USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Sutton > The history of Sutton, New Hampshire : consisting of the historical collections of Erastus Wadleigh, Esq., and A. H. Worthen, part 1 > Part 28
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1800. Voted that the committee appointed to see that the pulpit is supplied with preaching this year shall procure a new Gift or Gifts.
1801. Voted to lay the money out to hire Mr. Crosmon. Voted to reconsider last vote. Voted that the money not expended last year shall be laid out to procure a Gift not living in the town of Sutton.
1803. Voted to choose a committee to see that the interest of the money the Minister Lot sold for be laid out for the purpose of hiring preaching the present year, and that Dea. Benjamin Fowler be committee to hire a preacher to preach out said money.
1804. Voted to give the public speaker for the town for the past year three dollars per day or week.
Voted that whereas there was 90 dollars raised in the town last year for the support of the Gospel that the respective inhabitants of the town shall have their proportionable part of said 90 dollars to pay to any religious society that they please provided that if they procure a certificate from said Society certifying that they have paid the same the selectmen shall give them an order on the collec- tor for their proportionable part of said 90 dollars. Voted not to raise any money to hire preaching the ensuing year. Voted to allow Benjamin Fowler three dollars, it being for service done in procuring a Gift to preach for the town last year.
1805. Voted to hire Elder Champlin to preach the ensuing year. Voted that Mr. Champlin shall have the interest of the moneys arising from the sale of the Ministerial lands in said town for the present year. Voted that if any of the inhabitants of said town shall be against Mr. Champlin's having their respective pro- portionable part of said money that they shall have the liberty of procuring any other Gift to preach out their proportionable part of said money which may be agreeable to them, provided said money is laid out in said town the ensuing year.
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SETTLING THE MINISTER.
The peculiar use of the word " Gift" may not be quite familiar to readers of the present day, but was common in the first quarter of the present century. It simply meant a gifted brother or preacher, the implication being that the ability to preach accep- tably comes by a gift of nature rather than as the result of hard study and patient effort.
In the transition period of which we are now treating, when the old-fashioned system of a life- long relation beween pastor and people was fast breaking up, the belief in a special " call to preach," even by a man of very little learning, was not un- common.
There were still left, however, some of the more hard-headed sort, who after attempting in vain to review one of those rambling though perhaps per- suasive discourses, would give it as their opinion that " no man was ever called of God to preach unless he could preach."
From the votes above copied, it will be seen that at the date in which they were passed, this town, like other towns in New Hampshire, acted to some extent as an ecclesiastical as well as a civil cor- poration in hiring preachers, etc.
The history of the state shows the cause and authority for such action on the part of the towns. The people of New Hampshire had long been bound by a system which became oppressive and burdensome. An act, passed during the reign of Queen Anne, empowered towns to hire and settle ministers, and to pay them a stipulated salary from the town taxes. This, if not directly a union of church and state, operated most oppressively.
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
Each town could select a minister of a particular persuasion, and every citizen was compelled to con- tribute towards the support of the clergyman, and to help build the church, unless he could prove that he belonged to a different persuasion, and reg- ularly attended public worship somewhere on Lord's Day, the law presuming that every person must attend some place of public worship, and pay a tax to some religious society. This presumption was founded on the consideration that the public recognition of the Christian religion was a public benefit, and a means of insuring the peace of the community and the permanency of our political institutions. It was therefore argued that for a public benefit of which every individual was a recipient, whether he attended on preaching or not, each should pay a due proportion of the cost, just as every man's tax helped to pay his proportion of other town expenses and outlay, of which he reaped his share of benefit.
The New Hampshire Bill of Rights provides that " no person of any one particular religious sect or denomination shall ever be compelled to pay towards the support of the teacher of another per- suasion, sect, or denomination, and that no subordi- nation of one sect to another shall ever be estab- lished by law."
Notwithstanding these clear provisions, the stat- utes of Anne continued substantially to prevail. The act of the legislature of 1791 changed the form but not the nature of the oppression. It vested in the selectmen of the towns essentially the same powers which had been vested in the body of the
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SETTLING THE MINISTER.
citizens. The selectmen could still settle a minis- ter and tax the people for his support, and they could build a meeting-house and levy taxes to pay for it, on the property of those who had no sympa- thy with the undertaking.
The people of New Hampshire submitted to this oppressive law twenty-eight years, that is, from 1791 to 1819, but they manifested a constantly increasing dissatisfaction. After much struggle and debate, the Toleration Act passed the legisla- ture in 1819. It " provided that no person shall be compelled to join, or support, or be classed with, or associated to, any congregation, church, or relig- ious society, without his express consent first had and obtained."
There had been but one sect known to the law of 1791. Universalists, Methodists, and Baptists were indiscriminately classed with the Orthodox, and when they pleaded their difference of sentiment as a reason why they should not be taxed, they were told that "they were not acknowledged by the laws as a religious denomination, and that the assessors might therefore assess them with Con- gregationalists." After bearing this oppression thirteen years, the Free-Will Baptists, in 1804, pro- cured an act of the legislature of this state recog- nizing them as a religious denomination. The Uni- versalists did the same in 1805, and the Methodists in 1807.
This recognition of course relieved individuals belonging to any of these sects from liability to taxation for support of the preacher of any of the other sects.
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
No record is known to exist either of the Sutton church or of its Henniker branch.
The Free-Will Baptists in Sutton organized as a church in 1818.
The review of the action of the town of Sutton concerning meeting-house and minister, which the votes copied from the records present, shows that the people of this town felt but very little of the oppression which the existing laws made possible. The town did not build the meeting-houses, and during two years only did the town have its settled minister, and only once in those two years is found any record of a direct tax for his support. What amount of salary he received yearly from the church and people of Sutton cannot be known. The only record concerning it yet discovered is the following, furnished for this work by the late Moses Hazen, Esq. He found it among the papers of Daniel Messer. It is entitled " A rate list containing what the inhabitants agreed to give Mr. Ambrose for the year 1788." The date, it will be observed, is the year following that in which New London church and town voted to call a minister of their own, Rev. Job Seamans, and fixed the amount of his salary. By this action of New London it became manifest to the people of Sutton that they must hereafter provide for their minister themselves.
The names of some of the prominent men then living at the extreme ends of the town, north and south, are not found in this list of contributors, they preferring to pay for their gospel privileges in New London and in Warner, near which towns they respectively lived.
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SETTLING THE MINISTER.
RATE LIST (FOR MR. AMBROSE).
Jacob Davis, 0. 12. 9. Bond Little, 1. 3. 4.
Jona. Davis,
0. 12. 9.
Asa Nelson, 1. 4. 0.
Ephraim Gile, 0. 19. 4. Philip Nelson, 0. 14. 4.
Reuben Gile, 0. 11. 10. Samuel Peaslee, 0. 10. 0.
Daniel Messer, 1. 18. 8. Joseph Wadleigh, 1. 2. 0.
Thomas Messer, 0. 5. 8. Thomas Wadleigh,
1. 2. 4.
Jacob Mastin, 0. 14. 6. Isaac Peaslee,
0. 10. 10.
Stephen Nelson,
0. 6. 9. Hezek. Parker,
0. 8. 0.
Robert Heath, 0. 11. 4. Benj'n Wadleigh, 1. 1. 10.
Sam'l Bean,
1. 2. 4.
The fractional sum set against each man's name, without doubt, indicates the estimated value of a certain number of bushels of corn, grain, or other farm product, with which he agreed to pay the amount of his subscription.
The money arising from the sale of the minister lands proved to be, in more ways than one, a great convenience to the town, as witness the following:
In Warrant for town-meeting, Nov. 5, 1804.
To see what method the town will take to procure a Standard of Weights and Measures. When met, voted that the Selectmen have leave to make use of so much of the Minister money as will be nec- essary to procure a Standard of Weights and Measures until said money can be assessed by the town.
Fortunately for those of us who may be curious to know just how much of the minister money was thus temporarily diverted from its legitimate pur- pose, the bill for this standard of weights and measures has been preserved among the papers of Jonathan Harvey. Its amount takes a large moiety from the annual income of the minister fund, and perhaps for this reason the town votes to raise no
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
money for preaching that year. Here is the bill receipted :
Daniel Warner sold to the town of Sutton a Sett of Weights & Measures, sealed for their Town standard, at 46 Doll's, and deliv- ered the same to James Minot, Jan. 28, 1806, and Received Pay- ment.
Per Daniel Warner, Sealer for the Co. of Hillsborough.
SURVEY OF THE TOWN.
Ang. 1804. Voted that the Selectmen shall take a survey of the Town as soon as they may think proper. Voted that the Selectmen may make use of all the Interest money which has arisen from the sale of the Minister lands in town which is not expended for the support of the Gospel for the present year, to defray the expenses of obtaining said survey, until the town can assess money to replace the said Interest money.
In 1880, immediately after annual town-meeting, some discussion arose regarding the appropriation by the town of the school and minister funds for paying something towards the town debt, the town to be taxed annually for the interest on the same till the principal should be replaced.
The following is Erastus Wadleigh's summary of the whole matter, to close the discussion, as printed in the Manchester Mirror, and dated April 5, 1880:
Many new residents and voters cannot see why these funds do not belong to the town. For the information of such, we will refer them to the original grant of the town by the Mason proprietors. One of the conditions and stipulations in the grant was a reservation of one Right (that is, a 100 and a 160 acre Lot) for the support of a Gospel minister ; another Right was reserved for schools. These rights were not available in lands, and were sold under the direc- tion of the town, and the proceeds of these sales constitute the origi- nal funds. Additions have been made to the school fund by adding
417
LITERARY FUND.
our "literary fund" to the original fund, expending the interest only. The Minister money has ever been 1,000 dollars. The town has acted as trustee of these funds, and should be accountable for the interest on them for proper purposes so long as the town has the use of them.
The town has paid out annually as interest on this minister fund $60. This is divided among the different denominations according to polls or legal voters. The sum paid by the town as interest annually on the school fund has been generally $115, and this sum at 6 per cent. would indicate a capital of $1,916,4-6; and the amount of both funds is $2,916,4-6. We find in the auditor's report of the estimated expenses for the ensuing year, interest on minister and school funds $110, which is $65 less than the former estimates.
These funds have been taken care of by the town treasurer under direction of the town.
At a town-meeting held June 18, 1880, it was voted to sell the town farm, and personal property connected with it. It was also voted that hereafter there be assessed annually $60 for interest on the minister fund, and $90 for interest on school fund. These funds having been used to pay the town debt.
LITERARY FUND.
This fund arose in the following manner: In 1828 the legislature passed a law in pursuance of which all the banks in the state were taxed at the rate of one half of one per cent. on their capital stock for the support of the public schools. The tax so raised was known as the state's Literary Fund, and was required to be divided among the towns in the proportion of each town's share of the public tax.
OLD FASHIONS.
In the early days women used to pin their ordi- nary clothing with thorns, the thorn bush being found growing on the hill-sides in many places, and pins being very searce. Says my informant,-" My mother used to have a paper of pins sent to her by her friends in Amesbury about once a year. She always gave each of her daughters a row of them, which we kept for state occasions, making thorns do duty the rest of the time."
Men's common clothing was held together, usu- ally, by leather buttons,-sole leather, of course,- which the shoemaker would cut out round with the help of a compass in marking. These buttons were quite serviceable, except in very wet weather when they sometimes became water-soaked and limp.
Woodchuck skins were carefully tanned, and thus became useful for many purposes. Being strong and yet pliable, they made good pockets for men's clothes, button-stays, etc.
Some idea of the primitive style of living which the early settlers were compelled to adopt may be gathered from the following incident related by the descendants of the family in which it occurred.
Oliver French owned large estates on the moun- tain-side, but still his house door was without
OLD FASHIONS. 449
hinges, because no hinges were to be had. The door leaned to the house, and it must be pushed aside when any one wished to go in or out. One evening the family had been away, and on their return found the door shoved aside considerably, which indicated that some one had entered the house in their absence. Passing in themselves and taking a survey of the premises, lo! there was the intruder in the shape of one of the hogs sleeping comfortably on the bed.
Bears were very troublesome and destructive in the growing corn. Cornelius Bean and one of his neighbors once made an attempt to trap some bears in the corn-field by getting them drunk and help- less. For this purpose they filled a small wooden trough with rum and molasses, of which bears were supposed to be fond. But the two men, yielding to strong temptation, themselves drank till they be- came stupid with intoxication, and lay upon the ground some hours. When they at last awoke, they saw, by the bear-tracks around them, that their vis- itors had been there and had partaken of the rum, but they had not been so drunk as the men were, since they knew enough to take themselves out of danger. The rum and molasses was all gone.
The clothing of the earliest settlers was of the very coarsest and simplest description,-the skins of animals slain in hunting often doing effective ser- vice in this way for men and boys. One night, Benjamin Wadleigh, Sen., having been out in the rain, took off his leather breeches, and laid them by . the fire to dry. During the night the fire fell down upon the hearth and burned them. And they were
29
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
his only pair! The general dismay in the family may be imagined, when in the morning he discov- ered his great loss. His mischievous offspring, however, soon found food for much ill-suppressed mirth in this mishap, but the honored head of the family was compelled to lie in bed till his wife could cut up the baby's blanket and make him an- other pair of breeches.
The same individual, one warm winter's day, went out with a musket and a small dog, being in pursuit of a moose he had espied. The animal led the man a long chase, so that at night he found himself seven miles from home, near the Blackwater river, in Andover. There the enraged animal turned upon his pursuer, and Wadleigh fired and killed him. He next proceeded to divest the moose of its skin, wrapped himself in it, and lying down on the snow, went to sleep. During the night the weather changed, and alas that deer and moose skins should be liable to accidents of a character so diverse! This time the skin was not burned, but frozen, and frozen to him, so that he found himself a prisoner, till by the heat of his own breath he managed to thaw himself ont.
APPLE-TREES.
The first settlers planted apple-seeds, and thus raised their apple-trees. Ephraim Gile had the earliest bearing orchard in town.
When the time came to want a cider-mill, he constructed one for himself by such simple means and methods as he could find within reach. This mill was a rude affair, of course, but, as there was
451
OLD FASHIONS.
no mill nearer than Warner, he made it do his work, which was done so well, in fact, that though he had but eight bushels of apples, his mill pro- duced therefrom, according to his own statement, " onė barrel of whole cider, one barrel of water- cider, and one barrel of charming good drink."
The widow of Dea. Matthew Harvey informed her descendants that herself and husband were engaged in setting out an orchard of little apple- trees, raised from seed, on the Dark Day of 1780; but the darkness as it increased compelled them to suspend their labors.
COURTSIIIP.
Daniel Emery, an early inhabitant of this town, had several sons, who, like most young men, felt that time spent in the society of young ladies was not entirely lost. Their father, however, felt differ- ently, and if his boys were absent too long on such a mission, used to reprove them, and relate his own experience. He stated that he "never lost an hour's time in courting;" that he went to the girl he liked, and asked her a few questions as to her capabilities, the principal of which was,-"Can you make good bean porridge?" Hasty-pudding he considered of secondary importance, but still he offered the same inquiry,-"Can you make it?" Both questions being answered affirmatively, he proceeded to propound a third, " Will you have me?" to which she answered "Yes." And so, to use his own manner of stating it, he " concluded to have her right off."
The girl upon whom his choice fell was Hitty,
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
daughter of Ezra Jones, the miller; and she proved to be an excellent wife, being capable and skilled in many household accomplishments beyond what he had stipulated for. She was a noted weaver of "rose coverlids" and other nice things.
MAKING SALTS.
Various means were resorted to, in order to ob- tain supplies for their families, by the early settlers. One of these was the making of salts from the ashes of wood. The new lands that were first cleared were covered with a heavy growth, mostly of hard wood, and when clearing their lands of this timber the ashes made from the wood were col- lected and put into leaches, generally made of hollow logs cut from the trunks of hollow trees, and after being thoroughly leached the lye was boiled in small kettles, generally holding no more than twelve or fourteen gallons, to a consistence called " salts of lye." These were sold at from $3 to $4 per 100 pounds, to those who made a business of converting the same into potash, which was then transported to Boston or some other market. Many of the men found employment in this busi- ness during a large portion of the winter season. The business of making these salts was continued for several years after the town was considerably settled, till the timber could no longer be spared for this purpose.
Capt. James Taylor, who lived in the south-east part of the town, had a store and potash factory, and used to buy the salts and pay in merchandise.
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OLD FASHIONS.
Those are yet living who remember the old Potash building that stood close to the pond just above the school-house in the North Village. They can remember also the day of its entire destruction, when it caught fire and was " burned to the water's edge." It was just before noon-time, when the master was hearing his classes spell. He chanced to look out of the window, and lo! a volume of smoke and flame was rising from the long unused old Potash. Quick came the order, "Pick up your books, and get on your clothes !- school is dis- missed." The present writer, then a young child, remembers running home at a tremendous rate of speed, never stopping to look behind, grasping Marshall's Spelling Book as tightly as if in that one copy lay the only chance of ever obtaining an education. That was the last of the old Potash.
There is a sad incident connected with this boil- ing of salts, which one living twenty years ago remembered. It occurred in Fishersfield, and the victim was a resident in that town, but was well known in South Sutton. His name was William Burns, and he was a most estimable young man. Sometimes the salts were boiled in the house, over the kitchen fire, and this was what Mr. Burns was doing. Wishing to renew the fire, he had just taken off the kettle, and had gone out and struck an axe into a heavy back-log, by this means drag- ging it into the house. The axe suddenly gave way, and he was precipitated backward into the boiling lye, his whole body being covered with it. He lived but a very few minutes, in terrible torture. This occurred about 1808.
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
FLAX.
Prior to the commencement of the present cen- tury very little cotton was in use, and, in fact, it was scarcely known as an article of commerce. Linen cloth served all the purposes for which cot- ton is now used. Flax was much cultivated, being the material from which yarn, sewing-thread, and cloth could be made.
Flax, after being rotted,-i. e., the husk or out- side covering of the stalk, not the fibre, was rotted in the field,-was prepared by the hand-brake and swingling-knife for the further work of the family. Here the hatchel or comb separated the tow from the finer flax, each to be appropriated to its proper use. The flax, being wound upon the distaff, was spun upon the " little wheel, " which was turned by means of a foot-board, and thus made into linen yarn. This yarn, being woven into cloth and bleached, was made into table and bed linen and under-clothing. The tow, spun upon the "great wheel " like wool, made filling for linen warp, and furnished a coarse article for the common uses of linen cloth.
Soon after the commencement of this century, cotton came into use to a small extent, being in some cases made into cloth in families. Soon after 1810, some small factories with machinery for spin- ning cotton into yarn were in operation.
The yarn made in these factories was kept for sale, in most of the stores, for several years after cotton weaving mills were in operation. This cot- ton yarn was not costly, and it was a great conven-
455
OLD FASHIONS.
ience to housewives, as it essentially diminished their labors. "Cotton and wool" flannel began to be made, and was found serviceable, and yarn made by twisting together one thread of cotton and one of wool made durable stockings.
But the first important improvement in cloth making was the introduction of the carding ma- chine, by which the wool was prepared for spinning. By this means the labors of the housewife were lessened about one third. These carding mills came into operation soon after 1810.
The wool was usually sent to the mill in immense bundles, done up in a woolen bed-blanket pinned together with thorns. It came home in the same blanket, in the shape of handsome long rolls, ready for spinning. Carding by hand was very laborious, and this accounts for the readiness with which the factory improvement was adopted.
Steel and copper pens were introduced about 1833, and were not at first well received, the writ- ing-paper, as then prepared, not being adapted to their use. This difficulty was perceived by the paper manufacturers, and soon remedied by a dif- ferent finish to the paper; after which the metallic pens found general favor, and goose-quill pens went out of use, much to the relief of school- teachers, to whom the making and mending of quill pens had been no small burden.
Friction matches came into use about the same time as the metal pens, and their introduction caused a decided change in domestic arrangements. Before that time it was a serious responsibility for the housewife and family to see that the fire did
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