USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Brookline > Oration delivered at the centennial celebration, in Brookline, N.H., September 8, 1869 > Part 2
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lis and added to the territorial limits of the town of Brookline.
The civil history of Brookline is as variegated as the topo- graphical character of the town. The earliest trace of any claim of ownership in the territory and soil of the township of Brookline is found in connection with that part of its territory acquired from Townsend by the running of the province line in 1741. Townsend was incorporated in 1732. The petitioners for their charter in- form the General Court at Boston that the "town is completely fill- ed with inhabitants."
The grantees and proprictors of that town with much shrewd- ness had the town accurately surveyed and plotted, public points delineated, roads laid out on paper, and everything progressing so far as sales of land were concerned, soon after they came in pos- session. This accounts for the sporadical character of its settle- ments and explains the language of the petitioners for an act of incorporation ; the words " completely filled with inhabitants, " meaning that there were settlements in most parts of the town. From the Townsend proprietor's records the facts are learned that in 1734 a man by the name of JASHER WYMAN purchased of the above proprietors a tract of land then in Townsend, and settled near where the old house stands on the hill, easterly of Ball & Smith's mill. This old house stands near the northeast corner of the land bought by this settler which is described in the titles to the land adjoining, bought soon after, as "Jasher Wyman's mill lot." The travelled road now at the easterly side of the lot was laid out about five years before Wyman settled here. Jasher Wyman was the clerk of the proprietors of Townsend for many years. His chirography in the records indicates both taste and scholarship .- The record of deaths in Townsend shows that he had five children, one of which probably was the first child of European descent born in the town of Brookline. He held the most important offices of Townsend, and even after the running of the province line left him out of his favorite town, he still continued to hold the office of clerk for the Townsend proprietors. In the latter part of his life he
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disposed of his land and mill then in Hollis, now in Brookline, and moved back to Townsend where both he and his wife departed this life at about the same time in 1757. Thus the pioneer settler of the northern part of Townsend, unintentionally became the first settler of the township of Brookline. A man by the name of Far- rer and Thomas Austin soon after bought and settled the lands near this place where Wyman lived, and when this part of Towns- end became a part of Hoflis, in 1741 it contained probably three or four families clustered around in their log houses. The next settlement in this town was made in 1740 by three brothers by the name of McDonald who were Scotch Irish people. About the time the pilgrims emigrated to Plymouth, considerable numbers of Scotch Presbyterians, influenced by similar reasons, crossed the Irish sea and planted themselves in the northern part of Ireland in the counties of Londonderry and Antrim. Hence the name "Scotch Irish." Two of these brothers had families. Their christian names were
Randall, Joseph and James. They were men of real masculine type, tall, well proportioned and capable of great physical endur- ance. Randall McDonald settled on the east road leading from Brookline village to Milford, where the Hollis road forms a connec- tion. His brothers owned and occupied the lands at the north and northeast of his farm. They came here ten years after the first set- tlement in Hollis. The prospects of these pioneers of civilization in this part of the town must have been discouraging in the extreme. Surrounded by an unbroken, howling wilderness; remote from their neighbors at the eastward, who had settled on more genial soils and eligible localities ; deprived of all that we consider the luxu- ries and almost the necessities of life; we behold them leaving their log cabins on a sabbath morning and pursuing their path des- ignated by marked trees, to the little "meeting house" in Hollis .- They periled all in order to enjoy freedom of conscience by their own hearth stones. They exemplified the fact that there are no discouragements so depressing, no difficulties so perplexing, no ob- stacle so great but that may all be overcome by the clear head and determined will of man.
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Randall McDonald died in 1752, leaving a widow, and was buried on his own land about half a mile at the southeast of his house, where, with four or five other graves marked by the pres- ence of rough granite stones, the spot may still be seen. Joseph McDonald, never fully satisfied with frontier life, and grieved at the loss of his brother, sold out his estate a few years after and returned to the land of his birth. James McDonald, the progeni- tor of those bearing his name here in Brookline, remained. The names of the children of James McDonald and Susanna his wife are Rosanna McDonald, born July 19, 1752; Randall McDonald, April 14, 1754; Susanna McDonald, February 18, 1756; Lucy McDon- ald, February 8, 1758; Mary McDonald, April 5, 1760; Elizabeth McDonald, November 20, 1762; James McDonald, January 19, 1764, and John McDonald, June 5, 1766. James McDonald, the father of this family of eight children, the earliest settler, died April 11, 1801, aged 84 years.
In reviewing the times to which the events just described be- long, we are forcibly reminded of the worth there was in the char- acter of the people. The interest of one was an interest common to all. The surface of society was free from the scourge of dogmas, sects and creeds, which do always "engender strife." When Mr. Emerson was ordained in 1743, the entire population of Hollis was aroused to the greatest degree of excitement and interest. The religious, social, and moral nature of the whole people went out to grasp the heartstrings of this enthusiastic young student who was about to become their pastor ; and he too seemed to compre- hend the situation, as will be seen by the following, which is a part of his answer to the call extended to him. "I have taken that im- portant matter into the most close consideration, and have asked the best advice, and am, after many and great difficulties in the way, come to this conclusion, viz : If you will fulfill your promise as to the four hundred pound settlement, in old tenor, only that the one part of it be in forty acres of good land near and convenient to the meeting house, firmly and forever conveyed to me, the other
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part to be paid in bills of public credit, within one year from the date of this answer; and that for my yearly salary you give me such a certain sum of bills of credit, yearly, as shall be equal to one hundred and fifty ounces of coined silver, which is the sum you propose, together with thirty cords of wood, cord wood length, de- livered at my door, and after your parish town or district shall, by the providence of God be increased to the number of one hundred families, (and not desired or expected by me until then,) you make addition to my yearly salary of five ounces of silver per year, until the same shall be equal to two hundred ounces of coined silver, there to abide and be no more, which is equal to seventy pounds of the Massachusetts last emission, always expecting the thirty cords of wood, and that these several sums or sum be continued to me so long as I remain a gospel minister over you, always and in an espec- ial manner expecting that you will be helpers together with mne, by prayer. Now if these before mentioned conditions be freely and vol- untarily acted upon and secured to me as you promised in the call, then I as freely and fully accept of the call and subscribe myself yours to use in the gospel ministry during life."
( Signed ) DANIEL EMERSON.
Dunstable, West Precinct, Mar. 4, 1743.
There were thirty-seven of the voters and tax-payers of the pre- cinct, who bound themselves in the penal sum of one hundred pounds each, that the terms mentioned in this answer to the call should be faithfully complied with. Among the names of the signers of this bond are found those of James McDonald and Joseph McDonald. The preliminaries of the settlement of this man show that both par- ties intended to have a perfect understanding. Nothing was to ยท come in and disturb the harmony of their undertaking. Besides he was to become theirs "to use in the gospel ministry for life." From this answer of Mr. Emerson much may be learned. It shows that he not only intended to enter upon the discharge of his duties as spiritual adviser of this people in good faith, that he was not only to be their gospel minister during his life; but it also proves
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that he was possessed of a good share of common sense and " world- ly wisdom." The first public building crected in this town was a pound. It was built of logs twenty-five feet square and it stood near where the post office now stands. This was in 1770. In 1783 another pound, thirty feet square, was built near the same place. One of the greatest public trials the town had, was the building of the bridges across the Nissitissit River, especially the one at the mouth of Tanapus pond. As early as 1760 the town of Hol- lis "voted to let out the road to be done, beginning at the north side of Pout pond* brook on the McDonald road to the Mile Slip and a bridge to be built over Douglas brookt so called, and a bridge over the mouth of the pond." Tako notice that this was twenty years after the McDonalds settled over on yonder hill. But notwithstanding this vote the bridge was not built at that time. In 1771 the town of Raby "voted to build a bridge over the river at the pond and chose Isaac Shattuck, Alexander McIntosh, and James Campbell a committee to see the work done." Also voted at the same time " to have the bridge completed by the last day of June next." This looked like business. The object was then accom- plished. It will be seen that there were settlements in this town about thirty years before the town was able to build this bridge. Owing to the scanty means of the people the two other bridges be- low this on the river were not made till several years later. The town of Hollis voted in 1760 "to give forty shillings, sterling money, to any Hollis man for every wolf he shall kill the present. year." This shows that this disagreeable quadruped had sometime been very annoying to the settlers, but was then almost extinct. Let us consider further the condition of the people during this pe- riod. Their simple food consisted of the produce of the farm and garden. Salt beef and pork with the few vegetables they had, con- stituted the usual dinner. Potatoes}, bean porridge, or brown bread
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* Now Rocky Pond.
t The brook that runs near the Post Office.
# The Potatoe was brought to this country in 1719 by the settlers of Londonderry, N. H. Hence the name Irish Potatoe. The same settlers also brought the first spinning wheels used in New England.
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and milk formed their morning and evening meals. Fresh meat they had occasionally. Sometimes it was with great difficulty that they could get salt to preserve and season their meat. The music at their surprise parties was the music of the spinning wheel to which both mothers and daughters kept time with their hand cards .- There were no drones in this society, no hired help, no consump- tive young ladies who expected that their fathers' wealth would be a passport to speedy matrimony. Their looms and their needles fur- nished the fabric from which the clothing of both sexes was made. Wool and flax were converted by hand into garments for the old and the young. " The Bible, the Psalter and a few religious books made up their entire reading matter. Their means of locomotion were the ox cart, or the back of a horse furnished with saddle and pillion, and calculated to carry at a slow pace three or four persons." Limited in their pecuniary means, with heavy, awkward tools, with- out machinery, with no prospect of an improvement in their condi- tion, the wrathful war-cloud of the revolution hanging over their heads, they conformed to their condition with an unwavering faith in the God of their fathers. One hundred years ago there were in the territory now called Brookline about thirty-five voters, some eight or nine of which belonged in the *" Mile Slip." The subject of forming a new town was agitated, and after a friendly understand- ing by Hollis and all parties interested, on the thirtieth day of March, 1769, the town of Raby was incorporated. The town was called Raby from its fancied resemblance to Raby in Durham coun- ty, England. "The river Tees takes a southeastern direction, sim- ilar to the Nissitissit, running at the base of prominent hills and emptying into the North sea. "The magnificent Baronial Castle of . Raby covers an acro of ground. It was one of the earliest seats of the Neville family. In one of its great halls seven hundred Knights. all retainers of that powerful family, are said to have feasted at one time." The town is now the seat of the Duke of Cleveland, or his
* "January 18, 1763, were lawfully married, Alexander McIntosh of the Mile Strip and Mary Graham of Townsend by the Rev. Samuel Dix .- [Townsend Records.
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heirs. The next year after the incorporation of Raby, the town voted to raise money for the "support of the gospel." For several years the sums raised for preaching and schooling were the same. In 1775 the town record shows, that James Campbell and James Badger were chosen " as a committee to agree with the priest." This particular language is noticed because one of the conditions of the charters for the towns at that time was that the grantees of townships should each " settle a learned orthodox minister." In 1781 the town voted to hire the Rev. Mr. Houston to preach. This is the first instance where the name of the minister is found in the town Records. The following language we find in the Record of 1791. " Voted and chose Esq. Shannon, Capt. James Campbell, and Benjamin Farley, a committee to hire some suitable person to preach out the money that was voted for preaching, and it is the mind of this town that said committee give the Rev. John Wyeth offer of preaching out said money ; and further, that said committee be empowered to agree with some suitable person to board said preacher and his horse, during the time that he shall be preaching herc." Here we find the word preacher. For the next year or two, a reverend gentleman by the name of Hall acted here in the double capacity of minister and school master. There are now those among the living, who enjoyed the moral, intellectural and spiritual teachings of this man. It is to be regretted that so little is known of the clergymen who ministered here from 1769 to 1791 a period of twenty-two years. They taught and superintended the schools. They joined in wedlock the rustic yeomanry from which we are descended. They suggested consolations at the bed side of the sick and dying. They offered the last said prayer at the "house of mourning" and pointed the way to that celestial Redeemer who " brought life and immortality to light," and although their names do not appear in your records, their hopes were undoubtedly that they would be written in the "great Book of Life." On the 7th of De- cember, 1796, the town voted unanimously to give the REV. LEMUEL WADSWORTH a call "to settle as a gospel minister." He had preach-
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ed here quite a number of times, and his services were very accept- able to the church and people. A committee was appointed to ar- range his settlement which was mutually agreed upon between him and them without any written correspondence. The conditions of his settlement were that he should receive one hundred and fifty pounds as a settlement to be paid in three installments, sixty pounds as an annual salary for three years, and seventy pounds after that time. The meeting house which had been in process of erection for a period of two years was then about completed. When we consider the poverty of these men who erected this meeting house, many of whom lived in log houses themselves ; scarcely able to sup- port their families, we are forcibly reminded of the sacrifices they were ready to make that they might be able to enjoy the preaching of the gospel. On the 11th of Oct., 1797, Mr. Wadsworth was ordain- ed. The town voted on the 28th of August previous "that Mr.Asher Spaulding provide for the council at the ordination in the following manner, that is for the supper sixteen cents each on said ordination day, and for all other meals seventeen cents each, and for horses eleven cents cach, and for all the liquors, lemons and sugar at the common retail price:" By this vote we learn that the good people of the town and also the ecclesiastical council were not only inen who looked forward to good society, but that they were men also fond of good cheer. They could afford to conform to this old Eng- lish custom for this time. They were about to enjoy a new meet- ing house and an ordained minister. Besides some of them re- membered that at Mr. Emerson's ordination in Dunstable West Precinct, now Hollis, that the council at that time was entertained at the expense to the parish of thirty-five pounds, eighteen shillings. From this amount it is fairly to be presumed that this council was also quite " spiritually minded." Mr. Wadsworth was a native of Stoughton, Mass., born in 1769, graduated at Brown University in 1793, and died November 25th. 1817, aged forty-eight. On the 10th of March, 1818, the town " voted to erect a tombstone over the grave of the Rev. Lemuel Wadsworth" and chose Eli Sawtelle,
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Eleaser Gilson, and Benjamin Shattuck a committee to accomplish the object. The committee performed this duty in a very credita- ble manner. Agreeably to the very letter and spirit of the vote of the town, they laid a finished oblong, square block of granite over his grave, resting upon which they placed a simple slab of slate, on which is engraved the place and date of his birth and the time of his ordination and death. Fit monument for an honest man whose integrity of character and exemplary virtues will outlive this gran- itic structure erected to his memory. Their grief was too deep to attempt anything like an epitaph. He was not the minister of a sect or a favored few. The whole town wept at his grave, and in justice let it be recorded, that he sustained a piety unalloyed with fa- naticism, a religion without bigotry and a character above reproach. Since that time the Orthodox Society liave had several ministers, four of whom were regularly ordained. The orthodox church had at its organization in 1795, 15 members. The names of these church members were, Benjamin Farley, Ezekiel Proctor, Joshua Seaver, Clark Brown, Ephraim Sawtelle, Eleazer Gilson, Joshua Smith, Joseph Emerson, Samuel Farley, Hannah Shattuck, Abigail Sawtelle, Hannah Gilson, and Lydia Emerson. This church now has sixty members. The Methodist Episcopal Church was estab- lished in 1852, with eleven members. It now has forty communi- cants. At the commencement of the Revolutionary war Raby had forty-six ratable polls and about one hundred and seventy-five in- habitants. Raby was classed with Mason in forming a constituency for representation and consequently furnished soldiers for the war in a quota connected with that town. Raby chose its committee of safety in 1775 and "voted to act according to the advice of Con- gress." The state committee of safety reported eighty-six males between sixteen and sixty years of age in Mason and Raby. This town shared the usual excitement of those times. In 1777, the town "chose William Spaulding, Swallow Tucker and Isaac Shattuck a committee to settle and see what every man has done in the town of Raby since Concord fight." Thus it seems that every man was
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looked after during this great struggle for constitutional liberty. The records of Mason and Raby, and the state records show that these towns furnished one hundred and fifty three men for the land and naval service of the government, during the Revolution, fifty- seven of which were from Raby. These men went at different times and in numbers not sufficient to constitute a company. Some of these soldiers were under the gallant Col. Scammel. Some of them were with Washington at Cambridge and in New York. Three of them were with Stark at Bennington, and seven of them were at Ticonderoga. The patriotism of this soldiery, scantily fed and bad- ly clothed, like all others who helped to gain our independence, is almost without a parallel in history, and it may be said with commendable pride that Raby did its whole duty in the consumma- tion of that great result which sent a thrill of pleasure to the heart of every lover of freedom throughout the world. The nations of Europe were struck with amazement when the doctrine of "the di- vine right of kings" was proved to be a fallacy. Monarchs trem- bled in their capitals and despotism read its doom in our success, like Belshazzar in the hand-writing on the wall. Liberty under the restraint of law, the idea of Samuel Adams, of Jefferson, Otis, Franklin and La Fayette was forever to be enjoyed by this great continent. The first mill in town, as before stated, was built by Jasher Wyman, near where Ball & Smith's mill now stands. The next mill, erected and owned by Benjamin Brooks, stood on the north side of the river, on land now flowed by the Bailey mill-pond. The ruins of the old dam and one of the walls on which the building stood are still plainly to be seen. What might have been mill num- ber three, occupied a position near where the Bailey new mill now stands. It was the intention of the proprietor to drive this mill by water drawn in a canal from Tanapus pond. The engineering how- ever was bad. The mill was placed too high. The water would not run up hill to accommodate any man. The civil engineer who lo- cated this mill undoubtedly understood pyrotechnics better than hy- draulics. How much it is to be regretted that he could not have
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been a cotemporary with the great General who sent the powder ship against "Fort Fisher !" What the result of talent thus com- bined might have been, we shall never know. It was afterwards lowered down and operated successfully by Samuel Brown and his successors. In 1781, Benjamin Shattuck, grand-father of Alpheus Shattuck of this town, came from Groton and located where J. H. Hall's mills now are. He bought the land of " Esq. Blanchard," of Amherst. The trade was made in the spring when the streams were full and the travelling bad. Blanchard and Shattuck trotted out their steeds on a reconnoisance for the purpose of establishing boundaries. The bargain was that Shattuck should have one hun- dred and sixty acres of land for which he was to pay three hundred dollars in silver, all in Spanish Pistareens. They went northerly
over about the same ground now used for the road from the school- house in that district to Milford. Blanchard for fear of getting his " black kids " soiled and his knee-buckles tarnished, kept a good distance from the stream. They rode on about a mile up the hill to a place where they established the northeast corner of the prem- ises. They then agreed on a certain land mark which they could see on the opposite side of the stream for the northwest corner of this 160 acre lot. The corners were all agreed upon without any measurement of lines. After Shattuck paid his coined silver and obtained his title he had a survey of the lot made and found that he had bought some more than five hundred acres. Thus it will be seen that the Plebian rather outwitted the Patrician. Shattuck erected a mill on this lot on the same site where the mill now stands, and built a bridge in the highway below the same. The records of the town show that he was exempted from taxation for a number of years in consideration of his building and keeping this bridge in repair. These were the first mills built here. This place had been settled more than thirty years before there was any
grist mill in town. The people here carried what corn they had to Pepperell or sometimes to Townsend, on their shoulders, to be ground. The mills in those days were more liable to be out of
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order than they are at present. It is said that at that time a man by the name of Russell took a bushel of grain on his shoulder to Pepperell to be ground. On arriving at the mill he found that it was being repaired and that he could not get his corn ground. IIe then started for Townsend where he had no better success. Should- ering his bag and quickening his step he arrived home near night- fall, when he went to the house of Isaac Shattuck, who lived on what was lately the town farm, where he borrowed a large cannon ball with which he ground a part of his grist which soon constitut- ed the healthy supper both for himself and his hungry children .- Lumber mills have been made in twelve different places in this town. A sash and blind shop and quite an extensive tannery were once opened and operated by the Baileys. Considerable lumber has been sold and carried out of the place for building purposes. Coop- ering, which has been carried on here for more than eighty years was at first confined to hard wood split staves and heads. All the work was done by hand. Lately the pine forests have disappeared from our hill sides and that timber is now extensively used in this lucrative business. Machinery does most of the work. To this source of thrift and wealth, we may trace much of the prosperity of the town. In the history of our schools there is nothing remark- able. It is a noticeable fact that the town records from our incorpo- ration up to 1800, are well written and generally the words are spelled correctly. The penmanship of some of the carliest town clerks, of James Badger, Alexander McIntosh, Randall McDonald and others, will compare favorably with that of more recent dates. Thus we find men who in their youth attended school only three or four weeks in a year, and some of them none at all, competent to serve as selectmen and town clerks. We must not infer from this however, that they were not diligent scholars. Their hours of
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