USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Salisbury > The history of Salisbury, New Hampshire, from date of settlement to the present time > Part 69
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GENEALOGY AND BIOGRAPHY
ordained to the gospel ministry and became pastor of the Free Baptist church, at North Providence. Rev. Martin Cheeney and Joseph A. McKensey were members of the council. In 1846 he became pastor of the South Free Baptist church in Newport, R. I. Since 1849 he has resided in the westerly part of Providence, on the " Whittemore Place." Mr. Whittemore has been widely kuown as a member of the Free Baptist denomination, and has aided many of its churches. * * He was an out spoken Abolitionist * * and has always been an officer of the Rhode Island Peace Society. * At the same time he has been successfully employed in the insurance, and other business, and while he has combined the work of both a clergyman and layman, he has sustained a character that honors both. Incisiveness of opinion, correctness of judgment, and positiveness of opinion are traits which make him a wise counsellor and a bold leader. Mr. Whittemore was married Nov. 29, 1842, to Eliza Jane Gilbert, of Francestown, N. H. They have four children, Lucy H., the wife of the editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper in West Union, Ia. Gilbert E., a prominent member of the Providence school board. Joseph A. and David H. are printers and publishers at Providence.
20. Susan C., the youngest of the family, m. Moses Noyes; res. Springfield, N. H.
(3) Peter built the Samuel Emerson house, where he followed the occupation of a farmer, and highly respected by his townsmen. He gave his children a liberal education, and some of them became noted teachers. His grave stone in the Calef yard bears this inscription :
PETER WHITTEMORE, SON OF REV. AARON W., born in Pembroke, April 2, 1758, Married Jan. 1783. Came to this town June do. where he lived respected and died Dec. 16, 1836, aged 78.
His wife was Elizabeth, dau. of Dea J. Baker ; b. in Pembroke, Feb. 19, 1763 ; d. Sept. 4, 1826.
21. Betsey, b. April 21, 1789; d. in Bristol, Oct. 30, 1848.
22. Caleb, b. -; m. Dorcas Taylor, resided and d. in Bridgewater.
23 . Charlotte, b. -; d. Sept. 2, 1540. 24. Peter, b. May 7, 1787. Sec.
25. Joel, b. -; m. Rachael Brown, of Andover; rem. to Springfield, afterwards went west.
26. Susan, b. -; m. Deacon Goss, of Springfield.
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HISTORY OF SALISBURY
27. Mary, ( Polly ) b. Aug. 1, 1793; m. Moses Eaton, of Grantham. She was a noted teacher for 34 years, and d. in Salisbury, Jan. 16, 1871.
28. Hannah, b. -; m. Capt. Samuel Quimby.
29. Relief m. Daniel Haley; m. (2) Thomas Haley; res. E. Andover ; d. June 30, IS8 5.
30. Abigail; d. unm. She was a school teacher.
(24) Peter res. in the Dea. John Woodbury house ; d. May 8, 1870, aged 83; m. (1) Dec. 12, 1833, Susan Baker, of Bow; d. Aug. 4, 1856, aged 54; m. (2) May 4, 1858, Mary H. Clement, of New London ; res. -; all the chil- dren d. young.
THE WILDER FAMILY.
I. Capt. Luke, of whom very little is known, except in con- nection with Esquire Bowers, in a number of business transac- tions, removed here from Billerica, Mass., and undoubtedly returned to the same place. He was full of life and vigor, and was above-board in all his transactions. Previous to 1793, he kept a store at South Road, in which year he paid a tax on £250 worth of goods, and in 1803 a tax on £3,000 worth.
2. Susannah, b. Nov. S, 1794. 3. Luke, b. March 10, 1796.
4. Charles W., b. March 19, 1798.
THE WILSON FAMILY.
The earliest of this family in America was Thomas, who left Scotland in 1633, joining the Wheelwright compact at Exeter. in 1638, Dr. Job, (1) being the sixth descendant from Thomas. Dr. Job's father was Capt. Nathaniel, who was one of the early settlers of Gilmanton, where he m. a daughter of Robert Bar- ber. She d. 1824, aged 85 ; he d. 1819, aged 80.
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GENEALOGY AND BIOGRAPHY
1. Dr. Job, ( see physicians ) b. at Gilmanton, Jan. 25, 1776; m. Oct. 1801, Nancy Farnum ; b. Jan. 30, 1782 ; d. March 10, 1854. He d. at Franklin, Sept. 22, 1851. All of their children were b. in Salisbury.
Benjamin, b. Oct. 15, 1So2; d. Oct. 10, 1803.
3. Benjamin F., b. May 3, 1804; d. Jan. 25, 1850, unm ; rem. to Kalamazoo, Mich.
4. Thomas W., b. Feb. 15, 1806. See.
5 . Job P., b. May 25, 1810; m. Laura Stevens, of Haverhill; rem. to Rumney. He d. -; she m. (2) - Webster ; res. Haverhill.
6. Abigail S., b. Jan. 25, 1812 ; d. unm.
7. Lydia J., b. Feb. 2, 1814 ; d. April 5, 1872; m. Aug. 20, 1840, Grove Stevens, of Piermont.
S. Jeremiah W., b. Jan. 11, 1816; read medicine with his father, and attended lectures at Dartmouth Medical College in 1840. He rode with his father until 1846, when he went to the Castleton, ( Vt.,) Medical school, where he graduated in 1847. Soon after he located at Contoocook Village, ( IIop- kinton ) where he continues. Aug. 18, 1845, he was appointed surgeon of the 21st regt. State Militia. He m. March 30, 1847, Elizabeth, dau. of Deacon Thomas Gerrish, of Boscawen ; she d. -
9. Ephraim F., b. Oct. 30, 1817; read medicine with his father in 1839; pursued the same studies with his brother, Dr. Thomas W .; attended lectures at the Castleton ( Vt.) Medical school, where he graduated in Nov., 1845. Hle first opened an office at Union Bridge, ( now East Tilton ) in 18446. In IS49 he rem. to East Concord, his practice being restricted by older prac- titioners. In 1854 he removed to Rockville, Conn., where he enjoyed an extensive practice, which he was obliged to relinquish on account of failing health, and engaged in the drug business. He m. April, 1847, Rhoda Barnard; had Ellen L., a graduate at Holyoke Female Seminary. His first wife d. -; m. (2) Eleanor Eastman ; one son, John E.
10. George W., b. July 15, 1825; m. May 15, 1855, Ellen M., dau. of Stephen Sawyer. See.
(4) Thomas W., ( see physicians ) m. Oct. 27, 1831, Amanda M. Sawyer. He d. April 13, 1861. She d. -. The children were all b. in Salisbury.
11. Moses Stevens, M. D., b. -; distinguished for quiet industry while at school ; spent two years in a drug store at Lowell, Mass .; read medicine with his father; attended lectures at Dartmouth Medical' C'ollege, and later at Castleton, V't., graduating at Harvard Medical school, receiving his degree in March. 1859. He opened an office in Warner, where he contined until the death of his father in IS01, when he returned to the homestead in Salisbury, where he remained until his appointment as assistant surgeon in
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HISTORY OF SALISBURY
the 7th N. H., regiment, which was stationed at St. Augustine, Fla. His health failing he resigned in the summer of 1864, and in the following Sept. rem. to Galesburg, Ill., where he d. Nov. 14, 1873; m. Nov. 28, -, Mary S., dau. of Ira Harvey, of Warner. Dr. Wilson was thoroughly at home with his business, and was in sympathy with the present liberal and progressive spirit of the profession, and charitable in his expressions. In 1865 he united with the Congregational church.
12. George T., born May 31, 1841 ; m. -
13. Francis S., born Jan. 10, 1845 ; m. -
ROBERT WISE,
First settled opposite the nouth gate leading into the ceme- tery, at what is now Lower Franklin, and for some years conducted a ferry across the Merrimack river, known as " Wise's ferry." (See Ferries.) He afterwards moved nearer Lower Village, near Clay Hill and d. He formed an attachment in the army for Col. Ebenezer Webster, and after the war he came here under the protection of Col. Webster; who while here looked out for his protegé. Wise afterwards became reduced to straightened circumstances, and for some years before his death he was aided by the town. After his death the town took care of his widow and after her death, the town sold what little personal property remained. Hon. Daniel Webster apostrophizes this odd character in his autobi- ography. See Curtis's Life of Webster, pp. 10 and II.
"Early and deeply religious, my father had still a good deal of natural gayety ; he delighted to have some one about him that possessed a humorous vein. A character of this sort, one Robert Wise, with whose adventures, as I learned them from himself, I could fill a small book. He was a near neighbor, and a sort of a humble companion for a great many years. He was a Yorkshire man ; had been a sailor ; was with Byng in the Mediterranean; had been a soldier; deserted from the garrison at Gibraltar ; traveled through Spain, France and Holland ; was taken up afterward, severely punished and sent back to the army; he was in the battle of Linden ; had a thousand stories of the yellow-haired Prince Ferdinand; was sent to Ireland, and later to Boston, with the troops brought out by General Gage; fought at Bunker Hill; deserted to our ranks; served with the New Hampshire
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GENEALOGY AND BIOGRAPHY
troops in all the succeeding campaigns, and at the peace built a small cottage in the corner of our field, and lived there to an advanced age. Ile was my Izaak Walton. He had a wife but no child. He loved me because I would read the newspapers to him, containing the acccounts of battles in the European wars. Hc had twice deserted from the English king, once at least committed treason, as well as desertion, but he still had a British heart. When I had read to him the details of the victories of Howe and Jones, etc., I remember he was excited almost to convul- sions, and would relieve his excitement by a gush of tears. Ile finally picked up a fatherless child, took him home, sent him to school, and took care of him, only, as he said, that he might have some one to read the newspaper to him. He could never read himself. Alas, poor Robert ! I have never so attained the narrative art as to hold the attention of others as thou, with thy Yorkshire tongue, hast held mine. Thou hast carried me many a mile on thy back, paddled me over and over, up and down the stream, and given whole days in aid of my boyish sports, and asked no meed, but that of right. I would set down at thy cottage door, and read to thee some passage of thy country's glory ; thou art indeed a true Briton."
DANIEL AND EZEKIEL WEBSTER.
AN ADDRESS
BY HON. HENRY P. ROLFE,
Delivered at Lancaster, February 2, 1886, before the Annual Meeting of the Bar Association of Grafton and Coös Counties.
At the age of fifteen, Daniel Webster's health was not good, and he was far from strong. He could do only the light work about the house, the stable, and the farm. On the other hand, Ezekiel, two years older, was a sturdy, strong, well made young man, who did his full share of hard farm-work with the " hired hands." He lisped considerably when talking, but Daniel spoke in a full, clear, deliberate manner. Both boys were studions : a lady who attended school with both of them has said that she never saw either of them idle in school.
Their father did not have an abundance of this world's goods. He had been one of the first settlers in Salisbury, establishing himself on the extreme frontier ; and he had spent a large share of his life in the service of his country, with poor pay, or no pay at all. When he began to think about the education of his sons, his farm was under a mortgage, but he had determined to "raise his children to a condition better than his own." Consequently he sent Daniel to Phillips academy in Exeter, then the capital of the state. Both boys had attended every day their own district school while it lasted, and the schools in adjoining districts frequently were arranged so as to afford one or two months more instruction to pupils living near by. So, when at the age of fifteen his father sent him to Exeter, Daniel was proficient in all English branches. His school-masters had been Master Chase, and, specially, the renowned James Tappan, whom he afterward mentions in the most endearing terms. His health improved with study, and his intellect brightened and
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DANIEL AND EZEKIEL WEBSTER.
strengthened as his body developed and grew strong. Exeter academy was an expensive school for the father's straitened means, and the son's intellectual growth seemed to outstrip the conditions and opportunities around him. So, after two terms, or six months, at Exeter, the father determined to send his son speedily to college, and with this object made arrangements to place him at Boscawen under the instruction of the Rev. Samuel Wood, a most benevolent man and excellent teacher. He kept his determination from the boy for some time, and at length told him he would carry him over to Boseawen and place him in the care and under the tuition of Mr. Wood, where he could " do chores " and thereby pay a good share of his expenses.
Daniel had heard a great deal of Dartmouth college, and had onged for the advantages and delights that an education there would confer upon him, but had never dared to expect, or even hope, that he could be the happy recipient of them.
When he came near the end of the journey to Boscawen, and while ascending the long, steep hill that led to Mr. Wood's house, the father, for the first time, opened to his son his deci- sion to send him to college. O happy day for Daniel Webster ! O happier day for Dartmouth college! With a heart full of filial love and overflowing with filial gratitude, the boy laid his dizzy head upon the paternal shoulder and wept, but said noth- ing. Late in after life he wrote,-" The thing appeared so high, and the expense and sacrifice it would cost my father so great, I could only press his hand and shed tears. Excellent, excel- lent parent ! I cannot think of you now without being a child again !" The lips that never afterwards failed to express the emotions of that great, noble, loving heart were dumb with overpowering thankfulness, and the tongue that afterwards thrilled the civilized world with its eloquence "cleaved to the roof of his mouth."
Later, his father sent for him, and he went home for the hay- making,-but the hay-field was lonely compared with Mr. Wood's study ; turning the mown grass was dull work compared with turning the leaves of Don Quixote, or the translation of Vergil and Cicero. He thought his scythe hung more gracefully, and more to suit him, on the limb of an apple-tree than in his hands !
Daniel went to Hanover on horseback to enter college, and
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DANIEL AND EZEKIEL WEBSTER.
carried his bed, bedding, clothing, and books with him. His way led through New Chester, Hill, Danbury, Grafton, Orange, Canaan, Enfield, and Lebanon. He was poorly prepared for college, his preparatory course having lasted only eleven months. He himself said, "I was not fitted for college." There, as everywhere else, he was never idle. In addition to his prescribed studies and duties he read much, and paid his board for an entire year by superintending the publication of a little weekly paper: during the winter vacations he taught school. When he went away one winter he wore away Benja- min Clark's new ten dollar beaver hat : hats at that time were made of real beaver fur. He was quite a swell as school-master, with this elegant new head-covering. His class-mate, Clark, supposed it was surely lost. Clark had searched high and low for his new hat, and was obliged to put up with an old one that he had. When Daniel came back to college with the hat, Clark shook hands with him over the joke, and they were good friends ; and so glad was the latter to find that his nice new hat, the envy of the college, had not been stolen, that they remained good friends ever after this so called " college prank."
While Daniel for two years and a half was exulting in the enjoyment of educational advantages, Ezekiel, whom he loved with all the tenderness of youthful brotherly ardor, was at home, at work early and late on the farm helping his father and contributing to the support of Daniel in college, without mur- muring or objecting. The latter began to feel uneasy at his brother's situation. It troubled him to think that Ezekiel, with many gifts as great as his own, should be plodding at home on the farm, while he himself was obtaining a liberal education. Though Daniel was unhappy at his brother's prospects, what could be done? To educate one son at Dartmouth seemed almost more than his father, with limited means and a mortgaged farm. could do. When Daniel had been at college one year and two terms, and was paying many of his own expenses by the labors above described, he took courage for his " brother Zeke " and went home to spend his May vacation. The two boys went to bed, and through the live-long night held serious consultation about the elder brother's chances to fit for college and complete his education. Daniel was two years his junior, and already
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DANIEL AND EZEKIEL WEBSTER.
nearly half through his collegiate course : the elder brother was at least five years behind him. They rose after sunrise withont having shut their eyes, but they had settled their plans. All the pros and cons had been weighed and considered, and, although it might seem late in life for Ezekiel to commence his prepara- tion for college, it was settled that Daniel should propose to his father that Ezekiel should be sent to school and to college. This was the first cause of importance that the great advocate undertook, and it was before a most appreciative tribunal, and he had a client whom he adored. The father was old, his health not good, his circumstances not easy, the farm must be carried on, the mother and two sisters tenderly cared for : when Ezekiel should go away the mainstay of the family would be gone.
" Father " said Daniel, "I am extremely unhappy at Ezekiel's. prospects in life. Nature has been bountiful in gifts to him. In personal appearance, in manly beauty, he is inferior to no person that I ever saw. It is true he lisps a little, but, with me, this only adds a charm to his speech. But he has rare- qualities both of head and heart, and when his natural endow- ments shall be improved and polished by a liberal education, he will be a man that his father, his mother, his brother, and his sisters will be proud of. I cannot bear to be enjoying advan- tages denied to him. For myself, I can see my way through. My pathway to respectability, to knowledge and self-protection, is clear before me. I am nearly half-way through college, and, by editing a paper at Hanover and teaching school for the past. two winters, I have been able thus far to pay more than half my bills. I am no longer despondent about myself. I am full of courage. I can keep school and stay more than four years. in college, if necessary, if only my brother can have the advan- tages that I am enjoying. I hope never to fail in affectionate veneration for you and mother, nor in tender regard for my sis- ters ; but I want Ezekiel to have the advantages which I have, and then they will afford me more than double enjoyment. It will sadden all my future life to have him denied the privileges which he deserves as much as-yes, more than I."
The reply of that father, who " shrunk from no sacrifice to serve his country through the fire and blood of a seven years' revolutionary war," entitles him to the appellation of "excel-
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lent, excellent parent." " My son," said he, "I have lived and am living but for my wife and my children. I have but little of this world's goods, and on that little I put no value, except as it may be useful to them. To carry you both through college, my son, will take all that I am worth, and I am willing to run the risk myself ; but when it comes to your mother and sisters, it is a more serious matter. You are all equally dear to me, and had it pleased heaven to endow me with riches, there is no priv- ilege of education that should be denied any one of you. Eze- kiel and you must settle this matter with your mother and sis- ters ; if their free consent is obtained, you shall both have a collegiate education, and I will put my trust in Providence and get along to the end of life as well as I can."
There was a grave family council of father, mother, sons, and daughters. For a time the father sat in silence. At length he said to the mother, -". I have had a long talk with Daniel about Ezekiel's going to college, and the hearts of both the boys seem to be set npon it ; but I have told them that I could promise nothing without the free consent of their mother and sisters. The farm is already mortgaged, and if we send Ezekiel to col- lege it will take all we have ; but the boys think they can take care of us."
Parents and children mingled their tears together. Daniel had gone, and now Ezekiel, the strong staff upon which the aged father and mother and the unmarried dependent sisters were leaning. must be separated from them and their home no longer be cheered daily by his presence.
It was a moment of intense interest to all the family. The mother was a high-minded. stout-hearted, sagacious woman, and it did not take her, the mother of two such boys, long to decide the matter. She at once saw the reasonableness of the request, and the great advantage to be derived by her son if his request should be granted, and she gave her decision in these words : " I have lived long in this world, and have been happy in my children. If Daniel and Ezekiel will promise to take care of me in my old age. I will consent to the sale of all our prop- erty at once, that they may enjoy with us the benefits of what remains after our debts have been paid."
O excellent. excellent father ! Noble, noble mother : Dear
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DANIEL AND EZEKIEL WEBSTER.
devoted sisters ! The die was cast, and with tears and benedic- tions the family submitted to a temporary separation. But the farm was not sold, and the parents continued in comfortable circumstances to the end of life. One of the sisters was happily married and became the mother of the well known and accom- plished scholar, diplomat, and orator, Charles B. Haddock, while both spent useful and happy lives and left behind them good and honored names.
Daniel went back to Hanover; Ezekiel took his bundle of clothes and books to Dr. Wood's, and began the study of Latin and Greek, for he, like Daniel, was well up in the English branches. There was an excellent academy at Salisbury, and as Daniel had been allowed two terms at Exeter, Ezekiel was to be allowed two terms at Salisbury, after which he was to return to Dr. Wood's. He spent six months at the academy, and then completed his preparatory course with Dr. Wood, where his ex- penses were about one dollar a week. It is fair to presume the elder brother was as well fitted as the younger, for he was quite as studious, although he distrusted his ability to get on. But Daniel wrote him frequently from Hanover, cheered him up, and allured him along.
In the spring of 1801, Ezekiel entered Dartmouth, before his brother had gradnated. In August of the same year Daniel took his diploma, his brother having already accomplished one year of his collegiate education.
It has often been said that Daniel was exasperated with the treatment of the faculty in not giving him the valedictory, and indignantly tore up and threw away his diploma, exclaiming, " Dartmouth college will hear from me hereafter." This story has no foundation in truth whatever, and no graduate of the col- lege ever cherished more personal regard for the professors and more veneration for his alma-mater than did Daniel Webster.
Theodore Parker, in his sermon on Mr. Webster's deatlı, preached in the Melodian in October, 1852, remarked that " Dr. Wood had small Latin and less Greek." Mr. Parker was misin- formed. Dr. Wood graduated at Dartmouth in 1797 with the highest honors of his class, and was awarded and delivered the valedictory address at commencement. He studied theology, was licensed to preach, and began his ministry in the October
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following. He prepared four score of young men for college, and was considered a ripe scholar for his time. The writer of this article was born and reared in the same school-district where Dr. Wood resided during all his life in Boscawen, and knows he was an excellent linguist and an eminent divine. It will not be supposed that Daniel Webster was taken from so distinguished and competent a teacher and classical scholar as Dr. Abbott of Phillips Exeter academy to complete his prepar- atory course and put on the finishing touch with Dr. Wood, if the latter had " small Latin and less Greek." He was, as I have said, an excellent classical scholar and a learned man, and the degree of doctor of divinity was conferred upon him at a time when that honor signified something.
DIPLOMA.
I desire to call attention to another mistake of Mr. Parker's, made in the same sermon, and which was current as a tradition a long time before Mr. Webster's death. He said, -" He grad- vated in his twentieth year, largely distinguished for power as a writer and speaker, though not much honored by the college authorities. So he scorned his degree, and, when the faculty gave him their diploma, he tore it in pieces in the college yard in presence of some of his mates, it is said, and trod it under his feet." I heard this a great many times when a boy, and while fitting for college and in college, and always considered it an invention of some idle, careless, disappointed person who had neither earned or deserved collegiate honors. I shrank from contradicting this story, but at the same time had the best evidence that it had no shadow of a foundation, for if Daniel Webster had, more than a year after his graduation, shown and translated his diploma to one of his loved and cher- ished friends, it would be rather convincing proof to me that he did not tear it up and trample it under his feet. But within one year, Mr. Stephen M. Allen, president of the Webster Histori- cal Society, in the Spectator, has reiterated the story as a tradi- tion.
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