USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Salisbury > The history of Salisbury, New Hampshire, from date of settlement to the present time > Part 34
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418
HISTORY OF SALISBURY.
far back as Lake Champlain, but it acquired no distinctive force till it passed over Grantham and Croydon mountains. In Croy- ·don, the house of Deacon Cooper was shattered, and his barn was torn to atoms, and, with its contents, was entirely swept away. No other buildings were directly in its narrow path till it reached nearly to Sunapee lake. Here it struck the farm and buildings of John H. Huntoon, in Wendell, now Sunapee. There were eight persons in the house. They all beheld the frightful appearance of the clouds ; had seen the air before it filled with birds and the broken limbs of trees and rubbish of all kinds ; but there had not been much time for reflection or for seeking safety. The tornado, after a moment's warning, was upon them and the house and the two barns were instantly prostrated to the ground. A broadside of the house fell upon Mr. Huntoon and his wife, who were standing in the kitchen. The next moment it was blown off and dashed to pieces. Mrs. Huntoon was swept at least ten rods from the house. A child eleven months old was sleeping on a bed in the west room ; the dress it wore was soon after found in the lake, a hundred and fifty rods from the house, but the child could not be found. The Wednesday following its mangled body was picked up on the shore of the lake, whither it had floated on the waves. The bedstead, on which the child was sleeping, was found in the woods eighty rods from the house, northerly, and clear out of the track of the cyclone. The other seven persons of the household were injured, but none of them died. Every tree in a forty acre lot of woodland was leveled with the ground. A bureau was blown across the lake. A horse was dashed against a rock and killed.
The tornado passed across Sunapee lake, drawing up into its bosom vast quantities of water. New London suffered a loss of property estimated at $9,000. Eight or ten barns, five or six houses, and many outbuildings were entirely or partially destroyed in that town. From New London the tornado passed across the northerly part of Sutton, cutting a swath through the forests which is visible to this day ; but it did not come in contact with any buildings. It bore up on the northwest side
419
THE TORNADO.
of Kearsarge mountain, apparently in two columns. In pitch- ing down over the mountain into the Gore, the two columns merged into one, and came crushing along with renewed force. The thunders rolled fearfully, the forked lightning flashed on the dark background, and the flood was driven with the gale. In this valley, between the two spurs of the mountain, stood seven dwelling-houses. The tornado first struck the barn of William Harwood, and demolished that ; passing onward, its outer limits came in contact with the houses of M. F. Goodwin, James Ferrin, and Abner Watkins. All these houses were damaged. Ferrin's barn was destroyed, and Watkins's unroofed. The late Stephen N. Ferrin, of Warner, said that on a fence were a flock of turkeys more than half grown, about fifteen in number. These were caught up and whirled away, and no trace of any one of them could ever be found, neither feathers nor anything else. Next in the line of march stood Daniel Sav- ory's house. Hearing a frightful rumbling in the heavens, Mr. Samuel Savory, aged seventy-two, the father of the proprietor ( who was away ), hastened up stairs to close the windows. The women started to his assistance, when the house whirled and instantly rose above their heads, while what was left be- hind, timbers, bricks, etc., almost literally buried six of the family in the ruins. The body of the aged Samuel Savory was found at a distance of six rods from the house, where he had been dashed against a stone and instantly killed. His wife was severely injured. Mrs. Daniel Savory was fearfully bruised in the head, arms and breast, and an infant she held in her arms was instantly killed. The house of Robert Savory stood very near this place, and that also was utterly demolished. Mrs. Savory and the children, six in number, were buried together under the bricks and rubbish. Some of them were severely injured, but none killed. Not only the houses, but the barns and outbuildings at the two Savory places, were utterly cleaned out ; not one stone was left upon another. Trees, fences, hay, grain, boards, shingles, the legs, wings and heads of fowls filled the air. Crops were swept off clean ; stone walls were thrown down, and stones partly buried in the earth were upturned.
420
HISTORY OF SALISBURY.
Trees of every description were denuded of their branches, twisted off at the trunk, or torn up at the roots. There were twenty-five hives of bees at the Robert Savory place, perhaps the property of both families ; these were swept out of sight in an instant. The ground was sweetened with honey for half a mile, but no hive and no sign of a bee was ever afterwards seen. The Savorys and Abner Watkins had caught a noble old bear on the mountain, and had chained him to a sill of Robert Sav- ory's barn, intending to exhibit him at the muster which was to occur on the 10th of September, back of George Savory's house. Though the barn was entirely destroyed to its founda- tion, the sill to which the bear was chained, being a cross sill, and sunk into the ground, remained in its place, and the bear was unhurt, but he had the good sense not to show himself on the muster field the next day.
Joseph Palmer, who lived up to the eastward of the Savorys a third of a mile, saw the cloud, in shape like a tunnel inverted, and the air filled with leaves, limbs, shrubbery, quilts, beds, clothing, crockery, aud almost every conceivable thing. He heard the ominous rumbling, and sprang to enter the house, with the purpose of fleeing with his wife to the cellar. He got the door but partly open when the house gave way, burying Mrs. Palmer under the debris, and inflicting upon her serious injuries. In this valley between the hills, everything in the direct course of the tornado was rooted out. Bridges made of logs were scattered in every direction, timbers being thrown to the right and left, and even to the rear, as well as to the front.
The tornado passed on over the next spur of the mountain, two and a half miles, and then bore down upon the houses of Peter Flanders, in Warner, and Deacon Joseph True, in Salis- bury. Peter Flanders was the father of True and Eben Flan- ders, the latter of whom occupied the old homestead in 1880. Deacon True was the father-in-law of a Mr. Jones. Jones and his wife were on a visit to True's. Being at the door, they were apprised of the danger, and called out lustily to the family to seek refuge as best they could. 6 The buildings were whirled aloft and torn into fragments, falling around the family like
421
THE TORNADO.
missiles of death ; but no one at this house was killed outright. The buildings of Mr. Flanders were also scattered like chaff, the violence of the gale being unabated. Anna Richardson, an elderly woman calling on Mrs. Flanders, and a child of the lat- ter, were crushed to death. Several others were grievously wounded, one of whom, a child of Mr. True, dicd of its injuries a short time afterwards. From here this remarkable cyclone passed on over Tucker's pond, drawing up vast sheets of water from its surface, and after destroying the house of Mr. Mor- rill, near Boscawen line, in Salisbury, it lifted itself into the heavens and vanished.
Peter Flanders says that this day the family had been baking, and the bricks were hot, and the chimney falling on three of the children, so injured one of them, a girl, that she died that night, and so burned another, a boy aged five years, about the legs that the sores caused thereby did not fully heal for seven years, and he was made a cripple through life. The third child was uninjured. At the time the tornado struck Peter Flanders's house he was standing at the west of the chimney by the jamb and close to the cellar door. His son True was standing in front of the fire-place. The child Phebe was asleep on the bed, and Mrs. Flanders and Mrs. Richardson were east of the chim- ney. The building being borne completely away, Mr. Flanders was found with his feet partly down the cellar stairs, partially paralyzed, from which shock he did not recover for some six months. The son, True, was thrown into the fire-place (the fire being out after dinner ) and was not injured. The girl, Phebe, ( now Mrs. Augustus Pettengill) was carried with the feather bed and dropped some rods from the house, and one arm was broken. Mrs. Flanders was thrown to the floor and Mrs. Richardson on top of her, and a large stick of timber was found upon Mrs. Richardson. Her arms and legs were broken, and she sustained other injuries, from which she died in half an hour. Mrs. Flanders was the daughter of Jabez and sister of Joseph True, and was so badly injured about the head that she never recovered. Mrs. Richardson resided over a mile away on the road to the Gore, and was at this house for milk.
422
HISTORY OF SALISBURY.
The amount of damage suffered by this tornado was ap- praised to each, and a subscription in the several towns was raised for their relief, as will appear by the following bill and subscription list. . It will be seen that the greatest sufferers were the two Savorys, in Warner, and the Trues, father and son, in Salisbury ; and that Joseph True was the greatest indi- vidual sufferer.
In 1869, General Walter Harriman addressed a mass meeting in Painesville, Ohio. At its close an old gentleman, whose form was bent with age, and whose head was bowed with sor- row, came forward and made himself known as Mr. Huntoon, the father of the child that was destroyed in Wendell, N. H., in the tornado of 1821. He had left the shores of Sunapee and the devastated track of the tornado fifty years before, and made him a home in Ohio. Soon after this meeting with Gen- eral Harriman, he escaped from the storms and the blasts of this life, and went to a land of peace and safety.
SUFFERERS IN SALISBURY.
The following is the list of subscriptions for the relief of the sufferers by the tornado in Salisbury :
Samuel Eaton,
$14 00
Benjamin Howard, Jr., 50
Moses Greeley,
8 00
Daniel Fellows,
2 00
John Greeley,
4 00
Stevens Mann,
2 00
Paul Greeley,
2 00
Reuben Wardwell,
2 CO
John Greeley,
1 00
Moses Eastman,
4 00
Samuel Greeley,
7 00
Daniel Smith,
2 00
Jacob Greeley,
2 00
Francis Little,
50
Isaac Stevens,
3 00
Edward Baker,
1 00
Nathaniel Stevens,
2 00
Joseph Bean,
1 00
Job Heath,
2 00
John Calef,
1 00
Abial Wardwell,
2 50
Peter Whittemore,
50
James Fellows,
1 00
Benjamin Whittemore,
1 00
Moses Call,
1 50
Joseph Bean, Jr.,
75
Moses Fellows,
3 00
John Sanborn,
2 00
Benjamin Pettengill, 2d,
4 00
John Webster,
5 00
Jeremy Webster,
2 50
John Townsend,
2 00
Robert Greenough,
50
Jacob Brown,
1 00
Joel Eastman,
4 00
William Calef,
1 00
Peter Bartlett,
2 00
Hawley & Gilman,
2 00
David Pettengill,
50 William Flanders,
2 00.
423
THE TORNADO.
Samuel Quimby,
50
Benjamin Huntoon,
2 25
Winthrop Fifield,
1 00
T. R. Greenough,
1 00
James Garland,
2 00
John White,
2 00
Ebenezer Eastman,
2 00
A. Bowers,
7 00
James Proctor,
1 50
P. Noyes,
2 00
Isaac l'roctor,
-
50
Jonathan Calef,
1 00
Kendall (). l'eabody,
1 00
John Bean,
1 00
John Sanborn,
2 00
Greenleaf Morse,
1 00
John Hancock,
50
David C'alef,
1 00
William Ladd,
2 00
William Little,
2 00
Jacob True,
4 00
Israel W. Key,
1 00
Jabez Smith,
4 00
Moses West,
1 00
Isaac Hale,
50
S. I. Wells,
2 00
Stephen Greenleaf,
1 00
James Woodbury,
2 00
Mrs. Phineas Eastman,
1 00
Joseph Burley,
1 87
Thorndike Proctor,
2 00
II. T. Sawyer,
67
Nathaniel French,
2 00
Joshua Fifield,
1 00
Enoch Osgood,
2 00
Samuel Couch,
1 50
Benjamin Gale,
10 00
Timothy Taylor,
2 00
Samuel Huntoon,
1 00
LOSSES IN WARNER AND SALISBURY.
The following are the names of the sufferers by the "whirl- wind" in Warner and Salisbury, on the 9th of September, 1821, with the amounts lost, as appraised by the committee :
Foster Goodwin,
$43 00
Joseph True,
$800 00
William Harwood,
75 00
l'eter Flanders,
758 00
James Ferrin,
194 00
Jonathan Morrill,
$5 00
Samuel Tiler,
5 00
Ezekiel Flanders,
30 00
Lorra Little,
20 00
Benjamin and Jesse Little,
200 00
Kuth Goodwin,
6 00
James B. Straw,
50 00
Charlotte Goodwin,
6 00
Nathaniel Greeley,
100 00
Abner Watkins, Jr.,
350 00
Moses Stevens,
10 00
Widow Savory,
100 00
Jabez True,
100 00
Daniel Savory,
675 00
Enoch Morrill,
20 00
Robert Savory,
775 00
W. Iluntington,
20 00
John J. l'almer,
100 00
Michael Bartlett,
10 00
As a contribution for the relief of the sufferers sundry arti- cles were sent from the Shakers to Benj. Evans, Esq., and by him divided. The value of these Shaker goods was estimated at $134.72. Various other sums were received and divided by the committee from time to time, amounting in the aggregate to the sum of $501.04.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
WHIPPING THE CAT, ETC.
" Few save the poor feel for the poor; The rich know not how hard
It is to be of needful rest, And needful food debarred : They know not of the scanty meal, With small pale faces round ;
No fire upon the cold damp earth When snow is on the ground."
In early times, and as late as 1835-6, and perhaps later, shoe- makers were accustomed to take their benches, lap-stone, clamps, lasts, and kit of tools, and go from house to house and mend up the old boots and shoes, and make new ones for the whole family for a year. "Sale shoes" were little used, previ- ous to 1825, in the town of Salisbury. Farmers would take their cow-hides and calf-skins to the tanner, one year, and the next year they would be tanned and returned to them. Sole leather would be purchased by the side, and when the shoemak- er came around, shoes and boots would be made for the year. The shoemaker, who went from house to house in this way, " went about whipping the cat."
About 1828, there lived in Salisbury two brothers, Amos and Eben Whittemore. Eben lived at Shaw's Corner, in what is now Franklin. He was very poor, and had a large family of children, sixteen in number, ranging from six months to nine- teen years of age. He was lame, and walked with some diffi- culty, and his hands were somewhat deformed. He was an indifferent shoemaker, but on account of his misfortunes, his poverty, and his large family, he "went about whipping the cat," and was quite extensively employed in Salisbury and the neigh- boring towns. He was a story teller, and the people were fond of having him tell stories, especially the young boys. He lived in a rude house, with two rooms and an attic. In one
425
WHIPPING THE CAT.
room down stairs he lived with his family, his "turn-up bed " and his " trundle bed," and here he carried on his trade of cob- bling and making boots and shoes, when not away "whipping the cat." His worldly possessions consisted of his shoemaker tools, worth fifteen dollars perhaps, and his household goods, worth twenty more. He "did not own an inch of land on earth." He had a cow and a pig.
His brother, Amos, lived on the southeastern slope of Rac- coon Hill, about two miles and a half away from his brother Eben. He was a fore-handed farmer, with a small family, and was exceedingly fond of the law. The road between the two brothers led directly over Searle's Hill.
During the hard winter, Eben, who had the nick-name of " Cain," mortgaged his "farrow cow" to his brother to buy food for his family, promising faithfully to pay in the spring ; but spring came and no money could be had. Amos demanded the cow in payment. Eben told him he had no money, and needed the milk of his cow for his little children, and asked his broth- er's forbearance ; but his heart was hard, and amidst the cries of the little children, and the tears of the older ones, " the well- to-do " brother, the hard-hearted uncle, drove away the mother- ly, white-face, line-back cow, whose milk had been largely the support of the family through the winter. Eben went imme- diately to the young lawyer who had just set up in Salisbury, George W. Nesmith, to see what could be done about it. What advice the young attorney gave him, history does not inform us ; but the next night being dark, Eben hobbled up over Searle's Hill to his brother's barn, and there, in the yard, discovered the welcome white face of his cow. The bars were quietly let down, and the cow immediately struck out for Shaw's Corner, which she soon reached. When Eben, following on after, reached his home and found his cow there, he took her into his house and locked her up. The mortgage gave the right "to enter into the dwelling-house and take " the mortgaged prop- erty. Soon Amos came again for his brother's cow, broke into the house and led her away, and for a time kept her locked up in his barn at night, and turned her to pasture during the day.
426
HISTORY OF SALISBURY.
. Locking the barn soon came to be an old story, and the cow, in the warm spring-time, was kept in the barn-yard.
By-and-by Eben went to the home of Abraham Stevens " to whip the cat." Stevens then lived on the Webster place, Elms Farm, four and a half miles from the residence of his brother Amos.
Stevens had a horse which ran in the road, and no one, ex- cept the members of the family, could catch him, and then not without a measure of grain. It was simply impossible for Eben to limp, during one short night in the summer, from the Webster farm to Raccoon Hill and back, over Smith's and Searle's Hills.
When it was ascertained that the cow was left at night loose in the yard, Eben again visited the young lawyer, and history is again silent as to what advice the poor man received.
He went back to Mr. Stevens's, and went to cobbling up the boots and shoes of the family. When night came on apace, the Stevens boys and the hired men, four of them, went up to bed ; and soon Eben went hobbling up, and passed directly by the room where the four young men were awake in bed. He looked in upon them, told them several stories, and then went singing some "doleful ditty " to his room and to bed. The young men were soon lost in sleep.
Had some one been looking about that house that night, about half past nine o'clock, he might have seen the venerable father of the Stevens boys slipping out of the house with a little measure of grain and a bridle concealed behind him, and slying up to the wary "Old Dobbin," till he got hold of his mane, and then slipping the bridle upon him. A few minutes later, the horse might have been seen tied by the roadside, " all saddled, all bridled, all fit for a"-ride to Raccoon Hill. Anon this fleet and trusty steed, with "Cain " Whittemore, the lame cobbler, astride of him, might have been seen flying over Punch Brook, up by the site of the Webster saw-mill, past Shaw's Corner, close by his sleeping children,-unconscious of his near presence-up over Searle's Hill, to near the home of the un- natural brother. About midnight, the same charger, with the
427
WHIPPING THE CAT.
same rider, leading the willing and obedient cow, might have been seen in the darkness passing along the new road from Shaw's Corner to the East Village, where a pot of black paint had.been seasonably prepared, which changed the emblem of innocence in the cow's face and on her back, so that it corres- ponded with the intense darkness of the night. On the oppo- site side of the Pemigewasset, in Sanbornton, in a green, retired pasture, about three o'clock in the morning, a perfectly black cow might have been seen lying down to rest, while the horse, with his rider, was making the trees and fences fly past him, like clouds by the moon, on his return to the house of Daniel Webster, the home of Mr. Stevens. The following handbill soon appeared :
STRAYED OR STOLEN
From the premises of Amos Whittemore, in Salisbury, on Raccoon Hill, a large black cow, with whiee face, and a broad white line on her back. Whoever will return said cow, or give information where she may be found, shall be suitably rewarded. AMOS WHITTEMORE.
Salisbury, July 20.
After the most extensive search for the cow, all efforts to find her were given up. No such strange cow had been seen, no such stray cow could be found, and Amos prosecuted his brother for stealing the cow. Richard Fletcher instituted the prosecution, and young lawyer Nesmith appeared for the respondent. All the four young men were summoned for the prosecution, and testified that they saw Eben when he went up to bed on the night the cow went away, heard him tell several stories, and heard him when he went singing to bed, and saw him the next morning when he went down early to his work, and heard his hammer upon his lap-stone. The sons testified that it was impossible for any one, except the father and the sons and hired men, to catch the horse. Mr. Fletcher did not think to summon the father. Eben was acquitted and dis- charged.
In "green pastures beside the still waters" of Sanbornton the black cow " waxed and grew fat," and in the following win- ter the family of Eben had meat to cat that his brother Amos knew not of.
428
HISTORY OF SALISBURY.
Some time afterwards, Mr. Nesmith was employed by Amos Whittemore to contest a note held by the estate of Ezekiel Webster. Whittemore claimed that he had paid the note, ex- cept a few dollars, and the case was referred to Moody Kent, of Concord. Mr. Nesmith conducted his defense to a success- ful issue. Whittemore proposed to Mr. Nesmith that he would release his brother from all claims, and pay the attorney's bill which his brother had been unable to pay, if Mr. Nesmith would tell him what became of the cow. The history of the cow was thereupon fully detailed to him.
THE LOST TREASURE.
Another story of early days must not be omitted from our history. It is here briefly told :
George W. Nesmith settled at the East, or Pemigewasset Village, but was soon very well known throughout the town. He was a man of familiar, pleasant manners, and soon made extensive and agreeable acquaintances, not only in the town but in the State. There lived, at the South Road, Moses Green- ough, who had a singular foot that was noticeable, like Mr. Nesmith's, and the controversy about taking part of Salisbury for the new town of Franklin made Mr. Nesmith as well known at the South Road as any resident there. He frequently tried cases before Andrew Bowers, who lived in the house on the corner of the South and Mutton Roads. It was before Justice Bowers that Eben Whittemore was tried for stealing the " black, white-face, line-back cow." In 1824 he delivered the Fourth of July oration at the South Road. Justice Bowers had a little smoke-house in the southeast corner of his door- yard where he smoked his hams. One morning early, he went out to build his little cob fire in the smoke-house, and found one ham missing. The ground was soft, and there were sure indications that Moses Greenough's club foot had been to his smoke-house, and had gone back down the road towards his residence. Squire Bowers followed the track to Greenough's house, knocked at the door, and Moses appeared and greeted the justice with a most bland smile, and gave him a very gra
429
THE LOST TREASURE.
cious invitation to walk in. Justice Bowers said he had called to see his neighbor Greenough, to get a little assistance. Said he, "Last night I lost a very nice ham out of my smoke-house, and I called to see you, Moses, in the hope that you might help to me find it." "Certainly," said Moses; "anything I can do to assist you to find your ham, I will be most happy to do." So Justice Bowers and Moses marched back to the smoke-house, and when within a few feet of the door, a track was pointed out that no one in the town of Salisbury could make but Moses himself. "Now, Moses," said the justice, "won't you examine that track, as it leads up to the door and goes away again, and see if you can tell me who has taken my ham." "Yes," says Moses, "I can tell you who has got that ham. It's Nesmith, down to Franklin."
The next morning the gracious justice, when he opened his smoke-house, found his lost ham hanging up in the same place where it had disappeared the morning before.
CHAPTER XXXV.
VISIT OF HIS SATANIC MAJESTY.
"From his brimstone bed, at break of day A-walking the Devil is gone, To visit his snug little farm on the earth And see how his stock goes on."
We read of the superstitions of earlier times and the enormi- ties practiced in church and state ; of the judicial murders of the innocent and helpless, both in this country and in England, who were charged with witchcraft, and we little realize how near that age of bigotry and superstition comes to us; but we have learned that our forefathers, like the ancient Bereans, were too religious -the apostle said, "too superstitious."
As late as the final adoption of our most excellent constitu- tion, which stood the test of time for sixty-six years without an alteration, and for ninety-three years with but a single amend- ment, an occurrence happened in Salisbury which is strange to relate. The incidents recorded below were taken from the diary of the late Asa Reddington, of Waterville, Me., who was a revolutionary soldier. He was at work at the time for a Mr. Greeley, in Salisbury.
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