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 29
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
not go out; and on going to bed the coals in the fire-place were carefully buried in ashes to ensure the preservation of fire enough to kindle with in the morning. If, notwithstanding this precaution, the fire did go out, the tinder-box was resorted to, or perhaps the male head of the household would get a gun and strike fire with that. In default of these expedients, one of the children was sent to the nearest neighbor's house to borrow fire, bring- ing home a burning brand, or some live coals be- tween two chips.
No one improvement, however, has made a greater change in domestic customs than the intro- duction of cooking-stoves, which made the kitchens warmer with less fuel, and also made it possible to do cooking in a neater manner, and lightened the labor of the women in many ways. The first stove the writer remembers to have seen in Sutton was one of the James patent, which had the oven directly over the fire-box, with holes on each side of it, oval in shape, and kettles to match.
This stove was soon supplanted by the Moore's patent, which was a great improvement on the James, having the oven behind the fire-box and round kettle-holes, enabling the housewife to use much of the old-fashioned fireplace furniture.
About 1850 a manufactured article, sold by the name of burning-fluid, began to take the place of candles and whale oil lamps, which in its turn was, some ten years later, supplanted by kerosene oil, now so universally in use.
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OLD FASHIONS.
For bread, the Sutton people, for many years, depended mostly on rye and corn, till the opening up of the vast wheat regions of the West and Northwest brought them better bread. The new land in this and adjacent towns was better adapted to raising rye than wheat. The smaller wild fruits -raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and in the meadows cranberries and blueberries, high bush and low-abounded here; and it was not many years after the settlers came and planted apple-seeds be- fore the trees were in bearing condition. Deacon Matthew Harvey and his wife were engaged in transplanting little apple-trees when the gloom of the "dark day " came on. The trees lived and grew, some of them attaining a hundred years of age, double the age of the man who planted them.
The primitive log-house was a shelter merely, neither handsome nor comfortable, with no glass to the window, which was but a hole cut through one of the logs, and necessarily closed in stormy weather. Sometimes plates of mica were made to do duty in place of glass, and even oiled paper was used as a very ineffectual substitute.
The first framed houses were usually very small -20 feet square, called a half-house, or 40 x 20 feet, called a double house-and these had only small windows without blinds or shutters. The last named came later, and the few houses provided with these were made much more comfortable by the exclusion of the cold air of a winter's night.
The furniture was made of the wood of the native forest trees,-pine, birch, or cherry,-and some cabi- net-makers used the handsome birds-eye maple for
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stands and tables. Wooden plates and dishes were used on the table ordinarily, pewter dishes being costly. The brooms were made of hemlock twigs, and when new did the work well, being a good illustration of the saying "a new broom sweeps clean." In these poor houses the people lived: here the women worked and wore out their lives, rearing large families, and making not only the clothing for all, but the cloth from which the cloth- ing was made. Where the wants were so many and the means for supplying them so limited, there was little chance for the women to fall into the sin of idleness.
LOSSES BY FIRE.
The following petition for help in consequence of loss by fire shows how such losses were met, as fire insurance companies were not then known:
SUTTON, Jan. 20, 1787.
To all people who consider the distressed, and are well wishers to mankind, I will relate to you my trouble.
On the 19th day of this instant, a little after sunset, my house was consumed by fire, my grain, corn, peas, beans and other necessaries of life were burned and lost. My household goods and clothing were lost excepting a very small matter. My wife and children escaped with only their clothing on their backs, and my loss at the least consideration is supposed to be eight hundred dollars. Pray consider the case of your distressed friend and make him some help, for he is in great trouble. This from your humble servant.
The response to the above appeal was so hearty that in one week's time another frame was raised, and the building soon completed.
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OLD FASHIONS.
THE CARAVAN.
A menagerie of wild animals, or, as it was then termed, a caravan, came to exhibit in this town about 1827, being, so far as known to the writer, the only one that ever visited Sutton. It is thus described by one who was then a girl of eight or ten years of age. "The caravan came into the North Village over the Warner road, and the first view I had of it, as it moved down the hill and by our house, was the greatest sight my young eyes had ever beheld. The procession was heralded by a band of music, and the whole affair was quite a long time in passing our house. I think there was an elephant, but that is not quite clear to me. I, however, distinctly remember seeing in the tent, in the afternoon, a lion, the handsomest one I have ever seen,-in fact I have never seen one like it since that time. There were two tigers, a leopard, a polar bear, a llama, a camel, and many monkeys, to which last the people visiting the show kept toss- ing pieces of 'boughten' gingerbread, just to see them catch and eat it. One of these monkeys had in her arms a monkey baby, which she tended and fondled like any human mother with her human baby. This part of the show excited no small degree of interest. There were also many rare birds in the collection.
"In the course of the afternoon's exhibition a slight ripple of excitement and some little alarm was experienced by an occurrence which came very near having serious results. The cages containing the monkeys were placed high above the others, so
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that their active little occupants were measurably safe from doing or receiving harm; but the camel was simply tied by a rope to a bar, inside of which he stood, and which protected him from outside pressure. Being considered harmless, he was not muzzled. Mischievous boys, however, watching for opportunity, kept teasing the animal, till at last it became enraged, and stretching its neck over the bar, with its teeth siezed hold of the arm of the person nearest. The victim proved to be Col. John Harvey, who just at that moment was holding with his left arm his youngest child, a girl less than four years old, while, pointing with the cane in his right hand, he was directing her attention up to the monkeys. The arm seized by the camel was the one that held the child, who, in her fright, fell or sprang to the ground, and the next instant was rolling directly under the camel's body, and between its feet. From this perilous position she was quickly rescued by the bystanders, and found to be unhurt, but the father was not so fortunate. The camel bit through the coat sleeve, and though the flesh of the arm, and refused to let go till after repeated blows from the heavy cane, one of which injured its eye severely. Both parties to this duel carried the marks of the conflict as long as they lived.
" Many years afterwards, a Sutton man who was present on that occasion, travelling in a Western state, chanced to visit a menagerie, and saw there a large camel with one eye useless and a muzzle on. Inquiring of the keeper why he kept him muzzled when he appeared so innocent and amiable, he was
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told, in reply, that long before that time, when he was exhibiting in Sutton, he bit a man's arm, and came very near causing the death of his young child."
Caravans no longer find it for their profit to visit the small towns, probably because the opening up of railroads makes it easy for the inhabitants, when they wish to see the elephant, or even the camel, to go where he is, that is, in the large towns and cities.
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS OF SUT- TON. -
A considerable number of soldiers who had served in the Revolutionary War became residents of Sutton after the war was over, but of those enter- ing the service while resident in Sutton, there were but three so far as known, viz., Benjamin Critchett, Silas Russell, and Francis Como. These all served in the First New Hampshire Regiment, under com- mand of Col. Joseph Cilley. A brief review of the history of this regiment is perhaps here necessary.
Immediately on receiving news of the fight at Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, the New Hampshire men hastened at once to Cambridge, where the leaders, many of whom had seen service in the French War, saw the need of immediate organization.
A convention of delegates from many of the towns in the province of New Hampshire met April 21, at Exeter, and there voted
that Col. Nathaniel Folsom be desired to take command of the troops who have or may go from this government to assist our suf- fering brethren in the province of Massachusetts Bay, and to order for the troops the necessary supplies, etc.
In the meantime the Committee of Safety for Massachusetts took the initiative in organizing the
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large number of troops which had assembled at Cambridge, and on the 26th of April they issued a commission as colonel to John Stark, who, having a high reputation as an officer, soon raised fourteen companies. Capt. James Reed from Cheshire county, and Paul Dudley Sargent from Hillsbor- ough county, also received commissions from Mas- sachusetts "to continue until New Hampshire should act."
Upon the convention at Exeter deciding to organ- ize a military force and adopt the regiments then at Cambridge as a part of it, Col. Reed visited that body and was commissioned as colonel of one of these regiments. Stark, however, finding himself in command of the largest regiment in the army, and jealous that Gen. Folsom should have been made a brigadier and so outrank himself, refused to come into the arrangement, and when ordered by Gen. Folsom to make a report of his regiment paid no attention to the order. May 30, Stark received orders from the convention at Exeter to report to that body, which orders he obeyed, and matters were there arranged to his satisfaction. His regiment was called the First New Hampshire Regiment, and was to consist of twelve companies, while the other regiments were to consist of ten companies each. Under this arrangement he received a commission as colonel.
The New Hampshire troops were quartered at Medford, whence Stark and Reed's regiments marched on the 17th of June to take part in the battle on Bunker Hill. The record of that day, and the creditable part taken in it by these regi-
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ments, form a part of the history of the country, and need not to be introduced here.
During the summer and autumn, these regiments were stationed at Winter Hill, where fortifications had been raised.
After the evacuation of Boston by the British in March, 1776, Stark was ordered with his regiment to New York, and during the summer they went with the expedition to Canada. On the return of that army they proceeded to Philadelphia where they were under the command of Washington, and formed a part of Gen. Sullivan's brigade. While they were slowly retreating through New Jersey, the term for which these regiments had enlisted expired. The army on which the hopes of the country now rested had dwindled down to a rem- nant of what it had been. It was poorly clad, fed, and paid, while the British force of more than double their number was thoroughly disciplined and supplied.
In this discouraging condition Washington made an appeal to these regiments to remain with him till the season for active service was over, and the enemy had retired for winter quarters.
To this appeal an assent was made, and one of the results of it was the credit they gained by their part in the battles of Trenton and Princeton, in Dec., 1776. In this brilliant action, i. e., the attack upon Trenton, the First New Hampshire regiment took a prominent part, being under command of Col. Stark who led the right wing of Gen. Sulli- van's brigade of New Hampshire troops, Gen. Washington commanding the main body, consist-
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS. 465
ing chiefly of New England troops. In both the battles the New England troops did most of the fighting, and no regiment was more conspicuous than that of Col. Stark.
In the fall of 1776 the First New Hampshire Regiment was practically dissolved, and a new organization, composed largely of the materials of the old, was made.
The inconvenience of maintaining an army by annual enlistments and temporary levies had been severely felt, and Congress finally adopted the plan so strongly recommended by Gen. Washington, and passed an act for raising a force by enlisting the men for three years or during the war.
The men were to be taken for either term as they should choose, and the officers were to be appointed by congress to serve during the war.
New Hampshire was called on for three regi- ments, and the commanders selected were John Stark, Enoch Poor, and Alexander Scammell.
This must have been arranged early in Novem- ber, for the commissions of the officers in Stark's regiment bear date Nov. 8, while many of them were serving under him on the Delaware. It was usual to fix on a certain number of recruits before a commission could be obtained, and some were this conditionally issued. About this time congress passed a resolve that
Twenty Dollars be given as a bounty to each uncommis- sioned officer and private soldier who shall enlist to serve during the present war unless sooner discharged by congress, and that Congress make provisions for granting land to the officers and soldiers who shall engage in said service and continue therein to the close of
30
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the war, or until discharged by Congress, and the representatives of such as shall be slain by the enemy, ciz., to each non-commis- sioned officer and soldier 100 acres. Also that a suit of clothes be annually given to each non-commissioned officer and private soldier, to consist, for the present year, of two linen hunting shirts, two pair of overalls, a leathern or woollen waistcoat with sleeves, one pair of breeches, a hat or leathern cap, two shirts, two pair of stockings, and two pair of shoes, amounting in the whole to twenty dollars, or that sum to be paid every soldier who shall procure those articles for himself.
The general assembly of the state of New Hamp- shire also offered additional encouragement to such as should enlist, riz., one blanket annually, or eighteen shillings in case the soldier furnish one for himself, also twenty shillings per month in addition to the pay and encouragement by congress.
The form of enlistment was as follows:
We the subscribers do hereby severally enlist ourselves in the service of the United States of America, in the company under the command of Captain -- - to continue in the service three years from the date of our entrance, unless sooner discharged ; and each of us do engage to furnish to and carry with us into the army a good effective fire-arm with a Bayonet fixed thereto, a Cartouch box, Knapsack and Blanket, and do hereby promise obedience to the officers set over us, and to be subject in every respect to all Rules and Regulations that are or may be appointed for the army of the aforesaid States. Names.
In the Committee of Safety for New Hampshire, dated Feb. 25, 1777, the following orders were sent to Cols. Stark, Poor, and Scammell:
Sir : This moment the Committee received by express two letters from Gen. Washington dated the 7th and 8th of this instant Feb. wherein he orders all the troops raised in New Hampshire to march forthwith to Ticonderoga, and directs if the Regiments are not full that they be sent forward by Companies with part of the Officers
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leaving the others to recruit at home and follow after which com- mand the committee desire you to carry into execution (as far as relates to your Regiment) as soon as possible.
This order doubtless hastened the enlisting which had been going on all winter, but it is not likely that any actually left the state till March, when the roads would be in better condition for marching and the transportation of supplies than a month later. Every town in the state had been visited by some officer, and the selectmen and committee urged to contribute their quota to fill up the con- panies.
What officer visited Sutton, and recruited its one man for that year, Benjamin Critchett, is not known, but, by the record of Paymaster Blake, of the First New Hampshire Regiment, it appears that the said Benjamin Critchett entered the service in February, 1777, and was discharged therefrom in the September following; but he is not credited to any town, the space in which should be named the town which sent him being left blank. In a subsequent enlistment, April 20, 1780, which is on the record of Paymaster Blake, the same omission occurs, no town being credited. It is only through the remembrance of some of the relatives of Mrs. Critchett, who was a sister to Dea. Matthew Har- vey, that Benjamin Critchett, of Perrystown, is now known to be the man named on the paymaster's record.
The wife of Hon. Jonathan Harvey, who was daughter of Thomas Wadleigh, Esq., and possessed of all the Wadleigh tenacity of memory, made the following statement to the present writer some
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twenty-five years ago, and it was written down at that time:
Benjamin Critchett and Silas Russell served in the war at the same time, but Mr. Russell only served for Sutton, while Mr. Critchett served for New London and was never paid.
Reference to the record of the paymaster shows that this statement is correct as to the time of their service, both entering April, 1780, and both dis- charged December, 1781. They did not, however, quit the service at the latter date, which is only the record of the dissolution of the regiment, and re- organization of the new one. In the roll of non- commissioned officers and soldiers belonging to the First New Hampshire Regiment for the year ending Dec. 31, 1782, their names are still found, and a note says,-
Most of them are entered as commencing Jan. 1, 1782; some few of them from March to August. The largest part of the former had belonged to the First or Third Regiment, but a reorganization seems to have taken place Jan. 1, 1781, and also Jan, 1, 1782. It is supposed most of them served through 1783 till the regiment was discharged.
The considerable number of names in this roll marked with a " D" shows that desertions did occa- sionally take place. Mr. Critchett's name is not thus marked, but it is known that he with two others attempted to desert, not to the enemy, but to get home. They were retaken, and all three sentenced to be whipped, "running the gauntlet" between two files of soldiers. His two comrades sank exhausted before the dreadful punishment was over, and never recovered, but according to Critch-
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ett's own statement, the soldiers seeing that he was likely to survive to the end of the race, did what they dared to give him a chance for his life, those last in the line barely touching him with their whips. As soon as it was over the victim was taken to the hospital, and his lacerated back was washed with brine. He lay six months in the hos- pital before he was able to do duty again. Many years afterwards, those who saw his bare back, ridged and cut and knotted with the scars of his severe punishment, said it was a horrible sight.
Mrs. Harvey's statement that Silas Russell served for Sutton is shown to be correct by the paymas- ter's record, which credits him to Perrystown. If she was equally correct in her statement regarding Benjamin Critchett, that he was never paid, it would seem that in view of all the circumstances connected with his period of service, the man must have reached the conclusion that " republics are ungrateful."
The First New Hampshire Regiment reached Ticonderoga and Gen. Poor assumed command of that post and its dependencies, May 23, 1777, but the Americans were compelled to abandon it July 6th, the enemy having taken possession of a high elevation to which the Americans had deemed it impossible to raise cannon.
The retreat was hastily made, and much confu- sion ensued, together with an enormous loss of pro- visions and clothing, as well as other military stores.
The following memorandum, found among the papers of Deacon Harvey, indicates an attempt by
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Mr. Critchett to recover something for losses sus- tained at the Battle of Hubbardston, which took place during this disastrous retreat:
Sutton June 1st, 1791
Benjamin Critchett of Sutton a soldier in the Continental service for said town under the command of Capt. Isaac Farwell and in Col. Joseph Cilley's Regiment, and was in a battle at Hubbardton and we were ordered by Col. Read to unload our packs, and in the battle we were obliged to retreat, and I lost all my clothing as followeth
1. I lost my Surtout to the value of 2. 8.0
2. One pair Deer Leather Breeches 2. 2.0
3. One Blanket 0.12.0
4. Two Cotton and Linen Shirts 0.15.0
5. One fine Shirt 0. 14.0
6. 3 Pair Stockings 0.15.0
7. One Pair Silver Shoe Buckles, 1.10.0
And in another Battle that I was in at King's Bridge under the command of Capt. Jason Wait, and in Col. Cilley's regiment, and we were ordered to leave all our packs on board the Batteaux at a. place five miles up the River, and the enemy came and took the boat that my pack was in and I lost as followeth. [The remainder of the memorandum torn off.]
It will be observed that he speaks of being under command of Col. Cilley. The First Regiment had been recruited with expectation that they were to be commanded by Col. Stark. Becoming offended at the action of congress in promoting a junior officer over his head, as he considered the promotion of Col. Poor to brigadier of the three New Hampshire regiments then formed into a brigade, Stark had resigned his commission, and Col. Cilley received the command of the First Reg- iment, Feb. 22, 1777.
It has been suggested that Mr. Critchett's loss
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of his pay while serving for the town of New Lon- don was occasioned by his unfortunate attempt at desertion. The year following his second enlist- ment, from 1780 to 1781, must have been the time he served for New London, if at all, apparently, since in 1781 the town of New London hired Fran- cis Como; and in 1782 the town of Sutton "voted to help Mrs. Russell and Mrs. Critchett during the absence of their husbands in the army."
Mr. Critchett's name is on the roll of the First Regiment as serving through 1782, and it is proba- ble he served through 1783 and till the discharge of the regiment. He then returned to Sutton, where he resided, with his family, for several years. In peace, however, as well as in war, his record is mostly one of losses, and the fates were against his getting rich, at least in Sutton. Soon after the death of Dea. Harvey, his brother-in-law, he removed to New York state, where it is not impos- sible that better success awaited him; for there was good land there owned by the state, and of which she gave some to her own soldiers during one of the last years of the war. The New Hampshire troops, who had seen some of this good land while serving there, petitioned the state of New York for a similar grant, on the ground that they had done as much for the defence of that state as her own soldiers had, but were refused. The lands were, however, sold cheap to settlers.
Dea. Harvey seems to have had an affectionate interest for his sister, Mrs. Critchett. Shortly before his death, in settling up his property affairs, among other items to which he calls the attention
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of his executors, is the following: " Critchett's wife is to have also the use of a cow, and the wool of six sheep."
One side of Critchett's character, the comic side, was never in the least affected by any of his misad- ventures. He had the faculty of finding fun in almost everything that occurred, and some of his jokes were retold a full half century after he left Sutton. One night he was sleeping in bed with one of his nephews, a little boy, when a heavy thunder- shower arose. The child awoke, and in terror tried to arouse his uncle, crying, "It thunders, Uncle Ben, it thunders." "Lie still, lie still, dear," was the reply, "Uncle Ben will get up and stop it pretty soon." The absurdity of the idea struck the child so forcibly that he was compelled to laugh, and doubtless recovered from his terror much more easily than he would if he had been exhorted to lie still and trust in Providence. .
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