USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Canaan > The history of Canaan, New Hampshire > Part 40
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There were a number of strong men who fell by the wayside in their encounter with apple-juice; there was Dea. C. W. and his sons, Esquire A. and all his sons; E. and J. W .; Doctor T., J. D., and L. W., and others, over whose remains might well have:
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been inscribed, "Woe to him that tarrieth long at the wine cup." There came a time when the men who planted these great or- chards, knew not what to do with the fruit. Some years, when their bins had been filled with apples for family use and their casks were all filled with cider, the quantity left ungathered was almost fabulous. Cattle, hogs and horses were turned loose to grow fat upon them. The year 1822 by those who remember it, has always been called the great apple year. Many hundred barrels of cider were made and many hundred bushels of ap- ples rotted on the ground. Joshua Wells, before his death, used to recall that year and gave the cider product something as fol- lows: Joseph Bartlett, 150 barrels; Dea. Caleb Welch, 30 bar- rels; John M. Barber, 100 barrels; Joshua Wells, 200; Capt. Moses Dole, 30; William Campbell, 50; Col. Daniel Pattee, 60; Josiah Barber, 60; Reynold Gates, 75; Abel Hadley, 25. Cider was everywhere. The difficulty being to find casks to hold it, it was free to all. Men drank it and became ugly, both in body and mind - red noses, bleared eyes, and bloated bellies were the sights that marked the devotees to these frequent libations, and there was no man brave enough to rise up and cry out: "Taste not, touch not."
Years went by and the same unhealthy signs traversed our streets, sometimes upright, sometimes on hands and knees, and this tippling was not all confined to one sex. It was well known that wives, mothers and maidens had appetites and often in- dulged them. Many good men and women regretted the slavery which, like fiery serpents, was winding itself about souls and bodies ; but the remedy for it was not apparent.
In the town lived a young lawyer named Kittredge. He had long scorned to follow anybody's example. He preferred to be a leader, and if anybody in the country excelled him in his methods of getting drunk, he didn't know it; and if anybody ever showed more contempt for the usages of society, the people were ignorant of it. Oftentimes he was a weary, heavy-laden man. Why should he not rest when and where he pleased ! on the grass! in the ditch! by the roadside! And if he happened to reach his own home before he sank down to rest, why should he take off his muddy boots, his jammed hat, or bedraggled
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clothes, as he crawled into bed and lost consciousness! He fell low down - very low! He lost practice, caste, character, and was looked upon as a pariah. But he was not entirely lost. By a supreme effort of his will, he crushed out the snakes and cast out the demons that possessed him, and became a man again. From his own severe experience, he believed he could benefit the world by speaking against the evils of drunkenness.
It was in the year 1829 that an attempt was made to organize an association to oppose the excessive use of alcohol. The meet- ing was held in Mr. Foster's church. Mr. Kittredge delivered a thrilling address upon the evils of drunkenness, which was sub- sequently printed, and then there was a general discussion upon the merits of the question; whether it was right and proper for this community, where rum was as much a drink as cider or water, and about as cheap, to abstain from its use, when nine out of ten knew they could not do it. A pledge was laid before the meeting, but it was so worded that sickness and depression of spirits were to be an excuse for indulgence.
Good old Elder Wheat could not sign it, because through all his long life he had used rum and it had given him courage and strength to work. Mr. Trussell would not sign it, although he was not a hard drinker, because it restrained a man in his liberty to do as he pleased - freedom in all things was his motto. Bart Heath drank rum because he loved it; he know it was good for him. His wife drank it also; and it was good for her, too. Now he wasn't going to throw away any good thing in this world, because it would be parting with his rights. Doctor Tilton would sign, with a mental reservation, that the pledges should be no bar to his present habits. Deacon Drake wouldn't sign it, because he didn't wish to submit himself to so powerful a temptation as an invitation to drink would subject him. George Kimball, the lawyer, was not a drinking man. He favored the pledge and his argument ran somewhat as follows: "Spirit is expensive and useless and, moreover, hurtful. Its cost we all know. Its uselessness is provable by the fact that it contains no nourishment, nothing that can give vigor or strength. It is good when a man is melted, in that condition, there might be propriety in drinking spirit; but until the natural state becomes
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a state of fusion, I should object to the use of ardent spirits. Instead of giving strength, it only deceives men into a false estimate of their powers, like madness and poor human nature has to pay for it afterwards. It produces poverty, engenders sickness, is dangerous to the reputation, to the contentment and happiness in families, and is destructive to usefulness ; to friend- ship, and is an enemy to the body and soul. I denounce all kinds of excitable spirits, except when a man is ready to perish. We may give wine to one of heavy heart, if it be pure. I denounce cider except in small lots and pure. I denounce the filthy or- chards that encumber the best part of farmers' lands where he ought to raise corn and grain." Mr. Kimball was not applauded for his murderous allusion to the orchards, nor did he get credit for the peculiar "exceptions" he allowed.
When a man is melted, as he called it, a man in those days would hardly take alcohol to cool his blood.
There was a strong objection to the pledge simply as such. Personal "rights" and "liberty" to do as they pleased, were powerful words, and kept their hands off that paper. My recol- lection is that it received no signatures at that meeting. The men went home to talk it over and the women also. They looked about them and saw three stores and two taverns on the Street where rum was sold over the counter by the glass. Several other taverns about town offered facilities for indulgence. Not a day passed but some one or more men staggered home from these re- sorts, either too drunk to be civil, or too stupid to reflect whether their appetites might be more dangerous to their liberties than the pledge which had been offered them. There was a man who had sold rum all his life and he used to boast that he had never tasted any of his own liquors and knew no difference between them ; "rum, gin or brandy, were all the same to him." He sold it! But he was not honest. He would tempt men on to drink, and then charge them with bills of goods which they never pur- chased, but which he would compel them to pay for, because having drank his rum, they had become oblivious to business ob- ligations as well as to the decencies of life. These sad sights and scenes presented themselves daily to the world, and one by one a generation of drunkards went down to the grave, some of them
28
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HISTORY OF CANAAN.
lingering along life's road, like decaying pine stumps, rotten and ragged, waiting for the slow tread of time to crush out their strong vitality. But the words spoken at that first temperance meeting were like good seed scattered broadcast over the earth; and through all the years have yielded an annually increasing harvest down to this day. Wisdom, folly, philanthropy and fanaticism, since that day have taken a hand in the crusade against rum. Something has been gained, but the worm of the still is undying, crushed out today ; tomorrow it shows its leprous features in another place. The combined and concentrated wis- dom of all our law-makers, and of all the political philanthropists for the suppression of the sale of liquors from that day to this, has resulted in the conviction that men will have it.
In the year 1855 it was thought better to deal it out through an "agent," so that the profits therefrom might be a part of the public income. John M. Barber was the first town agent, and the rules controlling the distribution and sale were as follows: "You shall purchase and sell only such liquors as are pure and unadulterated. All liquors costing less than one dollar a gallon, your profit shall be 25 per cent., all over that amount 15 per cent. Purchase as you need and not have an unnecessary quan- tity on hand." The year 1880 was also a famous cider and ap- ple year. There were eight cider mills in town. Harris J. Goss' mill made 413 barrels; E. C. Flanders made 42 barrels at his mill; Lary's mill made 346 barrels and Mr. Lary gathered 715 bushels of apples from. his own orchard. Charles H. Wells' mill made 339; John Currier made 42 barrels at this mill, and Enoch Fifield and Charles Day divided 48 barrels between them. At Gates' mill 361 barrels were made; Daniel Hinkson made 41 at this mill. William Hall's mill turned out 410 barrels. George L. Whittier made 65 barrels there. Henry H. Wilson's mill turned out 419 barrels, Philip Prescott's 351, and William Huggett's 329 bar- rels. That year the barrels were worth twice as much as the cider. The cider sold at $1.25 per thirty-two gallons. Probably the apple crop that year was not far from 41,000 bushels.
CHAPTER XXV.
HOW SOME OF OUR HOUSES WERE BUILT.
Jonathan Carlton moved from Amesbury, Mass., to Canaan about 1780 and "pitched" upon the top of the hill, where he died. He put up a log house and therein some of his children were born, while the only door to the house was a strip of hem- lock bark, set against the opening. He "cleared that farm." Being a millwright, he accepted the proprietors' offer of "100 acres of timbered land," which was the third hundred of the mill right, and built the first sawmill on Mascoma River, near the present factory village. These lands were then covered with a heavy growth of white pine of great size. The first timber he sawed was for his own house, the great house on the hill, now owned by C. P. King. He also sawed the lumber and boards for the meeting house; also for Captain Wells, who was then build- ing the Wallace house, and for Dr. Caleb Pierce, who was then preparing to build the old hotel (Grand View).
About the same time Capt. Robert Barber built the Welch mill, as it was afterwards called, and sawed the boards for his new house, afterwards the Pinnacle House. Captain Barber was more fortunate than some others; upon his land he found a number of hard pine trees, which he sawed into flooring for his house and which remain to this day. Captain Barber also built a sawmill below Mr. Carlton's on Mascoma River, the ruins of which may be seen not far from the ruins of the old paper mill. The nails used in these buildings were cut from wrought-iron hoops, manufactured for the purpose, with a cutting machine set up in Mr. Carlton's mill. The rum used to raise the build- ings came from Jesse Johnson's at East Endfield, who for many years kept the only store in all the region round about.
Simeon Arvin was of Irish parentage and came here in 1790. A few years afterwards he kept a store in a red building near where now stands the house of the late George Harris, now his grandson's, G. H. Goodhue. He married Hannah, daughter of
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HISTORY OF CANAAN.
Jonathan Dustin, and raised a family of boys and girls. In 1804 he bought the farm of Nathaniel Barber at the south end of the Street, where A. W. Hutchinson now lives. A Mr. Clark owned a blacksmith shop just north of Arvin's store, which he afterwards sold to Nathaniel Currier, who finished it up into a store, where he traded for many years. This shop was near the site of the stone house. Arvin sold his store to Micaiah Moore, brother-in-law to Blacksmith Clark, but it did not prosper after Arvin left it. Both Moore and Clark sold out and went West to "the Ohio," disappearing forever from among us. Arvin also owned the Welch mill.
Josiah Clark married Pernal Barber and built the house where A. W. Hutchinson lives; he bartered farms with Nathaniel Bar- ber, his wife's brother, and moved down on the intervale, near the fair grounds.
Daniel Colby lived in a log house near the cemetery on the Street, where he raised a family of fifteen children and died at the great age of ninety-nine years. As full of crochets and eccentricities as any man could be.
Reynold Gates, son of Josiah, was a good worker. He came to Canaan about 1768, when a boy, from Colchester and without friends. Major Jones took care of him and when he married Lydia Clark, the major gave him one hundred acres of wild land. He took up land in the northwest part of the town and before his marriage, had his bread made at William Richardson's on Saw- yer hill. Several times on his way home in the evening, he was chased by wolves and, to save himself, would drop a loaf; some- times he found himself breadless on arriving at his log cabin. He lived north of where H. B. Gates now lives. His nearest neighbor was Nathaniel Bartlett, who came shortly after and settled the adjoining farm and married Susanna, a sister of Gates' wife, both daughters of Caleb Clark. These two men car- ried on their lands together. Bartlett came from Amesbury, and before his marriage, lived with William Richardson. One day he had set his dinner pail down, a bear came along, got into it and slipped the bail over his head, and away went bear and pail. He was heard of several times afterwards. The cellar hole
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HOW SOME OF OUR HOUSES WERE BUILT.
alone remains of Bartlett's house, about sixty rods south of where H. B. Gates now lives, in the field.
Allen Whitman of Colchester, Conn., one of the original grantees of Canaan, never came here to look after the lands that were surveyed and assigned to him, and which were taxed for the making of roads and other expenses. The first division of one hundred acres was surveyed in two lots of fifty acres each, one on the easterly shore of Hart's Pond, the other on Town Hill. The first half has a history sufficiently interesting to induce its being traced out, as upon it are situated some of the old land- marks of the town.
In 1782 it was taxed at 12s., 2p., and on the 3d of January, 1786, it was sold by John Hall Bartlett for non-payment of the tax, to William Dougless, a shoemaker, who received a deed ac- knowledged "before me, William Ayer, J. P." and
Beginning at a stake and stones standing by the side of Hart Pond,- thence S 80°W 113 rods to a stake and stones, then S 10°E 22 rods to a stake, then S 80°W 15 rods to a stake, then S 10°E 46 rods to a stake and stones, then N 80°E 118 to a heap of stones by the pond, then by the pond to the first bound.
The boundary lines of this land are still preserved to a cer- tain extent. It is the land between the north line of O. H. Perry's on the west side of the Street, and the north line of R. H. Haffenreffer's, and from the pond to the old Dustin and Bar- ber farms, now occupied on the west by M. E. Cross and Mary E. D. Weeks.
On October 23, 1790, "William Douglass, cordwainer," in con- sideration of £100, L. M. conveyed to "Samuel Dustin, yoeman," of Canaan, a brother of David, and son of Jonathan, the same lot of fifty acres, with the following additional description : "Ly- ing southerly of Mr. Jonathan Dustin's land, that he now lives on, and joins on Capt. Robert Barber's land, and westerly on the road or path now trod from Mr. Eames' Mill, to the south side of the town."
January 20, 1791, "Samuel Dustin, yeoman, in consideration of £100 paid by William Douglass, cordwainer," conveys a house and fifty acres of land, situated on the west side of Hart Pond, and lying southerly of Mr. Jonathan Dustin's land, that
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HISTORY OF CANAAN.
he now lives on, and joins on Capt. Robert Barber's land, and westerly on the road or path now trod from Eames' mill to the south side of the town; said land being part of the first one hun- dred acres of the right of Allen Whitman.
The first break in the body of the fifty-acre lot, occurs Novem- ber 26, 1792, when William Douglass, "in consideration of the sum of eleven pounds, four shillings, lawful money," conveyed to the committee of the proprietors of the "proposed Meeting- house," the land now known as the "Common."
On July 14, 1793, "William Douglass, cord. sold to William Parkhurst, trader, for £74-10s., L. M., a certain fifty-acre lot or farm, bounded easterly on Hart Pond, so-called, northerly on Jonathan Dustin's land, westerly on the road from Eames' mill to the south side of the town, and southerly on land of Robert Barber, it being part of the first hundred acres, laid out in the original right of Allen Whitman, excepting three acres and one- quarter, which I have already deeded to the proprietors of the Meeting house, and on which said Meeting house now stands."
On August 5, 1793, William and Sally Parkhurst conveyed to Caleb Pierce of Canaan, physician, for £150 lawful money, the same fifty acres of land, and bounded as in the deed from Doug- lass to Parkhurst, with the following addition : "With the build- ings thereon, excepting three and one-quarter acres, which be- longs to the proprietors of the Meeting house, deeded to them by William Douglass, and being the same land on which the said house now stands."
Doctor Pierce built the old tavern and opened it in 1794; it was first known as Pierce's tavern, then Moore's store, Clark's tavern, J. Harris' inn, Cobb's tavern, and so on down to Crystal Lake House and Grand View Hotel. The lumber to build it was sawed at Jonathan Carlton's mill at the village.
The second division of this land occurred in 1793. Caleb Pierce sold five acres adjoining on Robert Barber's line, on the west side of the Street and the corresponding land on the east side to the pond, to Col. Ezekiel Wells, who up to that time, had resided on Town Hill. While building his house, he moved in with Doctor Pierce, who was from Enfield, and at that time occupied the only house on the Street. Colonel Wells erected
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HOW SOME OF OUR HOUSES WERE BUILT.
the frames of two large houses, one on each side of the Street, and was ambitious to own the largest house in town, but he was not able to finish the houses he proposed to erect. The frame on the east side remained uncovered for several years, and was sold to a Mr. Tucker, who took the frame down and moved it elsewhere. The house on the west side, he covered in and two rooms were finished in panel. He lived in this house; some of his children and one grandchild were born in it. Then it passed into the hands of Gideon Morse and Josiah Clark in 1809. The last sold it to Col. Asa Robinson of Pembroke, in 1815, and he, desiring to return to Pembroke, traded it with James Wallace in 1817, then in business in Pembroke, for property valued at $1,000. The house was burned November 4, 1898. In 1815 Josiah Clark sold to William Atherton "one acre exact measure,"' "Beginning at the northeast corner of Robert Barber's land on the Broad Street," in consideration of $100. On August 10, 1805, Caleb Pierce conveyed to Micaiah Moore, "trader of Lime," for $1,600, a tract of land bounded as follows :
Commencing at a stake on Hart Pond, running westerly by the Dow land to Broad Street, crossing said street to the northeast corner of Jacob Trussell's old joiner shop, northerly 10 rods one foot to a stake and stones, then S 80°W 80 rods to a stake and stones by a strip of land formerly owned by Thomas Dow, then S 10°E 10 rods one foot to a stake and stones, then S 22 rods to a marked stake, then S 80°W 15 rods to a stake by the road leading from David Dustin's to John M. Barber's, then S 10°E 46 rods by said road, to a stake and stones by said Barber's land, then by said Barber's land easterly, to the southeast corner of a five acre lot that Ezekiel Wells now lives on, then N 12°W 12 rods, then N 82 E 46 rods to a stake and stones, then N 12 W 91% rods to a stake and stones, being the southwest corner of the Meeting House land, then easterly by lands I sold Capt. Ezekiel Wells to Hart Pond, then by said Pond to the first bound, reserving three and one quarter acres of Meet- ing House grounds, the road that leads through it, and the land under Jacob Trussell's old joiner's shop, so long as it will stand without re- pairing.
On February 7, 1809, Micaiah Moore mortgaged for $500 to John Currier, the same land, reserving the meeting house land and "one-half acre and buildings I live in, being all the land I bought of Caleb Pierce." Moore afterwards redeemed this. In 1811 Moore sold to Eliphalet Clark of Boston, for the sum of
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HISTORY OF CANAAN.
$1,750, fifteen acres of land, which sale included the old tavern, orchard and lands adjoining on both sides of the Street. The property was next conveyed to Joshua Harris, who occupied it as a store and tavern until 1822, when he transferred it to Salmon P. Cobb, and since that day it would require much labor to trace the title through the many changes of ownership.
James Doten owned it from 1838 to 1842, then George Powers; after him came David Heath, Harvey Angell, Guilford Cobb. Ann Dunham lived there in 1852. When Joseph Dustin and William W. George bought it for Amos Kidder in 1855, it was standing empty. Kidder never paid for it. Then came Charles Jones, who had a tinshop there in the old hall. Charles Day owned it when Willard Dunham, Peter Godet and Frank and Mercy Fox lived there. In 1878 William Gordon bought it of Charles Day. He christened it Crystal Lake House. After him came Mrs. Derby, Mr. Dale, Mr. Landon, Albert R. Wilkinson, who called it the Grand View Hotel; after making many repairs to it, he sold it at auction to R. H. Haffrenreffer, who tore it down in the winter of 1908-09, and used the timbers and boards to build a summer cottage. Thus ended one of the oldest hos- telries on the Grafton Turnpike, where the coaches from Boston used to stop for change of horses.
In 1790 William Parkhurst built the house now occupied by Col. A. A. Haggett. He had married Robert Barber's daughter Sally and the old man gave him the land. He kept store in this house. After him it was occupied by Daniel Blaisdell for a time. On March 15, 1800, Parkhurst conveyed to Robert Barber for $350, "all the buildings that I built on said Barber's land in said Canaan, on the easterly side of Broad Street, so-called, with all the fences and appurtenances thereto belonging."
On January 17, 1809, Robert Barber conveyed to Dr. Caleb Pierce "the Home Farm, embracing 180 acres, in consideration of $3,000, bounded northerly on Hart Pond, westerly by land of Simeon Arvin, easterly by land of Joshua Wells, and the high- way leading to Grafton, southerly by the road leading by Jona- than Follensbee's (formerly Oliver Smith's) and land of said Smith and John Tenney to Arvin's corner." This is the "Pin- nacle" property. The remainder of his farm Barber had sold
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How SOME OF OUR HOUSES WERE BUILT.
to Simeon Arvin. Doctor Pierce occupied the house until 1813, when he died of spotted fever. His family continued to live there until 1824, when it passed into the hands of Dr. Thomas Flanders. The house once occupied by H. P. Burleigh, was moved by him from the site where it was built, just north of O. H. Perry's barn. Jacob Dow built it in 1802 and 1803. He married Phæbe Wells, daughter of Ezekiel, in September, 1802, and his first child, Phebe, born June 21, 1803, who May 9, 1824, married David March, was born in her grandfather's house, while her father was building his new house, clearing the pine swamp and jungle of bushes which extended to the pond, and while Jacob cleared and drained the land and worked it into beautiful and fruitful fields, she became the mother of fourteen children. This house burned two years ago.
Henry Morse began the house where F. B. L. Porter now lives in 1844 and finished it in 1845; after living there a year, he sold it to William Kimball.
John M. Barber, son of Robert, pitched on 113 acres, 153 rods of land in December, 1794, extending to the west of his father's farm. It was in the right of Isaiah Rathburn, and like many of the old settlers, his first house was of logs. He married Sally Sanborn and moved into a small house near the site of the large house, wherein had lived David Fogg and his wife, Ruth Dustin. They had disappeared and given place to John M. and Sally, who like all the strong workers of those days, believed in the propagation of the species. Children came along at regular intervals until the little house was full: March, Deliverance, Polly, Sally, John, Jesse, Catherine, Irena and Miriam. He built the ell part of the new house about 1800, and moved into it. He was one of the most hardy of the early settlers, seldom wearing an overcoat or mittens in cold weather. He was heard to say that he raised potatoes on the ground where stood the tallest, most beautiful grove of pine trees in town at the time it was cut. In 1807 he hired Moses Richardson to bring down from Sawyer Hill the dressed underpinning for the addition he was contemplating. For this new house, he had selected a location unsurpassed for its scenic beauty. In the background was the old forest, lively with varieties of large and small game. It was
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