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 64
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SESQUICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
DR. SEWARD'S ORATION.
Mr. Mayor and Citizens:
"My tongue, by inspiration taught, Shall parables unfold : Dark oracles, but understood, And owned for truths of old, Which we from sacred registers Of ancient times have known, And our forefathers' pious care To us has handed down. Let children learn the mighty deeds Which God performed of old,
Which, in our younger years, we saw, And which our fathers told. Our lips shall tell them to our sons, And they again to theirs, That generations yet unborn May teach them to their heirs."
A century and a half of the corporate existence of this municipality of Keene has passed. The ashes of the last of our forefathers who cleared the primeval forests and laid the foundations of Upper Ashuelot, the cradle of the later Keene, have long since mingled with their kindred dust. We come today to seek to recall their heroic deeds, their patient toil, and their exemplary virtues. If we would lift the veil which con- ceals from us their many daring exploits, their labors in subduing the wilderness, their consecrated efforts to maintain public worship, their fierce encounters with the savages, and their progress in municipal gov- ernment, we shall find a large portion of this civic life shrouded in dark- ness. Here and there, the imperfect records of the town and the first church, together with the preserved traditions of aged residents, enable us to catch glimpses of the course of events and to weave something like a connected web of historical detail.
If a bird's-eye view of this immediate vicinity, in what geologists would call a recent geological age, could be reproduced for us, it would disclose a vast lake covering the beautiful valley in which we are. It extended on the north to the hills of Surry, with a bay reaching to the high lands of Alstead. Surry mountain was a beautiful promontory jutting into this lake from the northeast, which a bay reaching up what is now the Beaver brook valley separated from Beech hill. On the east, this lake reached to Beech hill and to the high hills of Roxbury and Marlboro, with bays reaching out towards what are now Marlboro village and East Swanzey. The southern boundary was the hills of Richmond and the western shore was on what we call the West moun- tain and the hills of Westmoreland and Surry. The outlet was by way of what we call the valley of the Ashuelot, into the valley of the Con- necticut. The lake must have been a most beautiful sheet of water, about fifteen miles in length and from three to five miles in width. Evi- dences of its existence have been repeatedly discovered and described. Gradually the soft earth at the outlet was worn away and, little by little, the lake disappeared, until only traces of it were left.
The earliest inhabitants of this fair valley which succeeded the old
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lake were the Ashuelot Indians. They were probably a branch of the great tribe of Pequots who occupied the valleys of the Connecticut and its tributaries. These earliest Indians, who gave their name to our river, a name which ought still to characterize our municipality, were not the same as those troublesome Indians who annoyed the first settlers of Upper Ashuelot. The latter found their way here from Canada and were induced to come by the French, who were opposed to the English in the European wars of that period. The struggle in Europe had its echoes in America, where the colonists of the two countries fought each other, until the great victory on the Heights of Abraham decided the long struggle in favor of the British government.
In order to understand the historical setting of the first settlement of this place, it is necessary to recur to certain facts. The territory granted to Gorges and Mason, on the 10th of August, 1622, and known as the Province of Maine, was to include all the land of New England between the Merrimac and Sagadahoc rivers and from the sea coast between their mouths to a line connecting points on the rivers, or in the con- tinued direction of the general course of the rivers, three score miles from the mouths of each. It was then supposed that the rivers, both of them, flowed generally in an easterly direction. The grant of Massachusetts, to Sir Henry Roswell and others, March 19, 1627-8, confirmed to the grantees all the land three miles north of any and every part of the River Merrimac. On Nov. 7, 1629, the Council of Plymouth granted to Capt. John Mason, his heirs and assigns, "all that part of the mainland in New England lying upon the seacoast, beginning from the middle part of Merrimack river, and from thence to proceed northwards along the seacoast to Pascataqua river, and so forwards up within the said river and to the furtherest head thereof, and from thence northwestward, until three score miles be finished from the first entrance of Pascataqua river; also from Merrimack through the said river and to the furtherest head thereof, and so forward up into the lands westwards, until three score miles be finished; and from thence to cross over land to the three score miles end accompted from Pascataqua river," etc.
As a result of these indefinite, in fact impossible, boundary lines, which conflicted with the bounds of the Massachusetts patent, many conflicts arose between the settlers of the two provinces in regard to their right- ful limits. Massachusetts claimed that the patent of Mason, properly construed, would not allow him a foot of land south or west of any part of the Merrimac. Consequently, in the year 1652, the general court of Massachusetts Bay appointed Captains Edward Johnson and Simon Wil- lard as commissioners to ascertain the source of the Merrimac. Accom- panied by two surveyors and some Indian guides, they proceeded to as- cend that river. They followed the more easterly of the two streams which unite to form the Merrimac and arrived, on the 1st day of Au- gust, 1652, at the source of that stream, at the outlet of beautiful Lake Winipisiogee. Realizing the importance of their great discovery, they in- scribed upon a rock, in the midst of the little stream, at the outlet of the lake, the letters E I, for Edward Johnson (I and J being formerly considered
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as the same letter); S W, for Simon Willard; WP JOHN ENDICUT GOV, for Worshipful John Endicut (or Endecott), Governor. That 1st day of August, 1652, precisely 250 years ago, the 1st day of last August, an even century before Keene was incorporated, is a memorable date in New Hampshire annals. Acting upon this information, Massachusetts, for more than a century, not without rank protest, continued to lay claim to all that part of our state which is west of any part of the Merrimac river.
Now we are prepared to understand that problem which has puzzled so many, why this lovely valley of ours should have been first settled under the auspices of Massachusetts. It was because Massachusetts claimed this part of the state west of the Merrimac, in consequence of the construction which was put upon the meaning of words used in de- scribing the boundary lines of the provinces in the old charters.
But the claims of Massachusetts were warmly and, in the end, suc- cessfully contested. It would be passing beyond the proper limits of this discourse to give the details of that controversy, so interesting to law- yers and historians. It will answer the purpose to say that, after many delays, it was decided by the king, in council, that the line between Mas- sachusetts and New Hampshire should begin at a point three miles north of the mouth of the Merrimac, thence proceeding on a curved line, par- allel to that river, to a point exactly north of Pawtucket Falls (which are in Lowell now), thence on a line due west to his majesty's other gov- ernments. I might add that the establishment of this line gave to the people of New Hampshire the notion of claiming, as a part of their prov- ince, much of the present territory of Vermont, a claim which they were not destined to make good.
Before this decision had been rendered, however, Gov. Belcher of Massachusetts had conceived the idea of establishing townships within the disputed limits. Accordingly, the house of representatives of the general court of Massachusetts passed an act July 3, 1732, in which the council concurred April 20, 1733, and which the governor approved on the same day, establishing four new towns, one to be in what is now Massachusetts, one in Maine, and two on the Ashuelot river. That day, April 20, 1733, was accordingly the date of the first establishment of this municipality, which was known as Upper Ashuelot. It was not immediately settled. On Oct. 19, 1733, the general court appointed a new committee, consisting of Joseph Kellogg, Timothy Dwight and William Chandler, with directions to lay out the townships on Ashuelot river forthwith. They made a report in the following February. This report is accompanied by a report of the surveyors, William Chandler and Nathaniel Dwight. They established as their initial station from which to execute their surveys a spruce tree on the east bank of the Ashuelot. A line east and west from this tree was the dividing line be- tween the upper and lower townships which they were to survey. On the map which accompanies their report, they locate this tree, with the legend : "Ye spruce tree heare Described is ye Sentor tree in ye Deviding line betwene ye Secontt & Third township which we made our first
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Station." Our city clerk, in 1902, reported that "persons living in Keene have seen the old bound which marked the location of the first 'Statia,' an old spruce tree, long since removed." It has been customary to call this central point of that original survey Statia, and a former map named the Thompson farm on which it is found Statia. The name, however, was intended to be a designation of that survey-point. On March 6, 1902, our city councils voted to mark it by a stone post, on the north side of which are the letters, "K. & S. T. L.," for Keene and Swanzey Town Line. On the south side is inscribed, "No. VIII," it being the eighth post in the line between Keene and Swanzey indicating that line. On the east side is the inscription: "Statia. 1733." It is well that . this historical landmark of our history is thus preserved.
The foregoing committees, being authorized to admit settlers, notified all persons desirous of taking lots to meet at Concord on June 26, 1734. A sufficient number for the purpose met on that day, at Jonathan Ball's inn at Concord, Mass. They drew their lots, gave their bonds, and paid in their five pounds in lawful money, according to the order of the court. Sixty proprietors were thus admitted for Upper Ashuelot. On the follow- ing day, June 27, the proprietors met and organized, at the inn of Ephraim . Jones in the said Concord. They chose Capt. Samuel Sady of Medfield, moderator, and Samuel Heywood of Concord, Mass., clerk. They ad- journed their meeting until Sept. 18, to be held at their new township of Upper Ashuelot.
As the time for this adjourned meeting approached, seven men of the proprietors started for their proposed settlement. It was late in the evening of Sept. 18, 1734, when these seven men and their guides reached the boundary of their new township at the "Statia " monument. They immediately opened a proprietors' meeting, which they adjourned until the day following. We are fortunate in knowing the exact date of the settlement, as well as the seven men who first crossed the boundary of the township with the intention of settling. They were Jeremiah Hall, Daniel Hoar, Seth Heaton, Elisha Root, Nathaniel Rockwood, Josiah Fisher (afterwards slain by the Indians), and William Puffer.
The house lots of the proprietors were drawn June 26, 1734, and were laid out according to a plan submitted at that meeting. Of the sixty-three lots nine were to be on the line of Lower Ashuelot. The other fifty-four were to be on two sides of a main street, four rods in width, twenty-seven upon either side. These lots were to be 160 rods in length, east and west, and eight rods in width, north and south, the street to run north and south through the centre of the lots. The north line of the north lot upon the west of the street very nearly coincided with the foundations of the southern wall of our railway station. Oct. 1, at a meeting adjourned from Sept. 30, 1736, the proprietors voted to widen the main street four rods, making a street eight rods in width, the settlers readily relinquishing four rods on the east of their lots in return for four rods at the west end. It is to the wise forethought of the pro- prietors at that meeting that we are indebted for that magnificent boulevard which forms our present Main street.
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It was two or three years before the settlers had accommodations which enabled them to move their families or spend the winter here. They were scarcely prepared to do so before the news reached them that the king in council had settled the line between New Hampshire and Mas- sachusetts, which left their new settlement well within the limits of New Hampshire. This was a source of great grief to the settlers, who were devotedly attached to old Massachusetts, from which they came. The king's decision was made March 5, 1740, and on the 3d of October in the same year, the proprietors of Upper Ashuelot held a meeting and voted that a petition be presented to the king's most excellent majesty, setting forth their distress at this decision and praying to be annexed to Massa- chusetts, to which they had always supposed that they belonged, and Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., was appointed to present the petition. Mr. Hutchinson had previously been appointed as an agent of Massachusetts to do the same thing. He made the voyage to England, but failed to accomplish the object of his mission.
The hardships of the infant settlement were made especially distress- ing in consequence of a malignant throat distemper, perhaps diphtheria, which raged in the years 1744 and 1745. A large number died, especially of children. John Andrews had come from Boxford, Mass., bringing with him nine children, all of whom succumbed to this disease within a year.
In the spring of 1744, war was declared between England and France. It is usually called, in American histories, King George's war. It had its origin in disputes concerning the kingdom of Austria which cannot be discussed here. The settlers were greatly alarmed, for the policy of the French in Canada, as an aid to the French side of the con- test, was to encourage incursions of savages from that section to harass their English neighbors in the provinces to the south of them. The dwellers in Upper Ashuelot dared not perform their usual labors, or indeed to go far from the fort, without carrying arms and posting guards to be constantly on the watch for savages who were presumed to be lurking in the neighborhood. The first fatal encounter was on the 10th of July in 1745, when Deacon Josiah Fisher was killed, a little south of the present residence of Mrs. Griffin, as he was driving his cow to pasture.
An episode in the life of Ephraim Dorman, an early settler, serves to show the tremendous physical energy and endurance of these pioneer settlers. In the morning of the 23d of April, 1746, Mr. Dorman left the fort, which was near the present residence of Mr. Lemuel Hayward, to search for his cow. When he was some distance away, he perceived In- dians lurking in the bushes. He immediately gave an alarm, crying "Indians! Indians!" and ran in the direction of the fort. Two of the Indians sprang towards him and fired at him, but neither hit him. They then threw away their arms and advanced towards him. Mr. Dorman knocked one of them senseless, the other he seized and, being a strong man, wrestled with him, using his favorite method of "trip and twitch." He tore the Indian's blanket from his shoulders, leaving him nearly naked. As the Indian was painted and greasy, he managed to slip away
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from Mr. Dorman, who reached the fort in safety. On the same day, a Mrs. McKenney, who had gone to her barn, near where Mrs. Thayer now lives, to milk her cow, on her return was fatally stabbed by a naked Indian, probably the same one who had wrestled with Dorman. On the same day John Bullard, running to the fort from his barn, below where Mr. Hayward lives, was also shot in the back. He was taken into the fort and expired in a few hours. On the same day a circumstance occurred which gives a glimpse of the physical ability and endurance of our foremothers. A Mrs. Clark was at her barn, fifty rods from the fort. As she left it to go to the fort, she saw an Indian near her, who threw away his gun and sprang toward her, evidently with the inten- tion of making a prisoner of her. She gathered her clothes around her waist and started for the fort. It was a splendid running match. The woman, animated by the cheers of her friends, outran the swift Indian, who, undoubtedly mortified that he had been beaten by a white squaw, skulked back for his gun.
Murder was not the only evil to be dreaded at the hands of the sav- ages. To be made a captive by the Indians and dragged to Canada, through the pathless forests of a howling wilderness, entailed horrors and sufferings which words cannot adequately describe. Many a poor cap- tive on his march has wished that the fatal tomahawk might have ended his mortal life before the awful journey began. Nathan Blake, on the day that these Indians attacked the settlement, leaving his barn, near where Milton Blake resides, fearing that he could not reach the fort, undertook to escape in the direction of the river. He was apprehended and taken to Canada. His captors could speak English in a broken way. When he remarked that he had not taken any breakfast, they replied that "it must be a poor Englishman who could not go to Canada without his break- fast." The story of Nathan Blake is so familiar that it will not bear repetition here. It will be enough to say that he returned from his cap- tivity and died, in 1811, in the hundredth year of his age.
News of the attack upon Keene was soon sent by special messengers from town to town, down the Ashuelot and Connecticut valleys, as far as Northampton, where Col. Pomeroy commanded. He immediately took all the forces that he could muster and added to them on his way, reaching Upper Ashuelot forty-eight hours after the attack had begun, on the 25th of April. He found the trail of the retreating Indians but did not attempt to follow it far. In this attack upon the settlement about nine or ten of the savages were killed. Feeling that immediate danger had passed, Col. Pomeroy and his men returned to their homes.
In the spring of 1747 the settlers felt so insecure that they resolved to leave their settlement for a time and did so. Shortly after their depart- ure, a party of savages visited the place and burned most of the build- ings. The mill, however, and the house where the miller lived, and probably some other buildings were spared. As the place was not totally destroyed, and as the original settlers returned after a short absence, in 1750 and 1751, the fact holds good that the first settlement must be dated from Sept. 18, 1734.
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Shortly after the settlers resumed their settlement, they applied to Benning Wentworth, governor of New Hampshire, for a charter. Accord- ingly he granted one to them, including the territory formerly known as Upper Ashuelot and an additional strip upon the east side, bringing the bounds, at that time, as far east as the old Masonian Patent line which formed the western limit of that territory which a famous syndicate, known as "The Masonian Proprietors," had recently purchased of John Tufton Mason, a claimant of the rights in that land vesting in him as the heir of the original John Mason, to whom New Hampshire had been granted, in 1629, with bounds of a very indefinite character. Time can- not here be taken to recite the story of that patent. The name given to the newly chartered township was Keene, an undoubted compliment to Wentworth's friend, Sir Benjamin Keene, who was, at one time, the minister plenipotentiary from Great Britain to the court of Spain. The first meeting of the voters, under the new charter, was on the first Wednesday of May, 1753, at which meeting it was voted to pay Benja- min Bellows 122 Spanish milled dollars for his services and expenses in procuring the charter. The charter bears the date of April 11, 1753. We are therefore two months and twenty-three days late in our celebra- tion of the event today.
From this time the Indians gave but little trouble. Once in 1755, during the old French and Indian war, they appeared and captured a man named Benjamin Twitchell near Ash Swamp. Still later, they appeared and burned an old building in the direction of Surry. After this, the new town was not disturbed by them. From that time to the present day, the civic affairs of Keene have been transacted in an orderly, peaceful, and honorable manner. The old town meeting was the miniature model of a genuine republic. Here any voter could offer suggestions and cast his vote and feel that he was on a political equality with all his neighbors. Those old meetings were not without their breezy episodes. The build- ing or repairing of a meetinghouse, the settlement of a new minister, the laying out of a new highway, the building of a new schoolhouse, the elec- tion of the town officers and the selection of one or more to represent the town in the general court, and the general appropriations, all brought out very animated debates, as the occasions would arise, but the major- ities ruled and, however stubbornly any measure was favored or opposed, nobody doubted the sacred right of the majority to decide any question.
The most important political event in the history of Keene, since its incorporation by Benning Wentworth, was the change from a town to a city. The city charter was granted by the state legislature on the 3d of July in 1873, just thirty years ago yesterday. The first city government was installed on the 5th of May in 1874, with the Hon. Horatio Colony as the first mayor.
As we pass in hasty review the 150 years of municipal life since Keene was incorporated by that name, only a few of the most noted events can claim our attention here. The history of Keene cannot be given in a brief discourse. The admirable history, written by our late distinguished and lamented citizen, Gen. S. G. Griffin, will shortly appear,
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and the multitude of interesting particulars which must be omitted in this review, or only incidentally noticed, will there be treated fully.
In 1764, the first school was established and six pounds voted to defray the expenses. This was surely a humble beginning of the educa- tional history of Keene, but it was a vital spark which has kindled a great fire. From that humble beginning we trace the steady expansion of the public school system within the limits of Keene. There were, at one time, fourteen school districts in the town, including the one known as the Centre district. In 1831 there was no one of these districts which had less than twenty-five pupils. Since that time, the country dis- tricts have steadily declined in population, while the village, now the city, section has been as steadily gaining. The old country schoolhouses are still, for the most part, preserved and the most of them are still used for schools for some portion of the year, but the number of pupils has greatly decreased. Our school buildings in the city proper would do credit to any place of the size of Keene. They are a worthy exponent of public sentiment with respect to the importance of education.
Keene has taken high rank in educational institutions. On the 1st of May, 1814, Miss Catherine Fiske established a boarding and day school for young ladies in the house where Mrs. E. C. Thayer lives. It was unique at the time in this vicinity. The pupils represented families of culture and refinement and the young ladies were instructed not only in books but in such polite accomplishments as would fit them to take their stations in the most elegant society. Miss Fiske died in 1837. The institution survived for a short time longer under those who had been her assistants.
The old Keene academy was established in 1836 and opened in 1837. It had vital relations with the First Congregational church. The build- ing, still well remembered by many, occupied the site of the present high school. The lower room was used by the aforenamed church as a vestry. The academy continued to provide instruction for seventeen years, until 1853, when the high school was established. There were in all about ten principals. The first was Breed Batchelder, a descendant of the man of that name who first settled Packersfield, at a place now in Roxbury. The last was William Torrance, who became the first principal of the high school. In 1853, the academy not having adequate funds to maintain such an institution, and a high school having been established, the trustees leased their building to the town for that school. Mr. Torrance, the first principal of the school, died in February, 1855. After two more principals, who served short terms, Mr. A. J. Burbank, aided by his accomplished wife, took up the work of this school, remaining until 1867, and bringing order out of chaos and establishing a high school of much merit. There were then about eighty pupils. The "Union School District of Keene," formed in 1865, attempted, about 1866, to purchase the building of the Keene acade- my. Not being able to do this, the property was finally taken by law for school purposes and the trustees accepted, finally, the sum of $6,100 for the full settlement of their claims. This procedure created bitter feeling at the time and not without good reason. The proceeds have been carefully
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