USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Warren > The history of Warren; a mountain hamlet, located among the White hills of New Hampshire > Part 30
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Keezer hired Peter Martin and Albert Hogan to fall, trees for him. He took Martin aside, gave him a bottle of rum, and told him Hogan was going to sweat him. Then he took Hogan aside, gave him a bottle of rum and told him the same story. Martin mistrusted, but Hogan put in terribly all the forenoon. In the afternoon Martin explained Keezer's little game, and then the men drank their rum together, and had a sweet time, much to the landlord's delight.
349
THE OLD POLITICAL POT-HOUSES.
where the common is now; Jonathan Clement kept an inn at Run- away pond; Obadiah Clement continued in the same business just above him, and Col. Tarleton kept an excellent house high up on the western marche by the shore of Tarleton lake.
These taverns flourished wonderfully, and the proprietors all arrived at considerable wealth. The landlords had comely daugh- ters for waiting maids; strong armed sons to attend the great ox teams that stopped to bait or rest over night, or to groom the sad- dle horses of gentlemen who patronized them.
Then the bar-room, furnished with the best of drinks, milk- toddy and egg-nog, and numerous other kinds, with its great wood fire and loggerhead at white heat, was an excellent loafing place for the nearest neighbors. They assembled here to learn the news from travellers, hear the gossip of the country round and discuss politics. The Merrill party and the Clement party had each hotels of their own, and there they held their caucuses.
These inns of those old days were good ones, the table was always well set, the cream the sweetest and richest, the butter and eggs always fresh, vegetables and everything else nice, clean white beds, snowy linen sheets, well swept floors, all was bright and neat as strong hands could make it .*
With good roads, bridges, and hotels, population began to increase, and a hundred clearings shone bright in the woods. Beech hill, Height-o'-land, the Summit and East-parte, were alive with settlers.
Better mills were other most important requisites, wanted to accommodate the inhabitants. And Moses H. Clement, son of Col. Obadiah, bought out Stevens Merrill and William Butler, and moved the grist-mill where the sons of Joshua Copp long had tended, up to the mouth of Black brook where Stevens Merrill first built a dam. He also had a saw-mill, and afterwards put in a wool carding machine. That he might have a good supply of water, by leave of the town he cut a canal from Baker river to Black brook, and built a stone dam across the former stream. His canal went under the highway just at the railroad crossing above the depot.
* Some of the teamsters, especially the Scotch from Vt., would carry their own victuals and drink, and eat by the bar-room fire, much to the disgust of the land- lord.
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350
HISTORY OF WARREN.
The new comers wanted town affairs well conducted; they considered it a great requisite. So they bought new town books, Ephraim True purchasing some for the selectmen, paying there- for five pounds and two shillings; and Obadiah Clement bought a town clerk's book in which he made the first records. He gave for it two pounds ten shillings " lawful money."
Then that justice might be done and no mistake, they pur- chased a " law book " as a legal requisite. Horrid thing, many a defeated client has said after having become satisfied that a little law, as well as a little learning, is a dangerous thing.
Out of the law book and from ancient tradition, common law, they learned that for troublesome estrays and trespassing cattle, a Pound was an excellent institution, a very requisite thing; and straightway they went to work to obtain one. For the first few years they used the best barn yards of the settlers, voting to have it first in one and then in another, until at last they were tired of that style and were determined to build a real genuine Pound. And first a plan was necessary, and an admirable one was soon fur- nished. It is included in the following "enactment" of the democracy. "Voted to build a Pound on the 'Parade' near Joseph Merrill's inn, of good suitable pine logs locked together, thirty feet square within walls, eight feet high, the upper log's hewed triangular, underpined with stone six inches high, with a good, suitable door, hanging with iron hinges with a staple, hasp, and padlock, and furnished to the exception of the selectmen." Said Pound was bid off to Joseph E. Marston, at $19.50. But strange to say, it was never built. The whole thing flashed in the pan, and in despite of good intentions, law-book and all, the citi- zens have gone on as they begun, using somebody's barn-yard for a Pound every year since.
That every body might be honest, and that there might be no cheating in weights and measures, which by the way is the mean- est kind of cheating, our little State among the hills, deeming it necessary to make a perfect State, voted to purchase a standard of weights and measures, a very necessary requisite. We are accu- rately informed that one dollar and twenty cents was paid for the measures, and thirty dollars for the weights.
Also that the roads might be well cleaned out, paid one dollar
351
ARRIVAL OF A YOUNG PAUPER.
and fifty cents for a set of drills. With these a little blasting was frequently done.
Then for the sake of some heraldry, pomp, and ceremony, a stamp, seal, or device, was procured as an absolute and grand requisite for the good of the State. But it was as plain as Democratic institutions generally are, a simple With this, every thing belonging to the town Wn should be accurately marked as well as known; besides, the sealer of weights and measures should stamp it upon every thing he inspected, that people might know they were exactly correct, and that he had done his duty.
In the town were some gamesome fellows, as we have often hinted in these interesting pages, and in our most historic times they were greatly afraid that all the game would be destroyed. So that they might enjoy the pleasure of hunting in after years the same as formerly, they deemed it an absolute requisite to choose in 1791 Joseph Patch and Jonathan Clement " deer keepers."*
Tradition has it that for long years they did their duty faith- fully, keeping the game all to themselves, and outside hunters far away from the goodly land of Warren.
With the abundance of inhabitants came some who were wretchedly poor. But the first pauper in Warren was not a very aged person. Every body said this was not a requisite to make a perfect community ; that it was very unnecessary; but they could not help themselves. In fact a certain young, marriageable dam- sel, worshiping the goddess of love, without the aid of a shower of gold, or the machinations of a river god, all of a sudden saw fit to enrich the world with a bantling, whom no fast young man was willing to father. It created an immense sight of talk all over town. The knowing young folks tittered when they heard of it; the old ones looked grave and indignant. "Who is the father of it? Who will support it? What will become of it?" Such were the remarks heard every day.
The child was born; the mother called on the town for help.
* Deer Keepers .- By an act of 14th of George II., it is enacted that no deer shall be killed from the last day of December to the first day of August, annually, under the penalty of ten pounds; and in case of inability to pay, to work forty days for the first offence, and fifty days for subsequent offences. Any venison or skin newly killed was evidence of guilt.
In 1758, towns were authorized or required to choose two suitable persons
352
HISTORY OF WARREN.
" What in the world shall we do?" said the selectmen. "Call a town meeting," said 'Squire Jonathan Merrill; and one was called to consider this momentous subject.
The following articles were in the warrant for the meeting, posted up Nov. 10, 1788, at Jonathan Clement's inn :-
" Secondly, to see what measures shall be taken for the main- tainance of the child which is cast on the town's charge."
" Thirdly, to see what measures best to be taken to prevent others from being chargeable to said town."
At the meeting the subject was gravely discussed by the elderly gentlemen present, much to the delight of Moses True and a few other young bucks, and then they voted to choose a commit- tee to see whose right it is to support the child which is become a town charge. This was followed by the following extraordinary vote, viz :- " Voted that William Butler, Stevens Merrill, and Mas- ter Nathaniel Knight, (he was a school master,) for a committee to take care of the child above mentioned till they peruse the law and make a return to the town - at the adjournment of this meeting- whose right it is to support the child."
The committee did "peruse the law," and at the adjourned meeting reported that after enquiry found the grand-parents' right to support the child.
Then there was a pause. 'Squire Joshua Copp took the floor and after a few grave and pertinent remarks moved that the whole matter be postponed fourteen days, and it was postponed. Whether or not it was ever taken up again, or what became of "the stray child pauper," neither record nor tradition has told us.
But certain it is that nearly two years after, the following action was taken that may throw some light on the matter. March 18, 1790 .- " Voted to allow Constable Whitcher's account for con- · veying Dorathy Clifford through town, which is £0-13-10, five shillings of which sum to Mr. Jonathan Clement for expense at his house, and four shillings and two pence to Ensign Moses Copp for his trouble with said Dorathy Clifford."
Oh! the charming fair young Dorathy! How grand you must
annually, whose peculiar office it shall be to prevent as much as may be the breach of this act. They shall have full power of search, and may break locks or doors of any place where they may suspect game is concealed .- History of Chester, 448.
353
HOW PAUPERS WERE CARED FOR.
have felt, being conveyed " thro' town" by Constable Whitcher ! Who was there to see! Did yon, peerless one, ride on a gaily caparisoned charger, or were you conveyed in a lordly, dignified ox cart, the only vehicle in the hamlet? This latter fact has also passed from the memory of man.
But the citizens of Warren were not to be served in this man- ner again. They acted upon the third article in the warrant. At the first meeting they voted to warn out- which was the fashion in those days -such persons as appear liable to become a town charge, and that there might be no danger voted to warn out Reu- ben Whitcher if he appears likely to become an inhabitant. At the adjourned meeting, " Voted to warn out the widow Mills' two chil- dren; now resident at Ensign Moses Copp's."
This had an admirable effect for several years; but in process of time another pauper came, and poor Betty Whittier had to be maintained by the young democracy. Mr. Enoch Davis, who lived by Davis brook, in the East-parte regions, influenced by the nice little sum of one hundred and thirty silver dollars, generously took her home, and gave his bond to the selectmen to maintain her as long as she lived .*
Warren as an independent State has ever treated her poor in the kindest manner, getting the best of homes for them by hu- manely setting them up at auction, and striking them off to any one that would keep them cheapest, and at the least expense to the town.
That they might not seem barbarous and heathen, they felt that one of the solemn requisites of civilized life was a proper observance of the forms of paying respect to the dead. That their funerals might be conducted with the highest degree of propriety, they determined in a public assembly of the citizens to purchase a pall or grave cloth.
The rulers of the town were entrusted with the duty of ob- taining it. They procured a very nice one for sixteen dollars and fifty cents, silver money .¡ Obadiah Clement, ever public spirited,
* 1805 .- " Voted to choose a committee of two persons to settle with Mrs. Stone [widow Joshua Copp,] about the maintainance of Betsey Whittier, or prosecute as they shall think best for the town. Chose Dr. Ezra Bartlett and Lieut. Abel Merrill for the above committee."-Town Clerk's Records, Vol. i. 167.
t March 17, 1803 .- " N. B. John Abbott is not to be taxed for said pall."-Town Clerk's Records, Vol. i. 134.
W
354
HISTORY OF WARREN.
with the aid of his brother Jonathan, had anticipated the action of the people by buying a small burying cloth or pall for their friends and neighbors, and the next year the town purchased theirs also, at an expense of five dollars. For several years these emblems of funereal pageantry were kept at the inn of Mr. Joseph Merrill.
But that the pall might not often be wanted, and funerals be rare, the good citizens of Warren thinking it of the greatest neces- sity, induced Dr. Joseph Peters, a relative of Captain Absalom Peters, to move into town and have a care after the physical health of the people. Warren's first physician came to town in 1791, and took up his residence with Mr. Stevens Merrill. He was a well educated man, of genial temperament, and was much beloved by almost every body, particularly the women. But being also of a roving disposition he did not abide long in the valley among the hills. Whence came Dr. Peters the Lord only knows ; where he went, the men said, " perhaps the d-I can tell."
He was succeeded by Dr. Levi Root, another eminent practi- tioner, who remained in town about three years, from 1795 to 1798.
Then Dr. Ezra Bartlett* came, and being a college bred young gentleman, of great promise as a physician, and withal a son of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, one of the old proprietors, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a member of the Continental Congress, he easily rooted out Dr. Root, and had the whole town- ship, with all the country round, as a field for practice. He settled on the fertile uplands of Beech hill, just to the southward of Amos Little.
* FAMILY RECORD OF EZRA AND HANNAH ( Gale ) BARTLETT.
Laura, born Oct. 20, 1799, at Warren. Josiah, born Oct. 25, 1801. Died Sept. 25, 1802. Josiah, born May 3, 1803.
Hannah, born Jan. 7, 1805. Levi, born Oct. 4, 1806. Mary, born Aug. 22, 1808. Sarah, born Apr. 23, 1810.
New voters in 1796 :- Nathan Barker. James Harran. Olney Hawkins.
Joseph Jones. William Kelley. Dr. Levi Root.
John Weeks.
New voters in 1797 :- Benjamin Kelley. Jesse Niles. Joseph Orn.
New voters in 1798 :- Dr. Ezra Bartlett. Asa Low. Abial Smith. James Dow. New voters in 1799 :- Benjamin Brown. Benjamin Gale. James Williams.
New voters in 1800. Daniel Davis. Job Eaton.
Samuel Jackson.
Jacob Low. Abel Willard.
Luke Libbey.
355
EARLY PHYSICIANS.
Dr. Ezra Bartlett was a distinguished man in his day, often representing the towns of Warren and Coventry in the Legislature. He was a side justice in the Court of Common Pleas, a Senator in the New Hampshire Senate, and a member of the Governor's council. No man for fifty miles away could compete with him as a physician, and he was an excellent surgeon, as well.
The children loved him, but they looked upon his house with a sort of dread, for they had heard the strange story how he had the body of Josiah Burnham, who was hung at Haverhill jail, there preserved in alcohol in a glass case. It was said by the knowing ones that he bargained with Burnham for his body, giving him for it all the liquor he could drink before the day of execution. Be that as it may, Dr. Bartlett always had medical students, for he had excellent facilities for study, and some of them afterwards ranked high in professional life. Two of them, Dr. Thomas Whip- ple and Dr. Robert Burns, were members of Congress. the first holding the office for eight years.
The doctor gave a mighty impetus to town affairs, showing what were the necessary requisites for a perfect democratic com- munity ; the roads were better; the schools were better, the farms were better; and he set a good example by building a nice house for himself, after which every man in town aspired to pattern. So much was he admired that many children born at this period were called Ezra Bartlett.
Dr. Bartlett also considered that it was one of the much desired requisites that there should be no boundary feuds among the good citizens of Warren, and perplexing lawsuits arising therefrom. That they might not be harrassed with these evils, he determined that the bounds should be well kept up, and shrewdly went to work to accomplish it, and obtain a plan of lots for the town. The proprietors, as already related, had one. How much good a man of refined tastes and education can do in any commu- nity. He quietly went to work and got an article inserted in the warrant for town meeting, to see what the citizens would do about procuring a plan. At the annual assembly of the people it was determined to elect a committee to provide one, and chose Joseph Patch, Nathaniel Clough, and Samuel Knight for that purpose.
Under his guidance they immediately went to work and ob.
356
HISTORY OF WARREN.
tained copies of all the old surveys and plans, (particularly that of Josiah Burnham,) which were so admirably made during the time of the old proprietors' boundary war. With this material for a basis, Dr. Bartlett lent himself to the task, and produced the beau- tiful and excellent plan of Warren that now stands as the frontis- piece in the Proprietors' Records. He worked a week making it, and then,- what do you think !- he only charged the town one dollar for his services. Cheap enough most people would say; but then some grumbled about it even at that, as is always the case. The committee received twenty-eight dollars and thirty- eight cents for their services.
To accomplish all these necessary requisites and make Warren a flourishing democracy, required money, and as we have gently intimated, the town contrived each year to raise a fair amount, easily from the most, by process from a few.
Sometimes it was paid with paper bills, the old continental cur- rency, once or twice in new emission money - a sort of promissory notes founded on real estate and loaned on interest; but these run down and became worthless sooner than the old continental cur- rency,- and frequently in produce; the citizens in the selectmen- ship of Joshua Copp, Ephraim True, and Nathaniel Knight, voting that the town charges be paid in wheat at five, rye at four, and corn at three shillings per bushel. The selectmen were likewise paid in this way for 'their services, and it was the commonest of things to purchase their English and West India goods, by barter- ing their produce.
For the first three years of the town organization taxes were reckoned in depreciated currency, raising £500 in 1781, then they were computed on a specie basis, assessing in 1782 but £4 1-2 silver money, to pay town charges, and in 1797 taxes were made up in dollars and cents .*
Simeon Smith was the first collector, as we have said before, and then they had a different one almost every year, and all con- ducted in the most faithful manner. But Daniel Patch did not do quite so well. He was fond of fine clothes and fast horses, and
* Aug. 25, 1794 .- " Voted to let the certificate money lay on interest, unless it will turn for fourteen or fifteen shillings in specie on the pound."-Town Clerk's Records, Vol. i. 58.
.357
ABSCONDING TAX GATHERERS.
when he got the town's money he was not very careful to keep it separate from his own. When pay-day came he found himself in hot water. He tried to borrow and could not; he was afraid they would call on his bondsmen; that his own property would be attached; that he would be indicted by the grand jury and mulcted in damages or imprisoned.
He did not want any of these things to happen; but he could not see how to escape. The days went by and the clouds were thickening, and the storm howled in his political sky.
There was but one way; he must fly before the sarcasm, the jeers, the maledictions, anathemas, and curses-the people's whirl- wind.
At the winter's sunset, Patch harnessed his team. " He drives two thin-maned, high-headed, strong-hoofed, fleet-bounding horses of our hills. Harnessed to the sleigh, they champ the iron bits, and the tight checks bend on their arching necks. They fly like the wreaths of mist over the streamy vale. The wildness of deer was in their course; the strength of eagles descending on their prey." A day - and they are a hundred miles away.
A long time afterwards the citizens learned that Daniel Patch was seen late the next afternoon driving through the streets of old Haverhill, Mass. That was all the tidings of him.
But his bondsmen had to pay up, much to their great delight, what the faithful collector had spent, and then they levied on his goods and chattels, and got their own pay. After this, Mr. P.'s friends settled up the whole affair, and he returned, paid every dollar like an honest man, and became one of the best of citizens .*
Such things never come single, and Abel Willard, another collector, following the above illustrious example, absconded with the town's money. He went to the west of the Green mountains, and the town did not succeed in getting it back from him quite so well as from Daniel Patch.
That there might be tranquility with all the world without,
-* Daniel Patch was a man of fine intellect, was agreeable in conversation, though somewhat given to metaphysics.
DANIEL AND BETSEY (Hall) PATCH'S FAMILY RECORD.
Joseph, H. born May 27, 1809. Louisa M. born Nov. 15 1819.
Daniel, B. born Jan. 20, 1812. Marinda F. born June 8, 1822.
Betsey, W. born Jan. 29, 1816. William D. Mc. Q. born March 31, 1825.
Mahala, born Aug. 23, 1817.
358
HISTORY OF WARREN.
and peace within our mountain hamlet, our young democracy took a lively interest in political affairs. They voted for Gen. Wash- ington for President, for members of Congress, and all the other foreign officers, helping to maintain a republic without as well as a democracy at home.
But that which interested them most, creating profound dis- cussions and calling for the exercise of the discreetest statesman- ship, was the adoption of, first, the articles of confederation, then of the Federal Constitution, and frequently afterwards of whether or not it should be amended.
Warren's citizens, on mature deliberation of these momentous subjects, generally voted nearly unanimously either one way or the other, always believing that the destiny of the whole country hung upon their action. They were thus called upon to save their country some twenty times in the course of a few years.
But we cannot close the final chapter of this book, and let down the curtain upon the last years of the eighteenth century, without recording as a faithful historian what our good citizens of Warren thought to be the highest and grandest REQUISITE to make a perfect democratic community.
They early made great efforts to accomplish it. In the select- menship of Jonathan Merrill, Thomas Boynton, and Aaron Welch, they chose a committee consisting of Joshua Copp, Reuben Batch- elder, Joseph Patch, Thomas Boynton, and John Whitcher, to report where it would be convenient to set a meeting house, and what measures were best to be taken to erect the same and procure the preaching of the gospel. But the committee, living in different . parts of the town, could not exactly agree where the best place was. It took them so long to find a spot that they spent all their energies upon that part of the subject, and the whole thing fell through.
But such a subject could not slumber long, and as a result of deep thought, 'Squire Joshua Copp, in March, 1798, made a liberal proposition to the town. The citizens were much pleased, and voted to accept a piece of land from him, situated on the easterly side of his farm, and on the north side of the highway leading to Haverhill, for the purpose of erecting a meeting-house thereon, which was to be of the same size as the one in the neighboring
.
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359
A MEETING-HOUSE IN PROSPECT.
province of Romney, and for a burying ground and training field .*
Chose Joshua Copp, Esq., Joseph Patch, Stephen Richardson, Obadiah Clement, and Levi Lufkin, a committee to provide timber for the meeting-house, to be drawn the ensuing winter. Each individual was to pay for the house according to his proportion of taxes, and all should hold themselves ready to work on the build- ing after three days' notice from the committee.
And now the very town sweat with the work in prospectu. What a splendid house we shall have; soon it will be all complete.
But too many cooks spoil the broth. Things did not go on any better this time than before. There was a hitch. The com- mittee did not work well together. Another town assembly was called. The citizens assembled. A great discussion arose. It waxed warm. The meeting broke up, nothing was done save to dismiss the subject, and the fire of religious enthusiasm seemed to go out.
But it did not; it only slumbered. How it kindled afresh and burned with a steady flame until all were tried and purified, or ought to have been, and the mighty work accomplished, we will show in the first chapters of our next great book.
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