USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Peterborough > History of the town of Peterborough, Hillsborough county, New Hampshire > Part 21
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Such was the condition of the town for the first twenty years after its settlement. About that period many new com- forts began to be introduced. Oxen became more common. The richer part of the inhabitants might be seen going to meeting on horseback, the good man before, his wife on the pillion behind, while at noon the children would gather round, with almost envious eyes, to admire this curious and sumptu- ous mode of conveyance. All marketing was done with a horse. Butter was carried by tying two casks together, and placing them across the horse's back like panniers. In this way the wife of Major Wilson often carried her spare articles to Boston, while her son James was in Harvard College, be- tween the years 1785 and '89. The first chaise was intro- duced in 1793, and the first one-horse wagon in 1810.
* It was thirty feet square, and stood a little to the east of what we call the "old meeting-house," which was raised in 1777. During the raising, a deep gloom was thrown over the whole assembly by the arrival of a courier, who announced that our troops had left Ticonderoga, and that a new levy was called for. In 1760, the first meeting-house was enlarged by an addition in front, consid- erably broader than the main body.
t John Morison and Sarah M'Nee, who died in their ninety-eighth, and Mrs. Cunningham in her ninety-ninth year.
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Few things could have given our ancestors more annoyance than their extreme awkwardness in the mechanical arts .* For this reason their houses must have been loose, cold, and de- ficient in almost every article of domestic convenience. Jon- athan Morison ; was the first, and for a considerable time the only, mechanic in town. He was a mill-wright, a blacksmith, a carpenter, a house-joiner, a stone-cutter, a gun-maker, and had the reputation of being really a workman at all these trades. He was the son of John Morison, and was considered the most gifted of the family, being a man of quick parts, great ingenuity, and generous in the extreme, but unfortunately pos- sessed, what is too often the curse of superior endowments, a violent temper, and a want of self-control, which led some- times to intemperance. To crown his misfortunes he had a wife who, in all but his bad qualities, was the opposite to him- self. A separation took place when he removed to Vermont, where he lived for some time. He finally returned to Peter- borough, and was killed by a fall from his horse in 1787. The second and third mechanics were William Cochran and James Houston, both blacksmiths. From these small begin- nings we have gone on till now there is hardly a product of the mechanic arts, belonging either to the comforts or ele- gances of life, which may not here be furnished.
The first use made of our water-privileges i was for a saw and grist-mill, on the spot where the Peterborough Factory now stands. It was built by Jonathan Morison, in 1751. This was an important event to the neighboring towns, which for several years brought all their grain to this mill. It was built for William Gordan, of Dunstable, Mass., and passed through several owners into the hands of Samuel Mitchell,
* This was well taken off by Uncle Mosey (as every one called him) in his account of Deacon Duncan's hewing, and Deacon Moore's ladder. "As I was ganging," said he, " thro' the woods, I heard a desprite crackling, and there I found a stick of timber that Deacon Duncan had hewn, sae crooked that it could na lie still, but was thrashing about amang the trees. I tauld him that lie must go and chain it doun, or it wad girdle the hail forest."
"Deacon Moore," he said, "made a ladder, and it was sae twisting, that before he got half way to the top he was on the under side, looking up."
t The first male child born in Londonderry.
# For a very full and exact account of this part of the subject, see, in the Appendix, the reports prepared by John H. Steele.
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in 1759. The grist-mill was usually tended by his wife, and it was thought could hardly be a source of much profit; for she would take no toll from the poor, and when her customers were there at meal-time, she would constrain them to partake of her fare, and often to remain through the night. The second saw-mill, where a saw and grist-mill now stands, near the South Factory, was built by Thomas Morison in 1758, and the grist-mill added in 1770. The race-way to these mills is through a ledge of a sort of trap-rock, on which it is ex- tremely difficult to make any impression by blasting with gun- powder. Besides, the use of gun-powder for blasting seems to have been unknown here at that time. Large fires were therefore built upon the ledge, and when it was heated, water was thrown on. This scaled or cracked the rocks; all that was loosened was removed, and the same process repeated till a sufficient depth was gained .*
At this period (1770), log-huts were little used; sub- stantial frame-houses, many of them two stories high, had been erected,¡ and, though hard labor and a homely fare were their portion, our people perhaps enjoyed as much then of the real comforts of life as at any subsequent period. Robust health, and confirmed habits of industry and exposure, enabled them to enjoy what would now be esteemed intolerable hard- ships. Four bridges had been built across our two principal streams ; ¿ the roads had greatly improved; there were no longer apprehensions of danger from the Indians or wild animals. I cannot well picture to myself happier domestic scenes than might then be found in one of those spacious kitchens which some of us have seen, though not in their glory. The kitchen stretched nearly across the house; at one end was the ample dresser, filled up with pewter platters and basins of every size, all shining bright, and telling many a
* There are now in town six grist-mills and seven saw-mills.
t Hugh Wilson moved into the first two-story house, in 1753. The first brick house was built by Nathan Richardson, in 1811 or '12; the second by Jonas Loring, in 1815. The whole number now in town is twenty-three.
# The first near the great bridge in 1755; the second across Goose Brook previous to 1760 ; one at the North, and one at the Southi, Factory in 1765, by labor from the town.
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story to the beholder, of savory broths,* and Indian puddings, and possibly of pumpkin pies, even. The fire-place, which seemed to reach through half the length of the room, and was four or five feet high, not only contained, between its capacious jambs, logs two or three feet in diameter, and almost sled length, heaped one above the other, with the proper accompa- niments of fore sticks and small wood; but back in one corner was an oven big enough to receive the largest pots and pans in which beans and brown bread ever were baked; and in both corners, under the chimney, was room for benches, where the children might sit on a winter's evening, parching corn, while the huge, green back-log and back-stick were sim- mering and singing, and three or four little wheels, with vari- ous tones, were joining in the concert; and the large cat upon the wide, stone hearth, interrupted occasionally by a gruff look from the dog, was industriously purring out her part of the accompaniment. There by the blazing fire, for it would have been extravagance to burn any other light, the children sit, with attention divided between the stories and the corn, and the young people, stealing now and then a sly glance or joke at the expense of their elders, burst out often into a chorus of laughter, as their fathers, with grotesque humor, narrate the hardships and strange adventures of their early settlement, or dwell upon their favorite theme, the won- ders of the old country, and especially "the preëminence of Ireland," against which all their anger is now forgotten. At length the time for retiring has come; applest and cider, after taking their station for a time upon the hearth, are served up. And now (for the guests, though neighbors, are expected to remain till morning) a candle is lighted, the big Bible is brought out; the oldest man receives it with rever- ence, and after singing a portion of the Psalms, from their
* Broth (barley or corn) was the favorite food. It is said that one of our eminent men, when a boy, wished that he could only be a king, for then he might have broth every day, and as much as he wished.
t The first apple-tree in the town was set out by John Swan, and is still alive. Apples must have been seldom used in the way I have mentioned, so early as 1770. The first cider was made by Mrs. John Smith. The apples were pounded in a barley-mortar, and pressed in a cheese- press.
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Presbyterian or Scottish version, to such tunes as " Dundee," " Martyrs," "Coleshill," or "Elgin," and reading a chapter with a voice of peculiar and unaffected solemnity, all join in prayer, and the elder people withdraw. Now is the time for the young. No longer with suppressed laughter, but with loud and boisterous merriment, the evening is prolonged. The call from the sleepers, whose slumbers they have broken, produces only a momentary check. How long they sit up nobody knows; but before light the young men are gone, for they must spend the day in the woods. The common mode of neighborly visiting among the women was to go in the morning, carrying with them, not unfrequently a mile or more, their little wheels, and returning before dark; thus en- joying all the advantages of good-fellowship, without loss of time.
This period of quiet, however, was of short duration. The difficulties with England soon began. Our fathers were too zealous in their love of liberty to remain indifferent spectators at a time like that. They entered warmly into the dispute. Private feelings were merged in their anxiety for the public good. News of the Lexington battle fell upon them like a sudden trump from heaven, summoning them to the conflict. "We all set out," said one who was then upon the stage, "with such weapons as we could get, going like a flock of wild geese, we hardly knew why or whither." The word came to Capt. Thomas Morison at daylight, that the regulars were upon the road. In two hours, with his son and hired man, he was on his way to meet them, they on foot, he on horseback, with a large baking of bread, which had just been taken from the oven, in one end of the bag, and pork in the other. This is but a sample of the general spirit which spread through the town, among men and women. "I was willing," said an old lady, whom I was questioning about those times, her pale cheeks kindling as she spoke, "that my father and brothers should run their chance with the rest." " I will not taste your tea," said another woman, this same day ; " I would as soon drink a man's blood."
At the battle of Bunker Hill, though there could not have
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been more than seventy or eighty families in the town, twenty-two of our citizens were present, and seventeen actively engaged in the fight. The night after the battle information was brought to Major Wilson,* who then commanded the company, that the British were advancing upon the American lines, and at break of day every able-bodied man in town, with such weapons as he could procure, was on the march. At Townsend, those who went on foot heard the result of the battle and returned ;; and then the old men, who had sons in the battle, set out to learn whether their children were yet living, and had acquitted themselves like men.
Seventeen days before the Declaration of Independence, the following resolution was signed by eighty-three of our citizens, which included all the strong men, except those who were in the army, and possibly one or two besides :-
"In consequence of the Resolution of the Continental Con- gress, and to show our determination in joining our American brethren in arms, in defending the lives, liberties, and proper- ties of the United Colonies,
" We, the subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage and prom- ise, that we will, to the utmost of our power, at the risque of our lives and fortunes, with ARMS oppose the hostile proceed- ings of the British fleets and armies against the United Colo- nies.".
It has always been a matter of wonder to the world how our American Congress, which had no legal authority, whose strongest enactment was nothing more than a recommenda- tion, should dare to make the Declaration of Independence, and, still more, be able to carry out their measures through a long and discouraging war. The secret of their success is contained in the resolution which I have just read. It was the spirit which pervaded the people in their individual . capacity, that nerved their arm and gave them strength. It was the solemn engagement and promise of the people, "at
* This anecdote is told me by his grandson, Gen. James Wilson, of Keene, who had it from his father, James Wilson, Esq., who was born in this town, 1766, and died in Keene, January, 1839.
+ The greater part, however, were on horseback, and proceeded as far as West Cambridge, where they broke into a large, vacant house, and passed the night.
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the risque of their lives and fortunes, with ARMS, to oppose the hostile proceedings of the British fleets and armies," that enabled Congress to take and carry through those strong measures which have been the admiration of every student of history. And in privations and hardships, that school of stern and manly virtues, in which not only here, but throughout the United Colonies, men were brought up, may we not see the hand of God stretched out to provide them with courage to declare, and strength to maintain, their rights? that while He was elsewhere raising up men to direct the councils and lead the armies of the nation, He was here, and in places like this, making ready the strong nerves, the hard muscles, the un- flinching souls, to fight the battles that should set them free. " He found them in a desert land, and in the waste, howling wilderness; he led them about, he instructed them," and when the great day had come, through the discipline which he had imposed, they were found equal to their work.
It is impossible now to paint the anxieties which prevailed through this little town during the war. Their remoteness from the scene of action, while it lessened their dangers, by no means diminished their fears. Rumors of terrible defeats and slaughters, of victories that had never been gained, and battles that were not fought, swayed them back and forth with doubts more cruel than the worst certainty. They were con- stantly in the dreadful expectation and suspense that precedes the conflict, and tries the soul more sharply than the hottest fight. No stranger made his appearance but the town was full of surmises, suspicions, and strange reports. He must be stopped, examined, and, when fairly gone, suspicions were again afloat. The sufferings of those left behind were greater than of those in the war. It is sufficient, however, to say that our citizens nobly redeemed the pledge they had given at the commencement of hostilities. During the war there were no mobs against the Tories, for there was not a man here who favored the British cause.
Of our political history I shall say little. The terms on which the original settlement was made, were such that no
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provincial * meeting could be held, or vote passed, "obliging any person to do any part towards supporting the gospel, building a meeting-house and bridges, clearing and repairing roads." The act of incorporation was passed, Jan. 17, 1760. These corporate townships are a peculiar feature in our gov- ernment, and, so far as I know, have received only from a single authort anything of the attention which is due to so important a subject. Townships, with their peculiar rights, sprang, as I suppose, from the form of church discipline · which was originally introduced into New England. Being composed entirely of the people, they contain in themselves all the elements of a pure democracy, and exercise all the functions of a more extended government. They are the schools in which young men are educated for higher offices, and in which all may be taught their duty as citizens. But the great purpose which they answer is, that they serve as a barrier against the encroachments of the State and federal governments.
A great danger in every government is, the centralization of power. For this reason only that which relates to the whole nation in its federal capacity should be placed in the hands of the general government ; and only that which relates to the whole State should be placed in the hands of the State government. All that remains should be left with the towns, and, as a matter of fact, nine-tenths of the real, effective legis- lation in New England is performed by the towns. They raise the taxes, support the schools, roads, bridges. The parts of our general government which tend most to the centraliza- tion of power, and from which we have most to apprehend, as they, more than all others, tend to corruption, are the revenue and post-office departments. Now, were it not for our town- ships, the same influence which pervades those departments . would take to itself, as it does in Prussia, the control of our roads, our schools, of all the taxes that are raised; and there would be at the heart of the republic an accumulation of power with which no government on earth can be safely
* See petition for incorporation. 1 De Tocqueville.
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trusted. To prevent this dangerous result, we have in the first place our State governments, and then, what is of far greater importance, our town governments, which hold in their own hands more than nine-tenths of the real power which, so far as they are concerned, belongs to govern- ment.
Our town government, from the commencement, has been efficient and liberal. The town-meetings in old times were often stormy, and ended in small results .* At all times of great party warfare in national politics, the contest here has been warm; and it has been well for the town, that while the same party, the conservative, has prevailed in every severe trial, it has, at all times, been confronted by a large and respectable minority. The severity of the contest kept alive the interest; it obliged men to examine and to think; and though, when parties are nearly equal, the temptation to gain a momentary triumph by dishonest artifice is sometimes too great to be resisted, the consciousness on each side that they are closely watched, and cannot escape detection and exposure, will, where higher considerations fail, make them peculiarly circumspect in their movements. While the strong character of our citizens has done much to make political contentions severe since the first formation of parties under the federal government, the nearly equal division of parties has done much to sharpen the intellects, and restrain, if it did nor cor- rect, purposes grossly unjust .;
The ministerial history of the town is the darkest page in our calendar ; but those whose feelings might be injured are now gone, and it is time that the subject should be placed in its true light. A Presbyterian minister, by the name of John- ston, came with the first settlers, and tarried with them about a year. Another by the name of Harvey, whose wife was the first person laid in the old graveyard, was here for a time.
* An old man returning, many years since, from town meeting was asked what had been doing. " Oh," said he, " there was George Duncan, he got up and spakit awhile, and Matthew Wallace, he got up and talkit awhile, and Matthew Gray, he got up and blathered awhile; and then they dismissed the meeting." A fair account of many town meetings.
t Party spirit in politics has, perhaps, in no town been more violent than here, but it has never been permitted to disturb the cordiality of social intercourse.
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A Mr. Powers supplied the desk in 1764. This is all that we know of them. John Morrison, of a family entirely distinct from our first settlers, was born at Pathfoot, in Scotland, May 22, 1743; was graduated at Edinburgh, Feb. 17, 1765 ; arrived at Boston the May following, and was ordained at Peter- borough, Nov. 26, 1766. From all that I can learn he was a man of decided talents ; but it must be borne in mind, that the same ability will appear always more conspicuous in a bad than in a good man, just as a horse or a building of perfect symmetry will always appear smaller than another of the same dimensions whose parts are out of proportion. But after making all due allowance, we must, I believe, conclude that Mr. Morrison possessed more than common powers, for good or for evil. But soon he proved himself an intemperate, licentious man, dangerous alike as the companion of either sex. A charitable construction was put upon the first symp- toms of intemperance. At a party he was found unable to walk, and it was necessary to take him through the room where the young people were collected, in order to place him upon a bed. This was managed with so much adroitness, that no suspicion was raised, except with three or four church- members who were disposed to view it as an accident, at a time when similar casualties were not uncommon. But soon, while his bad habits in this line became notorious, his evil passions in another direction flared out, to the general scandal of the town. A presbytery was held; he was suspended from his office for two or three months, a thing probably to his taste, as his salary was not suspended. At length, how- ever, the people could no longer tolerate him ; he relinquished his connection with the society in March, 1772 ; visited South Carolina, returned and joined the American army at Cam- bridge in '75. He was present at Bunker Hill, but excused himself from entering the battle, on the ground that his gun- lock was not in order. The next day he joined the British, and continued in some capacity with them till his death, which took place at Charleston, S. C., May 26, 1782. He be- came a professed atheist. It is said that he spent his last days, when he was daily sinking to the grave, among profli-
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gate, abandoned associates, taking his part in every species of dissipation which his decaying strength would permit ; and just before his death gave a sum of money to his companions, requesting them to drink it out upon his coffin. His wife, Sarah Ferguson, in every respect a true, exemplary woman, never, to the time of her death, November, 1824, aged eighty- four, lost either the interest or the confidence with which she had first joined her fortunes to his. It is refreshing to add, that their son, John Morrison, who died more than forty years ago, was, by the uniform consent of all who knew him, one of the most pure-hearted and clear-headed men that our town has produced. I have never heard him mentioned by one who had known him except with strong affection and respect. He received his education at Exeter, where for a time he was also a teacher. When, many years after, I went to Exeter, and was there in a very humble employment, a friendless, ignorant boy, the fact that my name was the same with his had, I have no doubt, a very considerable influence in be- speaking for me unusual kindness on the part of my em- ployer,* who had been his early friend.
From 1772 to '78 our people had no settled ministry. The meeting-house was built in '77, and traditions are handed down respecting a Mr. Clarke, who was preaching here at the time. Many who heard him testify that the following is nearly an exact account of the exordium to one of his dis- courses. "This is a stately house; and who meet here ? The folk, they meet here, and the de'il, he meet here too; and he is amang the foremost and the fattest; o' ye. An' he's peeking at ye, like a wee mouse in the wa'; ye dinna see him, but he kens ye. An' now where is the gun to shoot him wi'? Here it is," said he, lifting up the Bible and taking aim, "here is the gun. Too ! too ! he's deed, he's deed." The preaching of that period was usually without notes, the sermons very ordinary, very long, and made up very much of repetitions, especially of a continual play upon the words of the text.
* Joseph Smith Gilman.
t This, it was thought, might apply to Deacon Mitchell and his wife, as he was usually foremost, and she the fattest in the assembly.
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The second settled minister of the place, David Annan,* was born at Cupar of Fife, in Scotland, April 4, 1754, came early to America, was educated at New Brunswick College, N. J., was ordained for Peterborough, at the call of the people here, by the Presbytery which met at Wallkill, N. Y., Octo- ber, 1778, and was dismissed from this society at his own re- quest, by the Presbytery of Londonderry, at their June ses- sion here, in 1792. He was deposed from the ministry by the Presbytery of Londonderry in 1800, and died in Ireland in 1802. The people received him with high expectations, and were slow to believe anything against him. Though in talents inferior to his predecessor, he was a man of more than common endowments, but was intemperate and morose, unit- ing in his character the extremes, which sometimes meet in smaller tyrants than Nero, of levity and cruelty. With the elders of the church he was stern, inflexible, and austere. With young men his conversation was loose, licentious, cor- rupt. He was easily flattered, but being opposed, haughty and overbearing. When treated to toddy at a public house by a man of no good repute, he expressed himself delighted with his companion, and wished he had a whole church like him; and when one of the most upright of his societyf at- tempted in private and with great kindness to remonstrate with him on his conduct, his only reply was, "It is a wise people that can instruct their minister"; "and a foolish minister," it might have been rejoined, "who cannot be instructed by his people." Rev. Mr. Miles, of Temple, used to relate, that once on coming to his house to ex- change with him, he found him sitting at a table with a fiddle, made by his own hands, a bottle of rum and a Bible before him. In his own house he was the severest of tyrants. His wife, an amiable, discreet, patient, uncom- plaining woman, often retired at night amid actions and
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