USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Keene > History of the town of Keene, from 1732, when the township was granted by Massachusetts, to 1874, when it became a city > Part 15
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Thomas Wells,
Stephen Esty,
John White,
James Wright,
James Eady, Henry Ellis,
Zadoc Wheeler,
Benjamin Ellis,
Walter Wheeler,
Benjamin Ellis, Jr., Joshua Ellis, Jabez Fisher,
Abijah Wilder,
Jonathan Wheeler,
Silas French,
David Foster, Jr.,
Peter Fiskin,
Thomas Wilder, . Thomas Morse, Ephraim Leonard,
Aaron Gray, Jr.,
John Swan,
Jacob Town,
Timothy Crossfield,
Joseph Willson,
Joseph Ellis, Jr.,
William Woods,
Daniel Willson,
Samuel Wadsworth,
Peter Daniels,
Stephen Larabee, Daniel Lake, Ezra Metcalf,
Samuel Bassett,
Asahel Nims, Eliakim Nims,
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TOWN AFFAIRS.
William Goodenow,
Luke Metcalf,
John Griggs, Isaac Wyman, Jr.,
"To Col. Josiah Willard.
Ephraim Dorman, C.
Errors Excepted.
Keene August 7, 1773."
"THE ALARM LIST BELONGING TO KEENE.
"Lieut. Seth Heaton,
Samuel Woods,
Dea. David Foster,
Samuel Daniels,
John Day,
Jesse Clark,
Abraham Wheeler,
Joseph Brown,
Nathan Blake,
Robert Gillmore,
Joseph Ellis,
Obadiah Hamilton,
Uriah Willson,
Peter Rice,
Ebenezer Nims,
Elisha Ellis,
David Nims,
Isaac Billings,
Gideon Ellis,
Josiah Ellis,
Lieut. Andrew Balch,
Timothy Ellis, Jr.,
Aaron Gray,
Ichabod Fisher,
Ebenezer Day,
William Gray,
Eliphalet Briggs,
Benjamin Hall, Jr.,
Benjamin Archer,
Benjamin Osgood,
Capt. Isaac Wyman,
Nathaniel Hall,
Doct. Obadiah Blake,
Samuel Woods, Jr.,
Lieut. Timothy Ellis,
John Connolly,
Thomas Frink, Esq.,
Samuel Colhoun,
Doct. Josiah Pomeroy,
Ebenezer Cooke,
Doct. Gideon Tiffany,
Daniel Snow,
Elijah Williams,
Eliphalet Briggs, Jr."
Israel Houghton,
(Annals of Keene, pages 37-38.)
The number of ratable polls in Keene, as returned by order of the general assembly in May, 1773, for a new apportionment of taxes, was 150.
The annual town meeting of 1774 voted sixty pounds for the support of preaching and forty pounds for schools; and the selectmen were made the committee to supply the pulpit.
The first school committees of which we have any record were chosen this year, consisting of two members in each district, of which there were now seven.
A town meeting on the 31st of March chose Lieut. Benjamin Hall representative to the provincial assembly which met at Portsmouth, on the 7th of April. He also represented the town at the previous session of the
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HISTORY OF KEENE.
assembly, which began on the 11th of January, although no record of his election is found.
"Voted that all marks of Sheep and Cattle belonging to this Town be put on Record in a book provided for that purpose."
Parliament continued to enforce laws which irritated the colonists, the feeling of opposition grew more and more intense, and the war clouds more and more threat- ening. One of the most obnoxious of those laws was that levying a duty of three pence per pound on tea, and the people determined to deny themselves their favorite bever- age. Keene and nearly all the towns took action con- demning its use, the colonies adopted articles of agreement against its importation, and the people refused to allow it to be brought into the country. The "Boston Tea Party" took place in December, 1773. In June, 1774, the ship "Grosvenor" from London arrived at Portsmouth with twenty-seven chests of Bohea tea consigned to Edward Parry, a merchant of that town. The people compelled him to reship it to Halifax. In September another consignment came to the same person. A mob attacked Parry's house, broke in his windows and threat- ened more serious consequences if the tea were not imme- diately reshipped. That consignment was also sent to Halifax; and for a long time afterwards "Sent to Halifax" was a common by-word in the province.
At the spring session of the assembly of New Hamp- shire in 1773, the house of representatives had appointed a "Committee of Correspondence"-usually called the "Committee of Safety"-as had been done in other prov- inces; and a vigorous correspondence was opened with those other committees. The result was that the colonies chose delegates to a general congress, which met in Phila- delphia in 1774, to take into consideration the condition of public affairs and recommend measures upon which all could unite and act in concert. That congress was com- posed of some of the ablest men in the country.
Gov. Wentworth had labored to prevent the appoint- ment of a committee of correspondence in New Hampshire, and when the act passed he dissolved the assembly. But
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TOWN AFFAIRS.
the patriots were not to be balked by mere forms. The committee at once assumed the position and powers of the general executive of the province and issued a summons to the representatives, who again met in their own hall. The governor, through the sheriff of the county, commanded them to disperse and keep the peace, but when he had re- tired they proceeded to business, recommended a day of fasting and prayer, which was solemnly observed, and called upon all the towns to send delegates to a conven- tion at Exeter to choose delegates to the Continental con- gress. That committee met on the 21st of July, and was called the First Provincial congress. Lieut. Benjamin Hall was the representative to the general assembly, but he proved to be a loyalist, and Keene does not appear to have been represented in that convention.
Upon the meeting of the Continental congress, a state- ment of the grievances of the colonists was drawn up, followed by articles of agreement upon measures for secur- ing redress. Those articles were called the "Non-Importa- tion Agreement," or association, and the "Non-Consump- tion Agreement," which forbade the importation or con- sumption of any goods or merchandise whatever from Great Britain or Ireland, or the dependent islands of Great Britain. It was also agreed: "That a committee be chosen in every County, City and Town, those who are qualified to vote for Representatives in the Legislatures, whose business it shall be attentively to observe the con- duct of all persons touching this Association," etc. The agreements were signed by all the delegates, for themselves and their constituents. Those agreements bore severely upon the people, for they shut out many articles that were necessary for their comfort and convenience; but the patri- ots readily submitted to the deprivation for the good of the common cause.
A town meeting was held on the 26th of September, 1774, David Nims, moderator. One article in the warrant was to see if it be the mind of the town to sign the covenant and engagement, which was sent and recom- mended, by the committee of correspondence, relating to the non-importation agreement. The general congress was
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HISTORY OF KEENE.
then in session but had not yet acted upon this question, and the meeting passed the following preamble and vote: "whearas the Towns in this province have chosen mem- bers to Represent them in a General Congress of all the Collines Now sitting at the City of Philadelphia to con- sult and Determine what steps are Necessary for the Collonies to adopt: voted therefore not to sign the said non importation agreement until we hear what measures said Congress has agreed upon for themselves & their constituents."
The same meeting "voted to get a Stock of ammuni- tion for the Town viz. 200 1b of good gun powder, 400 1b of Lead and 1200 flints." Twenty-four pounds "law- ful money " were raised for that purpose, and Capt. Isaac Wyman, Lieut. Timothy Ellis and Capt. Ephraim Dorman were chosen a committee to provide the articles. The same committee was instructed to build a magazine six feet square for storing the ammunition; but a subsequent meeting voted not to build the magazine.
October 17, the town "voted unanimously to give Mr. Elias Jones a Call to Settle in the work of the Gospel ministry in this Town;" and voted to give him "one hun- dred and Thirty Three pounds Six Shillings & Eight pence as a Settlement," and seventy-five pounds as an annual salary. The selectmen were made a committee to lay the votes of the town before him, but no report of any further negotiations with him has been found. "The Worthy Mr. William Fessenden " also preached as a candidate during the year, but the town voted not to call him.
At this October meeting, the town "choose Capt Isaac Wyman & Leut Timothy Ellis Delegates to attend the Congress at Walepole the Fourth Tuesday of this Instant" to take measures for the better security of the internal police of the county. Nothing is known concerning the proceedings of that "Congress."
A convention of delegates from the towns in this vicin- ity ,was held at Keene, on the 28th of December, which issued an address to the people urging patriotic action, and recommending the towns to hold public meetings and adopt a by-law which was prepared and sent out with
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.
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TOWN AFFAIRS.
the address. No other record of that convention has been preserved.
An order had been passed by the king in council pro- hibiting the exportation of gunpowder and other military stores to America. Fort William and Mary, at the entrance of Portsmouth harbor, contained military stores, and the only force that held it at that time was a captain and five men. The committee of safety at Boston were on the watch for every kind of information. They learned of the orders of the king, and also that the frigate Scar- borough was to take troops to the Piscataqua to secure Fort William and Mary. They sent Paul Revere express to Portsmouth with the news. He arrived on the 13th of December, 1774. Committees of safety had been formed in many of the towns, and the committee of Portsmouth promptly and secretly notified some of the leading men in that and neighboring towns. The Portsmouth company under Capt. Thomas Pickering turned out and was swelled by men from other places. Major John Sullivan and Capt. John Langdon joined the party and aided in giving direc- tion to the movement. They proceeded to the fort, cap- tured the small garrison, and brought off a hundred barrels of powder1 and sixty stands of small arms. The next day fifteen of the light cannon and all the small arms and other stores were brought off-just before the arrival of the Scarborough and the sloop Canseau with several companies of troops, who took possession of the fort and dismantled it.
Some of the wealthy men in the province were disposed to be loyal to the crown on account of the property they had at stake; but a large majority of the people of Keene were outspoken patriots, and many of them were deter- mined and enthusiastic in that cause. A few of the lead- ing men were inclined to loyalty but were prudent and avoided controversy with their neighbors on that subject; and some of the citizens were inclined to follow the lead of those influential, secret loyalists.
Those officers of the law who had not thrown up their commissions were, of necessity, loyalists; but the patriots
1 A part of the powder was secreted under Durham meetinghouse and part was used at the battle of Bunker Hill.
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HISTORY OF KEENE.
generally were extremely bitter towards all who were tinc- tured with toryism, and refused to allow the royal man- dates to be executed.
Elijah Williams, a lawyer, had come to Keene in 1771, and had been appointed a "Justice of the Peace" by Gov- ernor Wentworth in May, 1774. In the winter of 1774-5 he "instituted a suit against a citizen of Keene, the writ being in the form then usual, commencing 'George the Third, by the grace of God, King,' &c. Immediately after- wards, a large number of people, many coming from the neighboring towns, assembled at Keene, seized Williams, and took him with them to their place of meeting, which was a barn standing by itself, in a field. They required him to stop the suit, and to promise that he would issue no more writs in the name of the King. Perceiving he had no alternative, he complied, and was then set at liberty." (Annals, page 40.)
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CHAPTER VII. REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 1775.
On the 4th of January the town "voted to come into the Measures Recommended by the Continenttal Congress in their association agreement-voted to choos a Com- mitte of Inspection agreable to sd advice: Choose Capt Isaac Wyman Leut. Timothy Ellis Thos Baker Dan Guild & William Ellis for said Committe of Inspection." "Choose Capt Isaac Wyman to Represent sd Town at the meeting at Exeter to be held on the 21st Instant for the choice of Delegates for the Continental Congress to meet at Philadelphia on may Next."
That convention of deputies from the several towns, sometimes called the Second Provincial congress, met at Exeter on the 25th of January, issued an address to the people warning them of the dangers of British aggression, encouraging them to stand firm as patriots, to support the committee of correspondence, to practise military drill, and to adhere to the agreement to sustain the measures recommended by the Continental congress. John Sullivan and John Langdon were chosen delegates to another Con- tinental congress which was to meet at Philadelphia on the 10th of May.
Nine of the leading men of the colony were appointed a committee of safety, Mathew Thornton of Londonderry chairman, with full power to act as the executive of the colony when the congress was not in session and "to call a Provincial Convention of Deputies, when they shall judge the exigencies of publick affairs require it."
A town meeting on the 23d of February chose Capt. Isaac Wyman to "Represent the Town as a Member of the General Assembly holden at Portsmouth on Febr 23d & so day by Day During their Sessions."
The annual town meeting in March refused to raise
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HISTORY OF KEENE.
money for the support of preaching, but voted 13' 44 to Elisha Briggs "for his service in finishing the meeting house," and 6ª to Silas Cooke for sweeping the same. For about six years at this time the town was without a settled minister. Sixty pounds were voted for schools, the management of the schools was added to the duties of the selectmen, and no school committees were chosen.
The controversy with Great Britain increased in bitter- ness, and the people in all parts of the country grew more and more excited. Civil officers threw up their commis- sions under the king, the courts of justice were suspended and the laws relating to civil affairs were no longer executed.
By the militia law then in force, the execution of which was now in the hands of the committee of safety and the provincial congress, every male inhabitant from sixteen to sixty years of age was required to provide himself with a musket and bayonet, knapsack, cartridge-box, one pound of powder, twenty bullets and twelve flints. Every town was required to keep constantly on hand one barrel of powder, 200 pounds of lead and 300 flints for every sixty men, besides a quantity of these stores for those who were unable to supply themselves. Even the old men and those not able to do full military duty were required to keep on hand the same supply of arms and ammunition as the active militia-men. But for fifteen years there had been peace and the law had not been enforced, and now the people were rudely awakened to the fact that there was less than half the required amount of military stores among them, and that there were scarcely any to be had in the country; that the veterans of the Indian wars were fast passing away; and that their young men were learn- ing nothing of military arts and duties.
Attention was called to these facts by the leading patriots and by the convention. In addition to the regu- larly organized companies and regiments, voluntary asso- ciations were formed for the purpose of learning military exercises, the brightest and most experienced men were chosen to command, and drills and training became fre- quent. Companies of "minute men" were organized, to
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REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
move at a minute's warning, and the manufacture of arms, equipments and powder was stimulated. Congress urged the collection of saltpetre, and bounties were paid by the colony to those who produced the largest quantities of that article; and everybody set to work to save every- thing about the stables and other buildings from which it could be extracted.
The patriots had collected a few military stores at various points, particularly at Concord, Mass. Gen. Gage, the British commander at Boston, determined to seize and destroy them. But no secret whispered among the British officers and royalists in Boston failed to reach the ears of the patriots.
The committees of safety and the people were on the watch. Men were stationed in each of the towns of Charlestown, Cambridge and Roxbury with instructions to note every movement of the British troops. Expresses were kept in readiness to speed intelligence to the country around and preparations were made to flash the news by signal lights.
In the evening of Tuesday, April 18, the British gren- adiers and light infantry were put in motion and marched down to the foot of the common. At 11 o'clock they crossed the river in boats, landed at Lechmere Point (East Cambridge), and started on their march to Lexington and Concord.
The patriot sentinels were alert. The lanterns were hung in the steeple of Christ church on Copp's hill. Paul Revere crossed Charles river in a boat five minutes before the British sentinels received the order to allow no one to leave Boston, mounted a fleet horse and sped away to Lex- ington, rousing the people as he went. Other messengers hastened in all directions, bells were rung and neighbor sent word to neighbor.
Before sunrise American citizens had been slain at Lex- ington, and minute-men and other patriots were flocking to the scene of action. The tidings were caught up by re- lays of swift horsemen and fleet runners on foot-"like the burnt and bloody cross of the Scotch Highlanders"-and carried to every township and every log cabin.
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HISTORY OF KEENE.
So swift were those messengers that they reached New Ipswich-60 miles away-the same afternoon, while the British were still on their bloody retreat to Boston, and ninety-seven men under Capt. Thomas Heald started for Lexington at 2 o'clock that night.
Rindge received the news late on the same afternoon, the night was spent in rallying, and fifty-four men under Captain-afterwards Colonel-Nathan Hale started early the next morning and were in Cambridge before night of the 21st.
It was ninety miles to Keene, and there was no road this side of New Ipswich-nothing but a bridle path through the woods, to be followed by marked trees-never- theless the messenger arrived here "in the forenoon" of the 20th. Capt. Ephraim Dorman commanded the mili- tary company. He lived on the east side of Main street just north of what is now Baker street. Resolute and patriotic but too old for active service-he was then sixty- five-he immediately called for consultation on Capt. Isaac Wyman, a more experienced soldier than himself, who kept the public house already described. By his advice messengers were sent to every part of the town, . notifying the inhabitants to meet on the "Green" that afternoon.
The meetinghouse stood then where the soldiers' monu- ment stands now, facing south; and the "Green," or common-the training ground of the military company- was the space in front of the meetinghouse extending down to the present railroad tracks, with a few detached ten- footers on its eastern side, and open fields bordered by one or two small buildings on the west.
The meeting was held as notified, and voted unani- mously to send a company "to oppose the regulars." Capt. Wyman was chosen commander, and though fifty- one years old-a veteran of the French and Indian wars -he promptly accepted the command. Volunteers were called for and twenty-nine men stepped to the front, the captain himself making the number thirty.
With the wisdom of experience, he told his men to re- turn to their homes, prepare their arms and equipments
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BOSTON ROAD, NOW BAKER STREET. WITH D). A. R. MARKER.
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REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
and get provisions for several days; for, said he, "all the roads will be full of men and you can procure nothing on the way;" and to meet at his house the next morning at sunrise.
That evening, by invitation of Capt. Wyman, Capt. Dorman, Lieut. Jeremiah Stiles and other leading patriots of the town met for consultation in the north room of Capt. Wyman's tavern-the same parlor in which the first meet- ing of the trustees of Dartmouth college had been held in 1770-and everything that foresight could suggest was arranged for the march.
Promptly at the hour1-on that Friday morning, the 21st of April, 1775-the men were there and immediately marched off down Main street, turning down what is now Baker street, and out on the Marlboro road and thence to Jaffrey and New Ipswich, probably, as that was then the road to Boston. Their names were:
Capt. Isaac Wyman.
Jeremiah Stiles, chosen lieutenant and afterwards cap- tain and commanded the company at Bunker Hill.
John Griggs, afterwards spelled Gregg, chosen ensign and was afterwards a captain.
"Samuel White, appointed sergeant, twenty years old.
Ezra Metcalf, appointed sergeant, left wife and child in the west part.
Asahel Nims, appointed sergeant, son of David, 26 years old, killed at Bunker Hill.
Luke Metcalf, appointed corporal.
Benjamin Ellis, appointed corporal, son of Joseph, twenty years old, afterwards a captain in the Continental army.
Samuel Bassett, fifer, slightly wounded at Bunker Hill. Ebenezer Billings, came to Keene from Packersfield, an apprentice of Breed Batcheller, the tory.
William Bradley.
Stephen Day, wounded at Bunker Hill and died Aug. 17. Jesse Dassance; James Eddy; Caleb Ellis, son of Lieut. Timothy Ellis; Hugh Gray; Isaac Griswold; 2 Eliakim Nims, brother of Asahel, twenty-four years old.
1 "In the afternoon, Gen. Bellows, Col. John Bellows, and Thomas Spar- hawk, arrived from Walpole, and riding to his house, inquired for Capt. Wyman. Being answered, that he started at sunrise, at the head of a company of men, they exclaimed, 'Keene has shown a noble spirit!' and hastened onwards. They were soon followed by a party of men from Walpole." (Annals, page 41.)
2 On the roll as from Gilsum. He lived near the line; owned land in both towns, which then gave him the right to vote in both; was prominent in the town affairs of Keene for many years; and was a member of this company.
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HISTORY OF KEENE.
Charles Rice, 1 Daniel Stone, Joseph Thatcher, Elisha Willis, Daniel Willson, great uncle of the late Gen. James Wilson (lived at this time in what has since been known as the Jabez Daniels house on Court street, south of the glue factory), left wife and three children.
These twenty-two men marched from Keene with Capt. Wyman, enlisted into the service, were in Stiles's company at Bunker Hill, were afterwards transferred into a Massachu- setts regiment, and their identity is shown on that regimen- tal roll by the date of enlistment, at Keene, April 21, 1775.
We also learn from the New Hampshire Revolutionary Rolls that Benjamin Tiffany, a sergeant, and Elijah Blake, a private, in the company of Capt. Samuel Richards, of Goffstown, in Stark's regiment; and Ebenezer Carpenter, a sergeant in the company of Capt. Benjamin Mann, of Mason, in Reed's regiment, were from Keene, and each en- listed April 23, and were in the battle of Bunker Hill. It is therefore probable- almost certain-that these three men were also among the thirty who marched from Keene on the 21st; and that in the unsettled state of affairs, the strife among recruiting officers to secure men, and the fact that Capt. Wyman was promoted out of the company, these men joined other companies, dating their enlistment from the time they arrived at Medford instead of the time they left Keene, as did Col. Stark, Capt. Wyman and many Others. 2 These make twenty-six of the thirty, leaving four still to be accounted for.
The company made its march of eighty-five miles in two days, arriving at Medford on the 23d.
1 On the roll as from Surry, but a member of this company, and wounded at Bunker Hill.
Petition of Charles Rice, Bunker Hill soldier, 1791:
"To the honb'le the Senate and house of Representatives in General Court convened at Concord. - Humbly Shews, Charles Rice of Keene, that in the year 1775 being a Soldier in Captain Jeremiah Stiles's Company & Colº John Starks Regiment he received a most distressing wound through the breast at the memo- rable battle of Bunker Hill-which has ever since rendered it impossible for him to gain a comfortable subsistence for himself-much more for a numerous family which daily look to him for that assistance which he would most readily afford were it in his power .- That your petitioner has never received the least assist- ance from his Country being entirely ignorant of any feasible method of making application- He therefore prays your Honorable body to compassionate his case and lend him such assistance as in your clemency you shall judge proper-And as in duty bound ever prays Jeremiah Stiles in behalf of the petitioner"
(State Papers, vol. 12, page 818.)
2 In Gilmore's "New Hampshire Men at Bunker Hill" Tiffany and Blake are put down as from Goffstown, but correspondence with the town clerk of that town and others in that vicinity fails to discover their names as residents of Goffstown, at that time or any other, and it is evident-their "residence" not being given-that they were put down as from that town simply because they were in the company of Capt. Richards of Goffstown.
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