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 26
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
.
290
HISTORY OF KEENE.
The Balches had been succeeded as post riders by Ozias Silsby of Acworth, the route remaining substantially the same as that established in 1781. Uzziel Hurd of Lemp- ster also carried the mail and the papers from the print- ing office in Keene to the towns in Cheshire county not on the mail line, "once a fortnight, bad weather excepted " -riding as far north as Plainfield, and doing an express business.
The appropriations of the town for the support of schools had been steadily increasing until, at the annual meeting in 1790, the sum raised was 100 pounds in addition to that required by law-which was five times the sum required of the town as its proportion of the state tax, amounting this year to nearly fifty pounds. The town also voted "to make up what is wanting to pay for finishing the Meeting hous agreeably to the report of the committe."
In early times, salmon and shad were plentiful in the Connecticut river, and they even ran up the Ashuelot and its larger branches. "By the law of nature and nations" the people of this valley should have continued in posses- sion of those delicious varieties of food, but with the settlement of the country, came dams across the streams, and the fish were prevented from making their annual visits to these waters. For several years previous to 1789, petitions had been presented from the selectmen of Win- chester and other inhabitants of the county, for sluices to be opened through the dams to allow the passage of the fish, and the legislature passed an act requiring such sluices to be made. The annual town meeting in Keene in 1790 "chose Capt. Richardson Lockhart Willard and Eli Met- calf a Committe to Inspect the Several Milldams across Ashawolet River, agreeably to a law of this State." That statute remained in force until 1794.
A town meeting on the 10th of June "voted to Build a workhous at Som futter Perod and voted to hire a workHous for the present and chose a committee to do the same viz Isaac Griswold Davis Howlett and Josiah Richardson and chose Josiah Richardson to oversee sd workHous and Tak proper cair of" the poor.
291
TOWN AFFAIRS.
June 17, the governor and council appointed "Daniel Newcomb Esq. of Keene first Justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the County of Cheshire."
A census of the state was taken this year, that of Keene being:
Males above 16 316
Males under 16 318
Females 671
Other free persons
5
2
Slaves
Amount 1,314
[1312]
At this time Charlestown had 1,093 inhabitants; Claremont, 1,435; Jaffrey, 1,235; Swanzey, 1,157; Winches- ter, 1,209; Walpole, 1,245; Richmond, 1,380; Chesterfield, 1,905; and Westmoreland, 2,018.
Keene had two negro slaves, and in the state there were 158. In 1781 and 1782, the following advertisements were published in the New Hampshire Gazette:
"A likely, capable Negro Girl, 14 years of age, to be sold, or exchanged for a Negro Boy. Enquire of the Printer."
"To be sold very cheap for want of employment-A likely, healthy Negro Girl about 15 years of age, under- stands all kinds of housework -will suit town or country. Enquire of the Printer."
Early in 1791 the printing office of the New Hamp- shire Recorder was removed from the building opposite Col. Wyman's tavern to one just below the Chandler House; and the publisher announced that "the great declension of Advertisements, and the difficulty of obtain- ing pay " for the paper would compel him to discontinue its publication at the close of that quarter, but that printing would be carried on as usual. But he afterwards pub- lished a few numbers of the Cheshire Advertiser.
The first bookbinder in town, so far as appears, was Thomas Smith Webb, the celebrated Freemason, who had a shop in Federal Row in 1790-96.
In January, 1791, Capt. Jeremiah Stiles was appointed a justice of the peace for Cheshire county.
The annual town meeting: " Voted that their be Liberty
292
HISTORY OF KEENE.
to set up a Hay markett in Som Conveinant place betwene the meeting Hous and the lane called Warshbourns lane 1 where it will best Commode the propriators and the pub- lick." The haymarket was established in the broad open street below the present City Hotel, with the Ralston tavern and a row of small shops on the west side, and "Federal Row" on the east.
On the 18th of March, in accordance with an act of the legislature establishing postoffices and post routes in New Hampshire, the president and council of the state appointed Major Josiah Richardson postmaster at Keene, and the office was at his tavern on Pleasant street-the first regularly established postoffice in town. The post- master's compensation was "two pence to be advanced on the postage of private letters, packets &c." The same year the post routes were so changed that a mail ran once a fortnight from Concord through Weare, New Boston, Am- herst, Wilton, Peterboro, Dublin and Marlboro to Keene, and thence through Westmoreland, Walpole, Alstead, Acworth, Charlestown, Claremont, Newport, Lempster, Washington, Hillsboro, Henniker and Hopkinton to Con- cord. Thomas Smith of Surry was postrider on that route. The compensation of the rider was twelve pounds per annum and the perquisites on private packages. The postage was sixpence on each private letter for every forty miles, and fourpence for any number of miles less than forty.
In August, Hon. Daniel Newcomb was chosen a delegate to the convention which met at Concord on the 7th of September to revise the state constitution. That conven- tion chose Hon. Samuel Livermore president, adjourned from time to time, discussed the seventy-two amendments proposed, and sent out those adopted by the convention for acceptance or rejection by the people. At two succes- sive meetings Keene voted strongly in favor of the amend- ments as finally adopted. The title of the executive was changed from president to governor. At the closing session, in September, 1792, Judge Newcomb of Keene was made chairman of the committee that reported the result
1 Washburn's lane appears to have been the same as Packersfield road.
293
TOWN AFFAIRS.
of the labors of the convention in our present state con- stitution.
The annual town meeting in 1792 increased Rev. Mr. Hall's salary to 100 pounds 1 instead of eighty pounds, as it had been previously. Eighty pounds were raised for a "Bell for the new Meeting House," and Peleg Sprague was chosen a committee to purchase the same. "For encourag- ing the Purchase of a Bell, Judge Newcomb declared in Town Meeting, that he would pay (exclusive of his own Proportion) the Proportion of Ten men whom the Select- men Should Judge to be least able to pay .- Squire Sprague, declared to the same Purport for Four." At a subsequent meeting, Mr. Sprague's bill for the cost of the bell and for hanging it, 951. 2s. 8d. 2q., was allowed. Two years later the town voted to purchase a larger bell, to weigh one thousand pounds, and chose Daniel Newcomb agent for that purpose.
On the 31st of March, the veteran soldier, magistrate and eminent citizen, Col. Isaac Wyman, died, aged sixty- eight, and was buried in the old yard at the south end of Main street.
In March, Mrs. Ruth Kidder reopened a school she had taught the previous year in the basement of "Watson's shop," which stood on the west side of Main street where the Cheshire bank and buildings south of it now stand. The entrance was on the south side. The subscribers to this school "promise Mrs. Ruth Kidder the sum of five shillings [831/8 cents] a week for her services and five shillings for her board, and to furnish the necessary wood." With the exception of two or three small buildings along the line of the street, the view to the southwest from that schoolroom door was unobstructed across open, green meadows to "Daniel's Hill" beyond.
A Mrs. Mary Dunbar (the widow of Asa Dunbar) was keeping tavern on Main street where the white house between the railroad tracks now stands. Mrs. Dunbar was the grandmother of Henry D. Thoreau, the famous naturalist.
1 In addition to this, a "bee" was made cach year to cut and haul his year's supply of wood- about forty cords-from the minister lot, two miles north of the village.
294
HISTORY OF KEENE.
Major William Todd kept the "Ralston Tavern," and later he was the postmaster in Keene. (Josiah P. Cooke in Annals of Keene, page 104, gives the name John 'Todd. But it is probable that Mr. Cooke wrote from memory and mistook the name John for William. The name John Todd does not appear in any of the records of Keene, while Major William Todd was in town from 1790 to 1803, and perhaps longer.)
August 27, 1792, the town "Voted to sett off Doct." Blake's Corner of the Town as a seperate School District, consisting of the following families-viz. John Conoly, Timothy Conoly, Doct." Obadiah Blake, Royal Blake, Abijah Metcalf, Frederick Metcalf, Joseph Brown, Isaac Wyman, Thomas Dwinell, Josiah Ellis, Elijah Baker, & Ebenezer Baker." The Blake, Conoly (Colony), and Wyman farms still remain in possession of the descendants of those fami- lies. The Baker place is owned by Prof. Bracq, and the Dwinell place, off the road, west, by Edwin V. Aldrich.
The same meeting voted to raise four hundred pounds for building and repairing schoolhouses, and "that the several burying yards be fenced by the first Day of June next by the several districts at their Expense, and in case of failure, that the Selectmen fence them at the Expense of said Districts." Five burial districts were laid out, as appears later in this chapter.
An article in the warrant for a town meeting held Sept. 24, "To permit Doct." Dan.1 Adams or Doct." Thad- deus Maccarty or Doct." Thomas Edwards, or any two of them to erect an Hospital in some convenient part of said Town to inoculate for the small Pox," passed in the negative.
At another meeting in November, the selectmen were authorized to employ some person to "ring the Bell in this Town as often as they shall think proper," and pay a reasonable sum for that service.
All nails were made by hand, and in consequence of the scarcity of them, the legislature had offered a bounty for their manufacture. In 1787-8, Ezra Harvey made or caused to be made at his shop in Keene, according to a certificate of the selectmen, 200,000 four-penny wrought
.
.
DANIEL ADAMS.
295
TOWN AFFAIRS.
nails, and received the bounty thereon. Under the same conditions he and Elijah Baker continued the business for several years. In 1790, Baker made 400,000 ten-penny and Harvey 200,000 four-penny wrought nails. In 1791, Harvey made 400,000 four-penny and Baker 100,000 ten- penny wrought nails. In 1792, Baker made 300,000 ten- penny and Harvey 400,000 four-penny wrought nails.
"The only vehicle or carriage, at this time, known to be kept and used in Keene for pleasure traveling, was owned and kept by Thomas Wells, known in his day as 'Farmer Wells,' though he was by trade a hatter. This vehicle was what was then called a 'chair,' was without a top, accom- modated two persons, and was frequently let for the use of persons going short distances, and who desired an easier mode of locomotion than a hard trotting horse.
"It was at a much later period that Judge Newcomb introduced the first chaise, and at a still later, that the Rev. Aaron Hall followed the same fashion. No stage at this time had ever passed through the streets, nor were the roads generally such as could be passed in wheel car- riages; and the usual and only mode of travel was on horseback." (Annals, page 104.)
Through the efforts of Judge Newcomb, and largely at his expense, a "grammar school" had been set up previous to 1793; but the exact time is not known. The school- house in which it was taught stood on the site of the brick one, just below the residence of Mrs. E. C. Thayer, which was removed a few years ago, when the Elliot schoolhouse was built. A schoolhouse stood on that spot for about one hundred years. The first teacher was Peter John Ware, and "He left a lasting impression of severity on the memories, if not on the backs, of his pupils." Dur- ing this year (1793) William Thurston was in charge of the school. He had graduated from Dartmouth college in 1792, and afterwards settled as a lawyer in Boston. The tuition was 121/2 cents a week, with a small additional sum for those who learned to write. "Mr. Thurston was succeeded by Master Farrar, a man of very agreeble, mild manners." (Annals, page 106.)
In April, Henry Blake & Co. began the publication of the Columbian Informer, or Cheshire Journal. But one copy of that paper appears to have been preserved,
.
296
HISTORY OF KEENE.
although its publication continued until August, 1795, when, Henry Blake having died, it was sold to Cornelius Sturtevant, Jr., & Co.
The highest taxpayers in town in 1793, in the order of the sums paid-the first list that has been preserved- were Alexander Ralston, Thomas Baker, Abel Blake, Moses Johnson, Daniel Newcomb, James Wright, Josiah Richardson, Simeon Clark, David Willson, David Nims, Jr.
In February, 1794, a subscription was started to pur- chase the first town clock-to be made by Luther Smith at his shop in Federal Row. He agreed to make and war- rant it and keep it in repair for ten years for thirty-six pounds. The town accepted and placed it in the tower of the meetinghouse, and it did good service for many years.
At the annual town meeting, Abel Blake, Dea. Abijah Wilder and Joseph Brown were chosen "Fire Wards;" James Morse "Culler of Staves" and Benjamin Hall "Essay master of pot and pearl ashes,"-the first mention of those offices in the town records. The office of clerk of the market was renewed and James Morse was chosen. The article, "To see if the Town will grant Money to teach Singing," was passed over.
For many years after the Revolution, Walpole was a rival of Keene for the position of leading town in the county, as were also Westmoreland, Chesterfield, Rich- mond and Charlestown; and in both population and val- uation the three first named exceeded Keene at this time. Sometime in 1793, Isaiah Thomas and David Carlisle, Jr., established a weekly paper at Walpole, calling it "The . New Hampshire and Vermont Journal, or Farmer's Mu- seum." Incomplete files of the paper, from No. 58, vol. 2, dated May 16, 1794, to the time of its discontinuance in October, 1799, have been preserved, and have been of value in the preparation of this work. Its columns are filled chiefly with important state papers; diplomatic letters and documents, foreign and domestic; letters of Washington and other distinguished men; and the acts of congress and the legislature. Noticeable among the few advertisements, is the frequency with which husbands in the surrounding towns forbid the public to trust or "harbour" the wives
297
TOWN AFFAIRS.
who had left their "bed and board." Five such advertise- ments appear in one number of that small paper, indicat- ing much domestic infelicity even in those days. Sometimes there were spicy replies from the absconding wives, who could "talk back," and who probably had the sympathy of the public. Many advertisements of runaway appren- tices appear, and rewards of one cent, two cents and six cents-seldom larger- were offered for their apprehension and return.
It was during 1794 that a copartnership was formed between Abijah Wilder and Luther Eames of Keene, for the purpose of building aqueducts. The next February, "Lu- ther Eames and his associates were incorporated by the Legislature of Massachusetts into a society for bringing fresh water into the town of Boston." Further writings were executed in May between Abijah Wilder, Luther Eames and Jonathan Church, for building the Jamaica Pond aque- duct; and thus Boston is indebted to Keene enterprise "for the first introduction of pure water into the town."
In the early part of 1795, or possibly in the last of 1794, Asa Bullard was appointed postmaster at Keene- the first under the United States government. He had been an officer in the Revolutionary war and was styled "Capt. Bullard" when he first came to Keene; and he afterwards rose to the rank of major in the militia.1 He kept a "Coffee House" on what is now the south corner of Dunbar and Main streets, in what was afterwards known as the "plastered house"-plastered on the out- side-and had the office there. It stood on the same foundations as the present house of Mr. Isaac N. Spencer, with a garden extending south to the Packersfield road. It was afterwards the residence of Elijah Dunbar, Esq., for whom the street was named. That was a convenient location for the postoffice then, being in the Haymarket, and at the south end of Federal Row. The mails now came direct from Boston once a week and went through
1 " He afterwards removed to Walpole and kept tavern there; and it was at his house that for some time the club of scholars and wits, who made them- selves and the Farmers' Museum famous throughout the country, by their lucubrations, and consisted of Joseph Dennie, afterwards editor of the Port Folio, at Philadelphia ; Royal Tyler, afterwards Chief Justice of Vermont; Sam- uel Hunt and Roger Vose, both afterwards members of Congress; Samuel West, and others, held their periodical symposiums." (Annals, page 79.)
298
HISTORY OF KEENE.
to "Charlestown, No. 4." They were carried by Jotham Johnson of Leominster, Mass., who advertised to carry passengers in winter "in a convenient covered sleigh." He left Boston Wednesday morning, reached Leominster that night; came to Keene Thursday and spent the night at Capt. Bullard's Coffee House; arrived at No. 4 at 2 p. m., Friday, and returned to Walpole that night. Passing through Keene Saturday morning at 9 o'clock, Marlboro (the old town on the hill) at 11, he reached Boston at 7 o'clock Monday morning.1 The roads as they were then would hardly be deemed passable now, and the mails were carried on horseback except when there was plenty of snow. The veteran John Balch, who began in 1781, was still carry- ing mails, newspapers and packages on some of the routes.
The canal and locks at Bellows Falls, for the passage of the freight boats then in use on the river, were in pro- cess of building this year. The boats were propelled up the stream with poles.
Samuel Hunt, afterwards a member of congress, was practising law in Keene at this time. His office was on the east side of Main street, below the Chandler House. He came from Alstead, remained five years, and removed to Charlestown, his native place.
Asa Bullard, Jr., taught the grammar school in 1795. He had graduated at Dartmouth in 1793, and was "after- wards a highly respectable teacher and physician in Bos- ton." He was succeeded here by Thomas Heald, a Dart- mouth graduate of 1794, who settled as a lawyer in Con- cord, Mass.
May 19, Capt. Ephraim Dorman, the veteran soldier and leader in the town in the early days, died, aged eighty- four, and was buried in the old south yard.
A town meeting on the 25th of May voted to increase the salary of Rev. Mr. Hall to 130 pounds-fifty pounds more than was agreed upon when he was settled. One hundred and fifty pounds in addition to the amount required
1 In 1794, congress passed an act establishing mail routes in New Hamp- shire. One of those routes ran from Portsmouth through Exeter, Chester, Amherst, Keene and Walpole to Charlestown. Another ran direct from Boston to Keene. The rates of postage were, "For every single letter conveyed by land not exceeding thirty miles six cents; over thirty, not exceeding sixty miles, eight cents; over sixty, not exceeding one hundred miles, ten cents;" and so on-the rate for those carried over 450 miles being twenty-five cents. For double or triple letters, double or triple postage was required.
299
TOWN AFFAIRS.
by law were raised for schools, and "Eighty pounds to pur- chase and fence Burying grounds in the several districts."
At this time the town was divided into five districts for burial purposes. The first included the village and all the inhabitants between the river and the "North Branch," from Swanzey line as far north on the west side as " Fisher Brook," and to Sullivan line on the east side. Down to this time the burying ground of this district had been the original one at the south end of Main street, but in the spring of this year the one on Prison street was opened for burial. The first interment there was that of John (Holland?) Johnson, 1 the seven years old son of Moses Johnson, who died April 22. His grave is a short distance southeast of the entrance. Gravestones in that yard giv- ing an earlier date than 1795 are those for bodies removed from some other yard.
The second district was the southwest quarter of the town, extending as far north as the present Chesterfield road, and including the small village at old West Keene and three or four farms northwest of it. The burying ground was the old one on the knoll near Ash Swamp brook, on the farm now owned by Mr. H. O. Spaulding, where the Daughters of the American Revolution have recently placed a monument.
The third district was the northwest quarter of the town, and the burying ground was near the Westmoreland road and "near Col. Ellis's," three and a half miles from town. Later. the second and third districts united, in part, in the grounds near the old Sawyer tavern, given by Col. Abraham Wheeler, who then owned and kept the tavern.
The fourth district was the north part of the town, with the burying ground in the crotch of the roads beyond the Chase farm.
The fifth district included all east of the North branch, and the burying ground was near Nathan Nye's, in what is now Roxbury.
The boundary lines of the twelve school districts were also run this year, 1795, by the selectmen, and the descriptions recorded; and those districts remained
1 Josiah P. Cooke, in Annals of Keene, page 102, says, "John Holland," but the inscription on the gravestone is simply "John Johnson."
300
HISTORY OF KEENE.
substantially the same for many years. From those descrip- tions we learn that "Esq. Baker" still had his tannery near Beaver brook on the "Boston Road;" that Fisher brook was the little stream that crosses Court street, a little more than a mile from the Square; that Eri Richard- son lived near the southwest corner of the town; that Thomas Dwinell, Addington Daniels, Ammi Brown, James Lincoln, Luther Bragg, Aaron Gray, Noah Leonard and Jesse Hall, besides others previously mentioned, lived in the northwest part of the town; Cornelius Sturtevant and Captains Isaac and Stephen Griswold, near the north line, east of the river; Benjamin Archer, near the town line on the old Walpole road; James Crossfield, in the north part of what is now Roxbury; Capt. David Willson, on the southeast side of Beech hill, probably on the Chapman farm; and many other facts of interest.
The sum raised for schools this year, 1795, was 200 pounds; but an article in the warrant for a meeting in November, to see if the town would support a grammar school, was dismissed. The next year, 1796, "Monsieur Bellerieve, a Frenchman, took charge of the (private) gram- mar school, for the purpose of giving instruction solely in French. His career was a short one." (Annals, page 107.)
The selectmen of Keene had sold to Daniel Newcomb, Esq., in 1784, a small part of the old meetinghouse lot and common at the south end of Main street. On the 30th of November, 1795, they sold him the remainder of that lot, and he afterwards built on it a fine colonial house for his homestead, which gave place to the present structure, now the residence of Mr. E. F. Lane.
In August, Cornelius Sturtevant, Jr., & Co. began the publication of a weekly paper called the "Rising Sun." But few copies of that paper are now in existence. The "Co." was Abijah Wilder and Elias Sturtevant.
Sept. 28, 1795, the town chose Capt. Jeremiah Stiles representative in place of Daniel Newcomb, who had been elected in March, but had also been elected state senator, and resigned as representative.
"Chose Jeremiah Stiles Josiah Richardson & Dan1 Kingsbury Esq' to give a deed in behalf of the Town of
301
TOWN AFFAIRS.
Keene to the County of Cheshire of Land on the Common in Keene to extend eight Rods east of Capt Richardsons east Garden fence, from the Road on the South side of the Common to the North side of the Common, for the pur- pose of erecting a new Court house thereon to be for the use of the County so long as said Court house shall stand thereon and be used as such and no longer and the Town to have the same privileges on said land & in the new Court house to be erected as they now have in the old Court house and on said land."
Mr. Alexander Ralston, the wealthiest man in town, was making an effort to have the new courthouse built near his tavern-in the Haymarket. At the next annual meeting, in 1796. the town "Voted as the opinion of the Inhabitants of Keene that it would be most convenient for the Town of Keene, and for the County of Cheshire, to have a Court house built where the Old one now stands on the Common in Keene; and to instruct their Representa- tive to use his Influence in the Convention of said County to grant two hundred pounds for building the same, agree- able to the contract * * * notwithstanding any pro- posals of M." Ralston since, or if he would build one for nothing where he proposes."
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.