USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Meredith > Old Meredith and vicinity > Part 4
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It stands on Harper's Hill, opposite the Jonathan Ladd house, and the aristo- cratic Lombardy poplar figures here also. Below the extensive garden on the street is a house occupied by Esquire Orne, a prominent lawyer, and now we are at the bank, and Snapper Street again.
The solemn-looking man in black coming around the bank is the Rev. Mr. Norwood, the first, or nearly the first, Orthodox minister of the place. The church building on the other side of the bridge, with its lofty and really artistic spire, is the place of his ministrations.
Before many years he will be succeeded by Rev. J. K. Young, and the church having been burned, will be replaced by one located on the "Meredith Side." Mr. Norwood will make a ministerial call on his way to visit the school (for he is one of the school committee), and we will look in and see how he is received. The mistress of the house receives him and takes him to the "fore room." Pres- ently a boy rushes out of the back door, decanter in hand, to Mr. Perley's or Mr. Gale's store, and on his return, which, according to mother injunction is a speedy one, the decanter with its ruby contents is placed on the table with the silver bronzed sugar bowl, with its square lumps of sugar, and sugar tongs beside it, and on a little salver the wine glasses.
In those days it was a violation of all the most sacred laws of hospitality to omit giving honored guests, especially the minister, "something to drink."
We will not wait for Mr. Norwood to finish his call but pass on to the school- house. This is a tolerably high-studded building located on a piece of land taken from the pasture above Mr. Folsom's house.
Fronting on the road, at the left corner is the entrance. The building is un- painted. Across the windows are three or four wooden bars, which gives the edifice a jail-like look; whether placed there to screen the windows from outside missiles or to prevent wandering, curious eyes from viewing passers-by on the road, I am uncertain. Stepping up the rough stone step we gain an entry, taken from the corner of the large schoolroom. We go in. The seats and aisles are on one side only, the floor an inclined plane at this side. The seats are full of boys and girls of varying ages; those on the back seats, from eighteen to twenty years old; on the front, from four to six years. These front seats are so high that the little occupants would, no doubt, denominate the verb "to sit" an active one.
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Leaving room for the classes to stand (they never sit in recitation) between the seats and it, is a pile of whitewashed brick four or five feet in height, and as many wide, which is a substitute for the stove (not yet in fashion). A large brick hearth is in front of the orifice which holds the long sticks of wood. The teacher's desk is near the left wall as you pass this rude fireplace, but not quite so far in the rear. It is a square box, a little elevated from the floor, containing his chair, and on the side facing his scholars a sloping lid covering the receptacle for his in- dividual property and opening on hinges as do those of the scholars. Back of this desk and "stove" runs a long seat, above which hang the scholars' garments.
As we came in we noticed a lad of twelve or fourteen standing not far from the teacher's desk; we shall now observe that he stands with both arms extended horizontally. In the right hand is a loose brick from the hearth near by: in the left a book. Oh, yes! The aching muscles of the arms and shoulders are being made to pay for some violation of school rules, for Mr. Wood is a rigid disciplin- arian. If we remain long enough we may see some more ingenious modes of torture, among them "sitting on nothing"-the asumption of a sitting posture with the back against the wall with no support for the aching thighs. Or the head and back bent to allow the fingers to "hold down a nail." A more flagrant misdemeanor will result in an order from the master to an older pupil to "take his knife and cut a stick " from the clump of birches or alders near the schoolhouse, and soon stinging blows are dealt to the culprit, while bold spirits look on and vow revenge, and timid ones shrink and shudder at every blow. But I wander. The school books used are "Historical Reader," "English Reader," "Testament" and "Spelling Book." The latter is Noah Webster's. The progress in this from the alphabet to "abs, " from "abs," to words of two syllables, then three, spelling down whole columns; and the little learners announce their progress by saying they have got to "baker," or "crucifix." These glibly spelled introduce them to the first sentence: "No man may put off the law of God," between the columns; and then the stories, whose illustrations, in days when pictures are scarce, are so fascinating, of the "Sauce-Box" in the apple tree, and the milk-maid who counted her chickens before they were hatched. Besides reading, "Adams' Old Arithmetic," "Colburn's Mental" (a little later used), "Woodbridge's Geography," and "Murray's Grammar."
Mr. Wood has other methods of keeping order besides the ones mentioned. One of these is a "Whispering Bill." The name of every scholar in school is put on this bill, with the days of the week at the top and a space below opposite each name. This bill is given by turn to the more reliable scholars in the back seats, and each of them on his day is expected to keep a sharp lookout and put down a mark when he thinks a scholar whispers. At night at the end of each spelling lesson and before dismissed, the names are read, and a heavy blow with the ferule given for each mark. We will suppose we have stayed long enough to witness this scene. A long class "toes the line" rigidly. A hush like the day of doom is on the school! The master, ferule in hand, comes from his desk and stands be- fore the class. He calls the name and number of marks of each culprit from the bill, and, one by one, they advance, reluctantly extend the hand, and then resume place in the class.
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No denial of the offence is allowed; no excuse admitted.
It is inexorable law. If the tear-stained cheeks and quivering lips that pass out the door excite our pity or arouse our indignation we must remember that in the home training the rod, hanging above the kitchen fireplace, bears a con- spicuous part. Mr. Editor, the world does move, and we are getting farther from barbarism.
We have remained long in Master Wood's school for two reasons: First, be- cause the schoolroom is to pass through such marked changes in the next half century. And second, because in Laconia, and scattered far and wide, are Somes, and Robinsons, and Danfords, and Beans, and Swaseys, and Parkers, and San- borns, and Folsoms, and Maloons, and Gales, and Ladds, and Burnhams, and Durgins, and Eagers, and Gilberts, who spent their winters in Mr. Wood's school. To some of them this picture may recall memories of the same period. A few years later "Uncle Jimmy Morrison" ruled with a more lenient hand in this schoolroom; and the Rev. J. P. Atkinson, who had come (not much more than a boy) to be pastor of the Universalist church, kept a private school during a vacation of the town school.
In the Court House, in the room where Gilford Academy will afterward flourish, a student from Dartmouth teaches the higher branches, with long intervals between, when college duties take him to Hanover.
A lady, Miss Chapin, is now teaching the higher or ornamental branches.
Laconia from 1830 to 1840 by Mrs. L. A. (Swasey) Obear.
Mrs. William Ladd (wife of "Friend" or "Quaker" Ladd who had the first druggist store in town), established an infant school in the hall of the Tremont tavern on the Gilford side. It numbered sixty pupils, under eight years of age, and was a great success. Their son, William Henry Ladd was later the head of the famous Chauncy Hall school of Boston. As Mrs. Ladd's infant school is mentioned here, we might talk of the schools of Laconia. No public schools were in operation here except the town schools early established on either side of the river, one above Mr. Folsom's on Pleasant Street (now J. P. Atkinson's), the other on Main Street below Ephraim Mallard's, now George Mallard's. As early as 1815 a Miss Parsons taught a popular private school, and when the Court House was erected one end of the lower story was fitted up for a school- room. In this room there was, especially when the town schools were not in session, a school maintained. At one time it was a school for young ladies with a corps of lady teachers giving instruction in painting, drawing and fine em- broidery. At others the seniors from some college kept a term or two. It was incorporated into an academy.
Some of the prominent instructors from 1830 to 1840 were a Mr. Dickey, Mr. Mead, an Andover Seminary student, a Mr. Adams, and Dyer H. Sanborn who had a flourishing school for several years, and B. F. C. Emerson, who, with Mrs. Phebe C. Marsh as assistant, or preceptress, before and after 1840, was a success- ful teacher. Woodbury Melcher, John T. Coffin and Stephen C. Lyford, are remembered among the enthusiastic and ever interested members of the Board of Trustees of this institution.
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Among the early teachers of this school was Miss Caroline F. Chapin who afterwards married Esquire Orne, one of Laconia's early lawyers. She was afterward quite widely known as a writer of both prose and poetry-Caroline F. Orne.
In this brief review of the early educational forces that helped shape the children who were to become the men and women of the coming Laconia, we must not forget nor omit to mention a private school which held on its unostenta- tious way through this and a part of the next decade: Amelia Wardwell's school. It was kept in Mr. Wardwell's house, on or near what is now Canal Street, and at least while Miss Wardwell was scarcely more than a child herself, managed jointly by herself and mother. In it the rudiments, "reading, 'riting and 'rith- metic," were taught, with Parley's geography and history and plain needlework. If the pupils of this school did not graduate from it, models of propriety in de- portment, and proficient in the several branches taught, it was not the fault of its painstaking teachers.
Besides this private school there was another in what was called the Elkins' schoolhouse, a little building above the bank building, then owned, we think, by Esquire Jeremiah Elkins. It opened from Main Street, and was on the bank grounds. Such a school was considered an essential addition to the means for training youth already in operation, by the eight families, who came into town when the addition was made to the machinery of the brick or Avery mill, and others. Its facilities were rather in advance of the Wardwell school.
GILFORD ACADEMY
Gilford Academy was incorporated June 20, 1820, during the administration of Gov. Samuel Bell, a part of Section 1 of the articles of incorporation being as follows:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened, that Dudley Ladd, John Evans, Lyman B. Walker, Daniel Avery, Barnard Merrill, Thomas Saltmarsh, Nathaniel Davis, Jr., and the Rev. William Blaisdell of Gilford, Daniel Gale 2nd of Gilmanton, Jonathan G. Everett and Stephen Gale of Meredith, Daniel C. Atkinson of Sanbornton and Daniel Smith of New Hampton and their associates and successors be, and hereby are, incor- porated and made a body corporate and politic under the name of Gilford Academy."
The purpose of the academy as outlined in a preamble to their constitution was:
"Whereas, the General Court of the State of New Hampshire did, by their act of June session Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and twenty, incorporate an academy in the town of Gilford, by the name of Gilford Academy, for the pur- pose of promoting purity and virtue, and for the education of youth, and also did in said act appoint a certain number of gentlemen as a board of trustees to man- age the affairs of said academy, and as no corporation or society can prosper with- out order and government, we the trustees do adopt the following as the constitu- tion of said academy."
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Then follows the constitution of ten sections and "Laws of said academy" covering about six pages more.
Of the early history of the academy but little has been recorded. That given by Mrs. Obear covering all that we have been able to find except the statement of Rev. Daniel Lancaster in his history of Gilmanton when, in writing of Meredith Bridge Village among other things he says: "In 1820, an academy was incorpo- rated, and about the same time, a term of the superior Court began to be held here. There were at this date about thirty dwelling houses in the village."
No records of the Academy before 1838 can be found. We know, however, from other sources as well as from the catalogue of 1835 that Dyer H. Sanborn had a most successful school for two years; he refused to return, however, owing to the "want of united interest in the inhabitants of this vicinity in the welfare of the school, and the interference of the Court Session within the space of the Fall Term."
The later history of the Academy will not be given in detail. In November, 1847, the trustees sold their interest in the Court House. This building is what is now called the old Court House, now moved across the street and used in connection with the Armory, so-called. Two years later it was voted that the building committee procure and put into the new Academy room the latest and most approved seats and desks.
The last class to graduate, that of 1868, consisted of three members. After the school year of 1871-1872, the Academy was not continued, but the building was used for Gilford schools for two years and afterwards for Laconia schools, "the portion of Gilford east of the river having been united to Laconia." Just before 1886 when the High School building was erected, the Academy building was moved to Court Street and used by the late James H. Tilton and his succes- sors as a storehouse. During this period of its use, it still retained the same style of architecture. A few years ago Dr. A. H. Harriman purchased the property and remodeled it. It can still be recognized at the very end of the Harriman block on Court Street, numbers 16-18, the South Main Market below, and Moose Hall above. The Academy Corporation still continues its legality.
From the educational institutions of old Meredith and vicinity have gone forth many men and women who not only have brought honor to their native town, but whose untiring efforts have laid the foundations upon which succeeding gen- erations have builded.
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PREPARATIONS FOR SETTLEMENT
Mary Gale Hibbard
The plan of Meredith drawn from the survey made by Jonathan Longfellow in 1750 and 1753 differs in several places from the plan of 1770, a part of which is reproduced in this book. In the earlier plan no name was given to Round Bay, now called Opechee, and from Messer Bridge to below Mill Street Bridge a lake or pond larger than Opechee itself extended into the land on the southeast. Only a very short stretch of river was given on either plan. There was undoubtedly much more lake and less river in early days; in fact, James B. Fernald tells us that before the railway embankment near Messer Bridge was built, there was an island there, and a second bridge was needed above Messer Bridge on the road to Lakeport.
On the earlier plan Long Bay, now Paugus, was marked "Wenepesioca River;" the "Wequash Pond" of 1770, now Wicwas, was marked "the Head of ye great Bay;" "Wigwam Pond" became "Measly Pond" in 1770, now it is Waukewan. Both of these ponds were long and wide on the earlier plan, so that the Proprie- tors asked that there should be less than the one hundred lots that had been in- tended, and the number was cut to eighty-two. Later it was found that there was unplotted land next to the New Hampton line to be divided among those who had bought up Proprietors' shares. Pickerel or Robinson Pond was omitted in both plans.
FORTS
Gilmanton had built four blockhouses of logs in the early days, one only four- teen feet square on the east side of the channel at the Weirs, which is said to have been nearly opposite the old oak at the corner of the White Oaks Road. The settlement of Meredith, the second township, came later, when the fear of Indian raids had passed, and no mention of any blockhouse is found in the records of the Proprietors or in those of the town. It is thought, however, that there must have been an Indian fort, used for winter quarters, on the Meredith side of the Weirs Bridge, south of the State Road. The Weirs was a famous fishing ground, and there is a spring, near the fields where many chips of flint can still be found. The flint chips mean not warfare, but winter quarters.
From the manuscript of the late E. P. Jewell, Esq., we quote the following paragraph :
"All of the prominent tribes had forts, constructed for defence against warlike assaults. A desir- able location for the fort was carefully selected, where in case of an attack or a long siege, water could be obtained. Whatever space was required was enclosed by a strong palisade, constructed for de- fence. Strong and tall poles, pointed at the top, were firmly set in the ground close together in double rows. The structure was strengthened by smaller poles fastened on the inside, the entire length of the palisade; only a small space was left for an entrance, which could be quickly closed in
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case of an attack. The entrance was so ingeniously constructed, fortified and guarded that surprise or capture seemed almost impossible. Within the palisade was located a village of wigwams and stores of food. These forts were used as winter quarters in time of peace. Some tribes had several forts where the entire tribe could find shelter and a fair degree of comfort through the winter."
Such, no doubt, was the Weirs fort or encampment.
By the time the first settlers were choosing their lots and clearing their land, it was known that the Province Road was to pass through Meredith, entering at its most southerly point, Main Street Bridge, Laconia, and continuing in a northerly direction until it passed the present Laconia line. The part of this road "up in town" is commonly called the Parade Road. In the lower part of Laconia, Province Street, Pleasant Street, and the part of Main Street lying between, are all parts of the "Old Province Road," which, starting at Portsmouth, crossed the state to Haverhill, N. H., on the Connecticut, and then followed this river north to "Co-oss " or "Cohoss." The first act establishing the road spoke of the "Great Quantities of Corn Grain & other Sort of Provisions" that would soon be raised and transported down the Connecticut, if it were not built. It would seem that they were looking for trade even in those early days. If it had been build at the time the first act was passed (December 17, 1763), it would have crossed the "Winnipisioke Branch of the river at the Place called the Wares." The "Wares" may have meant either the present Weirs, called often the Great or Upper Wares, or Lakeport, called the Lower Wares, or sometimes Folsom's Wares. "Weiers" and "Wears" are other spellings.
The old accounts show that, as early as 1763, thirty-eight pounds had been paid to Capt. John Odlin and Mark Jewett for "Service in Cuting the Road from Canterbury to Salam town." The Proprietors were assessed to pay for these improvements; thirty pounds apiece in January 1763, and "Sixty Six Pouns thirteen Shilings & four Pence " in March, 1765. Abraham Folsom and John Neal were the assessors in 1765.
These old accounts are confusing, as some of the items are given in old tenor, some in new. When a yoke of oxen for a day cost five pounds, and rum six pounds a gallon, for instance, we know old tenor was meant. The difference be- tween old tenor and new, two issues of paper money, was said to have been so great in 1766 that one pound old tenor was equal to only one shilling "lawful money," as new tenor was often called. The two assessments mentioned above were in old tenor. During the Revolution the currency depreciated so much that in 1781 the value was usually given in coin, often in Spanish milled dollars.
We will return now to Meredith. The Province Road not having been built in 1766 through Meredith, the following vote was passed at the meeting of the Pro- prietors June 13, 1769: "Voted Ebenr. Smith, Mr. William Mead & Mr. Abram Folsom Junr. a committee to clear the Province Road through said Town and that each Proprietor of said Town have liberty to work their proportion in clear- ing said road." The names of these three men become very familiar to us as we read the later records. The road itself did not please the settlers, as it cut across their lots, making more fencing necessary. They had hoped the main road would have followed the range way going north from the head of Opechee.
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BRIDGE
The bridge over the river at Main Street, Laconia, is said by Lancaster in his history of Gilmanton to have been built in 1770, when the Province Road was made; but from the old accounts we learn that in the early fall of 1765 a bridge, probably a slight affair, was being put up. Jonathan Shaw was paid for 11 days' work in building the bridge and clearing roads. Also, under September 2 of that year Ebenr. Smith was paid 6 pounds, 12 shillings and 3 pence for his "work in cutting the road to & building the Bridge at New Salem." There was an item also: "61/2 Pound of Rope to Build the Brige with."
Before the water was controlled by dams, the river could often be forded with ease. Gen. W. F. Knight has heard that the path usually taken was back of his house, where his garden now is. The water was less deep there and the banks lower. He had heard also of a ferry at that spot. The early bridges were several feet lower than the present Main Street Bridge.
MILL
After the bridge was finished, the Proprietors' saw mill was built. It is said to have been where the Busiel mill now stands. The falls were there, and there the first dam was built; a wing dam, probably, as was known to be the case later, with the water in wet times running freely in the middle, but in dry seasons dammed by boards set up on end and chinked by grass and weeds. The iron work for the mill (363 pounds) was transported from Exeter by Ebenezer Smith, on horseback undoubtedly. He did much of the work also, but Joshua Folsom was paid for nine days, and Thomas Brown worked for three days. It seems as if there must have been a "raising," as two items entered under October 18, 1765 were "6 Galons of rum" and "1 lb Shugr."
On January 6, 1766, it was voted that Eben'r Smith and William Mead should have the care of the mill for three years. They were to saw to the halves for the settlers; one quarter of the lumber was to go to the Proprietors. At the end of these three years four men, Ebenezer Smith, William Mead, Jonathan Smith, and Abram Folsom, Jr., paid two pounds ten shillings each in work or money for the use of the mill for seven years,-ten pounds in all. At the end of this time we find the mill in bad shape. In the deposition of Samuel Jewett, taken in 1837, he states that he was clearing his ground on the Gilmanton side of the river in 1777, and that the Proprietors' mill was in bad condition at that time; it "was used some & afterwards mouldered away." He said also that there was a saw mill as well as a grist mill then at Folsom's Mills (Lakeport). It was no longer neces- sary, therefore, for the Proprietors to see that the mill was kept running, and in September, 1778, they voted to sell the mill privilege; this was the twenty acres at the lower end of Meredith, the line starting not far from the present Church Street Bridge and ending in the west at the water's edge somewhat north of Water Street. The date of this deed has not been found, but the purchaser was John Kimbel or Kimball.
From this point the writer is giving dates and authority in full, as the facts here given have not, so far as known, been previously collected. John Kimball gave two deeds in 1781 to Caleb James of Exeter. The date of the first was February
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5, the consideration "300 Spanish Mill'd dollars." The deed reads: "the full half of the said privilege that I the said John Kimball purchased of the Committee appointed by the proprietors of Meredith for selling the same also the full com- pleat half part the corn mill & saw mill which I the said John built thereon the last year with half all the Iron work thereto belonging & other appurtenances whether finished or in part done."
A spring freshet must have done its work before May 17, for on that date he deeds to Caleb James "the one part of my mill Privilege situate in Meredith afore- said where I the said John Kimbel lately built a Griste & Saw Mill Fraim but as the same have been carryed away by the Rising of the water it is ment to sell the full half part of the remains of said Mills where ever they may be found & the Dam thereto belonging"-Consideration 160 "Spanish Mill'd dollars." It is of these mills that Samuel Jewett in his deposition said: "these were built one year and went off the next spring-the saw mill never went, the grist mill did something."
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