USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Warren > The history of Warren; a mountain hamlet, located among the White hills of New Hampshire > Part 31
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* This was the same spot where the first little training was held.
OUR GRANDMOTHERS' PASTIME.
BOOK VI.
IN WHICH THE MIGHTY MARCH MENTIONED AT THE BEGINNING OF BOOK V. IS CONTINUED.
CHAPTER I.
HOW SEVERAL RELIGIONS CAME TO WARREN, OF TYTHINGMEN WHO FINED MEN FOR TRAVELING SUNDAY, THEREBY MAKING THEM EXCEEDINGLY HAPPY, CONCLUDING WITH AN ACCOUNT OF A CAMP-MEETING WHERE SEVERAL PIOUS YOUTH SOUNDED A HORN IN THE NIGHT, AND DISTURBED THE SLUMBERS OF THE GODLY.
ANOTHER century has come. One generation of white men, the Indians' successors in the Asquamchumauke valley, has passed away. A second is stepping upon the stage. Many things are being left behind, and new fashions and ideas are making their way to our settlement among the hills. A different pattern of dress has been adopted, the style of cooking and living has some- what changed, new houses have been constructed, and the blazed path, bridle path and tote road have given place to the broad, beaten way, as we wrote in the last book, upon which rumble the wheels of Obadiah Clement's little Dutch vehicle, the first four wheeled wagon that had ever come to town.
362
HISTORY OF WARREN.
Something else is coming. We hinted at it in the last chapter. It is told as follows :-
One day in July, 1799, a solitary horseman was seen riding up the road. He stopped at Joseph Merrill's inn, baited his horse, and while he was eating his own dinner casually dropped a few words upon religious matters. They seemed to make but little impression, and saying something about stony ground and hard- ness of heart, he rode away over Pine hill to the Summit. That horseman was the Rev. Elijah R. Sabin, a missionary of Method- ism. Hundreds of them were riding the country through, preach- ing in the houses, the barns, in the forests or out in the broad open air, anywhere they could get a congregation to hear them, bring- ing new religious ideas to the people.
That night he stopped with Mr. Chase Whitcher by the wild roistering Oliverian. The morrow was the Sabbath, and after the morning meal a meeting was suggested. Mr. Whitcher was pleased with the idea. A messenger went to the settlers on Pine hill; down on old Coventry meadows, and to Mr. Eastman's, the first settler of High street.
By ten o'clock, quite a congregation had assembled, and under the maples - they grow there now-by the laughing stream, the first religious meeting was held on the Summit. They had no choir; but the reverend man sang in clear sweet voice, one of those wild revival hymns of John Wesley, which were then waking men's souls through all the land .* His discourse took powerful hold on his little congregation, and before he left this valley, hol- lowed between five peaks of the mountains, he had laid the foun- dation for a society, and formed a class consisting of three mem- bers-Chase Whitcher, Dolly Whitcher, afterwards the widow Atwell, and Sarah Barker. When he was gone his words were not forgotten. Many believed his doctrine was true and before the year passed more than thirty persons had joined the class.
Out of this mountain valley, over the hills, spread the reli- gious enthusiasm, great numbers getting converted. It even went
* Singing .- The singing of the early Methodists was glorious, heavenly. Then the music was adapted to the words, and every word could be distinctly under- stood, and the ideas came home to the listener with spiritual power. Now-days the words are stretched and strained to fit the music; not one of them can be understood; the ideas are lost, and the whole, as a general thing, is a senseless jargon painful to hear.
363
"BEHOLD A MIRACLE."
over the Height-o'-land, and a large class was formed in Charles- ton, near Tarleton lake. So firmly was Methodism planted that it has survived in Warren three-fourths of a century.
During the summer season for many years the Methodist meetings were held in a barn belonging to Mr. Aaron Welch, and in the winter in his house or in the houses of the neighbors in the immediate vicinity .* ยท
It was at Aaron Welch'st barn people loved to assemble; not to show their fine clothes so much as now, for they then dressed in homespun, but the most to worship. Sometimes the boys went to see the girls; but the girls never to see boys. A few went for fun, and a very few for mischief. One time they had a quarterly meeting there. Old John Broadhead, a powerful preacher, and' Rev. Messrs. Felch and Hedding were present. Rev. Mr. Felch was preaching; somebody had been " cutting up shines," and Mr. F. was mad. He began telling how mean the people were, how some were fornicators, and some thieves and drunkards, and how one was so mean as to even steal the snapper of his, the reverend's whip. Capt. Wm. Butler immediately interrupted and said, " he wanted to hear him preach, and not blackguard." Another man sarcastically remarked that " he, Felch, no business to be a horse- jockey, and have a fine whip, if he didn't want the snapper stolen,"- a mean remark, as all good christians can testify. At any rate Rev. Mr. Felch heeded Capt. Butler, immediately changed the subject of his discourse, and preached Christ and him crucified, with such excellent effect that several were converted that very
* The Devil's Doings .- One winter they had preaching in Deacon Welch's house. Quite a lot of folks were sitting on the trap-door, and they got to shouting, Glory ! Hallelujah ! Amen ! Good! Just then the Devil broke the trap-door, and half a dozen men and women fell into the cellar. Mrs. Samuel Knight went into a fit, and several of the sisters rolled on the floor in the most wonderful manner. Some wicked youth present smiled, the Devil was pleased, and the minister preached no more that day .- Miss Hannah Knight's statement.
A Miracle .- There was a meeting at farmer Joshua Merrill's in the early times, and Mr. Isaac Merrill, son of 'Squire Jonathan, crawled up the stairs and sat over the heads of some of the congregation. The preaching was so powerful he got to sleep, and while dozing lost his balance and fell down amongst the people. He struck plump on his head, his feet in the air; then in about a minute he pitchied over, jumped up quickly and ran out of the house uninjured, all the folks follow- ing him. Every one believed it was a miracle, and so great was the awe that they had no more preaching till next Sunday, when a new and more powerful minister arrived in the settlement .- Miss H. Knight's statement.
t Mr. Welch lived near the present village cemetery, where Mr. Samuel Mer- rill, Capt. Joseph Merrill, and Robert E. Merrill, have all lived. Said house was once occupied by the town's poor.
364
HISTORY OF WARREN.
day. Ministers of the present time would do well to imitate - preach religion rather than politics - and seek to plant more of a christian spirit in the community.
But there were some who would not join the Methodists. Opposition is a good thing for any enterprise, if there is not too much of it. Certainly it helps a church along and always exists where men are left free to think for themselves. We almost be- lieve opposition is a divine institution, and Stevens Merrill, the man who did not believe in the revolutionary war, was now.the person to exercise it in Warren. He was a Quaker, and had no faith in those whining, canting Methodists, as he impiously termed them. He " shouldn't jine no how!" But still he loved preaching when it suited him, which was not often the case. He was blunter than Capt. Butler. "You lie, Nat!" "What is the use of your lying that way?" were exclamations that once greeted his own brother, Nathaniel, a Congregationalist, who was preach- ing to the people that had assembled in the bar-room and kitchen of Mr. Merrill's tavern. The Rev. Nathaniel was as determined as his brother, and such exclamations did not disturb him.
In the year 1802 a minister came to town of a different faith, and by chance he stopped at Stevens Merrill's. He was a mission- ary of a new religious order; the Free-will Baptists, one of the products of the western world. Sunday following, he preached in the house of his host, to the great delight of Mr. M. He was highly pleased with Mr. Boody and his doctrine, and as he was an aged man, and thinking he might die when Mr. Boody was far away, he resolved to have his funeral sermon preached before Mr. B.'s departure. Accordingly he signified his intention to the Rev. gentleman, who, complying, a day was appointed, and the sermon preached from 2 Timothy, 4th chapter, 6th, 7th, 8th verses: " For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not me only, but unto all them that love his appearing." From this text it is said the Rev. Mr. Boody preached an excellent discourse, and Mr. Merrill and his friends were well pleased. It is handed down that Mr. M. smacked his lips with
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365
THE TYTHINGMEN AT WORK.
delight several times as the reverend gentleman drew a vivid pic- ture of his host entering the portals of heaven and taking a seat among the blest, and after the services were over, as they did not have any corpse or. coffin, he treated his minister and the whole congregation to the very best his house afforded, not even omitting to furnish good flip, punch, and egg-nog; a generous custom in those days, which laid many a man low. Mr. Merrill died two years after, in 1804, aged seventy-seven years .*
No religious society of the Free-will Baptist order was formed at this time; but Rev. Joseph Boody and other ministers of like faith continued to visit Warren, and about 1810 a society was organized under the charge of Rev. James Spencer. The first members consisted of Samuel Merrill and wife, of the East-parte, James Dow and wife, Caleb Homan and wife, Aaron Welch and wife, True Stevens and wife, Mrs Betsey Ramsey, and Mrs. James Williams. Elder Spencer labored with the society for many years.
And now religious enthusiasm filled the town and all the regions round about. Stricter laws were passed for the observance of the Sabbath, and tythingment were appointed in almost every hamlet to compel the people to keep the Sabbath holy. Many were the instances when pious hands were laid upon wicked trav- elers. Old Deacon Jonathan Clement had been traveling down country ; returning, the tythingman of Boscawen arrested him traveling on the Sabbath, and fined him Monday morning, costs
* James Dow and Samuel Merrill, both heard Stevens Merrill's funeral dis- course.
t By an act passed in 1715, it was enacted that no taverner or retailer should suffer any apprentice, servant or negro, to drink in his house; nor any inhabitant after ten o'clock at night, nor more than two hours; nor suffer any person to drink to drunkenness, nor others than strangers to remain in his house on the Lord's day ; under a fine of five shillings.
The second section provided that the selectmen should see that at least two tythingmen should be annually chosen, whose duty it was to inspect all licensed houses, and inform of all disorders to a justice of the peace, and also inform of all who sell without license, and of all cursers and swearers. Each tythingman was to have a black staff two feet long, with about three inches of one end tipped with brass or pewter, as a badge of office. The penalty for not serving when chosen was forty shillings, and in default of payment or want of property was imprison- ment.
By an act passed Dec. 24, 1799, for the better observance of the Lord's day, and repealing all other acts for that purpose, all labor and recreation, traveling, and rudeness at places of public worship on the Lord's day, are forbidden. Tavern- ers are forbidden to entertain inhabitants of the town. The tythingmen had power to command assistance, and forcibly stop and detain all travelers, unless they could give sufficient reason. The tythingmen were required to inform of all breeches of the act, and their oath was sufficient evidence unless invalidated .- History of Chester, 450.
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366
HISTORY OF WARREN.
and all, eleven dollars. He came home with religious enthusiasm tingling on every nerve of his body. Some maliciously said he was madder than a March hare. James Dow, then a young and vigorous man, for many years was chosen tythingman of Warren. Old Mr. Page, of Haverhill, was desecrating the Sabbath by driv- ing his horse and wagon through the town, and said Dow gently laid his hand upon him and stopped, seized, and detained him, and prevented him from traveling, as aforesaid. Monday, Page was fined, and he went home feeling complete.
John Varnum was chosen to this high office, and he arrested some Scotchmen, teamsters from Vermont, and had them fined, and then all the tavern keepers were mad, for it hurt their busi- ness to have travelers thus waylaid. Tavern keepers with nice bars had influence, and henceforth only those who lived in the most remote parts of the town, were chosen " grab-men," as they were facetiously termed.
One year "Old Potter," who lived by the road leading to Wachipauka pond, was chosen; but the town clerk, Mr. Anson Merrill, tried to cheat him out of his high honor, by neglecting to make a record of his election. Many men were indignant on account of Merrill's official malfeasance .*
With two rival societies in the full tide of success, and the tythingmen well preserving the peace, meetings without number were held. In Merrie England, and on the low lands of Holland, and along the banks of the Rhine, it had been the practice for cen- turies to hold meetings in the suburbs of old cities, by neglected grave-yards and among shady mountains. This practice must needs be revived in America, and the Methodist brethren estab- lished " Camp-meetings." One must be held in Warren, and the pleasant pine woods near Pine hill school-house was selected for the occasion. Inspiring woods! They thought they could wor- ship better there. There, Adam and Eve enjoyed their pastime and sought repose; there, the Amorites and Assyrians learned to pray ; there, Hertha the Goddess of the Angles, had her lovely residence ; there, the Druids thought everything sent from heaven that grew on the oak; there, Pan piped and satyrs danced; the
* Potter was for many years a town pauper, and Mr. Merrill only tried to pre- vent him from gaining a residence.
367
THE PINE WOODS CAMP-MEETING.
fawns browsed, Sylvanus loved, Diana hunted, and Feronia watched; there, the stately castle of the feudal lord reared its head, the lonely anchorite sang his evening hymn, and the sound of the convent bell was heard; there, Robin Hood and his merry men did their exploits, and King Rufus was slain; there, the ward of dryads, the scene of fairy revels and Puck's pranks, the haunt of witches, spirits, elves, hags, dwarfs, the Sporn, the man in the oak, the will-o'-the-wisp, the opera house of birds, and the shelter of beasts. The green, sweet-smelling, suggestive, musical, sombre, superstitious, devotional, mystic, tranquilizing woods, was the place of all others for the camp-meeting.
It was early in the cool September that it was held; delega- tions came from nearly every society in the whole conference, and white tents in good numbers sprang up beneath the pine trees. There were booths outside the circle of tents for the sale of candy, gingerbread, more substantial eatables, and withal, in sundry jugs, kegs, and spiggots, was a good deal of "the good creature," to keep out the cold from the hearts of the lukewarm, and to raise the spirits generally. On a smooth plat of ground were long rows of seats made of boards, plank, and slabs, placed on pins driven into the ground, for the congregation, and on a little knoll in front, was a raised platform, with a box around it, for a pulpit. Above this were the thick, dense branches of several large pine trees, which served as a canopy to keep off the sun and rain. At night, in front of the tents, great fires were kindled for cooking and to keep the worshipers warm.
More sinners than saints came to these meetings, and one of the great objects was to convert the ungodly class. The more con- verted, the greater the success of the meeting. In the morning came early prayer-meeting, then breakfast, then two sermons iu the forenoon, dinner, two sermons in the afternoon, supper, then evening prayer meeting and to bed. Joseph Boynton led the sing- ing. He sometimes gave out the tune, read two lines, the choir and congregation sung them, then two lines more were deaconed off, and so on through the hymn. Sometimes the choir sung by itself. Boynton, who was class leader for many years, a great man in the church, and lived on the turnpike, first house up the hill beyond the Cold brook, had a pitch-pipe made of wood, an inch or
368
HISTORY OF WARREN.
two wide, something like a boy's whistle, with which he pitched the tunes, much to the delight of all who heard. The presiding elder summoned the brethren to each exercise by a loud blast on an old fashioned tin horn. One night some " wicked " youth, among whom, it is said, though we do not vouch for it, were Robert Burns, Thomas Whipple, Nathan Clifford, Joshua Merrill, Anson Merrill, and Jacob Patch, besides numerous others, stole the horn and went sounding it through all the woods, first on the north, then on the south, then east, then west, while for long hours the presiding elder, several ministers and a whole host of deacons went chasing through the forest, trying to find the vile thieves, as they piously termed them, who were disturbing the slumbers of the godly. But they did not catch them. .
One day elder John Broadhead had preached. He was a pow- erful man of more than ordinary eloquence. Then there was a call to come forward for prayers. The choir sang one of their sweetest hymns, then paused. Just at that instant a flock of black- cap titmice with their white sides glowing in the sun, alighted in the green pines overhead, and appearing to take up the strain, sang so sweetly that they seemed bright messengers from heaven. The electric current was complete, excitement filled every breast. Glory to God! said elder Broadhead. Amen! shouted the whole congregation. The hymn was taken up again, and when it ceased a hundred rose for prayers. And then there was praying and shouting, and singing, such as never was heard in the woods of Warren before. One young female was so wrought upon that she fell down and rolled upon the ground, kicking up her heels towards the blue sky. Some said she was in a trance seeing
Accident .- Lemuel Keezer, innkeeper. went to this first camp-meeting on horse- back. When he had nearly got there, his horse threw him off and hurt his shoulder badly. At the meeting, one of the ministers asked Keezer if he wanted to see God, and he only answered that his shoulder pained him badly. The minister repeated the question the second and third time, and got precisely the same an- swer; but when he put the question the fourth time, Keezer got mad and very imprudently and impiously replied that he " didn't know the gentleman, and didn't care a d-m either."
One day Captain Daniel invited Elder Wood, a minister, to share the hospitali- ties of his house, and introduced him to Mr. Keezer. " Elder Wood, Elder Wood," exclaimed Mr. K., snuffing his nose, " that is the stinkingest wood I ever saw;" much to Captain Daniel's delight, for he was very pious and had great respect for his minister.
Keezer was gifted in prayer. When the minister put up with him, he would pray at night and the minister in the morning, or vice versa, and when the reverend was gone he would ask the women folks if he didn't beat the minister at praying ? K. was proud of his gift and liked to be praised.
369
THE MEMBERS GREATLY REFRESHED.
heaven; but young Dr. Whipple wickedly held hartshorn to her nose to her great delight, and quietly said she was only a little " hysterica."
Thus the meeting went on for a week, more than two hundred were converted, and when it broke up each went to his home thanking the Lord that he had prospered him so much. Several other camp-meetings have been held in Warren since, the last being in the young maple woods on the river island just east of the depot.
X
CHAPTER II.
OF GRAND HUNTINGS, FOWLINGS, AND FISHINGS, CONCLUDING WITH HOW A 'SQUIRE, A DOCTOR, AND A MINISTER, WERE PERFECTLY DELIGHTED TRYING TO CATCH EVERY FISH IN WACHIPAUKA POND.
THE learned Puffendorf says all animals were wild; Gro- tius says all were tame. Common law takes middle ground, and leaves it to the judgment to say what were wild and what were tame. Certain it is that all the animals, birds, and fishes of War- ren were wild enough before the advent of the white settlers, and many were the exciting times had capturing and destroying them, as we have before remarked.
The most formidable of all these animals was the panther, otherwise called painter, and sometimes catamount, whose cry would make the Indians' blood feel cold; the wolf and bear came next, then the two wild cats known as the loup-cervier and the bay lynx. Of deer, as John Josselyn, Gent., would say, there was the stately moose, the caribou, - hard to catch,- and the common red deer. Others, and they are all interesting, are the raccoon, wolverine, otter, sable, mink, muskrat, fisher-cat ermine or weasel, black or silver-gray fox, red fox, beaver, hedgehog, woodchuck, gray, black, red, striped and flying squir- rels, rabbit, rat, mouse,- several kinds - four varieties of mole, bat, and last and sweetest of all, the skunk.
The panther was a rare animal, only one ever having been killed in town, and that by Joseph Patch one night as he lay in
371
MOUNT CUSHMAN.
his camp by Hurricane brook. Wolves were for years more plenty. Our first settler once started one in Stephen Richardson's field on Pine hill, and followed it down near Patch brook, where he killed it. Old 'Squire Burns, of Romney, caught the mate to it in a trap. This pair had killed many sheep.
But years before the town was settled, an adventure with the wolves took place in the East-parte regions of a far more startling kind. Long before the country was settled, a hunter by the name of Cushman was trapping upon one of the eastern mountains. One day, after being busily engaged in his labor, he entered his camp, and night had scarcely begun to come over him, when the melancholy howl of the wolves struck on his ear, the mournful echoes of which were repeated through every part of the forest. Every moment they seemed to approach nearer, and soon his camp was surrounded by a pack of the hungry creatures. Snatching his gun, he scrambled up a small sapling near by, just in time to save himself from their jaws. Being disappointed of their prey, they howled and leaped about in mad fury. Cushman now thought he would treat them with a little cold lead, and aiming at the leader of the pack, fired. The wolf gave a wild howl, and leaping several feet into the air, fell to the ground and was torn in pieces by his hungry companions. Loading his gun, he fired at another which shared the same fate. Again he fired and killed a third, when the wolves seeing their numbers decreasing, and hav- ing satisfied their appetites upon one of their own species, fled, and Cushman was no more annoyed by them that night. The mountain upon which this happened took the hunter's name, and is called Mt. Cushman to the present time.
Bears were more plenty than wolves, and for thirty years after the settlement of Warren, they were seen almost every day .. Stephen Richardson had a fine flock of sheep, but he had to yard them every night. Yet this did not always save them. Once in early evening a large bear, known as "old white face," carried away two sheep, leaping with them over a wall five feet high. " Old white face " was the terror of the whole country and trav- eled up and down the valley oftener than any hunter or fisherman has ever done. John Gould, who lived in the East-parte, had been out to " the road," as it was called. Coming home in the early
372
HISTORY OF WARREN.
evening, at the mouth of Batchelder brook, in Sawtelle district, he thought he met this bear. He was terribly frightened, threw his little white dog at the ferocious creature, and with his teeth chat- tering, ran back to Mr. Samuel Knight's as fast as his legs would carry him. Here he stopped all night, slept on the floor by the fire, and in the morning in company with Mr. Knight, went to the spot. They found on the place where he said he saw the bear, only a great hemlock stump. Knight laughed at him; Gould felt exceedingly fine. But two days after, Knight and a man named Ramsey killed a bear, and Gould claimed that as the one he saw.
Daniel Patch, son of Joseph, had been down to deacon Ste- vens' blacksmith shop, on Red-oak hill, to get a three-year old colt shod. Coming back at evening down the hill, the bear called " old white face," jumped into the road behind him and gave chase. The colt scented him, pricked up his ears, and, frightened, ran. Young Daniel clung to the colt's mane and there was a wild race on Red-oak hill road. The steel shoes of the colt rang on the rocks, the sparks of fire flashed in the darkness and it was only when the boy passed Hurricane brook bridge and came into War- ren's first clearing, that the bear gave up the chase. When Daniel Patch got home it was hard for the father to tell which was the most frightened, the boy or the colt .*
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