USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Wentworth > History of the town of Wentworth, New Hampshire > Part 19
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The oldest of the three Emery children was Joseph M., a quiet, inoffensive boy of about twenty. "Mell" Emery, as he was always called in the village, was
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small and undersized, short in stature, of rather delicate health and not considered able-bodied. He was fond of horses, was a good driver, and frequently employed at the livery stable kept by Alvah Whitcher, as an assistant.
The morning of May 26, 1890, was dark and rainy, too wet for outdoor work, and the crew of men doing the work for the railroad were idle. Shaw was away from his boarding place until late in the afternoon, and on his return it was clearly evident he had been drinking. At the house he was noisy and disturbing, becoming abusive to the other occupants. Finally Mr. Emery threw him out of the house, with more or less force. He left in a drunken rage, going over into the village.
"Mell" Emery, soon after this, went also to the village to do some errands, and called, as was his custom, at Whitcher's stable. He was standing in the stable door when Shaw happened to pass along the street. Shaw saw him and at once, without warning, attacked him with kicks and blows. "Mell" dropped to the floor. Doctor Durkee was on the street at the time. He went at once to the stable, but was powerless to help, and death very shortly ensued. A weak heart, no doubt, hastened the death of Emery. Shaw was taken into custody at once. He was later placed on trial, convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to
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serve fifteen years in state prison. In prison his health began to fail, and it became apparent that his days were numbered. After serving about five years of his sentence Shaw was pardoned by Governor Busiel. He lived about a year or so after his release.
Much sympathy was always felt in town for the Emery family because of this senseless and unpro- voked crime, committed by a drunken ruffian, during a moment of temporary frenzy.
The third, and let us hope the last, homicide in town also occurred in the village. In 1902, Henry Wilkins moved with his family, which consisted of his wife and two children, into town. It is believed they came originally from Canada. Wilkins was a hard- working man, who bore in town a good reputation. The family appeared to be a happy one. At the time of Mrs. Wilkins' death, they were living in the small house standing across the road and a little above the Town Hall.
During the season of 1904, it was remarked by several of Wilkins' neighbors and associates that he was acting queerly at times. He even confided to one such his suspicions that his wife intended to poison him. But as he seemed harmless and continued to work, no one felt disposed to take any action in the matter.
Wilkins' nearest neighbor was Samuel Kenney, the
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old harness maker who lived alone in the little cabin set in the bank across and a little further up the road from the Wilkins house. About 9 o'clock of the eve- ning of September 30, 1904, the small Wilkins boy came to Kenney's place. He said his mother was sick and that his father had gone to see the doctor and get some medicine, and that his father would be glad if Kenney would go to their house, as he hated to leave his sick wife alone even for that short time. Kenney complied cheerfully with the request, going at once to the Wilkins house. On entering he found the house quiet and still. A lamp burned in the kitchen. Here Kenney awaited Wilkins' return for an hour or more.
Finally the baby in an adjoining room, used by the. Wilkins family as a sleeping room, began to make an outcry. Kenney took the lamp and went into the room. He was horrified at the scene before him. Mrs. Wilkins lay dead on the bed, her brains having been beaten out with an axe that, covered with her blood, was still lying in the room.
Kenney at once gave the alarm. Search was made for Wilkins, who had now disappeared. Inquiry de- veloped he was not at the doctor's and had not been there. After several days the town offered a reward of $200 for the apprehension of Wilkins. The next day after, David Dow came with Wilkins to the select-
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men, saying Wilkins had called at his house and that he wished to deliver him up, also would they please pay him the reward. There was some haggling in regard to the reward with court proceedings. But the reward was finally paid to Dow by the selectmen.
Wilkins was put in jail. After having been examined by the doctors he was declared by them to be insane and committed to the State Hospital at Concord. The Wilkins children, of which there were now three, were taken care of by the authorities.
The story is told of a woman who lived in an ancient town in Massachusetts, the dwellers in which were somewhat clannish. The woman in question belonged to one of the oldest families in the town and lived next door to the town jail or lockup. One day a friend of hers, who lived in another town, mentioned to her the location of her house and suggested that her close association with the inmates of the jail might not always be pleasant, but was informed the prison- ers caused her no trouble or anxiety, that they were really very good company, "Because, you see, they are nearly always our own townspeople. We have very few strangers."
In this spirit it will do no harm to point out the obvious fact that none of the three murders in Went- worth was committed by those who were really en- titled to be considered Wentworth men. Shaw was an
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outsider, and both Hanscom and Wilkins were new- comers, whose stay in town was brief, and whose criminal traits, if they had any, must have been developed elsewhere.
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CHAPTER IX
IN LIGHTER VEIN - MOSTLY GOSSIP LAST MUSTER OF THE 35TH REGIMENT
MOSTLY GOSSIP
Nothing which is set forth in this chapter should be taken too seriously, or accepted as of historic value. There is, however, ingrained in the people of our town, of every rural town, a mass of tradition, folk- lore, stories and relations that are of much interest, tending as they do to illustrate the character of the townspeople and the manner in which they have lived. Some of these things will, in a rather gossipy and rambling way, be mentioned.
Perhaps the first thing which will occur to many in speaking of the failings of our forbears will be that they were very superstitious, a weakness now dis- carded and outgrown.
The forms and objects of superstition do change more or less, but never entirely disappear from the human mind. The up-to-date and perhaps important person who tells you our ancestors were very ignorant and foolish because they believed in witchcraft will probably be depressed by seeing the new moon for
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the first time over their left shoulder, or if handed a two dollar bill with other change. The old people, or many of them, did believe in witches; there is no doubt about that.
The archwizard and head necromancer of our town was no doubt Simeon Smith. He, it was commonly believed, had supernatural powers and thereby made his neighbors very uncomfortable at times.
"Wonderful were the feats he could perform. Sometimes, from sheer malice, he would saddle and bridle one of his neighbors and ride and gallop him all over the country round. The butter would not come, and he was in the churn. The cat mewed and tore wildly about the house, and he was tormenting her. The children behaved strangely and he had be- witched them. Smaller than a gnat, he could go through the keyhole; larger than a giant, he was seen at twilight stalking through the forest. He could travel in the thin air and, mounted on a moonbeam, fly swift as a meteor over the woods and above the mountains." (Warren History.)
It must be admitted the above is important if true. We of the present time have outgrown these super- stitions, we are so enlightened. Just the same, in one of the tall buildings in a nearby city, the next floor above the twelfth is numbered fourteen. In some hotels there are no rooms numbered thirteen, and
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MAIN STREET AS IT WAS, WENTWORTH, N. H.
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ONE DAY'S WORK
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Friday is still as formerly "Black Friday," the day of ill omen.
The troubles growing out of the belief in witch- craft led at times to serious results. The outbreak of arson on the Buffalo Road in 1861 was caused largely by this fearful superstition. Mrs. Page Kimball, who lived near the present schoolhouse, was on bad terms with the Jabez Hall family on the Plummer place. Mrs. Hall's butter would not come, so no doubt Mrs. Kimball had bewitched the cream. Mrs. Hall heated a poker very hot and plunged it into the cream; there was a great commotion and a loud scream which seemed to issue from the churn. The butter now came properly; next day Mrs. Hall sent a child to Kimball's to see if they were as usual. The child came back and reported they were all right at the Kimball house, except Mrs. Kimball had a bad burn on one of her legs.
Mrs. Hall claimed that Mrs. Kimball persecuted her in many ways. One day the Halls saw Mrs. Kimball pass by on foot. They saw her spit on the ground in front of their house. As they said, she spit out her venom on them; at any rate most everything went wrong in the Hall household, causing them great misery. The tragic result of all this ill feeling has been told in another chapter.
It might be of interest to tell some stories, and we
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will here relate a few anecdotes which have been told regarding Lemuel Keezer, the pioneer hotel keeper of the town.
Keezer was beyond a doubt one of the most original and perhaps most eccentric of the early settlers, and a very peculiar character. Those who would like to learn more of him would do well to consult Dr. Hoyt's manuscript. Keezer was unorthodox in all ways and loved to give the ministers, or at least some of them, a jolt .* One year it was agreed that Keezer should pay his minister tax in produce.
When the time came for payment he took a large sack, put in some wheat, a little rye, some corn, india wheat, some beans and peas, also some small potatoes and mixed the whole mess thoroughly. He then carried it to the minister,t who opened the bag and was rather dismayed at the looks of its contents. Finally the poor minister told Keezer the grain was so mixed up it would do him no good. Keezer replied that was just the way with his sermons, and he guessed the account was square, then drove off.
Here is another of Little's stories of Keezer:
"One day Captain Daniel invited Elder Wood, a minister, to share with him the hospitality of our
* William Little.
t Rev. Mr. Haynes of Rumney.
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friend Keezer's hotel, and introduced him to the host as Elder Wood.
"'Elder Wood, Elder Wood,' exclaimed Keezer, snuffing his nose, 'that is the stinkingest wood I ever saw.'
"Captain Daniel's feelings can be imagined, for he was very pious and had great respect for his minister."
At another time Keezer agreed to pay Moses Clement of Warren in mutton for doing some black- smith work. Clement did the work, and one morning found two sheep tied in his shop, one very large and fat, the other very poor.
Clement, the next time he saw Keezer, asked him what he meant by such work. Keezer replied that some of his blacksmith work was good, but some was mighty poor, and the skinny sheep was to pay for that part. (Warren History.)
Keezer had an old-fashioned sign hanging in front of his tavern; on one side he had painted the picture of a serpent, on the other the picture of a dove. He told inquirers he was just like the sign, a serpent at times, but generally a harmless dove.
Keezer at one time kept the stage horses at his tavern. To save work, he had some wooden harrows made and would put them under the horses at night, teeth up, so that they could not lie down and get dirty. This saved cleaning them off in the morning,
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also it was a great kindness to the horses, so Keezer told his hostler .*
Our friend Keezer, as will be seen from these sto- ries, was amply able, as a rule, to take care of himself. Old Doctor Whipple once got the best of him. He went to the doctor one day to have a tooth pulled. The doctor decided the case was a bad one and he must first cut around the tooth; while doing this, Keezer, suffering greatly no doubt from the pain of the cutting and the aching tooth, snapped his jaws together and bit the doctor's fingers until the blood ran.
The doctor made no complaint, but proceeded to apply his old cant-hook style forceps to the tooth. After he got a firm grip on the tooth he held the sufferer's head firmly with a strong hand, looked him squarely in the eye and said, "Now Keezer, bite, damn ye, bite!"
STORY OF SAMUEL ELLSWORTH
In the old times, there was much rivalry among the boys and men in the matter of wrestling, and this rivalry extended to the various towns. At one time a match between Wentworth and Rumney was ar- ranged. Much interest was aroused in the coming event which was to decide the important issue of the championship of the two towns.
* William Little.
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The match was duly held at Rumney in a con- venient barn. The contestants, with their friends and others interested, filled the barn to its capacity.
It was agreed that the contest should consist of two rounds: the first to be the collar and elbow style, in which quickness, agility and skill counted for more than weight or main strength; the second round was to be the rough and tumble, catch-as-catch-can style, and open to all comers.
The collar and elbow contest was duly held; gradu- ally the contestants were eliminated as their turn came, the bout being finally won by the Wentworth champion, Winthrop Gove.
In the second round, the Wentworth men did not fare as well. The leader of the Rumney forces over- came one by one, all who were pitted against him, and the match seemed likely to end in an inconclusive draw.
At this stage of the proceedings, the Rumney Ajax, flushed with victory, inquired if the match was over or did the visitors "Want to bring on some more of the Wentworth underbrush?"
This rather truculent challenge roused the ire of Samuel Ellsworth, one of the many Wentworth spectators. Ellsworth did not claim to be a wrestler, but was known to be a strong and powerful man.
He now jumped into the ring, caught the Rumney
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champion by both shoulders, yanked him completely off his feet and then threw him over his own head, dropping him none too gently on the barn floor. As there was no further effort made by the men of Rum- ney and no more allusions to "Wentworth under- brush," the match came to an end. The Wentworth crowd then departed in high spirits, having won both decisions. (Related by Col. Joseph Savage.)
MELL COLBURN
It is very doubtful if any man in town was better known to most of the boys of fifty years ago than was James M., or, as he was always called, "Mell" Col- burn. He was of medium size, swarthy, with black hair and full black beard, and the presiding genius at Colburn's store for many years.
This store was the headquarters for such firearms and ammunition as was dearest to the heart of every small boy and would-be hunter. He dealt in powder, gun caps, shot and bullets, fishhooks, lines, poles and sinkers. The Nimrods of Wentworth, Dorchester, North Groton and West Rumney got most of their equipment and supplies from him. He took from them, in payment, fox skins, mink, skunk, raccoon and muskrat pelts, and also game.
A fixed schedule of prices was the rule; a partridge was 25 cents; a rabbit, 15 cents; a gray squirrel, IO
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cents. He also bought woodpeckers, blue jays and hen hawks if they were in good condition. Sometimes an unlucky boy who tried to work off on "Mell" an over-ripe rabbit or blue jay would be severely dealt with. In his little court, "Mell" was judge, jury and executioner and the boys had no ap- peal from his decisions, which were fair and just, in all cases.
As a rule, he gave credit to the boys if they needed it, and usually got his pay, too, in the end. He had quite a good-sized book well filled with such accounts. He used a sort of shaker filled with very fine sand to dry the ink on his books in place of blotting paper. He dealt also in fiddles and musical supplies of various kinds, jews'-harps and harmonicas. He had a small mechanical organ or "organette," which made weird music when the crank was turned. A sheet of perforated paper was the music used. The tune could be changed by putting in a different sheet or roll. This was looked upon as a wonder- ful piece of work.
Although he sold more powder and shot and handled more game than all the rest of the men in town, "Mell" never went hunting himself. He kept up his trading as long as the Colburns kept the mill property; the boys greatly mourned the closing up of this portion of the Colburn business.
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SPINNING AND WEAVING
This very modest article would probably be held to be faulty and incomplete, if no mention was made of some branches of home industry, formerly a part, and no small part either, of the work of the women of every household in the earlier days.
All wore homespun garments and, as families were usually large, much labor at carding, spinning and weaving was required. Clothes made of homespun were warm and durable. The dresses of women and children were generally of a dark or reddish ground, checked with a few threads of some other color. These colors were "dyed in the wool." Deep blue and white in a four-thread check was in favor for skirts and aprons. The fadeless indigo blue was much in evi- dence. The dye pot filled with indigo was found in every household. Butternut was another favorite dye. The farmer wore a long frock or blouse of checked blue and white. The boys had jumpers or short frocks of the same material. Sheep's grey, that is, black and white wool mixed in the carding, was another stand- ard color for men's wear. Flax was raised largely and the flax products were everywhere in use. A little cotton was bought at times and carded in with the flax or wool. Tow was much used for coarse goods.
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Some of the homespun hand-woven linen compares, in fineness and quality, favorably with the product of our best mills of today; the same can also be said of some of the woollen goods.
Sheets, blankets and coverlets for the beds were also provided by the female members of the house- hold. Help was often hired to aid in the spinning and weaving. Girls would go out and spin for fifty cents a week. They were treated as one of the family. One of these handmaidens was told by the mistress, on beginning work, that "She didn't care nuthin how she spun her yarn if only 'twas fine, even and hand- some." A silk dress was an article of great luxury and lasted as a rule for a lifetime; such dresses are fre- quently mentioned in the appraisals of estates also in wills.
The most desired article of jewelry was a string of gold beads; such a string of beads cost from eight to ten dollars. Ambitious girls worked out a whole season in order to purchase a string of these beads. The beads were wanted for purposes of adornment and also were believed to have a great medicinal value and power to ward off disease. After all, a set of gold beads is as worthy an object as a fur coat and lasts much longer.
The ancient hand looms with all their intricate system of treadles, reeds, shuttles and many other
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accessories have gone the way of the spinning wheels, flax wheels, reels, swifts, dye pots and all the count- less other things that made possible the homespun textile industry.
Now that we are speaking of raiment, something can be said about footwear, or the lack of it. It need not shock, or even surprise anyone who may read this page, to find that formerly people often went barefooted, not only children, who have always ran more or less in their bare feet and do now, but grown-up men and women. It is the tradition General Absalom Peters was barefooted usually in the summer time. One summer he made a trip to Concord on town business and was gone for some time. When he got home he complained bitterly that he had to wear shoes all the time he was gone and suffered greatly because his feet got so sore from the effects of the shoes.
* Samuel Smart, when over eighty years of age, came on the road one day in June to work out his tax. He was using a hoe leveling the dirt in the road. The ground was rough and full of cobble stone. The old man was wearing leather boots when he came to work, but pulled them off and worked on the stony ground all day barefooted. Some of the younger men asked him if the stones were not pretty hard on his
* Charles Turner's statement.
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feet. He said, "No, not so hard as the boots," and, further, "that he had never worn boots or shoes a day in his life in hoeing time and no use to begin now." Going barefoot was no new experience to this veteran of the revolution.
The women and girls were not less capable than the men in this respect. One November day the larger scholars in one of the town schools had a foot race. The distance was about a quarter of a mile, and the race was won by a girl.t Now if the fact that a girl outran the boys on this occasion was all there was to it, the story would not be worth telling. There have been Atalantas ever since the days of ancient Greece; but what makes this event unusual was the fact that the ground was covered with snow at the time and the girl ran barefooted. We are not informed whether the girl had any shoes or not, but it seems very unlikely that she or any of the scholars were going without shoes with snow on the ground. It is more reasonable to conclude the girl was quite used to bare feet in season and took off her shoes at the time of the race so that her style would not be cramped, and the result appears to have justified her confidence in the virtue of bare feet.
Old Ethan Allen Crawford, born and raised in the White Mountains, has left it on record that he never t Dr. Hoyt.
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had hat, cap, shoes or mittens of his own until he was over eleven years old. The Crawford family was a large one, so at times he got a chance to wear things that belonged to others, but he was much of the time in his bare feet, and said his hands were seldom cold, and did not remember he ever suffered greatly with cold feet during this experience.
Our girls of today often take pride in being ath- letic, but would have found it hard to have kept up in some respects with some of their sex in earlier genera- tions.
When Samuel Hodge was drowned in Baker's River in 1780, his wife was left in a hard case with a family of small children; she was, however, to say the least, very able-bodied and capable.
John Blodgett lived then in Rumney near Mrs. Hodge. Blodgett had a very large old-growth pine tree that he wanted cut, but on account of its size none of the men would undertake the job of felling the tree. Mrs. Hodge saw Blodgett and told him she would fell the tree for him if he would build her a platform or staging to stand on while she worked, and would give her twelve pounds of flax. He agreed to do this and Mrs. Hodge worked three days to fell the tree. After she had laid low the mighty tree and received her pay, she proceeded to spin and weave the flax, thus clothing herself and family for the
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winter. She later married Thomas Todd and then had another burden on her hands.
Todd, while he lived in town, got possession of a horse in some left-handed way; finally the rightful owner of the horse went to get it back and the two men had an argument about it. At last, the owner addressed Todd in a poetic although profane strain as follows:
"Sir Thomas Todd, I swear by God, If you don't this horse resign, I'll teach you law, Upon the jaw, With this good paw of mine."
It is said Todd gave up the horse.
Mrs. Hodge, or Mrs. Todd, as you prefer, may have been a relative to Mrs. John McNiel of Derry.
McNiel was called the best wrestler in town. One day a stranger came to the house and told Mrs. McNiel he had come a long distance to meet McNiel and wrestle with him, to which the good wife replied that her husband was away and would be gone all day, but, rather than disappoint her caller, she would wrestle with him herself and did so, and got the best of it. The stranger was so cut up at being thrown by a woman, he left in a hurry without even giving his name.
In later times in town, Ephraim Cook, commonly
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called "Daddy Cook," and T. P. Nutting, the pro- prietor of the sawmill, were both a source of amusement to the boys, who as a general thing would have done better to have been attending to their own business.
But if the truth must be told, both Cook and Nutting were rather peculiar in speech and action; it was great fun for the boys to get either of these men stirred up over something and hear them lay down the law. One day Nutting hired a transient fellow to work around the mill, and had to furnish his new hand some footwear at once. The man quit the job before he had worked long enough to pay for the new boots, and was going to walk away in them, but Nutting stopped him and made him take off the boots. One of the village smart Alecks later said, "Mr. Nutting, I hear you took a pair of boots right off the feet of one of your men." Nutting's reply was char- acteristic. "Understand, sir, I did, I did, sir, and took his feeting too, sir." "Took his feeting, too," was a byword in the village for years.
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