USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Mont Vernon > History of the town of Mont Vernon, New Hampshire > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
The next pastor. Dr. S. H. Keeler, was here eight years. That this was a ministry of strength and uplifting power is abundantly testified by living witnesses, although the records are very meagre. John Bruce, after a continued service of fifty years as deacon, re- signed the office about this time. At his death he left a legacy to the church of $400.
Deacon J. A. Starrett and Deacon William Conant also, after their long years of service, resigned. Tender and appreciative letters were given to each of these faithful servants of God, which are placed in your records. Deacons Bruce, Starrett, and Conant ! - a cluster of names that will ever add bright lustre to the pages of the history of Mont Vernon church !
Rev. W. H. Woodwell, of Hampton, Connecticut, followed, and remained nearly four years and a half. having endeared himself to the church by his wisdom and sympathy.
210
HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
Rev. C. C. Carpenter commenced his labors here Nov. 1st, 1880. After nearly five years of generous toil he laid aside the work on ac- count of impaired health and by advice of his physician. I find on his leaving, a tribute of great respect and affectionate esteem, voted by the church and sigued by a committee consisting of these beloved brothers who have now all passed on - Win. H. Conant. George E. Dean, Thomas H. Richardson.
Mr. Carpenter is the man above all others to prepare the annals of this church, and would have done so now, had he felt that health permitted. By good fortune he is with us today, bringing his greeting and his own account of the church and people in his time.
After him came Richard A. McGown, John Thorpe, T. J. Lewis, Donald Brown, and H. P. Peck, the present pastor.
On some future occasion, others will speak more fittingly of these later pastorates, of the new church building, of the large gifts for it, from distant friends, as well as smaller gifts from equally devoted and loving hearts. Especially will they tell how the last thousand dollars of the debt was raised on a Sunday evening by George A Marden, when by mirthful personal appeals, witty aneedotes, and characteristic persuasion he gathered the needed sum, an entertain- ment never excelled on this hilltop, besides being the most profitable one. But is mine to speak of earlier days.
Let me give you one or two more pictures of the long ago. When I was a boy, I saw as a boy, I thought as a boy. The old meeting- honse was the centre of all things bere, and from its belfry you could see everywhere Go up into the belfry and I will show you the cyclorama on a Sunday morning of that time. Everybody is on his way to meeting. Looking east, you see winding along the side of Preble Hill (they give it a grander name new, because the city folks require it) a long row of wagons loaded down almost to the axles with Batchelders, Kendalls, Wilkinses, Robies, Robinsons, Mc- Colloms. Coming across Cloutman's blueberry pasture is Mr. Eliot, the village carpenter who lives outside the village. Samuel, John and Jane are with him. Look north, and you see wagon loads of Bat- tleses, Averills, Lamsons, Westons, Richardsons, Smiths, Perkinses, Trows, and many others on foot. Look east by south, -those are the Campbells, Baldwins, Browns, Trevitts. That is Sarah Jane Trevitt with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for the pulpit. Toiling slowly up the hill, from the south, with his horse stopping to puff at every other "thank-you-marm," is Joshua Cleaves with his wife and two daughters, Lydia and Augusta. The latter teaches the village school held in the old red school-house. , The former has also taught there. Mr. Cleaves's brother John and his son William are walking. Uncle Joshua will have a comfortable nap before he returns. An- other wagon is that of William Richardson. He is driving his son Justin's white mare, "pushing on the reins" continuously. Justin is walking. Then Capt. Kittredge's family (where the minister was never allowed to be criticized), two loads of them, one wagon and a
217
HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
rockaway, the latter the toniest vehicle in town. They have with them old lady Coburn and the widow Kittredge. Sabrina Coburn is also on the way. Charles and George Kittredge are walking up the old road with their two cousins, Nancy and Harriet. There is James Bruce with his three daughters. Behind them is Deacon John Carl- ton, son of the first deacon Carlton, and wife. with Harriet and Abbie. Joseph and John are walking cross-lots. The Trows of the south part of the town are on their way; also a stray Hutchinson (most of them go to Milford). Turn in a westerly direction, and you see the l'ptons coming over the old. uneven Purgatory road, and Henry Dodge's family, who live at the Old Homestead. The Dodges are in a double-seated "democrat" wagon, good, honest Democrat that he is. He is fair to middling in size and weight (rather more so), but there is room for his wife and four little girls besides little Henry Francis, who adds his mite to help bring down the wagon springs. From different points of the compass, as you see, they all come "withi one accord to one place." They bring their luncheons and stay all day. You cannot see how they and the village folks can erowd in, but I remind you that it is a very large meeting-house. and they are all there, except those whom the minister mentions in his "long" prayer as "not present on account of severe illness or the infirmities of age."
Come down from the belfry and look in with me over the audi- ence. You see Bruces enough and those connected with them by the "ties of nature and affection" to fill a fair-sized meeting-house. The Conants are there all right, about two-thirds up the right aisle. The Stevens pews are full, and a portion in the singers' seats. There is a full pew of Cloutmans, and the balance in the choir. How it would delight President Roosevelt's heart to see that row of chubby Marden children. They are all young, but George is old enough to repeat to his Sabbath School teacher,
"Though I am young, a little one, Yet I can speak and go alone."
Zephaniah Kittredge, his sons and daughters and grandchildren, Starretts, Stinsons, Marbles, Dunbars. Odells, Smiths. Bakers, Braggs. If I have omitted anyone, he need not speak. for him I have not offended !
Ah! these "scenes that once were mine and are no longer mine !" It does not harm us to have smiles as well as tears in God's House as we reeall them, especially at such a time as this We will turn from these things but cannot forget them, certainly not the hallowed names. We will "look up and not down, look forward and not back- ward," and we will "lend a hand," and "all abide in the deepening conviction that there is no institution like the Christian church, noth- ing that is worthy of one's utmost devotion save the kingdom of our Master."
218
HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
ADDRESS BY REV. C. C. CARPENTER.
The speaker selected for this commemoration of the first hundred years of the Mont Vernon church, to whose interesting address we have just listened, is certainly far better fitted for that service than I. for he belonged to that century and I did not! He came to the town to reside, with his reverend father-at an early age, to be sure- nearly forty years before I set foot within its borders. My pas- torate began indeed on the very boundary line of the church's second century. When I first visited Mont Vernon in September, 1880, I was told that the venerable Dr. Keeler had preached, two Sabbatbs before, a centennial sermon in recognition of the original organization of the church in September, 1780. That first century had been blessed with twelve pastors-the full apostolic number-and when after the true Congregational fashion the people gave forth their lots, the lot fell upon me to be numbered with them and to take part in their ministry. And I always felt that I entered into their labors, and to a good extent reaped what they had sown. All praise to the memory of those early pastors ; their faithful ministrations moulded a whole generation of strong-hearted, true-hearted men and women who believed in God, in the Bible, in the Church, in the Sabbath, in the seriousness of the life that now is, because connected with the life which is to come !
I have been asked for some remembrances of my pastorate. Memories I surely have, vivid and tender. of those five happy years of humble service here, although they ended nearly a score of years ago. I remember that first Sunday on the hilltop in the autumn of 1880, and the dear old meeting-house in which I preached- learning afterwards that my coming had been kindly arranged by my good friend, Dr. Bancroft, in the capacity of a candidate! And when the days of candidacy were over and the family had come to the parson- age-then of course standing on this site, and so ensuring still more of the brisk and beautiful breezes of winter than in its present humbler location-I remember that characteristic hospitality of Mont Vernon homes, which though not always entertaining angels always seemed to provide "angels' food" -and this hospitality continned unto the end
The elder Bruces and Kittredges had passed on, but good old Deacon Conant remained-though only in the summer time-as also Mr. Cloutman, who lived till he was able to say with Joshua, "Lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old." Hiram Perkins died on the morning of the first Sunday of my pastorate. How well I re- member all the rest : Deacon Starrett. Deacon Dean. Deacon Wm. H. Conant, Haskell Richardson-and his brother Nathan "in the singers' seats"-Capt. Trevitt from his fertile farm in the valley. and Porter Kendall from his rocky farm in the East,-a farm which seemed to bring forth "honey out of the rock" according to the
219
HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
Scripture !- Dr. Bunton in his last days, Charles J. Smith, with his encyclopediac memory of all the past, B. F. Marden with his origi- nality and mental independence, Major Stinson, the Batchelders, the Battleses, the Averills, the McColloms, the Lamsons, the Smiths, the dwellers in the North District, in the South District, in the East Dis- triet, in the West District and on Beech Hill, and godly women not a few, such as Mrs. Trask Averill, Mrs. Nancy Stinson, Mrs. Mary Starrett, Jane Elliott, yes, and Laurania Smith with her passion for music, and many others, both men and women, whom time, not men- ory, fails me to tell of.
I remember the Academy and its work-education and religion co-operating after the plan of the fathers (the handmaids standing side by side now, instead of on opposite sides of the road) -the shorter principalships of Ray and Ward and Hunt, the longer one of Cassins Campbell, who was a tower of strength to church and pastor. I remember the Center school and the children who successively at- tended it-I still preserve tenderly a big bunch of their letters written when I came away ; they are children no longer, and although I re- member all their names, I wonder whether I shall recognize all their faces if I see them today! I remember the Sunday School, with Deacon Dean as superintendent and George Starrett and afterward Lucia Trevitt as librarians, and the quarterly concerts where were exhibited the rolls of honor for faithful attendance. I sent up to Mr. Marden the other day some of the lists executed in red crayon. I remember the Home Circle, with its pleasant entertainments, its be- neficent and comprehensive work-repairing the chapel, painting the parsonage, building a parsonage barn, blowing the organ, plowing out the sidewalks in winter; I remember the training of the Buds of Promise-promise well fulfilled !- the levees and the lyceums and the Village Improvement Society, and, perhaps, best of all, the formation at the parsonage one stormy winter evening of the Christian Endeavor Society, the influence of which proved the glad beginning of open Christian life for many of our youth. I have brought back that precious roll of beginners to the church.
I remember seasons of joy and sorrow almost too sacred to men- tion-bride and bridegroom taking the glad vows of marriage, and the times of mourning, as one after another of our townsfolk de- parted hence, or sons and daughters of the town were brought back to be laid among their kindred in "God's acre." One specially tender incident I remember at the funeral of a dear old mother in Israel. whose name I need not speak, brought back from Somerville for burial here, when her seven sons and daughters, in a few minutes of waiting at the close of the service in the old meeting-house, as by common impulse sang together "In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on the beautiful shore."
You must pardon me, friends, if as I recall the pastors who pre- ceded me and the parishioners of my time, one sad thought is for the moment uppermost in my mind. Of that roll of twelve pastors of
220
HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
the first century closing in 1880, five have died since that date -Jen- nison, Herbert, Lord, Sanborn. and Keeler- only Frink and Woodwell remain. Mingled with the joy of meeting old friends is the sadness of not meeting others. Of those whom I used to see before me in the old meeting-house, how many I miss ! I found most of their names this early morning in the quiet city of the dead : Dea. William Conant, Dea. Starrett, Dea. and Mrs. Dean. Mrs. Mary Starrett, Mrs. Nancy Stinson, Mrs. Bunton, Mr. and Mrs. Richardson, Mr. and Mrs. Porter Kendall, Capt. Trevitt, Mr. and Mrs. Batchelder, Mr. and Mrs. Trask Averill, Mr. and Mrs. Travis. Mr. and Mrs. Marden, Mr. and Mrs. Marble, Mr. and Mrs. Stinson. Mr. Stevens, Alonzo Bruce. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Perkins, Justin Richardson, and I presume this does not include all. Besides these I think of friends closely identi- tied in our minds with Mont Vernon : John F. Colby, Augustus Berry. Dr. Bancroft and Mrs. Bancroft, Dr. Kittredge, Prof. Ray, Chas. P. Mills and others. Last of all, and in respect of church associations nearest of all, I think of Dea. William H. Conant, gone so lately to realize what he often used to quote in our prayer meetings - we can almost hear his familiar voice even now-"Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day ; for our light afflic- tion, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceed- ing and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen. but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
But in place of this sad note-which is not really sad-let me add words of greeting, of cheer, of promise. Instead of the past, we have the present, and future. In an old exhibition program of your academy, twenty years ago, I noticed the other day the title of an essay written by one of your girls-"Mt. Vernon a Hundred Years Hence." What is the outlook for the town's new century? There are many elements of encouragement : a new sanctuary of "strength and beauty": instead of the fathers are the children; new friends are added to the old who remain : the never failing freshness of this air, the never fading beauty of these hills. But let religion and edu- cation have the first place. Mt. Vernon's second century will be largely what the church and the school shall make it, shall mould it ! The children of my time are the citizens of today: the children of today will be the citizens of your second century. For the best and truest prosperity of Mt. Vernon's future, make sure that these insti- tutions are constantly. heartily, strongly sustained !
Nor let us be disturbed because the thoughts and ways, the sermons and experiences of those ministers and people in the past differ so much in appearance from those of the present day. Were they all wrong in the past? Are we all wrong now? Neither ! have just read over the sermon of Stephen Chapin in commemoration of John Bruce, whose pastorate was not only the first, but by far the longest of all-how fitting that his honored grandson can be the his-
221
HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
torical orator at this time !- and I read such stern doctrine and gloomy exhortation as no preacher of today would think of using. and no congregation would listen to. I used to read when in Mt. Vernon an old set of written experiences of candidates for membership which some pastor had preserved, describing in stereotyped doctrinal phrase- ology their feelings, or what they thought their feelings ought to be. We could not possibly feel so or speak so. But they were right in their time-noble, sturdy men and women. true to their light and their consciences. We are right in thinking and speaking differently ; the differences. however great they may seem. are really small-they represent the unimportant and the transient. Under these differences, these changing creeds and forms of statement. is the same truth- that is vital and enduring : "The things which cannot be shaken re- main." Like the rock under your ancient church, like the hills which surround you as the mountains about Jerusalem. so the Rock of Ages is beneath all, the great facts of reason and revelation stand firm as the everlasting hills. Dear Dr. Bancroft. a few days before his death, said to me, "There are a few great, simple verities to be thought of now !" Let us keep them uppermost : God's existence, God's love for his children on the earth, His immortality and ours, Jesus Christ the same. yesterday and today and forever; these make what John Fiske called "the everlasting value of religion"-these are the simple, blessed verities which abide-we can trust them !
.For all the past ministers of the dear old church on the hill-top. I will now say. "peace be within thee !" God grant that it may still be as a city set on a hill, as a light on a candlestick, attracting and guiding children and youth, men and women, into an earnest faith in great and blessed things, training them for pure and honest and use- ful lives, so that they may enjoy whatever is true and right and good here, and thus be best fitted to inherit and enjoy that grander life. veiled now from our eyes. but not far away from us in elder years- not very far from any of us-when we shall come to Mount Zion and dwell at home, not for one "home week," but forevermore, all God's children united in the Father's House.
Mr. Carpenter closed with an exhortation to the maintenance of the precious heritage of the past-not to be content with praising the fathers but to imitate them-and recited Dr. Bacon's old hymn of the Pilgrim Fathers, "O God, beneath Thy guiding hand," the last stanza of which was especially appropriate :
" And here thy name. O God of love. Their children's children shall adore. Till these eternal hills remove, And spring adorns the earth no more."
CHAPTER XIII.
MILITARY HISTORY.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR SOLDIERS -THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR-THE WAR OF 1812-MILITIA MUSTERS-THE MEXICAN WAR-THE CIVIL WAR-ACTION OF TOWN AS TO BOUNTIES-MEN FURNISHED UNDER DIFFERENT CALLS-MEN IN THE SECOND, THIRD, FIFTH, EIGHTH, TENTH, ELEVENTH, THIRTEENTII AND SIXTEENTH NEW HAMPSHIRE REGIMENTS, AND THE UNITED STATES SHARP-SHOOT- ERS-TOWN AGENT FOR RAISING QUOTAS-ACTION AS TO DRAFTED MEN OR SUBSTITUTES. .
Mont Vernon, as small as she is, has had a part in all the wars which have taken place in this country, except the Spanish War. That part has not been large, but it has in every case been creditable. The story is a brief one, but it is honorable. Men went from this town to nearly all the New Hampshire organizations in the several wars, but the greater number served in the Civil War, and in the Thirteenth New Hampshire Volunteers, enlisting in Company B, with George A. Bruce, who was early chosen First Lieutenant, and with Charles M. Kittredge, who was later First Sergeant and then Second Lieutenant of the same Company. This company and regiment saw much active service.
Six soldiers who at that time lived in what is now Mont Vernon served in the French and Indian War, closing in 1763. They were Samuel Lamson, Jonathan Lamson, John Mills, Samuel Bradford and Daniel Weston. Stephen Peabody was a sub-officer.
Mont Vernon acted in conjunction with Amherst, it being a part of that town, in military affairs, until its entire separation in 1803.
About fifty soldiers served from what is now Mont Vernon, in the War for Independence. The following are their names : John
223
HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
Averill, Daniel Averill, Sr., Enos Bradford, Joseph Bradford, John Cole, Nathan Cole, Isaac Palmer Curtice, John Carleton, Enoch Carleton, Jacob Curtice, Benjamin Dike, corporal, Stephen Dike, Amos Flint, Asa Farnum, John Farnum, Joseph Farnum, Stephen Farnum. John Farnham, Stephen Gould, Allen Goodrich, Silas Gould, Joshua Haywood. William Haywood, Zephaniah Kittredge, Soloman Kittredge. Joseph Lovejoy, Samuel Lamson, Andrew Leav- itt, Joseph Leavitt. Jeremiah Lamson, John Mills, John Odell, Ebenezer Odell. Joseph Perkins, William Parker, Robert Parker, James Ray, Peter Robertson, Moses Sawyer, Daniel Smith, Asa Swinnerton (Swinington ?), Samuel Sterns, Henry Trivet (Trevitt ?), Eli Wilkins, Lemuel Winchester, Levi Woodbury, Jesse Woodbury.
Stephen Peabody was Adjutant of Col. Reed's regiment.
Levi Woodbury, uncle of Judge Levi Woodbury, who died in 1850, served on the privateer Essex, which was taken by the British. He was carried to England, a prisoner of war, where he died.
The following Mont Vernon soldiers died in the Revolutionary War: Lient. Joseph Bradford, John Cole, Benjamin Dike, Jeremiah Lamson, Sylvester Wilkins.
The people of Mont Vernon, believing that the War of 1812 was just and necessary, ardently favored its prosecution, and quite a number enlisted for permanent service.
Captain James T. Trevitt, commanding a company in Colonel Steel's regiment, was for sixty days at Portsmouth, where was ex- pected an attack from a British fleet cruising near by. This company was made up of men drafted for special service. Dr. John Trevitt was a surgeon, who continued permanently in the service after the conclusion of peace, and died in 1821 at Augusta. Ga., at his post of duty.
Dr. Rogers Smith was an assistant surgeon on the frontier.
In the days of "militia musters" Mont Vernon was always rep- resented. For thirty years a first-class company of infantry was sustained here under the militia law. It would be exceedingly inter- esting to have a roster of the company or companies, or detachments, of the militia organizations in which there were Mont Vernon repre- sentatives, but the names are not known to be on record. Within the last half-century there were officers living in the town who probably gained their titles in the military service-such as Capt. Thomas Cloutman, Capt. N. R. Marden. (who later lived in Frances-
224
HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
town). Capt. William Lamson, Capt. Joseph A. Starrett. Capt. William Bruce, and others.
In the war with Mexico. Chandler Averill was a volunteer. Capt. John Trevitt, a graduate of West Point in 1840, being in the regular army, served in this war.
THE CIVIL WAR.
The Civil War affected the little town of Mont Vernon much as it affected all rural New Hampshire. A spirit of intense patriotism was aroused. and the town was stirred to its depths by a determina- tion to do anything within its power to aid in preserving the Union. The official action in town meeting is perhaps the best story of what was done in this direction :
1861. In a warrant for a special town-meeting, called for May 15, was the following article :
"2. To see if the Town will make the wages of those that vol- unteer to serve their country up to $18 per month, and furnish them with a suitable outfit, or make them a donation equal thereto, and make suitable provision for their families, or make as much provision for them as those that volunteer are accustomed to do for the families with which they are connected."
The vote on this article seems to have been somewhat extraordi- nary, in view of the proposition made therein. It was :
"Voted, that the Selectmen of Mont Vernon be directed to order paid from the treasury of said town to the following persons, who have enlisted in the volunteer service of the United States, the sum of seven dollars per month each, for a period not exceeding three months from the date of their enlistment in such service, viz : George Farnam, A. E. Bennett, John H. Smith, James Marvell, James Beard, Albert York, and also George W. Kittredge, if he has not been guaranteed extra wages by any association of persons. or by any town. Also that said Selectmen be instructed to pay an expense of board incurred for said individuals while drilling at Milford, and their wages at said Milford at eleven dollars per month, and also to pay for any material used in garments made and furnished to them as an outfit prior to their leaving for the point of rendezvous of their regiment in this state; Conditioned, however, that if the Legislature of this state shall, at its next ensuing session make any appropria- tions covering any of the above expenses, only such money shall be paid under this vote for those of the above specified objects as are not provided for by such legislative acts."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.