USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Some things about Coventry-Benton, New Hampshire (town history) > Part 9
USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Benton > Some things about Coventry-Benton, New Hampshire (town history) > Part 9
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He never accumulated property, though he sometimes boasted that "Chase Whitcher and I pay a larger tax than any other two men in town." He died suddenly in 1878 at the age of 51. His widow still lives in town, as do five of his sons, Fred M., Byron M., Alfred E., Leslie and Carroll. One son, Charles Wilder, lives in the West. The eldest of the family, Lucetta S., married Amos M. Pike and resides in Haverhill, another daughter, Hannah, resides in Stone- ham, Mass., and the youngest daughter, May, is the wife of Albert A. Foss.
Pardon W. Allen, who married Dorcas, a daughter of Samuel and Merab (Royce) Howe, came to town in 1871, and remained several years. He lived on the Ira Whitcher farm and filled various town offices, serving for several years as town clerk. He was a justice of peace, and magnified his office. There is on record in the Grafton registry of deeds an agreement signed by Justice Allen in his official
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capacity, according to which a man and his wife were divorced, the wife promising never to trouble the husband, the cash consideration being specified. It is probably the only divorce on record in New Hampshire on the authority of a justice of the peace. He removed to Haverhill about 1880, where he has since resided. Charles Cutting, William Tibbetts, C. E. True, E. L. True, Charles Wilder Tyler, Stephen Marden, Charles L. Spooner, and Chester Drown were voters in Benton in 1871. William Tibbetts remained in town till his death, a few years later. Chester Drown lived for a few years on the Amos C. Mann farm on Tunnel Stream. In 1872, Gilbert P. Wright, Jr., and Newell C. Wright, sons of Gilbert P., George H. Clark, son of Jere- miah A., William W. Eastman, son of Sylvester, Solomon J. Hutchins, son of Noah C., Dennison D. Davis, son of Jeremiah B., Stephen Plant and Frank Whiteman were new
voters. The Wright brothers, a little later, removed to Haverhill, where Newell C. has been somewhat prominent in local politics. He was also a member of the 1st. Regt. N. H. Volunteers in the Spanish-American war. George H. Clark married Susan, daughter of Samuel and Emily Whitcher, and a few years later purchased the Peter Howe farm, where he has since resided, a prosperous farmer, and one of the town's most substantial citizens. He has served as selectman, and has been one of the active promoters of the local Methodist church. His wife died, April 24, 1900, at the age of 41. William W. Eastman is the youngest son of Sylvester and Louisa (Whitcher) Eastman. He was
born in northern New York, October, 1850, but came to Benton with his parents when a child, where he has since lived. He has been active in all the affairs of the town, has served as selectman, road agent, tax collector, town clerk,
WILLIAM W. EASTMAN.
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and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1888. He is actively engaged in farming, owning the Ira Whitcher and Chase Whitcher farms, residing on the latter. He has also engaged in lumbering, and is justly recognized as one of the most influential citizens of the town. He married, first, Georgia Aldrich, of Haverhill, who died Apr. 19, 1892 ; second, Mrs. Edna Morse Eastman, widow of Jo- seph Eastman, of Easton.
Solomon J. Hutchins married the daughter of William Harden, and resides on the William T. Torsey farm on the East road. Frank Tyrrell, son of Benjamin H., John S. Annis, son of Samuel C., and Fred M. Tyler, son of Charles C., became voters in 1873. John S. Annis married Ida Tyler and lived in town until his death in 1903. Fred M. Clark, married a daughter of James H. Keyser, and has al- ways lived in town, since the death of his wife on the Jonas G. Brown farm. He had a family of ten children, six of whom are living. Only one, the youngest, resides at home. Mr. Tyler has inherited many of the characteristics of his father.
New voters in 1874 were: Olin A. R. True, De Elden Tibbets, son of William, Franklin Hill, John McLean, Orman L. Mann, son of George W., and Roberto C. Cox, son of John P. De Elden Tibbets is a farmer, owning the William C. Bixby farm at High street, and has spent several years in the employ of the Boston & Maine railroad. Orman L. Mann is the only one of the eight sons of George W. Mann who has remained in town. He is a successful and prosperous farmer, and is one of the leading citizens in the town. He lives on the Louisa Eastman farm and owns the Moses W. Howe farm and also in connection with his son-in-law, Charles C. Tyler, the old homestead farm of
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his father, George W. Mann. Roberto C. Cox, or Birt Cox, as he has chosen to call himself since reaching his majority, married a daughter of Alonzo Spooner and lives on the Daniel Whitcher farm, where he has also a small saw mill, a cider mill and a blacksmith shop. George E. White came to town in 1874, purchased the Josiah F. Jeffers and the Joseph Nudd farms, but remained only a few years when he removed to Haverhill.
Wilbur F. True was a new voter in 1875, but soon after become station agent at East Haverhill where he still resides. Nathan D. Hutchins, son of Lucius, was also a voter for the first time this year, but did not remain long in town. Al- bion G. Whitcher, son of Amos, William B. Page, son of Daniel D., Leman S. Keyser, son of John O., and Cleve- land Tyrrell, son of Benjamin H., became voters in 1876, but soon left town. Alfred Morrill purchased a farm in the Page district, and later purchased the James A. and James H. Cox farms at North Benton where he still resides.
George Welch, son of Silas M., became a voter 1877 and has since resided in town. Other new voters were Melvin J. Mann, son of. George W., A. Elmore Tyler, son of Charles C., and Lebina H. Parker, son of Prescott. A. E. Tyler is still living in town and has until recently been with his son, Charles C., on the George W. Mann farm. Le- bina H. Parker remained with his father on the homestead farm, and is one of the most influential citizens of the town. He has not only followed the pursuit of farming but has en- gaged in other enterprises, owning the creamery at Woods- ville as well as Benton, and is also proprietor of the Parker House, a new and commodious summer hotel at the base of Moosilauke, erected on the site of the Jonathan Hunkings homestead. He has been active in all town affairs has served
LEBINA H. PARKER.
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for many years as chairman of the board of selectmen, represented the town in the legislature of 1887, and was delegate to the Constitutional convention of 1903. Mr. Parker is unmarried and resides with his mother and sisters on the homestead farm. Gilbert P. Wright moved to Haverhill this year, and Eben T. Hardy moved to the Wright farm, remaining for several years.
Frank B. Parker, son of Prescott, became a voter in 1879 but removed soon afterward to Bath and later to Lisbon where he still resides. Jesse Tyler, son of one of the early settlers, came to the High street section of the town in this year but a little later removed to Warren.
In 1880 Fred P. Burnham, a son of Daniel, and who married Lucy, daughter of William Harden, purchased the small farm opposite the Peter Howe place, but after a few years removed to Bath. John C. Speed, a Civil War veteran, came to town, remaining until his death in 1901 at the age of 64. Halsey R. Howe, son of Samuel, was a voter for the first time this year. He remained on the homestead farm with his parents becoming the owner after the death of his father in 1899. He was twice married. A daughter by his first wife married Wade Lane, of Woodsville. He died in 1904, leaving a widow and one son. David F. Richardson came from North Lisbon, and purchased the Hunkings mill and farm, also the Amos C. Mann farm, and for several years carried on an extensive lumber business. After he sold his lumber lands to the Fall Mountain Paper Co. he removed to the Hollow, keep- ing a general store until 1891, when he sold out to Charles A. Veazey, and removed to North Haverhill, where he died a year or two later. He served as selectman, town clerk, and represented the town in the legislature of 1891. He
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married Lillian Wilmot, a granddaughter of Samuel Howe. In 1881 Edgar S. Welch, son of Silas M., and Byron M. Tyler, son of Charles, became voters. The former married a daughter of Benjamin H. Tyrrell, lived a few years at High Street, where he was engaged in the lumber business, and then removed to Barton, Vt., where he is engaged as contractor and builder. Byron M. Tyler spent a few years in Stoneham, Mass., but returned to Benton, where he owns the Jeremiah B. Davis farm. He is also proprietor of the Woodsville and Benton stage, and carries the daily mail. He has been twice married. Paul M. Howe, eldest son of Daniel M and Susan (Clough) Howe, became a voter in 1882, and took quite an active part in town affairs during the next few years until he entered the employ of the Pike Manufacturing Co., at Pike, where he has since lived. He married Anna J., a daughter of Samuel C. Annis. Gard- ner F. Hurlburt, son of Alden E., was another new voter. He remained in town several years, but now resides in Ha- verhill.
John Sheldon came to the High Street neighborhood in 1883, and George Damon purchased the Amos C. Mann farm on Tunnell Stream. Charles Bion Keyser, son of James H., was a new voter, as was also Frank Foss. None of these now reside in town. New names on the voting list in 1885 were: Fred M. Richardson, Isaac Lindsay, and W. E. Bell, and these were followed the next year by Henry E. Weeks, A. L. Phelps, who moved to the Daniel D. Page farm, Samuel E. Hight and E. P. Weld. In 1887 Moses B., son of George W., and Sarah (Bisbee) Mann, became a voter, as did also Leslie G., son of Charles C. and Diana (Bishop) Tyler. Williard Bean took up his residence this year on the Jeremiah B. Davis
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farm. In 1888, Sam, son of Daniel M. and Susan (Clough) Howe became a voter, as did Norman J., son of James and Olive A. (Hunkings) Page, and Harry, youngest son of Daniel D. Page. W. Sims Nutter married Minnie, daugh- ter of George W. and Sarah ( Bisbee) Mann, and came to reside with his father-in-law. He is a son of the late Josh- ua Nutter, of Bath. After the death of Mr. Mann, in 1901, he removed to Woodsville. George E. Wilson came to Benton in 1889, but soon afterwards removed to Bath. The new voters in 1890 were ; Lewis French, who purchased the Bartlett Welch farm, and John Gilman, who also settled in the High Street district, but both left town a little later, French selling his farm to De Elden Tibbetts. John Fack- ney and W. F. Fackney bought the Daniel Wilson farm in 1891, and subsequently purchased the S. C. Annis farm, where they now reside. Carroll B. Tyler, youngest son of Charles C. and Diana (Bishop) Tyler, became a voter in 1892. In 1893 William Philbrick came to the Page dis- trict. William D. Veazey, son of Charles A., became a voter, but later went to Laconia, studied law, and is engaged in the practice of his profession in that city. Frank Moulton, who lived in the John E. Keyser house in the Hollow, was postmaster until he left town some four years later. Harry H. Elliott purchased the George Tyler farm and has since resided in town.
The new voters in 1894 were : Harry Little, who pur- chased the Silas M. Welch farm at High Street ; Lee A. Collins, son of Charles ; William Kendall ; George Inger- son ; and John Wallace. The latter came to live with Charles B. Keyser, and has since purchased the Keyser farm. William Kendall came from Easton, where he had been been engaged for several years in the lumber business
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in partnership with his brother-in-law, Daniel J. Whitcher. He purchased the small farm opposite the Peter Howe place, and made improvements by repairing the buildings and erecting new ones, making his residence one of the most at- tractive in town. He has served the town in the various town offices, and represented it in the legislature of 1897, enjoy- ing the distinction of being the only Republican representa- tive ever elected in Benton. Indeed, except in his case, the town has had an unbroken succession of Democratic repre- sentatives, returning in 1904 to its ancient faith in the elec- tion of Lebina H. Parker to the General Court.
In 1895 Albert A. Foss, who married May, the youngest daughter of Charles C. and Diana (Bishop) Tyler, and Ar- thur A. Delaney, who married the youngest daughter of John and Eliza (Brown) Flanders, became voters. George W. Bailey purchased the C. A. Veazey farm in 1896 and has since resided in town. George Belyea came from War- ren to the farm adjoining the old sawmill site north of War- ren Summit station. James Ramsey took up his residence on the Winthrop G. Torsey farm. Stephen H. Dexter mar- ried a daughter of Frederick M. Tyler, and became a voter in 1897, and Joseph Peltier moved to the Hollow, where he has since resided. E. L. Morse, who married a daughter of Daniel and Susan (Clough) Howe was another of the new citizens.
Among those who have become voters by reason of attain- ing their majority, or who have moved into town to remain for more than a year or two, since 1897, are : Chas. P. Col- lins, son of Charles ; Alonzo Annis, son of John ; George Brill ; Willard M. Marden ; Napoleon Burke, Jr. ; John E. Cox, son of Birt ; Durward W. Hutchins, son of Solomon J .; Ernest T. Page, son of James ; Rodney. Rollins ; and
WILLIAM KENDALL.
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Charles C. Tyler, son of A. Elmore.
At the present time the town has but a little upwards of forty voters, and the population, according to the census of 1904, was but 209. This is for the most part in the north part of the town. The most of the families settling in town in the first half of the last century are unrepresented. Wil- liam W. Eastman is a great-grandson of Obadiah, chief of the first settlers ; Ernest T. Page is a grandson of James J. and a great-grandson of Samuel ; Orman L. Mann is a grandson of Samuel ; Alonzo Annis is a great-grandson of Joseph ; Daniel M. Howe is a son of Daniel ; James H. Keyser is a son of William ; George Welch is a grandson of Jonathan ; Solomon J. Hutchins is a grandson of Benjamin C. ; Birt Cox is a son of John P. ; and the Tyler brothers, Fred M., A. Elmore and Byron M., are grandsons of Kim- ball. On the other hand the names Whitcher, Wells, Mars- ton, Coburn, Brown, Davis, Wright, Lathrop, Knight, Torsey and Flanders, once so prominent, have disappeared from the voting list. There has been a decadence, but Benton is by no means, as yet, an abandoned town. It has a past which is fondly cherished by her widely scattered sons and daughters, and there are not a few who believe that the march of events will bring her a prosperous future.
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CHAPTER VI. RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL LIFE.
The religious and social life of the town has been to a large extent one, and such as been peculiar to the town is that which has characterized the northern part of the town, since the interests of the High Street neighborhood have been from this point of view largely identified with those of Warren, as have those of the Meadows, and the Page Dis- trict with East Haverhill. There has not, so far as known, ever been a religious organization in these last named sections, except that for a few years when the Rev. William C. Bixby lived at High Street, it is probable that a Methodist class was organized and meetings were held at the High Street school house and in private dwellings. The Adventists also some- times held religious services in the school house. The com- munity at the north part of the town was, however, at the beginning, and has been in the subsequent years, one by itself, and has furnished whatever has been characteristic and distinctive in Coventry and Benton social and religious life. "The Hollow," or Whitcher Hollow, as it has usually been called, has been the center, for here was the first sawmill and gristmill, the blacksmith and wheelwright shops, the post office, except for the few first years after it was estab- lished, the store, and just up the hill to the east "around the turn", the meeting house. Haverhill Corner was ten miles distant, and Bath Lower Village seven, and in the early days the roads were either poor, or there were none at all, and the Coventry settlers had little communication with the outside world. They had little to sell. They burned wood
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and made potash to some extent, they raised herds grass and clover and ground out or threshed out the seed, they made maple sugar, and for many years these were about the only products they had for sale or barter at the Bath and Haver- hill stores. Later, after they had built sawmills, they hauled lumber to Kimball's Landing on the banks of the Connecti- cut a mile or so below the village of Woodsville, they made butter firkins, manufactured clapboards, and the long shingles rived from spruce butts, but they had little to sell, and little with which to buy, and so were necessarily compelled to de- pend upon their own ingenuity and industry to supply their household and personal needs. To many their town was their world. They rarely went outside its boundaries. Clothing was made from cloth manufactured in the home. Boots and shoes were made by the town shoemaker and cobbler from leather tanned from hides taken from cattle raised in town. The household utensils were of the simplest character. Chairs and tables were home products ; every household was a manufactory ; there was plenty of hard work and plain living, if not of high thinking.
The social life was of the neighborhood character, and was characterized by neighborliness. There were paring bees, quilting parties, raisings, spelling schools with periodical turnouts on muster day and town meeting day. Neighbor- ly visits were made during the long winter evenings. Every- body knew everybody else, and there was a general respect for the opinions of others. Religious services were held with considerable regularity previous to the erection of the meet- ing house in 1846. The preachers of the Free Will Baptist and Methodist Episcopal denominations were early and exceedingly actively on the ground, which accounts for the fact that the only two church organizations ever
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formed in town were of these denominations. Just when the churches were organized does not appear, as the early records have been lost, but the Free Will Baptists appear to have had the advantage of the earlier organization. In the Free Baptist Register for 1833, Landaff and Coventry are classed as a single church, with Samuel Cole and George W. Cogswell as ministers, ordained during the previous year, and with Ira Eaton of Landaff, and Horace Webber and Robert Coburn of Coventry, as licensed ministers. The Lis- bon quarterly meeting of which the Landaff and Coventry churches were constituent members was organized in 1833, and in the statistical report for the year 1835, printed in the register, Coventry appears for the first time as a separate church, with Samuel Cole as minister, and with a member- ship of 50. George W. Cogswell became minister to the church, the next year, 1836, the membership then being reported as 25. He sustained this relation until 1865, though at various periods other ministers were engaged as pastors for terms of one, two or three years. Elder John Norris came from Maidstone, Vermont, and preached for the larger part of the years 1854-55. Elder George W. Richardson was another resident minister in the early sixties. Elder John Davis came out from Centre Haverhill, and Elder Lorenzo D. Jeffers from East Haverhill, and minister- ed to the people, sometimes for a few Sundays and sometimes for months. Elder A. C. Manson, who resided at Sugar Hill, also preached in Benton for two years.
Capt. Winthrop G. Torsey and Jeremiah B. Davis were licentiates, but for a period of thirty years Elder Cogswell was the minister of the Coventry and Benton church. Other Elders of the denomination might be the preachers, but Ben- ton was his parish, and all this time he kept jealous watch-
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care over it. When, there was no one else to preach, the Elder drove over from Landaff and proclaimed his message. He was in demand for funerals, since he had the gift of making his congregation weep, and the success of a funeral as a matter of entertainment depended upon the amount of weeping the officiating minister could cause. The Elder had tact also. Some ministers would give offense by omitting mention in their prayers of some of the relatives of the de- parted. Some cousin or aunt or grandchild or grandparent would be forgotten by the minister as he enumerated the relatives, and then there was trouble because of the slight, but Elder Cogswell managed never to give offense. After beginning with the nearest relatives and going through the list to the best of his recollection, he always had this saving clause in his prayer by asking comfort for "all the other relatives of the deceased whether of near or remote degree of kindred, whether present or absent." The membership of his church varied in the thirty years from 56, the largest number in 1852, to 19 in 1837. This latter number, the Elder always pointed to with pride since it was obtained by the death of one, and by the expulsion of six. The 19 were evidently the saving remnant, since growth began immedi- ately afterwards, reaching high-water mark in 1856 and never falling belew 40 during his ministry. He never had a stated salary, but accepted the free will offerings of his people. These were sometimes in cash, but more frequent- ly in eggs, butter, cheese, oats, wheat, potatoes, veal, pork, beef, vegetables of all kinds, etc., etc. The Elder never struck for a higher salary, and the people never complained. If he did a little outside business in trading in horses and cattle, loaning a little money now and then on good security, this was regarded as perfectly legitimate, and the Elder had
a
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an eye for points in both horses and cattle.
In 1866 Elder Morrison of Topsham became the minister, and was the regular preacher for most of the time till 1871, when Elder J. Chamberlin became the minister for a brief period. In 1877 Elder Lorenzo D. Jeffers of East Haverhill became the minister for a year or more, and after this there was no regular Free Will Baptist preaching in town. Win- throp C. Whitcher, son of Amos, was duly licensed as a min- ister in 1878, but it does not appear that he ever preached in his native town. He soon afterward removed to Stoneham, Mass., and after 1880 no report was made of the church to the Lisbon quarterly meeting or the New Hampshire yearly meeting. The organized church rapidly disintegrated through the death and removal of its members, and is now numbered among the things which were.
Just when Methodism obtained its foothold in town does not appear, but the beginnings may be traced to the year 1801, when Elijah R. Sabin, who had been appointed by the New York conference preacher to a territory embracing all of northern New Hampshire, under the name of Landaff circuit, stopped over Sunday on his way to Landaff at the house of Chase Whitcher, near Warren Summit, and held religious services under the maples at what is now known as the Harriman place. His congregation was for the most part from Coventry, from High street, and the Meadows, and when he left on Monday he organized a Methodist class of three, two of whom were Chase Whitcher and his daugh- ter, Dolly, afterwards the wife of John Atwell, who was one of the early settlers of North Coventry. William Whitcher, the eldest son of Chase, was then a boy of 18. He did not become a member of that class, the first in the entire north country except that organized a year or two previously at
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Landaff, but his life-long attachment to Methodism began with that Sunday in 1801 under the ministrations of the first apostle of Methodism in Northern New Hampshire, Elijah R. Sabin. When he set up his own home in the north part of the town he had become a Methodist and later was a licensed exhorter and local preacher for many years. He was reinforced later by Daniel Howe, Enos Wells, Israel Flanders and others who became the nucleus around which the Methodist Episcopal church was gathered. The other early settlers were for the most part-Peter Howe, the Mars- tons, Wrights, Coburns, Davises, and Browns-Free Will Baptists, though there were a few, like for instance, the Tylers and Manns, who were inclined to a more liberal sort of faith. Coventry was a part of the Landaff circuit from 1801 to 1824, when it became a part of the Orford circuit, and three years later, in 1827, a part of the Haverhill cir- cuit. From 1827 to 1851, Coventry-Benton-was made a part of a circuit which was composed of various churches, and was classed at different times with Haverhill, East Ha- verhill, North Haverhill, Bath, Landaff, Lyman and Lisbon. In 1851 Swiftwater and Benton were made an appointment in the New Hampshire conference, and were so continued till 1904, a period of 53 years, during which time the Methodist preachers occupied the pulpit of the union meeting house on alternate Sundays until 1879, when an arrangement was made by which there were services at Swiftwater in the morning and at Benton in the afternoon. In 1904 Benton was abandoned by the appointing power of the Methodist church, and Swiftwater was classed with Landaff as an ap- pointment.
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