USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hillsborough > The history of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, 1735-1921, Volume 1 > Part 14
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TAX LIST, 1782.
The growth of the town in population and change in the names of its inhabitants is shown by a comparison of the tax lists for 1776 and 1782, following the close of the Revolution.
£
S
d
£
S
d
Isaac Andrews
3 11
5
George Bishop
1
9
1
Joseph Symonds
4 15
3
Nehemiah Wilkins
2
3
2
Samuel Bradford
2
16
6
Timothy Wilkins
7
3
Otis How
2
11
10 Smith Robeson
10
Mary Bradford
1
15
7
Calvin Stevens
1
2
William Jones
1 17 0
Elephelet Bradford
12
Benjamin Jones
2
1
0 Jacob Flint
12
Daniel McNeal
2
9
5
David Blanchard
1 4
7
George Wiley
1
14
2
Isaac Andrews, Jr.
19
6
Daniel Rolf
1
4
4
Solomon Andrews
14
6
William Booth
2 12
2
Nathaniel Colledge
3
9
3
Jonathan Sargent
15
8 Lot Jenison
1
16
5
David Wright .
17
1
William Grout
1
8
5
Joshua Estey
14
Timothy Bradford
1 9
10
David Clark
2
Joseph Garcy
19
8
Jedidiah Preston
1
3
2
Thadeus M'Row
1
7
2
John Glin
12
Olever Wheler
1
7
7
Samuel Bradford, Jr.
15
9
John Hartwell
14
7
William Taggart
18
10
Nathaniel Hawood
1
11
3
James Taggart
1
3
1
John Mead
0
16
4
Archabld Taggart
1
11
8 John McCalley
1
10
5
Benjamin Dutton
16
7
Thomas Millor
2
11
John Dutton
16
James Dutton
1
1
Andrew Wilkins
1
6
2 Samuel Symonds
0 19
1
William Gammel
1
1
Asa Barns
18
6
160
HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH.
Daniel Killom
14
3 Siles Colledge
1
0
6
Timothy Gray
15
6 Joseph Taggart 0
14 Zebediah Johnson 1
7
5
Jese Rolf
13
John McNeal
1
4
Jonathan Danforth
14 6
John McClintock 2
18 6
John Nichols
1
2
2 Alexander McClintock 1 15
1
04
2
Benjamin Kimbol
1
1
William Jones, Jr. James Jones
1 3
6
paul Colledge
1
9
fortenatus Wheler
14
6
Lemuel Jones
16
Thomas Murdough
1
9
7
Tristram Chaney
10
Samuel Murdough
19
6
Equillea Wilkins
17
8
John McClarey
1 7
11
Daniel Bacon
13
Samuel preston
17
3
William Pope
17
6
Thomas Town
18
3
Ammi Andrews
2
5
6
Thomas Stickney
18
3
Andrew Bixbe
3
7
9
Samuel Stuart
18
8
William Love
1
14
10
James McCalley
2
0
9
John Gibson
1
18
0
Thomas Kenn
17
6
John Shed
17
James Kerr
14
3
William parker
16
Menasa Stow
14
6
Daniel Gibson
19
4
David Green
19
5
William Hutcheson
16
6
James alld
1
2
5
Moses Steel
2
9
Kimbol & Willson
6
6
William Taggart, Jr.
12
10
The inhabitance total 131
2
4
1
VALUATION N. RESIDENTS.
S
d
8
d
William Hill
3
3
10
John Hill
3
3
4
Widow March
3
4
2
Garven Brown
1
13
10
Sarson Belcher
3
4
1
Joshua Hinshaw
2
13
7
James Bodwin
2
15
1
Widow More
6
9
John ford
2
8
Joshua Jones
4
6
Widow Luis
2
3
Tufton & Mason Land
Josiah Stow
0
2
3
Lord proprietors 3 12
Daniel M. Miler
4
6
William Walton
2
3
Heirs of Josiah Colledge
2
3
Thomas Killom
2
3
paul D. Sergent
2
3
Heirs of John Carson
3
2
Peabody & Choat
11
3
Colln Huntington
2
18
6
Jeremiah Green
3
12
Enwood
4
6
Rachel Johnson
2 2
3
Jonathan putnam
4
6 John perkins
6
9
Graves & Upton
9
Mr Clark
4
6
Widow Gray
13
6
Kimbel & Wilson
15
6
Widow Nick
5
5
Majer Riley
2
3
John Chaney
1
8
Hamon
4
6
- Guile
4
6 Heirs of Abrm Coughrin
2
. 3
David MM-Clarey
4
6 N Residents Total
36
11
4
9
Joseph Nichols
17
2 Samuel Jones
1
17 5
Ephram Train
16
12
Thomas Murdough, Jr
6
Ebenezer flint
2
3
-
Photograph by MANAHAN.
THE JONES BRIDGES.
161
UNEASINESS OF THE INHABITANTS.
While Col. John Hill had dealt squarely and fairly with the residents of the town, making sacrifices that all might have good titles to their land, there was from the first an uncertainty in the situation that gave not a little uneasiness to the inhabitants. The Mason heirs had quitclaimed their interest in the Hillsborough grant, yet there stalked in the background the shadow of the Allen Proprietors, as a certain body of men was known and who were the heirs of the late Gov. Samuel Allen, and who had been vested with far-reaching rights of territory in his days. These gentlemen laid claim to a large portion of the unappropriated lands in the Masonian grant. The people in this vicinity were greatly excited and committees were chosen to investigate and consider the best course to pursue. Accordingly the citizens appealed to the General Court for assistance, as witness the following :
RELATIVE TO DRAWING TOWN LOTS, 1784.
State of New Hampshire
To the honorable the Council & House of Representatives now sitting at portsmouth within & for the said state of New Hampshire
Humbly Shew the Subscribers that at the time of settleing the town of Hillsborough in the County of Hillsborough & State aforesaid many of your petitioners received Deeds from John Hill Late of Bos- ton in the County of Suffolk & Commonwealth of Massa Esqr Decesd of Lots of in the first Division insaid town & after settleing the Lots in the first Division, Drew by virtue of said Deeds which also con- veyed them an undivided Share in the residue of said Town other Lots in the Second Division annexed to their first Number, & that those of your petition who did not purchase from said Hill purchased from others who held under him as before as aforsd That on the Severance of the Second Division as aforesd a plan was made of said Division, & Entries made by said Hill of the Numbers Drawn to each original Lot & the persons Interested Entered into the same have cultivated improved & they & those who purchased from them have held and possessed the same severally to this Day agreably to the Division plans & Drawing aforesd that the said Hill at the time possessed him- self of the plan & minutes aforesd & held the same time in his posses- sion untill his Death & from his Decease the same have come to the hands & possession of his heirs & Executors who have Suppressed the same & now claims the Lands against your petitioner who have nothing but oral Testimony to prove the Severance aforesaid or to Secure to them the fruits of their Labor for many years past expended upon their several possessions wherefore they most Humbly pray that
162
HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH.
on their producing to your honour clear and indisputable proof of the facts aforesaid that your honors will by an Act Establish the afore- said Severance & Secure to them theit possessions or give them such other relief as to your honors in your great wisdom Shall appear Just & Equitable
Robert mcClurer
John McCalley
John Gibson
James mcCalley
Andrew Bixbe
James Taggart
William Pope
In House of Representatives, February 17, 1785, the fore- going petition was granted.
RELATIVE TO DATE OF ANNUAL MEETING, 1785.
State of Newhampshire
To the Honble Senate and House of Representatives in General assembly Convened at Concord the third wednesday of octobr Anno Domini 1785
The Petition of the select men & other inhabitants of the Town of Hillsborough in the County of Hillsboroh and state of New Hamp- shire aforesaid-
Humbly sheweth that our annual meeting being held on the Last thursday of march Discommods us sum times it happens to be on the Last Day of march the Town officers not being sworn on that Day we are obliged to adjourn our annual meeting into april; which is attended with much Difficulty on acct of taking our invoice early in the month of april and by Reason of many Conveyances being made between the first Day of april and the time of taking the invoice it is Defect matter to take the invoice so that Every person may have Justice.
Your Petition therefore pray that our annual meeting may be held on the first monday of march annually for the future insted of the Last thursday
and your petitioners as in Duty bound will ever pray &c- October 20th 1785
Isaac Andrews John Dutton
Select men of
Wm. Taggart Juner
Hillsborough
Jedidiah Preston
William Parker
Beni Kimball
William Taggart
Eliphalet Bradford
John Hartwell
John mead
Andrew Bixbe
David Wright
Jonathan Sargent
Otis Howe Gorge Booth
William Booth
Daniel Rolf
Joshoa Estey
Joseph Symonds
Samuel Bradford
James Dutton
Benjamin Dutton
David Marshall
Uriah Cooledge
Jonathan Danforth
Benja Gould
Samuel Danforth
163
THE MIDDLE NAME.
Daniel Killam
Ephraim Train
James mcCalley
Paul Cooledge
William Jones
James Jones
Elijah Beard
Isaac Andrews
Perkins Andrews
William Little
Calvin Stevens
Nehemiah Wilkins
John Shedd John mcNeall
Moses Steel
William Hutchinson
Samuel Symonds
William Love
Timothy Gray
Solomon Andrews
John gibson
William Symonds
Nath Symonds
In House of Representatives, October 31, 1785, the fore- going petition was granted.
The legislature looked with favor upon this request, so the following year, 1786, the annual meeting was held on the first Monday in March, which came on the 6th instant. In 1788 the time was again changed to the second Tuesday in March, as it is to-day.
At this election, 1786, the town voted ten dollars bounty on wolves, which proves that this troublesome animal must have been very obnoxious.
In 1787 for the first time a name appears on the tax list with a middle letter, viz .: Robert B. Wilkins. In those days middle names were seldom known, and it was not until into the 19th century that they became what might be termed common. In the Revolutionary War Rolls one of Hillsborough's soldiers appears as John Caldwell McNiel, though the third name does not seem to have been considered necessary at all times. Among the grantees of Marlow, 1761, was Samuel Holden Parsons. This distinction, if such it deserves to be called, rather belonged to the more wealthy class, just as the title "Mister," commonly ab- breviated to "Mr.," and now bestowed promiscuously, was in- tended as a title of honor to the few rather than respect for the many. In those days the term "Goodman" was often used in referring to the average person. Mr. was almost invariably placed before the name of the minister.
In those days all men kept their faces smoothly shaven, or reasonably so, and the fashion of letting the beard grow to some length was made popular by the '49er, who was too busy seeking the golden nugget that was to lift him into opulence to stop to look after his personal appearance.
164
HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH.
At the meeting of the convention which adopted the national constitution in 1788 Hillsborough was classed with Henniker and both towns were represented by Lt. Robert Wilkins, often fa- miliarly called "Bob" Wilkins. He was a native of Amherst, but removed to Henniker with his parents when he was young. He was in the battle of Bunker Hill at 16, and was wounded. Re- covering he enlisted in Colonel Scammel's regiment, was promoted for gallant conduct to a lieutenancy, and served under General Lafayette, whom he greatly admired. On the visit of Lafayette to Concord in 1825, Bob Wilkins was present, and recognized by the distinguished visitor was given a cordial welcome. Lieutenant Wilkins died in Boston in August, 1832, aged 77 years.
On the 5th of September, 1792, a new constitution was adopted by the state, and under its provisions a militia was organized. By this movement the towns were grouped and so their companies should help to form battalions and that two battalions should constitute a regiment. In this arrangement Hillsborough was classed with Antrim, Deering, Henniker and Campbell's Gore (now Windsor), and their companies to make up the first bat- talion; the companies in the town of Hancock, Francestown, Greenfield, Lyndeborough and Society Land (now Bennington) should form the 2nd battalion, which constituted the Twenty- sixth regiment.
Until the close of the 18th century, when cotton manufacture and other industries that began to call the people together so as to form industrial centres attracted the attention of many, Hills- borough, like other towns removed from the seacoast, where fishing was the chief interest, was strictly a farming community. The inhabitants were scattered with their homesteads dotting hills and valleys. Communication with each other was limited both as to distance and conveyance, so they lived largely in the associations of their respective families. This must not be un- derstood to mean anything like hermit lives, for there was really more sociability among them than probably exists to-day, as there were diver diversions to call them into public gatherings, in their seasons, such as the corn festival, the apple bee, the sewing circle, the quilting match, the town fair, election day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, an occasional auction, singing school, spelling bee, prayer meeting, etc., etc., with above all others, the church,
165
BOUNTIES ON WOLVES.
which called the sections of the town together with unfailing certainty on the Sabbath. But for obvious reasons progress was slow, when measured by the swiftly-moving forces that are shap- ing to-day, for good or ill, human destiny. In a hundred years the candle dip that shadowed all it lighted has been supplanted by the electric orb ; the plow-horse by the motor car.
To-day we are protecting the deer, looking not with askance upon the bear, and restocking our streams with the finny tribe that our would-be sportsmen may enjoy a day's outing in woods of a second growth.
WOLVES.
Hillsborough with her sister towns, suffered greatly from the depredations of wolves during the years 1782-83-84-85, when these everhungry tormentors were vanquished. Cochrane in his History of Antrim, says: "During the long winter of 1784-85, the winter being very cold and the snow deep, the settlers were often awakened in the night by the howling of wolves at the door, or about the barns where their little flocks were sheltered. To- wards sunset, when the men began to hear their yelping in the woods or on the hills, they left work and hurried home. Flocks were sheltered and the doors closed at dark." Fortunately this condition did not last long. The state offered generous bounties, often supplemented by the towns to get rid of these troublesome enemies, and finally the dismal wail of these detested denizens of the forest ended.
Bounties were offered for wolf scalps by the town as late as 1788. Tradition says the last wolf killed in town was about the year 1790, and that the slayer was Major Isaac Andrews. He had discovered wolf tracks in his sheep-fold, and to rid himself of his dangerous visitors, for it proved there were three, he set a fox trap for the wary animals. On the third morning he found that he had caught one of the wolves, but the old fellow had escaped with the encumbrance. The snow lay deep upon the ground, and putting on his snow-shoes he gave pursuit, armed with a gun. During the chase that succeeded he realized that the other wolves were in company with the one lugging the trap, and so crooked was this pursuit, that the wolves crossed and recrossed his path three or four times, before finally he came upon the entrapped
I66
HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH.
animal on the low ground south of the home of Isaac Baldwin. Though he realized that the companions of this wolf were lying in wait near by he fired at the snarling brute. His first shot only seemed to enrage the creature, which struggled furiously to reach him. Reloading his weapon as quickly as pos- sible, the second charge ended the conquest. The other wolves did not appear and Major Baldwin never saw anything more of them. A wolf was started from its lair a few years after this, and the hunter followed it several days to finally run it down and shoot it in Goshen.
A moose was killed in Antrim, a little over the town line, in 1790. Bears were in town quite a number of years after the wolves had been exterminated, and the last deer seen was about 1820, though of late years under the protection of the law they have been not uncommon visitors in town.
Wild turkeys were shot in town as late as 1803, while beavers and otters were occasionally seen as recently. The meadow south of Loon Pond was at one time flowed by beavers who had constructed a high dam at its lower end.
Bear stories were more popular than any other, even fish stories.
James Carr, living in the north part of the town was by "profession" a bear trapper and he had a string of bear yarns that could keep most any live boy awake all night with the telling. On an occasion going to his traps in the morning he found one of them gone. With his old queen's arm musket he followed the track made by an entrapped bear, until at the end of a mile he discovered the animal. He laid down his gun, believing he could overpower the bear with a club. But he over-rated his chances, and while the brute, with one paw sent his missile flying a rod away, Mistress Bruin closed her powerful jaw upon Carr's left arm. Aroused to desperation now the trapper managed to draw a pocket knife and he slashed the bear until it was glad to drop his arm, and having freed itself from the trap retreated to a ledge near by where it had its den no doubt. Though suffering from the wound upon his right arm, Carr now caught his firearm and pursued his victim. With his second shot the animal succumbed, and the Carr family lived on bear meat for some time to follow.
167
BEAR STORIES.
Moses Steele once went on a hunting trip with John Burns of Antrim, who later removed to New Boston and more recently to Whitefield. Steele crossed the river to the north bank while his companions remained on the other side. Almost immediately, Steele was discovered by a huge bear that started towards him at a lumbering pace. Steele turned to fire on the aroused brute but cocking his gun the flint fell into the water leaving him at the mercy of the animal. Burns was a dead shot and fired across the stream, his bullet passing within a hair's breadth of his imperilled companion. He killed the bear when it had almost reached Steele.
Jonathan Sargent, leading his dog by the string, while on a hunting trip, called upon the friend by the name of Huse, and who lived just over the town line in Henniker. As he was about to start for home he heard a great commotion outside the house, and upon rushing out found that Mrs. Huse had set the dog upon the bear that had appeared on the scene. The dog and the bear were having a tough tussle for the mastery, but upon cocking his gun he dared not fire for fear of hitting his dog. At that moment the fearless woman made a dash to the rescue of the dog, and before he could reach the spot she and his pet had killed Mistress Bruin, actually kicked the animal to death with her bare feet, as the story has been told. The locality is known as "Bear Hill" to this day.
Wild turkeys, the gamest of all game, affording the most delicious of meat and the keenest lure of the chase were shot in town as late as 1802, the last known victim falling before the aim of the unfeeling marksman not far from the south shore of Loon Pond. Salmon were abundant in the Contoocook River until the dams of the mills on the Merrimack stopped their passage up that river and so they disappeared from the tributary streams.
SIGNS AND PORTENTS.
Living in a large measure isolated lives, and in such close communion with Nature every articulation of their environments awoke a feeling of the unreal, any phenomena unusual stirred the beholder with a belief that it portended him good or evil, as the influence might dictate. So the people of that day were believers in signs and omens, warnings and precautions.
I68
HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH.
Beekeepers believed that bees would leave if at the death of a member of the family of the owner crape was not placed on the hive. Nothing must begin on Friday if the doer wished to es- cape disappointment or it might be dire disaster. To meet a funeral train indicated sickness or death to the person within a twelfth month. The howling of a dog portended evil. The find- ing of a horse-shoe promise good fortune and to hang same over the door was to insure good fortune to the occupants of the home. Ringing in ears or burning of the ears warned that some- body was talking about you. The birth of twin calves foretold death in the family within one year. A rainbow seen in the morning, sailors take warning; rainbow at night, sailor's delight.
The new moon seen over the left shoulder portended harm within a month; seen over the right shoulder augured well for the person. The hunter refrained from shooting a snake, believ- ing if he did that his gun would ever after miss the mark. To break a mirror meant death in the family and seven years of bad luck.
To put a garment on wrong side out was a sign of good luck for the day, unless the wearer should change it when his good fortunes would end in some misfortune. Did the swallow fly low this morning it told of rain ere noon. As a specimen of the warnings that sometimes came to persons, Mr. Coggswell, in his History of Henniker, relates the following incident which has a certain interest for residents of this town:
Capt. Thomas Bowman, under whom many Hillsborough soldiers served in the Revolutionary War, on a terribly dark, stormy night, shortly after the settlement of the township, was wakened from sleep by a loud rap upon his cabin door, and a voice exclaimed : "A man has been drowned in the river!" Mr. Bowman arose, lighted a pine torch, opened the only door to his little cabin, but no one was to be seen. He investigated around the door, but no footprints were visible. He entered his cabin, looked at his clock, the fingers of which pointed at twelve, and thinking it too dark and stormy to venture out, he lay down again, but not to sleep ... In the morning he sought his neigh- bors, and together they went down to the ford of the river, where they discovered the dead body of a man, who had evidently
169
BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT.
drowned in an attempt to cross the stream. The body proved to be that of Nathan Reed, of Hopkinton, who was on his way to visit some of his friends in Hillsborough.
Naturally an illustration of this kind went far to convince the beholders of the truth of dreams and omens, and to be con- tinually on the watch and guard against mischance.
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE.
The educated man removed from the scenes of civilization and placed for an indefinite period in the solitude of the wilder- ness, in communion only with nature and himself, soon becomes imbued with the spirit of loneliness that pervades his environ- ments. Locked within himself he comes to look with suspicion upon each changing form of life. The silence masters him and he sees in each shifting portent a mystery, and reads in each mystery a sign. He peoples the space with invisible images, and so sees unaccountable shapes in the realm of his vision, until its horizon is fringed with the twilight of reason. His own voice tells him of his loneliness ; his own hands of his weakness. Alone with nature, one or the other must surrender, and invariably it is man; with his kind invincible, alone helpless. So the closer one lives to nature the closer he lives to life, which is but a synonym for mystery, with the mind forever trying to solve its secrets.
All pioneer people, isolated to a greater or lesser extent, are prone to believe in portents, and to mingle with living objects the phantoms of a creative mind. To account for things they have neither the time nor the capacity to understand as substantial objects they attribute to them the imaginary powers of an un- solved mystery. Pioneers are the children of the races of men.
While at this late day we may wonder that as intelligent and open-hearted people as settled in Hillsborough should have fallen under the influence of superstition so far as to take any credence in witchcraft the evidence of the case compels us to accept the fact. Nor was this so very strange, when the social influences of the times are taken into consideration. Whoever may have been their ancestors, it was an inheritance. Belief in witchcraft and demonology is as old as the history of man. Very early in the Bible we read the admonition: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!" A witch was believed to be a woman who had made a pact
170
HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH.
with the devil to ride through the air to meetings of kindred spirits. European history is replete with accounts of the burning of witches. As early as the middle of the 17th century there were cases of so-called witchcraft in Essex County, Mass. The col- onists of New Hampshire fortunately were freer of this uncanny belief than Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The good people of Hillsborough, with their sterling qualities and faces set toward the rising sun of progress, were not wholly free from this vagary, though it did not reach a violent stage. At one time, as Deacon Symonds, or it may have been some other good man of the church-we will not spoil a good story by a name -was urging his ox team to climb Bible Hill with a huge load of pine logs, the load suddenly became stationary. Shout as he would to the faithful oxen, and sting them with the sharp brad, they could not or would start the sled. His neighbors quickly began to gather about the place, one and all devoutly believing it was the work of some witch-doubtless "Aunt Jenny," who lived in the southwestern part of the town. The deacon was rather prone to disbelieve this, but eventually, after nearly half an hour's struggling in vain to move the load, he agreed that it must be Aunt Jenny had some spite against him and was taking this way to "get even with him." It was a puzzling situation. The snow was hard-trodden, the road as smooth almost as glass, the oxen sharp-shod, the deacon one of the best teamsters in town, his cattle the best trained, so there was no reason under the light of the sun that the load should not move, except that latent and malevolent power of poor old Aunt Jenny. Under the cir- cumstances, what could be done? Some suggested one thing, others different treatment, until the victim, one of the most sober and industrious men on Bible Hill, or any other hill for that matter, became quite unstrung. Finally it was proposed that a horse shoe be heated to a fiery temperament and thrown under the sled runner.
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