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 33
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Mr. Thomas Hardy came to town this year, through the influence of Samuel Dinsmoor and others, and opened a private school in which he advertised to teach the branches usually taught in academies. He also taught an evening school. He remained two years and then took charge of the Chesterfield academy.
1 Samuel Dinsmoor (senior) afterwards governor, attended services there, "riding out from the village every Sunday morning on his beautiful white horse." The frame of the meetinghouse, many years afterwards, was taken down and rebuilt on the east side of the Ashuelot above the mills and converted into a steam sawmill.
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HISTORY OF KEENE.
The influence of the war still kept the military spirit active. The Keene Light Infantry retained its position as one of the finest companies in the state. Its late captain, Isaac Parker, had been promoted to brigade inspector with the rank of major; and in September of 1816 the company, under Capt. Smith, equipped for actual service, marched to Surry and encamped for several days, in imita- tion of real army life. While there the Ashuelot Cavalry, Capt. Justus Perry, marched to their camp and made them a friendly visit.
1816 was remembered long afterwards as "the cold year." It was remarkable as such throughout the United States and in Europe. In some sections it was cold and dry, in others cold and wet. In this vicinity for more than twelve weeks in the spring and summer no rain fell. Grass withered, corn and other crops could not mature, and there was much distress in consequence.
The annual town meeting of 1817 "Voted to adopt the act to regulate the proceedings for extinguishing fires," which required "fire wards" to be chosen by the town and gave them great power. Elijah Dunbar, William Lam- son, James Wilson, Aaron Hall, Samuel Dinsmoor, Daniel Bradford, John Wood, Joab Pond, John Prentiss and Abijah Wilder were chosen; and about the same number was chosen each year for several years following.
The independence of thought on religious matters which resulted later in Unitarianism was beginning to develop. The services of Rev. Mr. Oliphant not being wholly satisfactory, the town took action looking to his dismissal and chose a committee to "wait on" him and request him to join in calling a council for that purpose. Mr. Oliphant declined to receive the committee or hold any communica- tion with them except in writing. A controversy ensued in which the church sustained its pastor, and during which several long reports of contending committees were re- ceived and recorded in full. Finally, Mr. Oliphant acceded to the request of the town and on the 1st of December he was dismissed by a council called mutually for that pur- pose. The question of collecting the minister tax,1 which
1 "Nathan Pond, tax collector, arrested Eli Blake, Isaac Wyman, Jr., and Samuel Towne, and locked them up in jail for refusing to pay their minister tax. After having the key turned on them they paid the tax and were set free."
ZEDEKIAH S. BARSTOW.
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had become a serious one, also entered into that contro- versy, and in November the town "Voted not to direct the selectmen to assess the ministerial tax this year, 54 for, 98 against." On the 5th of October, 1817, the shock of an earthquake was felt here with remarkable distinct- ness. It occurred at 11:45, on Sunday morning, while the services in church were in progress. The edifice was shaken, the minister paused, the congregation sprang to their feet, and for a moment there was consternation and confusion. The same movement was felt throughout this part of the country and in Boston and New York.
John Lyscom, the first dentist of whom we have any record, took rooms this year at Sumner's inn, and was followed a few years later by George W. Partridge.
Capt. James Wells, the hatter, returned from the army and resumed business on the lower floor of the Kingsbury building, formerly the morocco dressing shop.
In 1816, Hon. Ithamar Chase had formed a copartner- ship with Ebenezer Brewer and Wm. M. Bond, Chase, Brewer & Bond, succeeding Phineas Fiske & Co. in the brick store, now the north end of City Hotel. Mr. Chase died in August of this year, and his son, Alexander Ral- ston Chase, took the business and continued it for a few years, when it was given up, and John P. Barber took the store for a stove and tin shop.
Among those who died in 1817 were Col. Timothy Ellis, aged ninety-one; Major Davis Howlett, seventy-nine; and Capt. John Draper.
At the annual meeting in 1818, the town appropriated $1,000 for schools, a larger sum than had ever been raised before, and the same sum was continued for several years afterwards. Daniel Bradford, Elijah Parker and Samuel Dinsmoor were chosen "inspectors of schools."
The town was now without a minister, and several persons had officiated as candidates for the place. Among them was Mr. Zedekiah S. Barstow, a young man from Connecticut, who preached here first on the 1st day of March, 1818. He gave so much satisfaction that at a legal meeting on the 18th of May, the town voted to unite with the church in giving him a call to settle-about 150 voting
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in favor and none against. It also voted him a settlement of $600 and a salary of $600 per annum-increased on the 13th of June to $700-with a vacation of "three or four Sabbaths a year to visit his friends." Mr. Barstow accepted and he was ordained on Wednesday, the 1st day of July, the churches of Acworth (Rev. Phineas Cooke), Charlestown, Walpole, Chesterfield and Marlboro in New Hampshire, and Lancaster and Hadley, Mass., assisting. The council was escorted to the meetinghouse by 400 to 500 members of the society, of both sexes, and the people who attended numbered nearly 2,000, hundreds of whom were unable to enter.
A freshet in March did immense damage on the Con- necticut river and the smaller streams, carrying away bridges, dams and mills. The bridges at South Keene and below Judge Newcomb's were swept away.
Imprisonment for debt was still sanctioned by law, but the "jail-yard " for poor debtors sometimes included a con- siderable tract of territory, which was designated by the courts. This year, 1818, a petition was presented to the court, signed by many leading men of the town, represent- ing that the jail-yard for poor debtors included only a few houses and asking that it be extended. The request was granted.
Hon. Salma Hale had been elected to congress in 1816, but this year he declined a reelection and returned to the position of clerk of the courts. Joseph Buffum, who had been postmaster in Keene since 1813, succeeded Mr. Hale in congress, and Thomas M. Edwards, then a young lawyer, was appointed postmaster, July 1, and had the office over the store of William Lamson, Jr., where the Bank block now stands. The entrance was from Roxbury street by stairs on the outside of the building.
Among the deaths in 1818 were those of Lockhart Willard, aged fifty-five; William Woods, eighty-four; Hon. Daniel Newcomb, seventy-two; Capt. John Houghton, seventy-two; Nathan Bixby, seventy-two; and Capt. David Willson, seventy.
The young minister, Rev. Z. S. Barstow, recently a tutor in the celebrated Hopkins school in New Haven, and
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in Hamilton college, took great interest in the schools, and at the annual town meeting in 1819 he was chosen at the head of a board. of five "visitors and inspectors of schools." The other members were Elijah Dunbar, John Prentiss, Salma Hale and Joel Parker.
To avoid the steep hills over which ran the great thoroughfare to the northwest, known from here to Bel- lows Falls as the third New Hampshire turnpike, efforts were made to change its course by building a new road through the gap, where the railroad now runs. The pro- ject was opposed by the towns on the grounds that it would be very expensive to build and of but little benefit to the towns through which it passed, particularly in the cases of Surry and Westmoreland. It was to be wholly new in Surry, mostly so in Westmoreland, and over all the distance in Keene from the present stone house on the Blake farm to Surry line, and over most of that from the John Colony farmhouse to the Chesterfield road near Wheelock park. A petition for the road, with a long list of signatures, had been presented to the court in 1813 but the towns had secured continuances from term to term until 1816, when the court appointed a committee which laid out the road-estimating the expense at $5,600 and the damages at $3,450-and reported in 1817. The court accepted the report and ordered the road to be built with- in two years, and the appraised damages to be paid to the land owners. The annual town meeting in 1819 instructed the selectmen to consult with committees and agents of the other towns, to devise the best means of opposition, and to continue the fight against the road. Joel Parker, Esq., was reelected agent and counsel for the town to manage the suit. He was succeeded the next year by Foster Alexander, and he, for several years, by Thomas M. Edwards. After a long contest changes were made in the old highway from the Chesterfield road to the Colony farm, establishing the present line of road there; but the section from the Blake place to the summit was not built until 1833, when, after twenty years of opposition, the road was finally completed. It was known for many years as the "County road"-since the railroad was built, as the "Summit road."
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HISTORY OF KEENE.
The state militia at this time, 1819, was organized in three divisions of two brigades each, with general and staff officers to correspond-thirty-eight regiments of infantry, grenadiers, light infantry and riflemen, to which were attached thirty-three companies of cavalry, soon after- wards increased to forty-two, and thirty-two companies of artillery. The Keene Light Infantry was now commanded by Capt. Jesse Corbett. Capt. Justus Perry of the cavalry had been promoted to major, then to lieutenant colonel, and was now in command of the Twentieth regiment, with Thomas F. Ames, adjutant. The regiment mustered here on the 5th of October. The line was formed accord- ing to the tactics of those days, with two companies of cavalry on the right; next to them the Walpole artillery; then the two companies of light infantry, from Keene and Westmoreland; and on their left the nine companies of infantry, in the center of which was an artillery company of the lads of Keene, twelve to fifteen years of age, com- manded by young William Dinsmoor. One of the infantry companies was from the west side of the river in Keene. The whole regiment was in uniform-those of the light infantry, cavalry and artillery were particularly fine-and was highly commended.
The national question of admitting the state of Mis- souri into the Union without prohibiting slavery agitated the public, and a call was issued by leading men for a con- vention of delegates from every town in the county to meet at the courthouse in Keene to discuss the question and give expression to public sentiment. The meeting, on the 21st of December, 1819, was fully attended by delegates and others. Judge Roger Vose of Walpole called the assembly to order, and Nahum Parker, Esq., of Fitzwilliam, was chosen president and Phineas Handerson of Chesterfield, secretary. An address taking strong ground against the extension of slavery, supported by Hon. James Wilson, Hon. Salma Hale and others, was sent out to the people.
In 1819, their clerk, Lockhart Willard, Esq., having died, the proprietors of Keene applied to Foster Alexander, a justice of the peace, to call a legal meeting of their body. Justice Alexander issued his warrant, and the meeting was
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held on the 11th of January. Mr. John Wood was chosen clerk, and he held that position until he died, in 1856, and was the last clerk of the proprietors of Keene.
The supervising officers of the schools in 1820, chosen at the annual town meeting, were one "principal visitor," Rev. Z. S. Barstow, and six "visitors and inspectors of schools," one for every two districts-James Wilson (senior), Joel Parker, Nathaniel Sprague, Daniel Bradford, Thomas M. Edwards and Royal Blake.
The town had repeatedly refused to appropriate money for instruction in singing, though sometimes granting it. This year, 1820, it voted $50 for such instruction "for both societies," Congregational and Baptist.
Notwithstanding the strong opposition to stoves in the meetinghouse a few years before, they had now been introduced (in the one belonging to the town), and the town "Voted that the sexton ring the Bell on Sunday and supply the wood for the stove in the meetinghouse and take care of it the ensuing year, and that the expense be defrayed by the persons who pay taxes to Mr. Barstow."1 One article of the warrant was, "To adopt such measures as will prevent the increase of paupers, especially those who may become such by the intemperate use of ardent spirits." On that article, "In order to remove the principal cause of pauperism," the selectmen were instructed to enforce strictly the laws relating to licensed and unlicensed houses, and "to take such other measures for the suppression of intemper- ance as to them may seem advisable." In obedience to those instructions the selectmen posted the following:
"We hereby give notice that we shall proceed as the law of this state directs * * to post up a list of the names of those persons who are in the habit of drink- ing and tippling to excess."
(Signed) "Foster Alexander, - Selectmen Daniel Bradford,
Eliphalet Briggs, Jr., of Keene."
The United States census for this year gave Keene a population of 1,895, a gain of 249 in ten years, notwith- standing the loss of seventy-five or more, set off to Roxbury ;
1 In 1822 there was an article in the warrant for the annual meeting: "To see if the town will vote to shorten the intermission between the forenoon and afternoon services on the Sabbath." It was dismissed.
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Chesterfield, 2,103; Westmoreland, 2,029; Winchester, 1,- 849; Swanzey, 1,712. New Hampshire had 244,161; Bos- ton, 43,275; New York, 123,706; Washington, 13,322.
The great bulk of the population throughout the country was engaged in agriculture, and during the period covered by this chapter there was a larger propor- tion of the land in this town and county under cultivation than ever before; and soon afterwards that proportion began to diminish. The soil was still rich and productive, the farms were well cultivated, large areas were covered with a heavy growth of timber which protected the fields from cold winds, agriculture was remunerative, and the farmers were generally "well to do."
In 1816, the Cheshire Agricultural Society, which in- cluded in its territorial limits the present county of Sulli- van, was incorporated. Among the members from Keene were Noah Cooke, Samuel Dinsmoor, Elijah Dunbar, Daniel Bradford and John Prentiss. Its first "cattle show" was held at Charlestown, in 1818; its third at Keene in 1820, on ground through which Emerald street now runs. The manufactures and fancy articles were displayed in the store which is now the north part of the City Hotel. The soci- ety formed a procession at Holland's tavern, formerly Sumner's, with a band of music, and marched to the grounds, where Rev. Mr. Barstow offered prayer, and Rus- sell Jarvis, Esq., of Claremont, delivered an address. After viewing the exhibition the procession returned to the tav- ern, and 130 sat down to dinner. Gen. Samuel Dinsmoor was chosen president; Col. Thomas C. Drew, of Drews- ville, vice president; Capt. Daniel Bradford, treasurer; Elijah Dunbar, secretary; and Thomas M. Edwards, librarian. For many years great interest was manifested, exhibitions were held in various towns in the county, and the leading men in the community gave the society their support and management. In 1819, $356 were paid out in premiums. In 1822, Hon. Salma Hale delivered the address at Acworth; in 1824, Hon. Joel Parker that at Westmoreland.
It was in 1816 also that the Cheshire County Bible Society was formed, afterwards merged in the state society.
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The first meeting was held in the courthouse, Rev. Mr. Oliphant, chairman, and John Prentiss, secretary. Later, Rev. Z. S. Barstow was very active in the work of the society and served as secretary for many years, with Dan Hough, treasurer, and Rev. Seth Payson, Col. Joseph Frost, of Marlboro, Hon. Abel Parker, of Jaffrey, presi- dents at different times. Elijah Dunbar, Esq., Capt. Abel Blake, Dea. Abijah Wilder, Eliphalet Briggs, Azel Wilder, and other Keene men, served as directors.
There was a Young Mechanics' Association in Keene in 1816; the Female Charitable Society was in operation and met at the houses of members; and a Female Cent Society, a branch of the state society, met in the same way.
EAGLE HOTEL.
The public houses on the roads and turnpikes already mentioned were at the height of their prosperity. Salem Sumner was succeeded in 1820 by Ephraim Holland, and he, two years later, by George Sparhawk, in the one where the Cheshire House now stands. Benoni Shirtliff kept his tavern until 1823, when it was bought by Col. Stephen Harrington, who came from Nelson. He greatly improved it, gave it the name first of Harrington's Coffee House, afterwards that of Eagle Hotel, which it still retains; and
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HISTORY OF KEENE.
for more than fifty years the large and spirited figure of a gilded eagle, perched upon a wooden column, stood in front of the house as a sign. Upon the death of Ithamar Chase, in 1817, Jonathan E. Wadley succeeded him in the old Ralston tavern, and changed the name to the Keene Hotel.
On the 4th of July, 1820, 116 veteran soldiers of the Revolution residing in this county came together to com- ply with the law in relation to pensions.1 They assembled at Wadley's Hotel, chose officers for the day, formed in procession and were escorted to the courthouse by the Keene Light Infantry.
The firm of Parker & Hough was dissolved in 1816, and Dan Hough continued the business for several years. Capt. Parker devoted himself to the manufacture of cotton and woolen machinery at Swanzey Factory, and a few years later went to Boston and established the commission business which was continued many years, under the noted firms of Isaac Parker & Co., Parker, Blanchard & Co., Parker, Wilder & Parker, etc. Phineas Fiske & Co. . had removed from their store north of the Ralston tavern to the east side of the Square, next door south of Justus Perry, and had been succeeded there in 1816 by Lamson & Grout (Wm. Lamson, Jr., and Henry Grout). Royal Blake became partner with Lamson, in 1819, in place of Grout. George and Lynds Wheelock had a store on the east side of upper Main street next below the tavern, in 1816, and Lynds Wheelock continued in business there for several years. Collins H. Jaquith came to town in 1816, and carried on an extensive business in shoemaking. He was afterwards a prominent figure in town- well remem- bered by persons still living-and held important offices, among others the somewhat incongruous ones of deputy sheriff and deacon of the church.2 Ridgway & Rockwood opened a store, in 1817, in the building which Noah Cooke had built in 1808, since known as the Nims building, where E. F. Lane's upper block now stands. They were
1 They were required to make oath to the amount of property they owned, and if it exceeded $200, no pension was granted. Besides the names given in the chapter on that war, applications for pensions were made by Jesse Watts, Frederick Locke, Niles Beckwith, Chas. Emerson, Elias Hall and James Potts of Keene.
" It used to be said of him that "he was a little too sharp for a deacon and a little too dull for a sheriff."
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succeeded, in 1819, by Samuel A. Gerould, who came to Keene that year and began his long career in business. In 1816, A. & H. Walker had a bookstore and bindery in the basement of the building next south of A. & T. Hall, and started a circulating library. Both the business and the library were continued in 1820 by Henry Thayer, and by his widow, Pamela Thayer, in 1822, over Gerould's store on the east side.
Cooking stoves were first introduced here in 1817, and were on exhibition at A. & T. Hall's. In 1820, an im- proved pattern was for sale at the Keene bookstore. Later, Dan Hough took the agency, and after that they were for sale at the tinshop of John P. Barber and other stores.
In 1820, Nathaniel Sprague, son of Hon. Peleg Sprague, opened a private school in the brick schoolhouse on School street-then recently built-a little to the southwest of the present Tilden schoolhouse. The next year his sister Elizabeth, from Miss Fiske's school, assisted him. The building was then taken for the public school of that dis- trict, and Mr. Sprague removed his school to the hall over Dan Hough's store.
The Cheshire bank, the only one in the county, was doing a fair business, but found it necessary to open its doors but two hours in the forenoon and two in the after- noon each day and to designate one day in the week for discounts. Samuel Grout, of Walpole, was president, Aaron Appleton, John Wood, Salma Hale, Josiah Bellows, David Stone and Henry S. Newcomb were directors; and Nathan- iel Dana had been chosen cashier in 1813, and held that position for more than twenty years.
Transportation by water had proved so superior to that by teams that that subject became almost a craze with the public. In 1816, the legislature of Massachusetts appointed Loammi Baldwin (who gave us the Baldwin apple) and Prof. Farrar, of Harvard college, a committee to explore and survey a route for a navigable canal from the Connecticut to the Merrimac rivers. The Ashuelot, Contoocook and other rivers were examined, but the
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HISTORY OF KEENE.
scheme was found to be impracticable. The stores in Keene, however, were still selling tickets in the Union Canal Lottery, already mentioned.
The Ashuelot river "is a stream of much importance, and is made navigable for boats as far up as Keene, excepting a carrying place about the rapids at Win- chester."1 To appreciate the truth of the above statement at the time it was made we must remember that in the early days of this country there were no roads, no wheeled vehicles for carrying freight, and that every waterway that could be made available was used for transportation. Almost from the first settlement of Keene down to within the recollection of people still living, goods were bought in Hartford by the merchants in Keene and shipped by the Connecticut 2 and Ashuelot rivers. Mr. Wm. Lamson, the younger, was in trade here as late as 1841, and the fact of his shipping goods from New York and other southern cities by that route, in 1837-8, is well remembered.
The subject of clearing the Ashuelot and making it navigable for larger freight boats was agitated for many years, and finally culminated in 1819. Temporary locks were built around the falls in two places between Keene and Winchester. Lewis Page, who lived on the David Nims place on Prison street, obtained a grant from the legislature of the sole right to take tolls and navigate the Ashuelot from Faulkner & Colony's mills to the Connecti- cut river. With the aid of subscriptions he built a boat sixty feet long and of fifteen to twenty tons burden, named it the Enterprise, and floated it down to the head of the falls at Winchester. On Friday, the 19th of November, it made its first trip up the river, loaded with passengers. It arrived at Faulkner & Colony's mills with a display of banners and was welcomed by a crowd of people with cheers, the firing of cannon and the ringing of the town bell. A paragraph in the Sentinel giving an account of the event was headed with the cut of a full rigged ship and the announcement in large capitals :
"ASHUELOT RIVER NAVIGABLE !! "
1 New England Gazetteer, published in 1839. -
2 In 1887, the writer saw freight unloading from a sloop, at a wharf, in Brattleboro, Vt.
1
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HOUSE OF ELUJAH PARKER.
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The agitation of the project for still further improving the river by canals and locks around the falls below Win- chester continued, and five years later a correspondent of the Sentinel stated that a single boat running from Hart- ford brought 105 tons of freight in nine months to Win- chester alone; and showed by figures and estimates that the business on the river would pay a fair return on an investment in the canal and other improvements. But the scheme was abandoned.
Upon opening up the navigation of the Connecticut river the Bellows Falls canal did a large business and the company published a tariff of tolls each year. It was usually seventy-five cents a ton for heavy goods for pass- ing through the locks. The Middlesex canal was doing an extensive business, with warehouses for storing the goods, which were received and distributed by commission mer- chants; and transportation by heavy teams through this town was greatly increased.
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