USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Manchester > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hudson > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Londonderry > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Derry > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Windham > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Salem > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 4
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* Hon. Horace Greeley, of New York, and Senator Patterson, of New Hampshire, had spoken before.
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sion of a dominant political party. Most foreign settle- ments originated in some of these causes.
But, Mr. President, the colony whose hundred and fifti- eth anniversary has gathered us here to-day is to be traced to no such motive. The founders of it were not driven out by an overstocked population, nor by want of produc- tive land at home ; nor did they, like the colonists of New South Wales, "leave their country for their country's good ;" they were not adventurers in quest of wealth ; nor did they seek to enlarge the domain or power of the mother country, nor to change the form of civil govern- ment. They came here in defence of a principle, one of the strongest and noblest that can animate the human breast - they came to escape bondage to an arbitrary and oppressive religious rule, and to secure to themselves and their posterity freedom to worship God according to their own views of right. In this singleness of aim, in this ex- alted purpose, the early settlers of New England stand almost alone ; and the founders of this colony were not a whit behind the very chiefest in this respect.
They had a sinewy arm, great vigor, and power of en- durance ; but this was not all they brought: They had a keen conviction of right, and no flattery, no threats, no hardships or privations, could seduce them from it. Life to them was of little account if the true spirit of manliness and independence was crushed out by the strong arm of an oppressive rule. They had less culture and fewer graces than their descendants of the present day ; their habits and usages may not have been conformed to our refined standards ; but they would put us all to the blush in what they were ready to do and to suffer for the sake of the truth and right. The impelling purpose which brought them here never abated its force ; the howling tempest and the raging waves did not weaken it;
" Amid the storm they sang,"
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for they trusted in God, " who holds the winds in his fists, and who binds the waters in a garment."
Look at them at any point in their struggles to attain their object, and you feel that their purpose has such strong hold of them that no obstacles, within the range of human power to overcome, can defeat it. They part with all their effects in their native land ; they leave behind cherished objects of affection ; turning their eyes trustfully to heaven, they commit themselves to the deep which separates' them from their land of promise ; they come to these shores among strangers. Most of the little band which founded this settlement spend a dreary winter in the harbor near Portland, Me., in great destitution - most of them on ship- board - their vessel frozen up in the ice, and their want relieved only by the grant of a hundred bushels of meal by the Legislature of Massachusetts, for the poor Irish ! Then, when the spring released their ice-bound vessel, they changed their course backward, and groped their way up the Merrimack river to Haverhill, and from thence, through a trackless wilderness, to this place. In all this long, weary, anxious course, do we hear any misgiving, any faintheartedness, any disposition to turn back ? That great purpose that was ever beating in their breasts sustained them at every step.
The heroic character and the high principles of these settlers have had an important influence on their posterity. Their influence lives to-day, not only in the town, but in the numerous colonies which have gone out from it, and in the hearts of their descendants all over the land. Had the character of the first settlers been of a different type,- had they been mere adventurers, like those who settled South America or Mexico, searching only for gold or com- mercial advantages ; or even like those who established themselves at Jamestown, in Virginia,-our native town would have had a very different history. We should have looked in vain for the virtues which have distinguished so
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many of its inhabitants ; nor could we have pointed with pride, as we now do, to the many eminent men who have sprung from such ancestry.
Our great duty to-day, then, is to remember the high character of our ancestors, and to give thanks to Almighty God that he put it into the hearts of such men to plant this colony. We have another duty to-day: Let us in- quire whether the virtues of those whose services we com- memorate are alive in our breasts ; whether they animate us, as they did them, to the same high and holy purposes. Let the same principles which prompted them to do, and to dare, and to suffer so much for themselves and for us, never lose their force in the hearts of their descendants.
We stand to-day within sight of the long resting-place of most of the early settlers of this town. How would it cheer our hearts could they be present and mingle with us on this joyous occasion - a little band of sixteen families on one side, and this vast multitude on the other! With what interest would we point them to the wonderful changes that have taken place in a century and a half, many of them the results of their small beginnings: The convenient highways stretching in every direction ; these well-cultivated and productive fields ; the neat, attractive and comfortable dwellings; the school-houses - the nurs- eries of intelligence - dotting every section of the town ; these academies, the seats of science and literature ; these churches, in which on every Sabbath day the same great truths are proclaimed that were so precious to them ; the iron road that sweeps along its burdens swifter than the eagle's flight ; and these wires, which flash their messages with a rapidity equaled only by the lightning !
In view of such changes and such results, with what emphasis may we all exclaim : Other men have labored, and we have entered into their labors !
BY HON. E. M ORVET ..
IT w aleashl lo revisil ilmissues of ne- Erhood, bo Breathe agace dis wir of the hills! to dleod fens with the M'Gregor mua Wia native heart : Took domb Tipon Me ampliitheatre of Heaver lake, lo move again the picosent valley of Who Morning brook, when the first mollery boite their cabins ; lowervey again; over the Morronoch, me tony did, the papommes of mountains, from the Secutrong ne tho north to the Warksuntt es the sarah, with the Monkdaodl lowering over theus, the side monarch nit windwos Kes Hampshire, if we exempt the lailies.
de tế throughout rocks, With bre robe of dirtde, Wiat his (adem of snow."
Upon Somder Aille my father fed kis shopp. the Best Thege flink Groon Bynin, and here, in 1H1?, ut tlm cloro of a eustury from attlement of Nutfield, I participated me the celebration, walled in the procession, and realgod of ostechism lo the deront and learned Mr. Purker, slow precise mapen med religious aspect I shull eres forges , od here Lto by the band men who bud heid omvere with the dirt -Atlere, and ax : reid " Waverly," 0000)
as they fell from the press, I rroogulved bore the porb .. boot and spinat which iho greatest Scott of Bootkotor, bak Ml vividly portrayed
This ploy, quey a part of Sithnot, was columnist in 1719 by men of the Proabyte an faul. Although Tosmr ân Ireland, they were gerile &deboom, und lioughi notu-
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ADDRESS.
BY HON. E. H. DERBY.
IT IS pleasant to revisit the scenes of our boyhood ; to breathe again the air of these hills ; to stand again with the M'Gregor on his native heath ; to look down upon the amphitheatre of Beaver lake ; to cross again the pleasant valley of West Running brook, where the first settlers built their cabins ; to survey again, over the Merrimack, as they did, the panorama of mountains, from the Ascutney at the north to the Wachusett at the south, with the Monadnock towering over them, the sole monarch of southern New Hampshire, if we except the ladies.
" And they crowned him long ago, On his throne of rocks, With his robe of clouds, And his diadem of snow."
Upon yonder hills: my father fed his sheep, the first large flock from Spain, and here, in 1819, at the close of a century from the settlement of Nutfield, I participated in the celebration, walked in the procession, and recited my catechism to the devout and learned Mr. Parker, whose precise manner and religious aspect I shall never forget ; and here I took by the hand men who had held converse with the first settlers, and as I read " Waverly," "Guy Mannering," " Rob Roy," and "The Heart of Mid Lothian," as they fell from the press, I recognized here the garb, dia- lect and spirit which the greatest Scott of Scotland, has so vividly portrayed.
This place, once a part of Nutfield, was colonized in 1719 by men of the Presbyterian faith. Although born in Ireland, they were genuine Scotchmen, and brought noth-
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ing from Ireland, unless it be the buoyant spirit and hilarity with which they faced the hardships of the forest. They were the church militant, stripped of its asperity.
The province of Ulster had been wasted by war and forfeited to the crown. King James had granted it to the great guilds of London, and they colonized it with tenants from the opposite coast of Scotland,-men who had fought for kirk and covenant in Argyleshire. This was the sec- ond colony of Scotland. It had begun with a colony planted at Darien, by Patterson, who founded the Bank of England and was the apostle of free trade, who planned the ship canal we are yet to realize,-a colony which fell under the jealousy of Spain and England. The second colony was more successful. It reclaimed the north of Ireland, felled the forests, built up towns and villages, established schools, planted gardens and orchards, reared water-mills and introduced the manufacture of flax, so that the traveller who passes from Leinster to Ulster sees at once the difference ; and the great city of Belfast, the centre of the linen trade, stands to-day as a monu- ment of the Scotch Irish. From such a colony came the settlers of Nutfield.
The present year will commemorate five important events : The birth of Napoleon, a century since ; the open- ing of the Pacific railway ; the completion of the Suez canal ; the invention of the steam engine, in 1769, and the settlement of the Scotch Irish in America. The first event has shaken states to their centre and given new laws to Europe. The second has united two oceans and bound states together with bands of iron. The third has reversed the course of Vasco de Gama and opened a new route to the Orient. The fourth has given to man the mastery over nature. The fifth is as important to America as the landing of the Puritans at Plymouth, for the historian Ban- croft and the " Edinburgh Review," in its last number, agree that the Scotch Irish did more for civil and religious
freedom, more to sever the ties that bound the colonies to England, more to establish our independence, than the Pilgrim Fathers.
When the Stuarts undertook to depose the constitutional king, William of Orange, and invaded the British Isles, thirty thousand men were held at bay for four months by a few Scotch colonists assembled in the little city of Derry, under their pastor, George Walker. They endured with him the extremities of famine, and sent back the royal army with the loss of eight thousand men, disheartened and demoralized, to fight the losing battle of the Boyne, in which the men of Derry fought with King William for civil and religious freedom.
That battle gave to England peace and prosperity, and secured the ascendency of the Protestant faith ; but after that battle England was alike ungrateful and unjust to the champions of freedom. They were required to conform to the church of England, and by one infamous edict ten of the aldermen and twenty of the burgesses of Derry were disfranchised. "The Primate Boulter would have chained them to the soil as slaves." .The Scotch colonists loved not the mitre or rochet of England. They felt that their services were not requited. They left behind them the bishop's palace and the cathedral, whose spires rose two hundred and thirty feet above the heights of Derry ; they passed Diamond Square, the site where now stands the statue of George Walker ; they passed the college which John Gwinn, in emulation of the Pinkertons, has en- dowed with forty thousand pounds, and embarked in the noble harbor of Loch Foyle, or possibly at Belfast, in some ancient and slow brigantine, for a voyage to the wilds of America. They found no fast steamer to bear them in a week across the deep ; no railway car to bring them here in two hours from the coast; no town, county or state road, but, following the blazed path afoot, they ford or ferry across the Merrimack, and encamp in the trackless
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forest ; and lere they rear their cabins, their kirk, and their academy, like Douglas of yore, their great prototype, who, as the poet tells us, was
" More pleased that in a barbarous age He gave fair Scotia Virgil's page, Than that beneath his sway he held The Bishopric of fair Dunkeld."
Their bishop's palace was a log cabin ; their cathedral, the overarching oaks and hemlocks. But the forest bowed before them; they increased and multiplied ; they intro- duced the culture of the flax, the potato and barley, and the manufacture of linen; the lawns around their houses were whitened with drapery ; their currency was notes payable in spinning wheels ; and here they trained skilled operatives for the great water-falls of the Merrimack, in its course around Derry, from Manchester, by Nashua, Lowell and Lawrence, to Haverhill; and here the Pinkertons en- dowed both kirks and academy; and, if tradition may be trusted, even their clergy introduced musical instruments into New Hampshire. I do not refer to the ear-piercing fife alone, or the spirit-stirring drum, whose " toot " so engrossed the ear of the martial Matthew Clark, when pre- siding at the Session, that he could do no business,-I allude to a stringed instrument of music. The pastor of whom the tale is told had served as a chaplain in the army, and while in camp had learned to play on the violin. He brought one to America - doubtless at the bottom of his chest- and in his log cabin, in the dreary winter nights, found solace in its music. But, late one night, an elder heard the " linked sweetness long drawn out," and peeping through the crevice of the cabin, like the elders who watched Susanna, descried his pastor in the very act of drawing the bow, and reported him to the Session ; and the elders de- creed that he should " hang up the fiddle and the bow " for three successive Sundays, in front of the pulpit. And this, I presume, was the first display of stringed instru- ments of music in New Hampshire. Derry must not,
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therefore, be forgotten at the great Musical Festival, for which Mr. Gilmore is rearing a structure that reminds us of the Coliseum.
The colonists soon occupied the whole of Nutfield, and sent out colonies to Peterborough and Hillsborough, to Cherry Valley, Michigan, Nova Scotia and the Pacific. They sent forth " men who their duties knew, and knew their rights as well; and knowing, dared maintain,"-to make mayors of cities, clergymen, presidents of colleges, professors, judges, representatives and senators in congress, lieutenant-governors and governors of states,-Morrisons, M'Gregors, M'Keans, Duncans, Greggs, Bells, Pattersons and Dinsmores, with many other distinguished names. They sent the indomitable Rogers and his battalion to the French war, whose slide is still traced by the tourist on the shore of Lake Horicon, and whose strength was evinced on . Hounslow Heath, at a later period, where he drew a high- wayman from his horse through the coach window, and took him prisoner into London. It sent, also, Colonel Matthew Thornton, who signed the Declaration of Independence, and many brave men, to Louisburg. It gave to the war of the Revolution Stark, Reid, Adams and Burnham,-generals and colonels-and a host of others. At Bunker's Hill the Nutfield regiments of Stark and Reid were the best disci- plined troops of the army, and hield the post of danger on the flank, and with perfect order covered the retreat. At Bennington, when Burgoyne would have severed the Union and left New England out in the cold, led by the gallant Stark, they captured the vanguard of the British army. They crossed the Delaware on that dark and stormy night, and stood by Washington until the last, at Yorktown ; while at King's Mountain another Scotch colony from Ten- nessee turned the tide of battle and began the redemption of the South. Nor were the descendants of the colonists wanting in the last war with England. Colonel Miller, whose response of "I'll try, sir," is famous in story, and
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Colonel McNeil sustained the fame of their ancestors ; and a few months since, General Thom, of the regular army, and his brave associates well represented the men of Nutfield in the war against secession.
As I paused this morn at Horse Hill, and saw the Veterans of Manchester and a procession a mile long pass me on their way to the pavilion, it seemed to me as if the Continentals were marching down from yonder cemetery that crowns the heights, to greet their progeny.
" O ! for a blast of that dread horn, On Font Arabian echoes borne,"
which swept across France, to summon here the spirits of our dead from every battle-field on which liberty was en- dangered. I would present to them their descendants and their country here,
" Where honor comes, a pilgrim gray,
To deck the sod that wraps their clay."
I would say to them : Behold your progeny ! You have not fought or died in vain. Look at your country, not a mere home in the forest, a cluster of towns, a county, a state,- but a constellation of states, overspreading a continent, under one flag and one constitution, extending, or soon to stretch, from the frozen north to the orange groves of the south, and from ocean to ocean; a people grown from half a million, when you landed, to forty millions ! And what will their number be when another century and a half have elapsed !
If we may not summon around you the spirits of the dead you meet here to honor, let us draw inspiration from their ashes. The ashes of Wickliffe, thrown into the Severn or some other English river, scattered truth around the world. The charred bones and crisped tresses of the vic- tims of Torquemada sent forth, a few weeks since, a tongue of flame which gave religious freedom to Spain. May the ashes of our dead be as animating as their lives to our common country.
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[The following poem was read by Hon. James W. Patterson.]
POEM.
BY MARIAN DOUGLAS.
Fresh leaves glisten in the sun, And the air is soft and clear ; 'T is the spring-tide of the year Of our Lord Seventeen hundred thirty-one.
'T is the robin's wedding-time, And a breath of plum and cherry Makes the air of Londonderry Sweet as Eden in its prime.
On the road the shadow falls Of the Reverend Matthew Clark,* Man of prayer and man of mark, Out to-day, Making some parochial calls.
Keeper of the village fold, Seventy years he's seen already ; Still his step is firm and steady, And his eye is keen and bold.
Neither wrong nor vice he spares; Not alone the pastoral crook, But the smooth stones from the brook, Close at hand, And the ready sling he bears ; And, if any go astray, He is not afraid to use them ;- . Better wound his flock than lose them, Blindly wandering away.
* Rev. Matthew Clark was the second minister of Londonderry.
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Hopeful for the days to be, Forward all his dreams are cast, But his memories of the past, One and all, Lie in lands beyond the sea ; For, but lately, from abroad, To light up the Derry weavers, Honest men and true believers, Came this "candle of the Lord."
Matching well his dauntless mien, On his temple is a scar, (You can see it just as far As his wig Or the man himself is seen,) Bravely won, when, Heaven's own liege, 'Mid the groans of starved and dying, He had fought, on God relying, In the Londonderry siege.
Still that memory remains ; And a sound of martial strife, Beat of drum or shriek of fife, Makes the blood Thrill and tingle in his veins ; And his heart grows young again, Thinking of the vanished glory Of those days renowned in story, Days of triumph and of pain,
When, his cold breath on each brow, Brave men, without doubt or dread, Looked in Death's stern eyes and said, Gravely firm, " We are stronger far than thou ! Friends of Truth and foes of Guilt, Wounded, starving, fainting, breathless, We are God's, and God is deathless - Take us, leave us, as thou wilt ! "
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But, to-day, the air of spring Breathes around a peaceful calm, And his thoughts are like a psalm, " Praise to God !" Sung by Israel's shepherd king ; And around him Fancy paints Here the budding rod of Aaron, There the mystic rose of Sharon And the lilies of the saints.
And the wind that softly steals From the orchard trees in bloom, Laden with their sweet perfume, Seems to him Blowing from celestial fields. Priest and teacher of the town, Long as stands good Londonderry, With its stories sad and merry, Shall thy name be handed down As a man of prayer and mark, Grave and reverend Matthew Clark !
Mat Clark
Came to Londonderry in 1729. He supplied the desk, made vacant that year by the death of Rev. James Mac- Gregor, four years, until the settlement of Rev. Thomas Thompson in 1733. He lived but six years after he came to town, dying Jan. 25, 1735; and though never installed over the church, more is known of him by the people of the present day than is known of two of his successors- Mr. Thompson and Mr. Davidson-though their united pastorates amounted to fifty-five years.
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THE MEMORY OF THE LATE JUDGE BELL.
REV. E. G. PARSONS offered the following tribute to the memory of the late Chief Justice BELL :
" We miss from our presence to-day the distinguished and manly form of one whose family name was familiar to the early settlers of the Londonderry colony, ånd which has descended with dis- tinguished honor through each successive generation,-the late Hon. SAMUEL D. BELL, of Manchester, the patriotic citizen, the pure-minded and honest man, and the humble believer in the faith of our early fathers."
The sentiment was responded to by the Band, with the beautiful air of Pleyel's Hymn.
Rev. Dr. CYRUS W. WALLACE then sketched in a feeling and appreciative manner, the character of the late Judge Bell, with whom he had enjoyed an acquaintance of thirty years, and whom knew as an honest man, an able and upright jurist, and as a believer in the faith of his fathers.
He also spoke of the religious character of the early set- tlers of the town, and remarked that their best monument existed in their works. He referred to a tour he had made to the British Isles, and named as among the most impres- sive incidents of the journey, his visits to the scenes of martyrdom, and the little walled town of Old London- derry, where a monument, surmounted by a figure of George Walker, perpetuates the memory of the noble men from whom we sprang.
The remarks of Dr. Wallace were followed by the per- formance of " Old Hundred" by the band, the vast audience rising and joining in the familiar strains, with an effect which was strikingly solemn and impressive.
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REMARKS.
BY REV. NATHANIEL BOUTON, D. D.
REV. DR. BOUTON, of Concord, said he would not make a speech, but, as being more in his line, would read extracts from the Records of the Province touching the early set- tlers of Londonderry. The first bears date June 26, 1718, and is an order of the Governor and Council.
1. " Whereas there are sundry familys of credit and rep- utation late arrived in this Government from Ireland, most of them being farmers, and disposed either to buy or rent lands, if to be had at reasonable terms wthin this Province,
" Ordered, That publick notice be given throughout the Province, thereof, that any p'sons inclined either to lett or sell land, may have an opportunity so to do.
" RICHARD WALDRON, Cler. Con."
SCHOOLS.
2. " December 23, 1727.
" In the House of Representatives.
"Ordered, Upon the motion of James McKeen, Esq., and considering the Infancy of the Town of London Derry, Provided they keep two Schools for writing and reading in said Town, that they be exempted from the Penaltys in the Laws of this Province * relating to Grammar Schools, for one year now next ensuing, and to commence from their annual meeting in March next, and all courts that have authority in that affair are to take notice of this order and conform according to it.
" JAMES JEFFRY, Cler. Assm."
* In towns of one hundred families, the penalty for not maintaining a gram- mar school. in which Latin was taught was £20 for six months' neglect.
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The reason that Mr. McKeen assigned for this motion was, that " the charge of the Grammar School will main- tain two other Schools for reading and writing, which is much more beneficial to them ; few, if any of them, being able to give their children Grammar learning."
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