USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Canaan > The history of Canaan, New Hampshire > Part 30
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would come readily together to divide the spoils in great seem- ing friendliness.
Mr. Blaisdell held the office of judge of probate for several years, during the supremacy of the Democratic party. He was sent to the Legislature in 1826; was selectman in 1822-24-25- 28-31 and 32. But with all his long years and his opportunities for usefulness, he left no memorial of services by which a suc- ceeding generation will recall his name as a benefactor.
George Kimball was born in Harvard, Mass., in 1787, son of Benjamin and Nancy (Wilder) Kimball; he graduated at Dart- mouth College in 1809; read law with Stephen Moody at Gil- manton, and was admitted to the bar and settled in practice at Union, Me., in March, 1813; from thence he went to Warren, Me., in 1814. For many years he was a successful teacher in the public schools in Concord and in Richmond, Va., and also in the island of Bermuda in 1815, where he married a lady who was the owner of many slaves. On his return he brought one of them, named Nancy, as a servant for his wife, and through all the vicissitudes of their lives, Nancy remained faithful and true to her mistress. In 1824, he turned his attention to journal- ism, and became editor of The Concord Register. He was a gentleman of refinement and intelligence, companionable and of amiable disposition, a good storyteller and a writer of fair ability, but he was indolent, exceedingly fond of snuff and good whiskey, too much so to meet with success in a calling that requires active industry, tact and a quick perception. Of the duties of editorial life, he was a dreamer and oftentimes when his mind should have been active in his business, he would sit for hours nibbling his pen or gazing into vacancy, and when at last roused by the call of the boy for "copy," he would start up with "Yes, yes, boys, in a few minutes"; and instead of sit- ting down to his work himself, would start off and beg his friend, George Kent, to "help him out just once more."
In the fall of 1826, he had become weary of journalism; it interfered with his fixed habits of indolence. His friends ad- vised him to return to the law, and that Canaan would be a good place to locate. There were sheriffs here, and justices and all the machinery for making a first-class reputation. Pet- tingill was gone and Elijah Blaisdell alone remained as an
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antagonist. He came here and opened an office and in a few months after received the appointment of postmaster. He was a scholar and an agreeable speaker, but his manner of life had not made him familiar with legal practice. Business flowed in upon him, but in the details of legal forms he made mistakes and was often obliged to ask leave to amend his declarations. Blaisdell harassed and annoyed him and he as usual had re- course to his old Concord friends for relief. Moody Kent was his mentor and N. P. Rogers of Plymouth, his fidus Achates. They partially directed his cases and carried him triumphantly through many difficulties.
Mr. Rogers was a man of rare talents. His mind was severely disciplined by study, reading and observation. His brain was active, and scattered gems of thought through the columns of the papers of that day. Whoever was fortunate enough to se- cure his friendship, found in him a great soul, true as the magnet, full of noble and unselfish sentiments. As a letter writer, he was without an equal in his time. He stood watch over Kimball as if he was his own child, and his advice will be worthy of attention ages hence. The following is dated May 3, 1829 :
I must request you to act as to Nell in loco guardiani (if this is gram- mar), as to her school ("Nell" was Ellen Farrand, Mrs. Rogers' sis- ter, who was teaching in Canaan) and assist her in her studies ad in- terim (pater again). Converse well in her hearing, for you can advise and instruct as well as Burns could, whether you "peek the sede" any better than that adviser, I don't judge. One thing I want to say you, don't run in debt at the store; estimate your stores of little articles, and muster money and pay down for all you buy and buy at cash prices; otherwise you will always be thinking about it or you will forget that you owe and will spend what will pay the debts. Pay your sheriff often, and make your magistrate work cheap, pay him but part entry fee. Make out all your ex'ons yourself, and let him sign them, and pay him nothing for signing blanks. Debt is the worst evil on earth, next to dishonesty. Of all things a classical gentlemanly spirit should keep free of dependence on the vulgar traders that we sometimes find in the world. Of all tyrants in the world, the most tyrannical is the brute that gets power by vending rum and tobacco. Don't suppose that I have in my eye any of your neighbors, I have not. But I give you and suggest this caution - that's all.
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Here is another that is so well salted and spiced that I cannot withstand the temptation to copy it entire :
Plymouth, Aug. 5, 1829. Dear K- Court, like a pay day or a day to be hung on, draws nigh apace, and I find among other perils that await you and me, is the case of Gilman v. Dutton. Sit down and write me the facts in the case as they occurred, and as we can prove them. You must see the witnesses and hear their stories, and take fire at them. We must prepare that case well. Ascertain whether the wit- nesses will testify viva voce better than on paper, i. e., whether their lies will appear most plausible in a deposition or from the tongue.
I want you to be as industrious as a pis-mire. There is no reason why you and I, having common sense, should be less diligent than those who have not got it. What a miracle it would be if we should devote four hours each day to the study of the law, and now in our "sere and yellow" time of life rise like a couple of Darien eagles to the very mid- heaven of eminence! Would it not be worth while, eh! No more of this, which prudence (if you had it) would lead you to burn. All that your worldly friends think you lack is hawk-eyed cunning, sharpness at money-getting, ambition and industry to cut and thrust in the law, and to heap up gain, as some of them are doing. I tell them your hap- piness and excellence and safety consist in your freedom from that in- fernal disposition to clutch at everything you see, like most of them,- though I want you to study law a little harder (I mean I am doing it) and be as economical as Franklin and prudent in your bargains, not sharp; to be sharp is imprudent. I am at the end of my sheet and entirely your friend. N. P. R.
In the money matters, Mr. Kimball was not a prudent man. He had all the business he could attend to, but it only tended to poverty. He had a bad habit of paying his sheriff and court fees, and charging them to his client, and then instead of collect- ing his costs, would borrow money, and buy everything on credit. He was an enthusiast and, like his Plymouth friend; a natural reformer. He was largely instrumental in building the Congre- gational Church in 1828. In connection with Rev. Mr. Foster and Jonathan Kittredge, he joined the new and untried temper- ance movement, which has been moving ever since. The anti- Masonic wave, which started from Buffalo in 1826, reached through New Hampshire in 1829. With his friend, Rogers, he plunged enthusiastically into its seething vortex and though not a Mason, he successfully talked about the "wicked deeds of that horrible institution, that was afraid of the light," and through his influence, Nathaniel Currier, John Shepherd and
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Hubbard Harris, were induced to make public renunciation of their Masonic obligations. This greatly enraged the Masons, and Jacob Trussell and Elijah Blaisdell said "they might just as well have renounced everything else, for although members of the lodge, neither of them could explain what they had re- nounced."
Mr. Kimball was naturally sympathetic. When Garrison ap- peared as the champion of the enslaved race, Kimball with Rog- ers, joined him and were ever after identified with the move- ment. They were greatly instrumental in building "Noyes Academy" and in changing its original features so as to admit colored pupils. They had a right to do this; but the public opinion of those days was as much enslaved as the negroes, and was fierce and brutal in its instincts as the hyena. The beautiful fabric which those unselfish men had erected and whose dedica- tion to freedom of thought ought to have made it sacred, was rudely thrown down, and the grand object for which it was so carefully nursed into being, disappeared forever in one day. The mob, which on the 10th of August, 1835, defied law, violated private rights and destroyed the germs of what would have be- come one of the most flourishing institutions of learning in the country, was simply the creature of public opinion, remorse- less and cruel, which pervaded the land through all its wide- spread territory. It was not a Canaan mob, for with all their evil passions then fired up, there was a lack of courage in the men of Canaan to perform such deeds. They gave Ichabod Bartlett five dollars to tell them if they had any legal rights to destroy the "nigger school." He did tell them that every man standing by and consenting thereto made himself liable to the penalties of the law - provided public opinion should ever allow a jury to find them guilty. This contingency was so remote that it placed no restraint upon the mob. This digression is made because Mr. Kimball was acting as the agent of such men as Samuel E. Sewall, Samuel H. Cox, Arthur Tap- pan, David L. Child, Benjamin Lundy, and the great body of Abolitionists of the country, who cherished the hope that this free academy might be instrumental in developing the capaci- ties of the negro, and in some degree mitigating the social rigors that environed his race. The ferocity of the mob spirit
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amazed and for a time paralyzed the friends of that school. The people were seized with the idea that Abolitionists were to be exterminated with or without law. At public meetings, find- ing themselves in a minority and treated as public enemies, they for a time refrained from attending them and waited for the reaction of the public mind, which was sure to come.
Mr. Kimball found it to his interest to leave town. In 1836 he went to Alton, Ill., and in company with Hubbard Harris engaged in mercantile business; Nathaniel Currier furnished $6,000 as part of their capital. When the mob of Alton at- tacked Lovejoy's office, killed Lovejoy and threw his press and type into the Mississippi, Kimball was present, but not as one of the defenders. He was not successful in trade, and he returned to the East. He remained East a short time, for for- tune did not favor him, being almost constantly embarrassed. At his wife's solicitation, they returned to Bermuda about 1840, where for twenty years he was a teacher and lawyer in the town of Hamilton. In 1858 he died, a weary old man.
John Hancock Slack, A. M., son of John and Betsey (Ide) Slack, was born at New London in June, 1789, and died at Loudon County, Va., August 2, 1857, aged 68. He was gradu- ated from Dartmouth College in 1811, and taught school at Hop- kinton. He read law with Hon. Moses P. Payson of Bath, and Hon. John Harris and Baruch Chase of Hopkinton, and was admitted to the bar in 1817; practised at Andover, Pembroke, Goffstown and New Castle (Hill) ; was a resident of Canaan in 1829 and 1830, where he taught a select school in the hall of Gordon Burley's store; and occasionally, when other lawyers were out of sight, had some practice. Leaving Canaan about 1830, he went to Canada and then drifted southerly to George- town, D. C .; thence to Fairfax County, Va., and afterwards to Loudon County, where he died. He married Lydia, daughter of Levi Hastings of Wilton, about 1825. When he resided here in the old Baptist parsonage, which Albert Pressey last occupied, he was a poor man; he had never been successful, either as a teacher or lawyer; he often appeared like a hunted man, and many reports to his disadvantage were circulated and he seemed generally to be under a cloud. He often said he was confident he would live down all the evil that was said of him. At George-
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town he established a college and referred to many of the lead- ing men of Washington as trustees and visitors. He started out well, but had not the faculty of holding on, therefore, he often fell by the wayside. He belonged to a class of men who make good servants, but cannot serve themselves; they need a direct- ing mind. Perhaps some part of the ill success which attended his life was due to his partner. His home life was neither cheer- ful nor tidy, and he seemed to think that apologies for personal blemishes were due as a matter of course to visitors. To his boy scholars, he was always kind and friendly; for myself I al- ways had a warm place for him in my heart.
Jonathan Kittredge, LL. D., was the son of Dr. Jonathan and Apphia (Woodman) Kittredge, born in Canterbury, July 17, 1793; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1813. He read law with Bleecker & Sedgwick at Albany, N. Y., and Roswell William Lewis of New York City, and began practice at the last place in 1817. It is not known how long he remained in that city, but soon after the departure of Mr. Pettingill in 1822, he opened an office in Canaan and resided here until 1827, when he removed to Lyme, where he married Julia Balch on February 8, 1829 ; he resided there until 1836. Before he came to Canaan he had contracted an appetite for strong drink, his case seemed almost hopeless; no man could have been worse; he had thrown off self-respect, lost caste in society, his brethren of the bar shunned him, and clients seldom sought his counsel. In those days when rum was almost as common a drink as cider, and many drunkards traversed the highways crookedly, the trail of Mr. Kittredge was the crookedest. Some efforts were made to reclaim and save him by a few friendly brethren of the bar, and particularly by that great-souled gentleman, N. P. Rogers, whose hand and heart always went out to the weary and heavy laden; and there were some too, who for reasons of their own, urged him on, apparently pleased with his self-abasement. The appetite for drink clung to him like the shirt to Nessus, and dragged him down until he could get no lower and no word of reproach or kindness could rouse him to contend with the demons that had seized him, but to the Rev. Amos Foster, is due his ref- ormation in 1825, as elsewhere related. While at Lyme he wrote and delivered an address upon temperance, January 8, 1827,
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which when published, gave him almost a national reputation. The address was reprinted in England, France and Germany, and exerted a powerful influence for good upon the thought- ful world. The State Temperance Society appointed him its agent in 1832 and he edited its newspaper in 1834.
There was not much need of lawyers in Lyme, either before or since that period, but Mr. Kittredge continued to reside in that town among friends who tenderly watched over him, until he should gain courage and strength to meet his old enemy and all his bad forces in the wide world's arena. In 1836 he re- turned to Canaan, a period when society was almost resolved into its original elements; that is, the professed Christian men of the town had gone back to original sin. Hatred, vituperation and slander filled all hearts and mouths. It was here during the next eight years he won an honorable reputation as an able, skilful and well-read lawyer, for fair dealing and humanity as a man, for sincerity as a Christian and proved himself reso- lute and fearless in the pursuit of an object. Bad men avoided him, and when charged with slandering him, slunk away and denied it.
In politics he was a Whig, and disclaimed any sympathy with Abolitionists or Free-soilers, but in the excitements of those days, he never forgot that strength and numbers, even when upheld by public opinion, were not always guarantees of jus- tice; and thus he soon found himself in full accord with the opposition to the wild elements that disturbed society and called itself patriotism. He was rough and uncouth in many ways, even with his friends, and those who disliked him sometimes called him "hog," or some equivalent phrase without defining whether they intended it as a compliment to him or it. He was considered a safe counselor, always true to his clients. Only on one occasion did we ever hear his integrity impugned, and that was in the settlement of an estate, when upon rendering his final accounts, the judge after looking over the items and seeing an enormous fee charged by the executor, exclaimed : "Mr. Kittredge, Mr. Kittredge, that is a most outrageous fee!" After some rough scolding, the fee was allowed, minus two hun- dred dollars. He was a politician, of course, and sought his own advancement ; he was the leader of his party and could control
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all its elements. He succeeded very skilfully in throwing out a Democratic postmaster here and secured the place to himself, which he held several years in a very lax manner. Five times he was elected to represent the town in the Legislature in 1846-48 and 1851 and 1855. He held various town offices, especially such as were agreeable to him; was selectman in 1851 and moderator eight years; he went as delegate to the Philadelphia Convention in 1848, that nominated General Taylor, and was an active worker for his election.
In 1856 he was appointed chief judge of the court of com- mon pleas, and held the office until the court was reformed out of existence in 1858. He was respected as a lawyer and judge, but he was not popular with either lawyers or clients. His brusque manner with other peculiarities among other members of the court, begat a hostility on the part of the bar that re- sulted in reforming the whole court, and several of its members, including Mr. Kittredge, were left out in the cold. In 1858 Dartmouth College conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. In the spring of 1859 he moved to Concord, where he continued to reside until his death, April 8, 1864, aged 71 years. His man- ner of leaving the court was not agreeable to him; he felt as if he had been struck by his political friends and it soured him towards many with whom he had always worked. The act was said to have been engineered through the Legislature by Cragin of Lebanon, who had been treated coarsely by Mr. Kittredge and took that method to be revenged. Both parties seemed to enjoy great pleasure in "reforming" that court.
Jonathan Kittredge's greatest victory was achieved over himself in his earlier years. He was held in honor and esteem by the good people here; he was a man of large ability. I do not feel myself competent to give an anaylsis of his capa- city as a lawyer, but I can speak of him at home and in his neighborhood life and of his influence in affairs, some of his disappointments and his old age. His famous temperance ad- dress was given in the Congregational Church in 1829; I heard him speak it. There was a time here once when the waves of popular madness ran so high and wild that the law and the right of individuals were trampled upon and justice and truth were fallen in the streets. Jonathan Kittredge was the one
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courageous man to buffet the howling mob and rescue truth and justice from the evil passions that threatened them. His chil- dren, Ellen Maria, born December 7, 1838, died August 11, 1839 ; Edward C. Delevan, referred to elsewhere, and Jonathan Perry, born in Canaan December 13, 1840, married Ellen S. Bond of Worcester, Mass., December 26, 1872; enlisted in Company B, third New Hampshire Volunteers, August 23, 1861, was ap- pointed hospital steward, September 9, 1862; mustered out Au- gust 23, 1864; was in the drug business in Concord under the name of Underhill & Kittredge.
William P. Weeks was the son of Brackett and Sarah (Pick- ering) Weeks, born at Greenland, February 22, 1803; gradu- ated from Dartmouth College in 1826. He read law with Hon. William A. Hayes and Charles N. Coggswell of South Berwick, Me. Admitted to the bar in 1829 in Maine; November of that year he located here at the instance of his brother-in-law, Gor- don Burley, whose large business affairs had become entangled and Mr. Weeks was set to work to straighten them out. Three other lawyers were already in practice on the Street, Blaisdell, Kimball and Slack. He soon afterwards entered the office of Mr. Blaisdell as a partner, and continued there for a short time, two or three years. There seemed to be small room for him, but he stayed on, believing that some or all of the others would soon have occasion to emigrate, and he would have an open field. Mr. Slack did leave within two years. Mr. Blaisdell in 1833, con- cluded to make his future home in Lebanon, and two years later Mr. Kimbell formed a mercantile partnership in Alton, Ill., and quitted the field of his victories and defeats. When Mr. Weeks came to Canaan there existed here two parties with strong antagonisms, which arose chiefly from business complications, but politics was also a large factor. It was a vicious sentiment that delighted in tearing reputations, and showed itself in nearly all the walks of life. As events developed, it was impossible for any intelligent man to remain an indifferent spectator. He was a Democrat by natural inheritance, and when his party called the roll, he answered, and even until the day of his death, he was a strong leader here. The only time he was ever ashamed of his party was when the Legislature of 1854 passed resolutions hypo- critically reciting that the extension of slavery into the terri-
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tories was good cause for the dissolution of the Union. It was to catch the Abolition vote and failed of its object, because it was plain that neither the men nor the party were sincere in enacting those words. It placed the party in a false position, and it lost prestige for consistency. He might have added, had he lived, that in thirty successive years, it never regained its lost character. During the sad years when the Abolition trouble disturbed the social harmony he was a strong partisan. He took no active part in the early disputes, but his counsel and advice , as well as sympathy were always at the service of the destruc- tors. Threats of violence were freely made against the prom- inent men and women, and particularly against the colored boys.
It was through his timely counsel that the ruffians laid aside their clubs and stones. That party was made up of strong- minded, wilful, determined men, with none too much intelli- gence or education, but with brains enough to carry out their plans in their own way, which was not always gentle. Mr. Weeks always held these fierce spirits in restraint by quietly quoting the penalties of the law to them. His practice was ex- tensive and lucrative, but it was chiefly in the branches of law relating to debt and credit, and the validity of titles. In these matters he made himself an authority.
He was never counted a great lawyer, but he was a correct business man and carefully attended to all affairs placed in his hands.
When the town voted to receive the surplus revenue, Mr. Weeks was appointed agent to receive and loan it to responsible parties. When the Academy was rebuilt, with money borrowed from the agent by the proprietors, they, finding the property a poor investment, influenced the town to take a deed of the building and give up the notes. There was strong feeling on the delivery of these notes. On being questioned, Mr. Weeks said: "Gentlemen, you need not be alarmed for those notes. They are safe in my possession, and when you make a proper call for them they will be forthcoming."
On July 28, 1833, to him a most important occasion, he mar- ried Mary Elizabeth Doe, daughter of Joseph Doe of Derry, and as the years went by three sons and two daughters were born to them.
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In 1839, 1840, 1852, 1853 and 1854 he represented the town in the Legislature; he was also in the State Senate in 1848-49, being its president the last year; was also in the Constitutional Con- vention in 1850, a famous body of politicians, who went up to Concord, drank brandy and smoked cigars at Gass' Hotel for several months, and ripped and tore away at the old Constitu- tion so fiercely that scarcely a fragment was left, and when at last they sent it out to the world the people saw nothing in their labors to approve, and sat down hard upon it and squeezed the life all out of it. The cost of that mutilating convention was about $60,000, the payment of which was the only new fact the people realized concerning it. The honors attending the doing of that body of men never matured - verdict of the voters - killed by too much wet nursing.
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