USA > New Hampshire > Sketches of the history of New-Hampshire, from its settlement in 1623, to 1833: comprising notices of the memorable events and interesting incidents of a period of two hundred and ten years > Part 13
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HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1769
to maturity. After his death the plan was revived by the Rev. and pious Eleazer Wheelock, Minister of Lebanon, Con., who established at that place a school for the education of Indians and Missionaries to the Indian tribes. One of his pupils was Sampson Occum, a Mohegan Indian, who exhib- ited talents and conduct so respectable, that he was licensed to preach the gospel, and sent to England to solicit benefac- tions towards the establishment of a College. His appearance there as a preacher, and the creditable manner in which he acquitted himself, excited the attention of pious and benevo- lent persons, and procured considerable sums of money, which were placed in the hands of a Board of Trustees, of which the Earl of Dartmouth was at the head.
Dr. Wheelock was now invited to several of the Colonies, with offers of aid. By the advice of the benefactors in England, he decided to accept the invitation of Gov. Went- worth and other gentlemen in New-Hampshire, to establish his intended Institution in this Province, and the town of Hanover was selected as the most favorable situation. The Governor gave it a Charter of incorporation in 1769, and it took its distinctive name from the Earl of Dartmouth, a prin- cipal benefactor. The whole region around was just begin- ning to emerge from a wilderness state ; the first College Edi- fice was constructed of logs; but the founder looked forward to a rapid increase of population, and his views were not disappointed. In a short time the College rose into respec- tability, and was endowed at different periods with considera- ble tracts of land both in this Province and Vermont. The first President Wheelock, having amply merited an enrol- ment among the benefactors of mankind, died in 1779, and was succeeded in the Presidency by his son, the Hon. John Wheelock, who held the office for a period of thirty-six
years. The first Commencement was in 1771; the first class of graduates consisted of four, of whom one was the second President. After the Revolutionary war, he visited Europe to solicit aid for the College, and obtained valuable benefac- tions. Dartmouth Hall, the largest of the present edifices, was erected in 1786.
President John Wheelock's successors in office have been the Rev. Drs. Brown, Dana, Tyler, and Lord. Including a respectable Medical Institution connected with it, the College has eight professorships, and libraries containing near 15,000 volumes. The present number of students, not including those of the Medical Department, is about 170. The whole number of graduates exceeds 1700, of whom 549 have been
1770.
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1770.]
PERIOD VII .- 1741-1763.
Ministers of the Gospel. Many of the graduates have risen to the highest stations, executive, legislative, judicial and liter- ary. Soon after the College was founded, the troubles atten- dant on the Revolutionary War interrupted the intercourse with the Indian tribes, and made it impracticable to obtain to any extent, their youth for the purpose of educating them. But though the particular end for which it was established has chiefly failed, it has yet accomplished other ends, of great magnitude and importance. The founders, if living, would have the satisfaction of knowing that it has produced its full share of eminent men in all the learned professions, and been extensively useful to mankind.
The sending of an armed force to Boston was justly regarded by the Colonies as an effort to rivet the chains which had been forged for them. Frequent disputes arose between the soldiers and citizens ; on the 5th of March, 1770, a party of the soldiers, having been highly provoked, fired on a collection of people and killed five persons. This event raised the popular resentment to the point of high exasperation. The merchants of some of the Colonies threatened to withdraw from all commercial intercourse with Portsmouth, unless the non- importation agreement were adopted there : a threat which moved the merchants and people of that town to unite in the measure with their brethren abroad, the influence of the Governor and crown officers notwithstanding. Opposition to the duties now became so menacing, and the complaints of the English merchants and manufacturers, whose business was curtailed by the non-importation agreement of the Americans, became so loud, as to induce the British Government to repeal the duties with the single exception of a duty of three pence per pound on tea. This being retained avowedly as an asser- tion of the riglit of Parliament to tax America, the opposition of the colonists was not diminished by the partial repeal, and they entered into an agreement not to import tea. By the mass of the people, the use of this favorite beverage was quite laid aside ; the few who drank it being compelled to do it secretly, for fear of falling under suspicion of indifference to the liber- ties of the country. Instances were not wanting of tea parties sipping from the cup even in cellars and garrets, for the sake of eluding discovery.
Down to this period all the Judicial Courts had been holden, and the public offices kept at Portsmouth. The labor and ex- pense of resorting thither bore hard on the people of the cen- tral and western towns and had long been a matter of complaint. The rapid increase of population in the western and northern
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1769
118
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [1772.
1773.]
sections of the Province called aloud for the redress of the grievance. After many delays and difficulties, the Assembly passed an act dividing the territory into five Counties, and establishing the necessary courts : the plan however was not to go into operation till the King's approbation should be signified, which was not done till 1771. Four of the Counties, Rockingham, Strafford, Hillsborough, and Grafton, were thus named by Gov. Wentworth after English noblemen to whom he was attached ; Cheshire, after the County of that name in England. Strafford and Grafton, then containing a less popu- lation than the others, were not admitted to exercise a distinct jurisdiction till 1773. By subsequent divisions of the old Counties, three new ones have been added : Coos, in 1803; Merrimac, in 1823 ; and Sullivan, in 1826.
Two hunters, named Nash and Sawyer, in their excursious in the northern woods, discovered about this time the celebra- ted Notch or Gap of the White Mountains-a vast ravine, inferior in extent and magnificence to none in the world .- They received from the Province a grant of 2000 acres of land, near the Notch, in reward of the discovery. To all the pro- prietors of lands on the upper part of Connecticut river, the discovery was one of great importance, as furnishing their nearest outlet to the ocean. The pass soon began to be used as a channel of communication. Not many years afterwards, an affecting incident imparted to it a melancholy interest, in addition to that derived from the wildness and grandeur of the scenery. A young woman who had been residing at Jef- ferson, set out in winter to meet her lover in Portsmouth, un- der the expectation of being there united to him in marriage. Her course lay through the Notch. From Jefferson to Bart- lett, a distance of thirty miles, there was no house, and only a horse path for a road. She advanced with extreme difficulty more than twenty miles, when, overcome with cold and the fatigue of walking in deep snows, she wrapped herself in her cloak, lay down under a small tree, fell asleep, and never awoke. About a month afterwards she was found-a stiffened corpse. The tree under which she slept the sleep of death,is still pointed out to the traveller as The Maid's Tree.
Mr. Livius, a member of the Council, having conceived a disgust at some measures of the Governor, repaired to Eng- land in 1772 and exhibited a complaint against him. On the first hearing before the Lords of Trade, their report was un- favorable to Wentworth ; but on a re-hearing before a Com- mittee of the King's Council, he was fully acquitted. This result was very acceptable to the people, and to the Assembly,
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PERIOD VII .- 1763-1775.
1773.]
who at their next session presented to the Governor an Ad- dress of congratulation. Thus far he had retained the good will of the people : but the circumstances of the times placed him in an extremely difficult situation, and the necessity on his part of supporting the arbitrary acts of Parliament soon impelled him to measures, taken indeed with evident reluct- ance, by which he forfeited his popularity.
In 1773 the doctrine of universal salvation was first preached in New-Hampshire, by Mr. Murray of Boston. His efforts were followed a few years afterwards by the establishment at Portsmouth of a church holding this principle. Others have since been formed in a considerable number of towns.
Benjamin Thompson, afterwards the celebrated Count Rum- ford, a native of Woburn, Ms., came to reside in the Province not far from the commencement of the year. He taught school in Concord with success, and married a widow lady, daughter of the Rev. and venerable Timothy Walker, the first minister of this town. Possessing remarkable attractions both of person and manners, he received many attentions, and was particu- larly noticed by Gov. Wentworth, who offered him a military commission. Little did his acquaintances here anticipate the height of distinction to which he was destined to rise. His attachment to the British cause made his residence in New- Hampshire undesirable, and he repaired to England. There he gained the acquaintance and patronage of noblemen, and acquired the honor of knighthood. Some flattering propo- sals induced him to enter the service of the Duke of Bavaria, in which country he was eminently useful, rose to the highest military rank, and was admitted into the order of nobility .- A recollection of his early attachments in Concord, then called Rumford, led him to add to his high title the name of Rum- ford. As a practical philosophier and philanthropist, his fame spread through Europe and America ; and after his death in France in 1814, an Eulogy on his character and scientific dis- coveries was read before the National Institute. His career is a striking instance of genius emerging from poverty and obscurity, to the highest distinction. He evinced his friendly remembrance of his native land by handsome bequests to Harvard University, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Surveys of considerable portions of the Province were made in 1773 and 1774 by Mr. Holland, and the results exhibited in. a large Map, which, some years after, was engraven in Lon- don, and published under the direction of Paul Wentworth, Esq.
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772.
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HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
1774.]
The non-importation of tea having occasioned an accumu- lation of this article in the warehouses of the East India Com- pany, they were authorized to export their own teas on payment of the duty of three pence per pound, and sent sev- eral cargoes to America. At some of the Colonial ports it was not permitted to be landed, and at Boston it was thrown into the sea. The first cargo destined for Portsmouth was landed in June, 1774, but the people compelled the consignee to reship and send it away. A second cargo arriving after- wards, consigned to the same person, the windows of his lodgings were broken, and he thought it necessary to apply to the Governor for protection. This cargo also he was obliged to reship, and send to Halifax.
Prior to these transactions,the Assembly had chosen a Com- mittee of correspondence to communicate with the other Col- onies on the common dangers, and the means of averting them: on which the Governor adjourned, and soon after dis- solved them, in the hope that after this step the Committee would not venture to act. He found himself disappointed .- At the call of the Committee the assembly met again; and though the Governor went among them, declared their meet- ing illegal, and ordered them to disperse-yet as soon as he had retired, they proceeded to write to all the towns in the Province, inviting them to send deputies to meet in Conven- tion at Exeter, for the purpose of electing delegates to a Gen- eral Congress of the American Colonies. In reference to the public dangers, they appointed a day of fasting and prayer, which the people observed with much solemnity. On this occasion the Ministers of the Gospel, who were almost una- nimously the advocates of the cause of liberty, warned their congregations of the unhallowed designs of arbitrary power, and cast whatever of influence they possessed into the scale of their country's rights.
The Convention, to the number of eighty-five Dep- uties, met in July, and chose Nathaniel Folsom and John Sullivan to represent New-Hampshire in the first American Congress. Money to meet the expense of the del- egation, the towns furnished by the voluntary contribution of their just proportions. In every part of the Province town- meetings were holden, in which the people passed resolutions expressive of their abhorrence of the measures of the British Government, and their unalterable determination to maintain their liberties. Gov. Wentworth, attached as he was to the British interests, now saw that it would be impossible to pre- vent New-Hampshire making common cause with the other
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PERIOD VII .- 1763-1775.
1774.]
Colonies, and acknowledged the fact in his letters to the Eng- lish Ministry. He beheld a power-that of public opinion- rising into vigorous action, which he found himself utterly unable to resist. The appellations of Whig and Tory had now come into common use, the former designating the friends of American liberty, the latter the supporters of British pre- tensions.
Several regiments of British troops under Gen. Gage occu- pied Boston ; and the trade of the town was ruined by the oppressive Act of Parliament, closing the harbor and remov- ing the custom house to Salem. Liberal contributions in money and provisions, were made not only in this Province, but in most others, for the relief of the inhabitants, of whom not a few were reduced to beggary by the cessation of business .- In this gloomy state of things the Continental Congress met in September at Philadelphia. Their proceedings were marked with wisdom and moderation. They approved the opposition of Massachusetts to the measures of the Ministry ; declared the resolution of all the Colonies to stand by that Province ; agreed upon a Declaration of Rights ; bound themselves and their constituents not to import British goods ; and framed a petition to the King, and an address to the British Nation.
Gov. Wentworth had thus far given less offence to the friends of liberty than any other of the royal Governors in America. His personal character was amiable : but he found it impossible both to please the English Ministry, and avoid offending the people of his Province. The British troops in Boston being destitute of barracks, and the carpenters of that place refusing to work for them, the Governor, on the appli- cation of Gen. Gage, secretly employed an Agent to hire carpenters in Portsmouth. His conduct in this particular was openly denounced, even by some of his own family connec- tions, wlio on this occasion silenced the voice of nature to give car to the voice of patriotism-the cry of reprobation was loud-his influence rapidly declined-and the effective power of government was transferred to the COMMITTEE OF SAFETY, a body of men deriving their authority from the people through the medium of the Convention, and appointed to watch over the public interests. Strong popular feeling gave to the recommendations of the Committee all the force of law.
The proceedings of the Continental Congress perfectly accorded with the feelings of the people. At a meeting of the town of Portsmouth, it was voted to adhere to the non- importation association, to choose a Committee to observe the conduct of all persons in relation to it, and in case of any L
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HISTORY. OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [1775.
being "hardy enough to violate it," to expose them by publish- ing their names in the Gazette. They bore "testimony against every species of gambling," and enjoined industry aud frugal- ity. The heavy expenses formerly incurred in the matter of funerals and mourning dresses, were by general consent curtailed ; little was retained except mourning badges of black crape or ribbon.
Near the close of this eventful year, an express arrived from Boston with the intelligence, that the King in Council had prohibited the exportation of gunpowder and military stores to America. It was also ascertained that armed vessels were to be sent with troops, to occupy the Fort commanding the entrance of Portsmouth harbor. The fort contained con- siderable quantities of powder, cannon, and small arms .- Aware of the importance of securing these articles, John Sullivan of Durham, John Langdon, and Thomas Pickering of Portsmouth, collected a body of men, seized the Fort, and carried off an hundred barrels of powder, the small arms, and the lighter pieces of cannon, before the Governor even suspec- ted the design. It was a bold but well timed enterprise, executed just before the arrival of the Scarborough Frigate and a sloop of war, with a party of soldiers from Boston, who came too late to effect their purpose. Secretary Atkinson, who was personally a friend to Langdon, told him he must instantly flee the country, or his head would be "the button for a gallows rope before the expiration of a week :" on which the by-standers declared that they would protect him at all hazards. The arrival of the vessels of war with a military force, emboldened Governor Wentworth and his friends to associate for the support of the King's government ; but all the strength he could command was utterly incompetent to cope with the force of the Province. A second Convention of Delegates, chosen by the towns, met at Exeter in Jan. 1775, elected John Sullivan and John Langdon Delegates from New-Hampshire to the second Continental Congress, and appointed a Committee of Correspondence to watch over the- public safety.
The remaining part of the winter was passed in a state of suspense. Of the course which the British Ministry might decide to pursue, the people waited for intelligence with the deepest anxiety. The first spring ships brought reports that the prospects in England were favorable to conciliation ; but subsequent arrivals brought news of a very different aspect, importing that the petition of Congress to the King had been contemptiously rejected, that he had demanded an augmenta-
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PERIOD VII .- 1763-1775.
1775.]
tion of his forces both naval and military, and that new Acts had been passed by Parliament to restrain the commerce and fisheries of the Colonists. Dr. Franklin, then in England, wrote home to the Secretary of Congress, "The sun of liberty is set : you must light up the candles of industry and econo- my." Apprehending that war was inevitable, the Bostonians began to remove into the country. No alternative was left the Americans but submission or open resistance ; and everv month made it more apparent that the controversy must be decided by the bloody arbitrament of the sword.
These were the times that tried men's souls. On the eve of this contest with the power of Britain, the Thirteen United Colonies contained 3,000,000 inhabitants, of whom about 90,- 000 were in New-Hampshire. Of the events of the war, the plan of this work will not admit of any considerable detail ; those only can be noticed with much particularity which oc- curred in the immediate vicinity, or in which the New- Hampshire troops took an active part.
In the course of the twelve years included in this Period, an unusual number of eminent persons deceased. Richard and Thomas Wibird, Esquires, brothers and merchants in Portsmouth, both died in 1765, leaving a very respectable reputation as men and Christians. Richard was a member of the Council, and Judge of Probate. Thomas left handsome legacies to Harvard College, to Dr. Wheelock's Indian School, and to the North Church in Portsmouth. The Hon. Henry Sherburne, a man "constant and zealous in his devotional exercises," and warmly attached to christian institutions, died in 1767-having been for many years Speaker of the Assem- bly, a Counsellor, and a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, the duties of which offices he discharged with great fidelity. The year 1770 is the era of the death of Mr. Whitefield, which occurred at Newbury Port. In the week preceding his death, he preached several times at Portsmouth and Exeter, in the open fields, to audiences so numerous that none of the build- ings could contain them. Such was the public sense of his loss, that on the day of his funeral the bells of Portsmouth were tolled for several hours. These deaths were succeeded after no long intervals by those of Thomas Packer, who had been for thirty years Sheriff of the Province ; of Col. Thomas Wallingford of Somersworth, an extensive landliolder and a Judge of the Superior Court; of Sampson Sheafe, a princi- pal merchant, and member of the Council ; of the Rev. Arthur Browne, who had long been the minister of the Episcopal society in Portsmouth ; and of the Hon. Daniel Peirce, Re-
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HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE
[1775.
corder of Deeds and a Counsellor. Mr. Peirce "read much in Divinity, not as a science, but as a rule of conduct, Dr. Doddridge was his favorite author, and the maxims deduced from these studies regulated him both in public and private life." These brief notices make it apparent, that many of the public characters of New-Hampshire at that day, were men who cherished a deep reverence for the christian reli- gion. This was extensively the fact in New-England at large. May the Legislators and influential men of succeeding gener- ations follow so praiseworthy an example.
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PERIOD VIII.
FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR IN 1775, TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PRESENT CONSTITU- TION OF THE STATE IN 1784.
The first scene in the great drama of the Revolutionary war was opened at Lexington on the 19th of April, 1775. A quantity of military stores and provisions having been collected at Concord, Ms., the British Commander in Boston despatched a force to seize or destroy them. At Lexington, these troops found the militia of the town drawn up on the green to oppose them. The British Major Pitcairn rode toward the militia, crying out, "Disperse, you rebels, throw down your arms and disperse." Not being obeyed, he came nearer, discharged his pistol and ordered his men to fire-eiglit of the militia fell dead on the spot, and the rest retreated. After the enemy had departed, the bodies of the slain were carried into Lexington meeting house, some of the seats of which for a time after- wards exhibited the stains of their blood. The troops proceeded to Concord, and destroyed a part of the stores ; but were attacked on their retreat by the militia of the neighboring towns, and must inevitably have been cut off, had they not met on the way a powerful reinforcement. Their total loss was 250 men ; that of the Americans, about eighty.
The intelligence of this battle spread over the country like a roll of thunder, and aroused all America. It found Stark at work in his sawmill, and many others ploughing in their fields, who, instantly dropping the implements of labor, seized the the sword or musket, and hastened to the post of danger. In a few days ten thousand men, of whom 1200 were New- Hampshire militia, invested Boston. As many of the troops of this Province as it was thought necessary to retain, were formed into two regiments, under Colonels John Stark of Manchester and James Reid of Londonderry.
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