USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Fitzwilliam > The history of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, from 1752-1887 > Part 9
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The house which he owned and occupied was the well- known landmark, the old dwelling just east of the church and cemetery at the foot of the hill, with the majestic elm in front of it, both of which have been recently removed. This house was built by Mr. Brigham, and was the parsonage dur- ing most of his ministry. The ehn, it is said, was brought by his hired man from the flat toward the railroad station, and set out under the pastor's direction.
In the early part of the year 1799 Mr. Brigham was feeble, and the compiler of this history learned from an aged man now deceased who attended upon his ministry while a lad, that he preached a number of Sabbaths in the parsonage, after he was unable to go up the hill to the church. On June 13th, 1799, Mr. Brigham died, aged fifty-eight, in the twenty-ninth year of his ministry. His funeral, it appears, was attended the day following his death, Rev. Mr. Lee, of Royalston, preaching the funeral sermon. This sermon, with the one preached by the same clergyman at the funeral of the first Mrs. Brigham, was printed.
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
Rev. John Sabin, in one of his historical lectures, gives this testimony respecting the character and work of the first pastor :
From what I can learn of this man in this town and out of it in this vicinity, I should think he was beloved and as near without an enemy as about ever falls to the lot of man. And there is this mark of his not designing war upon a great scale, that when a Committee (was) ap- pointed to inspect every man's preparation for war as duly equipped with arms, ammunition, and all accoutrements (this was during the Revolu- tionary War), Mr. Brigham was reported as not furnished.
Mr. Sabin adds :
It may scarcely be supposed that ever another Minister will get through life to so extensive regret of Community as did the first Minister.
And the writer learned some years since from one of the aged men then living, that when the news of Mr. Brigham's death reached his father's house there was a depth of grief that he, a little lad, was wholly unable to comprehend. The following is from the church records :
He was a good Divine, an able and faithful Pastor, the friend of peace, truth and righteousness. While he lived he was greatly esteemed and beloved by his people and all his acquaintances, and at his death he was greatly lamented.
His remains repose by the side of those of his first wife, Lucy Brigham (who died six years before him), in the central part of the old portion of the cemetery. The sermons preached at the funerals of this worthy couple were printed in 1800. Quite a number of the manuscript sermons of the first pastor have been preserved, two of which were presented to the writer by Mrs. Selina P. Damon. The size of the page is about that of a duodecimo book, and the writing is very fine and compact, requiring for reading a magnifying power of considerable strength. The preacher must have held the manuscript directly before his eyes at the time of delivery.
In 1809 the town appropriated " to procure Gravestones for the Rev. Benjamin Brigham's grave," the sum of twenty dollars.
The maiden name of the first Mrs. Brigham was Lucy
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BAPTISMS BY MR. BRIGHAM.
Morse. His second wife was Puah, the widow of Jolin Mel- len, Esq.
During his ministry of about twenty-eight years Mr. Brig- ham baptized six hundred and fifty children, the first having been Rebecca, daughter of Nathaniel and Lucy Wilder. This baptism took place April 28th, 1771.
CHAPTER VII.
SETTLERS FROM 1762-1800.
From what Places-Character-Age-Property-Dwellings-Dress-Means of Communication-Social Qualities-Amusements-Religious Habits- Farming-Manufactures-Personal History-Benjamin Bigelow-James Reed and Others.
N "OT a few towns in our Western States and Territories are settled by colonies from some particular locality in the older portions of the country ; but the early settlers of Fitzwilliam came from many places, and without anything like a concerted plan of settlement. The older towns in Middle- sex and Worcester counties, Mass., seem to have furnished at least four fifths of the first settlers, particularly Fram- ingham, Marlborough, Southborough, Sterling, Holliston, Lunenburg, Templeton, Leominster, Medfield, and Shrews- bury. Doubtless some acquaintance with or relationship to the proprietors and previous settlers induced the majority to remove to this place and take up these " wild lands," as they called them. Thus Daniel Mellen, of Holliston, led many relatives and friends from that town, from Framingham, Southborough, and Sherborn, to remove to Monadnock No. 4, and James Reed did the same for settlers from Lunenburg and other places in that vicinity ; but after 1800 more seem to have come as strangers, and led by a common desire to bet- ter their condition or to provide for increasing families ..
In its earliest years the settlement appears to have had a very slow growth, for it is related that the widow of Benjamin Bigelow, the first settler, was accustomed to say in her old age that for a long time she was the handsomest and smartest woman in Fitzwilliam, because she was the only one.
As to the general character of the first settlers, it may be said that they were industrious, energetic, frugal, kind, con- siderate, and ready for hard labor and to make great sacrifices
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CHARACTER OF THE FIRST SETTLERS.
for the comfort and welfare of their families and of society at large. That there were some worthlesss persons and some shiftless families among them there can be no question, for sneh will always find their way, as if by instinet, to a new set- tlement ; but in the great majority of cases the men and women that undertook to found homes and establish social, civil, and religious institutions on these hills and along these streams were persons of real, genuine worth, fit to be pioneers in a great and important enterprise. They came expecting hard work and toilsome lives, many privations, but, after all, much comfort in laying good foundations and witnessing sub- stantial progress.
That in general they were law-abiding and ready to frown upon vice, whoever might be guilty of it, we have the fullest evidence, for they brought with them not a few of the strong- est and best elements of the Puritan character. The home training and all the best moral and religious influences under which they had passed their childhood and youth it was their aim to transplant and cherish in this place of their adoption, as their entire history conclusively proves.
As to the age of the first settlers when they came to Monad- nock No. 4, it may be said that the majority of them were young rather than old. A few came with gray heads and somewhat worn with life's struggles, with families already established and children grown to maturity, prepared, physi- cally and intellectually, to take an active part in maintaining all the interests of their new home (witness the family of General James Reed) ; but these were the exceptions rather than the rule. The record of the deaths of the pioneers in this settlement (which has been very carefully preserved, and by more than one party) shows us that generally the first set- tlers were from twenty-five to forty years of age, and of course in the strength of manhood and womanhood, while the fact that some were older tempered the energy of the settle- ment with a large share of wisdom and discretion.
As to the education and general intelligence of the early settlers, it may be said that they were fully equal to their neighbors whom they left behind in the older settlements.
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
The eulture of the laborious, hard-working families of New England at that day was not usually great, measured by mod- ern standards, for the training of the schools was not the best, while valuable books were few, and the almost omnipresent newspaper of the present day was hardly known. Some have supposed that the early settlers of this region could have read only with great difficulty, and that by no means all were able to write, because in some important records of business that have come down to us men in responsible positions occasion- ally signed by a cross rather than wrote their names ; but this is plainly an erroneous and exaggerated view of their deficien- cies. As children few of them had had our advantages for culture, and paper, pens, and ink were in some households luxuries ; but most could converse and compose well according to the standards of that day, while some would be considered refined and cultured in almost any modern society. In the matters of spelling and the application of grammatical rules their writing often appears to have been much in fault, but in both respects they generally followed the prevailing enstoms of the day, and did not exhibit as much ignorance as many sup- pose. At all events, they seem to have made laudable efforts to give their children the advantages of a good education, which was no easy matter with so small a population spread over thirty-six square miles of territory.
Most of the early settlers appear to have come to Monadnock No. 4 with families. Nearly all had wives to assist them, and often the children constituted a large part of the increasing population ; for in those days the rich and the poor alike re- garded a goodly company of little ones as a blessing rather than an inenmbrance. And from all that can be gathered from their early history, it would seem that the wives and the mothers who presided over the early homes of Fitzwilliam were as industrions, frugal, energetic, and ambitions as their husbands. That they generally worked in a very quiet man- ner and made their influence felt indirectly rather than other- wise is not to their diseredit.
As to the property of the early settlers, it may be said that most of them appear to have been in moderate circumstances,
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PROPERTY AND DWELLINGS OF FIRST SETTLERS.
if we judge of them by modern views and feelings. Un- doubtedly a few of them were quite poor, and not more than two or three of them could have been regarded even then as wealthy. General James Reed had quite extensive landed possessions, and the Mellen family had means beyond most of their neighbors ; but nearly the entire company of immigrants had all they could do to live in a very unpretending manner and make limited improvements upon their farms annually. They knew next to nothing about bank shares or deposits in institutions for savings, and had no sound government securi- ties laid up for the time of misfortune and old age. But though they were far from being rich, they were perhaps as well off, for the times, as Western emigrants of forty years ago would average, and the Registry of Deeds proves that Jand speculation was as common then as it is to-day. But one of the original proprietors settled in Monadnock No. 4, so that but little was done by these inen of means to make the town wealthy. Most of the settlers doubtless purchased their lands in part certainly on credit, and years passed away before the last payment was made, and they could call themselves inde- pendent.
More means, in the beginning of their work here, would have been to many of them a great convenience, especially as the heavy demands and sacrifices of the Revolutionary War were so soon to be encountered ; but their early struggles with comparative want were not without many and large compen- sations.
Of their dwellings it may be remarked that, in nearly all cases, the first were built in the rudest manner. Almost of necessity these houses were cold, nneomfortable, and what we should deem but poorly fitted for the enjoyment of health, especially in winter, in this rigorous elimate. A large fire- place, with the chimney sometimes upon the outside of the structure and occasionally with no chimney at all, occupied one end of the building, while generally there was a great lack of most conveniences and comforts. During a large part of the year different occupations, and these of great variety, were of necessity carried on in the single living-room, which
110
HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
was at once kitchen, dining-room, sleeping-room, parlor, nursery, and shop. Men in those days were sometimes ingen- ious in building their houses. Mr. John Fassett came to town in the spring of 1769 and located some two miles or more west of the present central village, building on the spot where the late Mr. Dana Davis lived for many years and where Mr. Thatcher Matthews now resides-Lot 13, Range 9. His house he erected, chiefly with his own hands, in this manner : he set posts made from split logs in the ground, with but a small space between them, and then covered the sides as well as the roof with hemlock bark, which after being removed from the logs had been spread upon the ground and thoroughly dried, with large stones upon it to prevent it from rolling. These pieces of bark were fastened to the posts by means of green withes which passed around the posts and through holes in the bark made by a large gimlet which Mr. Fassett brought with him from his old home in Massachusetts. Rafters were erected for the roofs and ribs lashed across them, and upon these double courses of bark were laid, and the whole carefully secured by withes, like the bark upon the outside. The door was made of bark, and had in like manner withes for its hinges. In this house this honored father in the church and town lived for six years and until he had six children ; and these years, he was accustomed afterward to say, were the six happiest years of his life.
Such exposure to cold and storms seems not to have been detrimental to health and longevity in this case, for Deacon Fassett when he died, January 12th, 1834, had reached the age of ninety-four years. Very few of his neighbors had dwellings showing such a variety and so much ingenuity of workmanship.
Of the dwellings of the early settlers generally it may be said that most of them were built of logs. The chimney was of stone, and the fireplace was so large that logs and wood from four to six feet long could be conveniently used. Blocks of wood or sections of trees furnished the chairs and tables in many a habitation. Ladders were used to reach the chambers and cellars whenever luxuries of such a nature were
111
DRESS AND FOOD OF THE FIRST SETTLERS.
indulged in by the poorer families. No great variety was found upon their tables, for Indian bread, johnny-cakes, bean porridge, and turnips rather than potatoes were the staple arti- cles of food. Pies and cakes were rarely tasted.
The work dresses of both sexes were made of tow and linen cloth (home manufacture) for the warm season, while coarse woolens, obtained in the same way, were worn in the winter. A skirt and short loose gown were the ordinary dress of fe- males, and to appear in at church and on all special occasions these were made of chintz, if possible, and, in a few cases, of silk. The "long shorts," in quite general use, seem to have reached half way from the knee to the ankle. The shoes of both sexes were made of stout leather, and in the winter, when cow-hide boots could not be obtained by them, the men wore leggins. When the snow was deep snow-shoes were used, and we are assured that it was not uncommon to see a woman standing behind a man, both upon the same snow-shoes; and keeping step perfectly. As there were no wagons for quite a number of years, side-saddles and pillions were in common use. : While noticing the inconveniences under which the first set- tlers did their work, Dr. Cummings remarks :
How should they be provided with writing materials, when they had not even the common implements for eating ! I was informed a few days since by one of the mothers in Israel that she worked in the family of one of the proudest men in town in 1785, and lived on bean porridge, and eat it out of a brown earthen mug, which served as a dish for the whole family, it being the only one used in the kitchen. She also in- formed me that she was treated to the best lodging the Palace afforded, a cot bed on the floor with one sheet, there being but a single pair in the house. Her employment was spinning cattle's hair, procured from the tanner, to be made into bed-covers.
Statements like these show ns that the early settlers in Fitz- william had many hardships to encounter. According to mod- ern ideas of conveniences and helps they did everything at a disadvantage, while of luxuries they knew nothing. But though their dress was coarse and plain, and their food, with the manner of serving it, far from tempting for such as were deli- cate, a good degree of health and general thrift was maintained,
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
and the settlement prospered. Always and everywhere the first settlers in new countries have many hardships to encounter.
Regarding the social qualities of the early settlers, tradi- tion informs us that the intercourse between the different families was of that free-and-easy character that made calls and visits very enjoyable. All met upon the same level, for the distinctions of wealth were practically unknown, while each family had an abiding interest in the prosperity of every other. They had few books and no newspapers to furnish matter for conversation, but they seem to have been good talkers nevertheless. In fact, all their outward circumstances combined to make them prize, in an eminent degree, their social relations, while their sayings that have come down to us prove that not a few of them had that shrewdness and wit which never fail to enliven the gatherings of friends, neigh- bors, and kindred.
Of their amusements it may be said that while they had no clubs, in the modern acceptation of this term, to draw away the men from their families, or parties for card-playing and other games that are now so fashionable, they did not lack the means of recreation when they had spare time upon their hands. Wrestling at that day was very common and popu- lar, vastly more so than it is at present, and the champion wrestler was known far and near.
The game of quoits was often played in connection with family or neighborhood gatherings. In the autumn huskings were common, when all the men, women, and children of some section of the town would strip all the corn of a neighbor in an evening, and then do the same for others. When framed houses began to take the place of log huts the raising of a building was a great occasion, and was considered by most persons as a time for relaxation and sport, to be enjoyed, rather than of hard labor to be avoided.
Where the men were clearing their lands of the heavy growth of wood log rollings were not uncommon, at which a great amount of work would be done in a single day, to be followed by the best supper and a plentiful supply of strong drink at the close.
113
EARLY MODES OF TRAVEL.
Among the ladies quiltings afforded a pleasant recreation, especially when prolonged till the evening, when the good wives and mothers would be joined by their husbands, and the inevitable treat was accompanied by a round of story-telling. The children had their little games of " hunt the slipper," " button, button," just as they now have a century later.
Early in the history of Fitzwilliam, as was true at that period of nearly every other town in the country, military trainings were a great attraction, and brought together a large part of the people of all ages to enjoy a holiday. Even now men, women, and children do not easily tire while watching the manœuvres of a company of trained soldiers.
In their modes of travel the early settlers accommodated themselves to their circumstances. At first their roads were only narrow paths through the forests, barely sufficient for the passage of ox-wagons, carts, and sleds, which appear to have been in common use from the first. After a few years vehicles drawn by horses began to be in use. Stephen Harris brought his wife and household goods from Massachusetts to this town on an ox-sled. Agabus Bishop, from Wrentham, Mass., settled in the north- west part of the town about 1777 or 1778, and the historian of Troy says of him :
Here he commenced, as did nearly all the first settlers, by clearing a spot and building a log-house. And when he moved his family, instead of coming with an ox team, as had nearly all who preceded him, he came with a horse and wagon, and for some years this was the only horse in that part of the town.
In one of his lectures Dr. Cummings relates a pleasant in- cident concerning Mrs. Reed, the widow of James Reed, Jr. Mrs. Reed was a native of Lunenburg, Mass. Says the doctor :
I very well remember hearing Mrs. Reed tell of a horseback ride she and several other girls took with their beaux from that place to this when she was quite young, and her name was Molly Dodge. I well remember, too, that her countenance grew animated and her face shone when she told over what they saw by the way, and what good times they had.
This agreeable expedition of Molly Dodge must have taken
S
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
place before or during 1768, as on December 11th of that year she was married to Mr. Reed.
In their regard for religious institutions the pioneers in the settlement of Fitzwilliam did not fall behind the best elements of the New England people generally. Each family had a right to and a part in the services of the meeting-house, and nothing but severe storms or sickness prevented the entire congregation from a regular attendance. Not a few of the people lived from three to five miles from the place of gath- ering, but the weather must have been very bad which would keep them at home on the Sabbath. When we consider that for years not a few of them walked so far to church with such insufficient protection for their feet, with no umbrellas, and often with but a poor supply of warm clothing, and then sat in the unwarmed meeting-house through two long services, we cannot fail to admire their courage and perseverance, even when we cannot affirm that they were all actuated by religious principle and devotion.
That the prevailing public sentiment called for this sacrifice of comfort and exposure of health in the severest seasons of the year even was doubtless true, while the. almost universal desire to learn what was going on in the settlement and in the world generally had not a little to do with their church-going habits ; still it will be hardly fair treatment to deny to them in their religious observances a large share of the old Puritan .principle.
Of their habits touching the use of intoxicating drinks, this `much may be said in their favor. In a time when ardent spirits were deemed necessary to give strength under hard and protracted labor and protection under great exposure and were, moreover, in general use, the wonder is that so few of the early settlers became drunkards. In the record of deaths in this town for fifty years after its incorporation no one is said to have died of drunkenness, if the examination made be correct. Many cases may have occurred in which drinking habits complicated and rendered fatal fevers and pulmonary diseases, which were then very common ; but evidently death could not often be traced among the early settlers in Fitzwil-
115
USE OF INTOXICATING DRINKS.
liam directly to strong drink. For anything that appears to the contrary, intoxicating liquors were kept and used in every family and on all occasions : but in all the written and tradi- tional accounts that have come down to us we find compara- tively few allusions to anything like beastly intoxication. Some years ago the writer was told by one of the oldest men in town (now deceased) that at the funeral of the first pastor, Rev. Benjamin Brigham, which he well remembered. the custom of providing intoxicating drink was observed, as it was on only extraordinary occasions. Usually only the officiat- ing clergyman, the bearers, and the mourners were expected and invited to drink, but at this funeral a strong sling made of rum, sugar, and water was prepared in a tub in a large quantity, from which all present were invited publicly to help themselves-a scene which happily the present generation will never witness.
With regard to the cultivation of the land and the crops raised by the early settlers, it is sufficient to say that the im- plements of husbandry used in those days were of the rudest kind. The ploughs were made almost wholly of wood, the hoes were heavy, as were also the forks and the shovels. Any one who has examined a seythe, a hand-rake, or an axe of a hundred years ago must perceive that they were clumsy in the extreme, and could not have failed to make heavy drafts upon the patience as well as strength of those who used them. We may well be thankful for the mower, the horse-rake, the reaper, etc.
The productions of the soil, which were relied upon chiefly for food, and to carry, in small quantities, at a later date, into older and larger places for market, were not numerous. Rve and Indian corn may be said to have been the staples, while beans, turnips, and barley were considered important and profitable crops, as was also flax for the home manufacture of linen. This was before the days of cheap cottons, which now enter so largely into the dress of both sexes. A century ago a calico dress, the entire material for which can now be bought for a dollar, was a luxury which but few could afford. A native of Templeton who settled in Fitzwilliam at the time of
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