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 53
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SALMA HALE.
Hon. Salma Hale, son of David and Hannah (Emerson) Hale, was born in Alstead, in 1787; entered the office of the Farmers' Museum at Walpole as an apprentice at the age of thirteen; at seventeen wrote a text-book on English grammar, published at Worcester in 1804, rewritten and republished in New York, 1831; at eighteen was editor of the Political Observer, published at Walpole; read law at Walpole and Keene; removed to Keene in 1813; was part- ner for a time with Elijah Parker, Esq .; was clerk of the courts in Cheshire county for about thirty years; served one
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term in congress, 1817-19, but declined a reelection ; repre- sented Keene in the legislature in 1823, '28 and '44; mem- ber of the state senate in 1824-5 and 1845-6; president of the Cheshire bank, 1829-1842.
He was a trustee of Dartmouth college, and of the Uni- versity of Vermont, from both of which institutions he received honorary degrees; and he was secretary of the commission for determining the northeastern boundary line of the United States under the treaty of Ghent. He was an early member and afterwards president of the New Hampshire Historical Society; one of the originators of the New Hampshire Agricultural Society; and was ac- tive in the Unitarian secession, in temperance, education, the abolition of slavery, and various other social, literary and philanthropic subjects.
He was a man of scholarly tastes and wide reading, and was a master of correct and elegant English. His History of the United States, of many editions and large sales, "became widely read and largely used throughout the country as a school book, 25,000 copies per annum being published in some years. It was a work of great literary merit and accuracy and careful statement. Few single volumes have done so much to educate the youth of this country and to implant a love of knowledge and its early history and of the principles of free government." Gov. Charles H. Bell, in an address to the New Hamp- shire Historical Society mentioned "Salma Hale, an accom- plished writer and scholar and a pioneer in one depart- ment of school literature," and adds, "his History of the United States was truly an educational classic and long retained its estimation with the successive generations of the young, and more singular still, was repeatedly pub- lished abroad."
He published his Annals of Keene in 1826, with an en- larged edition in 1851, which brought the narrative down from 1790 to 1815; and he was the author of several other works and a large number of orations, addresses, and con- tributions to various publications.
He married, 1820, Sarah Kellogg, daughter of Seth and Susan King, of Boston, formerly of Suffield, Conn. Mrs.
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Hale was one of the regents for New Hampshire of the national association of women for the preservation of Mt. Vernon, Va., in 1859. Both she and her husband were highly gifted in social affairs, and they entertained with a genial and delightful hospitality. She died April 19, 1865. Mr. Hale died Nov. 19, 1866. They had one son who died in infancy; one daughter, Sarah King, who married, first, Stephen R. Bellows, and second, Hon. Harry Hibbard, of Bath, N. H., speaker of the New Hampshire house of rep- resentatives, president of the New Hampshire senate, an eminent lawyer, and for six years member of congress from New Hampshire; and a second son, George Silsbee.
GEORGE S. HALE.
Hon. George S. Hale, son of Salma and Sarah (King) Hale was born in Keene in 1825; studied at Keene, Wal- pole and Concord, and at Phillips Exeter academy; grad- uated at Harvard in 1844; studied at Harvard Law school; taught in a large school for girls in Richmond, Va .; travelled abroad; began practice of the law in Boston in 1850; was member and president of the common council in that city; president of the board of trustees of Phillips Exeter academy; trustee of the Massachusetts General hospital and of the Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind; member of many literary and scientific societies; editor and reporter of several volumes of the Boston Law Reporter, and of the United States Digest; author of Memoirs of Hon. Joel Parker, and others, and of many legal and other publications. His practice brought him into positions of trust and responsibility in the care of large estates and public funds.
He married, 1868, Mrs. Ellen Sever Tebbets, widow of Rev. Theodore Tebbets, and they had two sons, Robert Sever and Richard Walden Hale. Mr. Hale died July 27, 1897. Mrs. Hale died May 9, 1904.
SAMUEL W. HALE.
Hon. Samuel W. Hale, son of Samuel and Saloma (Whitney) Hale, was born in Fitchburg, Mass., in 1823; worked on his father's farm and attended the district
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school and academy in Fitchburg; engaged in business with his brother at Dublin, N. H., in 1835; married, 1850, Emelia M. Hayes, of Dublin; came to Keene in 1859; with Stephen D. Osborne (Osborne & Hale) manufactured chairs on Mechanic street, removed the business to South Keene, enlarged it, and established the South Keene Chair Com- pany. Mr. Hale bought the shops on Ralston street, improved them, and in 1879 established the Ashuelot Furniture Company, but the buildings were destroyed by fire in February, 1884. He became a director in the Citi- zens bank of Keene and in the Wachusett bank of Fitch- burg; was one of those who accomplished the difficult task of building the Manchester & Keene railroad from East Wilton to Keene; was afterward president of the Boston, Winthrop & Shore railroad; and was engaged in many other enterprises, particularly in the promotion of gold and silver mining properties. He was active in or- ganizing the Second Congregational church and in building its edifice. He was representative to the legislature in 1866-7; member of the governor's council in 1869-70; delegate to the Republican national convention in 1880; and governor of New Hampshire in 1883-4. In 1869 he bought the mansion on the corner of Main and Winchester streets, added a greenhouse and cold grapery, and spent the remainder of his days there. He died in 1891, leaving a widow, one daughter, Mrs. William DeLos Love, Jr., and one son, William S.
AARON HALL.
Rev. Aaron Hall was born in Cheshire, Ct., in 1751; graduated at Yale in 1772; received the degree of A. M. in 1775, from both Yale and Dartmouth; preached in Keene as a candidate in the summer of 1777, was called in De- cember, and ordained Feb. 18, 1778; married, 1782, Sarah, daughter of Thomas Baker, Esq., of Keene. Their children were: Sally, born 1783, married Elijah Parker; Aaron, born 1785, married Julia Ann Hitchcock ; David, born 1786; and Nabby, born 1788, who died 1790. He married, second, in 1790, Hannah Hitchcock, of Cheshire, Ct., and had two daughters, Hannah, born 1791, and Nabby Ann, born 1793.
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In 1788, he was the delegate from Keene to the con- stitutional convention of New Hampshire that accepted the proposed Federal constitution and assured the establish- ment of the United States government at that time; and his oration, delivered in Keene on the 30th of June, when the town celebrated the ratification of that Federal consti- tution, was published in the New Hampshire Recorder and also in pamphlet form.
During his long, peaceful and happy ministry, the orig- inal structure of the present First Congregational meeting- house was built, in 1786, 211 members were added to the church and 871 persons were baptized.
He died Aug. 12, 1814, in the sixty-third year of his age and the thirty-seventh of his ministry, respected and beloved by all.
JEREMIAH HALL.
Capt. Jeremiah Hall, son of Benjamin and Sarah (Fisher) Hall, of Wrentham, Mass., was born in 1703; married Dorothy; was one of the original proprietors of Upper Ashuelot, and drew lot No. 2, on the east side, south end of Main street, where he built his house, and lived while here. He was one of the leaders in settling the town- ship, and one of the first party, of eight persons, that came here in 1734 and began the settlement. He was also one of the party that came here in 1735, and was chosen mod- erator of the proprietors' meeting in the absence of Capt. Sady; and again in May, 1736, he was the leader of the party that came and spent the summer in building cabins and preparing for the next year's settlement. Again in the spring of 1737 he led the party that came for permanent settlement, was the "standing moderator" of the proprie- tors' meetings, and was paid for having represented the proprietors at the general court. His name is first on the list of members at the original organization of the church in 1738; and he had a son, Jeremiah, Jr.
He was designated in the records of 1738 as "Capt .; " and he was also a physician-the first in town-and is called "Dr. Hall of Keene" in the account of the scouting party, as given in the Annals, that caused the capture of Pierre Raimbault, near Northfield, in 1747. In 1744, he
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buried a daughter here, Kezia, sixteen years old, and a son, Benjamin, three years old; and when the place was abandoned by the families in the spring of 1747, he and several others of the settlers joined the military company of Capt. Josiah Willard, which was stationed here that year and the next; was clerk of that company, and Jere- miah, Jr., was a member of the same company. He was one of the first of the settlers to return to the township; and was chosen agent in 1750 to procure a charter for the town from the legislature of New Hampshire. He buried his wife, Dorothy, here in January, 1753, and soon after- wards removed to Pembroke, Mass. We find him a prac- tising physician in that town in 1756; and he was ap- pointed surgeon's mate, afterwards surgeon (chirurgeon), of Col. Joseph Thatcher's regiment in the expedition to Crown Point in 1757. In 1758, from March to November, he was surgeon of Col. Thomas Doty's regiment for the reduction of Canada; and in 1759, March 31 to December 31, surgeon of Col. John Thomas's regiment at Halifax.
BENJAMIN HALL.
Lieut. Benjamin Hall. His name first appears in the records of 1761, when he bought of William Smeed and his wife Phebe (who had removed to Walpole), six original house-lots-numbers 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27-and seven- teen other lots of the several divisions of land in the town- ship. He also owned, afterwards, house-lots numbered 16, 17 and 18, and much other land in town, amounting to several thousand acres. In 1768 he sold to Jesse Clark a farm of 100 acres "lying in the crotch of Ash Swamp Brook," where Mr. Clark and his son, Jesse, Jr., kept tavern for many years, and built the house west of the small pond, since known as the Ingersoll house. In 1783 he bought of Dr. Gideon Tiffany, then of Hanover, N. H., a farm of sixty acres, with saw and grist mills, on the North branch-the mills since known as the peg factory.
His wife's name was Melatiah, and his children were: Nathaniel, Ziba, Hannaniah, James, Benjamin, Josiah, Bela; and a daughter Betty, who married Maj. Luther Eames, who kept a public house with Aaron Eames.
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Lieut. Hall was selectman nine years between 1762 and 1774, and again in 1784-5-6. He represented the town in the legislature in 1771-2-3-4, and again in 1784- 5 and 1787. He was the lieutenant of the militia company here in 1773, but in 1776 he refused to sign the Associa- tion Test, and was dropped from all official positions. He was not, however, active against the patriots, was con- sidered a man of sound judgment and discretion, and after the war was again entrusted with responsible offices, as appears above. He died in 1805.
PHINEAS HANDERSON.
Hon. Phineas Handerson, son of Gideon and Abigail (Church) Handerson, was born in Amherst, Mass., in 1778; read law with Geo. B. Upham of Claremont; was admitted to the bar in 1804; practised in Chesterfield; married, 1818, Hannah W., daughter of Rev. Samuel Mead of Wal- pole; represented Chesterfield in the legislature; removed to Keene, 1833; bought and lived in the house on Wash- ington street known as the "Handerson" house-since much changed and pillars added; state senator, 1816-17, 1825, 1831-2; councilor, 1833, 1840-1-2; for many years attorney and town agent for Keene, and held many posi- tions of trust and responsibility. He took high rank as a legal adviser and advocate, and was president of the Cheshire county bar at the time of his death in March, 1853.
His children were: Esther, born in Chesterfield in 1819, unmarried; Harriet Mead, born in Chesterfield in 1820, married William P. Abbott, of Nashua, afterwards of Keene; Ellen, born in Chesterfield in 1823, married Dr. Wm. H. Thayer, of Boston; 1 Caroline, born in Chester- field in 1825, married Francis A. Faulkner, of Keene; Henry Clay, born in Chesterfield in 1828, captain in Union army, postmaster in Keene, 1870-74; Hannah Maria, born in Chesterfield in 1830, married Dr. Thomas E. Hatch; Anne Bacon, born in Chesterfield in 1833, unmarried; Mary, born in Keene, 1835, married Hon. Jacob H. Ela, of Roch- ester, N. H.
1 Abbott HI. Thayer, the distinguised painter, is their son. He was born in Boston and brought up in Keene.
PHINEHAS HANDERSON.
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STEPHEN HARRINGTON.
Col. Stephen Harrington was born in Lexington, Mass., in 1775; married Mary Prescott; lived many years in Packersfield, N. H .; was a tanner, and colonel of militia; came to Keene about 1822; bought Shirtliff's tavern, en- larged and improved it, added a third story, and named it Harrington's Coffee House; afterwards connected it with the brick store on the south, named it the Eagle Hotel, and kept an excellent public house; with his son-in-law, King, had a tannery and currier's shop in rear, and a shoe shop on the street. He died, 1847, aged seventy-two. His son, Asaph, succeeded him in the hotel and kept a very popular house. His daughter, Alvira, married Benjamin Wyman of Lancaster, Mass .; his daughter, Mary, married William King, mentioned above; his daughter, Rebecca, married Benaiah Cooke, of Keene, teacher and editor. Col. Harring- ton was a gentleman of polished manners, dignified and courtly, large-hearted and public spirited.
NEHEMIAH HART.
Colonel Nehemiah Hart, of English descent, was born at Natick, Mass., Feb. 3, 1810. His parents soon after- wards settled in Lunenburg, where he lived until eleven years of age. His family then removed to West Keene. He resided with his parents, receiving a common school educa- tion and assisting his father on the farm until after his marriage. About this time he contracted for and built the road around Spofford lake, Chesterfield, now a popular summer resort.
Mr. Hart was captain of the Ninth company, Twen- tieth regiment, New Hampshire state militia, in 1834, '35 and '36. He was commissioned lieutenant colonel, Sept. 4, 1837. He married Miranda Rosetta, daughter of Caleb and Sarah C. (Pierce) Miller of Charlestown, N. H., Aug. 25, 1841. After his marriage he purchased a farm in West Keene, where he extensively engaged in farming and dairy- ing, and in the winter was largely engaged in the wood and lumber business. About the year 1845 he purchased a large tract of land on the south side of West street, which he improved, and erected thereon a number of
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dwelling houses. He laid out the court known as Hart place, to which he removed from his farm in 1868, where he afterwards resided until his death, Nov. 16, 1890, aged eighty years and nine months. Mrs. Hart died Jan. 16, 1893, aged seventy-five years. They were the parents of eight children, five of whom are living.
As a business man, Mr. Hart was prompt, reliable and energetic. His success was well-earned and deserving.
THOMAS E. HATCH.
Dr. Thomas E. Hatch, son of John and Sally (Ed- wards) Hatch, was born in 1822; graduated at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, in 1844, receiving the degree of M. D .; the same year was appointed assistant physician of the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane at Concord; afterwards appointed to the same position in the state lunatic asylum at Worcester, Mass .; resigned on account of ill health; went to California in 1849; returned in 1850; made several voyages to Europe as surgeon of a sailing packet; married, 1854, Hannah Maria, daughter of Hon. Phineas Handerson, of Keene, and they had one daughter and one son.
From 1851 to 1859, Dr. Hatch was surgeon and pur- ser on a steamship of the Nicaragua Transit Co., sailing between New York and San Juan; again resigned on ac- count of ill health; was appointed postmaster at Keene in 1861 and held the office until 1870. He represented his ward two terms in the New Hampshire legislature, and was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1876. His father was for many years the popular land- lord of the Phoenix Hotel in Keene, and his mother was the second daughter of Dr. Thomas Edwards, of Keene. He was a very prominent Freemason, reaching the thirty- third degree in 1863. In 1880, he was appointed to a clerkship at Washington, and died in that city in 1894.
JOHN HAWKS.
Lt. Col. John Hawks, of Deerfield, Mass., was one of the original proprietors of Upper Ashuelot; son of Dea. Eleazar and Judith (Smead) Hawks. He was born in
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1707; married, 1730, Elizabeth, daughter of John Nims, an aunt of David Nims, who came to Upper Ashuelot; one of a committee in 1734 to lay out, survey and allot the intervale lands in this township; one of another com- mittee, the same year, to "find the best place for a road from Upper to Lower Ashuelot;" a sergeant in command of Fort Massachusetts in 1746; captured after a gallant defence and taken to Canada; returned after a few months to find himself "the hero of Fort Massachusetts;" was the active agent in rescuing Nathan Blake from captivity in 1748; was appointed a lieutenant the same year and commanded a company of scouts; was a major in Col. William Williams's regiment in Abercrombie's disastrous campaign against Ticonderoga in 1758; lieutenant colonel under Gen. Amherst in 1759 and commanded a detach- ment of several hundred men that cut a road from Crown Point over the Green mountains toward No. 4. "Bold, hardy and enterprising, he was highly esteemed and trusted with important commands."
PETER HAYWARD.
Peter Hayward came to New Hampshire with the pioneers of Upper Ashuelot and made the first settlement in what is now Surry-then a part of Gilsum, called "Westmoreland Leg." He also owned land in Keene, which made him a citizen of this town; and he was a town officer here in 1755-6, and again in '69 and '74.
In going to Surry by the "old road," on the east side of the river, one may notice the last house before reaching the bridge-the first in Surry-standing on a bluff, with its large, old-fashioned chimney and general colonial ap- pearance. That house was built by this Peter Hayward, his log cabin having stood near the same spot, and there he and his descendants for several generations lived and kept public house.
Originally of Dedham, the family removed to Mendon, Mass., where Peter was born in 1725. He married Ruth Rutter of Mendon and about the time named above he brought his wife and three little daughters to his new home in the wilderness-the mother on horseback, with
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little Rachel in her arms, and Deborah and Huldah slung in baskets, one on each side of the horse.
In the spring of 1755 the French and Indian war broke out, and hearing of hostile Indians in his vicinity, Mr. Hayward, with his near neighbor, Ebenezer Day, of Keene, hurriedly took his family to the fort in Keene for safety; and then joined scouting parties to hunt the savages. His powder horn, with curious inscriptions, is still preserved by his descendants in Keene. His name appears also on the roll of Capt. Josiah Willard's company- April 18 to Nov. 27-which held the fort here in 1749, along with those of David Nims, Samuel Hills, Nathan Fairbanks and others of Upper Ashuelot and vicinity, which makes it probable that he was here then and previous to that time, with his neighbors, in the endeavor to prepare his home for his family.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Hayward were members of the church here, and eight children were baptised-Deborah, Huldah, Rachel and Nathan in 1755, Sylvanus in 1757, William in 1759, all by Rev. Ezra Carpenter; and Ruth in 1762, and Molly in 1765, by Rev. Clement Sumner.
The great grandson of this hardy pioneer, Peter Baxter Hayward, succeeded Dea. Asa Duren in the bakery so long in operation, on the corner of Church and Main streets, and accumulated a large property. His brother (George O.) and daughter (Mrs. A. T. Batchelder) still reside in Keene. His widow, Mary Hills, died July 6, 1900.
SETH HEATON.
Seth Heaton, son of Nathaniel and Maria Heaton, of Wrentham, Mass., was born in 1710; married Thankful Field, of the same family as the celebrated Cyrus and David Dudley Field of recent years. He was one of the first party of seven that came to Upper Ashuelot in September, 1734, and of the second party that came the next year; but all returned for the winter in each case. In the spring of 1736 he came again, and built his log cabin during that sum- mer on the west side of what is now the Marlboro road, where George M. Hodgkins now lives, No. 497. He took his first divisions of land and made his "pitches" in that
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part of the township, and ultimately owned several hun- dred acres there, covering the south end of Beech hill and extending on both sides of the branch, including a large part of the intervale southwest of his cabin.
"One of the first things he did was to plant an or- chard, and some years later, when the trees were partly grown and the Indians began to be troublesome, looking out from his cabin he saw one of the savages cutting down an apple tree. He took down his gun, and that Indian never cut any more trees." "He used to lie in his cabin, or under a brush heap, with his gun, and watch for lurk- ing Indians while his wife milked the cows." (Heaton tra- dition.)
His log cabin was burned by the Indians when the township was abandoned, in 1747, but he was one of the first to return, and he built the low farmhouse, still stand- ing on the east side of the street, opposite the site of his log cabin-the second from the old Mount Pleasant tavern -and lived and died there. He was at one time a lieuten- ant in the militia. It is a tradition in the family that that was the first framed house built in the township-doubt- less now the oldest house in town-and it is still in pos- session of his descendants; but the large old chimney has been removed and two smaller ones substituted. His sons and other descendants afterwards built houses and lived along the same road, towards the branch; and some of the old barns still standing there were built by the elder Heaton.
Four of his sons were Revolutionary soldiers- William, Jonathan, Luther and Samuel. His children were: Seth, born 1740; Huldah, born 1742, married first, Samuel Wadsworth of Keene, and second, a Mr. Butterfield; David, born 1744; William, born 1746; Jonathan, born 1750, married Thankful Clark, of Lancaster, Mass .; Susanna, born 1752; Anna, born 1754, married Capt. John Griggs, of the Revolutionary army; Luther, born 1756; and Sam- uel, born 1759.
SAMUEL HEATON.
Samuel Heaton, youngest son of above, was born in 1759; married Sarah Boynton; lived on the homestead bequeathed to him by his father; was a corporal in the
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company of Capt. Francis Towne of Rindge, Col. David Gilman's regiment, sent to reinforce Gen. Washington's army in December, 1776, and was in the battles of Tren- ton and Princeton. His children were: Samuel, born 1783; David, born 1785, married Rebecca Morse of Marl- boro, lived on the homestead-a soldier in the war of 1812; Sally, born 1787; Seth, born 1790, married Betsey Nourse; Nancy, born 1792, married John Towns; Polly, born 1794. He died in 1830, aged seventy.
ADIN HOLBROOK.
Adin Holbrook was born in Wrentham, Mass., in 1752; came to Keene as early as 1776; was in Capt. Whitcomb's company, Ashley's regiment, on its march to the relief of Ticonderoga in the fall of 1776; was sergeant in Capt. Mack's company, Nichols's regiment, in the battle of Bennington, 1777; married Hannah, daughter of Eben- ezer Day, of Keene; was a millwright and had a sawmill in the west part of the town; afterwards settled on the Holbrook farm, old Surry road, about 1780, and with his son, Adin, Jr., had a sawmill on the road-previously Partridge's-and built the present Holbrook house in 1806; with Capt. Joseph Dorr built and operated an oil mill on the stream a few rods below the sawmill; died 1843, aged ninety-one. His children were: Adin, Clarinda, Chloe, Enos, Cornelia, who were born between 1780 and 1792.
GEORGE INGERSOLL.
Major George Ingersoll, son of Daniel and Bethiah (Haskell) Ingersoll, of Boston, was born in 1754; enlisted in 1775 as a. private in Col. Gridley's regiment of artillery, of Massachusetts; served through the Revolutionary war, receiving promotion to the rank of lieutenant; promoted to captain in the artillery and engineers in 1795; married, the same year, Martha Goldthwaite, of Boston, sister of the wives of Dr. Daniel Adams and Dea. James Lanman, of Keene; commandant at West Point, 1796 to 1801, while it was a military school, previous to the establish- ment of the military academy; promoted to major in the artillery service in 1803; resigned in 1804 on account of ill health; an original member of the Order of the Cincinnati.
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