USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Boscawen > The history of Boscawen and Webster [N.H.] from 1733 to 1878 > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Webster > The history of Boscawen and Webster [N.H.] from 1733 to 1878 > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
Upon the intervale are open spaces where the grass grows lux- uriantly, but everywhere else they behold an unbroken forest.
Ascending the high bank, they come to the blazed lines where John Brown has laid out the new town. There is no house to shelter them. The first nights they spend beneath the shelter of the trees. They select the sites for their log houses. The forest resounds with the sturdy strokes of their axes. They have a single plow, owned by Stephen Gerrish. The oxen are yoked to it, and the virgin soil of the intervale, which has lain undisturbed since the morning of creation, is turned to the sun. Ere many days have passed, each man has a cabin built of logs, covered with bark, or with long shingles rived from some giant pine.
During the first season they must subsist upon provisions brought on horseback, or on their own backs, from Newbury, save that now and then their trusty rifles bring down a deer. During the spring and summer months they can add to their stock of pro- visions by spearing salmon in the river, and there is a plentiful supply of pickerel, horned pouts, and perch in the river and ponds, while the brooks are alive with trout. The days are long and wearisome. They work early and late, suffer many privations and hardships ; but they are rearing their future homes, and the hard- ships are forgotten in anticipation of better days.
It is not probable that many of the settlers' families came in the spring, but most, if not all, were there before the close of the year.
PROPRIETORS' MEETING.
Nov. 8. A meeting of the proprietors was held at the house of Archelaus Adams in Newbury. It was voted that a saw-mill should be built at the charge of the proprietors, and Daniel Hale,
17
CIVIL HISTORY.
1734.]
Joseph Gerrish, and Thomas Thorla, were chosen a committee to attend to the matter. The same committee was empowered to rectify any mistake made in the laying out of lots, and John Brown, the surveyor, was engaged to go to Contoocook to show the proprietors the location of the lots.
Five of the proprietors,-Joseph Lunt, John Coffin, Thomas Thorla, Benjamin Lunt, Benjamin Coker, and Edward Emery,- entered their dissent in regard to the power of the committee.
Dec. 18, another meeting was hekl. It was voted that the intervale should be fenced by the fifteenth of May of the following year, at the expense of the owners of the lots, and any proprietor neglect- ing to build his proportion should make satisfaction. It was also voted that Joseph Tappan should obtain a grindstone for the com- mon use of the proprietors.
At this meeting further action was taken towards building a saw-mill.
[From the Records.]
"It was put to vote by the moderator where [whether ] there should be a grant of [land] made to those men hereafter named, of the little stream [Mill brook ] at Contoocook near the upper end of the lots or town, and fifty acres of land laid square adjoining to the mill for commencing thereof on both sides of the stream and also one whole right throughout the town or plantation on condition they build a saw mill there by the first of September next ensuing the date hereof, and a good grist mill so soon as there is settled twenty families on the said plantation in case there is water enough to accommodate both mills and the mills be built and in the length of time by clearing the land or any other way it shall be judged that there is not water to answer the end for said mill or mills or that the men are obliged to raise the dam so high to save water to saw or grind so as to be judged hurtfull : then the proprietors shall pay the men that built the mill or mills for them the price of what they shall then be accounted worth, or else procure for the men that built the mill or mills the stream commonly called or known by the name of [Mill brook] Contoocook & the privileges thereof as was re- served as by record may appear-they taking the land as it was re- served by each [of the] falls for conveniency of the mills for part of their rights."
The above, evidently, was not drawn by the clear-headed clerk, Joseph Coffin, for we find an explanatory note in his hand-writ- ing, as follows : 2
18
CIVIL HISTORY.
[1735.
"The true intent & meaning of the above written vote is that if the nine Gentlem do build mills on Contoocook river to our acceptance then the society is not to procure said stream [ in blank ] for those men which built on the little stream. Those men that have undertaken to build the aforesaid mill or mills at the above plantation are as followeth to wit :
" Joseph Gerrish Esq, Mr Tristram Little, John Coffin, Mr Joseph Noyes, ye 3d, Lieut William Ilsley, Cor Thomas Thorla, John Moody jur, Daniel Coffin, Benjamin Pettengill, Lieut Benjamin Lunt, Dea James Noyes, Joseph Coffin, John Webster, Lieut Moses Gerrish, & Capt Edward Emery, these men above named are to give bond for their well performing their work."
At that meeting Robert Adams, Joseph Morss, 3d, and Richard Hale, were appointed a committee to take a bond of the above named, and Henry Rolfe was chosen to confer with them in re- gard to building the mill.
THE FIRST CHILD.
The year opened auspiciously to the settlers, for on Jan. 7 a daughter was born to Nathaniel Danforth-the first birth in the plantation. The infant was named Abigail, grew to maidenhood, and married Thomas Foss, whose name frequently appears in the records of the town.
THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY.
A survey of the settled sections of New Hampshire at this time will be of interest.
Northward of Contoocook there was an unbroken wilderness reaching to Canada. Hunters and explorers had passed up and down the valley of the Merrimack, but no settler had reared his cabin above the Contoocook intervale. The men who set up their log houses on King street were the advance guard of civilization.
On the east there was no settlement between Contoocook and Rochester. Dover and Portsmouth, the oldest towns in the state, had been settled one hundred years when the men of Newbury located themselves at Contoocook, and yet so slow had been the advance northward from those localities, that the most northerly settlement was at Rochester, within ten miles of Dover. In 1732 a few settlers pushed westward from Dover to Barrington. In Nottingham, south of Barrington, Joseph Cilley and others
19
CIVIL HISTORY.
1735.]
built their cabins in 1727; but in the territory now comprised in the towns of Farmington, Strafford, Barnstead, Northwood, Deer- field, Candia, Epsom, Pittsfield, Loudon, and Chichester, there was no settlement. Southward were the settlements on the river- Penacook, Chestnut Woods (Chester), which was settled in 1722, Nutfield (Derry), settled in 1719. West of Nutfield was John Cromwell's trading-house, in what is now the town of Merrimack ; but the first settlers of that town located there the same year that the people of Newbury moved to Contoocook. John Crom- well had been there, off and on, as early as 1679, buying furs of the Indians, doing as the old Knickerbockers of Manhattan were wont to do-pile the furs in one scale and put their foot in the other ! The Indians discovered Cromwell's trick, however, of hav- ing a heavy foot when he bought, and a light foot when he sold; consequently he was obliged to use both of his feet nimbly in getting away. His trading-house was a ruin when the Contoo- cook settlers came northward to their future homes.
Between Nutfield and Penacook there was no settlement, ex- cept at Suncook (Pembroke), which had been granted to Capt. John Lovewell, and which was settled in 1727.
On the west bank of the Merrimack, above Dunstable, there was no settlement except at Hollis, where, in 1731, Peter Powers began a clearing and built a cabin ; none in all of the territory of Hillsborough county, and Cheshire, with the exception of the settlements at Winchester and Hinsdale. Josiah Willard and others had been at Winchester one year only. New Brookline was settled in 1733. The next place settled in south-western . New Hampshire was Keene, in 1736. Charlestown was not set- tled till 1738.
Of the localities around Contoocook, a settlement was made in Canterbury the same year as in Contoocook. Virtually it was one settlement, separated only by the river.
On the west the first settlement was at Hopkinton, in 1740, but the inhabitants of that locality abandoned their homes in 1746. The first settlement in Salisbury was in 1750, by Philip Call, Nathaniel Meloon, Benjamin Pettengill, John and Ebenezer Webster, Andrew Bohonon. These, with the exception of Pet- tengill and Webster, moved from Contoocook.
So slow was the advancing wave of civilization, that in the val-
20
CIVIL HISTORY.
[1736.
ley of the Merrimack there was no settlement above Salisbury till 1764, when Zachariah Parker and James Hobart settled at Ply- , mouth. That was a great step northward, for not till two years later were there any inhabitants between what is now Franklin and Plymouth. Thomas Crawford reared a cabin in Bridgewater in 1766. The advancement on the west was quite as slow. Some settlers moved into Hillsborough in 1741, but moved out again soon after. No permanent settlement was made there till 1757. Henniker was without an inhabitant till 1761, when James Peters erected a log cabin. In Warner there was no permanent settler till 1762, two years after Contoocook was incorporated a town. A year later-1763-the first inhabitant moved into Newport. There was no settlement in Sanborton till 1765.
For a quarter of a century Contoocook was the out-post of civil- ization, maintaining its position through the Indian wars, its hardy settlers never thinking of retreat.
ACTION OF PROPRIETORS IN REGARD TO A MINISTER.
May 19. The proprietors held their annual meeting at Con- toocook, several of them coming from Newbury to attend it. It was their first meeting in the plantation. Joseph Gerrish was chosen moderator, and Joseph Coffin, clerk.
The first business transacted was in relation to securing a min- ister of the gospel; and Lieut. Benj. Lunt, Joseph Gerrish, and John Coffin were chosen a committee "to agree with a suitable person to preach at Contoocook, & also to raise money to defray · the expenses of the plantation."
One thing is to be noted in connection, that the proprietors still living in Newbury, and who had no thought of emigrating to Contoocook, cheerfully taxed themselves to support a minister in the plantation, thus carrying out the provisions of the grant hon- orably, and acting with great liberality towards the settlers.
At this meeting it was voted that there should be no meadows mown before the 10th of July, when the grass was "to be cut by those men that are there, in equality, each doing his portion or share of the labor."
It was also voted that Edward Emery, Stephen Gerrish, Na- thaniel Danford, " shall cut that piece of meadow which they have found, and cut a way into for this year & no longer."
21
CIVIL HISTORY.
1736.]
Where this may have been is uncertain. It is handed down by tradition that there was a section of cleared meadow land be- tween Great and Little ponds, also at various places along the brooks and streams of the town.
It was also voted that the highways should be mended at the proprietors' cost, that " any person that do labores on said ways to the satisfaction of ye surveyors, shall have five shillings for his service."
Voted, also, to raise one hundred pounds " to build a cart bridge over Contoocook river." Benjamin Rolfe, William Ilsley, and John Coffin were chosen a committee to build the same ;- " that is if they can build sd bridge and keep it in good repair for the space of ten years for an hundred pounds, which is already granted."
TOWN-HOUSE.
The proprietors erected, during the year, a town-house. No record has been preserved showing where it was located, but the little brook which runs from Queen street to the pond crossed by the Northern Railroad is frequently spoken of as "Town-House brook." It is probable that this first public edifice of logs stood near the stream, and not far from the present residence of Prof. John Jackman, or, possibly, near the residence of Mr. Hamilton P. Gill.
From action taken in regard to the discharge of the bond given by the fifteen who obligated themselves to build the saw-mill, the evidence is conclusive that the mill had been erected.
" Voted that the bonds of the men, which have built the saw mill be delivered & to lay out the bonds for building said mill according to vote as by record."
It was the pioneer mill of this section of the Merrimack valley. The saw-mills of that period were such as any carpenter might construct. This mill had no "nigger" wheel to move the "car- riage " back after the saw had passed through the log : that labor was done by a man treading upon the cogs of the "ratchet- wheel," -- labor exceedingly fatiguing. For many years it was the only saw-mill in the town, and several of the houses now standing on King street are covered with boards which were sawn in this first mill.
22
CIVIL HISTORY.
[1737.
At their March meeting, 1737, the proprietors voted that Joseph Gerrish, Henry Rolfe, and Joseph Stickney be a committee "to treat with some suitable man & a Christian learned to preach at Contoocook the cumming summer and in order to settle the afore- said Gentleman if he can be rationally agreed with to serve us in the ministry." Two hundred pounds was raised for preaching, and the assessors were directed to make the town-house convenient for the use of the minister and people on the Sabbath.
THE FIRST MINISTER.
The committee secured the services of Rev. Phineas Stevens (see Biography). This action fulfilled all the provisions of the grant, except that relating to the number of families in the plan- tation. It is probable that Mr. Stevens began his ministrations in May.
A second meeting of the proprietors was held May 10, at which it was voted that there should not be more than fifty pounds laid out on the highways during the year. A man was to receive five shillings, and a yoke of oxen was to be rated at four shillings for a day's work.
THE FIRST FERRY.
No bridge had as yet been erected across the Contoocook, and the only means of communication with Penacook and with Can- terbury was by boat. Both the Merrimack and Contoocook were too deep to be forded. It is probable that up to this period the settlers had relied on their small skiffs, their horses and oxen swimming the rivers. But the time had come for the establish- ing of a public ferry. At the proprietors' meeting, it was voted,-
" That Stephen Gerrish shall have six pounds paid him by the pro- prietors, his building a ferry boat and keeping said boat in good re- pair, and giving due & constant attendance to ye proprietors to ferry themselves and their creatures over Merrimack as followeth : (viz.) a man at two pence, a man and horse at four pence, a man and one yoke of oxen at six pence, a man and one cow at four pence and young creatures according to bigness; and at years end his returning said boat to the proprietors or to whom they appoint to receive the afore- said boat, or six pounds in bills of credit of ye old tenor."
The ferry was located in the bend of the Merrimack, above its
23
CIVIL HISTORY.
1737.]
junction with the Contoocook. In after years a ferry-way was laid out from King street to the bank of the Merrimack. The settlement of Canterbury was keeping pace with Contoocook, and such a location would best suit the two communities, while it would be on the direct road to Newbury.
PETITION FOR CONSTABLE.
Henry Rolfe and Joseph Gerrish were appointed a committee to petition the Great and General Court " for the appointment of constable to keep ye peace." There was no evidence that the little community was not peaceably disposed, but a constable repre- sented the majesty of the law. The very appointment would tend to keep the peace.
At a proprietors' meeting, held September 6, it was voted that the lots, " namely, the ministers, ministry & school lots shall be piched [pitched] and a committee be chosen to pich them."
The undoubted design of this vote was the securing of the best land in the town for that which they most prized,-the religious, moral, and educational advancement of the community. This, rather than their material interests, characterized the action of the proprietors from the beginning. There was a large-hearted- ness in all that they did; and this action was followed by its legitimate sequence,-the building up of a solid, substantial com- munity-energetic, moral, religious, liberal-which, till emigra- tion began to draw its life blood, occupied a front rank among the purely agricultural towns of the state.
SECOND DIVISION OF LOTS.
It was voted that there be a second division of land. Benjamin Rolfe, John Coffin, Edward Emery, Joseph Gerrish, and Thomas Thorla were appointed to make the division, and were to have nine shillings a day for their services. This committee were to make the selection of the minister's and school lots.
FIRST MEETING-HOUSE.
Up to this time, the services on the Sabbath had been held either in the town-house or else in the dwelling of one of the set- tlers. But the conditions of the grant required the erection of a
24
CIVIL HISTORY.
[1738.
meeting-house ; and it was voted that a house be erected, and that the sum of one hundred pounds be raised to enable the committee to go on in building a house "forty feet long and of the same width of Rumford Meet- ing house and two feet higher, said house to be built of logs."
Penacook had taken the name of Rumford, a planta- tion with a meeting-house and a settled minister. The ac- companying out of the Rum- ar ession ford meeting-house, the model for that of Contoocook, has been kindly loaned by Rev. Nathaniel Bouton, D. D., the historian of Concord.
Joseph Gerrish, Joseph Coffin, and Jacob Flanders were chosen building committee.
LAYING OUT OF THE SECOND DIVISION OF LOTS.
The committee on a second division of land employed John Brown as surveyor, laying out Fish, High, Cross, Water, Long, Battle, Pleasant, and West (Little Hill) streets, four rods in width. Upon these highways, lots containing eighty acres were located. one for each proprietor. The expense of the survey amounted to one hundred pounds ten shillings.
Upon the completion of the survey, the proprietors assembled at the town-house, in Newbury, December 20, to attend the draw- ing of lots. Joseph Gerrish was chosen chairman; but the day being very cold, the meeting was adjourned to the tavern of John March (possibly Mancher), where the lots were drawn.
POPULATION.
From a deposition of Moses Burbank, one of the first settlers, made in 1796, we are able to obtain the number of settlers, and the condition of the plantation.
" There was 33 settlers in the year 1738 and about 50 or 60 Rights begun in the settlement & in the course of two or three
25
CIVIL HISTORY.
1739.]
years after there was as many as 90 or 96 Rights Begun Improve- ment." [Found among the papers of Col. Henry Gerrish.]
COMPLETION OF THE MEETING-HOUSE.
During the winter of 1738-9 the meeting-house was completed. The site selected by the committee was near the center of the cemetery, on the Plain. The pulpit is supposed to have been over the spot where rest the remains of Dea. Isaac Pearson, whose dying request was that he might be buried on the spot where the gospel had been preached by the first minister of the town and his successors. For thirty years the edifice was used for pub- lic worship and town-meetings. Upon its demolition, some of the timber was used in the construction of a stable, now owned by Mr. Emerson.
This first meeting-house in Contoocook was the twenty-seventh in the state. Those erected at an earlier date were in the follow- ing order :
MEETING-HOUSES IN THE STATE.
1633. Dover.
1727. Somersworth.
1638. Exeter.
1729. Concord (Rumford).
1638. Hampton. 1730. Plaistow.
1641.
Gosport.
1730.
South Newmarket.
1655. Durham.
1731.
Chester.
1671. Newcastle.
1733.
Dover, 2d.
1685. Nashua (Dunstable).
1733.
Keene.
1706. Greenland.
1733. Winchester.
1711. Hampton Falls.
1734. North Hampton.
1715. Newington.
1737.
Hudson.
1717. Stratham.
1737. Kensington.
1725. Kingston.
1737. Pembroke.
1726. Rye.
1738. Boscawen.
1727. Derry.
It will be seen that at this time there were only four meeting- houses west of the Merrimack-at Dunstable, Keene, Winchester, and Contoocook.
26
CIVIL HISTORY.
[1739.
PROPRIETORS' MEETINGS. .
May 16. Meeting in the town-house in Contoocook. Rev. Mr. Stevens was again employed to preach, and £300, old tenor, was raised to defray the expenses of the proprietors.
Dec. 6. Meeting held at the house of John Mancher, innholder in Newbury. Up to this time, the settlers of Contoocook, in com- mon with those of the frontiers, had lived in peace with the Ind- ians ; but France and England were at war, and the Indians being under the influence of the French, it was feared that the settle- ment would be attacked. Every town established its garrison. The proprietors took prompt action to defend the settlement.
THE FIRST FORT.
It was voted that a fort should be erected at the expense of the proprietors, the enclosure to be one hundred feet square, built of hewn logs, seven feet high and eight inches thick when hewn, "to be built three feet above the logs with such stuff as shall be agreed upon by the committee."
From this record it may be inferred that there was an upper work,-a chevaux-de-frise of pointed, projecting timbers, designed to prevent the enemy from climbing over the wooden walls, which undoubtedly were loop-holed for the use of musketry.
It was voted to locate the fortification on the "school lot." The probabilities are that it was erected a few feet south of that lot, near the spot upon which the first framed house was subse- quently erected by Rev. Robie Morrill, now standing-the two- storied edifice a few rods easterly of King street.
A spring of sweet water issued from the high bank near by, from which the garrison could be supplied. The spring is now the well in the shed attached to the above-mentioned house. The location was well chosen. It stood on the brink of a high bank, and commanded the intervale. The Indians might look down upon it from the high hill west of Town-House brook, but too far away to do any damage. The spring was so near, that water could al- ways be obtained without danger. Barracks were erected inside of the fortification for the convenience of the garrison and fami- lies.
27
CIVIL HISTORY.
1739.]
It being found that the enclosure was not large enough to ac- commodate the entire community, another fortification was erect- ed, during the winter, near the house now occupied by Prof. John Jackman. No record has been preserved in regard to the dimen- sions of this garrison, but it probably was somewhat smaller, and designed as a retreat for the settlers on Queen street in case of sudden surprise. x
Through the years of trouble with the Indians, these garrisons served to protect the resolute men, who, during the most exciting times, when other frontier settlements were abandoned, never thought of yielding the ground to the foe.
.
CHAPTER III.
THE SECOND DECADE.
AY 16, 1740, the annual meeting of the proprietors was held at the town-house. Among other officers chosen were two field-drivers-Nathaniel Meloon and Ambrose Goold. The ques- tion, " whether ye hogs should run at large the year ensuing,- they being well yoked," was decided in the affirmative.
A committee was chosen to confer with Rev. Phineas Stevens, in regard to his settlement as minister; and £150 in bills of eredit was voted for contingent expenses.
John Brown, Thomas Thorla, and Joseph Gerrish were ap- pointed a committee to lay out a highway through the town, to Baker's town, "on petition of John Sergeant & others Canada Soldiers, which Township is laid above Contoocook & adjoining to Merrimack."
This has reference to the present South Franklin. The Canada soldiers alluded to were those who had been out upon the fron- tier to defend the settlements from the Indians. The highway was an extension of Fish street, the southerly end of which had been laid out by John Brown in 1738.
SETTLEMENT OF REV. MR. STEVENS.
September 25, a meeting was held at John Mancher's tavern, in Newbury, but without transacting any business was adjourned to October 1. The proprietors met on that day at Ebenezer Choate's tavern, in Newbury. It was voted that the salary of Rev. Mr. Stevens, for the first year, should be £135, in bills of
1
29
CIVIL HISTORY.
1740.]
credit, equivalent to silver at 29 shillings the ounce, and an in- crease of E5 a year until it should amount to £175 per annum, which should be his regular salary thereafter. It was also voted to give him a settlement of £180; and in case it should be found that £175 was not an adequate support, the proprietors would make a reasonable addition.
The first minister, according to the grant, was entitled to one eighty-fourth part of the land ; but, as the town was laid out in one hundred and four rights, the proprietors made a stipulation that Mr. Stevens should not claim but one one-hundred-and-fourth share. Joseph Gerrish, John Brown, Edward Emery, John Coffin, and George Jackman were appointed a committee to pro- sent the terms of settlement, and to arrange for the ordination.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.