USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hollis > Hollis [N. H.] seventy years ago > Part 9
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a sound and very valuable animal. When John Woods was lost at sea, the heirs ( one of whom was Mrs. James Parker) sent Captain Wright to New Bedford to settle the estate; not that he was the most skilled and competent of men for such business, but because they knew that the work would be done by him with the strict- est honesty. Mr. C. A. Wood writes me, "No truer man ever lived in Hollis than Captain Wright." When I married and began business for myself, he said to me, "Take my advice and always be honest." Had Captain Wright been in John Bunyan's company, I think he would have dropped his title and part of his name and called him simply "Wright Honest."
Mr. Thomas Patch lived in the house north of Capt. Wright's. I used to pity the old gen- tleman when I saw him teaming to and from Boston, carrying loads of barrels, after his legs were broken and he had become prematurely lame. In the same house lived Richard Patch, a stirring business man.
Taylor Merrill, a school teacher, occupied the next dwelling, and Varnum Wheeler re- sided there later.
At the corner beyond, Joseph Patch was al-
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ways to be found in his store, during all my Hollis life. What a good, quiet, honest man he was. He had taken to wife a Miss Johnson, from Pine Hill.
James Parker was a good blacksmith, located at the corner, where he served the people in the north part of Hollis acceptably till his strong arm was forced to succumb to old age.
I have been just a little criticised for my failure to confer the titles of honor properly belonging to them, upon some of those men- tioned in my letters. It has not been from any lack of respect, but I confess, I like direct- ness and simplicity in speaking to and of friends, and I might quote the distinguished example of some in the highest positions. Let me give one incident. Abraham Lincoln and Richard Yates had long practiced law together and were familiar friends. Later, when one was President of the United States, and the other Governor of Illinois, and our civil war was wringing the hearts of the nation, the Gov- ernor telegraphed to the President, "Abe, you must go faster!" Back over the wires across the continent flashed the reply, "Hold on, Dick, and see the salvation of God."
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XXIV.
The Hillsborough County Fair was an insti- tution of importance seventy years ago. The annual Fairs at Amherst were occasions of deep interest to the inhabitants of the county, and the people of Hollis were not behind others in enthusiasm. In the eyes of the small boys, the attractions of the Fair rivalled those of the annual "Muster," and for both their pennies were carefully hoarded to be laid out in ginger- bread and other joys of childhood, on those two happy days.
The farmers of Hollis took a commendable interest in exhibiting their stock and the pro- ducts of their farms. I should say that in those early days Captain Jonathan Taylor Wheeler was the most prominent among Hollis exhibit- ors and took the most pride in his careful sys- tem of farming and the raising of fine animals for the annual show. I used to think he rode the most beautiful horse I had ever seen-a handsome dapple gray, always fat and well
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groomed. I understand now better than I did then, why all his stock looked so much better than those of most of his neighbors. He was always gentle and kind with all his animals, and took special pride in their fine appearance. All were bountifully fed and well cared for. His oxen were generally closely matched, and trained with exactness to the word. The whole farm showed its owner's careful and intelligent care and the good judgment which guided all details. When this farm was entered with oth- ers at the Hillsborough County Fair, for pre- mium, it was a source of pride not only to the owner but also to Hollis people in general, to hear the announcement from the judges' stand on the Fair Grounds, that the first premium for the best managed farm in Hillsborough county, was awarded to Captain Jonathan T. Wheeler. I once, when a boy, made a visit to this farm, of which I had heard so much, and greatly ad- mired what I saw. There were strong, high fences about the barns and yards. The horses and colts, pigs, sheep, cows and oxen were all of the best sorts and in the best condition. Tied up in the barn was that beautiful, great, red
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bull, which, I was told, had once playfully tossed his owner into the watering-trough, when Captain Wheeler led his pet beauty out to drink. Gates and bars and all other farm con- veniences were in the best of order.
If Hollis farmers prided themselves upon one thing more than another, it was upon their oxen. I used to listen with interest to much conversation respecting those useful beasts. The first question asked would be, "How much do they girth?" Six feet girth was small; seven feet, large. But the training the oxen received was to me marvellous, and the strength shown by the enormous loads they drew, pro- digious. It was of great interest to watch the contest between the oxen shown at the fair, as they tugged at the heavily loaded drag or stone- boat, in the test of strength. Among the offi- cers of the fair were Captain Wheeler, Samuel Hayden and other Hollis men, wearing the badges of distinction; and perhaps no town in the county was better represented on the ground than Hollis. There were many to wish Hollis oxen should win. Mr. C. A. Wood tells me that a yoke of oxen owned by a man named
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Sweet, of Bedford, took the first premium at the drag-pull, to the downfall of Hollis hopes. But, lo and behold! it came out that the win- ners were purchased only the previous spring of Deacon Philip Wood. So Hollis continued to plume herself upon her oxen; and I may add that, in respect to the display in other de- partments, she was not wont to be behind.
Nothing at the fair drew more general atten- tion than the annual plowing match. One year the contest was between our townsman, Captain Wheeler, and a man whose name I cannot give. L. P. Hubbard, Esq., thus describes the match: "The plowing match was arranged for the af- ternoon. Two plots of ground were staked off exactly of a size. At the appointed hour the two contestants were seen approaching the grounds laid out. Captain Wheeler, of Hollis, as calm as though he was about to plow his cornfield at home, holding his plow and driving his oxen, was soon in position. The name of his com- petitor I do not remember, but I think he was a Milford man. He evidently understood his business; he took his position with a driver. All were now on tiptoe for the signal from the
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officers to start. We did not have to wait long. Never had I seen furrows turned so rapidly, evenly and beautifully. The contest was a spirited one, but our townsman won the prize, and Hollis shared the honor."
Besides the legitimate exhibitions there were the usual side-shows. I have a letter from Dea- con E. J. Colburn, a gentleman who, I venture to say, never forgets anything; at least I have found him to be a veritable walking encyclo- pedia, full of entertaining and valuable infor- mation. The letter referred to tells of the ex- hibition, on one occasion at the Fair, of a bully and a coward:
"I have a very vivid recollection of hearing my father relate what occurred at Amherst, at one of the County Fairs. Father was in com- pany with a Mr. Ames ( Burpee, I think), who was a man considerably advanced in life, rather a small-sized man, but very well kept, While engaged in looking articles over, a large, burly- looking man, about thirty years of age, with a large whip in his hand, came up and addressed Mr. Ames, asking if he was not Mr. Ames of Hollis, To which Mr. Ames replied that he
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was, when the man asked if he did not recog- nize him. Mr. Ames very affably replied that he did not. The man then inquired if he did not keep school one winter about fifteen years before, and if he did not remember giving a certain boy a good licking. Whereupon Mr. Anies replied that he did not recall the event, but had no doubt he was correct, as it was his custom to whip his boys when he thought they needed it. The young man then said he had always remembered it, and had promised him- self that if ever he got big enough and had an opportunity, he would thrash him. Now he had such a chance, and he was going to do it, then and there. Mr. Ames looked him in the eye and said calmly and pleasantly, 'Are you in earnest? Do you mean it?' The reply was, 'Yes, you will find out I mean it.' In an in- stant, Mr. Ames threw off his hat, coat and vest, and rolled up his shirt-sleeves; but before he had got ready, the young man sneaked away and was lost in the crowd." Mr. Burpee Ames must have been at that time, I think, well on toward seventy. Many will remember him as one of our respected citizens. He was
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the father of William Ames, Esq., and grand- father to Captain M. Nathan Ames. In those days the rod and the ferule were much more freely applied in school than at present, and it was not uncommon to hear a rude, ignorant boy of low instincts, mutter after a good thrash- ing in school, "I'll lick that master if ever I am big enough." Since Deacon Colburn's tale led us to this subject, I will venture to relate another story, similar to his, although it has no connection with the Hillsborough County Fair.
Elderly people in Hollis and Brookline will never forget the Rev. Mr. Hill, who preached so many years in Mason. Though he was a man of small stature, he was great in ability, and was wont to preach the longest sermons of any minister in the region. We used to hear him from the Hollis pulpit, for Mr. Smith ex- changed with him regularly once a year. Soon after his settlement at Mason, a man of the "Bully Brooks" order of humanity (my older readers will recognize this as the designation applied to a certain Southern coward, who struck down Charles Sumner in the Senate Chamber) met him and said abruptly, “Do
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you remember licking me once in school?" "I do," was the reply. "It was because I thought it for your good." "Well," said the bully, "I said then I would lick you when I was big enough, and I can do it now." In vain the good pastor protested his good intentions. Finally, seeing kind words were of no avail, the Reverend gentleman resorted to stronger argu- ments, and turning suddenly upon his assailant, with one well-directed blow, laid him low in the dust, where he held him till he had secured all the promises he required. And all the peo- ple said, "Amen!"
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XXV.
My interesting neighbor, the Reverend T. G. Brainerd, of whom I have already spoken, was graduated from Yale College in 1830. He has told me of his admiration for the shrewdness and practical wisdom with which President Day was accustomed to judge the young men who came to him as strangers. Of some of them he would say, "O, they are second gener- ation men." "And what do you mean by that, Mr. President?" he would be asked. "I mean just this," the wise old man would reply; "they are men whose fathers have become suddenly rich, and I expect but little of them. I have observed that it is the general rule among those families to whom riches come suddenly, that the course from poverty to wealth and back to poverty again, takes but three generations. Of the first and third you may make men. For the unfortunate second generation there is little hope." This remark has been brought to my mind more than once, as I have reviewed the
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history of the families of Hollis. The poor soil upon which the town was placed gave re- turns only to persistent and faithful industry. No great natural advantages of any sort existed whereby it was possible to acquire sudden riches. The high ambition prevalent among Hollis families from the beginning, to secure for their children the best of moral and educa- tional advantages, could be gratified only by means of close economy and stern self-denial. There could not be, there never had been, any of President Day's "second generation men." Possibly some of the good people of Hollis may sometimes have suffered the heartache of discouragement and disappointment. They may sometimes have been tempted to envy the more prosperous dwellers in the new towns of Lowell, Nashua, Manchester and Lawrence, as they watched those settlements grow swiftly into cities, while many a poor man found him- self possessed of sudden wealth, and all within the space of my own lifetime. If such there were, I think their troubled hearts might have been set at rest, could they have had vouch- safed them the sweeping glance of supernatural
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vision, backward and forward over the hundred and fifty years of the work of Hollis men and women. Could they have realized in their days of trial, the blessings which would flow forth like a perennial stream, from that obscure New Hampshire village, to refresh and beautify and bless the world, they might, indeed, have been quite content to go on raising only men and women, unenvious of others who set cotton mills to spinning, or gathered mighty crops of golden grain into their bursting barns. I know no village with a prouder record, judged in the light of eternity. "Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all." Who can count the numbers who have gone forth from Hollis during that hundred and fifty years, armed and equipped for the world's great bat- tle with evil? Could the recording angel show to us a list of their names-the earnest minis- ters of God, scattered from end to end of this great country, the good men and strong, to be found in all the professions and in every sort of business, the true and noble women, leading the van in all movements for progress and re- form, the multitudes of active, devoted disciples
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of the Master, living their quiet, faithful lives and making the world daily better for their liv- ing,-I think we should stand confounded at the splendid harvest from that sterile Hollis soil.
This line of thought has, perhaps, been al- ready amply illustrated in preceding letters, but I wish to give one more example. There was a certain little boy born in Hollis some twenty years before myself. Let us follow him and his children, and see something of what that single family has done in and for the world.
Ralph was the name of the boy, and he came of good Puritan stock through both parents. From those older than myself I have learned that his early days were passed much like those of many another New England boy. He as- sisted his good father and mother with the farm and home work, played upon the village com- mon, and made one of the studious pupils of the Center school. Having fitted for college, he entered Yale and was graduated with the highest honors, in 1811, at the age of twenty- four. After two years of teaching in the col- lege and a course of theological study, there
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followed thirteen years of pastoral work at Norfolk, Conn., whence he was called to fill the chair of Ecclesiastical History and Pastoral Theology in the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass. During the quarter of a cen- tury of his distinguished labors in the Seminary he was also a welcome contributor to various theological periodicals, and the author of sev- eral valuable works. Two of his nephews, Willis and Edwards Hall, had also the good fortune to be fitted for college by their eminent relative during this portion of his career. They both became distinguished men in New York City. Professor Emerson-for it is hardly meet that I should longer presume to use his boyish name in speaking of the honored and venerable Doctor of Divinity-resigned his position in the Seminary in 1854, though nine ripe years of his long and useful life remained. When at last the summons came, it was from Rockford, Ill., that he went to Heaven. The good wife with whom he had passed so many happy years, was Eliza Rockwell, of Colebrook, Conn. Her family was said to have the happy gift of being "proud but not lofty." All of
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their nine children grew to manhood and womanhood, and seven yet live. I think I may say that all have proved talented men or women and possessed of far more than ordinary powers of usefulness.
What a group of noble children that must have been, gathered in that blessed Christian home! Let us fancy them clustered round their happy parents in their Andover home, while we name them over and briefly indicate their life-work.
Daniel followed his father into the ministry, and now lives in advanced years and feeble health, in North Kingsville, Ohio.
Mary became the wife of Professor Joseph Haven, of Amherst College, and removed with him to Chicago when he accepted a position in the Theological Seminary there. She is now a widow with four surviving children. She is described as "a woman of influence, engaged in every good work."
We, in the west, are familiar with the name of Professor Joseph Emerson, the second of Dr, Ralph Emerson's sons, who has been for many years professor of Greek in Beloit Col-
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lege. He is a graduate of Yale and Andover, and was for a time tutor at Yale. He has two children, and there are also in his family two of the fourth generation of the descendants of the good Hollis deacon, Daniel Emerson.
Rockwell, also a graduate of Yale College, became a lawyer in New York City, and died there, leaving five children.
Samuel resides in Virginia. Like so many of the family, he is a graduate of Yale and Andover. He is yet unmarried.
Ralph is a well known manufacturer of Rock- ford, Ill., noted not only for business energy, but for large-hearted benevolence as well. His three sons have all been taken from him. Five daughters remain, nearly all of whom have been graduated from Wellesley College.
Porter is the only other one of Dr. Ralph Emerson's nine children whose earthly life has closed. His death took place recently in Rock- ford.
Elizabeth is the wife of Rev. S. J. Humphrey, D. D., Secretary A. B. C. F. M., and resides in Oak Park, Ill. She has a large measure of the family talent for literary and benevolent work,
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and her facile pen does valuable work for mis- sionary and other worthy causes.
Rev. William B. Brown, D. D., of East Orange, N. J., has married the last of Doctor Emerson's daughters and the youngest of his children. Mrs. Charlotte Emerson Brown is one of the leading women of the country. A graduate of Abbott Seminary at Andover, she has been ever since her school days a persist- ent and diligent student. Many years of travel and residence at different times in foreign lands have made her a fluent speaker and writer in many tongues, including modern Greek ac- quired during à long stay in Athens. Not sat- isfied with the high degree of literary culture which she had attained, on coming to reside in Rockford she soon secured a thorough busi- ness education also, at one of the best Chicago business colleges; and to make her new know- ledge practical, she entered the business house of her brother Ralph, as his private secretary. She was for a time teacher of modern languages in Rockford College, but on her marriage, about twelve years ago, removed to the East, where her busy intellectual life continues.
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Mrs. Brown has been president of many liter- ary clubs, and has now served for some years as president of the "General Federation of Woman's Literary Clubs," whose biennial meeting in Chicago last spring was a gathering of a large number of the brightest and most notable women of the land, including also some from foreign countries.
Of the third generation of this remarkable family there is something to be said, notwith- standing the youth of most of its members. Ralph Wilcox, son of Rev. Daniel Emerson, is one of the most promising young men in Rock- ford, Ill. Dr. Joseph Haven, an eminent physi- cian in Chicago, is the son of Mrs. Mary Emer- son Haven. Miss Clara Emerson, daughter of Prof. Joseph Emerson, took high honors in Greek at Wellesley College. Mrs. Adeline Emerson Thompson, a Wellesley graduate in 1880, and a daughter of Ralph Emerson, of Rockford, should receive special mention as the president of that most modern, most pro- gressive and most promising benevolent enter- prise, "The College Settlement Society of America." She is also president of the New
Charlotte Emerson Brown.
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York Branch of Collegiate Alumna. All these are noble and worthy descendants of the little Hollis boy, Ralph Emerson, whose parents early trained his feet to walk in the right way.
And now I am about to lay down my pen. I have arrived at a point where I can sympa- thize with a certain writer who was the author of a work upon "The Beauties of the Psalms." At the close of the volume he says, "No one of these delightful poems has given me the least uneasiness except the last. That has grieved me because it has made me realize that my work was done." I began this series of letters without any very definite plan, but cer- tainly with no thought of making it so extended. The pleasant task of reviewing the history of my early home and refreshing my memories of the noble men and women who have dwelt there, and through whom such wide-spread in- fluences for good have gone forth to bless the world, has led me on, till, to my surprise, I find that my closing letter bears a date nearly two years later than that of my first.
Whether those beneficent influences shall
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continue to flow forth from future generations of the descendants of Hollis families, depends upon whether or not they adhere to the princi- ples of their ancestors.
As one of the children of Hollis, now old and white-headed, I would that I might gather all her children within sound of my voice, while I might most solemnly speak to them, as my parting words, some of the last of the words of David the King, to Solomon his son, and to the people whom he was to rule no longer:
"Now therefore in the sight of all Israel, the congre- gation of the Lord, and in the audience of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God; that ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you forever. And thou Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searcheth all hearts and un- derstandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. If. thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou for- sake him, he will cast thee off forever."
APPENDIX.
From the Congregational Church of Hollis.
The Congregational Church of Hollis, N. H., convened in its annual meeting and reunion, December 31, 1891, adopted the following:
Resolved, That the thanks of this church be presented Deacon Henry G. Little, of Grinnell, Iowa (a native of this town), for the interesting letters he has so kindly furnished the Hollis Times during the last year, entitled "Recollections of Seventy Years Ago," and that a min- ute of this resolution be entered upon the records, and a copy forwarded to Deacon Little, attested by the pastor and clerk.
Attest :- A true copy.
SAMUEL L. GEROULD, Pastor. ELLEN H. LOVEJOY, Clerk.
From L. P. Hubbard, Esq. NEW YORK, June 25, 1894.
HON. HENRY G. LITTLE:
Esteemed Friend :- I have long cherished the hope that I should live to see your series of letters, "Hollis, Seventy Years Ago," which appeared in the Hollis Times about two years since, published in a more permanent
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form. The letters abound in historical facts not to be found elsewhere, and a moral tone pervades them that will promote their usefulness.
Very Truly Yours, LUTHER PRESCOTT HUBBARD.
From Rev. S. L. Gerould.
HOLLIS, N. H., Sept. 3, 1894.
MY DEAR MR. LITTLE:
Some months ago you contributed to the columns of our local newspaper a series of letters, giving your recollections of the people of this place a half-century and more ago. I have many times wished that these could be put into a more permanent form, so that they could be preserved for future use. The historian of this town, in these letters, would find much light thrown upon the manners and customs of the early inhabitants of the place, as well as upon the people, that could be found nowhere else. May I, therefore, ask that, if you can see your way to do it, you will have them printed in some form that will enable us to preserve them for the future. Sincerely Yours,
S. L. GEROULD, Pastor Congregational Church.
From Mr. Daniel Hayden.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE HOLLIS TIMES:
I desire to publicly thank "H. G. L." for his inter- esting letters, giving reminiscences of Hollis seventy
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