USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hollis > Hollis [N. H.] seventy years ago > Part 5
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Not far away lived Elias Conant, a wheel- wright by trade, with a great passion for fox- hunting. I seldom ever saw him unaccom- panied by one or more of his fox-hounds or his grayhound. Foxes were plenty in those days. I often saw them as I went to the woods pasture for the cows. Sometimes they were tame enough to come out and play with my little dog.
Once a year Mr. Conant had friends from Salem, Mass., spending a week with him for the fox-chase. I often watched them searching for the track of the fox in our pasture. When they had found it the hounds would start off with their noses to the ground, uttering their peculiar hoarse bark at every jump. The game was sly and cunning, and would lead them a long chase over the Ratmatat and up to Rocky Pond; then turning and doubling the
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track, I saw him sometimes back near the start- ing point, while the bark of the dogs was far away. At times the sounds of the chase con- tinued far into the night. It was fine sport for the city folks and there was great excitement and great parade over it all. Perhaps the foxes enjoyed it too; I cannot remember that any of them were ever the worse for all the stir and tumult.
A little to the east lived Nathan Holt; a quiet, good man, reliable in business, and regular in attendance at church on the Sabbath. He was a small farmer, and also owned a mill, the water being carried from the pond some distance in an elevated box to the overshot wheel, which was watched with great interest by the boys. Mr. Holt had two sons, Artemas and Fifield, and one daughter, Sibyl, who married Asa Far- ley, and removed to Michigan.
Near by lived Ralph Lovejoy who was feared by the boys as one of the active and watchful tithing-men. I think he served in this office until the whole system was dropped or died a natural death. In those days we had about the same feeling toward the tithing-men, that the Jews had toward the Roman tax-gatherer.
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The pleasant place where Mr. Daniel Merrill lived so long and reared his large family is not far from the meeting-house. Mr. Merrill was a good and energetic business man and accu- mulated a fine property. Being a man of strength and decision of character, he had his own views of business and politics, and occa- sionally "spoke out in meeting," as already re- lated. Upon his decease, at a good old age, the farm descended to his son, William, whose daughter and only child inherited the proper- ty. She now has passed away, and the old home is in the hands of strangers.
Samuel Quaid and Mr. Avery were residents of the immediate neighborhood east and south of the church. The first was a harness-maker, the second a shoemaker. Mr. Quaid was ac- customed to apply himself closely to business. He married Sarah Boynton in 1825. Mr. Avery was a jovial, rollicking sort of man, one of the sort who "sleep o' nights," I should think. At all events, I know that he was so fat that when he sharpened his knife on his shoe, he had great difficulty in bringing the two togeth- er. I think he excelled in avoirdupois all the
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men in Hollis, except Major Parker, in the southwest part of town. He had, withal, a a mathematical mind, and often helped the school-masters when they came upon a particu- larly knotty problem; he would also leave his work at any time to puzzle them with hard questions.
Leonard W. Farley was one of our carpen- ters, an excellent and industrious man with steady nerve and level head, as those would testify who have seen him high up toward the sky repairing the meeting-house steeple. A few years later than the time I have been speak- ing of, he built a house a little east of town, to which he took Miss Butterfield, his estimable wife.
About half a mile east of the center of the town was an excellent farm in a good location. where lived its owner Jonathan Saunderson. He had married, in 1792, a sister of 'Squire Pool. At the time of my earliest recollection of them, there was an interesting family of three sons and two daughters, all older than myself. Jonathan, the oldest son, received a college education and studied law with 'Squire
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Farley. He was also a great lover of music, and himself a fine singer. On one occasion, on his return to Hollis after a long absence, he attended a conference meeting in the church. Mr. Smith gave out a hymn and waited for some one to "start the tune." No one seemed able to do so, till, finally, Mr. Saunderson be- gan with his melodious voice, which so charmed the congregation that they listened without joining him till he had sung the entire hymn through alone.
William, the second son, married Miss Mar- shall and remained through life at the old homestead. Henry became a minister and preached in Vermont and New Hampshire. The two daughters were beautiful and intelli- gent girls. Both married in Hollis and died young. When I left Hollis the venerable couple were living, but ere long passed from earth, and I think all their children have fol- lowed them.
Still a little further east we come to the pleas- ant neighborhood made by the Holden and Jewett families, among the most worthy and true in town. In the Holden household there
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were many children. Caroline was the one I knew best, as she was for several years teacher of Beaver Brook school; but I knew Sarah, also, who became the honored wife of the late John N. Worcester.
Among the Jewetts, I remember Ralph as a prominent man. In this neighborhood was al- so the home of "Jack" Jewett, as he was famil- iarly called, and of his sister Eliza. They both lived to a good old age, spending their last years in the Conant house near the center of the town. They, too, have passed away.
A little south of this attractive region lived Burpee Ames, a live, active man for one so near the "Sunset Land," and one who had long been identified with the best interests of Hollis.
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XII.
Le
A short distance east and south of the Hollis meeting-house was the home of Deacon Daniel Emerson, a man born in Hollis, and who spent the seventy-four years of his life there. He was the son of the first minister, Rev. Daniel Emerson, and no better man ever lived in Hollis, unless it was his father.
Seventy-one years ago I attended Deacon Emerson's funeral, and was gently led to the coffin by my mother. His was the first dead face I had ever seen, and I remember how the marble appearance struck a chill to my heart. Then I saw the people gather about, and wit- nessed their grief; all the town seemed to be present, the rich and the poor, each mourning the loss of a friend. I saw the coffin lowered into the grave and covered. I cannot describe the feeling that overcame me; I thought it an awful thing to die.
I remember the walk home up Conant Lane, when my mother told me that the soul was in
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heaven, that the body would turn to dust, that God would watch over that dust, and at the Judgment day it would rise a glorified body, and so it would be with all who were Christians.
As the years passed, even to the time when I left Hollis, people still spoke in praise of Deacon Daniel Emerson. The poor never for- got to tell how he had helped them, and no one ever said aught against him. In Worcester's History of Hollis is found quite a full account of this man, raised up for the time and place, and from it I quote a few facts. "He was born in 1746, married Amy Fletcher in 1768, was chosen deacon in 1775, and held the office un- til his death in 1821; he was appointed coroner and high sheriff of the county; he served as captain through all, or nearly all, the Revolu- tionary War; he was a member of the N. H. Council and the Constitutional Convention, and was Representative to the N. H. General Court nineteen different years. The family of Dea- con Emerson was an honor to himself and a blessing to the world; three sons-Daniel, Jo- seph and Ralph-became ministers, the last be- ing a professor at Andover Seminary."
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Perhaps among all the shining names of those among the children of Hollis, whom she de- lights to honor, not one will show brighter upon the heavenly register than that of the Rev. Jo- seph Emerson, the modest, earnest, pious man, feeble in body but exceedingly vigorous of mind and character. He was a worthy son of his excellent father, the deacon. He filled sev- eral pastorates with eminent success, but the work for which the world will longest remem- ber and honor him was that which he did to promote the higher education of women. In that cause he was indeed a pioneer. His sem- inary for the education of women as teachers, opened in Byfield, Massachusetts, in 1818, in accordance with his long-cherished purpose, was the first Protestant female seminary, not only in America, but in the world. What would be to-day the status of woman's educa- tion in the United States, but for the life and labor of Mary Lyon and Miss Z. P. Grant? Both were pupils of Joseph Emerson, and held him in loving, grateful remembrance to the lat- est day of their lives, while both were wont to express a deep sense of their indebtedness to
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him for his large share in their preparation for their great life work. Let every woman who rejoices to-day in the opportunities open to her for the highest university training revere the memory of Joseph Emerson.
I naturally call next at the house of the old pastor, Rev. Eli Smith. I have previously spoken of him, and will only add that he was a strong man, true to his convictions; nothing could turn him to the right or to the left from what he considered to be duty. Although Mr. Smith was an old man when his labors closed with the Hollis church, he sought new fields, and preached until about the close of his life. He married Amy Emerson, daughter of Dea- con Emerson, and she was indeed a model pas- tor's wife. I will but say of her, Blessed wife, blessed mother, blessed woman in the church and in the town! Three sons and two daugh- ters were about this home seventy years ago- Luther, Joseph Emerson, John, Catharine and Amy. They all left Hollis early in life, save Joseph E., who still lives on the old homestead. He has held during his long life many impor- tant positions in town, and represented the
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town in the legislature. I saw him in his home not long since, and he paid me this moderate compliment, "I see by your letters that you retain your memory and faculties yet."
I have known four generations of this family, and, from what I have seen of the fourth, I feel sure that the stock is not running out.
Dea. William Emerson was one of the live, wide-awake men of Hollis, full of kindness and good works, and fond of military life; his wife was a daughter of Deacon Jewett. Perhaps I may say this was one of the most aristocratic families in town. The children whom I re- member were younger than myself-William, Sarah and Charles. William has passed from my knowledge; Sarah I met, I believe, in 1880; I had lost sight of Charles for nearly sixty years, but a few years since found him to be a resident of Keokuk, in my own adopted state, and I have since had a pleasant correspondence with him. As might be expected from his an- cestry, he is a good, reliable man, and an active member of the Congregational church where he resides.
Across the street from Deacon Emerson's,
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and near the southeast corner of the old center cemetery, resided Hannah French, a maiden lady of perhaps forty or fifty years, living alone in two small rooms. She was very industrious, and one of the most devoted Christians I have ever known. Miss French used to make straw hats for a livelihood, and, being somewhat ec- centric, when she had occasion to walk the streets for a longer or shorter distance, she was usually braiding straw and talking to herself. She attended nearly all the meetings, whether in the church or in distant school-houses, al- ways, on week-days, working with her fingers and talking to herself as she proceeded to and fro.
Hannah French was poor, always poor, but one of God's poor, rich in faith and good works. Eccentric as she was, laugh about her though they did, she was an advanced Chris- tian. When the American Board had been or- ganized some ten or fifteen years, an agent came to Hollis to raise funds. The sentiment of the people was largely against sending money away from home, but Hannah French advo- cated giving, saying, the world was to be con-
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verted to Christ, and the gospel must be sent to the heathen. Poor as she was, she gave her last cent for the cause of foreign missions. Mr. L. P. Hubbard of Greenwich, Conn., tells me that the very day on which she gave her all, she met a merchant who bought a quantity of straw hats of her, and by this sale her empty purse was again filled. Now we are all up to her standard; now we all see as she saw seventy years ago. "The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him."
I have already spoken of Ambrose Gould, merchant and postmaster, but I think I did not say that his wife was a sister of Captain Page Farley. They had three sons and three daugh- ters, who held leading positions in society, but all sought distant homes as early as 1830.
When Ambrose Gould kept the postoffice it was a small affair, for such an institution had been established in Hollis only a few years. Newspapers were not then generally carried through the mail, if indeed they were so carried at all, and the tri-weekly mail carried by one Mr. Small from Amherst to Groton, and by which Hollis was served, did not bring us our
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newspapers. I suspect that there was only one paper taken in Hollis in those early days, though I will not be positive. Certainly there were just fifty-two numbers taken in Hollis of The Farmers' Cabinet, established in Amherst, then the county seat of Hillsborough county, in the year 1792, by Richard Boylston. The responsibility of procuring their papers each week from the publisher rested on the sub- scribers. They went, by turns, every Saturday, to Amherst, and left the package of papers at Mr. Gould's store for distribution, that for the man who must next bring the bundle from Amherst having written on the margin, "Your turn next."
The "turn" of one of the farmers chanced, once upon a time, to come on his very busiest haying day. Neither he nor his horse could be spared. The hay must be carted to the barn before Sunday, and the papers must be brought from Amherst. It was settled that the young- est of the three boys-a little chap of nine or ten years-must go on foot. I don't remember that the boy's wishes were consulted, but off he was started on Saturday morning for the
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long walk of nine or ten miles over a strange road. The boys of those days were not the timid, delicate creatures we sometimes see now- a-days, and the little fellow trudged sturdily away over the hills, whistling to himself for company, if I remember rightly, and taking care to ask every individual he met on the way, whether that was the right road to Amherst. Having found the office, and scanned with sharp, curious, boyish eyes the face of that great man, the editor, and the mysterious ap- pliances of the printing room, he secured his fifty-two papers and turned to retrace his steps. His mother had not forgotten to fill his jacket pocket with a mid-day lunch, and, having left the town behind, he sat down by the wayside and refreshed himself for the return journey. He remembers yet how slow and toilsome was his progress over the sandy road near the cor- ner where the four towns, Hollis, Amherst, Mil- ford and Merrimac meet, and how he took a short rest at Joseph Patch's store. He has not forgotten, either, how his weary legs and arms ached when he at last reached Mr. Gould's store and laid the bundle gladly down on the
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counter. The years since then have turned the boy's brown hair white, and he has long dwelt far from the scenes of his childhood, but among the most vivid of his "recollections of seventy years ago" is that of his long walk for those fifty-two copies of The Farmers' Cabinet.
In the family of Nehemiah Woods were five sons and two or more daughters, but all left Hollis about 1826. In 1840 the oldest son, Ne- hemiah Park Woods, was commanding a steamer on the Mississippi. James, better known in Hollis as "Jim" Woods, I saw in the territory of Iowa, a full-fledged lawyer, in 1840. He re- sided in Iowa until his death, a few years ago. At that time he was the oldest practicing law- yer in that state and was well known there.
Now that I am in the vicinity of the Price house, I am reminded that Gibson Jewett be- gan to build, but was unable to finish it, and Mr. Price of Boston, one of his creditors, com- pleted it. In addition to house and store, he made what was for the time a fine hall for pub- lic gatherings. Perhaps it was the hall that suggested to the young people the idea of a dancing school, though the religious sentiment
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of the community was against dancing. A Mr. Francis Radoux, a Frenchman from Boston, was engaged as teacher, and a class was formed of a select number of chosen ones, others being refused admittance. This naturally gave offense, and another dancing school was organ- ized with the intention of using the same hall for its meetings. To prevent this, school num- ber one dispatched an application post-haste, to the owner in Boston, to engage the room for the whole time of the winter season. Learn- ing of this fact an hour later, school number two equipped Jewett Conant with a swift steed and a light sulky and ordered him to reach Bos- ton in advance of messenger number one or perish in the attempt. Half-way to the goal Conant procured a fresh horse, and having dis- guised himself past recognition, had the satis- faction of passing his rival a few miles out of Boston, winning the race, and securing the use of the hall for two evenings a week, as he de- sired. The excitement in town did not subside until the following evening, when Conant re- turned, the champion of victory. So there were two dancing schools in Hollis that winter.
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XIII.
North from the Price building lived Jonathan Eastman, commonly called "Jack" Eastman. He had been educated at Dartmouth College, entered the United States army, and served in the war of 1812 as paymaster, was at Hull's surrender in Canada, returned to Hollis with broken health and died in 1827, leaving an in- teresting family. His son Porter and his daugh - ter Eleanor were particularly bright children.
The few lines which I have given to "'Squire Mark" Farley seem hardly sufficient for one so well known, and whose life was of so great value to his native town and state. Yet, perhaps, be- cause his history is so well known to the pres- ent generation, I do not need to say more, and will only add that the men are few indeed who could have filled his place, or whose services to Hollis could have been so important. Of his promising family, "Ben" was the only son. He proved too modest a man to fulfill his father's hopes by becoming a lawyer, and retired to a
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farm near Worcester, Mass., where he still lives, five years older than myself. 'Squire Farley educated his daughters chiefly at home, open- ing for their sakes a small private school for which he had fitted up a room, and for which he secured an accomplished lady, Miss Ripley, as teacher, admitting a small number of pupils from neighboring families as companions for his daughters. Among them was my sister, Ruth Channing Little. The time came when, one by one, the children had all gone out into the world, and the wife had been taken from his side. Then "'Squire Mark" went to reside on Beacon St., Boston, with his daughter, Mrs. Bancroft, who cheered his last years with her affectionate and tender care. When death came the aged form was brought to Hollis, to lie amid the familiar scenes, awaiting the res- urrection morn.
When I was a young man a book was pub- lished entitled "The Pleasures of Memory." Not long after, another book appeared, on "The Pains of Memory." Was ever poet or philoso- pher able to grasp it, to fathom it, to under- stand it-that marvelous power which preserves
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secure, indestructible, the minutest atom of human experience, while score after score of years pass over, each seeming to bury deeper and deeper, beyond the possibility of resurrec- tion, the unregarded fragments of early life? Yet, by the power of memory they come forth vivid, distinct, full of life and vigor as when first they made their impress on the youthful mind. As I have been writing these letters and revisiting, in thought, the scenes of former days, and especially since traversing, as I did last summer, the old familiar streets of Hollis, items of childish knowledge and experience rise before me with all the freshness and clear- ness of sixty or seventy years ago. I have been a child again, and lived once more my childhood and youth. Most of the memories which come back to me are pleasant ones, but some things I could wish buried in oblivion. Memory does not let us choose what things she shall bring forth from her store-house and pass before our willing or unwilling eyes. Some- times the most trivial or foolish incidents re- turn with most distinctness to our recollection. As I passed the Deacon Leonard W. Farley
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house, last August, it came to my mind that I heard the men say when the house was building, that Mr. Farley bought for a dollar, a stone near Mr. Holden's, that split like a chestnut log and furnished the foundation of his house and the fine door-steps. I had not thought of it for, perhaps, sixty years, and I only vouch for what I heard others say.
In one of the families of which I have writ- ten there were two daughters, young ladies of unusual brilliancy, beauty and attractiveness. One of them had several suitors. There came a time when one of these seemed to have "got left," as the boys say now. Then somebody wrote of him in derision a so-called "poem," and copies were freely scattered through the town. There being little literature in those days, this crude poetic effusion was read by many, and even committed to memory. After more than three-score years of oblivion it comes back to me complete as when it first appeared on Hollis streets. I venture to repeat a few lines for the benefit of the present generation:
"A famous young painter in Hollis did dwell, For fine, foppish ornaments none could excel.
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Of his jewels and buttons he often did boast, And no one knew how much they cost. He courted a damsel of fortune and fame, The fairest of jewels, Miranda by name. His visits were frequent, yet sad was his grief When he found she was absent with William, the priest."
William Ames, Esq., living near the center of the town, was an intelligent, industrious, am- bitious man. He was a shoemaker, but he had a taste for farming which led him to buy up tracts of meadow and out-lands in different parts of the town. He was a very hard worker; I have seldom known any who equalled him in that respect. Doubtless his life was short- ened by his excessive labors. I knew his son and daughter, William and Sarah, as bright and interesting children.
Dr. Joseph F. Eastman was one of our most marked men. Born in Hollis in 1772, he stud- ied medicine and practiced in New Boston for a few years, but returned afterwards to his farm near the center of his native town, where he resided until his death in 1865. Worcester's History tells us that he was for forty-seven years Coroner of the town, and for fifteen
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years Moderator of Town meeting. Being a fearless, outspoken man, he made a good pre- siding officer. He seems to have had a real talent for farming, and took special delight in improving its methods and enlarging its results. His experiments and improvements were of value to many others. More than most men of that time he traveled, taking frequent trips to the state of New York, going, sometimes, as far as Buffalo. Wherever he went he held an open mind for the reception of new ideas of practical value, and returned home to apply to his own business suggestions gathered from his observations among the farmers of New York hills and valleys, or from the Dutch along the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. He was the first in Hollis to exchange the slow ox-team on the farm for horses, and he did much to develop and improve the fruits cultivated in this region. In all his enterprises his wife was the best of help- ers. There were two sons and four daughters. Joseph, who succeeded his father on his farm, died in a few years. The daughters showed
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