USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Dublin > The history of Dublin, N.H., Volume 1852 > Part 10
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" THE INHABITANTS OF MY NATIVE TOWN. - May knowledge and virtue continue to increase and abound to the latest posterity."
17. Sixteenth sentiment : - -
"THE AMERICAN FLAG, - A century ago, not thought of; three-fourths of a century ago, despised and derided as a 'piece of striped bunting; ' now waving glo- riously over thirty-one States at home, and invoked as a barrier against oppression and tyranny abroad. (Thanks to our friend who has kindly furnished one for the present occasion.)"
TUNE -" YANKEE DOODLE."
Capt. HENRY C. PIPER responded : -
Mr. President, - The Flag of our Union, first raised in a humble village, has advanced in successive strides from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to Mexico, and now in triumph floats over the heads of more than twenty mil- lions of the freest and happiest people of the earth. Nor have these mighty ocean-barriers been sufficient to inclose it.
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The winds have lent their aid, and upon their ready pinions borne it to every accessible port between the polar oceans, whether in Europe, Asia, Africa, or the green islands of the far Pacific.
In the days of the Colonial Confederation in America, it was hailed as an emblem in the clouds of the union of thirteen sister, sovereign nations, to establish and maintain civil and religious liberty ; in Europe as the sign of promise, as the dawn of a day, which, though long obscured by the clouds of ignorance and superstition and the gloom of des- potism, will yet break forth in full perfection, illumined by the light of universal freedom. To the teeming millions of remoter regions, it has borne the gifts of civilization and Christian truth. Ay! it is a beacon fast becoming visible to all mankind ; leading savage, barbarous, civilized and en- lightened humanity onward and upward to that elevation the Almighty intended they should occupy.
In the earlier days of the Union, its upholders and de- fenders were few in number, yet fearless and determined in their purpose, with a firm faith in the equity of their cause. Had their efforts resulted in a failure, their lives would have been sacrificed, their estates confiscated, and all their bright honors buried beneath the deepest ignominy their haughty captors could heap upon the names of vanquished rebels.
But not so. There stood Washington; great, good ; the Father of American Independence, with manly bear- ing ; the leader, military, afterwards both civil and military, of that patriot-band ; - Jefferson and Adams, the author and defender of the Declaration of Independence ; - Lafayette, who declared resistance to oppression one of the most sacred of duties, rendering indispensable service in the revolu- tionary contest, second in wisdom and true valor to none but the immortal Washington ; - Hamilton, Arthur Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Franklin, Hancock, Green, Knox, and a few others, in all not too numerous to assemble in a town- hall of ordinary dimensions, yet invincible.
In later days of our republic, as in 1812 and 1815, we find in the hour of danger a more numerous throng clus- tered around our standard, and upon the pages of our history new names, - a Clay, a Bayard, and another Adams ; in the tented field a Scott, a Jackson, a Taylor ; and on the ocean a Hull, a Decatur, a Bainbridge, and a Perry ; all. bold and fearless, even unto death, when that sacred
Dans Lecion
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banner was assailed, their country invaded, and their fire- sides in danger.
And who now support our flagstaff, and uphold the union of these states ? Ah! yes, men still are found of spotless patriotism, and, I had almost said, of godlike wisdom and mental greatness, ever ready to risk " life," " fortune, " and " honor," that the great American example may not falter while they live. May our nation ever be favored with such men to guide us in the council-chamber, and lead us in the battle-field !
But, sir, the sun of this last day of a hundred years since civilization first marked these hills and vales is fast declining. Never again shall another morn, numbered and marked as this has been, unseal our eyelids, or cause our hearts to leap with joy, and our lips to move in celebration for the national, state, and town prosperity we have so long enjoyed. I will not trespass on so precious time.
" The Flag of our Union : long may it wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave, -"
as long as sustenance for man shall be produced from the earth, or drawn up from the sea; till all the sons of America be as plants grown up in their youth, and her daughters as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace.
18. Seventeenth sentiment : -
"OLD MONADNOCK. -
' And while a world of human pride, With all its grandeur melts away, And spreads around thy rocky side The broken fragments of decay; Oh! let us learn from thee to rise, All time and change and chance defying,
Still pointing upward to the skies, And on the inward strength relying.'"'
DANIEL ELLIOT, M.D., of Marlborough, N. Y., sent the following : -
MARLBORO', N.Y., June 10, 1852.
Gentlemen, - I have received your invitation to be pre- sent at the centennial celebration of the settlement of my native town on the 17th instant. I need not assure you of the great pleasure it would afford me to be among you on that interesting occasion ; to exchange congratulations, recall
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reminiscences, and mingle sympathies, with such as remain from among the friends of my boyhood. But circumstances beyond my control will deprive me of that gratification. I pray you to accept my thanks for your kind and flattering invitation, and to offer to my brethren of the good old town of Dublin my hearty congratulations on their prosperous condition, and my earnest wishes for their onward and upward progress. The committee will also accept my grate- ful acknowledgments for the part assigned me in the exercises of the day, -to speak to " Old Monadnock," my venerable and long-cherished friend! Nothing could be more con- genial to my feelings. His image, in all its aspects, is ineffaceably impressed upon the tablets of my memory. His very name strikes a cord within me, that vibrates as to the sound of grand and solemn music. His idea is part and parcel of my being; and to his influence on my young imagination do I owe much of the enjoyment I have derived from nature's varied works. I remember him when clothed with verdant foliage to the very summit. I saw, year after year, the devouring flames climbing his lofty sides, exhibiting him to the surrounding country as a dread volcano or a giant beacon, till half his leafy mantle disappeared. But I like him best in naked majesty, - bald, hoary, stern, asserting his own fixed character. Many a toilsome pilgrimage have I made to his lofty summit, to feast upon the wide-spread banquet for the eye that stretches in all directions from his base. I have spread my blanket on the mossy rocks of his bleak and hoary brow, watching the brilliant stars through the solemn stillness of the night, to catch the first gleaming of the dawn, and hail the earliest beams of the rising sun, while all below was dim and misty ; and richly did the glory of the scene repay the toil.
I have visited mountains more known to fame, -have stood on higher elevations ; but from no point have I found the view so satisfactory - uniting so much of grandeur, beauty, variety, and extent -as from the brow of old Monadnock. I hail him King of mountains! May his "shadow never be less ! "
Thus far had I indulged in pleasant reminiscences of my exalted friend, seated in a dreamy mood, before his ample portraiture, that hangs upon my wall, when suddenly there seemed a strange commotion on the canvas. Clouds rolled up and crowned his head, as with a turban ; a mild, electric
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light played through them ; and there was a heaving of his sides, as from strong internal throes. Across the view floated a mist, which gradually, and with more and more distinct- ness, assumed the "form and fashion of a man." I knew him for the Genius of the mountain, and bowed in silent reverence.
" Presuming mortal !" said the shadowy form, "how dare thou answer, when 'tis mine to give response to the loyal greetings of my subjects ? What canst thou, the insect of a day, know of me or of my history ? Thou speakest of having seen me crowned with green, as if it were in the olden time, -my very youth. Such is the littleness of man's concep- tion ! Couldst thou look back into the past with me, thou mightst learn to scorn the measure of what men call antiquity. A brief glance behind the veil is all I deign to give thee, in reward of thy tried loyalty. I will not reveal the mystery of my birth, -in what chaotic and far-distant period, - by what mighty force, - amid what earth-rending convulsions, my massive body was uphoven to the light of day. Barren ages passed, and my naked form was still standing solitary amid a waste of waters. Where the forests now girdle my sides, then gambolled the rude monsters of the deep. As time rolled on, I gladly hailed the com- panionship of peak after peak emerging to the view within my wide horizon. Other untold ages passed, and behold me clothed in waving foliage, - the waters gathered to their place, and the wide-spread earth below me rich in luxuriant verdure. Then was my holyday. Beast and bird coursed freely round my sides, drank at my clear fountains, and reposed beneath the shadow of my rocks. The winds played gaily through the forest; and, when the thunder-clouds approached, I lured them to me, and sported with the forked lightning. In time appeared before me a new class of beings in the form of man, rude and unsettled. They saw the earliest sunbeams ever salute my brow, and the clouds gather about me, as if obedient to my call, before the storm broke below. With superstitious awe they wor- shipped, and Monadnock, the Thunder-father, named me. Centuries moved on their course, fruitless of change, when a new era dawned. In all directions, I perceived large inroads on the forests. Towering smoke by day, and gleaming fires by night, attested that a new race of men had invaded my domains. Not without indignation did I note their sacri-
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legious warfare on the primeval forests at my feet. At length a new prospect lay before me, - lakes, rescued from obscuri- ty, and gleaming in the sun ; hills and valleys, clothed with the rich and varying tints of culture ; the countless habita- tions of a stable race, with clustering villages and heaven- pointing spires. It was a goodly scene, and I forgave the rude disturbers of my solitude, -nay, hailed them friends.
" And first in my regards stand these, my faithful and long-cherished sons, who now, on their grand festival, forget not to invoke my name with reverence. They have sat beneath my shadow for a century ; and more of my spirit has been shed upon them than on my other subjects. Three generations have passed before me, rich in granitic virtues. In yonder fields, near the pure waters of the quiet lake, lies many a venerable head, whose strength of intellect, unsoiled integrity, and unwavering sense of right, have done due honor to their pilgrim-sires. Bid their descendants emulate their fathers in all their manly virtues. Let them thank Heaven that light has been shed abroad among them by an untiring hand, whose mission was to purify and elevate the young. On the broad foundation thus secured, tell them to build with ever-upward view. From the pure region of my lofty seat, I breathe my blessing on them. May they stand firm in virtue, relying on the 'Rock of Ages'!"
THE VISION PASSED : you have the message, -and my duty ends.
DANL. ELLIOT.
To Messrs. J. K. SMITH, A. H. FISK, and R. N. PORTER,
Committee.
The following sentiment was offered by J. K. SMITH : -
" THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS. - Having been guarded for fifty years by a trusty ' Sentinel,' we consider it safe now, if he is relieved from his post."
Hon. JOHN PRENTISS, of Keene, for fifty years editor of the " New Hampshire Sentinel," sent the following ; he being obliged to leave before the close of the celebration : -
Mr. President, - I should have availed myself of the great occasion of this centennial celebration, had I not been honored by an invitation from your committee. Besides the pleasure anticipated from greeting many friends, other than the present residents, and natives who have come up from abroad, once more to visit the scenes of their youth, my
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forty-eight years of intercourse with so many of the fathers and the sons of Dublin, as contributors to the support of the press I established in the last century, imposed obliga- tions to be present on this joyous occasion.
Before railroads, or even stages, were established, a large number of your most respectable men in Dublin, as well as in most of the other towns in the county, became voluntary post-riders, by clubbing and engaging to see the bundle of Sentinels deposited at the place assigned on the day of pub- lication. In some of the smaller towns, twenty-six would unite, and go to Keene twice a year ; in others larger, fifty- two, and so go only once a year ; and, again, in others, even seventy-five and more. As it was my duty to notify, " Your turn next,"- and many present doubtless remember these primitive times, -they could generally make other business, and so, by saving a regular post-rider's fee, did not think it a hardship. Each man also paid down, satisfied that the con- sideration was a little more valuable than even the hard-earned money in their pockets ; and this kept the ribs of the press well oiled.
Most subscribers, insulated at that period, depended on my press for their weekly history of occurring events, foreign and domestic ; and this consideration imposed a bounden duty to present things truly, and live up to my motto, some twenty years at the head of the paper, viz. : "I will speak of the things I have seen, and touch upon those reported, that the people may consider the WHOLE MATTER."
The PRESS is a vast engine, in a free country, for good or evil, according as it is conducted, with honesty and intelli- gence, or by the unprincipled or ignorant. That I had the countenance of good men, aside from sectarian prejudice, for a series of years, I can only infer from constant support for so long a period, and from the fathers in Dublin in particular. I have an anecdote to relate in proof. One paper-morning, Mr. Huntington, the proprietor and driver of the stage to Peterborough, started at the usual hour ; and, after proceed- ing about a mile, he recollected that he had forgotten the Dublin and other bundles of papers. He wheeled about, and came driving up to the office. "What's the matter ? " " Why, I left the papers, and I should not dare to drive through Dublin without them : they would kill me out- right !"
I am glad that on this occasion justice has been done to
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the character of Dublin's great benefactor, the late Rev. Mr. Sprague. I knew him pretty well. Half a century ago this month, I dined at his hospitable mansion ; and, afterwards, had with him frequent intercourse. He was eccentric, and often amused himself by questions and remarks, which gave rise to a hundred strange anecdotes, in which his language was often distorted, with additions to give it point. Thus I have heard that, once preaching upon the importance of faith, he said it could remove mountains, even Monadnock ; but, looking up, that hillock being visible from the pulpit, he is said to have added, " hardly." The latter portion was pro- bably added by some one else. About the time I first visited him, the late Rev. Mr. Dunbar was settled at Peterborough. He told me he was in Peterborough when Mr. Dunbar was preaching as a candidate, and several of the old Presbyterians (Scotch-Irish) came round him, and asked : "Mr. Sprague, what shall we do with this Mr. Dun-bar ?" "What's the matter ?" "Why, he preaches nothing but works, works, works." "Oh!" replied Mr. Sprague, " if that is all, you will never be hurt ; it will do you good ; for never did a people more need such preaching than those of Peterborough." The encounter of wits was the keenest with his brother Ains- worth, of Jaffrey, who often visited him. Mr. Sprague's religious views were decidedly anti-Calvinistic. One day, it is said, he took Mr. Ainsworth into his four-horse coach for a ride. On going down hill, the coachman whipped up the horses to a degree to alarm Mr. Ainsworth, who called out, "Mr. Sprague, we should certainly be smashed at this rate !" " What's the matter, brother Ainsworth ? never fear. You know that, if it is decreed we are to be smashed, we can't help it; so we may as well be quiet!" In the pulpit, Mr. Sprague was solemn in his exhortations to attend to the great concern of the soul's welfare.
Though it doth not become us to say too much in praise of living benefactors, I cannot forbear, as it belongs to the history of Dublin, as well as that it is connected with the press, to say that, within the last ten or fifteen years, scarcely less than one hundred short essays - moral hints for the young, in aid of a higher standard for our common schools, and to promote the cause of temperance-have been the production of a citizen of Dublin, high in your confidence, and highly respected where ever known.
In one of these essays, the importance of Institutes, for the
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better qualification of common-school teachers, was dwelt upon with much earnestness. This was followed by the offer of $10 by one individual towards the expenses ; and the next week brought the pledge of $10 more from Dub- lin. The subscription was speedily filled. After two or three years, the legislature authorized towns to raise money for the object, and now provision is made by law. The example of Cheshire was followed by several other counties ; and, under the present efficient Board of County Commis- sioners, these excellent substitutes for normal schools will, I trust, be continued.
I offer as a sentiment, -
" DUBLIN. - Elevated in its position by nature, it is not less so by the high ground it occupies in its moral and religious standing; its early action, in banishing from within its limits the sale of intoxicating drinks; and as the pioneer, under the Oberlin of our country, in promoting education, as manifested in the vast improve- ment of our common schools and school-houses."
The following sentiment was proposed by J. K. SMITH :-
" BEARD'S TELEGRAPH, - Transmitting intelligence with less rapidity than Morse's, but in a language that all can read and understand."
Mr. BEARD sent the following response : -
Mr. President, - When it was announced, sometime ago, that you were going to have a centennial celebration here, I formed the purpose, at once, to be present ; but with no in- tention of making, or expectation of being called upon to make, either a speech or a response to a sentiment which, by any process, could be made to appear as designed to involve me in any such duty ; though a kind friend has suggested that I ought to say a word for Old Nelson. Sir, it was my good fortune to be born, and to spend the years of early boy- hood, in that most excellent town ; but I have been a wan- derer long from the old familiar haunts of my childhood, and her good people will hardly recognize my right to speak for them. I take it that Nelson is here to speak for herself, if there is any need, by a more fitting tongue than mine ; and yet I would most gladly say a word for her myself, if there were need. Hers are my own native hills ; and though my family-name even exists there only in the record of the past, and I am almost literally a stranger there, - almost without kith or kin of any name, - I feel the strongest attachment to her rugged soil, and enjoy, more than any other
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of my wanderings, my occasional visits - unknowing and unknown-to the now deserted homestead of my fathers, and the graves of the loved ones who sleep in the old church- yard. God bless her, and her hardy sons everywhere !
Undoubtedly, Nelson has some right to be heard here to- day. In the early history of your town, the twain were joined together for more purposes than one. I believe the father of the late Dr. Twitchell, of Keene, once represented the town of Dublin and Nelson (then Packersfield, and after the name was changed, called, "for short " I suppose, Pecker-Nelson by the "outside barbarians," sometimes) in the General Court ; and the connection, for the purpose of representation, was kept up, I cannot tell how long. But there was another way in which the two towns were asso- ciated, which took a much stronger hold upon my mind than any mere civil union. I don't know, Mr. President, that you or many of the present citizens of Dublin have a very vivid recollection of the Old Nelson and Dublin "Troop." But I shall never forget it. To my boyish eyes, there was not in the whole wide world, to the best of my knowledge and be- lief, any thing in the military line to compare with it. You had your own military pet here, whose acquaintance I after- wards made; and that may have helped somewhat to modify my extravagant ideas of the "Troop." I refer to the old " Dublin Grenadiers," long since gone the way of all the military portion of the earth in New Hampshire. But those "Troopers," with their scarlet coats and trousers, their big bear-skin caps and bobbing red feathers, their broad black sword-belts and glistening brass breastplates, their long bloody-looking swords and piratical-looking pistols, and their elaborately, if not gorgeously, caparisoned chargers, - was there ever any thing more attractive ? But these same pis- tols, and these "troopers," -" distance lent enchantment to the view." I was mortally afraid of the one, and hardly dared venture on a close intimacy with the other. It will not do, Mr. President, for me to suggest here that you your- self might have been, for aught that I know, one of those same "Dublin Troopers " who used so terribly to " frighten me from my propriety." But, if you do not remember, you must have heard of the military customs of that day. My father had the honor - and it was an honor then -to com- mand that company of " ostentatious dragoons ; " and, when the parade was in Nelson, they used to come round that way,
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- these " Dublin Troopers." There are men here to-day who have stopped, more than once, down by the watering- trough, with the tops of their scarlet plumes in sight from the house, while they loaded those formidable pistols to the very muzzle, to give the Cap'n a waker. And when they rode up in single file, and each " delivered his fire " at the unoffending door-sill, I must confess that, for the instant, I lost a little of my admiration for their gaudy trappings. Aside from that, the days when the "troop rode " in Nelson were days to be marked and remembered.
But enough of this, and enough of any thing from me, at this time, when there is so much to be said, and so many to say it. I thank you sincerely for the honor of an invitation to be with you to-day. I am glad to meet the citizens of Dublin, and the returned wanderers from the old paternal roofs, on an occasion of so much interest to them. I thank you for the compliment, personal to myself, to which I have attempted to respond. If the "random shots" which I have "let off," and the reminiscences which the occasion has called up to my own mind, shall have recalled any plea- sant memories of scenes lang syne, in which those most dear to me took part, and who now "sleep in the valley," away from their native hills, they will have more than answered my hopes.
In conclusion, let me pay a compliment to your town for the high stand she has taken in every thing that exalts a town or a nation. Her devotion to religion, to morality, and to education, has given her a name to be honored ; while religion, morality, and education are any thing but a name.
" FAREWELL,"-SUNG BY THE CHOIR.
The meeting was adjourned for a hundred years.
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HISTORY OF DUBLIN, N. H.
HISTORY OF DUBLIN, N. H.
SITUATION, BOUNDARIES, SOIL, CLIMATE, &c.
THE town of Dublin, in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, is situated in latitude 42° 54' north, and longitude 72° 03' west, from London. It is bounded on the north by Hancock and Nelson, on the south by Jaffrey and Marlborough, on the west by Marlborough and Roxbury, and on the east by Peterborough and Hancock. It is forty-four miles from Concord, the capital of the state; twelve miles in a south- easterly direction from Keene, the shiretown of the county ; and seventy miles from Boston.
Dublin has the same diversity of hill and valley that is found in the other towns in this section of the state. It is distinguished, however, by having, in its south-westerly border, a large part of the grand Monadnock Mountain. The boundary line between Dublin and Jaffrey crosses the mountain, passing near its summit. The highest point of Monadnock, according to Dr. Dana, who ascertained the height by a barometer in the year 1816, is 3,450 feet above the level of the ocean. Its elevation above the surrounding country renders it, from a great distance, a conspicuous ob- ject. Its summit is visible from the top of the State-house in Boston; and it is said to be a landmark for sailors on approaching certain parts of the seacoast. Its highest point above the level of a pond in the centre of the town, usually called Centre Pond, but sometimes Monadnock Lake, is 1,581 feet. The highest elevation of land next to that of
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