USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Mont Vernon > History of the town of Mont Vernon, New Hampshire > Part 3
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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
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
tendencies largely controlled public sentiment in Amherst, and their influence at the time of intense political excitement gave complexion to the politics of the citizens of what is now the town of Amherst.
The sketches of the lives of these men do not bear directly upon the history of Mont Vernon, but they had important and indirect influence in shaping opinions and events, which led to a final separa- tion.
The War for Independence had closed. But the whole country was in a most unsatisfactory condition. The colonies were very poor. A period of distress and depression prevailed, sharper than at any crisis of the Revolutionary struggle. Their money had so declined in value that it took one hundred paper dollars to buy a pair of shoes.
The government of the League of Confederation was weak and inefficient. The people were so jealous of it that they had hardly given Congress means of action. It could not raise money by taxes or establish rates of duties on foreign goods imported, nor compel obedience to any law. It was so loose and feeble that treaties with foreign countries were impossible. Washington said: "We are one nation today and thirteen tomorrow." The people were heavily in debt. Public and private credit was destroyed. A rebellion broke out in Massachusetts, called "Shay's Rebellion," composed of men who thought that all taxes and debts should be suspended at such a time. Complaints were rife that attorneys and officers of the law sought to advance their selfish interests to the ruin of their fellow- citizens. In the midst of these troubles, a petition from fifty citizens of Amherst, and mostly of the Northwest Parish. was presented to the General Court in February, 1783, asking for some legislation to relieve the situation. These financial troubles continued for some years, but the establishment of the Federal Constitution, taking effect in 1788, in a large measure operated to close them. In 1787 a con- vention met in Philadelphia, to form a new constitution, which, if adopted, would insure a stronger government. After many weeks' discussion, September 17, 1787, the convention finally adopted what is substantially the present United States Constitution, and sent it to the thirteen colonies for acceptance.
In the New Hampshire State Convention, Col. Ebenezer Web- ster (father of Daniel Webster), who was a delegate from Salisbury, did not vote at all on the question of acceptance or rejection. January 1, 1788, ten citizens of Amherst were chosen a committee to examine this form of government and report their judgment upon it. They
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
reported that they could not recommend it to the acceptance of the town in its present form. The only member of the committee from the Northwest parish was Rev. John Bruce. Three others of the ten. Messrs. Atherton, Dana, and Barnard, were men of liberal education. January 15. 1788, the town chose Joshua Atherton to represent it in the state convention to deeide upon the adoption of the present con- stitution. In that body Mr. Atherton made a very sensible and feeling speech against Section IX Article I. of that instrument, which tolerated the African slave trade for a term of years. His objections were not heeded, as the constitution in its entirety was ratified at an adjourned session held in Concord the following June, though sixteen out of the twenty-five delegates from the old county of Hillsborough voted against its acceptance.
What is now Mont Vernon having become the Second Parish in Amherst, forty-seven residents of the southwest part of the town petitioned the General Court at its session March 1, 1782, to be set off into a third parish.
September 9. 1782, the first parish appointed Messrs. Blanchard, Dana, and Wilkins to show cause before the legislature why the prayer of this petition should not be granted. Their efforts were unsuccessful, for November 23. 1782. the General Court constituted the petitioners as the Third or Southwest Parish of Amherst, "for transacting ministerial affairs only." Being thus severed from the First Parish, they organized, January 9, 1783, and voted "to build a meeting-house of the same size and bigness as the Northwest Parish has built except the porches." The frame of this meeting-house was erected in the summer of 1784, but not completed until eight years afterward. This building for nearly half a century was the place of worship for the Congregational church in Milford, and also its town- honse. It was in the center of what is now Union Square, now located on the east side of the Square, and known as Eagle Hall. which has been refitted and is used for business purposes.
In October, 1793, at a parish meeting, it was voted to petition the General Court to set them off as a separate town in connection with the Mile Slip and Duxbury School Farm, and a part of Hollis. Therefore January, 1794, the town of Milford was incorporated, con- sisting of one hundred and forty-two tax-payers, and preceding the organization of the Northwest Parish into Mont Vernon just ten years.
The dissensions between the different sections of Amherst, which
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
commenced with the building of the second meeting-house in 1771-74, and aggravated by the settlement of Mr. Barnard, were in no wise healed by the division of the town into parishes.
A lengthy application, sigued by one hundred and twenty inhabi- tants of the old parish, was sent to the General Court in February. 1783, setting forth an unhappy state of affairs. This document recites that in May, 1781, sundry persons, whose names are given, obtained an act erecting them into a distinct parish, still leaving them to act with the town of Amherst in all matters, save religious, proper to such a corporate body. l'hat whereas disuniting in some things disunites them in other things. This unfortunate act had operated to create variance and discord, that their town meeting's were scenes of confusion, irregularity, and vexation, therefore they invoked the General Court to relieve their unhappy situation and extricate them from the bondage of continual discord and party factions. They specified the remedy they wished applied as follows : "Permit us to part with one of them, and to ask your Honors that the persons above named, who have chosen to be separated in part, may be separated from us wholly. Your Honors have ample powers to complete the separation in all matters whatsoever, as we do not wish to retain them to our mutual vexation "
This was aimed at the Northwest Parish only. Though respectful in form. it indirectly censured the action of a previous legislature, in setting off a fractious minority against the remonstrance of a majority of the voters in Amherst. The legislature took no action upon this doleful petition, but twenty years later the desired relief came. to the satisfaction of both communities.
The establishment of the Federal Constitution divided the people into political parties, a division which became more acute after the breaking out of the French Revolution, hailed, with all its terrible excesses, by one party as a triumph of the people, and regarded by the other side as the precedent of destruction of all government among men. Jay's treaty with Great Britain during Washington's adminis- tration was very much opposed by the Republicans, but more odious to them was the "Alien and Sedition Law," and the .Land Tax Law." both passed during the administration of John Adams, which greatly intensified the divisions among the people.
At the annual meeting in March, 1799, the selectmen were appointed a committee to petition Congress to repeal the "Alien and Sedition Law," and to change the mode of assessing and collecting
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
the land tax. The selectmen declined the appointment, whereupon Major William Bradford, Eli Wilkins, Esq .. of the Second Parish, and William Low, of the First Parish, all Republicans, were chosen as the committee. At an adjourned meeting the next Tuesday, they presented a report, which the town by a majority vote accepted, which greatly exasperated the Federalists. The Northwest Parish, being almost entirely Republican, voted almost unanimously for the report, and this will explain the following description of the meeting, which made its appearance in the "Village Messenger" of March. 1799, and which is introduced here to show the bitterness prevalent in this community at that period :
"Extract From a Town-Meeting, Or a Touch of the Times at Am .. .t:
"March comes, the first born child of Spring: The bells for annual meeting ring; Joy smiles in every patriot's face, And Am ...... t dreams not of disgrace. Forth from the North in crowds came down
Old age, on crutch, and youth, half-grown:
Old age, whose one foot in the grave is, Whose other to the gout a slave is;
And youth, not yet arrived at freedom.
Who need their nurses still to lead 'em:
All, all came down, a motley nation. -
As tho' 'in hell there were vacation. "
Burning with Jacobinic zeal,
To overturn the public weal.
Before them stalked a man of stature,
Designed a Jacobin by nature,
Whose mind and mien strong traces bore Of that great Jacobin of yore,
Who, for Sedition, forth was driven,
Eternal from the gates of heaven.
Despising peace and lawful labors. He sows sedition 'mong his neighbors; Tells them that governments are knaves. That they, poor souls, will soon be slaves, And those that rule them soon will stand The lords and sovereigns of the land. To church he goes, but not for preaching : He gives his precious time to teaching That those that dare not tell a lie Have surely lost their liberty. He at his heels the rabble brought,
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
Who long beneath his eye were taught To banish order, stir up evil. And serve their lord and master, Devil.
* At length the cause of all their ills, The Alien and Sedition Bills, The tax direct on land and houses, Which every foe to peace arouses, Comes publickly to be discussed By friend and foe, by blest and cursed. A solemn pause-debates proceeded, As though the Jacos some man needed Some natural son of base sedition, To rise and speak for their petition. Their chief arose. 'Tis strange, ' he cries, 'Since freedom is our blood-earned prize, That we, like slaves, should be debarred The use of speech, -indeed. that's hard. No more shall scandal charm our souls. Since government our tongues controls Aliens no more with monied reason Shall stir up faction, death and treason: But under harrows, saws and axes, We be compelled to pay our taxes, Support our Congressmen in style, By cruel, unrewarded toil, Till we, at last, O, dreadful thought! Beneath those tyrants shall be brought, And see in tears the fatal day When we to tyrant laws gave way. Beware, my friends. 'tis our condition! O, curse the law against sedition! O, curse the Pres -- no, no, I fear Some friend to government may hear, And I like friend and brother Lyon, * Be tried and feel the power of iron. O, Liberty, 'tis but a name, When we no longer can defame !"" Reasons were offered when he ended, And government and laws defended; But sense and reason all are vain, When faction rules the heated brain; For ignorance, deceived by lies, All human argument defies. The question put, the chief uprose,
*Matthew Lyon was at that time a Republican member of the National House of Repre- sentatives A motion to expel him from the House had just failed.
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
Surveyed his friends, surveyed his foes: His minion friends united stand, Instructed by his factious hand. Their chief they watch, his actions view, And when he votes, why they vote too. Such are Columbia's servile foes, Led on, like asses, by the nose; Seduced from order by a villian, Whose honor is not worth a shilling, Who, worse than Judas and such gents, Would sell our State for thirty cents. O, would he ape that child of hell In all his actions 'twould be well;
His neck, too, then, a rope would grace, And he depart to his own place.
AMPHION.
The Jacobin who was so offensively caricatured and so insolently abused was Major William Bradford, an active and influential citizen of the Northwest Parish, and for the next three years representative from Amherst. A few days afterward he repaired to Amherst, in- tending to inflict personal chastisement upon the writer of this abuse. He demanded of the editor the name of the author and where he might be found, and was pointed to a certain law office and was told that he would there find a student who would respond to his call. Major Bradford had been through the Revolution, was a man of stately proportions and in the full vigor of manhood, and would be a formidable antagonist in a personal encounter. He went as directed, and was presented to a young man, in whom he beheld his match, a six-footer of stalwart proportions, a very Hercules in muscle, and he deemed it discreet to retire without stating his errand "Amphion" was a young Wilton Federalist, who studied law and taught school in Amherst, and in later life was known as the Hon. William Abbott, of Bangor, Maine.
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The Northwest Parish foiks bore the dwellers on the plain and the lowlands in the neighborhood no good-will. They called it Sodom, and spoke of seeing "the smoke of its torment ascending to the heavens on frosty mornings." This was somewhat akin to the spirit of one of their number who, in the days when Parson Barnard was prophesying against the Democracy, gave as a Fourth of July toast : "Amherst :- It has a big meeting-house with a tall steeple, an Arminian preacher, and a cursed people."
The time was now approaching for an entire separation from the
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
parent town. Twenty-three years before, this had been partially ac- complished by the formation of the Second Parish as religiously independent of the First, but this, we have seen, did not tend to unity of thought or action.
In the party divisions, which distinguished the close of the last and the beginning of the present century, the ruling influences in the Second Parish were as decidedly Republican or "Jeffersonian" as were those of the First in an opposite direction.
For three years, 1800-1802 inclusive, the offensive "Jacobin," Major Bradford, represented Amherst in the General Court, with the aid of the Second Parish vote, and the Federal elements anticipated a restoration of their local ascendency by freedom from this connec- tion. Here it may be proper to remark that in the First Parish itself there was a minority of active Republicans, conspicuous among whom were Hon. William Fiske, Cols. Daniel Warner and Paul D. Sargent, and Capt. Eli Brown.
Major William Bradford, so stigmatized by Mr. Abbott in his "Extract from a Town Meeting," a leading Republican of Mont Vernon, was a man of note. His ather was William Bradford, from Middleton, Massachusetts, who settled in Souhegan West previous to its incorporation as a town. The son was born here in 1753. He was a sergeant at the age of 22, in Capt. Josiah Crosby's company at Bunker Hill, and an ensign in Capt. Wilkins's company at the Cedars, where he was taken prisoner and abused by the Indians. He after- wards served as a lieutenant in the Continental Army. In 1800, 1801, 1802 he represented Amherst, and in 1804. 1805, 1806 he represented Mont Vernon in the New Hampshire Legislature. He was the active promoter of the incorporation of Mont Vernon as a separate town. In 1812 he received a major's commission in the 1st Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers. He married for his second wife Mrs. Lois, widow of Rev. John Bruce. He had two brothers, Samuel and Joseph, who were in the Revolution, and his first cousin, Capt. John Bradford, of Hancock, commanded a company in the battle of Bennington, and was the first man to scale the enemy's breastworks. Major Bradford removed in 1815 to Barre, Vermont, where he died October 25, 1816, aged 63. For record of his children, see Family Register.
Another citizen prominent in political and town affairs during this period was Dr. Rogers Smith. He was the eldest son of James and Moriah (Rolfe) Smith, and was borr. in Middleton, Massachu-
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
setts, June 12, 1776. His parents a few months later moved to Mont Vernon. He studied medicine with Dr. William Jones, of Lynde- borough, commenced practice in Amherst in 1802, removed to Mont Vernon in 1805, to Greenbush, New York, as surgeon in the army, in 1813, and in 1816 to Weston, Vermont, where he died March 25, 1845. During his seven years' residence in Mont Vernon, he was three years moderator of the town meeting, once selectman, three years town clerk, and three years on the School Board. He was a man of fine literary taste, a cultivated writer, and a well informed ' and ardent politician. He was the father of Asa Dodge Smith. president of Dartmouth College from 1863 to 1877.
CHAPTER III.
SEPARATION FROM AMHERST.
VOTING ACTIONS OF NORTHWEST PARISH- ACT OF INCORPORATION OF NEW TOWN-NAME BOUNDARY LINES OF NEW TOWN-BOUNDARY OF NEW TOWN-NAME OF TAX PAYERS-FIRST TOWN MEETING.
ON the third day of May, 1802, the Northwest Parish voted to take measures to effect a separation from the town of Amherst, and a committee consisting of Major William Bradford, John Carlton, Capt. John Batchelder, Capt. Joseph Perkins, Capt. Thomas Cloutman, Dea. Jacob Kendall, Lieut. Benjamin Parker, Lient. Joseph Farnum, Eli Wilkins, Parker Richardson, Nathan Jones, and Lieut. Timothy Hill were appointed a committee to petition the town relative thereto.
On the last Thursday of May, 1802, the Parish voted to petition the General Court to incorporate them into a new town, with the same boundaries as those established between the First and Second Parishes.
On the first Monday of June, 1802, chose Nathan Jones, Capt. Joseph Perkins, and Capt. Benjamin Parker to present the petition to the General Court.
May 2, 1803, at a town meeting hield that day, Col. Robert Means, Samuel Wilkins, Daniel Warner, Samuel Whiting, and William Fisk, of the First Parish, and William Bradford, Josiah Perkins, Eli Wilkins, Ebenezer Odell, and Joseph Langdell, of the Second Parish, were chosen to confer together upon a division of the town, and were instructed to report at this meeting. After an hour's session the committee reported verbally, "not agreed." Whereupon the town of Amherst chose Col. Daniel Warner agent to attend the General Court in the matter of the Second Parish petition. Daniel Campbell, Samuel Wilkins, and Chas. H. Atherton were appointed a committee to con- sult with said agent and give him such advice and instruction as they think proper, before he shall attend the General Court.
However, an act incorporating the town of Mont Vernon was
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
completed by the signature of Gov. John Taylor Gilman, Dee. 15, 1803.
The verdure of the farms, which eluster about the eminence upon which the village is located, it is said by some, suggested the name of Mont Vernon for the town. A statement like this may be found in the sketch of the town by the Rev. C. D. Herbert (once settled over the church at Mont Vernon) in Lawrence's History of the New Hampshire Churches, published in Claremont, in 1856. But this ex- planation seems to be open to doubt. The English name " Vernon," is not at all the same as the French word from which are derived such words as "verdure," "verdant," ete .. signifying greenness. And. referring to the probabilities, the Rev. C. C. Carpenter of Andover, Mass., who also occupied the position of pastor of the church for several years, and who is a past master in historical research, says : "I do not think the hard-headed farmers of our hill were so imagina- tive, in the month of November. 1803. as to consider their pastures green enough to suggest the name for the town." And he adds : "Per contra, it seems to me the preponderating likelihood is that the name was intended to be in memory of Washington's home. the be- loved Father of his Country having then so recently died." The name " Mont," which seems to have been used in the act of incorpo- ration, was probably due to a blunder in transcription. The original act cannot be found. but a certified copy gives it " Mont." The postoffice name is, however, " Mount" Vernon. and the name is some- times given as " Mont," and sometimes as " Mount." in official or semi-official volumes. Washington's home. Mount Vernon. was named for Admiral Vernon of the Royal Navy.
Its boundaries, as given in the act of incorporation, were as follows : "Beginning at the northwest corner of Amherst, on New Boston, south line, thence running sutherly on the west line of Amherst about four miles and a half to the northwest corner of the town of Milford, thence easterly on the north line of Milford to the southeast corner of a lot of land now in possession of David Dodge and John Cochran, thence northerly to the northwest corner thereof, thence easterly to the southwest corner of a lot now in possession of Nathan Fuller and John Fuller, thence northerly to the northwest corner thereof, thence easterly on the north line of said Fuller's lot and the north line of Elisha Felton's house lot, and the same course on the line of Enos Bradford's and Lambert Bradford's land to the southwest corner of land now or lately owned by Enos Bradford, thence northerly on the
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
east hne of said land and the east line of a lot now owned by John Clap to the northeast corner of said Clap's land, thence a few rods to the southwest corner of a lot now in possession of Andrew Leavitt, thence northerly on the west line of said lot in possession of said Leavitt and on the west line of a lot now owned by Col. Robert Means and others to the southeast corner of land now owned by Joseph Nichols. thence northerly on the west line of said Nichols's land to the northwest corner thereof. thence easterly on the north line of said Nichols's land to a line running south from the east side of Henry Spaulding's land and on the easterly line thereof until it intersects New Boston line. thence westerly to the place of beginning."
The following one hundred and thirty five tax-payers were resi- dent in Mont Vernon. April 1, 1804 : Timothy Austin, Jesse Averill, John Averill. jr .. Eben Batchelder, Israel Batchelder, John Batchelder, James Bennett. Ebenezer Bills. Jonathan Bixby, Enos Bradford, Lambert Bradford. Widow Bradford, William Bradford, William Bradford. jr , Mark Burnam, Charles Cambridge, John Carlton, Mrs, Emma Carlton, Nathan Cleaves, Josiah Coburn, Thomas Cloutman, Henry Codman. Joseph Coggin. William Coggin. Jonathan Conant, Jonathan Conant. jr .. Lot Conant. Nathan Cross, Jacob Curtis, Jacob Curtis, jr .. Allen Dodge. Joseph Dodge. Josiah Dodge, Malachi Dodge. Jonathan Duneklee. Benjamin Durant. Israel Farnum, Joseph Farnum. Thomas Farnum, John Fisk, John B. Flanigan, Nathan Flint, Samuel Flint, Lieut. Allen Goodridge, Allen Goodridge, Nathan Green. John Harwood. John Harwood, jr., William Hastings, Lieut. Josiah Herrick. Peter Herrick. Mrs. Judith Hill. Timothy Hill, Ebenezer Holt Ezekiel Holt .James Hopkins. James Hopkins, jr., Robert Hosea, Nathan Jones, Peter Jones, Daniel Kendall, Jacob Kendall, John Kendall, Lieut. Thaddeus Kendall. William L. Kidder, Josiah Kittredge, Solomon Kittredge. Dr. Zephaniah Kittredge, Jesse Lamson, Jonathan Lamson, jr., Mrs. Mary Lamson, Joseph Langdell, Jonathan Low, Isaac Manning, John Manning, David Marshall, Ebenezer Mills, Samuel Mitchell. Lieut. Ebenezer Odell, Ebenezer Odell. jr., Capt. Benjamin Parker. Robert Parker. jr .. Aaron Peabody, John Peabody, Moses Peabody. Samnel Peabody, Capt. Joseph Perkins, Joseph Perkins jr .. Samuel Phelps, Ensign Benjamin Pike. Ephraim Pike, James Ray. James Ray, jr .. Levi Ray, Mrs. Phoebe Raymond. John Roby, John Roby, jr., John Rollins, Daniel Secombe, Dea. Daniel Smith, Daniel Smith, jr., David Smith, Eben Smith, Isaac Smith, Isaac Smith, jr., Jacob Smith, James Smith, Jeremiah
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
Smith, Nathan Smith, Timothy Smith, Abijah Spofford, Benjamin Stearns, Cyrus Styles, Josiah Swinington, Robert Taggart, Henry Treavitt, Allen Towne, John Trow, Joseph Trow, Joseph Trow, jr., Enos Upton, Dea. Ezekiel Upton, Lieut. Ezekiel Upton, Nehemiah Upton, Isaac Weston, John Weston, Thomas Weston, Abial Wilkins, Abijah Wilkins, Eli Wilkins, Jonathan Wilkins, Peter Wilkins, James Woodbury.
The first town meeting was held January 23, 1804, at the Center school-house. Joseph Langdell was chosen moderator, John Carl- ton, town clerk, and John Carlton, Jos. Langdell, and Jacob Kendall, selectmen.
At the first annual town meeting, March 13, 1804, the same town officers were re elected, and Major William Bradford was chosen as representative.
CHAPTER IV.
DESCRIPTION AND BOUNDARIES.
SITUATION-BOUNDARIES-SURFACE-FRUITS-BROOKS-PONDS-EL- EVATIONS-TREES-GRANITE-GAME-BIRDS-SNAKES-CLIMATE -RAINFALL- DESCRIPTION OF PURGATORY-DEDICATION OF PUR- GATORY.
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