USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > New Durham > The history of New Durham, New Hampshire: from the first settlement to the present time > Part 2
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In 1762, the residents felt that it was time to put in a request to the royal governor for recognition in the form of a charter which would authorize them to have a town government of their own. Accordingly, this charter was granted with the permission of King George III, and signed by Governor Benning Wentworth of the Province of New Hampshire on December 7, 1762. The text of this charter is printed elsewhere in this book. This original document, setting forth the "powers, Authorities, privileges, Immunities and Franchises" which the new town might "hold and enjoy," and naming Major Thomas Tash, an officer of the French and Indian War, to call the first town meeting, is carefully preserved among the town's records, and is one of few such rarities in the State of New Hampshire.
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CHAPTER THREE How They Lived
In 1770, Timothy Murry and Shadrach Allard made an inven- tory called "Report of Settlements," of the families, houses, im- proved ground and felled trees in New Durham. The first report and supplementary report made the same year is combined here and shows the heads of families:
David Allard; Henry Allard; Shadrach Allard; Jonathan Al- lard; Benjamin Berry; James Berry; Marriam Berry, widow; John Benrick; Benjamin Bickford; Ebenezer Bickford; Ebenezer Bick- ford, Jun .; Robert Boodey; Zachariah Boodey; Ichabod Buzzy (or Jonathan Buzzell); John Collema; James Chesley; Joseph Durgan; Ebenezer Dow; Jeremiah Dow; John Doe; Timothy Davis; Josiah Doe; Nick Glidden; John Glidden; Zebulon Glidden; Widow Sarah Gledon, wife of Benjamin; Nathan Kenneston; David Langley; Joseph Libbey; Benjamin Mathes; Benjamin Mooney; Paul March; Timothy Murry; Edward Peavey; William Peavey; James Palmer; John Rogers; Joseph Small; James Stillson; Jeremiah Taylor; Thomas Younge and John Younge.
There were forty-one houses for the forty-two families, one grist mill in operation (a saw mill had burned that winter), 4481/2 acres of land had been cleared and construction of the Meeting House had been started.
All of this represented a tremendous amount of back-breaking labor. Clearing of the land was an urgent necessity for protection from the wild beasts in the woods and for a planting area. It was all done by hand. The trees were felled with a small axe - the broadax was used for hewing the large round logs into square beams - the adze for squaring off the smalled logs.
A man's tools and weapons were precious to him; he took the best possible care of his knife, axe and gun, for the loss of any of these could sometimes mean the difference between life and death.
The earliest houses were of "loggs" - small, dark and miser- ably cold. The floor was of earth, the windows of oiled paper, the fireplace of rough stone. When the saw mills began operating, how- ever, several frame houses were erected in New Durham, with many others to follow as the years went on; story-and-a-half farmhouses of spacious dimensions, others of two stories, with nice proportions and with paneling and fine woodwork within.
The move from a "logg" hut to a good two-storied house did not mean that living was easy in the latter part of the eighteenth century. The houses were barely warmed with fireplaces, and the only illumination was provided by candles and the flickering light of the odorous little Betty lamps, which burned fat.
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a
"Half-Way House" circa 1770, on New Durham Ridge in the Gore, now Alton. So-called because it was half- way on the circuitous stage coach route between Concord and Portsmouth. Owned by one of the Davis families, now owned by Mr. Rov W. Berry.
Family activity centered around the massive fireplace in the largest room, which was kitchen, living room and dining room com- bined. In addition, it often had a large curtained bed in the corner for family or guests. The room perhaps was furnished with a pine settle in the chimney corner, a "deal" table, ladderback chairs and a cupboard or dresser to hold the treenware and pewter. The family Bible had its place on the table.
The bedrooms had floors of wide boards with a rag carpet or two. There was a wide posted bed with a deep feather mattress placed on tightly drawn ropes, covered with homespun blankets and a spread of linsey-woolsey. A chest for storing clothing and sundry articles completed the furnishings of the bedroom.
Every man, whether he had a trade or calling, was a farmer first of all. He and his sons cleared the land of rocks and lined them up into stone walls. He planted corn, wheat, oats and pumpkins, mowed the hay for his stock, sheared his sheep, hauled his water from spring or brook and cut his firewood. He gathered honey from hollow tree trunks; in the early spring, he gathered the sap from his maple trees and boiled it down for the family supply of sugar.
No man went abroad without his rifle. It was a protection and the means with which he provided meat for his table. He was a good marksman and brought home deer, raccoon, partridge, wild turkey, fox and an occasional bear. The meat was cooked or dried, the skins used for clothing and shoes. If he had any spare time, he whittled out wooden bowls, spoons, trenchers, wooden stools and chairs.
His wife worked from dawn to dusk. She bore her many children without benefit of pain relievers, attended only by a woman neighbor or relative. She cooked over an open fire, baked in the domed-top bake oven, made her soap from wood ashes and fat, dipped or molded the constantly-needed supply of candles, and con- cocted her own medicines. She and her daughters washed, carded and spun the wool, colored it with dyes they made themselves from the barks, blossoms and roots they gathered in the woods, and wove it into cloth on the loom. She milked the cow, churned the butter, pressed the cheese, knitted the family stockings and on Sunday, bundled up her brood, and the whole family attended church.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, families were large. Parents frequently had eight to twelve children - often more; and, in many cases, grandfathers, grandmothers, maiden aunts and sun- dry relatives were included in the family circle. As in any large family, there were frequent accidents and illnesses. Doctors were literally few and far between and were sent for only in the gravest emergency. The women of the household were skilled in the art of making and applying homemade remedies, "receipts" for which had been handed down from mother to daughter for generations, many of Indian origin.
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Preparation for a long cold winter included not only cutting the firewood, laying away food in the cellar and banking the house foundations with evergreen boughs, but also the gathering, drying and preserving of blossoms, barks, roots and herbs for the medicine supply. Sage, mixed with honey and vinegar, was used for sore throat; wild cherry bark steeped in cold water became a tonic to "calm irritation and nervous excitability" (jittery nerves?). A decoction of wild rhubarb served as a laxative, strong tea of wild carrot roots relieved tape worms, teas made of checkerberry, pep- permint or catnip soothed an upset stomach. Bittersweet leaves and twigs boiled together was recommended for treating cancers, ring- worm and the itch. Dandelion leaves eaten as greens were good for the blood. Wild cranberry for kidney troubles, juniper for dropsy. Pine pitch spread on leather became a plaster for a weak back. For rheumatic pains in the bones, the feet were soaked in warm water in which hemlock branches had been steeped.
Shoemake (sumac) berries made a pleasant drink for "fever- ish complaint." Skunk cabbage roots and seeds for asthma, nervous spasms, dropsy, rheumatism and epilepsy. Other plants used, all found locally, were hop vines, elderberries, colts foot, milk weed, butterfly weed, horse radish, burdock, mullein, plantain, mustard, tansy and blackberries.
Poultices were used for many ailments. Bark, leaves, blossoms or seeds were stewed in water or milk, thickened with bread crumbs, rye or Indian meal and applied warm. Many of the above-mentioned wild plants were used; in addition, poultices were made of white pond lily roots, poppy blossoms, rotten apples, (for inflamed eyes), horse manure and pansies.
Soothing ointments were made in great variety with sweet oil or lard as a base. To this they added lilies, hops, onions, chalk, snow, tobacco, tar or dock and probably many other things that would not appeal to us very much today.
These simple (and some not so simple) remedies doubtless re- lieved much suffering and cured many minor ills, but they were powerless in the treatment of the serious epidemics which raged not infrequently through New England. Typhoid fever, "spotted" fever, diptheria, cholera and smallpox flared up spasmodically; polio left many children crippled. In 1735 a mysterious and frightful epidemic of "throat distemper," a malady similar to diptheria, claimed over 1000 lives in the Province, almost all of whom were under twenty years of age. Twenty families in the Hampton area lost all their children.
Infant mortality was high; old birth records show that at least three, often more, out of nine babies "died in infancy." Pollution from wells, the "out-house""' with its flies, undetected diseases of cattle and lack of screening for protection from mosquitoes and gnats all contributed to fevers and contagion.
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No schooling or help was given the mentally retarded child. He was labeled "idiot" and cruelly teased by his playmates, or shunned altogether.
The first doctor to live in town was Dr. Joseph Coggeswell, one of nineteen children born to Nathaniel and Judith (Badger) Cog- geswell of Haverhill, Massachusetts. He served in the Revolutionary War at a very young age, studied medicine with his brother, Dr. William Coggeswell, and was assistant surgeon at West Point. He married Judith Colby in 1790; and after practicing medicine in Warner, New Hampshire, for three years, moved to New Durham.
He took part in town affairs, being a collector of school money and a tithingman in 1793. In the same year, he bid for a pew in the gallery of the Meeting House. He is mentioned as a surveyor of highways in 1795, and the birth and death of his second child is on record. In 1797, he moved to Tamworth, where he practiced medicine for many years.
Dr. Abner Page lived here in 1803, Dr. Henry Sargent in 1814, and Dr. Ebenezer Dearborn in 1817.
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CHAPTER FOUR Town Meetings
"Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely."
- Lord Macauley.
Many early settlements were formed by groups led by their chosen ministers. Even before incorporation, in some cases, these congregations proceeded to set up rules and regulations for self- government, based on the democratic policy of choosing their mod- erators, deacons, elders and tithingmen, and holding the right of voting on church policies and activities. Later on, when the desire for land influenced additional groups to create a new town, their local government took shape in much the same manner. "Modera- tor" is defined in the dictionary as "the presiding officer of a meet- ing, especially in the Presbyterian and Congregational churches;" and "tythingmen," who enforced Sunday observance and order, were regular town officers until well into the middle of the nine- teenth century.
Town meetings were held regularly to attend to all matters re- lating to the town and its inhabitants, the land and its boundaries, the assessment of property and the collection of taxes, the building of roads, establishment of schools and the relief of the poor. Many problems of a more personal nature were worked out at the town meetings, too, for the nearest court was miles away, and the roads bad. In any case, few men had the money to pay court costs.
The reins of town government were then, as now, in the hands of a very few. One reason was that not all men could read and write. The entries over the names of a few of the earliest town "clarks" (the English pronunciation and often spelled this way) show that they managed their goose quill pens with some difficulty and with but elementary knowledge of the rules of spelling.
The first town meeting was called probably about the first part of January, 1763, and the first annual meeting on the first Monday in March of that year. Unfortunately, we have no record of what transpired at those meetings.
The first recorded notice of a town meeting reads as follows:
"Notice is hereby given to the Inhabitants and Proprietors of the Town of New Durham in the Province of New Hampshire That a Meeting of said Proprietors will be held at the house of Shadrach Allard in said New Durham on the first Monday of March next To begin at 2 of the clock in the Afternoon - Then and there to act on the Following Articles Viz, 1st To Chuse a Moderator, Clark,
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and all other Necessary officers. 2dly To Raise Money Sufficient to defray all Necessary Charges that Hath or may arise, 3ly, to Agree on Some Method for Calling Proprietors Meetings for the future and to Act and Vote on any other Matter and Thing that may then be found Necessary.
Dated Feby 23, 1765
Joseph Thomas Daniel Rogers Selectmen
Thomas Tash
Entered and Recorded According to the Original Notification Augt, 1765
Thos Tash, Clark"
This meeting was held and after choosing Joseph Thomas Moderator, it was adjourned to June 3, when they reconvened and voted:
1st: that Thomas Tash, Esq. be Town and Proprietors clerk.
2nd: that Thomas Tash, Esq., Lieut. Joseph Thomas, and Capt. Daniel Rogers be Selectmen.
3rd: that Volentine Mathas and Abednego Leathers be as- sessors.
4th: that Rev. John Adams, Lieut. Samuel Doe and John Smith, Jun., Esq., be commissioners.
5th: that Joseph Thomas be collector.
6th:
that Shadrach Allard be Surveyor of highways.
7th: that Benjamin Berry be tithingman.
8th: that some method be resolved for calling of Proprietors' meetings.
9th: that Volentine Mathas and Abednego Leathers be a committee to call Proprietors meetings for the Present year.
Later, in addition to these town officers, there were Lot layers, who ran boundary lines; fence viewers, who assisted the lot layers in boundary disputes; constable, who for many years was tax col- lector as well, and hay wards, hog reeves and field drivers. Just what duties were performed by the last three officers remains a mystery !
All manner of business was brought up at the Town Meeting. One of the frequent complaints which was handled with a minimum of charity and a maximum of speed was that of stray women, men or families who wandered into town with no place to stay and no means of subsistance.
In 1778, George Bickford, constable, was commanded "to warn Jenna Doe of Tamworth and her children to depart out of this town and likewise you are to warn Rachel Horn and her child to de-
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part ... least they be chargable to said Town." Robert Boody, Thomas Young and Henry Allard were the Selectmen who signed this order.
In 1791, ". .. Complaint has been made ... that one Prudence Richards belonging to the town of Rochester is now in this town . . . and may be chargable unless it is timely prevented." John Bennett, constable, was commanded to "warn the said Prudence Richards .. . to depart forthwith, and if she refuses, you are to carry her out and leave her in Rochester ... "
We wonder if the worthy constable spent sleepless nights worrying about the best method of "carrying her out," but if he did, his apprehension proved groundless, for he reported two weeks later after his warning, "the said Prudence Richards departed out of this town immediately."
A man named Phillip Keille, his wife and four daughters were banished in January, 1792, and since a David Keille was a resident and town officer at the time, one can only suppose that it seemed an excellent way of getting rid of unwanted relatives!
Then, as now, it was sometimes difficult to procure the right man for the job. In March, 1780, James Folsom was chosen for constable. In June, the town received from him "ninety pounds paper money currency as a fine for refusing to serve ... and chose Mr. Ebenezer Durgin in his stead," and voted to give the latter the ninety pounds and five percent for collecting this year's taxes. He was given this money, but, in September, he declined to serve and returned the money to the town, which chose Mr. Elisha Thomas, constable. He apparently accepted and served.
At the conclusion of a warrant for a Town Meeting, called for September 18, 1782, it was stated:
"And as the inhabitants of said town have been very inatten- tive when called upon to attend public meetings, by which herefore the Town is likely to be involved in great Difficulties it is earnestly desired there may be a general attendance. By order of the Select- men.
John Roberts, John Bennet, Jun., Peter Drowne"
The report of said meeting reads thus:
"Wednesday, September 18th, 1782. The Town met but nothing of importance being transacted the said meeting was dissolved.
Peter Drowne, T. Clerk"
Rodes, rhodes, roads. No matter how they spelled them, roads were the most urgent necessity for many years, as they were in all the other settlements. Man power was scarce; it was hard and time- consuming labor to "spot" trees, break and cut through the tall forests, yet the conditions of the land grant must be met and the townspeople have access to their farms. Our neighbor, Middleton,
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was warned in 1769 that unless a good road be cut and cleared through that settlement, the Mason Proprietors were determined "to enter upon and regrant every delinquent's share without dis- tinction or reserve." (One reason for their severity in this case was that Governor John Wentworth was building a magnificent home at Wolfeborough and wanted a decent road over which to transport his boards and building materials !)
That there was no good main road through New Durham is evidenced by the following, dated 3rd of March, 1766:
". . . There should be a road laid out 2 rods wide to begin at Rochester Line (now Farmington) ... at the head of said road that leads to a place called Plainfield in New Durham ... and to run through New Durham ... Timothy Murray, Shadrach Allard and James Berry chosen as a committee to lay out said road in the best and most convenient place." A year later, the road is described as being laid out, surveyors' measurements being carefully recorded, ending with so many rods "to a pine tree marked I M."
In January, the Selectmen record a road that begins at a "sarten horn beam bush marked on both sides," and later describe another road beginning at the Gore line at a "sarten red oak marked E B, R B, B M."
A town meeting was called for September 19, 1778, to decide on many diverse problems:
"Whereas there is 12 pounds due to the Treasury from New Durham for the year 1775 that they did not raise that year, they were sent to for it and if we neglect to raise it, we shall have the extent for to us by the Court. And furthermore there is great com- plaint about the cross road leading from Middletown and other roads and there is not money enough voted as to make them pass- able therefore we called this meeting.
. . To vote the sum to be immediately raised due from us and paid. To vote what roads to be cleared out this fall. To vote how much money shall be raised to clear out said roads. To vote that the Town should buy a book for to keep the town accounts in, To pass any vote or votes that shall be thought proper when as- sembled."
The town meeting was held, and it was "Voted to raise 12 pounds and pay it to the Treasury it being due there."
There were constant appeals from the townspeople for new roads, improvements to existing roads and for bridges to be built. The responsibility for maintaining the roads was divided up; in 1784, they voted Mr. William Ham, surveyor of the main road; Col. Tash, surveyor of the cross center road to Middletown; Capt. James Stillson, surveyor of the road from Lt. Allard's to Marches Pond, so-called; Capt. Robert Boodey, surveyor of the main Ridge Road from Rochester line to the Gore and the cross road to Chamberlin's;
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Mr. Moses Meeder, surveyor of the main road from Zeb Glidden's to the main road near Willey's; and Lt. Thomas French, surveyor of the cross road. These highway supervisors were changed from time to time and, as the town became more populated, other roads were opened and additional men chosen to oversee their condition.
But no one was really satisfied! In 1789, the town voted: "To take under consideration ... a petition of a number of inhabitants of Gilmanton, Rochester, etc., setting forth that the road through New Durham is unsafe for travelers .. . " At the next meeting, they "Chose Thomas Tash, Esq. an agent to attend the next General Sessions to answer in behalf of this town respecting a petition . . . and to employ an attorney if he should think it best for the benefit of said town."
Though the selectmen made short work of the wandering poor who invaded the town, they gave careful consideration to the right- ful residents, who, through unfortunate circumstances, were un- able to fend for themselves. Having no large treasury to dip into, they could not dole out sums of money without a good deal of deliberation. Some of the solutions at which they arrived for the relief of the local poor may seem hard-hearted to us today, but in retrospect, their methods were as reasonable as the times would allow.
We do not know the predicament of Mrs. Lucy Hynes, widow, to whom the town voted to give 10 dollars toward the support of her child in March, 1789. This was evidently not enough, for the following year, they voted Ens. John Glidden "fifteen pounds, 12 shillings to be paid ... for keeping the Widow Lucy Hynes child one year and to find her in victuals and clothes and take as good care of her as possible according to the circumstances of the child ... one-half of the above sum is to be paid in Indian corn at 4/pn Bushel in six months and the other half in lumber in one year from this date to be delivered at Dover Landing at the common market price."
Consider the plight of Isaac Nute, who, in November, 1791, made application to the town, " ... setting forth that his family is in a distressed situation and suffering condition and must have seasonable relief or starve - as he cannot leave home, his wife being in such a bad state of health that she cannot do without somebody to take care of her."
A week later, the town voted ". . . to set up Mr. Isaac Nute, his wife and youngest child at once at Vendue to be struck off to the lowest bidder for the same. Set them up accordingly and struck them off to Lt. Stephen Berry at twenty-two dollars for 12 months, to be paid in the priviledge of a Pew, and 10 dollars worth of boards, he finding them in clothes and maintaining them in a comfortable manner and if they are. in better apparel at the year's end, said Berry is to be paid by the town. Necessary Doctor's bills, in case of sickness are to be paid by the town. Set up on like conditions his son Jacob struck off to George Davis to be paid in corn . .. or
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lumber at market price. Set up Samuel in like manner to George Davis and he is to have six dollars. Set up Lettice on the like con- ditions and struck her off to Solomon Davis at four dollars." (After- ward, the latter changed his mind, and Lettice went to Abraham Libbey for five dollars.)
A custom of those times which persisted for many years was having young men (and sometimes young women) "bound out." In some cases, the Selectmen arranged this, as in May, 1792, they voted ". .. that the selectmen bind out Jonathan Durgin, son of Nathaniel Durgin, until he be 21 years of age. Set up said Jonathan at public vendue and struck him off to Captain John Bennett and he is to have two dollars for taking him and he is to give the boy two suits of clothes when he is out of his time and to learn him to read and write as well as is customary in such cases. Mr. Ebenezer Durgin afterwards took said Jonathan instead of Captain Bennett. Voted that Samuel Durgin, Jerry Durgin, and Nicholas Durgin, sons of Nathaniel Durgin be bound out by the selectmen of the town, unless Nathaniel Durgin binds them out himself within one month."
These boys often learned a trade in this manner such as that of blacksmith, cooper or cordwainer, but more often they lived and worked on the farm of their master, who was supposed to give them a good home and kind treatment. Sometimes, however, the boys were abused and over-worked, as in the case of John F. Cloutman, born in New Durham in 1831 (the grandfather of the writer), who was bound out to a local man who treated him so harshly that he ran away.
Elements of pathos and drama are contained in an entry dated August 9, 1791, when " ... at the request of the selectmen of New Durham, Esther P. of said New Durham in said county, a single woman and spinster, was brought before me, Avery Hall, Esq., one of the justices of the peace for said County, to be examined upon oath, touching the father of the child with which she was supposed to be pregnant, that measures might be taken to save the town from charge by her, and that the said Esther did then utterly refuse to father the child upon any man by oath."
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