USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Manchester > Manchester on the Merrimack, the story of a city > Part 3
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Manchester on the Merrimack
In 1741, the year following the severance of the twenty-six townships, the union between Massachusetts and New Hampshire was com- pletely dissolved, and the latter became a sepa- rate province, under Benning Wentworth as governor.
The next few years were difficult and dangerous ones for the little community. The Indians were a constant menace as King George's War began and Captain John Goffe was placed in command of a company of rangers to roam the woods as a protective measure against their depredations. His home at Goffe's Falls was pressed into service as a garrison house, and Archibald Stark, father of John, built a large fort near the out- let of Swager's Pond (now Nutt's Pond) on the bank just south of the brook. This fort was given the name of Fort Stark, and its location has been suitably marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Meantime the settlers were acutely con- scious of other reasons for uneasiness. What was their status? What was their future? A town charter was granted to Bedford in 1750; "Gofestown's" proprietors had been awarded their grant in 1748 (although they were not incorporated as a town until 1761.) The. com- munity around the falls had no wish to be ab-
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Surveys and Settlements
sorbed by any other towns and thus lose its identity. Finally they petitioned Governor Wentworth and his council and on September 3, 1751, they were granted a charter as a full- fledged town. This charter included eighteen square miles of the southwestern part of Ches- ter, about nine square miles of the northwestern portion of Londonderry, and the approxi- mately eight square miles of Harrytown. It was given the name Derryfield, in recognition of the fact that the stockmen of Londonderry had been in the habit of using this territory as a grazing field for their cattle: thus Derry's field.
Thus 1751 becomes a year of the greatest importance as the birthyear of the future Man- chester-On-the-Merrimack, which was known as Derryfield until Samuel Blodget's dream and its fulfillment should give it the name of Eng- land's proud city. The population at this time consisted of thirty people.
Namoskeag, Tyngstown, Harrytown, Der- ryfield. Among the tangled threads of history, it is difficult sometimes to select one thread, draw it clear of its neighbors and appraise it with accuracy and fairness. Too often a strand that furnishes strength and durability is ig- nored, perhaps because it is rough or dun- colored. There may be those who would re- mind us that Namoskeag was nothing but a
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Manchester on the Merrimack
gathering-place for the savages; that Tyngs- town was an abortive attempt at settlement ending in failure; that Derryfield had its humble beginnings in pasture land and was chartered partly because its citizens feared absorption by their neighbors. But whatever their mistakes or weaknesses, these early settle- ments contributed much of inestimable value, and their importance cannot be overlooked. They laid the foundations, laid them in spite of insecurity and uncertainty, with hope and high courage, and with the stubborn will-to-survive that is the spirit of Manchester.
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OLD MEETING HOUSE ON MAMMOTH ROAD
Cross-Currents
It would be agreeable to record that once Derryfield had become a chartered town, it sailed at once into a placid harbor, leaving the stormy seas of instability and discord behind. But such was not the case. The Scotch-Irish and the English who made up the community simply did not harmonize. From the very be- ginning it was obvious that the requirements for "one world" to be enunciated so many years later by Wendell Willkie were definitely lacking in the small world of Derryfield. "In-
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Manchester on the Merrimack
truders!" sneered the Scotch-Irish, cocking a contemptuous eye at their neighbors. "For- eigners!" came back the English. And they turned a cold shoulder on the Scotch-Irish. Social and business intercourse were dis- couraged and intermarriage was a scandal and a curse. So there was neither tolerance nor tact in the bearing of the majority of the men who met for the first town-meeting in John Hall's tavern on the third day of September, 1751. The site of this tavern of so much im- portance in the early days is just south of the Boylston Home on Mammoth Road.
It is perhaps unfair to pronounce sweeping judgments concerning this period of strife. Time blurs the past always, and though we may possess facts, we do not necessarily have the wisdom to interpret them accurately. A cer- tain impatience is inevitable, however, as we read of the senseless and futile contentions that all but wrecked the town in those early, struggling years. The two factions would not or could not bury the hatchet. The town meet- ings must have been stormy sessions, and it seems that when one party carried the day and secured a motion, the victory was promptly nullified at the next meeting.
We may imagine the dour countenances that faced each other in that room in John Hall's
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Cross-Currents
house, and hear echoes of the vindictive verbal exchanges that flew across its spaces. Where was the godliness we like to assume was part of the Puritan character? Where was the sound common sense we attribute to the Founding Fathers? One writer tells us that the early citizens of Derryfield, with some leavening ex- ceptions of course, were not of the typical variety of New England settler, but that they were more like the frontier type. He speaks of some of them as "rollicking, devil-may-care roysterers, who spent their spare time in wrest- ling, bowling or pitching horse shoes."
We may imagine that this element of the population would seize with lusty enthusiasm any differences arising among the more stable citizens, and though having small interest in the issues involved, would link them up with their own love of lawless excitement. Brawls and fights appear to have been part of the pic- ture, and it is probable that those of higher ethical and cultural ideals found it hard to weather the gales of indifference and hostility. The point to be noted is that they did. Other- wise the Manchester of today never would have evolved. "Whither our city?" surely was a per- tinent question in those precarious days, when as a city Manchester was only a dream and as a town its new life was threatened by storms
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Manchester on the Merrimack
of discord. But history testifies again and again to the ultimate triumph of good over evil, and points up the fact that time preserves what is worthy of being imperishable. And men of good will and courage are the agents of this preservation.
Among the articles in the warrant for the town meeting on November 26, 1751, we find this one: "(3) to see if the town will reise money for preaiching and how much." Perhaps they raised the money, but there is no record that a preacher appeared. In 1753, certain barns were designated as places of worship, and a call was extended to one Alexander McDowell. But apparently he did not consider it his duty to accept. It may be that he was reluctant to at- tempt sowing the seed on what he recognized as barren ground. Or perhaps he considered the rafters of a barn no suitable sounding-board for his eloquence. Presumably he was "guest- preacher" on a few occasions, but if so he was fired with no inspiration to establish himself in Derryfield.
Cross-currents continued to short-circuit the spiritual lighting system of old Derryfield, but finally in 1758, the frame of a meeting house was raised. The following year saw it boarded and shingled and possessed of one door and one layer of flooring, but without under-
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Cross-Currents
pinning or pews. The historian Potter says, "The house was fit for a place of worship at no time, but in summer and of a fair day it answered better than a barn." The site of this never-completed meeting house on Mammoth Road, just in front of the old cemetery, is suit- ably marked today. Losing its identity as a church, the structure was transformed into a dwelling house, and is still standing just south of the cemetery. Wind and weather had their way with the neglected meeting house, while dissension continued between the warring fac- tions of the congregation, and the religious life of the community seems to have gained no great uplift from the visible presence in its midst of the structure for worship that "an- swered better than a barn." Four walls failed to make a temple because the essential spirit of worship was submerged beneath layers of intolerance and petty quibbling.
And what about education during this period? That shared the same neglect as re- ligion. It seems incredible, but we are told that there were no schools in Derryfield prior to or during the Revolution. The cultural level of the community may be judged from the fact that "for nearly a century after the settlement of the town, there was neither lawyer, physi-
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Manchester on the Merrimack
cian nor minister among its permanent in- habitants."
But if Derryfield's local politics, religious life and education presented a discouraging picture at this point, its participation in colonial affairs was notably commendable. The year 1754 saw the beginning of the Old French and Indian War, or the Seven Years' War, and we may well read with pride the record of Derryfield in this struggle. Colonel John Goffe, Samuel Blodget, Ezekiel Stevens and John McKean all played a prominent role, and John Stark was in the thickest of the fight with the famous Rogers Rangers. Derryfield furnished more fighting men and officers to the provincial forces in the British army than any other town of its size in New England.
Notwithstanding its proud war record, the little community was in danger of proving that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Some of the more desirable of its citizens were shaking the dust off their feet and departing to settle among less contentious neighbors, while at the same time possible purchasers of home sites from outside by-passed the town as an unfavorable place to build. Gone were the days when the famous Falls were a sufficient lure to newcomers. Rich fishing grounds could
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Cross-Currents
not counterbalance poor standards of ethics and culture.
Matters were brought to a climax when in 1766 two sets of town officers, one from each rival faction, tried to function at the same time. Excitement ran high, feelings were tense, and we may imagine that the bitterness was not confined to the town meeting alone.
Finally, the more stable elements in the town were able to bring their judgment to bear on the disgraceful situation, and something in the way of a compromise was effected. Seventeen men representing both factions laid a petition before the legislature, asking that "we may have town officers choisen as the law directs, and that our Confusion may be brought into order." The petition was granted, and here were the beginnings, at least, of something re- sembling unity among the dwellers in Derry- field, though it is probable that bitterness still lingered on in the hearts of the prime movers among the warring factions.
In 1771, Governor Wentworth divided the province of New Hampshire into five counties, attaching Derryfield to Hillsborough, named in honor of the Duke of Hillsborough. This was a stabilizing and favorable influence. Amherst was chosen as the shire town, and courts of general session, common pleas and
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Manchester on the Merrimack
probate were established. Captain John Stark was chosen the first grand juror from the town, and Honorable Samuel Blodget of Goffstown was appointed to the office of justice of the court of common pleas.
As we come to the eve of the Revolutionary War, we see the town in a relatively favorable state of stability, with its cross-currents pulled into a semblance of unity. The population at this time was two hundred and eighty-five: one hundred and forty free males, one hundred and forty-two free females, and there were three slaves. Among the free men were two negroes, Caesar Harvey and Caesar Griffin. The highest individual tax in the town was nineteen shillings, indicating probably that there were no men of great means in the com- munity.
But whatever their financial status may have been, we may be sure that many of these in- habitants of old Derryfield were aware of the far-off rumblings of change. The terms "colony" and "province" were fading in sig- nificance, and the America-of-the-future was calling to the men along the Merrimack.
STARK HOUSE AT AMOSKEAG FALLS (STARK'S BOYHOOD HOME)
The Revolution Reaches Derryfield
It might seem, in retrospect, that the periods covered by the two previous chapters, the set- tlement periods, were decidedly lacking in luster, revealing Derryfield as no shining light among the New Hampshire towns now emerg- ing from the wilderness. A neglected church, indifference to education, wrangling in the town-meetings, the activities of "roysterers" who contributed nothing of worth to their community: the list of liabilities is a long one. But it must be remembered that always there
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Manchester on the Merrimack
was sufficient stability to strike a balance; al- ways there was at least a minority whose sails were set in the right direction, and who, come a favorable wind, could be counted on to steer the craft straight toward ports of promise. Furthermore, as is so often the case both with individuals and with groups, an emergency seems to generate in unexpected places the human qualities necessary to meet it. Nobility suddenly clothes nonentities, and the heroic be- comes a commonplace overnight. One suspects it is always there submerged beneath the every- day: tinder waiting for the spark.
So it was with old Derryfield. Her record in the war for independence is a shining one. If she lost face during the turbulent years of getting underway as a town, certainly she re- gained it by the quality and the constancy of her response to the needs of the hour from '75 on to the surrender of Cornwallis.
Wherever the scene is laid and whatever the viewpoint, the story of colonial America's emergence into a nation is a story packed with thrilling drama. And the exploits and accom- plishments of those men who laid the founda- tions of the nation with such powerful odds against them deserve all the fame and the glory accorded them. Bunker Hill, Bennington, Valley Forge, Trenton: the very names are
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The Revolution Reaches Derryfield
enchanted words, symbols quick with power to stir any American awake to the glory of his heritage. And Manchester-On-the-Merrimack shares richly in this heritage: the men of Derry- field were in the forefront of the historic struggles to defend the basic principles of liberty.
The following is a list of the Revolutionary soldiers contributed by the town:
Derryfield men in the First New Hampshire Regiment:
John Stark, Colonel
Benjamin Baker
Archibald Stark, Lieutenant
Nathaniel Boyd
John Harvey, Lieutenant
Charles Emerson
John Moore, Captain
George Emerson
Caleb Stark, Adjutant
John Goffe
Joshua Blodgett
Arthur Hart
Benjamin George Isaac George
Lemuel Harvey
Nathaniel Martin
Jona Griffin
Timothy Martin
Joseph Hazelton
David McKnight
David Merrill
John C. McNeil
Ichabod Martin
Goffe Moore
Ephraim Stevens
David Farmer
Daniel McCoy
William Boyd
James Aiken
Robert McKnight
Of these men John Stark, Archibald Stark, Caleb Stark, John Moore, Benjamin George, Benjamin Baker, Nathaniel Boyd, Charles Emerson, George Emerson, John Goffe, Arthur
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Manchester on the Merrimack
Hart, Lemuel Harvey, Nathaniel Martin, Timothy Martin, David McKnight, John C. McNeil, Goffe Moore, David Farmer and William Boyd were present at Bunker Hill. David Martin was with Stark at Bennington. Nathaniel Martin was with Arnold in his march to Canada and was taken prisoner at Quebec.
Derryfield men serving in other regiments than the First New Hampshire:
Theophilus Griffin
Ebenezer Newman
Timothy Dow
Robert Cunningham, Jr.
Enoch Harvey
William Nutt
Samuel Harvey
Samuel Moore, Capt.
. John Nutt
John Hanson
James McCalley
Benjamin Stevens
Nathaniel Baker
Mark Duty
Alexander McMurphy
Peter Emerson
James Thompson
Moses Chandler
Ebenezer Costa
Archibald Gamble
Oliver Emerson
Amos Martin
John Thompson, Lt.
Daniel Hall, Lt.
Oliver Townsend
John Ray
Robert Cunningham
Oliver Pierce
Archibald Campbell
James Gorman
John Russ
Joseph Barron
Samuel Boyd, Lt.
Joseph George
George Graham
Zachariah Holden
Nathaniel Graham
In this second list, Theophilus Griffin, Enoch Harvey and John Nutt were with Stark at
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The Revolution Reaches Derryfield
Bennington. Isaac Huse was in the Massachu- setts service.
Samuel Blodget, according to Chase's History of Haverhill, was actively engaged on the field at Bunker Hill.
As we read these names, it is interesting to remind ourselves that history's glow and glory is kindled not alone by the bearers of famous names and titles of honor but by the rank and file as well, without whose courage and loyalty the leaders would have been helpless. These men of Derryfield who with such unquestion- ing readiness dropped their peacetime pursuits and picked up those of war were not of any extraordinary backgrounds or abilities. They were the same individuals who had bickered and quarrelled in town meetings only a few short months before. They had neither great possessions nor towering ambitions. Above all, it is almost certain that they had no conception of the tremendously powerful chain of events they were forging. They had no vision of "America the Beautiful" stretching from coast to coast. They saw only that their rights as free men were being threatened, and im- mediately their course was clear before them, undebated and unquestioned.
For such is history's pattern, such is human- ity's way: the working out of that compelling,
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Manchester on the Merrimack
instinctive urge away from oppression and toward freedom, even if untold dangers and death itself stand in the way. It is an unalter- able law, like the law of gravity. Again and again the race bows before it, and its would-be trespassers go down to ignominous defeat. "It's against my principles, therefore I fight it". In a nutshell this is the motivating force behind some of man's greatest accomplishments, lead- ing to cleansing reformations and world-shak- ing revolutions.
And thus it was that the Revolution reached out and drew Derryfield within its widening circle.
Before going on to relate what the town con- tributed in the way of military service, it is interesting to glance at the civilian measures taken to safeguard the community and to insure its sharing in the burden of war. It is to be noted that all this urgent and vitally necessary business was a welding influence among people so recently split up into disputing factions. Small disagreements are pared down to their normal proportions when a common danger threatens all alike, and a common goal begins to take shape before their eyes. To follow Derryfield's town meetings during these years when war was raging beyond its borders is to follow the gradual process of a small group
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The Revolution Reaches Derryfield
becoming nation-minded. It is to see the begin- nings of America in microcosm.
As early as January, 1775, at a special town meeting it was unanimously voted that the citizens of Derryfield should raise their "equal proportion of money toward paying the cost of the General Congress, as any other town in the province." And the following June it was voted that John Harvey, Lieutenant James Mc- Cauley, Samuel Boyd, Ensign Samuel Moore and John Hall should be appointed as a com- mittee in behalf of the town "to act and do any- thing that relates to our present safety in de- fence of our liberties." Other committees of safety were appointed from year to year, the personnel changing so that responsibility was shared.
An important commentary on the changing attitude of the people was a phrase in the town warrant of 1776: "In the Name and Virtue of the thirteen Younighted States of America." Regardless of spelling, the "Younighted States" idea was tremendously significant. A new spirit was abroad along the Merrimack. In 1777, a tax was laid upon polls and estates to the amount of 1321 pounds, 13 shillings and 4 pence, to discharge the bounty of five men who enlisted in the Continental army for three years. Later, in 1780, it was voted that the
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Manchester on the Merrimack
hire of soldiers, "if they cannot be got by en- listment", should be paid by a rate levied on the polls and estates of the inhabitants of the town. Along the same line was the beef tax. According to the arrangement agreed upon in the town meeting of March, 1781, the select- men were to divide the town into three classes, and each class was expected to provide its due proportion of beef to feed the men on the fight- ing front.
But the civilian conferences were not entirely restricted to soldier's support and committees of safety. Derryfield's interests were widening, merging with those of other communities.
Derryfield's enlarged outlook was not the result of any miraculous transformation; in- deed its accomplishment was uphill work. To proceed slowly and with caution seems to have been the rule here and in neighboring com- munities. For instance there was the matter of accepting or rejecting the "plan of govern- ment" for the state. The report of the Con- vention reads in part: "Six times we have met and adjourned, and twice have been at the pains of printing such a form as we thought would be best for, and most acceptable to the people- all at an amazing expence to the State, and yet not half its inhabitants have thought proper to give themselves the least concern about it."
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The Revolution Reaches Derryfield
Finally on September 23, 1783, the submitted plan was accepted in this town. The committee to whom the matter had been referred con- sisted of General John Stark, Major John Web- ster, Lieut. John Hall, John Goffe, Jur. Lieut. John Perham, Ensign Samuel Stark and James Gorham.
So much for a brief survey of Derryfield tend- ing the homefires during the crucial years when the question of national existence was being determined. Thus did those disqualified by age or circumstances unite to form a background for the hastily-formed army, recruited from the able-bodied. The long list of soldiers from the town proves how generally and how gen- erously they responded to the needs of the hour, relinquishing their comfortable and ac- customed patterns of living and setting out on the path that led to poverty, sickness, danger and death. For it was no well-organized army they were joining, nor one financed by any able or well-established government. Ill-equipped, ill-fed, miserably-clad and paid belatedly or not at all, they endured incredible privation and suffering, uncertain of the outcome, but fight- ing doggedly on, not, be it carefully noted, for a place among the great, but for a principle. Well did their distinguished leader, John Stark, ex-
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Manchester on the Merrimack
press that principle with typical New England succinctness in the words: "Live free or die."
"Backwoodsman" is a descriptive noun some- times used derisively of these early settlers, but to read the record of Derryfield's men who fought in this world-shaking war for independ- ence is to make of it a title of honor. In very truth these soldiers were backwoodsmen. They had neither the courtly manners of old Virginia nor the learning of Boston. The northern wild- erness had afforded few advantages. We have recorded the absence of schools in the im- mediate vicinity, and it may be noted that not until 1781 did John Phillips found his famous academy thirty miles to the east, and that Dart- mouth did not come into being until 1769. But if the men of Derryfield lacked formal learning and familiarity with the amenities of life, they were richly endowed with what the times ur- gently needed: they had backbone.
In 1775, to be a backwoodsman was to act- as did John McKnight, who when the news of Lexington was relayed to him left his axe im- bedded in the tree he was felling and with scarcely a goodbye to his family sped on his way to Massachusetts. It was to have the never- say-die courage of those men under John Moore, "the knight of Derryfield"-those un- skilled, untrained soldiers who again and again
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The Revolution Reaches Derryfield
repelled the attacking British storming up over Breed's Hill. It was to possess the clear-headed initiative of Sergeant Ephraim Stevens at Tren- ton, and the capacity for team-work of those ragged, bare-foot men who cooperated with him in his strategy.
After the Battle of Trenton, Sergeant Stevens led his handful of soldiers into a wood on the road to Princeton to lie in wait for the retreat- ing Hessians. When the Hessians approached, the tattered farmers of Derryfield charged out toward them, managing to create an effect of tremendous din and confusion as they shouted repeated commands, "Fire! Fire! Fire!" The bewildered Hessians, apparently believing them- selves completely surrounded, threw down their weapons and surrendered. Their chagrin may be imagined when they discovered that sixteen men had trapped sixty.
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