USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Rochester > History of the town of Rochester, New Hampshire, from 1722 to 1890, Vol. I > Part 30
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very liberal and earnest in all things relating to the church of which he was a member. He was a trader, and of course sold rum. His store being near the meeting-house he had the pat- ronage of the church members, especially on Sundays. Nobody seemed to perceive any inconsistency in these things; and Hurd was always ready to be a leader in whatever promised good to the community. The party marched to the house, and Hanscam, the millwright, was appointed spokesman to address the family. Hanscam himself was a hard drinker, but that was thought no disqualification. The family were allowed twenty minutes to get out of the house with their goods, and the men helped them move. Then, as the house was small, they tried to topple it into the river with their levers and bars, but being unsuccessful, they tore off the boards and pried out the braces, till the building was leveled to the ground. The party then dispersed to their homes, unless they went to the nearest store for a drink. The house was owned by one Page on the Meaderborough road. Coming to the village the next morning, Page first observed the ruins. He set himself to gather information for the purpose of prosecuting the rioters, but the cjected tenant told him the leading men of the village were there, naming all the principal men, (many of whom were present, and many more absent,) until Page thought it would be a hopeless task to bring such men to punishment, and concluded to quietly bear his loss.
In 1806 there was living at the lower end of the village a man who, having fitted up the front part of his house as a store, had gradually increased his business till he had one of the largest and best-selected stocks in the village. He became deranged, his dis- ease at first taking the form of religious insanity, accompanied with a great facility of quoting Scripture. It was found necessary to appoint a guardian to manage his property. He left his store, and in 1825 was living in a neat and comfortable house on the point of land where the road divides at the head of Wakefield street. The removal from the old home to the new well illus- trates the peculiarities of the man. As the prophet Ezekiel was a sign to the house of Israel, so he was to be a sign to the people of Rochester. He carried out literally the command to the prophet to " bring forth his stuff in their sight as stuff for removing; to go forth at even as they that go into captivity; to dig through
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the wall and carry it out thereby, and carry it out in the twilight," etc. The family moved in procession at twilight through the village. Hardly had they become settled in the house at the head of Wakefield street before it became notorious not only for liquor selling, which was regarded as no crime in those days, but for the grossest immoralities. The house also became known for miles around as a receptacle for stolen goods. On the beams of his barn he had built an office which he called his " sanctum sanctorum," where the stolen goods were carefully stored. Having been a very methodical man in trade, he carried his business methods into his new occupation, keeping a journal in which was recorded a minute description of all stolen goods, with dates when received and when sold. It included a record of all visitors, and an exact cash account. One of his children being very sick, Parson Haven visited and prayed with the family. That day in his cash account he made the following entry : - "Parson Haven, Cr. By one long, sanctimonious prayer, 20 cents."
* The public good required that a stop be put to his proceed- ings. The first move was to arrest him for keeping stolen goods. He had received some intimation of what was coming, and had prepared for the attack. Anticipating a long siege he stored a barrel of crackers and half a barrel of brandy in his " sanctum "; neither did he neglect means of defense, but supplied himself with guns and ammunition in abundance. On the appointed evening a large party under the lead of Capt. Hurd forced an entrance into the barn, filling the barn floor. From the door of his loft, the old man demanded, "Come ye peaceably, or come ye in war ?" He was assured that they came peaceably. It soon becoming evident that they could capture him only by strategy, Squire Upham advanced and called for a parley. Knowing the old man's hospi- tality was never at fault, he made bold to ask him for a drink. He at once retired and drew a glass of brandy, but was careful not to expose himself to chance of capture. There was nothing to do but to drink the brandy, and immediately ask for another glass. While this was being drawn, a tall young man named
* In the original sketch but one visit from the citizens is recorded. But in a note the au- thor says "It is evident I have got two events mixed. They doubtless went twice to the house, once to arrest him for stolen goods, and once to tear it down." The story is here remodeled to conform as nearly as possible to the author's marginal notes. - [EDITOR. ]
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Simon Ross concealed himself, so that when he again stepped out on the beam, he reached up and caught him firmly by the ankle. When he found himself taken, the old man exclaimed, " Ye have dealt deceitfully with me." An action was brought against him for having stolen goods in his possession. John P. Hale was retained for his counsel and made insanity the ground of defense. His journal was put in evidence, but nothing resulted from the case.
Capt. William Hurd and Charles Dennett were the selectmen in the village this year. As "Fathers of the Town," they felt responsible for the public morals. The man had returned to his house, which still retained its ill-savored notoriety for corrupt morals. Taking a broad view of their official duties, these select- men felt that the summary destruction of such houses came fairly within the scope of their powers. An evening was agreed upon, and Capt. Hurd, who had led the before-mentioned attacks, now led a large party of young men to complete this work. On arriving they found the house securely fastened, but they at once began its demolition. 'None of the family showing any disposition to help themselves, they were taken from their bedrooms through the windows at some peril during the destruction of the house, which was soon leveled to the ground. The children were struck off at auction to those families who agreed to bring them up on the best terms, and all found good homes. The owner of the house, who lived in Portsmouth, dared not make any trouble with the rioters.
After the destruction of the house the old man built himself a cabin, half under ground and covered with earth, back of where the house stood, and surrounded by a growth of birch and pine. Here he lived many years and died at an advanced age. He indulged in writing poetry, especially acrostics, for those who would give him a few cents, and occasionally his rhymes appeared in the papers. He was commonly known as " the hermit," and his cabin as "the hermitage," and it was one of the amusements of the wicked boys of the last generation to toss brickbats down his chimney.
The following incident illustrates the power of the imagination : Among the Rochester traders of seventy years ago was a waggish young man who delighted in practical jokes. His store was the
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favorite resort of young men who enjoyed his stories and his fun. Every trader then dealt in ardent spirits, and among this man's customers was an old fellow named Meshach. Seeing him coming one evening he said to the bystanders, "Now we'll have some fun. I'll bet a bottle of wine that I will get Meshach drunk on sweetened water." The bet was at once taken. "Meshach," said the trader, as he entered, "go to the pump and get a pail of cool water, and I'll give you something to drink." Delighted at the promise Meshach started off, and while he was absent the decanter was filled with water tinged with molasses enough to give it the right color. Old age and unremitted use of Santa Cruz and Jamaica had somewhat deadened the old man's sense of taste, and he drank his glass without discovering the decep- tion. It had an apparent effect on his brain and he soon began to be talkative, as usual. One glass after another was taken, till he became very merry and loquacious, and the company of course equally so as they saw the joke proceed. It was acknowl- edged that the young trader had won the bet, for the old man had every appearance of intoxication.
This Meshach, after taking his drams, would fall asleep and sit snoozing in his chair till time to shut the shop. One evening when the usual time for closing arrived, the trader with the help of a companion took chair and sleeper and placed them quietly down on the sidewalk. It was chilly and dark, and the cold soon slightly aroused the sleeper. Now Meshach had a young sprig of a son who had been christened in honor of his sire, but was commonly known as "Mish." As the old man's obfuscated senses gradually returned, while shivering on the sidewalk, he broke forth in a bellowing tone, "Mish! Mish! I say, Mish! shut the door, you rascal !" The laughter of the company revealed the joke, and he made his way home somewhat mortified.
One of the earliest attempts to check intemperance by legisla- tion was a law forbidding the sale of liquor in small quantities, by the pint or half-pint. This law was evaded by many ingenious devices. One trader sold his rum like calico, by the yard. He had a long tube made containing just a pint. Customers understanding the trick called for their liquor by the yard, and the quantity was measured by the yard-stick. The kind of liquor was designated by the name of some kind of cloth. Trousers
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cloth was brandy, chintz was New England rum, and so on. Many dealers would sell a cracker for five cents and throw in a glass of rum. (See Appendix.)
These accounts help to show the condition of society at the commencement of the temperance reform, indicating the great obstacles to be overcome, and the severity of the approaching contest.
In 1792 the state laws punished drunkenness with fines graded according to the degree of the offense, and if the fine was not paid, by setting in the stocks or imprisonment. Although the law continued in force as late as 1815, yet the stocks were probably never used in Rochester, for drunkenness was looked upon with universal indulgence, and public sentiment was hardly up to punishment of even a few shillings' fine. In the same year (1792) a law was passed, requiring taverners and retailers of spirituous liquors to be licensed by the selectmen. In the first year of this law, sixteen licenses were recorded in Rochester; in 1793, six; in 1794, sixteen; and in 1795, four.
It was not till the year 1827 that the agitation of the temper- ance question commenced in earnest. Then men began to think and talk of the evils of intemperance, and public sentiment was gathering strength to demand that the liquor traffic should be restrained, - not prohibited, for this was not thought of for many years. Active efforts were made to discourage intemperance. Lecturers took the field, and the subject soon found its way into the town meetings. Appeals for more stringent laws were made to the Legislature, and, after considerable opposition, a law was passed regulating licensed houses and retailers of spirituous liquors. In Portsmouth it was voted, eight hundred to four, to refund the money paid by those who had bought licenses. In Dover, a town meeting called for the same purpose adjourned without action.
One section of the new law authorized the selectmen to post, in all places where liquor was sold, the names of drunkards, and it was made unlawful to sell to such persons. Under this section the selectmen of Rochester posted, in the nine drinking places of the village, the names of three well-known drunkards. This pro- duced much excitement, as one of the three was a genial, good- natured man of some property. Everybody sympathized with him, as they usually do with genial, whole-hearted drunkards, and felt
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that the selectmen had been guilty of a great wrong in thus publicly disgracing him. So much was said, that one more weak- kneed than his colleagues, went round and cut his own name out from all the notices. This was probably the first attempt to restrain liquor selling in Rochester, by force of law.
The "Dover Gazette " of Oct. 21, 1828, contained the following item : -
" FOUND DEAD, at the door of Susan and Phebe Richards, in Roch- ester, on the morning of the 17th inst., Mr. Joshua Trickey, in a situation that indicates that he must have been dead before he was left there. An inquisition was held on the body, and it was ascertained that Trickey bought two quarts of rum as late as half-past nine o'clock the evening before, and went towards the house of the above-named Susan and Phebe, who bought that day one quart, and were the only residents of the house."
It was supposed that Trickey got drunk in the house and died from the effects of the liquor, and that the Richards girls dragged him out and left him at the door. The house, which was situated a little below the village, where the Great Falls road branches from the main road, was afterwards destroyed by the citizens, as had been others of like character. This event occurring so near the beginning of the temperance movement, added not a little to the excitement which already existed.
Prominent in the good work of that period was Rev. Isaac Willey. Young, enthusiastic, radical in his temperance views, he stood for awhile almost alone. He had been settled as pastor of the Congregational Church in January, 1826, and when the tem- perance cause began to engross public attention, he entered into it with all his soul. Mainly through his efforts was formed the first temperance organization in town, called the "Society for the Suppression of Intemperance." Its constitution is still in existence, in the handwriting of William G. Webster, then a lawyer in this village, who entered actively into this and other worthy move- ments. The constitution, which is not dated, provides that meetings should be held once in three months, and the first meeting was to be held on the third Tuesday of January, 1828. Only ardent spirits were forbidden, which did not include wine or cider. The members were not to use ardent spirits themselves, allow them to be used in their families, offer them to their hired laborers,
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nor to their friends, and were to do all they could to discontinue the use of them at funerals. Twenty-nine names are affixed. Signatures were not easily obtained. Only one trader appears on the list, and against his name is written the word "expelled." Traders who would have joined the society, and left off the use of liquor themselves, refused to do so because they were forbidden to give it to their customers, it being the uniform practice when a man settled his account to set on the bottle and tumbler for a drink. If this were discontinned, they were afraid their customers would go elsewhere to trade.
The article forbidding the use of spirits at funerals shows the strong hold of another custom of the day. Charles Dennett, one of the signers, was fond of relating how with much difficulty he persuaded one family to offer coffee instead of liquor to the friends at a funeral, but it was ventured on with much fear and hesita- tion. Among other signers were M. R. Warren, then a teacher of a district school, Samuel Norris the Methodist minister, Charles W. Woodman, and Thomas Brown. The fourth name on the list is John Parker Hale, written in a school-boy hand, not much like the "frank" of our late illustrious senator.
This constitution was soon superseded by a similar one changing the name of the society to " The Rochester Temperance Society," auxiliary to the New Hampshire Temperance Society. The num- ber of names is increased. Among the additions are James H. Edgerly, then a student at the Academy, N. V. Whitehouse, Louis McDuffee, Asa Hanson, and his brother Dominicus, who has, until lately, thought he never belonged to a temperance society, and who could even now easily deny the signature, as it bears no resemblance to the bold autograph so familiar to our people.
Mr. Willey secured the best temperance lecturers in the country, such as Dr. Edwards of Andover, and Mr. Hewitt of Connecticut, who was considered a giant in the work. At these lectures the meeting-house would be crowded. Rum-sellers and rum-drinkers attended in large numbers, and sometimes interrupted the speakers, but the work advanced. In 1829 the Fourth of July was observed by an address before the society by James Towner, principal of the Academy. The statistics presented by him have already been given. Mr. Willey made a canvass of the town about this time, and stated publicly, that every fifth man in town was a drunkard;
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not merely a hard drinker, but one who got drunk and " lost his feet." Almost, if not quite, the only man who did not drink was an old man who had been intemperate, but having dreamed that the devil had bargained for his soul, became frightened, and to cheat the devil of his bargain, left off drink altogether. Mr. Willey's course naturally aroused some opposition, though he encountered nothing very serious. One day, as he was returning from Farmington, he was met a little above the village by a company of men " well set up." To give the temperance parson some trouble, they joined hands and formed a barricade across the road. He had a quick little mare and carried a cow-hide whip. Touching the pony, he charged through the line, giving a sharp cut to the right and left as he passed. Relating this in his old age, Mr. Willey said, "I was a boy then, and probably should not do so now."
In 1830 Mr. Willey began with still more determination to fight intemperance within the church. When he came to Roch- ester every male member of his church used intoxicating drinks. True there were only nine or ten male members in all; but the influence of the church cannot be measured by its numbers, and the pastor urged that since many irreligious persons were leaving the use of ardent spirits, public opinion required of professed Christians the total abandonment of the article. The church were not ready to adopt his views. They could not see why they should give up the moderate use because others destroyed them- selves by excessive indulgence. On Nov. 12, 1830, the pastor addressed to one of his deacons a note directed "For the male members of the church." The note reads as follows : -
" Mr. Willey would wish the male members of his church to understand that the charges preferred against them are: - Ist, That there is reason to believe that they make habitual use of intoxicating drinks. 2d, That there is reason to believe that some of them are using them to their injury. 3d, That they frequently procure such drinks, and use them during the intermission of public worship on the Sabbath. 4th, That there is reason to fear from these facts that some of them at least will become intemperate. 5th, That their influence and example go to perpetuate the dreadful evils of intemperance in this place."
At the next meeting he appealed to them personally to give their influence in favor of temperance. At a subsequent meeting he stated that in his opinion one of the members had come to an untimely end in consequence of the use of liquor. Repeatedly
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the subject was brought before them, and articles prepared for their adoption. June 14, 1832, the church voted unanimously to take into prayerful consideration the articles on temperance, sub- mitted by the pastor, and at the next communion season, July 8, these articles were signed by many of the members. In the same year two members, one of them a deacon, were, by unanimous vote, suspended for intemperance. Having afterwards reformed they were both restored.
In 1830 the first county temperance convention was held at Rochester, and a county society organized, which held its annual meetings here for three years. In 1833 temperance meetings had become common throughout the country. Addresses were deliv- ered in every town of Strafford county, then including Belknap and Carroll. There were over thirty-six thousand members of societies in the State. There were more than two hundred town societies, and it was reported that about three hundred and fifty stores and taverns had abandoned the traffic. School districts had their societies. One of the most flourishing of these in Rochester was at Chestnut Hill, where meetings were held and addresses delivered in Trickey's Hall.
Thus far by the use of "moral suasion " only the temperance reform had been begun, and had made great progress. No pro- hibitory law, nor legal measures, had been employed to help the cause. It would be interesting to watch the rise and growth of prohibition and prosecution, the twin measures which have since taken so prominent a part in the work. In a county convention as early as 1837, eighteen years before the enactment of a pro- hibitory law, Josiah H. Hobbs urged prohibition. In 1839 the town voted to instruct the selectmen not to license. Years before prohibition, legal measures were first resorted to under the license law, but the law was not very earnestly enforced until the Wash- ingtonians sprang up. Although a cardinal principle of these societies was "moral suasion enforced by deeds of benevolence and kindness," yet many of the members rebelled against such restrictions. At a county convention in Dover, May 31, 1843, the moral resolutions met a warm discussion, and the legal suasionists. succeeded in tacking on an addition, declaring the rumseller to be- the chief obstacle to reform, and that the laws ought to be put into immediate execution. It was a lion and lamb partnership.
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At another county convention in Dover, Noah Tebbets of Roch- ester was appointed a committee on the expediency of adopting legal measures, while another committee was sent to confer with rumsellers and persuade them to cease their business. Both com- mittees recommended the use of the law as a last resort. Judge Tebbets' report, published in the "Enquirer," is a document rarely surpassed, and reflects much credit on Rochester as the production of one of her citizens.
In the same year, Hawkins, one of the reformed " seven hard drinkers of Baltimore," was lecturing in this part of the country, and Washingtonian societies were being formed. The first reform wave had been subsiding, but a new enthusiasm was now being kindled. Reformed men took the platform. Temperance stores and hotels were advertised in every paper. Many churches set apart one Sabbath every month for temperance meetings. Now and then some sudden death or case of violence, brought about by alcohol, would startle the community and send up the excitement to fever pitch. About this time two men, named Page and Hayes, were riding together at night upon the high ground just behind the Sanborn brick-yard. They were both intoxicated, but seeing the village lights, it was proposed to ride over and get another drink. Turning the horse they drove off the clay bank, falling into the brick-yard below. Page had his neck broken. Hayes, though somewhat injured, was able to find his way to Gonic, where he obtained help.
In 1842 the elections in most towns of this county turned upon the temperance question, and in nearly every place the reformers prevailed. Rochester elected temperance selectmen, and instructed them not to license. A letter of this year, dated at Rochester, says, "Strong drink is done away with us."
The records of the " Rochester Village Washingtonian Total Absti- nence Society " began Jan. 2, 1843, though the organization may have been earlier. The meetings were held publicly once a week, and anybody could become a member by signing the pledge. The exercises consisted of speeches and public discussions, and were shared by the principal citizens of the town. The records also speak of a reading-room. A committee was appointed to consider " what method should be taken to suppress the selling of ardent spirits at the taverns in this village." The plan adopted was to
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send a committee to persuade the rumsellers to better their ways. The same course was taken on several subsequent occasions.
In February, 1843, two dealers agreed to quit the business, for which the society passed them a vote of thanks. Their liquors were examined, their value reported, and the plan tried of buying out such as would abandon the traffic. At the town meeting in March following, on motion of Richard Kimball, the selectmen were authorized to purchase the liquors of those who would sell, and to appoint an agent to sell for mechanical and medicinal purposes, who was to keep a public record of all sales. They were also instructed to prosecute all unlicensed retailers. This policy of buying out rumsellers, after having been thoroughly tricd, was abandoned.
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