I must not omit to mention Amos Fortune. He was born in Africa, brought to this country as a slave, pur- chased his freedom, purchased and then married his wife, came to this place in 1781, and lived subsequently about a mile north-east of Spofford's mills, where he had a small tannery.
At that time, any person who had come to dwell within a town, and been there received and entertained by the space of three months, not having been warned to depart by some person appointed by the selectmen, was reputed an inhab- itant, and the proper charge of the town in case he came to stand in need of relief. This power of " warning out " was given to the towns that they might protect themselves
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against pauperism ; and in some towns the selectmen were so careful of the interests of the town that they warned all new-comers to depart,-so zealous, that in one instance, as I have heard, the town having settled a minister, the select- men forthwith warned him out.
Such general warnings were not practised in this town, but Fortune was warned out in September, 1781, doubtless from an apprehension that he might become a pauper. Like all other persons similarly notified, he disregarded the warning, and he lived here the remainder of his life. Dying in 1801, without children, at the age of ninety-one, as stated on his gravestone (which, as I recollect him, an active business man, seems to me doubtful, at least), he, by his last will-after a provision for gravestones, another for the support of his wife during her life, and a small legacy to an adopted daughter-empowered his executor, Deacon Spofford, if there was any remainder of his estate, to "give a handsome present to the church of which he was a mem- ber, and the remaining part, if any there be, to give as a present for the support of the school in school-house No. 8." The church received, under this bequest, in May, 1805, $ 100, partly expended in the purchase of a communion ser- vice, still in their possession ; and in September, 1809, the judge of probate ordered $233.95, the balance in the hands of the executor, to be paid over to the selectmen of Jaffrey, " agreeable to a special act of the legislature of the state of New Hampshire, passed on the 15th of June last." This act was passed because no person was mentioned in the will to receive and apply the fund. It is still held by the select- men in trust for the benefit of the district. We are aware that these sums represented much larger values at that time than like sums do at the present day.
We have come together with hearts full of thanksgiving to the Great Disposer of Events, that he has permitted us to assemble here to commemorate the organization of civil
38
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institutions and government in our beloved municipal home- stead. But an occasion like this cannot be one of unmixed joy.
" Time rolls his ceaseless course.
" Still it creeps on,
Each little moment at another's heels, Till hours, days, years, and ages are made up Of such small parts as these, and men look back, Worn and bewildered, wondering how it is.
" When in this vale of years I backward look, And miss such numbers,-numbers. too, of such, Firmer in health and greener in their age, And stricter on their guard, and fitter far To play Life's subtle game,-I scarce believe I still survive."
Death has removed not only all the early inhabitants and many who were familiar with the history of a later date, be- cause principal actors therein, but many who, if less con- spicuous, were not less dear to us ; and we pause a moment to dwell, with a reverential remembrance, with filial affec- tion, with devoted love, on the memory of those whose animated faces would have greeted us at this time had they been spared to this day. Alas! for them time is no more.
The sum of human joys and human sorrows which have been felt within the limits of this town during the past cen- tury can only be known to Omniscience. The joys have passed, and are passing, with little or no record of their existence. And so of many, perhaps most, of the sorrows. But there is a parcel of ground, of small extent, on the brow of the hill and adjoining the common, which contains records reminding us of the sorrows of ourselves and others which are of a more enduring character.
There rest the remains of my beloved and venerated par- ents, my father dying at the age of seventy-eight, and my mother living until near ninety-seven. Other fathers and mothers of like ages are gathered there, shocks of corn fully ripe and fit to be garnered, whom we must mourn, but with
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the consolation that they had done their duty in the com- munity,-had fought the good fight, had finished their course, had kept the faith.
But these records tell other tales. There repose the hus- band and father, the wife and mother, who fell by the way- side in the meridian of life; who appeared to have before them years of happiness and usefulness to themselves and others ; upon whom young children were dependent, and to whom friends looked for counsel and for guidance. Broth- ers and sisters, young men and maidens, who were just en- tering upon the threshold of existence, with a life of useful- ness and honor and prosperity in anticipation, lie there side by side.
What agonies of grief, suppressed and irrepressible, have rent the hearts of survivors, as the mournful processions have passed within the gate, and consigned the remains of the beloved objects to their places of final rest. Hallowed be the spot where the dust of the century is gathered to- gether, and around which is clustered a century of the greatest of human sorrows.
Whatever of sadness may be in the retrospect, it is meet that we should celebrate the hundredth anniversary of an organization fraught with so much of usefulness to the per- sons who have lived within its limits. We are here on a day that marks an era. Let us rejoice that this town in- corporation will be continued for the benefit and advantage of the generations who are advancing to its possession. Let us rejoice that we may go onward into the new century, though it be to some of us but for a short period, and to none of us to its close; and that space is yet granted us to do something, not only for the comfort and welfare of those who are dear to us, but of the community around us.
And now, assembled here as the surviving representa- tives of the first century of our incorporation, and standing just within the threshold of its successor, let us dedicate this new municipal century, in which the town and its
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indwellers are to do service for another hundred years, to the prosecution and extension of every good and beneficent work of its predecessor.
I feel assured that you will join with me when I say,-We dedicate it to the promotion of religion. Not a religion which leans upon the state for its support, and depends upon faith without works ; but that religion which sustains the state by the inculcation of truths which lie at the foun- dation of organized and orderly society, and supports the government by its works. Not that religion which has its greatest regard for forms and ceremonies, and the washing of cups and platters ; but that which sanctifies the heart and purifies the life. Not that religion, if such there be, which enters into embittered controversies about dogmas, and dis- putes zealously about trifles ; but that religion which, being first pure, is " then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits," and which teaches the love of God with our whole heart, and the love of our neighbor as of ourselves.
We dedicate it to education and sound learning. Not that learning which attempts from metaphysical nothings to make up a unit,-the votaries of which, multiplying them- selves by themselves, think that they sum up the infinite, and something beyond; but that learning which leads to the belief, in the language of the arithmetical aphorism of Parson Wigglesworth, of Malden, that
" Naught joyn'd to naught can ne'er make aught, Nor cyphers make a sum ; Nor finite to the infinite By multiplying come."
Not to that training which leads self-sufficient people to attempt to magnify themselves by multitudes of projects for making a new world different from and thus better than that which God made; but to a system of education which has due regard to the nature of things, and to the
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constitution of mankind and the ends which the Creator intended they should pursue, and which seeks, by meas- ures consistent with creation as it exists, to perform the whole duty which the Creator requires in the world as he has made it.
Not to that theory of education which, proposing that all persons should be educated up to the utmost limit of which they are capable, becomes a practical and mischievous hum- bug ; but to that theory which shall provide an education of the highest character for all the members of the commu- nity, with reference to the needful discharge of the various employments and duties which must necessarily exist.
Not to that system of education which, by "raising the standard," as it is called, subjects the young to such de- mands upon their intellect, in the time of their immaturity, as to impair if not destroy the physical powers, and thereby render intellectual acquisitions useless ; but to that system which recognizes the physical as well as the intellectual, and seeks to develop both according to their necessities,- and this not by subjecting first the one and then the other to an extraordinary strain, but by a moderation that shall be known in all things.
Not to that education which casts odium upon labor, and induces young men and women to endeavor to escape from its wholesome, invigorating influences by a resort to cities for the purpose of begging for a situation where ease shall lead to poverty,-or which seeks, through political partisan- ship, for some petty clerkship under government, leaving the successful incumbent without occupation or the means of an honest livelihood when the office falls into the hands of the next eager aspirant who has pushed him from his official stool ; but that education which dignifies labor, and seeks to improve its modes of action,-which qualifies the recipient to occupy his place in life, whatever it may be, and with cheerfulness and alacrity to do the duty which the state and the community demand of him.
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May I add a constitutional provision :
Not to that learning which endangers the compromises of the constitution by attempts to maintain that the United States were a nation before they were states, and that the constitution was formed by that nation; nor that other learning which would make shipwreck of constitutional rights and safeguards by theories which sophistically give to the war powers of the president and congress a predom- inance over constitutional guaranties ; but that learning which, accepting the undisputed facts of history, arrives at the conclusion that the constitution was adopted by the several peoples of the different states, whereby the peoples of those states became a nation for the purposes manifested by it ; and that the war powers, designed to preserve, can- not be rightfully exercised to destroy, the liberties of the people.
We dedicate it to philanthropy and charity. Not to that philanthropy which consists in words and eschews works ; not to that charity which, beginning at home, ends in the same spot ; nor that charity which does hope things are not quite so bad as they are reported, but is fearful that they may be worse; but to that philanthropy which does the deeds of the Good Samaritan, and which is open-hearted and open-handed within the limits of prudence ; and to that charity which suffereth long and is kind, which envieth not, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, hopeth all things, and endureth all things.
We dedicate it to ambition. Not that ambition which seeks a seat in congress by bribery, or any other seat by the petty arts of the partisan politician ; but that ambition described by Lord Mansfield, when he said, "I wish popu- larity, but it is that popularity which follows, not that which is run after ; it is that popularity which, sooner or later, never fails to do justice to the pursuit of noble ends by noble means."
We dedicate it to rational amusement. Not to the games
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or pursuits which blunt the conscience, deprave the habits, ·enervate the mind, and vitiate the taste ; but to the recrea- tions which solace from care, stimulate the fancy, develop the muscle, sustain the nerves, and give, through social in- tercourse, a relaxation from toil, a kindly regard for our neighbors, and a courtesy to our associates, whether within or without the township.
We dedicate it to the wise and just exercise of all the po- litical and municipal rights conferred upon the town, and to the faithful discharge of all corresponding duties.
Finally, as the sum of all, we dedicate it to human happi- ness, and the glory of God. And may his blessing rest upon it, and hallow it, from its commencement to its termi- nation.
[NOTE I-See p. 545. A portion of Jaffrey was included in the original location of Peterborough.
The township of Peterborough was granted by Massachusetts to inhabitants of that colony, with power to the grantees to select the particular location. Under the erroneous supposition that the line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire was that claimed by the former, the grantees made their location beyond the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and embraced within their "six miles square" a large portion of the valley between the base of the mountain on the east (now known as Peterboro' mountain) and the Monadnock. When it was ascertained that the location was within New Hampshire, and fell within the purchase of the Masonian proprietors, Jos. Blanchard, as their agent, cut off a range and a half on the western side, in order to provide for a tier of townships east of the Monadnock ; and the portion thus cut off was included in Monadnock Nos. 2 and 3 (Jaffrey and Dublin). The Masonian proprietors not only released the residue of the township to the grantees under Massachusetts, but gave them, to make up their quantity, a strip of land on the east, of equal extent to that taken off on the west. This, however, being on the eastern mountain, was comparatively worthless. The grantees of Peterborough, in grateful recognition of the kindness of the Masonian proprietors in confirming so much of their invalid title, and in giving them an addition to make up their quantity, gave the proprietors several lots in the township ; but they took care to locate them all in the new addition, on the east. Ex relatione Dr. Albert Smith.]
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[NOTE 2-See p. 554. Something more may be said upon this subject, and, as I have no wish to recur to it again, I add here,-The compact made on board the Mayflower, which fur- nished the foundation of the first town organization, at Ply- mouth, was " occasioned partly by the discontented and muti- nous speeches of some of the strangers" on board the ship, and partly by the reason that " such an act by them done (this their condition considered) might be as firm as any patent, and in some respects more sure." The matters which " occasioned " the compact had, therefore, no particular relation to the church polity. It recited that they were loyal subjects of King James ; that they had undertaken, for the glory of God and advance- ment of the Christian faith, and honor of their king and country, a voyage to plant a colony,-and by it they combined them- selves together, into a civil body politic, for the better promotion of those ends, and by virtue of it "to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony."
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