USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Wentworth > History of the town of Wentworth, New Hampshire > Part 4
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A word of explanation should here be made in re- gard to the currency then in use, of which there were several kinds. The old Continental paper money was very greatly depreciated, the phrase "not worth a Continental" has passed into a proverb. This was known as the old "emition" money.
About 1782 there was a new "emition" which had more value and there was also "specia" which was silver money. A good comparison of the values of these different kinds of money is found in the account for the year 1783 which runs in part as follows: "Rec'd of last year's Selectmen, notes in old emition money, 596 pounds, 9 shillings, equal to 7 pounds 19 shillings 1/2 pence in silver: in new emition, 6 pounds, 7 shil- lings, 10 pence, equal in silver I pound II shillings II pence: and in silver, 19 pounds, 3 shillings, 5 pence."
We can see by this table that Captain Whitcher who received in 1780, 330 pounds in old "emition" for his oxen, actually got about the equivalent of thirty dollars in silver, hence we can assume this was about the price of a yoke of beef cattle at that time.
47
BOUNDARY ESTABLISHED
During the years from 1770 to 1780 there was much confusion in most of the towns in this region in regard to the town lines. The early surveys were perhaps the best that could be made at the time but town lines were not clearly defined and in places overlapped, causing much trouble and confusion.
Some of the settlers were uncertain what town they were living in. One parcel of land was actually deeded described as being in the town of Campton or Plym- outh.
At last the Legislature in October, 1780, passed an act authorizing a designated committee to survey the boundaries of Rumney, Wentworth, Warren, Plym- outh, Campton, Piermont and Orford. This com- mittee performed their duties and reported the result to the Legislature September 24, 1784.
This report was accepted and approved, thus estab- lishing the bounds of the several towns mentioned.
Wentworth gained rather than lost by this transac- tion.
Warren, whose proprietors seemed to be large minded in the matter of claiming adjoining territory, lost rather heavily.
The Warren line up to 1784 was supposed to come very near Martin's Brook on the East Side; all set- tlers on the north side of that brook supposed they were in Warren but after the line was established,
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48
HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
Peter Stevens, Simeon Smith, Joseph Kimball and Lemuel Kezer passed from Warren to the jurisdiction of Wentworth, together with most of their lands. Wentworth gained also about eight lots of unsettled land.
A committee composed of Maj. Enoch Page on the part of Wentworth and Capt. William Butler acting for Warren, with the assistance of Maj. Joseph Page, arranged the details and settled any contested ques- tions, thus happily litigation was avoided.
In this connection it may be well to add that by act of January 15, 1787, "Thomas Clark, Daniel Clark, Jona. Herbert and Asa Boynton with their several estates, were severed from Piermont and an- nexed to Wentworth."
With the close of the war, an increasing number of new settlers arrived. In 1784, Asa Putney, Thom. Hodg and Samuel Smart appear on the tax list for the first time.
In 1783 the first highways were formally laid out, but as the matter of highways will be considered at some length in another chapter, it will not be neces- sary to write further at this time on the subject of roads.
THE FIRST RECORDED INVENTORY AND TAX LIST
For the year 1783 there was entered on the records for the first time, a list of taxpayers with their valua-
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49
FIRST INVENTORY AND TAX LIST
tion. This is the earliest known authentic list of the in- habitants of the town. It is of much historical impor- tance and worthy of insertion here in full.
The reader will of course bear in mind this is not a complete list of all who had ever lived in town up to that time as a few perhaps rather restless spirits had already been here and were now elsewhere. But nearly all who are listed as being then in town, re- mained there permanently and in several instances were the founders in town of families that have per- sisted until the present time.
The names upon the list were not entered in alpha- betical order: they are all in the fine clear-cut hand- writing of John Aiken.
The account is headed "Valuation of Inventory taken in April, 1783 upon which the Taxes are made" and enumerates:
Enoch Page, Esq.
Isaac Clifford
Josiah Pillsbury
Thomas Todd
Ebenezer Gove
Experience Cross
Ephraim Page
William Cotton
John Akin
Samuel Hooper
John Akin, Jr.
Joseph Cooper
Sam'l Akin
Isaac Brown
Joseph Smith
Sam'l Worster
Hugh McClellan
Jirah Martin
Benjamin Weeks
Edward Green
John Tural
Gould French
William Heath
Sam'l Currier
Reuben Whitcher
Aaron Putney
in all, twenty-six names.
50
HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
The proprietors were also listed and taxed as non- residents.
The amount of the inventory of the men named in the list was 72 pounds, II shillings, 6 pence.
Enoch Page, Esq., had the largest amount of tax- able property and Aaron Putney, the least.
At the bottom of the page is recorded "The fore- going list committed to Ebenezer Gove, Constable, with a warrant to collect the same" and the account is signed by John Akin and Benjamin Weeks, Select- men.
This same year they paid "18 shillings for a Town Book" and also "pd the town clerk for recording the town actings for the time past to this day, I pound, 17 shillings, 8 pence." This book was no doubt the first town clerk's record book.
The year of 1787 may be said to mark the begin- ning of the present village or at least the central por- tion or that part of it lying near and around the common. The first houses in what can be called the village were in the valley of the Pond Brook or over in that direction. The present two-story Page house, as it is called, is about where the village began to develop and was on the first main thoroughfare.
In 1787 Phillips White gave the town for cemetery purposes, "an acre of land lying west of the river and above the great falls." This land constitutes the pres-
51
LOCATING THE VILLAGE
ent village common. It was then a grove of poplars. Here was located the first burying ground at the vil- lage. The first meetinghouse was built very soon after this. It was quite naturally located upon this land. We find too the first schoolhouse was erected about where Robert Mclaughlin now lives, hence the building of the meetinghouse and schoolhouse marked the be- ginning of the central part of the village.
We shall see later the schoolhouse soon was moved into the north end of the village, the meetinghouse moved easterly off the common and the old burying ground discontinued.
The land was then leveled and grassed over, so that the common in its present form and extent has lasted without material change since about 1815.
During the early history of the town there was some rivalry and difference of opinion as to where the village would eventually be located. Some thought the East Side would in time become the business center; another group were boosting Ellsworth Hill, while still another perhaps the largest faction of all were very certain the Atwell Hill district not far from the schoolhouse would in time become the civic cen- ter; a few years later it was seriously proposed to form a new town from portions of Wentworth, Orford, Piermont and Warren, with the Atwell Hill settle- ment as a center.
52
HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
This would give the above region a chance to de- velop upon its own merits, without being held back by the other portions of the town.
One thing is certain, hills had no terrors for our early settlers.
The hill farms were thought to be on the whole the most desirable. The hill land was as a rule more easily cleared, the soil even if very stony in places, was strong and productive.
Rough and stony fields could be mowed with a scythe, and raked with a hand rake, the grain was al- ways reaped with hand sickles anyway, so that before the era of farming with horses and machinery, the rougher land was able to compete with all but the best of the meadow land for purposes of agriculture.
It should also be remembered that before the com- ing of the railroad in 1850, the town's population was supported by the soil of the town, which produced with some small exceptions, the food and clothing for all the inhabitants, very little being imported from outside. This required the tillage of all available soil.
In 1788 occurred the first election ever held for President of the United States. At this election 27 votes were cast, all for the Father of His Country.
A beginning and not much more, had by this time been made toward the support of some public schools.
53
CLOSE OF PIONEER PERIOD
As a further evidence of substantial progress, it was in 1789 "Voted to build a meetinghouse, if it could be done without a tax to the town."
We shall read in another chapter more about the building of this first meetinghouse and also what be- came of it.
With the coming of the year of 1790, it is probably fair to say the pioneer period of development had passed.
Twenty years had elapsed from the time of the first settlement.
A considerable quantity of land had been cleared and was under cultivation, roads such as they were, extended through the valley, and over the hills.
Several frame houses had been already built and more were soon to be erected. An attempt to establish a system of public schools had been made and money for the support of these schools was being voted at each annual town meeting.
There were mills for the sawing of lumber and grinding of grain.
Some bridges had been, or were now being built at this time, and it would appear the town was now fully organized, officered and equipped to take care of the growth and development that now seemed assured.
The project of dividing the town by the separation of the Atwell Hill region died a natural death; the
54
HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
boundaries of the town have remained as established by the act of 1784 practically unchanged until the present time.
There is perhaps no more fitting way to close the brief narrative of the pioneer period of our town than to state who were then living there.
The first census taken by the government was in this year of 1790. The count was begun the first Mon- day in August of that year.
Only the names of heads of families were listed. Every person, male or female, who kept a separate establishment was regarded as the head of a house- hold for the purposes of this census.
At the risk of being tedious, the list of heads of families as shown by this enumeration is here in- serted in full, as in no other way is it practicable to show who were then living in the town, and reads as follows:
Akin, James
Cotton, Benjamin
Akin, John
Cross, Experience
Akin, John, Jun.
Currier, Samuel
Ames, Amos
Eaton, Job
Boyanton, Asa
Ellsworth, Samuel
Boyanton, Thomas
Grove, Ebenezer Heard, Amos
Chase, Nicholas Clark, Daniel
Heaton, Ebenezer
Heaton, Johnathan
Clark, Thomas Clifford, Isaac Cupper, Joseph
Hooper, Samuel
Keeser, Lemuel
55
FIRST CENSUS
Kimball, Joseph Leicester, John
Smart, Samuel
Smith, Benjamin
McClaron, John
Smith, John
Page, Enock
Smith, Joseph
Page, Epharim
Smith, Molly
Peten, Absalom
Stephens, Peter
Pillsbury, Josiah
Weeks, Benjamin
Pillsbury, Merrill
Whicher, Reuben
Putney, Aron
White, Nathaniel
Putney, Asa
Worcester, Louis in all, forty-two families.
The rather grotesque spelling in above list is the enumerators. The mysterious workings of the human mind are such that the one unable to spell correctly the simple names of Gove and Peters, could render . Leicester and Pillsbury, without a break.
All told, there were then in town, 56 males 16 years or more of age, 73 boys under 16 years, 112 women and girls of all ages; possibly then, as now, some of very uncertain age, a total of 241 inhabitants.
A comparison of the two printed lists shows easily the names of those arriving between 1783 and 1790.
Also it appears many of the families who have made a large part of the town's history were already here and the names of Akin, Clark, Clifford, Currier, Eaton, Ellsworth, Gove, Hooper, Kimball, Page, Pillsbury, Smart and Whitcher have persisted in the most part until the present day.
CHAPTER III-1790-1820
MENTION OF MORE EARLY SETTLERS - THE ROAD TO ORFORD - FIRST POST OFFICE - WAR OF 1812-15 - THE MILITIA
THE NEXT THIRTY YEARS, 1790-1820
Brighter days were now dawning for our infant settlement. The War of the Revolution was over; our national independence seemed assured. The state had adopted a constitution, currency depreciation was passing away, the dollar was now the unit of value and fairly stable; the people of our state could now look confidently towards the future and devote their energies to the peaceful development of the whole region.
Our town was now increasing rapidly in population and resources. Among the settlers who came about this period, a few families deserve special mention.
The first which we shall consider will be the Whites.
Phillips White, the proprietor, who has already been mentioned many times, took a deep interest in the early affairs of the town. He owned much real estate in Wentworth and Warren and was apparently. a man of ample means. Nathaniel and William
57
THE NEXT THIRTY YEARS, 1790-1820
White were brothers and are believed to have been grandsons of Phillips White; at any rate, they came into possession of much of his land in Wentworth. Nathaniel came first, about 1788; he settled on the land later owned by the Eames family and had a house near where Mrs. Max Whitcher now lives.
Here at this house he opened, in 1790, the first store ever kept in town.
His stock was very small and consisted of some of the bare necessaries of the settlers, probably salt, gunpowder, lead, possibly a few bars of iron, with tobacco and molasses, would, with a few small articles such as needles, awls and gimlets, be about the extent of the assortment. Probably two Ford cars would easily have carried it all at one trip if there had been any suitable road.
Nathaniel White did not remain long in the town. The land on which he settled was bought by Johnathan Eames about 1794.
William White came about 1791. He settled on the land where Maxfield, the first settler, located, later the farm of the late Col. Joseph Savage and now (1928) owned by Harry M. Turner.
Here he built the house still standing on this place and opened it as a hotel. He had here the first licenses to "keep and sell liquor to the public" ever granted in the town. This house stood on the main road
58
HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
through the town at that time and about at the junction where the road to Dorchester began.
William White was a prominent, useful and sub- stantial citizen in his day. He was constantly in office, serving as town clerk, selectman and represent- ative and, during his life, the largest land owner in the town.
He died in 1806 at a comparatively early age; the place, however, remained in the hands of the White family for twenty years or more after his death, finally being sold by his heirs to Col. Joseph Savage.
Jonathan Eames, Esq., came about 1795, to- gether with Daniel Eames.
Jonathan Eames was a graduate of Harvard College and a Presbyterian minister by profession. His epitaph informs us that he had been for "35 years an embassader from the Prince of Peace to an apostate world."
The Eames family became large owners of real estate; they acquired most of the land now owned by David N. Eaton formerly of Amos Rollins and Wil- liam H. Moore, also much unimproved land. The small mountain directly east of the village, known locally as the Eames or Robert Eames Mountain, bears their name and was once largely their property.
The Eames family became quite numerous in town and were substantial and reliable people. Arista
4
1
2
F MANTIS,
Photo,
WENTWORTH VILLAGE
Photo by Mrs. William H. Davis
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF VILLAGE IN 1890
HOUSE BUILT BY WILLIAM WHITE ABOUT 1795 HOME OF HARRY TURNER
59
THE NEXT THIRTY YEARS, 1790-1820
Eames, caretaker of the Webster Memorial Library building, is the present representative of the family in Wentworth. The name, which has always been pro- nounced as if spelled Ames, should in all probability be pronounced Eemes. Its derivation is from the old Anglo-Saxon word "eme" or "eame," and was their word meaning Uncle.
Another race that is not now represented in town but which deserves mention in this connection is the family of Saunders or Sanders.
David Saunders, the founder, came to Wentworth, it is said, from Sanbornton about 1794.
Beyond a doubt he was, like so many of our settlers, of Scotch extraction. The name is a Scottish cor- ruption of Alexander.
David Saunders settled finally on the hill lying southward of Ellsworth Hill and on the place first cleared by the enthusiastic bear hunter, Asa Putney. This hill, settled largely by the Saunders family, has for over a hundred years borne their name. As a race they were not fond of books, but were peaceable, honest and industrious.
The name of Haines, or Haynes, is an extremely ancient one. It can be traced back until the time of the Crusades and even further. The name and race came from Wales, originally.
Matthias Haines came about 1795 and was the
60
HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
founder of the Haines family in town. He lived at first in the Joshua Foster neighborhood. His wife was a daughter of Samuel Smart. He later settled on the - hill where Daniel Clifford and, after him, Henry Campbell lived. Here he died and left, in town, numerous descendants.
Others who came before 1800 and became well known were Samuel Johnson of Ellsworth Hill, and Aaron Jewett, the pioneer of the region later known as Brown's Mills; also Isaac Brown in the south part of the town.
Schools had by this time been established in at least five districts, and the roads had no doubt been improved to quite an extent. Live stock had by 1795 got so numerous that agitation for a town pound, where the straggling stock might be impounded at the owner's risk and expense, resulted in Lemuel Keezer giving the town his old log house to be used for this purpose. This house was used for several years as a pound. The location was not convenient, being almost on the Warren line.
In 1800 the town voted $12.50 to build a log pound at the easterly end of the common, which was in use until it was decided in 1812 to clear off all graves, also structures of whatever kind from the common, which was done, and thus this grass plot became a real common and the center of the village.
61
THE NEXT THIRTY YEARS, 1790-1820
The present town pound with its massive stone walls is the work of the Ellsworths. John Ellsworth had the contract to build it, being assisted in the work more or less by his brothers, Samuel, Jr., Aaron, Jeremiah, and quite likely by others. This work appears to have been by contract and cost, as nearly as can be ascertained, about $75. The gate and pad- lock were bought extra. The pound was ready for business in 1817. It was thoroughly built, as shown by its durability and present good condition.
In 1796 the selectmen's invoice and accounts are computed in pounds, shillings and pence for the last time, although the word shilling appears frequently in the account up to as late as 1825.
In 1797 the whole amount of tax assessed upon residents was $440.05; of this, $50.92 was a special tax raised for building the Brook Road, so called, to Orford.
This piece of road was for many years a bone of contention. The Orford people clamored for its con- struction. The Wentworth people were unwilling to build four miles of road through a wilderness to ac- commodate outsiders. In 1795 the town voted to build their part of the road provided Orford would pay one-half the cost. The town of Orford gave a bond signed by John Mann and two others that they would build their end of the road and pay half the
62
. HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
cost of what Wentworth had to build. Wentworth built a part of their road, but Orford did not pay, as they agreed to do; in 1801 the Wentworth people became disgusted, voted to discontinue the road and sued on the bond to recover damages from Orford.
This was the beginning of a lawsuit which dragged through the courts for more than five years.
The following items copied literally from the town accounts are illuminating: 1806 - "By our order to Benjamin Cotton for services in the law sute against Orford, $12.00"; in 1807- "Benjamin Cotton for tending court in the Orford road affair, $6.70"; finally came the day of judgment: in 1809 - "Fine on Orford Road, $516.57."
Benjamin Cotton was, during a part of this time, a selectman as well as agent for the town in this suit against Orford.
There is a lack of definite information, but the evidence would appear to show the above amount was finally paid to Wentworth by the town of Orford. It is not improbable Wentworth needed the money, and we will hope they got it.
In 1795 a road was laid out going over Atwell Hill. After the Brook Road blew up, a road was built from near the old Levi Davis farm down the slope of the hill into Orford. It came out on the flat land lying in between the two ponds. This was for some years
.
63
THE NEXT THIRTY YEARS, 1790-1820
the main and, in fact, the only direct road between the two towns.
It was a roundabout, hilly and unsuitable location for a main road at its best, even if hills were not greatly dreaded in those days; it was not satisfactory to the people of either town to be obliged to travel this route, and after some years the road running through the woods from the Atwell Hill Road, the so-called "Upper" or "Old" Road, was built.
The present brook road dates from about 1856. At the present time this road is being converted into a state highway of standard width and construction. It now seems that, after a lapse of 125 years, the proposed turnpike over this route will become in a short time a reality.
In 1806, Caleb Keith, Esq., moved from the town of Bridgewater, Mass., to Wentworth Village and lived near the Pond Brook, about on the spot where the Chase homestead, occupied by Miss Hattie Chase, now stands.
Caleb Keith had been a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary Army. He was a notary public and did about all there was to be done in that line in the town for many years. He was constantly in office, and there is every evidence that he enjoyed to the end of his life the respect and esteem of his fellow townsmen.
64 HISTORY OF WENTWORTH, N. H.
He was in 1810 probably, appointed postmaster, the Wentworth Post Office being established, it is be- lieved in that year. This was the first post office ever opened in the Baker's River valley. Rumney people got their mail from Plymouth, while the Warren peo- ple came to Wentworth for their daily papers, if they had any, until about 1820. This first post office was probably in a ramshackle building known as the Ton- tine, which stood about where Evans' Garage is now. Squire Keith continued as postmaster for eight years, and was succeeded by Simon Bailey. He. was repre- sentative four years, 1821-24, and member of the Governor's Council in 1825, 1826 and 1827.
Squire "KETH," as the name was always spoken by the older people, died of influenza October 9, 1842, and now lies in the village cemetery only a few feet from the grave of Dr. Thomas Whipple.
William Moore was born in Sanbornton in 1780. He lived in Dorchester for some two years and came from there to Wentworth in 1806.
In Wentworth he was a storekeeper, school teacher, farmer and public man until his death on October 3, 1863. He was a selectman at different times, repre- sentative in 1813 from Wentworth and Rumney. He was again representative in 1836-37.
It was, however, as town clerk that he gained per- haps his greatest fame, being town clerk sixteen years
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65
THE NEXT THIRTY YEARS, 1790-1820
in all. He was one of the best penmen who has ever lived in town. Some of his work, still in existence, does him great credit, the writing being almost like a cop- per plate engraving.
His son, William H. Moore, in after years a repre- sentative, town clerk and selectman, was an excellent and capable official and did his work in a painstaking way, but as a penman, was no match for his father, who was in a class by himself in that particular:
This period saw the location in the southerly por- tion of the town of two families who have from then until the present time been prominently identified with that region and have made as a whole a large contribution to the town's welfare.
These two families came from Pelham, N. H., or that vicinity. They were already allied by intermar- riage and a common purpose, and finally settled in Wentworth at about the same time and in the same neighborhood. This will serve to introduce the races of Foster and Colburn to the reader.
URIAH COLBURN, of English descent, was born in Dracut, Mass., November 12, 1781. He married Mehitabel Foster of Pelham, N. H., in December,. 1802. He lived in Rumney a short time and settled, in the spring of 1807, in Wentworth on what has in later years been known as the John L. Downing farm, now owned by Frank Downing. He lived here about forty-'
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