USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Manchester > Semi-centennial of the city of Manchester, New Hampshire, 1896 > Part 13
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H.
On Reception .- Henry A. Farrington, A. J. Lane, Charles L. Richardson, William H. Plumer, Walter Cody, William Weber, Hiram Hill, John G. Lane, Luther S. Proctor, and Warren Harvey.
On Entertainment .- William P. Merrill, Ignatius T. Webster, Charles K. Walker, Charles S. Fisher, and David W. Collins.
On Old Residents' Badge .- George W. Dodge, Cassius C. Webster, and Hiram Forsaith.
On Old Residents' Association and Registration Book .- David L. Perkins, Joseph L. Stevens, and Henry A. Farrington.
At this meeting, Fred L. Wallace was chosen corresponding secretary.
At a meeting held August 11, the sub-committees reported substantial progress. A distinctive old residents' badge was adopted and the clerk was instructed to present the constitution that had been drafted to a mass meeting of old residents during the Semi-Centennial week. Steps were taken to establish a bureau of infor- mation at the city hall for the benefit of visiting friends, and for the furnishing of a ladies' parlor adjacent to the hall fronting on Elm street. September 3 it was voted that the old residents' badges, at twenty-five cents each, be restricted to those who had registered, and who were residents of Manchester as early as 1846. Nearly a thousand names had by this time been recorded. Seven hundred and ninety-eight badges were disposed of, while only three hundred tickets had been provided for the grand reviewing stand. This fact alone attests the wide interest that was entertained by the "Old Guard," at home and abroad. Indeed, the result far exceeded the expectations of those best qualified to judge. To meet the expenses of the committee, including a dinner and carriages for the aged and infirm, $300 was allotted to the committee, and of this sum $61.90 was returned to the general fund after paying all bills.
The registered names represent Colorado, Connecticut, Dakota, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. Doubtless others were here from other states and territories of the Union.
Of three hundred four names recorded in the new registration book, two hun- dred fifty-three were natives of New Hampshire, twenty of Vermont, eighteen of Massachusetts, and the balance were born in Connecticut, Maine, New York, Vir- ginia, Canada, England, Ireland, and Scotland; and when the pages are filled, as they ultimately will be, by those who were here a half century back, the record will be still more interesting. In this book many facts are recorded in the marginal space that will be of future interest.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7.
The old historic city hall building, the official headquarters of the old residents during the celebration, was handsomely decorated for the festive occasion. By the patriotic efforts of Swedish citizens, a special sum of one hundred dollars was raised
0
1809
ISII
OLDEST RESIDENTS.
e
COL. JOHN S. KIDDER.
MRS. LOUISA B. ROBIE.
ISAAC HUSE.
MRS. J. C. MOORE.
THE FOUR OLDEST NATIVE RESIDENTS.
1
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H.
and turned over to the proper committee for the purpose of decorating the city hall exterior. The building was handsomely trimmed with streamers, festoons, and shields. On the south end was the city seal and the Elm-street-side was adorned with life-like portraits of Hiram Brown, the first mayor, Mayor Clarke, and Gen. John Stark, the hero of Bennington. The offices of Mayor Clarke were also artisti- cally decorated. The hall was tastily decorated in honor of the old residents. Over the platform was a large cloth sign, bearing the inscription: "Manchester Welcomes Her Children of 1846." The hall and ladies' parlor were tastily decorated with flags and streamers, and suspended from the walls, as an added welcome, were the portraits of a dozen prominent citizens of the past and present. They were Moody Currier, Frederick Smyth, James A. Weston, Ezekiel A. Straw, Daniel Clark, Phinehas Adams, Oliver Hunt, Mrs. Dr. Amos G. Gale, Alfred G. Fairbanks, David P. Perkins, Phineas Stevens, and Daniel C. Gould, Sr.
On the morning of September 7, several hundred of the "Old Guard" assem- bled in city hall. « It was an inspiring scene to see the hearty handshakes of the veterans, as they greeted old friends whom they had not seen for years, and the faces of the veterans were illuminated with smiles by many long-forgotten remin- iscences brought out by the happy occasion.
Before taking electric cars for the review stand, Chairman Warren Harvey called the old residents to order and said:
Ladies and Gentlemen :- It is my privilege as chairman of the old residents com- mittee to call this assembly to order, and to congratulate you upon the opportunity which has come to you to participate today in Manchester's Semi-Centennial celebration. The Manchester we see today bears little resemblance to that Manchester which fifty years ago we saw incorporated a city. None of us dreamed that we should live to see the day when that small beginning should expand into the city we now behold. But it is probable that ten per cent of the population of this city in 1846 are still living. It is certainly gratifying to us all to observe the character of Manchester's growth, as well as the extent of it. It has always been along healthy lines; the religious and educa- tional interests of the people have not been neglected or lost sight of. But the church and the schoolhouse have kept pace with the factory, the workshop, and every line of industry, and the Manchester we see today suffers in comparison with no New England city in any particular. It gives me great pleasure to present to you a son of the late Col. John B. Clarke, who was so widely known to the older inhabitants of this city, and so universally respected,-our present mayor,-William C. Clarke, who will officially extend to you the city's welcome and cordial greeting.
Mayor Clarke, in response, said:
Ladies and Gentlemen :- While all Manchester is rejoicing this week in a demon- stration that few of us will ever live to see renewed fifty years hence, to none does it mean so much as to the men and women who were here at the city's birth, and to whose brains, sagacity, and activity in building up the foremost community in New Hamp- shire we, who have followed after, owe so much. This is a day when the "Old Guard" commands our undivided attention and respect, and while participating with pleasure in the other public exercises of the week I feel today that I am more honored than in all that has transpired, or will take place, in being privileged to extend to this noble
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THE OLD RESIDENTS.
gathering an official welcome. It is also with a feeling of no little satisfaction that I find my efforts in organizing an Old Residents' Association so conspicuously rewarded. Six months ago I placed in the office of the city clerk a record book, in which I invited all those in any way identified with Manchester in 1846, or prior thereto, to register their names, together with the date of their settlement in Manchester. Interest in the effort to secure a registration of the "Old Guard" at once sprang up, and as the days went by the list of names began to assume gratifying proportions, and before this week opened the pages of the book were filled with the signatures of citizens who were here when the city was incorporated, or before then, who expected to be present at the celebration of her fiftieth anniversary. Over one thousand names had been entered in the register when it was closed to make place for another and larger book, covering in detail the history of the old residents, and which I doubt not will now lead the way towards the organization of a permanent Old Residents' Association. You have indeed gloriously honored Manchester in the past, and today you honor her again by assem- bling in such large and distinguished numbers to assist in carrying out her anniversary exercises. City hall is cheerfully placed at your disposal during the week, and here I trust you may meet and renew old acquaintances, and talk over happily and profitably those dear old days when you were leaders in the affairs of a city that has since become so beautiful and successful.
At 10 o'clock the old residents were furnished free transportation by electric cars to the review stand, on Tremont square, where special seats were reserved for them. After the parade a dinner was served in city hall. At 2.30 P. M. a meeting of old residents was held in city hall, the program being arranged by a committee on enter- tainment, consisting of William P. Merrill, Ignatius T. Webster, Charles K. Walker, David W. Collins, and Charles S. Fisher. The singing was under the direction of Hon. Alpheus Gay, and Fred W. Batchelder presided at the piano. The program opened with prayer by Rev. Anson C. Coult, followed by singing of "Auld Lang Syne." The principal address of the evening was delivered by Hon. Joseph Kidder.
SEMI-CENTENNIAL ADDRESS OF HON. JOSEPH KIDDER.
It was past the middle of the nineteenth century. Gold in large quantities had been found in California. Extravagant stories were told of the fortunes made in a day at various points on the Pacific slope. People by the thousands left their business and their homes in the East, South, and West, and joined in the mad rush for riches in the Eldorado of the far West. Every known method of transportation was utilized and many, full of hope, with scanty means, went overland, on foot, so great was the desire to gather in the golden harvest of the new country. Among the pedestrian pioneers were two boys from Ohio. For many a weary day they plodded on through forests. over sandy plains, and forded streams in their haste to reach the land of their dreams, until one night they came to the top of the Rocky Mountains, with torn and bleeding feet, and laid down for rest. In the morning they awoke from their broken slumbers unrefreshed, and meditated silently on their forlorn condition and uncertain prospects. In the far-off East, upon which the sun had risen, was the home of their childhood, with its many fond associations, pleasant memories, and loving hearts. A mother's hand seemed stretched out to beckon them back again and affection, as a clear voice sounding in their ears, pleaded for their return. They were deaf to all entreaties, and stimulated by a burning desire for wealth from the unseen world they dropped a few tears, turned their faces westward, and resumed their march, with heavy hearts, along an almost imperceptible trail toward the Pacific ocean. And soon they were gone beyond recali.
HON. JOSEPH KIDDER. PRESIDENT OLD RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION.
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THE OLD RESIDENTS.
How striking the similitude to our own lot, dear friends. For fifty years, like the ancient Jews, we have been seeking the promised land of wealth and honor, through toil and sacrifices. One half the journey towards the end of a century in the history of our municipality is finished. We camp for a night on the dividing line of time, not space. Many are footsore and weary of the march, despairing of the goal. Of the ten or twelve thousand joyous souls in our ranks, big with untold hopes and aspirations, when we began the struggle of the new life, as a legalized eity with a charter, the great majority, through change of plans, the misfortunes of the journey, and the sad inroads made by the great destroyer, not half as many hundreds as we had thousands are gathered here tonight, in these festal halls, to grasp each other's hands, extend congrat- ulations, and tell the varied stories of their lives. We scarcely comprehend, much less realize, the decimating power of five decades. When a young man I knew nearly every family in a neighboring town, and could speak their names as I met them on the street or at public gatherings. A young man was there with whom I grew intimate and was soon on friendly terms. The acquaintance ripened into enduring friendship. The years rolled away and not long since he died. His last request was that as his friend I should conduct the religious services at his burial. A large company of citizens and friends was present on the occasion. As I sought to speak words of consolation I scrutinized the faces before me most earnestly, and to my surprise the only one recognized among the number familiar to me fifty years before was that of my friend, who lay still and forever silent in the habiliments of death. What a comment on the brevity and vanity of human life! Truly, in the providence of God, the generations of men come upon the stage of action almost in an hour, and like the early clouds and evanescent shadows of a summer's morning flee away and are gone forever!
Solemn and somber thoughts crowd upon me for utterance. I am overwhelmed by their magnitude and seriousness. And yet I am honored to be your choice as speaker for the brief time allotted me. It is a unique and distinguished body that I address. Rarely, if ever, was one like it. A similar one may not soon be convened here, or anywhere else. It is a society remarkable in its make-up and characteristies. It is the Veteran Residents' Association of Manchester. The youngest member is at least fifty years of age by the terms of organization; the oldest eighty, ninety, perhaps more. Strike the average. It is quite likely sixty years or more. The number reported to me in all, as entitled to membership by enrolling their names on the books of the society, exceeds nine hundred. Napoleon, it is said, ninety-eight years ago, at the famous battle of the Pyramids, incited his soldiers to action and to victory by the assurance that forty centuries looked down upon their valor, and suecess would crown every man with the wreath of honor who did his best for the cause. His arms were victorious. He won the battle. I cannot shout a similar incentive in your ears, or stir your enthusiasm by an eloquent appeal to your patriotism or your love. This is not my province. But if all the old residents of the city of Manchester, now living, are in this presence tonight, by multiplying the number, say seven hundred, by the average age. I am speaking to and of more than forty thousand years of active human life, covering a period twice greater than the number of years since the commencement of the Christian Era. But better still if we remember and practice the sentiments of the poet:
"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, aets the best."
We are gathered, members of the Old Residents' Association, to celebrate an impor- tant and deeply interesting event; one in which none of us can ever again participate. In this respect it is the one occasion of our lives. Naturally our thoughts turn into the reminiscent and historic vein, and we compare, mentally at least, the past with the
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H.
present, and wonder if the progress in art, science, literature, morals, and religious ideas and opinions for the coming fifty years will be equal to or excel what our own eyes have witnessed since Manchester was incorporated as a city. For one, I find material for thought and discussion in days long prior to the legislative act that can- celled our town organization and bestowed upon us as a people the rights and privileges of a city form of government. But Manchester has few legends running far back into the misty past. Clearly the state was once the domain of the unlettered savage, who roamed at will through the forests and chased the panther and the bear to their hiding places. Amoskeag falls was one of their principal fishing places. The Merrimack river was alive with salmon, shad, alewives, and eels, and the smaller fish common in her waters. The place where ex-Governor Smyth's house now stands was the camping ground of the dusky Indians. I remember the spot well, for in my boyhood days I hunted there frequently, with good success, for tomahawks, arrow heads, stone chisels, glass beads, and other trinkets, the product of their skill and ingenuity when not other- wise employed. A little further down the river, in the neighborhood of Mr. Blood's shops, and adjacent to the old burying ground, was a similar tract, some two hundred feet in diameter, without doubt used for the same purposes. The vegetable mold had been consumed by the oft-lighted fires, and nothing but sand remained where the numer- ous wigwams once stood, and the natives cooked their food in a rude way and heated their feet on their return from hunting and fishing expeditions. Possibly these things, and a few others similar in characteristics, in the vicinity of the falls, gave occasional travelers and newspaper correspondents in former times the idea that Manchester was only a series of useless sand banks, and the soil ill adapted to agricultural purposes. This was a partial and erroneous view. As a general statement, nothing could be further from the truth, as more recent observation and practical tests of the productive- ness of the soil fully demonstrate beyond cavil. The primitive forests, as we well remember, with local exceptions, were of hard wood, and many of the trees of enormous size. The soil was admirably adapted to the growth of large crops of grass, corn, and oats. For farm and garden purposes, with stimulating mixtures and manures containing fertilizing properties, emphasized by judicious cultivation, the results in most instances are at least satisfactory, if not marvelous, in our eyes. The story of Manchester sand banks is now a veritable myth, and soon all traces of the legend will drop from human recollection.
·
Renewing, for a moment, our thread of Indian life, and remembering the part he enacted in the scenes about the falls, it may be remarked that about the only signs of his former presence in the neighborhood are to be found in the somewhat antiquated histories of the old town of Harrytown, and the familiar names of Massabesic lake, Amoskeag falls, Uncanoonuc mountains, and Wanolancet, the noted sachem of a tribe of his fellows once dwelling in the forests along the banks of the Merrimack. Civiliz- ation is the menace of nomadic tribes, and as the unfortunate red men gradually retired from New England, before the onward march of the arts and sciences, so, one day in the future, when there is no refuge for their broken numbers except the Pacific ocean, the race will gradually melt away and these curious people be blotted from the earth forever. The prophecy is as sure of fulfillment as that the enlightened nations shall move on to still higher planes of social, moral, and religious life.
I am especially glad tonight for an opportune moment, in the presence of this dis- tinguished body of men and women, who can never come together again under similar circumstances, to vindicate the character of the early citizens of Harrytown, Derryfield, and Manchester, being at once the same place but named consecutively in the order here written, for be it known that some historians, as well as scribblers for the public press, have either ignorantly or maliciously cast obloquy upon the names and fame of the fathers of the present and preceding generations once residing within the borders
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CONCERT HALL
T. J. CARTER
D. CLARKS OFFICE.
ENCINTER.
W.I.GOODS=\& GROCERIES.
WILLIS HESTEY.
DR .C.WELLS
: J MARSHALL
AUCTION & COMMISSION STORE .
H.F. COURSER.
SHERIFF'S OFFICE.
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BOOKS
HARRINGTON
CH NAARINGT
UNION RE
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THE OLD UNION BLOCK.
FIRST BRICK BUILDING ON WEST SIDE OF ELM STREET.
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BOOKSTORE
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WM. PARKER BENTIST.
BOOK-STORE DOMU
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H.
of our present city limits. Tonight I stand in defense of these fathers and bear testi- mony to their eminent worthiness as high-minded and honorable citizens, as a whole. If they were here, with strength to walk our streets, they would be able to defend them- selves. But they are gone forever from our midst. Some of us, perhaps, are their descendants. We honor their names. We are proud of our ancestry, and will gladly defend their character at all proper times. We should be derelict in duty if we did not stand like a rock in their defense.
The pioneer settlers in the town, as we learn from authentic sources, were John Goffe, Jr., Edward Lingfield, and Benjamin Kidder. These men came from Massachu- setts in 1721 or 1722, and built rude houses on the north side of Cohas brook, near where it empties its waters into the Merrimack. A few years later, Archibald Stark, the father of the Revolutionary hero, John McNiel, and John Riddell, now spelled Riddle, settled near Amoskeag falls, on lands afterwards known as "Stark place," and "Kidder farm." These six men are the first known white settlers in Harrytown. Subsequently their numbers were increased to a limited degree up to 1751, when a charter was granted by the governor and council under the name of Derryfield. The growth of the town was largely from within and quite slow. To divert the citizens from agricultural pursuits, upon which they were largely dependent, and to add to their discouragements, the French and Indian wars broke out and made heavy drafts on the able-bodied men of Derryfield. The arts of war always sadly interfered with the arts of peace, especially in a new country. The inhabitants of Derryfield had their hands full in clearing their lands, providing shelter, food, and raiment for their families, traveling long distances by forest paths and crooked trails to reach the centers of trade and to purchase scanty supplies. To these hardships add contagious diseases and the common sicknesses inci- dent to life even in its best conditions, with all the horrors of pinching poverty, and war all about them for a term of years, and you have a picture before you to appeal to the strongest heart and fill the mind with the keenest anguish. This was very largely the melancholy condition of affairs in the town for a period of some twenty-five or thirty years, ending with the close of the Revolutionary War. This period of time included, of course, the great sanguinary struggle between the American colonies and the mother country. It was a long and desperate struggle for human rights and human liberty. Derryfield bore its share in this great and bloody contest heroically and unflinchingly. With these fathers of ours-the good stock from which some of my hearers are descended-patriotism was never at a discount. At one time, it is said, on good authority it is believed, that thirty-four out of thirty-six of the able-bodied men were at the front, in the thickest of the fight "for God and their native land."
During all this time the mothers in the town were not less patriotic or self-sacri- ficing to the end of securing good government and peaceful homes for themselves and their children. In the absence of the men during the continuance of the wars, it was a common thing in the spring of the year for the women with hoes in hand to go into the lot and plant corn and other crops, care for them during the summer, and in the autumn gather in the harvests for the sustenance of men and beasts. Besides rearing the children and performing the household duties, in a primitive way, in the long winter evenings they made vigorous use of the spinning wheel, converting the wool of the sheep into yarn, from which the stockings and mittens were knit or woven into cloth on the old hand loom, for the use of the family. The cloth was cut and made into gar- ments by the same diligent hands; or committed to the care of the tailoress who went from house to house as a traveling seamstress. The shoemaker, with his kit of tools, went on his annual tour among the families in the same way and made up a year's supply of new boots and shoes from cow hide and sole leather; or repaired the old ones and made them for the time practically as good as new. At the time of which I now speak there were but few inhabitants in the town, and they were widely scattered, with
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THE OLD RESIDENTS.
few or no social privileges. It was not the age of schoolhouses or public schools. Books were scarce and teaching, as a profession, was unknown in the town. Many young men, and women, too, grew to manhood and to womanhood without the ability to write their names, and when the occasion required made their "cross" or "mark" through the remainder of their lives.
What I have said in regard to schools and schoolhouses applies with alnost equal propriety and force to church structures and religious teaching during the same period. While most of the early settlers were from the common walks of life and uneducated, with the exception of Archibald Stark, and a few others, yet among them were mnen of strong religious convictions and an unwavering faith in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. These men would have built churches and maintained publie religious worship but for the want of means and the co-operation of their fellow townsmen. As it was, barns and houses were occasionally utilized for these purposes, when an itin- erant preacher came into their midst. The influence of these believers, quickened by an occasional sermon, with the aid of such moral instruction as was imparted by the mothers in their homes and by their firesides, was not without effect in the sparsely settled community. These children, born of rugged parents, possessing strong consti- tutions and a love of freedom, with a keen sense of honesty, integrity, and honor, grew up to be worthy men and women and became good citizens and worthy people, as the world goes. True they were not saints, more than Jim Bludsoe of the Mississippi; but for rare bravery in the hour of need, sterling integrity in every day life, and the virtues essential to good citizenship, they were at least the equals of their fellows in any part of the state. Tell me, then, thou honest chronicler of human events and human actions, with the evidence within your reach, can you conscientiously disparage the character of such men and women, or write bitter words of criticism in your historics and send them down to unborn generations?
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