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 34
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At this period, 1820, the village of Keene was still little more than Main street. There was but one house on Roxbury street besides that of Dr. Edwards; Prison street was almost a barren waste; there were but three houses on the east side of the turnpike, north, and only those of Mr. John Prentiss, Dr. Joseph Wheeler (now the Tilden house), Elijah Parker (where Mrs. Joslin now lives), and the Sun tavern on the west side. All the rest north of the long row of horsesheds was open fields and pas- tures; and the same was true of those angular tracts between the five principal streets, now covered with streets and buildings. Although a few fine residences and other good buildings had been erected, as already mentioned, most of the structures in town, even those about the cen- tre, were of wood, one story high, unpainted, and of very ordinary appearance. Appleton & Elliot's store on the corner was of brick, two stories high, but the tavern oppo- site, though of three stories, was a very ordinary looking wooden building; and the courthouse, also of wood, was unpainted. The old Ralston tavern was a low, wooden building, "painted a dirty yellow, with a red border around the bottom, standing with front steps reaching into
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the street."1 Nearly all the stores and shops were "ten- footers"-what we should now call shanties.
The ten highest taxpayers in 1820 were James Wil- son, Henry S. Newcomb, Stephen Chase, William Lamson, David Carpenter, Ephraim Wright, Samuel Dinsmoor, Abel Blake, A. & T. Hall and Abijah Foster.
Among those who died in 1820 were Major Josiah Richardson, who had lived here nearly fifty years, aged seventy-four; Mrs. Mary Dwinnell, aged ninety-two, widow of Jonathan Dwinnell, who left ten children living, all with families, the youngest having also ten children; Nehemiah Towns, a Revolutionary soldier, aged seventy-two; Mrs. Hannah Hall, widow of Rev. Aaron Hall, aged sixty-six, and Ephraim Wright, aged sixty-two.
Rev. Z. S. Barstow was chosen "principal visitor" of schools again in 1821, with James Wilson, Jr., Salma Hale, Nathaniel Sprague, John Wood, Thomas M. Edwards and Elijah Parker visitors and inspectors; and this method of managing the schools continued until 1824.
The first theatrical performance advertised and given in Keene was at the hall in Holland's tavern, May 14, 1821. The play was Rev. Dr. Hawes' tragedy, "Douglass," followed by comic songs and a farce, "The Village Lawyer." Admission, fifty cents; children, half price. There was a Keene Musical Society at that time, which gave Handel's "Messiah," at the meetinghouse in the afternoon of Feb. 21. Admission, twenty-five cents.
In September, 1821, a remarkably high wind, called in some places a tornado, in others a "tremendous hurricane," passed along the Atlantic coast from the Carolinas to Maine. Buildings of all kinds were destroyed, trees up- rooted, animals killed and many lives lost. The debris was carried in some instances twenty to thirty miles. In Keene it was a violent and destructive wind, but less so than in many other places.
Charles Rice, "an industrious and honest man," died in October, at the age of ninety-four. He was one of the thirty patriots who marched from Keene at the Lexington alarm in 1775, and was wounded at the battle of Bunker
1 Rev. Z. S. Barstow, when he came here in 1818.
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Hill. He had also served his country through the whole of the French and Indian war, 1756-60. He had lived some years in Surry.
The third New Hampshire having been given up as a turnpike and the gates removed, the town voted to keep it in repair from the Marlboro to the Surry lines; and two years later laid out a town highway over the same route.
On Monday night, May 27, 1822, the large, three- story stage tavern on the site of the present Cheshire House, owned by Elijah Parker and Timothy Hall, and kept by George Sparhawk, was burned to the ground. The single engine of the town "and a small one from the glass factory," with the aid of citizens passing buckets of water, saved the stores of Lamson & Blake and Justus Perry on the north, only fifty feet away; and that of Lynds Wheelock on the south, only twenty feet away. The cistern of water on the common was soon exhausted, and then lines were formed to Beaver brook-one of men passing the full buckets and one of women and boys pass- ing the empty ones. The roof of the meetinghouse took fire, but was extinguished by the engine. Fortunately there was very little wind, and the village was thus saved from a more serious conflagration.1 The building was insured in the Atna company for nearly its full value, and the sum was promptly paid. This fire roused the people to the importance of having a more efficient organization for extinguishing fires. A subscription was immediately started for the purchase of another engine; and the Keene Engine Co., John Elliot, clerk, called a meeting at Wadley's tav- ern, to choose officers, make by-laws and regulations, and to see if the company would purchase a new engine. The Keene Fire Society was also formed and continued for many years; and soon afterwards the Fire Fencibles were organized, with Samuel Dinsmoor, clerk.
The foundations for a new and larger house, to be called the Phoenix Hotel, were soon laid, and in December the Sentinel announced that a "large, commodious and elegant" brick hotel had arisen since the fire in May-
1 It was provided by law that every village householder should keep a pre- scribed number of leathern fire-buckets on hand for use in case of fire. Some are still preserved as relics. They were made in this town by Daniel Watson.
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52x56 feet, three stories high, with a hall 52x23 feet and a large dining hall-"an ornament to our village." It was kept by Mr. Sparhawk until 1825.
PHENIX HOTEL
PHOENIX HOTEL.
In September, 1822, the Twentieth regiment mustered here, closing with a sham fight. The Walpole artillery and the two light infantry companies from Keene and West- moreland were highly praised. Young James Wilson, just from Middlebury college, now in his father's office, had taken command of the Keene Light Infantry and inspired it with new life and vigor. Their armory was at the north end of the village, in a field, where Armory street now runs.
Abijah Foster, one of the most successful men in town, died this year, aged fifty-nine; also, at the Island of St. Thomas, Lieut. Walter Newcomb, of the United States ship Spark, "late of the Columbus, seventy-four, son of the late Judge Newcomb of this town-an officer of prom- ise and highly esteemed." (Sentinel.)
Hon. Samuel Dinsmoor had been nominated for gov- ernor in 1823 by the Democrats, and at the annual meet- ing the town, although strongly of the opposite party,
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gave him 195 votes, to seventy-five for Levi Woodbury, the Federal candidate; but Mr. Woodbury was elected. Hon. Abel Parker, of Jaffrey, having served for more than twenty years as judge of probate for Cheshire county and reached the limit of age prescribed by law, retired from that position, and by the courtesy of Governor Woodbury, Mr. Dinsmoor was appointed in his place.
The 4th of July, 1823, was celebrated by a procession formed at the Phoenix Hotel and escorted by the Keene Light Infantry, Capt. Nathan Bassett, to the meeting- house, where Hon. Salma Hale read the Declaration of Independence, and Maj. Josiah Willard, Jr., delivered an oration. Returning to the hotel, a dinner with wine was served, toasts were drunk and speeches made.
The largest menagerie in the country containing Asiatic lions, tigers, buffaloes, elks, llamas, etc., exhibited in the rear of Wadley's tavern in 1822-the first in Keene-and again the next year at the same place.
In February, 1824, a destructive freshet, extending over all this section of country, carried away bridges, dams and mills. The bridges at South Keene, at Faulkner & Col- ony's mills and on the turnpike to Surry, were carried away or seriously injured.
At the annual town meeting in 1824 the price of labor on highways was fixed at six cents an hour for a man, or a pair of oxen, "boys and utensils in proportion;" and it remained the same until 1838, when it was raised to eight cents an hour for a man or a yoke of oxen.
The town had changed its by-laws in relation to schools, choosing a committee of five for the examination of teachers in addition to the seven visitors and inspectors. Rev. Z. S. Barstow, Joel Parker, Thomas M. Edwards, Sam- uel Dinsmoor and James Wilson, Jr., were that committee that year; and the same were chosen visitors and inspec- tors, with the addition of Aaron Appleton and Aaron Hall, with Rev. Z. S. Barstow, principal visitor. This method of supervising the schools continued for several years.
The amounts of postage received at the principal postoffices in the state at this time were: Portsmouth,
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$3,355.17; Exeter, $654.31; Concord, $565.02; Keene, $536.74; Dover, $484.30; Walpole, $276.52. The old high rates of postage still existed.
There was emulation among the independent military companies, and great efforts were made by them for im- provement in drill and discipline. In September, 1824, the Keene Light Infantry, Capt. Nathan Bassett, and the light infantry companies of Westmoreland and Brattleboro, marched to Chesterfield and encamped, and were joined by the Chesterfield Light Infantry, Capt. Barton Skinner. James Wilson, Jr., then lieutenant colonel of the Twentieth regiment, took command and exercised them in battalion drill. Early in October the Twentieth regiment, Col. Jus- tus Perry, mustered in Keene and was inspected by Major Joel Parker and reviewed by Gen. Samuel Griffin of Rox- bury. The two companies of cavalry, the Walpole artillery, and the two companies of light infantry from Keene and Westmoreland were very highly commended.
The Cheshire Agricultural Society had its exhibition at Winchester this year. Joel Parker, Esq., delivered the oration, Col. Thomas C. Drew was president, Thomas M. Edwards, secretary, Daniel Bradford, treasurer, and Abijah Wilder, Jr., one of the executive committee.
A new brick courthouse was built in 1824, the north half of which is now the store of Bullard & Shedd. The committee to sell the old house1 and build the new one were John Wood, Aaron Appleton, Abijah Wilder, Jr., Eliphalet Briggs, Jr., and Thomas M. Edwards. In the corner stone of the new building were deposited a glass bottle containing a copy of the Sentinel of that week, the
1 The old house was sold to Silas Angier and Eliphalet Briggs, and was hauled away to Prison street by James Keith with sixty yoke of oxen, and used for a boarding and tenement house. It was a long, narrow building. two stories high, afterwards bought by John H. Fuller, who divided it, moved one half to Railroad square and used it for a wool-house, and it is now the grain store of J. Cushing & Co., next to the Sentinel building. The other half Mr. Fuller used as a dwelling, on the site of the present residence of Mrs. D. M. Pol- lard, 256 Washington street, and when that brick house was built by Capt. H. T. H. Pierce, soon after the Civil war, the old wooden one was moved to the rear on Maple street, and is now the residence of Wm. L. Cheever, No. 26. The statement has been made that those two halves of a former building were parts of the old meetinghouse which was given to the county for a courthouse in 1788, but that is an error. That old meetinghouse, which stood, after its re- moval, on the northwest corner of the common, where Court street now comes in, was replaced by a new courthouse (the one above described), built on its site-largely by subscription -in 1796; and all trace of the old meetinghouse that fronted on "The Green" in Revolutionary days is lost, though it is believed that it was removed to the west side of Court street. (See account of fire on Court street in 1861).
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New Hampshire Register for that year, and other docu- ments. The main room, on the second floor, was ready for the use of the court at the October term. The town had appropriated $500 towards the building, reserving rights for a town hall on the ground floor-two or three steps below the level of the ground-as it had in the old building; and in November "voted to raise $150 to be appropriated towards finishing the Town Room in the New Court House." That meeting was for the national election, James Wilson, Jr., moderator, and cast 144 votes for the electors who voted for John Quincy Adams for president, to one for those of the opposite party.
Capt. Thaddeus Metcalf had died in 1823, aged sixty- six, and among the deaths in 1824 were those of Joseph Sylvester, aged eighty; John Balch, sixty-six; Widow Anna Draper, ninety; Mrs. Hannah, wife of Adin Holbrook, sixty-six; James Philips, seventy-eight; and Mrs. Hannah Wheeler, widow of Abraham Wheeler, one of the first set- tlers, aged one hundred and three. Mrs. Wheeler was the mother of Col. Abraham Wheeler, who had died in 1814 at the age of seventy-one.
The controversy in the church which resulted in the secession of the Unitarians had been growing more and more sharp and bitter for several years and had now reached culmination. On the 18th of March, 1824, the seceders organized their society under the general laws of the state, taking the name of the Keene Congregational Society, and they held services during that summer. They had twelve members, seven male and five female. Those who had desired to withdraw had refused to pay the tax assessed for the support of Rev. Mr. Barstow, had filed the required certificates to that effect with the town clerk, and claimed their right to the use of the meetinghouse their proportion of Sundays. At the annual meeting in 1823 the town "Voted (on raising Mr. Barstow's salary of $700) that the selectmen be instructed to raise the sum which shall bear the same proportion to the sum of $700 as the taxable property not signed off (by certificates) does to the whole taxable property of the parish;" and on the 3d of November of that year the town voted to
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grant the use of the meetinghouse to the parties asking it five Sundays between that date and the first of May fol- lowing, the selectmen to designate the Sundays. At the annual meeting in 1824, Mr. Barstow's salary was restored to $700, although the Unitarians had withdrawn; and the vote passed in the negative on the article, "To see if the town will vote the use of the meetinghouse to those persons in town who do not contribute to the support of Rev. Mr. Barstow and who have supported preaching the present year in the month of February."
The town then "voted that the town property in the meetinghouse, consisting of the building, the Bell, and the land on which the building stands, be offered at public sale by the selectmen on the 30th day of March inst.,"- notice being given-and the selectmen were authorized to convey the same by deed. It was provided, however, that the sale should be made to an authorized agent of some religious society organized according to law and that the sum paid should be sufficient to cover the value of all the pews, to be appraised by disinterested parties from out of town. The property was not sold.
The annual meeting of 1825 again reduced the salary of Rev. Mr. Barstow to a certain proportion of what the town had agreed to pay him, as in 1823; and the year following the selectmen were instructed to make a similar assessment; and that was the last time (1826) the salary of the minister was raised by legal assessment. He was no longer the minister of the town, and his salary was ever afterwards raised by his own society. The contro- versy concerning the proportional use of the meetinghouse, and the agitation for the sale of it, continued, and at a legal meeting on the 30th of March, 1825, Joel Parker, moderator, the town voted that a committee of thirteen, six from each of the two societies, be appointed by the selectmen-the twelve to choose the chairman-to consider the question of disposing of the edifice and report at the next annual meeting.1
1 The selectmen appointed from the First Congregational Society: Elijah Dunbar, Timothy Hall, Azel Wilder, Dea. Thomas Fisher, Ebenezer Clark, Abel Blake. Keene Congregational Society : Salma Hale, Daniel Bradford, John Wood, Aaron Appleton, James Wilson, Jr., Samuel Dinsmoor. The chairman's name does not appear on the records.
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In June, 1825, Mr. Thomas R. Sullivan, a candidate for the ministry, preached for the Keene Congregational Society in the town hall for several Sundays, afterwards accepted a call, and was ordained on the 30th of Decem- ber. Rev. George G. Ingersoll, of Burlington, Vt., Rev. Mr. Gannett, of Boston, and others from Massachusetts, assisted in the ceremony.
In 1825, the annual town meeting was held for the first time in the new town hall under the courthouse. The number of ratable polls in town exceeded 450, and two representatives to the legislature were chosen, Joel Parker and James Wilson, Jr.
The 4th of July was celebrated by a military parade and dinner "on the plain one mile south of the village."
The Twentieth regiment, Justus Perry, colonel, B. F. Adams, adjutant, mustered in Keene, and was inspected by Lt. Col. Joel Parker, and reviewed by Gov. Morrill, who gave it high commendation.
At a legal meeting in November, 1825, the town voted to adopt certain parts of "an act to establish a system of police in the town of Portsmouth;" and the selectmen appointed Capt. Joseph Dorr, Zebadiah Kise, Elijah Par- ker, Esq., John Hatch, Col. James Wilson and Oliver Heaton police officers, the first in town.
Among those who died that year were Mr. Lynds Wheelock, aged forty-one; Dea. Daniel Kingsbury, eighty- two; Capt. Cyrus Breed, forty; and Lieut. Henry S. New- comb, at sea, son of the late Judge, Newcomb. Lieutenant Newcomb had commanded Fort Covington at one time in the late war, and was an accomplished officer.
In 1825, the Phoenix Hotel passed into the hands of John Hatch, who had married the daughter of Dr. Thomas Edwards; and for many years Hatch's tavern had a high reputation, and was the principal stage house in town. At that time a watering trough stood in front of it, and there was still a passageway on the south side to the stable. Henry Coolidge succeeded Jonathan Wadley in the old Ralston tavern in 1823, kept an excellent house, and for a long term of years it went by the name of Coolidge's tavern. Col. Stephen Harrington also made the Eagle
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Hotel a first-class hotel. The Sun tavern, on the turn- pike, had been fitted up by Abijah Wilder, Jr., (doubtless his former cabinet shop) and was opened this year by Elias Mead, who kept choice liquors and made it an attrac- tive inn. Daniel Day still kept his tavern on the Cheshire turnpike, east side of the river near the Surry line; Henry Goodnow on the third New Hampshire, near Walpole line; Stephen Chase continued at his place on the same "pike;" Josiah Sawyer on the Chesterfield and Thomas Gurler on the Westmoreland roads; Mrs. Susan Lanman at the foot of Marlboro street; . William Lebourveau on Nine Lot Plain, opposite the present driving park-a part of the old house is still standing-and there were several others in different parts of the town. And the constant stream of travel through the town, particularly the freighting to and from the Middlesex canal and Boston, gave each and all of them a thriving business.
In 1823, Josiah Amidon opened the Grand Monadnock Hotel-"near the pinnacle of said Mountain;" and the following year John Fife "erects a building on the brook southeast of the pinnacle, Jaffrey side, and furnishes enter- tainment."
The first flour offered for sale at the stores in Keene was by A. & T. Hall in 1822. Previous to that time flour, meal and grain could be bought at the mills; and the farmers not only raised their own supply, but sold large quantities of grain. Justus Perry had taken John V. Wood as partner in 1822, and continued the business of the store and the manufacture of glass bottles, decanters, etc., on Marlboro street, under the firm name of Perry & Wood. Lamson & Blake dissolved in 1822, and Wm. Lamson, Jr., continued the business alone. The same year, Wm. Lamson, senior, took his son Charles as partner in the tannery; and the son continued a successful business there until he died, in 1876. In 1823, George Tilden and John Prentiss formed the firm of Geo. Tilden & Co. in the bookbinding business, in the basement of the building next south of A. & T. Hall-where the Walkers and Henry Thayer had formerly been-entrance on the north side. They also sold books and stationery, and the next year
SUN TAVERN. BUILT ABOUT 1780.
,
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opened a circulating library of 200 volumes. That part- nership continued but a short time. In 1825, Mr. Prentiss built a brick block on the west side of the Square (now Whitcomb's) removed his printing establishment into its upper stories, withdrew from the firm of Geo. Tilden & Co., and opened the Keene Book Store on the ground floor of the north half. Tickets in various lottery schemes were sold in both book stores. The Sentinel printing office re- mained in those quarters for forty-six years. S. A. Gerould also built his brick store, next north of Mr. Prentiss's, the same year, took in his brother, and for some years the firm was S. A. & J. H. Gerould; later he took his son, Samuel A., Jr., as partner, and they remained in that store as long as they were in business.
Richard Montague, a very gentlemanly and obliging man, came here in 1822, opened a shop over A. & T. Hall, and for a long term of years held the lead in making fine, stylish garments for gentlemen. He also made ladies' pelisses and other outside garments. Sylvester Haskell bought out Dan Hough in 1824, and the next year removed to the south store in Prentiss's new block.
In 1822, Elijah and Joel Parker formed the law firm of E. & J. Parker and had their office over A. & T. Hall's store. Foster Alexander and Thomas M. Edwards were also lawyers in town; and Mr. Edwards was still post- master. In 1825 he put up a small building east of Lam- son's store, on Roxbury street, and had his office and the postoffice there. It was afterwards the law office of Wheeler & Faulkner.
The Medical Society of Cheshire County had been formed, with Dr. Amos Twitchell president and librarian, and held its annual meetings in Keene. The other mem- bers from Keene were Dr. Daniel Adams, Dr. Charles G. Adams and Dr. Joseph Wheeler.
Abijah Wilder, Jr., built his new shop where the "Mu- seum" now stands, in 1823, and moved into it with his cabinet, chair and sleigh manufacturing. Eliphalet Briggs, Jr., and John W. Briggs were in the same business-"three doors north of the meetinghouse"-on the west side of Prison street.
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The mills of Faulkner & Colony were destroyed by fire early in the year, but they immediately rebuilt, with brick, and in September advertised " that their new mills are so far completed that they are ready to receive Wool to Card and Cloth to Dress."
George Page and Alvan Holman were making pumps and manufacturing lumber "at Page's mill, two miles East of Keene street," on the Roxbury branch-the mills since known as the peg factory. The Ebenezer Robbins mill on White brook had passed into the hands of Joel Kingsbury. Aaron Davis was turning out "Warranted hoes at his Fac- tory two miles from Keene street"-at South Keene-and Nathan Wood, a noted blacksmith, manufactured the best of ploughs.
CHAPTER XVI. TOWN AFFAIRS. 1826-1840.
The controversy between the Unitarians and the Or- thodox Congregationalists in Keene entered into all the affairs of life to an extent that would seem incredible at the present day, and created much bitterness-in some cases even between those who had been the warmest friends. 1
At the annual meeting in 1826, Hon. Salma Hale, from the committee appointed in 1825 to devise some sat- isfactory method of disposing of the meetinghouse, reported that several meetings of the committee had been held, but nothing had been accomplished. The town then voted to allow the Keene Congregational Society to use the edifice thirteen Sundays during the year ensuing, the particular Sundays to be designated by the selectmen; and that after that term, the selectmen then in office should fix the num- ber of Sundays to be used by that society for four years following. In compliance with that vote the selectmen designated eighty-three Sundays in the four years beginning in June, 1827, on which the edifice might be used by that society.
During this year the first edition of the "Annals of the Town of Keene, from its first settlement in 1734 to the year 1790," by Hon. Salma Hale, was published by Moore, of Concord, N. H. They "were compiled at the request of the New Hampshire Historical Society," of which Mr. Hale was an active member, "and of several citizens of Keene."2 At the annual meeting the town voted to instruct the selectmen to procure 400 copies of that work and distrib- ute among the inhabitants, "provided that the expense does not exceed fifty dollars" (121/2 cents a copy). About
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