USA > New Hampshire > State builders; an illustrated historical and biographical record of the state of New Hampshire at the beginning of the twentieth century > Part 9
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That first church gathered by the Scotch-Irish in that locality originally called Nutfield, built its first meeting house in that portion of its grant since called Derry, or to be more precise in the village of East Derry. The original company consisted of sixteen families and as soon as they had arrived in the region of their proposed new home they held a service of prayer in a little field on Westrunning brook. The very next day the emi- grants again assembled, this time on the shore of Lake Tsienneto or Beaver pond, and listened to the preaching of the Word by Rev. James McGregoire, the spiritual leader of the little flock. His text was Isaiah 32:2: "And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of waters in a dry place, as the shadow of a rock in a weary land."
An old account describes Mr. McGregoire as a man of "distinguished talents" and judging from the works accomplished by the members of his flock this description may be given with singular appropriateness to them all, for great indeed was what they wrought.
Without unnecessary delay the sixteen families or- ganized themselves into a church and called Mr. Mc- Gregoire to be their pastor and thus came into being the first Presbyterian church organized in New England. No Presbytery was then existent in New England but this
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did not deter these determined and Godly pioneers from ecclesiastical organization. Mr. McGregoire preached his own installation sermon. He received the people as his pastoral charge and they received him as their pastor. His text on the occasion of his installation was from Ezekiel 37:26: "Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them and multiply them: and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forever more."
Never were scriptural words more appropriately selected and the Divine assurance as spoken by the prophet of old never failed them or their children. They had come from scenes of a cruel and unjust war, and of bitter, relentless persecution. In their new home they found a covenant of peace, good will and liberty of con- science which has thus far continued. They grew in number and great has been the strength and blessings of their children in all the generations since. The sanc- tuary was planted in their midst and it has been as a beacon unto the feet of their posterity to this day.
The growth of the Presbyterian colony in London- derry was with marked rapidity. Only four years after the colony had gathered its first church there were present on the occasion of a communion service two hundred and thirty persons. At the communion season of 1732, thirteen years after the organization of the church, six hundred communicants were present, a very considerable community in itself for those early years of New England development. Nor was the strength of the Scotch-Irish settlement in New Hampshire designated by numbers alone. It had quality as well as quantity and every man among them was a true state builder. The entire state felt the quickening influence of their example and enterprise in the work of creating and directing a material progress.
With the opening of the eighteenth century township
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grants began to be made with greatly increased rapidity and continued unabated throughout the entire hundred years and down into the nineteenth century, and the worthy character of the people who made the successive township settlements was what gave to New Hampshire its secure and strong foundation upon which there arose the abiding superstructure of a magnificent common- wealth.
As Higginson says of Massachusetts so likewise was New Hampshire "a plantation of religion and not of trade." New Hampshire profited throughout the eigh- teenth century by a long continued overflow of popula- tion from Connecticut and Massachusetts, but New Hampshire well repaid the benefits of this immigration, and in kind, by sending the descendants of these early pioneers out into other states of the Union during practi- cally all the decades of the nineteenth century. Especially has Massachusetts been benefited in all her varied mate- riai interests by the influx of the strong, well-bred and resourceful sons and daughters of New Hampshire dur- ing the past fifty years.
People of the Quaker or Friends faith were early in the state and in New Hampshire as well as in Massa- chusetts proved a thorn in the religious flesh of the early Puritans. As a sect they have never been of any con- siderable number in New Hampshire.
As respects denominational strength the Baptists have always ranked second after the Congregationalists in New Hampshire. Their first church in the state was gathered in the town of Newton in 1755 and it is still in existence and at this writing ( 1903) has nearly reached its sesqui- centennial. The first pastor of this Newton church was Rev. Walter Powers, whose pastorate continued for nearly forty years. In 1855 services commemorative of the one hundredth anniversary of the organization of the church were held. The sermon on the occasion was
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preached by Rev. O. Ayer of Claremont, pastor of one of the largest churches of the denomination at that time in the state.
Some authorities, however, state that the church or- ganized at Dover in 1638 was essentially Baptist in its doctrinal creed. Its first pastor, Hanserd Knollys, upon his return to England became prominently identified with the denomination and continued for the remainder of his life a notable disciple of the creed and church.
Once the Baptists had obtained a foothold in New Hampshire, their growth was strong and rapid. The denomination was a mighty force in the settlement of the state during the eighteenth century, its members braving the dangers and enduring the hardships of pioneer life to an extent only second to that of the descendants of the Puritans themselves.
From the time of the organization of the little church in Newton to the close of the same century the Baptists had in the state a total of twenty-five churches, and of course all supported by the voluntary contributions of its members.
In 1780 was gathered in New Durham the first Free Will Baptist church in New Hampshire, and according to some writers and ecclesiastical authorities, the first of the denomination in the country. The first pastor of this New Durham church was Rev. Benjamin Randall, who was born in the town of New Castle in 1749. In his boyhood and early manhood life he followed the occu- pation of sailmaker. As a child he was deeply religious and throughout his was a saintly career. At first he identified himself with the Congregationalists, but in 1775 he united with the general or regular Baptists at New Castle. On April 5, 1780, he was ordained as an evangelist at New Durham, where he had gathered his little flock of Free Will Baptists. He died at the age of fifty-nine, October 22, 1808.
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There was that in the idea of the Free Will Baptist creed that has from the first down to the present appealed with a peculiar force to the people of all Northern New England and the Maritime Provinces. In Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont the denomination is especially strong. At the close of the nineteenth century the Free Will Baptists had a grand total of one hundred churches, ninety-three ordained and eight licensed ministers, a church property valued at near a half a million dollars and some eight thousand church members.
As early as 1797 there was returned to the New Eng- land conference a list of ninety-two members of a Metho- dist Episcopal church in Chesterfield. By the year 1800 the denomination had in the state one hundred and seventy-one members and three travelling or circuit preachers.
The growth of Methodism throughout the nineteenth century in the state was healthy, strong and full of char- acter. It early established a conference seminary in what is now Tilton, and this seminary became a decided fac- tor in the educational life of the state. At the close of the last century the New Hampshire conference had a total of nearly fourteen thousand church members divided among one hundred and thirty-five churches.
The history of the Protestant Episcopal church in New Hampshire is practically coeval with the settlement of the state. An Episcopal chapel was built about 1634 in Portsmouth with Rev. Richard Gibson as rector. The present diocese of New Hampshire has for its bishop Right Reverend William W. Niles, D. D.
As early as 1782 that religious body known by the name of Shakers made their appearance in New Hamp- shire and a church-state was formed under the leadership of Elder Job Bishop. For more than a century they have maintained their organization in the state and have made themselves known for good works throughout the coun-
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try. In this year of 1903 they have two societies in the state, one at Canterbury and a second at Enfield.
It was in Portsmouth also that the first Universalist society was organized and this in 1781. There are in 1903 a total of twenty-eight parishes in the state, em- bracing all told some fifteen hundred families.
The people of New Hampshire who hold to the Uni- tarian faith, while not large in number, include many among its most representative families. Unitarian church bodies are in Manchester, Concord, Walpole, An- dover, Nashua, Portsmouth, Dover and elsewhere.
There are in New Hampshire twenty-five churches of the Christian or Church of Christ faith. These are di- vided into two conferences. These are the Rockingham having sixteen churches, and the Merrimack with nine organizations and both conferences hold annual sessions.
The state of New Hampshire in itself constitutes a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, and is presided over by the Right Reverend Denis M. Bradley, D. D., with St. Joseph's at Manchester as the cathedral church. There are in the diocese more than one hundred thou- sand adherents of this faith, and above one hundred ordained members of the priesthood. The churches of the diocese are scattered throughout the length and breadth of the state and many among them rank with the largest and finest church edifices in New Hampshire.
Belonging to the diocese is the college of St. Anselms, and various high schools for boys and for girls. Mt. St. Mary's is a widely known boarding-school for young women. There are also in the diocese six orphan asy- lums, four hospitals, four homes for aged women and five for working girls. There are nearly four hundred sisters of the different orders and some seventy brothers employed in fostering and extending charitable, religious and educational work throughout the state.
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AGRICULTURE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
BY NAHUM J. BACHELDER
The state of New Hampshire, in common with other New England states, was known in early times as an agricultural state, the cultivation of the soil and the growing and feeding of crops constituting the leading industry of her people. This condition of affairs existed from the time of the earliest white settlements until the development of the great natural water powers of the state for manufacturing purposes during the second half of the nineteenth century. This in turn is being followed by increased interest and activity in agricultural matters and better facilities in rural sections which causes us to treat the subject by periods, the exact duration of which cannot be definitely fixed owing to the difference in the date of settlement in different sections of the state.
Ist. The period from the settlement by white people, which marked the beginning of agriculture in the state, to the subduing of the forest and the clearing of farming lands which may be known as the period of construction.
2nd. The period from the ending of the first to the time of the marked deterioration of the soil which may be known as the period of natural production.
3rd. The period from the ending of the second to the present time which may be known as the period of read- justment.
The first period would end in the central portion of the state about 1800, but earlier in the southern and later in
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the northern sections. The second period would extend from the close of the first to about 1875, and the third period from the close of the second. This outline of our purpose will make clear our meaning in this brief consid- eration of the history of the agriculture of New Hamp- shire.
PERIOD OF CONSTRUCTION.
There is no evidence that the red men who occupied the territory known as New Hampshire practised agri- culture to any appreciable extent. They obtained their supply of food and clothing by hunting and fishing, with an occasional plot of maize or Indian corn cultivated in the rudest manner by the faithful squaw whose lord and master considered it beneath his dignity to engage in any- thing so suggestive of labor. These feeble attempts to grow corn and a few herbs were so rare, and the results so meagre, that there is nothing in it worthy of the name of agriculture, and the advent of the white man to the hillsides and valleys of the state marked the beginning of the industry. The pioneers who settled upon the farms of New Hampshire were a sturdy race of people of great physical endurance and strong mental endowment. They were imbued with a resolute spirit and stimulated to ac- tivity by the one desire to dig from the soil an honest livelihood for themselves and their families. All else was subordinate to this, and they entered upon their task with remarkable fortitude and courage. The first settlers of the farms in the southern part of the state were descend- ants of the Puritan families who came to this country for high and noble purposes, and their descendants in turn gradually pushed back into the forest and cleared the land of wood, fenced it, and made farms. The journey to the place selected for the rough cabin home was frequently made over a trail marked only by spotted trees, with the family and all the household effects carried on horseback.
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.
Perhaps a site had been selected and a rude log cabin pre- viously erected in the wilderness which formed the nu- cleus of the young pioneer's home. Acre after acre of the virgin forest yielded to the sturdy blows of the pioneer's axe, the felled trees were reduced to ashes, and the land sowed to rye, the crop from which was to furnish sustenance for the family.
The young wife cooked the meals, raised a family of children, kept the cabin in order and the wild animals away, while her husband was vigorously at work clearing the land for a farm. Later, rocks were removed and the vast network of stone walls that gridiron the farms of the state were built. As the children grew up they were able to render much assistance, and a pioneer farmer with half a dozen sturdy boys and girls helping to fell and burn trees, dig rocks and stumps, build walls and fences and seed the land to grass was no uncommon sight. As the children reached manhood and womanhoood they pushed back still further into the forest and cleared farms and built cabins for their homes. In the course of time the cabins gave way to frame buildings as the typical two- story houses with big chimneys in the centre were built, barns were erected, and cattle, sheep, hogs and horses kept to eat the fodder which began to grow upon the cleared land and which furnished milk, butter, beef, pork and wool for the food and raiment of the family. Beef and pork were salted in the fall for the year's supply, wool was carded, spun and woven upon the farm and made into clothing for the family, the products of the farm yielding the entire supply in both these directions. Lit- tle or nothing was bought or sold and there was no desire to do either. A little later the farmer made a trip to Portsmouth in the fall of each year with a pair of horses in a pung, requiring from one to two weeks' time, carry- ing to market surplus products from the farm and bring- ing back such supplies for the winter as his disposition
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craved and his improved financial condition seemed to allow. As the farms were developed roads began to be improved. Schoolhouses were erected and schools. es- tablished, churches built and religious services held, attended by about all the people.
The close of the first period in our division was marked by a feeling of great satisfaction and contentment among the people. Their labor was severe both in the house and upon the land, but they were happy. Their wants were few and easily supplied. The soil of the farm was fertile from the accumulations of centuries and the ashes from burning the heavy growth of wood and timber, yielded abundant crops. Fields of grain were grown with great success, and fruit began to be given attention. The live stock increased in number and value annually. The large houses were filled with large families of rugged, healthy children. The people had but little knowledge of what was transpiring beyond the vision from their own farm, but were prosperous, contented and happy to an extent that it would be difficult to exceed at any period in any part of the world. This was the condition of New Hampshire agriculture at the close of the first period, varying in date in different localities but existing with remarkable uniformity in all sections of the state.
PERIOD OF NATURAL PRODUCTION.
The period of greatest activity among the farmers of New Hampshire and the period of greatest supremacy of agriculture in the affairs of the state may very properly be termed the period of natural production occurring during the first half or more of the nineteenth century. The soil of the fields and pastures had been recently cleared of its forest growth and was filled with plant food. This was true even of the hilltops, where live stock found excellent grazing and where farm buildings, long since
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gone to decay leaving hardly a trace of existence, shel- tered large families of contented people, the soil fur- nishing a living that met their requirements. As the pro- duction of the farm increased and the population multi- plied, various industries were established to provide things that increased incomes allowed, and to make things previously made in the home. Dams were built across the streams and the water power utilized in carding, spin- ning and weaving for surrounding farmers, work which had been previously done by hand in the farmhouse. Tanneries were built to tan the hides taken from the farmers' animals, and shoemakers' shops built to make the boots and shoes for the farmers' families, which had previously been done by the itinerant cobbler. Sawmills were erected to saw the lumber used in building and re- pairing farm buildings, and grist mills established for grinding the farmers' grain. As the farmers progressed there was a demand for blacksmith shops in which to have oxen and horses shod, clock makers' shops in which to make and repair clocks and watches, and carriage shops in which to build and repair wagons, all of which were established, affording employment for part of the people a portion of the time. Farming was generally carried on to some extent with these various trades which were worked in the less busy season on the farm. In those days the minister even was expected to till the soil and often was the leading farmer in the township. Stores were opened to supply the people with groceries, rum and tobacco as their income allowed. In many instances these shops, mills and tanneries were scattered over the town- ship upon convenient streams or located near the farmers which they were to serve. Generally the store was located near one or more of these industries and, with the meeting-house and a schoolhouse, comprised the country village of three-quarters of a century ago. The farms continued to yield abundant crops
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for many years without any return of fertility, for nature had been filling the storehouse with plant food for centu- ries, and it scarcely occurred to any one that the soil would not continue to produce bountiful crops for an indefinite period without any restoration of fertility. This great production of surplus crops induced the building of .. better roads or "turnpikes," as the main roads were called, in order to send such surplus products to a market, and in 1837 the first steam railroad was built in the state. These means of communication with the outside world were the beginning of a new era in New Hampshire agri- culture. The farmers were stimulated to even greater ac- tivity, and with the rude implements of husbandry and great muscular effort coaxed from the soil abundant crops, which found their way to a distant market. The old time exclusiveness and independence of the town by which everything needed for food, raiment or shelter was produced within the town limits, gave way to a system of broader proportions, and the little industries we have named beside the streams and in the centres of popula- tion supplying the wants of the people became extinct. The farmers' boots, clothes and wagons, which were first made upon the farm, then in the little neighborhood fac- tories, were made by improved machinery and skilled labor in distant mills and factories. Under the stimulus of the demand for farm products unknown to the pioneer farmers, the pastures were covered with stock and the fields used for growing crops with no regard for the fer- tility removed, and in many instances the operation be- came but little more than the transfer of valuable elements of the soil into cash through the medium of farm products and labor. The money thus received went to pay for expensive living which the new conditions had offered, to improve the farm buildings, fences and stock, or was deposited in the savings bank to be referred to in later years as evidence of the prosperity of agriculture during
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this period. Whatever use may have been made of the money, it represented a portion of the value of the farm taken from the soil, and labor of the hardest kind in secur- ing it.
The agriculture of New Hampshire suffered greatly during this period on account of the vast number of young men and women of good mental endowment and great physical strength, both qualities being inherited from ancestors of the most exemplary type, that went from the farm homes of the state to develop the West, or to occupy responsible positions in New England manu- facturing cities. These young people possessed the exact qualities needed in their adopted fields of labor and, while they contributed much to the welfare of the localities to which they went and in many instances improved their own financial condition by the change, the rural sections of New Hampshire suffered by their departure, and many good New Hampshire farms became abandoned thereby. When the aged father and mother who had made a suc- cess of the farm and surrounded their farm home with all the comforts that an intense love for it could suggest and their scanty means provide, passed away the sons and daughters were established in homes elsewhere and the farm became abandoned or passed into the hands of people with only temporary interest in it or in the town in which they had located. The most valuable production of New Hampshire farms have been the boys and girls sent into the world who have developed into men and women of influence and fame at home and abroad. Their success has been made possible by inherited qualities of heart, mind and body which were developed through early experiences in farm life and the high moral atmosphere of the Christian farm home. The New Hampshire farms are entitled to the credit of a noble production in this respect. Another serious loss was experienced by the agricultural interests of the state in the great number of
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brave boys who went from the farms to fight for our country in the Civil War. From 1861 to 1865 there was a constant depletion of the farmers' ranks to recruit the ranks of the nation's defenders. This influence reached beyond the bare number that went to the front, for in many cases homes were made desolate and the inter- est of those remaining was more with the brave boys that were on the field of battle than upon the fields of the farm where, in a half-hearted way, the aged father and anxious brothers were trying to grow crops. Farm ma- chinery had not come into general use at that time, and the great scarcity of farm help, coupled with the sorrow and despondency in the farmer's family, placed a serious obstacle in the farmer's path notwithstanding the high prices that artificially prevailed. But little thought was given to sustaining the fertility of the soil, and the crops produced were sent to market with seemingly rich returns.
Recognizing the necessity for the diffusion of knowledge upon the science of agriculture, which recognition was in part based upon the fact that the soil by continual crop- ping was becoming exhausted of plant food, and the fur- ther fact that a nation's prosperity depended in an eminent degree upon a prosperous agriculture within its limits, the Congress of the United States in 1862 provided for the establishment of Colleges of Agriculture and Me- chanic Arts in the several states, said institutions to be under the direction of the respective states. The legis- lature of New Hampshire provided for the establish- ment of the New Hampshire institution under this act at Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, where it remained with varying degrees of success until, through the operation of a bequest made by Benjamin Thompson of Durham, the college was removed from Hanover and established at Durham in 1891. In connection with the experiment station established by the government by act
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